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Occupy Melbourne surprised the local law by turning their tents into costumes; when police attempted to tear down the tents, they sprouted legs and heads and started running around the park. The cops turned and left, chased by tents. But the cops came back, and exacted petty vengeance on the costumed protesters. Several officers grabbed a woman who was wearing a tent and restrained her while they sliced the tent costume off her and then they left with the tent, leaving the protester in a public park in only a bra and underwear. So, that would classify as an assault of the woman would it not? They restrained and undressed her publically humiliating her. Sexual assault? Crafty This movement is a test of law enforcement dignity everywhere. So many are failing. DeWynken Will these attacks on Gingers never cease? Pink Galah In Australia we call them Rangas ;] Our Prime Minister is one ;) Joshua Ochs You know, until these protests, I used to give the police a fair shake. Hard job, little thanks, extreme risk and stress. A few bad apples who make the rest look terrible. These constant stories are pushing me more and more towards "vicious thugs who enjoy bullying people for a living". We have what, a half dozen cities now with massive police overreaction, force, and violence? Depressing. occupyordie i feel for the loss of your trust in police, but I'm glad that more people are waking up to this that has been a reality in many places in this country long before the occupy protests. thanks for voicing your thoughts. Guest People have been saying this for quite some time, and largely they've been met with "You must have been doing something wrong; law-abiding people don't have anything to worry about." One of the inadvertent effects of the Occupy movement has been the undeniable display of inappropriate use of force by authorities. I think people become cops for one of two reasons: they legitimately want to help people, or they're bullies hiding behind the authority of the badge. Alfred Hitchcock was once asked in an interview, What scares you? He replied "Policemen scare me. In our society, they're the only ones who can tap you on the shoulder and say, 'Come with me,' and you have to go." Never doubt that policemen are aware of this. Catbeller Police , and soldiers of the US military, and agents of any of the US spookshows will be able to take you away. In the latter cases, forever and a day, without trial, if Congress gets its way. Sparg Otyebat In the States the US military is not allowed to act as police, thanks to the Posse Comitatus Act, though the individual states can sic their National Guard units on you, unless prohibited by the individual states. John Veteran Sparg, you are no doubt familiar with the National Defense Authorization Act? dragonfrog Actually, in the first world, it's not very risky. Based on 1999 figures, policing is about as dangerous as gardening, 1/3 as dangerous as garbage collection or driving a truck, less than 1/10 as dangerous as logging or fishing. Thank god people are seeing the light now. Ive been being beaten and harassed for about 10 years now (coincidence?) and its only gotten worse. Ive been hit, purposefully cuffed incorrectly causing permanent feeling loss in one wrist, ive been given FALSE CHARGES on multiple occasions, Ive constantly been verbally and mentally harassed, ive been tortured, and more. Its only now that people are seeing them for what they truly have become, even the people in the "nice areas" can see the blatant disregard for people. Ive frequently heard police refer to people as animals or dogs. I wouldnt even treat a really bad dog the way ive been treated. I wouldnt piss on a cop that was burning to death and that is a fact. Its the police who run the prostitution and hard drugs through my neighborhood. Its like a movie but in reality. They find known areas, bust known sellers, condemn the house, buy a house up the street, open up shop, use confiscated drugs for re-selling, keep the hookers doped up, etc. Murder and cover-ups go right along with it. Its known, kind of like we know judges are corrupt, congress is the opposite of progress, and lawyers are snakes. Just facts. EVERY SINGLE TIME I speak of this someone just doubts me or tells me im doing something wrong. Fact is, what im doing wrong is living in a bad neighborhood. It really is a shame when good honest hard working people like myself fear the police more than the criminals. I no longer call the police, I bought a bulletproof vest and a gun. Nothing else a cop can offer me. Fnordius You know, just to raise the tinfoil a little bit, I wonder if some of these cases of heavy handed police tactics are being ordered from above to drive a wedge between the police and the protesters. Maybe the goal is to suggest to the cops themselves that they are beseiged, that only their rich overlords truly respect them? Daniel We've had this "War on Drugs" thing going on for like 30 years now despite statistics proving that it's having no negative impact on the availability of drugs or the profitability of drug distribution. It leads to ridiculous numbers of minor drug offenders being imprisoned — disproportionately ethnic minorities. At this point, the "Land of the Free" has the highest incarceration rate of the world because of these policies. It's not the least bit paranoid to suppose that the point of all this is to drive a wedge between law enforcement and civilians. I'd say that there's no other reasonable explanation for the War on Drugs or the War on Terror for that matter. Donaleen Kohn Boy oh boy, cops are vindictive and have NO sense of humor about themselves, let alone an appreciation for the absurd. Cowicide As is anyone else who is dumb as a brick. joeydetroit Kinda rapey, Australia. Clearly law enforcement is showing with OWS that they are able to behave worse than the 'criminals' they are supposed to protect us from. jimh Christ, what assholes. Sean Nelson I see kids every day with baggy pants and shirts that could easily be used as a tent. They'd better watch out. …Also, I bet the next set of tent costume wearers don't wear underwear. It is summer here in Australia, I imagine it was pretty hot wearing a tent and running about. Stephanie My god, that poor woman. If that were me, I'd be pressing charges. The police have to no right to slice off her clothing, no matter what she's wearing. She's clearly under duress and saying thing like "Don't undress me, this is not consensual, don't take my clothes off." Those police ought to be ashamed of themselves and lose their jobs, to boot. EvilSpirit If by "lose their jobs" you also mean "not be allowed within 1000 feet of a school," then you'd be treating them like any other lawbreaker, at least in these parts. graou I agree with you, but am i the only one considering the guy shouting at the end seems overly dramatic ? I mean, how would he shout if the girl had been raped or shot… To be clear I'm a huge fan of the idea of tent outfits, the reaction of the cops is stupid and disgraceful, but come on, when you do things like that you have to consider the eventuality of disproportionate response from the cops, and being in underwear in public isn't traumatic for me… But maybe it's just me… PS : "Can you please call the cops" was excellent by the way, i'll try to remember it when i see police abuse people. makalove The man shouting at the end seemed overly dramatic to me, too, but the raw emotion in his voice made me wonder if he had an emotional relationship to the victim (partner? sister? etc.). As far as considering in advance that a cop might sexually assault you if you wear a tent to the park, isn't that sort of like saying that rape is wrong but rape victims should have considered in advance that they might be raped if they go out in a short skirt?? The victim's choices may have begun the conflict, but her choices are not the cause of the illegal and inappropriate behavior – that distinction belongs to the cops who stripped this woman in a public place in direct opposition to her stated objections. You may not feel being in your underwear in public is traumatic, but it's the way she ended up in her underwear that is likely the most traumatic part of this. i agree completely, by the way, about "Can you please call the cops"! Perfect response to police misconduct. PhosPhorious So rather than looking slightly foolish, they prefer to look like rapists and sex offenders. Good call. ycleptShawn Did she originally have clothes on under the tent? Seems weird to be in bra and panties under the tent outfit. Then again, a tent in the sun can be pretty warm. bob d December + Australia = Summer. So yeah, I'd imagine it's pretty hot. jordan yerman It was pretty warm in Melbourne yesterday, yeah. Guest And once again the local police prove they are the most organized gang in the city. dxx I'm starting to wonder if the world's police forces are basing their training on Chicago's police forces or if Chicago just used to get the most public coverage. Will Traxler I think it's a bit of both, I live in Chicago and I can safely say that some cops here are the worst kind, but there are plenty of friendly ones. However, if you piss off a Chicago cop, god have mercy on your soul. Catbeller I was hit by a car in Chicago. After I called for police, I waited an hour… and gave up and went home. When the big antiwar march in 2003 went down, there must have been 5000-10000 cops on the route, with hundreds of cars on lower Wacker and helicopters in the air… Chicago is at core fascistic and always has been. Not a slur, just a checklist. The government doesn't work for us, never did. Works for banks and money men. They do not like protests, no sir – those piss off the real bosses royally. Pink Galah Great post [i don't live in Chicago BTW;] Why does an image of the Blues Brothers come to mind when I read this?? dxx Did Mark Horwood remove his comment or did it get moderated out? Either way, CWAA. The_Cup_IS_Full she could have worn clothes inside, but didn't. How much more are the cops supposed to take. You want to make a statement against the government, politicians and all involved in making policies … go ahead. Don't F around with the cops who are doing their jobs. Why wasn't she wearing anything underneath the tent? Huh? She's in public. A tent is not a home. Public indecency is what she should have been charged with next. dxx Last I checked, there wasn't any law declaring that a tent couldn't be used as clothing. (To clarify: I'm not Australian, but I would LOVE to be proved wrong here. Then at least we'd have faith that the officers were actually upholding the law.) Police should act responsibly, not emotionally. bob d Hmmm, can't tell if trolling or complete idiot… UrbanUndead The Venn Diagram does have a thick wedge of overlap… Brainspore Don't F around with the cops who are doing their jobs. Interesting interpretation of "doing their jobs." subhan If she was doing anything to warrant stripping her in public, she should have been placed in the back of squad car & arrested, taken to the station, & dealt with there. The fact they left her sitting naked on the ground after the assault is pretty telling evidence that this was purely vindictiveness. Dr_Wadd Probably just as well the video didn't show too much of her ankles, I'm not sure how you would have coped with that. foobar You do realize that December is to Australia what June is to North America? Sgt_HulkasToe Hey, for these purposes, I'm agreeing that they can be naked in a tent. But still, Sergeant. What would you do? mccrum Give her my jacket, give her a ride home, give her some decency. Sgt_HulkasToe Alright. Fair enough. But you probably wouldn't give her your jacket. Tough to explain that to the boss tomorrow at roll call. I suppose you could let her go. But you'd end up with 8 guys without jackets and still have walking tents. I don't think that anyone should be humiliated. mccrum She gets the jacket to wear until we get to the car where I can give her a blanket or something from the trunk. I'm not giving it to her for keepsies but I'm sure as hell not going to leave anyone out in a park in their skivvies no matter what. Protect and serve. Not just protect your job. foobar I don't see what the real issue is with people in tent costumes in a public park. Are Melbourne police so over funded that they really have nothing more pressing to deal with? Itsumishi They do seem to make a lot of money by getting their rookies to fine people for jay-walking all over the CBD every few months. I don't mean the odd lone cop fining the people for stepping in front of traffic or anything. I mean a dozen cops situated at a major intersection fining each and every person that jaywalks. dragonfrog How about leave her the hell alone, since there's no sign she's doing anything wrong. MertvayaRuka If their reaction to someone having a bit of fun with them is to tackle and forcibly undress them, they shouldn't be cops. Fuck that, they shouldn't be able to interact with the public except perhaps from on the other side of a sturdy set of steel bars or perhaps through a solid half foot of lexan. Don't F around with the cops who are doing their jobs.Interesting interpretation of "doing their jobs." Don't feed the trolls! I know they're cute, and they keep looking at you with those big, sad eyes… Catbeller When, exactly, do we get to tell our "public servants" to knock it off? If we're not their bosses, who do they work for? Mark_Frauenfelder The police are allowed to do whatever they want to people who aren't rich. That's one of the perks they get for being the faithful minions of the 1%. alex4point0 If you want to let Victoria Police know what you think of their behaviour, you can drop their Digital Media Unit a line on twitter at @VictoriaPolice:twitter . #occupysocialmedia #ashamedvictorian #nottoofarfromthetruth #yesitsnotcanada Supposedly the protesters were warned by council staff that if they wrapped themselves in the tents they'd still be removed. However, I can't believe that there's a bylaw that forbids the wearing of tents What disappoints me about the video clip is that all the police officers were filmed only showing from the shoulder down. It's potentially difficult now to identify officers unless more footage surfaces. More disturbing is that the numbers on the officers uniforms appears to be removed – another big no-no and one that's come up repeatedly in the Australian press exhipigeonist In the longer video you can hear multiple people recording names of the police involved. They may not be visible on the blurry images we can see, but the protesters had them when filing their official complaint. I wouldn't be surprised if they were published online somewhere, too. Sgt_HulkasToe Yeah, and you can see their faces, so they'll all be named. I'm sure it was pretty clear from the radio tapes who was there. willyboy That correspondent reminds me of Andy Rooney. Jonathan Roberts As far as I can tell, the 'rules' for protesters and police often seem to be to put the other side in a bad light. If the police can (through agents provocateur or other means) make the crowd a bit violent so that they can make arrests and dismiss the movement as a bunch of unwashed hippies or thugs, they've won. On the other hand, if the protesters can show footage of police brutality against them, public sympathy switches to their side. This wasn't just some childish prank, it was clearly a publicity stunt as they were expecting the police to try to 'evict' them and wanted to see what would happen. Warm or not, I don't just drop my pants when the police arrive. I suppose the idea here was to try to make the police look silly, rather than ending up without clothes in the middle of a public park. Of course, in this case the police seem to have taken the bait and bitten down hard. Sgt_HulkasToe Alright. So I could say that as an ex-cop, I agree with the guy who says why are they naked. But then I'd get yelled down as a troll and ignored as having a different view. So, I would pose to you. You're a Sergeant with a squad of 8 cops. You have been assigned the job of clearing the tents from the green, because camping is not permitted. What do you do? Bear in mind, that this is a lawful order, so you can't ignore or defy it without losing your job. PhosPhorious "What do you do?" Arrest them. Take them in. Do NOT strip them on public and then leave them. Do cops have NO standards whatsoever? Does "doing your job" excuse everything? Sgt_HulkasToe Alright. So they're wearing tents. Hard to put them in a police car with a popped out tent. Now, they could have stripped them of the tents and put blanket around them, but seriously, what would you do? Guest I'd fire you and hire a cop who could mange to do this without being a barbarian or an obstinate jerk about it. Sgt_HulkasToe No. You're the boss on the scene. So you're saying you'd call for a Lieutenant and assume he would fire you for being sub-human. Unlikely. So you would do nothing? William Joseph Dunn " Hard to put them in a police car with a popped out tent. Now, they could have stripped them of the tents and put blanket around them, but seriously, what would you do?" but they didn't put them in a squad car because the cops knew no law was broken. the fact that they just left her there proves that. they just got their little feelings hurt, so they decided to teach her a lesson by assaulting her and if you don't think it's not assault, if they saw a civilian do the same thing they did, they would arrest that person. what would I do? I would walk away because you can't arrest somebody because you don't like what they are wearing. Sgt_HulkasToe There is a law that prohibits tents in the park, or camping. And they were there illegally. So you're refusing to follow orders? Antinous / Moderator So you're refusing to follow orders? Have y'all not heard of the Nuremberg Defense down there in the Southern Hemisphere? Guest Didn;t they disobey orders for not taking her in when she had broken the law? they stripped her and left her. And you're defending them. Why is that? JProffitt71 There is nothing to defend here. Nothing. They cut off her clothing, and then promptly left. There was no arrest, and therefore presumably no law broken. Therefore, what they did was cut absurd clothes off of a woman. This is not defensible, it simply isn't. There is nothing that can be explained at this point; this is a defined issue and they, and anyone taking their side on this incident, are in the wrong. Catbeller Let's just call it what it was: rape. Whatever it is they would charge US with if we cut the clothes off a woman and left her naked in public. PhosPhorious "Now, they could have stripped them of the tents and put blanket around them" That. Why is that not a "serious" option? They stripped her and left her there. You're defending them with a moronic rhetorical questions. Once a cop, always a cop, I suppose. Sgt_HulkasToe You've misunderstood. This is not rhetorical. This is an actual question that they faced that day. My point is that it's easy to call them facist tools of the state. But they are people just like you who have to make split second decisions often. InvertedLens Split decisions can be argued when your life is at stake. There was plenty of time before they originally approached the tents, and then turned around and left. To think about their actions and even the point of being ordered to have the tents cleared out. This is inexcusable, despicable and rape-like. PhosPhorious Sgt_HulkasToe:What makes this a rhetorical exercise is because the situation you are defending is not the one that transpired.There was no "split second decision." there was no "How do we get her into the squd car in that get up?"The cops went away and came back. They stripped her without arresting her.All the exculpatory possibilities that fascinate you so much exist entirely in your head. John Smith Wow, cops really are stupid. remove the poles, dirt brain. tom burtonwood i'm sure the cops in Oz have bigger vehicles. if not commandeer a flat bed truck or bus. either way it's simply a logistical issue and the on the ground commander should be able to improvise as need or hire someone who can. Bodhipaksa Your entire argument is predicated on the police having been given orders to remove tents from the park. Wearing a tent as clothing is arguably odd, arguably humorous, arguably cheeky. But what it is not is "camping." Now I doubt very much whether these police officers had orders to forcibly remove tents worn as clothing, so your argument is moot. exoskeletor Well, if I couldn't figure out what to do in a situation like that I guess I wouldn't deserve the position. Hypotheticals like this are useless. Cops, especially the higher ups, need to be able to think on their feet and be able to assess a situation like this as a potential PR problem. Me? I would have walked her (in this case) to a safe area, maybe a paddy wagon, called a matron, and have her civilly undressed in private. Duh. Then take her down to be booked if that's what was going to be done or let her make a call for some clothes or get some from bystanders, and let her leave (as the hero she might think she is, but still control my fucking ego). It's really not rocket science. I'd have a lot harder time dealing with David in DC hanging onto a building's framework. What would you have done about him? Shot him? cnawan 1. The follow up video (where she confronts the cops, tells them she wants to charge them with sexual assault, they refuse and laugh at her) takes place in front of a large police van, which I believe was parked on the edge of the park. 2. Among the police officers forcibly disrobing her are female cops. What I might have done is have the female cops escort her into the van, assist her (if required) to remove the tent and give her something else to wear. Now, how hard was that? ernunnos How? They're wearing tents. You have to get them out of the tents in order to fit them into a squad car. There is no good choice for the cops. That's the point, that's the kind of intractable situation the protesters wanted to create. And they succeeded. Congratulations. You notice this is not inconveniencing the criminals who created the financial crisis one bit? PhosPhorious So they stripped her in order to arrest her? Then why didn't they arrest her? Brainspore There is no good choice for the cops. If only there had been some way for the cops to walk away WITHOUT stripping a young woman in public first. Alas, we live in the real world where entertaining such fantastical notions clearly gets us nowhere. InvertedLens They didn't arrest the girl though, they all walked away with the tent scraps. Xof Because the one thing we are absolutely sure of is that the police of one of the largest cities in Australia have nothing larger than a SmartCar to transport prisoners in. Itsumishi As John Smith pointed out above the really obvious solution is to remove the poles. Mark_Frauenfelder I missed the video where they put her in the squad car. The one I saw is where the left her half naked on the ground. VerySincerely Ignore human rights laws. Remember, the most important thing is that the police save face. Go ahead and sexually assault and humiliate the young woman in the park. Job well done. Jonathan Roberts Cut the metal/plastic supports and leave the protesters wearing ponchos? Sgt_HulkasToe I like that idea. I support that. Prevents them from camping in it and yes allows them dignity. +1 PhosPhorious I'm curious, since hypotheticals seem to be your thing: What would you do to the officers involved, if you were their superior? High fives all around, or something more formal, like a commendation? sincarne Police have been doing a pretty thorough job of clearing parks of protesters in the past month. Some peacefully, some like stormtroopers. Suddenly they put on tents and it's all changed? Interesting. If someone were to play peekaboo with you, would you really believe they'd disappeared? I'm getting sick of people really digging to find excuses for this. This was petty vindictiveness that left a woman underdressed in a park. Nothing else. Brainspore You have been assigned the job of clearing the tents from the green, because camping is not permitted. What do you do? I'd walk away once it was clear that the tents were part of a practical joke rather than an encampment. Maybe have a chuckle with my buddies about "kids today." ernunnos Despite what "Super Troopers" might have lead you to believe, the police hiring process does not generally select for an appreciation of practical jokes. You may or may not want to take this into account when encountering the species in the wild. Brainspore …the police hiring process does not generally select for an appreciation of practical jokes. The Sgt. asked what I would do in that situation. But it doesn't really matter if the police appreciate it or not. If you're a law enforcement officer you can't take personal petty vengeance just because somebody annoyed or embarrassed you. Catbeller Not when there are cameras around. They usually take you into the alley and kick the crap out of you. That's always legal, 'cause they define legal. You cannot use "following orders" as an excuse for breaking the law. If you can't figure out a legal and responsible way of carrying out an order, you ought not to follow it. I'm not sure how it plays on the police side of things, but in the military, there's a very explicit mandate to follow only lawful orders. Blow up an enemy tank? Check. Shoot a guy running naked and lipstick-smeared from your CO's house with said CO chasing behind screaming "shoot that —-er"? Not so much. Xof You do realize that what the police actually did does not correspond to your goal, yes? foobar Technically, as soon as the protesters stood up, the tents were cleared. Peter O.K. here is my interpretation of the situation the police faced and why I think your comment sucks. 1: the police had to do something because, by god, they cannot appear to be human or lax or just plain humiliated by a civilian. (why the hell do they refer to non-cops as cilviians….the cops are civilians too, nothing more ,nothing less. They are not sacred gods to be feared and granted indulgences…they are public servants). 2: Then when they do that and are shown as action oriented goons here come all of their comrades, holding to the line that cops can do no bad and the old excuse " OH, the poor Police!…they are just human….they were put in such an awkward position"….wah wah wah. 3: Oh , they were ordered to remove the tents from the green were they….then they should have waited for the protesters to retire or take off ther clothes…at that point the cloths become tents again and have to be removed ….because of the Sergeants orders. 4: The police can ignore the command and live ethical lives. Following orders indicates that the police have been militarized. 5: Funny how you think a cop can be fired for not following a stupid order. Cops can beat the crap out of someone for no good reason and the only punishment is 3 days off with out pay….fired! that a baloney argument. You are welcome Jo Bain The lawfulness of the order is being debated in our federal court. A judge at a bail hearing I attended where someone was charged recently was not prepared to recognise the validity of the order and basically threw it out of court, furious that her time was wasted by the police. This is important to keep in mind when discussing whether or not this was a 'split second decision' by the police yesterday. Anonymous Why do you guys continue to trip over yourselves addressing the authoritarian troll. Ignore, delete, ignore. He's got no leg to stand on, which is why the article was posted in the first place.They damaged the property of the activist and I argue they sexually assaulted the activist. Since when is public non-consensual sexual humiliation not a sexual assault? Disemvowelling is pathetic, either ignore or delete. Tim H If we are imagining the thought processes of the policemen, we might try imagining how they were perceiving what was happening. They were probably told to go back and get the tents, which they did. They stripped the tent off the woman, and only then did they suddenly realize that she was basically naked underneath the costume. Up to that point, things were ugly but still within their understanding, after the stripping there WAS a split second moment when everything changed. They had ALREADY stripped the woman naked, probably not understanding that removing the tent would cause this to occur. At that point we see who the human beings are, who the good policemen are, and we see that the police turned and left the park. They created a situation in which a woman was left all but naked, but then the left. That's not just bad human beings, that's bad policing. exhipigeonist They did understand that removing the tend would lead to this. Well, sort of. The protesters claimed that they were naked underneath the 'tents', their only layer of clothing. When the police moved in one officer checked if this was correct, and reported that, in fact, protesters did have clothes on. Not sure if this was misunderstood as meaning 'fully clothed' rather than 'only underwear', but still, they were told beforehand that this was a strong possibility. PhosPhorious "probably not understanding that removing the tent would cause this to occur. . . " Exactly how did you calculate that "probably?" Tim H I couldn't understand a lot of the conversation in the video. lostinutah The Police will not be mocked. They are The Police, after all, and must be shown respect. The Police are really quite sensitive. Manny Ya know, hoop skirts are pretty much tents. kairii There's no excuse for the police behaviour demonstrated here. To leave a woman exposed in a public park in her underwear — after the humiliating and frightening experience of having been forcibly, publicly, stripped is abhorrent. Having said that: If we're going to stereotype police officers — roll them all up into the thick as brick, humourless, bully-thug POLICE — then we oughtn't be surprised when officers become alienated from the public. There are d##@head police officers, sure — but not, I think, out of proportion to the d##@head: decent person ratio in the general population…considerably less, I should think. The Occupy movement has highlighted a lot of vindictive jerks in policing around the world; MOSTLY, though, the police have performed their duties responsibly. Responsible policing doesn't get a whole heap of media coverage; irresponsible policing does — as it should. Bad cops should be named, shamed, punished, but officers shouldn't be subjected to derision and prejudiced assumptions (as in some instances above) merely by virtue of their job — a job which is stressful, difficult and all too often thankless. MertvayaRuka They're not subject to derision and prejudiced assumptions merely by virtue of their job. They're subject to derision and prejudiced assumptions because they routinely do NOT name, shame or punish substantially those who are engaged in "irresponsible policing". And if they're going to stick up for the humorless bully-thugs that happen to wear the same uniform they do, they can fucking well deal with the fact that people aren't going to like that. The problem isn't just the vindictive jerks. It's the supposedly "good" cops who can always be counted on to back them up despite their "goodness". kairii If they're going to stick up for the humourless bully-thugs that happen to wear the same uniform as they do, then yeah, they can fucking well deal with the fact that people aren't going to like them. I'm not denying there are way too many bad cops, and I'm not denying there are too many cops who turn a blind eye to the kind of behaviour they themselves wouldn't engage in. But 'too many' doesn't equal 'all' or even 'most'. What I observe leads me to believe that in my city at least - Sydney – police of the kind you're talking about are a sizeable minority. FrodeSvendsen Doesn't matter.. Would you feel safe that the officer you encounter isn't one of the psychotic, pumped up beef-heads on a power trip? You only need to meet one of them, and hey-presto, your life is turned right around.. teapot I'll see whatever good you've seen the cops do here (Syd) and I'll raise you a hundred stories of them being power-tripping jerks or lazy morons. Anecdotes only go so far you see but you also seem to be forgetting that NSW has just about the worst history of police corruption in the country. waetherman As an aging radical (!) I have to say that the way that "the kids" today manage to outwit authority and bring innovation to the very idea of protest surprises and delights me. Seeing these "tent monsters" is an inspiration. Rock on, OWS. >golf clap< Itsumishi I wonder if this event will garner more support for the occupy movement in Melbourne. I sense it probably won't. By far and large people in Melbourne seem to believe that whilst occupy every other city outside of Australia is justified, in Australia it somehow is not. The basis of this strange thought pattern seems to be that the protesters have nothing to protest about as our economy is yet to go down the shitter to use a local phrase. The fact that virtually all of the social ills and class divisions that exist in England, America, Europe, etc exist here also seems to be ignored. The degrees that these exist might be less in say Melbourne to London, but they sure as hell exist on a country wide scale. Noctilucent Studios So glad to hear they are pressing charges against the police. Here's hoping they win and win BIG. flickerKuu So did I see this right? A protester is detained and stripped of her costume. (All of which may be ok at this point) - but THEN, she is just LEFT sitting "nude" in a public place? No- you have to take her into custody then, and make sure she isn't breaking other laws by being naked in public. This is a rape / personal safety issue you have put her in now, and the police need to take custody of her and provide her with a jumpsuit or some privacy. There is no way this is right, decent, legal, or humane. -3874 for the cops and counting… Petzl Uh, anyone else grit their teeth any time she said "Mel-Born" (as opposed to Mel-Bin)? If it were Edin-Burra, Scotland, I guess she'd pronounce it "Edin-Burg". This is CN-Frigging-N: Mr. Ted Turner made a big deal about calling having his reporters outside the US be called "international correspondents" and not "foreign correspondents." You'd think they'd show some awareness of the countries they allege they report on. Itsumishi No, and nor do I when I hear any English speaker refer to Paris instead of 'Par-ee' or Venice instead of 'Venezia'. Pronouncing names differently is hardly something to get upset about. L_Mariachi Your European examples are from different languages. Australians speak English (nominally.) "Mel-born" : "Mel-burn" is not analogous to "Cologne" : "Köln." Nobody says Mel-born, just as nobody says "War-sester-shire." EvilSpirit You fail to explain why that makes any difference. Nobody says "Paris" instead of "Paree" because they can't speak French, or because they can't pronounce "Paree." They say it because that's how it looks. Just as "Melbourne" isn't going to look like "Melbin" to anybody unfamiliar with the local pronunciation. Itsumishi Indeed, Paris is spelt exactly the same regardless. Itsumishi Fine, Pall Mall or Paul Maul? Car-stle-maine or Cas-tle-maine? New Zealand or Nu-Zelind? Australia or Ostraya? The point is accents and pronunciations vary constantly, names of places being no exception. GlenBlank [Flagged original comment as requested and tried to reply to it. Got "There was an error with your submission." That was really depressing reading.. How they so totally fail to see that the people we entrust this sort of responsibility to should be held to a higher standard is mindboggling. DMStone I don't understand why the tent monsters couldn't have had their laugh and then be done with it. anharmyenone Remember the Earth Liberation Front arsons? I'm afraid that when people start accusing police of sexual assault that we will see the kind of out-of-control emotions that will lead some in the occupy movement to start forming cells. It's time for people to take a step back and deescalate. Focus on ideas, not confrontation. The internet is the world's greatest soapbox and is there to be used to propose any desired reforms. Antinous / Moderator The internet is the world's greatest soapbox and is there to be used to propose any desired reforms. Kind of like a free speech zone where people can protest without have any effect whatsoever on the government or the corporations or the police. Brainspore It's time for people to take a step back and deescalate. Focus on ideas, not confrontation. Next thing you know they'll be organizing boycotts and marching on the National Mall. We can't have that! It might lead to something scary and new… like votes for women, or the Civil Rights Act, or ending the war in Vietnam. Best to just stick with angry letters to the editor. EvilSpirit The flaw in your argument is that the police actually did commit a sexual assault. I see no grounds for not accusing them of doing what they did. what_do_you_care Basically this boils down to how some cops (and sheriff's departments) are motivated by their emotions and politics, and feel that those motivations trump decency and procedure. I think they are emboldened when they see and hear people supporting them. Lt. John "pepper-spray" Pike, I'm sure, felt he was generating a good bar room story when he sprayed these kids directly in the face. And I'm sure he did receive secret accolades from his most malcontent friends for "having the balls" to do what they themselves "wanted to do". You can't say that this is true about all county sheriff's departments or municipal police departments, and certainly about all cops, though. For a cop that has opposing politics, or even wrong-headed views, doesn't have to mean a cop that does much harm to the public if he is a well-trained and disciplined public servant. For the many failures by police to carry power responsibly, though, the closest elected official should be scandalized by these incidences. We should hold them accountable. donovan acree This is a systemic problem. Going after politicians will do nothing. Politicians come and go but it is the culture of police which we need changed. I suspect it can only be done from the ground up. Until I see police arresting police for this and other atrocities, all police are in the wrong. We/They need to stop this abuse. Excusing the actions and ignoring the inaction of the police only serves to continue the immoral and illegal activities of those we have granted power. what_do_you_care I don't know how you are going do any of these things, from the ground up or from the top down without politicians. Politicians are the products of democracy. The power of people is in democratic actions or revolutionary actions and in this "terrorism" climate revolutionary actions are going to go south swiftly and quickly with very little interest in the cause. Is ballot activism so useless? Or as I wonder, is it just underutilized? Or perhaps it's under-organized? The protests have gotten some attention from some politicians. Why? Because they expect ballot rewards. They do change the conversation. I don't have all the answers but I don't see the ballot box discourse happening as much as I think it could. Other than that I'd say if you feel powerless then think about whatever it is that you do in life, and how you can do it better, and how you can do it to help change the conversation. Mister44 WTF, Australia? And your Steakhouses seemed so nice… teapot "Steakhouses" don't really exist here. You can get delicious steak at a restaurant or pub, but there aren't really many dedicated steak restaurants. It confused me immensely to see "Outback Steakhouse" in the middle of Shibuya, Tokyo… Totally bizarro. I notice that there are actually some stores here in Australia now, but this bit of blurb from their site explains everything: OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC, headquartered in Tampa, Florida was founded in 1988 by those who believe in hospitality, sharing, quality, being courageous and having fun! puke you know your a hottie when your lookin good even wearin a tent. wowza :) Brainspore you know your a hottie when your lookin good even wearin a tent. wowza :) You know you're a sicko when you get turned on by video of a woman being sexually violated. Wowza. :-[ Ipo I had no idea, in Australia, the Fashion Police was endowed with undressing-powers. Is this about some new anti-burqa-laws? teapot Usually Youtube comments demonstrate nothing but stupidity, but this guy has it right on the money. Victorian Police are mostly societies rejects & retarded inbreds that failed to pursue a real trade or career in the real world You know the morons were laughing about it back at the station. It's not gonna be so funny when they find their asses in court. shadowfirebird I have this pleasant fantasy* of a new fashion trend starting in Melbourne in response to this: everyone you see wearing tent-like clothing. (* Not that sort, stupid.) Mladen Kalinic Power of the super rich. They don't like what you're doing, you won't do it anymore. Let's just see how angry they can get us to be Nathan Hornby My favourite bit: "Can somebody call the cops??" Illustrates the situation perfectly. parker_vmg3 It seems that a lot of thought was put into this event from both sides. The real instigators were out of camera for the event's, but one of them can be heard quite clearly. The blowout for this will be amusing to say the least. Your and my thoughts on the matter will be negligible either way. RaleighSaintClair In the end, what has peaceful protesting accomplished? dragonfrog You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're just setting up an opening for a "How do I love thee, let me count the ways" type enumeration of all the amazing things achieved through peaceful protest. donovan acree If she was doing something wrong, wouldn't she have been arrested? They just cut up her property, left her half naked, and walked away. sufficap much From where I stand, this looks a lot like a gang-rape in progress. Citizens could (should) have intervened. Each of those 'officers' should have been placed under citizens arrest. mikey p There's a lively debate about the tent-cutting incident on the Victoria Police Facebook page: You may, perhaps, like to let them know your thoughts on the matter. Panagiotis Drivilas Afterwards they should have arrested her for public nudity.. Scott Minnis In Brisbane Australia: My house mate was attacked first by bouncers and then by cops because another black man had punched a bouncer earlier that night. This was just a little bit too ridiculous for me to hear. He was out for dinner with his girlfriend and another couple on a Sunday evening. I usually respect the police, but sometimes…	eng	d3a034b4-8ffe-4a39-a158-ca4123cae019	http://boingboing.net/2011/12/06/melbourne-cops-made-to-look-fo.html
No one knew he was back yet, or at least no one cared enough to seek him out. He'd entered through the mansion's front gate several nights past, walking his motorcycle to the garage instead of waking up the populace. With bike back in place and metal sparkling after a wipe down, Logan threw the filthy rag across Cyclops's favorite car and headed into the woods. He didn't have the drive to go into the mansion yet, to face the people he was sure were still in there. Three months had passed since he last saw most of them—they wouldn't have liked what they saw. His jeans had grown tighter, making an irritable swoosh as he walked. The sleeves of his favorite button-up flannel shirt had grown too narrow to put his arms through, forcing him to rip the sleeves off. T-shirts didn't fit anymore, leaving his chest exposed to the elements. He had always been a muscular man, but his physique had increased a size or two. He had yet to appear ill-proportioned, but his body had naturally become stronger. He could move faster now, remain in a crouch longer, stay alert in the darkness, and silent in the daytime. Thick veins had come to web up and down the muscles in his arms, chest, back, and legs. He was lion-like, the control of his muscles stretching and taunting through his skin as if he moved like a lion stalking prey. He ran a thick hand through his hair that had grown longer, his two peaks weighing down to a point Logan considered putting them into a ponytail. The only consolation he had was that his cowboy boots still fit, and his uniform that he left in a bag attached to his bike had conformed to cling to his larger girth. While he wasn't aware of what was happening to his body thoroughly, he was aware that he was becoming far more… dangerous. His temper was easier to spark, his snarl easier to form, and his brash behavior easier to bring to the surface. While his thoughts were still his own—more Logan than feral—he could feel the animalistic side of him creep into the edge of his mind and fray the ends. The prospect unnerved the feral. He wasn't sure if he could trust himself around a group of people anymore. He reached the cabin he made himself years ago, relishing in the musty odor of nature. He eased himself into a hammock tied to a corner of the cabin to act like a bed and slept. He was comfortable, at ease, and relaxed—it was the most sleep he had done since he had been away. He woke up a day or two later, hungry and thirsty. He managed to put his newly found more enhanced senses to use, hunting the smaller animals in the forest and sticking them over a fire like he had always done the past few months. While there was food at the mansion, hunting relaxed him further. Water was in fresh supply, and no matter what he drank, he wouldn't have to worry about the illnesses born from rancid water. With his stomach full and thirst appeased, he stretched his large limbs, tossed the bones further into the woods, and kicked dirt over the embers. His next stop was Breakstone Lake. ~~~*~ His skin chilled with the lake's tension running down the contours of his body. He lay on his back, body bobbing up and down, realizing he had never been able to do this for as long as he could remember. He was truly floating, not sinking like a rock and struggling to reach the surface. His pants had naturally weighed him down, but with a few kicks of his legs and arcs of his arms, he continued to stay on the surface with great ease. He would have preferred to swim without clothing, but a part of Logan kept himself modest being so close to the mansion. He'd have to go in there sometime, to ease normalcy back into his life, but until then, he preferred to be here, bobbing up and down, truly able to swim. Maybe no longer having adamantium wasn't such a bad thing, as long as he learned the spoils of no longer having it. Leyu had looked it up in the dictionary some time ago. She knew what it meant, what she believed it meant. The dictionary said that it was defined as the satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury; to make amends. There were also theological implications as well - atonement referred to the concept of reconciliation of God and humankind, as accomplished via the life, suffering, and death of Christ. That was the noun, the verb had more. To make up, as for errors or deficiencies. The woman staring at her had made mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are made, people die right? They die or burn or drown or fall and /break/. It happened. And in the not-so-distant past, it happened because of the woman staring at her. Dark eyes, dark hair, dark scowl- all to match the dark path from which she was trying to trudge back. The Asian woman kicked out at the watery reflection staring back at her and turned away. Sliding down against the tree, Leyu pressed her lips into a thin line. Stupid, stupid girl. Isn't this how you were told you'd end up? All the fire and air in you with no water to calm you or earth to ground you. Out of control and just freely burning down any trail dug out before you. She wasn't concerned about the smart dark slacks being stained by dirt and grass. Leyu didn't care about the bark of the tree digging into her dress shirt. "Aka," she mumbled to herself, staring at her hands. "Aren't I supposed to be able to see red?" Was it good or bad that she worried about it /not/ showing? Shouldn't there be signs, indicators of guilt? Maybe a big sign on her back that everyone should see? It shouldn't be so that she could just go on living like it never happened. Because if it was so easy to move on, what was to stop her from doing it all again? Nothing, really. There was nothing. She could bury it all right here and now and forget about it. She'd whisper her apologies to the river and it'd be done with. If she acted normal, like herself, no one would have to know. The truth would only come out in an abuse of power or someone ratting her out. It'd never have to fall from her lips. Confess to the river, whisper your guilt to the element you're so very lacking in, and leave. Say it and get up, brush yourself off and ignore it. Do what you do best and let the ashes scatter in the four winds. Never think of it, never speak it - your dirty little secret. Zutto. Kicking out at the grass, Leyu glared out at the water again as if it was withholding the solution from her on purpose. She couldn't bury this, bury it in the river here - a watery grave - like her Clan probably wished they'd done to her when they'd still had the chance. Pride wouldn't let her walk and guilt wouldn't let her speak. Great. Just...great. Back to square one, Leyu resumed staring broodingly at the water as though waiting for it to tell her something. -------------------- "A light to burn all the empires - so bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be." - My Chemical Romance Logan's ears were underwater, dulling the noises he heard. He could hear the faint ripples his body created while in the water, fish cresting the surface and quickly swimming away, even the water bugs that danced on the surface as they skimmed and jumped. Anything outside of the water was a mystery to his auditory senses, but not to the olfactory. He crinkled his nose. The scent of pine, fish, and wet soil was normally a soothing reminder of comfortable memories he couldn't bring to the surface, but there was a strange stench in the air. Burnt ozone lingered above the surface with a touch of a smell he thought he'd never sniff anytime soon. He lifted his head from the water, ignoring the dribbles running down his nape as he sniffed again. Sakura—a cherry blossom. Not native in the United States, but common in Japan. The scent triggered memories that were best left forgotten, a rain of white petals falling around a silhouette as she knelt at a gravestone—some lost family member Logan didn't get a chance to know. He forced the image of Mariko from his mind and glanced around. All he saw were the trees on the shore line, but he gently twirled in the water, eyes narrowing down at an individual sitting in front of a tree near the shore closest to the mansion. Whether Japanese or not, he couldn't tell, but the lingering scent of cherry blossoms was near unmistakable. Moving forward like a dolphin cresting the water, he dove under, finding it easier to swim faster underwater. His feet and legs moved like a fin as he crested the water once, took a breath, then sunk back under. He was roughly twenty feet from Sunpyre before he surfaced again, sticking to the surface as he swam toward shore. Dark blue eyes looked at the woman who was clearly lost in her own thoughts, and Logan realized she was indeed from an Asian descent. He finally found traction underfoot as he stood and waded to the surface. He approached the woman, water up to his ankles as his jeans clung to his legs and put his hands to his hips. "You got a name or am I stuck callin' you Burnt Sakura?" He'd never seen the woman before—couldn't place her face. But there was a slight twinge of familiarity in her facial structure. He waved the thought off. His eyes narrowed toward the woman, her form tense, an uncomfortable position, with eyes distant before he arrived. She was contemplating something, and whatever she was contemplating was not a pleasant thought. His suspicion arose. "You visitin' Chuck's place?" He asked, wiping his face with a hand to stop the drips of water from tickling his nose. "Big ol' comfy place like that, and yer out here gettin' yerself worked up over somethin'. Not sure if yer wantin' to be alone or just plain stupid to pick this spot." With clothes like that, Logan decided Leyu wasn't one to dwell in nature. She dressed too damn uppity like some social worker than to see the finer details of the water. She was getting dirty just by sitting down. Seemed to Logan she should have picked a better spot than rolling in the dirt like some pig. Snorting, he turned around and bent over, cupping his hands in the lake. He flung the water over his head, caring little if the majority of it splashed on the woman. All he wanted was to keep his hair slicked back to keep stray strands off his forehead. He turned around, crossed his arms, and waited to see if he could figure out just who this woman was and what exactly she was doing here. You'd think that Leyu would be more grateful for a distraction from her not-exactly-cheerful thoughts. And you'd be wrong. Sunpyre frowned at the man in front of her. The soaked man. The soaked man with regular clothes on, clothes that...kind of looked like they didn't fit? Sunpyre's power set did not include enhanced eyesight - unless you wanted to count the infrared vision - but she could tell the difference between clothes-are-wet cling and muscles-too-big cling. This man had both going on and she wondered if it wasn't uncomfortable. Alright, fine, maybe she half-admired the view for a moment. What? You've no right to judge her for that! You were looking too!! And then he started talking, ruining it all entirely. His voice wasn't grating, she'd met people with grating voices. His was rough and she'd almost swear he was growling sometimes, but it wasn't going to make her ears bleed. No, it was the inevitable offense of talking and saying something she found offensive and/or unpleasant. 'Burnt sakura'? What kind of name was that? Why would he want to call me that? It'd make more sense if she knew who she was dealing with and that the name he'd come up with was based on her scent. But Wolverine didn't volunteer the information and she wasn't in the mood to play at being curious. She guessed the sakura was because she was Japanese and he'd guessed at her nationality very quickly. The burnt part though.. Leyu looked around, but noted that she had torched anything in the vicinity. The local temperature had risen a few degrees in response to her irritation and lack of power regulating, but nothing was on fire. Whatever, let him be weird then. "Sunpyre," she said, but only because he looked like he'd really continue to call her 'Burnt Sakura' if she didn't offer up something else. She'd hoped he would just go back in the water, but noooo. While she wasn't in the mood to be curious, but he was more than willing to interrogate her though. And she did mean interrogate. "You visitin' Chuck's place?" -- "Big ol' comfy place like that, and yer out here gettin' yerself worked up over somethin'. Not sure if yer wantin' to be alone or just plain stupid to pick this spot." She supposed 'Chuck' was supposed to be Charles, as in Charles Xavier. Yeah, she was kind of avoiding the man. Leyu gave the man a flat look. "Well it certainly doesn't matter either way /now/." If he'd thought she wanted to be alone, he clearly didn't care since he was here bothering her anyway. And as for stupid. "And I hardly find it stupid to come to this river; it was certainly a good enough location for you." So he went for a swim and she opted to sit on the grass. Big flipping difference. And alright, she hadn't exactly planned this out. These clothes were clearly not appropriate, but Leyu didn't care. She'd wanted to sit by the river, commune with nature. The Japanese mutant wasn't going to let something like completely replaceable fabric stop her. A little dirt never hurt anyone. Turning as if done with her, the man re-wet his hair with water. That was fine, just fine, except for the part where he used enough water to not only re-wet his hair, but to send some cool liquid her way as well. Sunpyre didn't know the man well enough to determine if he was spiteful enough to do that on purpose, but she was annoyed nonetheless. I suppose I should be thankful my shirt isn't white. Leyu rolled her eyes and muttered a few choice words in her native tongue. Whatever. A little dampness was nothing for her. The woman did a little 'speed dry', raising the temperatures further for a minute or so. Sufficiently dry - and without setting anything on fire too! - Leyu let her powers dissipate entirely, including the little bump from the agitation this man was causing her. He turned back to her again. Fantastic, he wasn't through with her yet. Maybe he'd splash again. She should save him the trouble and just jump into the river. He folded his arms, making the veins on his muscular arms stand out more. The man had a look of general disapproval and suspicion. You know, when he frowns that way, he reminds me of the Elders."And you are...a keibi? Mansion security?" This would be amusing if she wasn't so miserable before he opted to swim up. Maybe that's what she'd call him though, 'Keibi'. Keibi-san. He certainly looked like he'd make an impressive guard for any manor. And to be a guard for a mansion full of high-powered mutants? Even bigger. Leyu stared unflinchingly back and wondered what the 'magic words' were here. Maybe a secret password. Leyu leaned back against the tree, shifting to get good and comfortable - dress clothes or no. She kicked off her shoes, obviously not planning on going anywhere now. Maybe she really would go for a swim. "Nani - am I encroaching upon your territory? What do you want from me Keibi-san?" -------------------- "A light to burn all the empires - so bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be." - My Chemical Romance Sunpyre. Logan let the name swirl in his brain as he took a closer look at the contours of Sunpyre's face. She carried the usual feminine appearance—a rounded jaw and petite nose with her chocolate brown eyes, but still that hint of familiarity was nagging at him. Even though her appearance was different, there was still something similar there. Maybe if he bothered to look at Shiro Yoshida more often, he'd finally make the connection, but since the man had more fire coming out of his ass than his hands, Logan didn't even bother. But he did look at Kenuichio Harada quite a bit. Perhaps that was where the spark of recognition was coming from… but then again, maybe not. "Well it certainly doesn't matter either way /now/." Logan snorted. Fiery scent and a fiery spirit—how clichéd. As for this spot being good enough for him… "Probably because I ain't like you." As he went about wetting his hair, the woman obviously didn't know he could speak Japanese. Not that he expected her to, but still, he had to keep a smirk from spreading across his lips. She certainly had some colorful language. He caught that same stench again—the burnt ozone. It was more prominent than before, but Logan didn't bother to turn around to see what the woman was doing yet. If she was going to hurt him, that would just gave him more incentive to not trust her. "And you are...a keibi? Mansion security?" "The least thing from it, hotaru-kun." Now he was playing with her without the usual signal he was doing as such on his face. His expression was still placid, but still he wanted to see her expression. He purposely used "kun" instead of "san," a signal she was the inferior one between the pair. She leaned back further, obviously settling in despite his seemingly intimidating presence. She called him security again—a nickname that strangely didn't bother the feral. If he had to act like security, he might as well have the appropriate title alongside it. "Yer new here, alone, and actin' like you lit a fuse that goes up yer ass—smell like it too. There Logan could use his own advice, but he'd like to think he had a greater reason to be troubled by his own thoughts. With his age and his actions, he was allowed to find isolation to settle his wild side—people expected it from him. When it came to someone like Sunpyre, however… "What's yer real name? You've got a resemblance to someone… Can't put my finger on it." Logan's fingers went to the snaps on his jeans, unsnapping and unzipping in front of Sunpyre. His fingers slipped under the waistband, shoving down to peel the fabric from his flesh. "Most call me Wolverine, but call me Logan." He talked as he worked, finally managed to pull the jeans down his knees before he sat on the ground and began to tug them off. When Logan wore his uniform, he wore a skintight undergarment akin to a diver's suit that covered his lower region like a pair of boxers. There was nothing to see thanks to that. Logan didn't even think about what Sunpyre might think as he took his pants off. Fortunate, as she had no desire to be a damn hypocrite. He could wander around the river, /in/ the river, but she wasn't allowed to sit here because she wasn'r dressed properly? He couldn't possibly be serious. The use of Japanese was a slight she hadn't thought of. It was a habit, native words slipping into her accented English. If she wanted to annoy someone, she'd use it exclusively and then give them an expectant look at the end. She asked if he was mansion security, half-serious and half-not. "The least thing from it, hotaru-kun." Leyu's eye twitched. Did..he just call her a /firefly/? Leyu's eyes narrowed mutinously, hints of demonic red seeping in. She ought to raze the place to the ground and see what he thought of 'fireflies' then and--. Just as quickly, the red disappeared and Leyu jerked up as if she'd caught herself falling asleep or something. Her eyes weren't as narrowed and the brooding look was back. See how easy it was for you to think that way? How easy the thought came to your mind? And all because he called you firefly, used -kun. He ought to do it too; you're being a child, she scolded herself harshly. "Goei-san has a sense of humor - I'll keep that in mind." "Yer new here, alone, and actin' like you lit a fuse that goes up yer ass—smell like it too." She was certain she did not smell like burnt flesh. She knew what that scent was first hand. "I wasn't aware that there was a dress code," she tossed in dryly. "There Can't change? The woman stared blankly at him. She wasn't trying to change anything; just pay for it with something other than her life. "Do I seem like a people-person to you? Why is it that you can wander around by yourself, but I can't? You're a strange, contradictory man." And what did he mean 'new'? "You should check your security logs too Goei-san - the fact that we have not met does not make me new to your X-Men." Granted, she didn't stay for a very long time - one and done - but she wasn't brand spanking new either. There were those on the groudns and in that mansion that might remember her. Logan was rewarded with a face of stone. "Familiar?" That doesn't really bode well. Leyu wasn't on good terms with...about 99% of her Clan. Anyone that she reminded him of was probably someone she didn't like and certainly didn't want to be associated with. Any name he tossed out, assuming some freak connection was about to be revealed here, was likely to strike a nerve. Hell, just the possibility was striking enough. Leyu was tensing, not really liking where this could go when Wolverine abruptly changed the atmosphere - by stripping. The dark-eyed woman could do little more than stare with wide eyes as the man just casually peeled his jeans off in front of her. He was obviously unconcerned, continuing on while taking the soaked article off. "Most call me Wolverine, but call me Logan." Leyu refused to shield her eyes like some virgin maiden or flush like a schoolgirl! She'd seen naked men before and Goei-san still had..ah..?? They covered him as boxers, but were far too clingy. Spandex? The thought made her choke on a smattering of laughter that she hadn't been prepared for. ...she didn't want to seem like she was /staring/ at him either. Stuck between pride and appearing to be a pervert, Leyu went with the obvious choice. Pride. She didn't look away, but tried to not appear to be eyeballing him. Sunpyre chose to keep her eyes further up and away from the black-clad nether regions. She even managed not to blush. The young woman was quite proud of herself. "You may call be Leyu if you wish." Wolverine, Logan...hm, she still liked her choice best - obviously. Whatever he went by, she would stick with 'goei-san'. -------------------- "A light to burn all the empires - so bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be." - My Chemical Romance "Because if I don't go off on my own, I'm liable to kill someone, especially right now." Logan realized how that sounded and shrugged. He didn't mean right now as in he was going to kill Sunpyre, but right now as in his current condition. "I ain't exactly human, darlin'. I ain't always in control of my actions. I keep away to keep my humanity in check. You keep away because yer, what, scared of burnin' shit?" Some people had it worse off than Burnt Sakura over there. Last he checked, there was a red-headed woman in the mansion scared to death about overtaxing her abilities for fear of destroying a planet. Now there was a reason to be out here staring at the river (a half-naked Wolverine swimming probably helped too). About her not being new, whatever. Logan could argue about that until he was blue in the face, but he suddenly found himself not caring. Instead, he focused on other things, like preparing to take his pants off. "That's what I said," he grunted. "Lived in Japan for a bit. The planes in yer face are stirrin' up somethin' in my head, but can't place why." He glanced at Leyu quickly, but shrugged again. "Yer attitude reminds me of other people too, but all yer kind act the same." All hot-tempered, fiery individuals with a personality that was as hard as a metal wall. Just look at Sunpyre: What had Logan found out so far? She liked being alone and kept personal information close to her chest. Logan could be the same way too; that's why it was so easy to figure out. Logan stopped taking off his pants after hearing a choking sound coming from Leyu's throat as he looked up at her. He gave her a cross between a scowl and 'What the hell is your problem?' before he sat down. And it was Leyu, huh? Liked he needed permission to call her by her name. "Well, Leyu, I think yer done thinkin'." He stood up again, leaving his pants where they were before extending a hand to her.His face was as perfectly calm as usual, but there was one thing he wasn't telling Leyu. The route he planned on taking to get back to his cabin was... well... swimming through Breakstone Lake. With his increased strength, it shouldn't be any problem "helping her up" and tossing her into the lake. He'd soon dive in as well. If he managed to get her into the lake, her expression would have to be priceless. Consider it Logan's way of saying, "Welcome to the X-Men's place." "Because if I don't go off on my own, I'm liable to kill someone, especially right now." It wasn't the answer she'd been expecting. Not that she had a range of answers she was bracing herself for, but if she did - that wouldn't be one of them. The blunt delivery had her blink twice too. She could appreciate the honesty, to be sure, but it was still not a response she would have been ready for. Why would he tell her that? Was this a threat? She hadn't thought he was so determined and serious about getting her to clear out. "I ain't exactly human, darlin'. I ain't always in control of my actions. I keep away to keep my humanity in check. You keep away because yer, what, scared of burnin' shit?" Leyu didn't know what to say about the 'not exactly human' part. None of them were, but she detected he meant in a different fashion. He used words like control and humanity and in check. He guessed her biggest problem was worrying about setting something on fire. Her responding laugh was hollow, "Not exactly." Setting someone on fire had actually been one of her less creative methods, but only because it was so slow and the smell was unpleasant. There would always be someone who had it worse, but that wasn't enough to make Sunpyre feel better or ease her gloom or even make her feel guilty for daring to brood. Saying your problem was worse than someone else's didn't really erase the problem. Destroying all of humanity was damn epic, but you wouldn't be thrilled with someone razing your city to the ground either. It was like a..damn it, what was the saying? Oh, 'lesser of two evils'. "Lived in Japan for a bit. The planes in yer face are stirrin' up somethin' in my head, but can't place why." Great. Leyu shot the man an uneasy look as he continued to explain - saying her attitude and overall behavior [what little of it he'd been subject too] was familiar. His tone suggested that it wasn't familiar in a good way. Yeah well, most people felt that way, so all the dark-haired woman offered was a distinctly unapologetic look. And that was immediately followed by the return of unease. Familiar. Familiar like he could be allied with someone in her Clan familiar and she only had one ally in the whole damn Clan. Her cousin, Harada Kenuichio, wasn't super prone to making friends anywhere and most of those who called her cousin friend knew who she was or what she looked like. If her name and face didn't lead to identification, that was enough to knock this one out of that small category. That left the rest of the Clan and she wanted no part of that. She opted to keep a leash on her last name. Let him find out on his own if he wanted to know so bad. She wasn't volunteering. She was choking down laughter at something in her head, but Logan didn't know that. It resulted in him giving her a kind of grumpy look that she suspected was fairly common to see on his masculine - and hairy, goodness - features. Now that she thought about it, this was a very hairy man here. Like extraordinarily so. She stared blatantly then, attempting to determine if it was natural or part of his mutation. He mentioned not being quite human, maybe that was part of what he meant. 'Wolverine', he'd said. Furry and ferocious creature. With that thought in mind, Leyu's expression was bemused when the Canadian addressed her. "Well, Leyu, I think yer done thinkin'." An arched eyebrow served as the silent question 'Oh really?' Pants discarded as though he'd leave them there for whoever came by, he reached out for her. The plasma-wielder didn't lean back or flinch, but stared as though she'd never seen a hand before. What was he doing?Goei-san was a blank slate as he made this offer. Sunpyre looked at him suspiciously. Strange man/mansion security wants to take her to some cabin - that may or may not be there - and let her eat his food. She could stay there, do what she wanted. She could be left in peace and he'd leave her there too and do...whatever. Leyu was a stranger, some newbie on the grounds that could be a closet psychopath for all he knew. She could snap and he'd smell more than burnt sakura. He was a loner, self-admittedly not quite human, and prone to violence. She was a loner, vaguely familiar in features, and smelled like torched flowers...brooding by a lake. ...but she was hungry and she did kind of want to avoid being walked up on and questioned by whoever came by...again. So this man, this stranger that she felt wasn't super fond of people in general much less her, would still put these things on the table. Things she did want. All she had to do was take his hand. Don't be stupid! Leyu paused, mocha orbs going from the feral's face to his hand. What do you have to lose? And so she took his hand and-- SPLASH! --felt ever so stupid afterwards. Yes, nothing to lose..except her a little bit of her dignity. The woman was too surprised to stop her momentum, or even think to try, as she was jerked up and tossed into the water. Sunpyre stayed under for a few moments, stewing moodily. When she did break the surface, it was slowly and only enough for narrowed red eyes and her nose - she had to breathe you know - to pop up. With her straight black locks plastered to her scalp and then spreading out at the water surface, she resembled some demonic sea creature. A small one. An angry little demon sea creature. The water wasn't bubbling, yet, but it was warmer than normal. Not unpleasantly though. Wolverine may feel as though he was diving into a nice little hot tub rather than a cool lake. Though the closer one ventured to the moody little Asian woman, the hotter the water would be. -------------------- "A light to burn all the empires - so bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be." - My Chemical Romance At least she was a suspicious sort. That was a good thing. Though he got the feeling she wasn't suspicious of him, but rather of the place she was going to. That rarely happened for the feral--most people were suspicious of him, especially after he revealed he could kill someone. What an odd bird, this one. Or fire bird. Whatever. Seemed like she wasn't about to reveal why she was out here either if she wasn't scared of burning things down. Eventually her small hand curled into his thicker one and Logan wrapped his fingers around her hand. With a yank of strength, careful not to pull her arm out of socket, she was lifted off the ground and flung into the lake. Logan turned around, put his hands to his hips, and shrugged. That was slightly entertaining. When Leyu finally broke the surface, eyes as cold as ice despite her abilities, Logan paid her little attention as he grabbed his pants, wrapped them around his hand, and dove in. The water was slightly warmer than usual, but nothing Logan couldn't handle. Maybe if Sunpyre understood his sudden fascination with water, she'd become more lenient with her sudden swimming lesson. The thrill of not sinking to the ground and viciously trying to stay afloat was strangely serene to the feral, who never pictured himself as a waterbug. But then again, maybe the feeling would only be short-lived as its novelty wore off. "Quit yer angry look," Logan muttered as he surfaced, water rippling against his chin. "It's just water. Follow me." He dove under, skimming just underneath the surface, the muscles in his arms and legs at work. His heels bobbed out of the water as he kicked, still enjoying his new-found freedom. He supposed this was the closest he'd ever feel like flying on his own, completely weightless and able to move all his limbs without fear of hurting or breaking something. As he swam, keeping his pace slow to allow Leyu to keep pace, he finally emerged toward the treeline, using his hand to slick back his hair. He unraveled his pants and slung them over his shoulder, glancing back to make sure Sunpyre made it one piece. "I would start a fire once we go there, but I doubt you need it to dry off." Saying nothing more, he ended up walking through his turf--the woods. The place hadn't changed much while he was away; he knew every nuance outside of the newest growths. He dodged stray limbs with ease, knew where to walk to keep clear of pricker bushes, but seemed to forget unlike Leyu, he didn't have to worry about poison ivy or poison oak that may be sprouting from the ground. The path he took to his cabin wasn't cleared away until several yards in where a faint clearing sprouted. The dirt trail was cloaked by trees and bushes, and Logan quietly picked a burr from the hair on his arm as he joined the path. After several moments of walking the trail, he finally reached the small cabin he called home once in awhile. The scent of burning smoke was still in the air. "Mind lighting this for me?" He gathered cut timber into the firepit before throwing his pants near the pit and walked into the cabin. If she couldn't, he'd light the fire with some flint he had inside his home. He came back out with a tin pan filled with lukewarm stew, aiming to heat Leyu's dinner by hand over the fire. Sure Sunpyre could have probably done it herself, but Logan had a sinking feeling Leyu hadn't been out camping much. He glanced at her, nodded his head to a log by the firepit to take a seat, and let the light of the flames dance across his face. His hand was beginning to hurt and turn red as he held the pot, but he thought nothing of it as he stirred the edible contents with a carved spoon. Thick pieces of carrots, potatoes, and celery, swam in a simmering pot of freshly caught, skinned, and cooked rabbit. Most people didn't know this, but living on just rabbit meat could kill a person. Rabbit meat was too lean to provide any suitable nutrients and needed other foods--like vegetables--to eat with it. Logan could be an interesting man with all he learned about wildlife. "This should be done," he said, taking a wooden bowl beside him, pouring some stew inside for Sunpyre to take, and allowed the carved spoon to slip inside. By the time he put the pot on a separate log and handed the bowl to Leyu, flesh had begun to bubble on his hand. But in seconds, there was no harm there. No blisters, no burn, no anything to show Logan had scorched himself. " So he sat on the log opposite of Leyu, putting his hands toward the fire, staying silent all awhile to allow Sunpyre to continue contemplating whatever she was thinking about by the lake. "Quit yer angry look," he muttered, obviously unconcerned about her mood swings. "It's just water. Follow me." He started to swim away and Leyu remained where she was for a moment. She wasn't quite sulking, just giving him some room in case he tried something cute like grabbing her and holding her under the water. That he could toss her like that one-handed implied he was considerably strong. Granted, his muscled form implied a high level of strength as it was, and it wasn't like Leyu was the heaviest of people, but still. Super strength meant he'd have no problem yanking her under water for his own amusement while she flailed around. She could try to torch him, but that took effort underwater. Effort that would probably draw unwanted attention. So she waited until he was further away before kicking off herself, grumbling distinctly un-lady-like language under her breath, things about stupid guards and their messed up sense of humor. Leyu, in typical fire-child fashion, wasn't super fond of water...or being thrown into it. However, she was a strong swimmer. She wouldn't be able to keep up without Logan purposefully slowing down, but he wouldn't have to come to a complete stop-and-wait either. "I would start a fire once we go there, but I doubt you need it to dry off." Leyu huffed, but didn't contradict him. Again, she waited until he was far enough away to not be able to knock her back into the water before climbing out herself. She looked down at herself. "At least I don't have white on." While it was all well and good for Wolverine to just wander around half-naked, Sunpyre felt zero motivation to do the same. Leyu stared at the man just wandering into the wooded area. The fact that there was no trail where he was walking told her that this really was his turf and that she would indeed not be bothered way out here. The petite woman frowned at the unknown plant life. It'd be just her luck to hit something poisonous. At least she was fortunate enough to be allergy free. She couldn't burn a path through. There was no way to control it; she'd burn the whole forest down. Well..she had on long pants, covered shoes, and long sleeves. She'd be alright. So the woman trudged through, lest Logan get so far that she lost him. And wouldn't keibi-san be so thrilled to discover the hotaru had managed to get herself lost on his territory. Eventually, they did come across a path. Maybe that was more like a shortcut then? Whatever, they were here and she only had a few burrs sticking to her, one or two leaves in her hair. Leaves of three, leave them be. She hadn't seen anything worrisome on the way through and her long-sleeved, long-pant combo really was helpful. A slightly smokey smell told her of fire ahead. "Mind lighting this for me?" Dark mocha orbs shifted to the firepit he'd indicated. She shrugged. "Okay." The woman moved to a spot clear of anything that might accidentally lead to setting the rest of the place on fire. "The object is to make fire, not /ashes/," she reminded/coached herself quietly. Leyu might not have said anything at all if she'd been aware that Wolverine's sensitive ears would hear her as though she'd spoken at normal volumes. Trying to not turn the wood to ash in addition to avoiding activation of her sheath required too much policing. So the woman just made to be clear of anything. Maybe I should warn him about the light? Eh, this would only take a second and it wasn't like it'd blind him. And so Leyu direct a tiny orb of plasma fire at the wood. Tiny as it was, she noted with agitation, it was still enough to kick up her sheath. It all happened at once, summon tiny orb, the demon-eyes and sheath kicks in. When no further action occurred, the sheath died away along with the red glow in her eyes. At least my clothes are fairly dry. Flash freeze, meet flash dry. Sunpyre sat down like a good little fire-started. Not being a picky eater, Leyu didn't care what the man produced as food. It was food and it wouldn't kill her - in theory - so she was set. She could eat it cold too, but her powers made sure that wasn't much of an issue. That didn't stop the man from coming out with a pot and tin. She supposed it was soup of some sort. Everything was fine and normal and then keibi-san decided to stick his hand in the fire. Which would have been fine if Leyu knew his power set. Except she didn't and so, predictably, she stormed over and yanked his arm back. Annoyed, she started to say, "[i]Goei no baka - you can't just do--" and was summarily silenced when his arm healed right in front of her. In the span of seconds, it was like nothing had happened. Blink. Confusion. "Or maybe you can." He could heal himeself. "Well that must be very convenient," she noted absently while letting go. Sunpyre sat back down, careful not to just plop onto something that could roll under her weight, and Logan - after reacting however he was going to react - went back to cooking. "This should be done," he said. Sunpyre took the bowl and spoon. She thought to pause and investigate, make sure he didn't - I don't know, throw some bugs in there, but she'd eaten those before too, She'd eaten a variety of meals in her comparatively short life, if you were going to put her 24 years to Logan's 60+. Whatever was hiding out in Xavier's forest was the least of her worries. The woman stared blankly at the bubbling flesh, hard to miss when he'd handed her the food, but - just like before - it healed in seconds. All evidence of the fire-damage gone as though he'd never done it at all. It was fascinating, being something she'd never seen before. And with her prideful, frank nature, Leyu felt no shame in just staring at the phenomenon. No matter how she stared, the skin remained as it was. This wasn't an illusion or trick, he'd really stuck in hand in fire, left it there to cook right along with the food, and then..healed it. Or rather, it healed itself. He didn't appear to put any effort into the act. Not healing himself, but self-healing. Automatic. " Sunpyre didn't go anywhere, just remained on the log. She'd gotten used to him roaming around with practically nothing on anyway. The woman sat peacefully with her meal, eating away - it was good even though she wasn't entirely sure what meat he had in here. Even when finished, she kind of sat there, frowning to herself. Her thoughts had, miraculously, gotten good and morbid when she opened her mouth to ask an equally morbid question. "Ne, goei-san, what are you...here for?" She had been about to ask what you were supposed to feel after killing someone. What? He'd all but said he had earlier. Liable to kill,not exactly human, humanity in check. He had to know. And since he seemed to know everything she should and shouldn't be doing, maybe he could tell her that too. Leyu felt like maybe she had reacted in an unusual fashion. Life was supposed to be precious right? Death should make you value life. But Sunpyre distinctly remembered feeling as though it was nothing in the grand scheme of things, even her own. But that question was too close to the chest and she wasn't the bleeding heart, confess all in the span a day type. Granted, she felt it was easier ask such a morbid question to the stranger here than someone she was better acquainted with. Easier not to care about his reaction afterwards. While Wolverine may take the pause to be that that wasn't actually the first question that popped into her head, her expression indicated she did kind of want to know. Of course, maybe he wouldn't tell her. Maybe it was a secret. Maybe he had no idea what he was here for. He could just be here for lack of anything better to do or because - I don't know - his..wife or something lived here. He could even tell her a lie. It could be anything. However, if he was willing to plainly say that he kept to himself for the sake of not killing people and that he had to work at checking himself and his inhuman tendencies..how bad could it be? -------------------- "A light to burn all the empires - so bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be." - My Chemical Romance As Sunpyre leaped up to take his hand out of the fire, Logan's expression doured as his brow fizzled into irritation. As her eyes watched the skin reform itself, Leyu's surprise turned into confusion as she finally walked away. He grunted, recooking her meal, and said, "Don't do that again. I told ya, I ain't human. Never approach me from the side that fast." He hated how fast the instinct came at him to snap his elbow into Leyu's gut and have the contents of the meal coat her face. He was used to his body acting on pure instinct, but this... this was less survival and more play. He wanted to enjoy the person's expression as if he was toying with his prey before he killed them. He shrugged the feeling away. Leyu remained silent the rest of the time, leaving Logan just as quiet. He preferred it this way. No talking made things get done quicker. And the less distractions Logan had, the happier everyone was going to be. He finally retracted the pan, poured the stew, and handed it to Leyu. He determined the woman liked to stare a lot, or hardly got out in the world. First she watched him take off his clothes, then watched, unabashedly, as his hand healed. Was he really that interesting to look at? Like yer in a damn zoo. He shook the thought from his head. He could understand curiosity--he wasn't being gawked at, merely... watched... or admired? With cooking done and in her hands, Logan sat and warmed himself by the fire, propping his arms against his knees and slouching forward. He bent his head and ran his hand through his hair, shaking the tresses to let the stray beads of water out. Wiping his wet hand on his shorts, he clasped his hands together and stared into the fire. "Ne, goei-san, what are you...here for?" He looked up at her over the tips of the flames, her form slightly distorted through the wavering lines of heat. Given her internal thoughts and how distant she once appeared while at the lake, he almost considered her question philosophical, akin to, 'What is the meaning of your life?' Really, how in the hell was he supposed to know? But he'd take her question more literally, assume she was asking about here and now. Peering back into the flame while swatting a bug away from his nape, he shrugged before his raspy voice answered. "You ever lived in there?" He threw a thumb towards the mansion. "It ain't all sunshine and rainbows. Get a bunch of people together that don't see eye-to-eye and you got yerself a brawl waitin' to happen." And he'd done it too, fist to face without any questions. "It's easier out here. Live or die, hunter or prey. I only come out here when I need to get away." For whatever reason that was, really. But if her question was alluding to another reason, such as why he was here with the X-Men, he supposed he could answer that too. "I ain't like the other X-Men, but I can respect their dream. They've helped me a lot over the years. The most I can do is help 'em in return." His fingers absentmindedly rubbed the skin between his knuckles, peering back toward Leyu. "The way I see it, they're a buncha goodie-shoes that don't know how to kill someone when it comes down to it. That's why they've got me. Not a lot agree with my methods, but I get the job done when they can't. If they can't see that, then odds are I've punched in 'em in the face a few times." He waved his hands around him. "Those nights are when you'll find me here. Easier to get away than it is to keep beatin' sense into heads." He looked over to Sunpyre again, still rubbing his knuckles. "So what brings you here, darlin'? Outside of broodin' like you can't figure out how to yank the stick outta yer ass." He gave a sly smile afterwards, looking more like a chuckling fox than a human in the process. He gave her that grumpy look again after she let his hand go. "Don't do that again. I told ya, I ain't human. Never approach me from the side that fast." Dark brown orbs blinked at the man. He kept saying he wasn't human. Not human. Liable to kill. Save his humanity. And yet no sense of preservation kicked in. The woman didn't scramble away or gain a more wary look. Leyu was really just wondering if the man wasn't simply trying to scare her off so he could be alone. He could just say so. Goei-san didn't seem the beat-around-the-bush type. Clearly, he wouldn't go through the trouble of bringing her over here just to kick her out. She appreciated the warning though, recalling how easily he'd tossed her earlier. One good swing when she wasn't ready... "I'll be sure to make noise next time." She could wear a bell too. "You ever lived in there?" The woman shook her head. "I left." Staying hadn't been a thought entertained in her head for any period of time. Sunpyre had bolted, almost immediately. Hell, she didn't even stay long enough to heal up to 100%. Oh, she wasn't limping away from the mansion that day, but she could have put another day or two of medical attention to good use. But she didn't. Had to get out, had to go, had to think. Sometimes, she wondered what would have happened if she'd stayed. Really, it was an easy guess. She wouldn't have..done what she did right? Or would she have tried it under their noses? Resisted long enough to dash out. Maybe it'd have been a bigger fallout, a secret she wouldn't be able to even /try/ to bury. "It ain't all sunshine and rainbows. Get a bunch of people together that don't see eye-to-eye and you got yerself a brawl waitin' to happen." Sunpyre looked towards the mansion, pensive. Well, she was used to not getting along with people. It happened; it happened a lot actually. She kind of expected it usually. "It's easier out here. Live or die, hunter or prey. I only come out here when I need to get away." Easier out here. Yes, if you could contain yourself. She'd gone 'out here' and look what she did! "Why do you go back in if it's better out here?" The way he described it, there was zero motive to subject yourself to people you don't like. "I ain't like the other X-Men, but I can respect their dream. They've helped me a lot over the years. The most I can do is help 'em in return." ... Help in return. She wondered what kind of help would make this man, one worried about losing his humanity still, stay around. But some things were to close to the chest. She knew that better than anyone, so she didn't ask about the help. Beyond guessing he'd draw a line on that one, the woman wasn't certain she wanted to know. "The way I see it, they're a buncha goodie-shoes that don't know how to kill someone when it comes down to it. [...]." -- "Those nights are when you'll find me here. Easier to get away than it is to keep beatin' sense into heads." Leyu wasn't sure she was in a position to determine if she was bothered by more fatal measure of combat. Technically, it should be no problem. It clearly hadn't been a problem before, when she-- Anyway. But now, what about now? Could she end a life, maybe of one who deserved it, without flashing back to killing someone who didn't? It really sounded like they were using this man as a glorified sweeper. Shadow. Personal mercenary exclusive to their use. Are they really such goodie-shoes if they're willing to let him do what must be done? They don't like it, but no one stops him. Though it was arguable on how wise it'd be to try it, especially during the heat of a mission. It sounds..convenient..keeping their hands seemingly clean." She didn't like it. Would that be her next? Doing what had to be done. The dirty work. "So what brings you here, darlin'? Outside of broodin' like you can't figure out how to yank the stick outta yer ass." His expression this time was not grumpy, but she could tell she was being poked fun at regardless. The smile...had a..hm. She couldn't place her finger on it. Such an odd man, Logan-goei-san was. "I've decided not to concern myself with your fascination for my ass goei-san." He'd referenced her ass several times. Granted, he was in the middle of insulting her every time, but he still mentioned it repeatedly. With her knees drawn up, Leyu's petite form lent itself well to making her look younger than her 24 years. Which, again, was quite short in comparison to present company - but still made her an adult. "I'm..here to pay a debt goei-san." Not for help rendered by the X-Men - it'd been the other way around before. But she'd help now and pray she found absolution along the way. "A heavy debt I will try to repay by helping the X-Men accomplish whatever they wish. However, I don't...get along well with others." Wasn't used to trying really. "And my powers are not conducive to 'peaceful resolutions'. Perhaps I should build a separate residence on the grounds too." -------------------- "A light to burn all the empires - so bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be." - My Chemical Romance "I've decided not to concern myself with your fascination for my ass goei-san." "Ain't not harm in complimentin' those with a good lookin' ass." If he was complimenting her, which was debatable. He was hoping she'd provide more details in concerns of her debt. It sounded... suspicious, like a blood-debt. There weren't a lot of debts people would pay off by coming to a place that seemed uncomfortable to them. While he might not have liked to stay in the mansion at all times, at least he was comfortable there, or as comfortable as he could be. For Leyu, however, it seemed the opposite was true. She wanted to get as far away as possible, no matter who her company was. And there she went--she officially confirmed his suspicions. She wasn't comfortable with the mansion or the people. Though given what he overheard in her mumbling when trying to start a fire, he figured out her powers weren't easily controllable. He let a fortress of silence rise around him, listening to the fire cackle on the logs. He moved only enough to grab another log and throw it on the fire, causing the flame to rise and wood to pop. A stray ember was tossed to the side, quickly dying before it touched land. "You can't ignore 'em forever. Stay away too long and they'll start lookin' fer ya. Once an X-Man, always an X-Man." He could attest to his own advice being true. While there were times he hated to admit it, the X-Men were a family. Hurt one of them and the rest would come flocking. He rubbed his hairy arms, one after the other, checking to see how dry he was. Enough that he could put on a pair of clothes without soaking them. "I'll be back." He stood up and walked to the cabin, disappearing from sight. He came back out a few minutes later, a fresh pair of jeans on and cowboy boots crunching against the grass. He straightened out the collar of a flannel button-up shirt around his neck before buttoning it from the bottom instead of the top. He wasn't able to button it all the way given the expansion of muscles in his chest. Sleeves torn off to allow his arms ample movement and a t-shirt underneath to keep his torso covered, he was going into a school and he didn't want to look like a cast member of the Village People. On top of his head sat a worn tan-colored cowboy hat, covering his two-peaked hair. "Guess it's time to follow my own advice. Been gone for three months; can't avoid 'em forever." Walking further towards the fire, he picked up his pants and threw them over the log, caring little as to what happened to them while he stayed away from the cabin. "Put out the fire once you leave. Stay as long as ya like, just don't burn anything." He made a move to walk away down the path, pausing briefly as he turned around. "Shiro," he said, snapping his fingers. "Shiro Yoshida, that's who you remind me of. If that's the case," Logan turned back around, walking down the path, "then I think we're gonna have some problems." From anyone else, that might have been some creepy, lecher comment. With Logan though, she wasn't sure she should take that at face value. Goei-san seemed the sort to just say what he wanted and you could feel however you wanted to about it. He'd still be going about his business whether you misunderstood it or not. On the one hand, it was a respectable habit, she tended to do the same. On the other hand, that kind of miscommunication could be more trouble than it was worth in some situations. Fortunately, Sunpyre wasn't in one of her 'moods' where any and everything was a potential offense. The woman imagined this encounter would have gone in a vastly different direction if either of them had been in a particular mood. Leyu didn't do well with people. Maybe she let interactions with her Clan color her habits too much. But it was difficult to hold much hope for random strangers when your own blood family was so... Leyu hadn't yet discovered the one-word descriptor for the Yashida/Yoshida Clan. Also not helpful was her natural not-a-people-person persona. She wasn't cheerful or magnetic. Not the showstopping type or the one needing spotlight. Leyu wasn't a light-up-the-room-with-a-smile woman. She was..well.. Honestly, Leyu hadn't come up with the one word descriptor for herself either, but she could give you a long list of words she /wasn't/. None of that lent itself well to getting on with people. But it wasn't like she did it on purpose either. ...not all the time. What? It was just easier to be alone sometimes! "It's just easier to be alone sometimes. I don't do it purposefully." Come looking for her? Would they actually do that? Sure, she's had people track her down before, but not out of...care for her. Not because she was 'part of the team'. The petite woman could put some jaded spin on it. She could say they just wanted to track the investment, keep track of the toy soldiers on roster. But she didn't know that, hadn't stayed long enough to even begin to justify thinking that. Besides..she didn't think Logan meant it that way. Debatable whether he'd say so or not, warn her away. "I'll be back." Leyu had already polished off the stew. I guess I was hungrier than I thought. The dark-haired young adult continued to stare into the fire like a fortuneteller does her crystal ball. Was this really going to work for her? It has to, there is no other way. So she'd do what she always did - deal, one way or the other. Logan came back out and she blinked at the distinctly western-flavored clothing. Not Western as in the U.S. Western, but like..cowboy? Not obnoxious costume cowboy, but just... Western. At least she didn't stare this time. It was rude to stare, she'd been taught. Keep your head down and your gaze, when necessary brief and demure and virginal. How the hell do you keep your gaze 'virginal'? So now she looked and gazed and stared until she was good and satisfied that she had fully taken everything in. Missing things could get you killed. These clothes, they looked, um, fitted too. Very fitted. Maybe it was a coincidence. Probably. Fluke. She didn't imagine Logan cared terribly for shopping. He'd probably just deal with it until the clothes were ripped beyond use. "Guess it's time to follow my own advice. Been gone for three months; can't avoid 'em forever." Careful, Sunpyre might try to beat that record just by camping out around here. ...as soon as she learned to properly camp. He told her that she could stay as long as she pleased. Ground rules? Don't burn anything and, if she did leave, put the fire out. Leyu nodded mutely, staring into the fire as Wolverine paused to utter the one name - or one of the names - she did /not/ want to hear. "Shiro," Leyu closed her eyes and counted to ten. This man could not possibly call that idiot a friend. It was impossible! ..she was right. "Shiro Yoshida, that's who you remind me of. If that's the case," -- "then I think we're gonna have some problems." "That man...has nothing to do with me. He is no one I am connected with." Maybe he heard her, maybe not, but saying that out loud was as much for her benefit as anything else. It was most unfortunate that they both had features traceable back to--ugh, to their shared...sperm donor. It wasn't encouraging for Leyu, who'd rather hoped she favored her mother over anything. And she did, actually, there were just one or two solid features from dear old dad and Shiro had them too. Her lips pressed into a line and she counted to twenty in her native tongue and back again as slowly as possible. Logan had, after all, declared that she was not to burn anything. Leyu's eyes fell on a harmless-looking piece of wood. What about incinerate? Ever heard of skeet shooting? Well Leyu hasn't, but I'll tell you...using plasma bolts is way more satisfying. -------------------- "A light to burn all the empires - so bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be." - My Chemical Romance He made his way through the woods, the scent of smoke mingling with the scent of who he believed to be Wolverine. It certainly reminded him of the gruff Canadian, but it was...how to put it? A more intense scent than before? It was as though Wolverine was exuding a scent that was closer to an animal in its territory than it had been before. He wasn't sure what could bring that on. He hadn't gotten a clear view of Wolverine as he walked out, though he could smell that the man was nearby, and he had apparently left the woods only moments before. The obvious explanation, then, was that Wolverine had lit and fire and put it out before heading to the mansion. Except Wolverine was, as mentioned earlier, a Canadian, and was feral as well. He doubted this temperature would have bothered the man enough to bother with a fire. Then there was the fact that the smoke wasn't dissipating. The smell was too strong for it to just be the last embers of a fire that was as good as dead. Wolverine wasn't interested in keeping something out here a secret--quite apart from the fact that he wouldn't have hidden something so close to a school that was rapidly filling up with the next generation of people with strange and unusual powers, he would have intercepted the Native American by now and told him to mind his own business. Politely, of course. So, curiosity growing, James made his way further into the forest. It took virtually no time at all to find the cabin--Logan's scent intensified around the area, mixing with a second scent, also a human, and who he believed was still in the cabin. Unless they had flown out, which he supposed was possible, but, he doubted it. He also smelled something else, something akin to the smell that surrounded Bobby after Gideon overloaded his body with solar energy and altered his mutation. Whoever was inside could harness solar energy--or replicate it. That explained the still-going fire in more ways than one. James reached up and knocked on the door, which was actually shorter than he was. "Anyone alive in there? I smell an angry little feral with a cigar fetish, but he's already gone, so I figured I'd come see if he killed you."	eng	9243688d-d3f6-4d89-96b6-90df9afe59ce	http://z9.invisionfree.com/nexus_rpg/index.php?showtopic=9303&view=getnewpost
Health Technology Technology is the practical application of knowledge. Three ways to describe health care technology include its material nature, its purpose, and its stage of diffusion. Material Nature For many people, the term "technology" connotes "hardware" or other mechanical devices or instrumentation; to others, it is a short form of "information technology" such as computer software. However, the practical application of knowledge in health care is quite broad. Broad categories of health technology include the following. Purpose or Application Technologies can also be grouped according to their health care purpose, i.e.: Prevention: protect against disease by preventing it from occurring, reducing the risk of its occurrence, or limiting its extent or sequelae (e.g., immunization, hospital infection control program, fluoridated water supply) Not all technologies fall neatly into single categories. Many tests and other technologies used for diagnosis also are used for screening. (The probability that a patient has a disease or other health condition is greatly affected by whether these technologies are used for screening asymptomatic patients or diagnosing symptomatic patients.) Some technologies are used for diagnosis as well as treatment, e.g., coronary angiography to diagnose heart disease and to monitor coronary angioplasty. Implantable cardioverter defibrillators detect potentially life-threatening heart arrhythmias and deliver electrical pulses to restore normal heart rhythm. Electronic patient record systems can support all of these technological purposes or applications. Certain "boundary-crossing" or "hybrid" technologies combine characteristics of drugs, devices or other major categories of technology (Goodman 1993; Lewin Group 2001). Among the many examples of these are: photodynamic therapy, in which drugs are laser-activated (e.g., for targeted destruction of cancer cells); local drug delivery technologies (e.g., implantable drug pumps and drug inhalers); spermicidal condoms; and bioartificial organs that combine natural tissues and artificial components. Examples of hybrid technologies that have complicated regulatory approval and coverage decisions in recent years are gallstone lithotripters (used with stone-dissolving drugs) (Zeman 1991), positron-emission tomography (PET, used with radiopharmaceuticals) (Coleman 1992), and metered-dose inhalers (Massa 2002). Stage of Diffusion Technologies may be assessed at different stages of diffusion and maturity. In general, health care technologies may be described as being: Future: in a conceptual stage, anticipated, or in the earliest stages of development Experimental: undergoing bench or laboratory testing using animals or other models Established: considered by providers to be a standard approach to a particular condition or indication and diffused into general use Obsolete/outmoded/abandoned: superseded by other technologies or demonstrated to be ineffective or harmful Often, these stages are not clearly delineated, and technologies do not necessarily mature through them in a linear fashion. A technology may be investigational for certain indications, established for others, and outmoded or abandoned for still others, such as autologous bone marrow transplantation with high-dose chemotherapy for certain types of advanced cancers. Many technologies undergo multiple incremental innovations after their initial acceptance into general practice (Gelijns and Rosenberg 1994; Reiser 1994). Further, a technology that was once considered obsolete may return to established use for a better defined or entirely different clinical purpose. A prominent example is thalidomide, whose use as a sedative during pregnancy was halted more than 40 years ago when it was found to induce severe fetal malformation, but which is now used to treat such conditions as leprosy, advanced multiple myeloma, chronic graft vs. host disease, and certain complications of HIV infection (Baidas 2002). Health Technology Assessment Health technology assessment is the systematic evaluation of properties, effects or other impacts of health technology. The main purpose of HTA is to inform policymaking for technology in health care, where policymaking is used in the broad sense to include decisions made at, e.g., the individual or patient level, the level of the health care provider or institution, or at the regional, national and international levels. HTA may address the direct and intended consequences of technologies as well as their indirect and unintended consequences. HTA is conducted by interdisciplinary groups using explicit analytical frameworks, drawing from a variety of methods. Purposes of HTA HTA can be used in many ways to advise or inform technology-related policymaking. Among these are to advise or inform: Regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about whether to permit the commercial use (e.g., marketing) of a drug, device or other technology Health care payers, providers, and employers about whether technologies should be included in health benefits plans or disease management programs, addressing coverage (whether or not to pay) and reimbursement (how much to pay) Clinicians and patients about the appropriate use of health care interventions for a particular patient's clinical needs and circumstances Health professional associations about the role of a technology in clinical protocols or practice guidelines Lawmakers and other political leaders about policies concerning technological innovation, research and development, regulation, payment and delivery of health care Health care product companies about product development and marketing decisions Investors and companies concerning venture capital funding, acquisitions and divestitures, and other transactions concerning health care product and service companies HTA contributes in many ways to the knowledge base for improving the quality of health care, especially to support development and updating of a wide spectrum of standards, guidelines, and other health care policies. For example, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) set standards for measuring quality of care and services of hospitals, managed care organizations, long-term care facilities, hospices, ambulatory care centers, and other health care institutions. Health professional associations (e.g., American College of Cardiology, American College of Physicians, American College of Radiology, American Medical Association) and special panels (e.g., the US Preventive Services Task Force of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) develop clinical practice guidelines, standards, and other statements regarding the appropriate use of technologies. Standards-setting organizations such as the American National Standards Institute and the American Society for Testing and Materials coordinate development of voluntary national consensus standards for the manufacture, use and reuse of health devices and their materials and components. As noted above, HTA can be used to support decisionmaking by clinicians and patients. The term evidence-based medicine refers to the use of current best evidence from scientific and medical research, and the application of clinical experience and observation, in making decisions about the care of individual patients. This has prompted the appearance of many useful resources, including: Evidence-Based Medicine (a joint product of the American College of Physicians and the BMJ Publishing Group), a journal digest of articles selected from international medical journals "Users' guides to the medical literature," a series of more than 30 articles by the Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, ranging from (Oxman 1993) to (Guyatt 2000) Basic HTA Orientations The impetus for an HTA is not necessarily a technology. Three basic orientations to HTA are as follows. Technology-oriented assessments are intended to determine the characteristics or impacts of particular technologies. For example, a government agency may want to determine the clinical, economic, social, professional, or industrial impacts of population-based cancer screening, cochlear implants, or other particular interventions. Problem-oriented assessments focus on solutions or strategies for managing a particular problem for which alternative or complementary technologies might be used. For example, clinicians and providers concerned with the problem of diagnosis of dementia may call for the development of clinical practice guidelines involving some combination or sequence of clinical history, neurological examination, and diagnostic imaging using various modalities.. Project-oriented assessments focus on a local placement or use of a technology in a particular institution, program, or other designated project. For example, this may arise when a hospital must decide whether or not to purchase a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit, considering the facilities, personnel, and other resources needed to install and operate an MRI unit; the hospital's financial status; local market potential for MRI services; competitive factors; etc. These basic assessment orientations can overlap and complement one another. Certainly, all three types could draw upon a common body of scientific evidence and other information. A technology-oriented assessment may address the range of problems for which the technology might be used and how appropriate the technology might be for different types of local settings (e.g., inpatient versus outpatient). A problem-oriented assessment, examining the effects or other impacts of alternative technologies on a given problem, may incorporate multiple, focused (i.e., on the problem at hand) technology-oriented assessments. A project-oriented assessment would consider the range of impacts of a technology or its alternatives in a given setting, as well as the role or usefulness of that technology for various problems. Although the information used in a project-oriented assessment by a particular hospital may include findings of pertinent technology- and problem-oriented assessments, local data collection and analysis may be required to determine what is sensible for that hospital. Thus, many HTAs will blend aspects of all three basic orientations. Timing of Assessment There is no single correct time to conduct an HTA. It is conducted to meet the needs of a variety of policymakers seeking assessment information throughout the lifecycles of technologies. Investors, regulators, payers, hospital managers and others tend to make decisions about technologies at particular junctures, and each may subsequently reassess technologies. Indeed, the determination of a technology's stage of diffusion may be the primary purpose of an assessment. For insurers and other payers, technologies that are deemed experimental or investigational are usually excluded from coverage, whereas those that are established or generally accepted are usually eligible for coverage (Newcomer 1990; Reiser 1994; Singer 2001). There are tradeoffs inherent in decisions regarding the timing for HTA. On one hand, the earlier a technology is assessed, the more likely its diffusion can be curtailed if it is unsafe or ineffective (McKinlay 1981). From centuries' old purging and bloodletting to the more contemporary autologous bone marrow transplantation with high-dose chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer, the list of poorly evaluated technologies that diffused into general practice before being found to be ineffective and/or harmful continues to grow. Box 3 shows examples of health care technologies found to be ineffective or harmful after being widely diffused. On the other hand, to regard the findings of an early assessment as definitive or final may be misleading. An investigational technology may not yet be perfected; its users may not yet be proficient; its costs may not yet have stabilized; it may not have been applied in enough circumstances to recognize its potential benefits; and its long-term outcomes may not yet be known (Mowatt 1997). As one technology assessor concluded about the problems of when-to-assess: "It's always too early until, unfortunately, it's suddenly too late!" (Buxton 1987). Further, the "moving target problem" can complicate HTA (Goodman 1996). By the time a HTA is conducted, reviewed and disseminated, its findings may be outdated by changes in a technology, in how it is used, or in its technological alternatives for a given problem. Some payers provide conditional coverage for selected investigational technologies in order to compile evidence on safety, effectiveness, cost, etc., for making more informed coverage policies. In these instances, payers cover the use of a technology only under certain conditions, such as where patients are enrolled in an RCT at certain participating medical centers. This arrangement offers a way to balance the need for evidence with the demand for access and financially compensated care. Depending on the type of technology involved, it further enables refinement of technique or delivery, and building of experience and expertise among physicians and other providers (Beebe 1997; Brenner 2002; McGivney 1992; Sheingold 1998; Medical Technology Leadership Forum 1999; Wood 2001). Box 3 Examples of Health Care Technologies Found to be Ineffective or Harmful After Being Widely Diffused Despite the value of conditional coverage in principle, some observers have raised practical and ethical concerns about their implementation. Among these are that: (1) if conditional coverage is initiated after a technology has diffused, some patients who had expected to get a procedure may be denied it if they are not enrolled in a trial; (2) some patients who would be interested in enrolling in a covered trial are not located near a participating center and are therefore denied access; (3) patients and physicians who believe in the effectiveness of the technology may be unwilling to be involved in an RCT, including some who decide to finance the technology outside of the trial and therefore diminish enrollment, (4) the indications for using the technology in the conditional coverage trial may be too broad or too narrow to properly reflect the potential safety and effectiveness of the technology; and (5) the technology continues to evolve during the conditional coverage process, to the point where the trial findings are of diminished relevance (Berger 2001; Cooper 2001). Properties and Impacts Assessed What is assessed in HTA? HTA may involve the investigation of one or more properties, impacts, or other attributes of health technologies or applications. In general, these include the following. Technical properties Safety Efficacy and/or effectiveness Economic attributes or impacts Social, legal, ethical and/or political impacts Technical properties include performance characteristics and conformity with specifications for design, composition, manufacturing, tolerances, reliability, ease of use, maintenance, etc. Safety is a judgment of the acceptability of risk (a measure of the probability of an adverse outcome and its severity) associated with using a technology in a given situation, e.g., for a patient with a particular health problem, by a clinician with certain training, and/or in a specified treatment setting. Efficacy and effectiveness both refer to how well a technology works to improve patient health, usually based on changes in one or more pertinent health outcomes or "endpoints" as described below. A technology that works under carefully controlled conditions or with carefully selected patients under the supervision of its developers does not always work as well in other settings or as implemented by other practitioners. In HTA, efficacy refers to the benefit of using a technology for a particular problem under ideal conditions, e.g., within the protocol of a carefully managed randomized controlled trial, involving patients meeting narrowly defined criteria, or conducted at a "center of excellence." Effectiveness refers to the benefit of using a technology for a particular problem under general or routine conditions, e.g., by a physician in a community hospital for a variety of types of patients. Clinicians, patients, managers and policymakers are increasingly aware of the practical implications of differences in efficacy and effectiveness. Researchers delve into registers, databases (e.g., of third-party payment claims and administrative data) and other epidemiological and observational data to discern possible associations between the use of technologies and patient outcomes in general or routine practice settings. The validity of any findings regarding causal connections between interventions and patient outcomes may be weakened to the extent that these data are not derived from prospective, randomized, controlled studies (US Congress, OTA 1994). As discussed below, some newer prospective trials are designed to incorporate varied groups of patients and settings. Box 4 shows certain distinctions in efficacy and effectiveness for diagnostic tests. Whereas the relationship between a preventive, therapeutic, or rehabilitative technology and patient outcomes is typically direct (though not always easy to measure), the relationship between a technology used for diagnosis or screening and its patient outcomes is typically indirect. Also, diagnostic and screening procedures can have their own short-term and long-term adverse health effects, e.g., biopsies and certain radiological procedures. Health technologies can have a wide range of microeconomic and macroeconomic attributes or impacts. Microeconomic concerns include costs, prices, charges, and payment levels associated with individual technologies. Other concerns include comparisons of resource requirements and outcomes (or benefits) of technologies for particular applications, such as cost effectiveness, cost utility, and cost benefit. (Methods for determining these are described below.) Examples of macroeconomic impacts of health technologies are the impact of new technologies on: national health care costs, resource allocation among different health programs or among health and other sectors, and shifts in the site of care, such as from inpatient to outpatient settings. Other macroeconomic issues that pertain to health technologies include the effects of intellectual property policies (e.g., for patent protection), regulation, third-party payment, and other policy changes on technological innovation, investment, competitiveness, technology transfer, and employment. A variety of technologies raise social and ethical concerns. Such technologies as genetic testing, use of stem cells to grow new tissues, allocation of scarce organs for transplantation, and life-support systems for the critically ill challenge certain legal standards and societal norms. For example, the small and slowly increasing supply of donated kidneys, livers, hearts, and other organs for transplantation continues to fall behind the rapidly expanding need for them, raising ethical, social, and political concerns about allocation of scarce, life-saving resources (Miranda 1998; Yoshida 1998). In dialysis and transplantation for patients with end-stage renal disease, ethical concerns arise from patient selection criteria, termination of treatment, and managing non-compliant and other problem patients (Rettig 1991). Ethical questions continue to prompt improvement in informed consent procedures for patients involved in clinical trials. Allocation of scarce resources to technologies that are expensive, inequitably used, or non-curative raises broad social concerns (Gibson 2002). Ethical considerations arise in HTA in the form of normative concepts (e.g., valuation of human life); applications of technology (prevention, screening, diagnosis, therapy, etc.); research and the advancement of knowledge; allocation of resources; and the integrity of HTA processes themselves (Heitman 1998). Methods for assessing ethical and social implications of health technology remain relatively underdeveloped, and the means of translating these implications into policy are often unclear (Van der Wilt 2000). Even so, greater efforts are being made to involve different perspectives in the HTA process in order to better account for identification of the types of effects or impacts that should be assessed, and for values assigned by these different perspectives to life, quality of life, privacy, choice of care, and other matters (Reuzel 2001). The terms "appropriate" and "necessary" often are used to describe whether or not a technology should be used in particular circumstances. For example, the appropriateness of a diagnostic test may depend on its safety and effectiveness compared to alternative available interventions for particular patient indications, clinical settings, and resource constraints. A technology may be considered necessary if withholding it would be deleterious to the patient's health (Hilborne 1991; Kahan 1994; Singer 2001). The properties, impacts, and other attributes assessed in HTA pertain across the wide range of types of technology. Thus, for example, just as drugs, devices, and surgical procedures can be assessed for safety, effectiveness, and cost effectiveness, so can hospital infection control programs, computer-based drug-utilization review systems, and rural telemedicine networks. Measuring Health Outcomes Health outcome variables are used to measure the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of health care technologies. Health outcomes have been measured primarily in terms of changes in mortality (death rate) or morbidity (disease rate). For a cancer treatment, the main outcome of interest may be five-year survival; for treatments of coronary artery disease, the main endpoints may be incidence of fatal and nonfatal acute myocardial infarction and recurrence of angina. Increasingly, health outcomes are being measured in the form of health-related quality of life and functional status. In a clinical trial comparing alternative treatments, the effect on health outcomes of one treatment relative to another (e.g., a control treatment) can be expressed using various measures of treatment effect. These measures compare the probability of a given health outcome in the treatment group with the probability of the same outcome in a control group. Examples are absolute risk reduction, odds ratio, number needed to treat, and effect size. Box 5 shows how choice of treatment effect measures can give different impressions of study results. Health-Related Quality of Life Measures Although mortality and morbidity are usually the outcomes of greatest concern, they are not the only outcomes of importance to patients nor to others. Many technologies affect patients, family members, providers, employers, and other interested parties in ways that are not reflected in mortality or morbidity rates; this is particularly true for many chronic diseases. Health-related quality of life (HRQL) measures (or indexes) are increasingly used along with more traditional outcome measures to assess health care technologies, providing a more complete picture of the ways in which health care affects patients. HRQL measures capture such dimensions as: physical function, social function, cognitive function, anxiety/distress, bodily pain, sleep/rest, energy/fatigue and general health perception. HRQL measures may be disease-specific (e.g., heart disease or arthritis) or general (covering overall health). They may be one-dimensional (concerning one aspect such as distress) or multidimensional (Patrick and Deyo 1989). They may provide a single aggregate score or yield a set of scores, each for a particular dimension. HRQL measures are increasingly used by health product companies to differentiate their products from those of competitors, which may have virtually indistinguishable effects on morbidity for particular diseases (e.g., hypertension and depression) but may have different profiles of side effects that affect patients' quality of life (Gregorian 2003). A study of the effect of breast cancer screening can be used to contrast several treatment effect measures and to show how they can give different impressions about the effectiveness of an intervention (Forrow 1992). In 1988, Andersson (1988) reported the results of a large RCT that was conducted to determine the effect of mammographic screening on mortality from breast cancer. The trial involved more than 42,000 women who were over 45 years old. Half of the women were invited to have mammographic screening and were treated as needed. The other women (control group) were not invited for screening. The report of this trial states that "Overall, women in the study group aged >55 had a 20% reduction in mortality from breast cancer." Although this statement is true, calculation of other types of treatment effect measures provides important additional information. The table below shows the number of women aged >55 and breast cancer deaths in the screened group and control group, respectively. Based on these figures, four treatment effect measures are calculated. For example, absolute risk reduction is the difference in the rate of adverse events between the screened group and the control group. In this trial, the absolute risk reduction of 0.0007 means that the absolute effect of screening was to reduce the incidence of breast cancer mortality by 7 deaths per 10,000 women screened, or 0.07%.Women in the intervention group were invited to attend mammographic screening at intervals of 18-24 months. Five rounds of screening were completed. Breast cancer was treated according to stage at diagnosis. Mean follow-up was 8.8 years. Absolute risk reduction: Pc - Ps Relative risk reduction: (Pc - Ps) ÷ Pc Odds ratio: [Ps ÷ (1 - Ps)] ÷ [Pc ÷ (1 - Pc)] Number needed to screen: 1 ÷ (Pc - Ps) Source of number of patients and deaths from breast cancer: Andersson 1988. HRQL measures can be used to determine the effects of a technology on patients, to compare alternative technologies for their effects on patients with a particular problem or disability, or to compare different technologies' respective abilities to improve the quality of life of patients with different problems. Reflecting, in part, the need to demonstrate the effectiveness of many new technologies for chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, migraine, and depression, considerable advances have been made in the development and validation of these measures in the last 25 years. Box 6 shows dimensions of general HRQL measures that have been used extensively and that are well validated for certain applications. Box 7 shows aspects of selected disease-specific HRQL measures. Quality-Adjusted Life Years A unit of health care outcome that combines gains (or losses) in length of life with quality of life is the quality-adjusted life year (QALY). QALYs represent years of life subsequent to a health care intervention that are weighted or adjusted for the quality of life experienced by the patient during those years (Torrance and Feeny 1989). QALYs provide a common unit for multiple purposes, including: estimating the overall burden of disease; comparing the relative impact of specific diseases, conditions, and health care interventions; and making economic comparisons, such as of the cost-effectiveness (in particular the cost-utility) of different health care interventions. Health economists have proposed setting priorities among alternative health care interventions by selecting among these so as to maximize the additional health gain in terms of QALYs. This is intended to optimize allocation of scarce resources and thereby maximize social welfare. Other units that are analogous to QALYs include disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and healthy-years equivalents (HYEs). As a group, these types of measures are sometimes known as health-adjusted life years (HALYs) (Gold 2002; Johannesson 1993; Mehrez and Gafni 1993; World Development Report 1993). The scale of quality of life used for QALYs can be based on general HRQL indexes or other methods of eliciting patient utility for certain states of life. This dimension is typically standardized to a scale ranging from 0.0 (death) to 1.0 (perfect health). A scale may allow for ratings below 0.0 for states of disability and distress that some patients consider to be worse than death (Patrick 1994). QALYs can be useful for making comparisons among alternative technologies because they are generic units that can reflect changes brought about by different health care interventions for the same or different health problems. Box 8 shows how QALYs were used to compare the cost utilities of three alternative therapies for end-stage heart disease. Box 9 lists the cost utility of different interventions for different health problems according to the amount of money that must be invested per QALY gained. The CEA Registry is a continuously updated, detailed set of standardized cost-utility analyses, including tables of cost-utility ratios for many types of health care interventions [ Certain methodological aspects and the proposed use of QALYs or similar units in setting health care priorities remain controversial (Arnesen 2000; Gerard and Mooney 1993; Mason 1994; Nord 1994; Richardson 1994; Ubel 2000). Research on public perceptions of the value of health care programs indicates that health gain is not necessarily the only determinant of value, and that the rule of maximizing QALYs (or similar measures) per health expenditure to set priorities may be too restrictive, not reflecting public expectations regarding fairness or equity. For example, because people who are elderly or disabled may have a lower "ceiling" or potential for gain in QALYs or other measure of HRQL than other people would for the same health care expenditure, making resource allocation decisions based on cost-utility is viewed by some as inherently biased against the elderly and disabled. Box 6 Domains of Selected General Health-Related Quality of Life Indexes Class III: Patients with cardiac disease resulting in marked limitation of physical activity. They are comfortable at rest. Less than ordinary physical activity causes fatigue, palpitation, dyspnoea or anginal pain. Class IV: Patients with cardiac disease resulting in inability to carry on any physical activity without discomfort. Symptoms of cardiac insufficiency or of anginal syndrome may be present even at rest. If any physical activity is undertaken, discomfort is increased. Notes: Costs and outcomes discounted at three percent per year; 20-year horizon. Mean utilities derived using time-tradeoff method on scale for which 1.0 was well, 0.0 was death, and states worse than death were valued between 0.0 and -1.0. This table indicates that, although the cost of conventional medical treatment is the lowest, its cost per QALY is the highest, as the life-years gained and the patient utility of those years are low compared to the alternatives. The costs of heart transplantation and total artificial heart are of similar magnitude, but the cost per QALY is much lower for heart transplantation, as the life-years gained and the patient utility of those years are higher compared to the total artificial heart. Erythropoietin for dialysis anemia (with no increase in survival) 126,290 This table ranks selected procedures for a variety of health problems according to their cost utility, (i.e., the amount of money that must be spent on each procedure to gain one more QALY). There were some methodological differences in determining costs and QALYs among the studies from which these results were derived. Nonetheless, giving considerable latitude to these figures, the range in the magnitude of investment required to yield the next QALY for these treatments is great. This type of "bucks for the bang" (here, British pounds for the QALY) analysis helps to illustrate implicit choices made in allocating scarce health care resources, and suggests how decision makers might move toward reallocating those resources if societal gain in net health benefits (e.g., as measured using QALYs) is used as an allocation criterion. Some work has been done recently to capture more dimensions of public preference and to better account for the value attributed to different health care interventions (Dolan 2001; Schwappach 2002). HRQL measures and QALYs continue to be used in HTA while substantial work continues in reviewing, refining and validating them. Performance of Diagnostic Technologies The relationships between most preventive, therapeutic, and rehabilitative technologies and health outcomes can be assessed as direct cause and effect relationships. The relationship between the use of diagnostic and screening technologies and health outcomes is typically indirect, as these technologies provide information that may be used to inform providers concerning the use of interventions that may in turn affect health outcomes. Many tests and other technologies used for diagnosis are also used for screening, and most of the concepts discussed here for diagnostic technologies pertain as well to screening technologies. A basic difference between screening and diagnosis is that diagnosis is done in symptomatic patients and screening is typically done in asymptomatic patient groups. For a given test used for either screening or diagnosis, this difference has a great effect on the probability that a patient has a disease or other health condition. The immediate purpose of a diagnostic test is to provide information about the presence (and, less often, the extent) of a disease or other health condition. That is, the diagnostic test should be able to discriminate between patients who have a particular disease and those who do not have the disease (or discriminate among different extents of disease in a given patient). The technical performance of a diagnostic test depends on a number of factors. Among these are the precision and accuracy of the test, the observer variation in reading the test data, and the relationship between the disease of interest and the cutoff level of the marker or surrogate used in the diagnostic test to determine the presence or absence of that disease. These factors contribute to the ability of a diagnostic test to detect a disease when it is present and to not detect a disease when it is not present. The marker for a disease or condition is typically defined as a certain cutoff level of a variable such as blood pressure (e.g., for hypertension), glucose level (e.g., for diabetes), or prostate specific antigen level (e.g., for prostate cancer). Disease markers have distributions in non-diseased as well as in diseased populations. For most diseases, these distributions overlap, so that a single cutoff level does not clearly separate non-diseased from diseased people. For instance, in the case of hypertension, a usual marker for the disease is diastolic blood pressure, the cutoff level of which is often set at 95mm Hg. In fact, some people whose diastolic blood pressure is above 95mm will not be hypertensive (false positive result), and some people with diastolic blood pressure below 95mm will be hypertensive (false negative result). Lowering the cutoff to 90mm will decrease the number of false positives, but increase the number of false negatives. A diagnostic test can have four basic types of outcomes, as shown in Box 10. A true positive diagnostic test result is one that detects a marker when the disease is present. A true negative test result is one that does not detect the marker when the disease is absent. A false positive test result is one that detects a marker when the disease is absent. A false negative test result is one that does not detect a marker when the disease is present. Operating characteristics of diagnostic tests and procedures are measures of the technical performance of these technologies. These characteristics are based on the probabilities of the four possible types of outcomes of a diagnostic test. The two most commonly used operating characteristics of diagnostic tests are sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity measures the ability of a test to detect disease when it is present. Specificity measures the ability of a test to correctly exclude disease in a non-diseased person. One graphical way of depicting these operating characteristics for a given diagnostic test is with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which plots the relationship between the true positive ratio (sensitivity) and false positive ratio (1 - specificity) as a function of the cutoff level of a disease (or condition) marker. ROC curves help to demonstrate how raising or lowering the cutoff point for defining a positive test result affects tradeoffs between correctly identifying people with a disease (true positives) and incorrectly labeling a person as positive who does not have the condition (false positives). Taken alone, sensitivity and specificity do not reveal the probability that a given patient really has a disease if the test is positive, or the probability that a given patient does not have the disease if the test is negative. These probabilities are captured by two other operating characteristics. Predictive value positive is the proportion of those patients with a positive test result who actually have the disease. Predictive value negative is the proportion of patients with a negative test result who actually do not have the disease. (See Box 11.) Unlike sensitivity and specificity, predictive value positive and predictive value negative are not constant performance characteristics of a diagnostic test; they change with the prevalence of the disease in the population of interest. For example, if a disease is very rare in the population, even tests with high sensitivity and high specificity can have low predictive value positive, generating more false-positive than false negative results. Beyond technical performance of diagnostic technologies, the effect of diagnostic technologies on health outcomes or health-related quality of life is less obvious than for other types of technologies. As health care decisionmakers increasingly demand to know how health care interventions affect health care outcomes, diagnostic technologies will have to demonstrate their efficacy/effectiveness accordingly. The efficacy (or effectiveness) of a diagnostic technology can be determined along a chain of inquiry that leads from technical capacity of a technology to changes in patient health outcomes to cost effectiveness, as follows. Diagnostic accuracy. Does the technology contribute to making an accurate diagnosis? Diagnostic impact. Do the diagnostic results influence use of other diagnostic technologies, e.g., does it replace other diagnostic technologies? Therapeutic impact. Do the diagnostic findings influence the selection and delivery of treatment? Patient outcome. Does use of the diagnostic technology contribute to improved health of the patient? Cost effectiveness. Does use of the diagnostic technology improve the cost effectiveness of health care compared to alternative interventions? Box 11 Operating Characteristics of Diagnostic Tests "This table shows the operating characteristics and their corresponding formulas and definitions. Characteristic Formula Definition Sensitivity True Positives Proportion of people with True positives + False negatives condition who test positive Specificity True Negatives Proportion of people without True negatives + False positives condition who test negative Predictive value True Positives Proportion of people with positive positive True positives + False positives test who have condition Predictive value True Negatives Proportion of people with negative negative True negatives + False negatives test who do not have condition If a diagnostic technology is not efficacious at any step along this chain, then it is not likely to be efficacious at any later step. Efficacy at a given step does not imply efficacy at a later step (Feeny 1986; Fineberg 1977; Institute of Medicine 1985). Box 12 shows a hierarchy of studies for assessing diagnostic imaging technologies that is consistent with the chain of inquiry noted above. Some groups have developed standards for reporting studies of the accuracy of diagnostic tests (Bossuyt 2003). For diagnostic technologies that are still prototypes or in other early stages of development, there are limited data upon which to base answers to questions such as these. Even so, investigators and advocates of diagnostic technologies should be prepared to describe, at least qualitatively, the ways in which the technology might affect diagnostic accuracy, diagnostic impact, therapeutic impact, patient outcomes and cost effectiveness; how these effects might be measured; approximately what levels of performance would be needed to successfully implement the technology; and how further investigations should be conducted to make these determinations. Yield of abnormal or normal diagnoses in a case series Diagnostic accuracy (% correct diagnoses in case series) Sensitivity and specificity in a defined clinical problem setting Measures of area under the ROC curve Level 3. Diagnostic thinking efficacy Number (%) of cases in a series in which image judged "helpful" to making the diagnosis Entropy change in differential diagnosis probability distribution Difference in clinicians' subjectively estimated diagnosis probabilities pre- to post-test information Empirical subjective log-likelihood ratio for test positive and negative in a case series Level 4. Therapeutic efficacy Number (%) of times image judged helpful in planning management of patient in a case series % of times medical procedure avoided due to image information Number (%) of times therapy planned before imaging changed after imaging information obtained (retrospectively inferred from clinical records) Number (%) of times clinicians' prospectively stated therapeutic choices changed after information obtained The purposes, scope, methods, and other characteristics of HTAs that are conducted or sponsored by these organizations vary widely. Examples of these organizations are noted in this document. As in other fields, professional societies and organizational consortia exist in HTA. At the international level, HTA International (HTAi) [ has members from HTA agencies, academic institutions, health professions, hospitals and other health care providers, payers, industry, and others from more than 40 countries. The International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) [ is a network of about 40 organizations (including government agencies and non-profit private sector organizations) that generate a shared HTA report database and engage in related collaborative activities. Examples of other professional organizations whose interests include areas related to HTA include: Expertise for Conducting HTA Given the variety of impacts addressed and the range of methods that may be used in an assessment, multiple types of experts are needed in HTA. Depending upon the topic and scope of assessment, these may include a selection of the following: Certain individuals have expertise in more than one area. The set of participants in an assessment depends upon its purpose, available resources and other factors. For example, the standing members of a hospital technology assessment committee might include: the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, physician chief of staff, director of nursing, director of planning, materials manager and director of biomedical engineering (Sadock 1997; Taylor 1994). Physician specialists and marketing, legal, patient affairs and additional analytical support staff could be involved as appropriate. Ten Basic Steps of HTA There is great variation in the scope, selection of methods and level of detail in the practice of HTA. Nevertheless, most HTA activity involves some form of the following basic steps. Identify assessment topics Specify the assessment problem Determine locus of assessment Retrieve evidence Collect new primary data (as appropriate) Appraise/interpret evidence Integrate/synthesize evidence Formulate findings and recommendations Disseminate findings and recommendations Monitor impact Not all assessment programs conduct all of these steps, and they are not necessarily conducted in a linear manner. Many HTA programs rely largely on integrative methods of reviewing and synthesizing data from existing primary data studies (reported in journal articles or from epidemiological or administrative data sets), and do not collect primary data. Some assessment efforts involve multiple cycles of retrieving/collecting, interpreting, and integrating evidence before completing an assessment. For example, to gain regulatory approval (e.g., by the US FDA) to market a new drugs, pharmaceutical companies typically sponsor several iterations of new data collection: preclinical testing in the laboratory and in animals and phase I, II, and III studies in humans; additional phase IV post marketing studies may be a condition of approval. The steps of appraising and integrating evidence may be done iteratively, such as when a group of primarily data studies are appraised individually for quality, then are integrated into a body of evidence, which in turn is appraised for its overall quality. Depending upon the circumstances of an HTA, the dissemination of findings and recommendations and monitoring of impact may not be parts of the HTA itself, although they may be important responsibilities of the sponsoring program or parent organization. Another framework for HTA is offered by the European Collaboration for Health Technology Assessment (Busse 2002), as follows. Submission of an assessment request/identification of an assessment need Prioritization Commissioning Conducting the assessment Definition of policy question(s) Elaboration of HTA protocol Collecting background information/determination of the status of the technology Definition of the research questions Sources of data, appraisal of evidence, and synthesis of evidence for each of: Safety Efficacy/effectiveness Psychological, social, ethical Organizational, professional Economic Draft elaboration of discussion, conclusions, and recommendations External review Publishing of final HTA report and summary report Dissemination Use of HTA Update of the HTA As indicated by various chapter and section headings, all ten of the basic steps of HTA listed above are described in this document.	eng	6f30eba4-d7e6-49f3-bbba-4ddd85ee68e4	http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/hta101/ta10104.html
The heretical armies of the Kingdom continue to attack the Empire. The traitors come to destroy all order, while the Kingdoms Skyle and Redzamiba continue to plot the overthrow of Imperial authority. It's not a good day to be part of the Empire. The Emperor rules with a slowly crumbling hand, untrusting and friendless, he directs his Legions in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable as enemies close in from every direction. The Emperor is weak, and must be put down. You are the one to do it. A noble-born Lord in the Capital, it is time for you to begin the long and hard journey of removing the Emperor and assuming his Throne. Regicide. Circles in the Capital There are several distinct bodies within the Empire and its Capital, each different yet similar, and each pliant and malleable to those seeking a greater destiny. They are: The Senate, whose job is to listen to the people, and bring their plight to the Emperor. The War Council, whose job is to counsel the Emperor in the formation of battle plans. And the Legions, the military arm of the Emperor. The Auxiliaries, armies of volunteer peasants. SGS 17th January 2012, 03:23 Count me in. Oh, but where is Virgil and his crusader knights? Will he be making a come back or must a new face arise? In short, new character or King Virgil? DrakonTheNightLord 17th January 2012, 03:32 They're the 'heretical armies of the Kingdom..' so they'll be like the main antagonists of the war. You'll play a new character though. SGS 17th January 2012, 03:39 As long as you don't expect me to fight the Kingdom. They're not just any heretics, they're MY heretics. Silas 17th January 2012, 04:22 You have my wit. I'm in. thegreatergood 17th January 2012, 12:34 I'll play DrakonTheNightLord 18th January 2012, 07:12 We will begin our game! Choose from the following starting choices, and state your character name. Pyrosikth 1) You are an insidious spy of the Kingdom of Redzamiba, sent to depose the Emperor and establish a more tolerant regime in the name of King Nintendos Aurelios! 2) You are a lowly Captain of the First Legion. Tired at the death and destruction and the callousness of the Emperor's tactics, sending whole Legions into suicidal death missions and His total disregard for the peasants under his aegis has left you disillusioned. It is time for a new Emperor. 3) Cunning and ruthless, you have managed to claim a place in the Senate. Though with little true power, the Senate holds some influence over the People, if not the War Council. Scythes 1) One of the many peasant volunteer auxiliaries pit against heretical knights, traitor Legions and Godless hordes of the Empire's enemies, you flee the military after seeing too much unnecessary blood being shed on both sides. Thinking to seek refuge at your home village, you return only to see your village razed by Imperial soldiers. Tears in your eyes, you swear vengeance and death to the Empire. 2) Terrified by the power vested in the Emperor's Legions, you - a legionnaire yourself, die a little inside as you are forced to murder women and children in order to put down suspected rebel camps and cells. You know the truth though. The Emperor's terror campaign is merely aimed to keep the people eternally loyal to Him, by steel of sword. His tyranny must end.SGS2) You were part of the Queen and the Warmaster's rebellion. Sometime during the Heresy, your forces accompanied the Queen into the catacombs of an Imperial Temple. You were assaulted by warp-spawn and was left to die with the Queen... except that you didn't die. You have been imbued with the power of Chaos. Unsure of what you truly are, you begin to dig your way out to the surface.. 3) You are one of the Custodian Guard of the Emperor. You are, in truth, a fragment of the Emperor's spiritual might. You are a Paladin. Wielding your mighty hammer, you have slain many in His name... but a darkness has come upon the Emperor and during this time of crisis He has become moody, and brooding. The weight of the Crown is too much it seems, for the God-Emperor. With the Heir Apparent in the hands of the Warmaster, it seems it falls to your Order.. or at least you, to dispose of the Emperor, so that His Eternal Light will be free to destroy the enemies of the Empire! Sure... you're killing the Emperor... but it's for Great Justice so that makes it okay. Silas 1) You are a petty lord of an insignificant hilltop keep, whose job is to merely produce crops for the Emperor's armies. You grew tired of your existence... and wish for more. 2) The Cult of Drakon has spread its tendrils far into the Empire, thanks to the continued efforts of missionary-agents. You are a Magos of the Cult, sent to infiltrate the Capital and destroy all resistance to the Cult, namely - The cult of the God-Emperor.. 3) You are an agent of the Black Knights, an order of warriors intent on slaying the Emperor. Your mission begins with you slipping inside the Capital and monitoring the security detail, its numbers, strength and frequency.. Thegreatergood 1) You are a merchant of the Empire, and your goods have recently been 'donated' to the war effort. Almost nearly dry and run to the ground by the official thievery, you pool whatever resources that you have to strike at the person in charge... You really liked that tiara. 2) You are a junior clerk of the War Council, whose job is to give tactical and strategic input which no one really listens to. You are frustrated with the Generals and the Emperor, whose battle plans are mostly something along the lines of 'kill ALL the things!" The Empire will not survive with these idiots in charge... 3) You're a Wizard, Harry. You come from across the Sea from the land of the Elves. And as they all say - "I COME TO CLEANSE THIS LAND." SGS 18th January 2012, 07:53 Knight-Seneschal Arceon Kathro, Champion of the 17th legion. scythes 18th January 2012, 11:58Former Captain Sir Ronin De Polo, now a member of the feared Black Knights, refused to allow such an evil as the current King continue to plague the land. Silas 18th January 2012, 17:01 3) You are an agent of the Black Knights, an order of warriors intent on slaying the Emperor. Your mission begins with you slipping inside the Capital and monitoring the security detail, its numbers, strength and frequency.. Name: Raziel Strassa 18th January 2012, 17:19 IM in if its not too late DrakonTheNightLord 19th January 2012, 03:04 Too late mate, game's started. PyroSikTh 19th January 2012, 13:43 1) You are an insidious spy of the Kingdom of Redzamiba, sent to depose the Emperor and establish a more tolerant regime in the name of King Nintendos Aurelios! Name: Qyross DrakonTheNightLord 21st January 2012, 03:31 thegreatergood thegreatergood 21st January 2012, 14:54 Oh, sorry! 3) You're a Wizard, Harry. You come from across the Sea from the land of the Elves. And as they all say - "I COME TO CLEANSE THIS LAND." Name-Tharial DrakonTheNightLord 22nd January 2012, 04:27 SGS Running through the forest, the Emperor's Custodian Guard follow you closely. For but a moment you manage to lose them. What now? 1. Head for a nearby hill, crowned with ruins of an older age - there to make a stand. 2. Cross the river and continue running to get some more daylight between you and your chasers. 3. Climb up a tree and hide. Scythes You are inducted into a order comprised of brigands, rebels, and do-gooders united by a common cause. It is now your cause as well. While the Order searches for recruits and ferments rebellion in the provinces, your job will take you to the Palace itself. While there are many operatives tasked for killing the Emperor, they do so independently and from various points of entry. You are given the dank sewers of the Capital as your domain. What will be your first course of action? 1. Stock up on some supplies, get a sword, and begin your journey into the depths. 2. You will need help. Go and find those who were once loyal to you before you begin. 3. Request a team of Black Knights to follow you. (The difference between 2 and 3 is that 2 will lead you to a mini story trying to find your old soldiers, and 3 will just give you a team to work on) Silas Months of passed. Battle lines change and move. Armies live and die, but your eyes are forever trained on the Palace and their guards. You feel that at long last, you are ready. 1. With your knowledge, elude the guards and slip into the Palace... 2. Enter under their noses. If you can somehow get your hands on a General's chariot or a noble's coach... 3. Actually, you're not all that ready yet.. Pyrosikth Being a spy, your job will be to infiltrate the highest echelons of the regime. Here in your safe house, you may plan... 1. No better place than the War Council. Attempt to find a place there. 2. The Senate will be useful to your cause. 3. Perhaps, a more mundane position... a housekeeping role in the Palace will get you anywhere. Thegreatergood You arrive in the Capital after months of traveling. The Wise wants the Emperor removed for their own... wise decisions. You are the instrument of their will, as always. 1. March into the Palace, demanding to see the Emperor. 2. Get into an inn and enjoy the.. scenery for awhile. You'll need to get used to the Capital before you strike. 3. Seek out a band of henchmen that will help you break into the Palace.. Silas 22nd January 2012, 04:48 1. With your knowledge, elude the guards and slip into the Palace... scythes 22nd January 2012, 14:35 2. You will need help. Go and find those who were once loyal to you before you begin. As a Captain in the army I had many soldiers who would give their life for me, I must find them if I am to complete this mission. PyroSikTh 22nd January 2012, 15:23 1. No better place than the War Council. Attempt to find a place there. SGS 22nd January 2012, 17:29 1. Head for a nearby hill, crowned with ruins of an older age - there to make a stand. Sometimes it's not who you fight, but where you fight them that makes all the difference. DrakonTheNightLord 23rd January 2012, 09:16 thegreatergood please don't keep me waiting.. I'm an impatient one. DrakonTheNightLord 24th January 2012, 13:07 Thegreatergood has been expelled from the game. Silas You elude the guards, scaling the walls and dodging their patrols easily, your months of observation and spying paying off. You soon make it to one of the abandoned observatories within the Palace compound, having chosen this place beforehand as a safe place to remain while you decide on your next course of action... 1. Haha, what's this? A lone warrior sits atop a hill near His majesty's glade, and the Custodian Guard close on him! Go help him. 2. Pfft, proceed to enter the Palace. There is work to do. 3. You see two nobles bickering with each other at the flower garden.. this might get violent.. go closer. Scythes Stealthily you infiltrate the camp of your erstwhile company, it being so close to the Capital with the enemies of the Empire so close. You try and find: 1. Your second-in-command, the reliable Sezar. 2. The detestable scoundrels, the Turd brothers, whose life you saved, many times. Looting thieving scum they may be, but loyal - and certainly useful in the sewers... 3. Fuck it, recruit the whole company! Pyrosikth Being a spy, it is easy enough to conjure a fake identity with seemingly authentic credentials. Who would you like to be? 1. A trainee tactician would do nicely. 2. A battle-hardened and retired captain from the front. 3. Think out of the box! You... shall be.. a janitor! SGS You wait patiently while the Custodian Guard come at you from all sides... you reach for your weapon... 1. A bow and arrow, the better to harr them as they climb. 2. A sword. Drawn and dangerous. 3. An axe, which you use to charge down the hill to cut a way open for yourself. Silas 24th January 2012, 15:13 1. Haha, what's this? A lone warrior sits atop a hill near His majesty's glade, and the Custodian Guard close on him! Go help him. "Crazy bastard taking on multiple foes? Just my kind of person." PyroSikTh 24th January 2012, 17:21 2. A battle-hardened and retired captain from the front. Go big or go home. SGS 24th January 2012, 18:05 2. A sword. Drawn and dangerous. Kathro draws his blade, Sever, and prepares to repel the enemy. "Come brothers, allow me to show you the power of Chaos undivided." You descend and stride towards the glade, sword drawn. Upon coming to the foot of the hill, you see three Custodian Guard marching up the hill. It seems that some are already up. 1. CHARGE!!! 2. Try to avoid these guys and head for the top. 3. Cause a distraction and make the Custodian Guard chase you instead. Pyrosikth You easily assume the appearance and demeanour of a Captain, whom you killed long ago for just this moment. Convenient indeed that the Company you served in was all but wiped out during the war, so they regard you as a war hero and as such have a place in the War Council. 1. Your priority will be to build up support for a coup via your place in the War Council. 2. You want the Emperor to take command of the armies in person, hopefully he dies in battle. 3. You want to use your place to remove anyone closer to the Emperor, replacing them with you. You will then be free to act. SGS Sword drawn, the Guard close ever slowly, coming at you from three sides, three Custodian Guard come at you with big swords and halberds. 1. Run at them and attack them head on. 2. Hold them off by fighting defensively. 3. Attempt to get your hands on the halberd. Scythes You reveal yourself for who you are and whip up a band of loyal followers! Many from this Company join you, except your replacement, the current Captain and his band of men. Who come out now with swords to arrest you! 1. Order your men to kill them! 2. Talk with the Captain. 3. Do nothing and see what the men do. scythes 28th January 2012, 00:55 Time to test my new band of merry mens loyalty. 3. Do nothing and see what the men do. SGS 28th January 2012, 02:02 1. Run at them and attack them head on. A large weapon's greatest strength is the first attack! SO TAKE IT FROM THEM! PyroSikTh 28th January 2012, 15:49 3. You want to use your place to remove anyone closer to the Emperor, replacing them with you. You will then be free to act. The sword to fear most is the sword keeping you safe. Silas 29th January 2012, 16:46 1. CHARGE!!! DrakonTheNightLord 31st January 2012, 05:39 Scythes Wordlessly, your loyal men form up between the new Captain and you, barring the way. After a heated argument that went pretty much like, "OUT OF THE WAY! NO YOU! NO, YOU!" Push came to shove, and a full on battle breaks out! 1. Watch the battle. 2. Draw your sword and jump in to slay the Captain! 3. Appeal for calm SGS You charge in with a flurry of blows, which the lead Custodian manages to barely parry, forcing him back several steps. Swiftly, his comrades come at you from the sides. 1. Press on and finish off the first Custodian. 2. Face the enemies coming from the sides. 3. Back away! Pyrosikth You survey your possible rivals, and decide to eliminate one of them and see where you end up... 1. There are only 3 remaining Imperial Legions, the I, V and VI, who are bolstered by auxiliary volunteer troops. Remove these Generals! 2. The Chief Tactician, Motta, has been influential in the Imperial battle plans. Inept as he may be, the Emperor listens to him. 3. Pater Holt is the High Priest of the Imperial Cult. His opinion and advice on warfare is just as terrible as his intolerance. However, his position makes him the left hand of the Emperor and His Inquisition. Silas You burst into the glade, blade out. The Custodians were caught by surprise but manage to gather themselves and charge at you in turn. Quickly you cut down the first Custodian, but the remaining two come at you with their halberds. 1. Keep up the attack! 2. Parry the blows and attack once they're open. 3. Run off to the top of the hill!!! Silas 31st January 2012, 05:40 3. Run off to the top of the hill!!! SGS 31st January 2012, 05:46 Quick question, are Silas and I in the same fight or are there just a lot of Custodians running about today? DrakonTheNightLord 31st January 2012, 05:52 You're at the top while he's at the foot of the hill. So... two different fights, but pretty close to each other. Silas 31st January 2012, 06:00 Quick question, are Silas and I in the same fight or are there just a lot of Custodians running about today? Which is why i'm running up towards you. SGS 31st January 2012, 06:06 So at least 5 left eh? Going to be a hell of a fight. 1. Press on and finish off the first Custodian. "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" Kathro is unrelenting towards his target, intending to slay him before focusing on the other two. PyroSikTh 31st January 2012, 11:53 3. Pater Holt is the High Priest of the Imperial Cult. His opinion and advice on warfare is just as terrible as his intolerance. However, his position makes him the left hand of the Emperor and His Inquisition. scythes 31st January 2012, 14:05 3. Appeal for calm But if there's any sign the Captain isn't having any part of it... 2. Draw your sword and jump in to slay the Captain! DrakonTheNightLord 1st February 2012, 14:28 Announcement: all gloves are off. Starting this update 1/3 choices will have death / bad end results Silas You run as fast as you can towards the top when suddenly, you bang into another Custodian Guard on the way up to the hill. This startles the Custodian and he smacks into the hill head first and snaps his neck. His brothers turn around in alarm and bear their weapons against you, with the other 2 you left coming up to surround you! 1. Run like a little wussy. 2. Scream like a little wussy. 3. Push the front two and run up the hill! SGS Khorne grants you the strength you need to smite down the heretic Custodian. Parrying the blows from his comrades, you quickly figure out how to dispatch the remaining fighters. 1. Khorne favours you. Continue to crush the enemy with your blade! 2. The enemy is weak! Disarm them with the intention of torturing them for Slaanesh! 3. Aim to convert them to your cause with reason! Pyrosikth How will you go about Pater Holt's political demise? 1. Have a more compliant High Priest replace him. 2. Rebuke him at every turn, with the intent of making the War Council, Emperor included, see his incompetence. 3. Call him a heretic and kill him then and there. Scythes Everyone calms down, and the Captain, whose camp is the lesser in numbers, rides off to the Capital to alert the Emperor about the rebellion. 1. Set guards around the camp. Time for a nap. 2. Send out riders to chase them and kill them all. 3. March now towards the Capital! WARRRRR!! scythes 1st February 2012, 14:31 Damn Captain, kill him! 2. Send out riders to chase them and kill them all. Silas 1st February 2012, 15:13 "I..must..be... KING OF THE HILL!" 3. Push the front two and run up the hill! PyroSikTh 1st February 2012, 15:18 2. Rebuke him at every turn, with the intent of making the War Council, Emperor included, see his incompetence. SGS 1st February 2012, 17:56 "RAAAAAAGGHHH!" Is the knight's reply to the pitiful attacks of the custodes. 1. Khorne favours you. Continue to crush the enemy with your blade! Slaanesh will get his chance soon, this battle belongs to Khorne. DrakonTheNightLord 3rd February 2012, 06:43 Scythes Your riders go off and after a few hours, bring the heads of the traitors to you. What is your next course of action? 1. Prepare to march into the Capital. Let the coup begin! 2. Time to turn on your masters, the Order of the Black Knights must be purged before your new order begins! 3. Go and gather more Companies to your banner. Silas You push these bastard whoresons away and continue your relentless march up the hill. Upon arrival you abruptly run into a warrior clad in full plate the colour of blood. In a comical fashion, both of your weapons hit the two Custodian guards at the hill before all of you go down in a tangled heap. 1. Get up quickly and face the Custodians coming up! 2. Run down the hill!! 3. Maybe if you pretend to be dead you can get out of this mess.. Pyrosikth The High Priest suggests that since there seems to be a lull in the war against the heretic Crusaders, the Legions should go north to face down the traitor Kingdoms of Skyle and Redzamiba. You shoot him down, saying that the troops need time to rest and reinforce. You go one step further and suggest that: 1. The High Priest is a massive idiot and should be expelled from the Council. 2. The time is right for new Legions to be founded. 3. The war against the Warmaster's armies to the East should take priority. The Empire should make peace on concentrate on the Archenemy instead. SGS You roar and charge forward, only for someone to hit you from behind. Your sword cleaves an enemy open as you go down in a tangled heap. 1. Roar, throw the doucheburger off you, and brandish your sword like a crazed berserker. 2. Call upon Tzeentch to smite your foes. 3. Push the guy on top of you (who may or may not be Silas) down towards the incoming Custodian Guards. SGS 3rd February 2012, 07:31 1. Roar, throw the doucheburger off you, and brandish your sword like a crazed berserker. I'm in no mood to have someone on me! Need to get up and prepare to kill a couple more custodes. If they're smart they'll run away while I'm distracted. PyroSikTh 3rd February 2012, 08:26 3. The war against the Warmaster's armies to the East should take priority. The Empire should make peace on concentrate on the Archenemy instead. scythes 3rd February 2012, 14:13 More troops will be required for this massive undertaking, a whole host will descend upon the capitol, annihilating all before it! 3. Go and gather more Companies to your banner. Silas 3rd February 2012, 15:08 1. Get up quickly and face the Custodians coming up! DrakonTheNightLord 5th February 2012, 03:12 SGS You brandish your sword threateningly, but the Custodians still come. Two of them reach the top, where you kill one and the stranger kills another, using the high ground as an advantage. 1. Roar again, and charge down the hill after the other two. 2. Leave the stranger to fight the rest, you have an Emperor to kill. 3. Defile the corpses in the name of Nurgle! Pyrosikth You seem to have everyone's ear at the moment, so you go on and... 1. Suggest that the Emperor go in person to negotiate peace with the Crusaders. 2. Go North to negotiate a peace. You being a spy from there, you should be able to do this easily. 3. Suggest that the Legions pull back from the frontlines as the first step to this. Scythes You decide it best that you play to your strengths, which is of course, command... 1. Send out missives to the Companies in reserve to join you and overthrow the False Emperor! 2. Travel to the frontlines in person and ask the Legions to join you! 3. Seek out those you believe could be swayed to your cause and invite them to your camp. Silas You take down another Custodian as your new found ally deals with the other. 2 more are headed your way though... 1. Throw rocks at them!! 2. Charge!!! 3. Wait for them to come to you. PyroSikTh 5th February 2012, 07:32 3. Suggest that the Legions pull back from the frontlines as the first step to this. scythes 5th February 2012, 14:00 Can't send messages to everyone or it'll totally give away my plans, only to those who I know will join me in this most holy of quests. 3. Seek out those you believe could be swayed to your cause and invite them to your camp. DrakonTheNightLord 6th February 2012, 02:16 Silas SGS Silas 6th February 2012, 02:58 OOC: Sorry, I rarely visit the forum on weekends. 2. Charge!!! "With me! Let's finish this!" SGS 6th February 2012, 05:59 1. Roar again, and charge down the hill after the other two. "These weaklings stand no chance!" DrakonTheNightLord 8th February 2012, 12:11 Pyrosikth You suggest the Legions pull back to show the heretics that the Empire are leaning towards peace, only to be met by opposition by the Generals, who turn on you and suggest that you're a coward, among other insults. The Emperor, seeing this, suggests that you go to the front line to negotiate a peace. If they agree on a ceasefire, you will be given the Emperor's Seal to move the Legions. Some trust being given, or a plot to get rid of you? 1. You think it's a plot - and say so. 2. Go for it! 3. Cordially refuse Scythes Night falls, and from all over the surrounding area, Captains from the many support units, Legion Companies, and other military units arrive at camp... time to turn them to your cause... 1. The Emperor is surrounded by idiots and traitors, a cleansing is at hand! 2. For the Empire to survive.. the Emperor must be dethroned. 3. Down with the Empire! [Go on to talk about how sucky life has been lately] Silas You charge, and by the corner of your eye you see your companion doing the same. Before you know, all the Custodians lie dead at your feet. 1. Shout "HELP!" And run away. 2. Go on with your mission. 3. Rest here for a moment. SGS You destroy your enemies, with your ally by your side. Now however, is time for a choice... 1. Scream and shout, daring the Custodians to come at you at this unbeatable hill. 2. Get back to that Palace and rip their shit. 3. Withdraw to fight another day. PyroSikTh 8th February 2012, 14:27 2. Go for it! I can negotiate peace better than these jerks can! scythes 8th February 2012, 14:27 "I am Ronin De Polo. And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny! You have come to fight as free men. And free man you are! What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?" "Two thousand against ten?" the veteran shouted. "No! We will run - and live!" "Yes!" De Polo2. For the Empire to survive.. the Emperor must be dethroned. Silas 8th February 2012, 15:15 "Farewell, good sir. It was fun slaughtering with you." 2. Go on with your mission. SGS 8th February 2012, 17:09 "May Tzeentch guide your path." 3. Withdraw to fight another day. DrakonTheNightLord 10th February 2012, 10:43 Pyrosikth You prepare to march, but before that, perhaps a report to your masters back home, and perhaps a cunning trick or two to organize... 1. Tell your masters that an incoming peace between the heretics and the Empire is imminent. Request them to step up the attacks and take as much territory before they can bring the Legions to bear that way. 2. Request that your master to send in agents to disrupt the peace talks for your own insidious purposes. 3. Send word to the traitor Warmaster and send warning to him that the Legions are coming Scythes SHTEP. You wonder who was shooting arrows and look around to find your chest impaled with one. Your speech to depose a tyrant seems to have ruffled feathers. You wonder who it was as you fall down and your heart tries in vain to keep you alive, pumping around the poisoned shaft and arrowhead as all goes dark... Your journey ends here Silas You begin your long march to the Emperor.. 1. Go according to plan. You are to disguise yourself as a servant of the kitchens. Killing one of them and taking their garb would do the trick, given how numerous the servants are here. 2. Hide in the Palace to observe the daily movements of the Palace's denizens to further plot your move. 3. Find a way into the Emperor's chambers SGS You withdraw and get out of the Palace and into an inn somewhere. You plan your next move.. 1. You'll need to hire a band of mercenaries as help. 2. Contact the Cult, they may be a long way from here, but they're still somewhere in this gods damned Empire. 3. Slaughter your way to an Imperial Temple. You'll use this as a sacrifice to bring the demons into the world PyroSikTh 10th February 2012, 13:37 2. Request that your master to send in agents to disrupt the peace talks for your own insidious purposes. Silas 10th February 2012, 14:04 1. Go according to plan. You are to disguise yourself as a servant of the kitchens. Killing one of them and taking their garb would do the trick, given how numerous the servants are here. SGS 10th February 2012, 17:54 2. Contact the Cult, they may be a long way from here, but they're still somewhere in this gods damned Empire. Always go with the mortals first. They're far more predictable and easier to kill if they betray you. DrakonTheNightLord 16th February 2012, 03:22 Gonna update this on the weekend, going to forward your storylines a bit. DrakonTheNightLord 19th February 2012, 20:28 3 Years Later The peace talks between the Kingdom and the Empire was put to an end as soon as they had begun, each side accusing the other of treachery as they were ambushed. The Empire had no choice but to fight on as a galvanized Crusader force pushed the Legions hard. Even as Raziel infiltrated the Palace in the guise of a kitchen serf, learning all of the Palace's secret passages and escape routes, the Cult of Drakon has been busy, and finally stepping out of the shadows at their Champion's behest, reveal themselves to be the true lords of the Black Knights. Swiftly, and out of nowhere, the Order besieged the Palace, even as the nearby Companies descend into disarray, spurred on by a martyred Captain... The end of the Empire is nigh. Pyrosikth Your ruse has worked. You have managed to tie up the Legions in a war of attrition and proven your loyalty in one move. However, the Capital is inaccessible due to a spate of sudden uprisings. You are... 1) Stuck with the Legions in the front line. 2) Riding towards the support Companies around the Capital to restore order. 3) Floating in the honey bath back home in Redzamiba... Silas You're ready to strike.. you know the Palace inside and out now, and the Empire's strength is waning. The Black Knights have laid siege to the Palace, and now is the time to act! 1. Go now and kill the Emperor! 2. Go open the gates for the besiegers... 3. Poison the Palace's food! SGS You have asked for help and help has come, the Cult has revealed how deeply they have cast their roots into the dying regime... you stand as leader of the Black Knights, besieging the Imperial Palace! You've not much time, the reserve Companies will get into the city sooner rather than later.. 1. Assault the Palace! 2. Starve them out! 3. Talk peace.. SGS 19th February 2012, 20:53 1. Assault the Palace! PyroSikTh 19th February 2012, 22:25 2) Riding towards the support Companies around the Capital to restore order. Silas 20th February 2012, 22:26 2. Go open the gates for the besiegers... sneggy 21st February 2012, 14:27 Damn how did I miss a new regicide game? DrakonTheNightLord 23rd February 2012, 07:38 SGS You realize that there is no time to wait the enemy out, so you order the attack, and your forces storm the walls! It took the better part of the day to get the upper hand, then you find something that could deliver the walls to you: The Chief Custodian, Constantin Valdor stands atop the gatehouse, protecting the Imperial flag, slaying your warriors in heaps. 1. Throw down your gauntlet - DUEL. 2. Yell at your warriors to rush the bastard. 3. Tempt him to join your forces. Pryosikth You encounter a support Company and they quickly submit to your authority. You discover that they were marching towards the Capital, which has apparently fallen to the hands of heathens and traitors. 1. Order the Company to stand down and wait the conflict out. 2. Force march your way to the Capital, engaging any enemies along the way, the Emperor must be protected! 3. Seek out other loyal Companies. Silas You leave the kitchens and head towards the walls, when suddenly BOOM!!! The Order has begun their assault, and all is chaos. They are already on the walls, and appear to be winning the battle! 1. ....Go and open the gate, regardless of this. 2. Go back to the Palace, they got this. 3. Join the fighting! SGS 23rd February 2012, 07:48 1. Throw down your gauntlet - DUEL. A champion of the gods will not back down from such a challenge. Such is the path to demonhood. PyroSikTh 23rd February 2012, 13:26 3. Seek out other loyal Companies. Silas 23rd February 2012, 15:20 2. Go back to the Palace, they got this. "Meh, fine. If you didn't need my help, you could have warned me." DrakonTheNightLord 25th February 2012, 06:28 SGS Valdor takes a look at you before bringing his shining sword to bear, picking a defensive stance. 1. Charge at him! 2. Wait for him to come to you! 3. But first, some verbal jousting! Pyrosikth Before long you've gathered a host of four Companies. What now? 1. Move and take the Capital! 2. Begin to use your forces to cut off the Capital so that no one goes in or out. 3. Divert them to the frontlines to die. Silas You turn back when suddenly the gate collapses, and several berserkers charge in, one armoured warrior runs at you and swipes at you with his battleaxe, which you barely dodge.. 1. Draw your sword and kill him! 2. Run into the Palace! 3. "Stop, I'm one of you!" SGS 25th February 2012, 07:21 2. Wait for him to come to you! A champion of the dark gods does not play by the rules of others. PyroSikTh 25th February 2012, 07:48 2. Begin to use your forces to cut off the Capital so that no one goes in or out. Silas 26th February 2012, 22:52 2. Run into the Palace! "No time for this. Screw you guys!" DrakonTheNightLord 29th February 2012, 22:34 SGS The Chief Custodian swiftly closes the distance, his blade rising up and crashing down in a downwards cleave, which Sever barely deflects. Quikcly you are put on the back foot as a flurry of blows dent your armor and bests your defenses. 1. Grab his blade and then swing at him! 2. Give him an onslaught of your own, taking some hits as you get going. 3. Keep defending. Pyrosikth Slowly but surely you have begun to strangle the Capital with your forces, who have laid the Capital to siege... 1. Use whatever artillery you got and bombard the Capital! 2. Starve the dissenters out! 3. Get an honor guard and ride into the city! Silas You run into the Palace, where all is pandemonium. Serfs moving to put out fires, warriors getting organized, etc. The Emperor is nowhere to be found... 1. Set fire to the Palace! 2. Hide in the cellars for now. 3. Look for the Emperor Silas 29th February 2012, 22:36 3. Look for the Emperor SGS 29th February 2012, 22:37 2. Give him an onslaught of your own, taking some hits as you get going. If defense fails you, use offensive to fell him. PyroSikTh 29th February 2012, 22:50 1. Use whatever artillery you got and bombard the Capital! DrakonTheNightLord 2nd March 2012, 04:26 Silas You consider the hiding places and where the Emperor might be... 1. His chambers. Stupid aloof bastard. 2. You discovered a hidden escape route that ends up at a nearby runner's post. He should be heading there. 3. Perhaps he is holding council with the War Council at this too late an hour... SGS Exchanging punishing blows as champions on both sides fight the battle of their lives, both of you end of bloodied and your armor torn and beaten out of shape. Catching your breath for a moment, both of you raise your weapons again... something has got to give. 1. Tackle him to the ground!!! (You're on top of a gatehouse, mind) 2. KEEP ATTACKING!! 3. Yield? Pyrosikth Using the notion of smoking the traitorous rats out of the Capital, you order your warriors to attack the city with volleys of artillery fire. The city is in flames within moments, slums, villas all. Many die within the first few seconds of the punishing attack, whole companies lost to fire in your brief unleashing of hell. Then your weapons run out of ammunition, leaving the outskirts of the Capital in ruins. The fires will take the whole of the Capital soon enough.. 1. Ride now to the Palace! 2. Let the Capital burn... 3. Send riders to the rogue companies and the Black Knights besieging the Palace for a parlay. SGS 2nd March 2012, 04:31 2. KEEP ATTACKING!! Yield? You ask a champion of the gods to yield?! I will beat that scumbag into the ground like Khorne intended. Let his body rot in the sun for Nurgle. Laugh my ass off at his death for Slaanesh. And throw his pitiful soul to Tzeentch so good ol' birdman doesn't feel left out! PyroSikTh 2nd March 2012, 09:11 2. Let the Capital burn... DrakonTheNightLord 4th March 2012, 01:18 Silas Silas 4th March 2012, 18:06 2. You discovered a hidden escape route that ends up at a nearby runner's post. He should be heading there. DrakonTheNightLord 8th March 2012, 02:03 Gloves are off again, 1/3 of the following options starting now are fatal. SGS You strike with maddened fury at your hated enemy and soon tire him down for you to destroy him with punishing two handed blows. The Emperor's Champion lies dead at your feet. You then realize that the city behind you is on fire! 1. Sacrifice the Custodian to the Dark Gods! 2. Gather the men and withdraw! 3. No time to waste, keep up the onslaught. Pyrosikth Your troops watch as the Capital burns away all the enemies, when some Captains raises the need to go and find the Emperor! 1. Tell them that the Emperor has already escaped. 2. "THE EMPEROR IS DEAD, I AM YOUR EMPEROR!!" 3. Tell them the fire will do it for us. The Emperor's holy aura will protect him other stupid nonsense Silas You run and run and run and eventually arrive at the runner's post. You see a dozen Custodes riding off with what could be the Emperor.. 1. Go back and tell the warriors! 2. Follow them on foot, making sure they don't see you... 3. Ride off on a horse, screaming a battle cry!! Silas 8th March 2012, 02:06 2. Follow them on foot, making sure they don't see you... SGS 8th March 2012, 02:26 1. Sacrifice the Custodian to the Dark Gods! I made a promise that he'd go to the gods for this. Hopefully the castle walls keep the fire out while I do this. Or the gods grant me demonhood and I don't have to care about a little thing like fire. Personally I like the 2nd thing. PyroSikTh 8th March 2012, 08:11 3. Tell them the fire will do it for us. The Emperor's holy aura will protect him other stupid nonsense DrakonTheNightLord 10th March 2012, 23:35 Silas You are soon outpace but you keep on, tracking their movements and generally making slow progress. You see the Emperor's men make camp on a hill nearby. You know that they are a day's march from a nearby town, but night has already descended. 1. Time to charge in! Their guard is down! 2. Wait for a few hours, then infiltrate the camp! 3. There are too many of them, you'll need to go back for help. SGS You scream and howl to the moon as you raise the enemy's head in tribute to the Powers. You feel the warp overtaking you.. it is a good pain. Then the Gods laughed as you turn into an eyeless spawn with four nipples. Pyrosikth You let the Capital burn, and it does so magnificently. So magnificently that you even deign to take a nap. When you wake, there is no city left. Only a shattered remains of the Palace, still apparently being looted. 1. March your army towards the Palace! 2. Withdraw, declaring the Capital lost. 3. Leave now, your work is done. SGS 11th March 2012, 02:55 Last time I try to be a faithful, albeit crazy, champion of the dark gods in one of your games. Silas 11th March 2012, 03:12 2. Wait for a few hours, then infiltrate the camp! PyroSikTh 11th March 2012, 08:07 1. March your army towards the Palace! DrakonTheNightLord 12th March 2012, 09:46 Silas You wait until night, and easily encroach on the camp. A single tent can be seen, while the Custodes - which you easily weave through in the darkness, stand guard. You see one of them get up and go towards the bushes to relieve himself. 1. Go and kill him. 2. Once he's out of sight, try to devise a diversion to pull the other guards away. 3. There's only eleven guards... you can take them! Pyrosikth You call for the heralds to sound the trumpets, and your army walks over the ashes of what was the Capital. You enter the Palace, which has become some kind of sick love child between a charnel house and an oven in the hands of a 4 year old. You find no one alive. 1. Break the Imperial banner, declare the Emperor dead and the Empire with it, and declare yourself Lord of a new nation! 2. Weep openly and wax lyrical about how you have fehled the Empra. 3. Order patrols to go forth and find the Emperor - he may have escaped. PyroSikTh 12th March 2012, 10:10 3. Order patrols to go forth and find the Emperor - he may have escaped. Silas 13th March 2012, 04:49 1. Go and kill him. DrakonTheNightLord 15th March 2012, 01:27 Silas You follow the Custodian, and your sword rises and falls swiftly, and he crumples without a sound. Leaving the body there, you make your way back to the camp, only to hear the sound of hooves. Many many hooves. Horses! 1. Stay where you are. 2. Now is the time to attack!! 3. Slip inside the tent quickly to kill the Emperor! Pyrosikth You send out your riders, and now you turn to more pressing matters... 1. Go write a missive to base about what has happened. 2. Send out more riders to inform the Imperial governors that the Capital is destroyed. 3.Declare independence! PyroSikTh 15th March 2012, 08:05 1. Go write a missive to base about what has happened. Silas 15th March 2012, 14:15 3. Slip inside the tent quickly to kill the Emperor! "Distraction!" DrakonTheNightLord 18th March 2012, 04:32 As the search party meets the Custodes, Raziel sneaks into the tent, to slay the Emperor. He does so, but the psychic scream destroys him and the Custodians, and the search party. Qyross now stands upon the ruins of an orphaned Empire.	eng	e3286e80-6d76-477f-a401-ca24499f2aa2	http://www.40kforums.com/vb/archive/index.php/t-34107.html
so we're going to leave off where we were last time talking about buffers. And I'm a big fan of buffers, actually, and buffers are extremely useful in my research because they keep the p h of things constant. So if you're going to do any kind of biology research or biochemistry research, you need to know about buffers. And as I'll mentioned later, also your body needs to be buffered appropriately, you don't want a large changes in p h in your body or things won't function properly. So buffering is very important. So let's go over buffers. So if we talk about an acid buffer, that's something that's buffering on the acidic side of the p h range. And in that, you want to have play on both sides. So if you have a strong acid, it can be neutralized, the p h stays the same. If you had a strong base, that would be neutralized so the p h stays the same. So what happens, you have to have an acid and its conjugate base in the mixture to have a good buffer. So what the weak acid is going to do is it will transfer protons or hydrogen ions to hydroxide ions that are supplied by the strong base to neutralize that strong base that was added. So you need to have an acid in there that's capable of giving up a proton to neutralize the hydroxide ion that was added. You also need to have a conjugate base. The conjugate base is going to accept protons if an acid is added, thereby neutralizing the effect of that added acid. So again, you need a weak acid and its conjugate base, you need both to have a good buffer. So I've been talking about weak acids and weak conjugate bases, so why would a strong acid and the salt of its conjugate base not make a good buffer? What do strong acids do? They dissociate almost completely, and that's not going to do you any good. You want to be able to shift that equation both directions. So a strong acid goes to completion is going to drive it to the right, and for a good buffer you want to be able to switch things around that if you add a strong acid, then you neutralize that, you add a strong base, you neutralize it. So you need the conjugate to be effective as a base, and a strong acid has an ineffective conjugate base. It's not good as a base at all, so that won't work. So buffers are made up of weak acids and their conjugate bases, or weak bases and their conjugate acids. They need to be in the weak range or there's no buffering capacity. So let's look at a base buffer example. The only difference here is that a basic buffer is going to buffer on the basic end of the p h range. So here's an equation. We have a base in water forming a conjugate of that weak base and hydroxide ions. So let's think about what happens if a strong acid is added. Well if a strong acid is added, then this base, n h 3, can accept protons from the incoming acid and make more n h 4 plus, thereby removing the strong acid from the solution and neutralizing the p h. If on the other hand a strong base is added, n h 4 plus or ammonium ions can donate the proton forming its conjugate base in water, and again, the p h remains about the same. So the base and its conjugate acid can both react, neutralizing the p h. So in the base buffer acid, a weak base, b, will accept protons supplied by the strong acid, removing a strong acid from the solution. The conjugate acid of that weak base, which again, would be a weak acid, can transfer protons to the hydroxide ions added by the strong base, again, neutralizing the effect there. So a buffer is a mixture of a weak acid base conjugate pair that will stabilize the p h serving as a source or a sink for the added protons. So that's how a buffer works. So, I mentioned buffering is very important. It's very important in your blood. Your blood is buffered in the range of p h 7 . 35 to 7 . 45, and you have a buffering pair and a conjugate acid base pair that's in your blood that does to work. So nature has its own buffering system design to keep the p h of your blood constant. Well what happens if the p h of your blood changes? So let me just tell you about one disease that can change the p h of your blood. This is from a vitamin B12 dependent enzyme called methylmalonic coa mutase, and this enzyme is your friend. I think that most of you are excited about the idea of having all your fat go to energy, so you should be all fan of this enzyme. So it breaks down from fatty acids -- you get methylmalonyl coa, which is converted to succinyl coa and goes into the citric acid cycle. But if this step is blocked, if there's some kind of genetic disease associated with that particular enzyme, you get a condition called methylmalonic aciduria. So this is excreted in the body, it can't be converted to the succinyl coa, so it has to be excreted from the body, and it has an acidic p h. And so when it's excreted, it will actually, there's a large amount of it, and it can change the p h of blood. So even though you have this buffering system, it can overwhelm the buffering system and cause a change in the p h, which can lead to neurological disorders and sometimes death. So they can look for this in newborns, they can do a test, and I was -- one of the tests is -- it's not in every state, but it is in Massachusetts, so my daughter, Samantha, had this test. But they can simply look at the urine of a newborn and look at the p h and whether any of this is being excreted. And some infants that have this condition can excrete like a gram of this acid a day. So it's really large quantities of acid that are excreted and it goes beyond the buffering capacity. So, I'm going to tell you a little story and it sort of emphasizes some of the importance of genetic research. So before the human genome project, scientists were trying to find the gene to figure out what was wrong with these patients that had this condition. And here are all the amino acids translated from the gene. This is not a small protein, that's a lot of amino acids. And they found that the problem was right here, or one of the main problems is right here. There's a glycine residue, which glycine is the smallest amino acid and that had been changed to something else and that led to the disease. Now I want you to imagine if you were parents of a small child and you found out your child had this condition and then you had heard that there were advances, they now know what caused it, and so, they went to the doctor and the doctor said, yes, your child, the DNA is wrong, and so let's substitute a different amino acid for glycine here. OK. What does that do for you? Like why is that a problem? Well, they didn't know why it was a problem, they just knew that it had the wrong amino acid in there. And so, the next step was to try to understand what was actually going on. So what happened in this case was that the vitamin B12 cofactor had changed its conformation when it bound to the protein. And instead of having this sort of loop structure here, it had more of a tail. So this base here had moved down, and so there was a different shape to the vitamin than had been expected. So when the first structure was solved of one of these enzymes, it found that here's kind of what the vitamin B12 looked like, it had this extended region which no one was expecting, and so that had to fit into the protein. So this is the domain of the protein that binds the vitamin, and it had a large hole, and you put these together and that's great, it fits and you have happy enzyme. Well, how do you create a hole -- nature supposedly abhors a vacuum, so how do you have this hole? Well, what nature did was it put the smallest amino acids there are, glycines, right along here to make room for this to fit together. So, what was happening in this genetic case is that the switch of a glycine to an argenine did this to the hole. So, what people were trying to do is treat these patients with extra B12, you give them injections of it, you have a lot more B12, and you want to the B12 to bind and get the activity back going again. But really, no matter how much vitamin B12 you added to it, it wasn't really going to do much good, it just wasn't going to fit. So instead, there was a suggestion that instead of giving the whole vitamin, perhaps you could just give a truncated version of the vitamin, which was commercially available, and that that might bind and restore activity of the protein. So this is what was suggested once you knew what the problem actually was. So this is just an example of a genetic disease, and it's not that common, but as I said, it is tested for here in Massachusetts. And how knowing something about what the problem is can lead to a potential solution. But for most of you, your blood is doing just fine, you don't have a genetic condition which is pumping too much acid into your bloodstream, so that nature's buffering capacity is working quite well. So buffers are important. It's great to have my important statements emphasized up there. We've been rehearsing at home. OK. So let's do a sample buffer problem. All right, suppose we have an acid, 0.1 moles of an acid, and 0.5 moles of its conjugate base added in the form of a salt. And so they're put into water and diluted to 1.0 liter. And you're given information about the k a of the acid, 1 . 77 times 10 to the minus 4, and you're asked to calculate the p h. So what do you do? All right, first, it's always good to write the equation that you're talking about. And so you have acid in water forming hydronium ions and the conjugate base. So here, the acid is giving up a proton to the water, forming h 3 o plus and it's conjugate base. Now we want to think about what happens at equilibrium. So we know how many moles we have and we know what the total volume is. And in this table we should be using molarity, but the math here is pretty easy because we have 1 mole and 1 liter or 1, and 0.5 moles in 1 liter or 0.5 for molarity. And now at equilibrium what's going to happen, well, when this equilibrates some of this will go away and more of these are going to be formed. So we have minus x over here, plus x and plus x over there, and we add it all together you get 1 minus x plus x and 0.5 plus x. So the important thing to remember is in buffering problems, you have the acid and the conjugate. So we're used to seeing these tables where we only have something over here and it's all zero on the other side. But in a buffering problem, you have things on both sides from the very beginning. And that's a really important point, and that alone, if you can remember that, will get you a long way through this unit. So you remember that in a buffer you got to have both an acid in its conjugate base or a base in its conjugate acid. So here we're talking about an acid in water, it's an acidic buffer, and so we can use our k a value -- we want to know what the concentrations are at equilibrium to calculate our p h. So we can use our k a and we can set it up, so we have on the top products over reactants, and we we're not including water in this because it's dilute in solution and so it's not changing very much. And now we can plug in our values, so we have 0.5 plus x, x over 1 minus x. All right, now this is just written again from the last slide, we can try an approximation, which is it that x is small compared to 1 molar or 0.5 molar. And so we can get rid of the plus x and the minus x down here and just have one x term, which makes it simpler to solve, but we'll have to go back and check that approximation in a few minutes. So making that approximation, we can calculate x as 3 . 54 times 10 to the minus 4 molar, and now we need to check that assumption. Well, you can probably guess it's going to be OK, because something times 10 to the minus 4 compared to 0.5 and 1, that's probably going to be OK that it's small. But our assumption here is that it needs to be less than 5%, and here it's 0.1%. So you could just take this value of x, divide it by the smaller of the two, 0.5 , times 100, and calculate the percent ionization. If it's less than 5% you're OK, if it's more you need to use the quadratic equation to solve the problem. So x here is our concentration of hydronium ion, which is great, because then we can easily calculate the p h. So p h again is minus log of the hydronium ion concentration, and so the p h here is 3 . 45. And again, significant figures, we'll be talking about this as we go through. The volume had two, it was 1 . liters, and so we're going to have two significant figures after the decimal point, because the volume was limiting insignificant figures. All right, now let's consider what happens if some strong acid had been added in the solution. So the volume is still going to be 1 liter, because the acid was added in before we went up to the 1 liter mark. So strong acids, they go to completion. So, if we added 0.1 moles of that strong acid, it will react with equal number of moles of the conjugate base to form the conjugate acid. So we can just do subtractions here. We don't have to worry about setting up any kind of equilibrium, we assume it goes completely. So for the conjugate base we had 0.5 moles before, and it's going to be reacting then with a strong acid, so 0.1 of those will react, leaving us with 0.4 moles of the conjugate, and that's in 1 liter. So now we have 0.4 molar. For the acid, we had 1 mole to begin with, but now we formed more as they reaction has taken place, and so we have 0.1 more. Now we have 1 . 1 moles again in 1 liter. So now we can do the same thing again. So after this has happened, after we have added the strong acid, then a new equilibrium is going to be reached. And so we can plug in this table as well. So we have 1 . 1 now over here, and 0.4 on the other side. As equilibrium is approached, you lose some of the acid as it reacts with water and ionizes and you form more of the h 3 o plus and more of the conjugate. So we have 1 . 1 minus x, x, and 0.4 plus x. So again, the trick here is just to remember that there is a reaction with a strong acid that has been added, and you need to figure out the new molarities, and then go back to your equilibrium table with those new molarities. So here we can set up with a k a again, and do the same problem that we did before. And so, we can make the assumption again that x is small, try it out and see if it works. X turns out to be 4 . 87 times 10 to the minus 4 molars -- so again, it's a small number. And so, it turns out to be 1 . -- less than 1% of 0.4 . If it's less than 5% of the smaller number, you don't have to worry about the bigger number, and so your assumption is OK, you don't need to use the quadratic equation. And so, then we can calculate at the end that the p h is now 3 . 31, again, two significant figures after the decimal place because of the volume. So addition of 0.1 moles of a strong acid changed our p h from 3 . 45 to 3 . 31. So we buffered pretty well. There was a change in p h, we added acid and the p h did go down, but not by an enormous amount. And so, that's because this turned out to be a pretty decent buffer here, so we didn't have a really huge effect. So, those are -- that's an example of a buffer problem. So, let's think for a minute about designing a buffer. Suppose you wanted to create a buffer at a particular p h, what do you need to think about? Well, you need to think about the ratio of your acid to the conjugate, and you need to think about the p k a of the acid, and the p h that's desired. So here is a generic equation for an acid in water, so we have our acid, h a, in water forming hydronium ions and our conjugate base. And now we're going to do a little derivation to come up with an equation that would be useful to you in thinking about buffers and designing buffers. So, we can write a generic term for k a. K a equals products over reactants, and so we have our hydronium ions are conjugate base over our acid. And now we can take this term and rearrange it. So we can pull a hydronium ion concentration over to one side. And now we're going to take the logs of both sides, so we get the log of hydronium ion concentration, the log of k a, and the log of h a concentration over a minus concentration, and now we're going to multiply everything by negative sign, so we have minus logs of things. And I'm just going to move this now up to the top of the screen, and we have this equation. So what is minus log of hydronium ion concentration? P h. What's minus log of k a? P k a. So, we have p h equals p k a minus the log of a concentration of your acid over the concentration of your conjugate base. And these are equilibrium concentrations for that, because remember, we derived it from our equilibrium expression for k a. But a lot of times when you're working buffer problems, you know the concentrations that you added of these things, not necessarily the concentrations of equilibrium. And if we rewrite this expression in terms of the initial concentrations or original or o concentrations, then we have p h is approximately equal to p k a minus log of the initial concentrations of your acid over your conjugate base. And this is known as a Henderson Hasselbalch equation. And people love the Henderson Hasselbalch equation, and it can be incredibly useful to you in solving these problems. But I'm going to emphasize when it's OK to use it and when it's not OK to use it, because people try to apply it to everything, and it's for buffer problems, and people apply it to all sorts of things that are not buffer problems. So I want to make sure that it's clear when you can use it and when you can't use it. And it's fine to use it and you should use it when it's acceptable, but not at other times. It's one of the few equations in acid base, so people get very excited by it. All right, so remember that it's really equal when they're at equilibrium concentrations, and this is just an approximation that we're saying that those are initial concentrations. So when is it OK to say well, the equilibrium concentration is more or less the same as the initial concentration. And that's true when x, which is in this particular example your hydronium ion concentration, is small compared to your initial concentration of the acid and the conjugate base that you added to the buffer. So, and when x is small, then pretty much, the equilibrium concentration equals the initial concentration. So there's not really very much change if x is a really small number. So, a lot of the time this is true. Remember, we're making buffers from weak acids and weak conjugate bases, and the definition of a weak acid is that it only loses a tiny fraction of its protons. It only ionizes slightly in water. And a weak base typically only accepts a fraction of the protons it can accept. It's a weak base, so it's not doing a whole lot of chemistry there. So this approximation is good a lot of the time. So just you know when you can and can not use it, we're going to give a rule and say it's the same rule as before. When we say when x is small or your hydronium ion concentration is small compared to the acid or the conjugate base, when it's less than 5%, that's what we're going to call small, so the same rule we've been using all along. When x is small, this approximation works pretty well. And you can plug in your concentrations right there -- your initial concentrations not your equilibrium concentrations. All right, so let's use Henderson Hasselbalch and design a buffer system if we want a p h of 4 . 6. And a good rule to remember is that a buffering solution is most effective when it's plus or minus 1 away from the p k a. So that's a good thing too I keep in mind for research as well. If you're really far away from the p k a, it's not going to be a good buffering system, and this is a mistake the people make in the lab sometimes, so you may run into that in some of your laboratory courses. So we want a buffer about p h 4 . 6. So we can look at our ionization constants of acid, and of course, we're always doing everything at room temperature in this unit, and so we can look at what p k a's are of some weak acids, and acetate, acetate is an easy buffer to get your hands on, acetate is quite available, and it has a good p k a 4 . 75. So that's great, we can use that in designing our buffer. So, acetic acid has the right p k a, and we're all set, we can prepare a buffer. But we'll need to add the acid and the conjugate, and we need to know how much acid and how much of the conjugate to add. So we can use Henderson Hasselbalch equation for this. We're creating a buffer, and so this is an equation we can use for buffers. We know what p h we want, we know the p k a of the thing we're going to use, and we want to figure out how much of the acid to use and how much of the conjugate to use. We need to know the ratio of one to the other to set up our buffer ideally. So we can plug our numbers in and calculate that. So, we can rearrange this if you want so that the unknown is on one side and we have to p k a and the p h on the other side. And so, we have here our p k a minus our p h and we get . 15. Now we need to inverse log and come up with the ratio, and the ratio that we want is 1 . 4. So we want to have a ratio from our acid to the conjugate of 1 . 4. Well how much exactly are we going to add them, we know the ratio now, how much are we going to add? Well, you could use 1 . 4 molar and 1 molar, for example, that would have the correct ratio. But how do you know if that's going to be good? Well, the ratio is more important than the exact amounts, however, the amounts get to this issue of sort of the capacity of the buffer -- how resistant it is to changes in the p h. So if you use too low concentrations of both, it won't be all that resistant. So if you need to have a better buffering capacity, the higher concentrations that you should use. And you can use Henderson Hasselbalch then to calculate what sort of the minimum amount you use, the minimum amount to have that 5% rule work. So in the example I told you about this condition, the buffer in the blood was pretty good, but the acid with so much that it overwhelmed buffering capacity. So if there had been larger concentrations of the buffer, that would have certainly helped in that case. So the higher the concentrations you use, the more resistant to change. And that's the idea of buffering capacity. So, and if you use too low concentrations, then your Henderson Hasselbalch equation won't even be valid. So we can go back and calculate what is sort of the minimum concentrations we need to use for Henderson Hasselbalch to be valid to meet that 5% rule. So for a p h of 4 . 6, a hydronium ion concentration is a 2 . 5 times 10 to the minus 5. And so then if we work our equation backwards, we want to be less than 5%, so we have this over the concentration of either one of those times 100% gives you 5%. So the concentrations need to be greater than 5 times 10 to the minus 4 moles or you won't meet this 5% rule. So at least to be greater than that and they need to be in the right ratio. Other than that you're somewhat free to decide what you're going to do with that, and there may be other considerations involved if you're working with a certain concentration of protein, you might not want your buffer concentration to be too high, it might start interfering with enzyme assay, for example. And often buffers are somewhere around 100 millimolar, that's a pretty common concentration for buffers. All right, so this slide we're doing really well. So we talked about weak acids in water, weak bases in water, and I'm trying to convince you that these are the same as the salt and water problems. So we're going to talk much more about salt and water in a few minutes. And I told you about buffers, so we only have 2 more things to go. We need to talk about strong acids in water, and strong bases in water, and then you'll have all of the 5 types of problems to do the problem-set. And as I mentioned last time, it looks deceivingly short, the number of questions on them, but the titration problems are long. So don't leave those to the last minute or there will not be a whole lot of sleep involved. So just a word of warning from the past. Everyone looks and go, "Oh, this is an easy problem-set, there aren't many problems." So, titration problems do take a lot of time. So let's talk about titration, so that as soon as class is over today, you can go work on those questions on the problem-set. All right. So acid base titrations. How many of you in high school titrated an acid with a base? Large fraction of you, OK. So usually what titration problems are meant to do, that you have something known about an acid or a base, base say of known concentration, and and acid of unknown concentration or maybe unknown molecular weight, and you're titrating them out, titrating them together to find missing information. So you can determine concentration, sometimes you can determine a molecular weight. All right, so here's what a plot looks like and some of the key terms involved in acid base titrations. So you have a p h on one side, and then volume of either base or acid added on the other side. So p h versus a volume. And the actual experiment here, you have a base that you're dripping, one drip at a time supposedly into your strong acid. And then you're looking to figure out when you're going to reach the either equivalence point or the end point, these are basically the same terms. It's also called the stoichiometric point, and often equivalence point is used as a more theoretical amount of volume is added, where as end point is the experimentally measured. So we're going to be talking a lot about equivalence points, because we have no lab associated with this course, so everything will be theorectical in terms of these, but they should be the same. So, many times you will measure p h with the p h meter -- this just shows a p h meter. And for those of you who have done these experiments, this should look familiar. And for those of you who haven't, often what you're doing when you're dripping something in, you're waiting for an indicator dye to change color as an indication that you have reached the end point, and often you're adding, and it's clear, clear, clear for what seems to be forever, and just as you get incredibly impatient, you start adding it faster and you go all the way to this dark color. And what you want is this very, very, very light changed color that indicates the end point. So you usually go too slow and then go too fast and then have to do the experiment over again. Those of you who know how to calculate theoretical values could sit down and do a calculation first and then go really fast right until you get around this point and add it really slowly, and be done with lab sooner. So, we'll talk about how you do the theoretical value, which could save you a lot of time if you ever run across these labs in any future class. So, here are the two curves that you would see for either a strong acid with a strong base, or strong base with a strong acid. So if you're titrating a strong acid with a strong base, you're going to start down being very acidic, because all you have is your strong acid. And then as you add in base, the p h will go up. You'll reach this point -- s is for the stoichiometric point, we also call this, again, the equivalence point, and then it'll continue to go up and then start to level off a bit more up here. If you're going the other direction, you're starting with strong base, your p h is going to be high, and the p h will decrease as you add the acid. And then you get to the stoichiometric or equivalence point in the middle of this curve here. And then as you go down farther, more acidic, it starts to level off. So those are what the titration curves look like. So let's do an example. We're going to have a strong base being titrated with a strong acid first. And our strong base is n a o h, and our strong acid is h c l. So let's calculate the p h at the equivalence point. Well, let's just calculate the p h at 5 mils -- I don't know whether it's equivalence point, actually. 5 mils of this have been added to the amount of base. So we have 25 mils of our strong base at 0.15 molar concentration, and we're adding 5 mils of our 0.34 molar acid. So what we want to do is figure out how many moles of base we had to start with. So how many moles of o h minus -- again, n a o h is a strong base, so however much n a o h you add, is the amount of o h minus you get, and so we just put in the number of liters times the concentration to get moles. We don't need any equilibrium table here. So then we want to figure out the amount of acid added when you're adding 5 mils of it. So again, h c l is a strong acid, so the amount of h c l added equals the amount of h 3 o plus, that's formed, goes to completion, and so we added 5 mils, the concentration was 0.34 molar, so we have 1 . 7 times 10 to the minus 3 moles. So now, the strong acid is going to react with the strong base, and we want to figure out how much of the base is left, how much hydroxide ion is left after it reacts with the hydronium ions. So it'll react 1:1, so we had 6 . 25 times 10 to the minus 3 moles, and we added 1 . 7 times 10 to the minus 3 moles of the acid, so we're going to have 4 . 55 times 10 the minus 3 moles left. And now we can calculate the molarity here, so we have the number of moles and the new volume, so we had 25 mils to the base to begin with. We've added 5 mils to the acid, so our new volume is 30, and so we have our new concentration. And now we can calculate p h. First we'll calculate p o h, and then use 14 minus to get the new p h. So if you were making your own little titration curve, we could have volume of acid on one side and p h on the other side, and you have a point of 13 . 18. That's how much we have after you have 5 mils added. So we didn't, in this curve, we have not measured the zero point, but we know what one point after 5 mils of the acid has been added. So now let's go right to the equivalence point -- so the way I draw it should indicate that was not an equivalence point. So we want to figure out how much we need to add of the acid to reach the equivalence point. So the equivalence point or the stoichiometric point means that you add the same amount of moles of your titrate as you had, and so they're going to be equal to each other. So if you're adding acid to a strong base, you've added enough acid that you now have equal number of moles to the number of moles of base that you had to begin with. So we know we have 6 . 25 times 10 to the minus 3 moles of the base were present. So at the equivalence point, you need to have that exact same number of moles of acid. So we know the concentration of the acid we have and the number of moles we need, and so we can calculate the volume, which is 18 . 4 millimeters, or 0.0184 liters. So what would the p h then be of the equivalence point? We're titrating a strong acid with a strong base, what should the p h be? The p h should be 7. So somewhere around here we're going to be at 18, so you can just try to draw a curve, and here we have a p h of 7 when we've gone to about 18 . 4 milliliters added. So when you titrate a strong acid with a strong base, you form a salt that's neutral. Because the conjugates of a strong acid and a strong base are not basic or acidic. They're ineffective as acids or bases, so you're going to get a neutral salt. So if you're doing a problem with a strong acid and strong base, it's not a lot of calculations that need to be done at this point, you just need to recognize that your salt should be neutral. So now, we can talk about what happens if you add an extra milliliter of your acid, after you've reached that equivalence point, which is something that people probably have done in doing these titrations not meaning to, gone well beyond the equivalence point. So first we can find out the number of moles of the strong acid that we've added extra, so we added one mil of the strong acid, and so again, it goes to completion. The concentration, the acid, is 0.34 molar times our 1 mil, so we've added 3 . 4 times 10 to the minus 4 extra moles of our acid, and so let's calculate then what the molarity is that we have added that was extra. And even if you don't have a calculator, we've helped you out. Let's just take 10 more seconds. I think this is a first, isn't it? Did I mention it's a good idea to start the problem-set early. So the trick here was about the volume. So we had 25 mils to begin with, then we added 18 . 4 to get to the equivalence point, and then we're 1 mil beyond the equivalence point. And the tricks to these parts of the problems are to remember all the things that have been added to get to the volume. So the problem itself is not very tricky of having just an acid in water, but the one trick is in calculating the molarity, remembering all of the things that were added to get to this point. And so by the end of the problem-set this should be pretty familiar to you, but it's also something that you want to make sure that you check on an exam that you're not making any volume mistakes. So again, here are the things that you want to remember to add in in calculating this. And then, if you calculate the p h of that, you get a p h of 2 . 1106, so that's down somewhere in here. We've added 1 more mill, and we're at a p h of 2 . 1106, and this can be a check as well. If you forgot to add some of your volume, you might get a p h that doesn't make a lot of sense. So that can be a double check. Always ask yourself when you have a strong base and you're adding acid, before you've added very much, your p h should be basic. At the equivalence point of a strong acid, strong base titration, it'll be 7. And if you continue to add acid, then you should have a pretty low p h, you'll notice the curve drops off pretty fast. So it should be a dramatic change in p h by adding extra of your	eng	c465247f-b561-464d-ac48-6b3e64dc681d	http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/chemistry/5-111-principles-of-chemical-science-fall-2008/video-lectures/lecture-23/
Staphylococcus is a group of disease-causing bacteria that infects various body tissues (Stoppler, 2012). There are 30 identified species of S. aureus, but only three are pathogenic in humans. Staphylococcus aureus is a gram- positive, facultative anaerobic, non- motile, usually unencapsulated coccus. Staph, as is commonly known, can cause more than 30 infections, but many infections of public health concerned are caused by staphylococcus aureus, a type of staphylococcus. Staphylococcus inhabits the nose and the skin in apparently healthy adults. It is present in 25% of persons who work in the hospital setting. In many cases, the organism does not cause illness. However, injury to the skin may allow the organism to defeat the natural protective mechanism and cause infections. Staph infection is common in institutional health care settings including hospitals and nursing homes. In these settings, S. aureus is the dominant cause of urinary tract infections, surgical wound infections, pneumonia, and sepsis (bloodstream infections). Meticillin- resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the known strain that cause infections among persons in health care settings. Virulence S. aureus exhibits a variety of pathogenic factors, which aid tissue colonization, tissue damage, and development of distant diseases (Jensen, 2009). The organism employs virulence factors such as toxins, adhesins, and imunomodulatory factors that aid infection of different tissues in the host. For example, it produces SpA, α-, and β- toxins that cause staphylococcus pneumonia. S. aureus can survive inside host tissues and is able to invade, in- vitro, nonprofessional phagocytes including osteoblasts, fibroblasts, endothelial, and epithelial cells. After colonization, the bacterium may multiply and further disseminate, or persist, escaping antibacterial agents and the host's immunity defense. The organism has global regulators that sense modifications in the environment such bacterial density. These regulators aid the capacity of the organism to evade body defense mechanism. In accordance to the situation in the environment, the regulators may or may not trigger the bacterium to secrete proteins that lyse the host cells and enable the bacterium to propagate. This ability allows the bacteria to gain therapeutic sanctuary, as well as play hide and seek in the human tissues. Transmission Staphylococcus infection is contagious, and transmission occurs until the resolution of infection. Direct contacts with infected wounds or sores, and/or personal-care items (razors, bandages, etc.) are the major routes of transmission (Bien, Sokolova, & Bozko, 2011). Kissing and other forms of casual contact such as hugging do not pose a high risk of transmission of the bacteria if they do involve direct contact with infected areas. Anyone is prone to an infection with staph, but certain members of the population are at higher risk. They include newborn babies, breastfeeding mothers, and people suffering from chronic disease conditions such as cancer, diabetes, lung disease, and cardiovascular disease. Patients on treatment with intravenous catheters, injecting drug users, those with surgical incisions, and medications that weaken the immune system have a higher risk of contracting infection with staphylococcus aureus. Infections Staphylococcus Aureus is a pathogenic bacterium that can cause several infections categorized in three groups (Ibid). 1) Superficial lesions such as wound infection, 2) toxinoses (food poisoning, toxic shock syndrome, and scalded skin syndrome), and 3) are systemic and life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia, endocarditis, brain abscesses, bacteremia, osteomyelitis, and meningitis. Risk factor for infection with hospital-acquired SAB is the presence of a central venous catheter. Treatment Antibiotic ointment, such as nonprescription triple-antibiotic mixture, is the usual medication for minor infections of the skin (Stoppler, 2012). However, oral antibiotics are applicable to some cases of skin infection by S. aureus. In serious, life- threatening infections treatment involves the use of intravenous antibiotics. It is essential to conduct laboratory test to determine susceptibility of the strain of S. aureus involved in the infection. This informs the choice of antibiotic to use in specific cases of serious infections. There are some strains of S. aureus that are resistant to several antibiotics, and meticillin- resistant staphylococcus aureus is a common example (Ibid). It is resistant to meticillin and related antibiotics such as amoxicillin, penicillin, and oxacillin. Health care associated MRSA (HA MRSA) is a term commonly used to refer to MRSA because its first diagnosis occurred in hospital patients including hospitals. It affects the elderly, the very sick, and patients with open wounds (bedsores, etc.) and an intravenous catheter in the body. Mupirocin is a drug that is effective in treating MRSA in healthy carriers, but not in all cases. There are other strains of S. aureus that are resistant to certain types of classes of antibiotics (Ibid). For example, vancomycin- resistant S. aureus is resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. Prevention The basic principles of infection control must be applied to reduce transmission of MRSA from one patient to the other (Weston, 2008). These include minimizing environmental contamination. For instance, patients diagnosed with MRSA should be treated in isolation. Health care institutions should administer MRSA decolonization protocol to reduce carriage. Visitors who come to see patients should decontaminate their hands with alcohol rub on leaving the ward. Patients and persons operating in the health care environment must observe hand hygiene at all times. Patients diagnosed with MRSA should appear last on the theatre list. Other procedures include environmental cleanliness, restricting patient movements, wearing of protective equipment and clothing, decontamination of equipments, and appropriate disposal of all linen and waste. Joe is a male mental-health professional counselor. He received a referral case, a 35-year-old client named Jill, from a community-level clinic. Joe is the same age. Jill had a problem with her current job because she did not gain satisfaction from it. In the process of counseling, several issues of ethics arise in relation to the role of the counselor, client, issues of diversity (cultural and religious), and matters of counseling related to marital and family therapy as well as group counseling. Joe openly disapproves Jill's sexual orientation saying it is against his religious beliefs. He also expresses to her his discontent with her culture. Joe goes ahead to discuss re-birth therapy despite Jill's disapproval. Issues of confidentiality also arise when Joe informs Jill's employer about the counseling taking place, and also when she proposes group counseling. Ethical Standards: ACA Code of Ethics, 2005 American Association of Counseling Code of Ethics has eight sections (Corey, 2008). Section A: The counseling relationship, B: Confidentiality, C: Professional responsibility, D: Relationships with other professionals, E: Evaluation, assessment, and interpretation, F: Teaching, training, and supervision, G: Research and publication, and H: Resolving ethical issues. From the overview of the ACA Codes of Ethics, Joe violates sections A, B, and C. The sections have sub-sections that relate to specific guidelines. Multicultural Diversity According to the ACA Code of Ethics, it is mandatory for counselors to respect diversity (Section A.2.) (Ming Liu, Toporek, Coleman, & Pope-Davis, 2008). This comprises the following principles: nondiscrimination (A.2.a.) and respecting differences (A.2.b.). It is the duty of counselors to appreciate the diversity of cultural backgrounds of clients whom serve. This falls under section A.2.b. which also includes self awareness. In this respect, counselors must adhere to the principle of respect of diversity, and aspire to have an understanding of self and the clients. In relation to the case, Joe does not respect diversity in terms of the difference in sexual orientation and cultural backgrounds. When Jill informs him of her being sexually attracted to persons of the same sex, expresses shock. He tells her that they should not discuss the issue as it was against the principles of his religion. He tells that her behavior is immoral and that she should pray about it. In the progress of the counseling session, Jill reveals to him that she is from an Asian-American background with several cultural restrictions. Joe informs her of issues of her culture that he does not like. Couples and Family Counseling In relation to professional practice of counseling, section A.1.e. (employment needs), it is a requirement for counselors to work with clients practicing in jobs which are consistent with the counselor's abilities, physical restrictions, interest, temperament, aptitude patterns, education, general qualification, and other qualities of relevance to client needs. (Gamino, 2009). Joe disregards all these provisions and begins to practice in marriage and family counseling in disregard of the ACA Code of Ethics. Marriage and family counseling requires specialized qualification. Group Counseling In relation to group therapy, section A.8. (Group Work), provides for screening of prospective participants (sectionA.8.a.) and protecting clients (Section A.8b.) (Reynolds, 2012). According to A.8.a., counselors should select clients whose goals and needs are compatible with the goals of the group, who will not distract the group therapy, and whose mental status is not jeopardized by the group experience. Section B.4.a., states that counselors should demonstrate the importance and limits of confidentiality to the client for the group. It is best-practice to have members of a group sign an acknowledgement of confidentiality and a promise that the group member shall not disclose information shared in the group sessions. In view of the guidelines for group therapy, Joe clearly violates the ACA Code of Ethics. He places Jill in a group therapy without the consideration of the goals of Jill's therapy. He does not consult her. In regard to her psychological problem, it is likely that the group will jeopardize her state of mind. Personal Values and Multicultural Diversity As a trained, competent, and certified counselor, there are expectations of professional and behavioral conduct that one follows. It is clear that the case has complex issues regarding diversity and difference of values. For a counseling process to be impactful, it has to be participatory. It has to take into account client's cultural background, values, and opinions as regards proposed therapy. Therefore, it is essential to embrace diversity so as to conduct counseling therapy that benefits the client in terms of relevance to her values, religion, culture, and opinions. This is possible through observation of the relevant sections of the American Code of Ethics, 2005. Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, of 1991, protects people with disabilities and burrs employers from discriminating against such persons through biased conditions or terms of employment (Walker, 2002). In relation to the case, the court highlighted legal and economic places limitation on the infected person's intention to reproduce. The act defines disability as a mental or physical condition that impairs or limits a person's significant life activity. Fringe benefits are a condition or term of employment. In ordinary situations, persons obtain an insurance cover through employment. The law prohibits discrimination in relation to accommodation public places. Reproduction is a vital life function although the act does not include it in the listed examples. The act states examples of such activities whose impairment constitutes disability. People with impaired reproductive capacity are persons with disabilities in the context of the act. However, the debate is not over, hence, not clear whether an employer and/or insurance agencies can limit or exclude, altogether, treatment cover for infertility. In what ways is infertility a disability? In what ways is it not? Infertility is the failure of a person to achieve pregnancy over a specified duration of time, normally one year, in which the person participates in regular, unprotected sex (Basco, Campo-Engelstein, & Rodriguez, 2010). However, this definition has been expanded to include persons who may become infertile as a consequence of a medical condition or treatment for conditions such as cancer. It is a disability in the sense that its treatment is too expensive for an average citizen to afford. The number of persons of reproductive age diagnosed with cancer and undergoing treatment is high. Fertility concerns in relation to the quality of life of cancer survivors are emerging. In a study of cancer patients, 76% of them expressed the desire to have a biological child in the future. Impairment of fertility has psychological and physical dimensions. Absence of insurance coverage and extreme costs are the cardinal reasons why cancer specialists do not recommend fertility preservation option to cancer patients. Infertility is not a disability in cases where persons choose not have children through procedures that destroy their potential to reproduce (Rauprich, Berns, & Vollman, 2010). Some women decide to use fertility preserving technology to delay child bearing. It is a voluntary decision and does not amount to disability. In the case of Bragdon vs. Abbot, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Abbot stating the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) protected him and that Bragdon could easily perform the routine dental cavity filling procedure (Walker, 2002). In making this decision, the Supreme Court judges considered infection with HIV a disability since it compromises significant life activity i.e. fertility or reproduction. This particular ruling opened discussion as what amounts to the definition of infertility in relation to insurance coverage mandate. The court's ruling implies that persons with disabilities other than HIV infection can seek protection under the act i.e. ADA. These could include persons undergoing treatment, persons with Down's syndrome, and conditions such as sickle cell anemia. However, there are unclear circumstances that may complicate application of the act. The definition of reproduction has a variety of loop holes and raises some questions. Example, can gay women and men for instance seek protection from the ADA act? Treatment for cancer is the other example. Increased rate of survival for patients suffering from cancer is the reason why there is a high demand for fertility preservation technology (Orentlicher, 2010). Fertility preservation is, generally, a quality of life issue. Many people agree that FPT exists for the purpose of the patient's fertility preservation and that cancer patients should access the technology. The point of contention is to whether insurance coverage mandate should encompass FPT. Objection to this is based on the fear that if that happens, the technology will then have to be rolled out to reach all female cancer patients regardless of their cancer status because all women will experience anticipated future inability to reproduce i.e. menopause (Rauprich, Berns, & Vollman, 2010). It may create a channel through which women without cancer or any other illness that can cause iatrogenic infertility may eventually be included in the coverage mandate. The Supreme Court's ruling is a significant step towards protecting the rights of the disabled. The challenge for future cases is in proving that their status meets the definition for impairment, mental and physical, and places a significant limitation in their fertility. Barry school is located five miles from Yuba City in California USA. The school aims to provide students with strong instructional program that will enhance their ability to achieve excellent academic performance. Other than academic excellence, the school should strive to adopt several after-school program. After school program are crucial as they promote the students personal and social growth. It also boosts the student's academic performance. After school programs can be academic or non academic. After school programs will be implemented for use after school and when the schools close. Such programs keep the students busy enough. They therefore stay clear off vices and negative influences that lay out in their communities. After-school program play the crucial role of shaping the students life to be morally upright (Zief, & Maynard, 2006). Problem Statement There is need for Barry school to take up an elaborate after school program to ensure that their students not only acquire academic success but also social and personal growth. Methods A research study was conducted on the after school programs available for students at Barry school. The observations method of data collection was used. After lessons were over, the activities that students engaged in were observed. Interview were also conducted among the students and instructors to determine the after school activities that the school had. Another study was conducted to determine the types and categories of after school programs that institutions such as Barry school can adopt. This was conducted against the background information that Barry School hosts students from kindergarten to level eight. Findings Research into the after school programs available at Barry school showed that the school had inadequate activities. Most students were idle after school. Others however, were involved in extra curricula activities such as basketball practice, swimming and ballet. A majority of the students were however idle and headed home soon after classes. The school lacked an elaborate after school program when schools were closed. A review on after school programs that the school can adopt reveled numerous options. They include: academic enrichments, recreational facilities, and physical fitness and life skills. Benefits Of After School Programs After school programs are beneficial to the students overall well being. First it helps students widen their scope of interest. Students are able to discover new interests and talents in after school programs. With constant practice, these students end up engaging in this activities which opens up more opportunities for success. Barry school also needs after school programs so as to reduce the increasing levels of school drops puts. Most students are usually unsupervised once they leave the school premise. They are thus tempted or pressured to engage in criminal activities and delinquent behavior. After school program are supervised and will keep the students busy until when they are transferred to the care of their parents (Piha, 2006). The risk of drop out due to delinquent behavior will significantly be reduced. Engaging in non academic after school activities also boosts the students self esteem and well being. This is because the students have an opportunity to talent his talents, hobbies sand skills. By constant practice the students receives praise and recognition which boosts his self esteem. An improved self esteem is a motivator for a student to put extra efforts in all other spheres of his or her life (Zief, & Maynard, 2006). In terms of health, after school activities discourage students from living a sedentary lifestyle. Most child if unattended spends their free time watching television and playing computers games. The sedentary lifestyle puts them at risk of being overweight and obese. This conditions in turn lead to occurrences of other underlying health complication such as Type II diabetes. After school activities encourage students to be active participating in sports, engaging in field trips and generally being up and about rather that sitting in one position for hours (Halpern, 2003). Analysis An after-school program that fosters academic enrichment ensures that students are at par in terms of their academic growth. One example of academic nourishments is assisting students to complete their homework. An effective after school program ensures that the students write and properly complete their homework. Such a program will be supervised by instructors on a rotational basis. Assisting students in writing their homework guarantees that the students will complete their assignments and have a better understanding of the concept they had discussed in class. After school program on academic achievement also involves improving the student level of literacy (Fashola, 2002). This can best be achieved by establishing literacy clubs such as book clubs, drama and theatre club, creative writing and journalism club. Students will be encouraged to join this club. By joining at least one club, the pupils will be able to engage in productive after school activities at least thrice a week (Piha, 2006). Clubs such as the book, club, journalism and creative writing will helps students to not only enjoy themselves but also be avid readers which will in turn improve their vocabulary and overall literacy. Other clubs such as mathematics and science club will help students sharpen their science and arithmetic skills which will come handy during mainstream learning. Other than adoption of after school programs that will foster academic growth, Barry school can also consider adopting life skills program. These are after school programs that aim to help students grow morally upright. Life skills programs help students to identity and shun social ills. Students fall vicit5ms to ills such as criminal activities, drugs and bullying (Zief, & Maynard, 2006). Introduction of life skill program will help mold students into living a morally upright lifestyle. The students will be advised of the danger of substance and drug abuse, premarital sex, engaging in violence and other intimidating acts such as bullying. Recreational and Nutritional Recreational and nutritional program can also be adopted as after school programs. This is essential for the health and well being of students. The rising number of children who are overweight and or obese is alarming. By adopting such an after school program, the school will have joined and greatly contributed to having a healthier nation. Such programs will include fitness activities aimed at keeping fit and loosing excessive fats. Theory classes will also be held on a regularly basis. These lessons will be aimed at empowering the students on proper feeding habits and determining what is healthy feeding from what is not (Halpern, 2003). Cultural events programs can also be held as after school activities. This can be possible especially when the students have closed school for long holidays. During these times, students have a lot of time on their hands. If now well utilized, the students can find themselves exposed to social ills. Cultural events can range from field trips, talents shows and cultural exhibitions (Zief, & Maynard, 2006). These activities require a lot of time to prepare for. Keeping the students busy using cultural events can not only be entertaining and a break from mainstream studies but it can also be educational. Recommendation The school administrations and management at Barry school should strive to integrate some if not all the after school programs suggested above. Students need all round growth. School should be able to offer more than academic growth. Time spent in school should not be just about class work, reading, examinations and assignments. The school should be a place where students can receive all round growth. Most students at Barry school have nothing to do after their lessons. They are thus found idling around the school, passing time (Fashola, 2002). The school administration should make it mandatory for each student to participate in any case one after-school program. Students with difficulty determining their preferred program will be assisted by their tutors. Programs to help students on their academic achievement will include remedial classes. The school should include remedial classes for slow learning students. Remedial classes will enable students catch up on concepts that they missed in class. Students will difficulty completing specific assignments will rely on such after school program as well. After school programs may be expensive to implement for many school. It is crucial therefore; that the management at Barry school seeks funds from bodies such as After School Education & Safety (ASES) which offers grants to institutions with solid after school programs (Piha, 2006). This report recommends that the administration looks into adoption the activities indicated above in the after-school program the school will take up. Barry school needs a solid and reliable after school program Conclusion Adopting an elaborate after school program at Barry school may appear expensive but the school administration should consider introducing various after school activities. The importance of these activities is numerous and help student grow academically, socially and psychologically. After school programs can be educational as well as recreational as students engage in activities of their own interests. After school activities are supervised. The management at Barry school will be able to monitor their students for a longer period of time. This in turn minimizes the risk of student's exposure to drugs, premarital sex, crimes and many other vices. Logistics is a business framework in the supply chain that entails the management of material, service and flow of information within an organization. An effective logistics system in an organization ensures that the planning, implementation and control of goods and services is effective. Goods and service flow internally and externally within an organization. The flow of information from the point of origin to the point of utilization should also be effective. Body An effective supply chain flow in an organization means that the company implements and utilizes a "leading edge" in its logistics systems. Determining an effective "leading edge" in logistics means that the organization determines a cost effective strategy of operations. Supply chains are constantly being modified, it is important therefore that an organization keeps up with the changes ensuring that they adopt those changes that will be beneficial to the company (Coyle, & Gibson, 2008). A "leading edge" logistics system will enable the organization to effectively not any impending changes in the supply chain. By identifying imminent changes the organization will be in a position to effectively make relevant changes that will ensure operations are not affected. "Leading edge" logistics in supply chain means that the organization should have an efficient logistics system. The logistics should operate in line with organization objectives ensuring that they assist in achieving the set organizational goals (Wood, 2002). A "leading edge" logistics also looks into the structural aspect of the organization. It ensures that the organization has optimal facilities that enhance productivity. The ability to efficiently implement logistics across all the essential departments of the organization also determines its success. There are several essential competent that are essential for a supply chain for the future. First, a "leading edge" logistics must provide the organization with an elaborate transportation system. The transportation system is for incoming or outgoing goods or services. The transportation system must be efficient at all levels of the organization. The second component of a "leading edge" logistics is the aspect of outsourcing. Outsourcing offers labor advantage and helps save on labor costs. Outsourcing is aimed at improving the overall services that the organization provides. The third component is technological advancement. A "leading edge" logistics for the future adopts technologies that will boost the organizations performance. It enables the organization to receive essential information and data in real time (Coyle, & Gibson, 2008). A logistics system that has embraced technology will enable the organization to remain competitive and ahead of its rivals. The fourth is expansion capabilities. A "leading edge" logistics guarantees that an organization has viable expansion opportunities. An organization hat hopes to remain competitive in the future must have room for growth. An effective logistics systems guarantee that opportunities for expansion into global markets can be attained (Wood, 2002). Conclusion The secret to the success of many organizations is the presence of an effective logistics as well as chain management system. An organization must be in a position to tap into the labor market and acquire qualified personnel. The organization must also be in a position to adopt the latest technology that will help boost the operation within the organization. The organization must be able to focus on change so as to determine the effective strategies that can be adopted. The overall purpose of logistics is not only to reduce on costs within the organization but to guarantee maximum customers satisfaction. A Psychology degree is a passport into a career in postgraduate education and professional practice. I joined undergraduate program in Psychology so as to gain insight into my own behavior and that of others. It is an intellectual challenge, but with capacity for interaction with culturally diverse people. I spent 4 years at Argosy University studying a baccalaureate degree in Psychology which I successfully completed in 2012. During the study period at the University, I attended a number of lectures, fieldwork expeditions, and conferences. In me, there has been a development of a range of skills and confidence to experiment with new ideas. The University offers global Bachelor of Science and Master of Science programs in an attractive and conducive learning environment. Cognitive Development During my study at the university, gained knowledge and abilities for critical thinking as applied to problem solving in the practice of psychology. I am a different person in relation to the brain processes information. I am able to acquire and make use of information and experiences gained through mental processes. In the summary of cognitive capacity, the areas of proficiency include learning, retrieval, thinking, and memory storage. These are aspects of everyday speech that I perfected through the Psychology program at Argosy University. Cognitive ability is the capacity to diagnose and provide interventions by processing visual, gustatory, olfactory, and auditory information depending on situations (Esgate, 2005). Cognitive psychology involves aspects of how one's brain processes information. It affects performance and behavior in real-life situations of psychology practice and interpersonal communication. The Psychology program at Argosy University has a quality structure for cognitive development in students. Research Skills Research is a core module in the undergraduate degree in psychology (Latto & Latto, 2009). As a graduating student, with an honors degree in psychology, I am typically able to reason and make judgments scientifically. I understand the role of evidence and have the capacity to make critical inferences in psychology research. The research skills that I acquired at the university include the ability to adopt perspectives and analyze the relationships between them systematically. Through behavior and experience, I can detect meaningful patterns and evaluate their significance. I have the capacity to pose, operationalize, and critique research questions. I can confidently apply multiple statistical methods, and competently, design, initiate, and conduct empirical research. In addition, I am able to prepare appropriate inferential reports. I understand limitations of various methods and the implications. I am aware of ethical principles of research and approval procedures for research. Sample research proposals and reports are provided for the purpose of evidence for these qualities. I undertake self-directed research and study in order to meet desired objectives. I am computer literate and I am proficient in word processing, database systems, and use of statistical software programs to process information. Communication Skills Communication skills are essential for effective study and practice of psychology (Latto & Latto, 2009). Again, this is a core component of the study program in Psychology at Argosy University. Upon completion and graduation with a degree in Psychology, I am able to communicate general information and present research reports, both effectively and fluently, through oral, written, and visual means. This is possible through the ability to comprehend and make use of statistical and complex information sets. I am capable of solving problems through consideration of alternative solutions, clarification of questions, and evaluation of outcomes. I am aware of, and react accordingly, to contextual and interpersonal issues in groups and teams. Ethics and Diversity Awareness Psychologists work in the society to improve the quality of life of people. In view of this respect, I am aware of the ethical considerations and issues of diversity as regards the practice of psychology. In addition, I understand the codes of behavior and practice as relates to professionalism. Psychology, as applied globally, requires a practitioner to embrace cultural pluralism (Francis, 2009). The world is complex in terms of diversity of cultures, values, and beliefs. Therefore, I am aware of this and treat people in the context of this diversity so as to eliminate bias, unethical, and, therefore, ineffective practice. Knowledge of Foundations of the Field I understand the foundations of psychology as are critical in application of knowledge in professional endeavors. Psychology is a scientific study of behavior and mental processes. It involves understanding, explanation, and scientific investigation of behavioral and mental aspects of life. These are components of human functions that relate to history and personal experiences. Rationalism and empiricism are the roots of psychology. Rationalism is founded on reason and logic i.e. theory, whereas empiricism focuses on data. The modern fields of psychology include cognitive, health, biopsychology, developmental, clinical, evolutionary, and social psychology. Psychology studies behavioral experiences and is inspired by biology. Knowledge of Applied Psychology Applied psychology refers to the application of the principles of psychology in areas of business, health, law, social change, forensics, and education. I am aware of the themes or principles of applied psychology which includes improving health, promoting democracy, increasing safety, improving education, and increasing prosperity. These are the goals that psychologists embrace while at service in applied psychology. Psychology is not only limited to health and behavioral change, it is also applicable in improving the status of life in the various sectors of development. My interest in applied psychology emanates from the need to promote the observation of human rights which is cardinal to improvements of the quality of life and achievement of equality of all persons in society. Interpersonal Effectiveness I have the capacity for effective communicate with people and operate in tandem with best-practices of interactions in teams. Quality practice of psychology relies on collaboration and team efforts across various disciplines. Therefore, it is essential that a Psychology graduate understands issues of personal relations and diversity. Final Evaluation Argosy University's most cardinal contributions to the American society are exceptional basic research and training of undergraduate and graduate students to the highest possible standard. The psychology program in particular, is student-centered and research-based conferring evidence-based knowledge to students. Upon graduation, Argosy graduates can almost readily integrate into the society and positively transform the psychology practice. I direct personal learning and development though a reflection and evaluation of personal weaknesses and strengths for the purpose of continued future learning and development. As evident in the work samples, I am a qualified psychologist and, hence, ready to engage in professional practice. The documents serve as evidence of my skills in communication, research, cognitive development, and ethics; and an understanding of the foundation of general psychology and applied psychology. Excess weight particularly obesity weakens almost every aspect of health, from respiratory to reproductive function. Obesity raises the chances of individuals suffering from deadly and debilitating diseases. Such diseases include heart ailment, diabetes as well as handful types of cancers. It is through a variety of pathways that obesity is capable of doing this, while some are clear such as mechanical stress. Others involve complex changes in hormones and metabolism. The condition also diminishes the quality and length of life of individuals as it increases the health costs. These costs are incurred in the treatment of related diseases among which diabetes is included. It is, however, essential to note that individuals who are obese can be able to address their situation. Weight loss is a significant aspect through which obese persons can be able to reduce the risk of getting diabetes. Research question The research question or the papers is to establish whether there is a relationship between obesity and diabetes. Literature review One of the most challenging public health issues in the twenty first century is diabetes and obesity. There are staggering statistics that have supported that obesity largely contributes to individuals being diabetic. In the United States of America, there has been a constant raise in the amount of individuals who are diabetic. This increase has largely been attributed to raise in number of individuals who are obese. Last year the percentage of individuals in America who are diabetic increased by six percent. The same period also saw an increase by fifty seven percent in the number of individuals who are obese. Recent studies have revealed that there is a steeper increment of suffering from diabetes for those persons who have weight gain. With each kilogram of weight that is gained, there is a nine percent increased risk of getting diabetes. Studies have shown that the risk of developing diabetes was ninety three times higher, in women who had a body mass index of thirty five or higher. This was when contrasted with individuals who had a BMI that was fewer than twenty two. Colditz GA (1995). Research has shown that eighty to ninety percent of individuals who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are obese. It is essential to comprehend what causes the disease so as to be able to prevent diabetes in the future. Individuals who are overweight place extra stress on their bodies in a number of ways. Such includes the body's ability to maintain appropriate blood glucose levels. Being overweight results to a person's body to be resistant to insulin. For people who do not have diabetes it means that the stretched effects of the insulin resistance ultimately causes a person to develop the disease. For overweight individuals who are diabetic, it means that they are required to consume more insulin so as to get more sugar in the cells. Weight gain that usually results to obesity is more common in individuals who consume insulin to treat diabetes. This is because additional insulin that is used to maintain blood glucose levels results to more glucose absorption in the cells. This is in contrary with what is supposed to happen where the excess glucose should be eliminated from the body. Koh P. (2004). The glucose that is absorbed is then stored as fat which makes a person to gain weight. People who have been diagnosed with diabetes is required to modify their diets for that reason. This is since it is probable that they will gain weight once they start consuming insulin. Failure to do this complicates the problem that the body has of maintaining appropriate blood glucose. This would then increase the risk of complications that are diabetic related. Persons who have begun to take insulin for treatment of diabetes should refrain from having much food. During adulthood, weight gain has also increased risk of getting diabetes even among individuals who are considered to have BMIs in the healthy range. Research that has been conducted on weight related diseases has shown that diabetes is the most likely to be acquired. Men and women who are termed to be in the standard weight range have a less risk of getting type 2 diabetes. These are people who have a BMI that is fewer than twenty five. The comparison is with individuals who have a body mass index of thirty or higher. Diabetic and obesity risk factors may be associated with age, race and family. It is, however, becoming evident that the lifestyles that are currently being adopted largely contribute to the development of both conditions. Such include inactive and deskbound lifestyles that have resulted to reduced physical activity. Other lifestyles such as having high energy diets and meals are termed to be convenient. They have also resulted to obesity that has put people on diabetes risk. The quest to close the information gap that exists on how to handle obesity and diabetes has resulted to studies in metabolism process. Some researchers have studied metabolism process in mice and have reported that mice that lack enzyme are lean. They are also resistant to weight gain even when they are placed on a high fat diet. This studies and results can be termed to be positive because of the rennin blocking drugs. These include drugs that are used for purposes of controlling blood pressure as they may be used to take care of diabetes, portliness and insulin resistance. In clinical experiments, these drugs have portrayed positive results when it comes to improving insulin sensitivity. The drugs also have the potential of reducing the occurrence of type 2 diabetes. There are measures that can be taken at a personal level so as to minimize the chances of developing diabetes. One is required to ensure maintenance of a healthy weight as well as increase in the physical activities. For people who have diabetes, they may try a diabetes vitamin that is specially formulated for diabetic people. For individuals who are overweight, even a minimal weight loss can reduce the risk of getting diabetes. For persons who are already diabetic, a small weight loss can reduce the quantity of medication that one needs. It also aids in prevention of common complications that are associated with diabetes such as stroke, blindness and heart attacks. There are some measures that can be adopted that support in weight reduction. One of the measures includes having a high fiber, low carbohydrate diet. This should be accompanied by twenty to thirty minutes of modest physical activity per day. Individuals who have been diagnosed with diabetes are required to consult their physicians prior to initiating and new diet or workout program. Modification of the diet should be able to prevent individuals from adding weight that is associated with consuming insulin. Furthermore, persons should ensure that they monitor their blood glucose levels on a standard basis as recommend by the physician. Research hypothesis According to previous studies, which have been, conducted on obesity and diabetes risk the researchers have focused on factors like environment, family history, the male and women population. There has been no research conducted on the relationship of obesity and diabetes among middle aged and older adults. This is one population, which has been, ignored by researchers. This study will aim at studying obesity and diabetes risk among middle aged, and older adults between the age of 39 and 79 years. The research hypothesis is as following: Ho: There is no relationship between obesity and diabetes risk among middle aged and older adults Ha: There is a relationship between obesity and diabetes risk among middle aged and older adults. The study will aim at focusing on the relationship that exists between obesity and diabetes risk among middle aged and older adults. The population of middle aged and older adults who are being diagnosed with diabetes is now being considered an epidemic. Previous studies have shown that there is a relationship between obesity and the risk of diabetes. A relationship might exist between obesity and diabetes risk among these populations because most of this people do not have enough knowledge on the link between diabetes and obesity. The key variables in this study are obesity among middle aged and older adults, and diabetes. The independent variable is obesity while the dependent variable is diabetes. In order to certify that there is a relationship between obesity and diabetes risk among middle aged, and older adults, the participants will be interviewed on their family history. The information about the family history, their blood samples, and blood pressure will be collected so as to be able to determine their cause of diabetes. This will also help in determining the participant's family history on obesity which might be due to genetic factors. The participants will also have to provide information about their nutrition, physical activities and also the BMI will be tested to identify if they have diabetes. This information will be extremely essential in certifying that a relationship does exist between obesity and diabetes risk in middle aged and older adults. When conducting research, the researchers have to ensure reliability and validity. Validity means the degree in which the test accomplishes the purpose which it was being used (Trochim, W. 2006). This is the extent to which the inferences can be made from the measurements and test scores. A test is said to be valid if it is reliable. A reliable test is one which is consistent in measuring the same thing at all time. In this case when measuring the blood pressure of the participants, the results of the test should be consistent each time the person is measured. Conclusion Obesity and diabetes can be termed to have a strong relationship as one leads to another. Individuals who are obese have been seen to have a high probability of developing diabetes. Appropriate measures should, therefore, be adopted to prevent both obesity and diabetes as they are serious health conditions. This marketing simulation is about a company whose product is passing through different points of the product lifecycle. The Thorr motorcycle was first experiencing a period of growth and then it began to decline. The company had to reposition the product with the intention of facilitating the rejuvenation of the company. Various marketing components have featured in this simulation. These include; differentiation and positioning. The simulation also demonstrates the implication of product lifecycle to marketing. Growth Phase Thorr Motorcycles was initially a successful brand. This brand was promoted using the image of a high lifestyle product that is attractive to the high income group. Thorr's highly qualified personnel were able to differentiate this product from the rest and position Thorr in the market as a high lifestyle product. The message conveyed by this product was that Thorr motorcycles was not only about transportation but was a lifestyle. The product was successful and recorded production of over 200,000 motorcycles every year. This period marked the growth stage of Thorr Motorcycle. At this stage, a company experiences a period of increased sales and declining costs. Companies at the growth phase of the life cycle should focus on increasing market share and building loyalty among its customers (Kotler & Keller, 2009). This can be achieved through offering additional value and quality customer experiences. This will make certain that the company continues to enjoy growth for a longer period. Decline Phase Thorr began to lose essential customers after a period of time. The company sales volume declined below the industry level and the organization experienced difficulties in competing with other product. Thorr motorcycle had become outdated and, therefore, could no longer appeal to the market niche. Consumers became adamant to pay high prices a product whose quality has rapidly declined. This period marked the decline phase of the Thorr Motorcycle. The lifestyle idea that used to sell the product to its consumer has become obsolete to the consumer. The company needed to respond to this situation by reinventing the product and providing fresh and new ideas to the customers (Kotler & Keller, 2009). Another option for a company at the decline stage is to discontinue the product. This option is considered in a situation where it is longer economically viable to continue with the production of the product. Rejuvenation Phase After experiencing the decline of the Thorr motorcycle, the company made a decision to discontinue the product and introduce a new brand that will reflect the values of the company. The company introduced the RRoth. RRoth was a new brand of motorcycle that represented fresh and innovative ideas. The new product targeted the young generation and various promotional channels were used to position the product in this target market. These channels include; test rides and Hollywood films. However, customization was the most effective positioning strategy. This strategy entailed allowing customers to customize the motorcycle so that they can have features that are tailored to their own preference. The new product was also fairly price in order to make it accessible to the target market. The product was very successful, one year after its launch. Differentiation and Positioning Differentiation and position are some of the marketing components that have been addressed in this simulation (Armstrong & Kotler, 2009). Differentiation is the process of distinguishing the company's product from those of the competitors. Company can use various strategies to differentiate products. These include; additional features; additional services; better customer services; packaging and branding. Positioning, on the other hand, refers to how the company presents itself to the market with the aim of getting a better appeal than itself competitors (Armstrong & Kotler, 2009). Companies can use various strategies to position their product in the market. One of these positioning strategies is differentiation (Armstrong & Kotler, 2009). The company in this simulation was able to position both the Thorr and RRoth motorcycles in the market through product differentiation. Thorr motorcycle was differentiated by creating an image of high lifestyle motorcycle. This strategy was meant to make the Thorr motorcycle appealing to the high end market. With time, this positioning strategy became less effective as the market had changed and competition had evolved. The company had to reposition itself in the market by introducing the RRoth motorcycle. RRoth motorcycle was made different by allowing customers to order customized version of the products, offering fair prices and using various promotional channels. These strategies intended to make RRoth appealing to the younger generation. The repositioning strategy was effective as review conducted one year after the launch of the RRoth indicates that the product was a success. Effect of Product Lifecycle on Marketing Product lifecycle refers to the path followed by products once they are introduced to the market until the time they are phased out of the market (Perreault, Cannon & McCarthy, 2009). Product lifecycle model suggest that products go through four major phases; introduction; growth; maturity and decline/ rejuvenation. Product lifecycle has significant implication on marketing. At the introduction phase, a product is usually characterized by slow growth and high cost (Perreault, Cannon & McCarthy, 2009). Marketers respond to this by adjusting prices and implementing promotional strategies. This what the company did during the introduction of the RRoth. The growth stage is usually characterized by high sales and declining cost. At this phase, competition begins to set in. Marketers respond to this by reinforcing their brands in the market and creating loyalty (Perreault, Cannon & McCarthy, 2009). Maturity stage is characterized by slowed growth, rising cost and stiff competition. Marketers respond to through aggressive marketing company in order to capture their rival's market share. Decline phase is characterized by diminishing sales, high cost and high competition. Marketers respond to this by rejuvenating the product or phasing out the product. The company in this simulation responded by rejuvenating the product. Sephora is a business that deals with production and distribution of beauty products which include; body products; fragrance; skincare; makeup and hair care products. Sephora distributes its product in over 17 different countries. This market is an extremely big and highly heterogeneous. Heterogeneous means that consumers within this market have different needs and expectations. Thus, Sephora must segment the market in order to operate effectively. Market segmentation is the process of breaking down the markets into segments according to consumer characteristics (Lamb, Hair and McDaniels, 2008). Consumers that have similar characteristics are placed in the same segment, which is different from consumers exhibiting different characteristics. There are various criteria for segmenting a market. Some of these include; geographical segmentation; segmentation according to demographic characteristics; behavioral segmentation and psychographic segmentation (Lamb, Hair and McDaniels, 2008). Demographic segmentation criteria are the most appropriate for Sephora's products. This is whereby the market is segmented according to demographic characteristics. Demographic characteristics include; age; gender; race; education level; ethnicity; income; region; occupation and many others (Lamb, Hair and McDaniels, 2008). One of the characteristics that best suits the segmentation of Sephora's market is income. Sephora may segment the market according their level of income and then identify the market that best appeal to the company product, economic model, pricing and marketing strategy. Another demographic segmentation factors that may apply in Sephora's case is age. Individuals from different age groups have varying needs and expectations when it comes to beauty products. Sephora may therefore segment the market according to age and select the most suitable age group. Behavioral segmentation criteria may also be applied in the segmentation of Sephora's market. This is whereby the market is segmented according to consumer behaviors (Lamb, Hair and McDaniels, 2008). These behaviors are such; rate of usage of the product; benefit sought by the consumer; willingness to buy and loyalty towards brands. Kaiser Permanate is America's leading non-profit health plan. The plan serves more than 8.6milllion people from 431 medical office buildings and 35 hospitals in the District of Colombia and nine states. The organization has an approximate 180,600 physicians and employees who dedicate themselves each year to serve the 36 million out patients' visits and more. One of the human resource management functions at Kaiser is compensation of its employees. Each individual in the organization is subject to a reward in return to their performed tasks in the organization. Within this organization, employees exchange their labor and in return receive financial and non financial rewards. Employees receive both direct and indirect financial compensation. Employees believe pay is the necessity of life and it is what drives people to seek employment. With increasing pressures from inflation, high performers should be awarded raises higher than those of average performers. However, this should be carefully done to avoid reduced motivation on other employees. Currently, the Kaiser Permanente is in search of a senior project manager to join the strategic project team. The project manager, senior will provide numerous activities related to highly sensitive strategic projects. This paper proposes a compensation and benefits plan that meets employee and organizational needs. Compensation Today, employees are looking for an organizational reward system that contains their values and desires. In as much as possible they are willing to seek for an employer who is an able and willing to offer a match in exchange for the employees' contribution. Kaiser like any other organization is interested in great talent for its senior project management position. However, it is not just up to Kaiser to determine how much compensation and benefits will be paid to the senior project manager. The healthcare business environment has its own compensation rates for similar positions. On average, Kaiser pays its project managers $82,178 which falls within a range of $49,000 and $152, 000. As the senior project manager the role will be to compile and analyze financial reports, track project progress, coordinate activities and schedules. The senior project manager will also be responsible for participation and documentation of project meetings, requirements and schedules and other duties assigned to them. Basically, a minimum of 4 years experience is required, a bachelor's degree in project management. Senior project manager to will also be required to have strong analytical, organizational, and negotiating skills and experience. Pay scale (Starting, mind, high end) Within an organization, proper compensation bridges the gap between organizational objectives and the aspirations and expectations of an individual the four things that Kaiser should consider in their pay scale is sufficient levels of rewards, equity with the labor market internally, equity with organization, and organizational member treatment. Kaiser must make sure that the rewards system fulfils the basic needs of the senior project manager. Again, there should be equity with the labor market such that potential project managers should be having a comparable option to choose from. The compensation and benefit should be at equity with other project managers within Kaiser such that all are equally empowered. Since each member has their own needs, Kaiser must ensure that individual needs are observed when dealing with each individual to avoid employees feeling out of place. Another aspect important to note is that each pay system is should not be used to attract employees but also to retain, and motivate employees. Carefully, tradeoffs should be done, on conflicting objectives such that the job security of the employee is not at stake irrespective of their contribution. Kaiser should ensure that the project manager should have tangible comparison between their inputs and the outcomes they obtain with those of other coworkers. Every employee wants assurance that their input is worth the outcomes and that compared with the work of other project managers, the compensation and benefits are similar. In Kaiser, the starting pay scale for the senior manager is $49,000. The average compensation is $83,000 while the high end pays is $152, 000. This is not so competitive within the market. However, according to glassdoor.com (2012), the project manager in San Francisco, CA area, project manager salaries. Glassdoor.com also indicates that San Francisco, CA are recommending a starting salary as $76,000, an average pay or $94,822, and the high end of $120,000. Although the minimum and average pay are higher in the average project manager pay in CA area, a senior project manager can earn up to $152,000 on the highest end. The low starting may be a discouraging factor to employees and additional benefits are compensation is needed not only to attract but also ensure that senior managers are retained. Given the sensitive nature of tasks, duties and responsibilities expected for this senior manager, Kaiser must work on its starting pay scale to match the business market expectations and requirements. Although the organization will have some applicants for the senior project manager position, it is likely that they will not feel encouraged to remain within the organization long enough especially where a similar opportunity will arise at a higher starting salary. The benefits offered in Kaiser for a senior manager are not competitive. This is the case given that as part of the organizational executives, the senior manager enjoys lavish benefits while other senior employees experience low pay. For instance, the executive enjoy a defined-benefit pension plan while other employees are deemed to receive less desirable defined-contribution plan. However Jamieson (2011) revealed that the senior management including the senior project manager, are paid less than most for profit health plans and less compared to other not for profit healthcare organizations dependent on organizational size and complexity. Kaiser needs to work on a market competitive benefits program for all its employees and not just the senior managers. This way, it will be up to the competition to attract the best senior management talent the market has as well as retain it. The achievement of an equitable employees' benefit system is not possible given that attracting and retaining effective leadership is key to the company's delivery of affordable and high quality healthcare. Factors dictating the compensation level For a senior manager, compensation will be determined by factors such as education level, Experience, accountability, and complexity of decision making (FINS, 2012). A senior manager with a bachelor's degree in project management is eligible for the starting pay scale of $52,000. However, such an applicant has limited room for negotiations on pay increment. With an additional master's in project management or related field, the applicant has an added advantage with increased power for negotiation of payment increment or minimum pay. Additional proficiency in courses like Microsoft office and Microsoft Project will only affect a person's viability for the position and is considered part of the basic educational requirements for this position. This is because computers are part of organizations today and one has to demonstrate conversancy in them (FINS, 2012). For effective performance and productivity of the organization, proficiency in Microsoft Office product or other operating systems is a requirement. In terms of experience, a minimum of four years of experience within the project management field is not sufficient for a senior project manager (FINS, 2012). However, with a low pay scale, the only way Kaiser can attain the best talent is by ensuring that it has a competitive pay scale for senior management as well. With the right compensation, it is easy to stick to higher levels of work experience for senior project managers. Experience should also involve relevant aspects that are entailed in the senior management responsibilities at Kaiser. As a manager, accountability is an essential requirement. For instance, senior manager will be responsible for adhering to strict confidentiality and information privacy requirements (FINS, 2012). The manager must, therefore, remain accountable for any organizational information. No information should have their privacy and confidentiality level compromised. Since the senior project manager is involved in project design, he or she must ensure that they are exposed to the right information to design and implement strategic projects and take responsibility for the outcomes. Senior project manager is responsible for complex decision making like the management of frequently and rapidly changing priorities. The senior manager is also responsible for critical project support function and making the right decision is important in ensuring that company objectives and goals are not overexposed. For a project Manager II, I would offer an average $74,000 within a range of $ 50,000 to $101,000. In most cases, project manager II is an assistant answerable to the senior project manager and a pay difference is essential. Obstacles For this benefits system, expected obstacles include limited financial resources to adjust the starting pay scale for project managers, and reduced employees' motivation given the difference in compensation and benefits between newly acquired senior manager and prevailing senior managers.	eng	2baec621-15d8-4a5e-87a8-96212feb48b1	http://customwritingtips.com/component/k2/itemlist/user/62-customwritingtipscom.html?start=30
Revolutions of 1989Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions... . One feature common to most of these developments was the extensive use of campaigns of civil resistance Civil resistancedemonstrating popular opposition to the continuation of one-party rule and contributing to the pressure for change. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc Eastern bloc The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pactfailed to stimulate major political changes in China. However, powerful imagesof courageous defiance during that protest helped to spark a precipitation of events in other parts of the globe. Among the famous anti-Communist revolutions was the fall ofby the end of 1991, resulting in Russia and 14 nations declaring their independence from the Soviet Union: Armenia Armenia Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of EurasiaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century.... between 1990 and 1992, the latter splitting into five successor states by 1992: Slovenia, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (comprising Serbia and Montenegro). The impact was felt in dozens of Socialist countries. Communism was abandoned in countries such as CambodiaThe People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was the official name of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991, as established by the Communist government of Mengistu Haile Mariam and the Workers' Party of Ethiopiaand South Yemen. The collapse of Communism led commentators to declarePost-communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former Communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economies with some form of parliamentaryRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... , and disproportional social and economic development. Political reforms were varied but in only five countries were Communist institutions able to keep for themselves a monopoly on powerSocial democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism... The politics of Europe deals with the continually evolving politics within the continent. It is a topic far more detailed than other continents due to a number of factors including the long history of nation states in the region as well as the modern day trend towards increased political unityentailed. Rise of communist regimes Ideas of Socialism had been gaining momentum among working class citizens of the world since the 19th century, these culminated in the early 20th century when several countries and subsequent nations formed their own Communist Parties. Many of the countries involved had monarchic governments and aristocratic Ordinarily, Socialism was undesirable within the circles of the ruling classes of the late 19th/early 20th century states; as such, Communist ideology was repressed - its champions suffered persecution while the nation on the whole was discouraged from adopting the mindset. This had been the practice even in the states which identified as exercising a multi-party system. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 saw the multi-ethnic Soviets overturn a previously nationalist Russian state along with its monarchy. The Bolsheviks comprised ethnicities of all entities which would compose the Soviet Union throughout its phases. During the interwar period, Communism had been on the rise in many parts of the world (e.g. in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941... , it had grown popular in the urban areas throughout the 1920s). This led to a series of purges in many countries to stifle the movement. Just as Communism had at some stage grown popular throughout the entities of Central and Eastern Europe, its image had also begun to tarnish at a later time all within the interwar period. As Socialist activists stepped up their campaigns against their oppressor regimes, they resorted to violence (including bombings and various other killings) to achieve their goal: this led large parts of the previously pro-Communist populace to lose interest in the ideology. A Communist presence forever remained in place however, but reduced from its earlier size Soviet Union had established a presence in a number of countries. There, they brought into power various Communist parties who were loyal to Moscow. The Soviets retained troops throughout the territories they had occupied. The Cold War saw these states, bound together by, have continuing tensions with the capitalist west symbolized by NATO.China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres... and his Communist regime in 1949. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a spontaneous nationwide anti-authoritarian revolt, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to assert control. In 1968, the USSR repressed the Prague Spring Prague Spring The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. Life under communist regimes The Black Book of Communism, published in 1997, estimates that 94 million people were killed under Communist regimesin the 1960s, the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries in the 1950s, and land reform, brought about the deaths of tens of millions of people. The press throughout the Communist period was an organ of the state, completely reliant on and subservient to the Communist party. Media served as an important form of control over information and society. The dissemination and portrayal of information were considered by authorities to be vital to Communism's survival by stifling alternative concepts and critiques. However, Western countries began using powerful radio transmitters which enabled Western broadcasts to be heard in the Eastern Bloc, despite attempts by authorities to jamCensorship in the Soviet Union was pervasive and strictly enforced.Censorship was performed in two main directions:State secrets were handled by Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press was in charge of censoring all publications and broadcasting for state... by hand and passing them from reader to reader) was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet-bloc. Eastern Bloc information dissemination was controlled directly by each country's Communist party, which controlled the state media, censorship and propaganda organs... has been criticized as leaving a legacy of apathy and indifference in their respective countries, as well as introducing widespread dishonesty and disdain of criticism. Environmental degradation was heavy in Socialist countries. The air pollution, groundwater contamination, Trabant Trabant The Trabant is a car... The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow... became icons of Communism. By the 1980s, nearly all the economies of the Eastern Bloc had stagnated, falling behind the technological advances of the West. The systems, which required party-state planning Planned economy A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions regarding production and investment are embodied in a plan formulated by a central authority, usually by a government agency... at all levels, ended up collapsing under the weight of accumulated economic inefficiencies, with various attempts at reform merely contributing to the acceleration of crisis-generating tendencies more than 60% of population lived in poverty, and inflation, measured by black-market rate of the U.S. dollar, was 1,500% in the period 1982 – 1987. Emergence of Solidarity Labour turmoil in Poland during 1980 had led to the formation of the independent trade union, Solidarity, led by which over time became a political force. On 13 December 1981, Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski Wojciech Jaruzelski Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski is a retired Polish military officer and Communist politician. He was the last Communist leader of Poland from 1981 to 1989, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985 and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's suspending the union, and temporarily imprisoning all of its leaders. The socialist market economy or socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics is the official term used to refer to the economic system of the People's Republic of China after the reforms of Deng Xiaoping. It is also referred to as socialism with Chinese characteristics... Growing KGB role in Moscow Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:... successfully joined the Party Secretariat in May 1982 and became General Secretary. According to formerIon Mihai Pacepa is the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the former Eastern Bloc. He is now a United States citizen, a writer, and a columnist.... , "In the West, if Andropov is remembered at all, it is for his brutal suppression of political dissidence at home and for his role in planning the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. By contrast, the leaders of the former Warsaw Pact intelligence community, when I was one of them, looked up to Andropov as the man who substituted the KGB for the Communist party in governing the Soviet Union, and who was the godfather of Russia's new era of deception operations aimed at improving the badly damaged image of Soviet rulers in the West." Mikhail Gorbachev Although several Eastern bloc countries had attempted some abortive, limited economic and political reform since the 1950s (Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Prague Spring Prague Spring The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II... Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991... in 1985 signaled the trend toward greater liberalization. During the mid 1980s, a younger generation of Soviet apparatchiks, led by Gorbachev, began advocating fundamental reform in order to reverse years of Brezhnev stagnation Brezhnev stagnation The Era of Stagnation, also known as Brezhnev stagnation or the Stagnation Period, refers to a period of economic stagnation under the rules of Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in the history of the Soviet Union which started in the mid-1970s.-Terminology:Various authors... . The Soviet Union was facing a period of severe economic decline and needed Western technology and credits to make up for its increasing backwardness. The costs of maintaining its so-called "empire" – the military,, subsidies to foreign client states – further strained the moribund Soviet economy. The first signs of major reform came in 1986 when Gorbachev launched a policy(openness) in the Soviet Union, and emphasized the need for perestroika Perestroika Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev... (economic restructuring). By the spring of 1989, the Soviet Union had not only experienced lively media debate, but had also held its first multi-candidate elections in the newly established Congress of People's Deputies. Though glasnost advocated openness and political criticism, at the time, it was only permitted in accordance with the political views of the Communists. The general public in the Eastern bloc Eastern bloc The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact... Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime.... and political repression. Moscow's largest obstacle to improved political and economic relations with the Western powers remainedthat existed between East and West. As long as the specter of Soviet military intervention loomed over Central, South-East and Eastern Europe, it seemed unlikely that Moscow could attract the Western economic support needed to finance the country's restructuring. Gorbachev urged his Central and South-East European counterparts to imitate perestroika and glasnost in their own countries. However, while reformists in Hungary and Poland were emboldened by the force of liberalization spreading from East to West, other Eastern bloc countries remained openly skeptical and demonstrated aversion to reform. Past experiences had demonstrated that although reform in the Soviet Union was manageable, the pressure for change in Central and South-East Europe had the potential to become uncontrollable. These regimes owed their creation and continued survival to Soviet-style authoritarianism, backed by Soviet military power and subsidies. Believing Gorbachev's reform initiatives would be short-lived, orthodox Communist rulers like East Germany'sNicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader... obstinately ignored the calls for change. "When your neighbor puts up new wallpaper, it doesn't mean you have to too," declared one East German politburo member. Solidarity's impact grows Throughout the mid-1980s, Solidarity persisted solely as an underground organization, supported by the Catholic Church. However, by the late 1980s, Solidarity became sufficiently strong to frustrate Jaruzelski's attempts at reform, and nationwide strikes in 1988 1988 Polish strikesforced the government to open a dialogue with Solidarity. On 9 March 1989, both sides agreed to a bicameral legislature called the National Assembly. The already existingwould become the lower house. The Senate would be elected by the people. Traditionally a ceremonial office, the presidency was given more powers (Polishin favor of non-intervention in the internal affairs of its Warsaw Pact Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe... "Sinatra Doctrine" was the name that the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev used jokingly to describe its policy of allowing neighboring Warsaw Pact nations to determine their own internal affairs". Poland became the first Warsaw Pact state country to break free of Soviet domination. Taking notice from Poland, Hungary was next to follow. Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 In December 1986, Chinese student demonstrators, taking advantage of the loosening political atmosphere, staged protests against the slow pace of reform. Students called for campus elections, the chance to study abroad, and greater availability of western pop culture. Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang was a leader of the People's Republic of China who served as both Chairman and Party General Secretary. Hu joined the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s, and rose to prominence as a comrade of Deng Xiaoping... , a protégé of Deng Xiaoping and a leading advocate of reform, was blamed for the protests and forced to resign as the CCP General Secretary in January 1987. In the "Anti Bourgeois Liberalization Campaign", Hu would be further denounced. The protests were sparked by the death of Hu Yaobang on 15 April. By the eve of Hu's funeral, one million people had gathered at Tiananmen square. Gorbachev's visit to the People's Republic of China on 15 May during the protests brought many foreign news agencies to Beijing, and their sympathetic portrayals of the protesters helped galvanize a spirit of liberation among the Central, South-East and Eastern Europeans who were watching. The Chinese leadership, particularly Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang Zhao Ziyang Zhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China . He was the third Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989.... , having begun earlier than the Soviets to radically reform the economy, was open to political reform, but not at the cost of a potential return to the disorderThe movement lasted seven weeks, from Hu's death on 15 April until tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on 4 June. In Beijing, the resulting military response to the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians and military personnel charged with clearing the square of the dead or severely injured. The number of deaths is not known and many different estimates exist. Revolutions of 1989 On 7 July 1989 President Mikhail Gorbachev implicity renounced the use of force against other Soviet-bloc nations. Speaking to members of the 23-nation Council of Europe, Mr. Gorbachev made no direct reference to the so-called Brezhnev doctrine, under which Moscow has asserted the right to use force to prevent a Warsaw Pact member from leaving the Communist fold, but stated 'Any interference in domestic affairs and any attempts to restrict the sovereignty of states - friends, allies or any others - are inadmissible'. Polandhit Poland in April and May 1988, and a second wave began on 15 August 1988 when a strike broke out at the July Manifesto coal mine in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, the workers demanding the re-legalisation of Solidarity. Over the next few days sixteen other mines went on strike followed by a number of shipyards, including on 22 August the Gdansk Shipyard Gdansk Shipyard Gdańsk Shipyard is a large Polish shipyard, located in the city of Gdańsk. The yard gained international fame when Solidarity was founded there in September 1980that spawned Solidarity . On 31 August 1988 Lech Walesa, the leader of Solidarity, was invited to Warsaw by the Communist authorities who had finally agreed to talks. On 18 January 1989 at a stormy session of the Tenth Plenary Session of the ruling, General Jaruzelski managed to get party backing for formal negotiations with Solidarity leading to its future legalisation - although this was achieved only by threatening the resignation of the entireleadership if thwarted. On 6 February 1989 formal Round Table discussions began in the Hall of Columns in Warsaw. On 4 April 1989 the historic Polish legislative election of 1989 was the tenth election to the Sejm, the parliament of the People's Republic of Poland, and eleventh in Communist Poland... to be held on 4 June 1989 (incidentally, the day following the midnight crackdown on Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square). A political earthquake followed. The victory of Solidarity surpassed all predictions. Solidarity candidates captured all the seats they were allowed to compete for while in the Senate they captured 99 out of the 100 available seats (with the one remaining seat taken by an independent candidate). At the same time, many prominent Communist candidates failed to gain even the minimum number of votes required to capture the seats that were reserved for them. On 15 August 1989 following the defection to Solidarity of the Communists' two longtime coalition partners, the United People`s Party United People's Party (Poland) The United People's Party was an agrarian political party in the People's Republic of Poland. It was formed on 27 November 1949 from the merger of the communist Stronnictwo Ludowe party with remnants of the independent People's Party of Stanisław Mikołajczyk .ZSL became - as intended from its very... The Democratic Party is a Polish centrist party. The party faced a revival in 2009, when it was joined by liberal politician Paweł Piskorski, formerly member of Civic Platform.-History:The party was established on April 15, 1939... Czesław Kiszczak , was a Polish communist-era soldier and Communist politician. A member of the PPR and later the PZPR, during the years of the Polish People's Republic he served as a high ranking officer of the Polish Army, a chief of secret services and Minister of Internal Affairs between 1981... said he would resign to allow a non-Communist to form an administration. This virtually assured that a Solidarity member would become prime minister. On 19 August 1989 in a stunning watershed moment an anti-Communist editor, was nominated as Prime Minister of Poland - and the Soviet Union voiced no protest, despite calls from the hard line Romanian communist dictator Nicolae CeausescuThe Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe... to intervene militarily to 'save socialism' as it had in Prague in 1968. On 24 August 1989 Poland's Parliament ended more than 40 years of one-party rule by electing a devout Catholic and Solidarity supporter, to be the country's first non-Communist Prime Minister since the early postwar years. In a tense Parliament, the Solidarity candidate, Mr. Mazowiecki, got 378 votes, with 4 against and 41 abstentions. On 13 September 1989 a new non-Communist government was approved by parliament, the first of its kind in the former Eastern Bloc Eastern bloc The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact... . Hungary Following Poland's lead, Hungary was next to revert to a non-Communist government. Although Hungary had achieved some lasting economic reforms and limited political liberalization during the 1980s, major reforms only occurred following the replacement ofas General Secretary of the Communist Party on 23 May 1988 with Karoly Grosz Károly Grósz Károly Grósz was a Hungarian communist politician.Grósz was born in Miskolc, Hungary. He joined the Communist Party in 1945 at the age of 14. Soon the Communists had established a regime in Hungary, and Grósz rose through the party ranks, becoming an important party leader in his native region... . On 12 January a radical revision of the constitution, among others . On 29 January 1989, contradicting the official view of history held for more than 30 years, a member of the ruling Politburodeclared that Hungary's 1956 rebellion was a popular uprising rather than a foreign-instigated attempt at counterrevolution . On 2 May 1989, the first visible cracks inover the summer and autumn as their citizens fled form their brutally repressive regimes through Hungary to freedom in the West. On 1 June 1989 the Communist Party admitted that former Prime Minister Imre Nagy Imre Nagy Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions... , hanged for treason for his role in the 1956 Hungarian uprising, was executed illegally after a show trial . On 16 June 1989 Nagy was given a solemn funeral on Budapest's largest square in front of crowds of at least 100,000, followed by a hero's burial. The Hungarian Socialist Party describes itself as a social democratic party in Hungary. It is the partial successor of the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party , which ruled Hungary between 1956 and 1989. The decision to declare the party a successor of the MSZMP was controversial, and... . In a historic session from 16 October to 20 October, the parliament adopted legislation providing for multi-party parliamentary elections and a direct presidential election. The legislation transformed Hungary from a People's Republic People's Republic People's Republic is a title that has often been used by Marxist-Leninist governments to describe their state. The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist-Leninists govern in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist-Leninist... into the Republic of Hungary, guaranteed human and civil rights, and created an institutional structure that ensured separation of powers among the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government. Hungarians suggested that Soviet troops "go home." East Germany After a reformed border was opened from Hungary, a growing number of East Germans began emigrating to West Germany via Hungary's border with Austria. By the end of September 1989, more than 30,000 East Germans had escaped to the West before the GDR (German Democratic Republic) denied travel to Hungary, leaving the CSSR () as the only neighboring state where East Germans could travel. Thousands of East Germans tried to reach the West by occupying the West German diplomatic facilities in Central European capitals, notably the Prague Embassy where thousands camped in the muddy garden from August to November. The GDR closed the border to the CSSR in early October, thereby isolating itself from all neighbors. On 4 September 1989 in Leipzig the first of what became the regular weekly Monday demonstrations Monday demonstrations in East Germany The Monday demonstrations in East Germany in 1989 and 1990 were a series of peaceful political protests against the authoritarian communist government of the German Democratic Republic that took place every Monday evening.- Overview :... began eventually involving hundreds of thousands of people in several cities over the next two months. The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...issued a shoot and kill order to the military. Communists prepared a huge police, militia, Stasi, and work-combat troop presence and there were rumors of a Tiananmen Square-style massacre. On 6 and 7 October, Gorbachev visited East Germany to mark the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic, and urged the East German leadership to accept reform. A famous quote of his speaker Gennadi Gerassimow is rendered in German as "Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben" ('He who is too late is punished by life'). However, the elderly Erich Honecker remained opposed to internal reform, with his regime even going so far as forbidding the circulation of Soviet publications that it viewed as subversive. Faced with ongoing civil unrest, the ruling SED deposed Honecker on 18 October 1989, and replaced him with Egon Krenz Egon Krenz Egon Krenz is a former politician from East Germany , and that country's last Communist leader... . Also, the border to Czechoslovakia was opened again, but the Czechoslovak authorities soon let all East Germgans travel directly to West Germany without further bureaucratic ado, thus lifting their part of the Iron Curtain on 3 November. Unable to stem the ensuing flow of refugees to the West through Czechoslovakia, the East German authorities eventually caved in to public pressure by allowing East German citizens to enter West Berlin and West Germany directly, via existing border points, on 9 November, without having properly briefed the border guards. Günter Schabowski is a former official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , the ruling party during most of the existence of the German Democratic Republic... in a TV press conference, stating that the planned changes were "in effect immediately", hundreds of thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity; soon new crossing points were opened in the Berlin Wall Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin... Hans Modrow is a German politician, best known as the last communist premier of East Germany. He currently is the honorary Chairman of the Left Party.... became premier and following the resignation of Krenz as General Secretay of the SED on 3 December Modrow became the effective leader of the GDR. On 6 December 1989 Krenz was replaced as head of state by non-communist Manfred Gerlach Manfred Gerlach Manfred Gerlach was a German jurist and politician . He served as the acting Chairman of the Council of State and was thus head of state of East Germany from 6 December 1989 to 5 April 1990.-Early life:... Party of Democratic Socialism may refer to: Party of Democratic Socialism * Party of Democratic Socialism * Party of Democratic Socialism... . This led to the acceleration of the process of reforms in East Germany that ended with the eventualof East and West Germany that came into force on 3 October 1990. The Kremlin's willingness to abandon such a strategically vital ally marked a dramatic shift by the Soviet superpower and a fundamental paradigm change in international relations, which until 1989 had been dominated by the East-West divide running through Berlin itself. Czechoslovakia The "Velvet Revolution" was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government. On 17 November 1989 (Friday), riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from 19 November to late December. By 20 November the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swelled from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. A two-hour general strike, involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was successfully held on 27 November. With the collapse of other Communist governments, and increasing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on 28 November 1989 that it would relinquish power and dismantle the single-party state. Barbed wire and other obstructions were removed from the border with West Germany and Austria in early December. On 10 December, President Gustáv Husák Gustáv Husák Gustáv Husák was a Slovak politician, president of Czechoslovakia and a long-term Communist leader of Czechoslovakia and of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia... appointed the first largely non-Communist government in Czechoslovakia since 1948, and resigned. Alexander Dubček Alexander Dubcek Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring... was elected speaker of the federal parliament on 28 December andthe President of Czechoslovakia on 29 December 1989. In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946. Bulgaria In October and November 1989 demonstrations on ecological issues were staged in Sofia, where demands for political reform were also voiced. The demonstration were suppressed, but on 10 November 1989 – the day after the Berlin Wall was breached – Bulgaria's long-serving leader Todor Zhivkov Todor Zhivkov Todor Khristov Zhivkov was a communist politician and leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from March 4, 1954 until November 10, 1989.... was ousted by his Politburo. He was succeeded by a considerably more liberal Communist, former foreign minister Petar Mladenov Petar Mladenov Petar Toshev Mladenov was a Bulgarian communist diplomat and politician. He was the last Communist leader of Bulgaria from 1989 to 1990, and briefly the first President of democratic Bulgaria in 1990.-Early life and career:... . Moscow apparently approved the leadership change, despite Zhivkov's reputation as a slavish Soviet ally. The new regime permitted the formation of non-communist parties and the right to gather freely, which led to the first mass demonstration on November 17th. Newly formed anti-communist movements united as the Union of Democratic Forces on December 7th. The UDF was not satisfied with the removal of Todor Zhivkov, and demanded additional democratic reforms, most importantly the removal of the constitutionally mandated leading position of the Communist party in Bulgaria. This demand was granted on by Mladenov in a nationally televised address on 11 December 1989, amid escalating street protests. it was also decided that a round table on the Polish model would be held in 1990 and elections held by June 1990. The Communist party was formally stripped of its constitutional position by the parliament in February 1990. Between 3 January and 14 May 1990 during the Round table talks an agreement was reached on the transition to democracy. The Communist party renamed itself as the Bulgarian Socialist Party in April 1990. In June 1990 the first free elections since 1945 were held, won by the Bulgarian Socialist Party. Romania Unlike other Eastern bloc countries, Romania had never undergone even limited de-Stalinization, yet had adopted a course independent of Soviet domination since the 1960s. Nonetheless, since the death of longtime Albanian Romania had been reckoned as the most rigidly Stalinist state in Europe. In November 1989, Nicolae Ceauşescu Nicolae Ceausescu Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader... , then aged 71, was re-elected for another five years as leader of the Romanian Communist Party, signalling that he intended to ride out the anti-Communist uprisings sweeping the rest of Europe. As Ceauşescu prepared to go on a state visit to Iran, hisLászló Tőkés is a Romanian politician of Hungarian ethnicity, currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament and Vice President of the European Parliament .... , on 16 December, for sermons offending the regime. Tőkés was seized, but only after serious rioting erupted. Timişoara Timisoarawas the first city to react, on 16 December, and civil unrest continued for 5 days. Returning from Iran, Ceauşescu ordered a mass rally in his support outside Communist Party headquarters in Bucharest on December 21. However, to his shock, the crowd booed as he spoke. After learning about the incidents (both from Timişoara and from Bucharest) from Western radio stations, years of repressed dissatisfaction boiled to the surface throughout the Romanian populace and even among elements in Ceauşescu's own government, and the demonstrations spread throughout the country. At first the security forces obeyed Ceauşescu's orders to shoot protesters, but on the morning of 22 December, the Romanian military suddenly changed sides. Army tanks began moving towards the Central Committee building with crowds swarming alongside them. The rioters forced open the doors of the Central Committee building in an attempt to capture Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena Elena Ceausescu, but they managed to escape via a helicopter waiting for them on the roof of the building. The revolution resulted in 1,104 deaths. Unlike its kindred parties, the PCR simply melted away. Although elation followed the flight of the Ceauşescus, uncertainty surrounded their fate. On Christmas Day, Romanian television showed the Ceauşescus facing a hasty trial, and then undergoingIon Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains.... took over and announced elections for April 1990. The first elections were actually held on 20 May 1990. Malta Summit The Malta Summit consisted of a meeting between U.S. President George H. W. Bush and U.S.S.R. leader Mikhail Gorbachev, taking place between December 2-3 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was their second meeting following a meeting that included then President Ronald... consisted of a meeting between U.S. President George H. W. Bush and U.S.S.R. leader Mikhail Gorbachev, taking place between 2–3 December 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, during which the two officially endedpartially as a result of the broader pro-democracy movement. It was their second meeting following a meeting that included then President Ronald Reagan, in New York in December 1988. News reports of the time referred to the Malta Summit as the most important since 1945, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed on a post-war plan for Europe at the Yalta Conference. Election Chronology in Eastern Europe 1989-1991 Between the spring of 1989 and the spring of 1991 every Communist or former communist Eastern European country, and in the case of the USSR and Yugoslavia every constituent republic, held competitive parliamentary elections for the first time in many decades. Some elections were only partly free, others fully democratic. The chronology below gives the details of these historic elections, the date is the first day of voting as several elections were spilt over several days for run-off contests Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Swedenia and Yugoslavia Enver Halil Hoxha was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary andthe leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania... , who ruled Albania for four decades with an iron fist, died 11 April 1985. In 1989, the first revolts started in Shkodra and spread in other cities. Eventually, the existing regime introduced some liberalization, including measures in 1990 providing for freedom to travel abroad. Efforts were begun to improve ties with the outside world. March 1991 elections left the former Communists in power, but a general strike and urban opposition led to the formation of a coalition cabinet including non-Communists. Albania's former Communists were routed in elections March 1992, amid economic collapse and social unrestTitoism is a variant of Marxism–Leninism named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of It was a multi-ethnic state, and the tensions between ethnicities first escalated with the so-called Croatian Spring Croatian Spring The Croatian Spring was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia as well as democratic and economic reforms.-History:..., which was suppressed. In 1974 there followed constitutional changes devolving some of the federal powers to the constituent republics and provinces. After Tito's death in 1980 ethnic tensions grew, first in Albanian-majority Kosovo. In late 1980s Serbia Socialist Republic of Serbiaused the Kosovo crisis to stoke up Serb nationalism and attempt to consolidate and dominate the country, which alienated the other ethnic groups. The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can... on the other side. In mid May 1988, the Peasant Union of Slovenia was organized as the first non-Communist political organization in the country. Later in the same month, the Yugoslav Army arrested four Slovenian journalists of the alternative magazine Mladina Mladina Mladina is a Slovenian weekly left-wing current affairs magazine. It was first published in the 1920s as the youth magazine of the Slovenian Communist Party... The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights was a civil society organization in Slovenia, which functioned during the so-called Slovenian Spring between 1988 and 1990.... was established as the platform of all major non-Communist political movements. By early 1989, several anti-Communist political parties were already openly functioning, challenging the hegemony of the Slovenian Communists. Soon, the Slovenian Communists, pressured by their own civil society, entered in conflict with the Serbian Communist leadership. was called in order to settle the disputes among its constituent parties. Faced with being completely outnumbered, the Slovenian Communists left the Congress, thus de facto bringing to an end the Yugoslav Communist Party. The Slovenian Communists were followed by the Croatian ones. Both parties of the two western republics negotiated free multi-party elections with their own opposition movements. Parliamentary elections were held in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia in 1990. The United List of Social Democrats emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly, winning 12 of the 80 seats.-Results:witnessed the landslide victory of the nationalists. The results were much more balanced in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, while the parliamentary Serbian parliamentary election, 1990 Parliamentary elections in Serbia were held in 1990. The elections were called on September 29, after the adoption of the new constitution. The elections were held on December 9 and December 23.... The Serbian presidential election, 1990 was held on December 9, 1990 in SR Serbia. The winner was Slobodan Milošević.-See also:* Elections in Serbia* Elections in Yugoslavia... elections in Serbia and Montenegro consolidated the power of Milošević and his supporters. Free elections on the level of the federation were never carried out. Instead, the Slovenian and Croatian leaderships started preparing plans for secession from the federation.and the independence of the constituent (federal) units, in chronological order:(2 state unions between 1992–2006). Montenegro proclaimed independence on 3 June 2006, while Serbia proclaimed its succession to the union as an independent state on 5 June 2006. Kosovo (17 February 2008, partially recognized) Dissolution of the Soviet Union On 1 July 1991, the Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague. At a summit later that same month, Gorbachev and Bush declared a US–Soviet strategic partnership, decisively marking the end of the Cold War. President Bush declared that US–Soviet cooperation during the 1990–91had laid the groundwork for a partnership in resolving bilateral and world problems. As the Soviet Union rapidly withdrew its forces from Central and Southeast Europe, the spillover from the 1989 upheavals began reverberating throughout the Soviet Union itself. Agitation for self-determination led to first Lithuania, and then Estonia, Latvia and Armenia declaring independence. Disaffection in other Soviet republics, such as Georgia and Azerbaijan, was countered by promises of greater decentralization. More open elections led to the election of candidates opposed to Communist Party rule. Glasnost had inadvertently released the long-suppressed national sentiments of all peoples within the borders of the multinational Soviet state. These nationalist movements were further strengthened by the rapid deterioration of the Soviet economy, whereby Moscow's rule became a convenient scapegoat for economic troubles. Gorbachev's reforms had failed to improve the economy, with the old Soviet command structure Planned economy A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions regarding production and investment are embodied in a plan formulated by a central authority, usually by a government agency... completely breaking down. One by one, the constituent republics created their own economic systems and voted to subordinate Soviet laws to local laws. In an attempt to halt the rapid changes to the system, a group of Soviet hard-liners represented by Vice-President Gennadi Yanayev launched a coup Soviet coup attempt of 1991 The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup , was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union.... , rallied the people and much of the army against the coup and the effort collapsed. Although restored to power, Gorbachev's authority had been irreparably undermined. In September, the Baltic states were granted independence. Over the next three months, one republic after another declared independence. The penultimate step came on 1 December, when Ukrainian voters approved independence from the Soviet Union in a referendum. Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president on 25 December. By the end of the year, what remained of the Soviet government had ceased to function. The Soviet Union was officially disbanded, breaking up into fifteen constituent parts, thereby ending the world's largest and most influential Communist state, and leaving the People's Republic of China to that position. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania The Singing Revolution is a commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1991 that led to the restoration of the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk Heinz Valk Heinz Valk is an Estonian artist, caricaturist and politician. He is credited for coining the term "Singing Revolution" and its slogan "One day, no matter what, we will win!" some of the most famous sentences from the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, to describe Estonia's... -History of Song Festivals:In 1869 Johann Voldemar Jannsen established the Estonian Song Festival while the nation was still a province of the Russian Empire. This festival was considered responsible for fostering an Estonian national awakening... . Belarus, Ukraine, MoldovaThe War of Transnistriabetween Moldova and Russian-connected forces. Communists came back to power in a 2001 election under Vladimir Voronin Vladimir Voronin in the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine faction.After aViktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution... (also former member of CPSU). Georgia In Georgia people started protesting against the Soviet rule. In April 1989 the Soviet army massacred demonstrators in the Tbilisi Massacre. By November 1989, the Georgian SSR officially condemned the Russian invasion in 1921 and continuing genocidal occupation. Democracy activistserved as president from 1991 to 1992. A coup d'état installed former Communist leaderArmenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia became increasingly militarized (with the ascendancy of Kocharian, a former president of Nagorno-Karabakh, often viewed as a milestone), while elections have since been increasingly controversial, and government corruption became more rife. After Kocharyan, notably, Serzh Sargsyan ascended to power. Sargsyan is often noted as the "founder of the Armenian and Karabakh militaries" and was, in the past, defense minister and national security minister. In Azerbaijan the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party won first elections with the self-described pro-Western, populist nationalist Elchibey. However, Elchibey planned to end Moscow's advantage in the harvesting of Azeri oil and build much stronger links with Turkey and Europe, and as a result was overthrown by former Communists in a coup backed by Russia and Iran (which viewed the new country as a compelling threat, with territorial ambitions within Iranian borders and also being a strong economic rival). Mutallibov rose to power, but he was soon destabilized and eventually ousted due to popular frustration with his perceived incompetence, corruption and improper handling of the war with Armenia. Azerbaijani KGB and Azerbaijani SSR leader Heydar Aliyev Heydar Aliyevcaptured power and remained president until he transferred the presidency to his son in 2003. The Nagorno-Karabakh War Nagorno-Karabakh War, and has largely defined the fates of both countries. However, unlike Armenia, which remains a strong Russian ally, Azerbaijan has begun, since Russia's 2008 war with Georgia, to foster better relations with Turkey and other Western nations, while cutting ties with Russia, including its CIS membership., using tactics partly copied from the Baltics, Anti-Communist coalition forces led by former Soviet general Dzhokhar Dudayev staged a largely bloodless revolution, and ended up forcing the resignation of the Communist republican president. Dudayev was elected in a landslide in the following election and in November 1991 he proclaimed Checheno-Ingushetia's independence as the Republic of Ichkeria. Ingushetia voted to leave the union with Chechnya, and was allowed to do so (thus it became the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria). Due to his desire to exclude Moscow from all oil deals, Yeltsin backed a failed coup against him in 1993. In 1994, Chechnya, with only marginal recognition (one country: Georgia, which was revoked soon after the coup landing Shevardnadze in power), was invaded by Russia, spurring. The Chechens, with considerable assistance from the populations of both former-Soviet countries and from Sunni Muslim countries repelled this invasion and a peace treaty was signed in 1997. However, Chechnya became increasingly anarchic, largely due to the both political and physical destruction of the state during the invasion, and general Shamil Basaev, having evaded all control by the central government, conducted raids into neighboring Dagestan, which Russia used as pretext for reinvading Ichkeria. Ichkeria was then reincorporated into Russia as Chechnya again, though fighting continues. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan Tulip Revolution or First Kyrgyz Revolution refers to the overthrow of President Askar Akayev and his government in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan after the parliamentary elections of February 27 and of March 13, 2005... in 2006. In Tajikistan, former Communist leader Rahmon Nabiyev retained power, which led to the civil war in Tajikistan. Emomalii Rahmon has succeeded Nabiyev and has retained power since 1992. Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov; , was a Turkmen politician who served as President of Turkmenistan from 2 November 1990 until his death in 2006... retained power and has been criticized as one of the world's most totalitarian and repressive leaders, maintaining his own In Uzbekistan, former Communist leader Islam Karimov retained power and has been criticized for repressing the political opposition ever since. Post-Soviet conflictsThe War of TransnistriaThe War in Abkhazia from 1992 to 1993 was waged chiefly between Georgian government forces on one side and Abkhaz separatist forces supporting independence of Abkhazia from Georgia on the other side. Ethnic Georgians, who lived in Abkhazia fought largely on the side of Georgian government forcesconflict in Ukraine. Communist and Socialist countries Reforms in the Soviet Union also saw dramatic changes to Communist and Socialist states outside of Europe. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was a government of Afghanistan between 1978 and 1992. It was both ideologically close to and economically dependent on the Soviet Union, and was a major belligerent of the Afghan Civil War.- Saur Revolution :... People's Republic of Benin was a socialist state located in the Gulf of Guinea on the African continent, which would become present-day Benin. The People's Republic was established on November 30, 1975, shortly after the 1972 coup d'état in the Republic of Dahomey... Mathieu Kérékou, was President of Benin from 1972 to 1991 and again from 1996 to 2006. After seizing power in a military coup, he ruled the country for 17 years, for most of that time under an officially Marxist-Leninist ideology, before he was stripped of his powers by the National Conference of... Burma Socialist Programme Party was formed by the Ne Win's military regime that seized power in 1962 and was the sole political party allowed to exist legally in Burma during the period of military rule from 1964 until its demise in the aftermath of the popular uprising of 1988.-History:The BSPP... The State Peace and Development Council was the official name of the military regime of Burma , which seized power in 1988. On 30 March 2011, Senior General Than Shwe signed a decree to officially dissolve the Council....The Special Period in Time of Peace in Cuba was an extended period of economic crisis that began in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, by extension, the Comecon. The economic depression of the Special Period was at its most severe in the early-to-mid 1990s before slightly declining... . A large but unsuccessful protest was held in 1994 (see August 1994 protest in Cuba). Denis Sassou Nguesso is a Congolese politician who has been the President of Congo-Brazzaville since 1997; he was previously President from 1979 to 1992. During his first period as President, he headed the single-party regime of the Congolese Labour Party for 12 years... 's regime was pressured to abandon Marxism-Leninism in 1991. The nation had elections in 1992. The People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was the official name of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991, as established by the Communist government of Mengistu Haile Mariam and the Workers' Party of Ethiopia... – Following the withdrawal of Soviet and Cuban assistance, the Communist military junta Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee ofThe Lao People's Revolutionary Party is a communist political party that has governed Laos since 1975. The policy-making organs are the politburo and the central committee. A party congress, which elects members to the politburo and central committee, is held every five years... . Laos was forced to ask France and Japan for emergency assistance, and also to ask the World Bank World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of povertywas ousted, Mali adopted a new constitution and held multi-party elections.saw a gradual moved to allow free multi-party elections and the writing of the new constitution Constitution of Mongolia Constitution of Mongolia is the constitution of Mongolia.It was adopted on January 13. 1992, put into force on February 12, and amended in 1999 and 2001. The new constitution established a parliamentary democracy in Mongolia, guaranteeing freedom of religion, rights, travel, expression,...– The ruling FRELIMO Abandoned Marxism-Leninism in 1991 and held democratic elections in 1994.National Opposition Union was a wide-range cartel of opposition parties formed to contest Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega in 1990 election. Its candidate Violeta Chamorro eventually won the race'The North Korean famine was a famine in North Korea which began in the early 1990s... , which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2.5 million to 3 million North Koreans. All references to Marxism-Leninism were replaced by Juchein 1992, thus signifying an apparent downplaying of the role of Communism in North Korea. The Somali Democratic Republic was the name that the communist regime of former President of Somalia Major General Mohamed Siad Barre gave to Somalia after seizing power during a bloodless coup d'état in 1969... Chama cha Mapinduzi is the ruling political party of Tanzania.- History :The party was created February 5, 1977, under the leadership of Julius Nyerere as the merger of the Tanganyika African National Union , the then ruling party in Tanganyika, and the Afro-Shirazi Party , the then ruling... party cut down its Socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the government to allow multiparty elections in 1995.has undertaken Doi Moi reforms since 1986. Vietnam is still a single-party Communist state. Other countries Many Soviet-supported political parties and militant groups around the world suffered from demoralization and loss of financing. The Communist Party of Austria is a communist party based in Austria. Established in 1918, it was banned between 1933 and 1945 under both the Austrofascist regime, and German control of Austria during World War II... Communist Party of Belgium was a political party in Belgium. The youth wing of KPB/PCB was known as the Communist Youth of Belgium. The party published Le Drapeau Rouge in French and De Roode Vaan in Dutch.- History :It was formed at a congress in Anderlecht on September 3-4 1921... The Communist Party of Finland was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944.SKP did not participate in any elections with its own name. Instead, front organisations were usedThe Movement for a United Communist Party of Greece , was a minor Greek political organisation.The movement was established in 1993 as the union of the pro-Albanian Organisation of Marxist-Leninist Communists of Greece and exiled Greek communists from the former Soviet Union and other ex-socialist... The Communist Party of Ireland is a small all-Ireland Marxist party, founded in 1933. An earlier party, the Socialist Party of Ireland, was renamed the Communist Party of Ireland in 1921 on its affiliation to the Communist International but was dissolved in 1924. The present-day CPI was founded in... Mexican Communist Party was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1911 as the Socialist Workers' Party by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian intellectual. The PSO changed its name to the Mexican Communist Party in November 1919 following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia... The Socialist Mexican Party was the former left-wing Mexican political party immediate antecedent of the present Party of the Democratic Revolution, it was the last effort of unification of the different Mexican parties of left and the last political party that the socialist word in its name was Communist Party of Norway is a political party in Norway without parliamentary representation. It was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. The party played an important role in the resistance to German occupation during the Second World War, and experienced a brieflost one of its most important diplomatic patrons, due to the deterioration of the Soviet Union, and Arafat's failing relationship with Moscow., responsible for killing tens of thousands people, shrunk in the 1990s. Communist Association of Norrköping , was a communist group in Norrköping, Sweden.In 1978 a pro-Albanian group based in Norrköping had broken away from the Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti . This group formed NKF... was dissolved in 1990 and Kommunistiska Förbundet Marxist-Leninisterna ceased to function as nationwide party. The pro-Albanian Kommunistiska Partiet i Sverige and the Maoist Communist Workers' Party of Sweden Communist Workers' Party of Sweden Communist Workers' Party of Sweden , initially called SKP, was a communist party in Sweden, formed in 1980 after a split from the pro-People's Republic of China Communist Party of Sweden . The party was dissolved in 1993.-Formation:In 1980 when a leftist minority Communist Workers' Party of Sweden... were dissolved in 1993. The main leftist party, Vänsterpartiet kommunisterna, VPK (Left Party – Communists), abandoned the Communist part of its name, and became simply Vänsterpartiet (Left Party). Communist Labour Party of Turkey is an illegal communist party in Turkey. TKEP was founded on May 1, 1980 by the People's Liberation Army of Turkey-Unity in Struggle . THKO-MB was the pro-Soviet faction that developed out of the crumbles of the original THKO.The general secretary of TKEP was... Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973... was pressured to implement democratic elections, which saw Chile's democratization Chilean transition to democracyThe Chapultepec Peace Accords brought peace to El Salvador in 1992 after more than a decade of wrenching civil war.The treaty was negotiated by representatives of the Salvadoran government, the rebel movement FMLN, and political parties, with observers from the Roman Catholic Church and United...The United States Invasion of Panama, code-named Operation Just Cause, was the invasion of Panama by the United States in December 1989. It occurred during the administration of U.S. President George H. W... as a result of his suppression of elections, drug-trafficking activities and the killing of a US serviceman. Chun Doo-hwan was a ROK Army general and the President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 for his heavy-handed response to the Gwangju Democratization Movement, but later pardoned by President Kim Young-sam with the advice of then President-elect Kim Dae-jung,... government in 1987, and the country's first democratic elections. South Africa - Negotiations were started in 1990 to end the Apartheid system. South African general election of 1994 was an election held in South Africa to mark the end of apartheid, therefore also the first held with universal adult suffrage. The election was conducted under the direction of the Independent Electoral Commission .Millions queued in lines over a three United States became the world's main superpower, growing even more in world influence as a result. The United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military.... it had during the Cold War, pressing for more nations to adopt democratic policies. However, some of the groups the United States had previously supported, such as certain factions of the Mujah War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom... . Political reforms Decommunization is a process of overcoming the legacies of the Communistestablishments, culture, and psychology in the post-Communist states. It is similar to denazification Denazification. Decommunization was largely limited or non-existent. Communist parties were not outlawed and their members were not brought to trial. Just a few places even attempted to exclude members of communist secret services from decision-making. In a number of countries the Communist party simply changed its name and continued to function. In several European countries, however, endorsing or attempting to justify crimes committed by Nazi or Communist regimes will be punishable by up to 3 years of imprisonment. Economic reforms Enterprises in Socialist countries had little or no interest in producing what customers wanted because of prevailing shortages of goods and services. In the early 1990s, a popular refrain stated that "there is no precedent for moving from Socialism to capitalism." Only the over 60 year old people remembered how a market economy worked. It was not hard to imagine Central, South-East and Eastern Europe staying poor for decades. There was a temporary fall of output in official economy and increase in unofficial economy. Countries implemented different reform programs such as the Balcerowicz Plan in Poland. Eventually the official economy began to grow.described a transition from capitalism to Communism as "heating up an aquarium with fish" to get fish soup. He said that reversing Communism to capitalism was challenging, but "We can already see some little fish swimming in our aquarium." In a 2007 paper Oleh Havrylyshyn categorized the speed of reforms in the Soviet Bloc: It was concluded that gradual reformers suffered more social pain, not less. The countries with fastest transition to market economy performed much better on 2004 enlargement of the European Union was the largest single expansion of the European Union , both in terms of territory, number of states and population, however not in terms of gross domestic product... The 2007 enlargement of the European Union saw Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union on 1 January 2007. It was the latest expansion of the EU, though considered by the European Commission as part of the same wave as the 2004 enlargement of the European Union.-Negotiations:Romania was thestarted since 1978 have helped lift millions of people out of poverty, bringing the poverty rate down from 53% of the population in the Mao era to 12% in 1981. Deng's economic reforms are still being followed by the CPC Communist Party of China The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China... today and by 2001 the poverty rate became only 6% of the population. Economic liberalization in Vietnam was initiated in 1986, following Chinese example. Richard B. Freeman is one of the leading labor economists in North America. The Herbert Ascherman Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and Co-Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, Freeman is also Senior Research Fellow on Labour Markets at the Centre for... has called the effect of reforms "The Great Doubling". He calculated that the size of global workforce doubled from 1.46 billion workers to 2.93 billion workers. An immediate effect was a reduced ratio of capital to labor. In the long term China, India, and the former Soviet bloc will save and invest and contribute to the expansion of the world capital stock. The Chinese Century is a neologism referring to the possibility that the 21st century will be dominated by the People's Republic of China, similarly to how the 20th century is often called the American Century, and the 19th century the British Century... ". Perpetuation of communist security services Massive amounts of public funds were transferred overseas by KGB officials. Documents about the operation show that the stated goal was to ensure the financial well-being of party leaders after they lost power. One estimate is that about US$50 billion was transferred through FIMACO FIMACO Financial Management Company Ltd was a Jersey company founded in 1990.In a 1991 report, former KGB Colonel Leonid Veselovsky, whose responsibility was to manage Communist Party commercial affairs overseas, told that he had found ways to funnel party money abroadbecame involved with organized crime and the Russian mob became a long arm of the KGB. The KGB often recruited and trained criminals, a task which was previously done by the Interior Ministry (MVD). KGB agents joined international and domestic racketeering gangs, sometimes leading them. KGB officers were staffing the tax police and customs services. After 1986, and especially after 1991, many KGB members were moved from its bloated First and Third Directorates to its Economic Department. They were instructed to dabble in business and banking, sometimes in joint ventures with foreigners.They began to collaborate with the Russian mafia and there are estimates that the KGB-crime cartel controlled 40% of Russian GDP as early as 1994, having absconded with approximately 100 billion U.S. dollars of state assetsSilovik is a Russian word for politicians from the security or military services, often the officers of the former KGB, the FSB, the Federal Narcotics Control Service and military or other security services who came into power... s, a term for members of security services. The KGB provided a crucial service of surveillance and suppression. Its post-Soviet development has characterized as "the state within a state" becoming "the state itself". Vladimir Putin has called the dissolution of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century". Ideological continuation of communism Compared with the efforts of the other former constituents of the Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union, decommunization in Russia Decommunization in Russia Decommunization in Russia is the process of dealing with the communist legacies in terms of institutions and personnel that tends towards breaking with the Soviet past... has been restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all. As of 2008, nearly half of Russians view Stalin positively, and many support restoration of his monuments dismantled in the past. Neo-Stalinist Neo-Stalinismmaterial such as describing Stalin's mass murder campaigns as "entirely rational" has been pushed into Russian textbooks. Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist.... to serve as an expert to testify at the CPSU trial by Constitutional Court of Russia, where the Communists were suing Yeltsin for banning their party. The respondent's case was that the CPSU itself had been an unconstitutional organization. To prepare for his testimony, Bukovsky requested and was granted access to a large number of documents from Soviet archives (then reorganized into TsKhSD). Using a small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, he managed to secretly scan many documents (some with high security clearance Security clearance A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, i.e., state secrets, or to restricted areas after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal, and smuggle the files to the West. The event that many expected would be another Nuremberg Trial and the beginnings of reconciliation with the Communist past, ended up in half-measures: while the CPSU was found unconstitutional, the Communists were allowed to form new parties in the future. Bukovsky expressed his deep disappointment with this in his writings and interviews: "Having failed to finish off conclusively the Communist system, we are now in danger of integrating the resulting monster into our world. It may not be called Communism anymore, but it retained many of its dangerous characteristics... Until the Nuremberg-style tribunal passes its judgment on all the crimes committed by Communism, it is not dead and the war is not over." Interpretations There were people who predicted that the Soviet Union would eventually be dissolved before the process of dissolution began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.... had been often dismissed. Bartlomiej Kaminski's book The Collapse Of State Socialism argued that the state Socialist system has a lethal paradox: "policy actions designed to improve performance only accelerate its decay". By the end of 1989, revolts had spread from one capital to another, ousting the regimes imposed on Central, South-East and Eastern Europe after World War II. Even the isolationist Stalinist regime in Albania was unable to stem the tide. Gorbachev's abrogation of the Brezhnev Doctrine Brezhnev Doctrinewas perhaps the key factor that enabled the popular uprisings to succeed. Once it became evident that the feared Red Army would not intervene to crush dissent, the Central, South-East and Eastern European regimes were exposed as vulnerable in the face of popular uprisings against the one-party system and power of secret police Secret police Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime.... Dr. Coit Dennis Blacker served as Special Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council under National Security Advisor Anthony Lake during the Clinton administration... wrote in 1990 that the Soviet leadership "appeared to have believed that whatever loss of authority the Soviet Union might suffer in Central and South-East Europe would be more than offset by a net increase in its influence in western Europe." Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Gorbachev ever intended for the complete dismantling of Communism and the Warsaw Pact. Rather, Gorbachev assumed that the Communist parties of Central and South-East Europe could be reformed in a similar way to the reforms he hoped to achieve in the CPSU. Just as perestroika was aimed at making the Soviet Union more efficient economically and politically, Gorbachev believed that theand Warsaw Pact could be reformed into more effective entities. However,, a close advisor to Gorbachev, would later state that it would have been "absurd to keep the system" in Central and South-East Europe. Yakovlev had come to the conclusion that the Soviet-dominated Comecon could not work on non-market principles and that the Warsaw Pact had "no relevance to real life." Organizations post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991... The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.... 's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states at the present time, for example. Events The Day of German Unity is the national day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when the goal of a unity of Germany that originated in the middle of the 19th century, was fulfilled. Therefore, the name addressesStatehood Day is a holiday that occurs on every 25 June in Slovenia to commemorate the country's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Although the official declaration of independence did not come until 26 June 1991, Statehood Day is considered to be June 25 since that was the... in Slovenia – Commemorates the country's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Independence and Unity Day is a Slovenian national holiday that occurs on every 26 December to commemorate the official proclamation of the Slovenian independence referendum on 26 December 1990. The referendum took part on 23 December. In it, 95% of the voters favoured the establishment of... in Slovenia – Commemorates the country's independence referendum. Day of National Unity in Georgia – is a public holiday commemorating victims of the 9 April tragedyConstitution Day is a holiday to honor the constitution of a country. Constitution Day is often celebrated on the anniversary of the signing, promulgation or adoption of the constitution, or in some cases, to commemorate the change to constitutional monarchy:... in Romania – Commemorates the 1991 Romanian Constitution that enshrined the return to democracy after the fall of the Communist regime. Public holidays in the Czech RepublicDateEnglish NameCzech NameRemarks1 January Restoration Day of the Independent Czech State; New Year's DayDen obnovy samostatného českého státu; Nový rokThe independent Czech Republic was created in 1993, after dissolution of Czechoslovakia.March, AprilEaster... The Memorial to the victims of Communism is a series of statues in Prague commemorating the victims of the Communist era between 1948-1989. It is located at the base of Petřín hill, Újezd street in the Malá Strana or the Lesser Town area.... The Lennon Wall or John Lennon Wall, is a wall in Prague, Czech Republic. Once a normal wall, since the 1980s it has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles songs....House of Terror is a museum located at Andrássy út 60 in Budapest, Hungary. It contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes in 20th century Hungary and is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the... The Museum of Soviet occupation in Kiev, Ukraine, is devoted to portraying the crimes of the Soviet regime in Ukraine from 1917 to 1991. It was established in November 2001 by the Vasyl Stus branch of Memorial Society as an exhibition "Not to be forgotten: The Chronicle of Communist inquisition."... The Museum of the Soviet Occupation is a history museum in Tbilisi, Georgia, documenting the seven decades of the Soviet rule in Georgia and dedicated to the history of the anti-occupational, national-liberation movement of Georgia, to the victims of the Soviet political repressions throughout... Museum of the Occupation of Latvia 1940-1991 is an historic educational institution located in Riga, Latvia. It was established in 1993 to exhibit artifacts, archive documents, and educate the public about the 51-year period in the 20th century when Latvia was successively occupied by the USSR in... The Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius, Lithuania was established in 1992 by order of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture and the President of the Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees. In 1997 it was transferred to the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuaniain Cambodia Other The Soviet Story is a 2008 documentary film about Soviet Communism and Soviet-German collaboration before 1941 written and directed by Edvīns Šnore and sponsored by the UEN Group in the European Parliament.... The Singing Revolution is a documentary film created by James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty about the nonviolent Singing Revolution in Estonia where hundreds of thousands of Estonians gathered publicly, between 1986 and 1991, in an effort to end decades of Soviet occupation... "Right Here, Right Now" is a song written by Mike Edwards and recorded by the British band Jesus Jones from the album, Doubt. A single was released in September 1990, peaking at number 31 on the UK Singles Chart... – An international hit written by Mike Edwards and performed by his rock band Jesus Jones Jesus Jones Jesus Jones are a British rock and subsequently globally appropriated for... , released in September 1990 See alsoBaltic Tiger is a term used to refer to any of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania during their periods of economic boom, which started after the year 2000 and continued until 2006–2007... The Chinese democracy movement refers to a series of loosely organized political movements in the People's Republic of China against the continued one-party rule by the Communist Party. One such movement began during the Beijing Spring in 1978 and was taken up again in the Tiananmen Square...Colour revolutions is a term that was widely used by the media to describe related movements that developed in several societies in the CIS and Balkan states during the early 2000s. The term has also been applied to a number of revolutions elsewhere, including in the Middle East... The Enlargement of the European Union is the process of expanding the European Union through the accession of new member states. This process began with the Inner Six, who founded the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952The January Events took place in Lithuania between January 11 and 13, 1991 in the aftermath of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. As a result of Soviet military actions, 14 civilians were killed and more than 1000 injured... The Jeans Revolution was a term used by the democratic opposition in Belarus and their supporters in the West to describe their effort and aspirations as regarding democratic changes in Belarus at the presidential elections of 2006... Making the History of 1989 is an online database for teachers and students. The educational site provides teaching materials including scholar interviews, teaching modules, case studies and primary sources related to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The digital history project was created Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold WarFurther reading Melvyn P. Leffler is an American historian, and Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia.-Life:He graduated from Cornell University in 1966, and from Ohio State University with a Ph.D... Timothy Garton Ash is a British historian, author and commentator. He is currently serving as Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe...	eng	b7dd72d0-652a-4a08-a912-2da6a347605c	http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Revolutions_of_1989
Halitosis and Tooth and Gum Disease Periodontal gum disease is a very serious condition that can affect your overall health, and can destroy the health of your teeth. Read on to find out how you can prevent tooth and gum disease for yourself and your family, and how you can notice its symptoms quickly. Preventing Gum Infection Gum disease can be contracted if your mouth is not cleaned properly, or if you don't clean your mouth as frequently as you should. So, after each meal (or snack), you should be sure to brush your teeth or rinse your mouth with an antiseptic mouthwash, preferably both. You should also make sure that you are flossing at least once or twice a day-although flossing too often could cause your gums to bleed. This could be an indication of gum infection, so if you are experiencing pain or discomfort after flossing, then merely brush gently and advise your dentist as soon as you can to get more advice on treatment. Spotting a Gum Disease Symptom Some other symptoms that you may observe include pain or considerable sensitivity in the teeth or gums (especially when you're eating), and your teeth may not feel the same in your mouth when you're chewing your food. You may also notice puss in and around your gums, which is a distinct indication of periodontal disease. Swollen gums or toothache even when you're not eating can also be a sign of periodontal disease, so if you are having any of these symptoms, you should make certain that you visit your dentist as soon as you can in order to look into the treatment options that will work best for you. Gum Disease Treatment There are several treatments that you can take advantage of in order to get rid of gum disease, and many of them do not require surgery. You can get your gums and teeth thoroughly cleaned at the dentist's office if you are in the early stages of periodontal disease, and you may be given a regimen to follow that includes flossing or brushing with gentler utensils in order to heal your gums. You can also talk to your dentist about soft tissue grafts, a procedure that uses soft tissue from other parts of the mouth to restore the parts of the gum that have been damaged by the condition. You can also undergo crown lengthening, which elongates the crown and makes the teeth look longer. Many times, people with short crowns experience periodontal disease because there is unusual gum space in the mouth, which makes it easier for bacteria to enter the mouth. Frequently Asked Questions QUESTION: How do u test if you have halitosis? halitosis=constant bad breath?? any dentists around?? ANSWER: Ok one way that I have found to tell if I have bad breath is to lick the palm of my hand. It is not the teeth that smell bad it is actually the tongue that smells bad so if you lick the palm of your hand then smell it you can tell what your breath smells like. QUESTION: Is halitosis something God created so that we could hate one another even more? I tend to hate people with halitosis. Is God testing me? ANSWER: no, it's just another symptom of God's piss-poor design of the human body QUESTION: PLS HELP Blood test show high ast, alt, vitm b12, calicum, bun/creati, neutrophils & sed rate. Low HCT, HGB…? My child is 5, shes been having repeated blood work done for about 6 months now, b/c some of her levels were turning up high or low for what the range is for her age. After her last blood work her PCP ran on her, he is referring her to a Gastro. Specialist. She will be going on Feb. 2nd. I am looking to see if, can get someone to explain or help me understand her blood work more through. Also, if anyone could tell me what may possible be going on with her. I am not looking for someone to give her a diagnosis. Just for someone to give me some more info on what possible could be going on with my princess. It is so hard for me to just sit here and wait til Feb. to find out more information. How is a mother suppose to do that? Her PCP did tell me that he is referring her to a specialist to see if he wants to do further testing and that her blood work results could be showing something wrong with her kidneys, liver or some kind of cancer. Cancer does run on her fathers side. His mother has had one kind of skin cancer & his grandmother on his fathers side passed away from some kind of skin cancer. We do not want to ask more info from the family, until we know what is going on with our little girl. We dont want to get anyone worried or upset til we know more info. I have done some research but still not understand a whole lot of it. I have read that to determine cancers, liver problems and kidney problems that you have to look at several numbers on blood work, not just one certain one. Below I will list her blood work that say abnormal and see if someone can explain them to me better. Thank you inadvance to anyone that helps me understand what may be going on or what could be going on with my little princess. I will list her results for both her 2 past labs: Her urine was checked as well, but just on 9/14/09. They only thing that was flagged on that test was Spec. gravity which was 1.015 (considered low) In the doctors notes: It reads On percussion, there is dullness heard in the left lower quadrant compared to the rest of her abdomen, which is tympanic. The child has halitosis also. WHAT DOES this mean? Other smpthoms: Frequent urination Not feeling like she can always empty bladder & has to go to the bathroom w/in several mins (10-15mins apart) Several accidents prer day, cant get to the bathroom before she feels the urge to go. Tires out easily. Trouble gaining weight thristy often feels hungry often but most times cant not eat much, just a few bites, before she is full or loses appetite Has headaches from time to time Complains of pain in lower back at times as well as under arm pit. Complains of abdominal pain everyday. Acid reflux along with burps that smell like softer. I know this is a lot, I aplogize. Just trying to provide as much detial as possible, to see if I can get any help understanding what may be going on with my little girl. You can email me also at littlehandscreatingthefuture@yahoo.com THANK YOU INADVANCE for any HELP you can provide me with! Sincerely, Worried mommy!! ANSWER: Dear Worried, JustMe Mom: This is the 2nd installment of my long detailed answer for your question that is also posted in various sections e,g, Medicine, Diseases, Toddler, Preschooler. Parenting, etc. Pls note that I have included various reference sites. To view the first installment of this answer for your similar question posted under Other- Disease section; check the site below: The normal value for BUN is approximately 10-20, and for creatinine 0.7-1.2. Therefore, her BUN of 13-15 is WNL. However, her Cr of 0.40-0.49 is quite low......abnormally low. The blood urea nitrogen (BUN) test is a measure of the amount of nitrogen in the blood in the form of urea, and a measurement of renal function. Urea is a substance secreted by the liver, and removed from the blood by the kidneys. BUN and creatinine are excreted by the kidneys and accumulate in the bloodstream when a person has kidney failure. Therefore, with renal disease, the BUN and creatinine usually both rise together. However, there are some conditions in which one rises more than the other, and some (as in your daughter's case ) where one is normal while the other is low. Here are some possible explanations: 1) Lab error. A creatinine of 0.4- 0.5 is unusually low. Could it be incorrect? Could the lab have been having a bad day, or did someone miscopy an 0.8 as an 0.5? 2) Dehydration: if you were dehydrated at the time the lab test was done (for example, were having a GI viral illness), the BUN may have increased just due to dehydration (resulting in a high ratio), and should have come back down as soon as you had enough water in your body. 3) Heart failure or liver cirrhosis: both of these conditions can cause a high BUN/creat ratio in the absence of kidney problems. 4) Very high protein diet: a very high protein diet may increase the BUN without affecting creatinine, so that the ratio may become elevated. (Did you eat a giant steak the night before your blood test?) 5) GI bleeding: if there is a bleeding ulcer or bleeding of any type anywhere in the stomach or intestines, the BUN will rise disproportionately from the creatinine.I ncreased production of urea is seen in cases of moderate or heavy bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal(GI) tract (e.g. from ulcers). The 6) Steroids: in people taking high doses of steroid medications such as prednisone, the BUN can be elevated, causing a high calculatedBUN/creatinine ratio. Enhanced metabolism of proteins will also increase urea production, as may be seen with high protein diets, steroid use, burns, or fevers; or kidney stones. I'm sure that your doctor will want to repeat this test before doing anything else about it. Acute renal failure(ARF) It has been found to be predictive of pre-renal failure, if the BUN-to-creatinine ratio is greater than 20 or the urea-to-creatinine ratio>0.10 and urea>10. When the ratio of BUN to creatinine (BUN:Cr) is greater than 20, the patient is suspected of having prerenal azotemia. This means that the pathologic process is unlikely to be due to intrinsic kidney damage. In addition, in children, a BUN/creatinine ratio of 30 or above has a sensitivity of 68.8% for upper GI bleeding and a specificity of 98%. Elevated BUN with very low creatinine is possibly indicative of early acute renal/kidney failure. For accuracy of determination of kidney/renal disease or dysfunction; she would need a 24- hr urine collection for creatinine clearance. A 24-hr urine collection for creatinine clearance is a more accurate diagnostic tool for early renal/ kidney disease. Sometimes, in more than one instances; the high BUN: Cr ratio is most typically the result of being dehydrated when she had the blood work done. So most likely insignificant assuming that the creatinine value is normal. In other words when a 'healthy' patient has a high BUN and low Cr, it's typically an indication that you've not been drinking enough water. It's hardly something to worry about. The problem here coupled with high hepatic panel ( high AST and ALT) There is a need to do another test for alkaline phosphatase. To confirm any abnormality results. I don't want to get all too technical with you, but let's assume she has an elevated Bilirubin level on the Liver Panel, a low alk phos effectively rules out an obstruction of the common bile duct. So, now it will involve your internist doing some imaging, serology and perhaps additional tests to figure out why there's a problem with your liver panel. I think that the ultrasound is a reasonable thing to do. It'll most likely be normal or may show gallstones (which you shouldn't worry about if she's asymptomatic). If you get the radiologist's report suspecting and suggesting she might have some "hypoechoic or hypotenuse lesions or hemangiomas, and recommend f/u ( follow-up) with triple phase CT/MRI". Don't get freaked out. These are extremely common, benign lesions. The false positive findings can lead to unecessary anxiety and further testing. Because multiple variables can interfere with the interpretation of a BUN value, GFR and creatinine clearance are more accurate markers of kidney function. Age, sex, and weight will alter the "normal" range for each individual, including race. In renal failure or chronic kidney disease (CKD), BUN will only be elevated outside "normal" when more than 60% of kidney cells are no longer functioning. Hence, more accurate measures of renal function are generally preferred to assess the clearance for purposes of medication dosing. Calcium: All cells need calcium in order to work. Calcium helps build strong bones and teeth. It is important for heart function, and helps with muscle contraction, nerve signaling, and blood clotting. Drinking too much milk or taking too much vitamin D as a dietary supplement can also increase calcium levels. Hypercalcemia( high blood Ca) is a disorder that most commonly results from malignancy or primary hyperparathyroidism. Other causes of elevated calcium are less common and usually are not considered until malignancy and parathyroid disease are ruled out. The pain on her lower back might be due to UTI or kidney problem.( also related to DM- diabetes) Her halitosis( her burps smell of sulfur) can also be attributed to this kidney or GI problems. Hiccoughing( hiccups) in acute renal failure patients is common due to the toxins not adequately eliminated by the malfunctioning kidney. Breath odor and persistent hiccups are among the symptoms of acute renal failure. Her abdominal pains and poor appetite might also be attributed to some liver disease or GI problems. Her acid reflux might also be due to GERD ( gastroesophageal reflux disease) and IBS( irritable Bowel Syndrome) Thus the frequent burps. Hope; the doctor will plan to do a liver biopsy and an ultrasound. If abdominal pain or signs of peritonitis are localized in the left lower quadrant, the suspicion is increased for such conditions as colitis, diverticulitis, ureteral colic or pain due to ovarian cysts or pelvic inflammatory disease.(PID) or splenic disorder ( evidenced by the spleen- dullness upon percussion of the left lower quadrant ( LLQ). Examples of tumors in the left lower quadrant include colon cancer or ovarian tumor. Vitamin B12, also called cobalamin, is a water soluble vitamin with a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. Although deficiency is far more common than excess when it comes to vitamin B12 status; cases have been reported where blood levels exceeded 3000 picograms/milliliter. Such high levels may be caused by bacterial overgrowth and a condition called Vit B12 Overload. Moreover, for her high Vit B12 levels; the gastroenterologist might need to perform a new endoscopy, in order to dismiss or rule out the diagnosis of Crohn's disease or Celiac disease. . QUESTION: Are you shallow? You know you are. How much are you able to admit to? Test the theory.? It seems a lot of people like to say, "People who don't like you because of _____ aren't worth your time!" and "It's what's inside that counts." I call bull. Let's test the theory: 1. Picture in your mind the most grotesque example of humanity (respective to the sex of preference) you can. I mean sideshow freak worthy. If you can't imagine dating someone 40 years your senior/junior, add that into the equation. 2. Now, add on top of that a horrid body odor, and halitosis. 3. Now imagine that they are in possession of every bad habit that you despise (neat freak, wimpy/weak, sloppy, smoker, drinker, abuser, emo, etc.) 4. Now that I feel that I don't need to go further, please, by all means, imagine kissing this person, making love to this person (for the sake of argument, lets say they're so small they couldn't satisfy a hummingbird, or so loose that John Deere could start a manufacturing plant inside, god forbid, pardon the language), waking up to this person every day. Admittedly, this is a very extreme example. Now, keep these people in mind, tell me if there are any qualities that could make you willing to procreate with this person. Be honest, and no, a bag over the head doesn't count; neither does removing any of the aforementioned vices. But! They are the "sweetest" person you've ever known with a good personality (other than the small bad habits). So, how shallow are you? How many standards do you have for someone you date? Afterall, that's really all shallowness amounts to. You call a person shallow when you disagree with their personal standards. What is shallowness to you? Do you think it may be a disagreement (or a bit of hurt ego) over another person's standards? Edit: halitosis is not necessarily indicative of poor self-esteem unless it is the poor self-esteem caused by the halitosis, such as in chronic cases. Body odor could be likewise a chronic problem unrelated to hygiene so much as overactive sweat production, etc. I never said that there wasn't someone for everyone; however, your someone, based on your personal standards, may likely not be someone else's. I find it funny that it seems only appearance-related, I was once called shallow because of appearance, plus personality trait and intelligence preferences (no Jessica Simpsons, no Stephen Hawkings) I always personally figured the whole package mattered (inside and out). Though I see a lot of theory and very little admission as to what would be done in said situation and varying personal degree of shallowness. ANSWER: Small bad habits??? You said "Every bad habit that you despise". lol Very shallow people are ONLY concerned with outer appearance period. They do not take into account anything further. They are "concerned only with what is obvious" by definition. They won't even get to the halitosis or body odor or bad habits for most people, because they will immediately dismiss anyone who doesn't fit this perfect mold of whatever physical traits they find attractive. Once they select the qualified few, then, they'll narrow it down based on what is obvious when close — body odor, halitosis, etc. Bad habits rarely play into the picture for truly shallow people. If they find someone who fits their mold, they'll gladly put up with bad habits, lack of intelligence, and awful personality just to be able to say "Look everyone, I got perfect-looking-person-for-me!" The truth of the matter is, when it comes down to it, most people have some shallow tendencies (physically, I don't like dating men who are shorter than I am or too ridiculously skinny, I'll admit that), but in most cases, this is more a case of personal preference than anything else. There are women who adore men with big bushy beards over clean-cut men, even if the bearded man is a complete jerk and the clean-cut man is the sweetest man in the world. This makes them as shallow as the woman who'd choose pretty boy jerk over sweet bearded man. So yeah, everyone is probably a little shallow because everyone has their preferences. It's a question of whether they can get past that bit of shallow if the perfect person comes along, or if they're going to dismiss that person because he/she lacks a single physical trait they're looking for. QUESTION: I need help with Halitosis? I brush my teeth till it tingles. I brush my tongue till it's pink. And I also flush. I also do the quick breathe test i.e placing a little saliva on back of palm, allowing it to dry and smelling it so that if it smells then you have bad breathe and if it doesn't you don't. Well when I do this, it doesn't smell. The problem I'm having now is that I noticed that despite all these things that I am doing to ensure that my breathe is fresh, I still notice that people cover their noses when I speak i.e at work on on trains when i bump into acquaintances etc. I've asked my dentist who actually said I haven't got bad breathe at all. I thought he was lying and went to another dentist who said that i didn't have bad breathe at alll too. I also summoned up courage and asked a friend who said I have perfect breathe and brother says my breathe is fine. Can someone please help me out as I don't have a clue what is happening and this is becoming quite embarrasing because despite this i still notice alot of people covering their noses only when i speak so i know it's not body odour.. Also I noticed that after I've had a glass of wine or chocolate, people cover their noses and I understand cause these things can make the breathe smell. However I noticed that my friends breathe still do not smell right after or some minutes after a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate. So why does mine smell immediately or soon after. Any dentists in the house? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease help. ANSWER: I suppose that you are suffering from Delusional Halitosis, That is, fear whether you have bad breath. If you really want to confirm it, you can visit ant dental schools in the dept of Periodontics. They have equipments to measure the extend of your halitosis. Also get a deep scaling done and use some mouth was so as to keep the amount of micro organisms in check. Even if it still do not work consult a physician, as halitosis need not be only of dental origin Hope it helps can cause bad breath and how to overcome it? I learnt bad breath is caused by many many things and i want to be specify what are the do's and don't ANSWER: must brush teeth twice a day along with mouth wash tounge has to be brush also. if there's a foul bad breath that's a sing of gum disease must be treated by a special dental doctor.Is It Possible To Successfully Treat Gingivitis And Halitosis At Home? Do Oral Irrigators Work? There are a number of things that can be done to treat gingivitis and halitosis at home successfully. However, it is extremely important to get checked by a dentist or periodontist first, and get the appropriate recommended treatment. Without this, it may be very difficult to treat gingivitis at home without risking irreversible damage. A periodontist or dental hygienist will usually perform a very thorough clean of the mouth. If mild gingivitis is present, this may be all that is needed (to be repeated regularly every few months). On the other hand, if there is advanced periodontal disease, scaling and root planning will be advised (cleaning of the root surfaces to remove plaque and tartar from the pockets and remove bacteria and toxins from the tooth root). If the gum disease is very advanced, surgery may be recommended that is, if tissue is so unhealthy it cannot be repaired by other means. While waiting to be seen by a dentist or periodontist, there are steps that can be taken to treat gingivitis at home. First, it is crucial to learn how to use a toothbrush properly, be it manual or electric. Secondly, it is equally important to floss and, again, to learn how to do it effectively without causing any more damage to the gum tissues. And finally, daily use of an oral irrigator will help remove plaque and debris from areas that the toothbrush and the dental floss were not able to reach. Numerous studies have shown evidence that daily use of an oral irrigator improves oral health. And not only that, but the studies have provided unquestionable evidence that oral irrigation significantly reduces plaque and harmful bacteria, and hence, the risk and severity of periodontal disease. Halitosis is usually present when there is any degree of gum disease (commonly gingivitis or periodontitis) and so regular use of an oral irrigator will not only help enormously with any gum problems, but as a bonus, it will provide an invaluable tool if a permanent cure for halitosis is to be found. How to treat gingivitis successfully at home? Simply make sure you make an appointment to see your dentist first, and get appropriate treatment with your periodontist or dental hygienist. In addition, make sure you learn how to clean your teeth properly (technique, type of toothbrush to use, how to floss, etc). Finally, seriously consider adding an oral irrigator to your daily routine: in the long run, it will save you many visits to the periodontist and not only your gums will be extremely grateful, but your pocket will certainly benefit as well! About the Author: For more information visit: Find a Cure to Halitosis Step by Step, where you will find information and advice related to halitosis, its causes and the best available treatments and remedies for bad breath. Visit this page: How to Treat Gingivitis at Home for information and product reviews related to gum disease and halitosis. Frequently Asked Questions QUESTION: Would you fear going to the dentist if you had halitosis and the dentist was of the opposite sex? As long as the objects they put in it are not sharp then. Oh no, that sounded pervy.. Sassy Brat: It's not a personal problem. And you'd be surprised how many dentists still reel at the thought of a terrible mouth, especially recently qualified ones. ANSWER: lol… no. i feel oddly uncomfortable with anyone getting near my mouth, 'cept when i invite themgood luck QUESTION: Would you continue to go to a dentist who happens to have chronic halitosis? ANSWER: If the dentist was the only one within 50 miles. Rose P. QUESTION: What is the meaning of halitosis? That glittering romance that has loomed on your horizon for weeks will remain out of reach until you take care of that halitosis. By the time you make a dentist's appointment, your window of opportunity will have closed. I don't understand this paragraph. ANSWER: Halitosis means bad breath. Now re-read the paragraph and it will make more sense. The reference to the dentist is that most people with bad breath go to the dentist to make sure it is not caused by a dental problem. QUESTION: good breath mint to take before seeing a dentist? frankly, i know my breath is terrible these last few days (hence the dentist visit) of course i brush like normal but it does not seem to cut it. (my dad said it smells like halitosis) so when i see the dentist, i do not want to be rude. he will be down my throat the whole time so i would rather him not be distracted by dragon breath. would any breath mint do fine? I don't want to impede on their progress. which mints will be less intrusive to a dentist's work, and still keep my breath smelling nice? ANSWER: The best mint to take before seeing a dentist is an Altoid !!! Hope this helps !! Natural Herbs Can Help Fight Gum Disease Like Halitosis Most of the time, halitosis is caused by poor dental hygiene. However, there may be other factors involved such as gum disease, tooth decay, heavy metal buildup, infection of the respiratory tract, improper diet, constipation, smoking, fever, diabetes, foreign bacteria in the mouth, indigestion, inadequate protein digestion, liver or kidney malfunction, postnasal drip, stress, and too much unfriendly bacteria in the colon. Additionally, halitosis can be caused by a buildup of toxins in the gastrointestinal tract, salivary gland disorder, chronic bronchitis, sinusitis, or diabetes. It is also true that dieting, alcohol abuse, or fasting can also cause bad breath. "Morning breath" is the product of dehydration and the reduction in the amount of saliva. This saliva is necessary for washing away bacteria in the mouth. Dieters and people who are fasting may often experience bad breath. This is because the lack of food causes the body to break down stored fat and protein for fuel. The metabolic wastes that are a result of this process have an unpleasant odor as they are exhaled from the lungs. The following nutrients are beneficial for dealing with and preventing bad breath. One tablespoon of chlorophyll can be taken in juice twice daily, as green drinks are one of the best ways to combat bad breath. 2,000 to 6,000 mg of vitamin C with bioflavonoids should be taken daily. Vitamin C is important in healing mouth and gum disease and preventing bleeding gums. This nutrient also rids the body of excess mucus and toxins that cause bad breath. Acidophilus should be taken as directed on the label. It is needed to replenish the friendly bacteria in the colon. Insufficient friendly bacteria and an overabundance of harmful bacteria can often cause bad breath. Garlic acts as a natural antibiotic by destroying foreign bacteria in both the mouth and the colon. It is recommended that you take 2 capsules of the odorless form 4 times daily, with meals and at bedtime. 30 mg of zinc should be taken three times daily as it has an antibacterial effect and neutralizes sulfur compounds. These sulfur compounds are a common cause of mouth odor. Bee propolis should be taken as directed on the label. It is helpful in healing the gums, aiding control of infection in the body, and also has an antibacterial effect. 15,000 IU of vitamin A should be taken daily; it is needed for control of infection and also in healing of the mouth. Additionally, 100 mg of vitamin B complex is needed for proper digestion. The following herbs are also beneficial for dealing with halitosis. Alfalfa supplies chlorophyll, which cleanses the bloodstream and colon, where bad breath often begins. Gum disease, which is a major factor of bad breath, can be treated with goldenseal extract. This extract can heal the infected parts. Myrrh, peppermint, rosemary, and sage should be used to brush your teeth and rinse your mouth. Chewing a sprig of parsley after meals is an excellent treatment for bad breath. This nutrient is rich in chlorophyll, which happens to be a popular ingredient in breath mints. Other herbs that can be beneficial include anise, cloves, and fennel. Whether you want to take it into your own hands to heal your gums from disease, a gum disease can be a sign of a more significant health problem that should be looked at by our health care provider. In either case, vitamins and herbs can be found at your local or internet health food store. Statements contained herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Natural Toothpaste is not intended to diagnose, treat and cure or prevent disease. Always consult with your professional health care provider before changing any medication or adding Vitamins to medications. Frequently Asked Questions QUESTION: what are the causes of bleeding gum, mouth odor and what are the treatment? i find out each time i brush my teeth my gum bleeds and i have mouth odor ANSWER: it may be inflamed, do you have any calculus? if yes you have to go to dentist he can remove it and the bad odour will be gone tooo. if not you may have calcium deficiency, or vitamine deficiency, also chek the physician QUESTION: Would an odor neutralizing gum/mint/mouthwash help get rid of the smell of alcohol from my breath? My breath frequently smells of alcohol after drinking. Would using any of the methods listed above help get rid of it? ANSWER: Nope. The reason your breath smells like alcohol is because you have been drinking. The alcohol has been asorbed into your bloodstream. That is why police use breathtests to determine if you have been drinking or not. QUESTION: Gum Odor please help!? I am having a bad breath odor which seems to be coming from my gums. Nothing I can do will take the odor away. I would see a dentist, but I'm disabled and do not have dental insurance. Is there anything I can do? This is becoming unbearable! ANSWER: Sounds like you have gingivitis. It's caused by plaque build up under the gumline and unfortunately it has to be removed by your dentist. QUESTION: gum odor question?????? lately i've been brushing my teeth and when i flossed i noticed there was a odor coming from somewhere.everytime i flossed it came from my teeth(gums)so i recently started using mouth wash to help kill the bacteria that is in my gums..will this stop the problem? ANSWER: If it is indeed periodontal disease, the mouth rinse will not work very well. It will work a little, but only a few hours because the bacteria is down low in the gums where the mouth rinse can't reach, which allows the smell to creep back up before long. You need to see your dentist, who will probably recommend you have your gums deep cleaned. QUESTION: What's a nice way to suggest someone needs a piece of gum to cover odor, especially if it's your spouse?? ANSWER: Oh thats easy just say here dear you need a mint thats your spouse you can tell them anything The Truth About How to Get Rid of Bad Breath Caused by Gum Disease Quite often bad breath or halitosis occurs simply because brushing or flossing is not done correctly. But there are a few totally different reas 00004000 ons that can cause this condition. Most people would not even dream that some of the causes of halitosis are so remarkable. To give you an example, diabetes is a disease of insulin imbalance in the body. But it is also connected to gum disease which causes bad breath. This happens because the diabetic's blood circulation can result in the gums getting infected. The infection results in bad breath. Another reason is that the diabetic has low immunity to many diseases, including gum disease. This problem is aggravated in people who smoke because smoking, too, causes bad breath. Halitosis, when it is linked to gum disease caused by diabetes, should be correctable. As long as the blood sugar is kept under control, the diabetic will be able to get rid of bad breath. His sugar levels can be lowered by medication. Those with diabetes — and others — should also not smoke and should also see the dentist regularly. Certain medications, gastric disorders, and liver disease can also result in bad breath. All these conditions help in the growth of bacteria which cause halitosis. It may not be a simple matter to get rid of bad breath in such cases. But there are some tips that can be of help. You must brush after every meal, use an alcohol free mouthwash to rinse your mouth and if that does not help, then a diluted mixture of 50% hydrogen peroxide and 50% water should be used as a rinse and gargle. If a child is using the peroxide mixture then be careful that it is done under supervision because it should not be swallowed. There are still other reasons for bad breath like cold and allergies. A lot of cold symptoms can be treated with over the counter or prescription medicines. There are also many allergy medicines also knows as antihistamines which can help with a runny nose, cough, sore throat, sinus problems and others and these will also concurrently help with the bad breath. Medical practitioners, dentists, pharmacists and medical journals as also the internet will be of great help in providing information on how to deal with this kind of problem. Avoid smoking and drinking as both these add to the bad breath problem. When going on a date, do not have strong goods like garlic, hot and pungent foods, spices, onions and the like. Foods like fried chicken or spicy chili dishes that may cause gastric problems are also best avoided. Gastrointestinal problems caused by these types of foods are also the cause of bacteria proliferating; these bacteria also cause halitosis. Additionally, there are many online resources which can be of help to a person who has bad breath and these are all available on the internet. There is an Online Treatment Advisor of the National Medical Society, which gives you great information available at the following link: This web page has a simple questionnaire for people to fill out in case they are suffering from bad breath. It asks important questions like how long the person is suffering form bad breath, how old he is, whether he is having other problems, etc. This questionnaire provided by the National Medical Society will help the halitosis patient pinpoint the cause of the halitosis condition. It will also give advice as to the correct treatment to alleviate the problem. This treatment takes into account the unique aspects of the person's general health condition and helps in finding the proper treatment. There are other websites like About.com which give free information about halitosis. And there are sponsored links available on the site which will help you find products which will lessen your problem. However, this does not mean that you should not consult a medical practitioner for advice; it will just give you more information to work with. Frequently Asked Questions is your favorite candy or gum that cures your bad breath? For my project, i need research from people on what they like to use to cure their bad breath. Can range from candies, gum, mints, etc. ANSWER: QUESTION: What is the best gum/mint for bad breath? I chew Wrigleys Extra Spearmint gum. I also like to eat Mentos Mint. I also sometimes chew Wrigleys Doublemint. I LOVE Spearmint better than Peppermint. (Spearmint is sweeter and Peppermint is kinda a little strong but I still like it.) And do Listerine Pocketpaks work? (I mean are they strong and minty) ANSWER: you know, there is also a chance that you're having a chronic bad breath and is that case, mints can help only in a temporary way. if you're looking also for a permanent cure and to fix the problem from the root, check out the next report 3 Proven Tips to Get Rid of Bad Breath Caused by Gum Disease It is a fact that millions of people in the United States suffer from bad breath right this minute, whether they admit it or not. Most people with bad breath have this condition due to the practice of improper oral hygiene. Perhaps they don't brush their teeth often enough. Maybe they don't floss regularly. Or maybe they don't clean their tongues after brushing. No matter what the cause, the smell of bad breath is generally the same. In order to determine whether you have this condition or not, you will need to undergo certain tests. Here are the most commonly used methods by oral hygienists today. Organoleptic Test. This is simply a grandiose way to refer to simply smelling your breath. However, you probably won't be able to make an accurate diagnosis if you smell your own breath. Because your nose and mouth are connected, some internal odors might be imperceptible to you. For this reason, it is much better if someone with impartial judgment can test whether your breath stinks or not. However, finding a volunteer who is willing to take on the job is another matter altogether. Bad breath has a very unpleasant odor, pretty much like that of rotten eggs, and you might have a difficult time finding someone who would subject themselves to such a task. Another problem you can face with the organoleptic test is that there is no accurate way of determining the severity of your bad breath condition. The average nose can smell more than 10,000 different odors and will not have a problem identifying the stench of bad breath. However, people have very subjective and varying opinions. A deathly smell for someone might not be too bad for another. So there is no real way of knowing just how bad your case of bad breath really is. Gas Chromatography. This procedure offers a more objective diagnosis than the organoleptic process. With gas chromatography, the different types of compounds present in your breath will be identified and measured accordingly. This way, it will be easy to determine which compounds are present in abnormally high amounts, possibly causing bad breath. Halimeters. Just as in gas chromatography, halimeters measure compounds in the breath, focusing mainly on the sulfide gases. These sulfide gases are produced by oral anaerobic bacteria that break down leftover food particles in the mouth. These gases are responsible for the rotten egg smell that typically characterizes bad breath. The main problem with using halimeters is that their results can be influenced by the presence of other foreign chemicals in the breath that come from mouthwashes and other dental products. Bana Test. This method is used on people who are suspected of having gingivitis or some other periodontal illness. It tests for infections on the gum that could possibly result in bad breath. Chemiluminescence. As its name suggests, this method relies on chemicals and light to determine the presence of bad breath agents in the mouth. A sulfur compound sample is taken from the mouth and combined with mercury. If the mixture seems to light up, that signals the presence of bad breath. Once you've been given a confirmed diagnosis for bad breath, you will then need to determine which type of bad breath you do have. The most common is the transient type. This usually fades in time and is easily treated. Common causes of transient bad breath are strong-smelling foods, dry mouth and stress. Another common type is chronic bad breath, also known as halitosis. This is usually the result of poor oral hygiene which leads to the accumulation of oral bacteria especially in between the teeth and on the rear part of the tongue. Finally, there are the more serious types of bad breath that is associated with internal illnesses such as diabetes and liver disorders. One such type is called the fetor hepaticus. This type of bad breath has a particular offensive smell that some people compare to a rotting corpse. How do you get rid of bad breath? There is no single miracle cure to all types of bad breath. The particular treatment method depends on the cause of your bad breath. There are even some types of bad breath that don't have a complete cure until today. For instance, dental experts are still debating over the cure for chronic bad breath or halitosis. Today, there are a handful of very advanced dental clinics across the country that are able to treat bad breath very effectively. They use a special procedure whereby they identify the bacteria responsible for bad breath and treat it by targeting these bacteria specifically. Still others say that a holistic approach is more effective. This usually entails a lifestyle makeover for many people, which can be pretty challenging, but the overall results are actually very good. With the many options for treating bad breath, it could be hard to select a single method. The best thing you can do is go to your oral hygienist or dentist to ask for a professional recommendationHow to Get Rid of Bad Breath Caused by Gum Disease …in Less Than 1 Week those washA high protein diet is used by many different types of people including people who are interested in weight loss and people who are into muscle building. This may be a contradiction in terms, but for both sets of people, the diet may be high protein, though still different. The only thing they have in common is bad breath which is caused by the high protein diet. If you are on a special diet tailored to your specific requirements, you would ideally need to be under the supervision of a dietitian, nutritionist or doctor. But a great many people just go it alone for various reasons. That is why you need to be all the more careful when undertaking a diet plan which you may have just read or heard about. If you are suffering from bad breath caused by the high protein diet, you need to know that your diet is actually not in balance. Even though a high protein diet is structured so that you can lose weight quickly, it should also maintain all bodily functions in an optimum manner. Unfortunately, a high protein diet often causes bad breath because of the increase in ketones in the blood and urine. This is a by-product of the high protein diet and ketones are produced when the body burns fat instead of carbohydrates which are restricted or eliminated in a high protein diet. Ketones cause a foul odor in the blood, urine and even perspiration, so a person on a high protein diet is prone to smelling bad. Is there a Remedy for Bad Breath caused by a High Protein Diet? There is a very simple remedy for this problem. On a high protein diet, most people's meals will lay greater emphasis on meats and sea foods. But there are vegetarian sources of protein as well and these vegetarian substitutes or additions will usually also have a decent amount of carbohydrates as well. Most kinds of beans and lentils are good sources of protein and they also contain carbohydrates which the body will use as fuel in addition to the fat it burns. If you go out in the sun or use a sauna, this will also help in dispelling the ketones formed in the way of perspiration. Keeping your body well hydrated by drinking lots of water will dilute the ketones in the urine. However, you have to very careful when you are on a high protein diet, especially if you are not under any health care provider. Diet and weight loss are specialized fields and it is a person who specializes in these fields who can help you the most. After all you do not want to find out that the bad breath or malodorous urine is caused not by the high protein diet, but by diabetes which can cause the same symptoms? There may be people with undiagnosed diabetes or people whose diabetes is not under control who would be particularly at risk. This can escalate to a life-threatening situation, so it is vital to get to a doctor in the very least to eliminate this possibility. Temporary cures for bad breath are all very well, chronic halitosis is better treated by a medical professional. Frequently Asked Questions anddoes dentyne ice sugarless gum cure bad breath? does dentyne ice sugarless gum cure bad breath or just cover it while you chew it? like if you chew a peice then spit it out or whatever does it clean your mouth? The Best Bad Breath Product I Have Ever Tried!!! (And I Tried A "few"…) a few things not many pepole know (and sould) about "bad breath": Chronic bad breath or ahalitosisa is often leads to much more serious oral and general health problems? 95% of the products out there on the market are ineffective and some of them are even doing the opposite of what they claim to do ? That the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Dental Association (ADA) have linked even the mildest forms of gum disease such as gingivitis, to a few forms of cancer and even heart disease? People suffer from gingivitis and periodonitist have a mortality rate that is up to 46% higher than those who don't? Mouth ulcers and canker sores are caused not by the food and drinks you eat and drink, but by the very ingredients in toothpaste and rinses you are using? hi, my name is tom, i am 31, and i wanted to share with you SOMETHING AMAZING i discovered !!! if you're looking at this page right now, reading this lines, so first of all, SMILE. do you know why are you smiling ? ? i will tell you. you're smiling because - YOU'RE DONE WITH IT! NO MORE BAD BREATH FOR YOU!!! and no more avoiding getting out in social situations due to your bad breath or halitosis. and no more spending lots of your hard work money on expansive pastes and rises, and get little and no relief. and no more having trouble smiling to the mirror and being unhappy of what you see. and no more being worried about premature tooth loss and prospect of dentures in your future because of your gum disease. and no more avoiding certain foods and drinks and definitely, no more avoiding your dentist because you don't want to know how bad the problem really is. sound's good ? ? well, IT IS. i recently found the best bad breath product there is!!! at least as far as i know, and trust me on that one, i tried so many bad breath products and for very long time… so many bad breath products out there it's hard to choose and let me tell you something now, I tried SO MANY abada bad breath products in my life it's embarrassing. to tell you the truth, i actually pretty much gave up. i didn't even trusted that one till a friend of mine, suffering from a severe gum disease, told me all about it i decided to give it one last chance. what can i tell you ? the result was astonishing and immediate. anyway… i think i made my point here ha ? ? my life is way different then what they used to be (and that's a good thing try for yourself. to hear more satisfied pepole, to see who's behind that amazing product (his name is Chris) and to see which 5 FREE BONUSES you will get, click here - hope i could help About the author: well, as i said, i'm tom and i really recommand you to give it a try. if you suffer from it like it did so i bet you tried many things already and my guess is that you were disappointed. my advise for you, read a bit more about it. Frequently Asked Questions QUESTION: What is the best bad-breath product for a very tiny dog who can't eat extra treats? My chihuahua is four pounds and there isn't a lot of room for treats because he needs to fit in nutritious food. (Plus I am still training him so I need to reserve small treats for that). What is the best product for his bad breath? ANSWER: Brush! My small dog likes the electric toothbrush because it makes noise and he likes to bite it. No toothpaste! Baking soda would work though… Also, if you feed him a diet high in fiber and without any corns or by products his system can balance out and his bile will be less pungent. Also, cut back on the table foods and feed him dry kibble only for a while. The chewing will be good for his teeth. QUESTION: For those who watch ESPN, what is the commercial for the doggy bad breath product? I was watching it a month ago or so. It was a commercial advertising some product that control's tartar and bad breath for dogs. I forgot the name, but really need some. Please advise! ANSWER: I have been using OraMD when i noticed that i have stinky breath. It has been really working good for me. It definitely took out my bad breath. It contains all natural ingredients like essential oils which actually works its way to banish my bad breath as well as fight the various cause of it. for me it is very safe and effective for it comes all natural. it gave me back my confidence and self-esteem. and i do not think it is expensive. it is worth your money if you really want to effectively have a natural fresh breath. i am really happy that i can go out on my way again to meet a lot of people. unlike before that i am ashamed to speak or to have a date with someone. QUESTION: is it normal to have bad breath after you drink or eat a dairy product ? so every time i eat yogurt or cheese or drink milk … basically any dairy products, my breath begins to smell is that normal ? ANSWER: It is normal to have bad breath after you drink or eat a dairy product if you don't rinse or clean your mouth. After you drink or eat a dairy product, some food particles may remain in the mouth over the dorsum of the tongue, periodontal pocket etc. These particles are break down by the resident bacteria to form bad odor. So it's not that taking dairy product produces bad breath but after taking dairy product, not cleaning your mouth makes bad odor. The bacterias that break the food particles are the normal resident of mouth and resides mainly over tongue. So tongue scraping after taking meal along with rinsing your mouth will save you from bad breath after you drink or eat a dairy product. QUESTION: What is the best product for dogie bad breath. I USED MINTS he wouldn't eat them? I do brush his theeth every day and He does not like bones. I also use the breath freshener from Arm and Hamer and another one from the pet shop. He does not let anybody but me come close to him the vet has to use a mouth piece when he is checked up. I am afraid of give him anestesia. Best Bad Breath Treatment – How Your Dentist Can Cure It Oral fresheners make a lot of good sense. There may be an especially pungent item in the food you eat outside of your home or it could be that you have a soft spot for garlic or onions. It is difficult for family members and friends to work up the courage to inform you that you could be suffering from halitosis but a 00004000 dentist would have no qualms in doing so. Oral fresheners bought off the shelf without a prescription is not a remedy anyway. Short-term relief is just not enough if the affliction recurs frequently or appears to be unrelated to eating habits. Any dentist would need to thoroughly examine the internal surfaces of your mouth, in order to find out if you have halitosis, ahead of deciding on a set of treatments to deal with your specific problem. At times, drinking more water or just chewing gum could be enough to do away with the dry mouth problem which concentrates the foul smelling substances while breathing out. Although it is mostly children culpable of unacceptable brushing habits, at times, adults may be careless as well. Regular scraping of the tongue and removing particles of food stuck in between the teeth are some habits which can greatly reduce the occurrence of bad breath. A dentist is capable of removing plaque built up over time, cure gum diseases, and recommend antibiotics to treat bad breath. Treating bad Breath beyond Your Mouth Dentists can't treat all halitosis cases by themselves. Disease of the gums may be very entrenched and could require the attention of a specialist. But not all instances of bad breath have their genesis in the mouth. A dentist could send a patient suffering from halitosis to a doctor to help in curing a general cause. Ketones are odorous compounds, which are usually excreted in perspiration, urine and in the exhaled breath too. If a person suffers from diabetes, has not been eating, or if his carbohydrate intake is inadequate, the level of ketones in the blood builds up. As ketosis can be fatal, halitosis could be an indicator of a much more serious medical condition. This is why all cases of chronic bad breath require medical attention. Thankfully, treatment of bad breath is relatively simple once the basic origin has been identified. But it may re-occur if the patient refuses to follow the recommendations or change his personal habits which caused the problem in the first place. As bad breath can strike at anytime, being cured of it once doesn't mean that it will never recur again. It is ideal to have a family member or a close friend to check regularly and never miss an appointment with your dentist. Frequently Asked Questions QUESTION: What is the best treatment for Bad Breath? ANSWER: Brush, mouthwash, and gum. QUESTION: Best homeopathic treatment for chronic persistent bad breath? Does anyone know of a proven remedy for bad breath, I,ve been suffering for 8 yrs and it has completely ruined my life. I,ve tried acid refulx meds, expensive thera breath system and have gone to several dentist and doctors and have been told that my mouth is clean dont have any diseases and they dont know why it is happening. I have deviated septum and my left nostril inside is blocked due to the swolen/deviated septum. ANSWER: Hmmmm .. Homeopathic remedies (Multiple treatments are given in the end: choose the one that matches your symptoms the most) Take these precautions first: Proper cleaning or brushing of the teeth in the morning and at bedtime * Clear saliva and nasal secretion often and avoid accumulations * Hawk to clear the throat often, if there is throat infection or secretions * Dental check-ups for filling pockets or erosions if any, or to rule out any other dental or gum problem * Clean the tongue properly with tongue scraper if there is coating * Drink plenty of water or drinks to maintain good body hydration. Also take plenty of water after every meal to wash away the presence of food particles in the mouth or throat or oesophagus * Clean dentures (if any) properly with antiseptic solutions Avoid: * Stimulants such as alcohol, cigarettes and chewing tobacco * Dairy products * Onions and garlic * Sweets or chocolates Diagnosis of the complaint should be done in different ways to attain complete analysis for getting complete cure. The tests often required may be Sometimes even doctors do give the same advice, but mouthwashes and deodorants are generally cosmetic and do not have a long-lasting effect on bad breath. Antibacterial and antiseptic preparations act for some more time than maskers like deodorants or chewing gums. Antibiotic treatment also will work for the time being only. Homeopathic approach to halitosis – Everyone can notice that use of mouth freshener works only for the time being. Removing the actual cause or disease can only help in the long run. Treatment will be successful only when we find and remove the actual cause and treat the condition i.e. treat infection, sinusitis, lung infection, post-nasal drip, chronic bronchitis, etc. Homeopathic medicines can act as mouth wash, can remove the disease completely, and can act neurologically and stimulate the body for quality normal secretions. Treatment should be given for the complaints like recurrent cold, sinusitis, dental problems, gingivitis, stomatitis, indigestion, etc. Evidence shows that the messenger for wellness – Homeopathy – has gained in importance in the tide of health fortunes and has made the world turn towards it with its fragrance of cure. QUESTION: Best Treatment for Yorkie Breath? I have a 2 yr old yorkie poo with chronic bad breath. Any cures for this. Several have suggested, serving a dog yogurt. Since dogs cannot have mints, any other options? uhm, excuse me Darksong or whatever, there is such a thing as a yorkie poo, dumba$$. ANSWER: First, check your dog's mouth for periodontal disease (milky-white film on the gums and teeth). If all looks ok, the first step to better dog breath is to establish a preventive care routine to ensure baseline health which is not much different than for humans, including: If all of these are in order, try feeding your dog teeth cleaning treats (treats should make up no more than 10% of your dog's diet) certified by the Veterinary Oral Health Council's (VOHC) (many treats claim to clean teeth, but only go with the ones that have the VOHC's seal – we use treats from Greenies). For more info and details about how to go about brushing your dog's teeth, see the resource listed below. QUESTION: bad breath? which drug,non-alcoholic very potent or whatever is the most OUTSTANDING in the eradication or treatment of bad breath.I have a very bad breath and i want professional advice on the best anti-bad breath non-alcoholic mouth wash,loxenges,drugs or whtaever to combat this disgraceful thing i my life.Also how and where can i purchase the item u adviced from? ANSWER: i suggest the use of OraMD, it is a natural oral medication i have been using when i was beset with bad breath, gum disease and oral health problems. it worked great in keeping bad bacteria and signs of gum disease away. it is also be that you pay close attention to oral and dental health. gum disease can be dangerous for it can cause a host of medical issues later on if left untreated. better maintain proper oral hygiene by proper brushing and flossing every after meal. regular visits to the dentist is very important to be taken for granted. for more tips to treat gum disease. QUESTION: bad breath help 10 points best answer? i have a fissured tongue and i think i might have dry mouth because at times my mouth is really dry but then i have alot of saliva. i brush my teeth everyday but i have a lot of mucus too which i think is causing it. is there any treatment that could get rid of it for good or any diseases i might have ? ANSWER: Mucus can cause bad breath. Treat the source! Use allergy medications like Zyrtec daily to help control the mucus. Make sure to brush your teeth really well before bed and use mouthwash b/c at night your saliva production diminishes. If you smoke, don't. That can cut back on your saliva production. Drink lots of water. That will help thin the mucus so it doesn't sit around collecting bacteria and help flush the bacteria out of your mouth. Also, try eating lots of yogurt. If you have a bad/good bacteria imbalance in your guts, the smell can, in some cases, make your breath rank. Fissured tongue could be from dry mouth or a lack of vitamin B in your diet.	eng	732cd6d3-ab81-4033-8b98-46050883dc66	http://badbreadthreport.com/tag/gum-disease/
Quantum fluctuations in science, space and society, from quarks to Hubble and Mars. Served up by Alan Boyle, NBC News Digital science editor. E-mail Alan, or connect via Facebook, Twitter or Google+. There are plenty of ways to become a virtual traveler in outer space. Second Life may be the simulation flavor of the week, and NASA may be carving out its own space there, but there's a long history of virtual worlds that give you the feel of the final frontier. In the wake of last week's story about NASA's involvement in virtual worlds, I received several messages offering a second opinion about Second Life, and a sampling is provided below. Some correspondents rightly pointed out that online space simulations go back to an era when games were played with stolen mainframe moments. Virtual space adventures have come a long way since Lunar Lander. You can't go wrong with Orbiter, a free sim program that's based on the real physics of spaceflight. Don Mitchell: "Virtual reality is a success today, but I don't think Second Life has been an especially dramatic or innovative step. Articles in The Register suggest that Second Life is greatly exaggerated (see: 'The phony economics of Second Life'). Personally I found it to be unattractive, and like most subscribers, I left after a couple hours and never returned. "There have been many high-profile but unsuccessful approaches to Virtual Reality: the VRML standard, head mounted displays, SIMNET, and a variety of failed 3-D social worlds before Second Life. The true pioneers of Virtual Reality have been the inventors of computer games. "Text-based multiplayer games (MUDs) showed that large communities could be built online, and that immersion in virtual reality is mostly a function of the user's mind. Brilliant software developers like John Carmack ('Quake') and Tim Sweeney ('Unreal') developed efficient techniques for displaying complex 3-D worlds on the PC. And products like Everquest and World of Warcraft were among the first really successful and compelling examples of multiuser 3-D virtual reality. "Computer games have driven the high-speed computing and graphics technology of the PC and game consoles. Along with motion-picture special effects, games are the most economically important application of 3D graphics thus far." One correspondent dwelled on Second Life's dark side, which I admit I steered clear of during my SL sojourn as Boole Allen: Tyrel (referring to Second Life and NASA): "Seeing those two phrases together bring tears to my eyes. Second Life is an abomination, explicitly showing all that is wrong with the Internet bundled into a package of pornography and sick fetishes. How the multitudes of reporters somehow don't see the sick sides of Second Life and see it worthy of any sort of reporting is beyond me. (If you want to be 'enlightened' to the true sickness of Second Life, visit somethingawful.com's Second Life Safari). "What also makes me furious is that programs professionally written in lieu of space simulations barely get the gratification they deserve (such as this masterpiece of space flight simulation) ... while these poorly written, memory leak-ridden, crap programs with hardly enough physics actually programmed into the engine to make a ball bounce partially realistically get front-page articles on major Web sites. This shows that true journalistic research seems to be a thing of the past, or the highest bidder gets the front-page advertisement." Another correspondent, however, saw a lot of things to praise in Second Life, and his reference to human modification reminded me of our series on the future of evolution: Maelstrom Baphomet: "...You are so fascinated with what we do with our environments in the virtual world that you haven't seen the most significant frontier; what we do with our bodies. If the avatars on this game are any hint at what is coming when men master genetics, I don't think the world will belong to what we constitute as humanity in about 1000 years. Instead, you will have a highly modified and modular intelligent life form. ... "I'll show you places (PG) where dragons roam free and life cycles of their generations are determined by the sun. And we're not talking about human sized dragons.. we're talking about avatars 2-5 times the size of the default avatar in SL. They're built around primative objects that would normally be clothing for the body. Example, a hat is a head. "Daryth Kennedy is the most dominant artist on the sims in question. She's a longtime friend. I came to her the first night I joined SL in 2005, and I wanted to bring one of my characters to life. I provided her a picture and she helped me modify her other dragons to create a dragon we called the Maelstrom Dragon. It came packed in a nice little egg you can lay on the ground and grab the contents from. Now the eggs just pass you a pre-organized folder with your avatar and extras. The Maelstrom Dragon contributed to the later creation of the storm dragon, and the character is recognized as the grandfather of the species in a creative sense. The storm was redesigned to a far more aesthetic pure 3-D format with a much brawnier appearance. It now exists in three formats. Hatchling, Wyrmling, and Adult officially. Players, such as myself, have modified them to humanoid variants. I actually find it quite relieving to be something other than human when the opportunity presents itself - as that's what I do every day, be human. There's also a lot of gizmos and trinkets that can be collected and assembled through out SL that can lend an air of magic to the dragons, making them all the more fantasy come to life. "What people fail to understand is that SL is not virtual reality. It is reality existing in a different state. It's still there, it's just comprised of electrons on a spinning disk, versus atoms on a spinning globe such as humanity is. The characters have souls, it's the souls of the players, giving the creatures on that world life and taking upon themselves a form reflective of their creativity. I am a Christian, and interestingly enough I find this a demonstration of a verse from Genesis where God creates man in his own image. But what is the image of God? God is all powerful, he can make himself whatever he pleases to be ... and true to the script, in this Second Life ... man makes himself in his own image, the manipulable one given by God." For more about Second Life's religious angle, you'll want to check out today's story in USA Today about the virtual holy season. And if you want to weigh in with your own comments - about space simulations, or about good and evil in virtual worlds - feel free. Sometimes all you have to do is point to a couple of items, then stand back and wait for the messages to roll in. I'm hoping that will be the case with these items. We're running this Associated Press story about the worries that NASA officials and members of Congress have about the "spaceflight gap" - the period between 2010 and 2015 when the space shuttle fleet is retired and the next-generation Orion spaceship is not yet ready for launch. The worry is that NASA might have to rely on (gasp!) the private sector or other countries to provide space services. To be sure, the United States should have its own spacefaring capability, but I'm betting that some people might say the best thing for NASA to do is to leave the spaceship-building business to the private sector. Others might say that the government has to take the leading role in such a risky business. What do you say? I was struck by this comment from John in Kansas: "I want to thank you for the occasional postings of amateur astronomy tools - if you could do more of that, I might be more prepared for next year, when I take my kids out to rural Kansas for the first time to look at the moon, planets and stars. So if an astronomy expert has some sound advice on the best (affordable ... which is subjective, I know) available tools and gadgets for seeing craters on the moon, keep 'em coming!" Now if that's not an invitation for feedback, I don't know what is. Do you have any suggestions for John? Leave them below - and if I think of anything, I'll do the same. A hardhat worker is dwarfed by the inner workings of the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS detector. The collider is due to begin operation in 2007. Even though it's been judged Science's "Breakthrough of the Year," it's a safe bet that people won't be buzzing about the Poincare Conjecture in 2007. Instead, the coming year is bracketed by two paradigm shifts in science, having to do with politics and particle physics. At the beginning of the year, control of Congress changes hands from the GOP to the Democrats. And by the end of the year, the Large Hadron Collider should be online at last at CERN's headquarters on the French-Swiss border. You might not think of last month's midterm congressional elections as a science story, but the outcome is likely to have an effect on how a whole range of science policy issues are handled. Here are the three top examples: Climate policy: No longer will congressional hearings be used as forums to downplay the issues surrounding greenhouse-gas emissions - a fact of political life that sparked a humorous twinge of nostalgia from researcher Gavin Schmidt at the excellent Real Climate blog. As noted by Grist, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is due to take over a key committee on the environment and is planning extensive hearings on the issue - perhaps resulting in legislation modeled on California's greenhouse-gas cap. Even the prospect of change is leading industry executives to jump on the emissions-reduction bandwagon. Environment vs. energy: Beyond global warming, the congressional changeover should take the heat off Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Democrats have taken the lead role in staving off oil drilling in the 19.2-million-acre area - and as noted in the Kodiak Daily Mirror, the tide may well turn toward more environmental protection. There might well be more legislation to encourage conservation and renewable energy sources rather than promoting petroleum production. Who knows? Perhaps even the H-Prize, an initiative to boost hydrogen-based energy that has languished in the Senate, will rise again. Stem cell research: The incoming House speaker, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, says she'll aim to push through stem-cell legislation in the first 100 hours of congressional business - the very bill that President Bush vetoed last year. A measure to liberalize federal funding for research using human embryonic stem cells is a priority for the Senate as well as the House. It's likely that the new legislation would be vetoed again, of course, but will the changing political climate result in a changed outcome? More generally, the Bush administration has come under criticism for sidetracking scientific assessments that run counter to its policies. In such cases, a Democrat-controlled Congress could offer a bully pulpit to make sure such assessments get a full airing. Of course, there are two sides to every story when it comes to politics. For climate skeptics, the congressional changeover represents the triumph of "junk science" over sound science. I'm going to refrain from rendering judgment on that score; that's up to you to do in the comments section. But even the skeptics will have to admit that the rules of the science policy game have changed. Then there's the Large Hadron Collider. If you're not keyed into particle physics or the hubbub over string theory, the name might not be familiar to you. But those who follow the field have been salivating over the LHC for years. (It even plays a bit part in "Angels and Demons," novelist Dan Brown's precursor to "The Da Vinci Code.") We won't find out about all this next year, of course - but this month, CERN said the collider is on track to start up operations by next December. To keep track of the LHC's progress, you can click on over to the nifty Web portal at Interactions.org, or go straight to the source at CERN. Now you've got my two picks for the top science stories of 2007. MSNBC.com readers provided their own observations as a follow-up to Science's top 10 list for 2006, as well as my list of top five space stories. I'm afraid mathematician Grigory Perelman didn't get much respect for his topological proof of the Poincare Conjecture: Jerry: "That's all cool and everything, but I really think that in the time it took for these 'smart guys' to figure out the doughnut and coffee cup math problem, they could have worked on something less important like a cure for cancer or alternate fuel sources. I am pretty amazed to find out that a beach ball has a chance to get a hole in it without ripping, tearing or stretching. I will sleep better tonight." Jeffrey: "I have to echo Jerry's sentiment a bit in that the mathematical curvature of three-dimensional sphere in relation to the boundary of a four-dimensional sphere really doesn't accomplish any currently discernible effect on mankind. Global warming I believe is a much more noble quest for our science dollars. Now if he can find a way to use Poincare's Conjecture to develop a method for the Earth to act as a doughnut instead of a sphere to dissipate the heat of global warming, as the math has a direct correlation to thermal mechanics, then I will pat Perelman on the back for all the sleep I'll be able to enjoy. "Aside from global warming, alternative fuel/energy sources would be my next scientific discovery of the year. With the political clout shifting to the scientists, and the adoption of ethanol-based fuels and the development of cellulosic fuel, this has been a landmark year. To think that since the Industrial Revolution we have been essentially using the same energy sources as we did 200 years ago. The years to come will prove to be exciting as we push to alleviate our dependency upon fossil fuels and non-renewable fuel sources. "The future of science holds promise. I hope my grandchildren will be able to appreciate the distinction between a mug and a doughnut, because the significance is lost on me ... and I understand the math!!" John G.: "I wholeheartedly disagree with the value or lack thereof we place upon the proof of Poincaré's Hypothesis. The reason I do so is we cannot predict the effect a discovery/accomplishment in one field of the science will have on another field. For instance, if Newton or Leibniz had not discovered/created calculus we could not have formulated classical physics. Without classical physics we could not have created the steam engine, without the steam engine no Industrial Revolution. In fact, without the proper formulation of classical mechanics we would not have automobiles, airplanes, radios, television, Internet, etc, etc. "If calculus, linear algebra, complex analysis, real analysis and other more advanced math were not discovered/created it would be impossible to formulate quantum mechanics or atomic physics; we would not have MRI machines which help detect cancer, we would not have the physics necessary for chemists to analyze the behavior of molecules which may lead to new treatments for cancer. We would not have the physics necessary to create semiconductors which form the basis for the genetic engineering revolution (analyzing DNA requires computers). In, fact modern chemistry depends upon the results of atomic physics. Without modern chemistry we would not have the tools to create new fuels for our automobiles, and a whole host of other modern amenities. "So you see, sometimes something as insignificant as a mathematical result may have profound influence upon our world, through physics. In addition we can never predict which mathematical result may lead to a useful discovery in physics, so let us view this result with admiration for one day it may play an important role in our society." Neal: "I have to agree that until practical use of the proof of Poincaré's Hypothesis develops, we may never know if it's just a footnote or the foundation of future science. "The movement on alternative fuels was more economics than science. The price of fuel simply rose to pass the 'break-even' point for some of them (until gas prices rise past the alts' production costs, or their production cost drops below that of gasoline, they're only 'interesting' at best). "But I gave up on these platitudes when the work Professor Frink did on the pickle/condiment matrix as it related to hamburger earmuffs was virtually ignored by the Nobel committee. "Just call me jaded, I guess." Meanwhile, regarding the top space stories: Denis: "[I vote for] the idea of getting more people involved this year in space projects [such as Stardust @ Home]. Also, more countries with the technology and means to do more work is good news. More, please, for the future. Can we have a virtual lab on the space station?" Fred Richards: " 'Return to Flight' ... There were many extraordinary efforts made to make the phrase a reality. I think passing on the effort and achievement to make this possible is now becoming an assumed norm. Many individuals and companies worked extremely hard (and at little or no pay) to make this possible." Finally, in light of all the comments that our Science and Religion Symposium generated, I'm going to wedge in this waning month's selection for the Cosmic Log Used Book Club: "God in the Equation: How Einstein Transformed Religion" by Corey Powell. Reviews of the book have been mixed: Some have called the book an understandable, readable account of physics' deepest mysteries, while others have criticized it as giving the science too much of a mystical spin. In any case, Powell's exploration of "sci/religion" seems to fit quite well with the tone of the past week's discussion. The CLUB Club regularly highlights books with cosmic themes that could conceivably be found on your local library's shelves or at the secondhand-book shop. If you have suggestions for future CLUB Club selections, let me know ... I just might send you a brand-new book. The mystery over former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko's death by radiation poisoning is getting curiouser and curiouser, with Russian prosecutors pointing the finger at the managers of a now-bankrupt business empire. It's yet another bizarre twist in a tale that has already entangled the Russian government. But even though the murder investigation is getting murkier, it's no mystery that the murder weapon, radioactive polonium-210, could be produced in virtually any chemistry lab. Last month we noted that polonium-210 can be found in many walks of life - usually in forms that don't threaten the public. However, some Cosmic Log correspondents observed that the polonium from innocuous products such as anti-static brushes could be extracted to produce a potentially harmful dose. Over the holiday weekend, self-styled radiation watchdog Walter Wagner said this was indeed the case. I got to know Wagner years ago because of his work with uranium-glazed tiles as well as his concerns about the "Big Bang machine" (a.k.a. the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Here are some excerpts from his letter on polonium-210. "I began writing about polonium-210 circa 1980. You can find a letter I wrote to the New England Journal of Medicine regarding polonium-210 in cigarette smoke (as naturally occurring radioactive fallout from radon gas in the air that falls onto the leaves of plants such as tobacco) if you Google my name, and Po-210, which should result in [this] Web page. You have to scroll down a ways. "That article was written, of course, long before I taught myself about uranium tiles. I also point out in that letter the fallacy of statutorily asserting that the RBE (relative biological effectiveness) of alpha emitters is 20 (as the EPA, NRC and DOE regs assert), when at low doses it is closer to 1,000. I won't go into why that is so in this brief e-mail, though I've well-detailed how that error arose in other writings, not yet incorporated into the regulations. "It is true that static eliminators can be used to extract polonium-210 in deadly amounts. The larger eliminators contain millicurie amounts, and 3 millicuries is a nominal lethal dose. Polonium-210 is one of the most lethal materials on Earth if ingested or inhaled (about 63,000 times worse than plutonium; it's simply roughly the ratio of the half-lives), yet it is ubiquitous in the form of static eliminators. Here's a Web site for one source. ... "I suspect that the regulations will be tightened in the future to provide better control over dissemination of such radioactive sources. "However, it is not certain that that was the origin of the polonium-210, since Russian reactors make the polonium-210 for the international static eliminator market, and they have worldwide distribution. ..." I've left out some of the technical material about how nuclear reactors help increase the neutron output - as well as Wagner's detailed instructions for turning $200 worth of static eliminators into a hazardous dose of polonium-210. However, I will pass along Wagner's comment that "anyone with a smidgen of a chemistry background, and some nuclear science background, would be able to do this." Authorities tend to dismiss Wagner as being too alarmist, about uranium tiles as well as mini-Big Bangs. I have a feeling the same might hold true for polonium-210. But if you ever spot someone suspicious buying up cartloads of static eliminators - consider yourself warned. Science-fiction tales often fast-forward the pace of evolution to create the big-brained humans of the future - or, for that matter, the big-brained chimps of "The Planet of the Apes." Research published this week in the journal PLoS Biology, however, argues that the more complex your brain gets, the harder it is to evolve further. The subject could have implications for speculation into the future of intelligence. More than a year ago, we built that kind of speculation into our special report on "The Future of Evolution." Yes, we included a big-brained egghead as one of our options for future human evolution - even though the mere mechanics of having a huge head sitting on your typical human spine would be problematic, to say the least. The argument against accelerated brain evolution laid out in PLOS Biology has more to do with genetics than mechanics: Researchers compared the pace of evolutionary change in humans and chimpanzees as well as macaque monkeys and mice - and they found that the brainier species exhibited a significantly slower rate of change in genes expressed exclusively in the brain. "The more complex the brain, it seems, the more difficult it becomes for brain genes to change," the University of Chicago's Chung-I Wu said in a university news release. Why is that? The researchers speculate that with a system as complex as the human brain (or, for that matter, the chimp brain), a mutation is more likely to screw something up than to make it better. Does that mean that we're pretty much stuck with the brains we have? Well, we can always use them more efficiently - and perhaps even augment them electronically. (Imagine a Bluetooth-enabled Google/Babelfish brain implant, for example.) Come to think of it, the same situation might hold for chimpanzees. Over the years, scientists have gone back and forth on the genetic similarities between chimps and humans. Last year, geneticists determined that the two species' genomes were 96 percent identical - while last month, another research group said the earlier study overestimated the similarities somewhat. Could the intelligence of other species be enhanced? Should humans help? Such were the questions I posed almost four years ago in an item titled "Chimp Encounters of the First Kind." Here's a follow-up, sent recently by a Cosmic Log correspondent named Jim: "I believe higher intelligence is well-documented for those who don't presume otherwise. "Check out the work done at the CHCI - the Chimpanzee Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University, in Ellensburg, Wash. There humans and half a dozen chimpanzees have been communicating via ASL American Sign Language for decades. "It's not at all a question of 'if.' The students are researching subtle aspects and context details or somesuch (I'm not into the details). Meanwhile, in the ordinary process of daily caretaking, the staff regularly 'converse' with the chimps. One younger chimp was taught ASL, by the matriarch chimp, with no human intervention. "I've heard anecdotal stories of interactions which indicate high levels of intelligence and awareness within the chimps. I'm sure this is much better documented in the professional literature from there." I'm wondering what will happen when someone develops software to translate a chimp's ASL automatically into speech. Would more communication lead to brainier apes? Or are there genetic and neurological reasons for expecting that a chimp could say nothing more cogent than "give orange me give eat"? Feel free to add your observations or citations below. Ten years ago today, I was muddling through this new thing called online news at MSNBC - while just a few miles away, at a Seattle cancer center, one of science's most eloquent spokesmen was dying. At the time, astronomer Carl Sagan's death was another blip on the news screen. But since then, his influence has, if anything, grown for me and for others - as evidenced by the outpouring of reminiscences on this 10th anniversary. Cornell Univ. Carl Sagan, 1934-1996 Many commentators have touched upon Sagan's legacy for scientific skeptics - for example, the idea that in this "demon-haunted world," extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, whether those claims relate to the existence of extraterrestrials or the existence of God. Not so many have addressed his legacy for believers. And that's what I'd like to touch on here. Throughout Sagan's career, there were frequent parallels between his search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and the traditional search for transcendent truth. "Carl thought it was part of the same question," Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, noted during a recent interview. And indeed, Sagan addressed this in an exchange documented in "The Varieties of Scientific Experience," a recently published collection of lectures: Questioner: "I'd like to ask you about why you think any omnipotent being would want to leave evidence for us." Sagan: "I think I entirely agree with what you say. There is no reason I should expect an omnipotent being to leave evidence of His existence, except that the Gifford Lectures are supposed to be about that evidence. And I hope it is clear that the fact that I do not see evidence of such a God's existence does not mean that I then derive from that fact that I know that God does not exist. "That's quite a different remark. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Neither is it evidence of presence. And this again is a situation where our tolerance for ambiguity is required. The only thrust of these remarks is for those - and it's by far the greatest majority of contemporary theologians - who believe that there are natural pieces of evidence for the existence of God or gods. And so I have no problems with any of that. And, as you say, if a god existed who gave us free will or merely noted that we had free will, and wished to let our free will operate, then he or she or it might very well give us no evidence of his, her, or its existence for just that reason. "And this is connected with one of the many little tangents in the extraterrestrial-intelligence problem. In fact, there is a perfect parallel between the two cases. ..." I'll leave that discourse over the philosophical equivalent of the "Star Trek" Prime Directive for readers of the book to explore (it's on page 238). The point I want to make relates to Sagan's tolerance, his humility, his willingness to keep the quest going. Some skeptics nowadays even question whether Sagan might have been too tolerant of ambiguity. But I think that was a big part of his charm, and a big reason why he was able to prevail over the "wedge strategies" that often crop up in the science-and-religion debate (whether from the Darwin-doubting Discovery Institute or from firebrand evolutionist Richard Dawkins). "We have traveled ten times around the sun since Carl's death, and our little world is much changed. With his dazzling mind and vast knowledge, what would he have thought of the direction we, as a civilization, have taken in the years since? How might he have campaigned against the forces of darkness and brutality? How many minds might he have opened? During the last ten years, I have longed for the personal Carl of our love, family, and work together, but I have also keenly missed the man who was a global voice for science, exploration, reason, and democracy. Carl's ecological niche has remained tragically untenanted for all this time - and in my opinion, the consequences have been profound." In his wide-ranging ecological niche, Sagan posed a challenge for believers to act more as if they really believed. At the time, the world was facing an apocalyptic nuclear threat that loomed at least as large as the apocalyptic terrorist threats that hang over us now. He noted that Christianity taught that redemption was always possible and that you should love your enemies, while "an anti-Christian would be someone who argues to hate your enemy and that redemption is impossible, that bad people remain forever bad." "So I ask you, which position is better suited to an age of apocalyptic weapons?" he said. Or, for that matter, an age of terror threats? Sagan went on to observe that out of the more than 140 nations on Earth, "not one of them takes a Christian point of view," a situation that Sagan found remarkable: " 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' has a corollary. Others will do unto you as you do unto them. And that encapsulates, among other things, the history of the nuclear arms race. If this can't be done, then I think politicians who are practitioners of such religions ought to confess and admit that they are failed Christians or aspirant Christians but not full-fledged, unqualified, unhyphenated Christians." Sagan was anything but dogmatic - about belief as well as skepticism. It is his openness to new ideas, his sense of wonder, his quest for justice as well as knowledge, that will keep his legacy alive decades and centuries after his passing. At least the tributes marking today's anniversary give us hope that it will be so. Which brings us at last to our blog-a-thon bonus. In Tuesday's Log item, I offered up a copy of "The Varieties of Scientific Experience" to recognize the most fitting tribute to Sagan's legacy. When it comes to pithiness, it's hard to beat this comment from John Forde: "If our intellects are candles, Dr. Sagan is the match that lights the wick." However, in my view, Chris Eldridge should take the top prize - not only for his personal reflections on Sagan's impact, but also for his continuing contributions to the Cosmic Log community. Here's an excerpt from his comment: "... Science is a contagious inspiration. It affects us in ways we don't even realize. Carl's take on it - his intuitive and timeless perspective - has been a guiding light throughout my life. His fear of nuclear war… His disappointment with our caretakership of earth… The backdrop of history, which added still more perspective… oh, and dare I forget that damn hypnotic opening music [for "Cosmos"] that would calm Godzilla into placidity… whatever the magic was… IT WORKED!" I'll be sending the book to Chris, and an MSNBC.com goodie bag to John Forde for his contribution. Graze through the comments section of Tuesday's item for the full treatment, and feel free to add your follow-ups below. As a metaphor for the process of seeking out the truth, the idea of "separating the wheat from the chaff" goes back at least as far as the Gospel of Matthew. Over the past couple of days, readers have stirred up their share of wheat and chaff in response to my report on the apocryphal tales surrounding the biblical accounts of Jesus' life. Most of those tales - highlighted in the National Geographic documentary "Secret Lives of Jesus" - are definitely chaff, created in the first four centuries of the Christian era. As scriptural scholar Ben Witherington told me, they're the ancient equivalent of Harlequin romances, or you might compare them to the popular "Left Behind" series of novels: that is, riffs on Christian scripture that flesh out the basics with plenty of fiction. So are such also-ran gospels a fit subject for religious study - or scientific study, for that matter? Read on for a sampling of opinions from believers and skeptics: Bill: "Are you purposefully trying to provoke Christians? Your statements in this piece are inflammatory and, in my opinion, flat-out wrong. For instance: "'A lot of these ancient stories have come to be considered heretical.' "This implies that it took a long time for these errant works to be considered aberrant, when the earliest church fathers didn't at all consider them correct. "'...illustrates that the gospel story has been added to, fine-tuned and pruned through the centuries.' "Again, this is flat-out wrong. The earliest scrap of the Gospel of John dates from about 125 A.D., a papyrus fragment from Egypt with five verses on it. You are merely restating the standard Christian-bashing position that our text is unreliable. And that just isn't so. It's one of the most reliable texts in all of history, based on the amount of evidence and copies available. I suggest you read 'The Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel. Claiming that the Gospel story underwent any significant change since about 100 A.D., let alone 'for centuries,' without any countering viewpoint, is reprehensible. "At this point in your story, your bias and inflammatory language stopped me from reading any further. True, Fox News is probably biased, but MSNBC shouldn't be one to cast stones. Come on, at least once in a while why not give the opinion of a knowledgeable, articulate expert who holds the opposing view." Ned Goldreyer: "With all due respect, what are the gospels doing as a topic in a science column? Granted, this is the time of year when journalists either pander to the fairy-tale crowd or face losing eyeballs, but even so, couldn't you have chosen something even slightly closer to what we generally regard as scientific? I love your clarification of the three kings as 'actually, astrologers.' Actually, they are characters in piece of fiction and quite probably did not exist at all. Or did they? That would be a scientific question. Hypothesis - The three kings did not exist. Prove or disprove. What exactly is your scientific training? It is not mentioned in your profile. I would bet good money that you have no scientific credentials at all. Although I feel fully justified in asking you issue a public apology for this misuse of your position, at the very least, I would appreciate a response defending your reasons for writing on this subject." I told Ned in an e-mail that I've chatted over the years with a fair number of scriptural scholars - admittedly, on hot-button topics such as the Gospel of Judas and the rehabilitation of Mary Magdalene - and that we've historically put these stories in the Science section (along with stories about the founding of Rome, and so on). The intersection of textual and archaeological studies with popular culture is part of our bread and butter here, whether we're talking about the Bible or Newton. I also said I make no claim to being a trained scientist - just a trained journalist (whatever that means). My use of the word "actually" is just meant to say that Matthew was actually referring to astrologers rather than kings in Matthew 2:1. Yet another reader focused upon that reference to the Three Kings in his comment: L. Mark Thomasson: "The Bible does not mention how many 'Kings' or 'Wise Men from the East' there were, simply that the gifts were gold, frankincense and myrrh. Some assume that there were three Kings because of the three gifts - not likely. Another common misconception is that an 'eye for an eye' justifies retribution, but is actually meant to limit the punishment imposed. Many other misconceptions abound - but God said it best: 'For a lack of knowledge (ignorance) my people perish.' We are responsible to seek God out and study his Word." Terry Brandli: "With all this talk about the season, and historical Jesus, too bad at least one of these shows doesn't explain the facts that Jesus Christ wasn't born on December 25th. And that the most accurate date is April 19. The early Christian church was more worried about gaining members then about being truthful. They picked a prominent pagan Roman holiday as the day to celebrate the birth of Christ, hoping that would help entice more people into their church. Another thing I think that is bad about the way the Christmas holiday is celebrated is the fairy tale about Santa Claus. To tie the birth of mankind's savior with a big commercial lie like Santa Claus and teach it to every little kid in the country, is not a good way to teach the message of Jesus Christ and the Bible. Evidently, the commercial interests and organized religion can't handle the truth." Greg Charles: "Every few years, people like to drag out these so-called new truths about the Bible. The fact is they aren't new and there are few facts to be found in them. There were lots of weird people back then, like there is today, who like to twist the scriptures to make them conform to what they want to believe. That is why these teachings were rejected at the Council of Trent. They are not true. A true follower of Jesus not only believes what is written, but obeys it. When we do what the Bible says, great things happen. I have seen lots of phony things, but I have also seen the true power of God. I have seen and experienced many miracles, healings, casting out of demons, etc. Some of the things I've seen are medically documented. I bring this up because in the book of Mark it says that these signs will follow those that believe. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover, they will cast out demons, etc. Jesus meant what he said." Matthew: "Have you ever read Irenaeus' 'Against the Heresies'? I wish you would before you make assertions of this nature: "'Did we say four Gospels? Actually, in the early centuries of the Christian church, there were quite a few more than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.' "Yes, there were other, heretical gospels that circulated, but they were written by Gnostics, not eyewitnesses and associates of the apostles. Please read this book. If you would like more information you can contact Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana." Reading Irenaeus is tough sledding, but scholars have used such critiques to date the ancient apocryphal works. For example, Irenaeus' scornful reference to the Gospel of Judas in "Against the Heresies," which dates to about A.D. 180, has been cited as evidence that the controversial Gnostic work is at least that old. Even the evangelist Luke says that "many" people drew up accounts of New Testament events, based on information "handed down to us." That would imply there were plenty of secondhand stories floating around even in Luke's day. Here's a little equal time for the Gnostics: Kathleen Mary Hensley: "To base my spirituality and religion on a book and/or a church solely is not something I can choose to do; while a lay person scientifically and religiously, I have thought deeply about the nature of the universe and have come to conclusions about the nature of reality due to reason, science, intuition, religion and spiritual experiences. For me, the universe is a vast puzzle wherein both spiritual consciousness and physical matter/energy co-exist. We do not yet have or see all the pieces nor understand all the connections, but time will tell - and someday we will understand our nature, the nature of the universe (cosmos) and God's nature (which is bound to be far more surprising than any of us can now imagine!). Someday, the entire puzzle will fit together and make a whole picture - this puzzle is our very lives, our meaning and we must fill in all the blank spaces between matter, energy and spirit to understand who we truly are, what our souls are and what God is. This will take centuries to happen. We are yet children in grade school who think ourselves adults. "As a Gnostic Christian, not only in philosophy but in experience, I do not believe it is the historical Jesus that matters to me, for the physical universe does not matter, it is an illusion, a matrix of energy and matter that is both interesting and distracting - and very, very temporary. It is the spiritual reality of Jesus fascinates me ... does he still exist, can he influence me now? what is his nature ? I found he does exist, he does influence and his nature is sublime and divine. "It is the spiritual realms that I find fascinating, and it is the experience of his presence, mystically, that proves his love and mercy for me - He is in all things, my friend and companion on the road. This experience I have had time and again. "You, as a scientist, will say there is no such thing as mysticism or mystical experience - but are you sure ? do you know all the laws of the universe and consciousness, do you know how to weigh the spirit of a woman and measure the depths of my soul? Can you say with certainty that there is no spirit, no consciousness outside of the mind? It is foolishness to think you do understand everything that is and can be ! We are a evolving species, evolving physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually towards what end we do not know. No one person has all the facts, all the possibilities, all the truth. It is not what we know in the 21st century that amazes me, it is what we do not know and what we can not yet even imagine that fascinates me. ..." Even Pontius Pilate asked the question, "What is truth?" The gospel truth was brought up by several of the correspondents: Leroy: "It's always interesting to hear rationalizations and explanations from those whose futures would be better served were there no Jesus the Christ. They simply can't afford for the true Gospel to be what it actually is - true. For, if it is true, then their fiery disposition is a certainty and not a myth. Somehow, those odds just don't add up to common sense - do they?" Harold Thomas: "I read your article entitled 'How the Gospel Story Grew in the Telling.' If I understand it correctly, it expresses what most of the liberal biblical scholars have said for years in reference to Christ and the origin of the Bible itself. That 'drum' has been beaten long and loud for many many years. But it reflects only one view of the issues. Why? Could it be that the alternative view places those that hold the liberal position squarely in the camp of infidels, agnostics and atheists - all of whom never believed one iota of the Bible for even one split second and all of whom never wanted to believe that there ever was a literal historical character called Christ in the first place? Many people have believed that if you repeat a lie long enough and with enough fervor it will come to be accepted as the truth by the masses of the human race. So the liberals shout the idea that the gospel story 'grew' (i.e., developed over many years) as the story was repeated from generation to generation. "But history reveals that the gospel records that the early church accepted as 'inspired' and 'historically accurate' were all written within less than 100 years of the time the events they depict and describe actually took place. The authors of the four gospel narratives were known and recognized by the early church that received their writings. The Apostle John, speaking for himself and for the other apostles and inspired writers, says in reference to Christ and what had been written about Him this: 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.' "A significant number of the members of the church were 'eyewitnesses' along with the authors of the gospel narratives, and doubtless would have raised serious questions about any material in those narratives that might have been less than accurate accounts of the facts. In addition to this there were many nonbelievers alive who witnessed a significant amount of what the gospel narratives contained. Their writings support the accuracy of the biblical text and provide independant verification of the gospel narratives' historical reliablity. "All in all, I would suggest that before you take it upon yourself to tell your readers 'How the Gospel Story Grew in the Telling' that you devote a little time and a little research in the area of biblical inspiration as well as works that deal with how we got the Bible and the current state of the biblical text. I would be willing to recommend a few works dealing with these issues by recognized competent conservative scholars. But even if you did consult these, I would still not feel very comfortable about a 'science editor' commenting on issues clearly outside his field of study." At the end of all this winnowing, I was desperate for some redemption - and thankfully, a longtime Cosmic Log correspondent provided some welcome words: Dennis McClain-Furmanski: "I've been a fan of Jesus history for most if my life. In fact I turned down a scholarship to the Methodist seminary at Valporaiso to follow a path that eventually led to becoming a scientist. It is very difficult to present the viewpoints of both belief and history without either attempting to reconcile them, or risk saying something that one side or the other finds insulting. Your article accomplishes this superbly. I can hardly recall ever seeing such a masterful presentation of even-handedness on this topic, and certainly never in the 'popular' media. More than ever, I applaud your work." The Wikipedia entry calls the spinthariscope a "now almost entirely disused scientific device for observing individual nuclear disintegrations." The principle behind the palm-sized contraption was discovered by accident more than a century ago by William Crookes, who noticed tiny sparks of light when he looked at the interaction of radium and zinc sulfide under a microscope. That observation led him to create a palm-sized device that takes its name from the Greek word for "spark" ("spintharis"). Nowadays, the spinthariscope is basically an educational toy: If you take the sealed container into a darkened room and look through the magnifying lens, you'll see the same sparks that caught Crookes' attention way back when. The flashes are created by alpha particles, the same type of radiation involved in the continuing polonium poisoning mystery. But don't worry: The toy spinthariscope is considered safe. Some people claim to have constructed homebrew versions of the device, and the occasional antique item does come on the market. But United Nuclear - yes, the same company that sells tiny samples of polonium-210 - appears to be the primary source for spinthariscopes nowadays. That's the outlet recommended by the winner of our "Geek Gift" contest, Mnementh of Callahan, Fla.: "The gift for the No. 1 Geek on my list this year is the Spinthariscope. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a nuclear-powered toy. For the younger geek (geekling?), I'll get some of the nifty phosphorescent powder and make a seriously funky nightlight. Beats the heck out of Barbie." Mnementh's suggestion not only came out on top of the Live Vote runoff, but it earned high praise from one of the other Geek Gift competitors, Brian Glanz of Seattle: "Even I wanted to vote for the Nuclear Spinthariscope! Put the fun back in science and encourage hands-on learning. It's only too bad United Nuclear can't process more orders in time for the holidays, but it'd be worth the wait. Nice find, Mnementh, and congratulations." Mnementh's victory earns the big geek grab bag, filled with geeky T-shirts, gewgaws and software. And for putting in such a great effort (as well as being so sportsmanlike in defeat), Glanz will get a scaled-down version of the grab bag containing MSNBC.com trinkets. Sometimes it takes a geek to buy a gift for a geek. Well-meaning friends and family members may be thinking along more traditional lines for that special someone - say, a nice sweater or a diamond pendant - when what the science junkie really wants is a glow-in-the-dark planisphere watch or a Foucault pendulum. That's why we put out the call last week for science geeks to send in their favorite gift suggestions - with a geek goodie bag offered as an enticement. I've put together a selection of nine suggestions, and now it's your turn to pick the winner. Check out the descriptions below, then click on over to our thoroughly unscientific Live Vote to cast your ballot. Your criteria could include what you'd like to get as a gift (assuming you're a science geek), what comes off as the most novel (or most bizarre) suggestion, what seems to be the best buy, what stands out as the most educational gift, or what promises to be the most fun. The top gift suggestion as of noon PT on Friday will earn its submitter a selection of trinkets that only a geek could love, including an MSNBC.com baseball cap, T-shirt and pen; a "Geek" T-shirt in hacker black; a selection of gaming software and relativity-related multimedia; Einstein's "Relativity" and other geeky books; a SpaceX Falcon T-shirt and a Rocket Racing League pin. As you can see, a lot is riding on your choice - so choose wisely from among these nominees: Aerogel jewelry: I'm willing to bet that, on a pound-for-pound basis, aerogel is rarer than diamonds. Aerogel is the bizarre glassy material that's 99.8 percent air, and Aerogem has encapsulated little samples of the stuff in pendants as well as keychains and other gewgaws. The material has been used in space probes such as the Stardust comet-sampling spacecraft and the Mars rovers. If you're getting some for me, I favor my aerogel unadorned (say, from United Nuclear or The Aerogel Store on eBay) - that's the best way to experience just how weird this "solid smoke" really is. Nuclear-powered toy:United Nuclear's spinthariscope contains tiny flecks of zinc sulfide and radioactive thorium ore, sealed inside an aluminum-and-plastic capsule fitted with a viewing lens. Alpha particles released by the ore interact with the zinc sulfide to create flashes of blue-white light that can be seen through the lens. Yes, alpha radiation plays a role in the headline-grabbing spy-murder mystery, but the spinthariscope "is completely safe for both children and adults to use," United Nuclear says. As our Cosmic Log correspondent noted, "Nothing says 'Merry Christmas' like a nuclear-powered toy." Metal-detector rover: M.D.G. from San Francisco suggests a magnet-equipped toy robot from Target. A "treasure alert" lets the rover operator know when the contraption has come across something metallic. "It's a metal detector! It's a remote-control vehicle! This metal detector rover looks like way more fun than putting a magnet to something to learn about the magnetic properties of different materials," M. writes. Build-it-yourself robot: If you have visions of robots dancing in your head, it may be because you can't get this video of the Robonova dance team out of your brain. A correspondent from Idaho says robot-building is the true mark of geekhood. For some, that means jumping into the LEGO Mindstorm maelstrom. "But if you truly have the need to freak your geek, then the ultimate build your own automaton would be Robonova-1 from Hitec Robotics," our geekworthy Idahoan writes. "Although it is on my list, I will be hoping it does not decide to take over my job or become our new robot overlords! Speaking of which, you can buy your RoboGeek in your family some light reading material - "How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion" by Daniel H. Wilson - and then hope you survive!" Dot-matrix wallet: Why go with a ho-hum leather wallet, when you can stuff that geeky Christmas stocking with a genuine Tyvek wallet modeled after that vintage blue-and-white computer paper we all know and love? Dynomighty has designed this wallet without stitching and promises that the look "will get your old daisy wheel spinning again." The wallet is covered with dot-matrix-printed numerals "so you'll always have a reference to the first 3,000 digits of pi," writes our correspondent, A.B. Chalmers. Video watch: "If you don't have a watch that plays videos, how geeky are you?" writes Paul, a correspondent from New York City. It's hard to take issue with that. This USB-enabled offering from ThinkGeek plays videos on a 128-by-128-pixel screen, plays and records audio - and oh yes, it even tells time. "Genius phone": The next suggestion is from Seattle's Brian Glanz, who already deserves some sort of prize for thoroughness. He recommends the UTStarcom XV6700 or PPC6700, a phone that combines Wi-Fi with EV-DO cellular service and Bluetooth device connectivity. "At long last, your geek will be completely (un)wired," Glanz declares. It's also an MP3 and video player, a camera, a handheld computer, etc., etc. "They can be expensive, depending on the plan you choose, but other phones can be even more expensive," he writes. Check out the comments section of the original "Geek Gift Guide" item for details and other recommendations from Glanz. Pop-can cooling pad: This beverage cooler plugs into a USB port on your desktop computer and keeps your Jolt Cola (or any other canned drink) at a cool 45 degrees Fahrenheit while you tap away. A Cosmic Log correspondent from Montana called the offering from Perpetual Kid to our attention. "They have other USB gadgets that are slightly less useful - such as heated gloves!" the correspondent writes. "Are people working on their PCs outside??" Light-up moon: L. Stremler from San Diego says he plans on "giving the moon" this Christmas. The What On Earth Catalog says the "Light-Up Moon in My Room" is "a lunar model that moonlights as a night light. An authentically detailed moon with craters and dark and light patches automatically begins to glow when the sun sets." It could be just the thing for the next generation of lunar explorers. Review the suggestions, then head on over to our Live Vote and register your choice. We'll recognize our top Santa Geek on Friday. Now we have learned that James Kim, the CNet senior editor and occasional MSNBC cable-TV guest, did not survive his Oregon wilderness ordeal - and many of the messages coming in to MSNBC.com are in the nature of condolences for the family. CNet has set up its own "In Memoriam" Web page, but in light of the interest that you all have shown in the saga of the Kim family, we thought it appropriate to provide another opportunity, right here, to express your sympathy. Over the past couple of days, we've debated what the Kims did - or might have done - to survive, and you're certainly welcome to continue discussing the best ways to be prepared for a road emergency by adding your comments to our "Saved by a Cell Phone" item. This particular posting, in contrast, is expressly for offering condolences. Please don't submit critical comments. In this case, they will not be approved. Update for 9:40 p.m. Dec. 6: Friends of the family have established a Web page - - which provides an address for e-mail to be forwarded to the family, as well as information about donations. Here is a statement issued to the media by the people who put together the Web site: "The friends and community of the Kim family are deeply saddened by the news received today about James Kim. We want to send out our utmost thanks to the Search and Rescue teams who risked their lives in the efforts to bring James back to us, they are true heroes to risk their own lives for a stranger. As friends we know that we did everything we could to help in the search for the Kim family, which is our only comfort now. We thank the Oregon authorities, the media, and everyone who sent us their thoughts and prayers for their support through this very difficult time. Please continue to keep Kati, Penelope, Sabine and the rest of their family in your thoughts." "Troemel-Ploetz writes that John Stachel is in a tradition that 'always attributes achievements to men even if the men themselves claim their wives were the authors.' She evidently knows nothing of Stachel's writings, which show that he is far from being the kind of person she characterizes in this way. His concern in relation to Mileva Maric is that 'exaggerated claims for her role on the basis of the present evidence can only do a disservice to her memory' ('Einstein from B to Z,' 2002, p. 37). "In her comments Troemel-Ploetz fails to address what she is purportedly responding to and merely repeats arguments that have been rebutted by Stachel and me. Her omission of a crucial part of Stachel's argument makes her statement amount to a caricature of his position. On Cosmic Log I wrote: 'Leaving aside the work they did together on heat conduction, the topic they both chose for their diploma dissertations at Zurich Polytechnic, John Stachel has documented a score or more instances of Einstein's writing "I" or "my" in regard to the material in question. For instance, against the one occasion that Einstein wrote of "our work on relative motion" there are a dozen instances of his writing "I" or "my" in regard to the same subject matter - which, in any case, at that time involved classical Galilean relativity, not the groundbreaking special relativity principle he arrived at only in 1905.' "Why does Troemel-Ploetz never mention the following sentences in Einstein's letters? "'I also wrote to Professor Wien in Aachen about my paper on the relative motion of the luminiferous ether against ponderable matter' (28 Sept 1899) "'I'm busily at work on an electrodynamics of moving bodies, which promises to be a capital piece of work' (17 Dec 1901) "'I spent all afternoon at [Professor] Kleiner's telling him my ideas about the electrodynamics of moving bodies.' (19 Dec 1901) "Summarizing Stachel's full argument, whereas on the numerous occasions on which first-person singular pronouns are used in relation to this topic Einstein is alluding to specific ideas or work, the single use of 'our' in reference to 'relative motion' is unspecific (letter 27 March 1901). It occurs in a context in which he is seeking to reassure Maric about concerns she has that acquaintances might be saying 'bad' things about her, and reflects his desire at that time to draw his beloved in to his extra-curricular ideas that dominate his activities. Furthermore, in not one of her surviving letters does Maric respond with any mention of any extracurricular work or ideas of her own, nor in the two instances where we have her letters responding directly to Einstein's containing his ideas on physics does she so much as mention what he had communicated to her. On this issue it is important to examine all the evidence in its entirety, and draw conclusions on that basis, not simply select whatever items provide some support for one's position. "Please note that Stachel and I are not downplaying Maric's role at that time as an eager and valued listener to his ideas, a companion when reading physics books he had sought out, and an occasional assistant in this process. But in the absence of a single document in which Maric mentions any ideas of her own on extracurricular topics, we don't believe there is any hard evidence that she made substantive contributions to his work, and certainly no evidence that she contributed to the celebrated papers of 1905. "Troemel-Ploetz quotes Einstein: 'How happy I am to have found an equal in you (eine ebenbuertige Kreatur) who is as strong and independent as I am.' Does Troemel-Ploetz really think that a sentence like this in a letter by someone passionately in love with his beloved can be taken literally? (The 'strong and independent as I am' part was, unfortunately for Maric, not subsequently borne out, demonstrating that the sentence has no evidential value.) Einstein saw himself and Maric as nonconformists who rejected conventional views. Significantly, the two immediately preceding sentences refer to his pleasure at what he sees as their joint rejection of 'the philistine life,' so the context does not justify taking the sentiment in question to refer to academic ability. "Troemel-Ploetz quotes Einstein: 'Until you are my dear little wife, we want to eagerly work together scientifically so that we won't become philistines...' In the overall context of the documentary evidence, with its complete lack of indications of independent ideas in physics by Maric, this is consistent with Einstein's fond hopes for their life together to be a joint pursuit of science rather than any reflection of actual joint achievements already attained. Furthermore, Troemel-Ploetz omits a single word at the end of the sentence that puts a slightly different complexion on it. Einstein finishes with '..., gellst' [as reproduced in Collected Papers, vol. 1, doc. 131]. This adds a note of tentativeness to the sentence [it roughly translates as 'right?' as given in the Collected Papers translation] missing in Troemel-Ploetz's version omitting that final word. She also fails to mention that in the immediately preceding letter Einstein writes, 'Soon you'll be my "student" again, like in Zurich,' which gives some indication of their actual roles when they were both at Zurich Polytechnic. "Troemel-Ploetz writes: '[Maric] had the same training and more than Einstein.' Presumably she means by this that they both studied for a diploma for teaching mathematics and physics in secondary school. Many thousands of people of that age had the same 'training' as Einstein, but this says nothing of their capabilities or achievements. (What she means by 'and more' is anybody's guess - unless she is referring to the fact that Einstein was in the habit of skipping classes to follow up his ideas in physics.) One relevant fact that Troemel-Ploetz omits to mention is that, whereas Einstein was precociously gifted at mathematics, and later obtained grade 11 in the mathematics component of the final Diploma exam despite his neglect of the subject, Maric's early promise was unfulfilled, and she obtained only grade 5 on a scale 1-12, less than half of the grade of the other four candidates in their group. And despite Troemel-Ploetz's attempt in her writings (and in the 'Einstein's Wife' documentary) to play down Maric's Diploma failure in 1900, the fact remains that on the grading system 1-6 her overall final Diploma average grade approximated to some 18 percent less than Einstein's, whereas his was only some 11 percent below the candidate with the top overall grade average (though as the latter majored in mathematics they were not strictly comparable). Of course exam marks are far from everything - but in Maric's case we have nothing else to go on but her Polytechnic grades as a measure of her abilities. "In historical investigations such as this one must be guided by the hard evidence, not (as Troemel-Ploetz writes) by what is 'plausible,' or 'for all we know.' Nor should we take (as Troemel-Ploetz does in her 1990 article) as serious evidence the mostly third-hand statements obtained many decades after the event from interested parties taking nationalist pride in what they fondly believe to be a Serbian achievement. "In his book 'Don't Believe Everything You Think' (2006), Thomas Kida reports the research of two psychologists who secretly recorded a meeting held in Cambridge, England. Two weeks later, the participants were asked to write down everything they could remember. Among other gross inaccuracies in their memories, many participants 'remembered' hearing comments that were never actually made. That puts into perspective the utter unreliability of thirdhand reports provided decades later, largely on the basis of which Troemel-Ploetz wrote in her 1990 paper that 'If it were not for the cultural imperialism of the U.S. academic establishment, it might be known in Princeton what is known in Novi Sad [the Serbian home town of the Maric family] - that Einstein-Maric was the scientific collaborator of her husband.' (Troemel-Ploetz, 1990, p. 415)" This all may sound like a tempest in a teapot of scientific history, but the debate takes on extra interest in light of more contemporary debates over women in science. Are the days of gender discrimination in science and education far behind us, or do women still need to break through the glass pipette ceiling? We've gone back and forth over the role that Albert Einstein's first wife, Mileva Maric, may have played in the development of the special theory of relativity. Did she help her husband with the concepts or mathematics behind the theory? Or was Albert simply being generous when he referred to "our work"? We've heard from Allen Esterson, a physicist and historical author who's skeptical that Maric had much of an impact, and now I've gotten the other side of the story from Senta Troemel-Ploetz, a German linguist and author who has championed Maric's role: "Dear Mr. Boyle: I am very sorry to be so late in answering - I was in Israel, actually reading the newly released Einstein correspondence and being the first person to do so, and then on a lecture tour in Germany. Your e-mail reached me when I could not read all my mail. "As to your question: I do not know Esterson. Is he a historian of science, or just another physicist or journalist turned Einstein expert, without being able to read German or knowing anything about the historical context of women studying in Switzerland around the turn of the century? "A case in point is [John] Stachel, who explains the "our work / our paper" in Einstein's letters with Einstein being in love, i.e., not meaning what he says. He is in a tradition that always attributes achievement to men even if the men themselves claim their wives were the authors. John Stuart Mill was still said to be in love when he argued his wife was a co-author - his wife was long dead. "More importantly it seems that neither Stachel nor Esterson take Einstein at his word when he says even stronger things: "How happy I am to have found an equal in you (eine ebenbuertige Kreatur) who is as strong and independent as I am." "Until you are my dear little wife, we want to eagerly work together scientifically so that we won't become philistines...." "When I look at other people, I realize what I have in you / what mettle you are made of." "Einstein-Maric was Einstein's first critic, a most important function for anyone, but especially a dialogic creature like Einstein. She was with him 24 hours from January 6, 1903 on, i.e., during the most important years before the so-called annus mirabilis. She had the same training and more than Einstein. It is plausible that she was his collaborator, his intellectual and emotional support. For all we know, she may have done what Sophie Taeuber-Arp did for Jean Arp: 'to translate his ideas into reality.' "It is quite possible that the 'our,' written very early in their collaboration, is an understatement rather than an overstatement for what happened once they were married. ..." Later, Troemel-Ploetz wrote an addendum: "Sophia Yancopoulos, an American physicist, speaks of the 'subtler issues of collaboration,' and we are far from knowing much about them. What we do know is that again and again the work of creative women was appropriated by men in the arts and the sciences, and men who fairly give credit to their female collaborators are the exception. Einstein was a very normal man, as I said in New Orleans anno 1990." Feel free to add your further comments about Mrs. Einstein and her math below.	eng	1318763a-6fd9-48be-a076-552d9d19bbb8	http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/reader-mail?nvo=0&17357901%7Ca%7Cnu%7C30%7C1%7Ct%7Ca%7C0=12
87 Responses This is where the need for midwives is so important, and another area where NHS cuts are impacting. Because I had a good midwife in an excellent midwifery led unit I was able to confess my fears re the impact abuse might have had on my ability to have a natural birth. It may have been the gas and air talking, but she listened, reassured and basically was the supportive person needed. This combined with the respect for my birth plan, the design of the unit (demedicalised, low lighting, parent friendly) empowered me. Just to play devil's advocate, "Childbirth can be as stressful as war" is kind of a misleading if not dramatically oversimplified way to state this. I mean, stress is stress, do we really need to put a barometer on it like this? Better would be "Childbirth can cause PTSD". War can also cause PTSD. Doesn't exactly make the two equal, correlation =/= causation, etc etc. Not to put too fine a point on it, but war is day in, day out horror for months, years, decades. Comparing childbirth to war seems maybe a little down-playing towards people who have lived through / are actively living in warzones. Um…yeah. I mean yes, giving birth can suck and can cause genuine bad shit, but let's not equate that with fucking WAR. It doesn't make any PTSD suffered by moms any less serious and it doesn't mean we don't still need way more support for mothers. It just means that war and childbirth? not so much the same thing. I don't know. I can get behind the criticism about not conflating "stress" with "trauma", because they aren't the same and it's an unnecessary inaccuracy, but if the title read, "Childbirth can be as traumatizing as war", then it would literally be true and not an overstatement in the slightest. I don't see how acknowledging that these are both sources of significant trauma undermines the social significance of war. I don't see the title as suggesting, "Childbirth = War" – to me it says, "PTSD = PTSD", which is completely accurate. The symptoms of PTSD can be just as severe regardless of the source of trauma. There are factors which influence the likelihood that someone will experience PTSD (I don't know if these also affect the severity of the symptoms or time to recover – they might, but they might not), but to my knowledge warzone vs. hospital is not one of them. (Otherwise good health, financial security, and presence of other life stressors are among these factors and you can make the argument that a person living in a warzone is more likely to be experiencing those than, f'r instance, a relatively privileged middle-class white lady in a USian hospital, except that "childbirth" isn't limited to relatively privileged middle-class white ladies in USian hospitals – childbirth happens all over to people in fairly dire circumstances. And, again, I'm not sure how these impact severity of symptoms.) "Childbirth can be as traumatizing as war", then it would literally be true and not an overstatement in the slightest. I mean, yes, that is literally true, but only in the way "eating bread can be as bad for you as smoking" is true. Some people are gluten-intolerant and some people smoke all their lives and never suffer health consequences, and you could put one of the former in a room with one of the latter and prove your statement. The implication, however, is still misleading. How? I honestly don't see where the statement "childbirth can be as traumatizing as war" is misleading. What is it misleading people to think? Childbirth is obviously different from war, but they do overlap in their effects in this one crucial way. War isn't traumatizing to everyone, childbirth isn't traumatizing to everyone, but they are both key sources of PTSD for some. Actually, the more I think about it, the more frustrated I am that this conversation hasn't gotten hung up on something so pointless and irrelevant. Did the reported likely chose to make the comparison to war (rather than, say, "Childbirth can be as traumatizing as car accidents") because it's more sensational and likely to draw attention? Sure, that's a thing that happens. It also happens to be more likely to make people think seriously about the impact of post-partum trauma because on the whole people do think that war is more serious and traumatic than "every day" incidents like car accidents and childbirth, even if they are wrong. (Statistically speaking, the more common a potential traumatizing incident is, the greater proportion of PTSD cases it's going to be accountable for! Although depending on where you live in the world, war is an everyday experience as well.) As for this idea that "war" is a man thing and that the comparison is gendered? It blew my mind a little when I read that, because when we think about war trauma, it's not just soldiers (admittedly predominantly male profession and the article also participates in this misconception in its introduction) we're talking about – it's the people who live in warzones who suffer the most, and disproportionately these sufferers are women, who tend to have even less control over their lives than men do in these situations and who are more likely to be suffering additional stressors like sexual assault, lack of financial security, increased childcare burdens, and, hey, traumatic childbirth, maybe! So "war" is not a man-thing. Not at all. Certainly the history of PTSD has focused on male soldiers' experiences and those experiences are valid, but across the board women are more likely to suffer from PTSD across multiple sources of trauma, including war.My post: Yeah, the title is a bit silly- it comes across as purposefully overstating the article's case for dramatic appeal. But the article itself is really interesting. I find it not at all shocking that the study found reliable social support helped mitigate against PTSD. There's so much misogynistic mythology surrounding the transition to motherhood and how you're magically supposed to transform into a perfect Angel in the House Mommy who's Always Patient and Nurturing, and if anything in your experience lies outside that ridiculous stereotype, you are officially Bad Mommy material. A non-judgmental support system that can validate a woman who's been traumatized by the birth seems like a no-brainer, but there's very little of that widely available, at least here in the U.S. The midwifery practice who delivered my kids were able to supply that support but they're not the norm. you're magically supposed to transform into a perfect Angel in the House Mommy who's Always Patient and Nurturing, and if anything in your experience lies outside that ridiculous stereotype, you are officially Bad Mommy material. Tiny nitpick, but it's not stressful things that cause PTSD – it's traumatic things. I don't know if we'd want to force a comparison between the stress from childbirth and the stress from war, but if we do – the comparison would be between the reaction had relative to these two events rather than the events themselves. Part of my interest in pushing for a distinction is that the narrative around how what I'm experiencing (related to my assault and not childbirth, notably) is totally just like what a vet experiences makes me feel like people need to make "women's problems" like "men's problems" in order for them to sound legitimate. (Natural caveats on how people of all genders experience both war and sexual assault and child birth, but hopefully my point is clear). The point was that birth related trauma can result in PPPTSD. Birth related trauma can consist of numerous things, like crash sections, PPH, and even complications for the fetus, such as hypoxia, dystocia etc. Not to mention the numerous ways in which doctors and hospital staffers so often treat birthing patients in a thoroughy dehumanizing and disrespectful manner. There continues to be a huge push here in the U.S. to deny that birth is anything less than sparkly rainbows and for women to accept anything negative or even traumatic that may have happened to them during the birthing process because "all that really matters is having a healthy baby!" The pressure put on women postpartum to be perfect and peaceful Happy Mommy like Geoarch also mentioned above clearly sends the message that they will meet with great disapproval and disapprobation should she ever fess up to suffering from PPD or PTSD. Because only really traumatized people (read men) suffer from PTSD, not lowly, pathetic women who are just whining about how hard it is to birth and care for a baby, boohoo. Here's another thing I didn't read: the full contents of your comment, after it became obvious to me that you didn't have the slightest fucking clue what MY comment was about. I'll help you out, though, even though my brief skimming of your response kind of makes you sound like an asshole. I was responding to the title of this post, which is forcing a comparison between two traumas (whilst calling them "stressful") which aren't comparable in any way, other than they result in PTSD. And we keep making that fucking comparison because we seem insistent on perpetuating the myth that the only relevant PTSD is that experienced from a "man cause." Or, you know, whatever you apparently thought I was posting in bad faith. I'm sure some asshole will come and say whatever the fuck it is you think I said, so maybe you can just copy and paste this bullshit into a response for them. Wait, so you're taking issue with the title of the post, in complete disregard for what the article linked in Jill's post was actually about? And I'm the asshole here? You're the one twisting things and taking them out of context. Because the context is all about the article linked in Jill's post. Not some torturing of logic to apply PTSD to merely "stressful" events instead of actually traumatic ones. The only person with which you have any issue is Jill for the arguable phrasing of the title. Not me, or the actual meat of the article that Jill was attempting to bring to the attention of Feministe readers. But go ahead, fling poop and invective. It still serves only to make you appear uninformed and small minded. The only person with which you have any issue is Jill for the arguable phrasing of the title. Not me, or the actual meat of the article that Jill was attempting to bring to the attention of Feministe readers… /blockquote> Uh, PrettyAmiable started hir post with "tiny nitpick." And then said basically what you saidAnd everyone wonders why so many people find this to be a ridiculously hostile place to comments. If you have something of substance with which to take issue, in anything I actually posted? Why not spell that out instead of the name calling. I may be just as unwilling to back down from my own opinions whenever I express them here, but I sure as hell do it without shouting others down by attacking them personally and engaging in name callingOk. PrettyAmiable said, and I quote, that she had a "TINY NITPICK." She then explained what that, again, TINY NITPICK was. You responded by questioning whether PrettyAmiable even read the article and explaining what it was about, utterly and thoroughly ignoring a) the topic of her post and b) that she had clearly stated it wasn't an attack on the article itself, but a TINY NITPICK. All of amblingalong. Thanks. I got so rage-filled, I actually couldn't look here again, but I also really appreciate the discussion in the second thread as well, which makes the points I tried to make in my comment. I was thinking along the same lines, actually – not that childbirth isn't stressful, or that it is never traumatic, but that it is still considered something outside the "norm" (i.e., men's experiences in general), so it is treated as an anomaly, a phenomenon, something to be studied from an observer's point of view. In other words, of COURSE childbirth is stressful, and of COURSE it is traumatic in many, many instances – for many reasons. That should not be a surprise to anyone who knows anything about women's experiences of and the inter-relation of assault, pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum depression, and the utter isolation in which we face the ramifications of same. But it is framed as, "Surprise! Gee, this is TRAUMATIC! And, uh, the only other PTSD example we can pull out of our Book of Memes is WAR and how men suffer from it, so let's use that as the default comparison!" Not to mention the numerous ways in which doctors and hospital staffers so often treat birthing patients in a thoroughy dehumanizing and disrespectful manner. Well, okay. I feel that I've had some experience here, so I want to add a voice. I have suffered sexual assault as a teen, as well as some things that happened to me as a little girl which are not yet clear. So, some sensitivity in the crotchal regions. Then, pregnant, birthed in another country. Not remotely prepared at all. With my history, shoulda gotten an epidural, but at the time, I thought it was something that "the man" was trying to foist upon me, and so I suffered, by my own choice. When I was completely dilated and pushed and pushed, it was clear that my DD was not coming out with my efforts alone, and so (no epidural, remember) she was born with forceps. 9 lbs.They just about had to sit on me to repair me. And yes, it was traumatic. And yes, I had PTSD, and PPD, had to be hospitalized. Thank god for socialized medicine and visiting public health nurses. I stayed as long as needed, and my daughter went with me to the hospital, stayed in Peds when I was unable to care for her. Eventually got better, was able to go home, and came back to the US. After all of this, it took me a few years to want to even think about having another babe. But–went ahead finally, and DS born, again without an epidural, but kinder, gentler nursing and medical staff. No PPD this time. Yay. And successful breastfeeding. So–fast forward about 26 years, and now I am a labor and delivery RN in a high-risk Birth Center with a Level III NICU on the floor above us. I have been in the unit for over 10 years. And I can say honestly that I treat every patient (and her family) with kindness, respect, and the most humane care that I can provide. I work with a great team of physicians, midwives, NNPs and RTs. Yes, emergencies can and do happen, and I do my very best to explain what is happening at the time; I also follow up later with opportunities for patients and families to ask questions of me, to help them process events which may have happened rapidly. I am also on it as far as involving other care providers such as social work etc, if the patient has any history of depression, or PPD, or PTSD. So please do not make blanket statements about folks who work in hospitals and how patients are treated there. Because some of us have been there, done that, and are trying our best. So please do not make blanket statements about folks who work in hospitals and how patients are treated there. Because some of us have been there, done that, and are trying our best. First I am sorry to hear about your traumatic birth experience. Second of all, I didn't make a blanket statement. The very piece you pulled from my comment and quoted above did include a qualifier so that it would not read as a blanket condemnation of medical professionals: Not to mention the numerous ways in which doctors and hospital staffers so often treat birthing patients in a thoroughy dehumanizing and disrespectful manner. (emphasis added) Finally, as a woman who experienced birth trauma herself, it's disturbing that you appear so inclined to dismiss other birthing patients and the trauma they may have experienced. I commend you and others like you for trying your best to treat patients with respect and dignity (and I do not say that with any sarcasm.) However, you are only one group of professionals in one facility. I personally experienced significant birth trauma when I delivered my twins nearly 8 years ago. Last year, I also experienced reprehensibly disrespectful treatment by several doctors and nurses during my most recent pregnancy and delivery. All of these experiences took place in a major University hospital in a large city, for whatever that's worth. I'm not simply throwing out arbitrary criticism to malign the medical profession. I'm speaking from first hand experience. Perhaps it also colors my opinion to a certain extent that I also used to work as a medical malpractice defense attorney. I've seen some of the worst case scenarios played out in both my own and in others lives. Doctors, nurses and other paraprofessionals are only human, they can and do make mistakes, and they bring plenty of their own personal opinions and prejudices to the table along with them. So I would ask that you please not presume that I am ignorant or motivated by malice. My frame of reference is simply different from yours, end of story. the system you work for is broken. One person not being a terrible person does very little to improve conditions for all the women, especially when even the number you do see still have other nurses and doctors who aren't doing their best to not traumatize women. The only way the system is going to improve is for women to talk about the trauma that hospitals have put them through, and to seek out alternatives. Thank you. Tired of seeing doctors and nurses demonized as a class in the comments. It's become so routine I don't even notice it anymore..but it's there, a status based offense committed merely by being a member of the medical profession. Having a baby can be as stressful as a major car accident, NOT war. The main cause of PTSD is actually car accidents. I'm not trying to minimize women who have PTSD because of events during or surrounding their birth–it's a perfect storm of what causes PTSD. Unexpected physical trauma, done to your body, by other human beings is the number one description of PTSD casesBut I'm not going to say that a birth is the same as being a civilian or even a soldier in hostile territory for weeks, months, or years, it's just not. Well it's a good thing then that nobody is actually making a blanket claim that birthing is always as traumatic as and thus analogous to wartime experiences. From the article Jill linked above: "There's a perception that post-traumatic stress symptoms result from an event that's unusual or outside the realm of normal human experience," said Deborah Da Costa, a McGill psychologist who co-authored the study. "But there are things that can happen in the birthing process that can make a woman feel like her life or her baby's life are in jeopardy. She experiences helplessness, fear, horror. That's enough for an experience to be traumatic." I'm going to go out on a limb here and opine that birthing patients who actually do face life threathening circumstances themselves and/or for their babies are even more likely to experience helplessness, fear and horror, and yes, actual non-melodramatic trauma as a result of those circumstances. So, what, we tell them that because they are never facing horror on the scale of those experiencing wartime first hand that they are not entitled to be traumatized or experience PTSD? I agree with Tinfoil Hattie above, the only reason that the war analogy gets made is because we here in the U.S. are generally only familiar with it in the context of soldiers after they have returned from war. It's unfortunate, because it seems as though the discussion is going to digress into a sort of opression olympics of who has it worse. Because of course the only people who could possibly be truly traumatized to the level of experiencing PTSD are civilians and soldiers (that is, men) in wartime circumstances. Not a bunch of first world, whiny women complaining about how their birth experiences scarred them for life. Which then only serves to provide further support to the culture of silence that prevents women from ever acknowledging their PPD or PTSD or getting treatment for it. Eh. I think it depends on the birth. A raped woman giving birth in a war zone with severe complications is probably going to be pretty traumatized. A woman with a postpartum hemorrhage who has to have the doctor stick his/her fist into the uterus w/o drugs, then has a stillbirth to boot, is going to be up there are well. My point is, it's a little silly to start the business of "such and such a category of trauma is worse than such and such a category trauma." It depends on the situation and the people involved. Especially when part of the trauma of war for civilian women is so tied up in sexual violence, birth, and children. Yeah, the thing with PTSD is that its symptomology doesn't rank itself in terms of any hierarchy like that – the experience, while it occurs in a social context, is still a personal one. A person who has PTSD from a car accident can be suffering just as much as a person with PTSD from being in a war. Hell, a person who has been in war might still get PTSD from a car accident! And could theoretically have even worse symptoms from the latter depending on how the experience actually happened and what it meant to them. For instance, there are findings that car passengers tend to have a greater risk than car drivers for developing PTSD following an accident, the theory being that as a passenger you have less control over what happened and therefore it's harder to cope with and reconcile what happened. Feelings of a loss of control are common to car accidents, childbirth, war, and many other potentially traumatic incidents, but theoretically a person could endure a war under circumstances in which they feel more in control than they would in childbirth or in a car accident, so the fact that a war is technically more unusual and dangerous than giving birth or being in a car accident wouldn't necessarily matter. (Although undoubtedly being in a war absolutely often makes people feel like they have absolutely no control, hence trauma – I'm just presenting a hypothetical to illustrate how the social meaning of a traumatic experience is not always as relevant as the personal meaning of it.) Psychological trauma doesn't follow social rules – it's about personal perception of and reaction to an event, not just its larger social meaning (although it should also be noted that social stressors like lack of finances, health problems or other difficulties can absolutely deplete personal coping resources and also increase susceptibility to PTSD in that way). So there is absolutely no point at all to ranking traumatizing experiences based on how traumatizing we think they ought to be – it depends on the person who has experienced the event and what it means to themI guess it's possible there might be a big difference between PTSD acquired over a long period of time and PTSD acquired from a single traumatic incident. However I don't see how that's even relevant. Yeah, the thing with PTSD is that its symptomology doesn't rank itself in terms of any hierarchy like that Agreed. It doesn't make sense to me to try to rank it like that; the severity of the symptoms doesn't necessarily correlate neatly with the presumed severity of the underlying trauma. It really does just amount to playing Oppression Olympics. I've never lived in a war zone, and, to my eternal regret (not that I'd ever say so to my son, of course), I've never had the opportunity to give birth to child and never will. But I've gone through my fair share of what I believe can be considered "legitimate trauma" (to coin an Akinesque phrase), all of which has strongly affected me, and I doubt that I've ever completely gotten over any of it. But whether my reaction to any of it (short-term or long-term) qualifies technically as PTSD or not (I wouldn't know, since I've never consulted with anyone about that particular question), I certainly don't think the severity of the effects has followed any particular pattern. Look, just growing up as the child of a Holocaust survivor was traumatizing for me in many ways. So was seeing a man who had been decapitated seconds earlier (but whose eyes were still open and seemingly looking at me), lying a few feet away from me on the other side of the back door to our apartment, when I was 9 years old and opened the door because I heard a loud coughing sound. So was being repeatedly sexually abused by a doctor in my early teens. So was being a passenger in a car driven by my mother when she got in an accident on the Cross-Bronx Expressway resulting in her death, when I was 20. (I still can't look, and sometimes get flashbacks, when I pass an accident while driving or there's a car accident in a movie or on TV.) So has been suffering from an incurable chronic illness the last 30+ years, complete with all sorts of horrible pain and horrible surgeries and horrible surgical complications and a variety of near-death experiences. So was the aftermath of my GRS, only a fraction of which I've spoken about here, or ever will. And I would hope that even those of you who are cis can understand how permanently traumatizing it can be to grow up trans in this world. And so on. But I can't honestly say that any of that was more traumatizing to me than what it was like when my ex had to undergo an emergency C-section after I saw our son's heartbeat go down to almost nothing on the fetal monitor, because, as it turned out, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. Just the act of writing that down makes my pulse start racing, all these years later. I'm not suggesting that what I felt was the same as what my ex went through. I didn't give birth to him. But he was my baby too. I wouldn't try to rank all of these things (Step right up, hear all about it, Donna's Top 10 Traumas!), and don't think it's right to do so. OK, so fine, there is no point to discussing post-partum PTSD. Because Jill and the author of the article start out by using the word stressful, and then appeared to conflate the word stressful with the word traumatic. Then they both further undermined the case for sounding the alarm over PPPTSD, by comparing childbirth to war. I guess that about sums it up. And now I'll get called names, once again, and the circular firing squad will go on and on until the original point of Jill's post and the article she linked will be lost entirely. No. Do you seriously think I'm going to go into explanatory details about what happened? It's kind of a Trans 101 thing, you know, that you should assume that if a trans person shares something about their anatomical configuration, they shared exactly that much information deliberately, and weren't fishing for further interrogation. C'mon Lola, no one is singing you out here, and no one is trying to put an end to the discussion. PrettyAmiable had a minor quibble (which she admitted was a 'tiny nitpick') and you responded to her as if she disagreed with the premise of the article and/or was trying to shut discussion down. She was doing neither of those things, merely pointing out the difference between stress and trauma and pointing out why the distinction was important to her. Now, I agree there's no need to call you an 'ass' or the even more disgusting variation 'asshole', as Pretty and ambling did, but looking past that, their comments about your massive over-reaction to a mild criticism of word choice were all extremely valid in my opinion. C'mon Lola, no one is singing you out here, and no one is trying to put an end to the discussion. First of all, I never did the boohoo, why is everyone picking on me. Second of all, despite my efforts and efforts of others to say, ok, the word choice may not have been the best, but can we try and get the convo back on track? The conversation is still going around and around the HDU compare war to childbirth! sidetrack. While it may not have intentionally started out as shutting down the discussion, it certainly has had that effect. I've been quite open in other threads here at Feministe that I experienced PPD after my most recent pregnancy, and that I felt a great deal of social pressure to neither acknowledge it nor do anything about it. I can only imagine that for people who experience PPPTSD they may very well feel a similar sort of pressure to deny what they are experiencing. (Note that I am in no way equating my relatively mild PPD with PTSD. That isn't the point.) It's a shame that this discussion got side tracked and then stomped into the ground instead of providing a jumping off point to further delve into the issue of PPPTSD. Because it is a feminist issue, and it doesn't get nearly enough attention or thoughful discussion. I agree with you, Lolagirl, as I usually do about birth and parenting issues. Oh, the comparison isn't perfect? So what? As I recall, when I brought up what many people who have experienced it refer to as "birthrape," the whole focus was on the term rather than the experience as well. Words matter, but not to the exclusion of everything else, for pete's sake. Would it be possible to talk about the deeply upsetting and sometimes traumatizing experiences many women go through when giving birth that we have no cultural acknowledgment of except for that of individual pathology (PPD and hormone swings)? I'd love to see a study of PPD and PPPTSD rates that compares rates for women who make different birthing choices, controlled of course for risk-level etc. But doing that would acknowledge that the laboring woman's experiences and environment matter. Sadly, it would appear that round these parts, mothers are the women it's ok to accuse of being whiny liars. I cannot believe the terminology nitpicking. How dare these women claim that something horrific happened to them! Other people (men, men, men menly men) have far worse things happen. Look folks, I know not alllll women are mothers or parents, but lots are and they should get to sit on the bus of feminist concerns too, otherwise what is the point? Before anyone says "Oh but I didn't mean…", or the latest, "You can't read!", ififI don't know if that's an accurate description of what Pretty Amiable did and therefore I don't feel it's a suitable retort or, indeed, fair at all. Pretty made it clear that her 'complaint about word choice' was a semantic point that was nonetheless important to her based on her experience of having been assaulted. I don't agree that she needs 'to sit down and take some time to think.' Even less that she should 'STFU.' (We could a L a bit more…) Postpartum depression affects up to 15% of women, per the CDC. It's much more common than 1 in 13. I think the post-natal trauma issue unquestionably deserves more attention, but the reporting on that piece does not impress me. Hi, I am glad this article was written because there needs to be more compassion and support for women that go through this. I think that would be me if I chose to give birth. I am very sensitive and already am severely mentally ill. Not choosing to have children. When my mom was in the hospital giving birth to me a nurse was downright verbally abusive because my mom didn't want to breast feed. But the majority of that article is about a pretty decent looking study on an important topic – maybe we can talk about that instead, instead of trying to draw impossible lines to police the validity of people's traumatic experiences? This whole turn in the discussion is like a bunch of insurance adjustors, sitting in their cubicles, sizing up the extent of someone else's experiences in order to determine if they meet some artificial threshold for sufficient traumatization. Crash c-section but now mother and baby are fine? Not traumatizing. Crash section and now mom no longer has any feeling from her belly button to her labia, but still the baby is fine? Mildly traumatic but still not traumatic enough. Near death experience for mom and dead baby? Well, finally, a pretty bad outcome, we'll begrudge her the classification of well and truly traumatized. How anyone can sit and decide that they know better than the person experiencing the trauma whether or not they are in actual fact traumatized is beyond me. It may seem at first glance that equating a traumatic birth to wartime experiences as an apples versus oranges endeavor, but how can an outsider really know that with such utter certainty. Is it really that difficult to put oneself in another's shoes and realize that their personal experience was truly, horrifically traumatizing? It happens with triggers too. Some people develop really unexpected and idiosyncratic triggers (like red tablecloths or the smell of oatmeal) for their trauma because of the associative nature of the human brain – Pavlovian conditioning and all that. But I've seen plenty of ignorant people dismiss these triggers because they "don't make sense" or "aren't serious". (Note: These are not the kinds of triggers that can be warned for reliably so let's not get into that derail, if anyone was so inclined.) Trauma is weird. The human brain is weird. It does not operate in ways that can be easily governed or categorized. We don't fully understand why people develop PTSD sometimes and don't other times, even in really severe situations. For instance, natural disasters tend not to produce as much PTSD, I think the theory being that while people can't control these events, they at least suffer them together and can come together to support each other, and there's an explanation of what happened and why. But there are exceptions too – Hurricane Katrina apparently resulted in a lot of PTSD, although not so much for the hurricane itself but the aftermath, a lot of which was not a "natural" disaster at all. (My source on this last is iffy and more media-based than research-based, though – open to correction.)The human brain is weird. It does not operate in ways that can be easily governed or categorized. Yeah, this cannot be overstated. Failure to understand this underlies so many problems. But there are exceptions too – Hurricane Katrina apparently resulted in a lot of PTSD, although not so much for the hurricane itself but the aftermath, a lot of which was not a "natural" disaster at all. For what it's worth, there is a fairly large body of research which suggests that PTSD is particularly like to occur when the traumatic incident is attached to a daily routine- that is, driving a car, eating a meal, walking by a certain building on your way home, whatever. Things that happen in situations completely outside the scope of that normal routine can still cause PTSD (obviously) but are somewhat less likely to do so. An example is that people who are mugged while traveling in other countries are much less likely to develop PTSD than people who are mugged in their own communities. Interpersonal trauma, that is, traumatic events caused by humans towards other humans is generally thought of as to be more traumatising than non-interpersonal trauma, ie natural disasters. That's not to say that people can't have ptsd following a non-ipt event, just that the rates are different. Some thoughts on why this is, is that its the betrayal when one human hurts another which exacerbates the traumatic-ness (I'll make up words if I want!) of the event. Thus, ptsd is more likely. And as Jadey said, the grief and experience of a natural disaster is validated by society, so people can openly support each other. Where, with birth trauma or any IPT, the whole weight of the patriarchy/society comes down on the person to judge their alleged suffering, leaving many people invalidated, and unable to process their trauma. Jadey, I would suspect that it was the IPT after hurricane Katrina which caused the trauma/ptsd as you said, rather than the hurricane itself, for the reasons I've stated above. If childbirth is as stressful as war then why don't other stats bear this out? Why is the post birth suicide rate not as high as the veteran suicide rate? The veteran suicide rate is terrifyingly high. What about the rate of alcohol and drug abuse? Homelessness? 1/7 homeless persons are veterans. We could pull statistic after statistic definitively disproving the title of this article. Wait, is that because childbirth isn't as stressful as war? Yeah, that's what I thought. This is such an inappropriate comparison, it kind of has a whiff of First World Problems to me. Why not just make your point without trying to diminish and insult what soldiers go through in combat? Never mind soldiers, civilians in a war zone. Is living in a war zone less "stressful" than childbirth now? Here's the strange thing. People desperately flee from war zones. They put up with terrible treatment and suffer atrocities to GET OUT. If childbirth is as stressful as war, wouldn't fewer people be getting pregnant? Like if this was literally true, wouldn't women be refusing to carry children? How can this possibly be true? If childbirth is as stressful as war, wouldn't fewer people be getting pregnant? Like if this was literally true, wouldn't women be refusing to carry children? How can this possibly be true? You'll note that as soon as women can control birthrates, they drop. Ah, yes. First world problems. Pain, immobilization, life-threatening complications, I mean, everybody knows those only affect wealthy white women, right? Like, in third world countries, women just squat down and pop kids out no problemo, right? It's not like it's a leading cause of death for women or anything. It's not like it can lead to lifelong medical conditions. Everyone knows that. Here's the strange thing. People desperately flee from war zones. They put up with terrible treatment and suffer atrocities to GET OUT. Yeah, so pre-Roe? Women would often be raped or assaulted by abortion providers, to say nothing of the potentially deadly physical consequences, the expense, or the (also potentially deadly) consequences if a parent or partner found out what they had done. Have you not been reading what everyone has been writing, Really? Of course living through war and genocide can be severely traumatizing, not only to the people directly involved but to future generations, as I mentioned in my comment above in the context of being the child of a Holocaust survivor (See But the same is true of many other things, as I also know from unfortunately comprehensive personal experience, and it really doesn't matter to the person suffering where the cause of their trauma ranks on a scale of global importance. If you've never had a baby almost die during the childbirth process (and I hate to sound like such a broken record, but you don't even have to be the parent giving birth to be affected); if you've never had life-threatening medical complications, you're very fortunate. But don't be so sneeringly dismissive about it. I just can't believe some of the comments on this thread, even though (thankfully) it's been from a small minority. And this whole thing smacks of "You don't have it as bad as such and such, so quit complaining." I don't see why I am not allowed to feel any sort of lingering emotional pain from having my daughter not breathing on birth, then watching the neonatal pediatrician swoop her away before I can even touch her to intubate her just because someone else experienced something worse than me. Because it's been fourteen years since it's happened, and it still feels like a punch in the fucking gut, you asshole. So refusing to equate something with war = sneeringly dismissive? So even if I agree that childbirth is Bad and Traumatic and Terrible, unless it's as bad as War, it's not Really Bad. That is ridiculous oppression olympics nonsense. But, ok. I've got it. Childbirth is as bad as war. I'm glad we all agree. Next question, which war? Can we include genocides in this? I think we can all agree that childbirth is probably as traumatic as the Holocaust? Rwandan Genocide? Apartheid? Slavery? Really, you seem to have a problem with wanting to talk in extremes and absolutes. Which is precisely why you are unable to grasp the discussion at hand. Here's a handy little primer for you: When people speak in conditional language, it's because they are acknowledging that whatever is being discussed isn't an absolute or guaranteed. Saying that something may be as traumatic as something else? That's a conditional phrasing, and thus does not mean that it is always as traumatic. What you are attempting to do, Really, is use absolutist language, without allowing for any exceptions or outliers to the discussion. That's obfuscation, or an attempt to muddy the waters to such an extent that there can no longer be any reasonable dicussion of the matter at hand. Which makes you a troll. See that, I just used absolutist language in its proper context. Because it is absolutely clear that trolling is all you are attempting to do. I think EG is being way too nice here, Really. Because so far as I can tell, either you're a troll deliberately misrepresenting what people have written, or you didn't bother reading or trying to understand what people have actually said. Do you think, Really, that in my comment up above I truly intended to write that childbirth — or, in my case, just being present at a very difficult childbirth during which your baby was deprived of oxygen — is as traumatic as, say, being in a car when you're 20 years old and your mother gets in an accident and dies as a result? Or seeing a man decapitated when you're 9 years old? Or being the child of a Holocaust survivor? Or growing up trans? Or being chronically and severely ill for more than 30 years and having all sorts of horrible near-death experiences? Or, instead, that all of them can be traumatic, and it's pointless and idiotic to try to rank them? Fuck. I don't know why my comments in this thread keep going into moderation whenever I mention more than one trauma I've experienced at a time. Maybe if I'd left out the reference to something specific I saw when I was 9, I'd be having better luck. My point, though, is that Really is very clearly a troll. The comparison is not to childbirth, but to traumatic childbirth. And the rates of depression are very high after traumatic childbirth. Also, women do choose not to give birth (when they have that choice). What I take away from the article is that someone in a war zone may develop PTSD and someone experiencing traumatic childbirth may also develop PTSD. And that for treatment purposes it is really important to realise this. No one said that there aren't other negative consequences to being in a warzone (in fact, I took pains to say the opposite), but you still misunderstand the nature of trauma. We are also talking about PTSD, not depression, suicide, or substance abuse, which have different etiologies than PTSD. 1. That makes no sense. Just because something has higher numbers doesn't make it as potent as something with higher rates. So, it doesn't make it "as stressful" as war because there are more pregnant women than veterans. It's like saying bleach is as poisonous as toothpaste, because if you eat 1000 tubes of toothpaste, it would probably poison you, as would one cup of bleach. 2. Veterans are so massively overrepresented in mental health stats that when you take all trauma into account (suicide, stress etc) it wouldn't surprise me if they were the greater numbers. They account for 1 out of 7 of those homeless. Well, at least the fact that the comment section descended mostly into quibbling over terminology seems to indicate that terminology was the only thing we figured was a point of contention. I think we can all agree that birth-related PTSD is an underdiscussed issue that deserves more attention than it gets. Reading all the comments, I was really expecting at least one person to chime in with a dismissive "but women have been doing this for thousands of years, so let's not exaggerate." That usually gets thrown out there at some point. So perhaps in this thread it really is the terminology that people are stuck on. That is a positive, I guess.This pretty much sums it up to me as well, Jadey. Whether it be the internalized sexism of our society, or the pushback against "mother earth" rhetoric, I think there is an inclination towards dismissing childbirth and the experiences that can happen along the way at play in this back and forth over war! is not like childbirth! discussion. And I still go back to my earlier point that, even though one may think they may judge how traumatic an even was for another person, there is still no way to honestly make such an assertion. Because people are all different, and their brains don't all work the same way or process life events in the same way. Sitting back and waving away someone's experience because subjective you doesn't really think it could have been traumatic is insulting and unfairly dismissive. End of story. And the reality that women are the people experiencing both the trauma and the dismissive waving away of the aftermath? That should be what gets nitpicked and pulled apart and stomped into the ground. Because it's sexism, with a nasy side of misogyny thrown in. I've been under treatment for PTSD on and off for a couple of decades years. My first birth was very traumatic, and it compounded the PTSD symptoms I was already experiencing from the fallout of sexual assault. My most recent pregnancy was part of a series of catastrophes (baby and I are fine! all things considered) that included a botched c-section where a pelvic nerve was damaged and the disappearance of my partner. I can't speak to the statistics linked above, but my personal experience is that if you have pre-existing PTSD, that pregnancy and childbirth is a time in which PTSD women are very, very vulnerable. Your body feels out of your control, people are climbing up the walls to tell you what to do, how to be, and who you are, and you are more dependent on other people than you are normally. It's also an emotional roller coaster, just so extremely overwhelming. It's not a difficult stretch for me to see how an otherwise composed woman could come out the other side of pregnancy having experienced significant trauma. Thank you for sharing, Anon. I feel like this was the discussion I wanted to see. Prior to reading this, I didn't really think about the effect pre-existing PTSD, sexual assault, or trauma would have on the experience of birthing. It makes complete sense that pre-existing PTSD would make a person extremely vulnerable during the pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting experience. You are so right that people seem to feel like they now have the right to tell you what to do and how to do it. For me, my first pregnancy caused me a great deal of depression (pre-partum depression, maybe). I don't even think I realized how despondent I had been feeling until I finally felt better (when the pregnancy was over). The pregnancy was just one terrible complication and disaster after another and I was on bedrest nearly the entire time. Prior to that, I was a practicing attorney in the city and I was really physically active. The pregnancy was not planned (not unwanted, per se, but I'll just say it wasn't timed well) and I know that contributed. During the pregnancy I was told I'd be "lucky" if I made it past the 30 wk mark and that it would be nearly impossible to go past 35 wks. I was so worried that I was going to go through all of this just to lose the baby or have a child in the NICU that struggled to survive (which, I know, happens to many people). What made it much harder is that THE ENTIRE PREGNANCY everyone kept saying, "You are so lucky to even be pregnant." "This pregnancy is a miracle. Just thank God for every day." "This is a gift." It made me feel like I had no right to feel depressed and upset. It didn't feel like a gift. It felt like a punishment. Made me feel like I was ALREADY a bad mother to even feel conflicted about the pregnancy and worried about my own health, as well as having a healthy baby. I made it to 37 wks and I was in so much pain pretty much the entire time. I had to have a vertical incision C-section/myomectomy (the scar is nearly six inches long) and I got two bags of blood. The internal cut on my uterus was such that I could never hope to have a VBAC. It ended up being okay in the end, but the pregnancy was just awful and, yes, I think 'traumatic' would be the right word. I think part of why its so hard to talk about this is because there is ALWAYS a worse story out there and women are always told to be THANKFUL that it wasn't worse. Thankful that we experienced pregnancy, thankful we survived it, thankful we have children…etc. And, the truth it, we can be thankful for all of those things and at the same time acknowledge how hard it can be and how hard it IS, for many women. Why can't pregnancy be 'natural' and 'beautiful' for some and agonizing and horrible for others? We are all different and we all experience things differently. When our experiences are silenced by statements like, "well, you are lucky, I know someone who…" it really keeps us from healing from sharing our stories and seeings that we are not alone. Exactly. Thank you! My sexual assault was horrible. My first pregnancy and birth was horrible, but in a different way. My second pregnancy was awesome and the birth was just fine. Why are people so hung up on making these ridiculous statements? Would it make any difference to the survivors here if the article was headlined, "Childbirth can be as stressful as rape"? This has got to be the dumbest attempts at a gotcha I've possibly ever seen here on Feministe. Rape? A horrible thing suffered by women that has the potential to cause life altering emotional trauma. Childbirth? Something women (as well as trans men) do which has the potential to go horribly wrong and cause life altering emotional trauma. The repeated effort by a couple of trolls here to gotcha their way into getting women to either prioritize or quantify their suffering or the suffering of others is repugnant and insulting. Either come up with something intelligent and insightful to add to the discussion or get lost already. I'd say the first part is pretty accurate. Childbirth is indeed one of the things we cannot "control," no matter how much the birth plans and books and internet fora and stories of other people's births tell us we can. It can go haywire at any given second	eng	0730d73f-079a-4a22-b1e1-1622682a39f3	http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2012/09/28/childbirth-can-be-as-stressful-as-war/
Law and "Right and Wrong" Comments over my last post show just how personal perceptions can color views of matters, especially of law. So… let's talk about law. In general terms, criminal law is the codification of those offenses which society has termed unacceptable and which the governing authority has codified and promulgated, defining the offense and prescribing the penalties or range of penalties for violating that law. Law is not an "ideal"; it is a code. Nor does that code always agree with what many citizens feel it should be, or even what many people thinks its provisions mean. That's one reason for courts, and why the U.S. Supreme Court has the power to review laws passed by Congress, or by state and local governments. Initially, copyright infringement was strictly a matter of civil law, but copyright violations became so egregious in the late nineteenth century that in 1897 Congress enacted the first very narrow criminal penalties for copyright infringement, but in less than a decade it became clear that a more comprehensive approach was required, and the first broad law criminalizing a range of copyright infringements was enacted in 1909. Since then, various provisions have been added to criminal copyright law, including the No Electronic Theft (NET) act in 1997, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. As is noted by most good property law scholars, "property" is not legally limited to tangible objects, but much of the controversy over copyright infringement or theft of intellectual property lies in the fact that the vast majority of people do not place the same emotional value on the copying of an ebook or a music download as they would on someone taking a physical copy of the same book or a music CD from a store without paying for it. Yet current law places the same value on theft of a digital book or an authorized digital copy of a song as of a physical book or music CD. And it should, because for the bookstore, the wholesaler, and the author, that "free" copy represents a very real loss. It is a foregone sale, just as the theft of a physical book or CD represents a foregone sale. Admittedly, in the case of the book, the physical book costs somewhat more to produce, but the bulk of the production costs do not lie in the printing and binding of even the physical book, and the ebook is priced lower because the physical costs have been deducted. In the case involving Aaron Swartz, what seems to have been overlooked in many of these comments is the law itself. In 1997, Congress passed the No Electronic Theft (NET) act. Those provisions, as codified in 17 USC § 506 (2)(2000) provide criminal punishment for reproducing or distributing, "including by electronic means, "during any 180-day period, of one or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works having a value of more than $1,000". What is often overlooked or ignored is that while looking at or reading a copyrighted work electronically is not a violation, actually downloading a work is, under law, the reproduction of that work. Like it or not, the physical facts in the case are not in dispute. Whether or not Aaron Swartz intended or did not intend to further distribute the more than four million articles he downloaded, it is absolutely clear that he electronically reproduced at least one copy of each of those articles and that those millions of articles had a sum total value of more than $1,000. He also did this under "guest" privileges used fraudulently, because, at the time, he was neither a student, nor did he register honestly when using the MIT system. Under the U.S. Code, that is against the law. Whether the law is "right" or not is a totally separate question. If one wishes to live in a nation of laws, then there is the obligation to live by those laws, although, at least in the United States, there is certainly the possibility of changing that law. If one violates those laws, however, there is always the risk of being prosecuted. Aaron Swartz did not believe in the laws, as written for information, and violated them. He was prosecuted. Should he have been prosecuted in the way the government did? How could the government ignore the illegal copying and downloading of more than four million files once it was brought to the attention of the Justice Department? Not to prosecute would have been an invitation to others to indulge wide-spread downloading and hacking/copying. Just as clearly, no one at MIT understood the significance of the case when they reported it. Nor do the legal scholars who write articles and briefs attempting to distinguish between "minimal" incremental harm created by personal copying and larger harm created by "commercial" pirating. Admittedly, any individual's personal copying of electronic articles or books represents minimal economic harm to the copyright holder, but when thousands of individuals, or tens of thousands, download torrent e-book editions, or journal articles, or anything in mass, that individual minimal harm becomes a significant collective harm to the copyright holders… and as I've noted repeatedly, that harm is reflected already in sales figures. But… the Justice Department cannot very well go after tens of thousands of individuals… if it could even locate them. All government prosecutors can do is to go after large instances of illegal copying and downloading… and Aaron Swartz was one of the largest. In this case, if there is any party responsible for Swartz's suicide beside Swartz himself, it is not the federal government [and I'm no fan of the Justice Department], but MIT. MIT already had a trial program for open reading access to most of the files, one that, ironically, MIT made permanent after Swartz's death. If they wanted to punish Swartz, they could have revoked Swartz's access and any other privileges. They could have filed a civil suit against him or sought damages. From what I can tell, they did none of those. Instead, acting as so many university bureaucrats do, they passed the buck to the Justice Department. Then… when they realized what might happen, they begged and pleaded that DOJ not prosecute. What would have happened if DOJ had dropped all charges or only given Swartz a slap on the wrist? I can just see the headlines – "DOJ Caves to MIT" or "Feds Ignore Reddit Exec's Piracy." Obviously, DOJ could see them as well. There are stories that suggest Swartz had attempted to get a plea bargain, but that DOJ refused any plea bargain that didn't involve jail time for Swartz, and that Swartz didn't believe he should serve time for something he didn't see as wrong. What Swartz – and some commenters here – didn't understand was that the law is the law, and that following personal feelings of right and wrong which conflict with the law often has a very high price… as it should, because, otherwise, everyone's personal feelings would be above the law… and that is a recipe for anarchy. It's one thing to use those feelings – and those of others who share those views – to change the laws, and that can be constructive, but to flaunt the law and believe that there should be no significant consequences…? In the end, however, given the outcry over cases such as that of Swartz, and the political pressures, those who want intellectual property cheaply, or for free, will likely win out in any venue where the product can be duplicated almost effortlessly and cheaply. The result will be that "popular" culture will sink even below mediocrity and that the vast majority of work of originality and quality will either be drowned out or lost in the flood of cheap presentations, or funded by wealthy patrons, as music and novels were in the late eighteenth century, or offered in some involved high-technology way that cannot be easily copied, thus making billions for a handful of media empires. Research will dwindle and be limited to the corporate sector in those areas where corporate security and "trade secrets" can offer some modicum of protection. All this cannot help but have a negative impact, both in terms of national productivity and creativity, because "free" does not pay for either productivity or creativity — or the support services they require — and very few people or organizations can afford to produce or create for free. —L. E. Modesitt, Jr.: January 17th, 2013 36 Responses to "Law and "Right and Wrong"" And I don't know of ANY organization that can produce/create for free: even the ones who purportedly do things 'for free' do it with other people's money. What goes out from there is supposed to enrich society… or it gives them some manner of secondary gain (e.g. free cell phones when cell phone services and long term contracts are the real $$ makers). 'For free' almost always means advertising supported. And profits per view from advertising are so low that only media aimed at a truly massive number of people can even break even. The need to reach such a massive number of people means that creators always have to aim at the lowest common denominator just to stay in business. And there's the dystopian future of Mr. Modesitt's last paragraph. The only entertainment business that stands a chance without the lowest common denominator approach is always-online video games, which are piracy resistant if not completely impervious. And, to say the least, video games have yet to display much artistic potential or even much desire to aim above the lowest common denominator. Slight tangent here, J, but have to disagree. Many video games do only cater to the lowest common denominator. And many more rise above in the genre's they dwell in. For every Call of Duty X or Madden New Edition dealing in lowest we generally will have something like the Early Silent Hills or various individual efforts from Square that cross the line into true art and expression. I can honestly say I've never been frightened by a film or book the way Silent Hill 2 was able to mess with me. And while I would never hold them up to Mr. Modesitt's work or Robert Jordan's, I can honestly say that I have been every bit as moved by Terra's struggles in Final Fantasy VI, or Fei's search to find out what he really is in Xenogears. The challenge there is less only appealing to the lowest common point and more to getting people to recognize and accept that these are art forms every bit as valid as literature, music and film. Sorry for the derail. I honestly agree with everything Mr. Modesitt said, so can't really comment further unless someone else opens the arguement. Copyright was invented to cope with a technical innovation: the printing press, in particular the depredations of publishers on authors. It would not be surprising if another technical innovation (computers) required it to change. Nevertheless, valuable work was produced before the invention of copyright. William Shakespeare, Homer both produced works of far greater value than either of us have, even with the benefit of copyright. Before copyright, work was funded. Some by rich people, some by everyone. Now we have sites like indiegogo and kickstarter which have funded many creative works. 10% of the movies at the Sundance festival were funded by kickstarter, as well as one Oscar nominated movie. In the past the Church funded most work (all those illuminated manuscripts created during Europe's medieval era? Bach's Cantatas?). Rich patrons supported the arts (Classical music was not "popular"). The scientific work Aaron was interested in were not funded by the papers he downloaded. Nor was Newton's work funded by copyright, and it is original. It seems ludicrous to suggest that high quality creative work will stop if copyright ends. Just turn on your TV and tell me that the 500 channels of copyrighted crap encourage creative work. Anarchy without law? Yes, to some extent. But never forget laws are bought and paid for by supporting pet politicians. When laws are only applied to the weak they lose their moral authority, and end up ignored. If Americans had respected British law, the US would still be a colony. I note that none of those responsible for the greatest recession since the great depression have been prosecuted. Just in the last month HSBC got away with drug money laundering, because they are too big to fail. Even you must admit that copyright violation pales in comparison to what the world's financial class has gotten away with. Law is a tool and historically only lasts as long as it is perceived as useful by the majority. Now some technical points. Technically there is no difference between downloading and viewing a document on your computer (read up on swap file, and browser caches if you care). JSTOR recognizes that fact in its terms of service. The fact whatever idiot lawyer you are quoting doesn't just shows his technical incompetence. While you are good at pointing out others' hypocrisy, here is yours: this website runs on Linux, which was developed by many people in their spare time. Your argument would suggest Microsoft's products are better since they are funded by copyright. Yet Linux runs most websites. Over 60% of websites run the open source nginx and apache webservices. Every single copyrighted choice is technically inferior. So much for your argument. I notice you are even using Aaron's work on your website… Did you pay him for it? The intellectual and real honesty of the people who developed the software that runs the internet is that most of the software you use to communicate on the internet is open source. The proprietary vendors have died. The most powerful change to our lives in the last 10 years has been made possible by people working in their spare time. Aaron was one of them. You may claim dishonesty but you do not clearly do not understand how the technology you take for granted came about. Windows, MacOS, the iPhone all contain open source software that make it possible for your computer to connect to and browse the internet. Had proprietary vendors had their way, you would still be stuck in AOL's walled garden. Ultimately you are right on one score. You will lose if you only shout the same point again and again more and more shrilly. Perhaps copyright will be adapted to better suit the times, or perhaps it will break under the strain of new innovations. I hope we get a better system after the breakage, but that will depend very much on whether people like us come up with better ideas or cling to the way it's always been done. There is one major difference between viewing and downloading. Viewing is cached and temporary. Downloading is the intent to make permanent, a distinction recognized by a number of court decisions. You're the one hanging your hat on technicalities here. As for me, I've never claimed that copyright makes anything better. I've claimed that it grants rights and privileges and often income to the creator and tries to protect his or her rights. Once more, you're conflating issues. It's not hypocritical to use open source material or documents, especially since those who created open source codes and systems did choose to offer them openly. It is hypocritical to claim honesty and then infringe copyright. So… Swartz was both violating copyright, for which he was not charged, and for wire fraud and illegal use of the system, with which he was charged. That makes it better? As for the banks, you might do me the honor of noting that I've been making, for years, the same point you have about banks and the financial community. I've repeatedly raised a wide range of issues about their actions and their lack of ethics, not to mention their ineptitude. The documents were PDFs, PS, and Djvu. Browsers do not support inline reading of some or all of these formats. Therefore one must download the documents to read them. If I intend to delete them afterwards, it's not downloading??? I'm not convinced but then lawyers do tend to make the simplest things convoluted. No it is not hypocritical to use open systems, but it is consistent for those who wanted them open to make them open and to advocate more openness. Open information advocates can be honest. Honest does not mean law-abiding. Gandhi broke the salt-laws in India because of his honest belief that they were wrong. He was honest, and a law breaker. Fundamentally you seem to be arguing that you have rights over others because the law grants them to you, whereas it seems to me that it is because we all consent to follow the law that you effectively have those rights. We are granting you those rigths because we find it benefits us all. If we all decided to behave in some other way, those "rights" disappear because they never actually existed, unlike gravity which exists whatever I do. George Bush was correct when he said the Constitution is just some damn piece of paper — it is unless we follow it. As such there is value in conversing with those that want to change the system rather than railing against them. Yes it does make it better if your statement is simply "I, LEM, am of the opinion that Swartz was violating copyright". I am not aware that this opinion has been established as a fact, but you are perfectly entitled to have an opinion, although I wish you said it was your opinion and not a fact. I'm glad we agree on banks. Hopefully one day we will agree on copyright. I've never disagreed with the idea that rights come from those with the power to establish and maintain them. In the USA, that power is represented, rightly or wrongly, by the three branches of government…and they established copyright. I have rights under copyright, but they aren't rights "over" anyone, not unless you're willing to say that everyone has rights over lawbreakers. I have said, under the laws of Congress and the decisions of the courts, that the acts Swartz committed are a breach of copyright. Whether they should be is another question. You're arguing "should" as opposed to law. You have that right, and you even have the right to claim the law is wrong. But when you imply that Swartz and others have the right, because they believe it is right, to take actions,which if followed by others, cause me harm and which are proscribed by law, then you are advocating law-breaking. Under those circumstances, I think that taking me to task for pointing out that law-breaking is law-breaking is a bit much. I am not arguing should. I am arguing fact. You claim copyright violation yet you present no evidence. It may seem obvious that Swartz violated copyright, but it isn't. To claim copyright you cannot just have digitized papers you found in the public domain, which is mostly what JSTOR consists of. As you must know from having published books, there must be a clear trail of paperwork from the author to the current copyright owner. Along this trail someone must have registered the copyright. It is a felony to forge this paperwork, just like it was a felony to "robo-sign" mortgage transfers. If you do have evidence that Swartz violated copyright, please present it. Otherwise you making a claim based on an assumption. I.e. you have an opinion. While I do not have evidence that there was no copyright violation, I find it unlikely that Swartz violated copyright because the prosecutor found 4 things to charge Aaron with, and then found another 9. Copyright violation would be a no-brainer, yet for someone with such zeal, s/he did not charge him with copyright violation. My guess is it really wouldn't stick. This is surprising since the wire-fraud claims were technically very weak as was pointed out in a link I posted previously. I read your previous post as stating violating copyright is intellectually dishonest. I disagree with that statement. I do agree that it is breaking the law. As for proof in the legal sense… you know as well as I do that only a court could judge that. I do have evidence. Four million articles are a hell of a lot. Tell me. Tell me that every single article was in the public domain. Turning the argument around… you can't. And if it was so legal, why did the most honorable Mr. Swartz have to log on illegally [and there is proof of that] and break into a restricted space to park his laptop? Come on, Joe. He broke the law. You're justifying all his actions on the basis that you believe the law is wrong. As I've said before, that may be. But it is the law. LEM, you're not following basic logic. If you posit something you must provide evidence for it. If you do not posit something, you do not have to provide evidence for it not existing. If you state there is a spaghetti monster in the sky you have to provide evidence for it. I who make no such claim do not have to provide evidence for it not existing. You posit Swartz violated copyright. Where is your evidence? I do not claim that he did not violate copyright, but I don't claim that he did either, and I see reasonable grounds for believing it is questionable that he did which I stated above. You appear to believe without a doubt that he did. The burden of proof is on you, not on me. He changed his MAC address. That is not uncommon practice. My ISP requires me to do it to my router, and it is certainly not illegal. Security experts disagree what "authorized" access means in a situation like MIT's open network with someone who was a fellow at Harvard with whom MIT shares access. If those skilled in the art struggle to interpret the law, I don't really know how a science fiction author who struggles with his word processor can know. He trespassed. That is illegal and punishable in Massachusetts by $100 fine. He should have been fined. We can agree on that. The freeloaders needed a martyr (Joe is already making comparisons to Gandhi), and now that they have one they will defend him by whatever means necessary until Google can get a street named after him. The fact is he broke the law, Joe thinks this is fine because he doesn't like the law, he wants a revolution against the 'oppression' of copyright–our main legal means of allowing creators to choose whether or not they give their work away for free. In my experience anyone who claims to be oppressed by copyright and needs to cite Gandhi, the American Revolution, HSBC, and George Bush within a few paragraphs probably just wants free stuff. Student looters always defend themselves by talking on about social injustices, using the language they learned in their political science classes, but the truth is they're just looters stealing iPhones and sneakers. I used to use JSTOR every day when I was in grad school. I seriously doubt they even _have_ four million articles that are out of copyright in the whole system. Here's what Jimmy Wales says: over 200 journals that were published before 1923 in the United States and before 1870 in other countries.[24][25][26] Joe, for someone so skeptical about current elites (bankers, etc.) it's odd that you look for a model to past times where the elites controlled which artists would be financed and which wouldn't. The methods Shakespeare and Homer used to profit from their art are no longer viable. This comment is illogical. Wanting to change copyright law does not imply that I want culture controlled by bankers. Nor does copyright prevent culture from being controlled by the elites running corporations — if anything it enables it. Shakespeare sold plays to theatre companies. You can still do that. I do not know how Homer made his livelihood, but generally speaking bards of the time were performers and were paid when they performed. People still do that. So your second point is false. Finally, some people have a day job and create in their free time. People like Einstein, Douglas Adams, Charlotte Bronte, Kurt Vonnegut, and pretty much every modern poet including the one that will speak at Obama's inauguration. Others like Van Gogh lived off very little but still produced masterpieces in only 7 years. It's not ideal, but it's not impossible. For someone who claims to have gone to grad school, @j, you really have issues with reading comprehension. over 200 journals that were published before 1923 in the United States and before 1870 in other countries.[24][25][26 This says that JSTOR's collection includes at least 500,000 documents from before 1923. It does not say JSTOR's collection includes only 500,000 documents from before 1923. Nor did I say Aaron was like Gandhi. I said it is possible to be honest and break the law and cited Gandhi as an example. I could have cited Rosa Parks. "." I like this post exponentially better than the last. When you break the law you take a risk, it is up to the individual weather or not that risk is actually worth it. Yes, Swartz did break the law and while his suicide is unfortunate, he should have realized the implications of the gamble he decided to take. Playing hardball with the legal system is not exactly the healthiest of pursuits. It is shameful how he did not take responsibility for his actions and instead decried the law as unjust. In his mind, it was always likely someone elses fault, but he has no one to blame but himself. Joe…I say that the volume of content argues for copyright infringement… call it statistical inference. No… it's not legal proof, but, frankly, my claim to violation is a lot stronger than your claim of no violation. You assert no violation, and claim I must provide an iron-clad evidence of my position. Logically, since we're talking logic, you have to do the same. You haven't. In fact, most of what you say, if you look at it clearly, suggests that Swartz was committing various crimes in pursuit of "open access," if you will. Second, MIT/JTOR's FAQ points out something that all you "information should be free" freaks tend to ignore. It costs money — and you don't want to pay it. You want the creators, compilers, and providers to pay for it. Or rich people. Or corporations. Anyone but you. And why do you claim I am an "information must be free freak"? I have never said that nor do I believe it. That something costs money does not imply it has to be funded by copyright. It would be nice if you were able to discuss things rationally. I am disappointed that you are not. Good bye. As Joe leaves ever so angrily with his tail tucked between his legs, I ponder what the use of his efforts were if he is to shun anyone who disagrees with him. =^.^= Whatever happened to good sportsman ship? It was a fair caught. If it were so that more people were able to agree to disagree we may be able to get more things done as individuals. I disagree with about 40% of Modesitts posts, but all of them are very thoughtful and well written as would be expected. You don't see me name calling him or revealing any deep rooted prejudices. Perhaps more people should follow-suit. I believe there may be something to Joe's comment about burden of proof. You, LEM, have stated that you are providing proof by statical inference. Meaning that the volume of matter attributed to the individual alleged to be committing the crime is sufficient to convict, yes? You wish to prove that Swartz did in fact violate copyright. Joe did not state that Swartz did or did not violate copyright, only that there must be proof. Today's legal system requires incontrovertible proof which will convince a jury beyond a shadow of a doubt that Swartz was guilty. Joe's notion that some one must prove Swartz was guilty holds true to that. So long as any one person on a jury of Swartz's peers could be convinced to have a doubt as to Swartz's guilt, he would go free. And once free, he is absolved of any potential crime. Joe would not need to provide proof that a copyright violation did not occur. Merely toy with your statistical proof enough to create a shred of doubt. Legally, there is nothing logically which requires he prove a thing. Simply make your proof…shaky. For my two cents: If you are utilizing some one elses network, storage facility, library, etc to obtain something, and they wish to charge you, that is their right as the holders of the item in question. Be it a book, a magazine, a tool or a chair. If they wish to make access free to you, that too is their right. But as the maintainer of that property (Intellectual, physical or some other form I'm missing out on!) they may determine the disposition of that property. Simply because something is in public domain, say a book of Shakespeare's plays, does not mean you get that book for free. Be it electronic or physical media, I must pay for that book. Now, if I locate some one who will give me a copy of that media, for free, which is considered a part of the public domain… Well, that's a different ball of wax entirely. The holder of the media is offering it for free. It's public domain, there for I am violating no copyrights. I'm just fine in accepting the book of plays. However, if the media is not in the public domain and you offered me a complete collection of LEM's works in digital format with out paying for the additional copy, which I then accepted, we would both be guilty of piracy and copyright infringement. More over, even should I have one copy of the book in question, and you offer me a digital copy, that does not make it all right for me to accept it. The above provisos would still need to be addressed. My owning a digital, or physical copy already does not clear the way for carte blanche to do as I please in getting another copy. You're right in the legal sense, and that's probably why DOJ went for wire fraud charges. It's also why Al Capone went to jail for income tax evasion, rather than murder or various other gang-related charges. HOWEVER, Swartz downloaded 4.8 million articles. There was no way he could even have known what was in at least 99% of them [one tenth of one percent amounting to 4,800]. To me and to any reasonable person, it would seem to me,that suggests that either he didn't care in the slightest whether he was breaking copyright or he fully intended to. He was trying to make a statement without fully considering the costs to himself, or for that matter, to anyone else. There is also the question of whether someone did something and whether he was found guilty. Under law, only the verdict counts, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he didn't do it… or break the law in doing it. As Joe and I have both pointed out, scores of finance executives have committed fraud and were never charged, let alone convicted, and there's plenty of evidence… but the resources required to make the case would be staggering, especially against the legal talent mustered. There seems to be a disturbing trend in academic publishing as in order to be published, one must assign over the reproduction rights to the corporation which is doing the publishing, who will then profit (or not) off of reproducing the paper. This artificially restricts the mostly non-corporately sponsored output of academia, and increases cost as each research institution needs to purchase access to the papers published. This decreases the already scant money available to universities for research purposes – not to be confused with the total budget of a US university, much of which seems to be dedicated to professional sports subsidies, monuments to the glory of board egos and management. It is somewhat understandable if this leads idealistic individuals to conclude that the current system is broken, particularly with the propaganda of "all politicians are the same, change is impossible so make sure you keep what you have at any cost" as well as the lack of propaganda from collective action groups. Thus, they take action, assuming that society will be magically transformed by their actions, possibly by martyring themselves and causing a shift of popular (and after that, official) opinion in their favour. The consequences of their actions to themselves are – for most – assumed to be minimal. I must be clear that this is not meant to be a insult to the people who do act based on their ideals, but that most people who do so do not have a realistic opinion of how likely they are to be successful nor how likely they are to get hurt by them. There have been idealists who have succeeded, even while martyring themselves intentionally, but almost all who have done so have done it with a support organisation (often created or supported by the individual themselves). The stories told about them are, however, often simplified and only pay attention to the last actions taken that magically cause the desired effect. For instance, how many people fully grok that Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa rather than, as most documentaries about popular heroes do, treat it as a brief work/vacation visit? "Gandhi went to South Africa, practised as a lawyer and discovered that racism was Bad. He then went back to India, dressed in a loincloth and freed the country from the now-oppressive (but previously remarkably civilized) British Empire. And they all lived happily ever after. The End." Another interesting discussion might be about how social media, allowing for extensive self-selection of peers and like-minded individuals, cause individuals to over-estimate how common their opinions are – and thus erroneously believe that the time for standing up to the Man has come. I doubt that it is just the elites that find their version of the Truths to be Self-Evident these days. "There is no justice in following unjust laws. It's time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.–Aaron Swartz, "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto", 2008 After this 'Manifesto' was 'published' Aaron Swartz wrote a program in 2008 to legally download and post federal court documents for free online using free access via public libraries, rather than the few cents per page that the government charges through its electronic archive, PACER. The FBI declined to press charges. For the present case, prosecutors accused Swartz of hacking into MIT's system in November 2010 after breaking into a computer wiring closet on campus. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites. The debate here and the previous Blog entry has primarily focused upon the issue of distributing 'the articles on file-sharing websites', copyright law etc. The issue of physically 'breaking into a computer wiring closet on campus' has been largely ignored. Aaron Swartz played a long-term cat-and-mouse game with MIT and JSTOR. They repeatedly tried to get him off the network and he repeatedly used different pseudonyms to get back on. He broke into the 'computer wiring closet' because he was trying to find a way to do what MIT and JSTOR were trying to block. He knew that he was doing something illegal and he was trying not to get caught; he hid his face from the video camera in the MIT closet. When the police spotted him, he wasn't surprised that they wanted to talk to him; he jumped off his bike and tried to outrun the police on foot. Aaron Swartz stated the end (of publicly sharing information) justified the means (of breaking existing laws including breaking & entering with the intent to commit a felony) to obtain it. He proved he would follow his words with actions in 2008 and so too in 2010. Was he arrogant or naive to believe he may get away with the MIT job, too? Was he arrogant or naive to believe that he wouldn't suffer any consequences on the chance he did get caught? The great tradition of civil disobedience is to intentionally violate the law and proudly bear the consequences in order to change public opinion and eventually change the law, not to violate the law in secret and try to render the law you oppose unenforceable while avoiding punishment. With his trial about to begin and given the chance to uphold the tradition of civil disobedience by taking advantage of the opportunity to publicize his desire to change existing laws in a meaningful way Aaron Swartz…..does what? Commit suicide. Did he martyr himself or was he a coward? Did his depression problems leave him defenseless and helpless to take advantage of the opportunity he made for himself? (Before the self righteous indignantly accuse me of insensitivity toward the very real problem of depression, you would be accusing one who had it and overcame it. Got it? Good!). Did prosecutors drive him to suicide? His family and supporters need someone to blame for their own comfort and the prosecutors are easy targets. I doubt they were harder on him than they are on other defendant. Given the "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto", Aaron Swartz started down this road at his own initiative. Did he fail to understand that he was now entering the playground of adults and that game is played for keeps? Or didn't he have what it took to follow through on the tradition of civil disobedience and on his vision and accept the consequences, good or bad, for it? One thing is certain: Aaron Swartz started a fight that he was not up to the task to finish himself… Brief belated notes from my computer industry experience and conversations with my dad (columbia copyright law professor): first, characterization of open source is incorrect. It doesn't dominate markets; my rule of thumb is that open source acceptance means a commodity and competition has shifted elsewhere. Linux does not dominate the market. It is not a better product than Windows — its parent, Unix, has fundamental flaws in access control and I/O, which make its security lag and its standardization not complete (database companies bypass the I/O) — I was around at the time Unix was developed. The electronic frontier foundation was founded and endures because companies and the government simply were using the law to protect monopoly, not just to protect the interests of authors or the companies themselves. With regard to copyright (and patent), copyright was intended to protect individual rights against other individuals, but it has historically done a poor job of protecting individual authors/inventors against companies, which is the reason why copyright length kept getting extended (authors' families needed the income). Motown's Gordy Berry was notorious for ensuring that no author wound up with anything meaningful for his or her contributions. The creation of a global market for celebrity has resulted in a much more winner-take-all kind of market, which has allowed more authors to prosper but has mostly empowered the companies that can sell to this market. Any solution that trusts the companies to pass back enforced copyright revenues (or patent revenues) to an individual author where appropriate is far from optimal. It sounds to me that Joe has a basic misunderstanding of ownership. He also has a problem with personal ownership of property. Joe are you a socialist? One for all and all for one. Nothing for me. But everything for you? Wake up man this is a capitalist country. People want to make money on things they create. Its called theft when you take it without permission, whether it is real property or intellectual property. The new economy is a joke, people just haven't figured out how to make money on it yet. The problem will be solved and people like you can go back to your socialized fantasy worlds. Jack, I doubt that joe is a socialist whatever that means; the word gets thrown around as a slur quite a bit. What joe seems to be is conflating the discussion of what is – current law and how Schwartz most likely violated it – and what ought to be (according to joe) – as in, information should be more free. Unfortunately for us all, there doesn't seem to be a possibility for a discussion as joe has left and seemed to be using his own views as unassailable truths from what I could tell. That doesn't mean that we can't have a spirited discussion about copyright/intellectual property versus physical property, theft and so on, which is why I will respond to your post myself. There is a bit of a difference between physical property and intellectual property (IP), and that is the problem that with IP, even if I steal it from you, you (usually) still have your IP. Most people consider using an Xerox machine to copy a book a lesser crime than outright nabbing the book and running away. Now, with electronic intellectual property, copying becomes very easy to do as well as less of a burden on the one you copy from (I remember Xeroxing pages out of a book in grade school – it seemed like it took forever!). Your optimistic viewpoint about people solving the problem of unauthorized copying is somewhat unfounded. People have been making money on intellectual property for quite some time (granted, now as then it is seldom the creator that gains the most profit), and we have had problems with pirated books (even pirate printers) since way back when. Unfortunately (for intellectual property purposes), electronic intellectual property doesn't help out much either. Almost all computers these days are general purpose computing machines, and what that means is that there is no one with a master key, no one with full control over the computer except the person with physical access. This means that if and when you wish to sell intellectual property to someone and the target platform is a computer, you can not be certain that the computer you've given the ability to access your content won't be sharing that content on the side (or just storing it for its own retrieval later). The reason for this is that even if you're making your own programs for a computer, the people who run the program on their machines can program the machine to lie, and can dissect and change the program. There is a very active and competent association of people doing so with new games (often breaking the copy-protection within hours of releases). There have been several initiatives to lock down PCs; none of them have succeeded as of yet. There are advantages to have a non-locked-down computer – just as there are advantages to having a locked-down computer as well. The only economically viable solution that has been found to this issue is to keep the intellectual property elsewhere and allow the local computer only partial access to it. Even so, this only works for dynamic content, as even you'd only let me see pictures of each page of – for instance – a book streamed across the 'net, I could still save each image. The same goes for audio – even if you make it hard for me to record the sound in the computer, I can always record it at the output instead. If you are interested in learning more why it is not an easy problem to solve, I would be happy to lay out more details, but I did not want people to have the opinion that this is something that is going to be easy to solve. The thought that Aaron Swartz may have been 'helped' in his suicide occurred to me, too. However, his most ardent supporters have not made this charge….yet….at least in the sources I've consulted. Perhaps I'm not reading the right sources. One thing is clear: Aaron Swartz knew his method of obtaining those files and what he planned to do with them was illegal under existing laws. That seems to be lost on some who are arguing from 'what ought to be' rather than arguing to 'what is'. It could be that Joe knows something. I have read the harpers.com blog: "In the Swartz case, the prosecutors claimed they were acting on behalf of two injured parties — JSTOR and MIT. But JSTOR disagreed with this characterization, including the attorneys' use of the word "theft," and demanded that they drop the case" "Nancy Gertner, a recently retired federal judge who is intimately familiar with both prosecutors, lambasted them in a broadcast interview, parsing and ridiculing the claims they had made against Swartz and suggesting that the case should have been dismissed" "The details that have emerged since Swartz's death have only strengthened calls for the removal and punishment of the prosecutors. Swartz's lawyers revealed, for example, that when their client's suicidal nature was noted during their failed efforts to get the charges reduced to a misdemeanor level, Heymann responded by saying "Fine, we'll lock him up." Prosecutors were also revealed to have offered a reduced sentence, but only if Swartz pleaded guilty to every charge. This is clear evidence of oppression geared to advance prosecutorial careers, not to serve the interests of justice. Britain's Daily Mail showed that Swartz was not the only youthful alleged hacker whom Heymann had hounded to suicide — twenty-four-year-old Jonathan James took his own life in 2008, six months after his home was searched in a raid coordinated by Heymann. The DOJ undertook no internal probe of that case, instead giving Heymann an award for "distinguished service."" "The flaw in Ortiz's posture has been laid bare by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In United States v. Nosal, he dismissed the theory Ortiz used to go after Swartz, saying it would potentially criminalize "everyone who uses a computer in violation of computer use restrictions — which may well include everyone who uses a computer." Kozinski was born and raised in Communist Romania, and knows a thing or two about totalitarian states — and he knows that prosecutorial overbreadth is their leitmotif." Just finished battalion, good stuff as usual. I would have liked a little more "stuff" at the end, just to leave it vague and spoiler free. I really do enjoy your Nameless ideas and concepts, as transposed into today's society.	eng	62f352bc-40d1-4bfc-b632-42345dea1f73	http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2013/01/17/law-and-right-and-wrong/
Friday, July 31, 2009 If wet grain is allowed to ferment, you end up, more or less, with either bread or beer, depending on how much water there is in the mix. We don't know (as far as I know) who first noticed this serendipitous natural event and decided it was worth harnessing and taming, nor where they lived. Likely it happened in many places independently, and certainly it happened a long, long time ago. The most ancient method of encouraging fermentation was of course to save a bit of dough from the previous batch to inoculate the new. This dough, which had continued to slowly ferment between batches (and to attract local bacteria too, which also contributed to the 'work'), became sour to a varying degree as a result of the process. This then, is 'sourdough'- the newly popular very ancient method of leavening (meaning 'lifting'). Bakers at some time in history began to borrow from the other side of the process, and used ale or beer yeast from the brewery to raise their dough. Eventually, in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, dried yeast began to be made on a large scale in Europe from the yeasty waste of commercial breweries. Home bakers in particular must have loved this new product which helped to take much of the chancy guesswork away from bread-making. But – every now and again, for all sorts of reasons, there was a need to start again with a fresh lot of yeast. This most likely happened from time to time even in the best regulated households because the dough had gotten unpleasantly sour due to the inability to control the culture, and had to be thrown out. The resourceful housewife would then start again with a fresh batch of bread mix, which she would dose with just a tiny bit of remaining leaven, or ale yeast or commercial dry yeast. This starter mix would be her new, sweeter tasting, leaven. Once in every so often a really fresh start had to be made from scratch. A young, fresh, pure, unsullied, and sweetly fragrant yeast was needed. A virgin yeast, or a maiden yeast, as it was not unsurprisingly called. How did the housewife do this? There were many methods using a variety of ingredients, all based on the same principle – harnessing the natural yeasts and bacteria in the local environment. With luck the local community of micro-organisms would produce a particularly good flavour, as happened with the famous sourdough of San Francisco. Many yeast starters used potato starch, such as the one I give you today, from the irresistibly named A Thousand Notable Things, Embracing a Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Valuable Receipts, &c … , published in Manchester in 1822. The recipe refers to it a s a 'substitute' for yeast, but of course it is actual yeast, captured and brought into service as a substitute for a more commercial variety. Substitute for Yeast. The following new invented composition may be used instead of yeast. Boil four pounds of potatoes bruise them quite smooth and mix them warm with an ounce of honey. The composition is to be used a few hours after it is made, in proportion of a pint and a half to half a bushel of bread flour worked with warm water, and to be put into the oven as soon as the sponge begins to fall the first time. Quotation for the Day. A Book of Verses undeneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread— and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness— Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Thursday, July 30, 2009 A 'chipolata' here in Australia is, unequivocally, a sausage. Until recently I understood that this was pretty much what it was everywhere else in the civilised world. Not so. Some time ago I came across a mention of a Bavarois Chipolata in a Netherlandish wedding menu of the 1930's and was briefly, but deeply, horrified. A sweet cream dessert with sausage? A brief request to the Oracle at Google confirmed that there is a dessert-type Pudding à la Chipolata. Curiously enough it does seem to be associated with the Dutch – at least in its modern incarnation. The story is far from clear however, with one source (1877) insisting it is un gâteau anglais-italien and another that it was invented (and the recipe kept a secret), by the famously tragic French chef François Vatel (1631-1671). Most versions have it as a set or iced pudding, but there is also a version called Plum Pudding à la Chipolata. So, my question is, what has chipolata – either the sausage or the word – got to do with a sweet dessert? The word apparently comes from the Italian cipolla for onion, and the the classic garnish à la Chipolata does contain onions, as well as chestnuts and small sausages. The sausages used in the chipolata in turn became called chipolata sausages or simply chipolatas. At least, that is my working theory on how the chipolata sausage got its name. None of which explains the pudding variety however (although chestnuts are a common ingredient in nineteenth century iced puddings, so perhaps there is a connection there.) Frustratingly, after an intense and harrowing full twenty minutes of research, I have been unable to come up with a convincing 'historic' recipe for this pudding. I hope that perhaps one of you might be able to fill in this gap. Instead I give you this rather tasty-sounding 'foreign ragout' which might make a nice one-pot winter dinner. Chipolata. A foreign ragout. Blanch two dozen of carrots, two dozen of turnips, the same quantity of large chesnuts and onions; let these stew for some time over the fire with some consommé and a little sugar. Having fried separately a dozen sausages and a dozen slices of bacon, add them with two dozen champignons and a few spoonfuls of espagnole sauce to the vegetables, adding from time to time a little consommé or gravy. These are to stew for an hour. The domestic dictionary and housekeeper's manual, by G. Merle, 1842 Quotation for the Day. A high-brow is someone who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso. A.P.Herbert Wednesday, July 29, 2009 I am always intrigued by the special dishes that attend special life events. I wrote a story last year about some of the food traditions associated in previous times with a 'lying-in' or a 'groaning' (childbirth), and thought that I had exhausted the topic. It seems that this is not the case. A recent hunt for an entirely different food tradition turned up a book with the amusing title of The Remains of John Briggs: Containing Letter from The Lakes; Westmorland as it Was; Theological Essays; Tales; Remarks on the Newtonian Theory of Light And Fugitive Pieces, (by John Briggs, 1825). Mr Briggs was clearly not afraid to spread his subject matter far and wide. He could have benefitted from a little editorial advice however, as he tackles the same topic (food at a lying-in) twice in the chapter on Westmorland As It Was. Firstly, he writes: At a lying-in the matrons of the lating, were regaled with furmity [frumenty] and sweet butter; the latter of which was a compound of sugar and butter boiled together, and seasoned with spices and spirits: this and a new milk cheese were always provided a few weeks before they were wanted; and amongst poor people the expense attending these preparations for each addition to a family was defrayed by a "gathering" amongst the gossips. A little later he refers to the practice again: "Lying-in:" It has not been our fortune to obtain very much of the customs formerly practised on these occasions, though we believe there were some very interesting ones What we have obtained we shall give. Previous to the time, a quantity of sweet butter was prepared; for many of the Dale-landers believed that a lying in woman would never recover unless she had plenty of sweet butter. It was thus prepared. The butter was melted (not boiled) in a brass pan, till the milk ran to the top, and the salt sunk to the bottom. The milk was then scummed off, and the butter decanted clear from the salt. A quantity of rum and sugar having been well beat together in a bowl, with a little grated nutmeg, was then mixed with the butter, when all was stirred till the mixture began to cool. Thus prepared it would keep for any length of time, and few houses were without a pot of sweet butter at all seasons of the year. The word 'lating' (spelled elsewhere in the book as 'laiting') is a bit of a mystery – not just to me, but to the OED and its colleagues too. The connection with milk would seem obvious (lait is French for milk), but I cannot find any support for that idea. The verb late used to mean 'to seek or find, or examine' – but I cant fit that concept into the reality of childbirth either. By way of another linguistic aside, I must come to the defence of 'gossips'. A gossip was not always a talkative busybody. The word was originally godsibb, and indicated 'one who has contracted spiritual affinity with another by acting as a sponsor at a baptism [in other words a godparent]', and also, specifically 'a woman's female friends invited to be present at a birth'. I love that idea of wetting the baby's head with rum (he mentions this elsewhere), and the new mother being fed rum and butter and sugar! In honour of those genuine old gossips, and all women approaching their lying-in, I offer this rum and butter and sugar (and bread and milk … ) recipe. The recipe intrigues me greatly because I don't believe I have ever seen a sweet milk pudding containing cayenne pepper before. Bread and Butter Pudding. Stone half a pound of raisins, wash and dry half a pound of currants, cut some slices of bread very thin, pare off the crusts, and butter them. Butter the shape [mould] well and stick the raisins in rows in the inside of the shape. Put in a slice of bread, the buttered side next the shape; lay in some raisins and currants, then a slice of bread, then fruit and so on, alternately until the shape is three fourths full. Beat up six eggs with one table spoonful of sugar, a little lemon juice, grated nutmeg, and cayenne, a little milk and one glass of brandy or rum; mix them well together, and pour into the shape, butter the cover, and boil or steam it for two hours. Serve it with wine sauce in a tureen. Tuesday, July 28, 2009 I have mixed feelings about parsley. It has a very long and extensive history as both a culinary and medicinal herb – for which I admire it enormously. Its reputation has, however, been sullied, I believe, by its modern use as the lazy cook's generic green sprinkle over anything and everything – a ploy which leaves me saddened and disappointed. I happen to like parsley, myself, although don't use it much in cooking as I am married to a parsley-hater. The parsley-hater hates the green leafy bits – but I don't believe either he or I have ever eaten parsley root - so methinks, if I can source some, I will try it out on both of us. The whole of the parsley plant is edible, but at least one cultivar is grown specifically for its thicker root. This type is used enthusiastically in many parts of Central and Eastern Europe, which accounts for some of its common names of Hamburg parsley, Dutch parsley, Rock Parsley, Rock Selinen, Turnip-rooted parsley, Parsnip-rooted parsley, Padrushka, and Heimischer. I understand that parsley root looks similar to parsnip (to which it is related), but tastes quite different. It is used in the same way as parsnip and other root vegetables, which means it comes into its own in stews and soups, and would presumably be sweetly delicious when roasted. I give you a recipe for parsley root taken from Epulario, or, The Italian Banquet (the English translation of 1598). Note that 'meat' does not imply a vegetarian recipe, but the word is used in the old sense of 'meat' simply meaning 'food'. To make meat of parsley Take Parsely rootes, and pull out the string or pith which is within them, and make them very clean, and boile them very well in flesh broth with Pepper and saffaron, this may likewise be done with oile. Monday, July 27, 2009 On July 27th in 1774, our old friend Parson James Woodforde - a graduate of Oxford - entertained six guests there. Somehow this seems auspicious to me as I have spent a large part of the weekend finalising my plans to visit Oxford in September for the annual Symposium on Food and Cookery. So, what did the good parson enjoy at his little dinner party on this day (it is already the 27th in Oz, I assure you)? "I breakfasted, dined, supped and slept again at College … [Six Gentlemen] dined and spent the afternoon with me at New College. I borrowed the Chequer Room of the Bursars for my company to dine in. We were very merry and pushed the Bottle very briskly. I gave my Company for dinner, some green Pea Soup, a chine of Mutton, some New College Puddings, a goose, some Peas and a Codlin Tart with Cream. Madeira and Port Wine to drink after and at dinner some strong Beer, Cyder, Ale and small Beer. … I had a handsome dish of fruit after dinner… I gave my company only for supper cold mutton. After supper I gave them to drink some Arrac Punch with Jellies in it and some Port Wine. … We drank 8 bottles of Port one bottle of Madeira besides Arrac Punch, Beer and Cyder. I carried of my drinking exceedingly well indeed." There are many different dishes called College Pudding in the very vast English pudding repertoire. The earliest known recipe is usually quoted to be that in William Kitchener's The Cook's Oracle (1830), and his version is: College Puddings. Beat four eggs, yelks and whites together, in a quart basin, with two ounces of flour, half a nutmeg, a little ginger, and three ounces of sugar; pounded loaf sugar is best. Beat it into a smooth batter, then add six ounces of suet chopped fine, six of currants well washed and picked; mix it all well together; a glass of brandy or white wine will improve it. These puddings are generally fried in butter or lard but they are much nicer baked in an oven in patty pans; twenty minutes will bake them: if fried, fry them till they are of a nice light brown, and when fried roll them in a little flour. You may add one ounce of orange or citron minced very fine; when you bake them, add one more egg or two spoonfuls of milk. Serve them up with white wine sauce. However - there is a recipe specifically named New College Puddings in The Compleat Housewife, by E. Smith, published in 1736. To make New-College Puddings. Grate a penny stale Loaf, and put to it a like quantity of Beef-suet finely shred, and a Nutmeg grated, a little Salt, some Currants, and then beat some Eggs in a little Sack [sherry], and some Sugar, and mix all together, and knead it as stiff as for Manchet, and make it up in the form and size of a Turkey-Egg, but a little flatter; then take a pound of Butter, and put it in a Dish, and set the Dish over a clear fire in a Chafing-dish, and rub your Butter about the dish till 'tis melted; put your Puddings in, and cover the Dish, but often turn your Puddings, until they are brown alike, and when they are enough, scrape Sugar over them and serve them up hot for a side Dish. You must let the Paste lie a quarter of an hour before you make up your puddings. Something very like this recipe also appears in a book about the college itself - New College, by Hastings Rashdall (1858-1924) and Robert Sangster Rait (1874-1936), published in 1901. Unfortunately the authors don't reveal its provenance, although the wording suggests that it is significantly earlier than 1901 – perhaps it is the real original from the college kitchen archives? New Colledge Puddings. For one duzon take a penny halfe penny white bread and grate it an put to that halfe a pound of beefe suett minced small half a pound of curantes one nutmeg and salt and as much creame and eggs as will make it almost as stiffe as past then make you in the fashon of an egg, then lay them into the dish that you bake them in one by one with a quarter of a pound of butter melted in the bottom, then set them over a cleare charcole fire and cover them, when they are browne, turne them till they are browne all over, then dishe them into a cleane dishe, for yr sause take sack, suger, rosewater and butter, pour this over yr puddings and scrape over fine suger and serve them to the table. We have shared many previous meals with Parson Woodforde. If you would like to repeat the experience, they are at the following links: Friday, July 24, 2009 This day, Juy 24, was the birthday in 1802 of Alexandre Dumas (père), the French author of The Three Musketeers. Dumas was a dedicated and famous gourmet ('foodie', if you like), and wished to be remembered for his Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine – finally published two years after his death – rather than his novels. He left a legacy of some of the best nineteenth century French food stories and quotations, many of which have been fodder for this blog in the past. Here is a selection of my favourite quotations from the birthday boy: "Wine is the intellectual part of a meal, meats are merely the material part." "The most learned men have been questioned as to the nature of this tuber [the truffle], and after two thousand years of argument and discussion their answer is the same as it was on the first day: we do not know. The truffles themselves have been interrogated, and have answered simply: eat us and praise the Lord." Dumas was inordinately proud of his salad recipe which we have featured in a previous post. He was moderately famous in his own time – at least amongst his friends – for this salad, which he prepared with his own hands. He was also in possession of "a certain recipe for stewed carp" which has retained the air of mystery it had in his own time, and has refused to reveal itself (to me, at any rate.) Instead, I give you a recipe for fish named in his honour by the very famous nineteenth century chef, Alexis Soyer. The dish will also perfectly fit the bill for those of you in parts of the world where it is still July 23rd and therefore still Neptunalia (see "yesterday's" post.) Filets of Mackerel à la Dumas. Fillet your mackerel as you would whitings by passing the knife down the back bone, lay your fillets in a buttered sauté-pan (the skin side upwards) with two tablespoonfuls of oil, two of port wine, and season with a little pepper and salt; place them over a sharp fire ten minutes, then turn them and place them over again five minutes longer, or till they are done; take them out cut each fillet in halves and dish them round on a dish without a napkin; then put twelve tablespoonfuls of brown sauce (No. 1) into the sauté-pan, let it boil five minutes then add a teaspoonful of chopped mushrooms half ditto of chopped parsley, a little lemon juice, and a small quantity of sugar ;chop the roe of the mackerel and put in the sauce, let it simmer five minutes; pour it over the fillets cover them lightly with bread crumbs, brown lightly with the salamander and serve very hot. The sauce must not be too thick. The Gastronomic Regenerator, by Alexis Soyer Quotation for the Day. I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge? Douglas Adams. Thursday, July 23, 2009 Today, July 23, is the day that we would have devoted to honouring Neptune, the god of the sea and water, if we were in Ancient Rome. Actually, now that I think about it, Neptune should be honoured here in Modern Brisbane, which has some pretty damn divine seafood that any god would be honoured to be offered. In fact, I think we'll go and eat fish (and chips) tonight at the usual place, if we can find a coupla friends to go with us (you know who you are …) What, exactly, the Romans did to celebrate Neptune is not entirely clear to me, but I am not an ancient historian (you can take that any way you like.) They apparently built small shelters (umbrae) of leaves and branches and so on, under which they enjoyed the Roman equivalent of picnics, drank cool spring water and wine, and otherwise desported themselves. Today I make a symbolic offering to Neptune and all seafood lovers. I give you all a recipe for the famously, spectacularly, ridiculously extravagant fish soup supposedly made for the Russian Empress Catherine II. Soup Of Fillets Of Perch ; from the Empress Catherine II. (Potage de Filets de Perches a la Catherine II) The consommé being prepared as before, trim, in small escalopes, the fillets of three perch, throw salt over them; an hour after wash, drain, and lay them in a saute-plate; afterwards make a quenelle of cray-fish, with cray-fish butter; mark an essence of fish thus: cut in lengths a small eel, a sole, a small pike, and the trimmings of the perch ; add four pottles of mushrooms, two onions sliced, parsley-roots, two cloves, a pinch of pepper and grated nutmeg, bay-leaf, thyme, basil, two new anchovies, the flesh of a sound lemon, a bottle of Champagne, and a little salt; boil it slowly for an hour, squeeze it through a tammy upon the fillets of perch, which boil for ten minutes; add six livers of burbots, six roes of carp, and twenty-four small mushrooms turned and very white; having simmered the escalopes of perch for some minutes, drain them and lay them in the tureen, and upon them place the livers, roes, and mushrooms; pour the liquor from them into the consomme, which thicken slightly with a light roux; when serving, add a liaison of twelve eggs, and four ounces of cray-fish butter; stir the soup, that the liaison may mix perfectly smooth; and, as soon as it begins to boil, pour it into the tureen, adding the points of a bundle of asparagus, prepared as for an entree; serve. The Practical Cook, English and Foreign, J. Bregion and A.Miller, 1845 If anyone wants to make this soup for me today, I am willing to forgo the fish restaurant. I can be reached by email (see the top of the sidebar), which I will check frequently throughout the day. Quotation for the Day. [T]his planet is covered with sordid men who demand that he who spends time fishing shall show returns in fish. Leonidas Hubbard, Jr. Wednesday, July 22, 2009 It seems to be the trendy restaurant thing nowadays to specify the provenance of the ingredients used in each dish. The idea hooks into so many modern movements or campaigns – eating authentically, locally, organically etc. – and if the origin can be specified down to the actual farm, so much the better. Once upon a time, eating anything other than local was, of course, the rule. The only exceptions were for foods with naturally long shelf-lives (such as root vegetables, for example), or which could be preserved by the more limited methods available at the time. Naturally, food transported long distances were more expensive too, so generally speaking the non-local food was only available for the wealthier folk. That is not to say that in the past there was not a sense of foods from some locations being preferable to others, or of some varietals being better – and these therefore should be specified and sourced if at all possible. The following recipe from The whole duty of a woman, or, an infallible guide to the fair sex, of 1737, demonstrates this well. The recipe words are italicized as they are in the original. Notice also how concerned she is that the dish is pleasant to the eye as well as the taste. Boiled Venison. Having a Haunch of Venison, salt it well, and let it remain a Week, then boil it and serve it with a Furniture of Cauliflowers, Russia Cabbages, some of the Hertfordshire Turnips cut in Dice, and boiled in a Net, and tossed up with Butter and Cream, or else have some of the yellow French Turnips, cut in Dice, and boiled like the former, or we might add some red Beet Roots boiled in Dice, and buttered in the same Manner. Place these regularly, and they will afford a pleasant Variety both to the Eye and the Taste. I do like the use of the word 'furniture' in this context too. The OED gives one explanation of 'furniture' as being 'a decoration, an embellishment', as well as 'a provision, stock, or supply of anything'. Quotation for the Day. Fishes considered as a food, make a considerable addition to the furniture of the table. Thomas Best, A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling, 1787 Tuesday, July 21, 2009 In a previous post I introduced you to the idea of divination by cheese (tyromancy) – and now I bring to you the alternative idea of aleuromancy (or alphitomancy) – or divination by bread (or a bread-like material). There are numerous interpretations and expectations of the ritual. It is said that in Ancient Greece, sentences were composed (by whom, I am not quite clear) and written down (on what, I am definitely not clear, as paper was not invented yet), and rolled up in small balls of flour dough which were then mixed up and randomly selected by those who wished to know the truth, or the answer, or the future. It appears the messages and wrapping did not have to be eaten. A bit like the fortune cookie idea, by the sounds of it. The other thing that could be divined by 'bread' – in the larger European sphere – was one's guilt or innocence. The 'ordeal of bread' was carried out by the accused party being given an amount of barley bread, or dry oatmeal, or whatever the local favourite substance was, and ordered to swallow it at once – choking being indicative of guilt. The recipe for the day is a divine use of bread indeed – a delicate carrot pudding which sounds light and delicious. It is from A modern system of domestic cookery, or, The housekeeper's guide, by M. Radcliffe (1823). Fine Carrot Pudding. Grate half a pound of the sweetest and most delicate raw carrot, and double the quantity of white bread; mix eight beaten yolks and four whites of eggs, with half a pint of new milk; and melt half a pound of fresh butter, with half a pint of white wine, three spoonfuls of orange flower water, a grated nutmeg, and sugar to palate. Stir the whole well together; and, if too thick, add more milk till it be of a moderate consistency. Lay a puff paste all over the dish and bake it an hour. Serve it up with sugar grated over. This fine pudding is easily made still more delicious by using Naples biscuit and cream instead of bread and new milk, and putting in a glass of ratafia with the orange flower water. On account of its beautiful colour this pudding is often sent to table turned out of the crust bottom upward, having a little fine sugar grated over it. Some too boil the carrot, and scald the cream but neither is necessary and by boiling much of the saccharine quality of the carrot is always unavoidably lost. Quotation for the Day. Bread is the warmest, kindest of all words. Write it always with a capital letter, like your own name. Anonymous. Monday, July 20, 2009 It is that time of the year again, I am afraid. The time of the year that it is even more difficult to prise the Aussie (English, Indian, Sri-Lankan, West-Indian ….. ) man away from the screen - because THE CRICKET IS ON! And when the CRICKET IS ON, it is ON FOR FIVE FULL DAYS. It is an anachronism, today, a single game of sport that lasts for five days. A game in which, to the uninitiated, nothing much exciting appears to happen for long stretches of time, but to the initiated is packed full of strategy and tactics and decisions and little runs and big scores. A legacy of a more leisured age. Perhaps a reassuring legacy in our short-attention-span world of instant gratification? Something to help preserve the ability of the brain to focus on something for more than five minutes? From this cricket widow, please accept, for your amusement, this satirical "Bill of Fare for a Cricket Dinner", from Judy, or the London Serio-Comic Journal of June, 1897. The hundreds and thousands (of runs? pigeons on the pitch? commentators trivial asides and non-sequiteurs?) are interesting. They are tiny, garishly-coloured sugared pellets or sprinkles – miniscule comfits, really - used to decorate cakes and trifles, and to make fairy bread. They are the pure modern commercial interpretation of the non-pareils made in France since at least the seventeenth century from powdered orris-root and sugar. Orris root is from a species of iris, and has a long history of medicinal use as well as its value to the fragrance industry. Here is the way to make the real thing. Nonpareils. Nonpareils may be reckoned among the first species of confectionary, and from their great utility will last probably as long as the art itself. Put into the pan over the barrel half a pound of Florence orris-root, pulverized and sifted, and warmed with a gentle fire. Take about half a table spoonful of syrup boiled to a pearl, moisten the powder with it and with your hands make them into small grains; increase the charges by degrees, sift the nonpareils to take off the small particles and dust of the sugar; repeat the sifting often taking care to have sieves of different sizes. At night place the nonpareils in the stove to dry increasing them in size day after day with the finest sugar, and finish as above. Half a pound of orris will make more than a hundred weight of nonpareils. The Italian Confectioner, William Alexis Jarrin, 1829. Quotation for the Day. Anyone who uses the phrase 'easy as taking candy from a baby' has never tried taking candy from a baby. Anonymous. Friday, July 17, 2009 Lets be brutally honest here - the turnip is not a sexy vegetable. It is too old, for sure - being an ancient crone of the vegetable kingdom, unable to claim even the slightest residual menopausal allure. It is the wrong shape, probably – being centrally obese rather than asparagusly phallic-like. It is wintry and old-fashioned rather than light (or lite) and trendy, and poor and wholesome rather than rich and elegant. It is decidedly not exotic. The turnip has changed its name regularly over the centuries, perhaps in a series of desperate attempts to re-brand itself, but, sadly, to no avail. Once upon a time in ancient times it was neeps – as it still is in some resolutely old-fashioned Celtic parts of the world. At some point it became rapes – a misguided choice of name, considering the other connotations of the word. At some other (turning?) point it became tourn- or turn-neeps – but it would take a linguistics expert to unravel the significance of that quantum change. One variety took on an exotic foreign persona as the swede, but still could not manage to look tall, blond, and sexy. Even a wealthy, hard-working sponsor did not help. The the eighteenth century gentleman farmer 'Turnip' Townshend got his nickname (his avatar?) on account of his great interest in the vegetable. The problem may be that he emphasised its useful, practical, agricultural value of the turnip – not its culinary significance. Perhaps he should have written a turnip cookbook. However hard you look at it, it seems that the turnip cannot shake its pedestrian, poverty-associated image. The only slight chance the turnip has to gain any hint of sexiness, in my view, is to refuse to answer to anything other than its French name of navets – a drastic re-branding idea that seems to be working in respect of prunes vs dried plums. The staple of the poor, historically, has been some form of bread – particularly bread that does not use too much aristocratic, expensive wheat. To bulk out bread dough – albeit at the expense of good bread texture – almost any starch will do. The turnip, being cheap and easily grown even in despicable climates, was ideal. Here is how you do it, according to William Salmon's Household Companion of 1695. It sounds quite tasty – and medicinal too. Turnip bread. Take about half a Bushel of middling sort of Turnips, not sticky, but such as will boil soft: being pared and boiled, press out the Water very hard until they are quite dry, beat them in a Mortar, and mix with the Pulp about two pound of fine Wheat-flower, and two ounces of Carraway-seeds; put in a pint, or somewhat more of new Ale-yeast, mould it up as other Bread, and let it be well soaked, and it will not only look, but tast like Bread. This is not only made for saving Charges in poor Families in a dear Year, but of late has been much in esteem for Consumptions, and those troubled with shortness of Breath and Ptissick; being very wholesome and nourishing. Quotation of the Day. One who is proud of ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is underground. Samuel Butler (1835-1902) Thursday, July 16, 2009 I came across the phrase 'a good basting' recently in a non-culinary sense. It was in an old story, and referred to a good beating or whalloping – a right royal punch-up, in fact, or a good-old bastinado, perhaps. The very same day I tidied up my disgracefully messy sewing room (a displacement activity akin to sharpening one's pencils), and the remembered that 'basting' is also a needlework phrase for joining something up with long, temporary stitches. 'Basting' is also, of course, something you do to roasting meat while it is cooking. Naturally, three such different uses of the word intrigued me, so off to the authorities I went. To put it briefly, the various dictionaries hazard lots of guesses, but dare not get definitive. In dictionary-speak therefore, the origin of the various uses of the word is 'obscure' or even 'unknown'. I did find one attempt to connect the meanings of beating and meat-basting. It is in A New Dictionary of the English Language (1844), by Charles Richardson. The author quotes a source called 'Sk', who 'believed is baste – to strike; because formerly it was the custom to rub the meat with a stick covered with fat; though now the liquid is dropped upon the meat from a distance'. The idea, of course, is to keep the meat moist, and to add flavour. So, what to use to do this? One of my favourite books, William Salmon's Household Companion (1695)- which is written in dictionary format – has, under the heading 'Bastings of Meats or Fowls', the following suggestions: (1) Clarified Suet (2) Fresh Butter (3) Minced Sweet-herbs, Butter and Claret-wine; and this last is excellent for Mutton or Lamb (4) Water and Salt (5) and especially for a Flayed Pig, Cream and melted Butter well beaten up together (6) Yolks of Eggs, Juice of Oranges, and grated Bisket: And if this be intended for large Fowl, as Bustards, Peacocks, or Turkeys, you may use the same. There is no doubt about it - the obscure origin of the word indicates that the use (in the culinary sense) is very old – much older than Salmon's time. The earliest OED reference is from 1509 'The fat pygge is baast, the lene cony is brent.' The second is from the famous cookbook called Epulario (or, The Italian Banquet), the English edition of 1598, which instructs, in a recipe for roasted kid 'Let it rost sokingly, basting it oft with the foresaid sauce.' I love that loving phrase 'to rost sokingly', so I hereby give you the actual recipe (and a spare, with a LOT of garlic) from Epulario. You could subsitute lamb, if you like. To rost a Kid with Garlike. Take the kid and larde it with Garlike very well, and stuff it full of cornes of Garlike well pilled, then take Verjuice, the yolkes of two Eggs, and two cornes of Garlike well beaten in a morter, with a little Pepper, and some fat broth, mire them all together, and set it under the kid while it rosteth, and bast it therewith, and when it is rosted, put it in a dish with that sauce: the kid would be well rosted, and eaten hote. To rost a Kid otherwise without Garlike. Take the kid and larde it well, then take the Liver and lights and beat them well togeher with suet, that done, take seven or eight Egges sodden [boiled], and beat them with Parsely, Mint, and a little Sage, and mingle them together, putting thereto Pepper, Saffron, and a few cloves, wherewith you shall stuffe the Kid, and so lay it to the fire, and let it rost sokingly, basting it often with the aforesaid sauce, without garlike. Quotation for the Day. "The human body, when it freezes in eternal silence, is said to be worth about ninety-eight cents. The body of an ordinary south European, if we could devise the means for extracting the garlic from it, would be worth a bushel of gold." Angelo Pellegrini, 'The Unprejudiced Palate' (1948) Wednesday, July 15, 2009 When is a cheese not a cheese? I became puzzled during my research for Menus From History when I came across fromage on several otherwise scrupulously observant bills of fare for dinners taken during Lent. Scrupulously observant Christians of the past were expected to abstain from all animal products the forty days of Lent – and at many periods there were secular penalties too, for breaking the rules. Historically the word cheese could also mean something compressed or moulded or shaped like a cheese. In the words of John Pinkerton, the author of Recollections of Paris, in the Years 1802-5, "… fromage at Paris is a lax term for any substance compressed. Thus a fromage d'Italie is a Bologna sausage and a fromage glacé is a kind of ice." I don't know of any other references to Bologna sausage that describe it in this way, and suspect it was not universal. Even in Pinkerton's time I would suspect that most travellers who ordered fromage d'Italie would have expected a nice slice of Gorgonzola or something, not a slice of sausage. The best known form of non-cheese cheese today is probably that made from fruit pulp – such as the quince paste we eat with real cheese, or the damson cheese we met in a previous post – a form that would certainly have been allowed during Lent. A form highly unlikely to be found on a modern menu is head cheese – otherwise known as brawn (or souse, or collared head). The name seems to be American in origin, and seems to have appeared sometime in the nineteenth century. The explanation is obvious, of course, the cheese being made from the head and other relatively scrappy sources of meat. Occasionally on a modern menu we might find a bavarois or bavaroise – a sort of custard or flavoured cream set with gelatin. It was once more commonly called Bavarian Cream or Bavarian Cheese, or even Bavarian Cream Cheese. I give you two interesting variations on this theme. The first is for a fromage glacé (iced cheese) which, interestingly, the author indicates is English in style, presumably because of the well-known love of the nineteenth century English for iced and moulded puddings. The second is from the seventeenth century and would make a fine accompaniment to a dessert of fresh fruit. Fromages Aux Epingles ou à'l Anglaise. This fromage is called épingle, because the cream only receives the first icing; it is put quite liquid into the mould, and is neither to be stirred or worked; thus it will form in threads of ice; these are called épingles. All sorts of creams, &c., can be served thus when not boiled, for if boiled they will not answer Manner Of Preparing It: Make a cream with any fruit you like; when well mixed put into a mould à fromage, and put this mould in ice well pounded, and mixed with salt or saltpetre; let it remain three or four hours without stirring or working, only taking care it is well surrounded with ice, then serve. There will be threads of ice on the cream called epingles French confectionary adapted for English families, by Frances Crawford (1853) [épingle translates, according to Google, as pin] Almond-Cheese. Take Almonds beaten fine, make a Sack-Posset made only with Sack and Cream, take off the Curd and mingle it with the beaten Almonds, set it on a Chafing-dish of Coals and put some double refined Sugar to it with a sufficient quantity of Rose-Water, then in a Pye-Plate fashion it into the form of a Cheese; put it into a Dish, and scrape a little Sugar over it, and when it is cold, serve it up. From William Salmon's Household Companion (1695) Quotation for the Day … Cheese when given with a sparing hand is wholesome. Aphorism from the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum (the School of Health at Salerno, about 12th or 13th century) Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Sorry folks, I just couldn't resist continuing yesterday's theme. A banana, at its simplest, needs no effort – it is already dessert in a skin, is it not? A fruit with a very short shelf-life however, as those of us who have half a freezer full of the super-soft, blackly over-ripe specimens know only too well. There are only so many banana muffins and banana cakes that one little household can consume. Because of its spectacularly short shelf life, the banana was a great luxury outside of its natural habitat until modern methods of transport and climate-controlled environments enabled it to be delivered to the eager markets of the temperate parts of the world. Recipes for bananas really only start to appear regularly in cookbooks towards the end of the nineteenth century, and then they were mostly for sweet dishes. That is not to say that the idea of a savoury banana (no doubt based on the use of the related plantain) did not exist at all. To help you use up the over-supply of bananas in your fruit bowl before they become muffin-material, I give you the following recipes for savoury dishes. Steak with Bananas Peel one banana and slice in round pieces, and while the steak is cooking fry them in a little hot butter until they are brown. After the meat is on the platter, lay these pieces over it, arranging them prettily, and put the parsley round as before. Bananas are very nice with steak. A Little Cookbook for a Little Girl. 1905 Bananas Fried in Egg and Crumbs: for a Savoury. Sift the following mixture over the banana before coating with egg and crumbs and also before serving: One teaspoonful of salt, ¼ teaspoonful of dry mustard, ¼ teaspoonful of pepper, a little cayenne, and 1 teaspoonful of red or brown crumbs [of what, the author does not say!]. Mix well together and shake over the bananas. The banana its cultivation, distribution and commercial uses, William Fawcett 1921 Banana Savouries. Banana savouries are not unusual. Here is an excellent one. Melt some butter in a fireproof dish and season it with salt and paprika. Cook for a few minutes, stirring well. Then lay in sufficient bananas split lengthways. Turn them several times so that the sauce works in, then sprinkle with breadcrumbs and grated cheese and a very little paprika. Add a few pieces of butter and bake in the oven. Recipes for Small Households, The Times, Monday, Mar 20, 1939 Quotation for the Day… Bananas are more like flowers, ... you can't mess around with them. Richard Benson. Monday, July 13, 2009 Lemon with fish is pretty much an incontrovertible rule in the kitchen, is it not? Break the rule and risk punishment by mass exodus of customers, and mass sackings of staff. Once upon a time citrus was used pretty commonly with meat too. Of course we are all familiar with the idea of duck with an orange sauce. Sadly, usually nowadays it comes as a tacky, sickly-sweet marmalade-y mess that is centuries away from the elegant original form made with the bitter Seville orange - a far better foil for the rich and fatty duck meat, methinks. Here is an early version of the idea, from The good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin (1594) To boyle a Capon with Oranges after Mistres Duffelds way. Take a Capon and boyle it with Veale, or with a mary bone [marrow bone], or what your fancie is. Then take a good quantitie of that broth, and put it in an earthen pot by it selfe, and put thereto a good handfull of Corrans [currants], and as manie Prunes, and a few whole Maces, and some Marie [marrow], and put to this broth a good quantitie of white wine or of Claret, and so let them seeth softly together: Then take your Orenges, and with a knife scrape of all the filthinesse of the outside of them. Then cut them in the middest, and wring out the ioyse [juice] of three or foure of them, put the ioyse into your broth with the rest of your stuffe, then slice your Orenges thinne, and haue upon the fire readie a skellet of faire seething water, and put your sliced Orenges into the water, & when that water is bitter, have more readie, and so change them still as long as you can finde the great bitternesse in the water, which will be sixe or seven times, or more, if you find need: then take them from the water, and let that runne cleane from them: then put close Orenges into your potte with your broth, and so let them stew together till your Capon be readie. Then make your sops with this broth, and cast on a litle Sinamon, Ginger, and Sugar, and upon this lay your Capon, and some of your Orenges vpon it, and some of your Marie, and towarde the end of the boyling of your broth, put in a little Vergious [verjuice], if you think best. We did play with the idea of orange food once before, and our source was Aunt Babette's Cook Book: Foreign and domestic receipts for the household (Cincinnati, 1889). On that occasion I gave you four orange recipes – all sweet ones however - orange fritters, cake, ice, and orangeade. I was reminded of that post recently as I was browsing 365 Orange Recipes; an Orange Recipe for Every Day in the Year (c1909). Today, to match the numbers, I give you a further three recipes for the use of orange in savoury dishes, taken from the latter book. Onions with Orange Sauce. Boil 1 dozen onions in three changes of water until tender but not broken; drain them and add ½ cupful of melted butter mixed with a little grated rind, 1 teaspoonful of minced parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Serve very hot. Calf's Liver with Orange. Cut 1 pound of calf's liver in slices one-half inch thick, cover with boiling water for a minute, drain and cook brown in bacon fat. Chop one onion and brown in butter adding 1 peeled and chopped orange two minutes before removing from the fire; season with salt and pepper and place one spoonful of the sauce on each slice of liver. Finnan-Haddie with Orange Butter. Soak finnan-haddie for one hour in two changes of warm water, drain well and fry in butter or broil over slow coals. Melt ½ cupful of butter, stir into it the diced pulp and the grated rind of ½ an orange; spread over the fish and serve at once. Quotation for the Day. When life sucks and hands you lemons, I say beat the crap out of it and demand some Florida oranges as well. By ? Friday, July 10, 2009 The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (commonly known as the Crystal Palace Exhibition) in London in 1851 made the country, at least for a time, a tourist destination. The visitors seemed to come for some years afterwards, and at least one author (who is not named) felt the need (or saw the niche) for a travel book. The American stranger's guide to London and Liverpool at Table was published in 1859, and not only advised 'how to dine and order a dinner, and where to avoid dining', but also gave 'practical hints to butlers and cooks' – and threw in some recipes from the Royal Yacht Squadron Steward's Manual. It all sounds as if the author wasn't really sure who his target audience was, doesn't it? The author was, however, aware that the shared heritage and common language between the two countries did not obviate all cultural confusion. He spent some time explaining the mysteries of "Curry" to his American readers (the English considering themselves experts on the topic of course, on account of owning India at the time). He is clear and dogmatic on the fine point that Bengal, Madras, and Bombay Curries differ in the details, and pompous and pedantic in the associated footnote. Speaking of Curries, it is lamentable to witness this aromatic dish served in Europe as an Entrée, sometimes with scarcely any rice, and that in the same dish. The rice should he abundant and carefully boiled; handed round in a separate dish, and then the Curry. It should never appear until the second course, and is an admirable substitute for Game, when the latter is not in season, or to be had. In India this dish is indispensable both at tiffin and dinner daily. It is a hors d'oeuvre that people never tire of, when properly concocted and served à l'Oriental, being in fact the Pâté de Foies-Gras of India. When partaking of Curry, always use a Dessert spoon instead of a fork; the use of the latter betokens a "Griffin". There is so much worthy of comment in this short opinion piece that it is hard to know where to start. His use of a capital for 'Curry' in every instance; Curry as a second course dish, never, God forbid! as an Entrée; Curry as an hors d'oeuvre; Curry as the 'Pâté de Foies-Gras of India'; the entire concept of 'Curry' as an 'Indian' dish when it is unequivocally Anglo-Indian. I am sure those of you with a heritage based in the Indian subcontinent are falling about laughing or crying right now. I would love to hear your thoughts. The last word intrigues me. It was clearly an undesirable thing to be a griffin, or at least poor form to demonstrate griffinism. I understood a griffin to be a fabulous, imaginary beast, half eagle, half lion – so how does that fit here? The OED gives an alternative meaning of 'griffin' as 'A European newly arrived in India, and unaccustomed to Indian ways and peculiarities; a novice, new-comer, greenhorn.' One of the supporting quotations notes 'Young men, immediately on their arrival in India, are termed griffins, and retain this honour until they are twelve months in the country.' So, there we have it. Or at least, we have half of it. The definition begs the question of 'why griffin?'. Why not unicorn or centaur or phoenix or dragon? Is there an Indian dialect word that is similar in sound and meaning? There was no agonising dilemma in chosing the recipe for the day from this book. The delightful dissonance produced by the collision of words in the name of the dish was instantly irresistible (methinks in inverse proportion to the degree of irresistibility of the dish itself.) Liverpool Curry. à la Parry. Form two table spoonfuls of curry powder into paste. Cut up a rabbit or fowl into small pieces an inch long, rub them over with the paste, fry the meat with butter, and four onions sliced, to a deep brown; then add about two-thirds of a pint of good gravy, and let simmer for twenty mintues, remove all fat and skim, and put by cold; when wanted stew gently for four hours. Mix together 2 spoonfuls of cream, 1 spoonful of Soy, a tea cupful of sour apples, or a table spoonful of craberries, 1 of flour, Dessert spoon of salt, a bit of butter, which add to the curry half an hour before it is taken from the fire. When dished up add the juice of half a lemon. In India ham is eaten with curry and pickles, &c., to suit the taste of partakers; the remains of a duck, or of game, all come well into season, if you have them Quotation for the Day. Where life is colorful and varied, religion can be austere or unimportant. Where life is appallingly monotonous, religion must be emotional, dramatic and intense. Without the curry, boiled rice can be very dull. C. Northcote Parkinson. Thursday, July 09, 2009 With a bit of luck, on this day in 1914, you might have been aboard the SS Minnesota of the Chicago-Milwaukee-Buffalo Line. The breakfast sounds substantial, and is a fine demonstration of the inroads of commercial breakfast cereals into the traditional fare for this meal. Breakfast Thursday, July 9th, 1914 Fruit in Season Stewed Fruit Rolled Oats Manioca Egg-O-See Force Maple Flakes, Toasted Boiled Eggs Fried Eggs or Eggs à la Turque Fried Spring Lamb Chops, Breaded Tomato Sauce Smithfield Sausage On Toast Hash Brown Potato à la Spain Baked Potatoes Toast, Dry or Buttered Home Made Rolls Coffee English Breakfast Tea Uncolored Japanese Tea Coffee, Boston Style Milk Postum Cereal The proprietary breakfast cereals include the Postum which is listed with the beverages. Postum was a cereal-based substitute for the evil and over-stimulating drink of coffee, and was invented in the late nineteenth century by C.W. Post – one of the converts of John Harvey Kellogg. We have previously considered Force – also on another steamship menu (and I was much enlightened on this topic by bloggers' comments on this, thankyou). The Egg-O-See and Maple Flakes remain to be understood. The Maple Flakes are presumably Mapl-Flake, a direct contribution of the Kellogg family's Battle Creek company, who invented the whole concept of breakfast cereals in the first place. They are, according to the advertisements of the time "simply the Flakes of the finest Washington white wheat, flavored with pure Vermont maple syrup' (takes 96 hours to make)", also conveniently made and served in "leading hotels, clubs and dining car systems" in "'dainty one-portion package, wrapped in embossed onion-skin paper and sealed with gold seals." The Egg-O-See (a strange name?) is yet another offering from Battle Creek. The flaked breakfast cereal'takes selected wheat and makes it delicious and digestive.' Advertisements in 1905 informed readers of its popularity with the information that "more than 3600 miles of Egg-O-See are manufactured and consumed annually, that is, over twenty-eight million packages are sold' (1905), and of its deliciousness with the slogan "Dere aint go'n'er be no leavin's". There is much else to ponder upon in this menu. What is 'uncolored Japanese tea'? What, specifically, is 'Boston Style' coffee? How was the manioca prepared? While I search out a recipe for my preferred dish for the morning – the Eggs à la Turque, I give you the following idea – nicer than manioca perhaps? Delicious Maple Sauce. 2 egg yolks. ¼ cup maple syrup. ½ cup whipped cream. Beat the yolks very light, putting in a pinch of salt; put in the syrup and cook till the spoon coats over when you dip in; then cool and beat in the whipped cream and serve very cold. A Cookbook for a Little Girl, 1905 Quotation for the Day. Life is like a grapefruit. Well, it's sort of orangy-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It's got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have a half a one for breakfast. Douglas Adams. Wednesday, July 08, 2009 I always thought that 'stick-jaw' was toffee. I was right, but only partially. It seems that before it was toffee, stick-jaw was a pudding. Not a delicious pudding, but a pudding whose sole purpose was to occupy space in the digestive system and provide calories – especially to those living in institutions of various kinds. It was apparently ranked alongside scrap or resurrection pie as the bane of the nineteenth century boarding schoolboy's life. The dictionary describes stick-jaw as "a pudding or sweetmeat difficult of mastication'. To a schoolboy it was "pudding crammed down our throats to take away our appetite for the meat to follow." Sometimes it was a simple boiled pudding with the solidity and flavourlessness that only large amounts of suet and completely absent fruit (sugar, butter, eggs, spices) can provide. Often, like resurrection pie, stick-jaw pudding was made from scraps – in this case the scraps of bread accumulated over the course of the week. Bread pudding, properly made, has a lot going for it of course. Here is a nice version from The Accomplished Housekeeper, and Universal Cook (1797), by T. Williams A Bread Pudding. Boil half a pint of milk with a little cinnamon, four eggs well beaten, the rind of a lemon grated, half a pound of suet chopped fine, and as much bread as necessary. Pour your milk on the bread and suet, keep mixing it until ocld, then put in the lemon peel, the eggs, a little sugar, and some nutmeg grated find. You may either boil or bake this pudding. Quotation for the Day. Books cannot always please, howver good; Minds are not ever craving for their food. George Crabbe (1754-1832), The Borough Schools. Tuesday, July 07, 2009 An atmosphere of political correctness makes us shudder at some phrases – food phrases included – nowadays, doesn't it? Ugly phrases with nasty connotations. Makes one reluctant to mention them. Fearful of being labelled oneself as something equally ugly and nasty. Nevertheless, the names, the phrases, and the concepts all have history, and we cant pretend they don't. I give you two recipes from the 1930's from The New York Times' column Recipes for Small Households. The common ingredient is Demarara (or Demerara) sugar, which is raw or unrefined sugar named for the colony of Demarara in Guyana. Darkie Pickle. Throw salt over half a peck of green tomatoes. Let them stand overnight. Then rinse out the salt and put them into the preserving pan. Now mix in a bowl half a pound of demarara sugar, half an ounce of ground cloves, the same quantity of ginger, pepper, and allspice, and one ounce of dry mustard. Sprinkle the tomatoes with this mixture. Add sufficient vinegar and let it boil for five hours, stirring frequently to avoid burning. Then cool and put into jars. The vinegar must completely cover the pickle. It will keep for a long time. Darkie Pie. Cut eight bananas in thin slices lengthways. Place a layer in a buttered pie-dish, sprinkle with Demarara sugar, a little powdered cinnamon, a squeeze of lemon juice. Dot with small pieces of butter. Repeat the layers, finishing with butter, sugar, and lemon. Add a tablespoon of water and bake in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes. Serve hot with whipped cream and brandy snaps. Quotation for the Day. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. Proverbs xv. 17 Monday, July 06, 2009Friday, July 03, 2009 I was going to do an extra Saturday post tomorrow especially for my American friends on their national day, but I realised that I will be having far too much fun at my sister's wedding. So here is my offering, posted well ahead of time (especially as it is almost two days ahead in my target country) - which makes sense anyway as it gives you chance to plan ahead for a retro feast. Here, for your delectation, are a couple of patriotic salads to go alongside your barbecued steaks and sausages, from the wartime book (1918) Wheatless and Meatless Days, by Pauline Partridge. Salad Independence. 3 small tomatoes 2 small green peppers ¼ cup chopped celery ½ small can pimentos lettuce French dressing Wash tomatoes, pour boiling water over them and allow to stand one minute, drain, and slice. Pour boiling water over peppers, allow to stand 5 minutes, drain, remove seeds and cut peppers into strips. Chop the pimentos very fine and mix with the celery. Put slices of tomato on the lettuce, sprinkle with celery and pimento mixture, garnish with strips of green pepper, add French dressing, and serve. Thursday, July 02, 2009 These challenging economic times are a boon for food magazine editors and writers it seems. Every mag, blog, and paper has 'new' ideas for eating, decorating, entertaining, and generally having a good time on less income. Why should this blog be any different? Truth to tell, food literature has always found domestic economy to be a sound subject, with managing on a specific weekly or monthly budget to be a particularly popular theme. Some advice comes in a nice book published in New York in 1860 with the full title of How to Live: Saving and Wasting, or, Domestic Economy Illustrated, and the glorious continuing blurb of: by the Life of two families of opposite character, habits, and Practices, in a pleasant tale of real life, full of useful Lessons in housekeeping, and how to live, how to have, how to gain, and how to be happy; including the story of A Dime A Day. This calculator suggests that a dime in 1860 had the purchasing power of a bit less than two dollars and seventy cents today. The honourable mother who provides the author's role model in this book tells how she feeds her family of four children for that amount . "I had, said she one day last week, only one Dime in the world and that was to feed me and my four children all day, for I would not ask tor credit and I would not borrow, and I never did beg. I did live through the day and I did not go hungry. I fed myself and family with one Dime." "How ?" "Oh that was not all. I bought fuel too." "What with one Dime?" "Yes, with one Dime!1 bought two cents worth of coke because that is cheaper than coa,l and because I could kindle it with a piece of paper in my little furnace with two or three little bits of charcoal that some careless boy had dropped in the street just in my path. With three cents I bought a scraggy piece of salt pork half fat and half lean. There might have been half a pound of it - the man did not weigh it. Now half my money was gone, and the show for breakfast dinner and supper was certainly a very poor one, With the rest of my Dime I bought four cents worth of white beans. By-the-by, I got these at night, and soaked them in tepid water on a neighbor's stove till morning. I had one cent left. I bought one cent's worth of corn meal and the grocery man gave me a red pepper pod." "What was that for ?" "Wait a little - you shall know. Of all things peppers and onions are appreciated by the poor in winter because they help to keep them warm. With my meal I made three dumplings and these with the pork and the pepper pod I put into the pot with the beans and plenty of water (for the pork was salt) and boiled the whole two hours and then we had breakfast, for it was time for the children to go to school. We ate one of the dumplings, and each had a plate of the soup for break fast, and a very good breakfast it was. I kept the pot boiling as long as my coke lasted and at dinner we ate half the meat, half the soup, and one of the dumplings. We had the same allowance for supper and the children were better satisfied than I have sometimes seen them when our food has cost five times as much. The next day we had another Dime - it was all I could earn for all I could get to do - two pairs of men's drawers each day at five cents a pair and on that we lived - lived well" The woman goes on to describe how she makes a dime feed her family each day for the next few days - manageing some variety too. The next day they have 'a sort of chowder' made from scrap pieces of lean beef, potatoes, and more dumplings (made this time 'about as big as grapes.') An interesting story? An inspirational lesson? A project to try out? Here is a recipe from another book on domestic economy from the same year – hardly a frugal effort however! A Beef Stew. Take two or three pounds of the rump of beef, cut away all the fat and skin and cut it into pieces about two or three inches square; put it into a stewpan and pour on to it a quart of broth; let it boil; sprinkle in a little salt and pepper to taste; when it has boiled very gently or simmered two hours, shred finely a large lemon; add it to the gravy and in twenty minutes pour in a flavoring composed of two tablespoons full of Harvey's sauce, the juice of the lemon, the rind of which has been sliced into the gravy, a spoonful of flour and a little ketchup; add at pleasure two glasses of Madeira or one of sherry or port a quarter of an hour after the flavoring, and serve. Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy, Elizabeth M. Hall, 1860 Quotation for the Day. Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor. Samuel Johnson Wednesday, July 01, 2009 The concern about food adulteration and safety which led to the formation of the "Poison Squad" and the eventual promulgation of the Food and Drug Law in the United States (which provided yesterday's story) did not belong solely to enlightened food chemists and socialist writers. The story was taken to the women's clubs by at least one convert – Mrs. Winifred Harper Cooley. The New York Times in March 1909 reported her address to the ladies of the Rainy Day Club. "Mrs. Winnifred Harper Cooley told the members of the Rainy Day Club at their meeting yesterday afternoon in the Hotel Astor, that "the food goblins would get 'em in they didn't watch out." She told them that the food adulterators neither slumber nor tarry, and that, while it was alright to take drugs under the doctor's order, it was dangerous to mix up a lot of them "in our midst," as bad food people will hand them out to us if not watched. To show how many opportunities there are to take in bad food, Mrs. Cooley read a schedule of food eaten by one Englishwoman if she lives to be 70 years old. The statistics are guaranteed by a man by the name of Soyer, who, with a passion for facts, and, perhaps, an antipathy to the female sex, compiled them. In her three-score years and ten of life, according to the figures, the Englishwoman will eat 30 oxen, 200 sheep, 100 calves, 200 lambs, 50 pigs, 1,200 fowls, 300 turkesy, 260 pigeons, 120 turbot 140 salmon, and 30,000 oysters. "Think what a chance for typhoid germs!" interpolated Mrs. Cooley. Also she will eat 5,745 pounds of vegetables, 244 pounds of butter, 24,000 eggs, 4 ½ tons of bread, an indeterminate quantity of fruit and candy, and she will drink 3,000 gallons of tea and coffee. "These next two specifications, I think, must have been intended for men," said Mrs. Cooley, as she wound up the awful array with 548 gallons of spirits and 49 hogsheads of wine. "Prof Shepard, State chemist of South Dakota, has proved that in the day's three meals one may take in thirty-five doses of poison … and 14,000 does in a year." Potates are pure, and it looks like we might have to live on them. In sausages there may be found coal tar, dye, and borax; bacon is cured with creosote, (liquid smoke), maple syrup is made from glucose and hickory bark and contains sodium sulphite; pure oatmeal is eaten for breakfast with cream preserved with formaldehyde; blue points [oysters] are preserved with powdered borax, and there is formaldehyde in pork and beans. …. … The country is in a serious condition. The commission appointed by the President has reported that some chemicals are not harmful to food, though Dr Wiley has proved that they are. He is a man who could not be bought, and no one knows what he has suffered, for there is no doubt that the Board of Agriculture is against him. (Applause). But by taking pains and looking at the formulas on the wrappers and patronizing honest dealers, we can protect ourselves. Some canned goods are put up under better conditions than they could be in a private kitchen. It ahs been proved that things can be put up without preservatives, and we can find out the good manufacturers if we try." A one-hundred year-old battle – and I fear that we have far more 'safe' chemicals in our food now than when Mrs Cooley made her speech. What do you think? In honour of Mrs. Cooley's idea of safety in potatoes, I give this recipe from The New York Times of September 1910. The article was on Emergency Dishes for the Hostess, and the writer tells the story of one housekeeper suddenly surprised by 'a guest of epicurean habits … with nothing more special than a broiled beefsteak as the main course of her meal.' She comes up trumps with the steak and shows her resourcefulness with the potato dish. Delicious Potato Fluff. … made of six leftover potatoes, which in less skillful hands might have been warmed up or fried. The skins of these tubers were removed, and they were put through a colancer, after which there were added one gill of hot cream, a tablespoon of salt, a small piece of butter, and the well-beaten whites of three eggs. The preparation was cooked in a baking dish (using a moderate oven) until prettily browned all over, and was served at once. Quotation for the Day. How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to the young? Paul Sweeney	eng	0f24c3f4-fc49-4676-b0fc-06ccc9fde9ac	http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
Hullo and welcome to Agenda. Today a Green Party Co-Leadership special. Can the party find someone to replace Rod Donald's political skills, someone with the charisma to lift them above the 5% mark how can they shake what some of these candidates describe as an image of clog wearing hippy lifestylers? Should the Greens drop their more controversial campaigns like decriminalising marijuana and get back to their basics – eco politics. Jeanette Fitzsimons has been co-leader since 1995 and next weekend she will be joined by one of these four men. Dave Clendon, Russel Norman, Nandor Tanczos or Mike Ward. Welcome to you all. Also in the studio we have an audience of Green supporters, we'll be taking questions from the floor and we want you to phone in with your questions. The number is 09 9167820. CANDIDATES: Dave Clendon – Former Party Co-Convenor. Lecturer in Environmental Management. Can't see the Greens working with National under his co-leadership. So let's start the show with a question from the floor. Lindus you have a question for Nandor, what is it? Q: Lindus: Nandor you're probably aware that there's some comment about having a dreadlocked Rastafarian as Co-Leader of the Green Party isn't going to be a good look for the party, do you have any comment on that? A: Nandor: Thanks Lindus, look I think we have to acknowledge there is a strand of religious intolerance in this country and for some people my faith is a disadvantage or something that they see as negative, but I think that the people who are likely to vote Green or even possible Green voters are people who celebrate diversity. The Greens are a party that celebrates diversity whether it's ecological diversity or social diversity and I think that the people we're looking for to vote Green are the people less likely to be put off by my faith. LISA That's an image question isn't it, if I can come to you Dave Clendon, you've said that you're a palatable acceptable face, so what do you mean by that, why are you more palatable than Nandor say? Dave: A great deal it's simply about perception, we know Nandor's an extremely dedicated and effective politician to the extent that it's a challenge for some of the voting population to acknowledge difference. We within the Greens embrace difference and it's something that we will continue to do but it's simply about perception. LISA So Mike Ward should the Green Party pander to prejudice, I mean that might prompt some people to ask questions about your age? Mike: No I don't think we should pander to prejudice, I think that Nandor would make a splendid leader and I think he's right I think most people actually to welcome diversity, certainly Green voters so I wouldn't see that as being a disadvantage most of the time. I'm sure there are some out there who would be upset by having Nandor anywhere in the country, well they're probably not gonna vote Green anyway. LISA You said make a splendid leader, moreso than you? Mike: No no, if I thought he was more splendid than me I wouldn't be standing. LISA Russel Norman can I come to you, it's all about perception isn't it and you said that you've got the breadth to appeal to other people, the people who don't normally vote Green, who says that you've got the breadth? Russel: Well I think it's about talking about the issues of climate change and public transport, it's about reaching out into the suburbs and towns, and I think that those are the issues that I'm focused on and I think that people who are thinking about voting Green will identify with those issues. LISA So on the subject of perceptions then Dave Clendon has said publicly that you're a poor communicator, now why do you think that he might have said that and how's that perception going to hinder you in this candidacy? Russel: I think that in the course of a co-leadership contest there are things said that people are trying to position themselves and that's okay, Dave and I are old friends, we've known each other for ages, I think that will be fine, and I'd just like to say in your intro you said that we were looking for a co-leader that could lift us above 5%, in fact we're polling well above 5% and we were above 5% at the last election. LISA 5.3%. Russel: It's about taking us to 10%. LISA Alright let's take a caller on the phones, we've got Mark from Auckland, now what's your question Mark and who's it for? Q: Mark: Probably the last guy you spoke to but it's a general question for all of them. Would any candidate be willing to actually test policy particularly on climate change, it's a major thrust for the Greens, I want to focus on Jeanette Fitzsimons' speech on budget night, she actually made this statement that the earth now is warmer than it has been for 650,000 years when there were no humans, well that to me is hypocrisy on the Green Party policy, she's saying that when there were no humans and that means no cars, no factories…. LISA So what's your question Mark – get to the nub of your question. If the earth was warm when there were not humans …. LISA Okay so should global warming be one of your key policies I think is what our caller is saying. A: Russel: The intergovernmental panel on climate change its fourth assessment report has made it very very clear that there is climate changes happening, it's human induced and it is the single largest threat to humankind, and if we don't do something about climate change now then our children and our children's children are going to have to wear the consequences for the rest of the century. The budget speech that he's referring to Jeanette was responding to Cullen's budget, and in that budget Cullen announced one and a half billion dollars of extra roading funding and over the long term public transport funding's going to be decreasing, that is a budget for a world in which climate change isn't happening, it's a budget for a world in which petrol prices aren't peaking, that is not a budget for the world that we live in. LISA Question from the floor. Q: Rick: Mike I couldn't help but notice that you've been out of the country for almost the entire co-leader election, why is that? Are you serious about becoming co-leader? A: Mike: Yes indeed I am, I've always been serious about being a Green I'm probably the longest running Green around. The timing was unfortunate, I had to take a trip before March, I went over there to write a book, I hope the book will do the Greens well. Getting back to the climate change thing though you know I have grandchildren and in the lifetime of my grandchildren this planet is likely to become uninhabitable for a good slice of the population. Having been in India for two and a half months and seeing what you know high temperatures are like I am as serious about this leadership as I have ever been about anything that I've ever done for the party and as I say I've been doing it for a long time. LISA Mike Ward you've indicated a desire to be the Nelson Mayor, so that's still on the agenda is it? Mike: Yes indeed. LISA So which of these jobs is the part time one then, the co-leadership or the mayoralty? Mike: Neither of them are part time, I think if you can be a member of parliament and co-leader you can certainly be mayor and co-leader, they're both full time jobs and both would be an expression of my politics. LISA So what guarantee can you give this audience that you're gonna have the time to dedicate to the co-leadership, if you were successful in both races? Mike: Look I'm a busy person I always have been a busy person, I have squeezed a lot into my life, I think if Rod Donald can do it and Rod was an extraordinarily busy person then certainly I can do the mayoralty and the co-leadership. LISA Well audience is that okay, show me by raising your hands, is it okay for your co-leader to have two full time jobs? Would you accept that? Right, an even split perhaps. We're going to the phone lines now, a question from Ron in Auckland. What's your question and who's it for? Q: Ron: My question's for Russel Norman. The media's often sympathetic Russel to the Green's messages on environmental concerns, how would you work to ensure that the Green's message on social justice receive more attention? A: Russel: Well the Greens are probably the only party that's consistently taken a stand around child poverty and will continue to do that, that was a key part of our last election campaign. Sue Bradford has taken a leading role in advocating against poverty in New Zealand and she will continue to do that. As a team we are firmly committed to social justice as much as environmental sustainability. LISA Alright I've got a question for Nandor Tanczos. You described parliament as a toxic hell hole and there were questions over your commitment to returning to parliament. You said in your pitch for the co-leadership that you won't kill yourself for this party nor will you sacrifice your family. What's the guarantee that you can handle the pressure of being co-leader and an MP in parliament? Nandor: Well let me say I'm the kind of person who likes to give due consideration to a decision before I make it rather than making it and then regretting it afterwards, so I did give a lot of thought to whether I would return to parliament, I gave a lot of thought to whether I would run for co-leader as well. Having weighed it up and having made the decision I'm 100% committed to doing the best job I can as Green Co-leader if I'm selected. But let me say that I don't think that Green's success is gonna come from working harder and harder and harder and putting out more outputs, I think that what we have to do is be clear in our message and communicate more clearly, because there is a growing awareness of the issues that we're talking about. You look in the paper you see it every day, climate change, the transportation problem, peak oil, the issues that we've been talking about for so long are apparent in the day to day lives of ordinary people. We have to figure out how to communicate our solutions to those problems really clearly because when people understand our solutions they will support us. LISA We're going to another question from the audience here. Linda your question about power. Q: Linda: Dave the question's for you. Imagine the Green Party is in the position of power at the next election, what are the key issues that you would focus on to improve our society. A: Dave: Okay that's a big question. The short answer is to empower communities to make their own decisions about what's in their best interests and to do that from a national level, it's an unlikely scenario, it's one I can accept very readily. I think New Zealanders are very capable of directing their own future, of being self determining in terms of where they want to go and what they want to do, I think we can create an environment where that can happen and to allow people to make their own decisions, because I think there's been a lack of trust. We've noted recently that politicians are about the least trusted professions in the country and I believe that cuts both ways to the extent that politicians and political parties don't trust the voters, why should the voters trust them. So to establish a degree of understanding and indeed trust between the leaders and the led that's a key challenge and I think it's something that the Green can do because we naturally default to an engaged consensus decision making process, it's how we operate, it's intuitive to us, so to expand that to the wider population would be a really good challenge and I think it's something I hope we get the chance to do. LISA Let's go to the phones now, and I think we've got James on the line. Q: James: For the floor thank you. Why should people vote Green? A: Mike: If you care about the future the Greens is the only party that has any future. It is about empowering communities, Dave was right on the nub there you do need to get our communities making the kinds of decisions about the way they live their lives that enhance both their own lives and the capacity of the planet to sustain life and right now we know that people are working their butts off, they have never spent so long in the workforce, they have never consumed so much, they've never spent so much time sitting in their motorcars and never spent so little time actually living. Now the Green Party is about empowering people to make good choices about the way they live their lives and I can think of no better reason for voting for us. LISA Nandor perhaps you should take that it's a seemingly simple question but it's actually the nub of the issue isn't it. Why should they vote for you? Nandor: Because the Greens is the only party that's taking the real issues that face us seriously. I mean if you look at the world that we're living in we are undermining the capacity of the planet to sustain life and in particular to sustain human life and the Greens are the only party that's putting that at the forefront of the agenda, talking about it and looking for the solutions, so we're the only party with a map and a compass of actually how to address the ecological crisis that we face. Most other political parties are even denying that we have a problem and that's why people have to vote Green. LISA Dave Clendon can I ask you, you reckon that this party relies too heavily on their MPs, MPs like Nandor, aren't they a vigorous asset though, I mean what's your platform for publicity and do people know who you are outside of this room? Dave: You're right I think absolutely that the MPs are a major thrust of the getting the message out there they're doing an enormous amount of work, one of my reasons for standing is that I believe with a relatively small caucus we need to add numbers not to put more load on people who are working incredibly hard already. I don't have a big public profile but that's something that can be worked on, I don't see it as a particular disadvantage at this point. I don't have any negative profile so there's no baggage that accompanies me that people need to wade through before they can hear what I'm saying, they can just take me from day one at face value, if they like what they see that's a good thing, if they don't then I guess the party will send me a message in another year's time. LISA Let's go to another question from the audience, Jeremy has a question for Russel. Q: Jeremy: Yeah Russel, at the last election we got twice the number of seats that United got but they negotiated better than we did, now they have more influence in the government than the Greens. What would you do ensure that we can get the best deal that we can from the winning party at the next election? A: Russel: Well the key thing is to get the maximum number of votes, that has to be the starting point, the more votes you get the more seats you have the more power you're gonna have. So that's gotta be the major focus, that's why we need to focus on those campaigns that touch people in their everyday lives, talk to people about when you're trying to get to work in the morning and you're trying to you know get on the bus and it's full well the Greens have got solutions around that. LISA Russel I'll just interrupt you there, you were the Campaign Manager at the last election, the Greens lost support you lost MPs so what are you gonna do to grow that vote? Russel: Well at the last election all the small parties got squashed by the fight between the two major parties. Of all the small parties the Greens lost the smallest proportion of the vote and that was because we had a focused campaign and we didn't make any mistakes and we stayed on message, we didn't attack anyone. LISA So you came off the best of the worst? Russel: Well the truth was the last election was kinda contest between these two giants and we got a bit squashed between that. The future for us has to be to grow the Green Party so that we don't fall into that position in the future. LISA To the phones and we've got Ian from Christchurch. Q: It's for the whole panel. Energy crises are impacting on all of us at this point in time. Since the Greens have had an influence over government electricity prices have gone absolutely through the roof. Now we run the risk of losing our steel mill our aluminium smelter and also our pulp and paper industry, and in my own personal case I've actually shut down part of our business because of the cost of electricity. Now wind power is four times to five times more expensive than hydro and it's about four times more expensive than a coal fired power station. What are your solutions if we do lose these major industries, it will impact heavily on the country's wealth as a whole. A: Russel: Firstly I'd dispute the figures around wind, wind actually is competitive that's why there's lots and lots of wind farms being put up across the country. Secondly the Greens haven't had that much influence over energy policy, not as much as we'd like actually I think that we could have a lot of influence over energy policy. Thirdly we need more distributed generation, we have been trying to get a solar hot water scheme going which is about distributed energy generation so that people don't need as much electricity for their hot water. All of those things together which is about energy efficiency, it's about putting in renewable sources will in the long term make sure that we have affordable electricity without trashing the planet. A: Dave: Yes New Zealanders, industry, domestically, residentially we're notoriously inefficient users of energy, we've had a cheap supply of electricity for a very long time and it's time we woke up to the fact that the major gains in terms of reducing that is simply conservation. We don't have to be cold or not have hot water, there's an abundant array of modern technologies that are available to us if we can gain significant improvements in our energy efficiency. A: Mike: Look our power prices are like power prices all over the world, they're going to go on climbing, there are shortages of power and the other panellists are right, we actually need to go into the conservation issue very seriously and you talk about industry actually ordinary householders are in a position to do a great deal with sympathetic policies that enable them to retrofit their houses with the insulation, putting in the solar water heaters, doing all those commonsense huge number of issues we could handle at a much lesser cost than building extra generation in fact. A: Nandor: Oh look I think it's mostly it's been said it's demand reduction first of all, it's about making sure that any new generation is from genuinely renewable supplies and one thing is you've got to get the incentives right so that for example in the domestic level for your householder electricity pricing should be structured so that there's a basic cheap amount which meets your basic needs and then wasteful use of electricity is more expensive, so that there's actually an incentive to conserve. LISA To the phone again, we have another question, this is from Jimmy. Q: Jimmy: I've got a question for Russel Norman. Is socialism more important than your environmentalism? A: Russel: Thanks Jimmy, for me social justice and environmental sustainability are innately linked, there will be no solution to the issue around climate change unless there are some social justice solutions around technology transfer to developing countries, those countries are currently planning to build lots and lots of giant coal fired power stations, we need to transfer technology so that they can have renewable sources of energy and that's a basic issue of social justice and development and that is integral to solving an issue like climate change. The two issues environmental sustainability social justice they go hand in hand. LISA Mike do you agree with that? Mike: Absolutely decent public transport, good housing, decent healthcare, great education are all social justice issues, a strong local economy in my opinion is the biggest one where you actually source your needs from close to home, you make sure you keep New Zealanders in work making the things that New Zealanders need. There are a whole bunch of things that we can do to make life better for ordinary people apart from just increasing their incomes. LISA Nandor though has your brand been watered down, the eco the Green brand do you think by concentration on social justice issues? Nandor: Look social justice is core principle of the Greens along with ecological wisdom, non violence and appropriate decision making, but I think what we haven't always done well is make it clear, when supporting social justice how it's integrated with those other principles, because we understand that all things are connected, that's the essence of ecological wisdom actually that everything is interrelated but we haven't always communicated that clearly enough, and I think what we have to make sure is that our social justice solutions have an ecological payoff as well, so like when Mike was talking about public transport that's about making affordable transportation available to people, that also has an ecological payoff in terms of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels climate change etc. LISA Audience show of hands then, is the environment still the party's number one platform compared to social issues, hands up if you think environment is the number one platform. Balance they say. Let's go back to the audience for a question from Suzy. Q: Suzy: My question's about transport, road transport of freight per ton is the most costly and the most polluting compared to train or water and I think this country's been screwed economically by the roading transport lobby and I'd like to know what the candidates would do if they were in a position of influence to reduce that corrupting influence of the road transport lobby. A: Dave: You're dead right, the Greens have advocated for a long time that long haul freight is best located on rail because it's simply good sound economics. The point you make about the roading lobby, I'd resist the language of corrupt roading lobby, they're a very articulate and very effective roading lobby, what we need to put us is an effective counter lobby. The success of the roading lobby and seeing more roads built and more road transport is because they've been determined, that's an outcome they've pursued. We need to be equally determined and equally articulate in putting up the more intelligent and ultimately more sustainable alternatives which are largely around rail in that instance at least. A: Nandor: But the problem is that when they privatised the rail lines that there was actually a disinvestment into the infrastructure and the government having bought back the rail lines hopefully we're gonna start to see some actual investment into the industry. I did a work experience with Carter Holt Harvey and they said they would much rather be taking their logs on rail than by trucks but the service that they were getting was appalling. A: Dave: All of the public investment in rail that was made over decades was pumped out of New Zealand to overseas owners in the course of about ten years and basically they walked away and left us with a very degraded residue of that, I mean the government has now taken that on board and brought back what is left and that's something, we need some major investment some major progress in that. A: Mike: Well let's go from the other end and look at demand management, when you're shipping milk products from all over the country to places that have perfectly good dairy farms in their own communities, when you are shipping food from the other side of the planet to a food producing nation, where you are shipping products to people who already have those products you've got to actually say do you need as much transport as you've got, and my answer is a resounding no and in fact it would be a great deal cheaper for New Zealanders if we were producing a great deal more of the stuff that we use in our own community and shipping it for much shorter distances. A: Russel: I mean I think that one of the key issues is that we've gotta translate majority public support because particularly in Auckland there is tremendous support for public transport and more public transport, we've gotta translate into political effectiveness and that's part of our role as the Green Party is to reach out and help mobilise that public support like we did over GE. LISA One more question for the floor – Paul has a question about tax. Q: Paul: A question about tax, not that I know of, I've got a question for Mike Ward though. Mike traditionally this country practically invented the welfare state and it still really values it by and large but last election – and you're right I have got a question about tax – tax cuts came out of nowhere to trump education and health as the dominating issue, what do you make of that, does that signal a problem for the Greens or an opportunity? A: Mike: Well you know a lot of people voted for it but a lot of people didn't and I think the lot of people that didn't are the ones that are more likely to vote for us, and I think the others are just misguided, I mean if you say it loud enough and often enough you know that tax cuts that tax is hurting that you know how to spend your money better than the government does and so forth people will begin to believe it. The truth is that a progressive tax system makes commonsense you know, having to pay for our own education isn't the smartest thing you can do, having decent healthcare that is there whether you can afford to pay for it or not I think most Kiwis actually believe in that and we have to stick to our guns. This is not to say that you know that we support high taxes, I think we could actually do everything a whole lot cheaper and we probably could actually have tax cuts if we were persuading people to keep themselves healthy rather than saying hey you need healthcare, get out and get some exercise, eat well, get rid of some of your work so you're not quite so stressed out. There are a whole bunch of things that we can do that cost less money but progressive taxes make good sense. A: Nandor: Well I think some people see taxation is about our reciprocal obligations to each other and I think there's something in that. Some people see it as an imposition from the government taking their hard earned cash and there's something in that. What the Greens bring that's unique to this debate I think is the idea of tax shifting that rather than taxing goods we tax bads, so what we're saying is the first five thousand dollars of everyone's income should be tax free, everyone gets a tax break but it disproportionately disadvantages the poor rather than most of the tax cuts that have been discussed which is about advantaging the rich, be we make it fiscally neutral by putting tax on resource use and pollution and that's so it's a way that we change the incentives in the economic system at the same time as putting more money in people's hands. A: Dave: It needs to be recalled that the Greens went into the last election campaign suggesting the first five thousand dollars of everybody's income should be tax free so this is not new talking tax cuts, that first five thousand would give the maximum benefit to the least well off and we think that's much more equitable than putting tax breaks to the highest income bracket. A: Russel: That's right and tax shift is all about making sure that scarce resources are used properly, I mean if economics is about the allocation of scarce resources for alternate ends then it's like no other party understands economic because they think that the environment is not a scarce resource, in fact it is a scarce resource and that's why the Greens have this sound economic policy because we say well you know let's look at how scarce resources get used so that we can all survive. LISA We've got Deanna on the line from Auckland, who is your question for? Q: Deanna: It's for Nandor Lisa. Nandor it's quite cute that you're typifying or depicting the lack of palatability that you have to the wider electorate on the grounds of the religious intolerance. My proposition to you is that there are a lot of people out there who have a lot of sympathy for some of the things that the Greens are actually trying to get across and my belief is that people – you don't have credibility mainly because of some of the ridiculous pronouncements you made on things like not riding helmets. LISA What's your question Deanna? Deanna: Is it religious intolerance or is it really a wider credibility issue for Nandor and is that going to impact on the Green's ability to get their message across? A: Nandor: Thanks for that question. First of all I've never made a pronouncement on riding without a helmet, the reality is I have an exemption personally because I can't wear one, because I do have dreadlocks, but I think that the issue is around how people understand what we're saying and how we're able to clearly communicate our message, and I think that there are obstacles in the way that we communicate at the moment and I think that we all have to collectively think very carefully about how do we create a clear focused message so that when people hear the Greens or they think about the Greens they understand we're about future proofing New Zealand, we're about making sure that we live sustainably by building a sustainable economy by becoming energy independent and by building strong and inclusive communities. LISA Let's go to a question from the audience here in the studio, we've got Neil what's your question? Q: Neil: My question is directed at Dave Clendon. With the local body elections being held next year and you've advocated Green involvement, do party politics play a part in local elections Dave? A: Dave: I believe they can and they have and they should in that order I think, there's some history of party involvement typically in Wellington and Christchurch, I think the Greens are possibly unique and we have a real opportunity here to take our message to the local government level as well and people won't see that as opportunistic, it won't be seen as trying to boost our parliamentary presence through the back door, because most of the key issues and the duties of local government are around water and waste and urban planning and transport and community wellbeing which are all core Green values. I think a Green ticket would also give some people something to identify with. The turnout at local government elections typically is in the low 40% on a good day, largely because people see a string of names that actually don't have any connectivity any meaning to them, to see a Green ticket a Green platform people will understand then what those candidates are on about and will be able to vote for them quite confidently, so I think both two things, I mean there's some self interest clearly, we want more Greens in positions to make good decisions in terms of local government and there's also an opportunity for more people to participate, so it's a win win situation. A: Mike: Yeah I think it's horses for courses, some communities have a history of political parties involved in their elections, great for them, for those that don't you play it by ear and I've had four terms as a city councillor and I've never stood on a ticket, there's no secret about my politics and there's certainly room for good political philosophy in politics and I think we need to wear our hearts on our sleeves and let people know what our beliefs are and what we hold out for the communities and stand on those beliefs, whether you stand on a Green ticket as I say it depends on the community you come from. LISA To the phone lines, let's take a question from Steve he's in Auckland. Q: Steve: Good morning Lisa, a question for all four gentlemen, it's the year of the Veteran currently, if you gentlemen were in a position over the next three years would you be willing to say goodbye to a free trade agreement with the United States, limited trade with the UK in return for settling with our nuclear test veterans and agent orange sufferers? A: Let's kick in with the fair trade, we need to take our commitments to the environments and social justice in the rest of the world seriously and where those commitments are not being met in other countries we don't trade with them, on the other hand where there is a definite need and people have products that we have a need for and would enhance our economy and our communities then we trade with those countries, but fair trade's what it's about, free trade, no it's a nonsense. A: Russel: If I understand Steve's question properly he's talking about veterans who've been exposed to nuclear radiation is that right Steve – agent orange right. Obviously the Greens have been involved in the select committee inquiry and we supported the vets in that capacity, we've had a lot to do with supporting the veterans in their struggle over a long time and we continue to do that. On trade obviously you put it as we'd be making a great sacrifice to get out of such a free trade agreement but of course from the Green Party point of view because we're into fair trade rather than free trade it's not such a great trade off for us, so yes it's easy for us to continue to support the vets in their struggle and we'll continue to do that because it's just – because we're not totally into free trade like other parties are. A: Nandor: Can I just add something and I won't repeat the issues around trade because I think it's been well covered by the previous two speakers, but the issues around veterans that the Greens have played a leading role in trying to address some of those concerns and there's other people like the sawmill workers who also suffer hugely from dioxin poisoning which are being ignored by the government and I think it's an absolute scandal that we don't take these issues seriously as a country. A: Yeah it's been said effectively, the notion of free trade deal with the United States, the United States government in a good year gives about 23 billion dollars direct subsidy to their agricultural sector and our farmers are meant to compete against that, free trade it is not so why should we want a apart of it. LISA We're working within an MMP system so let's find out who you think you could work with in a coalition arrangement. Nandor let's start with you you reckon the Greens are Labour's poodle, how do you get off the leash? Nandor: Well I think what we're actually likely to see is the difference between Labour and National become increasingly difficult to see and I think there's a fair distinction under the Brash leadership but when Brash is deposed as will happen sooner or later I think we'll see National start to change its flavour, and so the Greens I think have to posit ourselves really in opposition to the two of them because we are about putting sustainability at the forefront of the political debate and neither of those two parties is going to do that. The other thing I'd say is I think there's real potential for us to start working more cooperatively with other small parties and I've already started to do that in parliament facilitating cross party agreements and the like, because we have to understand that there are issues where a number of small parties do agree and if we can collectively work and strategically work together we can set the agenda and we can challenge the power of the duopoly. LISA Straight to the phone with a question from Dean from Taumarunui. Q: My question's pretty much for the whole panel, good morning everyone. It's a question about hemp, I was wondering how much money are you going to put towards it and how much research for the biofuels, clean water and pretty much the whole question of hemp and how much are we gonna hear about it in the next few years? A: Russel: One of the key issues for us is finding alternatives to fossil fuels, biodiesel and biofuels are key to that, we don't have a specific amount of money to put into it because we're not currently part of the government, however were we part of the government we would be investing in research around those areas because we think it's really important. LISA Question from the floor now from Bill. Q: Hi I'm Bill Leonard, Nandor haven't you actually quite generously said that the co-leader does not necessarily have to be an MP? LISA So does the co-leader have to be an MP or not? A: Nandor: Well look our constitution is really clear that you don't have to be an MP to be the co-leader and I think that's right, I think the party has to have the least restrictions about who can stand so the party can make the choice. What I have said though is I think it's difficult to exercise that role when you're not an MP because a lot of it's about leadership in caucus and leadership in the parliamentary arena and I think it's very difficult to do that if you're outside of parliament. LISA Let's go to the phones, a question from Martin from Auckland. Q: Martin: Kia ora Lisa, kia ora panel, it's good to see such a good public debate on television my congratulations to you all. My question to the panel, do you think it's true that Nandor carried baggage into this co-leadership election because to my thinking a Green voter isn't going to be so shallow as to judge Nandor by his dress and if someone is going to be that judgemental they're never going to vote Green anyway. A: Nandor: Oh I absolutely concur. Yeah I totally agree it's about diversity and tolerance that's what we prize as a party and I think that's what most New Zealanders prize actually. LISA Now Nandor's made his thoughts clear on an MP being the co-leader, gentlemen who are not MPs what do you think, have you got the policy platform and the recognition to do a job that would equal what Nandor could do? A: Mike: It's really important you know that the leadership in parliament and there is of course – we have a woman co-leader in parliament right now and it would be desirable to have a male co-leader in parliament if that was on, however there's leadership needed out in the party as a whole and somebody said before you know perhaps we're too dependent on our MPs, I think we need good campaigning out in the communities, campaigning that resonates with our communities that doesn't focus on the things that are going wrong but rather focuses on the kind of future that the Green's hold out for their community so I think we need leadership out in the community and I think that somebody outside parliament is possibly better placed to give that kind of leadership. LISA We have a caller on the line. Q: Will: My name's Will I'm just asking if a non MP became co-leader who would pay their salary and would the Greens get any more funding from ministerial services or parliamentary services? A: Russel: The answer's no we wouldn't get any more funding the Green Party would pay the salary. The advantage just to respond to having an MP outside parliament is that the Green Party is in some ways the party of the challengers, we are challenging the establishment in lots and lots of ways and so what we need to do is build grassroots campaigning and that's how we're going to establish the powers that be to make the kinds of changes that we need to make and that's the advantage of having a co-leader outside parliament is that they can build those kind of grassroots campaigns. LISA We'll just ask the audience on this. Audience do you think the leader has to be an MP, does the leader have to be an MP? - Well the race is open clearly. Paul we have Paul in the audience here, what's your question Paul and who's it for? Q: Paul: Yeah it's kind of a general question but I'd like to address it to David Clendon foremost because I kind of don't have a feel for you whereas I do on the others. It's around leadership, to me leadership is summed up by two words, forward together. I want to know when push comes to shove if it comes down to going forward but losing some followers or keeping the party together at the risk of making slow progress what's your natural tendency? LISA So a question about diplomacy. A: Dave: I'm not sure that those two are mutually exclusive, I think that if you're heading in a direction where the party doesn't want to go then clearly the leadership needs to readjust their sights perhaps. I guess my leadership style is to marry together people with skills and interests in a particular area and help them build their capacity and give them the motivation and the confidence to go after that because then they'll be personally deeply interested in getting to that solution. There is a fine line between getting too far ahead of the party and sort of waiting for the party to tell the leadership what they ought to be doing and for me that's about dialogue, it's about putting ideas up, be willing to have a few of your ideas battered down but getting the consensus, but getting the consensus, getting the shared vision, the common purpose and go hard for that, it's about energy and commitment and knowing. I've got a long experience in the party I know where we've come from, I think I'm getting a really clear picture of where we are now and this process has helped to focus that, and all of that leads me to think that I know where we need to be from here on in to build on what we've done so far. Russel: It's kind of ironical that that slogan if I recall was the slogan from Labour's election campaign wasn't it, forward together, which is kind of like if you're a Labour back bench MP then it probably doesn't feel like that very often but in the Green Party we believe in sticking together so leadership's about pushing the boundaries and creating some direction but also making sure that you build a consensus around it. LISA Let's go to the phone lines, we have a question from a caller about cannabis what's your question please? Q: Wayne: Well from what I understand we've been through the health select committees and justice select committees you know what's the stance with all the members there? Dave: I think were the only party with an intelligent drugs policy it's about harmonisation, it's about taking away the criminal aspect of what is acknowledged as being for some people a social and a health problem, we're the only people confronting that reality. If I thought prohibition was working then I'd probably support it, but it patently is not and it will not. We need alternatives and we can offer that. A: Mike: The policy's very clear but I wish you know you didn't attach so much importance to it, there are a great many other policies that are vastly more important to the wellbeing of our communities on the planet right now, our policy is clear, I believe in it but it's not the most important by a long long way. LISA Alright let's find out who you gentlemen would work with post election. Do you rule National out? Russel: Two words describe my approach to working with other parties, independent and principled. If National embraced recognising climate change and wanted to do something about it then obviously we would talk to them, I mean the problem for us is that on the most important issue facing humanity which is climate change you've got Labour who recognise it but actually have a policy of building one and a half billion dollars worth of roads so they're like in favour of accelerating climate change and then you've got National who don't even recognise that it's happening. Mike: Russel you said if they support it we'll go with them, we have to work with them because there'll be elements of their policy that will be sympathetic but they cannot ignore it, whether they like it or not if they are government we will work with them in any way we can to make sure they embrace climate change and do something about it. LISA So if there are core issues that you can work on you will work with whoever's in government? Mike: Absolutely have to that's what you're there for. Nandor: It's gotta be on the policy, forget about what the name of the party is it's about can we find a policy agreement if we can then let's sit down and talk. LISA Which obviously brings us to that question that you're posing Nandor is the Greens a left party, where are they on the spectrum? Nandor: Well my view is that that polarity just does not describe us. We have a strong left strand in the party we have a conservative strand in the party, we have a liberal and a libertarian, we are made up of all these different strands and what we symbolise is a synergy and a synthesis of all those traditions and putting it in a new framework which is putting the ecology at the centre of that debate and so you know that paradigm just doesn't describe us, we are Green wing. Dave: The old left right continuum that is outdated and it doesn't – it's not flexible enough to embrace the Greens, it was very much about the distribution of wealth. Uniquely the Greens understand that wealth is generated from the natural world where you work with what is there and we had to put the wellbeing of the ecosystems into that equation. Neither left nor right has ever done that and so we just – we need to redefine politics and that's what we're doing, we're asserting the Green wing notion, never mind left or right wing, we're Green wing and we're out there on our own. Russel: And we'll protect public health and public education but we also recognise the finite nature of the planet that we live on, in face we're the only party that recognises that the planet is finite. LISA Alright well let's put the morning to the test then, in terms of who you might like to vote for can you raise your hands as we go round the candidates? Our elections don't work that way. LISA Any standout candidates this morning, anyone, would you might vote for Mike? Oh we'll the audience they're not gonna give it away are they. Well very quickly gentlemen you've got a couple of seconds each let's give us your closing statement in a few words. Mike: We need to put the sizzle on our policies I mean I think they're exciting we need to show it, just upfront about the two jobs thing actually there's the artist job and the athlete job and none of them are going. LISA Thank you very much for joining us this morning panel and very much to the audience for being here. Copyright to Front Page Ltd but may be used PROVIDED attribution is made to TVOne and Agenda	eng	ae0bac3f-9c75-4c06-b34e-71ce4c4defd8	http://agendatv.co.nz/Site/agenda/transcripts/2006/2006-05-27.aspx
July 03, 2008 Chris Comer comes back AUSTIN – A former state science curriculum director on Wednesday sued the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture critical of the movement to promote intelligent design in science classes. Christina Comer, who lost her job at the TEA last fall, said in a suit filed in federal court in Austin that she was terminated for contravening an "unconstitutional" policy at the agency. The policy required employees to be neutral on the subject of creationism – the biblical interpretation of the origin of humans, she said. The policy was in force, according to the suit, even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that teaching creationism as science in public schools is illegal. "The agency's 'neutrality' policy has the purpose or effect of endorsing religion, and thus violates the Establishment Clause" of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit said. Imagine -- "The agency's 'neutrality' policy has the purpose or effect of endorsing religion." Sheeeesh. The Darwinists are getting more and more aggressive. More information is on the website of the National Center for Science Education. A copy of the complaint filed at the court is here. This blog has several articles about Chris Comer (she has her own post label in the sidebar). . 55 Comments: Anonymous said... Larry wrote, "Imagine -- "The agency's 'neutrality' policy has the purpose or effect of endorsing religion." Sheeeesh. The Darwinists are getting more and more aggressive." Except you argued as such in an earlier post. Not sure what your point is here; earlier posts have your arguing for her reinstatement, against her dismissal in the first place, and against the reasons for her dismissal. Then again, we have never expected logic from you. Imagine -- "The agency's 'neutrality' policy has the purpose or effect of endorsing religion." Sheeeesh. The Darwinists are getting more and more aggressive. I am wary of a metaphorical approach, since you are stupid, but let us consider an alternative case. Let us say the agency declared it was similarly "neutral" on other topics. For example, let us say they were neutral on hermetical alchemy as influenced by the kabbala. This approach to alchemy remains alive, and has adherents who think it is just as valid as chemistry. They don't have anywhere near as effective as a PR system and little to do with modern Christianity, however, so they lack creationism's clout. But let us hypothetically say that Augustine of Hippo spent a lot of time on it and now there is a manufactured controversy over whether or not the modern atomic theory of chemistry was accurate or whether alchemy was accurate. Wouldn't you condemn the agency for being "neutral" in such a situation, rather than following scientific procedure and stating that alchemy was unfalsifiable and accordingly unscientific? Wouldn't you expect that of an educational agency that is supposed to teach science, rather than spending time on such clear nonsense and caving to prominent religious figures? If you would not condemn them, then I would be surprised. If you would, then please tell me how creationism - associated with religion and determined not to be science - differs from my hypothetical? Well put, Phae, religious bigots are always very keen to have their version of nonsense made 'official' while rejecting views that are just as nonsensical but don't happen to be so popular. Science is about reasoned argument supported by fact, and religious ideas like creationism have no place in it. And what's this obsessive use of the word 'Darwinists', Larry? The term you're looking for is scientists. You know, Larry, the people who've done more to benefit humankind in 200 years than religion did in the previous 2,000.You've asked me about my motivations before, and I told you the same thing then: you amuse me. Capering about, ramming randomly into the computer to generate semi-coherent sentences, desperately refusing to read things... you're like my personal retarded hamster.I said that RIGHT NOW it does, then proceeded to lay out a hypothetical. Let us say it was a big part of Christian history and made it into modern Christianity. If Answers in Ecclesiastes or whatever agency took up the cause and trumpeted that the atom was "just a theory" (as indeed it is) and that alchemy should be taught, would you be okay with that? Let us say that in Kansas they try to teach alchemy alongside of science as two "valid theories," would that be fine with you? And I really do have to disagree about the courts. The issue was not the quality of the science, after all, it was the fact that it wasn't science, and this particular brand of pseudoscience was just creationism in drag. The courts have every right to rule on the application of the establishment clause when it comes to government school boards, which are not permitted to teach creationism as science by the Constitution. Many creationists want only creationism or criticisms of Darwinism to be taught in the public schools, but many Darwinists want only Darwinism to be taught in the public schools. Inasmuch as I am aware, it is the only solid scientific theory to explain the origin of species. It would be pretty weird if a scientist wanted nonsense taught, rather than science.The use of "Darwinist" is a pretty transparent attempt to imply that belief in evolution by the means of natural selection is a cult of personality, or something of a similar nature. I would suggest that the identification with Darwin is more of a result from the unending attacks on science, with him as a figurehead, by the religious right. If the religious right decided that vaccines were the worst thing, you'd be calling us "Salkians" and we'd all be wearing shirts with his face on it instead. Anyone who isn't as uninformed as Larry, of course, knows that there really is no such thing as a "Darwinian" except colloquially. Darwin didn't know about DNA or an enormous host of other things that make up modern evolutionary theory. It's just a smear tactic. Larry and his ilk have little else. You are wasting your time, Phae. There is no evidence that Larry has ever understood a metaphor, while making absurd metaphors himself (for example the "Best Butter" one where he is unable to realize that he is the March Hare). Even if the TEA is not required to remain neutral on creationism, the TEA is required to remain neutral on questions concerning ID's scientific merits and ID's relationship to creationism. TheIMO Comer's ouster was unfortunate because it has made her into a Darwinist martyr. Conspiracy theory? Have you ever heard of "cdesign proponentsists?" That's the evolutionary link between "creationists" and "design proponents;" when the famous Of Pandas and People textbook was being revised after it was determined that creationism could not be taught, they just cut and pasted "design proponent" in most of the areas that had said "creationist." But they screwed up on one draft, and so they got that mangled term above - introduced as evidence in Kitzmiller. And I'm sure you're familiar with the Wedge Document... do I even need to go into that one? There is no substantive difference between creationism and intelligent design, except the former at least has the courage of its convictions. After all, what alternate "intelligent designer" could there be than God? It's creationism in a really poor disguise, and not science, to boot. Surely you are aware that during the Kiztmiller trial, Behe had to reluctantly admit that astrology would also be considered science under the definition he proposed in which to include ID. It's a crude ploy, and an obvious one. A lecture on that topic, exposing the fact that creationism and intelligent design are the same thing, would be absolutely appropriate for a science educator to endorse. Even if the TEA is not required to remain neutral on creationism, the TEA is required to remain neutral on questions concerning ID's scientific merits and ID's relationship to creationism. Why the hell would an educational agency be required to remain neutral on questions of scientific merit? That is their purpose... if a teacher proposed teaching spontaneous generation, don't you think the TEA is supposed to speak up? Or should they remain neutral on that, too? And since ID has no scientific merits, because it's not science, they would be justified (and should already have) condemned it. It is unfalsifiable, and widely-derided by the mainstream scientific community for not having coherent theories or any evidence. Also, this may be news to you, but if something is religion then schools aren't supposed to teach it as science, so whether or not ID is creationism is kind of important to a school agency. TheVirtually no precedential value? It IS precedent. And that's why there isn't much on the topic of equating ID with creationism... it's a nonissue. Everyone knows it, and now it's precedent in law. Should it be brought up again during the trial, then it may become a question again, but in a filing they are citing reasonability... why would they get into it now? I guess we'll add "law" to the ever-growing list of things you know nothing about. IMO Comer's ouster was unfortunate because it has made her into a Darwinist martyr. At least she actually LOST her job. One of the few ID "martyrs," Sternberg, didn't lose anything yet still tried to prostrate himself like he was bleeding from his palms during Expelled. Comer standing up for her beliefs has infinitely more merit. I see you're again trying to avoid my other questions. You have failed to answer about how you would feel if alchemy were proposed as a valid alternative to chemistry and the atomic theory, if it hypothetically were a traditionally Christian concept rather than a fringe kabbalic one. Would you support it or no, and why? >>>>>>Anyone who isn't as uninformed as Larry, of course, knows that there really is no such thing as a "Darwinian" except colloquially.<<<<<< WellCowardLarry: Well, I have no intention of amusing you, dunghill. That makes it very simple -- I don't need to respond to any more of your drivel. As the saying goes, don't feed the trolls. That's cool. Of course, my points are mercilessly reasonable, so this is a very handy excuse for you to avoid having to think. I'm not sure it's going to fool anyone, since after trying to avoid them and pretend they weren't asked, now it's going to be very obvious that you have no answers. But you can always try. Zmidponk: WellIt's a historical straw man, you're correct. It's all Larry has to go on, since with us 21st century people he has to run away. phae said, "let us say they were neutral on hermetical alchemy as influenced by the kabbala." Intelligent design, doesn't identify who or what the designer is. So the "neutrality" would never go that far because they say it goes beyond the limitations of science. The main two principles in intelligent design are; "irreducible complexity" and CSI: Containing Complex and Specified Information. These two principles can be tested in a lab answer to Larry's question who never had to deal with an injustice at work, there is a waiting period. For example, a friend of mine was demoted because of his race, and gender. He cannot file a complaint with the EEOC for a number of months. Currently, he is still doing the work that they claimed he couldn't do while he was promoted. They are basically paying him less doing the same work. He will be filing a complaint soon. Michael: Intelligent design, doesn't identify who or what the designer is. So the "neutrality" would never go that far because they say it goes beyond the limitations of science. It's true that intelligent design doesn't "identify the designer" as God, but the definition they provide doesn't fit anything else. It is a really transparent relabeling of creationism, because that's what it is, just with a different term. What else could the designer be? Aliens? If that were the case, they would have to be at least as complex as us, so they would have needed to have had a designer as well. The only possible match for the role is what any reasonable person would call a God. The main two principles in intelligent design are; "irreducible complexity" and CSI: Containing Complex and Specified Information. These two principles can be tested in a lab. This is a pretty clear statement, but could you please explain how IC (which is how I will abbreviate irreducible complexity) could be tested in a lab, as well as the latter? You have stated as such, but I am hard-pressed to imagine howcorrect, sorry. WIMPS and other particle physics theories of a similarly esoteric nature generally are testable, but we sometimes do not yet have the ability to run the test. As new technology becomes available, more tests can be run. For example, just recently relativity - hard to prove experimentally for the most part - correctly predicted variation in signal between two supermassive pulsars. We are working on extremely powerful neutrino microscopes, and they should be able to help test the notion of WIMPS and MACHOS. I believe you are correct about quantum string theory, however. To date, no test has been designed. That's why many scientists view it dubiously and do not consider it a sound theory. I can understand how people might that ID isn't treated with as much leniency as something like string theory. And that is the truth; ID shouldn't even be given the benefit of the doubt. That's because it is so obviously religion in a paper hat. It was conceived in bad faith by people who broke one of the fundamental laws of science: you can't start from the results you want and make up an untestable theory. CowardLarry: Forrest's lecture was extremely one-sided. It is not as if Comer sent out an announcement of a public debate on the topic. I would expect a similarly one-sided lecture if she was talking about alchemy. There aren't always two right answers. Ousting Comer was a very bad idea because she is a jerk and her ouster makes her look like a martyr. At least she actually lost her job makes her at least more of a martyr than someone like Sternberg, and I doubt she'll try to climb up on the cross in a movie like he did. The fact that she wasn't fired but quit without protest will likely hurt her suit -- she deceived the TEA about her intentions, like in entrapment or bait-and-switch. Then you will have nothing to worry about, although I tend to disagree. Also, youNever have I seen such utter hypocrisy and double standards. It's OK for Zachary Blount to ignore simple, basic questions about the Cit+ E. coli experiment, butNever have I seen such utter hypocrisy and double standards. It's OK for Zachary Blount to ignore simple, basic questions about the Cit+ E. coli experiment, He didn't. He answered you, you just were too dumb to understand. That's why I showed it to you, step by step. You moron. butIt's entirely okay, but you're just pretty lousy with your made-up reasons. It's pretty obvious that you answer questions and comments if you have an answer, and you hide when you don't behind this facade of trolling. Also, you have still failed to answer about how you would feel if alchemy were proposed as a valid alternative to chemistry and the atomic theory, if it hypothetically were a traditionally Christian concept rather than a fringe kabbalic one. Would you support it or no, and why? which is how I will abbreviate irreducible complexity) could be tested in a lab, as well as the latter? You have stated as such, but I am hard-pressed to imagine how. GenerallyThe other principle is "specified complexity." Defined as something having information like a code in DNA that is useful, organized with a purposeAnonymous: Did he really? How utterly tasteless and stupid! Have they no shame? I'd think serious Christians would be the first to protest -- loudly! I haven't seen the movie and don't intend to, so I don't actually know. It was pretty shameless of Sternberg. He and Stein walked around the Smithsonian, and Sternberg pointed at an office and said dolorously, "That's where my office was." And Stein said, "Before?" "Yes." Of course, he kind of shied away from mentioning that they gave him a promotion and he was transferred from that office to a bigger one at his own request. Michael: GenerallyThat would not seem a valid test. Intrinsic to the "theory," inasmuch as I understand, is the notion that the component parts have no separate utility prior to their current use. The main argument Behe proposed for this is the flagellum, which he claimed would not work without any of its components, and that those components couldn't have had any other prior use. And indeed, if you remove the shaft, for example, the flagellum doesn't work. That would conclude, under your logic, that the flagellum is irreducibly complex. However, another biologist has pointed out that the flagellum, absent one of its motor parts, is functionally almost identical to another cell's mechanism that serves as an injector. The rigid shaft, fastener, and so on are all present, but there are a few motor components missing (please excuse all the analogy language, but it's the best I can do). Accordingly, it would be entirely viable absent a part or two. The other item often cited is the eye. I hope I don't need to go into this one, as it has been repeatedly and completely debunked through numerous examples of eyelike stages throughout the animal kingdom. I take it, however, you see the essential flaw in your reasoning. Taking away parts from something might make sure it doesn't work, but it also might have little bearing on whether or not it is irreducibly complex. The other principle is "specified complexity." Defined as something having information like a code in DNA that is useful, organized with a purpose. You state it as a tautology. Clearly if DNA is "organized with a purpose," then it had to have been done so by a being with a purpose. It's true because it's true, in other words. However, there has been not even a hint of decent proof for this, and you don't state any sort of test. I submit to you that you still have not shown ID to be testable, but rather implied further the oppositeIt is incorrect to say "by chance." In fact, it is "chance," or random mutation, carried out over the course of steps that are themselves inherently neutral or beneficial, whose alleles are then selected for by the process of natural selection. This sort of stuff is kind of confusing, admittedly, but I hope you see my point: ID is not testable, and any proof that is given forth is generally either an attack on the current incompleteness of the theory of evolution (as with all theories). It's not science, it's creationism with wishful thinking slapped on. Larry:>>>>>>How long are you going to try to hide from that question, coward? <<<<<<< If my alleged failure to answer your question is improper, then why was Zachary Blount's failure to answer my questions about the Cit+ E. coli evolution study not improper? Can you answer that? Phae: I am reluctant to respond to you because I don't like you in general and However, I will answer your question just to make some points. know that elements can be changed only by nuclear fission and fusion. The basic issue in the Comer case is the issue of the Texas Education Agency's neutrality. What can be unconstitutional about neutrality towards religion? Suppose One reason why the TEA needs to be neutral is that the TEA implements the state standards. I think that another reason is that the TEA conducts public hearings on the state standards. As I said, ousting Comer was a mistake because it has turned her into a Darwinist martyr. >>>>>>Phae: I am reluctant to respond to you because I don't like you in general and, in particular, because you refuse to acknowledge that Zachary Blount failed to properly answer my questions about the Cit+ E. coli experiment<<<<<< Well, the main reason he did not concede that is because it's not true. >>>>>>For starters, how could I answer yes or no when alchemy is neither an alternative to chemistry nor a criticism of chemistry?<<<<<< Yes, it was. It was around before chemistry was, and was, in many ways, the forerunner to chemistry, but differed from it in a few fundamental ways, the most notable being that alchemists viewed the various aspects of substances, which are now the purview of chemists of various types, as metaphors for spiritual entities and transformations, and some considered what we now call chemical reactions the result of the work of such spiritual entities. There was some overlap, in the 18th century, between the beginning of chemistry proper and the dying out of alchemy, so, for a time, the two competed directly. >>>>>>Alchemy does not claim that chemistry does not adequately explain certain things.<<<<<< Yes, it did, actually. >>>>>>The best-known goal of alchemy was to transform common metals into gold and silver, but we now know that elements can be changed only by nuclear fission and fusion.<<<<<< Let's repeat this and replace a few things, shall we? 'The best-known claim of creationism was that God directly created all life on Earth, but we now know that it evolved.' Do you not see the parallel? >>>>>>The basic issue in the Comer case is the issue of the Texas Education Agency's neutrality. What can be unconstitutional about neutrality towards religion?<<<<<< When the 'neutrality' involves requiring teachers not to dismiss the 'science' of creationism as an utterly unproven conjecture based on a 4000+ year old story, of dubious provenence, between the author or authors and a being who may not even exist, apparantly because creationists want it to be 'science', yet hide behind it being 'religion' when it comes to scrutinising the actual evidence of it. >>>>>><<<<<< What if, during this moment of silence, the teacher donned a minister's robes and stole, placed a cross upon the desk, and solemnly lifted his/her hand in a gesture of blessing over the class? That would be, effectively, prayer, whilst being technically a 'moment of silence', in much the same way that ID is, effectively, creationism, whilst technically being 'Intelligent Design'. The 'Designer' that ID proposes is defined in such a way that it is, basically, God by another name (or, more accurately, God by no name), so getting ID into schools is getting creationism into schools, which is getting religion into schools, which is a breach of the Constitution. the main reason he did not concede that is because it's not true. <<<<<<< It is true, dunghill, and I said why it is true. >>>>>> There was some overlap, in the 18th century, between the beginning of chemistry proper and the dying out of alchemy, so, for a time, the two competed directly. <<<<<<< Do the two compete today? And if not, why should alchemy be considered to be an alternative to chemistry? Anyway, what anyone thinks of the answers to those questions does not matter here -- what matters here is the neutrality of the Texas Education Agency towards an issue that is the subject of a future public hearing. >>>>>>Alchemy does not claim that chemistry does not adequately explain certain things. Yes, it did, actually. <<<<<< You say "it did," but does it claim that today, as I already asked? Anyway, as I said, that issue is irrelevant here. >>>>>> When the 'neutrality' involves requiring teachers not to dismiss the 'science' of creationism <<<<<< The neutrality here does not concern anything that the teachers are required to do -- the neutrality here is towards an issue of an upcoming public hearing. >>>>>> What if, during this moment of silence, the teacher donned a minister's robes and stole, placed a cross upon the desk, and solemnly lifted his/her hand in a gesture of blessing over the class? <<<<<< That is a ridiculous straw man argument. It is like saying that some teacher might stomp on a bible while teaching evolution and therefore evolution should not be taught in the public schools. Anyway, your question has nothing to do with the neutrality of the TEA towards an issue of an upcoming public hearing. No, you just provided further evidence that spoonfeeding you the information, simplified practically to gradeschool level is not enough to get you to understand it. >>>>>>various ravings about the alchemy analogy not being relevant<<<<<< Well, the reason that chemistry and alchemy don't compete today is that alchemy severely lacked evidence, and chemistry had one hell of a lot. Still don't see the parallel? the fact you entirely omitted that question in your answer, and suddenly decided it wasn't relevant suggest you possibly did, and it scared you that you might, in fact, be proven wrong. Again. >>>>>>The neutrality here does not concern anything that the teachers are required to do -- the neutrality here is towards an issue of an upcoming public hearing.<<<<<< From the article you have linked to in your blog post - 'A former state science curriculum director on Wednesday sued the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture critical of the movement to promote intelligent design in science classes.' So it is about what teachers are required to do. She forwarded the e-mail, which the TEA said was 'endorsing the views of the speaker', and the views of the speaker were that ID should not be taught in science classes. >>>>>>That is a ridiculous straw man argument.<<<<<< Nope, that is a pretty accurate analogy of what's going on with ID/creationism. >>>>> No, you just provided further evidence that spoonfeeding you the information <<<<<< Not answering and bibliography bluffing are not spoonfeeding, dunghill. >>>>> Still don't see the parallel? <<<<<< The only parallel is that both are controversies -- but one is in the past and one is in the present, and that is a big difference. >>>>> suddenly decided it wasn't relevant <<<<<< I didn't "suddenly" decide that it wasn't relevant -- that has been my position from the beginning. >>>>> So it is about what teachers are required to do. <<<<< No, it is not about what teachers are required to do -- it is about what teachers might be required to do. The purpose of the upcoming public hearings is to help determine what teachers will be required to do. Intelligent design, the weaknesses of evolution, "teach the controversy," etc. are entitled to a fair hearing. Chris Comer is now showing her true colors, that she thinks those things do not deserve a fair hearing. She is showing that she is not fit to be science director of the TEA. However, as I said, IMO her ouster was unfortunate because it has turned her into a Darwinist martyr. >>>>> Nope, that is a pretty accurate analogy of what's going on with ID/creationism. <<<<<< OK, so a good analogy is that teaching evolution should be prohibited because some crazy teacher might stomp on a bible while saying, "evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology --the bible is full of crap." Hey, if you had humiliated me as publicly and repeatedly as I have done to you, I wouldn't like you either, sweetcheeks. So I entirely understand. and He pointed you to the relatively easy-to-find information in the paper. In a post the other day, I walked you through it. I took you to the recent paper to which he directed your generalized methodology question, then I took you by the hand and led you to the cited information. Or did you still not read the paper? know that elements can be changed only by nuclear fission and fusion. The staggering level of ignorance in this response boggles the mind. It's like your a child. Actually, maybe Larry's grandkids got on the computer. KIDS! LISTEN TO ME! TRY TO FIND A BOOK! IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO START SAVING YOURSELVES! Classical alchemy held that everything was made up of a composition of classical elements. Over the years, the cited elements changed, but essentially the theory denies the atomic theory because it holds you can change one element into another through physical changes like crushing or boiling, or through repeatedly combining and distilling it. It is entirely incompatible with chemistry, and if you think differently, I invite you to take some antimony, boil it with the herb moly, and see if you can make it turn into another element. No, wait, I have a better idea. Find a chemist and propose that alchemy and chemistry aren't contradictory theories. Bring a camera. But even if you disagree, ASSUME that they ARE in opposition (i.e. the truth) and answer the question. The basic issue in the Comer case is the issue of the Texas Education Agency's neutrality. What can be unconstitutional about neutrality towards religion? They weren't. They were neutral towards teaching it as science. And that they are not supposed to be neutral about: they are supposed to be opposed to it. You moron. Your proposed example is absurdly far away from the actual case. Let us consider instead a better example, fitting yours more to the case. Let us say that the schools had an official policy of having a moment of silence during science class. And let us say that the TEA was officially neutral on that policy, neither opposing nor supporting it. Much closer, you see? Now, if the employee sent out an email about a lecture in which a speaker was going to talk about how that moment of silence was inappropriate because it endorsed religion, then would they be justified? Yes. One reason why the TEA needs to be neutral is that the TEA implements the state standards. I think that another reason is that the TEA conducts public hearings on the state standards. The Mormons say that Jesus came to America and taught a tribe of white people here about stuff, then their civilization was lost. Does the TEA have to remain neutral on this theory, and insist that the history class teach that as an alternative to the accepted timeline of human migrations to North America? After all, they are supposed to be neutral as a state agency. ;) So now two questions for Larry: (1) You still haven't replied on the alchemy thing. Let us assume that your batshit insane nonsense is true, and that alchemy and chemistry are in harmony. If they were not, but were contradictory, would you support the alternative teaching of alchemy? (2) Is there anything that would convince you evolution might be true? You still have avoided this one, over and over. It's almost like you believe ID on faith... Phae barfed, >>>>> if you had humiliated me as publicly and repeatedly as I have done to you, I wouldn't like you either <<<<< "Humiliated me"! LOL Only in your dreams, dunghill. >>>>> He pointed you to the relatively easy-to-find information in the paper. <<<<<>>>>>> but essentially the theory denies the atomic theory <<<<<<< Alchemy does not deny atomic theory, because there was no atomic theory when alchemy was introduced. Anyway, as I said, the question is moot because the issue here is the neutrality of the Texas Education Agency about an issue of upcoming public hearings. >>>>>> Let us say that the schools had an official policy of having a moment of silence during science class. And let us say that the TEA was officially neutral on that policy, neither opposing nor supporting it. Much closer, you see? <<<<< Closer to what? What does a moment of silence have to do with science classes? >>>>>(1) You still haven't replied on the alchemy thing. Let us assume that your batshit insane nonsense is true, and that alchemy and chemistry are in harmony. <<<<< You say that I didn't reply to the alchemy thing and you are already talking about my reply, bozo. And I never said that alchemy and chemistry are in harmony. >>>>> (2) Is there anything that would convince you evolution might be true? <<<<<< Is there anything that would convince you that evolution might be false? Or that intelligent design -- or other criticisms of evolution -- might be true? >>>>>><<<<<< So, I guess that your much-touted 'no censorship' policy is ended because you don't like the truth when it is so obvious it fundamentally disagrees with what you claim is the truth.I already took you by the hand to show you how he responded to that. He answered you by directing you to the information. Here, I will repeat myself: "p7905 of the newest paper notes methodology, and directs those interested in the details of the overall experiment to the first paper, as I have said to you. Note the reference to the footnote about it, after the first sentence in ''Materials and Methods.'' Following the reference to the '91 paper now on JSTOR, which should have been incredibly easy for you since I have told you where it was previously and linked you there (not that you were willing to read it) - even had it not been in the quite obvious publication list to which I also linked you - we come to the '91 paper, which immediately summarizes the whole of the experiment's intent. You see the methodology and the purpose for the glucose cycling, and then on page 1316 is a very clear summary of the intent of the experiment, expressed "metaphorically" rather than technically for the convenience of idiots (hint: you). Notice that citrate is not mentioned." I Since you hold this statement to be of so little value, it would seem reasonable to just disband the whole thing. Alchemy does not deny atomic theory, because there was no atomic theory when alchemy was introduced. You do realize that the theory of the atom comes from ancient Greece, courtesy of such philosopher-scientists as Democritus, right? And you do realize that makes you so tremendously wrong that I want to frame it as an example of inaccuracy? Anyway, as I said, the question is moot because the issue here is the neutrality of the Texas Education Agency about an issue of upcoming public hearings. I It's a really simple question that you have been straining immensely to try to hide from. Closer to what? What does a moment of silence have to do with science classes? Closer to an analogous situation. You were creating an analogy for the current situation, remember? Do I really have to explain your own examples to you? You say that I didn't reply to the alchemy thing and you are already talking about my reply, bozo. And I never said that alchemy and chemistry are in harmony. Great! So then: if alchemy was espoused by Christian theology, would you want the TEA to be neutral towards the teaching of alchemy in schools as science, or not? And I gave an example about how if there was a massively improbable code sequence in the human genome that was a signature or something recognizable, it would begin to be evidence for intelligent design. So now, for about the eighth time, I am asking you the question that you have ducked over and over: is there anything that would convince you that the theory of evolution by natural selection was true, and what would that be? It's almost like you believe Darwinism on faith. Just a few days ago, we were talking about the Lenski experiment that provided evidence for evolution. There is an absurd amount of other evidence, such as transitional fossils, strata-consistent chains of fossils, antibacterial-resistant microbes, and so on. It is the farthest thing from faith imaginable. Yet you can't state a single reason to believe in ID. Not one. Not a single one, my dancing puppet. Unless you can show exactly where Zachary Blount responded to my question about glucose cycling, I am the one who decides whether or not he responded. And he did not even use bibliography bluffing. >>>>> I <<<<< I could call it the Association of Non-Arbitrarily-Censoring Bloggers, but that title would be too long. I am entitled to have reasonable rules for non-arbitrary censorship.>>>>>> You do realize that the theory of the atom comes from ancient Greece, courtesy of such philosopher-scientists as Democritus, right? <<<<<< Wrong. Today, the term "atomic theory" normally refers to a concept of the atom as consisting of a nucleus of protons and neutrons surrounded by orbital shells of electrons. The ancient Greeks had no such concept. >>>>> I <<<<<<Here is a counterquestion: would Chris Comer have forwarded an announcement of a lecture claiming that there was a conspiracy to introduce the teaching of alchemy as science in the public schools? That reminds of the following joke about a captain and a midshipman: Captain: What would you do if you saw a stampeding herd of buffalo bearing down on your ship? Midshipman: I would stop them with a landslide, sir. Captain: And where might you get this landslide? Midshipman: The same place where you got your stampeding herd of buffalo, sir. >>>>>> <<<<<< So by your standards, the Lenski experiment came very close to being evidence against evolution -- the citrate-eating trait appeared in only one line of bacteria out of twelve in 20 years. Unless you can show exactly where Zachary Blount responded to my question about glucose cycling, I am the one who decides whether or not he responded. And he did not even use bibliography bluffing. Er... no, sorry. You don't get to unilaterally decide things like that. I mean, you can believe it, but it's pretty obvious you didn't even bother to look as he indicated and I asked, since you never bothered to read the papers. Have you done so yet? I could call it the Association of Non-Arbitrarily-Censoring Bloggers, but that title would be too long. I am entitled to have reasonable rules for non-arbitrary censorship. Sure. And you list some of the reasons you will censor people above in your statement regarding the blog. I am just assuming that since you are also going to censor any posts you think aren't true, that you should probably disband it altogether. YouI have no familiarity with the reasons you were banned from those blogs. If it was unjust, then I condemn it. I'm not going to go back and read over all your comments there previously, and since I don't read those myself I would have to condemn it based on your word alone. And clearly, that's a bit ludicrous. I would note, however, that they at least didn't create a little association with a forthright credo against a practice that they now say they will engage in. Wrong. Today, the term "atomic theory" normally refers to a concept of the atom as consisting of a nucleus of protons and neutrons surrounded by orbital shells of electrons. The ancient Greeks had no such concept. That is the modern atomic theory, certainly. But the theory of the composition of matter, as made up of atoms, dates back thousands of years. And it hasn't been compatible with chemistry since the inception of that science, since alchemy is non-reproducible, an essential feature of all modern sciences. If you disagree, then I invite you to try to distill some lead down to its quintessential natures and produce gossamer. I can show you a recipe in middle greek to follow.By your logic, absolutely any hypothetical is a straw-man. You seem to not understand what a straw-man actually is. See, if I set forth a fallaciously weak example of ID beliefs and then attacked it, THAT would be a straw-man. The notion behind the metaphorical term is that one is creating a weak dummy version of opposing beliefs to easily defeat. What I proposed was a "hypothetical." That is an example drawn not from reality, but from a comparable situation, designed to illustrate a point about the common principles involved. I know this stuff is tough for you, but you'll get it. Here is a counterquestion: would Chris Comer have forwarded an announcement of a lecture claiming that there was a conspiracy to introduce the teaching of alchemy as science in the public schools? You really just don't understand hypotheticals, do you? Seriously, go back and read our exchange again. You will be embarrassed. I'm embarrassed FOR you. So I mean, I know I have told you at least three times, but maybe you could write it down or something? From the very start, the cells in the different lines began to adapt and evolve. They grew in size, for example. There have been numerous papers published over their changes over time, as they evolved by degrees to better suit their environment and gain competitive advantages. I know I've told you this. You've commented on it repeatedly. Are you senile or just stupid? Is it both? You also hold yourself to be the judge of whether or not the Sun rose in the east. You may deny it but we will base our beliefs on what we see and we definitely see you in a hole and continuing to dig. > < You have been repeatedly challenged, and repeatedly failed, to show where anyone other than yourself has practiced arbitrary censorship. You were blocked for cause and in most cases only after repeated warnings. We no more expect you to answer this then we expect you to answer Phae's quite reasonable questions. Just don't expect us to take you seriously. > You might as well ask if I would support teaching that the earth is flat, dunghill. < I know that you no longer believe that the earth is flat. Do you still believe that meteors arise from inside the atmosphere and that the moon landings were staged as you have previously argued on the net? >>>>>Unless you can show exactly where Zachary Blount responded to my question about glucose cycling, I am the one who decides whether or not he responded. And he did not even use bibliography bluffing. You don't get to unilaterally decide things like that. <<<<<<, I>>>>>> I'm not going to go back and read over all your comments there previously, and since I don't read those myself I would have to condemn it based on your word alone. <<<<<<>>>>>> You seem to not understand what a straw-man actually is. . . .The notion behind the metaphorical term is that one is creating a weak dummy version of opposing beliefs to easily defeat. <<<<<<>>>>> So <<<<<< That was by far the biggest evolutionary event that happened in the experiment. And it almost didn't happenViU driveled, >>>>>> Do you still believe that meteors arise from inside the atmosphere <<<<<< This is another example of where ViU completely misrepresents things that I have said. I said that meteor trails are supposed to start all over the sky, so how can it be that meteor showers "radiate from" or "originate in" constellations that the showers are named after? I was told that those descriptions of meteor showers are wrong -- the correct description is that the meteor trails start all over the sky and that the directions of the trails radiate from the namesake constellations. I also learned about something called "zenith pull" -- the effect of the earth's gravity on meteor direction, which can change meteor directions from between one and five degrees. ViU is unable to refute any of my arguments here, so he takes out his frustration by posting ad hominem attacks. Also, ViU's strategy is to try to keep me so busy responding to his stupid comments that I won't have time to write new posts. But his comments often become so asinine that all I need to do is say, "don't feed the trolls." >>>>>><<<<<< Yes, you get to decide whether your blog actually displays and allows the truth. You do NOT get to decide what the truth actually is. >>>>>>I am the best-qualified person to know the answer to that question<<<<<< HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! >>>>>>and no one has presented any evidence that refutes me.<<<<<< No, plenty of evidence has been presented that refutes you. You just either don't understand it, despite the level it has been simplified and spoonfed to you, or think that if you scream and bawl loudly enough that it doesn't, people might actually believe it. Unfortunately for you, anyone with half a brain won't be. >>>>>>It may seem that I am biased, but I have no reason to lie about Blount on something like that.<<<<<< Well, I'll put it this way - if you're not lying, you're saying something that isn't true through sheer, unmitigated ignorance. >>>>>>What a lousy hypocritical double-standardist -- I am expected to go on a wild goose chase through the literature to find answers to my questions<<<<<< (known to most people as being directed to a paper that answers your questions in detail) >>>>>>but you say that you are not expected to do that on this blog. Descriptions of where I was censored on Fatheaded Ed's blog and the Florida Citizens for Science blog are here and here.<<<<<< So, in order to address Phae's comments that he is condemning those actions purely on your side of the story, you direct him to where you have elaborated on your side of the story elsewhere on this self-same blog. Now, having a quick look through the links provided, it seems that, in fact, you pretty much did on those places what you do here - you say, essentially, the same things over and over again, even though your arguments had been ripped to shreds numerous times, and you'd been proven as conclusively wrong as it is possible to be, and they were, frankly, getting bored of you. >>>>>><<<<<< You still haven't grasped these concepts of 'hypotheticals' and 'analogies', have you? >>>>>>That was by far the biggest evolutionary event that happened in the experiment. And it almost didn't happen.<<<<<< You're still not grasping Phae's point, are you? The Cit+ E. coli was only the most obvious change that occurred during the project, basically because citrate eating E. coli is virtually unheard of. However, right from the very start, the E. coli was changing and evolving in various ways. If the E. coli failed to evolve to eat citrate, then that would only mean that there was one less strand of evidence - out of a fairly substantial rope. Only if the E. coli basically sat there and did absolutely nothing would Lenski's experiment actually be some kind of evidence AGAINST evolution. Come to think of it, even if what you seem to think was right, and the fact E. coli evolved to eat citrate was the one, single, solitary piece of evidence that supports evolution in the whole of Lenski's project, things that are almost evidence of something, or against something, don't make it in science - if it's not such evidence, it's irrelevant. >>>>>>The Darwinists' strategy here is to keep me so busy answering their stupid questions and comments (and they have the nerve to claim that I am not answering them)<<<<<< Well, you see, it's usually easy to tell when someone does or does not answer a question. It only seem to be you that has difficulty in that regard. >>>>>> that I don't have time to make new posts that would make them look even more ridiculous.<<<<<< Well, generally, your new posts actually do a damn fine job of making you look ridiculous, rather than 'Darwinists'. You can make the rules, sure. But you can't change reality. I did show you how he directed you to the information that you requested; the fact that you are too stupid to figure it out isn't really his fault. Unless he is at fault for overestimating your intelligence, which is possible. So while you can decide that you will censor any disagreement, and are well within your rights to do so, it doesn't change the fact of the matter. And we will all know and delight in the fact that you couldn't face the music, so you had to try to shut it up. II have presented evidence to that effect. Twice now, to an extraordinarily small degree of detail. Once even on this page. In fact you just read one of those times. And of course you have every reason to lie about it. You can't argue the facts of ID, so you have to attack the people involved.A wild-goose chase? Was it really such a terrible demand for you to read the paper you were criticizing? I know it was that whole eight pages and might try the attention span of many children, but one would think you could manage it. Of course I'm not expected to go look through your past posts. That's asinine. If you have something you want to say, say it, don't try to send me off to read through archives of past comments to try to make your own point for you. There You know, once I thought you couldn't lower the bar on your efforts any more. I thought you had it placed flat on the ground. But now you have sought out such low levels of intelligence and discussion that I believe you have actually dug a significant hole in order to plant it as low as possible....that's why it was a hypothetical. I was trying to draw a parallel between the two situations, one of which occurred and the other of which was hypothetical. You know, most children have really no trouble with the idea of a "hypothetical." Why is it so hard for you? That was by far the biggest evolutionary event that happened in the experiment. And it almost didn't happen. ...and it almost didn't happen? Um, I guess you're right. The conclusive results of the experiment that provide outstanding proof for evolution by natural design almost didn't happen. Except that they did. Remarkably and clear-cut. Along with a series of previous adaptive evolutions. And in a manner which is repeatable and has been recorded for reproduction and study. So where are all of the ID experiments? Actually, do you think you could name me a single one that has ever been conducted? Go on. Try to name oneOur "strategy?" I assure you, if all the intelligent people got together and decided on an agenda, you wouldn't make the list. Unless the question was, "What do we do at the end of the day to unwind? Hey, remember that capering monkey-moron?" The next comment that makes any claim -- without proof -- that Blount gave any answer at all to my questions about glucose cycling will be censored immediately, no questions asked. >>>>> There <<<<< The only difference is in your corrupted mind. >>>>> I was trying to draw a parallel between the two situations, one of which occurred and the other of which was hypothetical. <<<<<< And the hypothetical situation was the straw man! It is like the question that the captain asked the midshipman -- what would you do if your ship were in the path of a stampeding herd of buffalo? >>>>> The conclusive results of the experiment that provide outstanding proof for evolution by natural design almost didn't happen. <<<<<< "Evolution by natural design"? Isn't that a contradiction in terms? Pretty soon I am going to stop feeding you trolls altogether. You are just cluttering up this blog with your crap. He started out nicely telling people, "I think everyone who interested and has questions should definitely read the paper itself, and Carl has been kind enough to link to the pdf of it on Dr. Lenski's webpage. The paper goes into great detail on the research and how we did what we did. It is a good place to start." But you couldn't be bothered to do that, could you? In fact, you still haven't bothered to read it, have you? But thanks for making me go and read this thread. Did you notice he also answered your question about why citrate was in the medium back in his very first post in the comments? Also from 115: "Well, it is part of the DM25 recipe, and has been since it was first reported by Bernard Davis and Elizabeth Mingioli in 1950 (Davis and Mingioli 1950. Mutants of Escherichia coli requiring methionine or vitamin B12. Journal of Bacteriology 60(1): 17 - 28.). They included it for two reasons. First, E. coli use something called the ferric di-citrate iron acquisition system to take up iron from their environment, though in this system, the citrate never enters the cell (see Hussein, S., Hantke, K., and Braun, V. 1981. Citrate-dependent iron transport system in Escherichia coli K-12. European Journal of Biochemistry, 117: 431 � 437.). While E. coli have another set of genes for what are called enterochelins, which can also be used for iron acquisition, citrate is commonly included in defined E. coli growth media (defined media are growth media for which we known exactly what is there and in what amount, as opposed to rich media such as Luria broth, trypticase soy broth, or brain heart infusion, which include enzymatic digests of yeasts and various proteins and, yes in the case of the third one, brains and hearts of cows which can vary in their exact constituents) just to make sure that the bacteria don't starve for iron. Also, when the media from which DM25 was developed were first formulated in the early to mid-20th century, it was common to keep them in 50x stocks that were then later diluted with water before use. At this concentration, the sodium citrate concentration was increased beyond what the organism strictly needed to prevent another component of the medium, magnesium sulfate, from precipitating out. As E. coli were not bothered by this, no other thought was given to the issue." When you ask him some more questions about really basic things, he tells you in #122: "I also think you need to take my suggestion to read some of the references I cited. Specifically, I think you would benefit by reading the long review of the Long Term Evolution Experiment that is reference #147 in Dr. Lenski's publication list." Then you again asked SOME MORE questions that were VERY BASIC. And Zachary replied AGAIN in #129, "Again, I suggest you go and read reference #147 as well as the citrate paper itself. They will answer most, if not all of your questions." You sneer at some other people, but you even admit in #140, "And my comments and questions here are very basic." And finally, in #145, in the comment in which Blount says he won't be commenting much more since he is busy, he says very clearly and courteously: "As I have noted earlier, whenever one has significant, substantive interest in any research, it behooves one to go to the primary, peer-reviewed literature on that research. It constitutes the official and most detailed reports and descriptions, and many, if not most issues may be resolved by recourse to them. While popular accounts and forums such as this are good places to start, they are no substitute for the original papers themselves. It is said that when asked by King Ptolemy for an easier way to learn mathematics, Euclid replied,"There is no royal road to geometry." That is as true of evolutionary biology as it is of any science or difficult field of intellectual endeavor. It is true also that an uninformed understanding is not understanding at all." You really shouldn't have challenged me on an actual fact. Facts aren't your strong point. Ouch, did that sting? This exchange proceeded in about the most delightfully clear-cut manner as I could have wished. Larry says something, I prove him wrong massively, and he suddenly decides he can't be bothered to argue it anymore. Phae, your sole purpose in commenting here is to try to sabotage this blog by wasting my time and cluttering up this blog with garbage. You are a disgusting sack of $#*&^@. Then feel free to ignore me. As I have said repeatedly, just go ahead and stop replying to me. You could also start censoring me, but again, I am afraid I will have to report you to the head of the Association of Non-Censoring Bloggers, a massive and ancient institution.	eng	8e0f8adc-9310-443f-9b48-e3cc69127cbf	http://im-from-missouri.blogspot.com/2008/07/chris-comer-comes-back.html
Related Resources The following content is provided under a Creative Commons license. Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare continue to offer high quality educational resources for free. To make a donation or view additional materials from hundreds of MIT courses visit MIT OpenCourseWare at ocw.mit.edu. PROFESSOR: OK, let's get started. Why doesn't everyone go ahead and take 10 more seconds on this clicker question. It should look familiar. You were pretty split on this question on Friday, so we're hoping after learning a little bit more about delta g of formation, we have at least one direction that wins out here. OK, great. So now we're up to 85% of you, and hopefully in just a minute we'll be up to a 100%. But if delta g of formation here is less than zero, that means we're talking about a spontaneous reaction when we form the compound. So if it spontaneously forms the compound, that must mean that the compound is going to be stable relative to its elements. So that's kind of the last thing we went over in terms of topics on Friday, and we'll pick up right there today. All right. Here we have our notes for today, so reminder exam 2 is on Wednesday -- I don't think I need to remind anyone of that. But just please, don't come to this room, make sure that you go to Walker to take the exam. And also if you have any questions or you feel like there's anything you don't understand, I have office hours today from 2 to 4 in my office. Your TAs have also all moved their office hours so they fall before the exam. So make sure you get any of your questions addressed before you're trying to sit there and figure it out in exam time. All right, so today we're going to pick up where we left off on thermodynamics, so that was talking about free energy of formation. After that we're going to talk a little bit more about the effect of temperature on spontaneity. We touched upon this on Friday, but we're going to formalize exactly in which cases temperature can or can not affect whether a reaction is spontaneous or non-spontaneous. Then we're going to look a little bit into thermodynamics and biological systems. Two examples that I wanted to talk about were ATP coupled reactions -- those are very important in biology. And also, thinking about the idea of hydrogen bonding, we're going to combine our thoughts on bond enthalpies, and also our ideas of bonding that we had from thinking about covalent and ionic bonds. All right, so let's finish up first with free energy of formation. So as 85% of you just told me, when we have a case where delta g of formation is less than zero, what we're talking about here is a compound that is thermodynamically stable relative to its elements. So that means we know the inverse as well, which is when we're talking about a case where delta g is now greater than zero, the compound is going to be thermodynamically unstable relative to its elements. So any time you're looking at delta g of formation, just remember to think about this is just the delta g of a reaction where you're forming a compound. So it should make sense that if it's negative, it's going to be spontaneous and you're going to have a stable compound here. So we could look at any number of examples, really we could pick any compound to look at, but up on the screen here I'm just putting the compound, the formation of benzene, we've looked at benzene a lot. So benzene has a delta g of formation of 124 kilojoules per mole. Is benzene stable or unstable compared to its elements? I can't really tell the difference between stable and unstable when you say it, so everyone start at the same time, go. STUDENT: Unstable. PROFESSOR: OK, excellent. Benzene is unstable compared to its elements. So that means the reverse reaction here is going to be stable -- or the reverse reaction is going to be spontaneous where we actually have the decomposition of benzene. So when we're seeing this, when we're seeing that the reverse reaction is spontaneous, a question that might immediately come to us is well, why did we just spend all the time talking about benzene because clearly benzene's just going to break down, right. Why do we form benzene and not have it immediately decompose into its elements. Thermodynamically that is what should happen and it is what does happen, but the reality is that this reaction, this decomposition of benzene is actually very, very slow. It's so slow that, you know we use benzene all the time in organic reactions, we don't see it break down even when we heat it up, is because even though this is thermodynamically a non-spontaneous reaction to form benzene, it's very slow for the actual decomposition of benzene to occur. So this is just another case, and I'll keep saying this, and when Professor Drennan starts talking about kinetics, she'll keep repeating this as well. What we want to keep in mind is that delta g tells us whether a reaction will happen or whether it won't happen. It tells us absolutely nothing about how long it takes for that reaction to happen. It tells us nothing about the rate of the reaction. We'll keep seeing examples of this, so hopefully no one will be confused by the time we do get to kinetics. So if we're talking about calculating delta g for any reaction, now we actually have several ways to do it. The first way is very analogous to thinking about delta h for the reaction. We can just look up a table where we have delta g as a formation. So we can take the sum of the delta g of formation of the products, and subtract from it the delta g of formation of the reactants. We also have another way if maybe we don't have that information available to us. We can also take a look at using this reaction or this equation right here, which is telling us that delta g of a reaction is equal to the change in enthalpy minus t delta s. So that tends to be very helpful, especially when we want to take into consideration temperature. So let's take into consideration temperature. We've done this a little bit so far, but let's really take a look at some reactions where temperature's going to make a big difference. So the reaction we're going to look at here is the decomposition of sodium bicarbonate, or sodium bicarb here, and it decomposes it into sodium carbonate, plus c o 2, carbon dioxide, and water. So we can think about calculating that delta g of this reaction. I'll tell you that the change in enthalpy, this is actually an endothermic reaction. It requires heat. It's plus 135 . 6 kilojoules per mole. So let's go to a clicker question and I want you to pick out from several choices which of the changes in entropy seem reasonable to you here. So what would you predict the delta s for this reaction to be? All right, let's do 10 more seconds on that. OK, so we've got the majority, but not everyone. So let's take a look at why this is the correct answer, that it should be plus 0.334 . If we're going from 2 moles of solid, to 1 mole of solid, plus 2 moles of gas, are we increasing or decreasing the disorder? STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE] PROFESSOR: We're increasing the disorder. If we're getting to a more disordered state, then we're going to have a positive change in entropy. We're going to increase the disorder. The only one with a positive delta s is this choice here. So if we switch back to our notes, we can see that, in fact, so what we see is that it's 0.334 kilojoules per k per mole is our delta s, so we can go ahead and calculate our delta g for the reaction, so we're just plugging in our delta h. So our delta h is 135 . 6. And we're talking about to start with let's talk about room temperature. So 298 k times 0.334 . So what we end up having for the delta g of our reaction is that its 36 . 1 kilojoules per mole. So this is at room temperature. So is our reaction spontaneous or non-spontaneous at room temperature? STUDENT: Non-spontaneous. PROFESSOR: Non-spontaneous. All right, but let's take a look at a different temperature. For example, let's look at baking temperature. So if we think about baking cookies, we maybe bake them at 350 degrees fahrenheit, so that would be 450 kelvin -- our ovens are usually set to fahrenheit and not kelvin. So if we think about this reaction that this temperature, first of all let me point out why we would be talking about baking cookies for this particular reaction here. Does anyone know what another name for sodium bicarb is? STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE] PROFESSOR: Yeah, it's just baking soda. So this is the reaction that causes your cookies or your cakes to actually rise. So we're producing gas here, and when we're producing that gas when this sodium bicarb decomposes, we're forming these pockets of gas in our baked goods. So if we bake our cookies at room temperature, obviously, they don't bake and they also don't rise because the sodium bicarb, clearly it was non-spontaneous at room temperature, this reaction just doesn't happen. But if we take a look at baking temperature now, we're going to plug in this new temperature, which is 450 k, and plug this into our delta g reaction. What we find is now our delta g for the reaction is negative 14 . 7 kilojoules per mole. So in this case, we are dealing with a spontaneous reaction, which is good, because this means that when we put our cookies in and we turn it to 350 fahrenheit or 450 k, the baking soda will decompose and we'll got our cookies to rise a little bit. All right, so one thing that I want you to notice when we were talking about the case with the decomposition of sodium bicarb is that the delta h for that reaction and the delta s, they both had the same sign. And something that you can keep in mind in general is any time that both delta h and delta s have the same sign, it's actually possible to switch from spontaneous to non-spontaneous or vice versa just by changing the temperature of the reaction. And we can think about this graphically. If we assume that delta h and delta s are independent of temperature, which is a good assumption to a first approximation, in this case we find that the delta g of the reaction is the linear function of the temperature. So that means we can go ahead and graph what we saw for the case of baking soda. So our first point here was that we saw at room temperature, about 298 k, the delta g was positive, it was 36 kilojoules per mole. We also saw that once we heated it up to baking temperature, we actually had the delta g now at negative 15 kilojoules per mole. So since this is linear, we can actually draw a straight line right through here, and we can think about the fact that we have this temperature here where anything below this temperature has a positive delta g, and anything above this temperature is going to have a negative delta g. And let's actually think about the fact that this is a line and see what our slope and our y-intercept is going to mean. We can say that delta g is equal to negative delta s t plus delta h, if we want to put it in the formation of the equation for line. So what this tells us is that our slope is going to be negative delta s here, and if we think about our y-intercept, that's going to be the change in enthalpy for the reaction. So again, what I want to point out is that any time we're at a temperature that's lower than this change in temperature here, we're going to find that delta g is greater than zero, and we're going to be dealing with a non-spontaneous reaction. However, if we move our temperature up and up and up so we go across the graph this way, eventually we'll hit a point where if we're above that temperature, we'll find that delta g is less than zero, and now we have a spontaneous reaction. So we can actually think about what this temperature is. We can call this T star. This is the temperature at which our reaction switches, whether it's spontaneous or non-spontaneous. And if you're thinking about trying to get a reaction to go, it's very important to be able to calculate what this temperature is. A lot of times in organic chemistry laboratories, they need to heat up reactions -- part of why they do that is kinetics, but the other part is sometimes they need to make a reaction go from being non-spontaneous to spontaneous. So let's think about how to calculate T star or this change in temperature. So we're talking about this threshold temperature, so we're talking about where delta g is going to be equal to zero, because if we set delta g equal to zero, we know that anything on one side of that temperature is going to be spontaneous, and the other side is going to be non-spontaneous. So if we do this, we can just rewrite our reaction, delta g equals delta h minus t delta s, and let's plug in our zero for delta g there, and now rearrange our reaction so that we're talking about this threshold temperature. So that T star is just going to be equal to the change in enthalpy divided by the change in entropy. So it's very easy for us to calculate, so let's go ahead and do this for the case with baking soda. And for baking soda what we saw was that delta h was 136 kilojoules per mole, and the change in entropy was 0.334 kilojoules per k mole. And that means if we do that simple division, then what we end up as our temperature star is 406 kelvin. So basically, what this tells us is if we tried to bake our cookies below 406 kelvin they would not rise, if we bake them above 406 kelvin they will rise because this reaction is now spontaneous. All right, so this was a case where we had seen that the delta h and the delta s both had a positive value. But let's take a look at what happens when now delta h and delta s are both negative. So we can think about this just by plotting it on our graph again -- we don't have actual values, but we can think about what the sign should be. So if we talk about our zero point where temperature is absolute zero, if we have a positive, or excuse me, if we have a negative delta h now and we're at temperature equals zero, what is delta g going to be? Negative or positive? Yeah, it's going to be negative. So if we have negative delta h and we're at temperature of zero, our s term completely falls out, so we're definitely going to start with a negative delta g. As we increase the temperature higher and higher, at some point that delta s term is going to become greater than our delta h term, so at some point we're going to flip to where the reaction has now a positive delta g. So you can draw this into your graphs in your notes where we're going to start, in this case if delta g is negative where delta g starts negative, and then when it hits that threshold temperature, anything above that temperature is going to be positive. So if we had actual numbers we could plug those into our graph, but we should be able to understand what the general trend is going to be even in a hypothetical case where we're just dealing with is it positive or is it negative. So what we see is that below this temperature, we have a spontaneous reaction, and above this temperature we have a non-spontaneous reaction. That was flipped from the case where we had delta h and delta s both be positive. All right, so let's actually summarize what all of our four different scenarios could be if we're dealing with delta h's and delta s's. So to start with, why don't you tell me what you think if we have a reaction where we have a negative delta h and we have a positive delta s, do you think that this will be a reaction that's never spontaneous, always spontaneous, or will this be one of these cases where the spontaneity depends on temperature? All right, let's take 10 more seconds on this. OK, great. So most of you got it. So let's go back to the slides and think a little bit about why this is. So, this case is always spontaneous, because in this case we have a negative delta h, which contributes to a negative delta g, and a positive delta s, but since the equation says minus t delta s, that means a positive delta s is also going to contribute to a negative delta g. So regardless of what the temperature is, we're going to have a spontaneous reaction. So we say this is always spontaneous -- delta g is less than zero at all temperatures. All right. So let's look at the reverse case here where delta h is now greater than zero, and delta s is less than zero. Is this always, never, or sometimes spontaneous? STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE] PROFESSOR: Nope. So, this is going to be never spontaneous in this case. So for the same reason, because delta h is greater than zero, that contributes to a positive delta g, and delta s being negative also contributes to a positive delta g. So we'll say again, that this delta g is greater than zero at all temperatures. All right, so now we have a case where delta h is greater than zero and delta s is greater than zero as well. Is this going to be always, never, or sometimes spontaneous? STUDENT: Sometimes. PROFESSOR: Sometimes, good. So, even before thinking, you can just remember if the signs are the same, we can have a dependence on temperature here. So what we find is that this is sometimes spontaneous. So we can think about when this happens. Would it be when the actual temperature is greater or less than that threshold temperature? STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE] PROFESSOR: All right, so I heard a lot of people say greater than. It's greater than, because when it's greater than that threshold temperature, that means that the delta s term is the one that's going to actually sort of take over, it's going to be at some point greater than the delta h term. The delta h is going to be making the delta g positive. That means it would make it non-spontaneous, but once delta s gets large enough, that's going to override, and now we're going to have a negative delta g only when the temperature is above that threshold temperature. So similarly, when we see that delta h is negative and delta s is negative, this is also going to be sometimes spontaneous, and specifically, it will be spontaneous or delta g will be less than when the temperature is less than that threshold temperature. All right, so you should be able to look at any situation where you have or you figure out or you calculate the enthalpy and the enthropy change in the reaction, and you should right away, before doing any calculations, be able to know is this always spontaneous, is this never spontaneous, or is this something where I'm going to need to really take temperature into consideration. And if I do, you can actually calculate what that temperature is going to be where you flip from spontaneous to non-spontaneous or vice versa. All right, so shifting gears a little bit, let's take a look at a few examples where it's important to think about thermodynamics and biological systems. So there's two things I particularly want to focus on. So the first is the idea of ATP coupled reactions. So this is really important, because when we're talking about biological reactions, a lot of the reactions that take place in our body are actually non-spontaneous, so energetically we figure that the delta g for this reaction is actually positive. So I just show a schematic biological reaction here where we have some molecule that's broken up into two building blocks. So let's say, for example, this has a delta g that's greater than zero. We need to think about how it is that our body can actually make this reaction happen. And the way that it does this is that it takes the hydrolysis of ATP, and the hydrolysis of ATP is what's called that it's coupled to this non-spontaneous reaction. And when you have a spontaneous reaction coupled to a non-spontaneous reaction, you can potentially drive the reaction in the forward direction. Remember the hydrolysis of ATP is spontaneous, so what we're doing in this case is we're taking a spontaneous reaction where we give off energy, and we're coupling it to a non-spontaneous reaction that requires energy. So what we will hope is when we add up the total energy changes between these two reactions, if the sum of those two is a negative delta g total, now we can have this whole process move in the forward direction. So let's take a look at thinking about what we can do in terms of a coupled reaction. The first thing we need to do if we're thinking about using the hydrolysis of ATP is actually calculate what the delta g for the reaction of ATP hydrolysis is, and I picked 310 kelvin because that's the temperature of our bodies. So again, this reaction is taking adenosine triphosphate that has three phosphate groups and hydrolyzing it, so reacting it with water to form ADP plus phosphate plus acid here. So I'll tell you that the delta h of this reaction is negative 24 kilojoules per mole. This is what we actually calculated in class on Friday. And that the delta s is plus 22 joules per k, per mole, so we can go ahead and calculate what this delta g is here. So the delta g of this overall reaction is just going to be, of course, delta h minus t delta s, and our delta h is minus 24 kilojoules per mole, and we'll subtract 310 kelvin times . 022 kilojoules over k mole. So if we do this, what we end up getting is a delta g of negative 31 kilojoules per mole of ATP. All right, so again, this is good, we got a negative number, that's what we were expecting. So that means that we will have energy available to use if we hydrolyize ATP and couple it to another reaction here. So what we saw for our delta g, negative 31 kilojoules per mole. All right, so let's talk about a reaction that is a ATP coupled reaction, and there's just tons of examples of this in our body. One I picked because it has to do with glucose, which we have talked so much about, is the conversion of glucose to glucose 6 p. So 6 p -- p just stands for a phosphate group here, so what we're doing is taking, if we numbered the glucose carbons, this would be carbon number six, and we're putting a phosphate group on carbon number six. So first of all, why would our body need to do this reaction? It turns out that glucose, we know that we use glucose for energy. Glucose is somewhat apolar, so it can actually move in and out of our cells, because our cell walls, those are very greasy. So what we're actually doing here is we're putting a charged molecule onto the glucose. There's two negative charges in a phosphate group, this is going to make sure that our glucose is now it's very polar molecule. And now that we have a very polar molecule, we're not going to be able to have the glucose move in and out of the cell. So we keep it in our cell by putting this phosphate group on it. That's why we want to do this reaction, but let's think about the energy of actually doing it. And it turns out that this requires energy. The delta g for this reaction is 17 kilojoules per mole. All right, so that could be a problem if our body had not come up with a way to solve it, which it has, and what it actually does is it couples this reaction here with the conversion of ATP into ADP. And we just calculated that that has a delta g of negative 31 kilojoules per mole. So this means we can think about delta g total, and by total we mean of this overall process here. So that's just equal to 17, and we're adding it to the other delta g, which is negative 31. So we get an overall delta g for this process of negative 14 kilojoules per mole. All right, so that's one really simple example just to illustrate to you how these ATP coupled reactions work. Some ATP coupled reactions require one molar equivalent of ATP, some require a lot more. But essentially, the idea is the same. We have this reaction that's energetically unfavorable that we couple with an energetically favorable reaction. So, quite literally, this is what we mean when we talk about ATP as being the energy currency for the cell. We spend some ATP in order to get these non-spontaneous reactions to go. All right, so I also want to talk to a little bit about hydrogen bonding. This also is a topic that deals with the thermodynamics, and it also is related to the ideas that we talked about before in terms of thinking about different types of bonds. So if we talk about a hydrogen bond, a hydrogen bond, first I just want to be really clear, is not a covalent bond. So this h x bond here is a covalent bond, this is not a hydrogen bond. But a hydrogen bond can form when you have a partial positive on a hydrogen, and you have what's called a hydrogen bond donor atom, which has a partial negative on it, and also has a lone pair. Typically this y atom will be on a separate molecule. And what happens is you have that Coulombic attraction between the partial positive on the hydrogen and the partial negative on this hydrogen bond donor atom. So what you form between them is a hydrogen bond, and you'll notice that I drew it as a dashed line. H bonds or hydrogen bonds are drawn either as dashed lines or as dotted lines, and they're done so to differentiate them from covalent bonds, which we draw with this straight line here. So let's think about what can form hydrogen bonds. First of all, there's a requirement for what this h x bond can be. It has to be a really electronegative atom in this x here, because we need to we need to form that partial positive on the hydrogen, which means that the atom that it's covalentally bonded to needs to be pulling away some of that electron density from the hydrogen, such that we have a delta positive on a hydrogen atom. Similarly, the same atoms are what can be the y here, so it can either be a nitrogen or an oxygen or a fluorine. So these are the only hydrogen bond donors that can form h bonds. And we can think about the reason for this and the reason is pretty straightforward. We need to have a small atom, but it also needs to be really electronegative. This should make sense because we need to have this partial negative charge here to have that Coulomb attraction. And the other requirement is that we definitely need to have that lone pair of electrons so it can actually interact in this hydrogen bond here. So let's take a look at an example of a hydrogen bond, and that's between two water molecules. So let's go ahead and re-draw our water molecules -- they're just kind of randomly oriented there. But let's re-draw them as if they were going to have a hydrogen bond between them. And one thing I want to point out about hydrogen bonds is that they're strongest when you actually have all three atoms in a straight line like this, because it keeps the dipoles the strongest, so the partial positive here and the partial negative here can interact. So let's re-draw our water molecules like that. So we have our first water molecule here, and let's say we're going to be talking about this hydrogen in terms of hydrogen bonding. Obviously, we have four hydrogens up there that can take place or take part in h bonding, but we're just going to focus on this one here. So that means we want our straight line to be something like this to our second oxygen. So let's draw the hydrogens on this water molecule as well. All right, so thinking about what the Lewis structure of water is, how many lone pairs do we have on this oxygen here? STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE] PROFESSOR: Two lone pairs, great. So let's draw those in, and let's draw these lone pairs in as well. All right, and we're going to be talking about these two atoms in terms of our hydrogen bond, so does this have a delta plus or a delta negative on it? Delta plus. So this is a polar bond here, this o h bond, so we have a delta plus on our hydrogen, and we have a delta minus on our oxygen. So these also have delta plusses, of course, and this also has a delta minus. So because these two can interact and they're lined up to do so, what we can do is we can draw a hydrogen bond right in between this hydrogen and this oxygen atom here. So again, I pointed out that, in fact, hydrogen bonds are not as strong as covalent bonds. Since they're not as strong, if you remember thinking about the relationship between bond strength and bond length, would you expect a hydrogen bond to be longer or shorter than a covalent bond? STUDENT: Longer. PROFESSOR: Good, OK, it should be longer here. So this is our longer bond because it's our weaker bond. They're not held together as tightly. All right, so this is an example of an intermolecular hydrogen bond, it's between two different molecules. Hopefully, you can also see that if we're focusing on any single one water molecule, we could also form hydrogen bonds between other water molecules with either of these two hydrogens as well, and also with our other lone pair here. So any water molecule can actually form four different hydrogen bonds. All right, so let's talk a little bit about these hydrogen bonds in terms of their bond enthalpies here. I said that they were weaker than covalent bonds, so let's look at a few comparisons here. So we can look at an h o hydrogen bond versus an h o covalent bond. And what we find is that the bond enthalpies in kilojoules per mole, it's 20 kilojoules per mole for a hydrogen bond versus 463 kilojoules per mole for a covalent bond. So we're not talking about just a little bit weaker, we're talking about much, much weaker for the hydrogen bonds here. Similarly, if we look at nitrogen, for nitrogen hydrogen bonds, if we have an o h bound to a nitrogen, that's 29 kilojoules per mole. If it's an n h hydrogen bound to a nitrogen, that's 14 kilojoules per mole, and if we're talking about an h n covalent bond, now we're talking about 388 kilojoules per mole. All right, so again what we see in these cases is that the hydrogen bonds are much, much weaker. They tend to be as low as 5% of what the covalent bond is, so this is actually much weaker than any kinds of bonds we have within molecules, but it's also the strongest type of bond that we can have between two different molecules. And one thing that you find as in the case of water, is when you have lots of hydrogen bonds between molecules it changes the property of, for example, water here. It makes the boiling point much, much higher than you might expect if you looked at the other properties, because you have to actually break apart all of these individual hydrogen bonds, and even though it's not that much energy for one individual hydrogen bond, once you get a huge number of hydrogen bonds, you're talking about huge energies here. So let's look at some examples of where we see hydrogen bonds in biological processes. First thinking about proteins, they're absolutely hugely important in proteins. And in proteins, we're talking about a molecule that's so large that you don't just see h bonds in between two different molecules, what you actually see is what's called intramolecular hydrogen bonding, so hydrogen bonding within the protein molecule itself. And hydrogen bonding is incredibly important, it, in fact, is the shape of a protein, which I'm just showing an example here, histone deacetylase, and the histone deacetylase molecule actually has just countless hydrogen bonds in here, and the hydrogen bonds largely govern the shape of the molecule. So, if you're thinking about any protein that has a shape, so for example, we see these ribbon structures here, they're called alpha helices, you can see some arrows, which are just like a sheet structure or beta sheets, that actual shape is stabilized and formed in the first place by just many, many hydrogen bonds within the protein being in a correct orientation that allows for this particular shape to be stabilized. And we know that shape is so important when we're talking about proteins, and that's because the actual shape of the protein governs the interaction with other proteins or other small molecules. The shape of the protein is very important in terms of positioning the specific atoms that are involved in the chemistry that the enzyme carries out being in the correct position. So hydrogen bonds are very important in terms of proteins. We can also think of them in terms of sugars or polysaccharides. This is a nice dramatic example, thinking about the structure of a protein is a very microscopic way of thinking about hydrogen bonding. If we want to take it to the macroscopic level, we can talk about h bonding in trees. So if we're talking about trees, trees are made up -- a major part of a tree is the polysaccharide cellulose. So that's shown right here. Cellulose is a chain of glucose molecules linked together. It can be as many as 1,000 or more glucose molecules linked together covalentally. But what actually happens to those individual chains is that if you look at this picture here, all those dotted lines are actually hydrogen bonds. So the individual molecules are in a much larger chain of hydrogen bonded molecules and they're incredibly rigid. You have so many hydrogen bonds that now it takes a huge amount of energy to break all of these. So that accounts for why wood is such a hard, solid material. And also, I mean for any plant, and tree is the most dramatic, the structure of a tree, the macroscopic structure, can be explained by hydrogen bonding. It's hydrogen bonds that keep all of those molecules together in the forest and in trees. All right. So, that's proteins, that thinking about sugars. We can also talk about the importance of hydrogen bonding in DNA. So if you think about the characteristic DNA double helix, hydrogen bonds, we have in a double helix we have two strands of DNA that you can see are intertwined here. And those two strands are actually held together by hydrogen bonding. So specifically, it's hydrogen bonding between what are called complimentary bases within the DNA. So, for example, if we look at guanine and cytosine here, you can see that there's several places, when they're lined up like this, where we can have hydrogen bonds. So in terms of thinking about how these two molecules are lined up, how many h bonds would you expect between these two bases? Yeah, so it's lined up that there are three that can form here. So we have an o h hydrogen bond, an h n, and then an h o hydrogen bond that can form. So the other side of complimentary based pairs are AT base pairs, and if you look at the way these are lined up here, how many hydrogen bonds can form between A and T base pairs? Yup, so it it's two that we can form here. We have one between the h o, one between the n h, and you see that we've lost this nitrogen, this n h group here, and first of all this would be too far apart anyway for hydrogen bond, but we can't have a hydrogen bond form when we have a carbon h. Remember, it has to either be a nitrogen or an oxygen or a fluorine because those are the atoms that are going to pull away enough electron density from the hydrogen to give it a partial positive charge that it needs. So in terms of thinking about DNA, this is a really neat case to consider the actual thermodynamics or the bond enthalpies of the hydrogen bonds, because, of course, does not always stay in it's double helix -- when we're talking about transcription, we actually need to unzip or separate this helix into its two strands, so each individual strand can be copied. So it's really important that hydrogen bonds are strong enough to hold the DNA double strand together, but that they're not so strong that when you actually pull the hydrogen bonds apart to open up the double strand, that you actually, you don't want to break all of a covalent bonds in DNA as well. All right, so that's all we're going to say in terms of thinking about thermodynamics and biological systems. Hold on a sec, we have plenty of time left. I want to go over a few clicker questions. I didn't want to give you too long set of notes, because we're switching over to Professor Drennan's going to start lecturing on Friday, so I thought maybe I shouldn't have to have her finish up with my notes. So, Professor Drennan will continue talking about thermodynamics and thinking about equilibrium, and then she'll transition that into talking about kinetics. So that's actually what's going to start happening after the exam on Wednesday. But let's take a look, since we do you have a little bit of time left, at a few clicker questions just to make sure everyone has caught what we've gone over so far. And a few reviews for the exam, and I will have this clicker question or one of the ones following, be a clicker question quiz, so make sure you are still answering these questions here. So the first one covers what we went over today, so I want you to tell me and try to not look back in your notes for this, for a reaction where you have a positive enthalpy and a negative entropy change, would you expect this reaction to be never, always, or sometimes spontaneous? So let's take 10 seconds on that, that should be pretty fast. OK, excellent. 90% is very good. So this should never be spontaneous, because we both have the entropy and the enthalpy term contributing to a positive delta g. All right, let's shift gears to a couple of questions that are review for the exam. So hopefully, these will all be very straightforward for you now. So I want you to think about bond lengths here, and tell me which molecule contains the shorter nitrogen oxygen bond. So, we're comparing n o minus 1, and n o 2 minus 1. So if you wanted to get started on this problem, what's the first thing you should do? Yeah, draw some Lewis structures. So that might be a good place to start in thinking about this. So I'll do that up here as well, but don't look if you want to try it on your own. Remember, the quiz points come for answering, not for getting it right. So try doing it on your own here. All right, let's go ahead and take 10 more seconds on this one. OK, hold on. Don't show the correct answer. You know we're going to re-poll and give you a little bit more time to see if we come to a consensus here. So let's take another 30 seconds or so on this while I finish drawing these up here. OK, good. So we've got 81% have it correct that in the n o minus 1 bond here, this is going to be a double bond. STUDENT: What if [INAUDIBLE]. PROFESSOR: No. It would be a double bond here. So, if you follow just the Lewis structure rules, and you go ahead, you'll find that we end up having four bonding electrons available. So you can just go ahead and plug those in, and you end up with this many left. If we had a triple bond, then we would end up having more bonding -- or we would end up using more electrons than we have available for bonding here. All right, so we have a double bond in the case of n o. What is this bond that we have here? Yup, so it's actually a 1 . 5 bond. What is this bond that we have here? STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE] PROFESSOR: All right, so we have two 1 . 5 bonds in this case, how come these are 1. 5 and not, for example, a double bond? STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE] PROFESSOR: Great, so that's the key. Even though we have double bonds in each of these structures, in this case here, we have resonance, so it's turns out to be, in fact, two 1 . 5 bonds. So since this is the double bond, it's going to be the stronger bond. Since it's the stronger bond, it's also going to be the shorter bond. So make sure you can make those relationships between bond strength and bond length and thinking about if you have resonance or you don't have resonance in a particular situation. All right, let's try one more clicker question here. We'll have this be the last one for you. So this is one that hopefully you'll all get right, because we've gone over this again and again both in class and recitation. So let's talk about the hybridization of the specific carbon and oxygen atoms in ATP, so I want you to go ahead and tell me what these hyrbridizations are for these two atoms. OK, let's take 10 more seconds here, get those final answers in. OK, good, so 83% of you got this. Let's take a look at why. So carbon a is bonded to three things, but it is bonded to no lone pairs, so we need to have it be three hybrid orbitals, so it's s p 2. And oxygen is bonded to two atoms plus two lone paris. So we need four hybrid orbitals or s p 3. All right, so this was your quiz question, so as long as you answered it, you got your quiz points for today. And you can get going a little bit early today and finish studying for this	eng	e990b0ba-2098-46c7-8b10-9af614e32cd6	http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/chemistry/5-111-principles-of-chemical-science-fall-2008/video-lectures/lecture-18/
The Decibel (dB) & Sound Measurement (What do those dBs mean?) The Decibel (dB) Most individuals have heard the word "decibel" used to describe how loud something is. It's probably no surprise that a 100 decibel (dB) noise would be a lot louder than a 50 dB noise. What may be surprising, however, is that 100 dB isn't twice as loud as 50 dB (60 dB is approximately twice as loud as 50 dB!). And zero dB doesn't mean "no sound." This confuses a lot of people, but a brief explanation of sound and the decibel scale, plus a few analogies (for those who dread algebra), follow. Any vibrating object creates local changes in atmospheric pressure. These pressure fluctuations travel as waves through the air to our ears, and we experience sound. How rapidly an object vibrates determines its frequency or "pitch." Musicians often use the term "pitch" as a synonym for frequency. Technically, frequency (measured in Hertz or Hz) is what we measure; pitch is what we perceive. The intensity, or what we call "loudness," depends on how great these pressure changes are. Sound pressure level (SPL) is the objective measure of sound intensity, loudness is the perceptual correlate. Sound pressure level is normally expressed in decibels sound pressure level (dB SPL). The reason for not expressing SPL as a unit of pressure (e.g. Pascals) follows. The metric unit of pressure is the Pascal (Pa). Under optimal conditions, the lowest pressure that can be heard by a person with normal hearing is approximately 0.00002 Pa (= 20mPa). The loudest sound pressure that most humans can tolerate is about 200 Pascals, which is 10 million times greater than the lowest sound pressure that can be heard. Dealing directly with so wide a range is cumbersome; consequently, the decibel scale was devised to make sound measurements manageable. The decibel scale quantifies sound level by taking the logarithm of the ratio between a sound pressure divided by a reference pressure and multiplying this result by 20, thus allowing us to compress a very wide pressure range into more easily managed numbers. By definition, the reference pressure (0 dB) for the sound pressure level scale is 20 microPascal (mPa). Here's an example to demonstrate how the decibel scale allows us to compress a wide pressure range to a more manageable range: The average sound pressure of speech at a distance of 5 ft. is about 0.064 Pa. The SPL, in decibels, is 20log 0.064 Pa = 20log3200 = 70.1 dB SPL. 0.00002 Pa (Note that the pressure of speech at this distance is 3200 times greater than the faintest sound pressure we can detect.) It is important to note that if we double the pressure we won't double the SPL. If we double the pressure from our previous example, we get 0.064 Pa x 2 = 0.128 Pa. In units of dB, this is 20log 0.128 Pa= 20log6400 = 76.1 dB SPL, a 6 dB increase. 0.00002 Pa Similarly, we can show by calculation (or measurement) that if two rifles differ in SPL by 6 dB, the "louder" rifle is creating twice the sound pressure (in Pascal, not SPL) of the "quieter" rifle. It is reasonable to assume that doubling the sound pressure would result in a sound that is twice as loud. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Our perceptual response to intensity (and frequency) isn't linear, so what we perceive as being twice as loud isn't a simple function of sound pressure, or even sound power (see note 3). A very good approximation, however, is that a 10 dB increase in SPL will result in a doubling of "loudness." A rifle producing a SPL of 150 dB is approximately twice as loud as a rifle producing 140 dB. Here's a real-life analogy to help clarify the decibel (dB) and perceived loudness: At a distance of 5 ft., the SPL of normal speech is approximately 70 dB SPL (we can easily measure this with a sound level meter—more on this below). If another person starts talking (also 5 ft. away), the SPL doesn't increase to 140 dB (this would be deafening!). What we would measure with the sound level meter is, in fact, more along the lines of a 3 dB increase. Perceptually, two people talking at once is louder than one person talking, but not twice as loud. If we had 10 people talking simultaneously in a room, we'd measure about 80 dB; this is approximately twice as loud as a single talker. We're assuming, of course, that no one is screaming or whispering. For high-intensity sounds, a 3 dB change in SPL is quite noticeable. For example, compare the SPL of one rifle #7 (7mm) with its cover on (no BOSS) and with its muzzle brake (BOSS) on. The measured difference is (163.6 – 159.5) dB SPL = 4.1 dB. The difference in loudness is quite apparent. With regard to high-intensity sounds, a 1dB change in SPL is noticeable, even to the untrained ear. (Note: For low-intensity sounds, a 1 dB change is barely discernable—this has to do with the physiology of the human ear.) In summary, a rifle that produces a SPL of 141 dB is slightly "louder" than one producing 140 dB. A rifle producing 143 dB SPL is quite a bit louder, and a rifle producing 150 dB SPL is twice as loud (which is pretty loud considering 140 dB is loud enough). Readers should be aware that a 10-dB increase in SPL is equivalent to a three-fold increase in pressure on the eardrum. The Measurement Process Sound can be expressed in terms of power, pressure, or sound pressure level (SPL). Readers are referred to note 3 for an explanation of the relationship between sound power and sound pressure. Measuring sound power directly is difficult because it requires measuring the movement of the individual air molecules. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to measure the sound pressure level (SPL) directly using a sound level meter. Basically, the sound level meter consists of a pressure-sensitive microphone connected to an electronic voltmeter. The microphone converts sound pressure into an analogous electric voltage. Circuitry within the sound level meter (SLM) converts the signal from the microphone to an electrical equivalent of sound pressure level. The meter displays the voltage in units of dB SPL. The "response time" (a meter-dynamic characteristic) of most sound level meters, even cheap ones, can be switched from "SLOW" to "FAST." In the FAST mode, the sound level meter must accurately respond to a signal of 200 millisecond (0.2 second) duration. Measuring steady-state noise (e.g. noise produced by machinery) is straightforward because the sound's duration is typically greater than 0.2 second. Unfortunately, sound level meters don't accurately measure the SPL of rifles because the duration of the sound (excluding echoes from surrounding hills or trees) is very short. For this reason, impulse precision sound level meters were initially used. But the response time in IMPULSE mode proved to be too slow for accurately measuring the SPL of rifle shots. BIG NOTE: Sound level meters (SLM) used to perform noise surveys aren't designed to measure peak noise levels; they're designed to accurately measure steady-state noises such as noise produced by machinery. A SLM used for measuring steady-state noise (even in FAST response mode) will not accurately measure the SPL of a rifle shot. A SLM in SLOW response mode will barely detect a rifle shot! As I had discovered during previous firearms testing, a SLM designed to measure short-duration (e.g. 10 millisecond) impulse noises won't accurately measure the peak pressure produced by a muzzle blast. Reader's familiar with sound measurement may question this, so let me explain a scenario I encountered when I first began analyzing muzzle blasts. During one day of testing, about 15 different rifles were fired. I held the sound level meter close to the shooter's right ear and positioned myself so as not to interfere with the measurement. Two different sound level meters were used: A Larson-Davis model 800B and a Brüel & Kjær model 2209. The first of 15 rifles tested was a small-bore target rifle. With CCI Mini Group shorts, a reading of 105 dB SPL was obtained (IMPULSE mode). In the FAST mode, a reading of 102 dB was obtained. The lower reading in FAST mode was expected. In the IMPULSE mode, a 117 dB reading was obtained using Super-X Expiditer ammo (same target rifle). So far, the measurements looked reasonable. The next rifle tested was an UltraLight 280 using Winchester Super-X ammo. I measured 136 dB SPL which seemed reasonable compared to the small-bore rifle's modest SPL. What became an obvious problem (obvious meaning 15 rifles later) was that all of the high-power rifles gave approximately the same reading of 133 dB SPL in IMPULSE mode, and a more compressed reading in FAST mode. The problem at that time became apparent while testing a .22/250 with and without its muzzle brake (BOSS). Anyone who's fired a rifle (or has been in the vicinity of a rifle) with a muzzle brake knows that it's a lot louder than the same rifle/ammo without the muzzle brake. However, my first day of testing using supposedly "objective" measurements fell short of demonstrating this: I measured 133 dB SPL with and without the boss! After a day of testing and suspect results, I made a few phone calls. I spoke with several other people who also perform noise surveys and know the OSHA guidelines for measuring noise in factories, etc. Unfortunately, nobody was able to provide any insight to the problem I was experiencing. One possibility that I had considered was that the sound level meters were "overloading" due to the intensity of the rifle shots. But both the Larson-Davis and Brüel & Kjær meters have built-in overload indicators. I briefed through the Instruction and Applications manual for the B&K sound level meter. A chart showed that the meter reading, even in IMPULSE mode, is (as was suspected) affected by the duration of the signal. The only available option was to measure the peak pressure level (versus sound pressure level) produced by each rifle, or record the rifle shots and observe the waveform on a storage oscilloscope. Both the L-D and B&K sound level meters are precision laboratory instruments and are capable of measuring peak pressures. A storage oscilloscope wasn't available at the original test site, but I was equipped with a portable Sony DAT (digital audio tape) recorder. The recorded rifle shots were recorded using a DAT recorder and subsequently analyzed using a spectrum analyzer and a digital storage oscilloscope (more on this below). The reason for not using the sound level meters in PEAK (peak pressure) mode from the start was because this created another (but surmountable) problem. The maximum pressure that could be measured was 140 dB (peak pressure) before overload occurred. For small caliber rifles and pistols, this wasn't a problem. But the peak pressure level (PPL) at the shooter's ear exceeded 140 dB with the majority of the firearms tested. The problem, then, was how to determine the PPL at the shooter's ear without overloading the instruments. The only way to do this was to move the sound level meters a sufficient distance from the shooter so that even the loudest rifle wouldn't overload the meter. In order to determine the PPL at the shooter's ear, a "correction factor" would have to be added to the results obtained with the meter some distance from the rifle. It was desirable to get the SLM as close as possible to the rifles in order to maximize the "signal-to-noise ratio." In short, if the meter is too far away, other noises (environmental, wind, etc.) would be nearly as loud as the noise being measured and possibly obscure the measurement. Fortunately, even the quietest rifle shots were loud enough at 50 ft. to be much louder than the ambient, or background, noise. Fifty feet was chosen because this was the minimum distance from the loudest rifle that wouldn't cause the meters to overload in PEAK mode. A correction factor of 25 dB was determined empirically as follows: A small-bore rifle was fired while the meter was held at the shooter's ear. (Unlike the larger rifles, this didn't overload the meter.) Several shots were fired from the same rifle to ensure measurement repeatability. Next, the sound level meter was placed 50 ft. behind the shooter (and free of obstructions). The same small-bore rifle was fired again. The measured PPL at 50 ft. was 25 dB less than at the shooter's ear; hence the 25 dB correction factor. Readers who have been able to follow this discussion thus far may question the difference between dB SPL (which is the normal unit for sound measurement) and dB PPL. Peak pressure level measurements and SPL use the same reference pressure of 20 microPascal (= 0 dB). Conventional sound pressure level (SPL) measurements reference sound or noise that has a duration exceeding several cycles of vibration. Peak pressure levels measure the single greatest change in pressure, even though the duration may only be half of a cycle. This is justifiable when measuring the intensity of firearms because the peak pressure can occur within one vibratory cycle, plus the ear can perceive the loudness differences of such noise. The results using PPL in lieu of SPL correlate well with our perception of loudness. (Note: This is true for rifle shots, but not necessarily all types of noise.) One noteworthy difference in the results obtained using PPL versus SPL comes to mind. During my first day of testing, I measured 132 dB SPL for an M30 Carbine using GI ammo. The .22/250 (with BOSS) gave a reading of 133 dB SPL. This would lead us to believe that the Browning is only 1 dB louder than the M30 and would suggest a discernible, but not big, difference in loudness. Results obtained using peak pressure measurements yielded a much greater difference. The M30 measured 123 dB PPL (at 50 ft.) and the Browning 22/250 measured 137 dB PPL (again, at 50 ft.). The difference here is 14 dB. Anyone in the vicinity of the test site would have told you that there was a huge difference in loudness between these two rifles. Measurements using PPL reveal this difference; conventional SPL measurements did not. Two sound level meters, a Brüel & Kjær (B&K) model 2209 impulse precision sound level meter and a Larson-Davis 800B, were used to make recordings of the rifle shots. The output of the B&K meter was connected to the right-channel input of a Sony DAT (digital audio tape) recorder. The Larson-Davis SLM was connected to the left-channel of the recorder. Recordings of the rifle shots were analyzed using a Tektronix model 7854 digital storage oscilloscope and SpectraPLUS (Pioneer Hill) spectrum analyzer software. The maximum pressure level using the analyzer was used primarily to confirm the results obtained using the SLM. Note: Both the L-D and B&K meters were calibrated before testing began. Calibration readings were obtained after we completed our testing to verify that the sound level meters did not incur damage during testing. Here are a few observations: The blast noise emanating from a rifle with a muzzle brake is measurably more intense than the same rifle without a muzzle brake. The .300 Win Mag bolt action (using xxx ammo—see Table 1) measured 7.3 dB more intense with the BOSS than without the BOSS. Note: A 7.3 dB increase in PPL is a 2.3-fold increase in sound pressure, as shown below: 20log[2.32P] = 20log2.32 = 20 x 0.365 = 7.3 dB P1 Similarly, the Browning .22/250 (40 grain) measured 7.8 dB more intense with its BOSS than without it. Other comparisons can be made using Table 1. Note: When comparing firearm peak pressure levels using Table 1, remember that a 1 dB difference can be heard, a 3 dB increase is "quite a bit" louder, and a 10 dB increase is "twice as loud." Noise and Hearing Loss Noise surveys using sound level meters are performed in workplaces to determine if workers are at risk for hearing loss. Two primary variables dictate guidelines previously set forth by OSHA: The sound's intensity ("loudness") and the time duration a worker is exposed to noise. According to OSHA guidelines, workers exposed to noise at or below 85 dB SPL(A) are not required to wear hearing protection. Workers exposed to noise levels at 90 dB SPL(A) for up to 8 hours must wear hearing protection. For 95 dB SPL(A), the maximum exposure time is 4 hours; for 100 dB SPL(A) the maximum time is 2 hours—this function of SPL versus time is known as the "5 dB exchange rate." When the noise level increases 5 dB, the maximum safe exposure time is halved. Workers are required to wear hearing protection anytime a noise level exceeds 115 dB SPL(A). But even with these guidelines, approximately 50% of workers could experience some hearing loss at these levels without hearing protection. The effects of hearing loss as a result of blasts (such as those produced by firearms) isn't as well documented as occupational hearing loss. There are individuals who have suffered permanent hearing loss as a result of shooting, but the effects of single, loud-noise events varies from person to person. One common complaint shooters have isn't hearing loss, but tinnitus (a "ringing in the ear"). It should be noted that tinnitus frequently accompanies hearing loss resulting from noise exposure. The most well-known aftereffect of exposure to high-intensity sound is the change in auditory sensitivity. If an individual's auditory threshold (hearing sensitivity) is measured before and after an exposure, the difference in hearing threshold levels is, by definition, the threshold shift (TS). If the threshold shift later disappears, then it is called a temporary threshold shift (TTS). If the shift does not disappear, the final measured threshold shift is called a permanent threshold shift (PTS). The most undesirable aftereffect of exposure to high-intensity sound is a PTS. Sound-induced PTS is commonly divided into two categories depending on whether the loss was produced by a single, short exposure at a very high intensity (acoustic trauma) or by repeated longer exposures to noise at more moderate sound pressure levels. It is clear from animal studies that in acoustic trauma the inner ear has been subjected to such stress that its mechanical (or elastic) limit has been exceeded. Various structures of the organ of Corti, including hair cells (the individual receptor cells within the inner ear), may become partly or wholly detached. Additionally, one or more of the several membranes in the cochlea may be ruptured, allowing an intermixture of fluids of different composition, thereby poisoning hairs cells that survived the mechanical stress. The end consequence is a pronounced loss of hearing sensitivity at the frequencies correlated with the locus of this destruction. Less is known about acoustic trauma in humans, although it is not at all rare. Victims of acoustic trauma seldom have had a recent audiogram that would enable the amount of threshold shift to be determined with certainty. And unlike controlled studies utilizing animals, information regarding the exposure level and duration isn't always known. Finally, differences among people in susceptibility to damage are so great that single cases show that acoustic trauma is possible from a given exposure but not that it is inevitable to everyone exposed. In other words, a given exposure, however it is measured, does not produce the same hearing loss in every ear. Figure 1 (click here) below shows a comparison of single noise exposures that have been shown to be "without hazard" to the average young healthy ear (circled symbols) and those that have apparently produced 15 dB or more of permanentthresholdshift in at least one person (symbols in squares). The dashed line, representing 8 hours of exposure at 100 dB SPL or its energy equivalent (more on this below), divides single exposures that are "probably safe" from those that are capable of causing permanent damage in individuals (ref. 1). Note: Physiological damage to the cochlea by high-intensity sound is not necessarily reflected in a measurable PTS. Evidence from both animal and human studies implies that several hundred of the hair cells that have been presumed to be important in the process of hearing may be destroyed before a change in threshold is measurable (ref. 2). Four of the exposures labeled in the figure are from the studies of Davis et al. (ref. 3) on the effect of noise: Point D—32 minutes at 130 dB SPL; Point M—1 minute exposure to a 2-kHz tone at 130 dB SPL; Point S—8 minute exposure to a 4-kHz tone at 120 dB SPL. Davis himself received a 30 dB increase in his preexisting high-frequency hearing loss after exposure for 20 minutes to a 500-Hz tone at 140 dB SPL (Point H). Other points in Figure 1 include Point SN (ref. 4)—0.4 second at 153 dB (an exposure designed to be equivalent to the sound produced by the opening of an air bag); Point E—1 minute at 135 dB (ref. 5); Point O—the effect of the ring of a cordless telephone in which the same transducer was used for the ringer as well as voice, and produced a measurable PTS in a small fraction of those individuals exposed (ref. 6); and Point L (ref. 7)—an exposure of "a few seconds" to a tone of about 138 dB SPL that was being used to elicit the acoustic reflex (and produced additional damage in two individuals who already had considerable hearing loss). The "8 hours at 100 dB SPL energy equivalent" exposure duration for any intensity greater than 100 dB SPL can be calculated using the following equation: 2.88 x 104 seconds = time (seconds). Antilog[(SPL(dB)-100 dB)/10] Similarly, the exposure intensity for any duration less than 8 hours can be calculated using 10log2.88 x 104 seconds + 100 dB = SPL (dB). time (seconds) Table 1 shows the sound pressure level of each firearm (plus respective ammo and attachments) tested. The "Exposure duration" (the abscissa in Fig. 1) to single rifle shots was measured using a storage oscilloscope for each rifle tested; the results are shown in Table 2 (click here for pdf file). The duration of multiple gun shots is simply the duration of a single shot times the number of shots fired Superimposing the points whose X-Y coordinates are X=time & Y=SPL onto Fig. 1, we can determine the likelihood of safety or the possibility of damage for each firearm tested. If the point appears above the dashed line in Fig. 1, a permanent threshold shift is possible. Figure 2 (click here) shows an extension of the plot shown in Fig. 1. The time scale has been modified to show points that are similar to the duration of the blast noise (e.g., 3.5 milliseconds). The line in Fig. 2 still represents the energy equivalent of 8 hours at 100 dB SPL. The duration of each blast was measured using a digital storage oscilloscope—refer to Fig. 3 (click here) for an example. Because of the complexity of each waveform encountered, only the duration of the noise at its maximum compression and rarefaction is shown in Table 2 (click here for pdf file). Residual peaks exceeding 140 dB SPL at times greater than 10 milliseconds can be seen on the oscilloscope printouts, but their contribution to risk was not taken into account. It is interesting to note that the "louder" rifles also have measurably longer blast duration in addition to greater peak pressures; this is a significant observation because it is the combination of duration and intensity that determine the "equivalent energy" of the noise. Rifle #5 with its respective BOSS (see Fig. 3) produces both great enough SPL and blast duration that three successive rifle blasts would put the shooter at risk for permanent hearing damage resulting from acoustic trauma. Important Notes:The measurements shown in Table 1 are for the actual sound pressure levels encountered at a distance of one foot away from the shooter's ear. The shooter would encounter additional noise (i.e., a greater SPL) in the ear resulting from closer proximity to the rifle's muzzle plus sound transmitted via bone conduction. Sound transmission via bone conduction is very real: Audiologist routinely use bone conduction to test patients' sensorineural (a.k.a. "nerve") hearing thresholds. A "bone conduction" transducer is placed on the mastoid process (bump behind the ear) to transmit sound to the inner ear via bone conduction. Similarly, a shooter's head placed on the rifle stock allows energy travelling through the rifle stock to be transmitted to the inner ear (this is in addition to the airborne blast noise). In short, the values presented in Table 1 would be the minimum sound pressure levels encountered by the shooter for each of the rifles tested. Another important consideration regarding risk criteria is the "equivalent energy" theory: The idea that "equivalent energy" will result in the same amount of damage for a given person may be insufficient in determining risk for intensities greater than 150 dB SPL. One study (ref. 8) showed that 30 impulses (or "rounds") of simulated gunfire at 150 dB SPL peak level created a temporary threshold shift (TTS) in a particular ear, whereas 300 impulses of the same pulse shape at 140 dB SPL (to maintain the same total energy) usually produced no TTS in the same individual. This suggests that 3 impulses at 160 dB SPL would create an even greater TTS for the same individual than 30 impulses at 150 dB SPL, even though the "equivalent energy" is the same. In conclusion, greater sound pressure levels are at least, if not more, damaging than their lower-intensity, but longer duration, "energy equivalent" SPLs. In addition to studies showing that high-intensity impulse noise affects the cochlea differently than does continuous noise, there are logical reasons why the equivalent energy theorem can't always predict risk for hearing damage. Logically, we know there are levels associated with impulses that are dangerous with just one exposure. But at lower levels, individuals can withstand almost an infinite number of the same "signature" impulses (same waveform, but at a lower intensity) without harm. Also, most of the data supporting the equivalent energy theorem have been large-scale demographic studies. Controlled laboratory studies using animals (e.g., ref. 9) have shown that hearing loss resulting from exposure to impulse noise of equal energy increases with peak level. To iterate: The danger of hearing loss resulting from a single exposure to high-intensity impulse noise is atleast as great as what we would predict using Figures 1 or 2. Another important question is "What is the risk using the same rifle and ammo (rifle #5 with xxx ammo) without its respective BOSS?" The peak pressure level without the BOSS is 157.5 dB PPL, and the duration of a single blast is 3.5 milliseconds (click here for Fig. 4). The maximum "safe" exposure time for 157.5 dB SPL is 51 milliseconds and is the time equivalent of 15 successive blasts. (Note that the blast duration is shorter for the same rifle/ammo combination without its BOSS.) Of the rifles tested, the rifle/ammo combinations that would put shooters at highest risk for hearing loss are rifles #5 and #9 with there respective BOSS plus high velocity or high-energy ammo. At 165.5 dB SPL (rifle #5), an exposure longer than 8 milliseconds would put the shooter in the "danger zone." This is slightly greater than the duration of two shots, but less than three rifle shots at the measured duration of 3.5 milliseconds per shot (click here for Fig. 5). As previously stated, the shooter would experience a minimum SPL of 165.5 (without hearing protection), and the duration of exposure to a single shot is atleast 3.5 milliseconds. It is entirely possible that a single rifle shot at this intensity and duration could cause a temporary or permanent threshold shift! The calculations and measurements provide us with information that can be used in conjunction with prior studies to suggest what is "possible" or "likely" versus what is "unlikely" (but not impossible!!). Similarly, rifle #9 with its BOSS plus high-energy ammo (click here for Fig. 6) measured 164.5 dB SPL and 3.8 milliseconds duration. Again, the shooter would be in the "danger zone" between 2 and 3 shots. Referring to Figures 5 and 6, we see that there's a lot of energy subsequent to the primary compression/rarefaction of these blasts; consequently, the actual duration of exposure is greater than the value used in the above calculations, and the chances of a PTS are increased. Additional Measurements and Notes Sound level meters are but one type of instrument used to analyze sound: Other measuring devices are used to measure characteristics of sound other than intensity. One such device is known as a "spectrum analyzer." In general, spectrum analysis refers to a detailed observation of the individual parameters of a signal. In acoustics, the parameters of interest are time, frequency and amplitude. A simple example of spectrum analysis can be demonstrated using a prism. White light shown through a prism reveals that white light is actually composed of many colors. In essence, this is spectrum analysis because we see the color spectrum of white light. Like light, most noise or sounds (other than pure tones) are made up of discrete tones or "colors." More accurately, any sound at a given time can be expressed as the sum of its individual frequency components. To give an example, a piano and violin sound different from one another, even when playing the same note. The reason for this is because each instrument produces harmonics, or overtones, in addition to a fundamental frequency or "pitch." A spectrum analyzer allows us to see the frequencies, or harmonics, that make up such sounds. A violin produces different harmonics than a piano or a flute; consequently, they sound different from each other. The same goes for the human voice: A man and woman talking at the same volume, or sound pressure level, are readily distinguishable. We can also use a spectrum analyzer to study the noise resulting from blasts. Many of us claim we can identify a rifle shot from a pistol or a shotgun blast. Clearly, this isn't just a function of loudness because some rifles are louder than pistols, others aren't, etc. What allows us to distinguish a pistol from a rifle is the relative combination of frequencies that make up their individual, or characteristic, sound. The technique used to generate a plot of a sound's individual frequency components is called Fourier Transformation, named for the French mathematician who developed the technique. I used "Fast Fourier Transform" (FFT) spectrum analysis to obtain the results shown. Visual inspection of these plots gives evidence that not all firearms sound the same, but perhaps similar. Though not demonstrated here, other types of blasts, such as a balloon popping, don't sound like firearms. Notes Note 1. The Sony DAT recorder was "calibrated" as follows: An acoustic calibrator was attached to the microphones of the Larson-Davis and B&K SLMs. The calibrator provides a 1 kHz (1000 c.p.s.), 114 dB SPL acoustic signal. At this SPL, the DAT's record level was set at minus 34 dB. This allowed the Sony DAT to record signals as loud as 148 dB SPL without distorting. With a 114 dB input and the record level set to -34 dB, the electrical output was 163 millivolts. The recordings were later analyzed using a digital storage oscilloscope and spectrum analysis software. Here are two examples: 1. 7mm Mouser (no BOSS). Using a storage oscilloscope, a peak voltage of 1017 millivolts was measured. (A storage oscilloscope is needed because the duration of this signal is about 0.003 seconds.) Using 163 millivolts = 114 dB as the reference, we get Note 2. The 25 dB correction factor is explained in the text. Distance from the source and air itself account for the attenuation (very high frequencies are absorbed more readily by air because the acoustic energy is dissipated in the form of friction). Spectral analysis indicated that most of the energy produced by the blasts (rifles, shotguns, and pistols) was in the low- to mid-frequency range of audible frequencies. For this reason, the correction factor is accurate for all firearms tested, regardless of their PPL. Note 3. Relationship between sound pressure and sound power. Sound pressure level (SPL) measurements use a reference pressure of 0.00002 Pascal (Pa). A reference power could be used, but this requires measuring the movement of the individual air molecules. The relationship between power (I) and pressure (P) is I (power) = P2 where Za is the impedance (mechanical resistance) of air. Za What's important to note here is that if we double the pressure P, we get a four-fold increase in power (Za doesn't change). Consequently, if we use power (either acoustical or electrical) as our decibel (dB) reference, we no longer multiply the log of the ratio by 20. Instead, we multiply the log of the ratio by 10. An example demonstrates that our end result in dB is the same. As previously shown, doubling the pressure gives us a 6 dB increase in SPL. Using the above equation (I = P2/Z), we see that doubling the pressure gives four times the power. Our dB equation using power is 10 logPower . If power increases 4X, we get 10 log (4) = 6 dB. Pwr(ref) This is why adding a second loudspeaker to your stereo only adds 3 dB SPL to the overall loudness. Imagine that your stereo is delivering 4 watts to the right loudspeaker. We connect the left channel's loudspeaker, so now we have a total of 8 watts. Using our ubiquitous dB formula, we get 10 log8 watts = 10 log (2) = 3 dB increase in SPL. 4 watts Remember, 3 dB is a noticeable increase in loudness, but a 10 dB increase is needed for the sound to be perceived as "twice as loud." Incidentally, a 10 dB increase is equivalent to a 10 fold increase in power (not to mention a 3.16 fold increase in pressure). This means 40 watts, not 8 watts, is twice as loud as 4 watts.	eng	4853bb84-e123-4545-90c7-bc312204a25d	http://www.elcaudio.com/decibel.htm
Bio-Diversity And The Challenges Written By : Kriti Dwivedi - Vth year student, National Law Institute University Search On:Laws in India "There are many factors responsible for the loss of biodiversity, which is occurring at a very alarming rate. If humanity is to avoid becoming once again a spices consisting of scattered group practicing subsistence agriculture, dramatic steps will be necessary. Conservation programmes are one such step in this direction, but the problem lies in their implementation. And hence through public awareness, change in the attitude of the people is required. Moreover improvements in technologies do to some extent solve problems of extinction but to solely rely on them may be dangerous, because every technology not only provides certain benefits but also involves risks, and hence the effort should be towards regulation of these technologies so that benefits are enjoyed and dangers are avoided. Emphasis should also be laid upon the regeneration aspect." Introduction: The concept of biodiversity had its origin in mid 1980 though the earth and the evolution processes are very ancient phenomenon. The most acceptable definition of Bio-diversity is the one held by the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), which was signed by more than 150 nations in 1992 at Rio-De-Janeiro. It defines: "Biological diversity means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems". Biodiversity may be defined as the sum total of species richness that is the number of species of plants, animals and microorganisms occurring in a given habitat. It includes diversity of forms right from the molecular unit to the individual organism, and then on to the population, community, ecosystem, landscape and biospheric levels. In the simplest sense, biodiversity may be of the following types: Genetic Diversity: (Diversity within species): it refers to the variation of genes within species. A species can have varieties and each variety its own genes or genetic makeup. This constitutes distinct population of the same species or genetic variation within population or varieties within a species. Diversity of genes within a species increases its ability to adapt to disease, pollution and other changes in environment. Species Diversity: (Diversity between species): it refers to the variety of species within a region. Such diversity could be measured on the basis of number of species in a region. Ecosystem Diversity: In a ecosystem, there may exist different landforms, each of which supports different and specific vegetation. Ecosystem diversity in contrast to genetic and specific diversity is difficult to measure since the boundaries of the community which constitute the various sub ecosystems are elusive. All these three levels are linked and constitute a gene pool. The 1992, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development at Rio put Biological Diversity on the International agenda by signing the Convention on Biological Diversity. This Convention addresses many issues ranging from forests, agriculture to Intellectual Property Rights. Before signing CBD, a lot of preparations were done. In August 1988, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) convened a high level panel of experts to advise it whether a global biodiversity convention was timely, and if so what should it include. UNEP then convened a series an inter-governmental meetings to develop the CBD. CBD was then signed at Rio. India is signatory to CBD and ratified it in 1993.The Convention, in contrast far from a neutral document, is amply revealed by its objectives as below: ".....the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of the genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer for relevant technologies, taking into account al rights over those resources and technologies and by appropriate funding." The Loss Of Diversity: Discussions of the current extinction crisis all to often focus on the fates of the prominent endangered species, and in many cases on deliberate over exploitation by human beings as the cause of the endangerment. The time has come, however, to focus public attention on a number of more of more obscure and (to most people) unpleasant truths, such as the following: (i) The primary cause of the decay of organic diversity is not direct human exploitation or malevolence, but the habitat destruction that inevitable results from the expansion of human populations and human activities. (ii) Many of the less cuddly, less spectacular organisms that Homo sapiens is wiping out are more important to the human future than are most of the publicized endangered species. People need plants and insects more than they need leopards and whales. (iii) Other organisms have provided humanity with the very basis of civilization in the form of crops, domestic animals, a wide range of industrial products, and many important medicines. Nonetheless, the most important anthropocentric reason for preserving diversity is the role that microorganisms, plants and animals play in providing free ecosystems services, without which society in its present form could not persist . (iv) The loss of genetically distinct populations within species is, at the moment, at least as important a problem as the loss of entire species. Once a specie is reduced to a remnant, its ability to benefit humanity ordinarily declines greatly, and its total extinction in the relatively near future becomes much more likely. By the time an organisms is recognized as endangered it is often too late to save it. (v) Extrapolation of the current trends in the reduction of diversity implies a denouement for civilization within the net 100 years comparable to a nuclear winter. (vi) Arresting the loss of diversity will be extremely difficult. The traditional "just set aside a preserve" approach is almost certain to be inadequate because of certain factors such as runaway human population growth, acid rains, and climate change induced by human beings. A quasi-religious transformation leading to the appreciation of the diversity for its own sake, apart from the obvious direct benefits to humanity, may be required to save other organisms and ourselves. This utter dependence of organisms on appropriate environments is what makes ecologist so certain that today's trends of habitat destruction and modification- especially in the high diversity tropical forest (where atleast one half of all human species are believed to dwell)-are an infallible recipe for biological impoverishment. Those politicians and social scientist who have questioned the extent of current extinctions are simply displaying their deep ignorance of ecology; habitat modification and destruction and extinction of populations and species go hand in hand. The extirpation of populations and species or organisms exerts its primary impact on society through the impairment of ecosystems services. All plants, animals, and micro organisms exchange gases with their environments and are thus directly or indirectly involved in maintaining the mix of gases in the atmosphere. Changes in that mix (such as increase in carbon di-oxide) can lead to rapid climate change and in turn agricultural disaster. As Physicist John Holdren put it, a carbon dioxide induced climatic change could lead to the deaths by famine of as many as a billion people before 2020. Destroying forests deprives humanity not only of the timber but also of dependable freshwater supplies and further more increases the danger of floods. Natural ecosystems maintain a vast genetic library that has already provided people with countless benefits and had the potential for providing many more. The basic point is that organisms most of which are obscure to non-biologist play roles in eco systems that are essential to civilization. When a population playing a certain role is wiped out, ecosystems services suffer, even if many other populations of the same organism are still extant. What will happen if the current decimation of the organic diversity continues? Crop yields will be more difficult to maintain in the face of the climatic change, soil erosion, loss of dependable water supplies, decline of pollinators, and even more serious assaults by pests. Conversion of productive land to wasteland will accelerate, deserts will expand more. Air pollution will increase, and local climate will become harsher. Humanity will have to forego many of the direct economic benefits it might have withdrawn from the earth's once well-stocked genetic library. Life expectancies will be lowered due to development of more incurable diseases. Humanity will bring upon itself consequences depressingly similar to those expected from a nuclear winter . Barring a nuclear conflict, it appears that civilization will disappear some time before the end of the next century-not with a bang but with a whimper. Challenges To Biological Diversity: Unfortunately losses of animal and plants species are restricted neither to temperate zone urban areas nor to the developed world. Urban impacts on biological diversity reach their most devastating in the third world. Although the full extent of this urban environmental degradation is virtually impossible to convey, its underlying causes are comparatively simple to identify. With few exceptions, losses for naturally occurring biological diversity are incidental to human activities. Thus, urban areas are effectively synonymous with ecosystem disruption and the erosion of biological diversity. Natural habitats are replaced directly by houses, condominiums, hotels and malls as well as by streets, highways and utilities that support them. Historically, urban areas were the first regions subjected to local overkill of wildlife for food, fur and feathers and through misdirected predator control programs. They were also the first to experience logging and weed eradication programs. The biological diversity of urban areas has been among the most severely affected by the introduction of animal species, which prey on native animal populations, compete for limited resources and act as vectors for novel diseases and parasites to which native organisms can be particularly susceptible. Great effects on biological diversity in urban areas also can result from the less direct sources, including many of the air and water borne pollutants that imperil human health. Toxic by-products of the industrial production have been found to disrupt natural ecosystems . Air borne pollutants are especially insidious, since they expand the reach of urban blight far beyond city limits. More subtle impacts on biological diversity result from the over drafting local aquifers, dropping water tables and ground subsidence. This wide array of obvious and subtle factors contribute to the disruption of the ecosystem function, the decoupling of interactions among species, and the disappearance of populations or organisms from urban locales. Why should that concern us? Because losses of just a few populations can result in a great destabilization of natural ecological communities an, as a consequence, in a decrement in the ability to those communities to provide a wide array of services. The arguments for protecting biological diversity in urban areas seem straightforward, but the implementation of conservation programs in urban areas is among the most difficult problems faced by the environmentalist. Some areas are so disturbed that functioning, naturally occurring ecosystems are no longer identifiable, whereas other urban habitats remain effectively undisturbed. Open spaces in inner cities often support only species that are particularly well adapted to human impact. Such areas are nearly always small and extremely isolated, and their maintenance and enhancement demand extensive and continuous hands-on management. The conservations goals in such areas must usually aim at maximizing biological diversity to the extent possible rather than preserving all remaining resident species. The single greatest threat to the biological diversity of relatively intact natural communities in and around urban areas in the destruction of natural habitats and their conversion to other uses. The paving over of natural habitats as urban activities sprawl outward destroys and fragments remnant functioning ecosystems. The redistribution of water through channelisation and impoundment of flowing waters, and the draining of some wetlands and the flooding of others, destroys undeveloped habitat areas. Decreases in local biological diversity resulting from losses of habitat area and insularization of habitat remnants are compounded by the more subtle effects of fragmentation. Losses of single, specific microhabitats within an otherwise undisturbed habitat can cause the local extinction of certain species. Disruption of even narrow corridors of natural habitat between large habitat patches can lead to losses of species. Vast differences in temperature, humidity, light availability and wind exposure exist between forest edges and interiors and affect habitat suitability for some species. In addition, losses of certain species due to any one or more causes can affect closely associated species sometimes leading ultimately to secondary extinction events. In light if these basic ecological facts, conservation of the full range of urban biological diversity necessitates the protection of the largest possible expanses of natural habitat. Yet, that simple prescription is usually impossible to fill in urban areas, where the forces acting to decrease the size of remaining natural habitats are greatest. These conflicting pressures interact to determine urban conservation policy and to force biologists to justify the sizes of biological reserves. Economic and political considerations in urban areas make preservation participation difficult. Land costs are high because of high demand, and the vast majority of the urban space is the private property. The few publicly owned open spaces are subject to intensive, varied uses, many of which are incompatible with preserving biological diversity. Local political institutions usually favor development over preservation. The Endangered Species Act with its mandate outlawing the "take" of any endangered species is the best tool for protecting biological diversity in urban areas of this country. Efforts to conserve the full extent of biological diversity by using the Endangered Species Act must target species that are most susceptible to habitat loss. The protection of extinction prone species can be the key to facilitating the conservation of biological diversity in urban areas. In the urban United States, three groups must interact to assist the Endangered Species Act in protecting biological diversity. Field Biologist must aid in the identification and survey of potential umbrella species. Conservation organizations must use that information and citizen petitions to get appropriate umbrella species protected via the endangered list. In response, the Office of Endangered Species will have to reassess listing priorities. Can this urban biological diversity be protected? Overpopulation, chronic poverty, and fuel shortages in the third world create unrelenting pressures to exploit all available local resources. These pressures certainly will become more overwhelming in the future. Our urban centers can be viewed as bellwethers of our global environmental fate. Our success at meeting the challenges of protecting biological diversity in urban areas is a good measure of out commitment to protect functioning ecosystems worldwide. If we cannot act as responsible stewards in our own backyards, the long-term prospects for biological diversity in the rest of this planet are grim indeed. The Need For Conservation: In 1997, at the U.N. Special Session of the General Assembly to Review and Appraise the Implementation of Agenda 21, it was acknowledged that five years after the UNCED the state of the global environment had continued to deteriorate and significant environmental problems remain deeply embedded in the socio-economic fabric of countries in all regions. This assessment indicated that, in terms of the condition of the global environment, things were not on course and were in fact worsening. There remains an urgent need for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of components of genetic resources. The threat to biodiversity stems mainly from habitat destruction, over-harvesting, pollution and the inappropriate introduction of foreign plants and animals . To conserve the biodiversity, the immediate task will be to devise and enforce time bound programme for saving plant and animal species as well as habitats of biological resources. Traditionally conservation has been polarized into two separate approaches that is ex-situ and in-situ. The ecologists and conservationist prefer in-situ conservation while the agriculturist and species oriented biologist prefer the former. In-situ Conservation: In situ conservation refers to protection of zones and areas of high biological diversity. These areas described as natural ecosystems, will protect species with minimum human interference. Since most of the threatened organisms occur as components of biotic communities in open sites, restoring them in such habitats through judicious protection measures is required. Scientific studies in regard to in situ conservation should focus on the following lines: (a) Applied research for conservation of living resources; (b) Interlinkages between plant and animal species; (c) Quantitative assessment of the conservation status of the species; (d) Multiplication and restoration of endangered, rare and endemic species using biotechnology; (e) Assessment of the impact of exotic species on the ecosystem (f) The possible climatic change and its impact on the biodiversity; (g) Primary production and cycling of nutrients in the soil. Ex-situ Conservation: India has done commendably well as far as ex-situ conservation of crop genetic resources is concerned. It has also taken up such work on livestock, poultry and fish genetic resources. However, there is a need to develop facilities for long and medium term conservation through: (i) Establishment of genetic enhancement centers for producing good quality seeds; (ii) Enhancement in the existing Zoos and botanical garden network; (iii) Seed-gene banks; (iv) Pollen and spores banks; (v) Tissue culture gene bank; (vi) Captive breeding in zoological gardens; and (vii) In-vivo and in-vitro preservation. Both these conservation methods should be given equal importance as measures in biodiversity conservation. Release of genetically modified organisms should be regulated at national and international level, and there should be adequate dissemination of information about such release by the respective countries. The conservation of Biodiversity is a global responsibility. In its Status Report to the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, India statedthat: . . . national action regarding conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources demands appropriate actions on the part of international community. The international community would then have to respond accordingly. The principle of "common and differentiated responsibility" established at UNCED has not yet fully taken hold in the relations between Northern and Southern governments. The Report of the U.N. Secretary General on "Implementing Agenda 21", in its part F, dealing with Sustainable management of ecosystems and biodiversity, articulates the range of activities required in the sector. The degradation of natural ecosystems may, in some cases, be moving towards critical thresholds beyond which natural resilience is destroyed and recovery becomes difficult or even impossible. Commitments should be made and initiatives agreed upon to halt and reverse the current degradation of the natural environment by: 1: Site-specific research is necessary to advance the understanding of the ecosystem composition. Improving indicators and data on land degradation and improvement in order to assess and manage those processes and their impacts; 2: Defining intellectual property rights relating to biological resources in order to ensure that benefits derived from the use of genetic material are equitably shared; 3: Fully implementing the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, which is currently hampered by the lack of funding and the need for large investments to address land-based sources of pollution; 4: Improving the management of marine and coastal protected areas and increasing their number since protected reserves (or no-take areas) have been shown to increase the diversity and productivity of marine organisms; 5: Integrating agriculture with other aspects of land management and ecosystem conservation in order to promote both environmental sustainability and agricultural production; 6: Improving policies and laws to allow for a more systematic approach to sustainable mountain development, addressing such issues as property rights, economic incentives, political empowerment and the preservation of cultural heritage in an integrated manner; 10:Monitoring to detect major changes in the status of the biological diversity. Every sphere of research on biodiversity and its conservation-biological, economic and cultural-will require activities across ecological zones. Each developing country should build their own competent researchers and develop solid institutions. The task ahead at the 2002 WSSD in Johannesburg is to move the protection of developing nations' biodiversity rights beyond the paper protections of the CBD. There have also been attempts at preparing Community/ Peoples Biodiversity Registers (CBRs/PBRs) in several parts of India, a process and product, which is yet to be given formal recognition by the State. The CBRs not only serve as local directories of biological resources but, in their making, a valuable process for community management of biological resources. There are also other several ongoing efforts at community-based conservation (CBC), some of which even find mention in India's submission to the WTO which seek to highlight how trade negatively impacts local control over biological resources and their knowledge. An important process oriented activity under the CBD is the making of the National Biodiversity and Strategy Action Plan (NBSAP) in which the country's largest ever exercise in environment and development planning is involving tens of thousands of people in making 75 local, state, regional, and thematic action plans . If humanity is to avoid becoming once again a spices consisting of scattered group practicing subsistence agriculture, dramatic steps will be necessary. They can only be briefly outlined here. Simply setting aside preserves in the remaining relatively undisturbed ecosystems will no longer suffice. In most parts of the planet such areas are too scarce, and rapid climatic changes may make those preserves impossible to maintain . Areas already greatly modified by the human activities must be made more hospitable for other organisms, for example the spewing of toxins into the environment must be abated. Above all, the growth of the human population must be halted, since it is obvious that if the scale of the human activities continues to increase for even a few more decades, the extinction of the much of the earth's biota cannot be avoided. Reducing that scale will be an especially difficult task, since it means that the environmental impacts of the rich must be enormously curtailed to permit the poor a chance for reasonable development. Although improvements in the technologies use to support human life and the affluence can of course help to ameliorate the extinction crisis, and to a limited extent technologies can substitute for the lost ecosystems services, it would be dangerous miscalculation to look to technology for the answer . Only an intensive effort to make those improvements and substitutions, combined with a revolution in attitudes towards other people, population growth, the purpose of human life, and the intrinsic value of organic diversity, is likely to prevent the worst catastrophe ever to befall the human lineage. Curiously, scientific analysis points towards the need for the quasi-religious transformation of contemporary cultures. We must begin this formidable effort by increasing public awareness of the urgent need for action. People everywhere should understand the importance of loss of bio diversity. The geological record can tell us much about the catastrophic mass extinctions in the past. That, and more intensive studies of the living biota, can provide hints about what we might expect in the future. At the present time, data's on the rate and direction of biodiversity loss remain sparse and often uncertain. As a result, estimates of the rate of loss, including the number and variety of species that are disappearing, vary greatly. More over scientist have also differed in their predictions of the eventual impact that will result from the diminishing diversity. Biotechnology: Modern biotechnology is found to offer the mankind the potential of enormous benefit-including healthier and longer life with plenty of water and food. Modern day biotechnology deals generally with molecular biology and specifically with genetic engineering. Basically biotechnology concerns 'techniques' for using the properties of living things to make products or services. Thus the OCED defines biotechnology to be "the application of scientific and engineering principles to processing of materials by biological agents to produce food and services. According to the CBD biotechnology "means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use. The Indian 1989 Hazardous Microorganisms Rules defines biotechnology as to mean "the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials by biological agents to produce goods and services". Thus the modern biotechnology involves scientific techniques on living things for commercial exploitation. The technique include: a) Selecting natural strains of organisms that carry desirable traits; b) Making hybrids by fusing cells from different parental sources; c) Using chemicals and radiation to create mutant strains or genetically engineered plants, animal, and microorganisms to produce specific phenotype characteristic . Like most modern technologies, biotechnology cannot be confined within the borders of a single state. Indeed the techniques of genetic manipulation are so simple and relatively inexpensive that the Third World countries may easily claim a share of the important discoveries that are certain to result. The next decade is therefore, likely to witness intense competition among nations of leadership roles in the development of new biotechnologies. Benefits: 'Agriculture: Perhaps the most immediate benefits from biotechnology will flow from its agricultural uses. Through relatively simple genetic engineering techniques, scientist can create biological pesticides that are highly selective and therefore not as likely to cause adverse environmental side effects as chemical pesticides. Genetic modification techniques can also be applied directly to plants to improve yields. For example, scientists should soon be able to create plants that have a higher resistance to diseases and drought. In addition to increasing yields, genetic engineering can increase crop quality by enhancing nutritional value, flavor and processability. The development of agricultural biotechnologies will be of particular interest to developing countries, where agriculture is often a mainstay of the economy and where the pressure of past land use is rapidly reducing the capacity of existing technologies to increase yields. Biotechnology has the potential greatly to improve the productivity of land by reducing the quantities of water and energy necessary to raise a given crop while at the same time preserving essential soil nutrients. It may well be that new products of biotechnology will become essential to the survival of some 3rd world countries as population pressures relentlessly demand greater agricultural production from fewer natural resources. 'Public Health: Genetic engineering techniques can be used to manufacture live animal vaccines to protect human beings from vector borne diseases. Scientist are also attempting genetically to modify mosquitoes to make them incapable of transmitting diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. 'Mineral Development: Genetically altered microorganisms are capable of leaching metals from low grade ores and thereby enhance recovery of such metals such as copper etc. Unlike traditional metal recovery techniques, biotechnology does not require high temperatures and pressures, and it is significantly less polluting. Similar technologies might also be used to mine deposits that are otherwise unreachable. Bioengineered microorganisms might also be used to facilitate crude oil recovery from marginal wells. Microorganisms could be designed to lower viscosity of the oil in place and to increase underground pressure by generating carbon dioxide. 'Pollution Control: The very first genetically engineered microorganisms to receive a patent in the US was designed to digest crude oil into less toxic substances. Microorganisms already play a prominent role in water pollution control technology, and genetic engineering techniques have an enormous potential both for enhancing the efficiency of the existing pollution destroying bugs and for producing new microorganisms that are capable of rendering toxic pollutants in drinking water harmless. As with many modern technological developments, the enormous benefits of biotechnology will not come without corresponding social and environmental risks. Biotechnology has a dualistic character. On the one hand, it offers developing countries new ways of solving a number of major constraints and it also can contribute to their economic independence. On the other hand, its application and use can cause social, economic and ecological problems. Risks: 'Substitution of traditional commodities: Using biotechnology it has become possible to produce substitutes for some traditional commodities. This development threatens those countries that depend heavily on the export of few commodities. As commodities become extremely interchangeable, the processing companies (which are mainly located in the industrialized countries) have a wider choice of material. Because of their economically weak position and narrow export base, developing countries will suffer from the loss of export markets for one or more commodities, and this can have serious adverse consequences for their development. 'Industrialization of Agriculture: Much of the current biotechnological plant research is carried out by multinationals and is aimed mainly at large scale, commercial agriculture. The technology developed is adapted to the needs of this type of agriculture. More than 75% of agricultural production in developing countries, however, is on a small scale. The currently available biotechnology is not adapted to the needs of the small producers or their limited ability to invest and is thus unsuitable for them. The large commercial producers will be able to make use of the technology, thus increasing their productions, but that of the small farmers would remain the same. Increased production will lead to lower prices, which is good for the general public but bad for small farmers. This may lead to even more migration to the over crowded cities, where there is no prospect for work. Another problem associated with the industrialization of agriculture is that more and more crops are being sown with the same genetic base. The narrowing of the genetic base of the main commercial and food crops increases the risk from diseases and pests because the whole plant population becomes equally susceptible to disease and environmental stresses. This genetic erosion threatens the world supply of food and plant improvement research, which is based on genetic diversity. 'Privatization of Knowledge and Technology: The idea of patents on products and processes in microorganisms goes against the principle of free availability of natural genetic resources. At both the national and international level there is still no clear definition of which new developments might be covered by patent law. Patenting in advanced countries will jeopardize these countries export markets and small scale food production, and that as a result the gap between he third worlds countries and the west and between the developing countries themselves will widen. Moreover, biotechnological research in industrialized countries ignores any possible consequences for developing countries. 'Effects on People and the Environment: In many cases the application of biotechnology will involve the introduction of new or modified organisms into the areas where they were not found in the same form or to the same extent. The effect of this might include the following: 1: disease in people, animals and plants; 2: disturbance of ecosystem; 3: transfer of new genetic properties to other species; and 4: decrease of genetic diversity. Very little is known about the possible risks of introducing genetically modified organism (GMO'S) into the environment. Living organisms reproduce and, once released, they are hard to control. The effects may be irreversible. In developing countries, the infrastructure is not strong enough for effective production of biotechnology-generated products. A further constraint is the weak distribution and marketing networks. The problem of mass poverty in the 3rd world is essentially one of rural poverty. Biotechnology applications in rural areas can contribute to poverty alleviation if they are accompanied by widespread gains in the purchasing power of the poor through the creation of increase employment opportunities in rural areas. The International Dimensions: There can be little doubt from the foregoing that the development of the deliberate release biotechnologies in the foreseeable future will have important international dimensions. Although it may already be too late to implement an international solution to the anticipated problems posed by the future worldwide spread of biotechnologies (given the slow pace at which international institutions move), it is worth while to explore the international aspects of biotechnology and to ask whether international solutions mat be appropriate. One consideration is since citizens and the environment in one country can be harmed by biotechnologies originating in another country, an international approach to regulating deliberate release biotechnologies is required. Since most responsible scientist agree that at least some kinds of release of genetically engineered microorganisms into the environment, most countries in which deliberate releases are likely to occur will probably erect some form of regulatory programme for health and environmental protection. At the same time, it is unlikely that all countries will erect identical regulatory regimes. Multinational corporations will play the predominant role in the international development and marketing of such technologies and a multinational company that faces stringent regulatory requirements in one country may be tempted to conduct field testing and marketing in a country with less stringent regulations. The only way to prevent transnational "forum shopping" is to achieve international uniformity through international law. Either an international liability regime must be capable of dissuading multinational companies from seeking out the least capable regulators or an international agreement must provide for some minimum level of health and environmental protection in all countries in which companies are likely to conduct field tests, erect manufacturing facilities or otherwise expose humans and the environment to genetically modified plants and microorganisms. A uniform international regulatory regime will be more attractive to companies attempting to market novel biotechnologies. The implications of biotechnology applications seems to be quite significant. Development of commercial biotechnology though possess certain remedies to the worldwide problems in varied fields it also possess certain problems. It has actual and potential risks to human beings and plant life as well as environment. Fears have arisen over unknown toxins, antibiotics resistance, and genetic pollution. In addition to these general fears of the world as a whole, the third world countries have expressed their concern over development of commercial biotechnology. The third world countries have already expressed their fear and concern over "Bio-Colonialism" and "Bio-Piracy". Apart from scientific and political concerns of biotechnology, there are also concerns founded on ethical and religious grounds for example interference with nature and God Designs. All these concern cumulatively suggest the need for the regulation of biotechnology. Moreover, any unregulated, unbridled development could cause chaos in the society that is why jurisprudentially it is said that law has to be responsive to not only to the social economic and political but also to the technological developments/changes that take place in the society/community. Regulating Biotechnology: The Basic Issues: he need for regulating biotechnology has been felt a decade ago. However currently there is not a single particular institution created for the exclusive purpose of regulating biotechnology and products of biotechnology . It is simply because biotechnology issue is not simply one issue at all but a complex matrix of issues that touch upon scientific, political, social, ethical and economic concerns and hardly any international institutions has the scope, the resilience, the political support or expertise to provide and support a comprehensive framework for the regulation of biotechnology. The various concerns expressed regarding biotechnology and biotechnology products essentially revolve around 2 basic questions: "Is it safe?" and "Is it good?". It has been found that the question "is biotechnology safe?" further breaks down into 2 sub questions: 1. How does one regulate biotechnology to protect human health and plants and animals for human consumption? 2. How does one regulate biotechnology to protect against threats to environment; and the question "Is biotechnology good" also breaks into two parts: How does one regulate biotechnology to balance socio-economic interest? Need we establish some ethical boundaries for manipulating life? Thus with respect to the second aspect "Is it safe"? question the biosafety regulations assume greater significance. In other words the biosafety regulations/rules provide the necessary answer to the question, from the environmental perspective how one can regulate biotechnology? Bio-safety: Generally speaking 'Biosafety' is an all embracing term referring to safety measures relating to potential or actual adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity including risks to human health, arising as a consequence of the application of the modern biotechnology . Thus incidentally biosafety measures can operate so as to regulate the biotechnology and its products. The safety measures may, for example, include a ban on the biotechnology product or its import, based on the risks assessment- risk assessment for releasing genetically modified organisms (GMO's) into the environment and the risk management requirements once the GMO is in the environment; the Bio labeling (to indicate that the product is a product of biotechnology). The Bio-safety Protocol: The first protocol under the framework of 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was conducted when the parties to the CBD negotiated over the course of 5 years and then adopted on Jan 29, 2000 The Cartegena Protocol on Bio safety to the Convention on Biological Diversity . The biosafety Protocol by means of 40 articles and 3 annexes aims at creating an international framework for addressing the environmental risks and effects of some products of biotechnology. The objective of Biosafety Protocol is: "To contribute to ensuring an adequate level of protection in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health and specifically focusing on trans-boundary movement." Thus the biosafety protocol is concerned with the safety of living modified organisms (LMO's) resulting from the modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity including risks to human health. Obligations: Under Art.2 (2) of the Protocol a general obligation to ensure that the development, handling, transport, use, transfer and release of GMOs is done in such a manner that it prevents or reduces the risks to biological diversity including risks to human health, is imposed. This general obligation of bio safety protection is realized at two levels. Firstly by imposing certain general obligations like duty t co-operate in relation to GMO matters (Art 16 (5) ), specifically in research on the socio-economic impact of the GMOs (Art 26) and to make financial provisions for national operations aimed at the implementation of the Protocol (Art. 28 (1) ). At the second level the biosafety protection is ensured by insisting upon risk assessment, risk management, transparency and import measures. It is of the interest to know that the precautionary principle as contained in Art. 15 of CBD is incorporated in the risk assessment. Risk management refers to the maintenance of mechanisms and strategies to manage and control risks that have become known as a consequence of risk assessments. Coming to transparency framework, it comprises the Advanced Informed Agreement Procedure (AIA procedure). This procedure deals with (a) intentional [Art. 7] and unintentional [Art. 17] transboundary movements of GMO's. (b) GMO's intended to be introduced into the environment (Art.7) and GMO's intended for direct use as food or feed or for processing (Art 11). Another aspect of the transparency measures is that the Bio safety Clearing- House is to facilitate "the exchange of scientific, technical, environmental and legal information and experience with the LMO's. Thus the Bio safety Protocol provides a regulatory framework for GMO's. The regulatory framework though could be only for a limited purpose namely transboundary movement of the GMO's assumes grater significance as it encompasses bio-safety provisions. Indian 1989 Hazardous Micro Organisms Rules (Bio Safety rules): In exercise of the powers conferred by the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and with a view to protect the environment, nature and health in connection with the application of gene technology and micro organisms, the Govt. of India has made the Rules for the manufacture, use, import, export and storage of hazardous micro-organisms, genetically engineered organisms or cells. The rules cover biotechnology products developed using techniques like cell hybridization and genetic engineering or by any such other gene technologies (Rules 2(3)). Various competent authorities have been created to ensure and supervise the compliance of the safety measures like Recombinant DNA advisory Committee; Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation; Institutional Bio safety Committee; Genetic Engineering Approval Committee; State Biotechnology Co-ordination Committee; District level committee. The implications of biotechnology and biotechnology products are alarming. Biotechnology, like any other branch of science brings both good and evil. To curb these evil effects and at the same time to derive benefits to the mankind, biotechnology has to be regulated because it may even pose threat to our own survival. In this context only bio safety measures to some extent assume significance. The Bio safety measures basically address the environmental concerns of the biotechnology and bioproducts/GMO's/LMO's. At the international level the Bio-safety Protocol governs the transboundary movements of GMOs. At the national level by the 1989 Hazardous Microorganisms Rules, an attempt is made to regulate the manufacture, import and storage of LMO's. The import, export, transport manufacture, process, uses or sales of LMOs can only be dome with the approval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee. The discharge of the GMOs can be prohibited in specific areas. Deliberate and unintentional release of the GMOs even for the experimental purposes except in special cases is totally prohibited. Food products containing LMOs cannot except with the approval of the above-mentioned committee (GEAC). However there are some facts that undermine these rules effectiveness. The Protocol only covers LMOs and its application is limited only to the effect of LMOs on conservation of biological diversity. The Protocol is silent about non-living genetically modified products like food products prepared from genetically modified grains, clothes manufactured from genetically modified cotton. All pharmaceuticals are excluded from the purview of the Protocol. The Indian 1989 Act though cover GMOs, genetically modified products, pharmaceuticals, food stuffs etc, the primary object of the Rules is to protect the environment, nature an health and not regulating biotechnology and biotechnology products. The Indian Bio safety Rules employs Polluter pays principle and prior intimation/ notification to realize its objects. The Bio safety Protocol's, import restrictions can overlap generally with the provisions of WTO that is concerned with liberal trade and specifically with Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS Agreement), an agreement on technical barriers to trade (TBT Agreement). The biosafety import ban could also be potentially conflicting with free liberal trade. In this context it is of interest to note that the Indian 1989 Rules was brought up into force in 1993 before WTO came into force in 1995. The legal position of the 1989 Rules in WTO era is not clear. If the rules run counter to free trade then they have to be suitably altered to be consistent with the WTO provisions. Regulating biotechnology is not a simple easy task, as many socio-economic issues are involved in regulating it. The fact that many of the socio-economic issues/ questions, for example the questions as to right to development and inter generational equity, the rights of indigenous people, the farmers right, environmental protection, ethical and moral question- are not unique to biotechnology alone still worsens the problem. Any attempt to regulate biotechnology may in effect turn out to be finding answers to these global socio-economic questions. Till the comprehensive legal regime regulating biotechnology emerges, the Bio safety regulations could be of some help. New Threats To Biodiversity And Related Rights Biotechnological processes use life forms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use. Under IPR's, transformed microorganisms, plants and animals can be patented and become exclusive private property. The North has always used Third World Germplasm as a freely available resource and modified it. The advanced capitalist nations wish to retain free access to the developing worlds storehouse of genetic diversity, while the South like to have the proprietary varieties of the North's industry declared a similarly public good. The overall result is that genetic resources of the South are normally freely available without charge, while those based on Southern genetic resources but developed in the North are becoming subject to the monopoly control by private companies. Northern countries are not only putting enormous political pressures on developing countries to accept uniform patent laws through GATT/WTO and other mechanisms, they are also refusing to make clear commitments to developing countries on access to biotechnology and other associated technologies. In the new economic order, there are two nascent developments, interconnected as they are, which are of serious concern to biodiversity and related rights in India. These are intellectual property rights relating to biological resources and the impact of genetic engineering on agriculture. On January 1, 1995, the WTO was established and the TRIPs agreement came into force. TRIPs specifically require all governments to provide for patents for all inventions . The WTO is backed by economically strong developed countries. Most of the multilateral trade agreements within the WTO have been negotiated at the urging and for the benefit of corporate interests in developed countries. For instance, the TRIPs Agreement was drafted with significant input from Intellectual Property Committee (a coalition of twelve major U.S. corporations), Keidanren (a federation of economic organizations in Japan) and the Union of Industrial and Employees Confederation (the official spokesperson for European Business and Industry). As such, the agreement was basically fashioned to meet the commercial interests of multinational companies based in these countries. Most of the economically strong developed countries have a vested interest in keeping in line with the WTO provisions, primarily to retain market access to and control over bio-resources of the developing countries that these set of rules provides. The negotiations were a package deal, wherein the developing countries had little space to pick and choose elements that would be acceptable. And neither does the WTO allow for any reservations. Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, commenting on the results of the GATT Uruguay Round, said: "The developing countries were not able to ensure that the rules accommodated their realities... it was mainly the preoccupations and problems of the advanced industrial economies that shaped the agreement." Mandela added that rules applied uniformly are not necessarily fair because of the different circumstances of members. The TRIPs agreement of the WTO requires member states to accept IPRs over microorganisms, micro-biological processes and plant varieties . This core requirement and provision is antithetical to India's cultural and economic interests. It also puts at risk the community-based public domain knowledge of biological resources. Article 27.3(b) of TRIPs is of particular concern to developing countries, in as much as it to mandatorily requires for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof. This article was a major coup for biotechnology and agrotech corporations in that it provides broad international patent protection for engineered bioresources. With respect to patent systems for seeds, article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement provides that the "member countries shall provide for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof". In the same Article, it is also provided that the provision of this sub-paragraph shall be reviewed 4 years after the date of entry into force of the WTO agreement. Though for the time being, choice of evolving the system of protection of plant varieties is left to each country, the obligatory provision is that the sui generis system (meaning a system of its own) must be effective. The transitional arrangement provided in art.65 of the TRIPS agreement allow a developing countries a period of 5 years to establish their own system of plant breeders right (PBR's) which means that there was no obligation to evolve the system as such till 2000 AD. Further, it could also be interpreted from Article 65(4) that "those developing countries who do not extend product patent protection to areas of technology not so protectable in their countries could delay the application of the provision on product patent by an additional 5 years". Opinions differ as to whether seeds could be treated as 'products'. 10-year period is a long time and the developing countries can watch the development in the world to take the best advantage of any favorable conditions that might emerge. Though no specific model has been suggested in the TRIPS text, there are models available in the UPOV convention 1990. The other agreement that is closely related to WTO TRIPs Agreement Article 27.3(b) is the International Convention For the Protection of New Plant Varieties ("UPOV"). It has no developing country as its member. In view of this, the model which has emerged in the UPOV convention for plant variety legislation is suitable mainly in the socio-economic context of the industrialized countries. The farmers in these countries do not have much role over plant breeding or seed supply as in the case of the developing countries, where farmers themselves are engaged in the seed production and they are also the main source of seeds to other fellow farmers. Almost about 65% of the seed requirement is met through the exchange system, which has been prevalent in countries like India. In the past, UPOV protected farmer's interest by allowing them to save protected varieties of seeds. This protection to farmers was retained in the amendment to the UPOV in 1978. The breeders also enjoyed exemption for free access to protected varieties, for use in further research and for breeding other varieties. However, UPOV Convention 1991 has removed the exemptions available under 1978 convention. Breeders and preachers will have to pay royalty to the plant breeder right holder to use the protected variety for breeding new varieties. UPOV is primarily designed to protect the patent rights of agrotech companies and disallows farmers to save seeds at the farm level. The "protected variety" may still be used as an initial source of variation for the creation of new varieties but such "new varieties" increasingly under the control of corporate breeders cannot be marketed or sold without the plant breeders' rights' holder allowing it. This undercuts the rights and welfare of the majority of the farming population in India. So far we are concerned, seeds are also not patentable in India today, and we do not have any intention in changing this system. The extension of IPR's to plant varieties either in the form of patents or in the form of plant breeders rights is bound to result in increased in prices of seeds, greater domination of agriculture by multinational companies and slower diffusion of new varieties. Provisions of international trade law, such as those in the TRIPs and UPOV, serve to disenfranchise local communities and contradict the biodiversity rights recognized in the CBD. More specifically, these trade law provisions are not compatible with the CBD's protection of the biodiversity rights of indigenous and local communities. The biodiversity crisis in India and other developing countries is heightened by the fact that the international trade agreements are being implemented at a much faster pace than can be matched by any possible safeguards in domestic law and policy for biodiversity and related rights of the people. Since 1995 (post-WTO) several IPR-related legislation have been enacted in India, most of which bolster the interests of multinational biotech/agrotech corporations. The most controversial legislative development, however, has been the amendments to the 1970 India Patent Act. By an amendment enacted in 1999, provision was made for grant of exclusive marketing rights on drugs and agrochemicals, a sector hitherto reserved for government in the interest of keeping pricing and supply in check. In an era of biotechnology where drugs, pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals are derived from biological sources, patent issues in medicine and agriculture necessarily involve issues of biodiversity. The 1999 amendment to the Patent Act was pushed through despite protests from citizens and non-governmental organization (NGOs) who pointed out that the rush to make domestic legislation TRIPs-compliant jeopardized the health and agriculture sectors of the country, and was unwarranted particularly when there is a review provision in TRIPs that countries like India must avail of to highlight the problems faced in implementation. This resulted in NGOs filing a writ petition in public interest in the Supreme Court of India, challenging the amendment as unconstitutional and against national interest. There is also a second amendment, which seeks to introduce product patents in India, which is poised for clearance by the Parliament. The Court has allowed the petitioners to withdraw the abovementioned case with the liberty to file a fresh writ petition, if necessary, after this subsequent second amendment is made. Another sector of biodiversity that has been vulnerable to the change in patent law and policy is that of agricultural biodiversity. The Indian agriculture sector has been opened up to international trade as per the dictates of the WTO. This has meant, among other things, reorientation of cropping patterns for export markets, entry of global corporations in the seed, food processing and packaging sectors and industrialization of agriculture with the introduction of potentially hazardous technologies, such as genetic engineering. India issued its first ever National Agriculture Policy in 2000. On the one hand, the policy expressly remarks how the situation for Indian farmers would deteriorate in the wake of integration of agricultural trade in the global system. On the other hand, however, it continues to focus on promoting "value addition" and accelerating the growth of agrobusiness. This policy also does little to address the problem of the economic marginalization of small-scale, diverse food production systems that conserve farmers' varieties of crops, which form the genetic pool for food and agriculture in the future. On the contrary the policy inter alia seeks to give special attention " . . . to development of new crop varieties, particularly of food crops, with higher nutritional value through adoption of biotechnology particularly, genetic modification. There are legitimate biosafety concerns arising from this focus on the development of new crop varieties. As the Government of India itself admits in the second report to the CBD, there are not adequate mechanisms in the country to deal with this potentially hazardous technology. For instance, open field trials of Monsanto's transgenic cotton have been allowed by the Government of India's Department of Biotechnology without proper approval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. As per scientific fundamentals, in an ecosystem you can always intervene and change something, but there is no way of knowing what all the downstream effects will be or how it might effect the environment. The risks associated with open field trials involving transgenic material are those arising from the understanding of reproduction and multiplication inherent to living organisms. Releases of genetically engineered organisms may trigger irreversible changes with the elements of the natural environment that they come in contact with, as against when they are kept in closed containment whereby such an interaction is not possible. Highlighting the possible risks to human and ecological health, as well as the need of clear jurisdiction in the biotechnology and regulatory system a writ petition was filed in the Indian Supreme Court challenging these open field trials . The matter is still pending before the apex court. In the meanwhile, transgenic Bt cotton was found to be growing in the Western State of Gujarat late last year without the Center or the State governments having given permission for the same. With such an apparent by-pass of the regulatory system, posing risks to the natural environment and divided Center and State opinions on the manner in which it should be dealt with, the debate on whether India should adopt transgenics in agriculture has been rekindled anew. Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration provides that when there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for proposing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. This approach is commonly referred to as the precautionary principle. Because of the reproduction and multiplication inherent to living organisms, releases of genetically engineered organisms can have an irreversible negative impact on the environment. As reiterated by Justice M.J. Rao of the India Supreme Court: " . . . there is nothing to prevent decision makers from assessing the record and concluding there is inadequate information on which to reach a determination. If it is not possible to make a decision with some confidence, then it makes sense to err on the side of caution and prevent activities that may cause serious or irreparable harm. An informed decision can be made at a later stage when additional data is available or resources permit further research." As early as the time of adoption of the CBD, India had taken the position that the "focus of studies . . . relating to liability and compensation should be on subjects as biotechnology products, the environmental aspects of genetically modified organisms . . ." These issues remain unresolved. Also, the issue of a ban on Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs), more commonly known as Terminator and Traitor technologies has often been raised in the CBD. However, many have been left disappointed with the outcome of the Conference of Parties, which did not take a strong stand on this issue. Genetically modified organisms and intellectual property go together. The law of patents allows private ownership at the level of the gene. In other words, IPR law under TRIPs legitimizes the patenting of life forms and biodiversity. Today transgenic crops are the "intellectual property".of the multinational corporations, such as Monsanto, which are marketing the technology to countries in the Third World. Monsanto has been very loud and public in its claims against farmers who used its patented seeds, even if this use was accidental. Multinational agro-business firms such as Monsanto have been aggressively pushing their products into India not only through the regular trade route, but also by dumping food and seeds with GMOs as food aid in disaster areas, as well as in nutritional programmes. Meanwhile there has been as increase in the spending in developed countries on research and development in crop biotechnologies for application in agricultural practices in the developing countries. The lack of technical knowledge in developing countries is a matter of grave concern when dealing with potentially hazardous technologies. The most pressing concern, however, is the imbalance of negotiating strength between the corporations that pioneered transgenic crops on the one hand, and farmers, scientists and governments in poor countries on the other. There is the concern that wide use of transgenics in agriculture would reduce the diversity of crop species grown and so reduce the gene pool. The gene pool has already been reduced to some extent by modern farming techniques and it is feared that the availability of GE crops would aggravate the problem. Many Indian farmers--generally the small and marginal--never adopted the intensive practices used in many developed nations, such as heavy reliance on pesticides and chemical fertilizers. These farmers still use traditional seeds that can be saved from one crop to plant the next. Those farmers may get smaller yields and profits than their corporate counterpart, but because they use free seeds--and, often, little or no chemical fertilizers or pesticides--they rarely take on debt. If GE seeds become the norm traditional seeds might become hard to find, or the latter could get contaminated by GE crops in neighboring fields due to possible crosspollination. Then the big multinationals would control the market for seeds--the most basic source of a farmer's livelihood and, indeed, his/her life. In this scenario, Indian agriculture would increasingly become a subsidiary of agro-business corporations in the North. Food and agriculture systems are going through major transformations worldwide with serious ramifications on biodiversity. If the CBD is to check this, it must strengthen its programme work on agricultural biodiversity, a task begun at the COP3. The CBD has asked with reference to the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment ("CTE") to develop better appreciation of the relationship between trade and agricultural biodiversity. Per the 1994 WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), the member countries - both developed and developing - are obliged to gradually open up their agricultural sectors to world trade by removing all the trade distortions. For instance, India was compelled to remove quantitative restrictions on imports of several agricultural goods with effect from April 1, 2001. Previously, imports have been restricted by countries on various grounds for environmental and ethical reasons and reasons of public order - so as also to protect the small and unorganized sector that would be adversely affected by an influx of imports. India, as a member of WTO, is now required to implement various agreements and provisions pertaining to agriculture. These include commitments on reduce domestic support, increase market access, reduce export subsidies. A major area of concern is the impact of the western-styled IPR system promoted by the WTO. CBD's COP has also sought cooperation from the WTO in the context of IPRs and particularly in the context of benefit sharing. In its submissions to CTE, India has proposed that under its terms of reference the CTE (Committee of Trade and Environment)) should deal with: (a) the relationship between the provisions of the CBD and those of the TRIPs Agreement; and (b) suggestions on reconciliation of any contradictions therein, in line with the CBD provisions or within the same overall objective of conservation of biological resources with sustainable development. India has also offered some suggestions to reconcile the contradictions here abovementioned. For instance, at the CTE in 2000, India raised the issue of biopiracy of traditional knowledge, reiterating "patent applicants should be required to disclose the source of origin of the biological material utilized in their invention under the TRIPS Agreement and should also be required to obtain prior informed consent (PIC) of the country of origin." The WTO has not yet responded to these demands, and there here is no visible attempt by the WTO to re-orient the IPR regime accordingly. On the contrary, recent decisions by WTO dispute panels has insisted on TRIPs compliance by developing countries. Similarly, there is also no indication that reviews of the TRIPs Agreement are giving consideration to any fundamental change in the international IPR regime. Issues of traditional knowledge are discussed in a number of international fora including the CBD, the FAO (U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization) and the U.N. Economic Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the WTO's TRIPS Council and the CTE. Herein it is crucial to keep the CBD central, for the opportunities that it provides to developing countries. In the present trade dominant paradigm, there is also the risk of the CBD being invoked by corporate interests to bolster their IPR claims, and developing world governments need to be wary of such attempts. Mere utilization and value addition to indigenous bioresources cannot be considered a vehicle for economic growth of developed countries, which possess the larger portion of the world's bio-assets. This is manifested in the debate on access and benefit sharing (ABS) in the CBD. Currently, under the auspices of the CBD, a Working Group is discussing the development of Draft International Guidelines on Access and Benefit-Sharing. In India, a national regime to manage these access issues has been proposed in the Biological Diversity Bill . The Bill envisages the setting up of a National Biodiversity Authority, which would process access and also effect the sharing of benefits arising from such access granted. Importantly, this national access legislation recognizes the rights, customary laws, and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities. Biopiracy: By 2050, the world is expected to have 9 billion people - as against 6 billion today. The tragedy is that while the biggest sources of biodiversity are in tropical countries, they are the least informed about what they possess, leading to charges of "bio-piracy" against industrial countries which plunder these resources and make extortionate profits on them. 'Biopiracy' can refer to 1. Unauthorized use of biological resources e.g., plants, animals, organs, microorganisms, genes; 2. Unauthorized use of traditional communities' knowledge on biological resources; 3. Unequal share of benefits between a patent holder and the indigenous community whose resource and/or knowledge has been used; 4. Patenting of biological resources with no respect to patentable criteria (novelty, non-obviousness and usefulness). In under-developed countries, farmers breed crop varieties adapted to their local soil/climate conditions over several decades. Local plant breeders improve varieties through a circular model: selective breeding, release of the variety, and use of the seeds for further selection. Traditional varieties are not fixed genetic structures, but rather dynamic structures, resulting from collective efforts over generations. Most of the time, improvement and use of crops cannot be separated. An interesting variety may be locally known for its particular properties and identified by a local name, but rarely patented. This may be explained by several facts: the crop does not show the quality of stability and homogeneity required, patenting is a long and expensive process, the selection of the crop is a community work, hence no single holder can be identified, etc. Given the international market potential, an agricultural biotechnological company can decide to ask the indigenous community of the biodiversity-rich country for information on interesting crops availability. Discovering that this variety and its characteristics appeal to a market in developed countries, the company acquires samples of it. The firm, then, genetically engineers a close substitute from the original natural variety, adding an improvement (e.g., pest resistance), and keeping the natural variety's desirable characteristics. As a genetically engineered variety, the new crop can be patented and its name copyrighted. Companies, in particular, are quick to apply for a patent on the collected resource or the new products, so as to prevent competitors from using them. The biotechnological company may license production of the crop in any suitable country, and even export the product in the source-country, in which case the improved variety comes into competition with the traditional one. The company may even ask for the intellectual protection of the modified variety in the original country in order to prevent both seeds from co-existsting, and the natural variety from being sold under the traditional name. In the latter case, the source-country loses its rights to produce or use the original variety for any further breeding. The implications for the source-country are various: -Possible necessity for the farmers to use the new patented variety, implying increasing dependence on the company owning the seed, especially in case of monopoly; -Prohibition of the use of the seed for any further breeding; -Loss of biodiversity resulting from increased monoculture, monospecies culture and lack of access to seed stocks; -Possible financial loss when fair agreement on benefit sharing between the source country and the company was not achieved. -Possible loss of traditional community knowledge, with limited compensation. During the last decades, an erosion of biodiversity was observed. The majority of the actors estimated that the first cause of biodiversity erosion was the lack or the wrong definition of the rights of ownership. The (CBD) entered into force in 1994. It gave sovereign national rights over biological resources. One of the advantages of it was that it would enable southern countries to better benefit from their resources and traditional knowledge. Under these new rules, it is expected that bioprospecting implies a prior informed consent, and must result in a share of the benefits between the biodiversity-rich country and the prospecting firm. However, some critics believe that the CBD has failed to establish appropriate regulations to prevent biopiracy. Research costs and benefit sharing Some companies argue that under-developed countries are themselves guilty of piracy. They believe that the southern countries do not have adequate and efficient intellectual property protection laws, and say they are losing millions of dollars per year because of lack of respect of patents. These companies have been applying pressure for the strengthening of intellectual property issues within the WTO. Companies say access to biological resources allow them to develop new products that could help solve food and health essential issues. They also argue that research; development and commercialization authorizations have a cost that must be balanced by the protection of the resulting product. Patents offer this much needed revenue and favour innovation. One of the solutions suggested to solve this North-South disagreement was to define bilateral contracts between source-country and pharmaceutical or seed companies. These contracts of bioprospecting lay down the rules of benefit sharing, and can potentially bring substantial royalties to southern countries. What defense is there against biopiracy practices? The agreement can result in high potential benefits for the source-country. However, there are several reasons why this usually does not happen: 1. Bilateral contracts are not always respected, or they do not propose a fair trade. By admitting that the principle of compensation of the populations is retained, which amount could be an equitable and realistic remuneration? How could the rights be redistributed? 2. Lack of awareness of the potential value of the products; 3. Very few of the samples collected actually lead to a new profitable product; 4. Lost ownership in case of genetic modification; 5. Majority of concerned species to be found in several countries at the same time, thus preventing some of them from taking advantage of the product, or diluting the benefits for all; 6. Protection of collective knowledge doesn't fit within the legal systems of IPR protection (e.g. patents, copyrights, trademarks); 7. Finally, most bioprospecting is made by directly using the genetic resources stored in seed banks. Some options considered by southern countries include: 1. Documentation of traditional knowledge; 2. Registration and innovation system; 3. Easier and less expensible patenting system; 4. Development of a sui generis system; 5. Development of own research; 6. Creation of alliances of source-countries. In 1993, 500,000 Indian farmers demonstrated against the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. In a Charter of Farmers' rights, they stated their wish to protect their right to produce, reproduce and modify seeds and plants. Conclusion: As the world moves further into the 21st century, there is no question that its biodiversity is under threat from several sources. Perhaps the greatest of them all is the sheer ignorance of what it comprises. Put simply, biodiversity refers to the number of species of wild plants and animals a country possesses. The UN has a Convention on Biological Diversity in place since 1993, which has been signed by most countries, but the protection it offers to countries to protect their natural resources remains largely on paper. One of the biggest threats to biodiversity is the conversion of forestland to produce more crops. While it is true that the bulk of the food grown by 2050 will come from increasing the productivity of existing farm land, an additional 120 million hectares will have to be brought under the plough in developing countries in the next 30 years, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that as many as 350 species of birds, or 3.5 per cent of such fauna, may be extinct in 50 years; birds are a vital indicator of the vitality of the ecosystems. Another danger is to the marine ecosystem, largely due to reckless over fishing. One of the little known, and highly controversial, hazards is due to global warming, which is already changing ecosystems at an alarming rate. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, which consists of 2,500 scientists from around the world, estimates that the average global surface temperature will be up to 2 degrees Celsius higher in 2050, and atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide will be much higher too. As some areas grow hotter while others become cooler or wetter, not to mention the widespread inundation of low-lying coastal areas, flora and fauna are exposed to drastic changes. A final threat emanates from the genetically modified (GM) crops, which narrow the number of plants being grown on farms. Biodiversity offers considerable promise for food, medicine and fiber. To conserve the biodiversity, the immediate task will be to devise and enforce time bound programme for saving plant and animal species as well as habitats of biological resources. In addition to this formidable efforts to increase public awareness. People everywhere should understand the importance of loss of bio diversity. Development of commercial biotechnology though possess certain remedies to the worldwide problems in varied fields it also possess certain problems. The third world countries have already expressed their fear and concern over "Bio-Colonialism" and "Bio-Piracy". All these concern cumulatively suggest the need for the regulation of biotechnology. Northern countries are not only putting enormous political pressures on developing countries to accept uniform patent laws through GATT/WTO and other mechanisms, they are also refusing to make clear commitments to developing countries on access to biotechnology and other associated technologies. India, as a member of WTO, is now required to implement various agreements and provisions pertaining to agriculture. These include commitments on reduce domestic support, increase market access, reduce export subsidies. Mere utilization and value addition to indigenous bioresources cannot be considered a vehicle for economic growth of developed countries, which possess the larger portion of the world's bio-assets and therefore appropriate measures have to be taken under the Convention on Biological Diversity to protect against these dangers so that the Convention fulfills its objectives. Regeneration of land and water, which are degraded to abysmally low levels of productivity over more than 60% of India's area. This cannot be done by centralised bureaucracies, but by empowering and providing resources to rural and urban communities. The amazing regeneration of forests under joint forest management over millions of hectares, or of wetlands through decentralized water harvesting, despite inadequate power-sharing in such programmes, is proof enough of the capacity of communities to make miracles happen. Indeed, such regeneration is potentially India's single biggest source of employment, as highlighted by the Planning Commission some years back. With this, the government could tackle three critical issues at the same time: the ecological crisis, raging unemployment, and the declining productivity of our land. There are considerable resources being put into 'wastelands development' and watershed programmes today, but these need to be much more in the hands of local people, and need to emphasize local solutions building on available indigenous knowledge, planting or regeneration of local species, and sensitivity to indigenous farming practices.	eng	3cd1fc93-9714-4d65-b5d7-1d9ea7ff5fee	http://www.legalservicesindia.com/articles/biodi.htm
This page is under development; research is on-going The Grandfathers Section I Chapter 3, Page 19 From his will of 1794 John Hall c. 1732 – 1794 Miller on Rockcastle Creek It is common among Hall family searchers to say with a great deal of respect, 'Our John Hall.' This is the way they distinguish him from the numerous John Halls they meet with in their researches, within or outside the immediate family. Well, he was 'quite a man.' But — we are not descended from him. We are descended from his brother, Hezekiah, who is discussed later in this section. +We are including a section on John Hall because after the death of his father, William, in 1757 at the hands of the Cherokees, John became the head of the family. He is also included because he became the progenitor of many of 'Our Southern Cousins', also to be discussed in a subsequent chapter. John spent his life in Bedford county, Virginia and most of his descendants remained there – some to be found there two and half centuries later. A serious error was made in establishing the family line by earlier researchers, an error the present writer hopes to correct. These family line seekers confused two Hezekiahs: John's brother and John's son. We are descended from Hezekiah, the brother not Hezekiah the son. These searchers used John's Will of 1794 in which the name Hezekiah (his son) appeared; thus, the error. Hearing We first meet John testifying at the hearing held in Bedford county in connection with the death of his father, William. The hearing had been called by the authorities at Williamsburg to gather the facts of the incidents associated with the death of William Hall. It was held near the scene of the slaying. From the report of the hearing we can establish some important dates. The hearing placed the first Indian engagement which led to the death of William as May 1, 1757 – thus, establishing a death date for the slaying of John's father. It was recorded that John was about twenty-five years of age. He was likely a year or so younger, but we can establish an approximate birth year for him, c. 1732. His Will was made in 1794 and he died in the same year. John's sixty-odd years of life covered the colonial period, the French and Indian Wars, the years of American Revolution, and he lived just long enough to see the movement of settlers surge to the westward. Prior to his death he had made a Kentucky trip to see for himself what was going on. Although most of his own family never left Virginia: his grandsons and daughters moved out of Virginia going south and west. Change John Hall lived long enough to experience vast changes in Virginia's governmental, religious and social systems. The church was to be completely separated from the state; the frontier religions were to become powerful forces in his own family and in the area where he lived. Methodism took a strong hold. The Baptist sect found many adherents. Many formerly appointed government offices now became to be held by elected not chosen representatives. A new nation had been born and Virginia which had played such an important role in its forming was to furnish a great list of national leaders. Already, the great war time general, Washington, had been selected as the first President of the struggling United States. John Hall survived the Indian Wars, the 'alarms and excursions' of the Revolution and lived through the various political and economic changes. During his relatively long life, he married, raised a family, dealt in land, operated a mill, and became involved in the institution of slavery. Family In his Will he calls his wife, Magdalene, and her maiden name has been reasonably well established as Smith – her mother was an Evans. Her line of descent appears to be through the Smith family of Quakers who pioneered in Bedford county and for whom Smith Mountain and Smith Lake were named. ++ John and Magdalene +++ had seven children to live to adulthood: five boys and two girls. There names were: John, William, Matthew, Jesse, Hezekiah, Elisha, Tabitha, and Keziah. A son David was killed as a youth at the mill. (John's son, Matthew, in making a deposition in 1845 for a Revolutionary War veteran, refers to his father dying in 1794 and also gives his own age as 78. This becomes one of the best date fixing bits of information about this family. In the same deposition, Matthew also refers to his father taking a trip to the west.) Soon after his father's death in 1757, John became the head of the family by the legal system of 'primogeniture'; then operating in Virginia, as result of the colony's English inheritance. By this system he inherited all his father's property, the younger brothers and sisters getting nothing. As was the custom, he placed his younger brothers and sisters (Hezekiah was an exception) under the courts and they were called 'orphans.' In turn, they were placed in other homes – more on this later. The inventory of his father's estate was made in 1759 but the final settlement was not completed until ten years later, 1769. Business How good was John's management? The final settlement indicated that the value of the estate had risen to 189 pounds, five shillings, 5 1/2 pence: John had paid out twenty-four pounds, five shillings and ten pence to settle the debts of his father. The faded records indicate that 'by Sail of the Estate' and the collection of some monies owed it, the original inventory of William Hall's property was met within the amount of one pound. Those listed as creditors paid up, although it took them four years to do it. In paying nearly 25 pounds all the estate's accounts were cleared. No doubt, the cash represented in the estate paid the taxes: while the land itself would be productive in livestock and crops to provide the family subsistence. John's start in life would be real estate owned by his father, which would include a homestead. On this basis he participated in a series of land transactions in the upper Rock Castle Creek area and in neighboring parts of Bedford county. Not only did he buy and sell on his own account, but he arranged property transactions for his sons. Real Estate There may have been early estate problems as his father's titles may not have been valid. While early Hall researchers spoke of 'crown' grants to William Hall, no record has been found. It appears that he bought lands that had been granted to the famous Randolph family and these transactions were handled through their land agent — Richard Stith. Years later, after John's death, there appears a law suit by two of his older sons, Willaim and John, over the title of the original land obtained through Stith. While it is difficult to sort out the numerous John Halls in early Bedford county history, it does appear that the John Hall under discussion, did enter several land transactions both to increase his holdings on Rockcastle Creek and some for speculation as land values increased following the Revolution. He did end up with several hundred acres of land. This land remained in the family for several generations and can be traced through the estates of his descendants. In an instance or two he made a tidy profit on his land deals. In other words, he appears to be a shrewd business man. In other instances, he literally traded land, not making a profit, but rather gaining land where he wanted it. Apparently, he did assist his brother Hezekiah in obtaining land, as he guaranteed the payment for the Back Creek land on which Hezekiah spent his life. There appears no assistance for his younger brothers. It is likely he helped his sons in getting started as he gave them nominal property in his Will. Only his sons, Matthew and Elisha are given land at his death and this land was the Rockcastle Creek property. As a miller, he did have access to additional income and/or the obtaining of the miller's 'tare' for grain as foodstuffs for his family and animals. The Mill was an important item in his own estate in 1794. ++++ Neighbor One measure of a man is his participation in the business affairs of his neighbors. From the abstracts of Wills, Inventories and Accounts for Bedford county, Virginia, 1754 – 1787 we get a fragmentary view of his activities. At the settlement of the Mathew Talbot estate in 1763, John is listed as a creditor. (Talbot ranked high in the county.) On November 28, 1774, John Hall was one of the appraisers of the estate of Richard Cundiff. On the same date, he with other appointed officials, sold livestock to provide Mrs. Cundiff with cash for settling her affairs. June 26, 1775 he was one of the appraisers of the estate of Ann Creel. Ann was related to the Cundiffs'. The Cundiff family were long-time neighbors of the Halls' in the Rockcastle Creek vicinity. John Hall's name is found on the tax rolls of Bedford county and from them we learn of the land he owned, something about his family and his general status as a pioneer in the area. He was, indeed, a substantial yeoman – a man of standing in his end of the country. War During the French and Indian Wars of the colonial period, John Hall is honored as a member of the militia. For his services he was paid for being both an active combatant and for furnishing supplies. At the time of the Revolution he was a middle-aged man. Men of his age usually did not participate in active military units. If called for the militia, he could substitute one of his older sons. See: Bedford County, Virginia in the Revolution. There is in existence several John Hall records of furnishing supplies for the Revolution. Since there was more than one John Hall in the county, it is difficult to determine to whom the records apply. There is one that is generally accepted in the family as applying to 'our John Hall.' Record From the Bedford county order book, 1774-82, page 355, the following is obtained: 'At a Court held for Bedford county, May 27th, 1782, at the House of David Wright. Since he was a prosperous man, he likely made other such contributions to the War. His sons, as a group, were too young to be active particpants. * Will For a good number of years, copies of John Hall's Will have circulated among those who thought they were his descendants. Although, as previously explained, the Hall – Overstreet group are not his direct line, the Will is reproduced here as it contains some interesting side-lights on the basic family of his brother Hezekiah. Test of Will IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN May 10th, 1794, I John Hall of Bedford County and State of Virginia being weak in body but of Perfect mind and memory thanks be to God for the same but calling to mind the mortality of men & knowing that it appointed to all men once to die, do make and Ordain this my Last Will & Testament. (Viz) in the manner & form as followeth Princepally & first of all I give & recommend my soul to God that First give it a being, & and my body to the earth from whence it was taken to be buried in decent form and that at the Discretion of my executors nothing doubting but but that I shall receive it again by the mighty Power of God at the General Resurrection and as Touching such Worldley Estate as the Lord hath blest me with in this life I give Demise & Dispose of the same in the following manner & form; first I give & bequeath unto my beloved wife Magdalane Hall all my negroes that I possess. (to wit) Jamis Patt Jude frank Joe Bitte Patt Pegge as long as she lives & at her death I give & bequeath unto my son Marthew Hall a Negroe Man James and a Negroe Woman named Patt, Item I give unto my son William Hall a Negro man named Joe. Item I give unto my son Elisha Hall a Negroe Wooman named Judge and a Negro man named Frank. Item I give unto my son Jesse Hall one feather bed & Cow & Calf. Item Give unto my son Hezekiah Hall one horse & saddle & 1 cow and calf. Item I give unto my son John Hall one shilling starling and no more Item I give to my Daughter Tabitha Hall one Negroe Girl named Pegge at my wifes death Likewise one Feather bed & cow & calf. Item I give unto my Daughter Keziah Hall, one Negroe Girl named Patt at my wifes death Likewise one Feather Bed & Cow & Calf. Item I give to my Beloved wife Magdalen Hall a third part of my land as long as she lives and to fall to Mathew Hall & Elisha Hall my two sons to be divided as followeth to with Marthew Hall is to have the upper end, beginning at the old mill seat and then down the said creek to the fence & then along sd. Fence to the branch that comes down from John Owens then up the said branch to owen's line, and then follow his Line round to the beginning. Iten I give unto my son Elisha Hall the balance of all the Land I now Possess together with the mill, and also an equal part of all my moveable property. And it is my Will & Pleasure that the rest of my moveable properties be left in the hands of my wife, that she may divide it as she sees cause – Between Hezekiah Tabitha & Keziah Hall. & Lastly I nominate & appoint my wife magdalen Hall as Executer of this my Last Will & Testament. I do hereby utterly Disanull Revoke all & every other former Testament, Will Legases bequeaths and Executors by me in any wise before named willed & bequeathed. Rattifying & confirming this & no other to be my last will & testament. John Hall Signed sealed & Delivered In the Presents of us - William Hancock John Hancock John Hall, Junr. At a Court held for Bedford County the 22nd day of September 1794 This Last Will & Testament of John Hall, Deceased was proved by oath of William Hancock & John Hancock Witnesses whose names are there unto subscribed & Ordered to be recorded. Teste: Ja Steptoe CBC Will Book 2, Page 140 Discussion Since the Will of John Hall, d. 1794, has played such a large part in the thinking of Hall – Overstreet family members, it is to be discussed at some length. Just as a measure of a man may be had from the inventory of his personal possessions, likewise some measure of a man can be had from his Will. In it we find the names of his children, the kind of property he possesses and how he wishes it to be distributed. In it he may reflect a personal attitude toward his children and his wife. Also, we may learn something of the times, as in this case the system of land measurement used by the colonials, priors to the modern system instituted under President Thomas Jefferson. From John's Will we definitely learn that he had a Mill on his Rockcastle Creek property. We may infer that it was a small one – possibly a grist Mill – but important for him and his family, as well as his relationship with his neighbors. The giving of the Mill to his youngest son, Elisha, insures to some extent the extension of its use for years to come. In the treatment of his sons, we note that the older ones did not receive land, but somewhat token inheritances. This may be interpreted that as they married, they may have been given land. As for his two daughters, (they were married) at the time of his death and their husbands were expected to provide homes for them – thus, no mention of land. The personal type of things mentioned in the Will – a saddle, featherbeds, cows and calves, indicate that they still lived closed to the land and that humble possessions were still held highly in their thinking. His son, Hezekiah, is treated somewhat differently than the other boys; some family searchers believe that this son was never married. (The reader notes that the spelling of proper names and other terms reflects the lack of a disciplined language among these pioneers – their schooling was scant and erratic at best.) Slavery When the Will was first circulated among Hall-Overstreet descendants, the fact that slavery had existed in the Hall family came as a shock to many. Although in referring to John Hall's group, we are referring to a 'cousin' family, it does bring slavery very close to home. The basic descendants who read the Will and preserved their copies of it, were mid-westerners and westerners by the time they stumbled on to this information. Their ancestors had no slaves, fought for the Union and lived in areas where slaves were virtually unknown. It should be recalled that John Hall's immediate family and their descendants stayed in the South, moved West below the Ohio River and supported both slavery and the CSA until that issue was decided by the Civil War. See: Our Southern Cousins. Also, Slavery in the Hall Family in the appendix. Slavery evidently came into the area where the Hall-Overstreet families in Virginia lived, between the time of William Hall, d. 1757 and John Hall, d. 1794. A change had come in the basic agriculture (tobacco at this time) and the attitudes of a people who had originally sought more personal freedom for themselves. This change was to have a profound effect during the holocaust of 1861 – 1865. These smaller plantation operators in Bedford county (John consistently paid taxes on 650 A. of land) did not own large groups of slaves; usually from six to fifteen. We note from the Will that they are treated as personal property and in total value represented a considerable portion of the ownership. Each has a given name only and they are of both sexes. From the record we determine their ages — but some of the same names show up in the estates of John's children many years later. Wife Magdalene, John's wife, lived on after him for over thirty years. This indicates that she was a much younger woman, giving rise to some speculation that she may have been his second wife and mother of the younger children. If she had a Quaker background as indicated by her Smith line, then like many others of that persuasion, they accepted slavery when it became a social symbol and of monetary value. Because Magdalene lived so long, it is apparent that most of the provisions of John's Will became meaningless. If fact, her long life caused nearly all the Principal's of his document, witnesses, etc. to also be dead. Consequently, the legality of the estate was handled through the Sherif's office (?) and an Administrator appointed by the Court. It remained for her son-in-law, Benjamin B. Musgrove, husband of her daughter, Keziah, to handle it. Among those purchasing slaves from the estate were other family members, chiefly John's sons who had an inherited interest in his real estate. Magdalene, because of her long life, may have been incompetent prior to her death, thus the legal entanglements. By the time of her death, members of John's family were scattered, having migrated to Tennessee, Mississippi and other southern areas. It is through Musgrove's contacts with them in the estate matters that we learn more of what became of them. Surprisingly, there was considerable property yet in the estate to be dealt with. Magdalene after John's death likely made her home with her son, Elisha, who acted as head of the family in some matters. Elisha stayed on Rockcastle Creek during all those years and was to die in 1840. The brother, Matthew, who also inherited home place property, spent some years away from Virginia, in Kentucky, but returned to spend his final years on the home place. ** Marriages We have a partial record of the marriages of John's children and considering the events of the years, we are, indeed, lucky in this respect. It should be remembered that the customs changed during the Revolution and John's group came of age in the years when the colonial period was over. They lived in a back area some distance from the county seat and legal matters were handled in a casual manner. Certainly the Civil War was not inducive to record keeping, lawyers scarce and not well-informed and families not inclined to take such matters too seriously. In general, Bedford county did a relatively good job in this respect. Summary John Hall, d. 1794, by standards of his time was a successful man. He raised a family, he acquired land and he was a man of property. How he did this is another question. First, he inherited all his father's property (William, d. 1757), by the systems of 'primogeniture' he did not have to share it with his younger brothers and sisters. Under the law of the time, they were called 'orphans' and by court orders placed in the homes of others. See section on: Our Southern Cousins – Part I, The family of William Hall. He became a slave owner. In spite of his large family, he needed help both on his land and at the Mill. His energy problem was solved by the use of slave labor. In so doing, he was merely following the pattern that had developed a century earlier in Virginia. This step was to have a marked effect on his descendants. Of his family we have only knowledge of his relationship with our ancestor and his brother, Hezekiah. It appears that Hezekiah was so near the legal age of 21, that by the time the estate of William Hall was finally settled (1769), he was not a minor and therefore not an 'orphan.' Since it appears that both John and Hezekiah married late, that following the death of their father, they worked together building up John's holdings on Rockcastle Creek. Later, John was to help Hezekiah acquire his land on Back Creek. + In the text he will be indicated as John Hall, d. 1794, to avoid confusing the party or parties under discussion. ++ Read more on this in the Discussion on Hezekiah Hall, 1741-1811. +++ Her name may have been (Mary) Magdalene Smith – but appears in the records only as Magdalene, which spelled in a number of different ways. ++++ For those interested the files on this history contain more specific information on the various land transactions. * Other John Hall items from the Bedford Order Book, 1774 – 1782. p. 247 John Hall, 35 pounds of bacon p. 351 John Hall, 585 pounds beef; 5 diets, 2 pecks corn. Estate settlement. The amounts are now recorded (1833) in dollars not English pounds. Purchases of the slaves, principally family members gave notes as cash was a scare commodity. The clerks and appraisers were paid for their work, no longer a voluntary job. The furniture and beds brought $11.50. The court-appointed administrator recived, $5.00 * Hinshaw, Quaker Geneal. Vol. VI, Virginia ** Only recorded Banks marriage in Hall family *** Pioneer Methodist ministersThis page is under development; research is on-going The Immigrant Grandfather The death of William Hall on the first of May, 1757 at the hands of the Cherokee Indians, not only thrust upon John Hall, his oldest son, the responsibility of heading the family but also the settling and managing of his estate. Many of the old-timers made their Wills on their deathbeds, but in the case of William Hall, death came suddenly and as a consequence he had no Will. Fortunately, Bedford county which had been organized just three years prior to the fateful Spring of 1757 had established a government capable of handling probate matters. The colonial system of 'Primogeniture' automatically made the oldest son, John, recipient of the estate. The county Justices then appointed three citizens to make an inventory and appraisel of the personal property. In this case, the appraisers were men who had been in the fatal skirmish on the banks of the Staunton River. Inventory From the estate of William Hall of Bedford county, Virginia, December 29, 1758 we learn – that he had personal property estimated to be worth 147 pounds, one shilling and nine pence. Fort the times, the place and in a pioneer society this was an appreciable amount of property. Let's take a look at it: Here is what he owned exclusive of real estate: these are the things the family used; the livestock they owned; their crops; their tools and household furnishings. It is an intimate glimpse of pioneer life in Virginia in the mid-1700s. author's (Carrol Carman Hall) note: We have only incidental information about Wm.'s Real Estate. We know its location and that it was originally Randolph land, purchased through Richard Stith, a Randolph kin and land agent. This information comes from a study of his son John's land transactions from 1758 – 1794. AN INVENTORY of the Estate of William Hall, Dec'd, appraised December 29th, 1758. Be we the Subscribers. + (Pds. Shil. Pen.) To 26 Head of Cattle Cur't Money 20 16 0 To 3 Horses 16 0 0 To 1 Mare & fold 5 10 0 To 1 Horse 4 10 0 To 1 Waggon l0 0 0 To 1 ditto and Harness 12 0 0 To 2 Mattocks 6 0 To 2 Sets of Plow Irons & Clovises 1 7 0 To 130 lbs. of Iron 2 1 0 To 2 Pair of Dung forks 1 set of fire tongs 5 0 To a Parcel of Old Iron 6 0 To 3 Narrow Axes 11 3 To 4 Old Sickles 2 Siths 5 0 To a Parcel of Carpenters Tools 1 0 0 To 5 Horse Bells 1 5 0 To 2 Rifel Guns 6 10 0 To lot of Silver 2 12 To Treasury Notes 19 0 0 To a Gilt Trunk 7 0 To 11 Books 16 6 To 5 Dishes 5 Plates 3 Basons 9 Spoons 1 17 0 To 3 Knives & forks 7 0 To 1 pair of Wool Cards 1 6 To 1 Box Iron & 2 Heaters 9 0 To l Large Chest 1 pair Shears 6 6 To 1 Linen Wheal and Hackell 10 6 To 11 Small Hogs 1 pr Small Stillars 1 12 0 To 1 Juggs Womans Saddle & C Bridle 17 0 To 1 Feather Bed & Bolster Bedsted Cord 2 15 0 To 2 Bolsters 2 Blanketts 1 Old Bedstick one Bedstead & Cord 3 10 0 To 1 Bed Bolster & Rugg 4 Sheet Bedsted Cord 1 10 0 To a Parcel of Tand Leather 15 0 To 1 Looking Glass 2 6 To 3 Pots & four Pair of Hooks 1 1 6 To 1 Sifter 2 0 To 2 Piggins a Pail a Churn & an Old Tubb 10 0 To 1 Claw Hammer & an Old Jugg 3 0 To 1 Pair of Wedges & Mauldings 6 0 To 1 Powdering Set 5 0 To a Pair of Wheals 1 3 To 1 Set of Shomakers Tools 7 0 To 1 Mare 2 Years old Colt & 1 year old Colt 6 0 0 To 5 Cow Hides 1 3 0 To 3 Hogsheads & a Large Tubb 6 0 To a Parcel of oats in the Straw 10 0 To a Parcel of Hemp 12 0 To 25 Barrels of Corn 10 0 0 To 1 Fodder Stack 7 6 To Hacks & Blades 15 0 To a Grindstone 7 0 To 1 pair of Cotton Cards 3 0 To 1 Pewter Bason 1 6 To 1 Iron Bell 6 6 To 1 Old ? & tea Cups 7 6 To Broken Hemp at ? 2 0 To 1 Shote at ? 2 0 To 1 1000 lbs of Pork 6 6 6 To 150 Weight of Tobacco 1 3 0 To 30 pd Treasury Note 147 1 9 Due to the Estate of Wm. Bennet 7 0 0 Due by Wm Swanson 3 5 0 Augustine Leftwhich ++) William Verdeman ) Apprs John Wheler ) At a Court held for Bedford County, Nov. 26th, 1759 the Inventory & appraisments Annexced were Returned & Ordered to be Record Teste Ben Howard CBC Truly Recorded Teste Ben Howard CBC Estate There you have it! A Virginia pioneer's personal property in the mid-1700s. Note: no slaves. This is what John Hall, d. 1794 inherited. He was not obligated to the younger family members and we do not know if his mother was living — likely not, as she would have the widow's dower rights, of which we have no record. In addition, John would inherit the land which became the Hall family base for the next 100 years. He was not clear in this inventory and Appraisement; he had to collect what was owed the estate and what it owed. This took a long time. The estate was not finally settled until 1769 at which time the last of the 'orphans' would be of legal age and/or married. There would be a possibility that John might die in the interim. His marriage – the date of which we do not know – may have been delayed because of property matters. The writer (Carrol Carman Hall) assumes that John and his brother, Hezekiah, managed the property; possibly adding the Mill on Rockcastle Creek. William Hall – from this estate – cannot be considered a poor man, although he would not be in the class with the Virginia gentry of that period. He would be in the yeoman class, a notch lower in the pecking order. We can only surmise that in migrating from Pennsylvania to Virginia he had to liquidate considerable property to make the move. His son, John, was getting a good start in life and as will be shown later, he proved to be a good manager and was himself a successful man in the standards of the period and in the area of Virginia in which he lived. Family As soon as the estate matters were under way, John following the custom of the times had to take careof his younger brothers and sisters. This he did by having them placed in foster homes. So, in 1759 they were classified as 'orphans' by court order. The actual obtaining of the homes was done by the church wardens. This indicates that at that point in time, the Hall family were members of the established church that dominated all affairs in the colony of Virginia — the Anglican. From this 1759 placement of the 'orphans' we learn the names of the younger family members. They were: Elisha Charles William Thomas Sarah Rebecca Susanna As in all legal matters, the boys are listed first, presumably in order of their ages; then the girls are listed in order of their ages. It is likely that John, Hezekiah and several of the younger children were born in Pennsylvania with only the very youngest being born in Virginia. If the mother was not living, she may have died during the last childbirth. +++ This group – what little is known of them – is discussed in Part I of the section titles: Our Southern Cousins, to be found later in this volume. Brothers John would now have to manage alone until he married; but marriage would have to be delayed. So, the author makes a bold assumption at this point. John kept his next oldest brother with him on the home place. That brother was Hezekiah, the ancestor of the Hall-Overstreet family of this history. In turn, John was to aid Hezekiah in his start in life which would be the purchase of the Back Creek property in 1762. They honored each other in the naming of their children. + oldest known Hall family document. The author (Carrol Carman Hall) assumes no resposiblity in identifying the articles inventoried or their spelling – nor their present-day value as antiques! ++ Augustine Lefwhich, 1712-1795, of the Va. Militia in the French and Indian Wars was father of Col. Wm Lefwhich, 1737-1820 of the Amer. Revol. – SAR genealogies of Va. Prominent Bedford family. +++ One family researcher has suggested that Wm's wife was a member of the Stover (Stovel) family known to have lived in the area of Pennsylvania from which Wm. supposedly migratedLike this: This page is under development; research is on-going Note: additional source materials and records are currently being sought. Christian Wenger was born 2 DEC 1799, Basel, Switzerland Mary Roth was born 15 NOV 1807, Dornach, Switzerland They were married 7 SEP 1830, Burgfelden, Elsass Christian Wenger and family migrated from Germany through Basel, Switzerland to near Hamburg, Ontario in 1835. The family lived here for 9 years. In 1844 they moved to Washington Co., Iowa north of Wayland by covered wagon, stopping overnite in Chicago where they could not find a place to stay. All the clothing they owned was on their backs as their clothing had been stolen before crossing the border in Canada. Christian was in his fifties when he arrived. Many of the descendants are still in Wayland, Iowa. Recently, we have added an Active Research section to our home page in an effort to provide more open and accessible active family research (and help me remember what I'm working on…). The Active Research area currently contains the following items: I'd like to say that I will be writing the Update more regularly, but I might not. So instead I'll promise to write Updates as time and schedules permits and wish you all the very best. As always, thank you for visiting ManyRoads and please remember we always appreciate reciprocal web site links! Like this: This page is under development; research is on-going Michael Senger and Adelgunde Kiehl were married in the area immediately adjacent to Jungfer/ Zeyer in West Prussia around 1868 (we continue to search for their marriage record). In addition to having built the family farm in Zeyersvorderkampen, they had thirteen (13) children of whom seven (7) survived to adulthood. Six (6) sons went to war (World War 1) and three (3) returned. Like this: This page is under development; research is on-going The family of August Kunz and Elisabeth Albrecht lived in Neuteicherwalde in Kreis Marienburg, Westpreussen (West Prussia). August was a Hofbesitzer (Farmer). It is believed that Hermann Recht and Auguste geboren Kunz inherited the family farm with their marriage shortly following the death of August Ferdinand (facts are being researched to confirm this). We do know that as late as 1895 Elisabeth continued to live in Neuteicherwalde (even after Hermann and Auguste Recht had moved to Pietzkendorf). This fact is confirmed via the birth and baptismal record of Erich August Albrecht. August Ferdinand Kunz (was born on 7 Feb 1844 in Neuteicherwalde the son of Andreas Kunz and Caroline Concordia Woelke) he married Catherine Elizabeth Albrecht (born on 10 Aug 1842 in Neuteicherwalde the daughter of Georg Albrecht and Marie Schroeder) on 3 January 1869 in Neuteicherwalde. (page 152 Baarendorf ev. Kirche) During their marriage August Ferdinand Kunz and Catherine Elisabeth geboren Albrecht had 5 children of whom perhaps only two survived into adulthood. This included: Catherine Elisabeth geboren Albrecht died in 1916 approximately two months after her daughter Auguste. It is probable that she had been in residence with the Recht's in the last years prior to Auguste's early death from Gout. Based upon an oral family history obtained by me from Luise geboren Senger, their grand-daughter, this marriage took place just after the death of Auguste's father, August Ferdinand Kunz. We are also in the process of attempting to source these records. Hermann and Auguste had five children, that we have identified, four of which lived into adulthood. The children were: Because of the generosity of newly found cousins in Germany (we are jointly descended from Hermann Recht & Auguste geboren Kunz), ManyRoads is now able to provide additional images and insights into the extended family of Hermann Recht and Auguste geboren Kunz. (more photos and data will appear here over the next months). Share this: Like this: This week I used the new FamilySearch.org microfilm (microfiche) ordering system for the first time. As you might expect, like any new service there are a few wrinkles but overall the new system is simply a magnificent advancement. Here's what I learned with my orders. NOTE: If you did not already know, recently FamilySearch.org placed a new online ordering mechanism on their site. According to their site this offering is being rolled out across the world and is currently available in my area (Colorado). Click this link to read the complete announcement. As most of you know, I do a lot of Prussian research (which means I order quite a few German tapes). What you may not know is that German copyright law is different from that in the US; and as a result, certain tapes are restricted from areas and durations within varying geographies (I will not attempt to explain the details of this set of regulations.) The net result is that I was not able to easily gain access to all the tapes I needed and should have been able to order easily. Certain of the tapes I attempted to order had some form of odd blocking mechanism in place based upon inaccurate criteria. That was the bad news, here is the good news: Undaunted by the system (software) denial, I contacted the FamilySearch telephone help desk. I spoke with Sister Jones (not her real name). She patiently listened to my song of woe and contacted the appropriate Archive support help desk. Since the queue was over 10 minutes long, she asked if it was okay to have the Archive/ systems support folks contact me directly, later. I agreed and she gave me my 'ticket' number and assured me I'd hear back shortly. I did! Within less than 2 hours, I received an email from Elder Bob Snow (not his real name) requesting that I provide some additional information on my account (like my local Family History Center-FHC) and he said once I did that, he'd give me special release on the tapes I wanted. I completed the tasks, and sure enough I received another email from Elder Bob Snow stating that my account was now granted specific access to the desired tapes. I could immediately order the tapes I needed, the earlier blocks were removed, an apology was provided as was assurance that they (their software folks) were aware of this problem and this problem was in the queue to be fixed. Other facts I have learned in this process include: Charges for microfilm loans have been lowered from what they were in the manual system. (Hooray!) Duration of short term microfilm loans is now at 90 days (an extension from the previous system) and the rates have remained constant. All in all, this new ordering process is a huge leap forward in accessibility and customer service. Good job FamilySearch! If you are in a served area and would like to test this new service out, or if you are simply curious about what's coming to your area, here's the link. Like this: It is often unbelievable what the universe has in store for you. Today, I received a small insight. A cousin of mine, Norbert Grohmann contacted me. Mind you, I had no idea that I had a cousin by that name or that his part of the family had even survived the Second World War. My mother, my primary source for such information, had not even known. But today a message (comment) came to me here on ManyRoads and it was Norbert… my cousin (Gott sei dank!). Since early this morning, we have numerous email exchanges. I have gathered photos and information from Norbert. He has been exceedingly generous. I have incorporated the information here and look forward to hearing and gathering more. I rejoice in this extension of my family. I rejoice in our resilience and ability to survive. The links below include the data I have enhanced with the help of my newly found family….	eng	8a6868a7-8ee4-47a6-ac2d-c51fe0cfcb65	http://www.many-roads.com/2011/10/
After creating my super template fighter wich resulted in bizzarre abominations, I bring you here a (in theory) as strong version, but not supernatural. Badass normal A sword may not be able to destroy a world, but it can certainly destroy you.-Jake, badass normal Some people are born with exceptional talent, and use it to stand out in the crowd, performing great deeds that others would think impossible. Others are not so lucky as to be born with special talents, and everybody would expect for them to stay average for all their lifes. But some of those "normal" people will not bow to such destiny. Trough intense training, hard work, and sheer stubborness, they rise against their destinies and carve their own path among those lucky enough to have been blessed by life. Having to always start from below and all the way to the top, badass normals end up understanding combat better than anyone else, as they experience it on all their forms. Adventures: Badass normals adventure to develop their own skills and prove their worth to the world-and themselves. Depending on their alignment, they may take any job that they think will allow them to test and improve their own skills. The path taken is as important as the destiny, and badass normals like both hard. He would join a military group if conflict was asssured or if he had the chance to train with other powerfull warriors, but he wouldn't acept a well paid position to patrol a peacefull kingdom. Thus, badass normals are renowed for their loyalty, as they don't see much sense in taking an "easy" shortcut by cheating those with who he works for. Characteristics: Badass normals are powerfull warriors, fully dedicated to the fight. They may be unable to perform shiny special attacks like seting their blades on fire, but their weapons still hit pretty hard. Hard constant training and learning allows them perform most basic martial feats better than anyone else, and a life of hardships ends up making them much tougher than anyone would expect for a normal mortal. Just like a barbarian channels his own rage to crush his oponents into pulp, a badass normal channels his own stubborness to keep him going trough pretty much anything. Alignment: Badass normals tend more to the lawfull side, as good discipline greatly helps training, but chaotic badass normals aren't unheard off. As long as one is willing to work hard, he can take the path of the badass normal. Badass normals are evenly distributed on the good-evil axis. Some seek to use their skills to correct the wrongs in the world, some just seek to improve themelves, and some simply seek to crush and humiliate all those who cross his path. Religion:Badass normals aren't very religious. They weren't blessed by life, so they don't see a lot of reasons to worship gods more than basic rituals. They also don't see much sense in praying and ceremonies to request the god's blessings, when they could be training. Still, they fully aknowledge the gods give out blessings to some lucky bastards. They just tend to try to avoid religious discussions, and will happilly agree with whatever they're told as long as they can then move on to pratical matters. The most religious badass normals follow the motto of "The gods help those who help themselves", and will fervently defend their god's causes, depending on their alignment and preferences. Background:Badass normals can appear from pretty much anywhere. Some are born poor people who worked all their way up from nothing. Others are rich bastards wich one would think would grow up to become fat rich aristrocats, but instead developed a taste for martial training. Most badass normals will have joined some kind of military/martial order to learn the basics. Some still will have been forced trough this path, fighting several years in an arena or forced into an army, untill escaping or earning their freedom. Thus, badass normals share no organization of their own, and it's much more common to seem them join other groups, once they prove their worth. Races:Most badass normals come from humans, wich are known for their great stubborness and will to improve. Dwarves, who know the value of hard work very well, also acount for a great number of badass normals. Less hotblooded orcs and half-orcs who still seek a martial life will take this path also. Sometimes elves become badass normals, taking advantage of their long existence to refine combat to it's finest form, in particular archery and fencing. Other classes:Badass normals give themselves better with individuals of classes who are more based on hard work. They apreciate a barbarian's full embrace of his own nature, the ranger's dedication to a single path, or a monk's unarmed training. Badass normals are suspect of divine and spontaneous casters. Can you really trust a power wich you didn't get by yourself? They however have respect for wizards, wich get their abilities from hard extenous study of books. Role: Badass normals are martial specialists, in particular in the frontline, keeping the enemy under constant threat from their blades, altough many badass normals know how to provide ranged support in combat as well. Bonus feats As fighter, but the badass normal knows how to pull more weight from his feats. All feats received as bonus feats from the badass normal are improved in the following ways: Blindsight:Applies to ranged attacks as well. Weapon focus, Weapon specialization and all it's cousins(weapon supremacy, ect): now apply to all weapons the fighter is proefecient with, not just one per feat. Cleave:If you hit an enemy in melee, you may automatically attack another adjacent enemy, whetever the first enemy drops or not. If you hit a mirror image, you may make a new attack as well. If you hit an enemy with a ranged thrown weapon, you may make a new attack again against other enemy behind the first target, with the same weapon. Either in melee or ranged, you can't get more tha one extra attack for each "normal" attack you make. Great cleave:Whenever you make a melee attack, you may attack up to X oponents whitin your reach, where X is half your str bonus. This doesn't trigger normal cleave. Great fortitude: You may add +2 or your Str modifier to your fort saves, wichever is higher. Iron Will:You may add +2 or your Con modifier to your will saves, wichever is higher. Point blanck shot:You can fire in melee whitout provoking attacks of oportunity, and fire while grappled with a -4 penalty, plus the normal bonus. Precise shot:You may add half your Dex bonus to ranged attack damage rolls if you're using a single handed ranged/thrown weapon, and your full Dex bonus if you're using a two handed ranged weapon. If you do, don't add any Str bonus to the attack. Improved precise shot:You may add your full Dex bonus to ranged attack damage rolls if you're using a single handed ranged/thrown weapon, and 1,5 times your full Dex bonus if you're using a two handed ranged weapon. If you do, don't add any Str bonus to the attack. Improved sunder:Whenever you hit an enemy, you can automatically make a sunder atempt at any object held by him (maximum of one sunder per round on each oponent). You can also sunder natural weapons and armor. If you have a magic weapon, you can sunder magic effects (works as a targeted Greater dispell magic, CL=Badass level). You can't cleave, great cleave or spring attack and get the extra sunders at the same time. Dodge:Applies against all attacks. You get +1, or 1/4 of your badass normal level, wichever is higher. Mobility:At the begginning of his turn, if you are affected by any effect that hinders your movement, you may save again against it. If you suceed you can ignore that effect for 1 round. If the effect didn't allow a save, then the save is 10+1/2 the HD of the creator+it's highest stat. Spring attack:You may make one attack against every enemy you pass by, or make a full attack at the end of your movement. You can't cleave or great cleave while spring attacking. Improved unarmed strike You add 1,5 times your str modifier to unarmed attacks, and can make sunder atempts with them. Deflect arrows: You can deflect projectiles of any kind. If you have a magic weapon, you can deflect spells, rays and ranged touch effects targeted at you. The first attack each turn is deflected automaticaly, then you may attempt to deflect new ones if you suceed on a reflex save with DC=attack bonus of the ranged attack. Each save beyond the first takes a cumulative penalty of -5. Combat reflexes:You don't need to be aware of the attacker. Your insticts allow you to make aoos every time an enemy in reach provokes. You also are never considered flat footed and may always act on a suprise round. Improved critical:You can score critical hits on creatures normally invulnerable to crirical hits such as undeads and constructs, but against such creatures your critical threat range is considered normal. For example, if you took improved critical:longsword, you would threaten a critical in a 17-20 against normal creatures and on a 19-20 against critical-immune creatures. Quick draw:When you draw a melee weapon, you may add your iniative modifier to your bonus to hit and damage rolls for the first attack you make in that round. Improved iniative:You may add your str bonus on top of your Dex bonus to your iniative. Improved feint:You may use your Str or Dex modifier in place of your Cha modifier in bluff checks to feint in combat. Stunning fist:You may use your str modifier instead of your wis modifier on the damage, and you may use this ability with any melee weapon you are proefecient with, in wich case you can call this feat "Stunning blow". More feats to come. Badassery:At 11th level, and every other level from then, the badass normal may take one badassery from the following list: Badass armor: After thousands of hours of wearing armor, it has become literally a second skin for you. The badass normal's move speed ins't reduced by wearing heavy armor, and the max dex bonus to AC of any armor he wears is increased by his Con bonus. The badass normal also gains Dr X/-, where X is 1/4 of his armor bonus+ his full shield bonus. The badass normal also counts as wearing light armor while wearing medium/heavy armor when it would be benefetical for him. Badass range:After countless battles, you learned how to use quick steps and lunges to threaten a large area. The badass normal reach with all weapons is increased: lv10:+5 feets lv15:+10 feets. lv20:+15 feets. In adition, all thrown weapons used by the badass normal have their range doubled. Badass attack: The badass normal attacks faster than anyone. He may make a full attack as a standard action. If he full attacks whitout moving, he applies his full BAB to all attacks. Badass resistance:The badass normal's body has grown specially tough after several hardships. He gains resistance X to all forms of energy, where X is his badass level, rounded down. He also gains resistance X/2 to all force effect, rounded down. He can also try to resist any effect that wouldn't normally allow a save as if it allowed a save. The DC is 10+half HD of the attacker+his highest stat modifier. If he suceeds by 5 or less, he ignores the effect, but takes a -X penalty to all d20 rolls for 5 rounds (cumulative), where X is half the HD of the attacker. If he suceeds between 5 or 10, he takes no penalty, and if he suceeds by 10 or more, then he gains a X bonus to all his d20 rolls for 1 round, as he surges forward with renewed confidence. Badass movement:Your tough training finally pays off, greatly increasing your stamina. The badass normal gains a bonus on all his movement speeds equal to 5xCon modifier. He can also climb and swim at half his now improved land speed. Notice that this bonus applies to any fly speed the badass normal fighter gets. Badass threat: After years of struggling, you know better how to make other struggle. If a creature threatened by the badass normal tries to take a defensive action (like defensive casting), then the DC of suceeding is increased by the badass normal class level. The DC for tumbling past the badass normal is also increased by his class level. In addition, flying enemies hit by your attacks drop 1 feet by point of damage taken from your attacks. Badass experience:Some badasses discover hidden talent, and choose a new path in life, but they still keep some of their old training habits. If you multiclass, your new levels count for all your badass normal feats and badasseries you had already gained, but you don't receive any more badasseries or bonus feats. Badass leader: Your might atracts an army of loyal minions. This works as leadership, but only atracts followers and uses Str instead of Cha. They are the race and NPC class of your choice, altough the DM may impose limitations depending on the setting. You may automaticaly organize your minions as a mob ( whitout bothering with the pre requisites. Killed followers are automatically replaced every time you visit any location with a large humanoid population. Badass legend: Years of training allow you to quickly adapt to any situation. A number of times per day equal to your highest physical score modifier(Con, Str or Dex), you may gain any feat you qualify for as an immediate action. This extra feat lasts for 1 round. You can't activate this ability again while you have an extra feat "active". Badass breacktrough:Nothing can stand in your way. You take down walls as you charge, magic or not, and dig your way trough fortresses if needed. Only the mightiest beasts may hope to even slow you down. When you charge, if there's an inanimate obstacle in front of you, you may make an attack as a free action against the obstacle. If you deal enough damage to destroy it, you can keep charging as if the obstacle wasn't there. If it is a magic effect (even a wall of force), and you have the improved sunder feat and are wielding a magic weapon, you may atempt to greater dispell the magic effect. Force effects can be dispelled, but the DC is +4 than normal. Your CL is equal to your Badass Normal level. If you have any bonus to sunder atempts, this bonus applies to your GDM CL. True badass:You become a living embodiment of martial skill. You may take 20 on any d20 roll a number of times per day equal to your str modifier. (note: actualy, I've hit a complete blanck on what the capstone ability should be. If you've got sugestions for a better idea, please point them out!) Temotei 01-03-2010, 05:14 PM Wasn't there a feat or something? Was that you who made it? Oslecamo 01-03-2010, 05:22 PM Wasn't there a feat or something? Was that you who made it? If you're talking about the badass part, there was the badass substitution level, made by other person, somewhere on this forums. It had the badass normal suboption, but it applied just to commoners. Milskidasith 01-03-2010, 05:30 PM The capstone should never be a "DM decides" thing. Additionally, this doesn't do anything to stop the normal "melee is stopped by magic easily" problem. Oslecamo 01-03-2010, 05:39 PM The capstone should never be a "DM decides" thing. Well, if you've got good ideas for the capstone, throw them out, I personally hit a blank on what the lv20 ability should be. Additionally, this doesn't do anything to stop the normal "melee is stopped by magic easily" problem. Really? Badass resistance allows him to make saves against spells that don't allow saves. Plus good save progression. The badass deflect arrows allows him to block any single target effect. The badass sunder can dispel magic effects. Badass breacktrough gives him freedom of movement against everything and even goes trough walls of force and forcecage. Badass mobility also allows him to get out of tight spots. Badass cleave goes trough mirror images. Badass leader allows him to create his own mob and, with some training, his own unit, wich give a lot of juicy bonus. He can full attack after moving, and he can move fast. If you still see any "easy" way a caster can take down this, please point it out and I'll work on solving it. Milskidasith 01-03-2010, 05:57 PM Well, if you've got good ideas for the capstone, throw them out, I personally hit a blank on what the lv20 ability should be. No clue, but considering most of the class is "I am immune to everything" you might as well just say "He wins D&D." Granted, he's not as broken as the wizard, but it takes him no work to automatically win at everything. Badass resistance allows him to make saves against spells that don't allow saves. Plus good save progression. Which merely means you use one of the many ways to have infinite DC spells. It's not hard; sanctum spell and heighten spell alone let you do it for free. The badass deflect arrows allows him to block any single target effect. No, only single target rays. Anything that automatically affects him still does, such as, say, Holy Word. The badass sunder can dispel magic effects. Which requires being into melee range. Badass breacktrough gives him freedom of movement against everything and even goes trough walls of force and forcecage. Badass mobility also allows him to get out of tight spots. Which is useful, true. However, do you really want to give a class constant noclip? I mean, it's basically super-etherealness. Badass cleave goes trough mirror images. Assuming they are within reach, which is a bad assumption to make. Badass leader allows him to create his own mob and, with some training, his own unit, wich give a lot of juicy bonusHe can full attack after moving, and he can move fast. Useful, sure, but casters can still be immune to damage easily. If you still see any "easy" way a caster can take down this, please point it out and I'll work on solving it (which, if they're fighting somebody with constant noclip and the ability to basically autosucceed at everything, they should be allowed to.) Oh, also, the class feature that allows you to have a save against everything basically gives a free heighten spell to all spellcasters, because all their lower level spells DCs just went up, yay! Oslecamo 01-03-2010, 06:22 PM No clue, but considering most of the class is "I am immune to everything" you might as well just say "He wins D&D." Granted, he's not as broken as the wizard, but it takes him no work to automatically win at everything.Which merely means you use one of the many ways to have infinite DC spells. It's not hard; sanctum spell and heighten spell alone let you do it for free. No, that only means you can win D&D if you twist only single target rays. Anything that automatically affects him still does, such as, say, Holy Word. Yeah, because adventurers are never good aligned. Which requires being into melee range. Meh, not that hard as long as you can get a fly speed. Normally geting over the 9000 defensive buffs of the wizard is the problem. Which is useful, true. However, do you really want to give a class constant noclip? I mean, it's basically super-etherealness. A level 19 ability. Etherealness is a 7th level spell. And casters can easily teleport before that, whitout cheese of any kind. Assuming they are within reach, which is a bad assumption to make. As you pointed out, I can't just put an auto win button. Using the class abilities and equipment to get whitin reach is the player's dutyUseful, sure, but casters can still be immune to damage easily. Not easily, not at least when the other dude can GDP every turn(which, if they're fighting somebody with constant noclip and the ability to basically autosucceed at everything, they should be allowed to.)And again, followers are NPC class! Oh, also, the class feature that allows you to have a save against everything basically gives a free heighten spell to all spellcasters, because all their lower level spells DCs just went up, yay!Siosilvar 01-03-2010, 06:52 PM If you still see any "easy" way a caster can take down this, please point it out and I'll work on solving it. Flight + Superior Invisibility. (or whatever it was) Yeah, because adventurers are never good aligned. Blasphemy, then. Milskidasith 01-03-2010, 07:02 PM This is bad for real play the same reason a warblade is good: The warblade is good because it takes little optimization to make one good, so anybody can play and feel useful. This is bad because, barring extreme cheese, no other class can compete, but when other classes are cheesed up this is still beatable. No, that only means you can win D&D if you twistYeah, because adventurers are never good aligned. Yes, because there aren't other versions of the spell. Purposely ignoring spells that affect different alignments doesn't make your arguments more reasonable. Meh, not that hard as long as you can get a fly speed. Normally geting over the 9000 defensive buffs of the wizard is the problem. You still have to debuff the wizard using sunder, which is fairly hard when you've got a flat check and there are many ways to make it harder to dispel your spells. A level 19 ability. Etherealness is a 7th level spell. And casters can easily teleport before that, whitout cheese of any kindAs you pointed out, I can't just put an auto win button. Using the class abilities and equipment to get whitin reach is the player's duty. Actually, you can, being the creator. With the sheer level of absurd things you put into this, you might as well, honestly. Let them teleport as a free action and ignore any effects they choose at willOne: It is not hard to pump your leadership score to the point where you can get higher level followers; it only takes a 5 charisma bonus at level 20 to get to epic leadership level followers, which includes sixth levels. Leadership also is any class, not just NPC classes, and the cohort was ignored for everything I stated (while your thing is NPC classes only, which makes it slightly less powerful). Two: Precocious apprentice + level one wizard followers + cooperative spell = absurd DC, absurd CL SoDs and blasty spells. With a max leadership score using the standard table, that gets me CL 150 spells once per round, and I can even do that with adepts if you use NPC classes, just without precocious apprentice. Not easily, not at least when the other dude can GDP every turn. At a low rate, yes. You can dispel, sure, but it takes an attack, which has to hit buffed AC, and requires you to beat the buffed CL of the caster. It's possible, but hard, even with everything this has going for itWings of cover isn't self only if you are dragonblooded. Leadership is not NPC only, and not low levels, except with your class. If you have a level three dragonblooded follower, you can have him use the dragonblooded only effect to provide cover to allies. If you were not designing it to be broken, then the fact it is, is a clear design problem, not a benefit. Anybody could invent something broken, it's nothing to feel honored about. For example: The badder-ass. Level 1 class feature: This class is immune to everything but pun-pun. Should I feel honored I built something that is immune to everything but supreme cheese? And again, followers are NPC class! Tell me where, in the description of leadership, it says that followers are NPC only. Your leadership does, but again, the feat does not. Actually, the infinite DC combos add a flat bonus to the DC, which doesn't change anything, because it would affect the new base DC based on your hit dice. But fine, your reading works as well, it doesn't really affect anything. Milskidasith 01-03-2010, 07:11 PM Honestly, though, I have to say the class isn't as overpowered as I said, on a second inspection. While it does get a lot of fairly broken abilities, it can still be beaten by casting save or sucks at it, just slightly less than a normal fighter. It also doesn't get too many extra attack options, though if all of his feats are as powerful as the badass feats you've listed so far he'll actually be versatile. However, all of his abilities are basically designed as being "be immune to casters" (though not particularly strong against melee, honestly), but they just don't work. Oslecamo 01-03-2010, 07:47 PM Thank you very much for puting words on my mouth and then critisizing them. I didn't knew you were able to read minds at distance to discover my intentionsWhy bother? If you're the kind of dude who makes all interpretations in favor of the caster, then we're not going anywhere. Meh, at least I forced you to use noncore stuff. You still have to debuff the wizard using sunder, which is fairly hard when you've got a flat check and there are many ways to make it harder to dispel your spells. Targeted GDP affects all spells on the target, so well, something is going down on each attack when the wizard has 20 buffs on him19th level. Caster has time stop. Polymorph line. Shapefreakingchange. Run away to another plane. And you complain about noclip? One: It is not hard to pump your leadership score to the point where you can get higher level followers; it only takes a 5 charisma bonus at level 20 to get to epic leadership level followers, which includes sixth levels. Oh, yeah, my class sucks because it cannot compete with a overoptimized caster using the most broken splatbook in existance, oh woe me! Two: Precocious apprentice + level one wizard followers + cooperative spell = absurd DC, absurd CL SoDs and blasty spells. With a max leadership score using the standard table, that gets me CL 150 spells once per round, and I can even do that with adepts if you use NPC classes, just without precocious apprenticePlus ALL the followers need to be able to actually cast the spell. And only uncapped damage is a 3rd level one. And SoD start at 4. Tell me where, in the description of leadership, it says that followers are NPC only. Your leadership does, but again, the feat does not. Followers are similar to cohorts, except they're generally low-level NPCsSorcerers are T2. They can use time stop and teleport polymorph and friends and stuff. I'm afraid it's you who has no idea what is balanced for each tier. Now, any usefull sugestion, or will you keep throwing bombos that only work if you bribe the DM for him to ignore the parts of the rules you don't like? Temotei 01-03-2010, 07:50 PMMilskidasith 01-03-2010, 08:05 PM Thank you very much for puting words on my mouth and then critisizing them. I didn't knew you were able to read minds at distance to discover my intentions. As I said later in the post, it was either assume you tried to make a powerful caster killer melee, or you had no clue what you were doing with balance. I assumed the better one. Why bother? If you're the kind of dude who makes all interpretations in favor of the caster, then we're not going anywhere. Meh, at least I forced you to use noncore stuff.Targeted GDP affects all spells on the target, so well, something is going down on each attack when the wizard has 20 buffs on him. I know that. Please don't assume I don't know how things work. It will knock some buffs down, but it's not necessarily going to knock the right buffs down. 19th level. Caster has time stop. Polymorph line. Shapefreakingchange. Run away to another plane. And you complain about noclip? Oh, yeah, my class sucks because it cannot compete with a overoptimized caster using the most broken splatbook in existance, oh woe me! Please don't strawman. ItHow am I doing all of this? Easy. It's a small leadership penalty that doesn't stack to have a follower die, and you can replace them in town. As for actually keeping them alive, you don't really need to... you can sustain high casualties and still have powerful spells. Plus ALL the followers need to be able to actually cast the spell. And only uncapped damage is a 3rd level one. And SoD start at 4. Even in core there are spells that are save or dies at second level (Hold Person, though this class is immune). It's easily possible to get a splatbook save or die at second level, or just cast multiple high DC capped damage spells. Followers are similar to cohorts, except they're generally low-level NPCs Generally. Not always. Sorcerers are T2. They can use time stop and teleport polymorph and friends and stuff. I'm afraid it's you who has no idea what is balanced for each tier.Now, any usefull sugestion, or will you keep throwing bombos that only work if you bribe the DM for him to ignore the parts of the rules you don't like? My useful suggestion: Rudeness, strawmanning, ad hominem attacks, and ignoring existing criticism are not going to help you balance the class. WhatFlamingKobold 01-03-2010, 08:23 PM Before I judge whether or not it's "Balanced," I need something to balance it against. What tier do you want this to be? T1-T2 to take out casters? In this case, it might not be enough. However, if you try to balance it against anywhere else, you start owning everyone, because you're immune. If you make it to neutralize T1-T2 classes, even if it's not quite powerful enough to do it, that means it's a very high T3, making it able to kill anything else. By the way you shouldn't insult Milskidasith, as the title says PEACH. Note what the letter H stands for. Temotei 01-03-2010, 08:34 PMAlright. Oslecamo, stop being thickheaded. We all know casters can be overpowered, and it's not a great thing. Having a mage-killer is a good concept. Having a mage-killer that just gets arbitrary immunities and powers based on stopping casters' class features is just lame. Review the class, take away super-immunities, and replace them with mettle and evasion, give some bonuses to saves against spells and spell-like effects, etc. Don't go: "Fighter gains immunity to a 'bunch of stuff.'" Oslecamo 01-03-2010, 08:40 PM Munchkenery discussion nº458798As we'll see ahead, you're ruling in favor of the caster a LOT of times.Because casters totally are the only things in the universe able to use magic, right? Please don't strawman. Please don't ignore the basic game rules. Fair deal huh? ItThen state what you think it's balanced. You still didn't pick a single melee build for comparation, just bombos that don't work at all and if they worked noncasters could do them as well. How am I doing all of this? Easy. It's a small leadership penalty that doesn't stack to have a follower die, and you can replace them in town. Really? Where does it say that? I only see a line saying you get new followers when you level up. As for actually keeping them alive, you don't really need to... you can sustain high casualties and still have powerful spells. You still need to win iniative with all of them, and are sacrificing your mobility, one of the main caster advantages. Even in core there are spells that are save or dies at second level (Hold Person, though this class is immune). Only clerics and bards get them at 2nd level. And they cannot pick precocious aprentice. It's easily possible to get a splatbook save or die at second level, or just cast multiple high DC capped damage spells. Then EVERYBODY can pick up leadership and replicate that combo, so it's no longer a class problem. Hurrah! Assuming you find your non existant save or dies of course. Generally. Not alwaysRelevant discussionConsidering that I meant to create something between T2 and T3, like I had already pointed out and you ignored, great for me! My useful suggestion: Rudeness, strawmanning, ad hominem attacks, and ignoring existing criticism are not going to help you balance the class. Only following your example, good sir. It was you who jumped out of the gate with bombos out of nowhere. WhatI've google searched. I cannot find any immunity in my class. It can fail with bad rolls. That is not immunity in any book I ever seenThere's these things called "monsters". Monsters many times have these things called "spell like abilities". Wich are indeed very strong, and are indeed very similar to caster abilities, but are not exclusive to them. However, compared to melee... it's fairly broken. Easy reflex saves to ignore multiple attacks per round, Only ranged attacks. And even then a warblade who dips any melee class for longbow proefeciency and then takes time stands still can breack his defense. extra reach, extra movespeed, spring attack allowing you to double your speed (rather than half) and full attack, etc. basically means it gets all the melee goodies you get from multiclassing for free and better than anything else.Basically, you get to ubercharge for free, but get more bonus goodies on top of that and can ignore any of the problems ubercharging normally has because you get noclip. And the warblade gets sudden leap, and the swordsage gets the other dimensional jump powers. EDIT:But whatever. Clearly I'm atracting all the "noncasters can't have nice things!" crowd. This is slowly turning into a flame war and I'm starting to regret even starting this thread. Still, thank you for your time everybody. Going to sleep now. Milskidasith 01-03-2010, 11:00 PM As we'll see ahead, you're ruling in favor of the caster a LOT of times. No, the example I provided was strictly by RAW. Because casters totally are the only things in the universe able to use magic, right? What does this have to do with my statement? When you gave the thing a bunch of immunities (which were explicitly non magical, actually), I just figured it was meant to be a mage killer. I never complained about the fact that it's magical. Please don't ignore the basic game rules. Fair deal huh? I haven't. The combo I posted works by RAW, unambiguously. Yes, it's broken. Yes, Sanctum Spell lets you cheese it up. So does this class! Then state what you think it's balanced. You still didn't pick a single melee build for comparation, just bombos that don't work at all and if they worked noncasters could do them as well. Everything I've posted works. You keep disputing that it doesn't, but it does. Please tell me where in cooperative metamagic it says you can't use 100+ casters to get a 100+ DC spell. Really? Where does it say that? I only see a line saying you get new followers when you level up. I am fairly certain the line you are looking for is in the PHB, but not in the SRD. You still need to win iniative with all of them, and are sacrificing your mobility, one of the main caster advantages. Having a bunch of other casters along with you doesn't lower your personal mobility during a fight, nor does it disallow you from delaying. Sure, if you want to kill them all you can (thanks to your super-cleave, extra reach, and essentially having thicket of blades up all the time), but that doesn't affect the caster. Only clerics and bards get them at 2nd level. And they cannot pick precocious aprentice. There are still plenty of good spells, and you can cheese it up to get higher level spells (Kobolds). Then EVERYBODY can pick up leadership and replicate that combo, so it's no longer a class problem. Hurrah! Assuming you find your non existant save or dies of course. Yes, everybody can. So what? The entire point is that, if this was meant to be a caster killer (which it's not) it fails. As for being a balanced melee class, it's not. Also, if you really want a save or die... have them all band together and cast scorching rays. With 10 11th level castings of it, you get 40 4d6 ranged touch attacks against you; you're going to stop using your infinite deflection against those eventuallyI am using RAW only. Your using "Rules as I want to be played" does not apply. Your class fits neither of the possible descriptions I can see it being intended as: "Mage killer" or "Balanced fighter fix." Considering that I meant to create something between T2 and T3, like I had already pointed out and you ignored, great for me! This isn't T2. Granted, it doesn't have amazing attack options, but it has absurd defenses and can essentially say "I'm immune" to a bunch of random things. It's quite probably T1, when played smartly, just because you can be immune to most everything except melee attacks, and on those you can ignore defenses and kill most everybody (and with Great Cleave, you can hit any two targets until one of them dies or you miss a high number attacks, so you OHKO them). Even more, not only does it break the game with martial prowess (which puts it at T2) it gets an ability to change it's feats every day... which means it can break the game a different way every day, just like wizards (and assuming you replace most fighter feats with badass feats, with just as many immunities and "no save, you just die" abilities). All that on the best chassis in the game (good saves, BAB, HD, amazing class features, and a free set of 11 supercharged feats to switch around per day.) Only following your example, good sir. It was you who jumped out of the gate with bombos out of nowhere. I never strawmanned you or used ad hominem attacks. I did criticize your class harshly, but A: it deserves it and B: you did type PEACH on your post. I've google searched. I cannot find any immunity in my class. It can fail with bad rolls. That is not immunity in any book I ever seen. It has a flat reflex DC to avoid ranged attacks (which is rather low; I can easily deflect three per round at level 20 unless you roll a 1, and automatically avoids the first every round, for a grand total of four attacks, which happens to be all of a full attack (Immunity!). It has immunity to... well, any obstacle while charging (Immunity!). It ignores 10 points of ability damage on any ability damaging attack (Not immunity, but damn close.) You are immune to any feat that would prevent an AoO, including any kind of improved X feat, which means other meleers can't do anything except whack away at you. There's these things called "monsters". Monsters many times have these things called "spell like abilities". Wich are indeed very strong, and are indeed very similar to caster abilities, but are not exclusive to them. And? Are you actually going to argue with me over the fact I admitted I made an assumption about the focus of the class? What are you trying to prove, that I was lying and didn't mistake this for being built as a caster killer? Only ranged attacks. And even then a warblade who dips any melee class for longbow proefeciency and then takes time stands still can breack his defense. So your argument to countering the defence is "If a 17+ level member of a specific class focuses on a specific discipline, he can use a specific ability to break through the defense?" Even that isn't guaranteed; if you optimize saves, you can fairly easily beat the DC required to deflect eight attacks (well, you can get more attacks than that, sure, but if your full attack routine goes from 12 to 4 at best, it's a pretty strong defense).Can be done, and can be done, with this class. As for being strong without multiclassing, that's not a problem. The problem is, the class gets basically everything you could want from all the melee classes, gives them more abilities, and packs them into one class. It's like you gestalted every melee class together to make this, and then gave it better bonus feats. And let it switch them every day, making them as varied as wizards (almost.) And the warblade gets sudden leap, and the swordsage gets the other dimensional jump powers. Isn't sudden leap just the ability to make a jump check with a bonus or as if you had been running? I can't recall. That's a far cry from noclip. EDIT:But whatever. Clearly I'm atracting all the "noncasters can't have nice things!" crowd. This is slowly turning into a flame war and I'm starting to regret even starting this thread. You asked for PEACH, and I EACH'd. You are the one who made ad hominem attacks on me. Flickerdart 01-03-2010, 11:37 PM This isn't "noncasters get nice things" so much as "noncasters get all the nice things". This thing puts the Lightning Warrior to shame. I would, personally, cut down the feat progression to a Psychic Warrior's, and make all the "Badass" abilities available like the Rogue's Special Abilities: after a certain level, and only as a few chosen from a larger list. It would still be a melee juggernaut, but the more limited choices would make the character less of a mish-mash of immunities and more of an interesting class. It also looks like you've attempted to tack some fluff onto this class. Either flesh it out completely or remove it, because it feels, in my opinion, very awkward. As well, I would make many of the abilities function off DEX or CON instead of STR - it makes no sense that the character's STR applies to his Dodge, but a true badass should have a chance at being a tough badass or a fast badass, not just a pile of muscles. As it stands, this class is immeasurably more powerful than any melee class published by WotC, and this power doesn't come with the elegance of a class that justifies it. It's the Smug Snake ( to the Badass's Magnificent Bastard ( - it just doesn't measure up to what it sets out to do. When people see interesting and powerful homebrew, as I have found, they'll say "Wow, I want to play this!". But such homebrew has to justify its power with finesse. People don't want to play it because it makes numbers big, they want to play it because it does so in an interesting way, and the power just makes the concept be effective. Your Badass Normal has no such interest, just a bunch of incredibly unbalanced abilities. There is potential here, but it's buried under an attitude of more, more, more! Origomar 01-04-2010, 12:16 AM this is meant to be an overpowered fighter right? Temotei 01-04-2010, 12:20 AM But whatever. Clearly I'm atracting all the "noncasters can't have nice things!" crowd. This is slowly turning into a flame war and I'm starting to regret even starting this thread. This isn't really a good thing to say before thanking us for our time. UnfortunatelyKrazddndfreek 01-04-2010, 12:32 AM I literally took one look at the list of feat modifications, and I stopped short on cleave. While I'm sure there are many more things that make this class super broken, especially when compared to Tier 3 classes, Cleave is cheese without making the effort to find any loopholes. Seriously, as long as you have two enemies in front of you, you can keep attacking till one of them dies or you miss. Milskidasith 01-04-2010, 12:37 AM I literally took one look at the list of feat modifications, and I stopped short on cleave. While I'm sure there are many more things that make this class super broken, especially when compared to Tier 3 classes, Cleave is cheese without making the effort to find any loopholes. Seriously, as long as you have two enemies in front of you, you can keep attacking till one of them dies or you miss.Temotei 01-04-2010, 12:39 AMThen hug them and apologize so you can keep that Neutral Good alignment? Latronis 01-04-2010, 12:43 AM I wish you people would stop linking tvtropes, it's too damn distracting and now im late for work again Temotei 01-04-2010, 12:54 AM I wish you people would stop linking tvtropes, it's too damn distracting and now im late for work again Goooood...now we can move on to delay everyone else...:redcloak: KBF 01-04-2010, 01:03Temotei 01-04-2010, 01:10Leadership for the win. :smalltongue: KBF 01-04-2010, 01:15 AM Leadership for the win. :smalltongue: Oh come on. Leadership isn't a better, godlike solution. What good is an army? What will you do without a raven assisting you? Or even a snake?! Start thinking before you post. Temotei 01-04-2010, 01:17 AM Oh come on. Leadership isn't a better, godlike solution. What good is an army? What will you do without a raven assisting you? Or even a snake?! Start thinking before you post. I apologize. I will surely reconsider my posts before putting them on the boards, for they profane them. I bow to you, sir. Witty Username 01-04-2010, 01:41 AM This class doesn't feel right. I think boosting damage and have the ability to cut(smash,pierce) though Immunities and resistances would be more appropriate. What does PEACH mean? Krazddndfreek 01-04-2010, 01:43 AM I think it means Please Evaluate And Correct Helpfully. That's actually a guess, but its a pretty good guess, no?:smallbiggrin: Temotei 01-04-2010, 01:43 AM This class doesn't feel right. I think boosting damage and have the ability to cut(smash,pierce) though Immunities and resistances would be more appropriate. What does PEACH mean? Please evaluate and critique honestly. There are some other interpretations, but they all mean the same thing, essentially. Krazddndfreek 01-04-2010, 01:45 AM Darn, I was close. Oslecamo 01-04-2010, 06:53 AMUnfortunatelySee, this is the "Noncasters can't have nice things!" mentality I was talking about. What makes the wizard and factotum more qualified for power than anyone else? And if anyone still cares, changed the cleave thingy and made the badass abilities only available from level 11 onward, making you also able to only pick up pick 5 badasseries. Badass breacktrough nerfed. Imp grapple and trip nerfed. Ideas for new badasseries or changing old ones are welcome. Cheap philosophy will be ignored. Flickerdart:I made all the abilities strenght based to reduce MaD. This is, a swordsage can easily get away with pathetic str and get dex to damage and concentration skill to all his saves. Milskidasith 01-04-2010, 07:57 AMYay for ad hominem potshots! I pointed out why the class was bad: It has a laundry list of immunities, built in infinite damage combos (two enemies + cleave = one is automatically dead and the other is hit a good bit), and gets every melee goodie that other classes want anyway. Do you want me to specifically go and complain about every broken ability? I can probably show how they can all be broken to hell and back if you want. See, this is the "Noncasters can't have nice things!" mentality I was talking about. What makes the wizard and factotum more qualified for power than anyone else?Oslecamo 01-04-2010, 11:06 AM I pointed out why the class was bad: It has a laundry list of immunities, built in infinite damage combos (two enemies + cleave = one is automatically dead and the other is hit a good bit) No, you misread the ability, as I included a clause to stop an enemy from being hit more than once per cleave from the begginning, but it seems you're too busy shouting cheap philosophy to notice. As for immunities, yes, please point them out, as only the breacktrough could be considered immunity, and I already took care of it. and gets every melee goodie that other classes want anyway. Do you want me to specifically go and complain about every broken ability? I can probably show how they can all be broken to hell and back if you want. Yes please. And please use my updated version.Badass normal. ( And if you don't know why being badass allows you to be powerfull and popular, then this class isn't for you. DracoDei 01-04-2010, 11:57 AM The feat improvements would be clearer if you made it a seperate class feature they get at level 1. Does badass resistance allow you a save to walk through a Wall of Force? PROBABLY will add more as I read more... Flickerdart 01-04-2010, 12:49 PM Flickerdart:I made all the abilities strenght based to reduce MaD. This is, a swordsage can easily get away with pathetic str and get dex to damage and concentration skill to all his saves. While with classes like Monk and Paladin, high stats are a requirement in order to not suck, for this guy, the abilities would be more like rewards for having high stats. He is by no means weak without most of those abilities, but having to work a little to be more badass seems to be fitting. Normals need to have their stats make sense, they can't just "CHA to everything". Milskidasith 01-04-2010, 01:05 PM No, you misread the ability, as I included a clause to stop an enemy from being hit more than once per cleave from the begginning, but it seems you're too busy shouting cheap philosophy to notice. Your wording said once "per cleave." The wording is vague and could imply either once per round (which is what you should say), or once every time you get a cleave attempt. As for immunities, yes, please point them out, as only the breacktrough could be considered immunity, and I already took care of it. I already stated it, but I'll state them again. You are immune to one ranged attack per round, and are 95% immune to the next three with light dex focus and a cloak of resistance. Badass threat makes you immune to any kind of special melee attack because you get an attack of opportunity against them, which stops them. Yes please. And please use my updated version. See above. But let me go through the feats that are broken: Great Cleave should make sure it is clear you can only attack somebody once per round, because per cleave could just mean every time you get an attack caused by cleave, which still means you get infinite attacks. Improved Sunder: Not that breaking loot is a good thing, but doubling your attacks per round with one feat (even if the attacks are used to sunder) is pretty broken, especially if the sunder attempts can be combined with cleave. Dodge: Why is strength used for dodging? Spring Attack: It's pounce, basically. Deflect Arrows: I've already said why this is broken; even light optimization can make you mostly immune to full attacks and require you to roll <5 and <10 for the fifth and sixth ranged attack in a round. Combine this with badass threat to be immune to melee (or at least better at it), and you've got a melee god. Badass Reach: Doubled reach can quickly get problematic when combined with already reaching weapons and large size, though since D&D multiplication is weird, it winds up being tripled reach on a reach weapon. Still, you can easily enough get 30 foot reach with just enlarge person and a reach weapon, and anybody within that range can't do anything for fear of your AoO + great cleaving everybody else routine, which would kill everybody within 30 feet. Badass movement: With the strength focus needed for this class you could easily get a 60+ bonus to all forms of speed (is that applied to your new swim speed, by the way, or is it half of the new land speed; the wording is vague). Combine that with Spring Attack and you get full attacks against anything within a few hundred feat and then great cleave (cleave is already great, if a heavy feat investment; the badass version is just absurd. Also, yes, I know that you meant for great cleave to be one against each enemy, but that's not how it's worded, and even with that you still get massive numbers of bonus attacks against everything in range), everybody else in range, easily. So those are the problems, really. Free attacks, nigh immunity to ranged attacks (OK, a 5% chance for the second, third, and fourth attacks to not be negated, assuming a little bit of save enhancement, with a decent but not amazing chance for the next three attacks after that to be negated), having massive reach, making any melee tactic besides full attacking against you irrelevant, being able to full attack anything within your range easily, beating other melee classes even at just full attacking with your full attack bonus, etc. Basically, it gets everything melee could want, then shuts down ranged no matter how good they are (An epic archer shooting a full attack of four "arrows of slay that badass normal and his stupid deflection ability" +20 has the same chance to be fully deflected as four level one goblins throwing rocks at you; the reflex save should probably be against the attack roll, with a penalty as normal), and gets to shut down all the goodies other melee classes have to work towards. Badass normal. ( And if you don't know why being badass allows you to be powerfull and popular, then this class isn't for you. Tautologies do not make good fluff. You're badass because you have these abilities, but you have these abilities because you are badass. Where does it start? The wizard has a clear chain of fluff; they study magic, practice it, and command it. With this, I don't know if you're such a badass that you get these abilities, or if you just have these abilities out of nowhere and get labelled a badass because of it. It's kind of like the chicken and the egg. Anyway, really, two words of fluff and a tvtropes article, even if it wasn't a tautology, isn't exactly great as far as fluff goes. Temotei 01-04-2010, 05:22 PM Milskidasith got my point perfectly. Other classes are "qualified," as you say, for power because they have real fluff that justifies it. Anyways, this class is more powerful than a factotum, but I would never consider taking this over the factotum. A name and some small bits don't make fluff. Add a whole section with adventures, alignment, other classes, etc. If there's going to be fluff, make there be fluff. If there's not, don't have any at all, although fluff is preferredBreakthrough seems somewhat strange for a level 11 (Ex) ability. You lack a caster level to make greater dispell work (as other posters have indirectly pointed out). ...Find some way to mix defence and offence into each "bene". Oslecamo 01-05-2010, 08:38 AM Flickerdart:Redid many of the abilities to work with either Con or Dex. You can now also make a dex based ranged badass normal. Temotei221:Fine. There's your full fluff. I'll even add an image if I find something apropriate. Milskidasith:Now that was helpfull! Did a major overhaul of the class. New improved feats, redone the already existing ones, special abilities based on other stats than str, just one issue: New wording, based on Con, and 1/4 well, because it feels right. Also it's the one UA sugested for armor as DR if I'm not mistakenChanged the ability for something less book keeping. Breakthrough seems somewhat strange for a level 11 (Ex) ability. You lack a caster level to make greater dispell work (as other posters have indirectly pointed out). It was suposed to be the same as sunder(your BN lv). Updated that.There's a bazillion diferent lose/suck spell effects out there. Well, did something like that anyway. Mobility now only protects you for one round for each save, and badass resistance grants you a penalty if you don't save high enough. Find some way to mix defence and offence into each "bene". By bene you mean the badasseries, the improved feats, or both?	eng	17bbdcee-a360-4e33-9e1a-57bfdb0ade5b	http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-137125.html
john stuart mill occupies an important place in the history of moral philosophy, and moral philosophy occupies a similarly important, indeed a central, part in Mill's thought. He wrote, however, no ethical treatise comparable in range and depth to his Principles of Political Economy or his System of Logic; and while ethical works generally tend to be shorter than works on political economy and logic, one cannot treat Mill's Utilitarianism, even apart from length, as commensurate with the Principles or the Logic. So, accepting Utilitarianism as his major ethical work, one must look to other essays if one wishes a comprehensive view of his ethics. In this volume, therefore, Utilitarianism is presented, for the first time, in the context of the other significant essays that establish the scope and development of Mill's ethics, and indicate its social and religious affiliations.1 A brief glance at the provenance of these essays will, in the light of Professor Priestley's Introduction, help explain their importance and our grouping of them. Three were issued as separate publications—Utilitarianism, Auguste Comte and Positivism, and Three Essays on Religion—but of these just the last appeared only in book form; Utilitarianism was first published in three instalments in Fraser's Magazine, and Auguste Comte in two instalments in the Westminster Review.2 Of the others, four—the major articles on Sedgwick, Bentham, Coleridge, and Whewell—appeared in the Westminster Review and were reprinted in Dissertations and Discussions. The two remaining items in the main text are an appendix to a book not by Mill, Bulwer's England and the English, and a review of Blakey from the Monthly Repository. (The appended items are discussed below.) It will be seen, if comparison is made with other volumes of essays in this edition, that this one contains a very high percentage of material Mill thought worthy of republication. The significance and history of the items from a textual point of view emerges best when they are grouped in the following way: essays illustrating the development of Mill's utilitarianism; essays begun by Mill with his wife's help in the 1850s; and Auguste Comte and Positivism. ESSAYS ILLUSTRATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF MILL'S UTILITARIANISM The relevant items here are the first six in the volume (the "Remarks on Bentham's Philosophy," and the reviews of Blakey, Sedgwick, Bentham, Coleridge, and Whewell) and the first two Appendices (the "Preface" to Dissertations and Discussions, and Mill's obituary notice of Bentham). The basic unity here is provided by Mill's reassessments of his Benthamite inheritance, as he moves back and forth between eulogy and disparagement, qualifying both, until his general approval is given in his comments on Whewell (and renewed in Utilitarianism).3 The obituary of Bentham (1832), which appeared anonymously in a Radical weekly, The Examiner, is appropriately eulogistic, concentrating in the main on the legal and legislative aspects of Bentham's thought, but hints of criticisms to come are found even here when Bentham's stature as a moralist is in question. At this time Mill was entering his most marked period of assimilation of new ideas, having met the St. Simonians and Coleridge, and formed friendships with Mrs. Taylor (later his wife), Carlyle, and John Sterling. When, in his Appendix to Bulwer's England and the English (1833), he made his most severe attack on Bentham, he was at the height of his reaction against his intellectual heritage. As he says in his Autobiography: To complete the tale of my writings at this period, I may add that in 1833, at the request of Bulwer, who was just then completing his 'England and the English' (a work, at that time, greatly in advance of the public mind), I wrote for him a critical account of Bentham's philosophy, a small part of which he incorporated in his text, and printed the rest (with an honourable acknowledgment), as an appendix. In this, along with the favourable, a part also of the unfavourable side of my estimation of Bentham's doctrines, considered as a complete philosophy, was for the first time put into print.4 But he was not willing, in the early 1830s, to acknowledge these opinions as his. To Carlyle he writes (11-12/4/33): "I wish you could see something I have written lately about Bentham & Benthamism—but you can't." After the appearance of Bulwer's book he writes again to Carlyle (2/8/33): "I told you in one of my letters that I had been writing something about Bentham & his philosophy; it was for Bulwer, at his request, for the purposes of this book: contrary to my expectation at that time, he has printed part of this paper ipsissimis verbis as an appendix to his book: so you will see it; but I do not acknowledge it, nor mean to do so." And to J. P. Nichol he says (14/10/34): "It is not, and must not be, known to be mine."5 The review of Blakey is mainly an assault on the weaknesses of Blakey's understanding and exposition, but it has wider significance, for the basic outline of the important parallel essays on Bentham and Coleridge can be seen in Mill's reference to "the two systems between which, and which only, almost every metaphysician, deserving the name, in all Europe, is now beginning to be convinced that it is necessary to choose," that is, "the association-philosophy as taught by Hartley, and the metaphysics of the German school" (23). And in the last paragraph (29) the importance of secondary moral principles, a theme to which Mill returned again and again, is stressed. This review was again anonymous, and only in the next essay here reprinted, the review of Sedgwick's Discourse, does Mill begin to appear under his own colours. The article was signed "A," not in itself a clear identification, but the authorship was known to a wider group than that of the former items, and the review appeared in a periodical edited by Mill, the London Review (later amalgamated with the Westminster). In his Autobiography (140-1), Mill says that this article, coming as it did in the first number of the London Review, and so helping set the tone for his new venture, gave him the opportunity of putting into practice his "scheme of conciliation between the old and the new 'philosophic radicalism.' " Sedgwick's book, he comments, featuring "an intemperate assault on analytic psychology and utilitarian ethics, in the form of an attack on Locke and Paley," had excited great indignation in my father and others, which I thought it fully deserved. And here, I imagined, was an opportunity of at the same time repelling an unjust attack, and inserting into my defence of Hartleianism and Utilitarianism a number of the opinions which constituted my view of those subjects, as distinguished from that of my old associates. In this I partially succeeded, though my relation to my father would have made it painful to me in any case, and impossible in a review for which he wrote, to speak out my whole mind on the subject at this time. In the Early Draft (158) the final sentence, after "succeeded," reads: "though I could not speak out my whole mind at this time without coming into conflict with my father." This passage replaced a cancelled reading that brings the matter into sharper focus: "though I was obliged to omit two or three pages of comment on what I thought the mistakes of utilitarian moralists, which my father considered as an attack on Bentham & on him. I certainly thought both of them open to it but far less so than some of their followers." The general judgment in these remarks, dating from 1854-55, is earlier found in a letter to J. P. Nichol (26/11/34), written on completion of the review (though probably before the revisions suggested by James Mill): "I have said a number of things in it which I have never put into print before, and have represented the 'utilitarian theory of morals,' as [Sedgwick] calls it, I think for the first time in its true colours. At all events, I have incidentally represented my own mode of looking at ethical questions; having never yet seen in print any statement of principles on the subject to which I could subscribe."6 That his opinion of the review was expressed differently in the Preface to Dissertations and Discussions, twenty-five years later, is probably partly because he had been obliged, by his father, "to omit two or three pages of comment" and partly because his own position was more genuinely secure in 1859. In that Preface (493-4 below) he says that his slight revisions have left the articles, in the main, as "memorials of the states of mind in which they were written"; and goes on to explain: Where,. These, again, if they stood alone, would give just as much too strong an impression of the writer's sympathy with the reaction of the nineteenth century against the eighteenth: but this exaggeration will be corrected by the more recent defence of the 'greatest happiness' ethics against Dr. Whewell. A glance at the variants in the essay on Sedgwick suggests that this is one of the two articles in Dissertations and Discussions in which Mill, aware of the "asperity of tone," revised with a view to retaining "only as much of this strength of expression [resulting from the subject, not from "the smallest feeling of personal ill-will towards my antagonists"], as could not be foregone without weakening the force of the protest" ("Preface," 494, below). This suggestion is supported by a letter to John Sterling of 22 April, 1840, at which time Mill was already beginning to collect articles for republication.7 "I have softened the asperity of the article on Sedgwick," he says, "& cut out whatever seemed to take an unfair advantage against his opinions, of his deficiencies as an advocate of them." (Earlier Letters, XIII, 429.) We do not know just which revisions were made at what times between 1840 and the publication of Dissertations and Discussions in 1859, but the relative frequency of changes in the essays in Volume I (that is, up to and including the "Coleridge," which was first published in March, 1840, just before the letter to Sterling quoted above), when compared with that in Volume II (made up of essays written between 1840 and 1859), suggests that the first revisions, about 1840, were much more thorough than the subsequent ones, which probably were made just before publication, after Harriet Taylor's death.8 In any case, many of the changes indicating a softer judgment of Sedgwick's faults were undoubtedly made at the earlier date. An illustration is to be seen at 45g-g andh: whereas in the version published in 1859 Mill says that Sedgwick "has contented himself with repeating the trivialities he found current," in 1835 he had said that Sedgwick "has repeated the trivialities he found current, not having depth or strength of mind to see beyond them." Other examples of this common type of change may be seen at 39y-y, z-z, 45d-d, 69b-b, and 72f-f to 73l-l. The retraction of more serious charges of moral obliquity on Sedgwick's part is illustrated by 70n-n, where Sedgwick's "trick of words" becomes in 1859 his "confusion of ideas" (cf. 71w-w and 72z-z). Similarly softened judgments on the merits of Cambridge and Oxford, seen at 34j, 73l-l, and 74r, should be compared with the footnote on 35, which explains that the article was first published "before the advent of the present comparatively enlightened body of University Reformers." A few changes reflect Mill's logical speculations in the years between the two versions (his Logic was first published in 1843): for example, 44v, w, a-a, and 71x-x (the first three also indicate his changed estimate of the validity of James Mill's view of the uses of history). One should also note Mill's willingness to accept the term "utilitarian": in 1835 the term is said to be Sedgwick's and is given in quotation marks; in 1859 it is accepted without significant qualification (see 36n-n, 52i-i, 65d-d, f-f, and cf. the letter to Nichol of 26/11/34 quoted above). An excision of what is probably provocative irony may be seen at 64a-a, where the reading in 1835 is "God has thought fit to furnish us," while in 1859 it is "we have been provided" (cf. 64z-z, and 70m-m; and "Bentham," 93u-u). Three years after his essay on Sedgwick appeared, Mill published his famous essay on Bentham. His subsequent comment on it in the Preface to Dissertations and Discussions (quoted above) is supported by his judgment in his Autobiography, where he says that in the article, while doing full justice to the merits of Bentham, I pointed out what I thought the errors and deficiencies of his philosophy. The substance of this criticism I still think perfectly just; but I have sometimes doubted whether it was right to publish it at that time. I have often felt that Bentham's philosophy, as an instrument of progress, has been to some extent discredied before it had done its work, and that to lend a hand towards lowering its reputation was doing more harm than service to improvement. Now, however, when a counter-action appears to be setting in towards what is good in Benthamism, I can look with more satisfaction on this criticism of its defects, especially as I have myself balanced it by vindications of the fundamental principles of Bentham's philosophy, which are reprinted along with it in the same collection [i.e., "Sedgwick" and "Whewell" in Dissertations and Discussions].9 The most interesting variants in this essay, as the passage above would suggest, involve Mill's more favourable appraisal of Bentham and Benthamism in the 1850s. Examples, some of them indicating attention to slight nuance, will be seen at 82b-b, 98s-s, 99w-w, 111y-y, and 112z-z, but the most significant is that at 86m-m, which is too long to be quoted here. This variant occurs in Mill's comment on his favourite passage in Bentham, taken from the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, and quoted or referred to in all Mill's major discussions of Bentham.10 Related changes, illustrating in minor ways the development of his own ethical attitudes, will be seen at 109n-n, 110s-s, 111u-u, and especially 111v. The roots of Mill's comparison of Bentham and Coleridge in the opening pages of his essay on the latter, probably go back to arguments with Coleridgeans in the London Debating Society. The comparison became explicit in 1834, when, in a letter to Nichol, he says that Coleridge is "the most systematic thinker of our time, without excepting even Bentham." Five years later, after the publication of "Bentham," he tells Sterling that he intends to compose an article on Coleridge "as a counter-pole to the one on Bentham," feeling that the "likeness" of Coleridge "should be taken from the same point of view as that of Bentham."11 The linking of the two pieces, mentioned again in the Preface to Dissertations and Discussions, is also commented on in the Autobiography, where Mill says: In the essay on Coleridge I attempted to characterize the European reaction against the negative philosophy of the eighteenth century: and here, if the effect only of this one paper were to be considered, I might be thought to have erred by giving undue prominence to the favourable side, as I had done in the case of Bentham to the unfavourable. In both cases, the impetus with which I had detached myself from what was untenable in the doctrines of Bentham and of the eighteenth century, may have carried me, though in appearance rather than in reality, too far on the contrary side. But as far as relates to the article on Coleridge, my defence is, that I was writing for Radicals and Liberals, and it was my business to dwell most on that in writers of a different school, from the knowledge of which they might derive most improvement.12 Some of the variants in "Coleridge" are evidence of his awareness that in 1840 he had given "undue prominence to the favourable side" of what he calls "the European reaction against the negative philosophy of the eighteenth century". Like most of the other variants, they should be studied in context: see, for example, 134n-n, o-o, x-x, 137m-m, and 160m-m (and cf. "Bentham," 90e-e, and 109l-l). Lessened "asperity of tone" is seen in the variants to 140n, and Mill's revised assessment of Gladstone (who had moved into the Liberal camp in 1859) is noticeable at 149b-b and 150g. Also worthy of mention are the variants at 157a, where Mill's increased sympathy for socialist criticisms of society is evident; at 130f, where the deletion of the reference to James Mill's Analysis as "the greatest accession to abstract psychology since Hartley" is more likely a response to the publication of Bain's The Senses and the Intellect (1855) and The Emotions and the Will (1859) than a depreciation of the Analysis (cf. 246n); and at 127p-p, where the added reference to Kant may be the result of a reading (or rereading) of Kant between 1840 and 1859 or, as is more likely, of the reading of Cousin that Mill did for his Logic. The review of Whewell is commented on significantly by Mill only in the Preface to Dissertations and Discussions where, as already noted, he remarks that it should correct any exaggerated impression of his "sympathy with the reaction of the nineteenth century against the eighteenth". In fact, his reassessment of Bentham and utilitarianism was virtually complete in 1852, and the comments in "Whewell" are consonant with those in the Autobiography and Utilitarianism. As a result—and as a result of the shorter time between the versions—there are fewer variants, and none calling for detailed notice here; attention might be called, however, to the passage on marriage in which 199z-z occurs, where Harriet's influence may well be inferred (as it may also in "Bentham," 113j-j). Considering together the four essays reprinted in Dissertations and Discussions, one finds a total of 638 variants (including those in footnotes), which occur with decreasing frequency as the time between the first publication and the republication lessens.13 Mill did very little revision for the 2nd ed. of Dissertations and Discussions (the one here used for copy-text), only forty-three substantive variants appearing, and these of a minor nature (see, for example, "Coleridge," 134r-r). A rough classification of the variants isolates some 6 per cent as involving a change of opinion or correction of fact (including major expansions or deletions); 3 per cent reflect the difference in time and provenance between the separate publications; 44 per cent arise from qualifications; and the remaining 47 per cent are minor verbal alterations or slight tonal changes (including the removal of italics). The most interesting kinds have already been exemplified, but reference might be made to the change of time indicated at 45n and 85k, the change in provenance indicated at 74s-s, and, of the many minor qualifications, to those at 41l-l ("all" changed to "much of"), 123q-q ("perfect" to "correct"), and 143h-h ("no" to "scarcely any"). ESSAYS BEGUN IN THE 1850s The relevant items here are Utilitarianism and the Three Essays on Religion. Some time after their marriage in 1851, probably towards the end of 1853 when they were together in France, Mill and Harriet drew up a list of subjects on which they wanted to publish their views. Thinking that one or both of them would not live long, Mill forecast "one large or two small posthumous volumes of Essays, with the Life at their head," which might be ready for publication by Christmas 1855, though, he adds, "not then to be published if we are still alive to improve & enlarge them."14 They had already composed a draft of the "Life,"15 though it was to undergo further revision, and Mill on his return to England immediately set to work on the subjects on their list. Having begun with "Nature," he writes to Harriet on 7 Feb., 1854, that that essay is finished, and he is puzzled "what to attempt next." He goes on to say: I will just copy the list of subjects we made out in the confused order in which we put them down. Differences of character (nation, race, age, sex, temperament). Love. Education of tastes. Religion de l'avenir. Plato. Slander. Foundation of morals. Utility of religion. Socialism. Liberty. Doctrine that causation is will. To these I have now added from your letter, Family, & Conventional. His own inclination was to go on with the first mentioned,16 but Harriet preferred that he turn to the "Utility of religion," as he did (see cxxvii-cxxviii below). This programme adumbrates, at least through suggestion, most of Mill's later writings, but of its detailed working out in the years before Harriet's death not a great deal is known. In her "Introductory Notice" to the Three Essays on Religion, Helen Taylor remarks that in addition to "Nature" and "The Utility of Religion," Mill wrote three essays between "1850 and 1858 . . . on Justice, on Utility, and on Liberty. . . . Those on Justice and Utility were afterwards incorporated, with some alterations and additions, into one, and published under the name of Utilitarianism." (371 below.) The terminus a quo being only roughly given, one need not place full reliance on the terminus ad quem; otherwise the account seems reliable. Of the subjects mentioned in the list, it seems likely that "Foundation of morals" and to a lesser extent "Religion de l'avenir" and "Education of tastes" indicate the origins of the essay on Utility that, combined with the essay on Justice, resulted in Utilitarianism. Nothing more is known of the essay on Utility,17 but the origins of the essay on Justice (not mentioned in the list in February, 1854) may be seen in Mill's correspondence with Harriet. On 14 June, 1854, he writes from St. Malo, where he had just arrived from the Isle of Jersey, to say: "I employed the five hours of steamboat partly in conning over the subject of justice for the essay . . . ," and the next day consoled himself, in wet weather, by saying that it would at least allow him to write. On the 16th he explains that after posting his last letter, he was able to spend, because of the rain, "a long spell at the Essay on Justice. . . ." At Guingamp, he says on the 19th, he managed an hour's writing, the last for some days. And on the 30th, in the last reference we have, he says: "I do not find the essay on Justice goes on well. I wrote a good long piece of it at Quimper [on the 26th], but it is too metaphysical, & not what is most wanted but I must finish it now in that vein & then strike into another [essay]." The union of the two essays, and the consequent rewriting, took place not long after Harriet's death, as Mill indicates in his Autobiography, saying: ". . . I took from their repository a portion of the unpublished papers which I had written during the last years of our married life, and shaped them, with some additional matter, into the little work entitled 'Utilitarianism'; which was first published, in three parts, in successive numbers of Fraser's Magazine, and afterwards reprinted in a volume."18 In fact he indicated to Theodor Gomperz as early as August, 1858, before Harriet's death, his intention to publish his papers on utility as "there are not many defences extant of the ethics of utility."19 On 15 October, 1859, Mill wrote from Avignon to Alexander Bain: "I am employing myself in working up some papers which have been lying by me, with additional matter into a little treatise on Utilitarianism."20 And again to Bain (14/11/59): "I do not think of publishing my Utilitarianism till next winter at the earliest, though it is now finished, subject to any correction or enlargement which may suggest itself in the interval. It will be but a small book, about a fifth less than the Liberty, if I make no addition to it."21 He wrote similarly to W. G. Ward (28/11/59) to say that he proposed to publish his "little manuscript treatise" when he had kept it "for the length of time . . . desirable & given it such further improvement" as he could.22 Bain, who knew Mill's working habits better than anyone else but Harriet and Helen Taylor, comments that the essay was "thoroughly revised in 1860,"23 and Mill is undoubtedly referring to it in a letter to Henry Fawcett (24/12/60) when he says that since leaving London for Avignon in October, he has "two things finished, one of them a considerable volume [Considerations on Representative Government] and [has] made good progress with a third."24 And Utilitarianism was finished in time, as he told Fawcett on 26 September, 1861, for it to appear "in the next three numbers of Fraser."25 Mill always intended the parts to be united in book form, but there was an unexplained delay. He wrote to Charles Dupont-White on 10 January, 1862; "J'ai laissé mon éditeur le maître de décider le moment de le réimprimer en volume, mais n'ayant rien appris sur ses intentions, je présume que cette réimpression est ajournée."26 Though the first edition in book form was being printed in February, 1863,27 as late as 21 January Mill wrote to Samuel Bailey in hesitant terms: "If I reprint them separately as I am thinking of doing I will beg your acceptance of a copy."28 He selected a cover in March, and the volume was published by Parker in May. Mill's opinions were quite stable by the time Utilitarianism appeared, and though there is a decade between the periodical publication in 1861 and the appearance in 1871 of the 4th ed. (the last in Mill's lifetime, and so used here as copy-text), there are only seventy-four substantive variants (1.35 per page of this edition). Of these, eight may be said to illustrate a change of opinion or fact, one reflects the passage of time (Bain becomes "Professor" in 246n), and twenty-two are qualifications; the rest are minor verbal changes. Of the total, twenty-one were made between the periodical version and the 1st ed. (1863), thirty-seven for the 2nd ed. (1864), eleven for the 3rd ed. (1867), and five for the 4th ed. In fact, almost one-third of the changes were made in the final chapter in the 2nd ed.; the most extensive of these occur in the passage on 244-5 concerning the etymology of the non-English terms corresponding to "Just." Of the minor changes, one (224m-m) might be mentioned as probably illustrating the printer's common misreading of Mill's "&" for "or". Actually, one variant which does not occur is potentially more interesting than any that do, for had Mill changed the passage in question much of the subsequent criticism of Utilitarianism would have been modified. On 18 March, 1868, writing to Mill about the translations for the German edition he was preparing, Gomperz says: Let me conclude by expressing my regret that you did not in the later editions of the Utilitarianism remove the stumbling block (to any reader and more especially to a translator) pp. 51-52 1st ed. [234 below] (audible, visible—desirable) which when pointed out to you by me [in 1863, just after the publication of the 1st ed.], you said you would remove. Your argument looks like a verbal quibble, far as it is from being one and has besides to me the serious disadvantage of being utterly untranslatable. Mill's reply (23 April, 1868) is unfortunately inconclusive: With regard to the passage you mention in the Utilitarianism I have not had time regularly to rewrite the book & it had escaped my memory that you thought that argument apparently though not really fallacious which proves to me the necessity of, at least, further explanation & development. I beg that in the translation you will kindly reserve the passage to yourself, & please remove the stumbling block, by expressing the real argument in such terms as you think will express it best.29 The connection in time between Utilitarianism and the first two of the Three Essays on Religion is established by Helen Taylor in her "Introductory Notice" to the Three Essays, cited above. There, in addition to dating "Nature" and "The Utility of Religion" between 1850 and 1858, she says "Theism" was written between 1868 and 1870. The third essay cannot now be dated more accurately, but one can be more precise about "Nature" and "The Utility of Religion." On 30 August, 1853, during their first separation since marriage, Mill writes to Harriet: "I am very much inclined to take the Essay on Nature again in hand & rewrite it as thoroughly as I did the review of Grote [for the Edinburgh Review, 98 (Oct., 1853)]—that is what it wants—it is my old way of working & I do not think I have ever done anything well which was not done in that way."30 Again separated from Harriet, he writes on 14 January, 1854, to say that as soon as he feels well enough to start writing again he will "finish the rewriting of the paper on Nature," which he began before they left England for the South of France. On the 19th he says: "I have been reading the Essay on Nature as I rewrote the first part of it before we left & I think it very much improved & altogether very passable. I think I could soon finish it equally well." On the 29th, commenting on their plans for a volume or two of essays, perhaps to be published posthumously (see cxxiii above), he writes to Harriet: The first thing to be done & which I can do immediately towards it is to finish the paper on Nature, & this I mean to set about today, after finishing this letter—being the first Sunday that I have not thought it best to employ in I.H. work [his professional labours at the India House having fallen in arrears during his leave at the end of 1853]. That paper, I mean the part of it rewritten, seems to me on reading it to contain a great deal which we want said, said quite well enough for the volume though not so well as we shall make it when we have time. I hope to be able in two or three weeks to finish it equally well & then to begin something else—but all the other subjects in our list will be much more difficult for me even to begin upon without you to prompt me. On the 30th, before posting the comments just quoted, Mill received Harriet's letter of the 26th (not extant), on which he remarks: "It is a pleasant coincidence that I should receive her nice say about the 'Nature' just after I have resumed it. I shall put those three beautiful sentences about 'disorder' verbatim into the essay.31 I wrote a large piece yesterday at intervals . . . & am well pleased with it. I don't think we should make these essays very long, though the subjects are inexhaustible. We want a compact argument first, & if we live to expand it & add a larger dissertation, tant mieux: there is need of both." On 2 February he says: "I have written at the Nature every evening since Sunday & am getting on pretty well with it. I shall not know what to attempt when that is done." Two days later he comments: "By working an hour or two every evening at the Nature I have very nearly finished it: tonight or tomorrow will I believe do everything to it that I am at present capable of doing. There is a pleasure in seeing any fresh thing finished at least so far as to be presentable." And on 7 February he says: "I finished the 'Nature' on Sunday [the 5th] as I expected." Being puzzled as to what to attempt next, he sent the list of subjects they had agreed on (see cxxiii above). Harriet suggested that he move on to the "Utility of religion" rather than to an essay on "Differences of character," saying: About the Essays dear, would not Religion, the Utility of Religion, be one of the subjects you would have most to say on—there is to account for the existence nearly universal of some religion (superstition) by the instincts of fear hope and mystery etc., and throwing over all doctrines and theories, called religion, as devices for power, to show how religion & poetry fill the same want, the craving after higher objects, the consolation of suffering, by hopes of heaven for the selfish, love of God for the tender & grateful—how all this must be superseded by morality deriving its power from sympathies and benevolence and its reward from the approbation of those we respect. There what a long winded sentence which you would say ten times as well in words half the length.32 On 20 February Mill replied: "Your programme of an essay on the utility of religion is beautiful, but it requires you to fill it up—I can try, but a few paragraphs will bring me to the end of all I have got to say on the subject. What would be the use of my outliving you! I could write nothing worth keeping alive for except with your prompting." On 6 March, perhaps having received Harriet's comments, he says: "I have fairly set to at another essay, on the subject you suggested. I wrote several hours at it yesterday, after turning it over mentally many days before—but I cannot work at it here [the India House] yet, as there is another mail in today—luckily a light one." On Sunday, 12 March, he worked on the essay "till near one," and on 20 March he says: I wrote a good spell at the new Essay yesterday, & hope to get a good deal done to it this week. But I have not yet got to the part of the subject which you so beautifully sketched, having begun with examining the more commonplace view of the subject, the supposed necessity of religion for social purposes as a sanction for morality. I regard the whole of what I am writing or shall write as mere raw material, in what manner & into what to be worked up to be decided between us—& I am much bent upon getting as much of this sort written as possible—but above all I am anxious about the Life, which must be the first thing we go over when we are together.33 On 3 April he reports to Harriet (referring to her, as was his custom, in the third person): "I have completed an essay on the usefulness of religion—such a one as I can write though very far inferior to what she could." And again on the 5th, in the last known reference to the essay, he says: "I have done all I can for the subject she last gave me." It would appear from this evidence that the final form of the essay follows the original plan, for the first part of which Mill was himself responsible (the introductory section is also almost certainly his), while Harriet's "long winded" and somewhat incoherent sentence served as the basis for the second part, which deals with the effects of religion on the individual. (See 418ff. below, especially 418-20, 421-2.) On such meagre evidence alone can we rely in estimating Harriet's contributions to these "joint productions"; again she appears as the inspirer, suggesting avenues of approach, probably adding words and phrases, but not conceiving the work as a developed whole, or writing any substantial part of it. There seems now to be no further external evidence concerning dating and the degree of collaboration, or for assessing Helen Taylor's role as editor of the Three Essays, which appeared only posthumously, in 1874.34 At Sothebys' sale on 29 March, 1922, the manuscripts were sold to Atkinson for £1, under the following description: "723. Mill (John Stuart) Utility of Religion, Theism, and Nature. Three Auto. MSS of Essays (3)." Nothing further is known of these, the only recorded manuscripts for any of the essays in the present volume. The copy-text for the Three Essays, since they were published after Mill's death, is that of the 1st ed. (1874); the 2nd (also 1874) and 3rd (1885) eds. being simply reprints. There are, consequently, no variants. The main point to be made about the quotations and references is that the former are infrequent and the latter vague. In this respect they resemble the other essays planned and in part written at the same time, such as Utilitarianism or On Liberty. It seems likely that Mill, influenced by Harriet, was aiming at a broader audience than in his more technical works and so, except for general reliance on inartistic or extrinsic evidence (to use the rhetorical terms) that would be easily accepted by his audience, put his main argumentative weight on artistic or intrinsic evidence, and consequently cultivated the appeals to ethos and pathos as well as logos. AUGUSTE COMTE AND POSITIVISM In his Autobiography, having earlier dealt with Comte's influence on his logical speculations and with their correspondence, Mill devotes a full paragraph to explaining his attitude to Comte at the time he composed the two articles that make up Auguste Comte and Positivism: After the completion of the book on Hamilton, I applied myself to a task which a variety of reasons seemed to render specially incumbent upon me; that of giving an account, and forming an estimate, of the doctrines of Auguste Comte. I had contributed more than any one else to make his speculations known in England. In consequence chiefly of what I had said of him in my Logic, he had readers and admirers among thoughtful men on this side of the Channel at a time when his name had not yet in France emerged from obscurity. So unknown and unappreciated was he at the time when my Logic was written and published, that to criticize his weak points might well appear superfluous, while it was a duty to give as much publicity as one could to the important contributions he had made to philosophic thought. At the time, however, at which I have now arrived, this state of affairs had entirely changed. His name, at least, was known almost universally, and the general character of his doctrines very widely. He had taken his place in the estimation both of friends and opponents, as one of the conspicuous figures in the thought of the age. The better parts of his speculations had made great progress in working their way into those minds, which, by their previous culture and tendencies, were fitted to receive them: under cover of those better parts those of a worse character, greatly developed and added to in his later writings, had also made some way, having obtained active and enthusiastic adherents, some of them of no inconsiderable personal merit, in England, France, and other countries. These causes not only made it desirable that some one should undertake the task of sifting what is good from what is bad in M. Comte's speculations, but seemed to impose on myself in particular a special obligation to make the attempt. This I accordingly did in two Essays, published in successive numbers of the Westminster Review, and reprinted in a small volume under the title 'Auguste Comte and Positivism.'35 As Mill indicates, he wrote the articles on Comte after completing his Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, but his plans go back to the early 1850s. In 1851 John Chapman, who had just taken over the Westminster Review, suggested (evidently prompted by Francis Place) an article on Comte; Mill replied tartly (29/9/51): "I have never had any intention of writing on Comte's book [the Cours], nor do I think that a translation or an abridgement of it is likely to be either useful or successful." Three years later, however, after the appearance of Harriet Martineau's English redaction of the Cours, Mill took more seriously a renewed suggestion by Chapman. He wrote to Harriet (9/1/54) for her opinion: Now about reviewing Comte: the reasons pro are evident. Those con are 1st I don't like to have anything to do with the name or with any publication of H. Martineau. 2dly. The Westr though it will allow I dare say anything else, could not allow me to speak freely about Comte's atheism & I do not see how it is possible to be just to him, when there is so much to attack, without giving him praise on that point of the subject. 3dly. As Chapman is the publisher he doubtless wishes, & expects, an article more laudatory on the whole, than I shd be willing to write. You dearest one will tell me what your perfect judgment & your feeling decide. Her strong feeling (and judgment) against Harriet Martineau and Comte36 led her in a letter (not preserved, but written before Mill's letter reached her) to advise against his proceeding with the review, and he replied (17/1/54): As for Chapman's request, the pro was the great desire I feel to atone for the overpraise I have given Comte & to let it be generally known to those who know me what I think on the unfavourable side about him. The reason that the objection which you feel so strongly & which my next letter afterwards [that quoted above] will have shewn that I feel too, did not completely decide the matter with me, was that Chapman did not want a review of this particular book, but of Comte, & I could have got rid of H.M.'s part in a sentence, perhaps without even naming her—I shd certainly have put Comte's own book at the head along with hers & made all the references to it. But malgré cela I disliked the connexion & now I dislike it still more, & shall at once write to C. to refuse—putting the delay of an answer upon my long absence so that he may not think I hesitated. And by 23 January he had written to Chapman refusing. Not until 1863 did he take up the question again, this time himself opening the matter with Chapman (16/3/63): "M. Littré has nearly ready for publication a life of M. Comte, which would afford a very good occasion for a general estimate of M. Comte and of his philosophy. If you would like to have such an article from me, I would undertake it. I cannot say exactly how soon it could be ready, as I have more than one thing in hand which I should like to finish before commencing it. But I would promise it as early as is possible without a very inconvenient interruption of other things."37 On 1 August, replying to Chapman's request for an early submission, Mill is even less sanguine about a deadline, pointing out that Littré's volume will perhaps not be published by October. Its earlier appearance, while increasing Mill's desire to write on the subject, led him to another postponement, explained in a letter to Chapman on 6 September: What I wish to write is an estimate of Comte's philosophy. But the book suggests much to be said about the man himself, his character and career, the conduct of others in relation to him, and various points in the character of his country and of the age, which some of the incidents of his life illustrate. It, therefore, is worth reviewing merely as a biography, independent of the great philosophical questions raised in it; and as the attempt to combine both points of view in one article would not only run to too great a length, but would almost necessarily spoil both, two articles seem to be required, one of which, though I should not be unwilling, I have no particular wish to write, while I could not possible set about either before next year. He suggested, therefore, that if Chapman had someone in mind who could write the biographical article sooner, he would willingly forego the task. Mill was reluctant, he explained (18/9/63), after Chapman asked him to do the biographical article, because Littré placed both Comte and the French national character in an unfavourable light, and he did not wish to add his voice to the general discrediting of them in England. At this time he intended to treat Robinet's book with Littré's in the first article, and to add Littré's Paroles de philosophie positive and de Blignières's volume to Littré's biography for the second; both articles to be finished early in 1864, though not in time for the April number of the Westminster, he told Chapman. A week later, however, having read Robinet's book, he felt that he must give up the biographical article: There is so bitter a feud between those who followed Comte in the last developments of his opinions and those who only went a certain way with him, among whom was Littré; and the two parties differ so widely in their statements of fact, that there is no chance of getting at the truth: and any remarks founded on mere conjecture would be of course utterly valueless, besides the possibility that they might be unjust to one side or the other. I therefore propose to limit myself to one article, which I will set about as soon as I am free from my present occupations and in which I shall pass slightly over Comte's personal history and character, and confine myself in the main to an estimate of his doctrines and method.38 In December he was working on Spencer's criticism of Comte's classification of the sciences, so presumably he was preparing the article at that time. He entered into correspondence with Spencer on the question in the spring of 1864, remarking inter alia: "I myself owe much more to Comte than you do, though, in my case also, all my principal conclusions had been reached before I saw his book. But in speculative matters (not in practical) I often agree with him where you do not, and, among other subjects, on this particular one, the Classification of the Sciences."39 By that time, however, he had put the article aside to work on his Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, which was, as Bain remarks, his main occupation during 1863 and 1864.40 Picking up the article again in the autumn of 1864 (the Hamilton being virtually completed by the end of August), he finished the first draft, but then had to put it aside almost immediately when, early in November, he turned to revisions of his Principles of Political Economy for the 5th and People's editions. Only in December41 was he able to give final form to his plan for treating Comte; on the 12th he wrote to Chapman to say that two articles would after all be needed, one on Comte's Cours, and the other on his later speculations. The first of these [he says] is all written; except two or three references which remain to be put in when I return to England [from Avignon] at the end of January. I can therefore promise it for the April number. But it is very long; sixty pages of the Westminster, if not more [sixty-six, actually]; and I see no possibility of either dividing or shortening it, consistently with its being what I meant it to be. It is for you to judge whether, under these conditions, it will suit the Review. If accepted, as I wish it to be known as mine, I should be glad, if you have no objection, to put my initials. The second article, he feels "tolerably certain," will be ready for the following number, if Chapman wishes it then. On 4 February, 1865, having finished the first article, he was "well advanced" with the second, and asked Chapman to have twenty copies of the first made up for him to send to friends. He added the reference to Bridges' General View of Positivism (a translation of Comte's "Discours préliminaire" to the Système) to the second article at this time, remarking to Chapman (9/2/65) that it "gives the pith of Comte's later speculations free from some of their grosser absurdities, and in a form better adapted than any other of his later works for the information and edification of English readers." By 28 February the second article was finished (though not delivered to the printers until after 10 March), and proof of the first returned to the printer with a request for a revise. The revise being returned by 6 March, Mill asked for prepublication copies of the first article so that Littré could have it translated; they were delivered on 25 March. On 11 April he had read proof of the second article, and again asked for a revise (to be sent to Avignon where he was going that evening) and twenty copies. His interest in the reception of the articles is shown in a request that Chapman let him know of any responses, and in his immediate acceptance of the suggestion that the articles be republished in book form. "I have always contemplated reprinting the articles on Comte as soon as is consistent with the interest of the Review," he writes to Chapman on 20 April, "and if Mr. Trübner—then publisher of the Westminster—"wishes to be the publisher, no one has so good a claim. We will therefore consider that as settled." Having returned to England on 30 June at the insistence of the committee seeking his election to parliament for Westminster, Mill outlined to Chapman (28/7/65) his "usual conditions with [his] publishers," half profit for a single edition, with the number of copies being left to the publisher's discretion, and the copyright remaining with the author; he also expressed his wish to revise the articles before they were sent to the printers.42 The revision, "a very slight business," was completed by 22 August, as he told Grote, adding: "The parallel which struck you between Comte in his old age and Plato in his, had impressed itself forcibly on my own mind."43 The sale of all Mill's works being greatly promoted by his candidacy and election for Westminster, the Comte sold very quickly; by November Trübner was asking about French and German translations, and by the end of the year was considering stereotyping a new edition (as Longmans was doing with the People's editions of his Principles, On Liberty, and Representative Government). The arrangements for the 2nd ed. were completed in January, 1866 (while he was again in Avignon), Mill having asked for £70 ("the half profit on the first ed. to be paid when it is all sold & the £70 on the publication of the second"), with the price to be reduced after the sale of the second thousand.44 When in April Longmans suggested a collected edition of his works, Mill mentioned Trübner's interest in the Comte as a reason for delaying the project, which was eventually dropped.45 Of the variants, fifty-one result from changes between the periodical version and the 1st ed., and thirty-six from changes between the 1st and 2nd eds., the majority of the more significant ones coming in the first revision of the first article. A higher percentage than usual results from the change in provenance, mainly because the two essays were combined in book form (see, for example, 265b-b, c-c, and d). The most complicated changes result from the incorporation in the text of the 1st ed. of a passage that had appeared as a long footnote in the periodical version (see 319l-l322). This passage is followed by one introducing a qualification (322n-n), contains another typical qualification (320m-m), and is expanded by a footnote containing further information (320n). An interesting example of variants resulting from printer's errors may be seen at 352m-m, where the copy in Mill's library (Somerville College, Oxford) shows a tentative revision not carried out. The relative infrequency of revisions (.82 per page of this edition) reflects the very short time between the separate publications. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS As throughout this edition, the copy-text for each item is that of the final version supervised by Mill. Details concerning these texts are given in their headnotes. Method of Indicating Variants. All the substantive variants are governed by the principles enunciated below, except for a few special cases, in which self-explanatory notes are given in square brackets and italics. "Substantive" here means all changes of text except spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, punctuation, demonstrable typographical errors, and such printing-house concerns as type size, etc. With the exception of substitutions of "on" for "upon" (nineteen instances), "though" for "although" (four instances), "an" for "a" before "universal" (four instances; all the foregoing in the 1st ed. of Dissertations and Discussions), and "until" for "till" (two instances in the 2nd ed. of Dissertations), all substantive variants are recorded. These are of three kinds: addition of a word or words, substitution of a word or words, deletion of a word or words. The following illustrative examples are drawn from "Sedgwick." Addition of a word or words: see 39x-x. In the text, the passage "a true philosopher" appears as "a xtruex philosopher"; the variant note reads "x-x+59,67". Here the plus sign indicates that the word "true" was added; the numbers following ("59,67") indicate the editions of this particular text in which the addition appears. The editions are always indicated by the last two numbers of the year of publication: here 59=1859 (the 1st ed. of Volumes I and II of Dissertations and Discussions); 67=1867 (the 2nd ed. of these volumes). Information explaining the use of these abbreviations is given in each headnote, as required. Any added editorial information is enclosed in square brackets and italicized. Placing this example in context, the interpretation is that when first published (1835) the reading was "a philosopher"; in 1859 this was altered to "a true philosopher", and the altered reading was retained in 1867. Substitution of a word or words: see 39y-y. In the text the passage "truths of that small calibre" appears as "truths of ythat small calibrey"; the variant note reads "y-y35 the calibre of the Penny Magazine". Here the words following the edition indicator are those for which "that small calibre" was substituted; applying the same rules and putting the variant in context, the interpretation is that when first published (1835) the reading was "truths of the calibre of the Penny Magazine"; in 1859 this was altered to "truths of that small calibre", and the reading of 1859 was retained in 1867. In this volume there are very few examples of passages that were altered more than once: an illustrative instance is found in "Bentham" at 98q-q. The text reads "qwhich tend toq influence"; the variant note reads "q-q38 which] 59 which are liable to". Here the different readings, in chronological order, are separated by a square bracket. The interpretation is that the original reading in 1838, "which influence", was altered in 1859 to "which are liable to influence", and in 1867 to "which tend to influence". Deletion of a word or words: see 39v. In the text, a single superscript v appears centred between "the" and "instruments"; the variant note reads "v35 mere". Here the word following the edition indicator is the one deleted; applying the same rules and putting the variant in context, the interpretation is that when first published (1835) the reading was "the mere instruments"; in 1859 "mere" was deleted, and the reading of 1859 (as is clear in the text) was retained in 1867. Variants in Mill's footnotes: see 48n. To avoid four levels of text on the page, a different method has been used to indicate the few changes in the notes supplied by Mill. In the example cited, the final sentence begins "Apparently [35 Evidently] not; he. . . ." Here the interpretation is that in 1835 the sentence began "Evidently not; he. . ."; in 1859 "Apparently" was substituted for "Evidently", and the altered reading was retained in 1867. When necessary, to prevent confusion in reading, the words before and/or after the altered passage are given (see the other variants in the same note). Dates of footnotes: see 37n. Here the practice is to place immediately after the footnote indicator, in square brackets, the figure indicating the edition in which the footnote first appeared. In the example cited, "[59]" indicates that the note was added in 1859 (and retained in 1867). If no such figure appears, the note is in all versions. Punctuation and spelling. In general, changes between versions in punctuation and spelling are ignored. Those changes which occur as part of a substantive variant are included in that variant, and the superscript letters in the text are placed exactly with reference to punctuation. Changes between italic and roman type are indicated, except in foreign phrases and titles of works. (In general, italics were removed in Dissertations and Discussions; there are forty-four examples in the 1st ed. and ten in the 2nd, in the articles reprinted in this volume.) Other textual liberties. Some of the titles of Mill's essays have been altered for easier and shorter identification; the full titles in their various forms will be found in the headnotes. The dates added to the titles are those of first publication. The original footnotes to the titles, giving bibliographic information, have—except in the case of the second part of Auguste Comte and Positivism—been deleted, and the information given in the headnotes. Typographical errors have been silently corrected in the text; the note below lists them.46 Because the original is retained, occasional oddities, not identifiable as typographical errors, such as "resultée" (283.1), "avénement" (287.n8), "lettrès" (352.32), and "depend" (419.8) appear in the text; to avoid annoyance, "[sic]" is silently understood in these cases. In the headnotes the quotations from Mill's bibliography, the manuscript of which is a scribal copy, are also silently corrected twice; again, the note below gives the corrections.47 While the punctuation and spelling of each item are retained, the style has been made uniform: for example, periods are added, when necessary, after such abbreviations as Mr., Dr., and St.; square brackets have been made round; and italic punctuation after italic passages has been made roman. Also, in accordance with modern practice, all long quotations have been reduced in size, and the quotation marks removed. In consequence, it has been necessary occasionally to add square brackets; there is little opportunity here for confusion, as my editorial insertions (except page references) are in italics. The passage from Locke on 49, although set down, as in the copy-text, includes Mill's quotation marks to facilitate reading. Double quotation marks replace single, and titles have been italicized for works originally published separately, again in accordance with modern practice. Mill's references to sources, and additional editorial references (in square brackets) have been normalized. Where necessary, his references have been silently corrected; a list of the corrections and alterations is given below.48 Appendices. These items are taken out of the normal chronological order and appended for special reasons. Appendix A, the "Preface" to Dissertations and Discussions, is placed here because its comment, while relevant to all the essays in those volumes, has particular reference to four of those here reprinted (the essays on Sedgwick, Bentham, Coleridge, and Whewell). Appendix B, the selection from Mill's obituary of Bentham, although published in a newspaper, has such intimate relevance to his other writings on Bentham that it should appear in the same volume (it will be reprinted in full in the volume of newspaper writings). Appendix C, the account of Bentham in the text of Bulwer's England and the English, is included because, as its headnote explains, it is based on material given by Mill to Bulwer. Appendix D, a long passage from "Coleridge" quoted by Mill in Book VI of his Logic, gives interesting cross-references in time and subject between the two works. Appendix E, the Bibliographic Appendix, provides a guide to Mill's quotations, with notes concerning the separate entries, and a list of substantive variants between his quotations and their sources. Excluding citations of statutes, there are references to over 140 publications in the essays in this volume, with quotations from sixty-eight of them. Works by six authors—Blakey, Sedgwick, Coleridge, Bentham, Whewell, and Comte—are reviewed in considerable detail. While there are many references to other moral philosophers, the non-historical nature of these essays is indicated by the infrequency of direct references to works of moral philosophy, and the rarity of quotation from any but those reviewed. As indicated above, there are hardly any direct quotations in Utilitarianism and the Three Essays onReligion; it should be added that in the latter, as would be expected from the subject, but not from this author, there are many indirect quotations from the Bible. This Appendix serves as an index to persons, books, and statutes, so references to them are omitted from the Index proper, which has been prepared by R. I. K. Davidson. [1 ]The student who undertakes an exhaustive study of Mill's ethics should look carefully at his Autobiography, his Logic (especially Book VI), his Inaugural Address, and the notes to his edition of his fathers' Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind. These are not included here because they find more legitimate places in other volumes of the edition. Many of his other writings are pertinent in lesser ways, and those engaged in detailed research are advised to consult the indexes to the various volumes. Fuller comment on the principles of inclusion and exclusion and of editing procedures in this edition will be found in the Textual Introduction to Volume IV (Essays on Economics and Society), xliii ff., and in my "Principles and Methods in the Collected Edition of John Stuart Mill," in John M. Robson, ed., Editing Nineteenth-Century Texts (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967), 96-122. [2 ]Bibliographic details are given in the headnote to each item. These include details of publication ("not republished" means not republished by Mill in his lifetime); epistolary and biographical information relevant to attribution, dating of the text, and its publication; and the entry from Mill's bibliography. For this last, the page references are to the edition by Ney MacMinn, J. M. McCrimmon, and J. R. Hainds, Bibliography of the Published Writings of J. S. Mill (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1945), but the readings have been corrected from the manuscript in the British Library of Political and Economic Science. [3 ]A fuller account of his fluctuation will be found in my "John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, with some Observations on James Mill," in M. MacLure and F. W. Watt, eds., Essays in English Literature from the Renaissance to the Victorian Age (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964), 245-68. And cf. Professor Priestley's comments in his Introduction above, passim. [4 ]Autobiography (New York: Columbia University Press, 1924), 138-9. In the Early Draft of the Autobiography, ed. Jack Stillinger (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), 157, the passage appears without the parenthetical comments. [7 ]This notion may well have been prompted by the publication in London early in 1840 of Carlyle's Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (published earlier in the United States). In any case, the parallel was in Mill's mind when he approached Parker on 6 April, 1842 (see Earlier Letters, XIII, 514), and again on 30 November, 1858, with the suggestion that resulted in the publication of Dissertations and Discussions. On the latter occasion he wrote: "I have. . . , prepared for publication, a selection of my articles published in periodicals which I should like to bring out somewhat later in the season. . . . There are enough to make, I should think, two volumes of the size & type of the early editions of Carlyle's Miscellanies: but I have not calculated exactly, and it may extend to three." (A.l.s., King's College, Cambridge.) The two volumes of the 1st ed. were published in April, 1859. [8 ]For some evidence concerning the date of the revisions of "Coleridge," see the headnote to Appendix D, pp. 503-4 below. [9 ]Autobiography, 152-3. This passage, revised in 1861 from its earlier version, presents some interesting variants from the Early Draft, written 1854-55. The final sentence was added (the Early Draft having been written before the publication of Dissertations and Discussions); "perfectly" was added before "just"; "much doubted since" became "sometimes doubted" and "at that time" was added; and "in a great measure discredited before it had half done its work" became "to some extent discredited before it had done its work" (Early Draft, 166). [10 ]A discussion of Mill's varying treatments of this crucial passage will be found in my "John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham," 263-6. To locate the references to it in the present volume, see the Bibliographic Appendix, 000 below. [12 ]Autobiography, 153. In the Early Draft (166) "if the effect only of this one paper were to be considered, I might be thought to have erred" is simply "I erred"; "may have carried me, though in appearance rather than in reality" does not appear; and "my defence is" appears as "the excuse may be made for me". [13 ]There are 237 in "Sedgwick" (5.64 per page of the present text), 178 in "Bentham" (4.56 per page), 195 in "Coleridge" (4.33 per page), and 28 in "Whewell" (.80 per page). [14 ]A.l.s. to Harriet, 29/1/54. With one exception (see n32), all the letters to Harriet here cited are in the Yale University Library. [16 ]From the account in his Logic (Bk. VI, Chap. v) and hints elsewhere, we can be sure that Mill's thoughts on "Differences of character (nation, race, age, sex, temperament)" were intended to make up his proposed work on "Ethology" that never materialized. [17 ]Mill's letter to Harriet of 31/12/54, from Sestri, contains a sentence whose wording suggests that he may have been working on a draft of Chap. ii at that time. "I think that [a corn disease similar to that which destroyed the Irish potato] should be a signal for the universal & simultaneous suicide of the whole human race, suggested by Novalis." Cf. 214 below. [18 ]Autobiography, 186-7. It should be noted that here Mill says that these essays were written by himself, and does not describe them as "joint productions" with Harriet. [19 ]Lord Stamp, "New Letters of John Stuart Mill," The Times, 29 Dec., 1938. Mill's comment is made in connection with his essay on Whewell, republished the next year in Dissertations and Discussions, but there can be little doubt (see, e.g., the next footnote) that he was thinking also of his unpublished papers. [20 ]Draft, British Library of Political and Economic Science. A cancelled passage in the draft substantiallyrepeats this sentence, but adds, "to be published some time or other, but whether by itself or in a volume of Essays I have not yet determined." [21 ]Letters of John Stuart Mill, ed. Hugh S. R. Elliot (London: Longmans, Green, 1910), I, 226 (corrected from the autograph draft). The passage continues: "But small books are so much more read than large ones that it is an advantage when one's matter will go into a small space. I have not written it in any hostile spirit towards Xtianity, though undoubtedly both good ethics & good metaphysics will sap Xtianity if it persists in allying itself with bad." [26 ]From Avignon; a.l.s. in possession of M. Pierre-Sadi Carnot. Mill had told Dupont-White in October, 1861, while the articles were appearing in Fraser's, that they would be published as a volume. [27 ]See the correspondence with Spencer (cited in the Bibliographic Appendix, 557 below) concerning the note at 257-8 below, and Mill's letter to Bain, 13/2/63 (British Library of Political and Economic Science). [30 ]When the essay was first written is not known, but an interesting parallel in thought and word to a well-known passage in "Nature" (see 402 below, and cf. 385) occurs in a letter to Walter Coulson, dated 22 November, 1850, and may suggest that the essay was in hand at that time: "the course of nature, of which so great a part is tyranny & iniquity—all the things which are punished as the most atrocious crimes when done by human creatures, being the daily doings of nature through the whole range of organic life." (Letters, ed. Elliot, I, 156-7; corrected from autograph draft in possession of the Rt. Rev. C. L. Street.) [31 ]Presumably these sentences are those (or the basis of those) found at 386.5-9 below, beginning: "Even the love of 'order'. . . ." [32 ]Pencilled a.l., 14-15/2/54, British Library of Political and Economic Science; published, with some variations in reading, in F. A. Hayek, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor: Their Friendship and Subsequent Marriage (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951), 195-6. [36 ]See Michael St. J. Packe, The Life of John Stuart Mill (London: Secker and Warburg, 1954), 277-8. [37 ]This suggestion is adumbrated by a comment to Bain (13/2/63): "Littré writes that he will very shortly publish his life of Comte which I expect will be interesting & I shall perhaps make it an occasion for writing something about Comte, though I do not like being diverted from Hamilton." (Autograph draft, British Library of Political and Economic Science.) [38 ]To Chapman, 25/9/63. (This and the previous letters to Chapman are all at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, except those of 29/9/51 and 1/8/63, which are in the British Library of Political and Economic Science.) Cf. Mill's comment on his proposed essay to d'Eichthal (30/3/64): "il sera peu question de la biographie de Comte; d'autant plus que ceux qui disputent autour de son tombeau sont tellement en désaccord sur les faits, que je désespère d'arriver à la vérité." (A.l.s. in the library of the Arsenal, Paris.) [46 ]Typographical errors in earlier versions are ignored, except when a variant results. The following are corrected (with the erroneous reading first, followed by the corrected reading in square brackets): 21.28 Soames [Soame] 24.24 maintans [maintains] 24.40 past." [past.'] [altered by style in present ed.] 34.33 Things [Things,] [as in 35, 59] 36.13 excellencies [excellences[ [as in 35, 59] 38.23 them: [them;] [as in 35, 59] 38.24 them; [them:] [as in 35, 59] 42.7 following;—[following:—] [as in 35, 59] 46.29 unintelligible [unintelligible,] [as in 35, 59] 70.6 merely [mere] [as in Source, 35, 39] 84.n1 I. [I,] [as in 38, 59] 86.9 not be [not to be] [as in Source, 38] 86.12 and let [that let] [as in Source, 38, 59] 120.15 thought is, [thought, is] [as in 40, 59] 145.32 reference [reverence] [as in 40, 59] 151.n3*†[‡] [probably caused by erroneous ommission of footnote in 59] 161.n3 p., 245 [p. 245] 167.17 inasmueh [inasmuch] 168.19 depositories [depositaries] [as in 52] 196.16 Livingstone [Livingston] [as in 52] 200.31 done ["done] [as in 52] 204.17-18 OF [ON] [see 204 below] 216.42 deprives [deprive] [as in 61, 63, 64, 67] 248.11 though, [though] [as in 61, 63, 64, 67] 250.31 stock [stock,] [as in 61, 63, 64, 67; in 71 the type has evidently dropped at the end of the line] [47 ]In the headnote on 32 the quotation mark is added before 'Discourse'; similarly on 204 the quotation mark is added before 'Utilitarianism'. [48 ]Following the page and line notation, the first reference is to JSM's identification; the corrected identification (that which appears in the present text) follows in square brackets. There is no indication of the places where a dash has been substituted for a comma to indicate adjacent pages, where "P." or "Pp." replaces "p." or "pp." (or the reverse), or where the volume number has been added to the reference.	eng	0ce65d1d-20dd-4d42-84b9-5405effe0a46	http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=241&chapter=21475&layout=html&Itemid=27
I hope you are having fun enjoying the last few hours of your well-deserved long break. In this last posting you will find questions about The Crucible ACT II. The following questions are meant to help focus our class discussions, and in addition create a medium for you to share your ideas with the rest of the class. Please, read the following questions and answer them in the most complete way possible because this will pave the way for you to gain a better understanding of this outstanding play. I am looking forward to reading your original and insightful comments. In Him, Mr. Saenz 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? 26.What does John decide to do? mrbmiles 23 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 03:52AM 1. Elizabeth's and Johns relationship is still messed up after the affair with Abigail. Elizabeth is actting cold towards John 2. She has been named the official of the court. She now feels more important than a servant. 3.The girls were only playing around in the woods. While playing in the woods no witchcraft was involved. 4. Everyone thinks she is a saint so it would be hard to prove her wrong. 5. He didn't tell her he was alone with Abigail. 6. Goody osburn will hang and Goody Good confessed. 7. She loves how much authority she has over everyone and makes John and Elizabeth respect her. 8. Abigail accused Elizabeth of witchcraft. Mary says she has never seen any indication of witchcraft. Since she has never seen any signs of witchcraft the court dismisses the case. 9. Abigail wants her dead so she can have John. 10. Elizabeth wants John to go To Salem and tell the court what Abigail had said to him about what happened in the woods. 11. He is investigating the stories in the court. 12. He says his wife has been sick and he thinks Parris is to concerned about material things. 13. Recite the ten commandments 14. While john was reciting the ten commandments he forgets the sin about adultery. Elizabeth tells him he forgot. 15.Mr Parris saw them sportin in the woods. They were all startled and took sick. 16. He thinks John should testify in court. 17. She says she is a good women and does not believe in satan 18. His says his wife martha and and rebecca nurse have been taken to jail. 19. The murder of Goody Putnam's babies 20. Walcott claims martha has bewitched his pigs with her books 21. They have a warrant to arrest elizabeth 22. Cheever believes that the poppet with the needle is evidence to show that elizabeth preformed witchcraft. 23. To explain to the court why she made a poppet. 24. she says that abigail will kill her. 25. if he testifies she will charge lechery aand ruin him. 26.They will both testify against Abigail. It will ruin him, but he has to save Elizabeth. sarah 23 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 01:35PM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? This quote is pertinent the current events because though it is bright and warm outside, people are becoming cold in character with talk of witch craft 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She is an official of the court. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. Abigail Williams revealed to John Proctor that there was no witchcraft in the woods, only dancing etc.Elizabeth reminds him of this because she speaks of how the town thinks Abigail innocent. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? John doesn't tell the court what he knows about Abigail because there were no witnesses. Elizabeth thinks he is refusing to testify so he can continue his affair with Abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? John Proctor lies about being alone with Abigail. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? Mary tells John and Elizabeth that Elizabeth was mentioned in court today. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? Mary Warren is acting strange towards her employers. She has a sudden fragility and faintness. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? By this Mary means that Elizabeth was charged in court today and Mary defended her name John to do? Elizabeth asks John to tell Abigail she is a whore and break against her. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? Reverend Hale visits the Proctors on his own mission unauthorized by the court. He questions why the Proctors do not attend church and other questions pertinent to the trials. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? John Proctor tells that his wife had been sick so he stayed behind to take care of her.John Proctor reveals that Abigail told him when they were alone that the occurrences in the woods had nothing to do with witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? Reverend Hale wants John to testify at court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? Elizabeth does not believe in witches because she does not see it possible to do good deeds yet be bound by the devil. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? Martha Corey, Giles' wife, was accused of witchcraft because she read different genres of books that led people to believe she was studying spells to cast on them. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They come to the Proctor home on order of the court because Elizabeth was charged by Abigail. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Cheever is shocked when he finds a poppet with a needle in it because earlier that evening Abigail began to cry out in pain at supper and had a needlein her stomach. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? John asks Mary to testify against Abigail. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? Mary is afraid to go against Abigail because she is scared that the girls will turn against her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? Abigail informs John that Abigail will charge lechery on him. 26.What does John decide to do? John decides to testify for his wife's sake. eboni2011 22 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 03:48PM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? Because the devil is supposedly That arounndThat Goody Osburn will hang. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She is rude abigial -Eboni Burton alexmostella232 17 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 04:54PM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? Because evil is dwelling among the citizens of Salem, and their are more and more arrests in the town. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? Because she is a court official. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? That around when it happened. She thinks that he is trying hide something. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He lies about being with Abigail 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? Goodys Osburn is going to hang 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? rude ocasio 20 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 05:33PM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? It is pertinent because John Proctors wife attitude toward him is unforgiving. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? to attend the trials she calls herself an official of the court 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. that what happened in the woods didnt have anything to do with witchcraft 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? Elizabeth says John is not saying anything to save Abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He lied about being alone with Abigail in the Parris household. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? That Goody Osburn will hang 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She thinks that she is above working for and obeying them. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? Elizabeth Proctor was accused of being a witch by Abigail and she stood up for her. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? That Abigail wants her dead 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? to tell Abigail that he made her no promise 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? To see if Elizabeth is a witch 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says his wife has been sick and he doesnt care for Parris 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? recite the 10 commandments 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) the commandment he broke is the one he forgets to list 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? that Abigail told him of the woods and that it didnt have anything to do with witchcraft 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? testify in court 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? if people think she could be a witch then they must not exist at all 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? That his wife and Rebecca are in jail 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? killing Mrs. Putnam's children 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? because of the books she readsbecause Abigail had one in her stomach 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? tell on Abigail 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She is afraid of what Abigail will do to her 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? She says Abigail will charge lechery on John Proctor 26.What does John decide to do? Tell the court about the affair sacrificing his reputation for his wife's life. chelsea 25 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 06:57PM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? -This quote pertains to what is going on in the town of Salem because while nature is warm and inviting, everyone in Salem is cold and their feelings about what is taking place are unpleasant. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? -Mary Warren has disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem because she is a court official and she feels that her place as an official of the court is much more important than her mere place as a servant girl. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. -During their conversation of court talk and the possible consequences of the ongoing witch trials Elizabeth urges John Proctor to go to Salem and report what Abigail has revealed to him. Sometime earlier in the story, Abigail tells John Proctor that their mischief in the woods had nothing to do witchcraft and that it was only something to do for fun. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? -John hasn't told the court what he knows because there are no witnesses to justify him. As he knows that what Abigail told him could be very helpful, he doubts that anyone will believe him. Elizabeth attributes his actions because the subject is of Abigail and she believes that John Proctor still has strong feelings for the young girl. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? -John lies about there being more people in the room with him during his conversation with Abigail when in fact, he is alone with her for quite some time. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? -Mary Warren reveals to the Proctors that there are now thirty-nine women in custody for suspicion of witchcraft and that Goody Osburn is sentenced to be hanged while Sarah Good is not. She divulges with them that Sarah Good is demon possessed and that she herself confessed that she had given her soul to the devil. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? -She behaves as though she is better than them and that they no longer have control over her. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? -She is referring to how Elizabeth was mentioned in the court meeting. As she is mentioned, Mary Warren speaks up and justifies Elizabeth's innocence saying that she has never observed any strange behaviors in all the time that she has lived with the Proctors, therefore clearing Elizabeth's name. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? -She realizes that Abigail has brought all of this upon her. She knows that Abigail has feelings of hatred towards her and that she will to everything in her power to make sure that Elizabeth is dead. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? -She asks John to go to Abigail and speak with her to clear things up about their past relationship with one another. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? -Reverend Hale visits the Proctors to make sure that they know of Elizabeth's name being mentioned in court. He also questions them about their rare appearance in church and why only two of his sons are baptized when he has three children. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? -He tells Reverend Hale that during the winter, Elizabeth became ill and he was not able to attend church. He justifies his abscence by saying that even though he may not be able to attend the church house, he prays in his home. John Proctor also admits that he has strong feelings towards Reverend Parris 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? -Reverend Hale asks Proctor to recite the Ten Commandments. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) -While John knows every other commandment, he forgets the one that affects him as a person the most, adultery. As Elizabeth reminds him of which one he is missing, you can feel a sense of awkwardness come between Elizabeth, John, and Reverend Hale. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? -He tells Reverend Hale about what Abigail discussed with him while they were alone in Betty's room. John Proctor tells him that though he has no witnesses, the girl's sicknesses are not being caused by witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? -Reverend Hale wants John to go to court with this information. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? -Elizabeth says that she doesn't believe in witches at this point because she thinks that if someone is following the instruction of God and if they are doing everything in God's name, that there is no way that the devil can enter into their lives. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? -Giles rushes into the Proctor's house with the news that his wife and Rebecca Nurse have both been arrested and taken to jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? -Rebecca Nurse was accused for the supernatural murder of Goody Putnam's babies. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? -Martha Corey was accused for bewitching Mr. Walcott's pigs so that they cannot live any longer than four weeks. 21.Why do Ezekiel Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? -Ezekiel Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home to arrest Elizabeth. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? -He is astonished, because Elizabeth had just testified that she had not owned a poppet since she was a little girl and he discovers one simply sitting on the Proctor's mantle. He is afraid because earlier in the evening, Abigail Williams is overcome with pain due to stabbing with a needle. Ezekiel Cheever and Marshal Herrick are sent out to find the poppet containing a needle and it just so happens to be in the Proctor's home. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? -John asks Mary Warren to explain how she made the poppet in court earlier that day, and how she herself also stuck the needle into the poppet and gave it to Elizabeth later that night. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? -Mary is afraid because if she tells the truth about the doll, Abigail will know that she is a traitor and Mary will be killed. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? -Mary Warren warns John about testifying against Abigail because she knows that Abigail has the greater power at the moment and that everyone is taking sides with her. Mary Warren knows that John Proctor's testimony will never stand up in court. 26.What does John decide to do? -John finally decides to testify in court for he cannot let his wife die because of his mistake. arnesonevan 16 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 07:16PM He is saying this because, although it may be nice day outside, there is a lot of bad going on in the town She has been made a court official That they were just dancing in the woods and not doing witchcraft He doesn't say anything because he can't prove it.Elizabeth thinks he is hiding something. He lied about being with Abigail That Goody Osburn is going to hang. She thinks she is more important and deserves more respect than everyone else. Mary defends Elizabeth in court that day. She realizes that Abigail wants her dead. Elizabeth asks John to end his relationship with Abigail To investigate the trials on his own He mentions that he doesn't like the way Parris runs the church and his wife is sick. He tells him to recite the ten commandments He forgets thou shalt not commit adultery which is the commandment he broke when he had an affair with Abigail He tells him about how the events in the woods had nothing to do with witchcraft. Reverend Hale wants John to tell the court this information. She does not see how someone could be good if controlled by satan He says that his wife and Rebecca have been taken away to jail. Murdering all of Goody Putnam's babies. Because of the books she reads, people believe that she is bewitching pigs. To arrest Elizabeth Proctor Because it is proof that Elizabeth was doing witchcraft because Abigail had a needle in her belly Ashley Prows 1. By saying "It is winter in here yet" John is implying that in the room with Elizabeth it is emotionally cold. This is because Elizabeth didn't know that John would be out so late planting and thought that he may have gone to Salem. Here we see that Elizabeth still may not trust John because of what happened in he past with Abigail. 2. Mary Warren has disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem because she is an official of the court. 3. Abigail Williams reveals to John Proctor that the dancing didn't have anything to do with witchcraft. 4. John hasn't told the court what he knows because he and Abigail were alone when she revealed it to him and he has no proof of it. Elizabeth attributes his not telling to his trying to save Abigail. 5. Elizabeth became more suspicious of John Proctor because he lied to her telling her that it was in a room of people that Abigail talked to him not them being alone. 6. The news about the trials that Mary Warre reveals to John Elizabeth is that thirty nine women have been arrested and that Goody Osburn will hang. 7. Mary Warren acts different ways toward her employers at the beginning she acts towards them in a way to where they will have pity on her for she says she is sick, then she tells them everything they want to know about the trials, and then she is defiant towards them saying that John Proctor will not whi her and that she will do what she wants to do. 8. By saying "I saved her life today" Mary means that she defended Elizabeth when she was accused in court. 9. When she finds out that she has been accused, Elizabeth realizes that Abigail is trying to get her dead. 10. Elizabeth asks John to go to Abigail and call her a whore, and to break off any sense of a promise that Abigail may think John has made to her. 11. Reverend Hale visits the Proctors because he has been going around to everyone who has had their name associated with witchcraft. 12. Proctor responds to the questions about why he has not been to church by saying that at one point his wife has been sick, but then he admits that her does not trust Parris and sees no light of God him. 13. Reverend Hale asks Proctor to recite the ten commandments. 14. When reciting the ten commandments John Proctor forgot the one about adultery. When Hale reveals that Proctor had repeated one twice, and had left one out, Elizabeth tells John that it was the one about adultery. This contributes to the fact that John committed adultery against Elizabeth with Abigail. 15. John Proctor reveals to Reverend Hale that the children's sickness didn't have anything to do with witchcraft, and that the reason they were sick was because Mr. Parris came upon them in the woods and they were startled and became sick. 16. Reverend Hale wants John to testify to the information in court. 17. Elizabeth says that she doesn't believe in witches at this point because she doesn't believe that the Devil would own a woman's soul when they have walked uprightly. 18. Giles Corey reveals to the Proctors and Reverend Hale that his wife and Rebecca Nurse have been taken away to jail. 19. Rebecca Nurse has been accused of murder of Goody Putnam's babies. 20. Martha Corey has been accused because she had sold a pig to Wallcott years ago and soon after he bought the pig it died. Wallcott accuses Martha of bewitching all of his pigs with the books because they never live. 21.Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home to take Elizabeth away to jail. 22. Cheever is both astonished and and afraid when he find the poppet with the needle in it because Abigail got stabbed by a needle in the belly and she said that it was Elizabeth's spirit that pushed it in and now in Elizabeth's poppet there was a needle. 23. John asks Mary Warren to come to court with him and charge murder on Abigail by telling the court that Abigail was responsible for the needle in the poppet. 24. Mary Warren is afraid to do what he asks because Abigail will kill her if Mary tells on her. 25. Mary Warren warns John about testifying against Abigail in court by telling him that Abigail will charge lechery on him. 26. John decides to still go to the court and testify against Abigail. melissadawn 20 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 11:17PM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? Its is pertinent because even thought it is very nice weather outside, peoples souls and attitudes are cold and ill. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? Shes feels as if she is better and higher than anyone else because she is a Court Offical. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. That they were dancing, but it had nothing to do with witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? Because Abby told him that if he told the court it could not be prove, but Elizabeth thinks its because he is trying to save Abby. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? That he wasnt alone with Abby in the room even though he really was. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? That Goody Osburn will be hung. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She acts like she is better than them as though they should bow to her because she is greater then they are. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? because she defended Elizabeth in court saying she wasnt acting wierd. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? She realizes that she cannot trues Abby because she has bbeen trying to get her in trouble and bring her down the whole time. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? Call Abby a whore and make sure she knows there is NOTHING going on. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? Because he has been going to every family or person accused of Witchcraft. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? That his wife has been sick. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) He cheated on his wife with Abby. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? That the kids arnt sick because if witchcraft but that it is parris's fault. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? testify. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She doesnt think the devil would own a soul such as hers. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? that Rebecca and his wife have been taken to jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Murder of the Putmans babies. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? bewitching the pigs. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? to take Elizabeth to jail. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? he fears that Abby was right about Elizabths spirit stabbing her with the needle in the tummy. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? Charge Abby with murder. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She thinks abby will kill her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? 26.What does John decide to do? proceed to testify against her. -Melissa Allen<3 nichole 16 posts Sunday, 13. September 2009 11:41PM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? John says this because things are going bad already. Its in the middle of summer and people are acting bitter and cold as if they were winter itself. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She disobeyed her employers and went to salem because she was a court offical and neccisarry in the trials. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. That her dancing was not witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? John has not told the court what he knows because he was alone with her when he was told. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? he lies to her about being alone with abigail. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? That Osburn is going to be hung. and that 39 other woman had been arrested. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? Whenever she is questioned about where she had been she acts like it is not their place to ask her that question like she is higher than them even though she is the worker. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? Marry defended Elizabeth in the court when they mentioned her name. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? That Abigail was accussing her and would continue to do so that she may have John Procter for herself. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? Elizabeth asks John to make sure that Abigail knows that there was no promise in what they had done. She asks him to call Abigail a whore to end it. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? To see if their's truly was a Christian enviornment. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says that Elizabeth had been sick. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? To say the ten commandments. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) He failed to mentioned, or "remember" this act that he commited against his wife. This could have been from shame because he of all people would not have forgotton this. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? That he discussed the situation of the woods with abigail and she sais that it had had nothing to do with witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? Testify it in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? Because she doesn't think that the devil can take a woman's soul like that after a long up right life with God. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? That his wife had been taken. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? They said that she bewitched Walcott's pigs. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They have a warrent for Elizabeth. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Because Abigail had been stabbed with a needle earlier that day. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? to testify against abigail in court. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? Mary says that Abigail will kill her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? Marry tells John that Abigail with reveal him as a leecher. 26.What does John decide to do? John deciedes to do it anyway, and he will confess to being a leecher so Abigail cannot use it against him. almonds 26 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 12:52AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? -This is pertinint to what is going on because there is so much nonsense going on in the town and people are being cruel to each other. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? -She went to Salem to serve as an official in the court. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. -She tells Proctor that their dancing was not a form of witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? -He hasn't told the court because he thinks that they won't believe in him, plus he was alone with Abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? -Proctor lies that he was alone with Elizabeth because he told her that he was with her with a crowd. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? -She reveals that thirteen women are going to jail and that Goody Osbourn will be hanged. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? -She begins to act stuckup and that she is no longer to be bossed around like a slave. She says that she should be treated like a woman. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? -Elizabeth was accussed of witchcraft but Mary convinced the court that she was not involved in any sort of witchcraft. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? -That Abigail is only accusing her so that she can get rid of her and have John all to herself. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? -She want him to curse Abigail and to tell her that he doesn't like her anymore. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? -To test Elizabeth to see if she is a witch or not. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? -He had to stay with her wife in the winter because she was sick and that he doesn't have to go to church to worship God. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? -He asks him to recite the thirteen commandments. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) -Adultry means to covet someone elses wife (cheat on your wife). 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? -He reveals to him that Abigail told him that the dancing did not involve any witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? -He wants him to go to court and tell them the information he knows. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? -She believes that the Devil cannot own a woman's soul when she keeps an upright way. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? -He reveals that they took his wife and Rebecca. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? -She has been accused of magically murdering Goody Putna's babies. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? -She has been accused of cursing Walcott's ability to raise pigs. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? -They arrive to arrest Elizabeth. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? -He is astonished and afraid because it has been told that poppets are ways that witchcraft can be used. He found the needle in the poppet and Abigail was stabbed in the stomach with a needle earllier that day. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? -He asks Mary to testify in court against Abigail. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? -She keeps on saying that she can't because she is afraid that Abigail will kill her. Earlier in the book Abigail threatens to kill her if she tells anyone what they did. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? -She will say that John is a leecher. 26.What does John decide to do? -He decides to go to court and testify against Abigail. Alex Almony barnett 21 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 12:59AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? Because evil is That they were just dancing in the woods and there was no witchcraft happing. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? He doesn't want to tell because there were no witnesses aroundThe news about the trials that Mary Warre reveals that thirty nine women have been arrested and that Goody Osburn will hang. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She acts like she is better than them as though they should bow to her because she is greater then they are. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? Marry defended Elizabeth in the court when they mentioned her name. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? That Abigail was accusing her and would continue to do so that she may have John Procter for herself. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? Elizabeth asks John to tell Abigail she is a whore and break against her. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? Because he has been going to every family or person accused of Witchcraft 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says that Elizabeth had been sick. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? Reverend Hale asks Proctor to recite the ten commandments. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67)That he discussed the situation of the woods with Abigail and she sais that it had had nothing to do with witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? Reverend Hale wants John to testify to the information in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? Elizabeth says that she doesn't believe in witches at this point because she thinks that if someone is following the teaching of God and if they are doing everything in God's name, that there is no way that an evil spirit can enter into their lives. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? Giles Corey reveals to the Proctors and Reverend Hale that his wife and Rebecca Nurse have been taken away to jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Murdering Goody Putnam's seven babies. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? Martha Corey was accused for bewitching Mr. Walcott's pigs so that they cannot live any longer than four weeks.he fears that Abby was right about Elizabeth spirit stabbing her with the needle in the tummy. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? to testify against Abigail in court. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? Because she knowsJohn decides to still go to the court and testify against Abigail. jeffreywire 19 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 01:11AM 1. The people are acting cold and dead like it is winter 2. She is a court offical 3. that they were dancing for fun not being witchs 4. he cant prove anything, and elizabeth thinks he is trying to protect abby 5. he lied about him and abby being in the room alone 6. That Goody Osburn will be hanged 7. She thinks that she is better than everyone and deserves more 8. She defended elizabeth in court 9. She realizes that Abby is trying to get her killed 10. She askes him to clear up things with abigail. 11. he is investagateing everyone of witchcraft 12. Because of Parris and that his wife is sick 13. Say the 10 comandments 14. he forget to say that comandment and it is the one he broke 15. He says the sickness is not the result of witchcraft 16. He wants him to testify in court 17. That the devil cannot control a Godly person 18. His wife had been taken to jail 19. The murdering of all the babies 20. Bewitching all of the pigs 21. to arrest elizabeth 22. because abby accused elizabeth of stabbing her with a needle earlier 23. to testify in court agains abigail 24. mary says abigail will kill her 25. abigail will accuse him of being a leecher 26. he does it anyway briana 22 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 01:24AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? This quote is pertinent the current events because though it is bright and warm outside, people are becoming cold in character with talk of witch craft 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She was a court offical and neccisarry in the trials. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. Dancing didn't have anything to do with witchcraft 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? John didnt tell the court what he knew because he was alone with Abigail when he was told and he had no proof. Elizabeth doesnt want him to tell in order to save abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He lies about being alone with Abigail. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? She tells them Goody Osborne will be hung and 39 other woman have been arrested. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She is rude and disrespectful and she thinks she deserves more respect from them because she puts herself above their level. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? She defended Elizebeth when she was accused in court. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? That Abigail was accussing her and would continue to do so so she could have John Procter for herself. She knows that Abigail has feelings of hatred towards her and that she will to everything in her power to make sure that Elizabeth is dead. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? He called Abigail a whore and confirmed that there is absolutely nothing going on between them! 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? To see if the enviorment was christain to begin with because he had been going to every family accused of witchcraft. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He claimed that elizebeth had been sick 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? To say the Ten Commandmets. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) When he was reciting the commandments he skipped over Thou shalt not commit adultery by accident and Elizebeth reminds him that he skipped one which is kind of ironic that he would being that hes committed this commandment. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? John Proctor receals to Reverand Hale that the chidrends sickness didn't have anything to do with witchcraft, and that the reason they were sick was because Mr. Parries came upon them in the woods and they became sick because they were startled. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? Testify in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She doesn't believe that the devil would own a woman's soul 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? His wife had been taken. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? The murder of the Putnam's babies. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? Bewitching Mr. Walcott's pigs so that they cannot live any longer than four weeks. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They have a warrant for Elizebeths arrest. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Because earlier Abigail was found with a needle in her belly. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? To testify against Abigail in court 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She is afraid that Abigail will kill her if she speaks. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? If he doesnt Abigail will accuse him of lechery 26.What does John decide to do? John decides to testify for his wife's sake. delainii1217 21 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 01:40AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? Since there is witchcraft going on in the town and arrest being made, it seems like the spirits in town are cold. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? Mary disobeyed because she felt that being a servant girl was looked down on and becoming apart of the Offical Court makes her something. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. Abby reveals that dancing in the woods (naked and around a fire :\ ) had nothing to do with witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? John as not told because there was nobody to witness them and Elizabeth thinks he's not talking because he is trying to save her. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? Abby and John had a coversation alone and John told Elizabeth they were not alone. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? Mary tells John and Elizabeth all the news such as Goody will hang and thirty-nine women are in custody, but casually throws in that Elizabeth as been metioned in court. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? Mary has this nonchalant attitude because she is a court Offical. She acts likes she sick and they should care and leave her alone. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? Mary means she stood up for her and said Elzabeth never did anything unusual. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? Elizabeth realizes Abby wants her to die. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? Elizabeth asks John to tell Abby everything between them is over and done with and to call her a whore. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? Rev. Hale has been going around to all the families houses that have been accused of witchcraft. He went over there to question them. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? John gives reasons to support that even though he does not attend church regularly, he is still a Christian and has nothing to do with witchcraft. Rev. Hale wants John to tell the court this. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? Elizabeth says if a person does things in God's name and according to His word, how could the devil possibly own their heart? 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? Corey tells the Proctors and Rev. Hale that his wife and Rebecca have been placed in jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Rebecca is accused of murdering the babies of the Putams. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? Martha was accused because she reads books often. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They both arrive there to arrest Elizabeth. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? When Cheever finds the poppet he is remind that Abby earlier claimed her stomach was hurting because someone has stabbed her there. Just a few moments before, she claimed she had not owned a poppet since she was a child. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? John asks Mary to charge Abby with murder. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? Mary is scared to carry out this action because Abby will do harm to her if she dose so. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? Mary informs John that Abby will charge lechery on him so they will be even. 26.What does John decide to do? John decides to go to court and rely on himself. cfowler 20 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 02:16AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? Although it's summer time and warm outside, the people in the town are cold and unpleasant. He could also be referring to the tension that's between them as they talk. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She told them that she was an official in the court. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. She told him that the dancing in the woods had nothing to do with witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? He says that he has no proof since he was in a room alone with her. Elizabeth attributes this to the affair that they had and thinks that all he's trying to do is save her. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He didn't say that he was in a room alone with Abigail. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? 39 women have been arrested and Goody Osburn is going to be hanged, but Sarah Good won't because she confessed, saying that she "made a compact with Lucifer, and wrote her name in his black book--with her blodd--and bound herself to torment Christians till God's thrown down--and we all must worship Hell forevermore." 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She acts as if she is better than them because of her "official" position. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? Elizabeth was accused in court and Mary told them that she had never sent her spirit to hurt anyone, so they dismissed it. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? She comes to the conclusion that Abigail wants her dead so that she can have her husband. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? She asks him to go and call Abigail a whore and to break the "promise" he gave her. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? To make sure that they know Elizabeth's name was mentioned in court, to see why their church attendance has been so low, and to inquire as to why only 2 of their 3 sons was baptized. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says that his wife was sick that winter and that he doesn't like the way that Parris does things in the church. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? Name the Ten Commandments. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) "Thou shalt not commit adultery" was the only commandment that John didn't say which is a little bit ironic considering the fact that that was the one he's committed against his wife. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? He tells him about how Abigail said that it had nothing to do with witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? To testify this information in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She says that she doesn't believe that the Devil could own a good woman's soul, like her own. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? His wife and Rebecca have been taken to jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? "For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam's babies." 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? She's accused of bewitching Walcott's pigs. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? To take Elizabeth to jail. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Because Abigail had been stabbed in the stomach with a needle earlier in the day, blaming it on Elizabeth. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? To testify against Abigail, telling the court that she has committed murder and that she was in charge of the poppet. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She thinks that Abigail will kill her if she tells on her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? She says that Abby will ruin him, charging lechery on him. 26.What does John decide to do? He's going to testify against her anyway and confess about his affair with Abby. bumgardner 33 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 02:31AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? This could be viewed two ways either as the fact that he emotional separated from his wife because of his affair or because of all the witchcraft events that are taking place in salem. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? Since she is now a court official she feels it is more important that she goes to Salem and helps with the situation instead of stay currently as a servant. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. She tells him that their dancing was in no part witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? John thinks that if he tells the court it wont be proveable but elizabeth thinks he his just trying to protect Abby. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He tells her that he was not alone with Abby even though he was. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? That 39 women have been arrested for witchcraft and that Osburn is going to be hung 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She acts as though she is the authority and that they are not her employers yet 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? Mary covered for Elizabeth when she was brought up in court. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? That Abby is trying to blame everything on her so that she can get her out of the way 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? She tells John to tell Abby that there is nothing between them and that she is a whore. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? He was going by everyones house that had been acused of witchcraft. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He tells him that Elizabeth has been sick. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? He asks him to say the Ten Commandments 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) When reciting the Ten Commandments John skips the one on adultery which he knows he commited with Abby 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? He tells him he discussed the happenings in the woods with Abby and that she said they had nothing to do with witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? The reverend wants John to go to the court and tell them what he knows. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She doesnt believe that the devil can take a soul that has for so long belonged to God. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? That his wife was taken away and put in jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? They say she put a spell on the Putnam kids which caused them do die 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? They say she put a spell on the walcotts pigs. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They have come to arrest Elizabeth for witchcraft. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Abby had claimed that Elizabeths spirit stabbed her with a needle and he found a needle in Elizabeths poppet 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? In order to save elizabeth he wants her to speak against abby in court 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She is afraid that abby will come for her next and try to kill her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? She says that Abby will turn against him and bring up the charge of adultery 26.What does John decide to do? He decides he will defend Elizabeth anyways and admit himself as being an adulter so Abby cant bring it up. edmond 20 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 03:23AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? The social atmosphere in the town is very guarded and unpleasent. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She is now and official in the court 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. The dancing they were doing had nothing to do with witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? He doesn't think it would be any proof. She thinks he is just trying to protect Abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He said that he wasn't in the room with Abigail alone. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? The 39 girls were arrested for witchcraft and that Goody Osburn is going to be hung. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She sees herself as the employer not the employee. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? She stood up for Elizabeth in court. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? Abigail is just trying to get rid of her. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? Tell Abigail that she is a whore and that there are not feeling between them. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? He was visiting every house of anyone who was accused of witchcraft. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says that his wife, Elizabeth, was sick. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) John skipped adultery while he was reciting the Ten Commandments because that is one that he was ashamed to have committed. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? He talk to Abigail about the woods and she said that there was no witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? He wants John to say it in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She doesn't believe that the devil can take a soul from God. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? His wife was arrested and put in jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Putting spells on the Putnam children so that they would die. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? Putting spells on the Walcott's pigs. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? To arrest Elizabeth for witchcraft. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Abigail had accused Elizabeth of voodoo. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? Speak against Abigail so that Elizabeth will be proved innocent. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She is afraid of Abigail trying to kill her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? Abigail might get back at him by accusing him of adultery. 26.What does John decide to do? He will defend Elizabeth and admit his act of adultery with Abigail. dmo 24 posts Monday, 14. September 2009 05:15AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? The people in the town are cold toward the girls being charged with witchcraft. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She wants to serve as a official in the court. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. She reveals that there was no witchcraft in the woods, only dancing. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? He doesn't share what he knows with the court because there were no witnesses. Elizabeth thinks that John is not telling the court because he wants to continue his affair with Abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He lies about being alone with Abigail. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? Mary reveals to John and Elizabeth that Elizabeth's name was brought up in court that day. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She believes that she is to be treated like a lady and not a slave; she also thinks that she deserves more. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? She is saying that she stuck up for her and defended her in court that day n to do?She asks him to tell Abigail that she is a whore and she wanted John to make sure that Abigail knew that her and John were over. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? He asks them questions like why they don't attend church and other questions pertaining to the trials. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says that he has not been going because his wife has been sick and he has stayed home to take care of her. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) John remembers 9 of the 10 commandments but the one that he forgets is adultery which happens to go along with the whole affair thing that he had with Abigail. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? John reveals what Abigail told him about the happenings in the woods having nothing to do with witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? Hale wants John to testify in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She does not believe in them because she does not believe that you can be godly and still have an evil spirit in you. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? That his wife was taken away. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? She is accused of the supernatural murder of Mrs. Putnam's babies. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? She was accused of witchcraft because her husband had seen her up late at night reading books and they thought that she was studying spells. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They were on order from the court because Abigail charged Elizabeth and they were there to arrest Elizabeth and take her to jail. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? He was both astonished and afraid when he found the poppet because earlier Abigail was crying in pain and she said that she had a needle in her stomach. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? John asks Mary to testify against Abigail. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? Mary is afraid because she does not want the girls to use witchcraft of her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail?Because Abigail has said that she will charge lechery on John if he testifies against her. 26.What does John decide to do? John decides to procede with testifing against Abigail for his wife's sake. austin 19 posts Tuesday, 15. September 2009 01:08AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? He is emotionally detatched from his wife after his affair. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She wants to help out with the trial in Salem 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. She wasn't taking part in witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? He doesn't think it's proof. He is protecting Abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? That he wasn't alone with Abby even though he was. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? 39 women are arrested, and Osborne is to be hung. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She is the total authority, and they aren't her employees yet. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? She covered for Elizabeth in court. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? Abby is blaming it all on her to get her out of the way. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? Tell abby there is nothing between them 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? He visits the houses of all accused of witchcraft. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? Elizabeth has been sick. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) John Procter doesn't recite the commandment on adultery because he committed it. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? That Abby had nothing to do with the witchcraft 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? To share it. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She doesn't believe Satan can take the soul tha has belonged to God for so long. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? His wife has been arrested. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Putting a spell on the Putnam kids. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? She is alleged to have puta curse on the Walcott's pigs. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? To arrest Elizabeth. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? He claims that Elizabeth's spirit stabbed him with a poppet. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? Speak against Abby in court.. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She is afraid Abby will try to kill her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? She will bring up adultery charges. 26.What does John decide to do? Admit his affair aimee 16 posts Wednesday, 16. September 2009 03:04AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? The townspeople are gloomy and unpleasant 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? she said she was a court official, 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. She said that the reason they were dancing in the woods was just for fun and not for witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? There weren't any witnesses so he couldnt prove it. Elizabeth thinks he's trying to protect Abby. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He says he wasn't alone with Abby. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? That Osborne is going to be hung. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She puts off the vibe that she is higher and better than them. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? She defended her in court, therefore she will not be killed. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? That Abby is trying to have her killed. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? To clarify what's going on between her and Abigail. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? He wanted to see if it was really a Christian environment. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He said Elizabeth had been sick. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? He tells him to recite the 10 commandments. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) He could not "remember" thou shalt not commit adultery, which is funny since that is exactly what he did with Abigail. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? That she wasn't sick because of witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? To testify in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? That if she is a Godly woman that the devil cannot have her soul. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? His wife was in jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? She had been acccused of murdering Goody Putnam's babies. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? Because of the books she reads. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They come to arrest Elizabeth. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Because Abigail was found with a needle in her belly. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? To tesify against Abby. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She thinks Abby will kill her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? If he does not, then Abigail will accuse him of lechery. 26.What does John decide to do? He decides to testfiy. -♥Aimee Kathrine ♥ erinlawler1 16 posts Sunday, 27. September 2009 12:05AM 1. The townspeople are gloomy. 2. She was confessing 3. They were just having fun in the woods and they were not doing any type of witchcraft. 4. No people were there except him and Abigail. She believes Proctor is trying to protect Abigail. 5. He told Elizabeth that he has not been alone with Abigail. 6. Elizabeth was accused, and that Osborne will be hung. 7. She is defiant and believes she has more power. 8. She defended Elizabeth in court 9. That Abigail is trying to get rid of her 10. To testify in court about what happened between her and Abigail 11. He wanted to see if it was really a Christian environment 12. He doesn't like Parris' theology 13. For him to recite the 10 commandments 14.? 15. Abigail is lying 16. To testify in court 17. She's a godly women 18. They have arrested his wife and another woman. 19. Murdering Goody Putnam's babies 20. Because of the books she has been reading 21. a warrant to arrest Elizabeth 22. because Abigail was found with a needle in her stomach 23. to testify that all of this is a sham 24. she thinks that Abigail will kill her 25. if he does not, he will accuse her of lechery 26. He test decides to testify alice 22 posts Sunday, 27. September 2009 12:06AM 1. the towns people are gloomy and unpleasent. 2. because she wants to see the witch trails. she said she was a court official. 3. she told John that they were dancing for fun and not for witchcraft. 4. because when Abigail told him this they were alone. Elizabeth thinks he is trying to protect Abigail. 5. that when she told John of what they were doing in the woods there was Abby is trying to have her killed.26. robertopelley 18 posts Monday, 28. September 2009 01:01AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? He is using it as a metaphor as in the towns people are being cold towards the girls and their witchcraft ness 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? B/c she's one of the accused. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. That they were just playing around in the woods. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? B/c there's no evidence. That they were alone in a room just the two of them. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? They weren't alone in the room they were in a group 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? That Elizabeth was named and the Goody Osborne was hung/being hanged 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She's becoming more powerful and is telling Mr. Putnam that she will not go to so she now has the power what goes on. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? She means that she defended Elizabeth at court 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? That Abigail wants her dead 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? To testify against Abigail 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? Because he is going to every household of everyone who was named at the trial and he wants to see if there is a Christian environment in their house. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says he doesn't like the way Parris preaches 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? To recite the 10 Commandments 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) He didn't remember that Commandment which happened to be the one that he was committing 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? That the girls are not conjuring spirits 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? To bring it up in court 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? B/c she has much faith in God 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? That his wife is in jail 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Killing the Putnam babies 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? She was being accused for reading books(they think they are witch books) 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? To arrest Elizabeth 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Because Abigail was found with a needle in/on/around her belly 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? To tell the court that it is all a sham and that she made the doll in court and gave it to Elizabeth 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? B/c Abigail will kill her 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? B/c if he doest Abigail will accuse him of lechery 26.What does John decide to do? He decides to testify kstreets 5 posts Tuesday, 06. October 2009 06:07PM 1. It is a cold and gloomy town. 2. She is an official for the court. 3. That they were just dancing in the woods and not doing anything else. 4. He doesn't think that it would do any good to the court. She says that he is just trying to protect Abigail. 5. He tells her, he hasn't been alone with Abigail. 6. That Goody Osborn was going to be hung. 7. She really isn't going to take anything from them anymore since she is an official of the court. 8. She said that she never saw Elizabeth do anything witchcrafty. 9. That Abigail wants her dead and she wants John. 10. To end his affair with Abigail. 11. He is visiting everyones house who has been accused. 12. He says Elizabeth was sick. 13. Say the 10 commandments. 14. He skipped adultery because he is ashamed about what he did with Abigail. 15. He told him that Abigail and the other girls were dancing in the woods. 16. Say it in the court. 17. Because she is accused to be a witch and if she is a witch they must not exist. 18. His wife was put in jail for witchcraft. 19. Killing the Putnam children with witchcraft. 20. Because they kept dying. 21. To arrest Elizabeth for witchcraft. 22. Because the needle that was stuck into the doll was stuck into Abigail in the same place. 23. To tell the court that she put the needle into the doll and not Elizabeth. 24. Because Abigail said that she would kill her. 25. Because Abigail will tell the court about his adultery with her. 26. He will admit his wrong doing with Abigail in an attempt to save his wife. epps 18 posts Wednesday, 07. October 2009 11:39PM 1. john proctor is speaking of the people in the town being cold as winter. it has nothing to do with the weather. 2. she was a official of the court and felt more important and more needed there than at the proctor house. 3. she told john that they were not doing any witchcraft and that they were just harmlessly dancing. she told him there was no spirits or anything of that sort involved. 4. John didn't want to tell the court because they were alone in a room and he felt positive that if it was his word against her's he would lose. Elizabeth thinks he doesn't wanna tell the court because he wants to protect abigail. she thinks he still has feelings for her. 5. he told her that they were with other people. She didn't know they were alone. 6. she tells the proctor's that elizabeth's name is being mentioned in court. as in she is possibly going to be accused of being a witch 7. she acts as if she isn't in debt to them. they've given her a wonderful job and opportunity and right now she just slapped them in the face. 8. she's referring to the fact that she defended goody proctor that day in the court. she didn't really sasve her life she prolonged the inevitable. 9. she finds out that it was abigail who accused her of stabbing her with her sirit. evidentally elizabeth's spirit stabbed abigail with a sewing pin. 10. she asks him to go to salem and tell the court what abigail told him before everything gets out of hand 11. he visits the proctor's to learn about them. gain more incitefullness to see how godly they are. he didn't just visit the proctor's, he's actually visiting most people in the village 12. Proctor says that he does not agree with reverend parris' theology. 13. REverend Hale asks John proctor to recite the ten commandments. 14. adultery was the only commandment that john forgot and it also happened to be the most serious commandment that he has also broken in his life. 15. Proctor tells Hale what happened between abigail and him in the room, when she told him there was no witchcraft involved 16. He wants John to testify in court. 17. She said that if her or rebecca nurse be witches then there's no way there can be witchs. these two women are god - loving people and for them to be witches would simply just be absurd 18. Giles tells the proctor's that his wife martha had been arrested and taken to court as well. 19. Rebecca nurse is being accused of killing mrs, Putnam's children through her spirit.. 20. Mrs, corey was accused of cursing pigs to death. 21. they arrive to take elizabeth to prison becasue she is being accused of witchcraft. 22. he astonished to find a poppet because evidentally its a sign of witchcraft. he was scared to find the pin becasuse it proved wat abigail said to be correct and therefore he believed that goody proctor was a witch. 23. he asks her to go to court with him in the morning with him and telll her that the doll was her's and that she made it and it had no intent of witchcraft. 24. mary warren is scared to do this because she doesn't wanna turn on abigail and the others. she fears what the other girls might do to her 25. she warns him that if he stands up to abigail that she will charge him of lechery (adultery) 26. John decides to go to court anyways and save his wife and his friend's wife and end the ridiculous witchcraft stuff in salem once and for all. aellington 11 posts Thursday, 08. October 2009 07:59PM At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? When Proctor said "It is winter in here yet." He was making a statement about how everyone was supposedly turning to witchcraft. I believe he was trying to say that everyone was turning from God. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She has become an official to the court. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? She reveals that there was no witchcraft in the woods only dancing. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? John Proctor doesn't share what he knows with the court because there weren't any witnesses. Elizabeth thinks that he isn't telling the court because he wants to continue his affair with Abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He never told her him and Abigail were alone. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? Mary Warren told them that Elizabeth's name had been mentioned in the court. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She believes she should be treated more like a lady not a slave or little girl. She also thinks she deserves more than she already has. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? She is saying that when her name had been mentioned in court she told them she had nothing to do with any witchcraft. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? She realizes that Abigail is trying to have her killed so that she may take her place as John's wife. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? She wants John to tell Abigail she is a whore. And that there will never be anything else between them. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? He is there to ask them questions about their faith such as why they don't attend church etc. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says they have not been going because not only do they not like Parris but he has been staying home taking care of Elizabeth because she has been sick. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? Recite the Ten Commandments. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) John remembers 9 of the 10 commandments but the one that he forgets is adultery which happens to go along with the affair that he had with Abigail. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? John tells what Abigail told him about what happened in the woods having nothing to do with witchcraft. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? Hale wants John to tell the court what he knows. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She says she doesn't believe in them because she doesn't think you can be Godly yet still be trafficing with the Devil. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? That his wife had been accused and imprisoned. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Mrs. Putnum accuses her of supernaturally killing all her chlidren. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? She was accused because her husband had stated that she stayed up late reading books. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They were there to arrest Elizabeth on the charge of witchcraft. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? He was astonished and afraid because they had found Abigail with a needle in her stomach earlier just as the poppet has now. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? He asks her to testify against Abigail. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? Mary is afraid if she testifys against Abigail that she also will be accused of witchcraft. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? That Abigail has claimed she will charge John with lechery if he testifys against her. 26.What does John decide to do? John decided to testify against Abigail in hopes of saving his wife. lskalos826 18 posts Friday, 09. October 2009 12:09AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? When you think of winter, you think of cold, semi-sad, no sun, and gloomy. The people in Salem are the same way. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She is a court official and is backing Abby up, 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. That they were only dancing for enjoyment and amusement, not witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? He was alone with Abby and had no witness. Elizabeth feels that John will not tell because he wants to protect Abby. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He tells Elizabeth that people were around when he was with Abby then confesses that they were alone. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? Osborne was accused and found guilty, resulting in being hung. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She doesn't listen to them since she feels she is higher than them now. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? She saved Elizabeth from being accused. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? That Abby wants her dead. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? To tell her the truth about John and Abby. But he becomes angry and says that he is tired of being questioned by her. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? To see if it was a Godly household. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He said Elizabeth was sick and he did not like Parris. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? Recite the 10 commandments to him. 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) He stated all of the commandments but forgot adultery...what a coincidence. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? What Abby told him about them dancing for fun. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? Testify against Abby in court 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? Because the Devil could not take her soul because of her faith in God 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? That his wife in going to jail 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Being the murderer of the Putnam's children 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? Of putting a spell on pigs 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? To examine the Proctor house because Elizabeth was accused. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Abby had a needle in her stomach just like the doll. It looked as though Elizabeth was performing voodoo. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? To tell the court that she made the doll and testify against Abby 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? Because Abby said she would kill her 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? Because Abby will charge him of lechery 26.What does John decide to do? To take the risk to save his wife -Lauren Skalos dustinduke 16 posts Friday, 09. October 2009 03:06AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? This is in reference to the way how everyone is acting towards each other- cold and with complete apathy and no regards to the way they treat the fellow citizens of Salem. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She told her employers that she is part of the court that is dealing with the trials. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. She told them that their acts in the woods were unrelated to witchcraft. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? He doesn't talk because he says he was only alone in the room with her. Elizabeth attributes the not telling to the previous affair between Proctor and Abby. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He said he wasn't alone with Abby. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? 39 girls are arrested and Goody Osborn will hang for witchcraft. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She acts in insubordination and doesnt see the Proctors as her authorities. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? Abby is trying to exact her revenge by means of accusations against Elizabeth. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? To sever all ties with Abby and speak of her as a whore. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? To make sure they're aware that Elizabeth was accused and that they are involved in the witchcraft craze even though they want nothing to do with witchcraft or Salem in general. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He explains that his wife is sick. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? Recite the Ten Commandments 14.Discuss the meaning of "Adultery, John." (page 67) He failed to mention adultery because Proctor himself is an adulterer. 15.What information does John Proctor reveal to Reverend Hale? He reveals that she talked with Abby regarding the rituals in the forest and that they had nothing to do with devils worship. 16.What does Reverend Hale want John to do with this information? Reveal this in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She doesn't think that God would let such a thing happen as letting the devil possess people. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? Martha Corey was arrested and subsequently jailed as part of the hysteria. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Bewitching the Putnam children. 20.Why has Martha Corey been accused? Bewitching farm animals- pigs. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? They came to arraign Elizabeth as she has been accused. 22.Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Abigail is trying her best to frame Elizabeth for performing voodoo. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? To testify against Abigail so as to vindicate Elizabeth. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She is under the impression that Abigail will harm her if she does speak against her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? Abigail would reveal the affair to the court and get John arrested. 26.What does John decide to do? He will admit his guilt and side with his wife. krista 19 posts Friday, 09. October 2009 03:07AM 1.At the beginning of this act, John Proctor says, "It is winter in here yet." Why is this pertinent to what is going on? All the people around him are cold and unpleasant because of the witchcraft, and the tension between him and his wife is very apparent. 2.Why has Mary Warren disobeyed her employers and gone to Salem? She thinks she has a duty to do to the court and she believes she is doing the right thing. 3.What did Abigail Williams reveal to John Proctor? Elizabeth reminds him of this. When they had an affair he sort of made a promise to her. 4.Why hasn't John told the court what he knows? What does Elizabeth attribute his not telling to? He was alone with Abigail,which is suspicious, and also so there were no other witnesses. Elizabeth thinks he is just trying to save Abigail. 5.What lie did John Proctor tell to Elizabeth which makes her more suspicious of him? He said they talked in an open place with many people, but they were actually alone. 6.What news does Mary Warren reveal to John and Elizabeth about the trials? Many people have been accused, and Elizabeth's name has been mentioned. 7.How does Mary Warren behave towards her employers? She acts as if she was equal to them, and that they did not have the right to tell her what to do. 8.What does Mary Warren mean when she says, "I saved her life today!"? When Elizabeth;s name was mentioned she quickly denied Elizabeth ever associating with the devil. 9.What does Elizabeth realize when she finds out that she has been accused? She realizes Abigail is just using this withcraft so that Elizabeth may die, and she could have John to herself. 10.What does Elizabeth ask John to do? To tell Abigail that everything between them is over and that she is a whore. 11.Why does Reverend Hale visit the Proctors? To investigate them to see if they were Godly people. 12.How does John Proctor respond to questions about why he has not been to church? He says his wife was sick during the winter, and he does not like parris and does not believe in what he says or does. 13.What does Reverend Hale ask Proctor to do? To recite his commandments He wants John to say what he knows in court. 17.Why does Elizabeth say that she doesn't believe in witches at this point? She says she doesn't believe in witches if people are calling her a witch. 18.What news does Giles Corey reveal to the Proctors and Reverend Hale? His wife has been taken to jail. 19.What has Rebecca Nurse been accused of? Casting spell on Goody Putnum's children so that they would die. 21.Why do Ezekial Cheever and Marshal Herrick arrive at the Proctor home? To arrest elizabeth and take her to jail. 22. Explain why Cheever is both astonished and afraid when he finds the poppet with the needle in it? Abby had claimed that Elizabeths spirit stabbed her with a needle and he found a needle in Elizabeths poppet. 23.What does John ask Mary Warren to do? To tell when she made it she stuck the needle, and Abigail was itting right beside her when she did it. 24.Why is Mary so afraid to do as he asks? She is afraid Abigail will kill her. 25.Why does Mary Warren warn John about testifying against Abigail? She says that Abby will turn against him and bring up the charge of adultery 26.What does John decide to do? He will defend Elizabeth and admit his act of adultery with Abigail. - Krista Puczylowski :) katiecockman 14 posts Monday, 12. October 2009 06:47PM 1. the people are gloomy 2. because she wants to see the witch trails. she said she was a court official. 3. she told John that they were dancing for fun and not for witchcraft. 4. Abigail told him this when they were alone. 5. that when she told John of what they were doing in the woods there was Abigail is trying to have her killed 26. he decides to confess the truth:that He had an affair with Abigail.	eng	bb2d52d6-980d-4f68-b90e-fb8d5fa9818d	http://englishvca.lefora.com/2009/09/08/act-ii-the-crucible/
French Rulers French Rulers Succession of Kings and rulers in France since the 17th century to determine the period or style. François Ier 1494 - 1547 François Ier (Cognac, 1494 - Rambouillet, 1547) Son of Charles d'Orleans, count of Angouleme, and Louise de Savoie, initially count of Angouleme and Duke of Valois, succeeding his cousin Louis XII, marrying the daughter, Claude de France. A widower, he marries Eleonore, Daughter of Philippe I of Spain in 1530. Reigning form 1515 to 1547. 1515-1516: Taking up the Italian policy of his predecessors, he crosses the Alps and occupies the Milanese after the victory of Marignan (1515), signing with Swiss cantons the Perpetual Peace and, with the pope, the settlement of Bologna (1516). The King appoints and abbots. 1517: The beginning of Reform. Luther (1483-1516) fights a campaign against the Indulgences granted by the catholic clergy in return for monetary recompense. 1519: Accession of Charles I of Spain (Charles Quint, 1500-1558), the most powerful price in Christendom. 1520: Meeting of Camp du Drap d'Or at Guines (Pas-de-Calais). Henri VII of England refuses to become allies of France against Charles Quint. In 1521, François I confronts Charles Quint, his victorious rival in the imperial election of 1519. Initially starting of badly (defeat Pavie, 1525; Madrid Teaty in 1526 in which the King gives up the Milanese area and Bourgogne), the struggle starts all over again, this time more favorably for him, due to the skilful alliances concluded by the King, notably with German Protestant Princes and with the Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent. The rather confused fight, interspersed with truces, leads to the Peace of Crepy (1544): François I abandons the Savoie, Piedmont and his suzerainty over Flanders and Artois, but recovers Bourgogne. His reign sees the progression of royal absolutism and insures the development of the economy. Through the edict of Villers-Cotterets (1539), French is substituted by Latin concerning judgments, notary's deeds and registers of and registers of births, marriages and deaths. The King encourages literature and arts, assisting the French Renaissance movement, attracting to the court poets and painters (Leonard de Vinci and the Italians forming the first school of Fontainebleau). Founding the College of the three Languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew) called the College of France in 1815 and the National Printing Works, with a magnificent court in the royal in the IIe-de-France (Louvre, Madrid, Fontainebleau..) or the Loire Valley (Chambord, Blois..). Initially tolerant towards Reform, he chooses repression after the Placards Affair (posters) at Amboise against the mess (1534). The first Protestant arrests. Click tab above to expand Henry II 1519 - 1559 Henri II (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1519 - Paris, 1559) Son of François I and Claude de France, King of France between 1547 and 1559, he marries Catherine de Medicis in 1533 and his time is divided up between the influence of his wife's Italian entourage and the affairs of Guises, des Coligny and Diane de Poitiers, his mistress. He fights against the progression of Calvinism (edict of Chateaubriant - 1551) and increases royal authority by strengthening the administration of the State. 1551 - 1552: War against Charles Quint. Within the context of his struggle against the Hapsburgs, his union with the German Protestant Princes allows him to seize three bishoprics: Metz, Toul and Verdun. 1556: Abdication of Charles Quint succeeded by his son Philippe II (1527-1598). 1557: Marie Tudor, Queen of England, marries Philippe II and declares war against Henri II. The King is defeated by Philippe II at Saint-Quentin. 1558: Victory over England at Calais. 1559: Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. The French keep Calais, Saint-Quentin as well as the three Bishoprics; in exchange, Valois gives up claims on Italy. Henri II dies from eye injuries sustained from the spear of Montgomery during a tournament organized in the honor of the marriages of Marguerite de Valois and Elisabeth de France. His reign sees the blossoming of the French Renaissance. Click tab above to expand Charles IX 1550 - 1574 Charles IX (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1550 - Vincennes, 1574) Son of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis, he comes to the throne following the death of his brother François II in 1560. During his reign, power is effectively in the hands of his mother, then, after the Peace of Saint-Germain (1570), by the Protestant Coligny who was later killed during the Saint-Barthelemy (1572) massacre. 1572: Saint-Barthelemy massacre, 24th August (3000 victims including the admiral of Coligny). 1573: 4th WAR (sieges de Sancerre and La Rochelle - The Duke of Anjou, the future Henri III, becomes King of Poland for a few months). 1574: Death of Charles IX. The end of a sad reign. Click tab above to expand Henri III 1551 - 1589 Henri III (Fontainebleau, 1551 - Saint-Cloud, 1589) Third son of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis and the last of Valois, having just been elected King of Poland he returns to France following the death of his brother Charles IX. Reigning form 1574 to 1589 he marries Louise de Lorraine in 1575. Criticized for his effeminate tastes, according to favors to his "cuties" oscillating for a long time between the Protestants, supported by Henri de Navarre (the future Henri IV), and the Catholic league, led by les Guise. 1575: 5th WAR (Catholic victory in la Marne - Henri de Guise receives an injury, he will be known as "the Scar-Peace" of Loches). 1576: Establishing of the League with les Guise, the cardinal of Lorraine, in order to defeat Henri III. 1577: 6th WAR (Catholic success - Henri de Navarre renounces Catholicism which he had prudently converted to after Saint Barthelemy - Peace of Bergerac). 1578: Creation of the Holy-Spirit Order by Henri III. 1580: 7th WAR called des Amoureux due to the frivolous nature of the court of Henri de Navarre. Peace of Fleix. 1584: Henri III does not have any descendants so he chooses Henri de Navarre as heir. 1585-1588: 8th WAR known as the 3 Henri (Henri III, Henri de Navarre, Henri de Guise). The Protestants lose their privileges. The power of Guises is strengthened. 1588: Day of barricades (12th May). Royalty fails to be ousted. Henri III kills two of Guise. The 3rd, The Duke of Mayenne (1554-1611), takes over as the head of the League. 1589: Members of the League crown the cardinal of Bourbon (1525-1590). Henri III and Henri de Navarre besiege Paris. Jacques Clement, a monk member to the League (1567-1589), assassinates the King at Saint-Cloud. Click tab above to expand Henri IV 1553 - 1610 Henri IV (Château de Pau, 1553 - Paris, 1610) Son of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret, founder of the Bourbon dynasty and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. In 1572, he marries Marguerite de Valois, the daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis. As one of the leaders of the Calvinist Party, he escapes to Saint-Barthelemy (24th August 1572) by temporarily renouncing the Reformed Doctrines. Recognized as the legitimate heir by Henri III, King of France, he took the name of Henri IV (1589), but he has to conquer his kingdom first. 1589-1591: Fights against Duke of Mayenne. Victories against the league at Arques (1589) and Ivry (1590). 1593: Henri IV once again renounces Protestantism at Saint-Denis. Yet again he converts to Catholicism ("Paris vaut bien une messe" - "Paris is well worth a mass") in order to be recognized as King of France. 1594: Crowned at Chartes, the King makes his entry into Paris. An assassination attempt by Jean Chatel. 1595: Submission of the Duke of Mayenne. Henri IV is master of the situation. 1598: Through the Treaty of Vervins, he re-establishes outside peace and, by the Nantes edict, religious peace at home. The freedom to worship is re-established, Protestants are able to aspire to posts within the civil service, to have fortified towns, representatives in Parliament and the right to assembly. 1600: The first marriage of Henri IV to Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615), sister of Henri II, is cancelled. The King marries Marie de Medicis (1575-1642). Click tab above to expand Louis XIII 1601 - 1643 Louis XIII (Fontainebleau 1601 - Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1643) Nicknamed le Juste, son of Henri IV and Marie de Medicis, who reigns under the regency of his mother at the age of nine years old following the death of his father who was assassinated by Ravaillac. 1610-1614: Regency of Marie de Medicis. Sully is replaced by Concini, marshal of Ancre and his wife Eleonora Dori, known as la Galigaï (1571-1671), foster sister of Marie de Medicis. The royal treasure is plundered. 1614: The coming of age of Louis XIII. 1615: Marriage of Louis XIII to Anne of Austria. 1617: With the help of the Duke Luynes, Louis XIII has Concini assassinated by the Baron of Vitry, captain of the bodyguards. La Galigaï is burned as a witch. 1620: Supported by the Queen mother, revolt of great lords put down at the Pont-de-Ce. 1621: Protestants in the south rise up. Defeated by the Duke of Luynes (1578-1621) at the end of the siege of Montauban, they keep Montpellier and La Rochelle. 1624: After several years of troubles, the King hands over power to Richelieu in which he follows the advice and the three main objectives: to get rid of the House of Austria, to ruin the Protestant party and destroy the power of the nobility. Click tab above to expand Louis XIV 1643 - 1715 Louis XIV (Saint-German-en-Laye, 1638 - Versailles, 1715) Nicknamed le Grand, known as the Sun Kin, son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, he reigns from 1643 to 1715. 1643: Death of Louis XIII. As Louis XIV is only five years old, the Regency Council, organized by Louis XIII, includes Anne of Austria and Mazarin, his first prime. 1648: End of the Thirty Year's War. 1648-1652: Insurrection (uprising against Mazarin during the infancy of Louis XIV). Caused by the unpopularity of the Cardinal and his financial affairs, the Insurrection is carried out in two phases. The first phase is known as the Parliamentary Insurrection, born out of the desire of the nobility to find their prerogatives. It finishes with the Peace of Rueil and an amnesty for those involved in the insurrection. The second phase is known as the Insurrection of Princes of commitment. With the secret support of Spain, de Condé, Beaufort (...) involved in a forthright campaign against the royal troops. It ends in failure Royalty and Mazarin come out of this troubled period stronger. 1651: Louis XIV comes of age. The young King stays under the influence of Mazarin. 1660: Marriage of Louis XIV with the infanta Marie-Therese of Austria who gives him a son, the grand Dauphin. 1661: Mazarin dies; the young sovereign becomes absolute monarch. He passionately carries out his "job of King and is concerned by glory and etiquette, Versailles being the prestigious symbol of these things. Thereafter, he surrounds himself with useful company (Colbert, Louvois, Vauban...) and attentively chairs meeting. Louis XIV ambition is to impose outside French predominance, highlighted in the long series of Wars which marked his reign. 1662: Colbert is named general controller of finances after Fouguet falls from grace. 1642: The West Indies Company is established (Antilles). The first festival of Versailles - The Enchanted Island, in the presence of Moliere (1622-1673). 1666: Louvois (1641-1691), the war minister, Founding of the Science Academy. 1669: The Colbert ruling on Waters and Forests. 1672: The court and government is installed at Versailles. 1676: The Poisons Affair. The marchioness of Brinvilliers is executed. There are a few dishonest characters in the Court in which one of them is Montespan. The proceedings are suspended on the order of the King. 1678: The Minegue treaties put an end to the War of Holland. Jules Hardoin Mansart builds Marly (holiday castle) where the famous horse (chevoux de l'abreuvoir), sculptured by Coysevox, were housed. 1680: Louvois starts the "Dragonnades" against the Protestants. Creation Comedy. 1682: Declaration of the four articles in order to decrease the Pope's power over the French clergy. 1684: After the death of Marie-Therese of Austria (1683), Louis XIV secretly marries Mme de Maintenon. Court life becomes austere. Right up to last days of his life, saddened by family bereavements (death of Dauphin in 1711...), the King considered himself as monarch of divine right. Administrative centralization, passive obedience, the unchanging nature of the royal person leads to the debasing of the nobility. The concern of the religious community leads to a conflict with the papacy (regal affair), forcing it to abandon the Edict of Nantes (1685), allowing the "Dragonnades", to persecute the Jansenists. 1715: Death of Louis XIV Click tab above to expand Louis XV 1715 - 1774 Louis XV (Versailles, 1710 - Versailles, 1774) Louis XV (February 15, 1710 - May 10, 1774), called the Well-Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé), was king of France from 1715 to 1774. Miraculously surviving the death of his entire family, he was beloved by Frenchmen in the beginning of his reign. However, in time, his inability to reform the French monarchy as well his policy of appeasement on the European stage led French people to gradually turn away from him, and he died one of the most unpopular kings of France. Louis XV is the king with the most ambivalent personality in the history of France. Much maligned by historians, modern research shows that Louis XV was in fact a very intelligent king dedicated to his task of ruling the largest kingdom of Europe. However, his indecisiveness, fueled by his awareness of the complexity of problems ahead, as well as his profound timidity, hidden behind the mask of an imperious king, account for the poor results achieved during his reign. In many ways, Louis XV announces the bourgeois rulers of the romantic 19th century: although dutifully playing the role of the imperial king carved out by his great-grandfather Louis XIV, Louis XV in fact cherished nothing more than his private life far away from pomp and ceremonies. Having lost his mother while still an infant, he always longed for a motherly and reassuring presence, which he tried to find in the intimate company of women, for which he was much slandered both during and after his life. 1725: Marriage of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska. 1726: Dismissal of the Duke of Bourbon who becomes unpopular. The Cardinal de Fleury is chosen to govern (1726-1743) He takes France into a War on Polish Succession (1733-1738), ending with the treaty of Vienna, then into a war on Austrian Succession in which the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle is brought to an end (1748). Excellent management by the general controller Orry helps economic expansion. 1743: Death of de Fleury. The King personally governs while being subject to the political influence of Mme de Pompadour. 1756 - 1763: The Seven Year's War. Undertaken following the "reversal for the alliances" in order to halt the ambitious intentions of Prussia and England, ending with the loss of India and Canada, despite the family pact concluded by Choiseul and the four branches of the House of Bourbon. 1757: Assassination attempt by Damiens. The King receives a knife injury. Damiens is quartered. 1770: Marriage of the future Louis XVI, grandson of Louis XV, with Marie Antoinette of Austria ((1755-1793). Choiseul is disgrace and replaced by Maupeau, Terry and Aiguillon. Popular unrest due to the high price of wheat. The last years of the reign are marked by interior change and the reinforcement of the Austrian alliance, at the same time as an absolutist reaction. 1774: Louis XV dies of smallpox. Click tab above to expand Louis XVI 1715 - 1774 Louis XVI (Versailles, 1754 - Paris, 1793) Son of Dauphin Louis and Marie-Josephe of Saxony, King of France from 1774 to 1791 then King of the French from 1791 to 1792, he marries Marie-Antoinette of Austria in 1770. 1774: Death of Louis XV. The Countess of Barry goes into exile. He is advised by Maurepas who replaces Maupeau, the King choosing ministers of talent: Turgot, Saint-German, and MalesherbesŠ 1775: "The Grain War" is started by Turgot's edict concerning the free circulation of grains. 1776: Dominated by his wife and influenced by privileges, the King replaces Turgot by Necker. 1777: The Marquis of La Fayette (1754-1834) leaves for the American War of Independence. 1777-1783: Difficult period. Necker report to the King on the state of the finances is presented to parliamentary members by the Count of Provence (1781). Necker is dismissed; Ormesson then Calonne both follow him without having found a solution to the financial problems 1779: Emancipation of the lat serfs. 1780: Abolition of the preparatory question (torture). 1783: Treaty of Versailles. End of the American War of Independence, 13 confederate colonies. 1785: Affair of the Queen's necklace produced by the jewelers Boelmer ET Bessange leads to growing unpopularity towards Marie-Antoinette. 1788: Recalling of the Necker. 1789: The 5th May, more than 1000 elected deputies take part in the opening of the States General at Versailles. · June 20th: The Tennis Court Oath by Mirabeau. · July 9th : Start of the constituent National Assembly. · July 14th : Storming of the Bastille. · July 17th: The King accepts the tricolor rosette. · August 4th : Abolition of privileges. Freedom of the press and religion. · August 26th : Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. 1790: Division of France into 83 departments. Sale of national treasures (those of the clergy and the nobility). Civil constitution of the clergy. Suppression of nobility titles. Festival of the Federation au Champ-de-Mars (14th July). 1791: Creation of the tricolor. The guillotine is introduced. The King and his family flee on 22nd June. They are stopped at Varennes (Meuse). Avignon and the region of Comtat Venassin, belonging to the pope, are annexed to France. End of the constituent National Assembly which is replaced by the Legislative Assembly (September 1791 to October 1792) with 745 deputies. Austria and Prussia from a coalition with the objective of defending the King. 1792: The gathering of the Convention. France declares War and the homeland are proclaimed in danger. The Tuileries massacre (10th August). The monarchy is suspended and the King is imprisoned in the Temple Dungeons along with his family. The first beheadings take place (Gironde Deputies). Secularization of civil rights. The First Republic is proclaimed the 21st September. Valmy is victorious against the Prussians and Jemmapes defeats the Austrians. Start of the King's trial. 1793: Louis XVI is condemned to death on 17th January. He is beheaded the 21st January at the Place de la Revolution, today known as la Concorde. Click tab above to expand The Directorate 1789 - 1799 First Consul 1799 - 1804 The Influence of First Consul Bonaparte's Supposed Plans for North America on the United States' Foreign Policy, 1799-1804. In 1803, when the United States of America bought the Louisiana Territory from the French Republic, the American negotiators in Paris inquired about the boundaries and extent of their new acquisition. French Foreign Minister Talleyrand responded to the American inquiry by simply stating, "You have made a noble bargain for yourselves, and I suppose you will make the most of it." The events leading up to that conversation progressed like a roller coaster's course in United States' foreign policy towards France by having many high and low points with much excitement and, as with the above comments of Talleyrand, a lack of clarity on the part of both American and French diplomats, newspaper writers, and politicians tending to characterize what had really transpired historically. After the alliance between France and the fledgling United States of America crumbled during the French Revolution, tensions brought about by the scheming of various American and French politicians only intensified when France's pro-American Consular government under Napoléon Bonaparte took over the reigns of power in France and dreamed of restoring the once great influence of France in North America. Questions concerning how much and in what ways these dreams inspired fear in the American populace, while enticing American politicians to enact significant foreign policies, can be answered by exploring the history of Franco-American relations before the aforementioned conversation occurred in 1803. Such an investigation will show that during the first quarter century of the United States' history, not only did the ambitions of adventurous Americans profoundly affect American foreign policy towards France, Great Britain, and Spain, but also, if not more so, the perceived ambitions of First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte had a significant impact on these policies. A meaningful understanding of the influence of Napoléon Bonaparte's plans on American foreign policy contributes considerably to both the fields of history and political science. Sampling the abundance of available sources helps to paint a better picture of a volatile era of adventurous schemes that significantly affected American foreign policy in ways not often considered. A presentation of this compelling topic provides a unique approach to analyzing the remarkable events relating to the Louisiana Purchase by not repeating what other historians have extensively written about in regards to this period. These historians have tended to look exclusively at key personalities involved with the Louisiana Purchase or solely at the diplomatic history of the events leading up to that momentous territorial transaction. Instead, the time has come for a new focus, primarily on the impact of Bonaparte's unrealized designs on the North American continent as perceived by the American public and government on America's foreign policy. Future generations of historians will benefit from a gripping, insightful, and worthy analysis of the influence of Bonaparte's plans for North America and the crisis that resulted, which contributes considerably to the historical knowledge of this period in nineteenth century American and world history. The origins of the crisis that emerged after Americans became aware of France's re-acquisition of Louisiana, also known as the retrocession, in the early years of Bonaparte's reign in France go back over forty years before these exhilarating events played out. In November 1762, Louis XV the Well-Beloved ceded the Louisiana Territory, including the port of New Orleans and the Trans-Mississippi portion of Louisiana to Charles III of Spain by the Treaty of Fontainebleau. At the end of the Seven Years' War, Britain accepted the Trans-Allegheny portion of French Louisiana in 1763 and occupied the Illinois country in 1765. In 1766, Spain sent the first Spanish governor, Antonio de Ulloa, to Louisiana to replace the last French governor, Jean-Jacques Blaise D'Abbadie. In 1768, during the Louisiana Revolt, French inhabitants, such as Pierre Carresse, who professed loyalty to the French king, contemplated a republic that would also encourage English colonists to revolt against the British monarchy. Although, in 1769, Spain sent Alejandro O'Reilly to suppress the revolt, few Spaniards settled in Louisiana and so French immigrants continued to arrive in Louisiana before and after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Exiles from various French regimes, including royalists around 1800, flocked to this vast territory. In particular, Frenchmen from Saint Domingue arrived in both St. Louis and New Orleans in significant numbers from 1793 to 1804. In addition to these French immigrants, Americans rushed for Spanish land grants in Upper and Lower Louisiana from 1795 to 1803. American settlement in former French territory in North American did not begin in Louisiana. Citizens of the United States inhabited and acquired other ex-French territory before American immigration to Spanish Louisiana in 1795. The Detroit region and the Mississippi Territory, two formerly French held territories in North America, became part of the United States in the 1790s. In the ten years before the Louisiana Purchase, the French, who still lived in their former North American colonies, held generally negative opinions of the increasing number of American settlers. French lieutenant governor Zenon Trudeau of Upper Louisiana under the Spanish regime referred to the Americans as "un peuple sans loix ni discipline." Correspondingly, Americans, including John Quincy Adams, equally viewed the French in Louisiana with disapproval, because these North American Frenchmen spoke French and practiced Catholicism.Greater suspicions arose after the French Revolution began in 1789. Like the first few seconds on a roller coaster, American opinion towards France had climbed throughout the American Revolution, as the two states became allies. The American victory at Saratoga in their struggle for independence from Great Britain, showed the world that the mother country could be defeated by her thirteen daughter colonies and inspired France and Spain, both still desirous for revenge for the 1763 Treaty of Paris, to aid the rebel army. French contributions went beyond simply sending over Lafayette and basset hounds, while besieging Gibraltar near Spain. During the American War of Independence, a French fleet along with a French force helped Americans under General George Washington take Yorktown in 1781 from Lord Cornwallis and seven thousand British soldiers. The decisive victory at Yorktown practically ended the Revolution and thus secured American independence from Britain. Ironically, however, while the American Revolution created an alliance between France and America, the French Revolution destroyed this friendship. The time of chaos known as the French Revolution began with the seizure of the Bastille by Parisian insurgents on July 14, 1789. As the First Republic replaced the French monarchy in 1792, terror reigned and several coups transpired, including the creation of the National Convention and the infamous Committee of Public Safety. Most of Europe turned on France, hoping to restore the monarchy, but the French general Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez halted the allied invasion at Valmy on September 20, 1792. After this battle, France took on an expansionist policy by conquering new territory and creating satellite republics, all in the name of liberty, equality, and fraternity, ideals reminiscent to those held by the American revolutionaries a decade earlier; however, this revitalized French spirit did not limit its conquering attention to Europe. After the French Revolution began and before learning of French goals in North America, the American politician and a leading figure of the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson, initially expressed enthusiasm for the French Revolution. The French, such as minister Adet, noticed and reciprocated Jefferson's sentiments by attempting to have Jefferson elected president of the United States. Moreover, the Directory government in France in the later 1790s, like Republicans Jefferson and Monroe, disapproved of the Federalists like Hamilton, who supported Great Britain. The French efforts began by replacing the French minister in the United States and, as one might expect, Jefferson did not show disapproval of this support. Those Federalists astute enough to realize this relationship damned Jefferson as an agent of French atheism and anarchy. Nonetheless, like the first drop on a roller coaster, even the enthusiasm espoused by Americans like Jefferson drastically declined during the XYZ Affair and spiraled further downward when a Quasi-War between France and the United States threatened to explode into larger hostilities during John Adams' presidency. Relations between America and France deteriorated steadily during this troubled time. Tensions flared from the onset of the naval conflict among the British, Dutch, French, and Spanish fleets operating in the West Indies and disrupting American trade. During the early stages of the naval aspect of the French Revolutionary Wars, acts by the United States Congress moved the nation towards war. These included an act imposing duties on tonnage on July 20, 1789 and an act imposing duties on the tonnage of ships on July 2, 1790. On September 11, 1790, during Louis XVI's fall from power, the king wrote to American President George Washington, who wanted America to avoid any entanglements in European conflicts, that Louis wanted to renew "these assurances of regard and friendship which we feel for the United States." The "assurances" Louis mentioned likely referred to the treaty of 1778, which required the United States to defend France's possessions in the Caribbean. Americans, including Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, wanted peace at this time. Acknowledging the lack of desire for war, Washington disregarded the treaty by declaring American neutrality, but other factors soon roused American passions in the opposite direction. With the French monarchy in a shambles, the National Convention, dominated by Georges-Jacques Danton, Jean-Paul Marat, and Maximilien-François-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre, further plunged France into a bloodbath of execution, including the beheading of King Louis XVI, who had made the alliance with America, and a war that spread beyond France's borders, stretching even across the Atlantic. This new republican government of the Girondists in France sent Edmund Charles Genêt to the United States in 1793 as its official ambassador. Genêt's audacious activities, including plans for attacks on Spain's possessions in Florida and Louisiana, which Genet mentioned to Thomas Jefferson in 1793, resulted in his recall. Meanwhile, the manipulative Talleyrand sent Comte Constantin de Volney to Monticello in order to explore the possibility of French colonization on the American continent and soon discovered that Americans would not smile upon a retrocession of Louisiana to France. Click tab above to expand First Empire Napoleon 1804 - 1815 First Empire Napoleon (Corsica, 1804 - St. Helena, 1815) French general and emperor (1804 - 1815). Born in Corsica to parents of Italian ancestry, he was educated in France and became an army officer in 1785. 1793: He fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and was promoted to brigadier general. 1797: After victories against the Austrians in north Italy, he negotiated the Treaty of Campo Formio. 1798-1799: He attempted to conquer Egypt but was defeated by British under H. Nelson in the Battle of the Nile. 1799: The Coup of 1819 Brumaire brought him to power, and he installed a military dictatorship, with himself as First Consul. He introduced numerous reforms in government, incl. the Napoleonic Code, and reconstructed the French education system. 1800: Victory against the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo, he embarked on the Napoleonic Wars. 1801: He negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with the pope. 1804: The formation of coalitions of European countries against him led Napoleon to declare France a hereditary empire and to crown himself emperor. 1805: He won his greatest military victory at the Battle of Austerity against Austria and Russia. 1806: He defeated Prussia at the Battles of Jena and Auerstedt. 1807: He defeated Russia at the Battle of Friedland. He then imposed the Treaty of Tilsit of Russia, ending the fourth coalition of countries against France. Despite his loss to Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar, he sought to weaken British commerce and established the Continental System of port blockades. He consolidate his European empire until 1810, but became embroiled in the Peninsular War (1808-1814). 1809: He led the French army into Austria and defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram, signing the Treaty of Vienna. 1812: To enforce the Treaty of Tilsit, he led an army of over 450,000 into Russia, winning the Battle of Borodino, but was forced to retreat from Moscow with disastrous losses. 1813: His army greatly weakened, he was met by a strong coalition of allied powers, who defeated him at the Battle of Leipzig. 1814: After Paris was taken by the allied coalition, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to the island of Elba. 1815: Napoleon mustered a force and returned to France to reestablish himself as emperor for the Hundred Days, but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. He was sent into exile on the remote island of St. Helena, where he died six years later. One of the most celebrated figures in history, Napoleon revolutionized military organization and training and brought about reforms that permanently influenced civil institutions in France and throughout Europe. Click tab above to expand Louis XVIII 1815 - 1824 Louis XVIII (Versailles, 1755 - Paris, 1824) Grandson of Louis XV, son of the Dauphin Louis and Marie-Josephe of Saxony, reigning from 1814 to 1815 then, after the Hundred-Day episode, from 1815 to 1824. During his exile, he takes on the title of lieutenant general of the kingdom, then, after the death of his nephew Louis XVII, adopts the name Louis XVIII. 1791: Count of Provence, he emigrates and lives Koblentz, Verona, Mitau and then in England. First Restoration: 1815: He returns to Paris following the fall of the Empire. In the month of March, Napoleon flees to the Island of Elba, landing at Golfe-Juan and then heads towards Paris along the "route Napoleon". Ney (1769-1815) is sent to stop him, coming across the Emperor at Lyon. Louis XVIII flees to Belgium. He is baptized "our father of Ghent". The Hundred Days (20th March - 22nd June 1815): 7e Coalition: At the Treaty of Vienna, Napoleon is declared outside the law. A united Europe inflicts defeat on Napoleon at Waterloo (18th June). The Emperor is sent to Saint-Helen (an English island in the Atlantic to the west of Central Africa) Second restoration: 1815: Return of Louis XVIII to the Tuileries. Dismissal of the imperial army. Domestically, reactionary measures of the Chambre introuvabel and the Terreur Blanche which prevails in the South, he then decides - to dissolve the Chambre (September 1816). 1816-1820: The Richelieu ministries, then especially Decazes, take a more liberal direction concerning business; however Baron Louis enables France to have prosperous finances. 1820: Assassination of the Duke of Berry (1778-1820) by Louvel (1783-1820). The last descendant of the Bourbons leaves a posthumous son, the Duke of Bordeaux. 1821: The ultras exploit the assassination of the Duke of Berry, imposing on the King new reactionary measures (Villele ministry), stirred up by carbonarism. 1823: France intervene in the Spanish War in order to save the Bourbon regime, this being the last important event of the reign. 1824: Death of Louis XVIII (16th September). Click tab above to expand Charles X 1824 - 1830 Charles X (Versailles, 1757 Görz today known as Gorizia, 1836) Grandson of Louis XVI, brother of Louis XVIII, the last son of the Dauphin Louis and of Marie-Josephe of Saxony, he reigns from 1824 to 1830. He becomes the Count of Artois when he emigrates in 1789. 1814-1824: During the reign of Louis XVIII, he is head of the ultra-royalist party. 1824: Advent of Charles X. The last King of to be crowned at Reims. 1825: The Milliard Des Emigres Act, refundable after five years, to endorse the sale of national goods in 1790. 1827: Fall of the authoritative and reactionary ministry of Villele. 1828: Martignac Ministry (1778-1832). He vainly tries to reconcile the liberal bourgeoisie and the Bourbons. Son of Louis-Philippe de'Orleans, known as Philippe-Egalite, and of Louise-Marie de Bourbon-Penthieve. Initially known under the name of the Duke of Chartres, then the Duke of Orleans, he grows up in a cosmopolitan environment being influenced by liberal ideas. After taking in the battles of Valmy and Jemmapes (1792), he goes to live a precarious life abroad. He marries Marie-Amelie de Bourbon des Deux-Siciles in 1809, and returns to France under Louis XVIII. He reigns from 1830 to 1848. 1830: The Duke of Orleans is named lieutenant general of the kingdom and is named King of France after revision of the Charter. First of all seconded by liberal ministries (Movement Party), he leans more and more towards the Resistance Party. 1831: Silk workers revolt a Lyon. 1832: Legitimist plot on behalf of the Duke of Berry or the Duke of Bordeaux. The royalists wanted him to be Henri V. He never reigned. Republican insurrection (5th and 6th June 1832). 1834: Rue Transnonain Massacre: rioting caused by the society for the Rights of Man. 1835: First attempt on the life of Louis-Philippe by Fieschi, followed by four other attempts by Alibaud, Meunier in 1836, Lecomte and Henri in 1846. 1836: Louis Napoleon Bonaparte attempts a Coup d'Etat at Strasbourg. Exiled to Brazil, the United States, Switzerland and England. 1839: Insurrections stirred up by Barbes and Blanqui. 1840: Louis Napoleon lands at Boulogne. Arrested, he is taken to the fort of Ham (Somme). The ashes of Napoleon I are returned. 1840-1848: The long Guizot ministry reflects the stability of the regime. In fact the opposition remains awake. It attacks the foreign policy of the ministry and especially the reforms. The regime's opposition to change in the face of the economic and social crisis leads to the 1848 revolution. Louis-Philippe, whose elder son, the Duke of Orleans, dies 1842, abdicates in favor of his grandson, the Count of Paris, and seeks in Great Britain. Click tab above to expand President Louis Napoleon 1848 - 1852 France: Election of President Under the second republic of 1848, France for the first time chose as its head of state and chief executive a president elected by universal manhood sufferings. The First Republic of 1792 had experimented with several forms of collegial executive, and even Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul had shared power (at least in theory) with two others. But the constitutional committee of the national constituent assembly in 1848, partly out of regard for the failure of the earlier forms and partly inspired by the American example, by late May 1848 had decided in favor of a presidential executive, to be elected by the same democratic suffrage that had produced the national assembly itself. The election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as a deputy in four by- elections on June 4 raised a new issue, however; alarmed, the Executive Commission decided to arrest the pretender should he return to France from England, but the national assembly voted to admit him. Louis Napoleon, however, decided to resign his seat and bide his time. The Parisian insurrection of late June, while turning the assembly against socialist theories and radical activists, left intact the committee's commitment to political democracy. But when Louis Napoleon again won even more impressively in five by-elections on September 17, there was no new attempt to obstruct the man who was obviously already a strong candidate for the presidency itself, and he calmly took his seat. Despite a new attempt, led by the young Jules Grévy (later to be president of the Third Republic), to create not an elected president but a premier chosen by the assembly, the deputies, after a grandiloquent speech by Alphonse de Lamartine in favor of popular election, overwhelmingly rejected the Grévy amendment. The constitution adopted on November 4 therefore included the provision for a president to be elected directly by all Frenchmen 21 years of age or older, but also contained several precautions against any abuse of presidential power. The constitution prohibited a president from succeeding himself immediately after one four-year term (the provision that in 1851 would become the pretext for Louis Napoleon's coup d'état), required him to take an oath to uphold the constitution, and provided that any attempt to dissolve the legislative assembly would result in the automatic deposition of the president. The constitution also provided that should any candidate fail to win an absolute majority, the national assembly would choose the president from among the leading candidates. Louis Napoleon had few supporters in the assembly, which presumably would favor General Louis Eugêne Cavaignac, whom it had kept in power as chief executive since the June Days. The assembly decided to proceed immediately to the election of the president, on December 10 and 11. Although it was apparent that Louis Napoleon and Cavaignac were the leading candidates, there was considerable room for maneuver among the competing political forces. Most of the moderate republicans favored Cavaignac, but Lamarti ne stood also and the radicals and socialists put forward Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin and François Raspail. Proposals by some monarchists to offer the candidacies of the legitimist pretender, the Comte de Chambord, or as an Orleanist a son of Louis Philippe or Adolphe Thiers, were soon abandoned as unrealistic; but the leading organization of the combined monarchists, the R,union de la Rue de Poitiers, or the "party of order," was unable to decide between the republican Cavaignac or Louis Napoleon, both of whom members detested or distrusted. Both Cavaignac and Napoleon stood above all as men of order, but the general was inept in his appeal for conservative support, most of which in the end went to Bonaparte. The result was a massive victory for Louis Napoleon, who was elected with 5,534,520 votes, a majority of 74 percent of those cast. General Cavaignac came in a distant second, with 1,448,302 votes, or 19.5 percent. Ledru-Rollin, whom Thiers had expected to garner more than two million ballots, attracted only 371,431; Raspail received 36,964 and Lamartine, who had been the most popular member of the provisional government, now was the choice of only 17,914 voters in all of France. Louis Napoleon won in all but four departments, two in Brittany and two in the Midi, where Cavaignac was victorious. The prince also had strong support in all social classes, from the peasantry who provided most of his majority to the notables, the various levels of the bourgeoisie, and even the workers in many cities, including Paris, where he received his largest majorities in the working- class areas. The election was an overwhelming defeat for all of the republican candidates and in a sense a victory for the Napoleonic legend, incarnate in the little-known nephew of the great Emperor. Frederick de Luna Click tab above to expand Second Empire Louis Napoleon III 1852 - 1871 Louis Napoleon III (Emperor of France 1852 - 1870) 1815: Louis was born the last three sons of Louis and Hortense Bonaparte, king and queen of Holland during the regime of his uncle Napoleon I. With the final Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1815 he left France for exile. 1831: At the age 23 he became an artillery officer with the Italian patriots in their (unsuccessful) effort to establish an Italian national government. 1836: When Napoleon's only son died, this offered the ambitious Louise the opportunity to claim to represent the interest of the considerably large and influential Napoleonic faction in France. In 1836 at Strasbourg. 1840: After another attempted coup at Boulogne-sur-Mer he attempted to overthrow the government of French King Louis-Philippe but failed again and was jailed as a result of the latter and sentenced to life imprisonment in Picardie. 1846: He escaped and fled to England. The February Revolution (1848) 1848: When the February Revolution broke out he returned to Paris, where he was elected to the national assembly. He evoked the legend of Napoleon to win the popular vote as president of the Second Republic. 1850: He defeated his opponent, Gen. L. E. Cavaignac, with a large majority of the French votes. 1851: In late 1851 he conducted a parliamentary coup d'Etat which stripped the French legislature. The Establishment of the Empire (1852) 1852: Early 1852 he issued a new constitution which made him absolute ruler in France. Then in late 1852, with the army and the church in full support behind him (and his opposition nicely silenced in prison), he called for a national plebiscite in support of the end of the Republic and the creation of the Second French Empire in its place, with him as its Emperor (with a title of Louis Napoleon III). He also put down a workers' uprising with a very heavy hand, further establishing his tight grip over French national politics. The Industrial Modernization of France As ruler over the Second Empire he began to push a vision of rapid industrial and urban development in France, to make it the military equal of Britain to the West and fast-rising Prussia to the East. He pushed for the development of a national network of trains needed to unite the country commercially. He redesigned much of Paris (with a number of new boulevards, squares, parks, bridges) in an effort to make it the most attractive capital city of Europe. 1856: Seeking to reestablish French power, he led France into the Crimean War and helped negotiate the treaty at the Congress of Paris. In an effort to halt the rapid Russian expansion against the rapidly declining Turkish/Ottoman Empire (because Britain and France hat their own designs on the Turkish Empire). 1859: He sided with Sicily against Austria and was victorious at the Battle of Solferino. 1860: He aided Italy in achieving unity and annexed Savoy and Nice. He promoted liberalized policies within France, which enjoyed prosperity during much of his reign. In the 1860s he gradually introduced political liberalization. 1864-1867: He expected material rewards from his "Latin empire" by installing Maximilian as emperor of Mexico, but was disappointed. 1866: He kept France neutral in the Austro-Prussian War. 1870: In 1870 O. von Bismarck contrived to involve France in the disastrous Franco-Prussian War. After leading his troops to defeat in the Battle of Sedan, he surrendered . 1871: In the meantime back in Paris his political opponents engineered a parliamentary coup which deposed him as ruler of France. He was eventually released from Prussian captivity (1871) and made his way in exile to England. There he died two years later (1873).	eng	cc644bdb-f3f7-44a5-ade7-06fc96897359	http://www.cedricdupontantiques.com/french-rulers.php
"In so far as Luang Prabang is like any other place, it is perhaps a little like an Austrian mountain village, with palms instead of pines". Andrew Graham, Interval in IndoChina, London, 1956 [1]. Sitting atop the bank of the Mekong in Northern Laos is the peaceful, sleepy town of Luang Prabang. It truly embodies what the French term charmant. Known for its numerous wats or Buddhist temples, the town at one time in the 18th century was home to more than 65. That number has decreased over the centuries, but the town still contains over 30 wats, most of which are still in use today [2]. Luang Prabang has a long history as a town of royal significance. "Luang Prabang was established as the royal capital by Fa Ngoum, the first monarch of Lane Xang, the Land of a Million Elephants, in the 14th century. The city had already been the seat of local kingdoms for about 600 years. According to legend, the site of the town was chosen by two resident hermits." [3] View over the Mekong River from the upper cave entrance (photo Catherine Clover 2013) The town is famous for the numerous well-preserved wats and the Royal Palace, now open to visitors as the National Museum. The purpose of this article however is to provide the reader with insight into travel along the Mekong River from the picturesque town of Luang Prabang to the Pak Ou caves upriver. Of particular interest are the foreign explorers of the nineteenth and twentieth century who wrote their own description of the river and their observations on what they encountered. Although not the first European explorer to the area, Frenchman Henri Mouhot (1826-1861) provided the most famous account that inspired future Frenchmen to follow his trail along the Mekong. Mouhot perished from malaria in Luang Prabang and his tomb and monument remain in the town [4]. Most notably among the later explorers were the members and crew of the famous Mekong Exploration Commission (1866-68). The Commission's account as written and compiled by Francis Garnier (1839-1873) described in great detail what the six Frenchmen and their staff encountered on their two-year expedition. The Commanding officer was E. M. L Doudart de Lagrée. His written account of the Commission's journey and findings was destroyed by his own wish from on his deathbed. The destruction of Lagrée's personal papers is not without controversy; it would have served history well to know what his own impressions were. They would likely have been at odds with those of Garnier's. Indeed, it was Garnier who decided to burn Lagrée's writings after Lagrée's death in order to see that Lagrée's wishes were upheld when another member of the Commission, Dr. Louis Joubert, wanted to preserve them. [5] An additional asset to the surviving account and subsequent published report on the expedition are the sketches by the draughtsman assigned to the Commission, Louis Delaporte. An accomplished artist who travelled with the Commission to provide visual documentation, he would later devote himself to the archaeology and preservation of the ruins of Angkor. His sketches and engravings provide an important visual record of the ruins at Angkor, particularly in light of the damage caused by the Khmer Rouge one hundred years later. It is from both the written description in Garnier's Report of the Mekong Commission and Delaporte's sketches that we have an invaluable account of the Caves at Pak Ou in 1867. Interestingly, it was Delaporte who designed Henri Mouhot's tomb in Luang Prabang, six years after Mouhot's death. According to Garnier, the monument was to stand as a "lasting reminder, both sad and touching, to the passage of foreigners in his country:" [6] Mouhot's discovery of Angkor Wat in 1860 [7] had undoubtedly made an impression on the young Delaporte who would have certainly been honored to design the monument to the fallen Frenchman. Buddha statues in silhouette with the mouth of the Nam Ou in the distance (photo Catherine Clover 2013) It is worth noting that the Mekong River, as it flows from China through Burma and Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, is a natural wonder. Parts of it provide the setting for such serene beauty that it is hard to imagine any wars being waged along its boundaries. At least one third of it acts as an international boundary between Laos and Thailand. And yet the fate of this remarkable river that provides a livelihood for the many people who rely on its bounty is in peril with every year that passes. Like the Yangtze in China, there is a strong desire to dam the river in various places, which would effectively bring about the demise of the mighty Mekong. Along the 25-kilometer stretch of the Mekong where it leads north from Luang Prabang to the fork of the Nam Ou River, the scene is one that would make modern day travelers feel they were embarking on a personal odyssey of discovery. It remains today a most memorable experience given the sheer lack of any signs of modern civilization. There are no telephone wires, no bridges spanning the water. The only sound one hears is the soft rumble of the boat's engine as passage is made up the river. The two-hour boat ride gives one time to contemplate the utter remoteness of the region. Bumping along in the river one can only imagine what the members of the Mekong Commission would think of the relative comfort and speed afforded by a powerboat. Gathering of Buddha statues at the mouth of the lower cave – same as those seen in silhouette in a different photo (photo Catherine Clover 2013) Many riparian activities are encountered in the course of the cruise. Herds of water buffalo lazily doze in the shade along the riverbanks. Naked children chase each other, splashing and playing in the river's murky brown waters. One sees the occasional vibrant saphron and mustard robes of boy monks as they journey along the river's edge to and from villages tucked back out of view from the water. After the long journey on the water, the cliffs housing the Pak Ou caves come into view and the connection with the past comes alive. The Pak Ou Caves are set into the sheer limestone cliff at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Ou rivers. They are a pilgrimage site for Buddhists and today contain thousands of carved wooden and gilded resin Buddha statues of all shapes and sizes in two caves. The first cave, Tham Ting, is located about 60 meters [8] above the river. The Tam Theung cave is higher and as a cave is deeper, 54 meters, [9] with an ancient carved wooden frieze over the entrance. Centuries of royal patronage by the royal family in Luang Prabang played a key role in the large number of statues seen in both caves. Every year the royal family from Luang Prabang would commission artists to create statues for the caves. This tradition continued until 1975. [10] "The two sacred caves, supposedly discovered by King Setthathirat in the 16th century, are studded with thousands of wood and gold Buddha statues; some are thought to be more than 300 years old." [11] The caves had been visited for centuries when Lagrée and Garnier came upon them in 1867. That they impressed the members of the Commission can be determined from the descriptive quality of Delaporte's sketches of them. Knowing how dark the upper cave is (a torch is required to visit the inner section) gives Delaporte's detailed drawing great importance. It would not have been easy to accurately depict the contents of the dark cave, even with rudimentary lamps and torches. Back down below, from the shelter of the rocky overhang the Commission would have had a dry place to survey the two rivers and the Nam Ou valley beyond.c[12] Today the caves are in good condition thanks to a team of Laos and Australian conservationists who cleaned and catalogued the caves from 1992-1997. The Tam Ting cave is still used every April for religious purposes as a place to cleanse the household image of Lord Buddha. [13] When visiting the caves today, modern conveniences such as powerboats, manmade concrete stairways with concrete handrails and modern wooden ladders greet guests. Access to the caves can only be gained by climbing up steep steps that cling to the cliff side facing the Mekong. One can only imagine what it would have been like for members of the Commission and Lao pilgrims before such modern conveniences were available The views from both caves over the Nam Ou valley and Mekong River basin are remarkable for their stark simplicity. The sheer lack of population on the river and the quiet solitude that the sacred caves provide afford the visitor a glimpse of what nineteenth century European visitors would have encountered. Haw Kham Temple at the entrance to the royal palace in Luang Prabang (photo Catherine Clover 2013) Back in the boat on the return down the river, the trip goes much faster. The boat now moves along in stride with the current. As the sun sets over the distant hills, the real Mekong evening show begins. Whole families bathe in the river, washing and wringing out their simple clothes, while the smoke trails from the village fires in the distance give a sense of the inhabitants who make this river their home. The villager's huts are barely visible through the trees. Further down the river towards Luang Prabang the outlines of various chofas of the town's historic temples peek through the tops of the trees. We are back where we have started; the river and cave exploration is complete. Carlo Marchiori's riotous imagination brings us back to 18th century Venice when everything was in excess, full of Baroque opulence. Born in Rossano near Venice in 1937and trained in Padua and Venice, Marchiori has been long recognized internationally for his murals and paintings, among other works. He was nominated for an Academy Award for an animated short film while working in Canada for CBC television in 1967; he has also worked as an illustrator for the National Film Board of Canada. The richness of painted textiles, minute architectural details and the fullness of the arts are a feast for the eyes in his murals and in everything he creates. He lavishly entangles Roman architecture and Pompeian vestiges in his media. His use of shells, like in Roman fountains from Tivoli and Herculaneum or reminders from Renaissance and Baroque fountains – think Bernini or the Trevi Fountain – is unsurpassed in contemporary art. His playful use of light and shadow is often chiaroscuro and his color palette stirs in one's soul echoes of Etruscan tomb paintings; his vegetal decorations, fruits and tendrils denote the presence of Bacchus. In short, he presents the full history of Italian decoration form the Etruscans onward in every one of his masterpieces, but always with humor and drollery. That Marchiori is a genius is everywhere obvious. Opera set designers and Hollywood movie set designers lick their lips in hope of more regularly exploiting his immense artistic gifts. As an interior designer, I wish I could sit at his feet or work alongside him in his studio, as I would learn more in a few weeks than in a lifetime or in art and design school. When I lived in London and went looking for antiques, these sort of objets d'art would have cost a fortune; while the pieces in London were generally Neoclassical in date, Carlo Marchiori has captured the essences of many antique styles in his unique work. Yet he does not take himself too seriously – whimsy fills nearly every aspect of his art. In Napa Valley, where he has lived for decades, his artistic and disegno output has turned many rustic estates into grand Continental villas. He has decorated whole suites in Rococo pastels of Arcadian bucolic scenes and even painted elevators and the walls of sweeping staircases from Oakville to St. Helena and Calistoga, from the Silverado Trail to Spring Mountain, as well as painting a mural for Mondavi Winery. One often feels like walking into the famous 1963 movie set of Lampedusa's The Leopard posthumous noveltransplanted thousands of miles away, with ornate touches of stylistic reference to bygone splendors, even if not in the same materials. Where the European originals that continue to inspire Marchiori would use ormolu, bronze and marble, Marchiori masterfully integrates illusionary gilding, bronze patina paint and stucco or faux marbre in concrete to imitate these esteemed predecessors. Marchiori has also built and decorated his own period villa in Calistoga, appropriately named Villa Ca'Toga, as a Venetian reference. His sharp eyes and wit have assimilated so many styles over millennia it is difficult to point out known inspirations, but his villa and historical imagination seem to make allusions to Andrea Palladio (1508-80) as well as to the famous Villa Palagonia of Bagheria built in 1715-49 by architects Tommaso Napoli and Agatino Daidone for the Prince of Palagonia, Francesco Ferdinando II Gravina, a villa known for its amusing grotesques and often styled Villa dei Mostri ("Villa of Monsters"). Visits to his villa and shop (Ca'Toga Gallery or Galleria dell'Arte Ca'Toga) in Calistoga are highly recommended to better understand his imagination, but it could be on one's wallet because it is impossible to walk away without investing in some piece, as I did last summer when I bought with my husband the large (19 inch) maiolica plate –one of the images in this article – in blue and white regaling us with its iconic winged lion of Venice and St. Mark. The ceiling in his shop, on Cedar Street just off Highway 29, is painted as an astronomical cosmography, a stunning array of colored animated zodiacal and other constellations, Milky Way and starbursts on blue, much like Andreas Cellarius' Harmonia Macrocosmographia of 1660, yet without anything at all slavish since Marchiori's own designs for myths and astronomical history are brilliant on their own, lively and full of movement across the dark blue night sky ceiling. Equally amazing are his interpretations of Classical and Neoclassical furniture, imbibing the Raphaelesque touches of frescoed Vatican loggias in Rome and the Robert Adam feel of Kenwood House above Hampstead Heath in London. One Pompeian red cupboard cabinet framed in black, has satyrs and Pan figures playing the autos double flute, dancing maenads and trompe-l'oeil Classical female figures on pedestals interspersed with theatrical masks, dolphins and gold foliage (as seen in the lead image for this article). It is perfectly attuned to the Villa Boscotrecase style of Campania. His extravagant landscapes with giant porcini mushrooms also remind one of Roman wall paintings, especially the Lastrygonians in Homeric lore but in this case also evoking Tiepolo's fulsome Venetian clouds in his skies; his use of relief recalls the stucco friezes of the Nymphaeum of the Villa Giulia in Rome. Another chest of drawers is a mock-up Venetian palazzo along the Rialto – looking much like a painting by Pietro Longhi – with one lower drawer being a loggia below the piano nobile upper drawer, a loggia where one expects to see a peruque-wearing masked Casanova strolling while waiting for his lover secreted behind a shutter. While some might quibble these conflations don't work together, in Marchiori's use of historic idiom, it all makes sense, unlike other artists in Las Vegas where the broad range of architectural and artistic quotations are dumbed down – not so with his genius, where every detail is not only important but also exact in replicating something historically recalled with finesse. Some of his other mural commissions include in the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. His mural prices now easily ask and obtain hundreds of dollars per square foot. His ceramic series are also entertaining, somewhat akin to medieval manuscript grotesques and bas-en-page follies. Pulcinello and Arlequino from the Commedia dell'Arte are among his favorite stock characters. In fact, Pulcinello in all his rendered aspects may reflect something of the alter ego entertainer in Marchiori himself, cast larger than life but always with a twinkle in his eye. Visiting his Villa Ca'Toga – on the five acre empty plot he purchased and began building in 1987 – will be an enchanting experience. For anyone unable to journey to the top of Napa Valley, just across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County is Emporio Pasticceria Rulli, a signature café, enoteca/wine bar and pasticceria where Marchiori has painted on one wall a lavish pastel mural of a pastry gondola filled with eight pastry chefs and a pastry maiden in white toques all looking like Pulcinello, sailing from Venice perhaps to the Land of Cockaigne and it may be Marchiori himself asleep in the stern of the gondola. As an incredible illusionist and prolific artist, Carlo Marchiori reminds one of the films of Terry Gilliam (whose work he admires): cinematically brilliant, full of surprise, intensely colored, ample in spoof and lampoon, respected with a cult following; yet in contrast, Marchiori's business is profitable from the outset. Since his work in any medium is not cheap to obtain, it always conveys that priceless aura of good taste because it registers and affirms the decorations that made history, like Diderot's and D'Alembert's Encyclopédie, the illustrated Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers of the Enlightenment, although in Marchiori's case an Italian version thereof. Perhaps Marchiori even prefers the Neoclassical epoch to the 21st century but anyone who takes the time to look carefully at his work will be astonished at his genius. He is the absolute master of theatrical trompe-l'oeil for our epoch and will be long acclaimed for his visual gifts that happen so rarely in any one generation. Chocolate is perhaps one of the most intriguing foods in history, prized for thousands of years and now a global passion. Possibly originating in the understory Amazon rain forest, the small tree sought out by monkeys and other animals has produced a substance that has become a staple of civilization worldwide. Ethnobotanists since Linnaeus – obviously an enthusiast – identify this plant as Theobroma cacao, "food of the gods" and the product is otherwise known as chocolate; even this word causes a psychological craving among chocoholics much as cacao has for at least 4,000 years. Although the prior Maya language group called this substance ka'kau', our word chocolate appears from a derivative word xocolatl (chocolatl, some say cacahuatl) in the Aztec Nahuatl language via Spanish, although some strongly debate this etymology, suggesting instead an etymology involving Yucatec Maya chokol "hot" and atl "water", among several other possibilities. [1] If indigenous peoples of South America followed smaller primate behavior, the seed pods of cacao – ranging from about 6 to 12 inches in length – were most likely first utilized for the pulp around the seeds and a fermented beverage likely preceded the use of the bitter cacao seed when the plant was initially domesticated below the equator. Some argue that there are two very distinct species of cacao independently evolving – one from South America with a smooth pod and one from Central America with a ribbed pod – and that the Central American cacao is not derived from the Amazon one, but the evidence is still debated. [2] Unusual in that it flowers directly from the trunk and primary branches, a botanical process known as cauliflory, and pollinated by tiny midge flies, the small cacao tree produces pods containing both a mucilaginous pulp – seen as highly delicious by monkeys, rats, bats and squirrels [3] - with the hard bitter seeds (30-50 seeds on average per pod in cultivated cacao, less on wild trees) that are the source for chocolate, although they are generally not desirable to the animals gnawing through the pods. Because the pods do not easily drop on their own, cacao was originally dependent on these animals to distribute the seeds and widen its earliest habitats, [4] gradually spread by humans from the Amazon of Peru and Brazil to Columbia northward to Central America as domestication widened. Evidence for cacao use by Mesoamerican peoples suggest it was first popularized about 1900 BCE along the Pacific coast of Chiapas by the pre-Olmec Mokaya culture – seen at the site of Poso de la Amada and scientifically verified by mass spectrometry [5] – and subsequently in the Olmec culture about 1750 BCE along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, although these appear to be initially fermented beverages rather than chocolate as we know it. As early as 1100 BCE in the late Ocotillo phase of the Early Formative period, the Ulúa valley in Northern Honduras provides scientific proof of the cacao beverage. One site in particular, Puerto Escondido, shows ample chocolate fermented beverage use based on chemical residue from inside ceramic vessels and confirmed throughout the Middle Formative period (mid first millennium BCE) by analytical methods including gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.[6] Because of its tropical jungle origin, Olmec use of cacao is strongly suggested as an "essential element in the Olmec diet". [7] How important cacao was and how it became integrated into Mesoamerican social ritual is demonstrated by several lines of evidence, including archaeological artifacts in the form of ceramic illustration. Chocolate was connected to both marriage celebration and funerary rites and was seen as a vital component of civil functions, especially among elite members of society. After the Olmec, Teotihuacan developed the long distance cacao trade, mostly derived from moist tropical jungle regions like Veracruz, Tabasco and Pacific Coast Guatemala.[8] Ka'kao' Maya Glyph (Image in Public domain) Although some yet undeciphered literary accounts remain highly debated, Maya culture following in the Classic Period (200-900 CE) apparently had a Cacao god or goddess, Ek Chuah, who had an April festival. According to some Maya myths, Plumed Serpent – Cucumatz in the Quiché (Ki'che') Popol Vuh, often identified with Kukulkan of the Yucatec Maya – gave cacao from a mountain (sometimes called "bitter water place" a name possibly referencing cacao) after the creation of humans from maize and water. The first Hunahpu' (the mythical "Blowgunner"), father of the Heavenly Twins, is also associated with this divine gifting event. Maya archaeology has been more successful. The site of Rio Azul ca. 460 CE has produced several evidences for cacao ranging from ceramic residue analyses, finding theobromine traces inside vessels, [9] to external painting on vessels that show seated Maya lords with heated chocolate as a liquid. Cacao beans have also been found at the Peten Maya site Uaxactún (floruit 500-900 CE). Topping the brew, a thick head of chocolate foam (whipped) was particularly valuable to Maya consumers. Chocolate was perceived as having medicinal value to ancient Mesoamerica, either by itself or as a carrier for other therapeutic substances. It is well-known that chocolate was often thought to be an "aphrodisiac", an enabler of sexual power by the Aztecs – a contemporary belief recorded by Spanish ethnographer Bernal Diaz del Castillo – possibly because it contains significant amounts of phenylethylamine, a chemical associated with attraction, as well as theobromine.[10] Bernal Diaz noted about the food presented to Moctezuma, the Aztec ruler (huytlatoani or "Great Speaker"): "But from time to time, a liquor prepared from cocoa, and of a stimulative quality, as we were told, was presented to him in golden cups…I observed a number of jars, above 50, brought in, filled with foaming chocolate, of which he took some which the women presented to him." [11] Apparently Moctezuma served 2,000 jugs of frothed cacao at feasts and consumed cacao before visiting his harem. [12] Chocolate was so valuable from cacao as a "cash crop"[13] in Mesoamerican cultural history that it often served as a form of currency – the Codex Mendoza indicates that cacao was the primary tribute paid by some jungle regions of the Aztec Empire.[14] During the height of Aztec empire in the 15th century, annual tribute from the cacao groves of almost 800,000 cacao beans (a xiquipl load was 8,000 beans, and nearly 1000 xiquipl were delivered) to great markets like Tlatelolco (described by Bernal Diaz) at Tenochtitlan and other major cities by long distance merchants called pochteca who were most often appointed and regulated by the Aztec nobility and ruler [15], although this quantity may not be an annually representative volume. At times around 90 high quality cacao beans could be exchanged to purchase a new cotton mantle for Aztecs. Weighing the old indigenous myths against modern clinical science, somewhat in keeping with ancient myths of its valued potency, theobromine (the cacao alkaloid C7H8N4O2) has several tested physiological effects, not the least of which are vasodilator (blood vessel widener), myocardial heart stimulant – but reducing blood pressure – and as a diuretic aiding urination, as well as a treatment for asthma and coughing and arteriosclerosis, with some debated suggestions of treating degenerative angina or even anticarcinogenic therapies. [16] That theobromine can be seen as addictive and lead to sleeplessness is also often accepted in medical literature, although the amounts causing these effects differ depending on body mass. If even a few of these possible positive effects are true, it is no wonder that cacao has such a global legacy beyond Mesoamerica. Dark chocolate (Photo P. Hunt, 2013) An anecdote about Christopher Columbus is apropos: in 1502, a captured canoe at Guanaja off Honduras yielded a quantity of mysterious "dried almonds" that when spilled in the boat bottom, the native Americans dived for like precious gold, "they scrambled for them as though they were eyes that had fallen out of their heads." [17] Although he did not know it, the mystified Columbus had encountered cacao, the "food of the gods". [3] Dennis Tedlock, tr. Popul Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985, 129, mentions cacao as one of the foods of the rat in Xibalba, the Underworld. He also mentions cacao seeds as a widely used New World plant and pataxte, a lesser variety of Theobroma, 354 [4] Allen M. Young. The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao. University Press of Florida, 2007 rev. ed, xi. [16] Caleb J. Kelly. "Effects of theobromine should be considered in future studies. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 82.2 (2005) 486-8. [17] M. Rosenblum. Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light. New York: North Point Press / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005, 3. * * * * * * * * * * The author (also a Research Associate in Archeothnobotany at the Institute for EthnoMedicine) notes that a quantity of dark chocolate was consumed to better enable the research and writing of this article. "…44 km (25 miles) southeast of Urfa what you first experience is the scorching wind. Afterward, the Bedouin melancholy hovers around you. Dust and fog mix. The sun shines, illuminating your soul. Young girls and boys smilingly welcome you on the way. History cannot be read here. It must be seen. If you look around, all you see is debris. A seal has been stamped on the past of all of this debris. Traditional Harran houses catch your eyes. You wonder, "What is the history of Harran?" You open the Torah, and see that Harran was mentioned as the city of Abraham. If you delve into ancient times, you will come across the great temple of the Moon God, Sin. If you ask the ancient merchants about Harran, they will tell you that Harran is the trading center of the world. You will encounter Islamic footprints. With every step you take, a seal of every country appears. The blood shed from swords starts speaking… Thousands dead…you are walking in a land that was once a Seljuk state, an Ottoman city…" [1] In the southeast of Turkey, next to the city of Urfa (once called Edessa), lies the city of Harran. Beginning about 2000 BCE, Harran's name was mentioned in a variety of historical accounts as one of the most prominent cities of Northern Mesopotamia. However, very scarce information regarding the earliest period of its history has survived. A number of excavations have revealed Early Bronze Age materials that support the existence of Harran during this period. The name of Harran first begins to be mentioned in the Mari archives. [2] Reports in the royal letters from the city of Mari on the middle Euphrates indicate that the area around the Balikh river was occupied in the 19th century BCE by semi-nomadic tribes, who were especially active in the region near Harran. [3] According to the letter correspondence between the Assyrian King Shamsi-Adad I (1812-1797 BCE) and his son Ishme-Adad, Harran was once a vassal kingdom of Assyria. [4] Old Harran arches (Photo Aigerim Korzhumbayeva, 2011) The name of Harran has drawn immense attention and has raised debates regarding its origin among historians. Some claim that the name "Harran" is as old as its history. In Greek accounts, Harran is known as Karra, Kharran, Karais, whereas in Roman Latin accounts, Harran is mentioned as Carrhae, the infamous 53 BCE battle site where the Parthians crushingly defeated the Romans under the impetuous Crassus. This stinging defeat was accompanied by the loss of legionary standards later returned in a peace (Pax Romana) negotiated by Augustus and commemorated on the breastplate of the famous Porta Prima Augustus sculpture, also a reminder of neutralizing Antony's losses to the Parthians in 40 BCE. In the Torah, the name is mentioned as Haran, a city inhabited by Prophet Abraham. It is also believed that different patriarchs such as Abraham and Jacob traveled to and lived awhile in Harran (or Haran) according to various early biblical accounts including Gen.11:31-2 and Gen. 29-31. In the Assyrian tablets, Harran is mentioned as I-na-ha-ra-an, meaning "a path, road, or travel". [5] This meaning is likely due to the importance of Harran's geographical location, which was once the knowledge and trading center that connected important routes. Harran was located at the intersection of the Silk Road, Iraq, Syria, and Inner Anatolia, especially important as a connection between the Euphrates River and the Levant because this vital route avoided the Nefud Desert and the great Hauran basalt wastes to the west. Some believe that Harran's name comes from a cognate Arabic word harr, which means "hot". According to the twelfth-century traveler Ibn Jubayr: "Stripped from the grassy lands and shades, it seems like Harran's name comes from its own climate. Every part of it is boiling hot. You can neither find shade, nor breathe normally." [6] Throughout its history, Harran has been the home of the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Persians, the Alexandrian Empire, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks, Ayyubids, and many other dynasties and empires. Toward the end of the Umayyad Dynasty, Harran served as the capital city of the Islamic Empire. Once, Harran was known as a religious center, a commercial and agricultural city, and it was famous for its cotton, honey, sweets, and measuring tools. [7] In the period between 718-913, Harran went through its golden era as a cultural and knowledge center. Renowned Islamic scholars such as Thabit Ibn Qurra (826 – 901), Al-Battani (858-929) and Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328) came from Harran. After the Abbasid rule, Harran started losing its power and reputation. In 1098 the Crusades set their expeditions in Harran, and as a result Harran lost more of its power. [8] Salahaddin Al-Ayyubi (1138-1193), commonly known as Saladin, arrived in Harran to bring back its power. Saladin is a prominent figure in Muslim culture, whose noble character won him Richard the Lion's respect. Hospitals, bazaars, madrasahs (schools), and bathhouses were built during Saladin's rule. After alternating periods of power and weakness, Harran got a final fateful blow in 1260 when Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded the city. Mongol troops destroyed the city, including famous sites such as the Grand Mosque and the city gates. Shocked residents of Harran fled to nearby cities such as Mardin, as well as present-day Syrian cities such as Aleppo and Damascus. After Mongol invasion, once a commercial, agricultural, and knowledge center, Harran transformed into a mere village with a small population. In 1517 when Harran became part of the Ottoman Empire, its population consisted of no more than 250 residents.[9] Harran never again regained its power and has remained as a small Turkish province. Harran's kumbet house cluster (Photo Aigerim Korzhumbayeva, 2011) I happened to travel to southeastern Turkey, to the cities of Harran, Gazıantep, and Urfa in March 2011. While studying at Oxford University (UK) as part of an overseas program, I met an amazing Turkish family who invited me for a spontaneous trip to explore ancient sites in Turkey. While exploring Harran's historical sites little did I imagine that a long time ago Harran had been a prominent city. Today, Harran's landscape is not reflective of its magnificent past that once reigned in the city, prior to the Mongol invasion. It is beyond imagination to visualize Harran's golden era in the presence of a contradictory bleak landscape. Nevertheless, what makes Harran so special are the remaining structures of a past grand city. From a distance, what first draws your attention is a 131-foot minaret and the remains of the Grand Mosque (Ulu Cami) walls, suggesting to passers-by that it was once a grandiose structure. According to Ibn Jubayr, the Grand Mosque remained from the Roman period as a temple for worship. According to Ibn Shaddad, the Sabians, a mysterious group residing in the Harran region, used this structure as the great temple of the Moon God, Sin. After an Arab invasion in 639, Iyaz bin Ganm turned this temple into a mosque, and gave permission to the Sabians to build their temple in a different location. [10] Another important site that still exists in Harran is the Inner Fortress. With dimensions of 426 x 295 feet and a height of about 100 feet, it is believed that the Inner Fortress was composed of as many as 150 rooms.[11] Its overall structure is rectangular-shaped and polygonal towers rise from its corners. The architecture of the Inner Fortress is stunning; its beauty is complemented by the view from the entrance doors up to the azure sky and cotton-shaped clouds, and down to the unique, traditional Harran houses. Harran's beehive-shaped mud brick houses are called kümbet. According to archaeological findings, the custom of building such houses dates back to thousands of years in Northern Mesopotamia. Today there are around 960 kümbets in Harran. Bet is an ancient Semitic word for "house". Every kümbet has an open hole on top of the roof for the purpose of day lighting. This open hole serves the dual purpose of a chimney. The conical shape and clay material have excellent thermodynamic and air circulation properties. Kümbets are perfect for Harran's climate: they are cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It is said that when kept in kümbets, hens hatch more eggs, domestic animals like horses become tamer, and onions sprout faster. [12] The Ministry of Culture bought and restored 4 kümbets, which now collectively function as a museum. This museum displays traditional costumes, jewelry, and other artifacts specific to the region. Apart from its ancient sites, the Harran region has been famous for its hospitable culture and traditions. Here is a bit of Ibn Jubayr's description: "Harran is full of kind and softhearted people, who love foreign travelers, and who defend and help the poor. Here the homeless do not feel the urge to beg – they get their food and other provisions from Harran's citizens. Harran's citizens are recognized as the most generous population … " [13] My personal experience with the people of Harran and its surrounding areas totally aligns with Ibn Jubayr's description. Harran and its nearby regions remain in my memory as the most hospitable places that I have visited, not only throughout my trip, but also throughout my life. Here is one of my encounters that showed uncommon hospitality of common Turkish people in the Harran region: while we were resting somewhere in Harran, a woman clad in a Bedouin dress with a purple headscarf (exclusive to Urfa-Harran region) came up to us to offer sweets. After a short conversation with us, this woman invited us over to her house. Her spur-of-the-moment invitation struck me and reminded me of the long-gone good days, when a stranger would invite another stranger, without any speculation and table preparation. We gladly agreed to go to her village named Akçakale, which was about a half hour drive from where we met her. Upon arrival at her house, her young daughter and son welcomed us. I could see that her children were surprised to see tourists, but they were not surprised to receive random guests – it was probably a norm in their family culture. The woman invited her neighbor friend, another female with a purple headscarf, and her young daughter to welcome us. Together the two families prepared a delicious lunch for us, including a popular Turkish appetizer and a specialty of southeastern Turkey, çiğ köfte, translated as "raw meatball". Lore has it that çiğ köfte was invented near Harran, in the city of Urfa, at the time of the Prophet Abraham. Prophet Abraham destroyed the idols worshipped by the King Nimrud and his nation, and instead invited them to worship God. Enraged King Nimrud decided to punish Prophet Abraham by burning him alive. For the execution purpose, all firewood in the Urfa region was collected, and as a result, no firewood remained for people to cook. Çiğ köfte was a creative invention of one woman, who, trying to feed her family, mixed raw meat with bulgur and spices and crushed the mixture with tools made of stone. Today despite the ubiquity of stoves, the tradition of making çiğ köfte has remained and has become an inseparable part of Turkish cuisine. There we sat on the floor around a long tablecloth and cherished the delicious çiğ köfte and a friendly conversation. We spent a wonderful day at the family's village, which turned out to be the border city between Turkey and Syria. I found it exhilarating to be standing on the roof of their house and viewing two different flags behind the border fences, each representing its country, but only within a stone's throw away from each other. People in this village carried patterns of two cultures, Turkish and Arab, and one of the most evident indicators to this fact was that they spoke Turkish and Arabic equally well. At that time I had been learning Arabic for two years, and I wished I were equally fluent in Turkish and Arabic, just as the people living in the Akçakale village. However, what I wished more was that I was as hospitable as them, and I wondered whether it was possible to acquire similar hospitality traits carried through their culture. The uncommon hospitality of common Turkish people from the Harran region, engraved in my memory a paradigm of what true hospitality should be like. New Harran village with kumbet clusters and other houses (Photo Aigerim Korzhumbayeva, 2011) After nine centuries of Ibn Jubayr's quotes on Harran's weather, and maybe even since Harran's established existence, to date, Harran's weather has remained boiling hot. The tan that lingered on my face for quite a long time as a result of my visit to Harran would have testified to this truth. Ibn Jubayr's remark on the hospitality of the Harran region still holds true as well. Now that my tan from Harran is gone, one gift still remains with me. It is the Turkish hospitality, which transcended from mere "warm" hospitality to extraordinary "boiling hot". John W. Waterhouse, "A Mother Bringing Her Sick Child to the Temple of Asklepios", 1877 (Image in public domain) By Laura Rehwalt – How old is the idea of psychiatry and how long has psychotherapy been practiced? Most likely the Greeks and Romans had an inkling, even if these two words are fairly modern. And given that Plato and Galen had a few things to say as well, it should not surprise us that doctors have known for thousands of years that mind and body are connected. "Soul Healing"for the Ancient Greeks – practicing psychotherapy or psychiatry – was not only relevant but also studied in seminal ways by the medical profession, just as it continues to be studied today. We may often refer to anything related to the study of the mind as modern psychology, but the ancient Greeks and Romans saw psychology, medicine and philosophy in a more integrated way since the idea of mens sana in corpore sano or "healthy mind in a healthy body" as a latin paraphrase of the ca 600 BCE Greek sage Thales. Body and mind together was an important principle linking both parts of our human experience, the internal and the external. Perhaps one place to look for this soul healing would be in the Asklepeian tradition where healing sanctuaries not only addressed the body but the soul, especially at Epidauros where patients laid down in a special room and slept and afterward related their dreams to the doctors-cum-priests. [1] Some forms of mental health therapy and psychological diagnoses can be traced back to antiquity. The Greeks and Romans were among the first to recognize mental illness as a medical condition that also influenced physical health. At times, of course, they may also have had some bizarre ways of treating certain conditions. For example, many believed that hysteria (from hyster or "womb" in Greek) was a condition for which only women were treated, or that depression could be treated by bathing – although this may not be so strange – or that psychosis was treatable by "blood letting" of n excess of black bile ( hence melancholia). However, at the same time, many ancient cultures had a sensible realization that positive words and hope had value in healing the soul – even the biblical Proverbs 17:22 said, "A merry heart does good like medicine, but a crushed spirit dries the bones" or Proverbs 15:1 "A soft answer turns away wrath but a grievous answer stirs up anger." On the other hand, where superstition and ignorance prevailed, proper medical treatment was limited by false diagnosis and false or even harmful practices. But the Ancient Greeks partly led the way in scientific study of psychology and understanding of some psychosomatic conditions like depression or loss of desire. In fact, Aristotle can be given credit for formulating the foundations of psychology. Because Greek philosophers studied how human personality and character were expressed as either part of rational, deductive processes or as impaired irrational processes, it should not be surprising that Aristotle mixed psychology with a philosophy of the mind and thus his empirical approach was a forerunner of modern psychological approach. Asklepios and his daughter Hygieia, from Therme Greece, late 5th c. BCE, Istanbul Archaeology Museum (Image in public domain) In early anticipation of Freud, one of the most interesting critical approaches and therapies the ancient Greeks used to understand individual human anxiety was dream interpretation. The Greek thinker Artemidorus (2nd c. CE) wrote Oneirocritica, the first Greek book of dream interpretation after he traveled and collected people's recollection of dreams and whether what could be called their outcomes matched their dreams by some form of logic. He divided dreams into at least two basic types: "Some dreams, moreover, are theorematic (direct), while others are allegorical (figurative). Theorematic dreams are those which correspond exactly to their own dream-vision. For example, a man who was at sea dreamt that he suffered shipwreck, and it actually came true in the way that it had been presented in sleep. For when sleep left him, the ship sank and was lost, and the man, along with a few others, narrowly escaped drowning…Allegorical dreams, on the other hand, are those which signify one thing by means of another; that is, through them, the soul is conveying something obscurely by physical means." [2] Henry Fuseli, "The Night Mare", 1781 (Image in pubic domain) Artemidorus also tried to understand both the personal immediate circumstances and overall context of the dreamer as a holistic approach, believing that the least possible item could greatly influence the dream and how to understand its meaning. This anticipates modern diagnosis as well and is also part of the scientific method of isolating variables in an experiment. "It is profitable – indeed, not only profitable but necessary – for the dreamer as well as the person who is interpreting that the dream interpreter know the dreamer's identity, occupation, birth, financial status, state of health, and age. Also, the nature of the dream itself must be examined accurately, for…the outcome is altered by the least addition or omission, so that if anyone fails to abide by this, he must blame himself rather than us if he goes wrong." [3] While Artemidorus on occasion might have been able to work out some causal relationships in direct or theorematic dreams, he could not really provide a key to interpret figurative dreams. We now know it is so complicated that it still remains elusive two millennia later, but we can laud the logical approach Artemidorus was attempting. He was seminal in believing that every dream is unique to the dreamer and that waking life influenced dream life. He also tried to verify at least 95 dream outcomes he wrote about in order to be as scientific as possible, which make him appear very modern in his "systematic" outlook. [4] Although other civilizations contributed to the forefront of the development of psychology, much of their contributions were lost through the lack of written transmission. Plato, Aristotle's teacher, developed insights into the human mind. He developed the Theory of Forms in which it was stated that the psyche defined the mind and the soul. With the Theory of Forms, Plato then developed a framework of human behavior as he attempted to learn and study how humans reason and how impulses are developed. Is this a Greek expression of emotional and physical distress from wine or ecstasy? Greek Symposium, early 5th c. BCE (Image in public domain) Plato's Republic Book 4 theorized what Plato developed as three interconnected parts of the Tripartite soul (psyche). First, logistikon was the intellect or part of the mind as the seat of reasoning and logic. Second, epithumetikon was the appetitive part of the soul focusing on base desires. Third, thumoiedes was the emotional part of the soul or mind that dictated feelings. The thumoiedes also invoked and enforced logistikon to govern desires and appetites of the epithumetikon, in some function possibly parallel to what some have later called will. According to Plato, the healthy mind maintained a balance between the three parts. For example, for Plato the appetitive part of the soul seeking base desires for food and drink should nonetheless be governed by the other two parts, intellect or logistikon and emotions or thumoiedes. [5] Even today we identify that organ of the chest – which we now know is tied to our immune system – where the Greeks thought emotions were felt, still named the thymus in a sense after Plato. Comparatively, Plato's theory anticipates the model of Whole Health that is currently used by many therapists. The basis is similar to Plato's logic in that the whole person must be treated; treating one symptom will not alone cure the individual's mental malaise. To paraphrase Plato elsewhere, his Phaedrus suggests our soul is like a chariot "driven" by two horses, the horse of passion and the horse of reason; the horse of passion is needed to move us toward our desires but the horse of reason examines and qualifies those desires, honing desire by a sense of what is right.[6] Plato, Classical bust (Image in public domain) Plato's focus on examining human behavior to gauge what internally "drives" it also parallels Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), currently used as one goal-oriented treatment model in mental health aimed at changing how thought impacts behavior in dysfunctional emotions and maladaptive behaviors such as anxiety or mood disorder, among others. Only one working example is that CBT has even been strongly connected to healing eating disorders and is a forerunner in treating anorexia and bulimia, in a sense parallel to Plato's theory of exercising self-control through internal change. [7] Greek doctors were trying to find treatment and solutions to medical issues just as researchers do today. But because our understanding of chemistry and brain physiology is much more advanced and detailed, mental health as a holistic approach was significantly different than it is today. Although not limited to psychological matters, even our word for "therapy" derives from the Greek word therapeia, which eventually came to mean in ancient Greece "a medical or surgical treatment or cure". [8] Galen (ca. 129-210 CE) was another Greek doctor, in fact, the imperial physician to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius, Commodus and Septimius Severus. Among over 600 medical treatises, Galen wrote much on psychological maladies (along with dream diagnosis) and also thought of himself as a philosopher – he wrote "the best physician is also a philosopher" – because of his experience as one who dealt with mental as well as physical malady, strongly believing in some psychosomatic connections from empirical experience. He once described a stressed-out patient who tossed all night, dreaming and worrying whether Atlas the Titan could hold up the sky (and the world in it) if this Titan got sick. Galen called this a case of dysthymia – a severe case of depression as a dysfunctional expression of maladjusted desire and will – and he believed that mental and emotional stress could cause physical sickness, especially as he followed Plato in his own "anatomy of the soul". [9] Although the external template of life may appear different than in antiquity, the basic body and psychology of human beings has not changed. Until recent history, people traveled by slower and more sedate modes. Communication was either by word of mouth or completed in the transmission of paper or scrolls when dissemination of information was controlled by limitations not encountered today. Our modern world may not really be any "busier" or more filled with activity, nor is the actual physical metabolism of life necessarily accelerated – after all a day is still only 24 hours long – but there is a glut of information with a faster rate of transmission of information that has increased exponentially. By gaining so much technology, we may have lost something in human transmission in that we may not take the same time to carefully read or study what our ancestors did only a few generations past because of the sheer volume of material now available. Perhaps it could be stated that the template of our world, of life, has changed. It is likely, however, that people and the individual human psyche have not necessarily changed. Galen the Physician, reconstructed from a sculpture (Image in pubic domain) Family trauma for weeks during severe illnesses cause intense grief and emotional stress. But in Ancient Greece, we can assume that individuals and families probably experienced similar emotions during a life crisis. Even our modern medical knowledge cannot simply alleviate fear or grief. Stress in today's world may not be exactly ignited by the same causes, but nonetheless, the physical process that the body goes through in a stress event is and was the same. The adrenal gland kicks in, cortisol is released and we go into a "fight or flight" mode. In antiquity the stress reaction may have had different causations but individuals experienced stress and their bodies went through the same physiological response to the stress. Wars and battles were fought differently, but the process of how individuals responded to the stress was almost certainly the same as it is today, even if our physical stresses themselves have changed: we may not face a lion or dire wolf but our physiochemical and emotional response to an immediate threat or danger involves the same chemical triggers and other physiological change like endorphin neurotransmitters. So are we that different from the Greeks millennia past? Again, the template of how the world looked in that era compared to today's world in terms of social and political structure, language, modes of communication and other external stimuli may have been considerably different, but human beings respond internally in much the same ways. However our perceptions differ, the material body and the emotional and cognitive person (much of what Greeks called the psyche) have many of the same tensions as today. We are most likely not very different in the realm of mental health realities of what we experience relative to our ancestors. Even if they did not necessarily combine the two words as we have from their language, the Greeks had both the word for the "soul", psyche, and a word for "healer", iatros; with ancient practitioners like Artemidorus, Galen and Asklepian doctors engaging in some forms of "soul healing" we could recognize today. Notes: [1] For the bridging between ancient and modern also see C. A. Meier. Healing Dream and Ritual: Ancient Incubation and Modern Psychotherapy. Daimon Verlag, Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 2012 ed. (a different Northwestern University Press earlier edition in 1967); for one of the most representative or comprehensive studies that range on Asklepian topics, see Louise Cilliers' editorship of Asklepios: Studies on Ancient Medicine, Acta Classica Supplementum 2, 2008, Bloemfontein, Classical Association of South Africa. Francesco Petrarch's (1304-74) father Ser Petracco – reputed to have known Dante – commissioned a copy of Virgil's poetry (Publius Vergilius Maro) when the poet was young and this work formed a singular part of Petrarch's peerless library. [1] This manuscript was so special to him that he had his visiting Sienese painter friend Simone Martini (1284-1344) paint the frontispiece with various scenes around 1336, while both lived in Avignon. [2] In friendship Petrarch also references Simone Martini in his Sonnet 77. This most famous painting, Petrarch's Virgil frontispiece, includes the imagined figure of Virgil himself writing: alma poetas, one of Petrarch's dear poets in Petrarch's two couplets. The connected vignettes below the figure of laurel-wreathed Virgil in Martini's frontispiece are mostly from the Georgics, including a shepherd shearing his sheep at lower right, likely alluding to Georgics 3.287-310 ff & 384-91. But it would not have been lost on the literary Petrarch how Virgil opens this passage: "But meanwhile time is flying, flying beyond recall…enough this for the herds; there remains the second part of my task, to tend the fleecy flocks…Here is toil, hence hope for fame…and well I know how hard it is to win with words a triumph herein, and thus to crown with glory a lowly theme." That this bucolic task was connected to time and the passing seasons and to Virgil's task of writing comes through loud and clear. That this image is on the frontispiece must have been important to Petrarch whose literary aspirations were also tied to his perceptions and love of Virgil. Perhaps more important for this article, at the bottom left of this frontispiece is a winter scene of a rustic peasant pruning the grapevines. The bottom Latin couplet mentions, among other themes like the shepherd (in pastoribus), the fascinating phrase, archanes maronis, "secrets of Maro" that Petrarch felt privileged to understand. Virgil's lyricism on viticulture mentions (Georgics 2.333-4) the hardiness of the young vine: the "vine tendril does not fear the south wind's rising or showers launched from the skies by the blustering north wind." The poet also encourages good seasonal timing in Georgics 2.404-7 & ff: "Already whenever the vineyard has shed her autumn foliage, and the north wind has shaken their glory from the trunks, the keen farmer extends his care to the coming year and pursues the vine he had left, lopping it with Saturn's crooked knife and pruning it into shape."[3] Virgil's Latin curvo saturni for Saturn's knife is telling in that modern viticulture around the world still often uses a similar curved knife or billhook – like the sickle used by Saturn to castrate his father Uranus in Greek myth as Virgil alludes – in both harvesting grapes and pruning. While often serrated, it may go by various names in Europe, including serpe and serpette (French) and roncola (Italian). Lower detail of Simone Martini's frontispiece to Petrarch's Virgil. Note the roncola billhook in the vinedresser's right hand and the words archana Maronis in first line of scroll just above (Image in public domain) Outside Avignon during the time when both of Petrarch and Martini lived there, vineyards were cultivated for the papal court, including the famous melange – often of six varietals – that became known as Chateauneuf du Pape. Both Petrarch, who climbed Mont Ventoux, and Martini would have been familiar with local vineyards, and Petrarch was hardly ascetic.. This very roncola – curved pruning knife – mentioned by Virgil is seen wielded in the hand of the vinedresser at bottom left of Martini's beautiful miniature as he looks up to his poet author. Legend has it that this manuscript was so precious to Petrarch that he had it in his hand on his deathbed. [4] Petrarch also wrote his own set of eclogues Bucolicum Carmen from 1346 onward after Virgil's Georgics, although in his case the work was "pastoral as personal mythology." [5] Petrarch's known familiarity with the biblical scriptures is also relevant. He often intersperses comments about Virgil and the Bible in his correspondence, for example this letter "On the Nature of Poetry" to his brother Gherardo: "The fact is, poetry is very far from being opposed to theology. Does that surprise you? One may almost say that theology actually is poetry, poetry concerning God. To call Christ now a lion, now a lamb, now a worm, what pray is that if not poetical? And you will find thousands of such things in the Scriptures, so very many that I cannot attempt to enumerate them. What indeed are the parables of our Saviour, in the Gospels, but words whose sound is foreign to their sense, or allegories, to use the technical term? But allegory is the very warp and woof of all poetry." [6] Here Petrarch's encomium on the figurative language of biblical poetry highlights the sacred use of allegory, letting one thing convey and allude to another through symbolic representation. It would also have been clear to Petrarch how much writing and the editing thereof have in common with vine-pruning, where the fruit of both is enhanced thereby. In tandem with the general medieval perception of Virgil as proleptic of Christianity, [7] if Petrarch was also connecting the dots, however tenuous, from Virgil to Christianity, then another cherished idea from scripture could have presented itself to Petrarch, who cherished Classical scholarship as well as his faith: he might have also mused on the gospel text of John 15:1 – a familiar text to him [8] - where Christ said he was the Vine and his Father the Vinedresser, and every branch is pruned. Even disguised thus, such allusions in archanes maronis, the "secrets of Maro" might hold for Petrarch some significance of both his own mortality and his literary corpus in this viticultural image of Martini. In conclusion, Petrarch wished his personal literary life to be parallel to Virgil's, intending his own BucolicumCarmen as an echo of the Georgics. He maintained what he believed as his vocational sacred task, that of a poet in some conjunction with Virgil. Identifying allegorically with the Georgics where lowly sheep tending is a sublime trope for the task of writing and living – no less than Christ was both the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God – he also understood vine dressing as pruning and mortality; holding his Virgil manuscript so dearly on his deathbed in the then vineyard village of Arqua near Padua – less than 45 miles from Virgil's Mantua – became a profound statement of this shared identity. [7] e.g., the Sortes Vergilianae, Virgilian bibliomancy in the medieval perception of Virgil as a prophet, also see Virgil's Eclogue 4. Dante was not the only one who saw Virgil thus. Note Clyde Pharr, ed. Vergil's Aeneid I-VI. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1964 ed., esp. the Introduction, p. 4: "…the reverence for his works reached the point where the Sortes Vergilianae came into vogue; that is, the Aeneid was opened at random and the first line on which the eyes fell was taken as an omen of good or evil…He [Virgil] was looked upon not only as a great magician but as an inspired pagan prophet who had foretold the birth of Christ. It was at this period that the spelling Virgil came into vogue, thus associating the great poet with the magic or prophetic wand, virga." [8] Petrarch's De Vita Solitaria II (mainly ca. 1346) quotes from Augustine's Tractates on the Gospel of John; also see Petrarch's sonnet, Canzoniere 190, where Nessun mi tocchi alludes to Christ's command to Mary Magdalene: Noli me tangere in Gospel of John 20:17. We tend to think of Valentine's Day as a "Hallmark holiday:" an excuse to sell flowers, chocolates, and cards depicting cartoon birds, hearts, and teddy bears. To ask someone if they will be your "valentine" has evolved (or perhaps devolved) into a shorthand for a child-like crush—you might as well ask someone to be your "sweetie." We have lost track of the fact that Valentine is a man's name, a saint in fact, and February 14 is his feast day. But Saint Valentinus, or Valentine, has nothing to do with love. Is the modern incarnation of Valentine's Day a mercantile invention? Is it the equivalent of an American Christmas, which brings to mind Santa Claus, reindeer, Christmas trees, presents, and eggnog long before most folks would mention the birth of Christ? Yes and no. While greeting card companies have certainly made a meal of the Valentine's Day tradition, it is not their invention. People have been sending "valentines" for centuries, and the man responsible for associating the name day of Saint Valentine with romantic love is none other than the renowned medieval English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. That the feast day of Saint Valentine in the Catholic calendar should have come to be associated with playful love is both surprising and somewhat dark. To begin with, no one is certain which historical Valentinus is the saint in question. Valentinus was not an uncommon name in the ancient Roman Empire: it derives from valens, meaning strong or worthy (from which the English word "value" descends). Much as the Aramaic equivalents of Jesus, James, and John were as common in first-century Israel as Mike, Chris, and John are today, there were plenty of Christians by the name of Valentinus being martyred in the first centuries AD. Fourteen recorded martyrs, all named Valentinus, were executed during this time for their Christian beliefs. One was a priest in Rome, while another was the Bishop of Interamna (the modern Italian city of Terni). Of those fourteen martyrs, the one most frequently associated with the feast of Saint Valentine is one who was born on April 16 (the year is not known), and who was martyred on February 14, buried on Rome's Via Flaminia. But no one named Valentinus was included in the list of Roman martyrs compiled in 354 AD, and the feast day of Saint Valentinus was first established by Pope Gelasius I, in 496. Since even the Church uncertain as to which Valentinus was sanctified (some think that the original feast day might have even celebrated multiple martyrs of the same name), the feast day was not retained when the Catholic calendar of saints was updated and revised in 1969. In Church terms, there is no longer a "Valentine's Day." It is officially now secular. The dates of the original feast day are also uncertain. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the feast day of Saint Valentine the Presbyter on July 6. Another chance for Hallmark to double their sales. The first known image of Saint Valentine did not appear until 1493, in the famous Nuremberg Chronicle, which includes a woodcut print (possibly by the young Albrecht Dürer) and text stating that Valentine was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Emperor Claudius II, after having been arrested for marrying Christian couples during one of the periods when Christianity was outlawed. The lives of saints are often most notable for the creative manners in which they were killed, but Valentine was martyred in a more traditionally gruesome manner. He was clubbed and stoned, but when he miraculously survived this first onslaught, he was beheaded at the Flaminian Gate in Rome. The first group biography of the saints, The Golden Legend written in 1260 by Jacobus de Voragine, indicates that the execution took place in the year 280. With a mysterious saint of uncertain origin who met a grisly death, how did a holiday associated with romantic love arise? Perhaps the story that Valentinus was killed for performing Christian marriage ceremonies has something to do with it? In fact, the association with Saint Valentine turns out to be arbitrary. It is February 14 as a date, regardless of the saint's feast day, that became a day for love, and it was all thanks to Chaucer. The author of Canterbury Tales wrote a poem in 1382 entitled "Parliament of Fowles," about the day when birds choose their mates. In the poem, an embodiment of Nature speaks to the birds: "Birds, take heed of what I say; and for your welfare and to further your needs I will hasten as fast as I can speak. You well know how on Saint Valentine's Day, by my statute and through my ordinance, you come to choose your mates, as I prick you with sweet pain, and then fly on your way." The popularity of Chaucer's poem, which likely stems from a pre-existing general belief, at least in medieval England, that February 14 is the day when birds choose their mates, is what truly cemented the idea that Valentine's Day is a celebration of romantic love. This belief may have been recorded in medieval bestiaries, popular early books that compiled stories about animals, mythical and otherwise. Never mind that not all birds mate for life. Penguins do, as do geese and falcons. But ducks, for instance, do not—yet the Mandarin Duck is a Chinese symbol for fidelity. The first known Valentine Card, and reference to someone as a "valentine," date to only a century after Chaucer's popular poem. On 14 February 1477, an English woman named Margery Brews wrote to her love, John Paston of Norfolk: "Right reverent and worshipful and my right well-beloved valentine, I recommend me unto you full heartedly, desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech Almighty God long for to preserve unto his pleasure and your heart's desire." Renaissance images of amorini (little love gods) or cherubic putti were also shaped by Classical images of Eros figures and contributed to the gorwing tradition. Of course, much of the Classical tradition of a winged Cupid or Eros – as seen above in the Romantic Era Cupid sculpture in the Louvre by Antoine-Denis Chaudet – a prankster often shooting love arrows into unsuspecting humans has also been absorbed into modern Valentine's Day imagery. At the British Postal Museum, the first known heart-shaped card is preserved, a sheet of paper from 1790 that folds, origami-like, to literally break apart the painted heart-shaped exterior. Outside, the card reads: "My dear the Heart which you behold/Will break when you the same unfold/Even so my heart with lovesick pain/Sore wounded is and breaks in twain." When the heart is "broken" open, one more line of text lies inside: "My dearest dear and blest divine/I've pictured here thy heart and mine." These antique valentines, from 1477 and 1790, do not sound so far removed from modern-day Hallmark cards. Early 20th century Valentine Card (Image in public domain) The general heart-shape that we now associate with love and Valentine's Day, which does not look much like a real human heart, may be found in Renaissance art, including Donatello's relief sculpture, Miracle of the Miser's Heart (1447-50), as Oxford professor Martin Kemp notes in his recent book Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon. A Catholic cult developed around the Sacred Heart around the Counter-Reformation. A burning heart came to be associated with Catholic mysticism and the supernatural phenomenon of "incendium amoris," the fire of love, in which a worshipper has an out-of-body experience (ex stasis, from which comes the term "ecstasy") and literally becomes burning hot with spiritual love for God. While variations on the heart image have been around for centuries, it was not until 1977 that the cartoon heart image was codified by designer Milton Glaser, as part of the "I (Heart) NY" campaign, wherein the heart-shape acts as a rebus, an image standing in for a word or idea. So this Valentine's Day, while browsing the Hallmark aisle or making a heart-shaped valentine out of red construction paper, it is more proper that you think back on Geoffrey Chaucer, rather than the mysterious saint or saints who leant their name to February 14. ******************************************* Noah Charney is a best-selling author and professor of art history. His latest book is Stealing the Mystic Lamb: the True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece. Plaque of Alexander the Great, workshop of Colin Nouailher, Limoges, c. 1540, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (Photo in public domain) By Patrick Hunt – "Alexander was hunting on Mount Pagos, and that after the hunt was over he came to a sanctuary of the Nemeses, and found there a spring and a plane-tree in front of the sanctuary, growing over the water. While he slept under the plane-tree it is said that the Nemeses appeared and bade him found a city there and remove into it the Smyrnaians from the old city . . . So they migrated of their own free will, and believe in two Nemeses instead of one, saying their mother is Nyx…" [1] This above passage of Pausanias is not well attested elsewhere, but it does agree in part with several extant traditions of Alexander at Smyrna and is also detailed on Roman Era coins from Smyrna. Mount Pagos is the present day ridge of Kadifekale on the southeastern hill of Izmir (Smyrna), today marked by Turkish fortresses and historic vistas with occasional wooded park preserves. The Hellenistic city of Smyrna does not share the same locus as the earlier Archaic city was besieged and razed by Alyattes (seventh to sixth c. BCE), the Lydian Mermnad ruler, around 600 BCE; [2] the earlier city being on the north side of the old Hermes River across the bay and the newer city associated with Alexander on the south side of the bay, [3] which location, according to Strabo, was 20 stadia (roughly 4 kms) distant from the old Smyrna (see below). We know Alexander was at Smyrna and ordered at least its "restoration" after the Lydian takeover, [4] or that, more likely following the ideas of the legendary dream, his successors Lysimachos and Antigonus did the actual reorganizing ("reassembling") according to Strabo (Geography 14: 1.37) [5] Late Roman Coin of Alexander's Dream of the Nemeses at Smyrna, circa CE 245 (Image in public domain) Since the founding story of Hellenistic Smyrna that Pausanias relates is also on the Roman Era coins, many minted from the mid-third c. CE under Philip the Arab, it confirms at least the legend rather than fact. As Karsten Dahmen notes, "looking at the coins, we find every detail mentioned in this story." [7] The double Nemeses at Smyrna were an old civic tradition, and Dahmen also suggests that the twin goddesses may represent "an echo of a statue group of these goddesses erected in Smyrna". There is also remnant epigraphic evidence of Smyrna's twin Nemeses still seen in the Agora of Roman Era Smyrna, as I saw recently on November (see below photo). One can still read, on a white marble block of a presumed architrave, a dual line above dentils. This fragmentary inscription reads NEMESE[__] in the above line and TON SEBAST[__]…on the lower line. That it is a dual Nemesis is manifest in the final remnant "E" in the name rather than a singular "I". [8] Although the full context is not given here, that there was a shrine and altar to Nemeses at Smyrna is also known, and Tataki associates Nemesis contexts with gladiatorial games at Smyrna [9] since she was also a patroness of gladiators. Many accounts have placed the Nemesis shrine up on Mt. Pagos itself rather than around the Agora where the fragmentary inscription is now placed within the Agora enclosure, but Tataki's study offers the most relevant contexts. In my photo, the Pagos Hill (Kadifekale) can be seen on the high horizon behind the mounted inscription, a hill covered with cypresses (near the enormous Turkish flag on the summit). The old Greek goddess Nemesis, daughter of Night by many but not all accounts, was a deity of divine retribution often believed to punish hubris and make proportional balance for an excess of one-sided good fortune (Tyche), especially when improperly appropriated or not sufficiently respected. [10] In other Greek myths Nemesis, not Leda, is the actual mother of Helen of Troy and that Leda merely found the resulting egg from the mating of Zeus and [winged] Nemesis (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.127; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 33. 4 in his description of Rhamnous' Nemesis Temple although Pausanias is not alone in naming Okeanos as the father of Nemesis). Although this deity was also at times perceived as a duality to be begin with (Nemesis-Tyche), it also makes some sense that Smyrna would have a dual deity – one kindly, one implacable – for this balancing role especially since some suggest there was a Nemesis for both the old city of Smyrna and the new one. At least one other suggestion about Nemesis is that she was not even Greek but Anatolian and originating here around Smyrna. The so-called Tyche of Alexander is already well published elsewhere, [11] but his presumed willingness to obey in to the legendary dream would also make sense given his quest for conquest of Asia and his perceived need for divine allies. Antiquity is not the only time when the duality of Nemesis is manifest: Albrecht Durer's famous 1502 serene Nemesis (so named from his notebooks) but ambiguously subsequently also referred to as The Great Fortune, is balanced deliberately precariously on a small globe with insufficient room for both feet and one foot apparently slipping off, exhibits both the cup of blessing and the bridle for either necessary response. In 1843 Antoine Chenavard published a Smyrna Agora view of one surviving side of the row of Roman columns on their pedestals. In his foreground are the beautifully-carved Islamic cemetery headstones, now moved but also still seen at the Agora on the southeast side, as in my photo below, showing the Turkish respect for archaeological remains and religious artifacts from all periods, including their own Ottoman history. Islamic Cemetery Headstones in Smyrna Agora (Photo P. Hunt 2012) According to the same Alexander-Nemeses legend, after hearing of Alexander's dream, the people around Smyrna inquired of the Oracle of Apollo at Claros [12] (also see Ovid Metamorphoses XI.413) in Ionia north of Kusadasi and were told they would be three or four times happier than previously if they moved their city from the old to the new location beyond the sacred Meles Stream. Although it is hard to configure the watershed of the ancient stream through the much-disturbed Izmir contexts, there are residual springs like the possible old Meles (modern Yeşildere?) whose waters still flow underground down from Kadifekale's (Pagos) plateau through the much-disturbed Agora as the trickle can still be seen below in the arcaded "Cryptoporticus" there below the ground level Agora. As a somewhat ironic concluding aside here, when I was a graduate student at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, one of our archaeological study visits was to Rhamnous, famous for, as mentioned, among other sanctuaries, the unfinished but utilized fifth c. BCE Nemesis sanctuary. [13] At the time, I took many photos of this Nemesis context, and to my uneasy chagrin, this particular rolls of slide film in 1984 was so damaged that these photos were ruined and only partly visible, the only time this has ever happened to my photos. [14] At the time, I took it as somehow apropos for me personally. Fortunately, and I assume equally apropos, the 2012 Smyrna photos of this local Nemeses artifact came out perfectly fine. I feel particularly good about this second event, but not overly so. [2] Margaret Miles. "Review of J. M. Cook, R. V. Nichols, Old Smyrna Excavations: The Temples of Athena. With an Appendix by D. M. Pyle. Annual of the British School at Athens, Supplementary Volume No. 30. London: The British School at Athens, 1998" in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 02.40 (2006) and 2009; Patrick Hunt. "645 BCE: Lydia's Rise to Power under the Mermnads" Ancient World: Great Events, vol. 1, (2004) 331-32. [7] Karsten Dahmen. The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins. New York: Routledge, 2007, 129-30 & Plate 15. [8] In the fragmentary accusative TON SEBAST[_] is some form of the basic meanings of "veneration, honor or reverence", also often used in reference to an emperor. H. G. Liddell and R. Scott. Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996 ed., 1587 ff. [10] Hesiod, Theogony 223-24, Theognis, Elegies 279-80: "It seems the bad man does not understand the ways of Justice, he has no fear of Nemesis to come" (Dorothea Wender, tr. Hesiod and Theognis, New York: Penguin Classics, 1976, 106). [11] Elizabeth Baynham. Alexander the Great: The Unique History of Quintus Curtius, 11: "Plutarch's expositions De Alexandri fortuna immediately suggest there was a corpus of literature that attributed Alexander's success to his tyche"(not at all necessarily the personalized deity) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1999, 11; Aelian, Historical Miscellany 3. 23: "Alexander's achievements were splendid . . . Let most of it be put down to Tyche who favored Alexander, if one wishes to be cautious…" [13] A. Trevor Hodge and R.A. Tomlinson. "Some Notes on the Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnous." American Journal of Archaeology 73.2 (1969) 185-92, esp. 192 where the authors suggest the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War may not be the only reason for the unfinished state, although they offer no other more plausible reasons in the article at hand. [14] I still show these ruined photo images in my classes as both a tongue-in-cheek example of Nemesis to my students and a healthy check to myself. Since the Middle Ages Christmas Markets have been traditional venues for Advent as magnets for people celebrating the season, especially in December the German-speaking regions of Europe. Not to be confused with street fairs, these are special street markets offering gifts and handcrafted items and seasonal food. Usually the stalls or booths are decorated with thematic evergreen boughs and Christmas themes. The primary German word is Weihnachtsmarkt,but additional names include Christkindlmarkt or Hafenweihnacht Markt in Lindau am Bodensee. This Christmas week of 2012 has been a wonderful time to experience local Christmas markets in the Rheintal and Bodensee region, with Weihnachtsmarkt visits to St. Gallen (Switzerland), Feldkirch (Austria), Vaduz (Liechtenstein) and Lindau (Germany). Some Christmas markets have scores of stalls, like in Lindau, St. Gallen and Feldkirch; others number under 20 like in Vaduz but overall the quality of handcrafted items is generally very high rather than kitschy. The Advent hours may vary but most markets stay open until after dark or even to mid-evening around 8 pm when the usually clear or white Christmas lights everywhere are also blazing against the early dark sky. When winter cold permeates the air, the best Christmas beverage is glühwein, a hot wine mulled with spices like cinnamon, cloves and orange and possibly honey and often served in a special decorated mug. I've tried it in every market so far, even from different vendors in the same market. While its spicy intensity varies a bit between regions and vendors, its delicious heat is wonderfully warming to the body. In each market this mulled wine also a special combo, for example, with the famous St. Gallen white bratwurst or with Appenzeller cheese. To date, of all the Christmas markets where I've tried it, Vaduz had the most interesting glühwein with the strongest balanced taste – also brimming with nutmeg and a higher citrus flavor – rather than highest alcohol content or most cinnamon and cloves. For extra warming kick, Lindau's Hafenweichnacht Markt stalls added sweet German liqueurs like Killepitsch, Bärenjäger, Apfelkorn, Rumple Minze or Ratzeputz to the glühwein. On the other hand, I've hardly ever tasted a glühwein I didn't like when the outdoor air temperature hovers around freezing. Vaduz Christmas Market Stall (Photo P. Hunt 2012) Colorfully-decorated stalls offer handcrafted items from food and unique Christmas ornaments in glass or wood, to bee products like beeswax and honey and other "bee products" (bienenprodukte), small hand-knitted winter apparel, regional wursts (sausages), kase (cheese), lebkuchen (glazed gingerbread cookies), Advent chocolates, marzipan, pastry gnomes modeled in an almost infinite range of sizes, Advent calenders and other things too numerous to mention. Sometimes one can sit down inside a large decorated stall on rough-hewn log benches and eat local bratwurst or melted Appenzeller Raclette cheese toast, crepes and drink hot spicy glühwein. I've never been a big fan of packaged commercial lebkuchen, too often stale and hard, but fresh lebkuchen are far more appealing, especially in this context or with hot peppermint tea in a Christmas market. Traveling musicians and players also add beautiful sounds, with carolers, bells, blockflute (recorder) quartets, hand organ players, costumed parades, mimes, brass bands playing Advent music or other musical activities. In Vaduz it was a group of very young conservatory students playing Baroque carols on recorders; in St. Gallen it was a white-mustachioed musician operating a hand-built pipe organ on wheels that could be trundled around like a wheelbarrow and in Lindau it was vintage-costumed singers. It is unlikely to hear modern or pop music at the traditional Weihnachtsmarkts, instead one hears music written for old Catholic choirbooks or Baroque Lutheran hymnals of carols, generally more religious than secular with meaningful textual content and timeless melodies. It seems a given in Europe that what has survived for hundreds of years frequently does so because it was the best of its time. Feldkirch Christmas Market 2012 in Marktplatz (Photo P. Hunt 2012) While St. Gallen's Weihnachtsmarkt winds through the center of the old town, Feldkirch's is situated in the rectangular old Marktplatz, and Vaduz's intimate Christmas market is adjacent to the Rathaus. Lindau's was along the old Bodensee boat harbor. Each regional market fits the spirit of the town and celebrates that region's famous or most well-regarded seasonal products. These Christmas Markets seem to have encouraged and kept alive artisanal guild crafts that often still flourish in farming communities or remote alpine villages. Otherwise these crafts could become so scarce that they're forgotten or lost. Many of these traditional markets began more than half a millennium ago in cities like Dresden, Nuremberg and Vienna. The Christmas markets usually close on December 23 to save the remainder of year-end holiday time for celebrating with family and friends. In Lindau one can find real German handblown glass ornaments. The ones in the above photo are from the Inge-Glas producers in Lauscha, Germany, in the Sonneberg of Thuringia just north of Bavaria. The Müller-Blech family of Inge-Glas has been using many of the same molds for over a century but they actually started in 1596, so they've been creating these glass ornaments as a family business to be sold in Christmas Markets like Lindau's for 416 years. Their beautiful glass ornaments range over a wide spectrum of designs and sizes, and since they have such a large repertoire of images, many iconic like the Chi-Rho at the bottom right of the above photo, it is no surprise many are themed from Advent traditions hundreds of years old. Lindau's Glühwein Hut (Photo P. Hunt 2012) Many of the Weihnachtsmarkts also have small stages for short enactments of local adaptations of the nativity story, often in regional garb. Some of these dramatizations are starkly set as fights between good and evil, much like medieval morality plays, but generally bumptious with a touch of humor and folksy wit. Overall, as mentioned, I was impressed by the quality of the traditional crafts collected in one place. In addition to beeswax candles there are also molded beeswax in many depictions like miniature animals but the Advent beeswax candles also had thematic designs from stars to angels and Christkindl (infant Christ) images. Some of these beeswax images could hang as tree ornaments but all had that sweet honeyed smell. Another striking molded craft was the round anise bread (anisbrot) in St. Gallen shaped as a Nativity narrative, made from medieval wooden molds reminding one of the art of Romanesque column capitals and rounded arches. The original mold for this unique one in the photo below or similar anise cakes could be around 900 years old or copied from a similar precedent. Some of the best local cheeses – especially Appenzeller Raclette and Calfeisentaler Alpkase - can be found in the cheese stalls of Swiss Christmas Markets in St. Gallen but also in Feldkirch and across the Bodensee in Lindau. The Appenzeller strong cheese is especially tasty when melted with a modest amount of onions on almost any kind of bread, often the fresh-baked local bread sold in another nearby stall. One of the better large food stalls in St. Gallen's Christmas Market was managed by the Linde Wald restaurant of Familien Steffen and Kobler near Sage, Appenzeller. Their warm and friendly service with generous smiles may have made everything that was freshly edible taste even better. There is no place for xenophobia when even these often rural farm villages bring their best products to the larger towns and cities, especially when one hears many languages in these Advent markets. Vendors seem to always ask where one is from, excitedly smiling to hear you've come half way around the world (in my case San Francisco). Children are obviously welcome at these Christmas markets, and family themed activities make them memorable for locals who come with excited children who must look forward all year, as I would have had I lived anywhere near. I found one item in Vaduz that brought a smile – a bright red children's post office (Vadozer Christkindle Post) for dropping off letters. Lindau's Christmas market even had a whole section for children with straw-strewn booths with live animals and creches and even some booths with a macabre touch seemingly out of the original Grimm's German fairy tales. One set of stalls in St. Gallen's Weihnachtsmarkt (Photo P. Hunt 2012) While I enjoyed each visit to St.Gallen, Feldkirch and Vaduz (I had been to these cities on several prior occasions in summer and spring), my final Christmas Market for 2012 was in picturesque Lindau along the Bodensee in Germany, perhaps saving the best for last. In Lindau, I finally found that one unique Christmas ornament, made of pewter and glittering and splendid in brilliant colors, proudly hand-crafted with fine detail. Nothing else we have compares to it and it will be a family keepsake of Christmas as a tree ornament. Now my appetite for traditional Christmas markets and the hope they celebrate in a venerable folk tradition are satisfied for 2012. I don't know when I will next taste Marzipanstollen and drink honigbier but I feel so incredibly lucky. Even if I can't return next Christmas in 2013, this was an unforgettable time. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Photo in public domain) By Patrick Hunt - One of the most beautiful paintings in the world, Bruegel's 1565 Hunters in the Snow (117 x 162 cm) has received much attention for the return of the trudging "weary hunters with drooping shoulders…turning their backs to the observer…characterizing the season" [1] at top left and the harmonious depth of the sweeping landscape accented in diagonals from upper left to lower right and up again at upper right. The warmth of the fire with brush burning contrasts with the frozen lakes and icy peaks. The gray-green sky is the color of lead with thick clouds that hide the dim sun during the short daylight. The hunters have not been very successful with a meager catch, likely only a single animal hanging from the poles. The diagonal line of bare poplar or elm trees move the viewer's eyes right to the edge of the foreground steep hill, repeated by the brown houses, behind them the gray bare wooded copses like holm oaks along the rounded hills, then pick up again at the bottom in a continuing line across the valley along the ice ponds. Famous for the realism of his landscapes with the interplay of humans and nature, Bruegel's artistic plan hints how human activity adapts to an environment both majestic but indifferent, where we are only one part in contrast to the dead of winter where life is otherwise mostly still. The inn on the left has its sign hanging by only one hook, waiting like the rest of the world for repair when life restarts. What water is trapped in the snow and ice ponds is mostly inaccessible. The mostly vertical foreground trees – contrasting with the far high horizon – are empty except for snow laying on the branches and a few black huddled birds, with one taking wing across the landscape high over the valley but still touching the far crags. The slight back sweep of the wings of the dark bird in flight with its long tail in contrast to the light background suggests to some a silhouetted kestrel, itself a hunter in the winter, but even if not, Bruegel as keen observer makes it likely this is a known bird. The village church bell towers echo but in orthogonal human fashion the ragged vertical peaks, both an antithesis and synthesis of human versus nature. This painting has also inspired many ekphrases including a celebrated poem by John Berryman with the hunters "returning cold and silent to their town" – a transposition d'art [2] – and a world-famous short story by Tobias Wolff as well as multiple cinematic creations. Part of a Bruegel series on seasonal images, this one is winter and generally thought of as either December [3] or January [4], as representational calendars of art were a known precedent.[5] I have often wondered where this topography can be found, and am certainly not the first, formerly thinking it universal and generic. But recently I've come to possibly recognize aspects of the landscape. Of course, Bruegel's imagination was perfectly capable of inventing a composite landscape made of different loci. In the last few years, however, I've spent weeks in the Rheintal south of Bavaria between the upper Canton of St. Gallen above the Bodensee where Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein converge. In fact, I'm looking across this valley now from a chalet in the Kreuzberg this week before Christmas. I can see the castle of Vaduz at the base of the Alpspitz, the Helwangspitz and the steep mountains of Liechtenstein, very much as Bruegel painted the castle at the base of the cliffs on the right. The same lines of bare poplars and other woods stretch out across the valley where holm oaks and elms fill in the low places. It's important to remember that travelers would not have so likely have traveled in winter but rather in summer months or on the edges of it. But it's also possible that snowstorms in this alpine region could have come on either the earlier or later edges of main travel seasons. Bare December woods in the Sennwald of St. Gallen canton looking east (Photo P. Hunt 2012) For years before the Rhine was straightened out and diked this valley was subject to meandering and flooding out of the adjacent Alps, so there were marshy riparian areas and ice ponds just like the ones on Bruegel's landscape. Some holding ponds can still be seen closer to the Rhine River, the boundary here between Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The villages like Sax, Frumsen, Sennwald on the west side of the valley or Eschen, Gamprin, Mauren and Schellenberg on the east side each have their church bell towers like in Bruegel's painting. Many of the surviving Renaissance Era bell towers in the Rheintal are still square and exactly like these in the painting, only they are now whitewashed like their old churches. Overall aspects of this valley can be matched to the painting from either east or west views. Are all these similarities just coincidence or pastiches recorded in Bruegel's sketchbooks? Or is the resemblance more than passing and imaginary? Here below is a recent photo of the village of Hueb-Sax Dorf on the west side of the Rheintal looking east to Austria that also bears some resemblance to the painting, assuming Bruegel could have substituted in the more dramatic Vaduz Castle and crags above it from sketches. The Sax-Hueb landscape has lines of trees, including elm and poplar, along old property lines that have existed hear for hundreds of years in the local communes, similar to Bruegel's landscape. We know Bruegel visited Rome in 1553 and would have passed through Alpine topography much like this in the painting, which definitely isn't the Low Countries. From Antwerp to Rome, old Roman roads and medieval roads ran south the length of the Rhine River valley (Rhenum) to Chur (Roman Curia) especially along the Hinterrhein branch then turned off high in the Alps toward various different passes but especially the Julier which lead down to Milan (Mediolanum) and southward to Rome. [6] It is important for this argument that the Rhine valley was easily the most-traveled Medieval and Renaissance routes to Rome from the Low Countries where the Rhine began. In the Rheintal a section of this old Roman road spanned the River Ill flowing into the Rhine, with a Roman bridge roughly where Holy Cross bridge remains in Feldkirch, the westernmost city of Austria on the eastern Rhine valley side. If Bruegel's view is northward roughly from the hills of Sevelen in St. Gallen Canton eventually toward the flat Bodensee and Bavaria, Vaduz Castle is in this approximate location under the Alpspitz of modern Liechtenstein, but this is only one possibility that the landscape fulfills and it may more easily be a composite image rather than a fixed landscape. Art biographer Karel van Mander (15548-1606) affirms in his Schilder-boeck that Bruegel had filled sketchbooks of many such landscapes on his journey, [7] as Orenstein repeats and also states, "Bruegel's study of the Alps must have been thorough and he probably filled several sketchbooks with Alpine views" although none of the original sketches survive. [8] Elsewhere Orenstein is right to claim "mountain vistas that had deeply impressed the artist as he made his way through the Alps rank among his most widely circulated and celebrated works." [9] Clearly that summation includes Hunters on the Snow. In retrospect, although many such composite topographies could be rendered in such a painting as this, from now on I will suspect Bruegel's observant eyes roamed across this very place where I now gaze across the Rheintal and remembered it accordingly, reinforced by sketched details one may still see. [6] A. M. Snodgrass. "The Early History of the Alps." The Alpine Journal 98 (1993) 213-22, esp. 220. Along with Ludwig Pauli's earlier (1984) study, this vital article remains one of the best accounts of Alpine history.	eng	980697ad-f37f-4694-adb7-a306f17f54a6	http://www.electrummagazine.com/feed/atom/
The Joy of Sacred Sex - Suzie Heumann on Modern Tantra by Marc Polonsky In the late 1970s, Suzie Heumann was a young single mom, living with her daughter on a small farm in Valley Ford, CA. She supported herself as a waitress, a seamstress, and a part-time designer and builder of solar-powered homes. She also owned a couple of cows, and when there was too much milk for her to sell or make into butter, she often enjoyed luxurious "milk baths." She met her second (and current) husband, Michael Heumann, through mutual friends in 1979, when her daughter was eight. Michael was convinced there was a future in producing VHS videos a brand new phenomenon at the time so the two purchased rudimentary video equipment and set about building a successful business, creating instructional films for fly fisherman, small airplane pilots, and other special interests. By the mid eighties, they had branched into cultural travel films, which took them to Alaska, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali, and other points of interest around the globe. A number of their films ultimately wound up on the Discovery cable channel. Meanwhile, in 1980 and 1984, the couple had two more daughters. In 1986, a friend introduced the Heumanns to Charles and Caroline Muir, nationally known tantra authorities, who were presenting a workshop on tantric sexual techniques in Santa Cruz, CA. Suzie and Michael were open to exploratory approaches to sexuality, having been deeply involved for years with a book entitled ESO: How You and Your Lover Can Give Each Other Hours of Extended Sexual Orgasm coauthored by the husband and wife, Stanford prof team of Alan and Donna Brauer. The Heumanns had been happily "turned on" by the ESO practices which, according to Suzie, "were actually Taoist and tantric" though not presented as such. The Muirs were interested in having a short, explicit, instructional tantric sex film made, so they invited the Heumanns to take the Santa Cruz workshop, and then asked them to come along, with their video cameras, to a more extensive week-long workshop on the island of Maui. By the end of that week, the film was made, the Muirs were pleased and the Heumanns were inspired. Upon returning home to California, they sought out and joined a tantra community in nearby Marin County called Celebrations of Love. Over the next several years, Suzie occasionally assisted in leading that group's workshops, and the couple made their own film about tantra, "Ancient Secrets of Sexual Ecstasy". Michael Heumann, once again demonstrating foresight into the power of an emerging medium, saw opportunity in the World Wide Web, and in early 1995, the Heumanns established tantra.com, primarily as a way to promote Ancient Secrets. Since that time, tantra.com has grown into one of the Web's premier tantra and kama sutra web sites, a "portal", as Suzie likes to call it, for useful information pertaining to "sacred sexuality." The site includes hundreds of audio files and articles on topics ranging from "The One-Hour Orgasm" to "Dissolving the Effects of Abuse"; dozens of explicit instructional videos on everything from effective communication, sensual touch, and eye gazing, to G spot stimulation, sexual positions, and oral sex techniques; and online interactive courses. Yet there is no mistaking tantra.com for a porn site, because, as Suzie succinctly points out, "Pornography is not what real sex looks like." Over the last decade and a half, many people have turned to Suzie for advice about "real sex." For several years, she has been invited to the annual convention of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. At their 2008 meeting, she co facilitated an advanced tantra workshop, and also participated in a four-woman panel on the subject of bringing a feminist perspective to sexuality. In 2004, HBO recruited Suzie's participation in its documentary series Real Sex, which includes a lengthy segment of Suzie leading a tantric sexuality retreat. Suzie was also a regular guest for several years on a New York based internet radio show; her 40+ hours of programming are now among the downloads available on her web site. As Suzie expanded tantra.com, Michael went back to producing instructional videos for a variety of industries. The couple collaborated on two more tantric sex videos, "The Art of Orgasm for Men" and "The Art of Orgasm for Women", both films featuring world renowned tantra expert and sex educator, Margot Anand. More recently, Suzie has produced ten short YouTube videos on "Enlightened Sex," featuring herself. Suzie is the author of three books: "The Everything Great Sex Book" (Adams Media, 2004), 'The Everything Kama Sutra Book" (Adams Media, 2004) and "The Rules of Love: The 64 Arts of the Kama Sutra" (Sterling and Hollan, 2008). She is currently at work on her fourth book, about how the latest brain/body chemistry research reinforces the tenets of western tantra. I sat down to speak with Suzie at tantra.com's informal, pleasantly appointed offices in Sebastopol, California last August. I found Suzie gracious, open, and exuberant, and her small office staff easygoing and welcoming. Polonsky: When and how did you decide that your calling in life had to do with sex? Heumann: I've always been very sensual, and my upbringing was liberal and expansive. My parents loved nature, they loved to garden, and they took my siblings and me on long, marvelous camping trips. So the wild, the world of the senses, has very positive associations for me from the time I was very young. Also, during high school, I was right in the thick of the San Francisco scene when the bands were playing for free in the parks, and there was this great flowering of sexual freedom. So there wasn't one particular catalyst, though I did have a profound experience in 1986, during the week we filmed the Muirs in Maui. Up until that time, I had never witnessed other women in orgasm. But we made a 15-minute film showing Charles stimulating Caroline's G-spot, bringing her to orgasm and female ejaculation. That night, Michael and I were making love, and I remembered that Caroline had made some very interesting noises, and I decided to try to imitate those sounds just to see what would happen. Well, the minute I started making those sounds, I went into immediate orgasm and ejaculation! It was like a transmission had occurred, and a whole new circuit had opened in me, which remains in effect to this day. Polonsky: That sounds lovely but also a little intense. Were you at all frightened? Heumann: No, though I did have a more unsettling experience a day or two before that. On the second day we were in Maui, I participated in a session led by a very accomplished breath work specialist. She had thirty or forty of us lie down in a big room, and she was coaching us through the fire breath, which creates a complete circuit through your chakras, charging you up. I had never done transformational breathing before. All of a sudden my body transformed, so that the whole area from my genitals to my fifth chakra my abdomen, my stomach, my heart was one oval body cavity, containing a Hindu woman who was sitting holding a dying baby. The baby was crying and the woman was crying. And she was in ecstasy and she was in agony. It was as though I was possessed; I couldn't make her go away. It sends chills through me even now because I can still see her. Polonsky: Were you sharing or witnessing the woman's emotions? Heumann: Witnessing. I was crying, I was moved, but I identified as the witness of ecstasy and agony in the same moment, not as the person to whom it was happening. It was as if a cosmic egg had opened up inside of me, my body was the body of the goddess, and I was witnessing humanity. This was not a sexual experience at all, but it was part of what made me realize how powerfully breath can move energy, and take you to ecstatic places that we normally ascribe only to saints and martyrs. Put that together with sexual practices and the sky is the limit! Polonsky: What exactly is tantra? Heumann: Well, there's a huge difference between original tantra and the tantra we practice today in the West. True tantra originated in ancient Hindu society, and was very esoteric and rigorous. Sexuality was just a tiny part of it. To be a tantra practitioner, you had to be chosen by a guru at a very young age. The guru would set you a series of tasks, which would reveal your character, your fears, and where you were willing to risk yourself. The guru would push you over many years, as a means of facilitating your personal development. You might have to say a certain mantra ten thousand or a hundred thousand times, or live in a cave for three years, or constantly perform devotions to various deities. Only some students were initiated into the sexual practices, years after they had successfully mastered the extremely demanding personal and devotional practices. We really don't know all that much about those ancient sexuality practices. We have had to infer them from ancient Hindu writings that were interpreted and reinterpreted and retranslated numerous times. Also, many of the ancient practices were so secret they were never even written down! We know this though: In ancient times, if you went into the tantric sex practices with any notion of seeking your own pleasure, you left! If you were a man, you were there as God, and if you were a woman, you were the Goddess, and you absolutely had to stay in that character in that presence with the greater God or Goddess for the entire ceremony, because you were there to sacrifice your small self for the greater good of everyone. It was a magical rite and highly rigorous. But that is not what we're doing today. We westerners have latched on to the sexual part of tantra, and it's only fair to call this "western tantra" or "neo tantra." It's a hodge podge of modern psychology, Reichian therapies, some sensate-focused stuff, and connective practices that people make up, all blended together with modern interpretations of the ancient tantric sex practices. Polonsky: But then, isn't there a concern that western tantra is not authentic? Heumann: Oh, some people have huge concerns, but I don't. It's like the Dalai Lama said about Buddhism, that it's most alive today in America, because people in this country are living it and changing it and figuring out how to make it useful in their lives. Similarly, the western tantra movement is an extension of a living tradition; it has done tremendous good, and it's growing. Polonsky: Your web site also features a great deal of material on the Kama Sutra. Is the Kama Sutra an expression of tantra? Heumann: No, they're not related, though they both have Hindu origins. Before it was written down, between 300 and 400 A.D., the Kama Sutra had an oral history of thousands of years. Ancient Hindu society looked at the art of living as one integrated science, and the Kama Sutra was a manual on how to conduct yourself as a citizen. It includes instruction on the art of playing games, the art of speech, flower arranging, and all kinds of things. It has one chapter on sexuality, as sex was considered one of the sciences of life. The chapter on sex is divided into 64 artseight sections of eight. One section is on eight different ways you can bite your lover, all of which have very specific purposes and must be done in a strictly prescribed fashion. For example, a man should leave certain marks on the belly of the woman if he is to be gone for several weeks. He has to bite her hard and draw blood, so she can remind herself of him. Another section is on eight types of scratching, with different nails, and the patterns you should leave. One pattern is called "the peacock's foot," one's called "the leaf of a blue lotus," another is called "the jump of a hare," and there are five more. There's also a section on eight ways of kissing. Only three of the eight sections in the chapter are on sex positions. So in the entire Kama Sutra, there are actually only 24 positions. And they don't even talk about oral sex for women! Only men get to receive oral sex in the Kama Sutra. People think there are 64 Kama Sutra positions, or even hundreds. My latest book is a color photography book on sexual positions, and the publisher told me, "We want you to do a book on the 64 Kama Sutra sex positions." I said, "But the Kama Sutra only has 24 positions." They said, "We don't care; we want 64." So I ended up drawing from the Ananga Ranga, another ancient Hindu sex manual, and The Perfumed Garden, a 15th century Islamic sex manual written in Persia, for my additional 40 positions. I was up front about that in my opening chapter. The Kama Sutra also contains a chapter on how men should treat courtesans, and a chapter on how men who have multiple wives should conduct themselves, and how their women should conduct themselves. The chapter on how to court is very elaborate; you had to go through intermediaries; the man and woman couldn't even see each other. Most people today aren't aware that the Kama Sutra is a product of a very rigid ancient society, and it's full of details and rules that most modern westerners would not be interested in. Polonsky: So then, in a nutshell, the goal of ancient tantra was spiritual purification, and the purpose of the Kama Sutra was to foster well-adjusted citizenship. What are the objectives of modern Western tantra, and do they bear any relationship to those of the old version? Heumann: I'd say the primary objective of western tantra is to lessen the sense of duality that exists between people, to deepen our connectedness, to break down barriers so that love can be more present. There is nothing that separates me from you really. We each have a skin, but we're exchanging molecules of oxygen and CO2 even right this moment. When you get down to it, everyone has the same needs and desires; we are one. Westerners are involved with sacred sexuality because we are searching for a personal experience of spirit. Many people start with the sexual practices and then move on to the more esoteric breath and emotional practices. Today, just like in ancient times, tantra is about risking, and pushing the edges of discovery. Tantra basically says, "Say yes to everything." In that way, you get beyond maya, the veil of illusion, much faster. All the outrageous experiences you can have aren't really what life's about. It's ultimately about presence, about being. Polonsky: But outrageous experiences seem to be precisely what western tantra promises. When you and Michael joined your tantric community some twenty years ago, weren't you searching for new experiences? And was polyamory part of it? Heumann: No! We did not go there to find other partners. People think that the tantric community has everything to do with polyamory, but it does not. We shared activities like sufi dancing, large group singing, dancing in circles within circles, and various presence-ing exercises, such as breath work and eye gazing. Adoring touch was part of it too, but it wasn't sexual. Some self-selected small groups did explore advanced sexual practices, but the rituals shared within that community were not about sexual love. Over time, when you participate in groups like that, and you do enough of these practices, your separateness tends to fall away. Even gender starts to fall away. You could be touching a man or a woman, and it doesn't matter, because it's all about your presence with that person. It's hard for people who have never done any of this to understand, but you can create a space where pure love can shine through, where you're dropping duality and separateness. That is the purpose. Polonsky: But isn't one of the most salient goals of tantric sex to increase pleasure and extend orgasm? Heumann: Sure. I think it's highly important to increase orgasmic capacity, and tune into the subtleties of sensation in your body. That's transformational, and I can bring it into my life 24/7, from writing an article to having a business meeting. I can be present and involved, wanting to expand everything I do to its most delicate and exquisite place, because that's what I practice during sex. There might be other ways to find that capacity, maybe through yoga or meditation, but sex works for me. And yes, of course, sexual pleasure is desirable in and of itself. But it isn'tand never has beenthe ultimate goal of tantra. And it certainly doesn't require multiple partners. Polonsky: But isn't it natural to desire novelty in sex? And isn't a new partner the most enticing form of novelty? Heumann: Tantra is novelty! There are so many things you can explore with it. When we think about novelty, we often think of cheating, or having multiple partners or an open relationship. Or we think of S and M practices, which are increasingly popular, because people in this culture are constantly craving the next level of excitement, a bigger dopamine rush in the brain. That neural reward circuit is addictive, which is why so many westerners tend to move into compulsive cycles of smoking, drinking, drug taking, internet surfing, multitasking, fast driving, and just pushing the edges all the time, just looking for those highs. So people's sexuality gravitates to harder faster stronger. "Give me something more powerful, more edgy, more out there." Tantric practices are edgy in a different way. When you move backwards into subtle areas of breath, softer presence, sensual touch . . . those kinds of practices are expandable for a lifetime! You can get more and more minute with what you're exploring. You can look for a new erogenous zone here (under the eye), or here (on the neck), or it suddenly dawns on you to try using both your hands in some different way when you're touching your partner, or to try to get your partner to move energy by brushing energy away from their genitals up to their chest. And then they get the idea, "Oh that feels different! I've got to breathe deeper and expand into this . . ." So you're always in new territory! Now maybe a person who's really into BDSM might say you can always expand those practices and find more territory there as well. Well fine, but at some point, doing that, you're going to be playing with some seriously dangerous edges. Whereas with tantra, the scary edges are more likely to move you into kundalini experiences, or profound states of consciousness, or super-deep intimacy where you don't know where your body went, where you've gotten so involved in the lovemaking that your boundaries have dissolved and you don't know whether it's you or your partner who's having the orgasm. Heumann: Yes, and it also keeps us bonded, with the neurochemicals that are generated during these experiences. It's a huge area for two people to expand into together. And it translates into the everyday life of a relationship. Polonsky: But what about the simple animal beauty of younger people? Aren't we still hardwired to be attracted to younger bodies, as a general rule? Heumann: Sure, I think we're all stuck in that to some extent. But when you're with your partner, no matter who they are, and you're doing these practices, the physical form kind of dissolves away. Instead, you are with your partner's god or goddess essence. Remember, western tantric practices involve your visualization capability and your mind and your breath. As you're moving the energy through yourself and circulating it with your lover, you dissolve into each other. So the body's form just isn't as important. A lot of middle aged people go into tantra looking for a new level of excitement, but they're also wiser and more spiritually aware than when they were young, and maybe they've had some experiences of this profound momentary merging with a partner. So they're thinking in the back of their minds, "Oh there's a little doorway out there which I don't know how to open, but it's opened a few times for me." A lot of young people are interested in tantra too. If you can get people interested at an earlier age, the benefits are huge both for their personal development and their relationship potential. Polonsky: But do young people need tantra? Isn't sex naturally exciting enough when you're young? Heumann: In a way, yes, if you're talking about average everyday sex. Young people aren't bored with it yet, and they have the hormones to support them. But I think the biggest misconception out there is that good sex should come naturally and people should just know how to do it. I don't think you really wind up having a satisfying sex life that way, even when you're young. People get very disappointed when great sex doesn't happen magically, or it doesn't happen the way Cosmo Magazine says it's supposed to. Or maybe it was wonderful at first, but then the pressures of life intrude and you don't know how to navigate sex to the next level. Polonsky: But does sex always have to be great? You use the term "everyday sex" like that's a problem. Do you make a stark distinction between "sacred sex" and "normal sex," and, if so, is it always necessary for sex to be sacred? Heumann: I do make that distinction, and I do think it should always be sacred. My partner and I don't always have sacred sex, but I know the difference, and I don't enjoy it when it's not deeply connective. Sacred sex is a profound merging, an absolute presence with another person for long periods of time. You're not off in some fantasy place, your partner is not preoccupied by some worry; you're both present right there in the moment. Tantric sexual practices may look like a lot to learn. But though they're very involved, you can get better at them. And once you do, when you're truly making love in a tantric way, you forget about the techniques because they simply flow out of you. And the most important thing is that you are focused and present with your partner. Sadly, I think very little sex happens that way. Polonsky: On the one hand, you say that sacred sex requires both partners to be fully present, not off in fantasy. Yet, you say that visualization is an element of tantric sex. What exactly is the difference between fantasy and visualization? Heumann: The difference is becoming more present, rather than less so. When you imagine your partner as a god or goddess, this makes you more present with that person. You're not thinking about other people, or imagining the orgy scene you saw in a porno movie. Also, visualization is usually something a couple will agree on ahead of time, so it's a shared experience. For example, if you're doing breath work and eye gazing, on the in breath you might imagine the breath rising out of your belly, up your chakras, out through your seventh chakra at the top of your head, and showering over your lover. Your partner is imagining the same thing, so you're passing energy back and forth and through one another. The mirror flows of energy rising up and out and into both of you form a heart-like shape. You can do this in an intercourse position too, like yab yum, or a spooning position. Polonsky: But doesn't all this insistence on sacredness make sex much less simple than it can be? Heumann: But I don't think sex should be simple. I think it should be a profound experience. The whole reason that the ancient tantrics and Taoists devised methods to prolong orgasm is that they realized orgasm takes us to a wholly different place, but only momentarily. So the idea was to extend that ecstatic moment and make it a portal into higher states of consciousness. Polonsky: Let me approach this from a different direction. Your web site contains a lot of sacred iconography: ornate renderings of gods and goddesses, candles, and various archetypal images. I wonder if this doesn't just add a lot of psychic clutter to the idea of sex. Even the term "sacred" comes with baggage, evoking early religious experiences which may be positive or negative. Is it possible to convey the spiritual quality of sex without bringing in the iconography? For individuals who cannot relate to the gods and goddesses, might not such images only serve to lengthen their distance from their own authentic sexuality? Heumann: Absolutely! You're right. That's why every individual has to choose the imagery they want to refer to, but they have to pick something, because we are an image based species. It's ingrained in us. I don't know any woman who can hold an ancient goddess image in her hand and not feel something about it. We all have sacred images we relate to. Take something as simple as a heart shape. You find a heart rock on the beach and you love it; you take it home and put it on your doorstep or your fireplace mantle or by your bed. It's sacred iconographyand it happens to look very much like a woman's yoni. Of course, male symbols of sacred iconography are everywhere. Just look at any tall building or a space shuttle or the Washington monument. It wasn't that long ago in the history of humans that we held nature as sacred. Even in this modern world, which is really very new, we're heavily impacted by iconography whether we choose to be or not. So pick and choose what gets you off. I don't care if it's a stiletto shoe you put on your altar. I don't care if it's a heart with an arrow through it or the Virgin Mary or the goddess Kali, but I do think it's important to consciously call on those forces. Sacred images will move you and take you places if you focus on them. Brain research supports this too. The parietal lobe, which is the region of the brain that interprets the data we perceive through our five senses, is also the area where we daydream and visualize. So, you take an exquisite touch from your lover, it's received in your parietal lobe, and there you combine that sensation with visions of your chosen iconography: a candle, a yantra, your lover's body, a picture on the wall of your bedroom. And you're actually building that lobe as you visualize ecstatic pleasure coursing through your body. You are strengthening your capacity to visualize, and to magnify sensation. Polonsky: But you don't want to frame the sacred experience as a simple matter of brain chemistry, do you? Heumann: Well, we are chemical beings. That's a fact. I think it's fascinating. Take pheromones, the attraction chemicals we produce. We pass them in our breath and through our sweat glands, behind our ears, under our arms. There have been studies done on lap dancers, correlating the amount of tips they make to where they are in their menstrual cycles. When they're ovulating they make ten times what they do when they're on their period, because pheromones are produced during ovulation. Then there's dopamine, which is the reward neurochemical. It typically builds during a sexual event. At the moment of orgasm, it drops off and serotonin rises, and that's the so-called depressive, refractory period, which is especially acute for men because they ejaculate. Oxytocin, the bonding chemical, is also very important. Scientists used to think oxytocin was produced in only three different ways: through nursing, childbirth, and orgasm (which meant only one way for men). But it turns out we also produce and deliver oxytocin through touching, kissing, caressing, and even eye gazing. So we're playing with neurochemicals all the time, and it's useful to understand that. Polonsky: Do you think this type of information should be taught to kids in school? Heumann: Yes, and I also think it would be fantastic to teach some of the mind/spirit western tantra practices to adolescents. For example, if we taught about exquisite touch, like running fingertips down your boyfriend or girlfriend's arm, or simple breath work or eye gazing or yoga, we can help kids realize that conscious behavior is more desirable than blanking out, and that softer, slower approaches to sexuality and sensuality are rewarding. In our society, kids usually enter into sex unconsciously; they're drunk or they've taken drugs around their first sexual experiences. Can you imagine asking junior high kids to simply sit across from a member of the opposite sex, eye gazing and breathing in synch, but not touching? That's an edgy exercise for an adult to do, let alone a kid. But you quickly get over the awkwardness of it, and the result is that, afterward, a boy can go up to a girl or a girl can go up to a boy and look them in the eye and say hi, instead of giggling and hiding behind a post, because they've learned to be more conscious and present. Studies have shown that there is a much lower incidence of pregnancy and STDs among kids who go to schools where they're taught about sexual anatomy and condom use, and those kids are also more likely to postpone having intercourse. The more they know, the more they understand the awesome responsibility that comes with intercourse, especially in today's world. With better information, they make clearer decisions for themselves. So why not also teach the value of integrity, truth telling, and being fully present with emotions and sensations? How about giving them some practice in communicating honestly to each other about sex? Polonsky: Are you suggesting there should be tantric sex educators in the schools? Heumann: Yes! And there are actually a couple of sex therapists who have started a teen tantra curriculum under the auspices of Planned Parenthood on the east coast. We need more of that. We hide sex, even though it's everywhere in our culture. We use it to sell all kinds of stuff , but it's still this mysterious thing that we don't really talk about with the kids. So they get "educated" by their peers, which is horrendous, because their peers know next to nothing. Or worse yet, nowadays, a lot of boys in particular learn about sex from looking at pornography on the internet, which is totally warped. There are some great sites for teens, like GoAskAlice.com, where they can get excellent explicit information, but that isn't where they surf to. When my own kids were teens and they brought friends over for dinner, I brought up the subject of sex. When my girls had parties, I would say to the kids who came early, "Okay now, everybody sit down, and we're going to have a sex talk. Anybody have questions? Here I am." My girls got embarrassed but years later they told me, "Gosh, Mom, it was great. Our friends loved it." The bottom line is that parents should not be abdicating sex education to the schools, much less the media. Polonsky: I'm wondering if tantra has anything to offer elderly people. Or women who've had a hysterectomy and aren't producing much vaginal fluid or sex hormones anymore, or men who've had prostate surgery and can't ejaculate, and may not get erections anymore. Heumann: I definitely think so, especially with some of the more intimate touch practices. Touch builds dopamine, and we still have so many organs that are functioning, like our skin, which is exquisitely sensitive. You can even orgasm without having sex if you learn to breathe right and focus your mind. It doesn't require genital touch. I know a lot of people who can have ecstatic full-body orgasm just through breath. Tantra gives you a whole palette of things to expand upon as you grow older. Polonsky: And men can have orgasms without ejaculating? Heumann: Oh yeah. Orgasm and ejaculation don't go together. They look like they do, because they've normally been collapsed into thatand because our society does not honor sex. Therefore, young men masturbate furtively, conditioning themselves to ejaculate quickly. Men need to change that experience pattern. At first, you have to exercise self control to not go over the top. Within a couple of weeks, with practice, you can get much better at that; it gets easier and easier to approach climax without ejaculating. You might use a scale of one to ten, and when you get to a seven, stop, breathe, and extend the length of time where you're just that aroused. As you gain control, you can start expanding the period of time between seven and nine point nine, where you're moving into the orgasmic phase. Then, by fully relaxing your body, you don't allow the smooth muscles of the urethra and the pelvic floor to go into spasm. So yes, men can experience orgasm without ejaculation. And you can do it multiple times in one lovemaking session. Polonsky: What other techniques might you recommend in preparation for ageing? Heumann: I'm a big advocate of doing kegels, for both women and men. Kegels are exercises that strengthen your pubococcygeus muscle, or PC muscle, which is the muscle that supports your pelvic organs. Kegels are simply the contracting and releasing of that muscle, which I recommend doing about 200 times a day. The easiest method is to just sit on the toilet and stop and start the stream of your pee. (You don't want to be doing your kegels this way! This is just to find the muscles) Use this maybe: You can find your PC muscles by stopping and starting the flow of urine the next time you go to the toilet. But you can do kegels anywhere, anytime. Just make a habit out of squeezing and releasing throughout the day. There are vast benefits. For one thing, you increase the blood flow to your genitals, which is what arousal and engorgement are all about. Secondly, you're not going to have urinary incontinence as you age because your whole pelvic region will be tighter and stronger and healthier. Also, for women, it builds up the muscle wall in the interior of the vagina, which creates a tighter fit around the penis during intercourse, and helps directs more pressure on the woman's G-spot. Hence, it makes it a lot easier for a woman to have vaginal, G-spot orgasms. Polonsky: It seems all the tantric iconography and sexual practices are about the male-female, penis-vagina polarity. Is tantra at all relevant to gay people? Heumann: Traditional tantra would say no, but western tantra says yes. In fact, one of the main goals of tantra is to develop and embrace both the male and female aspects of yourself, to become a more balanced and integrated individual, not to be hyper masculine or hyper feminine. Gender is not absolute; we all have estrogen and testosterone, for example. Some of the videos and other materials on tantra.com are specifically for gays and lesbians. Polonsky: Surely many people see personal pleasure as the main goal of any sexual practice. Is there a danger that tantra can become a self-indulgent, narcissistic endeavor? Heumann: Absolutely. I have seen enormous amounts of narcissistic behavior in the western tantra community, people looking at it as a "harder stronger better" kind of sexual pursuit. But as they delve further into it, those people tend to either fall away from tantra, or they begin to see that self-indulgence is a trap, and then they back up and start doing some of the more esoteric awareness practices. But again, pleasure is healthy! As a society, I think most of us have a very low capacity for pleasure. I don't just mean sex. I mean being more tactile in our orientation, learning to receive more touch, feeling the wind rush past your body, swimming, getting in bed at night and rolling around in your clean sheets for a few minutes. Tactile pleasure makes us more whole. I believe we all need sensual touch every day! Also, tantra pierces the veil of duality between us and our partners, and when we see ourselves in one other (another) person, we begin to see ourselves in all of humanity. Then a lot of our angst falls away. We stop seeing ourselves as special and separate; we become more empathic and loving. So it's really the opposite of narcissism. Polonsky: Here's a big question. What do you see as the future of sex? Heumann: Well unfortunately, I think we're going virtual. There are so many ways to communicate these days via electronics, and I believe we're going to see a rise in very sophisticated teledildonicspeople remotely controlling devices to stimulate a partner somewhere across the country. There's already stuff like that. But historically, every time we go too far one way, there is always a reaction the other way. Portions of the population are now moving in the direction of multiple partners, cyber sex, fuck bodies, and lots of sex that isn't particularly sacred. But a strong counter current will balance the scales. The universe always seeks to balance itself, I believe. The reason that secret tantric sex practices arose in the first place was that the Brahmins were telling everybody what to believe and how to behave, but people wanted a first-hand experience of spirit coming through. I am confident there will continue to be a growing segment of the population that embraces sacredness and a more ecstatic, connected, present experience of sexuality	eng	1d3726c3-fb41-48ff-bb74-e48eebcb853a	http://www.tantra.com/tantric_sex/the_joy_of_sacred_sex_suzie_heumann_on_modern_tantra.html
tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615Fri, 10 May 2013 03:05:11 +0000Search: PoliticsAsian. Female. Current Events. Culture. Politics. (Ashtyn)Blogger218125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-730651881040645975Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:38:00 +00002012-03-07T20:38:34.240-08:00Oversimplifying ThingsCurrently, the <a href=" 2012</a> video is going viral across social media networks - Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, you name it. It's essentially an emotional video with some nice cinematography that obviously stirs the general population. GREAT! People need to know about the social injustices of the world.<br /><br />But, people are gathering arms to get rid of Kony by the end of 2012, determined to donate money to <a href=" Children </a>and join the cause. Hm. Let's take a step back; really think about what we're getting ourselves into here. Honestly, people before this video probably didn't even know who Kony was. That's the great thing about social media these days - it's so useful to spread awareness! But, let's take another step back.<br /><br />Who is Invisible Children? What do they do? Where does the money go? What have they done in the past? What do they really stand for? Nobody seems to be asking themselves this question. I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to believe whatever they want to believe in, but let's just make sure we always take a look at the big picture first. It's better to question all then to blindly accept what others tell us. I think that's a huge problem with today's culture - our generation. Everyone wants to SAVE THE WORLD, but nobody's really thinking on their own. They just jump on the bandwagon, reblog that tumblr post, repost that Facebook status, etc. etc.<br /><br />Now, is every NGO perfect? No. Is every IGO perfect? No. Nobody is perfect, but knowing the faultiness of your own logic is a good thing. You don't want to be the one who just follows a trend of reblogging a video about KONY 2012 without having any real idea about what's actually going on.<br /><br />Check out <a href=" site, for more criticisms of KONY. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-7572641276796681902Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:32:00 +00002012-03-07T20:32:09.077-08:00It's Just a GameWhy are people so obsessed with sports? More importantly, why does the majority of a state suddenly unify at something like the Superbowl, to cheer on their team?<br /><br />Just things to think about as you read about/watch <a href=" freaking out </a>over the fact that her husband didn't win the Superbowl - obviously because of his failing teammates. Obviously. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-7885607394008511396Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:00:00 +00002011-03-18T12:01:12.412-07:00Ching Chong Ling Long Ting TongI live in the Bay Area, so I don't see as much of a racial divide between Asians and other cultures because there are so many Asians here, as opposed to some other areas such as the East Coast.<br /><br />UCLA is a pretty Asian-heavy populated school. So, why do I see videos like THIS'm pretty sure that Asians aren't the only ones who talk on their phones in the library. I've seen obnoxious people from all races. Why does she have to hate like that? FYI, you don't know when you're about to have an epiphany. An epiphany is defined as SUDDEN, which means it's UNEXPECTED.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong, everyone. </div> (Ashtyn)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-4377469884671709605Fri, 11 Mar 2011 03:41:00 +00002011-03-10T19:41:15.580-08:00Being NinjaThe state of Wisconsin is in an uproar after the Senate passed the Anti-Union Bill, restricting collective bargaining rights of public union workers. It's a big hullabaloo because people are upset that the Republican legislators could be so clandestine about an important bill and "outmaneuver" the missing Democrats, as NPR puts it. I have to say that taking out the economic components of the bill that required the presence of the Democrats-in-hiding was pretty sneaky - clever or wrong, I can't really say because my knowledge of the law is next to zero.<br /><br />What I do know is this: the Democrats are just "butt-hurt" (upset) that even though they tried to run away and hide in Illinois to think of a counter plan, the Republicans still managed to pass this bill. But what I also realize is that the Republicans always say they want to turn back to the old traditional way of politics and do everything clean-cut and put all politics out in the open for the public to see. So, why be secretive? Why make a sketchy move that the public so obviously disapproves of?<br /><br />We can't be hypocritical, folks. But oh Democratic senators of Wisconsin...what else did you think was going to happen when you ran away and hid? Come out, come out, wherever you are. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-9007131537629394784Sat, 05 Mar 2011 01:09:00 +00002011-03-06T17:20:03.686-08:00Pooper Paper So, I was visiting a local stationery store and as soon as I walk in, I see a giant display advertising "PooPooPaper". I start to read the labels and I soon discover it's made out of REAL, GENUINE ELEPHANT POO. Fantastic.<br /><br /><br />Let's take a couple of steps back now and really think about what I just said. There is paper made out of an animal's feces being sold in an actual store for profit. I'm all for supporting the environment and minimizing the effects of the human race and pollution by recycling and re-using stainless steel water bottles, but I draw the line. I used to have this notebook made completely out of recycled paper and bananas - it was kind of cool; it was not edible though, just saying. I just don't understand the point of making paper made out of poop. Is someone trying to make a statement? Because I'm not getting it.<br /><br />Click <a href=" to find out more about PooPoo Paper. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-4716875847606434160Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:56:00 +00002011-03-02T21:56:48.675-08:00I Have the RightThe protests and picketing at the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder were absurd. You don't just march on down to funerals and hold up signs that say "God hates you!" and "Fags Doom Nations!". You can be anti-homosexual all you want - be a homophobic. But, don't go imposing your beliefs on other people and ruining sacred moments of others.<br /><br />I'm not surprised that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that these picketers had the right to do so due to the First Amendment, but I'm surprised it was such a landslide of a vote. Also, as a side note, props to Elena Kagan (colloquial language, yes) for voting for what she believed was legally correct, though she may have been more personally offended - that is what makes a great justice. Anyways, back to the subject, so where do we draw the line? People are always saying that they have the RIGHT to do certain things. But, when you put things in perspective, you have to ask yourself, "To what extent will I exercise this right?" During a sacred, precious moment which is PRIVATE, there should be no protesting. It's wrong. You can't use language like that, either. This is just like the '50s when people were calling African-Americans the N* word - it's just really not acceptable at all. Intolerant people infuriate me.<br /><br />But, when I think about it, the verdict is well-supported and I have to say I ultimately agree. They didn't march all over the casket and start yelling at the funeral attendees. They were 1,000 feet away and took the necessary steps to have a public protest. So, in that, they really can do whatever they want. Common sense-wise...SHOULD you do something like that? No.<br /><br />Not at all.<br /><br />I feel like that's similar to having a Jewish Holocaust victim being buried in a ceremony, and having a bunch of Neo-Nazis protesting 1,000 feet away. It's just weird and wrong. What happened to God loving every single person, just the way they were? And forgiveness? (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-469972599442792098Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:58:00 +00002011-02-25T20:58:45.919-08:00Time to InterveneNow that all Americans have reportedly been evacuated from Libya and the U.S. Embassy has been shut down in Tripoli, I'm glad that President Obama and his administration have proposed economic sanctions. Freezing the assets of Gaddafi is something I also agree with, obviously. I think it's interesting that in the 21st century, the fastest, and often times the simplest, way is to "attack" financially. Although Gaddafi has a reported amount of billions and billions of dollars, he's trapped in a corner, no?<br /><br />He's doing everything he can to cling to his power, though the people have spoken. I feel like this is an accelerated version of the American Revolution inspiring the French Revolution. But I hope the Libyan Revolution is 10x more successful with positive long-term effects, than the French's in the 19th century. Anyways, it is like a good domino effect, where the corrupt and dogmatic regimes across the globe will slowly fall one by one. But how will the UN, the world, and the United States react? How much influence does the UN Security Council actually have, and how fast can they act? But of course, we have to think of the humanitarian aid that must be sent to Libya and protecting the foreigners in Libya who must be escorted safely out of the country.<br /><br />My brain starts to hurt when I start to think about all the things that must be considered before taking any action, politically. I just hope the United States plays it smart and doesn't start something we can't finish and simply works with the international community as a whole to solve this crisis. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-3546564619144213599Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:51:00 +00002011-02-21T18:51:29.893-08:00Cue Secret Agent MusicWhen I think CIA, I think of retinal scan security, laser technology weapons, hundreds of passports and identities, and whatever else the media feeds me. I'm a human being, what can I say?<br /><br />But when I read news about anything CIA-related, it's big hype. Just like Raymond Davis, currently held in Pakistan - illegally or legally, I don't really know.<br /><br />Apparently, he's not an agent, but a protector of U.S. officials. The U.S. government insists that he maintains diplomatic immunity because he is part of the "staff" at the United States Embassy in Islamabad. If, indeed, Davis works for the Embassy, in accordance with the Vienna Convention of 1961, he must be offered diplomatic immunity in order to perform his duty - which, supposedly, is to "protect case officers when they meet with sources," according to NPR. Of course, the United States is going to bring out the BIG GUNS...not literally. We're going to threaten Pakistan and say we'll cut off our billions of dollars of funding if Davis isn't released - that's how it always works, no?<br /><br />All governments do shady things, and I, personally, believe that the United States government should do whatever it takes to put the safety of OUR nation first. (I'm reminded of the West Wing episode where the President approves a clandestine assassination of a foreign minister.) So, if Davis is actually an agent doing reconnaissance on militant groups, so be it. I won't hold that against him. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-398177502513620104Sat, 19 Feb 2011 03:32:00 +00002011-02-18T19:32:18.500-08:00Groups and Unions, What Role Should They Play?We're all hearing about the protests in Wisconsin due to what President Obama calls "[the Republican] assault on unions", according to <a href=" New York Times</a>. The Republican party is known for their general dislike of unions and the new Congressmen who have taken over the House are obviously aiming to limit the negotiating powers of union workers, such as teachers.<br /><br />When I think unions, I think of my AP U.S. History learning and why labor unions were first established - to fight corrupt, large businesses. Of course, over time, the unions have been steadily gaining more clout; the benefits and such of being part of a union are something to take into consideration when first looking for a job, no? But all in all, what's wrong with having large groups of people band together to fight for (maybe) higher wages and more workers' rights! Well, I have no problem with it. My only concern is this: Where do you draw the line? How much power do you allow these unions to have?<br /><br />Yes, there are companies that labor unions fight against for better wages and work hours, and whatnot, but honestly, we all know that conditions now are a little bit better than oh, say, the early 1900s when Teddy Roosevelt went around as the big "trust-buster". Our economy is slowly getting back up on its feet, so people are suffering - a majority, if not all.<br /><br />No matter how much you disagree, I don't think it's right for the Congressmen to simply "walk out" and leave the state to avoid having to confront the issue. This extreme act only displays their immaturity and inability to deal with these kinds of problems head-on, to fight for what they believe in. Same goes for the all the Republican legislators who have done so in the past, too, (click <a href=" to read about past walk-outs). Grow up, folks. Grow up. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-9034304539688604154Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:45:00 +00002011-02-17T05:57:58.189-08:00Who Are Our Allies?Iran still has a nuclear missiles program in the works.<br /><br />Israel is our supposed ally. But, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has gone on for too long.<br /><br />Why do we have such issues in the Middle East all the time? The U.S. government wants to support a U.N. Security Council statement denying support to Israel's continued settlement. It's a political move, but I think that it's appropriate seeing that Israel continues to make illegal settlements onto Palestinian land. Israelis claim that they own this land after the Six-Day War in 1967, but nobody in the international community recognizes this land as Israel's. In fact, it's still considered illegal. Although Israel is an ally, the United States is making, what I believe to be, a right move towards international diplomacy. If we ever want peace between Israelis and Palestinians, these "settlements" and communities of Israeli civilians need to be dissipated.<br /><br />On another note, it makes me a little more nervous with Israel's reports of Iranian's transporting of, what the U.S. government is saying is, "unknown" goods/products to Syria through the Suez Canal. Sketchy. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-3461400709852525153Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:43:00 +00002011-02-11T19:44:03.904-08:00A Natural RightIs every human being entitled to freedom and liberty? The United States was founded on the principles of "natural rights." We are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Former President George W. Bush had his Freedom Agenda, which is based on this idea of a natural right to liberty - every mean wants to have his own liberty. In this <a href=" piece</a>, Lee Smith talks about how President Bush has the right to say he was right. Everyone judged the Freedom Agenda, because this policy towards the Middle East seemed doomed for failure after what happened in Iraq.<br /><br />But, looking back, the former president wasn't so far off, was he? The people of Egypt have spoken and have been heard by the government, as evidenced by the <i>former</i> President Mubarak's addressing of the public and his resignation. Sure, we're not sure if this transition of power will remain within the confines of the legal restrictions of Egypt's constitution, but fundamentally, the people's outcries reflect this idea that every person wants liberty. I think each "man" is entitled to it, too.<br /><br />So, when everyone was bashing President George W. Bush for his ridiculous notions of being idealistic and wanting democracy everywhere, think about right now, this very moment. It won't' happen over night, but it's happening. The repressed will rise up, some day. (Ashtyn)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-6183915393807013415Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:00:00 +00002011-02-08T07:19:47.201-08:00O'Reilly vs. ObamaFrom what I saw online of the discussion between Fox News Bill O'Reilly and President Obama, it's obvious where O'Reilly stands - no doubt. But we already knew that O'Reilly leans towards the "right" end of the political spectrum.<br /><br />Overall, I think the conversation went much better than a conversation between Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck and the President would have went. However, I still don't like this whole "let's-interrupt-the-other-person" thing. If you ask a question, even if you're having a debate of sorts, you have to let the other person finish. Whenever I watch the news and the news anchor asks a liberal and a conservative questions, the two representatives of their political parties start going at it. Nobody lets the other finish. You just look like a fool who can't control yourself if you just start talking and talking and try to talk OVER the other person.<br /><br />But I think that O'Reilly did a good job representing Fox News, putting them perhaps in a more moderate light, since Obama's administration did say that Fox News wasn't a real news network - ouch. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-8132467326007340664Wed, 02 Feb 2011 07:12:00 +00002011-02-01T23:12:41.785-08:00Under AgeThere are a lot of laws that have to do with age in the United States - drinking, smoking, federal punishment, etc.<br /><br />When I heard about the 13-year-old boy who was viciously attacked in Philadelphia, I just feel sick to the stomach. He was kicked, dragged around through the snow, hung upside down from a tree, thrown upon a fence, and even more, by 7 teens. These teens, by the way, go to an alternative school because they have reported behavioral issues - GEE, I wonder why?<br /><br />I hear about bullying, but I've never actually witnessed something like this. Seeing the images caught on videotape by one of the attackers' cellphone makes it just that more real and personal. How could nobody have seen this happen? Do communities not pay attention to their fellow citizens anymore like they used to? Is everybody just too busy to look around, look outside, and check up on his/her neighbors?<br /><br />This boy is right though - the friends of the attackers will continue to bully him. What can he do? Realistically. Change schools? The attackers are minors and will thus go to juvenile hall or some other correction facility. In federal prison, they would serve something around 20 years, but no - they're only in juvy. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-8513047755735959853Sun, 30 Jan 2011 04:46:00 +00002011-01-29T20:46:56.964-08:00Naughty, NaughtyI see this article by <a href=" Telegraph</i></a> about alleged American involvement in the uprisings and rebellions in Cairo, Egypt, and I think to myself, "This isn't the first time..."<br /><br />Sadly, the United States has backed rebellious groups in countries, particularly Iran, to overthrow or undermine the government. So, these accusations aren't all that surprising. I think the United States needs to stop trying to install democratic governments across the globe - you can't force people to do what you want and have happy nations. The United States is a protector and support of democracies; this does not mean we have the right to go to other countries and impose our ideals and beliefs on them because we believe that democracy is the only way to go. This just makes our relations with the international community that much more tense and difficult.<br /><br />Oh WikiLeaks. (Ashtyn)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-1689893571502649466Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:11:00 +00002011-01-25T20:11:26.124-08:00Compare:<a href=" Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address in 1981</a><br /><br /><br /><a href=" Obama's State of the Union Address in 2011</a><br /><br />Enough said? (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-7723189030549407844Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:03:00 +00002011-01-25T20:04:25.518-08:002011 State of the Union Address"Where does it go after the words are spoken?" That's what I heard while watching the live stream of <i>Wall Street Journal</i> commentators online.<br /><br />After an "uplifting" speech from our President, what action is actually going to be taken? <br /><br />I enjoyed the central theme of the speech - to come together and do what is <i>necessary</i>, not popular. To be quite honest, his words about the banks really reminded me of FDR and his trust-busting. But, is it really Main Street vs. Wall Street again? I thought the President wanted to bring everyone together - "one country, one people." So, why bring up that argument again.<br /><br />"It's because of this spirit, this great decency and great strength, that I have never been so hopeful about America's future than I am tonight," says President Obama. And then, a standing ovation is given. Then, Vice President Biden starts to clap a few minutes later, but nobody joins him. It's so funny.<br /><br />On the other hand, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin had an all-too-realistic speech. I don't think he did nearly as good of a job reaching out and connecting with the American people. I, personally, liked some of the ideas he talked about, especially limited government. But, why does the GOP have such a hard time connecting with the masses? Not the Tea-Party fanatics, the general population of the U.S.<br /><br />P.S. Vice President Biden...You can't start nodding at President Obama's speech in the first 3 minutes of his speech when he hasn't said anything of real substance yet.<br /><br />Click <a href=" for an interesting article about Mr. President's "facts" in his speech. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-6056786901352301365Fri, 21 Jan 2011 06:48:00 +00002011-01-24T20:02:15.604-08:00Whose Place is It, Anyways?Schools. We go to school to learn. We go to school to gather the fundamentals to build upon them later in life and to develop our own perspective on the world. I don't go to school to hear teachers telling me what to believe or what not to believe. It's ultimately my decision.<br /><br />Some teachers I've had are excellent at maintaining an apolitical standpoint during class discussions in classes such as AP U.S. History. But, it really bothers me when other teachers start to interject their own political biases and opinions. It's okay to take jabs at certain political parties, as long as you're making the equal amount of jabs at the other political parties. There has to be a balance of some sort, don't you think? If someone bashes CNN and MSNBC, then it's only fair to bash Fox News. When I can't figure out what political orientation a teacher has, I think that the teacher has succeeded in teaching me what I need to know - no more, no less. But, when I tell my friends, "Oh, yeah. That teacher bashes ____ all the time. They must be of _____ party," I think there's something wrong.<br /><br />I know in elementary schools, high schools, and colleges across the nation, there are probably teachers who aren't necessarily doing their job. They step over the boundaries. But, how do kids stand up to that? Tell their parents? What about handling it on their own? Have we created a society where it's not okay to stand up in a classroom and say that you don't agree that abortion is the right way to go?<br /><br />Perhaps. And if we have created such a society, then what do we do. Democracy is all about majority rule, but minority rights. Let's not forget that. (Ashtyn)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-4512112719662586776Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:45:00 +00002011-01-24T20:01:25.651-08:00'Ole Huck FinnPeople ban books. People censor inappropriate images. But, I don't think it's really necessary to take out the "n-word" from the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Yes, in the 21st century we're not allowed to use the "n-word" against African-American people because it's quite offensive. I completely agree.<br /><br />But Twain's infamous masterpiece was written in the 19th century, when it was normal to refer to people of black color as "n-word." So, this idea to continue reprinting of controversial novels such as this is ridiculous. We could be spending our time doing other things, no? It just shocks me that parents would sue a high school over requiring their child to read this book full of "racial slurs." Yes. In the 19th century, slavery was still a very real thing. It seems that everyone in today's society wants to sue everyone else when something bothers them - it can be anything from a cup of tea that's too hot and burns their tongue to a simple book. I think people today are just too self-involved and lack common sense. It's okay to have these characteristics, but at least recognize you have them. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-4886007534721034440Sat, 15 Jan 2011 05:07:00 +00002011-01-14T21:07:59.419-08:00Operation: Embarass the GirlKids are cruel; we all get that.<br /><br />At school, there's always assemblies on bullying. A rising threat in today's society is cyber-bullying/stalking. Just recently, two girls were arrested for the "stalking" of a minor under the age of 16. They created a fake Facebook profile, uploading inappropriate (some nude) pictures with the minor's face photo-shopped onto obscene images.<br /><br />These two girls who allegedly created this fake profile thought it'd be funny; the poor victim was teased and tormented because of all the pictures and comments on the Facebook page. Boys are mean and violent, but girls can be just plain vicious.<br /><br />We wonder why there is such a high depression rate and suicide rate amongst teenagers and young adults here in the United States - this is why. People don't respect each other anymore and the internet is often used as a means of targeting people anonymously. So these two girls call this kind of hoax a joke. I think it's a joke that they're making fun of their former "friend," but in the end, they were caught and they're in legal trouble. Did they really have nothing better to do with their time than to make a fake Facebook profile?<br /><br />Somebody sounds a little insecure.<br /><br />For more info, click <a href=" (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-3837346258013073328Fri, 14 Jan 2011 04:13:00 +00002011-01-13T20:13:08.459-08:00Chinese MomsIf you haven't, yet, you should read the article on the <a href=" Street Journal</a> about Chinese mothers; it's written by a Chinese mother, Amy Chua, who is a professor at Yale Law School.<br /><br />Essentially, it talks about her approach to disciplining and raising her two daughters, instilling certain values in them. Personally, I think she's over the top. If you look at the list of the things her daughters CAN'T do, they include: 1) no going to sleepovers 2) no participating in school plays 3) not complaining about not being in the school plays 4) never being allowed to get lower than an A on anything...and the list really does go on and on.<br /><br />What I was more interested in was the fundamental differences between "Chinese" or Asian cultures and Western cultures is that Asian moms aren't afraid to tell their kids the truth. These days, people in the U.S. are all about <i>being sensitive to people's feelings</i>. You NEVER tell someone they're fat, even though they may be overweight and you're just looking out for them. People need to hear the truth. And you know what? THE TRUTH HURTS.<br /><br />A lot of Western parents are okay with B+'s, B's, and B-'s. I know that was never the case at my house; no B's allowed - really. It really instills this idea that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. Like Professor Chua says, you don't start to like something until you're good at it. So, instead of allowing your kids to be complacent and accept mediocrity, sometimes you have to push your kids a little to help them to understand that value of hard work.<br /><br />You have to find a balance. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-4841848675855989512Sat, 08 Jan 2011 20:16:00 +00002011-01-08T12:16:53.489-08:00Arizona Rep. ShotDemocratic Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been shot while holding a small event at a Safeway in Tuscon. A gunman came up and shot her in the head from four feet away.<br /><br />I'm ashamed to say that the gunman, who is now in custody, is reportedly in his "late teens or early 20s" by <a href=" My generation really just thinks impulsively. Why did he shoot her? I have no idea what his motives are. What I do know is that you can't just go and shoot someone because you're unhappy with the status quo or because you're unhappy in general. If you're angry at a government official or policies being implemented, you write letters and formally address your concerns. You find some kind of diplomatic and peaceful way to get your message across.<br /><br />Why do people think that just because you kill someone, the issue goes away? Is it some kind of attempt at becoming a symbolic martyr? You just seem like a fool, perhaps ruining things for the group of people who are trying to deal with the same issues in a more direct and calm way.<br /><br />I pray for Rep. Giffords. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-4253975840508248010Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:14:00 +00002011-01-08T12:11:52.401-08:00Shift in PowerThere's a new Speaker of the House. The Republican party holds the majority in the House. I see more of a balance, now, in the government. Remember, there has to be a balance of power here.<br /><br />So, why are Democrats so outraged and so determined to put Nancy Pelosi back into her old position? Maybe they're scared that Obama's absurd plans won't be passed now...Regardless, the people have spoken. They obviously are displeased with the "change" Obama and his adminstration have brought; get it? A change from the change.<br /><br />Sometimes, I think that people forget that these representatives and senators are supposed to be the speakers for the people they represent. They have to always take into consideration what the people of their state or district want and be that voice in government to relay the people's desires to the people in charge. But, along the way, I think it becomes more of a power struggle and what each party wants, not necessarily what the people want. (Ashtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-1949165928262380951Tue, 04 Jan 2011 05:51:00 +00002011-01-03T21:51:44.741-08:00Hello 21st Century College StudentsAshtyn)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-1852357931181443261Tue, 04 Jan 2011 05:39:00 +00002011-01-03T21:39:12.928-08:00The Correct TermWhat's more appropriate:"illegal alien" or "undocumented immigrant"?<br /><br />I think that the people who come to the United States, crossing our borders, illegally, are illegal aliens. They are not simply undocumented immigrants. They are criminals who have crossed the border, cutting the other people who get green cards, apply for citizenship, and are waiting in line. Why soften it up and change the term to undocumented immigrant? Leo Laurence of <i>Quill Magazine</i> made some silly remark saying that the Society of Professional Journalists is advocating the changing the term "illegal immigrant" because it is politically incorrect.<br /><br />Silly Leo. It's funny that the Society of Professional Journalists then goes to publish a note on its <a href=" "The views expressed by Leo Laurence in Quill Magazine, SPJ's Diversity Committee blog "Who's News," and on subsequent television programs are his personal opinion and do not reflect the views of SPJ nor its Diversity Committee. Contrary to what has been reported, SPJ has not engaged in any initiative to end the use of the term 'illegal immigrant.'"<br /><br />Is it a crime to come into the United States illegally, even if it's just so that he/she and his/her family can have a better life? <br /><br />Yes. (Ashtyn)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148403229059000615.post-3656164653691702498Fri, 31 Dec 2010 06:40:00 +00002010-12-31T02:45:17.261-08:00Today's PeoplePeople are boycotting tween heartthrob Justin Bieber because of his alleged pro-mosque comments about the mosque building on Ground Zero.<br /><br />It's too bad that these people were sadly misinformed and were basing their anger on an article written by a satirical media website similar to the satirical news source, <i>The</i> <i>Onion</i>. That's typical society, today. They read something somewhere, not checking or scouting out other sources, and immediately believe it. Why? Because it's published, of course. Also, why boycott a young celebrity for their views? Bieber is 16. Even if he did say such a foolish thing, which he did NOT, what does boycotting do? It simply makes the die-hard Bieber fans even more supportive and cohesive as a fan group.<br /><br />Don't take it so personally if someone is pro-mosque. I don't support the building of the mosque in this particular location so close to Ground Zero, but perhaps people weigh religious freedom over respecting lost lives. It's not a personal vendetta against the families of 9/11 victims.<br /><br />Why has our society become so impulsive and ignorant? You can't believe everything you read. Even I could be lying to you this very minute. Better check your sources. (Ashtyn)0	eng	4af97524-0e26-43f4-9b95-390491889566	http://www.whatsamattayou.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Parent News PARENT NEWS:05/02/2013 Interactive exhibit featuring live animals available now through June 30 Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center is currently hosting SeaLife Encounters at Sci-Port through Sunday, June 30. SeaLife Encounters at Sci-Port gives visitors the opportunity to touch and feed live, wild stingrays. Specifically, the traveling exhibit features 6 to 12 adolescent stingrays that have had their defensive barbs removed; types of stingrays and other animals include Atlantic stingrays, cownose stingrays, starfish, horseshoe crabs and southern stingrays. The cost for exhibit admission is $2 for Sci-Port Members and $3 for Future Members. To feed the animals, there is an additional $3 cost. The hands-on experience is accompanied by static displays showing how stingrays can be used in everyday life. The exhibit is open during the Center's normal operating hours, and uniformed, knowledgeable staff is on duty to interact with guests and answer questions. To complement the exhibit, Sci-Port is hosting an array of new programs, as well as giving Birthday Blasts participants the opportunity to add-on the SeaLife Encounters at Sci-Port experience. Rotating programs at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. daily throughout the duration of the exhibit are free with paid Center admission and include: Hi, Tide! (May 13-19; June 3-9 & June 24-30) - Understand how the sun and the moon affect the tides of the ocean, and make a wheel that shows what phase of the moon and position of the sun do to the oceanic tides! Blowin' in the Wind (May 6-12; May 27-June 3 & June 17-23) - Help demonstrate the effects of a hurricane's high winds, and make a handy weather wheel to predict hurricane damage. Stingray Shuffle (April 29-May 5; May 20-26 & June 10-16) - Learn more about the stingrays that you can see and touch in SeaLife Encounters at Sci-Port, and make your own "flying" friend. Plus, Sci-Port is hosting daily demonstrations to complement the SeaLife Encounters experience at 2:30 and 3 p.m. through June 30: Constellation Stories: Under the Sea, 2:30 p.m. daily - Take your SeaLife Encounters at Sci-Port experience one step further by visiting our Space Dome Planetarium for a live presentation of the aquatic constellations! Dive in, and learn about Cetus the Whale, Aquarius the Water-Bearer, the magical fish Pisces and many more!* This program will not take place on Monday, May 13, and Wednesday, May 15. Close Encounters with Ocean Objects, 3 p.m. daily - Use our Scope on a Rope to view various ocean objects at 200x! Birthday Blasts attendees will have the option to add-on the SeaLife Encounters at Sci-Port experience for an additional $5 per child. Suggested parties to add the exhibit experience onto include "Pirates Adventure," "Under the Sea" and "Creature Feature." Learn more about Sci-Port's Birthday Blasts at sciport.org/birthdays. Due to the nature of the exhibit, the open hours are limited to eight hours per day. A thirty minutes animal rest period will be taken after each three hour period or as needed. SeaLife Encounters was started by Joe Culver and has become a popular exhibit around the country. More than 750,000 people have experienced SeaLife Encounters. PARENT NEWS:03/14/2013 COMMUNITY CENTER OFFERS YOUTH MARTIAL ARTS CLASSES SPAR The classes will be held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:00 - 6:00pm for Little Tigers (ages 3-5) and from 6:00 - 7:30pm for Iron Tigers (ages 6 & up). The cost of the class is $20.00 monthly. The center is located at 6500 Kennedy Drive. For more information call Lance Williams at 318.200.1094. --------------------------------- LOUISIANA VIRTUAL CHARTER SCHOOL ENROLLING NOW FOR 2013-2014 SCHOOL YEAR! Course Choice will provide students access to publicly-funded, rigorous college and career course offerings beginning in the 2013-2014 school year. While 49 percent of young adults across the state enter four-year colleges, only 19 percent graduate. Another 15 percent earn associate degrees. This leaves two-thirds of Louisianans with no workforce credential. Course Choice is an innovative educational program that provides Louisiana students with access to thousands of high-quality academic and career-oriented courses. Course are funded for students in low performing schools and where courses are not already offered at district school. During the 2013-2014 school year, providers such as state universities, public schools, and private providers will offer a broad range of courses in over 90 locations across the state and online including: • AP Courses: For the first time, all Louisiana students will have access to Advanced Placement courses; • Career and Technical Education (CTE) Courses: Hands-on coursework, internships and apprenticeships in a wide array of high-demand job sectors will enable students across Louisiana to learn the skills they will need to secure 21st Century careers; • Core Academic Courses: Innovative programs will be available for younger students, including foreign language courses for elementary and middle school students and gifted-student programs for elementary school students; • Test Preparation Courses: Courses that specialize in helping students excel in high-stakes testing like the ACT and core academic "End of Course" (EOC) exams; and • College Credit Opportunities: Students will have access to courses at technical and community colleges across Louisiana and every four-year Louisiana public university. These courses are available at no additional cost for Louisiana students if they attend a C, D or F public school or if they want to register for a course not offered at their A or B public school. State law establishes the maximum cost per course at approximately $1275; however, the average cost for a one credit course, such as Algebra 1 is roughly $700. CTE Courses that cost more typically provide students with multiple credits, multiple certifications like OSHA safety certifications, and equipment they can use on-the-job. PARENT NEWS:03/18/2013 "FAITH FIT", FREE 6 WEEK FITNESS CLASS OFFERED BY FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF BOSSIER Come join us for a 6-week, free fitness class for beginners and intermediates. Class is instructed by Uriah Oxford, a Certified Fitness Trainer. No equipment is needed; a short devotion will be given. The "Faith Fit" Class will meet at First United Methodist Church of Bossier City 201 John Wesley Blvd. (Imago Dei Sunday School Room) from April 1 through May 5. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Sundays from 5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Please contact Rev. Ashley McGuire at 318-742-3823 with questions. PARENT NEWS: 1/17/2013 LOUISIANA NOW RANKS 15TH NATIONALLY IN A RECENT EDUCATION REPORT Louisiana's overall ranking jumped to 15th this year from 23rd last year and up from 44th in 2008. The annual publication is a report card on education, providing a national and state-by-state summary and competitive analysis. With the improvement, Louisiana now ranks in the top third of states in the nation. Governor Bobby Jindal said, "Our kids deserve a high-quality education system so they can be prepared for the workforce. That's why we have made bold changes to our education system so that every child has the opportunity to get a great education - and our reforms are working. Indeed, this new ranking shows that our education system has gone from almost rock bottom to number 15 in the country. We've made great progress, but we will not stop until Louisiana has the best education system in the country." Louisiana received high praise yet again and showed gains in two of the three indicators recalculated for 2013. Quality Counts updates scores in the six main performance measures on a rotating basis. Three of the six performance indicators in the 2013 Quality Counts report are fresh for this year, including Transitions and Alignment and School Finance Analysis. • Transitions and Alignment. In 2013, Louisiana was well above the national average in this category which evaluates the state's alignment of early childhood education and college and career readiness. Louisiana is one of only 8 states earning an "A" letter grade on educational alignment policies, increasing the state's score 10.8 points to 92.9. The 2013 national average for Transitions and Alignment is 81.1 for a grade of "B". • School Finance Analysis. This measure evaluates not only overall school and student funding, but also equity in the distribution of funds throughout districts. Louisiana earned a score of 75.3, up from 74.7 last year, earning a grade of "C", and ranking 21st. The 2013 national average was 75.8 for a grade of "C". "This reinforces the strong foundation we have laid for increasing career and college readiness for all kids across Louisiana," said Chas Roemer, president-elect of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. "However, it also highlights the need to redouble our efforts to realize the results our kids deserve and our economy demands." The scores in remaining categories - Standards, Assessments, and Accountability and The Teaching Profession - are based on the state's score from the 2012 report. • Standards, Assessment, and Accountability. In 2012, Louisiana earned a score of 97.2 and a grade of "A", ranking second in the nation in this category. The 2012 national average was 85.3 for a grade of "B". • The Teaching Profession. For its policies on improving and maintaining teacher quality, Louisiana received a 2012 score of 79.6 and a grade of "B-". The state was ranked 11th in the nation. The 2012 national average for The Teaching Profession was 72.5 for a grade of "C". Master Gardener Le Tour des Jardins Scheduled for May 4 & 5th The Northwest Louisiana Master Gardeners will hold their annual spring garden tour, Le Tour des Jardins on May 4 and 5, 2013. This year's garden tour will take you through five beautiful private gardens throughout Shreveport and Benton. Tour hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 4, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on May 5. Advance tickets are $10 and can be purchased at any Citizens National Bank, or by calling the Master Gardeners office at (318) 698-0010. Tickets may also be purchased at any garden on the days of the tour for $12. A Garden Bazaar will be held during the tour at the Pioneer Heritage Center at LSUS, and while there, enjoy a tour of the Heritage Center Gardens, a project of the Northwest Louisiana Master Gardeners. Admission to the Heritage Center is free. Proceeds from the garden tour fund future Master Gardener projects and help promote the Master Gardeners' mission to enhance the quality of knowledge for gardeners in the community. For more information contact the Master Gardener office at (318)698-0010. SPAR OFFERS PIANO CLASSES FOR SENIORS Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR) announces Piano Classes for Seniors, starting January 22 & 23, 2013. SPAR will hold two classes on a quarterly basis. The Basic Piano class will be held at Airport Park Community Center, 6500 Kennedy Drive, on Tuesdays from 9:00 - 10:30am. The class will also be held at Bill Cockrell Community Center, 4109 Pines Road, on Wednesdays from 9:00 - 10:30am. The classes are free (only one class per quarter) for senior citizens who are interested in learning to play the piano. In addition to being fun and entertaining, scientists have found that the piano strengthens and helps keep the brain alert and active. To sign up for the class or for additional information, call either Airport Park Community Center at 318.673.7803 or Bill Cockrell Community Center at 318.629.4185 or Camille Webb, SPAR Senior Coordinator at 318.673.7845. Space is limited and on a first come, first served basis. Holiday Lanes Announces the 2012 Holiday Spirit Winners Holiday Lanes, in association with the Caddo and Bossier Parish School Board, is pleased to announce the winners of the Holiday Spirit Program. The schools listed below will be awarded bowling P.E. equipment for their school valued at approximately $350 each. This award is given to the schools who had the most people who bowled at Holiday Lanes from November 19, 2012 through January 2, 2013. Approximately 1200 students, teachers and administrators in Caddo and Bossier Parishes participated in the program. Holiday Lanes is committed to every Northwest Louisiana student learning how to bowl in P.E. class and has, over the duration of this Holiday Spirit program, will have contributed in excess of $10,000 to the Caddo and Bossier Parish school community. A presentation of awards will be made at 3:30 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013. Thank you to all students, teachers and administrators who bowled in the Holiday Spirit Program, Congratulations to all of our winners and we hope you will keep bowling! Holiday Lanes is located at 3316 Old Minden Road, Bossier City, Louisiana, (318) 746-7331, PARENT NEWS:02/15/2013 TIME TO START THINKING ABOUT SPRING BREAK CAMPS Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR) announces Spring Break Camps to be held March 25 - March 29, 2013, from 8:00am to 6:00pm at each of its 15 community centers. The camps dates correspond with the Caddo Parish School calendar and its Spring break. The Spring Camps will include games, movies, field trips, and other fun activities for youth ages 6 to 11 for the Youth Spring Camp and teens ages 12 - 17 for the Teen Spring Camp. Space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis. Registration for the camps is required and begins on February 25, 2013. The SPAR Spring Break Camps are free. Lunch and snacks will be provided. Registration is required. For more information contact your neighborhood community center. The centers' telephone numbers and addresses, along with more camp information, can be found at STUDENT APPLICATION FOR LOUISIANA SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM AVAILABLE TO FAMILIES STATEWIDE The Department of Education today released the student application to participate in the Louisiana Scholarship Program for the 2013-2014 school year. While the list of participating schools will not be final until after all applications are received, schools listed on the application have undergone a rigorous review process involving independent accreditation, Department of Education surveys, and site visits. Applications can be found online or at any participating school. The deadline for completed applications is March 15. Last year, the Department received more than 10,000 applications. During the coming months, the Department will work with participating schools to determine seat availability and attempt to match applicants with the school of their choice. However, if the number of applicants exceeds available seats, the scholarships will be awarded through a lottery process. All applicants will be notified of the status of their application no later than the week of April 15. For more information on the Louisiana Scholarship Program, please click here. PARENT NEWS - 11/15/2012 HOLIDAY CAMPS: SPAR Harvest Camps: Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR) annual Thanksgiving break Harvest Camps at 14 of its community centers will be held beganSciPort Holiday Camps: Sci-Port's Holiday Day Camps are themed and designed to accommodate specific grade groups, from Kindergarten through 8th grade. Each camper must be currently enrolled in the corresponding grade groups listed above for the 2012-13 school year. Themes vary day to day. Each day camp includes a mid-morning and afternoon snack, all materials and supplies needed for the session, a 30-minute supervised lunch and an IMAX film admission. Investigate the Titanic from the inside out, and see real artifacts from the Ship! Learn how scientists use photo mosaics to model objects that can't be reached, like a sunken ship or even moons and planets! Create your own photo mosaic of the Titanic, learn about buoyancy as you design and build a ship to compete in Sinkers and Floater s. We will also view the night time sky from the night of April 14, 1912. Kids will have fun learning science tricks they can show everyone at home on Thanksgiving. Camper s will also learn the secret behind the amazing color changing milk experiment and learn all about pumpkins while making pumpkin treats! Wednesday, November 21 CSI Holiday Members: $40, Non-members: $45 Oh, no! A mischievous elf broke into Sci-Port and removed the labels and mixed up all of our holiday cookie ingredients! Campers will have to experiment and test each ingredient to be able to make holiday cookies and take fingerprints to solve the mystery. Campers will also make a cool science toy in our Toymakers Workshop, and we will turn our world upside down to view the night time sky in our Space Dome Planetarium. Plus, your camper(s) will have the opportunity to visit our gift shop for holiday shopping. PEP CAMPS: Parent's Day Out Parents Day Out Fun Day this Sunday, Nov. 18 at Petco in Shreveport. Drop the kids off for five hours for you to get some shopping done or just chill out! We will have crafts, games, prizes and more while teaching the kids responsible pet ownership! PARENT NEWS - 09/27/2012 NATIONAL MUSEUM DAY LIVE! SEPT. 29th - FREE TICKETS In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day Live! is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket...for free. It's this Saturday, Sept. 29th. Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Museum is participating but you must print out tickets and bring for admission. NATIONAL TAKE BACK DRUG PRESCRIPTIONS DAY Caddo Sherriff Office will collect unwanted prescription drugs this Saturday, September 29, at Sheriff's Safety Town as part of National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Locally, deputies and police officers will be on hand to collect medications from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Sheriff's Safety Town, 8910 Jewella Avenue, at the west end of the Summer Grove parking lot. Authorities will accept prescription and over-the-counter medications, such as tablets, capsules, and sealed liquids. All identifying information such as name, address, and prescription number should be removed. Intra-venous solutions, injectables, and needles will not be accepted. The one-day effort is being held to bring national attention to the increase of pharmaceutical controlled substance abuse and theft. These drugs are a potential source of supply for illegal use and an unacceptable risk to public health and safety. More Louisiana Students Participate and Pass Rigorous College-Prep Courses The number of Louisiana students enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) courses increased dramatically for the sixth year in a row, according to a report released today by the College Board. Last school year, enrollment in these rigorous college-preparatory courses increased by more than 17 percent, and over the last five years, enrollment has increased by nearly 70 percent. The number of students earning a qualifying score (3 or higher) on an AP exam increased by 18 percent last year and by 62 percent over the last five years. Expanding Advanced Placement access and achievement is a core component of Louisiana Believes, the state's comprehensive plan put every student on track to a career or college degree. "Just 19 percent of students who enter the 9th grade today earn a college degree within 10 years," said State Superintendent John White. "Expanding access to more Advanced Placement college-prep courses will prepare more students for the rigors of college work, which will ultimately result in more college graduates. This is why we are doing everything we can to increase Advance Placement coursework in Louisiana." --------------------------------- Superintendent John White will head back out on the road to visit schools and communities around the state to learn first-hand from students, parents, teachers and school leaders how Louisiana Believes is affecting student learning. The school tour will take White to district, charter and scholarship schools in 26 parishes. The tour will highlight expansion of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, Compass and Common Core standards, career education in the Course Choice program, pre-kindergarten reforms, and the expanded Scholarship Program. October 2, 2012 Vernon Parish Natchitoches Parish DeSoto Parish Caddo Parish October 3, 2012 Bienville Parish Webster Parish Claiborne Parish -------------------------------------------- VALENCIA PARK COMMUNITY GARDEN FALL PLANTING Valencia Park Community Center will hold its community garden Fall Planting Day on Saturday, September 29, 2012 from 9:00am to 11:00am at the center located at 1800 Viking Drive. The general public, including youth, adults and senior citizens, is invited to come out and assist in planting the garden. Each month the garden will feature a "Veggie of the Month!" which will highlight a healthy preparation and taste testing of a different seasonal vegetable grown in the onsite community garden. This month's event will take place on Friday, September 28, 2012 at 6:00pm. The community garden is made possible through a collaboration between the LSU AgCenter, Slow Foods North Louisiana, the Northwest Louisiana Master Gardeners, the Red River Coalition of Gardeners and SPAR. SPAR GIRLS' BASKETBALL LEAGUE BEGINS PLAY MONDAY OCTOBER 8 Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR) Girls' Basketball League season begins on Monday, October 8, 2012. The league includes girls ages 7 - 16. The age cutoff date is September 30, 2012. Registration deadline is on Friday, September 28, 2012. There is a $10.00 per player registration fee. For more information, call SPAR Athletics at 318.673.7748(49) or visit --------------------------------------------------------------- AAP ADVISES AGAINST RECREATIONAL TRAMPOLINE USE An updated report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) cautions against home trampoline use, and provides updated data on the number of and types of injuries caused by trampolines. Since publication of the previous AAP policy statement in 1999 (reaffirmed in 2006), the key recommendation remains consistent against recreational trampoline use, and includes data on injuries unique to trampolines. In the updated policy statement, "Trampoline Safety in Childhood and Adolescence," in the October 2012 Pediatrics (published online Sept. 24), the AAP provides pediatricians with guidelines on patterns of injury with trampoline use, the efficacy of current safety measures, and unique injuries attributed to trampoline use. Trampoline injury rates have steadily been decreasing since 2004. In 2009, however, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) estimated almost 98,000 trampoline-related injuries in the U.S., resulting in 3,100 hospitalizations. The rates of trampoline injury appear higher for children than in adults. Most trampoline injuries (75 percent) occur when multiple people are jumping on the mat. The smallest and youngest participants are usually at greater risk for significant injury, specifically children 5 years of age or younger. Forty-eight percent of injuries in this age group resulted in fractures or dislocations. Common injuries in all age groups include sprains, strains and contusions. Falls from a trampoline accounted for 27 percent to 39 percent of all injuries, and can potentially be catastrophic. Many injuries have occurred even with adult supervision. The AAP policy statement also addresses the safety of trampoline parks. The AAP suggests that the precautions outlined for recreational use also apply to all commercial jump parks. Injury rates at these facilities should continue to be monitored. --------------------------------------------- PARENT NEWS - 10/18/2012 Magnet School Applications & Information For Caddo Parish Below are links to all the information Caddo Parish School Board has put out on their website related to the Magnet School Program for 2013-2014. PARENT NEWS:02/26/2013 Bilberry Park Community Center will hold two Black History Celebrations on Wednesday, February 27, 2013. The center is located at 1902 Alabama Street. The first celebration, "Bridging the Generational Gap through Art" at 11:00am celebrates the rich history of African American art. Tamara Davenport will be the featured speaker for the event. She is a local business owner, artist and educator. Jerry Davenport's art will be featured on display. The second celebration, "When I Was Young...", celebrates the rich African American History, geared toward young people is at 4:00pm. Special speaker for that event will be Dr. Alberta Dyer, PhD. Dr. Dyer is a great storyteller and will enrapture and excite the youth with her compelling stories on Black History. The general public is invited to attend each event. Admission is free. Refreshments will be served. PARENT NEWS - 10/25/2012 RECORD NUMBER OF LOUISIANA SCHOOLS EARN AN "A" A record number of schools in Louisiana earned an A this year, according to school report cards released today by the Louisiana Department of Education. The number of schools earning an A rose from 98 last year to 163 this year. Statewide, 36 percent of schools earned an A or B, up from 28 percent last year, and D and F schools dropped from 44 percent in 2011 to 36 percent this year. "Schools across Louisiana continue to make progress, which means more children are gaining the knowledge and skills to succeed in college and careers," said State Superintendent of Education John White. "While this year's grades are good news, schools will need to continue to work hard to maintain these good grades as Louisiana raises standards in the coming years." This year, 983 schools made progress and 440 schools were designated a Top Gains school, which are schools that improved their School Performance Score by or beyond a pre-determined growth target. Top Gains schools earn monetary rewards for educational purposes within the school. While the number of F schools increased from last year, from 115 to 157, the increase in this category was the result of a more rigorous grade scale used this year. This year, schools had to earn a School Performance Score of at least 75 to avoid earning an F, up from 65 last year. The number of schools earning a score below 65 actually dropped, from 115 to 70 - more evidence that raising the bar also raises student achievement. "Reforms are working," said White. "Every time we raise standards, students and schools rise to the challenge. We raised the bar this year and we saw schools improve in every grade level. We will continue to raise the bar until all students achieve." For this school year, schools will be graded, in part, based on more rigorous writing prompts. In the 2013-2014 school year, schools will be graded based on tests with more rigorous writing questions for all subjects - English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. All 11th graders will also take the ACT. The following year, 2014-2015, tests will continue to increase rigor. In 2014-2015, Louisiana will begin using rigorous assessments the state has designed with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Thanksgiving Harvest Camps Offered by SPAR Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation will hold its annual Thanksgiving break Harvest Camps at each of its 15 community centers on beginsWe are gearing up for our big birthday blowout on Nov. 3 from 10 to 2 pm at the Barnwell Center, celebrating 30 years of the Friends of the Barnwell, as well as the birthdays of our friends, the 8th Air Force at Barksdale, the Shreveport Regional Airport, and (of course) the state of Louisiana's Bicentennial. The Air Force has promised a FLYOVER at 12 noon! Starting Wednesday, Oct. 24, we will host historical displays from the 8th Air Force at Barksdale and the Shreveport Regional Airport. Come by and see these wonderful displays (and more to come!) and mark your calendar for the Birthday Blowout ("We've Come Full Circle!") on Nov. 3! PARENT NEWS:02/07/2013 CASTING CALL: LOOKING FOR A LA FAMILY WITH 3+ Kids I'm writing from an independent production company in the UK, called Me & You Productions. We're currently making a five-part documentary series for Sky 1 in the UK, on life's bigger questions with a British presenter called Karl Pilkington. Each programme will deal with a specific topic, such as happiness, marriage and family. One of the programmes will be dedicated to Family and having children. Our presenter will be traveling the world meeting different people and cultures, which all have different views on family and having children. For the final part of the show we would like our presenter to experience first hand what it's like to look after children on his own. PLEASE NOTE: Initially we are looking to speak to parents who have three or more children and live in rural areas in the states of Louisiana. This is NOT a reality show. We are looking for genuine people - rather than actors - for this role. Our deadline is Friday 15th February so please get in touch! If interested, please email - children@meandyouproductions.co.uk For Data Protection purposes, please be assured that your contact details will be kept securely and only used in reference to this programme. For further information please contact Vicky at - children@meandyouproductions.co.uk YOUTH BASEBALL, T-Ball & SOFTBALL REGISTRATION UNDERWAY Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR) 2013 Youth T-Ball, Machine Pitch, Softball and Baseball Leagues for girls and boys ages 4 - 10 (age cut off is March 31, current year). The League will begin play on Monday, April 15, 2013. An organizational meeting has been scheduled on Wednesday, February 13, 2012 at Wildwood Park (7401 Jewella Avenue) at 6:00pm. Interested volunteer coaches, parents and youth participants should attend for general information about the league. Team registration deadline is on Friday, March 15, 2013. Players have until Monday, April 8, 2013 to register for a team. The SPAR Youth Baseball League will play a 6-8 games season with T-Ball on Tuesdays at Southern Hills and baseball on Thursdays at Cargill Sports Complex. Schedules and times can be viewed at Teams will conclude the season with the Annual Hot Dog Social sponsored by SPAR Athletics. For more information, contact SPAR Athletics at 318.673.7748. TYLER JUNIOR COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY There is an annual scholarship available at Tyler Junior College, Tyler, TX that goes to an individual in the following order of preference: 1. Any student born with Spina Bifida. 2. Any student with a physical disability. 3. Any student with a learning disability. The scholarship endowment is named in honor of Julia A. Fuqua, a 13 year old who was born with Spina Bifida. Apply by March 1st using the current TJC scholarship on-line application. Julia A. Fuqua Endowed Scholarship (General Scholarship) NEED A SUMMER JOB? LIFEGUARDS and POOL MANGERS NEEDED! Rock Solid Sports is currently hiring for Lifeguard, Pool Manager and Pool Assistant Manager positions for the 2013 swimming season. Positions will be filled at the Bill Cockrell, Querbes, Southern Hills, Airport Park and David Raines swimming pools. Candidates may apply for jobs by downloading the employment application from For more information contact Rock Solid Sports at 318.402.7242 or 318-773-2828. Candidates must be lifeguard certified through the American Red Cross. PARENT NEWS - 11/29/2012 DONATE WINTER HATS ... "CAPS FOR KIDS" Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR) Bilberry Community Center will hold a "Caps for Kids" event on Monday, December 31, 2012 from 4:00pm until 7:00pm or while supplies last. SPAR seeks the public's support through donations of caps for the Give-A-Way. Donated caps may be dropped off at the center located at 1902 Alabama Street, beginning December 7 through December 31, 2012. This event is designed to provide head protection to youth during the inclement weather of the winter months. Caps are provided on a first come, first served basis while supplies last. For more information call Latonia Davis Lee, Center Manager, or staff at 318.673.5345. --------------------------------------------- TRAVEL CHANNEL'S REALITY SHOW BAGGAGE BATTLES COME TO THE ARK-LA-TEX It will be lights, camera, auction as one of the nation's hottest reality television shows comes to the Ark-La-Tex to film two upcoming auctions, and the public is invited to attend and participate in the auctions. The Travel Channel's popular reality television show, Baggage Battles will film future episodes for their latest series at two auctions conducted by Lawler Auction Company, which will be held the next two weekends. Baggage Battles follows three teams of savvy auction specialists who travel to some of the most important auctions across the United States. Initially the show focused on unclaimed airport baggage and freight, however, show producers have decided to expand the show by exploring police, sheriff and federal law enforcement auctions across the country. That's why they have focused the show's attention on Lawler Auction Company, which holds contract with both local law enforcement agencies as well as contracts with the federal government, including the U.S. Marshals Service. Although the show usually shoots only one episode in a particular city, its producers plan to shoot 2 episodes in the Ark-La-Tex at two separate auctions conducted by Lawler Auction Company and its auctioneers Danny Lawler and Judge Cecil Campbell. On Sat., Dec. 8, the show will travel to Shreveport to attend an auction at the Lawler Auction Facility being held for the City of Shreveport, the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office, the Caddo Parish Commission, the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation District, the Caddo Levee District, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Horseshoe Casino & Hotel. The Dec. 8 auction will feature everything from retired police cars, dump trucks, equipment trailers, restaurant equipment and antiques to vehicles seized by law enforcement agencies during narcotics investigations. The following weekend, on Dec. 15, the show will travel to Benton, Louisiana, for a farm and estate auction held on the Circle M Road, which will feature everything from tractors to antiques. The estate auction drew the attention of the show due to its unique antique items found on the farm. Patrons who attend the auction will have a chance to be on the show as they bid against other auction patrons and the show's characters on select items in the auction. Once the auction is complete, the show will then film segments of their show at local businesses who often have experts and can appraise the value of the items that their auction specialists purchase at the auction. Arlena Acree, the Director of Film, Media and Entertainment for the City of Shreveport says the filming of the shows at these auctions will not only spotlight Shreveport-Bossier and it's premier auction services but it will also help fill local hotels, restaurants and utilize vendor services and hire some of the local film crews. Anyone interested in attending and bidding on items in the auction can get photographs, lists, terms, and location information by clicking on -------------------------------------------- CASTING CALL FOR NEW NBC SHOW From the creators of The Voice and Deal Or No Deal plus the powerhouse Executive Producers behind NBC's biggest hits, THE WINNER IS is sure to be the whopper of singing shows. Simply put, we are looking for amazing voices. They could be chasing the dream or just your grandma who happens to have a beautiful voice. We are looking for the entire spectrum of performers: groups, duos, single singers, a cappella groups, cabaret groups, high school choruses, singing telegrammers-all of it! If you or anyone you know has a great voice and wants to HUGE CASH PRIZE and shoot to stardom, WE WANT YOU! Each week, the performers will battle it out bracket-style for a shot at the HUGE CASH grand prize. This is no ordinary singing show though. With a game show element added, the risk and reward is high and the bets will be put in! Only those willing to put it all on the line, will have the chance to walk away victorious! We are SO excited to be coming to the HOUSTON area for THE WINNER IS! Thank you for your interest in receiving more information about our OPEN CALL in Houston. HOUSTON OPEN CALL INFORMATION: December 15th, 2012 HARD ROCK CAFE 500 TEXAS ST. HOUSTON, TX 77002 11 A.M. - 5 P.M. Attached is our official casting call flyer for our Houston event. We would GREATLY appreciate it if you could POST IT, FORWARD IT AND PASS IT ALONG to ANYBODY who you think would be great for the show! PARENT NEWS - 09/20/2012 TITANIC the Artifact Exhibition OPENS SEPT 29th! Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the life of Titanic. Along the way visitors will learn countless stories of heroism and humanity that pay honor to the indomitable force of the human spirit in the face of tragedy. Visitors will also get to learn the story behind the discovery of the Titanic wreck in 1985 and the subsequent efforts made to monitor and recover artifacts from the site. SciPort Announces Holiday Camps - Thanksgiving and Christmas Parents: Sci-Port Holiday Day Camps can give you just the break you need to finish your cooking, shopping and prepping so that you can relax and enjoy the season with your family! Kids, tired of just sitting around the house while your parents get ready for the holidays? Tell them about Sci-Port Holiday Day Camps. They're educational... and fun! Each camp offers exciting, hands-on learning designed to stimulate curiosity and interest in science! Each day campers will explore fascinating topics, experience an IMAX Dome Theatre film or Space Dome Planetarium show and create science projects that they can bring home. SPAR and Robinson Film Center Movies & Moonbeams presentation of The Smurfs 2 Friday, September 21 - 7:30 PM Chris Hays Park 4300 Illinois Street Free Admission Free Popcorn It's A Family Affair! PARENT NEWS - 09/30/2012 SPAR ANNOUNCES NFL PUNT, PASS & KICK COMPETITION Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR) Athletics announces the National FootballAll programs start at 12:30 p.m. and go to 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. All ages welcome, but parent or guardian required to attend with their children, ages five and younger. Most programs will need at least one additional adult to volunteer as a break-out group leader. For information about our programs call (318) 742-1219, ask for Terri. To make a reservation, fill out the registration form and submit your $3.00 per student pre-registration fee.* Our mailing address is : 150 Eagle Bend Point, Bossier City, LA 71112. The Home School Group registration form is found at http: Children Need Nature Time •Research has shown that contact with nature at an early age has many health benefits for the developing mind and body. •Playing outside, children improve coordination, use both fine and gross motor muscles, develop better observation skills, and make new discoveries about the world around them. •Children need time playing in the countryside, in forests, parks and other places where they can explore, climb trees, dig holes, gather acorns, float stick boats or build forts. •If children haven't had contact with nature, they never develop a relationship with the natural environment - they may become afraid of nature or misinterpret basic ecological principles. •Studies have shown that people are healthier and better adjusted if they get outside and spend time in their yards and gardens or visit wildlife refuges, forests and parks. •Studies have shown that people deprived of contact with nature were at greater risk of depression and anxiety -- stress levels fall within minutes of seeing trees and flowers or being in green places like parks and forests. •Visiting a wildlife refuge, nature center or park to walk on trails is healthy exercise for the body, mind and spirit. PARENT NEWS:01/24/2013 NEW CHARTER SCHOOL OPENING IN 2013 Magnolia School of Excellence, a new charter school funded by the state, will open August 2013 serving grades k-6th and adding 778th grades in later years. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION INTRODUCES LOUISIANABELIEVES.COM The Louisiana Department of Education did an overhaul of its website. The website's URL has changed to The new site reflects the premise of Louisiana Believes, high expectations for students and the empowerment of parents and teachers with information and resources. Additionally, information about Department programs and initiatives are now categorized under one of eight headings -Academics, Teaching, Assessment, Accountability, Funding, Early Childhood, Schools, and Courses. The new website also will highlight "hot topics" to provide information on current events in education across Louisiana and new resources and initiatives available to students, parents, and educators. SUPPORT THE "SOUPER-BOWL OF CARING" FOOD DRIVE TO BENEFIT FOOD BANK OF NORTHWEST LOUISIANA FOOD DRIVE: JAN 16th - FEB. 3rd Area Albertson's, Kroger, and Brookshire's stores are taking part in the annual nationwide food drive leading up to and just beyond Super Bowl Sunday. It's called the "Souper-Bowl of Caring" food drive. These stores have pre-packaged an assortment of canned and dry goods for customers to purchase and donate to the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana. The drive began January 16th and will continue through February 3rd. Customers can drop off food donations in bins set up in each store and/or purchase one of the pre-packaged grocery sacks. PARENT NEWS - 09/06/2012 ST. LUKE'S PUMPKIN PATCH NOW SCHEDULING FIELD TRIPS School Field Trips October 8 - October 12 Field trips can be scheduled through our website beginning on August 27, 2012. They will see 2250 school children this year. The children will spend one hour with us as we have Story time/Pumpkin discovery and Pumpkin Patch time. Because of the level of the entertainment we will only be able to schedule children in 4 year old preschool and Kindergarten. We ask that each child bring $1.00 to purchase a small pumpkin and that each teacher bring plenty of parents to help watch the children. Reservations can be made online at the PATCH WEBSITE. TENNIS PLAY DAY AT QUERBES: PLAY FREE & HEAR FROM COACHES Querbes Tennis Center will be hosting a Play Day for potential tennis players on September 29. There is no cost for players & coaches will be available to ask questions regarding your child playing tennis. Querbes has one of the premier Youth Programs for tennis in the Southern Section of the United States Tennis Association. They regularly host some 200 + junior players weekly at the facility. Come join us for a fun day at Querbes. Players must wear tennis shoes for the program. Rackets, balls are provided. For information, call Querbes Tennis Center at 318-673-7787 ---------------------------- SPAR GIRLS' BASKETBALL LEAGUE BEGINS PLAY MONDAY OCTOBER 8 Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR) announces the start of its Girls' Basketball League beginning on Monday, October 8, 2012. The league includes girls ages 7 - 16 years of age. The age cutoff date is September 30, 2012. An organizational meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 6:30pm at Wildwood Park, 7401 Jewella Avenue. All interested parties should attend. Registration deadline is Friday, September 28, 2012. There is a $10.00 per player registration fee. For more information call SPAR Athletics at 318.673.7748(49) or visit --------------------------------- CADDO -BOSSIER LACROSSE REGISTRATION UNDERWAY Teams are now forming for boys and girls, grades 3-12. Registration for Fall Lacrosse runs through October 15th. Cost for the fall league is only $75. Players must also be a member of US Lacrosse at an annual membership cost of $25 for youth, $35 for high school. If you played summer lacrosse or if you already play high school lacrosse, you're a US Lacrosse member. The Fall Lacrosse League starts October 27th and runs through December 1st. The league also offers discounts on equipment. PARENT NEWS - 11/8/2012 FIELD TRIP: The Making of the Guardians @ artspace Exhibit runs from Nov 15, 2012 - Jan. 26, 2013 The journey began with Robots, then Meet The Robinsons, and last year's The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore...now Academy and Emmy Award winning producer, director and author, William Joyce brings his latest creation with DreamWorks Animation - RISE OF THE GUARDIANS and "The Guardians of Childhood" book series - to artspace in a new exhibition with an extensive educational program. "RISE OF THE GUARDIANS is an epic adventure that tells the story of a group of heroes - each with extraordinary abilities. When an evil character, known as Pitch, lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world." - DreamWorks. The Shreveport Regional Arts Council is producing the exhibition, The Making of...GUARDIANS at artspace, November 16th through January 26th, 2013. The exhibition will include a studious look at character development through the writings and illustrations of William Joyce. Two-hour educational field trips will be available during the school day on TuesdaysthroughFridays throughout the exhibition. Each field trip will include two Hands-on Art activities, taught by professional artists, along with a guided interactive tour of the exhibition. Field trips may be booked from Tuesday, November 20th through Friday, January 25th. For answers to questions or to receive additional information regarding field trips contact Tarama Davenport, artspace Education Manager at 318-673-6535 or email at tarama@shrevearts.org. PARENT NEWS - 09/13/2012 SHRINERS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CELEBRATES 90 YEARS WITH OPEN HOUSE Join us as Shriners Hospitals for Children® - Shreveport celebrates 90 years of making a difference in the lives of children! Our anniversary open house will feature presentations and displays, guided tours, food and music, and visits from Shriners International leadership and other special guests. We hope you can join us in September at the world's first Shriners Hospital for Children! U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will recognized 269 National Blue Ribbon Schools last week. We are extremely excited that among the 269 are caddo Parish's own Claiborne Elementary and Oak Park K-8 Schools. Willis-Knighton Launches Homework Help Center Willis-Knighton Health System has launched an online Homework Help Center for kids through the Kids Health portion of its website This new center offers articles with tips on doing homework, studying, taking tests, being home alone after school, and other school-related topics. "Our new Homework Help Center is a great resource for teachers, school administrators, nurses, counselors, sports coaches, and health teachers," says Marilyn Joiner, director of Marketing and Public Relations. "And of course, parents and kids will love the helpful content and interactive features. Best of all, specific articles are targeted to children, teens and parents, so everyone is sure to find some helpful tips here. " PARENT NEWS - 08/23/2012 SPAR AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM HAS OPENINGS SPAR free After School Program for kids ages 6-11 and teens ages 12 - 17 has a few openings still available. Chris Hays, Hollywood Heights, Lakeside, Mamie Hicks and Sunset Acres community centers have limited space available in their after school programs. The programs run Monday - Friday from 3:00 - 6:00pm. The youth should arrive at the centers by 3:30pm and remain until at least 5:30pm to preclude disruption of scheduled activities. The programs run concurrently with the Caddo Parish school year. There are special camps held during school breaks for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. The programs are open to Charter school students in addition to Caddo Parish school students. Participation in the program is FREE. However, registration is required. The remaining space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis. Interested persons should immediately call their neighborhood community center for space availability. Centers' addresses and telephone numbers along with registration forms can be found at BE HEARD ABOUT HOW TO SERVE Volunteer Louisiana is hosting a statewide listening tour to ask citizens to evaluate volunteering and service in their communities. Volunteer Louisiana asks citizens in the Shreveport-Bossier area to join us in Shreveport on August 23 at the Municipal Auditorium at 705 Elvis Presley Ave. The event will be free and open to the public. While registration is not required, it will help us to plan to accommodate everyone planning to attend. The comments made at this Listening Sessions will be used in the development of Volunteer Louisiana's three-year State Service plan to guide the state in designing programs and services to help communities and organizations as they engage citizens for greater impact. The meeting will be designed to inform and explore ideas and actions concerning service in Louisiana. The ultimate goal is to encourage community efforts and to identify additional avenues for service. Those attending the event will be asked to share their views on topics such as the top social issues in their community that can be addressed through service and volunteering and how technology can be better utilized to engage service and volunteering among citizens. About Volunteer Louisiana Volunteer Louisiana was established as the Louisiana Serve Commission in the Office of the Lt. Governor in 1993 to foster and expand citizen service in Louisiana. Its mission is to build and sustain high-quality programs that meet the needs of Louisiana's citizens and to promote an ethic of service. In 2012, The Louisiana Serve Commission officially changed to Volunteer Louisiana. PARENT NEWS - 12/06/2012 OPERATION SANTA CLAUS NEEDS GIFTS - SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITYOperation Santa Claus Live Remote Broadcasts All live remote broadcasts are 7:00 a.m. till 9:00 a.m. Bring a new unwrapped toy or a cash or check donation: DON'T FORGET THE FOOD ...GIVE THE GIFT OF A HOLIDAY MEAL Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana is the largest distributor of donated foods in the area. It is only organization in northwest Louisiana that provides this basic need. We solicit, store and distribute food and other essential items to low-income children, families and senior citizens. We distribute food through various programs. The largest is our food distribution program that provides food through our partnerships with over 100 community and faith-based non-profit organizations. Last year we distributed 5,976,602 pounds of food. Make a donation on our website or contact us to learn how you can help - 675-2400 If you or someone you know needs food assistance, please contact the Food Bank at 318.675-2400. ---------------- ADOPT A LOCAL NEEDY FAMILY FOR THE HOLIDAYS Many of our families work hard just to pay the rent and put food on the table. Christmas and the expectations of young children can be overwhelming. The Volunteers of America of North Louisiana invites you to sponsor one of our neediest families, providing gifts for the children. Here's how it works: Contact us and you can pick the family Purchase gifts for children ($50 limit per child) Mark the gifts with the child's name and family code Fill out the in-kind donation form, and bring it with you when you bring the gifts. We'll send you a receipt in the mail. Bring in the unwrapped gifts between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Dec. 13, 14 or 17 at the Highland Center, 520 Olive St., Shreveport PARENT NEWS - 08/16/2012 SCI-PORT IS CLOSED AUGUST 20 - 24 AND 27 - 31 Sci-Port is closed August 20 - 24 and 27 - 31 to get the Center shipshape for Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition and the new school year. Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition opens Saturday, September 29. LOUISIANA SUPREME COURT DENIES HEARING FOR INJUNCTION IN SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM The Louisiana Supreme Court has denied a request for an injunction seeking to halt the Louisiana Scholarship Program. This decision comes after the First Circuit Court of Appeals last month denied the same petition filed by teachers unions seeking to interfere with offering parents the opportunity to make the best choice for the education of their children. "Once again the courts have sent a clear message that we need to put politics behind us and turn our focus to where it needs to be - on the classroom and not the courtroom," said State Superintendent of Education John White. "The school year is already underway. It's time to stop trying to prevent parents from making the choices they feel are right and start believing in the people closest to the students." Public Affairs Office Louisiana Dept. of Education, 8.16.2012 2012 BATTLE FOR THE BORDER ... featuring C.E. Byrd & Calvary The 2012 Battle on the Border High School Football Showcase, presented by Landers Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram will take place on Saturday, September 8th at Independence Stadium. C.E. Byrd HS vs. Marshall HS at 3pm West Monroe HS vs. Calvary Baptist Academy at 7pm. $10 pre general admission tickets are on sale at participating high schools, State Fair of Louisiana and Independence Bowl Foundation box offices. $15 game day general admission, $50 club level tickets. $50 club level tickets are sold only at the State Fair of Louisiana and Independence Bowl Foundation box offices (free food and non alcoholic beverages included). Game ticket gets you into both games! Official Website: THIS YEAR LOUISIANA HAS RECORD NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOL APPLICANTS Louisiana received 49 charter school applications this year including a record 26 applications for new charter schools, a five-fold increase over the previous year. "We're excited to see so many educators, community and business leaders from all corners of the state answer the call to provide a high quality education to Louisiana students," said White. "The legislation gave us the ability to provide more public school choices to students in chronically failing schools across the state. As a result, we received a record number of applications." The state recorded another major milestone this year when 14 new charters opened statewide bringing the total number operating in Louisiana to 104. During the 2011-2012 school year, more than 44,000 students attended 98 charter schools in Louisiana. From 2010 to 2011, charter schools outpaced all schools in Louisiana for gains in performance scores, gaining an average of 6 points compared to the 2 point gain of all schools. This year's charter application process, called the 2012 Call for Quality Schools, focused specifically on high priority and high need areas of the state including Baton Rouge, northwest Louisiana, Jefferson Parish, New Orleans, central Louisiana and north Louisiana. Of the 26 applications received, 85 percent were from "D" or "F" school districts and 81 percent were from areas of high priority in the state. To ensure consistency and transparency for charter school applicants, BESE today approved a common charter application that will be used by the state and local districts and an evaluation timeline for locally authorized charter schools, both requirements of Act 2. The Department used the 2012 Call for Quality Schools application, combined with feedback from district superintendents, to develop a common charter application. In addition, BESE adopted a timeline for the approval of charter schools that will be effective January 1, 2013. However, for the current approval period, the 2012 timeline for locally authorized charter schools (Type 1 & 3 charter schools) opens the application process on September 10 with applications due October 19. Districts will announce charter approvals by January 31, 2013. A charter organization must apply to the local district for a Type 1 or 3 charter school, and be denied, before applying to BESE as a Type 2 charter school, unless the district is labeled "D" or "F" in which case they may apply directly to BESE. About Charter Schools Charter schools are publicly funded, do not charge tuition, and require students to take state assessments each year. Charters have open enrollment policies, and a school's enrollment must reflect the at-risk population where a school is located. Charters are independently operated, however, which frees schools from overly-burdensome From the AAP MEDIA MAILING FOR AUGUST 13 PEDIATRICS STUDENTS EXPOSED TO COMPETITIVE FOOD LAWS DROP THE POUNDS There have been numerous school nutrition laws enacted in the U.S. to reduce childhood obesity, but few studies have evaluated the success of these regulations. In a new study, "Weight Status Among Adolescents in States That Govern Competitive Food Nutrition Content," in the September 2012 Pediatrics (published online August 13), researchers examine whether states that govern nutrition content of foods and beverages experience lower adolescent weight gain than those who do not. Study Study authors conclude that these results have important implications for federal and state policies targeting childhood obesity, particularly as nationwide competitive food standards are being developed by the United States Department of Agriculture as part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Southern Hills Pool To Remain Open Through August 19th Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR) and Rock Solid Sports announce that the Southern Hills pool will remain open through Sunday, August 19, 2012. From August 14 -19, 2012, the Southern Hills pool will be open 4:00pm - 7:00pm. All other pools have closed for the seasonam to 8:00pm, seven days a week. Riverview Park's sprayground operates seven days a week from 7:00am until 1:00am. 10/04/12 PARENT NEWS: 10/04/12 SPAR ANNOUNCES NFL PUNT, PASS & KICK COMPETITION Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR) Athletics announces the National Football againstFor more information contact SPAR Athletics at 318.673.7748 (49). ---------------------------------------------------------- Fire Prevention Week is next week --- Oct. 7-13th. Check out this wonderful resource for tips and more information about fire prevention. Red River Wildlife Refuge Offers New Children's Program RRWR is pleased to announce several new programs for children and youth at the Red River NWR: the Nature Nuts Preschool Program, Home School Group Program, and Boy and Girl Scouts Programs. All programs will be held at the Refuge Headquarters. PARENT NEWS - 07/26/2012 Louisiana Sales Tax Holiday -- Save 4% Aug. 3rd & 4th The Louisiana Sales Tax Holiday provides an exemption from state sales tax on the first $2,500 of the purchase price of most individual items of tangible personal property. The holiday will apply to the 4 percent state sales tax, but will not apply to the sales taxes levied by parishes, municipalities, school boards, and other political subdivisions of the state. The 2012 holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 3, and continues through 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, August 4. The statute creating the holiday establishes the dates as the first consecutive Friday and Saturday each August. What items are eligible for exemption? TheMassachusetts is now the second state, after Rhode Island, whose hospitals have banned providing infant-formula gift bags to new mothers. All 49 of the state's maternity hospitals and birthing facilities have stopped - by choice - supplying the freebies to moms upon heading home with their newest addition. PARENT NEWS - 07/05/2012 INFANTS BORN AT 37 OR 38 WEEKS HAVE INCREASED RISK OF LOWER TEST SCORES IN THIRD GRADE Previous research has found that infants born at 34 to 36 weeks' gestation - classified as "late preterm" - have an increased risk of developmental delays and other mental and medical difficulties. A new study suggests even infants born at 37 or 38 weeks' gestation -- technically "at term" - are at risk. The study, "Academic Achievement Varies With Gestational Age Among Children Born at Term," in the August 2012 Pediatrics (published online July 2), analyzed data from 128,000 babies born between 37 and 41 weeks' gestation in New York City. Birth records were matched with public school records of standardized third-grade math and reading tests. Researchers found achievement scores for children born at 37 and 38 weeks were significantly lower than those of children born at 39, 40 or 41 weeks. Compared to children born at 41 weeks, children born at 37 weeks have a 23 percent increased risk of having a moderate reading impairment; children born at 38 weeks have a 13 percent increased risk. Math scores were also lower for children born at 37 or 38 weeks. The effect was independent of birth weight and other obstetric, social and economic factors. The infant brain grows rapidly in the last weeks of gestation, and may be more likely to be disrupted when children are born early, even within the commonly defined period of term gestation. Study findings suggest this disruption may affect later academic achievement. Given the trend for performing elective early deliveries for nonmedical reasons, study authors conclude that researchers, clinicians and parents should consider the link between weeks of gestation and school performance.03/24/11 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Updates Recommendation on Car Seats Children should ride rear-facing to age 2, use a booster until at least age 8 Below is a policy appearing in the April issue of Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). New advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will change the way many parents buckle up their children for a drive policy, from 2002, advised that it is Dennis Durbin, MD, FAAP, Dr. - dropping 45 percent between 1997 and 2009 - it is still the leading cause of death for children ages 4 and older. Counting children and teens up to age 21, there are more than 5,000 deaths each year. Fatalities are just the tip of the iceberg; for every fatality, roughly 18 children are hospitalized and more than 400 are injured seriously enough to require medical treatment. New research has found children are safer in rear-facing car seats. A 2007 study in the journal InjuryAlthough the Federal Aviation Administration permits children under age 2 to ride on an adult's lap on an airplane, they are best protected by riding in an age- and size-appropriate restraint. "Children should ride properly restrained on every trip in every type of transportation, on the road or in the air," Dr. Durbin said. The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. 11/03/11 Parent News - 11/03/2011 FREE PARENTING SEMINAR BY NATIONALLY RENOWNED SPEAKER KIRK MARTIN Kirk Martin, founder of Celebrate Calm, provides science-based training for educators, parents, and children. For over a decade, behavioral consultant and founder Kirk Martin personally taught over 1,500 intense children emo-tional self-regulation, social skills and academic tools, and has equipped over 125,000 parents, teachers and students with practical, concrete strategies. A free health, fitness and wellness event. The vision for the Family Fitness Fest is to focus on the health and wellness of the entire family by providing fun activities, games and educational experiences that all ages can enjoy together. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends that pediatricians provide substance abuse education and screening to adolescents during routine clinical care. Pediatricians should become knowledgeable about adolescent alcohol, cigarette and other drug use trends in their community, and screen all adolescents for alcohol and drug use during all health supervision and appropriate acute care visits using developmentally appropriate screening tools and intervention strategies. All adolescents can benefit from a physician's advice regarding alcohol and drugs; adolescents who are addicted to substances should also be referred to an appropriate treatment facility. Physicians should keep in mind that psychiatric disorders can co-occur in adolescents who use psychoactive substances. Source: Pediatrics, a scientific journal of the American Association of Pediactrics. 10/27/11 Parent News - 10/27/2011 Prenatal Blood Test for Down Syndrome Amniocentesis is no longer necessary A simple, non-invasive blood test can now detect Down syndrome, trisomy 21, the most common cause of Down syndrome. Until now, women have had to undergo amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, both invasive tests, to detect. A more recent strategy was to combine ultrasound testing with blood tests, but that test required confirmation with amniocentesis or CVS. The blood test measures fetal DNA in the mother's bloodstream. It is safe and effective, according to a study published online last week in the journal Genetics in Medicine. That study on pregnancies at high risk for Down syndrome found a detection rate of 98.6% (209 of 212 pregnancies). The false-positive rate was 0.2% (three of 1,471), and testing failed in 13 pregnancies. Sequenom, the maker of the test, called MaterniT21, reports that it will initially be available to doctors who request it in 20 metropolitan areas in the U.S. The out-of-pocket cost to patients with insurance will be no more than $235, according to the the company. It will take eight to 10 days for doctors to receive the results of the test. read more>>> Parents turn to the Internet before going to the ER One in eight parents goes online for medical information about their child's condition before taking the child to the emergency room, according to new research. read more>>> Terrific Tuesday at Sci-Port next Tuesday - Nov. 1 Admission is Only $3 PARENT NEWS -8/11/11 GROWING PAINS CHANGES IT'S NAME TO TRENDY TRADES Growing Pains Consignment Sale has changed it's name to TRENDY TRADES. Same GREAT sale with a new name to better fit the offerings. This Boutique for a Week will be accepting ONLY top quality children's, juniors, women's and maternity clothes that are stain-free. Plus, furniture, home decor, toys and baby items. SPAR swimming pools at Airport Park, Bill Cockrell, David Raines and Querbes will officially close after Sunday, August 14, 2011. The Southern Hills pool will remain open on Saturdays and Sundays through September 5, 2011. The Saturday hours will be from 1:00 - 6:00pm and Sunday hours will be from 2:00 - 6:00pm a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days a week. Riverview Park's sprayground operates seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. until 1:00 a.m. ----------------- SHREVEPORT METRO BALLET NUTCRACKER CALL FOR AUDITIONS Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet (SMB) will hold auditions for minor cast roles (Reindeer, Mice, and Soldiers) for our 2011 productions of "The Nutcracker" on Saturday, September 10 at Shreveport dance Academy. Our "Nutcracker" production this year will feature guest artists from the Houston Ballet and the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kermit Poling. This performance will be a wonderful experience for young dancers in our area. Ballet students between the ages of five and ten who are interested in performing before and enthusiastic audience on December 3rd and 4th, we invite you to audition for "The Nutcracker". More information can be obtained by calling the SMB office at 318-221-8500. NEW COLLECTION OF STORIES BY DR. SEUSSRELEASED THIS WEEK THE BIPPOLO SEED AND OTHER LOST STORIES by Dr. Seuss (on sale September 27, 2011) includes a collection of seven original stories by the iconic children's author and illustrator that were originally published in magazines in 1950 and 1951-but never before in book form. PARENT NEWS - 9/22/2011 DYSLEXIA CONFERENCE - October 1, Broadmoor Middle School Unmasking Their Potential is Fall 2011, a conference for parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and anyone else interested in making a difference in the lives of students with dyslexia. details & registration>>> PARENT NEWS - 9/20/2011 About 2,500 babies die annually from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Now the American Academy of Pediatrics is speaking out with updated information about how sleep-related fatalities can be reduced. New recommendations state that no bumper pads should ever be used in cribs, not just "puffy" bumpers that were previously frowned upon. The AAP also suggests pacifiers be offered to infants, and women breastfeed their babies, according to the Wall Street Journal. But what's bound to spark some debate is the suggestion that while babies should sleep in the same room as parents so they may be monitored closely, they should not sleep in the same bed. Co-sleeping increases the risk of suffocation, according to the AAP. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued updated recommendations aimed at reducing all sleep-related deaths in infants. SIDS deaths as a result of babies sleeping on their stomachs have decreased since 1992, at which time the AAP recommended babies sleep on their backs. But deaths from causes like suffocation and entrapment as a result of co-sleeping and crib bumpers have been on the rise. 09/15/11 PARENT NEWS - 9/15/2011 Moview & Moonbeams presents Scooby Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster Outdoor screening will be Fri., September 16 at Mamie Hicks Community Center (200 Mayfair Drive). More info. They are now scheduling Field Trips. Students are $8 each and it's free for teachers and accompanying adults. MUST Schedule with artspace in advance. Limited field trips available. Learn more. ------------------------------------ NEW Sci-Port Exhibit Sustainable Choices opens this weekend! Opens to the public and school groups Friday, September 16 Learn about sustainability, why living sustainably is important and teach your young ones why it's important to maintain a sustainable lifestyle. Gymboree is opening it's playspace for 0-5 year olds to Playdate Groups on Mondays @ noon. Please call 861-GROW to learn more about pricing and to schedule. PARENT NEWS - 9/08/2011 CHIMP HAVEN discusses Project Nim Sat., Sept. 10 The chimpanzee documentary Project Nim opens Friday at the Robinson Film Center. For a special public talk and Q&A on Saturday, Chimp Haven's Amy Fultz discusses the legacy of the Nim research project and the not uncommon dilemma of raising chimps to be part of a human family. Chimp Haven is a national chimpanzee sanctuary in Keithville, La. Fultz is Chimp Haven's behavior and education program manager. SPAR Hollywood Heights Community Center has scheduled martial arts classes at the center. The martial arts class is taught by Steven J. Newton, who will teach Taekwondo for children and adults ages 6 and up. The classes will be held on Mondays and Fridays from 4:30 - 5:30pm. The cost of the class is $25.00 the first month and $50.00 per month thereafter. The center is located at 4815 McDaniel Drive. New Recommendations to Prevent Blood Clots During Cesarean Deliveries Issued The Community Foundation, Sci-Port Help Create First-Ever Permanent Exhibit for University of Notre Dame's Landmark Science of Generosity Initiative in Shreveport, Louisiana Permanent exhibit will feature newest research from ground-breaking study For the first time ever, cutting edge research from the University of Notre Dame's Science of Generosity initiative will be featured as a permanent exhibit at a preeminent science center in Louisiana. Representatives from Notre Dame, The Community Foundation of North Louisiana and Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center today announced the creation of the permanent exhibit, which was made possible through a $43,884 grant from The Foundation. The exhibit will feature the latest scientific findings being issued by the Science of Generosity initiative. In addition, visitors will learn more about the elements of generosity, such as philanthropy, volunteerism and altruism, through a series of interactive panels. One panel also explores the physiological effects of acting charitably on an individual through a series of brain scans provided by the prestigious Biomedical Research Institute based in Shreveport, Louisiana. PARENT NEWS - 8/4/11 Salmonella-Tainted Ground Turkey Outbreak Hits 26 States Aug. 2, 2011 -- A salmonella outbreak apparently caused by contaminated ground turkey has killed one person and sickened at least 76 other people in 26 states, CDC officials say. No production source has been identified for the outbreak, and no recall has been put into effect, but the CDC is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state officials to determine the source of the bacterium strain known as Salmonella Heidelberg. The CDC says cultures of ground turkey samples purchased from four retail locations, which it did not identify, have yielded the strain of salmonella, which is resistant to many antibiotics. Because of that, the risk of hospitalization caused by the tainted turkey is greater than for other salmonella outbreaks, CDC says. At least 22 people have required hospitalization; 48% of those sickened have been female, and the bacterium has infected people from younger than a year old to age 88. Michigan, Ohio, Texas Hardest Hit Federal officials say Michigan and Ohio have been hardest hit, each with 10 known cases, followed by Texas with nine. CDC officials say one death has been reported. The state in which the death occurred has not been specified. It also reported salmonella illnesses in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service issued a public health alert for frozen or fresh ground turkey products on July 29, reminding buyers to carefully follow cooking guidelines when handling any raw meat or poultry. PARENT NEWS - 8/22/20111 CHRISTUS Schumpert Sutton Children's Medical Center offers a FREE program, PROJECT 5210, to help children and their families become more fit by participating in a group weight management sessions. The numeric 5210 represents a code for healthy living for children: 5 servings for fruits and vegetables per day 2 hours or less of TV/ computer viewing per day 1 hour of physical activity/exercise per day 0 tolerance for alcohol, tobacco, and drugs Where: CHRISTUS Schumpert Wellness Shreveport , Bert Kouns and I-49 When: August 23, 2011 at 5:30pm What: This will be a mandatory meeting parents/guardians must attend if they would like their child to be considered for our fall 5210 program. Drawing will be held for those who attend for a $100 Walmart gift card! Fall Sessions will provide children and their parents with information related to nutrition, fitness, health, and behavioral issues that the family can use to improve their overall health. Nurses and behavioral specialists will be on hand to help individual families with questions or concerns related to their child's health. How: Participation in the weekly sessions is the only "payment" that we require. Why: One in three Louisiana school-aged children is overweight. According to the American Obesity Association, Louisiana ranks fourth among states in having the highest rate of obesity at 28.7%! If you have any questions or would like to join PROJECT 5210, please call 681-6642. -------------------------- Sci-Port to change days and hours September through February Shreveport, LA - Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center will be closed on Mondays from September through February. The Center will be open on the following Mondays that are regularly scheduled 2011-12 Caddo and/or Bossier school holidays: September 5, October 17, November 21, December 19, December 26, January 2, January 16 and February 20. The Intern candidate much have a 2.5 GPA, and must submit a cover letter, resume, official transcript, immunization records and university affiliation agreement. The candidate must also submit a SPAR internship application along with a 250 word essay. Also the Intern must pass the intern interview. The SPAR Internship Program offers a structured set of academic experiences that encompass duties and responsibilities associated with the student's career interest, as well as provide a practical learning experience in a professional setting under qualified professional supervisionAny faith-base organization or project that serves the general public or a non-denomination basis. The Northwest Louisiana Master Gardener Association will accept applications from eligible groups between August 1 and September 30, 2011. Award decisions will be announced no later than December 14,2011. Toledo Bend Closed to Boating Effectively immediately, the boat launches at North Toledo Bend State Park, near Zwolle, and South Toledo Bend State Park, near Anacoco, are closed to boat traffic. The water levels at the boat ramps at both parks are 12-14 inches deep, creating unsafe conditions for launching boats. The Sabine River Authority has issued warnings regarding all boat-related traffic on the lake. According to the SRA, the lake level is approximately 9-1/2 feet below the safe level of 168 feet mean sea level. Additionally, the current extreme drought situation is causing the lake to fall approximately one-half inch per day, creating potentially hazardous areas even in established boating lanes. Caution is advised in the boat lanes, as there have been reports of damage to boats in boat lanes as well as in less-traveled areas of the lake. All water sports participants are advised to avoid excessive speed and exercise caution when navigating waters not in normal boat lanes. For more information, as well as general lake information, visit For more information about Louisiana State Parks, visit --------------------------------------------------------- Movies & Moonbeams Presentation This Friday Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore Friday, July 15, 2011 - 8:30 PM Columbia Park 1600 Columbia Street ------------------------------------------------------- Informational Meeting for Youth Football on July 20th SPAR will host an organizational meeting for all SPAR Youth Football League coaches and interested persons at the Wildwood Office located at 7401 Jewella Avenue on Wednesday, July 20 at 6:30pm. Team and player registration runs from Thursday, July 21 to Friday, August 19, 2011. Coaches Mandatory In-Services including Inappropriate Sideline Behavior, Child Abuse, Concussion Prevention, Player Hygiene, CPR/First Aid and NYSCA will take place during the month of August 2011. The season begins on September 10, 2011. The NFL Punt, Pass & Kick competition is scheduled for Sunday, October 16, 2011, time to be announced. Age divisions for SPAR's Youth Football will include: 5-6 Year Old Flag (Must be 5yrs. by August 31, Current Year) 7 Year Old Equipment Flag 8 Year Old Tackle 9 Year Old Tackle 10 Year Old Tackle 11 Year Old Tackle 12 Year Old Tackle 13-14 Year Old Tackle Age Cut off is September 1, Current Year. Registration information is available online at (click on "Athletics" link) or visit the SPAR Athletics office. For more information call 318.673.7749 or 318.673.7748. PARENT NEWS - 6/28/2012 AMAZING MRI FOOTAGE OF GIVING BIRTH A team of German scientists has just released the first ever video footage of a live birth with magnetic resonance imaging, MRI. SPAR hosts the 2012 City Boys & Girls Junior Amateur Golf Championship on July 24, 2012 at Querbes Park Golf Course, 3500 Beverly Place. This tournament, sponsored by the City of Shreveport, is a medal play tournament open to all junior golfers up to age 17. Entry fee is $25.00. Entry deadline is 12:00 Noon, July 20, 2012. Participating golfers will compete in age groups as follows: Boys: 9 years & younger 10-12 years of age 13-14 years of age 15-17 years of age Girls: Girls' groupings will depend on number of entries. Pairings will be based on 18 hole handicap. Tee times start at 8:00am and 1:00pm. Golfers twelve years of age and under will play 18 holes. All others will play 27 holes. Applications are available at Querbes Pro Shop. For more information call 318.673.7773. PARENT NEWS - 6/21/12 MAJOR FILM LOOKING TO CAST 4 YEAR OLD TWIN GIRLS Vicky Boone Casting is looking for 4 year old Caucasian girl twins to play the daughter of Rooney Mara ("Social Network", "Girl with Dragon Tattoo.) No acting experience necessary. They are conducting a search for residents, and the residents of surrounding towns, for twin girls for the movie. We will hold a casting call in Louisiana. Exact date/time TBD. Interested applicants should email twins' names, parent's best contact phone number, town you currently reside, and two recent photos to casting director Vicky Boone: atbscasting@gmail.com. Please put "Twins" in the subject line. Vicky Boone has also cast films such as "The Tree of Life" (starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn) , "The Girl" (starring Abbie Cornish) and "Abel's Field" (starring Kevin Sorbo.) The film shoots in Shreveport in July/August. LOUISIANA BELIEVES SEEKING PARENTS FOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE Today, State Superintendent of Education John White joined with teachers, principals, and superintendents to present the final version of Louisiana Believes, the state's comprehensive plan for continued improvement in education. The finalized plan, which builds upon recent legislation and Louisiana's approved Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waiver, is the outcome of meetings with hundreds of educators and community members across the state, who gave feedback during 22 in-person meetings and four virtual meetings White conducted after issuing a draft plan in April. The Superintendent named Louisiana Believes Advisory Committees, comprised of teachers, principals, and superintendents from across the state who have committed to work with state leaders on implementation of Louisiana Believes. Committee members will be recognized this evening at a welcome ceremony at the Governor's Mansion. The Louisiana Believes plan is based on the belief that all students can achieve academic success, and that those closest to students - parents and educators, not bureaucrats - should be empowered to make decisions to support the success of their students. The Louisiana Department of Education presented the main policy components of the plan to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) today. Advisory Committees Members of the advisory committees named today will meet quarterly this year and offer ongoing input on the implementation of the Louisiana Believes plan. More than 100 educators have been appointed to serve on the Louisiana Believes Teacher and Principal Advisory Committees. Thirteen district superintendents and charter school leaders will serve on the Louisiana Believes Superintendents Advisory Committee. Teachers and principals submitted letters of interest to the Department and were selected based on their diverse professional backgrounds and geographic representation, as well as recommendations from other educators and community groups. In addition to the teachers, principals and superintendents committees, a panel of parents and community members will be selected to serve on a Louisiana Believes Parents/Community Advisory Committee. The Department is inviting members of the community to submit letters of interest over the next two weeks. To watch the live announcement of the Louisiana Believes plan at 6 p.m., a link is provided at STAYCATION FOR ADULTS AT GRACE UMC Grace Community UMC invites you to a unique Vacation Bible School experience---Staycation. For the first four Sundays in July (July 1, 8, 15 and 22), adults will have the opportunity to try a variety of class offerings and experiences and also attend an awesome, interactive worship experience. Classes include A Shreveport-Bossier Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) is being developed. Current NOW members and potential members are invited to attend an informational meeting on Saturday, June 23rd from 3-4 p.m. at the Broadmoor Branch of the Shreve Memorial Library, located at 1212 Captain Shreve Drive in Shreveport. Television, video games and social media affect how children and adolescents learn, develop emotionally, relate to peers and family, even what they feel like eating and how much exercise they get. In June, during Internet Safety Month, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers a new collection of expert interviews to help guide parents in navigating the media landscape with their children. Listen to Sound Advice on Media on the AAP parenting website at At the Sound Advice on Media site, parents can listen firsthand as pediatricians answer common questions: How do social media affect adolescents' relationships with friends? How do early media experiences impact young children's brain development? What's wrong with using a video to entertain your toddler while you cook dinner? What should parents consider before buying a smartphone for their teen? Applications are available online at or and on-site at any participating school. Students must submit completed applications no later than Friday, June 29, to the participating school they want to attend. The Louisiana Scholarship Program is available to all eligible students; however, there are a limited number of openings in nonpublic and high-performing public schools. The LDOE will attempt to place as many applicants as possible in their preferred school choice; if the number of applicants exceeds the number of seats available in a specific school and grade level, scholarships seats will be awarded through an unbiased lottery process. All applicants will be notified of the status of the application no later than Tuesday, July 31. ----------------------------------- LINEAR MIDDLE SCHOOL IN SHREVEPORT IS ENROLLING NOW Recovery School District - Louisiana (RSD-LA) schools are currently enrolling students for the 2012-2013 school year. Principals and teachers are excited to welcome current and new students to each school for a quality educational experience that includes strong academic programs and a lineup of arts, theater, band, music, dance and sports activities which contribute to the complete learning environment. RSD-LA includes all RSD schools outside of New Orleans in Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, and Caddo. Parents can submit applications online at or download and fax the application to (225) 342-4053. Individuals can also drop off applications at any RSD-LA school site listed below: Caddo Parish Linear Middle School 1845 Linear St. Shreveport, LA 71107 PARENT NEWS - 5/17/12 STATEWIDE SCHOOL VOUCHER PROGRAM Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program (SSEEP) If you are interested in participating in this program below is enrollment information, facts and useful links. Important Facts: Priority will be given to students enrolled in D & F ranked schools. Schools (Private and Public) have until May 18 (tomorrow) to apply to participate in the program. Only students who meet the income requirement and attended a "C," 'D," or "F" school the previous year are eligible to apply. Incoming Kindergarten students who meet the income requirement are also eligible. Families will be able to apply for the statewide Scholarship program beginning Tuesday, May 22. Applications will be accessible online at this page and on-site at any participating school; Students will submit completed applications no later than Friday, June 29th; more information on the submission of student applications will be available shortly; After the application process is completed and eligibility is determined, the Department will identify scholarship recipients through a prioritized lottery process in July; All applicants will be notified of the results of the lottery, no later than July 31; To be eligible, a child must have been enrolled in a public school during the 2011-2012 school year that was labeled C, D or F, unless a student is entering kindergarten for the first time in the 2012-2013 school year; Students must also be a resident of Louisiana and meet income eligibility requirements (family income in 2011 cannot exceed 250% of the federal poverty guidelines); Continuing students who were awarded a scholarship in the previous year are also eligible. For more information about the scholarship program, please contact Studentscholarships@la.gov or call the Louisiana Department of Education's Help Center at 1-877-453-2721. R. W. Norton Art Gallery There is no admission charge to view the grounds, the museum's art collection, or special exhibitions. Open 1-5pm on Sundays. The gardens are open to visitors daily during daylight hours. Painting with a Twist Painting with a Twist's Mother's Day class. 2-4 p.m, Sunday @ Bossier 1-4 p.m. Sunday in Shreveport $35-$45 PARENT NEWS - 4/26/2012 Holiday Lanes in Bossier City & The Kids Bowl Free Summer Bowling Program Giving Away Millions Of Dollars In Free Bowling Games Again This Summer! Kids Bowl Free.com and over 1000 participating bowling centers from coast to coast and Canada have teamed up to provide kids with 2 FREE games of bowling every day all summer. Holiday Lanes in Bossier City provides the Kids Bowl Free - 2 FREE game program as a way to give back to our community for all of their support throughout the school year and winter months. Over 1,000 bowling centers are partnering with schools, churches and businesses to distribute information now so that families can register online for the Kids Bowl Free program in their community. The Kids Bowl Free Program currently has over 1000 participating bowling centers in 48 states and Canada. Given the current state of the economy Kids Bowl Free is a fantastic way for families to have a great time together without breaking the bank. During the summer of 2011 over 800,000 families and 1,785,000 children participated in the Kids Bowl Free program. Families that register will receive coupons valid for Two Free Bowling Games each day sent to their email address every Sunday morning from the starting date at their center until the conclusion of the program in their community. The Kids Bowl Free program will begin on May 23, 2012 and end on August 8, 2012. There is no charge for the FREE Games or the FREE Game Passes. (Shoe rental is the only cost associated. Daily Shoe Rental is $3.00 per person or an "Unlimited Shoe Pass" valued at $234, will be available for purchase for $20 per person that covers the cost of shoe rental all summer long - May 23-Aug 8.) In addition, Caddo & Bossier Parish Teachers and School Employees may bowl FREE by requesting a pass. Coupons will NOT be emailed each week. School employees simply show their school id on their first visit. A Summer Bowling Pass will be issued that will be used each time they come to bowl during the program dates. $100,000 Bowling To Teachers Grant Program Available Too! Kids Bowl Free has been working closely with teachers, school administrators and bowling centers over the past four summers to help provide a safe, fun activity for children while they are on summer break. Many teachers have expressed their concern of budget cuts and the inability to have all of the teaching aids they need for their students to have the best learning environment possible. The Bowling To Teachers program is a small step to helping 400 teachers improve their learning experience for their students. Grant applications will be One local teacher has already been awarded a $250 grant. Sandra Fuller, at Newton Smith 6th Grade Center was among the first to be awarded. For teachers that would like to apply they just need to visit and complete the short grant application. 80 grants per month will be awarded from March through the end of July 2012 ---------------------------------------- VALENCIA YOUTH AND COMMUNITY GARDENING VOLUNTEER TRAINING PROGRAM Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR), along with the LSU AgCenter to offer training for individuals interested in volunteering with the Youth and Community Garden Program at the center. The training will take place every Tuesday from 5:30 - 7:30pm beginning April 24, 2012. Training will be offered each Tuesday for 5 weeks for a total of 10 hours of training. The training will cover Sustainable Vegetable Gardening, From Harvest to Plate, Good Nutrition Through Gardening, Building Community In The Garden, Community Garden Leadership and hands on training in the Valencia Park Youth Garden. SPAR BOND PROJECTS UPCOMING PUBLIC MEETINGS SCHEDULE Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR) continues its ongoing public meetings for input from the public during the design process of the 2011 bond projects. InSUNSET ACRES COMMUNITY CENTER UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY SPRING CARNIVAL Sunset Acres Community Center will host its first Annual Unity in the Community Spring Carnival at the center on Saturday, April 28, 2012 from 12:00 noon - 3:00pm. The rainout date for the event is Saturday, May 12, 2012. The center is located at 6700 Quilen Road. The event's purpose is to bring the community together for fun and to inform the community of the many offerings of the Sunset Acres Community Center. There will be free food, space walk, face painting, games, clown and fun for the entire family. The general public is invited to attend. Admission is free. Vendors/Agencies with display booths and information will include Shreve Memorial Library, Shreveport Police Department, Shreveport Fire Department, Head Start, Kool Smiles, First Start, the Sahara Club and SPAR. PARENT NEWS - 4/17/12 Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center announced on Sunday that it will host the hugely popular Exhibition from September 29 through January 20, 2013. Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition will allow Sci-Port's visitors to experience the story of the legendary RMS Titanic like never before through compelling human stories as best told through 200 authentic artifacts and extensive room re-creations. "ShowcasingTitanic: The Artifact Exhibitionis part of our strategic plan to build new audiences and generate new revenue sources that contribute to our overall financial stability," said Sci-Port President/CEOAnn Fumarolo. "It's our mission to add science to whatever it is that we do, and we'll show the science behind something with such historical significance as the sinking ofTitanic. This Exhibition will expose new audiences to our mission." True to Sci-Port's mission, families and students will experience real-world science, and participate in observation, critical thinking and experimentation, as they become explorers of the wreck through the Center's hands-on programming and demonstrations that will accompany this magnificent Exhibition. Now accepting group reservations for Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition! Call (318) 424-8660 to book your trip today. General admission advance ticket sales available September 1. WHAT: TITANIC: The Artifact Exhibition WHEN: Opens September 29, 2012 WHERE: Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center TICKETS: Members $10; Adult $23; Child $18; Group, Senior and Military Discounts Available SPAR YOUTH BASEBALL LEAGUE BEGINS PLAY THURSDAY, APRIL 19TH SPAR Athletics Department announces that its 2012 Youth T-Ball, Machine Pitch, Fast Pitch, Softball and Baseball Leagues will begin play on Thursday, April 19, 2012. There are a total of 18 teams participating in the league which includes seven 4-6 year old T-Ball teams, three 7-8 year old Machine Pitch teams, five 9-10 year old Machine Pitch teams, and three 11-12 year old baseball teams. The SPAR Youth Baseball League will play a 6-8 games season with T-Ball on Tuesdays at Southern Hills and baseball on Thursdays at Cargill Sports Complex. Schedules and times can be viewed at Teams will conclude the season with the Annual Hot Dog Social sponsored by SPAR Athletics at Southern Hills on May 31, 2012. For more information contact SPAR Athletics at 318.673.7748 or visit click on "Athletics". 03/15/12 PARENT NEWS - 3/15/12 DISNEY ON ICE PRESENTS DISNEY•PIXAR'S TOY STORY 3 ON SALE FRIDAY, MARCH 16 Disney On Ice presents Disney•Pixar's Toy Story 3 is bringing the smash-hit box-office sensation, Toy Story 3, and memorable moments from Toy Story and Toy Story 2 to the ice in this sensational live production coming to your hometown! This brand-new ice spectacular visits Bossier City from Thursday, May 3 thru Sunday, May 6, for six performances at CenturyLink Center. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 16 at 10am EST. Louisiana's Science Center will host the 2012 Mad Scientist Ball this Saturday at 7 p.m. The theme for this year's biennial event is "Charmed Madness." Tickets are $125 and will be sold at the door. This year's event will be complete with Potato Sack Races; an authentic Irish Pub with specialty drinks served in Waterford Crystal and chances to win jewelry, gift certificates and more in various interactive games. Items for the evening's silent auction will include: a trip to Ireland; a Maltese puppy; New Orleans Saints game tickets (with transportation via private jet) and a private dinner for eight cooked by Chef Eddie Marusarz at the Petroleum Club. There will also be live music by Robin & the Bluebirds' VANtabulous, a Tribute to Van Morrison in the "Shamrock-and-Roll Space Dome." The Center will be closed all day on Saturday in preparation for the ball. Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR) Athletics Department announces that SPAR's Cargill Sports Complex will host the Great Amazing Race on Friday, March 16, 2012 at 5:00pm and 6:00pm. Participants may walk, run or jog their way to the Great Amazing Race. Special guest for the event will be Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Demetrius Bell. The race is for everyone - adults, boys and girls - runners, joggers and walkers - pee wees to adults. Teams consist of 2 people (adult/kid or kid/kid). At least one participant must be a student grade K-12. Teams can choose the recreation race (those who prefer to walk or jog) or the competitive race (those who prefer to jog or run). Patterned after the popular television show The Amazing Race, teams of 2 race around a 1 mile cross country course that includes up to 8 fun-filled stations. The clue cards provided at each station directs the team to perform a task (game, relay, obstacle course, etc.), before proceeding to the next station. The team that completes the tasks and reaches the finish line with the fastest overall time is declared the winner. Contestants should be prepared to get a little dirty and wet - it's part of the fun! Every participant who crosses the finish line gets a certificate to recognize their accomplishment. Special awards are given to the winners of each division (determined by grade of youngest team member): K-4 Grades Division, 5-12 Grades Division. Awards will be presented immediately following each race. To secure a free pass, visit click on "SHREVEPORT" and follow the links to Registration Page. Complete the form entering "Courtesy of PARKS & REC" in the Comment Box. The first 20 SPAR teams to register online with the promo code "PARKS & REC" will enter the competition with a FREE pass. The registration fee is $40.00 per team. Register 5 or more teams and receive a $5.00 discount. Top teams qualify for the National Championship Race and a chance to win $2000! For more information visit or contact the event director at 513.518.0528 or info@flyingcolorssports.com. -------------------------------------------------------- SPAR announces its 2012 Summer Camp from June 4 - August 10, 2012, Monday through Friday, 8:00am - 6:00pm at 14 of its community centers. SPAR offers Summer Playground for kids 6-11 and Teen Summer Camp for teens 12-17. The camps are free to the public. However, registration is required. Applications may be picked up at each community center or online at (Click on Youth Programs). There is limited space that will be filled on a first come, first served basis. Registration starts on March 26, 2012. Currently enrolled SPAR After-School Program participants are given priority. Participants must provide their own lunch. Some field trips are "pay as you go". All participants must provide a birth certificate. Teen Summer Camp(ages 12-17) participants must provide both a birth certificate and proof of income. Registration is not complete until all required documentation is provided. For more information or an application, call or visit one of SPAR's 15 neighborhood community centers or visit and click on "Youth Programs". PARENT NEWS - 2/29/12 Shreveport Academy Award Winners From Moonbot Studios will be honored with Parade There will be a parade to honor the Academy Award-Winning Directors, William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, for their recent Oscar for Best Short Film (Animated) for "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore." MONDAY, MARCH 5 at NOON downtown Shreveport!! The Parade will kick off at NOON in front of the Caddo Parish Courthouse at the corner of Texas and Marshall Streets in Downtown Shreveport and travel toward Common Street, ending at artspace with a Press Conference and more celebrating!! C.E. Byrd High School Marching Band will lead the parade filled with cheers and confetti. The Mardi Gras Moonbot Float will be filled with Moonbot-ters tossing Moonbot Moonpies to the public. People are encouraged to bring streamers and confetti to toss. Wednesday, March 14, 2012, from 9:00am to 1:00pm. The center is located at 3500 Beverly Place. Join friends and neighbors, ages 18 and over, to learn how to make your own Hula Hoops, refresh your Hula Hoop skills, watch a movie on Women in History and learn basic jewelry making. Bring a bag lunch. Participants will provide their own hula hoop supplies; a supply list will be available at the time of registration (approximate cost $7). Jewelry supplies will be purchased in bulk by the facilitators with cost shared among participants. Registration is required by March 7, 2012. Youth ages 17 and younger will learn to make hula hoops and learn basic hula hooping skills on Friday, March 16, 2012 from 3:00 to 5:00pm. Supplies will be provided. Registration is required by March 8, 2012. For more information call Querbes Community Center at 318.673.7816. --------------------- SPAR SEEKS PUBLIC INPUT DURING BOND PROPOSAL DESIGN PROCESS InThe meeting schedule is as follows: Mamie Hicks Park - Monday, March 5 at 6:00pm Hattie Perry Park - Monday, March 19 at 5:30pm Bilberry Park - Tuesday, March 20 at 6:00pm Cargill Park - Thursday, March 22 at 5:30pm *at Wildwood Park, 7401 Jewella Avenue Valencia Park - Monday, March 26 at 6:30pm Design contracts for Airport Park, Huntington Golf Course and Querbes Golf Course are still being approved. Meetings for those locations are expected to be scheduled sometime near the end of March. For more information, call 318.673.7721. 02/21/12 PARENT NEWS - 2/21/12 INFANT TYLENOL RECALL 574,000 bottles of infant Tylenol have been recalled by Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare division. A faulty interior cap can get pushed down into the bottle, making it hard to use the dosing syringe. Slam Dunk Contest & Concert on Friday, February 24, 2012 at 7:30pm at Southern University Shreveport. Performing will be hip-hop group SJ Boyz. Admission to the event is free. The slam dunk competition is open to all who are not a current college or high school basketball player. There is a $15.00 registration fee. Registration ends on February 24, 2012 at 5:00pm at Wildwood Park located at 7401 Jewella Avenue. Winners of the event will receive Academy Sports gift cards in the amount of $250 for 1st place, $100.00 for 2nd place and $50 for 3rd place. The general public is invited to come out and enjoy some gravity defying spectacular slam dunks! For more information and to register, call 318.673.7748 for event details. ALLIANCE EXECUTIVE TO TALK ABOUT BREAKING CADDO PARISH INTO 3 SCHOOL DISTRICTS Alliance4education.org director D. Scott Hughes will be a guest on Time for A Better Shreveport on Mon, Feb 27, 5 pm. He will talk about the Alliance developing a proposal that would create 3 school districts from the current Caddo system. Time for A Better Shreveport, a weekly on-air chat with hosts Robert Trudeau, Loren Demerath and Carolyn Manning, airs every Monday @ 5:00pm on KSCL. Looking to make Shreveport a better place to raise your family? This is a great volunteer group for you. abettershreveport.org 02/01/12 PARENT NEWS - 2/01/2012 TOLEDO BEND STATE PARK IS OPEN Effective immediately, the boat launch at North Toledo Bend State Park, near Zwolle is open to boat traffic. Boat launches at both North Toledo Bend and South Toledo Bend State Parks closed in July due to extremely low lake levels at the Toledo Bend Reservoir. The South Toledo Bend State Park boat launch remains closed pending dredging of boat lanes by the Sabine River Authority. The water level at the Toledo Bend Reservoir remains below the recommended safe level so all water sport participants are advised to avoid excessive speed and exercise caution when navigating waters outside of normal boat lanes. For general lake information, visit PARENT NEWS - 12/15/2011 WORKING MOMS FEEL BETTER THAN SAHM, STUDY FINDS ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2011) - Mothers with jobs tend to be healthier and happier than moms who stay at home during their children's infancy and pre-school years, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association. Researchers analyzed National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development data, beginning in 1991 with interviews of 1,364 mothers shortly after their child's birth and including subsequent interviews and observations spanning more than 10 years. The findings were published in the December issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology®. WILLIAM JOYCE WITH MOONBOT STUDIOS ON LPB Set your DVR to record LPB (channel 24) Dec. 15th @ 7 PM for "Morris Lesmore & the Amazing World of Moonbot- With William Joyce". Hour long special ventures behind the scenes at Moonbot Studios and will feature the making of "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" short film and iPad app. Night owls take note: the program will repeat at 11:30 PM the same day. Louisiana State Parks is sponsoring free guided hikes at two parks on New Year's Day as part of America's State Parks' First Day Hikes project. First Day Hikes offer individuals and families an opportunity to begin the new year rejuvenating while connecting with the outdoors by taking a healthy hike on Jan. 1. First Day Hikes offer a great way to get outside, exercise and enjoy nature with friends and family. "We are excited to host First Day Hikes as part of this national effort to get people outdoors and into our beautiful state parks," Stuart Johnson, assistant secretary of the Office of State Parks, said. "Hikes are a great way to cure cabin fever and burn off those extra holiday calories." Park staff and volunteer will lead hikes at the following locations and times: Lake D'Arbonne State Park in Farmerville will host a hike at 1 p.m., beginning at the Visitors Center. The hike will include about a mile of park trails and conclude with questions and answers at the Visitor Center. Park staff will make maps, clean-up supplies and information about the park available to participants. The event should last between one and two hours. For more information call 318.368.6291. Tickfaw State Park in Springfield will host a hike at 10 a.m. at the Bottomland Pavilion. The 3-mile hike will follow the Tickfaw River. Participants will hike and discuss the sites along the way. Hikers are encouraged to bring water and wear hiking shoes. For more information call 225.294.2218. Details about hike locations, difficulty and length, terrain and tips regarding proper clothing are listed on America's State Parks website, For more information on Lake D'Arbonne State Park, Tickfaw State Park or any of the Louisiana State Parks, please visit . 12/01/11 PARENT NEWS - 12/01/2011 CHRISTMAS TRAIN COMING TO TOWN KCS Holiday Express Train will visit Shreveport's Festival Plaza on Monday December 5, 2011. The festive, six car train features Santa Claus and his elves and will be open to the public beginning at 4:00pm. NEW SCREENING POLICIES FROM TSA TSA has implemented a number of new risk-based security measures, including expedited prescreening initiatives for known travelers and airline crewmembers and modified procedures for screening passengers 12 and under, among other changes. details>>> PARENT NEWS - 11/17/2011 COST IF THANKSGIVING MEAL INCREASED 13% IN 2011 The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) reports the cost for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner increased about 13 percent this year. In 2010, the average cost of a traditional Thanksgiving meal for 10 was $43.47. This year, the total cost of a Thanksgiving feast will be $49.20, a $5.73 increase from last year. Bob Stallman, AFBF President, states, "The cost of this year's meal remains a bargain, at just under $5 per person. The quality and variety of food produced for our dinner tables on America's diverse farms and ranches sets us apart from our contemporaries around the world. It is an honor for our farm and ranch families to produce the food from our nation's land for family Thanksgiving celebrations." The AFBF survey included a complete shopping list of traditional Thanksgiving fare. The meal would feature familiar favorites such as a 16-pound turkey, sweet potatoes, bread stuffing, cranberries, peas, carrots, celery, rolls with butter and pumpkin pie with whipped cream to top it all off. Beverages served with Thanksgiving dinner include tea and coffee. The meal also includes those coveted leftovers. Twenty years ago, in 1991, the average cost of Thanksgiving dinner was $25.95. Ten years ago, in 2001, the average cost of a typical Thanksgiving meal was $35.04. The big ticket item for this year's meal is the turkey, with the largest price increase. The average 16-pound bird will run about $21.57, about $1.35 per pound. This is an increase of $.25 per pound from 2010. AFBF senior economist commented, "Turkey prices are higher this year primarily due to strong consumer demand both here in the U.S. and globally." HOW YOUR BABY VIDEO COULD BLOCK FACEBOOK FOR MILLIONS SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act House Bill, OR Protect IP in the Senate, can change the internet as we know it. The entertainment industry could censor sites that "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. This vague language means sites you use everyday, like Twitter and Facebook, YouTube could be blocked. Hypothetical: A mom posts a video of her little girl dancing to "Hey Soul Sister"on Facebook. SOPA would allow an infringement claim from the music industry to block FB, claiming Facebook encourages and allows copyright infringement. Children under 12 won't be expected to take off shoes before going through security, but Mom and Dad will. TSA will reduce the number of pat-downs of young children but not eliminate. Additional tips for families traveling through airports for the holidays: Travelers must still put liquids placed in carry-on baggage in no larger than 3-ounce bottles and place them in 1-quart sized plastic bags. Limiting 1 per passenger. Wait to wrap gifts or other packages because TSA may unwrap them to inspect them. Food items such as pies and cakes are permitted but may require further inspection. If travelers are not sure if a food item is considered a liquid or gel it is best to pack the item in checked baggage or ship it to a destination in advance. 2011 Junior Independence Bowl on Saturday, November 19, 2011 at Independence Stadium. Many of the games will feature cheerleaders providing halftime entertainment. Come out and support the SPAR Youth Football Cheerleaders. Stand up and cheer for our Cheerleaders!!! SUPPORT THE DIAPER ACT This week is Diaper Action Week, during which they are promoting the Diaper Act. Have you heard of it? The Diaper Act is a federal bill that would give child care centers the flexibility to supply diapers themselves to needy parents whose children attend their facilities. Diapers aren't covered by WIC or SNAP, the food stamp program. Yet parents need approximately $100 worth of diapers each month for their babies. As described by proponents, "The [Diaper] Act seeks to amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 in one simple way: by permitting local agencies who receive funds to determine if they want to use some of the Block Grant funds they currently receive to purchase diapers for qualified families. The DIAPER Act does not require additional funds." The Diaper Act would apply to both disposable and cloth diapers. PARENT NEWS - 10/20/2011 AAP UPDATES SIDS PREVENTION RECOMMENDATIONS About 2,500 babies die annually from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Putting babies to sleep on their back since the recommendation in 1992, has decreased the number of deaths. However, this week the American Academy of Pediatrics boldly updated their recommendations to discourage co-sleeping and the use of all crib bumpers. The AAP also suggests pacifiers be offered to infants, and women breastfeed their babies. pacifiers. New recommendations state that no bumper pads should ever be used in cribs, not just "puffy" bumpers that were previously frowned upon. Co-sleeping increases the risk of suffocation, according to the AAP. Deaths from causes like suffocation and entrapment as a result of co-sleeping and the use of bumpers have been on the rise. The American Association of Pediatrics has released new guidelines that drop the recommended starting age for evaluating children for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder from six to four years old, raising concerns about medicating children so young and that diagnoses will become even more widespread. The AAP first provided guidance on media use for children under age 2 in 1999. This consisted of a recommendation in the Academy's policy statement, "Media Education," which discouraged TV viewing for children in this age group. At the time, there was limited data on the subject, but the AAP believed there were more potential negative effects than positive effects of media exposure for the younger set. Newer data bears this out, and the AAP stands by its recommendation to keep children under age 2 as "screen-free" as possible. More is known today about children's early brain development, the best ways to help them learn, and the effects that various types of stimulation and activities have on this process. "The concerns raised in the original policy statement are even more relevant now, which led us to develop a more comprehensive piece of guidance around this age group," said Dr. Brown, a member of the AAP Council on Communications and Media. The key findings include: Many video programs for infants and toddlers are marketed as "educational," yet evidence does not support this. Quality programs are educational for children only if they understand the content and context of the video. Studies consistently find that children over 2 typically have this understanding. Unstructured play time is more valuable for the developing brain than electronic media. Children learn to think creatively, problem solve, and develop reasoning and motor skills at early ages through unstructured, unplugged play. Free play also teaches them how to entertain themselves. Young children learn best from-and need-interaction with humans, not screens. Parents who watch TV or videos with their child may add to the child's understanding, but children learn more from live presentations than from televised ones. When parents are watching their own programs, this is "background media" for their children. It distracts the parent and decreases parent-child interaction. Its presence may also interfere with a young child's learning from play and activities. Television viewing around bedtime can cause poor sleep habits and irregular sleep schedules, which can adversely affect mood, behavior and learning. Young children with heavy media use are at risk for delays in language development once they start school, but more research is needed as to the reasons. The report recommends that parents and caregivers: Set media limits for their children before age 2, bearing in mind that the AAP discourages media use for this age group. Have a strategy for managing electronic media if they choose to engage their children with it; Instead of screens, opt for supervised independent play for infants and young children during times that a parent cannot sit down and actively engage in play with the child. For example, have the child play with nesting cups on the floor nearby while a parent prepares dinner; Avoid placing a television set in the child's bedroom; and Recognize that their own media use can have a negative effect on children. The report also recommends further research into the long-term effects of early media exposure on children's future physical, mental and social health. PARENT NEWS - 1/19/2012 Training offered for CASA volunteers Court Appointed Special Advocates training will be offered from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Feb. 4 at 820 Jordan St., Suite 360, Shreveport. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. CASA are specially trained volunteers who serve as officers of the court and "friends" to children in need. These volunteer advocates are assigned by judges to speak on behalf of children who have been placed in foster care due to abuse or neglect. Their primary objective is to ensure each child is placed in a safe, permanent home. Children with a CASA will spend a third less time in foster care. Volunteers for Youth Justice is a local nonprofit that has served the needs of abused and neglected children for 30 years. One of the programs provided to Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, Jackson and Webster parishes is that of CASA. Rescued dogs will be available for adoption Dixieland Dog Rescue Adoption Day will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Petsmart, 7061 Youree Drive, Shreveport. Available will be a variety of rescued dogs in top condition that have been spayed or neutered, have current shots, are heartworm free and crate trained. Featured this week will be a 1-year-old male dapple Dachshund. Cost is a $150 tax-deductible adoption fee. For more information, call (318) 423-2164. (Source: Shreveport Times Community News) Area Louisiana State Park Family Events: Feb 4, Mansfield State Historic Site, Mansfield - 8th Texas Cavalry Encampment, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. A period Civil War cavalry encampment, complete with authentically uniformed soldiers and their horses will be featured at Mansfield State Historic Site. Members of the 8th Texas Cavalry living history unit will be portraying Confederate cavalrymen in a typical encampment setting which will include camp life, mounted horse drill, and daily soldier life. For more information call 888-677-6267 toll free or 872-1474 locally. Feb 4, Lake Bistineau State Park, Doyline - Camouflage Game, 2:30 p.m. The Interpretive Ranger will first give a brief lecture on how animals use camouflage as protection in nature. After the lecture, the participants will play a game in which they will look for "animals" on the ground. Some of the "animals" will have a good camouflage, others will have poor camouflage. The game will demonstrate the difference between the two. For more information call 888-677-2478 toll free or 745-3505 locally. Feb 5, Poverty Point State Historic Site, Epps - Tool Demonstration, 1-4 p.m. Join park rangers as they demonstrate the tools used by ancient inhabitants to build, hunt with and create other articles used in their culture. Rangers will also discuss the origins and making of these ancient tools. For more information call 888-926-5492 toll free or 926-5492 locally. Feb 11, Poverty Point State Historic Site, Epps - Basket Weaving Workshop, 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m., participants can enjoy learning the basics of basket weaving while creating their own woven basket. Included in the program will be discussion about Native American basket weaving and the unique prehistoric earthworks located on our site. For more information call 888-926-5492 toll free or 926-5492 locally. Feb 11, Lake D'Arbonne State Park, Farmerville - Bats and Bat Houses, 10 a.m. This program starts with a 30-minute video on bats and a demonstration on building a bat house. It will end with a discussion about the benefits of attracting bats to your yard. For more information call 888-667-5200 toll free or 318-6291 locally. Feb 11, Lake Bistineau State Park, Doyline - Dutch Oven Cooking, 10:30 a.m. Visitors are invited to the park to learn the many ways and techniques to cook with black iron pots. The program is conducted by the Bayou Pots Dutch Oven cooking organization. The group gives demonstrations at 10:30 a.m. and then serves lunch at noon For more information call 888-677-2478 toll free or 745-3505 locally. Feb 18, Poverty Point State Historic Site, Epps - Artifact Identification, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Bring your collection of artifacts and find out their purpose, use and age. The park staff has more than 40 years of combined experience in identifying collections of prehistoric artifacts. You may be surprised to know that some of your collected treasures can date back thousands of years in the past. For more information call 888-296-5492 toll free or 926-5492. Feb 18, Mansfield State Historic Site, Mansfield - Children's Games of the Civil War, 2 p.m. This program will demonstrate the various games and toys played by children of the mid-19th century. Visitors will get to try their hand at Cup and Ball, Graces, Whipping Top, Stick and Hoop, and more. Fun for the whole family! For more information call 888-677-6267 toll free or 872-1474 locally. Feb 25, Poverty Point State Historic Site, Epps - "Building is for the Birds," 1 p.m. Participants are invited to join the park ranger as he discusses the many different types of birds you can attract into your yard by simply encouraging nesting. Examples of martin gourds, bat boxes and bluebird boxes will be on hand to discuss how they are made and set up. The first twelve participants will be given the opportunity to assemble and paint a standard bluebird box to take home. All others will be given detailed instructions and blueprints to build a box at home. For more information call 800-474-0392 toll free or 878-7536 locally. Feb 25, Lake Bistineau State Park, Doyline - Snake Identification, 2:30 p.m. The Interpretive Ranger will teach visitors how to identify different breeds of snakes. This program will especially focus on the differences between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. For more information call 888-677-2478 toll free or 745-3505 locally. Feb 25, Lake D'Arbonne State Park, Farmerville - Environmental Conservation, 10 a.m. This is a new program that will encourage kids and adults to be more mindful of our environment. The program will include how to conserve water and electricity, how to use less plastic and paper, and how to recycle everyday items like cans, paper and plastic. We will also talk about solar and wind power to produce electricity. For more information call 888-667-5200 toll free or 318-6291 locally. CROSSROADS Daily, Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site, Natchitoches - Notables in Time. This is a month long museum display of notable black individuals of Natchitoches parish who contributed to the area's history. For information please call 888-677-7853 toll free or 357-3101 locally. Daily, Rebel State Historic Site, Marthaville - 12th Annual Quilt Display. Quilts will be exhibited in the museum for the entire month of February, culminating with Quilting Appreciation Day on February 25. Come, admire beautiful quilts from the past, and present. Let your mind travel back in time and bask in the pleasant memories of days gone by. For more information, call 888-677-3600 toll free or 472-6255 locally. Saturdays, South Toledo Bend State Park, Anacoco - Bald Eagle Hike, 8 a.m. Visitors are invited to hike to the Bald Eagle's Nest and learn about the history of Sabine River and the surrounding area. Trees, birds, and other interesting information will be given. Additional hikes can be scheduled with the Interpretive Ranger at the Visitor Center. For more information call 888-398-4770 toll free or 286-9079 locally. Feb 11, Fort Jesup SHS, Many - Open Hearth Cooking Demonstration, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Guests are invited to observe a cooking demonstration at Fort Jesup's original kitchen building. A costumed interpreter will give talks on how the kitchen was used during the fort's time as a working military installation, and how it would have been used once it became a family home. Demonstration will include food preparation methods, cooking techniques, and taste-testing. For more information call 1-888-677-5378 toll free or (318) 256-4117locally. Feb 18 & 23, Hodges Gardens State Park, Florien - Camellia Walk, 10 a.m. Our camellias are in full bloom. Take a walk with us as we stroll through over 300 trees. These trees are fifty years old and exemplify a true southern garden. We will discuss varieties, design and cultivation throughout the tour. For more information call 800-354-3523 toll free or 586-4020 locally. Feb 18, South Toledo Bend State Park, Anacoco - Lost and Found, 3 p.m. Children ages 8 and over are given survival tips on what to do if they become lost in the woods. Parents are also invited to attend this program in order to learn what to do before hiking trips with their children. Meet in front of cabin 19 for this exciting, but very beneficial program. For more information call 888-398-4770 toll free or 286-9079 locally. Feb 25, Fort Jesup SHS, Many - Woven Basket Making, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.Guests are invited to watch and observe as a costumed interpreter demonstrates early basket making techniques. The demonstration will include talks on technique, proper supply, and necessity of creating your own goods such as baskets while living on the frontier. For more information call 1-888-677-5378 toll free or (318) 256-4117locally. Feb 25, Rebel State Historic Site, Marthaville - 12th Annual Quilting Appreciation Day, 10 a.m. Anyone interested in learning more about quilting is most cordially invited to attend Quilting Appreciation Day. Demonstrations on various quilting techniques such as machine appliqué and 3-dimensional quilting will be presented. The day will conclude around noon with a PowerPoint presentation entitled "The History of Quilting." For more information, call 888-677-3600 toll free or 472-6255 locally. Feb 25, South Toledo Bend State Park, Anacoco - Scavenger Hunt, 10 a.m. Meet at the Visitor Center for your list and instructions for finding items in the park. This is great fun for children over the age of 10. For more information call 888-398-4770 toll free or 286-9079 locally. Feb 25,Hodges Gardens State Park, Florien - Winter Nature Walk, 10 a.m. Brighten up your gloomy winter day with the dazzling bright blooms of the camellias. The camellias and sweet olive trees arch the pathways in the main garden filling the air with a delicate aroma. For more information call 800-354-3523 toll free or 586-4020 locally.	eng	85478652-54b9-4eab-b1ba-864ffbe413b8	http://www.sbfamilies.com/WeeklyUpdates.html
Caution: Reading this article may prove dangerous to your perceptions about nuclear power, energy in general, and low-grade but well-heeled environmental activism. Having said this, I regard myself as an environmentalist who is as concerned as anyone else about the future of our planet and humanity, but my path diverges strongly from that of most special interest factions when it comes to deciding what are the relevant issues and how to address them. Nuclear waste, despite the ignorant half-truths and inventions of those who fear it, and despite the fact that we would rather not have it, is one of the best reasons for developing nuclear power relative to any other major reliable source of energy other than hydro. When you add its minimal pollution contributions; its much better safety record than any large energy source; and its improving cost advantages at this time, there should be no contest, yet the emotionally slanted nuclear mythologies keep rearing their heads. Need convincing about its advantages? Start by examining Table 1 below. Anyone can find these data with a little searching, so it is not as though they are hidden or not known, though they are widely ignored by those who would rather not know them and would rather that WE not know them either. Certainly, many environmentalists would never dare to acknowledge them, even during this time of concern over supposed global warming or their angst over a litany of supposed environmental effects, as to do so would reveal their real motives (being anti-progress, anti-industry, anti-cheap energy, and anti-people) and lose a lot of donations and members. Actually, many environmental activists cannot identify that the two most important and devastating human and environmental issues in the world at any time, are poverty and ignorance, and not much else. Why not ask a few, and convince yourself? Pollution? In total contrast to the highly controversial atmospheric pollution from fossil fuels, including mercury and all of the other toxic metal and gaseous pollutants - implicated in the premature deaths of about 100,000 people per year in the U.S. alone - the total radioactive waste produced from the back-end of nuclear power operations (40,000 tonnes per year in the entire world), is 100% managed and controlled and injures no-one, not even those who work closely with it. NO ONE! Such waste consists of 15,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, and about 25,000 tonnes of low-level maintenance wastes - almost entirely solids - consisting of discarded protective clothing, cleaning materials, filters and other materials that need to be managed for about 30 years. The volume of the low-level reactor maintenance wastes for the entire world - assuming an average specific gravity of about 1 - is 25,000 cubic metres which could be enclosed in a space 30 metres by 30 by 30 - or the volume of a very small municipal building, warehouse or supermarket. The volume of the entire world's spent fuel (air spaces, shielding and cladding removed) for a year - assuming a specific gravity of about 8 is less than 2,000 cubic metres, which is about the internal volume of my modest home (10 metres by 20 by 10). No wonder there is no immediate need to do anything with it. It is also NOT waste, but represents a recyclable resource as only about 1 to 3 percent of the contained energy is used in the first pass through the reactor cycle. Store it retrievably, and we will eventually use it for the remaining energy content. Contrast that with the mostly invisible and entirely unmanaged emissions thrown haphazardly into the world's atmosphere from fossil fuels in a year (about 28 billion tonnes - only 700,000 times larger than the managed nuclear waste) to provide us with energy and electricity if it is not generated by nuclear power or hydro. Long-term exposure health effects from fossil fuel pollution cause about 3 million deaths per year, according to the WHO. In terms of chronic low-level radiation emissions, burning coal emits more radiation in the fly ash, containing uranium and thorium, than is routinely emitted from an operating nuclear power plant. I point this out as an interesting fact only, as the health effects of this are so small as to be indefinable (if they occur at all) relative to all of the other pollutants from fossil fuels In terms of the average radiation dose that the public in developed society is exposed to each year, about 75% comes from nature (water, air, food, and each other), about 25% comes from medical uses of radiation and less than 1% comes from all industrial and other uses. Less than 0.01% is typically associated with the operation of all of the nuclear power plants in the world and their wastes, as shown in Figure 1. Avoiding and being careful not to acknowledge this particular piece of perspective, is why various special interest factions can continue to keep much of the public emotionally off balance when it comes to making fearful allegations about radiation effects from nuclear power, that do not and are not likely ever to occur. The 40,000 tonnes of relatively low-level radioactive wastes produced in a year, is also about the average daily output of ore from each of the thousands of base-metal mines throughout the world, and is about the tonnage of garbage produced each week or two in every one of the thousands of large cities in the world. In terms of social damage and health effects, it is all of the other garbage and wastes shown in Table 2, and not nuclear waste, that are directly implicated in severe and ongoing health effects each and every day. The world's refuse from its thousands of major cities, is clearly millions of times more of a disposal problem, is much more difficult to manage if it is managed at all, and is much more associated with obvious and documented adverse health effects than any small volume of 100% managed nuclear waste, no matter how radioactive it may be in the short term. Obviously, pollution is not of serious concern to many environmentalists, or they would openly acknowledge these figures and be clamoring to build more low-polluting nuclear power facilities to replace fossil fuels. Safety? How many people have died because of all aspects of using nuclear power and nuclear wastes, relative to other significant sources of energy? Data from the Paul-Scherrer Institute in Switzerland for 1969 to 1996, showing relative human fatalities from 4290 energy-related accidents in commercial facilities, indicate that for each terra-watt-year of energy use (the world uses about 13 TW of primary energy each year at this time), the following relative numbers of fatalities are indicated: Nuclear Power 8 Natural Gas 85 Coal 342 Oil 418 Hydro 884 LPG 3280 One can add wind and solar deaths to these even though they typically generate only a minuscule fraction of the terra-watt year range. Because of the relatively dilute character of solar and wind energy, and the need for constant maintenance of the many small and widespread and often remote facilities (wind), the accident and fatality rates for humans are projected to lie between those of natural gas and coal use. For birds, it is a far different story, and their death toll from windmill blade collisions is of concern to many real environmentalists. As there were fatalities only during 1986 (31 deaths) from Chernobyl (about 1 death per year averaged over the almost 30 years of the data), most of the nuclear figures above are derived from mining accidents and related fatalities. I don't know what there is NOT to understand about these numbers, yet like those concerning pollution, they are studiously ignored as various groups ALLEGE or invent massive numbers of injuries that just do not occur, while they are so devastatingly and regularly obvious for coal mining deaths, dam bursts, oil fires or gas explosions. None of the energy sources acknowledges associated deaths from pollution which, if they were to do so, would put them further out of position relative to nuclear, which, like hydro, is relatively non-polluting, and none of them - other than nuclear power (which adds about 1% to electricity bills for future waste disposal and decommissioning) - assesses or recovers any other cost of environmental impact. This may change with a carbon tax, but I doubt it. The required environmental impact statements for nuclear power facilities already demonstrate their minimal impact on both people and the environment, yet as with everything else that does not fit their emotionally laden agendas, many environmentalists rarely acknowledge it. So not only is nuclear power less polluting, it is also statistically defined to be the most safe. By the way, the most dangerous form of energy, is the energy that you do not have, when you need it. Sound familiar? Table 3 shows some of the baseline data, also mostly from the Paul Scherrer Institute: There have been three significant accidents at nuclear power plants over the last 50 years. Only one - Chernobyl - caused any immediate deaths. Thirty-one individuals, mostly firefighters, died in their inappropriate response to the fire and their needless exposure to fatal levels of radiation after working for several hours rather than fighting the fire remotely or just walking away. Most of these deaths were avoidable, should not have occurred, and would not have occurred in the free world. Predictions of long-term injuries to the much larger populations exposed to low level radiation from releases from these accidents, or just from exposure to natural background radiation, are unlikely ever to occur and are based upon one of the worst pieces of unscientific extrapolation imaginable; the Linear, No Threshold hypothesis, or LNT. It is this LNT hypothesis ('all radiation has an injurious effect, no matter how low the dose') that allows the EPA to suggest that between 10,000 and 40,000 lung cancer deaths will arise in the U.S. each year from exposure to natural radon, when the actual empirical (observed) data show that exposure to environmental radon is associated with a lower incidence of lung cancer in all areas of the U.S. as well as the rest of the world (also lung cancer is mostly associated with smoking). Low level radiation, such as that from radon, stimulates the immune response and the bodies own defenses, which is probably the reason many millions of people flock unconsciously to the various health resorts to bathe in the radioactive atmosphere, waters, sands and muds of mines (Colorado, Montana, Germany etc), health spas (everywhere) and radioactive beaches (Brazil), and report therapeutic benefit without understanding why or how. 'It just works for me'. If radiation - even at moderate levels - was obviously injurious, as we would know by now after more than 100 years of intense medical use with unbelievably large doses to millions of patients (often thousands of times higher than natural background), it would never be used in medical diagnosis or therapy, and a few million of us would die needlessly and prematurely each year from undiagnosed and untreated health problems. If the EPA calculated injuries from such exposures as they do for radon, they would suggest that perhaps up to 200,000 people might die in the U.S. each year from medical radiation exposures (rather than about 200,000 lives being saved), as medical radiation is the second largest source of radiation following natural exposures. They obviously don't calculate them, and people obviously do not die like flies. If they did, medical uses of radiation would have long since been banned. The irrational assumption behind the LNT hypothesis, in assuming injury from low dose radiation, is most easily shown by a comparison with another agent that is harmful at high doses - aspirin. This assumption of the validity of the LNT, is similar to the invalid and obviously flawed argument, that if 1 person dies after taking 200 aspirin (a fatal dose), that we would expect one death in a population of 200 individuals where each of them takes one aspirin (200 person aspirin), or that any individual will die after consuming 200 aspirins at the rate of one each day. I cannot imagine any member of the public swallowing that unscientific junk, yet they believe the equivalent foolishness about low dose radiation. It is just as invalid to assume that low doses of radiation are harmful as to assume that low doses of aspirin will also kill. Both are toxic at very high acute doses, but both are beneficial - yes beneficial (it's called Hormesis) at moderate doses, even continued over a lifetime. Attempts have also been made to use the LNT to extrapolate collective radiation doses and assumed population risks out to hundreds and thousands of years. An example of this comes from nuclear waste disposal, where the U.S. EPA calculated that there might be a total of 10 premature deaths from cancer in the entire U.S. population, over the first 10,000 years after closure of a repository for each 1,000 tonnes of radioactive waste. Such a socially fatuous, and scientifically unjustified calculation (more people will die from ingrown toenails over this time!) mistakenly presumes that such risks can be validly calculated from minuscule doses that are a tiny fraction of average background radiation, and that society and medical knowledge and scientific capability will remain static from this moment forward. Barnum was right. The assumption that harm can be calculated in this way for chronic doses that are an extremely small fraction of natural background radiation, is unjustified on any epidemiological basis, and is an extreme outcome of the bureaucratic misuse and regulatory inappropriateness of the LNT hypothesis. However, let us not get sidetracked about radiation overprotection. Since about 1900, there have been about 90,000 coal-mining deaths in the U.S. (and large incidence of black lung disease), with a correspondingly large death rate from transportation accidents and pollution effects. Fortunately, mine safety in the U.S. has much improved in the last few decades. Mine accidents occur with disturbing regularity in the Ukraine and China, but we rarely hear of them. Comparable numbers exist for petroleum uses and for gas, as gas use continues to increase. We have grown increasingly used to houses exploding and city blocks being demolished in natural gas explosions and city-wide fires occurring after gas pipeline disruptions after earthquakes (Kobe, California), but we accept those deaths and get on with things. Obviously, safety is not an issue with most so-called environmentalists either, or they would be clamoring to build more safe nuclear power facilities in preference to those facilities using fossil fuels, wind, solar, or hydro, and they would insist upon electrical heating rather than oil or gas. Costs? If we examine recent data of the Utility Data Institute which compares the electrical production costs for the use of Gas, Oil, Coal and Uranium, we see that electricity from uranium is relatively cheap, and about generally competitive with most coal, and both of which are a lot cheaper than gas or oil. Neither wind nor solar power show up on this diagram as they represent chump change and are ferociously expensive anyway except in rare niche locations. Hydro, of course, which supplied almost all of our electricity in the early years but is also hated by many environmentalists, mostly beats the pants off all of them. But now comes the really interesting bits: Despite their increasing age, the 100 plus commercial nuclear plants in the U.S. have so increased efficiency and reduced operational losses, that their increased electrical output in the last few years has been equivalent to adding another 23 new nuclear plants, yet without building any. In the U.S. the thirty-year amortization period is coming to an end for many nuclear power plants. As they are also applying for, and are likely to be granted, operating license extensions for possibly a further 20 years or more, after their capital costs have been amortized, they are likely to enjoy a massive cost advantage that has numerous factions agonizing over what they can do to stop this nightmare situation of clean, abundant, reliable, safe, and even cheaper energy. Nuclear power is clean, safe and cheap already. If, as originally envisaged and as was possible until the regulatory, environmental and litigatory obstructionist processes, began to strangle the golden goose, it was indeed close to being too cheap to meter, as many environmentalist were so fearful about. It might just get that way again, relative to the real costs of using fossil fuels and wind and solar. Can you hear the cries of anguish from the anti-social environmentalists amidst the cheers of the real people who have been paying through the nose for gas, oil and electricity of late? If a carbon tax is ever levied against fossil fuels, or if some effort is made to sequester carbon dioxide in some imaginative but energy intensive manner (as solid carbonates, or as liquefied carbon dioxide, injected beneath the ocean or into oil fields), which would put the costs of fossil fuels up even further, then the cost advantages of nuclear power will become even more evident. Nuclear power relatively clean? Relatively safe? Relatively cheap (even with a grossly non-level playing field in which the costs of pollution and environmental impact from fossil fuels are almost entirely ignored)? These amount to nothing less than a horrible nightmare to most so-called environmentalists who, in reality, give not a damn about either the environment or the security of society, as they understand neither. About now there are probably several readers hoping that they will wake up and discover that this entire looming energy scenario - where nuclear power turns out to be the good guy, hero, savior - was just a bad dream. Fat chance. It's here and it's just around the corner, and eventually more of the public will get to find out about it and how they have been misled and lied to by so-called environmentalists on the unscientific lunatic fringe, and maybe stop funding their obstructionist ways. Get used to it. Readers Comments Date Comment Ravinder Singh 10.8.03 Dear John, Your article in support of nuclear power is interesting. But few things you have missed out; There have been very significant technological improvements since the use of nuclear power for power generation was almost stopped. Invention of stronger durable alloys, computers/controll technologies, manufacturing technologies etc. New Gas turbines these days operate at 1450 degree cel. WHILE ALL OTHER POWER GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE NEW DEVELOPMENTS, NUCLEAR PLANT WERE LEFT BEHIND. Low fuel prices also favored fossil fuels. N. plants as you have also noted operate at much higher efficiency. NEW PLANTS ARE/ SHALL BE MUCH MORE SAFE THAN OLD PLANTS. But the potential to cause Chernabyl like accident has not diminished. You have ignored the fact that Chernobyl plant was located in very low population area yet radio active clouds significantly raised radiation level many hundred miles away from accident site. Inspite of associated risk which in the case of Japan may be 100 times more than Chrnobyl due to thick population, Japan adopted nucler power. Though there were some minor accidents or leaks but Japan continue to build new improved plants. Nuclear Plants of today shall be much more safer and efficient. Security is another vital factor, you can't allow any company to own and operate nuclear plants. Potential of nuclears fuel as a WMD has arrested the advancement of commercial use of nuclear energy. Though nuclear power could become prime source of energy but political climate doesn't favour its extensive use in near future. --Ravinder Singh Geoffrey Young 10.9.03 A useful antidote to Mr. Sutherland's propaganda can be found via the web site of the Rocky Mountain Institute: To summarize, Amory Lovins' argument is that improved end-use efficiency is so much less expensive than nuclear power that it would be a gross misuse of limited capital to invest in nuclear when the same amount invested in efficiency would yield vastly greater electricity savings and societal benefits. By and large, capital markets share Lovins' pessimistic outlook on nuclear. "A future technology whose time has passed." John K. Sutherland 10.9.03 Ravinder, Thank you for having the courage to respond to my combative article. You raise several points, but space limits my response: 1 Technological improvements. New plants obviously will take advantage of new developments, while existing ones must backfit where possible. Nuclear did this to some degree on the existing plants which is why, along with learning from mistakes, the efficiency has improved. Gas did so, but to use gas for electricity generation is still wasting the resource. 2. Your comments on low fossil fuel prices are partially valid. However, uranium is a relatively low priced and predictably priced commodity, as is contracted domestic coal. One could see a large swing in the price of uranium and it would have relatively little effect upon electricity pricing derived from it, as - unlike fossil fuels - fuel price does not have much effect on nuclear costs, especially where natural uranium is the fuel (CANDU), making it ten times cheaper than coal, even using only 1% of the uranium. Gas and oil are notoriously unpredictable, with swings of 100 to 200% or more because of suppliers, politics and international pricing. The data from the Utility Data Institute tell the story quite well. 3. Safety and Chernobyl. If you re-examine the data from the Paul Scherrer Institute you will note that even the OLD nuclear plants (despite Chernobyl) are many times safer than using other sources of energy. New plants should be even safer. I believe your 100 times figure for Japan is comparing the statistical power of the 1945 bombings and radiation effects, relative to the radiation release from Chernobyl. One cannot and should not compare these figures anyway, as the Japan bombings were acute and massive radiation doses that had nothing whatsoever to do with commercial nuclear power, whereas all but a few hundred doses (those who cleaned up the local area) at Chernobyl were chronic and comparatively low. I do not know what your point has to do with Japanese nuclear power. I also do not believe that one can assume that Chernobyl points out anything about the operation of nuclear power plants in the rest of the world, as Chernobyl was the culmination of a long string of monumental gaffes. Most reactors today are generally fitted with containments and would have a wet, rather than a dry, environment after catastrophic failure, and operate to much different rules. Chernobyl seems to have been the worst accident that might have happened in anyone's wildest imaginings, and there were just 31deaths (28 of them were avoidable). It is like saying that we should stop building automobiles anywhere in the world, as the Zil (Russian car?) is such a piece of junk. Of course, if one listens to the Canadian Broadcarping Castration (CBC), they continue to speak of 10,000 dead on each Chernobyl anniversary without admitting that these are the expected numbers of deaths in the population in the immediately following years, whether Chernobyl had happened or not. It appears that all normal deaths were suspended for a year or so, and all deaths were then lumped under Chernobyl. The UN has very good reports on this. The second accident: TMI (1979)(U.S), indicated what a bad accident might be in a wet environment that was contained. No deaths, no injuries despite the usual litigatory circus that is gradually winding down, even now. The first accident, that at Windscale (UK), was also a dry fire in graphite. No one died and there were no definable subsequent injuries, though they have certainly been looked for. The most memorable TV shots (I lived nearby at the time) were of disgruntled local farmers pouring radioactive milk down the drains. Had they made the milk into cheese, and allowed the iodine-131 to decay, the photo-ops might have been eminently forgettable. As for radioactive clouds; these made their way around the world from both Windscale and Chernobyl. I know, because I measured them in Canada coming from Chernobyl. You must recognize that detection is not synonymous with harm. One hundred years ago, detection limits were parts per thousand for many chemicals, now they are parts per trillion. Just because we see things billions of times smaller, does not mean billions of times more pollution or harm (despite typical environmentalist claims, which lead to assumptions about the quality of air and drinking water, both of which are better today than for the last two hundred years). This is especially true of radiation where a common limit of detection is one billionth of a part per billion - like detecting a grain of salt in a billion tonnes of water. 4. Publicity of accidents or leaks. It is a pity that the industry does not routinely report acciden John K. Sutherland 10.9.03 Continuation: 4. Publicity of accidents or leaks. It is a pity that the industry does not routinely report accidents or leaks at ALL power plants as is done for nuclear. Some perspective would force the press to be more honest, and would sober up the public, as they would then recognize that incidents of highly publicized 'bashed thumbs' (but without telling anyone that they are bashed thumbs) are not fatalities (see the Paul Scherrer data for actual perspective on fatalities). If the costs of health damage from pollution are ever added in to the fossil fuel side of the leger, then we will begin to see just how socially effective nuclear power is. 5. Yes, security is important, but at ALL power plants and distribution systems, as all are comparably vulnerable. Though the hysterical value of damaging a nuclear plant might be a thousand times higher than blowing up a dam, the probable fatalities would be with the dam, and probably much more than 1,000 times larger, but let's not get into details. If you envisage security as being necessary to stop a terrorist from running off with a few kilograms of spent fuel, why bother. He wouldn't get far, and he would be really easily found. I think that events of the last month or so, reveal the significant problems. 6. Nuclear fuel as WMD. It is easier to make bombs by enriching uranium (Iran), than by reprocessing spent fuel which requires a robust nuclear program; is expensive; technologically demanding; and easily detected (N. Korea). 7. Politics is notoriously self-serving. When the political costs of NOT making a needed decision outweigh the political costs of making a thorny decision, the thorny decision will be made. However, one should not equate the temporary political nuclear decisions of the U.S., Germany or a few other wealthy and resource-rich countries, with those of France, Japan, India, China, Finland, Sweden, Rumania, Russia etc, all of which have either vibrant and expanding nuclear programs, or are beginning to recognize (Sweden) that they should get back on the bandwagon or run short of energy and pollute even more. With France and Japan (and others), it was a case of 'no coal, no oil, no gas, no choice'. We'll all get to that decision eventually. John K. Sutherland 10.9.03 Response to Geoffrey Young. Geoffrey, thank you for your revealing response. I agree that if you can make anything more efficient you should go for it, and yes, it will reduce the amount of capacity that you will need to install. Although you seem to believe that this has relevance only for nuclear power, surely it applies to all sources of energy. I recall that possibly about 15 years ago, Keepin and Kats of the infamous Rocky Mountain Institute suggested that each dollar invested in energy efficiency will displace approximately seven times as much in the way of greenhouse gas emissions than if the same dollar were invested in nuclear power. The snag is that they had most carefully selected their nuclear cost information from the half dozen or so, most poorly operating plants of the approximately 109 operating at that time. If I recall correctly, the K&K suggested costs for nuclear electricity were about 13c/kWh for those few, but they obviously hoped that everyone would believe that it applied across the board to all of these facilities. They also did not admit or recognize, that though it can be very cost-effective to pick off some of the cheaper and easier aspects of improving energy efficiency (insulating un-insulated spaces etc.), it becomes more and more expensive and eventually is not worth the cost. In other words, they were playing games with numbers to try and mislead people. They felt, like you, that their blinkered data should only be considered as a blast against nuclear power and not any other source of energy. I must admit that my critical perception and continued scientific distrust of the RMI and any of Lovins' statements and efforts, stems from that piece of work, and has been amply confirmed by comparable 'one-trick-pony' achievements ever since. John K. Sutherland 10.9.03 As a further response to Geoffrey Young, and as an anti-dote to his faith in Amory Lovins: As you were so kind as to provide the audience with reference to two of Lovins' analyses, which are little more than smoke and mirror rants that are long on rhetoric and short on scientific fact , it is only fair that I provide them with two rather more informative and factually based references from the real world. The writers clearly have no use for Lovins's economics or his glib misuse of science, any more than I do. Both are easily found by going to the web site of each organization. American Spectator of May/June 2002, article by William Tucker. Cato Policy Analysis number 280, on Renewables, by Bradley, 1997. Of course there are hundreds of others, but once you recognize the basic flawed efforts of the RMI you only need one to turn you off. Ravinder Singh 10.10.03 Dear John, Thank you for your reply. Most of the contributers to EP have America centric and self serving ideas. A billing expert of today, was a meter reader in recent past, thinks he can solve all the problems Americans have. People don't seems to understand that China, a $800bn economy consumes more coal than USA-12 times larger economy. Energy is used very inefficiently in most developing countries. Amory and Geoffrey will be surprised to lean that intead of efficient 2 HP pumpset, substanndard pumsets of 5 HP are routinely installed in India and developing countries. People in USA prefer MUV and are reluctant to adopt fuel efficient transport and hybrid cars are still hand made in thousands/year. Most energy saving plans are comercially viable but people are reluctant to adopt more efficient technologies because of low cost fossil fuels which also cause large scale pollution/ global warming. Solar, Wind, biomass, fuel cells etc. all have basic flaw- these can't ensure continous supply over a long period. People don't seems to realise that advacements in most of these technologies have reached climax stage but Nuclear research is largely confined in secret files . For example- there is very little progress in Super Conductivity research, 100MW wind farm may have 50 to over 100 turbines. Nuclear Power will satisfy bulk of future needs of people of this world. UN efforts to unify the world through increased global cooperation and trade will reduce political tensions and make way for sharing of advancements in Nuclear Power technology, larger mass produced plants will make nuclear power affordable worldwide etc. It is possible to save $1000bn in USA in 10 years but no one seems to interested. Average home electricity bill in UK is only $400/year or just 1% to 2% of family income so there is general reluctance to adopt new technologies. We have failed to serve peple of this world effectively due to political reasons, commercial considerations and basic human nature to take decisions based on own our understanding than the best long term alternative. As a WIPO awarded inventor I create new ideas and inventions and innovative projects offer substantial commercial advantage but Americans throw money after traders, billers, lawyers, distributers and retaiers because it is easy business. ---Ravinder Singh James Hopf 10.10.03 Some would say that Chernobyl had a greater impact than 31 lives. My understanding is that there have been ~2000 thyroid cancer cases, which are almost certainly due to Chernobyl (as the expected number is a small fraction of that total). This disease is highly treatable, however, and few if any of these people will die. Also, conservative estimates of total eventual cancers, based on the LNT model, predict as many as ~5,000 eventual deaths. Of note is the fact that there were no short-term (acute radiation exposure) deaths of any members of the public, even those living only a few miles from the reactor. This, despite them not even being told about the accident for several days (i.e., there was literally NO emergency planning or response). The point is, however, that even if you DO except LNT (which I certainly don't, as there isn't one shred of evidence, even after 30 years of intense effort to find any), and even if you DO believe that Chernobyl will eventually cause ~5,000 cancer deaths, it does absolutely nothing to change the conclusion that the overall environmental and public health costs/risks of nuclear are NEGLIGIBLE compared to those of fossil fuels, coal in particular. Most official government agencies (EPA, etc..) continue to believe that coal plant emissions cause ~10,000 premature deaths EVERY YEAR in the US, under normal operation. Worldwide, the death toll is at least ~100,000 per year. By contrast, even if LNT is assumed, all govt. agencies agree that, with the exception of Chernobyl, nuclear power has had no measurable impact on public health over its entire ~40-year history! As the article (above) shows, exposures due to nuclear power operations are a negligible fraction of natural background, even for those living right next to the plants. It's true that some of the coal numbers above may be based upon studies that use logic similar to LNT. But that's appropriate, since I'm comparing the (huge) coal death toll to a (still negligible) nuclear "death toll" that is calculated assuming LNT. I'm just comparing apples to apples. That said, it's pretty clear that LNT is false, given that natural background doses vary over a wide range (100-1,000 mrem/year) and NO correlation exists between background dose and cancer rates. By contrast, the nuclear plant exposures are far less than 1 mrem/year. If no effect can be seen for increases of several hundred mrem, exposures of less than 1 mrem clearly have NO effect. To summarize. Assuming LNT (and similar logic for coal), coal kills ~100,000 per year, every year, as long as it has been around. By contrast, nuclear has had a single event, in its entire history, which will NEVER be repeated, that caused ~5,000 deaths. Even if a worst-case meltdown were to occur at a Western plant, all indications are that the maximum conceivable release would be vastly less (orders of magnitude) than Chernobyl, and would kill much less than 1,000, even under hypothetical LNT assumptions. Under the no-LNT assumption, few, if any, would die even under the worst-case Western plant meltdown event that everyone is so afraid of. It is amazing that the public continues to harbor its current attitudes about nuclear power given the facts, such as the ones discussed above. The record could not be more clear. Fossil fuels continue to emit massive amounts of pollution and are known to have very large effects on the environment and public health (thousands of deaths, etc...). Nuclear has not emitted any measurable pollution, and has had no measurable impact on health. That is the record, pure and simple. Is the public BLIND. How It has always been hypothetical, future problems that have NEVER materialized, to this day, over the entire 40-year history. Why can't they see that the actual, factual record is that nuclear has never had any negative effect, period. The public also can't seem to understand the difference between toxic material that is emitted into the environment and toxic material that is NOT emitted into the environment (and almost certainly never will be). In most circles, the mere generation of nuclear waste is weighed as an environmental problem (i.e., a negative attribute) in the same manner as the EMISSION of other pollutants right into out air and water. Never mind the fact that the nuclear waste is generated in one millionth the volume of the associated wastes with fossil fuels (coal), and is therefore much easier to control and isolate from human contact. Extremely hypothetical health effects (in some distant future) are viewed as equivalent to actual, ongoing health effects that we can see and measure every day. Not only are fossil fuels a James Hopf 10.10.03 (continued)...... Not only are fossil fuels are allowed to continually emit huge amounts of pollution, and inflict enormous health and other social costs (i.e., use our air and water as an open sewer), but they are allowed to do it for FREE. Nuclear, by contrast, is not only not allowed to emit any pollution (for any price), but it is required to virtually guarantee that it never will. In the extremely unlikely even of any release of pollution, it must provide for emergency planning (to avoid any health effects), and it must also pay for insurance to provide compensation just is case there is any health effect. Meanwhile, coal inflicts enormous health effects every year, and it is not asked to pay one dime in compensation to anyone. The above situation is astonishingly UNFAIR. Given that nuclear has paid all costs necessary to avoid any pollution (even the chance of any pollution) it should be treated like all the other non-polluting energy source (i.e., renewables). We're waiting for our 1.8 cent/kW-hr tax credit. Alternatively, sources like coal should have to pay heavy taxes (per ton emitted) on each of its major pollutants. A carbon tax should be applied too. If either of the above steps were taken, (that is, if there were actually a LEVEL playing field) nuclear would probably become the least expensive base load power source. The tragedy is that it's very close right now (i.e., is only a little bit more expensive), but the govt. is unwilling to apply ANY financial incentive. The result? As gas gets expensive, utilities are starting to order coal plants again. Global warming be damned! Nothing short of tragic. John K. Sutherland 10.10.03 James, your comments about comparing health effects and a level playing field are right on. However the supposed linkage between Chernobyl and thyroid cancers, are worth looking at rather more than they have been. Zbigniew Jaworowski, a former chairman of UNSCEAR recently pointed out some remarkably interesting data, and there are others from much larger dose medical thyroid treatments which contradict the allegations from Chernobyl. The Swedish medical thyroid data were the ones publicized, I believe, (but the same is true for all other developed countries) in which the thyroids of thousands of patients have been given hundreds of times higher doses medically, than were received by the Chernobyl people, and without the effects alleged for the lower Chernobyl exposures. As for Chernobyl, Jaworowski pointed out that the epidemiological data on the incidence of occult thyroid cancers in different countries shows: Canada - 6,000 cases per 100,000 of population; Poland - 9,000 cases/100k; U.S. 13,000 cases, and Finland 35,000 cases, all per 100,000 of population. He then pointed out that in the Gomel area (Chernobyl) the recorded incidence of occult thyroid cancers prior to Chernobyl (remember that epidemiology was not high on the medical agenda of this poor and backward region), was said to be 18 (not 18,000, but eighteen) per 100,000. Obviously there seems to have been a severe under-reporting problem, which, when remedied would suggest several hundred percent higher incidence of thyroid cancers - all looking for something to blame it on. Of course Chernobyl was the obvious scapegoat. As Jaworowski noted ' I doubt that Chernobyl thyroid cancers are caused by Chernobyl'. I think I would concur. As at least one of the UN medical specialists noted, the people of Chernobyl may well prove to have much better health outcomes as a result of Chernobyl, with all the medical attention they are now receiving, than had Chernobyl never happened. This is the reality, not a shrug-off or any attempt to play the accident down. I guess this is somewhat like the Japanese bomb survivors, who appear to be in unusually good health and are living longer than the control populations against which they have been compared for the last few decades. However, with the mindset of a few in the region that liberal application of Vodka is a radiation antidote, I think that there may be some other health problems on the horizon that will probably get blamed on Chernobyl too. However, these other subjects get us into rather more erudite waters that are outside of the scope of the article I wrote. Ken Regelson 10.12.03 Before embarking on any kind of major nuclear building spree, we should do a careful, unbiased appraisal of the current, and likely soon realities of renewable energy. Unfortunately, I am not unbiased on renewables. Even so I offer the following… In Colorado, we are seeing wind farms installed with 20 year power purchase agreements (PPA) at 2.5 cents per kWh. Even adding back in the roughly 1.8 cents per kWh for the wind production tax credit (PTC), this yields 4.3 cents per kWh. One should note that the PTC only lasts 10 years so the unsubsidized net costs are something less then 4.3 cents over the 20 years of the PPA. These contracts have no adders or modifiers for fuel costs nor wastes nor greenhouse gas charges since wind uses no fuel, produces no wastes from operation, and produces almost no greenhouse gasses. Wind is very popular polling in the range of 60 to 97% in favor depending on who is polled. Generally, the more people know about wind the more favorable they are. (1) Wind bird and bat issues exist, but are not large. Several studies have shown about 1 bird killed per turbine per year. In separate utility studies (utilities that had wind) the additional costs for dispatch and backup for wind varied from "negligible" to 0.5 cents per kWh. Utilities such as Xcel and PacifiCorp view backup as not much of a problem until wind goes above 20% of total generation capacity. Wind power was at 5000 MW for the US for 2002. It is projected to grow in the US by 1400 MWs in 2003 (about 30% growth). Worldwide, wind has grown at an average 32% per year for the last 5 years. (2) The 6400 MWs of US wind produce roughly the same number of kWhs per year as two 1000 MW nuclear plants. As with all mass-produced items, wind power costs will continue to fall as manufacturers and utilities gain experience. Currently, PV (photovoltaics or solar panels) is only cost-effective in niche applications. But if growth rates of manufacturing for PV continue at their current, worldwide, 25% per year rate, we could see cost-competitive PV in quantity in 10 to 15 years. Much sooner cost-competition is also possible. Several companies will double, or nearly double, their PV manufacturing capacity this year. (3) Wind and PV have very low terrorist security risks. It is difficult to see how renewable technologies could be fashioned into WMD or WMP (Weapons of Mass Panic: conventional "dirty" bombs made from nuclear waste), or any weapon at all that a baseball bat wouldn't do better. An attack on wind farms or PV installed on homes and businesses is pointless – damage and news coverage would be limited. The impact of wind and PV failures do not extend beyond the immediate area where the failure occurred – they are small and achieve reliability through quantity. While the reliability of large fossil and nuclear plants is admirable given their complexity, they do go out for all kinds of reasons (fish in coolant inlet valves, fires…). When a 1000 MW plant goes out unexpectedly it is major trouble. Wind and PV are easy to insure and do not require acts of congress (at least for the US nuclear industry) to obtain insurance. At current growth rates, wind is doubling production, and PV is doubling manufacturing, every 3 years or less. Since the materials needed for PV and wind are easily available, there is no reason that this rapid growth cannot be sustained or even increased. Companies and industries that ignore or discount rapid growth in competing industries have not done well historically. Contempt for customers' or voters' opinions, whether those opinions are based in fact or fantasy or something in between, is rarely associated with long-term success. Wind is here now. PV, while taking a long time to really get going, is growing quickly. Wind and PV are not perfect and would have trouble generating all of our power needs – at least until a viable backup method exists. Twenty percent of our power appears to be no problem. Smart companies are learning all they can about these technologies and seeing how they can profit from them. ------ (1) Wind is popular with the public. (Several articles on polls in Nebraska, Europe, and Australia – long web page, scroll down). (Farmers). Ken, We are all biased to some degree. I am biased in favor of having unlimited, cheap energy for everyone who needs it. I don't particularly care how it is provided, just so long as it is there and is assured to be there in all conditions and at all times. This is called social survival. Given a choice of energy sources, I will generally choose hydro, nuclear and coal in that order, because of costs, safety and availability. I also have an open mind. Persuade me, with data that I can verify, that you have a better energy choice and I will espouse it, even if it is wind or solar, or extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers (Dean Swift). Unfortunately, wind, like solar has its uses, but feeding electricity to the grid is not one of them. However, wind is useful in those remote areas where there is need, and the grid does not reach. It is useful for pumping water and charging batteries, where reliability is not an issue, and for not much else. When the electrical grid reached across the prairies in the 20s and 30s, the approximately 6 million windmills, were mostly allowed to die in favor of progress, efficiency, costs and convenience. It is a reality that when the massive wind energy subsidies, (greater than for other sources of energy) such as tax write-offs, expire, then so do many of the wind farms. I am sure a few may remember Livingston, Montana, which was once promoted as likely to become the wind energy capital of the world. There is a continuous birth of legislation which coerces utilities to adopt a certain percentage of renewable energy into their portfolios, or they would probably never choose to do it. They are obliged to buy the power and to provide the use of the power lines to transmit it, while generally being denied the right to manage the programs. The advantages to private developers are significant. Wind-power developers are allowed to write off their entire capital costs in a very few years (about 5) with accelerated write-downs, and also receive a production tax credit during the first ten years of operation. An entrepreneur's dream. Increasingly, some states have 'Renewable Portfolio Standards' which require that some defined quantity of electricity sold to the public by the utility, must be produced from purchased, non-hydro renewables. It's usually a case of buy high and sell low. Percentage growth of wind and solar use is grossly misleading. Any addition to a very small base supply will come across as a massive percentage increase even though the actual addition is piddling. For the major fuels, percentage growth is piddling because of the large power base, even though the overall additions are much greater than wind or solar by far. Costs are another misleading issue. Wind power costs, in the very best locations (of which there are few), are dishonestly suggested as being typical of all facilities. They are not. Wind power electricity costs are - on average - several times greater than those from fossil fuels or nuclear energy, and they cannot provide the power needed, as the wind is unreliable and intermittent. Operational reliability is a fatal issue. Average power production seems to be between 17 and 25% of installed capacity, but averages hide too much when one discovers that sometimes there may be no wind generation whatsoever, for days at a stretch or where the facilities must be closed down in ice storms and during severe windy or extreme cold weather, or suffer destruction. Even the most noisy wind proponents (proponents only as long as others fund and build them, but would never build one for themselves, as they are too expensive) carefully evade the obvious specific local questions of how windy? How reliable? How many windmills? How big? Where? At what cost? Wind can provide power only when the wind blows steadily, so you had better know how many windy hours and days there are, what strength the wind (and steady or gusty) and what is equally important - how many days there are without wind - when your windmills will ALL be out of action over very large areas. Without steady and sustained winds, the whole situation is a nightmare for the utility, as Denmark consistently demonstrates. This begs the obvious question of what reliable base-loaded power back-up must be available to pick up ALL of the essential load when the thousands of windmills are not operating? Nuclear, Coal, Hydro, Gas and Oil of course! Common sense says that since you must put your money into building reliable facilities anyway, most of which can produce energy as required, on demand, regardless of wind or weather, why do you need to throw any money into windmills in the first place? Your sensible power supply margin of up to 20% for maintenance, breakdowns and very hot or very cold spells had better also be reliable. In other words, for every megawatt of wind power, you need a megawatt of reliable supply spinning in the background. This more than doub John K. Sutherland 10.13.03 Continued... In other words, for every megawatt of wind power, you need a megawatt of reliable supply spinning in the background. This more than doubles the capital cost for that megawatt of electricity; a cost no one in their right mind, and concerned about social health and survival, would tolerate, if they were aware of how that money could be much more effectively spent in hundreds of more socially beneficial directions. You play down the bird issue (1 bird kill per turbine per year - another evil of averaging), but when those birds happen to be the members of a diminishing group of condors, buzzards, eagles or other protected species, what happened to environmentalists concerns then? Why not address human safety too? With millions of small windmills in remote and elevated locations subject to extreme weather, I know that human fatalities getting to them and maintaining them and the power lines, in all seasons, but when their power is most needed, are very significant. We are in the infancy of collecting these data today, but amputations and falls were major accidents in the days of the Prairie windmills. This is why dispassionate evaluation of wind energy risks places them relatively high on the ranking, and well above nuclear or gas. You are right, when you say that terrorists have no need to bother with them. Windmills will kill enough maintenance people all by themselves. Terrorists would have no need to bother with them anyway - they don't work about 80% of the time (on average), and we would never notice they had gone unless we had foolishly neglected the need for a reliable power base from nuclear, coal, hydro, gas, or oil supply. James Hopf 10.13.03 John: Perhaps you're right about the Thyroid cancers, and the effects of enhanced monitoring/diagnotics. I'd always assumed that the 2,000 figure was right. Once again, however, due to the highly treatable nature of that specific disease, it will result in few deaths in any event. Besides, if we're still concerned, just pass out potassium-iodide pills. How many types of toxic-release events have effects that can be almost completely alleviated by simply taking a pill? One more thing, I forgot to mention earlier that the official, long-term studies (UNSCEAR) of Chernobyl health effects have not found any evidence of increased rates of any type of cancer other than thyroid. Thus, no measurable effect has been found for any of the released nuclides other than iodine-131. Also, due to the long (~30 yr. plus) half-lives of all of the other important fallout nuclides, significant exposures (doses) from these nuclides only occurs after living in a contaminated area over a long time period. Thus, if they have any effect at all, their effect clearly doesn't occur over a short time period (of exposure). All of this evidence (and facts) makes a mockery of the all the hand-wringing over public evacuation plans at US plants (like Indian Point). The fact is that rapid, short term evacuation after a nuclear plant meltdown is NOT at all necessary. These requirements should be removed!! The most that one has to do is sheltering, along with, perhaps, taking KI. The fact that we keep saying its necessary misinformes and scares the public. Most of the public literally believes that they will DIE, within a short time, from radiation poisoning, if they do not get out of the area in a very short time. This belief is astonishingly far from the truth, and the fact that the govt/media continue to allow them to believe it is scandalous. The fact is that NO short term deaths will occur, even without any evacuation, and even any long-term increase in cancer risk is quite small, if not non-existent! James Hopf 10.13.03 Ken: I also support wind power, and other renewables, but with some reservation. John had said that he tends to favor hydro, nuclear, and coal. I differ in one respect. I favor renewables, hydro, and nuclear. I am NOT a fan of coal, given its very large external costs (health effects) as well as its CO2 emissions. My preferred future is one that contains a significant fraction of renewables, that uses a substantial amount of gas (but only uses it in "intelligent" applications for which only gas is effective, like cogeneration, distributed generation, and peaking power generation), but which also relies on nuclear for most centralized, base load generation. I agree that wind power's potential may be greatest on the Great Plains. I may believe that costs are that low in certain such locations. There is also ample space, and wind may get along well with other, parallel uses of the land like ranching, etc... There may be less of a scenery-despoiling issue on the open planes. However, as I've often said elsewhere, wind power's main issue is not going to be cost, or even a limited number of sites. It's going to be intermittantcy. (I give more of my views on wind power's potential in my response to the recent, Energy Pulse "Unfirm Renewables" article.) For example, you stated that wind capacity could be as high as ~20% without significant problems from the intermittantcy. If you did mean "capacity" (as opposed to annual generation), I am in complete agreement. In fact, that is the exact number I came up with in my own analysis in my response to the other article. Basically, the peak wind power capacity can go as high as our current generation fraction from expensive fuel (i.e., gas/oil) plants before the imtermittantcy becomes a real issue. Throttling back gas and oil plants (thus saving the fuel costs ONLY), may come close to making economic sense, under todays, higher gas prices. (I calculated that at a gas cost of $5/MBTU, wind power would have to be 3.0-3.5 cents/kW-hr to make sense, whereas you just quoted a price of 4.3 cents (w/o subsidy) in the Great Plains). However, if wind farms generate power when only coal, hydro, or nuclear plants are running, the avoided variable (fuel) costs are almost nothing (~1 cent/kW-hr or less). The problem is that, with a ~30% capacity factor, even if we did have a wind capacity that is ~20% of the total, the overall generation fraction is only ~6%. By 2020, however, overall power demand will increase by ~30-50%. Whereas I recognize that renewables (especially wind) will soon start to make a significant contribution to our overall generation, it will still not soon produce all, or even most, of our power. It's not that I (and many of us more moderate types) do not support renewables. What concerns us is that we get a sense that a lot of the "environmentalists" and/or renewables enthusiasts seem to believe that conservation and renewables are able to meet all or most of our future energy needs, right now. We fear that, based upon this belief, these groups will adamantly oppose any new traditional energy projects, or any kind of investments in the traditional sources. I believe that anyone who believes as such underestimates the problems facing us. Even if wind is exploited to the maximum possible capacity (before intermittantcy becomes a real issue), the total amount of traditional energy will still have to expand significantly, with more of the additional generation coming traditional sources than from renewables. Add to this the fact that there is limited potential for hydro growth, and that nuclear seems to dead in the water, and the result is that most of the increase will come from fossil fuels, coal in particular (due to the growing natural gas supply and cost issues). You say that the potential of renewables removes the need for a significant expansion of nuclear. I disagree. Due to the issues discussed above, most projections of CO2 emissions (such as those issues by the EIA) estimate a 50% increase in CO2 emissions by 2020!! Even under the very most rosy renewables projections, and the most conservative (low) estimates of power demand growth, traditional (non-renewable) generation will have to increase substantially by 2020. This increase can either come from fossil fuels or nuclear. Given the supply limitations of gas, it may boil down to a choice between coal or nuclear. Basically, it will boil down to a decision, by society, about how much it cares about reducing CO2 emissions, and emissions of other pollutants. Under our current (don't care at all) policy, coal is somewhat cheaper than nuclear, and that's all there is too it. Thus, utilities will choose coal over nuclear for all new, non-gas generation. On the other hand, if we do decide that we care about these issues, and if we put any, ANY kinds of limitations on CO2 emissions (as well as requiring substantial reductions other emissions), then our total James Hopf 10.13.03 (continued...): ...then our total generation from coal will be forced to decline (let alone increasing, as it's doing now). This will REQUIRE a major increase in nuclear power. I'm not going to say that it is "impossible" to reduce CO2 emissions without a major nuclear expansion, but I will say that it will be extremely expensive, much more expensive than if we allow the nuclear option. People keep casting the issue as a choice between renewables and nuclear, and which is more desirable. I'm saying that we're clearly going to need BOTH. Nobody is suggesting we choose nuclear and abandon renewables. Almost all people agree that renewables should be expoited to the maximum practical extent. NO expert believes that they can provide all of our future energy. It's not about a choice between renewables and nuclear, its all about the choice between nuclear and fossil fuels, coal in particular. We're gonna have to pick one. Which is it? Unfortunately, the most popular renewables (eg wind, distributed solar) are in category 7 and 8, and no amount of technological development or volume manufacture is going to change that. Developers/Installers of these systems shoud be paying for the privelege of using the grid for backup, rather than being subsidized. Category 1 should be encouraged toward Nuclear or zero emission coal ASAP. 2 and 3 should be "Hydro if minimal impact", Nuclear or zero emission coal, 4 and 5 should be any of above or nat gas last resort, 6 7 and 8 should be anything wanted but penalized financially if exceeds percentages stated. Thats logically how society "might" get through the next 50 years while nat. gas disappears without too much more global warming. Strange how all subsidy incentives are directed toward development of catagories 7 and 8 (wind and solar) or completely illogical choices such as Solid Oxide Fuel Cells which can only use natural gas and must run 24/7 because their seals can't survive shutdown cycles. Also strange how the "free market" in electricity has effectively killed development of any other system in favour of natural gas because it is cheap (in the short term) and the turbine development has been heavily subsidized. Nuclear power and zero emissions coal should be directly evaluated on a level regulatory field, then exploited in a common sense manner. IMMEDiately. Evaluation of new thinking in nuclear power must begin now. H2 generation, either electrolysis or thermal, deep underground reactors in isolated locations, SuperHighVolatge DC transmission. Else future generations will never forgive us. John K. Sutherland 10.14.03 James, Popping KI pills has health consequences all by itself. The hazards of medically unsupervised administration of KI may exceed the perceived risks from exposure to radio-iodines. Len, Your observations and figures are very informative and ruthlessly analytical. I agree with you totally, but I am afraid that many of those who have already bought into the emotional wind/solar hype will let the logic bounce off them. Thank you. Rodney Adams 10.16.03 John: Thank you for your insightful article and for your well reasoned responses to the comments. Have you ever considered that there might be something besides irrationality or hatred of progress that motivates people to participate in environmental causes and to donate money to vocally anti-development groups? There is a substantial body of powerful interests that are threatened by the possibilities of clean, cheap, safe, abundant energy. After all, if nuclear energy really is clean, safe, cheap, and abundant, why would anyone want to purchase dirty, dangerous, expensive, and limited coal, oil or gas? Just imagine the effects on the prices and annual sales volumes for those commodities if a nuclear construction boom began again. The balance between supply and demand for oil and gas is quite delicate; it only takes a swing of 1-2% before prices begin to react and if the imbalance is maintained for a few months, the overall change in price can be quite dramatic. Just a couple of years ago, natural gas was selling for less than $2.00 per MMBTU. Since then, we had a cold winter or two, a few additional gas fired power plants, and a slight drop in production due to the fact that low prices slow exploration and now gas sells for well in excess of $5.00 per MMBTU IN THE FALL. Who knows what it will do this winter? There have been many beneficiaries of that change. I count myself as one of them - my home happens to be all electric and my local supplier is mostly coal and nuclear so the rise in price had little effect on my cost of living. However, I owned stock in a couple of different natural gas producers and tripled my investment in about 14 months before selling. Oil is a similar story. Relatively high prices have led to record profits at major producers. Companies like Exxon-Mobile, Chevron-Texaco and others are gleefully reporting PROFITS of more than a billion dollars per month to their stockholders. It is pretty easy to see the direct relationship between high prices and profitability - just visit their web sites and look for their investor information sections. They have historical numbers which can be compared to Energy Information Agency reports for historical fuel costs. Bottom line - think means, motive, and opportunity when you think about who may be providing the funds to those well heeled environmental groups that you mentioned. In the paraphrased words of Sun Tzu - who happens to be on most business school reading lists - the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The enemy of high energy prices is clean, cheap, abundant energy. Oh, by the way, if you visit the fossil fuel producer web sites looking for investor information, you might also explore their information about the causes that they support and the foundations that they have established to help. I have found such research to be quite interesting and a bit contrary to the idea that environmentalists are irrational beings who simply hate progress. Just remember, the original Luddites were not really opposed to technology in general, they were skilled weavers that were being displaced from relatively stable and lucrative careers by very specific types of machinery. Rod Adams Editor Atomic Insights William Quapp 10.20.03 Jim Hopf: Good info. Contact me at Bill@Quapp.com Davin Chown 10.29.03 Well, this is an interesting debate and having just spent a couple of weeks in Europe dissecting the mess left by the nuclear industry I am puzzeled by this article. Practical reality and the content of this article seem to be miles apart. Perhaps we should should start solving the problem of bankrupt nuclear companies and the metter of a UK 43 billion Pound clean up bill, and then re-look at some of the assertions made in the article. Once we solve this interesting challenge, then lets get reall and add up the investment costs and look at the choices made in the past. Progress and development doesn't mean trying to reinvent solutions that have left a 43billion Pound mess. It means moving on and finding more progressive solutions - like moving away from polluting surces of energy generation as a starter. Perhaps the words "flat earth society" now take on a new meaning when we look at the attempts of the nuclear fraternity to punt solutions that already have left a dark legacy for us to clean up. Maybe a version of the often repeated definition of insanity applies here - using the same technologies/solutions/people that created the problem in the first place and expecting to come up with a solution. Sorry for being so pointed about this but its time to move on from punting bankrupt (literally) nuclear solutions. mauk mcamuk 10.30.03 Dear David Chown, The UK built quite a lot of a very early nuclear reactor design called the MAGNOX. A MAGNOX is completely different from most commercial power reactors operating today, as it uses a graphite moderator instead of water, is cooled by carbon dioxide rather than water, and uses a (flammable!) magnesium cladding for its (flammable!) metallic uranium fuel. MAGNOX's are old, and frankly should be retired as fast as the UK can shut the deathraps off. I am pro-nuclear, but those things are just a terrible design. As bad as the RBMK the USSR built, in my opinion. (Of course, the sensible thing to do would then be to recore all those sites with brand-new and vastly safer Westinghouse AP-1000's, but the English seem determined to be dumb about this issue. Oh, well, once they start missing Kyoto goals maybe they'll wake up.) So, looking at the awful mess in the UK and extrapolating that to the vast majority of the reactors in use today is simply and completely wrong. Here is a page with basic explanations of reactor types, kindly read away: mauk mcamuk 10.30.03 Dear John Sutherland, Thank you for your excellent articles! You are a voice of rationality we sorely need. That said, I have a thought to present for integrating wind power into a next generation energy system. Today, powerplants are tightly coupled to the electrical grid. but if you examine in detail the nuclear plant, you see that the reactor itself is merely producing steam. With all the discussion of the "hydrogen economy" these days, we are going to need a non-carbon source of hydrogen. The logical place to get it is by using nuclear power to crack water. Looking at an AP-1000 or EPR class reactor, lets assume we colocate a high-temperature electrolysis plant with the turbine. We can now divert all the steam output of the reactor to the turbine when demand is high, and when demand is low, we can send some steam to the high temp electrolysis system as feedstock and use the remaining power to spin the turbine for electricity to crack it. This allows us to "load follow" to the grid without varying the reactor power. We simply divert the output to where it is best used at the time. Now, lets further assume that we have a windfarm on the same grid as this dual output nuclear plant. The windfarm will of course vary wildly as the weather changes. but, because we can change the output of the nuclear plant from electricity to hydrogen and back essentially at will, we can easily keep the grid happy. If the windfarm is offline at peak electrical demand, the nuclear plant produces electricity at full bore. If the windfarm is producing well at peak demand, the nuclear plant also produces some electricity, but cracks some hydrogen at the same time. if the windfarm is producing at maximum rate when demand is dead low, the nuclear plant is producing almost zero electricity and instead is sending large amounts of steam to the hydrogen plant, and the hydrogen plant essentially runs the grid in reverse, soaking up the output of the windfarm into a more storable form, the hydrogen. By moving to this sort of design, we gain flexibility, cleanliness, abundance, redundancy, and storage, all in one fell swoop. David Chown: I believe my article did deal with the practical reality of pollution, environmental impact, safety and costs of using energy as I compared and contrasted the significant sources. I am not responsible for the political idiocy that goes on in many jurisdictions, where it is politically correct and politically expected to oppose anything that might lose votes no matter how sensible it might be. Politiicans will inevitably oppose nuclear power until the public - their bosses - either butt up against energy shortages, massive price swings, disadvantaged industry, or some other reality of life, but until then, they seem to get more votes by opposing it. I wouldn't discount nuclear in the U.K, just yet. They got rid of that idiot Meacher, and there are now some voices that appear to have a measure of sanity to them. Robert Booth 11.26.03 John, Thank you for the interesting and comprehensive summary of one of our more controversial generation options. It appears that in your cost comparison to other technologies you have omitted the ever so daunting capital cost factor. Would you care to comment regarding how the resulting levelized power cost for a new nuclear project would compare with a modern, 600 MW combined cycle plant at $600/kW, 6200 Btu/kWh LHV heat rate, etc? Robert Booth, PE Principal, BAI mauk mcamuk 11.26.03 Dear Robert Booth, I am not the esteemed author, but I will endeavor to point you to resources to answer your questions nonetheless. Capital cost is a very important factor of nuclear plant construction, and the often-repeated costs of such plants as Vogtle serve as a cautionary tale of why that is so. But, to be blunt, that was then. We have MUCH better technology available to us for construction, both in the form of planning and in the design, and even in the tools themselves. (Cranes today are so large that entire Reactor Pressure Vessels can be lifted into place in mere days, rather than being built-up on site.) A comprehensive paper of a moderne Generation 3+ design is at the location cited below: The economic stuff begins at page 21 if you want to skip the tedious recitation of safety factors. :) In a nutshell, the AP-1000 is projected to produce power at 3.2 to 3.6 cents per kilowatt/hour. Is that good? The AP-1000 is designed for 1117 Mwe output with a plant design life of a whopping 60 years. Fuel cost is a very small percentage of the cost of nuclear power, especially compared to natural gas, so once the plant is paid for, how many decades of nearly free power do you want to shoot for? The AP-1000 will probably wind up with a plant lifetime of 80 years or longer, assuming a 20 year extension like we are seeing with current plants. If you don't like the AP-1000, may I urge you to consider the Canadian ACR, or the European EPR, or even the Japanese ABWR. All of these designs are very competitive. Recently built nuclear power plants in Asia show it is very possible to build nuclear at competitive price points, without cost overruns, and within aggressive time schedules. What exactly are you afraid of? A lack of volatility in energy prices? :) TERRY MEYER 11.27.03 I have to agree that this has been a great forum that raises many questions. If nuclear waste is so safe, why not get it fully insured? If nuclear power is so cheap, why are the fuel and (limited) insurance subsidized? How long is nuclear radiation counted as such before it's accepted as "background" radiation and no longer counted as nuclear radiation? Just because the nuclear industry only counts immediate deaths as nuke-caused, where is the quantification of premature deaths caused indirectly by increased background radiation from nukes? Perhaps there isn't any such quantification since it would expose more myths of the nuclear industry? Is the unsupported attack on LNT supposed to suffice? Even if nuclear plant radiation is not as bad as medical radiation, does that make it okay? Is there no chance the medical nuke industry has deceived itself even worse than the power nuke industry has? Does the author not know that aspirin and heavy metals leach from the human body at different rates and therefore could have differring cumulative effects? Doesn't the author realize that fossil emissions will stop killing soon after their sources are decommissioned, but that wonderful nuclear waste will require stewardship for tens of thousands of years? Blaming environmentalists for the higher death rates of non-nuclear sources stinks like the red herring it is. The Greens also are trying to breach dams and stop coal mining and petroleum drilling, so hiding nukes behind them doesn't count for much. Just because caffeine is bad is no reason to go on a smoking spree. The Heart Association is against both just as the eco-elitists are against coal AND nukes. While nuclear is statistically defined to be the most safe, it is only statistically. Statistically it's safer to wear a crash helmet while driving, but if the helmet jacknives your neck during a low impact bump the statistic will be small consolation from the permanent confines of your wheelchair. The author's extrapolations seem to assume perfect, accident-free handling of wastes. How bad does the accident have to be before even the author would rethink his stand? >> James Hopf10.10.03...How << The devil we know versus the devil we don't? Perhaps we've seen the worst that fossils can do, but we only have speculation by the nuke pushers on the worst that nukes can do? Since speculation is speculation and nuke pusher speculation is no less speculative than anyone else's, perhaps we choose the more conservative speculation? How is it that the nuke pushers fail to see that their assurances are no more reassuring than the assurances of other pollution pushers before Santa Barbara, the Amoco Cadiz, Love Canal, and the Exxon Valdez? How is it that the nuke pushers fail to see that their arrogance is no different from the arrogance of the eco-elitists? >> About now there are probably several readers hoping that…this entire looming energy scenario…was just a bad dream. Fat chance. It's here... Get used to it.<< See what I mean? Neither camp wants anyone to have an opinion except for members of their club. Of course you can't be a member of either club if you hold opinions that differ from the dogma of the club. Perhaps a little less arrogance from the nuke pushers would allow them to allow nukes to HELP the grid and then there might be a little less opposition to them. I have been impressed with the author's reasoned responses. I loved Mauk McAmuk's nuke/wind/hydrogen plant idea. I don't know if it's too capital intensive to compete with other investments, such as consumer credit, but I'm all for any source system that can help the grid instead of just being a burden like all nukes are now. mauk mcamuk 11.28.03 Dear TERRY MEYER, I will attempt to answer some of your questions. You asked: "If nuclear waste is so safe, why not get it fully insured?" I am not sure what you mean. Hazard insurance for nuclear waste? Why not get insurance for the CO2 spewing out of our coal-fired and gas-fired plants? For that matter, why not insure landfills? This also begs the questions of what "nuclear waste" even is. In the mind of an anti-nuclear ideologue anything that has beenin the presence of nuclear matrial is classed as waste, never mind if the classification makes any sense or not. Most of the materials in REAL nuclear waste are not waste, and should be recycled and put to use. This then leads us to a hugely complex topic, the nuclear fuel cycle, and frankly I am uninterested in discussing it with the ignorant. Read that .pdf for more info. If you still wish to discuss it after educating yourself, I will be happy to do so. You said: "If nuclear power is so cheap, why are the fuel and (limited) insurance subsidized? " If wind power is so abundant, why is it directly subsidized? Why is solar power so hugely subsidized? Fossil fuel has enjoyed centuries of economic subsidies which contnue to this day. Nuclear power is the first major source of power we have which accounts for its waste stream. Again, this is a complicated topic. Refer to that chart for a well conducted, if limited, accounting of the TOTAL costs of electricity, taking into account the health effects, etc, of fossil fuels, wind power, hydro, and nuclear. Note the crushing advantage enjoyed by nuclear, wind, and hydro. Note further that this study does NOT take into account CO2 costs, assuming theyturn out to be real. We already pay those external costs, we just don't pay them in the power bill. If you wish to dispute the ExternE figures, good luck. It is a very solid study. You said: "How long is nuclear radiation counted as such before it's accepted as "background" radiation and no longer counted as nuclear radiation?" Forever? Nuclear radiation is nuclear radiation. Just because we call it "sunlight" doesn't change that fact. I suspect you are talking about man-made radiation, though, and in that case, this is a third enormously complex topic. I don't feel like loading you down with reading until your head explodes, so please just take my word on that. You said: "Just because the nuclear industry only counts immediate deaths as nuke-caused, where is the quantification of premature deaths caused indirectly by increased background radiation from nukes? " Oh good grief. "Premature deaths" are a result of using the desperately flawed LNT model. The only good thing about the LNT is that it is easy to use, so lazy beaurocrats like it. It is not representative of the real world. You said: "Is the unsupported attack on LNT supposed to suffice?" Have you ever heard of hormesis? Below are links to an few accesible articles about the phenomenon: This is "unsupported?" Note the large lists of citations. Looks pretty well supported to me. You said: "Even if nuclear plant radiation is not as bad as medical radiation, does that make it okay?" Er, YES. Radiation is used to treat many cancers, giving people better, longer lives. Are you seriously saying we should stop using radiation therapy? You said: "Is there no chance the medical nuke industry has deceived itself even worse than the power nuke industry has?" I suppose it's possible. Is it possible the medical lung industry is wrong about Back Lung disease, directly attributed to coal mining? You said: "Doesn't the author realize that fossil emissions will stop killing soon after their sources are decommissioned, but that wonderful nuclear waste will require stewardship for tens of thousands of years?" If global warming is real, I assure you, we will be dealing with it for a very, very long time after we stop emitting fossil carbon. As for the nuclear waste, it depends on how you define nuclear waste. Have you read the paper I posted above on the topic? You said: "While nuclear is statistically defined to be the most safe, it is only statistically." You're not joking, are you. Okay, I see this is a waste of effort. You believe what you wish to believe, never mind those pesky "facts" and "statistics." John K. Sutherland 11.28.03 Mauk, Thank you for responding so wisely and well to both Robert Booth and Terry Meyer and for providing such a wealth of good references. Unfortunately there are none so blind as those who will not see. I have endeavoured to counter Terry's radiation phobia and fixation before, in one of Paolo Fornaciari's articles: 'Is the Nuclear Waste Disposal a Problem that cannot be solved?' (response 5.6.03) but it seems to be about as worthwhile as trying to teach a fish to ride a bike. Terry's abhorence of statistics blinds him to the meaning of all of the many simple, revealing and comparative numbers (statistics!) I presented in the tables and graphs, and which answer all of his objections if he would just either try to recognize what they are telling him, or would dig deeper into them while not losing site of the needed perspective on all energy related issues. The one over-riding fact of all, however, is that there is nothing more societally dangerous than not having sufficient energy at your fingertips, no matter what the source, when and as you need it. Try operating an industry, or your employment and life on unreliable, unaffordable, unassured or unavailable-when-needed sources of energy. We got a flavour of it when the grid went down on August 14th. Homi Bhabha (India) captured it beautifully when he stated 'No energy is more dangerous than no energy'. Its gentle play with words, provokes some consideration of what he meant. Indhira Gandhi (India) also stated another gem when she pointed out that 'poverty is the greatest polluter'. Ignorance is also a massive scourge in any society. We in our pampered society lose sight of the fact that everything we have accomplished in society is predicated upon our abundance and use of energy, despite the anxious wailings of the noisy negativists. Energy is Wealth. Wealth is Health. And to close the syllogism, Energy is Health. We lose track of this at our peril. John K. Sutherland 11.28.03 Robert, although Mauk responded well, there are other points that can be made. Yes, capital costs are the main stumbling block with any utility deciding to build new nuclear facilities in this country, especially during an interval of escalating interest rates, high inflation, and unwarranted and frivolous court challenges by unaccountable individuals. These challenges were made with the express intention of delaying construction and licensing for several years through actions by - as another writer to these pages noted (Somsel) - even a little old lady in tennis shoes. Politicians who can count (votes anyway, if nothing else) can play those same - lack of accountability - games too, as the experience at Shoreham clearly demonstrated. The same difficulties do not hold true in other countries such as Japan, France, Finland, and many others. Why not? It can best be summed up in France's position: 'No coal, no oil, no gas, no choice.' And France is now a major electricity supplier to most surrounding countries, many of whom scorn nuclear, while they are happy to buy its cheap electricity. Japan's energy situation is still precarious, (whose isn't?) but it's a lot less than it would be without nuclear. Nothing is more hazardous to society, its future and its progress, than being without needed energy. These countries also show that although capital costs may be high, the follow-on operating and very low fuel costs in their markets, ensure that in a matter of a decade or so - depending upon interest costs and electricity pricing - they can more than compete with any other source of energy except hydro. This however requires a long-term view of nuclear's obvious advantages, rather than trying to prematurely close off the discussion by considering only capital costs and then trying to stifle any further acknowledgment that uranium fuel cost is a fraction of that of coal, oil or gas for the same energy. The Utility Data Institute data in the figure of my paper showed the relative costs of using the significant fuels for electricity production. With the license extensions being given, these nuclear cost advantages over oil and gas, and perhaps even coal, can only increase unless their fuel costs take a major nosedive. Making comparable assumptions about interest rates, capital costs, amortization times, electricity pricing and market stability, one does not have to be a Rhodes scholar to see that nuclear can even trump the low capital cost, high gas cost of your examples, given enough time and usually within the first license interval. Anyone familiar with household mortgages can work some simple examples making realistic assumptions about payback times, capital costs, fuel and operating costs, interest rates and income from the sale of electricity, and recognize what is happening. After that point, then all of the advantages accrue to the low fuel cost nuclear power. Fortunately the U.S. still has energy choices, but many of them are turning sour (coal, oil, gas), and could rapidly be jeopardized or closed off by the actions of unscientific international protocols (Kyoto), of vote-buying politicians, mendacious environmentalists, or even just a true appreciation of the overall, and unaccounted social costs (health effects from pollution) of using many of them. Rodney Adams 11.30.03 John and others in the forum: About six weeks ago I posted a comment in this thread that I thought would generate at least a little discussion, but no one has addressed it, so I will try again. Let's assume that all of John's technical analysis about the relative benefits of various energy forms are correct. (I happen to believe that is true.) If so, is it not logical to determine that the fossil fuel industry has by far the most to lose if the rest of the world begins to wake up to see the incredible advantages of building more nuclear power generators? Since many "environmental" groups receive a large portion of their budget from established energy companies and the foundations that they have created, it is not also logical to wonder if their continuous opposition to nuclear technologies might have something to do with helping the fossil fuel industry to remain in business as long as possible? I have found that most groups that oppose what most of us consider to be progress trace a large portion of their operating budget to interests that have stakes in maintaining the status quo. Small shop owners oppose Wal-Mart, people that own developed water front property oppose new waterfront development, corn producers oppose new production in neighboring states or countries, and energy suppliers oppose new sources that would have the effect of shifting the supply demand balance in favor of supply, thus reducing prices. Rod Adams John K. Sutherland 12.3.03 Rodney Adams, You are correct in many of your observations. Once the enviros have picked off one industry, then they go after the next most vulnerable, even if it is one that may have funded their efforts. The fossil fuel groups often 'buy off' these groups to gain some breathing room without realising that they are appeasing thugs and social terrorizers, and providing them with funds and encouragement to kill them next. It is a losing game and the sooner they wake up the better. Give these social parasites - which is what they are - no quarter. As Churchill pointed out; an appeaser is someone who feeds a crocodile, in the hope that it will eat him last. TERRY MEYER 1.11.04 >>Hazard insurance for nuclear waste? Why not get insurance for the CO2 spewing out of our coal-fired and gas-fired plants? For that matter, why not insure landfills?<< Does CO2 emit radiation above background levels? I am in favor of Mauk's proposals, but getting insurance is not the point. The INABILITY to obtain insurance is my point. If landfills are not already self-insured, I'm sure insurance could be purchased. The point is that there is another huge industry that knows its industry very well and does not see nuclear waste as being as benign as the nuke pushers would lead us to believe. Just because I'm against pituitary cancer doesn't mean I'm in favor of skin cancer. Just because I'm against nicotine doesn't mean I'm taking up smoking crack. . >> Most of the materials in REAL nuclear waste are not waste, and should be recycled and put to use.<< So what's the problem? . >>… I am uninterested in discussing it with the ignorant.<< And so they will remain in ignorant opposition. Kind of like how nuke pushers will remain ignorant of the needs of interconnected AC operations. . >> Read that .pdf for more info.<< Just 337 pages? After which my findings will be dismissed as not "significant" (like Three Mile Island)? Sorry, I'm not falling for that any more than I'm falling for assurances from an industry that has had its past assurances blown to pieces. . >> If wind power is so abundant, why is it directly subsidized? Why is solar power so hugely subsidized?<< Not being a proponent of subsidies, I cannot defend them. Did I mention that just because I'm against tobacco doesn't mean I'm taking up crack? I suppose it's political. Maybe the wind/solar industrial complex has friends in high places, just like the nuclear proliferation complex has. Maybe some demonstration projects are needed to develop some industries so they'll be closer to maturity when the time is right. . >> Refer to that chart for a well conducted, if limited, accounting of the TOTAL costs of electricity, taking into account the health effects, etc, of fossil fuels, wind power, hydro, and nuclear.<< Just what I was looking for – a point that can be made in less than 337 pages. Excellent. Wait. I was promised an accounting of "TOTAL" costs. The chart only accounts for EXTERNAL costs. Looks like somebody's trying to mislead somebody AGAIN. I used to believe the industry could stand on it's own without misleading deceptions, but the deeper I dig the worse things look. . >>… the desperately flawed LNT model.<< Sounds like the LNT model is not significant. Like Three Mile Island was not "significant"? >> This is "unsupported?" Note the large lists of citations. Looks pretty well supported to me.<< The attack on LNT was not supported within the attack on LNT. It was the lack of support in the context of the attack that I referred to. I wasn't referring to a total lack of support to be found anywhere on the planet. It's understandable that there was no support within the context of the original attack since the attacker of LNT was no doubt "uninterested in discussing it with the ignorant." See where such lack of interest in discussion gets us? Thanks for the support. . >> You said: "Even if nuclear plant radiation is not as bad as medical radiation, does that make it okay?" Er, YES. Radiation is used to treat many cancers, giving people better, longer lives. Are you seriously saying we should stop using radiation therapy?<< Of course not. The "it" to which I was referring was generation plant radiation, as in "Even if nuclear plant radiation is not as bad as medical radiation, does medical radiation's being worse than nuclear generating station radiation make nuclear generating station radiation okay?" Just because crack is worse than tobacco, are you going to increase your tobacco consumption? . >> Is it possible the medical lung industry is wrong about Back Lung disease, directly attributed to coal mining?<< Does Mauk think that opposition to nuclear proliferation comes from the dangers faced by uranium miners? . >> As for the nuclear waste, it depends on how you define nuclear waste. Have you read the paper I posted above on the topic?<< Did I stop in the middle of Mauk's post, read hundreds of pages cited in the post, then return to the rest of Mauk's post to pick up where I left off? What do you think? So if I read everything THEN do I get to have an opinion, here, in America. If I read everything and still disagree, then do I have to become a nuclear physicist in order to be entitled to an opinion? If I still disagreed, wouldn't I be kicked out of the nuclear "club", then be labeled as ignorant so I could be dismissed as not "significant" (like Three Mile Island)? How convenient. Are the NIMBYs labeling everyone who doesn't agree with them as "ignorant"? I guess they probably are. Then again, t TERRY MEYER 1.11.04 Are the NIMBYs labeling everyone who doesn't agree with them as "ignorant"? I guess they probably are. Then again, they appear to be knowledgeable enough to be enjoying more success with their agenda than the nuclear contamination pushers seem to be having right now. When it comes to the knowledge necessary to sway public opinion in a representative republic, which side is being ignorant? . >> You believe what you wish to believe, never mind those pesky "facts" and "statistics."<< Kind of like nuclear contamination pushers dismiss pesky facts as not "significant" (like Three Mile Island)? Well, I'm off to find hundreds of pages for Mauk to read about how statistics can be manipulated to "prove" anything. Not that I would ever call Mauk ignorant or indirectly attack Mauk in any way. I guess people that can't shoot down the message can only shoot the messenger. TERRY MEYER 1.11.04 For what it's worth, I have tried to respond to John K. Sutherland's 5.6.03 counter to my response to Paolo Fornaciari's articles: 'Is the Nuclear Waste Disposal a Problem that cannot be solved?' I accidentdallydeleted the email in which it arrived and I can't find a way back there. If someone would care to point me there, from scratch, perhaps I could lesson my IGNORANCE. If my failure to respond is the only thing people have to hang their hat on to attack me, and if attacking me is the only thing people have to hang their hat on to attack my opinions, then I can understand not wanting to lose that. TERRY MEYER 1.11.04 I'm sure there were facts, charts, statistics and responses "proving" that Three Mile Island could never happen. Then, after it happened, they dismissed the thing that could never happen as not "significant". I'm not scierntist enough to convince a true believing nuclear contamination pusher of its significance. What is significant is the deception that preceded TMI and how it relates to deceptions that may be happening right now. John K. Sutherland 2.22.04 All, Please see my fourth article for a fairly comprehensive response by me and others to Terry Meyer's 'last word'. It is also enlightening to look at his response to me in Paolo Fornaciari's article referred to above. Below are two quotes that you may perhaps consider when considering whether or not to respond to individuals who seem stuck in one anti-science position: "I think it is in our interest to punish the first insult; because an insult unpunished is the parent of many others." Thomas Jefferson. 'Technology, science, knowledge, open doors, they do not force people to walk through them'. Me. David Kilborn 6.11.04 I would like to add some comments in response to Terry Meyer: A few years ago I did a research paper for a Physics class on Nuclear Energy (Good or bad), having no experience or real knowledge about it, other than what we had learned in class or from high school. My conclusions (after a lot of research of pro and anti-nuke information) at that time were that Nuclear should be embraced in the short term as it was the best form of energy in a world of apparent global warming. I believed from my research that Nuclear provided us a method of limiting our reliance on oil and providing a cleaner environment. Eventually there is the possibility (after my lifetime) of solar energy and other forms of clean energy replacing Nuclear in some or all of its capacity, but we need change now and Nuclear offers a great stop-gap solution. One thing I was always concerned about was Nuclear waste, until I learned that if I lived to the age of 80 and all the energy I ever used in my lifetime came from Nuclear energy, that I would have created a golf-ball sized piece of waste. When taken with the consideration of the pollutants that fossil fuels create, this seemed insignificant to me, notwithstanding the possibility of gleaning more potential energy out of the waste. And one final note, while I did my research, I felt more and more that anti-nuke articles often ignored scientific studies and relied more on fear tactics. I was looking for facts and they more often offered rhetoric. Obviously this is a generalization and some pro-nukes were like this as well, but by far the anti-nukes relied less on evidence (or selective evidence when I cross-referenced the research) for their claims and the pro-nukes seemed to provide more facts from actual studies. Ironically, I now work at a uranium mine. What really caused me to write this was your reference of the dangers of uranium mine workers. Ultimately, any mining is dangerous and inherently there is potential for greater danger in a uranium facility, but after being a first hand witness, there is little danger. I don't actually work underground, but I am in close proximity. It is most likely I get less radiation in a month at work than I do flying across the country once. Yes, the miners are subject to more radiation (mostly in the form of radon progeny) but we are so regulated and the radiation techs are so militant, people's exposure underground are mostly insignificant when compared to exposures to medical equipment and other background sources. The unfortunate thing is that you seem to be indoctrinated in your ways and no argument or logic will even let you question your own beliefs. You rightly chastise mauk for refusing to argue with the "ignorant", but then you go on in this and other forums with your rants without listening to facts presented or ignoring them and repeating your claims without really backing them up. You seem hung up on the theory that "nukes" are untrustworthy and don't back up their claims. And you use TMI as your example, which by so many accounts now was the non-event of the century. There are even anti-nuke groups that barely mention TMI because they don't have much of a leg to stand on. I hope in your judgement of others you will realize that you do the very thing you accuse them of doing. John K. Sutherland 5.19.05 David Kilborn made some pertinent observations. Although he notes that radon gas exposure is controlled by dose limits, this only occurs in uranium mines. Some of the most significant radon exposures are in those mines and activities where radiation is NOT acknowledged, but is present, but even there, the health risks are much less than the risks from the mining activity. John K. Sutherland. John K. Sutherland 9.6.05 Yet another observation. The UN has just issued (September 2005) a major study of the Chernobyl accident with the most up-to-date observations, data, and medical studies. It supports my statements above in my discussion with James Hopf. They say that, so far, the defined death toll amounts to about 57. Estimates of future deaths (based upon the highly flawed LNT), in the 600,000 plus individuals who were exposed to some degree in Russia, might be about 4,000. No birth defects or genetic anomalies were seen or might be expected. They also note, once again, that the most serious health consequences have been because of FEAR of radiation, and not of radiation itself. Also the normally expected rates of cancer in that same population will probably be about 200,000, with about 150,000 cancer deaths whether Chernobyl had occurred or not. The estimated 4,000 premature deaths (which might never occur) are a mere pinprick in this larger number. However, that is only one of the points. The other, is that if Hormesis, is a valid effect, then not only will these premature deaths (predicted, don't forget) not occur, but the population will probably live sufficiently longer, that their older age will guarantee that more of them will die of cancer. Don't forget, that cancer is mostly a disease of healthy old age. You have to live a long time to get it, for the most part. For the first time, the media are correctly reporting the data, mostly without resorting to the usual media distortions and hysterically anti-nuclear commentary that has characterised most of their previous stories. Greenpeace, of course, still is sputtering and fuming over the long-everdue correction, as it can now no longer repeat its characteristic misinformation with impunity, and without losing more of its relevance and support. Just earlier this month (September 2005), another of the founding fathers of atomic physics - Joseph Rotblat - died at age 96. Not so long ago Edward Teller (95) and Glen Seaborg (87) also died in extreme old age, despite their undoubtedly-high radiation exposures. Additionally, another stalwart of the early radiation pioneers, Lauriston S Taylor, died in 2004 at age 102. If radiaiton were so dangerous, these radiation exposed individuals should have died long before the age of 80. All but a few of the early radiation pioneers seem to have outlived most of their generation (as did Marie Curie who died of Leukemia at age 67), but this is something that I am still working on. Fear of radiation and our adherence to the grossly deficient LNT theory of radiation injury are not servng us, so much as hampering us severely. John K. Sutherland. Jackie Looney 12.28.05 I read your article with great interest. It is the most objective and scientifically thorough account that I have encountered in a long time. Unfortunately we have a tendency to look only at accidents such as Chernobyl where the effects, however small, are immediate, while ignoring the indisious, yet colossal effects of burning fossil fuels. The deeply ingrained negative reaction that most Americans have to nuclear power would require a great effort to overcome. I am quite dismayed at the lack of objective information in the mainstream media. You have written a powerful and pertinent article. Very few people will read it. They will read and believe that hydrogen fuel cells will render automobiles emission free. The fossil fuel intensive production of free hydrogen will be ignored. I hope that you are able to get your message across. I am wondering what your thoughts are on reprocessing uranium. It seems like a crucial part of the equation, but how politically possible is it? John K. Sutherland 1.12.06 Jackie, Reprocessing is already being done in Europe and elsewhere and it is just a matter of time before it is revived in the US considering the sudden awakening of the world over energy supplies, availability and pricing. One of my other articles in this section looked at the Ford and Carter blunders concerning recycling (reprocessing). John K. Sutherland. Malcolm Rawlingson 4.25.06 To Mauk Mcamuk re Magnox Reactors The record needs to be set straight with respect to your concerns re Magnox reactors. I operated a Magnox Reactor for years in the UK and your concerns over them are mostly exagerrated and based on sparse facts. The comparison to RBMK is flawed. I think it is from a basic misunderstanding of the design and the operation of Magnox plants so i need to explain how they work so that you can understand why they do not have (do not require) containments as you have come to expect to be installed on water based reactor systems. The safety record of Magnox power plants is and continues to be impeccable. Please provide me with factual evidence that will change my opinion. I have an open mind for facts but my experience operating these plants differs so widely from your opinion that one of us (I think it is not I) is wrong. About the ONLY similarity between a Magnox Plant and an RBMK plant is the moderator which is graphite. Everything else from the fuel to the reactor physics is totally different. You will no doubt recall that the explosion that wrecked Chernobyl was a STEAM explosion caused by POLITICALLY motivated imbeciles. The test that caused it would never have been permitted on my watch - politicians or not. So here for your reading enlightenment is the real truth about Magnox from someone who sat at the control desk in the middle of the night and operated them. Firstly as you correctly point out Magnox reactors are cooled by carbon dioxide gas. That should lead you to the inevitable conclusion that a steam explosion such as occurred in the Chernobyl RBMK reactor is not possible in a Magnox reactor. To make steam you need water. There is no water in a Magnox reactor so there can be no steam in the reactor. Forgive my ignorance but I don't think you can have a steam explosion with Carbon Dioxide. Secondly Magnox reactors have a strongly negative temperature coefficient of reactivity. That means as the temperature of the reactor core goes up the reactivity of the core (and therefore the power) goes DOWN. I do assure you from personal experience that the biggest challenge faced by a Magnox operator is to keep the thing running. Shutting it down is easy - just make it too hot and the power just goes down and keeps on going down all by itself. The reactor physics design - invisible to you - is one of the greatest safety features of a Magnox plant. It is impossible to get a reactivity excursion in a Magnox plant as occurred at Chernobyl. The third thing missing in your note above is that RBMK had a strongly POSITIVE coefficient of reactivity. In particular the very positive void coefficient causes an increase in reactivity as the coolant (water) boils. If this additional reactivity is not counteracted by rapid insertion of negative reactivity a condition known as prompt criticality occurs which causes large increases in power sufficient in the case of RBMK to turn all the water to steam in seconds. No western reactor is designed or operated in this way and that includes Magnox reactors. RBMK reactors would not be licensed in the west - period. By comparison Magnox reactors have a zero void coefficient of reactivity because the CO2 coolant does not boil like water. There can be no voids so there can be no void coefficient of reactivity. That fact alone makes Magnox reactors very very safe and sets them apart from water reactors. If you care to take a detailed look at the reactor physics design of a Magnox reactor you will see that in many respects they are much safer than water reactors because they have large negative reactivity coefficients. The fuel is natural uranium and they are fuelled on line.The reactivity available from the fuel is relatively small. It is true that the fuel cladding is combustible in air which means that Carbon Dioxide pressure is a key safety parameter. By maintaining CO2 pressure air is excluded. If CO2 pressure falls below a safety setpoint the reactor trips. Chain reaction stops. You alluded to the fact that Magnox reactors do not have a containment structure surrounding them. The reason they do not should be obvious but I will explain that anyway. The reason they do not have containment structures is because they do not need them. You must have a containment structure around a water reactor to contain the steam in the event of a leak. Since a Magnox plant can create no steam from water inside the reactor (because there is no water inside the reactor) you cannot get a build up of steam pressure that could breach the reactor vessel. Like I said you need water to make steam and Magnox reactors are cooled by CO2. Because there is no water there is no steam. Because there is no steam there is no need for a containment vessel. The reactor pressure vessel is quite adequate. I would also point out that not a single accident of any significance occurred on one of these reactors in their entire lifespan and after many m Malcolm Rawlingson 4.25.06 part two... and after many millions of megawatts hours of electricity production. They were designed with a lifespan of 20 years or so but most have run for twice that long. The plant at Bradwell On Sea in Essex which I had the great privelige to be allowed to operate was a magnificent piece of technology of which everyone should be proud. Unsafe - well I think the facts and the superb safety record of Magnox speaks for itself. Before slapping the technology it would be prudent to take the time to understand it first. As for its impact on me I can only say that I can send you verfiable evidence .... I have a bunch of very healthy children and I myself am pushing 60 .... that Bradwell had no impact on my health or that of my wife and kids and grandchildren whatsoever. And I also know that it had no effect on any member of the population of the world except to provide them with cheap pollution free electricity. I am very proud of that. So should you be. Malcolm Rawlingson (And I do not produce a green glow when the lights go out even after 40 years. Fortunately I did not go into coal mining otherwise I'd be couighing up coal dust and dying of black lung disease by now) John K. Sutherland 4.27.06 Thanks Malcolm. On another point. I have long wanted to change a very poorly expressed paragraph in this document. The paragraph beginning with the word 'Predictions', should be corrected by simply removing the words 'Predictions of' and starting only with the words 'Long-term'. This gets rid of most of the bad English, and makes the sentence correct. mauk mcamuk 5.12.06 Wow! Talk about your blast from the past! :D Howdy Malcolm! :) Hmmm. You take me to task for my opinion of the MAGNOX, and imply that I fail to understand it. :D Let me see if I can't clarify my point. A MAGNOX is fuelled by flammable metallic uranium, clad in flammable magnesium-based sheathing, and nested in flammable graphite moderators. This is then heated to very high temperatures and sealed in a sturdy vessel and kept cool by CO2 gas at incredibly high pressures, and then low-pressure refueling tubes are laced through the lot of it. Notice my use of all those "flammable" words up there. :D I'm not a big fan of ANY reactor design that uses high pressure boundaries, expecially when coupled with any flammable substance in any part of the core, and ESPECIALLY when said high pressure boundaries are run right through the heart of the core, where any sudden ruptures are pretty much assured of causing issues. For example, I think the PBMR is a remakably dumb idea. After Windscale and Chernobyl, why are we persisting in building reactors that can easily catch fire? If that extremely high-pressure boundary had ever popped in a bad way, the MAGNOX core could have gone up like a torch. And no, there's no containment vessel, as you note. Simple mechanical failure is a risk too, especially at those pressures. :) Heck, the CANDU has pretty much all the strengths of the MAGNOX and none of the drawbacks, and has a safety record just as good. I am quite well aware of the stellar safety record of the MAGNOX, and feel it is more due to the skill of the British in operating those tinderboxes than any inherent safety of the design. So, pat yourself on the back! But don't brag about your reactor designers. :) I will also note that the waste form of the MAGNOX is just awful. If the British had thought to store their MAGNOX waste in molten salt rather than water, a LOT of the current cleanup heartache could be avoided. Does that clarify my stance? The MAGNOX has different hazards than the RBMK, for certain, but in my opinion, it has just as significant hazards, and it is a good thing they are being shut down and decommissioned. Now the British just need to build more AP-1000's. :) Mathew Hoole 5.24.06 Sorry to dumb this down and get a little sidetracked, but I have a few basic questions. I have otherwise enjoyed the read. 1. Assume every nation had nuclear power plants based on their needs. Uranium is finite. As a rough figure how long would the known uranium reserves last? 2. An earthquake damages a modern nuclear power station. The potential risk is some serious polution? What contingencies would be in place for such events. 3. A truck containing solid nuclear waste going from a modern nuclear plant to a waste storage centre collides with another truck in a major residential area causing the truck to explode and the containers holding the spent fuel to rupture. What would be the impact? 4. Are there ways to export uranium as a fuel that could never be used for weapon making? Australia is currently having a national debate on the issue. These are the points made by the scaremongerers. I would like to know how much merit there is in their views. Cheers John K. Sutherland 5.26.06 Mathew, I will answer your four points briefly. Details on at least the first one are in my second article at the first address below, and there are eight others in the second address and one major document at the third, with others elsewhere. Point one: my second article – millions of years future fuel. Backed up by facts. Point two: Modern nuclear power stations are built to withstand the worst earthquakes. This is why those many reactors in Japan survive them in the circum-pacific earthquake belt with hundreds of detectable earthquakes each day. The Japanese reactors either keep running; scale back production to meet much reduced civilian demand after damage to homes, factories etc,; or just shut down safely and then come back up to power once the infrastructure can handle the power. Point three: Nuclear waste remains at each location where it is produced, it does not move anywhere. The exception is often hospitals when it tracks out inside patients or to the garbage dump (a no-no) (read my other articles). Spent fuel is not waste, and it too, is mostly managed at each reactor site. That which may go offsite for reprocessing is moved mostly by train with escorts and during overnight hours and with little publicity to alert the wackos like Caldicott. Accidents generally do not occur. However, tests of trucks and trains carrying the shielded containers, by running them at max. speed into concrete barriers and each other, show that the containers do not leak. If they leaked in any of the tests, they would be redesigned and no shipments would occur until they met conditions. There are some good films showing these tests. Point four. No. Uranium is everywhere in the surface of the ground. You or I could extract it and make it into a bomb if we desired, but it takes expertise, money, and good science and would not go undetected, as it takes a lot of electricity. There are penalties to be paid for such duplicity (Iran, N Korea). One does not need a reactor to build a bomb and you cannot unlearn anything; the knowledge is out there. The best way to stay on top of the issue is to develop technology and detection to make such efforts detected (and they are easily detected) and not worth the trouble. The worlds 440+ commercial reactors are mostly in countries that do not need the bomb, and they know it, as they also signed the NNP treaty. I guess Caldicott is stewing and fuming over progress. If she wins, we all (humanity) lose, and vice versa. Read my articles. John Ryle 7.2.06 Thank you to everyone for your elaborate and enthusiastic contributions. I am not in the energy source industry, but I am politically interested and really needed a blog like this to form my opinion. -Now I have a couple of questions: In the Australian debate on whether to continue and expand our export of uranium, it appears to me, that the greatest concern is if the receiving countries could and would use the waste to develop nuclear weapons. Would it be a fair suggestion to build and run Australian plants in for example. China and sell the energy to China, rather than the uranium itself? -So that the uranium AND the waste would never actually get out of Australian hands? Would it be realistic to transport the waste from China back to Australia for storage? Just how long does it take for the waste to cool down to a level, when it is no longer of significant danger? Are we looking at 30, 300 or 100.000 years? Has there been any successful attempts to develope a way to increase the speed of the cooling process? Kind regards, John Mathew Hoole 9.23.06 Dear John K. Sutherland Thanks for your answer.s I now have a few more queries if I may take a little of your time. From the limited sources available to me I have been reading up on Pebble Bed Reactors, and Thorium as a fuel. I live in Australia that currently has no Nuclear Industry, except a small power station in Lucas Heights primarily used for research and medical purposes. From the web, Pebble Bed Reactors are stated as being commercially feasible, and immune to meltdown. Thorium as a fuel has also been stated by Wikipedia as lacking the temperature to critically mass and meltdown. After debating these issues with some "radicals" I was provided a link to the following: As this site seems to be very anti-nuclear I would like to ask you some quick questions. What is your general view of Pebble Bed Modular Reactors? Australia has an abundance of Thorium. Do you consider it a commercially feasible fuel? Can a Pebble Bed Modular Reactor recycle waste either for Uranium or Thorium? Once the "waste" of a Pebble Bed Modular Reactor needs to be disposed what is the duration of storage required? From the web article provided there is discussion of the experimental THTR-300 PBMR on the Ruhr in Hamm-Uentrop and it's radiation leak? How serious was this leak? What are some other thoughts you could share from that article? What is your most prefered Nuclear Reactor design (and in a quick summary) why? Cheers John K. Sutherland 10.21.06 John Ryle. Why are you worried about China? They already have all the bombs they need and you do not need a nuclear reactor to make a nuclear bomb anyway. Australia has no commercial reactor so would not be a player in providing one to anyone. As for taking used fuel back, I doubt that anyone wants to go to the trouble. It's better to surface store it for a while until you have viable reprocessing industry, which again, Australia does not need, but France, Japan, Britain and Russia already have. Reprocessing can start anytime after about 150 days or less. The consideration is in radiation shielding and radiation protection, but the fuel is not particularly thermally warm after even a few days, so you do not need to speed the thermal cooling down at all. Mathew. Thorium is at least as good a nuclear fuel as uranium (it breeds to uranium-233) provided you have a fast breeder reactor. It is also many more steps away from breeding plutonium so that is regarded as a plus. I do not know enough about the PBR to pass opinion. Yes, many sites which do provide some apparently reasonable information to suck you in, then turn out to be anti-nuclear and start to spin the fairy stories in a not so subtle way once they've got you. 'wise' is another one. The PBMR leak in the Ruhr? Never heard of it so it can't have been to serious outside of the hysterical media. How serious was the radiation leak? How many died? None. I thought so. The one thing you would not be told is the level of the radiation exposure, or you would probably find that most hospital patients get hundreds of times that dose in specific treatments, but that would not be publicized or the story loses its impact. See health effects of high levels of radiation here: Spent fuel from any reactor can be reprocessed provided there is still unused fuel in it and it is commercially worthwhile. How long does the radioactive waste need to be stored? It depends upon the nature of the waste; the half lives of the radionuclides it contains. Read my other papers on this site in 'more', 'research', 'white papers' and 'by publisher', 'Edutech Enterprises' where there are some rather technical descriptions in 8 more papers. I know the most about the CANDU. Both the CANDU and PWR have their advantages and disadvantages. The world prefers PWR at the moment with its relicensing possibilities out to 40 or 60 years. Sorry to be so brief, but at least you are asking some questions and learning. John. Mathew Hoole 11.8.07 Hello Mr Sutherland You mentioned on pg 14 in your article Various Infos on Nuclear Energy "Although it would contravene regulations and good work practices, it could be handled without undue hazard after only about 50 years, just so long as the over-riding individual dose limits are not exceeded by those handling it. The small amount of long half-life plutonium (Pu-239, 24,000 years) in it, poses no radiation hazard, as the plutonium is of low radioactivity. The Queen was given a plastic bag of some to hold a few years ago, to feel how warm it was." Do you have a link that contains a picture of the Queen handling this nuclear waste? Cheers John K. Sutherland 3.26.08 Mathew, I do not have the photograph. I believe I saw it in an older publication called ATOM. The queen was visiting Harwell in the UK at the time so those two directions might uncover it for you, or you could ask someone at Harwell. John. Robert Steinhaus 3.16.09 I would like to thank John Sutherland for being generous with his knowledge and providing solid information where there is too much ignorance. One small element that could be profitably added to the discussion is mention of the facts with respect to the use of Thorium Fuel and it lower waste generating qualities. Thorium Molten Salt Reactors (TMSR) can be operated in a mode that produces dramatically less high level nuclear waste. significantly reducing the volume, weight and long-term radio-toxicity of spent fuel. Uranium-233 produced in Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors is a fuel that can be burned while producing energy, fission products, and a miniscule amount of transuranic waste. All of the fission products produced by TMSR Reactors will decay to benign levels of the radioactive natural background within 350 years. The majority (83%) of fission products of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors decay to the benign levels of the radioactive natural background in 10 years. All of the remaining 17% of fission products decay to natural background levels in 350 years[1]. The nuclear fuel efficiency of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors is in excess of 98% while traditional Uranium-Plutonium cycle LWR used to commercially make electricity in the US only have a fuel efficiency of 2 to 3%. The amount of Plutonium-239, which is the primary material that is a weapons proliferation worry in current LWR technology, is redduced to 1 part in 100,000 the quantity produced by current reactor technology.	eng	04993696-28ca-450e-be65-4a372130e16a	http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_display.cfm?a_id=498
Understanding Antennas For The Non-Technical Ham A Book By Jim Abercrombie, N4JA (Jim Abercrombie 4ja@prtcnet.com) Illustrations by Frank Wamsley, K4EFW Edited by Judy Haynes, KC4NOR Copyright July 2005. Second Edition Edited for the web , N4UJW Editors Note: This is a book length web article provided by the author FREE for all hams. This is copyrighted material and is the property of Hamuniverse.com and/or the article author and is to be used only for personal non-profit educational use. You may download a pdf copy of it here....74 pages! It is HUGE! Bookmark this page for future reading or see more options for saving at bottom of page! The original book contained 60 pages and illustrations. They are all here! Many of the antennas described here are in project form on this web site. Here are some of the main topics in the book that you will learn more about. One reason for writing this book is to educate you so you can make an informed choice concerning the best antenna for you. Another reason is to dispel the many antenna myths that circulate in the amateur community. The third reason is a desire to teach basic antenna theory to the average ham. Therefore, to achieve that goal, you should read this book from cover to cover. It was written primarily for the newcomer and the non-technical old-timer. This book is about common medium wave and high frequency (short wave) antennas, but the theory presented here relates to antennas of any frequency. It is in a condensed form and the antenna theory is explained so most hams can understand it. Realizing many hams are mathematically challenged, only simple mathematics procedures are used. If you can add, subtract, and divide using a calculator, you will not have trouble with this book. A few principles in here are based on conclusions drawn from the Laws of Physics. Everything else in this book can be found scattered through The A.R.R.L. Antenna Book and nothing in here contradicts what is written there. I. WHY ALL THE FUSS ABOUT ANTENNAS Definition: An antenna is a piece of metal, a conductor of electricity, to which you connect the radio. It radiates your signal and receives the signals you want to hear. Definition: An antenna system consists of the antenna, the feed-line, and any matching unit. Most antennas are made of copper or aluminum, while most mobile antennas are made of stainless steel. A feed-line consists of two conductors that carry the signal to and from the radio and to and from the antenna. A matching unit can be an antenna tuner, a series matching section, or one of several different kinds of matching circuits at the feed-point. Does the type of antenna make much difference? Here is an example: Once in 1959 two of us were involved in testing two antennas on 15 meters. The late R. Lynn Kalmbach, W4IW, using one antenna received a 30-dB better signal report on his antenna from a station in England than we did on our antenna. (Decibel or dB will be explained later). Thirty dB means his signal appeared that he was running 1000 times more transmitter power than we were. At that time, we didnt live that far apart so we couldnt blame it on propagation. We both were running about equal power. Both antennas were at 50 feet. The comparison proved that a good antenna could make a difference. Lynn used a home-built G4 ZU mini-beam; we were using a 15-meter 2-element Mosely Mini-Beam, which had short loaded elements. Evidently, it had a lot of loss. Another example: Today we hear people breaking in to our ragchews with signals almost level with the noise. Why is that? The reason is they are using the wrong antennas. Their signals are twenty to thirty decibels below everyone elses. They are making contacts, but just barely. The first question our group asks, "What kind of antenna are you using?" Experienced amateurs know the antenna can make all the difference. The guy with the poor signal sometimes will blame his bad signal report on band conditions or his lack of a linear amplifier. He is just sticking his head in the sand. What we are trying to prove is next to your radio, the most important part of your station is the antenna. Many years ago, an old-timer said, "For every dollar you spend on a radio, you should spend two dollars on your antenna." That is also true today. You can do more to improve your signal strength with antennas than you can ever do by increasing your power. Having the ability to make contacts on a particular antenna doesnt mean it works well! Anyantenna will make contacts, but your signals will be stronger on some antennas than on others. In addition, some antennas hear better than others. II. HOW ANTENNAS WORK. First of all to work properly the antenna system must be matched to the transmitter. That is, all modern transmitters have an output impedance of 50 ohms. Antenna systems range in impedance of a few ohms to several thousand ohms. There are several ways to match them: pruning the length of the antenna, using an antenna tuner, matching the antenna with a length of transmission line called a matching section, or the use one of several matching systems at the antenna feed-point. Antenna matching is beyond the scope of the material found in this book and it is suggested you consult a more comprehensive antenna manual. Simple half-wave dipoles eliminate the need for a matching system because a resonant half-wave dipole has an impedance near 50-ohms. You must understand electromagnetism to understand how antennas work. If you attach the two poles of a direct current (DC) voltage source to the two ends of a coil of wire, current will flow through the coil of wire and it will become magnetized. The magnetized coil is known as an electromagnet. Its magnetism will extend out to infinity becoming weaker with distance. Remove the voltage and the magnetic field collapses back into the coil. If an alternating current (AC) is connected to the coil, the magnetism moves out and collapses into the coil in step with the frequency of the alternating current source. The north and south poles of the electromagnet reverse on each half-cycle of the AC voltage. If voltage and current can cause a coil to become magnetized, the reverse is true: A magnetic field can produce a voltage and a current in a coil. This is known as Faradays Principle of Magnetic Induction. A voltage will be produced at the ends of the coil of wire as you move any permanent magnet close to and parallel to the coil. The difference in this case is the magnet must be kept moving. Move the magnet in one direction, and current will flow in one direction. Reverse the direction the magnet is moving and the current will flow in the opposite direction. Moving the magnet back and forth produces alternating current. An AC generator spins a coil of wire between the two poles of a magnetic field. It doesnt matter which one is moving. The coil or the magnet can be moving. Any moving magnetic field can induce current in anther coil. It doesnt have to be a piece of metal we call a magnet. Imagine a moving magnetic field produced by AC circulating in and out of a coil. If that moving magnetic field passes through a second nearby coil, it will induce an alternating current in the second coil. A transformer uses this method to work. Transformers have a continuous iron core running from the inside of one coil through the inside of the second coil to confine the magnetism inside the iron core. This makes the transformer nearly 100% efficient since only a little of the magnetic energy escapes. A straight wire that has an AC current flowing through it also has a magnetic field surrounding it. But it is a weaker field than is produced by a coil. The magnetic field from the wire radiates out into space and becomes weaker with distance. The radiating magnetic field from a wire is known as "electromagnetic radiation" and a radio wave is one type of it. The wire that radiates becomes the transmitting antenna. Some distance away, a second wire in the path of these waves has current induced into it by the passing electromagnetic waves. This second wire will be the receiving antenna. The voltage in the receiving antenna is many times weaker than the voltage in the transmitting antenna. It may be as weak as one-millionth of a volt or less and still be useful. The receiving antenna feeds that voltage to the amplifiers in the receiver front-end where it is amplified many thousands or millions of times. The dipole antenna is made of a wire broken in the center and where broken, each half of the wire connects to an insulator that divides the wire in two. Two wires from the voltage source, which is the transmitter, are connected across the insulator. On one side of the dipole, the current in the form of moving electrons flows first from the voltage source toward one end of the dipole. At the end, it reflects toward the voltage source. The same thing occurs on the other half of the wire on the other half cycle of alternating current. An antenna that is the right length for the current to reach the far end of the wire just as the polarity changes is said to be resonant. Because electricity travels at 95% the speed of light in a wire, the number of times the polarity changes in one second (frequency) determines how long the wire has to be in order to be resonant. III. POLARIZATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES Electromagnetic waves travel away from the wire in horizontal, vertical, slanted, or circular waves. If the antenna wire runs horizontal or parallel to the earth, the radiation will be horizontally polarized. A wire or conductor that runs at right angles to the earth produces vertical radiation. A slanted wire has components of both horizontal and vertical radiation. Crossed wires connected by proper phasing lines that shift the phase from one wire to the other wire by 90 degrees will produce circular polarization. Amateurs working orbiting satellites at VHF, UHF, and microwave frequencies use circular polarization. When your high frequency signals are reflecting off the ionosphere, it isnt important if the other stations antenna has the opposite polarization from yours (the polarization does matter for line of sight communication). The reflected polarized waves passing through the ionosphere are slowly rotated causing fading signals (QSB). The reason the polarization of antennas is most important is that it determines the angle of radiation. Horizontally polarized antennas at ordinary heights used by hams produce mostly high angle radiation and weaker low angle radiation, but this doesnt mean there is no low angle radiation. It is there but is weaker than high angle radiation. However, you must put a horizontally polarized antenna up more than one-wavelength high to get a strong low angle radiation. One wavelength is 280 feet on 80 meters, 140 feet on 40 meters, and 70 feet on 20 meters. High angle radiation works nearby stations best and low angle radiation works distant stations (DX) best. A vertically polarized antenna produces mostly low angle radiation, with its high angle radiation being weak. For this reason, vertical antennas do not work as well as horizontal antennas do at ordinary heights for working stations less than about 500 miles away. FREQUENCY The number of times the polarity of an AC voltage changes per second determines its frequency. Frequency is measured in cycles per second or Hertz (Hz). A thousand cycles per second is a kilohertz (kHz). One million hertz is a Megahertz (MHz). The only difference between the 60 Hz electric power in your house and radio frequencies (RF) is the frequency, but 60 Hz electricity in a wire also produces electromagnetic radiation just like radio waves. Useful radio waves start at 30 kHz and go upward in frequency until you reach the infrared light waves. Light is the same kind of waves as RF except light is at a much higher frequency. Light waves are used like radio waves when they are confined inside fiber optic cable. Above the frequencies of light are found x-rays and gamma rays. The radio bands: The Long Wave Band (LW) starts at 30 kHz and goes to 300 kHz. The Medium Wave Band (MW) is from 300 kHz to 3000 kHz or 3 MHz. The High Frequency Band (HF) is from 3 MHz to 30 MHz. The Very High Frequency Band (VHF) is from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. The Ultra-High Frequency Band (UHF) is from 300 MHz to 3000 MHz or 3 GHz. Above these frequencies are several microwave bands which are defined as the Super High Frequency Band (SHF). V. THE IONOSPHERE AND MODES OF HF PROPAGATION The Ionosphere In the upper air around fifty miles and higher where the air molecules are far apart, radiation from the sun strips electrons from oxygen molecules causing the molecules to become ionized forming the ionosphere. The ionized oxygen molecules and its free electrons float in space forming radio-reflecting layers. Ionization of the ionosphere varies by the time of day, seasons of the year, and the sunspot cycle. The strength of ionization also varies from day to day and hour to hour. Since the height of the ionosphere varies, the higher the ionized layer becomes, the farther the skip will be. We will define skip in section 5 of part V. The part of the earths atmosphere called the ionosphere is divided into three layers. The three layers are, from lowest to highest, the D layer, the E layer, and the F layer. Each layer has a different effect on HF radio propagation. Being at a lower altitude, the D layer molecules are squeezed closer together by gravity than those in higher layers, and the free electrons reattach to the molecules easily. The D layer requires constant radiation from the sun to maintain its ionization. Radio waves at lower frequencies such as the frequencies of the AM broadcast band cannot penetrate this layer and are absorbed. The higher frequency signals are able to pass through the D layer. The D layer disappears at night causing AM broadcast stations to reflect from the higher layers. This is why AM broadcast signals only propagate by ground wave in the daytime and they can be received from great distances at night. Like the broadcast band, the D layer absorbs signals on 160 and to a lesser extent 80 meters during the day making those bands go dead. During solar flares, the D layer becomes ionized so strongly that all high frequency radio waves are absorbed, causing a radio blackout. E-layer propagation is not well understood. Being at a lower altitude than F layer, the E layer is responsible for summertime short skip propagation on the higher high frequency bands. The skip zone is around 1000 miles, but at times when the E-cloud covers a wide area in the summer, double hops can be seen. A double hop occurs when the signal reflects from the ionosphere, then returns to the ground, reflects from the ground back to the ionosphere where it is reflected back to the ground. A double hop can propagate the signal 2000 miles or more. The E-layer forms mostly during the day, and it has the highest degree of ionization at noon. The E layer like the D layer disappears at night. Even so, sporadic-E propagation can and does form at night. There is a minor occurrence of sporadic E propagation during the wintertime. On rare occasions, sporadic E propagation can surprise you by occurring anytime regardless of the sunspot cycle or the season of the year. The F layer is the highest layer and it is divided into two levels: F1 and F2. At night the F1 and F2 merge into one layer. During the day, the F1 layer doesnt play a part in radio propagation, but F2 does. It is responsible for most high-frequency long distance propagation on 20 meters and above. However, the F layer makes it possible for you to work DX on the lower bands at night. Sunspots are responsible for the ionization layers and in years with high sunspot numbers, worldwide contacts can be made easily on 10-20 meters by F2 layer propagation. In years of low sunspot numbers, working distant stations is difficult on those bands. Consequently, ten and fifteen meters will be completely dead most days and twenty meters will go dead at night. In years of low sunspot numbers DX contacts are easily made at night on 160, 80, and 40 meters. The sunspot numbers increase and decrease in 11-year average cycles. Since the curvature of the earth averages about 16 feet every 5 miles, an object 5 miles from you on perfectly flat earth will be 16 feet below the horizon. Because light travels in straight lines, you cannot see objects beyond the horizon. Radio waves travel in straight lines, but there are ways to get them beyond the horizon. This is referred to as propagation. 2. Ground-Wave Propagation Ground wave works only with vertical polarization. One side of the antenna is the metal vertical radiator and the other side of the antenna is the earth ground. The surface wave in the air travels faster than the part of the wave flowing through the ground. The surface of the earth is curved like the curved part of a racetrack. On the curved track, a car on the outside of the track has to travel faster than the car on the inside lane to stay even, and the two cars travel in a curved path. Although the wave in the air travels faster than the wave on the ground, the two parts of the wave cannot be separated. Because of this, the radio wave also travels in a curved path that follows the curvature of the earth. The AM broadcast stations use ground wave propagation during the day and skywave propagation at night. Since radio waves at lower frequencies conduct better through the ground, an AM broadcast station on 540 kHz will be many dB stronger than a station on 1600 kHz, if both run the same power. This fact is important in understanding why ground mounted verticals do not work as well at high frequencies as they do on the broadcast band. 3. Direct Wave or Line of Sight Propagation Antennas located on high structures can "look" over the horizon and "see" the receiving antennas. Because refraction is involved, direct waves travel 20% farther than light waves due to scattering of radio waves by the environment. Trees and other foliage are invisible to HF radio waves. Direct wave propagation is possible at all frequencies, but this mode of propagation is seldom used on our high frequency bands, but it is the usual propagation mode used by repeaters and others on VHF and UHF. If you watch TV on an outside antenna or on a "rabbit ears antenna," you are receiving the signal by direct wave propagation. 4. Propagation by Refraction Refraction occurs when the lower part of a wave travels slower than the top part of the wave because the wave is passing through two media. These media can be two layers of air at different temperatures or they can be air and a solid. One form of refraction is caused by a radio wave passing over a hill or ridge being bent as it passes over the obstruction. This is known as "knife edge refraction." Another form of refraction occurs when layers of air of different temperatures bend the radio waves around the horizon. This is called tropospheric ducting. This mode of propagation makes long distance contacts possible at VHF frequencies. Tropospheric ducting does occur on 10 meters and lower frequencies and is noticeable when other forms of propagation are absent. On high frequency bands, many hams mistakenly call tropospheric ducting and direct wave "ground wave." 5. Skywave Propagation Skywave propagation occurs when radio waves are reflected from the ionosphere. Practically all HF communication is done by skywave. In the ionosphere, the waves are really refracted twice, and they just appear to be reflected. The reflections are frequency sensitive, meaning each ham band reflects differently from the others. Low frequencies, such as 80 meters, reflect mainly from the lower levels of the ionosphere and the reflected signal comes nearly straight back down. This causes 80 meters to propagate to points from local out to more than a few hundred miles in the daytime. At night, when the D layer and E layer are absent, signals striking the ionosphere at lower angles may propagate many thousands of miles on 80 meters. On the bands from 20 to 10 meters, high angle signals pass straight through the ionosphere and do not reflect back down to the nearby stations. The low angle signals on these higher bands reflect from the ionosphere near the horizon and return to the Earth some miles away. The in-between region cannot hear the transmitted signals nor can you hear signals coming from this region. The in-between region is called the "skip zone." Only when the ionosphere is weakly ionized do you have a skip zone on 80 meters. Another interesting type of skywave propagation seen on the higher HF bands is called chordal hop propagation seen frequently in trans-equatorial (TE) propagation, which is propagation crossing the equator. When this occurs, signals entering the ionosphere are trapped inside the F2 layer then they are finally refracted back to earth across the equator thousands of miles away. There is no propagation between the signal entry point and the exit point. This is skip in the extreme. On many occasions, we have worked stations far away across the equator in the southern part of South America and stations in between could not be heard. We have frequently worked VQ9LA in the Chagos Archipelago located in the Indian Ocean. The path to The Chagos Archipelago is across Europe and the Middle East and finally across the equator to his location in the Indian Ocean. One time when he was working Europe and North America at the same time, we could not hear the European stations because our path to him was via chordal hop propagation. Another way of describing chordal hop propagation is to call it ionospheric ducting. Skywave propagation sometimes produces an effect called "backscatter." What happens is the radio waves that strike the ionosphere, instead of only reflecting father away from the transmitting station, part of the signal reflects backwards toward the transmitting station. Stations that are too close to hear each other by direct wave can communicate by the backward reflecting waves. Both stations that communicate by backscatter must point their directional beam antennas in the same direction although their direction toward each other may be at some other azimuth. Backscatter will confuse front-to-back measurements of directional beam antennas. This is because, when you turn the back of the antenna toward the station you are hearing, you may be able to hear him on backscatter from a direction opposite from him. You will be hearing him from the ionized atmospheric cloud in the opposite direction. During intense solar magnetic storms, when aurora occurs at high latitudes, stations are able to communicate by backscatter on VHF and UHF by both stations pointing their directional beams toward the aurora. This will be due north for stations in the Northern Hemisphere and due south for stations in the Southern Hemisphere. Audio from aurora backscatter will have a "wispy" sound. 6. Greyline Propagation Greyline propagation occurs when the sun is low in the sky near dawn or dusk, although we have seen greyline propagation occur as early as two hours before sunset or as late as two hours after sunrise. It is often used to work stations on the other side of the world on 160 and 80 meters. For example, at certain times of the year when it is approaching sunset here in the States, the sun will have just risen in Asia or Australia and vice-versa. At that time, radio waves propagate along the semidarkness path that encircles the Earth called the greyline. Both locations must be in the greyline in order to make 2-way contacts. The tilt of the Earth makes the position of the greyline change as the seasons change. Greyline propagation occurs between any two locations for a brief period of a few weeks. Afterwards, different places fall into the greyline. For several weeks in the fall of the year, an interesting example of greyline propagation occurs in the southeastern part of the U.S. On 3915 kHz, the BBC outlet in Singapore can be heard for about an hour before sunset coming in by greyline propagation. Stations to the east hear it before we do. Stations farther to the west can hear the fading signals after it fades out here because the greyline moves as the earth rotates. For those hearing it, the signal fades in, it peaks, and it slowly fades out. 7. Long Path Propagation Long path propagation occurs when signals propagate the long way around the world. It can occur on any band. It usually occurs from stations on the opposite side of the world from you. We have worked South Africa via long path by beaming northwest early in the morning on 20 meters. When this happens, we are working him long path through the nighttime side of the earth. Since at all times half the Earth has daytime and half the Earth has night, long path propagation is determined by whether the signal is propagated through the nighttime path or daylight path. Sometimes the daylight path will bring in stations by long path propagation and at other times the darkness path provides long path propagation. One night on 20 meters, we heard a station in India coming in short path and long path simultaneously, but the short path was stronger. At the same time, California was working India by long path and they could not hear him short path. They were working him through the daylight path, and he was stronger here on the East Coast via the nighttime path. 8. 160-Meter (1.8-2.0 MHz) Propagation Each amateur band propagates signals differently. The 160-meter band is our only MW band and it acts similar to the broadcast band. It is primarily a nighttime and wintertime band as it suffers from high summertime static (QRN). Most hams that use this band for nearby contacts use horizontal dipoles or inverted-V antennas. Some hams use vertical antennas on this band to work distant stations (DX). These DX contacts are made in the fall and wintertime at night via F layer or greyline propagation when the static levels are low. Dipoles and inverted-V antennas do not work well for DX on this band. 9. Eighty-Meter (3.5 4.0 MHz) Propagation The CW part of this band is called the 80-meter band and the voice part of the band is known as 75 meters. Like 160 meters, eighty meters suffers from the same QRN in the summertime. Working DX on this band is a popular avocation during the fall and winter. However, 80 meters is used primarily for working nets and ragchewing. Eighty meters is primarily a nighttime band. This band can vary from being open most of the day in years with low sunspot numbers to being closed during the middle of the day in years with many sunspots. Many DX contacts have been made using dipoles and inverted-V antennas, but a vertical with many ground radials will be better. 10. Forty-Meter (7.0-7.3 MHz) Propagation The forty-meter band has propagation that can act like either 80 meters or 20 meters. It just depends on the stage of the sunspot cycle. During the years with high sunspot numbers, nearby contacts are possible all day. At night, the skip lengthens making contacts possible to those parts of the world where it is still dark. Working DX on 40 meters is a nighttime or greyline event. When the sunspots are low, forty meters may have long skip during the day, and nearby contacts may be impossible or they may be very weak. During the time when we suffer from low sunspot numbers, many DX contacts are made during early morning, late afternoon, and at night. If your primary interest on forty meters is SSB, our 40-meter voice band is a broadcast band in Regions 1 and 3. Region 1 is Europe, North Asia, and Africa and Region 3 is the Pacific, Southern Asia, and Australia. The top part of 40 meters is a voice band in Region 2, which is North and South America. To work SSB on forty meters at night, you will have to find a frequency between broadcast stations. Strong broadcast stations heard at night begin to fade out slowly as the morning sun rises and moves higher in the sky. As the suns angle declines in the afternoon, the broadcast stations begin to break through the noise becoming stronger as the sun begins to set. It is only in the middle of the day when no broadcast stations are heard on forty meters. Since DX stations in region 1 and most of region 3 can only transmit below 7100 kHz, working DX on 40-meter SSB is still possible. Stations in those regions will have to transmit below 7100 kHz. (Australian and New Zealand amateurs can operate up to 7200 kHz.) They call CQ and announce where they are listening in our voice band above 7150 kHz. This is what is called "working split." 11. Thirty-Meter (10.1-10.15) Propagation This band has such a narrow frequency that the only modes allowed here are CW and digital modes. That means no SSB. Propagation here is much like 40 and 20 meters. Unlike 20 meters, this band stays open longer at night during years with low sunspot numbers. During the daylight hours, it has much shorter skip than 20 meters. In the United States, we are allowed only 250 Watts. 12. Twenty-Meter (14.0-14.35 MHz) Propagation The twenty-meter band is the best DX band because it is open for long-skip for more hours than any other band and it does not suffer from QRN as the lower bands. In years of high sunspot numbers, short-skip and long-distance DX can be worked at the same time during daylight hours. Although DX is there most of the time, most of the DX worked is at sunrise, sunset, and all night during peak sunspot years. During the years of low sunspots, it is common to work into Europe and Africa during the day and into Asia and the South Pacific during the evening hours and early at night. Low sunspot numbers cause 20 meters to go dead for east to west contacts at night an hour or so after sunset, but there is some TE propagation. During periods of moderate sunspot numbers, the propagation on this band is a blend of propagation of low and high sunspot years. 13. Seventeen-Meter (18.067-18.167 MHz) Propagation The 17-meter band propagation acts much like 20 meters except it is affected more by low sunspot numbers than 20 meters. In periods of low sunspot numbers, this band does not stay open as late as 20 meters, fading out as the sun begins to set. Yet, the 17-meter band does stay open all night when the sunspot numbers are high. The propagation on this band is like a blend of 20 meters and 15 meters, but it is closer to 20 meters. Most users of this band use dipoles and other simple antennas since triband beam antennas wont work here. 14. Fifteen-Meter (21.0-21.45 MHz) Propagation Fifteen meters is a fantastic DX band during the high sunspot years. This band may be open for 24 hours, and it is common to work more than 100 countries during a contest weekend on this band. Many have worked more than 300 different countries on 15 meters. In years of low sunspot numbers, 15 meters may be completely dead for several days in a row. When it opens during those years, you may hear only the Caribbean, South America, and on rare occasions the extreme southern part of Africa via TE propagation. 15. Twelve-Meter (24.89-24.99 MHz) Propagation The 12-meter band is much like 15 meters, but it is affected more by sunspot numbers. Because this band is little used, many hours can pass without hearing any amateur signals. Occasionally you will hear South American Citizen Band "pirates" on lower sideband. It is mostly a daytime band but openings to Asia and the South Pacific are common early at night during peak sunspot years. The reason this band is little used is that triband beam antennas dont cover this band. 16. Ten-Meter (28.0-29.7 MHz) Propagation The band that is most affected by the sunspot numbers is 10 meters. You may have noticed in this discussion, the higher the frequency, the more it is affected by sunspots. During peak sunspot years, 10 meters can be open some days for 24 hours. Mostly it is a daytime band. When they are at the peak, the sunspots enable you to work worldwide with power as low as 5 Watts. A 10-meter confirmed country total of over 250 is common. In the low sunspot years, the band can be closed for days. Ten meters can open for very short skip by sporadic E propagation during the summer months. Very short skip means contacts as close as 200 miles out to 1000 miles. Sporadic E propagation can suddenly occur without regard to the sunspot numbers. VI. STANDING WAVE RATIO A standing wave ratio bridge is used to measure the standing wave ratio, or SWR. SWR is an indication of how well the radiating part of an antenna is matched to its feed-line or how well the tuner is matching the antenna system. Most amateurs pay far too much attention to SWR. An SWR reading below 2:1 is acceptable, because the mismatch is so small that the feed-line loss can be ignored. If you are using a modern transceiver, its power may fold back to a lower power output above this SWR level. When you have mismatch between the feed-line and the antenna, part of the power feeding the antenna system reflects back toward the tuner and the transmitter. The part of the power going toward the radiating part of the antenna system is called forward power. The part reflected back down the feed-line is called reflected power. The larger the mismatch the larger the reflected power will be. If the feed-line and antenna are not matched, waves traveling toward the radiating part of the antenna system meet the waves being reflected back down the feed-line. The waves interfere with each other, and at certain points along the feed-line, the amplitudes of both waves combine. This will result in a current maximum to be found at that point; and at that point, the current will appear to be standing still. The length of feed-line and the frequency will determine where this point occurs. At another point, the forward and reflected waves interfere, and they subtract from each other. At that point, there will be a current minimum. If you could visualize this phenomenon, you would see a series of current maximums and minimums standing still along the feed-line. This is why we refer to them as standing waves. At different points along the feed-line, where you have high current, you will have low voltage, and where you have low current, you will have high voltage. At any point along the feed-line, multiplying the voltage times the current will equal the power in Watts. When the feed-line is matched to the antenna, current and voltage remain the same all along the feed-line because there is no reflected current to interfere with the forward current. As happens with the current, the voltage will also appear to be standing still. The voltage maximums and voltage minimums will not be at the same locations as the current maximums and minimums. SWR is the ratio of the maximum voltage to the minimum voltage on the line. It is called "Voltage Standing Wave Ratio" or VSWR, but we shorten it to just SWR. There is also a current SWR or ISWR, and it is the same value as the VSWR. For example, if the standing wave voltage maximum is 200 volts and the minimum voltage is 100 volts, the VSWR will be 2:1. If the voltage maximum and voltage minimum are equal, the SWR will be 1:1. If the voltage minimum is zero, the SWR is infinite. In measuring SWR at the transmitter, you need to realize that feed-line losses affect the SWR readings. If the feed-line losses are high, much of the power reflecting back from the antenna will be lost, and the SWR reading on the meter will indicate it is lower than it actually is. If a feed-line is so lossy that it consumes all forward and reflected power, it will measure an SWR of 1:1. When measuring SWR on an antenna having a small amount of reflected power, the length of the feed-line between the bridge and the antenna may affect your SWR reading. An example of this is a 70-ohm antenna being fed with 50-ohm coax. Different lengths of feed-line will give you small differences in SWR readings because at certain lengths, the mismatched feed-line starts to act like a series matching section. In the case of a 70-ohm antenna fed with 50-ohm coax, if the feed-line is a half wave long, the SWR will measure 1.4:1. At some particular length of feed-line and on one frequency, the SWR will measure 1:1 because that length of that feed-line transforms the impedance to make a match. Some hams have adjusted their feed line length to get a perfect match. This is called "tuning your antenna by tuning your feed-line." With other feed-line lengths, you will measure something different. Suppose the impedance of the feed-line and the antenna are perfectly matched. Then there is no reflected power. You will get a 1:1 reading on the SWR-bridge with any length of feed-line. There is a myth that reflected power is burned up as heat in the transmitter. The reflected power coming back down the feed-line sees an impedance mismatch at the transmitter or tuner and it reflects back up again. The reflected power does not get back into the transmitter. Because the reflected power reflects back and forth, the radiating part of the antenna system absorbs most of the power being reflected back up each time. All of it eventually is radiated except for the power lost in the feed-line. The losses in a real feed-line will burn up some of the power on each pass. This is why the feed-line loss increases with SWR. Built-in tuners are found in most modern transceivers. If yours doesnt have one, then you can use an outboard tuner to give the transceiver a proper load. The place you want a 1:1 SWR is between the output of a transceiver and antenna or between the transceiver and the input of a tuner in order for the transmitter to deliver its maximum power. Because built-in tuners are in most modern transceivers, many hams use them to match antenna systems having high loss. VII. REAL ANTENNA SYSTEMS In this book, we will be talking about the losses that rob an antenna of its maximum performance. The ideal antenna system will radiate 100% of your transmitter power on all bands without a tuner and in the direction you want to work. Such an antenna system does not exist. Many new hams succumb to antenna advertisements making claims that are exaggerated. No antenna will have low SWR, work all bands without a tuner, and radiate efficiently at the same time. A dummy load has a low SWR and will load up on all bands, but it will not radiate a signal. A resonant coax-fed dipole antenna will have a low SWR and will radiate efficiently on the band for which it is resonant, but it will not work well on all bands. For example, if the tuning range of your tuner has a sufficient range, you will be able to load up any antenna with it, but it will not necessarily radiate a signal efficiently. It may have high tuner and feed-line losses. When you choose an antenna, you must decide how much loss you can accept. DXers and hams that work weak signals at VHF frequencies try to eliminate as much loss as possible. If your contacts are going to be made under good band conditions and without much interference, you can get by with high losses. In that case, coax-fed antennas used on bands where they are not resonant will allow you to make contacts. You can be greatly surprised by how little radiated power can be used to make contacts under ideal conditions. If you want to make contacts regularly under changing band conditions, you will want to eliminate as much loss as possible and use antennas with gain. Lower loss will enable you to hear weaker signals. Nothing will take the place of resonant half-wave dipoles, not because they radiate more efficiently, but because they dont require lossy tuners and dont have high coax losses. Remember that all antenna systems have compromises VIII. HALF-WAVE RESONANT DIPOLE ANTENNAS 1. The Half-Wave Flat-Top Dipole Most dipoles consist of two pieces of wire of equal lengths with one of the two ends connected together through an insulator. The far ends of the wires are also connected to insulators. The two conductors of a feed-line are separated and connected across the gap at the center insulator. The antenna is held up by rope that connects the insulated ends of the antenna to two supports. It is a "balanced" antenna, because equal currents flow on both halves of the antenna. Coax is an unbalanced feed-line. (The possible effect of using an unbalanced feed-line on a balanced antenna like a dipole will be discussed later.) The dipole that is stretched between two high supports is called a flattop dipole, distinguishing it from other configurations. The simplest antenna system of all is the half-wave resonant dipole fed with coax and no tuner. The only reason for using a half-wave resonant dipole antenna is to eliminate the need for a matching device such as a tuner. The feed-point impedance will be near 50 ohms at ordinary heights and they can be fed directly with 50-ohm coax from the output of todays modern radios. The two halves of a dipole are fed 180 degrees out of phase, meaning when one side is fed positively, the other side is fed negatively. That is why a feed-line has two conductors. Of course, the sides swap polarity on each half cycle. If you could visualize the current flowing on the half-wave dipole, the current will appear to be standing still. The maximum current will be seen at the center of the wire and no current will be at the ends. This occurs because the electrons flowing out to the ends reflect back toward the center where they meet the next wave and the current is reinforced there. The minimum voltage occurs at the center and the maximum voltage occurs at the ends of the half-wave resonant dipole. If you were to measure the voltage and the current at any point on the dipole wire, the voltage times the current will equal the power in Watts. Figure 1. Flat Top Dipole 2. Inverted-V Dipole Another configuration for the half wave resonant dipole is one having one support in the center and the ends stretched down toward the ground. The single support can be a tree, mast, or tower. The ends of a dipole have high RF voltages on them, and need to be at least 10 feet above ground for safety. This antenna is called an "inverted-V," because the shape of the dipole looks like a "V" turned upside down. Most dipoles illustrated in this book can be put up in the inverted-V configuration. This configuration works well because the current is concentrated on the middle two-thirds of the antenna at the apex. The current in an antenna is what is responsible for the radiation. The ends of the antenna have very little current in them and it doesnt matter if the ends are close to the ground. The middle of the antenna is up high where the radiation is taking place and that is the place you want the radiation to be. An inverted-V has an advantage that the horizontal space required for it is less than what is needed for a flattop dipole. The angle between the wires on an inverted-V needs to be greater than 90 degrees. The gain of an inverted -V is 0.2 dBd and it has a radiation pattern nearly omni-directional. Since it is easy to construct and works so well, the inverted-V is the most commonly used dipole. An explanation of the decibel will come later. Figure 2. The Inverted-V Dipole Figure 3. Radiation Pattern of Inverted-V for 80-Meters at 65 Feet In figure 3 above, the top graph shows how the radiation would appear to you, if you were situated above the dipole and you were looking down on it. The plane of the antenna runs from side to side on the top graph, and that graph demonstrates only a 5-dB null off the ends of the antenna. Therefore, it is essentially omnidirectional. The bottom graph shows how the radiation would appear if you were looking at the antenna from the end of the wire. As you can see, the pattern shows no radiation at the horizon and its maximum radiation is at about 40 degrees above the horizon, and the radiation straight up is only down 3 dB from its maximum. This antenna was modeled on 80 meters with the apex at 65 feet above ground and the ends at 35 feet. It is a myth that a horizontal antenna orientation makes a difference on 80 meters at heights used by most amateurs. I have heard many amateurs say on 80 meters, "The reason my signal is weak to you is because you are off the end of my dipole." The radiation pattern from a dipole is essentially non-directional until the dipole is elevated more than a half wave, that is about 125 feet on 80 meters, and it is 65 feet on 40 meters. The main reason it makes no difference regarding orientation is because propagation for signals closer than 500 miles (the distance of most 80 meter contacts) is essentially by high angle radiation nearly straight up and down. Only signals radiated and received at low angles make a difference in antenna orientation even at low heights above ground. At low heights, there are nulls about 3 to 4 dB off the dipole ends. 3. Dipole Shape Variations The wire of a dipole doesnt have to be run in a straight line. A dipole does not have to be perfectly horizontal. Thats the way it is usually depicted in books and magazines, but you can bend the legs of the antenna up, down or sideways. Figure 4. Two Dipole Shape Variations If you make either wire one-half wavelength long and carefully prune it to resonance, you can use it without a tuner on and near its resonant frequency. Both antennas have the current part at the top where most of the radiation takes place. The vertical parts of these antennas radiate a weak vertically polarized wave. The only reason these dipoles are contorted this way is to make them full-sized and to fit in the available space. Other shapes are possible, and you can be creative at your location. There are many more dipoles than the ones just described. We will explore the other kinds of dipoles in section "X" of this book. 4. Calculating the Length of a Half-Wave Resonant Dipole The approximate length in feet of a half-wave resonant dipole is found by dividing 468 by the frequency in MHz. The actual length of it will be determined by several factors. Using larger diameter wire will make the dipole resonate lower in frequency. Therefore, to make it resonant at the higher desired frequency, It must be shortened. Raising a dipole higher above ground will make it resonate higher in frequency. An insulated wire will make the dipole resonate lower in frequency than a bare wire. Using the above formula, cut the antenna a little longer than the calculations say. If the SWR is best at a lower frequency than you desire, the antenna will have to be made shorter by pulling the excess wire through the end insulators, folding the ends of the extra wire back on itself. Then wrap the ends of the overlapped wire on itself so it wont come loose. This causes the excess wire to "short" itself to the rest of the antenna. If you are using insulated wire, you will need to cut off the excess wire. The reverse is true if the antenna resonates too high in frequency. The extra wire can be let out to make it resonate on a lower frequency. This is why you originally cut the wire a little longer. 5. The Decibel The decibel (dB) is a unit of measurement for comparisons of the ratio of power, current, and voltage and is the term we will use in comparing antennas in this book. At one time, antenna comparisons were made using a dipole as a standard, but today most comparisons use the isotropic radiator as a reference. An isotropic radiator is an imaginary antenna that radiates equally well in all directions. It has no gain. The terms "dBi" and "dBd" are used to label which reference is being used. In this book, we will use the dipole as a standard for the most part. How do you derive decibels from power ratios? The formula for power ratios is dB = 10 log P1/P2. For voltage and current, the values are doubled. Formulas of this type are beyond the scope of this book. Doubling the power will produce a 3 dB stronger signal. Double the power and double it again will equal a 4 times power increase and that gives 3 dB plus 3 dB or 6 dB. Double 4 and that is a power increase of 8 and that adds 3 more dB for a total of 9 dB. Increasing the power from 1 Watt to 10 watts or increasing it 10 times will give a 10-dB increase. Multiply 10-Watts times 10 give us 100 watts, which adds another 10 dB above 1 Watt for 20 dB. Therefore, increasing the power another 10 times to 1000 Watts will produce a signal 30 dB stronger than 1 Watt. Your receiver, if modern, will have a signal strength meter or "S Meter." That meter is calibrated in "S-Units" from one to nine and decibels over S-9. S-9 is usually calibrated using 50 microvolts ( uV) from a signal generator. Each S-unit is approximately a difference of 5 or 6 dB. Therefore, a reading of S-9 is about 6 dB stronger than S-8. Therefore, from S-0 to S-9 is 54 dB. On some low cost transceivers, the S-units and dB above S-9 are only relative signal readings and actually have nothing to do with decibels. IX. ANTENNA BASICS 1. Resistances and Reactance Two factors measurable in antenna impedance are resistance and reactance. When we refer to antenna resistance, we are referring to its radiation resistance. It is neither a resistance like the electronic component called a "resistor," nor is it the same as the resistance found in all conductors. Those types of resistances, called "loss resistances," change electrical energy into heat energy. Heat energy disappears by radiating out into its surroundings and it dissipates away to infinity. When we feed RF into the antenna, the energy put into the radiation resistance disappears from the antenna by radiation of electromagnetic waves, and that makes an antenna appear to have a resistor in it. Loss resistance robs power from the radiation resistance and lowers the efficiency of an antenna system, but the loss resistance in dipoles is very low if the feed-line loss is low. The efficiency of any antenna system is found from a ratio of radiation resistance and loss resistance. We can either calculate the loss resistance by the loss in the feed-line from published tables and by estimating the loss in tuning units. Feed-line loss and tuning unit loss can be measured, but that is beyond the scope of this book. Antenna systems having reactance prevent the transmitter from delivering its full power and the reactance needs to be tuned out. There are two kinds of reactance: capacitive and inductive. Antennas have both. In antennas, reactance is a virtual reactance meaning the antenna acts as if there were a capacitor or an inductor in the antenna, but neither is there. You can only measure the sum of both reactances but not a value for either one. Using an antenna analyzer, you can determine whether the sum of the reactance is inductive or capacitive. Inductive reactance is a negative number and capacitive reactance is a positive number. The reactance of an antenna forms the "J" factor in antenna impedance measurements. The "J" factor is measured in ohms and the reactance is expressed as + or "J" ohms depending on whether it is capacitive or inductive reactance. Capacitive reactance is expressed as +J ohms and inductive reactance is expressed as -J ohms. Capacitive and inductive reactance are opposite factors and one can cancel the other. An antenna having 6 ohms capacitive reactance or + J 6 ohms and an inductive reactance of J 5 ohms will result in an antenna with a reactance of 1 ohm capacitive or + J 1. Since one term is positive and the other term is negative, you subtract smaller value from the larger. The answer has the sign of the larger one. In antennas, the reactance and resistance together determine the overall impedance of the antenna. The J factor is mentioned here only because you may see it in other books and on the extra class examination, but it will not be used further here. A resonant antenna has equal amounts of inductive and capacitive reactance, and the sum of the reactance equals zero. As an example, when the inductive reactance equals J 5 and the capacitive reactance equals +J 5, their sum equals zero. When the sum of the total reactance of an antenna is tuned to zero, its impedance is totally resistive. The use of an antenna analyzer will tell you if the antenna is too long or too short for resonance. The simplest way to tune out antenna reactance is to change its length. The sum of the reactance of a long antenna will be inductive, and the sum of the reactance of a short antenna will be capacitive. If an antenna is short because it wont fit your property, it can be tuned to resonance by putting an inductor (coil of wire) in each leg. These coils are called "loading coils." An equal amount of inductive reactance will cancel the excessive amount of capacitive reactance. An antenna with loading coils is described in section "X." When an antenna is too long, the sum of its reactance will be inductive, and a variable capacitor can be inserted in each leg to tune out the inductive reactance. This is seldom done because it is easier to shorten the antenna. A resonant antenna may still have SWR if its radiation resistance is not exactly 50 ohms. Not many resonant antennas have a radiation resistance of exactly 50 ohms, and most real antennas have a small amount of SWR. An antenna is resonant only at one frequency per band. It will also be resonant on its harmonic frequencies, where its radiation resistance will range from high to very high. Hams talk about using resonant antennas. What is meant by this is they use an antenna on its fundamental frequency close to resonance, the resistance is near 50 ohms, and the SWR without a tuner is near 1:1. To calculate the impedance of an antenna with both resistance and reactance requires a mathematical procedure called the Pythagorean Theorem. That type of math is beyond the scope of this book. However, you should know how to use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve impedance problems on the Extra-Class test. Otherwise, you will have to memorize the answers from the question pool. 2. Feeding Dipoles Efficiently For maximum power transfer from transmitter to the antenna, the antenna system must be resonant, and the resistance of the load (antenna system) has to be equal to the internal resistance of the source (transmitter). Notice we said an antenna system, not the antenna, must be resonant. As mentioned previously, an antenna system consists of the antenna, the feed-line, and any matching networks (tuners). A tuner at the input end of the feed-line can make a non-resonant antenna system resonant, and have a resistance of 50 ohms, and that matches the internal resistance of the transmitter. A tuner will not change the SWR between the tuner and the dipole part of an antenna system, and will not remove the reactance from the dipole. When the load of an antenna system does not match the source and the impedance is high, the load will not draw power from the source and high RF voltages will be present at the output of the final transistors. In this case, high RF voltages can damage the output transistors of the transmitter. When the impedance of the load is low, too much of the power may be dissipated across the internal resistance of the transmitter possibly destroying the output transistors. These are the two reasons why transceivers "fold back" their power when the SWR is high. It is a myth that the dipole part of an antenna has to be resonant to be efficient. When power reaches the radiating part of the antenna system, it obeys the "The Law of Conservation of Energy." The Law of Conservation of Energy states, "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Only its form can be changed." (What is important is to get the power to the dipole itself, because in some systems power is lost in the feed-line, especially when using coax with high SWR) The miniscule amount of power in the dipole that does not radiate is changed into heat, another form of energy. Because the dipole part of an antenna system is made of conductors with low loss resistance, 99% or more of the power reaching it will radiate regardless of its length if that length is reasonable. The loss resistance of the conductors of the radiating part of most antenna system is so low it can be ignored. (Short mobile HF antennas are an exception because they may be lossy because of the very high current flowing in them.) Not all the energy fed into an antenna system will reach the antenna itself. If the system has a tuner, part of the power is lost in the inductor of the tuner and part is lost in the feed-line. When properly tuned, tuners using T-networks lose about 10% of the power and L-network tuners lose about 5% of the power being fed to them. Notice we said properly tuned. However, improper tuning of the antenna tuner may cause you to believe the feed-line is matched, but when this happens there is a very high circulating current in the inductor causing it to get hot. This causes extremely high losses, and very little power reaches the radiating part of the antenna. In addition, so much heat is produced in the inductor that it can be damaged. We melted the plastic insulation that forms the inductor on one tuner this way. For this reason, some hams dont like tuners, preferring to use resonant antennas. Read the instructions for your tuner for proper tuning or you may wind up with a poor signal and a damaged tuner. The resistive losses in the conductors of the feed-line and the dielectric losses in the feed-line also rob power from the system. These are the reasons for you to use the best tuners and feed-lines possible. Another loss to be considered is feed-line radiation. Any energy that radiates from the feed-line does not reach the radiating part of the antenna, and it may be absorbed by near-by objects and may not radiate in the desired direction. When coax radiates, it is called common-mode radiation. If the feed line can radiate, it can also receive signals. This can be detrimental because the coax can then pick up noise from near-by power lines, etc. Feed-line radiation will also destroy the directional pattern of a beam antenna. The causes of feed-line radiation will be described in the next section. As we pointed out earlier, when you are using a half-wave resonant dipole fed with low-loss coax without using a tuner, almost all of the power coming out of the transmitter will radiate. On its resonant frequency, the dipole is one of the most efficient antenna systems a ham can use. However, a half-wave resonant dipole has a finite bandwidth. Why use a tuner with resonant antennas? On 160 and 80 meters the bands are wide compared to the percentage of frequency. The width of 80 meters is 500 kHz and its frequency is 3500 kHz. The width of 80 meters is 14% of the frequency. The 350 kHz of 40 meters is 5% of the frequency and most of the band can be covered without a tuner. The 350 kHz width of the 20-meter band is 350 divided by 14000 kHz, or 2.5 % of the frequency, etc. The percentage of frequency for a band will determine if a resonant dipole will work the whole band without a tuner. If you are planning to move around on 160 or 80 meter bands, it makes sense to have a tuner, because the bandwidth of resonant dipoles on those two bands is narrow. For example, the normal 2:1 SWR bandwidth of an 80-meter dipole is less than 200 kHz and the band is 500 kHz wide. However, if you have an antenna resonant for the voice portion of the band, you can still use a tuner to work the CW part of the band without inducing more than a dB of loss. Except for 40 and 10 meters, full-sized resonant dipoles on the rest of the HF bands will have enough bandwidth for them to cover the whole band. The best place to insert a tuner is up at the antenna feed-point. However, if it is placed there, you wont be able to reach the tuners controls. Therefore, it is more practical to place it between the transceiver and the shack-end of the antenna feed-line. A piece of 50-ohm coax connects the radio to the tuner. With the tuner located in the shack, adjustments can be made. Remote automatic antenna tuners can be placed at the antennas feed-point, but the disadvantage of them is that the ones available today will not handle high power. A coax-fed dipole and a tuner should not be used to feed an antenna on its even harmonically related bands. The even harmonics are 2, 4, 6, etc, times the fundamental resonant frequency. If an 80-meter antenna being fed with coax through a tuner is used on 40 meters, it will put out a weak signal because the SWR will be around a hundred to one. Coax has a tremendous loss with SWR this high. Only a few Watts from a hundred-Watt transmitter will reach the antenna. However, you will be able to make contacts with those few Watts. If you want to use any antenna having high SWR, ladder-line has much less loss than coax. If you feed an 80-meter dipole on 40 meters using ladder-line and a tuner, it will only be slightly less efficient than a half-wave 40-meter coax-fed resonant dipole. However, the SWR will still be high between the tuner and the antenna, but this doesnt matter since ladder-line has an insignificant loss. Since the feed-point impedance will be high, the SWR will only be about 9:1 in the ladder-line because ladder-line is a high impedance feed-line. Extremely short antennas may not work at all because of the above mentioned reasons. To reiterate, the extremely high capacitive reactance may make it impossible for its reactance to be tuned out and reactance prevents a transmitter from delivering power to the antenna. Even if you are able to tune out the capacitive reactance, tuning it out requires an inductor and most of the power will be lost in the inductor. Do not take the statement about the Conservation of Energy to mean you can put up any piece of wire and it will radiate your entire signal. 3. The Cause of Feed-Line Radiation Contrary to popular myth, SWR in a feed-line will not cause it to radiate.The cause of feed-line radiation is unequal current in the two conductors of the feed-line. What are the causes of unbalanced current in a feed-line? They are an unbalanced feed-line feeding a balanced antenna; the feed-line being brought away from and parallel to one leg of the antenna; the antenna not being fed in its center; and one leg of the antenna being close to metal objects. In coax, unbalance causes RF to travel on the outside surface of the coax shield, and the shield radiates. When everything is balanced, coax normally has current flowing on its center conductor and on the inside of its shield. The shield prevents it from radiating. Ladder-line will also radiate when it is fed from the output of a tuner not having a balun. Baluns are discussed in the next section. Since the output of a transceivers tuner is unbalanced and feeding ladder-line directly from your transceivers tuner, the currents in the ladder-line will not be balanced. When balanced, ladder-line has equal currents with a 180-degree phase difference, which produce waves that null each other out, and no radiation takes place. Hams mistakenly refuse to bring ladder-line into the shack because of a fear of feed-line radiation, but ladder-line does not radiate when balanced. The simple cure for feed-line radiation is to use a balun at the antenna feed-point for coax and a balun at the output of the tuner when using ladder-line. 4. Baluns The word "Balun" is a contraction of " balanced to unbalanced." It is pronounced "bal un" like "bal" in "balanced and like "un" in "unbalanced". Many hams mistakenly pronounce an "M" at the end of the word making it "balum." A balun transforms the unbalanced transmitter output to a balance feed-line such as ladder-line. It is also used to connect an unbalanced feed-line such as coax to a balanced dipole. In the latter case, the balun is located at the antenna feed-point and is constructed so the balun takes the place of the center insulator. There are two kinds of baluns: voltage baluns and current baluns. They both accomplish the same thing. The difference in baluns is in the way they are wound. A voltage balun produces equal voltage with opposite polarity at its output. As its name implies, a current balun provides equal currents with opposite polarity at its output. Running the coax through ferrite beads can make a 1 to 1 current balun. In addition, you can build a 1 to 1choke current balun by winding 8 to 10 turns of coax around a two-liter soda bottle and placing the coiled coax at the antenna feed-point. Any balun is designed to "divorce" your antenna from the feed line. It is used to prevent common mode radiation of coax, which makes the coax to be part of your antenna. You want it to be able to deliver all your power to the radiator itself. A choke balun does this perfectly, without using any ferrite beads or toroids. In most cases common mode coax radiation does not occur when a balun is not used, but it is preferable to use one to be safe. Other baluns provide a step-up or step-down impedance transformation. A 4-to-1 balun steps up the impedance four times. It will transform a 50-ohm impedance to 200 ohms. This type of balun transformer is used at the output of tuners to increase the tuning range of a tuner 4 times. If a tuner without a balun can match 500 ohms, a 4-to-1 balun will increase the range of impedances it can match to 2000 ohms. Many hams think the 4-to-1 balun is used to match 50 ohms to 450-ohm ladder-line but it is not. It would take a 9-to-1 balun to match 50 ohms to 450 ohms, and it is not important to match the impedance to ladder-line. A balun should always be placed at the input end of ladder-line or open wire feeders to prevent feed-line radiation. When using ladder-line a step up balun is commonly used although a 1:1 balun will work. X. OTHER TYPES OF DIPOLES 1. A Shortened Dipole Using Loading Coils If you are unable to put up a full-sized dipole on your property, putting loading coils into the dipole could shorten the antenna. See section IX, part 1. A short antenna has capacitive reactance and the capacitive reactance can be tuned out with a coil. The overall length of the shortened antenna will be determined by the amount of inductance in the coil. Pre-tuned antennas of this type are available from at least one manufacturer. The main problem with loaded antennas is they are very narrow banded. If the loading coils are wound with small diameter wire, the coils may introduce unwanted loss into the antenna. Loading coils can also be found in shortened vertical antennas for high frequency (HF) mobile use. Figure 5. A Shortened Loaded Dipole 2. All Band Dipole In the figure below, a dipole is cut to a half wave on the lowest band you want to operate. Feeding it with ladder-line and a tuner makes it possible for you to work all the other higher bands. The only losses in this antenna system are the loss in the tuner and the very small loss in the ladder-line. This system is more than 90% efficient. As mentioned above the balun in the tuner will be used, or if your tuner doesnt have a balun, an external balun can be connected between the tuner and ladder-line with a short run of coax. Four-to-one baluns are the most commonly used ones for this arrangement. Figure 6. All Band Dipole 3. The Sloping Dipole A lower angle of radiation can be achieved by tying one end of a half-wave dipole to a high support and the other end near the ground. It is fed with or without a balun with 50-ohm coax. The sloping dipole will show some directivity and have low angle gain in the direction of the slope. More directivity can be gained if the dipole is strung from a tower, and the tower is acting as a passive reflector. The sloping dipole is mostly a vertically polarized radiator and it works well for DX. Since the sloping dipole is fed in its center, it does not need to be grounded to the earth as a quarter-wave vertical does. Make sure the bottom end of a sloping dipole is at least 10 feet above ground because like all dipoles there is high RF voltage on its ends. Figure 7. Half-Wave Resonant Sloping Dipole In the picture above, the field of maximum radiation is in the direction of the slope or toward the right side of the picture. The formula for the length of a sloping dipole is the same for any half-wave resonant dipole. 4. The Folded Dipole The B&W Company makes a folded dipole that claims to have a good match on all bands and it does. However, on the low bands much of the power is burned up in the resistor that connects the two ends together. The power going toward the ends encounter the resistor and is consumed as heat. All that power is lost and does not radiate, and no power is reflected back to the feed point making the antenna have low SWR. On the higher bands, a large part of the power radiates before it reaches the resistor and the antenna is moderately efficient on those bands. On 80 meters the 90 foot-long dipole model will produce a signal at least 10 dB lower than that from a resonant dipole. If you remember the single channel TV antennas used years ago, the driven element was a folded dipole. Folded dipoles are very broad-banded. That is the reason they were used for TV antennas since a TV channel is 4 MHz wide. When constructing a folded dipole, the formula for calculating the length of it is the same as for any dipole. The folded dipole consists of two parallel conductors with the ends tied together. The conductors can be spaced from less than an inch to more than two inches apart when made from TV ribbon or ladder-line. At the ends, strip the insulation back several inches, Twist the bare wires together, solder them, and run them through insulators. The feed-point is in the center of only one of the two parallel conductors. The feed-point impedance of a folded dipole at resonance is close to 300 ohms resistive and can be fed directly with 300-ohm TV twin-lead or a tuner with its balun. This antenna was very popular years ago when coax was expensive and 300-ohm TV twin-lead was relatively cheap. A length of 450-ohm can be substituted for the twin-lead. An alternate feed method is placing a 6:1 balun at the feed-point and then feeding it with 50-ohm coax. The folded dipole will not radiate its second harmonic, so it is not good for a multi-band tuner-fed antenna. Another folded dipole type is the three wire folded dipole. We have seen this dipole only in books and do not know anyone who uses one. The feed-point impedance is 600 ohms resistive and is fed with home-built 600 ohm open wire feeders. Figure 8. Folded Dipole 5. The Double Bazooka Dipole The double bazooka is claimed by its users to be broad-banded, a quality especially interesting for those hams operating on 75/80 meters. Tests done at the A.R.R.L. have shown the double bazooka is only slightly more broad-banded than a regular dipole, probably due to the use of a large conductor (coax) for the center part of the antenna. The double bazooka will not transmit its second harmonic, and its users say it does not need a balun. Other users say it is quieter than a regular dipole. The center of the antenna is made from RG-58 coax. To find the length of coax needed, divide 325 by the frequency in MHz. The coax forms the center part of the double bazooka and a piece of number 12 wire on each end completes the antenna. The length of each of the end wires is found by dividing 67.5 by the frequency in MHz. To increase the bandwidth some builders use shorted ladder-line in place of the number 12 wire, which makes the end pieces to be electrically larger. The feed-point of the double bazooka is unique. At the center of the coax dipole, remove about 3 inches of the plastic covering, exposing the shield. Cut the shield in the center and separate it into two parts. Do not cut the dielectric or the center conductor. Leave the center conductor with its insulation exposed. On the feed-line strip off about 3 inches of outer insulation, separate the shield from the center conductor, and strip about 1 inches of the insulation from the center conductor. To attach the feed-line, solder the two exposed feed-line conductors to the two pieces of the separated exposed shield of the dipole center. It goes without saying: seal the feed-point to prevent water from getting in. At each of the two ends of the coax forming the center of the antenna, the coax is stripped back and the center conductor and shield are shorted together and soldered. The end wires are soldered to the shorted coax ends, run to insulators at the end of the antenna, and the soldered joints are sealed against the weather. Figure 9. Double Bazooka Dipole 6. Broad-Banded Coax-Fed Fan Dipole A broad-banded dipole for 75/80 meters can be constructed by attaching two equal length dipoles to the center feed-point and spreading the ends about 3 feet apart using PVC water pipe to separate them. The completed dipole looks like a bow tie. This makes the antenna to appear electrically to have that of a large diameter conductor. Because of this, the overall length will need to be shorter than a single wire alone. When we used the antenna, we found a length of 110 feet would cover most of the 75/80-meter band without a tuner. It is fed with 50-ohm coax. The use of a balun is optional. The antennas for most of the higher bands have enough bandwidth so they do not need broad banding. Figure 10. Broad-Banded Fan Dipole for 80 Meters 7. Two-Element Collinear Dipole The two-element collinear dipole is an antenna that is a full-wavelength antenna having a two-dBd gain. It can be fed with ladder-line and a tuner and used as a multiband antenna, or it can be fed with a quarter-wave-matching stub with 50-ohm coax cable to make it a single band array. In the stub matching system, a quarter wavelength of ladder-line is connected across the center insulator, and the opposite end of the ladder-line is shorted. A shorted quarter-wave piece of feed-line acts like an open circuit. Going from the shorted end of the ladder-line toward the dipole, there will be a point where a piece of 50-ohm cable will find a perfect match. The 50-ohm feed-point will have to be found empirically (trial and error). Figure 11. Two Element Collinear Dipole 8. Four-Element Collinear Dipole The four-element collinear dipole array consists of four half-wave segments connected end-to-end with an insulator between each two adjoining segments. The feed-point is at the center of the array. The antenna is fed with ladder-line through a tuner. A quarter wave shorted ladder-line stub hangs down vertically from the insulators between the inside and the outside half-wave segments. This stub provides a 180-degree phase shift so that all half-wave segments are fed in phase. This antenna has a 6-dBd gain and it radiates bi-directionally at an angle perpendicular or broadside to the plane of the wires. This antenna is too long for most hams to use on 80 and 40 meters, and the stubs hanging vertically will be too close to the ground. For 20 meters, the four-element collinear array will be 97 feet long and the stubs will be 18 feet. To find the length of each half-wave segment, divide 468 by the frequency in MHz, and for the quarter-wave stubs, divide 246 by the frequency in MHz. MFJ has begun marketing the four-element collinear monoband array. They have them for 20, 17, and 15 meters. This antenna is so easy to build that you can do it yourself. All you need is 5 insulators, antenna wire, and some ladder-line. It will have no gain if you use it on bands for which it is not designed because the stubs are used as phasing lines. It is definitely not a multiband antenna. It is possible to add more half-wave segments to the ends of this array to make it have 6, 8, 10, etc half wave segments. Adding more segments will add more gain and make the lobes narrower. Figure 12. Four-Element Collinear Dipole 9. Coax-Fed Dipoles Operated on Odd Harmonic Frequencies Antennas fed with 50-ohm coax can be used on other bands for which they are not cut. An 80-meter dipole will have a relatively low SWR and will be resonant at a single frequency on 10 meters and not much power will be lost in the coax even if operated off resonance. A 40-meter dipole will work the same way on 15 meters. Using coax, a dipole will work on its fundamental frequency and on odd-harmonic frequencies and it is not necessary to use ladder-line. The fundamental frequency is the frequency for which the antenna is a half-wavelength long, and the odd harmonics are 3 times, 5 times, 7 times, etc. the fundamental resonant frequency. A frequency of 21 MHz is 3 times or the third harmonic of 7 MHz, and 28 MHz is the seventh harmonic of 4 MHz. Antennas operated on their odd harmonics will be resonant a little higher in frequency than exact multiples of their fundamental frequencies. Since the odd harmonic antennas input impedance is higher than it is on its fundamental frequency, many amateurs use a series quarter-wave matching section of 70-ohm coax to give it a better match. The 80 meter inverted-V dipole in use here has a 2:1 SWR on 10 meters indicating it has an impedance of around 100 ohms. However, modeling the antenna for 10 meters shows the resonance to be below 28 MHz, probably because the antennas fundamental resonant frequency is 3920 instead of 4000 kHz. A quarter wave 70-ohm matching section should bring the SWR down to a much lower level. As said earlier, if you try to use coax with a dipole on its even harmonic frequencies, the feed-point impedance will be very high, the SWR will be extremely high, and the coax will absorb most of the power. In addition, when operating a coax-fed antenna on its even harmonics, the tuner may not be able to provide a match. Operating any antenna on any of its harmonic frequencies, odd or even, will work better if it is fed with ladder-line and a tuner. Figure 13. Three Half-wave Dipole This antenna is matched by a quarter-wave 70-ohm series matching section. Three half waves will resonate higher than you would expect because the center half wave doesnt have to contend with end effects. To calculate the length of a three half-wave dipole, divide 1380.6 by the frequency in MHz. Five half waves is found by dividing 2316.6 by the frequency. To use a 3 half-wave antenna on 15 meters, the 70-ohm matching section needs to be 7 feet 7 inches and the antenna needs to be 64 feet long for a good match. It will be just a little long on 40 meters. When using a 40-meter dipole with a 15-meter quarter-wave matching section, it will still have acceptable SWR on 40 meters. A random length of wire cut into two pieces can be used as a dipole, and it will radiate efficiently. It has to be at least a half-wave length on the lowest band you want to work. It looks the same as the all-band dipole and is the same, except it is not resonant on any band. The random length dipole is being described here to emphasize that the radiating part of an antenna doesnt have to be resonant. Because it will have a feed-point impedance that is unusual, it must be fed with ladder-line a tuner, and a balun. Since you are using a tuner, it can be used on multiple bands. If you make it very long, it can have gain over a dipole. For example, if it is four wavelengths long, it will have 3-dBd gain. As you move to higher bands, the electrical wavelength of the antenna increases, and each higher band will have more gain. A half-wave antenna radiates perpendicularly to the plane of the wire. As you move to higher bands, this antenna begins to show some gain, and instead of two lobes of radiation, the two lobes split into four lobes and the pattern resembles a 4-leaf clover. As you make the antenna longer, the four lobes move nearer the to the ends, the gain increases, and there are minor lobes of radiation between the major lobes. These minor lobes make it possible to work in all directions. The longer the wire, the closer the antennas major lobes radiate bi-directionally toward its ends Figure 15. All Band Center-Fed Random Length Dipole The problem with using a random length of wire for this antenna is you may find that because of limitations of your tuner, you may not be able to tune a particular length of antenna on some bands. Certain lengths will tune all bands and one of those lengths is 135 feet. That particular length will be nearly resonant on all bands of 80-10 meters. Resonance only makes it easier to tune, but it has no effect on efficiency. A length of 260 feet will tune from 160-10 meters. Lengths of 260 and 135 feet have been used here successfully. Some hams use random lengths of wire without problems. Then some hams have had problems with other random lengths. The ones having the problems solved the tuner problems by changing the length of the dipole wire. If you plan to put up this antenna using a random length of wire, you will need to experiment with various lengths until you find a combination that works. Tests were performed here using two towers of equal height and spaced 100 feet apart. On one tower, was an 80-meter inverted-V 120 feet long fed directly with coax, and running parallel to it on the other tower was a 135-foot long inverted-V fed with ladder-line and a tuner. At the resonant point of the coax-fed dipole and having tuned the ladder-line fed antenna, it was possible to switch antennas instantly and many hams were asked to look at their "S-meters" while the antennas were switched. All hams that participated in the test said the signals from both antennas were equal. The signals were measured on analog S-meters, not on segmented LCD meters found on most of todays transceivers. 11. A Two-Band Fan Dipole A two-band dipole can be constructed by connecting together the feed point two dipoles for even harmonically related bands. It is fed with 50-ohm coax with or without a balun. The best example of this is 80 and 40-meter dipoles connected together. Both dipoles are cut for half-wave resonance on each of the two bands. They are fed together and the ends of the wires are spread apart. If the ends are close together, there will be interaction between the dipoles. In such an antenna system, both dipoles must be carefully pruned for lowest SWR one band at a time. The lower band will be tuned first since the shorter dipole will not interact with the longer one. Each dipole has a low antenna resistance on the band for which it is resonant. RF energy follows the path of least resistance, and it automatically selects which dipole will receive power. The remaining antenna will have a high impedance. High impedance will block RF. Such an antenna will have a narrower bandwidth than a single band dipole, but close to the resonant frequency of each dipole, a tuner will not be needed. To connect many dipoles for multiple bands is possible, but it is not recommended because multiple wires are prone to interact and it will be impossible to achieve a low SWR on some bands. However, on the two band model, the 40-meter dipole will resonate close to 15 meters, the 80-meter dipole will resonate close to 10 meters, and working four bands with this set-up is possible. Some hams are using this antenna successfully with a tuner on all bands, although the signal on 20 meters suffers somewhat because of high SWR. Figure 16. Two-Band Fan Dipole for 40 and 75 Meters 12. Trapped Dipole for 75 and 40 Meters A trap is constructed from a capacitor and an inductor connected in parallel. It acts as an open switch on the frequency for which it is resonant. A trap is placed on each side of the dipole. For a 75 and 40 meter trapped dipole, the traps must be resonant on 40 meters, and each trap should be placed a quarter wave from the center insulator. The center section between the traps is electrically isolated from the ends of the dipole by the traps on 40 meters, and the center section of the antenna becomes a full-sized half wave resonant dipole for that band. This antenna is fed with 50-ohm coax and an optional balun. Wires connected to the outside of the traps are run to the end insulators and are tuned so the entire antenna resonates on 75 meters. The 75 and 40 meter trapped dipole will be shorter than a 75-meter dipole because the inductor in the 40-meter trap acts as a loading coil on 75 meters. In addition, the ends of the antenna can be tuned to operate on the 80-meter CW band instead of the 75-meter voice band. Several sets of traps can be inserted at the correct points in the dipole to make a multi-band dipole. Multi-band trapped dipoles are being sold, but in many cases they will require the use of a tuner. If a good match is found at a frequency on some bands, the bandwidth without a tuner will be very narrow. Figure 17. Trapped 75 and 40-Meter Dipole The antenna is only 108 feet long instead of 120 feet because of the loading effect of the traps on 75 meters. These dimensions are for antennas using the traps made by W2AU. If you use other brands of traps, the length of the end wires will have to be adjusted. What you do in that case is make the wire long, measure its resonant frequency on 75 meters, and prune the ends to resonance at your favorite frequency. 13. The Extended Double Zepp Dipole An extended double zepp is a long dipole with 3-dBd gain. It is the longest dipole antenna, which will radiate at right angles to the plane of the antenna. To find the overall length of an extended double zepp, divide 1197 by the frequency in MHz. Each leg of the antenna is 0.64 wavelength long and the total length is 1.28 wavelengths. An extended double zepp for 75-meters at 3.8 MHz is 315 feet. Not many amateurs have space for that antenna. The extended double zepp is mostly fed with ladder-line. Another method of matching an extended double zepp is to use tuned lengths of 450-ohm ladder-line as a series matching transformer connected between the 50-ohm coax and the dipole. The length of the matching section of 450-ohm ladder-line can be found by dividing 135 by the frequency in MHz. Figure 18. Extended Double Zepp Dipole 14. The G5RV Dipole An interesting antenna you can buy that will work somewhat on all high-frequency bands is the so-called G5RV antenna. It is named after the call letters of Louis Varney (SK) who designed it. It is a 102-foot long or three half-wavelength dipole antenna on 20 meters (14.150 MHz), and can be used with a tuner on other bands as well. In his original design, Varney calculated the length to be 102.57 feet, but chose to make it an even 102 feet since a tuner was going to be used with it anyway. It was originally fed through a 34-foot 500-ohm homebrew open wire matching section from a 70-ohm coax or parallel conductor feed-line. The 34-foot open wire line is a half wavelength on 20 meters and at the end of a half-wave feed-line, you will see the antennas impedance repeated regardless of the feed-line impedance. The ladder-line helps partly to match the antenna on the other bands. The G5RV antenna is around 20 feet short of being a half-wave on 80 meters, and on bands on 20 meters and up, it has theoretical gain. We believe that gain is negated by losses in the coax of the feed system, except for 20 meters. At the frequency of the best match, commercially made models of the G5RV are said to have a 1.8:1 SWR on 80 meters. Where the coax joins the open wire, Varney recommended using a choke made of 8 to 10 turns of coax. He advised against using a balun, because, as he says SWR of 2:1 or higher may cause the balun to heat and possibly burn out. The SWR will be moderately high or high on bands other than 20 meters. Varney recommends using the lowest loss coax available and as short a run as practical because of feed-line losses caused by high SWR. This recommendation is very important today, as it was when Varney designed it. Some G5RV antennas put out decent signals and some others have relatively weak signals. Without further investigating, the only way to explain this is that some are using lossy coax and baluns while others are not, and the height above ground may play a part in how well it works. The G5RV antennas being made today use small diameter 50-ohm coax, 450-ohm ladder-line, and a balun between the ladder-line and the coax, contrary to Varneys suggestions. There are several variations of the G5RV antenna being sold today because many believe they can improve the original design. If you use a G5RV antenna, a tuner will be required. The G5RV shown below is close to the original version of the antenna. This one pictured below is from an old article that K4EFW found somewhere. It is like the one he used. As you can see, it uses 300-ohm TV ribbon. The length of the parallel TV ribbon is 36 feet, but modern designs of this antenna use 34 feet of 450-ohm ladder-line. All these variations work equally well when they are used with a tuner. It is shown in the inverted-V configuration but it could be put up in the flattop configuration as is, with no modification. Figure 19. G5RV Dipole Jeff, AI8H, in Oxford, Georgia, had a pair of G5RV dipoles oriented in different directions. Recently he put up a 75-meter half-wave inverted-V. Being able to switch antennas, he ran A-B tests on 3902 kHz and the inverted-V was 10 dB stronger than the first G5RV and 15 dB stronger than the other one. Now if we are saying the stronger signal is 40 dB over S-9 and the weaker signal is 25-30 dB over S-9, no one will notice the difference. Only under marginal band conditions will the difference be important. In addition, the G5RV antenna will work better on the other bands. 15. Off-Center Fed Dipoles A long dipole consisting of multiples of equal half-wave segments is normally fed in the center using ladder-line. Dipoles do not necessarily have to be fed in the center. They can be fed in the center of any one of these half-wave segments, even fed off-center. A fair match will occur if coax is used. Figure 20. One wavelength Off-Center Fed Dipole The dipole shown above is a one-wavelength dipole. It is nothing but two half waves end to end. It is being fed in the center of one half-wave segment or a quarter wave from one end. It is possible to make it any number of half waves, and if it is fed a quarter wave from one end, it will have a fair match. The way it is shown above is an example of how to feed an antenna with even multiples of a half wave using coax. A 2:1 or 4:1 balun will improve the match on longer versions. The windom antenna is another example of an off-center fed antenna. The original windom was fed off center with a single wire. The other side of the transmitter was connected to ground. The feed-point impedance at the transmitter was reported to be 500 ohms on all bands. The antenna was designed by William L. Everett and J.F Byrne at Ohio State University. W8GZ, whose last name was Windom, described the antenna in the September 1929 issue of QST. A lot of research concerning the modern variations of the Windom antennas has been done, including the ones described by Fritzel, K4ABT, W4RNL, The Carolina Windom, and ON4BAA. The main differences in these variations are the slight differences in the position of the feed-point and the impedance of the baluns used for matching. The Windoms are sensitive to the height over ground, meaning the height above ground affects the SWR. The offset position of the feed-point will also determine the feed-point impedance. The one sold by K4ABT is a variation of the Fritzel antenna, and the one sold by Radio Works, The Carolina Widom , claims it has a vertical radiator. There are two variations of Windoms, both claiming they have vertical radiators, The Carolina Windom, and the one previously marketed by W4COX have two pieces of transmission line in series. The upper piece is connected to the dipole, and the lower piece is connected to the transmitter. The feed-point of the dipole is placed off center. In The Carolina Windom being marketed today, the upper transmission line is coax. The one made by W4COX had the upper piece made from ladder-line, but in either case, the principle is the same. The two pieces are connected together through a line isolator, a type of balun. The line isolator keeps the lower piece of transmission line from radiating. Because the antenna is fed off-center, the marketers of The Carolina Windom claims it causes an unbalance of current in the upper piece of transmission line. This is doubtful because there is a balun at the feed-point, which should prevent the feed-line attached there from radiating. The main difference between The Carolina Windom and the one sold by W4COX is that a 4:1 transformer is between the coax and the ladder-line, and a 1:1 line isolator is between the upper and lower coax cables. Both variations of this antenna show low SWR on several bands, but a tuner is used to match it. Figure 21. Carolina Windom Another unique variation of the Windom dipole is the Fritzel antenna, named after its inventor and manufacturer, Dr. Fritz Spillenger (SK), a German ham, call sign DJ2KY. Alpha Delta is now selling an almost exact duplicate of the original Fritzel antenna. Alpha Delta calls it an OCF antenna and it is made by Buckmaster Antennas. There are two models of the Alpha Delta antenna: one for low power and one for high power, the power rating of the balun being the limiting factor. The Fritzels short side is 0.18 wavelength long and its long side is 0.32 wavelength long. It is fed with coax and a 6:1 balun. Theoretically, the feed point impedance is 300 ohms, and the balun provides a 50 to 300 ohm impedance transformation. Modeling the antenna on its lowest resonant frequency at 35 feet, it shows about 120 ohms impedance. The original Fritzel antenna being used by K4LMS reportedly will work all bands with a tuner, but it will work 40, 20, 17, 12, and 10 meters without a tuner with an acceptable SWR. The Windom being sold by K4ABT uses a 4:1 balun and the feed-point is at a slightly different location. That one is shown below. Figure 22. Windom Dipole (Fritzel Type) The difference between the Windom antenna sold by K4ABT and the original Fritzel is the difference in the offset of the feed-point. Since the K4ABTversion uses a 4:1 balun, it appears his is fed at the 200-ohm point, and the original Fritzel is fed at the 300-ohm point. On any resonant dipole, the lowest feed-point impedance is found at the center. As you place the feed-point offset toward either end, the impedance gets higher. The highest feed-point impedance occurs at the end of the dipole. XI. END-FED ANTENNAS 1. End-Fed Zepp A half-wave resonant antenna can be fed from its end. When fed this way, it is also known as an end-fed zepp. An end-fed zepp will work on its fundamental frequency and on odd and even harmonic frequencies. The name "Zepp" goes back to the days of dirigibles or Zeppelins, which used trailing wire antennas that had to be fed at one end. The end of a half-wave antenna has very high impedance, and an antenna fed this way is said to be voltage fed. Feeding a half-wave resonant dipole in the center means it is current fed. The normal way of feeding the end-fed antenna is with ladder-line. One side of the ladder-line is connected to one end of the antenna and the other side of the ladder-line is connected to nothing. To secure the unconnected side of the ladder-line, it is connected to a short wire running between two insulators. Since the antenna is connected at its high impedance point, no current flows into an antenna, but there will be a large current in the center of this antenna. No current flows from the open side of the feed-line because it is at a zero current point. Figure 23. End-Fed Zepp The end-fed zepp can be matched by cutting the ladder-line to a quarter wavelength with the bottom end of the ladder-line shorted. A certain distance above the short is a 50-ohm feet-point and it can be fed directly with coax. MFJ is marketing antennas of this type made for single bands, and they are selling the parts separately so you can build your own. You will have to find the 50-ohm point by trial and error. This method of feed makes it a single band antenna. Figure 24. Alternate Method of Feeding an End-Fed Zepp 2. End-Fed Random Length Antenna Below is another end-fed antenna made from a random length of wire connected to the back of the tuner. The wire then exits the shack and goes to a high support where it then runs horizontally to another high support. The tuners groundside must be connected to a good RF ground, since a poor ground causes high losses. This antenna is commonly called a "long wire." Since the end of the antenna comes in the shack, you will be exposed to high levels of RF. In addition, this type of installation may cause RF to be picked up in the microphone, noted by distortion. The feed-point of the long wire being connected directly at the output of the tuner can have an impedance of a few ohms to a thousand ohms depending on the antennas length. If the wire is cut to a multiple of a half wave at the lowest frequency, the system will be efficient since it is fed at a voltage point and very little current flows into the ground. This antenna is really a variation of an inverted-L fed directly without a feed-line from the tuner. Figure 25. End-Fed Random length or Long Wire Antenna XII THE HALF SLOPER 1. The Half-Sloper The half sloper is an antenna that is hard to categorize, since it is not a sloping dipole and it is not a vertical. The half sloper is half of a sloping dipole. To make one of these antennas, cut a quarter-wave radiator by dividing 234 by the frequency in MHz and tie an insulator to both ends. One insulator is tied near the top of a tower and the radiator wire is run down toward the ground. Coax is split into its center conductor and shield, and it connects across the insulator at the tower. The center conductor of the coax is tied to the quarter wave radiator and the shield is grounded to the tower. This means the tower is acting as the missing half of the dipole. It is a difficult antenna to get a good match because the height above ground of the feed-point and the angle of the slope affect the impedance. Some users of this antenna say to mount the feed-point at 45 feet up on the tower and have a beam antenna on the tower above the feed-point to use as a counterpoise. Other users say you must find the 50-ohm point on the tower, which is a tedious task. It has also been said, "Some installations work super, while others do not work well at all." The half-sloper is used almost exclusively on 80 and 160 meters. The Alpha-Delta half sloper was tried here and its performance was disappointing. The signal from it was down a least 10 dB below a dipole and the SWR wasnt low enough. The half sloper is mostly vertically polarized and it is directional toward the slope. Figure 26. Half-Sloper XIII VERTICAL ANTENNAS 1. Why Verticals Are Used Vertical antennas have the radiator mounted at right angles to the earth. The vertical is used whenever you desire to radiate your signals in all directions at a low angle. Low angle radiation is needed to work DX effectively. Radio waves traveling to the ionosphere where they are reflected need to hit the ionosphere at a point near the horizon in order to reflect farther around the curvature of the earth. In order to get a dipole to radiate a strong signal at low angles, it has to be more than a wavelength above ground. A low dipole is not particularly a good DX antenna for 80 and 160 meters. However, the average dipole at modest heights will outperform any ground-mounted vertical having a poor ground system. Vertical antennas work very well at low frequencies such as the broadcast band, but the ground losses increase as we move higher and higher in frequency (Refer to section V concerning ground-wave propagation). It is very difficult to get a good ground for a ground-mounted vertical unless you live next to salt water. Vertical antennas, because they are unbalanced antennas, do not need baluns. They are normally fed with coax. If a ground mounted, quarter-wave vertical is all you can put up at your location (QTH), then use it. However, it will be a mistake to put up this antenna if you are not be able to have a ground radial system and are able to put up a dipole. Most ground mounted quarter-wave verticals manufactured today are trapped in order to work multiple bands. The ground-mounted vertical also needs to be put out in the clear away from RF absorbing objects. These facts do not apply to half-wave verticals, which are in themselves different animals, nor do they apply to high quarter-wave verticals using elevated radials. The approximate length of a full-sized resonant quarter wave vertical can be found by dividing 234 by the frequency in MHz. Note: 234 is half of 468, the number we used to calculate the length of a half-wave antenna. The actual length for resonance may be a little different from what you calculate, because of the diameter of the vertical element. Trapped verticals are physically short of a quarter wave in length because the traps load them. The vertical is fed at one end at the bottom where it is insulated from the ground. The center conductor of the coax connects to the vertical element and the shield is connected to the ground system. Figure 27. Ground Mounted Trapped Vertical 2. Disadvantages of Using Quarter-Wave Verticals The most obvious disadvantage of using any vertical antenna is on 80 meters it has less than optimum high-angle radiation needed to work stations within a few hundred miles. Ground-mounted quarter-wave verticals use a ground system for the other half of the antenna and the ground system losses can be very high. The ground wave signal should eventually radiate in space at angles at the horizon, but since there are very high losses in the ground wave at amateur frequencies, a ground-mounted vertical has almost no signal down near the horizon. At angles below 10 degrees, the signal will be greatly attenuated. A ground-mounted quarter-wave vertical with an ideal ground should have an impedance of 35 ohms resistive. If you were to measure its impedance, and it measures 60 ohms resistive on an antenna analyzer, it means it has a loss resistance of 25 ohms. Moreover, that loss resistance is mostly in the ground system. Under these conditions, only 58% of the power will radiate as RF, although you will have a 1.3:1 SWR. Forty-two percent of the power will be turned into heat by the loss resistance. With the feed-point being at ground level, some more loss comes from the radiated wave being absorbed by power lines, trees, and buildings with its associated wiring. That loss does not show up in antenna analyzer measurements. The best ground system for a ground-mounted vertical is 120 wires, called "radials," radiating from the feed-point like the spokes of a wheel. These radials need to be a quarter wave long. At the feed-point, the radials are bonded together and are fed from the shield side of a coax cable. Not many amateurs have the resources to build such a ground system. Many short radials will be more effective than a few long ones. When using a ground mounted vertical, many hams drive an 8-ft. ground rod into the earth for their ground system. The ground losses are very high in that case. Using a ground rod for the ground system of a vertical antenna confirms the old adage: "Verticals radiate poorly in all directions." To eliminate ground losses, you can use an elevated quarter-wave vertical with an elevated ground system called a "ground plane." The ground plane vertical, as it is called, needs to be mounted high enough to prevent the return path from coming back through the earth ground. Ground plane verticals need to be mounted above nearby objects that absorb RF. They will be nearly 100% efficient if they are high enough. The ground plane consists of two or more radials, but most ground planes have three or four. The ground plane radials do not have to be resonant, but should be at least a quarter wave long. An elevated ground-plane vertical will be more effective for working DX than a dipole. 3. Long and Short Verticals Verticals can be less than a quarter wave in length. They can be loaded by coils or linear loading sections or a short vertical can be fed directly with a tuning unit at the feed-point. The loss resistance in a short vertical may be appreciable. Since the radiation resistance is very low at the feed-point of a short vertical, the current at the feed-point will be very high. The more current that flows into loss resistance, the higher the loss will be. Any coils used in the tuning unit and for loading should be made of as heavy a conductor as possible, since these can cause appreciable loss when the current is high. This is also true for the ground system. The loss described here is called "I squared R loss", which means the loss in watts is found by multiplying the current times itself and then multiplying that answer by the loss resistance. That means if the current into a lossy antenna system is doubled, the power lost in watts is increased four times. Making a vertical very short and tuning it to resonance with an inductor will also result in an antenna with a very narrow bandwidth. A more subtle loss of energy in very short vertical antennas is coronal discharge from the tip end of the vertical. Corona occurs when the voltage is very high at the end and electrons flow out into the air. This can be visible at night if the transmitter power is high and you are at a high altitude. Power is lost from the antenna when corona is produced because corona is a form of light and light is another form of energy. In 1973 while we were working for radio station WWNC in Asheville, North Carolina, a trapped vertical for 10 through 80 meters was erected. The length of the antenna was only about 25 feet. A loading coil near the top made it resonant on 75 meters. The ground system was the metal body of a 75-foot long mobile home. Fair reports were received from this set-up. The reports were not bad because of our having a good ground. One night, while working 75 meter SSB, one of the neighbors came over and said, "Youre tearing up my TV." Checking all of the inside connections proved they were tight. Our wife keyed up the transmitter while we made a trip to the antenna to check the connection there. Before arriving there, looking up, we saw blue fire coming off the end of the vertical. The corona was responsible for the television interference ( TVI ). It was visible because Asheville is at a relatively high altitude and the transmitter was running 700 watts. An inverted-V was put up, the TVI disappeared, and better signal reports were received. You can realize up to a 1.5 dBd gain from a vertical antenna by making it longer than a quarter wave, but there is a limit to how long to make it and still get low angle radiation. That limit is 5/8th-wave. To find the length of a 5/8th-wave vertical, divide 585 by the frequency in MHz. For example, to calculate the length of a 5/8th-wave vertical for 20 meters (14.000 MHz) divide 585 by 14.0. It equals 41.786 feet or approximately 41 feet 9.5 inches. A tuning unit will be needed at the feed-point of this antenna, as the impedance of a 5/8th-wave antenna is low and high current will flow into it. A tuning unit will usually have enough bandwidth to cover the entire band on each band of 20 meters and higher. A tuning unit is also called a matching network. It is similar to an antenna tuner, but has fixed inductors and capacitors. Tuning units for 80-and 160-meter verticals will cover only a portion of the bands. Outside the bandwidth limits of the tuning unit, you can use the tuner at the transmitter end. Radials or ground planes are needed for a 5/8th-wave vertical and they need to be a quarter wave long. The impedance of a half-wave antenna is high if fed at its end. An end-fed half-wave vertical will have a small amount of gain over a quarter-wave vertical. This antenna does not have the ground losses a quarter-wave vertical has because it is fed at a high impedance point and the current flowing into the ground is negligible. Commercially made resonant half-wave trapped verticals now on the market are end fed at the bottom. A built-in matching network is found at the base, and several very short radials are mounted below the feed-point to de-couple RF from the feed-line. These antennas should be mounted as high as possible away from RF absorbing objects. Because the ground losses are lower, the half-wave vertical will outperform a quarter-wave vertical by several dB and in many cases many dB. 4. Unscientific Observations of Verticals At our home, an old Hy-Gain trapped quarter-wave vertical for 40-10 meters was erected in 1961. It was mounted on the roof and had two quarter-wave radials for each band. It worked, but it was never compared to another antenna. It gave the impression it was a mediocre antenna. Other antennas replaced it. One time in 1964, a grounded 60-ft tower was shunt fed as a vertical on 75 meters. Without having any radials, the transmitted signal was 10 dB weaker on this vertical 650 miles away in New York than on the inverted-V. In 1969, a 4-band trapped vertical was put up on the top of a 60-ft tower. A 15-meter 4-element yagi under it was used for the ground plane. It was probably the best vertical installation we ever tried. It was good because it was high and in the clear and the 15-meter yagi made a good ground plane. While we are on 80 meters, a ham 200 miles away frequently joins in the roundtable. He uses a trapped quarter wave vertical with a chain link fence as the ground. Several of the others are also 200 miles away run the same power. His signal is 10 to 20 dB below everyone elses on the frequency. It is good there are no interfering signals or noise or he will not be copied. Another ham uses a Hy-Gain Hy Tower vertical with 3 ground rods as the ground system. According to our S-meter, his signal is 40 dB down below those of the other guys. Charlie, AD5TH, works 40 meters using a Hustler 5-BTV vertical ground mounted with 72 quarter-wave radials. He has an outstanding signal for a ground-mounted vertical. His installation is out in the clear away from RF absorbing objects. He says, because of antenna restrictions at his location, it is the only antenna he can put up. Another ham friend, N2HGL, has both a dipole and a half-wave trapped vertical on 40 meters. At a location 160 miles away, he is 10 dB stronger on the dipole, but he is equal in strength on both antennas in Indiana 600 miles away. This comparison shows the superiority of the half wave vertical over the quarter-wave one because his signal with the half-wave vertical was equal to his signal from the dipole. If he were using a quarter wave vertical, we would expect his signal would be better on the dipole in Indiana. It also demonstrates the superiority of a dipole over a vertical for working short distances. Bill, W4ZQL, runs a ground-mounted SteppIR vertical. He lives beside a salt-water river in Florida that he uses for a ground. He puts out a very good signal on 40 meters. No ground losses! 5. The Inverted-L Vertical The inverted-L antenna is a wire vertical antenna with part of the top end bent horizontally. It resembles an "L" turned upside down. The inverted-L is used to reduce the height required by a vertical and still keep the antenna resonant and full sized. It is fed at the end at ground level the same way a ground mounted vertical is fed, and all the losses we described for a ground-mounted vertical apply here. Some current flows in the horizontal part of the inverted-L and for that reason, it has both strong vertical and weaker horizontal polarization. If you make it a half-wave antenna, you wont need a good ground because negligible current flows into the ground. A half-wave inverted-L antenna needs to be fed with 50-ohm coax and a tuning unit. An inverted L for 160-meters is usually made of wire one-quarter wavelength long or about 127 feet. It runs vertically from near ground level to the top of a support, perhaps 60 or 70 feet. Then the end runs horizontally and is tied to a nearby support. The antenna is coax fed at ground level between the vertical section and ground system across some type of insulator. A matching network at the feed-poimt will be required to match it if the impedance is not equal to 50 ohms. Figure 28. Inverted-L The picture shows an inverted-L running up the side of a tower. The feed-point is at ground level with the center conductor of the coax attached to the bottom end of the wire. The coax shield connects to a ground system of radials. The total length of wire used in this antenna is half of what is needed for a dipole since the other half of the antenna is the radial ground system. The inverted-L is used mostly on 160 meters, but some have built them for 80 meters. The inverted-L antenna can also be cut for a half-wave to reduce ground losses. 6. Vertical Mobile Antennas We have heard many good signals from mobiles, many being stronger than those from hams using ground mounted quarter-wave verticals. The mobile antenna, being so short, has a large capacitive reactance. A coil is inserted in the antenna to provide an equal amount of inductive reactance to make it resonant. As we said in the paragraph on short verticals, a coil of this type, carrying a large amount of antenna current, causes some loss resistance in the system. To reduce losses in the coil, wind it with a conductor as large as practical. (Thats exactly what some mobile antenna manufacturers have done.) The sources of loss in mobile antennas are in the coil losses, losses in the conductors making up the radiating part of the antenna, corona discharge, and the ground loss from the vehicle on which its mounted. However, because of the large amount of metal in the body of the vehicle, the ground losses are not as high as the losses from ordinary ground mounted verticals. Matching transformers are now available that step down the impedance of 50-ohm coax to the very low impedance of the loaded vertical. Good advice is to use the transformers rather than to rely on the internal tuner of the transceiver. Some low priced single-band mobile antennas are constructed by using a polymer shaft and a small gauge wire encapsulated in polymer material running beside the shaft. The loading coil made of the same wire is also encapsulated in the polymer. The small wire, because of its size and because it carries a large RF current, will lose a lot of power by becoming hot. This type of mobile antenna is rated for 200 watts. If the wire didnt get hot, there would be no power limit. All mobile antennas have corona loss and for such, there is no remedy. Most amateurs, because they cant see it, dont believe its there. Corona will not be visible unless you run high power and it is dark. Ground losses from the vehicles body diminish with increasing vehicle size. This is why 18-wheeler hams have such big mobile signals. To diminish the ground losses on any mobile installation, you should use as large as a conductor as possible to bond the coax shield to the vehicle body. All metal parts of the vehicles body, fame, and drive system need to be bonded together with heavy ground straps. To make the mobile antenna system more efficient, use an antenna with an adjustable inductor and use as long a "stinger" as practical above the coil. You will increase the radiation resistance by using a longer stinger, and then the loss will be less because you will require less coil inductance. The ratio of radiation resistance to loss resistance becomes larger by raising the radiation resistance and reducing the loss resistance. As we said earlier, the efficiency of any antenna system is found from the ratio of radiation resistance to total resistance, or radiation resistance divided by total resistance times 100%. The total resistance is equal to all the loss resistances plus the radiation resistance. The latest development in HF mobile antennas is motor driven variable inductors. These antennas are known as "screwdriver antennas." The name refers to the electric screwdriver motors used to vary the inductance. A control cable is run from the motor to a switch at the operators position so it can be tuned from the operators seat in the front of the vehicle. Because a mobile antenna has a very narrow bandwidth, you will have to tune it often as you move frequency (QSY). It hasnt been many years since we had to get out of the vehicle to make inductor changes or make changes in the length of the stinger when the frequency was changed. Mobile antennas for 20 through 10 meters do not require the care in installation that is needed for 160, 80, and 40 meters because the length of a mobile antenna becomes closer to a quarter wave as you move to higher bands. The radiation resistance increases on each higher band. While moving to higher bands, less inductance is needed to tune the antenna, and that lowers the loss resistance. A 96-inch mobile whip is just a couple of inches short of being a quarter wavelength on 10 meters and a loading coil is not needed there. The band that has the least mobile antenna efficiency is 160 meters. If you reach a radiation efficiency of 2% on 160 meters on your mobile installation, you will be doing well. Below is some information concerning mobile antennas, which was received in an email. There was a 75-meter mobile "shoot-out" in California. (A shoot-out is an event where a group of hams gets together and compares signals radiated from various antennas.) Supposedly, equal power was applied to each antenna under test. Apparently, some type of field strength meter was used. A screwdriver antenna and a bug catcher, both with top hats, were used as the standard by which other antennas were compared because they put out equal signals. The other antennas are measured in how many dB they were below the standard. Here are the results of that test, and because it is hearsay, the accuracy of these figures is not guaranteed, but they do compare to what we have observed. Screwdriver/bug catcher with top hats 0 dB reference Screwdriver/bugcatcher without top hats -3dB, -50% Hustler -7 dB, -80% Outbacker -9 dB, -88% Hamstick -12 dB, -94% Whip with autotuner -14 dB, -96%. The efficiency of the best 75-meter mobile antenna is from 5% to 10%. In using the best mobile antenna on 75 meters, a 100-Watt mobile rig will radiate 10 Watts at most. This means that a Hamstick being fed with 100 Watts will radiate only 0.6 watts, which is 6% of 10 Watts. Ninety-nine and four tenths Watts will be converted to heat. The person sending this information said it was published on the Internet in some news group. Again with good band conditions, it is amazing how little signal can be used to communicate. The things that increase the efficiency of mobile antennas are Place the loading coil about half way from the feed-point to the antenna tip. Efficiency decreases if you put the coil above or below this point. Mount the antenna as high up on the vehicle as possible. This reduces the ground losses because it reduces the capacitance of the antenna to ground. Use a loading coil with a Q as high as possible. See the ARRL Handbook for a discussion of coil Q. Make the antenna as long as possible. Note: long antennas are prone to strike tree limbs and bridge overpasses. Increase the size of the mast between the loading coil and feed-point. Put a capacity hat above the loading coil. The capacity hat reduces the number of coil turns needed to resonate the antenna. Make the coil with as large a diameter wire possible. This decreases the coil loss, which is a large part of the total loss of a mobile antenna. Any changes made in the antenna system that raises the radiation resistance will increase the efficiency. XIV. ONE-WAVELENGTH SINGLE LOOP ANTENNAS 1. The Horizontally Oriented Loop To calculate the length in feet of any one-wavelength loop, divide 1005 by the frequency in MHz. Horizontally oriented one-wavelength loop antennas have become very popular on 160, 80, and 40 meters and it is one type of NVIS antenna. (NVIS stands for "near vertical incidence skywave" because of its high angle radiation pattern.) It is claimed by its users that the loop antenna is quieter than other antennas. This is because it doesnt pick up the noise from power lines, thunderstorms, etc., coming in at low angles. These antennas radiate on their fundamental frequencies with a broad pattern straight up to put a strong signal for nearby contacts. Recently published articles on this type of antenna have called them "cloud warmers." There are other types of antennas called NVIS antennas other than loops. They are dipoles at low heights or dipoles with parasitic reflectors placed under them to cause the signal to radiate mostly straight up. The NVIS antennas have an advantage in working nearby stations because you dont get the static noise and interference from far distances. They are definitely not DX antennas. An article on NVIS antennas appears in the December 2005 QST. On their fundamental frequencies, horizontally oriented loops take up half the horizontal distance as a half wave antenna for that band. Loops are two-dimensional antennas having depth as well as breadth. There are two loop configurations: The square loop and the triangle loop. Some hams have pulled the loops out in irregular shapes to fit where the supports are located. The only advantage in using a rectangular loop instead of a square loop is to take up less horizontal space. This is true because the gain of a rectangular loop is diminished below a square loop. The area enclosed by the perimeter of the loop determines the gain of a loop. A circular loop has the most enclosed area, but it requires an infinite number of supports. The gain of a loop comes from the loop having two maximum current points separated by a distance of one-quarter wavelength. From here on we will call a horizontally oriented loop a horizontal loop. We also modeled the gain of the horizontal loop for the 80-meter band over real ground. The maximum gain occurs with the loop at 7 meters or about 25 feet above ground. Mind you, this gain is straight up from the loop. At that height, its gain is about 9.25 dBi and that equates to about 7 dBd in free space. The gain of the loop diminishes slightly as the antenna is raised. The feed-point radiation resistance at 7 meters height is 35 ohms resistive and 0.0 ohms reactance and you do not need a matching section of 70-ohm coax. At a height of 10 meters or about 33 feet, the radiation resistance rises to 63.5 ohms. There the SWR will be 1.27:1, if it is fed directly with 50-ohm coax. At 15 meters or about 50 feet, the radiation resistance rises to 118 ohms and a 70-ohm matching section will be in order. The gain drops to a little less than 7 dBi at that height. These figures may or may not be applicable to your QTH, because your soil conductivity may be different from the soil we used to model it. As you can see from the above numbers, the feed-point resistance rises as the loop is raised. The horizontal loops also are used on their harmonic frequencies. The loop with more gain and a superior pattern is a two-wavelength loop. An 80-meter loop is a two-wavelength loop on 40 meters. The two-wavelength loop has a lower angle of radiation, but is a very large antenna for 80 meters. At 3800 kHz it has a perimeter of about 530 feet. A two-wavelength loop is not an NVIS antenna. Using coax with a tuner is not an ideal way for working a loop on its harmonic frequencies. This is because of the high SWR in the coax on some bands will cause high loss. For example, an 80-meter loop fed on 40 meters will have an SWR of 8:1 and the SWR on 20 meters will be 49.5:1. There will be some hams who will say they get satisfactory results this way, however theory suggests they will have a stronger signal if they use a ladder-line because ladder-line has less loss. Feeding a loop antenna with ladder-line makes more sense when working a loop on harmonic frequencies. Figure 29. One Wavelength Horizontal Loop To realize maximum gain, make the square and triangle have equal sides. When the sides are equal, the loop has maximum enclosed area for whatever configuration you use. Other shapes will work, but the gain will suffer. To support a square loop, you will need four supports, one for each corner. We hope you will have trees or masts in the right places. A triangular loop will need three supports. Once you have cut the single piece of wire to the right length, run the wire through as many insulators as you have corners. At each corner of the loop, put an insulator and tie the corner to a support with a rope from the insulator. To make the feed-point, connect both ends of the loop to an insulator. Strip the insulation from the outer part of the coax. Separate the shield from the center conductor. The ends of the coax are connected to the ends of the loop across the insulator. Most hams do not feed loops with a balun at the feed-point. 2. The Vertically Oriented Single Loop for 40 and 80 Meters Vertically oriented loops radiate broadside to the plane of the loop. A horizontally polarized vertically oriented loop has both vertical and horizontal wires. From here on out, we will refer to a vertically oriented loop as just a vertical loop. When using this term, we are not referring to its polarization. If the feed-point is on one of the horizontal wires, the loop radiates horizontally polarized waves. The vertical wires radiate weaker vertically polarized waves. If the feed-point is on one of the vertical wires, vertically polarized waves will be radiated. The radiation from a one-wavelength vertical loop has both high-angle and low-angle radiation. It is a good antenna for both nearby stations and for DX contacts. It is better than a dipole for DX because the vertical loop puts out a stronger low angle signal than a dipole does. The gain of a vertical delta loop is 4.55 dBi or about 2.4 dBd. Its feed-point impedance is about 120.5 ohms. The square vertical loop has 5-dBi gain and about 2.85 dBd and the feed-point resistance is 143 ohms. They both need to be fed with a series quarter-wave matching section of 70-ohm coax. Figure 30. Single-Element Vertical Delta Loop Square vertical loops need two supports. The square vertical loop needs less vertical space than the delta loop. The vertical space needed for a square vertical loop for 80 meters is 92 feet. For 40 meters the vertical space is half that. It is rare to find someone using the square vertical loop these days. The vertical delta loop is more common because it needs only one high support. The apex of a delta loop for 3500 kHz needs to be 102 feet high and on 40 meters, it needs to be 62 feet. This assumes the bottom horizontal wire will be 20 feet off the ground. In order to make a vertical loop fit on a shorter support, the sides of the loop can be reduced in length while making the horizontal wires longer. This will put the two maximum current points closer together, which has the effect of reducing the gain. Like the horizontal loop, the formulas for finding the length in feet of these loops are the same: 1005 divided by frequency in MHz. In addition, because the feed-point resistance is nearly the same as horizontal loops, quarter-wave matching sections and other methods can be used to feed the vertical loops. The vertical loop is not as sensitive to height as the horizontal loop. Both vertical square loops and vertical delta loops can be operated on harmonically related bands. (See Figure 32). The horizontal pattern shown above demonstrates that the 30-meter delta loop has a bi-lobal pattern broadside to the plane of the loop. The vertical pattern below the horizontal pattern shows both high angle and low angle radiation. The angle of maximum radiation is at 35 degrees above the horizon. The angle of radiation straight up is only down about 1.5 dB. This is pattern demonstrates the vertical delta loop is good for both nearby stations as well as DX. Figure 32. Radiation Pattern of a 30-meter Delta Loop on 15 Meters XV. DIRECTIONAL BEAM ANTENNAS 1. The Monoband Yagi Between 1926 to 1929, Shintaro Uda and Hidetsugu Yagi developed a beam antenna that had sharp directivity and high gain. Later, work was done primarily by Mr. Yagi and yagi was the name given to the antenna until finally recognition was given to Mr. Uda. Its proper name is the Yagi-Uda Array. Most hams call it a beam. A monoband yagi is the name given to a yagi for a single band. The performance of any commercially made monoband yagi is touted to have its dimensions tuned for maximum performance. As you will see later, this is not always the case. Monoband yagis being sold today are much improved over older designs because of computer modeling programs available. The yagi is made of two or more aluminum elements mounted on and perpendicular to a boom. Hams use antenna rotors to turn the antenna in the direction of the station they want to work. However, there are wire beams, fixed in one direction, mainly on 80 meters, suspended between trees or other supports. Most high frequency beam antennas used by hams are in the horizontally polarized configuration, which means the elements are parallel to the ground. CB beam antennas and some two-meter beams are vertically polarized with the elements at right angles to the ground (See Section III). A 2-element yagi has a gain around 3 to 4 dBd. A two-element yagi will have a driven element with either a reflector or a director. The driven element is the only element receiving power directly from the transmitter. The reflector and directors are called parasitic elements because they receive power from the driven element by inductive coupling. The 3-element yagi will have a gain of approximately 5 to 7 dBd or 7 to 9 dBi depending on its boom length. A three-element yagi has one reflector, one driven element, and one director. Because the yagi has a low radiation resistance, a matching system is located at the driven element feed-point. The ratio of the radiation off the front compared to the radiation off the back is called front-to-back ratio. Front-to-back ratio and forward gain are factors to be considered in choosing a yagi design. Both measurements are given in dB. All yagis have a good front-to-side ratio, with the signal off the side being 50 dB below the front. Figure 33. Three-Element Yagi Figure 34. 3-Element Yagi Radiation Pattern The reflector of a yagi is about 5% longer than the driven element. The reflector, being longer, will have inductive reactance. The inductive reactance shifts the phase of the re-radiated wave, which radiates and combines with the driven elements wave and reinforces it in the direction away from the reflector toward the driven element. A director is about 5% shorter than the driven element. The director, being shorter, has capacitive reactance, and this changes the phase of the reradiated wave to reinforce the wave away from the driven element opposite the reflector. The gain of a yagi is derived from radiation being concentrated in one direction at the expense of the other directions. One hundred watts fed into a yagi with a gain of 6 dBd will have an apparent power of 400 Watts in the main lobe. Because one hundred watts put into a yagi radiates only one hundred Watts, and because that one hundred Watts of power is concentrated in the main lobe, it is equal to the power from a dipole being fed with 400 Watts. This is referred to as effective radiated power or ERP, but a yagi is not any more efficient than other antennas. Because of the Principal of Reciprocity, an antenna having a 6 dBd gain on transmitting will also have a 6 dBd gain on receiving. Adding more directors and increasing the boom length will increase the gain of a yagi. The front-to-back ratio ranges from 18 dB for a 2-element yagi to over 25 dB for a multi-element yagi, provided the parasitic elements are carefully tuned. The gain of a yagi is generally proportional to the boom length and not necessarily the number of elements. Doubling the boom length, while keeping the proper number of elements for that boom length, will add about three more dB of gain. Tuning the yagi for maximum gain makes the bandwidth very narrow, and it will have a poor front-to-back ratio. For these reasons, we dont recommend tuning a yagi for maximum gain, because you will only increase the gain by a fraction of a dB at the expense of front-to-back and feed-point impedance. Tuning the yagi for maximum front-to-back will help eliminate interference coming from the rear of the antenna. The building of any yagi involves compromise spacing and element tuning. As you make the yagi larger by adding directors, the main radiation lobe becomes narrower increasing the gain and ERP. The gain of a yagi with four elements is about 7 to 8 dBd. You used to see 3 or 4 element yagis advertised claiming a gain of more than 10 dB, but they never said if that gain was referenced to an isotropic or a dipole. That gain also involves the gain derived from signals reflected from the ground adding to the direct wave. A more realistic gain figure is the "free space gain." Some companies, who sell monoband yagis, inflate their gain figures. Beware! Increased spacing of the elements will increase the gain of a yagi up to a point. Increasing the spacing past that point will reduce the gain. The spacing of a reflector or director needs to be in a range of 0.1 to 0.3 wavelengths. With a 3-element yagi maximum gain occurs with both parasitic elements spaced at about a quarter wavelength. Second and third directors can have wider spacing. Most hams do not build yagis but buy them from the many companies who sell them. Ham catalogs are full of pre-cut and tuned yagis that come in boxes ready to be assembled in the back yard. Many of these are very good. However, there is a lot of satisfaction to be gained from building your own. In 1971, we purchased, a 15-meter monobander being sold by a reputable company. Its performance was disappointing. It had only a 10-dB front-to-back ratio. That design is no longer being sold. After reading some books, we readjusted the antenna elements to some new dimensions and it performed much better. This was the beginning of our yagi building. During the last nearly 50 years, we built many yagis. During the period of 1979 until 1986, many multi-element yagis were constructed, gain measured, formulas derived for spacing and element length, and the radiation patterns plotted on graphs. In 1986, a computer program titled "Yagi" by Dean Straw, N6BV, was bought. From that point on, that program was used to design and set the element lengths to their proper values. Not much difference in performance of the new designs was seen over what was previously used, but tuning parasitic elements and running back and forth to the field strength meter was eliminated. There are many better computer programs available today for designing yagis and other antennas. The largest yagis we built were a 4 element 20-meter yagi on a 38-foot boom, a 5 element 15 meter one on a 27-foot boom, and a 5 element 10 meter beam on a 24-foot boom. These are modest designs compared to some of the big antennas used by contest stations. All these yagis were stacked one above the other on a 20-foot mast coming out of the top of the tower. The 20 meter one was on the bottom, next came the 15-meter, and the 10-meter yagi was on top. This method of stacking yagis for different bands one above the other makes what is called a "Christmas tree array." These antennas worked well. Since retiring and moving back home, we use pre-tuned directional antennas because of the lack of a good place for an antenna range. Climbing is not now an option because of age and infirmity. If you make the reflector 5% longer than the driven element and the director 5% shorter than the driven element, you will be pretty much in the ballpark. The beautiful part about a yagi is it will work reasonably well with the element lengths only in the ballpark. By carefully tuning, you will get a fraction of a dB more gain or a few more dB front-to-back, because the spacing and diameter of parasitic elements affect the length required for those elements. A yagi can be tuned for maximum forward gain, maximum front-to-back ratio, or best impedance, but you can achieve only one of these conditions at a time. Element tuning, at best, is a compromise. Most hams who are yagi builders do not tune their antennas at all, but use published dimensions for building them. Yagi builders who do tune, tune for either gain or front-to-back and then match the driven element with a gamma match, hairpin match, a series-resonant coax matching section, or a step down balun. The feed-point of a properly tuned yagi is close to 25 ohms. Formulas for calculating yagi element lengths will not be given in this book. Because yagi elements are made from telescoping aluminum tubing, the elements will be tapered. The diameter of the elements and the taper determine the lengths required for tuning of the elements. A tapered element will resonate higher in frequency than one not tapered. The formula to calculate the length of the tapered elements is complicated, but there are computer programs to do that. 2. Trapped Multi-band Yagis Some yagis have traps in the elements to make them into a multi-band beam. Many of these commercially made antennas are available at ham radio stores or directly from the manufacturers. In a 3-element, 3-band design, the spacing on the booms is a compromise. A 3-band beam is known as a "tribander." The spacing is close on 20 meters, optimum on 15 meters, and wide on 10 meters. You cannot tune the trapped elements for maximum performance on three bands simultaneously and have a good match on all those bands. Since a good match is important to most hams, gain and front-to-back ratio are sacrificed for a good match on triband beams The inductors in the traps load the elements in triband beams. Therefore, the elements are shorter than the elements of a 20-meter monobander. Regardless of the compromised design, a triband-trapped beam is much better for working DX than a dipole. Many hams have achieved working over 300 entities with tribanders having short booms. The radiation pattern from a yagi is at a lower angle than a dipole. This gives the impression a yagi has much more gain than it does. A dipole has unity gain, but that gain will be at a higher angle. The dipole puts out a weaker signal at the low angles needed to work DX, and a yagi puts a strong signal at low angles. In comparing a dipole to a yagi, the yagi may only have a 4 dBd gain in its major lobe. The gain of the yagi at a low angle may be 10 dB or so better than a dipole at that same lower angle. The gain of any antenna is always measured in its major lobe, irrespective of where the angle ar which the maximum radiation lobe occurs. Figure 35. Trapped 3-element Yagi The above picture shows two sets of traps in two of the elements and one set in the rear element. The front element is the director with traps for 10, 15, and 20 meters (it takes two sets of traps to make the elements work three bands). Directly behind it is the driven element with traps also for 10, 15, and 20 meters. The rear element is trapped for 15 and 20 meters (a single set of traps makes it work two bands). The entire lengths of the three longest elements are resonant on 20 meters. The short element is a reflector for 10 meters. Only the part of the antenna between the 10-meter reflector and the front director is used on 10 meters. The maximum signal is radiated in a direction coming out of the page toward you. Mosely builds trapped antennas that have two traps in one enclosure and you can not determine the bands from the traps as you can on Hy-Gain and Cushcraft beams. Some triband beam models as the one above are built with longer booms so they would have more gain on 20 meters, a good match on all bands, and optimum 3-band performance. They achieve this by interlacing extra monoband reflectors and directors on the boom placed between the 20-meter elements as is done with the antenna in figure 34. The extra elements have no effect on 20 meters or any band for which they are not resonant. Some amateurs mistakenly think the extra elements work on all bands, but they dont. The Cushcraft A-4 shown above is not a beam with four working elements on any band. The old Hy-Gain TH6DXX and Mosley Classic 36 had six elements on the boom. They both had three trapped elements and three monoband elements. They had three working elements on 20 meters, three on 15 meters, and four elements on 10 meters. The trapped reflector worked on 15 and 20-meters. The trapped driven element worked on all three bands. The trapped director worked on 10 and 20 meters. On the boom was a resonant reflector for 10 meters and one each resonant directors for 10 and 15-meters. When using one of them, we have often heard amateurs saying they were using a six-element beam. This gave the other station the mistaken idea they were working someone with an antenna with six working elements. Other beam antennas interlace additional elements of different lengths to make the tribander into a 5-bander covering 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meters. Hy-Gain makes a 5-band yagi for 20 through 10 meters that has 11 trapped and monoband elements. It is the Hy-Gain TH-11. Mosely makes a 6-bander that includes two elements for 40 meters. It is the Pro-67. In order to achieve better SWR curves over a wide bandwidth, some triband yagis have two driven elements spaced 3 to 5 feet apart. The front driven element is shorter than the rear driven element. Both driven elements are trapped. This double driven element scheme is called a log-cell. A log cell, by itself, has a small gain and may slightly increase the overall gain of the tribander. The KLM KT-34 and the HY-Gain TH-7 are examples of this kind of antenna. Is a monobander better than a tribander? We dont know if our tests can be duplicated and no one else has ever said he has actually compared the two antennas. It is "common knowledge" that traps have loss. Therefore, the ham fraternity believes a monobander has to be better. From the tests we performed here, we believe it is a myth a monobander is significantly better than a tribander having an equal boom-length. We believe the traps do not have enough loss to make enough difference to matter. However, monobanders having very long booms and many directors will outperform any tribander. Having two towers, both having the same height and being 100 feet apart, made it possible for us to do the experiment described here. The result is useful information because it was made in a real world situation that would be comparable to the average hams location. Both antenna element lengths were set to Hy- Gain specifications. The constants were terrain, antenna height, antenna boom length, frequency, coax length, and power level. The only variable in the tests was the two antennas being tested. The test was performed to see how much loss antenna traps have. Had there been more than one variable, the tests would not have been valid, because in any scientific experiment, the test is valid only when one variable is being tested. In addition, more than one test has to be made in order to average out the collected data errors. In this case, many tests were made. On one tower was a 20-meter four-element Hy-Gain 204-BA monobander with a boom-length of 26 feet. This antenna is arguably not one of the best monobanders made, but it is what we had and it was about the same size as our tribander. On the other tower was a trapped 6-element Hy-Gain TH-6 DXX tribander having a 24-foot boom. The entire tribander boom-length was used on 20 meters, so both boom-lengths were comparable. The transmitted signal strength of the two antennas was compared on 20-meters. This test involved many DX stations and one local amateur 5 miles away. With both antennas pointing toward the receiving station, a carrier power of 10 watts was fed from the transmitter, and held constant while the antennas were "hot" switched several times. (The power level was unimportant as long as it was held constant on both antennas). None of the many DX stations involved in this test could see any difference in either antenna, and, yes, their analog meters could discern a difference of one dB. These tests by themselves were not conclusive because of the possibility of fading signals (QSB). A second series of tests was performed with a local ham when 20 meters was dead. Testing with him was done to eliminate QSB from spoiling the results. He could also measure no difference on his S-meter. He could also see a one-dB difference on his analog S-meter. As a third series of tests, the antennas were switched while we looked at the signals on the S-meter from distant stations and the local station. No differences in received signals were noted. Maybe the difference was a monobander has only a few tenths of a dB less loss, such a small amount of difference no one was able to see it on receiver S-meters. Certainly, the difference in the two antennas was less than one dB. Conclusion: The Hy Gain TH6DXX and the 204-BA antennas perform equally well on 20 meters at a height of 56 feet. 3. The SteppIR Antenna The latest developments in yagi designs are found in the ones being sold by SteppIR Antennas. There are two, three, and four element versions. All these versions are frequency agile and cover continuously from 13.5 to 54 MHz. The MonstIR adds three very long elements for 6.9 to 13.5 MHz. The elements are made of fiberglass tubes with beryllium-copper ribbons inside. Each element has stepping motors to wind and unwind the copper ribbons to change their lengths inside the tubes. A multi-wire control cable connecting the control box to the stepping motors accomplishes this. The proper element lengths for all frequencies in its range have been calculated by a computer and stored in the control boxs computer. As you move from frequency to frequency, the control box in the shack readjusts each element length. Thus, the antenna is configured into a properly tuned monobander for any frequency in its range. These antennas are expensive, but the hams who own them say they are worth the money. 4. The Log-Periodic Array Another beam antenna that looks like a yagi is the log-periodic antenna. It is configured using many elements with each element being shorter than the one behind it. This means the longest element is at the rear of the array and the shortest element is at the front. All elements are divided in the center and insulated from the boom, and all elements are driven. On both sides of the insulator at the center of each element, wires run from the front element of the array to the rear element. Each wire criss-crosses the other ones but they do not touch. That makes a 180-degree phase reversal from one element to the next one behind it. The feed-point is across the insulator at the shortest element. The feed-point impedance is about 200 ohms and a 4:1 balun is used to feed it. The advantage of the log-periodic antenna is, it that it is very broad banded and it can cover all frequencies with an SWR below 2:1in its design frequency range. The disadvantage is the gain of a log-periodic antenna is lower than a yagi with an equal boom length. There are designs being sold today that cover continuously from 14 to 30 MHz. In Fort Gordon, Georgia, there used to be a monster log-periodic at the MARS station that covered from 2 to 30 MHz. The boom length was 120 feet and the antenna was rotatable. 5. Directional Cubical Quad and Delta Loop Antennas We built a number of quads at various times and with them on the test stand and with the bottom wire a foot or so above the ground, worked many DX stations. When we built yagis and they were on the same test stand nine feet above the ground, we could hardly get a signal out of the back yard. Since the vertical beam-width of a quad is narrower than a yagi and the radiation angle is lower, the quad will work better at low heights. Because of its lower angle radiation, many quad users claim a quad "opens and closes" the band. The two-element cubical quad is a square-or diamond-shaped loop antenna that has a second loop acting as a parasitic element. The quad configuration has all loops in the vertically oriented plane as figure 35 demonstrates. Feeding it in one of the horizontal wires results in horizontal polarization, and feeding it in one of the vertical wires makes it vertically polarized. Every two-element quad being sold today uses a reflector for the parasitic element, although it is possible for it to have a director. The theory of operation is the same as that of a yagi. Some quad builders believe a diamond-shaped quad has more gain than a square-shaped one. Their logic is that since the maximum current points of both wires are spaced farther apart than with a square quad, the increased spacing of the current points should produce higher gain. To find out if this was true, we built both a diamond-shaped and a square-shaped quad for two meters. Using a commercial field-strength meter connected to a receiving antenna, we fed equal amounts of power to both antennas and measured the radiated field in each ones major lobe. Field strength measurements were made a few wavelengths away and many wavelengths away from the quads. No difference in the radiated field of either could be found. According to Bill Orr in his book about cubical quads, a two-element cubical quad is equal to a pair of 2-element beams; one is stacked over the other a quarter-wavelength. The ends of the beams bottom driven element are bent up and the top element has its ends bent down where the ends of the top and bottom elements are joined together on the side. When they are joined, this forms the square we call a quad. The bottom element is then feeding the top element from its ends. The parasitic elements have the same configuration except the wire loop has the ends bonded together to form a continuous square. There are multi-element quad designs that use one or more parasitic directors in addition to the reflector. Adding a director will lower the feed point impedance. The wire of the reflector is about 3% longer than the driven element, and each director has about 3% less wire than the driven element. Adding directors to a two-element quad makes the horizontal beam width narrower, producing more gain. Another quad design "the delta loop" uses triangular-shaped driven elements. One or more triangular-shaped parasitic elements make the antenna complete. Theoretically, the delta loop antenna will have slightly less gain than the cubical quad, because there is less enclosed area in the triangular loop. We believe that there are no instruments available to hams to be able to measure the difference. Figure 36A. Single Band Cubical Quad Most cubical quad and delta loop antennas that can be rotated are used on 20 meters and higher. A few ambitious hams have built rotatable quads for 40 meters. Others have made 80-meter quads, supported between trees, fixed in one direction. In order to make the quad smaller, adding loading coils or linear loading sections in its wires has been suggested, but that will defeat the purpose of using a quad. Because the quads gain is produced by the enclosed area inside the loop, reducing the enclosed area will result in less gain. The wires for quads for 20 through 10 meters are strung around the perimeter of an "X shaped frame made of fiberglass poles or bamboo. Each element has its own X-shaped frame. A smaller X-shaped metal structure, called a "spider," attaches the poles to the boom. The poles are referred to as "spreaders." The four spreaders attached to the spider form the "X." The "X" can be rotated 45 degrees on the boom to form a diamond-shaped quad instead of a square quad. A few have tried with limited success to make the spreaders out of PVC or aluminum. A wire is attached near the ends of the spreaders to form a loop around them. The two ends of the wire are connected to an insulator to attach the feed-line as is done on a dipole. The quad loop has a theoretical feed-point impedance of 100 ohms. To match it, you can use a quarter-wave matching section of 70-ohm coax, a gamma-match, or a 2:1 balun. More on this is in another paragraph. The delta loop is made much the same way, but it requires only three spreaders to form an equilateral triangular loop. It is matched the same way since the feed-point impedance is about the same. The reflector and director are formed the same way as the driven element except the two ends are shorted together to form a continuous loop. In order to get maximum performance from a quad you need to tune the reflector for either maximum gain or best front-to-back ratio. For tuning purposes, the wire of the reflector is cut a little shorter than calculated and the ends of the loop are connected to an insulator. A shorted stub, consisting of two parallel wires, is connected to the loop ends and hangs down from the insulator. Another wire is shorted across the two parallel stub wires. The shorting wire is moved up and down the stub to tune the reflector. The stub is a means of adjusting the total length of the reflector. See Figure 36A. A field strength meter is needed to do this and you need a large area and two people. The field strength meter needs to be placed several wavelengths away from the antenna. Low power is fed into the antenna while it is tuned. One person tunes the reflector while the other person reads the field strength meter. Tuning the reflector involves tuning the stub for minimum signal off the back. Once the shorting wire has found its proper position, it is soldered in place. Quads made by the formulas work satisfactorily without tuning. Tuning for maximum front-to-back ratio instead of maximum gain will do more for the performance of the quad. Figure 36. Radiation pattern of a Two Element Cubical Quad at 65 Feet Some believe you cannot stack another antenna above a quad. They assume that because the quad has both vertical parts of the loop, a metal vertical mast will couple to the vertical part and detune the quad. We believe a vertical mast will have to be resonant at the operating frequency to detune a quad. Using MMANA, the quad was modeled with a metal vertical mast going through the plane of the quad. The only difference observed was that the resonant frequency was changed by a couple of kHz. The gain and front-to-back remained the same. The gain of a two-element quad is nearly the same as an average 3-element yagi. The best part of the gain of a quad is the vertical beam width, or H-plane of the major lobe logically should be narrower due to it being equal to two stacked beams. For this reason, the 2-element quad has a lower angle of radiation. A horizontally polarized quad should have a slight advantage over a yagi. A lower angle is better for working DX. While operating using both quads and yagis, we have noticed that the horizontal beam width or E-plane of a quads pattern is wider than a 3-element yagi. We believe the horizontal beam-width of the quad is the same as a two-element yagi. This is why the 2-element quad is not as directional as a 3-element yagi. Modeling our 2-element quad in free space on 20 meters, we found its gain to be 5.49 dBd. The boom-length of the quad is 8 feet. A three-element yagi with a boom-length of 16 feet will have 6.4-dBd free- space gain on 20 meters. The free-space gain of a 20-meter optimum spaced monoband yagi on a 25-foot boom will only have slightly more gain. The compromise spacing for a 2-element multi-band quad for 20 through 10 meters is 8 feet. This spacing is 0.115 wavelength on 20 meters, 0.175 wavelengths on 15 meters, and 0.23 wavelengths on 10 meters. These spacings are within acceptable limits. For a single-band 20-meter quad, space the elements 12 feet apart. If you want to build a 12 and 17-meter dual band quad, the spacing will be 8 feet, the same as it should be for 15 meters. Eight feet is also a satisfactory spacing for a 10-meter quad, but it can be as close as four feet. With smaller perimeter requirements, loops for the higher bands can be strung inside and parallel to the lower band loops to make a multi-band quad. It is easier to make a multi-band quad than a multi-band yagi. Quad kits for triband and 5-band quads are available. These kits cost less than a multi-band beam. In the construction of most quads, an insulator is put in the bottom horizontal part of the wire on the driven element so it can be fed like a dipole. A 2-to-1-balun transformer will match the feed-point to 50-ohms, then you can tie all the feed-points of a multi-band quad together. The Lightning Bolt Antennas 32MCQ/WB quad feeds five loops this way and the SWR is 1.4:1 or less on all five bands. The person manufacturing the Lightning Bolt quad went out of business on December 12, 2005. With other more complicated schemes, each quad loop is fed separately, and each loop uses a 70-ohm odd multiple of a quarter-wave series matching section placed between the 50-ohm coax and the feed-point. Used this way, the quarter-wave matching section will match 50 ohms to 100 ohms. A remote antenna switch will have to be mounted close to the feed-point to select the desired loop. Other builders use a separate gamma-match on each driven element to get a perfect match to a 50-ohm coax but this method would also require a remote antenna switch. Without the switch, several pieces of coax, one for each band, would have to be run into the shack. If you are going to build a monoband quad, you need to use the following formulas to cut the wire loops to these approximate lengths: For the driven element, you divide 1005 by the frequency in MHz. For the reflector, you divide 1030 by the frequency in MHz. For the director, you divide 968 by the frequency in MHz. Make any additional directors the same length as the first one. These formulas were derived experimentally from tests run here. The exact measurements will be determined by the element spacing, but the lengths cut by these formulas will be very close for any reasonable spacing. After giving you the advantages of a quad, here are the disadvantages: The two-element quad for 20 meters is large vertically and horizontally. When the 20-meter quad is on the ground, the boom is 8 feet high and most people arent tall enough to maneuver it by holding the boom. Some quads, which are made from lightweight materials, are flimsy, and they will suffer during wind and ice storms. The best-constructed quads have their spreaders made of heavy fiberglass. Those quads, although they are heavier, stand up well under adverse weather conditions. The Lightning Bolt quad used here has stood up very well during three ice storms in the past two winters. Here is some information we discovered after originally writing this book. The MMANA antenna-modeling program does not perform very well when modeling a quad. On 20 meters, the modeling program says the front-to-back ratio of our quad is at a maximum at 14525 kHz, but actually, it occurs at 14050 kHz. The measurements of actual front-to-back were made using a field strength meter. We reduced the power levels off the front to give the same field strength reading we got off the back. The front-to-back ratio in dB was calculated from the two power levels. What was interesting was the maximum front-to-back ratio occurs at a single discrete frequency and the front-to back deteriorates somewhat on either side of that frequency. While looking at the radiated field off the front, the field strength does not vary one dB across the whole band. Maximum gain and maximum front-to-back was very close to the same frequency. Not having tested them in this way, we believe yagi beams perform the same way regarding front-to-back ratio and gain. In working stations, the gain is the important parameter. Front to-back ratio is important in reducing interfering signals from behind the antenna. We decided to tune our quad for maximum front-to-back rather than for maximum gain. The next step is to lower the quad and carefully tune the reflector for each band. After running tests to determine the frequency where maximum front-to-back occurs, we found the maximum measured front-to-back ratio was 22 to 23 dB. Good news! After writing the above paragraph, we lowered the multi-band quad and reduced the reflector element lengths on the two-element Lightning-Bolt Quad. The original reflector lengths were too long according to the field strength readings we made. The formulas that were originally used to cut the reflector lengths were anywhere from 1029 to 1036 divided by the frequency in MHz. We derived from field-strength measurements that the maximum front-to-back ratio occurred when the reflector length was cut by dividing 1022 by the frequency in MHz. While searching the Internet, we discovered EI7BA in Ireland used 1019 divided by the frequency on his multi-band quad. We decided to use his formula and we could lengthen the reflector by adjusting the stubs if necessary. After cutting the reflectors to the new dimensions, we made new field strength readings. The front-to-back ratio occurred near the frequency of our calculations. In addition, the frequency of maximum field strength from the front also occurred inside each band. As an example, today we were listening to GD4PTV on the Isle of Man on 17 meters. On the front of the quad, he was S7. With the quad 180 degrees from him, he was inaudible. We also found that other stations were down by at least six S-units off the back. Originally, stations off the back of the quad were down only two S-units. Several months later it was discovered that a multi-band quad tunes differently from a single-band quad because the interlaced elements react to detune each other. That may be the reason we found the reflectors of a multi-band quad needed to be different lengths than the 1030/frequency formula. Here are some words of wisdom about using a field-strength meter in trying to tune a quad: Tuning the quad reflector stubs can give you misleading data. If you look only for the minimum signal from the back of the quad, that may not be the point of best front-to-back because you may have detuned the quad so that the signal from the front may have also deteriorated. Using a field strength meter, keep the receiving antenna as short as possible to prevent the receiving antenna from being nearly resonant. Certain receiving antenna lengths seem to be frequency sensitive, that is, as you change frequency toward the receiving antennas resonant point, the field strength meter will give a false higher reading. The only problem with using a very short receiving antenna is the meter may not have enough sensitivity to make measurements from the back of the antenna. It will be impossible to achieve a high front-to-back ratio on certain bands on a multiband-quad because the reflector wires for adjacent bands affect the tuning by interacting with each other. When the Lightning Bolt Quad was designed, we are not certain which parameter was used in its design (gain, SWR, or front-to-back). From the field strength readings made with that design, it was impossible to draw any conclusions. If you are going to build a quad, what we said about designing a yagi is also is true for the quad: you can tune for best gain, best front-to-back, or best impedance match. You cannot tune for more than one of these parameters at a time. To tune a quad for maximum gain is relatively easy using a short antenna on the field-strength meter. While we were trying to measure the frequency of the highest forward gain on 17 meters, we found the maximum field strength occurred at the high end of the band on one receiving antenna. Subsequently, it was strongest on the low end of the band on another receiving antenna having a different length. No changes had been made to the dimensions of the quad in either case. Trying to move the frequency of the maximum field to the middle of the band, we adjusted the length of the reflector stubs and it made no difference to the frequency where the maximum field occurred. What caused the error was we were trying to measure the field strength 100 feet in front of the quad. The long receiving antenna connected to the field strength meter was acting like a parasitic element and was not accurately measuring the signal being radiated from the quad. 6. The Quagi A variation of the quad and the yagi is a marriage of the quad and the yagi called the quagi. The quagi has a quad driven element, quad reflector, and yagi directors. Hams who have built the quagi report the yagi directors work better than quad directors, but we have never compared the two types of directors. At one time we converted a two-meter yagi to a quagi and compared the field strength readings from both configurations. By changing the driven element and reflector to quad loops, we measured a signal increase of 1.8 dB. We also experimented to see what effect the quad reflector had on the signal. While using the quad driven element we changed the reflector back to a yagi reflector. What was surprising to us was the configuration of the reflector had no affect on the radiated signal. Only by changing the driven element from a yagi element to a quad element made any change in the field strength. All these field strength readings were made using a commercially manufactured field strength meter. To insure our readings were valid, the power being fed to the antenna was measured and kept constant. XVI. GAIN VERSUS FRONT-TO-BACK As we have said before the front-to-back ratio of a multi-band cubical quad can be maximized by careful tuning to achieve about eighteen to twenty decibels front-to-back ratio. A properly designed yagi can achieve a front-to back ratio of better than thirty decibels. A two-element quad has about the same gain as a three-element yagi. You can tune a yagi or quad to either maximum front-to-back or maximum gain. You can also tune them to compromise settings somewhere in between. The question arises as to which maximum should either antenna be tuned? It is our opinion that either antenna should be tuned for maximum front-to-back ratio. In that case the maximum gain will be deteriorated by only a fraction of a decibel Let us explain why we reached that conclusion with an example. Today we were on 17 meters to work VP8TD on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific Ocean. He is a visitor to the island and will be there for about two more months as of this writing. A resident of the island, VP6TC, Tom Christian hasnt been heard from in months. I suspect he is getting elderly and doesnt get on much anymore. Anyway VP6TD had an enormous pileup going. We were using a three-element SteppIR yagi up sixty-five feet on our tower. Also, the amplifier puts out about 1490 watts on 17 meters. We make up for a lack of antenna forward gain with the amplifier. We worked him with one call through the pileup. The SteppIR replaced the two-element Lightning Bolt Quad about 10 months ago. When VP6TD answered us I could hear him over the pileup. From the rear of the antenna were several very loud Italian hams calling him, one of which continued to call even when VP6TD answered someone. The Italians were 180 degrees from the front of our antenna, or directly off the back of where we were beaming. Because of the superior front-to-back of the yagi, I could hear the Pitcairn Island station over the Italians. Had we been using the quad, the Italians would have been at least 10 dB louder and we could have found it impossible to make the contact. Today, we were in contact with N4XPZ, Joe, on 75 meters while several more hams were talking about the VP6TD on 17 meters last evening. Joe said he tried to work the VP6TD station using a single wire antenna. He complained he could not copy the VP6 because of the Italians who continued to call even when the VP6 answered someone. That illustrated the point we are making in this section. The old adage is true: "You cant work em if you cant hear em!" XVII. FEED-LINES COMMONLY CALLED TRANSMISSION LINES Always use the best feed-line you can afford. Resist the urge to be penny wise and pound-foolish. This is particularly true of coax. Better (less lossy) coax will cost more. This cable is carrying your precious RF signal to and from your antenna. The most common feed lines used by amateurs are 50-ohm coaxial cables. There are many types of 50-ohm coax such as RG-174, RG-58, RG8-X, RG-8, RG-213, RG-8 foam, and 9913. In this book we will only discuss these types. A suffix letter such as an "A or "U" may be attached to the "RG" numbers such as RG-8U or RG-58A. All these cables have a center conductor surrounded by a plastic insulating material, called the dielectric, and a copper braided shield covering it. There is a plastic covering on the outside of the shield to protect the conductors from water. The center conductor and the shield carry RF currents. These are the common 50-ohm cables: RG-174 has a very small diameter, 0.101 inches. This cable is used to carry small amounts of RF between circuits in equipment. RG-174 has the highest loss and the least power handling capability of any coax. It is useless as an antenna feed-line because of its loss and low power handling ability. RG-58 is larger coax having a diameter of 0.195 inches. It can handle low power and can be used on the lower bands to feed antennas a one hundred feet or so away. It is not recommended to use RG-58 on 10 meters because it has a loss of 3dB per hundred feet on that band and half your power will be lost in the coax. The next larger cable is RG-8X, sometimes referred to as mini-8. Its diameter is 0.242 inches. The dielectric surrounding the center conductor is foam rather than the solid dielectric used in the most coax. Making cables with foam insulation can reduce the loss. Some hams are successfully feeding a kilowatt of power into RG8-X on the lower bands. You will lose 2 dB of power by using one hundred feet of RG-8X on 10 meters. On 80-meters the loss of this cable is negligible. You will want to use RG-8 or RG-213 if you are planning to use a kilowatt or more of power from 160 to 10 meters or for short runs on VHF and UHF. RG-213 is RG-8 made to military standards. Both have diameters of 0.405 inches. This cable has lower loss and can handle higher power because it has larger conductors and a larger diameter dielectric. RG-8 can handle 4000 watts peak envelope power on the broadcast band. RG-8 has only about 1dB loss on 10 meters per 100 feet. The loss becomes greater and the power handling rating of any coax decreases as the frequency of RF is increased. There is a lower-loss version of RG-8. It is called RG-8 foam. Beldens number for this product is 8214. Because of the dielectric being foam, a larger center conductor has to be used to keep the impedance 50 ohms. The loss resistance of the larger conductor is less than the smaller conductor used in regular RG-8. In addition, the foam having many air pockets has less dielectric losses. Other manufacturers also make RG-8 foam. One hundred feet of RG-8 foam has a loss of 0.9 dB on 10 meters. Many amateurs will not use RG-8 foam because they mistakenly believe the foam will soak up water. Cut off a piece of this foam material and put it into a container of water. It will continue to float ad infinitum, because it doesnt soak up water. Most of the water seen in coax gets between the dielectric and the plastic outer covering and within the braid shield. Water has also gotten into the strands of the center conductor. Water will get into any coax if the ends are not properly sealed. Solid conductors have less loss at radio frequencies compared to stranded conductors. Braid has more loss than a solid conductor used for the coax shield. A much lower loss coax, especially for higher frequencies, is available. The Belden 9913 is this product. This coax has a solid center conductor and the shield consists of a coating of aluminum foil covered with braid. The aluminum foil is a solid conductor. The braid over the foil is used to make a good solder connection because you cant solder aluminum. The mostly air dielectric material used in this product requires the center conductor to be larger to make the impedance 50 ohms. Air dielectric also has less dielectric loss than solid. There are a few manufacturers making 9913 look-alike products. One hundred feet of 9913 will have a loss of about 0.66 dB on 10 meters. There is a coax that looks like 9913 but has a stranded center conductor to make it flexible. It has a little more loss. If you are going to use 9913 on an antenna that rotates, flexing the cable as the antenna turns will cause the center conductor to break. Run the 9913 to the top of the mast, and using a barrel connector, connect the 9913 to a short run of RG-8. Run the RG-8 across the rotor to the antenna. Coax cables of other impedances are available such as 70-ohm cable. RG-59 and RG-11 are common 70 ohm cable. Hams, except to make quarter wave matching sections, do not use these cables much anymore. There are many other types of cable other than the ones described here. Open wire feeders, ladder-line, or window-line have much lower loss than coax. The three types are essentially the same except for the method of insulating the two wires from each other. When making open wire feed-line, you should use solid conductors, as large a conductor as possible, and as little dielectric as possible. These factors make open wire have less loss. There is so-called ladder-line for sale, which is really window line, which is made with 16 gauge solid conductors. The solid conductors make for low loss. There is another grade of the same feed-line that has 14 gauge-stranded conductors. XVIII. ANTENNA SAFETY 1. Erecting Antennas on Masts Erecting antennas pose some danger especially if they encounter power lines. Never erect an antenna near a power line. Make sure to leave enough clearance so if the antenna supporting structures fall they will clear the power lines. There are many cases of metal masts being raised accidentally encountering power lines, electrocuting the person or persons raising the masts. To raise a mast can expose you to a large force called leverage, which appears to increase the weight of the mast. Exerting oneself to raise a heavy mast can result in painful muscle and back injuries. Never try to raise a mast without sufficient help. 2. Tower Safety A tower is a wonderful device for supporting wire and beam antennas, but a person who has never put up one should seek advice of people who have experience in erecting towers. The obvious danger is falling off the tower. It should never be climbed without a climbing belt. Most people falling off a tower do so because of some kind of equipment failure or the tower collapses because of overload. In erecting a tower, a gin pole strong enough to support the weight of the tower section being raised should be used. Do not use improvised gin poles, as the strength of them may not support the weight of the tower section and the force from the other end of the rope being pulled by the ground crew. To hold a 50-pound tower section stationary requires a hundred pounds of force, which is the weight of the tower section and 50 pounds of force of the ground crew. The ground crew must exert more than 50 pounds of force to cause the section to be raised. There would be no greater tragedy than the gin pole breaking dropping the tower section on the ground crew. Then there is the possibility of the person on the tower being knocked loose by the falling, broken gin pole. Another problem can arise if under-sized guy cables and clamps are used to support the tower. We have seen tower failure when guy cables broke in a windstorm, or an insufficient number of clamps holding the guy cable allowed the cable to pull through the clamps. Professional tower people do not use cable clamps. They use "preformed tie-wraps" that grip the guy cables tighter as the force in the guy cables increases. Preformed tie-wraps are available from Texas Towers. Never tie the ground end of a guy cable to a tree. A tree swaying in a heavy windstorm can put enough force on the cable to cause it to break or to pull the tower over. Screw-in anchors available from mobile home suppliers make adequate anchors. Do not anchor a guy cable where a tree can fall across the guy cable. This could break the guy cable and cause the tower to fall. Never place a tower near a house, where if it falls, it could hit the house. Remember Safety First! TABLE 1 Quarter Wave Matching Sections of 70-ohm Coax These lengths are for coax having a solid dielectric with a velocity factor of 0.66 and foam dielectric with a velocity factor of 0.78. , You can use odd multiples like 3, 5, 7, etc. of the lengths below if those lengths are too short for your installation	eng	e4e8ed47-7db7-468a-8d4e-e33bcdad073d	http://www.hamuniverse.com/n4jaantennabook.html
Click here to go to the list of communicable diseases covered in these guidelines Controlling communicable diseases in day care and school settings is of utmost importance. Providing a safe, comfortable, and healthy environment facilitates the educational process, encourages social development, and allows children to acquire healthy attitudes toward organized settings. However, children who are ill or feel unwell can create difficulties in group settings. An ill child often demands more attention from the teacher or caregiver and cannot fully participate in group or educational activities. Worse yet, the child with a communicable disease may spread the illness to others. Accordingly, it is essential that educators and day care providers control the spread of communicable diseases by safe, effective, and practical efforts. The purpose of this booklet is to provide an accessible reference of concise information on common childhood communicable diseases. Each disease is described in detail, including signs and symptoms, methods of transmission, prevention practices and exclusion policies for children from the school or day care setting. Tips on the prevention and control of communicable diseases have been included, as well as information on hand washing, playground safety, and general sanitation guidelines. Concerned parents often request communicable disease information from educators and caregivers. Pages of this booklet may be photocopied and distributed to parents and others in order to provide accurate information on communicable diseases and measures to prevent their spread. A directory of local health departments has been listed for your convenience. Your local health department can provide a wealth of information and services to your facility, including assistance in the control of a communicable disease outbreak. In addition, day care providers should report those diseases reportable by law to their local health departments, as well as any other increased number of illnesses. This helps to prevent the spread of disease and to keep accurate records of communicable disease in your community and our state. Hand washing is the single most important way to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. Use soap, warm water and disposable paper towels. Wash your hands frequently and teach children to wash their hands, too. Hand washing reduces the number of microorganisms on hands that can spread communicable diseases. Open the window to let the fresh air in! Well-ventilated rooms help reduce the numbers of airborne germs inside. Airing out the rooms is important, even in the winter. When it's cold outside, we spend the majority of time inside. Respiratory diseases easily spread from coughs and sneezes. Opening the window at least once a day lets the germs out and fresh air in. Follow a good housekeeping schedule and disinfect in the proper way. Make sure that the floors, walls and bathrooms are clean! Clean and disinfect toys at least weekly. Disinfect the food preparation surfaces, eating surfaces and diapering tables. The simplest way to disinfect a surface includes three steps. The first step is to clean the surface with soap and thoroughly rinse with clean water. The second step is to spray or wipe the surface with a solution of 1/4 cup of household bleach in one gallon of water. The final step is to let the surface air dry in order to give the disinfectant time to work. Be careful not to use this solution on surfaces that could be damaged, such as carpets. This preparation is inexpensive and kills bacteria, viruses and most parasites. If you prefer to use a commercial disinfectant, you may. It is important, however, to measure the amount of disinfectant according to the directions on the bottle to get the necessary concentration needed to disinfect. Require that children are up to date on immunizations. An immunization schedule is in the back of this booklet. Check immunization records and update them regularly. Do your part to help eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases. Remember, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Do not share personal items among children and keep their belongings separate. Do not allow children to share belongings such as hair brushes, food, clothing, hats, pacifiers or other items. Separate children's coats, hats, and bedding items. Separate children by using space wisely. Maintain distance between sleeping areas, mats, cribs or cots. Keep children in groups and consistently assign caregivers to the same group. Keep diapered and toilet-trained children separate to prevent spread of diarrheal diseases. Exclude sick children and staff. The Exclusion Policies as outlined in the Child Day Care Rules have been included. Sending a sick child home with his/her parent helps to prevent the other children from becoming ill with a communicable disease. COMMUNICABLE DISEASE NOTIFICATION LETTER FOR PARENTS Dear Parent: On __________________________, a child in our class became ill with the communicable disease listed on the attached sheet. Because your child might have been exposed to this illness, it is necessary for you to watch your child for the signs and symptoms listed on the attached fact sheet. If your child becomes ill, prompt medical attention or treatment may help resolve the infection. It may be necessary to keep him/her at home until the symptoms resolve or until your child receives treatment. The fact sheet explains more about the signs, symptoms, and other concerns. By notifying you of this possible exposure, we are providing the best possible care for your child. In any setting, it is common for some children to become ill with childhood diseases. At times, they are not preventable. When we notify you of an illness, we are trying to control the spread and prevent new cases of illness. We try to keep our children healthy and happy. If you have any questions about signs or symptoms of this illness, please contact a staff member, the local health department or the Utah Department of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology at (801) 538-6191. Signs and Symptoms: Skin rash often consisting of small blisters all over the body, which leave scabs. Eruption comes in crops. There may be pimples, blisters and scabs all present at the same time. Mild fever. Sometimes this infection is mild and only a few blisters are present. Methods of Transmission Chickenpox is spread by direct contact, droplet or airborne spread of secretions from the respiratory tract of an infected person. Also, indirectly by contact with articles freshly soiled with the discharges from blisters or vesicles of an infected person. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: As long as 5 days but normally 1-2 days before blisters appear, and until all blisters are crusted and scabbed, or until 5 days after the appearance of the blisters. Contagiousness can be longer in a person with altered immunity. Control: EXCLUDE infected children from school and childcare until all of the blisters are crusted and scabbed. EXCLUDE susceptible contacts (i.e. those children who have not had chickenpox disease or the vaccination) from day 10 through day 21 following exposure to a case of chickenpox within the same kindergarten class or grade level for which chickenpox is required for attendance. Vaccine-Preventable: Chickenpox vaccine is recommended at 12-18 months of age and is required by law for kindergarten school and for 7th grade entry. It is recommended that children younger than thirteen years of age, without disease history, should receive one dose of vaccine. Adolescents thirteen years of age and olderand adults without disease history should receive two doses of vaccine at least four weeks apart. Other Information Notify parents if you suspect their child has been exposed to chickenpox. Children should not be given aspirin or salicylate-containing compounds because the administration of these products increases the risks of Reye syndrome. Acetaminophen may be used for fever control. Early signs and symptoms include a skin rash, vomiting, and confusion. Medical care should be sought immediately if Reye syndrome is suspected. Chickenpox is generally a more severe disease in adults. Also, children with certain chronic diseases, such as leukemia or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), are at extremely high risk for complications. Pregnant women who have not had chickenpox are not immune and should avoid exposure because illness could harm the fetus. A susceptible pregnant woman who has had exposure should consult with her physician immediately. Shingles or zoster infections are not caused from exposure to chickenpox, but caused by reactivation of the virus in the body. Therefore, adults are not at risk for shingles when exposed to a person with chickenpox. Chickenpox is reportable. The patient's demographics, vaccination status, and clinical information should be reported to the local health department. Methods of Transmission Varies--includes inhalation of airborne droplets and direct contact with an infected person. Also by contact with articles soiled by discharges from the nose or throat of an infected person. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Varies depending on virus. The exact period is unknown, but thought to be at least 24 hours before onset of symptoms until 5 days after onset. Control: EXCLUDE the child who feels very unwell or has a fever. Otherwise, exclusion is not generally practical. Other Information Children and adults should wash hands after touching nasal discharge, such as after wiping a nose. Tissues should be disposable, used only once, and thrown away. Children should be taught to turn and cough into their shoulders or elbows if they cannot cover their mouths and noses with a tissue. Prevention practices include: 1) good handwashing practices with warm running water, soap, and disposable paper towels for both children and staff; 2) proper cleaning and disinfection of both the environment and toys; 3) proper ventilation or airing out the room each day, including during cold weather; and 4) proper spacing of cots or sleeping mats so children will not be crowded together. Contact with respiratory secretions or airborne droplets from an infected person. Indirectly by articles soiled with discharges of the nose and throat from an infected person. Usually caused by same group of viruses that cause colds. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Varies depending on virus, the exact period unknown. Parainfluenza virus infection may be shed for 3 to 16 prior to symptoms,to 8 days after onset of symptoms. Control: EXCLUDE the child with fever and/or difficult breathing. A child should be excluded any time the illness prevents the child from participating comfortably in the daily activities or if the child demands more attention than the staff can adequately give. Other Information Many times croup syndromes will be better during the day and worse at night. Croup is an immune response of the lower respiratory tract to infection with the same viruses that cause colds. No one understands why some children develop croup and others don't. If children are exposed to a child with croup they will usually develop a cold, rather than croup symptoms. Incubation Period: Information about this is not exact. Illness following transfusion with infected blood begins 20-60 days after the transfusion. Infections acquired during birth may occur 3 to 12 weeks after delivery. The time frame for onset of symptoms following person to person transmission is unknown, since most people never become ill. Signs and Symptoms: Most children and adults infected with CMV do not have symptoms. Those who do may have fever, swollen glands, and feel tired. Immunocompromised people (such as AIDS patients or those receiving cancer treatments) may have a more serious illness such as pneumonia or inflammation of the eye. The most severe form of the disease occurs when a mother infects her fetus. Most prenatal infections are without symptoms. However, about 10% of these babies later have some type of disability such as hearing loss, learning disabilities, or mental retardation. Methods of Transmission Communicable Period: Most children who become infected with CMV at birth, will shed the virus for many months, with a range of 6 months up to 5-6 years. Adults shed the virus for a shorter period, usually months, but may persist for years. Even if an individual is no longer shedding the virus or the infection is no longer communicable, CMV can remain in the body throughout a person's lifetime. Control: Children with CMV infection should not be excluded from school. Also no attempts to prevent children from spreading CMV should be made, as many children will be infected with the virus naturally. Routine screening for CMV of staff at childcare centers and schools is not recommended. There is usually no treatment for CMV. However, patients with AIDS or cancer who have an eye infection may be treated with ganciclovir. Other Information Pregnant women should be careful to wash their hands after changing diapers or having contact with urine or saliva. Those working in day care centers should not kiss babies or young children on the mouth. Pregnant women should ask their doctor about CMV infections. Signs and Symptoms: An increased number of stools compared with the child's normal pattern with increased water and/or decreased form. May be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, headache and/or fever. Note that breastfed babies may normally have unformed stools. Methods of Transmission Person-to-person contact, in the majority of cases by fecal-oral route (ingesting very tiny amounts of fecal material from an infected person through contaminated hands or objects). Possibly from improperly refrigerated, reheated, or contaminated foods. Contaminated water and food are not usually the source of diarrhea in day care centers. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Varies depending on causative agent. There is increased risk of disease for children in diapers and staff caring for these children. Control: Always EXCLUDE children and staff with diarrhea. Children and staff should thoroughly wash hands after diaper changes and toilet use. Disposable table liners should be used on the changing table. Disinfect the changing table after each use. Educate staff regarding fecal-oral route of transmission. Caregivers who change diapers must not handle food. Separate diapered children from toilet-trained children. Other Information If two or more children or staff members in one classroom experience diarrhea within a 48-hour period, an infectious agent should be suspected. NOTIFY YOUR LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT. Stool testing and treatment may be necessary. Any individual case of diarrhea due to bacteria, such as Salmonella, E. coli, Shigella or the protozoan Giardia, should be reported to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. Schools or centers with outbreaks of diarrhea should contact their local health departments. Signs and Symptoms: Gradual onset over 1-2 days. Diphtheria usually occurs as a white or gray patch or patches of membrane surrounding inflammation and soreness in the throat or nose. Glands in the neck are swollen. Low-grade fever often accompanies symptoms. Diphtheria can occur as a skin, vaginal, eye, or ear infection. However, this occurs very infrequently and is more common in tropical regions, among homeless persons, and those living in crowded conditions. Diphtheria can be life threatening. Methods of Transmission Primarily by contact with a person infected with diphtheria. Diphtheria may be transmitted by a symptomatic person or a carrier. Infectious fluids include discharges from the nose, throat, eye or skin lesions. In rare instances, diphtheria can be transmitted by contact with articles soiled by discharges from the lesions of an infected person. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Variable, usually 2 weeks or less and seldom for more than 4 weeks. Effective antibiotic therapy and antitoxin is necessary. Patients that have been treated with an effective antibiotic treatment usually are communicable for fewer than 4 days. The rare chronic carrier may shed bacteria for up to 6 months. Control: EXCLUDE all patients that have or are suspected to have diphtheria. Identify close contacts of a person diagnosed with diphtheria. Persons who have been exposed to diphtheria must seek medical attention immediately. Close contacts, regardless of immunization status, should be cultured for diphtheria and are often given antibiotic treatment to prevent illness. Close contacts should be given a diphtheria booster appropriate for age. Other Information All children attending Utah schools and early childhood programs are required by law to be immunized at the age of 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15-18 months, at kindergarten entry and for entry into the 7th grade. . Diphtheria is a life-threatening but vaccine-preventable disease Infection can occur in immunized and partially immunized persons, as well as those who aren't immunized. The disease occurs more frequently and has more severe symptoms in unimmunized persons. Report the number of diagnosed cases to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. Incubation Period: Varies depending upon the causative agent, usually secondary to an upper respiratory infection. Signs and Symptoms: Inflammation of the middle ear with fluid in the middle ear. May be accompanied by fever, pain, impaired hearing, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, or irritability. Occurs most frequently in children under 3 years. Generally accompanies or comes after an upper respiratory infection. Methods of Transmission Direct contact with respiratory secretions or droplets from an infected person. Indirectly from articles contaminated with respiratory secretions from an infected person. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Varies depending upon the causative agent. Control: EXCLUDE the child who has fever or feels unwell. Child may return after 24 hours of antibiotic therapy prescribed by a physician, or when symptoms subside. Other Information Ear infections are usually secondary to an upper respiratory tract infection. Preventive measures include: 1) teaching children to turn and cough into their shoulders or elbows, or cover their mouths with a tissue 2) using tissues one time only with prompt disposal; 3) discouraging mouthing behaviors; 4) proper ventilation; 5) separating children during nap times; and 6) proper handwashing. 7) ask your provider about vaccines that may reduce infections Incubation Period: 4-14 days but can be as long as 28 days. Rash and joint symptoms occur 2-3 weeks after infection. Signs and Symptoms: Marked redness of cheeks ("slapped-face" appearance) that is often followed by a red, lace-like rash on the trunk and body. The rash can fluctuate in intensity and recur with exposure to sunlight or changes in the environmental temperature for weeks to months, although not all infected persons have a rash. Child may have a slight fever or feel unwell. It is estimated that about 50% of adults have had previous infection and are immune. In adults the rash is often absent, but arthritis lasting for days to months may occur. In 25% of infected adults, the person is asymptomatic (without any symptoms). Immunodeficient persons with infection may experience chronic anemia. Methods of Transmission Primarily from direct contact, droplet, or airborne spread of respiratory secretions. Rarely by transfusion of blood or blood products. Vertically, from mother to fetus. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: The exact period is unknown, but children are thought to be most infectious 7-10 days before the rash breaks out; the disease is not communicable after the rash appears. Persons with aplastic crises (absence of normal cell development) are communicable up to one week after the onset of symptoms. Immunosuppressed patients may be infectious for months to years. Control: EXCLUDE the child who has a fever or feels unwell. Otherwise, exclusion is not generally practical. Proper handwashing and disposal of tissues can help to lessen transmission Other Information In people with chronic red blood cell disorders, such as sickle-cell disease, infection may result in severe anemia. Infection has also been associated with arthritis in adults. Some pregnant women have miscarried after becoming infected with parvovirus B19. However, the risk for this occurring is relatively low. Pregnant women who subsequently find that they have been in contact with children during the incubation period (4-20 days before signs or symptoms) may want to follow up with their physicians to discuss the option of serological testing to determine their immune status. Although women who work primarily with children are at increased risk of infection, a routine policy to exclude pregnant women from the workplace when parvovirus B19 is occurring is not recommended. Occupational settings are not the only place where transmission may occur. Prevention methods to avoid infection include proper handwashing, teaching children to cover their mouth when coughing, and disposal of tissues for respiratory secretions. Signs and Symptoms: Symptoms can include diarrhea, gas, cramps, bloating, weight loss, fatigue and loose and "greasy" stools. Many people infected with the Giardia parasite show no symptoms. Methods of Transmission In daycare centers and schools most infections are spread by person-to-person contact via the fecal-oral route (ingesting very tiny amounts of fecal material from an infected person through contaminated hands or objects). In day care centers, the disease is less often transmitted through contaminated water or food. Drinking untreated water, such as drinking from rivers or streams, is a major source of infection. Giardia organisms in dogs, beavers and other animals are infectious for humans and can contaminate water. Often, an asymptomatic person spreads the infection by not properly washing hands after bowel movements or after changing diapers. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Entire period of infection. Control: Always EXCLUDE child and staff with diarrhea. Children and staff must thoroughly wash hands after toilet use and diaper changes. Hands should be washed before meals and snacks. Monitor handwashing practices among children. Educate staff regarding fecal-oral route of transmission. Staff that change diapers must not prepare food. Separate diapered and toilet-trained children. Wash and disinfect toys on a regular basis, particularly toys that have or could be put into children's mouths. Children who are not toilet trained should not use wading pools. Alternative forms of recreational water play, such as running through sprinklers, prevent giardiasis from spreading. Other Information Report this illness to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. Signs and Symptoms: Small painful blisters in the mouth, on the gums and tongue. Blisters may also occur on the palms, fingers and soles of the feet. Usually the blisters persist from 7-10 days. A person with hand, foot, and mouth disease may be asymptomatic (with no symptoms). Methods of Transmission Direct contact with nose and throat discharges, respiratory droplets, or feces from an infected person. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: During the illness and perhaps longer because this virus persists in the stool for several weeks. Control:EXCLUDE the child who feels unwell or has a fever. Wash hands thoroughly after toilet use, diaper changes, and nose blowing. Discard used tissues in the proper place. Use tissues only once. Incubation Period: The nits (eggs) of lice may hatch in 1 week. Sexual maturity is reached approximately 8-10 days after hatching. Signs and Symptoms: Infestation of the head and hairy parts of the body with adult lice, larvae and nits. This results in itching and irritation of the scalp and skin. Female lice are generally the size of a sesame seed. Eggs or nits are tiny tan or pearl-gray specks that attach to the hair shaft close to the scalp. Methods of Transmission Almost exclusively by contact with an infested person. Transmission can occur from sharing hats, combs and brushes, or by other articles recently in contact with the head of an infested person. Lice DO NOT jump or fly. Hair length does not influence infestation. Minimum Control Measures If a child is assessed as having a head lice infestation, confidentiality must be maintained so the child is not embarrassed. Communicable Period: From time of infestation until after completion of initial treatment. Control: On the day of diagnosis, the person infested with head lice should be allowed to remain in class or in day care, but should be discouraged from close direct contact with others. This is because an individual with a head lice infestation has likely had the infestation for several days or weeks, and at this point poses little risk to others. The child's parent or guardian should be notified that day by telephone or a note sent home with the child at the end of the school day stating that prompt, proper treatment of this condition is in the best interest of the child and his or her classmates. Once home the individual with an active head lice infestation should be EXCLUDED from attendance until after the first treatment with a medicated head lice product, such as pyrethrin (Rid® and/or other medicated head lice product). Parents of affected children should be notified and informed that their child must be properly treated before returning to school on the day after treatment. Person must be retreated in 7-10 days in order to kill remaining nits. Follow the manufacturer's directions carefully. Remove the nits by using a fine-tooth comb. The nits can be loosened before combing by applying a damp towel to the scalp for 30 to 60 minutes, or by soaking the hair with white vinegar followed by applying a damp towel to the scalp for 30 to 60 minutes. Commercial rinses containing 8% formic acid may also be used to loosen the nits. All products must be used according to the manufacturer's directions. Lice cannot live away from the host for more than 48 hours. Eggs do not survive away from the scalp for more than 7 days. Thoroughly vacuum the environment including furniture. Insecticide sprays have not been proven useful. Laundering washable items in hot water and/or using the hottest drying cycle will destroy lice and nits. Non-washable items, such as stuffed toys, may be dry cleaned or placed in tightly sealed plastic bags for 10 days in order to destroy nits. Soak combs and brushes in hot water for 10 minutes or wash with pediculicide shampoo. Other Information Lindane-containing compounds (Kwell) should not be used on infants or small children or by women who are pregnant or nursing. The local health department should be notified of outbreaks of lice. When a child is found with head lice, all contacts and family members of the child should be examined carefully. Those infested should be treated. Signs and Symptoms: Preschool-aged children infected with the hepatitis A virus are usually asymptomatic (with few or no symptoms). Cases occurring in a day care center are often not recognized until a family member suddenly develops symptoms. Symptoms may include: fever, malaise (aches), lack of appetite, abdominal discomfort with nausea and vomiting, fatigue, tea-colored urine, and onset of jaundice (yellowing of the skin and/or whites of the eyes). Infected children sometimes have abdominal discomfort, a general feeling of being unwell, lack of appetite and/or jaundice. Methods of Transmission Person-to-person contact by the fecal-oral route (ingestion of tiny amounts of fecal particles from contaminated objects or hands). The virus is excreted in the infected person's feces for 1-3 weeks before onset of symptoms. Peak levels of the virus are excreted 1-2 weeks before symptoms appear. Maximum infectivity occurs during the latter half of the incubation period and continues until a few days after the symptom of jaundice. Outbreaks have occurred from infected food handlers and from eating raw or undercooked shellfish from sewage- or fecal-contaminated waters. Hepatitis A is more frequently spread in day care centers or other settings where diapered children attend. Risk of transmission is lower in the school setting, generally, because children are toilet trained. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Most communicable for 1-2 weeks prior to the onset of symptoms. Diminishes after the onset of symptoms. Control:EXCLUDE from attendance until the fever is gone and at least 1 week after the onset of illness. The ill person should be under a physician's care. Prompt administration of immune globulin (IG) to contacts helps prevent the spread of hepatitis A. Education of staff and children about good hygiene measures, including frequent hand washing, is essential for the control of hepatitis A. There is a vaccine for prevention of the hepatitis A virus. The first dose is recommended to be given at 12 months of age. The second dose is recommended at least 6 months after the first dose. Hepatitis A is required for kindergarten entry. Contact your local health department or your family physician for more information on the hepatitis A vaccine. Other Information Contact the local health department for help in controlling the disease and for immune globulin (IG) recommendations. Hand washing for all persons is vitally important to prevent acquiring or transmitting hepatitis A. Persons caring for diapered children are at increased risk for acquiring the disease. They must exercise caution by practicing good hand washing techniques. The diaper changing area should be cleaned and disinfected after each use, not just during a disease outbreak. Hepatitis A should be reported to your local health department. Signs and symptoms: The disease is usually mild in children. Symptoms develop slowly and may include loss of appetite, stomach pain, nausea and vomiting. Sometimes skin rashes, joint pains, fever and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes) develop. Methods of Transmission Hepatitis B may be spread by the following ways: 1) through sexual activity, 2) by direct contact with infected blood and body fluids, 3) by in utero transmission (an infected mother may transmit the virus to her baby during birth, although it is rare and only accounts for only <2% of perinatal infections) and 4) by using contaminated sharps or needles. It is unlikely, but hepatitis B can be transmitted by biting (through saliva) if skin is broken. It is not transmitted by the fecal-oral route. Minimum Control Measures Communicable period: An infected person can spread the virus for several weeks before symptoms appear and as long as the person is ill. Persons who develop lifelong infections ("carriers") may spread the virus for their entire lives. Control: A child infected with hepatitis B should be under the care of a physician. Although the infected child does not need to be excluded for the entire period of the infection, physician approval is needed for the child to return to day care. If It is recommended for all household contacts of a hepatitis B case to be immunized. Hepatitis B is a vaccine-preventable disease. Vaccination is recommended for all infants. The first dose is recommended to be given at birth. The second dose should be given between 1 and 2 months of age. The third dose should be given at 6 months of age (or at least 24 weeks). Hepatitis B is required for kindergarten and for 7th grade entry. Other Information Use barrier methods such as gloves to prevent contact with body fluids. For further information, see "Body Substance Precautions" below. There is no specific treatment for infection with the hepatitis B virus so prevention is extremely important. Report this illness to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. For more information contact your local health department. Incubation Period: Average is 6 to 9 weeks with a range of 2 weeks to 6 months. Signs and Symptoms: The signs and symptoms of hepatitis C virus infection are normally not distinguishable from those of hepatitis A or B. Symptoms in a new infection tend to mild and most infected children do not have symptoms. If symptoms are present they usually develop slowly and include loss of appetite, stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting. Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes) only occurs in 25% of patients. Most children with long term Hepatitis C infection do not have symptoms. Individuals that do not have symptoms can spread the disease. Methods of Transmission Hepatitis C may be spread by the following ways: 1) by direct contact with infected blood and body fluids 2) through sexual activity (only 10% of hepatitis C infections are transmitted through sexual activity) , 3) an infected mother may transmit the virus to her baby during birth (in utero transmission is rare, accounting for only 5% of perinatal infections) and 4) by using contaminated sharps or needles. Approximately 40% of the hepatitis C infections have no known exposure. It is unlikely, but hepatitis C may be transmitted by biting if skin is broken. It is not transmitted fecal-orally. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: An infected person can spread the virus for several weeks before symptoms appear. Persons who develop lifelong infections ("carriers"), may spread the virus for their entire lives. Control: A child infected with hepatitis C should be under the care of a physician. Although the infected child does not need to be excluded for the entire period of the infection, if There is no vaccine available for hepatitis C. Other Information Use barrier methods such as gloves to prevent contact with blood and other body fluids. For further information, see "Body Substance Precautions" below. Report this illness to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. For more information contact your local health department. Signs and Symptoms: Her or HSV1) and similar symptoms in the genital region (known as genital herpes or HSV2). Primary infection is usually without symptoms when it occurs in early childhood. In newborns, congenital infection produces a spectrum of diseases ranging from localized skin lesions to severe symptoms involving the whole body. Methods of Transmission Herpes is transmitted by direct skin-to-skin contact, directly from the site of infection to the site of contact. For example, if you have a cold sore and kiss someone, the virus can infect the other person's mouth. Herpes can also be spread sexually when there are no visible signs or symptoms. Both types may be transmitted to various sites by oral-genital, oral-anal, or anal-genital contact. Any genital sores should be reported to the Child Abuse Hotline (number below). Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: The virus can be present for weeks and is most communicable when lesions are blister-like. The infected person may shed the virus when asymptomatic (without any symptoms) for both types of the virus. Control:Excluding a child with HSV is not appropriate. HSV is very prevalent in the community. The oral type of Herpes (HSV1) may commonly be transmitted in families. If a child is symptomatic, exclusion may only be necessary if the child feels very uncomfortable. Care should be taken to disinfect objects placed in children's mouths before they are used by other children in the center. Good hand washing practices are essential when children or staff are infected with HSV. If the child has gingivostomatitis (open blisters on gums and inside of the mouth) and cannot control oral secretions or has biting behaviors, the child should be EXCLUDED until the condition is resolved. Other Information Caregivers with HSV lesions should take special care with hygiene measures, such as handwashing. The person with HSV lesions should not kiss children/infants. A confidential investigation will be conducted to ensure that the child is not endangered. Information must be handled in strictest confidence in order to safeguard the privacy of the individual. Incubation Period: Window period of 6-12 weeks, an infected person will usually test negative during this time. The latency period includes the window period and can last 7-12 years. Generally, a person will test positive after the first 6-12 weeks; symptoms may not appear for 7-12 years. Signs and Symptoms: HIV disease starts with infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus attacks and suppresses the immune system so that opportunistic infections and cancers can affect the body. During the latency period a person may show no identifiable signs or symptoms. Some general symptoms of HIV disease may include prolonged fever, night sweats, persistent swollen lymph nodes, chronic diarrhea, and unexplained weight loss. Methods of Transmission HIV is transmitted in three ways: 1) through sexual intercourse with an infected person; 2) through contact with infected blood or body fluids to a mucous membrane or open or broken skin; and 3) from an infected mother to her child through pregnancy, birth or breast-feeding. Articles contaminated with blood or infected body fluids may also transmit HIV; for example, sharing needles. The major body fluids that are implicated in the transmission of HIV are blood, semen, vaginal/cervical secretions and breastmilk. HIV cannot be transmitted through sweat, tears, saliva, urine or feces unless blood is visibly present. However, it is important to use barrier precautions such as gloves for all body fluids because other diseases may be transmitted by these fluids. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: From the moment a person is infected, he or she becomes infectious for life and can transmit the virus to others. Control:Children with HIV infection should not be excluded from school for the protection of other children or personnel, and disclosure of infection should not be required. Use barrier methods such as gloves to avoid contact with blood or body fluids. Wear disposable gloves when taking care of injuries. Wash hands thoroughly after removing the gloves. Other Information HIV is primarily a sexually transmitted disease. However, there are individuals who have been infected in other ways; such as through occupational exposure, I.V. drug use, or through birth to an infected mother. Infectious fluids can enter the body through chapped, broken or non-intact skin, needlesticks, or splashes to the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose or mouth. It is essential to follow Body Substance Precautions at all times. This means utilizing barrier methods, such as gloves, if contact with any body fluid is anticipated. Report this illness to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. For more information contact your local health department. Signs and Symptoms: Blister-like lesions on the skin which later ooze and develop into crusted sores. They appear in an irregular pattern. The sores may spread into a red, oozy rash that gets a clear or honey-colored crust. Itching is common. Methods of Transmission Direct contact with draining sores. Contaminated hands are the most frequent method for spreading infection. Often, tiny breaks in the skin allow bacteria in to cause infection. Some people carry the bacteria and can easily infect others when the skin is broken. Impetigo can be caused by staphylococcal or streptococcal bacteria. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: As long as sores continue to weep or drain. Control:EXCLUDE from attendance until 24 hours after antibiotic treatment has been started, until sores are dried, or until sores can be covered with a bandage. Other Information Early detection and adequate treatment are important in preventing spread. Medical treatment is necessary. Oral antibiotics are preferred treatment for multiple lesions. Any person with lesions should avoid contact with newborn babies. The infected individual should use separate disposable towels and washcloths. Place dressings in a disposable bag and immediately put in the garbage. Staphylococcal infections are reportable to the local health department by number only. Signs and Symptoms: Sudden onset of an acute viral disease with symptoms of fever, chills, headache, sore muscles, and a general feeling of being unwell. Associated with runny nose, sore throat, and cough. Cough is often severe and lasts longer than other symptoms which generally subside in 2-7 days. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea may occur in children. Methods of Transmission Direct contact with respiratory secretions or droplets from an infected person. Indirect contact with articles freshly soiled by discharges from an infected person. The virus is excreted in discharges from the nose and throat and can live in dried mucus for several hours. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Probably 3-5 days after onset of symptoms; can be up to 7 days after the onset of symptoms in younger children. Control:EXCLUDE child who has fever or feels unwell. Otherwise, exclusion is not generally practical. Antiviral medications, if given within 2 days of illness onset to otherwise healthy individuals, can reduce the duration of uncomplicated influenza illness. Influenza is generally more severe in very young children who have had noprior exposure. Influenza can also be severe in elderly populations. Sometimes influenza resembles a cold or other respiratory virus. Because young, otherwise healthy children are at increased risk for influenza-related hospitalizations, it is recommended that children aged six months through 5 years receive influenza vaccination. It is also recommended that household contacts (anyone who spends a significant amount of time in the home) and out-of-home caregivers of children 6 months through 59 months (or 5 years) receive influenza vaccination. Annual immunizations are effective in preventing infections. Health care providers may prescribe antiviral medications for exposed individuals to reduce influenza transmission. Individuals exposed to influenza should consult with their health care provider. Other Information Children must not be given aspirin or salicylate-containing compounds because administration of these products increases the risks of subsequent Reye syndrome. Acetaminophen may be used for fever control. Reye syndrome is a rare but life-threatening illness. Early signs and symptoms are vomiting and confusion. Medical care should be sought immediately if Reye syndrome is suspected. Report the number of diagnosed cases to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. Incubation Period: 7-18 days from exposure to onset of fever, generally 10 days; about 14 days until rash appears. Signs and Symptoms: The first symptoms of measles resemble a cold with cough, fever of 101°F or greater, runny nose, and/or red, watery eyes. A red, blotchy rash follows a few days later around the ears and hairline and spreads to cover the face, spreading to the trunk and arms by the second day. The fever usually disappears 1 or 2 days after the rash. The rash turns from pink to reddish brown and lasts about 5 days. Peeling of the skin is common. The disease is more severe in infants and adults than in children. Methods of Transmission Direct contact with secretions of nose and throat from an infected person. Can be spread by airborne droplet or by articles freshly soiled with respiratory secretions from an infected person. Measles is a highly contagious disease, but can be prevented through proper immunization. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: 1-2 days before the onset of cold-like symptoms, 4-5 days before the onset of the rash to 4 days after the rash appears; measles is most infectious just before rash appears. Communicability is minimal after the second day of the rash. Control:EXCLUDE from attendance for at least 4 days after the rash appears. During an outbreak, susceptible persons should be excluded from attendance until they are immunized or until two weeks after the rash onset of the last case of measles. Standard control measures for measles suggest that the measles vaccine will protect exposed persons in some cases if given within 72 hours of exposure. Immune globulin can be given to prevent or modify measles in a susceptible person within 6 days of exposure. Other Information All children attending Utah schools and early childhood programs are required by law to be immunized between the ages of 12-15 months and again between 4-6 years. Two doses of measles are required for school attendance for grades kindergarten through twelve. Measles is a vaccine-preventable disease. Notify the local health department immediately if a case occurs in the center or school. Signs and Symptoms: The symptoms appear suddenly with onset of fever, chills, intense headache, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, and sometimes rash. Behavioral changes may occur, including irritability or sluggishness. The disease may progress to seizures and a coma. Signs and symptoms of meningitis are a medical emergency. Medical attention must be received immediately. Although anyone can get the disease, it appears most frequently in those less than five years of age. In some instances, it is important to treat household and day care contacts as soon as possible with preventive drugs, preferably within 24 hours. Contact the local health department immediately. Methods of Transmission Direct contact with droplets and secretions from the nose and throat of an infected person. Infected people are usually symptomatic, but some people may carry the organisms without having any symptoms Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Patients are considered infectious for as long as the bacteria are present in the nose and throat and after antibiotics are started: 24 hours for N. meningitidis, 24-48 hours for H. influenzae, and upon doctor's determination for Streptococcal pneumoniae meningitis. Control: EXCLUDE patients from attendance until adequately treated. May return to center when child feels well enough and when a physician determines that the child is no longer infectious. Antibiotic therapy for contacts may be indicated, contact public health immediately to assure that contacts receive prophylaxis. There are vaccines available that can help protect against the various causes of bacterial meningitis. For young children: Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)vaccine is recommended for all children beginning at 2 months of age. All children attending early childhood programs are required by law to receive Hib vaccine It is recommended that children be immunized at 2, 4, 6, and 12-15 months. The number of doses required depends on the age of the child at vaccination, previous number of doses received and the brand of vaccine used. The Hib vaccine is not required and is not recommended for children over 60 months (5 years).There is a vaccine available to protect against N. meningitidis for children over the age of 11. Parents/guardians should consult with their child's health care provider about the feasibility of receiving this immunization. Other Information Notify the health department immediately if a case occurs. Careful observation of exposed household, school or child care center contacts is essential. Exposed individuals who develop a fever should receive prompt medical evaluation. Household and close day care contacts need to receive antibiotics. Signs and Symptoms: Usually fever, often with headache, chills, and discomfort, usually followed by painful swelling or tenderness under the jaw or in front of the ear. Methods of Transmission By droplet spread or direct contact with saliva from an infected person. The virus is also found in urine. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: 7 days before onset of swelling and up to 9 days after swelling occurs. Maximum infectiousness occurs between 2 days before to 4 days after the onset of illness. Control:EXCLUDE from attendance for at least 9 days after swelling first occurs or until swelling is gone. Other Information All children 12 months of age and older attending Utah schools or early childhood programs are required by law to receive one dose of mumps vaccine for attendance. Mumps vaccine is recommended to be given between the ages of 12-15 months. Mumps is a vaccine-preventable disease. The disease may have serious complications. Mumps infection during the first trimester of pregnancy may increase the rate of spontaneous abortion. Adults born before 1957 are considered immune even if they did not have the disease or the vaccine as a child. Report the number of diagnosed cases to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. Signs and Symptoms: Redness of eye(s), watery, white or yellow discharge from the eye, matted eyelashes, burning or itching eyes. Methods of Transmission Contact with discharges from the eyes or upper respiratory tract of an infected person. Eyes can become infected from contaminated fingers, clothing and other articles, including shared towels or eye makeup. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: During the course of active infection. Bacterial: May last from 2-3 days to 2-3 weeks. Viral: up to 2-3 weeks. Control:Isolate child with eye discharge. EXCLUDE the child from attendance until examined by a physician and the child is approved for readmission. For bacterial infections, this is normally 24 hours after treatment is started by the physician. Conjunctivitis caused by viruses is not shortened by antibiotic treatment and may be contagious until the watery, white or yellow discharge has ceased. Exclusion for long periods is often impractical. Thorough handwashing and disinfection of contaminated articles will help to prevent spread. Eliminate shared articles, such as common towels. Do not share eye makeup or eye drops. Other Information Distinguishing between viral and bacterial conjunctivitis requires costly laboratory tests. Many physicians treat all cases with antibiotics in order to prevent serious complications. Encourage children not to rub their eyes. Exclusion of the child with pink-eye and good handwashing practices help to prevent the spread in day care situations. Signs and Symptoms: Tiny parasitic worms that live in the lower intestine. Symptoms include anal itching with disturbed sleep, irritability, and local irritation due to scratching. Some individuals may not have any symptoms. The female worms resemble short white threads. They lay their microscopic eggs around the anus at night. Itching might be more intense at night. Pinworm infections are common in school-age children. Pinworms do not cause bed-wetting or teeth grinding. Methods of Transmission Direct transfer of eggs from anus to mouth. Eggs may get on hands from articles contaminated with eggs of the parasite, such as clothing, toys or bedding. Pinworms from animals cannot be transmitted to people. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: As long as the worms/eggs are present. Eggs remain infective in an outdoor environment for about 2 – 3 weeks. Control:The child should receive medical attention. Utah child care rules require EXCLUSION of the child until after the first treatment. Proper handwashing is necessary before eating and after toilet use. Reinfection is common. Thoroughly clean the bathroom and vacuum the house or facility. Change bed linens and bath towels. Other Information Close contacts, such as siblings, should be checked and treated if necessary. Linens, clothing and bedding should not be shared and should be washed frequently. Pinworm infection may be present without symptoms. Signs and Symptoms: Beard and Scalp: Scaly patches of temporary baldness. Infected hairs are brittle and break easily. Infection may be unapparent. Skin: Reddish, flat, inflamed ringlike rash that may itch or burn. May be dry and scaly, moist, or crusted. Feet: Scaling or cracking of the skin, especially between the toes, or blisters containing a thin, watery fluid. Itching is common. Infection is rare among younger children. Also called athlete's foot. Infection may be unapparent. Repeat attacks and chronic infection common. Methods of Transmission Directly by contact with an infected person or animal (skin to skin or skin to fur). Indirectly by contact with articles such as seats, combs, clothing or hats, and surfaces contaminated, such as floors, benches, shower stalls or similar areas by such infected person or animal. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: As long as the rash or lesions are present, or the fungus persists on contaminated materials. Control:EXCLUDE the child until medical treatment begins. Eliminate activities which involve skin to skin contact until fungus is completely gone. Prevent children from sharing brushes, combs, ribbons or other hair accessories. Refer people with a suspicious rash for a medical evaluation with diagnosis and treatment immediately. Other Information Preventive measures include not sharing personal items such as hair care articles and clothing. Personal hygiene is important--skin areas should be dried thoroughly after washing. All day care and household contacts, pets and farm animals should be inspected and treated if infected. Do not share brushes or combs with pets. Public facilities such as locker rooms and pools should not be used when infected with ringworm. Wash and disinfect bathroom surfaces and toys daily. Use disposable tissues and towels for wiping and washing children. Never use the same towel or tissue on more than one child. Notify parents and staff if more than one person in the program develops ringworm for early detection of other cases. Signs and Symptoms: Sudden onset of a high fever, over 103°F, sometimes as high as 106°F that lasts 3-7 days and then quickly disappears. After fever subsides, a rash appears. The rash consists of small, separate rose-pink spots that begin on the chest and abdomen that may last a few hours or up to a few days. Most cases are in children 6 months to 4 years old. In some cases rash may not occur. Methods of Transmission Unknown. Humans are the only known host. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Unknown. Humans are the only known host. Control:EXCLUDE a child with fever. A child with rash and no fever may return to day care. Other Information Usually occurs in children under 4 years of age, most commonly around or before age 2. Immunity follows illness. Caused by the human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) or a virus similar to HHV-6. Unrecognized infections can occur. Signs and Symptoms: A skin rash lasting 1-3 days may or may not occur. If a rash occurs, it begins on the face. Mild fever, usually less than 101 F; can include cold symptoms such as runny nose, cough, etc. Lymph nodes at back of head, behind ear, and along back of neck often are enlarged. Young children may be asymptomatic (without symptoms). Methods of Transmission Direct contact from an infected person or indirectly by contact with articles freshly soiled by respiratory secretions from an infected person. The virus is excreted in discharges from nose, throat and urine. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Communicable from 1 week before and at least 4 days after the onset of the rash. Control:EXCLUDE the child from attendance for 7 days after the onset of rash. Infants born with congenital rubella syndrome should be evaluated before being admitted to the center as they may shed virus over a prolonged period after birth. Patients with congenital rubella in childcare should be considered contagious until they are at least one year old, unless nasopharyngeal and urine cultures are repeatedly negative for rubella virus. Other Information All children 12 months of age and older attending Utah schools and early childhood programs are required by law to receive one dose of rubella vaccine for attendance. Rubella is recommended to be given between the ages of 12-15 months. Rubella is a vaccine-preventable disease. The disease, while mild in children, is very serious for unborn babies if it is contracted by a pregnant woman. Pregnant women, whether or not immunized, should immediately consult their physicians if they have been exposed to rubella. Report this illness to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. Incubation Period: 2-6 weeks before itching begins in a person with no previous exposure. Persons with prior exposure develop symptoms within 1-4 days. Signs and Symptoms: Scabies is a skin infestation caused by microscopic parasites called mites. The mites burrow under the skin creating small raised areas of skin containing fluid or tiny paths under the skin. These burrows resemble wavy lines and appear frequently on finger webs or on the inside of the wrists and elbows. A rash may occur anywhere on the body, regardless of the area of infestation. Itching is intense, especially at night. Methods of Transmission Direct skin-to-skin contact with an infested person. Less commonly, transmission occurs through contact with contaminated clothing, bedding, or other articles. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: From the time of infestation until after mites and eggs are destroyed which ordinarily occurs after 1 or occasionally 2 courses of treatment 1 week apart. Generally, a person is treated on the first day. On the second day a bath or shower is taken and all linens, underclothes and bedding are changed. Carpets and furniture should be vacuumed. It should be noted that sometimes itching will persist for 1-2 weeks after treatment. This should not be taken as a sign that treatment failed. Overtreating should be avoided because the medication can be toxic. Follow the directions on the package exactly. Control:Diagnosis of scabies should be confirmed by a physician. If a single case has been confirmed, EXCLUDE the child from attendance until the day after treatment is started. Individuals who have had direct contact with the infested child, including family members, should be evaluated and, if necessary, treated. A child with rash and fever or a behavior change, such as itching, must be EXCLUDED from the day care setting. Other Information A single infestation in a family is uncommon. Bedding and clothing worn next to the skin during 72 hours prior to treatment should be laundered on the hot cycle. Store difficult to wash items in closed plastic bags for 5 days. Disinfection of the general environment is not necessary. Consult the local health department for help in controlling outbreaks of this disease. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number or illnesses/cases. Signs and Symptoms: Gonorrhea: In symptomatic males, a pus-colored discharge drains from the penis within an average period of 3-5 days. Although often asymptomatic in females, common symptoms may include burning, vaginal discharge and itching. Syphilis: A tiny, painless ulcer develops at the site where the microorganism enters the body. A painless, firm lymph node commonly follows. Generalized secondary eruption occurs with mild symptoms including a rash, sore throat and weight loss. Chlamydia: In males, symptoms include discharge, burning during urination and urethral itching. In females, discharge, itching and inflammation may occur in the genital tract and may result in permanent damage to the reproductive system. Asymptomatic infections may occur in both males and females. Methods of Transmission Gonorrhea: Direct contact with the discharge of mucous membranes of an infected person; almost always from sexual contact. Syphilis: Direct contact with the secretions from the ulcers; almost always during sexual contact. Chlamydia: Direct contact by sexual intercourseor other sexual contact. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Gonorrhea: may extend for months in untreated individuals who might be asymptomatic; ends within hours of appropriate drug therapy. Syphilis: variable and indefinite during primary and secondary stages. Adequate bicillin therapy ends communicability within 24-48 hours. Chlamydia: unknown; thought to be until treatment is completed. Control: There is no reason to exclude a child with a sexually transmitted disease. Other Information A confidential investigation will be conducted to ensure that the child is not endangered. Information must be handled in strictest confidence in order to safeguard the privacy of the individual. Report this illness to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. Signs and Symptoms: Watery diarrhea with fever, nausea, vomiting, cramps and sometimes spasms of the rectum. Diarrhea may contain blood, mucus and pus. Mild or asymptomatic cases can occur. Methods of Transmission Directly or indirectly from a patient or carrier through the fecal-oral route. The disease spreads from an infected person who fails to properly wash hands after defecation and from contaminated hands, objects or foods. Ingestion of a few organisms may result in an infection. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Variable; as long as the organism is excreted in the stool, normally 4 weeks after illness. Asymptomatic carriers may transmit infection. Rarely, the carrier state may persist for months. Control:EXCLUDE children and staff with diarrhea. Proper handwashing after using the bathroom or changing diapers is necessary. Persons preparing food must not change diapered children in day care setting. Other Information All persons in high risk occupations (day care, patient care or food handling) should be excluded until 2 negative stool cultures are taken 24 hours or more apart. Samples must be taken 48 hours following the last dose of antibiotic therapy. Report this illness to your local health department. Also, report any pattern of illness which is unusual or in increased numbers. The most frequent causes of sore throats and tonsillitis are the same viruses that cause colds. Whether or not to exclude a child can be a difficult decision. A general guideline is to exclude if symptoms resemble those of a strep throat. Probably not Strep Throat Possible Strep Throat Fever absent or mild mild to high Appearance generalized redness pus spots on back of throat and tonsils Onset usually slow, accompanied by cold symptoms usually rapid (within hours) Exclusion most children don't need to be excluded unless having a fever or feeling unwell Signs and Symptoms: Strep Throat: Fever, sore and red throat, pus spots on the back of the throat, tender and swollen lymph nodes in the neck. Scarlet Fever: Includes all symptoms that occur with strep throat, as well as strawberry tongue and rash on the skin and inside the mouth. High fever, nausea, and vomiting may occur. The rash on the skin is normally easily felt but not seen. The tongue is usually white before the appearance of the strawberry tongue. Methods of Transmission Direct or intimate contact with an infected person or carrier. Rarely, by contaminated objects or hands. Outbreaks of strep throat may follow ingestion of contaminated foods, such as milk, egg salad or deviled eggs. Signs and Symptoms: Infection of the skin, mouth, or tongue that appears as white spots which cannot be scraped off without causing bleeding. May also occur in folds of the skin in diapered areas and is a common cause of diaper rash. Methods of Transmission Direct contact with secretions or excretions of mouth, skin, vagina, or feces from patients or carriers. From mother to baby during birth. Infection may also happen as part of normal body function. The fungus is often part of normal body flora that sometimes becomes a symptomatic infection. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Presumably for as long as lesions are present. Control:It is not necessary to exclude the child from attendance. Meticulous handwashing and disinfection of contaminated articles (such as nipples, pacifiers, etc.) is necessary to prevent spread. Medication is usually needed to shorten duration of infection. Other Information Wet diapers facilitate the spread of candidiasis; keeping children in dry diapers is very important in prevention of the disease. Children should be thoroughly cleaned and dried before fresh diapers are applied. Persons who have been on extended antibiotic therapy or who are immunocompromised may be at increased risk. Signs and Symptoms: Acute disease with sudden onset of fever, intense headache, nausea, vomiting, and stiff neck. Behavioral changes may occur, including irritability or sluggishness. A rash may or may not be present. Methods of Transmission Varies with causative agent. Enteroviruses, a common cause of viral meningitis, are transmitted by the fecal-oral route (ingesting very tiny amounts of fecal material from an infected person through contaminated hands or objects). May also spread by airborne droplets from respiratory secretions. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Varies with specific infectious agent. Control:A child with fever who feels unwell should be EXCLUDED from attendance. A child with viral meningitis should be under a physician's care. Since the virus may be excreted in feces for several weeks, proper handwashing is essential before handling or eating foods, after using the bathroom, assisting a child in the bathroom, or changing a diaper. Other Information A medical evaluation is necessary to determine whether meningitis is viral or bacterial because the symptoms are essentially the same. Viral meningitis is a less serious disease than bacterial meningitis, except in young infants who may suffer severe consequences. Medical care is necessary. Report this illness to your local health department. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. Signs and Symptoms: Begins with cold symptoms such as a runny nose and an irritating cough that gradually worsens into severe coughing attacks (paroxysms) within 1-2 weeks. Violent spells of coughing frequently end with vomiting. Some cases can be severe, resulting in pneumonia or neurological symptoms. Can last for 1-2 months or longer. Young infants and adults often do not have typical whoop. Mild cases are sometimes missed. Methods of Transmission Airborne droplet or direct contact with the respiratory secretions from an infected person. Minimum Control Measures Communicable Period: Highly communicable in early stage and up to 2 weeks after the onset of violent coughing. Antibiotics shorten communicable period to 5 days after treatment is started. Control:EXCLUDE from attendance until 5 days after start of antibiotic therapy or until symptoms are no longer present. Exposure to children especially incompletely immunized children should be observed for respiratory tract symptoms for 20 days after last exposure. Symptomatic children with a cough should be excluded until they are evaluated by a physician. Those diagnosed as having pertussis should not return to school until five days after starting antibiotics. Chemoprophylaxis should be considered for adult staff with close or extensive contact. Adult staff members should also be observed for respiratory tract symptoms, be tested if symptoms develop, and start antibiotic therapy if cough develops within 20 days of exposure. Other Information Immunizations should begin at 2 months of age and be received again at 4 months, 6 months, 15-18 months and 4-6 years. Children attending schools early childhood programs are required by law to be adequately immunized for their age. Pertussis is a vaccine-preventable disease. Serious complications of pertussis include bronchopneumonia and occasionally neurological symptoms. Accelerated schedule for booster vaccines and antibiotic therapy may be recommended for exposed individuals. *Report this illness to your local health department immediately by telephone. Also report any pattern of illness which is unusual or an increased number of illnesses/cases. COMMUNICABLE DISEASE GUIDELINESFOR EXCLUSION OF CHILDREN FROM DAY CARE A. A child caregiver shall not be required to exclude from care a child with minor illness unless one or more of the following conditions exists: 1. The child has a fever defined by the child's age as follows: Infants younger than 4 months of age: rectal temperature or temperature in the armpitequal to or greater than 101°F. Children 4-24 months: rectal or oral temperature equal to or greater than 102°F. Children older than 24 months: oral or rectal temperature equal to or greater than 102°F. 2. Diarrhea, defined as an increased number of stools compared to the child's normalpattern with increased stool water and/or decreased form. 3. Vomiting illness with two or more episodes of vomiting in the previous 24 hours. 4. Mouth sores associated with an inability of the child to control his/her saliva. 5. Rash with fever or behavior change. 6. Infected eyes with discharge, until 24 hours after treatment started by physician. 7. Infestation (e.g., scabies, head lice, pinworm), until after first treatment with a medicated product. 8. Impetigo, until 24 hours after antibiotic treatment has been started. 9. Strep throat, until 24 hours after antibiotic treatment has been started. 10. Ringworm infection, until after medication started. 11. Chickenpox, until one week after the onset of rash, or until all lesions have dried and crusted. B. The caregiver shall contact the local health department or the Utah Department of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology for specific guidelines in the event of a sudden or extraordinary occurrence of serious communicable disease. Such serious communicable diseases include: 1. Supervise children at all times. Leaving children alone at a playground encourages rough and reckless play that can lead to injury. 2. Check playground equipment every day. Broken equipment should be repaired immediately. Do not allow children to play on broken equipment. Sharp edges, loosely anchored climbing equipment and other hazards should be fixed quickly. 3. Excessive heights for equipment, such as monkey bars or slides, are unnecessary. A series of platforms in successive heights between 18 to 24 inches creates the appearance of a challenging climb and provides a limited fall. 4. A soft surface should be used for ground covering to absorb the impact of falls. Packed earth is not a good ground covering for playground equipment. Six to ten inches of mulch, dry sand, wood chips, bark, pea gravel, shredded tires, or synthetic mats provide a cushioning effect. This cushion prevents the severity of an injury due to a fall. Loosely filled material must be redistributed frequently, including after use, heavy rain, or freezing. 5. Traffic patterns must be established out of harms way. Ample clearance room is needed around swings, slides, and merry-go-rounds. Children must be able to enter and exit from equipment safely without having to dodge moving obstacles. 6. Restrict children from playing on equipment that is too big or small for them. Smaller children cannot play safely on oversized equipment. 7. Keep the playground well maintained. Pick up the trash. Keep weeds trimmed. Remove poisonous plants. Keep the surface graded so there is no standing water. 8. Separate areas for different types of play are needed. Too little space on a playground allows a child, intently focused on his/her own activity, to step right into the activity of another group. 9. Look at the area outside of the playground. Is there an environmental threat, such as a busy street, next to it? Separate nearby dangers with a fence. 10. Teach children how to travel to and from the playground safely. Seatbelt, traffic, and bicycle safety are important for children to learn correctly and use consistently. Learning at an early age helps children develop a lifetime of good habits. 1. Provide first aid to the child. Flush the wound with lots of water. Clean the wound with soap and water, then rinse it well. Refer to medical treatment by or under the direction of a physician. 2. Confine the animal if possible. Write down the name, phone number and address of the owner, a description of the animal, and the events surrounding the bite. If the animal escapes, it is particularly important to get as much information as possible. 3. Report the bite to the local health department and/or animal control. 1. The stinger should be removed carefully by gently pushing on the skin opposite the entrance point of the stinger. Do not pull the stinger becuase it could break off inside the skin. 2. Use a cold compress to relieve the pain. 3. If after a bee sting, a child has hives, turns pale or weak, becomes nauseous or vomits, complains of a tightness in the chest or difficulty breathing, call for medical emergency services immediately. The following phone numbers should be near each phone in the day care center: Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces is one of the most important ways to ensure that communicable diseases are not spread in your day care center or school. Proper cleaning reduces the number of germs or microorganisms available to cause illness or infection. In order for a disinfectant to work properly, a dirty surface should first be cleaned with a detergent and water solution, and then rinsed. Disinfectants will not work properly without first removing the gross contamination or soil (cleaning). Disinfectants must make a claim to disinfect on the bottle, be registered with the Environmental Protection Agency, and have an E.P.A. number listed on the label. An inexpensive disinfectant can be made by mixing 1/4 cup of household bleach and 1 gallon of water, or 1 tablespoon of bleach to 1 quart of water. Do not use this disinfectant on surfaces that may be damaged by bleach, such as carpets. It is important to read the label, mix solutions properly and use the product exactly as the manufacturer directs. Some products, such as regular bleach, can be mixed in different concentrations to make both disinfecting and sanitizing solutions. Sanitizing solutions are used on food contact surfaces and for dishes and utensils in the last compartment of the three-compartment sink. The sanitizing solution is mixed with smaller amounts of concentrate and more water. Follow the directions on the label and make sure to test the sanitizer strength with a litmus paper test kit. Toys and Stuffed Animals Toys and Play Equipment:In the child care setting, toys and play equipment may be shared by many children and the potential for transmitting infections is obvious. Toys are especially challenging because of the varying materials and textures involved. In general, soft, cuddly toys should be avoided because washing is more difficult. Infants may play with washable toys that are disinfected before and after use by another infant. Cleaning non-absorbent toys: When cleaning non-absorbent toys such as blocks or plastic toys, wash them with soap and water. Rinse in a dilute (1:10 to 1:100) bleach solution. Air dry. Cleaning absorbent toys: When cleaning absorbent toys such as stuffed animals or play clothes, wash them in a washing machine. Bleach should be used if possible. Air dry or machine dry. Cleaning Bath toys: Bath toys include any toy used in the bathtub that may hold stagnant water in it. When cleaning a bath toy squeeze out the water that may be inside the toys. The inside of the toys should be sanitized with the same solution that is used in the non-absorbent toys and the same procedure should be followed. These toys should be avoided if possible. Stuffed Animals: Machine wash and dry on fluff cycle. Blankets and Sheets Center-owned: Machine wash and dry at least weekly, before being used by another child, and any time visibly soiled. Child-owned: The same as center-owned. It is a good idea to send blankets home each weekend to be washed. Carpets/Rugs/Sofas, etc: Carpets that have been contaminated (eg. with vomit or urine) are considered high risk for transmitting germs even if they have been cleaned thoroughly, until they are completely dry. When cleaning absorbent materials such as carpeting, rugs and sofas, first blot up the spill. Spray sanitizing shampoo on the surface. Use a brush to scrub the spill. Allow the shampoo to air dry and vacuum. Soak the brush in sanitizing solution and rinse with warm water. Another option would be to sprinkle sanitizing powder on the spill, let the powder dry and vacuum. Tables: When needed and nightly. Cleaning a Blood or Body Fluid Spill Wear gloves. Never touch the fluid with bare hands. Wipe up the spill with disposable towels. Place used towels in a plastic garbage liner. Use soap and water to clean the surface, rinse with clear water and disinfect with a bleach solution (described above). Soak the mop, rag or whatever was used to clean up the spill in a bleach and water solution. Clean the container which held the mop. Remove gloves and dispose in the garbage liner, tie shut and dispose of the bag. Wash hands. Store potentially hazardous foods cold at 45°F or below and hot at 140°F or above. Essentially, keep hot foods hot, cold foods cold or do not keep them. Bacteria can grow if food is kept at temperatures not hot enough or not cold enough. These bacteria can sometimes cause illness if the food is eaten. Use coolers with ice packs for keeping lunches on field trips. Make sure that the refrigerator has a thermometer so that you can check the temperature. Children who pack lunch from home should keep their lunches in the refrigerator. Thaw food correctly.Leaving food out on the kitchen counter to thaw can allow bacteria to grow in the food, which could cause a foodborne illness. Thaw foods in one of the following ways: 1) on a tray on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, 2) under cold running and continuously draining water, 3) in the microwave only if the food is cooked immediately afterwards. Wash your hands before food handling, eating and after using the bathroom. Teach the children to wash their hands. Many diseases and infections are prevented by good handwashing practices. Wash, clear water rinse and then sanitize dishes and utensils in the three compartment sink. Never mix bleach or sanitizer with dishwashing soap.The three compartment sink is designed for washing, clear water rinse and then a sanitizing rinse. Measure out the correct amount of sanitizer. Use a litmus test kit to test the concentration. Sanitize for the proper amount of time and then let dishes and utensils air-dry. Keep food products away from cleaners and medicine.Never refer to medicine as candy to a child. This only encourages children to eat more medicine than they should. Separate the cleaners from the food. Some detergents can be mistaken for foods, oxalic acid appears like sugar. Pine cleaners may look like apple juice. Medicine may look like candy. Label all spray bottles and bulk containers. Body Substance Precautions refer to the consistent use of barrier methods to prevent direct contact with the body fluids of another person. Gloves are worn to prevent contact with non-intact skin, moist mucous membranes, and body fluids; masks and eye protection are worn when there is a chance of splashing body fluids into the eyes, nose or mouth; gowns are worn if there is a chance that clothing may become soiled with body fluids. Body Substance Precautions also include proper disposal of contaminated equipment and good handwashing practices. Why should I use Body Substance Precautions? Blood and body fluids often contain microorganisms that can cause illness. In order for an illness or communicable disease to occur, the microorganism must be transmitted from the reservoir (blood or body fluid) to a susceptible host. The use of barrier methods such as gloves, as well as good handwashing practices, helps to prevent the transmission of a pathogen into a susceptible host and minimizes the chance that disease or infection will occur. How does Body Substance Precautions Work? Body Substance Precautions require that appropriate barrier methods be used to avoid contact with body fluids, secretions, excretions and broken skin. The "barriers" such as gloves, gowns and masks must be put on before beginning the task where exposure could occur. For example, if someone vomits and the area must be cleaned and disinfected, begin the task by putting on latex or vinyl gloves. After finishing, remove the gloves and place in the proper trash receptacle. Finally, wash your hands with warm water and soap. Why should I use Body Substance Precautions? All blood and body fluids can contain microorganisms capable of causing disease or infection if introduced into a susceptible host. By using Body Substance Precautions, you protect yourself and your patient from exposure that might cause illness. What is the difference between Universal Precautions and Body Substance Precautions? Universal Precautions were developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent bloodborne diseases such as infection with the human immunodeficiency and hepatitis B viruses. Body Substance Precautions require that barrier methods be used for all body fluids including those that contain bloodborne pathogens. This is because many diseases are not "bloodborne" and can be caused from exposure to other body secretions and excretions. Body Substance Precautions are based upon the idea that all body secretions and excretions could contain microorganisms capable of causing disease. What is an example of Body Substance Precautions? The hepatitis A virus is transmitted by ingesting minuscule amounts of feces from an infected person, generally through contaminated hands or foods (fecal-oral route). Using protective equipment such as gloves to change diapers prevents contact with feces. After removing the gloves, good handwashing practices reduce the chance that the hepatitis A virus is on your hands. Body Substance Precautions (gloves and handwashing) help to eliminate the mode of transmission necessary to cause infection with the hepatitis A virus. What body fluids are included in Body Substance Precautions? All secretions and excretions of the body. This includes blood, saliva, sputum, feces, urine, open lesions, non-intact (broken) skin, secretions from wounds, vomitus, breast milk and all other fluids, secretions and excretions. Do Body Substance Precautions just mean using protective equipment such as gloves? No, Body Substance Precautions don't stop with protective equipment. They also include proper disposal of contaminated equipment and good handwashing practices. They include disposing of sharps in a rigid container and putting dirty linen in the proper receptacle. Body Substance Precautions also mean that disposable resuscitation devices should be used to perform cardio pulmonary resuscitation (C.P.R.). What should I do if I get a body substance on my skin? Wash the area immediately with soap and warm water. Flush the area with lots of water. If you were exposed in an occupational setting, follow your employer's exposure control plan and seek the appropriate medical attention. If the exposure was percutaneous such as a needlestick or involved non-intact skin, make sure that you seek medical attention as soon as possible. Remember that it is important to follow up on all non-intact skin exposures to blood and body fluids. A recent review of immunization records show that your child, (NAME) may not be adequately immunized as required by the Utah Immunization Rule for Students (R396-100). Please obtain complete dates for the indicated immunizations and provide a record to us by (DATE) or your child will be excluded from attending school on (DATE) under the Utah Statutory Code (53A-11-306). If we do not receive this information from you before the date indicated, we will be forced to exclude your child from attendance. We regret that we must take this action, but state law requires that children must be appropriately immunized in order to attend a Utah school ore early childhood program. Our facility supports this policy. If you have questions or need additional information, please call (TELEPHONE NUMBER). Utah law requires children attending this Early Childhood Program or facility be appropriately immunized for their age against the following vaccine-preventable disease: Diphtheria Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib) Hepatitis A Hepatitis B Measles Mumps Pertussis Pneumococcal Polio Rubella Tetanus Varicella It is your responsibility to have your child immunized and to provide this facility with a medically verified, date-and dose-specific immunization record for all required immunizations he/she has received. This is required for admission to this facility. Factors regarding when your child gets which doses of vaccine include:	eng	5c9c2ceb-d9de-450a-95d4-b2ddb48f9ae9	http://health.utah.gov/epi/cdepi/daycareschool.htm
On the occasion of celebrating the United Arab Emirates National Day, Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi issues a documentary book entitled Abu Dhabi over a Half Century.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎. ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Facts and Figures 1960 - 2010, which uses statistical figures to display the success story of Abu Dhabi Emirate in all economic, social and cultural fields over 50 years 1960 -2010. The book opens with an important overview that provides a brief history of the Abu Dhabi Emirate which dates back to thousands of years. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is characterized by an age-old heritage, from its ancient history to the contemporary diversity of its natural environment and wildlife. It is renowned for its tradition in poetry, prose and handicrafts.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ There is ample evidence of a strategically-important, thriving, resource-rich and diverse civilization, evidenced in archaeological excavations dating back thousands of years.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Man first appears in what is now the Emirate of Abu Dhabi more than 7500 years ago. Archaeological discoveries have shown that the first inhabitants of the Emirate arrived in the first Stone Age, and there is evidence of mass graves dating back to 3000-2500 B.C. on the slopes of Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain. Over time, the Emirate saw the emergence of iron production and the start of the use of the Arabic alphabet, as well as evidence of a close relationship with the Assyrian and Persian empires.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎During the Bronze Age, Abu Dhabi established trade relations with Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and the Indus Valley.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Two years before the death of the Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings be upon him), in 630, a delegation from Medina came to this region to lead the call to Islam, in the area where the Bani Yas tribe lived in Liwa, who then migrated, under the leadership of Sheikh Al Bu Falah (Al Nahyan), to Abu Dhabi in order to dive for pearls.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎The modern history of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi starts in the early seventeenth century, when the Bani Yas tribe settled in the Dhafra area.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎They controlled the areas stretching from Sabkha Matti in the north to the Empty Quarter in the south.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎In 1761 water was discovered on the Island of Abu Dhabi, and some members of the Bani Yas Tribe lived there by fishing and pearl diving. Maleeh flourished to became the first coastal settlement of the Bani Yas, and Sheikh Shakhboot bin Dhiab bin Issa Al Nahyan took the Island of Abu Dhabi as his permanent home.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎The Emirate of Abu Dhabi continued to prosper economically throughout the nineteenth century until the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, thanks to the abundance of pearls, but the prosperity of the pearl industry declined at the onset of the First World War, and suffered setbacks due to the global economic recession in late twenties and early thirties of the twentieth century. The invention by the Japanese of pearl culturing dealt the final blow to the industry, hitting Abu Dhabi severely.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎In those times, life in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi was one of epic heroism, courage and patience in the face of the desert's cruelty and the scarcity of water.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎The old residents of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Liwa oases, and Al Dhafra, worked in camel herding, harvesting dates, fishing and pearl diving, and moved to where there was water and pasturelands.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎One of the sons born to the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Sultan Al Nahyan, was Sheikh Zayed (may God rest his soul), who was named after his grandfather, and who showed, from a young age, great interest in acquiring knowledge, understanding the mysteries of the desert and the sea, and how people relate to their environment and are affected by it.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎When he became a Representative of the Governor in Al Ain, at the age of only 28, he administered the affairs of Al Ain, six surrounding villages, and some villages in neighboring areas. During that period, he gained intimate knowledge of the affairs of government and the tribes, and put the plans in place that made Al Ain a model society in the field of agriculture, the provision of water resources, education, and other fields.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎In 1968, the British announced their intention to withdraw from the area within three years.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎When the idea of independence came to the fore, Sheikh Zayed (may God rest his soul) hastened to invite the rulers of the other emirates to form a strong federation, a vision that materialized on December 2, 1971, the birth date of the United Arab Emirates. ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎The search for oil began in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the 1930s.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi for the first time in 1958, and the first shipment of it was exported in 1962 from the Umm Shiff field, making Abu Dhabi the first oil-exporting Emirate.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎It was a quantum leap, as the region's economy had depended on pearls before oil.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Sheikh Zayed (may God rest his soul) employed oil revenues well, using them to increase the welfare of his people with respect to education and the development of infrastructure. His reign, which lasted for 33 years, witnessed an unprecedented development, through which Abu Dhabi was transformed from a semi-nomadic society to the home of one of the most important, vital and highly advanced economic hubs in the world.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Abu Dhabi over a Half Century stresses, using statistical data and figures that Abu Dhabi Emirate witnessed the most unique experience worldwide with regard to quick as well as balanced growth and development, with the reins of power in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, ushering in a rarely matched boom in all walks of life.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎A look at Abu Dhabi today reveals a place of magnificent beauty, developed infrastructure, quality services and remarkable development in the various aspects of discussed in this book, which spans five decades of prosperity, development and progress, visible in the diverse accomplishments that have encompassed all aspects of life in the Emirate and have come about as a direct result of the wise planning that chalked out the guidelines for the period under review.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The book documents to a large extent, presenting statistical facts and figures, the achivement of Sheikh Zayed (may God rest his soul) who became the Ruler of Abu Dhabi on the sixth of August 1966. He assumed the reins of power in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, ushering in a rarely matched boom in all walks of life.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Thanks to his wise management of the abundant natural resources in the country, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is now among the world's leading nations in terms of economic prowess and living standards of the citizens.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Comprehensive development has continued under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and Ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎With a strong political commitment to success and advancement in all ways, and through a clear vision for development and ambitious planning, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi continues to advance from strength to strength, pioneering a new model of development in the Arab world and the Middle East in general, where it is seen as one of the dynamic and fastest growing economies.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ A pioneering experience coupled with continuing efforts The book is forwarded by a message from H.E. Nasser Ahmed Al Suwaidi,the Chairman of the Board of Statistica Centre - Abu Dhabi, in which he mentioned that proud to work under the supervision of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the directives of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the Executive Council, is also well aware of the magnitude of its responsibilities, and is determined to fully meet them, as a trusted and reliable institution on which all decision-makers depend for planning, policymaking and action.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ He also mentioned that the book presents SCAD's attempt to provide a new resource for writing the history of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in order to serve as a reliable source for historians, academics, researchers and all those interested in the history of development in the Emirate to uncover a wealth of important data that was not available before.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ His Excellency concluded by asserting that Abu Dhabi over a Half Century ..‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Facts and Figures is an important statistical document on the achievements of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the past five decades, the fruit of the clear vision and wise management of its senior leadership and a synopsis of the progress arising from it, and serves as example and proof of what this leadership has achieved and still offers to achieve in building this nation and developing its people in all the various spheres of life.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The book also included a message form Butti Ahmed Mohamed Butti Al Qubaisi,‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ the Director General of Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi, in which he referred to the fact that The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has witnessed over the past five decades major transformations and undergone pioneering achievements unparalleled in the history of human civilization.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi is proud to document the development of the Emirate over the years, providing statistics, graphs, and real images that add a new dimension to reading the history of its development and paint a clear picture of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi's progress.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ He also confirmned that Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi traces the historical stages of development and growth over half a century of achievement that transformed the Emirate of Abu Dhabi from a desert into a nation in the forefront of economic and social development, setting one of the best examples in comprehensive, rapid and balanced development. In five decades, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has changed from somewhere that lacked the most basic necessities of life into one of the most developed areas in the world.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Studying these figures, Al Qubaisi elaborated, anyone will realize from the outset that these great achievements have not come about by chance; nor are they the spontaneous outcome of natural wealth. It is rather the product of clear thought and insight characterizing the unique personal leadership of His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God rest his soul. It is through his wise planning and solid strategy that Abu Dhabi has made its way successfully, relying on its people, investing in science and learning, and depending on the individual first and foremost in the overall development process.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Progress has continued at an accelerated pace under the wise leadership of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, Ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi - may God protect him - as well as under the meticulous and wise direction of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎In concusion, H.E. mentioned the major development boom in Abu Dhabi during the past years - the general features of which are outlined in this book - is only a prelude to further growth expected in the Emirate in the coming years, the product of a sound development strategy and the prudent fiscal policies pursued by Abu Dhabi.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ 50 Years of Achievements In the introduction, the book briefly mentions a brief statistical overview about the key achievements of the overall development process taking place in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, indicating that during the last four decades the GDP of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi at current prices increased 190 times, from Dhs3.267bn in 1970 to Dhs620.316bn in 201, and that GDP per capita at current prices increased from Dhs49 thousand in 1970 to Dhs315.3 thousand in 2010. The overview shed light on the fact that the volume of fixed investments in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has increased 314 times, during the last 40 years, while the volume of the foreign trade of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi at current prices increased 4723 times, from Dhs82m in 1962 to Dhs387.282bn in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ With regard to this issue the book indicates that through the history og Abu Dhabi Emirate it has never suffered from Budget deficit. Contrarily, in the past five decades (1962 - 2010), ‎‎‎the Emirate of Abu Dhabi achieved a cumulative trade surplus of approximately Dhs2.366 trillion at current prices.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ In the introduction, the book stated that the number of females in the national Labour force has doubled more than 4 times during the last four decades and that the illiteracy rate among female nationals retreated from 97.41% in 1968 to only 8.77% in 2010 while the same rate has fallen among the population of nationals from 90.13% in 1968 to only 6.13% in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ In the field of health services, the overview stated that the number of doctors in government hospitals reached 2,026 in 2010, compared with 73 in 1970, whereas the crude mortality rate (per 1000 population) declined from 4.5 in 1975 to only 1.5 in 2010. In contrast, Average life expectancy at birth for nationals increased from only 49.3 years in 1970 to 76.2 years in 2010. The indicated numbers match the levels of services provided in advanced countries and reflect the prominent positions which the Emirate occupy at the international level with regard to the efforts it exert to provide a decent standard of living for its citizens. Economic Development‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Abu Dhabi over a Half Century dedicated major sections to tract the economic development of Abu Dhabi Emirate during the past four decades, as the Emirate's economy has flourished immensely having the a stronger momentum, the most diversified base as well as being the more effective and sustainable.The Emirate's GDP at current prices increased 190 times, from Dhs3.267bn in 1970 to Dhs620.316bn in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Development and economic reform in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has been of crucial concern to the political leadership aiming to achieve progress and development and to catch-up with the advanced world.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎As a result of this concern, development in the Emirate has advanced immensely, and the national economy has developed to global comparability, being competitive with various economies regionally and globally.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎The local economy has achieved a leading position in all performance indicators, as well as a highly unique investment environment, the result of the wise policies of the senior leadership, which has contributed to creating an attractive environment for global investments, and is capable of attracting companies of all kinds from various parts of the world. ‎‎‎‎‎‎ Over the past years, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has continuously contributed around 60% of the GDP of the United Arab Emirates, while its population constitutes only 34% of the total UAE population according to the 2005 census.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎Given the strong political commitment to success and the economic advancement in all directions, the wise economic policies and due to the business environment, the financial surpluses, the advanced infrastructure, and the political stability and security the emirate enjoys, the economy of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has come to occupy a unique position and expanding space in the region. This is especially so given the strategic transformations and major reforms in the economy, beginning with the restructuring of local government and limiting its role in the economy to economic policies aiming to diversify sources of income. The emirate is moving steadily towards the future to bring about a radical transformation in the structure of local economy. Diversifying the Economic Base In light of the extensive efforts excreted by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in its development and in various aspects of the economy, non-oil sectors have emerged as an important part of the process of economic development and have played an important role in the structure of GDP. The contribution of the non-oil sectors to GDP at current prices has increased 278 times over the past five decades, rising from Dhs1.125bn in 1970 to Dhs312.295bn in 2010. Today these sectors constitute half of GDP.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Any reading of the economy of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi will confirm that it has made significant strides and has achieved a high degree of development and diversity in a short period and that it is moving from strength to strength under a wise leadership that benefits from past experience in its endeavour to achieve the best utilization of available opportunities.‎‎‎‎‎‎This is reflected in the economic progress of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi over the past years, within a context of initiating major projects that include practical vision and an accurate reading of prospects which, in turn, draw the national economy to the attention of investors from various parts of the world.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎The Abu Dhabi economy has strongly progressed in recent years towards the establishment of a firm basis for itself founded on economic diversity and comprehensive development. It has become the most dynamic economy in the region and the third biggest economy in the Arab world.‎‎‎‎‎‎ Breaking through from an economy depending, for most of its activities, on public sector spending, which is directly affected by fluctuating oil revenue, to a diversified local economy that has become a financial, commercial and tourist centre in the region.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎Parallel to this, the private sector has achieved similar success, and has numerous competitive advantages in the fields of production and exports, which will allow it to play a more effective future role in facing up to economic uncertainties, both regionally and internationally.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎Thus, there is concern to support the private sector in the economic diversification process through continuing to create the right investment climate to strengthen the role of the private sector in the economic development process. There is also increasing interest in privatization programmes for government and public sector companies, which contributes to expanding the capacity and lightening the administrative and financial burdens on government entities, achieving optimal utilization of capabilities and financial resources. ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The economic performance, over the past years, tells the story of the success of Abu Dhabi in harnessing natural resources to serve the sustainable development to ensure that citizens enjoy one of the highest living standards in the world, doubling per capita GDP at current prices more than seven folds during the last four decades. This rate rose from Dhs41.4bn in 1970 to Dhs315.3bn in 2010. However, the economic success story is just one of the chapters of the decent living it offers to citizens and expatriate, a welfare that was not possible without the progress that has been achieved in other areas of life. Foreign Trade Foreign trade in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has witnessed major changes in the past four decades, both geographically and structurally, doubling its size 164 folds from Dhs2.362bn in 1970 to Dhs387.282bn 2010, while doubling the volume of exports at current prices about 150 times, from Dhs2.009bn in 1970 to Dhs300.708bn 2010. The total foreign trade of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi rose by 16396%, while the volume of exports at current prices increased by about 14968%, during the same period. four decades, exports were equivalent to approximately 56% of GDP, while imports and the visible trade balance surplus represented 13% and 43% respectively of GDP. ‎‎‎‎‎‎ five decades, exports were equivalent to approximately 56% of GDP, while imports and the visible trade balance surplus represented 13% and 43% respectively of GDP. ‎‎‎‎‎‎ Over the past five decades (from 1962 to 2010) the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has continued to achieve a surplus in its commodity trade with the outside world, and has never had a trade deficit during this period. The total cumulative surplus achieved by the Emirate during this period is approximately Dhs2.366 trillion at current prices, with the total exported by the Emirate during the same period was about Dhs3.175 trillion at current prices, and its total imports during the same period was about Dhs809bn.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ One of the important characteristics of the commodity trade balance of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the period from 1962 - 2010 is the existence of a large surplus, even during the period that witnessed a drop in the price, production and export of crude oil, with the total exports of the Emirate during this period close to four times its imports over the same period. The trade surplus has also constituted an average of 59% of total foreign trade in commodities.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎This surplus has contributed to strengthening the position and stability of the balance of payments as well as financing the deficit in services.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎There is no doubt that such a large surplus in the trade balance is considered one of the main strengths of the local economy in meeting the requirements of development.‎‎‎‎‎‎ The Emirate has continued to open up economically and increase foreign trade by increasing the degree of interdependence. The average annual growth rate of commodity exports, during the period from 1970 - 2010, was about 3%, compared with an average annual growth rate of commodity imports during the same period of about 5%, resulting in a surplus in the balance of trade growing at an average annual growth rate of 3.4% during the same period. Oil and Natural Gas:‎‎‎‎‎‎ In July 1962, the world oil markets received the first shipment of crude oil from Abu Dhabi, and from that date forward, the oil sector has remained the essential foundation upon which the Emirate's economic and social development projects are based, although the percentage of this sector's contribution in GDP has been declining gradually from almost 70% during the first half of the 1970s to less than 50% during the last two years, reflecting the policy of economic diversification pursued by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The first attempt at oil exploration in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi took place on January 11th, 1939, shortly before the events leading up to World War II and exploration slowed down during the war years.‎‎‎‎‎‎ Exploration in the Emirate resumed in 1947, yet all the tests conducted affirmed that there was no economic feasibility due to the high cost of drilling and low price of oil at that time. This situation lasted until 1959, when oil was discovered in commercial quantities in the Marban field.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎The first ship carrying oil sailed from Das Island in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in late July 1962, representing the beginning of the major, comprehensive and continuous development witnessed by the Emirate from that point onwards. During the past five decades, economic performance in the Emirate has continued to directly reflect developments in the crude oil sector, not only because oil sales constitute the main source of national income, but also because oil is the main catalyst in non-oil sectors, through what is spent by the Emirate to support them.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎Since then, the oil sector in the Emirate has continued to be mainstay of local economy and the main source of national income, and will continue to do so for many years to come, given that Abu Dhabi is sixth in the world in terms of the global reserves, with reserves estimated currently at around 92 billion barrels, equivalent to 7% of the total confirmed global reserves, while its current production constitutes more than 8% of total OPEC production. Thus the Emirate of Abu Dhabi could continue its oil production for more than 100 years from now at current rates.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎Despite all this, the most important role in the course of development is not the oil itself, but the wise leadership that has managed and utilized the oil for the benefit and welfare of the people.‎‎‎‎‎‎ Manufacturing Industry:‎‎‎‎‎‎ The industrial sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has witnessed major growth represented in the increasing number of industrial establishments and the expansion of their investments into various fields. In addition the Emirate entered into major industrial joint ventures with several multinationals, established large-scale state-of-the-art industrial zones to attract more investments to the industrial sector, and the value added by this sector has increased from 10.4 million in 1970 to Dhs33.86bn in 2010, while the volume of fixed investment has increased from 8.6 million to Dhs28.472bn during the same period, something which has contributed to this sector's playing an increasingly crucial role in the productivity, diversification and development of the economic base.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Abu Dhabi's drive towards establishing major capital intensive hi-tech industrial complexes in cooperation with major industrial countries comes within the context of industry being a policy priority for Abu Dhabi. The last years witnessed the execution by the competent bodies of programs pertaining to major expansion in industrial activity through establishing several developed industries in various industrial activities. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has been able to establish a solid foundation for major industrial expansion, thus increasing the contribution of this vital sector in the Emirate's economy, especially given the serious commitment of the state leadership to supporting and encouraging these sectors. This they are doing through legislation supportive of industrial development, in addition to the increasing interest in the quality of industrial products.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎The aluminum, iron, steel, glass, metals, plastic and petrochemical industries are only some of the heavy industries capable of driving growth in the industrial sector.‎‎‎‎‎‎ Industry plays an important role in the economic structure of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as one of the main axes upon which are most of the other branches of production dependent. Industry is also the most important diversifying sources of national income given its multiple areas of activities. Thus building up a sound industrial movement comes on top of the priorities of development plans and programmes. Thanks to the arduous efforts made in previous years to develop and improve the manufacturing sector as the backbone of the plan to diversify the economy, the value added by this sector leapt from Dhs10.4m in 1970 to Dhs33.86bn in 2010, with an average annual growth rate of 79% during that period. The industrial sector also experienced a giant leap in the rate of growth of industrial establishments during that period, with the volume of fixed investments in the manufacturing activity increasing from Dhs8.6m in 1970 to Dhs28.472bn in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎ Investment:‎‎‎‎‎‎ In recent years, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has pursued an investment plan that has made it a destination for major international companies, given that government policies have operated in harmony with private sector efforts.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎During the past four decades the number of trade licenses has increased about 50-fold from 1,947 in 1970 to 96,381 in 2010. These licenses have also seen a similar qualitative development during this period.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Affected by the major structural and geographic shifts in the world economy over the past years, with increasing complexity of economic interests among the world countries, which have exceeded geographical boundaries including the movement of capital and energy sources and the opening of different markets, the Emirate headed towards economic reform and restructuring, a more active role for the private sector, and more advanced and transparent government and government entities. Within this framework, a number of important initiatives have been launched, focusing on economic development and supporting local and foreign private investment.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎The most important features of the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 consist in enhancing economic performance through the optimal utilization of the financial resources available to achieve structural balance and diversity in the local economy, increasing production, the development of services and their quality, improving performance in institutional, legal and executive bodies regulating the economy to support openness and transparency, encouraging the private sector, enabling it to participate in all economic activities, and the encouragement of partnerships between the local and foreign private sectors. ‎‎‎‎‎‎ The effect of all these developments is evident in the ‎‎‎increase in the number of trade licenses registered by about 50-fold during the past four decades from 1,947 in 1970 to 96,381 in 2010. These licenses have also seen a similar qualitative development during this period. The Emirate's economy has greatly developed during the last six years as a result of the increase in oil prices in international markets, the matter which had a positive impact the size of fixed investment in all economic activities that has gowned over the past period at a record pace. Economic development in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is characterized by huge investment in commercial and service activities, bringing about a diversification of national income sources and establishing a productive base.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎The size of fixed investments has increased from 565 million in 1970 to Dhs177.467bn in 2010, with the share of commercial activities reaching 54% of these investments and the service sector 46%.‎‎‎‎‎‎ The Government of Abu Dhabi has succeeded in expanding the participation of the public sector in productive development, providing services that contribute to the growth of the economic activity, encouraging the private sector by providing vital support.‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎Also, the plans recently adopted by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, especially Abu Dhabi Vision 2030, include an increasing role for local and foreign investment in future development in projects of various sizes and types.‎‎‎‎‎‎ There are many factors that make the investment climate in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi an ideal one, including:‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎the strategic geographical location; modern infrastructure; well-qualified Labour; several bilateral, regional, and international agreements that facilitate the flow of capital and goods between Abu Dhabi and those countries; free zones and industrial cities encouraging foreign and local investment; very low taxes; cheap sources of energy, with oil as the main engine for economic growth; optimal utilization of financial surpluses resulting from oil sales; a modern network of financial establishments necessary to facilitate capital flows and serve national and foreign investors.‎‎‎‎‎‎ Basic Infrastructure:‎‎‎‎‎‎ The continued endeavor by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to build and upgrade its infrastructure has led it to becoming one of the best-developed in the world. The Government of Abu Dhabi, in less than three decades, has managed to complete a highly-developed network of roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, sea ports and other elements of infrastructure projects that offer the highest standards of services.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ In the course of the past four decades, Abu Dhabi has been able to establish a solid infrastructure of communications networks, transportation, roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, ports and other infrastructure projects that match those of the developed nations.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is also well-provided for in highways linking the different regions of the Emirate. Visitors to the Emirate benefit from modern technology in landlines, mobile services, high-speed Internet, and other advanced facilities.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎There are three airports in Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi International Airport, Al Ain International Airport, and Al Bateen Airport, which is a VIP airport.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎As for sea ports, there is Zayed Port, which is equipped with the latest installations and advanced facilities for the reception of large vessels ships, as well as Khalifa Port which is a major milestone in the development of infrastructure in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Through the vision of its senior leadership and the philosophy of excellence built into all infrastructure projects, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi aims to lead the region in the development of urban centres. The Emirate has been able to develop an ambitious urban strategy, namely "Abu Dhabi Plan 2030", which is intended to empower urban planners to respond to the demands of current and future development.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎The main feature of this plan is the concept of a sustainable city built around thriving suburbs.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎This concept focuses on growth, upgrading transport services, building multi-purpose roads that are pedestrian friendly, maintaining a more sustainable and less costly infrastructure, while protecting and enhancing the surrounding environment.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Abu Dhabi has developed a clearly defined framework for the long-term sustainable growth of the city.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎It is the embodiment of a new vision to build and expand the city that puts culture and community before abstract business goals.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎The main objective of the plan is to ensure that the future shape of the city of Abu Dhabi is a reflection of its heritage, preserving its identity, to make the city a model for contemporary Arab cities.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎The Government of ‎‎‎‎Abu Dhabi has spent generously on the establishment of modern infrastructure. The table below shows the major qualitative developments in some infrastructure indicators.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Land, air and sea transportation in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has experienced remarkable development in the last four decades, with an increase in paved roads from 591 km in 1975 to 2,186 km in 2010, the number of licensed vehicles from 49,104 vehicles to 739,850 vehicles, and the size of passenger traffic at the Abu Dhabi International Airport from 44.2 thousand to 10.8 million passengers, while the number of commercial vessels docking at the Zayed Port increased from 763 to 1830 vessels during the same period.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Tourism:‎‎‎‎‎ It ‎‎‎is clearly evident that the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is moving towards the development of the tourism sector as one of the key drivers of economic development, within the framework of the Emirate's integrated plan to diversify the economic base through a strategic vision aimed at promoting the growth of tourism activity and increase its contribution to GDP. ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎At the present time, the emirate is witnessing an unprecedented boom in the number of hotels, recreational parks, entertainment venues, shopping malls, residential complexes and luxury waterfront housing, sport and entertainment facilities, art galleries and museums, which all contribute to increasing the numbers of tourists coming to spend their holidays in the Emirate. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has a prominent and distinctive place as an international tourist destination. The tourism sector in the Emirate has witnessed considerable qualitative development over the past few years. This industry is now highly competitive and refined and realizes increasing levels of return, especially since the establishment of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority in 2004, which has come to play a key role in promoting Abu Dhabi's tourism, developing infrastructure and upgrading the tourist products on offer in the Emirate.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is witnessing a broad and highly significant tourist boom that aims to put the Emirate on the world map, given the importance of this sector in supporting and diversifying the economy, driving growth, and boosting development in other activities.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎The signs of this tourism boom have started to become manifest, with the emergence of several tourism projects launched by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. These make the most of many aspects of the Emirate, such as the beautiful scenery along 400 km of pristine coastline, 200 natural islands, warm and clean seas rich in marine life, ancient oases, vast deserts, deep rooted traditions that still retain their originality and authenticity, and a capital characterized by its globally-renowned architectural character.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The Emirate of Abu Dhabi pays close attention to the business tourism sector, which includes the meetings, conferences and events sector. Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre hosts many events and conferences which attract a large number of visitors.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎It is expected that the business tourism will account for about 50% of the total number of the Emirate's inbound tourism by 2015, compared with 25% in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Perhaps the scope and nature of the tourist projects that are being implemented and the laws regulating this vital sector accurately pull together the dimensions of this strategy in the medium and long terms, which aims to create a non-traditional tourism sector that focuses on quality rather than quantity, while not neglecting the financial return from the sector. ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎This major tourist boom is being led by Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority through its high-profile activities locally, regionally and internationally. Its job is also the marketing of Abu Dhabi as a tourist destination and the development and regulation of the tourist offering.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎With the existence of this body, tourism is being coordinated gradually within an integrated institutional framework that has already begun to bear fruit.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎The Authority today plays a major role in the concerted efforts to promote Abu Dhabi internationally through direct co-ordination with hotels, tour operators, airlines and related entities from the public and private sectors.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Over its short existence, the Authority has become an effective institution and a global leader, with a strong presence in a number of the most famous international travel fairs and exhibitions, which are important forums and markets that attract travel agents and specialist companies from around the world. Human Development:‎‎‎‎‎ The real wealth of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is the UAE citizen, who contributes actively in the process of economic and social development through hard work, and who is committed to the rights and duties of citizenship. Over the past years, attention to social and human development has remained at the forefront of the priorities of the government, which is reflected directly in the development of the education, health, housing, infrastructure, and social welfare sectors, as well as the other requirements for the well-being and social welfare of all members of society.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ One of the most important reasons for the success of comprehensive development in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi over the past decades is the focus on people, above all else, as the means and beneficiaries of development.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎Thus development is predominantly dedicated to issues of human development, and has managed, through concerted effort in these fields to achieve qualitative leaps forward, the likes of which can rarely be found anywhere in the world in the fields of education, health, and other fields of human and social development, in addition to the major achievements at the level of infrastructure.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ Throughout the Emirate, literacy rates have increased, infant mortality rates have fallen and life expectancy has risen.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎The development effort in Abu Dhabi has gone beyond meeting the basic needs of the individual to steadily and qualitatively promoting education, healthcare, social protection, employment, and expanding the frameworks of development.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is seen as one of the countries in the region which pays the most attention to social welfare through the provision of various public services to maintain an advanced level of social and economic stability. This includes infrastructure and municipal services, as well as educational and health services at the highest international standards.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎Here we can point to some brief statistics on human development over the past four decades (1970 - 2010), that place the Emirate of Abu Dhabi strides ahead of other countries of the region:‎‎‎‎‎ - Illiteracy rate among nationals (10 years and more) fell from 80.12% in 1970 to 6.13% in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ - Illiteracy rate among female nationals (10 years or more) fell from 89.85% in 1970 to 8.77% in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ - ‎‎‎‎‎The ‎‎‎‎‎number of students doubled 42 times, from 6,972 students in 1969/1970 to 291512 students in 2009/2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ - ‎‎‎‎‎The number of schools grew 20 times, from 25 schools in 1969/1970 to 489 schools in 2009/2010.‎‎‎‎‎ - ‎‎‎‎‎Decrease in crude mortality rates (per thousand population) from 4.5 in 1975 to 1.5 only in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎ - Per capita GDP at current prices increased from Dhs49 thousand in 1970 to Dhs315.3 thousand in 2010, the second highest in the world. ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ - Average life expectancy at birth for nationals increased from only 49.3 years in 1970 to 76.2 years in 2010. Traditional education in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi dates back centuries to ancient civilizations, the evidence of which has been found in several historical sites.‎‎‎‎‎ In later years, different methods of traditional education emerged, including Quranic schools and classes taught by religious scholars, followed by a semi-formal education system. The first school in Abu Dhabi was built in 1930.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎Formal education began effectively in the academic year 1960/1961, when three schools were opened and 81 male students enrolled in them and were taught by 6 teachers. The first girls' school was opened in the Emirate in 1963/64, while the first kindergarten was opened in 1968.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ When Sheikh Zayed - may God rest his soul - took over the reins of power in 1966, he accorded great importance to education, which experienced major quantitative and qualitative leaps forward, covering all parts of the Emirate in a short period of time, and offering both males and females free education in government schools. Private education came about in 1973/74 to complement the efforts of the public sector and provide education for more than 56% of students in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi by 2010.‎‎‎‎‎ During the past five decades, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has been able to achieve a major quantitative and qualitative transformation in provision of public education, adult literacy, and the development of vocational training as a means to sustainable human development. This reduced the illiteracy rate among the population of citizens (10 years or more) from 90.13% in 1968 to 6.13% in 2010, while the rate of illiteracy among female citizens (10 years and over) decreased from 97.41% to 8.77% during the same period.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The highest level of government realized early that human skills and intellectual capital are vital elements in strengthening the productive and competitive capabilities of nations, and are vital components in the future of the economy and keys to its successful growth.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎Abu Dhabi set out immediately on this course, the contours of which were drawn up by the first educator of the Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God rest his soul. ‎‎‎‎‎This awareness of the value of people formed a basis for comprehensive development plans and programs, something which is still leading the process of development. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi regards the individual citizen as its true capital and most important means to achieving comprehensive and sustainable development. It is therefore keen to set up new methods and channels of education and knowledge in all kinds of ways, overcoming all the obstacles in its way. In light of this early-established interest, education witnessed a remarkable growth in the number of students, teachers, and administrators, and increases in the budget allocated to it. It has developed horizontally in a way that has reached out to all communities in rural and urban areas, and vertically to include all levels and types of education: academic, vocational and the eradication of illiteracy. ‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has adopted various strategies to expand the coverage and content of the educational system, vertically and horizontally, to meet the growing needs of the population.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎In addition, the educational system has responded positively to global technological developments, through including subjects related to information technology in the curricula.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎This evident and ongoing progress in education in a short period of time is reflected directly in the declining illiteracy rates among both females and males, as shown in the following table:‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ Women and Education:‎‎‎‎‎ Emirati women, due to the great attention they receive at the highest levels, have been able to notch up several achievements in different spheres of life. Their most significant accomplishments are in the educational field. Female education started for the first time in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the academic year 1963/64 and at the time the total students did not exceed 131. This number continued to increase rapidly until the number of females in general education exceeded 143,000 in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ Women have played a vital and effective role in society throughout the history of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Their role has been enhanced in the last quarter of the past century and acquired new dimensions with the development of education in the Emirate.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎The continual development achieved by women in the field of education reflects the great concern for this issue. The constitution of the United Arab Emirates has given women this right, as it explicitly states women's right to social freedom, their equality in rights with men, and their enjoyment of the same legal right to education and work and to reach the highest positions.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎The consort of the late Sheikh Zayed, Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, exerted every effort to support His Highness' vision for a modern society, where women enjoy all their rights within a genuine Arab Muslim framework. Her Highness established the first women's society in the country on February 8th, 1973, which was the Emirati Woman's Society.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎She also targeted the development of women morally, culturally, and socially, to be capable of contributing to the comprehensive progress of the nation, in accordance with the teachings of Islam and ancient Arab traditions.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ In this regard, Sheikha Fatima is quoted to have said: "Emirati women have made remarkable and carefully planned progress, while maintaining their religious and cultural heritage. Due to this dedicated attention, Emirati women have greatly benefited from the various educational opportunities provided by the Government of Abu Dhabi, demonstrating their ability to shoulder responsibility. The results of secondary education in the past two decades are proof of the excellence of female Emirati students, who achieved the highest ranking and success rates.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎The previous figure shows that the proportion of male students in education has continually and gradually decreased with the increased interest in woman's education; the percentage of female to male students rose from zero in 1960/1961 to 97 in 2009/2010 as the number of female students amounted to 143 thousand compared to 148 thousand males in that school year. ‎‎‎‎‎ Health Services:‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The health care system in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has undergone remarkable development during the past four decades and currently provides basic health services in a comprehensive manner to all parts of the Emirate.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎During the period from 1975 to 2010, the number of government hospitals and the number of beds increased 6-fold.The number of doctors in government hospitals grew from 625 in 1985 to 2,026 in 2010.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎There are currently 33 hospitals, 435 health centres and 48 government clinics in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in addition to 19 hospitals and 191 non-governmental clinics staffed by 2,731 doctors.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ The Emirate of Abu Dhabi occupies prominent international positions in terms of the efforts it makes to provide a good life for its people. In the past years, the Emirate has witnessed major development in the health sector, both public and private.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎As regards the government sector, the primary health care services have greatly evolved so as to cover the whole of the Emirate. These centres provide basic treatment, dentistry services and health education. Moreover, preventive health services included a programme to monitor and fight communicable diseases through the use of vaccination, chemical disinfection, monitoring of patient's contacts, early detection and raising awareness and health education, by cooperating with all concerned departments in the Emirate. The efforts of Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD) include the development of a drug policy that sets the rules and regulations that govern the process of drug usage, validity and side effects. It is worth noting that the infrastructure for health services was represented in only two hospitals with around 600 beds in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain cities in 1975.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎By 2010, the number of government hospitals had reached 14, which have 2,582 beds, in addition to two military hospitals, and 435 health centres (public and private). The number of doctors at state hospitals increased to 2,026 in 2010. Specialized services also experienced major development reflected in the levels of performance in all departments.‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎The private health sector is also growing, especially with the improvement of the health insurance system that lightens the burden on government health facilities. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi currently has 19 private hospitals and 239 private clinics.‎‎‎‎‎ The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has been able, over the past forty years, to lay the foundation of a healthcare network that covered all nationals across the country, accompanied by an improvement in all health indicators. Chronic and infectious diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, infantile paralysis (poliomyelitis), and measles have been eradicated, thus decreasing the mortality rate to only 1.5 per thousand population, compared to around 4.5 in 1975. All this has contributed to raising life expectancy at birth for nationals to 76.2 years in 2010 (among the highest in the world) up from 49.3 years on average in 1970. ‎‎‎‎‎	eng	f8d3dace-dce3-4d4c-889f-6aa308bbb97a	http://www.ameinfo.com/statistics-centre-abu-dhabi-issues-abu-323027
tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69692831325159476972013-04-11T06:42:45.943-07:00The Anarchist Next DoorBeing the adventures of a polyamourous, vegan mum, whose primary interests are cooking and revolution...Mumma Rivvy delightful illustration... part</a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Women doing work: "help me!"<br />Men doing work: it's natural<br /><br />Firstly, who is making that second statement? Is it the woman telling the man it's natural for him to work, or society as a whole? Because either of those arguments can quite easily be attributed to the fact that women throughout history were not allowed to work, and the attitude that men should be breadwinners is a hangover from that (loooong) period of time. So while this picture is painting that assumption as only harmful to men, frankly, it's just as harmful, if not more so, to women. If we're taught that only men are capable of work as it comes "naturally" to them, then won't we (without any further questioning) assume that teaching to be true? This is an attitude that men have perpetuated (and continue to perpetuate with images like this, I'll get to that in a moment) and for them to now fall victim to it is unsurprising. No, not all men are good at "work" (here implied to be physical labour, heavy lifting etc),  and not all women are bad at it. People are individuals, people are different, have different skills and different flaws, and gender has absolutely nothing to do with that.<br /><br />The other thing that bothers me greatly about this picture is that asking for help is portrayed as being inherently weak (because, y'know, women are weak and delicate, men are strong and tough, so only women ask for help), and as being a negative thing. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. Asking for help is a way of looking at your flaws and moving past them to accomplish whatever task is at hand. Yes, okay, so I can't lift a fridge freezer by myself. But neither can most adults of any gender. Asking for help to do something is sometimes the only way to do that thing, and it doesn't mean shit, except that I'm committed enough to the task to want to finish it.<br />And the implication in all this, is that actually, women aren't as suited to work as men, and so the image is perpetuating the very stereotype it is claiming to be victim of.  sigh<br /><br />Mumma Rivvy delightful illustration... part />Women are romantic if they suddenly kiss men<br />Men are perverted if they suddenly kiss women<br /><br />Once again, the body language of these little stick people is so vastly different that it's only on reading the text that I understood that they were illustrating the same point. The woman in the first one is balanced on one leg, in a fairly unstable position - if the male figure were to push her away, she couldn't really continue with her action, as she'd be falling over. It looks like she is holding hands with the male figure, although he's obviously changed his mind about this situation, and is ducking away from her (and he is clearly able to hold her back with plenty of space between them).<br /><br />The man in the second picture is using a much more forceful gesture - he's holding he head so she can't escape, both feet planted firmly on the floor for balance. The woman's arms are in the air, as if she's struggling, and it's a much more uncomfortably physical scene than the first.<br /><br />The whole situation in general is entirely dependent on the people involved; a "sudden kiss" isn't usually perverted (since that implies some kind of desire that's not "normal"), it's usually just an innocent attempt to show someone you want to move things into a more romantic sphere of existence, but obviously when one party isn't consenting then the kisser needs to re-evaluate what they're doing. Our culture has a big problem with asking for consent; we're so used to images (in advertising, films, literature etc) showing us that romance is spontaneous, and that it happens without words, that we're afraid of asking how someone feels lest it "break the moment" or embarrass us. We need to remember that those things are all fiction, and that it's much more likely for us to get the result we want by asking than just taking and hoping for the best.Mumma Rivvy delightful illustration... staring at men's crotch: it's flirting.<br />Men staring at women's breasts: it's perverted and offensive.<br /><br />Another simple one really, again the grammar is bad and the stances of the "people" are different (although this time it makes little difference unless you believe what cosmo says about men putting their fingers in their belt loops being deliberate attention-drawing to their dick) - is the woman skipping along in her fancy-free female daydream? If not she's a little lopsided. But anyway.<br /><br />To begin, among the people that I know, anyone staring at anyone's body is a little creepy. It's not a gendered thing, but anyone looking at you like an object really isn't cool. And that's a big point that's missing from this little diagram. Women face objectification on a scale that men don't. Not that men never experience this, but women do experience it more. In the media, fashion magazines and perfume adverts use sexualised images of women's bodies, sometimes even cutting models' faces completely out of the picture to focus on their bodies alone, without that pesky worry of people focusing on the actual person in the photograph. Women's breasts are sexualised in almost all moments of their lives, even when they don't have any actual breast tissue there (see <a href=" story</a> and the fact that pre pubescent swimwear for girls always covers their flat, supposedly non-sexualised chest). And after all, if we're supposed to be comparing like for like, why isn't the man in the diagram staring at the woman's crotch? Because vaginas are taboo, aren't they. They carry some kind of shame, and unless we women remove all signs that we've gone through puberty (hair, smell, periods) we should just pretend they aren't there.<br /><br />So a man stopping to stare at a woman's breasts carries a lot more behind it than a woman staring at a man. NEITHER is right, or acceptable without the...gazee(?)'s consent, but the reason it's considered by some to be less acceptable is because women aren't stared at as people, they're stared at as objects, more often than not.<br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy delightful illustration... partIt's just a mistake if women goes into men's bathroom<br />Men are perverted if they go into women's bathroom<br /><br />Bad grammar aside, this is a pretty simple one. I don't know many people who genuinely think that any male who goes into the ladies' toilets is going there deliberately. Let's face it, the majority of women's bathrooms are enclosed, and (although I'm not saying it doesn't happen) I've never encountered a man in there that hasn't been a) so drunk they didn't know what they were doing wrong because they couldn't see the sign or b) ridiculously embarrassed and apologetic. There are probably people out there, of all genders, who get a kick out of being creepy and going into the "wrong" bathroom, but it's definitely not the majority, and most people know this and treat the situation fairly objectively.<br /><br />There is a little more I'd like to say about this one, but I'm going to have to go and think about the phrasing a little. Rest assured, I'll be back to it.<br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy delightful illustration... part 1<br /><div style="text-align: left;">...of how sexism still exists. Turns out I'm gonna do this in parts because it'd be really really long if I didn'tIt's hard to know where to start with this, because there are so many layers of double standards and misogyny/misandry* and general DERP involved.<br /><br />I'll start by saying that the biggest problem I have with this picture is the caption. I realise that "it's just a joke", but it's a badly phrased joke. If the title had read something like "Double Standards", or even just "Gender Equality?", with that all important question mark, I may not have gotten so riled up about it. Because that question mark is, after all, a question, posed to anyone from any side of the debate, but in my mind, especially to those who actually say that we live in a gender equal society. As it stands, to me, it reads more like a "look what feminists have done to us, they all hate men whine whine whine" kind of post.<br /><br />But on to the actual are brave if they hit men<br />Men are evil brutal perverts if they hit women<br /><br />So yeah, it's a double standard, fixed on the belief that men are all brawny violent people and women are vulnerable and weak. Of course it's not "brave" to hit another person, regardless of their gender, unless you are defending yourself from an attack, especially one where the odds are stacked against you. Anyone who hits another person to vent their anger is doing something drastically wrong and unhealthy for everyone involved (although "evil brutal pervert" isn't always the case), and I don't think that anyone with any sense actually thinks that it is acceptable for a woman to hit a man, any more than they think that it's acceptable for a man to hit a woman.<br />But there's another problem with the image, and it's what makes all of these individual images so uncomfortable - the stick figures acting out the text aren't performing an equal action. In the pictures above, the first image shows a "female" figure bending towards a cowering "male" figure, but not touching him. He looks vulnerable but she isn't actually making contact. His arm is raised as if to defend himself, as is his knee.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Now take a look at the other picture. The "woman" in this picture is on all fours, facing away from the "man". The "man" is effectively stomping on her back (very definitely making physical contact), which is an altogether more violent position than the first image - she has no way of defending herself, and he is continuing to attack her. Obviously this is just a stick figure illustration, but it makes me incredibly uncomfortable. The position of her hand also seems very odd to me - the position she is in seems more like a "doggy style" sexual pose rather than one of fear, especially with what would be her hand in front of her face. I'm not sure why the figure would have been illustrated that way, other than to justify the attacker being labelled as "brutal" or "perverted". Or maybe it's ironic, the woman being sexually presented no matter what the situation. I'm holding out hope for that reasoning ( not much though), because I can't see an alternative that isn't more than a little fucked up, and extremely objectifying.<br /><br /><br />points deducted from google chrome for not recognising misandry as a word, when misogyny is recognised. Although it also fails to recognise the word google...<br />x.S.x</div><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Mumma Rivvy a womanI'm a woman. I'm not a child, please don't refer to me as a girl, then talk about my drug use and sexual activity. I don't drink, smoke or party every weekend, but that's my own personal choice, and if I wanted to, I would. And it would be none of your damned business. I'll sleep with who I choose, when I choose, and as often as I choose, in or out of a "serious" relationship, because I'm a human with needs and desires, and sex is one of those desires. I'm not governed by the need for attention, I'm living for myself. If I do need someone to pay attention to me, it shouldn't be ignored because I'm a "girl" and my problems are inherently childish and trivial. If I make my problems open to the world, maybe people should listen to me, instead of assuming that my experiences aren't valid, and dismissing them as drama, because I am experiencing life the same way that you are, regardless of gender. And maybe some people don't need to express their feelings to deal with them, but I do, and I'm not going to shut up because it's inconvenient for you.Yes, I exist, and I'm no less or more of a person than a person who doesn't do these things, or live this way. And I won't be slut shamed or told that my lifestyle is inappropriate for a woman, because I am not defined by my gender, my gender is defined by me.<br /><br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy people's business. Part 2..<br /><div>Shouting at a woman, stood in the centre of the group.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously, we can't just walk away from this situation, leaving someone vulnerable like that, so we hid behind a nearby wall to see how things are playing out, phone in hand ready to call the police.<br />As we're stood there, one male grabs the woman by the ears, shakes her head violently, screaming in her face. from where I was, it looked like he head-butted her, but I'm not 100% certain. Still, we judged that to be enough aggressive behaviour to need an intervention, so I rang the police.</div><div><br /></div><div> punched  and.</div><div><br /></div><div>The officers get back in the car, alone. No one can see the woman. The group of five men walk away, around a corner, out of sight, whooping and cheering, like they've won some sort of victory.</div><div>after  no more than a minute, I hear a scream.<br />.</div><div>I can't describe how sick I felt, hearing that, after there were ten witnesses of her being punched in the face, the woman couldn't admit that anything had happened.</div><div>.</div><div>And sick with frustration, that even though there are ten witnesses, that the police couldn't take any action  because the victim was too scared to speak out.</div><div><br />.</div><div>But, sadly, I doubt it. From her reactions, and indeed, her assailant's actions, it seemed as though they knew each other.</div><div>  although they'd had  such a damaging relationship, that keeping quiet about it only makes things worse.<br />But seeing it for real triggered all kinds of horror in me, the realisation that this is someone's reality, this is there everyday, makes me feel so... <i>abhorrently</i> guilty that I'm sat in a home where I feel secure, around people I trust, who I can feel safe around, and that I assumed to understand the pain and anguish that a victim of abuse goes through.</div><div>x.S.x</div>Mumma Rivvy word about the f word.Feminism.<br /><br />Yep. I said it. And I'm going to say it again.<br />Feminism.<br /><br />Why is it people refuse to use this word? They'll say "I'm all for women's right, but I'm not a feminist." Why? Why are we so afraid of a word?<br /><br />I'm not remotely ashamed to call myself a feminist. Why should I be? Feminism isn't about "putting men in their place" or being better than them. It's not about hating men, or distancing ourselves from them. It's not saying that every man is an oppressor, or that all women feel oppressed all the time, or even <i>are</i> oppressed all the time.<br /><br />Feminism is about equality. About getting rid of dividing lines in society, about people opening their minds to accept others for who they are, regardless of gender. So perhaps the term "gender-equalitism" would be better fitting... but I for one wouldn't use that term. Because by denying that feminism is valid, even as a word, we're perpetuating the problem. <br /><br />Feminism has been made into a dirty word in our society. We roll our eyes, shake our heads and go "Oh, <i>feminists,</i> they're all crazy man-hating lesbians who don't shave<i> - </i>why don't they just get on with their lives?"<br />The answer is because the impact of gender inequality can stop people from doing just that. Whether we like it or not, employers look at women of childbearing age and think that they'll be unreliable for a long term job, because of the potential that they'll have kids. They're looked at in terms of appearance, and expected to meet the media's standards without any effort, criticised for dieting, eating too much, wearing too much make-up, not wearing make-up, having natural looking bodies, having unnatural looking bodies, they've got to keep bodily functions a mystery, somehow be universally sexy without actually wanting sex, and all the while they're expected to be happy in their own body.<br /><br />And for all those women who tell their friends "I'm a woman, and <i>I</i> think feminists are ridiculous"?<br />Shut the fuck up. <br />You have no idea what your life would be like without the things that feminists struggle for. Alright, you might feel that we've got a good deal in this country, and we do, I'm not saying that we don't, but don't shit on the idea that not everyone has it easy just because you do.<br />Just think about how many times you've heard women demonised for having any kind of sexual appetite, for wanting to have sex with more than one person, for not wanting to settle into a serious relationship, and for being comfortable in their own body? Women who want that sexual freedom are sluts, they're something to be spat on, but men are glorified. Women who're happy with their own body - hair and scars and whatever else they might have - are made to feel dirty, but men are just, y'know, men, so they don't <i>have</i> to shave like we do. And scars are like, hot, and manly.<br /><br />But it works the other way too. Men who're willing to show emotions aren't "soft", they're just fucking human. Men aren't idiots, or kids that <i>need</i> to be mothered for them to be able to get by, they're not morons who can't string a sentence together because their puny male brains don't work as well as ours.<br />They're <i>people</i>. We're all just fucking <i>people.</i>That's what feminism is all about. The idea that we're all people and need to be treated like people and not objects. People that are all fucking equal whatever way we're born.<br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy facebook copypasta rant></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Well, this will be a short one, because this is so much bullshit that there's not much to say.<br /><br />Firstly, this is akin to the Christmas lights stories that everyone was so afraid of - how we're not supposed to say Christmas lights anymore in case some people cough-we-mean-Muslims-but-won't-say-it-so-we-don't-look-racist-cough* get offended. But y'know what, no one is actually offended by the term Christmas lights, because that's what they are.<br />And no one is afraid to sell poppies "in some areas" because "some minorities cough-cough-Muslims-again-cough say it will upset them". Muslims, sorry, "minorities" are not assholes. They aren't in our country to stop us from remembering our grandad who fought against the Nazis in the second World War. They're not here to stop us from paying respects to John at number 43 who lost his legs in the Falklands. And they're not here to stop us from showing support for the soldiers currently in Iraq or Afghanistan. They're here to live their own lives, and many of them would pay their respects too, if we'd stop giving them such a hard time by painting them all as extremist nutters.<br />Okay, obviously, there's been some (pretty effective) protests gaining a lot of media attention recently, and it's unpleasant to see a group of actual extremists burning poppies that are meant to remind us of the lives lost in past conflicts, but these guys aren't going to make our country change our remembrance customs just because they disagree with this particular war (please note here, I'm not saying that I agree with the Iraq or Afghanistan wars) because <i>poppies aren't only a symbol of that war</i>.<br /><br />I have to wonder why they felt the need to capitalise "British" (okay, I don't <i>really wonder, </i>it's clearly to pander to the nationalists) and not "all". To me, that's the most important word in that sentence. "<i>All </i>the wars the British military have fought in."<br /><br />And, Britain stand up and do what? Increase racial tension by assuming any ethnic minorities are here to wipe clean your country's customs and replace them with their own?<br />Or perhaps Britain should stand up and say "shut the fuck up" to these stupid, sensationalised xenophobic reports.<br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy people's business.Yesterday, Bab and me and Ms V (yes I wrote that so it rhymes) went to the park. While Bab was crawling around making as much noise as she could, Ms V and I noticed a couple behaving...a little oddly. The male partner was lying partially on top of the lady involved, and kissing her face, while she lay rigid and kept saying "get off me."<br />Now I know there's fooling around and pretending you don't want someone's affection, but something about the way she was lying so awkwardly and stiffly just shouted to me that she was uncomfortable. I tried to mind my own business for a little while, and the female partner pushed the guy away and they sat up... but he kept trying it on with her and she kept telling him to leave it. There was just something about the way he was...creeping on her that wasn't right, so, bigmouth that I am, I had to go say something.<br /><br />I think I approached it as well as I could; I just said <br />"Sorry to bother you, I don't mean to interrupt, but the lady seems to want you to give her a break."<br />But his response got my back up a little; he kept saying <br />"Trust me, she's kidding."<br />She said, she wasn't, timidly and maybe half seriously, and he said<br />"It's not like I'm molesting her or anything"<br />She interrupted that with something along the lines of "pffft."<br />But he then said it again.<br />"Trust me, she's kidding."<br />And I told him no.<br />"No offence, but I don't trust you. I don't know you, and that doesn't make you a bad guy, I'm not saying you're definitely doing something wrong, but she seems to be pretty serious about you letting up a bit.."<br />She mumbled that she was joking, looking at the ground, and I apologised for intruding, and for sounding like I was having a go at the guy, and we left.<br /><br />But something just struck me about that situation as being not right. When he was telling me she was joking, he wasn't looking at me, he was staring at her, as if he was trying to intimidate her to agree with him, and he kept pulling her close to him even though she was resisting. Maybe I took it all wrong, but something about the way he was so overbearing just made me step in, something about the way she was just flatly repeating "get off me"; no giggling, no squirming playfully, just rigid, stiff posture and monotone voice.<br /><br />I think this little incident says a lot about our culture - and can I clarify I say "our" despite the fact that the couple were Muslim - and the way that women are still viewed as feeble and unsure of what they want by some members of society. More people than we'd care to admit still have that kind of sexist attitude, however they disguise it. These people need to accept that no means no whatever your gender. Because no matter how strongly you say it, if you say it once that should be enough.<br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy facebook copypasta rant...Today, we've got this beauty.<br /><br /><br /><a href=" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="77" src=" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Before I start, a word about borders;<br /><br />bullshit.<br /><br /><br />What the fuck is a border? Seriously, the purpose of borders, to my mind, is to keep people apart, to keep people divided, and more often than not, create opposition between people who are mostly the same.<br /><br />So obviously it's completely morally justifiable to shoot someone for crossing a border, and we in Britain should adopt this policy.<br />WHAT THE FUCK?<br />Are we really saying that countries with few to no human rights, dictatorships and ridiculous punitive sentences have better immigration policies than we do? Are we really comparing ourselves and saying "actually, Afghanistan have it right."  We pride ourselves on being a leading light where human rights are concerned, and then we turn around and say that it's better to shoot someone than give them a place to live?<br /><br />So let's say we are saying that. Then surely there'd be no reason to <i>leave</i> a country like Afghanistan?<br />So there'd be no Afghan immigrants here at all.<br />Whoever wrote this little pass-around moron badge certainly doesn't understand our benefits system, or the premise of immigration for that matter.<br /><br />If someone enters the UK illegally, chances are they don't get benefits, because they've got no visa, and don't want to arouse suspicion toward themselves by alerting the government to their presence in the country.<br />Oh sorry, I forgot you can just walk into the dole office and they give you a wad of cash, no questions asked. Especially if you're "foreign", and <i>especially </i>if you've got lots of kids. Because there aren't any measures at all in place to check up on people in case of benefit fraud, or immigration issues. None at all.<br /><br />Oh, and y'know, the government still give you all those benefits like housing, food stamps, etc when you have a job that they just handed to you, regardless of qualifications, and while you're still being educated.<br />Maybe the person that wrote this should have thought things through a little. You don't get free education, benefits and a job all at once. One after the other, maybe, but since most of those things are contributing to the country somehow, what's the problem? Our country isn't in debt because more people are coming here to work.<br /><br />Asylum seekers don't come to this country to steal people's jobs and fuck up our economy. They come because they see our way of life as preferable to theirs, because our economy can support them and their families better than their home countries' can, because our education system is open to anyone, and because our political system is fairer than their own. They come here to work, to educate themselves,to make something of their lives and support their kids. And they're seen as scum; as lazy, workshy, unwilling to adapt to "our way of life"...but maybe it's the very adaptation to the western way that's lead to these labels in the first place. <br />Maybe they try as hard as you or I to get a job that pays enough to support their families. And maybe they don't want to work a less than minimum wage, cash in hand. no fixed hours job,but maybe they have to, because they've got even less in the county they left behind. Maybe they don't want to rely on housing and child benefits to survive, but maybe they can't find an employer willing to help them with childcare for their three young children, or who'll give them flexible hours so they can work as well as raising their kids.<br />And maybe, just maybe, they don't want to put up with all manner of racist slurs because they've left everything they had behind to live somewhere with a fairer political system, where they won't face imprisonment for speaking out against the government, or the death penalty for crossing an imaginary line.<br /><br />Promoting xenophobic attitudes like this is just a knee jerk reaction. If there's someone to blame for our country's current economic strife, it's the people at the top. The people with the power to change things, who're cutting ordinary people's benefits left right and centre, benefits that some people <i>have</i> to rely on.<br />They give themselves million pound bonuses, three holidays in as many months, and give tax breaks to their friends while they destroy communities, support networks, and price the necessities out of the hands of the working class.<br /><br />It's not the people coming to this country who are to blame. It's the people running it.<br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy I'm sat at the computer today, watching just about everyone I know talking about 9/11, and I'm struck by how determined people are to hold onto something that's purely negative.<br /><br />Obviously, I'm not expecting anyone to <i>forget</i> what happened, but I'd like to think people can move on, especially those who weren't directly affected. Our society is so geared towards this "us and them" mentality, that on a day when we should be learning from mistakes, remembering the people who died, and looking forward to how we can make the world better, we just can't let go of the idea of retaliation.<br />We've been at war for ten years now, and we haven't really covered any ground; we haven't got rid of "the terrorists", and we haven't even made people <i>feel</i> safer. We've introduced this panicked xenophobia and racism into our culture, and that's hurting our society so much more than the actual attacks. The threat of terrorism is keeping up borders, keeping up walls between people, and while it is obviously a real threat, our willingness to let community relations suffer for this is plain ridiculous. We forget that the Muslim family across the road are probably just as afraid of terrorism as anyone else living on our street, and teaching our children to live in fear isn't helping anyone move on or make things better.<br /><br />And then there are the conspiracy theories. Believe what you will, I'm in no position to prove either story wrong or right, but because you have an inherent distrust of your government (and I'm as guilty of that as anyone) doesn't give you the right to tell the grieving families that they're idiots for believing that terrorists are to blame for the deaths of their loved ones. No one can actually prove what happened, so why don't we drop all this hatred and say "hey, whoever is responsible for this is an arsehole, but we can't let them divide and conquer us."<br />Because whoever they are, that's what they want. And hating each other for something none of us could control is playing a game that can only end with more people suffering.<br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy few poems, part four.As our V fell apart,<br />we sat on the grass<br />with our beautiful daughter<br />making all the sounds of<br />a happy roost.<br /><br />And behind us, a drunk<br />with a lighter<br />chased a pigeon - its wings<br />too hurt and broken to fly.<br />Cooing and clucking -<br />as our daughter did -<br />in joy at his vicious pursuit,<br />he laughed at the thought of its agony<br /><br />and I saw myself<br />chased by those flames<br />and wondered, could I make it out<br />alive?<br />Or could I flee, and outrun the fire<br />of your judgement?<br /><br />As we fell apart<br />we sat on the grass<br />with our beautiful daughter<br />and I was too hurt<br />and broken<br />to fly.<br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy few poems, part three.<b>Prospecting</b><br /><b><br /></b><br />I sift my words through lovers' fingers<br />unsure of myself<br />and watch as time worn jewels<br />fall through our makeshift net -<br />silently. Unnoticed.<br />Sapphire screams as it falls away<br />falls upon<br />                deaf ears<br />falls too easily into the trap<br />set by trust -<br />an expected understanding<br />I thought so tightly woven<br />gapes<br />yawning at the prospect of work to come.<br />Easier to let love slip away<br />than fight gravity<br />for so long.<br /><br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy few poems, part two.<b>Ajar</b><br /><b><br /></b><br />When is a door not a door?<br />When heavy fingers reach<br />for stolid embrace;<br />oak upon oak - fulfilled,<br />united  against the world outside.<br /><br />Standing empty as they are<br />eternity opens<br />between these sad panes.<br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy few poems, part one.I'm sure not many of you are interested, but I felt like posting a few of these, quite personal (and possibly pretentious) poems that I wrote.<br />Feel free to comment, but try for constructive criticism, if you wouldn't mind. Also, I''m posting them one at a time over a few entries, because it's clearer to me that way.<br /><br /><br /><b>Celebrity in Death</b><br /><br />There's no dignity<br />in dying<br />these days.<br /><br />A road traffic accident,<br />the Victim<br />covered by a sheet.<br />Blood everywhere.<br /><br />A police cordon,<br />three officers, one car, two ambulances<br />sirens wailing blue light,<br />inviting all to<br />stop, and<br />stare.<br /><br />And they do.<br />A crowd gathers.<br />An old woman<br />gawks with her friend;<br />"Oh, it's horrible."<br />Bus drivers<br />slow<br />as they pass.<br />Everyone gets<br />an eyeful.<br /><br />As the truth of our own brief<br />mortality<br />creeps quietly by,<br />another is lost to<br />fate.<br />And we remark on the scene,<br />driven by<br />morbid curiosity, human fascination with the<br />horror<br />of those less fortunate.<br /><br />There is, it seems, celebrity in death.<br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy facebook copypasta rant...The first, and by no means last, in a series of posts. So bearing the brunt of my frustration today is this<br /><br /><a href=" target="_blank" title="ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting"><img border="0" src=" /></a><br /><br /><br />Terrible spelling and grammar aside, this email really infuriates me. I guess that's easy to do, but here's why;<br />"Ok pretty ladies" - because for any woman to listen you've got to appeal to her fickle sense of aesthetic importance.<br />"Last year so many people took part..." - maybe I missed the news coverage because I don't have a TV, but I don't remember there being an uproar in my facebook newsfeed, I only saw one status change last year.<br />"Don't tell any males..." - here's the really maddening bit. Men can't <i>possibly </i>be affected by breast cancer, can they? I mean no man has ever lost someone to breast cancer, or supported a loved one through their diagnosis and treatment, and I know I'm just being silly now, but men actually <i>having </i>breast cancer?<br />This is such stupid sexism, in the name of a "good cause", it makes me rage, and I'm not even mentioning<br />"It's time to confuse the men again (not that it's really that hard to do ;))"<br />Alright, I <i>am </i>mentioning it. Men aren't all drooling halfwits that can't stand up to our wily female charms, and I'm pretty sure that if this is an example of typical female thought, we're making huge fools of ourselves, what with the bad spelling, grammar (three dots for a goddamn ellipsis), format, and this silly notion of<i> "</i>we're <i>girls, </i>we've <i>got</i> to make fun of men, it's what we <i>do. </i>Also, we <i>love </i>chocolate, and our whole lives are focused around getting pregnant, so to show we care about something we should... <i>I know! </i>Post a status about pregnancy and chocolate, that'll change the world.<br /><br />If the idea of this campaign was to raise awareness of breast cancer, I'd have done a few things differently like...<br /><br />1. Not exclude half of the population of the world from the campaign. Even if men couldn't get breast cancer, they can certainly know someone who could, and if they're the idiots this email paints them as, we should be spelling out to them how awful breast cancer is and how they can help if they do know someone with cancer.<br /><br />2. Made the point of the campaign the focus of the action<i>. </i>If you wanted to raise awareness of breast cancer, maybe you <i>should've made the status update about breast cancer</i>, instead of some obscure chocolate-pregnancy allusion.<br /><br />3. Learned to type before I wrote an email that's supposed to go around the world. Your campaign will be pretty ineffective if no-one understands what they're supposed to do because they couldn't read your bad typing.<br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy it going to be then, eh?I've been musing on that question for a while; what exactly is this blog going to be? A political soapbox, a collection of images of beautiful junk, or another diary started and abandoned after I changed pens without realising?<br /><br />I guess it'll be all of those things and none of them, and more. It'll be eclectic, revolutionary-minded (not necessarily revolutionary though, I'm not that good!) and it'll be personal, but I hope it'll be interesting, and not pretentious. Maybe publishing the ideas I have will help make them a concrete reality, instead of losing them in a cloudy mess of thoughts. Maybe not, but we'll see.<br />That's enough for my nonsense first entry, I'll get cracking with the stuff people might actually want to read...<br />x.S.xMumma Rivvy	eng	142ded29-1084-46cf-9a82-ebed89af2ae7	http://anarchistnextdoor.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
End of Innocence Wednesday, May 22, 2013 The "new plantation" is government dependency and a victim mentality, and 95% of the black community is on the plantation, but C. L. Bryant has made a documentary about how he and others had the strength to become "runaway slaves". Now, they have formed a new underground railroad to help other black people escape from the plantation. Government dependency is a fraud perpetrated on the black community by progressives … It is an atrocity … The most charitable analysis is that maybe someprogressives had good intentions – in the past, but now, the evidence is overwhelming. The most honest and most effective answer, in the context of the question, is … In a free market … the child wouldn't be dying … How has our culture forgotten this wonderful truth … that in a free market, the family would be wealthier, the community would be wealthier, and the technology would be better and cheaper. Government is not the solution. Government is the problem. Government dependency has failed. The path forward is the free market. In a free market, more people would be willing and able to help him. In a free market, the child is not only more likely to survive … but is also more likely to thrive. What you're really asking is, "What can we expect for a dying child if we move towards more government dependency vs. moving forward to a free market?" Under government healthcare, a bureaucrat, or a panel of bureaucrats, decides whether to save a dying child – depending on cost, race, politics, unions, cronyism, etc. In a free market, competition without the burden of government maximizes quality, efficiency, and innovation – not just in the medical field, but in every field. In a free market, the people are thus safer and healthier, happier and wealthier, more productive and more empowered. Those I've seen answer this question all failed because effective defenders of the free market are not allowed in the mainstream media. This is a self reinforcing strategy of the MSM. Consider that it is very difficult to become an effective supporter of the free market when we are inundated 24/7 with an inaccurate world view. The reality is that we do not live in a free market, big government has failed, and government is the tool by which elites manage innovation. Sunday, May 5, 2013 The official story on the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing is that the damage was caused entirely by a truck bomb made of fertilizer and diesel fuel and created by Timothy McVeigh. The official story cannot be true. After watching the documentary A Noble Lie, I have to agree with the conclusion of the Wright Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, which tried to reproduce the Oklahoma City bombing based on the claims from McVeigh and the FBI about how the bomb was constructed. In a two minute segment, the documentary explained how the Air Force built a test bomb more powerful than the real bomb, and used it on a test building that was weaker than the real building, but the more powerful test bomb did less damage to the weaker test building than the real bomb did to the real building. The conclusion of the Air Force was that the truck bomb could not have caused any of the damage beyond broken windows, and that, given that kind of truck bomb, charges must have been placed on the columns inside the building. The truck bomb would have to have been 10 times more powerful to cause the amount of damage done to the building, and even then, it would have been impossible for it to have caused the pattern of damage done to the building. All of these conclusions by the air Force contradict the official story. The fact that this test was performed and published proves that there were still honest and competent people working for the government. The documentary itself is far more interesting that it sounds. The Air force test was just a two minute segment. Many other experts come to a similar conclusion based on their different areas of expertise. It also exposes an unbelievable amount of heroism, corruption, and cover ups – including murder. Just like 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing erased the current public opposition to legislation that would move us towards the kind of police state that our leaders claimed was necessary for the good of everyone. Plato advocated the use of lies that maintain everyone's acceptance of their place in life, and which generate support for the government. Plato's concept is referred to as "The Noble Lie". Friday, April 26, 2013 For more than four years, the Myth of Obama has been the biggest impediment to progress because it enables his believers to remain closed to reality. It is thus necessary to bust the Myth of Obama so that his believers can become open to reality. If Obama believers became open to reality, then it would be a lot easier to move forward. It would be a lot easier to leave the world a better place than we found it. The media have been selling us a false image of Obama while they suppress the facts. Let's consider just a small percentage evidence about the real Obama, which should be more than enough to put his false image to rest. Wednesday, April 24, 2013 Government soldiers forced their way into house after house in Boston because there was a chance that a 19 year old US citizen might be hiding in one of them. (He wasn't.) The people were not allowed to leave their homes – except for those who were forced to leave their homes at gun point and were then patted down. I have seen no evidence yet of a warrant, but of course, a Constitutional warrant must state a specific place to be searched, so there could be no Constitutional warrant in the instance of a house to house search. As far as I know, this has never been done in America before. House to house raids in unprecedented violation of US constitution. I wonder if the soldiers in the video have thought about how when they are out violating our homes, there is no one guarding their own homes? Are they sociopaths who don't even care about their own families? Given the limited audio, some may claim that it is not what it appears, so let's listen to some testimony from the citizens themselves. Testimony from the citizens themselves. These witnesses were ordinary people who thus have faith in government and who did not know that their rights were being violated. Now let's here from a witness who understood what was happening. Someone who understood he was under martial law. Everything you saw in these videos was unconstitutional, but this is not what anyone saw in the mainstream media. Instead, the mainstream media showed us the nice soldier bringing milk to the children, or the man who said he felt safe because the government was searching his home. This unprecedented violation of the Constitution by Obama's DHS not only failed to find the 19 year old US citizen, but it actually prevented his discovery. It was only after the government allowed people to leave their homes again that a citizen found him hiding in his boat. This unprecedented violation of the Constitution did not find the 19 year old US citizen, but it achieved its more important goal, which was to set the precedent that government soldiers can come into your home without a warrant whenever they want and the mainstream media will cover for them. This unprecedented violation of the Constitution did not find the 19 year old US citizen, and it also failed to achieve its most important goal, which was to provoke armed conflict with the American people. The US Government was hoping that one (and preferably more than one) citizen in this all white neighborhood would defend the Constitution with AR-15s and high capacity magazines. The government's goal to provoke armed conflict with the American people finally became 100% clear a few weeks earlier when Obama's DHS began practicing shooting white children. We know the DHS wanted to create this whole scenario because they called this man and his brother at home and told them they were coming. The brothers predictably fled in an unprepared manner, thus creating the opportunity for the government to react – like we saw in the videos. If the Obama administration is capable of what we now know, then it is capable of anything. Friday, April 12, 2013 Why do men and women seem to have such different goals, interests, and behaviors? Both men and women often get mad or frustrated because they don't get what they want from the other. They also get mad or frustrated with themselves for making choices that do not get them what they want. The anger, frustration, and stupid choices men and women make are the source of most of our comedy and drama because, after thousands of years of recorded history, we still don't seem to understand why men and women behave the way they do. The reason men and women behave the way they do is really simple. It is evolution. We are not the product of everyone before us. We are the product of only those before us who's reproductive strategy produced the most offspring, and the most successful reproductive strategy for men is different than for women because: A woman can have about 10 kids, and a man can have about a hundred kids. The genetically programmed male strategy thus focuses on quantity, and the genetically programmed female strategy thus focuses on quality. Quality in this context means "most successful at reproduction". This is the root all of the interesting differences between men and women. The men who had the most kids in future generations were those who were able to impregnate as many women as possible – regardless of how or why they were able to impregnate more women. The women who had the most kids in future generations were therefore those who tried to reproduce with those men who were best at impregnating as many women as possible – regardless of how or why those women tried. We are thus the offspring of those men and women, and have the same impulses that got more of their genes into future generations. It is true that a man's offspring were more likely to survive and reproduce themselves if he stuck around and helped raise them, but some men also impregnated other women and thereby tricked other men into raising their offspring, so they had far more offspring in future generations than the men they had tricked. We are thus not only the offspring of those men who tricked (cuckolded) other men, but we are also the offspring of women who favored those men – regardless of their reasons – and thereby got more of their offspring into future generations too. It gets even more interesting than that. A woman needed a man to provide food and protection for her and her kids, but not every woman could have the biggest, strongest, smartest man. So the best reproductive strategy for a woman was to be as loyal, helpful, and sexually available as possible for her husband, and then once per month, she would try to put herself into a situation where an alpha male could impregnate her. Therefore, we are the offspring of those women who loved their husbands but still tried to get impregnated by an alpha male. Therefore, women today have the same genetically programmed impulses as those women. Just as the female reproductive strategy was shaped by the male strategy, the male strategy adapted to the female strategy by optimizing for both the husband role and the alpha male role. Both the husband role and the alpha male role had reproductive advantages. We are thus the offspring of those women who tried to have some children by men who excel at the husband role as well as some children by men who excel at the alpha male role. This is a self reinforcing cycle that would only get stronger as we evolved. Let's look at some specific consequences. A husband who let his woman be impregnated by an alpha male or a better husband would get fewer of his genes into future generations than a man who took measures to prevent his woman from being impregnated by other men. Therefore, we are the offspring of those men who took measures to prevent their woman from being impregnated by other men. Therefore, men today have the same genetically programmed impulses as those men. Being a husband might seem like a good strategy because a prehistoric husband had 24/7 access to his woman, but evolution can be pretty sneaky. For example, an anti-husband mutation caused women to be more likely to get pregnant if they have an orgasm, which obviously was an advantage for alpha males who got fewer opportunities to impregnate any given woman but whose one try was more likely to induce an orgasm than any of the husbands' multiple tries. Another anti-husband mutation has enabled men to produce sperm that would form a rear guard and thus block other men's sperm from reaching the egg. Therefore, when a woman became fertile each month, if she let the alpha male try first, then his sperm might successfully block the husband's sperm for the period in which the woman was fertile that month. Although some men are alpha males and some are husbands, both have the same strategy. The difference is that alpha males are more successful at implementing the male strategy, which is why we are the offspring alpha males and of those women who were most successful at being impregnated by an alpha male instead of their husbands. Clearly, a woman must be one heck of an actor to pull off the female strategy. Therefore, the descendants of those women are good actors, but the women before us were more than just great actors. The most successful women would have been those who really did love their husbands but who still tried to be impregnated by an alpha male. Therefore, the descendants of those women really do love their husbands – and – they are good actors. The dual nature of the genetically programmed female strategy is one of the reasons men think that women send mixed signals and play games, and why women will often agree and not be able to explain their behavior, but it is not a game or mixed signals. It makes perfect sense once you understand it's evolutionary underpinnings. Another reason men think that women send mixed signals and play games is actually a real game. Consider that in prehistoric times, if a man was able to chase a woman, catch her, and impregnate her without letting her injure him with her feeble blows, and without injuring her, then that man must have had good genes, and good genes was exactly what she wanted. It would have been a good reproductive strategy for women to put themselves into a situation where a man she was certain had good genes would attempt to prove himself in this manor. Obviously, when the game went as planned by both parties, it was quite mutual in spite of the woman running and fighting. Women today are thus the offspring of women who employed such a strategy and thus feel the impulse to engage in this strategy themselves. Now the game would have been great fun for both the alpha male and the woman, but what if the woman was wrong and the man was weaker than she thought and he failed to block some of her feeble blows. The woman might then suddenly decide that the game was over because she could do better in this menstruation cycle, although she would have reserved the right to change her mind later that day – just in case there were no better males available. Therefore, given that a woman can only have a few kids, and so every one must count, a mutation would thus have succeeded in pre-historic women so that when they were already trying to get pregnant by a given man, they might suddenly think that being impregnated by that man was horrible based on any one of many possible ques. Hence, a woman today might really change her mind at the last minute for any one of many reasons that may be mostly subconscious, but which are real from a previously evolutionarily optimum perspective. Of course, this would seem really insulting to a man as well as making him think the woman was shallow and irrational, but if both parties understood the evolutionary forces at work, then they would be more likely to enjoy themselves as well as being more likely to part amicably if evolution throws them a curve ball at the last minute – and more likely to try again later. The political elite use our genetic programming to manipulate us all the time. Just one of those manipulations relies on the fact that evolution has caused women to feel like they need a husband more than just about anything else. For many women, a priest has subconsciously served as a surrogate husband, and now politicians like Obama are also subconsciously seen as a surrogate husband by many women. Now that women are in the workforce, their boss and/or company can serve as a surrogate husband. Of course, government itself can serve as a surrogate husband too. In addition to trying increase their own competitiveness with real husbands by playing a role or sometimes actually giving stuff to women, religious and political surrogates also try to reduce the competitiveness of real husbands. One way priests and politicians manipulate women is by raising women's expectations for real husbands. Another way they manipulate women is by reducing the effectiveness of real husbands – consider how many black men are in jail. Never forget that we each have a brain, which can override any genetic programming – especially if we are aware of that programming. Also, remember there is certainly no reason to get mad about our genetic programming. Let's not speculate about Trayvon or Zimmerman themselves, instead, let's discuss the national issue that we know. NBC, the Democrats, and Obama used Trayvon Martin's death to propagate the New Hate. There was no evidence of racism in Zimmerman's 911 call, so NBC doctored the 911 call in two ways to make the call sound like ironclad evidence that Zimmerman was motivated by racism. Then NBC used its power as a national mainstream news organization to turn the local Trayvon case into a national case. As you can imagine, this infuriated the black community across the nation. Then Barack Obama, as the President of the United States and as the most beloved and trusted leader of the black community, spoke to the nation. To the black community, who were already incited to hatred and anger by the media, Obama said this, "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon." The media and the Democrats thus incited hatred in the black community against white people, which did indeed result in violence against white people, and Obama basically gave the order. Of course, the media suppressed the evidence of their guilt, and viciously attacked anyone who questioned the politically correct narrative they had fabricated. The way the media and the Democrats worked together to incite hatred in the black community and in the politically correct community while suppressing dissent, not only resulted in violence against white people, but also resulted in more votes for the Democratic Party. Note how these targets appear to be standing on their own property. Now why would Obama's DHS need to practice shooting white people's kids on their own property? If the people in Obama's DHS find themselves in these situations, then the most likely reason is that they themselves are the bad guys, and thus they should hesitate. Obama, The Democratic Party, and the Mainstream Media have taken Their Hate to a new level. Clearly, the DHS has decided that too few DHS personnel are the kind of sociopaths who would blindly obey orders to kill ordinary innocent Americans, so DHS needs to manufacture more such sociopaths – hence the targets. We now know why Obama's DHS recently made an unprecedented purchase of 1.6 billion bullets. (Now it's 2 billion.) This is nearly 20 times larger than a normal year for DHS. Why does this include 450 million rounds hollow point .40 caliber when .40 caliber is not used by the military, when hollow points are not used for practice, when hollow points will not penetrate Kevlar, and when hollow points have always been banned from warfare because they are too barbaric. Their only purpose is therefore to murder civilians wearing bathrobes and t-shirts – just like in the targets. Unfortunately, I have found that many people feel that such overwhelming evidence simply could not be true given the image of Obama sold to us by the media. Therefore, I have busted the Myth of Obama so that we can move forward again. We now have overwhelming evidence that the government is trying to provoke armed conflict with the American people, and we have overwhelming evidence that such plans have greatly accelerated under Obama, and of course, the only reason to provoke armed conflict is to justify a police state – beyond what we already have. It is critical that the targets be white because ordinary innocent white people are the main source of resistance to a police state. White people are more numerous, more spread out, more wealthy, more educated, and more concerned about the Constitution; whereas, government has already neutralized black people by keeping them poor, distracted, and dependent on government. Blacks who resist are incarcerated, shot, or ridiculed and shunned. Law enforcement is already willing to shoot black people, so DHS needs to create more sociopaths with the same lack of respect for white people. Therefore, the targets are all white. The next question is, "Other than front men like Clinton, Bush and Obama, who are the Elites that want to create a police state – and why?" Saturday, February 9, 2013 The newly formed Republican party wanted to abolish slavery; whereas, the already existing Democratic Party wanted to promote slavery. Therefore, we see that the rhetoric of both parties is consistent with their history. The Republicans have always claimed that no man has a right to the fruits of another man's labor; whereas, the Democrats have always promised the fruits of other men's labor to whoever would vote for them. A majority of those who want something for nothing will thus prefer the Democratic Party. The mainstream media, academia, and the government actively promote the Democratic Party, and actively oppose the Republican Party. A majority of those who do not think for themselves will thus prefer the Democratic Party. Of course, those who think for themselves and who take the time to investigate, know that, regardless of which party is in power, the overall trend of government is higher taxes, more spending, more borrowing, more corruption, more wealth redistribution, more violation of the Constitution, more propaganda, more political factions, more fear, more hate, and more regulation of your life and your business. It is almost as if both parties were merely front men for the same elite interests, and for some issues one is the good cop and the other is the bad cop; whereas, for other issues, it is the reverse. It is almost as if most politics, news media, and academic studies were never intended to find or solve real problems, but were actually intended to incite fear of each other, fear of nature, and fear of the unknown, so that we will empower them to control others, control nature, and control the unknown. What politicians really need is not just fear, but conflict, and fear leads to hate, and hate leads to anger, and anger leads to action, which is why politicians prefer to motivate us directly by inciting hate instead of fear. Of course, it is very difficult for politicians to sell themselves as the solution to the very hate that they themselves are fomenting, and some politicians, such as Bill Clinton, are almost that skilled, but even such a master politician must choose the faction that controls the media, so that the media will give him the cover he needs. Democrats are thus able to promote the New Hate because they have sufficient cover from the media. ZeroHedge also explained that, although 115,000 total jobs were lost, it was actually 221,000 real jobs that were lost, which was offset by a gain of 106,000 hamburger flipping (or equivalent) jobs – for 16-19 year olds. If the employment numbers as reported by the government and the mainstream media are not real, then is the recovery real? No! The recovery is not real. None of the lost jobs have been recovered. Suppose the workings of the human brain were nothing but physical reactions. If your brain were nothing but physical reactions, then because they were re-actions, must your every choice have been predetermined? Suppose you were born in 1950, and Starbucks were created in the 1970's, and you bought a particular coffee at a particular Starbucks at a particular time in 2010. Then, because your brain, every brain, and the universe, were nothing but physical reactions, would your purchase have been predetermined in 1950? Was your birth date a limitation on predicting your choice? Wouldn't your mother's and father's choices have predetermined your birth? Wouldn't all human decisions have been predetermined thousands of years before those humans were born? Let's consider a parallel example. If the universe were nothing but physical reactions, then hasn't every physical reaction been predetermined from the beginning of the universe? Wasn't it predetermined that a particular leaf would grow? Wasn't the leaf predetermined before the tree existed? Wasn't the leaf predetermined before that species of tree existed? Wasn't the leaf predetermined before that planet existed? Instinctively, we feel certain that the particular leaf was not predetermined. Likewise, we feel certain that ourchoices were not predetermined. However, we demand the concept of free will to explain why the physical reactions in human brains do not predetermine a particular choice. Whereas, we demand no concept to explain why the physical reactions of nature do not predetermine the particular leaf. This thought experiment thus reveals a widespread cognitive dissonance in our thinking. Why must we project magical qualities into the physical reactions of our brains to explain why our choices are not predetermined? If physical reactions contained randomness, then randomness alone would make nothing truly predetermined. A clever person would claim that maybe we can predict the leaf because we do think of the results of physical reactions, like a falling object, as being predetermined. However, predictable physical reactions are predictable only when two For example, a 1000kg block of steel resting on top of an egg centered under it would definitely crush the egg when released. Even human choices can be pretty predictable when a large scale physical reaction is imminent – like stepping out of the way of a moving car. However, we don't even know what will happen next. For example, which way would each egg molecule squirt? A clever person would claim that maybe we can predict the leaf because we consider physical reactions such as the choices (the output) in a computer simulation, or even in any future artificial intelligence, to be predetermined when given known inputs. However, predictable physical reactions are predictable only when three Considering randomness first, we have designed computers to have a very high probability of behaving predictably. We could have made the same computer circuit designs smaller, but then their behavior would be less predictable. Considering the isolation of an AI choice is not as simple as it seems. While it is true that if we stopped an AI, took a snapshot of it's data, and loaded that data onto identical hardware, then the two systems would perform the same next step; however, that next state (choice) would only be the next nanosecond, so we would have accomplished very little for our effort. To actually be able to predict the future choices of that AI, we would have had to load its data onto a faster (but otherwise identical) computer, and we would have had to guarantee that they both received exactly the same input (the same life experiences, saw the same things from the same angles, got the same reactions from other sentient beings, etc.), and that the faster one received that same input twice as fast (if the computer were twice as fast). We would thus need two planets starting in the same state, but with everything happening twice as fast on one. The impossibility of predicting AI would be even more difficult with human brains because human brains are not identical hardware and because they are like a computer that has trillions of processors (instead of one) all processing at slightly different speeds and all changing their speed randomly. Also, human brains were not designed to eliminate randomness. Therefore, even if there were no such thing as randomness; the only way to predict human choices would be if our entire universe were an isolated simulation and another simulation started from the same state and were running on faster (but otherwise identical) hardware. Note that software can emulate any physical process, so if we cannot yet model the workings of the human brain, then that is only because we do not yet understand the workings of the human brain. Just as magic is not the reason that predicting the leaf is impossible, magic is also not the reason that predicting a human choice is impossible. The reality is that there is no magic. Once we understand reality, we are free from superstition, and once we are free from superstition, we have a greater incentive to start thinking for ourselves. Wednesday, January 9, 2013 After giving parents absolute control over any tax dollars spent on their children's education, they will naturally choose not just the best education – but the safest. Ten million free market experiments in education can find ways to serve customers (parents and kids) better than a panel of 10 government experts with their corrupt, bureaucratic, obsolete, ineffective, one-size-fits-all, mandatory programs – of the unions, by the unions, for the unions. Likewise, ten million free market experiments in safety can find ways to serve customers better than a panel of 10 government experts. It is no secret that it is the Democratic party in bed with the unions. Therefore, parents should have been asking, "How is it that the party of choice is so anti-choice?" Certainly many customers will choose solutions to school safety that involve guns used for the purpose of self defense, and it is no secret that the Democratic Party is the party that wants to disarm the people. Therefore, parents should have been asking, "How is it that the party that wants to empower the little guy is the party that wants to disarm the little guy." Make no mistake. The Democratic Party is all about conformity, control, and government dependence. That is how they have played their role in destroying the Black community – and America. Don't get fooled into thinking that the Republican Party is the answer. They have a different role to play in destroying the Black community – and America. Together they are like The Prince who divides us against each other, as described by Machiavelli. For some issues one is the good cop while the other is the bad cop. On other issues it is the reverse. Of course, any voter or low level politician who sincerely supports freedom of education will thus be drawn to the Republican Party, the Libertarian Party, and/or the Tea Party, but the Republican Party is controlled by the Neocons (Republican Progressives). Like the Democratic Party, the Neocons don't want freedom of education. They too are obsessed with appeals to authority, and they too want to disarm the little guy. Like I said, the Neocons are Republican Progressives. We are Americans. How is it that we have less freedom of education than just about any country in the world? Any who would attempt a solution as big as freedom of education cannot succeed unless they understand that both parties, as well as the mainstream media, are front men for the Global Money Masters. Any movement to implement freedom of education would thus precipitate very strong and sophisticated resistance backed with infinite money, infinite patience, and initially – infinite force … but that is the key. The force comes from us. Once we understand the reality, we will choose to not cooperate. Once we understand the reality, we will choose freedom. Freedom is the Promise of Reality. Freedom of Education is motivated by, and would strengthen, the Soul of Humanity; whereas, the conformity and hierarchy of our current system is motivated by, and strengthens, the Soul of Animals. The NYT knows its readers well, and the NYT is pretty confident that its readers won't bother asking whether this was a regional phenomenon or a global one or whether the temperature data could have been fudged – again. Whereas, the independent thinker will have been immediately suspicious because most other politically correct "scientific" conclusions have proven to cherry pick the data and then fudge the remaining data – especially climate "science". First, this was the 9th hottest year in the last 34 according to satellite data. The discrepancy is because the alarmist data only considers the continental US. Well, that was easy. The 2012 heat is just more politically correct junk science. The 2012 heat reminds me of the hockey stick chart, whose falsification became know as Climategate. The hockey stick chart was never real science. It was created by only one "scientist" – Michael Mann, and it was accepted without being scientifically reproduced by real scientists. He created algorithms designed to produce a hockey stick chart. He created a single new data sample and ignored all the existing and contradictory data samples. When temperatures in his new data sample actually went down at end instead of up, Michael Mann decided to "hide the decline" by replacing that segment of his data with other data that went the direction he needed. When two non-scientists tried to reproduce his results, he not only refused to cooperate, but he and his accomplices decided to change the definition of peer review if necessary to stop them from getting published. Regardless of degrees, titles, and authority, do the Climategate "scientists" sound like real scientists to you? From: Phil Jones. To: Many. Nov 16, 1999 "I've just completed Mike's Nature [the science journal] trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline." From Phil Jones To: Michael Mann (Pennsylvania State University). July 8, 2004 "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!" Most politically correct "science" doesn't even pass the smell test. For example: Would a 1.5 foot sea level rise over 100 years really be catastrophic? Are we really free and safe when only the government has guns? Regulation is more effective than reputation/competition/contracts? If you believe in evolution, wouldn't a gay gene die out immediately? Are there really no differences between races except for skin color? Are men and women really the same except for how they're raised? So called "liberals" have moved forward and are no longer interested in freedom and tolerance. Instead, everyone must be the same, everyone must believe the same, and everyone must be controlled. Even your carbon footprint must be controlled – which requires a global government, of course. Some may call this liberalism, political correctness, progressivism, socialism, globalism, collectivism, or communism, but it is always – fascism. Saturday, January 5, 2013 Innovation must be managed. Innovation can empower the little guy and make him think he doesn't need those of us having superior genes to make decisions for him. Innovation can make the serfs uppity – in the vernacular, as it were. For example, the Internet Reformation makes many serfs feel like they are just as smart as (or smarter than!) we are! Therefore, we can't have unbridled innovation, or else we might get another Internet Reformation before we can stop it. We have yet to complete our control of the Internet itself, so we certainly can't allow another black swan event like that. It is true that unbridled innovation would be necessary to support the exponential growth in serf population, but there were already too many serfs anyway. The earth has limited resources, and only those having superior genes deserve to inherit the earth. Slower innovation will thus reveal the urgent necessity of our final solution, which will thus become more acceptable to those elites and useful serfs who were previously reluctant about what must be done. Slower innovation is thus a good thing. We elites are right wing extremists, but we spend much of our resources promoting progressivism, fascism, socialism, communism, collectivism, unions, and political correctness – not just because they make the serfs more dependent – and not just because they help us divide the serfs against each other – but also because they slow downinnovation. Our conscience is clear because a majority of serfs freely support us in our promotion of all flavors of collectivism. The free market is an abomination that punishes our superior breeding and rewards that greedy lower class mentality. The free market is anarchy. The success of the common man in the free market is thus proof of his inferior genes. That is why – that government is best, which regulates most. The serfs have all the information they need to know that we cannot compete in a free market, but they still vote for regulation. It is their choice When we promise them other people's money, they have all the information they need in order to know that they are those other people. Therefore, if they are blinded by their greedy lower class collectivist mentality, then that is still their choice. We promote equality. We support multiple factions because we cannot allow any one faction to be strong enough to unite the people against our good ideas. Likewise, we cannot allow any one person, company, or nation to be too strong, which is why we must take down America, or more specifically, the American people. Equality is thus a necessary evil towards the end goal of a healthy and natural hierarchy. The American people overwhelmingly vote for the Democratic and Republican parties, and yet, Americans have all the information they need to know that both parties are controlled by our front men. Americans also have all the information they need to know that the Democratic Party moves our good ideas forward faster. While it may seem like we already have enough control to implement our good ideas, we must also monitor every communication, every financial transaction, and every politically inclined meeting in order to detect and prevent the destabilizing effect of a potential black swan development know as Zero Squads. Zero Squads are terrorist cells of 3 serfs each, known only to each other. Each cell will have chosen one of the smartest and most superior elites, and because of their inferior breeding, they will not hesitate to die if necessary to take out their target. If you see something, say something – and thereby prove your usefulness. We reveal our plans because everyone must freely choose, and thus our conscience is always clear. We simultaneously offer powerful temptations that will only deceive those who willfully ignore reality and who thus have inferior genes. Conformity and hierarchy are thus not a necessary evil. They are a necessary good. Some elites claim that our principles of conformity and hierarchy make us no different than the serfs, who we manage by appealing to their desire for conformity and hierarchy. What these elites seem to forget is that the reason we are superior is because we are smarter. Conformity among the serfs is only wrong because they are imitating those with inferior genes, and hierarchy among serfs is only wrong because they are following those with inferior genes. Although we are the most highly evolved humans, a new theory posits that conformity and hierarchy are actually the Soul of Animals, and are thus the peak of animal evolution, and that the peak of human evolution is the Soul of Humanity. Some elites accept these theories, but it does not change our plans because we are thus acting in self defense against the encroachment of the perverse evolutionary course referred to as the Soul of Humanity. Without conformity and hierarchy, the Soul of Humanity is incomplete and would lead to anarchy! One could thus summarize our goal as a crusade to kill the Soul of Humanity, although most of us just see it as killing off reactionary genes. Some elites claim that the Soul of Humanity is very much like our founding principles, and that we have lost our way. Such elites have obviously been deceived by our own propaganda intended to pacify the masses. Wednesday, January 2, 2013 Does race exist? In other words, are there genetic differences between races? Some scientists and most journalists say that race does not exist – except for skin color, but if one thinks for oneself, then the claim that there are no genetic differences between any groups of humans – except for skin color – just doesn't pass the smell test – so one must investigate. The common sense answer is that race exists because races look different and evolved in separate locations, but the politically correct answer is that there is no genetic difference between any groups of humans – other than skin color. Of course, independent thinkers quickly learn to be suspicious of politically correct answers because politically correct answers keep proving to be based on "science" that cherry picks, does not consider all the variables, and suppresses alternative thought. Question: What is the probability that a random pair of individuals from the same local population is more genetically dissimilar than a random pair from two distinct populations? Answer: The probability is shown to drop to zero with increasing number of genetic markers even for very closely-related populations and rare alleles. In other words, when we consider all versions of all genes, then it is certain that an individual from a given local population will be more genetically similar to another individual from that same population than to an individual from another population – even when the two populations are closely related – let alone when they are distant. Is it any surprise that the politically correct elite are just as wrong as when they insisted that there are no differences between men and women except for difference caused by how they were raised? Is it any surprise that the politically correct elite are just as wrong as when they created the hockey stick chart? Let's continue thinking for ourselves. If we accept the data from those who deny race, then there were only 10,000 humans 70,000 years ago because other humans were killed off by the Toba event, and thus these were somewhat closely related humans from one geographical location. This is somewhat speculative, but it is plausible. what is not plausible is the more speculative politically correct conclusion that race does not exist. The politically correct conclusion is that we are all the same because the 10,000 Toba survivors were the same and because there has not been enough time for significant evolution since then. However, there can be a lot of genetic diversity in 10,000 people from the same region, and 70,000 years is a lot of time for significant evolution to occur. For example, 700,000 years ago, 600 species of cichlids lived in Lake Tanganyika and only one species of cichlid from lake Tanganyika ever survived the journey to Lake Malawi, and possibly as few as one male and one female made it to Lake Malawi. Over the next 700,000 years, 500 species of cichlids evolved from just a few individuals of that one species. Therefore, anyone can estimate that in the first 70,000 years, anywhere from 5 to 100 new species evolved from just a few individuals of one species. There are a couple of reasons why the range of 5 to 100 is so large. The number of species could potentially grow exponentially. For example, one species could have evolved into two, and then those could have evolved into 4, and then those could have evolved into 8. However, there are limiting pressures that increase as the number of individuals and the number of species increase, which means that the evolution of new species could have tapered off during the last half of that 700,000 years because they were all in that one lake competing with each other to fill the limited space and limited niches. It is not as if they migrated all over the world while they were evolving – like humans did. What we have actually proven is that there are many many human races, and thus there are many races within each skin color. Therefore, skin color is one determinant of race, but by itself is not the sole determinant of race; however, skin color does delineate one group of races from another group of races. Still, we have not gotten to the heart of the issue. The real issue of race is whether there exists genetic differences that cause important differences in behavior and values. Given that differences in behavior and values could be caused by just one gene, then based on what we know, it is highly probable that different races within the same skin color have a few genes that cause different behavior and values. Likewise, it is highly probable that if there were 10 genes that varied among races within the same skin color, then there must be at least one variation of one gene that causes important differences in behavior or values that is unique to skin color, but as far as I know, no one has proven or disproven the existence of such genes – probably because the answer could be politically incorrect. Although we have not gotten to the heart of the issue, I would say that based on what we can see for ourselves, the issue of race is largely irrelevant because differences between races just can't be that big. For example, the difference between cultures is larger. The differences between men and women is larger. The differences between adults and children is larger, and the differences between religions is larger. Therefore, progressives need to get over their obsession with race and their contradictory denial of race. Why do the politically correct want everyone to be the same anyway? I like diversity, and the politically correct also claim that they like diversity. You may recall that politically correct "science", fudged the data, and committed atrocities, like on David Reimer, to make the data conform to the preconceived notion that the the only difference between men and women was how they were raised. Then they used peer pressure to force everyone to conform to their beliefs – even after their science had been falsified. You may recall that politically correct climate "science", fudged the data and smoothed out the data to make it conform to the hockey stick chart they already had in their minds. Then they used unprecedented peer pressure to force everyone to conform to their beliefs – even after their science had been falsified. Sunday, December 23, 2012 Whenever an independent thinker presents a believer with incontrovertible evidence that explains how Obama has violated, or intends to violate, majority principles, the believer always makes the same evasive arguments: The believer always claims that there is no reason to focus on Obama unless you are racist. The believer always claims that Obama has no power to change anything because the Republicans won't let him. The believer always asks why the independent thinker didn't also focus on Bush, or Republicans, in the same analysis. We independent thinkers do occasionally focus on Obama, and the reason, in a nutshell, is because: The mass psychosis of the Obama cult is so unprecedented in the number and diversity of its believers, and in the sweeping scope of its issues – while also being so easily disproven – that it creates an unprecedented opportunity to shock many people into thinking for themselves. Therefore, the real subject of what seem like negative analyses about Obama, is actually about the unprecedented media bias, or the cognitive dissonance of the believers, or the systemic corruption. Analyses from independent thinkers is never primarily about Obama because Obama is just a front man. Let's answer the believers thoroughly, so that we can link to this answer many times. Independent thinkers rarely focus on Obama. For example, the first Tea Party I attended (April 2009) had perhaps 100 signs, and about three of them referred to Obama in any way, which directly disproves the mainstream media analyses of the Tea Parties. Obama is the current president. Obama was the previous president. Obama had a filibuster-proof majority. Bush did not. The President appoints the Supreme Court. For example, replacing just one of the pro-Constitution Supreme Court justices would result in a court order to confiscate all guns owned by Americans. The media bias in support of Obama is unprecedented, which thus creates an unprecedented opportunity to expose media bias. The media bias in support of Obama is unprecedented, and thus gives him a 15-20% boost in polls and elections against equally inferior men like Mitt Romney, as well as against superior men like Gary Johnson or Ron Paul. The media bias in support of Obama is unprecedented; therefore, 100 million people have a perception that is way out of sync with reality, which creates a huge opportunity to shock people out of their stupor induced by media bias and by our communist school system. The mass psychosis of the Obama cult is so unprecedented in the number and diversity of its believers, and in the sweeping scope of its issues – while also being so easily disproven – that it creates an unprecedented opportunity to shock many people into thinking for themselves. Although Obama is just a front man, he is the front man for those oligarchs who want to disarm us, milk us, and make us dependent on government, and hence dependent on them. They promote systemic socialism in all its flavors, not only to weaken and control those who embrace their socialism, but also to weaken and control all of us, which thus includes those pesky independent thinkers – until they can implement their final solution. Obama is incompetent. For example, it was obvious in 2008 that he did not understand the environment, the Constitution, national security, healthcare, history, energy, or economics; and his first term has proven this. There has been no recovery, and the federal deficit has tripled. His healthcare and financial regulations are disastrous. He believes in global warming! Obama has bad intentions. For example, he dislikes rural white Americans because he says they are bitter racists who cling to their guns and religion. He has continued the Bush war policies. He wants to disarm the people. He signed the law that let's him indefinitely detain Americans. He signed the law that lets him assassinate Americans. Bush too was an incompetent reneger, a front man for many of the same people, and had bad intentions, but the media bias against Bush was unprecedented. Therefore, few people have a perception of Bush that is too positive, which creates little opportunity to educate anyone's perspective. Trying to explain why Bush really is that bad, but not for the reasons they think, would be too subtle and too complex for people educated in our communist school system and bathed in media bias. Our communist schools and media bias have created a public that can barely follow a single simple line of reasoning. Therefore, complicating every Obama analysis with a comparison to Bush would just add unnecessary complexity. If one were an independent thinker, one would ask: How does the mainstream media (and all other Obama voters) reconcile their position during the Bush administration with their position during the Obama administration? George Bush was a moron and everything that happened during his administration was his fault. Obama is brilliant, and nothing that happens under his administration is his fault. The mass psychosis of Obamatons is interesting! I have never seen anything like it before. Not only is it beyond the mass psychosis of Global Warming believers, but it incorporates the mass psychosis of Global Warming believers. Therefore, the real subject of what seems like a negative analysis about Obama, is actually about the unprecedented media bias, or the cognitive dissonance of the believers, or the systemic corruption. Saturday, December 22, 2012 I am an atheist who sees American Christians as allies in many ways because I find them to be both more open minded than progressives and more open to individual freedom than progressives. There are two big reasons why American Christians are more open to freedom and to ideas in general than are progressives. 1) American Christians are more open to American tradition, which is mostly about individual liberty. 2) The entire mainstream media is constantly bashing Christians; whereas, they are constantly reinforcing progressive fallacies, thus forcing Christians to constantly think about and defend their positions, while insulating progressives from having to think about and defend their positions. Nevertheless, there are several reasons why I am not a Christian, and any one of them is sufficient by itself. 1) I was at one time as sincere of a Christian as anyone has been, but over time I grew to find it no longer convincing. 2) The Bible is pretty flawed. 3) The actions of Christians today and throughout history are questionable. 4) There is little reason to believe in magic when there is no evidence other than a claim and many believers in that claim. 5) There is no reason to believe something when doing so will add nothing to my quality of life. 6) Religion is unnecessary for ethics. Let's look at the necessity of the Bible or any other religious text for living ethically. If you are able to determine that the content of a religious text prescribes ethical behavior, then you already know how to behave ethically, and thus you don't need it. Let's look at how the content of the Bible is flawed. It says there is only one God, and it says that God is all powerful, all knowing, 100% good, 100% just, 100% fair, 100% perfect, and that he created everything. Then it says that God claims he is jealous of other gods, which contradicts the general nature of God as explained in the Bible. It was written by a people (Jews) who claim it is what God told them, and what God told them was that they are his chosen people. The Bible thus promotes racism. I wonder if God's chosen people are racist today … More specifically, God told a man that all of the descendants of one of his sons would be his chosen people, but that the descendants of his other son would not be. Being one of God's chosen people thus depends solely on your family tree. The Bible thus promotes nepotism. I wonder if God's chosen people engage in nepotism today … God allowed his chosen people to be slaves in Egypt for 400 years. The Bible thus promotes slavery. Then God threatened to send ten plagues on Egyptians if they didn't free the Jews. The plagues included murdering Egyptian children if the Pharaoh did not agree. The Bible thus promotes genocide. Then God hardened the Pharaoh's heart so that he would not agree. The Bible thus promotes what can only be described as fraud perpetrated through mind rape. It says God stopped the sun. Wouldn't God want to gain a little credibility by claiming that he stopped the earth from turning, and thus be the first to claim that the sun does not go around the earth? What about continents, stars, and galaxies. Why is there nothing? What about atoms, germs, and evolution? Why is there nothing? What about predicting the future? Why are there only vague predictions? The Old Testament thus contains no advanced information at all, but it does contain a lot of material about how God demanded animal sacrifices – just like every other primitive culture. The Bible thus promotes primitive thinking and taxation. Two of every species fit into one boat? To one who reads the Bible and thinks for oneself, the the Bible is obviously self-contradictory and primitive, and it promotes fraud, taxation, rape, slavery, racism, superstition, and genocide. Therefore, why would anyone believe the Old Testament, which is the source of all of my examples thus far? Why would anyone want to believe it? Jesus says that God loves you, but the New Testament contradicts him when it goes on to say that non-believers will burn in a lake of sulfur for all eternity. Don't forget who created everything and who is all powerful, so basically God is doing that to you. Would a just god do that? Would a God who loves you do that – just for not believing something so primitive, self-contradictory, and unethical as the Bible? The Bible thus promotes the logical fallacy that might makes right. You could be the most ethical person in the world, but if you don't conform, you will burn for all eternity? The bible thus promotes fascism. The texts chosen for inclusion in the Bible were determined by Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century. The Bible thus encourages censorship. The texts chosen just happened to be those most compatible with building and controlling an empire. The Bible thus promotes big government and big organized religion. Christianity was previously about a personal relationship with God, and there was little interest in a religious bureaucracy like the Catholic Church. The entire Old Testament and some of the New Testament seems to have been inspired by the Soul of Animals; whereas, the teachings of Jesus seem to have been inspired by the Soul of Humanity, and thus Jesus may have been one of the first people to evolve with the Soul of Humanity. In fact, Jesus was a significant inspiration in the development of my theory of the Soul of Humanity. So, you could say I'm a fan, and thus a kind of Christian if you want. The 2oth century saw the rise of collectivism, where progressive governments impoverished their people and killed or imprisoned hundreds of millions who failed to conform. Progressive government caused all of the biggest problems of the 20th century, such as The Great Depression, eugenics, total war, weapons of mass destruction, targeting civilians, reeducation camps, taxes, regulations, government dependency, entitlement mentality, identity politics, pollution, inflation, stagnation, authoritarianism, democide, and genocide. Libertarianism was created (or rediscovered) in the late 20th century by men who wanted to create the most ethical, the most logical, and the most natural society, and thus, libertarianism is that system most compatible with the Soul of Humanity; whereas, those who oppose libertarianism are motivated by the Soul of Animals. Libertarianism has many roots going back to non-conformist visionaries such as Friedrich Hayek, and to Lysander Spooner before him. In fact, Libertarianism is basically the founding principles of America, which have roots all the way back to Plymouth Rock and Jamestown. Libertarianism is individualism. The premises of Libertarianism, along with some exposition, are: The universe and all non-sentient life exist for the use of sentient life. All individuals have equal rights. The law must apply to everyone equally. It is always wrong to initiate force or fraud for any reason. For example, fight words with words. It is always wrong to fight words with physical violence. Every individual owns himself, and thus he owns the fruits of his labor. For example, slavery is wrong because no man has a right to the fruits of another man's labor. Likewise, free healthcare is wrong because no man has a right to the fruits of another man's labor. As an extreme example that would probably rarely happen in reality, an individual can sell himself. No one has a right to buy, sell, or own other individuals; however, an individual owns himself and thus has the right to sell himself to another individual according to whatever contractual mechanisms are mutually satisfactory. No one can be trusted to work for the self interest of any individual better than that individual. All things being equal, no one knows the self interest of any individual better than that individual. No one has any right to determine the self interest of another individual. A man is not an animal. To reach the full human potential, a man must use his brain, he must create, he must communicate, he must form agreements with others, and he must trade the fruits of his labor. Any interference in his effort to think, create, communicate, cooperate, and trade is thus immoral and unnatural. Individuals have a right to cooperate with each other, and thus individuals have a right to form any kind of marriage, business, cooperative, union, etc. Likewise, an individual has a right to choose any willing individual as his representative. Whether or not one is cooperating with other individuals, every action is an individual action. There are no collective actions. The actions of a group are always the individual actions of one or more individuals in that group. For example, the corporation did not give your data to the government. It was someone inside the corporation who did that, and it was someone inside the corporation told him to do that. Likewise, if your were arrested for video taping a policeman, the government did not arrest you, it was the policeman who arrested you, and the government did not pass the law that authorized (gave immunity to) the policeman who arrested you, it was individual legislator who voted for it. You have a right to cooperate with any individuals in any way that is mutually agreeable. For example, you can hire or fire whoever you want. Therefore, affirmative action, sexual harassment, and Title IX are an initiation of force by government. Such government promotion of any race or gender is also a violation of equality under the law. No collection of individuals has any greater rights than an individual and thus no collection of individuals can initiate force or fraud for any reason. For example, neither a union, business, nor government can initiate force or fraud any more than can an individual. No collection of individuals can force anyone to join them or force anyone to support their organization. If an individual voluntarily agrees to a contract that stipulates punishment for violating that agreement, then that punishment would not be an initiation of force. An individual has a right to do anything to his property. Although an individual can own a part of nature, land is different than all other property because it predates all buyers and sellers, and thus an individual has a right to do anything to his land – other than make it unusable. The existence of a species also predates all buyers and sellers, and thus no one has the right to cause the extinction of a species. Taxes are unethical. Only user fees are ethical. For example, a gasoline tax is actually a user fee for roads, National Parks have entrance fees, etc. An individual can inherit unlimited money without taxation, not because he has the right to the money he will inherit, but because the owner has the right to give it. Libertarian principles are superior to the opinion of a majority because it is a logical fallacy to claim that might makes right. Libertarian principles are superior to the opinion of a ruler or an expert because appeals to authority are a logical fallacy. Does libertarianism work, or is it just a noble theory? Consider that government deserves no credit for everything that makes life worth living. Did government invent transistors, fire, and love? Even when government invents something specific, it always causes a net reduction in growth and innovation across the nation. Consider that America was governed by the Articles of Confederation when it won its war of independence, and thus the world's superpower at that time lost to the most libertarian nation that has ever existed. Saturday, December 15, 2012 When you start watching Matt Damon in a movie about a global pandemic, like "Contagion", you just KNOW he is going to save the world. Instead, he is just a boring and obedient citizen who accepts his helplessness, and who understands that the uber competent good guys, a.k.a. the federal bureaucracy, have his back. He is so obedient, and has so much faith, that he doesn't even want a gun to protect his family from looters. The whole point of this boring movie is that we should all have blind faith in government; whereas, we should see those who criticize the government on the Internet as the lowest of the low. Then I saw the same message in another Matt Damon movie, "We Bought a Zoo." In it, Matt Damon is blindly obedient when a government inspector tells him that he must make expensive changes to comply with new regulations. You see, the location of a barrier around the lion cage was just fine for years, but a new regulation says it must be 6 inches further back. The modification would bankrupt his Zoo, but does he show any sign of contempt for such a ludicrous demand by some government bureaucrat? No, he shows only respect and obedience	eng	a18b4a60-9feb-491a-933b-5ed9340c3833	http://www.endofinnocence.com/
Twitter Updates 69 posts categorized "Accountability" Dec 23, 2012 I wrote several months ago that the personal nature of the rift between the Middle/Southern (MS) states vs. the Northeast/Northwest (NEW) states has put America on a path to divorce - the differences are simply irreconcilable. That was in the midst of the Republican Primary. Have things changed since? Did the election resolve or reconcile anything? No. America has never faced its mortality, and thus never grasped or faced the question of what it really stands for, what is at the core of being American. Without this, there is nothing with which to trump the red/blue emotional antipathy I referenced in that blog, and without which, I don't think America can be one nation. I joined Microsoft in 1994, during its "cool" zenith (Windows 95): success was everywhere, the stock was rising, the world was happy. Then came the DOJ. Being a convicted monopolist put the company back on its heels. We became timid, cautious, and for a long while, without mojo. They are a different company today, Windows and Office are still the flagships, but now Servers, Xboxes, etc. are legitimate multi-$billion businesses unto themselves. Tablets and Phones are new, but the company is patient and tenacious and will keep trying. Their size and diversity has put them in a position of potential success in a number of high-margin businesses. Each of their battles (DOJ, browser wars, open source, search, Apple, etc.) caused them to question who they are, what they are, and either re-up or abandon the idea that Microsoft could exist and thrive as a "new" entrant in non-PC markets. They have faced breakups, severe loss of cool, being viewed as insignificant, and yet, the profits keep coming in. Look also at Germany through the 20th century -- decimated in WWI, they rose from the ashes, became an industrial powerhouse in the hands of one man. Vanquished again in WWII, they were split in half and became servants of their Eastern and Western masters. Two generations on, Germany reasserted her independence and united as one nation with a clear identity that is informed by its past, understands its potential, and has the maturity to be a world leader. It is now a global powerhouse whose citizens enjoy a comprehensive social and economic foundation. While the WWII/Holocaust generation is waning, that Germany's behavior still colors their thought process. Rather than diminish, it has strengthened their resolve to strive for success, but with a conscience. Over the years, they looked inward, explored what it really meant to be German, evaluated their past, understood the essence of who they were, and then emerged as the culture they are. The desire to remain whole; diversify with a long-term view; and embrace conflict and introspection does pay off. If I were picking a long-term tech investment, or betting on a country's preeminence over time, I'd buy Microsoft or pick Germany -- they've been bloodied, faced their own good and bad, and shown that they can get back on the horse, and progress. America is divisive and divided today because she has never been bloodied; the act of being American has never been questioned. 9-11 was a blip - there is no lasting effect. Support for the military and first responders at sporting events while touching, has not prevented budget cuts and reductions in force. America and Americans have never been sufficiently challenged or provoked to true introspection. The country remains successful, but also petulant, naive, and immature on the world stage. Today Democrats hate Republicans for their passion for god and guns, and disdain for science. Republicans hate Democrats for their passion for socialistic services, secularism, and belief in science. If America is to be a beacon for pluralism and freedom, then it must experience the worst that can be thrown its way, and yet stay true to these ideals. This isn't about any one issue, it is about never having questioned your fundamental identity, never having faced legitimate threats to your existence, and never having risen from such challenges as one. America was most "American" when it faced the very real threat of identity and existence from the Soviet Union and Communism. It gave the country a higher purpose than childish partisan bickering - and while that threat was credible and imminent, the country was more together than apart. Once the Iron Curtain fell, the bickering returned, and as the threat to America diminished, so did our desire to put America above partisanship. It seems the experience of falling and then rising from the ashes is required to created sustained oneness. Visit Fukushima, Japan, and then New Orleans, Louisiana and ask yourself which cataclysm happened seven years ago, and which one happened two years ago? Ask yourself which country is more persistent, more resilient, and more unified? Despite their absurd and moronic efforts, our politicians can not make China another USSR - our economic interdependence and China's passion for capitalism are just two reasons. Is it possible to become one without having to rise from the ashes? Can American ingenuity and "exceptionalism" extend this far? If the post election machinations of the White House and Congress are any indication, then no. Dec 20, 2012 What happens when an organization makes a "big" decision? It becomes truth. The level of cognitive dissonance is such that facts, dissenting views, and even wise and pertinent questions are disdained - the "word" has been given. A few years ago, the Canadian government decided to upgrade their fleet of fighter planes. After a protracted "analysis" they decided to purchase 65 Lockheed F-35s for $9 billion. (They'd already spent $160m by mid-2010 + another $350m in related contracts, despite the fact that the first plane won't see Canadian shores until 2016.) During the process, assumptions made early on were so endemic that they became fact. This phenomenon persisted over months. In the end, the project was a house of cards vs. a rigorous, fact/truth-based analysis. But this wasn't the only problem. Price creep also set in. When you or I go out to buy a car, we start with a budget - say $30k. With initial good intentions, I look slightly below the limit ($25-27k), and then "out of curiosity," check out the $30/32k cars. "Wow - this is so much better!" Now what were luxury features become necessities, "No way I can live without heated seats." Pretty soon, I'm looking at $35k cars, thinking, "It's only another $5k - I can swing it." I walk out happy, having rationalized "only" spending 17% more. Kicker #2 - my next car's baseline is at least $35k probably closer to $40k (massaging and cooled seats!) -- price creep. It gets worse - the original motivation is also not questioned: "Of course we need new fighter planes - we have no choice!!" Really? What would happen if we retired the current fleet and didn't replace it? Yes - commitments and capabilities would change, and people would lose their jobs. But we'd also save $billions - what could we do with that money to employ more people, find new ways to solve the old problem, and maybe even give back a few $billion to the national coffers. Will this happen? No. The assumption that Canada needs fighters is based on century-old thinking (Canadian planes were part of the RAF in WWI). They'll never question it – stupid, stupid, stupid. Government (and most large organization) departments assume power based on the size of their budgets vs. their service to the mission. Budgets are assigned every year on a LOBA (lower of budget or actual spending) basis, which means you have to spend everything you were given, and then figure out ways to get more, 'cause that demonstrates your relevance. There is zero incentive to do more with less - it's actually discouraged because this kind of efficiency lowers the department's "standing." This article in the Atlantic is a great example of entrenched thinking at GE vis-à-vis outsourcing. Look also at Boeing's 787 project and how much difficulty, patching, and mitigation they've had to do to overcome what was initially a cute idea (multi-site sourcing), but quickly became the de facto and not-to-be-questioned strategy. Even a nimble company like Apple is going to inshore some of its product assembly. No assumption deserves absolute faith forever. Always, always question your assumptions. More than 50% of American marriages end in divorce because the preconceptions were proven wrong. We no longer consider marriage a de facto state; permanence, multi-race, age disparity, and gender are now part of the new normal of marriage. In the same way, there should also be a new normal for divorce - why does acrimony have to persist? There is a Mexican proposal to redefine marriage as a 2-year contract that must actively be renewed - I think this is a brilliant approach to ensuring that the parties involved continually question their assumptions and actively choose to "re-up" vs. passively enduring a bad situation until things become so bad that hate and anger and vindictiveness ensue. Oct 30, 2012 Why are healthcare costs around the world rising so dramatically? The costs of innovation, lawsuits, and an aging population are among the "claimed" reasons. Of course they have an effect, but are they the only reason? If you have an expense account or your parents' credit card, your "generosity" with their money is much greater than with your own money. You'll buy more expensive things and be more careless with them - after all - you aren't paying for it. Health insurance = other people's money. If it's your own hard-earned money, you're more likely to think before you spend; put more effort into preventing expenditures (live healthily), be diligent with your medicines, etc. American health care was regulated [fascinating read] in the early 1900s; it resulted in better hospitals, but initially very few licensed physicians; this scarcity increased costs, and health insurance was created to ensure that patients could pay their bills. Insurance became pervasive through the 1960-'70s, and when Medicare and Medicaid were introduced, we were off to the races. By distancing the cost from the consumer, people progressively became more cavalier. The very existence of health insurance assures excess. Any issue/injury/ailment/ingrown toenail is worthy of a doctor/hospital visit. We aren't paying so what the hell! As coverage became based on procedures, doctors "found themselves" doing more tests, but since we aren't paying, test away! But then the economy began to slow, unemployment rose, and more people were without coverage. This increased the use of Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP), which allow individuals (and employers) to set aside before-tax monies in a savings account for routine medical care, and purchase lower premium disaster coverage with high deductibles as a backstop. We not only think twice about going to the hospital, we even pay more attention to diet and behavior to keep our costs down. Doctors, knowing it's the patient's money, are ordering less tests and expensive or frivolous extras. When GE implemented an HDHP-type plan for its employees, there was a noticeable decline in the use of their own expensive imaging (MRI, CT) products! Not good for GE, but absolutely indicative of better overall behavior. :-) If you've read this blog for a while, you know I'm a proponent of universal health care. But it is subject to abuse and mismanagement. I believe all Americans should have healthcare, but let's learn from previous mistakes. Our implementation should be universal, prioritize patient health, and save money by mandating a minimum of HSA/HDHP for everyone: Government pays HSA + HDHP for those earning up to 1.5 times the poverty level. Government pays HSA only for those earning up to 2.5 times the poverty level. All government employees (including ALL elected officials) receive HSA + HDHP. All others are self/employer insured. All insurance providers must offer HDHP for anyone without descrimination. HSA is tax-free/pre-tax; any unspent $ can roll into an IRA or next year's HSA. This supplants Medicare/Medicaid and any prescription drug benefits. High school graduates qualify for lower rates, as do those with a post-high school certification (see below). Potential upside: Doctors say they can't assure health because patients don't take care of themselves or take their medicines properly. This doesn't solve that, but people might pay more attention if it's their money, and spend a little today (preventative) to avoid spending a lot tomorrow. The elimination of Medicare/Medicaid in favor of subsidized HSA/HDHP for those that need it most. Education mandate - it seems obvious that the more educated you are, the healthier your are, and the longer you live. Now there's data. So why not tie universal health care to universal education? It only makes sense. Health insurance costs in the developed world are rising much faster than GDP, and the US is in the worst shape. This approach blends universal access with the very American idea that that we should all have a vested stake. If we see success (lower costs, improved well being) with this approach, maybe we should also try it for public education? America is a unique country - it's approach to social services (health, education, etc.) should also be unique. Oct 03, 2012 There is only ONE thing that matters in this election and neither the debate moderators, the media, or the candidates will discuss it. If I were moderating the debate tonight, my instructions to the debaters: You will get as much time as I decide you need. It will not be equal. I will ask the questions, and keep asking until I get satisfactory answers. I have no tolerance for BS. My first (and perhaps only) question to President Obama: If you win a second term, you will most likely inherit a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. The last two years marked the least effective Congress/White House combination in memory. You've failed at working with this Congress for two years - how will this change? What assurances does the electorate have that you will be able to get ANYTHING done? My first (and perhaps only) question to Governor Romney: If you win the presidency, you will most likely inherit a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. The Republican caucus is dominated by a Tea Party fringe which does not suffer centrists gladly. Speaker Boehner was rendered impotent by this caucus. How will you get ANYTHING done knowing the obstacles you face in a partisan House, and an obstreperous Senate? This may take a while... America's greatest challenge is a Congress + White House so infantile that they would make a room full of drooling two-year old pouters and bullies appear coherent, dignified, and civlized. Oct 01, 2012 What if candidate Romney pulls out a miracle and not only wins the Presidency, but also drags a Republican majority into both the Senate and the House? Whom, in the months to follow is going to be most disappointed and dejected? I say it is FoxNews, and especially Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter (the prince and princess of vitriol). Why would these two who revel in reviling anything and everything Liberal, who can spin the smallest Democratic act into a demonic plot to strike down all God-fearing Republican Christians be sad? Because they'd have no-one to hate. The "lame-stream" Liberal media (MSNBC) would own the self-righteous, angst-filled hate advantage, and take over the mantle of official spokesnetwork for the easily-manipulated unwashed masses. Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh and the rest, all ardent supporters of Mitt, the Tea Party, and all things Sarah Palin would languish on their airwaves with nothing to complain about and no-one to insult. To fill the airwaves (and garner watchers and advertising $$) the best possible outcome for Fox/MSNBC is a president of one party, and a split in the House/Senate. This way everyone gets to have someone hate-worthy in power, and of course spend interminable hours with sycophantic "analysts" critiquing minutia in order to perpetuate the hatred. Many think today's professional athletes sacrificed the intellectual for the physical; that they are largely one-dimensional beasts whose sole focus is winning at all costs and cashing in on that big paycheck. With American Football, it is this plus the desire to physically dominate and punish your opponent in every way. I was watching a replay of the Giants-Eagles NFL football game last night; these teams are in the same division, play each other twice a year, and typically for one to succeed, the other must fail. A factor that no-doubt contributes to their intense and long-standing rivalry. Suffice it to say, these players get paid to convincingly decimate each other. One might even compare them to the Democrats-Republicans in politics, though we'd have to recognize that except for Joe the Plumber (assistant plumber turned actualRepublican candidate in the 9th Congressional district of Ohio), most politicians have a meaningful university degree (often post-graduate), earned on the basis of intellectual ability vs. physical prowess. How interesting then that once the final whistle had blown and the high-stakes, intense game had ended, we saw Jason Pierre-Paul (job: pummel Vick) hug Michael Vick, who hugged him back. This is not unusual - if you watch sports at all, you know this type of inter-team camaraderie is common amongst even long-standing rivals. What does it say about our politicians when these physically gifted, but purportedly dumb jocks are able to transcend the field of battle and recognize that there is a time and place for everything? They compete with passion during the game, but once it ends, treat each other with care and civility, after all, much more unites than divides. And yet, our better-educated, more sophisticated, and worldlier politicians are unable to overcome their in-election combativeness to do as the electorate commanded - govern.These are the closing words of Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address. But he had no experience of Fox/MSNBC - a force united to break our bonds of affection; a force stronger even than the Parties' candidates; and a force whose survival depends on discord. There is but one way to overcome this force. Hmmm... where is that remote? Sep 20, 2012 A democracy is characterized by the regular, peaceful transition of power based on equitable choice (one citizen, one vote). Voting is the act of choosing the best person(s) to represent your voice in the governing process. Governing is the enforcement of laws and creation of policies that improve the citizens' wellbeing today and tomorrow. Seems simple enough. What could possibly go wrong? Ego. Today "our" elected officials care little about governing; winning is the only thing, and they will do anything, anything to win. Why do we tolerate this? We are stupidly easy to manipulate. We have very selective memories. We can't see past our fears. Think back to any primary election - did even one candidate treat their opponents with respect? Can you name them? If you can (John Huntsman), did they have hope of winning? What happened? What does it say when candidates within a Party family so viciously eviscerate each other? Sadly, despite the hate, the "base" rallies around the winner because they've been manipulated into thinking the other Party is even more evil. Candidates actively avoid "thinking" voters; no one wants an open, cogent discussion on policy bereft of vitriol. Look at the Party platforms - they only come up when an opponent finds a weakness to exploit. They are completely ignored by the candidate. Without #1, everything else is moot - fund raising is THE priority for every Party, even above the candidate. How to raise money? #2. Even the smartest among us are susceptible to #2. (Pun intended.) Pollsters are the most influential people in any campaign; they "help" the candidate focus the message for maximum provocation and agitation, and thus more donations. Evil. Witness the recent Romney defense of free speech - no coherent person associates the embassy's actions as siding with terrorists, but then coherent people aren't the target audience, are they. He just needed to paint his opponent as pro-Islamic fanaticism and anti-America, and thus raise more $$. The President's reaction was also wrong - why stoop to your opponent's level? Maybe because that's also your level. With the secret recording of the Romney fund raising speech, the Democrats (and media) went off on how evil Romney is because he doesn't care about half the country. Romney was responding to a question about campaign strategy, not governing; he said the pro-Obama 47% will never vote for him anyway, so why bother campaigning to them. I guarantee President/candidate Obama has spoken similarly about demographics and districts that hate him. Romney was pandering to his audience and he chose words that resonated with them; tell me Obama has never done that. When an election is based ONLY on vilification, both the winners and losers emerge as blood enemies. Their abject hatred prevents any hope of collaboration (governing), and even if they can rise above it, they can't be seen to cooperate or #1 dries up. What about the victims of our politicians' hatred - the Chinese, Latinos, Muslims, Olympics, gays, pro/anti abortionists, etc? Can you guess at their "favorability" towards America, Americans, and the American government?? Are you really surprised that with every election in the last 30+ years, our country has become less happy, less sustainable, more hateful, and more hated? A recent president once said, "Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos." Can you guess who it was? It is time for we, the voters to reject cynicism and chaos, and reform our imperfect union. Jul 19, 2012 Last week I suggested a Constitutional re-think was needed to help us put our government (and country) back on track. Here first is my reason why this approach is needed, and then a rationale for the Amendments I suggested. Thank you for your emails - it's been a great conversation! If you run a business, you know that it is possible to take shortcuts and even break rules/laws to realize short-term gains; and you also know there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Can you get back on the straight and narrow after an ill-gotten gain? Sure, but the longer you wait, the harder it gets. Cheating quickly becomes habit-forming; we get used to any (even bad) behavior, and soon it becomes the accepted norm. Nowhere is this more true than politics. There was a time when running for office had a higher purpose; it was a calling to public service steeped in honor and integrity; one derived satisfaction from knowing that the greater good had been served. As the business/economic value of having a politician in one's pocket has grown, so has "investment" in elections and lobbying. Companies and individuals with vested interests spend absurd amounts of money financing candidates. For the upcoming election only (not all Senate seats are up for election), and as of June 30, the incumbents and their parties have raised $2.1billion (see below, source). They will of course raise much more in the weeks/months to come, bringing the total to well over $3 billion. Even those that donate $1.00 expect something in return -- it could be supporting or opposing abortions, gay rights, gun control, raising taxes, a stronger military, public health care, or whatever. But there is an expectation of specific behavior in exchange for the $ (and the vote). Politicians seek and wish to remain in power above all else. It is in their interest to "cater" to their supporters. The ROI for these supporters has to be tangible enough to warrant the $ billions invested, so lawmakers add "helpful" riders/earmarks, or amend tax laws with credits/deductions; all to assure funding for the reelection, and maybe a nice post-politics job as a lobbyist or consultant. What price do we the people pay for this pandering? Over the last ~50 years, politicians have perverted the election finance, law-making, and taxation processes to the point where you can't even excavate back to see what they looked like in the 1960s. The paybacks have resulted in layer upon layer of legislative morass, spending excess, political polarization, and voter disaffection. What we now know to be "government as usual" is a horrible perversion to those who knew it in the 1950s and 60s. It's easy to overlook government excess as an acceptable "success tax" in good times; but in bad times the morass impedes action, the excess creates debt, the polarization becomes hate, and the disaffection turns into economic dysfunction. Welcome to the America 2012. So how do we fix this? With three Constitutional Amendments to overcome both the issue of financed politicians and the resulting morass. The premise: reduce (if not eliminate) the need for campaign financing, make it more difficult to "repay" prospective "investors" by creating greater transparency within the law-making and taxation process. This streamlining or legislation and taxation, might then spur business-led economic growth. Below is a summary of the proposed amendments with commentary. Election Reform: Term limits - President 1-6yr, Senator 2-4yr, Congress 3-2yr. The White House should lead knowing they will never campaign again -- only then can they act in the best interests of the country. This is how we avoid the 2008 Republican #1 priority of preventing a second Obama term vs. governing. Politicians must feel a sense of urgency to make a difference vs. making a career of winning elections. Election finance - Only public $ ($0.50/voter); no private or corporate $. To win in the 2010 election, House members needed to raise $13,461/week to fund their reelection; Senators needed $27,243/week. This is why they got NOTHING done. This is how we even the playing field and allow the President and Congress to govern, vs. becoming professional fund-raisers, and reduce the power of lobbyists. Congress & President/VP's tax returns must be public until death. Public service is not about lining your pockets, now or in the future. Legislative Reform: Scope - laws/bills must be understood and explained by 5 random high school students in one week; they must only deal with ONE problem (no riders, addenda, etc.), and all sources and uses of funds must be enumerated. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for example is 906 pages long - it is complex and can not be understood by a typical citizen. We must reduce legislative complexity and obfuscation, and clarify the funding of all expenditures. If the Bill requires enforcement, that cost must be included and paid for. Any citizen can challenge a bill with the 5-student-test. It reduces (if not eliminates) the ability to "hide" payback to lobbyists, funders, etc. A side benefit could be an incentive for Congress to improve education, thereby enabling them to create more complex legislation :-)! All laws (past, present, future) expire after 2 years; they can be renewed (provided they comply with #1); if not renewed on time, they expire by default. Taxed at source, no deductions means employees with a single source of income (majority) won't need to file returns -- it'll be automatic. Personal: 0% on 1st $50k, 15% on next $50k, 25% on next $100k, 40% on balance. As government becomes more efficient and debt free, these rates should go down. Corporate: 3.5% of gross income - no exceptions or deductions. Notwithstanding the arbitrariness, companies will prefer the clarity and predictability vs. today's complexity and randomness. Our country is fast approaching the situation Argentina faced in the early 2000s, and the one Greece faces now -- a feckless government bent on petty self-serving agendas that in no way benefit the citizenry. Jul 09, 2012 If I were writing the President's speech at the Democratic National Convention: My fellow Americans good evening. It is with pride that I accept your nomination to be the next President of the United States. It is with humility that I speak about what must come next -- both in the weeks and months before election day, and in the four years that we hope will follow. The last three and a half years as your President have been quite a lesson -- we live in a complex, nuanced, and opportunistic society. We each have great expectations for ourselves and our country, but we each see it differently. This is the magic of America, and the challenge of America. It was easy in 2008 to be on the campaign trail, blithely criticizing everything President Bush had done, and telling you how I would make things better from day one. It is easy because until you sit behind that desk, there is no way to understand how powerful and powerless you are. Each of us seeks the Oval Office with the best intentions; this time the campaign is between Mitt Romney and me. I will tell you now that I believe 100% that Governor Romney is a person of honor, integrity, and with a profound desire to serve his country. He intends to do his utmost to take our country to a better place. He has articulated a number of policies and strategies that he will enact to accomplish this, and if we took the partisanship out of it, I imagine I might agree with much of what he wants to do, just as I believe he would agree with much of what I want to do. But in the scheme of things, today's elections are won not by extolling that which unites us, but rather by objectifying those who divide us. This colors our approach and vision of campaigning, and causes each of us to pander to fractional but wealthy or influential interests with polarizing rhetoric. The only victim of this behavior is the citizen. Thankfully, strategies, policies, 9-point plans, and campaign promises don't amount to much once you get behind that desk. On the day I was inaugurated, I was raring to go, but at every turn, I found myself facing three things - incumbency, partisanship, and complexity. The system didn't like change at all, and was very effective at resisting it; each side was bent on making the other look bad at all times; and if you did manage to get past these two, you had to appease so many people, cater to so many interests, and account for so many legacy obligations that there was no way to actually get something meaningful done. Here is what I want to accomplish in my second term, and if you do vote for me, you must do so knowing that this is exactly what your mandate demands of all those who are elected to office this November. If I were a Republican, I might stand here and say I want a government that is as small as possible; that all elected officials must be completely accountable for their actions; that we must only enact laws that expand freedom; and finally that we must reign in excess taxation. My friends, I, a passionate Democrat, stand before you to tell you that this is exactly where my campaign and upcoming term will focus. Specifically, I am going to campaign for three constitutional amendments, and ask the American people to only vote for me if they believe in all three. Amendment A: Election Reform Elected servants take on a greater obligation than any private citizen, and must operate under more exacting rules. There are three parts to this amendment. First term limits - Presidents will serve one six-year term; Senators up to two four year terms, and Congresspeople up to three two-year terms. Second, election finance - no private or corporate money may be used by candidates - once a candidate wins their primary, they are allocated a budget of fifty cents per eligible voter in their district. No additional money may be spent. Moreover, third party expenditures will be illegal - we will not allow any candidate to be corrupted by special interests. Third, the accountability - to mitigate corruption, once elected to the Presidency or Congress, the winners are required to publish all future tax returns until they die. Amendment B - Legislative Reform Our laws are overly complex, filled with hidden benefits for special interests, take too long to enact, and live forever. We will change this. There are three parts to this amendment. First, legislative scope - Laws and bills must be written so that five randomly selected high school students can read and explain them in one day; they must only deal with one thing (no riders, addenda, etc.), and identify all sources and uses of funding. Second, duration - ALL laws (past, present and future) will expire after two years; this means that any law passed two or more years ago, comes up for renewal in 2013; but they can only be renewed after being re-written per part 1 (scope); if a law is not renewed, it is eliminated -- this means a lot of Congress' time will be spent on this! Third, accountability - Congress must pass a budget every year; continuances will not be allowed; failure to pass a budget will result in loss of all wages and benefits for EVERY member of Congress. Amendment C - Tax Reform Our tax code is absurdly complex, and too frequently used as a means of catering to special interests. We will simplify the tax code (following part 1 of Amendment B) and make it very difficult to change. This amendment has three parts. First, scope - we will shift to a flat tax with no (zero) deductions; it will be progressive and deducted at source for individuals, and include all federal income (tax, entitlements, etc.) in that one percentage. Second, personal - the tax rates will be 0% for those earning below $50k/yr, 15% for those earning $50-100k/yr; 25% for $100-200k/yr; and 40% for the rest. Third, corporate - this will be a flat 3.5% on gross income. These three amendments will assure elected officials intent on public service; clear and active legislation; and a simpler and less costly tax system. I will publish the analysis that shows that the amendments will put more money in Americans' pockets, reduce our debt, and restore honesty and integrity to the government. I have decided to suspend my "active" campaign in favor of first publishing the clear and simple amendments and our analysis; and then only doing live and televised town halls to answer questions about these three amendments. I will not spend one more dollar campaigning against Governor Romney. Does the economy matter? Does the deficit matter? Of course! Can we fix them? Yes, but not if the White House and Congress continue as we have for the last 10+ years. Our behavior and partisanship are reprehensible. It must stop. It must stop so we can do the jobs we were elected to do. It must stop so that elections can once more be about public service. We must stop so that governing can once more be about doing good. We must stop or our economy will not improve, and our debt will become untenable. My fellow Americans - I seek a national mandate to enact these constitutional amendments because without them, America gives in to persistent and reprehensible partisanship; it gives up on one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I will not accept that. As President and your nominee, I will do everything to win this mandate, and I ask you to walk beside me, to pledge your allegiance to the United States of America. Apr 19, 2012 discovered), I would have spent much less time being well-grounded... When I was in that "innocent" moment, I always felt it was possible that the broken fish tank (or whatever) might not actually be discovered, or that I could find a way to not make it my fault. As in childhood, "stuff" also happens in business; but the consequences are worse than a wet carpet (the fish were saved, though I got zero credit for that). Sadly, the "adult" leaders are often as righteous as I was, and as convinced that they can somehow get away with it. A teacher I admire recently posted a link on Facebook to a blog by Gary Rubinstein entitled: Why I did TFA, and why you shouldn't. As a former TFAer, my friend was understandably upset about this. I too am an admirer of TFA (Teach for America), and this article was an eye-opener, it exposed perspectives I hadn't considered. Money quote: "Rather than be honest about both their successes and their failures, they deny any failures, and charge forward with an agenda that has not worked and will never work. Their 'proof' consists of a few high-performing charters. These charters are unwilling to release the data that proves that they succeed by booting the 'worst' kids — the ones that bring down their test scores." A few months ago, the Susan G. Komen Foundation was accused of politicizing their grant-making (which they denied despite information to the contrary); they were further accused of singling out Planned Parenthood, which the head of Komen, Nancy Brinker also denied. When asked if their reputation was at stake, Brinker responded: "...all I can tell you is that the responses we're getting are very, very favorable." They reversed their decision 24 hours later, apologized for causing any distress, while reiterating their righteousness. Like TFA (23 years), Komen has been around a long time (30 years), both are very effective, and widely regarded as resounding successes. They had to overcome huge obstacles; persevere through difficult times; and finally gain traction and slowly win people over. Now, rather than begging to get an invite to the dance, they are the main attraction. To get to success, it is often necessary to transcend negativity; it is always necessary to believe in yourself, your vision, and your strategy, even (or especially) when everyone else doubts you. This thick skin is critical to progress in the early days, and if you are fortunate enough to "win," it is sadly also very effective at helping you forget who and what you were when you started, and think only of how great you are now. Humans are designed to forget, minimize, or even romanticize tough times -- I can't imagine a mother wishing to give birth to second child if this weren't true; it is certainly how adults forget the angst and difficulty and complexity of puberty and teenagehood, when they vowed never to be the jerks their parents were. In life, as we learn and grow, we hopefully never lose sight of the principles and morals that we were taught as children -- these neural pathways were formed when young, and ideally persist and guide us throughout our lives. But in business (and politics), there is no such memory, especially when it comes to leadership. Principles or morals are routinely forsaken in the name of expediency. What's worse, it is the very leaders who were closest to those principles that are most likely to ignore them. But how is the ideal that caused shivers down your spine, brought a tear to your eye, and drove you to do just one more thing before going to sleep so easily replaced?? I think it happens when you hire two- and three-lettered people - JDs, PRs, MBAs. The "2-3s" are designed to manage situations by respectively telling you scary stories about what will go wrong if you admit things; telling you lies about how great you are, and assuring you about how easy it is to fool the public; and by "helping" you measure success with generally-irrelevant metrics. The 2-3s also help you forget the big picture -- the very reasons your organization exists in the first place. The result? You've been spun. Spin is a powerful thing - it is intended to "shape" truth into convenience: "the fish needed a new home anyway, and let's face it the floor also needed a wash." The problem happens when you start believing your own spin. Back to TFA: Education is a difficult, difficult challenge -- we spend $100s of billions on it and are still failing. Rather than admit that some of their efforts have also failed, and help others learn from their mistakes, they're forsaking their original dream -- we can make education better -- for their new mandate -- TFA must succeed at all costs. This is true for Komen, for many large corporations, and certainly in politics. As Gary put it, "TFA spawned leaders suffer a type of arrogance and overconfidence where they completely ignore any evidence that their beliefs are flawed. The leaders TFA has spawned are, to say this in the kindest way possible, 'lacking wisdom.' " When you start believing that your 2-3s can help you hide or spin failures and acts of stupidity, you're in trouble. When you start believing that these things didn't really happen, you're an idiot. And when you start thinking you can now do no wrong, you're sunk, for you are now without integrity. The standard to which we hold ourselves is our greatest asset. When we are honest about our successes and failures, we show our humanity. When we are open to external scrutiny, we are worthy of other people's trust. Apr 17, 2012 You are what you measure. What gets measured gets done. These and other phrases are taught in most business schools around the world -- if you want someone to do something, pay them based on getting it done. In sales, it's commissions -- if you don't sell, you don't eat; outside sales, many use MBOs (management by objectives). The process is slightly different, but the effect is roughly the same. The key is designing the measurement to ensure the desired outcome. You need money to live, you work to earn money; like students who learn test-passing but not curriculum, adults learn how to game their system, how to interpret and translate their MBOs into the greatest income at the lowest effort. Health care is rife with "gaming," and like any other player in this game, (some) doctors are no exception. I was listening to Marketplace recently, and their fascinating show on billing codes -- every patient-related activity has a code assigned to it, and doctors must map their work to these codes to then bill the insurance companies and get paid. To "clamp down" on rising costs, the insurance companies are reducing the $/code - so if lancing a boil used to pay $100, it now only pays $90. The result? Increased payouts, and more sophisticated gaming. Not exactly the desired outcome. According to the show, 2.2 people are employed to do billing for each doctor in America. They even have their own conference -- CodingCon, where they "equip medical coders, billers and related healthcare professionals with best practices and tools needed in correcting codes from the start, avoiding claim denials, maximizing productivity and increasing practice's bottom-line." Or, "learn how to not only overcome the $10 cut on boil lancing, but also add $100s more to your bottom line." The Marketplace doctor's codistas have increased his revenue by 70% ("hundreds of thousands of dollars per year"). A codista at a hospital discovered that instead of claiming knee surgery and rehabilitation under one code, they could discharge the patient from surgery and then readmit them to the physiotherapy clinic downstairs, thus billing against two codes, and making much more. How big is this? An additional $360B (yes, BILLION) per year is spent on the whole coding process - a concept that was introduced to standardize care and lower costs... We reap what we sow. Net -- the best way for a doctor, clinic, or hospital to dramatically grow revenues is not by providing better care, adding more doctors, or serving more patients; it is by hiring more coders, and sending them to CodingCon. We are what we measure, and what we measure gets done. What if instead of student test scores and attendance, schools were paid according to how well their graduates did after they left that school? (Click for more info.) Now principals, teachers, staff, unions, etc. have a common purpose: the more prepared their students are for the future, the more money they earn. You'd better believe they will work together to ensure that their students are prepared for elementary (if a pre-school), middle, high school; or college/university, and the workplace. Attendance and tests are a piece of the picture, but the key measure is student preparedness. The (state of federal) secretary of education's only concern is tracking how students do after they graduate (something they, and the census system already does). By eliminating tons of redundancy and complexity, we should be able to educate all public school students at half the cost of today, saving $2-300B/year. What if instead of procedures, doctors were paid based on how healthy their patients were? (Click for more info.) The job of health care is not to perform procedures, it is to assure a healthy community. This measurement would save $2-300B/year in coding procedures and such. It is possible to create centralized (federal) funding with autonomy at the point of execution. The key is to ensure that the recipient of funds does NOT control how their performance is assessed or reported. Create the right measures... For both education and health care, we can accomplish this with existing measurement systems and existing funding mechanisms. Not only would we achieve better graduates and a healthier population, we would do it for as much as half a $trillion less. To quote a man of immense wisdomSep 23, 2011 Have you ever seen a therapist or a counselor? Does your employer have workplace policies that protect you from isms (ageism, sexism, racism, etc.) or undue physical hardship (excessive hours, moving heavy objects, etc.)? Are you able to take a day (or a few days) off if some thing personal comes up? Are there advocacy groups to support you if you feel in some way wronged by your employer, or if your life is in some kind of stress or distress? Despite all this "help," many of us will come home after a tough day at the office and feel horrible, exhausted, drained, and just ...done. How often have you heard (or said) the words, "I need a drink"?? Adults have advantages: we are mature, we have freedoms, we can speak for ourselves, we have advocates and advocacy groups, there are laws that protect us, and perpetrators of "bad" behavior are prosecuted or sued everyday. Lawyers who specialize in these issues are prolific, and work on a pure contingency basis - caring for adults is a thriving business. While it's disappointing that all this is needed, at least we have access to support, friendly ears, and recourse. What about our children? They have access to a fraction of the resources or recourses that we do; they even have fewer legal rights! Worse, they're going through one of the most difficult things in the world - transitioning from child to adult - puberty, growing pains, emotional transformation and upheaval, sexual awakening, first loves, responsibility... Add to this, middle and high school are pivotal to their one (really only) ticket to happiness, good health, and independence in life. Without a great education, their destinies are ...uncertain at best. Stress, complication, emotional overload, difficulty, rule changes, a persistent feeling of powerlessness. This is what confronts children in our society. Parents? Nope - most parents delegate their children's upbringing to school as soon as they're in full-time school. More often than not, they side with the "system," telling the child it was much tougher when they were growing up. Teachers? Nope - they are similarly victimized by a system that mandates ridiculous measures of performance, absurd outcomes, embarrassing working conditions for relatively little pay, and lately, a ton of social vilification. Government? Nope - kids don't vote. The legal system? Nope - it's almost impossible to sue the government or a school. They are happy to sue teachers (who are the vogue target these days), but nothing else gets any traction, and teachers are broke anyway. The media? Nope - they love to hype stories of bullying, suicides, other abuse, but they don't do anything about it or cause others to change. Who? No one. Humans are designed to forget the worst experiences we have - otherwise no woman would give birth to a second child. Teenagehood is not a happy time, but once past it, our memories become very selective. As proof, think of how many times you said, "I'll NEVER be like them [parents/adults] when I grow up." And then... Adults (even parents) may not remember or even understand what it is like to be a teen/student; BUT they are CONVINCED they know what's right for kids, what they need, and how best to help them become adults. So here's what we (adults) have decided is the optimal approach to "educating" children: At the beginning of each year, they are notified of the school rules [you must click this link (note: this is for middle school)!], which presume every child is a cheating, lazy, misanthropic vandal. Animals are held in higher regard and given more love and understanding. [If you treat impressionable kids like criminals, how do you expect them to behave? Is it any wonder bullying, delinquency, etc. are on the rise?] Each student in a grade is assumed to come in with same knowledge, context, motivation and home life, and expected to learn the same thing at the same time and in the same way. There is no room for individuality; there is no tolerance for "deviants." [If they had their way, I think Education America would prefer every student to enter the factory as powdered potatoes and exit as identical, extruded McDonald's fries/graduates.] They must wake up at 6:30AM and be sitting in class by 7:30AM. Most walk through metal detectors, into buildings that more closely resemble factories or prisons; all are assessed for attendance and dress code. [Do you need a jolt of caffeine so you can face the morning? Do you feed your 6-year old a shot of Red Bull before school? "Of course not - that would be horrible and cruel! How dare you!" And yet you expect them to learn things at 7:30AM.] Sit with 29 others in a room designed for fewer, where they are required to be attentive (silent), docile, take copious notes, and speak only when spoken to. [Schools, like prisons are designed to control and monitor the population, not to enable learning.] Change rooms every 50 minutes, "enjoying" a steady stream of lectures covering new and altogether unrelated topics, and of course, be assigned copious quantities of homework. [Are you able to learn so many new and disconnected things everyday, with just a break for lunch (crappy food) and then pass the tests??] "Learning" is measured by completion of homework assignments and of course lots and lots of tests. In all cases, students are judged individually - teachers are required to be vigilant in preventing plagiarism, cheating, and other bad acts. [When's the last time you took a test that judged your whole year as a success or failure?] The children are required to carry 15-20lb packs containing expensive and outdated textbooks to and from school. [Workforce rules protect most adults from carrying this much weight every day. But not so for our children and their growing bodies.] Adults in "higher" institutions have deemed that grades alone wont get a student into their university - they need a gazillion extra curricular activities, to be a volunteer, have interned somewhere, and written an essay begging to be considered for admission. And if the gods smile and they are accepted, they have the privilege of graduating just slightly more educated, saddled with at least $75k in debt because of the exorbitant tuition. So this is the best way to prepare our children for adulthood during their already difficult growing years. Who knew? Adult feelings, wants, needs, and satisfaction are routinely surveyed by our bosses, who at least try to be responsive. When is the last time a school district asked its students how they like to learn, or what environment is most conducive to learning? And if they did deign to ask, did they actually listen, much less change?? Abuse is defined as "any action that intentionally harms or injures another person." It is time that America admitted that her 50 million public school students are victims of wide-spread, systemic child abuse. Do you recognize these words?Sep 20, 2011 I've received a lot of email over my last post :) - my thanks to all of you! Most questioned the alignment between advocating killing Social Security and community-related posts like this or this. So... I believe that the role of society is to care for those that can't. When pre-humans began to coalesce into communities, they discovered that it was possible to specialize - hunters, child raisers, security-providers, shelter creators, etc. As these specialists became more efficient, wealth was created; in this case, it was the wealth of time and reflection and communication and innovation. Over time, they used fire for cooking and protection, they used farming to grow and improve their diets; they used knowledge of the human body and medicine to reduce infant mortality and increase life spans; and the community was able to "support" caring for the ill and aged, learning, art, and other "civilized" pursuits. This is the essence and power of society and community, ...and civilization. Then why nuke Social Security? Western society has "evolved" to the point where necessities (healthcare, education, infrastructure, security, etc.) cost too much, and our organizations (governments, corporations, etc.) are so big, inefficient, and pendulous that real change/improvement is impossible. For more than a generation, Western nations have had to borrow massive amounts of money just to maintain status quo. Despite deep programmatic cuts, operating costs today are still much higher than revenues. Bureaucratic inertia + embarrassingly juvenile (apologies to the world's youth) and avaricious elected officials have prompted credit agencies to put most governments on "watch," and recently, downgrade America and Italy, among others. This plus the prospect even bigger dufuses being elected in 2012 assures a future of worse government, greater ineptitude, and growing (more expensive) debt. What to do? Short of a total national reboot, we must prioritize at the program level, and make some tough calls. What programs must remain, and which can be eliminated? I say education and healthcare for all are more important than Social Security. With an effective education (early childhood through post secondary), and the comfort of basic healthcare, we give people the building blocks to not just survive, but thrive. Eliminating a safety net like Social Security creates an impetus for people to care for themselves and their families, or else. Unfortunately, the Republicans/Democrats/Tea Partiers are proposing small, inconsequential but politically palatable cuts to everything; if they do recommend the elimination of programs, they are small and budgetarily inconsequential. Our situation is far too serious and dire to tolerate this kind of futzing around. To protect the essence of our society and the viability of our community, we need someone with serious cojones to step up, take the bold step of throwing partisanship, politics, and silly amendments aside, and lead. Sep 19, 2011 The third rail in many railway systems (tubes, subways, metros, etc.) is electrically charged, and fatal if touched; unless you're contemplating suicide, stay away from it. In American politics the third rail is Social Security (SS). The people most affected are the fastest growing segment of the population (older people); they have very strong lobbies (AARP); a lot of sympathy (we're all planning to get old + Congress' average age is 57); and they turn out in droves and vote in both primaries and general elections. After reading Monique Morrissey's testimony before Congress and talking to a few people I thought SS was a sustainable program, needing only minor rate increases, and that Governor Rick Perry's Ponzi claim was specious. But... SS beneficiaries receive significantly more than they + their matching employers invest; to make this sustainable, the system counts on a reasonable return on invested capital, a certain mortality rate, and more people contributing than consuming (i.e. disproportionately younger, income-earning population). This is similar in design to a Ponzi Scheme, so it is reasonable for Gov. Perry to make his claim. Plus here's Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution quoting three Noble Laureates who agree with Perry, and argue that people are having fewer babies and living longer (= more older people, fewer SS contributors), and economic growth has slowed (a lot); all of which affirms that Social Security as-is is no longer sustainable and in a literal sense, fraudulent, especially to younger contributors. The "fix" strategy is to pare things back a little - increase the contribution percentage, implement a means test, delay eligibility, and significantly reduce the amount of benefit paid. Does this make the return worth it for seniors? Can they live on this reduced benefit? Are Republicans right that it should be self-managed? Can the public do better on its own? I say, "Yes." The President is fumbling the ball all over the place, has a largely vision-free and uninspired record thus far, and could very well lose the 2012 election. This is no time to be timid or take half measures. He could overcome his legislative impotence and take a bold step to redefine entitlement - he could propose that we face reality and sunset Social Security. The first question in all of our minds - how will this affect me? Well, if you're: Over 50: Three changes - increase in contribution percentage (+2%), a means test for recipients, and an increase in the retirement age (+1 year). You keep paying in, and you will receive what was promised until you die. Over 35: You stop paying into the plan, and you get the current value of your historical contributions back in a locked, tax-deferred US Treasury Bond that you can access upon retirement. All your very important future contributions into this nest egg are tax deferred. Under 35: Sorry, and thank you - your contributions will go towards your parents' and grandparents' retirements. You are encouraged to contribute towards your own retirement with tax-deferred deductions of up to 15% of your annual salary. You have the option of buying the same US T-Bonds, or a number of other tax-deferred instruments. Federal employee: The same (#1-3) formula will apply to federal employees for their pensions - we will increase salaries slightly to compensate for this, but per the scheme above, times are tough, and we can't afford this benefit anymore. Elected official: Historically, the President, Vice President, Congress, etc. received pensions to discourage, well... bribery. We will continue to offer this pension to elected officials as long as it is their ONLY source of income. This is a long sunset - it will take about 40 years for those who are now 50 to die, at which point Social Security dies with them. Advantages: Take the government out of the pension business. Screw everyone a little bit - spread the pain. Create a palatable, self-managed savings scheme for American workers. Offer tax-deferred T-bonds as a secure retirement investment, that are also a way for the Feds to raise money, put more of America's debt in the hands of Americans, who have the greatest vested interest in ensuring its repayment. This is a dramatic step to be sure, but real leaders face issues head on; they don't patch things up and leave them for future generations to deal with. Will this be the only step in the "face and deal" process? Nope - MMO (Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare) also needs to be rationalized, consolidated, and made available as a basic service to all Americans in a way that encourages well-being and good health vs. the current system which funds visits and procedures and tests, but that's for another post :). If President Obama has a hope of not just winning, but winning a decisive mandate, he must LEAD. He should not marry this to taxes for jet plane owners or any other silly ploy. He should set the precedent for proposing simple, clean legislation that deals with our most important problems one at a time. Start with entitlements, show that you're bold enough to go where others have feared to tread, and that you have our nation's best interests at heart, with no fear of the political consequences. Aug 07, 2011 Sound familiar? It will if you've seen The Shawshank Redemption, and recall when Andy Dufresne (protagonist) finds proof of his innocence, but Warden Norton (antagonist/scumbag) dismisses it. Andy "knows" he is innocent; the warden "knows" that all criminals are guilty. We are on Andy's side, and appalled that the warden doesn't even consider the possibility of innocence. In the end, the warden is vanquished and Dufresne is free, but both remain obstinately true to their beliefs. I was reminded of this when reading The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science - a brilliant analysis on the strength of our belief systems, and why persuasion is so difficult. Psychologists use the term cognitive dissonance to explain it - when we are faced with conflicting ideas, we "reposition" things to reduce the discomfort. Like when justifying an expensive purchase - "Sure this is an expensive car, but that's because it's well-engineered, safer, and will last so much longer than that cheap clunker you just bought - you get what you pay for." Unprovoked, most of us are somewhat open-minded, but when pushed, we forsake reasonable for defensive and obstinate, and that leads to bad decision-making. As American politics kicks into gear for the 2012 elections, apparently every politician feels pushed and under siege, and none are capable of making good decisions. The abject disinterest in governing has never been more present than during the recent debt ceiling and FAA debacles. The good of the nation is/was forsaken for the good of the Party or the individual politician. Why? Because politics is a zero-sum game - there is only one winner. It used to be that candidates would campaign on the merits of their vision, their ideas, talk about who they were as a person, and "may the best (wo)man win." But as politics has "evolved," they've discovered that it is much easier to make your opponent(s) lose than it is to show why you should win. Rather than being the best candidate, it's about being the one with the best opposition research and counter-marketing. Bizarrely, this new breed of politician's cognitive dissonance causes them to actually believethat integrity and good is about partisan one-upmanship and not about service and governing. Is this a reasonable basis for judging credit-worthiness? Will a loan officer at a bank decide to lend money to a couple based on the numbers, or on whether they keep bickering all the time? I'm sure the bickering should be a factor, but am not convinced it is the ONLY factor. How can they be so obtuse? Having said this, the reaction so far from both the White House and Congress is partisan drivel. The ONLY thing politicians are capable of is showing how the other side is to blame for everything that's bad, and how they are righteous and good (there is no pressure to talk about compromise, leadership or governing). If immaturity and petulance were the only factors, America should receive a rating below that of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain - maybe closer to that of Syria or North Korea. A strength of democracy is that the fringes are attenuated by the center; and that effective partisanship impedes government overreach. A weakness of democracy is that it is possible for enough of the electorate to be swayed in the moment, that the most fringe voices are rewarded, and the more honorable and insightful are ignored. Today the American public is as polarized as her politicians, no-one is considering the ramifications of the downgrade or our economic state, instead we are each bent on making sure everyone knows how screwed up the other side is, and how we'd be better off if they didn't exist. This is our cognitive dissonance, founded on our deepened commitment to the votes we've cast. How can we be so obtuse? "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things; and no good thing ever dies." These are the last words spoken by Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption. Does good come out of bad? I hope so. Has American been harmed enough by our politicians' failings to demand and expect more from ourselves than angry sound bytes? Not yet, but perhaps soon. I was listening to a show on NPR asking, "What is life?" I agreed with the NASA definition - life exists when there is procreation and evolution. I was talking to a friend later about the unasked question, "What is humanity?" I think humanity exists when there is empathy and aspiration. Survival requires community - we must have more empathy for our brothers and sisters, because the community prevails when the least among us survives and thrives. Success requires ability and desire - we must make our children more capable than we are, and we must imbue in them a desire and urgency to be greater than their parents. Out of all that has happened recently, my hope is that we overcome our cognitive dissonance, and resurrect our humanity. Apr 17, 2011 Seth Godin's post today on tiny media is spot-on. It reminded me of a social media panel I sat on a couple of years ago with the two people who respectively ran John McCain and Hilary Clinton's e-campaigns in the 2007/8 primaries and general election. Despite having polarized political views, they were totally aligned on web2.0. Paraphrasing: "Everyone needs to jump on social media and web2.0 - if you're not in, you'll be left behind. This is the cheapest and easiest way for you to get the word out - if you post a video on YouTube that doesn't work, it's OK - you didn't lose anything by trying." My argument: "Marketing is marketing, YouTube, Twitter, newspapers, TV, radio, etc. - are just channels. If your marketing fundamentals aren't strong, you will fail. The advantage of social media is that the channels have fewer gatekeepers. The disadvantage of social media is that the channels have fewer gatekeepers. The impact of social media is that anyone has a voice, and at any point in time, any voice can rise above the fray." Seth's point - these "tiny media" voices, unlike mainstream press or traditional advertising, are not susceptible to conventional corporate PR machines and can't be bought. While corporations might be used to buying advertising and even editorial, it is impossible to manipulate "any" voice because you have to manipulate every voice. In his words: If you're hoping that this now important form of media is going to sit there and promote your average stuff for average people made in bulk but pretty cheap product merely because you're used to paying media companies to run ads... I think you're wasting a lot of time and money. This goes deeper than that. You'll need to take that money and change the product and the service instead. I agree but I don't think Seth took it far enough. More than product and service, you also have to evaluate your philosophy for the intent to deceive will out. I wrote this last fall in response to a NY Times post about Apple's voice in media: The reason Apple dominates is that they have no interest in PR per se vs. a fundamental desire to create and achieve incredible and inspiring consumer experiences. Their integrity and authenticity in this is obvious and undisputed. While there are product hiccups (recent iPhone 4 antenna issue), they weather these by staying true to their mission vs. via a well-crafted PR strategy. Microsoft, Google, etc. on the other hand invest in efforts whose sole or overarching purpose is to drive PR and coverage; ironically making the message the medium. I don't believe this is authentically who they are, but it is how they act. Their (MSFT/GOOG, etc.) target audiences and the press can smell this, and obligatorily cover them vs. wanting to be a part of their world because of their products' compelling, profound, and far-reaching implications. Your organization's purpose is to become a trusted adviser to your customers – a powerful mission to be sure. I wonder sometimes if proactive PR helps or hinders? If your greatest and most visible business successes are measured mostly on PR metrics, you run the risk of pursuing the wrong things, and diminishing your genuine and authentic commitment to the premise that technology can help achieve profound, pervasive, and sustainable improvement. It's the difference between doing things that happen to be coverage worthy vs. doing things because they are coverage-worthy… Tiny media's advantage vs. conventional PR and media: their ONLY currency is integrity and authenticity; the "conventionals" can be bought. Since the former is by definition "any" voice, you can't find it, or buy it, or manipulate it - you don't know which one(s) will surface and be heard. We are increasingly more likely to seek out and believe tiny media because we're tired of the bias and lack of discipline and integrity of conventional media (witness Fox and MSNBC) - this is why I read Yelp reviews. For "old-school" organizations that count on their secrets remaining intact, and on owning and controlling their image, beware. If your fundamentals aren't sound, and your beliefs and practices can't stand up to external scrutiny, you will be found out. But you won't realize it until it's too late - unbeknownst to you, your own marketing and PR people and agencies are now spending more time spinning you than spinning the market. Apr 07, 2011 It's easy to get caught in a rut - the greater the risk or threat of change, the taller the walls become, the harder it is to accept new things, and worst of all, the less aware you are of your self-imposed exile. When change occurs in a team, or they are asked to rethink their business given new market conditions, rutted people will produce a PowerPoint presentation that references new market research, extensive analysis of Twitter feeds, and select customer quotes that proving that strategy X is exactly what's needed to achieve success. X is of course the current mission restated with a new team name, new logo, renamed programs, and one or two tweaks that come with incremental budget requests - PowerPoint lipstick on the status quo pig. They will also revamp their "scorecard" with additional rows to reflect the tweaks, and of course the team leader will require a business manager to manage the growing "burden" of command. Does this sound familiar? Have you looked back after a couple of years of genuinely hard work to see what was really accomplished? There will have been a TON of "busy" results that can be documented in scorecards and spreadsheets (thanks to the now entrenched business manager), but how have you helped the business? In consulting with organizations, the first question I ask is, "What is your why?" Once we are clear on why you exist, figuring out how you will get there and what you will do are easy. This is a difficult discussion because even CEOs are in a rut of busy work that is assumed to be of value, but rarely mapped back to the why. I wrote a few weeks ago about an organization I knew with ~90,000 employees, and my belief that they could achieve the same results with 30,000 people. One reason is this organization has misplaced its why; there are many brilliant people who are accomplishing amazing things that have little or no contribution to the business and have nothing to do with their why. In fact, I bet fewer than 30,000 could accurately state their why. The reason clients resist the why discussion is because it leads to evaluating every investment (the whats) vis-à-vis its contribution to why. Many of the investments were created for good reason, but do those reasons exist today? If the what is still meaningful, then its contribution to why must be clear; if it isn't, then why are we still doing it? Whenever something new comes along (especially in large organizations), if there is an openness to try it, it will never come at the expense of something old. "Without incremental resources or funds, fugedaboutit!" What just happened? The organization chose NOT to make a difficult decision. "This new what is great, it can and will help us achieve our why. Which of our current what(s) should we kill to do this?" The text in red creates tension, angst, the killing of sacred cows, and a lot of hand wringing and unhappiness, and that is always difficult. The reason organizations fall into ruts, the greatest impediment to good business is an inability and unwillingness to confront every (existing and new) what with why? Rationalizing ruts is easy; making difficult trade-offs is not. The more you rationalize, the more ingrained your siege mentality; this mistrust makes you think you can't be dependent on "them," thus justifying redundant what's in your portfolio. This balloons rapidly - contributing to the 60,000 excess employees in the example above. Leadership is not just about the salary, stock options and the big office. If you can't make tough decisions, you are not a leader; the skill to kill investments that don't contribute enough to the why is a fundamental criterion of leadership. 18, 2011 During elections, candidates will tell you that their primary motivation for entering politics is to serve. They are called to a higher purpose, and wish to devote their time and energy to public service. Hmmm... I'm thinking "No..." Paul Krugman's latest OpEd suggests that the only motivation Republicans have is to benefit wealthy people at the expense of the poor. Krugman thinks the new Republican House is bending their own rules to repeal the Health Care Reform Bill "because it would cover the uninsured — and that's something they just don't want to do." In the wake of the killing spree in Arizona, Democrats also feasted on the militaristic attitude of Republican campaign tactics aimed at stirring their base into a frenzy of fear and anger and frenetic action at the thought of a Democratic leadership. This story was almost as big as the actual shooting - "political rhetoric caused that idiot to arm himself and shoot people." Of course the Dems sought to mark the Republicans as the instigators. For shame! Both sides are seeking to paint their opponents as evil, misguided fools, ostensibly in the hopes of getting them to see the truth, and come around. But I think we're being naive - Democrats and Republicans exist neither to create a gay loving, baby-killing Socialist state, nor to create a redneck, gun-toting military state. They simply wish to win; to beat the other party and win. It turns out governing is almost like the tax they have to pay for winning. I used to wonder how politicians ever work together following campaigns that have so much vitriol. Imagine for a minute that Sarah Palin had run for Congress in 2010, and been voted Speaker of the House -- how might she have "partnered" with Nancy Pelosi to create a bi-partisan Congress? To steal a quote from one of the best movies of all time, "Inconceivable!" Hence the benignly-titled "H.R. 2: Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." It aims to paint the opponent as "job killers" in the lead up to the 2012 election. It isn't about governing or improving health care, or even about creating jobs, it serves only to position one side as job creators and rescuers of the American worker, and the other side as misguided wrong-doers. A good marketing strategy at least. Surely not all politicians are bereft of the desire to truly serve? Will voters ever prefer a genuine commitment to representing the electorate? Will there come a point in our future when people look back on idiots like Palin and Pelosi and wonder what the hell we were thinking? Survival (or getting reelected) is the basest of motivations - the system requires politicians to be in constant campaign mode or they die. We live in a very connected world; to rise above the noise and become the preferred candidate, you need to raise and then spend a ton of money promoting yourself and de-positioning your opponent. The economics make actual governing an afterthought. Can we fix this? What if we limit the President, Senate and Congress to only ONE term, and also ban private campaign spending. Each candidate gets a fixed amount of public money to spend on their election. This might make a difference, but it doesn't eliminate the D vs. R vitriol. What does? The real problem is not the candidates, it is the electorate. They choose not to engage, hold their representatives accountable, or take the act of voting seriously. Until the right to vote is not given but earned, it will be squandered, and the voters will continue to suffer. Sep 12, 2010 Our governments (especially elected ones) are mired in the never-ending cycle of getting reelected. This leads to the never-ending cycle of creating polarizing issues that place candidates on the side of a cash-rich and moron-filled fringe who will donate $$$ to the campaign; and even more insidious, the never-ending cycle of creating ever more pointless laws, oversight, and pandering to feign congressional value-add. Lest this be a rant on the depths to which politicians have sunk, let us take another tack. How does one help government be less ...pendulous? Why not reboot the country every century or so to eliminate incumbency, any laws written by Congress, the tax code, all departments, etc.? Let us revolt and create a new system with a clean slate! Whether we like it or not, some governments are already there with bankruptcies, and others are close behind. If the US national debt continues to grow by more than $4 billion per day, it's seems pretty certain that a reboot is impending. I would design the next government around very clear and specific boundaries; being explicit about what government will and won't do for its citizenry. Here are the five things my government would do (and NO more): Education - Free, and starting at age zero (yes, zero), to where the student has completed their undergraduate certificate (2-year/4-year), or until about age 22. You start organized education at birth because we know it makes a HUGE impact on a child's development. You also do this to ensure that every child is well cared for and nurtured. The fruits of this are more independent (economically, physiologically, and psychologically) children/adults; less youth crime and hopefully less adult crime; healthier kids ('cause they'll learn about health, eat better food in school, etc.); and hopefully things like less teen pregnancies, gang activity, etc. This will require more teachers, more classrooms, etc. It will also require an education system that imparts knowledge in practical facets of life (how to prepare for and participate in a job interview, communication skills for the workplace, diet, fitness, banking, parenting, birth control, etc.) - these must all be mandatory for every student. It is through these last that we make the rest of the system less expensive. Healthcare - full coverage for all residents from pre-natal to death, including medicines. Prioritizing diet, preventative care, and a mindset of quality service for all is fundamental. The system should be completely free to all residents of the country (IMO it should be free to anyone that needs it, irrespective of status), and include medical, vision, dental, prescriptions, etc. Elective work for purely cosmetic reasons will not be covered. This implies there will no longer be a health insurance industry, physicians, nurses, etc. will likely make less money as most will be federal employees. Security - from creating laws, to enforcing laws, to civil and national defense. First - the primary motivation for Congress should NOT be to create new laws, but rather to ensure that the existing Code be well-adhered to, and that the citizenry be incented to better behavior. There should be one law-enforcement body in the country spanning local, regional, transportation, organized crime, etc. There will be an emergency response system that includes fire departments, ambulances/paramedics, nature-related calamities (weather, volcano, earthquake, etc.), and any other type of civil support. All of these capabilities will be linked and operate as one unit. National defense will focus on protecting the nation from others, not proactively engaging any nation in armed conflict. Since the system is rebooting, there will no longer be mandatory minimums, or idiotic wars (drugs, etc.) on anything. Civil Service - core professional/infrastructural services plus employment for those that aren't easily employed in the private sector. This is the most complex organization, and one most at risk of untamed growth. It delivers all national services to the country, including infrastructure (roads, rail, , airports, ports, etc.); utilities (energy, water, etc.); foreign and economic policy; and things like election systems. It also includes an employment machine aimed at those unemployable in the private sector; the work done will span a variety of public service/peace-corps/disaster relief-type services. If you wish to earn a living, you must contribute. There will be no welfare system. Limits on the size and scope of this organization will be one of the most critical and contentious pieces of legislation that the new government will write. The core set of services performed will be enumerated in the new Constitution, along with a mechanism to control budget and organizational size. Amendments to this part of the Constitution will require a mega-majority (at least 75% of Congress). Taxation+ - a simplified (progressive flat income tax mechanism to cover the costs of #1-4, basic government operations, and a bit extra for an emergency fund. There should be no sales tax, state tax, or local tax - just a simple income tax. The "+" connotes other forms of economic oversight like the SEC. Yes, these are expensive and complex undertakings. Fundamental to this is a Constitution that rewards government (and government officials) for being as small as reasonable and no smaller. To help rein things in, the government is NOT allowed to give money away (bailouts, unemployment benefits, social security, welfare, etc.), it is also not allowed to pay for things like food and shelter. It encourages a simpler service delivery model - one police force across the country; one school system; one healthcare system, etc. Human nature is such that when a thing is given, it is expected (entitlement); and when you get one thing, you also expect related things. For example - if you get food stamps, you aren't as desperate to work because you know it's available; then you wonder why there aren't "home stamps" so that you can "afford" better accommodation. Thus begins the dependency-cycle. A system where people willingly abdicate responsibility to society is not acceptable. If you've read this blog at all, you know I believe a fundamental precept of society is to care for those that can't. But every parent knows that you also have to teach your children certain lessons; they have to fend for themselves, not always look to others to bring them food from the kitchen, or walk them to school, or whatever. At some point, they must be pushed out of the nest and allowed to fly on their own. This is also a form of caring for those that can't. It is more difficult to do, so society instead throws money at it. Wrong. People need to take responsibility for themselves and their destinies; if you're living hand-to-mouth now, why bring a child into the world? Why not heed what you were taught about family planning and contraception, and take advantage of the healthcare system (free contraception) to prevent bringing one more child into your already difficult reality? Today you might want to have children because Social Services is more likely to care for you - that's the wrong incentive. Similarly, if you have a job and are worried about how a disability might prevent you from keeping food on the table and a roof over your head, invest in insurance to reduce your risk. If you wish to change careers and need training and some help tiding you over, save or borrow what you need - it's not the government's role to help you with that. Systems that promise everything for everyone are not sustainable. Almost every government on the planet is facing a significant budget squeeze; whether we like it or not, a reboot is in order. Let's not repeat the same mistakes in the next cycle. If there is absolute clarity about what government will and won't do, people will use what's given (education, healthcare, security) and find other means bridge any gaps - this too is in our nature. Sep 07, 2010 How do we regard and celebrate good behavior? What are our expectations of people and how do we help reinforce what we want? What would have happened during the 1992 Democratic Primary if Bill Clinton had said: "You know, while I'm devoted to my wife, I view sex as something altogether different. My wife and I have an arrangement, I do and will have other women in my life, but that in no way compromises my leadership."? He would not have won the Democratic Primary, he would not have been President, but he would have been truthful (something we presumably value). Clinton is not the only politician to have ever strayed; one might argue that faithful politicians are the outliers. Do voters want to know about these affairs? Or would they prefer to assume goodness, hope the infidelity stays hidden, and then be self-righteous if it comes to light. Of course infidelity is not particular to politics; it happens in sports, religion, business, and in everyday life. Despite this, "customers" - fans, congregants, employees, media, partners, friends, etc. - are always shocked at the behavior, wonder what mysterious and diabolical circumstances contrived to make it so, and wonder why these people are unable to "control" themselves? What's more, by turning a blind eye to any one "bad" behavior, are we not tacitly sanctioning them all? Having "gotten away" with the fidelity lie, is it any wonder that President Clinton claimed not to have inhaled? Sure eyes rolled at that, but in the end, there was no accountability for either smoking pot (not that that really matters) or lying about it. There are many other peccadilloes that human nature says are within us, yet we persist in expecting people to transcend their genes. Taking this to the next step, if we expect and forgive lies, surely we can't expect the lies to be limited to meaningless acts like smoking pot or having an Oval Office "O"? What else might a dishonest President lie about??? Are we ready to accept that? In the business world, a smart company will under-promise and over-deliver. They do this knowing the value of setting clear expectations and the cost of failing to meet them. If the company develops a reputation for always achieving or exceeding expectations, they know that that currency is worth something - it could be a premium at the point of purchase or market value or even more critical, customer retention and loyalty. Equally, a smart company will not make a promise it can't keep. They will not set an expectation knowing that they can't meet it. This is good business. In both cases, the rewards are clear and the company benefits in the long run. Facing your truth and setting the right expectations is what we should all aim to do; but our society doesn't want this; it prefers the illusion over reality. Look at Enron or Bernie Madoff or every too-good-to-be-true diet program, and the fact that people will flock to the next Enron or Madoff or diet pill to know that we prefer to gamble on goodness or outlandish promises despite the history or the massive odds against success, believing that this time we will buck the odds and find the one honest politician, or win the lottery. Either way, we mostly end up disappointed. And because we keep coming back for more, there is no shortage of predators creating "disappointment opportunities." I think this phenomenon contributes to the downward morals/ethics/behavioral spiral. In the old days, we lived in (and were known within) communities. The community - your neighbors and friends and family helped ensure a broader ethos using both active and passive reinforcement; we don't have that today. Instead the precepts of society and the canon of law expect us to fail; they spend all their energy anticipating and policing these (potential) failures, and publicly "recognizing" the miscreants with trials and the like. So what behavior is modeled for impressionable minds??? Are there societal examples where good behavior is rewarded (i.e. "Congratulations!! You get a free petrol/gas coupon because you adhered to the speed limits!")? I can think of two - first where good students or talented athletes (or both) are able to get scholarships to reduce higher education costs, and second, reduced prison sentences for good behavior. So other than helping convicted felons reenter society early (a rather ironic incentive), when does society actively reward positive behavior? I did a quick search to see what I could find, take a look for yourself - it's not pretty. Isn't it a shame that there's so little we do to reward ourselves when we've achieved more than expected? If human nature is so filled with "vices," why shouldn't Clinton have gotten some kind of reward for being honest and admitting that he's a horny old man, but still a good leader? Instinctively, most parents (or pet owners) know that positive reinforcement leads to better (and more sustained) behavior in children or young animals than negative reinforcement. Why do we flip that as we become adults? Science tells us there is a big difference between telling someone "Don't forget to pay the rent" and "Remember to pay the rent." The parts in bold are the most likely outcome. It is this simple - we must expect more of ourselves, and we must encourage others to do the same; we can do this by taking the energy we invest in finding and showcasing failure, and putting it into rewarding success. Aug 08, 2010 Bob Herbert wrote A Sin and a Shame in the NY Times, where he argues that over the last several years, corporations have used the "desperate times call for desperate measures" sentiment to lay people off, even when their economic situation didn't really require that dramatic a reduction in workforce. The "surviving" employees feel they have to double down and work much, much harder to keep their jobs. The result is even more profitable corporations (profits up $572 billion, payrolls down $122 billion), whose cash positions have improved (now $1.84 trillion, a 27% increase from 2007) dramatically, and an employee base stressed to the limit. Here's the real killer - from Q4-2007 to Q4-2009, real GDP fell by 2.5% while payroll fell by 6%. This is big. Two questions: Why is this bad? Is it wrong for corporations to be as lean as possible, to have their employees be as productive as possible, and of course to be as profitable as possible? Isn't this how we judge corporate performance? How will this end? Will they relent, reduce profitability, hire back, and expect less? Will people grow to love the idea of being this productive and want to keep it going? Is people's ability to contribute at such a high level sustainable? Nowhere are desperate times more felt than in the home. It's not as difficult for a company to lay someone off as it is for that person to actually be laid off. For the company it's simply a numeric exercise; for the employee it's about a roof over their head and food on the table. So how do the employees react? Things don't suddenly hit the fan; there is a lead up that gets to the point when people, despite the risk, say "Enough." It is at this point that revolutions are born, that causes are formed, that the Man is made to pucker. As the unjust disparity grows, the people's desire to hold on to the status quo shrinks to the point where what was once unthinkable becomes thinkable. Unjust disparity is the gap between being controlled and being in control. [I just made this up, and I'm sure there are other more "official" terms for it, but this is mine. So there. :-)] This is not about wealth vs. not-wealth - there is tolerance for this, especially now (with sports and music) that so many once-poor people have struck gold. It's about hitting some kind of personal limit. This is about a more fundamental, and intentionally-created inequity. I'm reminded of the first time I heard Meat Loaf sing I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) (my emphasis); coming from a man who called himself "Meat Loaf," thatseemed like quite the repugnant thing. To the two questions above, corporations must be successful it's what their shareholders expect; the issue is their ability to sustain it. What the leadership does to achieve that is the that that will damage organizations that choose corporate bulimia (purging employees) as an effective strategy. Of course there are moments in business when extreme effort is required, but they are moments, not months, and they are not sustainable. Greed combined with corporate myopia will take the productivity peak achieved in crunch time and turn it into the worst kind of backlash. There is a progression: Those that can't handle the stress begin to fall over or leave Those that can handle the stress, but have a sense of moral purpose and the knowledge that they are employable (even in tough times) begin to leave Future stars that are now forced to pick up the slack of the current top talent (#2)'s departure begin to leave (this is disaster) It goes on... Smart organizations are actively recruiting disaffected #2s, and one of their selling points is that they won't do that. They are also networking with #3s, knowing that they are much more fickle and open to change. This is not good for those that did do that. Organizations where HR/Legal/PR rule, where there is a feeling of soullessness, and where management has no empathy or visceral understanding of how the employees feel, will suffer. Their management is so reliant on reports and analysis and McKinsey-type presentations, that they view their people as things, and have little or no sense of what's really going on, be it within their walls, or in the minds of their customers. Good leaders don't allow knowledge to be filtered; they most certainly want to be connected to their people and their customers. Those that claim that it's not possible to manage without the filters are the ones the Board needs to replace. The unjust disparity is never more clear than when we choose the company over the individual. You can't sustain success when it comes before those that create it. Aug 02, 2010 The US Department of Defense can't account for $8.7 billion out of the $9.1 billion intended to help rebuild Iraq. Bell, California city officials were forced to cut their salaries by 90% because they were found out (the worst offenders were the city manager ($787,000/yr) + assistant city manager ($376,000) + chief of police ($457,000/yr) were all forced to resign). Also in California, while spending for K-12 education rose 22% over five years (from $45.6 to $55.6 billion), actual classroom spending fell from 59% to 57.8% of the budget, and 38,000 school teachers have lost their jobs; California has a $20 billion deficit. Where is the money going? There is profound inefficiency in the American education system - California alone has over 1,000 school districts. First - why are so many districts required? Surely one is enough? With 1,000 separate district organizations (each of which has an average $55m budget), surely there is waste, fraud and excess staffing? With 1,000 districts, surely a percentage of them have leaders that are abusing the system, and siphoning money away from students and teachers? With 1,000 districts, surely there would have been a way to fire 38,000 bureaucrats, retain 38,000 teachers, and give tens of thousands of students a better education? "They" say that we should keep the Federal government small, and leave as much work as possible to the states and below. Most politicians will argue that this is the key to success, but where's the proof? While local government is theoretically more in tune with local needs, the price you pay is significant. By definition, a decentralized model with redundancy at every level is actually more government not less. Look around the world today and you see a dearth of great leaders and great managers. The more distributed government is the more leaders and managers and honest people it needs; and let's face it, there just aren't enough of those to go around. The result - bad management, shortsighted thinking, poor budgeting, massive inefficiencies, wasted money, wasted time, wasted lives, wasted air... When the system is this fragmented, it is also impossible to ensure accountability - imagine how big, how pervasive and how resistant to "influence" the oversight organization would have to be to police the whole country's fiefdoms? The theory that local elections serve as the "cops" is laughable - just look at the "wonderful people" that keep getting reelected in local and regional (and federal I suppose) elections). It's too easy to hide, and people are too disengaged to pay attention. In the end, elections are not the best way to do anything other than win a popularity or fear-based contest. The 8.7 billion dollar throwaway by the DOD means this isn't just a local problem; there are massive failures at the Federal level as well (this is but one). Is there a way to prevent fraud and abuse and just plain stupidity? No - being unscrupulous is part of human nature (or better said, trying to get away with something you know to be wrong is human nature); and you only have to look at the Darwin awards to know that there are a whole lot of less-than-bright people that grace this planet, and many of those seem to be drawn to politics. The arguments against federalizing everything are many - too much distance from people and local issues, too much bureaucracy, too much excess spending, and my favorite with budgets that big, any screw-up is sure to just as gigantic (at least locally it's only hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions, and not billions). I don't buy that. Saying that this alternative sucks less so let's do it is not the way government should work, and it's certainly not the way citizens should be served. My first instinct was to say we should accredit government workers - they must be trained and pass an exam to be judged "Competent to Spend the People's Money" (or CSPM ;-)). But that's a non-starter - just look at the fact that 90+% of politicians are lawyers (who had to graduate from university and pass the Bar), and how incompetent they are. I wrote something a few months ago that I think might have merit - I was talking about how we incent or mandate a balanced budget: Quid pro quo. If we're punishing Congress for excessive spending, we should also reward them for good behavior. Every year that there is a budget surplus, all Federal employees will receive a bonus of X% (1 or 2%?) of the total surplus, divided equally (same percentage of salary). When they've also retired the gross deficit, the percentage should double. There should be no cap on this - the better they do, the better they do. But how do we prevent fraud? Two things - first, if everyone's pay is dependent on a more efficient system, maybe that creates an incentive to play better. Second, if the number of agencies is reduced profoundly (reducing the 14,866 school districts to 50 + 1 (for Washington DC) for example), then maybe it's possible for the GAO to police all of them? And what if the GAO is also similarly incented to find bad behavior and eliminate it? For example - one incentive I might consider for the GAO is they're penalized if a behavior is reported in one year, and remains just as bad in the next, and they're rewarded if it improves (their bonus pool could increase by a percentage of the improvement). It should be noted that there are a ton of federal organizations that do have a local presence, and are able to tune their efforts according to local needs - it's just a matter of policy. The three steps to reduce bad behavior - consolidate so that fewer more qualified people are doing the work; create a pay structure that rewards fiscal responsibility and improved service for the citizens; and motivate the oversight organization so that it wins if the citizens win. Sadly - the easier way to do it - trust the citizens to vote well - hasn't worked... Jul 16, 2010 Does a customer have a right to be served? Is there a law that requires every customer to be catered to? Does that law make sense? It's true that there have been occasions in history where people were not served [see picture on the left] because of some kind of visible difference. It also happens today, case in point being this eight (yes, 8) year old girl, Evelyn Towry, who was arrested and handcuffed by the Boise police department at the request of her school principal because of her autistic behavior and I suppose they (full grown adults) felt physically threatened by her (yes, 8). But I don't think the law makes sense. The existence of anti-discrimination laws doesn't always create the right outcome. In both cases not only were the perpetrators evil and wrong, but law enforcement was as well! Exactly what protection did the victims get? When we have too many rules, it becomes too difficult to enforce any of them, and the level of specificity creates too many loopholes, allowing fundamental wrong-doing to be forgiven. Don't get me wrong, I'm not agreeing with the jerks that denied service to black people, or abused a poor eight-year-old child. Both parties should have been/be severely punished. In my opinion, people (white and black) should have boycotted the former's restaurant, and the latter all need to be terminated - the teachers, staff, principal and police officers should all be out on the street (and ideally not allowed to ever procreate again, but I suppose some might consider that harsh). When does it make sense to exclude a customer? Seth Godin wrote about a failure heirarchy (I like this idea a lot) - it argues that you have to live up to your intentions and expectations, and that failure is critical to success. Part of this license to fail comes from choosing the right customers. Roger Kay claims that Apple is firing its customers and that that's wrong. His view is that Apple should be much less exclusive in its dealings and be open to all types of customers. I don't agree. When you build a product (say an item of clothing, you "optimize" it for a certain gender, a particular body-type, and sometimes even for certain skin colors - and that's acceptable. If you've ever eaten at the Carnivore in Nairobi, you know that they don't care about or cater to anyone other than meat-eaters. Aston Martin does not cater to poor people. etc. So why does Apple have to serve corporate clients? Not only do I think they should avoid corporate customers, I also think catering to this clientele will cost Apple it's margins (profitability), as well as its reputation. As a commercial vendor, Apple will have to build products with specific features (security, manageability, interoperability); it will have to test products with greater rigor to ensure compatibility with applications built by 3rd parties; it will have to build a more extensive sales, service and support engine; and it will absorb a much greater change management burden to ensure that commercial clients are "whole" when then do upgrades, etc. Even in the consumer space, Apple is going through some struggles with product quality. Now imagine if they'd sold the iPhone4 as a commercial product, and their antenna issues caused companies to lose business - there would be lawsuits galore ('cause let's face it, they're flush with cash, have a huge market cap, and are in some categories, dominating their markets) claiming lost income due to Apple's product flaws. I think Apple was brilliant to deliberately step back from the commercial business (and think they should move away even more concertedly); it enabled them to dramatically streamline their business and operating model. As a consumer goods company, their only obligation is to the consumer. This allows them to: Confine their sales channels (their stores, other resellers, the web). Implement the most basic upgrade/switching support - easy to move from one Mac/iPod/iPhone to another, but not much else. Corporations don't like as rapid a product update cycle as Apple is used to (it's too expensive and difficult for them to upgrade that often); they want a lot more "personal" care and feeding than Apple would want to fund; and they're a lot more particular about standards, compliance, interoperability, and a host of other things. Further to #2 above, today the barriers to change are much lower in the home than the office (it's waaaay riskier and more expensive for corporations to upgrade or switch). Apple's success is predicated on a rapid innovation rate and the only market segment able to absorb that kind of re-purchase cycle is consumers. Why go after a market that can't keep up with your business? By treating everyone in the same way - as mere consumers with disposable income and a sufficient degree of panache to be able to pull off owning an Apple device(!), Apple is able to go after the market that is most able to buy and buy often. Their customers' expectations are set and set clearly. If a corporation does wish to buy their products, they essentially have to do it as consumers. By setting expectations correctly, Apple is not only able to remain focused while lowering their cost of doing business, they are also able to maintain their premium pricing, while creating an ever-more loyal fan/customer base who readily forgive Apple's mistakes and eagerly await their next Apple purchase. That's why a business should have the right to choose its customers - it allows it to set, live up to, and succeed based on clear expectations. Jul 14, 2010 "If someone is going to eat our lunch, it may as well be us." This is an oft-quoted phrase in the business world. Its meaning is simple - we have a successful product in the market, the competition is after us; rather than allowing them to usurp our position in the market, we should do it ourselves with our own newer/better or altogether different products. Or put another way, better to cannibalize our own revenue streams and hold on to them vs. letting others take them from us. However you say it, this sentence points me to one, very powerful truth: be more defined by what you will do than what you have done. I'm not saying forget your past (though that's sometimes a huge temptation!), but rather that we can only control our future actions, that embracing paradigms that got us to a place may only serve to hold us back, and not allow progress. Andy Zaky wrote a great post on the irrelevance of the iPod to Apple's future. In it, he includes two graphs - one showing the decline in iPod as a percentage of Apple revenue, and the other showing Apple's overall revenue growth. The lesson - while the iPod was HUGE in resurrecting Apple (at its peak representing 55% of all Apple revenue, vs. 8% in the last quarter), and while it remains a significant contributor to revenue (and margins), Apple has moved on. They no longer count on the iPod as a growth engine, indeed, much of the decline in iPod sales is the direct result of the success of newer Apple products (iPhone, iPad). This is why new announcements from Apple are so well attended - people want to be connected to the next new thing, knowing that instantly the last (now old) new thing will be utterly outmoded and boring. Of course there are many organizations that don't take this approach, and sometimes for good reason. If you have a cash cow that's amazingly productive, why stop milking it? Why not get every last drop out, especially when the latter "drops" are so much more profitable than the former. After all - new products are always risky, and may never come close to the potential of existing. Whilst these companies might not have the "innovation aura" that Apple has, they can be just fine, enjoying steady and predictable revenues and plodding growth. It is possible though for this approach to lead to a state of strategic entrenchment, where an organization is so committed to a past formula for success, that it loses sight not just of future opportunity, but also present and future threats. This behavior isn't confined to corporations; it also applies to other industries, education and government to name but two. In education proposed change must be proven and peer-reviewed before it is accepted; we can't afford to do something untested to our children - a reasonable concern. (The problem of course is that you can't test innovation at scale without implementing it.) Consider for a moment how the current system was established - there was very little analysis, brain science didn't exist, and of course there was no research at the time that said learning was best accomplished in an authoritative, homogeneous, teacher-in-front, instructivist system. They just decided to do it that way. I can understand not wanting to change if things are working really well (much like strategically-entrenched companies), but let's face it, education in America is not a success - dropouts are on the rise, and those that do graduate aren't learning nearly enough to be competitive with the rest of the world. In education "historical success" is also something of a tautology - the "successful" graduates happen to be running the current system, and by definition, since it got them to this place, their education and the system they had was successful. Therefore innovation is less of a priority vs. "back to the old ways," and therefore there is very little open-mindedness to change. Sure they're willing to tweak things slightly, but real change ...no. There's no external motivation either because the parents are a product of the same old system, and there's no competition that is anywhere near the scale of the American public school system. Change is therefore unlikely or even worse, impossible. Governments face the exact opposite problem. Politicians measure success through action (at least that's how they promote themselves to the voters). Action = creating laws or setting up commissions, or I suppose, going on "fact-finding" tours. But because their goal is not a better society, but rather to get re-elected, success is merely passing laws, not passing good laws, or indeed enforcing existing laws; commissions only needed to happen, not resolve or repair anything. I'm reminded of a West Wing episode where, among other things, the discussion is about the Republican vs. Democratic view on laws. Here's an exchange between Sam Seaborn and Ainsley Hayes (with my emphasis): AINSLEY: I'm a Republican ...I believe that every time the Federal Government hands down a new law, it leaves for the rest of us a little less freedom.So I say let's stick to the ones we absolutely need in order to have water come out of the faucet and our cars not stolen. That is my problem with passing a redundant law. SAM: You know, you insist that government is depraved for not legislating against what we can see on the newsstands or what we can see in an art exhibit or what we can burn in protest or which sex we're allowed to have sex with or a woman's right to choose. But don't you dare try to regulate this deadly weapon I have concealed on me for that would encroach against my freedom. AINSLEY: And Democrats believe in freedom of speech unless you want to pray while you're standing in school. And you believe in the freedom of information act except if you want to find out if your 14 year old has had an abortion. SAM: We believe in the ERA. ... How can you have an objection... AINSLEY: Because it's humiliating. A new amendment we vote on declaring that I am equal under the law to a man? I'm mortified to discover there's reason to believe I wasn't before. I'm a citizen of this country. I'm not a special subset in need of your protection. I do not have to have my rights handed down to me by a bunch of old white men. The same Article 14 that protects you protects me. And I went to law school just to make sure. So like the commercial and education sectors, politicians can't resist the "tried and true approach" to governing. They will therefore make spurious, ill-conceived laws to try and look good to naive and frankly stupid voters. Like education, government has no competition, they know that most new politicians are just as dumb as they are, and follow the same traditions; they know this because enough of them will get reelected to ensure continuity. Yet again there is no sufficiently credible perceived competition to create a change in behavior. Most corporations, school systems and governments are afraid to do something new or interesting; they are afraid to go beyond their self-imposed limits, and will therefore diminish whatever is connected to them. Is it any wonder so many parts of the American fabric are in decline? Competition is crucial; it creates pressure and the urgency to outperform. When there is no competition (or perceived competition), you rest on your laurels and stagnate. This is less important for corporations - you only risk money; but when the stakes are as high as they are with education and government how can we afford to be sloths? There is competition in the tall grass, and it's not lazy. We must seek to be defined by what we will do and not what we've done. Jun 21, 2010 In the movie, The Matrix is a simulation - a world constructed by an artificial intelligence that is powered by the energy of its human captives. The humans are deceived into believing that they live normal, contributing lives, all the while they're alone in pods having their energy leeched; until one of them - Neo - is freed by a band of underground revolutionaries that believe him to be the "One" (note the anagram) who will defeat the Matrix and free humanity. In the real world, the earliest reference to the matrix I found was JR Galbraith in 1971. This matrix is an artifact of man, and was intended to help make organizations more efficient. The idea is simple - optimal performance lies in being functionally-integrated vs. vertically-integrated. The specialized teams (Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Design, Research, etc.) will provide their services across product lines, allowing the company to benefit from deep skills and experience by specialty, and the employees to benefit from clearer career paths and professional growth. Makes sense. Matrix-managed organizations can be more effective and successful if the leaders are able to transcend their team and prioritize the company's success vs. their own. At the top, there are methods like balanced scorecards and dashboards to create an aggregated management view, but it can be difficult for a "line" executive to stand out, and demonstrate their value, ability, and achievement. How are line executives evaluated? If the organization (like most companies) uses a zero-sum performance model, then the people are measured against each other, despite their work being very different (e.g. Sales is compared to Marketing, Engineering, Design and HR). Sales creates value in a very different way than Marketing, so if Sales exceeds their quota, and Marketing delivers outstanding campaigns, then which manager "wins"? Surely self-interest will prevail, and Sales will want to look better than Mrketing so that it is viewed and rewarded more favorably, which means that in addition to Sales creating value for the company, it has to do it in a way that also shows it to be more valuable than Marketing. Smart managers will develop their own scorecards to showcase their value (define their own rules of success); if they're "really" smart, some of their metrics will try and take credit for others' success, and thereby increase their odds of a better performance review, and relatively greater recognition and reward. If a matrixed organization by its nature creates competition between line executives, then why would the C-suite expect there to be cooperation between these competing teams? Look on Monster.com and you'll see a ton of job descriptions that specify the ability to "influence people without authority," or "operate effectively in a matrixed environment," or "work well in cross-team settings." These skills are in demand because managers recognize the value of talent that can get "sister" teams to support and contribute to their activities and success. A second skill in demand (so much so that it often becomes a discrete role or even a discrete function) is "orchestration." These are the people that develop processes and systems (reports, performance management processes, etc.) that look across organizations to "formalize" horizontal perspective and oversight. In other words, their job is to build patches between the separate horizontal functions. There is no doubt these skills are necessary and valuable; there is no doubt that specialization is a good thing - the better you are at something, the better you are at it. There is also no doubt that a well-run matrixed organization can be more efficient than the alternative. Why then is there so much angst/difficulty/stress about getting things done, being more agile, and being more responsive to the changing market in matrixed organizations? How do we make the matrix work? I think it's simple, and the movie can teach us something. To prevail against the AI and win humanity's freedom, Neo and the resistance had to set aside local priorities and ego and work together towards the common purpose. Their measure of success was freedom for all people, and the price of failure was death (or re-absorption into the matrix). First, it was easy to keep score; and second and most critically, the penalty for failure and the rewards of success were shared equally by all participants. That's what kept them motivated, and what helped them persevere when things looked most dire. Organizations (matrixed or otherwise) are more successful and stronger when everyone's success is based on the company's success; and the knowledge that if the company fails, everyone takes it on the chin. Everyone's success should be a function of the company's success, and everyone should similarly know what it's like to lose. For example, we will all get a share (equal amount or percentage of salary) of "profits" when we succeed (no other bonus), and get no bonus when we fail. The rule should be applied universally and irrespective of whether you did all the work, but your colleague in the next cubicle did nothing but watch YouTube videos all day. This will put all sorts of positive pressure on the company and its people - to want everyone to be productive (and "help" or "encourage" those that aren't); to hire well (so critical); and of course to work across teams (I need to help Sales, and Marketing and Design so that the company is successful and that we in Engineering helped make us so). In the end, it's not whether you work in a matrix (or The Matrix), but rather how you get compensated. A matrixed approach will not guarantee success, but the right measurement scheme will. Jun 07, 2010 If you hire someone to do something for you, how do you control quality and outcomes? Do you outline the expectations, milestones, and deliverables explicitly? Do you track progress regularly? Are you careful to negotiate well but equitably? If you're the vendor, would you rather the definition of success was in your hands or those of the people that hired you? Say someone came up to you and said "I want you do this job, I'm not going to tell you how, I'm not even going to tell you what success looks like, you have to figure that out for yourself, but I will pay you a ton of money. Oh and by the way, I'm almost never going to check up on you." Would you be interested? Well - duh!! You get paid and you get to say what you have to do get paid, and they may not even check that you actually did the work - how sweet is that! Does this happen often? Yep, and especially in governments and other ultra-large organizations. Two examples come to mind - first, the use of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan: According to a recent Wartime Contracting Commission report, there are about (the exact number is not known) 240,000 contractors in these two theaters. The commission states that the greatest opportunities for improvement include focus on the "leadership, culture and accountability" of the agencies that do the hiring, the process for defining contractor requirements, performance and cost-effectiveness, and visibility into and accountability of subcontractors. This can't be good... This NY Times article on a Pentagon-funded Afghani warlord is classic - the US military has anointed an illiterate highway police officer with more wealth (gets paid $2.5 million/month!!), and more power than any democratically elected or appointed official in the region! First, I'd put money on this guy and his army going against his current "benefactor" at some point very soon. Second, how does accountability work when your vendor has more power than the local government, and is protecting your employees (soldiers) and property? Literally $ billions are spent on these contracts, an untold number of random people become wealthy and powerful, and yet there is almost zero oversight and hardly any expectation of actual performance. Let's not even think about what happens to these "made men" a few years hence (think: Taliban, Saddam Hussein, etc.). The second example is the No Child Left Behind Act - while conceptually a good thing, it is hampered by the weird jurisdictional dance that the Feds have to play with the States and local governments on education. The concept was good - let's figure out a way to push schools to graduate every student, and also improve what is taught. Using the only power they had (money), the Feds paid for outcomes, but left it to the States to define those outcomes, define their baseline, and define how to measure progress. The results speak for themselves - students got dumber, money got wasted, everyone was more frustrated. When the measure of success is a specific test, and all the actors (school administrators, teachers, parents, students) know it; then with their short-term brains in full gear, they also know that passing that test (vs. actually teaching/learning anything) is all that matters, nothing else "counts," helps them get paid, and all else falls by the wayside. Another classic example of wanting to do something, having the best intentions (as with the Pentagon above), but making an absolute mess of execution. To their credit, though they haven't rescinded No Child Left Behind, the present Department of Education has implemented a new approach (Race to the Top), though again the performance measures are flawed. Measuring teachers based on student outcomes is a failed strategy, and will ultimately create poorer graduates - let's hope they fix this before it creates irreparable damage. Are there ways to avoid these outcomes, or at least improve one's odds of success? There are no absolutes, but here are some things to consider: Think before you act, and then think again. If your first (and only) thought is "I'm going to pay someone else to do this," you're going to fail. Before the "how" you've got to know "why" you're doing something, and then "what" you will do. The "why" helps you clarify the goal and the desired end-state. The "what" helps you map your approach to the goal, and test to make sure it does get you there; then you can worry about "how." Own the outcome. Just because you've hired a vendor to do the work doesn't mean you don't own it anymore. No matter what happens, you own the "why," the "what," and the choice of this particular "how" as it relates to the goals you need to achieve. The larger the organization the more likely the people who made the decision will be in different jobs when there is a reckoning - that doesn't absolve the organization of responsibility. Separate performance from measurement. This should be obvious but it isn't. If the people you're paying are also measuring the results and reporting them back, there is NO realistic expectation that you will ever get the truth. Consider the simple fact that they get paid if their results look good, and they get paid more if their results look better... These are pretty universal, and any well-run business will operate this way. It seems though that the bigger you get, the dumber you get... Jun 05, 2010 There are three reasons to have a meeting - to share information, create insight, or gain agreement. How many meetings do you attend where there are too many people in the room, and the agenda's so crammed that you are certain never to get through it, plus you're immediately irked because the topic you're there for is last on the agenda and is sure to get postponed? Why do people create meetings like this? I suppose for the same reason that a dinner party host fears that the food will run out, or not enough people will show up. I can understand that about the eating, but not the meeting. If the point is to share, create, or gain agreement, don't all of those things come before time-keeping? Saying "sorry, as interesting as this is, we have to cut it off so that we can get through the agenda and be finished on time" is an indication of failure. We all know that when they buzz through the last few slides or points, what gets cut off or rushed is either the payoff of the presentation or the vital discussion afterward. We also know that by rushing or cutting things off, the real goal is rarely accomplished. This last part is also when the nay-sayers get to debate the issue, resolve concerns, and become supporters; where those that didn't fully understand can see the whole picture; or where the presenter can really land their critical message; etc. Cutting that off is like missing the last 10 minutes of your favorite sporting event ('cause the TV station had to cut over to a soap opera), or if your Rear Window DVD breaks right when Grace Kelly is inside the bad guy's apartment, and he's about to walk in. What's wrong with having one objective, accomplishing it, and getting done early? Large organizations send employees to trainings on running effective meetings/events. The classes teach you to plan the meeting/event, impose structure, send everyone a pre-read and the agenda, and account for every minute of the meeting. So you embark on your meeting just as the course prescribes, with high hopes of a good outcome. Then someone questions a critical premise, key people don't show up, and yet a third (more senior than you) person wishes to discuss and debate an issue beyond the allotted time, and you kiss your happy ending goodbye. I've met "executives" (especially in large, MBA-ridden corporations) who actually "evaluate" meetings! They will judge a meeting to be a poor execution that just happened to go well (got lucky) because there wasn't a crisp, clear agenda, with well-defined outcomes; the meeting was too open-ended; progress didn't occur in the "proper" way; and the organizer appeared inadequately "driven." The ensuing email: "That a good outcome occurred is unfortunate given the failed execution of process. XXX's inability to orchestrate an effective meeting raises concerns about their competence as a manager, and their eligibility for our leadership program." The failure is that the meeting has become an outcome unto itself; this is especially true in highly matrixed organizations, and is a classic example of micro-thinking. It contributes to a lack of agility, arrested decision-making, and profound inefficiency because so many meetings are required to actually get something done. To be a great meeting convener, you need the maturity (understanding of human nature, patience, wisdom, confidence), combined with the cojones (confidence, wisdom, patience, understanding of human nature) to overcome the corporate training and overzealous MBA-types, and stand firm in the conviction that less is so much more than more. Sadly, people who have developed this level of sensei-ness tend to avoid meetings altogether. May 02, 2010 When something becomes too big, it is or is perceived to be domineering and dictatorial. America was formed in response to an overbearing Britain. To quote the Declaration of Independence:Brilliant. In writing the constitution, the framers were mindful of this, and built a structure intended to prevent a federal government from ever getting too big. They did this by separating power in two ways - federally with three "independent" branches (executive, legislative, judicial), and overall with federal, state and local governments (or more appropriately - federal and not federal). But today these layers are so tightly connected that they can't really act independently - the state and local governments are so economically beholden to the Feds that there is no practical checks/balances capability (biting the hand that feeds gets toothless pretty quickly). I favor a (benevolent) central model vs. a local/state/federal model. The American system is redundant, inefficient, and with a dearth of great (even good) leaders (but a surplus of great egos), suffering from bad management and egregious excess. In tough time, the more layers you have the less revenue each layer is able to collect; the less each layer is able to raise, and with bad management, the more the whole system (not to mention the citizens) are at risk. Creating a central government would of course require a serious Constitutional amendment, but is closer than you might think. If this had been a slightly deeper and more protracted recession/depression (Detroit plans to literally shut down parts of the city because it's too expensive to service them (street lights, police patrols, trash pickup, etc.); elsewhere schools are closing, teachers laid off, hospitals are cutting back, state employees are furloughed, it's endless), I bet a dozen States would have declared bankruptcy and ceded control to a higher power, ultimately creating the United State of America (note the singular). It's not just America - Greece, Spain and Portugal in the European Union are all struggling. The "Northern" Eurozone (Germany, France) and their taxpayers will bear the brunt of bailing them out, and while they agree the bailout should happen, there is also resentment. "Why are we always sending € billions to them?? All they ever do is go on strike and take vacations!" In the United States we have angst against Wall Street, the automobile manufacturers, and even consumers who can't manage their own debt; think of how New York and Texas will feel if they have to bail California out. What happens if the United States or European Union fails? What then? We need a different approach to government. Most people don't like centralization, believing it results in bloat, bureaucracy, declining services to the citizenry, and worst of all, the risk of an unchecked power running roughshod. I agree :-) -- BUT - I'm pretty sure we already have this in our current Federal/State/Local government model??? The Constitution delineated Federal responsibilities based on specific portfolios (foreign policy, treasury, military, etc.) combined with omission (what's left is state or local). This was fine when things were easily separable, and there was physically no way for a central government to reach and connect to every corner of the land. Neither is true today. Not only are there overlaps in purview, but the physical portfolios are so intertwined that changes in one have ripple effects on others, and most critically the citizens. Is there a way to create a government system that achieves both the efficiency and equitability of centralization with the effectiveness, local empathy, balance and accountability of de-central? I wrote about federalizing education, where the Feds were responsible for "the what" and the schools (local leadership) "the how." Extrapolating this to the larger context: The What - Centralized Laws, Mandate and Funding. This body will set: Rights - create the fundamental laws and principles that should govern the land Vision - define success, identify the "customer," the desired outcome, and how it will be measured, and most critically, have a long-term perspective Apr 17, 2010 How many public school teachers can you name who are only in it for the money? I struggle to name one. Are there bad eggs in the system? Of course, and here's an example of a more insidious variant (plus it quotes one of the more choice movie lines of the 1980s!). But most of the three million+ teachers in America teach because their stomachs and hearts demand it of them. It is a calling and their intentions are good. I have been told of places in this country where being a teacher is a "way out," and people go into it because it's one of the very few choices available to them. I'm willing to bet that most of these teachers view it as a path to earning a living, being respected in their community, and helping future generations transcend. Last night I was talking to a good friend about teachers in America; we talked about these two amazing teachers I had dinner with last October, and about Tyler Hester - a rather academically accomplished TFA teacher who was laid off recently from his school in Pasadena, CA; he was a victim of their policy of layoffs based solely on tenure. There is a lot of talk about teachers being the most influential factor in a child's education, and that because student achievement is declining, they must be the point of failure. This type of scapegoat hunting is easy - it's not about solving a problem, it's about finding someone to blame - that's politics. As Aaron Sorkin put it in The American President (with my emphasis): We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, and you wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism. You tell them she's to blame for their lot in life. And you go on television and you call her a whore. The "problem" is a failing education system, the "President's girlfriend" is the public school teacher, and rather than "whore" it's incompetent. Good politics is about establishing ONE enemy that is easily understood, easily vilified, and where a simple fix (student testing - something they have also admitted doesn't work!) can be applied. Like Bob Rumson in the movie, none of these "complainants" has a viable solution for the problem. None recognizes that students are only in school for seven hours a day, and that learning also happens in the other seventeen. None speaks of the role of parents and parenting in education, none recognizes that the most formative learning happens before a child is even of school age!! This is the plight of teachers in America and the prejudice fomented against them. Look no farther than the rhetoric of Presidents Bush and Obama, their respective Secretaries of Education, many "lesser" politicians (Governors, Superintendents, Congress people, etc.), and even major foundations (the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to name but one) to find the same story played over and over again. These are people who in one breath speak of dramatically increasing investment in our futures, and in the next of budget cuts that require teacher layoffs, cutbacks in classes offered, and even the closing of schools. Phooey! As Elizabeth Bennett (Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice) had to overcome her tendency towards hasty judgments and headstrong approach, so must American teachers overcome their first reaction - the raising of hackles. As Seth said today that you must choose what of the myriad ...stuff that comes your way to accept; teachers need to focus not on a tide of disaffection, but what they would want to see in the system in order to improve it; some of this will require change on their part, and they can't shirk that. They must view being in the cross hairs as an opportunity and not a threat. Like Elizabeth they must realize that beneath the prejudice their Mr. Darcy has a genuine desire to improve education, he just doesn't know how. In the book, circumstances contrived to help Mr. Darcy demonstrate his innate goodness and win Elizabeth. In reality, teachers must take the bull by the horns and create their own destiny	eng	e5273d6c-a297-4263-9e36-8910f319a014	http://interacc.typepad.com/synthesis/accountability/
Afghanistan however and Youth isolationFarmers Nisha Taneja The series of trade facilitating measures enacted by India and Pakistan starting in November 2011 were undoubtedly the first steps toward creating new trading opportunities that could lead to a quantum leap in bilateral trade between the two countries. Trade potential between India and Pakistan is estimated to be $19.8 billion (U.S.), which is 10 times larger than the current $1.97 billion in trade. Of this, India's export potential accounts for $16 billion and its import potential accounts for $3.8 billion. The potential in India's mineral fuels is another $10.7 billion, of which export potential accounts for $9.4 billion and import potential $1.3 billion. The items with the largest export potential include cellular phones, cotton, vehicle components, polypropylene, xylene, tea, textured yarn, synthetic fiber, and polyethylene. The items with largest import potential include jewelry, medical instruments and appliances, cotton, tubes and pipes of iron and steel, polyethylene terephthalate, copper waste and scrap, structures and parts of structures, terephthalic acid and its salts, medicines, and sports equipment. In a major move towards normalizing trade relations, Pakistan's transition from a positive list to a negative list in March 2012 (except for road-based trade, for which Pakistan continues to maintain a positive list of only 137 items) was perhaps the most significant step toward unleashing bilateral trade potential. Under the positive list approach, Pakistan imported from India a specified list of items. The negative list specifies the banned list rather than the permitted list of imports, allowing a much greater flow of goods from India. India and Pakistan also maintain sensitive lists as members of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement. While negative lists specify items that are completely banned from trade, sensitive lists consist of items on which trade is permitted but tariff concessions are not allowed. As in any trade liberalization process, there will be both winners and losers. The negative and sensitive lists indicate sectors in which countries want to protect domestic industry from each other's imports. A substantial proportion of India's export potential to Pakistan - 58 percent - is in products that are on Pakistan's negative or sensitive lists, applicable to India under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA). Similarly, 32 percent of India's import potential from Pakistan is in items on the sensitive list for Pakistan applicable under SAFTA. Further, Pakistan's negative list indicates that the automobile and component industry is the largest sector that enjoys protection from Indian imports. On the other hand, agricultural items, for which resistance to liberalization is building up in Pakistan, are unlikely to have any impact as this sector has already been liberalized. Pakistan's sensitive list indicates that textiles account for 24 percent of the items on the list, but this sector accounts for only 3 percent of India's export potential of items on Pakistan's list. India's sensitive list indicates that the textiles sector is protected the most-a sector in which Pakistan enjoys a comparative advantage. Most of the items on the sensitive list are fabrics, which if allowed at preferential (lower) tariffs into India will compete with large firms (rather than small firms) in India that produce comparable quality. Even though these firms are likely to oppose liberalization, there is no rationale to protect large firms. India's sensitive list under SAFTA applicable to Pakistan indicates that the textiles sector is protected the most (accounting for 22 percent of India's import potential) - a sector in which Pakistan enjoys a comparative advantage. It can be inferred that while Pakistan considers its automobile sector as the most vulnerable, India fears competition in the textile sector. To realize the untapped trade potential between the two countries, several physical and regulatory impediments need to be addressed. Expansion of physical infrastructure at the land borders, amendment of transport protocols to allow seamless transportation without the requirement of transshipment of cargo (the transfer of goods from one country's truck to the other country's truck at the land borders because Indian and Pakistani trucks cannot operate in each other's territory),and dismantling of the road-based positive list are measures that could bring about a substantial reduction in the transaction costs of trading between the two countries. Non-tariff barriers have been a key issue for Pakistani business people trying to access the Indian market. While there are genuine non-tariff barriers related to the complexity of regulatory procedures, non-transparent regulations, port restrictions, and problems related to recognition of standards and valuation of goods, these are not discriminatory and are being addressed in India's ongoing reform process. It is more difficult to address "perceived" barriers that business people face in entering each other's markets. Business people fear entering these markets as they are not sure their goods will be welcomed. This is more so in the consumer goods market segment. However, there is evidence that some businesses have made a bold entry with their country labels and have not met much resistance. Exhibitions and fairs are an effective way of dealing with these perceived barriers. For deeper and stronger trade linkages it is important that there are foreign investment flows between the two countries. Businessmen from both countries are reluctant to invest as they fear the consequences of a possible political event. If a bilateral investment treaty is put in place it could improve business confidence. In the meantime, businessmen in both countries have suggested allowing joint ownership of manufacturing facilities located in the respective countries. Thus, investors can enter into joint ventures without physically locating in each other's territory. This could be the first step for entry until legal systems can be altered to safeguard investments, and there is an improvement in investors' confidence. A key determinant of realization of trade potential is the liberalization of visas. The revised visa regime expected to become operational soon provides only an incremental improvement over the existing system as it introduces measures to ease travel of tourists, pilgrims, elderly and children. The business visa is also more liberal for certain categories. As security is a key concern, information technology-driven systems should be made to screen visa applications and physical movement of people. India and Pakistan need to engage with each other to understand each other's regulatory regimes. As new businessmen enter the economy it is important to have forums that would bring buyers and sellers together. The business communities must create multilevel channels of communication that can reduce misconceptions, bridge the information gap, and generate a significant change in the business environment of the two countries. This could help in realizing the untapped trade potential between the two countries. Nisha Taneja is a professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi. government sheer Huma Imtiaz Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik always seems to be in the news for his outrageous statements, ranging from terrorists dressed like Star Wars' characters to attributing sectarian violence to men trying to get rid of wives and girlfriends. Another headline was added to the mix on Monday - Pakistan daily Dawnreported that Malik had not paid his electricity bills for more than 56 months, or a little less than five years. In a country where parliamentarians are notorious for not paying taxes and Rehman Malik's popularity is almost non-existent, this news will hardly raise any eyebrows. Except for the harsh reality: Pakistan is facing a crippling energy crisis that will not be resolved overnight and is hardly helped by news of Malik's non-payments. As summer approaches and the mercury creeps up, demand for electricity will skyrocket. Consumers will run fans and air-conditioners (provided they have electricity) for longer durations in the summer, and Pakistan's electricity output is nowhere close to meeting these needs. There appears to be no imminent solution to the nightmare that is Pakistan's energy sector. Pakistan's energy crisis has caused it to lose up to two percent of its GDP since at least 2010. While organizations such as the Asian Development Bank and USAID have helped (USAID says it has spent $156.5 million since 2009 on assistance projects in the energy sector), funding projects aimed at adding megawatts to the grid, improving line losses, and initiating small-scale dam projects, assistance alone is not a long-term solution. And then there is the circular debt issue. Essentially, the Pakistani government provides electricity subsidies to users, but is unable to pay off the subsidies' cost difference to electricity providers, who, in turn, are running low on the cash reserves necessary to pay Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and fuel suppliers. The government pays a certain portion of this debt owed by state-owned power companies to private power producers and Pakistan State Oil, but it is still not enough to cover the losses. The debt has now crossed the Rs.800 billion mark. Gas and power shutoffs, from both scheduled and unscheduled loadshedding, continue on a daily basis, and the government's failure to implement financial reforms has the IMF issuing tense reports on the country's economic situation. A recent audit report of a USAID project for the Jamshoro Thermal Power Plant's repair states that the project will be unsustainable if the Government of Pakistan does not implement reforms. The problems that Pakistan faces seem insurmountable: many consumers, like the country's interior minister, local and provincial government offices, intelligence agencies -- the list goes on -- don't pay electricity bills. Others resort to illegal connections to steal electricity, causing a massive loss to power companies. And according to a report in the Express Tribune in December 2012, the current government has "doled out PKR 1.4 trillion in power subsidies" over its five-year tenure, an issue multilateral development organizations like the Asian Development Bank have critiqued in the past. Pakistan has tried to take measures to resolve the crisis, but most of these efforts have come to nought. The much-touted Rental Power Plants scheme advocated by then-Federal Minister for Water and Power and now-Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf were mired in corruption. Construction of small-scale hydropower projects is underway, but these are not going to make Pakistan electricity-sufficient. Pakistan is now going forward with a gas pipeline deal with Iran to meet its energy needs, but that has come under fire from the U.S., raising fears that Pakistan may be hit with sanctions if it goes ahead. In 2012, Pakistan's electricity shortfall shot up to over 8000 MW, resulting in crippling electricity blackouts of 12-16 hours. Industries have suffered tremendously as the crisis has worsened, and consumers have staged protests throughout the country, demanding action from the government. This month, Pakistan State Oil was slapped with a fine for defaulting on its payments to international suppliers. And on Feb. 24 this year, there was a nationwide power breakdown -- a 180 million people or so were affected. With general elections in Pakistan just a couple of months away, there doesn't appear to be the appetite or the political will for reforms in the country. And as it is, it is too late to implement reforms, since a caretaker government will be installed once the parliament finishes its term in the coming weeks. As campaigning for votes begins, politicians will offer quick-fix solutions and promises that they say will be fulfilled once their party is elected. However, Pakistan's energy sector requires solutions in the short and long-term, financial resources and the courage to implement reforms. The IMF, ADB, and a bevy of experts have advised the Pakistani government ad infinitum on potential solutions, including the end of subsidies on electricity, raising tariffs, and recovering outstanding payments from consumers like Mr. Malik and the intelligence agencies. Addressing the energy crisis will require Pakistan's next government to move toward using coal in power plants, and away from using furnace oil, which is expensive and has contributed to Pakistan's circular debt problems. Instead of trying to convince donors to fund large-scale projects, the new government could also focus on building more small-scale power plants that could contribute to diminishing the shortfall, even if it's just a tiny drop in the ocean. Reforms should also include a more concerted effort towards domestic conservation of electricity (if I had a penny for the number of times I've seen air-conditioners running non-stop in ministers' houses...) and an effective load management system, before Pakistan plunges into the darkness again. Huma Imtiaz works as a correspondent for the Pakistani newspaper Express Tribune and the news channel Express News. She is based in Washington, DC. By Shamila N. Chaudhary Pakistani Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh resigned last week - a curious move since the government will soon dissolve in the coming weeks after it announces a date for national elections. It has been speculated that he left because of economic policy disagreements with the government, but Shaikh himself told several sources that he left because he is under consideration for the post of caretaker prime minister. If so, he joins a well-respected group of professionals considered for the post; Supreme Court Bar Association President Asma Jehangir, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) politician Raza Rabbani and former Supreme Court justice Nasir Aslam Zahid are among the names that have already floated. The caretaker prime minister will assume charge of an interim government as soon as the PPP coalition announces an election date, at which point the caretakers have up to ninety days to govern before elections. Much ado has been made about the candidates and the process to set up a caretaker government, perhaps even more than the elections date itself. There are two reasons why such emphasis is warranted: because of its importance to the future of procedural democracy in Pakistan and because of the possible impact on the country's short-term economic stability. First, the current procedure to establish a caretaker government requires agreement between the sitting government and the opposition, as mandated by the historic 20th amendment passed in 2012. Given the acrimonious past the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) share, this is no small feat. So far the two sides seem to be committed to cooperation, if not full reconciliation. In the event the participants cannot reach agreement on a candidate - still a very real possibility - the 20th amendment has delineated specific steps to resolve the gridlock. The process would involve each side forwarding two names to a parliamentary committee that includes equal representation from the government and opposition. The committee can then take up to three days to settle on a name. If the committee is also unable to reach agreement, the Election Commission, as the final arbiter, must decide on a candidate within two days. Unique to this process is the required engagement and opposition approval throughout, as well as the finite amount of time allotted for decision-making. The 20th amendment is a truly historic piece of electoral reform legislation that, if implemented correctly, can help begin to course-correct a democracy that has been off the rails since the country's inception. Second, the caretaker government could be leading the charge to reinvigorate discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a new program to help Pakistan manage some of its macroeconomic challenges. Depleting foreign reserves combined with almost $2 billion in loan repayments due to the IMF by May foreshadow tough times ahead. Staying afloat remains too dependent upon uncontrollable factors such as lower oil prices, remittances from overseas Pakistanis staying at record high levels, and external aid like the U.S. Coalition Support Funds program, which periodically helps to offset low revenue generation elsewhere. The Pakistani government has plenty of credible and internationally recognized economists who foresaw the current situation as unsustainable, and acknowledged the eventual likelihood of a new IMF program. But the political leadership would not commit to anything before elections. It now appears to believe discussion of such a program can begin through the caretaker leadership, which will likely be comprised of technocrats familiar to the IMF. Moeen Qureshi, a former Vice President of the World Bank who also worked at the International Finance Corporation and IMF, led the 1993 caretaker government that assumed charge between the tenures of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Former Finance Minister Shaikh, if nominated, would fit into the same category given his World Bank credentials. If, and it is a big "if," the government can get all political parties to agree to the terms of a possible program, the IMF has indicated it would be amendable to some kind of arrangement. This makes the question of who leads the interim setup even more important to Pakistan's short-term economic stability. It must be someone who has the support and backing of all political actors and, to an extent, institutions with vested interests, such as the military, Supreme Court, and business community. Under these circumstances, a caretaker Prime Minister could potentially be a credible go-between for the IMF and a government in transition. There is one obvious challenge - the caretaker government will not be in a position to follow up on or enforce any commitments made by political parties once its tenure is over. Beyond this specific obstacle, there is broader political uncertainty surrounding the potential caretakers. For several months now, political analysts in Pakistan have been warning of indirect military support for the extension of the caretaker government beyond the legally mandated 90-day term, postponing elections indefinitely. While such a scenario is unlikely, the persistent rumors swirling around a possible "soft coup" show the pervasiveness of the military's influence in Pakistani politics. Clearly, no amount of engagement with the opposition, electoral reform or credible technocrats has been able to fully challenge that narrative just yet Shamila N. Chaudhary The current Pakistani government, led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), ends its term on March 18. The government is expected to announce a date for elections before the end of its term. Once the election date is set, the National Assembly will automatically dissolve and a caretaker government will assume charge for up to ninety days before the election. On polling day, Pakistanis will elect 272 representatives to the National Assembly and 577 representatives to provincial assemblies in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Balochistan. The political party that secures 172 seats in the National Assembly, either independently or in coalition with other parties, will lead the next government. Politics is a riddled and opaque game in Pakistan, a point driven home by former politician-turned preacher Tahir-ul Qadri, who despite his absence from Pakistani politics for eight years, was able to lead a 50,000-strong march into Islamabad last month pushing for electoral reforms - and actually won the government's commitment on some counts. Things are about to get even more complicated as the country prepares for national elections. The campaign landscape is littered with the typical coterie of political party stalwarts, children of political dynasties, technocrats, and current and former army generals looking to shape the elections outcome. But three individuals stand out as possible leaders of Pakistan's next government - Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, and Imran Khan. Zardari and Sharif represent the old guard of politics - Zardari the widower of a political dynast and Sharif an industrialist from the country's breadbasket of Punjab. Khan claims to represent a new political wave, seeking to capture the desires of roughly 18 million new voters, young people who grew up watching Khan win cricket matches for the Pakistani national team. The profiles of the three men who would lead Pakistan promise elections that will be as entertaining as they will be historic. Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan and Co-Chairman of the Pakistan People's Party Who is he? Asif Ali Zardari has been a fixture in Pakistani politics since 1987, when he married Benazir Bhutto, the country's first female Prime Minister in 1988 and again in 1993. He hails from Sindh but is originally of Baloch ethnic origin. Because of his complicated past, checkered with imprisonment, exile and allegations of corruption, Zardari was viewed as an "accidental president" when he came into power in 2008 following his wife's assassination. As a result, his emergence as a masterful strategist of a complicated coalition was a surprise to many. He shares the PPP chairmanship with son Bilawal. What does he want? Zardari's presidential term ends in September, several months after the national elections are expected. It is only fair to presume he wants to serve another term as President. The PPP's strength in the Senate, where it won a majority in the March 2012 elections, will help but Zardari won't be able to take home the prize so easily. An electoral college consisting of the Senate, provincial assemblies and the National Assembly actually elect the president. Zardari's chances will be determined by both national and provincial assembly elections taking place this year. He also likely wants to keep benefitting from the financial opportunities available to Pakistani politicians in power. But beyond personal power and money, Zardari also seeks to maintain PPP's strength so that his son, Bilawal, can eventually assume charge and continue the Bhutto family political legacy. Pro: Zardari's number one strength remains his ability to make deals in a tough coalition environment, which is expected to continue in the next government. Whether it was meeting Muttahida Quami Movement demands to reverse fuel price hikes in order to stay in the coalition, the unanimous passage of the historic 18th amendment devolving power to the provinces, or re-opening NATO routes closed after a NATO airstrike killed several Pakistani soldiers, he wasn't too proud to beg to get what he wanted. Con: Everyone seems to be working against him. Among his "enemies" are the military, judiciary, opposition parties, the Saudis - and the list goes on. Another five years of Zardari could also mean another five years of attempts to unseat him with corruption cases at the Supreme Court, soft coup attempts by the military, and gridlock on economic reform. Nawaz Sharif, President of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz Who is he? Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is the President of the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N). A former two-time Prime Minister, Sharif is also a Punjab-based industrialist whose family's real estate and agriculture holdings are valued at over $100 million. Like Zardari, he has strained ties with the military and judiciary, institutions that aided his eventual ouster in 1999, ironic since Sharif got his start under military dictator General Zia-ul Haq in the 1980s. His two tenures as Prime Minister (1990-1993 and 1997-1999) each straddled the governments of Benazir Bhutto, making for an intense rivalry between the PML-N and PPP that continues to this day, despite recent collaboration between the two parties. What does he want? The third time's the charm - or at least Sharif hopes. Another go at Prime Minister would not only allow Sharif to make history - no one else has held the position three times - but it would also bring him back into the mainstream political fold. After Musharraf removed him from power in 1999, Sharif remained in political exile in Saudi Arabia until 2007. Since then, under his leadership the PML-N opposition has criticized the current government's policies but within apparently self-imposed boundaries, probably to avoid being viewed as "derailing democracy" at a time when disruptions to civilian rule are extremely unpopular. Pro: Sharif brings along with him the most organized party structure in the country. Even though it lacks the national base that PPP boasts, the PML-N has focused on improving internal governance, strengthening development projects in key constituencies, identifying electable candidates to run on the PML-N ticket, and engaging new young and middle class voters. Con:He talks to terrorists - sort of. One of the largest vote banks for the right of center PML-N is southern Punjab, a hotbed of violent extremist activity in madrassas run by jihadist and sectarian outfits such as Sipah-e-Sihaba Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Muhammad, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The PML-N cannot ignore the massive base these groups yield in Punjab, which elects 148 out of 272 National Assembly members. In 2010, PML-N Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah reportedly visited the Sipah-e-Sihaba madrassa and met with its leader while campaigning in by-elections. Such relations suggest that a PML-N-led government could be more inclined to offer unsavory characters various concessions in exchange for votes, keeping the peace or achieving other objectives for that matter. Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Who is he? Imran Khan is a former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, philanthropist, and now chairman of his own political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). His claim to represent a new style of politics is somewhat disingenuous. He follows a long line of South Asian celebrities turned politicians whose personage offers unquestionable advantages in an otherwise complicated political landscape. But his popular appeal is legitimate. Khan has managed to deliver thousands of people at numerous countrywide rallies around the 2013 elections despite the fact that PTI only ever held one seat in the National Assembly.. What does he want? The PTI's meteoric rise in popularity over the past couple of years has raised suspicions that it enjoys some kind of support from the security establishment, and therefore would simply serve as a mouthpiece for military interests in domestic and foreign affairs. But a simpler answer is perhaps more logical - that Khan has truly tapped into a desire for change in Pakistan, similar to the circumstances surrounding the Qadri march on Islamabad in January, and is keen to see how far it will take him. Pro: Khan's call for an overhaul of status quo politics in Pakistan is a welcome one, particularly among urban, educated middle class voters in Punjab. The party manifesto calls for an end to "VIP culture" in Pakistan, noting that corruption at the highest levels has made democratic institutions "the focus of public scorn and ridicule." It is hard to disagree with PTI's message when Pakistan consistently ranks among the world's most corrupt nations. Con: Despite PTI's existence as a party for almost sixteen years now, both the party's manifesto and its leader are untested. Rumors of its internal leadership challenges, weak presence at the provincial level, and Khan's periodic media stunts (i.e. the march to Waziristan), should raise questions about PTI's ability to deliver on its ambitious agenda for change. As the competition between Zardari, Sharif and Khan unfolds over the next several months, other personalities and institutions will also contend to shape and influence the electoral outcome. Let's not forget the likes of Tahir-ul Qadri, activist Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the military, and even the media, all of whom have a say in who leads the next government. In a place where personalities dominate politics, Zardari, Sharif and Khan clearly stand out, but vested interests combined with the rise of new forces of change can put a serious spanner in the works John Podesta and Caroline Wadhams As Afghan President Hamid Karzai visits Washington to discuss a bilateral strategic agreement between the United States and Afghanistan, policymakers and the public are debating the pace of troop drawdown and the residual force post-2014, when the security handover to Afghan authorities finishes. Missing from these discussions is a focus on the political and economic transitions underway in Afghanistan - areas that will serve as greater determinants of Afghan stability than whether there are zero, 4,000, or 9,000 U.S. troops. Politics ultimately drive the Afghan conflict, and its resolution will require a broader political consensus and stronger economic foundation than currently exists. President Karzai's visit offers an opportunity for the Obama administration, members of Congress and others to drill down and express support for a number of political and economic priorities, which could assist in strengthening the legitimacy and competence of the Afghan state as the United States and NATO drawdown. The current Afghan state is deeply flawed and has alienated many Afghans due to its exclusive and predatory nature. The constitutional system, which vests great power in the hands of the executive without real checks and balances, lends itself to abuses of authority. Officials often use formal state institutions to support their patronage networks, fueling high levels of corruption, cronyism, and nepotism on the national and local levels. What's more, the dependency of the Afghan government and its security forces on high levels of international assistance for the foreseeable future, especially in a time of global austerity, threatens to undermine a sustainable transition. Creating a stronger political consensus and a more solid economic foundation for the Afghan state will be required for long-term stability in Afghanistan. In their meetings with President Karzai and his team, senior U.S. officials must state their expectations about these political and economic processes, clarifying that long-term security support is contingent on Afghan progress on these efforts. Expectations should include the following: First, a free, fair, inclusive and transparent presidential election is required in which President Karzai transfers power to a legitimately elected successor. President Karzai must work to ensure that the electoral bodies, including the Independent Electoral Commission and an electoral complaints mechanism are independent and credible. The United States hopes to see parliamentary approval of the electoral laws and the implementation of a plan to ensure a successful election. Second, the United States supports an inclusive political reconciliation process, led by Afghans. The United States supports outreach by President Karzai to more Afghan stakeholders, including the political opposition, women, and civil society groups, in addition to Taliban insurgents. The United States and Afghanistan should create a bilateral mechanism to coordinate their peacemaking, public statements regarding negotiations and outreach to stakeholders, as well as to establish a venue, where representatives of the parties to the conflict can meet outside of Afghanistan or Pakistan to discuss a political settlement. Third, the United States remains committed to the agreements made at the Tokyo conference in July 2012 by the Afghan government and the international community. In addition to agreeing to provide $16 billion in civilian assistance through 2015, the international community committed to improving the effectiveness of its aid, aligning its assistance with Afghan priority programs, and providing more aid through the Afghan government's budget rather than through outside contractors. However, the disbursements of these dollars depends on the Afghan government progressing on its own commitments, including: allowing for the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission and other civil society organizations to function freely, the implementation of the Elimination of Violence Against Women Law and the National Action Plan for Women enforcement of the legal framework for combating corruption and annual asset declarations of senior public officials asset recovery and accountability for those responsible for the Kabul Bank crisis the implementation of the Public Financial Management Plan and improvement of the management of public funds improvement of Afghan budget execution the development of a provincial budgeting process Fourth, the United States supports the development of Afghanistan's mineral sector, in a way that benefits the Afghan population and not a select few. While Afghanistan is already a candidate member of the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Karzai administration should develop an Extractive Industries Development Framework that governs Afghanistan's natural wealth through an "accountable, efficient and transparent mechanism which builds upon and surpasses international best practices", as agreed to in Tokyo. The Ministry of Mines should continue to engage with civil society in order to increase transparency in the mining sector and to respond to the needs of communities affected by mining. The Obama administration must focus on political and economic priorities during President Karzai's visit. Military aspects-troop numbers, training of the Afghan forces, and financial support to the security services-won'tbe enough to ensure Afghanistan's security and stability over the long term. Leaving behind an unprepared and expensive force to battle an insurgency that NATO has struggled to contain is more likely to create instability than lasting security. Instead, U.S. efforts must be focused on building a more sustainable Afghan state. John Podesta is Chairman and Caroline Wadhams is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. By Shuja Nawaz With a second term assured, President Barack Obama has a shot at making a huge difference in greater South Asia, an opportunity that he failed to take in his first term. This may now be the time for a new hyphenation across the map of that critical part of the globe: bringing together a string of countries ranging from Iran, through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to Bangladesh. For this may be the center of gravity of Asian stability and growth in the next couple of decades, if the United States and its partners get their policies right. But first, the President needs to create a center of gravity for decision making on this region in his own Administration, reaching across the aisle and bringing in new blood to rejuvenate his efforts to bring peace. Then he must help create a network among the nations of this region that is based on their own self-interests and from which the United States would profit immeasurably. The President could use the emerging forces of democracy, gender equality, and civilian supremacy rather than military might as the catalysts for change in the region. No carrots or sticks, but moral suasion, applied quietly and confidently to help these countries build confidence amongst themselves. India is perhaps the most critical part of this new opportunity. Under a Prime Minister who has dared to think of peace and normalcy even with arch enemy Pakistan, India needs to be encouraged to open its borders to its neighbors for trade and travel, opening far wider the door that has been cracked open in recent months. A paranoid Pakistan that fears hot borders on the east and the west could be helped to get over its concerns. Pakistan must recognize that it is in its own interest to create normalcy with its neighbors, for it cannot afford to continue on the path of military or economic competition, especially with India. Rather, it can catapult its economy to new heights by becoming a regional partner. The United States could also bring together support for strengthening Pakistan's recent overtures to all Afghans, not just the contiguous Pakhtuns, whom Pakistan wrongly saw in the past as its assets.. There are signs that Pakistan is prepared to let Afghanistan be Afghanistan. Much could be done to support that trend by helping open trade and power (gas and hydroelectricity) routes to central Asia. In both these countries, civil society and civilian governments are the key to progress and stability. Pluralism, gender equality, education, and health may be the foundation stones to help them gain their footing as democracies. This means shifting the focus of expenditures from guns to butter over time. The United States has a great position in that regard, as a strategic partner to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India for the time in history. It can also open the door to engagement with Iran by bringing Iran back to the table on Afghanistan's future stability. By helping create regional ownership for Afghanistan's future it can find a way to exit gracefully from the region. India, again, will be key in creating transparency in its relations with Afghanistan to help Pakistan overcome its suspicions of being hemmed in on both sides. The region has been ready for some time to create an atmosphere of trust, though much remains to be done on the issues of cross-border terrorism and non-state actors. Civil society groups have startedbenefiting from the opening of trade relations and visa regimes. The current limited transit trade arrangements need to be extended from Kabul to Dhaka. The cross pollination of ideas -- especially among the burgeoning youthful populations of the region - and the greater involvement of women in their societies, will help ensure that there is no slipping back toward obscurantist thinking of the past. Those positive trends are growing and cannot be turned back, come what may. President Obama can ride these emerging waves to truly earn his Nobel Prize of four years ago by helping bring lasting peace to greater South Asia. Perhaps he could start by visiting two border posts in the first few months of his second term: Wagah, where India meets Pakistan, and Torkham, where Afghanistan and Pakistan meet, and calling for keeping the gates that now close daily to remain open forever. This would be a grand legacy for the 44th president of the United States. Shuja Nawaz is director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council. By Alex Thier Driving north from Mazar-i-Sharif, in Northern Afghanistan, to the Uzbek border last week was a revelation. I first lived in Mazar in 1993, while I worked for the International Organization for Migration assisting Afghan refugees returning to northern and central Afghanistan. Back then, the roadway was decrepit and insecure, and travelers feared to veer from the roadbed due to landmines. Recently, as USAID's senior-most representative focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan, I met with key leaders and observing the impact of USAID projects. This corridor of infrastructure and commerce, includes not only a new road, but a railroad line (Afghanistan's first!) and new electricity transmission lines that supply cheap, reliable power to much of the north and Kabul. A new customs facility at the border is also generating greater trade - and collecting more revenue for the Afghan government. There is a virtuous cycle of security, commerce, investment, confidence and good governance building in the north that shows what a successful Afghanistan can look like. This virtuous cycle is essential to stability post-2014, and must be reinforced and replicated. Here is some of what we saw. First stop: the Hairatan Customs Depot. Trucks and trains from Uzbekistan first arrive in Afghanistan at the Hairatan Customs Depot, where shippers enter their data online, and government officials review their shipments and forms, determine the value of the goods and the tax rate, and begin tracking shipments to ensure they arrive safely at their destinations. With the help of USAID's technical experts, customs officials have streamlined the process from 26 to 16 steps, cutting processing time by 40% and removing opportunities for corruption. These steps alone are estimated to have increased revenues over $7.5 million in the last year. An increasing portion of shipments coming across the border move to the next stop -- the Naibabad Railroad Depot - via Afghanistan's first railroad. Here, shipments from Central Asia and Russia - wood, flour, steel, and cooking oil - are loaded onto trucks headed for markets and consumers in Mazar and Kabul. On average, Afghan customs officials collect $1,000 per shipment for every shipment worth $15,000 - resources that are making the Afghan government more self-sustaining. Down the road, at the Gorimar Industrial Park, we went to a soy processing plant and an oxygen tank production facility. With support from USAID and USDA, Afghans are processing soy beans into soy flour and edible oil and using the by-product for high-protein animal feed. We watched some of this feed being loaded for export to Uzbekistan. Next door, oxygen tanks - once only imported from neighboring countries - are now produced locally and sold to hospitals in Mazar for 40 percent of the cost just a few months ago. The oxygen factory is an Afghan private investment. Finally, our last stop of the day - the Balkh Diary Plant, is a cooperative owned and self-sustaining business located in the center of Mazar that produces milk, yogurt, butter, and cheese. USAID has been working to increase the milk yield with local dairy producers - mostly women with 1-2 animals. These efforts have been so successful, increasing milk yields five-fold, that they now have excess milk to sell to the factory. The plant can produce 8,000 half-liter bags of milk per day, each sold for 15-20 Afghanis, and pays approximately 800 farmers to supply milk to the plant, creating a profitable enterprise that is getting resources directly into the hands of Afghan farmers and milk and export grade yogurt into the hands of Afghan consumers at higher quality and lower price. Afghans have the capacity, will, and resources to create regional hubs of commerce that will carry the economy, fund their government, employ their youth, positively engage their neighbors, and feed their population. Problems of local governance and corruption are hurdles to this dynamic, but the primary constraint at the moment is insecurity as illustrated by the horrific and senseless bombing that targeted Eid celebrants near Mazar in Faryab province last week. Improving governance and the economic environment are essential to further progress and to attracting the private sector investment critical to sustain this momentum. Given the inherent challenges of the transition through 2014, getting the Afghan people to see and embrace the demonstrable progress they've made as a society is essential. It is critical to engage the population around the vision of sustaining these investments - and the progress in the north provides an important window into what that looks like. Alex Thier is the Assistant to the Administrator for the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs at the U.S. Agency for International Development. By Stephen Tankel In February 2011, Pakistan and India resumed formal peace talks, which New Delhi had broken off following the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Although the peace process has sparked cautious optimism among analysts, all of the core issues between the two countries remain and several new ones may be emerging. Moreover, the wounds of Mumbai have yet to heal fully and can still infect the peace process. This was evident when India took custody of Zabiuddin Ansari, an Indian jihadist who joined Lashkar-e-Taiba and played a pivotal role in those attacks. A previous post employed his story to examine the jihadist threats facing India and the role official Pakistani support is believed to play in them. The aim here is to address the impact, if any, on India-Pakistan relations. Ansari was arrested by Saudi authorities in May 2011, but handed over to India only days prior to last week's bilateral meeting between the countries' foreign secretaries. Indian officials took pains to make clear that Ansari's capture (specifically) and Pakistan's failure to curb terrorism (in general) would not derail the planned meeting. The two sides did make slow progress on several economic issues and it is arguable that for some time the greatest barriers to action on that front have been internal and bureaucratic rather than geopolitical. This should be cause for cautious optimism. Read another way, however, it is emblematic of the limited expectations for this process, the enormous hurdles to be overcome, the delicate balance each side must strike in terms of how to engage, and the domestic dynamics in each country that further complicate the process. It's helpful to recall that previous attempts at normalizing relations focused too heavily either on engagements at the bureaucratic level or personal initiatives by political leaders. This current phase has sought to combine both approaches, initially aiming to make parallel progress on economic engagement as well as the more intractable problems of settling Kashmir, demobilizing the Siachen Glacier, or satisfying New Delhi's demands for an end to Pakistani support for anti-India militancy. This approach of de-linking economic engagement from normalization on political and security issues in the short term has merit to the degree that the former can be used to built trust and create space for the peace camps that exist in both countries. But it is not without drawbacks, particularly in terms of the potential for mismatched timing and objectives. To date, the slow progress made has come mainly in the area of economic integration. The Pakistan Army, which still largely controls foreign policy, remains leery of incremental talks that could enable India, the status quo power in Kashmir, to consolidate an economic relationship without budging on territorial disputes. Moreover, although the government in Pakistan is incredibly enfeebled at the moment, such integration could empower either of the main civilian political parties - the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) - in the event that one of them wins the next election, to wrest at least some power from the military. Nevertheless, given Pakistan's struggling economy, strained relations with the United States and failure of its all-weather ally, China, to ride to the financial rescue, the Army is more prepared than in the past to endorse economic engagement with India. Yet, various members of the Pakistani security establishment maintain that settling territorial disputes cannot take a backseat to such engagement for too long. Once the United States draws down from Afghanistan, there is likely to be a refocusing within Pakistan's security establishment on its neighbor to the east. In the meantime, and as discussed in the previous post, the Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) appear to be attempting to restrain Lashkar-e-Taiba from launching another terrorist spectacular along the lines of Mumbai. However, there is no indication that state support for that group or the indigenous jihadist movement in India has ceased. Lashkar's amir Hafiz Saeed continues to enjoy a public pulpit, from which he has declared the mujahideen will resume a "full-scale armed jihad" in Kashmir once the Afghan war is resolved. And on this most recent visit, Pakistan's foreign secretary made a point of meeting with Kashmiri separatists from the Hurriyat Conference the day prior to engaging with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made no secret of his desire for a breakthrough with Pakistan or his desire to accept an invitation to make an official visit to the land of his birth. But he also has acknowledged that, "a visit to Pakistan that does not bear fruit would be of no use," meaning that an agreement on at least one core issue is perceived as necessary in order to make such a trip viable. Resolving a boundary dispute in Sir Creek, located between Singh in Pakistan and Gujarat in India, is arguably the easiest of the core issues to resolve, and the two sides were scheduled to discuss it in May. Shortly before, Pakistan cancelled the talks with no explanation, though the conventional wisdom was that it sought to force progress on Siachen Glacier first. The two sides are further apart on this issue and there is significant opposition within the Indian military, which holds the high ground, to any compromise on it. So it was no surprise when the talks dealing with Siachen in mid-June came to naught. In lieu of progress on any territorial issues and without much expectation that the Pakistani security establishment will make a significant attempt to dismantle the militant infrastructure, New Delhi is happy to pursue "progress" on issues such as economic integration. As several Indian officials and diplomats sought to make clear to the author, this is not the same as normalization, which they claim can only occur if Pakistan ends its support for jihadist militants who target India. To that end, while pursuing "progress," India also has sought to exert maximum pressure on Pakistan vis-à-vis terrorism. This approach demands a delicate balance and it is sometimes difficult to determine the degree to which it is carefully calibrated or the result of differing views within the Indian government. Thus, while the Indian external affairs minister was trying to play down the impact of Pakistani inaction against the Mumbai planners and promising the issue would not hold the dialogue hostage, the home minister was holding a press conference in which he proclaimed Ansari's allegations proved Mumbai could not have happened without state support. A month earlier, the Indian home minister, P Chidambaram, declined a Pakistani request to travel to Islamabad to sign a much-awaited liberalized visa agreement as a way of sending the message that Pakistan needed to take action against all of those involved in the Mumbai attacks. Ansari has not provided any major new insights into those attacks, but he nevertheless provides India with additional means to pressure Pakistan because of his intimate involvement in planning Mumbai and presence in the control room during the operation. He has reaffirmed much of what was suspected, including the involvement of the same two officers believed to belong to the ISI that David Headley, who conducted reconnaissance for the attacks, identified in his testimony to Indian investigators. Despite these revelations, Islamabad still insists New Delhi has not provided usable information. Yet, plausible deniability only works as a policy if the denials are in fact plausible. Pakistan's increasingly are not, and its failure to commit fully to prosecuting all of the alleged perpetrators is becoming another major stumbling block to normalizing relations. A conviction of the seven Lashkar members currently on trial is far from certain, and even were it to occur, India has shown no indication that this alone would be an acceptable outcome. New Delhi has said publicly that Pakistani action against all of those involved in the Mumbai attacks - especially Hafiz Saeed and the two aforementioned ISI officers - would be the "biggest confidence-building measure of all." Privately, Indian diplomats go further and assert that this has become a de facto litmus test regarding the Pakistani security establishment's willingness to end its support for Lashkar. New Delhi has already won its case in the court of public opinion. Unlike in the 1990s, when Washington and New Delhi held politically disparate positions regarding Pakistani support for militancy, today they are united both on their acceptance of the problem and their inability to find a solution to it. Ultimately, two things must happen for Pakistan's behavior to change. First, the real costs - direct and indirect - of supporting groups like Lashkar must be understood to outweigh the (mis)perceived utility they provide geopolitically and domestically. Second, those who already recognize this is the case must take control of the country's security policy. Bilateral progress between India and Pakistan, even short of a normalization of relations, is an essential component in this regard. It has the potential to bring real economic benefits to people on both sides of the border and in doing so to begin reshaping the environment. But it will remain a slow process and one beset by numerous challenges - foreign and domestic, political and bureaucratic. On its own, Ansari's deportation to India prior to the foreign secretaries meeting was a bump in the road, and the information he provided in the days that followed is unlikely to have taken any of the key players on either side by surprise. This in and of itself, however, is a symptom of just how far the two countries have to go and the way in which new issues, like Mumbai, can make overcoming those that are already difficult to surmount all the more difficult. In the meantime, containing the threat from Pakistani militants will require the type of international coordination, described in the next post, that led to Ansari's capture and deportation. Stephen Tankel is an assistant professor at American University and a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He recently returned from an extended research trip to South Asia examining internal security issues and is spending the summer at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as a public policy scholar. By Gayle Tzemach Lemmon Americans are not alone in worrying that their economic futures are headed in the wrong direction. Afghans, too, fear that the next several years will bring a business tailspin that will see recent gains eked out by small and medium companies dissolve amid security woes and a sharp pullback in international largesse and, of course, foreign forces. The "light of a new day" may be "on the horizon," as President Obama announced this May from Bagram Air Base, but Afghan entrepreneurs want to make sure their start-ups survive the changes that will accompany whatever comes next. This Thursday 50 such business-owners, 12 women among them, will gather at an investment conference in New Delhi hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industries with support from the Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs in India (CWEI). The goal is to promote private sector investment in Afghan firms that will increasingly be seen as growth anchors for their country going forward. Companies descending on India this week in search of dollars range from big mining entities to smaller but growing entities including software, carpet-making, and media ventures. Outside Afghanistan few may think of the war-plagued nation as a small-business or start-up hub, but the resourcefulness of the dogged entrepreneurs I have covered these past seven years matches that of any I have interviewed in other countries, rich or poor. Afghan businessmen and women will need every bit of this determination as they confront the uncertainty of the coming years. And it is in America's and NATO's interests that they succeed. As President Obama noted at Bagram, "Americans are tired of war," and the military intervention in Afghanistan has plunged to new depths of unpopularity in the latest public opinion polls. But economic development is critical to promoting stability and U.S. security interests, and it is essential to making the President's laudable idea of bringing a "responsible end" to America's longest war more than just empty words. Research shows that negative economic shocks of five percent can increase the risk of a civil war by 50 percent in fragile environments . Bolstering entrepreneurs, particularly those running small- and medium-size enterprises, is part of fostering lasting growth that is in both Afghanistan and America's best interest. Despite remaining on the list of the world's poorest nations, Afghanistan has logged economic successes and macroeconomic stability on which to build. The country's GDP has more than tripled in the last decade, averaging around nine percent a year, with notable gains in infrastructure, telecommunications, and financial and business services. The Ministry of Communications recently began awarding 3G licenses to cellular phone companies and internet usage is expected to climb as technology improves and prices drop. Mobile phone penetration has leapt from less than one percent in 2001 to well above 60 percent today. And business growth has not been limited to large firms. Small companies have cropped up across sectors, creating desperately needed jobs in a country whose unemployment rate is estimated at well above forty percent. The non-governmental organization Building Markets, which ran a business matchmaking service that helped Afghan firms learn of and apply for international contracts, counted 3,400 companies in its business database in 2008. By 2012 that number had climbed to 8,300, with nearly 300 owned by women. According to the World Bank's "Doing Business" report, Afghanistan ranks 30th among 183 economies when it comes to the ease of starting a business, requiring four procedures and seven days to register a firm. Training programs such as the International Finance Corporation's "Business Edge," Goldman Sachs' "10,000 Women," and Bpeace's "Fast Runners" now work with entrepreneurs seeking management and marketing training. And Afghan export promotion officials proudly point to recent wins marketing their carpets and dried fruits and nuts to consumers in Europe and the Middle East. Yet bad news and economic question marks threaten to swamp the small steps forward. In 2010, Afghanistan's economy received nearly the same amount in foreign aid as it counted in GDP, and the assistance tsunami, often routed around the rickety central government rather than through it, has hardly helped to bolster the country's already weak institutions. Graft remains rampant: Afghanistan shared the next-to-last spot with Myanmar in Transparency International's 2011 "Corruption Perceptions Index." Meanwhile, the trade deficit looks to top $6 billion and fiscal health remains shaky at best, with estimates suggesting government revenues will cover only 60 percent of the Afghan operating budget in 2013. President Obama pledged in the Strategic Partnership Agreement he signed with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai that the United States "shall help strengthen Afghanistan's economic foundation and support sustainable development." This promise was not made simply because America is a benevolent power, but because an economically stable and increasingly prosperous Afghanistan connected to the world is good for the United States. It will soon be up to Congress to decide how much continued economic aid and development assistance to offer Afghanistan, and the temptation will be great to follow the Iraq example of ever-smaller requests met by even smaller authorizations. But shoving Afghanistan off the economic edge would be both short-sighted and counter-productive. As the World Bank noted recently, "international experience and Afghanistan's own history show that an abrupt cutoff in aid can lead to fiscal crisis, loss of control over the security sector, collapse of political authority, and possibly civil war." America may be drawing down troops and withdrawing militarily from Afghanistan, but the Afghan entrepreneurs gathering this week in India remain worthy of U.S. support and investment. They are allies in the American quest to bring "sustainable stability" to a country and a region that desperately need it. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. By Nigel Inkster The May 20 NATO summit in Chicago was dominated by the issue of Afghanistan. Amidst all the talk about withdrawing international combat troops by 2014, funding the Afghan National Security Forces beyond 2014, and a doubtful political settlement with the Taliban, one subject was absent from the formal agenda: drugs. Debate may continue for years as to whether the Western intervention in Afghanistan has made the world safer or more insecure in the post-9/11 era. But it has not only done nothing to reduce global supplies of illicit opium; rather, it has made the problem worse. The boom years for Afghan poppy cultivation began in the 1970s, thanks to political instability in Southeast Asia's fertile 'Golden Triangle' and bans on the crop in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. The Soviet invasion in late 1979 gave local warlords an incentive to plant opium poppies to fund their insurgency against Moscow. In the three decades since, with few other sources of income, opium production has come to provide for up to half a million Afghan households. The poppy is a hardy, drought-resistant plant, much easier for farmers to grow than saffron and more profitable than wheat. Both have been offered as alternative crops, but with only limited take-up. The criminal networks that have sprung up around the drugs trade provide farmers with seeds, fertiliser and cash loans; in short they offer an alternative welfare system. The principal growing regions, the southern Pashtun-dominated provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, are also Taliban strongholds. For all these reasons, NATO efforts to eradicate opium - either by aerial spraying or manually- have alienated the population. Indeed, they have often had to be abandoned in the face of popular resistance. Crop disease did more to reduce opium production in 2010 than NATO's counter-narcotics strategy. The United Nations recently reported there had been a 61 percent rebound in opium production in 2011, and prices were soaring. This is a worrying trend, which seems set to continue after NATO troops leave. Drug seizures, while rising, still account for less than 5% of opium produced. As a general rule, the United Nations estimates, law-enforcement agencies need to interdict about 70% of supplies to make the drugs trade less financially attractive to traffickers and dealers. In any circumstances, this is an extremely challenging objective. In the large swathes of Afghanistan where the central government and security forces wield no control, it is completely unrealistic. Meanwhile, no major trafficker has yet successfully been prosecuted due to a widespread culture of impunity. Alternative approaches have been proposed. Most recently, in May 2012, Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rakhimov proposed that opium should be purchased directly from Afghan farmers to either be used in the pharmaceutical industry or to be destroyed. He also called on other countries to do the same in a move he deemed essential to fight drug trafficking and narcotics-fuelled terrorism. But this option was tried in 2002 when the United Kingdom had the lead on narcotics reduction, and had to be abandoned in the face of evidence that the purchasing programme constituted a perverse incentive to increase production. Licit production of opium for medical purposes may be a long-term option for Afghanistan, but not while current conditions of high insecurity and pervasive corruption persist. In the West, the drugs scourge is mostly thought about in terms of the lives lost, opportunities wasted and the social disruption created through addiction. In fragile and impoverished nations such as Afghanistan, drugs create a shadow state, fuelling institutional corruption, instability, violence and human misery. The Taliban, which banned the planting of opium in 2001, was deriving an estimated U.S. $125 million per year from the business by 2009. It has been an equally important revenue stream for former warlords whose inclusion in the administration of President Hamid Karzai NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has done little to oppose. Such individuals have a powerful vested interest in state weakness to the obvious detriment of good governance and institution-building. And all these actors are likely to maximise revenues from opium production in the run-up to the 2014 NATO/ISAF drawdown to hedge against an uncertain future. A trade in which so many have vested interests will never be unwound simply or swiftly. What drives it is its huge profitability, a consequence of continuing Western demand. No-one can confidently predict the consequences of changing the drugs prohibition regime. The current approach has not achieved the 1961 Single Convention's objectives. But has had the unintended consequence of perpetuating and increasing corruption and instability in parts of the world least equipped to deal with the consequences. Perhaps our collective experience in Afghanistan should serve as the basis for a serious rethink of global drugs policy? This would involve a cost/benefit analysis of current policies, scenario planning of the impact of alternative approaches and a much greater focus on demand reduction in consumer states. The issue of narcotics needs to be taken out of the silo it currently inhabits and looked at in the wider context of international security and development. By Aisha Chowdhry Recent months have seen unprecedented progress on trade relations between India and Pakistan. Last November, Pakistan granted India "most favored nation" (MFN) status, fifteen years after India added Pakistan to its MFN list. On April 13, India announced that it would allow foreign direct investment (FDI) from Pakistan. And on the same day, a historic integrated checkpoint opened at the Attari-Wagah border crossing, which will allow commercial traffic and trade to flow between the two countries. Additionally, Pakistan has replaced its positive list allowing only 2,000 different items to be imported from India with a negative list that bans just 1,209 goods, but allows all others. Currently, this list prohibits trade of items in industries such as agriculture, chemicals, and ceramics, but the Pakistani government pledged to phase out the negative list by the end of this year, thus allowing all Indian goods into Pakistan. Some in Pakistan welcome the normalization of trade relations between India and Pakistan, while others are skeptical of how it may pan out. Chaudhry Azhar's family has been a wholesaler of bananas and mangoes for over 30 years, a tradition Azhar continues today at Lahore's largest vegetable and fruit market, Badami Bagh Mandi. "This trade agreement will affect us a lot," he says. "India is giving subsidies to all items, such as free electricity. Our farmers will be at a loss and India will benefit from us. We cannot compete with their subsidies." Opening the border to Indian crops that are supported by large subsidies might put Pakistani farmers at a disadvantage, but some traders are grateful for the option of importing a better product from their neighbors. Among the bustling sounds of vendors hawking their wares, one of Azhar's employees, Haji Mohammad Akram, proudly shows the bananas that have come from India, and compares them to the ones from Pakistan that have rotted due to bad weather. Increasing the ease with which the two countries can trade will allow vendors to be more selective with their products. Most business owners agree that bilateral trade will only be effective if Pakistan imports goods that they don't have, though. Saleem Khan brings oranges, apples, and grapes from Balochistan to sell in Lahore. But he says, "We imported oranges from Iran even when Pakistan had supplies of it. The Government benefits the exporters of other countries and hurts the local farmers." Wholesalers worry that India's larger, more powerful economy will allow it to export goods that Pakistan already produces, such as bananas and oranges. But there appears to be an understanding that India might be able to provide goods and services that are sorely lacking in Pakistan. Nadeem Kambo, a broker at the market who favors the trade between India and Pakistan, suggests getting electricity from India. He says, "If we do not get items that we need from other countries, then what do we have here?" Similarly, the President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce, Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, supports trade between regional and bordering countries but understands the reservations and concerns brought by local business owners. "We are not in favor of opening trade at the cost of our industries," says Sheikh. The biggest impact of some of the potential trade policies will be on the farmers that grow the crop and sell it to the wholesalers. Mohammad Qasim, a wholesaler of onions and potatoes says, "This will affect our farmers a lot. If we look at it from a trading perspective, we will get something in return of giving something. We should get the things that the farmers need in return for what we give them." At the Lahore Chamber of Commerce, Sheikh says they have done their homework on the matter, but he also understands that the Government needs to address the key concerns and take an active role in the normalization of trade relations in order to move forward on an even playing field with India. "We really need to address all core issues once and for all to achieve the desired results." Mian Anjum Nisar, a local manufacturer, believes some Pakistani industries, such as home textiles and certain raw materials that are not available in India, would benefit from expanding trade relations. Faisalabad is known for its competitive producers of cotton and textiles, which would undoubtedly find eager markets for their products in India. However, Nisar worries that Pakistan as a whole may not be able to benefit in the long run. "India's scale of economy is far bigger than ours." Nisar says. He also says that the difference in the tariffs levied by India and those levied by Pakistan will also play a big role. Currently, India's peak tariff on Pakistani goods stands at 8%, while Pakistan has placed 25% tariff fee on Indian goods. Under the Trade Liberalization Plan (TLP) of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), India and Pakistan must bring tariffs down to between zero and five percent this year. In order for Pakistan to meet that deadline, the 25% tariff would need to be cut quickly and dramatically, which would likely come as a dangerous shock to the domestic manufacturing industry. Tariffs are not the only challenge, though. India's non-tariff barriers are widely recognized as significant impediments to efficient, cost-effective trade. Sheikh sees this as a major concern in moving ahead with bilateral trade. He says, "India has got to remove the non-tariff barriers that they have imposed on Pakistan." Non-tariff barriers are non-monetary policies that raise the risk or cost of exporting goods to a country. India has, for example, certain standard approval laboratories where certificates must be issued to goods before they can clear the border. This procedure is lengthy, and the rejection of just one product can endanger an entire consignment. Haris Naseer, the Director of Marketing at Infotech, an IT company based in Pakistan, considers logistics and visa requirements to be his main concerns, while having more items available for import from India will be beneficial. "In the technology industry, since there is not as much of a physical movement of goods, and due to the new visa requirements, it will be easier to move resources from one country to another." Under the revised visa requirements, businesspersons can be granted multiple-entry visas, and permission to visit up to five different cities. Previous business visas for citizens of India and Pakistan required extensive paperwork, and only allowed visa-holders to visit three cities. The traders in Lahore are not very optimistic about the prospects of normalizing trade relations with India, though many acknowledged the potential benefits of such a development if it is done the right way. Pakistani authorities will need to address this apprehension in order to get the critical support of small businesses in their effort to reopen economic borders with their neighbors. Aisha Chowdhry is a freelance journalist, born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. She has covered stories from Afghanistan and Pakistan for USA Today, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and The New York Times among other publications. You can follow her on Twitter @ aishach By Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Since NATO's Lisbon summit in November 2010, debate has raged over the decision to draw-down troops from Afghanistan by 2014. And in less than a month, NATO is to hold its 25th heads of state summit in Chicago on 20th May. Unsurprisingly, among the summit's major themes will be the seemingly intractable Afghan question, controversy over which has continued with increasingly ferocious attacks by militants - the synchronised 18-hour assault on Kabul on April 16 being an outstanding example - along with persistently strained U.S.-Pakistani relations since NATO airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November. But rather than endlessly debating troop numbers - whose link to stability is at the least exceedingly unclear - NATO allies would be better off focusing on how to maximise the impact of programs which pave the way for long-term stability by dramatically re-shifting the focus of aid funding from security to development. The full transition of responsibility for Afghanistan's security from NATO to Afghan forces poses deep questions about the efficacy of international intervention and traditional military approaches. For some critics calling for a faster transition to Afghan control, NATO's presence is the problem. Two years ago, NATO Afghan war veteran Lt. Col. Thomas Brouns warned presciently that "the possibility of strategic defeat looms" as "violent incidents" increase in direct proportion to the troop surge. The war is "a losing battle in winning the hearts and minds of nearly 30 million Afghans." Others argue that a quick NATO withdrawal could be a grave mistake, precipitating a downwards spiral into endless civil war - a view expounded last year by the German military, the RAF, and a British government review ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron. Even the Afghan defence minister Abdul Rahim Wardak warned of the potentially catastrophic ramifications of a more abrupt withdrawal - no doubt fearing a Taliban come-back in the wake of the vacuum left behind by NATO's departure. Amidst all the controversy about NATO in Afghanistan, the curious assumption is that the country's stability is somehow purely correlated with troop numbers, rather than underlying socio-economic conditions and political accountability. Indeed, commentators have overlooked the single component of international intervention which has had resounding success - development aid, through Afghanistan's National Solidarity Programme (NSP). Under the programme, the Afghan government disburses grants to village-level elected organisations, Community Development Councils (CDCs), which in turn identify local priorities and implement small-scale development projects. The NSP has reached out to 24,000 villages, mobilising nearly 70 percent of rural communities across all of Afghanistan's 34 provinces - including enrolling over 100,000 women into new local CDCs. An independent evaluation by academics from Harvard, MIT and the New School found that the NSP had led to "significant improvement in villagers' economic wellbeing" and "their attitudes towards the government" - "reducing the number of people willing to join the insurgents" leading to "an improved security situation in the long run." Yet the evaluation report also observes that development mitigates militancy only in regions facing "moderate violence" - but not where there are "high levels of initial violence." Here, the impact of the war is palpable - 2011 saw a record number of 3,021 Afghan civilian deaths. And a UN assessment for that year found the average monthly number of "security incidents" - such as gun battles and roadside bombings - was 39 per cent higher than the preceding year. So if the exit strategy is the right one, it's still not enough. From June 2002 to September 2010, the United States - though the largest NSP donor - has given $528 million to the programme (as well as another $225 million from FY 2010 funds, with Congress appropriating a further $800 million or so). This is a tiny fraction in the total of about $18.8 billion in foreign assistance over the last decade, and much more needs to be done. Over two-thirds of Afghans still live in dire poverty; only 23 per cent have access to safe drinking water; and just 24 percent above the age of 15 can read and write, according to the UN High Commission for Human Rights. Thus, a recent report by the Center for a New American Security urges that the US government "not only continue its [NSP's] funding but should also help expand the program across Afghanistan. Only through steadfast support of the NSP and similarly structured enterprises can hard-won military gains be consolidated into an enduring, Afghan-led peace." Yet the NSP is a virtual carbon copy of a longstanding development model being implemented just across the border in rural Pakistan, including the Taliban's strongholds in the northwest frontier province: the Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN). As Pakistan's largest NGO, the RSPN has run quietly for nearly thirty years, with a staggering success rate - having mobilised over 4 million Pakistani households through local community organisations, provided skills training to nearly 3 million, and reached approximately 30 million people. The RSPN's model - replicated so successfully in Afghanistan under the NSP - is distinguished by its unique participatory approach, based on partnership with communities. The programme began in the early 1980s through the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), in the Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan regions. Under the leadership of Nobel Prize nominee Shoaib Sultan Khan, the AKRSP model was replicated by establishing a further ten autonomous Rural Support Programmes (RSP) across three quarters of the country's districts - which together form the umbrella that is the RSPN. The secret of the RSPN's success is deceptively simple. The poor are mobilised to establish local community organisations where citizens are involved in every aspect of decision-making - designing and selecting projects, managing them, and monitoring expenditures - in projects which have immediate, tangible impact. The programme thus empowers villagers to see themselves as citizens with the skills, tools and acumen to work together in managing disbursement of government funds to lift themselves out of poverty. In the northwest province of Chitral, for instance, local micro-scale hydro-electricity projects now supply power to over half of the population. Elsewhere, RSPN has empowered locals to establish 1,449 community schools, whose pupils out-perform their peers from government schools, and enrolled 681,000 women in community activism - the largest outreach to poor rural women of any Pakistani organisation. That is why the RSPN's work is so critical to the future of the country - for a strong, representative Pakistani state to emerge, it must be grounded in strong local civil society institutions capable of holding it to account and engaging with it constructively. But like the NSP, the RSPN receives only a fraction of the overall U.S.-U.K. aid budget to Pakistan. The ongoing debate about troop numbers and drone strikes - while important - has served to distract attention from the critical role of development aid in building resilience to radicalisation. Thus, across the region, the obsession with traditional security solutions has arguably been its own worst enemy. As the countdown to withdrawal continues, the international community must strengthen and expand these proven development models. Otherwise, the quagmire will become an abyss. Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development (IPRD) in London, author of A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization (2010) among other books, and writer/presenter of the critically-acclaimed documentary film, The Crisis of Civilization (2011). His work on international terrorism has been used by the 9/11 Commission, the Coroner's Inquiry into 7/7, the US Army Air University, and the UK MoD's Joint Services Command & Staff College. He has also advised the British Foreign Office and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and consulted for projects funded by the US State Department, the UK Department for Communities & Local Government. By David Walters Pakistan warrants concern, and not just because it is sitting on the fifth largest nuclear arsenal in the world. The country is in the throes of a destabilizing and dangerous energy crisis. It faces gas shortages, and electricity outages of up to 20 hours a day. As a result, factories have been forced into closing. There is double-digit inflation. Infrastructure is crumbling for want of resources. And harrowing stories of the newly impoverished setting themselves on fire or resorting to crime have become the new normal. Good deeds never go unpunished in Pakistan. The United States, Pakistan's most generous ally, remains public enemy No. 1 for reasons that do not withstand any rational scrutiny. But then Pakistan has never been accused of being terribly rational. As someone invested in Pakistan's progress, I have always maintained the U.S. must provide an energy lifeline to our ally country to establish in real and rapid terms the consideration it accords the 190 million people of Pakistan. If the U.S. were to help solve Pakistan's energy crisis-and it can-there could be no better measure to manage and mitigate anti-America sentiment in the country and no better billboard to showcase that the U.S. means business. Unfortunately, far too often the urgency of U.S. economic support announcements and photo ops in Islamabad are dulled by inaction or bungled by red tape in Washington. This fuels disenchantment at many levels. Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington last April, Pakistan's finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said his country had "not even received $300 million" of the $1.5 billion in annual economic support promised to Pakistan under the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009. It is also true that the government led by President Asif Ali Zardari is crippled by compulsions of keeping intact a coalition of disparate parties often at odds with each other. Thus, Mr. Shaikh is the country's fifth finance minister in four years. The turnover at the other key ministries-water and power, and petroleum and natural resources-is just as alarming. The government's capacity for economic and information management also seems woefully inadequate. Then there are the corruption allegations Mr. Zardari faced in the 1990s and which didn't lead to a single conviction. These are still in circulation and, coupled with Pakistan's governance crisis, provide Zardari critics in Pakistan's freewheeling media and opposition virtually uncontested space to hurl with indignant certitude all manner of accusations against foreign, and local, investments made on his watch. In other words, any projects during the last four years for the economic advancement and eminent good of Pakistan-including the Enhanced Partnership Act with the U.S.-are, in the popular imagination, either Trojan horses or sweetheart deals. As if things weren't bad enough for Pakistan's image abroad, the country's irreversibly sensational and bizarrely anti-business media gleefully peddles self-fulfilling prophesies of an economic and political meltdown. If you strip down the self-righteous rhetoric, the media in particular is determined that Pakistan's economy fail-at least while Mr. Zardari is around. We have seen this picture before. In the mid-90s, when Mr. Zardari's assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto, charmed investors into setting up privately-owned power plants, her government was accused of corruption. When Nawaz Sharif's government took over, it launched "investigations," arresting not only the executives of these foreign and local power companies but also their family members. The effects were disastrous. The investment climate became toxic and would remain so until 9/11. And potential investors like Gordon Wu, who had wanted to invest $6 billion in Pakistan, ran for the nearest exit. Faced with international censure and arbitration proceedings, Islamabad eventually agreed to a settlement: the power companies reduced their tariffs to afford the government some face saving, and the government rewarded the companies by extending their contracts with public sector power buyers. Today, the "independent power plants" Bhutto set up provide almost 30 percent of Pakistan's total electricity supply. One hopes that Bhutto and Zardari opponents realize how much worse the energy crisis would have been had these power plants not been installed. Since the summer of 2006, Pakistan has seen recurrent and riotous protests over power shortages. These picked up after the Zardari-led government was elected in 2008 and as outages grew, exacerbated by the government's liquidity problems. The protests have resulted in the destruction of public property-and deaths. The opposition has led several of these protests while simultaneously ensuring through litigation and an unrelenting media trial that no new power generation capacity comes online during Zardari's term. Yet, no one has called out the opposition over its rank contradictions and persecutory power past. For the last two years, Pakistan's Supreme Court had been hearing three "human rights" petitions, including one filed by a Sharif lieutenant, challenging the installation of fast-track power plants as a short-term solution for the country. On March 30, the eve of another power protest by the opposition, the court delivered its verdict: all "rental power" contracts were declared illegal and rescinded and an independent agency was ordered to launch inquiries in support of the judgment. At 7:40 p.m. that day, we were directed to shut down power supplies to Naudero, Bhutto's constituency. American personnel at the plant have been flown back. Almost all Pakistani staff has been laid off. In Pakistan's increasingly cynical society, all success is suspect. Unless you're Chinese, all foreign investors are viewed not as risk takers and growth drivers for the Pakistani economy but as usurpers, looters, and worse. After the recent court judgment, even the Ankara-supported "Turkey-Pakistan friendship" power ship has been impounded. And the proposed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is popular not just because it is critically required but because it also provides the added bonus of showing down the United States., which is opposed to the project. There's also the Tethyan Copper Company, a partnership between Chile's Antofagasta and Canada's Barrick Gold, which spent $220 million working toward a $3.3-billion copper and gold mine in Reko Diq in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province only to be stamped as colonizers by the courts and media. When the company was forced into placing advertisements to push its facts forward in the public domain, it was slapped with a gag order and disallowed to challenge the fevered narrative of misrepresentations against it. Tethyan is headed for international arbitration, an all too familiar venue for foreign investors who put store in Pakistan. Pakistan is complicated. It hates the U.S., yet America is the second most popular destination for Pakistani immigrants. It resents American economic support, yet complains that there is too little of it. It craves investment, but will rescind legal contracts in paroxysms of nationalist hysteria casting a cloud over every existing and future contract. America can help. It needs to emphasize to all Pakistani stakeholders-politicians, the judiciary, the Army-that their country must abide by its legal contracts and that it must unreservedly depoliticize the energy sector and the economy. Pakistan must enact a real defamation law that provides economic disincentives to the incendiary media and sets it on a path to self-correction. The U.S. must facilitate capacity building, especially in key Pakistani energy ministries and agencies, to effect durable, long-term economic planning. It can and should provide speedy debt support, for example through the U.S. State Department's Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to expedite energy projects that can visibly and meaningfully improve the lives of Pakistanis. The U.S. must make its aid to Pakistan conditional on the country delivering on these basic and essential reforms. The opposition and torch-wielding media lynch mob claim to have the best interests at heart of the tens of millions of Pakistanis-whose everyday lives are roiled by energy shortages and rendered meaningless from darkening economic prospects-but if they think they're doing well by the people of Pakistan, they should think again. David Walters was the governor of Oklahoma from 1990 to 1994. He is the founder and president of Walters Power International, a power solutions firm doing business in over 14 countries, including the U.K. He is a partner in Pakistan Power Resources, LLC, and Walters Power International Limited owns a 51-megawatt power plant in Pakistan. By Arsla Jawaid The controversial Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline has become an increasingly problematic issue in the vacillating U.S-Pakistan relationship. The United States has strongly condemned the project, but such rhetoric seems only to have made Pakistan more determined to continue with it. An energy agreement between Iran and Pakistan would be detrimental to U.S efforts to isolate Iran and force the shutdown of its nuclear program. And while it could potentially alleviate Pakistan's energy crisis, the proponents of the project seem more interested in defying the West than inquiring about its 'real' benefits. Pakistan is crippled by an energy crisis that causes power outages for hours, daily, leading to violent protests around the country, such as those in Lahore last week. Many do not have gas for heating or cooking purposes, and electricity outages affect schools, hospitals, businesses and industries, bringing an already dwindling economy to a halt. In such a scenario, Pakistan is forced to look elsewhere to meet its needs. The IP gas pipeline is one such prospect. The idea, conceptualized in 1990 with negotiations starting in 1994, is to construct a pipeline that would pass solely between the two countries. As the prospect developed, India entered the game, and the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline -- popularly known as the "Peace Pipeline" -- came into existence. In 2008, however, India signed a civil nuclear power deal with the U.S and pulled out of the project; many analysts accused it of succumbing to American pressure. On March 16, 2010, Iran and Pakistan signed an agreement on the pipeline during a meeting in the Turkish capital city of Ankara. The revised pipeline, with a projected cost of $1.5 billion, would start from the South Pars gas field in Iran's southern city of Asalouyeh and pass through Bandar-Abbas and Iranshahr, until it reaches Khuzdar, Balochistan. At Khuzdar, a section is planned to extend to Karachi while the rest of the pipeline would continue through Sui to Multan. In July 2011, Iran claimed that it had almost completed 900 km of its construction of the 56 inch diameter pipeline, though this assertion remains unconfirmed. Pakistan is to lay 781 km of the pipeline in its territory, and the project is expected to be completed by December 2014. Although completion remains two years away, Pakistan views this project as a medium-term investment to pull it out of a crippling energy crisis. Iran has also expressed its commitment to alleviating Pakistan's woes, and once operations begin it will provide 750 million cubic feet of gas per day for 25 years. Pakistan can no longer depend on domestic resources to address its crippling energy problems. During the third Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran trilateral summit held on February 16, 2012, turning to Iran, Pakistan has reiterated its commitment to the IP gas pipeline project, a 1,000-megawatt electricity transmission line, and a 100-megawatt power supply from Gwadar to meet Pakistan's energy woes. In return, Iran has offered to enhance bilateral trade to $10 billion by importing specific commodities such as rice and wheat, in the following few months. But, it is difficult to predict whether such bold developments will ever actually be implemented. The United States, meanwhile, supports an alternate gas pipeline -- known as the TAPI pipeline because it would run through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The TAPI pipeline project has, however, been rejected by Pakistan for a number of reasons. It will take much longer to materialize, will pass through treacherous and unreliable terrain, and involves too many regional players -- specifically India and Afghanistan -- which Pakistan views with suspicion. The TAPI pipeline would flow through war-torn Afghanistan, and until the end game there is clear, Pakistani authorities, justifiably, are not ready to take such a risk on their energy survival. The situation recently grew more complicated when Afghanistan hinted at possibly withdrawing from the project. Though the final round of the TAPI negotiations are to be held on April 19, if Afghanistan does indeed withdraw from the project, America's proposal of a viable alternate to the IP gas pipeline would be in grave danger. On February 29, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton expressed frustration with Pakistan's intention to push ahead with the IP pipeline at a hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations. She threatened sanctions that "would be particularly damaging to Pakistan because their economy is already quite shaky," should Pakistan continue with its commitment to build the IP gas pipeline and hence, violate the Iran Sanctions Act. While a proposed Iran-Turkey pipeline appears to progress sans sanctions, Pakistan could face an immediate termination of financial and military assistance. Secretary Clinton's remarks have raised serious objections, and have only made Pakistan more adamant about continuing with the project. The "threat" prompted brave words from Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar: "We are a sovereign country and we will do whatever is in the interest of Pakistan. All of these projects are in Pakistan's national interest, and will be pursued and completed irrespective of any extraneous considerations." In November 2010, similar defensive posturing was prompted when Ambassador Munter stated that "the plan to get gas from Turkmenistan is a better idea" than the IP pipeline. Pakistani Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan slammed the comment, stating, "Islamabad will not accept any dictation regarding its internal affairs from any foreign country. Gas from Iran is in the country's best interest." However, it is still unclear whether the IP gas pipeline is indeed in the best interests of the country. The pre-feasibility study that will determine whether the pipeline should be built by estimating the finances needed and the expected timeframe of the project has only just begun. The most pressing issue Pakistan will face if it decides to construct the IP gas pipeline, is that of raising finances. The issue has gained geo-political attention, and a consortium led by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)has recently pulled out of the project, prompting the Pakistani government to look elsewhere for finances. The federal government is currently negotiating a deal with Russian giant gas monopoly, Gazprom, for financial and technical assistance. While no agreement has currently been reached, senior level discussions are underway. With a crippled economy and diminished finances, Pakistan may very well be unable to embark on the project due to lack of funds from international investors. With Pakistan still grappling for funds, and the feasibility study commissioned by Pakistan not expected to be completed before October 2013, vehement U.S opposition and rhetoric is premature at this moment. Sanctions would severely affect the economy, and Pakistan is unlikely to be ready to take that risk. Most recently, Pakistan hired experts to study the consequences of the sanctions, should it move ahead with constructing the pipeline. While the country can benefit immensely from an energy pipeline with Iran, being closely associated with a nation receiving so much negative international attention may do it more harm than good. Without a clear argument and only an unclear picture of the project itself, Pakistan's determination to construct the pipeline is simply a political move in response to foreign interference in internal matters, and nothing more than that at this moment. Armed with this realization and an awareness of the rampant anti-Americanism in Pakistan, the United States needs to adopt a more sensitive and informed approach to tackle the equally sensitive issue of the IP pipeline. The United States must differentiate between nuclear development and regional cooperation. By encouraging trade and energy agreements, it could illustrate a genuine concern for peace and stability in the region, as well as repair America's image abroad. The United States must show a serious commitment to alleviating the energy crisis in Pakistan, and hold talks with key players in the private sector. The private sector will not only serve as a wealth of information and a vehicle of action but also as a prime interlocutor. The State Department is currently helping Pakistan with thermal energy generation, and investing in dams, but it must also consider working jointly with Pakistan on stand-alone power projects that utilize wind and water, contain leakages that remain a prime reason of energy wastage, suggest mechanisms to avoid energy theft, and foster dialogue between experts in the field. Finding support for a conciliatory approach may not be easy. The Obama administration is facing tough questions at home on its continued engagement with the Af-Pak region, having achieved the objective of killing former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Defending the war in Afghanistan and securing a $2.2 billion budget in economic and security assistance for Pakistan will be difficult. Additionally, pressuring South Asian countries to ostracize Iran will only lead to more animosity. The need of the hour is cooperation, not sanctions. Illustrating a true commitment to addressing Pakistan's greatest handicap, instead of condemning regional policy decisions, will open up a world of opportunities for both sides Javid Ahmad and Louise Langeby Whipsawed by a long-drawn U.S.-led military operation and a decade of erratic international economic assistance, Afghanistan is in shambles. With economic development always considered secondary to security concerns, little has been done in the past decade to establish a sustainable Afghan economy. While the international community has tried to generate a steady flow of aid, the Afghan government is still unable to cater to the population's basic needs. Moreover, the little economy we have seen evolve in Afghanistan since 2001 is predominantly based on the international security presence. The bulk of Afghanistan's gross domestic product (GDP) stems from international aid, and the impending 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of international combat troops will be accompanied by a parallel reduction in aid money. Thus, as the tide of war recedes, a large chunk of the economy will also disappear, posing an increasing threat to stability. The country's current economic trajectory beyond 2014 is fraught with corruption and uncertainty. However, despite the dire situation, Afghanistan's economic transition has received only minor policy attention, with the focus remaining on the ongoing security transition. Thus the question remains: How will Afghanistan sustain its economy beyond 2014? The decrease in foreign assistance is like to cause today's economic bubble to burst, potentially plunging the country into an economic recession. And if the security environment further deteriorates, the country could face full economic collapse. A financing gap of 25 percent of GDP by 2022 due to increased military and non-military spending by the Afghan government further puts Afghanistan's economic stability at risk. While the international donor community can help to prevent a total collapse of the economy by decreasing aid gradually, the key to a prosperous Afghanistan is to invest in the long-term economic advantages the country has to offer. One such advantage may lie in Afghanistan's geographic location. The New Silk Road strategy, often promoted by the United States, aims at linking Afghanistan with its South and Central Asian neighbors, transforming the country into a nucleus for regional trade. Focus should also be placed on rebuilding the oil and gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and on to Pakistan and India. If done right, these initiatives might enable Afghanistan to attract increased foreign investment, connect the country to foreign markets, and promote growth, gradually reducing its dependence on foreign aid. However, the key to such a scenario lies in Afghanistan's relations with regional players, in particular Pakistan. Given its location, Pakistan is expected to serve as the main transit route for Afghan exports and access to the port cities of Gwadar and Karachi will remain crucial to Afghanistan's development. However, a volatile relationship with its eastern neighbor could mean a precarious dependency for Afghanistan. Another potential economic trigger may be found in Afghanistan's untapped mineral reserves, ostensibly valued in the trillions of dollars. Based on cautiously optimistic assumptions by the World Bank, the iron ore project at Hajigak and copper mine at Aynak could deliver $2 to $3 billion to the extractive industry, with each deposit potentially generating over half a billion dollars in government revenue in just a few years. The mining industry may appear at first glance to be a potential panacea for the Afghan economy, but it will take decades before the country can reap the benefits of such a project. The Afghan mineral reserves require significant investments in infrastructure, and more importantly, effective and accountable governance that can efficiently and transparently manage revenues. Furthermore, in 2010, of the total $17 billion government expenditure, only $1.9 billion of the spending were drawn from Afghanistan's own sources of revenue; the rest: foreign assistance. Hence, besides the projected tax revenues and some foreign aid, even if mineral resources did manage to generate the estimated revenue, the Afghan budget would still face an annual deficit of $7 billion. Rebuilding after more than a decade of conflict must also involve encouraging growth in Afghanistan's nascent private sector, a sector that has been stifled to some degree by the international donor presence. In a "donor drunk" economy, there are a large number of foreign, private NGOs, which dominate the private sector and make entry into it difficult for Afghan organizations. Although some of these private entities are effective development organizations at the grassroots level, many carry a negative perception among the Afghan people, who see the ubiquitous "briefcase NGOs" as money-making mechanisms for the people involved. Meanwhile, the influx of foreign money and employers has also artificially inflated labor costs for low-skilled workers over the past years, and has made Afghanistan an attractive venue for external laborers from neighboring countries such as Pakistan. However, as the flow of aid dwindles, those who have been paid hefty salaries over much of the past decade for low-skilled work for foreign entities may now prove more affordable to Afghan businesses, and will also open up more jobs for Afghan workers. While the initial transition phase from a military focused economy to a regular one will be difficult, it will leave room for a more long-term, sustainable economy to develop. Regardless of Afghanistan's many potential sources of revenue, any real progress will be limited without the long-term support of the international community. While the West's future commitment to Afghanistan is vague at best, the increasing number of strategic partnerships with key allies signals a willingness by certain powers to remain involved in shaping Afghanistan's future beyond 2014. In the past week, Afghanistan has signed strategic partnership agreements with key European allies such as the UK, France, and Italy that ensure an enduring commitment and cooperation with Afghanistan in key areas, including economy, security, and governance. While only time will tell if the West really will stay committed to Afghanistan, this week's agreements are at least a step in the right direction. Similarly, any future foreign aid funneled by the West to the Afghan government is effectively futile without properly addressing the raging corruption and lack of transparency and accountability in public finances. As the world's second most corrupt nation, any failure by the West and the Afghan government in tackling this menace in the so-called "transformation decade" would mean repeating and wasting yet another inefficient ten years of international assistance. Today, as U.S. and NATO troops prepare to assume a lighter military presence, many Afghans fear a serious economic downturn when foreign aid and spending recede, leaving Afghanistan with little or nothing to fall back on. It is still uncertain if and how the Afghan government will function after 2014 without an open-ended $8 to $10 billion yearly commitment from the United States and Europe. However, responsibility for a stable and secure Afghanistan ultimately rests with the Afghans themselves, and there is still a sense of optimism among the Afghan people about the future of their country. The Afghan government, for its part, must foster transparency and accountability in public finances drawn from foreign aid, and work to cut leaks that enable corruption. If these reforms and the myriad of other challenges go unaddressed, the hard work and accomplishments of the past decade could easily unravel and ultimately lead to an even more troubled Afghanistan than we have seen in the past ten years. Javid Ahmad, a native of Kabul, is Program Coordinator with the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, DC. Louise Langeby is a Program Associate with the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Brussels. The views reflected here are their own. By Nisha Taneja For many analysts and policymakers, Pakistan's decision to grant Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to India earlier this month appears to be a major breakthrough in India-Pakistan trade relations. Under the MFN clause, all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are obliged to extend trading benefits to a country that are equal to those accorded to any other country. While India accorded Pakistan MFN status in 1996, Pakistan's decision to reciprocate has only come 15 years later. Perhaps what has gone unnoticed by the world at large, however, is the unprecedented pace at which the Economic and Commercial Cooperation talks between India and Pakistan, which resumed in April and picked up again this week after a hiatus of three years, have proceeded. While India was keen on Pakistan granting it MFN status, the latter's major concern was that India should remove all non-tariff barriers that impede its market access into the Indian market. And a key feature of these talks has been that timelines have been specified for every item on the agenda. In particular, the April agenda stated that Joint Working Groups to address non-tariff barriers should be set up by August 2011, and that MFN status to India should be accorded by October 2011. Both conditions that have now been satisfied. Under the extant bilateral trade arrangement between the two countries, Pakistan permits the import of only 1934 items from India, known as a 'positive list' approach to trade limitations. Following the Pakistani federal cabinet's decision to grant MFN status to India there were three major concerns about its implementation process. First, the time period within which the shift from a positive to negative list (whereby the list contains specific banned, rather than permitted, items) would take place was not stated. Second, Pakistan has maintained a separate positive list for the road route between the two countries at the Wagah border crossing, where only 14 of the 1934 items on the overall positive list are allowed to be traded; analysts doubted whether this extra barrier would be rectified. And third, Pakistan has yet to meet its obligations under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), under which members agreed to offer preferential access to other members by reducing tariffs within a specified timeframe. The Joint Statement issued following the conclusion of talks on Wednesday addresses all of these concerns. First, it lays down the sequencing and timelines for the move towards full normalization of trade relations. In the initial stage, Pakistan will make a transition from the current 'positive list' approach to a small negative list of banned items to be finalized and ratified in February 2012. In the second stage, the negative list will be phased out by the end of 2012. The new trading regime will also be applicable to all trade that goes overland between the two countries at the Wagah crossing, after the new infrastructure at the land border is complete, with the announcement of this change timed to coincide with the release of goods on the negative list. Both sides also agreed to move towards enhancing the preferential trading arrangements under the SAFTA process, and they also agreed to designate officials on both sides to work on this issue. If these timelines are met, there will be no contentious issues left with regards to the MFN status. By Raffaello Pantucci As we pass the 10-year anniversary of the US-led war in Afghanistan, most attention has been focused on how much longer the United States intends to stay in the region. But a question that has not been addressed is who is going to be putting the pieces together afterwards. The European Union (EU) and the United States are clearly at the end of their tether, while Russia, India and other nearby powers continue to lack the capacity or means to dominate the region. Other rising regional power China may continue to be wary of becoming involved in any foreign entanglements, but as a friend put it in a meeting in Beijing the other day, China may not have broken the teapot of Afghanistan, but it is one that sits firmly on their borders. And there is some evidence that this reality is sinking in at Zhongnanhai in Beijing. Chinese firms have made substantial investments in Afghanistan. The Aynak copper mine has been joined by an investment in oil fields in northern Afghanistan. And while Chinese firms in the end did not invest in the Bamiyan iron mines they have still cast their lot in terms of developing Afghan infrastructure - pouring money into telecoms, road-building and train lines linking Afghanistan to the rest of the region. But this has not been supported by any large-scale investment in Afghan security. For that, China continues to look to NATO on the ground and more implicit protection from her close ally in Islamabad. As one senior Afghan put it to me, a reason that was often given for why the Chinese had gotten some of these deals was that it was known how close they were to Pakistan. The assumption was that if the deal went to China then the site would be protected in some way and the development would proceed. While unclear to what degree this was the determining factor, the story plays into what seems to be China's main foreign policy factor when considering Afghanistan, and that is Pakistan. The Sino-Pak relationship is one of the closest in the world, spanning trade, nuclear weapons, counter-terrorism and regional hedging against India. As both sides characterize it publicly, it is "higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, stronger than steel, sweeter than honey, and dearer than eyesight." And into this fits Afghanistan, a troublesome country that borders both and is the source of regional instability. China, still a hesitant foreign policy actor, is unwilling to do too much to assert her authority in the region and is more than happy to let eager Pakistan take the lead. And this approach is something that has worked for China for many years now. Unwilling to become involved in a conflict that could force it to take sides in a conflict in which it could be painted as part of some alliance against Islam and potentially support actors who would encourage separatists in the restive Xinjiang province, China has hesitated to do much in Afghanistan in support of NATO efforts in the country. For some in China, there was a sense that NATO's loss in Afghanistan was China's gain and that the potential encirclement that might result from NATO success on their borders would be to China's detriment, while for others there was a sense that this was a lost cause anyway and that Afghanistan was the "graveyard of empires." Instead, China focused on investing in things that seemed like a good idea. A large copper mine at Aynak sits close to China's borders and consequently seemed a wise investment to first bid for it and then offer a whole package of deals including a local power station and train line to provide the backdrop to make the deal work for the Chinese firm. All of this would help supply China's need for copper, as well as develop a part of the country that was close to China and would therefore potentially have a knock-on effect in improving prosperity in neighboring underdeveloped Chinese province Xinjiang. Similarly with the deal to secure the oil fields in Amu Darya - China's unslakable thirst for hydrocarbons means it will reach out anywhere to get them, and when they are so close to home, all the better. But while none of this disagrees with western policy in Afghanistan, there is no sense that China is willing to buy into any active policy supporting western goals in the region. China continues to be the ultimate hedging power in Afghanistan - while it seems clear that they are willing to support western aims in the country, there continues to be a lack of any clear evidence that they are as willing to expend political capital or effort to advance their goals actively in the country. This is not to say they are indolent in advancing their interests, but that they are wary of becoming entangled in a country that has repeatedly shown a capacity to reject foreign influence. From a Chinese perspective, the answer to Afghanistan is clear. The tribes need to fight it out amongst each other - to paraphrase what one expert told me in Beijing, this is a country with "lots of big powerful men who need to be kept happy" and outsiders do not really stand much of chance moderating this. Ultimately, the country is poor, will clearly need investment going forward, and China will be there to support it. With deep pockets and no conditions, this support can be funneled to whomever is in charge and to whomever has the power of the provinces where China has direct interests. When it comes to border threats, China seems to have managed to secure strong intelligence links and is able to keep a quite firm lid on any potential threats from extremist groups with links to networks in Pakistan or Afghanistan. China's play in Afghanistan has been very hesitant so far. The reason for this is a lack of certainty in Beijing about what Washington's game plan is. In the meantime, they have continued to make careful strategic investments with a view to the long game. And while from a western analysis this should mean a greater Chinese interest in stabilizing the current government, from Beijing's perspective it is far better to let things play themselves out while focusing on specific interests. This will not necessarily help western aims to re-shape Afghanistan, but it will strengthen China's hand when the west finally leaves. Raffaello Pantucci is a Visiting Scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and an Associate Fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation. He blogs at By Huma Yusuf The market has recently been flooded with books about Pakistan by academics, policymakers, and journalists. Many of these have sought to explain - and to some extent apologize for - contemporary Pakistani society to the western world. Pamela Constable's Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself is the rare exception that acknowledges this goal, and then lives up to its appointed task. Western readers could hope for no better guide to present-day Pakistan than Constable, a veteran journalist who has reported extensively from Pakistan for over a decade with The Washington Post. Her new book is a sound introduction to Pakistan's contradictions, inequalities, tumultuous politics, and every fluctuating national identity. As newspaper headlines about Pakistan policy choices become increasingly shrill, readers seeking context will find much of use in Playing with Fire. The book traces political and security developments across the country, primarily since 2007, that fateful year when former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated and the army's poor handling of a siege at the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad led to a spate of nationwide suicide bombings. In addition to political upheaval and terrorist attacks, Constable documents new laws, corruption scandals, media trends, civil society movements, and more, making her book one of the few holistic backgrounders on Pakistan. Indeed, Playing with Fire benefits immensely from its author's journalistic background. The book covers those aspects of Pakistan that are rarely examined in works by political scientists or retired diplomats focused on Pakistan's security issues or regional geopolitics. Constable includes chapters on women and their divergent experiences in different social classes, upper-class Pakistanis, religious minorities, and life in rural Pakistan (in the interests of disclosure, I read an early draft of one of these chapters while Constable and I overlapped as fellows at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC). Like good journalism, the book also combines faithful documentation with sharp analysis: Constable bookends extensive quotes from Pakistanis - whether brick kiln workers or land-owning politicians - with her own insights into Pakistan's problems. These insights are inevitably the best nuggets in the book; for example, Constable observes that the dynamics of landed feudalism have trickled down into the contemporary industrial sector, where factor workers remain indebted to their employers. Constable's most profound insight into Pakistan is stated at the outset, in the book's introduction. She argues that Pakistanis are essentially powerless: "they see the trappings of representative democracy around them but little tangible evidence of it working in their lives." The various chapters of Playing with Fire then show how this powerlessness is manifest: in the vestiges of the feudal system, in the failings of the judicial system, in the endless paperwork of a bloated bureaucracy, in the limited circles of dynastic politics, and in the 'honor' codes of a patriarchal society. Through characters, narratives, statistics, and direct quotes, Constable shows how Pakistanis are denied rights and opportunities in a way that perpetuates the status quo. One only wishes that with each example of a powerless Pakistani she offers, Constable reiterated the theme more explicitly for emphasis. Interestingly, while acknowledging their powerlessness, Constable allows Pakistanis to speak for themselves in her book. The liberal use of direct quotes provides an insight into Pakistani perceptions of global trends and political issues. Numerous excerpts from newspaper editorials and columns (including one of mine) also give a taste of public discourse within Pakistan. The country is frequently faulted for its head-in-the-sand attitude towards internal security developments, particularly the long-term fallout of cultivating militant groups. But Constable's regular nods to Pakistani opinion-makers show that a spirited, if convoluted debate about Pakistan's future and identity is currently underway in the country. The most interesting chapter in Playing with Fire documents the slow 'Talibanization' of Pakistani society. Constable points to the diverse elements that have led many Pakistanis to equate patriotism and religiosity: the content of government-issue textbooks, the successful campaigns of religious political parties, the moralizing rhetoric of student politics, the vitriol of television talk show hosts, and the state's foreign policy. Moreover, she uncovers how Pakistani society has evolved in a matter of years from wearing its religion loosely to developing extremist sympathies. Constable shows how Islam became "hip" among university students who embraced their religious identity as a way to participate in global trends. She also notes that "poor yet pious" Pakistanis use religious fervor as a way to push back against "errant Muslims of a higher class," introducing equality in what is otherwise a highly stratified society. This nuanced chapter is bolstered by Constable's overview of the origins and ideologies of Pakistan's various militant and sectarian groups. The book also documents major security-related events such as the formation of the anti-state Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the takeover of the Swat Valley in 2009 by TNSM, another extremist organization. With these snapshots of militancy, Playing with Fire becomes a handy user's guide to terrorism and security for those who have not followed regional developments at a granular level. One argumentative disconnect does however emerge in the book. Constable's chapters on the 'Talibanization' of society and Pakistan's use of militant groups as 'strategic assets' emphasize that extremism is a top-down phenomenon in Pakistan, perpetuated as a result of state policies. But in other sections of the book, she suggests that extremist tendencies are organic-the expected fallout of widespread poverty, joblessness, and frustration. For example, Constable quotes the bitter complaint of a young man from Peshawar who graduated from a prestigious engineering school but was unable to find a job. He suggests that the lack of opportunity creates terrorists. Similarly, in a chapter about sectarian tensions and violent discrimination against religious minorities, Constable includes a rant by a butcher who denounces rampant corruption, crime, and poor leadership. The decision to include his viewpoint implies that the failure of state institutions is fostering religious intolerance. There is an ongoing debate about whether extremism in Pakistan is a product of years of state-sponsored militancy and General Ziaul Haq's Islamization policies in the 1980s, or whether it is a contemporary response to flawed Pakistani and American policies. Given Constable's intimate knowledge of the region, a direct summary of her perceptions on this matter would have given the book even more substance. Throughout her book, Constable draws out the clashing ideological and political stances of Pakistan's liberals and conservatives. She will be aware then that some liberals may find her book too soft on the Pakistan Army. No doubt, the book maps the fallout of the army's many dalliances with militant groups. But the chapter on the 'murder of democracy' focuses on corrupt politicians such as President Asif Ali Zardari, dynastic politics, and the inefficient bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Constable's analysis of the Pakistan Army delves into the choices made by military dictators Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf as well as the shenanigans of the intelligence agent Khalid Khawaja. This focus on controversial characters (though compelling to read) makes the army's flaws seem individual rather than institutional. A concise assessment of the impact of military interference in Pakistan's political and economic spheres over the decades would have served the book well. Ultimately, though, Playing with Fire is an accessible yet comprehensive guide to a country that is constantly evolving and much written about, but little understood by westerners. Huma Yusuf is a columnist for Pakistan's Dawn Newspaper, and was the 2010-11 Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. By Toby Dalton, May 17, 2011 While the unfolding disaster at Japan's Fukushima reactor riveted the world, Pakistan quietly observed an important milestone in its own nuclear power program. Pakistan's Chashma 2 nuclear power plant commenced operation and was connected to the electricity grid on March 15, just four days after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan and initiated what is now one of the worst nuclear accidents on record. Last week, on the eve of his visit to China, Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani commissioned Chashma 2 and indicated that China would construct two additional nuclear reactors at the same site. With Pakistanis spending hours each day in the dark due to "load shedding," a euphemism for managed power outages, never has energy been more critical for Pakistan. According to figures from the Pakistan Electric Power Company, Pakistan's current electricity supply deficit averages about 3000 megawatts, which is probably enough to power about 3 million households in Pakistan. This shortage exacts a high toll on the Pakistani people, especially in the summer when temperatures can exceed 115 degrees. The more insidious effects of Pakistan's electric shortfalls are economic. The country now finds itself in a catch 22: the moribund economy limits large investments in new or rehabilitated electric generation capacity, but won't register dramatic improvement without more and consistent electricity. Pakistan's ability to meet its energy requirements indigenously is constrained by the relatively poor quality of its coal, the feast or famine nature of hydroelectric power in a monsoon climate, and the political and security challenges of tapping effectively the natural gas reserves in its Baluchistan province. Pakistan will have to seek energy security through a mixture of external and internal sources. As one element of a long-term plan for energy diversity, nuclear power makes sense for Pakistan, as it does for many states. But it is an ineffective solution to Pakistan's current energy needs. By Art Keller, February 24, 2011 Editor's note: This is Part I of a two-part seriesfocusing on aid provision in conflict zones, with tomorrow's edition to focuson Afghanistan. Although the White House was cautiously optimistic in itsrecent strategy review on Afghanistan, even for seasoned AfPak watchers, itcan be difficult to discern exactly whatthe U.S. strategy istowards Afghanistan. The sound bite summary "clear, hold, build" may besimplistic, but it still offers a useful starting place to evaluate U.S. andNATO efforts. The "clear" and "hold" represent the straightforward ideas (intheory if not execution) of taking and holding ground, operations with whichmilitaries are well-acquainted. The real issue, and the key to success orfailure, is defining what "build" really means, and examining how the United States andNATO are "building" in Afghanistan. While many factors in Afghanistan (and Pakistan, for thatmatter) are unique, in a larger sense, the challenges faced there are the sameissues, with new faces, that the United States has been long been struggling with inother countries. The U.S. government clearly hopes to "build" the Afghangovernment and military up to the point that it will take the lead in battlingthe Taliban. For decades now, in countries around the world, the tool mostfrequently called on to "build" countries is aid. Sometimes aid comes in theform of humanitarian, short-term assistance, i.e. emergency food, medicine,water, and shelter, aimed at stabilizing crisis situations. In other cases, aidcomes in the form of "official development assistance" or ODA, most often adirect cash transfer from a donor government or donor institution to arecipient country, usually in the form of grants or low-interest loans, andaimed at promoting long-term growth by developing infrastructure, education,and more. In the case of Afghanistan (and Pakistan), aid to the region hasconsisted of a mixture of both humanitarian and strategic (ODA) aid. By Luv Puri, February 2, 2011 Nearly a month after Punjab province's controversial governor Salman Taseer was gunned down by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri at an Islamabad café, Pakistani authorities are no closer to taking any real steps to punish the assassin. Just this week a Pakistani court deferred a scheduled hearing into the case, and crowds have gathered outside of Qadri's prison clamoring for his release. A YouTube video of Qadri reciting a poem in the praise of Prophet Mohammad, known as Naat, has received over 69,000 views. The video was shot while Qadri was in police custody and it remains a mystery who helped shoot and disseminate the video. By C. Christine Fair, January 18, 2011This week's AfPak Behind the Lines considers the current status of the Kashmir conflict and its impact on Afghanistan and Pakistan with Dr. Sumit Ganguly. 1. 17 Kashmiris have been killed in conflict with Indian authorities since early June, when police killed a 17 year old bystander at a protest. How does this summer's violence compare with previous years, and how has the nature of the conflict changed since the Muslim separatist movement began in the late 1980s? This summer's violence is markedly reminiscent of the violence at the beginning of the insurgency in 1989. At that time there was a genuine outpouring of popular anger over Indian political malfeasances in Kashmir. (These are explored at some length in my 1997 Cambridge book, The Crisis in Kashmir: Portents of War, Hopes of Peace). Once again, young Kashmir men who are tired of the seeming callousness of the Indian state toward their plight have taken to the streets. They feel that much of the resources that the national government has poured into the state has not made a meaningful difference to their lives. They lack employment, infrastructure in the state if inadequate and the heavy hand of paramilitary forces deployed in the state adversely affect they everyday lives. They are subjected to petty harassment, periodic questioning and are occasionally roughed up. Given this milieu all that was needed was an unfortunate incident, namely the death of a hapless high school student was hit by a stray tear gas canister. His death provided the spark for the conflagration that ensued.	eng	6f719b1c-80cb-4827-9f2d-0eee7b3abeeb	http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/category/topic/economics
the documented then evidence the We've got a lot of massive problems in massage--for example, at the same time that we have the chance for a place at the healthcare professional table under Obamacare, and that we say we want to be taken seriously as professional members of the healthcare team, our major credentialing organizations grant recognition to courses that take money for teaching claims like "body cells carry emotional memory", "craniosacral therapy moves skull bones", and "all past traumas are stored in the fascia". Anyone who had a decent education in anatomy should be able to debunk those claims after the first day of the first class. Yet our major professional organizations visibly sanction the teaching of claims like these and grant CE credit for them, at the same time we say we want to be real healthcare professionals. Our walk doesn't match our talk, and the problem's not going to go away just because we refuse to face it. If we refuse to face it and discuss it in a civil and professional way in an attempt to reach solutions, history's going to make us eat the decisions that others make for us about these problems. And if we claim we want to incorporate the latest neuroscience findings into massage as a healthcare profession, and we start that process off by being Neurophysiology 101 denialists, how, exactly, is that supposed to work? No one's denying the fact that this shift to accepting facts and material physical reality is going to cause a great deal of disruption and moral distress. The world has entirely shifted out from under us, and the old social contract that we were comfortably used to just does not work any more. That fact is going to cause an unforeseeable amount of pain and distress, and we need to be extra kind to each other as a result. But denyingDenyingAnd the misleading does not have to be intentional; it could have been done with the best intentions in the world. But those good intentions don't change the facts that, as a result, the student is launched into real-life practice operating with poor information, is bringing misinformation into the relationship with the client, and is being publicly evaluated on the basis of that misinformation by other potential partners in a unified healthcare team. It could have happened to any of us--the field of massage is notorious for promoting teachers out of the ranks of students who have simply passed the class they're now expected to teach. Biomedical physicians have nothing on massage when it comes to "See one, do one, teach one". No blame, no shame: one set out to create that situation; it just evolved that way, undirected. And there was an unspoken social contract that allowed it to continue, because the need for teachers was so high. But the social contract has changed out from under us, and the current situation is no longer sustainable in light of the responsibilities expected of healthcare professionals. Standardizing the number of hours or the curriculum content (ELAP) will not improve educational outcomes as long as our massage educational institutions are allowed to: Employ unqualified instructors. ... TwoStephens is right about going forward--but what about all the students, practitioners, and teachers who are coming to grips with the fact that much of what they were taught is exaggerated, counterfactual, or simply wrong? It takes a great deal of courage on their part to stare unflinching into that abyss, and to engage with what's needed to collect, assimilate, organize, and share good information. The upheaval and disruption in the process is causing a great deal of moral distress and pain in people who are re-evaluating where they are, and how far away they are from where they need to be. One thing that they do not have to worry about here is being blamed for having been taught wrong. The policy here is, "no blame, no shame": it is not someone's fault that they did not get the education they deserve, and if they are trying to fix that situation, they deserve--and will have--our support in that journey. The Buddhist concept of samma-vaca--"right speech"--is a useful guide to discourse here at POEM. It's often summarized as, "Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?". We'll examine those questions in a slightly different order than they're usually posed. "Is it true?": The standard at POEM is that we will not pass along misinformation here. Massage stakeholders can depend on POEM for accurate information about massage. If someone is making a factual error, it's ok to correct that error civilly and professionally. That means focusing on the facts, not on the person--no personal attacks, just connecting the dots on what the facts are. Not everything is a matter of fact, of course--there is no scientific answer to the question "Is chocolate or vanilla better?"--and interpretations, creativity, and imagination are welcome topics for discussion, as long as active misinformation doesn't ride along. "Is it necessary?": There is a wide consensus that something is rotten in the state of massage education, so yes, having a portal to the shared body of biomedical knowledge that members of a unified and client-centered healthcare professional team all draw upon to varying degrees is an absolutely necessary--and as-yet unmet--niche that POEM is being developed to fill. "Is it kind?": Absolutely: everyone who participates here can expect to be treated kindly. Kindness does not mean letting misinformation go uncorrected; it means that misinformation will be corrected in a civil, professional, and kind manner, without attacking the person. When someone does not have access to good and high-quality information, because of gaps in their education, the kind and considerate thing to do is to offer them a bridge to obtain that information. Giving them an opportunity to correct themselves is far kinder than leaving them--and their clients--to the consequences of misinformation. We're in really deep waters here, as a result of a number of historical, social, political, and cultural factors all coming together and synergizing. But if POEM has any say at all in the matter, then we will get through these difficulties, because we'll support each other in learning and growing along the way. Rock climbing is a good metaphor for clinical reasoning and decision-making. If you go climbing, you can plan a route from the bottom to the top in advance, but when you are actually in the process of ascending the rock face, you have to deal with the actual material physical reality you find in front of you. If that turns out to be different from your previous plan, then the plan gets adjusted to accommodate what you are really dealing with in the moment. If you try to privilege the theoretical plan over the actual facts, things can end very badly very fast. To get from one place on the rock to the next place without falling, you make sure that you are in a stable position where you currently are, and you look for a way to get safely to the next place you want to be. You repeat this process over and over, and at the end--if all goes well--all those decisions in the moment about how to get from one place to the next lead you to reach the summit you were aiming for all along. The reason that this is metaphorically like clinical decision-making and reasoning is that need to ensure that you are first in a stable place before you extend yourself to get to the next place. Like climbing, reasoning is a process--the culmination of many smaller decisions along the way. If you take too many unwarranted risks along the way, you can lose control of the process. Unlike in individual climbing, however, the one most harmed by a bad outcome in clinical decision-making is someone else: the client. That's why we have an extra responsibility to do the best job in getting it right that we possibly can--our clients trust us as the experts. As we've seen in the previous post, deductive reasoning helps you to get from one point to the next--from the general to the specific--in a safe and valid way, but the kinds of questions it can support are rather limited in comparison to the situations we often encounter in clinical situations. It's a safe and easy line from one point to the next, and the valid results may be exactly what you need in particular situations. Inductive reasoning is somewhat more powerful, as it can take you from the specific to making generalizations about how things work in the material physical universe--but, by the nature of taking on that task, it's possible to do every thing right--to begin with a valid starting point, to reason in a flawlessly valid way--and to still end up with invalid conclusions, such as "All swans are white". It's riskier than deduction, but--if it succeeds--it opens the door to more possibilities than deductive reasoning alone can provide. Among other things, it's this recognition that you can do everything right and still end up with invalid conclusions that makes all of scientific knowledge provisional (it holds unless and until it is replaced with better evidence) and contingent (hanging together as part of an integrated whole with other knowledge). You will, of course, hear statements made with absolute certainty, but that certainty comes from some place other than science. The fact that scientific knowledge is contingent and provisional does not, however, mean that it is totally random--that anything goes, and therefore, you can just make up anything you want and it will be every bit as valid as anything scientists have spent centuries testing. The idea that nothing has any meaning at all, so it doesn't really matter what you claim, is a kind of nihilism, and we're not going to indulge in nihilism here. Scientific knowlege always has a confidence level of how much we are sure it is true attached to it. That confidence level is never 100%--we are never totally certain without any doubt at all--but in many cases, it does get pretty close. We have tested that knowledge, and reliably repeated it so much that, for all practical purposes, we can proceed to build on it as though it were actually 100% certain. We can trust it as a safe enough platform in our climb to use it as a base for the next bit of knowledge, reasoning, or clinical decision-making. This is why the more extravagant claims of energy healers don't hold up--they contradict what we have spent centuries rigorously testing about how energy actually does work in the material physical universe. Principles and laws such as the inverse-square law and the laws of thermodynamics have held up so well under independent repeated testing by independent observers that we are as close to certain about them as we ever reasonably can get about anything. If energy really did work the way energy healers claim they operate, then the inverse-square law and the laws of thermodynamics would fail so spectacularly that the world around us would look very different from how it actually does. The fact that we can rely so reliably on these laws means that what the energy healers claim cannot be true--it is a clear decision point, where you have to make the decision whether you accept or deny material physical reality. Here's a couple of examples of how the universe around us would be very different if energy healing claims were true. Many energy healers claim that it does not matter how far away they are from the person they have intent to heal--that it's the same whether they're in the same room, or half a world away. Did you get close, so that it felt very, very hot? Did you get further away from the fire, far enough so that you could feel the cold night air? You didn't have to get very far away for that experience, did you? The heat and light energy from the fire drops off very quickly as you get further away. Would the effect of the fire be the same, whether it was in the same room, or half a world away? What kind of reasoning are we practicing here? Heat energy quickly gets less effective as we get further away from the source; light energy quickly gets less effective as we get further away from the source, therefore, if energy healing is really based on energy, we expect it to quickly get less effective as we get further away from the source. We are going from different examples of energy to derive a universal principle applying to all energy, so what kind of reasoning is that? Now that we have derived that universal principle, we apply it in the following way: The effect of physical energy falls off quickly with increasing distance from the source of the energy. Energy healers claim that what they practice is not affected by distance from them as the source. Therefore, what energy healers practice is not physical energy. In applying the general principle about energy to a particular example, what kind of reasoning are we practicing there? So--since they can't both be true at the same time--which one is right? Are the energy healers right, and every bit of physics knowledge multiple independent researchers have built up over centuries wrong? Or is the physics knowledge right, and the energy healers' explanations wrong in some way? Since you have to choose only one of them, which possibility is more plausible: more likely, more reliable, and more believable? Understanding these ideas--that not everything can simultaneously be true, that you really do have to choose between what is true and what is false, that scientific knowledge is never 100% certain but can at times get very close to that ideal--lays the groundwork for understanding the next form of logical reasoning we'll discuss. Abductive reasoning is sometimes called "reasoning to the best explanation", and we'll look at how that works. Abductive reasoning is difficult to describe concisely, or to teach, because it depends so much on what went before it. To use abductive reasoning, you have to have a solid multidisciplinary knowledge base. If you don't have that, then, from the outside, it looks like you're making things up, or changing the rules arbitrarily or unfairly. That's not really what's happening, but you can feel compassion for people who think that, because they don't see the entire process going on. It's like watching a far-away rock climber--you see them going in progression from hold to hold, but you don't see all the information they have up close that they are basing their decisions on in the moment. And you can't just teach it easily, because it's not like a vending machine, where you always put the exact information in, and you get exactly the same answer in return. These aspects of abductive reasoning can make it challenging, both to observers outside the process, as well as to learners trying to come to grips with carrying it out. We can certainly sympathize with frustrations at that challenge, yet all we can do is to try to connect the dots, and be as transparent as possible about the process, to assist those who come along afterwards in understanding why decisions are made in the way they are. If you don't care where you're going, it doesn't matter which way you set out. If, on the other hand, you care about going to the "best" explanation, then you have to know what that means in order to plan your journey to get there. It's a complex question, not one that we can just answer by rote. Let's work through it by examples, and try to get larger principles out of those examples for the next situation that comes along. Just like we had the classic "Socrates is a mortal" and "All swans are white" examples for deductive and inductive reasoning, there is a classic example of abductive reasoning that we can share with generations of people who studied these questions before us. "The lawn is wet, so it must have rained last night" is an example frequently used to show abductive reasoning. We have an observable, empirical, tangible fact: the lawn is wet. We don't know why the lawn is wet, so we try to draw a hypothesis to account for our observation. There are many possibilities that could become hypotheses: It could have rained last night. Someone could have poured water on the lawn, accidentally or on purpose. A passing water truck could have sprung a leak. There are lots of other possibilities as well, limited only by our imaginations. If all of those possibilities are equally good as explanations, then we are stuck--we remain unable to develop a causal explanation that we can then test to see whether or not that explanation is correct. But not all possibilities are equally good as explanations--some are ruled out by patterns in our observation. Others are ruled out, as we saw with the energy-healing claim, by centuries of shared human knowledge about the way the physical universe works--for those explanations to be true, our universe would have to look and act totally different than it does now. So we can rule out explanations like that as well, never with 100% certainty, but with enough certainty to operate on for now. Starting out as a brand-new student in first grade at the age of 6, I was absolutely, madly, deeply in love with my teacher, Miss Kirby. I would have done anything at all to get her to think highly of me. So I told her about my brand-new baby brother that my parents brought home from the hospital. She was very interested to hear that I was now the big girl in the family, and told me that I must be very proud. I assured her that I was really a very good big sister. I told her about how my baby brother escaped from his crib after my parents brought him home, and how he climbed a tree and got stuck up there, and how I had to go rescue him. I told her I saved my little brother all by myself, and Miss Kirby reassured me that I was, indeed, a very good big sister. Not long after that, my parents and I were at the grocery store, where we ran into her doing her own shopping. She asked my parents about the new addition to the family, and that's when the facts came out: there was no new little brother. I had just made the entire story up to impress her, and make her think I was strong and brave. Which explanation more plausibly accounts for the facts of the matter? Unlike any other newborn in the history of the human race, my infant baby brother really had the cognitive skills to formulate an escape plan, and the motor skills to climb out of the crib, let himself out the door, and then climb a tree, or A little girl who doesn't know much about infant development tells a lie that makes herself look like a hero, in order to impress an adult whom she loves, and who she wants to think she is a very good girl. (Just to complete the story, I'll mention that no punishment ensued from this either at school or at home. All of the grownups understood why I had told that lie, and dealt with it in constructive ways that supported me in not needing to tell lies anymore just to impress beloved adults.) To figure out how plausible something is--not either a "true" or "false" answer, but values along a spectrum from "more plausible" to "less plausible"--you can't just look at it in isolation. You have to evaluate how well it fits into the integrated whole of everything else we know about. Abductive reasoning, getting at the best explanations for facts, draws on that plausibility as one of the pillars that supports it. To be able to evaluate that plausibility, we need to have a large, solid, and interdisciplinary knowledge base, and to know how the parts of that knowledge base integrate seamlessly with one another. This is not an easy task, and it can't just be reduced to vending-machine science. That's why it can look to people who are not in on the process as if scientists are making arbitrary choices about what they accept and what they reject. The scientists are making choices among possibilities, but unless you are close up to the process, you can't see the details of how they're doing it. The choices aren't arbitrary, but neither can they be easily summed up in a single concise one-size-fits-all formula, either. You may have been introduced to logic and reasoning in your previous education--different schools vary on whether they include it, and at what grade level they include it, if they do. If so, then some of this will look familiar to you--you've probably already encounted deduction and induction in school. If you haven't seen this material before, don't worry--we'll go over it in more depth, to make sure that these foundational concepts get the coverage they merit. And even if you have seen some of this before, I'm willing to venture that part of it is new to you as well. So we're all on a learning journey through this material together. Logic is the study of how we reason about things in the world around us. We use principles of logic to try to ensure that our methods of reasoning lead us to correct answers, rather than falling into traps that give us wrong answers. Deduction is a logical technique that takes us from general statements to specific ones, ensuring the correctness of our specific conclusion. The classic example of deductive reasoning taught in school is: All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal. For an example of deduction that is more relevant to massage, we could create the following: People who suffer from pain often benefit from massagea. Robertb has an upcoming surgical operation planned, and one of the side effects of the surgery will be post-operative pain. Therefore, Robert may benefit from massage after surgeryc. a We know this generally from the cumulative body of massage research evidence. b A specific client. c A valid recommendation for a specific client, based on what we know generally. So deductive reasoning is one way that we can take general principles from research evidence, and apply those principles for the benefit of specific clients. One of the strengths of deductive reasoning is that--if the assumptions you start with are true--then you will definitely reach a correct, or valid, conclusion. But deductive reasoning, as solid as it is, will only take us so far. It's a good start, but it's not going to be enough for real-life clinical decision-making. We're going to need additional tools to help our processes get beyond the very first level. Inductive reasoning, in a way, is the mirror image of deductive reasoning: it starts with specific knowledge, and aims to draw conclusions about general principles from that specific knowledge. Induction is the process of observing many specific instances, and abstracting--making a generalization about what those instances have in common with each other. For example, the sun has come up every day in the past since humans have begun observing it, so on that basis we reason, inductively, that it will rise tomorrow as well. An famous example of inductive reasoning in clinical observation and decision-making in recent history took place in the early 1980s, when primary healthcare providers began noticing a dramatic increase in young gay male patients presenting in clinic with an unusual kind of tumor--Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), a relatively uncommon condition usually found in older men of Mediterranean heritage. At first, it seemed like it might be a coincidence, but at some point the number of cases reached critical mass for a real phenomenon, rather than just chance. Clinicians wrote up their observations in medical journal articles like the following, for other clinicians to compare their own observations against, and to share their own observations and knowledge. Kaposi's sarcoma, a multicentric malignant neoplasm, occurs in certain geographic areas in the world. It is most common in Equatorial Africa and Eastern Europe. The annual incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma in the United States is between 0.021 and 0.061 per 100,000 persons. The appearance of an outbreak of Kaposi's sarcoma in young homosexual men in New York and California is a new and unique phenomenon. Certain differences are already recognized between the disease in these young men and the ordinary Kaposi's sarcoma. Herein we report our observations of the first 10 cases of Kaposi's sarcoma in young homosexual men. In these patients, the disease follows an aggressive clinical course characterized by widespread skin lesions with early involvement of the lymph nodes. In some of these patients, the result was death in a short period of time after initial diagnosis. In addition, cytomegalovirus infections were seen in these patients, which suggests at least a possible association between this viral and the disease. An outbreak of KS has been observed in young homosexual men. These patients are different from those with classical KS for the following reasons: 1. geographic distribution (clustering in New York and California); 2. age (younger, mean--39 years); 3. higher incidence; 4. sexual preference (homosexual); 5. distribution of skin lesions (face, upper extremities, trunk); 6. lymph node involvement; 7. visceral lesions; 8. associated opportunistic infections (Pneumocystis carinii, toxoplasmosis); 9. history of sexually-transmitted diseases (hepatitis, syphilis, gonorrhea); and 10. aggressive course of the disease. Awareness of these features of the new KS will enable the practitioner to better recognize this important, emerging disease. The clinical findings in eight young homosexual men in New York with Kaposi's sarcoma showed some unusual features. Unlike the form usually seen in North America and Europe, it affected younger men (4th decade rather than 7th decade); the skin lesions were generalised rather than being predominantly in the lower limbs, and the disease was more aggressive (survival of less than 20 months rather 8-13 years). All eight had had a variety of sexually transmitted diseases. All those tested for cytomegalovirus antibodies and hepatitis B surface antigen of anti-hepatitis B antibody gave positive results. This unusual occurrence of Kaposi's sarcoma in a population much exposed to sexually transmissible diseases suggests that such exposure may play a role in its pathogenesis. Those observations pointed to what we later recognized as the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the developed world. Inductive reasoning based on observations that young gay men were presenting with these unusual symptoms in clinic helped alert clinicians that other young gay men (and, later, other population groups at well) might be at particular risk from whatever was causing this new disease. It is quite possible, with the efforts at case report repository-building going on here at POEM and elsewhere (like the Massage Therapy Foundation), that someday MTs will be able to put together observations made by multiple therapists in multiple distributed clinical locations, and--through a similar process of inductive reasoning--will be able to derive more general knowledge from those specific individual instances. But unlike deductive reasoning, which--if the beginning assumptions are true--will lead to correct conclusions, there is a degree of uncertainty about the validity of conclusions arrived at through inductive reasoning. Using inductive reasoning, it is possible to begin with true observations, follow the procedure correctly, and yet arrive at false conclusions anyway. This is just a risk we take when abstracting from specific instances to general principles. The claim that "All swans are white" is definitively disproved by the existence of one black swan. That's easy enough. But what does it take to prove the claim that all swans are white? One white swan is a good start. Another white swan is also good. Three white swans--so far, so good. Have we proved that all swans are white? Three is not very many, after all. How many white swans in a row do we need to find in order to prove that all swans are white? .....? The problem is that no number of white swans will ever be enough for us to be 100% certain that the next swan won't be black. And it only takes one black swan to disprove the entire claim. Let's use the white swan as a metaphor for something you might observe in clinic. Let's say you provide pregnancy massage, and among your clients, you have noticed what seems to you to be a trend--the older the mother is in her first pregnancy, the worse her self-reported nausea and vomiting appears to be. In the same way, the younger the mother is, the less nausea and vomiting she reports. Does that mean that you can accurately tell how much nausea and vomiting the next new pregnancy massage client you see will report having, based on her age? Maybe you can, and maybe you can't--you could have yet another white swan in a row. Alternatively, this new client might be your first black swan, breaking the trend you had observed up until she arrived. That's a problem for induction, as compared to deduction, which provides us much more certainty when reasoning from the general to specific instances. After all, induction, abstraction, and generalization led clinicians to reach out to other gay males at potential risk for the disease, but fallacies based on those generalizations also led to discrimination and blame against them for the disease, as well. Deductive and inductive reasoning certainly have important purposes they can serve in clinical decision-making, yet, by themselves, they are not enough to provide us with all the validated information and support we need. There is another form of reasoning that we can call on as well, one that goes some way toward meeting that need. But this post is already quite long, and this is a good place to end it for nowfact thatThere are at least three ways, maybe even many more, to approach the practice of massage--as healthcare profession, as self-expression, and as business. Of course, no one approaches it exclusively one way or another--even healthcare professionals, mystics, and artists have to make a living, professional ethics in business are a thriving area of exploration, and the feeling of self-actualization can be the key to a long and fulfilling career no matter what other aspects of massage you pursue. These aren't self-contained monocultural boxes you find yourself in, so much as they are tendencies, one way or another. The interactions among those tendencies, and the choices you prioritize, will influence where you find yourself in the space of massage practice. In this illustration, practitioners A, B, and C all find themselves in different areas of massage practice space, because of the different blends of healthcare professional, self-expression, and business orientations they bring to their practice. Meaning, too, has multiple aspects, including: the ideas we have about the universe around us, and the feelings and reactions those ideas draw out of us; the words, or terms, that we use to talk about those ideas; and the material physical things in the universe that those ideas and words refer to. Since all of these aspects interact with and influence each other, we can model them as a triangle, with the three connected corners representing concepts/ideas, words/terms, and material physical referents. Looking at the relationships among components of the Semantic Triangle, it is easy to see how referents can influence concepts: for example, Wilma--a sun bear at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, who no one suspected was positively riddled with tumors, but who held on just long enough to wean her twin cubs onto solid food before suddenly dying from the cancer--is a real-life referent whose fortitude while suffering reinforces the concept of "bear as good mother". Sometimes the referent's behavior, in addition to influencing concepts associated with a term, can actually influence the chosen or constructed term itself: the Russian for bear, медведь (pronounced "myed-vyed"), comes from the linguistic roots for "honey-eater" (our word "mead" for honey wine, comes from the same root as "мед"). And, like in the English term "bruin" ("the brown one"), it's also an example of intentional misdirection, and an indication of the beliefs behind it--bears can be scary, especially way back in history at the time when we were first deciding on words to describe the world around us. To the people who came up with these terms, it may well have seemed safer to use taboo avoidance, just to be sure. Taboo avoidance means, in this case, a kind of magical thinking where it seems more prudent to refer to bears by euphemistic terms like "honey-eater (Russian)", "honey-paw (mesikämmen: Finnish)", or "the brown one (English)", rather than to get this scary animal's attention by outright saying "bear" in one of those languages, and running the risk of summoning angry supernatural bears down upon the speaker. It's not immediately obvious how influence flows the other way—that is, how concepts and terms can affect real-world referents—but a little thinking about it provides some examples. If someone thinks of bears as dangerous predators, they may lobby for laws allowing bear hunts, with real consequences to the referent bears themselves. However, assigning the term "endangered species" puts bears under particular legal protections, which could prevent their being hunted, saving the lives of actual bears. So words, concepts, and real material physical referents all influence each other in the meaning we make of this universe around us. And that meaning that we make, and decisions based on that meaning, influence where in massage practice space we find ourselves. Although we often think of anatomy as strictly scientific, that's not always how people use anatomical terms and concepts. Gil Hedley writes: The superficial fascia is an organ: it is an organ of metabolism, an endocrine organ producing some 30 hormones and counting; a great lymphoid organ; a sensory organ; a sensual organ; an electrical insulator; a thermal insulator; a movement sleeve; and a great antennae... what else? Tell me!! And people did tell him. Responses included: "All is fascia." Microtubulars of liquid light .....-:- Information super-highway......pure communication. It's a Gigantic "Soft Drive", information collection unit...completely unique to each host...only to exist for One Lifetime. Non specific immune function, and groovy to to work:-) And a information webcam The "copper wire - like" conduction system for sub atomic vibration of photons and electrons in cell communication. Hedley continues to engage in the comments, but he does not correct any of the factual errors that either he or his commenters make. What, exactly, is this process? It's not anatomical science--most of the discussion is, at best, highly metaphorical and allegorical, and at worst, factually wrong. Clearly, it's meeting a huge need among his commenters, though: Yes! Your fascia discoveries are inspiring :) Thanks for continuing to inspire the bodywork field. Blessings! We are amazing! If it is not science that Hedley is carrying out, then what is he doing? I don't think he would object to this taxonomic classification, based on what he's said about his philosophy: Science to me is another religion among many, whose dogmas I am attempting to shed. He isn't particularly concerned about doing science for the sake of knowledge. That's perfectly fine, as long as we're all clear about what the process is about. If it's validation, or self-expression, or performance art that you're looking for, that's exactly what you're getting, and there's nothing wrong with that. Consenting adults, caveat emptor, and all that. If it's anatomical science you want, on the other hand, not only is this not what you're looking for, but taking it at face value will get in the way of your actual understanding of the structure and function of the body. This is where he makes an actually misleading statement: I can do a much better job ripping into my own stuff than that particular critic [Paul Ingraham], and recently did so in front of 600 colleagues at the fascia congress in Vancouver, and will gladly do so again to move the knowledge base forward! Propagating ideas such as that the superficial fascia is an endocrine organ, or that cells communicate with each other by means of photons and electrons, without correcting those factual errors, doesn't move the knowledge base forward at all. Instead, it sends a loud message to potential colleagues in healthcare professions that we aren't interested in, or are even actively hostile to, knowledge and reality. This matters very much on an individual level, and on a professional level as well. One of the biggest obstacles to MTs becoming part of an integrated healthcare team is our inability to distinguish pseudoscience from science, and metaphor from literal truth. If we remedy those problems, we can share in the common knowledge base of healthcare professions, and we can participate in sending a unified message to the client/patient. If we don't, then we can't. It's a decision we all need to make at the individual level, and those individual decisions will determine the fate of MT as an integrative healthcare profession, a siloed alternative medicine industry, or something else altogether. What would an examination of these questions look like from the viewpoint of anatomical science? The first, and most inportant, distinction between science and other human activities is that--rather than just operating in the realms of words and concepts--science has to do the work of connecting claims back to actual referents in the material physical universe. So, for our claims, we will do that work as we go along. A commenter on a different forum asked: Why is Gil's comment so far fetched? She's quite correct--I have made the claim that Hedley's work is performance art or some other form of self-expression, rather than anatomical science, and now it's my job to connect the dots and show why my claim is correct. For the sake of time, let's just examine one part of the statement; it's representative of the same problems in the rest of it. "The superficial fascia is an organ: it is an organ of metabolism, an endocrine organ producing some 30 hormones and counting" What is he referring to? He clarifies that later on in the comments to his post: Fair enough--he gets the details right the second time. But he doesn't go back and correct his first statement to make it right. By saying "superficial fascia...is an endocrine organ" there, he is confusing: structure (connective tissue versus glandular epithelial tissue) with function (protein secretion), as well as structure (endocrine) with function (secretion), and identity with parts/wholes: equating all of the superficial fascia (adipose tissue + loose areolar connective tissue) with only that part of it that actually secretes proteins (adipose tissue). So he's at the wrong level of abstraction when he says superficial fascia--he means adipose tissue. Sounds like a picky little detail, doesn't it? And yet, it's a symptom of a lack of true understanding about anatomy. This lack of true understanding about anatomy is a mistake that propagates among the MT community like wildfire--the very first thing you learn on the very first day of the very first anatomy class is the four kinds of tissue, right? Epithelial, connective, nervous, and muscle tissue, right? And yet, all over the web, you see people selling the concept that "body tissue can carry emotional memory", and MTs buying it, as though they had never heard of the distinction between epithelial and muscle tissue and nervous tissue. Those MTs can recite the names of those tissues to pass a multiple-choice test, yet they can't put the very first thing taught in anatomy class into practice when it comes to evaluating anatomical knowledge claims. Being careless about the distinctions between different kinds of connective tissue, and what they are structurally, versus how they function, is exactly the same kind of error. It prevents scientific understanding and real anatomical reasoning. As I mentioned previously, Hedley has been widely quoted as saying in his video that science is just another belief system, whose dogmas he's trying to shed. The way he talks about anatomy, it is clear that he is not approaching it as science, nor bothering to get the scientific details correct. As a direct result, it comes across more as art or another form of self-expression, which is fine, as long as people know that that's what it is, and not anatomical science. But I don't get the sense that people actually realize it; I think they think that's anatomical science they're doing, and it's a long way from it. The "tell"s are comments like this one: The "copper wire - like" conduction system for sub atomic vibration of photons and electrons in cell communication. The words come from science, but they way they are strung together makes no sense. This is not a scientist nor a scientifically-trained layperson talking, yet salting the sentence with sciency words is, for some reason, important to the writer. That indicates that the writer thinks they're making scientific sense, and really has no idea what science is and isn't. Another, shorter way, to look at it is like this: confusing connective tissue with superficial fascia with adipose tissue and saying that connective tissue is an endocrine organ is the same kind of error as saying that mammals fly. It's true that one kind of mammal--bats--do fly. But despite that one corner case, if you say that mammals fly, you'll be wrong most of the time. If he is saying that adipose tissue is an endocrine organ, then he's using the term wrong, because adipose tissue is not an organ. Superficial fascia, on the other hand, is an organ, but only one of its components has an endocrine function, so again, he's using terminology wrong: it's not an endocrine organ, although one of its components has an endocrine function. I did miss Gil's larger comment section and I am very glad you spent the time to explain the error and confusion of superficial fascia vs endocrine function of adipose tissue, which Gil is confusing with superficial fascia. Thank you. But I must ask.... The primary function of the heart is circulatory yet it does have an endocrine function. I understand from Anatomy Trains, Fascia is highly innervated. Could it be possible fascia has more of a role than just stabilization? Especially when it is dysfunctional? I think the role of fascia has not been studied well enough. Just a few years ago, science told us once a brain cell dies, it is gone forever. Now we understand neurogenesis better. The questioner raises excellent questions, and I am glad they did so, as it gives us an opportunity to explore these issues in more depth. It is true that sometimes scientific knowledge changes--so what does that mean for us here and now? We'll examine these questions one by one, to try to figure out what is going on here. Joseph Altman questioned these concepts and ways of speaking about the nervous system, and as evidence for his claims, he introduced a material physical referent: the tangible new neural cells in the actual cerebral cortex. However, Altman and others' actual evidence with its connection to a referent was ignored in favor of the prevailing concepts and words. The neuroscience community screwed up--that's not how science is supposed to work. Eventually, it did self-correct to more represent reality, but it took too long to do so. But it didn't totally overturn their theories--if you're quadriplegic, for example, we still don't know how to make those nerves regenerate. And there are parts of the brain where they have observed neurogenesis, and others where they didn't. So they were partly right, and partly wrong, and they held onto their theories for too long--but like the connective tissue example, and like the flying mammals example, you need to be very clear about the details of what exactly you are talking about--exactly what kind of connective tissue, exactly what part of the superficial fascia, exactly which nerve cells, in exactly what part of the brain. Otherwise, you fall into unsound--false--conclusions like the "mammals fly" one. That's the error that Hedley falls into--he gives names to things, and makes up explanations, without making any attempt to validate the connection of those names and explanations to material physical referents in reality. It's perfectly acceptable in art or other forms of self-expression to not be constrained by any connection to a material physical referent. But science requires that connection, and since Hedley doesn't supply it, it's not science that he's practicing. Nothing more and nothing less than that. The primary function of the heart is circulatory yet it does have an endocrine function. That's correct. Does that make it an endocrine organ? To answer that, we would need to clarify what an endocrine organ (a gland) is. An endocrine organ is composed of glandular epithelium. Are the cardiac myocytes that produce the hormones atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) made up of glandular epithelium? What does the answer to those questions tell us about whether the heart is an endocrine organ? When you answer that question, then you have stepped through the process of anatomical reasoning. And you have generated a piece of new knowledge as well--the answer to the question "are glands (endocrine organs) the only anatomical structures that produce hormones?". You were able to do that because you maintained the difference between structure and function, and between part and whole that is absolutely necessary if you are going to figure out correct answers about new anatomical questions that you do not already know the answer to beforehand. Hedley's descriptions don't support anatomical reasoning to correct answers, because of the way he substitutes parts for wholes, and structure for function. He can make any statement he wants, but you cannot put those statements together and use them to reason with, in the way you did here. And sound and complete logical reasoning is absolutely necessary in anatomy, because there are so many facts that you cannot memorize all of them by rote. You have to learn enough anatomy to form a basis, and then use that basis for drawing correct conclusions as you need them. So how do I know my definitions are 100% right, and his aren't? First, I don't ever know anything 100%. But the way I am using anatomy, I am not only drawing on centuries of actual anatomical history, and distinctions that we can empirically detect with microscopes and other instruments (referents), but I am drawing on an integrated whole with other sciences and logic as well. The fact that it works so well in generating new knowledge through reasoning is an indicator that this way of dividing up hormone producers between endocrine glands and things that are not endocrine glands, is more likely to be 99% right--and thus, not to change abruptly out from under us--than it is to be 60% right, and we'll have to make massive adjustments someday. I understand from Anatomy Trains, Fascia is highly innervated. Could it be possible fascia has more of a role than just stabilization? Especially when it is dysfunctional? Yes, it could be possible. You could form a hypothesis with that question, and you could test it, and you could accumulate evidence that backed up that hypothesis. And you would be carrying out science when you did that. And when you have done that, and you have shown that your hypothesis is backed up by the evidence, then we can consider that it's part of our knowledge--how certain we are about it will depend on the evidence, but at least we trust it to some degree.\| But that only counts after it's been done. Before it's actually been done, and repeated, and other explanations for what we see have been ruled out, then it's really just marketing hype. That can change, if the work is done to back it up. But fascia research is very preliminary right now. Have you ever driven really fast at night, so fast that your stopping distance got ahead of where your headlights could see? That's called "overdriving your headlights". Metaphorically, to speak of things with certainty before the work has been done to back those things up with evidence is like overdriving your headlights. It's great for ginning up enthusiasm, but you can't really use it to base anatomical reasoning on. But it's a good question, and maybe the evidence will back it up someday. We just can't act as though we're there already, because we've just started learning so much. To finish my thought I must say, Instant Ice and Kinesio Tape boggle my mind neither works directly to effect the muscle, yet tissue responds positively to them. Why do these techniques work? You're right that something happens that creates a response of some type, yet the muscles are too deep for them to be directly effected. What kinds of anatomical structure communicate both with superficial layers of skin, and with muscles as well? Fascia is one kind of structure; can you think of any others? That would be a very good candidate to begin looking at for answers. '"What kinds of anatomical structure communicate both with superficial layers of skin, and with muscles as well?" Sensory / Motor nerves come to mind, capillaries... As well as fascia.' Good answers. We know, from centuries of anatomy, that sensory nerves can carry pain signals, and that nerves can be blocked in various ways from carrying them, while capillaries don't carry pain signals. Hedley says that superficial fascia is "a sensory organ", but he doesn't offer any explanation of why he says that. It is a poetic metaphor, but it is not a fact that anatomical reasoning can be based on. It is a similar error to the part/whole of adipose tissue/superficial fascia--as you observed, fascia is highly innervated. Why would fascia duplicate that function itself, when it already contains tons of nerves doing that same job? "Okay, that can explain the instant ice, but kinesio tape? Primarily effects fascia, or others thoughts...?" I would say that, since: those modalities are directly contacting nerves, while the epidermis stands completely between them and the superficial fascia, blocking it from them, we know that nerves have that functionality, while there is absolutely no evidence that connective tissue does, and fascia already contains lots and lots of nerves, and there is no anatomical need for fascia to duplicate that function, that the evidence up till now, plus our anatomical reasoning about the anatomy we know, indicates that it is much more likely that the mechanism involves the nervous system to a much greater degree than it does the fascia. Now that we have an idea that is consistent with the anatomical evidence, we could do a literature search to see if others have investigated this question, or we could design a study of our own to test it. That doesn't mean that nobody will ever show any interesting properties of fascia. But from what we know now, to a very strong degree of certainty, it doesn't make sense to speculate about new properties that fascia might have, until and unless the research actually shows that that is true. It's up to you where you locate yourself in massage practice space. If you find self-expression or business to be your more natural fits, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that fact. If you find healthcare professional to be your more natural fit, then--for the sake ultimately of your clients--you have a higher obligation than others do to get the knowledge and the facts as close to correct as you possibly can. Anatomical science is crucial to the core of massage as a healthcare profession. If you are seeking anatomical science, then make sure that that is what you are actually getting. There is nothing wrong with seeking other things instead of anatomical science--you just want to make sure that you are very clear on what the difference is, and that you know yourself and what you are looking for, and know for sure what you are getting	eng	771e6d64-4dcb-4af1-94c6-bd39dbdcc020	http://poem-massage.org/category/site-tags/plausibilityprior-probability
Well, if it isn't a fake then Jesus was not anatomically correct. As you've seen on the shroud the man is lying with his hands covering his groin area. Now try it for youself. Lay down and cross your hands. Where do they cross? If you're like the rest of us they cross just below your navel. If this is a true picture of Jesus then he had gorilla arms that are 20% longer than the average humans. I think the most compelling evidence this is a fake (besides the fact that it has been reproduced time and time again with both pigments and with hot iron impression) is that neither the face nor body are distorted as you would find if a cloth was laid over a 3D figure...i.e. a body. When you drape a cloth over your face, you do not get a nice pretty image of a face in perfect proportion. The cloth would wrap around the edges of the head, creating a panoramic, stretched image which would have certainly included the sides of the cheek and jaw, the ears, etc. Same is true for the body, you would see the outer tricep area of the arms, the outer thigh area of the legs, the outer ankles. It becomes very clear this is simply a 2D drawing or impression. @Voter - that was a nice link you sent, but after looking at it I fail to see how it does anything to dissuade my argument. If you look closely at the diagram from that page you'll see that the average persons hands do hang down around the groin area when standing. However, when they're swung towards the middle of the torso while standing up straight or lying down, the hands move upwards (movement along arc since the arms are attached at a single pivot point at the shoulders) and join, as I previously described just below the navel. Obviously I did try and then went looking to find out why my according to you ape-like length arms didn't end up crossing over my navel instead of in the same position as whoever was supposedly laying under the shroud. Also don't forget you're looking at the picture as a flat object whereas my body isn't flat; is yours or is that something peculiar to me also? Dimensions are going to be skewed when you flatten out the shroud. Actually, most assume this to be the shroud of Turin. It may very well not be. So to all who are making accusations that Christ didn't rise from the dead based on this shroud; may in fact be jumping to false conclusions. Clearly this is another miracle that only seems to happen to catholics or joe smith,get a grip,read a King James Bible or other protestant Bibles and you will see that the shroud is just a money maker for the church, because the Bible makes it very clear that when Jesus was laid in the tomb,he was not covered with one cloth,when Mary and others came to clean Jesus's body as was done by Jewish custom at that time they found Jesus gone and the Angel said fear not as he who you seek is risen,and laying on the stone where Jesus laid was folded-cloth one for the body and a separate one for head,so please stop wasting our time. There is a separate head cloth that has been held by a relic for many centuries at a church in Spain with vetting that goes back even further than the Shroud of Turin. I believe that while one cloth went around the body, the other cloth was specific to the head - not necessarily an inconsistency. the man had the @!$%# beat out of him with all his ribs broken to speed up the drowning while crucified(hanging by your arms) that may have lead to a possibility he had abnormal arm structure. we can test it if you like,....you be Jesus and ill be a roman K? then we can see where you put your hands after the torment I have in store for you (under scientific testing of course) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 1) Coins on the eyes are dated to Pontius Pilate (man who condemned Jesus to death)'s time 2) There are abrasions on the shoulders from carrying the cross 3) There are blood stains from the crown of thorns (the crown of thorns was not a typical Roman punishment, this was done by the soldiers as a mockery of Jesus. This is further evidence that the man in the image is Jesus.) 4) There is a heart wound, and a pool of blood from the wound (Roman soldiers would have broken the legs of the victim to ensure death, not pierce his side. Scripture says Jesus' side was pierced.) 5) Image is only on top of the fibers 6) Blood stains are under the image, and it is real human blood 7) All wounds are precise and correct (This would have been extremely difficult, considering all the scourge marks.) 8) Pollen from the Holy Land was found on it 9) The weave of the shroud is typical of the first century 10) The nose of the man in the image is broken - A forger would not have broken the nose because the Bible says "not a bone of his shall be broken" (this quote is from a prophesy of Jesus), so the forger would have done what was expected. However, the nose is not a bone, it is cartilege. The results of the Carbon-14 testing are not valid because the piece of the shroud that scientists tested was taken from the outside, which was contaminated from being touched and handled for centuries. i actually had to try out your theory jimbo. my hands cover my groin crossed while standing or lying and i'm 5-9 and my knuckles don't drag the ground. you must be one of those munchkins, not the dunkin donuts kind, just a little human being. I have read all the comments. It comes down to whether you believe or not. It has nothing to do with a shroud. You can either accept or reject the existence of Christ. You all have free will, but remember with free will comes responsibility. There is a Holy Trinity. It is difficult even for Catholics to comprehend. That is why they call it faith. My concern is for America. BJP had a very good quotation. "A nation that kills its own children, is a nation without hope". Hey Silly, not to be rash but please name one civilization that wasn't founded on some sort of religious or faith principals. Also I don't think you can actually criticize a nation for its religious beliefs;faith has always under pinned the moral fabric of almost all civilizations, in all eras, at all times. You would not last long in a society without it. Try this experiment yourselves.... Using body paint, paint your face from ear to ear and from the crown of your head to your neck and, while the paint is still wet, lay or wrap cloth over your head. Allow enough time for some of the paint on your face to transfer to the cloth. Then uncover/wrap your head and take a look at the image with the cloth lying flat. What you will see is a stretched and distorted image of your face, not a symmetrical/normal image as is shown on the "shroud". Frankly, I find it amusing the way the worshipers of the new religion of science can make this argument. If science suggests something they agree with is true, then they will defend the findings to the death. However, when science can not disprove and actually lends credence something they abhor, in this case the existence of Christ, They come up with clearly unscientific results to do what science can not. The image is anatomically incorrect, when it is not. They duplicated it with dies and a flat iron, no they haven't. Even their lasers failed to "duplicate the image". Clearly no such devises existed 2000 years ago. To those who believe, no proof is necessary. To those who do not, none will suffice. In this time when "Special relativity" has been called into question, the very foundation of the physical laws, Is it possible that we mere mortals understand less than some would have us believe? I have two science degree and I have my faith, not to be confused with organized religion, Ergo, I can not be referred to a zealot on either side. A simple question to all those who hold the "Big bang" theorem as absolute truth Since all that is came into being from the explosion of a single super atom, somewhere in the pre-universe, tell me, Where did this super atom come from? It had to come from some where. Explain the basis of your truth, then perhaps I can look at it seriously. It is strangely coincidental that the "Big bang" theory is oddly like the description of creation in Genesis. read it, from the beginning to the seventh day, if the similarity is not obvious to you, then you are thicker than I thought. A description written down long before your science exited. Science has tried without success to disprove faith. As to all the answers, say it with me, "We don't know". look at all these atheist scientist wannabes with little to no background saying its fake. im laughing so hard right now. BTW if you look at the shroud of turin the head and body are way wide implying that it was lain over a 3 dimensional object (ie a person) if science cant disprove it going into the 21st century and its from the 13th or whatever century then its not fake you cant disprove it as fake cuz even if you did find a way to do it in the 30th century or some other time in the future you would still have to explain how it was done in the 13th century with their level of technology. if you cant do either of those two things then shut up. also to the whole atheist argument of ( religion causes all or most wars.) the truth its men with silver tongues use religion to manipulate stupid people into it. most religious people dont randomly feel the need to strap a bomb to their chest and go and meet their maker nor do i wake up and suddenly yearn to start a war with some ass-backwards country. the usual religious person is an honest person who helps where they can pays their bills or gets help when they cant and is the kinda person you just want to shake hands with. End Of Rant.. Interesting facts, if science could figure out an insects capability to move about we would solve transportation..If science could decipher how a Monarch can travel as per wight ratio and distance we could solve space travel. Everything is right here in front of us..I don't need a shroud to know that Jesus exists. Nickell clearly hasn't been up to date with his evidence. According to the many, many documentaries I've seen on the Shroud, scientists haven't been able to find any evidence of paint or artistic mediums on the cloth at all. I still don't get why scientists fight like dogs over the Shroud when clearly, it is still a scientific mystery. Hell, if humanity invents time-travel in the future, someone could have gone back in time with new technology and made the Shroud. @Stacey Peterson: Actually, if it is human blood, whether it be Jesus' or otherwise, the DNA would be far too degraded to do anything with but attempt to study and reconstruct, let alone clone the man back into existence. Hence, why scientists are having such a hard time trying to clone an 100-year-old-plus thylacine corpse back into existence. GMR21, coins over the eyes was actually a pagan ritual for the dead so that they could pay their way across the river from life to after life. As a Christian, I do not see Jewish people adhering to this burial ritual, though I could be wrong. Some very good comments on this thread (as well as some very ignorant ones). The above post is right on when it says "if you believe, you dont need proof and if you don't believe, nothing will ever satisfy your need for proof. Also stated above is what I have noticed as well regarding the similarities of the "Big Band Theory" and the first 7 days in genesis. Those that say with definite that God doesn't exist are just as ignorant as those that say, because God does exist then the Big Bang Theory is obsolete. Facts are facts. The facts prove that none of us know jack sh!t about the miracle of life. I trying to get the big picture here. There's a whole bunch of stuff where God loves the humans but they keep doing bad stuff. He wants to forgive them but snapping his fingers and forgiving them would not be dramatic enough. So he gets the idea to send his son down here, live a few years, do a few parlor tricks and get crucified. The rise from the dead. Flash a poloroid on a cloth. Voila sins are forgiven and the lovable humans have a nice snapshot to pass around on the internet. I like your description BW. If you had never heard this story as a child, as I did, you would wonder at its veracity. After careful deliberation, at the ripe old age of 14, I decided I was being lied to. I am 61 and still can't fathom how a loving God would need humans to torture His Son and kill him. Human sacrifice, as in murdering someone, isn't acceptable to the very people who think God did it. My children were taught a philosophy that is centered on the assumption that the purpose of human existence is to make the world a better place to live in. It was their choice if they wanted to believe in a God. Where my faith has never been restored, they both believe in a higher power. At 61, I find that my built in guidance system, based on my life experiences mirrors my philosophy and could have a divine component, but I seriously doubt it. The fact that I see so much animal instinct at play, in really everybody I know or have ever heard of, doesn't support a divine origin to life, in my estimation. What if you are the judge and your child is brought before the court. He/she has broken the law and the punishment must be enforced. You also know that there is no way he/she is able to pay for what they did. What do you do? You can't let him/her off, because otherwise sin will be rampant everywhere and yet, he/she is your child. So what is a parent to do? A good parent would do this. The judge (which is yourself) would first declare the child guilty, and then you would come down and pay the fine for your child. Which is exactly what God did through is son Jesus. Parents pay for their children all the time. It is not a new thing. So what makes you think that God would be any different. I think you missed the point in Christian theology that says Jesus is God e.g. the Holy Trinity. God sacraficed Himself, as Christ Jesus, to atone for the sins of mankind. It's a difficult concept to grasp (The Trinity) but Jesus willingly went to the cross, according to the Bible. God didn't need humans to torture and kill His Son, we did. It was done for us, not God. I'm sure people will try and argue this, say it's a fairlytale or whatever, but the fact is, it's Christian theology that makes this point. Fact or fiction, that's for you to decide. If I'm wrong, God help me. If I'm right, God help those to don't believe. The Human Race fell because they were goaded into disobedience. Indeed by the fatal error of not obeying him and trusting him, we deserved punishment and unless we are reformed (something we cannot do ourselves effectively) we should not be trusted. How just would God be, if he didn't give us a chance to return. Notice, you aren't forced to come to him, like he is going to starve your or sofocate you. Though the Bible does say that for God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day... (What is "3 days" for you and me might very well be much longer for an "infinite being" who transcends space and time. BTW - I think the "shroud" is pretty much a "non-issue" - how does anyone know (for sure) what Jesus of Nazareth looked like? There is no real detailed description of Him in the Bible, so when they call it a "Christ-like" image, are they not just going off of traditional European art based ideas of what He looked like? Sure unhappy and if the kid is sentenced to jail the parent can show up and go to jail instead? No, that is not justice just like a parent paying a kids fine isn't justice. And lets say the sentence was death so the parent comes down and dies to pay the kids sin, then they take the body in back and do CPR and bring them back to life... Is the crime still paid for? If they execute a criminal and then bring them back would that be justice? Would everyone be ok with that? No, if Jesus died for our sins he has to STAY DEAD, if he comes back then the sacrifice is null and void! And what kind of stupid deal is that? I mean he didn't DIE for your sins he had a @!$%#ty weekend and then he comes back as GOD? Heck let me make that sacrifice PLEASE! It's a ridiculous story and the world needs to get over these superstitions! If God created the universe (and you and me) and wants to provide a way to satisfy both His justice and His mercy - that's His option (His universe, His rules- he could have just left us to face His wrath and justice with no chance for redemption) - but like the Bible points out, we like to think that we are "god" and think that we should get to decide what rules God and the universe and everyone should have to operate under. Who says that if Jesus (being God in the flesh) died that he should "stay dead"? If He is an eternal being, and doesn't stay dead forever, so what? Since when do we get to make the rules? After all, the Bible says that even us humans won't "stay dead forever", but will stand before God after we die - so why should Jesus be treated any less than us humans? If we don't "stay dead forever", why should He? The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, was a blood sacrifice for the sin of all of man kind. Before Christ the Hebrew people traveled to the temple in Jerusalem on the Passover, a celebration of their exodus from captivity in Egypt. Here they offered a sacrifice of their first fruit, in other word they offered their best. The lamb, dove an/or other blood offering had to be with out spot or blemish. Christ was the lamb of God. A sacrifice without spot or blemish. However his crucifixion is but one part of salvation, it is Jesus Resurrection on the third day where power over death had it's victory. See if Jesus would not have risen then he would not have been God in the flesh and we would still be dead in sin. However when Jesus raised from the dead he made us joint airs with him raising us with him as son's and daughters of God. The spiritual doctrine of Christianity is a complex belief. It is important that one study it to understand before trying to critique it. See nothing is understood until one study to know the depth of a doctrine or any written knowledge. This being stated know this, Christianity can not be understood by the carnal mind of man. It is spiritually discerned. In that doctrine it is written that God uses the simple thing of the world to confound the mind of the wise. So if you are truly inquisitive, study to show yourself approved unto GOD! a true workman who need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. II Timothy. 2:15 as far as the cloth, it is irrelevant. It can do nothing, save nor condemn. Some see the relics and the reverence they esteem as graven images and idolatry. Again the relics do nothing on their own, it is the actions of men and their behavior that go astray. Christianity Muslims Jews. All have some odd beliefs to them. I think religion in itself is Cult like. That is not Jesus in that cloth. It is a fake. And if I want to talk to God i'll do what Jesus did and what Ghandi did. I go to the source. Not to some intermediary Priest or scholar. If we do not go within our own souls we go without. Humans can feel when they are doing something against their nature. Some just do not care to listen. Every religion has its good and bad in it. None is better than any other. Plus was Jesus not a rebel. He was accused of unheard of crimes for saying he was the son of GOD. Then we all are gods kids. According to Jesus he is our equal. Obviously, you don't understand the teachings of God. There is a trinity. God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. All parts of the whole. God is not a human. Christ is God in human form. God had given mankind everything yet was disobeyed. He couldn't understand why these beings he had created acted as they did. He sent Christ(in essence, his human incarnation) to earth. Christ Jesus experienced everything as we humans do...temptation etc., etc., etc. In this way he embodied all mankind. When he gave his life for our sins, he symbolically represented all of us. If you have read anything of the Bible, you will know that God had made a promise not to destroy man again after the great flood. Anyway, don't just listen to others read the Bible yourselves. You can just read it as a pretty good yarn if you want. But if you take some of its lessons away and read it in the context of history and time, you just might learn something profound. I think the world needs a little moral teaching in this day and time. I can most identify with the post by Softdude. I was raised in middle Georgia and we were in those pews on Sundays--every Sunday. Even as a child I questioned the existence of a god. I watched the politics within the church and knew everyone knew everyone's business--and talked about it constantly. The accepted norm that I saw in the Baptist Church was the spoken word of racial biases. On a Sunday morning in 1966 there was a peaceful march that went right down past the church. The deacons were lining the sidewalk in front of the church with baseball bats. Someone with different color skin weren't welcome in their house of worship. Somehow I wasn't able to grasp how a church of people could call themselves "Christ Like" when their actions were contrary to everything I had read in that small gift bible with my name inscribed in gold. As I've aged I'm even more amazed by the acts that have been committed in the name of such a historically passive human. I really don't think that simple man of the people would dig that "Pope Mobile", the pomp and ceremony, nor the robes and glitter. I had this old dearly departed friend that was an attorney. He used this comment "It's like a fellow that kills his parents asking for the mercy of the courts due to his status as an orphan." He was a Christian and had the a philosophy about his spiritual life. Don't scream it out loud, put it in other people's faces--the "go unto thy closets and pray", translating to have your private relationship with your god. Stop the banter of "We're a Christian nation", Jews are incomplete Christians, and the hatred of Muslims. It's contradictory to every word that I read of Jesus, the pacifist and Liberal that was 100% a 99% er. This is you folks time of the year---do some good. Actually, Jesus' purpose here was to keep us from dying in mortal sin, By His birth is GOD's gift to a sinning world and by His death all men are saved if you accept the fact that GOD's Son is Jesus. God promised the Jews an eternal heir to HIS Kingdom. But the Jewish people turned their back on Him because some men in the temple said so. So then after Jesus' death, He comes back to tell His disciples to go out all over the world spreading in words what they learned from Him. If they believed His teachings were so, then it was so. Jesus gives us examples to follow. He said that when we pray to pray like He did to his Father. We are not suppose to be using His prayer, but to follow His prayer as a guide. This brings to another thing. Islam and Lutheran Religions was set at the same time. Martin Luther didn't exactly believed like the Romans believed and Mohammad didn't believe that there is an eternal heaven, but he did believe that there was only one GOD to made all things. Both made their own religions. Both were scholars of the Roman Catholic. About the shroud, it needs to be a fact as where the shroud came from as evidence to Jesus' death. If it came from Israel or a part of Palestine, then it may have been Jesus'. Jesus died in the year 28 a. d.. How this was calculated was from dates in the Bible of Kings and other events. He had to be born in 4 b. c. in February and not December. One has to remeber that our calendars were not around when Jesus was around. What if the shroud was found in Italy or Spain? The shroud could have belonged to one of the apostles, maybe Luke. If Spain, then it was possible of Paul (Saul). My opinion of Luke, because Luke was a doctor. I beleive in Jesus as my personal Savior, who died for me and gave me the chance to have Eternal Life. oddly enough ive had the same issue for years, couldnt understand the concept of god, as defined by mainstream religion, it wasnt until i was able to shake that off, that i was able to experience true inner peace. After so much time studyin science, quantam mechanics, string theory, and the like, as ive delved deep into the inner workings of science keeping an open mind for the prospect of god, not as defined by men, but as defined by my own search for him or her (or it?) ive finally come to the conclusion that god is real, what he/she/it is or what he/she/it wants from us is still a mystery to me, but ive finally understood that god is real, not from blindly following what a man tells me, but from my own honest search for him/her/it. if you truly are willing to still your mind and listen for him/her/it you will find what you seek. proof of god is deep in the scientific details, only those scientists who dont want to find god are saying they dont see god. Einstein was right when he said "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Fudge: Jesus was NOT guilty and that's the main point of Christianity. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Therefore, if you read the Old Testament, you will see time and again how the people had to sacrifice a lamb, bird, whatever, in order to shed the blood. What sin was the lamb guilty of? Nothing! They took an innocent to accept the sin of the person being absolved. In this case, the Lamb that must be without blemish was God's own Son. He knew in order to absolve the sin of man once and for all, the Lamb used must be very special and the only One worthy of this was Jesus. You think He really wanted to go through that??? Absolutely NOT. He even said Himself if there is any other way, then let this pass from me. If Jesus was lying about who He said He was, would He take that lie all the way to the cross? I know people who wouldn't want to be locked in jail for the sake of a lie. Do you think Jesus would WANT to die in this manner for the sake of a lie? The most horrific manner of death at the time? Do you know anyone who would? Would YOU? I know I sure wouldn't! No lie is worth death, especially death on the cross, but He did it. He did it for everyone, including you, even if you don't believe it. Religious belief is, by definition, a matter of faith. Meaning, of course, that it is built around things that can never be 'proven' via scientific investigation. The whole concept of God (or gods), creation, miracles, anything supernatural; these are all things that are outside of science (super-natural). In science, if a theory is not consistent with observation, the theory is discarded or perhaps revised. In religion, if observation is not consistent with the theory, you throw out the observations and continue to accept the theory on faith alone. They are mirror images of each other. I do not personally understand why people always try to 'prove' religious dogma with science. Either you accept it based on faith, or you don't. Science will never be able to prove religious dogma. Science cannot prove or disprove most religious claims, but it can prove something is not what it is claimed to be...like the shroud. Science showed it was made in the 15th century (or thereabouts) and thus 15 centuries or so too late to be what it claims to be. Every battle where science and religion were on oppoiste sides, science wins. Science was never supposed to be a competition. Science can only adjust as when indisputable facts are ascertained. The problem with science today is the same as it has been for years. Humans are running it, and we are full of errors. Ferro, The earliest mention of the shroud was by Pope Stephen III (reigned 752 to 757 CE). It's been proven that the fibers used for the carbon-14 testing came from a medeval rewoven (repaired) corner of the shroud. I don't have a strong belief of the origin of the shroud, but anyone who still believes the carbon-14 dating was accurate ought to belong to the Flat Earth Society. Ironically, many early "scientists" worked under the assumption that if God is a god of order and created the universe, then that universe must operate by certain orderly principles ("laws" of nature, physics, etc.) and would therefore be able to be discovered and understood. After all, if the universe were truly chaotic and born of chaos, there would be no logical reason to assume that it would operate by any fixed "laws" or that it could be understood (there would be no "rhyme or reason" to how or why it operated as it did). Also of interest is the mention of carbon-dating, which is far from perfectly reliable. A critical assumption used in carbon-14 dating has to do with the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12? If the production rate of 14C in the atmosphere is not equal to the removal rate (mostly through decay), this ratio will change. In other words, the amount of 14C being produced in the atmosphere must equal the amount being removed to be in a steady state (also called "equilibrium"). If this is not true, the ratio of 14C to 12C is not a constant, which would make knowing the starting amount of 14C in a specimen difficult or impossible to accurately determine. Dr. Willard Libby, the founder of the carbon-14 dating method, assumed this ratio to be constant. His reasoning was based on a belief in evolution, which assumes the earth must be billions of years old. Assumptions in the scientific community are extremely important. If the starting assumption is false, all the calculations based on that assumption might be correct but still give a wrong conclusion. In Dr. Libby's original work, he noted that the atmosphere did not appear to be in equilibrium. This was a troubling idea for Dr. Libby since he believed the world was billions of years old and enough time had passed to achieve equilibrium. Dr. Libby's calculations showed that if the earth started with no 14C in the atmosphere, it would take up to 30,000 years to build up to a steady state (equilibrium). If the cosmic radiation has remained at its present intensity for 20,000 or 30,000 years, and if the carbon reservoir has not changed appreciably in this time, then there exists at the present time a complete balance between the rate of disintegration of radiocarbon atoms and the rate of assimilation of new radiocarbon atoms for all material in the life-cycle. Dr. Libby chose to ignore this discrepancy (nonequilibrium state), and he attributed it to experimental error. However, the discrepancy has turned out to be very real. The ratio of 14C /12C is not constant. The Specific Production Rate (SPR) of C-14 is known to be 18.8 atoms per gram of total carbon per minute. The Specific Decay Rate (SDR) is known to be only 16.1 disintegrations per gram per minute. Is the shroud the image of Jesus?? Really it doesn't make any difference to me whether it is or isn't. I don't worship a shroud. Jesus is not my savior because I'm afraid of going to Hell. Jesus is my savior because God called me and I accepted Jesus as my savior. Not everyone will accept His invitation. Scripture makes that very clear. Not everyone will be called either. There are plenty of people who die without ever hearing the Gospel. But, and this is the MOST important point: Just because I don't have, and never will have, all of the answers does not keep me from believing. That's what faith is based on. God never intended for us to have all of the answers while we're here. So, while there are a million questions and ethical situations that I can't address, I just accept the fact that the reason I can not address them is because I don't have the knowledge of God. As a Christian, I fail miserably on a daily basis to live up to the teachings of Christ. That doesn't mean that I don't try. But, I do understand that the bar is impossibly high and that no one will ever reach it. That's the way it was designed. Many will use my failure (as well as the failures of other Christians) as an excuse to mock and degrade me... that since the messenger (those who profess Christ) is flawed, therefore the message must also be flawed. Nothing could be further from the truth. But that's okay, it doesn't have any effect on my faith, because God made it clear that it would be a cost of following Christ. I'm more than willing to pay that price. Christians are liars, murderers, adulterers, thieves, hypocrites, and all manner of other vile human failings. But the one other thing that Christians are, that others are not, is forgiven. Again, that doesn't mean you just live your life the way you want based on that forgiveness. But it does mean that you do your best to work toward a life that is pleasing to God. I always liked the logic of Pascal's wager: (paraphrased in my own words) If I follow Jesus all of my life and it turns out he was a liar, then I have lost nothing. If you reject Jesus and He is who He claims to be, then you have lost everything. I continually see people referring to Jesus as "a myth", but I never see them explain how "a myth" was recorded not only in the Bible, but in Roman and middle eastern histories as well. They never seem to get around to explaining that detail. I guess calling Jesus a myth is much easier than confronting the fact that He actually lived. (And still lives for those of us who believe.) your absolutely right but I bet you science will invent medicine to make you better when praying doesn't work & it's so easy to read at night with electricity, that's two benefits from science what are any for organized religion ? none just a way to excuse beastly behavior & have you throw this life away for an afterlife that does not exist - god does not write books ! man does so why would you look for a live god in a dead book ? that might piss off the real god I understand the rift between science and religion. But I know, too, that both should be in agreement. Why is there such a division between the two? Most religions maintain that the earth was created in six literal 24 hour days. This is not what the Bible teaches, for if it were, the Bible would speak of the end of the seventh day (Gen. 1:31), which God proclaimed as a rest day, a sabbath. That sabbath will end when Jesus, enthroned in the heavens with those who are to be king-priests with him, at the end of his thousand-year reign, gives back to his Heavenly Father rulership of a then perfect human race. At that point, the universe will be balanced once more (John 4:23, 24). While the many sects of Christendom have their eyes blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 11:12-15) and try to say that Jesus, the Son of God is God, this is far from what the Bible teaches about God (John 10:36). There is a people who believe God's Word of Truth, the Bible, as the authority on religious matters. The Bible does not claim to be a book of scientific facts, but does explain things such as the virgin birth of God's Only-begotten Son and how he, God's Son started a movement that is still alive in this day and time. Thus, as the Author of the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16), God is not wishy-washy in what he proclaims. What is said at the beginning of the Bible harmonizes completely with the last book of the Bible and all books belonging to the Bible canon. Now, if Carbon-dating is flawed, as many feel that it is, the dates of certain periods of time prior to the formation of man could well be as flawed as is Christendom's view of God. It will take someone far more intelligent than myself to say with any certainty that the science community is flawed in its method of dating prehistoric specimens and dates, but I do know what the Bible teaches about the origin of man, his fall into sin, and the role that Jesus plays in buying back for us sinful humankind the opportunity to gain eternal life on the global paradise earth. In spite of what Re-"evolution" wrote above, and there are some great scientific breakthroughs in the field of medicine and technology, please do not write off as just a bunch of freaks those of us who strive to live by the Word of God. There is something much better than Christendom or mere science out there. What does this mean? If it takes about 30,000 years to reach equilibrium and 14C is still out of equilibrium, then maybe the earth is not very old. But few who insist on evolution as a foregone conclusion have any desire to question such issues. @kozmonot, some of what you wrote is certainly accurate, but other things you wrote came with very faulty assumptions. Yes, it was certainly an issue of debate as to whether radiocarbon dating (and more generally radioisotope dating) were accurate regarding whether decay rates were constant, and abundance in different materials from which they are later measured. The scientific community comprises many brilliant scientists who address these questions. Although I can't claim to be experts as they are, the scientific community does not espouse faulty assumptions or bad information. If you disagree with that last statement, I'm interested to hear examples where the scientific community strongly supported false theories with weak empirical support and later rejected them. As for radio-carbon dating, it's been checked with other forms of radio-isotope dating, as well as historical data (carbon-14 has a half life of 5730 years, which is short enough to give better accuracy over several thousand years than, say U-235 because more of it decays). Carbon dating is calibrated against, say, an Egyptian pharaoh's sarcophagus where we know the date in advance. Or tree ring data from trees younger than 10,000 years old. Or cave deposits. So yes, empirical evidence shows us that it is quite accurate since it's been tested and calibrated. The comment about the earth not being that old based on that statement is specious. The rate of decay should remain constant, but the creation rate is not constant. The constant rate of formation was an assumption the entire argument rested on. We know this because of radiocarbon dates taken from bristlecone pines. But that's not even why I would argue for the Earth being older than 10,000 years. We have much more powerful evidence: U-235, the radio-isotope dater of industrial strength. How do we know U-235 can be relied on? John Wells of Cornell University performed a study that was nothing short of jaw dropping. He used corals from the Devonian period (~380 million years ago). Radioisotope dating showed they were 380 million years old. But we needed something to compare it against to accept that date, and by extension, gain confidence in U-235 dating. Well, according to the rate of slowing of the Earth's rotation caused by tides (2 seconds every 100,000 years), the earth would have had 396 days in a year, each day being 22 hours long. There actually was a way to tell the length of a day on these corals. They had daily growth rings caused by the friction of the tides as well as annual growth rings. The earth's revolution around the Sun, however, does not change. Thus, we can find out how many days were in a year and how many hours were in a day by counting the daily growth rings inbetween pairs of annual growth rings. Counting the rings in the Devonian corals, they had 400 days per year, or 21.9 hours per day. That kind of stuff is mind blowing. Unlike C-14, we don't get anomalous U-235 production. Thus, U-235 can date without many of the problems of C-14. The oldest rocks on the earth date above 4 billion years (plate tectonics has proven problematic to finding the absolute oldest rock that exists). We get the most accurate dating from meteor fragments. I'm sure the moon has been dated as well. 4.6 billion, not 10,000, is the best estimate we have today for our solar system, and by extension, the Earth. In summary, you took a bad model. Models are only as reliable as empirical evidence agrees. That's why astrology is pseudo-science and quantum mechanics is king. If what you stated agreed with other forms of dating which have been proved accurate, I would agree, and so would the scientific community. That is not the case, however. I do not write off any person who chooses the path of religion over science. It is a personal choice, and I do not put religion down when I made the original post. It is simply a fact: the two philosophies (religion and science) approach reality from two different views. One uses observations to justify theories, the other uses theories to justify observations. Some people try to use science to prove or disprove that this fabric is really the shroud of Jesus. It really is a pointless exercise. No matter the evidence, there will always be people who believe that it is what they say it is. Any evidence to the contrary is automatically discounted. Too many people claim the Bible is literal truth. It is not - it is treatise by many authors on religious matters. Accept it by faith as the word of God if you wish, but do not try to treat it as science. Noah - I failed to clarify myself better. When I said that few care to question such issues, I was referring more to "average people" who take the word of researchers they don't know "on faith" (hence my comment about there being "faith/proof" issues on both sides (I would certainly hope that those doing actual research would regularly question whether their beliefs about their studies are in fact correct, and whether there are, in fact, other possible explanations, etc.). Also, my point in questioning C14 "assumptions" was that when geologic samples, fossils, etc. that are otherwise considered to be millions of years old, etc., are tested and show any measurable amounts of C14 (despite precautions against contamination) - that signals a problem, since there shouldn't be any significant measurable amount of C14 left at all in those samples after about 100,000 yrs. Actually, both sides look at observations and interpret them through their particular veiwpoints and mindsets. A person who believes the Bible, interprets the world, etc. based on those beliefs (obviously starting with the assumption that any argument that "takes God out of the picture" is dismissed as "not valid"), and a person who doesn't believe in the Bible interprets the world, etc. according to their beliefs (obviously starting with the assumption that there is no God, so anything that might point towards that veiwpoint is necessarily dismissed as "not valid"). Both can look at a fossilized bone, or a point of human behavior and come up with plausible explanations for various things about it based on their starting veiwpoints and from their build arguments and find other "evidence" to support their explanations. It seems to ultimately boil down to the starting question of "Is there a Creator or not?" Also, I'm curious to know by what standard, evidence, or assumption you decided that the Bible is not "true", but rather just a treatise on religious matters. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary: Definition of TREATISE 1: a systematic exposition or argument in writing including a methodical discussion of the facts and principles involved and conclusions reached. (Note that a treatise involves discussion of the facts and principles involved) The Bible claims to be the "Word of God" and includes verifiable historical narratives as well as quotes from many eyewitnesses. If a treatise involves discussion of facts involved as well as principles, and there is a continuity of thought and general agreement between all those different authors from different places over an extended time period, there must be some credibility to the facts and principles they are discussing. For instance, there are a number of "scientific discoveries" that the Bible mentions (before more modern people "discovered" them) - like the water cycle, ocean currents, the Earth being round, the Earth being suspended on nothing in space, the expansion of the universe, etc., Granted they are mentioned briefly and in rather simple terms, but the ideas and concepts are there. It's often said that the Bible isn't a science textbook, and that's true - the main purpose of the Bible is to explain man's relationship to God and why and how we need to be reconciled to Him. However, it does mention certain things about astronomy, nature, health, etc. that have been shown to be correct by later scientific discoveries (the fact that people didn't believe the earth was round doesn't change the fact it is described as being round in the Bible). Science textbooks need to be updated and changed every few years as new "facts and discoveries" replace previous "facts and discoveries" that are now considered "incorrect". In contrast, the texts of the Bible have remained basically unchanged from the earliest surviving manuscripts (I'm not referring to the various "versions" or "translations" - KJV, NAS, NIV, Women's Bible, Children's Bible, etc.) - the basic central message, themes, and historical narratives are still the same as the oldest surviving manuscripts (the earliest of which are dated to very near or within the lifetimes of the original writers). I do not say there is no scientific validity to the Bible, only that the purpose of the Bible is not to describe the physical universe. The purpose of the Bible, and all religious texts for that matter, is to explain the spiritual universe and some people's interpretations on how to live in harmony with said spiritual world. In my opinion, for instance, the Bible does not expound on how the world was created, only that it was created by God. And the Bible therefore explains creation in terms people of that time could understand it. Science, on the other hand, is very much interested in the 'how' of things. It cannot postulate on the existence of a supernatural being that for some reason only known to him, decided to create the universe in some mysterious manner that is not detectable through forensic evidence. I will agree that science, being performed by humans, does indeed filter things through the prejudices of its researchers. But science allows and demands that the evidence support the theory, not the other way around. Eventually, bad science is either tossed into the junk pile, or is refined into good science through further testing and observation. There will be no such process in testing the shroud if you intend to prove it was the actual shroud of Jesus. No matter the scientific evidence (or lack of it), this shroud will be believed by many to be the shroud of Jesus, or at the least something equally important to venerate. As a question of faith, if the Most High were inclined to razzle-dazzle us with special effects like blasts of ultraviolet laser light, we would expect to see spectacles like that on a regular basis. We don't. The line of inquiry that these "Shroudists" are trying to lead us down would support a view that the Most High interacts with us in a significant way only on very rare occasions. The mystery of faith tells us that the opposite is true. Let's accept the fact that the Shroud is a hoax (though an appealing hoax, making it well suited for the purpose of temptation). It should be relegated to the basement storeroom along with the collected works of Marjoe Gortner and Simon Magus. (Marjoe Gortner, of course, honestly admitted that he was a fraudster.) The Jews wanted a messiah and still do. But everyone who claimed to be the Messiah they persecuted and many they put to death. With a human record like that can you really honestly say that if god did something fantastic you would believe. What if you favorite uncle came back from the dead, or a parent? Would you then believe - Bible says no. The Shroud of Turin. The eternal mystery. Lots of folks have noted the anachronisms in the image. Long flowing hair, not in fashion at the time of Christ. Short hair was more common. Images of Christ with long flowing locks appear in the middle ages. No contemporary or near contemporary record of the shroud until the middle ages. Hmmm a pattern seems to be emerging. Carbon dating puts the shroud in the middle ages. Yep a definite pattern. All those things point to a clever fake produced in the 14th century. But how did they do it? Nobody has been able to replicate the image even with all our advanced technologies. Fascinating, just fascinating. I personally believe the image on the cloth was created when the aliens returned for Jesus and beamed him up to their space-craft. But of course I have no conclusive proof, just a theory. I don't know how the image on the shroud was created but I have seen lots of television programs that pretend to be scientific but still make too many assumptions about the artifact. Even if you could be certain about the place and time from which the shroud came you still would have no way to tell whos shroud it was. They have reproduced the image exactly using pigments, then fading those pigments as if they were 600-700 years old. They also reproduced the image with a flat, hot iron in the shape of a face which would singe the cloth. I have to ask this couldnt this shroud be authentic BUT what you are seeing isnt Jesus but a man with long flowing hair? I mean it could very well be that this is a real shroud of a real life man who wasnt Jesus. So skip, someone in Europe went to the trouble to learn to weave a cloth in a weave that had not been practiced in hundreds of years, took the trouble to randomly brush in pollen found only in the middle east and paint a precise photographic negative several hundred years before some even figured out that photographic negatives are even possible? Aside from it being 600 years old which supports a full fake. As if sprinkling middle easter pollen was not possible by taking it there, cross contamination or importing the cloth? Now people try this... Try painting your face, put a shroud over it, pat it nicely to your face to get a nice clear facial print and then pull it off. Watch how your own shroud looks all distorted because of the contours of your face stretch out in a 2 dimensional surface. Now before some of you start claiming that god uses radioactive lasers... To such claims, back them with proof. Not to mention that Jeebus there is clearly modeled after an European male. False... Go ahead and try Vatican... Old trick... It is not working, not all of us are that stupid and the only miracle I have ever witnessed is how from the pope down, the covering up of child molestation and they are not in jail? Hal - slam the "scientific" analysis and still say that the image is not superfiscial? I think people would want to see what you have that makes you so certain that it is not superficial. What I was trying to convey was about those programs on the so-called "History Channel" and others. They begin their "investigation" with an assumption regarding the results then work to make their findings fit the assumption. I am not sure what you mean by "superfiscial" but regarding the image on the shroud, if it is there, then the only way it got there was nothing beyond ordinary, mundane means, because that is how things happen in the non-magical real-life world. Yeah, it's funny how no one ever seems to mention that the image on the shroud looks nothing like a 1st century Palestinian Jew. It does, however, look a LOT like medieval images of Jesus, which have molded our own ideas of what he looked like - a very Scandinavian Jesus. You can not prove a negative that is true. But logically by definition the god of the bible does not exist any god that is said to be all powerful and ethical flies in the face of reality and cannot be. Don't give me you "free will" BS. Ok, proportions and everthing aside... the guy on the shroud is obviously European... which does jive with the Middle Age paintings that portrayed Jesus as a white man... and also supports the now well known fact that teh legend of Jesus was the creation of Romans and Greeks. The real Jesus, if he did exist (which is highly unlikely) would have looked more like a modern Middle Eastern Muslim cleric than John Lennon in the 1970s. I took ancient history in College. Of course the question of Jesus and History came up. The professor put it something like this. There are numerous writings showing that Jesus existed. No one disputes that he was crucified. Records show that his resurrection was also attested to, but because this was only witnessed by only 500 people, that is not a significant enough number of people to substantiate his resurrection as fact. DB Akron: Where on earth did you go to college? Was it a bible college or a real college? Pretty much everything that your professor supposedly said is demonstrably false. It makes a neat quip, though. The researchers answer your question there. The 2d image is actually a distortion, a flattening, of what the face would look like in 3D. You are correct. The 2D image appears European and older than Jesus would have been. However a 3D analysis shows a very different face. The romans were notoriously thorough keepers of court records, even in their outlying areas. No record of the crucification of the Jesus of the bible has been found in Roman records. Many of the specifics, such as the killing of the firstborn, also have no historical record outside of religious texts. That does not disprove the moral and ethical message of the bible, but it is historical fact. Regardless, accounts of feeding a multitude with a couple of fish and some bread, raising the dead, speaking with the devil, etc., kind of hurts use of biblical text as a literal historical document. Josephus has a forged passage that mentions Jesus, but it was a later addition. Justus of Tiberia was a contemporary of Jesus, and lived nearby, but he never mentioned him. Philon of Alexandria wrote of the different sects, but did not mention Jesus. Most of the earliest references were not of Jesus, but of early Jews who believed in a Jesus. It is the same as saying that Joseph Smith's magic tablets were real because people wrote of things Mormons believed. It is entirely possible that a living, actual Jesus existed. It is just as possible that no living, actual Jesus existed. It is certain that a body of Jews several decades after the supposed Jesus lived started to be recorded reliably in the historical recordProbably because most modern Jews are Ashkinazi, and bear little genetic relation to Bronze Age Hebrews. The Aramaic speaking tribes of Biblical Palestine were all Semitic peoples, closely related genetically, and similar in appearance to modern Muslims living in PalestineI do not believe in the necessity of human sacrifice, or in an anthropomorphic God. I believe in Christmas. It is a verifiable holiday, a syncretic blend of Christian and Pagan cultural traditions, and is well documented in the historical record. Although many Christians find it hard to accept, I think holidays serve important social functions, and spread a feeling of fellowship in the community. Although you seem to imply that I should have to sit out the holiday because I do not accept Jesus as my personal savior, I am not overly concerned. I am already going to suffer eternal burning flames of hell, so missing a couple of presents is not going to convince me to convert to Christianity. Although many do not accept it, I also have a well defined ethical system that I try to live by, but it is not underwritten by an invisible man in the sky. If ethical actions and moral actions do not stand on their own merit, then they are pointless and arbitrary; even if they are spoken by divine power. I support much of biblical morality, but I do not gain respect for Abraham, for example, because he was willing to kill his son because a divine voice told him to. It has been said that religion has caused more wars....etc. etc. I do not accept that piece of militant athiest propaganda, but I do contend that blindly following a God who somehow changes the ethical rules based on historical circumstance, never turns out well for anyone. So, Merry Christmas to you. I can, and will, celebrate any holiday I choose. Sure. I can choose to venerate the blue rock I found on the creek bank one time, if I choose. I suppose a better question is, can it be the object of legitimate veneration, i.e., could it have actually have been the burial shroud of a man who was buried almost 2000 years ago. Like you, I concluded that the answer is almost certainly 'no', which proves or disproves nothing of Christianity, but says a lot about human vulnerability, gullibility and the need to see something physical, the New Testament passage about how "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," to the contrary. Still, it's quite interesting, even mysterious, about the way in which it seems to have been forged so long ago. But, aren't there other, presumably equally authentic "Holy Shrouds"? Enough cloth to rig a sailboat when all put together. It reminds me of the old line about how if all the shards of wood ever claimed to have been "relics of the True Cross" were assembled in one place, they would constitute enough wood to rebuild Noah's Ark instead. This will never come to closure. The church has refused to allowed other than extremely small samples of the actual material to be tested, so any evidence of the material being more recent is countered by it being repaired or of contamination or an inaccurate sampling. The church can never allow a conclusion of it being a fake to happen. They have too much vested in it being a priceless holy relic and if it fails to be true, then the rest of the stories may also start to unravel (metaphorically). Even if scientists found an exact way to replicate its creation with existing technology of the time, the argument will still be made that it was created as a miracle regardless. If turning water into wine (or rather the third party telling of the story many years after the fact) is considered a miracle and making wine at that time was no great technological feat, then the ability to make the shroud is still no proof to the true believers that it is a forgery. What is interesting to me is that beyond the image, the shroud is not very miraculous at all. It has aged and has been damaged, so most of its physical properties are not very special at all. It also hasn't been proven to have any special healing, curative, or protective powers. The image itself is two dimensional and not distorted as it would be if it was an actual impression wrapped around a body. It was obviously crafted (physically or miraculously) to be an art object to be viewed stretched flat. I believe it must be a forgery, but who ever did it was a master puzzle maker by being able to not leave behind or to remove all traces of how it was done. Someday someone will figure it out, but it will still never convince the true believers that it isn't the holy relic that they claim it to be. That is some interesting observation on your part Mike. I think the scripture at John 19:40 makes it obvious that the shroud is not of Jesus since his body was wrapped in linen cloths. So your comment is right in line with the scriptures. And even if it was made miraculously it does not mean we should venerate it. The bible warns us to guard ourselves from idols not to give them importance(1John 5:21) 2Corinthians 5:7 and John 4:23, 24 add to the fact that our faith is not based on relics or any other item that may or may not be linked to Jesus. The only way is to find the truth that the bible teaches just like Jesus said at John 17:17. Thanks for the comment Mike. I love when someone uses sound reasoning. Why in the world do we need this cloth to prove anything? So what if it isn't the cloth Jesus was buried in? There is much evidence to support that he walked on this earth and died on this earth and there were many witnesses that saw Him after He rose from the dead. Please people, do not be afraid of the truth. Face it, realize we are all sinful people and that we need a Saviour. Primate guy. Is that a play on words? Anyway here goes. I like your comment. And I like it because you are correct. And I take it that you are not someone with a faith in the bible. What most people do not realize is that the bible does not want people to be gullible. Even though you most likely don't think the bible is from God I think you can appreciate these scriptures. They show that God does not approve of people blindly believing anything. Job 40:7; Proverbs 14:15; John 4:23, 24; John 8:32; John 17:17; 1Timothy 2:3, 4; Hebrews 11:1. After checking those out - Acts 17:3, 11. God commends people for making a thorough examination. I have, and do, read the books of the bible. Some of the most profound moral messages are found in the bible. In the bible also reside instructions for the manner in which the chosen should kill all the men in conquered villages, and everyone else in some circumstances. Like all great literature, it is a mirror. Those that bring introspection find meaning, those who bring hate come away with a divine mandate. Mark, from your post, I am sure the bible, for you, provides a glimpse into your best self, and it is obvious that self is possesses a temperament both humble and aspiring to the finest moral character. Jimbo is correct. One has to bend ones legs at the knees to easily cross the hands over the groin. The Shroud image is seen undistorted on a flat piece of linen. Yet, a cloth wrapped or simply draped over a body while an image is "flashed" onto it will become distorted when the cloth is removed and flattened for display. Additionally, the lines seen from the chevron pattern of the twill remain absolutely straight through the entire image, front and back. This feature can be seen best while. holding the image at a low angle. Difficult to explain if an image was formed on a draped or wrapped shroud. I can cross my hands like that without bending anything other than my arms. As far as the cloth draped, who said it was draped? maybe it was stretched flat over the body using boards or something, and they were just trying to make a polaroid like someone else mentioned :) It's definitely from the middle ages though, or maybe it's just some hippie from the 1960s :) Why does it even matter? You believe what you believe. Was there a man named Jesus and did he die? Ok. Perhaps in honor of the man, regardless of your beliefs we should let him rest in peace. Just go on believing what you do. The shroud was buried with the man and what gives us the right to unearth this and disturb what was clearly ment to be a sacred part of his burial. Maybe someone or some entity can make some money off this.There are a lot more things we as humans need to concentrate on. The ignorance and stupidity of human beings never ceases to amaze me. It's the 21st century for crying out loud, and folks are still arguing whether or not unicorns can fly and pixies have wings. People mistake words for reality, thinking that if they can put it into a sentence, well, hell, it must be real. Outside of so-called "holy" books, where are the miracles, the magic, and the mystical god-men? Craig, you cannot argue against miracles with someone who has personally experienced them. If I tell you that God has done numerous miracles in my life -- that I have lived them and experienced them -- what are you going to say to that: "No, he didn't"? Craig, maybe you just need to open your eyes wider. Not every "miracle" is walking on water or raising the dead. Some things that we can't explain now will be explained by science in the future. Some may not. What is a "miracle" anyway? Something that we can observe but not explain, given all of the KNOWN "facts", by KNOWN natural laws and behaviors. I would say that "entangled photons", where one INSTANTLY knows the state of the other, even though hundreds or thousands miles apart (faster than light) is pretty miraculous. It's a fact, without explanation. @Mike... I don't know about Craig but I would say what you perceive as being "miracles" performed by "god" were in reality just the results of a series of choices you made and/or actions you took. So if these results were in fact "miracles" it was you that created them. Do you believe you are (a) god? So Mike-558003, "God has done numerous miracles in my life" Let me ask this: Why has your god done numerous miracles in your life yet allow many, many of his "believers" be raped, pillaged, and murdered. allow thousands of innocent people die horrible deaths? What makes you so important? If miracles can happen, when was the last time someone grew an arm or leg back after being amputated? Suffering wasn't a part of the plan of God , but He will turn it into good. But you tell me, let's say for the sake of argument that what God has promised is true. By believing in His Son you acquire eternal life. Living perfectly at peace with God, His angels, and in perfect love. In a perfect Heaven with immeasurable blessings at all times. Now who sounds like a whiner when he complains about the paltry years we spend here, as if the suffering is too much compared to the glory afterwards. No, you don't really care about peoples suffering the way you pretend to. You just use that as an excuse so that you can blame God and don't have to do anything about it yourself. You are an excellent example of Gods perfection, in allowing the likes of you to exist, we all are learning, free will cannot be free, if we could not make errors and learn from them, No logic can exist, without the ability to take ALL vectors into consideration, including Negative ones, but i see that you have a lot to learn, and Blame God, instead of thanking Him, for Your freedom. Well, in the first place, the "church" has never claimed the Shroud was genuine. They have said it MIGHT be, but never said for sure it was. So let's just treat it for it is. An unsolved mystery as to how it was done, and then if it turned out to be miraculous, great. If not (probably) it would still be an interesting story as to how it was done and by whom. As it is with gambling, the uncertainty principle is more lucrative than any fact. Uncertainty, which is the first cousin to Fear, is every bit as powerful as a tool to control the masses. The Church would have been stupid to either affirm or refute the Shroud. It is a perfected trick, exactly as it is. Duke.. If the church is indifferent as to it's being authentic, that 'it might' be genuine then why not allow a thorough scientific test instead of passing out remnant edges? It seems to me that if it were then found legitimate, the church could crow and if found as fake, well.. as you said, "they never claimed it was genuine" thus they wouldn't lose face.. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.. yet..... The only unsolved mysteries that I can determine is why their coveting it so closely? Refusing to allow a more significant (minute) area be tested and analysed and allowing rumors and innuendos to multiply among the believers. Proving the Shroud is authentic will definitely bolster their coffers, disproving will in no way effect the current tithes.. Religious people will grasp for anything for anything as the sand of reality slips through their fingers. Don't you mean atheists, when they are on their deathbed? Actually, in my work in nursing homes I find that the people most afraid of death are religious people who have been taught that hellfire awaits those who have not met some requirement or other that their faith says is a prerequisite to being "saved." They are deeply fearful that they will prove to have been inadequate in this regard and will be condemned to eternal suffering as a result. People who have been indifferent to religion (as opposed to atheists) are often disturbed by the prospect of their death, because they are thinking seriously about it for the first time. Serious atheists, who have generally contemplated this question a lot and have arrived at conclusions with which they are comfortable, are usually very much at peace. a. Not endowed with reason. b. Affected by loss of usual or normal mental clarity; incoherent. c. Marked by a lack of accord with reason or sound judgment: By most definitions, reason is incompatible with irrationality. It follows that a person believing something irrational is more likely to be crazy. Believing in a:big magic all powerful perfect being who creates imperfect beings and punishes them for being imperfect then kills his magic son who is him, but is not him but is also a ghost and is not really dead, because that somehow makes them equal to perfect but not all of them, only those who gratify his ego by being his slave. The others are now double imperfect, is, by any system of logic irrational. Therefore, Curt, if you are driving us crazy, it is because we are following you, and you have the route to Crazy memorized. Take a left at the shroud of Turin, pass 3 splinters of the one true cross, left at the drop of Jesus' blood, and park next to Jesus' foreskin. It must take 10,000 years to drive that far....wait, that can't be right, because the earth was formed in 4004 BC. A friend of mine and I were talking about the shroud today and she said something that I never thought of. For anyone who is Christian isn't your source of beliefs supposed to come from the bible? Well she said that the shroud could not be of Jesus for a very simple reason. The body of Jesus was wrapped in bandages or linen cloths. The image on this shroud is in no way showing a wrapped body. It is showing the image of someone that the cloth was simply placed upon. The scripture is at John 19:40. Just like the star that led the astrologers to Herod and then to Jesus it may well have been made supernaturally, but that does not mean that it is from God. Scriptures like 1John 5:21 and John 4:23, 24 and 2Corinthians 5:7 come to mind. Is this shroud important? If it is important to someone they may need to examine why? It's interesting that this subject came up today. The History Channel re-showed their 2 hr. documentary on re-creating the face of the man from the Shroud of Turin, using sophisticated 3d computerized video software techniques ("Is this the Real Face of Jesus?"). They addressed several objections raised above in the show, including that from Mark 315734. There is a strip of material sewn onto the side of the Shroud (maybe 2 strips) that was originally part of it. The narrow strip of material was used to wrap, tie, and secure the body that was inside the Shroud. The strip of material was used to "bundle" the Shroud. So the body WAS wrapped. Nobody knows, nor could they prove, that the body image on the Shroud was that of Jesus. Even if it is not, there are some serious science questions that are raised by the Shroud. The Shroud image contains 3D information about the body, the way a hologram does. It is not just a "negative image". Further, the image is only on the top molecular layer of microfibers on the weave. It is not blood. It is not pigment.(No pigment could be applied so finely, nor could one degrade to an absolutely uniform color and color depth along the entire Shroud). Because it is a negative, it appears that image was formed by a radiation ("light") burst from WITHIN the Shroud. Yet the light was neither coherent light like a laser (it would have sharp edges) nor diffuse light like a light-bulb source. Once the History Channel researchers had arrived at a 3d image, and a mold of the face, they tried to "reverse engineer" it - create an image from 3d mold (Death Mask). The way they found they could do it was by "scanning" with a "bar of light" - like a printer. What 14th century hoaxer could arrange that? Whether 1st Century or 14th Century, we are barely able to analyze it with 21st century technology	eng	3e9cfb86-936e-400b-8911-1d73622283c0	http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/22/9636065-was-holy-shroud-created-in-a-flash-italian-researchers-resurrect-claim?pc=20&sp=0
This course has 4 levels, beginner, intermediate, advanced and professional. Click on the links at the bottom of your screen to select your working level, and click the links that will appear on the left of your screen to select your Assignment. Click "home" to see the links to Student Handbook and free Registration in WorldCrafters Guild. When this course is not currently in progress: BEFORE doing any of these Assignments, READ the work of previous students in the Student Showcase, (click on SUBMISSIONS) then READ the teacher commentary on each student's Assignment. You will find the teacher's comments linked to each posted Assignment text. Study the teacher's comments to be sure you do not make the same mistakes these students made. Then do the Assignment. Read the instructions on the Independent Study Seminar Board -- then post your own Assignment there, properly labeled. When this course is in progress, HERE YOU WILL FIND: how to register for our first Online Course, "The Essence of Story," Schedule for quizzes and tests and assignments, and submission instructions for Assignments, plus the class-schedule for real-time chat meetings. Every Assignment must have at the TOP of the page your BYLINE and your COURSE EMAIL ADDRESS. You must also include the title of the Assignment and any particulars such as Beginning, Intermediate, or Advanced version of the exercise. This course is not currently being given. Subscribe to WorldCrafters-L for announcements of courses and during courses, WorldCrafters-L will bring you all additional instructions. When it is in progress, one of its most important curriculum points is the discipline of adhering to deadlines and schedules. While this course is not in progress, you may do the work in our Independent Study Seminar at your own pace. In any future course where EoS is a prerequisite, your final exam posted in the Seminar Board will qualify you (or not, if you didn't demonstrate skills). Note: DO NOT rewrite Assignments after you've discovered what you did wrong. We will be mounting another course in "How to Re-write Effectively." In this course, rewriting would be counter-productive. When this course is being given, Assignments are to be sent to an email address to be specified here. When it is not being given, Assignments are to be posted to the Seminar Board. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Always remember, "Writing is a Performing Art." There are no "right" answers, only useful ones. In this course, don't try to guess what we want you to do. Don't try to guess answers -- invent them. Put everything you have to say into your written Assignment, and don't expect to add anything by email to anyone reading the posted piece. Make it complete in itself, a "stand-alone" piece. And BE SURE not to use any material you consider valuable, personal, or that you intend to develop later. Put an appropriate copyright on it. And be sure it arrives before the deadline, and in html format. Remember, it is our goal to invite many professionals to comment on your work. You are presenting your work to those who will become your professional peers. Part of the professional image is having nothing at all to say beyond what is in your words. If they aren't understood the way you expect them to be, that doesn't mean you got "the wrong answer." It only means that person didn't understand what you intended to say. Don't try to explain what you meant, especially not to the person who misunderstood -- study the misunderstanding and decide whether you want to change your method of expression NEXT TIME. Do not look back -- look forward to the next piece you are going to submit. This will be possible for beginners only when working with material in which they have no emotional investment -- such as Jack&Jill or Romeo&Juliet -- not with material that has erupted from your subconscious screaming "write me!" These are exercises. You aren't trying to get the right answer. You are not trying to impress people, or make them understand your worlds. You are trying to make yourself strong enough to control the material that erupts from your own subconscious. Assignment 1 will tell us how well you read and follow instructions, how closely you pay attention, how much you rely upon your own mind to figure things out rather than asking questions (i.e. how creative and independent you are -- how well you work by yourself), and how well you meet deadlines. The results of Assignment 1 will tell you how much you know already about the craft of writing, and how much you have yet to learn -- as well as provide you with a benchmark against which to measure your own progress once you've completed "The Essence of Story." 1. CHOOSE 3 stories to analyze for Protagonist or Hero and to Identify . A) Beginners in writing must first learn to ANALYZE the writings of others, preferably of published stories or novels before attempting to SYNTHESIZE (i.e. write) their own stories. Skip this learning stage at your own risk If you are a BEGINNER (i.e. have not yet completed one whole manuscript, submitted it and gotten at least one rejection slip (you are still a beginner if you've sold everything you've submitted and have not yet been rejected!)) we recommend you choose as follows: 1. One story or novel from those you will find reviewed in our Review Section. (there are hundreds of titles there already) Scroll down that page for review columns that are not Romance. Choose any story or novel that's been reviewed -- for speed it may be something you've already read more than once. You must analyze the novel yourself, but you may also add a short paragraph discussing the review where it identifies the Protagonist and/or the conflict. You may refer to the review via a hyperlink. You may use other review columns posted to the web. 2. One story or novel from your own FAVORITE STORIES shelf. This should be of another genre than the story chosen for #1 above. For example, if you chose a Romance for #1, then here choose a Best Seller, or an SF novel -- or you might choose a TV spinoff novel, or a novel based on an RPG. 3. One TELEVISION EPISODE, or feature film, preferably one you've OUTLINED and studied for Assignment 1. Or you may choose a children's book, a Shamanistic Tale or other traditional story. The third choice should be something that is from an ultra-simplified medium -- comic books would be a reasonable substitute. Please do not choose a fan-written story based on another work for this particular exercise. That will come laterDon't invent more about this person than you can describe in 100 words. Create only what you must to complete Assignment 3. Control the urge to create more. (make this something that you've never thought of before, not a work you're currently struggling with.) EXAMPLE: "Ivan Spinksy, a 33 years old immigrant Doctor from Russia, has a lisp, a very thick accent, and walks with a limp. His greatest joy in life is working as a Volunteer in the amputee's rehab center - until Sally Feingold, a young lawyer, is wheeled in on a stretcher, screaming inconsolably." This is a distilled version of your protagonist -- imagine you've completed the novel featuring this protagonist and you're standing in the bookstore holding the book in your hands. Turn it over (if it's a paperback) or open the flyleaf if it's a hardcover, and look at the blurb (the sell-copy). What does it SAY about this person whose story this is? How would an editor try to SELL your protagonist to readers? 2. Describe your Protagonist's objective, goal, intention, desire, -- what is your protagonist trying to accomplish? Remember this must be something that your targeted readers would admire or want to accomplish themselves. If they would NOT admire this goal, then the person you've focused on is the antagonist or villain. Distill this down to no more than two sentences -- 50 words. (the fewer words you can use to convey this idea the more likely you will be able to sell books on a partial.) EXAMPLE: "As a volunteer with no legal medical credentials, Ivan Spinsky has no power to influence the course of Sally's treatment." 4. Describe what your Protagonist is going to DO ABOUT that obstacle. Again - one sentence. EXAMPLE: "Watching mistakes and neglect destroy Sally's chances to lead a normal life again, Ivan Spinsky enrolls in Medical School night courses." BEGINNING STUDENTS may end the Assignment here reason I am putting this Assignment as #4 is that several students showed in Assignment One that they had not yet mastered the technique of discovering where their stories began. It's one of the hardest lessons to learn, but one of the most important. To this day, I frequently write half a story before I realize that the first 10% of it either must be cut, or must be moved, often in bits and pieces, to later in the story. The beginning is where the conflict begins. In order to identify the beginning, you absolutely must know two things about your story: who is the protagonist, and what is that protagonist's conflict? So--let's do an analysis in Assignment Four, just as you did in Assignment Two, and then in Assignment Five create something original that demonstrates your grasp of the concept. Find something to analyze as to why the first scene is the first scene. I often suggest to my students who are only learning to analyze fiction that they look at Walt Disney animated features, particularly those of the "revival" period of the 1980's-90's, where they have gotten the technique of beginnings down to a formula--a formula that works so well that it is art despite formula. After all, the structure of a sonnet is a formula, isn't it? In a Disney animated feature, there is an opening song by the ensemble that sets the scene and the theme for the work ("The Circle of Life," for example). The second song, though is the one we are looking for here, as it defines the original conflict of the protagonist--and identifies the protagonist without question for the audience. "I Just Can't Wait to be King," sings young Simba, never dreaming what karma he is bringing down on his head--he is too young to realize that the only way he can become king is through the death of his beloved father. That is probably the most profoundly ironic twist on their own rule that the Disney artists ever created. It's usually simpler: The Little Mermaid wants "to go where the people are," while Belle (Beauty) wants to get away from "this provincial life." In each case, the protagonist's first conflict--a wish, a desire--thrusts him or her into the action of the story, and the rest of the story demonstrates the consequences of having that wish come true. Non-Disney films for children frequently follow the same formlula, as when Dorothy sings about wanting to fly "Over the Rainbow." Your assignment is to find an equally clear-cut example of that wish/desire/decision that opens the conflict in a well-known work, and then explain how the rest of the plot grows out of the protagonist's search for that specific goal. If you look at it this way, you can see why it is not a flaw that Gone With the Wind opens where it does, and not when Scarlett and Rhett meet. Remember what the first scene is about? It's the Tarleton Twins telling Scarlett that the war is beginning, and therefore Ashley Wilkes is announcing his engagement to Melanie Hamilton so the long-planned marriage can occur before he leaves for the war. But Scarlett wants Ashley for herself--that is her driving motivation throughout the entire twelve years that the novel covers. That is her conflict, and her undoing. It makes her incapable of recognizing the right man for her, even when she eventually marries him. It drives her every selfish act, and it drives her to acts of incredible heroism. Everything in that long, long novel is ultimately driven by Scarlett's single conflict: her obsession (which she believes to be love) with Ashley Wilkes. She rescues Melanie and her baby from the burning of Atlanta because Ashley asked her to take care of Melanie. She fights to hang on to Tara not only because it is her home, but to provide Ashley with a home after his home has been destroyed in the war. And that is why the scene that everyone forgets all about in light of the famed confrontation scene between Scarlett and Rhett in the Twelve Oaks library is the right first scene for Gone With the Wind--and why it opens the film as well as the book. I could go on at greater length, giving more examples of how Scarlett's primary conflict, delineated in the very first scene, drives every major event in the plot, but I won't. What I have provided is enough to give you an example of the analysis I am asking you to do. Feel free to go on at greater length, if you wish, about why the opening scene of the work you choose to analyze is the perfect opening scene for that work. Specifically: choose a book or a film that does this--that clearly delineates the protagonist and the protagonist's conflict in the very first scene, or else the first scene in which the protagonist appears if there is a scene-setter before it as in Disney films. Yes, books get published and films get made that do not do so, but in this assignment you are to look for one that does. Then explain how the protagonist's conflict, delineated in the first scene, drives the action throughout the rest of the work. (Quibble: it is going to be hard to find as consistent an example as GWTW, but try. Chances are, any work that is that well structured will also turn out to be extremely popular.) (JL INSERT: a clue for the sf/f fans among you. Try any early Darkover novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley - the shorter novels in particular. I suggest Star of Danger . MZB's novel Colors of Space (non-Darkover) is perfect for this exercise as is Brass Dragon. Or see my March 1999 column for analysis of a ST episode that has this quality. Andre Norton's early novels work well for this also. In Mystery, try The Ritual Bath. by Faye Kellerman, an award winner that launched a career. Romance writers, ask on Romance-L for suggestions. Some of the early Danielle Steel (did I spell her name correctly?) novels have this quality we're looking for here. I can't think of any Westerns off hand, but I know I've read some. The quality Jean is looking for here is termed in Writer's Markets columns "tight plotting." You'll find it in P. N. Elrod's first Vampire novels, a series called The Vampire Files. The first volume is titled Bloodlist . The first few novels in that series are examples of formula writing with a twist. And that series, too, launched Elrod into high orbit in this field. You can also find it in Laurell K. Hamilton's vampire novels. The quality that Jean is teaching you here is just exactly the quality that I look for in the books I review in my column. Notice how I've emphasized the FIRST or EARLY novels of a series or an author? Once a career or series is well estabished for a given byline, more complex, more subtle structures are allowed. Before you can learn to analyze those very advanced structures, you must master the simple, clean, clear structure we are emphasizing here. The more complex structures are built out of the same building blocks, with the same mental tools we are focusing on here. Master this section of this course, and you'll have what you need to launch a long career. END JL INSERT) Then in Assignment Five, you can attempt to outline your own story in which the protagonist's conflict is delineated in the first scene, and drives the rest of the plot. But analyze someone else's work that does it supremely well first. (See one before you do one.) JL HERE: And don't forget, "teach one" -- you don't know it until you've taught it. Those of you who have begun to publish and are ready to teach what you've learned so you can progress to the next level, see the bottom of our Workshop page -- and email us. If you have completed last week's assignment, and read the other students' responses, you have probably learned a great deal about how professional writers structure a work so that the opening defines both the protagonist and the conflict, and how that conflict then drives the plot through the rest of the work. It's been there all the time in many of your favorite works--but readers don't look for it. It just grabs their subconscious minds and leads them along by the emotions. If you can learn to do that, you will have readers saying, "What a page turner! I couldn't put it down!" So, now it's your turn. Here you make the difficult transition from analysis to synthesis: you take what you have learned from your analysis, and apply it to the creation of your own outline. That is Assignment Five: write the outline of a story (any intended length) which tells how the protagonist and his/her conflict will be presented in the opening scene, and then event by event how that conflict drives the story and the plot hand in hand. You may never write this story. (That's a may; if you discover that you really like what comes out of this exercise, there is no reason that you can't write the story later on.) Treat this as an intellectual exercise for now: your object is to show that you can write an outline in which the protagonist and his/her conflict are clearly delineated in the first scene, and every event in the plot is driven by that conflict. This is a technique you need to master, even if only to abandon it because you hate such formulaic writing. You must know what it is you are abandoning before you reject it out of hand. Even if you never use this technique in its entirety (as I told you, it is rare to find something as tightly plotted as Gone With the Wind), doing the exercise should make it much easier for you to determine where any story you want to write begins. Furthermore, the longer and more diverse the story is that you have to tell, the more important it is to master this technique. The longer the work, the more important it is to have a strong connection among its parts. GWTW appears on the surface to be driven by an errant wind, the events of the war blowing Scarlett about from one adventure to another. If that were true, though, we would not find either Scarlett or her story so fascinating that it has become an icon of not only U.S. but world culture. Let us point out once again that you should not be practicing these lessons on your own most cherished story ideas. By the end of this course, our hope is that you will have a firm grasp on basic techniques, so that you will be able to decide objectively how to apply them (and which of them to apply) to the stories that stir your heart. This particular exercise, for example, is a perfect one to use for a throwaway fannish story. Write the outline for a Star Trek story in which your favorite character has a conflict that drives the plot, scene by scene. Never mind the ensemble--you're not writing a script you hope Paramount will buy. Focus on one character and give him/her the responsibility for the entire plot. Or do the same thing with any tv show or movie or series of books. You may write something original if you wish, but as the purpose of this lesson is conflict-driven plot, it's perfectly all right to practice with somebody else's characters. If you do an original piece, make the story up now--don't use something you have been working on for a long time, in which you have personal emotional investment. Those of you who write humor are not left out here, you know! Situation comedy, when it works right, uses exactly this formula. Write the outline for a new episode of your favorite show (you might produce one more tightly plotted than what we usually see on tv), or create an original story. Just remember that we are focusing on the conflict of one protagonist here, so your model is better taken from I Love Lucy or Frasier than from Friends or Spin City. Write just the outline--don't write the story. The outline is in narrative form, but for purposes of this exercise I am asking you to divide it into scenes more clearly than you usually would, and in each scene explain how the protagonists's conflict causes it to happen as it does--just the way you did when you analyzed someone else's plot in Lesson Four. This is one of the most important lessons we can teach you--and the more you hate formulaic writing, the more you need to put yourself through the exercise! (JL Insert: Some of you might still be confused over what constitutes an outline. What we're looking for here is a WORKING OUTLINE, the outline from which you would write this story -- not the outline you'd turn in to an editor to get them to buy it. A selling outline is a piece of advertising copy writing. A working outline is a set of notes coded in your own personal imagery to remind you of what the emotional content of each section has to be. We will be analyzing your WORKING OUTLINE for its operative parts, not criticizing the content or imagery, or trying to judge whether there's enough here for you to write from. For more on OUTLINING - see the Workshop section "The Outline You Write From" and "The Selling Outline" -- and for examples of what we're talking about, see the Writer's showcase for professionals. Note that the working outline can be a scribbled set of notes, not even in full grammatical sentences, while the selling outline has to be well organized, where spelling, punctuation and grammar count, and it must be neatly typed. For this exercise, we want you to present us with a WELL ORGANIZED and NEATLY HTML'd version of a working outline written in complete grammatical sentences. You can use the SUMMARY format, rather than numbered items in a list. Whichever way the thoughts flow for you the best. For a perfect example of what I'm looking for see By Another Name, Still the Leech ?By Robin Bausman -- Assignment 1 for this course posted on our PASSWORDED URL under Robin's name. At the bottom she's provided a summary of her overall story divided into Beginning, Middle and End. Yes, there are a couple of flaws in that particular example -- read our commentary on the related passworded BB for a discussion of that. She's got the beginning of one story, the middle of another, and the end of a third totally different story. In this exercise, we want you to show us a Beginning, Middle and End that all belong to the same story. Focus on the PLOT=BECAUSE line of events, and strip away all the background detail so we can see the skeleton, and the joints of the skeleton. Show us how one event or decision or action causes the next event, decision or action. And use ONLY ONE because-line, one conflict, one protagonist, one antagonist. If you find difficulty in narrowing your focus to just one line -- do this exercise 4 or 5 times, inventing a totally new set of characters and situations -- a whole world -- for each of your attempts and turn in the best of the results for us to analyze. The more often you do the exercise, the stronger your ability to control your material will become -- so that characters won't pop up and insist on dragging you off the conflict-line -- which happens because the CONFLICT is not integrated with the PLOT and CHARACTER or because the protagonist is not well-chosen. Have you ever ridden in a car with a student driver? The hesitancy, indecision, wandering around inside the lane, wandering a little over the lane-line, and just the way the car moves without a firm hand on the wheel coordinated with a firm foot on the gas and brake, makes the passenger very nervous, upset, unhappy. You as a writer are the driver of this plot/story construct, and the reader is your passenger. If your control of the wheel and coordination with your accelerator (plot-direction and pacing) are "uncertain" the reader will sense it and not be comfortable and happy and secure. As a professional writer, you are selling ENJOYMENT. If your reader/passenger doesn't feel secure, they won't get ENJOYMENT for their money. Doing the Assignment 5 exercise over and over and over until you can do it in your sleep will give you the strength and control of your material to give your readers a smooth and enjoyable ride inside the protag's point of view. That strength will then let you work within all the other sorts of fictional structures that Jean has mentioned above without losing control of your vehicle. END JL INSERT) The essence of story is conflict, and that is the hardest concept beginning writers have to grasp. I know--I had a terrible time grasping conflict. When you create a nice protagonist with an honorable goal, you want that protagonist to reach that goal--and so there is a tendency never to go for the worst case scenario that makes him or her expend the last bit of energy available to reach that goal. But the most satisfactory story occurs when the protagonist overcomes the greatest obstacles, and when the antagonist fights and fights and fights before the protagonist finally wins. So far we have been discussing external conflict. However, sometimes there is no external antagonist--sometimes it is the protagonist who fights himself. The internal and external conflicts must be related, too--in fact, the internal conflict often causes the external conflict. For example, go back to my analysis of Gone With the Wind in the introduction to Assignment Four. Scarlett's external conflict is not the Civil War; it is her futile struggle to acquire a man who is completely wrong for her. Her internal and external conflict are exactly the same: every event of her external conflict grows from her internal conflict. It is only in the final chapter that most readers come to the realization that Scarlett is indeed her own worst enemy. Internal conflict is at the heart of every Sime~Gen story: these stories are really, of course, about prejudice--prejudgment. That is what a large segment of science fiction stories are about, the preconceptions we inevitably bring to any new situation, and how we must overcome them before we can see what the _real_ conflict is. Or whether there really is one--look how many Star Trek episodes are resolved when the preconception is exploded, what is really happening is understood, and it is discovered that there is no external conflict after all. It is our own beliefs, our own feelings, our own desires that constitute our internal conflicts. So do our personality traits--and some of the most interesting literature comes from placing a protagonist in a situation in which a benign, even beneficial, personality trait suddenly becomes a crippling weakness. An excellent example of how a personality trait that has served a protagonist well in the past becomes debilitating can be obtained by interchanging the main characters of Hamlet and Othello. It doesn't take very much thought to realize that if Othello were placed in Hamlet's situation, the moment his father's ghost told him, "Your uncle murdered me," he would charge right off, sword in hand, to "sweep to his revenge." Claudius dead, situation settled, end of play at Act I, Scene III. But if Hamlet were placed in Othello's situation, and Iago told him his wife was cheating on him, he would not act rashly. He would investigate. And investigate. And investigate. He would sneak around, listen at keyholes, trace events, question people, and gather all the evidence--and he would learn that Desdemona was innocent and Iago was lying. The play would turn into a mystery with a happy ending for everyone but Iago--no murder, no tragedy. Now, think a bit further: up until his father's ghost told him he had been murdered and that his son was expected to take revenge, Hamlet's contemplative, investigative nature had served him well. He was a perpetual graduate student, staying away from the machinations of the court. Like a typical scholar, he immersed himself in details, in poetry, in contemplation rather than action. Had he not been called home from school, his habits would have continued to work for him in the academic environment. Yes, I know he should have had a prince's, not a scholar's education--that is not the point. The point is that when he is faced with a new situation, he attacks it exactly as he has successfully dealt with situations in the past. It is an entirely wrong modus operandi for the situation he is in--but how is Hamlet to know that, when it has always worked for him before? The same for Othello: as a general, he has to make snap decisions. He has no choice but to move fast to defeat his enemies. A warrior doesn't have the leisure to stop and consider, to make and discard half a dozen battle plans when the barbarians are at the gates, or to consult with many different people before he acts. Time is of the essence. So when he is confronted with a new situation--a potential attack on his marriage--he continues to use the same tactics that have previously resolved all his conflicts successfully: he briefly assesses the situation, takes the advice of a single trusted officer (who has always given him good advice in the past), and attacks. Scarlett O'Hara has always gotten her way by flirting, pouting, lying, and scheming. Gone With the Wind revolves around her self-destruction as she pits those tactics which have always gotten her what she wanted in the past, and which continue to get her what she wants from everyone else, against the only two men in that time and place who are completely immune to them. In each case, the protagonist is his own worst enemy. And that is the definition of internal conflict: the protagonist's own personality, beliefs, and past experience fight against his/her ability to attain the goal in the situation s/he faces in this particular story. (JL COMMENT inserted here: It's the INTERNAL goal Jean is referring to here - not the external one. The internal goal is usually the real reason the external goal has been chosen. For example, someone may have an external goal of career-success -- "President of the Company by the time I'm 35 or die trying!" But the INTERNAL goal would be the love and pride of the father or mother who inculcated the belief that he/she should be President of the company, self-respect, respect of siblings, wife, children, -- the emotional payoff from being President is the INTERNAL GOAL while the external, tangible, articulate goal is President of the Company. Or put another way - the subconscious motivaton is the internal goal. The conscious motivation is the external goal. Trouble happens (i.e. story happens) when attaining the consciously chosen goal can't produce the internal goal, the emotional payoff. It's very easy to confuse internal and external goals because in a great work of fiction, they are welded into a unity by the theme. So think conscious and subconscious for external and internal, and it'll work. Though somtimes, both goals are consciously known to the protagonist. And Jean has sent you on a hunt for a great work of fiction -- I hope you can find it on your own book shelf, the ONE book you read that made you decide to write a book of your own. END JL COMMENT) Assignment Six, then, is to find your own example of a story in which the protagonist is his/her own worst enemy--in which traits and actions which have been positive in the protagonist's past experience prevent his/her success in this story. Here you are to analyze someone else's story. As you might guess, in Assignment Seven, you will be asked to create your own scenario in which the same thing happens. When Sondra Marshak and I were writing Star Trek Lives! for Bantam Books, one of the questions we asked ourselves, and answered by surveys of the fan writers producing all that Trekfic, was, "Why are these writers focusing on Kirk, Spock and McCoy with such a passionate determination to crack open their TV personas?" They were CHANGING the characters, and some of us were uncomfortable with that. Most fanzine buyers (and thus publishers) seized on it with an esurience unmatched in the history of fanzines. We decided that the amateur, beginning writers who had become the most popular, best selling, fanzine writers had stumbled upon an age-old axiom of the fiction craft that is disallowed in the anthology television show format (where the main stars must survive and everything must be returned to pristine starting conditions at the end of every episode - so that the episodes can be shown in random order). "Test the Hero to Destruction." That's one of the oldest, tried and true story mechanisms. The DEFENSES -- emotional, psychological defenses -- against self-knowledge, against tapping into ultimate reserves, against risking pain, against whatever that particular hero fears the most. (and it's only the protag who gets tested -- that's one definition of "story" -- the ONE TIME in that person's WHOLE LIFE when they encounter that "test to destruction". In Romance, that "test to destruction" is the moment when Love must be admitted, out loud, opening, eye-to-eye with the object of adoration and affection. ) Inner psychological defenses also create blind spots (against seeing that you love someone) as well as "buttons" -- which when "pushed" result in fulminating rage (or other emotion) at events not worthy of such an outpouring. Such moments of explosive reaction to ordinary events are one way a person can be his own worst enemy -- one way the internal conflict is dramatized and revealed to the reader. Ultimately it's those inner defenses against emotional truth that are the SOURCE of "Internal Conflict". And the source of its resolution at the end. There is always a part of every sane human being that knows something the rest of that person does not want to know. There is always a "Let's not go there!" place. There is always a yearning countered by a fear. There is a shining ambition countered by a feeling of unworthiness. There is a need countered by a shame before that consuming desire. We all carry emotional scars from our upbringing -- no matter how wonderful our parents were. It is that pattern of scars that begins us on the path to individuality. Assignment 7 is about learning to DRAMATIZE that network of interior scars, to make them EXTERIOR so the reader can see them and recognize them as a PATTERN that's familiar to them. In sf/f or Futuristic Romance, this "familiar pattern" effect is the key to getting the reader to suspend disbelief and enter into your Crafted World as if it were in fact Reality. The more exotic your premise, the more vitally necessary it is to shape and reveal that familiar pattern to the reader right up front in Chapter One. How did I learn this? Five to seven years before I did the surveys and research and writing of Star Trek Lives! (writing that book was a 5 year project and I had to take on two partners to get it done) I had taken the Famous Writers Course (a mail order writing school). Their main focus was something they termed "Selectivity." I encountered this concept of SELECTIVITY again while studying the philosophy of Ayn Rand because my partner on Star Trek Lives!, Sondra Marshak was a dedicated advocate of Ayn Rand's world view (I'm not, but I do admire her brilliance, and her writing is crystal clear, so it's wonderfully easy and fun to disagree with what she says.) It turned out that Gene Roddenberry was very familiar with Ayn Rand's writing, too. One of the concepts that emerged from this contrast/compare study among ST fanzines, ST itself, Gene Roddenberry's personal off-the-record idea of what ST was, and Ayn Rand, plus a number of other authors I was reading at the time -- was ART=SELECTIVE RECREATION OF REALITY. Why am I talking about abstract philosophy in a section on INTERNAL CONFLICT? Because the INTERNAL CONFLICTS of your protag and antags are the level of the fiction structure where you first must reveal to the reader your THEME. That level is where you speak to the reader in your own voice about your personal idea of how Reality actually works and why. THEME=PHILOSOPHY. A good half of a writer's life is spent developing a personal philosophy, learning other people's philosophy, studying how people adopt philosophies and create for themselves a passle of trouble trying to live those philosophies. Psychology and philosophy are the core of the driving energy within every Protag and Antag pair. An artist -- no matter what medium that artist works within -- always is DEPICTING reality as they see it. So an artist must spend a lot of time seeing Reality -- studying it -- meditating on it, mulling it over, shearing away all the DETAILS to reveal the underlying PATTERN behind lives. Real lives are a mess -- they are buried in a loud, noisy System called "reality." Most of what happens in a real life is random, pointless, nonsensical, irrelevant, irritatingly meaningless and boring. The writer's job (especially the Romance writer's job) is to depict life as EXCITING for people who look at their own lives and see nothing interesting that anyone could possibly want to hear about. The writer's job is to DRAMATIZE LIFE. How you learn to do that is by studying REAL PEOPLE using the same tools of ANALYSIS that we've shown you in Assignments 4 and 5. Cut away the DETAILS, cut away all the noise and nonsense, and slice to the bone where you can FIND THE PATTERN behind a real life. You will find that in almost every real life, there is ONE TIME, one moment, one year, one affair, one adventure, that changes that life -- that changes that person deeply. In every life that's long enough, there is a DEFINING MOMENT, a test-to-destruction. And people come out of that TIME with a new identity, a new philosophy, a new lease on life. A "biography" is the story of a person's life. To write best selling biography, you need not only a subject who is famous, but also a good grasp of that ONE DEFINING MOMENT that made that person who they are. The biography then is written by connecting the dots -- by showing the pattern of that person's life in events foreshadowing and leading up to that TEST, and a very short section after that showing how the person profited from that lesson. Biographies are usually written about people who are older, at the end of their lives -- so there are enough decades to reveal the pattern -- because REAL LIFE happens very slowly. A Novel is written by knowing pretty much what the Protag's whole life, whole BIOGRAPHY would be about, but doing just what you do to write a paper for school -- narrow the focus, cut a section out of the material, eliminate the beginning, eliminate the ending, put a frame around that one hot-spot where TESTING TO DESTRUCTION happens. Note, there's a VERY IMPORTANT principle here. You don't tell the reader everything you know. Part of the power of your drama is developed by what you withhold. You lead the reader to imagine those missing parts. And what part do you withhold? THE INTERNAL CONFLICT. The most powerful protags and antags, the kind that walk off the pages into the readers' dreams, are the ones who are unaware of their own internal conflicts. And thus the writer can't ever state those conflicts from inside the point of view of the protag or antag. The writer must know them, must have them clearly defined, and must build every piece of DRAMATIZATION from those internal conflicts (which are derived from the theme, or from which the theme is derived) -- but the reader must be free to IMAGINE that character's internal mechanisms. The reader's imagination is your most powerful tool. Use it. How do you use the reader's imagination? How do you get the reader to understand a character's internal conflict if the character is unaware of it? NOT by having another character psychoanalyse the conflicted character. Most people don't trust friends, relatives (or enemies) to understand a conflicted person. Very often, in real life, people assess other people by projecting their own internal conflicts onto the other. People misunderstand people this way. "Oh, she's so superficial!" "All he ever thinks about is himself." These are not statements a reader will believe about a character. More often than not, the speaker is revealing their own internal conflict with such statements about others. "It takes one to know one." So how do you explain a protag's internal conflict to a READER? You DRAMATIZE the internal conflict. "Show don't tell." How do you dramatize an internal (emotional, intangible, personal, and abstract) conflict? You externalize it. You make it concrete and REAL. You SYMBOLIZE it. You encode it into people, events, and actions. How? By using the EXTERNAL CONFLICT. That's right -- external conflict is just the internal conflict projected into external reality. Or -- internal conflict is just external conflict projected into the internal reality of the character. It doesn't matter if you start outside or inside the character to find the conflict. When you have one, you create the other from it. The two levels are mirror images of each other. That's why the Villain, or Antag is always so similar to the Hero or Protag. The Antag's internal conflict is a REFLECTION of the Antag's external conflict which is a REFLECTION of the Protag's external conflict, which is a REFLECTION of the Protag's internal conflict. Two people, four conflicts, -- 6 elements of the story and they are a MATCHED SET. When you get that "matching" of that set done according to the rules of REALITY that the majority of the readers of your target genre believe (or want to believe) most fervently, your fiction will be remembered, your byline will be memorized. This MATCHING OF SETS of elements in the story is the core of WorldCrafting. Jean Lorrah and I tend to start with the character, with the conflicts, passions, ambitions, dreams, ideals, and desires of a particular person -- and work outward from that to the world that surrounds that person. Other writers, such as Hal Clement and Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein create WORLDS and then craft characters to live in that world. It doesn't matter which way you do it, just so the finished product is composed of matched sets. Why? Why do the sets have to match? Because that's the way most people understand (or wish they understood) Reality. We have a "Law" in Physics that describes the subatomic world -- "Symmetry". In Physics, in every branch of the discipline, that law of Symmetry keeps popping up. Our concrete external reality has the property SYMMETRY. Biographers have catalogued thousands upon thousands of lives -- by finding the symmetry between the beginning and the ending of the life being described. Laws of Magick are built around the property of Symmetry. If it's not really there, we (all of us) wish it were. Great Art is built around SYMMETRY -- and occasionally, an artist comes along who can describe the world as ASSYMETRIC and reveal a memorable truth. But Assymetry is a form of symmetry. (to use assymetry, you must first learn to depict symmetry). Symmetry is as powerful an artistic tool as perspective. An example: I just saw Part Two of the 1999 season finale of the television show, "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." It's script is composed of layer upon layer of symmetry -- it just fairly screams SYMMETRY IS THE ESSENCE OF ART. And that is one of the most popular shows on television. At the end of the movie upon which the series is based, Buffy burned down the school gym fighting vampires. At the end of this season -- when Buffy is graduating and leaving her new High School -- she blows up the whole school building, starting with the library. At the end of last season, Buffy killed Angel. At the end of this season, Angel kills Buffy. If you have an encyclopedic memory of all this series, go through it and sift out the symmetries. One axis of symmetry that pervades all popular, commercial fiction is the symmetry between the Protag and the Antag. The one is built out of the other. The internal and external conflicts of protag and antag reflect each other. And that's what ASSIGNMENT 7 is about -- creating an internal conflict that is symmetric with an external one. As Jean pointed out in Assignment 6 - the internal conflict CAUSES (because-line) the external conflict. Or put in psychological jargon, we all "project" our internal conflicts into our external worlds. For more about this, see Jean's comments on the Assignment 5 for this course written by Sunny Johnson. That's the one about the abused 18 year old, Molly who gets herself pregnant by a fisherman. Study how Jean has analyzed Molly's internal conflicts. Yeah, this time you must walk and chew gum, and pat your head and rub your tummy all at once. What a coordination challenge. So I'm going to break this Assignment down into 4 levels, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Professional. Take one of the books you've analyzed for Assignments in this course so far, study the comments on your analysis that we've posted, rewrite the analysis using what you've learned about how to do it from the commentaries on your analyses and on your syntheses assignments. (DO NOT send this part in. It's homework. You might want to share it on the open bulletin boards, but it's just an exercise.) When you're confident that you have a complete, firm grip on how that one novel comes apart into its components, including ALL THE SYMMETRIES, then take the skeleton that you've analysed out of the novel, clothe it in original material, and write a WORKING OUTLINE such as you were asked to do in Assignment 5. Only this time (yes, I know many of you jumped the gun on this and tackled internal conflict in Assignment 5 -- go read and study all our comments on Assignment 5 and the Internal Conflicts depicted there) -- THIS TIME show us a clean, clear outline nailing the following points -- all encoded into "Show Don't Tell" using fresh, new characters that you have never, ever heard of or worked with before: (you may use a familiar world, but use NEW characters) 4. Protag's Internal Conflict (remember, DO NOT ARTICULATE IT; encode it into the actions -- the things the protagonist DOES). If the commentators can FIND and articulate the conflict you had in mind, then you can give yourself an A++ for this assignment. (NOTICE: at this level, deal ONLY with the Protag's internal conflict. Do NOT attempt to deal with the antag's internal conflict at this level.) In Romance genre, deeds are more important than they are in action-genre -- because "actions speak louder than words." Only by a person's deeds do you know why they are lovable, why a particular person finds them attractive, what that other person sees in them. Your heart is revealed in your deeds. Remember, the most potent source of power for your drama is the protag's subconscious mind. Subconscious means he/she is not consciously aware of what's driving him/her -- does not KNOW his/her own motivation is actually an internal conflict. That's how people end up their own worst enemy. 5. BEGINNING -- the protag meets the antag and DOES SOMETHING. Give us 1 or 2 paragraphs of the opening, what would show on page one of a paperback novel. No more than 250 words of text. EXAMPLE: see the part of House of Zeor that is exposed on the top page of -- or if it's not visible on their top page, go to Chapter One and read down to where Stacy says, "He'll come. He's dependable as sunrise." Now in HoZ, the antag is offstage during the opening, which does weaken that opening (it was my first novel). We want you to write an opening like this with the protag and the antag on stage and interacting with each other. But do it just like that -- cutting off at a cliffhanger sentence. 6. 1/4 point -- Antag strikes back. What does the antag do in response to the protag's initial action? Reveal the because-line. 7. HALFWAY through the word-count allotment: Antag WINS, (but not decisively). This is where the HERO IS TESTED TO DESTRUCTION. This is the moment of absolute undoing. This is where the facade is cracked open and the INTERNAL CONFLICT is revealed. But not articulated. The reader must see and understand what inner-pain is driving this person -- what confrontations with fear this person must make to grow and change into a better, happier person. But as in real life - the character is unaware of this process. Do not name the emotions. DEPICT them. (example: "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" -- Buffy desperately wants a "normal" life. She is forced by her abnormal life to kill Angel and send him to hell. THAT is the halfway point in her life's story. This year, where Angel kills her, that's the 3/4 point in her life's story -- she has paid for killing him by sacrificing her life to save him. Faith became her antagonist because Faith is a REFLECTION of Buffy. Now, Buffy must "lose" Angel -- she and Angel both attain freedom from her desperate desire for a normal life, and her consequent rejection of her Destiny. Now she goes to college, having accepted her position as protector of Sunny Dale, and presumably her very abnormal life. Her Story's ENDING must involve another confrontation with Angel. If it were my series, I'd make that a feature film story.) 8. 3/4 point climax -- Protag voluntarily faces inner demons and strikes back (or launches plan to strike back) decisively at the Antag. Protag takes the battle onto Antag's turf. Protag gives the order to launch the troops onto the beach at Normandy. This is the POINT OF NO RETURN. Protag has launched him/herself into a confrontation with Antag that can ONLY END IN RESOLUTION of the conflicts. Until the ENDING (the last 10 to 15 percent of the wordage) the Protag has been his/her own worst enemy. The internal conflict has PREVENTED solving the external problem because it creates the external problem. Now, at END, resolving the internal conflict causes the external problem to become resolvable, and frees the Protag to act. An example of this: In "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" the end of the 1998 season was Buffy Kills Angel and sends him to hell. Focus down close on that one scene, where she runs him through with the magic sword and shoves him through the gateway into Hell. At the last minute, Angel regains his soul because of Willow's spell, but the gate is open and only by shoving him through can Buffy save the world. Watch and listen to that scene (if you have this on tape). Her internal conflict (wanting a normal life vs. her extraordinary Destiny) externalized in graphic detail by her love for Angel and her need to kill him. She pauses. There are a few lines of dialogue that are not philosophy. Basically, it is a declaration of undying love. She RESOLVES (temporarily) her internal conflict, and this frees her to kill him. Then her internal conflict clamps down on her soul again, and she runs away from home, family, and Destiny. It is all done in actions, SHOW DON'T TELL. That abstract conflict is externalized into ACTIONS. That's what we want to see in Assignment 7 -- DEEDS. Show us a pair of "made for each other" enemies, whose conflict plays out in DEEDS driven by the protag's subconscious self-sabotage. RESOLVE that conflict in an ENDING that is connected to the beginning by a because-line. Because Protag does this at the beginning, Antag does that at 1/4, Protag accepts defeat by his own doing at 1/2, pulls him/herself together and at 3/4 point launches him/herself into the teeth of his/her worst nightmare. At ENDING, Protag confronts and defeats the nightmare in order to strike back at the Antag, and wins. Look closely, and you'll see that's the formula of my own first professionally published novel, House of Zeor. I didn't invent it. I stole it. FINAL EXAM: written by Jacqueline Lichtenberg -- Due November 28, 1999 6pm Pacific Standard Time -- NOT TO BE TURNED IN BEFORE NOVEMBER 15, 1999. Turn this in too soon, and it will not be accepted for posting and evaluation. (If you think this not professional -- I just got an invitation to a story anthology where any submissions had to arrive between two dates several months hence, with a warning that early arrivals would be returned unopened.) Now you have a chance to show the world what you've learned in this course. When the final exams are posted, we will open the Showcase for all to read. 1. Choose a short novel (75,000 to 100,000 words -- where a "word" is defined as 6 characters including blank spaces and punctuation). You may choose a shorter work or a play -- whatever your ambition is to write professionally. It must have a simple structure. It should start with the protagonist confronting his/her conflict in the form of a living antagonist. It should have a MIDDLE where the protagonist hits darkest despair, and end with the protagonist resolving that conflict -- and winning. You can find examples of this novel in ANY genre. 2. ANALYZE that novel until you can OUTLINE it in its barest, bare bones form as demonstrated many times in the commentaries on the Assignments posted on the Student Showcase. Use no names, no universe or world-building background details, no anatomical details of the aliens -- nothing to identify the novel you are outlining as a unique work. DO NOT mention the name of the novel you have outlined. Show us a picked clean skeleton of a novel form. Scour it again and again until you have nothing left except what you may legally and ethically steal. (this can be a 4 or 5 stage process -- keep going until it's clean as a whistle, but show us only the single, final stage of this process.) IDENTIFY whether your pattern novel is a "Beartrap" or "Likeable Hero" plot. Whichever it is, that's what you will be writing, so choose what you like best. If it's a "Beartrap" the first Chapter ends with the trap springing shut. If it's a "Likeable Hero" the goal is chosen and the odds are tangibly assessed. IDENTIFY the BEGINNING, 1/4-point, Middle, 3/4 point, and ENDING. These points are reliably determined by wordcount or pagecount in a printed novel. PACING is everything. Show how the Beginning connects directly to the Ending in an unbroken because-chain (i.e. the conflict identified at the Beginning resolves at the Ending). 3. WRITE: your final stage of this analysis -- to show us the skeleton you will be using for this Final Exam. (See Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced below for details.) 4. Now put your OWN ORIGINAL FLESH onto that skeleton. (CAUTION: Do not use any material dear to your heart. DO NOT use anything you have ever thought of before. This material will remain posted to the web for an indeterminate length of time. To avoid repeating past mistakes, do not use anything even remotely similar to what you've already been working with. Make up something new that's completely trivial to you. This is an exercise, not a demonstration of your talent.) Invent a protagonist, give him/her a CONFLICT with an active antagonist, situation, background, setting and theme -- right on that skeleton. Make absolutely certain you do not take any detail at all from the novel you are lifting the PATTERN out of. Any stray details from that novel will ruin yours -- like a stray bit of yoke can prevent the eggwhites from whipping up stiffly. Show how YOUR protag resolves the conflict with the antag. (this stage should be about 100 to 200 words for what would eventually be a 75,000 word novel (typical size for a first novel sale). If you're using more words, you haven't got the bones bare enough yet to see the underlying pattern. 5. WRITE -- one short chapter in full blown prose, giving the opening of the novel (or a few scenes of the shorter work). This might be 1500 to 2000 words. Pace it like a teaser for a one-hour episode of a tv show. You define the protag, the conflict, and the antag in SHOW DON'T TELL -- and end with a cliff-hanger ACTION. Be sure that EACH SCENE changes the SITUATION. (action=rate-of-change-of-situation) --- SEE BEGINNER, INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED BELOW, not everyone should be doing this in its entire form. NOTEHouse of Zeor is an 87,500 word short story by structure -- which is why it's a "can't put it down" read --- longer novels have more complex climax-point elevation patterns so that you can put them down, but you are compelled to pick them up again. The writer controls reader behavior by manipulating the relative emotional heights of the climax points. 7. TEST what you have written. Look for the mistakes you've made during the Assignments. Look for the oversights you have made. Look for the words you didn't need to include. Now, go through it again and search for the mistakes you've seen others make in the Assignments. TEST: to see if you have a real protagonist and that THIS really is that protag's own story. How? Check to see if this protag is meeting up with his/her own personal nemesis in this particular CONFLICT. Does the external conflict throw the protag into intenal conflict to match? Is this protag the one whose actions determine what will happen next? Has this protag taken charge of setting the agenda? Is this protag the one who wins -- and most importantly CHANGE in the end? Whose conflict is resolved? If not, you haven't got the right protag for this story. TEST: to see if the inner conflict and outer conflict are thematically related. TEST: to see if the whole novel SAYS SOMETHING. It doesn't have to be saying something important -- this is only a Final Exam not a commercial novel. It just has to SAY SOMETHING and say it definitely and clearly. You must have a THESIS. We don't expect you to handle theme perfectly here -- there's a lot more to handling theme than we've mentioned in passing in the commentaries. We only expect that the DETAILS you have invented all go together to add up to ONE THEME. Just one. Simple. Clear. Concise. And you must not tell us what that theme is. It must be obvious from what you have SHOWN NOT TOLD. You'll succeed at this if you keep the number of details you invent to an absolute minimum. TEST: see if each detail you have SELECTED reinforces or elaborates on your thematic statement. If it doesn't - throw out that detail. TEST: to see if all your elements come in the matched sets we have been talking about in the commentaries. (re-read those commentaries closely, study them -- extract every last bit out of them. This course has gone so fast, I know that many of you haven't yet paused to think about all the information we've packed into those essays on your work. Much of what I've written in one student's commentary is actually aimed at other students, and even at items that came up in previous Assignments. We've covered a vast amount of material in a short time. Go back over it and mull it over. Sleep on it.) TEST: to see if the conflict joined in the BEGINNING is actually RESOLVED at the ENDING. Is there an unbroken line of cause-effect from the opening ACTION to the final ACTION? TEST; to see if every scene moves the plot forward in a way that leads obviously, along the because-line to the resolution of the conflict. If not, throw the scene out. The very brightest among you will do the above exercise three or four times before deciding which one to turn in. The more often you do this Chapter&Outline exercise, the faster and more accurate you will become at "Performing" that particular skeleton that you have analyzed. (Writing is a Performing Art -- and the skeleton you have stolen for this FINAL EXAM is the script or score you are performing onstage for us in the Student Showcase.) Pick one skeleton, and master it by repeatedly performing stories on it. Then pick another, and master it. One day (soon, I expect) your ability to buy groceries will depend entirely on your ability to turn out these Chapter&Outline exercises without working up a sweat. (but then you'll have to finish writing the whole novel). 3. WRITE: your final stage of this analysis -- to show us the ABSOLUTE bare-bones skeleton you will be using for this Final Exam. The ONLY thing we want to see here is CONFLICT and BECAUSE-LINE (plot events). This should be 250 - 300 words maximum. (Which is often all the words allowed in a selling outline -- what is called in Hollywood parlance the "one-pager".) EXTRA CREDIT: Create a one-sentence PITCH that tells the whole story in one sentence. To find good examples, go to your library and read the flyleaf jacket copy of some hardcover novels (it's called "sell-copy" for a reason). Also read TV Guide descriptions of movies (online is OK; you don't have to buy the thing just learn how to write the descriptions.) You might want to read my special acknowledgement to Marion Zimmer Bradley in Unto Zeor, Forever -- which is about the power of the "one-sentence-story-concept" and keep in mind that Unto was my first Award Winner. 5.WRITE -- one or two SHORT SCENES that open Chapter One in full blown prose. Introduce protagonist, the protagonist's internal and external conflicts (which are a matched set, like left and right shoes, the design of one implicit in the design of the other -- don't dress your protagonist with one foot in high heels and the other in jack-boots), AND THE ANTAGONIST who is actively thwarting the protagonist's efforts. We want to see that first thwarting action. TOTAL WORDAGE OF THE TWO SCENES no more than 500 words. Be sure that EACH SCENE changes the SITUATION. (action=rate-of-change-of-situation) EXTRA CREDIT: this is about "style" -- see my remarks on "style" for Assignment 7's -- style your opening to use a variety of sentence structures. Use dialog, description, exposition and narrative in short, easy flowing style. Note at the top of this section that you are attempting this so we'll know what to look for. 6. WRITE -- the rest of the novel in OUTLINE form as you've learned from these Assignments. Nail the 1/4 point EVENT, the MIDDLE POINT EVENT, the 3/4 POINT EVENT and the END/RESOLUTION EVENT. That's all -- not a chapter-by-chapter delineation of each thing that happens -- just the CLIMAX POINTS. Who does what to whom BECAUSE of what whom did to who before. This should total no more than 500 words -- probably a lot less if you have packed all the necessary information into your opening scenes. OR #5+#6= 1,000 words total. This is the 4-5 page story proposal for a selling outline -- this is NOT A SYNOPSIS such as described by Karen Lebo in her Chat here on simegen.com. NOTE: the Romance Genre writers use slightly different TERMINOLOGY than other groups. It's not the word you use to designate a functioning part of a manuscript that counts -- it's the nature and function of that part. A "synopsis" is a short-form story narrative. An "outline" shows the bones and joints (protag, antag, conflict, beginning, middle and end). A "detailed outline" shows that you can write the novel without running into any "plot problems" that will take you time to solve because you've solved them all already. The rest of this work you must do to produce 3., 5. & 6. , and test them to be sure you've got it right. You are not to turn in anything BUT 3., 5., 6. and note any EXTRA CREDIT efforts. From the results of these Final Exams, we will design the next course building on what you've learned, so SHOW DON'T TELL what you've learned. It may be that we'll have to create an elementary course in dialog, description, exposition and narrative, word-choice, and even grammar. Perhaps some other teachers will do this. 1. CHOOSE 3 stories to analyze for Protagonist or Hero and to Identify . INTERMEDIATE students -- if you've SOLD your writing, but not your FICTION, or if you've been getting rejection letters and much encouragement from editors who buy your kind of story, or if you've had your fanfic published online and have gathered a fandom of your own from that, but want to break into professional fiction writing, or if you've had your fiction bought and published but just don't get the response from the readers that you were aiming for -- you are an INTERMEDIATE for our purposes. It is possible you know most of what we can teach here, but haven't "mastered" these techniques - or it is possible that you have mastered a good percentage of what we have here -- but have a hole or two in your overall skills development. It is up to you to analyze your position on this scale, and create your own assignments from these guidelines to target your own weakest spots. Please identify yourself to us by emailing simegen@simegen.com with the particulars of your publishing history. INTERMEDIATES may choose as follows or may choose from the Beginners suggestions above or a mixture of the two: (It is assumed you understand the objectives of this assignment because you've taught this course yourself a few times.) 1. One story or novel from their own PUBLISHED work. The analysis should be written so that the teachers and other students reading the analysis do not need to have read the work. If the work is available online, hyperlinks to it may be included. 2. One story or novel from your own teacher's work -- or a work you have studied very closely in developing your current techniques. This should be something of a different genre than what is chosen in #1. 3. One story from any other medium than printed narrative. (This could be a stage play you have written that has or has-not been produced.) It could be a TV show you have written for. It could be an epic poem or a famous song, or a Classic you admire such as an Ancient Greek play. It could even be a TV Commercial series! (such as the coffee commercial series about a couple getting together because they live in the same apartment building). See Beginner's instructions. Intermediate and Advanced students may go further than suggested here and attempt to RESOLVE the conflict they create in intermediate level of this Assignment is to do all the steps listed above -- but for both the protagonist AND the antagonist simultaneously. Again at this level, work ONLY WITH NEW CHARACTERS you have never invented before. You don't have to confine yourself to a novel you've already analyzed (and had your analysis vetted by the teachers here) for this class. You can find another novel you would rather use, analyse it, extract the pattern and use that pattern for this Assignment. This assumes that at the Intermediate Level, you have complete confidence in your ability to extract the pattern from any novel you choose to analyse. Here, at this level, demonstrate the ability to handle the SYMMETRY discussed above, so that it is clear that the protag deserves and/or needs the antag (as for example in a co-dependent relationship, or in an abusive relationship). Your protag's internal conflict is reflected in the protag's external conflict which is reflected in the antag's external conflict which is reflected in the antag's internal conflict. 3.WRITE: your final stage of this analysis -- to show us the skeleton you will be using for this Final Exam. Include protagonist, internal and external conflict set, and antagonist. 250 - 300 words maximum. EXTRA CREDIT for Intermediates only -- try adding THEME to this mix. Create a title and narrative hook that "tells it all" in three or four well chosen words. Label the attempt so that in case you don't quite get it right, we'll know what to say about it. 5.WRITE -- one short chapter in full blown prose, giving the opening of the novel (or two scenes of the shorter work). This might be 500 - 750 words -- make it very, very short and sharp. Pace it like a teaser for a one-hour episode of a tv show. You define the protag, the conflict, and the antag in SHOW DON'T TELL -- and end with a cliff-hanger ACTION. Be sure that EACH SCENE changes the SITUATION. (action=rate-of-change-of-situation) We want to see the last words of this opening be what Hollywood calls a "springboard into action" -- a takeoff point, which foreshadows what's to come, sets up reader expectations that you actually WILL fulfill. EXTRA CREDIT for intermediates only: stretch your vocabulary. Eliminate all the adverbs and re-choose your VERBS to be the exactly correct word. Adverbs modify verbs ("he moved slowly" where "slowly" is an adverb) -- but English has enough verbs that if you choose the correct one, you don't have to use an ill-fitting one and modify it. ("he crept") Note at the top of your work that you've attempted adverb-control so we'll know to look for it. By using this technique you can tell more story in fewer words -- or #5 + #6 together total 1,000 words. NOTE1. CHOOSE 3 stories to analyze for Protagonist or Hero and to Identify . ADVANCED writers are those who write and regularly sell in a particular genre and can see they must improve their skills to progress in the profession -- or who want to learn to write in some genre or medium different from the one where they've had success. (e.g. an established Romance Writer who wants to learn screen writing to create and sell a TV Series.) Assuming you have total confidence in your ability to analyze any piece of fiction for protagonist and conflict, you may create your own CHOICES here, and note the parameters you have created with each of the THREE items you are analyzing for us so we'll understand what you're doing. (and introduce yourself to us by emailing simegen@simegen.com with your standard biography and bibliography, and URLs and hotlinks). At this point in this course, we would expect you to create and execute an assignment that will be an example to the other students -- beware: we might well try to recruit you as a teacher in your area of expertise. This school is called a Guild because we use the "see one; do one; teach one" apprenticeship method. If you haven't successfully conveyed the skill to another writer, you don't yet have mastery of that skill. Use Assignment 2 as your opportunity to TEACH ONE by "show don't tell." Should you feel that your basic analytical skills require polishing, do the INTERMEDIATE level of this exerciseSee Beginners. Intermediate, Advanced & Professional students may go further than suggested here and attempt to RESOLVE the conflict they create by doing6. Describe what your Protagonist does about the obstacle's obstinacy. EXAMPLE: "Spinsky gets Sally Feingold to coach him in English, which brings her out of her depression." If this is a short story, it ends there. If it's a novel it ends when Spinsky gets his US Medical License because Sally Feingold took his case to court under some anti-discrimination statute no Russian Immigrant could believe existed. If it's a Romance, they get married. If it's International Intrigue, it ends in a shoot-out on the Volga. If it's a mystery, Sally gets murdered and Spinsky catches the murderer. If it's horror, one of the doctors in the rehab center is trading in body-parts. If it's SF, Spinsky has invented a cyber-limb Sally needs. If it's fantasy, Sally is a Supernatural Being. If it's a Western, Spinsky is a White Man and Sally an Indian Princess. Or you could set the whole thing in 12th Century India and write a Best Seller. EXTRA CREDIT: Show us how your Protagonist and Conflict would "morph" as you shift your structure from genre to genre or medium to medium. The EXAMPLE you see here, complete with the morphs across genre lines took me less than 1 hour to write while creating this lesson from Jean Lorrah's notes, and I'd never given a single thought to Spinsky and Sally before - and won't ever again unless I use them for examples again. This is an exercise professional writers do several times a day -- like an athelete in training might squeeze a rubber ball to strengthen the hands. ADVANCED STUDENTS may show us they can drive their chosen protagonist to near destruction and then resolve the conflict, and identify the genre the resolution belongs to. Choose to work in the genre you are trying to master, not the one you've already mastered. Keep to the one-sentence per developmental stage formatOur very ambitious or accomplished ADVANCED AND PROFESSIONAL students may attempt an the additional 3 scenarios suggested for the professional level using an internal opposing force that clearly and obviously generates the external opposing force. Answer the question: "What did this person do to deserve this enemy/plight/predicament?" (Why does this one love that one? Hate that one? -- WHY is always the key question the writer must define and address but NOT answer definitively.) But for Assignment 3, we are focused on mastering the use of External Conflict. See Assignment 6 for more on Internal Conflict -- and it will likewise be the subject of other courses hereDo the Intermediate level just as described but here you may work with characters, worlds, and situations you have been working with for some time to no avail -- laying them out in outline form and solving the problems you have learned how to find and solve during this course, by shearing away the detail to reveal the skeleton underneath, fixing the skeleton, then SELECTING from among the shorn-away detail certain details to add back that will clothe that skeleton in story. The key to working with old material that has major flaws at the core of the conception is being willing to tease apart all the details, select only a few of them and throw away the rest. Fix the skeleton then put the details back, and you'll have a novel to be proud of. The problem posed by this process is that the detail you must discard usually is the very detail you cherish and love the most. Professionalism is developed by learning to throw away those most-cherished parts in order to benefit the composition as a whole. At this advanced level, you may work with more than one protag and more than one antag (providing you have a symmetric, matched set of characters) -- which means the most crucial component of your story will be your THEME -- the glue that keeps all the characters, their internal and external conflicts all together, making one coherent and understandable statement about "Life, The Universe, and Everything." Most writers, by the time they're ready to attempt this advanced level of Assigment 7 have learned that it's much more cost-effective to just go invent new characters and new worlds that don't have the conceptual flaws at the core than to try to fix old, flawed material. But that old, flawed material is a gold mine. The two Sime~Gen novellas, "Easy as Hop, Skip and Jump" and "Lortuen" I have posted here are the sources of bits and pieces of detail that have gone into many of the published novels, including the award winning, Unto Zeor, Forever. Nothing ever goes to waste. Final Exam: ADVANCED & PROFESSIONAL LEVEL: Repeat the Final Exam steps 1-7 at the Intermediate level several times and pick one of your efforts to turn in -- keep going until you hit one that's marketable and start writing it. How do you tell if a novel is marketable? A)read Writer's Markets for requirements, and check any online writers resources regarding markets, B)read what is being published, C)go to conferences and listen to editors talk about what their lines need, D) call your agent and ask what's selling, E)talk to your editor about what they are selling now, F)Watch a lot of television, and check out the relative ratings of the shows, and especially plans for next season. Analyze (as we've emphasized here) the popular shows to see why they are popular -- and write your story addressing those themes and those particular conflicts, use those skeletons, or, G)check out what amazon.com's top page is advertising, check the advertising pitch and estimate the audience it's aimed at, read the posted reviews and comments on amazon.com then go to your local library or book store and riffle through the book checking "BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END, theme, Protagonist, Antagonist, conflict, resolution" (after this course, you can do that to any book while just standing there in the book store, you don't have to buy it to analyze it) -- if a book is successful in sales, suddenly every editor wants one just like it only completely different. "Morphing" the genres as we've done here has already taught you the trick of doing an identical book that's totally different. F)write anything you like and wait until your agent says he/she wants one like that. Everything comes back into fashion eventually. EXTRA CREDIT: for Advanced Only: Do all of the EXTRA CREDIT delineated for Beginning and Intermediate, PLUS -- Employ symbolism, visual imagery, sensory appeal (smell, taste, color, sound etc) to create mood and convey background information and thematic substance all at once in a demonstration of "word economy" -- compacting information feed into easy, entertaining reading. Most "critique groups" start their comments on beginners' manuscripts at this ADVANCED EXTRA CREDIT level, as if changing the surface decoration and word use would improve a story that's got a decalcified skeleton that'll shatter under the impact of an editor's eye. If you have spelling, punctuation and grammar down pat, and are a native speaker of English who is widely read and well educated, word-usage, imagery, sensory appeal, word-economy, etc. etc. is the very LAST thing to add to your writing skills. They are the advanced professional tools and extremely trivial to learn. More than likely, you'll just start writing that way once you master the basic skeleton structure focused on in this course. A Beginner or Intermediate writer who focuses their efforts and attention on word-mechanics and usage will fail in the commercial marketplace no matter how well they learn to use words. An example of this crossed my desk yesterday -- a Star Trek novel proposal that Pocket Books and Paramount rejected. It was spectacular in professional level word-usage, imagery, symbolism, sensory appeal, mood, dense background easily conveyed, effortless word-economy, -- but it had been rejected. Why? Conflict=Plot, protagonist, antagonist. That's it -- that's all that was wrong with it. Endless effort polishing words that don't say anything will get you nowhere. A car manufacturer doesn't layer on glossy finish-coat paint to the steel sheets before it's been formed into body-parts. There's a reason why things are manufactured in a certain order. Learn the order for manufacturing a story, and your efficiency and cost-effectiveness will rise to professional level. After writing the first chapter and the rest of the book in outline form -- with minimal flesh: FIRST: extract your THEME and state it in one short sentence, write it on a 3by5 card and tack it up over your computer screen where your eye rests on it whenever you aren't doing anything. Tack copies up all over the house if you can. Meditate on it while going to sleep. Argue the point or discuss that issue with your imaginary reader, with friends, family, in chats online, anywhere. Keep it in the forefront of your conscious mind. Every single CHOICE you make while writing must emphasize, restate, or elaborate on that theme. Every item of visual decoration, every room, the period furniture, the clothing people wear, the hobbies they have, the cars they drive, or horses they own -- where they eat lunch and what they eat - everything you CHOOSE to put into the novel MUST explicate that theme. THEN Outline Chapter Two. Write that, and as you write things that make you think of what has to happen next, fill in the outline for Chapter Three. Then write Three and outline Four. And so on to the end. Keep your eye on your next climax point (1/4, Middle, 3/4 or End) and steer directly toward it in as few steps as possible. Never write a scene to characterize -- scenes are for moving the plot toward a resolution of the conflict and nothing else. Keep your eye on the Outline, and follow it exactly. That's why you put so little into the outline -- so you won't have to throw it out because you had a better idea. NEVER elaborate in the outline. You put in the outline what MUST NOT BE CHANGED (i.e. the "formula" you are writing under). Everything else you have the fun of inventing as you go along. That way you get a reputation for delivering exactly the book that was bought. Each Chapter must have a BEGINNING, A MIDDLE and an END that echo the Beginning, Middle and End of the book. The BEGINNING always starts with the conflict joining -- with someone doing something. The Middle has to digest the actions from the beginning of the chapter, lay plans and launch initiatives that CHANGE THINGS at the end of the Chapter. The End of the Chapter is a cliffhanger -- an action where the initiative has changed hands, or threatens to change, implying strongly what the next event will be -- but leaving doubt in the reader's mind. Each SCENE within the Chapter likewise has a beginning, middle, and end, each with that same QUALITY noted for the novel as a whole. (Review all the points in the Commentaries where Symmetry is noted. Symmetry is the key element. Chapters are symmetric with the whole novel. Scenes are symmetric to the Chapters.) A. E. Van Vogt had a rule for scene-length that always works -- 750 words per scene MAXIMUM (most much less), 7 lines per paragraph, never more. In Theater, they call the scene structure that works best "Rising Action" -- even if nobody is doing anything physical, it's still called "Rising Action" as the situation becomes more and more tense, and more and more intense, the emotions RISE -- until at the end SOMETHING CHANGES leaving your reader hanging off a cliff, needing to know what happens next. That "something changes" is called a Climax. Each Chapter and each scene starts with a narrative hook and ends with a climax. It's best to end a chapter one sentence short of the resolutionof the climax -- that makes your book a "page turner." The point of using the outline in this fashion (fleshing out the details right ahead of where you are, but not too far ahead) is to keep yourself interested, happy, Crafting your fantasy World as you go, exploring that world, intrigued, having fun showing off your world to your readers, and above all WRITING. Writing with your specific reader in mind -- writing TO a particular audience. You have something to say, and someone you really need to say it to -- and that will drive you over the slack points where energy flags. This way of using an outline is the most powerful tool against writer's block -- and against getting bored while you work, or writing too short or too long, or falling off the conflict line and having to rewrite so many times you get sick of looking at the thing and never finish. When you do the work with the outline as we've emphasized in this course, you always know exactly what comes next. Even if you're sick, have a bad headache, have gone emotionally numb because of a personal crisis, or can only write 3-5 minutes at a stretch because you've got two sick kids on your hands -- you can still turn out the book on deadline. Oh, it might not be as good as it might have been had you been feeling better -- but it will be publishable prose. Maybe not brilliant, maybe not world-class, maybe not award-winning (but don't bet on that), and maybe not the best you'll ever do, but publishable. Why? Because the outline will constrain you to the conflict line and the genre-formula. Sometimes the words flow beautifully -- sometimes you grind them out. But you can do the work even if the creative muse is totally blocked. Using this method, you don't depend on inspiration to create a novel. You don't have to feel like writing in order to write your day's quota. You are writing a novel ON PURPOSE not by accident -- and that is what makes a professional in any field. To make a living at anything, you must engage in purposive, goal-directed activity. This form of outlining provides that scaffolding for you. This way of creating and using an outline is the tool that lets you make a living at writing, rather than selling an item now and then. This is the tool that convinces editors to give you a contract for a novel you haven't written yet. If you can do this kind of an outline, you can write the book - no doubt about it. So write that novel and sell it -- and let us know when it will be published! Very often writers begin selling their work before they've finished learning the craft of writing. When that happens, it can put a huge strain on the writer's "life" -- sometimes a strain that causes them to stop writing for sale. The apparently basic beginner's material presented here, when mastered systematically as presented here, can relieve that strain. Professionals should then see the Advanced instructions, and may want to create a scenario that plays out to a resolution in 3 separate genres. For example, a Romance professional might want to do a scenario involving an impossible match, and play it out in a)a vampire setting, b)Regency England, c) Civil War America. An sf/f professional might want to do a scenario involving an apprentice or college student who has made a major scientific breakthrough but has no credibility -- whose work could save the world (solar system, galaxy, universe?) if only people would listen! Play that out in 3 settings: a)contemporary America, b)an Interstellar Federation, c) a Lost Colony on some isolated planet. Note how the SETTING dictates the details of what the barrier-to-love would be, or what the scientific breakthrough would have to be. Note how the same theme can be used in each setting to produce a different, unique and original story, and how the theme dictates the details of the conflict that will resolve at the end of that story. For maximum benefit, the professional should work with settings or genres in which s/he has not yet sold anything. Post the result to the current instructor or to the Independent Study Seminar Board. See Beginner's Section for instructions -- now we tackle INTERNAL conflict. Assignment 7 gets much harder. For Assignment 6 the Professional who tackled Internal Conflict in Assignment 4 should now re-check the material produced for that Assignment to see if any further understanding of Internal Conflict has been achieved in Assignment 6. Assignment 7 synthesizes all these skills. Mastering the manipulation of an outline using the elements of protag, antag, internal conflict, external conflict, resolution, theme beginning, middle, end will cut the production time for a novel drastically -- sometimes by one-third to one-half the time from idea to completed submission draft. Likewise, the use of these tools can cut the time from contract to publication by several months because the editor won't have to call for major revisions. Being a professional is about making a profit on your time-invested. In low-paying genre fields, that means the professional making a living form writing must become very efficient at turning out words. These are the tools that the prolific writers use. For the MOST ADVANCED level of this Assignment, start by throwing away everything you know about your favorite unsellable universe conception. Now, re-invent it all anew, from scratch. This should be material you've had in the drawer, un-looked at, for at least 7 to 10 years. DO NOT LOOK AT ANYTHING you've written before. Pretend the ms was burned up or eaten by your cat. Re-imagine it from scratch. Capture that feeling you wanted to imbue the material with -- and use the tools you've learned in this course to create that emotion. That, by the way, is how Marion Zimmer Bradley sold the first Darkover novel, Sword of Aldones. She had been writing a thing she called "The Seveners" for fanzines and friends for years and years. One year, she took that material, discarded MOST of it, and re-invented around it the material we know as "Darkover" today. And after decades of writing Darkover, she came to a point in evolution as a writer when that original novel, Sword of Aldones, seemed too flawed, too juvenile, too illogical to her adult eyes. So she threw out the PUBLISHED and much reprinted novel, and recreated it from scratch to be what it would have been had she the skills then that she has now. That second beginning novel for the Darkover Series (Sharra's Exile) is exactly the same story, but completely different. Study the two novels, Sharra's Exile and Sword of Aldones (which isn't in print anymore, but had many, many printings and editions so you should be able to find a copy) contrast compare, analyse. See how they're related. The Professional should analyze the Extra Credit suggestions to discover their purpose and invent different versions of those suggestions targeted specifically at the areas pertinent to their own career development. Take this general course and make it specific to your own area. Remember, writing is a performing art -- and such arts are mastered only by teaching them. The Professional Final Exam is to execute this final exam in its entirety on all three levels of accomplishment in such a way as to make it a document from which others who are taking this course will learn. Such a document should turn out to be a novel which you can sell -- and when that happens, we do want to hear about it and link to it.	eng	134334b5-78b5-421b-a5ad-8612ce79800c	http://www.simegen.com/school/OnlineLessons/eos-top.html
The Giver by Lois Lowry Rationale by Lori S. Livingston Grade Level and Audience The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993) according to Alleen Nilsen and Kenneth L. Donelson (1994) discusses such issues as ''intellectual vs. intuitive knowledge, physical and psychological manipulation, euthanasia, family planning and the cost of conformity compared to the costs of divergence" (p. 99). These issues are all explored through the eyes of the twelve-year-old protagonist, Jonas. The main theme of individuality in the face of conformity is an important issue that adolescents are often faced with. Ilene Cooper suggests (1993) "There's a distinctly appealing comfort in Sameness that kids--especially junior high kids--will recognize" (p. 1506). In an interview, Lois Lowry (Hendershot, 1994), when asked what grade level she envisions The Giver being used at, responded, ''I am hearing from junior high teachers primarily, but not exclusively, and they are telling me that they've never before had a book that promotes discussion in the way this book does" (p. 309). Judy Freeman (1994) finds The Giver appropriate reading for grades five through eight and states, "This is a powerful novel, winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal, should stimulate invigorating discussions about the concepts of utopia, repression, and conformity'' (p. 67). According to Alleen Nilsen and Kenneth L. Donelson, The Giver is recommended for grades six and up (p. 99). Plot Summary Imagine a world where every child is shielded from danger and mischief. It is a world completely absent of pain, poverty, war, disease or discomfort. There is no divorce and no unemployment. The buildings, the people, the weather are all alike. Yet in this world there is no color, no love, no dreams, or choice. This is the world in which twelve-year-old Jonas lives. He lives with his family--the standard unit comprised of a mother, a father, one boy, and one girl. Each member in this nameless society receives an assignment from the government which is run by a Council of Elders. The Council is responsible for everything from allotting the food to the community to who will bear the children in the society. For example, Jonas's father is a Nurturer at the child care center, and his mother works at the Department of Justice. Community members receive their professional assignments at age twelve. These assignments are given during a ritual known as the ceremony of Twelve. As the book opens, Jonas is experiencing intense anxiety about what assignment he will be given. At the ceremony, Jonas watches as his peers receive their assignments like Fish Hatcherie Attendant and Birthmother. When Jonas assignment is bestowed upon him, he is shocked and excited to learn that he has been selected for the most prestigious assignment in the community. He is to become the next Receiver of Memory. Jonas is to be instructed in his duties by the previous Receiver of Memory, who has now become the Giver. Jonas is now charged with the enormous job of maintaining all the memories of the community from snow, colors, grandparents, love, and Christmas to grief, broken bones, horror, and war. When Jonas experiences all these memories he is torn. The pleasant memories urge him to desire the world as it was before the government instituted Sameness. He wants to have parents that love him, not ones who apply to have a son and then only "like" him. Jonas is not sure whether or not the people should be sheltered from these essential characteristics of the human spirit. As his memory training (in which the Giver transmits the memories through his hand into Jonas's back) progresses, Jonas becomes more and more discontented with his society. For example, one day he encounters some of his friends playing with guns and pretending to fall down and be quiet. Jonas is appalled by this because he knows they are playing war but do not really understand the implications of death. His friends alienate him because he reacts this way and he cannot explain to them what he has learned from the memories. Since he has experienced pleasure, he stops taking the pills that repress sexual desires and feelings. When he discovers that his parents only "like" him because they do not know the feeling of the word "love," Jonas is even angrier at the society for implementing Sameness. Jonas views a video tape of what is known as "Release." This is a process where deformed or imperfect children and the elderly are removed from the community. On this video, Jonas's father inserts a needle into the forehead of a low birth weight infant. He then deposits it into the trash. Jonas is horrified to learn that ''Release" is murder. This is the policy of the society to "release" anyone who is imperfect or ailing. He then is fearful for the baby, Gabriel, that his family has been given to nurture because its behavior was not developing properly at the child care center. In order to save Gabriel's life, Jonas realizes he must take him and leave the community. Jonas also decides that something within the community must be changed. The Giver explains that if Jonas leaves the community that all the memories that he has received will return to the community. This had happened ten years before with another Receiver (the Giver's daughter, Rosemary) who asked to be Released because she could not deal with the memories she was receiving. After this incident, the community was thrown into chaos because they did not know how to deal with the emotions the memories evoked. This time, however, the Giver will stay behind to help the people deal with the memories. Jonas and Gabriel depart for Elsewhere, a place where there is difference. The journey is extremely difficult. They endure pain, fear, dehydration, and starvation. As the book concludes, Gabriel and Jonas hear the music of Elsewhere, but it is ambiguous whether or not the sweet music is that of death or actually the music of Elsewhere. Theoretical Support and Redeeming Values The Giver contains many inherent social issues which cause Jonas's moral character to develop. According to Kohlberg (1969), The Giver deals with three stages of moral development. The three stages are: stage four, law and order, ''blind obedience to authority"; stage five, social contract, "what is best for society"; and stage six, "let your conscience be your guide." Stage four is the most prominent stage the book deals with. All the characters, including Jonas and the Giver, exhibit blind obedience to authority. The entire community does not question the government on its practices. For example, Jonas's mother and father do not ask why they cannot have more than just two children; they simply accept it as a law. The Giver, even though he has had the privilege of experiencing memories of pleasure and pain, does not object to what the government has done to the society. He does not object to Sameness because he has been trained to follow its rules. It is not until he meets Jonas, who feels that people should have the right to choose what to feel and not be told what to feel by a Council of Elders, that the Giver begins to question if the ways of the society are truly what is best for it. Jonas and the Giver (after his conversations with Jonas about the right to choose) both move into Kohlberg's stage five of moral development: what is best for society. Jonas comes to this stage very slowly. As he receives the memories, he is still uncertain whether or not Sameness is the best choice for his people. He is concerned that if people were allowed to choose things like color, their jobs or even their mate that they might make the wrong choices. As Jonas says, "I can't imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices" (Lowry, p. 98). He continues to follow authority because it protects people from making wrong choices. As the memories increased, however, Jonas wonders how his people can be satisfied with their lives without experiencing the memories of which he and the Giver have the privilege. Jonas and the Giver come to the conclusion that what is best for society is not Sameness. Even though they know returning the memories of the community will be difficult for them, and may even cost Jonas his life, it is what is best for society. Freedom of choice must be returned at whatever the cost. Kohlberg's (1969) level six emerges toward the conclusion of the book. Both the Giver and Jonas develop a set of ethical principles that guide their subsequent actions. This change to level six begins when Jonas views the Release tape. He watches in horror as his father executes an infant through lethal injection. When Jonas learns that this is what happens with the elderly as well, he develops his own ethical principles where euthanasia is unacceptable. The Giver watches Jonas' reaction to the tape and knows it is time to let his conscience (which holds the guilt of his daughter Rosemary's death by Release) be his guide. When Jonas leaves the community with Gabriel and returns the memories to the community, he is risking pain, starvation, exposure, and possibly death to do what his conscience knows is the moral and ethical thing to do. In addition to Kohlberg's theory on moral development, The Giver demonstrates several aspects of Havighurst's (1972) developmental tasks. '"Achieving emotional independence from parents and other adults" is one task that Havighurst cites. Jonas exhibits this several times. For example, he achieves emotional independence from his parents when he realizes that his memories make him different from them. They allow him to think and act independently of their control. He also becomes emotionally independent from his community. At the conclusion of the book he no longer relies upon them to make decisions for him. He is making them for himself. In regard to this task, Havighurst also states that "In adolescence, the young person begins to define his life goals realistically. He has a growing perception of the total community and perhaps attempts to become integrated independently of his own family" (p. 140). Jonas struggles with his conscience to realize that the people he has looked up to all his life, like the Council of Elders, and his parents' principles no longer correspond to his. Another of Havighurst's (1972) developmental tasks that Lowry's book portrays is "developing a personal ideology and ethical standards." This task is very similar to stage six of Kohlberg's moral development. Jonas and the Giver have both developed ethical standards. Neither feels that the community should be Protected from choice anymore. The Giver exhibits his ethical standards by staying behind to help the community deal with the burden of the returning memories, despite the consequences and the difficulties. He does this because he is a man who adheres to his ethical and moral beliefs. Havighurst states, "The crowning accomplishment of adolescence is the achievement of a mature set of values and a set of ethical controls that characterize a good man and a good citizen" (p. 142). At the conclusion of the book Jonas has developed this mature set of values for himself. He values human life above all else, but he also values love, freedom and choice. He makes the ultimate sacrifice as a good citizen because he places the lives and well-being of the community above his own life. He has developed a set of ethical controls that allow him to decide about what is good and bad in the world. In conjunction with Havighurst's developmental tasks there is also Christensen's (1988) theory on attitudes and values. One of the essential points that Christensen defines in his work is "being obedient to the law, except where religious convictions or deeply held moral principles forbid. Any disobedience should be non-violent." This is demonstrated throughout The Giver. Jonas is obedient to authority until he realized it violates the basic ethical principles which he believes to be true about the human condition. When he does rebel against the community by returning the memories to it, the action is definitely passive and non-violent. Jonas demonstrates another point from Christensen when he leaves the safeness and comfort of the community to endure pain and risk on his trip to Elsewhere so that the community and Gabriel can be saved. Christensen's definition of this is "acknowledging the importance of self-discipline, defined as the strength to do what we believe we should do, even when would rather not do it." Jonas also demonstrates this when he receives the painful memories of war, sunburn, and broken bones. He would rather feel only the pleasant memories of sunshine and snow. Jonas knows, however, that he must endure this pain to protect the memories of the society even though he does not want to. A significant point in Christensen's philosophy is "developing the courage to resist group (or individual) pressures to do what we believe, when alone, that we should not do." This point is illustrated numerous times throughout The Giver. Jonas has the courage to stand up for what he believes in despite the fact that his friends, his family, and his superiors pressure him to conform to the laws of Sameness. Jonas resists the temptation to live a life free from pain, divorce, lies, war, starvation and illness because he knows that the price of living in this community is losing one's individuality. Rosenblatt (1983) states, ''Although no one code should be taught dogmatically, the need for the individual to work out his own principle and his own hierarchy of values is imperative" (p. 131). The Giver emphasizes this concept. Jonas takes into account his society's principles and his own principles to create a hierarchy of values with human life, emotion, and choice above the comfort and security of his conformist society. Through his experiences with the memories and the viewing of the Release tape, Jonas begins to develop his hierarchy where his ethical principles rate above the laws of his society. "If the individual understands the important molding influences in his own past and in the history of mankind, if he becomes aware of alternative social patterns or of alternative types of happiness, he will be better able to make choices to dominate and if necessary, to remold his environment. Thus he will be in a position to exercise his 'will' and to consciously influence his own future and of the society about him'' (Rosenblatt, p. 156). This is the basic premise of The Giver. Jonas experiences the important emotions of pain and love that his people cannot. With this knowledge and the knowledge that there are alternative patterns of life where people make their own decisions, Jonas is able to remold his environment. He does this by returning their memories to them. In The Giver, students will be able to see how Jonas evolves into a person who makes decisions for himself. As Rosenblatt states, "Because the literary experiences tend to involve both the intellect and the emotions in a manner that parallels life itself, the insights attained through literature may be assimilated into the matrix of attitudes and ideas which constitute character and govern behavior" (p 274). Rosenblatt states, "Discussion of literary experiences makes possible the struggle to clarify emotion and make it the basis of intelligent and informed thinking" (p. 238). Students are encouraged to think critically about emotional issues that arise in The Giver. According to Carlsen (1974) readers of the recommended reading age (middle school) for The Giver are just beginning to develop critical thinking skills. The discussion of The Giver fosters this development. Erikson (1968) deals with several of the attributes of adolescence in conflict. "The adolescent looks most fervently for men and ideas to have faith in, which also means men and ideas in whose service it would seem worth while to prove oneself trustworthy" (p. 129). Jonas first looks to his society for these ideas to place his faith in when he first becomes the Receiver of Memories. As the novel progresses, Jonas looks to the ideals that he has developed to put his faith in. "To a considerable extent adolescent love is an attempt to arrive at a definition of one's identity by projecting one's diffused self-image on another and by seeing it thus reflected and gradually clarified" (p. 132). Jonas exhibits this attribute of adolescence in his love for Gabriel. In his love and devotion for Gabriel, Jonas is able to develop an understanding of himself and the value of human life. This provides a good role model for adolescents who have the potential to place love on a negative source. The love that Jonas has for Gabriel is pure and positive. The Giver has many redeeming values because it offers students an information base on several significant social issues that will help educate students about issues that impact their lives. The Giver provides numerous examples of situations where Jonas encounters euthanasia. J.P. Moreland and Norman L. Geisler (1990) write, ''Active euthanasia weakens respect for human life. The intentional killing of an innocent human life is simply wrong. It is wrong because human life is sacred and human beings have intrinsic value as ends in themselves by virtue of their membership in the natural kind 'human being'" (p. 78). This is one opinion on the debate surrounding euthanasia. Students will begin to realize that there is more than one side to this debate. Moreland and Geisler also state, "It is cruel and inhumane to refuse the plea of a terminally ill person that his or her life be mercifully ended in order to avoid unnecessary suffering'' (p.70). Euthanasia is a complex issue with many opposing viewpoints that students must discuss in order to be educated about it. "The rise of advanced medical technologies, especially life-sustaining ones, has brought to center stage the values and moral issues involved in euthanasia" (p. 63). Jonas's society presents a situation where the elderly, once they begin to ail, are participants in a type of forced euthanasia. While our society does not compel this it does possess the medical capabilities to make this possible. The Giver will help educate students about the controversy of medical ethics. In an article for Newsweek, David Kaplan (1996), writes, "Two influential federal appeals courts, using different legal theories, have dramatically expanded the ability of terminally ill patients to kill themselves and immunized the physicians who help them's (p. 62). Kaplan is referring to the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan which ruled that the New York state's manslaughter stature could not be used to prosecute doctors who aid in the death of terminally ill patients and the case of the Ninth Circuit appeals court in San Francisco which found that assisted suicide was protected by the 14th Amendment which guarantees liberty. Currently, thirty-two states prohibit assisted suicide but, according to Kaplan, these two court rulings have "set the stage for a Supreme Court battle" where legalization of assisted suicide may become a reality. With this much controversy surrounding the issue, it is necessary for students to understand both sides of the debate so that they can make educated decisions about it. There is no cure in sight for chronic and painful diseases like AIDS and cancer; with the possibility that euthanasia may become legalized, it is likely students will encounter this dilemma in the future. The Giver not only discusses the controversial issue of euthanasia but considers the topic of abortion and family planning as well. In the case of Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (cited in Harrison and Gilbert, 1993), the court stated that "Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality, but that cannot control our decision. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code" (p. l). The Giver provides students with the opportunity to discuss abortion as it has been defined by United States law. Students have a right to know the type of laws that have been implemented concerning their bodies. Miriam Claire (1995) states, ''The estimated 50 to 60 million women worldwide who have abortions each year are not experts on abortion, morality, law, or politics. Neither are their partners, but somehow they have to make the choice" (p. xiii). By discussing the issue of abortion as it occurs in The Giver, students will have the benefit of being informed about the issue so that if they do have to make a decision, it will not be one formed out of ignorance. James C. Mohr (1978) writes, "twenty-one percent of females 13-19 will undergo abortion" (p. 23). These statistics reflect the age population that will be reading The Giver. Young adults who are in this age range need to know their options. The Giver creates an excellent medium for the discussion of this issue. Patricia King and Melinda Beck (1996) state, "Some abortion foes think compassion will win more converts to their side'' and "A few activists on the abortion-rights side are arguing for a radical shift in rhetoric as well" (p. 61). With this debate heating up and each side approaching the issue in new ways, students will need to discuss the changes in the debate and how it will effect them. Literary Qualities and Summary of Reviews Lesesne, Buckman, and Chance (1994) are emphatic about the importance of Lowry's book: ''Newbery award-winning author Lowry has entered into the ranks of Asimov, Bradbury, and a few other hallowed writers of science fiction with her latest book for Ya [young adult] readers...Few other works of science fiction have explored a world of the future akin to the one created by Lowry. This philosophical treatise begs reading aloud to readers of all ages. It is a work deserving of close scrutiny by those who decide on awards for children's books" (p. 439). Nancy Johnson (1994) comments on the lasting impact of The Giver. "Every once in a while, a book comes along that, once finished, remains with you a long, long time. The Giver is just such a novel...The Giver is hard to put down, begs to be discussed, and lingers long after the last page has been turned'' (p. 461). Parents Magazine (1993, December) in its "Best kids' books of '93" section gives The Giver a place in the canon of great literature. "Akin to 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, The Giver deserves its place among the classics of literature of resistance for the young" (p. 194). Walter H. Lorraine (1994) comments enthusiastically upon Lois Lowry as an author and her work, The Giver. "In an age of conformity Lois is a unique and important voice. She is an author who truly has something to say and is willing to risk saying it. Which is Lois's best book? Certainly The Giver is an exceptional book" (p. 426). Patty Campbell (1994) praises the book as a unique addition to the science fiction genre. " Sure, The Giver by Lois Lowry won the Newbery. But it was My Book of the Year long before the committee had made their hotel reservations for ALA Midwinter. Here is a novel that transcends the young adult genre, a dystopia worth of taking its place next to modern classics like A Handmaid's Tale, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World" (p. 32). In her review of The Giver, Karen Ray (1993) writes, ''Even children who've never heard the word 'allegory' could be swept up in the story of young Jonas...The Giver, a powerful and provocative novel, is sure to keep older children reading. And thinking'' (p. 26). Amy Kellerman (1993), School Library Journal, discusses Lowry's literary style and her characters, "The author makes real abstract concepts, such as the meaning of a life in which there are virtually no choices to be made and no experiences with deep feelings. This tightly plotted story and its believable characters will stay with readers for a long time" (p 124). The Reading Teacher's (1994, November) section on ''Teachers' choices for 1994" finds The Giver a valuable and beneficial classroom resource. Unsettling yet unforgettable questions are raised in this novel. Mature readers must ponder choices between freedom and sameness, the consequences of our choices, and our vision of what makes a perfect society. The ideas in this book challenge the thinking of both children and teachers as they explore critical questions together. If one of literature's purposes is to better understand our beliefs and values, this novel delivers'' (p. 245). Objectives, Teaching Methods, and Assignments Suggested Teaching Objectives Students will... Understand the benefits of freedom and choice. Become aware of the positive and negative aspects of a utopian society. Be able to understand why The Giver may be banned. Acquire a stronger appreciation for the value of a person's individual characteristics. Develop a new appreciation for the things that are normally taken for granted in life: love, choice, sunshine, grandparents, snow, etc. Be able to identify with a character (Jonas) and understand one does not always have to follow the majority opinion. Be able to understand how a person can develop a set of ethical principles and adhere to them even in the face of adversity. Be able to exhibit an informed opinion on several important social issues such as: euthanasia, family planning, utopian societies, religion and freedom. Learn that problems can be solved non-violently. Develop a better appreciation for history and the value of memories. Become aware that often it is necessary to put the needs of others (Jonas's society) above the needs of the self. Become aware of the psychological effects of euthanasia and abortion. Become aware of the possible consequences of conformity. Suggested Teaching Activities Have students conduct a debate match over the positive and negative aspects of a utopian society like Jonas'. Have students role play the ceremony of Twelve or any scene from the book. Have students bring in current literature such as magazines or newspapers which discuss major issues within the book. (i.e. euthanasia, abortion, homicide, freedom, etc.) Have students present a case to the class on whether or not they felt Gabriel and Jonas survived at the end of the novel. Have students rewrite the ending of the novel. Have students write a letter to Jonas or the Giver telling them what they think of their actions. Have students read The Giver in literature circles using role sheets and reading logs. Then have students give a presentation on the book. Examples: posters advertising the book, act out a scene, Siskel and Ebert book review session, news broadcast depicting story events, or design a new book cover. Have students write diary entries imagining they are Jonas as he experiences the different memories. Have students develop a board game based on the experiences in The Giver. Have student sketch with colored pencils or oil pastels a significant event or character in the book. Have students discuss and interpret the drawings. Have students discuss the differences and similarities between Jonas's society and the society in which they live. Have students create poetry from significant excerpts within the book and present them to the class. Possible Essay Questions What do you think would have happened to Jonas if he had been caught and forced to return to the community? How do you feel about Jonas? Did your opinion of him change throughout the book? Cite specific instances from the novel to support your opinion. Do you think Gabriel and Jonas reached Elsewhere at the conclusion of the novel? Why or why not? Describe the positive and negative aspects of a utopian society like Jonas 's. What are the benefits of Sameness? What are the benefits of freedom and choice? Do you think it is important to preserve feelings of pain, illness, and war? Support your answer with specific evidence from the novel. What do you think was the ultimate conflict in the book? How was it resolved? Are there other ways the conflict could have been solved? Do you think Jonas was justified in returning the memories to the community? Why or why not? What changes did you see in Jonas's moral character as the novel progressed? What have you learned abut the issues of freedom and choice as a result of the novel? Describe the major events that prompted Jonas to leave the community. Possible Objections There are numerous reasons that a book may be challenged for censorship. According to "Appendix A: Common targets of censorship from The Schoolbook Protest Movement: 40 Questions and answers (Jenkinson, 1986, pp. 70-71), The Giver contains several targets for censorship. Here is a list of reasons it could be censored: abortion (throughout the book) atheism (throughout the book) violence (pp.118-120) sexual references (pp.34-36; 129) euthanasia (throughout book) conflict between children and parents (throughout book) conflict between children and authority (throughout book) science fiction genre moral conflicts values clarification secular humanism socialistic ideals negative connotations about American society behavior modification (pp. 37) Why The Giver Should Not Be Banned No child should be shielded from mischief and danger, either physical or moral, in the library or out of it. Such protection leaves them incapable of resistance when they are exposed to it as they finally must be, to the mischief and danger of the world. -George Bernard Shaw The Giver, while it contains many controversial issues, allows students to experience moral dilemmas and extrapolate their own conclusions about them. It provides students with the opportunity to face danger and mischief in a contrived setting so that when they encounter issues like conformity and freedom they will be able to properly respond to them. In The Students' Right to Read (1989), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) writes, "Students and parents have the right to demand that education today keep students in touch with the reality of the world outside the classroom'' (p. 6). The Giver with its discussion of significant social issues definitely keeps students in touch with the outside world. If students were to avoid all books that deal with issues that are present within The Giver, students' view of life would not be an accurate one. The Giver teaches students to deal effectively with the issues of freedom and conformity. It conveys to them the dangers of wishing for a perfect world. Without The Giver students would not learn about these issues in such an educated manner. "Censorship leaves students with an inadequate and distorted picture of the ideals, values, and problems of their culture" (p. 7). The Giver helps to clarify the picture of these ideals, values, and problems. ''In many ways, education is an effort to improve the quality of choices open to all students. But to deny the freedom of choice in fear that it may be unwisely used is to destroy the freedom itself" (p. 5). Students need to have the opportunity to choose to read books like The Giver because the more educated students are, the better prepared they are to enjoy their environment and deal with problems in it. Teachers can educate these students as long as the right to read exists, but take this right away and America's youth will suffer a grave loss. Margaret T. Sacco (1995) states, ''However, the new realism genre relates better to the everyday life, problems, and experiences of adolescents, better than classics" (p. 64). The Giver is part of this new realism genre. It demonstrates the problems of things like peer pressure that middle-school age children (whom the book is recommended for) are likely to be dealing with. The Giver is in touch with current social problems like euthanasia and abortion that young adults will eventually be dealing with. "Exposure to ideas does not compel belief, ruled the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in affirming the right of the Hawkins County, Tennessee schools to assign students reading texts" (National Coalition Against Censorship, 1987, p. 1). While The Giver exposes readers to controversial social issues, it does not force the reader to follow the beliefs of the protagonist. It provides an excellent means for discussion of these social issues but allows students to determine what aspects of the literature are applicable to their lives. If The Giver is banned then students will lose the valuable right to form their own opinion. Rosenblatt states, "If the student's structure of attitudes and ideas is built on too narrow a base of experience, he should be helped to gain broader and deeper insight through literature itself" (p. 107). Students do not receive a full education if the literature they read is focused on a few select genres such as historical fiction or suspense. The science fiction genre in which The Giver is written serves to broaden the student's base of experience through interaction with the complications of an idealistic society. "Students need to learn to evaluate what he believes to be 'normal' in relation to a wide range of attitudes and values," writes Rosenblatt (p. 152). The Giver provides students with opportunity to develop a varied background of attitudes and values. Students should not be limited to the attitudes and values set forth by a few select, approved books. Students have the right to read about these values, be educated on them by teachers, and then determine for themselves what is normal and acceptable. The content of The Giver presents a valid argument as to why it should not be banned. The community in The Giver did not have access to books or anything that allowed them to think critically or independently. Jonas and the Giver were the only two with access to knowledge. Because the people were ignorant of the knowledge in books, they blindly obeyed the laws of Sameness which robbed them of their most fundamental human right--the right to choose. By banning books like The Giver, we send the message to young people that ignorance is acceptable. ''Removing a book from a school library because a passage in it offends members of the community increases in some measure the probability that the student will see suppression as an acceptable way of responding to controversial ideas" (National School Board Association, 1989). By taking away the students' right to read The Giver, the students' First Amendment rights are violated. In the court case of Tinker vs. Des Moines (Moshman, 1995), students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." According to Moshman, students have a right to protection against unconstitutional efforts to limit their ultimate intellectual and political freedom as adults by indoctrinating them as children" (p. 31). This means students have just as much right to express intellectual freedom by reading The Giver as do adults. Teaching books like The Giver and educating students about the issues within them is our responsibility to young adults. As Ken Donelson (1985) states, "If we do not come to the aid of books in trouble--and it seems there will never be a time when a would-be censor is not eager to remove some offensive or controversial book--then we can no longer think of ourselves as professionals whose duty it is to serve literature and students" (p. 98). Lois Lowry is an award-winning author whose achievements have been recognized repeatedly. She is the recipient of two Newbery Medals for best fiction for her books The Giver (1994) and Number the Stars (1990). Out of the twenty book reviews that were used for this rationale nineteen of the twenty were extremely positive about Lowry's book. The Giver has also been named: Among .'Best Kids' Books of "93" by Parents Magazine A "1994 Notable Children's Books in Language Arts" by Language Arts A member of the "1993 Honor Listing'' for English Journal A selection for ''Teacher's Choices" in The Reading Teacher A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor book An American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults An American Library Association Notable Book for Children Winner of the Regina Medal Booklist Editors Choice A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year Another reason The Giver should not be banned is it meets the NCTE's guidelines for selection of a notable children's book. Here are the criteria which The Giver fulfilled: Deals explicitly with language, such as plays on words, word origins, or the history of language Demonstrates uniqueness in the use of language or style Invites child response or participation (a) Is appealing in format; (b) Is of enduring quality; (c) Meets generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which it is written. Barbara Feldstein (1995) states, "Young people often see things simplistically--issues are reduced to black and white. As we get older, and perhaps wiser, we become aware of various interpretations. This does not mean to imply that difficult decisions should be avoided, but rather all aspects of an argument should be respectfully considered before the decision is reached" (p. 152). Jonas at first sees his community in terms of black and white. His government is right and anyone violating it--for any reason--is wrong. This parallels what many young adults encounter when growing up. They fall in with the crowd whether it be a social clique or gang--even if it violates the principles, because it is easier to follow the crowd than to stand as an individual. Jonas's actions in The Giver provide the student with a non-conformist view of individuality that can aid students in difficult decisions. Brant and Katel (1996) call the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, "the most devastating act of domestic terrorism in American history" (p. 47). Thomas et al. (1996) states that the unabomber was responsible for "sixteen bombing in 17 years; 23 wounded and maimed, three people dead'' (p. 36). Norland (1996) writes, "for four years the world has heard about war crimes in Bosnia, and investigators are now probing the mass graves of Muslim victims" (p. 53). These are some of the numerous examples in our society of people dealing with conflict violently. The Giver provides the students with a substantial example of a non-violent way to deal with conflict. Jonas's actions are a positive role model. In such a violent world students need to see non-violence as an option. George Braziller (cited in NCTE and International Reading Association [IRA]) who published a book that was being censored wrote, "I would ask you to reconsider your decision for the sake of your students, the ideals of education and knowledge, and also the freedom of speech and thought. We shall not be protecting our youth if we swathe them in ignorance, nor shall we earn or deserve their respect, if we cannot place enough trust and faith in them to reason and respond on their own behalves." Students have the right to read about, discuss, and draw their own opinions from the issues in books like The Giver. To ignore this right is to violate this right and makes our society no better than the regimented dystopia of The Giver. Harrison E. Salisbury's lecture (cited in NCTE and IRA) provides an excellent summation about why The Giver and books in general should not be banned, "The book...is an exquisite example of human genius. Where it flourishes, man flourishes. Where it withers, humanity withers. The book is strong . It can endure for a thousand years and more, but there exist those who would put out its eyes, blacken its words, reduce it to a gray heap of ashes, lock it in chains, and let generations live and die in darkness." We must let The Giver illuminate our students. Alternative Books The Giver deals with a number of issues including abortion, euthanasia (suicide), individuality, and responsibility. There are many other young adult novels that deal with the social issues mentioned above. The following list, however, only includes some books which discuss these issues as well as other alternative books in the science fiction genre. Individuality and Responsibility Cormier, Robert.(1974). The Chocolate War. Jerry is faced with standing up to a group known as the Vigils who rule his school. He is forced to make some complicated decisions when he refuses to sell chocolate for the Vigils. Scoppetone, Sandra. (1974). Trying Hard Not to Hear. Camilla learns that growing up sometimes means dealing with issues that are not always pleasant and involves discovering her own values as she begins to understand others. Stirling, Nora.(1969). You Would If You Loved Me. This book deals primarily with the difficult issues of teenagers--especially indecision, responsibility and following the crowd. Johnson, Scott.(1992). One of the Boys. Marty Benbow's boys run the school which Eric attends. Eric likes being a member of the group but has to make a decision about going against the group when their jokes turn cruel. Guy, Rosa. (1992). Billy the Great. A teenager, Billy, attempts to make his own choices when his parents have mapped out his life for him. Danzinger, Paula. (1979). Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice? Lauren learns about being her own person amongst the confusion she encounters at home and at school. Science Fiction Westall, Robert. (1983). Futuretrack 5.Kitson and his friend seek to find answers to some pressing questions from their highly regimented society where nothing is questioned. Macdonald, Caroline. (1989). The Lake at the End of the World.The year is 2025. One family, after experiencing world-wide devastation, comes into contact with a teenaged boy from a mysterious hidden society. Huxley, Aldous. (1946). A Brave New World. Science and technology take over every aspect of human life. Miklowitz, Gloria. (1983). Close to the Edge. A young girl is dissatisfied with herself and her family life and ponders suicide; but when she meets several elderly Jewish ladies she learns about the value of human life. Cleaver, Vera and Bill. (1970). Grover. Grover's mother is dying of a crippling cancer. She cannot endure the pain any longer and kills herself. His father, stricken with grief, cannot help him but his friends help him to cope with the loss and the way it occurred. Johnson, A.E. (1980). A Blues I Can Whistle. A special friend helps a boy deal with the death of his parent while the boy is considering taking his life too. Abortion Laing, Frederick.(1968). The Bride Wore Braids. A teenage couple runs away to get married and discover that is not exactly what they had bargained for. They married because of a pregnancy which ends in a spontaneous abortion. Head, Ann (1967). Mr. and Mrs. BoJo Jones. A young couple are forced into real life when they have to deal with the pregnancy that creates the marriage. Abortion is discussed but not carried out because the mother has a miscarriage. Dizeno, Pat. (1970). Phoebe. Phoebe, who is only sixteen years old, is faced with numerous options and difficult decisions when she learns she is pregnant. This is recommended for more mature readers. Powers, Bill. (1978). A Test of Love. A young girl is forced to make decisions about her pregnancy options. A good novel about young adults doing what is best for them.	eng	86c300de-ab10-456f-a1af-bf3bf7392e5a	http://www.pageout.net/user/www/c/e/celestwoo/Giver%20rationale%201.html
Day 9: Simple Machines Teacher's Toolbox DAY-BY-DAY INSTRUCTIONAL PLANS Suggested for Beginning of Year Review Science Grade 8 Toolbox Created by Michigan Teachers for Michigan Students St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency 499 Range Road  PO Box 1500 Marysville, Michigan 48040 Phone: 810/364-8990  Fax: 810/364-7474 Eighth Grade Science Toolbox Table of Contents Letter of Introduction .......................................................................................................... 2 Important Notices ............................................................................................................... 3 How to Read a Lesson Plan Page ..................................................................................... 5 Materials Needed for Lesson Activities .............................................................................. 6 Fifteen Day Overview ......................................................................................................... 7 Day 1: A Car in the Sun...................................................................................................... 8 Day 2: Arrangement and Motion of Molecules ................................................................. 15 Day 3: Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures .................................................................. 24 Day 4: Heat Energy ......................................................................................................... 32 Day 5: Balanced and Unbalanced Forces ........................................................................ 39 Day 6: The Roller Coaster ................................................................................................ 44 Days 7-8: Simple Machines.............................................................................................. 50 Day 9: Light ...................................................................................................................... 58 Day 10: Sound ................................................................................................................. 64 Day 11: Weather and Water ............................................................................................ 69 Day 12: Phases of the Moon and Eclipses ...................................................................... 79 Day 13: Seasons and Other Planets ................................................................................ 84 Days 14 and 15: Forest Management .............................................................................. 88 MEAP Practice ................................................................................................................. 93 1 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Letter of Introduction Dear Educators, While creating this toolbox, we spent a great deal of time worrying. We worried about:  devoting enough time to reviewing the Benchmarks taught in previous grades;  being developmentally appropriate;  including just the right amount of best practice instructional activities;  incorporating to, with, and by into the Day-by-Day lesson plans;  interpreting and aligning the Benchmarks accurately;  making the lessons interesting and motivating; and  addressing the teaching and learning standards within the lessons. We worried about everything, so you wouldn't have to worry. We know teaching is a difficult profession at best and even more difficult when faced with increased academic standards and content expectations. We wanted to help you through this transition period by providing this easy to use model designed to prepare Michigan's students for future statewide assessments. We realize we are providing a way for you to prepare your students for the MEAP. We also understand the best way for students to prepare for the MEAP is through excellent instruction aligned to a carefully designed curriculum. With changing content expectations and statewide assessments, it has been challenging for schools and districts to keep pace. We offer this toolbox in light of the previous statements. We hope you will find, within these day-by-day lesson plans, instructional strategies, and pedagogical ideas you can use everyday of the school year. If you do, we have done our job. It means we have created more than MEAP preparation materials. It means we have influenced your instruction and possibly your curriculum. St. Clair County teachers created this toolbox for use by Michigan teachers with Michigan students. It was a time consuming effort we hope other teachers find useful and will appreciate. Sincerely, Eighth Grade Toolbox Team Michael Larzelere – Port Huron Area School District Steven Hunt – Yale Public Schools Crystal Harris _ St. Clair RESA Monica Hartman – St. Clair County RESA Kathy Lentz –Capac Community Schools Jason Letkiewicz – St. Clair RESA Mike Maison – St. Clair RESA Tracie Stubbs – Algonac Community Schools 2 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Important Notices Michigan Curriculum Framework, Science Benchmarks The science toolboxes are a suggested review at the beginning of the year for Michigan's fifth grade students. Our emphasis is placed on the constructing and reflecting benchmarks. We embed them in the Physical, Earth and Life Science content standards of the Michigan Curriculum Framework. Use of these toolboxes does not guarantee all benchmarks have been addressed. The benchmarks chosen are the ones that seem to be more difficult for many students. The lessons are designed to make use of the ―to‖, ―with‖, and ―by‖ format. First, you model the skills and strategies for your students. Modeling means explicitly showing how the skill or strategy is completed and all the thinking that goes on during its completion. Second, you help your students practice the skills and strategies. This help can be whole class, small group, or individual guidance. Third, you let your students complete the skills and strategies on their own. This format starts with the activity on Day 2. During this activity, you will model the inquiry process. You will think aloud as you ask the investigation question, make a prediction, graph data, interpret results and draw a conclusion. In the lessons that follow, students will be given opportunities to practice these skills with less and less intervention until they can do them on their own. Each daily lesson is designed to engage the students for the full science period of 50-60 minutes. Because the toolbox is a review of content taught in fifth through seventh grade, for most of the activity days, the students are not doing the investigations themselves. Rather they are graphing, analyzing, and interpreting data collected by the project teachers or their students. This is not the best way to teach science, but given the time constraints of fifteen days, this is the format we chose. In a few cases, pictures and videos were made of the data collection. The video clips are provided on a separate CD. We invite teachers to extend the full investigation to their students, when time permits. We hope that some of the ideas presented will be springboards to further inquiry projects after the review period. We look forward to your suggestions and feedback. 3 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Children do not learn by doing. They learn by thinking, discussing, and reflecting on what they have done. "These materials are produced by St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency and are not authorized by the Michigan Department of Education. Please use these materials within the guidelines of the Office of Educational Assessment and Accountability (OEAA) of the Michigan Department Education. These guidelines can be found at: " 4 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 How to Read a Lesson Plan Page 5 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Materials Needed for Lesson Activities 6 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Fifteen Day Overview Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Constructing and Physical Science Physical Science Physical Science Physical Science Reflecting on Matter and Energy Changes in Matter Matter and Energy Motion of Objects Scientific Arrangement and Elements, Compounds Heat Energy Balanced and Knowledge Motion of Molecules and Mixtures Unbalanced Forces Inquiry and Describe common Investigations Classify substances as physical changes in Describe and elements, compounds, matter: evaporation, compare motion in Generate scientific Describe the or mixtures and justify condensation, questions about the arrangement and two dimensions classifications in terms sublimation, thermal world based on motion of molecules in of atoms and expansion and Relate motion of observation. solids, liquids, and molecules. contraction gases. objects to Design and conduct Describe common Explain physical unbalanced forces in scientific investigations chemical changes in changes in terms of the two dimensions. Write and follow terms of properties of arrangement and procedures in the form reactants and products. motion of atoms and of step-by-step molecules Explain physical instructions, formulas, changes in terms of the Describe common flow diagrams, and arrangement and energy transformations sketches. motion of atoms and in everyday situations. Evaluate the strengths molecules and weaknesses of claims, arguments, or data. Day 6 Days 7-8 Day 9 Day 10 Physical Science Physical Science Physical Science Physical Science Motion of Objects Simple Machines Light Waves and Vibrations Roller Coaster Design and conduct scientific investigations. Explain how light is Sound required to see objects. Describe and compare Relate motion of objects to unbalanced forces in Explain how sound motion in two two dimensions. Describe ways in which travels through different dimensions light interacts with media. Identify and use simple machines and describe how matter. Relate motion of objects they change effort to unbalanced forces in two dimensions. Design strategies for moving objects by application of forces, including the use of simple machines. Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Days 14-15 Earth Science Earth Science Earth Science Life Science Atmosphere and Solar System and Solar System and Ecosystems Weather Universe Universe Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of claims, Explain patterns of Phases of the Moon Seasons and Other arguments, or data. changing weather and Planets Develop an awareness of and sensitivity to the how they are measured. Describe, compare, and natural world. explain the motions of Compare the earth to Describe the solar system objects other planets and Describe ways in which humans alter the composition and moons in terms of environment. characteristics of the Describe and explain supporting life. atmosphere. common observations of the night skies. V. 4.M.2 Explain the behavior of Describe, compare, and water in the explain the motions of atmosphere. solar system objects Describe the arrangement and motion of molecules in solids, liquids, and gases. 7 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 1  Constructing Scientific Knowledge  Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge Inquiry and Investigations Day 1: A Car in the Sun Science Benchmarks I.1.M1 Constructing New Scientific Knowledge I.1.M1 Generate scientific Generate scientific questions about the world based on observation. questions about the world Key concepts: Scientific questions can be answered by gathering and based on observation. analyzing evidence about the world. I.1.M.2 Real-world contexts: Any in the sections on Using Scientific Knowledge. Design and conduct scientific investigations I.1.M.2 Constructing New Scientific Knowledge I.1.M.6 Write and follow procedures Design and conduct scientific investigations. in the form of step-by-step Key concepts: The process of scientific investigations—test, fair test, instructions, formulas, flow diagrams, and sketches. hypothesis, theory, evidence, observations, measurements, data, conclusion; Forms for recording and reporting data—tables, graphs, II.1.M.1 journals. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of claims, Real-world contexts: Any in the sections on Using Scientific Knowledge; arguments, or data. also, recognizing differences between observations and inferences; recording observations and measurements of everyday phenomena. I.1.M.6 Constructing New Scientific Knowledge Write and follow procedures in the form of step-by-step instructions, formulas, flow diagrams, and sketches. Key concepts: Purpose, procedure, observation, conclusion, data. Real-world contexts: Listing or creating the directions for completing a task, reporting on investigations. II.1.M.1 Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge Materials Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, or data.  Student Journal Key concepts: Aspects of arguments such as data, evidence, sampling, pages 1-5 alternate explanation, conclusion; inference, observation.  Colored Pencils Real-world contexts: Deciding between alternate explanations or plans for solving problems; evaluating advertising claims or cases made by interest groups; evaluating sources of references. 8 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 LESSON We start the toolbox with a review of the first two strands of the Michigan Curriculum Framework - Construct New Scientific Knowledge and Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge. These two strands are the foundation of the inquiry process and should be a part of any Life, Earth and Physical Science Lessons. The context of this investigation is a real-world problem involving the greenhouse effect in cars. Students will have an opportunity to ask a question related to the scenario, make a prediction, identify variables that make the investigation a fair test, graph results, analyze data and draw a conclusion. An optional activity to extend the learning is included. To, With and By Using the ―to, with and by‖ format, first model the strategy for the students. Modeling means explicitly showing how the skill or strategy is completed, including the thinking processes that goes on during its completion. Second, help the students practice the skills and strategies. This help can be the whole class, small group, or individual guidance. Third, let students complete the skills and strategies on their own. As you go through the steps of the inquiry in this activity, model the skills and strategies. Make your thinking explicit. In later activities, you will give the students the opportunity to practice the skills with help. KEY QUESTIONS What are the steps in a scientific investigation? How can I design an investigation to solve a real world problem? PROCEDURE 1. Students read the scenario that sets the stage for the investigation. 2. Follow the steps through the investigation, modeling them and thinking aloud. EXTENSION If there is time, students should design an investigation to answer one of the research questions they suggest in their reflection. 9 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name _______________________________________________________ Day 1 A Car in the Sun Alicia read the newspaper. She read: ―A baby girl has died, apparently from sunstroke, after being left in the family car outside her home on one of the hottest days of the year…It is believed that the baby was in the car which had been parked in the shade for about two hours during early afternoon, in temperatures of up to 23 C (75F).‖ The news article continued, ―The Automobile Association is currently carrying out tests on heat inside cars at different times of the day.‖ Alicia was very sad to read that news. She heard of other similar cases. She wondered how hot it does get in the car when it is parked in the sun. She decided to conduct an investigation. Purpose: Help Alicia design the investigation. The first step is to define the purpose or ask a question. What question could Alicia ask for the investigation? How hot does it get inside a car that is parked in the sun? What is the rate of the temperature increase inside a car when it is parked in the sun? Hypothesis: The hypothesis is the prediction of what you think will happen in the investigation. It can begin with the words ―I think‖. Write your hypothesis on the lines. Next, give a reason for your prediction. Explain your thinking. I think this because Procedure: The next step is to design a procedure that will answer the research questions and gather the tools she needs. Alicia has a digital temperature probe to measure the temperature 1 10 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 inside the car. She must decide how long the temperature probe will stay in the car to gather temperature information. She must also decide how often the probe will collect the data. An advantage of the temperature probe is she would not have to open the car to read the thermometer. This is Alicia's procedure: 1. Do this activity on a mostly sunny day. 2. Measure the air temperature and record. 3. Set the probe so it will measure the temperature every minute for 30 minutes. 4. Close all the car windows. Put the thermometer in the back seat where a baby car seat would be, and start the temperature probe. Close the car door. 5. After 30 minutes, download the temperature data into the computer. 6. Repeat this test two more times. Fair Testing: Identify and Control Variables: Manipulated variables are the things that you change on purpose in the investigation. What variable was Alicia controlling or studying in this investigation? Alicia will put the car in the sunlight for the purpose of finding out what happens. Sunlight is the variable she is manipulating or controlling. The responding variable is the one that changes as a result of changing the manipulated variable. What will change when the sunlight shines into the car? The temperature inside the car will change when the car is in the sunlight. What should Alicia do to make sure the test is fair? The temperature of the inside of the car should start at about the same temperature as the air. Have Mom or Dad drive the car out of the garage into the sunny part of the driveway when you are ready to start, or start the experiment after the car has been driven with the windows open. 2 11 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Collecting and Organizing Data The day was a mostly sunny day. The air temperature was 87°F. The car was in the garage and driven out to begin the investigation. The following table shows the temperatures inside the car each minute for 20 minutes. Use these data to make a graph. Use these data to make a graph. Time in Temperature Minutes (°F) 0 89° 1 99° 2 109° 3 115° 4 116° 5 115° 6 114° 7 113° 8 114° 9 118° 10 122° 11 121° 12 123° 13 126° 14 129° 15 132° 16 134° 17 136° 18 137° 19 138° 20 139° 21 139° 22 140° 23 142° 24 142° 25 143° 26 144° 27 144° 28 145° 29 145° 30 145° 3 12 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Temperature inside Car Parked in Sun Temperature Inside Car Parked in Sun 160 140 120 Temperature (°F) 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Tim e (m inutes) Results: What happened? Describe your observations. The temperature inside the car was 89°F at the beginning of the investigation. The largest increase in temperature came during the first 3 minutes. During the first and second minute, the temperature went up 10° each. During the third minute, it increased 6°. In the fourth minute, it increased only 1°, and then the temperature started to decrease slightly. This could be due to a passing cloud. It increased by 4° each from the 8th to the 9th minute and the 9th to the 10th minute, and then it decreased again by 1°. After the 11th minute, there was a more gradual increase of 3°, than 2°, and during the last 14 minutes, there was a 1 ° difference or less. After 30 minutes, the temperature in the car was 145°. 4 13 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Conclusion: What do your results tell you? Are there any relationships, patterns or trends in you results? The temperature inside the car parked in the sun became uncomfortably hot. It increased the most during the first few minutes and it continued to get hotter after that. The temperature inside a car parked in the sun with closed windows gets very hot in a short period of time. When the temperature outside is 88, it can get to be 145 in less than a half hour. Can you explain the relationships, patterns or trends in your results? Try to use some science ideas to help you explain what happened. The sunlight can pass through the car windows because the windows are transparent. Objects inside the car absorb the light energy and the light energy is transformed to heat energy. The molecules in the air and the objects in the car start to move faster. The heat energy cannot get through the windows as easily as the light energy. The heat energy is trapped inside the car (greenhouse effect) and the car gets warmer until it reaches a point where the rate of heat entering the house equals the rate of heat lost by the car (equilibrium). Reflection: How could Alicia improve this investigation? A passing cloud may have caused the temperature to decrease for a short time during the investigation. Alicia could repeat the experiment to see the affect of clouds. She could set the probe to take more temperature readings, maybe twice or three times a minute instead of once a minute. She could take the temperature readings for a longer period of time. She could do this again on a day where there are no clouds. What new questions could she investigate? What is the rate of temperature increase if the car was parked in the shade? Does the color of the car make a difference? Does the time of day make a difference? Does the temperature of the air make a difference? What would happen if there were no clouds during part of the investigation? What difference would there be if the car had tinted windows? EXTENSION Design an investigation that could study one of your new research questions. Include the question or purpose, hypothesis, materials and procedure. 5 14 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 2  Using Physical Science Matter and Energy Day 2: Arrangement and Motion of Molecules Science Benchmarks IV. 1.M.4 Using Physical Science Knowledge Describe the arrangement and motion of molecules in solids, liquids, and IV. 1.M.4 Describe the arrangement and gases. motion of molecules in solids, Key concepts: Arrangement—regular pattern, random. Distance between liquids, and gases. molecules—closely packed, separated. Molecular motion—vibrating, bumping together, moving freely Real-world contexts: Common solids, liquids, and gases, such as those listed above. LESSON During the elementary grades, students study the visible properties of solids, liquids and gases. In the middle school, students learn the molecular properties. In this lesson, students are asked to draw a picture Materials of molecules in a flask filled with air and again, after the air is removed. The big ideas in this lesson are 1) all matter is made of particles that have  Student Journal mass and take up space; 2) the particles are evenly distributed, and 3) pages 6-8. the molecules in matter are always moving. These ideas are difficult for  Transparencies of students because you cannot see atoms and molecules. It is especially student page 6 difficult for students to understand that molecules in a solid are moving.  Make transparencies of the anonymous KEY QUESTION student work on How can you best represent air particles before and after most of the air pages 20 -24 from in a flask is removed by a vacuum pump? the Teachers' Toolbox and/or make paper copies PROCEDURE for each student. 1. Students complete Journal page 6 independently. While students are working, walk around the room, looking for students who may  Make copies of scoring rubric, still hold naïve ideas. Teachers Toolbox 2. Compare students' ideas with the scientific ones. Read the text, page 17, for each Solids, Liquids, and Gases, from the Student Journal page 7 with student. Note: the class. There are two 3. Pass out copies of the rubric from page 17 in the Teachers' rubrics on each Toolbox to the students and discuss them with the class. This page. rubric includes the big ideas that are needed for the explanation and drawing of the air molecules in the flask. 4. Give students time to read the anonymous student work included in the Teachers' Toolbox on pages 20 -24 individually. 15 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 5. Discuss their ideas with the class. A good strategy to find out what everyone is thinking quickly is to ask your students to show with their fingers the number of points they would give the anonymous students, or have them raise their hands as you ask, ―How many students would give a score of 3 (or two, one or none)?‖ Discuss differences and compare them to the actual scores from the anonymous students. 6. Use the second copy of the page, Student Journal page 8 for students to revise and/or improve their original response. SCORES FOR ANONYMOUS STUDENT WORK (PAGES 20-24) Student 1 (1 point)  Air is made of particles.  Molecules are evenly distributed in the first flask, but when most of the air is removed, the molecules are clustered near the top of the flask.  The random motion of the molecules is not represented. Student 2 (2 points)  Air is made of particles.  The particles are randomly distributed in both drawings.  The motion of the particles is not represented. Student 3 (1point)  Air is made of molecules.  Molecules are evenly distributed in both flasks.  The motion of the molecules is not represented. The misconception that the molecules expand when the pressure is reduced is present. Student 4 (3 points)  Air is made of molecules.  The molecules are evenly distributed.  The motion of molecules is included. This student also represents the air molecules that moved to the vacuum pump in picture #2. RESOURCES The Phantom's Portrait Parlor View a simulation of the motion of molecules in a solid –copper; liquid – water; and a gas – Nitrogen, at different temperatures. 16 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 200517 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name _______________________________________________________ Day 21 2 6 18 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Solids, Liquids and Gases A solid is a state of matter that has a definite shape and volume. The molecules in a solid are closely packed and locked in place by an invisible force. They can make only small movements, but they are always moving. The more energy they have, the more they can move. If you apply heat to a solid, the particles will vibrate faster and faster until eventually they have enough energy to break the force that holds them together and the solid becomes a liquid. A liquid is a state of matter that has a definite volume, but no definite shape. The particles in a liquid are farther apart but are still held together by invisible forces. They bump into each other, but can move around within a substance and slide past each other. The faster moving molecules will escape the liquid completely and the liquid substance turns to a gas. This is called evaporation. The more heat energy you apply to a liquid, the faster the molecules move and then escape. Evaporation of water can occur when the water boils and at room temperature. A gas is a state of matter that has no definite shape or volume. The particles in gas are far apart and move in any direction, as fast as they want. The more heat you apply, the faster they move and the gas expands, not the molecules. If the gas is in a closed container, the pressure inside the container will increase. If you continue to heat a gas and keep it contained while you heat it, the molecules will break apart and when it is very hot, the atoms will eventually come apart, leaving a substance called plasma. Plasma is rare on Earth, but is plentiful in other parts of the universe. 7 19 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Student #1 Name ____________________________ flask are far apart. They take up space in the flask, The pump took out most of the air. The air molecules that are left move closer together and take up less space. 20 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Student #2There's more air molecules because there is more air. There's less air molecules because there is less air. 21 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Student #3 in the flask is the same as the air outside the flask. The molecules are normal. The air got sucked out of the flask. The matter that was left expanded and got further apart. The big dots show the molecules got bigger. 22 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Student #4 flask are going all over the place. Most of the molecules would have moved to the pump and would be acting the same way as they did in the flask. There are only a few molecules in the flask. They would still be moving all over the place. 23 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 3  Using Physical Science Matter and Energy Changes in Matter Day 3: Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures Science Benchmarks IV. 1.M.3 Using Physical Science Knowledge IV. 1.MS.3 Classify substances as Classify substances as elements, compounds, or mixtures and justify elements, compounds, or classifications in terms of atoms and molecules. mixtures and justify Key concepts: Element, compound, mixture, molecule, atom. classifications in terms of atoms and molecules. Real-world contexts: Common substances such as those listed above, including—elements, such as copper, aluminum, sulfur, helium, iron; IV. 2.M.2 compounds, such as water, salt, sugar, carbon dioxide; mixtures, such as Describe common chemical soil, salt and pepper, salt water, air. changes in terms of properties of reactants and IV. 2.M.2 Using Physical Science Knowledge (Changes in products. Matter) IV. 2.M.3 Explain physical changes in Describe common chemical changes in terms of properties of reactants terms of the arrangement and products. and motion of atoms and Key concepts: Common chemical changes—burning, rusting iron, molecules formation of sugars during photosynthesis, acid reacting with metal and other substances. Mass/weight remains constant in closed systems. Real-world contexts: Chemical changes—burning, photosynthesis, digestion, corrosion, acid reactions, common household chemical reactions such as with alkaline drain cleaners. IV. 2.M.3 Using Physical Science Knowledge (Changes in Matter) Explain physical changes in terms of the arrangement and motion of atoms and molecules. Key concepts: Molecular descriptions of states of matter. Changes in Materials state of matter—melting, freezing, evaporation, condensation; thermal expansion and contraction; Speed of molecular motion—moving faster,  Student Journal slower, vibrate, rotate, unrestricted motion; change in speed of molecular pages 10-14. motion with change in temperature. Real-world contexts: States of matter—solid, liquid, gas. Changes in state, such as water evaporating as clothes dry, condensation on cold window panes, disappearance of snow or dry ice without melting; expansion of bridges in hot weather, expansion and contraction of balloons with heating and cooling; solid air fresheners. 24 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 LESSON In this lesson, students will read about elements, compounds, mixtures and states of matter. The Reciprocal Teaching strategy will be used. They will write notes in a graphic organizer so they will have a record of their ideas which they can revisit as they go through the other days of the toolbox. RECIPROCAL TEACHING 1 Palincsar (1986) describes the concept of reciprocal teaching: "Definition: Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text. The dialogue is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialogue. Purpose: The purpose of reciprocal teaching is to facilitate a group effort between teacher and students as well as among students in the task of bringing meaning to the text. Each strategy was selected for the following purpose:  Summarizing provides the opportunity to identify and integrate the most important information in the text. Text can be summarized across sentences, across paragraphs, and across the passage as a whole. When the students first begin the reciprocal teaching procedure, their efforts are generally focused at the sentence and paragraph levels. As they become more proficient, they are able to integrate at the paragraph and passage levels.  Question generating reinforces the summarizing strategy and carries the learner one more step along in the comprehension activity. When students generate questions, they first identify the kind of information that is significant enough to provide the substance for a question. They then pose this information in question form and self-test to ascertain that they can indeed answer their own question. Question generating is a flexible strategy to the extent that students can be taught and encouraged to generate questions at many levels. For example, some school situations require that students master supporting detail information; others require that the students be able to infer or apply new information from text.  Clarifying is an activity that is particularly important when working with students who have a history of comprehension difficulty. These students may believe that the purpose of reading is saying the words correctly; they may not be particularly uncomfortable that the words, and in fact the passage, are not making sense. When the students are asked to clarify, their attention is called to the fact that there may be many reasons why text is difficult to understand (e.g., new vocabulary, unclear reference words, and unfamiliar and perhaps difficult concepts). They are taught to be alert to the effects of such impediments to comprehension and to take the necessary measures to restore meaning (e.g., reread, ask for help). 1 Retrieved from the NCREL website at 25 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005  Predicting occurs when students hypothesize what the author will discuss next in the text. In order to do this successfully, students must activate the relevant background knowledge that they already possess regarding the topic. The students have a purpose for reading: to confirm or disprove their hypotheses. Furthermore, the opportunity has been created for the students to link the new knowledge they will encounter in the text with the knowledge they already possess. The predicting strategy also facilitates use of text structure as students learn that headings, subheadings, and questions imbedded in the text are useful means of anticipating what might occur next. In summary, each of these strategies was selected as a means of aiding students to construct meaning from text as well as a means of monitoring their reading to ensure that they, in fact, understand what they read. KEY QUESTION How is matter classified? What are the molecular properties of matter? PROCEDURE 1. Use the Reciprocal Reading Strategy as a whole group for each section of the reading. These strategies include Question, Predict, Clarify, and Summarize. These do not need to follow in any particular order. 2. Students complete the graphic organizer. 3. Use the assessment items on pages 13 and 14 in the student journal. REFERENCES AND RESOURCES Palincsar, A.S. (1986). Reciprocal teaching. In Teaching reading as thinking. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Chem 4 Kids; Matter Minerals. Elements and the Earth's Crust Web site with suggested strategies for note taking. 26 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ________________________________________________________ Day 3 What's the Matter? Elements, Compounds and Mixtures Anything that has mass and takes up space is matter. Matter is everywhere. Everything you touch is matter. During the time of Aristotle, people thought everything was made up of a combination of air, fire, water and earth. Today we know that there are a certain number of elements that make up all matter on Earth. Elements are made of tiny particles called atoms. Atoms are composed of a certain number of protons, electrons, and neutrons. Matter has physical and chemical properties. Color, smell, mass, volume, density, temperature, freezing point and boiling point are examples of physical properties of matter. The way elements combine and react with each other are chemical properties. Matter can change physically and chemically. To understand how matter changes, you need to know something about molecules. Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures Elements are the building blocks of all matter. They are Element Percentage substances that cannot be broken down or divided by Oxygen 47 ordinary chemical means. The smallest possible Silicon 28 amount of an element is called an atom. We know of Aluminum 8 over 100 elements. About 92 occur in nature and the Iron 5 rest are man-made. Four of the elements make up 96% Calcium 3.5 of all living matter: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and Sodium 3 nitrogen. Eight elements make up 99% of the Earth's Potassium 2.5 crust. Magnesium 2 All Other 1 One or two letters represent each element. The elements are arranged in order based on their Elements Found in the Earth's Crust properties in what we call the Periodic Table. The rows are called periods. All the atoms in a row or period have the same number of atomic shells for their electrons. Columns are called groups and elements in the groups have the same chemical and physical properties. Compounds are substances made of two or more elements that are combined chemically. Compounds can be in the form of a solid, liquid or a gas. They can change from one phase to another, but the elements that combined to make them cannot be broken down through a physical process. For example, when two atoms of hydrogen combine with one atom of oxygen, they form water. The symbol for water, H 2O, shows how the atoms combined. Water can go through physical changes by heating and cooling. Liquid water can lose heat energy and become a solid, or it can gain heat energy and become a gas. But a chemical process called electrolysis is needed to break the water molecule back to hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Carbon dioxide is a gas 9 27 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 formed when two atoms of oxygen combine with one atom of carbon. The symbol CO 2 shows how the atoms combined. When the atoms combine, the new substance is very different than the elements that made them. For example, water is very different than hydrogen or oxygen. Minerals are another example of compounds. Pyrite, or Fool's Gold, is a mineral that is made of the elements iron and sulfur. Each molecule of Pyrite is made of 1 part of iron and 2 parts of sulfur that are chemically combined. The chemical symbol for Pyrite is FeS2. The mineral magnetite (Fe3O4) is a natural magnet formed when 3 atoms of iron combine chemically with 4 atoms of oxygen. In forming compounds, the number and kind of elements that combine are always the same. Chemists look for new ways to chemically combine the elements to make new compounds with properties that they find useful, but elements always remain the same. Mixtures are a physical combination of two or more elements or compounds. They are not chemically combined. The amount of the substance that combines does not always have to be exactly the same. For example, you can mix a different amount of sugar with water and still have sugar water. A new substance is not formed in the mixture. The original materials are still in the mixture and they can be easily separated by physical means. The properties of the mixture could be similar to the properties of the substances that came together to form them. There are many kinds of mixtures. Solutions are mixtures in which the particles are spread out evenly throughout the mixture. The particles are very small and will not settle out. Solutions can be made from all phases of matter. Examples of solutions are Kool- Aid, tea, sugar water and salt water. Mixtures can also be in a solid form. Rocks are an example of a mixture of solids. Minerals combine physically to make rocks, but elements combine chemically to make minerals. help10 28 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Organizer for Elements, Compounds and Mixtures Use this chart to help you organize ideas about elements, compounds and mixtures found in the reading. Elements Over 100 kinds of elements make up all matter. Made of one kind of atom Mixtures Compounds Made of 2 or more Made of 2 or more elements physically elements chemically combined combined Solutions Made of very small particles that will not settle out and are spread out evenly throughout States of Matter Describe the molecular bond and the motion of molecules in a solid, liquid and gas State of Matter Molecular Bond Motion of Molecules Molecules move randomly and bump into Solids Strong bond each other. The bond holds them together. Molecules move randomly and bump into Liquids Weak bond each other. The weak bond allows them to slide past each other, but they remain close. Molecules move randomly and bump into Gas No bond each other. With no bond holding them together, they can move freely. 11 29 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ______________________________________________________ Day 3 Assessment Identify the substance as an element, compound or mixture. If it is a mixture, describe how the parts can be separated. How can the mixture be Element Compound Mixture separated? 1. Sugar X 2. Water X Boil water; catch the water vapor 3. Salt water X and let it condense back into water; salt will remain. Boil water until it evaporates. 4. Sugar Collect the water vapor and cool X Water it until it condenses, sugar will remain. 5. Carbon X Pour the mixture through filter 6. Sand and paper. Sand will collect in the X Water paper and the water will filter through 7. Iron filings Use a magnet to attract the iron X and sand filings. 8. Oxygen X Pour water into the mixture to make a salt-water solution. Use a 9. Sand and X filter to separate the salt water Salt from the sand. Evaporate the water from the salt water as 10. Salt X 12 30 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ______________________________________________________ Day 3 Teresa is given a mixture of salt, sand, iron filings, and a small piece of cork. She separates the mixture using a 4-step procedure as shown in the diagram. The letters W, X, Y, and Z are used to stand for the four components but do not indicate which letter stands for which component. Step 1: W, X, Y, Z Uses a magnet X, Y, Z W Step 2: X, Y, Z Adds water and removes the component that floats Y, Z + X water Y, Z + water Step 3: Filters Z + water Y Step 4: Z + water Evaporates water water Z Identify what each component is by writing salt, sand, iron, or cork in the correct spaces below. iron Component W ____________________ Component X ___________________ cork sand Component Y ____________________ salt Component Z ___________________ 13 (TIMSS 2003 Released Items: Eighth Grade Science) 31 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 4  Using Physical Science Heat Energy Day 4: Heat Energy Science Benchmarks IV. 2.M.1 Using Physical Science Knowledge IV. 2.M.1 Describe common physical changes in matter: evaporation, Describe common physical condensation, sublimation, thermal expansion and contraction. changes in matter: Key concepts: States of matter—solid, liquid, gas. Processes that cause evaporation, condensation, sublimation, thermal changes of state or thermal effects: heating, cooling, and boiling. expansion and contraction Mass/weight remains constant during physical changes in closed IV. 2.M.3 systems. Explain physical changes in Real-world contexts: States of matter—solid, liquid, gas. Changes in terms of the arrangement state, such as water evaporating as clothes dry, condensation on cold and motion of atoms and window panes, disappearance of snow or dry ice without melting; molecules expansion of bridges in hot weather, expansion and contraction of IV.2.M.4 balloons with heating and cooling; solid air fresheners. Describe common energy transformations in everyday situations. IV. 2.M.3 Using Physical Science Knowledge Explain physical changes in terms of the arrangement and motion of atoms and molecules. Key concepts: Molecular descriptions of states of matter. Changes in state of matter—melting, freezing, evaporation, condensation; thermal expansion and contraction; Speed of molecular motion—moving faster, Materials slower, vibrate, rotate, unrestricted motion; change in speed of molecular  Student Journal motion with change in temperature. pages 15-18 Real-world contexts: Changes in state, such as water evaporating as  Video, Melting clothes dry, condensation on cold window panes, disappearance of snow Chocolate or dry ice without melting; expansion of bridges in hot weather, expansion  Colored pencils and contraction of balloons with heating and cooling; solid air fresheners. Optional: IV.2.M.4 Using Physical Science  Flask Describe common energy transformations in everyday situations.  Balloon Key Concepts Forms of energy, including mechanical, heat, sound, light,  Heat source electrical, magnetic, chemical, food energy. Total amount of energy remains constant in all transformations. Real-world contexts: Motors, generators, power plants, light bulbs, appliances, cars, radios, TV's, walking, playing a musical instrument, cooking food, batteries, body heat, photosynthesis. 32 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 LESSON Students will review the motion of molecules and heat energy in the context of melting chocolate chips. A video of this investigation is provided on the CD. They will extend their learning by applying it to another investigation with a balloon on a flask which holds a small amount of water that is heated. If available, the investigation of the balloon and the flask can be performed in the classroom. KEY QUESTION By what pattern will the chocolate chips melt? Why? How can I represent the molecules in a flask with water and a balloon attached when it is heated and cooled? PROCEDURE 1. Read the description of the investigation and the investigation question on Student Journal page 15. Give students time to make a prediction and write an explanation. 2. Watch the video, Melting Chocolate, twice; the first time to get a big picture of what is happening and the second time to record the time it takes for the chocolate chips to melt. 3. Students make a graph of the data. 4. Discuss the results. Use these questions and the questions from the video: a. Describe the properties of chocolate before and after it melted. What properties stayed the same? What properties changed? Before: sweet, hard or firm, brown, definite shape, solid. After: sweet, soft, brown, undefined shape, liquid. b. How did the closeness of the flame affect the chocolate chips? The closer the chocolate chip was to the flame, the faster it melted. The chocolate chip furthest from the flame did not melt. c. In what direction did the heat energy move? The heat energy moved from the area close to the candle to the area farther away from the candle d. What can you conclude about how the heat energy moves? Heat energy moves from a warmer area to a cooler area. e. Describe the molecules of the chocolate chip before and after they were heated. Before the chocolate chip was heated, the molecules of the chocolate chip were arranged in an orderly pattern. They were held together by a molecular force and they were moving in place. When they were heated, the energy they received made them move faster. The molecules remained close, but they were able to slide past each other. The heat energy allowed the chocolate chip to change from a solid state to a liquid state. f. Describe the molecules in the aluminum foil bridge during the investigation. Aluminum foil is a solid, so the molecules in the aluminum foil remained in an orderly pattern throughout the investigation. The molecules were moving in place. The heat gave them energy which made them vibrate faster and bump into each other harder than before. The molecules did not travel along the foil, but when they bumped their neighbors, they passed the energy on. This is called the conduction of heat. This conduction of heat slowed down as it was passed along the foil because some of the heat energy was passed to the air molecules near the foil bridge.) 5. The balloon and the flask pages can be used as an assessment. They can be completed at a later time. RESOURCES The melting chocolate chips activity came from the following resource: AIMS Education Foundation (2004). Hot Chocolate. Popping with Power. (pp. 96-102) 33 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ________________________________________________ Day 4 heldWhat is Energy? Energy can be defined as the ability to do work. If an object can be put to work, then it has energy. Applying energy is doing work. In science, work is when you apply a force to an object and it moves. Objects can have stored or potential energy. When you stretch a rubber band, you store energy in the rubber. You can feel this stored energy when you let it go. It can sting your fingers or zoom across the room. When you jump on a trampoline, as you go down, some of the energy is stored in the springs around the edge of the mat. This energy is used to lift you back up into the air. When an object moves, the potential energy it has changes to kinetic energy, or energy of movement. The amount of kinetic energy depends on its mass and speed. The kinetic energy of atoms and molecules is sometimes referred to as heat energy. Heat Energy On day 2, we reviewed the motion of molecules. Heat energy is due to the motion of molecules. Heat is related to temperature. An object's temperature is the measure of the average speed of the atoms and molecules. The higher the temperature, the faster its atoms and molecules move. Heat energy is made up partly of kinetic energy and partly of potential energy. When the atoms move or vibrate, they have kinetic energy because they are moving. They also have potential energy because the spacing between the atoms is changing as they move; as you stretch or squeeze the distance, you store potential energy just like when you stretch or squeeze a spring. So heat energy is due to the motion of individual atoms. 14 34 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ________________________________________________ Day 4 Melting Chocolate Chips Question: By what pattern will the chocolate chips melt? Why? In this investigation, a foil bridge is made from folding a piece of aluminum foil (24 cm x 30 cm) into a narrow strip and placing it between two 16 ounce metal cans. Five chocolate chips are spread out evenly along the aluminum foil bridge and a small candle is placed under the bridge, under the first chocolate chip. The candle is lit and the time it takes the chocolate chips to melt is measured. Prediction: Watch the video (name) Record the amount of time it takes for each chocolate chip to start to melt in the table below. Make a graph of the results. Results: What happened? Describe your observations and record your results. The first chocolate chip close to the flame melted in 10 seconds. The second chip took 25 seconds to start to melt. The third chip took 45 seconds and the fourth chip took 100 seconds. The last chocolate chip did not melt. When the chips melted, they first got soft on the bottom of the chip. Chip Time 1 10 seconds 2 25 seconds 3 45 seconds 4 100 seconds 5 15 35 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Time it Takes for Chocolate Chip to Melt 110 100 90 80 70 Seconds 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Chip 1 Chip 2 Chip 3 Chip 4 Chip 5 Chip Number Conclusion: What do your results tell you? Are there any patterns? It took time for the heat energy from the flame needed to melt the chocolate chip to transfer along the foil strip. Although the chips were placed an equal distance apart, it took longer each for each chip to get the heat energy Explain the patterns using scientific ideas about the motion of molecules and the transfer of heat energy. Heat energy from the flame transferred to the molecules in the foil strip. The molecules in the foil started to move faster making the temperature of the foil bridge higher. The molecules in the foil bumped the molecules in the chocolate, making them move faster. This made the chocolate chip change from a solid to a liquid. It took time for the molecules in the chocolate chips further from the flame to receive enough heat energy to melt. Some of the heat energy transferred to the air molecules and was lost. What did you find out about the question you were investigating? Was it different from your prediction? Explain. The chocolate chips melted in the pattern of increasing time. The further the chip was from the heat source, the longer it took between the chips to melt. 16 36 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ________________________________________________ Day 4 The Flask and Balloon Part 1 A balloon was placed over the neck of a flask, which had a small amount of water. The flask was placed on a cup warmer. Use pictures and words to explain what happened. The molecules in the second flask are moving faster, increasing the pressure inside the flask and balloon and taking up more space. Heat energy from the cup warmer was transferred to the water in the flask. The energy made the molecules in the water move faster, increasing the temperature of the water and the air. As the liquid water molecules moved faster, some escaped the liquid and changed to water vapor molecules. The molecules were free to move and spread out. This increased the pressure inside the flask. Since the balloon was stretchy, the balloon was able to expand. Note students' misconceptions: It would be incorrect to say that the hot air rises or the particles expand when heated. 17 37 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ________________________________________________ Day 4 The Flask and Balloon Part 2 A balloon was placed over the neck of a heated flask with a small amount of water. The flask was removed from the cup warmer. When the flask cooled, the balloon went into the flask. Explain in words and pictures what happened to the molecules. The molecules in the first flask were warmer and were moving very fast. They lost energy when they cooled. Some of the water vapor molecules condensed back into liquid water molecules. The molecules in the flask when it was cooled did not take up as much space as they did when they were warmer. The pressure inside the flask decreased. The air pressure outside the flask and balloon pushed the balloon into the flask. 18 38 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 5  Using Physical Science Motion of Objects Day 5: Balanced and Unbalanced Forces; Constant motion and balanced forces. Additional forces—attraction, repulsion, action/reaction pair (interaction force), and buoyant force. Size of change is related Materials This lesson reviews the concept of balanced and unbalanced forces. Diagrams are used to help students, but if the materials are available, this  Student Journal Pages 19-21 can be a demonstration or small group lesson. By thinking about each scenario, students can build their own definition  Bricks Optional: KEY QUESTIONS How can we relate the motion of objects to unbalanced forces?  Digital force probes or spring scales to measure PROCEDURE the forces. 1. For each numbered section 1-4, students will read the scenario, look at the pictures and predict what happens. Students can discuss their ideas in their small group. Students write the explanation after this discussion. Do not correct students at this time. 2. After students complete the first four scenarios, have a whole group discussion. Students share their ideas and summarize 39 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 what happens to the brick. Try to develop a class theory about balanced forces. Suggested responses are given in the Teachers' Toolbox. 3. Follow a similar procedure for sections 6-9. Students work alone and in small groups. 4. Question 10 requires the students draw a picture and explain what happens. In this case, focus the attention on when the block is in motion. A force is needed to lift the block up, but once it is lifted shoulder height, the motion stops and the forces are balanced. Give students time to think this through before having a whole group discussion. 5. Share the results for the unbalanced forces section. Develop a class theory for how things move which includes the concepts of balanced and unbalanced forces. RESOURCES A project-based curriculum unit for Simple Machines that integrates the use of technology in developing science concepts. Rivet, A., Krajcik, J., & Ganiel, U. (2002). How do machines help me build big things? Ann Arbor, Michigan: Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education. 40 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ___________________________________________ Day 5 How Do Things Move? 1. Observe a brick on the table. What happens to the brick? Why? The brick does not move. 0 forces are pushing from right or left. The force of the table pushing up balances the gravitational force pulling the brick down. 2. The brick is on the table. Attach a force probe to each side of the brick. Push equally hard on both force probes. What happens to the brick? Why? The brick does not move. The force pushing the brick from the left is equal to the force pushing the 35 N 35 N brick from the right. These forces are balanced. There are no changes in the forces pushing up or pulling down. 3. The brick is on the table. Pull equally hard on each side. What happens to the brick? Why? The brick does not move. The force pulling the brick from the left is equal to the force pulling the 47 N brick from the right. These forces are balanced. 47 N There are no changes in the forces pushing up or pulling down. 19 41 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 4. Attach one force probe to the brick. Suspend the brick in the air. 17 N Hold it as still as possible. What happens to the brick? The brick does not move. The pulling force on the brick was 17 N. This is the same as the gravitational force pulling down on the brick. The forces are balanced and there is no motion. 17 N 5. Write a theory about why the brick did not move in these investigations. Include the concepts of force and motion. When two forces are equal and are applied in opposite directions, they are balanced and there is no motion. 6. The brick is on the table with two force probes attached. Pull harder on the right. What happens? Why? 25 N 47N The brick moves to the right. The pulling force on the right is greater than the pulling force to the left. The forces are in the opposite direction, but they are not equal. They are unbalanced forces, so the brick moves. 7. Why was the motion to the right? The forces were opposite in direction, but were not equal. The motion occurs in the direction of the greater applied force. 8. The brick is on the table with 2 force probes attached. Push harder on the right side and lightly on the left. Predict the force. What happens? Why? 17 N 36 N The brick moves to the left. The pushing force on the right is greater than the pushing force to the left. The forces are in the opposite direction, but they are not equal. They are unbalanced forces, so the brick moves. 20 42 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 9. Why was the motion to the left? The forces were opposite in direction, but were not equal. The motion occurs in the direction of the greater applied force. 10. Hold the brick waist high with one force probe attached to the top of the brick. Pull the brick up to your shoulder. Hold it at shoulder level for 10 seconds. The graph using the force probe is pictured below. After 1.42 seconds, the greatest force was measured. It was 16.81 N. Draw a picture of the brick and the forces acting on the brick between second 1 and 2. Explain what happened to the brick. 17 N The brick moved up because the pulling force upward was greater than the force of gravity pulling down. Like the other examples, the forces are in opposite directions, but are not equal. Lesser force 11. Write a theory about how things move. Use the concept of balanced and unbalanced forces. If two equal forces are applied in opposite directions, they are balanced forces and the object does not move. When two forces are not equal or not in opposite directions, they are unbalanced and the object moves in the direction of the greater applied force. 21 43 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 6  Using Physical Science Motion of Objects Day 6: The Roller Coaster. Constant motion and balanced forces. In this lesson, students will review the benchmarks for the motion of objects standard in the context of a roller coaster activity. This activity was done in the classroom of one of the toolbox writers. The data collected is presented in this activity for your students to analyze and Materials interpret. The Roller Coaster lesson can be used as an assessment. It also includes a stem and leaf plot and a scatter plot that is part of the 8th  Student Journal Pages 22-25 grade mathematics curriculum. KEY QUESTIONS How can we describe and compare the motion of objects? How does the height of the first hill on a roller coaster affect the distance and speed in which a marble travels on the roller coaster path? PROCEDURE 1. Read the context of the investigation with your students and answer questions they may have about the activity. 44 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 2. Students answer the questions independently. 3. Students may still have some misconceptions about these concepts. Discuss their answers as a whole group. 4. The web page listed in the resources section and on the student page will give students the opportunity to make a virtual roller coaster and read more information about this concept. RESOURCES Here is a roller coaster applet. Students can build a virtual roller coaster. 45 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ______________________________________________ Day 6 Roller Coasters Mike's class was studying the motion of objects. In class they made a roller coaster from foam tubing. They formed a loop with part of the tube and taped it to the floor. They taped one end of the roller coaster to the wall at different heights from the floor. The first height was taped at 1.4 meters (140cm). The second height was set at 1.2 meters (120 cm). The third height was set at 1 meter (100 cm). A marble, held in position at the top of the roller coaster, was let go. It rolled down the hill and then up and around the loop. It continued to roll off the foam tubing onto the floor where it eventually came to a stop. The class timed how long it took for the marble to complete the path. They measured the distance the marble traveled on the roller coaster and on the floor after it left the roller coaster. This process was repeated 6 times for each height. The stem and leaf plots below show the data Mike's class collected during the roller coaster investigation. Distance the Marble Rolled (cm) from Different Starting Heights 5 .3 .8 5 5 6 .0 .2 .6 .6 6 .5 .7 .9 6 7 7 .0 .0 .4 7 .8 8 8 8 .1 .2 9 9 9 .2 .6 .7 Roller Coaster 1 Roller Coaster 2 Roller Coaster 3 Height 1.0 m Height 1.2 m Height 1.4 m 1. What was the longest distance the marble rolled in Roller Coaster 3? A. 78 cm B. 97 cm Answer: B C. 267 cm D. 812 cm 22 46 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Mike made the following scatter plot of the data collected: Distance Marbles Rolled in Roller Coaster 11 10 9 Distance (meters) 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 Height of Roller Coaster (meters) 2. What can you conclude about the relationship between the height of the roller coaster and the distance the marble rolls? Answer: C A. When the height of the roller coaster increases, the distance the marble rolls decreases. B. When the height of the roller coaster decreases, the distance the marble rolls increases. C. When the height of the roller coaster increases, the distance the marble rolls increases. D. You cannot determine a relationship between the height of the roller coaster and the distance the marble rolls from this type of graph. According to Newton's First Law, an object at rest will stay at rest until a force pushes or pulls it and causes it to move. An object in motion will keep moving in a straight line, in the same direction, and at the same speed, unless a force pushes or pulls it, changing its direction and/or speed. 3. What best describes the force that put the marble in motion? A. An unbalanced force Answer: A B. A balanced force C. A powerful force D. A frictional force 23 47 th 8 Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 4. Which statement best describes what changed the direction of the marble at the top of the ramp when it was released? Answer: A A. The force of the marble pushing upward was less than the force of gravity pulling the marble downward. This is an unbalanced force. B. The force of gravity pulling the marble downward was equal to the force of the marble pushing downward. This is a balanced force. C. The force of gravity pulling the marble downward was less than the force of the marble pushing upward. This is an unbalanced force. D. The force of gravity pushed the marble downward and the marble did not have an upward force. This is an unbalanced force. 5. What two forces cause the marble to slow down as it goes up a hill? A. Electrical and magnetic forces B. Balanced and unbalanced forces Answer: D C. Gravity and buoyancy D. Gravity and friction 6. The marble changed its speed, as it was moving along the path after it left the roller coaster. What caused the marble to slow down and stop? A. The marble's energy from the roller coaster was used up. B. The frictional forces of the marble rubbing the floor and the air. Answer: B C. Only the frictional force of the marble rubbing on the floor. D. Only the force of gravity. 7. The marble speeds up when it is on a downhill slope. What force makes the marble speed up? A. A gravitational force Answer: A B. A balanced force C. A frictional force D. A buoyant force 8. How was the marble able to roll up through the loop? A. The force of gravity was less at that part of the roller coaster. B. The force of gravity was greater at that part of the roller coaster. C. Moving objects keep moving unless a force stops them. Answer: C D. The marble received a boost of energy from rolling down the hill. 24 48 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 9. Which statement is NOT true about the energy in the roller coaster system? Answer: C A. Some of the energy is transformed to heat energy. B. Some of the energy is transformed to friction. C. The energy in the roller coaster system decreases as the marble rolls to a stop. D. The total energy in the roller coaster system does not increase or decrease. Speed of Marble on Roller Coaster 1.8 1.56 1.6 meters per second 1.24 1.31 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 1.0 m 1.2 m 1.4 m Roller Coaster Height 10. What can you conclude about the relationship between the speed of the marble and the height of the roller coaster? Answer: B A. When the height of the roller coaster increases, the speed of the marble decreases. B. When the height of the roller coaster decreases, the speed of the marble decreases. C. When the height of the roller coaster decreases, the speed of the marble increases. D. The speed of the marble does not depend on the height of the roller coaster. 25 49 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Days 7-8  Constructing Scientific Knowledge  Using Physical Science Motion of Objects Days 7-8: Simple Machines Science Benchmarks I.1.M.2 I.1.M.2 Constructing New Scientific Knowledge Design and conduct scientific investigations. Design and conduct scientific investigations. Key concepts: The process of scientific investigations—test, fair test, IV. 3.M.2 hypothesis, theory, evidence, observations, measurements, data, Relate motion of objects to unbalanced forces in two conclusion. Forms for recording and reporting data—tables, graphs, dimensions. journals. Identify and use simple machines Real-world contexts: Any in the sections on Using Scientific Knowledge; and describe how they change also, recognizing differences between observations and inferences; effort recording observations and measurements of everyday phenomena. IV. 3.M.5 Design strategies for moving IV. 3.M.2 Using Physical Science Knowledge objects by application of forces, including the use of simple Relate motion of objects to unbalanced forces in two dimensions. machines. Key concepts: Changes in motion and common forces—speeding up, slowing down, turning, push, pull, friction, gravity, magnets. Constant motion and balanced forces; a rolling ball slowing down, magnets changing the motion of objects, Materials walking, swimming, jumping, rocket motion, objects resting on a table, tug-of-war.  Student Pages 26- 31 IV. 3.M.5 Using Physical Science Knowledge  Videos on CD Simple Machines: Design strategies for moving objects by application of forces, including Inclined Plane the use of simple machines. Simple Machines: Key concepts: Types of simple machines—lever, pulley, screw, inclined Lever plane, wedge, wheel and axle, gear; direction change, force advantage, Simple Machines: speed and distance advantage. Pulley Real-world contexts: Objects being moved by using simple machines, OPTIONAL: Brick such as wagons on inclined planes, heavy objects moved by levers, Spring Scale seesaw, cutting with knives or axes. Board (1 m) Meter tape or ruler LESSON 2 Pulleys The big concepts for students to understand are: machines are devices that change the direction or magnitude of the applied force. Machines help us by making it easier to apply the unbalanced force needed to move 50 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 heavy things. There are six simple machines: the inclined plane, pulley, lever, screw, wedge, and wheel and axle. Some of these are variations of others. The wedge is made of two inclined planes. The screw is an inclined plane that wraps around itself. The inclined plane reduces the force needed to lift an object. Instead of lifting the object straight up, it is pushed along the inclined plane. The longer the inclined plane, the more gradual the slope and less force is needed. A shorter plane would have a steeper slope and would require more force. The trade-off for an inclined plane is that you have to move the object a longer distance to use less force. The lever is a rigid object that is usually long and narrow, like a bar or pole. This bar or pole turns or pivots around a fixed point called a fulcrum. There are different kinds of levers, depending on where the fulcrum is and where you apply the force. In a first class lever, the fulcrum is in the middle, between the force and the load. If the fulcrum is close to the load, then less force is needed to lift an object. The trade off is that the pushing end of the lever has to move a greater distance. In a second class lever, the load is in the middle between the fulcrum and the force. Wheel barrows and nut crackers are examples of second class levers. In a third class lever, the force is in the middle. Examples of third class levers are golf clubs, hockey sticks, baseball bats, brooms, rakes, and catapults. At the beginning of this review, students are asked to think about the pyramids and how simple machines may have been used to help build them. The focus for this review is on three of the simple machines: the inclined plane, the lever and the pulley. As this is meant to be a review, what would take about 9-10 days of hands-on, minds-on classroom instruction is condensed to one day. To make this review process easier for the visual learners, video of the activities are available on the CD. Pictures are also presented on the students' journal pages. KEY QUESTION What is the advantage of using simple machines like inclined planes, levers and pulleys? PROCEDURE 1. Read the scenario about the pyramids on their journal page 26. Ask students to think about how the large slabs of rock were lifted to build them. Tell them they will review some of the advantages of using simple machines. 2. Students record their ideas about how inclined planes are used to lift a brick. 3. Watch the video about inclined planes on the CD. 4. RESOURCES Simple Machines Odd Machine Includes application of gravity and friction concepts An interactive website from the COSI Museum; Focus is on explaining the mechanical advantage of the six simple machines. This one may take awhile to download. 51 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ___________________________________________ Days 7-8 Simple Machines The pyramids were built from huge slabs of rock like limestone, sandstone and granite. It is believed that the rocks were mined in the quarries that were far from the site where the pyramids were built. They were probably floated down the Nile on barges during the time of the year when the river flooded. Then they were dragged the rest of the way by teams of men or oxen. Simple machines may have been used to help them move the bricks. What are some of the advantages of using inclined planes, levers, and pulleys? Inclined Plane Question: How can an inclined plane help to lift a brick? Hypothesis: (What do you think and why?) ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Procedure: Stack four paver bricks (or similar objects) to a height of 24 cm. This will represent the distance we want to lift the brick, as if we were building the pyramids. Tie a string to a larger brick with mortar holes. Measure the force it takes to lift the brick straight up to the top of the stack with a spring scale and record. Place one end of the inclined plane on top of the stack of paver bricks. Pull the large brick with the spring scale. Measure the force and record. Without Inclined Plane With Inclined Plane 26 52 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Results: Force Distance Without inclined plane 19 N 24 cm With inclined plane 10 N 60 cm Write the results of this investigation. Use words and the numbers from the data table to describe what happened. A force of 19 N was needed to lift the brick 24 cm straight up. A force of 10 N was needed to lift the brick 24 cm along the inclined plane that was 60 cm long. Graph: Force Distance 20 70 centimeters 60 15 50 Newtons without 40 without 10 with 30 with 5 20 10 0 0 without with without with Inclined Plane Inclined Plane Conclusion: The conclusion is a general statement of what you now know about how inclined planes help to lift the brick. It answers the research question using the data on the graph as evidence. Write a conclusion for this investigation on the lines. More force is needed to lift a brick without the inclined plane, but the brick moves a shorter distance. Less force is needed to lift the brick with an inclined plane, but the brick must move a greater distance. 27 53 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lever Question: How can a lever help to lift a brick? Hypothesis: (What will happen and why?) Procedure: If you have a different brick, measure the force needed to lift the brick straight up 24 cm from the table to the top of the stack of paver blocks with the spring scale; record. If you have the same brick, record the results from the Inclined Plane investigation. Tie the brick to one end of a long narrow strip of wood, 1 meter long. The strip of wood will act as the lever. Stack four paver bricks (or similar objects) to a height of 24 cm next to the lever. This represents the height we want to lift the brick. To be consistent, place a piece of tape on the lever 30 cm from the brick. Put the fulcrum under this marked spot on the lever. Attach a string to the other end of the lever and attach the spring scale to this string. Pull down on the spring scale until the brick is lifted to the height of the paver bricks, 24 cm. Measure the effort force on the spring scale. Also measure the distance your hand moves as it pulls down on the string. Results: Force Distance Write the results of this investigation. Use Without 19 N 24 cm words and the numbers from the data table to Lever describe what happened. With 10 N 46 cm Lever A force of 19 N was needed to lift the brick 24 cm without the lever. A force of 10 N was needed to lift the block the same height with the lever, but the distance the effort had to move was 46 cm. 28 54 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Graph: Force Distance 20 50 45 40 15 35 centimeters Newtons 30 10 25 20 5 15 10 5 0 0 w ithout lever w ith lever without lever with lever Lever Lever Conclusion: The conclusion is a general statement of what you now know about how levers help to lift the brick. It answers the research question using the data on the graph as evidence. Write a conclusion for this investigation on the lines. A force of 19 N was needed to lift the brick 24 cm straight up. A force of 10 N was needed to lift the brick 24 cm along the inclined plane that was 60 cm long. Pulley Question: How can a pulley help you lift a brick? Hypothesis: Procedure: If you have a different brick, measure the force needed to lift the brick straight up 24 cm from the table to the top of the stack of paver blocks with the spring scale; record. If you have the same brick, record the results from the Inclined Plane investigation. 29 55 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Single Fixed Pulley Stack four paver bricks (or similar objects) to a height of 24 cm to represent the distance we need to move the brick. Attach a pulley to the top of a ring stand. Tie one end of a string to the brick and bring the other end of the string through the pulley at the top of the ring stand. Make a loop on this end of the string and attach the spring scale. Pull the string with the spring scale until the bottom of the brick is even with the top of the stack of paver bricks. Measure and record the force. Fixed and Movable Pulley Attach one end of the string to the top of the ring stand. Also attach a fixed pulley to the top of the ring stand. Attach a second pulley to the brick as shown in the picture. This will be the movable pulley. Bring the string attached to the top of the ring stand down through the movable pulley. Movable pulley attached to the Continue to bring the string back up brick. through the pulley at the top. Tie a Fixed pulley at the top of the ring loop at this end and attach the spring scale. stand Pull the string attached to the spring scale until the brick is lifted 24 cm to the top of the stack of paver bricks. Measure and record the distance your hand moves as you pull the string. Results: Force Distance Without a Pulley 19 N 24 cm With One Fixed Pulley 21 N 24 cm With a Fixed and a 11 N 50 cm Movable Pulley Write the results of this investigation. Use words and the numbers from the data table to describe what happened. A force of 19 N was needed to lift the brick up 24 cm without a pulley. A force of 21 N was needed to lift the brick up 24 cm with one pulley. A force of 11 N was needed to lift the brick 24 cm, but the effort force had to pull the string 50 cm. 30 56 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Graph: Pulley - Force 25 Newtons 20 15 10 5 0 without pulley with fixed pulley with fixed and movable Pulley Pulley - Distance 60 50 centimeters 40 30 20 10 0 w ithout pulley w ith fixed pulley w ith fixed and movable Pulley Conclusion: Write a general statement of what you now know about how pulleys help to lift the brick. Answer the research question using the data on the graph as evidence. With one pulley, the effort force to lift the load increased slightly. This was due to the friction. The direction of the force changed. You pulled down to lift the load up. Less force is needed (about one-half the force) to lift the brick with 2 pulleys, but the effort force must move a greater distance. 31 57 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 9  Using Physical Science Waves and Vibrations Day 9: Light IV. 4.M.3 Using Physical Science Knowledge (Waves and Science Benchmarks Vibrations) IV. 4.M.3 Explain how light is required to see objects. Explain how light is required to Key concepts: Light source, object, eye as a detector, illumination, path see objects. of light, reflection, absorption. Real-world contexts: Seeing common objects in our environment; seeing IV. 4.M.4 ―through‖ transparent media, such as windows, water; using flashlights to Describe ways in which light see in the dark. interacts with matter. IV. 4.M.4 Using Physical Science Knowledge (Waves and Vibrations) Describe ways in which light interacts with matter. Key concepts: Reflection, refraction, absorption, transmission, scattering, medium, lens; Transmission of light—transparent, translucent, opaque. Real-world contexts: Objects that reflect or absorb light, including mirrors; media that transmit light such as clear and frosted glass, clear and cloudy water, clear and smoky air; objects that refract light, including lenses, prisms, and fiber optics; uses of lenses, such as eye, cameras, telescope, microscope, magnifying lens, for magnification and light- gathering. LESSON This lesson is a review of the benchmarks for light. Naïve Conceptions Materials Some students believe:  Student Journal  That light travels from our eyes to the objects we look at rather Pages 32- 35 than from the object to our eyes.  That light can go around things, rather than that light travels only in straight lines  That light travels further in the night than in day  That brighter light can travel farther than dim light  That nocturnal animals like owls and cats can see in total darkness 58 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 KEY QUESTION How are humans able to see things? How does light interact with matter? PROCEDURE 1. Students read Light on pages 32-33. Follow the reciprocal teaching strategies from pages 25-25, Day 3. 2. Students complete the two-column notes organizer to organize the concepts about light presented in the reading. They can use the suggested outline headings, or use their own loose leaf paper and create their own outline. RESOURCES Annenberg: the Science of Light. Teacher Lab Annenberg: Shedding Light on Science This is an 8 part series of tapes for Teachers' Professional Development How Stuff Works: Light There are quite a few advertisements on this page, but the content is good. 59 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name _______________________________________________ Day 9 Light Everything we see, we can see because of light. We see things because they either produce light, like the sun, light bulbs, lasers, lightning bugs and candles, or they reflect light. Light is energy. Scientists think about light in two ways, the particle theory and the wave theory. In the particle theory, light is thought of as a stream of particles called photons. This theory developed because people saw rays of light streaming through clouds on partly sunny days. The particle theory explains how objects that block the stream of light make shadows. In the wave theory, light travels in waves of different sizes. Waves are arranged in order by size and frequency in what is called the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum includes gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, optical or visible light waves, infrared, and radio waves. Gamma waves are the shortest and radio waves are the longest. Human eyes can only see the optical or visible light waves. The frequency of the waves determines the colors we see. Frequency is the number of complete waves that pass a given point in a certain amount of time. It can also be described as the number of waves per second. Frequency is measured in units called hertz. Red has the shortest frequency of visible light and violet the longest. The longer the frequency is, the greater the energy. Violet has more energy than red. Light travels in a straight line. It travels at different speeds, depending on the medium it is traveling through. Light travels about 186,000 miles per second in the vacuum of space. It slows down when it travels through air, water, and other transparent materials like glass and diamonds. The denser the material, the slower it travels. Interactions of Visible Light with Matter Visible light interacts with materials in different ways. Some materials allow light to pass through. Objects that transmit light, that is, they let nearly all the light pass through, are transparent. Examples of transparent materials are glass, clear water and diamonds. If light is scattered as it passes through a medium and the object is distorted or hazy, the medium is said to be translucent. Examples of translucent materials include sunglasses, waxed paper, frosted glass windows, or smoky air. Objects that do not transmit any light are opaque. When light reaches matter it can be:  Transmitted, or pass through the object with no effect  Refracted through the object, which changes speed  Reflected off the object  Absorbed by the object A combination of these interactions is possible at one time. 60 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 32 Reflected Light Reflected light is light that bounces off something. The law of reflection of light says that the angle at which light bounces off a surface is the same as the angle at which it hits the surface. When light hits a flat, smooth surface like metal or glass, the light energy bounces off in one direction. When light hits a rough surface, it scatters in many directions because the surface is uneven. But a surface can be rough even if it does not appear to be rough to us. It could be rough to an extremely small photon of light. You can see the uneven surface of paper if you look at paper under a microscope. You are able to see the Reflected Light words on this paper when you look them from any angle because of the way the reflected light is scattered. When that light reaches your eyes, you see it. Refracted Light Light travels at different speeds through space, air, water and other transparent materials. When it reaches the boundary between two different kinds of material, it changes speed and in most cases it changes direction. When this happens, we say that light is bent or refracted. You can see this when you look at objects in water. A pencil in a glass of water appears to be bent when you look at the pencil through the side of the glass. Light is also refracted when it travels through lenses. The bending of light through the curved surface of a lens causes the light rays to come together or spread out. A convex lens causes light to come together. This can produce an image that can be focused on a screen. A concave lens spreads the light out, so an image on a screen cannot be focused. Convex Lens Concave Lens Absorbed Light When light is absorbed, almost all of its energy is transferred to the matter it strikes. This absorption of energy causes the atoms and molecules in that matter to move faster and heat up. How fast they speed up depends on the type of material and the arrangement of Absorbed Light molecules. 33 61 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Cornell Two-Column Notes Keywords: Notes: Light I. Light is energy A. We see because of light 1. Some objects produce their own light 2. Some objects reflect light B. Particle Theory 1. Light is made of particles called photons 2. This theory explains shadows C. Wave theory 1. Light travels in waves of different sizes called frequencies 2. The frequency determines the color 3. Light travels in a straight line 4. It travels at different speeds through different media (space, air, water, glass) Interactions II. Can light pass through the object? with Matter A. If light passes through, the object is transparent B. If some light passes through, it is translucent C. If no light passes through, the object is opaque III. When light reaches matter it can be: A. Transmitted 1. Light passes through B. Reflected 1. Light bounces off at the same angle it hit the surface 2. If light hits a smooth surface, it bounces off in one direction 62 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 3. If light hits a rough surface, it scatters in many directions C. Light can be refracted 1. When light reaches the boundary between different media, it changes speed and in most cases, direction 2. Refraction makes the light look bent 3. Lenses refract light too D. Light can be absorbed 1. Absorption causes the atoms and molecules in matter to move faster and heat up. 2. How fast they speed up depends on the type of material 63 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 10  Using Physical Science Waves and Vibrations Day 10: Sound Science Benchmarks IV. 4.M.1 Using Physical Science Knowledge Explain how sound travels through different media. IV. 4.M.1 Explain how sound travels Key concepts: Media—solids, liquids, gases, vacuum. through different media. Real-world contexts: Sounds traveling through solids, such as glass windows, strings, the earth; sound traveling through liquids, such as dolphin and whale communication; sound traveling through gases, such as human hearing, sonic booms. LESSON In this activity, students will physically represent sound waves traveling through a solid and a gas. They will watch a video of the bell ringing in a vacuum. They will take a practice assessment on the concepts of light and sound. KEY QUESTION What are sound waves? How do they travel? How do we hear sound? What factors affect sound? PROCEDURE 1. Students simulate a wave as it travels through a solid and a gas. Students, representing atoms, stand in 2 lines, one behind the other. The same number of students should be in each line. To represent a gas, students stand more than an arm's length apart. To represent a solid, students stand less than an arm's length Materials apart. A touch represents a wave. When given a signal, the last student in each line touches the shoulder of the student standing Sound in front on him/her. When that person is touched, he or she  Student Journal touches the person in front of him/her. This ―wave‖ continues pages 36 -38 until it reaches the first person in line, who raises their arms to show the wave reached the end. The wave will take longer to  Video: Bell in a Jar travel through the line representing the gas because it must travel a longer distance between atoms. The person representing an atom of gas will have to take a step forward to reach the person in front of them. This analogy should help students understand how sound waves travel faster through a solid than through a gas. 2. Watch the video, Bell in a Jar. Complete Student Journal page 36 64 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 3. Complete Journal pages 37 and 38 as a review of Light. RESOURCES To better understand the wave activity described in this lesson, watch a video of children in a classroom engaged in the demonstration. This is from the Earth and Space Science Series, Session 3 at about the 30 minute mark. You can watch the videos on a computer with broadband Internet access. You need to create a free account first. 65 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name __________________________________________ Day 10 Sound What makes sound? What do we need to be able to hear sound? Watch the video, Bell in a Jar. See if your ideas are the same as the ideas presented in the video. Describe what happened to the bell in the jar. You could hear the bell ring when the bell was first placed in the jar. When the vacuum pump removed most of the air, you could not hear the bell very well. The sound of the bell got louder as the air was pumped back into the jar. What can you conclude about sound? Sound is made when something vibrates. The sound waves travel through matter. They can not travel through a vacuum Can astronauts hear when they are walking in space? Explain. Astronauts can hear sounds from radio waves because radio waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum that can travel through space. Sound waves travel through matter. Astronauts can not hear sounds other than what they hear on their radio because there are no air molecules for the sound to travel through in space. Two astronauts' helmets would have to touch for them to hear each other in space without a radio. 66 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ______________________________________________ Day 10 1. Which diagram shows the refraction of light as it enters water from the air? Answer: B. Light changes speed when it goes from air into water because light travels faster in matter that is less dense. (It bends at an angle less than the angle of incidence, away from the surface between the two materials.) Air Air A B Water Water Air Air D C Water Water 2. Draw arrows on the diagrams to show what happens to the light rays when they strike the surfaces as shown below. Light is scattered. Light passes through, Clear glass Frosted glass Light is reflected at the same angle it strikes the mirror. Light is absorbed. Mirror Black cardboard 67 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ___________________________________________ Day 10 How Does Light Help Us See? Eric is in a room with a cat. There is no window and the door is closed. The only source of light is an electric light bulb on the ceiling. 1. When the light is switched on, how does Eric see the cat? Draw arrows on the diagram and explain. Light from the bulb bounces off (or reflects off) the cat into Eric's eye. 2. When the light is switched off and there is no light in the room, can Eric see the cat? Explain. No. You can't see without light. Light rays are needed to form an image in the eye. 3. When the light is switched off and there is no light in the room, can the cat see Eric? Explain. No. Cats can't see without light. Light ______________________________________________________________________ rays are needed to form an image in the eye. 68 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 11  Using Earth Science Atmosphere and Weather Day 11: Weather and Water Science Benchmarks V. 3.M.1 Using Earth Science Knowledge V. 3.M.1 Explain patterns of changing Explain patterns of changing weather and how they are measured. weather and how they are Key concepts: Weather patterns—cold front, warm front, stationary front, measured. air mass, humidity. V. 3.M.2 Tools: Thermometer, rain gauge, wind direction indicator, anemometer, Describe the composition and characteristics of the weather maps, satellite weather images. atmosphere. Real-world contexts: Sudden temperature and cloud formation changes; records, charts, and graphs of weather changes over periods of days; V. 3.M.3 Explain the behavior of water lake effect snow. in the atmosphere. IV. 1.M.4 V. 3.M.2 Using Earth Science Knowledge Describe the arrangement Describe the composition and characteristics of the atmosphere. and motion of molecules in solids, liquids, and gases. Key concepts: Composition—air, molecules, gas, water vapor, dust particles, ozone. Characteristics— air pressure and temperature changes with altitude, humidity. Real-world contexts: Examples of characteristics of the atmosphere, including pressurized cabins in airplanes, demonstrations of air pressure; examples of air-borne particulates, such as smoke, dust, pollen, bacteria; effects of humidity, such as condensation, dew on surfaces, comfort level of humans. Materials V. 3.M.3 Using Earth Science Knowledge  Student Journal pages 39-45 Explain the behavior of water in the atmosphere.  Colored Pencils Key concepts: Water cycle—evaporation, water vapor, warm air rises,  Transparencies of cooling, condensation, clouds; Precipitation—rain, snow, hail, sleet, Graphing pages, freezing rain; Relative humidity, dew point, fog. Student Journal Real-world contexts: Aspects of the water cycle in weather, including Pages, 44-45 clouds, fog, precipitation, evaporating puddles, flooding, droughts.  Optional: Color transparency of IV. 1.M.4 Using Physical Science Knowledge (Matter and weather maps. Energy) Describe the arrangement and motion of molecules in solids, liquids, and gases. 69 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Key concepts: Arrangement—regular pattern, random. Distance between molecules—closely packed, separated; Molecular motion—vibrating, bumping together, moving freely. Real-world contexts: Common solids, liquids, and gases, such as those listed above. LESSON Students will have an opportunity to read, construct and interpret weather charts and graphs. They will also draw a picture and explain the water cycle. Information that students are not expected to master but are important for interpreting the graphs is included in the scenario of some of the problems. Students should learn to read all the text as a test taking strategy. There may be information in the text hat could help them answer some questions. KEY QUESTIONS How can charts and graphs help interpret weather data and show relationships? What is the water cycle? PROCEDURE: 1. Students work on the first two questions about dew point and temperature. Information needed to answer these questions is contained in the text before the question. Discuss answers and strategies for finding the answers. 2. For question 3, students draw a picture that will represent the water cycle. Students should continue answering questions 4 through 9 on their own to give others time to draw and explain. Take time for students to share their drawings of the water cycle. Some students think that water disappears when it evaporates. Listen during their explanations to be sure they understand the science. Students' responses should include the motion of molecules as reviewed in earlier lessons. 3. In the next set of questions, students construct graphs of the data and describe an interesting pattern from the data of wind speed and air pressure. If there is not enough time during class to do the graphs, students can do these as a homework assignment and they can be discussed the next day. RESOURCES  Weather Underground:  Intellicast.com:  University of Illinois Online Weather Guide:  The Weather Channel:  USA Today Weather Maps: systems.htm 70 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ______________________________________ Day 11 The graph below shows the temperature and dew point for Detroit on July 16, 2005. Use it to answer questions 1 and 2. Detroit, Michigan July 16, 2005 Temperature Dew Point 90 80 70 Temperature (°F) 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 5:00 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 AM AM AM AM AM AM AM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM Time of Day The temperature at which water vapor condenses into liquid is called the dew point temperature. If the air temperature and the dew point temperature are close to each other, dew can form or the weather can be misty, foggy or rainy. Temperatures at or below freezing may cause water vapor to condense as frost instead of dew. 1. Using information from the graph, at what time might there have been dew on the grass or fog in the area? Explain. There may have been dew or fog between 5 and 7 in the morning. The temperature and the dew point temperature were close. 2. It rained in Detroit on July 16. According to the graph, at what time did it most likely rain? It rained between 3 pm and 6 pm because the temperature and the dew point were close. 71 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 3. Draw a diagram to show how the water that falls as rain in one place may come from another place that is far away. Explain your drawing. A correct response includes 3 steps: 1. Evaporation of water from a source 2. Transportation of water as vapor/clouds to another place 3. Precipitation in another place An explanation would refer to the water cycle in which water evaporates into the air. This happens when the molecules are heated, usually from the sun, and move rapidly, breaking the molecular attraction that holds them together. When they escape, they become gas. Eventually, the molecules cool, losing energy, and forming liquid water again. These small drops of water condense on salt or dust particles in the air, forming clouds and are carried away in currents of air to another place. The molecules of water fall from the clouds as precipitation in the form of rain, sleet, or snow. 4. The diagram below shows a map of the world with the lines of latitude marked. Which of the following places marked on the map is most likely to have an average yearly temperature similar to location X. A. Location A B. Location B Answer: A C. Location C D. Location D 72 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 The following are weather maps from show the weather conditions in the United States at 6:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time on July 18 and July 19, 2005. Use the maps to answer questions 5 – 7. 2 Date: July 18, 2005 Time: 2100UTC 3 Date: July 19, 2005 Time: 2100 UTC 5. What statement best describes the weather in Michigan's Lower Peninsula on July 18? A. High pressure with clouds and rain B. High pressure with high temperatures and rain Answer: C C. Storms as a cold front passes through the State D. Storms as a warm front passes through the State 2 Surface Analysis retrieved from July 18, 2005 3 Surface Analysis retrieved from July 19, 2005 73 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 6. What statement best describes the weather across most of Michigan on July 19 compared to the day before? A. Higher temperatures with high air pressure B. High pressure with sunny skies and cooler temperatures Answer: B C. Low pressure with sunny skies and higher temperatures D. Higher winds and cooler temperatures 7. In which direction did Hurricane Emily move? A. North Answer: B B. Northwest C. Southwest D. South Below is a tracking map of Hurricane Ivan retrieved from on July 17, 2005. . 74 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Saffir-Simpson Chart Saffir-Simpson Lowest Air Pressure Wind Speed Damage Hurricane Category (millibars) (miles per hour) 1 980+ 74-95 Minimal 2 979-965 96-110 Moderate 3 964-945 111-130 Extensive 4 944-920 131-155 Extreme 5 below 920 156+ Catastrophic A storm is classified as a Tropical Depression if the maximum sustained wind speeds are 38 mph or less. It becomes a Tropical Storm if the maximum sustained wind speeds are 39 mph to 73 mph. When the wind speeds reach 74 mph, it is classified as a Hurricane. The chart above lists the hurricane categories according to the Saffir- Simpson Scale. 8. On what date did Tropical Storm Ivan become Hurricane Ivan? A. September 3 B. September 4 Answer: C C. September 5 D. September 6 9. According to the chart, on what date did Ivan first become a Category 5 Hurricane? A. September 9 B. September 11 Answer: B C. September 12 D. September 13 The chart below shows Ivan's Wind speed and Air Pressure. Hurricane Ivan Tracking Chart Hurricane Ivan Tracking Chart Wind Air Pressure Wind Air Pressure Date Date (mph) (mb) (mph) (mb) 9/2 30 1009 9/10 140 937 9/3 50 1000 9/11 165 914 9/4 50 994 9/12 150 916 9/5 125 950 9/13 160 912 9/6 105 958 9/14 140 929 9/7 120 956 9/15 135 939 9/8 140 947 9/16 60 980 9/9 150 921 9/17 20 999 75 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 10. Use the data from the Hurricane Ivan Tracking Chart to plot the air pressure at the center of the storm. Connect each point. Use a different color pencil for each stage of Ivan from Tropical Depression to Category 5 Hurricane. Use the information in the Saffir-Simpson chart to determine the Hurricane category. Air Pressure at the Center of11. What relationship is there between the stages of the hurricane and air pressure? As the hurricane became stronger, the air pressure decreased. 76 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 12. Use the data from the Hurricane Ivan Tracking Chart to plot his wind speeds. Connect each point. Use a different color pencil for each stage of a hurricane from Tropical Depression to Category 5. Maximum Sustained Wind Speeds for13. What relationship is there between the stages of the hurricane and wind speed? As the hurricane became stronger, the wind speed increased. 14. Looking at the graphs of air pressure and wind speed, what relationship is there between the air pressure and the wind speed? As the air pressure decreases, the wind speed increases/ 77 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Maximum Sustained Wind Speed Hurricane Ivan 2004 180 160 140 120 100 mph 80 60 40 20 0Air Pressure at the Center of Hurricane Ivan 2004 1020 1000 980 960 mb 940 920 900 880 86078 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 12  Using Earth Science Solar System, Galaxy and Universe Day 12: Phases of the Moon and Eclipses Science Benchmarks V. 4.M.2 Using Earth Science Knowledge V. 4.M.2 Describe, compare, and explain the motions of solar system objects. Describe, compare, and explain the motions of solar system Key concepts: Orbit, rotation (spin), axis, gravity, planets, moons, objects comets, asteroids, seasons. Tilt of the earth on its axis, direct/indirect rays. V. 4.M.3 Describe and explain common Real-world contexts: Observations of comet motion over days and observations of the night skies. weeks, length of day and year on planets, changes in length of daylight and height of sun in sky; changes in daily temperature patterns; summer and winter solstices, spring and fall equinoxes. V. 4.M.3 Using Earth Science Knowledge Describe and explain common observations of the night skies. Key concepts: Perceived and actual movement of the moon and planets across the sky, moon phases, eclipses, stars and constellations, planets, Materials Milky Way, comets, comet tails, meteors. Sun is light source for all solar  Student Journal system objects (except meteors; friction with atmosphere), emitted light, pages 46-47 reflected light  Small Styrofoam Real-world contexts: Outdoor observing of the skies, using telescopes balls (about 2 inch); and binoculars when available, as well as ―naked-eye‖ viewing; viewing one for each student with robotic telescopes via the World Wide Web; telescopic and  Barbecue skewers spacecraft-based photos of planets, moons, and comets; news reports of or pencil planetary and lunar exploration.  Lamp without a shade LESSON  Extension cord for This is a review lesson of phases of the moon and Lunar and Solar lamp to reach center Eclipses. To make these abstract concepts easier to visualize, models of the room will be used. Students will then be given an opportunity to explain their ideas in writing. For these investigations, the room should be as dark as possible. Even a small amount of light from a source other than the lamp will shine on the Styrofoam bulbs and affect the results. KEY QUESTIONS How can I model and explain the phases of the moon? How can I model and explain solar and lunar eclipses? 79 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 PROCEDURE: PHASES OF THE MOON 4. Darken the room as much as possible. Put a lamp in the center of the room. Position the lamp so the bulb is eye level for the students. 5. Give each student a Styrofoam ball and a skewer or pencil. (The pencil makes a larger hole, so a skewer is preferred.) Stick the skewer into the ball. 6. Students stand in a circle facing the lamp. Their heads will represent the Earth. The ball represents the moon. The lamp represents the sun. 7. With all lights out except for the lamp, students hold their ball out in front of them. Since the moon orbits the Earth, the students will move the ball in a circle around their head. The motion needs to be counterclockwise. This models the orbit of the moon. Make sure students understand the moon's orbital path. Many students believe that the moon stays in one place in relation to the Earth, just like the sun. They think that when the Earth turns and faces the sun, it is day. When the Earth faces the moon it is night. Because the Earth is spinning on its axis, the moon appears to travel across the sky. 8. The Moon rotates in the same amount of time that it takes to revolve around the Earth— 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes and 11.47 seconds! We always see the same side of the Moon facing us. To better see the phases of the moon in our model, the students will have to turn with the moon's orbit. The time between two consecutive full moons is 29.5 days. This longer period of time is due to the fact that the Earth is also moving along its orbit as it revolves around the Sun. In reality, Earth would have made about 29 turns during the time it takes the moon to complete one orbit.4 9. Students hold the ball in front of them. The people living on the dark side of the Earth (the students' backside) cannot see the moon because the moon faces the side of Earth that is having day. When the moon is in this position, it is the new moon. The dark side of the moon is facing the daytime side of the Earth. 10. Take a few steps counterclockwise, while continuing to hold the ball straight out in front of you. The right side of the Styrofoam ball will sparkle a bit as it reflects the light from the lamp. This models the crescent moon. 11. Continue to take a few more steps counterclockwise. When you have made a quarter of a turn from the starting position, you will see a representation of the first quarter moon. The right side of the ball will sparkle as it reflects the light from the lamp. 12. Continue to take steps in the counterclockwise motion and watch an increasing amount of the ball become illuminated. This represents the waxing gibbous moon. 13. When you have made a half turn from the original position, your back will be facing the lamp. The entire side of the ball facing you will be reflecting the light from the lamp. This is a full moon. Since you cannot see the lamp, you are on the nighttime side of the Earth facing the full moon. 14. Continue to move counterclockwise as you continue to hold the ball in front of you. The amount of light reflected off the ball will begin to decrease. You will see the waning gibbous and the last quarter of the moon, the waning crescent, and finally back to the new moon. 15. Be sure to remind students that the Earth and the moon do not complete this path simultaneously. 4 See Teacher Background Information at this web site: 80 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 PROCEDURE: SOLAR ECLIPSE\ 1. The solar eclipse occurs when the moon is positioned between the sun and the Earth in such a way that the moon blocks the sun and creates a shadow on part of the Earth. The solar eclipse can only occur when there is a new moon. 2. To model the solar eclipse, stand facing the lamp and hold the ball so it covers the light bulb. Look at the faces of the students across from you to see the shadow of the ball on them. If their heads were the Earth, the people living in that shadow would experience the solar eclipse. PROCEDURE: LUNAR ECLIPSE 1. The lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon so that the Earth blocks the light from the sun and makes a shadow on the moon. 2. To model the lunar eclipse, stand with your back to the lamp. The ball is held straight out in front of you, but you will need to position it so that your head, which represents the Earth, blocks the light from the lamp and makes a shadow on the Styrofoam ball. RESOURCES Demonstration of the phases of the moon and the moon's orbit around the Earth The current moon phase: U.S. Naval Observatory: Phases of the Moon If you continue to scroll down this page, there is a movie that shows the phases of the moon. Resource for software that helps students understand Moon phases, Seasons, and weather concepts through interactive visualizations Sneider, C. I. (1986). Earth, Moon, and Stars. Berkeley: Lawrence Hall of Science. A GEMS unit for grades 5-8 that teaches the concepts of a spherical Earth, Moon Phases, and Eclipses 81 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ____________________________________________ Day 12 The Moon and Its Phases 1. Explain how we can see the moon. The moon does not make its own light. The sun shines on the moon and that light is reflected toward the Earth. 2. Describe how the moon appears to change its shape. Use may use pictures to explain.  The part of the moon that is illuminated by the sun changes as the moon orbits the Earth. After the new moon, you see a small crescent shape. The lit part gradually increases until the moon appears full. Then the lit part of the moon gradually decreases until it is a new moon again. This takes about 29 days because it takes the moon about 29 days to complete its orbit around the Earth 82 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ____________________________________________ Day 12 Eclipses Draw the position of the Moon on the diagram below to show what is meant by an eclipse of the Sun, a Solar Eclipse. Explain your drawing. Earth Moon Sun Crystal: Ungroup the answers for student sheet. When the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth and casts a shadow on the Earth, there is a lunar eclipse. Draw the position of the Moon on the diagram below to show what is meant by an eclipse of the Moon, a Lunar Eclipse. Explain your drawing. Earth Moon Sun When the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, there is a Lunar Eclipse. 83 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Day 13  Using Earth Science Solar System, Galaxy and Universe Day 13: Seasons and Other Planets Science Benchmarks V. 4.M.1 Using Earth Science Knowledge V. 4.M.1 Compare the earth to other planets and moons in terms of supporting Compare the earth to other planets and moons in terms of life. supporting life. Key concepts: Surface conditions—gravity, atmospheres, temperature. Relative distances, relative sizes. Sun produces the light and heat for V. 4.M.2 each planet. Molecules necessary to support life—water, oxygen, Describe, compare, and explain nitrogen, carbon; see LC-III.1 m.2 (cell processes), LO-III.2 m.3 the motions of solar system (photosynthesis), LEC-III.5 m.2 (light needed for energy). objects Real-world contexts: Examples of local and extreme conditions on earth vs. conditions on other planets; exploration of planets and their satellites. V. 4.M.2 Using Earth Science Knowledge Describe, compare, and explain the motions of solar system objects. Key concepts: Orbit, rotation (spin), axis, gravity, planets, moons, Materials comets, asteroids, seasons. Tilt of the earth on its axis, direct/indirect  Student Pages 48- rays. 49 Real-world contexts: Observations of comet motion over days and  Data Projector, weeks, length of day and year on planets, changes in length of daylight Monitor, or and height of sun in sky; changes in daily temperature patterns; summer computers to show and winter solstices, spring and fall equinoxes. web site visualization models LESSON Students will start this lesson by thinking about why there are seasons on Earth. A common misconception is that distance to the sun is the reason for the seasons. Textbooks exaggerate the elliptical orbit of the Earth around the sun. Our orbit around the sun is nearly circular. The Earth- Sun distance varies only by 1.5% and this distance is not significant to be the reason for seasons. Students may believe that we are closer to the sun in the summer, but the Earth is actually closest to the sun on January 2 and farthest on July 4. A more subtle misconception students have is that when the Northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, the Northern Hemisphere is closer to the sun. Given the diameter of the Earth is 12,000 kilometers or about 7,900 miles, that difference is even more insignificant. 84 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 There are two main factors responsible for seasons on Earth. First, there are more daylight hours where the parts of the Earth are tilted toward the sun. Second, during the summer, the sun's position is higher in the sky. This increases the angle of incidence of the sunlight and the concentration of light on the ground so the ground gets warmer. These are complex ideas and it takes time for students to develop the scientific understanding. An excellent resource for a unit that helps students develop these concepts is the GEMS book listed in the Resource section. The second part of this lesson gives students an opportunity to use what they know to interpret the characteristics of other planets given in a chart. KEY QUESTIONS What causes the seasons? How does the Earth compare to other planets? PROCEDURE 1. Students write a response to the first question on their Journal page. 2. Have students share their ideas. List them on the board, but do not judge them at this time. However, allow students to agree or disagree with each other. If students disagree with another student's statement, they should state the evidence they have to support their claim. 3. Show the NASA online video from It is a short video. Show it in its entirety the first time. Repeat it and use the controls at the top of the screen to stop the video for discussion. Discuss any of the ideas listed on the board and compare them to the ideas presented in the video. 4. Students compare their own responses and improve or revise them. 5. RESOURCES Gould, A., Willard, C., & Pompea, S. (2000). The Real Reasons for Seasons: Sun-Earth Connection. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Hall of Science. Online Video Clip: What Causes the Seasons? Resource for software that helps students understand Moon phases, Seasons, and weather concepts through visualizations 85 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ____________________________________________ Day 13 Seasons 1. Why do you think it is hotter in the United States in June than in December? Watch the NASA online video about the seasons at: Compare your ideas to those presented in the video. Discuss them in your class. What ideas are the same as yours? What ideas are different? Revise or improve your response to the first question. Because the Earth is tilted on its axis, the United States receives more hours of sunlight in June. The sun is positioned higher in the sky so the rays of light are more direct. 86 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ____________________________________________ Day 13 Comparing Earth to the Other Inner Planets Main Mean Distance Time to Move Period of Components of from the Sun around the Sun Rotation Atmosphere Mercury 57.9 km 88 days 59 days Virtually none Venus 108.2 km 224.7 days 243 days Carbon Dioxide Nitrogen, Earth 149.6 km 365.3 days 23 hr. 56 min. Oxygen Mars 227.9 km 687 days 24 hr. 37 min. Carbon Dioxide 1. Name each planet listed on this chart that has a year shorter than a year on Earth. Explain how you arrived at your answer. Mercury and Venus have a year that is shorter than Earth's. The time it takes a planet to move around the sun determines the year. It takes Mercury only 88 days to move around the sun. It takes Venus 224.7 days to move around the sun. It takes Earth 365.3 days. 2. Name each planet from this chart with a cycle of light and dark that is shorter than Earth's cycle of day and night. Which planet's cycle is similar to Earth's? Explain how you arrived at your answer. No planet listed on this chart has a day and night cycle that is shorter than Earth's. The period of rotation gives the length of a planet's day and night cycle. Earth's cycle of day and night is 23 hours and 56 minutes. Mars cycle is similar at 24 hours and 37 minutes. 3. Name each planet from this chart that might support human life. Explain. No planet listed on this chart could support human life. Humans need oxygen to breathe and we are the only inner planet that has oxygen in its atmosphere. Mercury and Venus are closer to Sun and it would be too hot. Mars is farther from the Sun and it would be too cold. 87 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Lesson Focus Days 14-15  Constructing Scientific Knowledge  Using LifeScience Ecosystems Days 14 and 15: Forest Management Science Benchmarks II.1.M.1 Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge II.1.M.1 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, or Evaluate the strengths and data. weaknesses of claims, Key concepts: Aspects of arguments such as data, evidence, arguments, or data. sampling, alternate explanation, conclusion; inference, observation. Real-world contexts: Deciding between alternate explanations or II.1.M.5 Develop an awareness of and plans for solving problems; evaluating advertising claims or cases sensitivity to the natural world. made by interest groups; evaluating sources of references. III. 5.M.6 II.1.M.5 Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge Describe ways in which humans alter the environment. Develop an awareness of and sensitivity to the natural world. Key concepts: Appreciation of the balance of nature and the effects organisms have on each other, including the effects humans have on the natural world. Real-world contexts: Any in the sections on Using Scientific Knowledge appropriate to middle school. III. 5.M.6 Using Life Science Knowledge Materials Describe ways in which humans alter the environment. Key concepts: Agriculture, land use, renewable and non-renewable  Student Journal resource development, resource use, solid waste, toxic waste; pages 50-52 biodiversity.  Poster paper Real-world contexts: Human activities, such as farming, pollution from  Markers manufacturing and other sources, hunting, habitat destruction, land development, reforestation, and species reintroduction. LESSON While change is an integral part of Earth's natural processes, not all changes occur naturally. The management of forests has been debated well before the Industrial Revolution. Man has impacted the forest ecosystems not only to manage them, but to benefit himself. Forestry is a practice where trees are managed and harvested. Trees are treated as any other agricultural crop, with its goal to provide wood products, such as paper, lumber and charcoal. Logging companies use many different methods to harvest trees, not always 88 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 keeping in mind the balance of the forest and the rate of tree growth. Unfortunately when you are dealing with ―old-growth‖ forests, a complete biological ecosystem that contains trees centuries old and hundreds of feet tall, sustainable management is impossible. It takes hundreds of years to replace what has been logged. This is why the management of ―old- growth‖ forests is so controversial. The debate on whether or not to log ―old growth‖ forests, or leave them alone is raging today. Students will be involved in a discussion of the issues. A compromise may need to be made to reach a decision on how to manage several acres of forest. They will evaluate the options and explore the consequences of their decision. KEY QUESTION  What are the advantages and disadvantages of your decision?  How will your decision impact the forest ecosystem?  Are there other alternative decisions that can be proposed? PROCEDURE 1. Explain to students the scenario of today's lesson. The students will be working as a team for their community. The community has been given a large parcel of ―old-growth‖ forest in their town to do with it as they see fit. Students in their groups must decide how they will manage or use the land and be prepared to share their ideas with the class. 2. Divide students into groups of 4. Each group will read the proposals. 3. They will use the discussion questions from the Community Management Assessment page to evaluate their proposals and prepare a presentation to the class for the next day. They will use poster paper to record their ideas for the presentation. 4. Allow students time to present their posters on Day 15. ASSESSMENT Examine the students' decision and their reasoning to see how well they understand the complexity of the decision and how each decision has consequences, both positive and negative, of their own. OPTIONAL ASSESSMENT: Put a copy of the poem below on the board and have students interpret its meaning. ―The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.‖ -William Blake 89 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name _______________________________________ Days 14-15 Proposed Management Decision Your community has been given 250 acres of land just outside of town. Your town is a medium-sized town with the largest business being a lumbering company. Many of the people who live in this town work for the lumbering company. Others work for a computer company in a nearby town. The donated land is completely covered with forest including 100 acres of ―old-growth‖ forest. This old growth forest has enormous trees over 150 years old. There is a pond that is a home to swans and ducks to rest during migration and nest during mating season. Deer, raccoon, foxes, and other animals also make there home there. It is the job of the Community team to decide which proposal would best suit the needs of the community. Proposal #1 – The town's local environmental organization wants to keep the land and manage it as a protected natural area. They have proposed building hiking trails, and look out points for avid wildlife watchers. No hunting signs would be posted and the local DNR would help to police the area. The 100 acres of ―old-growth‖ forest would be left as it is, while the other 150 acres would be managed. Dead trees would be cleared to allow room for new seedlings to emerge and grow.  This area is a unique area. It is home to many plants and animals. If the trees are cut down, their habitat will be destroyed.  The town does not need a mall. There are enough stores to meet the needs of the community. If a mall were built, the people who own businesses downtown would go out of business!  There are no forests like this in town. Why should the people of this town sacrifice their natural heritage so some businesses can make a lot of money?  Setting this area aside and maintaining hiking trails would be the best thing for the people of our town, Proposal #2 – A local developer would like to purchase the 250 acres to build a shopping mall and new homes.  Shopping malls are convenient places to shop, with all the stores indoors and under one roof.  With a wide variety of stores, there would be more competition and this would mean better prices for things the people in the community need.  Malls draw people from a wide area and would mean big money for the town.  The money earned from the sale of the land to the developer and from the property taxes would create revenue for the town to pay for schools, medical clinics, roads,  The developer is proposing that part of the 100 acres of ―old-growth‖ forest would be left alone to provide ―forest character‖ for the new homes built there. 90 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005  The developer assures us that although much of the trees will be cleared, the pond would be preserved so the wildlife would still have a place for migration and breeding. Proposal #3 – The town's lumber company proposes purchasing the land for commercial and ecological purposes.  This company already has successfully managed other forests near the town.  Lumber from their company has been in high demand for construction proposes. They can provide this lumber at better prices.  The lumber company would carefully control the harvesting of the trees. Their regular practice is to immediately replant the harvested areas with seedlings.  They would set aside part of the ―old growth‖ forest and set up a buffer zone to protect the habitat there.  They would allow hiking and other recreation in the forest.  The purchase would provide the town with an economic boost. It would provide the town with the money it needs to balance the budget, provide funds for the local library, school expenses, medical clinics, and road management.  The proposal will create new jobs for foresters, scientists, loggers, truckers and mill workers and this would lower the unemployment rate of the community. 91 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 Name ____________________________________ Days 14-15 Community Management Assessment Your community team must work together to decide what to do with this gift of land. You can accept a proposal from one of the three that have been presented. You may also choose to make a compromise or offer another proposal. Each team member must agree with the team's decision. When making your decision you need to consider the questions below. Keep in mind what is best for the entire community. Be prepared to present your ideas to the class. 1. What facts were presented in the proposal? 2. Which statements were opinions? 3. What will it cost the town to adopt the proposal? 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the proposal? 5. What negative effects could happen to the community and the environment? 6. Who most benefits from your proposal? 7. Are there any changes you would make to either of the proposals? What is the decision of your Community Team and why? 92 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005 MEAP Practice 93 8th Grade Science Toolbox  St. Clair County RESA 2005	eng	2aaadd28-021d-4406-877a-67d6bca95504	http://www.docstoc.com/docs/104907051/Day-9-Simple-Machines
Posted by CowboyNealon Friday April 23, 2004 @08:06AM from the last-minute-legalities dept. dcrouch writes "Compression Labs has initiated a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas against 31 major companies for infringement of its 4,698,672 patent. The patent, filed in 1986, includes 46 claims for various embodiments of digital signal compression technology and reportedly covers JPEG compression. From the dates on the face of the patent, it appears that it will expire in October 2004. This looming date may have prompted the suit. Compression Labs will certainly have a fight on its hands. A major question will be why the patentee waited so long to stake its claim. The Eastern District of Texas court has established special patent rules that help speed the progression of litigation." "There's no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department on Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now." Douglas Adams. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy Arthur Yes, I went round to find them yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call much attention to them had you? I man like actually telling anybody or anything! Prosser The plans were on display. Arthur Hah, and how many average members of the public are in the habit of casually dropping around to the local planning office of an evening. It's not exactly a noted social venue is it? And even if you had popped in one on the off chance that some raving beurocrat had wanted to knoc It's not a submarine patent, and the grandparent seems to have missed the point because this is far more interesting. Forgive me, because I can't find a link right now that includes the full story, this is from memory, but what essentially has happened is that a "white hat" patenteer has been bought by a "black hat" patenteer. The original company that patented this particular system made it clear from the start that they would not persue the patent for people who are merely using it in JPEGs. However, this never had the force of law. That company no longer exists, its patent portfolio is with a new company that has no such qualms and has never made such a promise. That company, Compression Labs, is enforcing the patent. Until a few years ago, US patents were not published until granted and the term was 17 years from grant. Consequently, an application could be kept pending for 20 years or more by filing continuation and continuation in part applications, all of which would have been secret. The aim was for the patent to emerge into a well developed industry to maximise potential income. Patents obtained with this tactic are what are referred to as submarine patents. Now almost all US patent applications are published 18 months from the filing/priority date and the term is 20 years from the filing date. Thus, the existence of the application is public and delaying grant does not push the expiry date into the future, thereby removing the rationale for submarine patents. Well, this isn't exactly an issue of a submarine patent. The implementation has been available for many many years, and they're only now trying to leverage their patent on it, as opposed to a submarine patent which is designed around technology that doesn't exist yet, and once someone actually invents it, is used to leverage patents from them. So, close, but not quite. Submarine patent or not, they've essentially sat on it until well after it became a de-facto standard and only now started suing people. If it were a trademark (which you need to defend or else it becomes invalid) it would be thrown out of court. Why can't the same thing be done with patents? In his classic "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" Richard Feynman explains how he "earned" the patents on nuclear submarines and nuclear airplanes. At that time, neither technology existed. On the other hand, afaik he never tried to extort royalties from the US Navy for the USS Nautilus, so perhaps that doesn't count as a real submarine... The "legal definition" of "submarine patents" is not "obscure patent that is not enforced", but "patent which is kept in 'pending' state during an artificially long time". The goal is to exploit a loop hole in patent law where validity of patent is counted from the date when it was granted, and not from date where it was applied for. So, if you've got a patent application, and you know that no competitor is even close to being able to commercially exploit it, you (the application) just slow down the approval process as best as you can (by filing papers as late as possible, by introducing trivial amendments which forces the patent office to restart the procedure from the beginning, etc.). You keep on stalling like this until you see that a competitor is almost ready to infringe: you then let the application proceed at normal speed, and enjoy 25 years of monopoly from that date on. Nope, that's incorrect. A patent, if granted, is valid from the date it is first applied for. This date is called the filing date (or priority date - it depends whether this is a "first filing") and is THE most important date in a patent's life. This is the date it arrives in the patent office. There are other important dates such as the date the application is published (usually around 18 months after the filing date) and various deadlines - especially for PCT (WIPO) applications but a patent is retroactiv Wow...nothing like people quoting bad law on/. and getting modded up on it. Here is how it really works: For patents filed prior to June 8, 1995, the length of the term is 17 years from date of issuance, regardless of the length of prosecution. Thus, you can keep the patent sitting in the patent office using continuing applications and other tricks, and then change the claims of the patent to closely match emerging technology. Also, because patent application publication did not automatically happen in apps filed 1995 and before, people would not have an opportunity to see that there was a pending patent that could cover their technology. Apps filed between June 8, 1995 and May 28, 2000 have a term of 20 years from date of filing. However, this term of 20 years can be extended based upon delays in prosecution regarding secrecy orders, interferences, and/or successful appeals. (The URAA changed this law). Apps filed after May 28, 2000 are given 20 years after filing, but they can be adjusted based upon on the number of days of delay caused by the PTO minus the number of days delay caused by the applicant. These adjustments are rather complicated, and usually not worth getting into (unless it is a pharm patent where keeping generics off the market mean huge money per day). While I might be a patent lawyer, the above is not legal advice in any way. Yes, that's why I've put "legal definition" between quotes. AFAIK, the practice has been outlawed since a while (or has the law simply been rewritten such that the expiration timer starts on date applied rather than date granted?), and since then the media have started reusing the term "submarine patents" for the practice of not enforcing granted patents until your competitor is big enough that it hurts. Everybody say it with me now: estoppel. if they waited this long to assert their patent rights, while all along constructively assuring the public that they wouldn't sue, they have to be equitably estopped in some manner. (meaning they waited too long and by their conduct they lead everyone to believe that they wouldn't be sued, so they lost their right to sue here.) This is not a submarine patent. However, Forgent may be on shaky grounds as far as collection of huge amounts of license fee is concerned. The JPEG Committee specifically states that "Specifically, SC 29 affirms the ISO policy of only considering technology that is free of "IP rights" or which is available on a royalty and license fee free basis or which is available under reasonable terms and conditions on a non-discriminatory basis." (IANAL:)Checkout this page. [jpeg.org] "WG 1 requires all participants within all National Bodies to disclose and identify any and all patent rights and the specific technologies within the Verification Model to which they apply. Further, WG 1 requires this disclosure and identification at the time of submission of technology for VM consideration if submitted by the patent holder or no later than one meeting after submission of technology if the technology is not submitted by the patent holder. Further, WG 1 requires that the form contained in WG 1 N1267 be completed as part of this disclosure. This request is in accordance with ISO/IEC directives Part II, Annex A, Section A.2.... "SC 29 affirms and supports ISO policy that requires disclosure of the existence of Intellectual Property (IP) rights or pending rights (such as patents or pending patent applications), hereafter referred to as "IP rights", associated with any technology submitted to SC 29/WGs for consideration for inclusion in any ISO/IEC standard. Specifically, SC 29 affirms the ISO policy of only considering technology that is free of "IP rights" or which is available on a royalty and license fee free basis or which is available under reasonable terms and conditions on a non-discriminatory basis. "... In 2002, it became widely publicised that one or more companies were making claims in some countries that they had patents which they believed read on the original JPEG standard IS10918-1. The JPEG Committee produces standards, which have a global basis, and are unable to comment on the validity of such claims, or potential infringement by particular implementations within specific jurisdictions. No such claims have (at January 2004) been registered formally through the appropriate channels at ISO and ITU-T, so far as the Webmaster is aware. In an attempt to provide as much technical background as possible to assist companies approached concerning such patent claims, JPEG have assembled a Historical Archive of as much material as possible, which helps show how decisions were taken, what the technical inputs were behind those decisions, and some of the background information concerning the involvement of companies and individuals in the standardisation process. These are currently provided without further commentary as a service to members of the JPEG committee only, primarily for copyright reasons. best.. well, that depends on what you're measuring. It's going to give you a smaller file size. A PNG will still more accurately recreate the original. You can convert a BMP into a PNG back and fourth a million times and you won't loose quality unless there is some form of error. Except for the lossless version of the JPEG2000 standard, you loose information every time you compress a JPEG. compressing back and fourth between jpeg and bmp quickly makes something that is unusuable. If space isn't an issue, you would want a lossless format. I would think you generally wouldn't want to convert it into a lossy format until the very last step- distribution, wherein effeciency of communication is more important than perfection of information. Why do you say that JPEG is the best image format for photographs? Because it's so widely used? JPEG is a lossy format -- regardless of what you do with it. PNG looks far better, although it's not as well compressed. However, with storage technology where it is, wouldn't you want your photos to start off in a lossless format -- then compress it down with some lossy compression scheme later? After a certain point, compression isn't hindering the quality that much, and the amount of space that is saved is more important than the small amounts of the quality that are lost. Just like the mp3 format works so well by slimming down the things the human ear can't hear, jpg works by blending and compressing images in way that the human eye can barely tell the difference while saving optimum amounts of space. When I rip a CD, I store them as MP3's. The point is that original files shouldn't be compressed using a lossy format (unless you don't care...I do). When it's time to distribute the file, sure, crunch it down. The point is that original files shouldn't be compressed using a lossy format (unless you don't care...I do) infor Compared to those lossy processes, the difference between a PNG master and high quality JPEG master is negligible. Great comparison. For one generation. But when you're editing pics you don't want to keep saving to a lossy format because each save will increase the noise. How would that pic look after 10 - 20 generations of saves as a JPEG? You can compare single generations all you want and you'll get the same results (the JPEG looks great!) but that absolutely does not indicate thats how you should save your masters. information was lost. What are you smoking? I'm talking practical here. Of course data is lost in a recording. That's the nature of most any kind of recording. The point is to cut out loss wherever possible. To record an image one has to use a lens (or series of lenses), and a medium to record the light onto (either film or CCD). These are unavoidable. However, a lossy compression scheme is avoidable. Furthermore, if one is going to save a compressed image, edit it, then recompress it using a lossy scheme -- it adds up. By your logic, there's no reason to clean your optics, because you're losing data one way or the other -- this is nonsensical. You're also talking about the still-semi-obscure JPEG 2000 standard/codec, which you fail to mention isn't nearly as easy to use or widely avaialble as JFIF or PNG. I think this is a case of "my bike's made out of lead and I like it!". PNG is out there, it's free, full featured and it works very well. Note how the high-quality lossy jpegs are indistuingishable from the lossless formats... Of course they are distinguishable, they're "lossy". Blow them up, manipulate them, do whatever you do, yeah, if you just look at them they're indistinguishable, but if you do anything else with them, the smashed-up hard edges, "ringing" artifacts, and all that stuff will quickly cause problems. Ugh. I hate asking people for photos or clipart for websites because I know they'll do something to it to make it "easier to email". Cropping, framing, adjusting the contrast and colours for a final image is horrible once somebody's done this to an image. Could someone please call the recording studios and let them know they should just record to 8 track tape, and encode the audio not once but twice as 128kbps MP3s and only then rip them to CD before selling them, just because they will have lost information between the singer and the microphone? I think maybe you're not familiar with the prupose of masters. In a nutshell, you set up your environment in order to minimize the information loss, then you record that information as perfectly as possible. That pretty much applies to the process of recording anything. The master needs to be of the highest quality possible because every generation created from that master will _at_least_ share the same defects and artifacts. the difference between a PNG master and high quality JPEG master is negligible You're right, but PNG and JPEG are compressed, and again the parent poster was talking about uncompressed masters (his analog was WAV vs. MP3.) The difference between RAW or TIFF(ie. the WAV or CD in his example) and JPEG or PNG (ie. the MP3) are monumental. Strictly speaking, a WAV file can contain any of dozens of representations of the audio data, many of which are lossy compressions. The WAV format just defines the file structure. There is an entry in the header that specifies the audio data representation. Much of the time WAV files contain linear PCM data, which is uncompressed, but they don't have to. In fact, theres no reason in principle that a WAV file couldn't contain FLAC compressed data, though I believe that no FLAC identifier code has been registered. In fact there is a version of MNG (muti-image PNG)which uses JPEG and is called JNG (JPEG Network Graphics). This offers the advantages of the PNG/MNG file-format specifcations (transparency, meta-data, &c) along with the JPEG compression algorithm, and is meant to be a replacement for JFIF (the JPEG file image format) which is the commonest JPEG-based file format. I'll take mine in PSD format thanks. With layers, text, notes and all sorts of other good stuff there's no reason not to use this format until you're ready to dump out a JPEG or similar. The post you're answering (and most posts in this thread) is specifically referencing photos. PSD is fine but its intent is not for storing photos, nor is it necessary for photos. A photo is by definition one layer. And TIFF can support any exif data/notes that you'd want included, along with color space information. Yeah, well we all Know [alistapart.com] why we don't use png. I am working on a new layout for my website that calls for the heavy use of pngs (due to transparency), but when I showed it to a web-savvy friend he asked why not use GIF. My point is that many people are still unaware of why PNG is better, despite having more than adequate time to become educated. The real trouble is that microsoft still hasn't fixed png support, and the hacks, such as IE7 (by dean edwards) and sleight ( aren't perfect. For now, my site looks awesome in Moz/Opera compliant browsers, but only so-so in IE, and its a fully w3c compliant site. JPG's are also useful in their own right, but lack certain features that make png's better. Interestingly enough, PNG's do well enough with photos for my admittedly low standards. Yes, I know all that, but some people don't. That's the point. There are a lot of people who don't realize that jpg doesn't do transparency. I know that I was annoyed when I figured it out. Yes, jpg is smaller, which makes it great for web-photo images. I disagree that I (or most others) am trying to position png as super-format. You act as if microsoft not fixing alpha-channel support in png isn't a problem. It is a problem, and its a huge one. Without alpha-cannel support png's are virtually worthl With the rate bandwidth throughput is increasing, why not make png the standard? Then we can have lossless copies of our images. When baud was 300, the difference between a JPG and BMP/PNG type was HUGE. Now the compression gains from the jpg standard is decreasing as bandwidth increases (i.e. the 0.01 seconds saved for downloading a jpg compared to a png is negligible.) I think that its important to note that the trend to the internet at all is much bigger than the trend to "faster bandwidth" (at least at the last mile to people's homes.) Less than 10% of the world [nielsen-netratings.com] has access to the net. As the other 90+% gets access odds are that they will not have faster bandwidth. They will have 56k and be more than happy looking at lossy compressed graphics . . . PNG will only slow these people's experience down (for a marginal enhancement of experience . . . I don't know anyone com ...is if you could design a method to arbitrarily reduce quality before PNG compression, in such a way that it becomes easily compressible. Kinda like the oh-so-much rumored wavelets that I've yet to see materialize. I'm not sure how exactly PNG works, but I assume it has some "easy" and "hard" pixels to encode. If you accepted some loss to quality, for the bonus of getting lots of extra easy pixels, could you get near-JPG performance out of it? I'd say, "I wonder how they expect to make much from the lawsuit in the short time period" because the damn patent will expire before most of the cases get through the judicial system. What happens then? Are the cases void because it's now non-patented? Or are they continued because the suit was initiated before the patent expired? Oh, the burning questions! From gnu.org: 1. We were able to search the patent databases of the USA, Canada, Japan, and the European Union. The Unisys patent expired on 20 June 2003 in the USA, but it does not expire in most of Europe until 18 June 2004, in Japan until 20 June 2004 and in Canada until 7 July 2004. The U.S. IBM patent expires 11 August 2006, (we are still searching the databases of other countries). Has IBM actually used its patent against anyone, or did they just get it in self-defence? Here's a timeline [kuro5hin.org] of the mess. Looking at the list of companies in that list, I see one interesting omission from the list of companies being sued, namely Microsoft. I find this slightly surprizing given the number of MS products that use jpegs, doubly so if the aim of this exercise is to raise cash for the patent holders. They can't be worried about hitting companies that can afford lots of lawyers as there are some big names in that list of companies already. This isn't new. It doesn't look like Microsoft was ever in talks with these people. I'd guess they didn't sue them because they didn't want to get their butt handed to them by a company that gives out 1.9 billion like candy. Remember yesterday?/. had a thread [slashdot.org] about working on a Universal 3D file format wherein it was mentioned that MP3 and JPEG as models for comparison were encumbered with patent issues. The first two Score-5 responses come up as follows: Really bad examples to pick... (Score:5, Insightful) by * on Wednesday April 21, @03:26PM (#8933019 [slashdot.org]) ( Not only did they pick two lossy formats to use as examples, both MP3 [mp3licensing.com] and JPEG [forgent.com] are patent-encumbered formats. (The validity of the Forgent patent on a piece of JPEG is a bit of a still-contested issue... but I'll leave that to others to discuss.) If you want to write a program using either of those formats, you're going to have to pay the toll. Let's hope U3D is able to stay clear of such entanglements. Having a patent involved in a file format makes it questionable if FOSS can legally use the format. Well, from my limited perspective, it appears to me that the groups are largely disjoint as the 3D forum is concerned with graphics and the lawsuit defendants are largely video imaging and photography related. Adobe apparently has its hands into both. Somebody else [slashdot.org] already wondered by Microsoft wasn't listed, but I'd be more inclinded to ask, Why not Sony since they are into photography as well (Digicam, Cyber-shot). Maybe they have licensed JPEG, who knows? Ok, what the hell is wrong with this picture: I patent an idea. Let the whole world use it as a standard for webpages/compressed images. Let my patent be used in technologies like digital cameras and the like without one single word of infringement or anything. I let this transpire for almost 18 years then BAM! i sue everyone who is using my patent with only a few months left on my patent. It's bullshit if you ask me. Why didnt the damn company sue for patent infringement before it got so out of control? Why is a company allowed to do this. In all honesty you should either do your best to enforce your patent or all you get is a product the no one else can patent. God damned this world is outta control Granted patents are PUBLISHED documents. This means they are public and available to be read by anyone. So the company with the patent isn't hiding their patent waiting to spring it on an unsuspecting world, the world is failing to do some simple book research before relying on some technology. If I want to invent something or research something or whatever, the first thing I do (and this is standard practice in research) is do a literature search for bachground info - no use reinventing the wheel etc. Any I let this transpire for almost 18 years then BAM! i sue everyone who is using my patent with only a few months left on my patent. The defendants will claim noninfringement, implied license, estoppel by laches, and that the patent is invalid. At worst, they should be barred from continuing to infringe the patent. Some of them may be able to live six months without it, depending on how much stock is already in the retail channel. The patent will actually expire on October 27, 2006 -- U.S. patents that were issued or pending as of June 1995 expire either 17 years from issuance or 20 years from earliest claimed priority date, whichever is longer. Secondly, they are only entitled to damages for the 6 years preceeding the filing of the complaint (see e.e. 35 USC 286). Thirdly, according to other stories and press releases, they did try to negotiate licensing agreements with these companies but couldn't reach an agreement. Patent lawsui "The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for processing signals to remove redundant information thereby making the signals more suitable for transfer through a limited-bandwidth medium. The present invention specifically relates to methods and apparatus useful in video compression systems. Typically, the system determines differences between the current input signals and the previous input signals using mean-square difference signals. These mean-square signals are proc After perusing the comp.compression faq [newsville.com] for an overview of jpeg (see question [75]), I don't think this patent, even if valid, will affect JPEG as we know it. As the parent post points out, the patent covers compression via diff's between images. (This is, as I understand it, a major component of MPEG encoding, so I'm curious why they're not the ones getting sued.) JPEG, as your web browser uses it, likely doesn't use such a technique. From the FAQ: The hierarchical mode represents an image at multiple resolutions. For example, one could provide 512x512, 1024x1024, and 2048x2048 versions of the image. The higher-resolution images are coded as differences from the next smaller image, and thus require many fewer bits than they would if stored independently. (However, the total number of bits will be greater than that needed to store just the highest-resolution frame in baseline form.) The individual frames in a hierarchical sequence can be coded progressively if desired. Hierarchical mode is not widely supported at present. My take is that this "hierarchical mode" extension is the part covered by the patent. The problem is that, assuming the FAQ article is correct, most implementations of JPEG decoding we encounter won't support it, meaning most people aren't going to be encoding their JPEG's this way since it would be incompatible with mass-market JPEG implementations. It sounds more like something a company would use as part of a proprietary format built on JPEG. Bottom line: don't expect this to have any ramifications for Mozilla, IE, etc. If you've known you had a case but did not bring suit and allowed your damages to mount, your suit is barred by the doctrine of laches. They would have a good argument based on this to either dismiss the suit or severely limit their damage award, assuming the validity of the patent, which I'm not. Not necessarily. Many companies wait to sue until the company being sued generates a certain amount of revenue. The reason for this is so the cost of litigation fee's is covered. In other words. If it will cost me 1 million to sue your company, I want to make sure I get back at least 1 million. So I am going to wait until that point in time. However, it didn't cost these guys that much money to create the jpg standard. -A Could someone (maybe a senator?) explain to me: if the entire purpose of patents is to promote innovation and provide an incentive to innovate then WTF does any new innovation require the inventor to spend 3 years to check that it doesnt infringe 10,000 patents? In the computer world things change on a weekly basis, can we _please_ make patents expire much much faster and stop all this stupid non-sense with people having ownership of ideas that play a totally obvious role in our lifes or where infact covered by another idea: case study: pop-up windows! dont make me fucking laugh this should have been thrown out of court within 30 seconds, one click shopping: ME: Hi, SHOPKEEPER: Hey Theo how can i help you? ME: id like this and that please, SHOPKEEPER: Certainly ill charge it to your tab? now if you came into MY court with this patent mr amazon i would fucking get down from my stand and BEAT YOU WITH MY GAVEL! fuck you! ...browsers that display JPEG, and graphics apps, like the gimp? The patent seems pretty cut and dried-they own it, this isn't a SCO vague case here, and I'm surprised the companies are attempting a defense, because chances are they are going to lose unless there's something here that isn't evident, like this company gave it away, opened it up gratis, or something in the past I am not aware of.. Sucks too, just viewing websites now with images turned on is a hassle with this old machine and slow dialup, I usually leave them off unless I REALLY need to see the image for navigation purposes or it's a news item I want to see, etc. And that's with low k JPEGs. If they were BMPs or PNGs it would be much worse.. hmm.. Would it also mean that all the millions of websites out there that are using JPEGs are in potential violation if they haven't paid a license fee of some sort? This is nutz, but there ya go on software patents, we either live with them as the cyberworld gets more complicated, or scrap the whole notion of patenting intangibles and use a different business model with "computing", something I am greatly in favor of. In a situation like a JPEG patent, the patentholder would want to wait until the technology was at its usage and value peak before trying to sue. That way, they stand the best chance of scaring the defendant into a quick and expensive settlement, rather than fight a behemoth on something they could care less about. Before that, Forgent was primarily known as a maker of video conferencing hardware under the name Video Telecom, or VTel. After continuing declining revenues, the company changed its name and management in August 2001. It was then that the company became a video technology firm focusing on software and patents. It seems to be, based on the links here that they don't own JPEG, but have patented a technology that is identical to JPEG. JPEG developed the same technology seperate from them (correct me if I am wrong). What I am wondering about is the new JPEG2000 standard. Do they own that? Just FYI JPEG2000 is very similar to JPEG in design except it uses the Discrete Wavelet Transform instead of the Discrete Cosine Transform to transform the 8x8 pixel blocks. It is less blocky than JPEG in general. Seems to me this is a little stupid as neither company invented DCT or even the Huffman and run-length coding that make up the components of this scheme, and all of the components are public domain intellectual property. This litigation seems like a cash grab more than protecting there IP. They wait until everyone is freely using it (and for the most part believing it is a free technology) and then they sue the largest companies using it (hey why arn't they sueing Microsoft?). A little clarification: PNG is actually a very nice substitute for JPEG's (especially the way JPEG's are currently being abused). It's single shortcoming in comparison to JPEG is that it does not compress to as small a size. JPEG is still a better choice for the web, for this reason, but PNG beats it hands down in other roles. I've been working as a designer for over ten years (I started back when it used to require a degree, not just a computer). It's been my experience that JPEG is one of the most abused graphic file formats in general. It is good for the web...it's intended purpose...but it is awful for everything else. Unfortunately, everyone insists on using it for everything else...printing, digital cameras, stock art...all apparently blissfully unaware that this LOSSY algorithm is slowly but surely leeching the color data from their pictures every single time they save them. The result: Precious memories that print with muddy colors, photos with ugly artifacts in them, and unhappy designers who have to explain to their clients why there is no Photoshop cure for being a moron. PNG's are great. They support multiple levels of alpha transparency, retain all their data, and compress even photos very well. They are a much better option for a multi-purpose format. (They would be even better if M$ would get off their collective asses and implement them properly in IE. Currently, IE treats them as if they have only one level of transparency) JPEG's can still be smaller, at the expense of quality, but broadband may eventually make that moot. I fear we will all still be using JPEG's even then, though. I've seen video games still using the PCX format, which is a crap format if ever their was one. Old formats die hard. Do yourselves a favor: Use JPEG's on the web if you want, but archive your pictures with another format, like PNG, TIFF or Photoshop (PSD). CMYK images need to be saved as TIFF's or PSD's...ironically, the proprietary PSD is probably more universal. I understand your pain with JPEGs and how they are overused. However, for large resolution photographs, try this experiment: Convert the file to a PNG and also convert it to a JPEG. Use a program that allows you to create a (lossless*) JPEG. In Photoshop, manually set the compression to 12. I remember PhotoShop 6 had 10 as the max value, but you can enter 12 in the box. Now compare the two images. Zoom in. Inspect them side by side. Now look at the file sizes. You may decide that JPEG files can be From what I've read about, I think you have it backwards: PNG's DO possess the ability to save the gamma of the authoring device. Unfortunately, it is up to renderer to correctly compensate for the gamma differences (assuming the authoring software got it right in the first place), which it often fails to do. The effect is the same, though: inconsistent gamma among different browsers. Before you rip on PNG, why don't you read the damned spec!! [libpng.org] Jesus. Particularly notice the section on colorspace information [libpng.org], where there are clearly specified tables for defining the CIE x,y chromaticity of the R, G, B components, the white point, the image gamma, and the freaking ICC color profile. It seems the software you use can't create gAMA tables in its PNG output. Hence it is your software that sucks, not the PNG format. And this entire discussion is moot if the browsers don't support the gamma adjustment. Gonna blame that one on the PNG creators also? One of the problems with ideas is that multiple people can have the same one independantly. It's really hard to accept that just because an idea is original to you it may have occured to others. As part of my job, I sometimes apply for patents. (Which first goes to an internal company board to be judged if it's worth the cost of a real search-and-file) I've submitted 5 so far, and even though all of them we totally new concepts for me, only one of them survived a patent search. I have to admit that when the search committee has presented me with clear prior art, it's hard not to feel some sort of stupid "you sneaky bastards" type feelings directed at the party who thought of the idea before me. (Of course, being a sane person, I realize this is irrational, and get over it quickly.) Still, it's a blow to the ego. A the corporate level, I don't think things are much different. I can see some senior mucky-muck at a company which had been issued an overly broad patent for say, "Using a cathode ray tube to display the output of a computer" having trouble seeing the difference between reason and greed. Sometimes corporations have larger egos and senses of entitlement than even the most arrogant people. I suspect some manager got sort on funds, heard some tech say something like: "Heh, yeah, techinically we own JPEG..." and got visions of an easy buck. Okay, let's say I were to develop the perfect genetically engineered strain of corn, and patent my "invention" and publish a scientific paper on it. Now, lots of companies would like to sell this corn, and any half-decent biotech lab can reproduce my work. Continuing, lets say that I didn't limit the reproductive viability of the corn in my engineering work. So after the first few paroducts came to market and there was an ample opportunity to harvest the kernals for commercial re-sale. Every Southern States and TSC has a house brand of Overzeetop Super Corn. It's everywhere - on the grocery shelves, in the newspapers, on the web...the corn is ubiquitous worldwide. Here's my question: If, after a dozen years, I decide to sue every maker and distributer of my corn, do I really have a case? Naturally, IANAL, but I do know that you can lose a trademark if it is not defended. This seems awfully similar, but the laws regarding these two are different. Is there an equivalent loss of rights for a patent? ForGent Networks, like SCO, gave up a product based business model and now persues the litigation business model. Such 'businesses' should forever be designated as a 'SCO class' businesses because the 'product' they sell is EXACTLY the same type of product Al Capone's thugs sold, protection from attack by Al Capone's gang, except that the courts become pawns of the business and send out the police to attack businesses. And, their employees appear to be composed mostly of lawyers, with an occasional geek lawn jockey to lend credibility to the term "technology". Compression Labs never enforced the JPEG patent and now, with only months remaining before the patent expires greedy lawyers are trying to extort cash out of users. The USTPO and/or Congress should outlaw submarine patents, and tighten rules to cancel patents if prior violations are massive and public knowledge but the patent holder has made no attempt to enforce the patent. News flash: Taking a cue from the RIAA, the JPEG has instituted wide-ranging lawsuits and subpoenas to ISPs requesting identification of users who are, according to the JPEG representative, "guilty of sharing hundreds or thousands of illegally created JPG images using programs or utilities that do not comply with the recently enforced JPEG patent." In other news, the entire US Congress was found to have absolutely no clue as to the meaning of the words "The Congress shall have power... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." If you haven't checked out wavelets, you're missing massive coolness. Edges between different tones are where our eyes get their best cues, and JPEG indiscriminately "blocks up" edges. Wavelets preserve edge information and do it well at compression ratios that JPEG uses to create low-rent Mondrian ripoffs. As has been said in this thread, maybe it's time to get a new standard. But not just because.jpeg is encumbered with patent issues. People keep saying that.jpeg is still the best for photographs over.gif (without question) and.png (possibly). But that's not saying a lot, because.jpegs still suck, they just are not that good even for photographs. There has to be a better (yes, yes, yes, lossy) compression algorithm than.jpeg that can be developed Open Source... PNG is a lossless compression format, aiming at graphical images. JPEG is a lossy compression format, aiming at photos. It's like shortening by abbreviations vs. shortening by digesting. With abbreviations, you can restore the exact original, but your compression ratio is limited. With digesting you get much better compression while still getting the important facts, assuming the digester knows enough about the subject of the text he writes a digest on. The suing company bought another company that originally held the patent. Then waited a bit, tried to "negotiate" (I read that as "extort") with some big name companies, and has now chosen to sue after discussions failed. My solution to this particular problem: Do not allow companies to hold patents. All patents must be held by an individual, and cannot be transferred. If an individual wants to license exclusive usage to a company that's fine (the company can sponsor the holders ligigation if needed) but the company cannot hold it. My solution to this particular problem: Do not allow companies to hold patents. All patents must be held by an individual, and cannot be transferred. If an individual wants to license exclusive usage to a company that's fine (the company can sponsor the holders ligigation if needed) but the company cannot hold it. That would be nice, except most research is not done by individuals. If a company sinks loads of money into R&D and ends up inventing a 100X better moustrap, who should get to hold the pate I thought that at least the slashdot readers would know the difference between copyrights, trademarks and patents by now. Patents cover an idea. If it's patented, you can't do it. You can't black-box reverse engineer it. You can't get divine inspiration and get it out of the thin air. You just can't do something that's patented until the patent expires. Copyrights cover a specific expression of an idea, like source code or prose or poetry. You can do the same thing, as long as you don't copy the original. Trademarks cover a word/phrase associated with a company/brand. You're not allowed to make software and sell it under the name of Microsoft. Trademarks are something you need to enforce. Patents and copyrights, on the other hand, can't be lost until they expire. Naaah, that's not the way to go. 1. Pollute the atmosphere as much as you can. 2. Create a portable breathing device that filters the atmosphere. 3. Have people pay for the service (subscription for beathing clean air), not the device ! 4. If the people fail to renew their subscription, lock up the device. They'll find one way or another to pay when they begin to stifle... 5. Profit !!! After all, it already worked for water. Why not do it with air ?	eng	cbc3a10d-dc7f-49c5-8573-c9d562853f90	http://yro.slashdot.org/story/04/04/23/0138200/31-lawsuits-filed-over-alleged-jpeg-patent
[[quoteright:260:[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries [-[[caption-width-right:260:GoingNative on the Planet Of Hats.]]-] ->''"If you want a problem [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy shot]], ask a Turian. If you want a problem [[ProudScholarRaceGuy talked to]], ask an Asari. If you want a [[NiceJobBreakingItHero new problem]], ask a Salarian. If you want a problem'' fixed'', you ask a [[HumansAreSpecial human]]."'' -->-- '''Commander Shepard''', ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' On their WagonTrainToTheStars, our intrepid heroes come across a planet with [[AlikeAndAntitheticalAdversaries a single defining characteristic.]] Everybody is a {{robot\|RollCall}}, or a gangster, or a ProudWarriorRaceGuy, or an [[WorldOfHam over-the-top actor]], or wearing a NiceHat. To some degree, this is unavoidable; you only have so much screen time or page space to develop and explore a culture. This is especially true in episodic series where the heroes travel to a new planet each week and you have to both introduce a planet and tell a story all within a single episode. Earth itself is sometimes portrayed as a Planet Of Hats. The defining human characteristic is often [[HumansAreSpecial "pluck"]], [[HumansAreWarriors "sheer cussedness"]], [[NoSuchThingAsAlienPopCulture creativity]], and sometimes even [[LampshadeHanging "diversity"]], though [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters "bastardry"]] and [[HumansAreMorons "stupidity"]] are common in more misanthropic works. Sometimes it's stated that Hattery is the natural state and it's ''humans'' that are the aberrant ones, or rather that humanity's Hat is ''not'' having one. Writers love to use the hat planet to represent controversial issues in society whenever they can. This way the show's characters can take a thinly disguised public stand on an issue that the network execs would otherwise consider too taboo to openly discuss. We can't have our heroes discussing euthanasia, but should they stumble across a Planet Of Hats where [[StrawCharacter everyone who gets sick is put to death]], then it's okay. Eventually the plots will run out with an entire race of identical people so one or more of the species will have their hat fall off, declaring MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch. Alternately, the show may explore why KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect. For maximum typing, the characters can also be physically uniform, as in PeopleOfHairColor. The Planet Of Hats may also be an unintended result of a CharacterExaggeration type PlotTumor applied to an ''entire race'', when the audience had previously only seen a single representative who the writers now wish to market. For cases where a planetary hat is extrapolated retroactively from a single character, see PlanetOfCopyhats. Just for comparison, Earth has seven continents, hosting just under two hundred states, with an estimated five thousand ethnicities, with even more thousands of different languages and ''their'' varied dialects. There is no reason to suspect that alien life forms would be any different, but in media they are nowhere near as diverse as one might expect. Occasionally semi-{{justified\|Trope}} in settings with relatively convenient space travel. Many nations agree to use a single language (usually English) when they must operate in a multinational group. It is also reasonable to expect planetary colonists to be culturally and linguistically uniform. Compare: GangOfHats. Contrast: MulticulturalAlienPlanet. See also RubberForeheadAliens, IntelligentGerbil, ScaryDogmaticAliens. May result because ApathyKilledTheCat. If the planet's hat is being evil, it's an example of AlwaysChaoticEvil. SeriousBusiness is what happens when the show's setting gets a hat. This trope in itself is a good example of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. See SingleBiomePlanet when the planet is unnaturally uniform physically. OneProductPlanet is a subtrope, but focuses on economics rather than culture. Has nothing to do with a certain [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 war-themed hat simulator]]. ---- !!Examples [[foldercontrol]] [[folder: Anime & Manga]] * ''Manga/GalaxyExpress999'' is the ur-example in Anime/Manga. We have planets where everyone's a beggar, fat, angry, lawless, sad, glows in the dark and so on. * ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' In the episode "Mushroom Samba" (itself the name of [[MushroomSamba another trope]]), the crew of the Bebop finds that the {{terraform}}ed moon Io has developed a culture apparently inspired by 1970s {{Blaxploitation}} films. Bebop used the different planets as either FantasyCounterpartCulture or a planet of hats. Venus was US-run, while Callisto was Russian, the Jovians were mostly European, and Earth was SE Asia. * In ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'', each individual country is a separate PlanetOfHats, such as a country devoted to nothing else but the construction of a tower or is inhabited by people who do nothing but secretarial work. Most amusing is the town who doesn't have a hat, and is trying desperately to get one. They show off some different 'ancient tradition' to every traveler to come by. Kino remarks that this ''is'' their hat. * In ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' by Creator/{{CLAMP}}, the characters must visit different worlds in search of Princess Sakura's feathers. Roughly every world they visit will be a Planet of Hats (although some of them aren't as easy to notice). * ''{{Anime/Vandread}}'': The two main planets are Taraak (the planet of men), a barren world where the locals are concerned with things like uniforms, practicality, appearing manly, and eating nutrition pellets (think hamster food), and Mejere (the planet of women), which looks like Las Vegas and has locals concerned with appearing nice, who eat foods that are basically dessert. There's a darker side to this as well, as every inhabited planet was marked by a unique physical trait [[spoiler: representing which organ was supposed to be harvested by Earth. Taraak and Mejele were male and female reproductive organs respectively.]] * The three Invading Countries (actually planets) from the second season of ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth''. Autozam is all about the [[MagiTek mental power-based technology]], Fahren is a thinly-veiled FantasyCounterpartCulture for ImperialChina, and Chizeta's culture is entirely Literature/ArabianNights-based. * In ''LightNovel/NyarkoSan'', Earth's hat is specifically noted to pretty much be our entertainment industry, which is so popular out there its a controlled substance and [[TheMasquerade we can't know how incredibly big our audience is]], both due to lack of supply, although the [[EldritchAbomination nature]] of our fans also factored into their decision to hide while taking advantage of our funny hat. * In ''{{Simoun}}'' all the inhabitants of the main planet are immature females. They [[EasySexChange decide their sex at age 17 by dipping into a magical spring]]. [[/folder]] [[folder: Comic Books ]] * ''TopTen'' (by comic book genius AlanMoore) The comic takes place in a city where everyone -- the cops, the bus drivers, the bums on the street -- is a {{superhero}} or some other "science hero" trope. This does have lots of room within it, however, as the titular team has a talking dog in an exoskeleton, the world's only Yazidi superhero, and a sarcastic Mazinger Z, amongst others. Did we mention it's a {{police procedural}}? It's eventually revealed that the "10 Precinct" (hence the "10" in "Top 10") is so called because it's the 10th in a series of alternate dimensions. Each dimension has its own precinct, and its own hat. The 10th is superheroes; other precincts include robot dinosaurs and Romans. * DCComics has a ''lot'' of Hat Planets: In the ''{{Comicbook/Legion of Super-Heroes}}'', most planets are like this, with their "hat" being related to their super-power; Naltor, planet of precogs, Titan, planet of telepaths, Colu, planet of geniuses, et cetera. There used to be a rule that there could be no two members from the same planet, because "planet" and "superpower" were ''that'' synonymous. * They also have two characters from Winath who (at least some of the time) share a superpower, but that's not Winath's hat -- almost all the people of Winath are identical twins, and the two Legionnaires, Lightning Lad and Lightning Lass, are HalfIdenticalTwins, so similar that by deeping her voice and keeping the MostCommonSuperpower bound, Ayla managed to impersonate Garth. In some media, the whole planet is devoted to farming. * Ultra Boy comes from Rimbor, which is The Planet Of Dark Alleys and Biker Gangs. They don't have powers, though: [[MeaningfulName Jo Nah]] got his powers from a SpaceWhale. * And of course, the planet [[IncrediblyLamePun Bizmol]], whose hat is eating things. * This is all justified in ''[[ Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2]]'', which shows that all of these planets were specifically colonized a thousand years earlier by advanced humans with similar power-sets after ''{{Comicbook/Invasion}}!'' happened. Also occurred at least once in a ''{{Comicbook/Superman}}'' comic in which JimmyOlsen is transported to the Planet of the Capes. [[ Seriously]]. This comic came out in the wake of the ''Planet of the Apes'' film, so they were probably going for the pun. {{Lobo}} occasionally encounters hat planets, such as planets made entirely from highway (in the ''Lobo'' comic series), a vacation planet (''The Last Czarnian'' mini-series), and a planet populated by religious fundamentalists who immediately explode upon contact with any infidels by triggering an apparently inherited power through pushing down their head onto their shoulder. The Hat of the Daxamites is violent xenophobia. Daxamites who ''don't'' try to kill aliens on sight are considered outcasts, and in one case was ''brainwashed by his own parents'' so that he would be a xenophobe. And just to complicate matters for aliens, they're on offshoot of [[{{Comicbook/Superman}} Kryptonians]], who win the SuperpowerLottery when exposed to a yellow sun. ** ''BlackestNight'' explains that Earth's Hat is in fact that it doesn't wear a Hat; [[EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Earth is the most diverse planet in the universe.]] This is due to it [[spoiler:being home to the Entity that brought Life to the universe.]] (Though LexLuthor argues that he should get the Orange Lantern of Greed because Earth is all about consumerism and acquiring stuff.) * The Polish comic ''Tytus, Romek I A'Tomek'' has an issue where the protagonists visit several "Nonsense Islands", each of which is a classic Island Of Hats where everyone is an athlete, a bureaucrat, etc. * In one MickeyMouse detective story Mickey and {{Goofy}} are employed by aliens from a planet where everyone is a thief - its perfectly legal to steal, people are suspicious of someone who doesn't, and their leader got his position because he is such a great crook. (No, not by cheating. People ''voted for him'' because he was such a dishonest man.) They need an outsider because they are temporarily hosting an artifact shared with other, friendly planets, and they don't trust anyone on their own planet - with good reason. ** another Disney example: [[PaperinikNewAdventures the Xerbian hat is earning doctorates]]. and not just [[NotThatKindOfDoctor the medical kind]] * [[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} The Mojoverse]] is an entire ''Dimension'' of Hats organized around television. Whoever has the best ratings is the DimensionLord. * In ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'', all of the male Viltrumites have to grow moustaches. [[/folder]] [[folder: Film ]] * ''StarWars'': Not quite as obvious, but quite present: all Twi'lek girls are exotic dancers, all Hutts are gangsters, all Bothans are spies, all Ithorians are pacifists, etc. (See also SingleBiomePlanet). Of course, almost any species, Hatted or not, may show up as a Jedi (even a Hutt or two), and there are numerous other exceptions. In recent years, some writers grew tired of these stigmas and began [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] and subverting them - for example, showing a couple of Ithorian criminals in one of the ''Comicbook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' comics and claiming that Ithorians "stay all peaceful and polite" by "throwing guys like these out". In many cases, the hats in Star Wars seem to have been placed by the fans or EU writers. The films indicate that at the very least, nearly every species in the galaxy has senators. Gungan society shows a diversity, featuring overbearing rulers, goofy outcasts and courageous soldiers. ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' {{lampshade\|Hanging}}s the sharing of hats (Mercenary/Bounty Hunters) between three races at one point, with one of each race pointing out the differences between them. * Also in ''KOTOR'', one twi'lek on Taris was an entrepreneur in the upper city who commented that her business doesn't do as well as it should because people there expected her to wear the dancer hat. * ''KOTOR'' does, however, play the Wookiee life-debt hat absolutely dead straight with Zaalbar, and Hanharr ''has'' one but is filtering it through his AxCrazy ChaoticEvil psychosis into an obsessive desire to kill the object of said life debt. The ExpandedUniverse also subverts/averts the Hats, having Twi'leks reveal that they have a unique culture, complete with their own [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Sect]]. Not to mention a Twi'lek who put the 'slave dancer' phase far behind her, and a Bothan who is surprisingly honest. At least one book mentions that Jabba the Hutt was a common smuggler before being a Mafia Don, which is almost the Hutt's hat. The ExpandedUniverse has even given us a Hutt ''Chancellor of the Republic'' (Blotus), who is noted to have been a fair, honest, popular leader. * There's also been somewhere (in ''The Planet of Twilight'') a Hutt Jedi called Beldorian or Beldorion (darksider, but still greatly untypical for a Hutt). * One of the novels, [[XWingSeries Starfighters of Adumar]], takes place on a (human-occupied) planet whose Hat seems to be reverence for starfighter pilots combined with blood sport and melodrama. In time we get to see that these traits are more a specific ''country's'' Hat, and intelligent people from said country can be made to doubt their convictions with relative ease. * Interestingly, some of the human planets get Hats too. Especially Corellians (the planet of NeverTellMeTheOdds), Alderaanians (philosophical pacifists), and Mandalorians (planet of violent badass mercenaries). Corellia actually has multiple hats. For one, they are the planet of the AcePilot and the [[BadassArmy Badass Space Navy]] -- Han Solo, Soontir Fel, and Wedge Antilles are all renowned for this. More negatively, however, they are the CommanderContrarian. It doesn't matter what they're rebelling against, they simply rebel and bristle under galactic authority. * The Twi'Lek example above was eventually explained. The Twi'lek homeworld of Ry'loth is a DeathWorld that is tidally locked to the local star. Half the planet burns, the other half freezes. Civilization can only exist in the narrow twilight band between the two extremes, and those are constantly wracked by heat storms and inter-clan warfare. Life is so awful that many Twi'lek will sell themselves into slavery just to get passage off the planet, and at a chance of ''maybe'' having a better life. But again, we see plenty of Twi'lek that subvert this trope, like one who is a mother in the Clone Wars cartoon or Bib Fortuna, second in command of Jabba's empire. * Tatooinians are all excellent pilots. Rogue Squadron actually has a [[CreatorsPet sixteen-year-old Tatooinian]] as Rogue Five. {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d by the fact that when he wants to ask Corran a question about [[InterspeciesRomance inter-species relationships]], Corran thinks he doesn't know what sex is. {{Justified\|Trope}} by the fact that Tatooine is a world with a lot of trackless desert and few settlements extremely far apart, so folks grow up using hovercraft and aircraft to get from place to place (though how that translates to flying spacecraft, [[OldSchoolDogfight well...]]). * Every member of Yoda's species is a wise Jedi master; all four of them. * Almost all examples from the ''StarWars'' EU are cases of {{flanderization}}: Authors will take the one mention a race or species has in the movies and expand it to be true for all members of that race or species. Leia says Alderaan has no weapons? They're all pacifists. Han says to never tell him the odds? All Corellians hate odds. Many Bothans died to get the death star plans? All Bothans are spies. A worldbuilding article about the [[ Yavin system]] has a framing device; it's about the memoirs of a famous Rodian explorer and it comes with this rather wry intro, lampshading the rather strict gender-based divisions of labor said to apply to many species in the EU. --> In the days before the New Republic, common galactic wisdom held that all Rodian males feel the call of the hunt, while all Rodian females feel the call of performing for money, child-rearing, and [[StayInTheKitchen food preparation]]. --> Common galactic wisdom about Rodians has largely been written by Rodian males. It is largely incorrect. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Neimoidians]] are a race of [[JustForPun ridiculous hats]]. Spectacularly subverted by the X-wing series, whose authors seem to have taken it as their assignment to buck those trends at every opportunity. Bothans are stereotyped as conniving spies and politicians, but Asyr Sei'lar is an accomplished fighter pilot with a warrior's sense of honor. Calamarians and Quarren are supposed to be at each other's throats, but Nrin and Ibitsam are close friends and eventually fall in love. Twi'leks supply several top-notch fighter pilots to contradict their species' image as merchants and cowards. Corellians are supposed to be flashy rogues and daredevils; meet Corran Horn, straight-laced ex-cop who spent his career in the force chasing smugglers like Han. Alderaanians are supposed to be pacifists: Tycho Celchu, Rogue Squadron's second in command and eventually leader, is from there. The gold medal goes to Voort saBinring, genetically enhanced Gamorrean; while the rest of his species typically only shows up as dimwitted thugs, Voort is an elite fighter pilot and commando who, when he retires, goes on to teach mathematics at a university. *** Also occasionally lampshaded by the pilots themselves: in Iron Fist, two of the pilots slip onto an Imperial-controlled world by pretending to be from Agamar, a world whose residents are stereotyped as [[ObfuscatingStupidity dumb hicks]]. * In ''MomAndDadSaveTheWorld'', the title characters get kidnapped by (and save the world from) an EvilOverlord from a planet where the hat is... [[TheDitz mind-boggling amounts of stupidity]]. As an example, one of the deadliest weapons on this world is called the light grenade, which instantly disintegrates whoever picks it up. And how does this [[TooDumbToLive decimate an entire army]]? It says [[SchmuckBait "Pick Me Up"]]. * ''Film/TheAmericanAstronaut'' has the Venusians, which are all SouthernBelle and the people from Jupiter who are all miners, the later is justified since it's implied they are hired from all over the galaxy. * Inverted in ''{{Critters}}'', in which the alien prison-warden and the data he provides to the bounty hunters refer to Earth's own civilization as ''a'' culture. [[/folder]] [[folder: Literature ]] * Nations characterized by a single trait have been a staple of travelogue-style fiction for centuries. The academics-obsessed people of Laputa in ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' are a good example. * OlderThanFeudalism: This happens in the ancient Greek tales of Hyperborea, {{Atlantis}}, and other allegorically intended foreign lands. * The Idirans of IainBanks' [[TheCulture Culture]] books are a ProudWarriorRace of ScaryDogmaticAliens. Culture Orbitals tend to acquire hats due to the nature of the Culture as a society of absolute leisure with high population mobility. Masaq orbital is full of extreme sports (and is so dedicated to risk it's deliberately orbiting an unstable star), whilst Chiark is the destination of choice for games of skill and chance. There's also The Affront, a race of LaughablyEvil sadists and the Gzilt, whose Hat is being MildlyMilitary with everyone being (nominally) a soldier. * ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': The world is comprised of hat-wearing nations and peoples. Two Rivers folk are all brave and stubborn, Cairhienin are all short and concerned with political intrigue, Arad Domani women are all sluts, women in the various Ajahs of the Aes Sedai almost always act alike, etc. Few cultures in the series are shown to have individuals who behave contrary to their cultural stereotypes. Membership in a Ajah is a matter of outlook and self-chosen duties. It's not surprising that each Ajah's members will have similar outlooks and personalities. ** The Myrddraal, {{Black Cloak}}ed EliteMooks and {{Mook Lieutenant}}s, are said to be essentially an entire race of the same person replicated over and over again. However, the Myrddraal are an artificial race and all behave the same because they're wired to. * JanetKagan's ''Hellspark'' subverts this. It's a multiple-culture universe where each of the cultures has a single quirk -- one considers feet obscene, one duels at the drop of a hat, one considers telling the truth (speaking ''accurately'') a basic requirement, etc... and each of these people are individuals who incorporate their cultural quirk into their individuality. * Subverted in the works of Creator/BruceCoville. In particular one book in the ''MyTeacherIsAnAlien'' series has a kid helping aliens on Earth and taking them to a swamp at one point. One of the aliens comments that the swamp reminds him of his home; when the boy asks if he came from [[SingleBiomePlanet a swamp planet]], the alien sarcastically asks if ''he'' comes from a swamp planet. Turns out he just happened to be from a swamp. * LarryNiven's ''KnownSpace'' deals with this trope. Pierson's Puppeteers are [[LovableCoward cowards]] to the point that only insane specimens are willing to deal with other species (but as their [[MeaningfulName name]] implies, their ''real'' hat is {{Manipulative Bastard}}ry.[[note]]Their name really refers to their two small heads with one eye each on long, prehensile necks, which looks like a hand-puppet show. Still, it certainly fits either way.[[/note]]) Kzinti are all {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s, and humans may or may not have a trait for genetic luck. Humans are also apparently obsessed with sex; in ''Ringworld'', the puppeteer Nessus says to Louis and Teela, "No known species copulates as often as you do"[[note]]Which just goes to show that Nessus has never seen a bonobo[[/note]], and ''The Ringworld Engineers'': The series features many species with the same ancestry as humans whose politics revolves around ritual inter-species sex. Further, at various points in the series, Niven will go into the details of how these ''hats'' are worn, via the various mechanism that produced the human traits, and the evolutionary imperatives that effect the ongoing makeup of the various species. At one point in ''Ringworld'', a kzin sets a human off on a logical analysis of the instability of Kzinti aggression in the context of an enemy race that they can't easily beat. Whether this is a LampshadeHanging or a {{justifi\|edTrope}}cation is left as an exercise for the reader. There are plenty of exceptions of course. The Kzinti have the least, but that's justified with them genetically engineering themselves into a 'heroic' race. They were at best bronze age technologically when taken by another species to use as troops. They rebelled and overthrew their masters, using their technology with most of them not truly understanding it. They tinkered a hell of a lot with their own genome, with one of the offshoots making their women non-sentient and playing with their sex drives and aggression. The Puppeteers don't even have sex as we understand it, reproducing with a female of a separate species that actually gestates the young until the child eats its way out... ** Pak Protectors wear the VillainSue hat, and human Protectors wear the CanonSue hat. To be transformed into a Protector is to become the ultimate soldier, strategist, scientist and engineer, able to solve almost any problem and beat almost any opponent. * Justified in ''Literature/TheLittlePrince'' since every planet is inhabited by exactly one person. * ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' mostly averted it; alien cultures would often emphasize certain concepts or things (Andalites with honor, Hork-Bajir with trees, etc.), but all were fairly complex; even the [[AlienInvasion Yeerks]] and [[HorrorHunger Taxxons]] weren't AlwaysChaoticEvil. Book 26, however, had the Iskoort, whose Hat was guilds -- there was (in order of introduction) a Trader Guild, a Criminal Guild, a Warmaker Guild (though it quickly becomes clear the Iskoort were not cut out for combat), a Servant Guild, a Worker Guild, a Superstition and Magic Guild, a Shopper Guild, and even a "News, Gossip, and Speculation Guild." And all the Traders were the most annoying salesmen imaginable. (The others were annoying, too, but they ran into Traders the most.) * From ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', the Vogons are a race of {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. Their correspondingly shallow personalities and total lack of creativity make them the third worst poets in the universe. * This trope dates back to at least ''[[Literature/SkylarkSeries The Skylark of Space]]'', the very first SpaceOpera. It was taken to such an extreme that the heroes would cheerfully [[ValuesDissonance commit genocide]] on [[AlwaysChaoticEvil species they disapproved of]], rather than try to change them. * In the comedy science fiction ''Literature/{{Hoka}}'' series by Creator/PoulAnderson and GordonRDickson, the Hokas' "hat" is that they are entranced by fiction. Give them a story and they will start to live it out, believing (or at least acting) as if they are in it. They have whole cities based on various periods of human history, with Ancient Rome, Victorian England, American Wild West and other places. One of them believes he is Napoleon and has an entire city of Hokas willing to follow him as leader of "France". Actually, a better way of saying it is that their hat is following tropes, as they tend to act out the trope more than reality. Luckily, they are non-violent, so they tend to just fake the wars and other violent parts. * The trope also occurs in GordonRDickson's ''ChildeCycle'', better known as the ''Dorsai'' series. Humanity has separated in various ''splinter cultures'' who specialize in one attribute. [[BadassArmy The Dorsai]] focus on courage and honor. [[TheProfessor Newton, Cassdia, and Venus]] are hard science cultures. Ste. Marie is a colony of Catholic farmers. Freiland is known for its bureaucracy. Coby are known for its miners. [[ThePhilosopher The Exotics]] focus on philosophy. The [[ChurchMilitant Friendlies]] focus on religion. The trope is justified in the larger frame of the Cycle. * The alternate worlds or "planes" in ''Literature/ChangingPlanes'' by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin are often like this; each one features a more-or-less humanoid alien race with a special ability, psychological/biological quirk, or universal tradition -- such as sharing dreams, seasonal migrations, near-constant anger, becoming silent at adulthood, and extreme devotion to apparently meaningless architectural projects. * Ms. Le Guin, in ''{{The Left Hand of Darkness}}'', averted this on a cultural level (the Orgota and the Karhiders have different languages, dominant "religions", and social systems), forestalling the Single Culture Planet that seems to be a staple of SF. However, on despite a couple of small nods in the direction of aversion on a physically ethnic level (mention of the bearded tribes of Perunter, for example), she portrays Gethenians as much of a muchness physically, all being short, stocky, and of a narrow range of brown hues. * The ''{{Belgariad}}'' series of novels by DavidEddings: Each of the nations of the West has its own hat. To a first approximation, based on the characters encountered: All Sendars are farmers, all Drasnians are spies, all Tolnedrans are merchants, all Chereks are Viking warriors, and all Nyssans are drug-addicted poisoners. Most of the 'hats' are actually fantasy archetypes based on Earth cultures -- the Chereks are Vikings UpToEleven, the Algars are the Mongols likewise, the Drasnians appear to be a Renaissance Italy stereotype transplanted into a different geographical setting, the Tolnedrans are based on the Roman Empire (hence both their mercantile aspect ''and'' their obsessive road-building and disciplined legions), the Arends are medieval high chivalry myths taken to the point of self-parody, etc. The unflappable demeanour, their courtesy, and the general obsession with propriety of the Sendars seem to be more English than anything. The Eastern nations started out as pretty hatty. But then, they were under the control of an insane god for millenia. Eddings [[strike:recycles]] [[strike:revisits]] recycles those themes in the Elenium and Tamuli novels: All Styrics are self-pitying magicians, all Atans are warriors, All Tamuli are polite to a fault, etc. The tribes of Angarak originally were the CASTES of Angarak, and Torak mistook their differences for tribal rather than professional distinctions after being away doing god-stuff for a couple thousand years. * In the novel ''Design for Great-Day'' by Creator/AlanDeanFoster and Eric Frank Russel, a spiderlike species is mentioned whose hat is... hats. [[NiceHat Nice ones]]. * Both used and averted in ''Literature/TheEdgeChronicles''. All of the Slaughterers are hunters and butchers, all of the shrykes are slave-trading warriors, and all of the trolls are lumberjacks. This even extends to occupations: the Leaguesmen are corrupt, the Sky-Scholars are evil, and the Earth-Scholars and Sky Pirates are good. However, oakelves, goblins, waifs, and (of course) [[HumansByAnyOtherName fourthlings]] can be anything, and quarter-masters are either traitorous or fiercely loyal (sort-of hat). * In Creator/LRonHubbard's ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'', the Selachee, a race of sharks who have feet, can "live anywhere, breathe any atmosphere and eat anything," and while they did have Selachee who are engineers and other professions, their planet's exclusive profession is banking. * Several races in ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', such as the Dufflepuds, who play CaptainObvious with such astute observations as water is powerfully wet[[note]]Justified in that "the entire race" is one small tribe of (originally) dwarfs who were given to the wizard Coriakin to oversee in order to teach him humility, so their stupidity is presumably a design feature (Coriakin is literally a star, on enforced sabbatical for some fault that Man is not meant to know about).[[/note]], and the [[FishPeople Marsh-wiggles]], an entire race of [[TheEeyore Eeyores]]. * In Creator/AlanDeanFoster's series ''The Damned'', all of humanity wears the BloodKnight hat once an interstellar war lands in our laps. And it's a good thing, too, because every other species in these novels either wear the Programmed For Pacifism hat or the Reluctant Clumsy Warrior hat, and being good at killing things is our only hope to survive in the face of technological superiority. Well... that and being immune to telepathy. Humans are the only species that doesn't have a single, unified culture, because we're the only ones who're [[HumansAreBastards such bastards]] that we can't even get along with members of our own species. * Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' books are made of this trope. The Beta Colony wears the "uber tolerant libertine" hat. The Jackson's Whole wears the "WretchedHive" hat. Cetaganda wears TheEmpire hat. And the titular Barrayar wears the ProudWarriorRace {{Ruritania}} hat. * Tanya Huff's ''Literature/ConfederationOfValor'' series has the Taykans and the Krai whose hats are sex and food respectively. * Creator/JohnVarley's short story "[[Literature/EightWorlds The Barbie Murders]]" features a cult of humans nicknamed "The Barbies" who are obsessed with conformity. They have each been modified to look and sound identical, down to the last tiny detail. They have no names or personal identities, and each takes responsibility for the actions of all the rest. This makes finding a murderer in their midst rather trying. * ''ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'' The Haruchai are a race of stoic {{proud warrior\|RaceGuy}}s. The Insequent are a race who WalkTheEarth in search of knowledge. The Elohim wear an OmniscientMoralityLicense hat. All the Ramen (people from the Plains of Ra, not noodles) care about are their horses. The Stonedownors are obsessed with stone while their cousins the Woodhelvins are obsessed with trees. And on [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the evil side of things]], the Cavewights are all AxeCrazy mooks, the ur-viles are {{enigmatic\|minion}} sorcerers, and the Croyel are parasites who offer faustian bargains. Ravers could also be said to have the hat of nature-hating omnicidal jerkasses, but this is justified by there being only three of them, and the fact that they work directly for the GodOfEvil. * ''Literature/EndersGame'' has planets that were colonized by a single religion or country, to encourage diversity of humans among the stars. * SagaOfTheExiles similarly mentions worlds being assigned to individual peoples for colonisation; there is even a reference to races with more "vigour" being given more planets. * JerryPournelle's Literature/CoDominium is similar for a [[JustifiedTrope justified reason]]; colonies are expensive, and require sponsors who obviously choose who populate them. [[{{Eagleland}} America]] and Russia have filled the galaxy with clones of themselves, and every industrial power has at least one colony; all are meant to be examples of the superiority of their given culture. Religious and political nutcases with sufficient funds have attempted to do the same, but are often subject to the titular Amerusski Pact dumping criminals on them, meaning that almost every planet that isn't populated by Hats is a CrapsackWorld. * Creator/WalterMoers applies the principle to several cities in his Zamonia novels, most notably Bookholm (everything revolves around books) and Sledwaya (everything revolves around illness) * This is a common theme in Robert Asprin's [[Literature/MythAdventures MYTH]] series, with the characteristic of residents often being puns on the name of their "dimension." For example, residents of Deva (Deveels) are all aggressive merchants, while male residents of Trollia are trolls and female residents, trollops. * In the ''To The Stars'' trilogy by HarryHarrison, [=EarthGov=] has not only terraformed {{Single Biome Planet}}s, they've also created a unique culture for each in order to maximise their control. For instance the agricultural planet the protagonist has been exiled to in "Wheelworld" is populated entirely by peasants and mechanics, ruled by a group of autocratic Familys. * In old science-fiction novel [[ ''Star Surgeon'']] by Alan E. Nourse, Humans have the hat of being doctors, to the point that Earth is called "Hospital Earth". Apparently nobody else ever really got into the whole "cut people open to make them better" thing. (At the time it was written, open heart surgery was [[PhlebotinumDuJour a new, exciting thing]].) * In [[ Pandora's Planet]], the {{Alien Inva\|sion}}ders are dull and gullible enough compared to humans that once we start going out and proselytizing they become more convinced than the proselytizers. A whole planet briefly bans everything artificial. Mention is made of a low-gravity world colonized expressly for the purpose of horse racing. * ''E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet'', the sequel novel to ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'', implies that all the members of E.T.'s unnamed species are botanists, since they can all communicate telepathically with plants. * In StephenBaxter's ''ManifoldSpace'', humans are the only species able to devote themselves entirely to an idea (i.e have faith), which becomes important at the end of the book when [[spoiler:a coalition of aliens are trying to construct a gigantic solar sail to prevent a future galaxy sterilization event (and not the ''next'' one, either).]] * While many planets in ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' are interesting, multi-cultural places, others are outright PlanetOfHats type places: Montana, on which everyone acts like stereotypical cowboys, which is lampshaded by one of the Montanans when he explains that his ancestors fell in love with an ideal, regardless of whether that ideal ever actually existed. In short, their planet's Hat is a Stetson. Grayson is a planet of stubborn traditionalists, even those who want to reform the society want to do so to make it more like Grayson and when new ideas or technology are introduced from off-world they almost inevitably improve it first to make it a Grayson advancement. Furthermore much of their mindset is infectious so even offworlders start acting Grayson in time. * Each of the different realms in the {{Shadowleague}} books has its own hat: Callisoria, for example, is the land where everyone blindly follows the CorruptChurch, and Ghariad is the land full of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent humanoid monsters who drink human blood]]. * ''LonelyWerewolfGirl'' has [[TheFashionista Fashion]] being the hat of a race of ''[[OurDemonsAreDifferent Fire-Demons]]''. * In ''Literature/TheDemonPrinces'', there's Sarkoy, the Planet of Poisoners; and Methel, the Planet of Snobs. This is partly explained by the fact that Methel is actually owned by socially elite caste, who take steps to keep others out. * In ''Literature/TheWitchesOfKarres'' by Creator/JamesHSchmitz, Karres is the Planet of Witches; Uldune is a world-sized CityOfSpies. * Another example of this is in StephenieMeyer's book "Literature/TheHost" which features a horde of peace loving aliens which invade earth and take over the body of almost everyone who lives there. This is used (apparently) deliberately as an excuse for the aliens, who hate violence, to [[PuppeteerParasite bodysnatch]] the human race, as because all of them are so similar in their views and personality, they do not understand the diversity in human morality, and assume all of us are evil. * Creator/GarthNix's ''Literature/OldKingdom'' series isn't too bad about this, for a fantasy story--Ancelstierre's hat is being early 20th century England, and the Old Kingdom's hat is being a fantasy country with a distinctive magic system and a serious zombie problem. Considerable variation within. And then in ''Abhorsen'' we get the Southerlings, refugees from a war in the South whose real purpose is [[RedShirt to be killed by the Big Bad and turned into its zombie slaves]]. They barely say a word. They are identified by their blue hats (and scarves). Repeatedly. ** [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Presumably]] Nix wanted a cultural trait to identify the doomed-people-and-zombies with, since a physical one, such as skin color, would be like marking out whatever real race(s) resembling that as CannonFodder and/or [[ScaryBlackMan things to run away from]]. And since particular hats have ''frequently'' been the intentional markers of communities throughout history (most of Eurasia has for extended periods viewed the lack of a hat as indecent) [[JustifiedTrope blue headwear was a solid call]]. * The different colonist habitats in SlowtrainToArcturus each function as a planet of hats. Justified in that each of the habitats was purchased by a group which wished to leave Earth and selected other colonists with similar interests. The particular hats are: Aryan Freedom: ThoseWackyNazis New Eden: SpaceAmish Matriarchy of Diana: LadyLand U'Thanai: ProudWarriorRaceGuy and NobleSpaceSavage Icarus Cooperative: Extreme Sports Enthusiasts The Workers Paradise: PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' features several peoples that take one particular thing, usually an important resource or terrain feature, and make it the absolute center of their culture, shoehorning it into their language's figures of speech wherever possible: The Dothraki: horses The Lhazarene: sheep The Vale: heights The Reach: plants The Iron Islands: iron Braavos: water ** Asshai (and the Targaryens): fire * Parodied in the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''Death and Diplomacy'', in which three warring empires have been carefully manipulated to be Planet of the [[ExtremeOmnisexual Sex-Obsessed]] [[BarbarianTribe Savages]], Planet of the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Uptight Military]], and Planet of the [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Devious Assassins]]. It's specifically mentioned that none of these societies would actually ''work'' if someone wasn't pulling the strings. * In ''Literature/YearZero'' by Rob Reid, Earth wears the hat of "being really good at making music." (Which is to say that, by our standards, everyone else in the universe is really ''bad'' at making music.) * In Robert J. Sawyer's ''Starplex'', the Waldahud are mostly rude and mean, though not necessarily ''bad'', as such. The Ibs are all rational and polite, and ''very'' serious about not wasting each other's time. The alien races themselves are annoyed by humanity's tendency to... [[FunWithAcronyms overuse acronyms]], these being entirely unknown to any other intelligent race. [[/folder]] [[folder: Live Action TV ]] * The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series are actually the prime examples of this trope, nearly every species having one defining trait. This was often subverted in the ExpandedUniverse, and occasionally in-show. "A Piece of the Action" is interesting because the culture's true hat was mimicking others -- their entire society had been built around a book about 1920s gangsters in Chicago. In the comics, after being visited by the Enterprise they experienced a cultural revolution and [[ComicallyMissingThePoint began dressing like Kirk and co.]] The Vulcans are [[StrawVulcan all logic all the time]]. The Klingons are [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy all war all the time]]. (They'd tell you their true hat is honor, but [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch that's not what you get in practice]], to protagonist Klingon Worf's disillusionment.) The Orcs from {{World of Warcraft}} are accused of being this, but with the exception of Worf in the Klingons' case, the Orcs are usually slightly more multidimensional. * Klingons actually became this as a result of {{Flanderization}}. Originally, they were just Star Trek's analogue for the Soviet Union, and their depiction in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' hinted at a rich culture who even enjoyed Shakespeare--this was the trope namer for InTheOriginalKlingon, obviously. After the fall of the USSR, their ProudWarriorRace qualities were dialed up to 11. * Moq'bara is the martial art practiced by Klingons everywhere, because while a peaceful society like the Federation will have hundreds of styles ranging from kung fu to boxing, a warrior culture will clearly only have one. * A more accurate hat for the Klingons might be ''violence'' rather than ''warrior''. Even outside of the militaristic aspects of Klingon culture, it seems that violence permeates every aspect of their lives: religious, legal, ceremonial, and interpersonal. There are very few Klingon rituals seen that do not involve bloodletting, legal disputes are more often than not resolved with sword-play, Klingon sexuality is ''always'' DestructoNookie, even their wedding ceremony--at least the long version seen in ''[[StarTrekDeepSpaceNine You are Cordially Invited...]]''--involves a triumphant retelling of how the Kliingons killed their gods, followed by sword-play, followed by vows which include a promise to kill each other's enemies, followed by the wedding party attacking the bride and groom. In war or peace, the Klingons are always, ''always'' violent. In the Original Series the Romulans are a ProudWarriorRace -- or [[RecycledInSpace Space]] [[AncientRome Romans]] (with home planets named Romulus and Remus) -- but ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' had an alternate interpretation: they are all intrigue all the time The Ferengi are [[HonestJohnsDealership all profit all the time]], plus misogyny. Culturally, money is sort of their state religion. Ferengi tourist sites on their homeworld include the Great Marketplace and their stock exchange, and they consider any remotely non-capitalist actions (including things like giving workers holidays and allowing them to form unions) either incredibly distasteful or crimes worthy of being shunned from being allowed to do business with any Ferengi for. As for the misogyny: It's as though nobody has ever made the argument that allowing half of their population to earn money and buy things will be an economic boost. * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' fixed the misogyny part. Quark's mother Ishka instigates a cultural revolution that begins to give women an equal place in Ferengi society using that very argument. * Nog, meanwhile, attempts to escape the "all profit all the time" part by joining Starfleet. His rationale is this: some people just don't have "the lobes" for business. His father Rom, for example, has a lot of technical knowledge, able to fix Quark's replicators and holosuites, often from scavenged parts. But his lack of business acumen keeps him from rising above the level of being a waiter/gofer for Quark. Nog knows he doesn't have the lobes for business either, but knows he can still make a good life for himself without having to become a businessman. The Cardassians are all [[PoliceState service to the state all the time]], in that Cardassians will ''always'' claim that whatever it is they're doing, it's for the good of Cardassia. By virtue of being the focus of ''Deep Space Nine'' (along with the Bajorans), we get a very rounded view of life within the DeadlyDecadentCourt of Cardassia. A significant number of Cardassians are all {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry all the time because of this, while others are [[MyCountryRightOrWrong far more straightforward examples]]. Some, like [[EnsembleDarkhorse Garak]], are both. One guy even tried to shame his government into admitting the atrocities the Cardassians had committed against the Bajoran people during their occupation of the Bajoran homeworld...for the good of Cardassia. Also from ''Deep Space Nine'' were [[TheJudge Odo's]] people, The Founders, whose hat was essentially "order", both small and big scale. They were given a reason for it[[note]]Essentially having been betrayed and shafted by "solids" in the past, making them extra-strength paranoid[[/note]], but were pretty forceful in [[{{Metaphorgotten}} making others put the hat on too]]. * The Jem'Hadar are the soldiers who serve under the Founders. Their hat is that they're all genetically engineered and bred to be {{Blood Knight}}s. They have a ritual prayer before engaging in a fight. --->''We are dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives!'' The Wadi from the Gamma Quadrant are all about playing games. Making first contact with them proved to be exceptionally boring for Commander Sisko, because Quark proved to be a better host just because he had all the games. The Orions, the go-to example of the GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe, are all about Seduction. Their society is Matriarchal because females give off natural pheromones that allow them to easily [[DistractedByTheSexy "persuade"]] the weak willed - specifically, the male gender of just about every alien species that exists. Tellarites "do not argue for reasons, they simply argue." Spoken by a member of a species that apparently doesn't have such great relations with the Tellarites, but eventually proven true once we get to meet more. Negotiations are often opened by trading insults. Conformity as a Hat has been done a few times, most notably with the Borg. With the introduction of Seven of Nine, "efficiency" and "perfection" were added. Cheron in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is (or rather, was), supposedly, a planet of racists. (''They'' are black on the left side. ''We'' are black on the right side!) ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' brought in the Risians to wear the sex hat. Risa's hat is more accurately hospitality. "All that is ours is yours". Free and open sexuality is just a part of that; [[BestKnownForTheFanservice a part most aliens fixate on]]. Supposedly the El-Aurian hat is "listening", but we've only met three members of the species... one (Guinan) specializes in listening, but one was a con man (in a ''Deep Space Nine'' episode which lampshaded the "listening hat" thing by having a fellow prisoner try to come up to the con man and tell him his life story in jail, whereupon he responded by begging the guards to take the guy away from him) and one was a mad scientist. In that sense the El-Aurians have managed to subvert the usual Trekkian "one hat per species" rule. Although Guinan literally does wear some awesome hats. Taking place clear across the galaxy from these others, ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has its own hat species, such as the Kazon (society revolves around infighting between the various rival groups), the Vidiians (society revolves around medicine and organ-stealing due to the disease they have), the Hirogen (society revolves around [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame "the hunt"]]), and Species 8472 (society revolves around eradicating lesser, "weak" species.) Want to do a GreenAesop in ''Voyager''? Then it's time to wheel out the Malon, whose hat is, of all things, ''pollution''. They're saved from being an entire race of ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain Planet\|AndThePlaneteers}}'' villains because they're not polluting just for the sake of it -- it's simply that they've never bothered to invent "clean" technologies as long as the waste is transported [[NotInMyBackyard a long way from the homeworld]]. To make matters worse, they ''know'' that they can use clean technologies without any hassle, but making the switch would have devastating effects on their own society. The exporting of industrial waste is the ''backbone'' of the race's entire economy. In a similar fashion to the Hirogen mentioned above, the Gamma Quadrant features the Tosk, who are also obsessed with hunting. The key difference though, is that they specifically breed members of their own race just to be the hunted target. To be the hunted is the greatest honor anyone of their species can ever be given. They live just to be hunted, give their pursuers a good chase, try to outsmart them for as long as possible, and eventually be killed. Being captured is the greatest dishonor imaginable. Humans don't quite have a Hat, and -- especially in the Gene Roddenberry days -- were sort of the anti-hat: Having finally gotten it right, humanity's made a perfect future for itself, finally free of the undesirable qualities that some of the other species represent. Then again, being "perfect" eventually ''became'' humanity's hat, until the ''Deep Space Nine'' era, where that hat was rather rudely yanked off, set on fire, and thrown into a wood chipper. Alternatively, from the perspective of the ''other'' species, it would seem that condescension became humanity's hat. Every non-Federation character seemed to find humans in general and StarFleet officers in particular extremely patronizing. * On ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', Vulcan Ambassador Soval complains at length about humanity's lack of a Hat: ''"Of all the species we've made contact with, yours is the only one we can't define. [...] One moment you're as driven by your emotions as Klingons, and the next, you confound us by suddenly embracing logic!"'' He goes on to explain that pre-logic Vulcans were similarly hatless in a way that now scares them. * In the original pilot, the Human Hat was a hatred of captivity--even pleasant, benevolent captivity. * Knowledge/Exploration could be the human hat. Most of the other races explored the galaxy, but for profit, power or domination. * The modern novels often suggest that humanity's hat is creativity. In one novel, a Tellarite says creativity defines humans as logic defines Vulcans. This creativity expresses itself in various ways, including the formation of a vast variety of cultures, religions and nations that outnumber those of most other species, making the apparent lack of a hat actually a part of our hat. * Another possible hat for humans is freedom. Several episodes have someone telling an alien how humans hate imprisonment (even if it is paradise) or how they require a challenge to truly live. * In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', Archer (however unintentionally) proposes that humanity's hat is [[HumansAreDiplomats diplomacy]]; humans know when it's time to put aside their differences and look at the bigger picture. This is perhaps the primary reason every other galactic power is an empire of some sort, while the Federation is a coalition. On the flip side of the Federation (pun definitely intended) is the Terran Empire of the MirrorUniverse, whose hats are Treachery and Subjugation. Ever since Nazi Germany took over the world in World War 2, Humans have developed to conquer and enslave all who stand in their way. Tellarites? Slaves. Andorians? Slaves. Vulcans? Slaves AND corrupted to a point where they see the logic of conquering others, and agree with it. In sharp contrast, Cardassians and Klingons aren't ''too'' different than their normal universe selves, but they're allied with each other just to fight against the Terran Empire, making them the ''good guys'' in the grand scheme of things. * An official rule for being in service of the Terran Empire is that [[KlingonPromotion if you assassinate your ship's captain, YOU become the new captain]], regardless of your previous rank and standing among the crew. The Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel ''Literature/HowMuchForJustThePlanet'', by Creator/JohnMFord, features a world whose hat is ''comedy routines''. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out that they're just putting it on to keep their visitors off-balance.]] An alien on ''Voyager'' once used this trope to describe different species -- his own species' hat was an inherent understanding of languages (they are living Universal Translators, capable of learning any language- written, spoken, or computational- just by hearing or seeing a few words or numbers) while humanity's was "a great generosity of spirit." However, [[spoiler: it turned out he was buttering the Voyager crew up so he could get revenge on them for indirectly causing his own species' extinction]]. The episode "Patterns of Force" has the Nazi Planet. (Not their native hat, it was imported by a WellIntentionedExtremist historian from Earth). The Yridians are all information dealers. The [[StarTrekNewFrontier Redeemers]] are all religious fanatics. * The Bretheren are another "hunt" race, but they don't like it when they lose. They're aligned with the D'Myurj, whose hat is "enlightenment". Except for one, who believes that life itself will destroy the multiverse. As noted above, there are actually several episodes with planets whose inhabitants made their hat by copying something from Earth -- gangsters, Nazis, ancient Greeks... A ''Star Trek'' spinoff novel lampshaded this one by explaining that on most planets, war and oppression and genocide have had a homogenizing effect on sentient species. Humans figured out how to live together peacefully before that happened to them. As a result, Earth has a far greater range of cultural and ethnic diversity than can be found on most other planets. While the Bajorans are one of the most varied races in ''Star Trek'', they do have two hats, they're all deeply religious (but not fanatics) and they're mostly ex-freedom fighters. In general, the ones in the religious hierarchy have a calm spirituality (even [[SinisterMinister Kai Winn]] is good at faking it) and the rest are quick to anger. * Bajoran religious leaders ''do'' tend to have a degree of political power that would make the Medieval Catholic Church blush The Pakleds all act like they have serious developmental problems, coming across as mentally and socially retarded. But in large part, it is an act. And in the words of Data's... actually stunted brother, "they are [[FatBastard fat]]". In "The Mark of Gideon," Kirk was kidnapped by a race whose universal pro-life tendencies had lead to horrible overpopulation, to the point that they tried to start a pandemic with germs from Kirk (who had been exposed to meningitis in the past). * ''Series/BabylonFive'' The Narn start off as the Proud Warrior Race, the Minbari as Elves, the Vorlons as Mysterious Elders, and the Centauri as the declining Roman Empire. The Narn become Warrior Poets, the Minbari lose all hats due to a civil war, and the Vorlons gain (or rather, reveal) a Law hat. The Shadows also happen to gain the Chaos hat, while the Drazi steal the Proud Warrior Race. The uniformity of the alien cultures compared to humanity is lampshaded in the episode "The Parliament of Dreams," where each of the major races puts on a display of their global religion, while Sinclair arranges dozens upon dozens of people to represent humanity's multitudes of religions (even including a nonreligious atheist). Ultimately humanity's "hat" is explicitly defined (by Delenn) [[HumansAreDiplomats as community-building]] -- humans automatically and unthinkingly weave together disparate groups into communities. The Narns also have more than one religion, but weren't seen to put on a demonstration in "The Parliament of Dreams". The hats come off slightly as the series goes on. Londo points out that, to be a success in Centauri society, you have to be a schemer; there are plenty who don't, it's just that their families dwindle to insignificance. Delenn points out that both the religious and warrior castes have been ignoring the worker caste since Valen founded the Grey Council, and since they are fairly isolationist, we usually only get to see those who are on government business, who tend to be religious caste (possibly this is just because Delenn is religious), the military (and hence the warrior caste, although Londo does tell Earth Gov that this is not quite the same thing), or the Rangers, who are an elite undercover military force, with the obvious hats. The Minbari hat is tradition, whichever caste it comes from. This certainly applies to both Delenn and Lennier, though sometimes we get to see BeneathTheMask. The Abbai's hat is a focus on "community", the Brakiri's hat is business (more corporate culture as an ideal, rather than a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' Ferengi-style "profit," though of course that is their ultimate goal). The Drazi's hat is pretty much "violence" -- more specifically, the idea that a brawl pretty much solves any problem. The Llort's hat is basically kleptomania. The Shadows and Vorlons of course proudly promote their hats of "chaos" and "order and obedience" respectively, and try their hardest to make the younger races wear them too. * ''{{Lidsville}}'' takes the concept to its furthest extreme -- a world entirely populated by actual anthropomorphic talking hats. Amusingly, despite being a planet of literal hats, it was not a planet of figurative hats. * ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' had an episode on the planet [[MeaningfulName Litigara]] where 90 % of inhabitants were lawyers and the remaining 10 % servants who ran the various non law-related services. It could be called a planet of balaclavas, since that's what the lawyers always seemed to wear. Also, the Judge wore a hat that was a mix between a sombrero and a dinner plate, and (like the uniform) the colour looked like [[Literature/HarryPotter Dolores Umbridge]] picked it out. The Nebari are presently attempting to make their home planet a PlanetOfHats through brutal enforcement of the law- to the point that dissenters are often simply brainwashed into perfect citizens. As a result, the only Nebari encountered in the show are either cold-hearted police officers or rebellious criminals like Chiana. * In the first appearance of Captain Jack Harkness in ''Series/DoctorWho'', the Doctor explains to Rose that in the future, humanity's Hat becomes being more or less everywhere and [[ReallyGetsAround having sex with more or less anything]]. The Time Lords might be described as a planet of very silly hats indeed (look up images some time and try not to giggle). They tend to be portrayed as very LawfulNeutral (with frequent forays into LawfulStupid) philosophers and scholars who one alien describes as a race of "ancient dusty senators" who were "peaceful to the point of indolence". The Doctor is very much an exception, being more of a ChaoticGood rebel and nonconformist, whom his people barely tolerate (though they sometimes need his help). There is some debate, however, on whether or not "Time Lord" is the same as "person from Gallifrey", and if this applies to the general populace of the planet or just the ruling class. Justified in the case of both the Daleks and Cybermen, who are created races rather than natural ones. The Daleks are genetically engineered to feel no emotions but hatred and xenophobia, explaining their desire to destroy all non-Dalek life in the universe. The Cybermen have also had their emotions removed, and seek to survive by assimilating other races Borg-style. Their origins vary, however, as the classic series had them as a humanoid race that slowly lost their individuality as they replaced more and more of their bodies with technology, while the new series introduced an AlternateUniverse version as the creation of one man, who intentionally removed their emotions so they could cope with the trauma of being "upgraded": they freak out and die if they remember who they are. * Along with these two are the Sontarans, a {{Proud Warrior Race\|Guy}} of clones made to be the best at fighting and conquering any planet that looks at them funny. They are so into the whole warrior thing that their form of punishment is forcing the perpetrator into a job as a ''nurse.'' * ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'' introduced the Shansheeth in the episode "Death of the Doctor". They resemble vultures and their hat is that they're the undertakers of the universe. Sarah Jane [[ArbitrarySkepticism didn't buy it at first.]] ** ''Series/DoctorWho'' also contains a ''literal'' reference to the Planet of the Hats in the episode "Partners in Crime" --> '''Donna''': I packed ages ago, just in case. 'Cause I thought, hot weather, cold weather, no weather... he goes anywhere, I've gotta be prepared. --> '''Doctor''': You've got a... a... hatbox?! --> '''Donna''': Planet of the Hats, I'm ready! * The Twelve Colonies of the new ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|Reimagined}}'' occasionally fall into this, in function if not in populace. Aerilon was the breadbasket of the colonies, and everyone from it is perceived to be some sort of hick (which is why Baltar adopted a more upper class accent). The Gemenese believe in the literal truth of scripture. Sagittarons are downtrodden, and mad about it. Taurons are stoic and traditional, and have a mafia equivalent (depending on your perspective, they're either [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Space Mexicans or Space People of the Mediterranean]]). Capricans have it made - their planet is the center of art, culture, science, and politics. There is, however, no physical look specific to the people of any planet. Hopefully, this means that SingleBiomePlanet is avoided. ** ''{{Caprica}}'' indicates that the title planet may have been a planet of actual hats, as well, at least 58 years before the Cylon genocide. * Used a ''lot'' in the StargateVerse: ''Series/StargateSG1'': * Particularly in the earlier episodes, nearly every planet the SG-1 team visits is based off of a particular human culture. It's a justified or at least handwaved by saying that the people were transplanted to that planet from Earth, and their culture has just been stagnating since. There are the Middle Ages, the Norse, the Greeks, and, of course, the ancient Egyptians, among others. Justified in that most of these planets were supposedly populated by people of earth who had been taken to that planet by one of the more highly-developed species - the Goa'uld and the Asgard being the typical abductors. * In the episode "2001", the Aschen are described as: "They don't get excited in general, General. It's like an entire planet of accountants." * The Nox, who, in addition to having extreme pacifism and irritating arrogance as their 'hat', were also a literal PlanetOfHats: They were nothing more than humans with BizarreAlienBiology and funny hats. * Earth also has its own hat: GenreSavvy. SG-1 is the most GenreSavvy of them all, but most other minor characters show at least some signs of this trait. We [[HumansByAnyOtherName Tau'ri]] have a technological hat, too-- instead of basing more advanced tech off more exotic principles, we use fundamentally basic equipment in increasingly refined ways. This is particularly noted in our [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter really spectacular projectile weapons]]. In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', the Wraith are a race consisting solely of warriors who live to eat. In the last season, Todd the Wraith mentions that feeding on humans is the driving force in their society with little beyond that. We did finally get a small glimpse of Wraith society in Season 5's "The Queen." Judging from that episode, the entire society is divided into Queens, who seem to spend their time intimidating one another, their male Advisors/Viziers, who seem to specialize in Magnificent Bastardry, and the possibly asexual Drones, whose duties apparently involve patrolling ships and standing guard (not unlike actual Soldier Drones in Bee colonies). All of them are in thrall to a prime Queen (called The Primary in this particular segment shown, but this may not be the case with every Wraith alliance). Exactly where the various Male Wraiths who serve as scientists and field commanders (who are also uniformly errhm, uniformed [[HellbentForLeather in leather]]) fit into this mix is never really shown. * ''Series/RedDwarf'' had Rimmerworld, a planet populated by Rimmer clones. The population idealized the core aspects of Rimmer... which happened to be cowardice, backstabbing, snottiness, arrogance, and hunger for power. Those that deviated were hunted down and executed. * The Neighborhood of Make-Believe segment of ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' deconstructed this trope, in a child-appropriate way, with alien visitors from the Planet Purple. Everyone from this planet has purple skin and hair, they dress in identical purple clothes and speak in a monotone voice, and all the boys are named Paul and all the girls are named Pauline. They were used to illustrate how boring the world would be if everyone was the same. * Largely averted in ''PowerRangers'', as alien cultures rarely seem to reflect aspects of earth society, the exception being planet Onyx. Its hat is the WildWest, existing largely as a place for the [[BadGuyBar Evil Monster Saloon]] to be located. ** An unusual example is Inquiris. Little is known about the planet, save that the natives, for whatever reason, cannot make declarative or exclamatory statements. Yes, a planet who's hat is literally a specific type of sentence. * The very basis of ''{{Sliders}}'', where our protagonists would land, I mean ''slide'', into a parallel Earth defined by a key difference with "real" Earth. * We don't see it, but while Illyria from ''Series/{{Angel}}'' is talking about all the places and things she has seen, she mentions [[ContinuityNod a planet made up entirely of shrimp]]. Of course, she "tired of that one quickly". [[/folder]] [[folder: Newspaper Comics ]] * ''BrewsterRockit: Space Guy!'' has had several. Possibly justified in the case of the Zombie Planet. * ''ComicStrip/PrinceValiant'' occasionally features Islands of Hats. When Val is on a sea voyage, it's somewhat common for his ship to get waylaid by supernatural means. One of two things then happens: either Val is put to some bizarre test, or he comes to an island where all the inhabitants share a single characteristic. [[/folder]] [[folder: Radio ]] * An episode of ''Radio/XMinusOne'' featured a reptilian alien coming to a mining planet for one of their workers (basically a milder version of a [[Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick Furian]]). The reptile alien's hat is that they CannotTellALie (although they don't have to say the whole truth either) while the "Furian's" hat is being HotBlooded. Lampshaded by the "Furian": "You know how they say we're all good at bar fights?" [[/folder]] [[folder: Tabletop]] * 4th Edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' splits the old traits of the elf race into two new races called "elves" and "eladrin". Because, you know, you can't have a single species wearing the intellectual hat and the close-to-nature hat at the same time. ** Humanity's hat in 4th edition is being driven, ambitious, TheDeterminator, and being able to learn things faster than other races because of their shorter lifespans. * The Stellar Nations of ''TabletopGame/StarDrive'' all have their own hats. * In ''{{GURPS}} Fantasy 2: The Madlands'', there is the region of Savringia. Thousands of years previously, two godlike entities decides to have a contest to see which one could create the most unlikely society. So they reduced themselves to energy and used that to create City-states of Hats. Currently there are about 30 but this is subject to change. There are the more ordinary Cities of Merchants, Tradesmen, and Priests, but there are also esoteric ones like Cities of Judges, Spiders, Grays, Silence, and the Fickle. ** From the same publisher comes GURPS Aliens and GURPS Fantasy Folk, which also fall under this trope. * Since the expansion of ''MagicTheGathering'''s focus to outside of Dominaria, most planes seem to follow this sort of pattern. For instance, Kamigawa resembles FeudalJapan in culture and aesthetics, Mirrodin is made almost entirely from metal, Innistrad is an darker version of UberWald, and Zendikar is an adventurer's paradise with constantly-shifting landscapes and an endless number of unexplored ruins. * Many worlds in ''{{TabletopGame/Warhammer 40000}}'' are characterised by this -- everyone from Cadia is a soldier, everyone from Krieg ([[GratuitousGerman German for "war"]]) is an exceptionally grim and dour soldier in a longcoat, everyone from Catachan is Rambo. To be fair, they come from a planet sitting at the gates to a NegativeSpaceWedgie from ''hell'', a (self-made) radioactive wasteland, and a [[SingleBiomePlanet Jungle]] DeathWorld full of carnivorous plants and even worse animals respectively. The hats are likely survival mechanisms. For Imperial hats, the Imperium is a basically a portmanteau of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church, the Third Reich and the U.S.S.R all turned UpToEleven, so everyone being the same is not so incredible. Eldar * Everyone from Ulthwe is a Psyker and a [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]]. * Everyone from Saim-Hann is an arrogant and aggressive barbarian on a jetbike. * Everyone from Alaitoc is a hooded loner with a sniper rifle. * Everyone from Biel-Tan is a disciplined and merciless, if highly specialized, warrior. * Everyone from Iyanden is a Wraithguard/Wraithlord. Space Marines * Every White Scar is a futuristic Mongol on a bike. * Every Blood Angel is a cultured warrior on the brink of falling to the [[AxCrazy Red Thirst]] and temporarily REALLY want to kill things or fall to the Black Rage and start thinking that they're Sanguinius. * Every Blood Raven is a {{Kleptomaniac\|Hero}}. * Every Ultramarine is the JackOfAllStats, Roman and follows the Codex Astartes fanatically. * Every Imperial Fist enjoys their own pain and is an expert siege engineer. * Every Salamander is a ScaryBlackMan with a flamethrower, hiding a GentleGiant underneath. * Every Raven Guard has a jetpack and lightning claws. * Every Space Wolf is a certified {{Badass}} Viking with a fondness for [[BigBadassWolf wolves]]. * Every Dark Angel is TheAtoner and sworn to secrecy about their chapter, apart from the ones who they're sworn to secrecy about, who they spend an enormous amount of time and resources hunting down... * Every Grey Knight is IncorruptiblePurePureness incarnate, psychic, and a religious fanatic whose faith is their chief weapon; and a daemon hunter. * Every Black Templar is, as [[KnightTemplar the name suggests]], a religious crusader. * Every Iron Hand is a cyborg {{Determinator}}, and have a right mechanical hands. Chaos Space Marines * Every World Eater is an incarnation of AxCrazy, and/or a BloodKnight. * Every Emperor's Child is horror with a killer guitar (apart from Fabius Bile, who is a MadScientist). * Every Death Guard is an implacable bag of walking filth. * Every sentient Thousand Son is a mad wizard in power armor. The others are all ghosts trapped in Space Marine armor. * Every Iron Warrior is a master siege engineer. * Every Night Lord is a psychotic serial killer akin to a ChaoticEvil Batman. * Every Alpha Legionnaire is an AmbiguouslyEvil MagnificentBastard. They are also all [[IAmSpartacus Alpharius.]] * Every Word Bearer is an insane and unrelenting dark priest. * Every Black Legionnaire is out for revenge for the death of Horus. For Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines, this is largely justified due to the fact that they all share genetic material with the primarch of their chapter - essentially, they have all been deliberately modified to be the same. Orks * Every Bad Moon has more expensive gear than other orks and is decked out with [[BlingOfWar flash.]] And they're teef fall and grow fast. * Every Blood Axe likes mimicking Imperial guard and is more orderly than your average ork. * Every Death Skull is a looter. * Every Evil Sun likes to go fast. * Every Goff is tougher than the average Ork. Not to mention smellier... * Every Snakebite is more primitive than any ork except ferals. Tau (technically not a hat for the whole culture, but every caste has a specific purpose, and you're born into your caste, with crossbreeding between castes illegal. To be fair, the ethereals are breeding the perfect warriors, builders, diplomats etc... and even though they've only had a few thousands years, they may even technically be different species by now.) * Every Ethereal is a ruler of some sort. * Every member of the Fire caste is a warrior. * Every member of the Earth caste is a builder/scientist/engineer. * Every member of the Water caste is a bureaucrat/diplomat/politician. * Every member of the Air caste is a pilot/navigator/starship crewmember. * Some of the Tau sept-worlds have specific headgear, too. Everyone from N'dras is brooding, everyone from Ke'l'shan refuses to give up, everyone from Fal'shia is a problem solver and the list goes on and on. * ''{{TabletopGame/Warhammer}}'' doesn't have Chapters, Legions or Craftworlds for obvious reasons, but they still have geographical boundaries or other distinctions that can dictate the headgear of the resident: Empire * All Marienbugers are [[TheDandy foppish, arrogant but]] [[BadassInANiceSuit irritatingly skilled dandies]]. * Everyone from Nuln is an engineer reeking of blackpowder. * All Reiklanders are skilled marksmen and consummate professional soldiers. * All Middenlander are hairy barbarians with a liking for [[DropTheHammer blunt weapons]]. * Hochlanders are accomplished hunters and crack shots with hunting rifles and longbows. Skaven - originally there were [[strike:four]] [[AscendedExtra five]] defined major clans: Skryre, the crazy techo-magical inventors; Moulder, the insane fleshcrafting breeders of monsters; Eshin, the cloaked espionage and assassination division; Pestilens, the gibbering worshipers of plague and decay; Mors, the now extremely powerful martial clan. A recent book on heraldry introduced scores of minor clans, each their their own (slightly smaller) hat. Vampire Counts - Each Vampire Count will be from one of several bloodlines: Von Carstein (classic Dracula-style vampires, although recently have been modeled to be a lot more bestial), Lahmians (pseudo-Egyptian female vampires. With cats), Blood Dragons (honour-bound martial powerhouses who exist only for combat and proving themselves), Strigoi (horribly deformed ghouls with no link to their humanity at all) and Necrarchs (Nosferatu-like intellectuals who are wizened but terrifyingly powerful when it comes to magic). * ''{{TabletopGame/Shadowrun}}'' 3rd edition features a section with members of each of the FiveRaces giving you a brief introduction to their race. Most of them start by acknowledging their race's hat, then going on to tear it apart as racist bullcrap. Except the dwarf, since their hat is being short. Dwarves also have a hat of being technical wizkids. The dwarf explaining this has trouble working out how to fix a toaster. * Shadowrun does a good job of deconstructing the hats/stereotypes for each race. For instance, the dwarf states that a lot of dwarves live underground because basement apartments are cheaper and they don't mind the low ceilings. Amusingly enough, the human points out how he's different from the other races by mentioning the other races' hats and stating how Humans don't have any of those. * ''{{TabletopGame/Traveller}}'' is a little more complex about this. Humans overall are as complex as, well, [[ShapedLikeItself humans]], though individual worlds often have a hat. The Aslan's hat is ProudWarriorRace, though arguably that quality is detailed well enough to take the hattiness away. The K'kree are Vegetarian Jihadists (yes, really). The Zhodani's hat is Psionics. * Nearly every [[MassiveRaceSelection race and culture]] in ''{{TabletopGame/Talislanta}}'' wears a hat to some degree or another: [[{{Roma}} Sarista]] are {{Lovable Rogue}}s, Danuvians are {{Action Girl}}s and {{Non Action Guy}}s, [[WingedHumanoid Muses]] are {{Cloudcuckoolander}}s, [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Yassan]] are {{Gadgeteer Genius}}es, [[CatGirl Jaka]] are [[TheHunter hunters]], and so on. The Gao are a notable exception...but that's because Gao-Din is less a culture proper than a mixed bag. * A vast majority of the various D-Bees in ''{{TabletopGame/Rifts}}'' fall neatly into this trope. The Simvan are all nomadic warriors with a psychic connection to animals, the Larmac are all lazy, the Naruni are all shrewd businessmen, etc. Occasionally aversions to this trope will be made in the case of individual [=NPCs=], but the description almost always includes the statement "Unlike most members of X's race..." * ''Space {{Munchkin}} The RPG'' had the Bumpy Foreheaded Alien race, which is actually a category for all races of this type in scifi. You chose (or randomly rolled) your one distinguishing racial feature, the concept that your culture is entirely devoted to and the concept from human culture your culture cannot understand ("We have no word for this thing you call 'modesty'") * Each {{Splat}} in the OldWorldOfDarkness represents a Hat. Taking ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' as an example, most players choose their clan/Hat from the Brujah (rebellion), Gangrel (wilderness), Malkavian (insanity), Nosferatu (secrecy), Toreador (art), Tremere (magic), or Ventrue (wealth). Being Hatless here brands you a Caitiff, giving you the outcast Hat. For all that the Clans are stated to be diverse (and some atypical examples are given as [[CharacterTemplate character templates]] in the splatbooks) canon characters are almost always at most slight variations on a Hat. * ''{{Exalted}}'': Amongst humans, this trope seems to come up in the Dragon-Blooded, both in term of caste-marks and in Houses. Amongst everyone else, you can expect a Dragon-King to be either kung-fu master seeking to rebuild his or her near-extinct race, or a mindless brute who kill anyone who gets into their territory. And a Jadeborn is either a Worker, Warrior, or an Artisan, as Autochthon willed them. [[/folder]] [[folder: Video Games ]] * The various alien races from ''StarControl'' come from different varieties of PlanetOfHats. The Spathi are [[DirtyCoward cowardly to the point of paranoia]], the Pkunk are hippy-dippy psychics, the Umgah are psychotic practical jokers, the Druuge are slavers, and there are ''multiple'' species of ScaryDogmaticAliens (Ilwrath, Mycon, Ur-Quan, Kohr-Ah) and [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]] (the Thraddash, the Shofixti, and the Yehat). ** The FanDiscontinuity sequel ''StarControl 3'' takes this to strange extremes, with many aliens having unbelievably specific Hats. The Owa, for instance, practice chivalry and know about antimatter science, and you never learn anything else about them. * The world in ''{{Pokemon}}'' seems to be a Planet of Hats as well -- much of culture and society revolves around Pokémon, from the economy (shops and huge department stores which sell only Pokémon-related goods) to the government. And since every town is surrounded by tall grass, it's technically impossible to even leave town without a Pokémon of your own. ** That said, [[ with the right tools...]] * {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in ''VideoGame/MassEffect''. Kaidan comments that WarriorPoet Wrex isn't exactly what he was expecting from a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]], to which Wrex [[DeadpanSnarker dryly replies]], "Because humans are all different, but every krogan is exactly alike." Kaidan hastily shuts up. Wrex has a response for Garrus when ''he'' confronts Wrex with the same observation: 'I suppose it was easier to unleash a genocide virus on the krogan when you thought we were all mindless monsters, turian.' * Of course, Garrus was just a detective in C-Sec before signing on with Shepard, so insinuating that he's at all responsible for the genophage (because he's a turian, and turians wronged krogans, so obviously...) is a mite hypocritical of Wrex. Or precisely his point. According to aliens, humanity's hat is that they're a bit of a loose cannon. Also, we seem to be evolving towards a monoculture with minimal racial differences due to globalization - we just haven't gotten quite as far as the other races, yet. The Batarians also see humans as the JerkAss (and vice versa), mostly due to competition over colonizing the same region of space. * As the story progresses, it is slowly becoming revealed that Humanity's "hat" is TheDeterminator. They use their ingenuity to adapt to meet whatever kind of challenge is thrown at them. Use a binding treaty to restrict the number of Dreadnoughts (essentially a ship built around a BFG) that they can utilize? They ''invent'' a new class of ship that is not bound by this restriction, yet can stand toe to toe against such ships (a reference to the US's circumventing the Washington Naval Treaty limiting the construction of battleships by developing aircraft carriers instead). Reaper invasion looming on the horizon? Humans were the only race that even ''thought'' of the idea of destroying a Mass Relay (pretty much everyone else basically assumed it would be impossible). The Illusive Man resurrected Shepard primarily because Shepard was "more than just a soldier". Shepard had become the best traits of humanity distilled into one person; whether Shepard was more on the JerkAss side of things or not, Shepard definitely embodies TheDeterminator, and thus was worth the extreme financial and technological investment to preserve. One of the defining traits of the Quarians is having a hard time shaking their hats: being basically space gypsies with a criminal streak. Unfortunately for most well-meaning members of the species, two populations tend to make it stick: Quarian criminals (who seem disproportionately common to other races because they get exiled from the flotilla) and over-zealous pilgrims (who don't care where they get useful technology from, so long as they can get done and get back home). There's a lot of subversion of this trope in the franchise too. One of the main features of ''Mass Effect'' was that although each race ''has'' a hat, the hats also tend to come off a lot. Turians are presented as militaristic and disciplined, yet you encounter drunken turian soldiers, turian scientists and janitors, and turian shopkeepers (one of whom is part of a RunningGag involving a human trying to return a purchase to his store.) Asari are presented as mediators and negotiators, yet we encounter asari commandos, strippers, pirates, slavers, and Machiavellian diplomats trying to manipulate Shepard to their own ends. Salarians are presented as spies and scientists, but we encounter salarian corporate officers, shopkeepers, mercenaries, and a group of impressively disciplined commandos. Krogans are supposed to be largely brainless brutes who dream of fighting in a massive horde yet we've encountered a mad scientist, a researcher, a mechanic, and a love-stricken poet. * Some individuals will actually subvert their race's hat to their own ends. One Krogan businessman on illium was extremely polite and well-spoken, but used his status as a Krogan for pure intimidation factor, an important asset on a world such as Illium. [[GoodIsNotNice A "series of polite calls"]], indeed. Dr Mordin Solus in the second game explains to Shepard that because most people assume Salarians are physically weak scientist types as opposed to Turians and Krogans who are specifically known for their military prowess, his enemies never see him coming. It doesn't hurt that he's ex-Special Tasks Group. (Actually, that can hurt quite a bit.) * Amusingly, the researcher actually wore the krogan hat proudly. Apparently, he had to [[KlingonPromotion kill the previous head researcher to gain the position]]. * Not to mention the elcor, whose hat is that they speak in monotone but communicate using a lot of very subtle body language that most others can't interpret (or see). As such, their TranslatorMicrobes account for this, establishing their tone ahead of time. Eventually you run into an elcor who has found a way around this: -->'''Asari:''' Wait. Did you hack your translator so you could control your kinetic language processing?\\ '''Elcor:''' With a sincerity such that skepticism would be deeply insulting: [[BlatantLies no]]. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' suggests humanity's hat is more likely to be discarded than other species. Mordin observes that most species tend to fit certain expectations--similar intelligence, biotic ability, behavior, what have you. While there are outliers in all species (geniuses and morons) humans tend to have more outliers than not. * Humans are seen as violent upstarts - some backstory material mentions that, although each race had internal wars, what the humans did to each other was regarded as especially hideous (even when compared to the Krogan). Also, humans are rapacious colonists and breeders. The games even do this for species with only one representative. The second game's DLC introduces the yahg, who Liara classifies as a primitive race of hulking brutes who are limited to their home world because they slaughtered the FirstContact team sent to establish terms with them. [[spoiler:The yahg we meet is ''the freaking [[InformationBroker Shadow Broker]]''.]] * Sten, from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' has this to say, which can actually sum up what {{BioWare}} thinks of this trope. -->'''Warden:''' "Tell me about the qunari." -->'''Sten:''' "No." -->'''Warden:''' "Well, that wasn't what I expected to hear." -->'''Sten:''' "Get used to disappointment. People are not simple. They cannot be defined for easy reference in the manner of: 'the elves are a lithe, pointy-eared people who excel at poverty.'" * ''VideoGame/{{Meteos}}'', despite being a puzzle game, has a good number of these. There's a planet for robots, insomniacs, stubborn miners, shapeshifters, timid jumpers, gangsters, telepaths, bees, ninjas, and ascended psychics each. * The computer game ''VideoGame/SpacewardHo'' gets honorable mention. It's a light turn-based strategy affair and doesn't have culture, but planet ownership is indicated by hats. A variety of cowboy hats worn by the actual planets. (Santa hats if the game is played on December 25th.) * In ''{{VideoGame/Spore}}'', when your race reaches the Space phase, they are assigned a hat based on their actions up until that point, which usually falls into the standard sci-fi racial norms. There's [[NobleSavage Shaman]], [[ProudMerchantRaceGuy Trader]], [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Warrior]], Diplomat, [[ChurchMilitant Zealot]], [[ProudScholarRaceGuy Scientist, Ecologist]], Bard, Knight and Wanderer. ** This actually makes a bit of sense: until space-travel, members of a race would have to fill all the economic niches necessary for survival; once there's easy star-travel, specialisation would be possible. See: finding a cheap toy made in the U.S., post-{globalism and Chinese capitalism}. * Earth has become this in ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'', with the hat being ThePowerOfFriendship. People even get significant discounts and increased political rights as they become popular. * In ''VideoGame/{{Startopia}}'', the alien races are each suited to one specific task -- OK, two related tasks for the blue-collar Salthogs. Karmarama are purple four-armed hippies, that plant seeds. Turraken are two-headed nerds, that are all scientists. Sirens are sexy winged humanoids, and the only aliens in the game with obvious gender dimorphism, and they "love" others. And so on. The most specialised are the Grekka Targ, who are solely employed to run your communications gear. The Greys are all experts in xenobiology after experimenting on all known races, so they run the sickbays. The Kasvagorians are all {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s, making them useful only as security guards. The Zedem Monks are, well, a race of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin monks]], whose hands have evolved to naturally be in the prayer gesture. The Polvakian Gem Slugs are all hedonistic aristocrats and an obvious parody of the [[StarWars Hutts]]. This is slightly subverted with the Greys, Salt Hogs, Grekka Targs, who also participate in defense along with the Gors. * In ''Chronomaster,'' you play a retired ''designer'' of [[PlanetOfHats Planets of Hats]]. The mini-universes you end up visiting include a hypermilitant world, a space casino, and a {{Cloudcuckooland}}. To top it off, one world that you never even see is implied to be pop Jung-themed, and solving an optional puzzle requires you to [[GenreSavvy warn somebody who's going there of the inevitable]] [[ShadowArchetype Evil Twin threat.]] * The world of ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'' is divided into xenophobic guilds, each with a specific craft, e.g. Weavers, Glassmakers, etc. Each guild's citizens seem to all bear the characteristics of their guild. For instance, the glassmakers value traits such as clarity and beauty, and have names like [[PunnyName Luscent Bottleblower]]. Somewhat justified in that the thing that defines them is what their community was formed on in the first place. * Gilneas in ''WorldOfWarcraft: Cataclysm'', even before worgen curse, seems to be a literal Nation of Hats. As far as you can see, everyone in the starting zone wears some kind of hat. And not just any hats, but [[NiceHat nice hats!]] Warcraft 2 had several examples of this trope among the human nations and orcish clans. Dalaran was all mages, Kul'Tiras was all sailors, Stromgarde was all warriors, Alterac was all snobs. The Twilight's Hammer was all end of the world cultists, the Stormreavers were all warlocks, Laughing Skull were all backstabbing traitors, Warsong could all do earsplitting battlecries, Bonechewers were all cannibals. In World of Warcraft, dwarves continue to fit this loosely. Ironforge dwarves are mostly smiths and disciplined warriors, Wildhammers are nature loving barbarians, and Dark Irons are all sneaky spies, thieves, assassins, and pyromaniacs. Cataclysm has provided many races a chance to get new hats. Night elves can now be magi, something that was long forbidden in their culture. Dwarves can now be shamans, providing stark contrast to their otherwise industrial nature (at least of the Bronzebeard variety). Orcs are seriously divided over whether or not Garrosh Hellscream is a good leader--even though the should fully embrace a blood-and-thunder warrior. There is still a tremendous amount of hat wearing though, and while not all races have true hats, they have collective niches, which both the Horde and the Alliance forming [[FiveRaces parts of Six Race]] gang. * In ''{{Bangai-O}}'', the heroes hail from Dan Star, a planet populated ''with [[HotBlooded hot-blooded]] men''. Since the game focuses entirely on shoot-em up action ([[ExcusePlot and little elaboration on the setting]]), one can only imagine what it must be like there. * The SpacePirates of ''{{VideoGame/Metroid}}'' are actually an alien species that has piracy and galactic domination as its hats. There's also the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Krikens]] of ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime:'' ''Hunters'', who exist to raze other worlds to the ground. * Used with human colonies in the ''{{VideoGame/Halo}}'' verse; Harvest consisted of American Midwestern colonists, and Reach was mostly Hungarian. [[InvokedTrope Done on purpose]] by the Covenant. The Prophets set up their society so that none of the various races could get by on their own. One character spends the whole of the novel ''Glasslands'' searching ancient texts to rediscover things like agriculture, to keep her world from total collapse. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Forerunners apparently are very fond of hats, and all of them have their own unique personal design]]. But really, averted. Forerunners are even physically divided via mutation into Lifeworkers (scientists), Warriors, Builders, etc. While each generally conform to a few generalities within their rate (warriors are stoic and honorable, Lifeworkers [[CaptainObvious like life]], etc.), they are very close to humans in their diversity. * The [[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]] is really bad about this, due in large part to the games' near lack of plot and characterization ([[NoPlotNoProblem though that's not necessarily bad]]). Every faction has a hat that fits every character of that race. The Terrans are high-tech xenophobes, the Split are a ProudWarriorRace, the Teladi are [[ProudMerchantRace Proud Merchant]] LizardFolk, the Boron are peace-loving [[FishPeople Squid People]], etc. * This was the objective of the Smithy Gang in ''SuperMarioRPG'': To turn the Mushroom Kingdom into a world filled with... WEAPONS! ** You also visit a couple Towns of Hats. Moleville is full of anthropomorphic moles who are all miners, Yo'ster Island has its entire populace (of Yoshis) obsessed with racing, Monstro Town is populated almost exclusively by monsters who have gone straight. But the weirdest has to be Marrymore, a town that is all about weddings. The only places of note in the entire town are a wedding chapel, and a fancy hotel for the honeymoon. * Several of the alien races in ''RatchetAndClank'' come with their own hats. The most notable of these are the Lombaxes, a race of badass gearheads who can barely sit next to a piece of machinery or weaponry for five minutes without trying to modify it in some way. * The United Powers League of ''{{Starcraft}}'' took some very drastic measures to ''turn'' Earth into one in order to remove all the differences that lead to wars and other conflicts. They made English the official language of the world, banned all the old religions in favor of a philosophy of the "divinity of mankind", and made cybernetics and genetic engineering illegal, among other things. Those who did not conform to these new standards [[FinalSolution were forcibly rounded up and executed, leading to a death toll of 400,000,000]]. Doran Routhe had 40,000 of these dissidents selected to be put into cryogenic sleep and sent off to colonize other worlds, leading the Terrans to populate the Koprulu Sector that serves as the main setting of the games. [[/folder]] [[folder:Web Animation]] * Parodied in the Flash-animation series ''[[ Burnt Face Man]]''. In the conclusion of episode 7, Bastard Man (yes, that's his name) [[Film/{{Spaceballs}} steals all the world's air with a vacuum cleaner]] (yes, he did that) and tries to sell it to a "planet of shifty characters". Everyone on the planet is wearing a large overcoat and hat or they are hidden in the shadows, the main shifty guy telling Bastard Man that they might not pay him for the air because they're all "a bit shifty". [[/folder]] [[folder:Web Comics]] * ''{{Melonpool}}'''s planet Melotia is a planet of couch potatoes. There's a BizarreAlienBiology explanation, with their antennae resonating to Earth television broadcast frequencies. * In ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'' the residents of the Dimension of Lame are all incredibly sweet, nice, rice cake-loving pacifists. The most deranged psychopath among them suffers an incredible bout of guilt after slightly bruising the toe of a murderous demon. Even the rules of the universe conform to this Hat: the sewers smell like flowers, fermentation doesn't exist, and all swear words are automatically replaced with a "bleep" noise. * ''{{Goats}}'''s Multiverse has entire Dimensions of Hats, such as Topeka Prime, the farm dimension, complete with [[ cow computers]]. Each dimension, however, has a pub. * ''[[ This strip]]'' directly discusses this trope. * ''{{Curvy}}'' [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this; every Earth explicitly has a gimmick, and ours is apparently "Boring World". * Parodied in [[ this]] episode of ''WebComic/MountainTime'', as the astronauts are all too eager to attach a gimmicky label to a newfound planet. * Some of the aliens seen in ''ComicBook/{{Buck Godot\|ZapGunForHire}}'' seem to fit this trope, with all individuals seen having similar behaviour or jobs. However, just as many are as varied as humans both in behaviour and appearance. * Subverted in ''QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger!'' Groonch the Gnorch, a parody of Worf from ''Franchise/StarTrek'', says that despite being raised with the ideals of another alien race, he strives to be the kind of noble warrior honored by "the Gnorch peoples." Quentyn asks, "Which peoples?" Groonch then learns, to his complete surprise, that the Gnorch species is rather culturally diverse and only a handful of ancient tribes were as warlike as he thought. His own outfit is an odd cultural mishmash. * Referenced, perhaps, in [[ this]] ''CwensQuest'' strip. Haaaaaaaats! * Used for some aliens in ''{{Spacetrawler}}''. The Eebs are all GadgeteerGenius telepaths with almost zero willpower. The Tornites are infamous for their bad fashion sense. * While not a ''planet,'' per se, the Jaeggers of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' have two hats. The first, is that they love fighting. The second is that... they love hats. No, really, they ''REALLY'' like hats. One Jaegger had an entire short story about him going to get a new hat. There's even ''rules'' on how the hat must be acquired- you can't just go into a store and buy one. [[/folder]] [[folder:Web Original]] * Blog/LimyaaelsFantasyRants discusses this in her ''Avoiding gimmick-worlds'' rant [[ here]]. * ''Literature/AssociatedSpace'' has Sarmatia, the planet of SpaceAmish nomadic horse warriors, and New Tau Ceti, the planet of religious fanatic sheep-men. * Played straight in some of the more comedic episodes of ''AHDotComTheSeries'', when (much like ''Franchise/StarTrek'') this week's timeline is simply a planet-sized TownWithADarkSecret. More usually averted, as after all all the planets featured are variants of Earth and often feature several power blocs facing off. * This is #3 of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s [[ 6 Sci-Fi Movie Conventions (That Need to Die)]]. [[/folder]] [[folder:Western Animation]] * The reverse of this is used in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Cancelled": apparently every planet except Earth has only one species, with "a planet of deer, a planet of Asians," etc. Earth was started billions of years ago with creatures from all over the universe on one planet---as part of an intergalactic RealityShow. ** A previous [[StandAloneEpisode Marklar]] of [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Marklar]] introduced the [[HumanoidAliens Marklar]] of [[PlanetOfHats Marklar]]. The [[HumanoidAliens Marklar]] used the [[ Marklar]] "Marklar" for all [[ Marklar]]. The [[HumanoidAliens Marklar]] spoke otherwise perfect [[AliensSpeakingEnglish Marklar]]. * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' would often use ridiculous examples, i.e. the Neutral planet, the cannibal planet, planet of human-hating robots. In "Love and Rocket", Dr. Zoidberg (himself from a planet of Crustacean SpaceJews) talks about the planets destroyed by [[ItMakesSenseInContext love]] [[ThePowerOfLove radiation]] why not, "including two gangster planets and a cowboy world." The opening of a certain episode sees the Planet Express crew return pantless and low on supplies from "the planet of the moochers." Don't forget the planet of [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon gigantic Feminists.]] The episode "The Duh-Vinci Code" introduces a planet of {{Insufferable Genius}}es. How smart were they? LeonardoDaVinci left because he was the ''dumbest'' person there. There's also a literal ''Universe of Hats''. Namely, when visiting the edge of our universe, the crew sees on the other side their identical alt-selfs, only they're all wearing cowboy hats. One episode has them visit a series of alternate-universes-in-boxes; most of these universes are one-shot-gag Hat Universes, such as the [[EverybodyMustGetStoned hippy universe]] and the [[EyeScream eyeless universe]]. What about the Yarn People of Nylar IV? Not to mention the Globetrotters, with their own planet, university, and algebra. * ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'' is very guilty of this. There are three planets where a great deal of the action takes place: Gigantion, the giant planet, is populated by massive Transformers obsessed with construction, aided by the tiny Mini-Cons. On Velocitron, the speed planet, the fastest rule and those who don't measure up are left in the dust. And on the unnamed Jungle Planet, might doesn't ''make'' right so much as it ''is'' right. As if Cybertron, a planet populated by giant transforming robots, wasn't enough of a hat planet in its own right. (Admittedly, "giant transforming robot" is a pretty cool hat.) As well, ''TransformersTheMovie'' had the planet Junk, where a race of robots made of scrap live; their entire culture is based on [[AliensStealCable TV and radio transmissions from Earth]], with the result that they say things like "Stop, thief! No welcome wagon 'hello stranger' with that new coffee flavor for you!". This was homaged in the LiveActionAdaptation where Optimus Prime claimed the Autobots learned to speak English 'from your Internet'. Pretty much every non-Transformer alien planet in ''TransformersGeneration1'' was made of hat. Honorable mention to Earth, where although humans filled a variety of social roles, they almost all wore construction worker hard hats. ** Likewise, ''Anime/TransformersHeadmasters'' had a planet of humans innately in touch with nature, and a pirate planet. * Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', where the robots have wildly different cultures, preferences, and interests. And their politics are just as messed up as ours. * One episode of ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' had two feuding Towns of Hats used for their Good Samaritan retelling. One town wore shoes and boots on their heads, and the other wore pots. The purpose was to show how people are divided by trivial differences, a rare acknowledgment of the silliness of Planets of Hats. * A three-part ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' episode involves the protagonists being taken to a city of hats. There, everyone is ... a hat. -->[[ThemeTune "They're porkpie and the fez, fez, fez, fez, fez!"]] * ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' parodies this; the Irken Empire includes such ridiculous territories as "Conventia, the Convention Hall Planet" and "Foodcourtia," a planet of nothing but restaurants. Justified because these planets don't seem to actually start out this way: one episode shows the Tallests after the conquest of the planet Blorch, deciding to make it a "parking garage planet" ''literally'' on the spot. The Irkens themselves are a culture based on ''height''. Dib points out how stupid this is. Another example might be the Planet Jackers, whose culture seems to revolve around collecting new planets to throw into their sun. ** [[{{Fanon}} Fans generally assume]] that the Vortians were essentially a species of nothing but scientists. This is never made explicit on the show, but it ''is'' plausible, as they are almost always mentioned in relation to some sort of technological achievement. The only two important Vort characters, [[LaResistance Lard Nar]] and [[TheQuisling Prisoner 777]], were both inventors. * In ''{{Megas XLR}}'', Jamie mentions to Kiva to take them to the "planet of the Space Amazons", to which Kiva replies "I'm from the future, not a comic book!". Though the post credits sequence seems to suggest such a planet exists... * The titular anthropomorphic ducks of ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyDucks'' come from a planet whose entire culture revolves around hockey. Yes, seriously. * Most episodes of ''SuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' featured Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach travelling to a different world built around a particular theme (e.g., karate, rock-n-roll, cowboys, rap). Also, Bowser and his minions always seemed to conform to the "hat" of the world, appearing as a different stock villain in each episode. * ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'' had that one planet inhabited by people that are easily startled. -->'''People:''' AAARGH! Something green! AAARGH! Something not green! -->'''[=PsyCrow=]:''' I love this planet. * ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' had some fun with this trope in one episode, where our hero visits the planet Mertz, where every single person is a superhero (complete with everyone having a totally unnecessary secret identity.) There is only one person on the planet without super powers, whose name is actually [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Ordinary Guy.]] Everyone else spends their entire lives trying to rescue him from peril (which in practice means gigantic, city-smashing brawls over who gets to help him cross the street.) Needless to say, Ordinary Guy's life sucks. Eventually, he snaps and becomes the planet's first and only supervillain. This gives him an outlet for his rage, and gives the heroes some actual evil to fight, making everyone much happier. ** An absolutely '''literal''' version of this trope is used as well: Two episodes featured aliens from a planet where all aliens actually ''are'' hats, who hop onto other beings' heads to control them. * ''[[KaputAndZosky Kaput & Zösky]]'' is a cartoon series based entirely on Planets of Hats. The titular characters wander from planet to planet, hoping to find one where the population's hats make them easy to conquer and pleasant to rule. * ''TheEggs'' follows the colourful adventures of the four anthropomorphic egg college graduates as they continue their mission through the Loonyverse to search out valuable new sounds for their music-loving home planet of Kazoo. Not only is Kazoo a Planet of the Hats (the hat being music), but every world they visit seems to have its own specific hat. * The Yolkians in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'' are all basically gobs of slime with eyes contained in a metallic, robotic "skin", featuring a glass upper half for sight and a bottom half fully electronic with a hovering mechanism and arms. * ''RobTheRobot''. Dammit, that show has a planet for practically every ''theme''. * On ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'', we had Rhizome, a planet of [[GranolaGirl peace-loving vegetarians]], and mention is made of a "planet of widows and orphans". * In ''WesternAnimation/TitanMaximum'', Eris is inhabited solely by rednecks and Mercury by old people. Neptune is a gigantic winter resort, with a lone steam-in-a-can production facility. * In ''FairlyOddparents'', [[RunningGag sometimes]] a character going to Fairy World will end up in other places first, such as Dairy World and Scary World (ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin). * An episode of AmericanDad! had Roger claim that his BizarreAlienBiology made it so that everyone in his species has to be a {{Jerkass}} or else they'll ''die''. [[/folder]] [[folder:Other]] * ''ThePoint!'' is a fable which Music/HarryNilsson used to make an entire soundtrack. It was later adapted into an animated film and screenplay using the soundtrack. The entire fable revolved around a planet on which everything had a point on it, with the sole exception of the main character. He is shunned as a result. [[spoiler:Ironically at the end, the entire world becomes devoid of points with the exception of the main character, who grows a point.]] * Some scientists argue that [[HumansThroughAlienEyes through alien eyes, Earth could be seen as a planet of hats]] - aliens would first notice all common traits of humans and ignore all the differences. * Many exoplanets have a designation that starts with HAT. * Humans tend to stereotype based on region, no matter how diverse a particular region may actually be. The "South" in the United States, for example, or any major metropolitan area. [[/folder]]	eng	28b5c771-6ad3-4c50-9665-b66e3236dfc7	http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/folderizer.php?target=Main.PlanetOfHats
How do we reconcile YouTube's official hard-line position on copyright with the reality that 90% of the content on their site is clearly copyrighted and clearly used without permission? It seems YouTube has an awfully convenient "don't ask, don't tell" policy-- they make no effort to verify that the uploaded content is either original content or fair use. The copyrighted content stays up until the copyright owner complains. Then, and only then, is it removed. Today's lesson, then, is be careful what you ask for. At the time, I just assumed that YouTube would never be able to resolve this problem through technology. The idea that you could somehow fingerprint every user-created uploaded video against every piece of copyrighted video ever created was so laughable to me that I wrote it off as impossible. A few days ago I uploaded a small clip from the movie Better Off Dead to YouTube, in order to use it in the Go That Way, Really Fast blog entry. This is quintessential fair use: a tiny excerpt of the movie, presented in the context of a larger blog entry. So far, so good. But then I uploaded a small clip from a different movie that I'm planning to use in another, future blog entry. Within an hour of uploading it, I received this email: Dear {username}, Your video, {title}, may have content that is owned or licensed by {company}. This 90 second clip is from a recent movie. Not a hugely popular movie, mind you, but a movie you've probably heard of. This email both fascinated and horrified me. How did they match a random, weirdly cropped (thanks, Windows Movie Maker) clip from the middle of a non-blockbuster movie within an hour of me uploading it? This had to be some kind of automated process that checks uploaded user content against every piece of copyrighted content ever created (or the top n subset thereof), exactly the kind that I thought was impossible. I was caught by surprise one day when I received an automated email from YouTube informing me that my video had a music rights issue and it was removed from the site. I didn't really care. Then a car commercial parody I made (arguably one of my better videos) was taken down because I used an unlicensed song. That pissed me off. I couldn't easily go back and re-edit the video to remove the song, as the source media had long since been archived in a shoebox somewhere. And I couldn't simply re-upload the video, as it got identified and taken down every time. I needed to find a way to outsmart the fingerprinter. I was angry and I had a lot of free time. Not a good combination. I racked my brain trying to think of every possible audio manipulation that might get by the fingerprinter. I came up with an almost-scientific method for testing each modification, and I got to work. We compare each upload against all the reference files in our database. This heat map is going to show you how the brain of this system works. Here we can see the reference file being compared to the user generated content. The system compares every moment of one to the other to see if there's a match. This means we can identify a match even if the copy uses just a portion of the original file, plays it in slow motion, and has degraded audio or video. The scale and speed of this system is truly breathtaking -- we're not just talking about a few videos, we're talking about over 100 years of video every day between new uploads and the legacy scans we regularly do across all of the content on the site. And when we compare those 100 years of video, we're comparing it against millions of reference files in our database. It'd be like 36,000 people staring at 36,000 monitors each and every day without as much as a coffee break. I have to admit that I'm astounded by the scope, scale, and sheer effectiveness of YouTube's new copyright detection system that I thought was impossible! Seriously, watch the TED talk. It's not long. The more I researched YouTube's video identification tool, the more I realized that resistance is futile. It's so good that the only way to defeat it is by degrading your audio and video so much that you have effectively ruined it. And when it comes to copyright violations, if you can achieve mutually assured destruction, then you have won. Absolutely and unconditionally. This is an outcome so incredible I am still having trouble believing it. But I have the automatically blocked uploads to prove it. Now, I am in no way proposing that copyright is something we should be trying to defeat or work around. I suppose I was just used to the laissez faire status quo on YouTube, and the idea of a video copyright detection system this effective was completely beyond the pale. My hat is off to the engineers at Google who came up with this system. They aren't the bad guys here; they offer some rather sane alternatives when copyright matches are found: If Content ID identifies a match between a user upload and material in the reference library, it applies the usage policy designated by the content owner. The usage policy tells the system what to do with the video. Matches can be to only the audio portion of an upload, the video portion only, or both. There are three usage policies -- Block, Track or Monetize. If a rights owner specifies a Block policy, the video will not be viewable on YouTube. If the rights owner specifies a Track policy, the video will continue to be made available on YouTube and the rights owner will receive information about the video, such as how many views it receives. For a Monetize policy, the video will continue to be available on YouTube and ads will appear in conjunction with the video. The policies can be region-specific, so a content owner can allow a particular piece of material in one country and block the material in another. Although the 90 second clip I uploaded is clearly copyrighted content -- I would never dispute that -- my intent is not to facilitate illegal use, but to "quote" the movie scene as part of a larger blog entry. YouTube does provide recourse for uploaders; they make it easy to file a dispute once the content is flagged as copyrighted. So I dutifully filled out the dispute form, indicating that I felt I had a reasonable claim of fair use. Unfortunately, my fair use claim was denied without explanation by the copyright holder. While we're clear on 3 and 4, items 1 and 2 are hazy in a mashup. This would definitely be transformative, and I like to think that I'm writing for the erudition of myself and others, not merely to entertain people. I uploaded with the intent of the video being viewed through a blog entry, with YouTube as the content host only. But it was still 90 seconds of the movie viewable on YouTube by anyone, context free. So I'm torn. On one hand, this is an insanely impressive technological coup. The idea that YouTube can (with the assistance of the copyright holders) really validate every minute of uploaded video against every minute of every major copyrighted work is unfathomable to me. When YouTube promised to do this to placate copyright owners, I was sure they were delaying for time. But much to my fair-use-loving dismay, they've actually gone and built the damn thing -- and it works. In the context of your blog post, yes, fair use. It's a small clip out of an editorial. In the context of youtube -- which is the context you were uploading the clip to, after all -- it's just a 90 second clip from their movie. No editorial, it's the entire thing. Someone browsing youtube who finds it will have no idea that there was a blog connected to it. For Fair Use protection, you'd have to make a video of someone reading your blog post, with the movie at the appropriate time. Part of the problem, of course, is that the copyright industry wishes to erode fair use. In a world where fair use was actually properly legislated, DVDs would have been required to have a quoting back door to the copy protection. Instead the presumption is of copyright violation, and fair use must be fought for every single time. Legalities aside, I believe the copyright holders are repeating the mistakes made by the music industry when dealing with Napster. By focusing on restricting access to content rather than propagation of it, they might make a few extra bucks here and there but overall they are leaving money on the table. Had they embraced Napster and turned it into the equivalent of Amazon MP3s, they would have made unimaginable amounts of money in $1 song downloads. Yes, there would still have been unauthorized sharing, but a lot of people, myself included, would rather pay the $1 for a safe and unencumbered download than deal with all the hassles of trying to get a song for free. One of my videos < was similarly tagged as well which astonished me as the song is in the background coming over tinny speakers and the audio was converted to lowest quality mono possible to reduce file size. The technological feat is definitely impressive and beyond my ability to imagine. The direction we are headed is a lose-lose in the long run for everyone. "Unfortunately, my fair use claim was denied without explanation by the copyright holder." What part of copyright law gives copyright holders the right to determine if uses are fair? None I know of. Of course, that's a large part of the point; if copyright holders controlled fair use, we'd never see critical reviews, parody, satire, etc. If only YouTube would invest as much R&D funding in eliminating stupid comments. The problem here is context. You can't just use copyrighted material in articles like this -- no matter how short -- unless you are commenting on the copyrighted material itself. (Or parodying, but that wouldn't apply here.) If your blog entry was a review of Better Off Dead, you could invoke Fair Use and use excerpts from the film -- provided your original contribution to the article was substantially greater than the amount contributed by the work you excerpted. (For example, your review was 90% original material by you, and only 10% clips from the movie.) But if you're just using the clip to make a point about something else, that usage is subject to copyright law, and it's not allowed without an agreement between you and the copyright holder. Along those same lines, every time you see a cartoon inserted into a Powerpoint presentation, that kind of thing is subject to copyright. Artists often don't receive compensation for it, but they're still entitled to copyright for the use of their work. Fair Use is not just something you can claim because you only infringed on copyright a little bit. I know people feel very passionately about this subject, but this is the way the law works, no matter how many people misunderstand or disregard it. I've been trying to explain this to content promoters for a while, if the news can sum up a story in 70 seconds, why do you think you need 300? "The idea that YouTube can (with the assistance of the copyright holders) really validate every minute of uploaded video against every minute of every major copyrighted work is unfathomable to me." Close, but not really. YouTube matches uploads against fingerprint files uploaded to (or generated from video files uploaded to) YouTube. Not all copyrighted content, just content uploaded to YouTube by a YouTube content provider. How can anybody [youtube\|copyright holder, etc] determine between what is Fair Use and what is one in a string of sixty 90-second clips that in total constitute the entirety* of a 1h30min movie disguised as fair use? Your 90-second clip is uploaded without context (ie. it's uploaded without reference to your blog, which is what really constitutes the Fair Use). And as other mentioned, it's only the clips that have been added by copyright holders that are protected (so it's not matching against infinity, but only those that wish to seek protection). These clips exists in YouTube by the bucket, movies, tv-shows, you name it. So the solution to the legal conflict is that you, the user, are guilty until you can prove or plead your innocence. And the plaintiff gets to play the judge? Your situation is probably covered by fair use and your free speech rights are being abused by a copyright holder. The only person who should ever be allowed to decide if it is fair use is a judge in a court room, not the person who doesn't want you to use their content. The problem with fair use and YouTube is, as at least one commenter above pointed out, that something that is a fair use on your site, after you embed it, may not be on YouTube's site. However, I have to agree with others here, the copyright holder shouldn't get to decide what is and is not a fair use. I agree YouTube had cause to block the video but, after you made a fair use claim I think it should have been on the copyright holder to either file a proper DMCA notice or take the matter into court. As it sits right now, rightsholders can rely on the content ID system to shut down fair uses of their work and not expose themselves as they would with a DMCA notice. I'm very impressed with the YouTube system and how they favor creator choice, but there does need to be some balance. Actually YT allows hiding movies from public list, so the content wouldn't be shared context free. It would be only available to people, who you want to share it with. But does it change anything for Youtube? Btw, I'm surprised with your being surprised, as Sony Ericsson has been including their TrackID app for few good years now. Surely same process applied to video is far more complex, but let's not compare Gracenote (acquired by Sony) with Youtube. An interesting side note: I received a Content ID Match warning about a clip I uploaded from a very obscure 1990 episode of Saturday Night Live that's never been online in any form -- ripped, by me, from a VHS recording. This episode simply didn't exist online. This means that media companies are not only sending YouTube reference files for current released work, but also massive archives of legacy video they've digitized, but never released online. I want to see those archives! Firstly, it's not (quite) the copyright holder deciding what's fair use or not. In this case it is YouTube and it is perfectly reasonable for them to 'be on the safe side'. As Miguel said, the easiest thing to do is host the video elsewhere, even on an Amazon S3 cloud if you don't have your own host. The difference is that you actually have to pay for it (and there's a track-back to you, or at least your credit card, if the copyright holder wants to take action). Google is using digital and analog fingerprinting technology for both audio and video contents. Audio is easier, but video is doable as well. It's a large work, but Google wants to do it anyways, they are digitizing every single movie, tv show, even every single second of every single TV channel ever broadcast. They gather all DVDs released, even capture from VHS and stuff like that. Eventually, Google could release ALL OF IT onto Youtube and Google TV, provided that Google sorts out the copyright laws or copyright licencing systems. Youtube would like all copyright holders to want to allow display of all these videos and simply monetize the views with overlay ads. Youtube is working hard to show to copyright holders that they gain more from allowing unlimited use on Youtube of their contents, even to officially release all the movies, tv shows and more onto Youtube and just monetize it. Colbert and John Stewart wouldn't be so popular today if it wasn't for Youtube making them extremely popular in 2006-2007 and Viacom has been loosing out on possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in overlay advertising these past 3 years by not allowing Youtube to feature all of the episodes and clips from these shows. What if someone were to create a video sharing website that required users to accept a ToS every time they uploaded a video that contracted the legal burden of copyrights entirely onto the uploader rather than the host. You know the content in Public Domain has actually decreased* in the last few decades? It's appalling. But there are some who put such content matching technologies to Good Use. The fine people at MusicBrainz have a software (Picard), which creates a fingerprint of a music file and then checks it against an online database to identify the metadata. It works fairly well even with poor quality MP3 files, but the DB doesn't seem very complete. Happened to me, too. Except that the clip in question was a parody containing a few short segments from various movies -- a clear case of fair use. But there wasn't much I could do since they didn't identify the content I was supposedly infringing upon (as required be the DMCA Safe Harbor provisions), and I didn't want to lawyer up... Scott Smitelli here, the author or "Fun with YouTube's Audio Content ID System." There are a few interesting points worth mentioning about YouTube's implementation. Granted, some of these things may have changed (the original research is a year and a half old at this point) but these facts held true at one point. First, I discovered that by disputing a copyright claim, your video immediately becomes unblocked/unmuted/un-whatever'd until the owner of the material weighs in. In my case, I uploaded a full, unmodified copy of Stairway to Heaven, which was naturally blocked as matching content from WMG, I believe. I disputed the claim over a year ago, and to this day it is still awaiting a response from the rights holder. My guess is that some of these larger media behemoths have a huge backlog of disputes that they never get through. Secondly, the audio and video detectors seem to work independently. I learned firsthand from a YouTube employee that the audio matching is performed by a system created by Audible Magic, whereas the video matching was built in-house by Google. It's difficult to determine which system is actually doing the match for movies and TV shows. Assuming your content is being matched by the video portion of the detector, it was at one point possible to thwart the system by flipping the video horizontally -- such that text is mirror-imaged and people seem to drive their cars on the wrong side of the road. The YouTube employee I spoke with acknowledged that fact, and said that the rights holders had expressed concern about the loophole. Ultimately, the rationale was that it took too much effort for most users to modify videos in that way, and that "nobody wanted to watch a video that had been flipped," so the weakness stayed. You could also invert all the colors to get past the system. It looked pretty godawful, but a quick Control+Command+Option+8 on a Mac would invert the screen and make the video colors normal, albeit slightly darker than you would expect. Whether those tricks still work today, I'm not sure. But that is the way it once was. It's tough to do any real substantive research on YouTube's guts, because they're so opaque about announcing changes to the system (and understandably so). I'd love to share everything I've learned with anybody who was interested. I'm parallax AT csh DOT rit DOT edu. I'm no expert by any means, but I do have a passion for this kind of thing. I try not to have any overt opinions on the state of copyright in this country, and I have nothing against fingerprinting software in general. It's a tool which is neither good nor evil. It's all in how you choose to use it. I was unable to upload my wedding video to You Tube. It contained Beethoven's 9th symphony. Ironically, we choose this piece from a list of material provided by the hotel (Las Vegas) that was not copyright protected. I submitted a dispute with You Tube, but it was rejected. Since I was unable to use You Tube to share this video with family and friends, I have since become embittered with You Tube and do not have much faith other similar services. It seems the root of the problem is deeper than these sites are willing to address. @Asperous - that's bologna. If you're a big act, the labels, studios, or shareholders are taking more of the pie than you are. If you're a small act, you NEED to worry more about obscurity than piracy - giving away your product will make you more money by growing your fan base. And your history is wrong as well. American Copyright was _allowed_, after much debate, by the framers of the Constitution _as a way to increase the public domain_. There is a way to beat YouTube's content system... though it really depends on the policies set into place by the copyright holder. If they block based only on the audio match, you're screwed, but most movie/tv media doesn't. Flip the video and typically you are good to go. Simple flip script and people can enjoy it normally... yes, it's that simple to bypass. It's still very impressive and I wouldn't be surprised if they fixed that flip trick soon enough. @Kevin Richard: The heck? No one holds the copyright on that. It's expired, dated, gone, free for all use by whoever wants it. YouTube messed up or some douchey company laid a false claim. I live in eastern europe and I needed to personally speak to two artists that I like in order to get some of their music. For stupid legal reasons, Amazon MP3 and iTunes can't work here yet. I'd freaking love to have Hulu or at least to be able to watch the new video from some popular artist on YouTube but no, they restrict it only to the US or wherever. So for popular artists and TV shows, I can either order expensive shows in dvd format online (with large shipping costs), or use bittorrent. For minor content makers that are not popular on trackers I have to personally ask them to send me copies. Zephyr14 on September 17, 2010 10:49 PM @MayhemMatthew - Even though the score of the 9th symphony is long out of copyright, recordings of individual performances are still subject to copyright. So unless the hotel hired their own orchestra and chorus to perform the piece (and then released the performance into the public domain), it is still likely subject to someone's copyright, which is probably what happened here. It's not as if Youtube is your only option. Just host the video elsewhere, possibly on your own site. Use html5 <video> tags to embed it. If you ever get a copyrights claim you will be able to properly defend yourself the way you should. Some time ago I wrote a blog post about this matter. It's interesting that the Italian Authority for artistic intellectual property (SIAE) reached a deal for sharing part of the revenues coming from copyrighted contents with artists, making it more affordable for them to give free uploadability on YouTube. If the video strengthens your competitor, you block it ! It's unethical and indeed a sucking strategy :( Viki-the-techie.blogspot.com on September 18, 2010 11:56 PM The problem I have with YouTube here is that their behaviour reinforces the notion that copyright is always held by large media companies, and infringed by individuals. To be fair to them, this is far and away the biggest use case on their service. But--as your experience shows--the dice are loaded to favour this balance. As an individual, Google makes it hard for you to appeal their decisions; and they also make it hard for individuals to stake their own copyright claims. YouTube may be a popular tool, but the further Google goes down this path, the less populist it becomes. As an individual, you have to remember that you are not their customer, and that your rights are subordinate to the entities that are. You are absolutely correct. You Tube thought the music was from an individual recording which it specified. However, after I listened to that recording, which I found on You Tube, it was obviously not a direct match. The list of available music provided by the hotel was all public domain. The worst aspect of this was the dispute process. It seems all the other failings were at least reasonably founded. You may not have a problem with copyright law - but it is a problem, its amoral and wrong and will need to be severely changed, or perhaps even abolished ("How do we make sick amounts of insane money then?" "Get a job") Meanwhile, someone will invent a system to encrypt video, so as to hide it from big brothers scanners. I see the internet as a dark place when the media groups jump in the wagon and start making all the same mistakes I've seen made on television. First things first, the world is global. Internet is global. Content should not be copyright-hold on a country basis. Europe has been importing Hollywood latests videos and shows 6 to 12 month latter with the sole premise of seeing if it's a hit in the US. If it's a success the show is gonna cost more. Thats hit. Solo. Well, this sure set up a fast lane for piracy. I do get crossed when I see a YouTube video with the nagging "video not available in your country". There is absolutely no excuse for a global media corporation, these days, to exclude a video from a certain audience based on geographical criteria (wars and other bans aside). YouTube sure is going fast in one direction. I just don't know if I like the direction that much. I do understand the issue of copyright but don't forget the Viacom issue where the copy-holder is both depending on YouTube (by leaking copyright videos) and then suing the very own videos that had been leaked... Well on one side I am worried that this will be applied to political speech or other "public figure embarassements". Just file for copyright infringement and snap! Your video of the Prime Minister insulting [women\|immigrants\|judges] might be taken down (I'm not talking about civilized countries here, but places like this: ). On the other hand, do you think this would give a huge boost to research towards sub-optimal voice and "conversation topic" recognition? For example, suppose you record your lecturer talking about Hegel. You upload the video to youtube and it gets "recognized" by matching speech to their library. It can be tagged automatically, etc. Furthermore, the other parts of the conversation can become a new baseline to match philosophy videos, and hence grow a "semantic" base. That would be even a nicer feat. Digital video watermarking has been around for a long time. I would imagine that most digital video is now watermarked. If so, Youtube probably just detected the presence of a watermark, and determined that the video was not user generated. Youtube could check for the presence of a watermark using only a couple of frames of video. Kodak is currently the only company to publicly announce and demonstrate (at ShoWest in March 2001) that its watermarking technique can hold up in real-world testing; that is, the watermark can survive the actual process of capturing a projected movie with a camcorder. Moreover, the amplitude of the Kodak watermark is such that it is invisible to the viewer in the theater, thus maintaining the image quality that is such an important part of the movie-going experience. In the ShoWest demo, 16 bits of information were embedded in each frame of the movie, and it took less than 15 frames (0.5 sec) of captured video to extract the 16 bits with 100% reliability. Often, the watermark was successfully extracted using fewer than 15 frames, sometimes only one or two frames. Hey Jeff, interesting article. I do not know how youtube specifically does this, but a standard technique for this sort of thing is to treat points in the video/audio sample as points in a several-hundred-dimension vector space. You then need a way to rapidly identify when any sample point is close to any of the millions of data points in that vector space. The search algorithm needs to be optimized for rapidly finding matches without computing the distance metric millions or billions of times, particularly since the query is likely to be "junk", ie, no match. If you or your readers are interested in a gentle introduction to some of the math involved in this kind of search, I did a series of blog entries on it a few years ago. Or, see the paper I based this series on for a less gentle introduction: Copyright law, and by extension fair use protection only applies when you're up in court accused of copyright violation. It can't be used to force Youtube to host a clip for you. You are free to host the clip on your own website if you like, but then you do run the risk of the copyright holder suing you for copyright violation (if they found out that you'd done so). Even then you can then choose to ignore any "cease and desist" letters you receive if you like, and rely on the copyright holder either not pursuing the case because the damages are likely to be minimal, or following that you can hope that your "fair use" defense wins in court. Even if your "fair use" argument looks rock-solid you could still, however, lose (contrariwise even if your argument was feeble you might, with good lawyers and through a technicality, win). Human laws are radically different beasts to the natural laws of physics, relying as they do on the subjective judgment of people, even though as engineers we like to think that they are both kind of the same. And of course our criminal and civil laws actively need to be applied (as opposed to say, the second law of thermodynamics: the entropy of closed systems never decreases, regardless of whether anyone is actually paying attention to the system in question or serving it with injunctions.) I'm with the dozens of people who ask, "Why does the content owner get to decide if your use is 'fair use,'" You are the one at risk if your use isn't deemed fair use, so if you are comfortable that you could prove fair use if you needed to that should end it. I would think YouTube would have discharged any obligation it had when it informed you its automated system thought the clip might be a violation. This is an interesting question. Since you suggested the clip usage would be fair use embedded on your blog, but not necessarily freely available on Youtube, did you try setting it to "private" on that site, but embedded on your blog? Is it even possible to embed a private video on another site? What you are doing is clear cut fair use. For the copyright holder to disregard your fair use dispute to their original automated DMCA taken down (which you then disputed through that form) they are in violation of the law. People need to fight back against the content syndicates. It's absolutely imperative to defend our fair use rights. The DMCA is one of the worst laws passed regarding technology and the internet as a whole and it was bought and paid for the by the RIAA and MPAA. While I hope it gets overturned at some point in the future currently the only option to fight back is to use the letter of the law against the companies that wanted the law in the first place. YouTube will need to soften this, lest they lose their place on the net. However I agree with Jeff that this isn't really their fault it's the copyright holders that don't realize the world is changing. Yes, in your case is indeed a case of fair usage. If you look it from the side of the original content owner, he might be getting request from all over the world both legitimate and ill legitimate. Why should he have someone to look into each request and enable them case by case basis? Sarath Ramachandran on September 24, 2010 5:37 AM I can think of a method that might be able to circumvent the detection but I like youtube so I'm not sure I would want people to be able to easily do this. Tell me what techniques you've tried and I'll tell you if it is the one I'm thinking of. " " Why should a 1 minute news clip get copyright protection. Is the commentary really so valuable and insightful to deserve protection? I don't believe their can be much substance given within 1 minute of news. Blocking content on a region based criteria sucks for everyone not living in the US. Why can you guys watch some video clips and we can't? We just have to download them illegally? And the fingerprinting does have its use too. Take Last.fm. Every song I have in my library gets "scrobbled" after which its smart enough to identify the composer & song name. A great way to keep track of what you're playing. It was only a matter of time until this can be done for videos. I'm wondering what exactly you mean by saying your dispute was rejected. As far as I know, the only way a video can be taken down again after disputing the automated Content ID is by filing a DMCA notice, in which case there would be a strike against your account. In that case, you should be able to file DMCA counter-notice and get it restored. That might even work if there is no strike, though I'm not completely sure about that. For anyone who wants to know more about fair use and copyright disputes on YouTube, I actually run a website providing tutorials about these issues: So something will be done again. If you want to do justice have to try to track who uses your shots and you judge them. The Internet will not solve it. Plagiarism on the Internet is something so commonplace that I do not think we will manage to eradicate it. rca ieftin 2011 masini on October 6, 2010 7:53 AM @Matt As Cory Doctorow puts it: Computers are devices for copying bits and it's never going to get any easier to copy bits than it is now. 1# When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong. 2# The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. 3# Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I like your writing and rational thinking a lot better than tabloid loving Mike Masick. The simple reason that your claim to fair use was denied is because you hosted the video on youtube. Raw without any critical review, parody etc. It wasn't married to the content that would make it a fair use defense. What many people fail to realize is that fair use is a defense for accusations of infringement and not an offensive move or verb. You cannot "fair use" something (as waaay to many ignorant media producers claim to me all the time). Fair use is only a defense for alleged infringement. Regardless if the use fits the variables for fair use most major copyright controllers (see big music labels, publishers, movie studios) will at first claim infringement to try to scare everyone and then answer to the defense of "it falls under fair use" whether in real time or in the future in court (hopefully not). It is not a good idea for the copyright holder to determine what is and isn't fair use. However youtube is not a court of law and they give the copyright holder the option to respond to such claims so there is nothing illegal going on. I have little doubt that they do much more than deny most fair use defenses because most people won't fight back even if their media does fall within the fair use variables. Many times the initial defense of fair use is just a letter written in response to a Cease & Desist letter and the copyright holder may back down and not seek further recourse. If they don't back down, like in your youtube case, then it can be escalated to a lawsuit (you could file AGAINST as well them if you feel they have inhibited your rights under the fair use clause). YouTube seem to be following Apple's way of thinking; "let's treat every user like a thief". By treating a user like a thief, we can protect our content and block any attempt at trying to do anything with that content. We'll also swing our big corporate weight around and scare and intimidate anyone wishing to do anything we don't like. We'll fill the content with DRM and platform-lock as needed. This makes us more money. Well, they can continue to think that. But removing DRM and platform-locks is not rocket-science and there are plenty of like-minded people doing the same across the web (Pirate Bay et al). People will very quickly return to 'the good old days' of pirating (Napster 1999) if they can't distribute material they have paid for across devices they own. The corporates are desperate to return to the vinyl, tape, CD cycle of yester-year by device and platform-locking. YouTube are following this 'corporate' mindset with their policy for copyright material and it can only add fuel to the 'pirate' fire... Thanks (belatedly). Your post is one of the clearest I've read on this topic. I'm working on a presentation for budding young K-12 teachers, many of whom want to use YouTube and other Web 2.0+ in their classes. We're all trying to keep students engaged with media, use media when school networks aren't allowing full access, stay legal, etc. You will get a hat tip. Catch-22 for me is: Now I want to run the TED talk on short notice, so my presentation shouldn't be uploaded or streamed! (though I'm sure I can get permission from them later) If you want to download the song and load it onto your MP3 player then you'll need a Youtube converter. This basically converts the content of the URL into a useable MP3 file. This system allows you to download the music you want and listen to it wherever you go. rca ieftin 2011 is totally right... you have to solve the problem on your own. The rules on the internet are not very clarified. Daniel Damian on June 6, 2011 9:12 AM I've seem to have noticed some people just mirror the image when reuploading youtube video's that are already used on VEVO.asigurari locuinte Silviu Gresoi on July 15, 2011 10:29 AM Personally I am really ticked off because I am posting NON-Copyrighted material that is getting flagged. It's just me playing a song on my guitar...no drums, no vocals, no bass, no way in hell it should ever be considered copyrighted but they still want to block it. This is what happens when you give up human common sense that could see it's only 1 guy playing a guitar in favor of a flawed program that is given the power to decide if you are breaking the law. How long before we move on to computerized judges with the power to put people to death in an attempt to speed up the court system? Scarey thought eh?	eng	72aff1ec-39a1-4c52-8757-84939b4850bf	http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/09/youtube-vs-fair-use.html
Minorities of Pakistan History of Pakistan The history of Pakistan as a modern nation began with independence from British India on 14 August1947, although the region has been inhabited continuously for at least two million years; its ancient history includes some of the oldest settlements of South Asia and some of its major civilizations. The political history of eventual birth of the country began in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which culminated in 90 years of direct rule by the British Crown, and, subsequently, spawned a successful freedom struggle led by the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League. The latter was founded in 1906 to protect Muslim interests and rose to popularity in the late 1930s amid fears of neglect and under-representation of Muslims in politics. On 29 December1930, the poet Muhammad Iqbal called for an autonomous "state in northwestern India for Indian Muslims". Muhammad Ali Jinnah espoused the Two Nation Theory and led the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolution of 1940, demanding the formation of an independent Pakistan. Pakistan became independent as a Muslim-majority state with two wings to the east and northwest of India respectively. Independence resulted in communal riots across India and Pakistan — as millions of Muslims moved to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs moved to India. Disputes arose over several princely states including Kashmir and Jammu whose ruler had acceded to India following an invasion by tribesmen from Pakistan. This lead to the First Kashmir War (1948) which ended with India occupying roughly two-thirds of the state and Pakistan occupying the remainder. A republic was declared in 1956 but was stalled by a coup d'etat by Ayub Khan (1958–69), who ruled during a period of internal instability and a second war with India in 1965. Economic grievances and political dissent in East Pakistan led to violent political tensions and army repression, escalating into civil war followed by the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and ultimately the secession of East Pakistan as the independent state of Bangladesh. Prehistory Mehrgarh, (7000-5500 BCE), on the Kachi plain of Balochistan, is an important Neolithic site discovered in 1974, with early evidence of farming and herding, and dentistry. Early residents lived in mud brick houses, stored grain in granaries, fashioned tools with copper ore, cultivated barley, wheat, jujubes and dates, and herded sheep, goats and cattle, while later residents (5500-2600 BCE) engaged in crafts, including flint knapping, tanning, bead production, and metalworking. The site was occupied continuously until about 2600 BCE, but climatic changes between 2600 and 2000 BCE caused the area to become more arid. Mehrgarh was abandoned in favour of the Indus valley, where a new civilization was in the early stages of development. In the early part of the second millennium BCE, Indo-European tribes from Central Asia or the southern Russian steppes migrated into the region, and settled in the Sapta Sindhu area between the Kabul River and the Upper Ganges-Yamuna rivers. The resulting Vedic culture lasted until the middle of the first millennium BCE when there were marked linguistic, cultural and political changes. During the Vedic culture, the hymns of the Rigveda were composed and the foundations of Hinduism were laid. The city of Taxila, in northern Pakistan, became important in Hinduism (and later in Buddhism); according to Hindu tradition, the Mahābhārata epic was first recited at Taxila at the snake sacrifice Yagna of King Janamejaya, one of the heroes of the story. Early history The Indus plains formed the most populous and richest satrapy of the Persian Achaemenid Empire for almost two centuries, starting from the reign of Darius the Great (522-485 BCE). Its heritage influenced the region e. g. adoption of Aramaic script, which the Achaemenids used for the Persian language; but after the end of Achaemenid rule, other scripts became more popular, such as Kharoṣṭhī (derived from Aramaic) and Greek. The interaction between Hellenistic Greece and Buddhism began when Alexander the Great overthrew the Achaemenid empire in 334 BCE, and marched eastwards. Eventually, after defeating King Porus in the fierce Battle of the Hydaspes (near modern Jhelum), he conquered much of the Punjab region. But, his battle weary troops refused to advance further into India to engage the formidable army of Nanda Dynasty and its vanguard of trampling elephants, new monstorities to the invaders. Therefore, Alexander proceeded southwest along the Indus valley. Along the way, he engaged in several battles with smaller kingdoms before marching his army westward across the Makran desert towards modern Iran. Alexander founded several new Macedonian/Greek settlements in Gandhara and Punjab. During the time of his campaigns on the Indus plain, Alexander had found an ally in Chandragupta Maurya, a fugitive general from Magadha empire of the Nandas, who later raised his own military force and ultimately overthrew the Nanda Dynasty - using Macedonian tactics - and founded the Mauryan dynasty in Magadha, that lasted about 180 years. After Alexander's death in 323BCE, his Diadochi (generals) divided the empire, with Seleucus setting up the Seleucid Kingdom, which included the Indus plain. Chandragupta Maurya took advantage of this fragmentation of Greek power and captured the Punjab and Gandhara. Later, the eastern part of the Seleucid Kingdom broke away to form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (third–second century BCE). Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka the Great, (273-232 BCE) expanded the Mauryan empire to its greatest extent covering most of South Asia. He converted to Buddhism after feeling remorse for his bloody conquest of Kalinga in eastern India. His Edicts were written on pillars in Aramaic (the lingua franca of the Achaemenid Empire) or in Kharoṣṭhī. Greco-Buddhism (or Græco-Buddhism) was the syncretism between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism in the area of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the fourth century BCE and the fifth century CE. It influenced the artistic development of Buddhism, and in particular Mahayana Buddhism, before it spread to central and eastern Asia, from the 1st century CE onward. Demetrius (son of the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus) invaded northern India in 180 BCE as far as Pataliputra and established an Indo-Greek kingdom. To the south, the Greeks captured Sindh and nearby coastal areas, completing the invasion by 175 BCE and confining the Sungas to the east. Meanwhile, in Bactria, the usurper Eucratides killed Demetrius in a battle. Although the Indo-Greeks lost part of the Gangetic plain, their kingdom lasted nearly two centuries. The Indo-Greek Menander I (reigned 155-130 BCE) drove the Greco-Bactrians out of Gandhara and beyond the Hindu Kush, becoming a king shortly after his victory. His territories covered Panjshir and Kapisa in modern Afghanistan and extended to the Punjab region, with many tributaries to the south and east, possibly as far as Mathura. The capital Sagala (modern Sialkot) prospered greatly under Menander's rule and Menander is one of the few Bactrian kings mentioned by Greek authors. The classical Buddhist textMilinda Pañha, praises Menander, saying there was "none equal to Milinda in all India". His empire survived him in a fragmented manner until the last independent Greek king, Strato II, disappeared around 10 CE. Around 125 BCE, the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles, son of Eucratides, fled from the Yuezhi invasion of Bactria and relocated to Gandhara, pushing the Indo-Greeks east of the Jhelum River. Various petty kings ruled into the early first century CE, until the conquests by the Scythians, Parthians and the Yuezhi, who founded the Kushan dynasty. The last known Indo-Greek ruler was Theodamas, from the Bajaur area of Gandhara, mentioned on a 1st century CE signet ring, bearing the Kharoṣṭhī inscription "Su Theodamasa" ("Su" was the Greek transliteration of the Kushan royal title "Shau" ("Shah" or "King")). The Indo-Scythians were descended from the Sakas (Scythians) who migrated from southern Siberia to Kashmir and Arachosia from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. They displaced the Indo-Greeks and ruled a kingdom that stretched from Gandhara to Mathura and Scythian tribes spread further into northwest India and the Iranian plateau. The Parni were a nomadic Central Asian tribe who overthrew the Persian Seleucids and annexed much of the Indus region. Following the decline of the central Parthian authority after clashes with the Roman Empire, a local Parthian leader, Gondophares established the Indo-Parthian Kingdom in the 1st century CE. The kingdom was ruled from Taxila and covered much of modern southeast Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India. The Kushan kingdom founded by King Heraios, and greatly expanded by his successor, Kujula Kadphises. Kadphises' son, Vima Takto conquered territory now in India, but lost much of the west of the kingdom to the Parthians. The fourth Kushan emperor, Kanishka I, (circa 127 CE) had a winter capital at Purushapura (Peshawar) and a summer capital at Kapisa (Bagram). The kingdom linked the Indian Ocean maritime trade with the commerce of the Silk Road through the Indus valley. At its height, the empire extended from the Aral Sea to northern India, encouraging long-distance trade, particularly between China and Rome. Kanishka convened a great Buddhist council in Kashmir, marking the start of the pantheistic Mahayana Buddhism and its scission with Nikaya Buddhism. The art and culture of Gandhara are the best known expressions of the interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures, which continued over several centuries until the fifth century CE White Hun invasions. Over the next few centuries, the White Huns, Indo-Parthians, and Kushans shared control of the Indus plain while the Persian Sassanid Empire dominated the south and southwest. The mingling of Indian and Persian cultures in the region gave rise to the Indo-Sassanid culture, which flourished in Balochistan and western Punjab. The Gupta Empire arose in northern India around the second century CE and included much of the lower Indus area as a province. The Gupta era was marked by a local Hindu revival, whose impact was felt in distant Punjab/Sindh region, although Buddhism continued to flourish. According to Arab chroniclers, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh (c.489-632), established a great kingdom with Ror (modern Sukkur) as its capital and, at its zenith, under Rai Diwaji (Devaditya), ruled over the Sindh region and beyond. Devadittya was a great patron of Buddhism, which flourished. This kingdom was taken over by Brahman dynasties, whose unpopularity among Buddhist subjects contributed towards the consolidation of Arab conquerors' base in Sindh. The Muslim period In 712 CE, a Syrian Muslim chieftain called Muhammad bin Qasim conquered most of the Indus region for the Umayyad empire, but the instability of the empire resulted in effective control only over Sind and southern Punjab. The provincial capital of "As-Sindh" was at Al-Mansurah, 72 km north of modern Hyderabad. There was gradual conversion to Islam in the south, especially amongst the native Buddhist majority, but in areas north of Multan, Buddhists, Hindus and other non-Muslim groups remained numerous. In 997 CE, Mahmud of Ghazni conquered the bulk of Khorasan, marched on Peshawar in 1005, and followed it by the conquests of Punjab (1007), Balochistan (1011), Kashmir (1015) and Qanoch (1017). By the end of his reign in 1030, Mahmud's empire extended from Kurdistan in the west to the Yamuna river in the east, and the Ghaznavid dynasty lasted until 1187. Contemporary historians such as Abolfazl Beyhaqi and Ferdowsi described extensive building work in Lahore, as well as Mahmud's support and patronage of learning, literature and the arts. In 1160, Muhammad Ghori conquered Ghazni from the Ghaznavids and became its governor in 1173. He marched eastwards into the remaining Ghaznavid territory and Gujarat in the 1180s, but was rebuffed by Gujarat's Solanki rulers. In 1186-7, he conquered Lahore, bringing the last of Ghaznevid territory under his control and ending the Ghaznavid empire. Muhammad Ghori returned to Lahore after 1200 to deal with a revolt of the Rajput Ghakkar tribe in the Punjab. He suppressed the revolt, but was killed during a Ghakkar raid on his camp on the Jhelum River in 1206. Muhammad Ghori's successors established the first Indo-Islamic dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate. The Mamluk Dynasty, (mamluk means "slave" and referred to the Turkic slave soldiers who became rulers throughout the Islamic world), seized the throne of the Sultanate in 1211. Several Turko-Afghan dynasties ruled their empires from Delhi: the Mamluk (1211-90), the Khalji (1290-1320), the Tughlaq (1320-1413), the Sayyid (1414-51) and the Lodhi (1451-1526). Although some kingdoms remained independent of Delhi - in Gujarat, Malwa (central India), Bengal and Deccan - almost all of the Indus plain came under the rule of these large Indo-Islamic sultanates. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the sultanate was its temporary success in insulating South Asia from the Mongol invasion from Central Asia in the thirteenth century; nonetheless the sultans eventually lost Afghanistan and western Pakistan to the Mongols (see the Ilkhanate Dynasty). The sultans (emperors) of Delhi enjoyed cordial relations with Muslim rulers in the Near East but owed them no allegiance. While the sultans ruled from urban centers, their military camps and trading posts provided the nuclei for many towns that sprang up in the countryside. Close interaction with local populations led to cultural exchange and the resulting "Indo-Islamic" fusion has left a lasting imprint and legacy in South Asian architecture, music, literature, life style and religious customs. In addition, the language of Urdu (literally meaning "horde" or "camp" in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Delhi Sultanate period, as a result of the mingling of speakers of Sanskriticprakrits, Persian, Turkish and Arabic languages. From the 16th to the 19th century CE the formidable Mughal empire covered much of South Asia and played a major role in the economic and cultural development of the region. The empire was one of the three major Islamic states of its day and sometimes contested its northwestern holdings such as Qandahar against the Uzbeks and the Safavid Persians. The Mughals were descended from Persianized Central Asian Turks (with significant Mongol admixture). The third emperor, Akbar the Great, was both a capable ruler and an early proponent of religious and ethnic tolerance and favored an early form of multiculturalism. For a short time in the late 16th century, Lahore was the capital of the empire. The architectural legacy of the Mughals in Lahore includes the Shalimar Gardens built by the fifth emperor, Shahjahan, and the Badshahi Mosque built by the sixth emperor, Aurangzeb. In 1739, the Persian emperor Nader Shah invaded India, defeated the Mughal Emperor Mohammed Shah, and occupied most of Balochistan and the Indus plain. After Nadir Shah's death, the kingdom of Afghanistan was established in 1747, by one of his generals, Ahmad Shah Abdali and included Kashmir, Peshawar, Daman, Multan, Sind and Punjab. In the south, a succession of autonomous dynasties (the Daudpotas, Kalhoras and Talpurs) had asserted the independence of Sind, from the end of Aurangzeb's reign. Most of Balochistan came under the influence of the Khan of Kalat, apart from some coastal areas such as Gwadar which were ruled by the Sultan of Oman. The Sikh Confederacy (1748-1799) was a group of small states in the Punjab which emerged in a political vacuum created by rivalry between the Mughals, Afghans and Persians. The Confederacy drove out the Mughals, repelled several Afghan invasions and in 1764 captured Lahore. However after the retreat of Ahmed Shah Abdali, the Confederacy suffered instability as disputes and rivalries emerged. The Sikh empire (1799-1849) was formed on the foundations of the Confederacy by Ranjit Singh who proclaimed himself "Sarkar-i-Wala", and was referred to as the Maharaja of Lahore. His empire eventually extended as far west as the Khyber Pass and as far south as Multan. Amongst his conquests were Kashmir in 1819 and Peshawar in 1834, although the Afghans made two attempts to recover Peshawar. After the Maharaja's death the empire was weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement. The British annexed the Sikh empire in 1849 after two Anglo-Sikh wars. Independence struggle The concept of an independent Muslim nation emerged gradually from the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In 1885, the Indian National Congress was founded as a forum, which later became a party, to promote a nationalist cause. Although the Congress attempted to include the Muslim community in the independence struggle and some Muslims were very active in the Congress, the majority of Muslim leaders did not trust the party, viewing it as a "Hindu-dominated" organization. Some Muslims felt that an independent united India would inevitably be "ruled by Hindus", and that there was a need to address the issue of the Muslim identity within India. Thus in 1877, Syed Ameer Ali formed the Central National Muhammadan Association to work towards the political advancement of the Muslims, but the organisation declined towards the end of the nineteenth century. A turning point came in 1900 when the British administration in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), acceded to Hindu demands and made Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, the official language. The Muslims feared that the Hindu majority would seek to suppress Muslim culture and religion in an independent India. The All-India Muslim League was founded on December 30th, 1906, on the sidelines of the annual All India Muhammadan Educational Conference in Shahbagh, Dhaka. The meeting was attended by three thousand delegates and presided over by Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk. It addressed the issue of legitimate safeguards for Muslims and finalised a programme. A resolution, moved by Nawab Salimullah and seconded by Hakim Ajmal Khan. Nawab Viqar-ul-Milk, declared: The constitution and principles of the League were contained in the "Green Book", written by Maulana Mohammad Ali. Its goals at this stage did not include establishing an independent Muslim state, but rather concentrated on protecting Muslim liberties and rights, promoting understanding between the Muslim community and other Indians, educating the Muslim and Indian community at large on the actions of the government, and discouraging violence. However, several factors over the next thirty years, including sectarian violence, led to a re-evaluation of the League's aims. Among those Muslims in the Congress who did not initially join the League was Muhammed Ali Jinnah, a prominent Bombay lawyer and statesman. This was because the first article of the League's platform was "To promote among the Mussalmans (Muslims) of India, feelings of loyalty to the British Government". In 1907, a vocal group of Hindu hard-liners within the Indian National Congress movement separated from it and started to pursue a pro-Hindu movement openly. This group was spearheaded by the famous trio of Lal-Bal-Pal - Lala Lajpat Rai , Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal of Punjab, Bombay and Benagal provinces respectively. Their influence spread rapidly among other like minded Hindus - they called it Hindu nationalism - and it became a cause of serious concern for Muslims. However, Jinnah did not join the League until 1913, when it changed its platform to one of Indian independence as a reaction against the British decision - taken under the enormous pressure and vociferous protests of the Hindu majority - to reverse the 1905 Partition of Bengal, which the League regarded as a betrayal of the Bengali Muslims. Even at this stage, Jinnah believed in Muslim-Hindu co-operation to achieve an independent, united India, although he argued that Muslims should be guaranteed one-third of the seats in any Indian Parliament. The League gradually became the leading representative body of Indian Muslims. Jinnah became its president in 1916, and negotiated the Lucknow Pact with the Congress leader, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, by which Congress conceded the principle of separate electorates and weighted representation for the Muslim community. However, Jinnah broke with the Congress in 1920 when the Congress leader, Mohandas Gandhi, launched a law violating Non-Cooperation Movement against the British, which a temperamentally law abiding barrister Jinnah disapproved of. Jinnah also became convinced that the Congress would renounce its support for separate electorates for Muslims, which indeed it did in 1928. In 1927, the British proposed a constitution for India as recommended by the Simon Commission, but they failed to reconcile all parties. The British then turned the matter over to the League and the Congress, and in 1928 an All-Parties Congress was convened in Delhi. The attempt failed, but two more conferences were held, and at the Bombay conference in May, it was agreed that a small committee should work on the constitution. The prominent Congress leader Motilal Nehru headed the committee, which included two Muslims, Syed Ali Imam and Shoaib Quereshi; Motilal's son, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, was its secretary. The League, however, rejected the committee's report, the so called Nehru Report, arguing that its proposals gave too little representation (one quarter) to Muslims – the League had demanded at least one-third representation in the legislature. Jinnah announced a "parting of the ways" after reading the report, and relations between the Congress and the League began to sour. The rise of the League The election of Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government in 1929 in Britain, already weakened by the First World War, fuelled new hopes for progress towards self-government in India. Gandhi travelled to London, claiming to represent all Indians and criticising the League as sectarian and divisive. Round-table talks were held, but these achieved little, since Gandhi and the League were unable reach a compromise. The fall of the Labour government in 1931 ended this period of optimism. By 1930 Jinnah had despaired of Indian politics and particularly of getting mainstream parties like the Congress to be sensitive to minority priorities. A fresh call for a separate state was then made by the famous writer, poet and philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal, who in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that he felt that a separate Muslim state was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated South Asia. The name was coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalistChoudhary Rahmat Ali, and was published on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never. He saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the "homelands" of Muslims in northwest India — P for Punjab, A for the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Balochistan, thus forming "Pakstan". An i was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing "Pakistan". In Urdu and Persian the name encapsulates the concept of "pak" ("pure") and "stan" ("land") and hence a "Pure Land". In the 1935, the British administration proposed to hand over substantial power to elected Indian provincial legislatures, with elections to be held in 1937. After the elections the League took office in Bengal and Punjab, but the Congress won office in most of the other provinces, and refused to share power with the League in provinces with large Muslim minorities. Mean while, Muslim ideologues for separatism also felt vindicated by the presidential address of V.D. Savarkar at the 19th session of the famous Hindu nationalist party Hindu Mahasabha in 1937. In it, this legendary revolutionary - popularly called Veer Savarkar and known as the iconic father of the Hindutva ideology - propounded the seminal ideas of his Two Nation Theory or Hindu-Muslim exclusivism, which influenced Jinnah profoundly. In 1940, Jinnah called a general session of the Muslim League in Lahore to discuss the situation that had arisen due to the outbreak of the Second World War and the Government of India joining the war without consulting Indian leaders. The meeting was also aimed at analyzing the reasons that led to the defeat of the Muslim League in the general election of 1937 in the Muslim majority provinces. In his speech, Jinnah criticized the Indian National Congress and the nationalist Muslims, and espoused the Two-Nation Theory and the reasons for the demand for separate Muslim homelands. Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Chief Minister of Punjab, drafted the original resolution, but disavowed the final version, that had emerged after endless redrafting by the Subject Committee of the Muslim League. The final text unambiguously rejected the concept of a United India because of increasing inter-religious violence and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state. The resolution was moved in the general session by Shere-BanglaA. K. Fazlul Huq, the Chief Minister of Bengal, supported by Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman and other Muslim leaders and was adopted on 23 March, 1940. The Resolution read as follows: In 1941 it became part of the Muslim League's constitution. However, in early 1941, Sikandar explained to the Punjab Assembly that he did not support the final version of the resolution. The sudden death of Sikandar in 1942 paved the way over the next few years for Jinnah to emerge as the recognised leader of the Indian Muslims. In 1943, the Sind Assembly passed a resolution demanding the establishment of a Muslim homeland. Talks between Jinnah and Gandhi in 1944 in Bombay failed to achieve agreement and there were no more attempts to reach a single-state solution. The Second World War had broken the back of both Britain and France and disintigration of their colonial empires was expected soon. With the election of another sympathetic Labour government in Britain in 1945, Indians were seeing independence within reach. But, Gandhi and Nehru were not receptive to Jinnah's proposals and were also adamantly opposed to dividing India, since they knew that the Hindus, who saw India as one indivisible entity, would never agree to such a thing. In the Constituent Assembly elections of 1946, the League won 425 out of 496 seats reserved for Muslims (and about 89.2% of Muslim votes) on a policy of creating an independent state of Pakistan, and with an implied threat of secession if this was not granted. By 1946 the British had neither the will, nor the financial resources or military power, to hold India any longer. Political deadlock ensued in the Constituent Assembly, and the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, sent a Cabinet Mission to India to mediate the situation. When the talks broke down, Attlee appointed Louis Mountbatten as India's last Viceroy, to negotiate the independence of Pakistan and India and immediate British withdrawal. Mountbatten, of imperial blood and a world war admiral, handled the problem as a campaign. Ignorant of the complex ground realities in British India, he rashly preponed the date of transfer of power and told Gandhi and Nehru that if they did not accept divivsion there would be civil war in his opinion and he would rather consider handing over power to individual provinces and the rulers of princely states. This forced the hands of Congress leaders and the "Independence of India Act 1947" provided for the two dominions of Pakistan and India to become independent on the 14th and 15th of August 1947 respectively. This result was despite the calls for a third Osmanistan in the early 1940s. Independence On the 14th and 15th of August, 1947, British India gave rise to new independent Dominions of Pakistan and India respectively, with both dominions joining the British Commonwealth. However, the ill conceived and controversial decision to division of Punjab and Bengal, two of the biggest provinces, between India and Pakistan had disastrous consequences. This division created inter-religious violence of such magnitude that exchange of population along religious lines became a necessity in these provinces. More than two million people migrated across the new borders and more than one hundred thousand died in the spate of communal violence, that spread even beyond these provinces. The independence also resulted in tensions over Kashmir leading to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The post-independence political history of Pakistan has been characterised by several periods of authoritarian military rule and continuing territorial disputes with India over the status of Kashmir, and with Afghanistan over the Pashtunistan issue. In 1948, Jinnah declared in Dhaka that Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan. This sparked protests in East Bengal (later East Pakistan), where Bengali was spoken by most of the population. The Bengali Language Movement reached its peak on 21 February 1952, when police and soldiers opened fired near the Dhaka Medical College on students protesting for Bengali to receive equal status with Urdu. Several protesters were killed, and the movement gained further support throughout East Pakistan. Later, the Government agreed to provide equal status to Bengali as a state language of Pakistan, a right later codified in the 1956 constitution. In 1953 at the instigation of religious parties, anti-Ahmadiyya riots erupted, killing scores of Ahmadi Muslims and destroying their properties. The riots were investigated by a two-member court of inquiry in 1954, which was criticised by the Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the parties accused of inciting the riots. This event led to the first instance of martial law in the country and began the inroad of military intervention in the politics and civilian affairs of the country, something that remains to this day. First military era (1958-1971) The Dominion was dissolved on 23 March, 1956 and replaced by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with the last Governor-General, Iskandar Mirza, as the first president. Just two years later the military took control of the nation. Field Marshal Ayub Khan became president and began a new system of government called Basic Democracy with a new constitution, by which an electoral college of 80,000 would select the President. Ayub Khan almost lost the controversial 1965 presidential elections to Fatima Jinnah. During Ayub's rule, relations with the United States and the West grew stronger. Pakistan joined two formal military alliances — the Baghdad Pact (later known as CENTO) which included Iran, Iraq, and Turkey to defend the Middle East and Persian Gulf against the Soviet Union; and SEATO which covered South-East Asia. However, the United States adopted a policy of denying military aid to both India and Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over Kashmir and the Rann of Kutch. Between 1947 and 1971, Pakistan consisted of two geographically separate regions, West Pakistan and East Pakistan. During the 1960s, there was a rise in Bengali nationalism in East Pakistan, and of allegations that economic development and hiring for government jobs favoured West Pakistan. An independence movement in East Pakistan began to gather ground. After a nationwide uprising in 1969, General Ayub Khan stepped down from office, handing power to General Yahya Khan, who promised to hold general elections at the end of 1970. On the eve of the elections, a cyclone struck East Pakistan killing approximately 500,000 people. Despite the tragedy and the additional difficulty experienced by affected citizens in reaching the voting sites, the elections were held and the results showed a clear division between East and West Pakistan. The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a majority with 167 of the 169 East Pakistani seats, but with no seats in West Pakistan, where the Pakistan Peoples Party led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won 85 seats. However, Yahya Khan and Bhutto refused to hand over power to Mujib. Meanwhile, Mujib initiated a civil disobedience movement, which was strongly supported by the general population of East Pakistan, including most government workers. A round-table conference between Yahya, Bhutto, and Mujib was convened in Dhaka, which, however, ended without a solution. Soon thereafter, the West Pakistani Army commenced Operation Searchlight, an organized crackdown on the East Pakistani army, police, politicians, civilians, and students in Dhaka. Mujib and many other Awami League leaders were arrested, while others fled to neighbouring India. On 27th March 27 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman, a Bengali war-veteran of the East Bengal Regiment of the Pakistan Army, declared the independence of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh on behalf of Mujib. The crackdown widened and escalated into a guerrilla warfare between the Pakistani Army and the Mukti Bahini (Bengali "freedom fighters"). Although the killing of Bengalis was unsupported by the people of West Pakistan, it continued for 9 months. India supplied the Bengali rebels with arms and training, and, in addition, hosted more than 10 million Bengali refugees who had fled the turmoil. In March, 1971, India's Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi expressed sympathy for the East Pakistani independence movement, opening India's borders to refugees and providing other assistance. Following a period of covert and overt intervention by Indian forces, open hostilities broke out between the two countries on December 3, 1971. In East Pakistan, the Pakistani Army led by General A. A. K. Niazi, had already been weakened and exhausted by the Mukti Bahini's guerrilla warfare. Outflanked and overwhelmed, the Pakistani army in the eastern theatre surrendered on December 16, 1971, with nearly 90,000 soldiers taken as prisoners of war. The figures of the Bengali civilian death toll from the war vary greatly, depending on the sources. Although Pakistan's official report, by its Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission, places the figure at only 26,000, other sources put the number between 1.25 to 1.5 million. Highest figure, reported in the media, is 3 million. The result was the emergence of the new nation of Bangladesh. Discredited by the defeat, General Yahya Khan resigned. Bhutto was inaugurated as president and chief martial law administrator on 20 December, 1971. Second democratic era (1971-1977) Civilian rule returned after the war, when General Yahya Khan handed over power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In 1972, Pakistani intelligence learned that India was close to developing a nuclear bomb, and in response, Bhutto formed a group of engineers and scientists, headed by nuclear scientist Abdus Salam — who later won the Nobel Prize for physics — to develop nuclear devices. In 1973, Parliament approved a new constitution. Pakistan was alarmed by the Indian nuclear test of 1974, and Bhutto promised that Pakistan would also have a nuclear device "even if we have to eat grass and leaves." During Bhutto's rule, a serious rebellion also took place in Balochistan province and led to harsh suppression of Baloch rebels with purported assistance from the Shah of Iran lending air support in order to avoid a spilling over the conflict into Iranian Balochistan. The conflict ended later after an amnesty and subsequent stabilization by the provincial military ruler Rahimuddin Khan. In 1974, Bhutto succumbed to increasing pressure from religious parties and helped Parliament to declare the Ahmadiyya adherents as non-Muslims. Elections were held in 1977, with the People's Party won but this was challenged by the opposition, which accused Bhutto of rigging the vote. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq took power in a bloodless coup and Bhutto was later executed, after being convicted of authorizing the murder of a political opponent, in a controversial 4-3 split decision by the Supreme Court. Second military era (1977-1988) Pakistan had been a US ally for much of the Cold War, from the 1950s and as a member of CENTO and SEATO. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan renewed and deepened the US-Pakistan alliance. The Reagan administration in the United States helped supply and finance an anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a conduit. In retaliation, the Afghan secret police, KHAD, carried out a large number of terrorist operations against Pakistan, which also suffered from an influx of illegal weapons and drugs from Afghanistan. In the 1980s, as the front-line state in the anti-Soviet struggle, Pakistan received substantial aid from the United States as it took in millions of Afghan (mostly Pashtun) refugees fleeing the Soviet occupation. The influx of so many refugees - the largest refugee population in the world - had a heavy impact on Pakistan and its effects continue to this day. General Zia's martial-law administration gradually reversed the socialist policies of the previous government, and also introduced strict Islamic law in 1978, often cited as the contributing factor in the present climate of sectarianism and religious fundamentalism in Pakistan. Ordinance XX was introduced to limit the freedom of the Ahmadi's to call themselves Muslims in Pakistan. Further, in his time, secessionist uprisings in Balochistan were put down violently but successfully by the provincial governor, General Rahimuddin Khan. General Zia lifted martial law in 1985, holding non-partisan elections and handpicking Muhammad Khan Junejo to be the new Prime Minister, who readily extended Zia's term as Chief of Army Staff until 1990. Junejo however gradually fell out with Zia as his administrative independence grew; for example, Junejo signed the Geneva Accord, which Zia greatly frowned upon. After a large-scale blast at a munitions dump in Ojhri, Junejo vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the significant damage caused, implicating several senior generals. Zia dismissed the Junejo government on several charges in May 1988 and called for elections in November 1988. However, General Zia died in a plane crash on August 17 1988. Third democratic era (1988-1999) From 1988 to 1999, Pakistan was ruled by civilian governments, alternately headed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who were each elected twice and removed from office on charges of corruption. During the late 1990s, Pakistan was one of three countries which recognized the Taliban government and Mullah Mohammed Omar as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan. Allegations have been made of Pakistan and other countries providing economic and military aid to the group from 1994 as a part of supporting the anti-Soviet alliance. It is alleged that some post-invasion Taliban fighters were recruits drawn from Pakistan's madrassahs. Economic growth declined towards the end of this period, hurt by the Asian financial crisis, and economic sanctions imposed on Pakistan after its first tests of nuclear devices in 1998. The Pakistani testing came shortly after India tested nuclear devices and increased fears of a nuclear arms race in South Asia. The next year, the Kargil Conflict in Kashmir threatened to escalate to a full-scale war. Third military era (1999 - 2007) On 12 October, 1999, Sharif attempted to dismiss army chief Pervez Musharraf and install ISI director Ziauddin Butt in his place, but senior generals refused to accept the decision. Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial airliner to return to Pakistan. Sharif ordered the Jinnah International Airport to prevent the landing of the airliner, which then circled the skies over Karachi. In a coup, the generals ousted Sharif's administration and took over the airport. The plane landed with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and General Musharraf assumed control of the government. He arrested Sharif and those members of his cabinet who took part in this conspiracy. American President Bill Clinton had felt that his pressure to force Sharif to withdraw Pakistani forces from Kargil, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, was one of the main reasons for disagreements between Sharif and the Pakistani army. Clinton and King Fahd then pressured Musharraf to spare Sharif and, instead, exile him to Saudi Arabia, guaranteeing that he would not be involved in politics for ten years. Sharif lived in Saudi Arabia for more than six years before moving to London in 2005. On May 12, 2000 the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the Government to hold general elections by October 12, 2002. In an attempt to legitimize his presidency and assure its continuance after the impending elections, Musharraf held a controversial national referendum on April 30, 2002, which extended his presidential term to a period ending five years after the October elections. Musharraf strengthened his position by issuing a Legal Framework Order in August 2001 which established the constitutional basis for his continuance in office. The general elections were held in October 2002 and the centrist, pro-Musharraf PML-Q won a majority of the seats in Parliament. However, parties opposed to the Legal Framework Order effectively paralysed the National Assembly for over a year. The deadlock ended in December 2003, when Musharraf and some of his parliamentary opponents agreed upon a compromise, and pro-Musharraf legislators were able to muster the two-thirds majority required to pass the Seventeenth Amendment, which retroactively legitimized Musharraf's 1999 coup and many of his subsequent decrees. In a vote of confidence on 1st January 2004, Musharraf won 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was elected to the office of President. While economic reforms undertaken during his regime have yielded some results, social reform programmes and his liberal views, e.g. on reforming extremist versions of the practices prevalent in Islam, appear to have met with resistance. Musharraf's power is threatened by extremists who have grown in strength since the September 11, 2001 attacks and who are particularly angered by Musharraf's close political and military alliance with the United States, including his support of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Musharraf has survived several assassination attempts by terrorist groups believed to be part of Al-Qaeda, including at least two instances where the terrorists had inside information from a member of his military security. Pakistan continues to be involved in a dispute over Kashmir, with allegations of support of terrorist groups being levelled against Pakistan by India, while Pakistan charges that the Indian government abuses human rights in its use of military force in the disputed region. What makes this dispute a source of special concern for the world community is, that both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons. It had led to a nuclear standoff in 2002, when Kashmiri-militants (supposedly backed by the ISI) attacked the Indian parliament. In reaction to this, serious diplomatic tensions developed and India and Pakistan deployed 500,000 and 120,000 troops to the border respectively. While the Indo-Pakistani peace process has since made progress, it is sometimes stalled by infrequent insurgent activity in India (including the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings). Pakistan also has been accused of contributing to nuclear proliferation; indeed, its leading nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted to selling nuclear secrets, though he denied government knowledge of his activities. After the U.S.A. led invasion of Afghanistan, the Pakistani government, as an ally, sent thousands of troops into the mountainous region of Waziristan in 2002, in search of bin-Laden (whom U.S.A. blames for master-minding the so called 9/11-events) and other heavily armed al-Qaeda members, who had allegedly taken refuge there. In March 2004, heavy fighting broke out at Azam Warsak (near the South Waziristan town of Wana), between Pakistani troops and these militants (estimated to be 400 in number), who were entrenched in several fortified settlements. It was speculated that bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri was among those trapped by the Pakistani Army. On September 5, 2006 a truce was signed with the militants and their local rebel supporters, (who called themselves the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan), in which the rebels were to cease supporting the militants in cross-border attacks on Afghanistan in return for a ceasefire and general amnesty and a hand-over of border-patrolling and check-point responsibilities, till then handled by the Pakistan Army. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif attempted to return from exile on September 10, 2007 but was arrested on corruption charges after landing at Islamabad International Airport. Sharif was then put on a plane bound for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, whilst outside the airport there were violent confrontations between Sharif's supporters and the police. This did not deter another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, from returning on October 18, 2007 after an eight year exile in Dubai and London, to prepare for the parliamentary elections to be held in 2008. However, on the same day, two suicide bombers attempted to kill Bhutto as she travelled towards a rally in Karachi. Bhutto escaped unharmed but there were 136 casualties and at least 450 people were injured. On November 3, 2007, General Musharraf proclaimed a state of emergency and sacked the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry along with other 14 judges of the Supreme Court. Lawyers launched a protest against this action but they were arrested. All private media channels were banned including foreign channels. Musharraf declared that the state of emergency would end on December 16, 2007. On November 28, 2007, General Musharraf retired from the Army and the following day was sworn in for a second presidential term. On November 25, 2007, Nawaz Sharif made a second attempt to return from exile, this time accompanied by his brother, the former Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif. Hundreds of their supporters, including a few leaders of the party were detained before the pair arrived at Lahore International Airport. The following day, Nawaz Sharif filed his nomination papers for two seats in the forthcoming elections whilst Benazir Bhutto filed for three seats including one of the reserved seats for women. On December 27, 2007, Benazir Butto was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi when she was assassinated by a gunman who shot her in the neck and set off a bomb, killing 20 other people and injuring several more. The exact sequence of the events and cause of death became points of political debate and controversy, because, although early reports indicated that Bhutto was hit by shrapnel or the gunshots, the Pakistani Interior Ministry stated that she died from a skull fracture sustained when the explosion threw Bhutto against the sunroof of her vehicle. Bhutto's aides rejected this claim and insisted that she suffered two gunshots prior to the bomb detonation. The Interior Ministry subsequently backtracked from its previous claim. However, a subsequent investigation, aided by the Scotland Yard of U.K., supported the "hitting the sun-roof"" as the cause of her death. The Election Commission, after a meeting in Islamabad, announced that, due to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the elections, which had been scheduled for 8 January2008, would take place on 18 February. On August 7 The deadlock between ruling parties ended when the coalition government of Pakistan decided to move for the impeachment of the President and then head for the restoration of the deposed judiciary. Moreover, they decided that Parvez Musharraf should face charges of weakening Pakistan's federal structure, violating its constitution and creating economic impasse. After that, President Parvez Musharraf began consultations with his allies, and with his legal team, on the implications of the impeachment; he said that he was ready to reply to the charges levied upon him and seek the vote of confidence from the senate and the parliament, as required by the coalition parties. However, on August 18, 2008, President Parvez Musharraf announced in a televised address to the nation that he had decided to resign after nine years in power. New civilian president (2008) In the presidential election that followed Musharraf's resignation, Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan People's Party was victorious, defeating the rival candidate of Muslim League (Nawaz) party by a landslide majority.	eng	13d5f8e1-803c-45ad-b0f4-5c829b600ce2	http://www.reference.com/browse/Minorities+of+Pakistan
March/April 2010 Made in China: Cancer Villages by Lee Liu A new phenomenon has appeared in China: Aizheng Cun, or cancer villages. Various forms of Chinese media and Internet sources have reported a total of 459 cancer villages across 29 of China's 31 provincial units, the two exceptions being Tibet and Qinghai. Some English media have also reported on cancer villages in China.1 While there is no English or official Chinese definition of "cancer village," the Chinese Wikipedia defines "cancer village" as a post-reform phenomenon in mainland China, where the number of cancer patients in some villages is extraordinarily high, and water contamination from industries is often the likely cause.2 In most cases, there is a single cancer village in a county, while the number of cancer villages in one township can reach 21. Outside China, the term "cancer cluster" has been used to refer to a local area where cancer is more prevalent as a result of cancer-causing pollutants. While the public typically thinks of cancer clusters in terms of cancer caused by industrial pollution, scientists tend to see them as a geographic area, time period, or group of people with a greater than expected number of cases of cancer.3 China's cancer villages are cancer clusters in farming villages. The cancer-village phenomenon reflects the Third National Survey on Causes of Death, which found a rapidly rising death rate due to cancer in China.4 In the past 30 years, death rate due to lung cancer increased by 465 percent and has become the most deadly cancer in China. Cancer, the number one cause of death in urban China, accounts for 25% of deaths. In rural areas, it is the second cause of death (after cerebrovascular disease), responsible for 21 percent of deaths. However, rural areas have experienced higher mortality rates than urban areas from liver, stomach, oesophageal, and cervical cancers.5 Particularly, the survey included 13 areas where cancer villages had been reported. Four of them have cancer death rates above the national average: Yingdong District of Xinyang in Anhui, Shenqui and Jun Counties in Henan, and Yingcheng in Hubei.6 The survey was conducted at the county level and was not designed to confirm cancer village reports. However, Ministry of Health official admits that the high death rates in the four areas were due to concentrations of cancer deaths in some villages, which agrees with cancer village reports by the media.7 The cancer-village phenomenon provides a focal point to examine worsening environmental health problems in China and raises critical questions for sustainability research and policy. This article addresses six questions: How real is the cancer-village phenomenon, and who is spreading the word? What geographic areas tend to have cancer villages? How do nongovernmental organization (NGO) activities and local protests affect the situation? Why does the cancer-village phenomenon appear in China? What is likely to happen in the future? What are the implications for sustainability research and policy How Real Is the Cancer-Village Phenomenon, and Who Is Spreading the Word? China Central Television (CCTV) and Shenghuo Shibao (Life Times) were among the earliest Chinese media to report on cancer villages. Their 1998 reports gave an account on industrial water pollution on the Hai River flowing through Tianjin and neighboring Hebei, where COD (chemical oxygen demand) was over 1,300 mg; it requires only 25 mg to downgrade water to Grade 5, the lowest level in the five-grade Chinese water quality classification. In Xiaojizhuang Village in Hebei, one out of 10 people had died of cancer, while fertile fields became barren.8. More and more cancer villages have been reported by some well-known Chinese media sources, including Nanfang Dushi (Southern Metropolis) Daily, People's Daily, China Daily, Xinjin (Beijing) News, China Youth Daily, CCTV, provincial TVs and newspapers, and government and media Internet sites.9 The Chinese Science and Technology Journals Databank includes 19 journals that carried 22 articles with "cancer village" in their titles. The China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database (CNKI) Academic Literature Full-Text Database contains 20 journals that published 25 articles, from 1998 to July 2009, with "cancer village" in the title or as a keyword.10 The journals include those run by the government, national professional associations, and universities. Many Chinese scholars have been studying cancer villages. One of them is Jingxing Lin, Director of the Center for Modern Ecological Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. Lin and his colleagues examined Longling, a cancer village in Shaanxi, in 2001. With a population of 154, the village had its first cancer victim in 1974. By 2001, 36 villagers had died of cancer and 22 had died of heart and brain diseases. Only four of the 30 families had not had a cancer victim, while cancer killed four entire families.11 Air pollution from nearby fertilizer and steel factories was regarded as the cause. Many cancer-causing metals were found, several times exceeding the safety limit, in the villagers' hair, buildings, fields, and crops.12 A Global People article reports that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao asked local government to solve the problem, as a response to Lin's report on his cancer-village research funded by the Ministry of Land and Resources of China.13 As more and more cancer villages were reported, authors started to examine the cancer-village phenomenon nationwide. Guangdong's Chaozhou Daily Commentator, Qiaojun Hong examined cancer villages in different parts of China with a focus on two villages on the Hai River in Tianjin, where over 300 people died of cancer in five years, with 60 to 80 cancer victims struggling to survive in Xiditou Village and in Liukuaizhuang Village, where over 150 villagers died of cancer.14 Tianjin government records showed that cancer rates were 1.3 and 2.1 percent in Xiditou and Liukuaizhuang villages, respectively, and 0.12 percent in Tianjin, significantly higher than the national average of 0.07 percent.15 High incidence about cancer has been reported for villages almost all over China and become an inescapable reality in polluted rural areas.16 Fenghuang Zhoukan (Phoenix Weekly), a Hong Kong weekly journal, carried a cover story on cancer villages in its April 2009 issue. That report caused strong reactions in China after the reporter posted the article on his blog that included a list of 71 cancer villages from 32 reports.17 The Chinese search engine Baidu published reports on 18 cancer villages. These cancer villages were Google-mapped by Doubleleaf, providing a visual version of cancer villages in many parts of China.18 The Tianya Community Website published a collection of cancer villages believed to have been caused by industrial pollution.19 The collection includes 207 villages in 108 counties. Geography teacher and Eastern China Normal University Graduate, Yuefei Sun's undergraduate thesis listed 247 cancer villages from 126 counties in 27 provinces.20 He raises awareness that cancer villages tend to cluster in eastern China. Based on an examination of 68 cancer villages, Jialing Yu and Qiuyu Zhang of Beijing University found that poorer provinces tend to have more cancer villages.21 Chuyong Lu and Xiaohui Zhong at Central China Normal University argue that the level of economic development is associated with the number of cancer villages as more developed areas have more cancer villages.22 The sources discussed above do not give the same number of cancer villages. Reports were usually backed by cancer death records and water quality test results. For example, cancer villages occur where the river water quality is Grade 5 or worse, indicating a correlation between water pollution and cancer villages.23 However, political, financial, and technical restraints do not allow tests to be conducted to scientifically establish a cause–effect relationship.24 The government often disciplines and removes newspaper and journal editors who publish politically sensitive and negative reports. If reports on cancer villages were found to be untruthful, the editors and reporters could be charged with the crime of endangering national security, which carries a penalty from years in prison to death. Some environmentalists and lawyers, even though they claimed to be telling the truth, have been imprisoned for endangering national security, illegal possession of national secrets, or illegally providing intelligence to overseas media.25 In addition, the traditional Chinese culture continues to identify people with the particular village where they are from. A personal label of "cancer village" would turn away potential investors, tourists, friends, and spouses. The cancer-village phenomenon is likely to be more prevalent than has been previously reported. Different from the above sources, which use all cancer village reports as if they have the same level of credibility, this article divides the cancer villages into "officially reported" and "unofficially reported." The "officially reported" refer to those that have been reported by journals, magazines, CCTV, provincial TV stations, newspapers, and/or government Web sites. The "unofficially reported" cancer villages are those that have been reported only on Internet sites such as Tianya Community, 163.com, sina.com, and xinhuanet.com. There are 241 officially reported cancer villages in 117 counties from 22 provinces and about as many unofficially-reported cancer villages (Table 1). Click Above Image to Enlarge to Full Size (Will Open a New Window) What Geographic Areas Tend to Have Cancer Villages? Hebei and Henan have the largest number of officially reported cancer villages (Table 1). Guangdong and Jiangsu, China's richest provinces, have the largest number of counties with officially reported cancer villages. Hunan has the largest number of unofficially reported cancer villages, followed by Hebei. Shandong and Hunan have more unofficially reported cancer counties. The provinces are ranked by an average score of two items: number of cancer villages and percent of total cancer counties (the total number of villages is not available for the provinces). Because the sizes of the provinces are so different, using the number of cancer villages alone is not a fair way to rank the provinces. For examples, Hainan and Chongqing are small. Although they have less than 10 cancer villages in only a few counties, they have a high percentage of counties with cancer villages. The top-12 provinces include six coastal provinces with their six neighboring inland provinces. These provinces form a cancer-village belt in eastern China, starting with Hebei in the north and ending with Hainan in the south (see Figure 1). The belt includes 396 cancer villages – 86.3 percent of the country's total – and 203 officially reported cancer villages – 84 percent of the country's total. Those provinces also have the largest number of cancer counties (Table 1), adding up to 174 (78 percent of all cancer counties in China – see Table 2). The belt contains over 55 percent of China's population and over 59.3 percent of China's gross domestic product (GDP). It contains all China's most developed areas as well, except for Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin. However, there is a large income gap within the belt between the wealthy coastal provinces and their poor inland neighbors. For instance, Zhejiang and Jiangsu's per capita GDP is about three times that of their inland neighbor Anhui (Table 1). Figure 1. The cancer-village phenomenon by province, China, 2009. Water contamination from industrial pollution is believed to be the main cause of cancer villages, and there is a close relationship between China's major rivers and the location of cancer counties (Figure 2).26 Cancer villages tend to cluster along the major rivers and their branches. These rivers have supported high population density for thousands of years. They are also the prime location choices for industries that require cheap water, labor, and transportation. Many industrial parks have found homes along these rivers, which are now heavily polluted. While these industries have contributed to rapid GDP growth in their regions, this growth has been achieved at the expenses of the health and lives of poor villagers, in many cases, leading to the devastation of the village economies. The largest concentrations of cancer villages are located along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Changjiang River and Pearl River deltas, the two most developed areas of China. Inland concentrations of cancer villages are found along the Yellow, Huai, and Changjiang rivers, as well as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (Figure 2). Sewage monitoring inspections by the Ministry of Water Resources found all provinces in the Huai River basin guilty of water pollution.27 As Elizabeth Economy, the C.V. Starr senior fellow and director of Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations says in her book, "The river runs black."28 There seems to be a spatial pattern of environmental injustice in the cancer-village belt, for the location of cancer villages within and between provinces. Cancer villages tend to be found in poorer parts of the provinces. Top-ranked cancer-village provinces such as Henan, Hebei, Hunan, and Anhui neighbor the more developed Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong (Figure 1). China has made major efforts in environmental protection in the past decades, including the establishment of eco-communities and model environmental cities; however, the cancer villages prove that China's efforts are only partially successful.29 They represent a major flaw in an environmental-protection policy that focuses on producing models and bright spots in urban areas while sacrificing rural areas. Eastern China has an intensive concentration of chemical and electronic factories, some next to or within China's wealthiest counties or cities. Indicating a more serious issue, the rich, some of whom got rich through the polluting factories, live in better environmental conditions, while poor farmers live by the factories and suffer from the pollution on a daily basis. Case Studies Guangdong Province China's third most developed provincial unit, behind only Beijing and Shanghai, Guangdong has four economic regions: the Pearl River Delta, East, West, and (north) Mountainous regions (Figure 3). GDP per capita in 2006 was 47,094 yuan in the Pearl River Delta, 11,325 in the East, 13,637 in the West, and 10,717 in the Mountainous regions.30 Cancer villages exist in all four regions. However, Wongyuan County in the Mountainous region is home to one of the worst cases of cancer villages in China. Iron and copper sulfide strip mining since 1970 has resulted in serious soil erosion and landslides that have dumped cancer-causing cadmium, lead, and other heavy metals into the water system and soil down the mountain. A dozen kilometers away from the mines, lush riverside agricultural settlements in the valley became cancer villages: Liangqiao, Tangxin, Yanghe, Shangba, and Xiaozhen (Figure 4). Liangqiao is the village closest to the mines and is believed to be the worst polluted. However, the death toll has been the heaviest in the most populated Shangba farther down the river. From 1978 to 2005, over 250 villagers (mostly around 50 years old) died of cancer in Shangba.31 Figure 4. Google Earth map of Dabaoshan area showing the mines and five cancer villages. The river water in Shangba was reported to be so contaminated that aquatic organisms could not survive in the water for more than 24 hours, even when the water was diluted 10,000 times.32 The water is still very toxic 50 kilometers downstream from Shangba. About 10 people die of cancer each year in this village, whose 2009 registered population was 3,329.33 The Guangdong government has taken measures to deal with the quality of drinking water in the cancer village, but the grave situation continued as of August 2009.34 Remediation of the area is much more expensive than initially regulating the pollution, and is not likely to occur. Henan Province Northwest Henan is the most developed region, and the mid-eastern region is the poorest (Figure 5).35 Shenqiu, a county in the poorest region, has the largest cluster of cancer villages in China.36 Various media have reported water pollution and increased cancer rates in the county, although there has been no survey to examine the pollution and cancer rates. Lack of such a survey is partly due to funding, as the county is one of the poorest in China, and the unwillingness of the government to confirm water pollution because the Huai River pollution problem was reportedly solved.37 Shenqiu's Zhouying Township (population over 50,000) is the most severe case, with 21 officially reported cancer villages.38 The local environmental protection bureau believed the cause of the problem was water contamination from factories in industrial cities upstream. The rate of death in Huangmengying Village increased from 5 in 1,000in 1990, to 8 in 1,000 in 2004.39 Liver, rectum and stomach cancers—mostly cancers of the digestive system—claimed the lives of 118 villagers, about half of all deaths, out of 2,400 residents between 1994 and 2004. The youngest, a one-year-old, died of intestinal cancer.40 All water in the river, ponds, and channels was at Class 5 or worse.41 About 80 percent of Huangmengying's young are sick all year round. Birth defects and unidentified illnesses are common. The death rate is higher than the birth rate and is rising rapidly.42 Jiangsu has the fastest growing economy in China. However, some of China's earliest-reported cancer villages are here: 23 percent of all Jiangsu counties have cancer villages, the highest percentage in China (Table 1; Figure 5). In the northern city of Yancheng, a chemical plant built in 2000 turned Dongjin into a cancer village in just a few years. From 2000 to 2005, 103 villagers developed cancer and 76 of them died.43 The surviving 27 cancer victims were helpless, without money to pay for cancer treatments. By the highway in Funning County, a large sign reads "Investors are our God," while 17 advertisement signs for cancer treatment stand along the highway to the village.44 Xingang Village, in the Yandu District of Yancheng, used to be called a Taohua Yuan (land of peach blossoms), with many rivers, productive rice fields, and lush vegetation. It was a prime getaway and tourist spot in the region. Things changed in 2001 after an industrial park was built on the village's farmland. Toxic gas and water from the chemical factory poisoned the land. Rice yield dropped from 9,750 to 2,250 kg per hectare. in four years, and the rice is toxic. Pigs died in large numbers, making villagers quit pig farming. The village fell into poverty. From 2001 to 2005, 55 villagers developed cancer and 40 of them died of cancer.45 In both cancer village cases, the local government agencies suppressed villagers with force and imprisonment when they tried to carry petitions to higher levels of government to express grievances against the polluting factories.46 How Do NGO Activities and Local Protests Affect the Situation? Farmers tend to feel hopeless after years of failed attempts to fight the polluters, and most give up. Many of the educated, able villagers, especially the young, have moved away, leaving the least capable portion of the population behind. Desperate villagers sometimes gather to block traffic to the factories or tamper with their water supply systems in order to gain attention. These activities usually lead to riots when the police try to arrest protest leaders. Local protests are sometimes organized and run by village leaders, mostly likely the village's secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) branch committee, the village's top leader. Dou Xian, CCP secretary of the Douzhuangzi Village, led a six-village (three from Tianjin and three from neighboring Hebei) alliance to fight against polluters, many of which were later shut down by the government.47 For telling the media how many villagers had died of cancer, Wang Linsheng in Shenqui, Henan, was fired as Huangmengying village's CCP secretary and was accused of "leaking State secrets," a very serious crime in China.48 Laifu He, CCP secretary of Shangba Village, sought support from the press after government officials kept ignoring his village's prolonged complaints.49 Repeated press exposure led to government investment of 4 million Renminbi (RMB, Chinese currency) in building a drinking water reservoir for the village. Some cancer villages, such as Dongjing Village in Jiangsu, have successfully removed the polluters from their land through continued grassroots protests against the polluters.50 Many environmental NGOs have been helping the cancer villagers. Some NGOs work as the middlemen between protesters and the government to resolve confrontations peacefully. In the two and a half years leading up to 2006, Qiugang, a village of 2,000 people in the Huai River Basin in Anhui Province, had 53 deaths due to cancer.51 Green Anhui, founded in 2003 by 17 student organizations, helped farmers collect evidence, gain media coverage, and drive the three chemical factories away from their village, effectively removing the sources of water and air pollution that were believed to cause cancer among the villagers.52 Luo Liquan was a millionaire fish-farmer before pollution killed his fish. He and Wang Xiufeng, co-founder and director of the Chongqing Green Volunteers Alliance, have been leading the NGO Chongqing Green Volunteers Alliance to help cancer villagers and gather evidence to fight the polluters.53 The villagers were so helpless that when Wu Dengming, one of the volunteers, came to investigate the pollution problem, over 100 villagers kneeled down at the village entrance to greet him, even though some local officials pressured villagers not to leak any information to the volunteers.54 Though harassed, assaulted, and jailed for "disturbing social life," the volunteers were able to collect credible evidence for legal actions against the polluters. After repeated media exposure, Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau ordered chemical factories in western Chongqing to suspend their operations for inspection, and only three of them were allowed to resume production.55 Led by environmentalist Huo Daishan, the Huai River Defenders purify drinking water in polluted areas, give medical relief to cancer victims, and enlist 1,083 volunteers to track sewage outlets for evidence against the polluters. The group has documented extreme water pollution in over 20 cities and counties in Henan.56 Another NGO, the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, led by Ma Jun, is building an online China Water Pollution Map, a database that locates polluting businesses and pressures them to shoulder their environmental responsibilities.57 Wang Canfa, Director of the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims, has helped pollution victims through the legal system. He has put forth about 60 cases, 20 of which have been resolved successfully.58 The Chinese government has been willing to allow more political space for citizen participation in environmental protection,59 though forbidding adversarial or confrontational activities.60 While having made progress in organizing educational campaigns and conservation projects, NGOs have been less successful in influencing government decisions and official behaviours.61 The biggest challenge ahead for NGOs is to tackle the broader political, economic, and social issues that underlie environmental problems.62 Until the Chinese government removes its restrictions on NGOs, China's environmental movement may remain limited in size.63 However, the successful cases discussed above are encouraging signs. It is important that international and domestic NGOs work together to help the cancer villages. International NGOs enjoy certain privileges, such as international media coverage being outside the control of the Chinese government. Government and business leaders tend to be "nicer" to them than domestic NGOs. Domestic NGOs are more likely to better understand the local businesses and political culture and gain grassroots support from the villagers. Why Is It in China that Cancer Villages Are So Widespread? China appears to have produced more cancer clusters in a few decades than the rest of the world ever has. For instance, cancer clusters have seldom been reported in the United States.64 It is critical to understand why such a large number of cancer clusters have occurred so quickly in China. A combination of the following factors may have made China unique. Development and Environmental Policies China has followed the "grow first and clean up later" approach to development, which led to an acceleration of environmental pollution and serious environmental health problems.65 China's encouragement of the development of township and village industries in the 1980s has also caused severe pollution in rural areas.66 Furthermore, both China's development and environmental policies favor urban areas.67 Environmental programs have been urban-centered.68 These efforts focus on environmental "bright" spots and neglect "dark" spots, creating a divide in environmental protection.69 Environmental agencies lack administrative power and financial support because they are part of the government that puts economic growth first.70 The situation is even worse at the county level; many of these agencies are not funded by the local government budget. For example, the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) of Shenqiu County (where 21 cancer villages exist in one township), Henan Province, relies on collecting pollution fees and fines from factories for their budget.71 Economic, Social, and Political Disparities In the United States, cancer clusters occur in industrial sites and military bases, but not rural areas, and farmers are usually not the poorest population. China's urban–rural disparity is one of the worst in the world and has been increasing.72 Many rural areas are extremely poor. Due to economic, social, and political disparities, the poor rural people continue their tradition of drinking water directly from natural sources. The villagers have no healthcare and rarely do physical exams, so cancer is usually found at a late stage, and they are too poor to pay for treatments, leading to the high death rate. Compared to their urban counterparts, the villagers are more likely to be excluded in the decision-making process when a potentially polluting factory is put in their areas; they are powerless against the alliance of corporation and government. As a result, polluters get rich quickly and are not concerned with destroying the local environment.73 Financial profits generated by polluting factories go to the corporation and government, not the villages. On the other hand, urban environmental protests are more likely to succeed. For example, protests have been successful in halting the RMB 10.8 billion yuan (about US$1.6 billion) Xiamen PX project in Fujian Province and the Panyu (near Guangzhou) incinerator project.74 Lack of Freedom and Democracy China is well-known for its lack of freedom and democracy. This is even more so for the vulnerable groups (people at the bottom of the society). Due to strong central governmental control over the media, legal systems, and NGO activities, the voices of the victims are not heard early enough to control pollution at an earlier stage, resulting in greater damages to the environment and human health. Only when cancer is widespread might a brave reporter have a chance to make the case known. There is also a caste system in the Chinese media in the eyes of government officials, who grant great attention to only a few Chinese Communist Party media sources such as the People's Daily and its provincial counterparts. Other media sources have a much smaller impact on governmental officials. Therefore, limited governmental action has been taken, even though so many cancer-village cases have been reported. Since governmental officials are not democratically elected, they do not work for the villagers, who in turn have little influence on government policies. Corruption and Lack of Laws and Law Enforcement China has depended on administrative measures instead of legal means to deal with environmental violations. Polluting factories often bribe governmental officials so that they will ignore or help to disguise the pollution problem. When pollution is really out of control, factories are usually required to pay a fine, which costs a fraction of the money it would have to spend on pollution control. China has established many environmental laws, but they are seldom enforced. The environmental laws also lack specifics and miss many aspects of environmental pollution. Cancer victims have filed many lawsuits against the polluters, but few have been successful. There are no government reports that establish a direct link between a factory's pollution and villagers' cancers. As a result, it is impossible for the victims to obtain compensation. Many newly established plants are well-equipped with pollution-control facilities; however, they rarely use them because of corruption and lack of environmental law enforcement. High Rural Population Density with Lack of Mobility The Chinese cancer villages are often in the most populated areas of China, and the villages are often densely populated. High rural population density mixed with pollution creates a large impact in small areas. Land is owned collectively, which means families have no ownership of the land and the government decides how the land is used. Consequently, the farmers practically lose their land if they move away. Technically, they can rent the land out to fellow farmers; however, the possibility of finding a renter is slim in a cancer village. As a result, the poor are unable to leave the poisoned land. The impact of pollution on humans would have been hidden if the villagers were more mobile. In that case, the victims would have been dispersed before a cancer cluster was ever formed, and a health problem would have gone unnoticed, though pollution damage to land and water may be the same. Inland Distribution of Polluting Industries China's industrial distribution is often described as concentrated along the coast. Factories along the coast pollute the ocean, kill fish, and bankrupt fishing villages.75 China's coastal waters are seriously contaminated, but few coastal cancer villages are reported. People who live along the coast do not consume the polluted ocean water, and they are more mobile, reducing the opportunity for a cancer cluster to develop. A closer examination reveals that the majority of China's industrial distribution is not right on the coast. These industries pollute inland areas and produce cancer villages. Furthermore, polluting industries have been moving from coastal to inland areas because of stricter environmental control in coastal regions. Economic Globalization Industrial pollution would have been less severe if China were not the world leading manufacturer of chemical products. Globalization may also be related to the income and consumption disparity. China's suddenly wealthy are inspired by the lifestyle of the wealthiest people in the world. High-end luxurious goods are readily available, and their shopping habits and changing tastes are reshaping global trade flows of flashy cars, gold, elephant ivory, and dried seahorses.76 Availability of those goods and the possibility of migration to a more developed country push for a never-ending demand for wealth, and China's elite are firm supporters of the "grow first" development policy.77 Again, it is a combination of the above factors, and likely some others, that produces the cancer-village phenomenon in China. For example, globalization does not have to cause cancer clusters if other factors are not in place. On the other hand, globalization speeds up the spread of democratic ideas and practices in China. International NGOs help reduce poverty and develop and fund many domestic NGOs. What Is Likely to Happen in the Future? China's cancer-village phenomenon is likely to worsen in the future, partly because the health impact of environmental pollution tends to be long-lasting. In addition to cancer villages, the media has also reported electronic-waste villages, weird-disease villages, and lead-poisoned villages in China, which may lead to more cancer villages.78 Furthermore, most of the hypothesized causes of cancer villages will continue to exist. China is likely to continue its urban growth–centered policies. Zhou Zunsheng, China's Minister of Environmental Protection, states that environmental protection in China is still like a person climbing a steep hill while carrying a heavy load.79 Chinese officials tend to argue that China is still in the middle stage of industrialization, and economic growth is the priority.80 The implication is that environmental protection is still not a priority of the government. Consequently, environmental pollution will get worse—and so will the related health problems. Economic, social, and political disparities are likely to persist. It is unlikely that we will see major improvement in terms of freedom and democracy in China. Corruption is unlikely to be controlled. Polluting industries will keep moving inland as inland regions continue to follow the "grow first" approach to development. Rural mobility has improved with rapid urbanization. As discussed earlier, a mobile rural population will not reduce the environmental impact on human health but will only disguise it, as cancer victims will be more spatially dispersed. It is also likely that we may hear less about the phenomenon if the government bans the reporting of cancer villages and silences the protesters. In that case, the phenomenon may actually become even more widespread. On the other hand, the central government is paying more attention to pollution.81 Some local governments are taking actions to deal with cancer villages and other environmental problems. Guangdong's Humen government invested RMB40 million yuan (about US$6 million) to manage the trash mound that was blamed for causing the cancer village Yuanfeng.82 Governmental actions have not resulted in any improvement in the cancer villages, but it seems the matter at least did not get worse in some places.83 It appears that the government has been more aggressive in dealing with lead-poisoned villages than cancer villages. Reports say that the government has started relocating the 15,000 residents in the 10 lead-poisoned villages in Jiyuan, Hebei Province, while keeping lead smelters going.84 The battery factory that was blamed for causing lead poisoning in Longyan, Fujian, has been ordered to stop production.85 There has been improvement in terms of using legal means to protect the environment. For the first time in China, it is possible to charge polluters with the crime of poisoning, if serious consequences occur.86 However, current practice tends to be that the government, rather than the responsible industries, pays for the medical treatment and relocation costs of the affected villagers. If the industries have to pay for the full cost of their consequences and if NGOs and the media are given more freedom, it will be less difficult for China to control the cancer-village phenomenon. What Are the Implications for Sustainability Research and Policy? A priority for sustainability research is to develop a research framework that integrates global and local perspectives to shape a "place-based" understanding of the interactions between environment and society.87 The cancer-village phenomenon raises questions about conventional wisdom on environment–society relations. The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) argues that the initial stages of economic growth are accompanied by increasing environmental degradation; however, once per capita income exceeds a given threshold, not only does the structure of the economy change, but then people can afford to demand a better environment.88 Yet, the cancer villages tell us, at least at the local scale, that severe inequalities plus environmental degradation in the early stages of development can cause such irreversible damage to the environment and society that the places will fall back to the underdevelopment stage and the environmental conditions will not improve. Sustainability is often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. There is an implicit hierarchy of needs that favors children and people in disasters and that favors feeding and nurturing first, followed by education, housing, and employment.89 It is also difficult to determine if the "needs" are met and at what level. The poor countries need economic growth. However, such economic growth is often achieved at the expense of the poor and the environment. As a result, the poor, such as the cancer villagers, will remain poor or may get even poorer. Sustainability science needs to address the dilemma many developing countries face, which is that the needs of neither the present nor the future are being met, as resources are lacking, needs are defined differently, and high levels of inequality persist. The cancer-village phenomenon highlights that the needs of people (including children) in disasters must be met first. After its grand celebration of economic progress at the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the government continues to follow the urban growth-centered approach to development and remains a major producer of cheap products for the global market. The cancer villages remind us that China's economic achievements have been made at the expense of the environment and human lives. We need to go beyond studying the impressive gains in China's economic growth to address important issues of social and environmental injustice, which have negatively affected the lives of a large number of the socially excluded, marginalized, and disadvantaged groups.90 China needs to change its development approach to put the environment first and pay attention to environmental justice along with social equity. Establishing environmental "bright spots" is necessary to provide examples of sustainable development and attract business investments and tourists. However, the environmental dark spots such as the cancer villages must be rescued first before any place may boast its environmental or economic success. Cancer villages undermine China's efforts to reduce poverty, as families with cancer patients quickly fall into poverty due to the unbearable costs of cancer treatment. Most of the cancer villages were essentially meeting their basic needs of food and shelter until industrial development poisoned their land. What does development mean to these villages? To the villagers, pollution is more pitiless than poverty. Pollution causes diseases that lead to absolute poverty and death. Other developing countries should learn from China's lessons and avoid following an urban growth–centered approach to development. No places or people should be sacrificed in the name of development. 6. H. Li, "Defeated by Cancer: Cancer Country," Caijing 215 (7 July 2008): 80–88. Caijing is China's most widely read business and finance magazine and a news authority, with a circulation of 225,000 from readers in government, business, and academic circles ( (accessed 1 November 2009). 10. Chinese Science and Technology Journals Databank is available at The China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database (CNKI) Academic Literature Full-Text Database is available at There are indications that the actual number of journals and articles is much higher than given in the search results, because some articles on cancer villages do not use the phrase "cancer village" in their titles or as a keyword. For example, the June 2004 issue of Huanjing (Environment) had four articles on cancer villages. None of them showed up in the search results. The search on the CNKI database also resulted in four papers from four conferences from 2005 to 2009 and 24 articles in 19 newspapers from 2001 to March 2009. Apparently, many cancer-village articles are missing from the database. Many important newspapers are excluded from the database, such as the Southern Metropolitan Daily, which carried many articles on cancer villages. 19. Tianya Freeyq2009 posted 79 short accounts of cancer villages and a list of 169 reports on 200 villages. Tianya Community, Folks' Voice, List of China's Environmental Pollution Induced Cancer Villages. 4 August 2009. The author claimed that most of the reports were from media. The others were from village petitions online. The author posted the list in the hope it would be updated by Web users. However, the list was never updated. The link was broken by 22 October 2009. Lee Liu is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at University of Central Missouri (UCM), where he also serves as Chair of the Curriculum and Education Sub-Committee of the President's Commission on Sustainability. His research and teaching focus on issues of sustainability including population trends and policy, rural poverty, urban-rural inequality, sustainability practices and policy, and sustainable places, with an area specialization in China. This research was partially funded by a College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Science Research and Creative Assistance Award and an Honors College Faculty Fellow Award from UCM. The article benefited from discussions in the Introduction to Sustainability and Conservation of Natural Resources classes at UCM. Part of the paper was presented in a UCM Honors College Inaugurational Faculty Fellow Lecture. Special thanks to Bob Kates his assistance with this article and Richard Buford for his research assistance. The Great Salt Lake: America's Aral Sea?With its main tributaries diverted for agricultural irrigation and production, the Aral Sea in central Asia lost 90 percent of its surface size with serious economic, environmental, and human health consequences. September/October 2009 (Abstract)	eng	aa0f6e1a-aee3-49ff-9e75-9f5c683f4614	http://www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/March-April%202010/made-in-china-full.html
LAT Experts on Chinese American history say Chinatowns across the nation -- including in many California cities -- have always been rumored to have tunnels, but no proof exists that they were anything more than connected basements. They say the hype surrounding the legends revives misconceptions that fanned xenophobia in earlier times. Oral histories and newspaper accounts from the early 20th century include clues that Los Angeles' original Chinatown (where Union Station now stands) was connected by a web of tunnels leading to brothels, speak-easies and other illicit businesses. But when the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority dug up the area in 1990 for subway construction, it found artifacts but no tunnels. Some historians say the tunnel tales originated from a misunderstanding of Chinese culture, and overt prejudice. "The 19th century was an extremely racist climate," said Phil Choy, past president of the Chinese Historical Society of America and a skeptic of tunnel lore. "There had always been an attempt to remove the Chinese. You had this population of undesirables. The more mysterious they make us, the better." Name of source: NYT Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the most prominent surviving member of the Kennedy family, has agreed to sell his memoirs for an advance of more than $8 million, people with knowledge of the negotiations say. After a six-day auction that concluded Nov. 19, Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, bought world rights for the autobiography. Before the deal can be completed, Mr. Kennedy must clear his publishing contract with the Senate Ethics Committee. Jonathan Karp, publisher and editor in chief of Twelve, said he hoped to publish the book in the fall of 2010. Mr. Kennedy is "walking, talking history," Mr. Karp said, "and there's no limit to what he can talk about with authority and distinctive personal perspective."... "I've been fortunate in my life to grow up in an extraordinary family and to have a front-row seat at many key events in our nation's history," Mr. Kennedy said in a statement. For the past three years, he has been working with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia on an oral history of his life, and those tapes will serve as source material for his autobiography. Mr. Kennedy, who will work with a co-writer, is expected to write candidly about his personal history, including the 1969 Chappaquiddick accident in which he drove a car off a bridge on Martha's Vineyard, resulting in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a former member of Senator Robert F. Kennedy's staff. He will also write about his unsuccessful bid for the presidency. Empowered by an oil boom that pushed the country's trade surplus past $94 billion this year, Russia has been flexing its muscles abroad. At home, meanwhile, young and trendy Muscovites are in the throes of nostalgia for the staples of Soviet childhoods, relics of a time when the U.S.S.R. was at the height of superpower status. That may explain why one of the most popular fashion designers this fall is Denis Simachev, who is selling overcoats fastened with hammer-and-sickle buttons, gold jewelry minted to look like Soviet kopecks and shirts festooned with the Soviet coat of arms, complete with embroidered ears of wheat. "People in their 30s see these kinds of symbols as reminders of happy memories, like going to pioneer camp where they lived together, ate breakfast together and played sports," said Mr. Simachev, 33, who wears his hair in a Samurai-style ponytail. He insists he is no Communist — for one thing, his overcoats sell for about $2,100 and his T-shirts for about $600. His boutique is sandwiched between Hermès and Burberry stores on a pedestrian lane, Stoleshnikov, that is one of the capital's most expensive shopping streets. YEKATERINBURG, Russia — On the outskirts of this burly industrial center, off a road like any other, on a nowhere scrap of land — here unfolded the final act of one of the last century's most momentous events. A short way through a clearing, toward a cluster of birch trees, the killers deposited their victims' bodies, which had been mutilated, burned and doused with acid to mask their origins. It would be 73 more years, in 1991, before the remains would be reclaimed and the announcement would ring out: the grave of the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, and his family had been found. But the story does not end there. Eleven people were said to have been killed that day in July 1918 on Lenin's orders. Just nine sets of remains were dug up here and then authenticated using DNA. The remains of the czar's son, Aleksei, and one daughter, whose identity is still not absolutely clear, were missing. Did their bones lie elsewhere, or could it actually be that they had escaped execution, as rumor had it for so long? Only in the past few months have these questions dating from the Russian revolution apparently been resolved here, and only by a group of amateur sleuths who spent their weekends plumbing the case. FROM These incidents are worrying, but even more so is the social reality they reflect. The level of hate crimes in the United States is astoundingly high — more than 190,000 incidents per year, according to a 2005 Department of Justice study. And the number of hate groups, according to the annual count by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has shot up 40 percent in recent years, from 602 groups in 2000 to 844 in 2006. PSYCHOANALYSIS and its ideas about the unconscious mind have spread to every nook and cranny of the culture from Salinger to "South Park," from Fellini to foreign policy. Yet if you want to learn about psychoanalysis at the nation's top universities, one of the last places to look may be the psychology department. A new report by the American Psychoanalytic Association has found that while psychoanalysis — or what purports to be psychoanalysis — is alive and well in literature, film, history and just about every other subject in the humanities, psychology departments and textbooks treat it as "desiccated and dead," a historical artifact instead of "an ongoing movement and a living, evolving process." IN 1960, Richard Nixon ran for president against John F. Kennedy on a slogan that had powerful resonance for cold war America: "Experience Counts." Nixon had been vice president for eight years, a senator for two, and a House member for four. Kennedy had been a senator for eight years and a House member for six, and was also a war hero and the scion of a politically powerful family. Nixon's claim to experience, though, were those eight years in the White House — he was dispatched by Eisenhower on missions to dozens of countries, he often noted, and he won acclaim for quick thinking during his "kitchen debate" with Khrushchev in Moscow in 1959. Even if Ike memorably struggled to come up with a real contribution that Nixon had made, the vice president made the experience argument just the same. Hillary Rodham Clinton was arguably far more involved in White House affairs during her husband's administration than Nixon was in the 1950s, and she, too, is running on that experience. ("Change is just a word without the strength and experience to make it happen" is one of her taglines.) While she has won respect as a senator of seven years, and has become a student of the military as a member of the Armed Services Committee, her seasoning in the White House is at the core of her campaign argument. But is the experience argument enough to beat Barack Obama and her other rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination this winter? This year, as Jamestown, Va., splashily celebrated the 400th anniversary of its founding as the nation's first permanent English settlement, the home of Plymouth Rock found itself on the defensive. Virginians have relished trumpeting that Jamestown came first, even vowing to get it "out from under Plymouth Rock." Their strategy has worked, to an extent: Jamestown's tourism figures rivaled Plymouth's this year, and even Queen Elizabeth II paid a visit. In a speech near Jamestown on Tuesday, President Bush challenged the popular notion that Plymouth was home to the first Thanksgiving. "The good folks here say that the founders of Berkeley held their celebration before the Pilgrims had even left port," Mr. Bush said, referring to a plantation in Virginia where settlers arrived in 1619. "As you can imagine, this version of events is not very popular up north." In response to such barbs, the people of Plymouth have gone to greater lengths than usual to prove it is "America's Hometown," as its marketing brochures announce. Name of source: AFP A US genetic study bolsters claims that Native Americans are descended from one migrant group that crossed a lost land link from modern Siberia to Alaska -- not waves of arrivals from Asia, as rival theories say. The new study by the University of Michigan, published Monday, examined genes of indigenous people from North to South America and from two Siberian groups, the university said in a report introducing the research. Analysis found one unique genetic variant widespread across both the northern and southern American continents -- suggesting that all Native Americans were descended from a single group, not various ones as the rival theory holds. When Americans sit down on Thursday to eat stuffed Thanksgiving turkey, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, followed by a slice of pumpkin pie, many think they are upholding a 400-year-old tradition. They aren't. The meal which settlers from England shared with native Americans in 1621, which has come to be known as the first Thanksgiving, probably didn't feature many of the culinary favorites that grace tables at present day Thanksgivings, and almost definitely did not happen in November, a food historian told AFP. Indeed, 1621 wasn't even a festival of giving thanks, but was "clearly a harvest festival," said Kathleen Curtin of the Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, where a 17th-century farming village set up by English colonists on native American tribal lands has been recreated. Name of source: CanWest As Canada seeks to assert its Arctic claims, the founder of a Quebec historical society says the time has never been better to honour an explorer who helped the country claim a huge chunk of the North. In the late 1800s, Quebec-based captain Joseph-Elzear Bernier tried to persuade a young Canada of the importance of claiming sovereignty over the islands of the North. The British government had formally ceded the land in 1880 but the Canadian government had yet to exercise its jurisdiction there. Bernier's expeditions eventually helped the country claim sovereignty over 750,000 square kilometres in the Arctic, says Jeanne Coude of the Levis regional historic society. Coude has been prodding various governments for years to erect a monument paying homage to a man sometimes called "the greatest Canadian navigator." "When I saw reports of other countries contesting the Northwest Passage . . . I thought we needed to honour him here (in Levis), where he lived," said Coude, who has approached federal, provincial and municipal governments to erect a monument. Name of source: AP In a small survey boat, maritime archaeologist J. Lee Cox Jr. was checking the bottom of the Delaware River at the Sunoco Logistics pier in South Philadelphia when he got a hit on the side-scan sonar. A pipe? A log? A hazard to the oil tankers docking nearby? No one was sure until a diver was sent down weeks later and found a strange pointed object buried in the muck about 40 feet down. Earlier this month, Cox identified it as the business end of a cheval-de-frise, an iron-tipped log once embedded in the river, along with many others, to gore the hulls of British warships menacing Philadelphia in the mid-1770s. It had been silently resting not far from where oil-laden Sunoco tankers have berthed since Philadelphia's industrial age. The Civil War resulted in many human narratives, each seemingly more heart-wrenching than the last. But few match that of Confederate Col. Isaac Erwin Avery in his final moments. On July 2, 1863, the opening day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Avery's North Carolina unit was ordered to attack a heavily fortified Union position on East Cemetery Hill. Leading the charge on a white horse, the colonel was struck in the neck by a musket ball. As he lay dying, a close friend, Maj. Samuel McDowell, managed to reach Avery's side. So badly wounded that he was unable to speak, Avery dipped the point of a stick or some other sharp object into his blood and scratched out on a piece of paper his last words, "Major, tell my father I died with my face to the enemy." The final message is preserved in historical archives in Raleigh, N.C. But for nearly a century and a half, Avery's descendants have been trying to discover where his body is buried. Now they know, thanks to the efforts of Hagerstown historian Richard Clem. The gravestone of a young woman executed more than 60 years ago after being caught on a clandestine mission to save Hungarian Jews in the Holocaust has been moved to Israel, officials said Sunday. Hannah Szenes, a Hungarian Jew who parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944 to help rescue Jews, was honored on Nov. 7 as her gravestone was placed alongside her former home on a kibbutz farm next to the Mediterranean, Israel's Defense Ministry said. The ceremony marked the 63rd anniversary of her death. Szenes left "a legacy whose essence is civil leadership, the relations between the individual and the collective and our role in this world," Cabinet Minister Ami Ayalon told the Israeli daily Haaretz. Ayalon's uncle sent Szenes on the mission to Hungary that led to her death, he said. The U.S. Justice Department began trying to deport former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk more than three decades ago, claiming that he was an armed guard at a Nazi death camp and helped murder Jewish prisoners in World War II. Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel in 1986 and was under a death sentence until Israel's Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that Demjanjuk was not the sadistic guard at the Treblinka death camp in German-occupied Poland whom prisoners called "Ivan the Terrible." Since Demjanjuk's return to the Cleveland suburb of Seven Hills, the Justice Department has continued its efforts to send him back to his native Ukraine — or Germany or Poland — saying it was sufficient that Demjanjuk falsified information on his applications to enter the U.S. in 1952 and to become a citizen in 1958. His U.S. citizenship was revoked in 1981, restored in 1998 and revoked again in 2002. Now 87, Demjanjuk is facing what his lawyer says may be his last chance to stay in the U.S. Name of source: The grandson of a soldier who fought in one of history's first major tank battles will see his grandfather's First World War vehicle - unearthed from a French farmer's field - Name of source: Reuters A LEADING Italian archaeologist said that the grotto whose discovery was announced this week in Rome is not the sacred cave linked to the myth of the city's foundation by Romulus and Remus. The Culture Ministry and experts who presented the find said they were "reasonably certain" the cavern is the Lupercale - a sanctuary worshipped for centuries by Romans because, according to legend, a wolf nursed the twin brothers there. But Adriano La Regina, Rome's superintendent of archaeology from 1976 to 2004, said ancient descriptions of the place suggest the Lupercale is elsewhere - 50 to 70 metres northwest of the cave discovered near Emperor Augustus' palace. "I am positive this is not the Lupercale," Mr La Regina told Reuters in an interview. A Springfield rifle owned by the famed Apache warrior Geronimo fetched $100,000 during an auction of Wild West guns and weapons that brought in more than $1 million. Lawman Wyatt Earp's double-barreled shotgun garnered $65,500, while a saber attributed to U.S. Army cavalry commander George Custer sold for $20,315 at the Bonhams & Butterfields auction Tuesday. Some of the guns were offered by a private collector who spent a lifetime accumulating firearms once carried by some of the most famous and infamous figures in American history, said Paul Carella, director of the company's arms department. "Obviously, he was like many of us, just intrigued and enamored of the old West," Carella said Wednesday. Name of source: WaPo Abraham Lincoln was the rarest of men, and John G. Sotos believes that extended all the way to his chromosome 10. A physician, connoisseur of rare ailments and amateur historian, Sotos believes Lincoln had a genetic syndrome called MEN 2B. He thinks the diagnosis not only accounts for Lincoln's great height, which has been the subject of most medical speculation over the years, but also for many of the president's other reported ailments and behaviors. He also suspects Lincoln was dying of cancer at the time he was assassinated, and was unlikely to have survived a year. He thinks cancer -- an inevitable element of MEN 2B -- killed at least one of Lincoln's four sons, three of whom died before reaching age 20. Sotos's theory assigns one of medicine's rarest conditions to one of the nation's best-known figures. It is likely to be controversial. But unlike many historical diagnoses, it can be easily proved or rejected with a DNA test for the single mutation in the gene called RET on chromosome 10 that causes MEN 2B. Name of source: Chicago Tribune Munich is an easy city to like: clean, bright and livable. It has world-class art museums, stylish shops, wide boulevards, parks and squares. Conviviality overflows in its fabled beer gardens, and its people have an open, animated air. Joachim von Halasz, a London-based financial analyst who often travels to Munich, knows well the attractions of this southern German city, including its towered and turreted Gothic revival Neues Rathaus, which the U.S. 7th Army used as headquarters near the end of World War II. But he is troubled by an inscription there that says, "To the soldiers who liberated Munich from the national socialist tyranny on April 30, 1945." To von Halasz, it's fair to say that France and Belgium (not to mention concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau) were liberated by the Allies. Armies liberate places that are being held captive, against their will. But that was not precisely the case with Munich, the birthplace and stronghold of the Nazi party. For von Halasz, the word choice seems misleading, a verbal whitewashing of the city's firm historic connection to Adolf Hitler. And it reflects what he thinks is a bigger problem of how the city faces its past. Von Halasz set out to correct that by writing "Hunting Nazis in Munich," a guidebook on lost sites connected with Hitler and his National Socialist party. (He has launched a companion Web site, A mysterious box of letters, memos and legal documents pertaining to the White Sox team accused of throwing the 1919 World Series -- some of the papers thought to be lost since the middle of the last century -- is bound for the auction block this week after being uncovered by two Chicago-area collectors. The identity of the sellers is not being disclosed and the story of how the papers came to emerge is incomplete. The auction house, Mastro Auctions in Burr Ridge, says the owners probably bought the box at a file sale without knowing what was inside. The auction house would not go into detail about its origins. Nevertheless, the sudden emergence of an archive of previously unknown documents pertaining to the 1919 Black Sox case has seized the imagination of archivists and historians. Name of source: Boston Globe With apologies to William Shakespeare, that line sums up the plea of scholars who for years have tried to untangle one of literary history's most nettlesome knots: To which church did the Bard belong? Was he Roman Catholic, the religion of his mother's family, many of his schoolteachers, and perhaps the closet faith of his father? Was he Protestant, a version of which was the official religion of Elizabethan England, where he crafted works that rival the Bible for fame and citation? Or was he an ecumenist ahead of his time, one whose views transcended the fanatical religious debates of his day? The Rev. David Beauregard, a Roman Catholic priest who teaches Shakespeare at the seminary of St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine in the Back Bay, argues in his new book, "Catholic Theology in Shakespeare's Plays" (University of Delaware Press), that Shakespeare was Catholic. Name of source: Telegraph (UK) Newly-elected Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has promised to apologise to Aborigines for historic injustices, as the conservative party he defeated faced a bruising leadership battle.The elderly widow of a renowned Oxford don is the unlikely recipient of a European arrest warrant alleging that she sent a war hero to his death during the Stalinist era show trials more than half a century ago. Helena Wolinska, 88, a former Polish prosecutor who has lived in England since 1972, is accused of fabricating evidence against Gen Emil Fieldorf, a member of the Polish resistance during the Second World War. Mrs Wolinska, well known in the cosy academic circles of north Oxford, is said in her former guise as a Soviet magistrate to have masterminded his wrongful arrest and execution in 1953. Since the overthrow of the communist regime, Gen Fieldorf has been posthumously pardoned and the authorities are chasing those responsible for the alleged miscarriage of justice. They claim that Mrs Wolinska, now a British citizen, was an enthusiastic member of the communist justice system which carried out the post-war purges against anyone seen as a threat to the Soviet leadership. Name of source: Times (London) Oxford University was preparing for lockdown tonight ahead of threatened protests against the decision to invite two controversial far right figures to a debate. Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader, and the historian David Irving, who was jailed in Austria for Holocaust denial, are due to speak at the Oxford Union debating society on the subject of free speech. Oxford colleges e-mailed their students warning them to stay in their rooms, and many colleges were planning to lock their doors this evening, amid fears that there could be a counter-demonstration by far-right activists which could turn violent. Protesters planning to demonstrate against the debate include several university societies such as the Student Union, Unite Against Fascism, as well as a rare alliance between the Muslim and Jewish societies. Scores of students were also being bussed in from other universities. More than a thousand are expected to attend, and colleges today sent their students e-mails warning them to stay indoors during the protest. Students fear that a counter-demonstration by far-right activists could set off scuffles. Mr Griffin, who received a suspended prison sentence in 1998 for incitement to racial hatred for material denying the Holocaust, and Mr Irving, who spent three years in prison in Austria for Holocaust-denial, are due to take part in a discussion on the limits of free speech. Name of source: Times (UK)He has also revealed that he wishes he had published the full reports from the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) instead of the infamous September dossier about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction that so damaged him, and was almost certainly one of the factors that contributed to him leaving office sooner than he wanted. In frank remarks in a BBC documentary, Mr Blair confirmed openly the belief of many of his closest supporters that he never used his position as America's strongest ally to try to force Mr Bush down the diplomatic rather than the military route. NEARLY five years after it was ransacked by hordes of looters in the wake of Saddam Hussein's overthrow, the Iraq museum in Baghdad is about to open its doors again. The museum, famous for priceless antiquities representing the world's earliest civilisation, is scheduled to open next month, according to its acting director, Amira Emiran. Visits will be confined to just two galleries on the ground floor containing Assyrian and Islamic treasures that are too large and heavy to be easily removed. The remaining 16 galleries will remain empty and closed and security will be tight. Nevertheless, Iraqi and American officials are keen to portray the opening as a sign that security in Baghdad has improved after the chaos of the past few years. Name of source: National Security Archive Washington D.C., November 22, 2007 - The first comprehensive U.S. nuclear war plan, produced in 1960, was controversial within the U.S. government because top commanders and White House scientists objected to its massive destructiveness--the "high level of damage and population casualties"--according to newly declassified histories published today by the National Security Archive. The war plan also appalled Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who wanted to find ways to curb its overkill, but the first nuclear plan revised on his watch remained massively destructive. The nuclear war plan, the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP), has been among the U.S. government's most sensitive secrets. No SIOP has ever been declassified, and details about the making of U.S. nuclear war plans have been hard to pry loose. Declassified histories from the early 1960s of SIOP-62 (for fiscal year) and SIOP-63 provide an acute sense of the way that the U.S. government planned to wage nuclear war, as well as how the plans were made and the inter-service conflicts over them. Among the disclosures: * The availability of options for preemptive or retaliatory strikes against Soviet and Chinese targets. * Goals of high levels of damage ("damage expectancy") were intrinsic to the plan, which explains why historians have treated "overkill", or excessive destruction, as one of its most distinctive features. * The internal debate within the military over the war plan, especially Army and Navy concern about excessive destruction and radiation hazards to U.S. troops and people in allied countries near targeted countries. * The high priority of military targets; according to the National Strategic Targeting and Attack Policy (NSTAP), one of the SIOP's purposes was "to destroy or neutralize the military capabilities of the enemy." * How the JSTPS constructed the five alternative strikes that constituted SIOP-63 (fiscal year 1963) in order to be responsive to Secretary of Defense McNamara's quest for alternatives to nuclear attacks on urban-industrial areas, and limit the destructiveness of nuclear war, by focusing on nuclear targets only ("no cities/counterforce"). * The role of "strike timing sheets" in the plan, showing how each bomber and missile would reach its target without destroying each other ("fratricide"). Visit the Web site of the National Security Archive for more information about today's posting. Name of source: A Chinese former "comfort woman" flew to Canada Thursday to place pressure on the Canadian parliament to pass a bill urging Japan to formally apologize to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II. The Dutch parliament endorsed a similar resolution this week. Liu Mianhuan, 80, from Shanxi Province, was joined by three other comfort women from South Korea, the Netherlands and the Philippines, and is scheduled to take part in a series of events in Toronto and Ottawa during the next few days to raise public awareness among Canadians. The events have been organized by the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia, a non-profit organization. The four women are expected to appear before the Canadian parliament on Tuesday, Kang Jian, a Chinese lawyer who is representing Liu, said. Name of source: HNN Staff M. Stanton Evans, a stalwart of the conservative movement for half a century, has written a new book about Joe McCarthy, the long-reviled senator from Wisconsin whose name became a term of opprobrium. In a review in the conservative magazine, the Weekly Standard, Robert Novak asserts that Evans make a convincing case that McCarthy was innocent of the three main charges leveled against him: The demonization of McCarthy was essentially a three-part indictment. First, he labeled as security risks and drove from public life officials (especially skilled Foreign Service professionals) whose only sin was liberalism. Second, he accused innocents of being Communists, sometimes in cases of mistaken identity. And third, he degraded the political process by accusing major rivals of treason. Evans makes a convincing case that McCarthy is innocent on all three counts, and he does so with a painstaking case-by-case approach. The jacket blurb says it took over six years to write Blacklisted by History, but in fact, the 73-year-old Evans, born and bred in the conservative movement, has spent his whole career thinking about Joe. A relentless researcher, Evans was frustrated by the mysterious disappearance of government files and even newspaper clippings. But he tracked down much of the missing data, helped immeasurably by the Venona files of decrypted secret Soviet communications and by the new accessibility of both FBI reports and Soviet archives. McCarthy's oft-stated goal, says Evans, "was to get his suspects out of the federal government and its policy-making system." So the book begins by listing 10 senior government officials (the most prominent of whom was the Soviet agent Lauchlin Currie, an executive assistant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt) who, because they were "targets" of McCarthy, "must have been mere innocent victims of his mid-century reign of terror." But, Evans continues, "all these McCarthy cases were right there in the Soviet cables." Venona, plus supporting data from Kremlin archives, shows that "rather than being blameless martyrs, all were indeed Communists, Soviet agents or assets of the KGB, just as McCarthy had suggested." McCarthy correctly saw a State Department infested with Soviet agents and sympathizers, influencing U.S. foreign policy--in particular, abandonment of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist regime in China. John Stewart Service, a State Department "China hand," is widely viewed as a top-level martyr driven out of the department by McCarthy's accusations. Evans depicts Service living in the provisional Chinese capital of Chungking during World War II with two Soviet agents. Purportedly an adviser to Chiang, Service was sending reports back to Washington degrading Chiang and extolling Mao Zedong's Communists. Evans has obtained 1,200 pages of Services's dispatches, including one asserting that "the Communist political program is simple democracy . . . much more American than Russian." The most familiar case of supposed mistaken identity by McCarthy--really the only such case--involves an elderly black woman from Washington named Annie Lee Moss, employed by the Army as a code clerk. When McCarthy brought her before his investigative committee, then in its last days, she was identified by the FBI as a Communist party member dealing with classified material to demonstrate faulty security procedures. Democrats claimed McCarthy had the wrong Annie Lee Moss. But there was no other Annie Lee Moss, Evans makes clear. The woman testifying was a Communist, the Army belatedly admitted, with "party membership book number 37269." But that did not demolish what Evans calls "The Legend of Annie Moss." Her "mistaken identity" has been central in assaults against McCarthy dating from Edward R. Murrow's famous See It Now program in 1954 to George Clooney's 2005 panegyric of Murrow, Good Night and Good Luck. In an odd twist of irony, Novak recounts that he abandoned McCarthy in 1953 as a 22 year old Army second lieutenant after McCarthy revealed the secret work of Maj. Gen. Perry Reichelderfer, the head of the Army Security Agency: My fellow officers and I were so shocked that we instantly changed our outlook on McCarthy. We were assigned to the ASA Training Center at Fort Devens in a building protected by barbed wire and security guards. We had been instructed never to tell anybody of our ASA connection. We thought listing General Reichelderfer's ASA command was a security breach, and that demeaning a distinguished officer truly constituted McCarthyism. Name of source: C-SPAN Featuring film, sound and video clips that have not been aired yet during our programs - Eleanor Roosevelt speaking with troops in the Pacific, Kennedy family home movies, Gerald Ford Election eve program from Air Force One, and others. Also an interview with Sharon Fawcett, Asst. U.S. Archivist for Pres. Libraries. Name of source: Haaretz The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg Thursday acquitted an Austrian journalist of "causing the suicide" of a German professor who claimed that the Jews declared war on Germany in 1933. The ruling was handed down in a complicated case involving freedom of speech, libel and anti-Semitism. The court found in favor of veteran journalist Karl Pfeifer, ruling that Austrian courts failed to protect Pfeifer's good name. The court ordered the Austrian government to pay Pfeifer 5,000 euros in damages and 10,000 euros in court costs. The verdict states that the Austrian courts violated article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to a private life. The court was not convinced that the reasons put forward by the lower Austrian courts concerning freedom of expression outweighed the right of the applicant to have his reputation safeguarded. In 1995, a German professor, Dr. Werner Pfeifenberger, published an article about the "Jewish conspiracy," beginning with the 1789 French Revolution. He claimed that the Jews declared war on Germany in 1933. Pfeifer, who edited the Austrian Jewish community newspaper, responded with an article in which he accused the German professor of underrating the crimes of the Nazi regime. Name of source: Salt Lake Tribune History came to life recently at Eagle Bay Elementary's annual Wax Museum as visitors strolled past fifth-graders posed as some of the nation's most-influential historical figures. Among the individuals depicted: Bill Gates working on his laptop; Rosa Parks sitting at the front of a cardboard bus; and Paul Revere riding his horse - a rocking horse at this occasion - to herald the news of the British invasion. What started four years ago at the Farmington school as an opportunity for students to acquaint themselves with great Americans, has resulted in costumes, hairpieces, backdrops and props galore. But when the idea was first broached, some considered it to be just one more "project" for the kids to work on. Teacher Debbie Pead says that attitude has changed. The students "know that this is a big thing," she said. "It gives them a chance to dive into United States history. When they take a character, they get excited. Some of the students who don't perform on other levels, do better at this." Name of source: BELLS from ships lost during the Great War have seen daylight for the first time in nearly 90 years after Yorkshire sub aqua club members struck lucky while exploring wrecks this summer. National diving experts say there has been a glut in recent finds aboard lost vessels around the country because the summer rain prevented diving earlier in the year and now enthusiasts are making up for last time. Seven bells have been recovered off the Yorkshire Coast this summer by a number of sub aqua club members and other enthusiasts from the Filey and Scarborough areas – who are usually surprised to find more than one a year. Name of source: While not well known for his watercolors, the failed dictator of Germany, Adolf Hilter, was quite a gifted artist. The esoteric fact Hitler aspired to artistic endeavor, preceding the atrocities for which he is remembered today, is an idiosyncratic component of WWII history. Understandably, a gallery visit is unlikely to yield any of his work, but occasionally his pieces are bought and sold. Two such paintings have recently surfaced on Manion's International Auction House - a 1911 dated watercolor of the Votivkirche in Vienna, and his WWI era interpretation of a French farmhouse. "This is quite an interesting glimpse into the soul of one of the most infamous figures in world history," said Manion's representative John Conway. "To look at these renditions, one would think the hand that held the brush belonged to a gentle man – but history has revealed the opposite." Name of source: Hark the Herald Angels Sing' is just one of more than 6,500 hymns composed by Charles Wesley, younger brother of John Wesley, founder of Methodism. An Post's new 78c stamp marks the 300th anniversary of Charles Wesley's birth in Lincolnshire, England in 1707. Despite his closeness to his brother, Charles was not always in agreement with John in matters relating to their beliefs. Charles was strongly opposed to the idea of a breach with the Church of England into which they had been ordained. Nevertheless, his devotional compositions were more than just a testament to his faith; they provided an enduring musical and spiritual legacy and to this day, his hymns are contemplated and celebrated by Christians across the world. Name of source: IT is the first written indication of what would become an intense rivalry between Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera, ultimately splitting the nation. It is expected to fetch up to €50,000 at auction next week. A letter, written by Collins on the first anniversary of the Easter Rising in April 1917 to fellow Rising leader Thomas Ashe, gives his views of the incredibly tense political affairs of the time. Written in code -- as Ashe was still in prison -- it contains some caustic remarks about de Valera and Arthur Griffith as Collins went about strengthening his own political base and rebuilding the Irish Republican Brotherhood following his release from internment a few months earlier. Name of source: International Herald Tribune For nearly seven years, Jan Longone, an antiquarian cookbook collector, has been haunted by a ghost. The spirit came into her life as thousands of other vintage volumes from book dealers had before: in a plain brown wrapper. But as soon as she held Malinda Russell's "Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen," she could see its author and her world - the small, seldom-discussed society of free blacks in the 19th century - coming to life before her eyes. "I felt like an archaeologist who had just stumbled on a dinosaur," said Longone, who is the curator of American culinary history at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "I was in awe." Longone, long considered the top expert on old American cookbooks, knew immediately that she was holding the earliest cookbook by a black woman that had ever come to light. Turning the 39 fragile pages of the 1866 pamphlet, she realized, too, that it could challenge ingrained views about the cuisine of black Americans. MINNEAPOLIS: Around a table at Ingebretsen's, an 86-year-old market stocked with Norwegian staples like lutefisk, meatballs and fruit soup, the women of the Monday knitting club were upset. "This is a bit of a slap in the face," Janet Rog, 74, said of Norway's recent announcement that it would shut its career consulate here next year and send the diplomats home. The consulate - opened in 1906 and upgraded in 1946 to its current status as consulate general - is a point of pride for the Upper Midwest, which is home to more Norwegian-Americans than any other region of the country. It is hardly a question of their needing a nearby office to get passport updates or the like. The families of most, after all, have lived in America for generations, and many confess that they have never actually set foot inside the consulate. Rather, this is a matter of respect, of recognition. "We're very proud of our roots, and we've tried really hard to preserve them," said Shirley Hansen, another knitter at a table bursting with the bright geometric patterns Norway is known for. Name of source: Korea Times A clepsydra, a water clock that was made on King Sejong's orders in 1434, has been fully recreated and will be on view to the public from Nov. 28. The water clock is regarded as one of the greatest inventions in Korean science history. It is a standard self-striking water clock system, which uses the flow of water. A team, led by Professor Nam Moon-hyeon of Konkuk University, recreated the water clock based on the remaining parts of a clepsydra known as the Jagyeongnu, which was made during the reign of King Jungjong in 1536, the National Palace Museum of Korea announced Wednesday. Name of source: Remains of an ancient synagogue from the Roman-Byzantine era have been revealed in excavations carried out in the Arbel National Park in the Galilee under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The excavations, in the Khirbet Wadi Hamam, were led by Dr. Uzi Leibner of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology and Scholion – Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies. Dr. Leibner said that the synagogue's design is a good example of the eastern Roman architectural tradition. A unique feature of the synagogue is the design of its mosaic floor, he said.	eng	dfda55a2-b427-4086-a8ed-843fdd282bcd	http://www.hnn.us/roundup/archives/41/200711?page=1
· As a REWARD for those who have been working hard and need a break, we will have NOReading or Spelling homework this week. We will test on this week's Reading story, but will not test on the Spelling words. We will be working on multiplication facts in the classroom, please review the 4's and 6's at home. Everyone has been really working hard these past few weeks, so I decided to give them a week off! Enjoy! J · Money for Pain Pals is due this Thursday. ($12) If you write a check, please make it out to Saraland Elementary. Also, please make sure you have a phone number listed on the check. April 4-6 Miss Saraland Pageant Ø April 15-19 Spring Break · We are in need of Germ X and soap. If you could donate any of the items, we would greatly appreciate it! · Progress Reports will be sent home this Wednesday. Please sign and return. · We have been working on Multiplication in the classroom. We will be working on new facts each week. Your child will be tested on the weekly facts at the end of each week. This week our focus is on the 2's and 3's. March 25-29 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class March 25-29, 2013 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Horace and Morris… by James Howe Genre: Fantasy Read Library Book! Read amazing, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Read Library Book! Read the story The Fishing Trip Different Kinds of Pronouns Skill: Cursive See note below Pronoun Test Spelling Skill: ph, gh /f/ sounds Test Math Skill: Adding to and Subtracting from 100 Unit 6 Test Science Skill: Plants Study Plant Study Guide for test on Friday! Study Plant Study Guide for test on Friday! Study Plant Study Guide for test on Friday! Study Plant Study Guide for test on Friday! Plant TestStudents who receive an 'A' on their previous spelling test will be given a reward of NO workbook pages to complete during the week. March 19-22 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class March 18-22, 2013 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Bad Dog, Dodger! by Barbara Abercrombie Genre: Realistic Fiction Read Library Book! Read amazing, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Read Library Book! Read the story Jose Learns to Fish Pronouns I and me Skill: Cursive Pronoun Test Spelling Skill: Silent consonants Test Math Skill: Adding to and Subtracting from 100 Study Multiplication Facts 5's and 10's Study Multiplication Facts 5's and 10's Study Multiplication Facts 5's and 10's Study Multiplication Facts 5's and 10's Test on Multiplication facts 5 and 10. Science Skill: Plants March 19 – Spring Pictures Ø March 22 – Report Card Distribution Ø March 29 – Special Olympics We have Brian's family scheduled to send treats this Friday for Fun Friday! We will have an Easter celebration on March 29th. Please send in $4 by Friday to cover the cost. Thanks! March 11-14 Dear Family, This is the last week of Third Quarter. We will be taking our End of Quarter Tests in Reading and Math this week. Please make sure your child is here on time and eats a good breakfast. Also, there will be NO SCHOOL this Friday. It is Teacher Workday. Tentative Test Dates Reading Qtr. Test--Tuesday, March 19th Math Qtr. Test --Wednesday, March 20th We will be learning: Reading – Review * Math – 2 digit addition subtraction * Language – Review * Phonics – Review Homework Monday: Review Math Study Guide. Tuesday: Review Math Study Guide. 14thA BIG THANKS to Laurenfor the cupcakes and drinks last week! Yummy! We have Ariana's family scheduled to send treats this Thursday. March 4-8 Dear Family, We will NOT have a reading story, spelling words, or vocabulary words this week due to reviewing for our end of quarter tests. We will take end of the quarter tests next week. I will, however, be sending home math practice sheets from our workbooks for your child to complete at home. Tentative Test Dates Reading Qtr. Test--Tuesday, March 19th Math Qtr. Test --Wednesday, March 20th 21stPlease take time to visit our class page on the school's website for important information and tools to help your child. I try to post games, newsletters, etc. that we use in the class to the site. Thank you to Sarah and her family for providing our Fun Friday snack last week! We have Lauren Hudson scheduled for this week. Dry Snacks We are out of morning snacks. Any donations would be greatly appreciated! February 25-March 1 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' class February 25- March 1, 2013 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story:Fire Fighter! By Angela Royston Genre: Narrative Non-Fiction Comprehension Skill: Main Idea/ Supporting Details Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Workbook pages will be sent home occasionally. Students can use these as extra practice at home. They do not need to send back. Science/Social Studies Skill: Weather Skill: Jobs Weather Handout (Pick a day and watch weather segment of news and complete chart) Weather Test required to create their own sentences using spelling words provided by teacher. The sentences will be graded on correct spelling and capitalization of all words along with using the correct punctuation at the end of the sentences. Announcements! ·Thank you to Grace and her family for providing our Fun Friday snack last week! We have Sarah scheduled for this week. ·The end of quarter is fast approaching, please make sure your child is here on time so we can get started promptly 28 – Last day to order Yearbooks online March 1st – Read Across America Day! March 14 – End of 3rd Quarter March 15 - Teacher Workday (No School!) March 19 – Spring Pictures March 22 – Report Card Distribution March 29 – Special Olympics Feb 18-22 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' class February 18-22, 2013 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story:Helen Keller and the Big Storm By Patricia Lakan Genre: Narrative Non-Fiction Comprehension Skill: Fact/OpinionSubtraction Drill Science/Social Studies Skill: WeatherAnnouncements! ·Thank you to Chloe and her family for providing our Fun Friday snack last week! We have Grace Courtney scheduled for this week. ·Progress Reports will go home this Tuesday 19 - Math and Literacy Night Feb. 4-8 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' class February 4-8, 2013 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story:I Like Where I Am By Jessica Harper Genre: Narrative PoemScience/Social Studies Skill: Production and Distribution Answer the questions on the handout, "Where I Live" and turn in Friday. Where I Live Project is due!Thank you to Davis and his family for providing our Fun Friday snack last week! We have Chloe Etheridge scheduled for this week. J ·Progress Reports will go home this Tuesday. Please keep in mind the reading skills and math skills are getting more challenging. Students are required to answer with complete sentences on any open-ended question. Some students are still struggling with re-wording questions into statements with answers 11-13 – No School (Holidays) February 19 - Math and Literacy Night January 22,2013 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class January 21-25, 2013 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story:Life Cycle of a Pumpkin by Ron Fridell and Patricia Walsh Genre: Expository Nonfiction MLK Holiday No School! Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Announcements Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class January 21-25, 2013 ·A Big thank you to Chaz and her family for providing our Fun Friday snack last week! We have James Davis scheduled to bring our Fun Friday snack this week. ·Progress Reports will go home this Wednesday. Keep in mind the reading skills and math skills are getting more challenging. Students are required to answer with complete sentences on any open-ended question. Some students are still struggling with re-wording questions into statements with answers. ·Scholastic Book Order forms went home last week. You may order from the forms or online. If you order online you will receive a FREE $5book coupon with your order. I have attached the information for ordering online with the book forms. Also, there are more books to choose from and great deals if you order online. ALL orders are due this Wednesday, January 23rd. ·Our 100th day of school is Thursday, January 31st. More information will be sent home about that special day this weekIf you have not purchased or created a set of subtraction cards, please do so. We took our first timed drill last Friday. We will take another drill next Friday. ·Check out our school website for information and activities we are doing in the classroom! Newsletters, announcements, projects, games, pictures, etc. are all posted on our classroom website for you to view 24/7! ·Dates to Remember: January 25th – Out of Uniform Day for Accelerated Reader ($2) January 31st – 100th Day of School January 31st – Yearbook orders due February 11th -13th – Holiday (No School) February 19th – Math and Literacy Night 2nd Qrt Honor Roll Rhonda Williams 2nd Grade 2nd Quarter Honor Roll A Honor Roll- James Davis Landen Dixon Andie Fort Jakalyn Griffin Sarah Martin Chandler Merrill AB Honor Roll- 10 Ariana Beck Chloe Etheridge Chaz Hobbs Alexis Howard Lauren Hudson Davis Shorter Perfect Attendance- 10 Ariana Beck Joshua Coffey Grace Courtney James Davis Andie Fort Brian Fuchsen Chandler Merrill Lauren Hudson Davis Shorter Citizenship- 2 James Davis Chaz Hobbs Jan. Scholastic Order DUE JAN 23rd Book Club Order Due Date : January 23rd Scholastic Book Clubs Ordering Information Class Activation Code: LF9QG Dear Parents, This month's Scholastic Book Club flyers are ready for you to explore with your child. Children read more when they choose their own books, so I encourage you to look at the flyers together. You can return the order form and payment to me, or give online ordering a try. It saves time, offers more book choices, and earns extra rewards for the classroom! Happy reading, Your child's teacher P.S. When you place your order online, you'll help earn FREE Books for our class and you also get a $5 FREE Book Pick Coupon to use on your next online order! January 14, 2013 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' class January 14-18, 2013 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story:The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston Genre: Realistic Fiction Read the Story "Jingle and Jangle" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Re-read the Story "Jingle and Jangle" and have an adult time you for one minute. Workbook pages will be sent home occasionally. Please have your child complete them and send back in. Study subtraction flash cards Study subtraction flash cards Subtraction Drill Science/Social Studies Skill: Matter Skill: A Product Map of KansasA Big thank you to Landen and his family for providing our Fun Friday snack last week! We have Chaz Hobbs scheduled to bring our Fun Friday snack this week. ·Scholastic Book Order forms are going home tomorrow. You may order from the forms or online. If you order online, you will receive a FREE $5 book coupon with your order. I will attach the information for ordering online with the book forms. Also, there are more books to choose from and great deals if you order online. ALL orders are due Wednesday, January 23rd. ·Please encourage your child to read daily at home and take AR tests on their library books. I gave students there AR goals last week and sent home STAR tests! Don't forget the school is offering great prizes for those who achieve goals in AR throughout the quarter. The grand prize is a Kindle Fire! ·Please purchase or create a set of basic subtraction cards for your child to study at home. This will be required for each child as a homework assignment starting this week!January 7, 2013 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class January 7-11, 2013 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story:A Weed is a Flower by Aliki Genre: Biography Read the Story "The Smartest Way Down" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Re-read the Story "The Smartest Way DownI want to thank each and every one of my students and parents for the wonderful Christmas gifts I received! I can't believe we are already in the second half of the school year! This year is definitely flying by! I have treasured each jewel I have in my classroom this year and will continue to do so! Thank you for being such wonderful students and parents! · Third quarter has always proved to be the hardest. Continue to work hard with your child. Have them read to you daily and ask them questions about what they read to check for comprehension. · Please encourage your child to read daily at home and take AR tests on their library books. This Quarter's goal is for each student to read and take at least 10 AR tests by the end of the quarter! · We have started cursive writing in our classroom. I have attached a copy of a cursive handwriting guide your child can practice with at home. Please use this guide at home to correct and aid your child in the correct formation and strokes of their letters. · I have attached a copy of the Fun Friday Snack Schedule. Please see list for your date. · Please purchase or create a set of basic subtraction cards for your child to study at home. I will assign this as a homework assignment starting next week. We will have our first subtraction fact test next Friday. Your child will have 8 minutes to complete 50 subtraction facts. Please have your child practice these as much as you can to ensure your child has memorized all facts. When they have to use their fingers, it slows them down during the test. · We have begun our DIBELS testing today. Each child are required to be able to read at least 60 words a minute for the mid-year DIBELS. The goal for the end of year DIBELS is set at 92 words a minute. Please continue to have your child read the stories sent home every Monday for practice.December 17-20 Dear Family, I hope you had a wonderful weekend! We will not have a reading story, spelling words, or vocabulary words this week due to quarter testing. We will take end of the quarter tests this week. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. Thanks, Mrs. Rhonda Williams Important Dates Dec. 20-----------Christmas Party Dec. 20--------End of 2nd Quarter Dec. 21- Jan.1-----Christmas Break Jan. 3& 4------Teacher Workday Jan. 4-----Students Return to School Supplies Please make sure your child has the daily supplies he/she needs in order to be productive at school. Many students need PENCILS and pencil sharpeners.We also are out of tissues, paper towels and germ-X. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. Dry Snacks We are out of morning snacks. Any donations would be greatly appreciated! Tentative Test Dates Reading Quarter Test---Tuesday Math Quarter Test -----Wednesday because AR is worth 3 grades! The last day that they will be able to test is December 20th. Christmas Party Our Christmas Party is Thursday at 1:00. If you haven't sent in your $5 to cover the cost please do so by tomorrow! Also, please send in cash. Also, if you would like to send something special or goodie bags for our Christmas Party you may. We have 18 students. Please take time to visit our class page on the school's website for important information and tools to help your child. I try to post all study guides, presentations, etc. that we use in class to the site. December 10-14 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class December 10-14, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Rosa and Blanca By Joe Hayes Genre: Realistic Fiction Read the story "A Tiger at Night" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday. Re-read the story "A Tiger at Night" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday. No Test this week! Language Skill: Verbs Polar Express Day! Wear Pajamas! Spelling Skill: Long i: i, ie, igh, y Spelling Practice book page 53-54 (Turn in Friday) Spelling Practice book page 55-56 (Turn in Friday) Math Skill: Counting with Patterns Social Studies Map Skill: Minnesota Skill: Christmas traditions around the world 14th: Polar Express Pajama Day December 21-January 3: No School! Christmas Holiday Break Christmas Party Reminder: Our class Christmas Party is scheduled for Thursday,December 20th @ 1:00 p.m. If you have not sent your party money, please do so tomorrow ($5). Also, please send in cash. The money goes directly to our room mother. Thanks! Also, if you would like to send something special or goodie bags for our Christmas Party you may. We have 18 students in our class!! December 3-7 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class December 3-7, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Anansi Goes Fishing Retold by Eric Kimmel Genre: Poetry Read the Story "Snowstorm Fun" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday. Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Field Trip NO HOMEWORK TONIGHT!!! Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Take a practice spelling test including writing sentences with two of the spelling words. Spelling Test Math Skill: Odd and Even Numbers Social Studies/Science Skill: Map of Hawaii Skill: Simple MachineClassroom Christmas Party Our class Christmas Party is Thursday, December 20, 2012. We have started planning! I am asking for each student to bring in $5.00 to cover the cost by next Tuesday, December 11th. Please try to send in party money as soon as you can so that we can get the things we need for our party Our room mother will be organizing and planning our fun filled event.. Parents are invited to come, but no siblings will be allowed. November 26-30 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class November 26-30, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Dear Juno by Soyung Pak Genre: Realistic Fiction Read the Story "Goby the Goat" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday. Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Re-read the Story "Goby the Goat" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday. Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Take a practice spelling test including writing sentences with two of the spelling words. Spelling Test Math Skill: Addition and Subtraction Story Problems Social Studies/Science Skill: Land/Water map of Arizona Skill: Simple Machines Use sign language sheet to practice spelling out your name. Use sign language sheet to practice spelling out your name. Use sign language sheet to practice spelling out your name. Use sign language sheet to practice spelling out your name. Sign Language Test on Names 28th: Field Trip Money and forms due!Polar Express Day/Christmas Party: I will send home more information regarding these activities later. Classroom Website: Check out our school website for information and activities we are doing in the classroom! Newsletters, announcements, projects, pictures, etc. are all posted on our classroom website for you to view 24/7! November 13-16 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class November 12-16, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Pearl and Wagner Two Good Friends Genre: Animal Fantasy Read the Story "Sailing the Sea" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday . Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Re-read the Story "Sailing the Sea" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday . Take a practice spelling test including 2 made up dictation sentences that have at least 5 or more words in them. Test Math Skill: Addition and Subtraction of multi digit numbers Social Studies/Science Skill: World Map Skill: Thanksgiving 21-23: Thanksgiving Holiday (NO SCHOOL) Ms. Williams' Newsletter 2nd Grade rdwilliams@saralandboe.org Important Things to Know ·Fun Friday: Brian Fuchsen will be bringing treats this week! Pleaseremind your child that this is a REWARD for those students who exhibit GOOD behavior and finish their assignments ON TIME during the week. ··Thanksgiving Project I am asking each student to bring in $3 to cover the cost of a project we will be making in class for our parents. Please bring in your money no later than this Friday, November 16th. Dates to Remember: November 21-23: Thanksgiving Holiday (NO SCHOOL) Sign UP for Reminder Text Messages from Ms. Williams How to sign up for Ms. Williams's Ms. Rhonda Williams' 2nd Grade notifications: Text @msrhond to (424) 275-2307 or Email msrhond@mail.remind101.com November 6-9 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class November 5-9, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading A Turkey for Thanksgiving Genre: Animal Fantasy Read the fluency passage "The Day of the Mermaid" while having an adult time you for minute. Turn in on Friday. Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Read the passage, "The Yellow River" and answer questions on the back. (Turn in Friday) Reread the fluency passage "The Day of the Mermaid" and have an adult time you for one minute. Take a practice spelling test including 2 made up dictation sentences that have at least 5 or more words in them. TEST Math Skill: Geometry/ Unit 2 Social Studies/Science Skill: Road Map of Nebraska Skill: SoundMs. Williams' Newsletter 2nd Grade rdwilliams@saralandboe.org Important Things to Know vProgress Reports I will be sending progress reports home this week. Please sign and return. vOctober Spartan Student of the Month Congratulations to Landen Dixon for being our October Spartan Student of the Month! vFun Friday Thank you to Ariana and her family for providing our Fun Friday treat last Friday! The students enjoyed their cookie cake and Capri Suns! Pleaseremind your child that this is a REWARD for those students who exhibit GOOD behavior and finish their assignments ON TIME during the week. I added a lot of pictures from the Halloween Party so please go check it outOctober 30, 2012 Parent Memo: October 30, 2012 ·We are NOT doing the Turkey project!! I'm sorry I meant to take it off the homework guide before sending it home!! ·Don't forget students can wear their costumes tomorrow! ·We will start our Halloween snack after lunch because we will be carving a pumpkin and completing an expository paper on "How to Carve a Pumpkin" so please send in all snack items in the morning! If you can't send your item in for any reason please let me know asap! ·Please review the spelling test that was sent home today. We have been taking bubble tests but this quarter the spelling tests will be different. Please look over this with your child and practice at home. They will only have to write one sentence this week, two next, and then three the next. If you have any questions or concerns please email me at rdwilliams@saralandboe.org. Thanks, Ms. Williams October 29-November 2 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class October 29- November 2, 2011 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading The Bremen Town Musicians Genre: Fairy Tale Read the fluency passage "Animal Wishes" while having an adult time you for minute. Turn in on Friday. Parenting Day! Open House 5-7pm Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Read the passageand answer the questions. Turn in Friday. Costume Day! Reread the fluency passage "Animal Wishes Things to Know ·1st Quarter Report Cards were sent home today with those that came to Parenting Day. If you attend tonight's Open House, you may receive your child's report card. If you are unable to attend, I will send report cards home this week. Please keep the report card but sign the envelope on the line for 1st Quarter and return it back to school! vHalloween Snack We will be having a Halloween Snack this Wednesday! Please remember to send in your items by Wednesday. If you can't send in your item for some reason please send me a note so I can make sure I pick it up! vFun Friday Thank you to Lauren and her family for providing our Fun Friday treat last Friday! The students enjoyed Halloween cupcakes and juice! Pleaseremind your child that this is a REWARD for those students who exhibit GOOD behavior and finish their assignments ON TIME during the week. vScholastic Book Order Orders are not due Friday, Nov. 2nd!Ms. Williams' Newsletter 2nd Grade vScholastic Orders were due last week. I haven't placed the order yet, so if you would like to order please send in your form tomorrow! vFire Safety Posters Reminder that all posters are due by Thursday, October 25th! This will be a Social Studies gradeProgress Report A progress report is being sent home one day this week for you to view. This is the final grade for each subject for 1st Quarter. Report cards don't come home until October 29th. vSTAR and AR: I am giving STAR reading tests this week. I will send home a report when I finish testing every student. I will also give students their 2nd quarter reading AR goals this week. Please make sure to check their reading log folders every night and make sure they are reading at least 15 minutes every night. This can count towards the BOOK IT program also! vDrug Free Week: October 22nd – 26th §Monday: Hat Day "Put a cap on drugs!" §Tuesday: Crazy Sock Day "Sock it to drugs!" §Wednesday: Sunglasses Day "Shade out drugs!" §Thursday: "Life is sweet drug free!" §Friday: Team Shirt Day "Team up against drugs!"abdboe.org if you have any questions or concernsThis is the last week of 1st Quarter. We will be taking our End of Quarter Tests in Reading and Math this week. The Reading Test will be Tuesday and Math is scheduled for Wednesday. Please make sure your child is at school on time and eats a good breakfast. vWe will not have Spelling words or a Fluency sheet this week! No Homework! J vNo school this Friday! Teacher Work Day! vThursday is the deadline for the "Be a Champion" list to be turned in for a chance to win Iron Bowl tickets! Please turn your list in if you have not already! vScholastic Book Orders and money are due Thursday! Don't forget you can order online and earn a free book for your child and our class! I added the link on our webpage if you misplaced your order forms! vNext week is Red Ribbon Week in which students are educated about the importance of staying drug free. Next Monday is "Put a cap on drugs": students wear a hat. Next Tuesday is "Sock it to drugs": students wear crazy socks. Next Wednesday is "Shade out drugs": students wear sunglasses. Next Thursday is "Life is sweet drug free": students will get a treat. Next Friday is "Team up against drugs": students wear team shirt. vWe will be having a special Halloween Snack on Monday, October 31st! I will send home more information about it later. vThank you to Sarah and her family for providing our Fun Friday treat last Friday! The students enjoyed their "baseball" goodies! Please remind your child that this is a reward for those students who exhibit good behavior and finish their assignments on time during the week.andboe.org if you need to contact me at any time! Dates to Remember:October 8-12 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' class October 8-12, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Ronald Morgan Goes to Bat by Genre: Realistic Fiction Read the Story "Dora Can't Skate" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday. Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Read the passage, "A Helping Hand" and answer the questions. Turn in Friday. Re-read the Story "Dora Can't Skate 8th: Fire House DayParent Announcements Congratulations to Andie Fortfor being our September Spartan Student of the Month! Fun Friday A HUGE thank you to Andie and her family for providing our Fun Friday treat last Friday! Everyone enjoyed their treats! Sarah Martin will provide treats this week! We can't wait! Please remind your child that this is a reward for those students who exhibit good behavior and finish their assignments on time during the week. Alabama vs. Auburn Reading Don't forget to fill out and send back the completed "Be a Champion" reading sheet for your child to be entered into the drawing to win Iron Bowl tickets. Your child needs to read at least 6 books. If you need a reading book sheet, let me know Scholastic Book Order September orders should be arriving one day this week. I will send home October forms one day this week. · Homecoming Week: October 8th-12th The October 1-5 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' class October 1-5, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends by Andrew Clements Read the Story "Bart's Problem" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday. Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Read the passage, "The Big Splash" and answer the questions. Turn in Friday. Re-read the Story "Bart's Problem 5th: Fire House Day October 18th: Last day of Quarter 1 and Alabama/Auburn book list due October 19th: Teacher Workday-No Class for students October 22nd: Alabama Statewide Parenting Day October 25th: Fire Poster Due Parent Announcements · Fun Friday Thank you to Chloe and her family for providing our Fun Friday treat last Friday! The students enjoyed their ants on a log treats. Please remind your child that this is a reward for those students who exhibit good behavior and finish their assignments on time during the week · Room Mom Thank you to Mrs. Davis (James' mom) for volunteering to be our Room Mother this year. She is in need of helpers. Even if you are a working mom, we will have things you could do during none school hours if you would like to help. Just send in a note with your name and phone number and I will give it to James' mom so that she can contact you. Thank you for all your support! · Fire Safety Permission Slips We will be visiting the Fire Safety Trailer on Friday, October 5th. If you have not yet returned your permission form to allow your child to participate, please do so. I need a form back from each student. If you do not wish for your child to visit, just check no on the form Friday Spirit Wear: Students are allowed to wear their Spartan Jersey or Spartan Cheerleading Uniform on Fridays during football season! · Pencil Sharpeners: My pencil sharpeners aren't working very well. Your child needs to have a pencil sharpener (with a top) at their desk so they can sharpen their pencil throughout the day. · Homecoming Week: October 8th-12thThe You can always email me rdwilliams@saralandboe.org. September 24-28 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class September 24-28, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: The Strongest One by Joseph Brushac Please make sure your child is reading every night and you fill out the reading log. Also, please remind them to turn in their reading log folder if they need to take a test! Read the Story "Little Bear" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday Read amazing words, high frequency, and vocabulary words aloud to an adult. Read the poem, "All For One" and answer the questions. Turn in Friday. Re-read the Story "Little Bear" and have an adult time you for one minute. (Turn in Friday) Study ALL vocabulary words with an adult. Selection TEST (they are able to use their reading book with this) Vocabulary/Comprehension Test This test is assesses words we learned this week and also reading skills using a unfamiliar reading passage The spelling test this week will be multiple choice and they will have to bubble in the word that is spelled correctly. They will also have to write and spell the word wall words correctly on the test so please practice this at home. Dates to Remember: September 24th: Annual Title 1 Parenting Meeting @Saraland Middle School (12:00p.m. and 6:00p.m.) October 18th: Last day of Quarter 1 October 19th: Alabama/Auburn book list due Parent Note · Fun Friday: Thank you to Davis and his family for providing our Fun Friday treat last Friday! The students loved their dirt cake with the gummy "snake" treat! Chloe will be bringing Fun Friday this Friday! We can't wait! Addition Facts: Please keep practice addition facts at home with your child. We will take a practice drill every other Treasure Chest: If you have any small toys or items around the house that would make great treasure chest prizes, please donate them to our classroom. We would greatly appreciate all donations!!! · INOW Your child's INOW login and password were sent home to you last week. Use this to look at your child's grades weekly online. I will be sending a current progress report sometime this week. Please sign and return it. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. · Be a Champion Reading Contest A reading list was sent home for all students to read 6 books. When the list is completed, please turn it back in to me with either Alabama or Auburn checked at the top. All students that complete this requirement will have their name put in a drawing to have the chance to win Iron Bowl tickets!·If you haven't turned in your Scholastic Order please do so by tomorrow! Thanks!!! Thank you to James and his family for bringing a VERY S'more Pops and juice for our Fun Friday last week! Davis' family will be sending Fun Friday treats this week! We can't wait!! Spelling Homework Keep in mind that your child can use the Spelling City website in place of their homework assignment. ( I will need proof that they used the website for homework. You can print a certificate from the site as they complete the assignment or you may write me a note letting me know what game or activity they used their spelling words with each night. If your child uses this site in place of their homework sheet, they must have a total of 4 activities completed by Friday. Some students have already started using this site. If you log on the school website and enter our classroom page, I have a link on our webpage that will take you to the site with the spelling words already listed for you. · Addition Facts: We will be taking a practice fact drill this Room Mom Please send me a note if you would like to be our Room Mom. As our room mom, you will help me plan parties and other special events. J I would like to say a BIG thank you to all the wonderful mothers and grandmothers who are already helping me! You guys rock!!!THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING MY BIRTHDAY SO SPECIAL!! I love all my gifts!! Sept. 10-14 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' class September 10-14, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant Read the Story "A World in the City" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday . Read amazing words and high frequency words aloud to an adult. No Homework Re-read the Story "A World in the City" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday . Test Language Skill: Subjects and Predicates Quiz Spelling Skill: Consonant Blends Complete workbook pg. 9 (Turn in on Friday) Complete workbook pg. 10 (Turn in on Friday) Complete workbook pg. 11 and 12 (Turn in on Friday) Test Math Skill: money, counting, time Purchaseorcreateadditionflash cards this week! Practice using flash cards Practice using flash cards Practice using flash cards Practice using flash cardsTurn in Moon observation sheetOccasionally there may be assignments added or omitted to homework if we do not get to them in class. Please be flexible. Note to Parents ·A SUPER BIG thank you to Chaz's family for sending in "Moon" Pies, Starburst, and Capri Suns last week for our FUN FRIDAY! Everyone enjoyed them! We have James' family scheduled to send Fun Friday this week. We can't wait! ·This year it is vital that your child know, from memorization, their addition and subtraction facts. Flashcards are a great way to ensure they learn them. Flashcards can be store-bought or home-made. It does not matter. If your child shows hesitation for longer than 3 seconds for a specific fact when flashing a card, this is probably one they need to practice more. We will be using flashcards in class as well. ·We have kicked off Accelerated Reading within our classroom. Many of your children have already begun reading and taking many tests. They are very excited about accumulating points for prizes. Prior to starting A.R. each child was given the STAR Reading Assessment to determine their reading levels. This specifies what level of books your child needs to be reading independently. Copies of your child's results were sent home last week with your child. Please encourage them to read at home as well. They can bring books from home to test as long as the book is in our system. We will begin checking out books this week from our school library. They are allowed to take the books home daily. Another good reference is our local public library. Your child's reading goals are in their Reading Log Folders. Please make sure they reach their goal this quarter. They can exceed their goals! The more they read the betterJ I have stressed to them the importance of reading a book thoroughly. Just because they take a quiz on a test does not mean they will receive points if they do poorly on it. Please question your child weekly about their points and books they are reading. It is perfectly fine for your child to read out loud to you, and then you question her/him on what they have read. You will need to sign and return it the next day. This will keep you informed on their progress in Accelerated Reading. ·I am sending home a current progress report one day this week. Please sign and return it in your child's SPARTAN folder. If you have any questions or concerns, please send me a note or email me at rdwilliams@saralandboe.org. I also have my planning time from 10:00 to 10:30 daily for conferencing needs. If you would like to meet please email or send a note and I we can set up a time that will work for us both. ·All coupon fundraiser book money are due Wednesday! Please send money and orders inside the provided envelope with all totals written on the envelope. Thanks for working hard to raise money for our Little Spartans! ·Remember to check out our school website for information and activities we are doing in the classroom! Newsletters, announcements, projects, pictures, etc. are all posted on our classroom website for you to view 24/7! September 3-7 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class September 3-7, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Exploring Space with an Astronaut by Patricia J. Murphy Labor Day Holiday Read the Story "Going to Space" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday . Read amazing words and high frequency words aloud to an adult. Read a book of your choice and record it on your Reading Log sheet. Re-read the Story "Going to Space" and have an adult time you for one minute. Turn in Friday . Exploring Space… Test Language Skill: Subjects Spelling Skill: CVCe pattern Complete workbook pg. 5 (Turn in on Friday) Complete workbook pg. 6 (Turn in on Friday) Take a practice spelling test including writing two of the spelling words in sentences. Test Math Skill: Counting and Coins Complete Math handout (Turn in on Friday) Complete Math handout (Turn in on Friday)Scrapbook Project DUE FRIDAY!!!! Occasionally there may be assignments added or omitted to homework if we do not get to them in class. Please be flexible. * Note to Parents ·Thank you to Landen and his mom for sending in our Fun Friday treats last week. We loved our ROLL TIDE cookiesJ ·I am sending home Scholastic Order forms today. Please make all checks payable to Scholastic Book Clubs. All orders are due by Tuesday, September 11th. ·Our lunch schedule is from 12:15 – 12:45. If you would like to eat lunch with your child, please make sure to sign in through the office and get a visitor's pass. We will meet you in the hall in front of office as we walk in the cafeteria. If you decide to bring in any kind of fast food for your child, please make sure it is in an unmarked brown bag. This is a school rule that is enforced by the state. Also, students are not allowed to have sodas for lunch or snack. Please make sure they have a juice box, water, or thermos. ·All lunch and snack money needs to be sent in an envelope with your child's name, teacher name, and lunch number on the outside. I encourage all parents to pay weekly or monthly on your child's account. Your child's lunch # is ____________. Please try to send in the correct amount on snack. Snack is .75 cents. I may not always have change to give them in the classroom. ·Please clean out your child's Spartan folder every day! All papers need to be kept at home, with the exception of homework that is being returned and the monthly behavior calendar. Please help your child with this important task of responsibility. ·Every student has been STAR tested and has been given the DIBEL assessment. I am sending home a copy of your child's results. Please read the letter, sign, and return to school. ·We began taking tests last week in Reading and Math. Since we were out of school for two days, we used the Reading tests as a practice test. I am sending a copy of the Reading tests home so that you will be able to use it as a guide to help your child study and become familiar with the format of the tests and what is to be expected. ·We also, starting testing on Accelerated Reader. Your child is expected to have at least 10 AR points by the end of 1st Quarter. I will be sending home information regarding your child's AR status with each bi-weekly progress report. ·I will be sending home bi-weekly progress reports every other Monday starting next week. This will keep you informed of your child's progress throughout the school year. J ·Thank you so much for all of your support and hard work. We are off to a great start! Remember to check out our school website for information and activities we are doing in the classroom! Newsletters, announcements, projects, pictures, etc. are all posted on our classroom website for you to view 24/7! Just go to Click on school staff on the left side. Locate my name and click on it. August 27-31 Newsletter from Ms. Williams' Class August 27-31, 2012 Homework Assignments Subject: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Reading Story: Iris and Walter Genre: Fiction Re-Read The Story "The New Friend" Read story and have an adult time you for one minute. Read amazing words and high frequency words aloud to an adult. No School Due to Weather Conditions! Be Safe! J No School Due to Weather Conditions! Be Safe! J Read amazing words and high frequency words aloud to an adult. Iris and Walter Test Language Skill: Sentence writing Spelling Skill: Short vowel sounds Complete workbook pgs. 1 and 2 (Turn in on Friday) Take a practice spelling test including writing three of the spelling words in sentences. Test Turn in Homework! Math Skill: Complete Math Handout pgs. 11 and 12 (Turn in on Friday) Turn in Homework! Science/Social Studies Skill: Urban and Rural Places Scrapbook project due! Note to Parents We had a GREAT first week of school! Thank you for all the support and cooperation. Occasionally there may be assignments added or omitted to homework if we do not get to them in class. Please be flexible. Scholastic Book Order Scholastic Book Orders Forms will be sent home periodically throughout the school year. Any order will be very much appreciated. Scholastic gives classroom points for every dollar spent in each order. I use the points to earn free stuff for the classroom such as books, prizes for AR, pencils, activity books, etc. You may order from the form I send home in your child's homework/conduct folder or online. I will send home directions for ordering online with each form I send home. I will send home order forms next week! Accelerated Reader This year I am holding a contest within the classroom involving the Accelerated Reader Program. Students are required to read at least 10 books per quarter and pass the A.R. tests with an overall average of 70% or higher in order to be in the classroom Accelerated Reading Contest. The student with at least a score of 70% and the highest amount of points will receive a prize at the end of the year. All students who have 100 points or higher by the end of the year will receive a class prize for participation and a school prize as well (school prize will be mentioned at a later date.). I hope this will encourage students to practice reading so that they will become better readers in the future. High Frequency Word List I am sending home a high frequency word list for the year in your child's homework/conduct folder. These words are very important for your child to be able to read and understand from sight. I will also be sending home a list each week that correlates with the reading story we are working on for that week. Please review the words and meanings with your child as the list is sent home. Box Tops We are collecting Box Tops for education and Campbell soup labels for our classroom. For every box top label we will receive 10 cents for our classroom. This money will be used for supplies, books, etc. Please send them in a plastic bag with the child's name and teacher's name wrote on the bag. Last year I received over $100.00 to use for my classroom. Please start collecting and send them in to help our classroom! Fluency Passage Reading We will begin practicing Reading Fluency within the classroom this week. I will be sending home a passage each week for your child to practice at home. The passages will be based upon what our Phonics lesson is for that week. This will help them on their speed and accuracy during reading. This activity is based around the DIBEL testing our school gives throughout the school year. Attached you will find a fluency passage for your child to practice nightly at home this week. Please time your child by giving them one minute to read and count the words that they read in that minute. You will need to subtract the number of mistakes from the total number of words they read to get your child's Fluency score. Again it is very important that they practice this daily at home to help them with their speed and accuracy when reading. Helpful Hints Making sure your child is reading at least 15 minutes daily after school will help improve their reading abilities. This can consist of newspapers, magazines, library books, etc. You may also want to keep a reading log on your refrigerator at home to keep track of your child's reading progress throughout the year. You will find a reading log attached. Also, make sure your child is studying their addition and subtraction facts. They need to be able to quickly give an answer to one digit facts (ex. 6+4=10). I suggest purchasing or making fact cards for your child to practice at home. * Conduct Folders Please check your child's conduct folder everyday. Everyone is required to have his/her conduct folder checked by a parent daily. This helps to correct any problems that may occur with students who are disruptive in class. Check out our school website for information and activities we are doing in the classroom! Newsletters, announcements, projects, pictures, etc. are all posted on our classroom website for you to view 24/7! I am very excited about this year. I hope you and your child is as well. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. ThanksJ Ms. Williams Welcome to Ms. Williams' 2nd Grade Dear Family, My name is Rhonda Williams and I am excited to be working with you and your child this school year. This will be my thirteenth year teaching and I have been at Saraland Elementary School for all thirteen years. I have taught 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. I received my Bachelors and Masters in Elementary Education from the University of Mobile. I have two children. My son, Baylen, will be in the 11th grade this year at Saraland High School. I also have a beautiful 7 year old little girl named Sarah Kate. She is in 1st grade at St. Pius Catholic School. As a teacher, I am determined to make all my students feel as if my classroom is an extension of home. I strive for it to be a safe comfortable place where children feel free to make mistakes, celebrate daily victories, and most importantly be themselves. This year I hope to challenge your children, but at the same time I want them to have wonderful time learning. Thanks, Ms. Rhonda Williams Things You Need To Know (Please read carefully) NEWSLETTERS You child will receive a weekly newsletter every Monday. This will help you understand and keep up with everything that goes on in our classroom. This will come home in their homework/daily red folder. HOMEWORK GUIDES A homework guide will be sent home every Monday in the homework/daily folder. This will have all assignments, spelling words, vocabulary words, etc…, for the week on it. ALL HOMEWORK is due by Friday. There will be a designated place for them to turn homework in. They can turn it in throughout the week as they complete it or they can turn everything in on Friday. I understand that sometimes it is difficult to complete homework every night of the week due to extra-curricular activities, so I hope this makes it a little easier for you. Classroom Behavior Plan Please read the attached Classroom Behavior Plan and return it to school by Wednesday. Your child will receive a behavior calendar each month. I ask that you initial the behavior calendar in the box for that day so that I know you are aware of your child's behavior in the classroom. Progress Reports I will send home a detailed progress report biweekly. You will also receive an INOW username and password that will allow you to check your child's grades online whenever you would like. Website Please take time to visit our class page on for information and tools to help your child. I post my newsletter, study guides, homework assignments, and presentations that we use in class to this site. I have also added many helpful websites under the links tab. STAR/DIBELS/AR Tests I will give a STAR test at the beginning of every quarter. I will also use the DIBELS test to help determine your child's reading level. These tests will also help determine your child's AR reading goal for each quarter. I will send home an AR Reading Log folder that will give more details at a later date. SCHOOL BULLETINS Your child will receive this every other Monday. This will keep you up-to-date with things that are going on at Saraland Elementary School. Please read and discuss with your child. SCHOOL FEES Please make sure you have paid all school fees by the end of this week. It is very important to our school that you pay these fees. VOLUNTEERS We would love to have you in our classroom! If you ever want to volunteer in our classroom just let me know. There is always something for you to do. If you write a note the day before this helps me prepare something for you to do. Please remember to check in at the office before coming to our classroom. Also, if you would like to be room mother please let me know. Thanks! BREAKFAST & LUNCH Breakfast is served in the mornings from 7:45-8:15am. Students who eat breakfast are expected to go to breakfast and then come straight to their classroom. Students are tardy after 8:15am. You are always welcome to come and eat lunch with your child. Our lunch time is from 12:15-12:45. However, you are not allowed to bring fast food in to the cafeteria. You may pay for your child's lunch by the week if you need to by sending it in an envelope with your child's name and lunch number on it. SNACK Your child may purchase snack from the school. The cost of snack is $.75 for chips and ice cream bars. You may also send snack with your child daily. Also, because we eat lunch later in the day we will have a dry snack around 10:30am while we work. I ask that parents donate big bags of items (cereal, animal crackers, etc) for me to pass out to everyone during this time. Your child may also bring a small snack from home if preferred. *The school will NOT sell snack the first week of school, so please send a snack with your child. CONTACTING ME If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to send me a note in red daily folder because like you, I will be checking them on a daily basis. The easiest way for you to contact me is via email. My email address is rdwilliams@saralandboe.org. I will respond within that day or the day after to any letter or email I receive. If need be, you may also call the school (679-5739) and leave me a message, and I will return your call as soon as possible. ATTENDANCE Attendance is very important in your child's education. Please make sure you send your child to school (on time) every day. It is very important that your child learn responsibility at an early age. I know there will be times when your child is sick and cannot attend and that is understandable. Please remember when your child is absent from school he/she will is missing a lot of important instructional time. It is very important to send an excuse (Parent or Doctor) with your child the day he/she returns to school. Please remember that your child can only have 10 parent notes in one school year. I hope to see everyone every day!!! August 21, 2012 Good evening!! I just wanted to let you know that the first two days of school have been AWESOME!! You have some pretty amazing kids!! It didn't take but one day for me to fall in love with them! I also wanted to let you know that we need of something bigger to hold our supplies in. Those pencil bags just aren't working!! I would like for every student to bring in a plastic shoe box. They are only $1 at Wal-Mart or Dollar General. They have a top on them which will make it so much easier for them to keep up with their supplies! Also, if you haven't aren't returned the signed Behavior Plan and Student Info sheets back please do so by tomorrow. I will make you a copy of the signed behavior plan and send it home tomorrow!! Thanks for being such wonderful parents and allowing me to be a huge part of their life!!	eng	9dbd3aba-81c1-471c-81ac-1f581fa3a904	http://www.sespartans.com/?PageName=TeacherPage&Page=10&StaffID=20916&iSection=Teachers&CorrespondingID=20916
IN THE MUSEUM'S CLASSIC NEW PUBLICATION, "THE WRITE OF PASSAGE" The Panama Canal Museum is planning a special program to collect, compile and document the histories of the many families who lived and worked in the Canal Zone and Panama beginning from the outset of the Canal construction period and going through the end of the American Era in 1999. These histories will be published in a book, or series of books, entitled, Write of Passage Stories of the American Era of the Panama Canal.Ž Each book will document the stories of Canal Zone families beginning with the first member to arrive in the Canal Zone or Panama and profiling their familys growth thereafter. Proud and treasured possessions that can be handed down through generations, the books will also become a research database for historians and genealogists studying this important time in the history of both the United States and Panama. Classically elegant and distinctively designed, these hard-bound books will also be illustrated with a number of historically significant photographs of Canal scenes, representing all the periods of Canal history. Each family has a unique history of which it can be proud and the stories they can tell will be invaluable in keeping the legacy of the Canal Zone alive. Personal and intriguing, these publications stand to become the most interesting historical pieces ever to depict the American Era of the Panama Canal. The museum soon will be mailing out a Family History package that will describe the program in greater detail. Once the program package arrives in the mail, family members may return the postcard enclosed therein to indicate to the museum whether or not they would be interested in having their familys history included in the book. Based on the response, the museum will then be in position to determine the level of interest necessary to proceed with the program. To make sure your na me is on our mailing list to receive the package, please contact the museum at president@panamacanalm useum.org or call us at (727) 394-9338. PRESERVE FAMILY HISTORY SPRING/SUMMER 2007 VOLUME 7 ISSUE 1 Affiliations American Association of Museums American Association for State and Local History Dun & Bradstreet BuyforCharity.com Canal Zone Study Group Council of American Maritime Museums Florida Association of Museums Guidestar.com Isthmian Collectors Club Leave a Legacy Program Panama Canal Society, Inc. Panama National Institute for Culture Sociedad de Amigos del Museo Afro Antilleano de Panama St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce World Ocean Observatory THE PANAMA CANAL MUSEUM The Panama Canal Society and the Panama Canal Museum are commemorating the Society's 75th anniversary in a collaborative exhibit at this year's Panama Canal Society meeting at Orlando 's Rosen Shingle Creek Resort on July 4-8. "To preserve American Ideals and Canal Zone Friendships" will be the theme of a variety of displays that are bound to delight Reunion goers. These displays include town site maps where viewers can record where their families lived when, pictures of friends many years ago and these same friends today, a timeline of Panama Canal Society and Panama Canal events during the past 75 years, scenes of life in the Canal Zone, a big painting of the SS Ancon and an opportunity for two people at a time to stage their own pictures behind a drop that will show them as SS Ancon travelers. Come and reminisce with us about all the good times we've had together! REUNION EXHIBIT FEATURES SOCIETY'S 75TH ANNIVERSARY PAGE 2 Page 2 The Panama Canal Museum Review A SUGGESTION A REPLY Dear +++++++++, I read your email with a great deal of interest and shared it with the members of the museum's board of trustees. We believe, as you do, that there are many things we "need" to do to help us grow and develop into a more sophisticated and widely-acclaimed institution. There is no question that major funding from corporations or foundations would help us get beyond our current level, for which we presently rely main ly on contributions from individuals, most of whom had, or have, ties to Panama or the Canal Zone in one form or another. We, too, have a vision of enlarging our operation, purchasi ng our own building, hiring professional staff members, and developing exciting and far-reaching exhibits, both indoor an d outdoor, that could attract the general public and not just the former Canal Zone constituency, but the American public at large. Our Long Range Strategic Plan identifies the acquisition of our own building as one of our most important objectives, and we continue to work toward that and many other goals. You are right on the mark when you indicate that identifying a site and creating a concept model for a building to show people what the museum could look like would help generate interest and could give people a solid reason to donate to the cause. In that regard, we are currently in the process of developing a comprehensive capital campaign that would allow us to solicit from corporations, public institutions/f oundations and "deep-pocket" individuals the kind of money you are talking about to enable us to fund the acquisition of our own building. This campaign would target possible funding sources around the country and certain parts of th e world and would include specific plans for a museum. It should be noted, however, that we are dealing with certain realities that make those objectives easier to talk about than to attain. Some of those are: 1) Corporations, foundations and public funding agencies are besieged by well-meaning non profit organizations asking for money,, and there is a lot of competition out th ere. Many of those who do give money require one-to-one matching funds which makes it difficult for us to comply with at this time. Moreover, very few, if any funding sources give money for general operating expenses an d require, instead, that the receiving in stitution have in mind a very specific project with plans, budgets, specifications, personnel needs, etc. Our plan for a new building will have to include solid site and architectural specifications, cost projections (both for building it and maintaining it over the long term), financing available, other possible funding sources, etc., be fore any corporation or donor is going to send money our way. The time and cost of developing these plans could be considerable. 2) Funding a new building is only part of the expense of running a muse um. Administrative costs, personnel, security, conservation of our collection, maintenance, utilities, landscap ing, janitorial and many other costs have to be factored in. Additional money would be needed to develop and sustain ou r exhibits, and to create projects we believe are important to the operation, including a working model of the locks; an interactive, audio-visual, touch-screen information kiosk; a Editor's Note: An individual who had copious suggestions and cr iticisms of the museum and its development recently sent the museum an email in which he referred to the progress as being akin to Chinese water torture. President Joe Wood prepared this very complete and thoughtful repl y. It addresses many issues that others may find nagging at them when they think of the museum and its progress. The Board of Trustees thought the reply was so compelling that it should be included here in its entirety. PAGE 3 Page 3 The Panama Canal Museum Review sophisticated educational program for increasing our public awareness in th e community and in schools; the continued maintenance and improvement of our web site; the continued gr owth and enhancement of our library; the digitalization of many old and historically important records and publ ications; and many, many others. It takes time, money, manpower and other resources to put together these plans an d projects and we currently are in short supply of those. 3) Corporate and public funding has not escaped our attention. We have take n a number of initiatives to obtain such funding. The State of Florida has informed us that grants fr om the State are given primarily to organizations that are designed to preserve Florida History. While we do not qualif y directly for those types of grants, we are in the process of developing a reasonable case for an indirect relationship between the Panama Canal and the State of Florida that will, perhaps, enable us to qualify for future State funding. 4) Historical connections of corporations with the history of the Panama Canal were a focus of our attention as well. We have researched and canvassed a large number of corporation s that have had, or still have, an interest in the Panama Canal, including many which provided su pplies, materials or equipment during the construction of the Canal; we approached over 150 organizations relate d to the maritime industry, including all the major steamship lines and steamship agencies who use the Canal; and we have contacted a number of Federal, State and local agencies to try to obtain funding. Except for a few relatively minor grants, the response to our re quests has been negligible and we have not been able yet to tap into all those valuable resources. We have not stopped tr ying, however, and our hard working volunteers continue to research grant and corporate sponsorship opportunities. 5) Running a museum, even a small one, like ours, is like running a small business. There are financial, administrative, operational and regulatory considerations that are involved on a daily basis; we develop exhibits and preserve the collection; we are meticulous in recognizing our donors and in keeping strict records of their dues and donations; we are constantly developing new products for our gift shop; we are in constant contact with several professionals to help us improve and update our Website; we provide research and historical information to many requesters; and we do hundreds of other tasks to keep the operation going. All of this takes an enormous amount of time, money and energy and for the most part, over the last nine years since we started, has been done with just a small number of dedicate d volunteers and supporters. Finally, on April 1, we felt we could afford to hire a full-time professional museum Director This action will help us gain some continuity in the administrative side of the house and give us additional expert ise in some of the areas of the museum operation. We still rely on our volunteers to continue to do a great number of tasks and will continue to need them for the foreseeable future. 6) The "Zonie" Community you mention has been supportive to a degree, but, up to this point, the overall reaction to the museum from that group has been disappointing. For example, each year for the past nine years we have appealed for support from over 4000 Panama Canal Society members; ye t from that group, only about 700 donate and become members of the museum. Moreover, only a handful of those o ffer to volunteer, despite repeated requests for help. Even with only that small number out of thousands of potential supporters coming through to help preserve their history, we still have been able to sustain a growing operation and to star t building up a reserve that can eventually be used to help The "Zonie" Community you mention has been supportive to a degree, but, up to this point, the overall re action to the museum from that group has been disappointing. PAGE 4 Page 4 The Panama Canal Museum Review fund a new facility. Just think what we could do if all Society members and the former Canal Zone and Panama Canal community would pitch in and help out, both with money and some of their time. In that regard, our records show that you are not a member of the museum. I was surprised to see that, in view of what appears to be your passion for our future success. We would welcome you to join and help suppo rt this important effort. We also woul d encourage you to volunteer to help us out with the many projects we have on our plate. You don't have to live in the vicinity of the museum to help. Many of our programs are run by people who live in different areas of the country and they all contribute in a variety of creative, artistic, technological or other ways. Your reference to "Chinese Water Torture" may mean that, from your perspective, the progress we are making is too slow. Actually, we have come a very long way in a relatively short time and have created a fully functioning, albeit small, museum from absolute scratch. We are way ahead of other si milar museums at this stage of our development and plan on continuing to make progress in the years to come. From ou r perspective, the "Chinese Water Torture" we feel is the drip, drip, drip of an extremely burden some workload that will eventually ta ke its toll on our limited number of volunteers if we don't get others to share our vision for preserving the American Era of the Panama Canal. Joe Wood President Panama Canal Museum The reality of the situation is that, if our own community, yourself included, doesn't feel strongly enough to preserve their heritage and history by supporting their museum, can we realistically conclude that corporate America or the general US population will provide the funding source we need? That is a question we will find out the answer to when we go public with our capital campaign. If the previous article by Joe Wood hits home, then, why not do something about it today? As a member of the museum, you can actively help recr uit new members. Look at the last membership roster and see who is not there that you think should be, then ask them to join. If you have been meaning to make a donation to complete another transit on the Wall of Honor above your annual dues, then do it today. If you have forgotten to remember deceased friends or family members, then make a donation in their memory today. If you have put off donating historical material or artifa cts to the museum waiting to see if it would be a success, then make those donations today before those items are lost to some thrift store by family members who do not have the same connection to the history of the Panama Canal as you do. If you have considered giving up a day at the beach or on the golf course to give a hand as a volunteer, now is the time for you to come through for the museum. If you really think the museum has proven itself over th e past nine years, then show it with your active and enthusiastic support. PAGE 5 Page 5 The Panama Canal Museum Review This story comes under the heading of "once a zonian, always a zonian." Tom Zane Registrar of the Ponce De Leon Lighthouse Museum at Ponce Inlet, Florida, was stationed in Fort Clayton from 1966 to 1968 while in the US Army; and he still maintains his love and appreciation for the canal area. Some time ago Jack R. Ward, a Canal Pilot from 1970 to 1991, now deceased, donated a collection of personal memorabilia to the Lighthouse Museum. Among other things, the collection contains Captain Ward's ship tr ansit logs, personal documents, awards, a sextant and one hundred beautiful shipping line cups from the ward rooms of ships the world over that Captain Ward piloted through the Canal. Tom Zane, mindful of his days in the Canal Zone, felt that this wonderful collection, though dealing with things maritime just as the Lighthouse Museum does, needed a more appropriate home. Thus, he contacted Nancy Van Siclen Secretary of the Panama Canal Society, in search of that more suitable home. Nancy immediately and enthusiastically put the Panama Canal Museum and the Lighthouse Museum into a collaborative mode. At this point, Kathy Egolf and Panama Canal Museum Collections Chairman, Gerry DeTore exchanged correspondence with Tom Zane to establish that the Ward collection would have a proper home in our museum; and the transfer was scheduled. Early in February 2007, Bob and Marguerite Zumbado along with a squad of Zonians Joe and Marcia Cicero and Bob and Lotty Orvis were treated to a tour of the Lighthouse Museum and grounds by Tom Zane and Ellen Henry the Curator. During the visit Bob Zumbado took possession of the collection for the Panama Canal Museum. Bob deli vered the items to the museum, where they will be incorporated in to our library and exhibits. Those interested in lighthouses in the US, and their histor y will find the Ponce De Leon Lighthouse and Museum to be one of the most interesting lighthouses in America. A visit to their webs ite, will certainly spur you on to an on sit e visit; Bob Zumbado, Exhibits Chairman for the Panama Canal Museum accepts the donated artifacts from Ponce De Leon Lighhouse Museum's Registrar, Tom Zane Artifacts Come Home to Museum As the museum actively recruits volunteers it is apparent that a Volunteer Coordinator must come first. The museum is hunting for a Volunteer Coordinator to go out and find volunteers of all kinds to help at the museum. Volunteers are needed for a variety of jobs, such as: Gift store workers Tour guides Library worker Membership data input Collections data input the workload dictates. That will give some exciting opportunities to learn new skills. It is a great way to put unused time and skills to work for a good cause. Work schedules will be flexible but in order to keep the operations reliable, a good commitment of the times volunteered isdesirable. Those interested in volunteering their time as an operations volunteer or as the Volunteer Coordinator are asked to contact the Museum Director. Graphic designer Volunteering is not a full time job by any means and can be done away from the museum. What is needed is people from the community, not necessarily with any connection to the Panama Canal, to give four or five hours a week or a month on a regular basis. Training will be given to those who come forward. Because of the nature of the operations a volunteer may be assigned to a number of tasks as PAGE 6 Page 6 The Panama Canal Museum Review MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT The Panama Canal Museum Board of Trustees met in March to continue to chart the course of the museum for the future. The board took the following actions: Approved the appointment of Elizabeth Neily as the museums first full-time salaried Director a significant step to ward enhancing the museums professional status among similar institutions. Confirmed the appointment of Larry Siegel as the newest board member. Approved an operating budget for FY 2007 in the amount of $126,000, with dues and donations estimated to bring in $73,000; gift shop revenues almost $30,000; and the balance in interest and other income. Approved the development of a Family History Project to collect and publish the histories of Canal Zone families during the American Era. Approved the allocation of $5,000 for professi onal expertise to create an interactive audio/visual touch screen kiosk to enhanc e the Panama Canal experience for visitors. Approved the initiative to proceed with a Capital Fu nd Drive to raise funds for a new museum facility. Reviewed the museums Long Range Strategic Plan. Reviewed plans and preparations for a joint Panama Canal Society-Panama Canal Museum exhibit on the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the Society, to be held at the Reunion. Received committee reports on educational programming an d community outreach; potential grant opportunities; new products for the Museum Store; the Roosevelt Medal Certificate Program; silent auction preparat ions for the reunion; and the 2007 and 2008 museum cruises and trips to Panama. Established a Centennial Commemoration Committee to plan for the commemoration of the Canals 100th Anniversary in 2014. Carolina Bunco Champs Cecil Krimminger, Carol Goodwin, Debbie Swearingen, Susan Burk, Lenora Topp, Carl and Renee Krimminger Space Coast Panazonian Bunco winnersTom Grimison, Tinker Hollowell, Nancy Grimison, and Rosa Fishbough, PAGE 7 Page 7 The Panama Canal Museum Review As the granddaughter of Canal builders, Patricia Steiner Kearns was born and raised in the Panama Canal Zone. Pat, or Patty, attended Canal Zone schools, graduated from Balboa High School in l955 and the Canal Zone Junior College in l957. That special bond created among Zonians lasts forever and I am delighted to now be working with the Panama Canal Museum to help ensure we preserve our history. My Virginia license plate is 1 ZonianŽ so you can recognize and wave to me as I cruise down the highway. Life in the Canal Zone was wonderful, yet at the time, most of us did not realize what a fantastic place we lived in. When I think of it now, we had freedom, friendships that last, excellent schools, tr ips on the Panama Line, Gorgona, walking the Las Cruces Trail, sliding on cardboard down the Admin hill, burning Christmas trees and eating marshmallows, skating, St Marys church, lots of big family parties and so many, many cousins. I still remember people saying to me You mean you are related to them, too?Ž I married Jim Kearns at Ft Amador and our Army moves began as we moved from Panama to Michigan, South an d North Carolina, Virginia, California, Germany, Panama, Texas, and back to Virginia. We have three wonderful grown children and eight fabulous grandkids. While in Texas, I returned to college to finish my B.A. and we nt on to get my M.S. in Healthcare Administration at Trinity University, San Antonio. My residency was done at Brooke Army Medical Center, a real ly bustling facility with the returning POWs from Vietnam. We began to feel like we were Texans after six years! We also called the Alps of Germany home for six years; that coun try holds a special place in our hearts. We jokingly refer to the tour in Germany as a hardship tourŽ since we lived in Berc htesgaden and Garmisch! I loved the snow (guess it was because we were so deprived growing up in the CZ). I was the biggest kid around when it came to making snowmen, snow villages, sledding, and skiing. Upon graduation from Trinity University, my goal was to achieve Fellowship in the American College of Healthcare Executives a goal I accomplished. I was determined to become a Fellow and I did love my work in healthcare. I always felt I had the best of both worlds when I found my way into Qualit y Management where I worked closely with the medical and administrative staffs, patients, and attorney s. I served as a consultant for the Air Force, traveled to numerous facilities, a nd published articles on quality healthcare. I continued my education in 1982 when I received a fellowship to the Yale School of Organization and Management, Advanced Healthcare Management Program and then in 1994 I attended the International Health Executives Program at Cornell University. How fortunate I was when the military offered me the opportunity to survey healthcare facilities under the auspices of the Joint Commission of Healthcare Organi zations and then when I was selected as an evaluator for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Program, Na tional Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce. Since retirement, I stay busy as a volu nteer on the boards of Olde Towne Medical Center, Williamsburg, VA, and the Panama Canal Museum. My best retirement job, however, is taking care of two loca l grandchildren after school and summers. We have fun going on excursions, learning, swinging, jumping and just playing. Life is full! In March 2005 we took our children, their spouses, and our ei ght grandchildren cruising to the Panama Canal. What an opportunity for me to share my life in Panama and ensure the grandchildren are as proud of their pioneering ancestors as I am Board Profile—Pat Steiner Kearns, Vice President PAGE 8 Page 8 The Panama Canal Museum Review SILENT AUCTION RETURNS It's reunion time once more, and the museum will have a tribute to the 75th Anniversary of the Panama Canal Society. Don't worry, though: The silent auction will be going strong bringing inte resting items for your bidding. This will be your opportunity to look for something memorable or that gift certificate you want. We have something new this year for sele ct items; it's called "Buy it Now." This new feature is for the person who can't wait until Saturday or must leave before the reunion ends. The price of "Buy it Now" items will be published on the bidding sheet. The "Buy it Now" price is fixed and non-negotiable. Only certain items will be available on a "Buy it Now" basis and as they are sold new ones may be added so check the auction table early and often for such items so that the treasure you want doesn't get snapped up by someone else. All auction items are subject to norma l bidding, including the "Buy it Now" items not bought, until 5:00 PM on Saturday, when the bidding stops, the high bids are announced, and high bidders can claim and pay for their treasures. Marguerite Zumbado, who heads up the Silent Auction Committee, says there will be a huge official clock to signal the close of bidding. Museum president, Joe Wood has recruited a small army of monitors to insure the close of bidding does not result in some of the disputes experienced in past auction closings. MUSEUM GIFT STORE AT THE REUNION The museum store is gearing up for the Reunion by designin g and obtaining new items and restocking popular items"with some new twists! This years collectible ornament will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the transfer of the position of Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal from John Stevens to George Goethals. Joe Wood created the basic design, Paul Glassburn prepared the art work for the ornament company, and the Store Committee members enjoyed addi ng special little touches. We are sure youll be delighted! The museums 2008 Panama Art calendar is already off the press and takes its place beside the 2007 Panama Art calendar as a beautiful work of art. Cheryl Russell Chairperson of the Calendar Committee, and Elizabeth Neily the designer of the calendar, had wonderful material to work with from artists Linda VanEmster Potter Neva Brown Sherry Acker Eid, Frances T. Gilley Robert Hammond George Scribner Lesley Hendricks Ruth Campbell Gerke Karen Hammond McCullough Beatrice Sturtevant Gardner Ruth Foster and Leslie High The ever popular wooden bateas, napkin rings, and paper towel holders that Bruce and Chris Homa obtain for us from El Valle will be back"featuring appealing turtles, hibiscus, parakeets, hu mmingbirds, and toucans. But be sure, too, to check out the g olden frogs and iguanas this year! You probably have already bought some of our attractive Tervis Tumblers with the museum logo patch in them. Do take a look, though, at the new patches that are now also available in the mugs and tumblers: a golden frog and a beautiful hibiscus on a m olalike background. Another very special item available will be th e museums historic t-shirt designed by Elizabeth Neily. Based on a cover from a souvenir booklet in the museums library, the shirt is bound to fly off our vendors table! Dont delay if you want to be sure to get one. As always, the museum will have an extensive collection of b ooks about Panama, the Panama Canal, and the Canal Zone"the museums prize winning Opening the Gates to Canal Cuisine Cocina Panamena Kurt Muses Six Minutes to Freedom and Robert McMillans Global Passage to mention just a few. Since no article can mention everything, be sure to visit the mu seum, the museums vending table at the Reunion, or our website (panamacanalmuseum.org) at your earliest convenience in order to see everything! PAGE 9 Page 9 The Panama Canal Museum Review BUNCO TOURNAMENTS RAISE FUNDS Fund Raiser Training at PC Society Reunion The staff of the Panama Canal Museum will ho st an afternoon of bunco on Thursday, July 5th, in the Gatlin Room (E-3) at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in conjunction with the Panama Canal Society annual reunion. The event will begin at 3:30. Experienced players and novices interested in learning th e game are invited to attend. Bunco is a very simple dice gam e; if you can count to three, you will be a bunco pro within minutes. Peggy Huff and Renee Krimminger will be on hand to teach the game and share tips on how to organize a fund raiser. Last ye ar, a group of Space Coast Panazonians in the Merritt Island/Coco a, FL, area held their first bunco fund raiser for the PC Museum. There were two events this year Space Coast Bunco II was held in Cocoa Village and the first Carolina Bunco Tournament was held in Charlotte, NC. (See write-up above.) It is hoped that bunco fever will catch on and annual fund raisers wi ll be held in other areas of the country. The mission of the Panama Canal Museum is to preserve the history of the American era of the Panama Canal (1904-1999). Financial support is an on-going requirement. Anyone interested in finding out how easy it is to sponsor a bunc o fund raiser should pl an to attend. You are guaranteed an afternoon of fun with your fellow Zonians. Admittance to the event is $5.00 per person. Advanced registration is not required; but if you plan to attend please contact Kathy Egolf at PANKEE@aol.com (727-394-9338); Peggy Huff at phuff@cfl.rr.com (321-455-1649; or Renee Krimminger at Cateyes713@aol.com ( 704-527-5745 ). Peggy and Renee are willing to go to other areas to help when it can be arranged. The mission of the Panama Canal Museum is to preserve the history of the American era of the Panama Canal (1904-1999) Financial support is crucial to this endeavor. Two fund rais ing events for the museum were held on April 14, 2007 one in Charlotte, NC, and one in Cocoa Village, FL. Rene (Ballou) Krimminger hosted the first Carolina Bunco Tournament Fund raiser to benefit the Panama Canal Museum at the Dilworth Neighborhood Grill in Charlotte, NC. Because a large majority of original participants were not able to make it, the group of seven proceeded to enjoy the day with a few rounds of Bunco; appealing prizes; and a ch ance to meet some new Zonian friends. Even though this was a (very) small group, wi th the assistance of GhostŽ sponsorships by Sue & Mark Burbine of Bedford, MA; Allen Cotton of Prattville, AL; Janet & Jim Reece of Charlotte, NC; Kathy Egolf of Pinellas Park, FL; Ellen Loflin and Jeff Highfills both of Charlotte, NC, they were able to present the Museum with a check for $320. THANK YOU to all who assisted in making this happen: the participants; Joan McCullough Ohman Kathy Egolf & Chuck Hummer for their moral support; the Museum for its raffle prize donati ons; the GhostsŽ (who didnt do too badly in playing) and the Krimminger family. Keep watching for a notice of the 2008 Ca rolina Bunco II Tournament so that we can continue our Bunco voyage through the canal as we raise funds for the museum! The 2nd Space Coast Bunco Fund Raiser for the Panama Canal Museum was held at the Dog n Bone Pub in Cocoa Village, FL. Pubmeister Richard Lemon hosted the event. Event organizer Peggy Huff presented him with a PC Museum tumbler to show the groups appreciation for letting the Space Coast Panazonians gather once again at his pub. Prizes provided by Peggy, the Dog n Bone Pub, Diana Grimison Joe (President of the PC Museum) & Bev Wood Joan Ohman and the Panama Canal Museum added to the fun. Space Coast Panazonian rollers attending the event were: Donita McConaughey Louise Hunt Jerri Farnsworth Janet Watkins Leanne Watkins Dawn Watkins Nancy Grimison Tom Grimison Tinker Hollowell Rosa Fishbough Elsie Woodruff Darleen Hunt Lisa Aide Joanne Armstrong Sheryl Alberga Al & Dee Burkett Peggy & Dennis Huff Natalie McClenahan Laurie Simmons Marianne Hockin Diana Grimison Christina Volonnino Jim & Pam Reid Sue Fisher Bob & Rosa Fishbough Fran Meyer Nikki Meyer Maria Felgar Diane Croce, Wanda Ewell Betsy Vosburgh JoElla Deakins Janet Sutherland Grace Barnwell Melinda Neimeyer and Janice Scott. Of the 39 attendees, 21 were new players. Making contributions but unable to attend were Rebecca Pletcher Tom & Connie Stoakley Blanche Stabler, Nancy McMillan and Kathy Egolf. Funds raised at the event were applied to th e Space Coast Panazonians transit record on the Wall of Honor. They are now at the Balboa Yacht Club on their second transit. The 2008 Space Coast Bunco III event will be held mid-April. PAGE 10 Page 10 The Panama Canal Museum Review The Panama Canal Museum was invited to attend the Stevens-Goethals Reunion at The Homestead, Hot Springs, VA, on March 30-31, 2007, honoring their ancestors on the Centennial of the transfer of authority for building the Canal from Stevens to Goethals, on midnight, March 31, 1907. The invitation was extended to Bob Karrer a friend of Frank Stevens Hawks grandson of John Frank Stevens When Bob could not attend, the invitation was extended to anyone else on the board and Pat Steiner Kearns volunteered to represent us. Frank Hawks was a very gracious contact and spoke to Pat initially upon checking in. He expected about 33 family members at the reunion and it turned out there were 38 people in attendance, including some small children. At the dinner on Friday night there were three tables. Pat and her husband sat at Frank's table with his wife, daughter, friends of family and the Saturday night speaker The speaker was a Panamanian Notre Dame graduate, Carlos Guevara Mann PhD, now a political science professor at University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Guevara did send Pat a copy of his excellent paper, The Panama Canal Expansion Project: U.S. Interests and Other Considerations.Ž Pat said she thinks that some day Carlos will be publishing a book! A room was set aside to display the families memorabilia and the items Pat brought from the museum to show the families. There was a wonderful presentation (thanks to Chuck Hummer ) which ran continuously showing pictures of the Canal construction years and focusing on John Frank Stevens and George Goethals The show was popular with the families. The museum donated a disc to both Frank Hawks for the Stevens family and Al Goethals for the Goethals family. Pat also presented a copy of book to Frank Hawks in appreciation for the invitation. The Museums custom Christmas ornaments were a big hit and the families were especially interested in the 2007 ornament which will feature both Stevens and Goethals on the same ornament commemorating the centennial of the transfer of authority for building the Canal from Stevens to Goethals. Pat received a copy of the letter written by John Frank Stevens to President Roosevelt on January 30,1907, which was taken by TR as a letter of resignation although Frank said it was not meant to be. There were Panama Canal Museum handouts for family members including membership applications, museum information, including the Panama Canal Museum website, and Roosevelt Medal Certificate information. Al Goethals noted that the certificate chairman, Dorn Thomas, lives in Richmond and planned to contact him regarding the certificates. The museums prize winning cookbook, Trivia game, and a few shirts were also displayed Pat was presented a beautiful bound book dedicated to the Panama Canal Museum by Josef J. Goethals titled, A Forgotten Family"the Flemish Roots of General George Washington Goethals (1858-1928), Builder of the Panama Canal .Ž Jeff, as the author is called, is from Belgium, and was very charming and into genealogical research. Pat also presented him a copy of the MacMillan book on behalf of the Panama Canal Museum. The families expressed a strong interest in the museum and its goal of preserving the history of the American Era with which their families played such an important role. STEVENS & GOETHALS FAMILY REUNION Dr. Carlos Guevera-Mann, Henry Goethals (t he grandson of George Goethals) Al Goethals, Frank Stevens Hawks, John Stevens Hawks PAGE 11 Page 11 The Panama Canal Museum Review PAGE 12 Page 12 The Panama Canal Museum Review For the third year Team Panama Canal Museum walked to support President Emeritus, Chuck Hummer in the Tampa Walk to dfeet ALS. The walk is the signature annual fundraising event for the Florida Chapter of the ALS Association. The Museum Walkers led the 40 teams participating by raising over $17,000. Chuck opened the walk with Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio by saying, It is all about awareness; making those with ALS aware that the ALS Association is here to help and making the public aware that the ALS Association and those of us with ALS need their support.Ž The museum team was made up of: Sandy Hummer, Kathy Egolf, Paul Glassburn, Dick and Lynn Cunningham Dick and Julieta Morgan, Buddy and Stacia Morgan, Bill and Lucy Gluth, Mary Rogers, Gil Neher, Al and Doris Monaco, Elizabeth Neily, Bob and Marguerite Zumbado and Gerry De Tore Over 500 showed up for the walk at the Tampa Lowry Park Zoo on March 10th. The walk raised over $115,000 this year. Chuck served as the chairman of the walks Family Team Committee and also serves as co-chair of the Florida Chapters Public Policy Committee. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrigs disease, is an incurable neuromuscular disease that leads to paralysis of all voluntary muscles. The mind is unaffected and the average life span of those diagnosed with ALS is only 35 years, but there are cases like the famous physicist, Stephen Hawking, who have survived the disease for over 40 years. Chuck, was diagnosed with ALS in 2004, is confined to a power chair but still stays active with the museum. Chuck says he is out to break Hawkings record. MUSEUM WALKS FOR ALS TEACHER WORKSHOP AND PANAMA CANAL MUSEUM IN A TRUNK On August 9, the Panama Canal Museum will be offering a workshop to teachers as part of Pinellas County Cultural Affairs, Arts in the Classroom initiative. Local artist, Nellie Engelke and William Puckett formerly Education Coordinator for the Florida International Museum recently joined Kathy Egolf Gerry DeTore and Director, Elizabeth Neily on the Educational Programming Committee to help plan a presentation that will include a hands-on activity. This workshop presents a wonderful opportunity to introduce teachers to what our museum can offer to the classroom experience. In order to comply with the museums Strategic Plan to Pursue Community Involvement and Educational Outreach,Ž the Education Programming Committee is planning to develop the Panama Canal Museum in a Trunk," a pilot project for creating lesson plans for other K-12 grades. Included in the Panama Canal Museum in a TrunkŽ will be teacher lesson plans, maps, artifacts, and support materials such as books and videos that discuss the construction and operation of the Panama Canal and contributions of people from around the world. The lesson plans will focus on social studies, math and science, language arts, and artist skills. Once the pilot project is complete, the "Panama Canal Museum in a Trunk" will be marketed to school media centers all over the United States. VOLUNTEER Education professionals and members are invited to submit a proposal for the design and development of the Panama Canal Museum in a Trunk.Ž We are also looking for someone to help us with our PowerPoint programs that are part of the school programs and used for the Speakers Bureau programs. BECOME A SPONSOR The museum is also offering a sponsorship opportunity to members and businesses that would like to help fund one of the ten initial "Panama Canal Museum in a Trunk. A donation of $1,500 to develop and produce a trunk will also count as one full Transit on the Wall of Honor. A steamer trunk, on which the sponsor's name(s) will be listed, will contain all the materials for the Panama Canal Lesson Plans. For instance it can say Sponsored by "Mary Smith" or "XYZ Company For more information about this exciting new initiative, please contact the Panama Canal Museum at director@panamacanalmuse um.org or (727)394-9338. EDUCATION OUTREACH ESTATE AND INVESTMENT PLANNING SEMINAR AT REUNION Fred Bremer Certified Financial Planner, will be hosting an educational seminar on Estate and In vestment Planning at the Panama Canal Society Reunion on Thursday, July 5 at 2:00 p.m. in Gatlin Room E3. All attendees at the reunion are invited to attend this informative session. Admission is free and Fred will be happy to answer any questions on this important subject. He will al so be available Friday and Saturday from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Museum Exhibit Room (E-1, E-2) to answer questions and provide additional information. Fred was born and raised in the Panama Canal Zone, is a Curundu BoyŽ and a 1971 graduate of Balboa High School. He obtained a BA in 1975 from Mount St. Marys College in Emmitsburg, Md., an MA from San Diego State University in 1977 and, af ter pursuing his professional career for several years, received his MBA from the University of Miami in 1984. Fred is currently employed as a regist ered investment advisor associate for G. A. Repple & Co., an independent fi nancial planning firm established in 1982 and located in Casselberry, Florida. In that capacity, Fred is in a position to provide unbiased and objective advice to clients. He is a strong advocate of client and investor education and can provide specific advice in the areas of financial education, portfolio management, tax consulting, retirement planning, risk management, college funding, estate planning and the advantages of charitable giving. As the Museums official investme nt advisor and financial planner, Fred has recommended sound investment strategies and has developed a customized investment portfolio designed to maximize the museums resources and help it reach its financial goals. Page 14 The Panama Canal Museum Review Continuing to bless the Largo/Clearwater, Florida, area where they settled after leaving the Canal Zone, Norman and Cecile Demers recently gave a sizable donation to the St. Patrick Catholic School in Largo that made possible a computer lab that will benefit many students in the years to come. On May 9, the school held a dedication of the Norman and Cecile Demers Computer Lab. Norm and Cele an d guests saw the unveiling of a beautiful plaque in the Demers' honor and students working on the computers. They were also entertained by the middle school bell choir and elementary school singing groups, including a solo sung by a student who was the reci pient of a scholarship provided by Norm and Cele. Unfortunately, Norm died two weeks after the lab dedication. But with their latest donation to the school, their large donation to Morton Plant Hospital last year, and the many items they have given th e Panama Canal Museum from their Panama Canal days, Norman and Cecile shared their good fortune over the years with others who will appreciate their generosity for many years to come. DEMERS CONTINUE TO GIVE BACK We are sorry to report that Norman Demers died on May 22. Page 16 il lust26 per calendar year. Email: president@panamacanalmuseum.org	eng	e4f2f9ac-9a6d-42a5-832d-5b271bc443c6	http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00095849/00005
The aircraft was easily recognizable by its inverted gull wings, fixed spattedundercarriage and its infamous Jericho-Trompete ("Jericho Trumpet") wailing siren , becoming the propaganda symbol of German air power and the Blitzkrieg victories of 1939-1942. The Stuka s design included several innovative features, including automatic pull-up dive brakes under both wings to ensure that the plane recovered from its attack dive even if the pilot blacked out from the high acceleration.Although sturdy, accurate, and very effective, the Ju 87 was vulnerable to modern fighter aircraft, like many other dive bombers of the war. Its flaws became apparent during the Battle of Britain; poor maneuverability, lack of speed and defensive armament meant that the Stuka required a fighter escort to operate effectively. The Stuka operated with further success after the Battle of Britain, and its potency as a precision ground-attack aircraft became valuable to the German war effort in the Balkans Campaign, the African and Mediterranean Theaters and the early stages of the Eastern Front campaigns where Allied fighter resistance was disorganized and in short supply.However, once the Luftwaffe had lost air superiority on all fronts, the Ju 87 once again became an easy target for enemy fighter aircraft. In spite of this, because there was no better replacement, the type continued to be produced until 1944. By the end of the conflict, the Stuka had been largely replaced by ground-attack versions of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, but was still in use until the last days of the war. An estimated 6,500 Ju 87s of all versions were built between 1936 and August 1944. Development Early design The Ju 87's principal designer, Hermann Pohlmann, held the opinion that any dive-bomber design needed to be simple and robust. This led to many technical innovations, like the retractable undercarriage being discarded in favor of one of the Stuka s distinctive features, its fixed and "spatted" undercarriage. Pohlmann continued to carry on developing and adding to his ideas and those of DiplIng Karl Plauth (Plauth was killed in a flying accident in November 1927), and produced the Ju A 48 which underwent testing on 29 September, 1928. The military version of the Ju A 48 was designated the Ju K 47. After the Nazis came to power, the design was given priority. Despite initial competition from the Henschel Hs 123, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) - German for the "Aviation Ministry" - turned to the designs of Herman Pohlmann of Junkers and co-designer of the K 47, Karl Plauth. During the trials with the K 47 in 1932, the double vertical stabilizers were introduced to give the rear gunner a better field of fire. The main, and what was to be the most distinctive, feature of the Ju 87 was its double-spar inverted gull wings.After Plauth's death, Pohlmann continued the development of the Junkers dive bomber. The Ju A 48 registration D-ITOR, was originally fitted with a BMW 132 engine, producing some 450 kW (600 hp). The machine was also fitted with dive brakes for dive testing. The aircraft was given a good evaluation and "exhibited very good flying characteristics". Ernst Udet took an immediate liking to the concept of dive-bombing after flying the Curtiss Hawk II. When he invited Walther Wever and Robert Ritter von Greim to watch Udet perform a trial flight in May 1934 at the Jüterbog artillery range, it caused doubt about the ability of the dive bomber. Udet began his dive at 1,000 m (3,800 ft) and released his 1 kg (2 lb) bombs at 100 m (330 ft), barely recovering and pulling out of the dive. The Chief of the Air Weapons Command Bureau, Walter Wever, and the Secretary of State for Aviation, Erhard Milch, feared that such high-level nerves and skill could not be expected of "average pilots" in the Luftwaffe. Nevertheless, development continued at Junkers. Udet's "growing love affair" with the dive-bomber pushed it to the forefront of German aviation development. Udet went so far as to encourage all medium bombers to have dive-bombing capabilities. The advent of the Ju 87 The design of the Ju 87 had begun in 1933 as part of the Sturzbomber-Programm. The Ju 87 was to be powered by the British Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine. 10 were ordered by Junkers on 19 April 1934 for £ 20,514:2:6 (twenty thousand five hundred fourteen pounds, two shillings, and six pence).The first Ju 87 prototype, which was initially built by AB Flygindustri in Sweden and secretly brought to Germany in late 1934, was to have been completed in April 1935, but due to the inadequate strength of the airframe, construction was not completed until October 1935. However the mostly complete Ju 87 V1 W.Nr. 4921 (minus non-essential parts) took off for its maiden flight on 17 September 1935. The aircraft originally did not carry any registration, but later was given the registration D-UBYR. The flight report, by Hauptmann Willy Neuenhofen, stated the only problem was with the small radiator, which caused the power plant to overheat. The Ju 87 V1, powered by a Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine V12 cylinder liquid-cooled engine, and sporting a twin-tail crashed on 24 January 1936, killing pilot Willy Neuenhofen. The square twin fins and rudders proved too weak and during dive testing, they collapsed and the aircraft crashed. The accident happened after the aircraft entered into an inverted spin during the testing of the terminal dynamic pressure in a dive. The crash prompted a change of tail design to a single vertical stabilizer. To withstand strong forces during the dive, heavy plating was fitted, along with brackets riveted to the frame and longeron, to the fuselage. Other early additions included the installation of hydraulic dive brakes that were fitted under the leading edge and could rotate 90°. The most notable feature of the Stuka was its inverted gull wings, as demonstrated in this photograph. Also visible are the two separate sliding "hoods" of the canopy The RLM was still not interested in the Ju 87 and was not impressed that it relied on a British Rolls-Royce powerplant. In late 1935, Junkers suggested fitting a DB 600 in-line engine, while the final variant would be equipped with the Jumo 210. This was accepted by the RLM as an interim solution. The reworking of the design began on 1 January 1936. The test flight could not be carried for over two months for a lack of adequate aircraft. The 24 January crash at Kleutsch near Dresden had already destroyed one machine and killed Junkers' chief test pilot, Willy Neuenhofen and his engineer Heinrich Kreft. The second prototype was also beset by problems in the design. It had its twin stabilizers removed and a single tail fin installed due to fears over stability. Due to a shortage of power plants, instead of a DB 600, a BMW "Hornet" engine was fitted. All these delays set back the testing until 25 February 1936. By March 1936, the second prototype, the V2, was finally fitted with the Jumo 210Aa power plant, which a year later was changed in favour of a Jumo 210 G (W.Nr. 19310). Although the testing went well, and the pilot, a Flight Captain Hesselbach, praised its performance, Wolfram von Richthofen told the Junkers representative and Construction Office chief engineer Ernst Zindel that the Ju 87 stood little chance of becoming the Luftwaffe s main dive bomber, as it was underpowered, in his opinion. On 9 June, 1936, the RLM ordered the cessation of development, in favour of the Heinkel He 118, a rival design. Apparently, the next day, Ernst Udet canceled the order, and development continued. On 27 July 1936, Udet crashed the He 118 prototype, He 118 V1 D-UKYM. That same day, Charles Lindbergh was visiting Ernst Heinkel, and as a result, Heinkel could only communicate with Udet by telephone. According to this version of the story, Heinkel warned Udet about the propeller's fragility. Udet failed to consider this, so in a dive, the engine over sped and the propeller broke away.Immediately after this incident, Udet announced the Stuka the winner of the development contest. Honing the design Despite its victory over the He 118, the design was still lacking and drew frequent criticism from Wolfram von Richthofen. Testing of the V4 prototype (A Ju 87 A-0) in early 1937 revealed several problems. The Ju 87 could take off in just 250 m (820 ft) and climb to 1,875 m (6,000 ft) in just eight minutes with a 250 kg (550 lb) bomb load, and its cruising speed was 250 km/h (160 mph). However, Richthofen pushed for a more powerful engine.According to the test pilots, the Heinkel He 50 had a better acceleration rate, and could climb away from the target area much quicker, avoiding enemy ground and air defenses. Richthofen stated that any maximum speed under 350 km/h (217 mph) was unacceptable for those reasons. Pilots also complained that navigation and powerplant instruments were mixed together, and were not easy to read, especially in combat. Despite this, pilots praised its handling qualities and strong airframe. These problems were to be resolved by installing the Daimler-Benz DB 600 engine, but delays in development forced the installation of the Jumo 210 Da in-line engine. Flight testing began on 14 August 1936. Subsequent testing and progress fell short of Richthofen's hopes, although the machine's speed was increased to 280 km/h (173 mph) at ground level and 290 km/h (179 mph) at 1,250 m (4,000 ft), while maintaining its good handling ability. Design Basic design (based on the B series) The Ju 87 was a single-engined cantilevermonoplane and its structure was all-metal. It had a fixed undercarriage and could carry a crew of two. The main construction material was duralumin, and the external coverings were made of Duralumin sheeting. Parts that were required to be of strong construction, like the wing flaps, were made of Pantal and its components made of Elektron. Bolts and parts that were required to take heavy stress were made of steel. The Ju 87 was fitted with detachable hatches and removable coverings to aid and ease the job maintenance and overhaul crews. The designers avoided welding parts wherever possible with preference given to moulded, cast, and rotary parts instead. Large airframe segments were interchangeable as a complete unit which increased the rapidity of repair status to operational readiness. The airframe was also subdivided in sections to allow transport by road or rail. The wings were of standard Junkers double-wing construction. The advantage this gave the Ju 87 was considerable on take-off. Even at a shallow angle large lift forces were created through the aerofoil and reduced take-off and landing runs. In accordance with the Aircraft Certification Center for "Stress Group 5", the Ju 87 had reached the acceptable structural strength requirements for a dive bomber. It was able to withstand diving speeds of 600 km/h (373 mph) and a maximum level speed of 340 km/h (211 mph) near ground level and a flying weight of 4,300 kg (9,480 lb). Performance in the diving attack was enhanced by the introduction of dive brakes under each wing. This allowed the Ju 87 to maintain a constant speed and allow the pilot to steady his aim. It also prevented the crew suffering extreme g forces and high acceleration during "pull-out" of the dive. The fuselage consisted of an oval cross-section and housed a water-cooledinverted-Vinline engine. The cockpit was protected from the engine by a firewall ahead of the wing center section where the fuel tanks were located. At the rear of the cockpit the bulkhead was covered by a canvas cover which could be breached by the crew in an emergency enabling them to escape into the main fuselage. The canopy was split into two sections and joined by a strong welded steel frame. The canopy itself was made of Plexiglas and each compartment had its own "sliding hood" for the two crew members. The engine was mounted on two main support frames that were supported by two tubular struts. The frame structure was triangulated and emanated from the fuselage. The main frames were bolted onto the power plant in its top quarter. In turn the frames were attached to the firewall by universal joints. The firewall itself was constructed from asbestos mesh with dural sheets on both sides. All conduits passing through had to be arranged so that no harmful gases could penetrate the cockpit. The fuel system comprised two fuel tanks in the center section of the port and starboard wings, each with 250 L capacity. The tanks also had a predetermined limit, which if passed would warn the pilot via a red warning light in the cockpit. The fuel was fuel injected via a pump from the tanks to the power plant. Should this shut down, it could be pumped manually using a hand-pump on the fuel cock armature. The power plant would be cooled by a 10 L (3 US gal) ring-shaped aluminium water container that was situated between the propeller and engine. A further container of 20 L (5 US gal) was positioned under the engine.The control surfaces operated in much the same way as other aircraft with the exception of the innovative automatic pull-out system. Upon release of the bomb the pull-out system is simultaneous and self activated. It initiates the pull-out, or automatic recovery and climb, upon the deflection of the dive brakes. To prevent malfunction, the pilot could override the system by exerting significant force on the control column and taking manual control. The wing was the most unusual feature. The wing consisted of a single center section and two outer sections. The outer sections were installed using four universal joints. The center section had a large negative dihedral (anhedral) and the outer surfaces a positive dihedral. This created the gull, or "cranked" wing pattern along the Ju 87's leading edge. The shape of the wing improved pilot-to-ground visibility and also allowed for shorter undercarriage height. The center section protruded only a total of 3 m (9 ft 10⅛ in) either side. The armament consisted of two 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine guns fitted in each wing. Both operated under a mechanical pneumatics system from the pilot's control column. The rear gunner/radio operator operated one 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 15 machine gun for defensive purposes. The engine and propeller had automatic controls, and an auto-trimmer made the aircraft tail-heavy as the pilot rolled over into his dive, lining up red lines on the cockpit side window (choice of 60°, 75° or 80°) with the horizon and aiming at the target with the sight of the fixed gun. The heavy bomb was swung down clear of the propeller on crutches prior to release. Diving procedure Flying at 4,600 m (15,000 ft), the pilot located his target through a bombsight window in the cockpit floor. The pilot would move the dive lever to the rear limiting the "throw" of the control column. The dive brakes were activated automatically, set the trim tabs, retarding his throttle, and closing the coolant flaps. The aircraft then rolled 180°, automatically nosing the aircraft into a dive. Red tabs protruded from the upper surfaces of the wing as a visual indicator to the pilot that in case of a g-induced black-out, the automatic dive recovery system would be activated. The Stuka dived at a 60-90° angle, holding a constant speed of 500-600 km/h (350-370 mph) due to dive-brake deployment, which increased the accuracy of the Ju 87's aim. When the aircraft was reasonably close to the target, a light on the contact altimeter came on to indicate the bomb-release point, usually at a minimum height of 450 m (1,500 ft). The pilot released the bomb by depressing a knob on the control column to release weapons and to initiate the automatic pull-out mechanism. An elongated U-shaped crutch located under the fuselage would swing the bomb out of the way of the propeller, and the aircraft would automatically begin a 6 g pullout. Once the nose was above the horizon, dive brakes were retracted, the throttle was opened, and the propeller was set to climb. The pilot regained control and resumed normal flight. The coolant flaps had to be reopened quickly to prevent overheating. The stress on the crew was severe. Human beings suffering more than 5 g forces in a seated position will suffer vision impairment in the form of a grey veil known to the Stuka pilots as "seeing stars". They lose vision while remaining conscious. If it occurs for more than five seconds it will result in black out. The Ju 87 pilot experienced the visual impairments most during "pull-up" from a dive. g force test at Dessau Extensive tests were carried out by the Junkers works at their Dessau plant. It was discovered that the highest load a pilot could endure was 8.5 g for three seconds, when the aircraft was pushed to its limit by the centrifugal forces. Under 4 g no visual problems or loss of consciousness were experienced. Above 6 g, 50% of pilots suffered visual problems, or "grey" out. With 40%, vision vanished altogether from 7.5 g onwards and black-out sometimes occurred. Despite this blindness the pilot could maintain consciousness and was capable of "bodily reactions". However, after more than three seconds half the subjects passed out. The pilot would regain consciousness two or three seconds after the centrifugal forces had dropped below 3 g and had lasted no longer than three seconds. In a crouched position, pilots could withstand 7.5 g and were able to remain functional for a short duration. In this position, Junkers concluded that ⅔ of pilots could withstand 8 g and perhaps 9 g for three to five seconds without vision defects which, under war conditions, was acceptable.During tests with the Ju 87A-2, new technologies were tried out to reduce the effects of g forces. The pressurised cabin was of great importance during this type of research. Testing revealed that at high altitude even 2 g could cause the death of a crew in an unpressurised cabin and without appropriate clothing. This new technology along with special clothing and oxygen masks were researched and tested. When the United States Army occupied the Junkers factory at Dessau on 21 April 1945 they were impressed and interested in the medical flight tests with the Ju 87. Other designs The concept of dive bombing became so popular among the leadership of the Luftwaffe, that it became almost obligatory in new aircraft designs. Later bomber models like the Junkers Ju 88 and the Dornier Do 217 were fitted for dive bombing. Even the giant Heinkel He 177 bomber was initially supposed to have dive bombing capabilities - a requirement that contributed much to the failure of the design. Once the Stuka became too vulnerable to growing fighter opposition on all fronts, work was done to develop a replacement. None of the dedicated close-support designs on the drawing board progressed far due to the war situation and technological difficulties, and the Luftwaffe decided to settle on the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft, with the Fw 190F becoming the ground-attack version. The Fw 190F started to replace the Ju 87 as close-support aircraft for day missions in 1943 but the Ju 87 continued to be used as a night nuisance-raider until the end of the war. Variants Ju 87A The second prototype had a redesigned single vertical stabiliser and a 610 PS (449 kW, 602 hp) Junkers Jumo 210 A engine installed, and later the Jumo 210 Da. The first A series variant, the A-0, was of all metal construction, with an enclosed cockpit. To ease the difficulty of mass production the leading edge of the wing was straightened out and the ailerons' two aerofoil sections and had smooth leading and trailing edges. The pilot could adjust the elevator and rudder trim tabs in flight, and the tail was connected to the landing flaps, which were positioned in two parts between the ailerons and fuselage. The A-0 also had a flatter engine cowling, which gave the pilot a much better field of vision. In order for the engine cowling to be "flattened", the engine was set down nearly .25 m (10 in). The fuselage was also lowered along with the gunner's position, allowing the gunner a better field of fire. The RLM ordered seven A-0s initially, but then increased the order to 11. During early 1937, the A-0 was tested with varied bomb loads. The underpowered Jumo 210 A, as correctly pointed out by von Richthofen, was insufficient, and was quickly replaced with the Jumo 210 D power plant. The A-1s differed from the A-0s only slightly. As well as the installation of the Jumo 210 D, the A-1 had two 220 L (60 US gal) fuel tanks built into the inner wing, but it was not armoured or protected. The A-1 was also intended to be fitted with two 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine guns in each wing, but this was dropped due to excessive weight. The two that remained would be fed a total of 500 rounds of ammunition, that was stored in the undercarriage "spats". The pilot would rely on the Revi C 21C gun sight for the two MG 17s. The gunner had only a single 7.92 mm (.312 ) MG 15, with 14 drums of ammunition, each containing 75 rounds. This represented a 150 round increase in this position from the Ju 87 A-0. The A-1 was also fitted with a larger 3.3 m (10.8 ft) propeller. The Ju 87 was capable of carrying a 500 kg (1,100 lb) bomb if the aircraft was not carrying the rear gunner/radio operator. This was due to the fact, that even with the Jumo 210 D power plant, the Ju 87 was still underpowered for operations with more than a 250 kg (550 lb) bomb load. All Ju 87As were restricted to 250 kg (550 lb) weapons (although during the Spanish Civil War missions were conducted without the gunner). The Ju 87 A-2 was retrofitted with the Jumo 210Da fitted with a two-stage supercharger. The only further significant difference between the A-1 and A-1 was the H-PA-III controllable-pitch propeller. By the summer of 1938, 262 Ju 87 As had been produced, 192 from the Junkers factory at Dessau, and a further 70 from Bremen. The new more powerful Ju 87 B model started to replace the Ju 87A at this time. Ju 87B The Ju 87B series was to be the first mass produced variant. The first variant, the Ju 87 B-0, was produced in small numbers. A total of six Ju 87 B-0s were produced, built from Ju 87 A airframes. Test flights began from the summer of 1937. A small number, at least three, served as conversion Cs or Es for potential naval variants. Most of the prototypes were conversions from the Ju 87 A-1. The next major variant was the Ju 87 B-1 with a considerably larger engine, its Junkers Jumo 211D generating 1,200 PS (883 kW, 1,184 hp), and the fuselage and landing gear were completely redesigned. This new design was again tested in Spain, and after proving its abilities there, production was ramped up to 60 per month. As a result, by the outbreak of World War II the Luftwaffe had 336 Ju 87 B-1s on hand. The B-1 was also fitted with "Jericho trumpets", essentially noise-making propellers with a diameter of 0.7 m (2.3 ft). This was used to damage enemy morale and enhance the intimidating effect of dive-bombing. After the enemy became used to it, they were to be withdrawn. The devices also caused a loss of some 20–25 km/h (10-20 mph) through drag. Instead some bombs were fitted with whistles installed on the fin of the bomb to produce the noise after release. The trumpets were a suggestion from GeneraloberstErnst Udet (but some authors say they were an idea from Adolf Hitler himself).The Ju 87 B-2s that followed had some improvements and were built in a number of variants that included ski-equipped versions (the B-1 also had this modification), and at the other end, with a tropical operation kit called the Ju 87 B-2 trop. Italy's Regia Aeronautica received a number of the B-2s and named them the Picchiatello, while others went to the other members of the Axis, including Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. The B-2 also had an oil hydraulic system for closing the cowling flaps. This continued in all the later designs. The powerplant; a Jumo 211D installed in a Ju 87B Production of the Ju 87B started in 1937. 89 B-1s were to be built at Junkers' factory in Dessau and another 40 at the Weserflug plant in Bremen by July 1937. Production would be carried out by the Weserflug company after April 1938. But another 352 Ju 87 B-1s were built at Junkers up until March 1940. From August 1938 to March 1940 the Weserflug company produced 740 Ju 87s. In total an estimated 700 Ju 87 B-1s and 230 B-2s were delivered to the Luftwaffe of which 550 were built at Junkers. The remaining machines were built at Weserflug's Bremen factory. A long range version of the Ju 87 B was also built, known as the Ju 87 R. They were primarily intended for anti-shipping missions. Internal fuel capacity was increased by adding two inner-wing 240 L (60 US gal) fuel tanks and by using two 300 L (80 US gal) under-wing drop tanks. This increased capacity to 1,080 litres. Bomb carrying ability was reduced to a single 250 kg (550 lb) bomb if the aircraft was fully loaded with fuel. The naval variant of the Ju 87B was known as the Ju 87C, and these were built to operate from the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. The carrier was never completed, and all of these were converted back to the Ju 87 B standard. The Ju 87 R-1 had a B-1 airframe with the exception of a modification in the fuselage which enabled an additional oil tank. This was installed to feed the engine due to the increase in range after the addition of the extra fuel tanks. The Ju 87 R-2 had the same airframe as the B-2, and strengthened to ensure it could withstand dives of 600 km/h (370 mph). The Jumo 211D in-line engine was installed, replacing the R-1s Jumo 211A. Due to an increase in overall weight by some 700 kg (1,540 lb), the Ju 87 R-2 was slower than the Ju 87 B-1 and had a lower service ceiling. The Ju 87R-2 had an increased range advantage of 360 km (220 mi). The R-3 and R-4 were the last R variants developed. Only a few were built. The R-3 was an experimental tug for gliders and was installed with an expanded radio system which was installed so that the crew could communicate with the glider crew by way of the tow rope. The R-4 differed from the R-2 in the Jumo 211J powerplant. Like the R-3, it was produced only in limited numbers. The Weserflug works at Bremen built 471 Ju 87R-2s and 145 Ju 87R-4s. 143 of the 145 built Ju 87R-4s were delivered as two were destroyed on test flights.The tropicalised versions were initially named the Ju 87 B-2/U1. This was eventually designated the Ju 87 B-2 trop, equipped with tropical emergency equipment and sand filters for the powerplant. Ju 87C On the 18 August the RLM decided to introduce the Ju 87 Tr(C). The Ju 87C was intended to be a dive and torpedo bomber for the Kriegsmarine. The type was ordered into prototype production and available for testing in January 1938. Testing was given just two months and was to begin in February and end in April 1938. The prototype V10 was to be a fixed wing test aircraft, while the following V11 would be modified with folding wings. The prototypes were Ju 87B-0 airframes equipped with Jumo 211 A aero engines. Owing to delays the V10 was not completed until March 1938. It first flew on 17 March and was designated Ju 87C-1. On 12 May the V11 also flew for the first time. By 15 December 1939 915 arrested landings on dry land had been made. It was found the arresting gear winch was too weak and had to be replaced. Tests showed the average braking distance was 20-35 metres.The Ju 87 V11 was designated C-0 on 8 October 1938. It was fitted out with standard Ju 87C-0 equipment and better wing-folding mechanisms. The "carrier Stuka" was to be built at the Weserflug Company's Bremen plant between April and July 1940. Between July 1940 and August 1941 120 Ju 87 C-1s were built. Among the "special" equipment of the Ju 87C was a two seat rubber dinghy with signal ammunition and emergency ammunition. A quick fuel dump mechanism and two inflatable 750 L (200 US gal) bags in each wing and a further two 500 L (130 US gal) bags in the fuselage enabled the Ju 87 C to remain floating for up to three days in calm seas.On 6 October 1939, with the war already underway, 120 of the planned Ju 87Tr(C)s on order at that point were cancelled. Despite the cancellation the tests continued using catapults. The Ju 87 C had a take-off weight of 5,300 kg (11,700 lb) and a speed of 133 km/h (82 mph) on departure. The Ju 87 could also be launched with a SC 500 kg (1,100 lb) bomb and four SC 50 kg (110 lb) bombs under the fuselage. The C-1 was to have two MG 17s mounted in the wing with a MG 15 operated by the rear gunner for defensive purposes. On 18 May 1940, production of the C-1 was switched to the R-1. The fleet of Ju 87Cs that existed were lost throughout the war. Ju 87D Despite having its vulnerability to enemy fighters exposed during the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe had no choice but to continue the Stuka s development as there was no replacement aircraft in sight. The result was the D-series. In June 1941 the RLM ordered five prototypes the Ju 87 V21-25. The Ju 87 D-1 was to be installed with a Daimler-Benz DB 603 powerplant, but it did not have the power of the Jumo 211 and performed "poorly" during tests and was dropped. The Ju 87 D-series received better streamlined oil and water coolers, and an aerodynamically refined cockpit with better visibility and space. In addition, armor protection was increased and a new dual-barrel 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 81Z machine gun with an extremely high rate of fire was installed in the rear defensive position. The engine power was increased again, the Jumo 211 J-1 or Jumo 211 P now delivering 1,420 PS (1,044 kW, 1,401 hp). Kette of Ju 87Ds in flight, October/November 1943 The fuel capacity of the Ju 87 D was also increased to 1,370 L (360 US gal). Tests at Rechlin revealed it made possible a flight duration of 2 hours and 15 minutes. With an extra two 300 L (80 US gal) fuel tanks it could reach four hours flight time. Production of the D-1 variant started in 1941 with 495 orders made. These aircraft were delivered between May 1941 and March 1942. The RLM wanted 832 machines produced from February 1941. The Weserflug company was tasked with their production. From June to September 1941 40 Ju 87Ds were expected to be built, increasing to 90 thereafter. Various production problems were encountered. Just one of the planned 48 was produced in July. Of the 25 the RLM hoped for in August 1941, none were delivered. Only in September 1941 did the first two of the planned 102 Ju 87s roll off the production lines. The shortfalls continued to the end of 1941. During this time the WFG plant in Bremen moved production to Berlin. Over 165 Ju 87s had not been delivered and production was only 23 Ju 87Ds per month out of the 40 expected. By the Spring of 1942 to the end of production in 1944 3,300 Ju 87s, mostly D-1s, D-2s and D-5s had been manufactured. The D-series saw extensive use in the Eastern Front and the Middle East. Bomb carrying ability was massively increased from 500 kg (1,100 lb) in the B-version to 1,800 kg (3,970 lb) in the D-version (max load for short ranges, overload condition), a typical bomb load ranged from 500-1,200 kg (1,100-2,650 lb). The D-2 was a variant used as a glider tug by converting older D-series airframes. It was intended as the tropical of the D-1. It was to have heavier armour to protect the crew from ground fire. But this armour reduced its performance and caused the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe "place no particular value on the production of the D-2". The D-3 was an improved D-1 with more armour for its ground-attack role. The D-3 was converted from D-2 status and equipped with the Jumo 211 J. A number of Ju 87 Ds were designated D-3Ns or D-3/ trops and fitted with night and tropical equipment. The D-4 designation applied to a prototype torpedo-bomber version which could carry a 750-905 kg (1,650-2,000 lb) aerial torpedo carried on a PVC 1006 B racks. The D-4 was to be converted from D-3 airframes and operated from the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. Other modifications included a flame eliminator and, unlike earlier D variants, fitted with two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon while the radio operator/rear gunner's ammunition supply was increased by 1,000 to 2,000 rounds. The Ju 87 D-5 was based on the D-3 design and was unique in the Ju 87 series as it had lengthened wings to 0.6 metres longer than previous variants. The powerplant was upgraded to the Jumo 211 P in-line engine with supercharger intercoolers. In August 1943, this was replaced with the Jumo 211 J-1. This engine increased rate of climb by 15 m/s (2,953 ft/min). With introduction of the Jumo 213 and increased power and climb rate, the lengthened wings were no longer needed. The window in the floor of the cockpit was reinforced and four aileron hinges instead of three were installed. Higher diving speeds were obtained of 650 km/h (408 mph) up to 2,000 m (6,400 ft). Range was recorded as 715 km (443 mi) at ground level and 835 km (517 mi) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft). Fuel capacity was in the form of one main 480 L (127 US gal) fuselage tank and two wing tanks of 150 L (40 US gal) capacity. Two 300 L (80 US gal) drop tanks could also be installed under the wings. The D-5 was also fitted with a 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon in each wing. Both magazines had a capacity of 180 rounds. The radio operator/gunner operated 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 81Z. Ammunition loads usually varied from 1,400 to 2,000 rounds. The D-6, according to "Operating instructions, works document 2097", was built in limited numbers to train pilots on "rationalised versions". However due to shortages in raw materials it did not go into mass production. The D-7 was another ground attack aircraft based on D-1 airframes upgraded to D-5 standard (armor, wing cannons, extended wing panels), while the D-8 was similar to the D-7 but based on D-3 airframes. It's a common myth that the D-7 and D-8 were specifically designed and built for night fighting as they were solely based on converted airframes and used for multiple mission types. However, both were fitted with flame dampers, and could have conducted night operations. The Ju 87E and F proposals were never built, and Junkers went straight onto the next variant. Another variant derived from the Ju 87D airframe was called the Ju 87 H, and saw service as a dual-control trainer. In January 1943 a variety of Ju 87 Ds became "test beds" for the Ju 87 G variants. At the start of 1943 the Luftwaffe test centre at Tarnewitz tested this combination from a static position. Oberst G. Wolfgang Vorwald noted the experiments were not successful, and suggested the cannon be installed on the Messerschmitt Me 410. However, testing continued, and on 31 January 1943 Ju 87 D-1 W.Nr 2552 was tested by a HauptmannHans-Karl Stepp near the Briansk training area. Stepp noted the increase in drag, and reduction in speed was considerable, and reduced the aircraft's speed to 259 km/h (162 mph). Stepp also noted that the performance in agility was also less agile than the existing D variants. D-1 and D-3 variants operated in combat with the 37 mm (1.46 in) BK 37 cannon in 1943. Ju 87G With the G variant the aging airframe of the Ju 87 found new life as an anti-tank aircraft. This was the final operational version of the Stuka and was deployed on the Eastern Front.The change in German military fortunes after 1943 and the appearance of huge numbers of well armoured Soviet tanks caused Junkers to adapt the existing design to combat this new threat. The Hs 129 had proved a potent ground attack weapon, but its large fuel tanks made it vulnerable to enemy fire, prompting the RLM to say "that in the shortest possible time a replacement of the Hs 129 type must take place". With Soviet tanks the priority targets, the development of a further variant as a successor to the Ju 87 D began in November 1942. On 3 November Erhard Milch raised the question of replacing the Ju 87, or redesigning it altogether. It was decided to keep the design as it was, but the powerplant would be upgraded to a Jumo 211J, and two 30 mm (1.18 in) weapons added. The variant would also be designed to enable it to carry a 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) free-fall bomb load. Furthermore the armoured protection of the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik was copied, to protect the crew from ground fire now that the Ju 87 would be asked to conduct low level attacks. Hans-Ulrich Rudel, a Stuka ace, had suggested using two 37 mm (1.46 in) Flak 18 guns, each one in a self-contained under-wing gun pod, as the Bordkanone BK 3.7, after achieving success against Soviet tanks with the 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon. These gun pods were fitted to a Ju 87 D-1, W.Nr 2552 as "Gustav the tank killer". The first flight of the machine took place on 31 January 1943 which was piloted by HauptmannHans-Karl Stepp. The continuing problems with the Ju 88P-1s equipped BK 7.5 75 mm (2.95 in) cannon meant the Ju 87G was put into production. In April 1943 the first production Ju 87G-1s were delivered to front-line units.The two 37 mm (1.46 in) cannons were mounted in under-wing gun pods, each loaded with a 6-round magazine of armour piercing Tungsten carbide ammunition. With these weapons the Kanonenvogel ("cannon-bird"), as it was nicknamed, proved spectacularly successful at the hands of the LuftwaffeStuka aces such as Rudel. The G-1 was converted from older D-series airframes retaining the smaller wing but without the dive brakes. The G-2 was similar to the G-1 except using the extended wing of the D-5 with 208 G-2 new built and at least 22 more converted from D-3 airframes. During the Battle of Kursk, only a handful of production Gs were committed. On the opening day of the offensive, Hans-Ulrich Rudel flew the only "official" Ju 87 G, although a significant number of Ju 87 D variants were installed with the 37 mm (1.46 in) cannon, and operated as unofficial Ju 87 Gs before the battle. In June 1943 the RLM ordered 20 Ju 87Gs as production variants. While still slow, its stable attitude, large wings and low stall speed were valuable in the acquisition of slow moving targets, such as assault boats and ground vehicles. The G-1 even influenced the design of the A-10 Thunderbolt II, with Hans Rudel's book, Stuka Pilot, being required reading for all members of the A-X project. Night-harassment variants The Soviet practice of harassing German ground forces using antiquated Polikarpov Po-2biplanes at night to drop flares and fragmentation bombs, inspired the Luftwaffe to form its own Störkampfstaffeln (Harassment squadrons). On 23 July, 1942, Junkers offered the Ju 87 B-2, R-2 and R-4s with Flammenvernichter ("flame eliminators"). On 10 November, 1943, the RLM GL/C-E2 Division finally authorised the design in directive No. 1117. This new equipment made the Ju 87 more difficult to detect from the ground in darkness. Pilots were also asked to complete the new "Blind Flying Certificate 3", which was especially introduced for this new type of operation. Pilots were trained at night, over unfamiliar terrain, and forced to rely on their instruments for direction. The Ju 87's standard Revi C12D gunsight was also replaced with the new Nachtrevi ("Nightrevi") C12N. On some Ju 87s, the Revi 16D was exchanged for the Nachtrevi 16D. To ease the pilot's ability to see his instrument panel, a violet light was installed.On 15 November 1942, the Auxiliary Staffel were created. By the summer of 1943, Luftflotte 1 was given four Staffeln while Luftflotte 4 and Luftwaffe Kommando Ost (Luftwaffe Command East) were given six and two respectively. In the first half of 1943, 12 Nachtschlachtgruppen had been formed, flying a multitude of different types of aircraft, including the Ju 87, which proved itself ideally suited to the low-level slow flying needed. Production Despite teething problems with the Ju 87, the RLM ordered 216 Ju 87A-1s into production and wanted to receive delivery of all machines between January 1936 and 1938. The Junkers production capacity was fully occupied and licensing to other production facilities became necessary. The first 35 Ju 87A-1s were therefore produced by the Weserflug Aircraft Company Limited (WFG). By the 1 September 1939, 360 Ju 87As and Bs had been built by the Junkers factories at Dessau and Weserflug factory in Bremen. By 30 September 1939, Junkers had received 2,365,196 Reichsmark (RM) for Ju 87 construction orders. For development orders the RLM paid another 243,646 RM. According to the Audit records in Berlin, by the end of the financial year on 30 September 1941, 3,059,000 RM had been spent on Ju 87 airframes. By 30 June 1940 697 Ju 87B-1s and 129 B-2s alone had been produced. Another 105 R-1s and seven R-2s had been built. A Ju 87D during wing installation The range of the B-2 was not sufficient and it was dropped in favour of the Ju 87R long-range versions in the second half of 1940. The 105 R-1s were converted to R-2 status and a further 616 production R-2s were ordered. In May 1941 the development of the D-1 was planned. It was ordered into production by March 1942. However the expansion of the Junkers Ju 88 production lines to compensate for the withdrawal of Dornier Do 17 production meant this did not take place. The Weserflug plant in Bremen experienced production shortfalls. This prompted Erhard Milch to visit and threaten the company into meeting the RLM's Ju 87D-1 requirements on 23 February 1942. To meet these demands, 700 skilled workers were needed. Skilled workers had been called up for military service in the Wehrmacht. Junkers were able to supply 300 German workers to the Weserflug factory, and as an interim, Soviet prisoners of war and Soviet civilians deported to Germany. Working around the clock the shortfall was made good. WFG received an official commendation. By May 1942 demand increased further. Chief of Procurement General Walter Herthel found that each unit needed 100 Ju 87s as standard strength and an average of 20 per month to cover attrition. Not until June-December 1942 did production capacity increase and 80 Ju 87s were produced per month. By 17 August 1942, production had climbed rapidly after the Blohm & Voss BV 138 production was scaled down and licence work had shut down at WFG. Production now reached some 150 Ju 87D airframes per month. But spare parts were failing to reach the same production levels. Undercarriage parts were particularly in short supply. Milch ordered production to 350 Ju 87s per month in September 1942. This was not achievable due to the insufficient production capacity in the Reich. The RLM considered setting up production facilities to Slovakia. But this would delay production until the buildings and factories could be furnished with the machine tools. These tools were also in short supply, and the RLM hoped to purchase them from Switzerland and Italy. The Slovaks could provide 3,500-4,000 workers but no technical personnel. The move would only produce another 25 machines per month at a time when demand was increasing. In October, production plans were dealt another blow when one of WFGs plants burned down leaving a chronic shortage of tailwheels and undercarriage parts. Junkers Director and a member of the Luftwaffe industry council Carl Frytag reported that by January 1943 only 120 Ju 87s could be produced at Bremen and 230 at Berlin-Tempelhof. Decline and end of production After evaluating Ju 87 operations on the Eastern FrontHermann Göring ordered production limited to 200 per month in total. General der Schlachtflieger (General of the Bomber Force) Ernst Kupfer decided continued development would "hardly bring any further tactical value". Adolf Galland, a fighter pilot with operational and combat experience in strike aircraft, said to abandon development would be premature, but 150 machines per month would be sufficient. Two Junkers Ju 87Ds near completion On 28 July 1943, strike and bomber production was to be scaled down, and fighter and bomber destroyer production given precedence. On 3 August 1943, Milch contradicted this and declared that this increase in fighter production would not affect production of the Ju 87, Ju 188, Ju 288 and Ju 290. This was an important consideration as the life expectancy of a Ju 87 had been reduced (since 1941) from 9.5 months to 5.5 months, to just some 100 operational flying hours. On 26 October General der Schlachtflieger Ernst Kupfer reported the Ju 87 could no longer survive in operations and that the Focke-Wulf Fw 190F should take its place. Milch finally agreed and ordered the minimal continuance of Ju 87D-3 and D-5 production for a smooth transition period.In May 1944, production wound down. 78 Ju 87s were built in May and 69 rebuilt from damaged machines. In the next six months 438 Ju 87Ds and Gs were added to the Ju 87 force as new or repaired aircraft. It is unknown whether any Ju 87s were built from parts unofficially after December 1944 and the end of production. Overall some 550 Ju 87As and B2s were completed at the Junkers factory in Dessau. Production of the Ju 87R and D variants were passed to the Weserflug company, which was to produce 5,930 of the 6,500 Ju 87s produced in total. During the course of the war little damage was done to the WFG plant at Bremen. Attacks throughout 1940-45 caused little lasting damage and succeeded only damaging some Ju 87 airframes, which was in "contrast" to the Focke-Wulf plant in Bremen. At Berlin-Templehof little delay and damage was caused to Ju 87 production, despite the heavy bombings and large-scale destruction inflicted on other targets. The WFG was again unscathed. The Junkers factory at Dessau was heavily attacked, but not until Ju 87 production had ceased. The Ju 87 repair facility at the Wels aircraft works was destroyed on 30 May 1944, and the site abandoned Ju 87 links. Operational history Condor Legion and the Spanish Civil War Among the many German aircraft designs that participated in the Legion Condor and Spanish Civil War, a single Ju 87 A-0 (the V4 prototype) was allocated serial number 29-1 and was assigned to the VJ/88, the experimental Staffel of the Legion's fighter wing. The aircraft was secretly loaded onto the Spanish ship Usaramo and departed Hamburg harbor on the night of 1 August 1936, arriving in Cadiz five days later. The only known information pertaining to its combat career in Spain is that it was piloted by Unteroffizier Herman Beuer, and took part in the Nationalist offensive against Bilbao in 1937. Presumably the aircraft was then secretly returned to Germany. In January 1938 three Ju 87 A-s arrived. Several problems became evident - the spatted undercarriage sank into muddy airfield surfaces, and the spats were temporarily removed. In addition, the maximum 500 kg (1,100 lb) bomb load could only be carried if the gunner vacated his seat, and the bomb load was therefore restricted to 250 kg (550 lb). These aircraft supported the Nationalist forces and carried out anti-shipping missions until they returned to Germany in October 1938. The A-1s were replaced by five Ju 87 B-1s. With the war coming to an end they found little to do and were used to support Heinkel He 111s attacking Republican positions. As the Ju 87 A-0 had been, the B-1s were returned discreetly to the Reich. The experience of the Spanish Civil War had been invaluable - air and ground crews perfected their skills, and equipment was evaluated under combat conditions. Although no Ju 87s had been lost in Spain, however, the Ju 87 had not been tested against numerous and well-coordinated fighter opposition, and this lesson was to be learned later at great cost to the Stuka crews. Second World War All Stuka units were moved to Germany's eastern border in preparation for the invasion of Poland. On the morning of August 15, 1939, during a mass formation dive bombing demonstration for high ranking commanders of the Luftwaffe at Neuhammer training grounds near Sagan, 13 Ju-87 with 26 crew members were lost when they crashed into the ground almost simultaneously. The planes dived through cloud, expecting to release their practice bombs and pull out of the dive once below the cloud ceiling, unaware that on that particular day the ceiling was too low and unexpected ground mist formed, leaving them no time to pull out of the dive. Poland On 1 September 1939, the Wehrmacht invaded Poland triggering World War II .Generalquartiermeister der Luftwaffe records indicate a total force of 366 Ju 87 A and Bs were available for operations on the 31 August 1939.At exactly 0426, a Kette ("chain" or flight of three) of Ju 87s of 3./StG 1 led by StaffelkapitänOberleutnant Bruno Dilly carried out the first bombing attack of the war. The aim was to destroy the Polish demolition charges wired to the Dirschau bridges over the Vistula River. The Stukas attacked just 11 minutes before the official German declaration of hostilities and hit the targets. However, the mission failed and the Poles destroyed the bridge before the Germans could reach it. A Ju 87 achieved the first air victory during World War II on 1 September 1939 in the morning, when RottenführerLeutnant Frank Neubert of I./StG 2 "Immelmann" shot down a Polish PZL P.11cfighter, while it was taking off from Balice airfield, piloted by Captain Mieczysław Medwecki, who was killed in the engagement.The Luftwaffe had a few anti-shipping naval units such as 4.(St)/TrGr 186. This unit performed effectively, sinking the 1540-ton destroyer ORP Wicher and minelayer ORP Gryf of the Polish Navy (both moored in a harbour). On one occasion six Polish divisions trapped by encircling German forces were forced to surrender after a relentless four-day bombardment by StG 51, 76 and 77. Employed in this assault were the 50 kg (110 lb) fragmentation bombs which caused appalling casualties to the Polish ground troops. Demoralized, the Poles surrendered. The Stukas also participated in the Battle of Bzura which resulted in the breaking of Polish resistance. The Sturzkampfgeschwader alone dropped 388 tonnes (428 tons) of bombs during this battle. Once again, enemy air opposition was light, the Stukawaffe (Stuka force) losing just 31 aircraft during the campaign. Norway Operation Weserübung began on 9 April 1940 with the invasions of Norway and Denmark, Denmark capitulated within the day whilst Norway continued to resist with British and French help. The campaign was not the classic Blitzkrieg of fast-moving armoured divisions supported by air-power as the mountainous terrain ruled out close Panzer/Stuka cooperation. Instead the Germans relied on Fallschirmjäger (paratroops), airborne troops transported by Junkers Ju 52s and specialised ski troops. The strategic nature of the operation made the Stuka essential. The Ju 87s were given the role of ground attack and anti-shipping missions. The Stuka was to prove the most effective weapon in the Luftwaffe s armoury carrying out the latter. On 9 April, the first Stukas took off at 10.59 hours from occupied airfields to destroy Oscarsborg Fortress, after the loss of the German cruiser Blücher which caused disruption of the amphibious landings in Oslo through Oslofjord. The 22 Ju 87s had helped suppress the Norwegian defenders during the ensuing Battle of Drøbak Sound but the defenders did not surrender until after Oslo had been captured. As a result the German Naval operation failed.StG 1 caught the 735 ton Norwegian destroyer Æger off Stavanger and hit her in the engine room.Æger was run aground and scuttled. The Stukageschwader were now equipped with the new Ju 87R, which differed from the Ju 87B by having increased internal fuel capacity and two 300l underwing drop tanks for more range. The Stukas, however, had numerous successes against Allied Naval vessels. was sunk on 30 April. The French large destroyer Bison was sunk along with by Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 on 3 May 1940 during the evacuation from Namsos. Bison s forward magazine had been hit killing 108 of the crew. Affridi, who had attempted to rescue Bison s survivors was sunk with the loss of 63 sailors. France and the Low Countries The Stukawaffe had learned some lessons from the Polish and Norwegian campaigns. The failures of Poland and the Stukas of I.StG 1 to silence the Oscarborg fort ensured even more attention was paid to pin-point bombing during the Phoney War period. This was to pay off in the Western campaign.When Fall Gelb began on 10 May 1940, the Stuka helped swiftly neutralise the fortress of Eben Emael.The HQ of the Commander responsible for ordering the destruction of the bridges along the Albert Canal was stationed in the village of Lanaeken (14 km/ mi to the north). However the Stuka demonstrated its accuracy when the small building was destroyed after receiving four direct hits. As a result only one of the three bridges was destroyed allowing the German Army to rapidly advance. The Sturzkampfgeschwader were also instrumental in achieving the breakthrough at Sedan. The Stukawaffe flew 300 sorties against French positions, with StG 77 alone flying 201 individual missions. When resistance was organised, the Ju 87s were vulnerable. For example, on 12 May, near Sedan, six French Curtiss H-75s from Groupe de Chasse I/5 attacked a formation of Ju 87s shooting down 11 out of 12 unescorted Ju 87s without loss to themselves. The Luftwaffe also benefited from excellent ground-to-air communications throughout the campaign. Radio equipped forward liaison officers could call upon the Stukas and direct them to attack enemy positions along the axis of advance. In some cases the Stukas responded to requests in 10–20 minutes. OberstleutnantHans Seidemann (Richthofen's Chief of Staff) said that "never again was such a smoothly functioning system for discussing and planning joint operations achieved". During the Battle of Dunkirk many Allied ships were lost to Ju 87 attacks. The French destroyer L' Adroit had already been sunk on 21 May. The paddle steamerCrested Eagle was sunk on 28 May 1940. The British destroyer was sunk on 29 May and several other vessels damaged by Stuka attack. On 29 May, the Allies had lost 31 vessels sunk and 11 damaged. In total, 89 merchantmen (of 126,518 grt) were lost, and the Royal Navy lost 29 of its 40 destroyers (8 sunk, 23 damaged and out of service). Allied air power was ineffective and disorganised, and as a result the Stuka losses were mainly due to ground fire. Some 120 machines, one-third of the Stuka force, were destroyed or damaged to all causes. Battle of Britain For the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe'sOrder of battle consisted of five Geschwader equipped with the Ju 87. Lehrgeschwader 2's IV.(St), Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 s III.Gruppe and Sturzkampfgeschwader 2'sIII.Gruppe, Sturzkampfgeschwader 51 and Sturzkampfgeschwader 3 s I.Gruppe were committed to the battle. As an anti-shipping weapon the Ju 87 proved a potent weapon in the early stages. On 4 July 1940 StG 2 struck success when it attacked a convoy in the English Channel sinking four freighters, the Britsum, the Dallas City, the Deucalion and Kolga. Six more were damaged. That afternoon 33 Ju 87s delivered the single most deadly air assault on British territory in history, when 33 Ju 87s of III./StG 51, avoiding Royal Air Force (RAF) interception, sank in Portland Harbour killing 176 of its 298-strong crew. One of Foylebank's gunners, Leading Seaman John F. Mantle continued to fire on the Stukas as the ship sank. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for remaining at his post despite being mortally wounded. Mantle may have been responsible for the single Ju 87 lost during the raid. During August, the Ju 87s also had some success. On 13 August Messerschmitt Bf 109s of Jagdgeschwader 26 were sent out in advance of the main strike and successfully drew off RAF fighters, allowing 86 Ju 87s of StG 1 to attack RAF Detling unhindered. The attack killed the station commander, destroyed 20 RAF aircraft on the ground and a great many of the airfield's many buildings. However, Detling was not an RAF Fighter Command station. The Battle of Britain proved for the first time that the Junkers Ju 87 was vulnerable in hostile skies against well organised and determined fighter opposition. The Ju 87, like other dive bombers, was slow and possessed inadequate defences. Furthermore, it could not be effectively protected by fighters, because of its low speed and the very low altitudes at which it ended its dive bomb attacks. The Stuka depended on air superiority, the very thing being contested over Britain. It was withdrawn from attacks on Britain in August after prohibitive losses, leaving the Luftwaffe without precision ground-attack aircraft. Steady losses had occurred throughout their participation in the battle. On 18 August, a day known as the 'hardest day' as both sides suffered heavy losses, the Stuka was withdrawn after 16 were destroyed and many others damaged. According to the Generalquartiermeister der Luftwaffe, 59 Stukas were destroyed and 33 damaged, to varying degrees, in six weeks of operations. Over 20% of the total Stuka strength had been lost between 8 August and 18 August. The myth of the Stuka was shattered. In return, the Ju 87s sank six warships, 14 merchant ships, badly damaged seven airfields and three radar stations, and destroyed 49 British aircraft, mainly on the ground. On 19 August, the units of VIII.Fliegerkorps moved up from their bases around Cherbourg-Octeville and concentrated in the Pas de Calais under Luftflotte 2, closer to the proposed invasion area. On 13 September, the Luftwaffe targeted airfields again, with a small number of Ju 87s crossing the coast at Selsey and heading for Tangmere.After a lull, anti-shipping operations attacks were resumed by some Ju 87 units from 1 November 1940, as part of the new winter tactic of enforcing a blockade. Over the next ten days seven merchant ships were sunk and damaged, mainly in the Thames Estuary for the loss of four Ju 87s. On 14 November, 19 Stukas from III./St.G 1, with escort drawn from JG 26 and JG 51, went out against another convoy as no targets were found over the estuary, the Stukas proceeded to attack Dover, their alternate target. Bad weather resulted in a decline of anti-shipping operations, and before long the Ju 87 Gruppen began re-deploying to the soon to be Eastern Front, as a part of the concealed build-up for Operation Barbarossa. By spring 1941, only St.G 1 with 30 Ju 87s remained facing the United Kingdom. Operations on a small scale continued throughout the winter months into March. Operations included ships at sea, the Thames Estuary, the Chatham naval dockyard and Dover and night-bomber sorties over the Channel. These attacks were resurrected again in the following winter. North Africa and the Mediterranean In response to the Italian defeats in Greece and North Africa the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ordered the deployment of some German forces to these theatres. Amongst the Luftwaffe contingent deployed was the Geschwaderstab StG 3 which touched down in Sicily in December 1940. In the next few days, two Gruppen- some 80 Stukas - were deployed under X.Fliegerkorps.The first task of the Korps was to attack British shipping passing between Sicily and Africa. The Ju 87s first made their presence felt by subjecting the British aircraft carrier to heavy attack. The crews were confident that they could sink it as the flight deck had an area of about 6,500 square metres. On 10 January 1941, the Stuka crews were told that four direct hits with 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs would be enough to sink the carrier. The Ju 87s delivered six and three damaging near-misses, but the ship's engines remained untouched and she made for the besieged harbour of Malta. The Italian Regia Aeronautica was equipped for a while with the Stukas. In 1939, Italian government asked the RLM to supply 100 Ju 87s. Italian pilots were sent to Graz in Austria, to be trained for dive-bombing aircraft. In the summer, 1940 about 100 Ju 87B-1s, some of them ex-Luftwaffe machines, were handed over to their Italian ally, and delivered to 96° Gruppo Bombardamento a Tuffo. The Italian Stuka, re-named "Picchiatello", was in turn assigned to Gruppi 97°, 101° and 102°. The "Picchiatelli" were used against Malta and Allied convoys in Mediterranean, in North Africa (where took part in conquering Tobruk). Some of the Picchiatelli saw action in the opening phase of the Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940. The numbers were low and ineffective. The Italian forces were quickly pushed back. By early 1941 the Greeks had pushed into Italian occupied Albania. Once again Hitler decided to send military aid to his allies. A Ju 87B in the North African theatre, circa 1941-42 They were used by Regia Aeronautica up to 1942 In March, the pro-German Yugoslav government was toppled. A furious Hitler ordered the attack to be expanded to include Yugoslavia. Operation Marita commenced on 7 April. The Luftwaffe committed StG 1, 2 and 77 to the campaign.The Stuka once again spearheaded the air assault with a front line strength of 300 machines, against minimal Yugoslav resistance in the air, giving the Stukas a fearsome reputation in this region. Operating unmolested they took a heavy toll of ground forces, suffering only light losses to ground fire. The effectiveness of the dive-bombers helped bring about Yugoslav capitulation in just ten days. The Stukas also took a peripheral part in Operation Punishment - Hitler's retribution bombing of Belgrade. The dive-bombers were to attack airfields and known anti-aircraft gun positions whilst the level bombers struck civilian targets. Belgrade was badly damaged, and 2,271 people were reported killed and 12,000 injured. In Greece, despite British aid, little air opposition was encountered. As the Allies withdrew and resistance collapsed, the Allies began evacuating to Crete. The Stukas proved effective in inflicting severe damage on Allied shipping. On 22 April, the 1,389 ton destroyers Psara and Ydra were sunk. In the next two days, the Greek Naval base at Piraeus lost 23 vessels to Stuka attack. During the Battle of Crete the Ju 87s also played a significant role.On 21/22 May 1942, the Germans attempted to send in reinforcements to Crete by sea, but lost 10 vessels to "Force D" under the command of Rear-Admiral Glennie. The force consisting of , and forced the remaining German ships to retreat. The Stukas were called upon to deal with the British Naval threat. On 21 May, was sunk, and the next day, battleship was damaged and the cruiser was sunk with the loss of 45 officers and 648 ratings. The Ju 87s also crippled that morning, (she was later finished off by Bf 109 fighter bombers) whilst destroying with a single hit. As the Battle of Crete drew to a close the Allies began yet another withdrawal. On 23 May the Royal Navy also lost , sunk followed by on 26 May; Orion and Dido were also severely damaged. Orion had been evacuating 1,100 soldiers to North Africa and lost 260 of them killed and another 280 wounded during the attacks. The Sturzkampfgeschwader faithfully supported GeneralfeldmarschallErwin Rommel's Deutsches Afrikakorps in its two year campaign in North Africa, helping it achieve considerable success. However, as the tide turned and Allied air power grew in the autumn of 1942, the Ju 87 became very vulnerable, and losses were heavy. The entry of the Americans into North Africa during Operation Torch made the situation far worse: the Stuka was obsolete in what was now a fighter-bomber's war. The Bf 109 and Fw 190 could at least fight on equal terms after dropping their ordnance , but the Stuka could not. The Junkers' vulnerability was demonstrated on 11 November 1942 when 15 Ju 87Ds were all shot down by United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Curtiss P-40Fs in minutes. By 1943, the Allies enjoyed total air superiority in North Africa. The Ju 87s ventured out in Rotte strength only, often jettisoning their bombs at the first sight of enemy aircraft. Adding to this trouble the German fighters had only enough fuel to cover the Ju 87s at their most vulnerable; on take off. After that the Stukas were on their own.The dive bombers continued to support operations in Southern Europe; after the Italian surrender in September 1943, the Ju 87 helped Germany achieve the last campaign-sized victory over the Western Allies. The Greek Dodecanese Islands had been occupied by the British; the Luftwaffe reacted by committing 75 Stukas (of StG 3 with bases in Megara and Rhodos) to recover the Islands. With the RAF bases some 500 km away the Ju 87 helped the German landing forces to achieve a rapid conquest of the Islands. The first Stuka loss on the Soviet-German front occurred early at 03:40–03:47 in the morning of the 22 June. While being escorted by Bf 109s from JG 51 to attack a fortress at Brest, Oberleutnant Karl Führing of StG 77 was shot down by a I-153. The Sturzkampfgeschwader had suffered only two losses on the opening day of Barbarossa. As a result of the Luftwaffe's attention, the Soviet Air Force in the Western Soviet Union was nearly destroyed. The official report claimed 1,489 Soviet aircraft destroyed. Göring ordered this checked. After picking their way through the wreckages across the front, Luftwaffe officers found that the tally exceeded 2,000. In the following two days the Soviets reported the loss of another 1,922 aircraft. Soviet aerial resistance, whilst it continued, ceased to be effective, and the Luftwaffe maintained air superiority until the end of the year. The Ju 87 took a huge toll on Soviet ground forces, helping to break up counter-attacks of Soviet armour, eliminating strong points, and disrupting the enemy supply lines. An example of the Stuka's effectiveness occurred on 5 July when StG 77 knocked out 18 trains and 500 vehicles. As Panzergruppe 1 and 2 forged bridgeheads across the Dnieper river and closed in on Kiev the Ju 87s again rendered invaluable support. On 13 September Stukas from StG 1 destroyed all the rail networks in the vicinity as well as inflicting heavy casualties on escaping Red Army columns, for the loss of a single Ju 87. Days later, on 23 September, Hans-Ulrich Rudel (who was to become the most decorated serviceman in the Wehrmacht) of StG 2, sank the Soviet battleshipMarat, during an air attack on Kronstadt harbor in the Leningrad area, with a hit to the bow with a 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bomb. Also during this action Leutnant Egbert Jaekel sank the destroyer Minsk, while the destroyer Steregushchiy and submarine M-74 were also sunk. The Stukas also crippled the battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya and the destroyers Silnyy and Grozyashchiy in exchange for two Ju 87s shot down. Elsewhere on the Eastern front the Junkers assisted Army Group Centre in its drive toward Moscow. From 13-22 December, 420 vehicles and 23 tanks were destroyed by StG 77, greatly improving the morale of the German infantry, who were by now on the defensive. StG 77 finished the campaign as the most effective Sturzkampfgeschwader. It had destroyed 2,401 vehicles, 234 tanks, 92 artillery batteries and 21 trains for the loss of 25 Ju 87s to hostile action. At the end of Barbarossa, StG 1 had lost 60 Stukas in aerial combat and one on the ground. StG 2 lost 39 Ju 87s in the air and two on the ground, StG 77 lost 29 of their dive-bombers in the air and three on the ground (25 to enemy action). IV.(St)/LG1 operating from Norway lost 24 Ju 87s, all in aerial combat. Fall Blau to Stalingrad; 1942 In early 1942, the Ju 87s were to give the Germany Army (Heer) yet more valuable support. On 29 December 1941 the Soviet 44th Army landed on the Kerch Peninsula. The Luftwaffe was only able to dispatch meager reinforcements of four Kampfgruppen (note: not Kampfgeschwader) and two Sturzkampfgruppen, belonging to StG 77. With air-superiority, the Ju 87s operated with impunity. In the first 10 days, ½ the landing force was destroyed, while sea supply lines were cut off by the Stukas inflicting heavy losses on Soviet shipping. The Ju 87s effectiveness against Soviet armour was not yet potent. Later versions of the T-34 tank could withstand Stuka attack, in general, unless a direct hit was scored, but the Soviet 44th Army had only obsolescent types with thin armour which were nearly all destroyed During the Battle of Sevastopol the Stukas mercilessly bombed the trapped Soviet forces. Some Ju 87 pilots flew up to 300 sorties against the Soviet defenders. Luftflotte 4's StG 77 flew 7,708 combat sorties dropping 3,537 tonnes of bombs on the city. Their efforts help secure the capitulation of Soviet forces on 4 July. For the German summer offensive, Fall Blau, the Luftwaffe had concentrated 1,800 aircraft into Luftflotte 4 making it the largest and most powerful single air-command in the world. The Stukawaffe strength stood at 151. During the Battle of StalingradStukas flew thousands of sorties against Soviet positions in the city. StG 1, 2 and 77 flew 320 individual sorties on 14 October 1942. As the German Sixth Army pushed the Soviets into a 1,000 metre enclave on the West bank of the Volga river, 1,208 Stuka sorties were flown against this small strip of land. However, the intense air attack, though causing horrific losses on Soviet units, failed to destroy them. The Luftwaffe'sSturzkampfgeschwader made maximum effort during this phase of the war. They flew an average of 500 sorties per day and caused heavy losses among Soviet forces, losing an average of only one Stuka per day. The Battle of Stalingrad marked the high point in the fortunes of the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka. As the strength of the Soviet Air Forces grew, they gradually wrestled control of the skies from the Luftwaffe. From this point onward the vulnerability of the Stuka to fighter attack caused losses to increase. Kursk and decline; 1943 The Stuka was also heavily involved in Operation Citadel, the Battle of Kursk. The Luftwaffe committed I, II, III./St.G 1 and III./StG 3 under the command of Luftflotte 6. I., II, III. of StGs 2 and 3 were committed under the command of Hans Seidemann's Fliegerkorps VIII. Hauptmann Rudel's cannon-equipped Ju 87 Gs had a devastating effect on Soviet armour at Orel and Belgorod. The Ju 87s participated in a huge aerial counter-offensive lasting from 16 July - 31 July against a Soviet offensive at Khotynets and saved two German armies from encirclement, reducing the attacking Soviet 11th Guard Army to just 33 tanks by 20 July. The Soviet offensive had been completely halted from the air. However losses were considerable. Fliegerkorps VIII lost eight Ju 87s on 8 July, six on 9 July, six on 10 July and another eight on 11 July. The Stuka arm also lost eight of their Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross holders. StG 77 lost 24 Ju 87s in the period 5-31 July (StG had lost 23 in July-December 1942) while StG 2 lost another 30 machines in the same period. In September 1943, three of the Stuka units were re-equipped with the Fw 190Schlachtgeschwader. In the face of overwhelming air opposition the dive-bomber needed heavy protection from German fighters. Some units like StG 2 Immelmann continued to operate with great success throughout 1943-45 operating the Ju 87 G variants equipped with 37 mm cannons, which became effective tank-killers, although in increasingly small numbers. Ju 87G-2s over the Eastern Front, winter 1943-44 In the aftermath of Kursk, the Stuka strength had fallen to 184 machines in total. This was well below the 50 percent of required strength. On 18 October 1943 StG 1, 2, 3, 5 and 77 were redesignated into a combined unit known as Schlachtgeschwader. This contained other aircraft such as the Fw 190. The Luftwaffe's individual dive-bomber units had ceased to exist. In the wake of the defeat at Kursk, the Ju 87s played a vital "fire-fighting role" on the southern wing of the eastern front. To combat the Luftwaffe the Soviets could deploy some 3,000 fighter aircraft, as a result the Stukas suffered heavily. StG 77 lost 30 Ju 87s in August 1943 as did StG 2 Immelmann, who also reported the loss of 30 machines in combat. Despite these losses the Ju 87s helped the 29.Armeekorps break out of an encirclement near the Sea of Azov. The Battle of Kiev also included substantial effort by Ju 87 units. Although again, unsuccessful. The Stuka units were now, with the loss of air superiority, becoming vulnerable on the ground as well. Some LuftwaffeStuka aces were lost this way. Bagration to Berlin; 1944-45 By early 1944 the number of Ju 87 units and operational aircraft entered into terminal decline. As the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration got underway, 12 Ju 87 Gruppen and five mixed Gruppen (including Fw 190s) were on the Luftwaffe's order of battle on 26 June 1944.Toward the end of the war the Ju 87 was replaced by ground-attack versions of the Fw 190, as the Stuka was no longer capable of operating under the conditions of Allied air superiority. Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey, a mixed aircraft unit, which included large numbers of Stuka dive bombers, was rushed to the Finnish front in the summer of 1944, and was instrumental in halting the Soviet fourth strategic offensive. The unit claimed 200 Soviet tanks and 150 Soviet aircraft destroyed for 41 losses. The Luftwaffe continued to resist Soviet aviation but it had little impact on the ground war. By 31 January 1945, 104 Ju 87s remained in their units. The other mixed Schlacht units contained a total of 70 Ju 87s and Fw 190s between them. Chronic fuel shortages were now keeping the Stukas grounded and sorties decreased until the end of the war in May 1945. Specifications (Ju 87 B-2) See also Notes Figures are debated. Griehl cites additions of Chief engineer Pichon's list. This indicates 5,930 produced. Griehl points out this number may include all machines, even those that were incomplete or unassembled. Junkers records give only 5,126 aircraft delivered to the Luftwaffe. Bulgaria received 12 Ju 87 R-2 and R-4s and 40 Ju 87 D-5s. Japan received the Ju 87 A-1 (called a Ju 87 K-1). The Croats received a number of Ju 87s, delivered to the Lucko bomber unit in January 1944. The Romanians received just 90 Ju 87 D-3 and D-5s. Hungary received 33/34 Ju 87 D-3/D-5s and 11/12 B-1 and B-2s. The Slovaks received unknown numbers of Ju 87s. After the war it is claimed five Ju 87 D-5s, registrations OK-XAA - OK-XAE, were operated by the Czechs after the war as "B-37" registration OK-KAC. Werknummer (W.Nr) means "Works Number" of the factory. The number can usually be found on the vertical stabiliser of all German military aircraft of the Second World War.	eng	ccff5e69-0cc5-42cb-8e50-e5303348c129	http://maps.thefullwiki.org/Junkers_Ju_87
Development of on farm anaerobic digestion 10 Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion Kevin G Wilkinson Future Farming Systems Research Division, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria Australia 1. Introduction Although humankind has always relied on generating energy from biomass in some form (e.g. firewood), it has only recently been re-conceptualised as 'bioenergy'. This is possibly because it was seen as an anachronism in the developed world for most of the last century (Plieninger et al., 2006). About 80% of the world's energy supply is currently derived from fossil fuels, but of the renewable energy sources, biomass is still by far the most important with between 10 to 15% of demand (or about 40-50 EJ per year). 'Biomass' is biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms such as forest residues (e.g. dead trees, branches and tree stumps), green wastes and wood chips. A broader definition of biomass also includes biodegradable wastes and residues from industrial, municipal and agricultural production. It excludes organic material which has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum. In industrialised countries biomass contributes some 3–13% of total energy supply, but in developing countries this proportion is much higher (up to 50% or higher in some cases). The recent scientific interest in bioenergy can be traced through three main stages (Leible & Kälber, 2005, cited in Plieninger et al., 2006): the first stage of discussion started with the 1973 oil crisis and the publication of the Club of Rome's report on 'The Limits to Growth'. Along with Rachel Carlson's 'Silent Spring', the Limits to Growth report was an iconic marker of the environmental movement's emergence and a precursor to the concept of sustainable development. The second stage of interest in bioenergy began in the 1980s in Europe as a result of agricultural overproduction and the need to diversify farm income. Triggered by increasing concern over climate change, a third stage started at the end of the 1980s, and continues to this day. In the early years of expansion in renewable energy technologies, bioenergy was considered technologically underdeveloped compared with wind energy and photovoltaics. Now biomass has proved to be equivalent and in some aspects even superior to other renewable energy carriers. Technological progress facilitates the use of almost all kinds of biomass today – far more than the original firewood use (Plieninger et al., 2006). Biomass has the largest unexploited energy potential among all renewable energy carriers and can be used for the complete spectrum of energy demand – from heat to process energy and liquid fuel, to electricity. Direct combustion is responsible for over 90% of current secondary energy production from biomass. Biomass combustion is one of the fastest ways to replace large amounts of fossil fuel based electricity with renewable energy sources. Biomass fuels like wood pellets and 180 Integrated Waste Management – Volume I palm oil can be co-fired with coal or fuel oil in existing power plants. In a number of European countries, heat generated by biomass provides up to 50% of the required heat energy. Wood pellets, have become one of the most important fuels for both private and commercial use. In 2008, approximately 8.6 m tonnes of wood pellets were consumed in Europe (excluding Russia) with a worldwide total of 11.8 m tonnes (German Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Technology, 2009). In Germany, the number of wood pellet heating systems installed in private homes has increased from around 80,000 in 2007 to approximately 105,000 in 2008. Anaerobic digestion (AD) currently plays a small, but steadily growing role in the renewable energy mix in many countries. AD is the process by which organic materials are biologically treated in the absence of oxygen by naturally occurring bacteria to produce 'biogas' which is a mixture of methane (CH4) (40-70%) and carbon dioxide (CO2) (30-60%) plus traces of other gases such as hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide and ammonia. The process also produces potentially useful by-products in the form of a liquid or solid 'digestate'. It is widely used around the world for sewage sludge treatment and stabilisation where energy recovery has often been considered as a by-product rather than as a principal objective of the process. However, in several European countries anaerobic digestion has become a well established energy resource and an important new farm enterprise, especially now that energy crops are increasingly being used. 2. Historical development of anaerobic digestion Anecdotal evidence indicates that biogas was used for heating bath water in Assyria during the 10th century BC and in Persia during the 16th century BC (Wellinger, 2007). The formation of gas during the decomposition of organic material was first described by Robert Boyle and Denis Papin in 1682 (Braun, 2007) but it was 1804 by the time John Dalton described the chemical formula for methane. The first anaerobic digestion plant was built at a leper colony in India in 1859 (Meynell, 1976). By 1895, biogas from sewage treatment works was used to fuel streetlamps in Exeter, England (McCabe & Eckenfelder, 1957). By the 1930's, developments in the field of microbiology led to the identification of anaerobic bacteria and the conditions that promote methane production. Now, tens of thousands of AD plants are in operation at water treatment plants worldwide. Landfill gas extraction started in the USA in the early 1970s and spread in Europe, mainly in the United Kingdom and Germany (Braun, 2007). There are currently several thousand landfill gas extraction plants in operation worldwide, representing the biggest source of biogas in many countries. Anaerobic digestion received renewed attention for agri-industrial applications after the 1970s energy crisis (Ni & Nyns, 1996). When AD was first introduced in the 1970s and 80s, failure rates were very high (Raven & Gregersen, 2007). AD-plant failures were mainly attributed to poor design, inadequate operator training and unfavourable economics (either as a result of unfavourable economies of scale or an unreliable market for biogas). In many parts of the world, these initial experiences have now been overcome with better and more robust reactor designs and with more favourable economic incentives for biogas utilisation. In developing countries, AD is closely connected with sustainable development initiatives, resource conservation efforts, and regional development strategies (Bi & Haight, 2007; Wang Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion 181 & Li, 2005). Rural communities in developing countries generally employ small-scale units for the treatment of night soil and to provide gas for cooking and lighting for a single household. Nepal is reported to have some 50,000 digesters and China is estimated to have 14 million small-scale digesters (Wellinger, 2007). Bi & Haight (2007) described a typical household digester in Hainan province (China) to be of concrete construction, about 6m3 in size and occupying an area of about 14m2 in the backyard. Digesters are connected with household toilets and the livestock enclosure so that both human and animal manure can flow directly into the digesters. Agricultural straw is also often utilised as feedstock. The digesters are connected to a stove in the house by a plastic pipeline. Before the introduction of AD, the majority of villagers had relied heavily on the continuous use of firewood, agricultural residues and animal manure in open hearths or simple stoves that were inefficient and polluting. The smoke thus emitted contains damaging pollutants, which may lead to severe illness, including pneumonia, cancer, and lung and heart diseases (Smith, 1993). Combustion of biomass in this way is widespread throughout the developing world and it is estimated to cause more than 1.6 million deaths globally each year (400,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa alone), mostly among women and children (Kamen, 2006). In contrast, biogas is clean and efficient with carbon dioxide, water and digestate as the final by-products of the process. It also conserves forest resources since demand for firewood is lessened when AD is introduced. 2.1 Two models of on-farm anaerobic digestion Agricultural AD plants are most developed in Germany, Denmark, Austria and Sweden. There are two basic models for the implementation of agriculture-based AD plants in the EU  (Holm-Nielsen et al., 2009): Centralised plants that co-digest animal manure collected from several farms together with organic residues from industry and townships. These plants are usually large scale, with digester capacities ranging from a few hundred to several thousand cubic  meters. Farm-scale AD plants co-digesting animal manure and, increasingly, bioenergy crops from one single farm or, sometimes two or three smaller neighbouring farms. Farm- scale plants are usually established at large pig farms or dairy farms. Centralised AD plants are a unique feature of the Danish bioenergy sector. According to Holm-Nielsen et al. (2009), the Danish AD production cycle represents an integrated system of renewable energy production, resource utilisation, organic waste treatment and nutrient recycling and redistribution. In 2009, there were 21 centralised AD plants and 60 farm-scale plants in Denmark (Holm-Nielsen, 2009). With recent increases in financial incentives provided by the Danish Government, biogas production is expected to triple by 2025 and the number of centralised plants will increase by about 50 (Holm-Nielsen & Al Seadi, 2008; Holm-Nielsen, 2009). Farm-scale AD plants typically use similar technologies to the centralised plant concept but on a smaller scale. Germany is an undisputed leader in the application of on-farm AD systems with over 4,000 plants currently in operation. The German government also has ambitious plans to expand these numbers even further in order to meet a target of 30% renewable energy production by 2020 (Weiland, 2009). In order to meet this target, the number of AD plants will need to increase to about 10,000 to 12,000. Photovoltaics and wind 182 Integrated Waste Management – Volume I energy are also widely distributed on farms throughout Germany. It is not uncommon to see an AD plant, a wind turbine and photovoltaics on a single farm (Fig. 1). Approximately 80% of the biomass used in these plants is manure (mainly slurry), co- digested with 20% organic waste made up of plant residue and agro-industrial waste (da Costa Gomez & Guest, 2004). The biogas is mainly used for combined heat and power (CHP) generation, with the heat generated being used locally for district heating. Biogas is also sometimes up-graded to natural gas quality for use as a vehicle fuel, a practice that is now increasingly common in Sweden (Lantz et al., 2007; Persson et al., 2006). Fig. 1. "Energy farming in Germany". A single farm is shown here combining an AD plant, wind turbines and photovoltaics on farm buildings. Photo: J. Biala 2.2 Drivers for investment in on-farm anaerobic digestion Local conditions are particularly important to the decisions of farmers with respect to investing in renewable energy technologies (Ehlers, 2008; Khan, 2005; Raven & Gregersen, 2007). The two most important issues regarding biomass use for energy production in most countries are economic growth and the creation of regional employment. Avoiding carbon emissions, environmental protection and security of energy supply are often big issues on the national and international stage, but the primary driving force for local communities are much more likely to be employment or job creation, contribution to regional economy and income improvement (Domac et al., 2005). The flow-on benefits from these effects are increased social cohesion and stability through the introduction of a new employment and income generating activity. A range of policy instruments has been used by different countries seeking to develop their renewable energy industries, including renewable energy certificate trading schemes, premium feed-in-tariffs, investment grants, soft loans and generous planning provisions (Thornley & Cooper, 2008). In particular, Germany's generous feed-in-tariffs for renewable energy are typically credited with the massive expansion of on-farm AD plants in that country. Germany introduced the feed-in tariff model in 1991, obliging utilities to buy electricity from producers of renewable energy at a premium price. The feed-in tariff law has been continually revised and expanded. The premium price is technology dependent and is guaranteed for 20 years with a 1% digression rate built in to promote greater efficiency. Investors therefore have confidence in the prospective income from any newly Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion 183 proposed renewable energy project and can develop a more solid business case for obtaining finance. Whilst the feed-in tariff law has had a marked impact on the diffusion of on-farm AD in Germany, a more complete picture emerges when the underlying political, institutional and socio-economic drivers in the country are considered (Wilkinson, 2011). For example, energy security and climate change mitigation are major geopolitical drivers in Germany. In addition, the impact of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy has been profound in driving both political and grass-roots efforts to develop alternative approaches to farming, including on-farm bioenergy production (Plieninger et al., 2006). 3. Overview of the anaerobic digestion process The microbiology of the AD process is very complex and involves 4 stages (Fig. 2). The first stage of decomposition in AD is the liquefaction phase or hydrolysis, where long-chain organic compounds (e.g. fats and carbohydrates) are split into simpler organic compounds like amino acids, fatty acids and sugars. The products of hydrolysis are then metabolised in the acidification phase by acidogenic bacteria and broken down into short-chain fatty acids (e.g. acetic, proprionic and butyric acid). Acetate, hydrogen and carbon dioxide are also created and act as initial products for methane formation. During acetogenesis, the organic acids and alcohols are broken down into acetic acid, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. These products act as substrates for methanogenic microorganisms that produce methane in the fourth and final phase called (methanogenesis). Fig. 2. Stages in anaerobic digestion. Source: Prof. M. Kranert, Univ Stuttgart. 184 Integrated Waste Management – Volume I AD systems usually operate either in the mesophilic (35-40ºC) or the thermophilic temperature (50-60ºC) ranges. Operating in the thermophilic temperature range reduces hydraulic retention time (HRT or treatment time) to as low as 3-5 days1 and more effectively contributes to the sanitisation of the organic waste streams (i.e. improves pathogen and weed-seed destruction). However, greater insulation is necessary to maintain the optimum temperature range, and more energy is consumed in heating thermophilic systems. Larger, centralised systems typically run at thermophylic temperatures. Mesophylic systems need a longer treatment time to achieve good biogas yields but these systems can be more robust than thermophilic systems. 4. Anaerobic digestion systems AD systems are relatively simple from the process engineering point of view, since fermentation is driven by a "mixed culture" of ubiquitous organisms, and no culture enrichment is generally required (Braun, 2007). Instead, the course of fermentation is controlled by the conditions at start-up: temperature, substrate composition, organic loading rate and hydraulic retention time. Since methane is fairly insoluble in water it separates itself from the aqueous phase and accumulates in the head space of the reactor and is easily collected from there. A generalised, simplified scheme of the process typical of European systems (Fig. 3)  comprises 4 steps:  substrate delivery, pre-treatment and storage,  digestion,  digestate use, and energy recovery from biogas. Usually the effluent leaves the digester by gravity flow and in most cases undergoes further digestion in a second reactor. A tank stores digestate for many months before it is applied directly to farming land. Sometimes the digestate is dewatered prior to undergoing further treatment and disposal (e.g. composting) and the liquid fraction is used as a fertiliser. The head space of the digestate storage tank is typically also connected to the gas collection system. Biogas is collected in both digestion reactors and stored in gas storage tanks or, more frequently in the head space of the second digester, covered with a floating, gas tight membrane. Depending on its final use, biogas can undergo several purification steps. Desulphurisation (to remove corrosive H2S) is required before the biogas can be combusted in burners or used in combined heat and power (CHP) plants. Desulphurisation can be simply achieved by the controlled addition of air into the digester head space. If biogas is intended for use as a transport fuel or to be fed into the natural gas grid, further upgrading to remove CO2 is required (Fig. 3). 4.1 System designs In a batch system, biomass is added to the digester at the start and is sealed for the duration of the process. High-solids systems (total solids content up to 40%) are examples of batch systems. These systems are becoming more widespread for the treatment of municipal 1 E.g. High-rate anaerobic digestion of waste water. Longer HRTs are typical for semi-solid and solid organic waste streams. Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion 185 wastes in some parts of Europe (Braun, 2007). In these systems, the solid feedstock is loaded into several reactor cells in sequence. These systems are relatively cheap to construct, require little additional water to operate but the remaining digestate often requires intensive treatment by aerobic composting. Manure slurry Crop residue Energy crop or waste Pre-treatment & storage Mixing Process water Process heating Reactor 1 (2,000m3) Reactor 2 Digestate storage (1,800m3) (4,000m3) Biogas H2S removal storage Dewatering CHP plant CO2 removal Gas grid Solid & liquid Heat Electricity Vehicle fuel injection by-products Fig. 3. Typical process-flow diagram for the European 2-stage anaerobic digestion process. CHP – combined heat and power. Source: Wilkinson (2011). In continuous digestion processes, organic matter is added constantly or in stages to the reactor. Here the end products are constantly or periodically removed, resulting in constant production of biogas. Examples of this form of anaerobic digestion include, covered lagoons, plug-flow digesters, continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTRs), upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB), expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) and internal circulation reactors (IC). The most common systems used world-wide for processing manure slurries and agricultural residues are covered lagoons and plug-flow digesters (particularly in North America) and continuous stirred-tank reactors (in Europe and North America). UASB, EGSB and IC reactors are more commonly associated with the anaerobic digestion of wastewater at municipal water treatment plants and will therefore not be discussed in detail here. Covered lagoon digesters are the cheapest available AD systems. About 19 of the approximately 140 on-farm digesters in the USA are of this type (USEPA, 2009). They can be a viable option at livestock operations in warm climates discharging manure in a flush management system at 0.5-2% solids. The in-ground, earth or lined lagoon is covered with a flexible or floating gas tight cover. Retention time is usually 30-45 days or longer depending 186 Integrated Waste Management – Volume I on lagoon size. Very large lagoons in hot climates can produce sufficient quantity, quality and consistency of gas to justify the installation of an engine and generator. Otherwise gas production can be less consistent and the low quality gas has to be flared off much of the year. Plug-flow digesters are also common in the USA where they make up more than half of the on-farm AD plants currently in operation (USEPA, 2009). A plug-flow digester is a long narrow insulated and heated tank made of reinforced concrete, steel or fiberglass with a gas tight cover to capture the biogas. These digesters operate at either mesophilic or thermophilic temperatures. The plug flow digester has no internal agitation and is loaded with thick manure of 11–14% total solids. This type of digester is suited to scrape manure management systems with little bedding and no sand. Retention time is usually 15 to 20 days. Manure in a plug flow digester flows as a plug, advancing towards the outlet whenever new manure is added. Continuous stirred-tank reactors are most commonly used for on-farm AD systems in Europe (Braun, 2007) and about a quarter of on-farm digesters in the USA are of this type (USEPA, 2009). This type of digester is usually a round insulated tank made from reinforced concrete or steel, and can be installed above or below ground. The contents are maintained at a constant temperature in the mesophilic or thermophilic range by using heating coils or a heat exchanger. Mixing can be accomplished by using a motor driven mixer, a liquid recirculation pump or by using compressed biogas. A gas tight cover (floating or fixed) traps the biogas. The CSTR is best suited to process manure with 3-10% total solids and retention time is usually 10-20 days. 5. Use of digestate One advantage attributed to farm-based AD systems is the transformation of the manure into digestate, which is reported to have an improved fertilisation effect compared to manure (Börjesson & Berglund, 2003, 2007), potentially reducing the farmer's requirements for commercial fertilisers. The use of digestate instead of commercial fertilisers is also encouraged in Sweden by a tax on the nitrogen in commercial fertilisers (Lantz et al., 2007). However, these incentives are weakened by the limited knowledge and practise of using digestate, as well as the higher handling costs connected with the digestate compared with commercial fertilisers. In order to control the quality of digested manure, the three main components of the AD cycle must be under effective process control: the feedstock, the digestion process, and the digestate handling/storage (Al Seadi, 2002). The application of digestate as fertiliser must be done according to the fertilisation plan of the farm. Inappropriate handling, storage and application of digestate as fertiliser can cause ammonia emissions, nitrate leaching and overloading of phosphorus. The nitrogen load on farmland is regulated inside the EU by the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC nitrate) which aims to protect ground and surface water from nitrate pollution. However, the degree of implementation of the Nitrates Directive in EU member countries varies considerably (Holm-Nielsen et al., 2009). 6. Maximising biogas yields with co-digestion A key factor in the economic viability of agricultural AD plants is the biogas yield (often expressed as m3 biogas produced per kg of volatile solids (VS) added). Traditional AD Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion 187 systems based solely on manure slurries can be uneconomic because of poor biogas yields since manure from ruminants is already partly digested in the gut of the animal. Whilst a wide range of substrates can be theoretically digested, biogas yields can vary substantially (Table 1). To put this into perspective, if 1 m3 of biogas per m3 of reactor volume is produced per day from digesting manure alone, between 2 to 3 m3 biogas per m3 per day can be produced if energy-rich substrates such as crop residues and food wastes are used. Centralised AD plants receiving agri-industrial and/or municipal wastes as well as farm- based residues also receive an additional gate fee for the wastes they receive. However, where bioenergy crops are grown, economic viability is affected by the cost of growing the crops, any economic incentives provided to grow them and the quality of the final substrate. The cost of supplying energy crops for biogas plants has been increasing in recent years in the EU due to high world food prices rather than competition for land (Weiland, 2008). Data from Germany showed that the cost of supplying maize for silage (minus transport and ensiling) rose 83% between October 2007 and October 2008 (Weiland, 2008). Although co-digestion with energy crops is not a new concept, it was first considered not to be economically feasible (Braun, 2007). Instead, crops, plants, plant by-products and waste materials were added occasionally just to stabilise anaerobic digesters. However, with steadily increasing oil prices and the improved legal and economic incentives emerging in the 1990s, energy crop R&D was stimulated, particularly in Germany and Austria. Now, 98% of on-farm digesters in Germany utilise energy crops as a substrate (Weiland 2009). Organic material Biogas yield Min HRT* (d) (m3/kg VS) Animal fat 1.00 33 Flotation sludge 0.69 12 Stomach- and gut contents 0.68 62 Blood 0.65 34 Food leftovers 0.47-1.1 33 Rumen contents 0.35 62 Pig manure 0.3-0.5 20 Cattle manure 0.15-0.35 20 Chicken manure 0.35-0.6 30 Primary industrial sewage sludge 0.30 20 Market waste 0.90 30 Waste edible oil 1.104 30 Potato waste (chips residues) 0.692 45 Potato waste (peelings) 0.898 40 Potato starch processing 0.35-0.45 25 Brewery waste 0.3-0.4 14 Vegetable and fruit processing 0.3-0.6 14 *HRT – hydraulic retention time (ie duration of processing before stabilization) Table 1. Biogas yields from various organic materials conducted in batch tests. Source: Braun (2007). 188 Integrated Waste Management – Volume I A wide variety of energy crops can be grown for anaerobic digestion, but maize is by far the most important and it also has a higher potential biogas yield per ha cultivated than most other crops (Hopfner-Sixt & Amon, 2007; Weiland, 2006; Table 2). Since the key factor to be optimised in biogas production is the methane yield per ha, specific harvest and processing technologies and new genotypes will increasingly be used when crops are required as a renewable energy source. In order to maintain a year-round supply of substrate to the digester, the harvested energy crop must be preserved by ensiling. Optimal ensiling results in rapid lactic acid (5–10 %) and acetic acid fermentation (2–4%), causing a decrease of the pH to 4–4.5 within several days (Braun et al., 2008). Silage clamps or bags are typically used. Improper preparation and storage of silage is critical to successful utilisation in AD plants. For example, Baserga & Egger (1997; cited in Prochnow et al., 2009) demonstrated a remarkable reduction in biogas yields due to aerobic deterioration of grass silage. Immediately after opening of a silage bale the biogas yield was 500 L/kg DM, after five days 370 L and after 30 days only 250 L. Similarly, biogas yields from grass silage cut in summer in southeast Germany produced 216 L/kg DM for a well preserved silage but 155 L for spoiled silage (Riehl et al., 2007; cited in Prochnow et al., 2009). Special care must also be taken in case of substrate changes. Changing composition, fluid dynamics and bio-degradability of the substrate components can severely impede digestion efficiency resulting in digester failures (Braun et al., 2008). Large scale commercial energy crop digestion plants mainly use solid substrate feeding hoppers or containers for dosing the digester continuously via auger tubes or piston pumps. Commonly energy crops are fed together with manure or other liquid substrates, in order to keep fermentation conditions homogenous. Crop Biogas yield Crop Biogas yield (m3/t VS) (m3/t VS) Maize (whole crop) 205 – 450 Barley 353 – 658 Wheat (grain) 384 – 426 Triticale 337 – 555 Oats (grain) 250 – 295 Sorghum 295 – 372 Rye (grain) 283 – 492 Grass 298 – 467 Alfalfa 340 – 500 Clover grass 290 – 390 Sudan grass 213 – 303 Red clover 300 – 350 Reed Canary Grass 340 – 430 Clover 345 – 350 Ryegrass 390 – 410 Hemp 355 – 409 Nettle 120 – 420 Flax 212 Miscanthus 179 – 218 Sunflower 154 – 400 Rhubarb 320 – 490 Oilseed rape 240 – 340 Turnip 314 Jerusalem artichoke 300 – 370 Kale 240 – 334 Peas 390 Potatoes 276 – 400 Chaff 270 – 316 Sugar beet 236 – 381 Straw 242 – 324 Fodder beet 420 – 500 Leaves 417 – 453 Table 2. Typical methane yields from digestion of various plants and plant materials as reported in literature (Data compilation after Braun, 2007) Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion 189 The total solids content of feedstock in these systems is usually <10% and mechanical stirrers are used for mixing. The typical two-digester, stirred tank design described above is used in most of these digestion plants. Anaerobic digestion of energy crops requires hydraulic retention times from several weeks to months. Complete biomass degradation (80-90% of VS) with high gas yields is essential to maintain the economic viability and environmental performance of the digestion process. 7. Improving energy efficiency Combustion in burners for heating purposes is the simplest application for the energy content of biogas, and this can be achieved with comparably high efficiency. Alternatively, biogas is converted into electrical energy by the use of an engine and generator. Combined heat and power (CHP) plants are widely used in AD plants though waste heat is generally under-utilised. It is widely agreed that increased use of waste heat in CHP plants is critical for the long-term economic and environmental performance of AD plants. This is especially the case where the costs of energy crops as feedstock have risen concomitantly with the rapid diffusion of AD plants, for example in Germany (Weiland, 2009). The use of biogas in CHP simultaneously transfers the chemical energy of methane into electrical power (about 1/3rd) and heat (about 2/3rds). CHPs often result in low overall energy efficiencies because the degree of heat use in many cases is quite small. Of a survey of 41 Austrian digestion plants, CHP energy efficiency ranged from 30.5 to 70.7% (Braun et al., 2008). Nevertheless, there are examples of the effective use of waste heat in Scandinavian countries where district heating grids are more commonplace (Holm-Nielsen et al., 2009). And in Germany, municipal authorities have developed district heating CHP systems to provide heat and power to businesses and residents in many cities for >100 years (Kerr, 2009). There is a wide range of CHP technologies commercially available, such as diesel engines converted to run on dual-fuel, gas turbines and Stirling engines (Lantz et al., 2007). These applications are available in size from approximately 10kWel to several MWel. Small-scale CHP may prove to be suitable at small, farm-based AD plants although scale effects and the problems concerning the utilisation of the heat discussed above make large-scale applications more economical under current conditions (Lantz et al., 2007). 8. Upgrading of biogas for use in vehicle fuels or natural gas grids In the EU countries where AD is well-established, upgrading of biogas is increasingly being considered so that it can be injected into the natural gas grid or used as a vehicle fuel. Before biogas is suitable for these applications, it must be upgraded to natural gas quality by the removal of its CO2 content and other contaminants (e.g. H2S, NH3, siloxanes and particulates). Commercially available technologies available to remove CO2 include pressurized water absorption and pressure swing adsorption. In response to CO2 emission reduction targets, the EU biofuels directive set a target of replacing 5.75% of transport fuels with biofuels by 2010. Up to date we have seen a rapid increase in bioethanol and biodiesel production since commercial conversion technologies, infrastructure for distribution, and vehicle technologies, currently favour these types of biofuels (Börjesson & Mattesson, 2007). Their competitiveness has also increased with an 190 Integrated Waste Management – Volume I increase in the price of crude oil. The production costs of using upgraded biogas as a vehicle fuel in the EU are in the same ball-park as wheat-based ethanol and biodiesel from vegetable oils (Börjesson & Mattesson, 2007). But owing to the increased costs associated with adapting vehicles to run on biogas (+10% to new car prices), its price needs to be 20–30% lower than the price of other vehicle fuels. However, the use of biogas in this manner has several advantages over bioethanol and  biodiesel: The net annual energy yield per hectare from the AD of energy crops is potentially  about twice that of bioethanol from wheat and biodiesel from rapeseed. AD could be integrated with bioethanol and biodiesel production to improve their  overall resource efficiency by using their by-products to produce biogas. Net greenhouse gas (GHG) savings from the use of biogas as fuel could approach 140- 180% due to the dual benefit of avoided emissions from manure storage and the replacement of fossil fuels. In comparison, the likely savings in GHG emissions from biodiesel and bioethanol production and use are much lower.2 A prominent example of upgrading biogas and using it for vehicle fuel is Sweden, where the market for such biogas utilisation has been growing rapidly in the last decade. Today there are 15,000 vehicles driving on upgraded biogas in Sweden, and the forecast is for 70,000 vehicles, running on biogas supplied from 500 filling stations by 2012 (Persson et al., 2006). In Sweden, the production of vehicle fuel from biogas has increased from 3TJ in 1996 to almost 500 TJ in 2004 or 10% of the current total biogas production. Yet this corresponds to only 0.2% of Sweden's total use of petrol and diesel. Germany and Austria have also recently set goals of converting 20% biogas into compressed natural gas by 2020 for more efficient use in CHP systems, gas network injection or vehicle fuel use (Persson, 2007). Weiland (2009) predicts that about 1,000 biogas upgrading plants will be needed to meet the government's objective with a projected investment of €10 billion required. To achieve these targets, the German government has developed a comprehensive program of financial incentives. Germany also currently has the largest biogas upgrading plant in the world located at Güstrow with a capacity of 46 million m3. 9. Conclusion The threats of climate change, population growth and resource constraints are forcing governments to develop increasingly stronger policy measures to stimulate the development of renewable energy technologies. Bioenergy offers particular promise since it has the potential to deliver multiple benefits such as: improved energy security, reduced CO2 emissions, increased economic growth and rural development opportunities. Anaerobic digestion is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies since it can be applied in multiple settings such as wastewater and municipal waste treatment as well as in agriculture and other industrial facilities. Increasing the efficiency of converting biomass to utilisable energy (ie heat and electricity) is critical for the long-term environmental and financial sustainability of AD plants. Even with 2Under Scandinavian conditions where the heat and electricity used in bioethanol and biodiesel plants are generated from renewable sources, the GHG savings could range from 60 to 90%. Where these plants use fossil fuels for heating and electricity, the GHG benefits will be much lower. Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion 191 generous incentives such as those provided by many EU governments, increasing construction costs and the rising cost of energy crops can put the financial viability of AD plants at risk. Unless improvements in efficiency are found and implemented, these pressures could lead to unsustainable rises in the cost of the incentive schemes that underpin the development of renewable energy technologies. 9.1 Future work Landscapes that are dominated by arable agriculture have always been subject to change, but increasing concerns over energy security and climate change could precipitate major land-use changes on large areas of land over relatively short time-scales. The impact of a rapidly expanding bioenergy industry in many countries is already under scrutiny due to the emergence of a number of unintended consequences. The unintended consequences include competition for food and land, indirect land use change, and landscape scale impacts on water, biodiversity and social values. Consequently, sustainability assessment systems are now beginning to be developed, and institutional systems are being used to set sustainability targets rather than just to stimulate industry expansion (O'Connell et al., 2009). Systems need to be developed to monitor and deal with sustainability issues at the local level. In particular, there is a need to explore the sustainability of different pathways for industry development and growth. An important part of this process is to develop the tools to assess the inevitable trade-offs that will result between the different components of sustainability. In addition to the broader consideration of sustainability, R&D needs that are specific to on-  farm AD systems include: Developing cost-effective AD systems that are purpose designed for different applications (both large-scale and small scale). The capital cost of many on-farm AD systems has been increasing in recent years and could be over-engineered for many  applications. Developing new higher-yielding energy crops that use less water, pesticides and fertiliser inputs. These crops should not directly compete with food crops and could be  grown on under-utilised farming land.  Conducting studies to increase the conversion efficiency of energy crops to biogas. Improving CHP technologies and distribution systems for utilising waste heat for different heating and cooling applications. 10. Acknowledgment This review was funded by the Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Australia. 11. References Al Seadi, T. (2002). Quality management of AD residues from biogas production. IEA Bioenergy Task 24 – Energy from Biological Conversion of Organic Waste, January 2002. 192 Integrated Waste Management – Volume I Bi, L. & Haight, M. (2007). Anaerobic digestion and community development: A case study from Hainan province, China. Environmental Development and Sustainability, Vol.9, pp. 501–521, ISSN 1387-585X Börjesson, P. & Berglund, M. (2003). Environmental analysis of biogas systems. Department of Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. (Report, in Swedish with English summary). Börjesson, P. & Berglund, M. (2007). Environmental systems analysis of biogas systems- Part II: The environmental impact of replacing various reference systems. Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol. 31, pp. 326-344, ISSN 0961-9534 Börjesson, P. & Mattesson, M. (2007). Biogas as a resource-efficient vehicle fuel. Trends in Biotechnology, Vol. 26, pp. 7-13, ISSN 0167-7799 Braun, R. (2007). Anaerobic digestion: a multi-faceted process for energy, environmental management and rural development, In: Improvement of Crop Plants for Industrial End Uses, P. Ranalli (Ed.), 335-416, Springer, ISBN 978-1-4020-5485-3, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Braun, R.; Weiland, P. & Wellinger, A. (2008). Biogas from energy crop digestion. IEA Bioenergy Task 37, Energy from Biogas and Landfill Gas. da Costa Gomez, C. & Guest, C. (2004). Current Progress and Practice in the Adoption of anaerobic digestion in the European Union. Proceedings of the Biogas in Society, European Biogas Conference, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, October 2004. Domac, J.; Richards, K. & Risovic, S. (2005). Socio-economic drivers in implementing bioenergy projects. Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol. 28, pp. 97–106, ISSN 0961-9534 Ehlers, M.-H. (2008). Farmer's reasons for engaging in bioenergy utilisation and their institutional context: A case study from Germany. Proceedings, IAMO Forum 2008, Agri-Food Business: Global Challenges – Innovative Solutions, Halle, Germany, 25–27 June 2008. German Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Technology (2009). Renewables – Made in Germany. Accessed 8 March 2011, Available from: made-in-germany.com/index.php?id=174&L=1 Holm-Nielsen, J.B. (2009). Biogas plants in Denmark 2009 and forward: New tendencies and projects in the pipeline. Proceedings of IEA Task 37 Workshop on Energy from Biogas and Landfill Gas. Holm-Nielsen, J.B. & Al Seadi, T. (2008). Biogas in Denmark. State of the art and rapid developments from 2008 and onwards. Proceedings of IEA Task 37 Workshop on Energy from Biogas and Landfill Gas, Ludlow, April 2008. Holm-Nielsen, J.B.; Al Seadi, T. & Oleskowicz-Popiel, P. (2009). The future of anaerobic digestion and biogas utilisation. Bioresource Technology Vol.100, pp. 5478–5484, ISSN 0960-8524 Hopfner-Sixt, K. & Amon, T. (2007). Monitoring of agricultural biogas plants – mixing technology and specific values of essential process parameters. Proceedings of 15th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, Berlin, 7–11 May 2007. Kamen, D.M. (2006). Bioenergy in developing countries: Experiences and prospects. Bioenergy and Agriculture: Promises and Challenges for Food, Agriculture and the Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion 193 Environment. Brief 10, Focus 14. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington D.C. Kerr, T. (2009). CHP/DHC Country Scorecard: Germany. IEA International CHP/DHC Collaborative. Khan, J. (2005). The importance of local context in the planning of environmental projects: examples from two biogas cases. Local Environment, Vol.10, pp. 125-140. ISSN 1354-9839 Lantz, M.; Svensson, M.; Björnsson, L. & Börjesson, P. (2007). The prospects for an expansion of biogas systems in Sweden—Incentives, barriers and potentials. Energy Policy, Vol.35, pp. 1830–1843, ISSN 0301-4215 McCabe, J. & Eckenfelder, W.W. (1957). Biological Treatment of Sewage and Industrial Wastes. Rheinhold, New York. Meynell, P.J. (1976). Methane: Planning a Digester. Prism Press, ISBN 0-907061-14-1, Dorcester, UK. Ni, J.Q. & Nyns, E.J. (1996). New concept for the evaluation of rural biogas management in developing countries. Energy Conversion and Management, Vol.37, pp. 1525– 1534, ISSN 0196-8904 O'Connell, D.; Braid, A.; Raison, J.; Handberg, K.; Cowie, A.; Rodriguez, L. & George, B. (2009). Sustainable Production of Bioenergy. A review of global bioenergy sustainability frameworks and assessment systems. Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Barton ACT. Persson, M. (2007). Biogas upgrading and utilisation as vehicle fuel. European Biogas Workshop - The Future of Biogas in Europe III. June 2007. Persson, M.; Jönsson, O. & Wellinger, A. (2006). Biogas upgrading to vehicle fuel standards and grid injection. IEA Bioenergy, Task 37 – Energy from Biogas and Landfill Gas. Plieninger, T.; Bens, O. & Hüttl, R.F. (2006). Perspectives of bioenergy for agriculture and rural areas. Outlook on Agriculture, Vol.35, pp. 123–127, ISSN 0030-7270 Prochnow, A.; Heiermann, M.; Plöchl, M.; Amon, T. & Hobbs, P.J. (2009). Bioenergy from permanent grassland – A review: 1. Biogas. Bioresource Technology, Vol.100, pp. 4931–4944, ISSN 0960-8524 Raven, R.P.J.M. & Gregersen, K.H. (2007). Biogas plants in Denmark: successes and setbacks. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol.11, pp. 116-132, ISSN 1364- 0321 Smith, K.R. (1993). Household fuels and health. Urja Bharati, Vol.3, pp. 31–32. Thornley, E.P. and Cooper D. (2008). The effectiveness of policy instruments in promoting bioenergy. Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol. 32, pp. 903-913, ISSN 0961-9534 USEPA (2009). The AgSTAR Program. Guide to anaerobic digesters, Accessed 8 March 2011, Available at: Wang, X.H., & Li, J.F. (2005). Influence of using household biogas digesters on household energy consumption in rural areas—a case study in Lianshui County in China. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 9, pp. 229–236, ISSN 1364-0321 194 Integrated Waste Management – Volume I Weiland, P. (2006). Biomass digestion in agriculture: a successful pathway for the energy production and waste treatment in Germany. Engineering in Life Sciences Vol. 6, pp. 302–309, ISSN 1618-2863 Weiland, P. (2008). Impact of competition claims for food and energy on German biogas production. IEA Bioenergy Seminar, Ludlow, UK, April 2008. Integrated Waste Management - Volume I Edited by Mr. Sunil Kumar ISBN 978-953-307-469-6 Hard cover, 538 pages Publisher InTech Published online 23, August, 2011 Published in print edition August, 2011 This book reports research on policy and legal issues, anaerobic digestion of solid waste under processing aspects, industrial waste, application of GIS and LCA in waste management, and a couple of research papers relating to leachate and odour management. How to reference In order to correctly reference this scholarly work, feel free to copy and paste the following: Kevin G Wilkinson (2011). Development of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion, Integrated Waste Management - Volume I, Mr. Sunil Kumar (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-469-6, InTech, Available from: anaerobic-digestion	eng	26dd98ad-977c-41ee-94b9-19b5688e4bfa	http://www.docstoc.com/docs/136655416/Development-of-on-farm-anaerobic-digestion
Occupy group defies YPD Protesters ignore police's midnight deadline to remove tent, barrel Photo by: William D. Lewis Youngstown police Capt. David McKnight speaks with Occupy Youngstown protesters Thursday night. An order from the police chief was given for the group to remove a tent and barrel from the protest site. YOUNGSTOWN They were ordered to remove their tent and burn barrel from the city's Central Square, and the Occupy Youngstown movement decided to take that sitting down. Police Chief Rod Foley hand-delivered a letter to the group around noon Thursday, ordering them to remove the tent, barrel and other items by midnight, citing city-ordinance violations. However, by 12:20 a.m. no police had arrived, and the protesters were just milling around with some visitors who came to support them, including state Rep. Bob Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th. Several hours earlier, around 8 p.m., about 40 members of the group, part of the national Occupy Wall Street movement, gathered in front of their white plastic tent beside the sidewalk near their barrel, which was keeping them toasty in the evening chill. They had to decide what to do. Should they comply with Foley's order, even though they didn't understand why all of a sudden they had to take the tent and burn barrel away — after city officials and the fire department had said it was OK for the group to have them. They tried negotiating with Youngstown Police Capt. David McKnight, who'd arrived to ask the group what it intended to do. "Does he want it all removed?" asked Richard Olivito, who is here from Steubenville supporting the movement. "Yes," said McKnight. "Tonight?" asked a woman. "Yes," he answered. They asked for 24 hours to determine what was needed to get permission for the tent. But after checking again with Foley, McKnight said the midnight deadline was final. The group can still picket. "We can work without the tent," acknowledged Jerred Bowser of the South Side. "But it would be nice to have... to get out of the rain and snow. We're keeping it to store stuff," he said. After meeting, 12 people agreed to stay and protest the tent's removal. They planned to sit in front of it at midnight with their hands behind their backs as a sign of respect for the police who would come to arrest them. Those police were the very people Occupy Youngstown had tried to help by pushing for defeat of Issue 2 in Tuesday's election, they kept noting. In hindsight, Mayor Charles Sammarone said, he shouldn't have allowed the movement to set up chairs, tarps and a burn barrel after its Oct. 15 rally. The tent was set up Tuesday. "It's like when I was a school administrator, if you give a kid an inch, they'll take a yard," the mayor said The group had a permit for only the Oct. 15 rally. The mayor said he waited to address the issue because group members said the protest would end on Election Day, and they were urging voters to reject state Issue 2, which called for restricting some public workers' collective-bargaining rights. The issue was defeated. Jessica Arnold and Jarrod Badgett, Occupy Youngstown members, said the group is protesting other issues such as the influence of Wall Street and bank reform. "I have a lot of college debt and can't find a job, that's why I'm down here," said Bowser. "That's why a lot of us are down here." Comments Leave them be. They are peacefully protesting and not in the way. A previous article said the tent and other items were blocking the sidewalk...that is not true - I walk past them every weekday and there is nothing in my way. If they need a permit for the tent and burn barrel then let them apply for and receive it. Suggest removal: I remeber when there were strikes by real unions in the valley and the burning barrels lit up the area like blast furnances to keep the strikers warm. My how times have changed. Suggest removal: The only reason that they were against issue 2 is so the YPD and YFD would leave them alone. Anyone can see that. Used? Please! Do you actually believe that the existence of a couple of hippies living in a tent on Federal Plaza helped defeat this issue statewide? Oh and Jared Bowser, I have a lot of college debt too. Guess what? I found a job to pay it off. It may not have been in what I went to school for but I did it. Hangin out on Federal Plaza is not helping you. You have to help yourself son. Hagan is parlaying this stand up for the little guy thing beyond SB5 to keep his name out there for reelection. This is insane. Get rid of the tents and burn barrels you can stay as long as you want. I think that it would mean a lot more if you suffered a little for your cause. "However, by 12:20 a.m. no police had arrived, and the protesters were just milling around with some visitors who came to support them, including state Rep. Bob Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th." Bob should have camped out with them in solidarity . . .. Suggest removal:Suggest removal: So pac1234...does pac stand for pathetic a*hole commenter? Just asking. Suggest removal: Lets see---If a person that wanted to open a hot dog stand in youngstown wasn't allowed with out a permit WHY would people be able to "camp" out without a permit --apply for a permit OR get out. Hagan was probably coming from the Grove after "getting warmed up" Suggest removal: On Veterans Day, these American patriots should be honored instead of threatened with police action. Or did our vets serve to erect a police state instead of preserve freedom of peaceful assembly and speech? The mayor's action will determine which, and if it is the former, he's the one who should be evicted not these patriotic protesters. Suggest removal:BOB has nothing better to do - the 49% poverty stat will go away just in time for the VALLY OF THE DOLTS to re-elect the pro-gobomint loafer. Suggest removal:Suggest removal: people in here are ridiculous. no one is asking them to leave, only that they obey city law and take down the tent and chairs (which they no longer have a permit for). they can stay as long as they want; its not like those hippies are even productive members of society. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah obama take away my college loans for the stupid liberal arts degree i got. Suggest removal: Mr. Mayor, The protestors are not children or teenagers. Your analogy is offensive; it diminishes the importance of this movement. In a city where the poverty rate is nearly 50%, you should be more sympathetic to their message. Suggest removal: @Attis -- Thanks for having a rational thought process. @m8ke_the_call "no one is asking them to leave, ..." -- Yeah they are being asked to leave. By not being able to keep warm they are being asked to leave De facto . I watched the news last night the police chief hoped it would be over by now. I think the new chief has done a decent job but I disagree on this one. People have a freedom of speech until they are arrested .Freedom of speech trumps all other law because the U.S. Constitution is the highest law in the nation period. The country is on the verge of tipping towards Constitutional law or a police state.It would logically follow that any local ordinances that would be in violation of the Constitution is where criminal activity would be found.Pretty simple really. It would be like preventing firemen to have a fire truck but telling them they are allowed to put out fires. Suggest removal: @mcluvin- you are right- The person that has no job is not going to get one ploping it downtown- Now is the time to find work because after X-MAS the economy is going to crash big time and no one will be hiring.If I had such huge debts to pay back I would get going to find something.Gheesh! Suggest removal: arrest the lot of them.. they have no valid permits to still be there... there breaking the laws.. I bet if it was the Tea party protesting without a permit, they would have been arrested on Oct 16th. the Law is the Law, enforce it, or get rid of it.. Suggest removal: Permit to exercise a Constitutional right ? You have got to be kidding me. Suggest removal: Read post 19 slowly the Constitution is the Supreme law of the land there is no higher law. Where were some folks during U.S. History? Also the Tea Party is not at odds with Occupy folks they are after some of the same things.The divide and conquer game is as old as the hills. Marg - -The folks are down there precisely because of the economic conditions in this country . Are you a fan of free trade and banker bailouts? Gheesh! If things were peaches and cream they wouldn't be protesting.Maybe you can help find the 50 percent in the valley who are in poverty jobs with a livable wage since your so caring and jobs are so plentiful. GE just took more jobs over seas.Obama signed more free trade agreements with other nations south of the border. Maybe Utica shale will be the savoir ? Suggest removal: Maybe they can be a postal worker , steel worker - - -oops. Oh the casino ! The race track , brewery ...hmmm.Walmart?Well they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps if they can afford boots because there will be drives to shovel -if it snows. If that fails they can always get a job at GM because it is easy to get in there.That is it they are without excuse. Suggest removal: Does this now mean that the homeless can pitch tents and start fires? They can surely come up with a theme and be given handouts and sound bites from the likes of Hagan and other users. This could be a permanent situation. Thinking back on the Tea Party days,many of those in support of the Occupiers didn't have any compassion or sympathy for their message and their right to assemble. Hypocrites. I forgot when or if the lakes freeze over sufficiently there will be ice fishing opportunities but buy your licenses now. Suggest removal: Thinking back on the Tea Party days,many of those in support of the Occupiers didn't have any compassion or sympathy for their message and their right to assemble. Hypocrites. -- Wrong the tea party was co opted by the money interests . Soros is trying the same thing with the occupy folks you couldn't be more misinformed. The tea party if you remember correctly was about opposing illegal immigration and enforcing Constitutional law.This before familiar puppets were urged to change its course. The two party system is really one and the same where the rubber meets the road at the top levels.The rest is a dog and pony show for the unsophisticated. Suggest removal: Does this now mean that the homeless can pitch tents and start fires? -- -If they are exercising their freedom of speech and there freedom of assembly and they are peaceable then you better believe it!!!! Being poor and homeless doesn't mean you loose your God given rights as an American.What in the hxxx is going on with people's thinking in this country it is sounding a lot like red Russia under Stalin. They can surely come up with a theme and be given handouts and sound bites from the likes of Hagan and other users. This could be a permanent situation. Boggles the mind why they wish to occupy a city which becomes increasingly unoccupied each passing week. Suggest removal: Bigben Everyone screams about their rights but they forget about the other side of the equation; their responsibilities. We are a nation founded on the rule of law and it is expected that all people will obey the laws. If you do not, we have the authority under the law to enforce lawful activity. Nobody is forcing these individuals to not speak; they are forcing them to follow certain laws that the citizens of this community deem necessary and proper to maintain order. Your right to throw a punch at me stops at the tip of my nose. If the law says that they need to obtain a permit to peaceably assemble on public square, follow the law. Or, do we permit these people to merely have a parade up any street they want and obstruct traffic. What about my right to use the public highways unfettered that I pay gas taxes to build and granted a license to operate a vehicle on? Or, can I just mow down these protesters at any speed when they are parading in front of my car? "This is not 'nam, smokey. There are rules!" Suggest removal: Walter if you don't have the most basic and fundamental of laws then you have what the founders fled from tyranny.The rule of law too must be aligned with and not be in conflict with the Constitution. Again any law that runs counter to the Constitution is in error.I can't believe some people have a hard time with this it is central to the foundation upon which this nation rests.Anyone who has taken Constitutional law knows this. To my knowledge if you deny these folks the ability to warm themselves then you De facto rob them of their Constitutional rights. It is just that plain . To my knowledge these folks have done nothing wrong. Suggest removal: " - -- When it all started in New York at the Stock market exchange,. they were told by everyone to TAKE IT TO THE CAPITOL BLDG. " -- The protesters are there because they know that is where the decisions are made not at the capital building. Suggest removal: "I agree with the right to be there but to play Squatter's rights is illegal, UNLESS there is PERMISSION given by the owner to stay." -- Wrong.There is a difference between private and public property. Suggest removal: "Occupy Youngstown has NOTHING to do with these guys being Veterans." - -Again you couldn't be more wrong.Obviously you aren't aware of our veteran's plight of obtaining medical treatment and that 1 in 5 can't find work.I won't say what I am thinking right now because it wouldn't be polite. They were used by the wealthy corporations via our government to supposedly spread democracy that we don't even have here and then treated like crap when they came home.18 veterans kill themselves daily but don't let that upset your wagon. Suggest removal: "The Occupiers "Have their Rights" like in:DC where a mother used her kids, to help block doors and then said the police "Put her kids in harms way" OR in SanFran they were using restrooms as washrooms,and taking "Sponge Baths" in "Toilets" OR in Oakland where a man was shot and killed over a "Bag Of Weed" OR Vermont where a 35year old man was shot OR how a VERY BAD MAYOR of Portland delivered a bill for $1546.52 to "Occupiers" for police cars damaged by them, but as BigBen says "They have their rights"." - - - - - -I am assuming that if there was wrong doing it was dealt with . However should we deny people their God given rights in Youngstown because someone got shot over a bag of weed somewhere else? People are stabbed with knives all the time should we outlaw them.There was an accident on the turnpike this morning and someone died should we out law cars or turnpikes? A kid shot another kid with a slingshot perhaps they should be banned.Women were fenced in and maced in New York some would say they were doing nothing wrong - -should we out law police and mace? BigBen says "They have their rights". - -No I am saying that the LAW the supreme law of the land that was crafted carefully by intelligent men says the peaceful protesters have rights.Tell a veteran that had lost his friends in battle that we don't have these rights. Suggest removal: Bigben, . Suggest removal: Bigben, You called me misinformed and somehow think your"sophistcated". You said the Tea Party was co opted by money interests. So Bigben,does this mean they lose their right to free speech? You said that the Tea Party was about opposing illegal immigration and enforcing constitutional law. Huh? T=Taxed E=Enough A=Already. It was about are tax dollars being wasted. Why Bigben,you genius,should the rights of anyone stop at being just at the square? Why not in front of a firestation door? What,that's a safety issue? So what? You going to now start making laws again? Obviously you enjoy reading your nonsense. It's your right. Suggest removal: IT IS YOUR RIGHT AS AMERICANS TO PROTEST AGAINST THE MACHINE WE CALL CORPORATIONS, AND WALL ST!!! PD has a job to do, but don't want to! Hold your ground out there! The only was to get the message out to the "machines" is to protest!! God bless you out there downtown! You have the balls to stand up to them, I told you so on election night! Thank-you! 6636 And when the night is cloudy, There is still a light on me. Shine until tommorow. Let it be. Suggest removal: I guess the right wing crazies that post on the Vindy will never come out from behind their computer screens long enough to come down and talk with us, you will find that we have plenty of Libertarians and Constitutionalists here in Occupy Youngstown. My point is this is Youngstown, not Portland, or Oakland, or NYC stop using them as ammunition and actually talk with us about what we are doing here. You may find (though you may not like it) that we have more in common than you think. Suggest removal: After I posted on this subject, I drove down to the occupy site. I wanted to donate some money for dinner for the troops, or what ever, and they were gone!!! so sad. I only saw two gentleman holding signs that stated that Dan Rivers was not for the working man! Got that right. Hey occupy: Maybe your right. Some have already forgotten, but not I. I want to thank you guys who "occupied" from the bottom of my heart!!! From Issue 2, to our rights as middle americans being trounced on, you guys showed up! I was one of a few who personally thanked you guys on election night! It was the right thing to do. For what its worth, AMERICA LIVES because of people like yourselves!!! God bless you!!! fd6636 Suggest removal: The Occupation continues regardless of how many or how few are present at any one moment in time. In order to prevent its confiscation we had to temporarily relocate our donation jar and food stations. Thank you for your support fd6636 it is appreciated, you are welcome to come by at any time of the day or night. Just a reminder one of the primary freedoms we are fighting for is thisSuggest removal: You want to be a protester but you can't take a little cold rain and snow? #OccupyWeakness SPOILED LAZY TRASH. Its easy to get a bunch of thursday night drunkards from the local bars to come out and support you when you have a midnight deadline....That's why the cops waited until there were only four of you at 7AM to break up your little party. IDIOTS. GO HOME AND FIND A WAY TO REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE. If you can't find a job to pay off your student loans it is because you arent willing to work somewhere outside your field of study to earn money. There are a million retail jobs for the taking right now...its christmas...wait tables....do something instead of whining that mommy and daddy wont pay your student loans for you. THIS IS WHAT IS CALLED THE REAL WORLD. You do anything you can to survive and make a living. You lazy fools are too uppity to shovel s%t, that's on you.....The only way you change the big picture it is by becoming a player in the big game. That is not accomplished by sitting on a corner in YOUNGSTOWN FREAKING OHIO with a makeshift tent and a clever sign. Suggest removal: @borylie - You said the "Tea Party was co opted by money interests. So Bigben,does this mean they lose their right to free speech?" - - -Absolutely not. I believe there is still a good core in the tea party and even if there wasn't the moneyed interests have the same rights to the Constitution. "You said that the Tea Party was about opposing illegal immigration and enforcing constitutional law. Huh? T=Taxed E=Enough A=Already. It was about are tax dollars being wasted." - - -The minute men from Arizona started enforcing laws regarding illegal immigration-laws that the Federal Government failed to enforce.- -- -I agree with this.This is what in my opinion put the tea party on the map.I don't have anything against the tea party in fact I had uncles and aunts involved with it . I wasn't aware that it was a Republican only party.I know of Dems , Libertarians and Constitutional folks have affiliated with it as well. When puppets from the major parties try and steer the movement towards division -that is the problem.It then becomes more of a self serving movement for them and focuses less on its core principals. So I see more similarities between the real tea party and the real occupy movements. "Why Bigben,you genius,should the rights of anyone stop at being just at the square? Why not in front of a firestation door? What,that's a safety issue? So what? You going to now start making laws again?" - - -- - - "We hold these truths to be self evident" - - Maybe the founders got it all wrong?Your right we should throw out the Constitution and live under tyranny because some protesters may not be smart enough to not protest in front of a fire station door or as someone else said in the middle of a busy street. Brilliant truly brilliant. "Obviously you enjoy reading your nonsense. It's your right." - -- Discussing Constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech maybe nonsense to you but not to me.So again if the people can't keep warm when it is freezing how can they implement their Constitutional rights?Also I don't think they will be in front of any fire stations so there is no need to worry unless you wish to invent some other fictitious scenario.I know maybe Santa Clause wants to park his sleigh there. Suggest removal: CantStandYa - -There is always at least one. Suggest removal: Howard, In the past you've railed against the republicans and the Tea Party movement. You complained about the 527's airing 46,947 campaign ads against the democrat canidates. Yet no mention from you about the 3 to 1 monies just spent by the unions to repeal SB5. Another quote of yours: "I wish we could shelve John Boehner,the Tea Party and the republican party". And you want us right wing crazies to stop and talk to you,so you can what,spew your one-sided views? Tolerance of other peoples views isn't one of your strong points,is it? I may be a right wing crazy,but your just plain ol crazy,and a hypocrite. Suggest removal: CantStandYa -- -Maybe you'll be happy when the whole country is shoveling sxxx. Maybe some folks were to lazy to go to college and put the money and effort and time sacrificed to make something of themselves. and by the way, I have alot more respect for someone who shovels s%t than I do for half of the folks interviewed who complain about taking a loan to go to school for a career that doesnt exist.... Suggest removal: "I know plenty of folks in the valley with no college degree who work hard and it pays off for them every day".- Excuses Excuses.- -- - There are plenty with with education that work hard each day as well.No excuses. You may not understand what is going on in the country today with the millions of jobs lost but that is OK.Not all who have lost jobs are college people because they tend to find work more readily then the less educated if we can believe the news sources. The point is free trade has screwed and is screwing lots of hard working Americans and it doesn't sit well with a lot of Americans. I don't know of anyone who would say the economy is doing well or that jobs are plentiful. There are only so many ditches that need to be dug. Another problem is that ditch digging often does not pay enough to make a decent living .I know because I dug ditches and worked construction at one time and that was after I had obtained a Maters degree by the way back in the 1990s.A single person may get by but it is tough to raise a family on that. Many young folks do not and they have a right to be pissed about it.If you took out loans and sacrificed and worked hard while going to school and then realized what these elite folks are doing to the country and the pie isn't there for you you might be upset too. In fact although you may indeed take a job you didn't go to school for it doesn't take the sting away and the costs of those loans. When a person can understand what is means to walk in someone else 's shoes they can be more understanding. $22 bucks for the shirt, and made in Mexico. Looks like one DUMocrat loves NAFTA. Suggest removal: AND THEY ARE SQUATTING ON PROPERTY OWNED BY THE BANKS!! Did they give them permission to park their teepee there?? Do they have a written agreement with the property owners? - -Did the banks get permission from the American people to create the Federal Reserve , undermine the constitution because it states Congress "coins the money"? The banks create money out of nothing and charge us interest where I come from that is counter fitting.That is right it isn't public because it isn't a part of the government so why in the hxxx are they dictating financial policy to this country?Why was the Congress put under martial law in the fall of 2008 and told to sign the bailouts without reading them? " I BELIEVE IN TAKING RESPONSIBILITY for my debts." - - Good me too that is why I don't have many.I worked hard and made something of myself .Unless you do better at 9 per hour with 14 kids and 34 grand in the hole unless you do better you'll never get out of debt. Good luck maybe the Federal Reserve will give you a job . Suggest removal: Bigben must like to hear (read) himself!! Suggest removal: "And like i said before, Occupy Youngstown is B.S. and has nothing to do with today being Veteran's Day. I do salute our troops and God bless them." -- -You must have missed the article today which states 1 in 5 vets can't find jobs. Maybe they are too lazy ?How many burger flippers and ditch diggers are needed.Is it possible that you could wrap your mind around the fact that there are many more Americans seeking work then jobs to be filled - -not even in the ball park. It was on t v yesterday CNN I believe which stated 18 veterans per day commit suicide. Ignore it if you like but there it is.Maybe the job creators that create jobs in China and pay no taxes will help out? Suggest removal: @neverwins you put yourself in debt to be a security guard not a good return of investment Winner did you take the standerd deduction on your taxesfor your 14 kids if you did not you have my respect.if you did you are using intitlments like everyone you are are against Suggest removal: "." -- - -A person under military orders is not a civilian so you are comparing apples and oranges unless you think we should be living in a militaristic state. Walter your babbling off topic and character assassination is what some folks like yourself do when they have been so obviously bested .You maybe in the Santa may wish to use the area the protesters are using crowd which is your choice. However, not allowing these folks to use burn barrels to warm themselves in order to peacefully protest is absurd and an obvious attempt to get them out of said area as the weather is now getting colder . If you wish to ignore this apparent fact -no problem. Freedom of speech does not give you the right to yell "fire" in a crowded theater. - -Yelling fire is not freedom of speech neither is hate speech. As far as democratically enacted laws- - -laws must pass Constitutional tests or they are not law at all, Because as I have said and maybe it will sink in there is no higher law in this country none higher than the Constitution.Even the rule of law which is determined by Justices must satisfy the Constitution.I am sorry if the Bill of Rights offends you and that you think the barrels that keep folks warm enough to exercise their freedoms need removing. Walter I believe having a fire with in the city is actually legal during certain times.If this is true to remove the barrels is all the more petty. Suggest removal: rudy56 - - -"you talk about "Job Creators" how about "Job Destroyers" like Obama." - -Your preaching to the choir.As far as I'm concerned I don't see much differences in these sell outs at the top levels of government with a few exceptions. The money -special interest flows in a we get screwed. Try finding something made in this country . It can be done but it is getting more difficult each day.It ought to piss off a red blooded American.This country wasn't perfect but it was a lot better than it is now. The green movement was co opted years ago .Just look at who sits at the top of the World Wild life , Nature Conservancy and go right down the line.They are the globalists.Don't take my word for it look into it. The environmental movement was well meaning when things started out.They were about planting trees ect Look at what they are into now -might be surprised. Suggest removal: Jim Crow is an example of an unjust laws that were unconstitutional, local and state laws preventing blacks from voting were unconstitutional. Because you have an ordinance or law does not mean it is just .Our system has worked this way for a long time.people of color sitting on the back of buses were local ordinances ect. Suggest removal: The bottom line is this. Yes they have the right to protest. However, they must do so within the confines of the law. For example is there anyone here that disagrees that if they decided to protest completely naked that they would be breaking the law? How about while drinking alchohol openly? How about erecting a tent and having open fires within the public right of way? Yes all are a violation of the law. Sorry. Keep up the protests, I salute you. Anyone that would want these folks to freeze or be frozen out is just plain being low down.The founders must be turning in their graves. Suggest removal: OWS = parasites. Parasites?! What?! Yup, see the definition below: par·a·site (pr-st) n. 1. Biology An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host. 2. a. One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return. b. One who lives off and flatters the rich; a sycophant. 3. A professional dinner guest, especially in ancient Greece. Yes, but Nonsocialist, these are unlucky victims just looking to be heard!! OK, so they don't want jobs, or to contribute to society, or follow the law, or bathe, and so what if they're anti-Semitic and preach hatred of Jews, and are endorsed by the KKK and David Duke, and they want stuff given to them but don't want to give their stuff to the homeless...they...they....uh...they have a right to protest the greedy Wall Street fat cats!! Yeah!! Two questions: 1) Who created the sub-prime loans, the US government or Wall Street? (Hint...it's not Wall Street). 2) Who bailed out AIG, Citibank, Bank of America, etc...the US government or Wall Street? (Hint...the US government). If this was truly about greed and unfairness, why would they not be protesting in front of the US Capitol or the White House? Because it is not about greed (except for their own). It is about wanting other people's stuff, as noted in their "demands": "Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment." "Free college education." "Universal Single Payer Health care." Which brings us full circle. OWS = Parasites. Suggest removal: Let's clear a few things up here, shall we? First of all, we applied for the permits many of you have been harping about, but we were denied. We even purchased a months worth of liability insurance (and planned on renewing it monthly)...still denied. Second, we were given the go ahead by certain city officials, including the police, to erect that tent no more than two days before our interim mayor ordered our site broken down. For those of you who say "toughen up", we did. We didn't have a source of heat initially, and only had that tent for two days, but we were still out there, just like we will continue to be. Third, no deadline was EVER set. We stated to the media and to the public that we planned to occupy indefinitely, but that our MINIMUM goal was election day. You know how I know this? I'm one the media representatives for the group, it was me who spoke those words. And you can find the multitude of interviews myself and others have done online that state that, especially the videos. If Mayor Sammerone misunderstood that is his fault. It was stated very plainly in every interview, press conference, and press release. Fourth, we are on public property. Not the property of the banks. Meaning the sidewalks that we are occupying - without blocking once, as there is more than 12 foot clearance- are owned by the taxpayers of this city and are there for use by anyone. Fifth, we are not a bunch of college kids and recent grads out there whining about free hand outs. Recent grads like myself are actually in the minority in our group, admittedly unlike many other occupations. Almost every single person in our group is gainfully employed. And the handful that aren't are out looking. Two of those just started new jobs this week. One, a close friend of mine who has two bachelors, is waiting tables, and was so happy when he got the news I thought he was going to weep. He used to be employed installing heating and cooling systems, but got laid off. I worked hanging sheet rock and painting for a contracting firm to help pay my way through college. I've found no job in my field, and couldn't get rehired with the contractors I was working for as they had to downsize their workforce, and I was low man on the totem pole. I've since taken a minimum wage retail job to make ends meet. I'm just thankful I could find that after three months of hunting. I have 40k in college debt and make minimum wage, but I refused my deferment because I think it's irresponsible to continue to do so, and with the uncertain times we live in I want to take the opportunity to pay some of it down while I can. How's that for financial responsibility folks. Not bad for a "dirty leftist hippy" is it? Don't talk to me about ditch digging to survive. I've worked manual labor off and on since I was fifteen, and I'll continue to do so if that's what is required for me to survive. Suggest removal: The fact of the matter is, we're not out there looking for entitlements. Although I will say that as a man who takes the Sermon on the Mount seriously, I have no problem with "the welfare state" as I believe it's my responsibility to care for my fellow man. Even if it is "all their own fault", which it very very rarely is. We're out there asking for two things responsibility and transparency both economically and politically. That's what it comes down to. Why was our tax money used to bail out these banks and corporations when they had the capital to buy competition and give their executives exorbitant bonuses and pensions? Why were these men not forced to invest their extremely large personal fortunes into the business they own when they are failing like the rest of us of expected to? Why is there no tax on stock trades, when a piece of a company is a trade-able commodity just like the groceries you purchase? Why do men like Warren Buffett pay a smaller tax percentage than their own secretaries? Why do companies like GE and Microsoft pay only 3 percent of their taxes when the corporate rate here in the US is 35 percent? Why do we allow these loopholes to exist legally? Why are we letting these banks dump their derivative bets on to the Federal Reserve so that the losses become socialized but the gains remain privatized? These are the issues we're out there discussing. And we're not just out there pi*ing and moaning either. We're trying to do something about it. Another member and I are seeking legal counsel to start drafting up ballot initiatives to address some of these problems. Some other members are trying to form a labor Co-op along the lines of Labor Ready that won't take the same ridiculous percentages, thereby returning the profit to the worker who's doing the job. Both of these ideas came around because people of like mind met at the site and are moving horizontally to the group to form their own organizations to DO SOMETHING about the problems we face. Not to mention the fact that we've been feeding and warming a fair share of our local homeless down at the site. What have you been doing about the poverty problem in Youngstown? Suggest removal: The fact of the matter is that the city is trying to freeze us out, and using pretty shaky reasons to do so. Burn barrel ordinances? Strikes, including The Vindicator's, had multiple burn barrels for sometimes months at a time. Even though we have never blocked the sidewalk, the scaffolding on the PNC building sure did...for three years. Part of that time without permits when pieces of the building fell to the sidewalk. Where were the ordinance enforcers then? Propane heat sources are used by every street vendor that's allowed in the square to cook. And, we removed ours when asked, which by the way was one of only two times any authorities expressed that we were violating any ordinances, the other being when we were delivered the letter saying to tear down by midnight. Why are other organizations allowed canopies when we are not? And again, I will remind you we purchased the necessary insurance and applied for the same permits they received to have them. This seems like some pretty selective enforcement to me. What happened to equality of law? If the city is cracking down on ordinances city wide (the reason the mayor gave us) why were we targeted first? Why weren't the longest standing infractions targeted first? Especially those that pose safety issues? These are the questions we have for Mr. Sammerone and other figures of local authority, and we plan on getting answers. Until then we'll continue as we have. Peaceably. Welcoming all ages and walks of life. Suggest removal: -Two people have died this week at parasite/OWS encampments. There has been violence, drug distribution and use, spread of disease, littering, gang rapes, vandalism, blocked bridges and an enormous diversion of public funds. OWS has cost NYC >$3.4M. Occupy Oakland has cost CA taxpayers >$2M. Mayor Sammarone is correct to place limits, reasonable ones, on the Youngstown parasites(OWS) for the good of all involved. -Warren Buffet was deceivingly referring to the capital gains rate. His secretary would pay the same rate in cap gains as he. It's a dishonest and ridiculous argument aimed at the ill informed. -You have "no problem with the welfare state." Maybe you don't realize, but welfare has been proven to increase crime and increase out-of-wedlock births. These statistics come from the Maryland NAACP. Maybe it's not self-evident to you, but self-reliance is better than dependence on a large corporation known as the US government. BTW, you don't need the government to care for your fellow man. In fact, they're a hindrance. -? -Why do you not mention the corrupt special interest bailouts to the multiple green energy failures such as Solyndra? These are "fat cats" that received >$535M in Federal loans that are thinly veiled political paybacks. -Corporations make car seats for babies, grow and transport food, build homes, and yes make a profit...Thank God! We need them to succeed for us to succeed. If I am going to feed my family, I need a lot of corporations to make a profit. -I worked as an overnight janitor for years to get myself through school. No one owes you anything. Work hard, be wise, and you'll get there. You don't have to vilify anyone or defy Youngstown's finest. You want to be politically active, than great. You want to utilize your First Amendment rights, also great. But public opinion is going to continue to sour on your movement with these fringe tactics. You are losing the public's hearts and minds. Suggest removal: Two questions: 1) Who created the sub-prime loans, the US government or Wall Street? (Hint...it's not Wall Street). - - -Bull Crap . The head of the New York Federal Reserve bank during the Bush administration was instrumental in deregulating the loans. The Congress listens and gets its orders from the Federal Reserve an independent for profit bank. 2) Who bailed out AIG, Citibank, Bank of America, etc...the US government or Wall Street? (Hint...the US government).- - -Again Ben B told the US Government it was necessary and the puppets followed orders .Nice try. "-?" - -- Are you serious? Do you think these multi national corporations should pay nothing in taxes compared to what the average citizen pays and you want to call protesters who are shedding light on these issues parasites? Get lost with your phony crap. Suggest removal: Update: now 3 deaths associated with the parasites/OWS. Fannie Mae was created by an act of Congress during the Great Depression and is a GSE (government-sponsored enterprise). Franklin Raines, later to be appointed by Clinton, advocated in the 1990s for the subprime loans. In short, the subprime loans began with Fannie Mae and could not have existed without Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae could not exist without the Federal government. Similarly, the "Fed" was created by and receives it's authority from the US government. The President appoints the Board of Governors. The Fed's profits are funneled into the US Treasury. To claim that the Federal government was not involved in TARP is delusional. Again, if you don't like the tax code, than take it up with who makes the tax code. Seems pretty obvious right? The fact that the parasites/OWS refuse to protest in front of Congress or the White House and limit their ire toward private corporations tells me that they want hand-outs from the government that are taken from these corporations or the "1%." Many "demands" and signs directly state that. Suggest removal: Can you connect the dots ? Read the core of the United States Constitution and see that Congress shall coin the money PERIOD . "Similarly, the "Fed" was created by and receives it's authority from the US government. The President appoints the Board of Governors. The Fed's profits are funneled into the US Treasury." - -Naive? "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws."-- Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild "Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States." -- Sen. Barry Goldwater (Rep. AZ) "It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." -- Henry Ford "Some [Most]." -- President Woodrow Wilson "Neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities, intrinsically, a 'dollar' bill is just a piece of paper. Deposits are merely book entries." -- Modern Money Mechanics Workbook, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 1975 This contrived "emergency" by the money vultures and the political manipulations of FDR, et. al. since then has created innumerous abuses, usurpations, and abridgments of Constitutionally delegated Powers and Authority as clearly stated in Senate Report 93-549 (1973): "A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, [-1822 years now in 111] freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have in varying degrees been abridged by laws brought into force by statutes of national emergency." Suggest removal: When we let our anger and frustration direct our thoughts, nothing is accomplished. Name calling and blaming are not productive either. We are all part of the problem and we need to all be part of the solution. Think about it, we are fighting with the same people who we are trying to help. Just a little quote: "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.YOU CANNOT HELP PEOPLE PERMANENTLY BY DOING FOR THEM, WHAT THEY COULD AND SHOULD DO FOR THEMSELVES." --Abraham Lincoln You are NOT alone. Suggest removal: The Occupiers have a right to protest, speak, camp out, whatever, on public property. So does everyone else, and the Occupiers are now depriving them of THEIR rights. That's what permits are for, people. We have free speech, but to accommodate everybody it must be regulated. "Well just turn the fire hydrants n hose them and the trash off." - - -Isn't that what happened to poor civil rights marchers down south during the 1960s. Just shameful. Suggest removal: @Skittles, "Just a little quote:"??? Do your homework. That paste of yours is a quotation from William John Henry Boetcker in 1916 and not A. Lincoln. You are in similar company, even Ronald Reagan mis-attributed these words to Lincoln in a1992 speech. "different story than 60's" - - -It is still just as wrong now as it was then to use fire hoses on the peaceful protesters. I think your comment was in poor taste. Have a nice day. Suggest removal: Suggest removal: "" - - Sounds like you where the tin foil hat.LOL. - -I think your silliness is well reflected in your name.I never said Ron Paul would win. I don't think he will win.I like that he is opposed to the Federal Reserve and that he had the bxxx to take on and defeat Ben B in front of Congress.I can't say that about any of the other candidates. You never bothered to ask my opinion but your awfully good at assuming.I don't believe in the right -left paradigm . For example Obama was opposed to Free Trade when he campaigned and he has signed free trade agreements.Bush has signed free trade agreements as well. Bush and company were so concerned about the war on terror yet never dealt with the border neither has Obama.If these observations are incorrect then by all means do tell.Both presidents and both parties have passed banker bailout legislation.Sorry if it blows your mind but there it is. The only one that can save the world is Jesus Christ.That you can put me down for with my blessing. Have a great day. Suggest removal: Oh and Slaphappysmith I forgot sometimes a student needs another look at the material so I'll be patient. Reread all the evidence I provided you in post # 84 but especially this one, here it is pay special attention to this one : "Neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities, intrinsically, a 'dollar' bill is just a piece of paper. Deposits are merely book entries." -- Modern Money Mechanics Workbook, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 1975 - -See the source? I can't make it any clearer.Now either you understand or choose to be ignorant. Have a nice day. Suggest removal: THIS COUNTRY IS GOING TO SELF DESTRUCT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Suggest removal: Life is about choices. The last sentence in that column the guy said he had school loans to pay and had no job. Did somebody draft him into school and force him to borrow? He could have gone in the military and earned an education. They just think we owe them every thing. WRONG!!!! Mike in Chicago.	eng	a950f47e-661d-48b7-b1e5-57d683fbe20f	http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/nov/11/occupy-group-defies-ypd/
Kale is being called "the new beef", "the queen of greens" and "a nutritional powerhouse." Here are ten great benefits of adding more kale to your diet:.]]>Yoga Helps Cancer Patients Cope With Their Illness2013-01-11T05:16:00+0000 Yoga is known for its calming effects on the mind. But Carrollton yoga...]]> Yoga5 foods that fight high cholesterol It's easy to eat your way to an alarmingly high cholesterol level. The reverse is true too — changing what you eat can lower your cholesterol and improve the armada of fats floating through your bloodstream. Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and "good fats" are all part of a heart-healthy diet. But some foods are particularly good at helping bring down cholesterol. How? Some cholesterol-lowering foods deliver a good dose of soluble fiber, which binds cholesterol and its precursors in the digestive system and drags them out of the body before they get into circulation. Others provide polyunsaturated fats, which directly lower LDL. And those with plant sterols and stanols keep the body from absorbing cholesterol. Here are 5 of those foods: Oats. An easy way to start lowering cholesterol is to choose oatmeal or a cold oat-based cereal like Cheerios for breakfast. It gives you 1 to 2 grams of soluble fiber. Add a banana or some strawberries for another half-gram. Beans. Beans are especially rich in soluble fiber. They also take a while for the body to digest, meaning you feel full for longer after a meal. That's one reason beans are a useful food for folks trying to lose weight. With so many choices — from navy and kidney beans to lentils, garbanzos, black-eyed peas, and beyond — and so many ways to prepare them, beans are a very versatile food. Nuts. A bushel of studies shows that eating almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and other nuts is good for the heart. Eating 2 ounces of nuts a day can slightly lower LDL, on the order of 5%. Nuts have additional nutrients that protect the heart in other ways. Foods fortified with sterols and stanols. Sterols and stanols extracted from plants gum up the body's ability to absorb cholesterol from food. Companies are adding them to foods ranging from margarine and granola bars to orange juice and chocolate. They're also available as supplements. Getting 2 grams of plant sterols or stanols a day can lower LDL cholesterol by about 10%. Fatty fish. Eating fish two or three times a week can lower LDL in two ways: by replacing meat, which has LDL-boosting saturated fats, and by delivering LDL-lowering omega-3 fats. Omega-3s reduce triglycerides in the bloodstream and also protect the heart by helping prevent the onset of abnormal heart rhythms. But stay away from… As you consider eating more of the foods that can help dial down cholesterol, keep in mind that avoiding certain foods can improve your results. To keep cholesterol levels where you want them to be, limit intake of: Saturated fats. The saturated fats found in red meat, milk and other dairy foods, and coconut and palm oils directly boost LDL. So one way to lower your LDL is to cut back on saturated fat. Try substituting extra-lean ground beef for regular; low-fat or skim milk for whole milk; olive oil or a vegetable-oil margarine for butter; baked fish or chicken for fried. Trans fats. Trans fats are a byproduct of the chemical reaction that turns liquid vegetable oil into solid margarine or shortening and that prevents liquid vegetable oils from turning rancid. Trans fats boost LDL as much as saturated fats do. They also lower protective HDL, rev up inflammation, and increase the tendency for blood clots to form inside blood vessels. Although trans fats were once ubiquitous in prepared foods, many companies now use trans-free alternatives. Some restaurants and fast-food chains have yet to make the switch.]]>5 Ways To Use Less Salt2012-12-11T20:17:29+0000 5 Ways To Use Less Salt Sodium chloride (salt) is essential to the body. The sodium in salt helps transmit nerve impulses and contract muscle fibers. Working with potassium, it balances fluid levels in in the body. But you only need a tiny amount of salt to do this, less than one-tenth of a teaspoon. The average American gets nearly 20 times that much. The body can generally rid itself of excess sodium. In some people, though, consuming extra sodium makes the body hold onto water. This increases the amount of fluid flowing through blood vessels, which can increase blood pressure. Most of the salt that Americans consume comes from prepared and processed foods. The leading culprits include snack foods, sandwich meats, smoked and cured meat, canned juices, canned and dry soups, pizza and other fast foods, and many condiments, relishes, and sauces — for starters. But enough comes from the salt shaker that it's worth finding alternatives. Here are 5 ways to cut back on sodium when cooking or at the table: 1. Use spices and other flavor enhancers. Add flavor to your favorite dishes with spices, dried and fresh herbs, roots (such as garlic and ginger), citrus, vinegars, and wine. From black pepper, cinnamon, and turmeric to fresh basil, chili peppers, and lemon juice, these flavor enhancers create excitement for the palate — and with less sodium. 2. Go nuts for healthy fats in the kitchen. Using the right healthy fats — from roasted nuts and avocados to olive, canola, soybean, and other oils — can add a rich flavor to foods, minus the salt. 3. Sear, sauté, and roast. Searing and sautéing foods in a pan builds flavor. Roasting brings out the natural sweetness of many vegetables and the taste of fish and chicken. If you do steam or microwave food, perk up these dishes with a finishing drizzle of flavorful oil and a squeeze of citrus. 4. Get your whole grains from sources other than bread. Even whole-grain bread, while a healthier choice than white, can contain considerable sodium. And bread contains salt, not just for flavor but to ensure that the dough rises properly. You can skip that extra salt when you use whole grains outside of baking. Try a Mediterranean-inspired whole-grain salad with chopped vegetables, nuts, and legumes, perhaps a small amount of cheese, herbs and spices, and healthy oils and vinegar or citrus. For breakfast, cook up steel-cut oats, farro, or other intact whole grains with fresh or dried fruit, and you can skip the toast (and the extra sodium). It's not exactly what you could call fast food. In fact, it took years of effort. Food researchers pored over some 4,000 health claims used by manufacturers and supermarkets to tempt shoppers into buying their products. These were whittled down to only 222 that were judged to have basis in scientific fact – and from those they have concocted a menu that is being hailed as the healthiest ever. It includes a series of superfoods that can provide you not only with a filling main meal but also plenty of extra snacks and treats with equal health- promoting benefits. And if you're a follower of that popular belief that eating healthily has to be boring, think again. This menu promises to be appetizing and tasty too. It An The protein in it 'contributes to a growth in muscle mass', while the pantothenic acid found in lentils can help reduce tiredness and 'improve mental performance'. Walnuts are part of the healthiest meal ever according to scientists. For dessert, a live yogurt-based blancmange topped with walnuts and a sugar-free caramel-flavoured sauce scores well as being good for digestion, the teeth and blood glucose control. The inclusion of guar gum in the dessert is said to help in the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol, while lactulose 'contributes to an acceleration of intestinal transit'. The walnuts in the topping are a superfood – Biotin, for example, can help the metabolism, the nervous system, skin and hair, while calcium is good for muscle function and the bones. Eat your greens: The study showed that salad as well as berries and nuts are a vital part of a healthy diet, so there is no escape from vegetables. Other recommendations include a concoction for dieters – a mixed berry shake that serves as a meal replacement. Its ingredients include Glucomannan, which contributes to weight loss for someone on a calorie controlled or energy restricted diet. For says the ingredients and dishes would work just as well in the home. 'We have also shown that healthy foods do not have to be dull,' he said. 'We carry out thousands of consumer taste tests a year and one thing is clear. No matter how healthy, if foods do not taste good they will not sell.' darkness in the evening may be good for you2012-06-04T22:45:00+0000 Light at night is bad for your health, and exposure to blue light emitted by electronics and energy-efficient...]]> Light at night is bad for your health, and exposure to blue light emitted by electronics and energy-efficient lightbulbs may be especially so. Until the advent of artificial lighting, the sun was the major source of lighting, and people spent their evenings in (relative) darkness. Now, in much of the world, evenings are illuminated, and we take our easy access to all those lumens pretty much for granted. But we may be paying a price for basking in all that light. At night, light throws the body's biological clock—the circadian rhythm—out of whack. Sleep suffers. Worse, research shows that it may contribute to the causation of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. But not all colors of light have the same effect. Blue wavelengths—which are beneficial during daylight hours because they boost attention, reaction times, and mood—seem to be the most disruptive at night. And the proliferation of electronics with screens, as well as energy-efficient lighting, is increasing our exposure to blue wavelengths, especially after sundown. Daily rhythms influenced by light Everyone has slightly different circadian rhythms, but the average length is 24 and one-quarter hours. The circadian rhythm of people who stay up late is slightly longer, while the rhythms of earlier birds fall short of 24 hours. Dr. Charles Czeisler of Harvard Medical School showed, in 1981, that daylight keeps a person's internal clock aligned with the environment. The health risks Study after study has linked working the night shift and exposure to light at night to several types of cancer (breast, prostate), diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. It's not exactly clear why nighttime light exposure seems to be so bad for us. But we do know that exposure to light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that influences circadian rhythms, and there's some experimental evidence (it's very preliminary) that lower melatonin levels might explain the association with cancer. A Harvard study shed a little bit of light on the possible connection to diabetes and possibly obesity. The researchers put 10 people on a schedule that gradually shifted the timing of their circadian rhythms. Their blood sugar levels increased, throwing them into a prediabetic state, and levels of leptin, a hormone that leaves people feeling full after a meal, went down. Even dim light can interfere with a person's circadian rhythm and melatonin secretion. A mere eight lux—a level of brightness exceeded by most table lamps and about twice that of a night light—has an effect, notes Stephen Lockley, a Harvard sleep researcher. Light at night is part of the reason so many people don't get enough sleep, says Lockley, and researchers have linked short sleep to increased risk for depression, as well as diabetes and cardiovascular problems. The power of the blues While light of any kind can suppress the secretion of melatonin, blue light does so more powerfully. Harvard researchers and their colleagues conducted an experiment comparing the effects of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to exposure to green light of comparable brightness. The blue light suppressed melatonin for about twice as long as the green light and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much (3 hours vs. 1.5 hours). In another study of blue light, researchers at the University of Toronto compared the melatonin levels of people exposed to bright indoor light who were wearing blue-light–blocking goggles to people exposed to regular dim light without wearing goggles. The fact that the levels of the hormone were about the same in the two groups strengthens the hypothesis that blue light is a potent suppressor of melatonin. It also suggests that shift workers and night owls could perhaps protect themselves if they wore eyewear that blocks blue light. Inexpensive sunglasses with orange-tinted lenses block blue light, but they also block other colors, so they're not suitable for use indoors at night. Glasses that block out only blue light can cost up to $80. Less-blue light If blue light does have adverse health effects, then environmental concerns, and the quest for energy-efficient lighting, could be at odds with personal health. Those curlicue compact fluorescent lightbulbs and LED lights are much more energy-efficient than the old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs we grew up with. But they also tend to produce more blue light. The physics of fluorescent lights can't be changed, but coatings inside the bulbs can be so they produce a warmer, less blue light. LED lights are more efficient than fluorescent lights, but they also produce a fair amount of light in the blue spectrum. Richard Hansler, a light researcher at John Carroll University in Cleveland, notes that ordinary incandescent lights also produce some blue light, although less than most fluorescent lightbulbs. What you can do Use dim red lights for night lights. Red light has the least power to shift circadian rhythm and suppress melatonin. Avoid looking at bright screens beginning two to three hours before bed. If you work a night shift or use a lot of electronic devices at night, consider wearing blue-blocking glasses. Expose yourself to lots of bright light during the day, which will boost your ability to sleep at night, as well as your mood and alertness during daylight. Tapering About three weeks from the marathon your last long run over 18 miles should be completed. From 2 weeks out decrease to 10-15 miles, and 7-12 miles at one week from the day of the...]]>Marathon Preparation - Staying In Your Zone By Eric G Freeman Tapering About three weeks from the marathon your last long run over 18 miles should be completed. From 2 weeks out decrease to 10-15 miles, and 7-12 miles at one week from the day of the marathon.Your ratio of carbohydrates to protein and fat will do the opposite as they increase. While your normal training period consisted of about 50 to 60 percent of your daily calorie intake should coming from carbohydrates. As you enter your tapering off period you should increase this to about 60 to 70 percent and during the last three days increase to 80 percent. By doing this you will fill your energy reserves and decrease your chances of "Hitting the wall" during the marathon. Flexibility Its important to go into your run warm and relaxed, stretching is a key component to improving your performance as well as prevent injury. There are two forms of stretching to consider for optimum results. Static and Dynamic, static stretching places a muscle group in an fixed position for a set amount of time. Dynamic Stretching incorporates a controlled swinging motion or a light springy motion to move specific muscles past their normal range of motion. After you've completed a light jog to start your warm up you may do light static stretching followed by these specific dynamic exercises: Arm Swings, Lunges, Walking Lunge, Ankle Bounce, Ankle flips, Walking High Knees, Running Butt Kicks, and Running High Knees. These stretches will prepare your body for the task at hand. Once you've made it over the finish line you'll need to cool down with a light jog/walk for 5-10 minutes followed up with moderately intense static stretching to relax your nervous system. Running Form During the marathon your running form is crucial to a successful race. Good bio mechanics will determine how efficient your run goes. Starting with your head make sure you gaze straight ahead and avoid looking at your feet as looking down or leading with your chin is a precursor to bad form throughout the entire body. Make sure that your shoulders are down and relaxed, if you find them hunched forward or elevated simply shake them out to release the tension and energize the area. If you notice your torso leaning forward take a deep breath, this will lift your chest naturally into an upright position. Avoid excessive leaning in either direction as this can cause your pelvis to tip forward, which in-turn can cause serious back pain. Lift your torso upright as if its floating above your hips with your elbows bent at least 90 degrees and unclenched fists. Proper arm movement helps your leg stride length, if you notice your arms tightening shake them out at your sides for a few seconds to release any tension. Remember a good leg stride length involves slight knee elevation followed by your feet landing underneath your body. Make sure your feet doesn't slap the ground hard, they should land lightly between your heel and arch rolling forward to to push off from your toes to next stride straight to the finish line. Fueling Fuel is Crucial be sure you prep your body with the proper nutrients before the race. At least an hour and a half before your race you should consume to 1 liter of water and a simple meal with complex carbohydrates such as oatmeal or granola. Choices like these will disperse more energy for longer periods of time. Another critical component of marathon nutrition is in race hydration. Do not wait until you are thirsty to rehydrate, as a general rule stop for water/Gatorade every 3 miles. Also gel packs such as GU are a great supplement during marathons. They contain essential B vitamins which give the body energy and extra stamina for your run. Consume one pack every 45 to 60 minutes with WATER. Gatorade and gel packs have high sugar content. Too much simple sugar at once can lead to an upset stomach. Remember every one's needs are different be sure to prep your body with consistent training, maintain it with a good stretch routine, master your body's bio mechanics with impeccable running form, and keep your engine running all the way through the tape with strategic nutrition. Good Luck! Going low-carb? Pick the right proteins — the gold standard of medical research — dietsWomen who averaged two or more servings of red meat a day had a 30% higher risk of developing heart disease than those who had one or fewer servings a day.Putting it all togetherIf you are overweight, shedding pounds can improve everything from your blood pressure to the way you feel. Do it the wrong way, though, and shrinking your waistline could also shrink the number of birthdays you get to celebrate. Instead of having bacon and eggs for breakfast, a burger for lunch, and steak for dinner, getting more of your protein from plants may help you steer clear of heart disease and live longer.]]>Tips For Choosing The Right Exercise Equipment2012-02-24T18:25:29+0000 Tips For Choosing The...]]> Tips For Choosing The Right Exercise Equipment You can launch an effective exercise program using only what nature gave you: your body. But because regular activity remains an elusive goal for most people, a multibillion-dollar industry has blossomed around the promise of surefire success. Health club memberships and home exercise equipment are excellent exercise solutions for many people. Do keep these cautions in mind, though: Even the best equipment and most tricked-out gyms only produce results when used regularly. Learn to use equipment properly to avoid injuries that could sideline you temporarily or permanently. Exercise equipment comes in all sizes, shapes, and price ranges. It pays to check consumer ratings and follow our other tips for smart consumers before making your purchase. Resistance bands or tubing can be used for a full-body strength workout. Attractive features include low cost, light weight, portability, and ease of storage Following are some basics you should know if you're in the market. Cardio equipment If you stop by any gym, you'll see rows of machines designed to simulate cycling, walking and running, kayaking, rowing, skiing, and stair climbing. Whether motorized or not, sized for heavy-duty gym use or in lighter home versions, these machines offer good cardio workouts that burn calories and fat. What's more, your workout takes place indoors, away from fickle weather. Price varies from a few hundred dollars to thousands, depending upon whether a machine is motorized or programmable, and whether it has add-ons, such as devices to measure heart rate, calories or METs burned, time elapsed, and so forth. While this information tends not to be entirely accurate, it could encourage you to step up your workouts or may be important if your doctor has advised you to limit activity. The following are some of the more popular types of aerobic exercise equipment. Cross-country ski machine This machine lets you exercise arms and legs simultaneously, as you would in cross-country skiing. The sliding motion is easy on the knees. On some machines, you have to move one ski forward to make the other move back. On others, the skis move independently. In addition, certain ski machines use ropes, while others have stationary handgrips. Check out all these types to see which one is most comfortable for you. Look for a wide foot bed for stability. Elliptical trainers These machines provide a circular up-and-down motion that's a cross between a ski machine and a stair-stepper. They provide a nearly impact-free workout, which is easy on the joints. Resistance and grade can be adjusted automatically or manually on some models, and levers with handgrips to work the upper body may be available, too. It may take a little while to get used to the unusual motion. Look for comfortable handlebars and nonslip pedals with curved ridges. Try the machine out at varying speeds and grades to make sure it feels stable. Rowing machines Rowing machines work the back, arms, and legs simultaneously, offering as close to a total-body workout as available from a machine. Unless you're used to rowing, the motion initially may feel unfamiliar, and some people find it hard on the back. When purchasing one, consider pulley models instead of piston models for a more realistic rowing experience. Stair-steppers These machines provide a low-impact workout that approximates climbing flights of stairs. Some modes have levers with handgrips to work arms, too. Beginners may find stepper machines strenuous, and the motion can be hard on the knees. Look for machines that provide independent foot action and are equipped with handrails and large stair platforms. Stationary bicycle An exercise bike takes no training and is easy to use, although it can be uncomfortable for long stints. While riding isn't as effective in preventing osteoporosis as weight-bearing exercise, it does provide an excellent cardiovascular workout. Look for a model with a comfortable, adjustable seat and toe clips. If the seat is too hard, find out if you can replace the seat with a cushioned model bought separately. Treadmill This machine enables you to walk or run indoors. Some models offer a flexible, less joint-jarring surface. Opt for a motorized treadmill. When purchasing one, look for a strong motor (the machine will last longer), a belt that's long and wide enough for your stride, a sturdy frame with front side rails for safety, and an emergency stop device. You should be able to adjust the speed and grade so you can walk at a comfortable pace. Strength equipment By harnessing gravity, body weight, external weight, or tension as a resistance force, these devices help you build strength. As with cardio equipment, styles and prices range widely, from expensive professional equipment most often found in gyms and health clubs to affordable, portable home models. If you're just starting out, you can save a fortune by selecting a few basics — comfortable walking shoes plus hand weights or resistance bands or tubing — instead of investing a considerable sum of money in weight lifting machines. Ankle weights These are optional for strength exercises like the side leg raise and hip extension. Look for comfortably padded ankle cuffs with pockets designed to hold half-pound or 1-pound weight bars to add as you progress. Ankle weight sets are usually 5 to 10 pounds. A single cuff may suffice, depending on the exercises you intend to do. Exercise mat Choose a nonslip, well-padded mat for floor exercises. A thick carpet or towels will do in a pinch. Hand weights Depending on your current strength, start with sets of weights as low as 2 pounds and 5 pounds, or 5 pounds and 8 pounds. Add heavier weights as needed. Dumbbells with padded center bars and D-shaped weights are easy to hold. Weighted bands that strap onto wrists and kits that let you screw weights onto a central bar are available, too. Weights are a good place to save cash by checking sports resale stores. Resistance bands and tubing Resistance bands or tubing can be used for a full-body strength workout. Attractive features include low cost, light weight, portability, and ease of storage. As with weights, you can measure how challenging the resistance is by how many repetitions of an exercise you can do: if less than eight, resistance is too high; if more than 12, it is too low. Positioning your hands or feet closer together or farther apart on the band or tube before starting an exercise helps vary resistance. Try different positions to learn which make repetitions easier or harder. Bands. These look like big, wide rubber bands. They come in several levels of resistance from very light to very heavy, designated by color. Tubing. Look for tubing with padded handles on each end. These also come in several levels of resistance from very light to very heavy, designated by color. Some brands come with a door attachment helpful for anchoring tubing in place when doing certain strength exercises.]]>Weight Lifting Can Enhance Your Running Program2012-02-22T17:37:57+0000 Even the heartiest of runners look at February's grey, low-hanging rain clouds and consider waving the white flag. But winter doesn't have to win. After months of running outdoors, your body will welcome a change and the benefits of diverse training will also make you a more well-rounded athlete. For the novice jogger or veteran road racer, there are countless ways to sweat buckets and stay fit. I'm a fan of individual sports and recommend lifting weights at the gym as a great cardio-building and fat-burning workout. A moderate weightlifting program will help runners, including long-distance marathoners, strengthen muscles that aren't used in running. If all you do is run, certain muscles (your hamstrings, for example) will become stronger, but the quadriceps will not. This imbalance can lead to injury. When you are working out with weights, try to use the same or similar amounts of weight for opposing muscle groups, such as the biceps and triceps, or the quads and hamstrings. The weight you lift with your hamstrings may feel easy, but that's OK. Your hamstrings get plenty of exercise from running. If the amount of weight you need to challenge your hamstrings is hard to lift with your quads, it's better to lift less weight with the hamstrings than to overtax your quads. Once you build more strength, you will feel comfortable lifting the same amount of weight with both muscle groups. In half an hour, you can fit in two to three sets of 10-15 repetitions for a few key muscle groups, including the hamstrings and quadriceps, adductor and abductor muscles of your inner and outer hip, and the bicep and triceps. The weight should be heavy enough that your muscles start to feel tired during the second or third set. "Before doing any type of cross training in the gym such as weights or circuit training, get a FMS, which takes 10 minutes to do and most physiotherapists can do the assessment," he said. Talo believes most endurance athletes should be screened before introducing new features to their workout. "Athletes are very good at compensating any of their weaknesses or injuries and with endurance sport, for the most part, the athletes are doing the same movement pattern over and over and if their movement pattern isn't efficient, it could be compensated elsewhere in the body." He adds, "Someone who has been at it for a while may not be mobile in the hips, and you don't want to add load to that because your body will compensate for the lack of mobility." He said many physiotherapists and trainers are now adding FMS screening to their repertoires as the test becomes more mainstream and recognized as a straight-forward method to detect red flags in an athlete's movement. Blaise Dubois, a boundary-pushing Quebecois physical therapist who specializes in injury prevention, suggested the FMS and particularly recommended runners develop their core strength if they're planning to add weight training to their workout. "What is important in any change in training is to be progressive and to listen to your body even if the exercises are very good," he said. Other excellent options for cross training include swimming, which is a total body workout, and ping pong, which will leave you soaked in sweat if you're competitive and playing against a like-minded opponent. Read more: Running Workouts To Do With a Partner2012-02-13T17:54:45+0000 Patrick McCrann, an experienced runner, owner of Marathon Nation, and a contributing writer for Active.com wrote this article about doing running workouts with a partner. Take a look, pick one, and have a great run. 5 Running Workouts To Do With a Partner As solo an endeavor as running can be, there's no doubt that having a companion to share your miles can help breathe the life back into your training. From sharing a few laughs to pushing your limits, the right running partner will help you grow as a runner. In honor of Valentine's Day, here are five great running workouts that you can do with your running partner of choice. Run them as fast or as slowly as you want; you've already won simply by having someone to share the experience with But before we begin... Quick Running Partner Advice Running with someone else is just that; a run. Don't feel pressure to do anything but run. It's helpful to set some expectations around average pace and distance for that specific workout. Otherwise don't place too many constraints around the session as it can really take the fun out of the workout. And don't forget that you can have as many different running friends as you like; you could have speedy partner, one for recovery days, and even one for your longer runs. The sky is the limit. Top Partner Run Workouts #1 -- Triple Fast Slow A variation on a fartlek (aka speed play) run, in this session runners take turns implementing three speed surges at the pace and duration of their choice, recovering as much as needed. After these three repeats, the other runner has the chance to take the lead. Tip: Start with one set each and build up to three as your fitness improves. #2 -- Adventure Run A personal favorite, this run involves one runner plotting out a brand new route and then acting as the tour guide leading the other(s). Use an online mapping tool and a GPS device to avoid getting utterly lost; but note that even diverting just a few blocks off your normal route can be sufficiently different. Tip: This is a perfect substitute for a regularly scheduled long run, especially when your training is becoming monotonous. #3 -- Snap-The-Whip Similar to the Triple Fast Slow run in #1 above, only in this version you are attempting to "drop" the other runner. You can do this with a quick burst of speed, by picking a really big hill, or perhaps using sustained tempo. The latter one is usually more effective at the end. As stated before, it's good to set some ground rules such as a good warm up and a set time for each person to lead and enough time for your both to recover. Enjoy! Tip: The leader should stop their work interval when the other person has "snapped" instead of building up a 1/4 of 1/2 gap. #4 -- Track Relay Runs This is a great replacement for speedwork session that has intervals shorter than a mile. Best done on a track or a set loop, you and a partner can take turns running around the track; running is your work interval; the non-running is your recovery. Instead of doing 8 x 800 (1/2 mile) with 400 recovery on your own, you can now run 800, tag your partner, and then jog 400 while they run 800 so you are ready for them to tag you back. You can do this with all types of distances, simply do the math on where you need to stagger your recovery to be in the right place if you are running 600s or 1200s, etc. Tip: Feel free to add in more partners as you go; no reason why you can't do a workout like this with two or three other runners! #5 -- Circuit Running You might have noticed that all of the above is related to speed or pushing your body. Speed is fun, but even that can be too much sometimes, which is why a Circuit Run is a great alternative. Think of it as a boot camp on the move. If you live near a fitness path that has stations for you to do crunches, push ups, pull ups / flexed arm hang, rows, etc., then all you need to do is get a buddy and start running. If you don't have such a resource, you can make it up! It's easy to add push ups, sit ups, leg raises, planks (front or side), dips, etc, on basic stationary objects. Simply jog/run for three to five minutes, then do an exercise, and repeat. Save this for a shorter, easier paced run. Challenge yourself (and your partner) to beat the number of repetitions from last time, and watch each other get fitter and stronger by the week! Tip: Consider writing down some ideas for exercises on a card so you aren't stuck brainstorming as soon as you find a nice space to do your exercise. You can view more of Patrick McCrann's tips on running at his website, MarathonNation]]>Building Confidence Through Martial Arts2012-02-09T15:50:08+0000Growing up in a gang-infested area of Fort Worth, Texas, Ernest Lazo was bullied and harassed -- until he decided to take matters into his own hands. "Living in that culture, you have to learn to defend yourself, so I decided to train to have a self-defense mentality," he said. Lazo began martial arts training in 1992. Twenty years later, he's running his own school, the Martial Arts Academy of Salina. Lazo teaches classes for youths and adults at Carver Center through Salina Parks and Recreation, but his goal is to move his school into a permanent facility at 742 Duvall. He will share the space with boxing coach Cesareo Morales and Olympic weightlifting coach Dennis Espinosa under the banner "Team Salina." "Our goal is to raise funds to renovate this building," Lazo said. "We have a vision for a recreation center for low-income families." The Martial Arts Academy of Salina teaches a form of martial arts called American Karate, Lazo said, a system that incorporates elements of Taekwondo, Judo, Jiu-jitsu, Kung Fu and American boxing. Lazo also teaches low-impact cardio and flexibility classes at Dino Strength Training Center, 703 Bishop. "My ultimate goal is to have two locations in Salina -- a martial arts training school (at 742 Duvall) and mixed martial arts training at Dino, which is more sports training," he said. Lazo originally came to Salina in 2000 to attend Kansas Wesleyan University as a biology major with a minor in chemistry and Spanish. "I went to a college fair at Fort Worth and read about KWU," he said. "It appealed to me. I came from a big urban city, and I felt Salina was the type of environment I needed to succeed." After graduating from KWU in 2004, Lazo worked two years as an admissions officer at Bethany College. After leaving Bethany in 2006, he enrolled in online graduate courses at Fort Hays State University. In December 2008, he earned a master's degree in organizational leadership. While studying for his graduate degree, Lazo began taking martial arts classes at two schools, Sun Yi's Tai Kwon Do Academy and Absolute Martial Arts, which later became Premier Martial Arts. When the owner of Absolute Martial Arts saw how advanced Lazo was in his training, he was offered the job of chief instructor at the school. After earning his graduate degree, Lazo started a new job in December 2008 with a work schedule that didn't allow him to continue teaching martial arts classes. But after being laid off eight months later, Lazo was given a golden opportunity in fall 2009. "Premier Martial Arts had moved to Wichita, and I had parents contact me wanting their children to continue their martial arts training with me," he said. "They were persistent. Because I wasn't working, I said, 'What do I have to lose?' and agreed." Lazo went to Salina Parks and Recreation and talked to recreation program supervisor Tim Kerbs about teaching classes through the department. Lazo began teaching his first classes at Carver Center in January 2010. Having just completed his second year in business, Lazo said he's looking forward to expanding the school in a new location and building a team of dedicated students who will continue practicing martial arts with him for years to come. Dedication and patience is essential to being successful in martial arts, Lazo said.Lazo said nothing is better than seeing a young student gain self-confidence when they begin mastering a martial arts move. "I love seeing the kids when they can't believe they can do something, and then they find out they can," he said. "When they see they can do it, they get giddy." Having diabetes is no joke. It is a leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, leg and foot amputations, and premature death. Q: I have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and am very confused about insulin resistance, and what carbohydrates I can and cannot eat. So much of what I read is contradictory. A: The first line of defense against type 2 diabetes is weight loss, but you would never know it from listening to Paula Deen, the celebrity Southern cook who recently announced that she has this disease, or even to the American Diabetes Association. Having diabetes is no joke. It is a leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, leg and foot amputations, and premature death. The disease comes in two forms - type 1 and type 2 - but type 2 accounts for 95 percent of cases. In both, levels of blood sugar are too high as a result of problems with insulin, a hormone that enables the body to use blood sugar for energy. But the reasons differ. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease. It causes the pancreas to stop making insulin or not make enough. Type 1 is not yet preventable and requires insulin treatment. In type 2, insulin may be available, but body tissues resist its use. Being overweight is the key factor in type 2. Most people can prevent it by not gaining weight. And most people with the type 2 disease can eliminate symptoms by losing some weight. Genetics is certainly a factor - many overweight people never develop the disease - but 85 percent or more of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. In genetically predisposed people, being overweight causes insulin resistance. Metabolism does not handle excess calories very well, and this means calories from any source, not just carbohydrates. Fast food, soft drinks Children and adults who habitually consume fast food as well as soft drinks tend to take in more calories and weigh more and are more likely to develop symptoms than people who eat healthier diets and are more active. This makes healthy eating and physical activity the most important approaches. The vast majority of overweight people at risk of type 2 diabetes can prevent symptoms by losing a few percent of their body weight and doing a couple of hours a week of moderate - not necessarily vigorous - physical activity. The same works for treatment. Some people will still need medications, but the drugs work better with diet and physical activity. As the Centers for Disease Control puts it, "all diabetes-care programs should make healthy weight a priority." Dietary advice for type 2 diabetes is the same as advice for everyone else: Eat a wide variety of relatively unprocessed foods, especially vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and don't consume too much junk food or too many sugary beverages. Scientists may argue endlessly about the relative importance of calories, sugars and refined carbohydrates in the diets of people with type 2 diabetes, but everyone agrees that eating less of all three would help resolve symptoms. The ADA does talk about weight loss on its website ( but you must search hard through several complicated screens before you find, "Losing just a few pounds through exercise and eating well can help with your diabetes control and can reduce your risk for other health problems." Pharmaceuticals I can't help wondering if the lack of prominence given to weight loss might have something to do with the influence of pharmaceutical companies. A few years ago, I gave a talk on the importance of weight loss in control of type 2 diabetes at an ADA annual meeting. Although many conference talks dealt with drug treatment, mine was the only one on diet - except for a session on sugars sponsored by Coca-Cola. But a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes should be a teachable moment. Shouldn't the ADA more strongly urge people with the disease to eat less, eat better and move more, and help everyone find ways to cope with "eat more" messages? The health and economic costs of type 2 diabetes, and its preventability, are reason enough to demand changes in the food environment. The ADA should be working hard to make it easier for everyone to eat more healthfully, be more active and avoid the need for a lifetime of diabetes medications. Marion Nestle is the author of "Food Politics" and "What to Eat," among other books, and is a professor in the nutrition, food studies and public health department at New York University. She blogs at E-mail comments to food@sfchronicle.com. To read the article on sfgate.com, click here: Weight loss is key in fighting Type 2 Diabetes]]>Running for Beginners - 5 Tips To Get Started2012-02-03T18:45:00+0000 No matter what...]]> No matter what your answer is, know this: almost anyone on the planet can run. It is inherent to being a human being. Our ancestors ran, our friends run, our offspring will run. I've seen double amputees run marathons on a single prosthetic device and crutches. I've seen bow-legged people run, pronators, supinators, short people, tall people, overweight people, 90-year-olds...the list goes on. It isn't easy. But it does get easier with consistency. The good news is: We need no equipment to run, though it is really nice to have comfy shoes and sweat-wicking clothes. Also, it costs nothing. Finally, the results, when accomplished with consistency, are hard to argue with: runners are fit, their heart is conditioned, and they generally have a well-balanced energy level (you've probably heard of the endorphin-produced "runner's high") thus can handle stress and the "afternoon slump" much better than their sedentary friends. The problem is this: most people who consider themselves incompatible with running go out on Day 1 much too hard without a base layer of fitness and so become discouraged and abandon their hopes. But any activity, natural or not, requires some amount of fitness in order to do it safely and effectively. Sometimes people may think that they are going to get hurt running. That may be true because you can get doing anything. However, it is usually an excuse and is not true for most people. Some people say: "it is too hard on my body". Of course it is hard! Nothing worth getting is easy! It is definitely more easy and more comfortable to sit on the couch or on a bench in the park. Cover models for Runner's World did not wake up looking that way without hard work. They worked up a sweat over and over, and woke up many a day with sore muscles and laced up their shoes anyway. If you truly have a physical problem which makes running bad for you and your doctor has advised you against running, perhaps you should pick up a bike or dive into a pool in order to work with what you have. However, after building a base layer of fitness and acknowledging that you are ready to work hard to get into running shape, almost everyone CAN run. Running is a natural action for us that requires few, if any, fine-tuned skills or gear but that does not mean it won't be helpful to have some basic knowledge. Basic form can be learned by asking a personal trainer or a running coach for some pointers. Mainly, think of keeping your toes pointing straight ahead and heels directly behind them. Your knees should bend directly over the center of your ankle. Also, relax your arms. Your hand should almost hit your hip, then cross just in front of your nipple. Excessive twisting will cause abdominal cramps (as will being out of shape; if you get a cramp, just slow down and take deeps breaths, then pick up your pace again once your cramp is completely gone). Where to begin? It's easy to explain (though hard to execute) so let's get started: #1--Ask your doctor if you are ready. This doesn't mean you have to call him or her as soon as you finish reading this article. If you just got a check-up recently and received a clean bill of health, you are probably a-okay to put on your shoes and go for a walk. Slowly, you will turn that into a light jog. We will discuss that in a minute. If you have health issues such as diabetes, hypoglycemia, or are 20 pounds or more overweight, you might want to clear it with your physician before attempting to run for exercise. Be smart. Your health is your livelihood. A phone call isn't that hard, nor is a check-up to see your doctor. Even if you can't get an appointment for 6 weeks, you can walk every day between now and then and build up your leg strength. #2--Start walking. One of the things I asked my beginner half-marathoners to do before we all met as a group for the first time was start walking. No matter what the weather, you can walk. Carry an umbrella if it is raining, bundle up if it is snowing, wear a hat and sunglasses if it is hot and sunny...you get the idea. You can make an excuse, or you can do something. If you want to be fit and keep stiffness and weakness away, start walking. If you can only walk 5 minutes before things start hurting, walk 5 minutes every day. Next week, make it 6. You will work your way up to a half-mile by the end of the 1st month and a mile by the end of the second month. If you can already walk for an hour without fatigue, you are ready to start running. #3--Start running. Warm up for five minutes by walking. Then, pick up your pace to a slow jog. A jog is simply a slow run, and an important building block for running. If you can only jog one block, then jog one block. If you can jog for 1 minute, jog for one minute. Then, walk for one minute, run for one minute, etc. Eventually, you can work your way up to 5 minutes of running and really get a rhythm going. This rhythm is what it takes to push through plateaus. Every day that you run, it should be a little bit harder than the last day that you ran; not a ton, a little. This will keep you progressing and prevent plateaus. How fast should you run? Do the talk-test: make sure that you can say about 7 words at once while running. If you can't, you are pushing yourself too hard which could lead to an injury or muscles that are so sore tomorrow that you can't walk properly. #4--Eat nutrition-rich foods. Simply put: vary your diet as much as possible. Eat colorful fruits & veggies, lean meats, low-fat dairy, and limit caffeine and alcohol. Shop around the perimeter of the grocery store where the fresh food is and where the processed food is not. Eat often, and stop eating when your appetite is satisfied (note the word "satisfied" here; completely full to the point where you have to lay down after a meal does not equal satisfied; that equals overeating, and unless you live in an area where there is extreme famine (which you probably do not because you are on the internet as you read this), there is food available to you and you can eat again in 3-4 hours). You are pushing your body harder than you pushed it before. Breaking your muscles down means that they are going to automatically rebuild themselves (that is one thing you don't have to do!). You need essential amino acids to do this. If you are a vegetarian, make sure you get enough low-fat dairy in your diet such as yogurt and eggs. If you are vegan, make sure you consume all essential amino acids; for example, combine rice & beans for a complete amino acid complex, or add quinoa to your diet since it includes all nine essential amino acids that your body cannot produce. In order for your body to turn food into fuel, it needs certain water-soluble vitamins and certain fat-soluble vitamins. If you think you are missing out on key nutrients, ask your doctor if you should take a multi-vitamin (be careful about taking just one specific vitamin such as Vitamin E; your body needs a balance of vitamins and nutrients and will just eliminate the extra that it does not need, which means you are not only wasting your money by overdoing it on certain vitamins, you could be taking the wrong vitamin without your doctor's advice and could be taxing your body in a negative way. #5--Be honest with yourself and listen to your body. If you are truly tired and overworked, take a nap or get extra sleep that night. If you have energy, go burn it up. If you need food, eat. If you need to talk, talk. Your body is smarter than your brain sometimes. Often, we think about what society tells us to think about instead of what we personally need to think about. Perhaps your shoulders and lower back are sore from being so tight; maybe you need to stretch because all you ever do is lift weights and you sacrifice stretching to do one more set. You probably need to listen to your body and spend your workout time on some days stretching instead of lifting weights for the 5th day in a row. Balance is important. "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy." So does all of anything and nothing of something else. Sit and read once in a while and enjoy it. Stare at out the window and just think instead of picking up your smartphone or opening your laptop. Just make sure you have made time for your walk, walk/run, or run that day.]]>The Truth about Protein Powder2011-09-21T16:01:59+0000 If you find yourself confused by what you've...]]> If you find yourself confused by what you've read to this point, don't despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish. Protein is the fundamental building block of muscle evolution. Yeah, complex carbs and healthy fats play important roles too, but protein is the primary driver. Spurred in part by tremendous advances in research, there has been a massive explosion in the varieties of protein powders being sold-so much that it can be overwhelming and confusing. This website article will sort it all out and help you make the correct decision about which protein powders are right for you. There are a range of different types of proteins sold as powdered supplements for bodybuilders: egg, whey, casein, milk and soy. Egg protein is considered to be the granddaddy of all proteins and the gold standard to which other proteins aspire to be. Nutritionists agree that in terms of protein quality, egg protein is second to none. It is packed with essential amino acids (EAAs) and is ideal for persons with milk allergies or lactose intolerance. The protein from entire eggs ranks a quick higher in quality in comparison to protein from egg whites. The next two proteins on the list-whey and casein-are both derived from milk protein, which is comprised of about 80% casein protein and 20% whey protein. Whey protein is far and above the most common type used in the majority of powders on the market today. They're easily digested and love egg proteins, are also loaded with EAAs as well as the three Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs). Whey proteins come in three different varieties: concentrates, isolates and hydrolysates. Whey protein concentrates are the most economical variety but they also have the lowest overall protein level. Isolates are bit more costly but on they also have higher protein levels. The last one-hydrolysates-is whey protein that is partially broken down, which results in faster digestion and absorption. Casein proteins comprise the bulk of the protein in milk. Casein takes more time than whey protein to digest and absorb into the body. Because of this, it's sometimes taken correct before prolonged periods of fasting such as at bedtime. Soy protein is far less commonly taken by bodybuilders than any of the others. It has the lowest overall protein quality among the ones I've discussed and also ranks lower than the others in terms of other nutritional benefits such as EAAs. There are five typical times when bodybuilders take their protein shakes: in the morning; before working out; after working out; in-between meals and correct before bedtime. A protein shake taken right after you wake up provides a stable, sustained energy source after the nutritional void of sleep. It also provides a shot of amino acids that are used in muscle recovery and maintenance. The faster-acting whey proteins are favored for that "solid morning" kick. The pre-workout protein shake primes the body for the exercises to come. Taken about an hour before, whey and egg proteins are favored here because of their rapid digestion and content of muscle-pumping EAAs and BCAAs. The post-exercises period-about 30 to 60 minutes-is a critical time in which your body craves protein. After a good training session, your muscles are nutrient-, enzyme- and hormone-starved sponges, anxious to soak up everything they need to launch into the recovery procedure. Here, whey, casein or egg protein can do the trick. As a between-meal snack, protein shakes are ideal. They not only knock out hunger pangs but they also assist to keep your metabolism functioning at peak level. For between meals, dairy proteins (whey, casein or milk) are the best because they supply a "full" feeling than other proteins. Last, we come to the bedtime protein shake. Because of the long nutritional drought ahead, slow-digesting casein protein is the clear favorite. Its amino acid-rich formulation helps to fight against any muscle breakdown that can occur during periods of sleep. There are all kinds of different protein powders from which to choose. It's especially handy that manufacturers have devised different blends to meet precise needs (pre-workout, post-workout, etc.), which can make it easy to select exactly what you require. The downside is that you can wind up spending a lot of income on all sorts of different protein powders. In making your choice, think about your goals, your needs and your budget. If you want to economize you might examine a blended protein, which is designed to be the "middle of the road" between fast- and slow-acting proteins. In any case, you've now got the information you need to make an educated decision about what's correct for you. Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.]]>Designing Your Training According to Your Body Type2011-08-18T19:00:00+0000 you ever wondered why you gain weight faster, why you could not lose those fats faster, why you still have a hard time tuning your body perfectly even though you have a great workout routine? It is pretty simple actually. You just have to know your body type first before you start your training. Knowing your body type can be hard to accept for some. It can be your biggest obstacle, but it can also be your most effective tool. Whether you belong to the "skinny" types, fatty types, or the common bullies who are just naturally gifted with the great body, it will always be a great factor if you know what kind of workout your type needs. Basically, there are three main body types. There is the Endomorph, Ectomorph, and Mesomorph. But there is no restriction to which body type a person might have. There are also others with a combination of these body types. To know which body type you have, all you have to do is look at the mirror and judge. The Endomorph It is a body type which usually has high levels of fat, slow metabolism, rounded body shape and always referred to as "FAT". The Endomorphs have the biggest problem of losing weight. They have an easy time gaining muscle; however, they also have easy time gaining fat. The Ectomorph It is a body type which is the exact opposite of the Endomorph. Having this body type means having high metabolism, thin build, less muscle, less fat and is generally called "SKINNY". Though Ectomorphs are having a tough time with high amount of training, it has an upside to it – they have really minimal fat gain which can be a great advantage when doing workouts. The Mesomorph It is the best body type in any case. Mesomorphs are naturally gifted and they are highly athletic. They do not have trouble gaining muscles and losing fat, they have low body fat amount, like Ectomorphs, they have high metabolism rate, and most of the time they are often referred to as "THE MAN". Preparation for the Training Upon starting the workout routine, the obvious goal is to be able to walk proud and be The Man. To achieve the great effects in your workout and to avoid backfires, there are some points that you need to consider in the design of your workout. So here are some tips on making an effective workout routine that goes well with your body type. Knowing the Basic Workout Exercises To start designing the best possible workout routine suited for your body type, you should also take some time knowing about the basic workout exercises and proper executions. The Bicep Curl – A weight training exercise which targets the biceps to develop its size, strength, and endurance. Even though there are different variations in doing this exercise, the one similarity among the many variations is the "curling motion". The Chin-up – A strength training exercise which is also a form of pull-up exercise. It targets the latissimus dorsi muscle, scapular downward rotator and scapular depressor. Basically, the movement starts with both arms reaching up to a gripping bar. The body is then pulled up until the chin is in respect with the bar. Finally, the body is lowered and the exercise is generally repeated. The Dumbbell Single Leg Calf Raise – Also known as Toe Raises which targets mainly the Gastrocnemius. It starts by grasping a dumbbell in one hand while positioning the toes onto a platform with the heels hanging off the step. Slowly rise up on toes and make a straight line from the body to the ankle. Finally, slowly lower the body and repeat the exercise with the other leg. The Bench Press – A weight training exercise that focuses on the development of the chest. It can strengthen the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps. It starts while the lifter lies on his back while his feet are flat on the ground. Then the lifter lowers a weight down to his chest level then pushes it back till the arms are straight. The Squat – A full body training exercise which develops the muscles of the thighs, buttocks, hamstring and hips. The exercise starts in a standing position while holding weights (dumbbell or a bar across the upper back). Then it is triggered by lowering the hips and bending the knees to lower the body while carrying the weight, and finally returning to the starting position. The Dumbbell Shrug – A strength training exercise which primarily targets to develop the upper trapezius muscle. It is done by standing straight while holding dumbbells in both sides, then raising the shoulders as high as possible and lowering them without moving the body or bending the elbows. Most of the basic exercises are easily done with dumbbells. This means that in order for you to attain the perfect figure, you need to start slow but start strong. It can be more optimized with the help of an adjustable dumbbell set. This will allow you to start at the right level of your strength and at the same time intensify your training bit by bit.]]>Summer slump with fitness?2011-08-02T23:45:00+0000 Komen Race for the Cure The 3 Day So grab a friend to join you on your path to fitness and well being, and have fun along the way!]]>Warm Up To Perform At Your Best2011-07-12T20:29:54+0000 Always warming up before starting your exercise routine will lower your chances of injury and will get your muscles warmed up and ready for the exercise you are about to begin. Some warming up techniques and tips are here to help you warm up and what to do. Many times when we do physical activity we forget to warm up and we also forget just how important it is that we do so. Strenuous activity could cause injury if our muscles and tendons are not properly stretched and ready to go. Also, warming up will improve your respiratory rate, blood flow, and oxygen levels. Doing these warming up exercises will make your routine go more smoothly and with less problems. Your body will already be ready and willing to start the exercising. You will have better results during your work out. A person can warm up properly by doing anything that can get the heart rate to beat faster. Jogging in place, speed walking, or any other cardiovascular activity such as bicycling and or using a rowing machine will work. Start slowly and increase at a pace that is comfortable for you as you feel your heart rate increase also along with your body temperature. This pace will probably be at your current fitness level and watch how your body feels so that you do not over do it. Warming up should not leave you feeling exhausted, that is for your regular workout routine. Instead you should feel energized and ready for more. Also, the warming up you do can be similar to the activity you are preparing for. So, preparing your body for sports or other heavy or strenuous activity will make the activity easier and not as difficult. Try to stretch the major muscles for eight seconds and to keep moving so the blood does not pool in one area. This keeps the blood flowing equally throughout the body also. While stretching, do not bounce since this could lead to muscle tears and/or pulls. Conversely, weight lifters will want to add 50% of the weight to the machine and perform the repetitions they plan to do. Then, increase the weight to 80% and decrease to only two to three repetitions. Rest for approximately 30 seconds and repeat both steps. After all this begin your regular workout routine, this will have your body warmed up and make the rest of the work out less daunting and troublesome. Finally, never forget to cool down also, which is not just relaxing put slowly lessening your routine. This is done in the same way as the warming up routine. Blood gathers in the muscles and can block oxygen that the body needs. In serious cases this could actually lead to a heart attack. So cooling down is just as important as warming up. Staying in good health and fitness is important for everyone and doing the proper warm ups are essential to having a successful work out with the maximum benefits. Warm Up Before You Exercise]]>Fitness Tips-Make Your Fitness Plan Work2011-07-11T19:15:42+0000 It is not uncommon to begin a fitness plan, and then become frustrated or just...]]> It is not uncommon to begin a fitness plan, and then become frustrated or just plain bored. It does not have to be this way. It is possible to make your healthy fitness plan work. Set Specific Goals Begin by setting simple goals, and then you can progress on to the longer-range goals. Keep in mind that it is important that your goals are achievable and realistic. All too often people become frustrated and just give up when the goals that they set are too ambitious. A short-term goal may be a five-minute walk a couple of times a day. An intermediate fitness goal would be a twenty-minute walk three or four times per week, with a long-term goal of completing a 5K walk. Have Fun Focus on the activities and sports that you enjoy the most. It is important to vary your workout routine in order to work various muscle groups and keep you on your toes. If you do not enjoy working out, then perhaps you should try a new routine. Take dance classes, join a ball league or take up martial arts to keep your exercise workouts fun and exciting. You may be surprised to discover just how athletically talented you really are if you just try. Working out does not have to feel like a chore and you will be more inclined to stick to your healthy fitness plan if you are having fun. Incorporate Fitness Into Daily Life Is it hard for you to find time to exercise? It is important that you do not fall back on a horde of excuses. Plan your workout schedule just as you would any other activity that is important to you. In addition, you can squeeze a little physical activity in all throughout your day. All you have to do is be a little creative. While you are waiting for your child's music lesson to end, go for a walk. Opt to take the stairs at work instead of riding on the elevator. While you are watching your favorite television show or reading a good book, do a little strength training or pedal a stationary bike. Write It Down Would you like to sleep better, lose weight and have more energy? No matter your reasons for exercising, writing down your goals and progress is an excellent way to stay on track with a healthy fitness plan. When you are able to look back on what you have accomplished, you will be motivated to continue moving forward with your fitness program. Try posting your goals where you can see them, such as on your treadmill, weight bench or bathroom mirror. In addition, you can keep a diary of the exercises that you do every day. Write down everything you accomplished in your workout session. Note how long you worked out and how you felt be for and after exercising each day. Recording your efforts will help you see that you really are making progress, so you will be less likely to give up all together. Now that you know the tricks to staying motivated to stick to a healthy fitness plan, you are ready to get moving. Keep in mind that physical fitness is important throughout life, so remember these tips that you have learned if you ever feel your motivation slipping. About The Author: Scott Gray is a fitness enthusiast and website publisher. He maintains a beginners fitness tips website called where you can find information about cardiovascular fitness and weight loss, exercise equipment and tips for getting and staying in shape.]]>Neti Pots2011-07-07T21:15:00+0000 Jala Neti means "water cleansing" and is one of the shat kriyas or "6 purification techniques" common to yoga. Warm water and a little bit of non-iodized salt is used, along with the assistance of gravity to make the water flow through one nostril and out the other nostril. It was astonishingly easier to do that I thought at first. Here is a list of the benefits according to Ray, owner of YogaLifeStyle.com: * Reduction of allergy problems * Easier breathing (helps with pranayama) * Reduction of or elimination of post-nasal drip * Reduction of or elimination of chronic sinus infections * Common colds are either avoided or shortened * Improved sense of smell and taste Ray explains, "The practice is easy and millions of people in East Asia do it every morning much like we brush our teeth. For people suffering from a sinus condition, repeated daily practice as needed up to four times is recommended." Using a Neti Pot: Mix 12 oz. of warm water with a bit more than 1/4 teaspoon of salt. (Personal experimentation will reveal the right temperature and salinity for you.) Non-iodized salt is recommended. Pour half of the water in the neti pot. Tilt your head sideways above a sink and place the tapered spout in your upper nostril. Tilt the pot so water runs into upper nostril and out the lower. Sometimes when one side is very congested the flow will be blocked in one or the other direction. Repeated practice on the "good" side will often remove the blockage. Breathing quietly, through the mouth is generally recommended while practicing jala neti. Some practitioners also sniff a bit of water into their sinuses and let it pass out the mouth while practicing. Keep a tissue or handkerchief handy for blowing your nose after practice. Blow very very gently. Netti pots are easy to find at stores like Whole Foods, yoga gear and apparel stores, and Eastern stores, usually for about $5, though you can get a fancy porcelain one if you prefer for up to $50. Check JalaNetiPot.com for more information. They have a fairly extensive list of FAQs that may answer some of your questions. Enjoy your clear nostrils!]]>Açai Berry Health Benefits2011-05-24T20:30:00+0000 According to experts, there are many açai berry benefits. The main reason açai is considered to be superfood is because it has been shown that the berries have a remarkable amount of powerful antioxidants, benefiting the entire body by protecting the cells from free radicals. I looked into it further and found this information from Açai comes from the amazon regions of Brazil. The small, açai purple fruits have been used by Brazillian people for food and health for hundreds of years. Açai fruit grows on a palm tree and is harvested from September to January. It is similar in shape to a grape, and its' nut takes up 90% of the açai berry's volume. The local people consume the berry as a pulp, with sugar and tapioca on top. They depend on it as a dietary staple because of the nourishment it provides. To read more about the health benefits of açai berries, visit or just try a smoothie and feel the benefits for yourself. It is more expensive in the United States and far away countries because it is imported, but if you have the chance, try a little and know that your taste buds and your body will thank you.]]>Amazing Physical Fitness Benefits Worth Noting2011-05-11T20:23:05+0000 You can get this feeling when you know you've accomplished something beneficial. You can also enjoy enhanced blood circulation, as well as the effects from your brain releasing endorphins. But for most people, the hardest part is in the beginning. The real key is to begin doing something, whatever it may be. Make small goals and take it one day at a time. The following paragraphs are about some of the physical fitness benefits that can help to motivate you. After working out, you feel good because of brain chemistry. Your brain release endorphins into your bloodstream after twenty or thirty minutes of exercise. The proteins of endorphins, or neurotransmitters, act like a natural pain reliever. The natural high, or euphoria, that can accompany strenuous activity is caused by these endorphins. That feeling is very pleasant when experienced, and it helps to build a strong and positive association with the workout. We all know that life in modern society is full of stress, anxiety, frustrations, aggravations, anger, and so on. A workout is the best way for you to drive all of the negativity out of your system. Those who've experienced this first hand know. When you are done with your fitness workout, you feel totally better. Your day instantly improves. Taking a brisk half hour walk will do the trick if you're pressed for time. The reality is that if you have days of no energy but you exercise regularly, you will have fewer days like that. Regular exercise lifts your average energy levels and keeps them there for longer. Increased circulation will keep your cells filled with oxygen longer. You have to have energy to exercise and with exercise comes energy. The key there is to get over the initial hump. Once regular exercise begins, then that low energy feeling will fade and be replaced with a higher energy level. If you want to gain the maximum benefits from exercise, you have to do it regularly. If you choose a type of workout that you enjoy, it will be much easier for you to stick with it. It becomes much more challenging if you choose an activity just because you feel you should do it, rather than because you enjoy it. This isn't recommended, as you're not likely to keep doing something you dislike. Visit my blog for powerful topics about Physical Fitness]]>Need Help in Fat Burning Diet?2011-05-11T16:44:38+0000 What would you say is the best place to begin...]]> What would you say is the best place to begin when you're in search of fat burning diets? Many diet packages and books are in the open today, and each of them promises that you can shed the pounds in a few weeks, advocating different kinds of diets. Unfortunately, only a few of them really work. Although some of these diets show excellent results in the beginning, once you stop, the pounds come back on. Others are just too impossible to follow. Apart from being practical, your goal in a fat burning diet should be to ensure that your metabolic rate remains high and your insulin levels stay low. A diet plan that can be followed for life, without the danger of it harming your health, is important. When you're searching for a fat burning diet, keep in mind some of the following factors. With regard to eating carbohydrates, make sure that your food has lots of fiber. In other words, you should avoid foods that are cooked or processed with bleached, enriched flour and stick to unprocessed foods and vegetables. Here's a superb rule of thumb: The closer a food source is it's natural state, the more vitamins and minerals found in it; obviously, it'll be healthier too. High quality proteins such as lean red meat, skinless and boneless turkey and chicken, or a combo of rice and beans,and fish are essential; any fat burning diet that does not recommend it is useless. Why? These foods are the finest sources of complete proteins; they are crucial for the success of any diet plan. Proteins are necessary for maintaining lean muscle, and so it is important to ensure that your body gets an adequate supply of protein. You should steer clear of refined carbohydrates and sugary foods. Why? Such foods cause a sudden step-up of glucose in the body. In turn, the sugar triggers an increase in insulin (secreted from the pancreas), which leads to high insulin levels. The liver and muscles get sugar (in the form of glycogen) from insulin. While most of the sugar is used up this means, what's left gets stored as fat in the form of fatty acids. Eating refined sugars causes fluctuations in glucose levels, and so you need a fat-burning diet that encourages you to stop eating foods that contains these simple sugars. Increases in the production of insulin in the body is known as metabolic syndrome. A considerably common condition, metabolic syndrome is when you gain weight, sometimes being markedly obese. It also causes a step-up in your triglycerides, putting you at risk of contracting diabetes or heart disease. However, proper fat burning diets can be used to treat metabolic syndrome. Remember that exercise is an equally fundamental factor, and any fat burning diet is useless without it. Exercise ensures that your metabolic rate stays high and that you can build muscle mass, which is why it is so important. Weight training and cardio are two fundamental elements in weight loss; they must be a part of your weight loss program. Finally, sufficient sleep is also crucial, and any weight loss diet won't work if you don't sleep enough. A minimal of 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night is a must. Sleep deprivation causes you to eat more because you feel hungrier. Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.]]>Basic Bodybuilding: 6 Tips in Choosing a Gym2011-05-09T15:45:00+0000 This article explains a few things about basic bodybuilding, and if you're interested, then this is worth reading, because you can never tell what you don't know. If you don't have accurate details...]]> This article explains a few things about basic bodybuilding, and if you're interested, then this is worth reading, because you can never tell what you don't know. If you don't have accurate details regarding basic bodybuilding, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Don't let that happen: keep reading. Once you've decided to take up bodybuilding, you need to select a gym that can meet your requirements. When it turns to Essential bodybuilding, choosing the correct gym is essential, because it can spell the difference between success and failure. 1) Location. Ideally you should pick a gym for Primary bodybuilding that is near your home or one that is on the means to your workplace. It is simply a matter of selecting a convenient location so that you have one less excuse not to go. On the other hand, if you pick an out of the way gym that demands a long drive, you will be more likely to skip workouts. 2) Cost. You shouldn't have to pay through your nose for a basic body building gym membership. Pay close attentions to contracts and avoid signing up for long-term membership plans. You can still avail of some good discounts when it turns to memberships at the end of summer and after New Year's Day. See if you can avail some of the exceptional benefits such as courses, nutritional counseling, massage therapy, physiotherapy, and daycare alternatives. Some people need to exercises at off-peak hours, such as late in the night or early in the morning, so it's important to ensure that your chosen Essential bodybuilding gym will be able accommodate you at these times. 3) Demographics. It's also important to pay attention to the kind of people who frequently workout in your chosen basic gym. For example, gyms that cater mostly to women will probably lay more emphasis on cardio and yoga. Yet a gym that caters mostly to hardcore bodybuilders is not inevitably the best alternative; although you'll find the correct equipment there, working out with the pros during your Fundamental bodybuilding phase can be a quick scary. Ideally, in addition to having all the necessary equipment for both cardio and weight training, a gym should have an atmosphere that inspires you to exercises. 4) Trainers. During Basic bodybuilding, a gym that has qualified trainers is a big plus. When you're starting out, it is fundamental to learn the proper techniques so that you have a solid foundation on which to build an impressive physique. Qualified trainers are a very important part of the gym. 5) Equipment. You should also note the kind of equipment that is present at the gym and its quality. Are there sufficient barbells and dumbbells for everyone? Are there enough weight machines for everyone? Is the cardio equipment (such as treadmills, stair climbers, elliptical trainers, and stationary bicycles) sufficient to meet your cardio needs? Basically, your gym should have all the equipment that you will use in your Fundamental bodybuilding program. 6) Hygiene. The hygiene and cleanliness of the facility is also important. All of the equipment in the gym should be cleaned regularly because many people have been sweating it out there everyday. It's best if all of the equipment is cleaned with a disinfectant every night; the lockers and showering area should be clean too. Nothing can be more distracting than the odor of a smelly bench when you're performing your Primary bodybuilding workout. Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action. Follow the link to below to learn more about basic bodybuilding and choosing the correct gym…. "Want an unfair advantage in building the powerful, muscular new body you've always dreamed of? Visit the following website and gain instant access to a free Muscle Building downloads jam-packed with killer muscle building tips: You Know About How to Get Rid Of Excess Fat Is Wrong2011-05-08T15:45:00+0000 The following article includes pertinent information that may cause you to reconsider what you thought you understood. The most important thing is to study with an open mind and be...]]> The following article includes pertinent information that may cause you to reconsider what you thought you understood. The most important thing is to study with an open mind and be willing to revise your understanding if necessary. If you don't have accurate details regarding get rid of excess fat, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Don't let that happen: keep reading. Regaining lost weight can be frustrating. Are you in need of a new means to keep the excess weight off? Listed below are a few easy ways to achieve your goals, but they aren't secret formulas. The Good news is that I can show you how to get rid of excess fat for good. The bad news is that there is no secret formula! Keeping weight off for Solid demands a lifestyle change. Not a diet, a lifestyle change. Are you ready to make a lifestyle change? You are what you eat…this is why diet is so fundamental. You really are what you eat! To get rid of excess fat you will need a nutritionally sound diet. Proper nutrition and calories are both fundamental factors in order for you to get rid of excess fat. You must figure out the amount of calories that your individual body needs in order to get rid of excess fat. To get rid of excess fat you do not need to drastically cut your calories. You will be doing the opposite if you cut too many calories. Your body will hold onto every calorie that you eat if you cut your calories too drastically because your body has a survival mode. Your body needs a certain number of calories to maintain your current weight, and you must not cut your calories by more than 15-20% from this amount. You do not want your body to be starving, you only want to cut out a small amount of calories at a time. Meal frequency is fundamental when you are trying to get rid of excess fat. You need to eat 5-7 small meals per day to get rid of excess fat. Blood sugar and insulin levels will remain steady if you spread out your meals. Your body needs certain macronutrients in order to rebuild. Each day you must eat the proper number of macronutrients. All of the macronutrients should be contained at each meal in the form of a lean protein, high fiber carbohydrate and a healthy fat. Lifestyle changes are required of you. To get rid of excess fat for good you must maintain these habits for a lifetime. Your new healthy lifestyle should be permanent. Now that wasn't hard at all, was it? And you've earned a wealth of knowledge, just from taking some time to study an expert's word on get rid of excess fat. To get rid of excess fat once and for all you should follow all of these tips as well as add in exercise to your daily routine. "The reality is simple: 98% of people who start a fat burning program fail miserably." Click the following link and download a free Fat Burning ebook to get that lean, sexy body you deserve: Shocking Facts about Muscle Building Protein Sources2011-05-08T02:45:00+0000 Current info about Muscle Building Protein is not always the easiest thing to locate. Fortunately, this report includes the latest Muscle Building Protein info available. If you find yourself confused by...]]> Current info about Muscle Building Protein is not always the easiest thing to locate. Fortunately, this report includes the latest Muscle Building Protein info available. If you find yourself confused by what you've read to this point, don't despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish. Protein is the most fundamental nutrient for muscle growing, and this any veteran bodybuilder can tell you. Novices take heed: If you aren't going to supply your body with the necessary number of muscle building protein that it needs to sustain muscle growing, you will not find any significant gains, no matter how much effort you put into your workouts. So, why is protein so important, and what are the finest muscle building protein sources? Let's figure it out. A chain of smaller monomers called amino acids is what clears protein, which is a macromolecule. The individual amino acids that are formed once protein is broken down, after it has been consumed and digested, are used for thousands of functions in the body. It is very fundamental for people who want to increase muscle size and strength to get the right number of muscle building protein. Protein is not only important for optimizing the muscle building procedure but also crucial for repairing damaged muscle tissue. Now we all know that you need muscle building protein. If you want to get bigger and stronger, let's get at the best sources of this protein. A list of foods that not only help you maximize your muscle gains but also supply you with a powerful protein-packed punch have been listed below: Eggs - One of the finest quality sources of muscle building protein is eggs, and they need not be consumed in the raw form. Adding eggs (scrambled, challenging boiled, or fried) to your breakfast ensures that your muscles get their protein fix, and it's a fantastic way to start the day. Lean Red Meat – Don't bother about what you've read in all those diet blogs; lean red meat is an excellent muscle building protein. As compared to any other protein source, red meat contains the highest concentration of evolution-supporting nutrients. Opt for sirloin cuts or extra lean ground kick. Poultry – Chicken and turkey are equally important. These are excellent sources of protein. Keep in mind that when eating poultry, you should focus on the white meat portions. The white portions are extremely high in muscle building protein and very low in fat. Milk – Milk offers a variety of muscle-building benefits and is other great muscle building protein source. Every 250 ml cup of milk contains about 8 grams of protein. The slowest absorbing form of protein out in the market is casein protein, and milk contains 80% of it. Casein can get up to 4 hours to be fully digested, as it forms a gel in the stomach. Casein helps your body stay in an anabolic state for longer periods of time, owing to its' timed launch. Milk also contains short-chain fatty acids that help to support muscle growing and provides a fantastic spectrum of amino acids. You can add milk to your protein shake or to any other recipe, which is unquestionably an advantage. Fish/Seafood – You can throw your body a solid 30 grams of muscle building protein by eating a can of tuna. The amazing thing is that it has zero carbs and fat. Salmon, cod, and halibut make for some of the other solid choices. Fish and seafood provide you more than just protein. They contain omega-3 fatty acids, which benefit in muscle building. Peanut Butter/Peanuts – Peanut butter and peanuts can be beneficial to your health as the majority of fat that they contain is unsaturated. Peanuts are also a great muscle building protein source. Rather of opting for the commercial stuff, opt for natural peanut butter that does not contain saturated fat. Cottage Cheese – Cottage cheese is also casein protein. As a result, it is digested very slowly. It also has a high content of natural glutamine, which is the most abundant amino acid in your body. Whey Protein - Whey protein is the highest quality muscle building protein that you can put in your body, and it is one of the most popular and effective supplements in the bodybuilding industry. Is there really any information about Muscle Building Protein that is nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so something relatively insignificant to one may be crucial to another. Check out the website below for more info on muscle building protein sources…. "Want an unfair advantage in building the powerful, muscular new body you've always dreamed of? Visit the following website and get a free ebook "8 Things You Must Do To Build Maximum Muscle" tips at Protein? Whey vs Soy vs Calcium Caseinate2011-01-30T18:30:00+0000 "This powder eliminates the...]]>Adam points out, that question may no longer be valid. Why pick one when you can get all three? Here is an excerpt: "This powder eliminates the guesswork, providing you three proteins which absorb in the body at different rates of speed, while simultaneously providing their individual blends of amino acids." Click here for a description from the manufacturer: ProteinPlus.]]>Yoga Regarding Fertility and Preconception2011-01-25T15:17:14+0000 Yoga and Preconception Barbara Shell and her husband tried to conceive for more than two and a half years, with no known fertility issues. They tried fertility drugs and insemination. Then they tried something quite different. "I started doing Kundalini Yoga classes in January, and then my husband started coming with me, too," says Shell of Delano, Minn. "In February, we decided to adopt, and I feel a large part of it was that we were doing yoga together. We were always much more in sync after the classes and much more willing to explore all our options in healthy discussion. We got very excited, picked an agency and started the paperwork. Then, we found out I am pregnant. It's still very early, but this is our first positive test in two and a half years. Amazing." Can yoga really impact fertility? Dr. Alice Domar, researcher at Harvard Medical School, conducted a study that took medically "infertile" women (those who had been trying to get pregnant for at least a year) and put some of them into a 10-week mind/body program that included yoga, meditation, nutrition and exercise information and help to change negative thought patterns. Fifty-five percent of participants in this program became pregnant within the next year, compared to 20 percent of women in a control group. Dr. Domar, who uses this mind/body approach to treat women attending Boston IVF, the biggest infertility medical treatment center in the country, says that yoga is an invaluable asset in her program and the tool she would least like to lose. So exactly how does yoga impact fertility? A Gentler Form of Exercise Dr. Domar has an interesting theory about one of the ways that some women seem to benefit from yoga. "I believe that vigorous exercise may reduce fertility in some women," she says. "We can't predict whose fertility is exercise sensitive. Yoga is something they can do that will reduce stress without impacting their fertility. For really chronic exercisers, my clinical impression is that at least half that stop get pregnant. Yoga is the best tool I have for these women." Improved Physical Health Yoga can also impact the general reproductive health of women trying to conceive. "Yoga tones and strengthens the muscles that support reproductive organs and improves spinal alignment, enabling better circulation and improved capacity and quality of respiration," says Julie Cade Bon, certified yoga teacher and owner of Partnership for Pregnancy, a company that offers retreats for couples dealing with infertility. She adds that for women who are taking infertility drugs, better breathing can also help the body fight off the toxic effects of those drugs. Reducing the Physical Effects of Stress Yoga is perfect for dealing with one of the most pervasive mind/body fertility challenges: stress, often stress caused by the inability to get or stay pregnant. "Women experiencing infertility are often stress- and pain-filled, saddened and angry," says Cade Bon. "These emotions generate chemicals in the body that weaken immunity and make for a less 'hospitable' environment for a new life. Yoga, because of its use of relaxation breathing techniques, combined with the flushing out of physical toxins, provides an antidote to the negative physical impacts of stress, anger and depression." Feeling Less "Out of Control" Yoga can also impact a woman's fertility journey at a more psychological level. Kim Biggs of Panama City Beach, Fla., is a typical type A, over-achiever, who remains in a perpetual state of disbelief that something she wants so badly and has worked so hard for is still unattainable. "My fertility concerns have made me feel totally out of control for the first time in my life," she says. "Yoga calms me and helps me regain a feeling of control that lasts much longer than the actual amount of time I'm spending on the mat." Biggs really appreciates the tools yoga gives her for controlling her negative thoughts. "Being in control of something at this point in my life is a feeling that is quite addictive," she says. Strengthening Relationships It's important that we don't forget that trying to get pregnant takes two. Cade Bon suggests that yoga can also benefit couples. "I have found that yoga, practiced with a partner, can be a wonderful way to shift away from the 'trying to conceive' stress that clouds these relationships" she says... Where to Start? Try a class, or read a book. "Yoga is more available and accessible than ever in this country – classes are being held in gyms, YMCAs, city recreation centers and yoga studios," says Cade Bon. To get the best initial experience, she recommends finding a class and then using tools such as videos, tapes and books to encourage home practice. And you don't need to wait until you have a medical diagnosis of anything to try yoga! It is a tool that can help many women on their path to conception. Cristin Kamantauskas of Syracuse, N.Y., just tried her first yoga class. Her thoughts after the first class echo those of long-time yoga fans. "Some of the positions and stretches were pretty difficult for someone doing this for the first time, but the instructor was great," she says. "Even though it was a workout that required 100- percent mental and physical focus, I walked out feeling like I was on a cloud. I can see how this would have benefits for trying to conceive, because it's good to be this relaxed as opposed to obsessing about every little thing happening with my body." Name has been changed to protect privacy]]>Meditation: What is it and how do I start?2010-12-18T04:15:00+0000 "Throughout history and in all cultures, people have sought ways to go beyond the limitations of habitual living and discover more about themselves and the nature of reality. Meditation means "to become familiar with" and is a way of exploring the inner self. In our busy lives where the senses tend to be drawn outward, meditation is a wonderful opportunity to turn inward on a journey of discovery. People meditate for a variety of reasons. Many of us use meditation to relax and cope with stress. Meditation does help slow or still the mind and balance emotions. People use meditation for healing. Meditation can also assist in problem solving by leading us to insights, which may range from the spiritually significant to the mundane. It can take us to higher states of awareness, peace, and clarity. Sometimes people experience visions or feelings of bliss, vitality, and an increased sensory awareness. Some have a sense of connecting with a higher aspect of themselves, or with the divine. There are many techniques of meditation. Ask yourself what you need to achieve and find a meditation to match that goal. It's a good idea to experiment with a range of meditation techniques until you find one that resonates with you. While a good meditation teacher can be extremely helpful, a lot of good work can be done on your own. If you decide to find a teacher or to attend meditation classes, make sure you shop around. A great number of individuals and organizations offer training in spiritual practices and they range in quality and suitability for your unique self. Be cautious of any group that is too restrictive, controlling, or dogmatic. Ultimately, meditation is a personal pursuit. Once you have practiced a technique as taught, feel free to experiment and adapt it to your own preferences. Avoid simply believing whatever you read or are told--test it against your own experience and intuition and come to know the truth of the matter for yourself. Establishing a regular habit of meditation works best and is easiest to maintain in the long run. Find a time that fits into your routine, whether day or night. A daily practice session of 15-30 minutes works beautifully. If you find this difficult to achieve, start with five to ten minutes daily. Many people find that over time, their meditation time starts to extend naturally. Soft and gentle music can be conducive to some forms of meditation, especially those that focus on relaxation and visualization. You might enjoy burning incense or aromatherapy oils--feel free to experiment. Meditation is generally easier to practice in a quiet and peaceful environment, especially while you are still learning. Setting aside a special spot in the house or garden to practice allows a peaceful energy to build up in that place. Eventually, however, you will develop the capacity to meditate more or less anywhere under any conditions. A good prerecorded meditation tape or CD can make a big difference, especially in the initial stages of your meditation practice. Alternatively, you may choose to record your own, using the following exercises as a basis. Keeping a personal journal of discoveries and experiences will enhance your progress in meditation. There is no "right" or "wrong"-whatever you experience is just fine. Keep an open, curious mind as to what you actually are experiencing. You may need to persevere before the benefits become obvious. Be patient and accept that this is a valuable part of the process. The rewards of regular, persistent, intelligent meditation practice are two-fold. They happen not just some time in the distant future, but along the path as well. MEDITATION POSITIONS The most important thing about choosing a posture is to find one that is comfortable. Ideally, this posture will allow your spine to be relatively straight without undue tension. Your practice of yoga postures will be of great help in learning to sit comfortable erect and still. Corpse pose (on your back, legs and arms straight with palms up) is a great position for meditation techniques that are based around relaxation. You may like to put a small cushion under your head or a larger one under your knees. Full lotus Posture is a classic meditation position, but generally it is too strong for Westerners' bodies. Half Lotus Pose works for some, and many people find sitting cross-legged in Easy-Seated Pose (hands on knees, shins crossed) or kneeling are more realistic alternatives for everyday use. Be sure to use enough cushions so that your hip joints are higher than your bent knees. This will allow your back to come more to vertical. Sitting upright in a chair is another good posture for meditation. The most comfortable height is where your knees and hips form right angles. Ensure your feet can easily reach the floor--you can place them on telephone directories if necessary. RELAXING MEDITATION-DEEP PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND EMOTIONAL RELAXATION The ability to relax on physical, emotional, and mental levels is an essential skill for maintaining health and well-being and is an important starting point for those new to meditation. Since it enhances all other forms of meditation, this practice is useful for more experienced meditators. Record the following sequence onto a tape, or ask a friend to record it for you. Allow 15-20 minutes: Practice Corpse Pose. Mentally scan your body to become aware of any areas of tension or discomfort. Simply observe these areas--resist the urge to attach any judgment or emotionally loaded thought to them. Next, move your attention slowly through your body from the top of your head down to your toes. Be with each part for a moment, then let that part relax. Accept each area of your body, however it feels. When your whole body is relaxed, become aware of your feelings. Whatever you feel is just fine. Be with each feeling for a moment, then let it go. You are the passive observer of your feelings. Imagine a stream of fresh water washing it away. This pure, cleansing water flows through you. As this clear stream washes each feeling away, you will begin to experience feelings of peace and clarity inside. After sometime, become aware of any thoughts passing through your mind. Whatever you are thinking is just fine. Know that each thought will arise and then pass away. It is enough to be aware of each thought, like a silent witness, then let it go. Imagine a fresh breeze blowing through your mind, leaving it clear and empty. Finally, allow yourself to rest in stillness. There is nothing to do or achieve. Simply be. You are not a human doing or acting; you are a human being. Let yourself exist in stillness. Just be. Know that each time you practice this meditation, you will go deeper and receive more and more benefit. To come out of this meditation, tune into your thoughts. Then move your awareness to your feelings once again. Deepen your awareness of your body as a single form, resting, relaxing. Let your body wake up, until you are ready to open your eyes. You will return restored, refreshed, and relaxed. GUIDED IMAGERY-VISUALIZATIONS Visualization is a powerful technique whereby you can become familiar with your imagination. The imagination is a wonderful tool that can be used to create particular states of mind and being. You can visualize colors, places, symbols, mandalas, gods, saints, or Tarot cards. People often choose an image that has a particular religious or spiritual meaning for them, or they choose something that they want to know more about. A good starting point is to find something of particular interest to you and focus on this same image over a number of meditation sessions. This allows your meditation to build momentum and can lead to stronger and more meaningful experiences. For the following meditation, you will imagine you are in nature. Keep the feeling light and playful until your imagination takes over and leads you deeper in. Allow fifteen minutes for this: Sit or lie comfortably. Take some slow deep, even breaths. Mentally sweep over your body to relax it part by part. Start with the crown of your head and work slowly down to your toes. Once you are relaxed, imagine yourself standing on a beach. See the beautiful, golden sand. You have a clear blue sky above you. Notice how the sunlight glints off of the water. Observe how the branches of the trees sway in the gentle breeze. Hear the waves lapping on the shore, the gentle swish of the nearby trees, and the call of the seagulls flying overhead. Feel the sand between your toes, the sun warming your face and body, and the air caressing your skin. Smell and taste the fresh sea air. Become aware of the atmosphere or mood of this place. What does it feel like actually to be here? Take some time to explore this place. You could go for a swim, or sunbathe, or walk down the beach. Return to the real world by becoming aware of your physical body. Take some long breaths so your body wakes up more with each inhalation. Listen to the sounds in the space around you. When you are ready, open your eyes. To read more, look on amazon.com for Christina Brown's books. Read, think, feel, and enjoy.]]>Commute Helps Man Lose Weight2010-12-14T20:40:50+0000 on Yahoo! News.]]>Understanding Carbs2010-11-10T03:48:48+0000 The ratio of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate and fat) in the meals you eat is the key to being lean, muscular and maintaining optimal health. Managing your food intake is a...]]> The ratio of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate and fat) in the meals you eat is the key to being lean, muscular and maintaining optimal health. Managing your food intake is a powerful way to control the way you look and how you feel. Perhaps the greatest current controversy comes from the fight over how much carbohydrate you should eat to maintain a lean, healthy and sexy body. Carbohydrates are different types of sugars linked together in chains of different lengths. We need carbohydrates to fuel our bodies for energy and to feed our brain, which uses glucose (a simple form of sugar) as its primary energy source. Fact: The brain is a glucose hog, using more than two thirds of the circulating carbohydrates in your bloodstream while at rest. This primary body fuel is mainly provided as you digest the carbs you eat, breaking them down into usable glucose molecules. Then your body rebuilds the simple glucose molecules into longer chains called glycogen for more efficient storage. The body has two places to store glycogen: the liver and the muscles. The liver acts as the reserve supply for the muscles. When the muscle glycogen gets low, the liver sends glycogen back into the bloodstream so it can be shuttled back to the muscles. The liver's capacity to store carbohydrates in the form of glycogen is very limited and can be easily depleted within ten to twelve hours. So the blood glucose (blood sugar) and the liver's glycogen reserves must be maintained on a continual basis. This is why it is necessary to eat carbohydrates regularly. What happens when you eat too much carbohydrate? The average person can store approximately 300-400 grams of carbohydrate in your muscles and about another 75-100 grams in the liver. For comparison, 100 grams of carbs is equivalent to about 2 cups of cooked pasta. When both the liver and muscles are glycogen full, excess carbohydrates are stored in adipose tissue or body fat. In greater detail; 1. The carbs you eat are digested or broken down by enzymes into simple glucose molecules. 2. Your body will attempt to shuttle glucose into the muscles and liver for energy use. Moreover, excess glucose entering the blood after a meal is rapidly taken up by the liver and stored as the large polymer, glycogen (via a process called glycogenesis). 3. Whatever excess glucose is not needed by the body for energy at that time is taken from the blood by the hormone insulin and converted by the liver into a highly compact energy storage molecule called a triglyceride (fat) via a process called lipogenesis. Fat has over double the storage efficiency of carbs as it holds 9 calories of energy per gram versus only 4 calories per gram in carbohydrate form. Why the type of carbohydrate you eat matters. Even though carbohydrates are fat-free, excess carbs you eat can become body fat. The type of carbohydrate is also a key factor in avoiding body fat gain. In other words, the speed at which you digest carbohydrates into glucose can dramatically affect whether the food you eat becomes body fat. As a genral rule, a more refined and less fibrous carbohydrate will be broken down more easily and quickly, causing a rapid rise in blood glucose. For example, simple carbs such as cookies and candy digest quickly whereas complex carbs such as oatmeal digest much more slowly giving the body time to manage the influx of glucose more effectively. Examples of "bad" or simple carbs include: (highly processed and refined foods, leaving them with fewer nutrients than whole grains. Refined grains also lack the fiber of whole grains, so they're not likely to fill you up quickly.) white rice white bread white flour many types of candy soft drinks For comparison examples: Choose brown rice over white rice as it contains more fiber Choose 9-grain bread over white bread as it digests 100% slower Choose yams or sweet potatoes over white potatoes as it digests 100% slower choose an apple as a snack over a banana as it digests nearly 65% slower TIP: Adding vegetables to any meal adds fiber, which slows digestion and helps minimize the increase in insulin. When your glucose level rises too rapidly after eating, your body reacts quickly to remove the excess blood sugar. As stated above, to adjust for this rapid rise, the pancreas secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream. Insulin then lowers the levels of blood glucose via the mechanism explained above. So, eating junk foods regularly can result in continuous, high levels of insulin. Continuously high levels of insulin can cause an aggressive accumulation of body fat. Furthermore, the constant barrage of insulin on your cells can make them insulin resistant making it difficult to maintain optimal cellular nutrient levels. This condition can also lead to the disease diabetes. Furthermore, a high insulin level suppresses two important hormones: glucagon and growth hormone. Glucagon promotes the burning of fat and sugar. Growth hormone is vital for muscular development. The heavy insulin reaction to a rapid rise in blood glucose can also cause hunger and cravings. What you feel is the burst of energy as your blood sugar rises following a carbohydrate meal and the resulting energy crash as insulin causes a subsequent rapid depletion of blood sugar. As your energy crashes your brain begins to crave sugary foods as the fastest way to correct your now low blood sugar. And so begins the vicious fat promoting cycle. This see-saw effect on your blood sugar can be very dangerous. So while insulin is critical to metabolism, managing it properly helps maintain optimal health. The goal is therefore to eat more complex or slowly digesting carbs (those with a lower Gylcemic Index and higher fiber content) and limit sugary foods to help stabilize or modulate your blood sugar and the hormone insulin. As a result of doing so, you are far less likely to store body fat and help to instead utilize more body fat for energy use. As a tip, eating good or unsaturated fats with carbs also helps slow digestion. Examples of "good" or unsaturated fats include: Olive Oil Fish Nuts and seeds I've taken multivitamins and other dietary supplements, on and off, throughout my entire life, always keen on improving my personal nutrition levels. Still, I'd rarely, if ever, noticed a benefit from doing so. Here follows my story of the first time supplementation has provided noticeable effects for me. It seemed every 'sports drink' had promoted their inclusion of electrolytes into their mix for a long, long time. One day it occurred to me that I didn't have a full understanding of what electrolytes really were, beyond the most commonly known one, salt. We lose salt when we sweat, that's why it's salty to the taste. And so, we need to replenish salt when exercising for hours at a time, to avoid hyponatremia. But wasn't there an 's' at the end of the word electrolytes? What were the others, and what did they do? Did I learn this in high school and forget it all? Were these electrolights some sort of nightclub lighting system which flickered as a strobe? I decided to do some research into this mystery to see if I could figure out some answers in an effort to improve my physical performance, as well as recovery time. After a week or two of digging through various sources, I learned more than I had originally wondered. I'll save you the science behind it all, and instead focus on how I applied it, and to what benefit or detriment. ...read the rest of the article by clicking the following link below... Essential Electrolytes for Endurance Athletes]]>Water and Your Waistline2010-10-14T18:00:00+0000 on the effect of water for more details, and decide what you think.]]>The Healthful Benefits of Tea2010-05-12T18:15:00+0000 to read it on yahoo! news or simply scroll down and read it below. Maybe you even want to make a cup of tea to enjoy while you read this article. By Alyse Levine Concept The media has exhaustively publicized the numerous ways drinking tea is good for you: from fighting certain cancers, to decreasing the risk of heart disease and Alzheimer's disease, to controlling cholesterol and even reducing tooth decay! Although most people are aware of tea's health benefits, they are not aware of which teas are the most beneficial. So, from a health perspective, are all teas created equal? Nutritional Facts and Figures What are the purported health benefits of consuming tea? Before we begin, note that here we are talking about tea from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, and not herbal teas, which are really derived from the flowers, leaves, seeds, bark, or roots of certain plants but contain no actual "real" tea (herbal teas do have purported health benefits, but they are beyond the scope of this bite). Studies have shown that tea may promote good health in the following ways: Heart Health: The polyphenols (antioxidants) found in tea are very effective in preventing cholesterol from oxidizing and damaging blood vessels. Green tea has been shown to improve the health of the delicate cells lining the blood vessels, which helps lower one's risk of heart disease (1). Cancer Prevention: The polyphenols (catechins in particular) in tea may help prevent or decrease the growth and spread of certain cancers. They scavenge oxidants before cell injuries occur, reduce the incidence and size of chemically induced tumors, and inhibit the growth of tumor cells. In studies of liver, skin, and stomach cancer, chemically induced tumors were shown to decrease in size in mice that were fed green and black tea (2,3). Skin Protector: Not only has tea been shown to be effective in decreasing cancer risk when consumed orally, but it may also be beneficial when applied superficially to the skin (4). Some research has shown that when green tea is applied to sunburned skin it decreases the development of cancerous skin tumors. This evidence has led many cosmetics companies to start adding green tea to their skin care products. Alzheimer's Disease Arsenal: Both green and black teas have been shown to hinder the activity of two enzymes in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease. Although tea consumption cannot cure Alzheimer's, it may be another part of the puzzle in treating or slowing down the development of the disease (5). Good for Teeth: Compounds in tea protect teeth by increasing the acid resistance of tooth enamel and acting as antibiotics that kill off dangerous, decay-promoting bacteria (6). Tea also contains fluoride, which is essential for keeping teeth strong and healthy. Which tea varieties provide the above health benefits? All "real" teas, which include green, black, and oolong tea varieties, are beneficial to your health. As mentioned above, these teas are all derived from the same tea plant, Camellia sinensis, and contain numerous healthful compounds including polyphenols (particularly catechins), tocopherol, vitamin C, as well as other antioxidants. The polyphenols are believed to be responsible for most of tea's role in promoting good health. Although black, green and oolong teas have different polyphenol compositions due to processing differences, they all have been shown to provide the above health benefits. The differences between the teas are depicted below. As you can see, the main difference between the "real" teas is simply in how the leaves are processed. Green Teas (Japanese, Chinese, Gunpowder, etc...) Green teas are the freshest and least processed because they are not at all fermented. Of all "real" teas, green tea has the lightest and most subtle taste. Black Teas (Darjeeling, Earl Grey, China Black, Jasmine, etc...) Black tea is simply green tea that has been fermented for around 6 hours. Fermentation turns the green leaves black and alters the polyphenol content, though it is still very high in antioxidants. Black teas have the strongest taste. Oolong Teas These teas are made from green teas that are briefly fermented. Therefore, they are a compromise between black and green tea in both taste and color. To Get the Most Out of Tea: To get the benefits claimed above, opt for a "real" tea variety (green, black, or oolong), as opposed to an herbal tea Steep tea for about 3 minutes; this time allotment enables the health promoting compounds to be released; steeping for much longer turns the tea bitter and releases too much tannin, which can irritate the digestive tract, cause constipation, and decrease iron absorption. Hot or Cold? Go for what you like! Bottled teas, iced tea, and teas made from mixes are also all rich in polyphenols. However, keep iced tea fresh, the polyphenol content starts to deteriorate after a few days. Note on Caffeine: If you are worried about the caffeine content of tea, opt for the decaffeinated varieties...they provide the same health benefits without keeping you up all night. Alyse's Advice The next time you reach for a warm, soothing cup of tea, opt for either green, black or oolong varieties, and steep for about 3 minutes. If you prefer the iced kind, follow the same guidelines but make sure to finish it within a few days before the antioxidant content starts to decline. A few cups of tea a day may help keep the heart doctor and dentist away, as well as cancer and Alzheimer's disease at bay. Copyright 2010 NutritionBite LLC. All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. "NutritionBite LLC" should be prominently displayed on any material reproduced with the publisher's consent. So often I have seen gym members spend countless hours on the treadmill strolling along waiting for the fat to melt off their bodies. The belief is if you are in the "fat-burning zone" you are maximizing your fat loss. To get a clear understanding of whether this belief is true or false we must first define the "fat-burning zone" and what the "cardio training zone". The fat burning zone is 'Low Intensity Cardio' where your heart rate is between 60 - 70% of your maximum heart rate. This heart rate range is reached by standing up, walking fast or jogging. Will you burn fat? Yes, but just 50% of total calories you consume are coming from fat. If you maintain that intensity level after 20 min 70-80% of calories are coming now from fat and just 20-30% from carbohydrates. But this is the time when most of the people stop anyways. Say, for example, you burn 100 calories in 20 minutes of Low Intensity exercise compared to 160 calories in 10 minutes of High Intensity Exercise, you've still burned more total fat doing High Intensity Exercise. The bottom line: For individuals new to exercise it is recommended to start in this low intensity zone (60 - 70% of maximum heart rate). There will be some benefit in the first 2-3 weeks, initially they can experience even some weight loss. But after this initial stage gradually we need to increase the intensity of our routine. Remember, this increase corresponds to a 70 - 85% of Maximum Hart Rate. Maintaining a higher intensity of exercise for a longer time could be sometimes very chalanging. In this cases what is called interval training represents a powerfull tool. This means that we can increase the intensity level for a short period of time ( 30sec. - 2 min) returning after each interval to a basic intensity level. For example an initial intensity corresponding to 60% of MHR. First interval at an increase to 80% of MHR, maintaining this level for 1 minute, returning to a 60% MHR for 2-3 minutes. and starting a new cycle.]]>Signs Of Stress2010-04-16T22:29:46+0000 Signs of Stress When was the last time you went through a period of stress? Can you remember the way your body reacted? Chances are you didn't feel quite like yourself. Health experts say that stress can come with some pretty surprising symptoms-from forgetfulness to nausea to skin rashes. Is your body sending you an S.O.S. that you shouldn't ignore? Read on to find out if stress is taking a toll on you-and what you can do to reverse the effects. 1. Tweaked Muscles The pain in your neck that you attributed to long hours at the computer could actually be a symptom of stress. "Stress definitely affects our musculoskeletal system, resulting in tight, contracting muscles and/or spasms in muscles," explains Elizabeth Lombardo, PhD, MS, PT, a psychologist and physical therapist in Wexford, Pennsylvania, and author of A Happy You: Your Ultimate Prescription for Happiness. "It gets us ready for fight-or-flight, although unlike our cavewomen ancestors, we don't actually need our bodies to react like this." If you're experiencing what you believe to be stress-related muscle symptoms, try this exercise: Take 5 to 10 deep breaths and focus on relaxing the tense area of your body, says Dr. Lombardo. For the neck, try gentle neck rolls or enlist your husband to give you a quick shoulder rub. 2. Eye Twitching Have you ever had an eye twitch? The often temporary condition can be annoying and worrisome, and for some, can be triggered by stress. "This condition is known as blepharospasm," explains Debbie Mandel, MA, a stress and wellness expert and author of Addicted to Stress: A Woman's 7-Step Program to Reclaim Joy and Spontaneity in Life. "Closing your eyes and visualizing your happiest place on earth will help." Also, avoid stress-related eye issues by giving your peepers a break now and then. "If your eyes get stressed from detailed work at the computer, 'stretch' them every 20 minutes by looking out the window at a larger landscape," suggests Mandel. "If you have no view, close your eyes and imagine a panorama." 3. Ragged Cuticles Do you have ragged, unkempt cuticles or nails? Their condition could be the result of a stress-induced nervous habit. "Nervous habits like nail-biting are how we channel our stress by distracting ourselves with what is known as oral satisfaction," says Mandel, adding that picking nails and cuticles is also a common way for women to deal with feelings of stress and anxiety. If you take stress out on your hands, consider keeping a stress ball in your desk drawer-something you can squeeze or knead when on the phone with a difficult client, for instance. This helps "squeeze the stress out of your body," says Mandel. 4. Cavities We all know that slacking off on dental hygiene is the first way to get cavities, but stress can also be a culprit, say experts, especially when you're grinding your teeth at night or during the day. Mandel explains teeth grinding, which many women do, as "chewing over the day's stressors." The problem, however, is that this bad habit can erode dental work, damaging your teeth and making them more susceptible to cavities. Mandel suggests redirecting your anxiety to pen and paper. "Set aside time to write down your problems to see them objectively in black and white, and then jot down some solutions," she says. But, she adds, "If teeth grinding is severe, see a dentist about getting a mouth guard." 5. Rashes It sounds strange, but your skin can be a pretty good barometer of your stress level. "Stress can cause a rash, usually raised red spots or hives on the stomach, back, arms and face," notes Dr. Lombardo. "While we don't know why it occurs, some experts believe that it has to do with the adverse effects of stress on the immune system-histamine is released, causing these itchy bumps." Deep breathing may keep rashes at bay, or from developing in the first place. So, next time you feel your stress level rising, place your hand right above your belly button. "Every time you inhale, you want your hand to rise; with each exhale, it lowers. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths periodically throughout the day." 6. Nausea Have you ever been worried about a loved one's (or your own) health condition, Googled it and suddenly felt nauseated? "Stress can upset the stomach, and nausea can be a byproduct of worry," says Mandel, who warns against playing "Google MD." Worrying about your health or a loved one's is normal, but obsessing about it is unhealthy. If your anxiety is causing nausea, try this trick that Mandel swears by: Let tepid water run over your fingers; it's believed to keep nausea at bay. 7. Sleepiness Feeling sluggish? It could be stress. "Stress hormones cause your body to surge with adrenaline and then crash into sleepiness," says Mandel. "Stress will also ruin the quality of your sleep, so you wake up tired and irritable." What to do? Go to bed earlier, says Mandel, or catch a 30-minute nap midday, and don't feel guilty about doing so. "There is great productivity in rest," she says. "You come back more focused!" 8. Forgetfulness Ask any woman who is trying to do it all and she'll admit to a few slip-ups in the memory department (forgotten appointments, lost keys, missing cell phone-ring a bell?). "Research shows that chronic stress can literally shrink the size of the hippocampus, which is responsible for some memories," says Dr. Lombardo. "Luckily, its size will go back to normal once your stress level reduces." Want to keep your brain functioning at an optimal level? Combat the first signs of stress with exercise, she says: "Go for a walk, run up a flight of stairs or dance around to the newest Black Eyed Peas tune." Exercise, she adds, keeps your brain sharp and may even help you be more prepared for future stressful moments. 9. Confusion You can't decide what to make for dinner, what to wear to work or which exit to take off the freeway. Stress causes distraction and lack of focus, says Mandel. "Stress hormones lodge longest in the brain," she says. To restore focus, take a walk, she says. "Move the stress out of your body by exercising large muscle groups like the legs. You will gain clarity. Walk out in the light and you'll reset your natural rhythm while you move out the stress. Sunlight helps the body release serotonin to improve mood, and vitamin D helps you improve your immune system-a great perk."]]>Weight Loss the Healthy Way2010-04-12T17:15:00+0000 Well the short answer is NO! The 5 weight loss and better health suggestions listed below are not really suggestions at all. They are a formula that anyone can adopt to reduce pain, lose excess weight, have more energy, strengthen your heart, improve your quality of life and reduce your dependence on medications. This is what I practice everyday for myself. It is not a theory but reality. So briefly, here is how the body works. All your organ systems work cooperatively. Your body requires a balance of all the organ systems. Your weight is just one of those systems. A healthy body weight cannot exist if the other systems it relies on are not working properly. So trying to just losing weight and improve health without taking into consideration the rest of your body is like trying to get your car to run better just by giving it a new paint job. So again, make your life easier, happier and healthier and please adopt and follow these 5 suggestions. They are: 1. A daily stress reduction program including adequate rest and sleep. This helps lower inflammation caused by high cortisol and homocysteine levels reducing weight gain. 2. A diet that contains 50% fruits and vegetables. Fruits and veggies contain greater amounts of water and minerals with generally lesser amounts of animal protein. 3. Adequate water intake for maximum hydration. Water is very important in helping the kidneys regulate pH and detoxify the body. 4. Year round vitamin D3 levels in the 50-80 ng/mL (or 125-200 nM/L). This should be confirmed by 25-hydroxyvitamin D testing. 5. A safe and effective weight bearing exercise program to stimulate balance and muscle growth which is essential for weight loss]]>Nutrition for Fitness - Foods High in Iron2010-04-09T19:57:35+0000 Iron is a vital mineral, used to manufacture red blood cells which carry oxygenated blood throughout the body. A deficiency in iron (anemia) may result in a pale complexion and lethargy. Iron requirements vary by gender, with...]]> Iron is a vital mineral, used to manufacture red blood cells which carry oxygenated blood throughout the body. A deficiency in iron (anemia) may result in a pale complexion and lethargy. Iron requirements vary by gender, with males requiring 10 mg of iron per day and females of childbearing years approximately 18 mg. Eating iron rich foods with Vitamin C increases the absorption of iron into the bloodstream, which is especially important for pregnant women and vegetarians. Meat Products High in Iron The darker the meat, the higher it is in iron. A serving of 3 ounces of liver, kidney, heart provides about 3.5 mg. of iron. Shellfish such as muscles, clams and oysters supply similar amounts of iron. Canned sardines and cooked beef or turkey are also good sources of iron, providing just over 2 mg of iron per 3 oz serving. A large boiled egg supplies 1 mg of iron. Chicken, pork, veal and fish supply less than 1 mg of iron per 3 ounce serving. Hemo-iron (the type of iron found in red meat and other animal products), is readily absorbed by the body. Iron Rich Grain Products The iron found in grain products, fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs and legumes is the less easily absorbed "non-hemo" iron. Oat and wheat bran, in addition to being excellent for lowering cholesterol, are also loaded with iron. A 3.5 oz serving of either Special K or Bran Wheat cereals will provide you with 13 mg. of iron, just under 75% of your daily RDA. Oatmeal provides 1.9 mg iron per cup, and Cream of Wheat a whopping 10 mg per 1 cup serving. One cup of cooked spaghetti (enriched) has approximately 2 mg of iron. Nut and Seed Sources of Iron Nuts and seeds tend to be higher in calories but valuable sources of iron. A one ounce serving of sunflower or pumpkin seeds or 1 cup of soy milk provides 1.4 mg of iron. One tablespoon of sesame seeds provides 1.2 mg of iron. A half-cup serving of canned lima, kidney or garbanzo beans provides approximately 2 mg of iron. If you are vegetarian or enjoy eating tofu, you'll be glad to know that each ½ cup serving of firm tofu provides 1.8 mg. of iron. Get Iron in Vegetables and Fruit Ingesting Vitamin C with meals boosts the absorption of iron from food as much as 400%. Vegetables such as one cup of cooked spinach, a stalk of broccoli or a medium-sized baked potato is a good source of iron, providing about 2.1 mg per serving. Dried fruit has a significant amount of iron. Four dried figs contain a whopping 3.4 mg of iron. Try seedless raisins, or dried prunes, apricots or peaches for just under 1 mg. of iron per ½ cup serving. Try Cooking in Cast Iron Pots Turns out the advice to cooking in cast iron cookware to increase your daily iron intake isn't an old wives tale after all. In a study published in 1986 in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers cooked 20 different foods in new cast iron skillets to test the iron absorption rate. Findings report that iron levels increased in each item, with some more than quadrupling their iron content. For example, the iron in 3 ounces of apple sauce increased from 0.35 mg to 7.3 mgs. Even eggs, already a reasonably high source of iron at 1.5 mg each, tripled their iron content to almost 4.76 mg. Cooking acidic foods such as tomato based pasta sauces or soups proved to be an ideal way to increase iron absorption. A 3 ounce serving of pasta sauce showed an increase in iron content from 0.6 mg to 5.7 mgs. ]]>Top 10 Reasons You Are Not Losing Fat2009-10-27T01:30:00+0000 1. Menu is too high in calories from...]]> 1. Menu is too high in calories from calorie dense foods like snack foods, pizza, desserts, pasta, bread, and dairy products. 2. Activity and exercise levels are too low, or non-existent. 3. Slow thyroid. Check by taking your temperature as soon as you wake up each morning. If your temperature is below 98.6 degrees for 7 days in a row, bring the results to the attention of your physician. He can run further tests. About one in two Americans has an under active thyroid. 4. Fewer than 20 grams of protein are consumed for breakfast. Protein regulates insulin levels. When a high sugar or carbohydrate meal is consumed for breakfast, insulin levels in the blood become elevated. In the presence of insulin, fat is stored for energy, not broken down. Hypoglycemia all day long is the result. 6. Too much sugar is consumed. Did you know that juice manufacturers are allowed by the FDA to put sugar in juice and label it "unsweetened," because they feel that much of the sugar was leached out during processing. You eat too much sugar. Each American eats 50 lb. per year! 7. The heaviest meal is eaten at night rather than at breakfast. Way too often people eat too much right before they go to bed, or worse, they eat midnight snacks. If you eat for the activity level that will follow the meal, then you'll know not to eat a big meal before bed. All you're doing is sleeping and storing fat (energy). Try no food three hour before bedtime. 8. Alcohol slows down the metabolism and is processed like sugar by the body. 9. There are too few meals or calories eaten per day. The body goes into a starvation mode, where it uses muscle for energy needs while conserving fat. Eat at least three staggered meals per day. Never skip a meal, unless it's at night. 10. Too many unhealthy snacks are consumed.]]>Focusing on Healthy Living2009-09-14T14:53:37+0000 Why focus on your overall health? Besides quality and longevity of life there are many self inflicted conditions that can be avoided. Some of these types of conditions are: diabetes, cancer, congestive heart failure, gastro esophageal reflux disease, liver disease, hernia, urinary incontinence, chronic kidney failure, stroke, depression, osteoarthritis, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, alcoholism, brain damage, chronic obstructive lung disease, malnutrition, miscarriage, heart attack, recurrent infections, shortness of breath, asthma and cardiovascular disease. Many of these can be avoided by giving up bad habits such as smoking and excessive drinking as well as limiting consumption of foods high in cholesterol and fat. Your health is greatly impacted by the foods you choose to eat on a daily basis. If you are not eating enough fruits and vegetables you will be depriving your body of necessary vitamins and minerals that are needed to function properly. If you tend to eat foods high in fat, cholesterol and calories you will most likely feel sluggish and gain weight since these are hard to work off during the activities of a normal day. Many people will go on a diet when focusing on being healthy. This works for some people because it specific identifies what they should or should not be eating. One of the best ways to improve your health is to focus on exercising. Unfortunately we do not have much physical activity during our days, which means that we need to plan time or ways to ensure we are using our bodies more. The best plan for physical fitness is doing cardiovascular exercise 20-30 minutes 2-3 days per week and lifting weights 2-3 days per week. If you currently do not do this start out slowly with 1-2 days per week for both. Exercise not only helps your health from a physical standpoint but it also helps how you feel due to the chemicals that are released during the time you are exercising called endorphins which make you feel happy. Besides this planned exercise activities you should be creative in looking for ways to add additional physical activities into your day such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator. To round off your overall health it is important to focus on your mental well being. This is one area of health that many people overlook. If you have made improvements to your health by eating better and working out but still have not achieved the feeling of being healthy it might be that you are not focusing on your mental health. Here are a few ideas of what to focus on to improve your mental health: -Get a good nights rest -Exercise -Try new things -Spend time with friends and family -Plan time to do something for you -Listen to music -Count your blessings -Mediate, pray -Talk to people -Stretch To get started on making improvements to your health take a look what your goals are. What areas in your health do you need to improve or improve the most? What is your current lifestyle and what can you change? Often times we must make some type of compromise to reach the goals we have made for ourselves it is usually in the terms of time or money. Becoming healthy is a life long journey. You should focus each day on becoming healthier than the day before. Set goals along the way to track your progress. If you have setbacks recognize them for what they are and move on.]]>Successful Weight Loss Begins in Your Mind2009-09-11T15:45:00+0000 So many people decide over the weekend to start their diet on Monday and when Monday comes...]]> So many people decide over the weekend to start their diet on Monday and when Monday comes they are "good" for the first few hours…until their resolve wanes and that slice of toast or piece of cake gets bigger and bigger in your mind and you just have to have it. If you are familiar with this scenario then you know that something here is not quite right, something isn't working for you with this approach. The question therefore is what different approach is there? From the perspective of a psychologist this approach goes about weight loss in completely the wrong way. In trying to be "good" and trying to NOT have this or that you immediately trigger of an unintentional desire to have exactly what you are planning not to have. You need to be aware of the way in which your mind works to enable you to get your mind working for you instead of against you. Let me elaborate a little here. If I say to you now try as hard as you can NOT to think about an orange VW beetle car, what flashed into your mind? I'll bet you saw an orange car. So if I say don't think about carrot cake, what do you see? Or don't think about a glass of wine, what did you see? Do you see what I mean? Whenever you try to not do something, this effort creates a reverse effect and you get a great big picture of exactly that thing. And the harder you try the bigger, more powerful and more tantalizing that picture becomes. This is why that diet on Mondays lasts an ever shorter time. Your internal pictures get bigger and more powerful. This at the same time knocks your confidence in your ability to succeed. The first time you dieted, you probably did quite well, and then experienced an ever lessening success as your confidence and commitment gets less and less. To lose weight successfully you have to have confidence that you will succeed and also the ability to see what you want to see. These are two vital mental ingredients for success. A further ingredient is the ability to identify what is pure habit and to alter that habit. Habits are those sequences of behavior which happen automatically, without conscious thought. They are as automatic as brushing your teeth or tying your shoe laces. A habit is something which you do not consciously think about but is driven by subconscious thought processes. Thus you MUST access your subconscious mind in order to change habitual behavior in relation to food. Once again this is a mental ingredient, although this time not consciously so. With hypnosis you can access the inner workings of your mind. Just as the use of hypnosis is readily accepted as essential these days in sport, it is also essential in successful weight loss. Hypnosis allows access to the inner workings of your mind, allowing you to stop the cycle of negative effect caused by old habits and instead trigger off a whole host of positive new behaviors which will before long become just as habitual to you. You can get hypnosis weight loss downloads instantly in your own home and begin to retrain your mind to lose weight and achieve your perfect weight. Just as a sports person learns to think like a winner, you will learn to think like a slim person. Mental rehearsal is more important in sport than physical practice. This is fact. This has been proven. Mental rehearsal is also more important in your successful weight loss. Unless you learn to see yourself thin you will keep seeing instead that carrot cake, or those burgers, and those pictures will remain tantalizing to you. As you listen to hypnosis weight loss downloads you will eradicate these pictures, they will lose their attraction and their ability to tantalize will disappear altogether. Instead, you will retrain your mind, to see powerful images of success. Just as a golfer has to learn to visualize winning the Open, or a Tennis player visualizes winning Wimbledon, you will quickly learn to visualize a super, healthy and happy you. In this way you will be 90% of the way to successful and long term weight loss.]]>Summer Exercise2009-08-30T13:45:00+0000 The trick is to take advantage of cooler times and cooling activities. Set your alarm for 6 am and get to the gym or do your outdoors workout before the sun is overhead. You can take a nap during the hottest part of the day if you get sleepy. If your schedule doesn't allow for a 6 am rise-n-shine, then workout at sunset once the heat of the day has passed. Just be aware that exercising late in the day can push back the time when you are able to fall asleep. For your workout, pick cooler activities like swimming or doing yardwork (run through the sprinkler or duck your head under the hose to dampen your clothes and hair--water helps your body to get rid of excess heat, which is why sweating with a cool breeze blowing feels so good). If your workout-of-choice is a bike ride, fill up your water bottle with ice cubes to help cool you faster. Have kids? Join them in a sprinkler dash or encourage a friendly game of catch with water balloons. There is a lot you can wear to make summer exercise more comfy. Wicking, technical clothes will stay drier and not weigh you down like cotton clothes can. If you don't have technical wear, then you can cut holes in the front and back of an old t-shirt to allow air to get to your skin and cool you off. Maybe you can even bring that style back from the '80s, at least in your neighborhood! Splash your head and neck with water during your workout if possible. Another cooling method is to put a wet bandana in your freezer (round it into the shape of your neck beforehand) for 30 minutes then wrap it around your neck before heading outside. It will help cool you off and double as a sunshield. You can wrap it around your forehead towards the end of your workout to keep the sweat from dripping into your eyes. Remember to protect your skin from burning; apply waterproof/sweatproof sunscreen 30 minutes before you go outside so that it has a chance to dry. Wear a hat (with mesh sides if possible to allow for air flow) or a visor if you don't want sunscreen on your face (since sweating can make it drip into your eyes). Lastly, grab your shades; wearing sunglasses not only protects your eyes from UV damage but can also help prevent a headache because you won't be squinting due to the bright sunlight. Post-workout, you should bring your heart rate down gradually by walking and then stretching, even though it's tempting to flop down into the grass the second you finish exercising. Reward yourself with a frozen fruit popsicle. To make one, just throw some strawberries, watermelon or whatever you have available into your blender, then put the blended fruit in a paper cup in the freezer for a couple of hours before your workout. When the popsicle is frozen, just tear off the top of the cup and lick to your heart's content! Follow it with a cold shower for the ultimate refreshment. That's a workout—and a feeling of accomplishment for your non-lazy approach to your day—a nutritious snack, a surge of refreshment from a cold shower, and a boost of energy from exercising all in one. Take that, heat!]]>10 Things Parents Can Do To Help Prevent Eating Disorders2009-08-21T22:06:41+0000 1. Consider your thoughts, attitudes, and...]]> 1. Consider your thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors toward your own body and the way that these beliefs have been shaped by the forces of weightism and sexism. Then educate your children about (a) the genetic basis for the natural diversity of human body shapes and sizes and (b) the nature and ugliness of prejudice. Make an effort to maintain positive attitudes and healthy behaviors. Children learn from the things you say and do! 2. Examine closely your dreams and goals for your children and other loved ones. Are you overemphasizing beauty and body shape, particularly for girls? Avoid conveying an attitude which says in effect, "I will like you more if you lose weight, don't eat so much, look more like the slender models in ads, fit into smaller clothes, etc." Decide what you can do and what you can stop doing to reduce the teasing, criticism, blaming, staring, etc. that reinforce the idea that larger or fatter is "bad" and smaller or thinner is "good." 3. Learn about and discuss with your sons and daughters (a) the dangers of trying to alter one's body shape through dieting, (b) the value of moderate exercise for health, and (c) the importance of eating a variety of foods in well-balanced meals consumed at least three times a day. Avoid categorizing and labeling foods (e.g. good/bad or safe/dangerous). All foods can be eaten in moderation. Be a good role model in regard to sensible eating, exercise, and self-acceptance. 4. Make a commitment not to avoid activities (such as swimming, sunbathing, dancing, etc.) simply because they call attention to your weight and shape. Refuse to wear clothes that are uncomfortable or that you don't like but wear simply because they divert attention from your weight or shape. 5. Make a commitment to exercise for the joy of feeling your body move and grow stronger, not to purge fat from your body or to compensate for calories, power, excitement, popularity, or perfection. 6. Practice taking people seriously for what they say, feel, and do, not for how slender or "well put together" they appear. 7. Help children appreciate and resist the ways in which television, magazines, and other media distort the true diversity of human body types and imply that a slender body means power, excitement, popularity, or perfection. 8. Educate boys and girls about various forms of prejudice, including weightism, and help them understand their responsibilities for preventing them. 9. Encourage your children to be active and to enjoy what their bodies can do and feel like. Do not limit their caloric intake unless a physician requests that you do this because of a medical problem. 10. Do whatever you can to promote the self-esteem and self-respect of all of your children in intellectual, athletic, and social endeavors. Give boys and girls the same opportunities and encouragement. Be careful not to suggest that females are less important than males, e.g., by exempting males from housework or childcare. A well-rounded sense of self and solid self-esteem are perhaps the best antidotes to dieting and disordered eating.]]>Triclosan: Helping or Hurting?2009-07-28T21:15:00+0000 Trouble of Triclosan or visit to read the article on Triclosan, the ingredient added to household soap and other products to provide anti-bacterial properties.]]>The Protein Conundrum2009-07-28T18:15:00+0000 fad diets, like the Atkins Diet, that promoted excessive protein consumption have lost their luster in the health and nutrition world. However, protein should still be a very important part of your diet. Whether you are an active weight lifter, a marathon runner or a lifetime walker, you need a healthy amount of protein in your diet to help maintain strong bones, repair muscle tissue, balance blood sugar levels and keep your heart healthy. It may seem like a daunting task to calculate and regulate your protein consumption, but with just a few healthy tips from some experts, you can easily commit to a diet rich in healthy and beneficial proteins. The key to protein consumption is balance and smart choices. Maureen Callahan, R.D. in an article for Real Simple, points out that the Mypyramid site for the United States Department of Argriculture recommends individuals get 15% of their calories from protein. She also notes that the best proteins to consume are lean proteins like fish, skinless chicken, beans, egg whites and low fat dairy products. If you don't know how to shop for lean proteins, start with this article from the Mayo Clinic about how to buy lean meat and poultry. For lean protein recipe ideas including flounder, tofu, omelete and lentil recipes, search Myrecipes. ]]>Free Workout Advice & Fitness Tips2009-07-21T14:00:00+0000 Spread the...]]>Facebook and Twitter! It's true and we want you to become our friends and followers. When you join FitLink on Facebook and Twitter, you have daily access to free, helpful, fun and interesting fitness tips, workouts, and articles. Spread the news. Tell your friends. Comment and tell us how you're doing. Go to or twitter.com to join today!]]>Osteoporosis and Exercise2009-07-20T21:18:06+0000 Often we forget to consider the consequences of the choices we make in our everyday. As youngsters, we desire to play and be active, but...]]>How can regular exercise and healthy living help prevent a disease that affects an estimated 10 million Americans? Often we forget to consider the consequences of the choices we make in our everyday. As youngsters, we desire to play and be active, but as we get older a sedentary life sets in and our bodies begin to unknowingly weaken. Osteoporosis, or porous bones, involves the deterioration of bone tissue caused by a lack of vitamins, exercise and healthy eating. When a bone's tissue deteriorates the bone becomes fragile ,and susceptible to breakage and fractures; most often the breaks happen in the hips, spine and wrists. Women are the highest population to be affected by the disease and are most often diagnosed with the disease after menopause, however, men are also often diagnosed. Osteoporosis is not curable, but there are many treatments available. Patients who undergo treatment for Osteoporosis are able to live active and enjoyable lives. How do I know if I have Osteoporosis? The best way to find out if you are suffering from Osteoporosis is to consult your doctor. If a doctor suspects you have the disease, s/he will require you to take a bone density test. Can I prevent Osteoporosis? Most of our bone mass is developed before the age of 30. After 30 we have to work hard to maintain the same amount of bone tissue. Bone, like muscle, is living tissue and can stay strong with exercise. Also being physically fit helps the body to be strong and balanced which lessens the chances of falls and fractures. What can I do to decrease my chances of suffering from Osteoporosis? The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends these 5 easy steps to help prevent Osteoporosis: What foods have calcium and vitamin D in them? Vitamin supplements help in rejuvenating vitamin deficiencies, but a better way to increase your vitamin intake is through healthy foods. Foods high in calcium include low fat milk, cheese, yogurt, spinach, almonds, tofu, and black beans. Vitamin D rich foods include many types of fish like salmon, oats, eggs and many breakfast cereals. What types of exercises should I do? Weight bearing exercises are best for building stronger bones. Weight bearing exercises encompass those that utilize your own bodyweight like running, walking or aerobics, and weight lifting exercises. If you are afraid to use weight lifting machines at the gym, there are many alternatives to the standard workout. Try using an exercise tube and stability ball in your workout. Always consult with a doctor before starting any workout regime. Staying in shape means more than just shedding a few pounds and feeling good in your favorite jeans, it means keeping your whole body healthy, improving your quality of life and extending your life span. ]]>Exercise Environmentalism2009-07-16T21:45:00+0000 from the New York Times about a running sneaker made from recycled materials.]]>To do strength training or cardio: that is the question2009-07-06T18:15:00+0000 I'd like to have a sculpted set of abs, a trim waist and a nicely compacted buttocks, but often there are a million different opinions about the right exercise types to do for toning these body parts. Should I spend majority of my time jogging and doing jumping jacks or should I take to the weight bench and fatigue my muscles whenever possible? I recently found a great article at Womenshealthmag.com that shed some positive light on this fitness conundrum. Note that in this article they suggest keeping a log for all the reps you do during a strength training session; FitLink was built to do just that. Start tracking your workouts today with an Exercise Log.]]>Secret to Longevity: Flex Your Muscles2009-07-06T18:15:00+0000 article by The Washington Post, suggests the secret to his health and wellness is exercise and clean living. The Washington Post reported that he "takes no medication and can lift his walker over his head." Though the rest of the Washington Post article goes on to discuss the financial difficulties of living past 100, what it doesn't acknowledge is that living healthy and exercising often can reduce the cost of health care while extending your life. Modern medicine has assisted in extending human longevity, but it is not the only nor most valuable factor. Studies done on centenarians often show that regular exercise is an important component in lengthening an individual's life span. Exercise strengthens your heart and lungs, helps regulate chronic diseases, improves your mood and controls weight gain. In a time of economic hardships, taking care of ourselves on a daily basis with simple, cost-effective methods like working out and eating properly is extremely important. Do something physical today for 30 minutes in honor of Larry. Go for a 30 minute walk. Do some push-ups, jumping jacks and abdominal crunches to get your heart pumping. Stretch out your muscles with some meditative yoga. Take care of your body to ensure you live a long and happy life.	eng	beebcfd4-4cd7-4117-91b2-96a7adf6f8d4	http://feeds.feedburner.com/FitLink
Savage Love Podcast Comments to the guy being tormented by "Pussy Krueger" dreams, check out this amazing short episode of Radiolab podcast where a guy confronts a recurring nightmare just by becoming aware he's dreaming... I was going to say the same thing as hiddenplace - google about "lucid dreaming" - when you become aware that you're dreaming, but are still able to be in the dream and control what happens, that might help you get over this recurring vagitmare. Annie's project is a lot of fun, but I just felt like I could offer her a little insight into why the younger women she encountered refused to wear the label "Feminist." I don't know those women in particular, but speaking for myself, I choose not to define myself as a "Feminist" because quite frankly, that term is loaded with so many meanings. I can't be a feminist without declaring myself an adherent of some kind of philosphy...am I a liberal feminist? Radical? Marxist? Conservative? Libertarian? Ecofeminist? Post-structural? Separatist? Not to mention the thinking more along the lines of the bell hooks-inspired thinkers who argue that feminists only think of the white paradigm. Seriously, there's no cohesion in the overall group. Once, during a gender and society class, the prof showed an interview with two prominent liberal feminists, and another with Catharine MacKinnon, the radical feminist. After, the prof asked us if Catharine MacKinnon inspired us to say we are feminists. Some girls were ready to wrap themselves in her flag on the spot, but I couldn't keep quiet, and I spoke up that she's exactly the kind who makes me flee from the label. Catharine MacKinnon, with all of her "false consciousness" accusations, is precisely the kind of woman who turns the rest of us off from calling ourselves feminists. Once I said it, it opened the floodgates for other women in the class to agree, which sort of started a "war of words" and unfortunately resulted in a bit of a "battle lines drawn" feeling that lasted the rest of the semester. Do I believe in equality? Absolutely. But can I call myself a feminist? No - I feel like I shouldn't even be allowed to because I don't go "far enough." Hey caller with the stalker, call a rape crisis hotline. You don't have to decide whether or not to call it rape, in order to say that it was horribly messed up and needs a real response and a healing process. PLEASE take good care of yourself. Here is a page with male-specific resources: and RAINN is apparently a good place to call too as a male rape survivor. I know that "male rape" is something our society doesn't really recognize yet, but if that is what you feel about the situation - feel free to label it that way. Also, please please take steps to keep her from continuing to stalk you. A restraining order might be difficult to obtain, but get in touch with your local DV organizations in order to find out. Block her number or get a new number, too. Cut off all avenues of contact she still has to you. I do think Dan's decision to discourage the "date rape caller" from seeking legal recourse may have been a mistake. This is an issue of numbers - the fewer men who report situations like this, the less likely law enforcement is to take these situations seriously when they do come up. Speaking up is the only way to break the cycle. He's probably right, though, that it would not have done that specific caller any good. @4 - You don't have to make it so complicated. You If you're not on board with that, frankly, you're the one who baffles me. Being a feminist doesn't mean you're part of some cultural group that needs to be unified by a common message and isn't "cohesive" enough. It means you hold certain truths to be self-evident. It's whatever you make of it. OK, one more comment - That domestic violence "expert" Dan brought in was so much less helpful than Dan himself was. I mean, cringe. She was waffling on about legal action and living somewhere else... all unhelpful solutions to a trapped 17-year-old... and he just came right out and said REFUSE TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM WITH HIM. Absolutely. Right on. Go Dan. @8: She is a minor living at home. It would be irresponsible to tell her to just go to the police when she had made it clear that any objection on her part would be shamed by her family. While living at home, the top priority is her personal physical safety and that would be severely compromised if she sought legal action, at the moment. Therefore, in these cases, it is always advisable to try and get the victim to a safe and neutral space. From there, the cops can and should be called. Ms. Madison is frustrated that so many women refuse to identify as feminist, and blames right-wing framing. I can't speak for her experience, but I can speak for mine. I went to law school with a vast number of kick-ass, accomplished women and their rejection of the term was linked to dealing with self-described "feminists", i.e. the ideological crowd. They refused to call themselves feminists not because they weren't, but because the word had become co-opted by the manic obsessive ideological purists. My classmates' feminism took the form of equality, the "feminists'" idea of feminism was more akin to a very confrontational trade union or political party. You Fair enough. Where it falls down is in how those laudable goals interface with equity and equality. I used to call myself a feminist but I gave it up simply because I couldn't reconcile my desire for the advancement of everybody's "rights, autonomy, independence, power, and equality in the public and private spheres" with the simple fact that feminism talks of these goals but exists in form and practice as the philosophy and advancement of those goals for women. If men benefit, well and good. If men have to get screwed, then well and good. Feminism is feminism, but it ain't egalitarianism however much its adherents say that it is. I have an idea for the gay guy with nightmares about women--it's an app that's supposed to allow you to control what you dream about. No idea if it works but it's free and might be worth a try, it's called DreamON and you can get it from the iTunes store. I am sorry but I think raped by stalker was MUCH more a grey area just as Dan did. If she is a stalker calling that much you change phone numbers. No one including the caller knows what was said or done in that phone call that had her come over. Black out drunk people do at times appear only a little drunk and she could have easily thought everything was consensual. Could the "legal" definition of rape happened? Yes- but the fact is she did not get him drunk, he answered the phone, no one but her knows what was said on the phone-but it made her drive to him, no one but her knows what was said when she got there- for all we know he was naked and had a box of condoms out. A rape allegation is a terrible thing to levy against anyone, especially when its a grey area sexual act. The simple legal process that would happen would destroy the accused, and as Dan did say, not much would happen in the end. The questioning would be along the lines of "Did you two have sex, did he say yes could you tell he was drunk? did you think he was really drunk?" and in the end even if it went to court it would be dismissed with the accused having a life that was destroyed. Actually, I think "raped by stalker" was much less grey, totally ungrey in fact. This girl had been bothering the caller incessantly. When they had sex, he was blackout drunk - which she couldn't have failed to notice - and she was stonecold sober. Again, if you reverse the genders, everyone would call it a rape and tell the victim to go to the police. If the caller doesn't feel comfortable going to the police, he doesn't have to, because it's true that he's unlikely to be believed. However, one thing he can do - since he and this girl know each other from way back and likely have mutual friends - is to tell their mutual friends about it. People should know that this girl is a creepy person. If that causes them to defriend her, all well and good. If you want friends, don't stalk and rape people. While based on the information the caller provided it may seem not-so-gray, but think of it from a legal perspective - all that girl's lawyer would have to do is ask a couple questions and reasonable doubt appears. "You've had sex with her before?" "You claim you were blackout drunk, but say she was sober. How did you know she was sober if you can't remember?" Plus, as #15 pointed out, maybe he looks and sounds functional when he's that drunk. Maybe she didn't realize he was that drunk and maybe he indicated he was consenting to sex. There's too many "maybes" for there to be any sure way to label this rape or not. Fact is, though, he felt violated, and he should absolutely cut off all ties to this woman. Get a new number, block her on social media sites, yadda yadda. And DON'T BINGE DRINK. Scary, bad things happen when you're so intoxicated that you don't remember and have little to no control over what you do, or what happens to you. Be responsible and safe. In my twenties I had many friends that would/could blow a .2+ when getting a DUI. This last St Patrick's Day a twenty-something female I worked with got out of work early and went to the mutual hang out and started drinking. I got there and stayed for an hour, she did not even remember meeting me and talking to me for the hour I was there- before I went home (alone). The next day she was telling everyone how she blacked out by 7:00 but "apparently had a lot of fun." Black outs- even one, tend to be huge indicators of substance/alcohol abuse on self tests and Alcoholism intakes. Now if someone got black out drunk and got into a car and ran over some bystanders no one would say that the bystanders took advantage of the drunk. If someone was black out drunk and went to McDonald's and punched the counter person because the fries were not full enough, no one would side with him. But....people are taking the defense of a binge drinker who by his own account answered the phone and must have at least told the person who raped him specifically where he was- and we are all supposed to blame the other person? Sometimes getting drunk and doing stupid things are the wake up call to get help, stop drinking, and be responsible for your actions. Maybe to act safer too. We do not know what was said and done by either parties. To call this "ski mask mugger in a parking lot rape" is a huge overstatement. If the caller feels violated he should get help, he should have "defriended" the psycho a long time ago- and if he was that weirded out by someone he had had consenting sex with should he have not changed his number and such awhile ago? maybe had that public confrontation to let her know he was over it? He should get help, he probably has other issues as well. And I have no problem him telling people she is a psycho and him telling mutual friends she came over and had sex with him when he was "Black out drunk" but him telling people she raped him? Sorry that's saying a criminal act took place and he really cannot say if at the time the sex was consenting or not. And he still has to tell people yes he answered the phone of a past sexual partner who he cut off for being too possessive, and he told her where he was and he let her in and he was drunk...... The author of "Lucid Dreaming" Stephen LaBerge Ph.D. is credited with the phrase "The next time I'm dreaming I'll remember to recognize I'm dreaming." Google him. Also I constantly bang the drum for therapy without shame. Here (ABQ) kind therapists see some folk on a sliding scale. Shop around first; one bitch made me spit out my gum. @7, you see, I have yet to meet a man who could make me feel or believe that I don't already equal him in the private or public sphere, but I sure have met some radical feminists who want to make me believe I haven't reached that equality. I was raised to be a proud, independent, strong woman, and that anyone who told me I wasn't "equal" was someone who was looking to be proven dead wrong. Women included. And I haven't lost yet. @12, yeah, you've pretty much summed up my general feeling. I've always been curious about why men had to be not just dominated, but down right subjugated in order to be equaled. I am a proud and strong First Nations woman. I have been dealt the cards of being a woman and being a member of an abused minority, and I have won. Phenomenal woman. That's me. @Chuck, I agree with your comments. Had this woman gotten the man in question drunk or drugged him in some way I would feel differently. In this case, however, this guy chose to get inebriated and ended up with this woman. He remembered answering her phone call and remembered that she was sober. He shares some responsibility for lowering his inhibitions enough to talk to this girl and to accept a ride and eventually o have sex with her. If roles were reversed I wouldn't view it any differently. @ Fancy Pants Equality is not a zero sum game. Feminism seeks to fight for women's rights and equality. That need not be at the "expense of men." Any who argues that men should get screwed for the sake of women's rights isn't arguing for feminism. Also, calling yourself feminist doesn't mean that you have to ignore any other form of injustice, because frankly feminism intersects with issues of race, immigrant rights, and sexuality. Actually, a lot of Jessica Valenti's work ( both deals with these issues. Theres no need to limit or falsely attribute feminism to the right-wing conspiracy theorist caricature of what they have painted feminism to be. It's funny to see all the replies to Fancy's_Pants original statement since it pretty much proved what she said. Almost every single reply has had a wildly different idea of what feminism is and isn't. It's a loaded term and almost every self proclaimed feminist I have ever met had a list of things that every "real feminist" had to agree with her on. Of course the list of things varied depending on what that particular woman found important. There is nothing worng with calling yoruself a feminist, and though there are stringent feminists, they aren't all that way. I believe that all people should be equal, but woman need an extra boost because yes, there still is sexism and we are not equal. This has been pretty clear the past year. It's not taking away anything from men, and to say such is bullshit. Most feminists I know fight equality for LGBT, immigrants, and so on. You know, painting all feminists with the same brush uis being just as closed minded as some of the feminists that put you off feminism. Reinforcing this negative streotype just buys in to what MRA's and extreme Republicans want you to. Sometimes you need to be loud and unrelenting to get the job done. Get overself Fancypants, I'm sure you're a wonderful, strong, independent woman. It does not mean that inequality and sexism aren't very obvious in others lives. In fact, most women's lives. Not everyone is outgoing, or able to easily stand up for themselves. About the guy with the troubling dreams - one thing I would check is whether or not he is on any medications, esp. new medications. The info on the anti-depressant effexor has as the first listed side effect "strange dreams". I noticed the dreams before I realized this was a known side effect, though I grant that my dreams were not recurring or particularly sexual. Another thing to look into is whether there is anything troubling him in his work or personal life. Dreams are often symbolic and may replace a real object or situation with something else. In this case, as Dan pointed out, the incident with a woman when he was younger may indeed have distressed him but his subconscious may be substituting that long-ago event for something else that is seriously bugging him. It is also possible that the dream actually does represent the real event. You dont label yourself a feminist because you feel extreme feminists have co-opted the word. Do Christians deny their Christianity just b/c a bunch of ding-bats have hijacked their religion and turned it into a self serving and hate promoting political platform? No! Feminism is equal rights for women. Period. It is forces and powers on the right who are making you believe that if you label yourself a feminist then you must align yourself with and defend the views of the most extreme self proclaimed feminists. I agree that the caller's calls should be cut off A LOT earlier. They drone onandonandonandonandrepeatandrepeat. I am really interested in the fact that people want to natter on and on about theories on feminism and a 17 YEAR OLD child is being TERRORIZED and mostly ignored in these comments. What is your problem if the most engaging thing about this podcast is a single sentence about feminism while a child is being demeaned, and subjugated and terrorized and intimidated and abandoned emotionally? "Feminists" just piled on more shit by ignoring her. The SAFE woman was a waste of air time. Thank you Dan for having some sense. If her family doesn't support her what does the Domestic Violence lady actually think is going to happen if she finds "someone to support her"?!?!?! This girl was saying--over and over, that she has NO ONE to support her. THAT WAS HER QUESTION. Not--Is this wrong that he is doing this to me?--She knew that! Her question is, what can I DO since there is NO ONE to back me up? Telling her to find someone to back her up is WORTHLESS. She also probably knows that finding someone at school--church--etc. will probably result in either more collusion with the cousin or MANDATORY REPORTING by law, which puts her in EXACTLY the same position with her family. WIth this stuff, sometimes only a small percentage of the trauma comes from the perp (the cousin) and the most comes from the people she actually loves and trusts ignoring her and RE-VIOLATING her. Thank you again Dan for giving her a practical response. IT at least served to help her protect herself. Also, I got the feeling that a lot of the feeling of violation came from her sense that the people she loved would not stand up, or behind her. Most of us can survive a lot of crap if there is just one SOLID person in our corner. I got the sense that she was even more traumatized by the fact that one of her cousins that she seems to love and care about, is IGNORING what is happening to her. Often times, teenagers follow a charismatic person. Perhaps this girl could try confronting the other cousin by saying something like "It seems like you seem to want to watch him rape me? Is that how you want me to think of and remember you for the rest of our lives? As my cousin who let me be molested?" By asking her cousin the question, she forces him to be accountable to HIMSELF--one way or the other. Since he is already complicit, it is not likely to hurt, but perhaps causes him to look at his own behavior. I can only hope.. To the guy with a stalker: Yes you were raped. Dan's hesitation to call it anything but this is mindblowing. You can't give consent when you're that drunk. If both people are drunk, then, well... THAT'S a gray area. But she was SOBER. She realized you didn't want anything to do with her. She knew you were drunk and took advantage of that. She raped you. She's not a jerk -- she's a rapist and a predatory. Don't listen to Dan about not reporting it. If men never report this, then it will never get taken seriously. Male victims of rape need to be advocates. Also, the women who refuse to label themselves feminists because they don't like the connotations the word currently has are being extremely counterproductive. That's about as mature a response as deciding not to vote because you don't like the political climate in the country. You can only change the construct of what feminism is and isn't, you can only shape what is at the forefront of the agenda for women's rights, by being a part of it -- by identifying as a feminist if you believe in political, social, and legal equality for women. Otherwise, yes you are allowing the term and movement to be co-opted by people you disagree with, and this will only hurt YOU in the long run, as it's the feminist movement which will shape policy and law and public consciousness, not disaffected individuals. Finally, and it's trite, but I think many of these anti-feminists must not have a lot of experience with real, live feminists if their impressions consist of hairy lesbian radicals. Hear, hear, hear, hear, @32. If you don't like the feminists you've met, instead of running away from feminism, be a different kind of feminist! Change the meaning of the label! When I hear people distance themselves from the word "feminist", what I hear is, "Oh, I'm not one of THOSE militant bitches." It's just like gay men saying, "Oh, I'm not one of THOSE prancing fags." Self-hatred is divisive and counterproductive. Yeah, Shurenka! That's what I was gonna say on both topics. People saying feminism is all about doing unto men what hath been done unto women lo these many generations are buying some reductive hidebound bunk definition of the term promoted by a. wackos or b. co-opting antis or c. both. And here is proof: I'm a feminist and I say anybody who claims the stalked guy was "grayraped" or "kinda sorta but not dateraped" is crazy, because that guy was raped. Fuckers of all genders who are planning to fuck need to ask themselves a very simple question and if the answer to the question is no, do not proceed with the fuckplan. The question is: can the person I want to fuck consent? Could that guy consent? No, that guy could not consent. The end! No fucking may ensue! True. Yes. Correct: he consented to become a temporary vegetable earlier in the evening. No. Wrong. False: that he decided to get dead drunk does NOT mean he opted out of consent-to-fuck. You CAN'T opt out of consent-to-fuck because consent-to-fuck is a basic human right. Jesus H. Christ, what is wrong with people? Stop running around looking for blacked out drunks to rape, and stop defending the assholes that do that! PS: Did you know that alcoholism is protected under the ADA? Fellow citizens! Quit going on the Internet all the time to argue for your right to rape the disabled! PPS: Also please to quit talking about how sober the profoundly drunk always act and how this tempts you to rape 'em. "She blew a .2, yet she was acting Totally Nooooormal!" Naw: unless the rapist was anosmatic, she knew that guy was cronked beyond all recognition. The drunks amongst us outgas. It is unmistakable. That is wherefore the breathalizer test. I encourage the pussy-nightmare-haver to read "Embodiment" by psychologist and dreamtherapist Robert Bosnak. He's a Dutch man living in the US, maybe his practise is near you. His approach very much begins at the wish this caller expresses: to just offer the woman in his dreams a dildo. Bosnak developed a therapy called 'dreamwork', which you can probably get in the city you live in. I have been beaten to the "lucid dreaming" punch for pussy krueger! I also used to have recurring nightmares, and once I recognized how the dream began, I became more aware that it WAS a dream and after awhile was able to employ lucid dreaming techniques. Eventually, the dreams stopped. I still remember them vividly, but the experience helped me become more able to wake myself or control nightmares in the future. I hope it helps! dreams can mean many things, and lucid dreaming is a huge help for nightmares... it is also possible to have some astral crap causing problems, and there is shamanic help available. Seattle has the Sundust Oracle Institute, which can recommend a trained shamanic practitioner for soul retrieval or clearing. Best place to look in other regions would probably be in the native community... find an elder you can talk to - they've been treating this stuff for thousands of years. I completely agree that the answer to the cougar problem is lucid dreaming. Check out the episode of Radiolab as suggested above: it's an amazing piece of work! And read a book or two by Stephen LaBerge. The amount of victim-blaming on this comment thread is absolutely repulsive...and I'm looking at you #15, #17 and #18. Thank you to all of the people on this thread who so patiently took the time to explain the concept of consent to those who do not understand it (even though we really should expect our society to be educated about something as basic as this in the first place). And thank you to the people who attempted to ignore Dan's advice and connect the caller to resources. Why, however, has no one stopped to say, "Whoa Dan, WTF were you thinking?!?!" Responsibility shouldn't be placed on this one guy to go to the police so he can contribute to the eventual recognition of female rape of men. Reporting a rape or not is a very individual choice, and there is no right answer. However, responsibility should be placed on Dan to inform all of his listeners of the validity of this experience and dispel the rape myths that contribute to police disregard for incidents like this in the first place. Dan, I'm really really disappointed. With regard to the young woman who is constantly fighting off unwanted sexual touching from her cousin: I would advise this young lady to call victim's assistance in her local police department and explain what is happening and that she may need help. Then, she can write a brief letter explaining that she needs help: Cousin X is touching her inappropriately and forcing unwanted kisses upon her, she has repeatedly told him to stop and never encouraged him, and that she needs them to help her by not leaving her alone with him. Copy the letter and give it to Cousin X, to all female relatives and her father and to the police department. If you write it down, you can edit all the emotion out of it and you don't have to engage them. I have been in her shoes. When I finally "told" I was so surprised by the reaction I received. The way I approached it with the mom of the perv family member was "I hate to tell you this because I know this isn't how you raised him, but your son is kissing me and touching me when I keep telling him not to! I don't want you to tell him I talked to you, I don't want to get him in trouble, I just want your help -- could you please not leave me alone with him?" Of course his mom didn't say much to me about it, but she never left the two of us alone again. I don't think she got him the help he needed, but I was younger than your caller and hadn't yet developed the maturity to broach that topic. @40 and you're quick to label someone a rapist based on minimal information. I merely outlined how the case would probably look for a legal perspective. Guy gets plastered, answers a call from a girl he doesn't want anything to do with, yet is able to be coherant enough to let her know the address he is at. Anything past that is a mystery - no one but this girl knows if she herself was sober, if she knew he was that drunk, if he did or did not consent in the moment, etc. From the caller's account, this woman makes him uncomfortable and doesn't seem to catch a hint that he wants nothing to do with her, but there's still a ways to go before you can round her up to a rapist. You can't consent when you're drunk... any responsible adult (male and female) should know that. If you're a decent person you simply don't take advantage of a person's impaired cognizance, to get them to do something you know they wouldn't do sober. If the genders were reversed no one would hesitate to call the sober person's actions anything but stone-cold predatory. Also, instead of painting the picture that she just "couldn't catch a hint", I think we'd say, if the genders were reversed, that she was simply a stalker. There are a lot of details missing... but this isn't a court of law. Even if you don't want to call the woman a rapist, whether or not she is technically at fault -- this man was raped. He feels raped. From his perspective, he was not in a position to give consent, and she knew that and exploited it. The first step of healing is having the grief acknowledged, validated in some way. Whether or not the courts, woefully backwards when it comes to rape anyways, give him justice. 42, "can't catch a clue" is not an acceptable rape defense anymore. "Sure, she said no fifty times but I had my hand over her mouth at the moment of penetration and I didn't hear 'no,' so obviously she changed her mind." "Well, I don't know, she could have been saying no but it was hard to tell 'cause she was too messed up on Jaegerbombs to make consonant sounds, so I was like, dude, clearly she wants it." "She quit taking my calls per every 'how to deal with stalkers' advisory in the history of the world so I kept calling for a year and a half 'til finally I got her when she was too drunk to make consonant sounds and I tracked her down and nailed her and now I'm pretty sure we're gonna get married." The whole "no means no" campaign of the 1990s was to teach you that these are not good arguments, but the three-word slogan is clearly still too complicated. Is there some way to break it down further to make it simple enough for you? Yes, I agree with hiddenplace's comment to check out that radiolab show. Since lucid dreaming is quite a long term process I would also recommend re-entering (no pun intended) the dream while awake in a process called "active imagination." The caller mentioned he wanted to give Pussy Cougar a dildo - maybe in his imagination he can try this out and see how it works! Sometimes by addressing dream figures in a dialogue helps to assuage them. Good Luck dreamer! (I am a dream worker in San Francisco - An idea for dealing with night terrors: A therapist taught me that a dream is an event in your mind, so REWRITE THE EVENT IN YOUR MIND. Deliberately think through the nightmare, but change the ending. Take control of the situation and imagine all the ways it could end in your favor: walk away from the woman, send in other men to fuck her (and pay you!), tell her to fly away - and watch her do just that. Make a game of it - visualize peeing on her and she melts like the witch in Oz. Nothing is off limits because it is all in your mind. Being in charge is powerful, and you have that power. Wow, that girl's call about being harassed was heartbreaking. There was a couple of points where you could just hear the despair, and it made me so upset and livid. I'd suggest two things: Film it. Camera phone, hidden netbook in the room. It's backup, ammunition, if you ever want to take it further, it's proof beyond he-said she-said. Further, you can tell him to back off, because you have video of it. Second: Dan has it right. Refuse to be in the same room with him. Make a big stink about it. Your family might be retards, and try and turn things around when you state what he has done him, but if you refuse to be drawn into details while refusing to be around him, it's really hard for them to contradict that, OR frame it as you wanting it in any way. Just keep repeating "He is grabby and rude, and I refuse to be around him", or whatever else is the bullshit 'polite' way of expressing sexual harassment in your area. Cut him off, and cut your other cousin off for not doing anything. And tell him that - "I don't want to be around X, and I don't want to be around you, because you have never done anything to stop him, and I am so, so over it." For the guy who was stalked and coerced and manipulated into sex - what a horrible podcast this was. I'm so sorry this happened to you. Cut off contact, yes. But also tell her that you think her actions have been really inappropriate, that you regret ever getting involved with her, that she had been really creepy when taking advantage of you while you were drunk, that you would never treat a girl the way she has treated you, and that given how upset you feel about her actions, you never want to see or talk to her again, that clearly your interactions are unhealthy for the both of you, because you don't think she would want to be the person she is around you either. Tell friends that you'd appreciate their assistance in helping you keep some distance from her, because you are feeling really skeeved out around her, and that may help them actually take an active role, rather than being passive bystanders to stuff that you'd rather they not be passive about. To the guy suffering from "Pussy Krueger", it really sounds like your being preyed upon by an astral succubus. Normally the succubus steals sexual energy from a guy and moves on. Your succubus isn't moving on from you because she found out how to manipulate your fear and is feeding off your fear energy as well as sexual energy. Because succubi don't stick around, there is a lack of available reading material on the subject of banishing them but I have 3 ideas for you to try. It will be more lasting and effective if you ward off this succubus yourself. Now in doing these I would ask that you do them in complete seriousness with your whole being. I don't know of your religious background, but will endeavor to make these as universal as possible. If you are an Atheist, I would ask that you do them with at the very least an open mind. 1. Cleanse your bedroom (& maybe your whole house/apt while your at it): Get a bundle of Sage leaves or even a Sage Incense Stick will do. Before you light the Sage like any other incense, imagine that the bundle/stick is an extension of your physical body (IE. the sage is a part of you) even with your nerves running through the core. Send your energy (nerve electrical impulses) through the stick making it glow almost from the inside. Give the nerve energy a thought/purpose, the purpose/thought of cleansing and protection, from all and any negative energy, negative thoughts. As you see the sage holding that glow/thought/purpose light the end and let it burn a little, enough to give you good embers for smoke. As it starts to smoke move the stick/bundle in a clockwise circle, while moving about the room in a clockwise circle. See that energy/purpose/thought you put into that sage be released with the smoke. Since it is your energy, it is still connected to you and so you need to keep telling the energy what it's purpose is, what space it will work it's purpose, and how long to work it's purpose. So as you are waving the sage in clockwise circles, repeat/chant in your mind it's purpose (cleanse this space of negative energy and protect all within this space from negative energy), the space (bedroom, bathroom,kitchen, etc...), and duration of effect (for as long as the succubus is attacking me, as long as I sleep in this bedroom, as long as I live in this apt./house). See the smoke/thought make a barrier wafting out from the smoke, from the bundle/stick, pushing out all negative energies/thoughts/influences in your mind and staying at bay for however long you specified. 2. Make your bed a Sanctuary: For this you will need some holy water (any catholic church has some) a piece of cotton string (not thread, something fairly thick) long enough that wraps around the length of the feet of your bed and if your boyfriend is willing, his help (because you both share this bed). You will be tying the string around the feet of your bed (taught or loose, shouldn't matter, but to make it more inconspicuous and out of your way I say taught) to make essentially one big circle around your bed. But, before you tie the sting, you will need to soak the string in the holy water. First, imagine that the holy water is luminescent. That it glows with a pure soft white light, intense yet not blindingly so. As you are placing the string in the holy water with your hand touching/holding the string, feel/see the string absorb the light into itself. Feel/see the light and the string become one, until you have what looks like a string made of light. Now tie the string around the feet of your bed. After tying the string, you and your boyfriend will grab the string, with your boyfriend positioned on your left side (your going to be leading this sanctification, you have the strength & power within you, believe in yourself & your boyfriend). Close your eyes and see it as the string of light that it is. Feel the light as gentle and comforting in your hands. As with the Sage you will feed your electrical nerve impulse energy into the string, but see the energy going in from your right hand through the string into your left hand, through your left hand through the string straight through your boyfriend's hands, not even stopping at him just continuing through the string around the outside of your bed back into and through your right hand. You're sending your energy through the string in a clockwise fashion, transforming the the glow of light into a current of clockwise running energy. Feed it energy/thoughts of strength, internal confidence, your will to protect yourself and your boyfriend (nothing negative, not anger or hate, only positive thoughts). As it is running around your bed you will need to say a prayer, of sorts, a command/charge of your own words in your head (in your boyfriend's words in his head). It should be something to the effect of: "I call out to the light (or God, Goddess, Deity, etc...). I humbly ask for your protection". Upon saying this, see the light of the string in your mind change again, into the light similar to a bolt of lightning, a cool, more intense light, but with a hint of fiery blue. "I call out to my greatest protector (if your religious, this would be your Guardian Angel or equivalent, and see the 9ft tall being, with male or female or both features stand before you, dressed in a toga I'm assuming, serious and unflinching bearing a fiery sword; if you're an Atheist imagine instead a 9ft tall knight, male or female in armor made of light bearing a shield with a pentacle design and broad sword). I ask that a part of you always be with this string of light. I ask that you bless (because a little blessing never hurt) and protect all that rest inside the circle from any outside negative energies/thoughts/influences." See your protector become tethered to the circle by a loose thread of light. "Make this bed a sanctuary for me and my boyfriend. You will bless and protect everything within the bounds of this string for as long (as I am being targeted by this succubus, as I & my boyfriend sleep in this bed/live, as this string encircles my bed, etc...). You will keep at bay all negative energies/influences/thoughts from disturbing me & my boyfriend's rest or activities." Imagine small negative energies/thoughts/worries move towards your bed and see your Guardian Angel repel them easily by holding out their hand and the negative energy fleeing away. If you're an Atheist, the knight knocks back the negative energy with a shield thrust as if the negative energy was a ping pong and it bounces back. "You will permanently banish any negative energy that becomes persistent without hesitation." This time imagine your succubus appearing looking as beautiful/seductive as ever (have your boyfriend imagine this part as well in his prayer/command/charge, so his guardian/protector will know to also combat the succubus too) approaching your bed slowly. Your protector holds out their hand/up their shield. She pauses for a moment but continues to approach, she takes another step forward and your protector thrusts their sword in her direction. She grabs her midsection in pain, crying out, losing her beauty, before falling back and disappearing/fading away into nothingness for good. "As I will it, so shall it be (so mote it, etc...)" Upon saying those words in your mind let go of the string, and with eyes still closed, see the light become steady and intense. See in your mind a wall/veil of light come out of the string extending up and downwards. When the wall of light reaches the floor see it start to move inward and spread along the floor, to encompass all the space underneath your bed. Extending upward reaching the ceiling and seeing it extend along the ceiling above your bed inward, making an almost cylinder of light, all the color of the bright blue string now at the bottom of the feet of the bed. 3. Gaining strength from the power of your relationship with your boyfriend: The last step should be all that you need, but just in case you can also do this. As you are about to sleep, hold your boyfriend's hand. Close your eyes getting ready for sleep. Tell yourself, "If I ever feel scared while I'm dreaming, I will squeeze my boyfriend's hand. I will feel him next to me and with me. Knowing he is here with me will give me strength to reject anything I fear." Repeat this determinedly yet softly, until you fall peacefully asleep. I know asking a rational person to consider the source of your sleep troubles is because of a succubus is asking a lot, but what could it hurt to even just try these things out. You only have some time and a little money to lose and restful nights sleep for the rest of your life to gain. Rest well and Peace be unto you. To the disturbed dreaming dude: Disturbing dreams are part of normal life, stay cool. Perhaps there's something there that requires your attention. My mom told me once that everyone in my dreams, all the crazy violent weird people, they are all me. I CANNOT believe what I'm hearing. What does his level of intoxication have to do with it? How dare you suggest that next time he drink less, or whatever? This blame-the-victim approach is morally reprehensible and, I believe, would not have been used if the caller had been a woman. Also, the caller was not asking if the police would believe him, but whether he was actually raped, and by definition yes he was, since he did not from his account give his consent and was unconscious during the act. Producing a boner has nothing to do with it. I'm absolutely astonished and aghast to be hearing such a medieval response, and I'm so disappointed, Dan. Let's start from the top: Rape is sex without consent. Someone cannot legally get consent from a person who is intoxicated. Who is responsible for getting consent? The person initiating sex. If the caller was blackout drunk, the woman who had been stalking him could not possibly have had his consent for sex. Even if the drunk person is begging for it, you cannot have their consent. I had a friend in college who became a tough guy whenever he got drunk. He would ask people to punch him in the stomach and in the face, telling them that he wouldn't feel a thing. As much as he begged, even grabbing my hand and trying to slam my knuckles against his jaw, I never hit him. Why? Cuz that's an asshole move, and I don't want to be labeled an asshole. Likewise, the stalker had sex with the caller without his consent. She is a rapist. Why do so many people want to let this stalker off the hook? Having had a prior sexual relationship doesn't mean that the stalkerwoman had the caller's consent. Following that logic, we could all be having sex with our former partners without their expressed consent and be protected. Which gets dicey if they're in new committed monogamous relationships or marriages. If someone is raped, being drunk, or having admitted to being "a drinker," doesn't absolve a rapist from having committed rape. If that were the case, I could steal your wallet whenever you've been drinking and not be called a thief. Rape is not an appropriate consequence for someone being drunk. In case you're wondering, the appropriate consequence for being drunk is being hungover. The majority of rapes that are committed are done so using alcohol or drugs as a means to put the victim in a vulnerable state. In our culture, where drinking (and, specifically binge drinking) is a norm in social interactions, alcohol is the #1 date rape drug. And most survivors would say that they drank willingly. That doesn't make this stalker's behavior any less creepy and predatory. All she did was realize that he was vulnerable and take advantage of the situation. Unfortunately, Dan outlines only 2 possible outcomes for this survivor of rape: that it wasn't rape, or that he was raped and "someone goes to jail." There's another option: That it was rape, and whether or not he takes legal action, he can go and get counseling. Unfortunately most rapes aren't even reported, and since our culture is one that protects rapists (as evidenced by all the victim-blaming, bullshit excuse-filled posts above), many survivors don't report for many reasons, including one that Dan points out: The caller is less likely to be believed because he is a guy. Male survivors of rape often don't even get counseling to help themselves because they often don't know what resources exist for men, and/or because many rape victim advocacy programs are housed in womens' centers. That's starting to change, but as long as rape is considered a "women's issue," many male survivors won't get the help they need. Bottom line, the caller went out, and got drunk at a party. How many of us have done that before? Does that mean we all deserve to be raped? Reading through some of the posts above, it sounds like a lot of people think we do. So what if the caller didn't delete her number, so what if he answered the phone? The stalker was unable to get his consent, it was rape. No grey area involved. @44 That would make sense if he ever said "no" to her, which he didn't. When she started exhibiting behavior he found creepy, he just stopped talking to her...I don't remember him mentioning he told her to never contact him again, stay out of his life, yadda yadda. If he flat out told her "no, I don't want to see you any more" and she waited for a moment of weakness and pounced...yeah, sounds like rape. Starting to ignore a girl because she's creeping you out and never addressing it with her, then getting drunk at a party and answering her call, telling her where you are and how to get there, and then getting in her car, back to her place, and (supposedly) have sex with her, wake up the next morning and can't remember....yeah, I'm not backing down - it sounds like gray area. @55 why do you have to be so reasonable? Don't you know all sex is rape, because sex is bad and rape is bad and no two people ever want ti the same amount and sex is bad and penises are yucky and vaginas are gross and rape is bad? Jeez. Re: stalker rape. What if she turns up pregnant? If I were him I would call rape crisis to document the occurrence, forget criminal or civil charges, man up and take partial responsibility for getting blackout drunk in public...which is stupid after all. I have another suggestion for the young gay man who has nightmares about a sexually aggressive woman he calls "Pussy Kruger." Sometimes, fears we have in real life are reflected in our dreams. It sounds like this is the case for this man based on his recounting of an actual experience he had with a real-life pussy, where he "recoiled and became a trembling wreck." So if he can overcome this fear in real life it's likely the nightmares will stop, or at least lose their charge. A strategy for overcoming fears is called "systematic desensitization." For example, if someone is allergic to snakes, we might show them a picture of a snake until they get comfortable with it. Then we might expose them to a rubber snake. Then they might look through a window at a live snake in the next room. They might stand outside a cage that holds a snake. The name might touch the snake while wearing a glove. Each step is small enough that it can be taken without too much anxiety and they stay at that stage until they get comfortable. Using this technique, people often eventually find themselves holding the snake without fear. And typically, when people overcome their biggest fears, they report that other parts of their life change as well. The caller could do the same thing with pussy. And there's a type of person called a surrogate partner who is willing to let their body be part of a therapeutic process. In this case, that therapeutic process would involve gradually and systematically overcoming fear of pussy, in an experiential way, so that he doesn't just understand intellectually that pussies are nothing to be afraid of, but would be able to overcome that visceral response that contradicts his intellectual understanding. Surrogate partners always work in conjunction with therapists, so the caller would get the benefit of verbal counseling as well as the experiential desensitization work they do with the surrogate partner. For more information about surrogate partner therapy, see the website of the International Professional Surrogates Association at	eng	deafff94-d013-4129-ad1c-7b07ffc384a5	http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Comments?oid=13316945&category=SavageLovePodcast
Newstag:news.sciencemag.org,2010-01-11://52013-05-25T13:03:10ZUp to the minute news and features from Science.Movable Type Pro 5.01Fan of Decomposition? Have We Got Something for Youtag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.267002013-05-24T21:30:00Z2013-05-25T13:03:10Z"Atlas of Vertebrate Decay" captures creatures at their most putrefying, and could be a boon to fossil huntersDavid Malakoff Portraits of putrefying fish might not spark bidding wars at Sotheby's, but they're making a hit with fossil researchers. A new Atlas of Vertebrate Decay, filled with photos of rotting hagfish, sharks, and lampreys, promises to help paleontologists identify ancient creatures that got squashed and scrambled during the process of fossilization. Fossils have long provided researchers with critical evidence of how life evolved, revealing how structures such as fins, feathers, jaws, and backbones developed over time. But often the remains can be hard to interpret. Scavengers can jumble and break bones and shells, rot dissolves signature soft tissues, and geologic forces flatten 3D carcasses into papery imprints. To make sense of such puzzles, paleontologists often try to match fossils to modern, living organisms, looking for similar features. The problem, says paleobiologist Mark Purnell of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, "is that most fossils preserve decomposed remains, so we should be comparing the fossil to rotting things, not living animals. But there's often no database of what rotting things look like." One result: Researchers studying the evolution of early vertebrates have sometimes spent decades fiercely debating whether a particular fossil represents a big news missing link, or just another mangled carcass. To make comparisons easier, Purnell and two colleagues, Leicester's Sarah Gabbott and Robert Sansom, now at the University of Manchester, decided to take on some "smelly and unpleasant but useful research." First, they collected living specimens of six species that researchers believe are similar to early vertebrates, including the Atlantic hagfish (Myxine glutinosa), jawless lampreys, a couple of sharks, and the fishlike chordate known as Amphioxus. It wasn't easy: Hagfish, for instance, produce copious amounts of slime, and Sansom had to empty a suitcase full of goop while returning by train from a collecting trip to Sweden. "The slime was leaking out the zipper, and some of the other passengers complained," Gabbott says. Once back at the lab, the team let specimens rot in water for as long as 300 days, periodically photographing the disintegration. The images are the heart of the atlas, published in this month's issue of Palaeontology. Sometimes, they show that "what may be the most useful [body] parts for identifying a fossil rot away first," Gabbott says. Soft cartilage and distinctive muscle tissues, for instance, can melt away within weeks. But the atlas also highlights hardier structures that could help scientists separate special fossils from the ordinary. A decayed shark, for instance, looks suspiciously like an "enigmatic," 400-million-year-old fish fossil found in Scotland that some researchers believe could be an early vertebrate ancestor, Purnell says. The authors of the atlas "have done fantastic, important work by making stuff rot," says paleontologist Jason Head of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Researchers trying to piece together evolutionary trees "can be misled by fossils," he says, "because we only see what is preserved, not decayed away. But understanding what was there and isn't now can be really important to getting it right." For his part, Purnell concedes that that the atlas isn't for the squeamish. Still, he says, "every coffee table should have one." A new paper in the journal Cell claiming to have achieved breakthrough stem cell work—using cloning to create personalized human embryonic stem cells—is coming under serious scrutiny. Both Cell and the paper's author say that errors with the images don't invalidate the paper's results. But the scientific community seems to be holding its breath and waiting for others to replicate the results before it will accept the work. Quantum physics just got a bit stranger. Researchers already knew that two photons can form long-distance connections across vast stretches of space, whereby measuring the state of one causes changes in the state of the other—a phenomenon known as entanglement. Now, physicists have shown that entanglement can occur across time as well, so that two photons don't have to exist at the same time to form what Albert Einstein called "spooky action at a distance." Can you read this without scratching? Itchiness is rather mysterious, and although lots of people suffer from miserable, chronic itchiness, we're still not very good at treating it. Now, researchers have managed to identify a key molecule associated with our desire to scratch. They hope that the discovery will eventually bring relief to those plagued by relentless itching. We all know about good bacteria—they're in our tummies, on our skin, and in our yogurt. But did you know that viruses can be quite friendly, too? It turns out that our bodies harbor "good" viruses in our mucus that protect us from bacteria. Researchers say the finding may help crack diseases like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. Whooping cough has exploded in the United States in recent years, and scientists say that it's not the antivaccination crowd that's to blame. The newer formulation of the vaccine, introduced 20 years ago, is simply less effective than its older counterpart at conferring prolonged immunity. Although the older vaccine was more effective, it sometimes caused powerful side effects like seizures and fainting fits, so there's no going back, researchers say. Instead, they must create a new generation of vaccines that's just as safe as the current formulation, but offers better long-term protection against the illness. ]]> Obama Nominates John Thompson to Lead Census Bureautag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/scienceinsider//8.266982013-05-24T19:25:00Z2013-05-24T20:09:50ZVeteran statistician seen as highly qualified for a challenging assignment Jeffrey Mervis A former senior career official at the U.S. Census Bureau has been nominated as its director. The appointment, applauded by community leaders, comes at a time of intense political and financial pressure on the statistical agency. Last night, President Barack Obama announced that he wants John Thompson to succeed Robert Groves, who left last summer to become provost of Georgetown University. Thompson spent 27 years at the Census Bureau and led the 2000 census. Since 2008, he has been president of NORC, an independent research organization based at the University of Chicago. Groves called Thompson's appointment "a wonderful gift" to the country. "The world of data describing human behavior is changing at an unprecedented rate, and John has grappled with those issues at both the Bureau and NORC," Groves said. Last month, The Census Project, a coalition of organizations that use census data, urged the White House to act "promptly" on the nomination. In a letter to Obama, the coalition noted the need for a permanent director "as the agency confronts serious budget challenges, defends the American Community Survey (ACS), and conducts critical testing and systems development for Census 2020." "I think it's a great choice, and I'm glad there's a nominee," said Lawrence Brown, a professor of statistics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and chair of the National Academies' Committee on National Statistics. "The selection of someone with his experience and stature and knowledge is a sign of the administration's support for moving the agency forward." ]]> Each of the issues flagged in the coalition's letter poses a significant challenge for the next director. Specifically, the 2010 census cost a record $14 billion, and doing it the same way in 2020 could cost twice as much. Nobody expects the agency to be given anywhere close to that amount of money, however, meaning that it will need to find cheaper methods without sacrificing quality. Its best options are using the Internet and so-called administrative records, existing data already collected by other federal agencies, although each poses major problems that need to be resolved. The Census Bureau is also under attack by conservative legislators who believe that its surveys are intrusive and should be conducted by the private sector. In April, Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC) introduced a bill to eliminate most of its surveys and drastically shrink the scope of the decennial census. And Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) has reintroduced a measure that would make the ACS voluntary. Duncan's bill "essentially eviscerates" the agency's activities and would turn the decennial census into an exercise in head-counting, says Terri Ann Lowenthal of The Census Project. "It's really a bit absurd." She says a voluntary ACS is also a terrible idea. As Brown noted, "the evidence is clear that going from a mandatory to a voluntary survey increases costs and reduces accuracy." If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Thompson would be the first census director to be hired under a 2012 law intended to provide a smooth handoff between decennial censuses. Specifically, the law created a 5-year term, beginning in years ending in "2" or "7." After completing the rest of the 2012 term, Thompson also would be eligible for reappointment by the next president for a full 5-year term beginning January 2017. Thompson declined to comment on the issues he will face if confirmed. But a NORC spokesperson said that he "is delighted and honored to be considered for the position." ]]> A Snapshot of the Inside of an Atomtag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266972013-05-24T18:55:00Z2013-05-24T22:24:56ZResearchers peer through the quantum weirdness No Primary Author Talk about taking a tough shot. Physicists have, for the first time, been able to image the quantum workings of electrons in hydrogen atoms, an advance that could open the door to a deeper understanding of the quantum world. Snapping a picture of the inside of an atom—the electrons, the protons, the neutrons—is no easy task. Quantum mechanics makes it virtually impossible to pin down these subatomic particles. Instead of having the ability to describe where a particle is, quantum theory provides a description of its whereabouts called a wave function. Wave functions work like sound waves, except that whereas the mathematical description of a sound wave defines the motion another bit of quantum weirdness, most attempts to directly observe wave functions actually destroy them in a process called collapse. So to experimentally measure the properties of a wave function requires researchers to reconstruct it from many separate destructive measurements on identically prepared atoms or molecules. Physicists at AMOLF, a lab of the Netherlands' Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), in Amsterdam demonstrated a new nondestructive approach in a paper published this week in Physical Review Letters. Building on a 1981 proposal by three Russian theorists and more recent work that brought that proposal into the realm of possibility, the team first fired two lasers at hydrogen atoms inside a chamber, kicking off electrons at speeds and directions that depended on their underlying wave functions. A strong electric field inside the chamber guided the electrons to positions on a planar detector that depended on their initial velocities rather than on their initial positions. So the distribution of electrons striking the detector matched the wave function the electrons had at the moment they left their hydrogen nuclei behind. The apparatus displays the electron distribution on a phosphorescent screen as light and dark rings, which the team photographed using a high-resolution digital camera. "We are really happy with our results," says team leader Aneta Stodolna, noting that although quantum mechanics is part of daily life for physicists, it is rarely understood in such a visceral way. She says that there may be practical applications in the future—a commentary accompanying the paper suggests that the method could aid in the development of technologies such as molecular wires, atom-thick conductors that could help shrink electronic devices—but that their result concerns "extremely fundamental" physics that might be just as valuable for developing quantum intuition in the next generation of physicists. "It's an interesting experiment, mostly because it's investigating hydrogen," an element that is both a textbook example in undergraduate physics classes and also makes up three-quarters of the universe, says Jeff Lundeen, a physicist at the University of Ottawa in Canada who's performed related experiments on photon wave functions. Stodolna's team "basically developed a new technique" for observing wave functions, Lundeen says, though it's not yet clear whether it applies to more complicated atoms that physicists understand less well than hydrogen. "If it ends up being fairly universal … then it would be a very useful tool" for studying those atoms in the lab, improving physicists' understanding of the atomic physics underlying chemical reactions and nanotechnology. ]]> Lavish Furnishings at MD Anderson Cancer Center Questionedtag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/scienceinsider//8.266942013-05-24T17:25:00Z2013-05-24T21:16:26ZNewsletter alleges that more than $1 million was spent on a redesign including glass walls and designer furniture Jocelyn Kaiser The renovation of an office for Lynda Chin, the wife of the president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Ronald DePinho, may have cost as much as $2 million, according to an analysis by a Washington, D.C., investigative newsletter. The allegations of lavish spending on Chin's office at MD Anderson add to the woes of the pair of cancer research leaders a year after Chin was awarded an $18 million grant from a state cancer research fund that did not undergo scientific review. The office suite for Chin, who heads a new drug discovery institute at MD Anderson and chairs the center's Department of Genomic Medicine, was meant to have a "corporate" feel, according to 680 pages of documents obtained by The Cancer Letter. The do-over included designer furniture and required many exceptions from university building rules for features such as glass walls. The renovation was paid for by the center's capital accounts, which come from investment income, gifts, and patient revenue, MD Anderson officials told the newsletter. MD Anderson disputed the newsletter's cost estimates and defended the spending. Although the overall project cost $1.5 million, officials said that this amount included the purchase of lab equipment. The tab for Chin's office renovations was $547,434, they said. They told The Cancer Letter that the project "transformed a traditional academic office suite to a work environment and meeting area for a science/business enterprise, a concept new not only to MD Anderson, but most of academic medicine." (The Cancer Letter estimated costs of up to $2 million based on invoices and other documents that did not mention lab equipment.) Last week, DePinho announced that because of financial pressures, MD Anderson is freezing staff salaries and postponing some capital projects. *Update, 5:15 p.m., 24 May: The estimates of the costs of the office renovation have been clarified. ]]> Billionaires Buy Merck Site to Build Swiss Biotech Campustag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/scienceinsider//8.266922013-05-24T16:15:00Z2013-05-24T16:16:02ZPublic-private venture brings research hopes to Geneva after pharma giant's exit last year No Primary Author Swiss billionaires Hansjörg Wyss and Ernesto Bertarelli have bought the former building of drug company Merck Serono in Geneva, where they plan to set up a biotech research center with two local universities. The announcement, made on Wednesday, was welcomed by Swiss scientists as a boon for the Geneva area. It comes about a year after Merck Serono said that it would close down its Geneva headquarters and relocate R&D activities to Germany, the United States, and China. The company employed about 1250 people in Geneva at the time. "This will fill a gap. Serono's exit had caused hundreds of researchers to lose their jobs," Jean-Paul Clozel, head of biotech company Actelion in Basel, Switzerland, told La 1ère, a Swiss public radio station, yesterday. Merck Serono sold the building to a consortium called Campus Biotech, made up of the Bertarelli family, the Wyss Foundation, the University of Geneva (UNIGE), and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Bertarelli is, in fact, buying back the site of his former family business, biotech firm Serono, which he had sold to Merck in 2007. Clozel praised the billionaires, regional authorities, and university leaders for their joint work. "It's quite rare to see so many people agreeing among themselves," he said, adding that politicians should now let scientists lead the endeavor. "Creating this kind of center cannot be done without political will and support … but at the end, the venture's success will be down to the research projects," Clozel said. ]]> The Campus Biotech project includes the creation of Wyss Institute for Bio- and Neuro-Engineering. It will receive $103 million from the Wyss Foundation and will be modeled after a similar center for biologically inspired engineering that Wyss funded at Harvard University. (On Tuesday, that institute announced that Wyss had doubled his gift, from $125 million to $250 million.) Merck Serono said that it will hand over the property to Campus Biotech on 28 June but did not disclose details of the sale. In December 2012, Swiss newspaper the Tribune de Genève wrote that the site includes 32,000 square meters of offices and 42,000 square meters of vacant land, with an estimated price tag of $517 million. UNIGE and EPFL will occupy about 15,000 square meters of the site; about half of this will be used by the Wyss Institute and the other half by research groups from the two universities. The remaining space will be available for businesses, the consortium said in a statement published on Wednesday. Forbes magazine now ranks Bertarelli and Wyss as the two richest men in Switzerland. Wyss made part of his fortune by selling his company Synthes, a manufacturer of medical devices, to U.S. firm Johnson & Johnson last year. After selling Serono to Merck, Bertarelli launched investment company Arès Life Sciences in 2008. The drug industry remains one of the most important economic activities in Switzerland. According to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, R&D spending in the Swiss pharma industry amounted to €4.62 billion in 2010—an amount comparable to that of much larger countries such as France and Germany. ]]> Brazil Announces Funding for a Second Round of Multidisciplinary Research Centerstag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/scienceinsider//8.266912013-05-24T15:20:00Z2013-05-24T18:32:18ZThe 17 groups will each receive up to 11 years of support Lizzie Wade The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) has launched a second round of Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) in Brazil. The 17 new, multidisciplinary centers will receive a total of $680 million over 11 years for basic research, technology transfer initiatives, and outreach in a variety of fields including drug discovery and the social science of violence. FAPESP will provide half their funding, with the rest coming from the host institutions. The RIDC program is designed "to offer funding for research groups which have especially bold scientific proposals that require funding for a long time," explains Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, the scientific director of FAPESP, which announced the new round of winners on 15 May. São Paulo's constitution guarantees 1% of the state's tax revenues to FAPESP every year, a provision that Brito calls "essential" to the foundation's ability to fund ambitious, long-term research projects like the RIDCs. FAPESP funded the first round of RIDCs from October 2000 to December 2012. Three of the original 10 centers have basically been extended for a second decade: the Center for Metropolitan Studies, the Center for Cell-Based Therapy, and the Center for the Study of Violence. ]]> The principal investigators (PIs) from five other original RIDCs also received second-round funding, largely to expand upon or advance the work of their first-round centers. The Center for Structural Molecular Biotechnology will become the Center for Research and Innovation in Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, for example, and the Human Genome Research Center will add stem cell research to its mission. Nine of the second round RIDCs are entirely new. They include centers focused on food, glass, inflammatory disease, obesity, applied mathematics, computer science and engineering, and biomedicine, as well as two neuroscience initiatives. Two of the original RIDCs did not receive second-round funding in any form: the Center for Sleep Studies and the Antonio Prudente Cancer Research Center. According to Brito, the PIs of these centers are eligible to apply for 5-year grants from FAPESP. Brito hopes that the supporting institutions will step up in this second round of the program. Often in Brazil, "if [the researcher] gets more funding, he ends up spending more time of his own time managing the funds as opposed to working in science and research," Brito says. "So we had a very detailed discussion with each one of the institutions that host the 17 centers to make sure that they will offer enough managerial and administrative support." The 17 second-round RIDCs were chosen from among 90 proposals vetted by an international panel of reviewers. The complete list is: the Food Research Center; the Center for Research, Teaching, and Innovation in Glass; the Center for Research and Development of Functional Materials; the Brazilian Research Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology; the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases; the Center for Research and Innovation in Biodiversity and Drug Discovery; the Center for Research on Toxins, Immune Response, and Cell Signaling; the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics; the Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry; the Obesity and Co-Morbidities Research Center; the Center for Cell-Based Therapy; the Center for Metropolitan Studies; the Human Genome and Stem-Cell Research Center; the Center for Computational Science and Engineering; the Center for Research on Redox Processes in Biomedicine; the Center for the Study of Violence; and the Optics and Photonics Research Center. ]]> Mislabeled Images Bedevil Landmark Cloning Papertag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/scienceinsider//8.266902013-05-23T22:40:00Z2013-05-24T18:13:15ZAuthor Shoukhrat Mitalipov wishes "we had that software" to check figuresNo Primary Author One day after a prominent paper in the journal Cellwas flagged for image duplication, the main author and the journal say that the problems arose from simple mislabeling of images and do not invalidate the results. They also defended the unusually rapid review of the paper, which was accepted only 4 days after official submission and published online 12 days later. The work, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton, was notable for two reasons: It's the first time anyone has used cloning to create personalized human embryonic stem (ES) cells, and it's the same result that was described back in 2004 and 2005 by a group of South Korean scientists in what turned out to be one of the world's most notorious cases of scientific fraud. Stem cell scientists were initially delighted, with one telling Science that the work was a "hard-won triumph after many years of diligent research." After a commenter posted on a site called PubPeer, alleging duplicated and mislabeled images in the paper, delight turned to dismay. "It's a shame that this important area of research has come under scrutiny once again," writes Kevin Eggan of Harvard University to ScienceInsider in an e-mail. Mitalipov spoke with ScienceInsiderthis afternoon, and says that he and the other co-authors simply overlooked the mistakes, in part because the images in question are meant to show that the cells are similar. "With the naked eye, it's very hard to see if this is the same image or a different image." He says that he is curious whether the PubPeer contributor used image-checking software to catch the duplications. "I wish we had that software to run the paper through," he says. ]]> The first set of duplications involves three figures. The images are meant to show that the ES cells from cloned embryos look similar to those derived from IVF embryos, suggesting the cloned ES cells are the real thing. But the same image seems to show up twice under a different label: once as an an ES cell line derived from a cloned embryo, and elsewhere in the paper as a control ES cell line from an IVF embryo. Another image in that same set, figure 6, appears as a cloned cell line but also shows up in a supplemental figure labeled as the control line. Mitalipov, who spoke with ScienceInsider this afternoon, says that first author Masahito Tachibana deliberately used the images twice, but accidentally reversed the labels in figure 6. The second duplication appears in supplemental figure S6, where a scatterplot purporting to show gene expression similarities between the cell lines was used twice. Mitalipov says that the wrong scatterplot was used, and the correct one will be published in an erratum. The original microarray data are publicly available, he notes. Mitalipov argues that the key data proving whether the cell lines are really derived from cloned embryos is unaffected by these errors. What's most important is whether the ES cells' mitochondrial DNA matches that of the egg cell donor and whether the nuclear DNA matches the cell that was cloned. The researchers deliberately chose a widely available cell line for their experiments, Mitalipov says, making it easy for outside labs to try to confirm the results. He says that he is ready to ship the cloned ES cell lines to several labs that have requested them as soon as the Oregon institutional review board signs off on the transfers, which could happen in a matter of days. (Federal funding restrictions forbid National Institutes of Health-funded labs from working on the cells, because they were derived via cloning, so recipients also need to show that they have a legal place to work with the cell lines.) Cell , meanwhile, sought to defend itself. Editors from the journal declined to speak with Science, but spokesperson Mary Beth O'Leary released a statement, noting that "it seems there were some minor errors made by the authors. … We do not believe these errors impact the scientific findings of the paper in any way." Several stem cell experts tell ScienceInsider that the images in question aren't key to the paper's conclusions. Nevertheless, Eggan writes, "we'll likely have to wait until the cell lines in question are validated by others, or an independent group replicates the [cloned ES cell] finding before we'll know for sure." Dieter Egli of the New York Stem Cell Foundation in New York City tells ScienceInsider that he and his colleagues are already working to replicate Mitalipov's claims. Cell was not able to address one key question before our deadline: What was the rush in securing the paper? It had an unusually rapid turnaround, submitted on 30 April and accepted on 3 May. "The reviewers graciously agreed to prioritize attention to reviewing this paper in a timely way," Cell's statement read. "It is a misrepresentation to equate slow peer review with thoroughness or rigor, or to use timely peer review as a justification for sloppiness in manuscript preparation." In a story by Nature, Mitalipov seemed to imply that he pressed for rapid review because he wanted to present the work at a conference. But that meeting isn't until mid-June, and Cell has previously permitted authors of high-profile papers to publish in the journal after describing their research at a meeting. Mitalipov tells ScienceInsider that although he mentioned the conference when he submitted the paper, it wasn't the reason for speedy review, nor was competition from another group. He says he first sent the paper to the journal "5 or 6 days" before the official 30 April submission date as part of a presubmission inquiry. After Cell editors indicated that they were interested, he says, he officially submitted via the website on 30 April. He says the journal simply asked reviewers to look at the paper promptly, "and they did it in a day." The reviewers had only minor critiques, he says, which the authors were able to address quickly. Cell may have been worried about news of the paper leaking, he says, which might have prompted the publication online shortly after acceptance. The paper is scheduled for publication in the 6 June print issue of the journal. Tachibana is "devastated" by the mistakes, Mitalipov says. Still, the senior scientist is confident that their results will soon be confirmed. "We have the cell lines. We can show what the mitochondrial [DNA] data is, and what the nuclear data is," Mitalipov says. He and his co-authors are now combing through "every dot" in the paper to make sure that there are not any more undiscovered errors before they submit an official correction. ]]> Podcast: Friendly Viruses, Weaning Neandertals, and Why Penguins Don't Flytag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266892013-05-23T20:50:00Z2013-05-23T20:51:33ZAn audio roundup of some of our favorite stories of the week No Primary Author Can viruses help us fight infection? How early did Neandertals wean their young? And why don't penguins fly? Science's Online News Editor David Grimm chats about these stories and more with Science's Kerry Klein. ]]> Whales Freed from Fishing Gear May Still Die a Slow Deathtag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266882013-05-23T19:15:00Z2013-05-23T19:16:38ZThe effects of being trapped persist long after emancipation No Primary Author On Christmas Day 2010, an aerial team of wildlife spotters saw a whale in distress off the eastern coast of Florida. Her head, mouth, and fins were tangled in 132 meters of commercial fishing rope. Marine veterinarians and biologists untangled the whale, diving into the water and cutting the lines that had wrapped around her upper jaw and cut into her flesh. But the damage had been done. Weeks later, the giant mammal was found floating at the surface, the victim of a shark attack. The incident, according to a new study, shows that whales' fight against fishing gear can kill them long after they've been freed from it. Researchers already know that heavy-duty commercial fishing lines and lobster and crab traps, connected to the surface by long ropes, pose a formidable threat to whales in the North Atlantic, by inflicting deep wounds and sapping their energy reserves. Accidental entrapment is the leading cause of death for Atlantic whales in records going back to 1970. The National Marine Fisheries Service reported 25 sightings of entangled whales in 2010. Five did not survive the encounter. Many of the surviving whales were described as thin and weak. The whale spotted on Christmas, a 2-year-old female right whale cataloged as Eg 3911 (Eg for the species' scientific name, Eubalaena glacialis), tangled with a fishing trap line sometime between February and December 2010. By the time researchers rescued her on 15 January 2011, she was 20% thinner than other right whales her age. The team suspects she wasn't able to dive deep enough to reach the plankton and crustaceans she'd normally feed on. Once liberated, Eg 3911 began swimming faster and diving deeper, but she had no way to bulk back up. Right whales normally feed in cool northern waters during the summer, and Florida's winter waters offered no food sources. "You're tired, you're hungry, you're really skinny, and there's nothing for you to eat," says Julie van der Hoop, a marine mammal biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and lead author of a new paper documenting the incident. Eg 3911 was found dead in the water on 1 February, sporting lethal shark attack wounds. Van der Hoop suspects that the whale was lethargically bobbing at the surface when she was bitten. Following Eg 3911's death, van der Hoop and colleagues wondered how much the gear taxed the emaciated whale's energy reserves. Scientists lowered some of the very fishing gear removed from Eg 3911 into the water behind a moving skiff to estimate how much drag the lines and buoys generated, and how much energy the whale would have to expend to compensate. They estimated that Eg 3911 was burning up to twice as much energy while entangled. Their results appear online this week in Marine Mammal Science. The team doesn't know how long Eg 3911 was entangled—it could have been only weeks, or closer to a year. Whales can live with the tight, cutting, restricting lines for 6 months to a year before succumbing to injury, infection, or starvation, van der Hoop says. "That is a really long time to be subject to this type of injury." Long-term consequences may linger long after entrapment, even when whales return to health. Marine mammal biologist Scott Kraus of the New England Aquarium in Boston, who was not involved in the study, says that he plans to use these results to reexamine the life history of whales postentanglement. "We've tended to think that entangled animals either get free or die," he says. "The sublethal effects of entanglement have not been considered." Kraus says that he's learned a sobering lesson from Eg 3911's story—whales are not home free once they're loosed from entangling lines. "The impact of humanity on these creatures does not end when they go out of sight." ]]> The Secret of the Itchtag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266862013-05-23T18:30:00Z2013-05-23T18:40:03ZResearchers identify key molecule in our desire to scratchEmily Underwood Not all itches go away with a simple scratch. Roughly 15% of people suffer relentless, long-term itch, often caused by diseases and medications; terminally ill cancer patients, for example, often experience such severe whole-body itch in response to morphine that many choose to live in pain rather than take the medication. Now, researchers have identified a hormone in mice that delivers itchy sensations to neurons in the spinal cord, which then relays the signal to the brain. The discovery could point to treatments for people who suffer from chronic itch caused by disease or medication. Scientists have known for a long time that sensory neurons called TRPV1 cells can detect itchy substances on the skin, says Mark Hoon, a neuroscientist at National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in Bethesda, Maryland. Because TRPV1 neurons also respond to hot and painful stimuli, however, it wasn't clear whether the neurons that respond to itch are unique, or if itch might simply be low-grade pain. That's made it difficult to develop treatments that target itch without affecting other sensory systems, Hoon says. While analyzing molecules excreted by TRPV1 cells in search of anything that might be itch-specific, Hoon and his colleagues came across a small group of the neurons that produce natriuretic polypeptide b (Nppb), a hormone that regulates heart function and can also act as a neurotransmitter. "We wondered what those cells were doing," Hoon says. To find out, the team genetically modified mice to block production of Nppb in TRPV1 neurons, then injected the skin on their shoulders with a range of itch-inducing compounds, including histamine, an inflammatory molecule involved in immune responses, and the malaria drug chloroquine. Normally, these substances make mice scratch nonstop, but the knockout mice hardly scratched themselves at all after the injection, showing that Nppb was required to produce the sensation of itch, the authors report online today in Science. No other sensory systems appeared to be affected in the knockout mice, Hoon says. Next, the researchers looked to the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, where signals from peripheral nerves are routed to the brain, and found the receptors for Nppb in a group of neurons that release a molecule called gastrin-releasing peptide, or GRP. GRP was previously thought to be the original molecular trigger for itch, Hoon says. Now, he says, it's clear that Nppb-releasing TRPV1 neurons, not GRP-releasing cells, are the first trigger in transmitting itch, presenting a new "Achilles heel" that could be investigated for treatment. "These cells weren't known before," Hoon says. "They weren't even envisaged." New therapies for humans that safely block Nppb activity are still be a long way off, however. Although the Nppb-knockout mice lived a normal lifespan, when the researchers killed the receptor cells in the spinal cord, the mice died prematurely, suggesting that it could be dangerous to try humans, Hoon says. The results of the study remain "very convincing, and important," says Glenn Giesler, a neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities. A treatment that could disrupt itch signaling at the level of the spinal cord would be "a tremendous boon," he says. "At least they now have a new target." ]]> ScienceShot: Why Some Cockroaches Check Out of Roach Motelstag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266772013-05-23T18:00:00Z2013-05-22T20:49:55ZSome of the insects have evolved to hate the taste of a glucose-baited traps No Primary Author Roach motels sit at the back of many a kitchen cupboard, bedroom closet, or bathroom cabinet. Yet, to the bane of human residents, only a few years after the traps were introduced in the 1980s, they lost their allure for an increasing number of German cockroaches. Researchers soon realized that some roaches had developed an aversion to glucose—the sugary bait disguising the poison—and that the insects were passing that trait on to their young. Now, scientists have figured out how this behavior evolved. Roaches, like other insects, detect taste through special receptors that line hairlike appendages on their mouthparts. The receptors differentiate between sweet and bitter flavors, which signal to the roach whether to eat or avoid the food, respectively. The researchers performed experiments on more than 1000 German cockroaches from the field and about 250 raised in the lab. The normal roaches happily lapped up both glucose and fructose, but the glucose-averse roaches ate only the fructose and spat out the glucose, the team reports online today in Science. Electrophysiological recordings indicated that glucose triggered sweet receptors in the normal roaches but bitter receptors in the other roaches. The change in behavior may save the insects' lives, but it does have its disadvantages: Glucose-averse roaches grow and reproduce more slowly than those with less finicky tastes. ]]> ScienceShot: How the White Tiger Got Its Coat tag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266812013-05-23T16:00:00Z2013-05-22T20:52:22ZScientists find gene behind striking coloration No Primary Author Zoos are the only places where white tigers exist: Treasured for their enigmatic coats, they've been hunted to extinction in the wild. Now, for the first time, scientists have found the DNA behind this snowy coat. Researchers analyzed the genomes of 16 related orange and white tigers in captivity, fully mapping those of the three parent tigers to show that a mutation in one pigment gene called SLC45A2 is at play—the very same gene that drives lighter coloring in people of European ancestry, chickens, and some mice. The team also found this SLC45A2 mutation in another 130 unrelated white and orange tigers, which helped confirm that in white cats it appears to silence red and yellow pigments but leave black untouched—hence the leftover stripes. The researchers are not yet sure how this happens; the mutated gene may alter the production of the pigment, melanin, they report online today in Current Biology. Some scientists had argued that white fur was a genetic defect intensified by inbreeding. But because the gene appears to affect only the cat's color, white tigers are simply genetically healthy variants of Bengal tigers, which, if bred carefully, might still survive well in the wild. Better captive breeding programs could improve their genetic diversity—perhaps spurring on the cat's eventual reintroduction into its native Indian forests. ]]> Cell Investigating Breakthrough Stem Cell Papertag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/scienceinsider//8.266832013-05-22T21:20:00Z2013-05-23T15:02:37ZJournal evaluating possible image duplicationJennifer Couzin-Frankel Eight years after South Korean stem cell scientists were exposed in one of the biggest scientific frauds ever, a paper claiming to have achieved work they faked is itself under investigation. Last week, a group led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton reported in Cell that it had used cloning to make personalized human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). The news was widely covered (including in Science) that Woo-Suk Hwang and his team claimed to have created individually tailored hESCs by cloning skin cells. That report, in Science, soon unraveled when it was found that the team had manipulated images and faked their data. After last week's report, a commenter on PubPeer, a site dedicated to postpublication peer review, alleged several instances of "image reuse" in the Cell paper. The commenter also noted that "in the paper, it is recorded that the journal Cell accepted this paper just 4 days after submission." The claims of image inconsistencies were enough to pique the journal's concern. "I can confirm that our editorial team is assessing the allegations brought up in the PubPeer piece," writes Cell spokesperson Mary Beth O'Leary in an e-mail to ScienceInsider. "I will get back to you as soon as they have fully investigated the claims raised in PubPeer." ]]> Italian Parliament Orders Clinical Trial of Controversial Stem Cell Treatmenttag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/scienceinsider//8.266822013-05-22T20:35:00Z2013-05-22T20:49:55ZSenate vote puts an end—for now—to national debate over disputed injections No Primary AuthorROME—A controversial Italian stem cell therapy that scientists say is unproven will undergo its first solid scientific test. The Italian Senate today voted in favor of a new bill, already approved by the Chamber of Deputies on 16 May, that sets aside €3 million for a clinical trial of the treatment, devised by the Stamina Foundation in Turin. Meanwhile, the foundation can continue treating 12 patients at a hospital in Brescia who are already undergoing the disputed therapy. "This will probably be the first time that a parliament orders a clinical trial," says Elena Cattaneo, director of UniStem stem cell center at the University of Milan. The merits of Stamina's treatments have long been under dispute in Italy. The foundation says that it has found a way to transform a patient's own mesenchymal stem cells, derived from bone marrow, into newly minted nerve cells that can be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. But many stem cell scientists have dismissed those claims; the International Society for Stem Cell Research recently said that there is no "compelling evidence from clinical trials that such cells provide benefit to patients with neurological conditions." ]]> Under existing Italian law, unproven stem cell therapies can be administered on a case-by-case basis to patients with untreatable, severe illnesses who have no other options—but only if there are enough published data on safety in internationally recognized journals and if therapies are prepared by authorized hospital labs under the Italian rules for the production of stem cells. Stamina has treated 12 patients at the Spedali Civili, a public hospital in Brescia, since 2011. But in 2012, the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) halted the treatments there after it had identified several irregularities. In March of this year, then-health minister Renato Balduzzi—under severe pressure from patients—expressed his support for the treatment and proposed a law to settle the controversy. The first version of his bill horrified scientists because it provided that the treatment could be administered to thousands of patients, without any prior clinical trials, and apparently outside the European Union's regulation for so-called advanced therapies. Today, the Italian Senate gave its final green light to an amended bill that will allow Stamina to continue giving the injections to patients whose treatment had already begun in Brescia; the foundation can't accept new patients, however. In addition, AIFA, the Italian National Health Institute, and the National Italian Transplant Centre will lead a €3 million clinical trial of the treatment. The law offers no specifics on the study's setup, or which disease it should target; it does provide for the creation of a scientific board to design the trial. Davide Vannoni, a psychologist at the University of Udine and the director of the Stamina Foundation, could not be reached today for comment on the Senate vote. In an interview a few weeks ago, Vannoni told ScienceInsider that his treatment is effective against a variety of neurodegenerative disorders and that it is based on in vitro and preclinical studies published in Chinese scientific journals; he did not provide copies of the papers, however. That's not convincing, says Francesca Pasinelli, general manager of Telethon, an Italian nonprofit foundation for the advancement of research into genetic diseases. "The language of the international scientific community is English," she says, adding that even Chinese researchers use English if they seek international credibility. On his Facebook page, Vannoni today said that his treatment cannot be prepared under international quality standards known as Good Manufacturing Practice, as required by the new law, because this could hamper its efficacy. Cattaneo says that the trial is the result of Balduzzi's "original mistake" of supporting the therapy. "This is the only thing that could be done at this point," she says. Three million euros is a very large amount, Cattaneo says, considering that stem cell research last received support at the national level in 2009, for only €8 million. "It's a waste of money," says Massimo Dominici, a cell biologist at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. But he adds that the lack of regular support for stem cell research is part of the problem. "If the government would provide enough research funding, we could translate research into [therapies] under scientific rules, rather than this way," Dominici says. ]]> ScienceShot: Working (Too) Hard for Lovetag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266802013-05-22T20:15:00Z2013-05-22T20:15:11ZDespite a male's best efforts to impress, female strawberry poison frogs simply chose the closest mate No Primary Author Male strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) work hard to woo the opposite sex with constant and intense vocalizations until they find a mate. But a new study indicates that all this effort is for naught. Researchers have found that despite the male's best efforts to impress, females simply mate with the closest frog to them. By choosing a neighbor, females minimize the risk of not mating at all, as receptive females abound and they have only a short time to fertilize their eggs. Although this behavior may seem of an acceptable standard to mate. Why go further afield, when the guy next door is just as good? The males' elaborate courtship display is still essential, however, to ensure females can hear them. Shy and silent males go dateless. ]]> Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist at the Same Timetag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266792013-05-22T18:55:00Z2013-05-23T19:36:23ZYes, your head is supposed to hurtAdrian Cho Now they're just messing with us. Physicists have long known that quantum mechanics allows for a subtle connection between quantum particles called entanglement, in which measuring one particle can instantly set the otherwise uncertain condition, or "state," of another particle—even if it's light years time-separated entanglement is predicted by standard quantum theory, O'Brien says, "but it's certainly not widely appreciated, and I don't know if it's been clearly articulated before." Entanglement is a kind of order that lurks within the uncertainty of quantum theory. Suppose you have a quantum particle of light, or photon. It can be polarized so that it wriggles either vertically or horizontally. The quantum realm is also hazed over with unavoidable uncertainty, and thanks to such quantum uncertainty, a photon can also be polarized vertically and horizontally at the same time. If you then measure the photon, however, you will find it either so that their polarizations are correlated even while they remain undetermined. For example, if you measure the first photon and find it horizontally polarized, you'll know that the other photon has instantaneously collapsed into the vertical state and vice versa—no matter how far away it is. Because the collapse happens instantly, Albert Einstein dubbed the effect "spooky action at a distance." It doesn't violate relativity, though: It's impossible to control the outcome of the measurement of the first photon, so the quantum link can't be used to send a message faster than light. Now Eli Megidish, Hagai Eisenberg, and colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have entangled two photons that don't exist at the same time. They start with a scheme known as entanglement swapping. To begin, researchers zap a special crystal with laser light a couple of times to create two entangled pairs of photons, pair 1 and 2 and pair 3 and 4. At the start, photons 1 and 4 are not tangled. But they can be if physicists play the right trick with 2 and 3. The key is that a measurement "projects" a particle into a definite state -- just as the measurement of a photon collapses it into either vertical or horizontal polarization. So even though photons 2 and 3 start out unentangled, physicists can set up a "projective measurement" that asks, are the two in one of two distinct entangled states or the other? That measurement entangles the photons, even as it absorbs and destroys them. If the researchers select only the events in which photons 2 and 3 end up in, say, the first entangled state, then the measurement also entangles photons 1 and 4. (See diagram, top.) The effect is a bit like joining two pairs of gears to form a four-gear chain: Enmeshing to inner two gears establishes a link between the outer two. In recent years, physicists have played with the timing in the scheme. For example, last year a team showed that entanglement swapping still works even if they and perform the key projective measurement. Finally, they measure the polarization of photon 4. And even though photons 1 and 4 never coexist, the measurements show that their polarizations still end up entangled. Eisenberg emphasizes that even though in relativity, time measured differently by observers in which the two photons coexist," he says, "so you cannot say that the system is entangled at this or that moment." Yet, the phenomenon definitely exists. Anton Zeilinger, a physicist at the University of Vienna, agrees that the experiment demonstrates just how slippery the concepts of quantum mechanics are. " among distant users and transmit uncrackable (but slower than light) secret communications. The new result suggests that when sharing entangled pairs of photons on such a network, a user wouldn't have to wait to see what happens to the photons sent down the line before manipulating the ones kept behind, Eisenberg says. Zeilinger says the result might have other unexpected uses: "This sort of thing opens up people's minds and suddenly somebody has an idea to use it in quantum computing or something." Correction, 23 May at 3:30 p.m.: Photon 4 at right in the upper image was incorrectly labeled as photon 2. ]]> How Long Did Neandertals Breastfeed?tag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266782013-05-22T18:00:00Z2013-05-22T18:02:21ZTeeth reveal weaning behavior in humans, monkeys, and even Neandertals Michael Balter Most child health experts agree that a minimum of 6 months of breastfeeding is essential for the welfare of growing babies, although how well such recommendations are carried out widely varies across the globe. Less is known about the breastfeeding habits of other primates—and much less still about those of prehistoric humans. A research team now reports a new technique for accurately detecting when babies were weaned, using chemical signatures in their teeth. The method was successfully applied to the tooth of a Neandertal child, raising the possibility that researchers could decipher the life histories of our evolutionary cousins and even gain insights into why they went extinct. Fossils of prehistoric humans and other primates are relatively rare because bone does not last well in most environments. Teeth, on the other hand, are hard and strong enough to survive through the ages, and they are often found at paleontological and archaeological sites. Researchers have worked diligently to extract information from ancient teeth. Paleontologists recently reported finding the teeth of the earliest apes, and archaeologists have used chemical isotopes in the teeth of early farmers to track their movements across the landscape. A team led by Manish Arora, an environmental health dentist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, hypothesized that it might be possible to detect when a child was weaned from the amount of barium in its growing teeth. Barium is an element similar to calcium and is present in water sources and many types of soils, explains co-author Christine Austin, a dental researcher at Westmead Hospital in near Sydney, Australia. Barium makes its way into both teeth and bone in small amounts. As a tooth grows, both dentine, which makes up the center of a tooth, and enamel, which forms its hard surface, are laid down in daily layers, which are clearly visible under a microscope. The teeth begin growing before birth, but while a child is still in the womb the placenta blocks most barium—but not calcium—from reaching their dentine and enamel. After birth, barium in breast milk can more easily reach the teeth; and when a human baby is switched to infant formula, even more barium enters the teeth, because both cow- and soy-based formulas contain higher levels of the element than breast milk. Then, when the child switches from formula to solid food, the barium level goes back down. The team, which reports its findings online today in Nature, started off by looking at the ratios of barium and calcium in the teeth of human children, using an instrument that scans the teeth with a laser and detects the elements found within the dentine and enamel layers. The researchers analyzed 25 baby teeth donated by mothers in Monterey County, California, who had kept careful records of their breastfeeding and infant formula habits as part of a child health program. Most of the teeth, a total of 22, revealed markedly higher barium levels right after birth; and in nine of 13 children who had first been breastfed and then given infant formula, the team could see a transition between the lower barium levels from breast milk and the higher barium levels of the formula. (The team could also distinguish children who went straight from breastfeeding to solid food without being given formula—their barium levels went down at the transition point.) The researchers then looked at the molars of four young macaque monkeys at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, and correlated the barium signatures of the dentine and enamel of these teeth with data previously collected on the breastfeeding habits of the mother and infant monkeys. Again, the barium levels closely followed the course of breastfeeding and weaning among these animals, rising after birth and then falling to lower concentrations after weaning. Finally, the researchers focused the technique on the molar of a 100,000-year-old Neandertal child earlier found at Scladina Cave in Belgium. Laser scanning of the tooth revealed that barium levels started off high right after birth and continued to be elevated for 7 months, apparently due to exclusive breastfeeding; they then fell to intermediate levels for another 7 months, suggesting that the mother's milk was supplemented by other food sources. But after 1.2 years, the child—who died at about 8 years of age—was abruptly weaned from breastfeeding, and barium fell to very low levels. (See photos.) The researchers caution that it's impossible to draw broad conclusions about Neandertal life histories from this one sample, such as whether Neandertals weaned their children earlier or later than modern humans who lived at the same time, or whether Neandertal children grew up faster, as some earlier studies have suggested—questions that could heavily bear on why Neandertals could not keep up with modern humans in the survival sweepstakes. But the new technique could eventually provide some answers, says co-author Tanya Smith, an anthropologist at Harvard University. "Now that we've established an accurate and precise approach, we hope to examine additional fossils to determine at what age Neandertals actually weaned their infants." Anthropologist Shara Bailey, an expert in ancient human teeth at New York University in New York City, says that "the barium method is novel and appears to be even more powerful" than previous approaches, adding that despite small sample sizes, "the authors present a strong argument for the utility of this method for extrapolating weaning history." Julia Lee-Thorp, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, agrees that the work with children and monkeys represents a "very solid validation" of the method, although she cautions that the amount of barium that children absorb through their guts and into their teeth could decrease as they get older and this could skew the results. But Lee-Thorp, Bailey, and other researchers caution against reading too much into the findings from one Neandertal tooth, particularly any conclusions that Neandertals weaned their children early. "We have to keep in mind that the Scladina individual died quite early, and this might present a bias in our interpretations," Bailey says. She adds that future data from adult Neandertals might "lend more credence to any hypotheses about what Neandertals were doing on a regular basis." Louise Humphrey, an anthropologist and tooth expert at the Natural History Museum in London, agrees, although she says that the early weaning of the Scladina child is "intriguing" because it is more than a year earlier than the nearly 30 months typical of modern human nonindustrial societies. If early weaning was typical of Neandertals, Humphrey says, it would be consistent with other evidence for a "faster pace of development" and raise the possibility that Neandertal mothers had shorter intervals between births and thus more kids on their hands at any given time. ]]> Video: Two Galaxies on a Collision Coursetag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266762013-05-22T17:05:00Z2013-05-22T16:55:27ZSmashup will result in one massive galaxyYudhijit Bhattacharjee Credit: Jet Propulsion Lab How do massive galaxies form? A popular hypothesis is that they start out small and grow over time by swallowing other smaller galaxies. But new observations by Herschel, a far infrared space observatory operated by the European Space Agency, show that massive elliptical galaxies can form from the merger of two large galaxies. Herschel spotted two large galaxies—11 billion light-years away—in close proximity to one another, both of them making new stars at a much higher rate than most galaxies from that cosmic period. Follow up observations with other telescopes confirmed that the two galaxies were in the act of merging (see video). Each is making new stars on the order of 2000 suns every year. In about 200 million years, the galaxies will have completed their merger and settled down to a much lower star forming rate, the team reports online today in Nature. Two big beasts, subsumed by one another, will have become one monster of a galaxy. ]]> ScienceShot: Feet Are a Treat for Fungitag:news.sciencemag.org,2013:/sciencenow//7.266752013-05-22T17:00:00Z2013-05-22T16:53:09ZScientists find large diversity of the microbes on our tootsies Elizabeth Pennisi Smelly, itchy feet are constant reminders that we share our bodies with fungi. But just how many and what kinds? A new genetic survey has uncovered an incredible diversity of fungi on the feet, with different communities in the heel, toenail, and space between the third and fourth toes. The bottom of the heel alone hosts 80 different types, and if cataloged by species, the tally would likely be an order of magnitude higher. Fungi in each of these communities were similar from one person to the next, except in a woman who had a persistent toenail infection: She had lots of other fungi not found on the other nine people, indicating that more kinds of fungi could take up residence in the feet if they had the opportunity. (The bacteria on her feet, in contrast, were very typical of feet.) Meanwhile the rest of the body—from the inside of the nose or ear to the fold between the hip and groin—hosted primarily Malassezia, a genus of fungus that includes dandruff-causing species, the researchers report online today in Nature. Different Malassezia species took up residence in different body parts. There they thrive alongside of bacteria, as seen in this picture of a hair shaft (yellow) sampled from a back (bacteria, pink; fungus, blue-green). Skin bacteria tend to cluster into communities based on whether the skin is moist, dry, or oily, but fungi prefer specific regions of the body, irrespective of moisture content, possibly because those regions have different temperatures. The chest and back are 34°C, but the feet can be as low as 30°C. Those cool toes seem to be the perfect environment for many fungi. The diversity of fungi on the body, the researchers say, speaks to the need for personalized medicine in which doctors characterize the particular fungal infection between treating it.	eng	78e710a4-7c14-454b-8640-6ff33c07637c	http://news.sciencemag.org/rss/atom.xml
Going for the Gold Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:09:35 +0000en-UShourly1 Rehabilitation Can Help Injured Athletes 15 Sep 2011 10:29:54 +0000admin you think of an athlete, you probably think of someone who puts his or her body to the test on a regular basis. This type of stress on a human body often results in an injury of some type. Injuries can range from a pulled muscle to chronic issues with a knee, elbow, shoulder, or other joint. Regardless of the type of injury, it is essential that the athlete and the injury be rehabilitated. The benefits of a good rehabilitation program is known to athletes and those with careers in physical therapy. Once a doctor has evaluated the injury, the patient may be referred to a physical therapist for rehabilitation. This is not only essential for the rebuilding and maintenance of the muscles in the injured area, but it actually assists with the healing by increasing blood flow to the area. A less obvious side effect of an athletic injury is a loss of self-confidence. Physical therapy can also help an athlete mentally prepare to return to the game. There is actually more to overcome mentally than physically, in most cases. Once an athlete is injured, he or she no longer feels whole and realizes the body's vulnerability. There is an inherent fear of re-injury, anxiety, concern about decline in performance, and stress from the thought of "re-entering the game." Rehabilitation must focus on the whole person to restore an athlete to his or her pre-injury strength—both in body and in mind. ]]> Overview of Football 03 Aug 2011 07:40:03 +0000admin is nothing else like going to the big football game in January. And watching a game on sports channels will never compare to watching a real, live game on the field. No matter where you are in the stadium you are there watching football history unfold in front of your eyes. You are part of the reason why the big game is such a huge success and that's because everyone wants to be there right in the stadium with you. If you ever have the chance to go to one of these game you need to. Even if you have to miss out on something big in your life you do not want to pass up this opportunity. A football game is an experience wherever you go to watch it, because that's how the game was set up to be like. There are many players so you have to watch everything that goes on or you might miss something important. Even high school games are fun to watch, because the game can get very involving. Some people don't understand why the game is so important it just is and you have to be a guy to know what that's about. A girl my say she understands and watches a few games with you, but she will never get the game like a guy does. It could be something primal or something to do with our masculinity, whatever the reason there is a gap there and football fills it. Maybe it's the fact that we are watching a great team play and succeed and we feel like we need to learn as much as possible about it. Our fathers taught us how to be diehard fans and we feel like we need to keep on that tradition. When your screaming at your TV know that you are just holding on to a great American tradition. ]]> Your Kids Involved in Sports 25 Jul 2011 12:21:13 +0000admin on where you live, there should be plenty of opportunities to get your kids involved in sports. Most communities have a little league or some other organization that hosts these activities for children; however, they can be expensive. Some parents want their kids to be able to participate, but it costs too much money, which would put a strain on their budget. Image via Wikipedia Here are some ideas to help you afford sports programs for your children: Have your child raise the money themselves. This may be difficult if they are very young, but it is still possible. Plus, if your child has to earn the money in order to participate, they will value the experience more and take it more seriously. Children can act spoiled if everything is just given to them. Volunteer to coach. Some sports programs will let your child participate for a discounted rate if you are willing to be a coach. This is because coaches are usually volunteers, and it can be difficult to find someone who is willing to give their time. Your child might even get to participate for free. See if there are discounts for people with lower incomes. Some organizations don't want to deprive children from sports opportunities just because their parents do not make enough money. You can see if there is a program that helps people with lower incomes still participate. You really should try to get your kids into sports programs. It teaches them responsibility and good sportsmanship, which are important attributes to learn as a child. Sports also improve their motor skills and help them stay strong and healthy. ]]> Let Domination Be Your Weakest Point 22 Jul 2011 07:43:01 +0000admin you have ever played a sport in your life then you know that the greatest feeling in the world is crushing the opposing team. It is not enough to barely beat them, but to pummel them into the ground. A close game in score is great for the people who are watching on the sidelines and is very enjoyable both teams. That doesn't even compare when a team totally dominates another team in the game. You can improve more for sure if you have a personal trainer handy. Visit for more information about this. For a team to totally dominate they have to never let the other team score a point and rack up their own by the end of the game. This kind of win boosts the moral of the dominating team like nothing else on the planet. Everything to them seems like it's achievable and will crumble under their will. Some player might get to cocky in the next game and ruin it, but when you feel it there is nothing sweeter. This kind of feeling doesn't last for a long time and is usually replace by the crashing reality of defeat. Most players let the win get to their heads and mess everything up in the very next game by being too confident. People want to see a team that stays humble in the games that they dominate in so they don't have to see their team lose badly. People want to see a team work hard together and pull through their struggles to overcome the obstacles that block their view of their goals. Everyone wants to see their team make it to the end, because they have hard work behind them and the kind of character that doesn't falter. Nobody wants to see an overconfident team beaten at their own game. People want to see heart on the field and a good win. They want to see that with sheer human will we can overcome anything in its path and grasp what it set out to get. You love wearing Nike, but know little of the company and what it represents. What makes the Nike business boom when times are tough and some folks are cutting back? What makes shoppers return for more? The answers may surprise you. Leadership. Nike is the leader of athletic shoes, but did you know that the company was first known as Blue Ribbon Sports? There was no warehouse, no office; just a car, with products loaded inside to sell during track meets. Variety. Most know about the shoes but may be less familiar with the line of Nike clothing. Variety of shoes and sport apparel for men, women and children continues to make the upwards climb. Quality. Shoes and clothing from Nike lasts. You may pay more upfront for the cost of a new pair of running shoes, for example, but it's the "long run" you want and need. Advertising. Nike attributes part of its success to the slogan "Word of Foot"used for advertising in the late 1970s. Another slogan, "Just do it," was introduced in 1988 and continues to be familiar to most people. Partnerships. Nike will move their products to China, Japan, and Brazil, among other countries. More stores will be built in these areas, including those focused on a single sport like soccer. Growth. Nike represents a sure-fire competitiveness that remains above standard despite recent attacks on the economy. Nike knows what we want, sometimes even before we know it ourselves. Nike. Now you know the slogan as much as you know what Nike represents. ]]> Fall of the Main Event 16 Jun 2011 11:38:45 +0000admin World Series of Poker has been one of the hottest events on the Las Vegas strip for over a decade now. The best card players in the world descend on Sin City for a chance to win millions. In the past these games have been populated by men and women who are rank amateurs as well and it's contributed to the overwhelming success of the event. However, it appears that the WSOP is going to be losing a lot of business in the next few years due to the complete demise of online poker in the United States. It's a sad state of affairs but the fact that these sites were using gambling to make money says that they should have been shut down. It's part of the problem. Now that these online casinos are done and over the will be a huge dip in the number of people who play in these tournaments. The reason the WSOP has been so populated for the last few years is that people have been playing online and getting in through the use of satellite tournaments. They were sponsored by the companies and allowed to compete as long as they wore advertising on their shirts or hats. Now that they won't be able to get in that way it's going to be very difficult to believe that they are going to fork over the money themselves. The WSOP will feature plenty of the world's finest players but it's unlikely to have as many people. It's just the fallout of Black Friday. ]]> Athletes Pay You 12 Apr 2011 17:52:23 +0000admin]]> Overview of Ice Hockey 20 Mar 2011 07:42:58 +0000admin hockey has a way of attracting a young crowd that love to watch the gloves fly off and men beat each other. There is nothing better in the world than watching two diehard hockey players duke it out on the ice. The only thing better than seeing your favorite team member beat the snot out of another guy is to see your team win after beating the snot out the other guy. Ice hockey fights have become part of the way the game is played, because the fights are what bring the people to the games. Not every fan wants to see a fight out on the ice, but most of them do. You cannot deny the fact that when two guys start fighting you can't help, but to watch it unfold in front of you. Ice hockey is great for many other things than just the fights though. There have been some powerful checks in the past that even the crowd feels when it happens. If that doesn't get you to a hockey game then maybe the fact that five guys are on ice in football gear with sticks, racing after a puck is enough for you. Seeing that little puck go into the opposing teams net is one of the best feelings that you will have in the sports world. There is such a rush to see a well-executed play unfold on the ice in front of your eyes. Watching your team move in to make a goal is like watching a bunch of wolves move in for the kill there is nothing more exciting. ]]> Running Takes A Lot of Willpower 09 Mar 2011 07:38:55 +0000admin]]> skating Is One of the Most Challenging Sports 05 Mar 2011 07:38:53 +0000admin ice skaters have to balance great physical strength with a unique style of finesse. Ice skating looks easy, because Olympians train every day to get their routine's down. Don't be fooled by the way they effortlessly glide along the ice these people train harder than most professionals. It is not enough in ice skating to be strong you need to be very elegant and every flaw that you have in your routine counts against you. Ice skating is one of the most watched events in the Olympics, because it is a very beautiful sport. Football or soccer is all about beating the other guys and trying to make that touchdown or goal. Ice skating is more of a structured dance at high rates of speed on frozen water. Many people write off ice skating to be a sport for girls, but many males compete in the event too. You have to be very strong to ice skate with a partner and have great balance, because it's the males that hold the females up. Couples' skating is watched more than the solo skating, because of the difficult maneuver that two people have to perform in unison. People watch intently, because these people train very hard to be in the Olympics and when they fall its big news. There is a level of national pride when a couple dances beautifully on the ice with no flaws. It sends a message to the world that our country can achieve great things together and individually. ]]> Olympic Sports are Very Deep Rooted 28 Feb 2011 07:38:51 +0000admin Olympics hold many mini tournaments within it to bring out the best athletes for these events. Events like discuss throwing and the javelin toss are some of the main events of these tournaments. The discus event in the Olympics is a sport that only one person participates in at a time. A person stands in the middle of a ring and throws a discus as hard as they can onto an open field. The person that has the best distance is the winner of the event. The javelin toss is like the discus event, because it involves just one person trying to throw an object as far as they can. A javelin is thrown behind a line unto an open field where distance markers are kept. This event probably came from the competitiveness of hunters in the past. The best hunters would be able to throw a javelin the farthest. There may have been an accuracy part to the javelin toss, but was probably cut out to focus on who threw the furthest. These simple events of the discus throw and the javelin toss have been with the Olympics since the ancients Greeks. Many of the events have to deal with the measure of a man's ability to hunt and provide for his family. A man that excelled in one or many of the events was awarded the title of Olympian. The Olympians were very celebrated by their villages and usually a feast was held in their honor as they returned with the Olympian title and trophies. ]]> Can Bring the Family Together 18 Feb 2011 07:40:00 +0000admin is nothing better than eating a big hotdog in the stadium of your favorite baseball team – especially when they weather is just right! You can go to a game with your dad, your friend, or even your grandpa. It doesn't matter who they are, they will all have fun. Baseball is a sport that will stay with the American spirit forever and it will continue to bring people together. Even if you want to make a good impression on your boss you can bring them to a baseball game to have some fun and enjoy the day off – just don't call out sick for it! The best thing about watching a baseball game live is being with the other fans in the crowd. You can feel the energy and excitement as their favorite batter and or their favorite pitcher comes out. Every city has favorite player weather it's the pitcher that throws the fastest balls ever or a batter that can hit anything. Playing along with the hype is half the fun when it comes to baseball and the other half is enjoying the game in person. When you watch baseball on TV you're not getting the full effect that the game has to offer. To know what baseball brings to people you have to go to a game and feel it for yourself. Some people can feel it better than others, but the connection is felt by all true diehard fans. The connection is probably the fact that you can take the game of baseball anywhere with you. You can play it in your own back yard with your children or dad or you can play it in the middle of the street with your friends. ]]> Online Casinos to Place Sports Bets 15 Feb 2011 09:40:32 +0000admin betting is about as old as athletic competition. It's easy to imagine that prehistoric people wagered food, clothing and other important items on which one could run the fastest or bring home the biggest meal. Today, sports betting has become more sophisticated. It has even moved online, making it easier for people all over the world to bet on their favorite sports. The Value of Sports Betting Betting on sports through an online casino can greatly increase the enjoyment that a person experiences while watching a game. Without the risk of losing something, it is easy for people to become detached from the game and stop caring about which team wins. The rush of winning or losing money, however, keeps them interested in every single play of the game. Suddenly, they have a legitimate reason to root for their chosen teams. Betting Through Online Casinos Using an online casino makes it easier for people to place bets on their favorite sporting events. If you live in an area that doesn't offer you a legal betting option, then you can turn to online casinos rather than dealing with shady bookies that you can't trust. The best online casinos offer user interfaces that make betting easy and accurate. When you choose a reliable site, you also know that you will receive your winnings in a timely manner and that only the right amounts will be taken from your account when you lose. Choosing an Online Sports Betting Casino When choosing an online casino for sports betting, choose a site that you can trust with your money. That means reading reviews of the site and learning about the security measures that each casino uses to prevent hackers from stealing money from their players. After exploring your options, you will find that you can choose a reliable site that lets you place bets on your favorite teams and competitions. ]]> a Career That Focuses on Your Passion for Sports and Nutrition 09 Feb 2011 12:13:50 +0000admin]]> Let Parents Ruin Competitive Sports 05 Feb 2011 07:36:58 +0000admin of the greatest feelings in the world is seeing your son win his first football game. To see him practice hard every night for that win and then get it is a very satisfying feeling. You are always wondering if he is going to win or lose and when he loses it can be sad. When he finally gets that win you cannot feel any prouder of him then right there. Competitive sports are not a problem they help our children grow to become great adults. Some parents would like to see competitive sports dissolve away, because it leaves some children feeling like losers. This kind of thinking is what is tearing down Americas values and making our children's generation look weak. We need to stand up for competitive sports in our schools and keep them going. It doesn't feel good to see your child lose at a game, but they know it's not the end of the world and they want to try better next time. Losing at a game and continuing to go to practice show your child that they are not a quitter. Don't quit on your children and support your local school teams by going to their games. If parents don't want their children going into competitive sports that's their choice and they do not have the right to take that away our children. Maybe those parents will wise up and see that competitive sports are not the problem and the way they are raising their children is. Just because you have a problem with something doesn't make it right for you to take that opportunity away from everyone else. Keep going to your kids games and let other parents know in PTA meetings that competitive sports are not going anywhere. ]]> Is Perfect for Toddlers 27 Jan 2011 07:36:55 +0000admin is a great sport for little kids to learn to play, mainly because the rules are very simple to follow. You have two goals, one ball, and your teammates are all on the field. You want to kick the ball into the other team's goal and keep the other team from getting into your goal. All the other rules will be figured out as the game progresses. Kick the ball into the goal is a simple task to follow and it makes more sense to children than other sport concepts. Other sports like football are too complicated for little kids to really enjoy. If you have seen really little children play football effectively then you have seen a miracle. Most kids don't know what they are doing when they play a game of football. Most of them don't understand the concept of yards gained or lost, but all kids understand if a ball made it into the goal or not. Some kids might be confused on which direction they need to kick the ball, but they usually figure it out by halftime. If you are going to get your children involved in sports at an early age you might want to consider trying soccer first. Your children can play all the sports, but soccer is just one of those sports that is easy to comprehend. Your child might feel like they are actually doing something for the team when they play soccer rather than football. Having them play soccer first will give them a great greater feeling of admiration towards sports than to a sport that may not make sense to them at all. Take your child out and have them play with some other children if they like it then you know that's the sport for them. ]]> for Ironman 19 Jan 2011 10:57:18 +0000admin]]> Child Needs You At Their Game 19 Jan 2011 07:36:54 +0000admin your child plays in a sport it means the world to them if you show up to their game – to them, it shows that you support what they are working so hard toward. Most children lose interest in a sport, because their parents show no interest in the sports they play in. Be a parent that cares and go out and show your support for your child. Sports are a healthy way for children to be active members of their school. Children involved in sports have a higher chance of graduating with their class than children that do not play any kind of sport. Increasing your child's chances for graduating should be enough motivation for you to want to go to an event and show your child that you really care. The more that your child sees you in the stands the more they will want to impress you and stick with the sports that they start. Keeping your child in a sport is tough especially if you can't always be at every game. If you are not going to be at your child's sport event then you need to make them understand that you do want to be there. You also need to tell them the truth about why you cannot make it. If your child wants to quit the team you need to understand their reason why. Sometimes a child is just looking for support from their parents to keep up with the sport and that they are doing a good thing for themselves. Do not say to them that it disappoints you that they don't want to be on the team. Only say that you wish they would continue and if they ever want to go back all they have to do is ask. Sometimes children just lose interest in sports altogether and it can be very hard to get them interested again. ]]> Sports Agent Can Boost Your Career 09 Jan 2011 07:36:52 +0000admin are a lot of athletes out there that are at the top of their game and in order for them to stand out they need a good sports agent. The role of a sports agent is to get the name of his client out there so he/she becomes a super star. Sports figures endorse products to make the big bucks and sports agents sell their clients to the companies that want their products endorsed. The agent makes a percentage of what the athlete gets from the deal. When the agent is talking about how much his client is going to get paid he is really talking about how much he is going to get paid. The system works for everyone involved and the main point is to make everyone happy. An athlete does well in a sport and a company wants them to endorse one of their products. The athlete has a big name at the moment and a company wants to jump on the opportunity to get their products name out. The athlete may have already signed with an agent to handle all the paperwork and press that goes with endorsing products. The agent gets paid for setting up these deals with companies and dealing with the athlete. The more an agent sells his client's name the more money he makes. An athlete has to do something great first before his name is worth anything. He/she has to break a record or do something great for people to be interested in them. When an athlete does break a record that's when people are watching them closely. A company wants to associate their product with them so when people talk about the athlete they are always reminded of that big contract that they signed with that big company. The more a company can get you to talk about them the less likely that company will be forgotten when you choose to have sandwiches or burgers for lunch. ]]> Professional Sports Generate Money 04 Jan 2011 07:36:50 +0000admin ]]> for Endurance Training 31 Dec 2010 17:36:57 +0000admin ]]> Power and Speed 28 Dec 2010 17:36:09 +0000admin you want to work your fast twitch muscles and improve muscle memory, incorporating explosive sets into your weight training regimen will improve your power and speed. The goal of this program is quicker response time achieved through lifting lighter weights at a faster pace. Incorporate these techniques twice a week for optimal results. Medicine Ball Crunch and Twist Lie on the floor with feet flat on the floor and knees bent. Hold a medicine ball in both hands and curl your torso upwards. Quickly rotate your torso right then left, pushing the medicine ball past the side of each knee. Lower your torso back to the floor. Repeat the sequence quickly for reps as required. If you are looking for a challenge, this exercise may also be done on an incline bench. Vertical Jumps Building the muscle memory of your legs is essential for all athletes. Vertical jumps will help build overall leg muscle, while increasing strength and speed. To complete this exercise, stand with feet shoulder width apart. Bend your knees and lower your body into to a ninety degree angle, as if you were going to sit in a chair. Using your legs for propulsion, launch your body upwards, extend your hips, feet, and knees and reach your arms up towards the sky. Drop back to a stranding position, and repeat for reps. to increase the difficulty level, add ankle weights or wear a weighted vest. Step-Ups Stand in front of a step-up box designed for weight training or plyometrics. If you don't have a step-up box you may substitute an aerobic step. Place one foot on the step, extend the working leg and bring yourself to a standing position on top of the box. Step off by bringing your non-working foot back down to the ground. As soon as your non-working foot touches the ground, extend your working leg and repeat the rep. Complete reps for each leg. ]]> Back to Business 26 Dec 2010 17:35:18 +0000admin trained hard all year, working out in the weight room, enduring cardio sessions, and eating clean. Then the summer came and your carefully crafted regimen was temporarily forgotten while you enjoyed hot dogs at the beach, late nights with Grande lattes, and buttered popcorn at the movies. Now, it's time to get ready for your season but you're not sure what to do, where to start, or how to get going. Jumping back into a training program isn't easy. But you did it once before, and you can do it again. Here are some tips on how to get back into training and prepare for another winning season. Eat Clean The first step towards regaining control of your fitness goals is to start eating clean. Take processed food out of your meals and try to eat as close to the natural source as possible. Instead of French fries eat a baked potato. Trade in fast food hamburgers for lean cuts of beef or chicken. And drink more water than soda. Sleep, Sleep, Sleep Late nights are fun for awhile, but when it's time to start reshaping your body you are going to have to rest your body. To gain energy and build muscle, your body needs time to repair and recover. This happens during your sleep cycles, and if you are cutting sleep short then your body will not perform properly. Most people need six to eight hours of sleep a night. However, others need anywhere from eight to ten hours. Based on your own sleeping patterns, determine how much sleep you need and make sure you get it. Get Back to the Gym The only way to improve your fitness and endurance is to start your workout program. If you don't have a regimen already in place, then ask a trainer or coach to help you develop a cardio and weight training routine. With a solid plan, you'll achieve your fitness goals faster and efficiently. ]]> the Damage 26 Dec 2010 17:34:24 +0000admin a celebration, holiday, or vacation has derailed your training and fitness goals, the only thing to do is keep training. With a little planning and commitment, those caloric peaks and training dives will do minimum damage to your program and you physique. 1.Use Hit Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to burn up maximum calories and carbohydrates. Working out at maximum intensity for short bursts of time will cause your body to dip into its carbohydrate stores; using those extra carb calories before they are stored as fat. 2.Train your large muscle groups with compound exercises to burn more calories. Squats,flat bench presses, and lunges all use more than one muscle groups, which increases muscle mass and strength at a faster rate. 3.Circuit train to get your heart rate up, and keep it elevated to increase calorie burning. Moving quickly from station to station keeps your body in cardio mode longer than traditional reps and set training. However, circuit training with weights will give you're the double benefits of increased endurance, and muscle mass. 4.Lift heavier, with smaller rest in between sets. Lifting heavier weights will burn more calories, and limiting your rest between sets will create a cardio effect, torching even more calories. The other benefit of lifting heavier is that your body will use more calories repairing your muscles, and you will burn calories while you sleep. 5.Increase your cardio. Lengthen your cardio time to increase calorie burning, and don't forget to use HIIT for maximum results. 6.Remember, the best time to exercise is right before a big meal or soon after. A hard workout before or after a huge calorie meal will help your body use those excess calories to power your workout. This gives you the opportunity to stay on top of your workouts, while keeping calorie damage to a minimum. ]]> Up Your Routine for Maximum Results 24 Dec 2010 17:33:04 +0000admin key to an effective workout is to change things up to keep your muscles guessing. It's difficult to give up a routine you are comfortable with. And it may be hard to recognize when your routine isn't giving you the results that you're used to. When you've noticed that your skills, strength, fitness and physique have hit a plateau, it's time to revamp the workout. The important thing to remember is that small changes can lead to big results. So you don't have to toss your whole training program out the window, just add a little something new. Kettle ball training is a good alternative to traditional free weights, and can give you the same benefits of barbell or dumbbell training. Used extensively in Russian weight training programs, kettle balls are relatively new to United State athletes, but have gained popularity over recent years. With a kettle ball, it's easy to incorporate a whole new routine or just a single exercise. Whatever you choose, kettle balls are good tools for every level of athlete, and will bring variety and results to your training program. The following is a simple kettle ball routine that you can incorporate into your workouts. Deadlift Squat, with a Kettle Ball This exercise will work multiple muscle groups, and engage your glutes, abs, back, biceps, and triceps. Choose an appropriate size kettle ball for your fitness level and place it slightly in front of you. Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulders width apart. Squat down, keeping your back flat, and grab the kettle ball handle with two hands. Keep your arms extended, back flat, and straighten your legs. Push your hips forward, and bring the kettle ball up with you. Make sure to keep the kettle ball close to your body. Repeat for reps. ]]> to Win 22 Dec 2010 17:31:41 +0000admin it's time to put on a game, you might find your players are more interested in the excitement and the crowds than in concentrating on strategy and competition. But once the game gets started, your players will realize the importance of focus and concentration "and they will realize it fast. When it's time to talk some sense to your players, or just plain motivate them into action here are some suggestions to keep their brain in the game and performing at their best. Every Player Plays a Part Remind your players that win or lose, it's a team thing. Every team member has his/her own role to perform, from the manager to the players each individual must contribute 100%. And if any of those roles are neglected then the team will struggle. Instill a Sense of Pride Having pride in your team and believing they can be great are essential to creating a winning team. Encourage and acknowledge positive behavior. Give nods of recognition, pats on the back, and praise for a job well done. Let your players know when they have your approval and they will develop a sense of value and pride in themselves and the team. Remember, A team without pride is a team who has given up. Prepare Your Players for the Unexpected Keep your players prepared for unexpected circumstances. If there is an injury on the field, or a player had been ejected from the game the remaining team members have to step in to fill the holes. Because you have instilled a sense of team, this will not be a difficult prospect. Go for the Kill When there is a weak link on the opposing team your player should feel no compunction in exploiting the weakness. On the baseball diamond, if you know a hitter on the opposing team struggles with the fastball, then give your pitcher the go for fastball pitches. There's nothing wrong with teaching competitive strategies. ]]> and Train Safely 20 Dec 2010 17:30:17 +0000admin is an amazing cardiovascular workout and is the preferred form of cardio for many top athletes. Running is an internal competition, and because it can be an isolated activity, it can also become a dangerous activity. If a component of your training involves running, then it's important to train safely to avoid injuries and other catastrophes. Cars are King When you are on the road, automobiles are your number one concern. The unfortunate truth is that many drivers are distracted drivers. Cell phones, iPods, kids, breakfast in the car — these are just a few distractions drivers deal with. So when you step on the sidewalk or street side, don't expect to have the right of way. Instead, expect drivers to be oblivious. Monitor Your Training Behaviors It's easy to get lost in the rhythm of a good run, but when you lose yourself in the sight and sounds of your environment you lose your awareness. To keep you focused and safe avoid wearing headphone or ear buds. If you can't hear the traffic, then you won't know when a car is screeching out of control and heading right towards you. Run against traffic. This will enable you to see danger before it runs you down. Dress to be Seen If you are like most athletes then you complete the majority of your training in the early mornings or evenings. Although these times are the best for peak performance, they are not the best for visibility. To increase your visual presence and safety, wear bright clothing and reflective clothing. Yes, black is fashionable, but on the road a driver may not realize that dark shadow darting across the road is a person. Fortunately, there are several athletic clothing companies creating fashionable workout wear in oranges, yellows, and reds- to keep you highly visible and hopefully out of harm's way. ]]> a Healthy, Competitive Attitude 16 Dec 2010 17:28:56 +0000admin naturally have a healthy dose of self esteem and revel in competition. Proving your skills and showing you are the best is a normal component of an athletic lifestyle. However, there are times when your mind-set can work against you. When you find yourself slipping into a self destructive attitude, use these tips to keep you focused and positive. Get Rid of Negative Thoughts Learning to recognize your own negative thinking is difficult, especially if you are immersed in it. To stop these negative thoughts, take a moment to write down all the negative comments you make about yourself. Analyze your list and memorize it. This list will be your red light list. Every time you hear or think a negative comment from the list, stop yourself and say something like I will not sabotage my own success. Keep your list up to date and add or subtract phrases as your work through them. Ask for Help Look to your team mates, coaches, friends, and family for mental and emotional support. Inner strength is fantastic, but the old adage "no man's (or woman's) an island- is true. A strong support network will not only keep you focused on positive behaviors, it will keep you motivated and encouraged. And if you find that someone in your network does more negative harm than good- then it's time to move that individual out of your inner circle. Change your Goals A change in schedule, training routine, or season goals may be just what you need to create some positive energy. Because athletes are always striving to be better and faster, it makes sense to update your goals when you reach them. Changing your goals is a self motivating process, and creating a new personal training objective will keep you focused and hungry for that next big milestone. ]]> Train for Success 16 Dec 2010 17:27:58 +0000admin training is an essential component of every athlete's program, making muscles stronger, increasing endurance, and cardiovascular strength. But like all things, too much of a good thing is bad for your mind and your body. The easy fix for overtaxed muscles and a mind bogged down by monotony is cross training. Cross training involves the incorporation of alternative exercises into your training program. If you are a cross country runner, then bicycling might be a good alternative. Football players might find the ease of an elliptical machine benefits their endurance. And softball players may find stairclimbing provides them with a great lower body workout. Whatever activity you chose, make sure it's fun and that it doesn't repeat the same movements your already perform on the field, court, or road. Bicycling Cycling is an amazing low to no-impact exercise that works well for athletes who run or walk. Cycling can be done on a stationary bike in your home or gym. It can also be an outdoor activity for those of you who enjoy a change of scenery and the challenge of navigating through the elements. The beauty of cycling is that you can work your cardiovascular system with little stress or impact on your joints. Elliptical Training The elliptical machine is perfect for any athlete seeking the benefits of running in a low impact activity. Elliptical training simulates the movement of running, without the jarring impact of road running. Elliptical machines are also adaptable, allowing you to train with forward or reverse movements to work opposing muscle groups. Stairclimbing Stairclimbing is an amazing way to get your heart rate up, while keeping injury and impact to your joints low. Gym or home stairclimbers are an easy and efficient way to get in your workout, monitor your heart rate, and track calorie burn. And for those athletes on the road, you can climb stairs at the stadium or in the hotel stairway. ]]> Healthy and Injury Free 14 Dec 2010 17:27:14 +0000adminOnline sports betting sites have arguably become the leader in the industry of sports betting. Taking the leap from traditional "back of the bar" betting, or race track betting, can be confusing to those who don't know any better, but this highly competitive industry is doing all it can to woo new customers through the use of very attractive deals and gifts. Sports betting sites are easy to find. The difficulty lies in finding the best site. All Internet betting sites are regulated under the 2006 Internet Act, which affords you some level of protection, and you can usually spot the more established sites by the quality of gifts or enticements they're offering. Always remember though, if a deal seems too good to be true, it may not be all it seems. Various sites also have betting limits with minimums and maximums. If you're new to the game of sports betting, then find a site that offers bets that begin at one dollar. This way you can get the feel for the site and the process without having to go broke. Some sites also have minimums on your starting deposit. Find a site with a deposit level you're comfortable with. Look for sites offering promotions to add a bonus percentage to the amount you deposit. The normal bonus for this type is 10 percent, though you can often find better deals. Online sport betting is meant to be a fun pastime, not a serious quit-your-day-job kind of thing. Don't join a site that makes you feel pressured to join, or to add hefty amounts to your deposit, and always read the fine print to make sure that there are no dubious fees subtracted from any of your winnings. Just have fun! ]]> to Play Volleyball 13 Dec 2010 17:26:12 +0000admin volleyball is not an extremely fast-paced sport it can and very often is an extremely competitive sport. Each team, consisting of 6 players each, attempts to bump the ball over the next separating them from their opponents and not let it return to their side. The play begins by one team serving the ball (tossing it into the air and hitting it with their arm or hand) to the other team. In order for the serve to count it must go over the net. The receiving team must then get the ball back over the net without letting it touch the ground on their side. While the ball is in play it must not be touched more than three times on either side in attempt to get it back over the net. When they hit it over the net the first team has to return it without it touching the ground and so on until one of two things happens. The first one being that either team makes a kill, which is when the ball gets grounded on the opponent's court. Second, either team commits a fault. Common ways to fault in volleyball include: · Making the ball go over the net, but out of bounds on the opponents side · Not getting the ball over the net in three or less tries · Catching or throwing the ball · Double hitting (the same player hitting the ball in two or more consecutive strikes) · Net foul (touching the net any time during the play) Though the ball is supposed to be played by bumping, setting or spiking the ball with your arms, it is still legal to use any part of your body to hit the ball. Blocking is also a technique used by many players in attempt to keep the ball from being returned to them. ]]> in Golf Clubs 12 Dec 2010 17:25:23 +0000admin is played with three main pieces of equipment; the golf ball, a tee for the ball to sit on, and a golf club. There are five main types of clubs that a golfer can use. These are woods, irons, hybrids, putters and chippers. Each one is designed for something different. Woods, though sounding like they are made of wood, are actually comprised of various different metals. These are clubs made for long distance hitting. These kinds of clubs are generally used for the first shot and will make the ball go the farthest. These clubs are made with large heads for hitting the ball and long handles for speed. Irons have shorter staffs than woods, but have a flat, angled head for shots when you approach the green. These are the clubs you would want to use if you were stuck in a sand trap. Hybrids are just what they sound like. They are a cross between wood and iron. Most hybrids are used in place of an iron, for they are easier to hit. Hybrids can also be used to help get your ball out of a sand trap. Putters are shorter than woods, irons or hybrids. Putters are mainly used for pushing the ball along the grass in attempt to make it into the hole when it is in the green. To make the ball roll farther newer putters have grooves set in them. Chippers are an offshoot of the putter. A chipper, though, has a 30-45 degree higher loft. This is to help move the ball out of the rough and get it into the green. It is used with the same kind of motion and precision as you would see a putter being used. ]]> Bowl Games like the Sugar Bowl Increase Traffic to Sports Betting Sites 12 Dec 2010 06:29:01 +0000admin end of December and beginning of January is a time that is filled with dozens of college bowl games. College teams are looking to win some type of bowl championship and bring glory to their college. One of the most well-known college bowl tournaments out there is the Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl is an annual bowl game that is played in the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. While many college students and alumni might consider a bowl game a great time to show off their college pride, many people consider a bowl game a great time to make a little extra cash. College bowl games are one of the most popular sporting events for sports betters. In fact, many sports betting sites see an increased in traffic during college bowl season because of the increased interest in placing bets on the college football teams. With all this increased interest in sports betting and college football games, it makes an outsider wonder what makes it so popular. College football and sports betting are very popular because of the amount of chances a person has to make some extra money. People who bet on the college football games not only bet on the winners and the losers but they can bet on anything from amount of field goals, numbers of attendants of the game, and who holds the tournament trophy first. In fact, this is the reason even the non-football fans are attracted to the possibility of betting on college football bowl games. Another reason that college football is such a popular sport to bet on is because of the numerous chances people have to make money. There are dozens of college bowls spread out over a two to three week period. Instead of one huge game there are dozens of money making opportunities just sitting there waiting to be taken advantage of. Football is a sport played by two teams of eleven players. The goal of the game is to get the ball into the opposing teams end zone to score a touch down. This can be done by running with the ball or by throwing it to your teammate. A touchdown is made when the ball passes the imaginary line that makes the end zone. High school, college and professional football are all set under a different set of rules. The National Federation of High School Associations governs the rules and regulations for high school football. The National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics presides over, and sets the rules for, college football. The NFL (National Football League) is the federation that the professionals play for. The field for any football played should be a 360-foot by 160-foot field. The boundary lines running from end zone to end zone are called sidelines and in no time during game play can a player cross these lines. On each shorter side of the field are 10 yards goal areas called end zones. For every five yards on the field a line is placed called a yard-line, while every 10 yards is marked. Because of the way the lines are placed on the field, it is sometimes referred to as a gridiron. At the end of each end zone is an upright, or goalpost. When a touchdown is made the team that advanced the ball into the end zone scores 6 points. After a touchdown is made the team can do one of two things to earn extra points. They can either thy to kick the ball into the goalpost for one extra point, or they can attempt to run the ball into the end zone for two extra points. ]]> of Wrestling 09 Dec 2010 17:23:29 +0000admin somebody that doesn't know what wrestling is he or she might just thing the two competitors are just throwing each other to the ground. Wrestling is so much more than that. Wrestling is actually one of the oldest forms of martial arts still around today. Wrestling has been tracked back to as early as 15,000 years when cave paintings were found in France. Most of the techniques and holds we use in wrestling can be found in ancient Egyptian drawings. Wrestling used to be much more brutal when it was number one in the Olympic games. Though the brutality has died down in this contact sport, it is still one of today's major sporting events. There are five International wrestling disciplines that are acknowledged. They are Greco-Roman Wrestling, Grappling, Freestyle Wrestling, Sambo and Beach Wrestling. In Greco-Roman wrestling it is a foul if you actively use your legs, grab your opponent below the belt-line, or make trips. One way to win is to pin your opponent to the ground. Grappling is a type of wrestling that requires no striking but to take control of your opponent by using submission holds. To win this type of wrestling you must get your opponent immobilized by holds such as a lock. Freestyle wrestling is a type that allows your legs to be used both defensively and offensively. To win you must pin your opponent to the ground before he does the same to you. While not allowing chokeholds, Sambo is a mixture of different wrestling styles. You may use your legs in an attempt to get your opponent to the ground. Last, but not least, is beach wrestling. This is done in a sand pit about 6 meters in diameter. The wrestlers must get their opponents to their backs. This type of wrestling is done mostly standing up. ]]> in Rugby League and Union 06 Dec 2010 17:22:41 +0000admin the 19th century Rugby was invented at first played at Rugby School. It was one of the first versions of football we see today. Between 1750 and 1859 Ruby was played by being able to hold the ball in your hand, but you could not run with it. At this point in time the rules were a little more lenient. Sometimes you could find 50 players on the field per team. Sometimes even 100. There was no limit to how many players could be on the team. Rugby rules used to be just verbal agreements until 1870 when, for the first time, the rules were written down and the sport evolved. Since then, Rugby has changed its rules to include being able to run with the ball. Rugby is governed by the Rugby League and Rugby Union. These are organizations made for the sole purpose of Rugby alone and but has come to influence the rules and regulations of what is today known as American football and Canadian football. The Rugby League is separate from the Rugby Union and they both have their own set of rules that must be followed when playing Rugby. Ruby league's rules include only being able to either run with the ball or kick the ball. Passing the ball forward is not an option. As for the number of players in a league game, they have limited to 13 players on each team. If a team does not get a point before they are tackled six times, the possession of the ball then goes to the other team. Rugby Union differs from the Rugby League in that they have 15 players on the team. The union also does not follow the rule including six tackles. They are allowed an unlimited amount of tackles as long as a foul is not made. ]]> Racing History 04 Dec 2010 17:21:56 +0000admin of the worlds most watched sports on television and as spectators at the track itself is auto racing. Also known as car racing or motor racing, this sport began its career in 1887, shortly after gas powered cars were invented. Racing for 2 kilometers, George Bouton successfully won his one-manned race when everybody else failed to show up for it. It wasn't until eight years later when the first real race held place. When the race began, many competitors participated, though it was too far for some participants, Emile Levassor pushed on and finished the 732 miles in 48 hours and 47 minutes, making him the winner of the first auto race. In the 19th, starting out as one mile, a horse racing track began its life. Since then, it has become a racing track for motor vehicles. The Milwaukee Mile is now one of the worlds oldest racing tracks. The first purpose-build racing track was made in June of 1907. Brooklands in Surrey, England is a 2.75 mile long track, though in 1939 it had to be closed down for aircraft because of the war started production. After the war the track never re-opened due to all the damage that had been done to it. Today the most popular kind of car racing is stock car racing. Normally the track for this type of racing is on an oval track. NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) is the largest governmental figure in auto racing. NASCAR hosts famous races such as the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. Stock cars are very similar to regular production cars we use today, but with distinct differences. These cars are built solely for the purpose of racing ]]> Out in Baseball 03 Dec 2010 17:20:14 +0000admin is a no-contact sport which involves a bat, a ball, a field and two teams of nine players each. A team scores a point by being able to run each of the three bases and finally to home base. This is accomplished by hitting the ball with a bat after it is thrown, or pitched, to the batter. If the player successfully hits the ball they can attempt to run to first base before the ball returns to that base or to the pitcher. The team that is pitching has several ways in which they can try to get a player out. A batter is out when one of these events occur: · He strikes out three times · He bunts, has two strikes, and it becomes a foul · He does not bat on his own turn · Commits an interference · He steps out of his batters box when the pitcher is ready to pitch · He uses an altered bat Players can also be called out when they are not up to bat. A baserunner (a player who is running from base to base during play) can be called out if they fail to reach their base before a fielder, with the ball in his hand, either tags the runner or reaches the base he is aiming for first. A batter-runner can also be called out if his batted ball is caught in flight. There are also different ways that anybody on the batting team can get an out. · Tagged out (touched by a fielder, holding a live ball, while he is not touching a base) · Commits an interference · Goes more than three feet away from his baseline · Passes a runner ahead of him who was not out · Intentionally stops running the bases · Runs the wrong way Using a hockey stick, players attempt to score a goal in a game of hockey. Hockey is a game played with curved sticks, a puck, a goal and two teams of seven players each. There are many different types of hockey, but the most popular type is ice hockey. This sport is a contact sport that can be the cause of many players' injuries. That is why it is important to take precautions. Ice hockey players wear a lot of protective gear to shield them from oncoming blows. Helmets are an important part of the gear players wear to protect their neck and head. A visor or face cage is not normally found on a typical hockey helmet. A mouth guard is usually strapped to the helmet to provide extra protection to the player's mouths. A neck guard is also required as it helps protect a player's throat and neck. This prevents sticks, skates, the puck and any other intrusive object from coming on contact with the bare neck. Though it is great for protection it restricts movement of the neck and is optional. Shoulder pads help prevent against any object coming in contact with the top of the torso or the spine. It also keeps the player safe when a collision occurs. Unlike the neck guard, shoulder pads do not restrict movement. Though they are broad and bulky they do their job. Elbow pads, gloves, hockey pants, jockstrap and shin guards are also used in protecting the player from harmful situations. The ice skates are how the players move around. These are very different than figure skating skates, as they are much longer and allow easier movement. The stick used for playing is made of wood are the length varies on the size of the player. There are a few different ways in which to play tennis. You can play either in singles (one-on-one) or in doubles (two-on-two). The players each use a racket in attempt to hit the hollow ball over the net onto the opposing teams court. The play begins with each player, or each team, on different sides of the net. One team starts by serving the ball. This team will continue to serve the ball the entire game. The next game servers will switch and the other team will start by serving the ball. When serving the ball, the server must be behind the baseline and between the sideline and the centerline. The receiver of the ball may start anywhere on their side of the court. In professional tennis, the ball must pass over, but not touch, the net and bounce on the side diagonal to where the server started. If, for any reason, the ball hits the net on a serve, but still goes over, the point goes to neither team and the server gets to start again. A fault happens when, on a serve, the ball hits the net and does not go over, goes out of bounds right away, or the server steps on or in the boundary line. Usually players play a match. This can be done by playing two out of three games, or three out of five games. In order to win a game a player must have at least two points more than their opponent and have at least four points total. The points are not scored one, two, three but instead are scored love, fifteen, thirty, forty. If a team ties it is then called deuce. Advantage is when both teams have three or more points and one team has only one point ahead of the other. They cannot win in this manner unless they score another point.	eng	fb8ce8be-ccb2-4b3b-bd1b-bdea6b0a1f75	http://www.vienna04.org/feed
This thread is for the discussion of economic viewpoints, the economic policies followed by right-wingers and policies followed by left-wingers. Basic run through of economic viewpoints: Reaganomics (right-wing): More or less, tax breaks to big companies and "the rich" with the purpose of those companies then being able to hire more people. More people hired means companies can grow develop, and the whole economy grows with it. "Clinton"omics (left-wing): More taxes, especially for those making more money. More money is sent to the poor and social programs such as welfare. The idea of the system is to help the poor and unemplyed back on thier feet to again become economically productive Citizens. Dont think i've ever seen a thread like this, so lets see if it works Chrizzle fo' Shizzle 07-30-2006, 09:23 PM I disagree with both ideas because they involve the government giving money away to people Reaganista 07-30-2006, 09:29 PM this thread is juvenile i think both plans have places where they can and should be effectively employed but they're overused I disagree with both ideas because they involve the government giving money away to people you mean taking less away HazMatBlue 07-30-2006, 09:31 PM Reaganomics is taking less, left-wing economics is taking more Reaganista 07-30-2006, 09:33 PM bill clinton didn't do anything even vaguely left wing HazMatBlue 07-30-2006, 09:34 PM He tried to socialize medicare, and cut the defence budget by 10 billion. I used his name more so as an example of a left-winged person. Less so for what all he did with the economy. Jharaski 07-30-2006, 09:35 PM On the other hand, giving it to the poor creates an endless cycle. They grow to depend on it, and they need even more. Nogo. However, give it to small business - that's the key! They create competetition and jobs, great things for the economy. I'm definitely right wing, but I'm not a nutjob. I Am a Hat 07-30-2006, 09:36 PM this sounds like how you would describe economics to a first grader/retarded person Chrizzle fo' Shizzle 07-30-2006, 09:37 PM you mean taking less away Taking from some and giving to others HazMatBlue 07-30-2006, 09:42 PM It's rare that they'll say "oh we got all of this money, so we don't need to raise prices!"Jharaski 07-30-2006, 09:46 PMMaybe if they're desperate, the tax break will prevent it. Unlikely. Which is why tax breaks should go to new and small companies, which are way more likely to struggle. Reaganista 07-30-2006, 11:00 PM Taking from some and giving to others all reagan did was take less away from someum lol He tried to socialize medicare, he didn't do it he talked about it and cut the defence budget by 10 billion. I used his name more so as an example of a left-winged person. Less so for what all he did with the economy. um that's not left wing Reaganista 07-31-2006, 12:45 AM ok explain the logic Spoonful of Shame 07-31-2006, 11:34 AM How is Clinton left wing? I would agree he is left of Reagan or Bush but he is hardly left when looking at the whole political spectrum. Interviewer/surveyer 07-31-2006, 12:06 PM this sounds like how you would describe economics to a first grader/retarded person This is coming from a hat everyone...pretty insane. Jude 07-31-2006, 01:01Yeah but "fair" can be applied any number of different ways. In one sense it's fair to tax everyone the same. In another sense it's not. Let's say your tax rate is, arbitrarily, 25 percent. If I'm a poor single mother with 2 kids and getting a paycheck for 800 dollars every two weeks, the 200 coming out of that is really going to hurt. Whereas, if I'm a multimillionaire, or a giant corporation, 25% is a rate I can easily handle losing (especially if the hypothetical government here is as intertwined with big business as the US government really is) and have plenty left over to invest or whatever. How fair is THAT? What about the single mother's 2 kids who are getting educated in **ty public schools, malnourished, lacking clothing and heat in winter, and in need of far better health care than they can get? Is it fair to them? That should be enough. griftadan 07-31-2006, 04:40 PM that was the worst run through of economic thought, ever. Joey Hoser 07-31-2006, 05:59 PM I'm dissapointed in all of you :( You've been discussing for more than a page and you haven't gotten past Clinton vs. Reagan yet. MegaPhony 07-31-2006, 06:27 PM I don't know much about economics, but I don't think the rich need any fucking breaks... thrashfanatic2010 07-31-2006, 06:49 PM The key to a successful free market economy is a living wage minimum, emphasis on small businesses in a highly competitive market and equal opportunity and getting what you put into. and killing all the jews as well. MegaPhony 07-31-2006, 06:51 PM The key to a successful free market economy is a living wage minimum, emphasis on small businesses in a highly competitive market and equal opportunity and getting what you put into.thrashfanatic2010 07-31-2006, 06:56 PMkilling all the jews is also another important factor into my theory as well. MegaPhony 07-31-2006, 07:18 PM Melgibsonism? griftadan 07-31-2006, 07:38 PM I don't know much about economics, but I don't think the rich need any fucking breaks... you're right, you don't know much about economics. anyways, to give this thread some real meaning, the typical three major thoughts of economics are 1. command economies (marx), where the goods are produced and distributed through a central power or public hands (can be the same thing) 2. market economies (smith, hayek), where goods are produced and distributed by private entities through voluntary transaction, with a strong sense of property rights. 3. mixed economies (keynes), which is a mix of the above two. this is where there is still a sense of private enterprise in the economy, but where the government intervenes in very aspects of the economy (the monetary system, prices, business practices) in order to bring about a desired effect (helping the poor, expanding local industry, etc). this is what most the world falls under, including the original two models presented in this thread. each have different aims and purposes, although their ability to acheive those ends is up for debate. i myself obviously favor market economies, but hoepfully my rundown was atleast slightly balanced. Jude 07-31-2006, 08:32 PM that was the worst run through of economic thought, ever. Huh? It was just an elucidation of the many meanings of "fairness." Reaganista 07-31-2006, 09:59when i said explain the logic i meant explain how that would help the economy not moralize at me griftadan 08-01-2006, 01:30 AM Huh? It was just an elucidation of the many meanings of "fairness." not really, it was more of an explanation of two different ways a mixed economy can be applied. Hababi 08-01-2006, 08:56 AM The key to a successful free market economy is a living wage minimum, emphasis on small businesses in a highly competitive market and equal opportunity and getting what you put into. Many things can only be done by corporations. Hey, I like small business too, but there is also a need for corporations. As for a living wage, you can't just introduce a massive raise in in the minimum wage into the economy. If tomorrow we would raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour, it would wreak havoc on the economy. Inflation would skyrocket and people would be worse off, not better off. A much better idea would be tying future minimum wage increases to increases in inflation. Thus, minimum wage would rise naturally. Reaganista 08-01-2006, 10:41 AM hey even better abolish minimum wage griftadan 08-01-2006, 12:11 PM uh oh. Iskandar 08-01-2006, 12:58 PM hey even better abolish minimum wage Because the poor can never be poor enough! DillingerEscp 08-01-2006, 01:11 PM all reagan did was take less away from some um lol he didn't do it he talked about it um that's not left wing yeah, clinton talked about it, hence why they said he tried to socialize medicare. cutting the DEFENSE budget is very left wing. Reaganista 08-01-2006, 01:13 PM no it's not it's very the cold war was over and he didn't think we had any threats left Because the poor can never be poor enough no because the unskilled should be allowed to work griftadan 08-01-2006, 01:13 PM Because the poor can never be poor enough! its pretty hard not to be poor when you can't get a job, too. Jude 08-01-2006, 04:09 PM not really, it was more of an explanation of two different ways a mixed economy can be applied.pooble 08-01-2006, 06:23 PM If tomorrow we would raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour, it would wreak havoc on the economy. well yes. Inflation would skyrocket and people would be worse off, not better off. i will say i disagree with that however. raising a minimum wage would not create inflation, it would create unemployment.EDIT: on a further note, if we are trying to discuss economic theory using reagan and clinton as the 2 chief schools of economic thought than.. well.. stop. Iskandar 08-01-2006, 07:10 PM no because the unskilled should be allowed to work I've missed something here. What does abolishing minimum wage have to do with the unskilled working? Reaganista 08-01-2006, 07:12 PM what does banning people from working below a certain price point have to do with the unskilled working are you dense Iskandar 08-01-2006, 07:19 PM what does banning people from working below a certain price point have to do with the unskilled working are you dense No. So you want to allow unskilled labourers to work for barely enough to subsist on, at the cost of hard-won wages for every mininum-wage worker, so they can ... what? Contribute? I thought they had no skills and therefore weren't capable of contributing. Better idea: Offer education to unskilled workers so they can get real 'fing jobs. Reaganista 08-01-2006, 07:26 PM So you want to allow unskilled labourers to work for barely enough to subsist on or less at the cost of hard-won wages for every mininum-wage worker what so they can ... what? Contribute? I thought they had no skills and therefore weren't capable of contributing. no skills doesn't mean they're incapable of contributing it just means that they're capable of carrying out any task that could be assigned to an idiot Hababi 08-01-2006, 07:34 PM i will say i disagree with that however. raising a minimum wage would not create inflation, it would create unemployment. Well I think it'd do both :p Stagflation :oThis is true. Iskandar 08-01-2006, 08:08 PM or less So what's the point of that? At least it's possible to subsist on welfare, if only barely. what Ensuring minimum wages was and remains a difficult process. Minimum wage is a guaranteed privilege for all workers. Why take it away now? no skills doesn't mean they're incapable of contributing it just means that they're capable of carrying out any task that could be assigned to an idiot So why can't they be paid minimum wage for that? It's not that much more. Reaganista 08-01-2006, 08:21 PM So what's the point of that? At least it's possible to subsist on welfare, if only barely. the point is that it makes no sense to ban people from work simply because no one values their work highly Ensuring minimum wages was and remains a difficult process. defying the laws of supply and demand always is it also usually fails spectacularly Minimum wage is a guaranteed privilege for all workers. Why take it away now? because it's wasteful and ineffiecient it's unfair and illogical to stop two people from completing a transaction because what's being sold isn't highly valuable So why can't they be paid minimum wage for that? It's not that much more. because no one will hire them at a loss damn man griftadan 08-01-2006, 08:28 PM looks like i was talking to the threadstarter than. Reaganista 08-01-2006, 08:48 PM we should abolish income taxes altogether HazMatBlue 08-01-2006, 09:47 PM we should abolish income taxes altogether where is government going to get its money from? Reaganista 08-01-2006, 10:05 PM yeah i heard that you aren't allowed to tax anything besides income! HazMatBlue 08-01-2006, 10:06 PM I think income tax provides a bit too much revenue for the government to cut it out completely. Taxes on everything else would have to be raised quite a bit to make up for the difference Reaganista 08-01-2006, 10:08 PM um other taxes are equally adept at generating revnue HazMatBlue 08-01-2006, 10:11 PM I dont think they could generate enough to make up for a total lack of income tax. But if there was a way to get rid of income tax without harmful economic result, i'd be all for it Reaganista 08-01-2006, 10:13 PM But if there was a way to get rid of income tax without harmful economic result income tax is a harmful economic result HazMatBlue 08-01-2006, 10:17 PM any tax can be a harmful economic result, but we gotta have them Chrizzle fo' Shizzle 08-01-2006, 10:23 PM The current income tax is horribly sloppy Reaganista 08-01-2006, 10:27 PM all income taxes are disencentives to work HazMatBlue 08-01-2006, 10:30 PM all income taxes are disencentives to work Very true, but I think theyre tolerable when theyre not too high, and they should be lower The current income tax is horribly sloppy Just curius, do you mean anything by this? Chrizzle fo' Shizzle 08-01-2006, 10:33 PM With all the various kinds of deductables and whatnot, it's difficult to get the right amount of taxes from a person owenbassist 08-01-2006, 10:44 PM what form of tax do you think would be better, tway? a large tax on consumption? Reaganista 08-01-2006, 10:53 PM a large tax on consumption that's probably a worse idea than income taxes owenbassist 08-01-2006, 11:26 PM then what solution do you propose? pooble 08-02-2006, 09:08 AM Well I think it'd do both :p Stagflation :o well.. minus the flation part. where is government going to get its money from? print some more! what form of tax do you think would be better, tway? a large tax on consumption? i think i remember him wanting a wealth tax, which probably isn't a bad idea. -1up!- 08-02-2006, 10:33 AM print some more! :smash: Just like Germany in the 1920ies... Government had the great idea to print money, and inflation went so high that prices doubled every 49 hours or so. SubtleDagger 08-02-2006, 10:38 AM Refl printing more money is like the typical pseudo-economical person's thoughts on governmental funding. griftadan 08-02-2006, 10:54 AM Refl printing more money is like the typical pseudo-economical person's thoughts on governmental funding. the funny part is that half of the worlds countries have tried it at one point or another. pooble 08-02-2006, 11:36 AM hell half or more are probably doing it as we speak MegaPhony 08-02-2006, 01:26 PM :smash: Just like Germany in the 1920ies... Government had the great idea to print money, and inflation went so high that prices doubled every 49 hours or so. They used to bring wheelbarrows full of money to go grocery shopping :smash: Activista anti-MTV 08-12-2006, 07:47 PM Yeah Robin Hood had some good ideas he just took it a little to far... nowhesingsnowhesobs 08-12-2006, 08:24 PM I think estate tax is pretty good. You need more of it in the US. Reaganista 08-12-2006, 09:48 PM waiting for people to die to tax them is ridiculous and it's an easy target for politicians because is seems heartless and frightening Smokey D 08-13-2006, 04:55 AM Increasing liquidity in money supply isn't always bad. It sustained the Italian economy for five decades. Chrizzle fo' Shizzle 08-13-2006, 09:06 AM waiting for people to die to tax them is ridiculous and it's an easy target for politicians because is seems heartless and frightening It would provide a nice incentive for people to stay alive Jude 08-13-2006, 04:07 PM I understand what you're saying. It just pisses me off to work my * off to go to school, get a decent paying job, then have to pay out the * in taxes... only to see the woman down the street go cash her welfare check to go buy some smokes and play bingo. Well that's also not fair. to you and other taxpayers. Further bearing out the point I made. Reaganista 08-13-2006, 07:51 PM It would provide a nice incentive for people to stay alive they've already got one, though Jude 08-13-2006, 08:07 PM they've already got one, though They also appear to have plenty of incentive to work, leading me to conclude that your "disincentive to work" argument against income taxes is a bit off. Reaganista 08-13-2006, 08:12 PM no it's an absolute and factual certainty that taking away some of the reward for work makes work less desirable. there couldn't be anything more obvious than this incentive to live is absolute and not having to pay taxes isn't the reason for this um, you've gotta deal with basic economic realities no matter how many little red stars you wish upon and income is a stupid thing to tax and public works are often really ty and wasteful Iskandar 08-14-2006, 01:33 AM um, you've gotta deal with basic economic realities no matter how many little red stars you wish upon and income is a stupid thing to tax and public works are often really ty and wasteful Yeah, hospitals, highways and schools sure suck. What do you propose we tax besides income? Jude 08-14-2006, 07:34 AM no it's an absolute and factual certainty that taking away some of the reward for work makes work less desirable. there couldn't be anything more obvious than this Yeah, technically. Not practically. Hababi 08-14-2006, 09:56 AM What do you propose we tax besides income? Purchases. I don't agree with it, but that's just the most viable alternative :p -1up!- 08-14-2006, 10:09 AM no it's an absolute and factual certainty that taking away some of the reward for work makes work less desirable. there couldn't be anything more obvious than this For one who sees nothing but himself. nowhesingsnowhesobs 08-14-2006, 01:39 PM For one who sees nothing but himself. or instead: For one who sees the world as it is. Income tax is a disincentive to work. Hababi 08-14-2006, 03:41 PM or instead: For one who sees the world as it is. Income tax is a disincentive to work. Against the larger incentive to...have...money. For people who can make a decent wage, this incentive far outweighs having to give some of it back. Jude 08-14-2006, 04:27 PM Income tax is a disincentive to work. In the same way that having to wipe your * is a disincentive to poop. Iskandar 08-14-2006, 04:28 PM I don't see a problem with income tax. Would anyone care to enlighten me? Reaganista 08-14-2006, 05:26Iskandar 08-14-2006, 05:32because you're being rewarded less for your work I don't see the connection between leisure hours and income tax. Are you claiming that leisure hours are generally increasing? Reaganista 08-14-2006, 05:46 PM I don't see the connection between leisure hours and income tax. um you're kidding right whatever hours you don't work or eat/sleep/so on are leisure hours um you're kidding right whatever hours you don't work or eat/sleep/so on are leisure hours Thank you for patronizing me. I know what leisure hours are. Dropper- reading comp 101: F its hard to comprehend a poorly written jumble of characters nowhesingsnowhesobs 08-14-2006, 06:06 PM In the same way that having to wipe your * is a disincentive to poop. You can't control the amount of crap you need to out your arse nor can you get the state to have a crap for you. Amit 08-14-2006, 06:07 PM ahahah this thread is pure gold Hababi 08-14-2006, 06:10 PM ahahah this thread is pure gold Any thread that involves as indepth discussion about the process of excreting as the effects of tax systems :p Amit 08-14-2006, 06:11 PM You can't control the amount of crap you out your arse yes you can nowhesingsnowhesobs 08-14-2006, 06:14 PM don't be so ing anal about it. Reaganista 08-14-2006, 06:14 PM Thank you for patronizing me. I know what leisure hours are. then you must see the connection or I've horribly underestimated your capacity for stupid its hard to comprehend a poorly written jumble of characters but you are free to reformat the characters however you please Amit 08-14-2006, 06:15 PM don't be so ing anal about it. lmao ahahahlkasdl;ska i am seriously lollin right now Iskandar 08-14-2006, 06:16 PM then you must see the connection or I've horribly underestimated your capacity for stupid You have. I have an IQ of 20. I barely function. but you are free to reformat the characters however you please Garth, that was a haiku. Amit 08-14-2006, 06:16 PM thread has reached critical mass of lulz prepare for shutdown Reaganista 08-14-2006, 06:20 PM You have. I have an IQ of 20. I barely function. Iskandar 08-14-2006, 06:22 PM Nothing. I understand it perfectly. This post is worded much more succinctly than your previous one, which was vague and confusing. Thank you. Now could you please suggest a viable alternative to income tax? Futue te Ipsum 08-14-2006, 06:23 PM we still talking about ? nowhesingsnowhesobs 08-14-2006, 06:25 PM Garth, that was a haiku. Garth? Amit 08-14-2006, 06:25 PM we still talking about ? i hope so futue i hope so for the sake of the economy Iskandar 08-14-2006, 06:27 PM Garth? It's a movie quote. Hababi 08-14-2006, 06:28 PM i hope so futue i hope so for the sake of the economy i don't understand haiku i never did i never will Is that some good haiku or what?:amaze: Amit 08-14-2006, 06:29 PM 5 syllables 7 syllables 5 syllables i know it's stupid foreigner poetry Reaganista 08-14-2006, 06:30 PM english makes haiku far too easy it's supposed to be an art form Is that some good haiku or what? No, not at all Now could you please suggest a viable alternative to income tax? I'd tax savings it would be onerous as long as we have foreign nations to serve as tax shelters, but income tax is also really onerous Hababi 08-14-2006, 06:30 PM 5 syllables 7 syllables 5 syllables i know it's stupid foreigner poetry oh darn the thing with syllables, what's up with that this style really sucks :o Iskandar 08-14-2006, 06:34 PM I'd tax savings it would be onerous as long as we have foreign nations to serve as tax shelters, but income tax is also really onerous I really don't see income tax as a problem in the way of decreasing the reward of work. Maybe if income tax were 50% or so, but rates are always much lower. oh darn the thing with syllables, what's up with that this style really sucks It's not really possible to write authentic haiku in English. They're not based on syllables, but morai (a unit of time used to measure the Japanese language, since it is a stress-timed language). Hababi 08-14-2006, 06:37 PM Blah stressed and unstressed That's why I worked on my own Custom made language It was called Stevese. And it was grand. It would've been an easy to grasp, yet colorful and expansive language. Amit 08-14-2006, 06:39 PM It's not really possible to write authentic haiku in English. They're not based on syllables, but morai (a unit of time used to measure the Japanese language, since it is a stress-timed language). ooo didn't know that Iskandar 08-14-2006, 06:40 PM ooo didn't know that You can try, but it won't be the real deal. Amit 08-14-2006, 06:40 PM yeah i get it Iskandar 08-14-2006, 06:41 PM yeah i get it kk. Jude 08-14-2006, 07:18 PM You can't control the amount of crap you need to out your arse nor can you get the state to have a crap for you. :lol:The rest of this thread....is pretty funny, yeah. Reaganista 08-14-2006, 09:39 PM I really don't see income tax as a problem in the way of decreasing the reward of work. Maybe if income tax were 50% or so, but rates are always much lower.Do neither of you understand seriously understand marginalism, or are you just ing with me? either way I'm done lecturing you Iskandar 08-15-2006, 12:21 AM Do neither of you understand seriously understand marginalism, or are you just ing with me? either way I'm done lecturing you I reject it in favour of the labor theory of value, because I'm a brainwashed leftist blowhard. Reaganista 08-15-2006, 12:40 AM I think it's hilarious that you think the two ideas are incompatible, or even address the same thing. the idea of rejecting marginalism in general is hilarious nowhesingsnowhesobs 08-15-2006, 08:27 AMThat's not the main point -1up!- 08-15-2006, 10:58 AM or instead: For one who sees the world as it is. Income tax is a disincentive to work. I see the world as it is, I am very sane and don't see income tax as a disincentive to work at all. Stop making absolute statements. Jude 08-15-2006, 12:07 PM That's not the main point The main point is some retarded technicality that has no bearing on reality. griftadan 08-15-2006, 12:26 PM I see the world as it is, I am very sane and don't see income tax as a disincentive to work at all. Stop making absolute statements. its a disincentive to work harder or acheive more. Reaganista 08-15-2006, 12:33 PM I see the world as it is, I am very sane and don't see income tax as a disincentive to work at all. so the amount you're being paid has no bearing on whether you work or not? -1up!- 08-15-2006, 01:09 PM so the amount you're being paid has no bearing on whether you work or not? Limited bearing. I can't say the salary doesn't matter to me, and I'd be surprised at someone who would say that, but I'm hardly materialist and probably care a lot less about money than the average individual. I just don't get how you can judge or classify a job using only the salary it brings. Futue te Ipsum 08-15-2006, 02:20 PM you guys still talking ? nowhesingsnowhesobs 08-15-2006, 02:35 PM The main point is some retarded technicality that has no bearing on reality. no. I repeat: income tax is a disincentive to work. It doesn't stop people working but, generally speaking, it reduces the amount of time people are prepared to spend working. Iskandar 08-15-2006, 02:38 PM I think it's hilarious that you think the two ideas are incompatible, or even address the same thing. the idea of rejecting marginalism in general is hilarious I was being facetious. Jude 08-15-2006, 02:53 PM no. I repeat: income tax is a disincentive to work. It doesn't stop people working but, generally speaking, it reduces the amount of time people are prepared to spend working. Proof that this happens in practice and not just in theory plz Damage 08-15-2006, 07:37 PMDamage 08-15-2006, 08:02 PM The only time I feel there may be an exception is when someone gets a raise that puts them into the next tax bracket, but even then, it's just more incentive to make more money within that bracket. As far as a low flat tax, I understand how people would think that would be a good idea, but what incentive does the government have to do that? What choice does the uber-rich have to get out of that 33 percent bracket other than make less money? It's not as though they're going to move to another country, where there's a less free market (except maybe Hong Kong's an exception,) and more than likely, higher tax rates anyway. Reaganista 08-15-2006, 09:04 PM I can't say the salary doesn't matter to me, and I'd be surprised at someone who would say that, but bull bull bull bull bull bull bull**. as long as you admit that then marginalism applies to you it still would even if you didn't admit it, but you'd just be a liar Proof that this happens in practice and not just in theory plz do you have a job Iskandar 08-16-2006, 12:23 AM The government has no competition. Yes, they do. They have to do a good job and please the masses or another party will be elected at the end of their term. Antifa 08-16-2006, 01:04 AMRight, because that's what state-funded education told me. Reaganista 08-16-2006, 01:58 AM as you get less liesure hours they become relatively more valuable there must always come a point where having your own free time is more valuable to you than whatever it is you're being paid The only time I feel there may be an exception is when someone gets a raise that puts them into the next tax bracket, but even then, it's just more incentive to make more money within that bracket. you have no understanding of this Danish 08-16-2006, 10:36 AMgriftadan 08-16-2006, 11:27 AM The government clearly has an incentive to keep social programs well maintained. If they don't, they'll lose the next election. that might be true if most people knew what the hell their own government is doing, which is the case here. plus much of the inneffeciency lies in the millions of workers in the bueracracy, none of which are elected. Privatization is terrible. Private corporations are absolutely incapable of providing public services affordably and within the public interest. they do it all the time. food. clothing. transportation. housing. First of all, privatized services are almost always more expensive. yeah but you don't pay taxes to corporations, and the product quality is almost always going to be better. Second, a corporation's only guiding principle is profit. If a company can't make a profit from something, they won't do it. They are incapable of considering other principles (like the public good). you say that as though this will never lead to public good. Public services are far superior to private services. A simple comparison between Canada's health care system and the US' proves this. Canada's healthcare system is cheaper to run and more accessible. the US healthcare system isn't a good example. our governments policies are protectionist and stifle competition, driving up prices along with other things such as our tort policy. Additionally, we have to remember that our governments are elected and publicly accountable, while corporations are not. i say their both equally accountable. no business will continue to operate if it displeases the market. the difference between business and the government is that businesses can't use force. Amit 08-16-2006, 11:49 AM :-o Jude 08-16-2006, 12:12 PM do you have a job Yeah I do although it's just a summer job so I get all the money back in April that I lose from my paychecks. But even if I didn't i would still work this job because it pays about 2 grand for the summer and isn't that hard. Clearly I would rather have an under the table job but I'm going to work either way. Reaganista 08-16-2006, 01:51 PM Yeah I do although it's just a summer job so I get all the money back in April that I lose from my paychecks. no you don't But even if I didn't i would still work this job because it pays about 2 grand for the summer and isn't that hard. Clearly I would rather have an under the table job but I'm going to work either way. do you get what i mean when i say marginal this is not an all-or-nothing proposition dammit Jude 08-16-2006, 01:54 PM no you don't However much I get. I can never be bothered to figure out exactly how much I do or don't get back. do you get what i mean when i say marginal this is not an all-or-nothing proposition dammit I've honestly forgotten what the hell we're talking about anymore. Reaganista 08-16-2006, 02:05 PM You're completely hopeless Damage 08-16-2006, 03:54 PMThat's entirely opinion. Either you pay taxes or you pay corporations who will do a better job, and that's no opinion. Damage 08-16-2006, 03:57 PM as you get less liesure hours they become relatively more valuable there must always come a point where having your own free time is more valuable to you than whatever it is you're being paid you have no understanding of this Well, it's implied that there is a point where marginal cost exceeds marginal benefit. You obviously can't work 24 hours a day. Jude 08-16-2006, 06:17 PM You're completely hopeless I was definitely right whatever the argument was though. Reaganista 08-16-2006, 09:25 PMthis has nothing to do with getting raised into the next tax bracket even with a flat percentage tax, any income tax is a disencentive to work Iskandar 08-20-2006, 12:31 AM That's entirely opinion. Either you pay taxes or you pay corporations who will do a better job, and that's no opinion. That depends on your definition of "better job." In Canada, there is healthcare ranging from adequate to very good available to any citizen. In America, there is healthcare ranging from adequate to excellent available depending on your socioeconomic status, which is defined partially by work but also by heritage, race, class etc. I know which one I prefer.	eng	58215a59-fe1f-4a0d-ac05-cfb326011d1a	http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-485185.html
Hello, I'm another godless redditor, I'm 19 and Portuguese, and I have this question that pinches me, but let me explain: On an IRC chat, me and another IRC user usually argue a lot about meditation. I'm an atheist and irreligious, thus I don't believe in meditation, since meditation, I believe, comes from buddhism (Or Taoism or other Eastern belief, I don't know). The other user is religious, a Christian (Though not a fundie or anything, actually quite smart), and he believes in meditation. (As well as chakras, which I don't believe in as well) Once every so often we get into a heated debate about meditation, and the argument usually turns out so nasty I leave the IRC channel. I actually tried to meditate once for 5-10 mins, but nothing happened, which fueled my disbelief for meditation. Now I became an atheist back in 2009 thanks to TAA and other godless youtubers, though I wasn't really into religion before then. Though I never heard them speak about meditation, I assume it's fake like god or THE FIERY PITS OF HELL or children's shows like MLP. Anyways, now my question, what does r/atheism think about meditation, do you think it's fake like I do or do you have absolute evidence you wish to share with me? I'm ready for all responses, including troll responses. I'm going to weigh in as an atheist evolutionary behaviorist who isn't afraid of hurting the feelings of the ignorant, but who also has studied meditation both by living in a Zen monastery for a month and by researching the health effects of meditation for a class in undergrad. To the best of my understanding, meditation is not out-and-out bullshit. Now, that's not to say that some meditators don't make unsubstantiated or even demonstrably false claims, but it certainly isn't useless and lies per se. New Age-y people get all excited about meditation, so it's understandable to be wary about what people say about it, but the same could be said about organic food: Lots of pesticides were despised by hippies, but they thought it was messing with "vibes". Turns out it was causing cancer. In the same way, hippies got all excited about meditation because it could "spiritually awaken you", when it turns out it's just a pretty effective tool to work through psychological issues and build up concentration and positive emotional states. Silly hippies. To those who are saying that meditation is like relaxing, I'm afraid they're not fully aware of what meditation is. I'm not knocking relaxing, but meditation is actually not all that relaxing to do all the time - you sometimes finish a sitting wanting to scream your lungs out, even though your mind is calmer and quieter. Mindfulness meditation, (what is practiced in Zen Buddhism and in clinical settings) is basically exercise for your brain. You're cultivating patience and mental focus by trying to clear your mind, and it's some hard-ass stuff. You don't feel an effect after one session - it took me a week and a half of meditating for hours a day before I started to feel any different, but I liked the person I became when I had been regularly meditating. As for chakras, that's some hardcore Woo right there - or at least, it is when most people talk about it. Meditation may be all well and good, but it's not going to give you magical knowledge or let you talk to angels. However, there are meditation techniques where you focus on a visualization instead of focusing on your breath, and sometimes those visualizations are centered in certain body parts. The effect is the same, because the "work" you're doing is getting rid of the thoughts that distract you - it doesn't matter what you're trying to focus on. Some people use "chakras" as a sort of a structure on which to build their visualizations. You don't have a third eye, but you sure do have a forehead, and if you want to imagine it glowing, I guess that's fine. I'd just prefer to focus on my breathing, because I know that's actually happening. If you're at all interested in trying meditation, don't learn it wrong. Google "Zen meditation", "zazen", or "mindfulness meditation". The Zen tradition, at least, is quite open and scientific about a lot of what it does, and if you ask them questions like "Why do I have to sit this way?" their answer is always something like "Because otherwise your back will really hurt." There is a developing field in psychology dealing with mindfulness. It is especially prominant in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Mindfulness and mediation are very similar and while it can trace it's roots to Buddhist practices that does not make it religious. I recently took a clinical class on this subject and most of the discussion focused on how the technique of mindfulness may be why prayer and meditation are so effective and rewarding for people. Visualizations, acceptance of unwanted internal experiences (as opposed to attempting to forbid them) and taking time to experience a moment and reflect are parts of many religions and helpful for many people. Also helpful is the idea of briefly accepting the uncontrollable nature of events. Many people who dismiss mediation as "just relaxing" do not actually realize that there are probably benefits beyond simply not working. The practice of mindfulness in my opinion allows for people experience the benefits of these practices without believing in anything supernatural. Personally, I have been attempting to practice mindfulness but have never been one for meditating or the spirital aspects of things like yoga. I would love to publish a book or series of articles on mindfulness and meditation non-theists. There is growing scientific support for the utility of the practice. Various large-scale meta-analysis of different forms of meditation have been published that DO find that meditation has an effect on things like trait anxiety. Being a TMer myself, naturally, I point you to the studies that show that TM affects this better than other techniques, including mindfulness: You might find that meditation makes more sense to you ten years from now (well, I didn't start till I was in my late 20s). Some people will tell you about the benefits of meditation, and will try to provide scientific justification for it, or try to talk about how Buddhism is somehow scientific or at least friendly to science. I don't feel comfortable with that way of looking at things. Do you sometimes when arguing with people get the impression that they're not really listening to what you're saying, and are just reacting to their emotions/ideas around what they think you're saying? I suspect we all do that kind of thing. Worse, I suspect we all do that kind of thing in all aspects of life, not just arguing. Like when I'm with a bunch of friends and it's somebody's birthday, but I won't sing the Happy Birthday song because I feel like I'd sound stupid or I'm not a good sing, etc, etc, Me Me Me Me Me. Why not just sing the damn song? Meditation is practicing an alternative approach, a way of being wholly invested in what you're doing. You pay attention. You notice. And you stop making everything about you all the time (or at least a little bit less… hopefully). the fact is that a person can embrace the Buddha's teaching, and even become a genuine Buddhist contemplative (and, one must presume, a buddha) without believing anything on insufficient evidence. The same cannot be said of the teachings for faith-based religion. In many respects, Buddhism is very much like science. One starts with the hypothesis that using attention in the prescribed way (meditation), and engaging in or avoiding certain behaviors (ethics), will bear the promised result (wisdom and psychological well-being). This spirit of empiricism animates Buddhism to a unique degree. For this reason, the methodology of Buddhism, if shorn of its religious encumbrances, could be one of our greatest resources as we struggle to develop our scientific understanding of human subjectivity. It's not so much that I disagree with the claim (Sam Harris is probably a way smarter guy than me or at least better informed) as find it potentially distracting and missing more of what I feel to be the "point" I guess that as a programmer I am more drawn to a sense of orthogonality, that Buddhism isn't so much empirical as it is compatible with an empirical outlook. Rightly or wrongly, I tend to think that there are at least two kinds of claim, material claims (everything accelerates at 9.8 ms ^ -2 when falling on earth, god exists....) and experiential claim (impermanence, life is suffering, everything is interconnected). Experiential claims, I feel are more characterisations of reality than actual meaningfully testable statements. They point more to what human existence feels like than what it contains. I'll probably tie myself into knots here as I'm not very rigorous/clear enough in my thinking on the matter, so I'll spare you my rambling The practice I undertake (and will soon be committing myself to) is one that appears to discourage an instrumental view of meditation. It's not about getting something out if — inner peace, tranquility, a better self — but being wholly involved in all that we do. You could in effect call this reprogramming. 30 years of meditation probably bends your habits one way or the other, and long-time practitioners do have a certain grace that I find appealing; but the mentality of "I'm doing meditation to get X" is as far as I understand it in my newbieness sort of missing the point. Edit: this recent post on Authentic practice in Zen sort of nails the kind of attitude that seems popular among our locals. TL;DR, it's not about you I come across people like you who have meditated for a long time, but don't seem to use meditation as a mirror to see yourself. That's why I was looking for programmers who meditate. Hypothetical. Let's say you get cut off in traffic. Let's say you are the type of person who gets pissed off every time this happens. It sounds like you are a practiced meditator, so I would assume that you would get back to a mindful state, note the emotion and let it pass, re-engage yourself wholly into the act of driving As a programmer, if running a program frequently gives you an unwanted result. Instead of trying to modify the result after the program has run, you would want to avoid having that unwanted result come up at all, right? I've been struggling trying to explain this concept, sorry if my explanation is a little muddled. I say that partly because I'm not really sure I understand the practice I'm engaged in (5 years now). The problem with this sort of practice is how easy it is to grasp the wrong end of the stick. People think they should be "mindful" when they eg. wash the dishes, so they end up doing this super-slow blissed-out "mindful" washing instead of… you know… washing the bleeping dishes. Or others get into what I call a state of "suchness intoxication" (you'll see them posting things on Facebook like "Just Be", which makes me want to throw up a little). Or others think they should be all iconoclastic and shocking, kill the Buddha. I'm not sure what I could say that wouldn't be a manifestation of my own wrong-end-grasping of stick. (oops, the kill there wasn't meant to be in allusion to Sam Harris' post, just an unfortunate coincidental use of the same historical phrase) I guess the smart alec-y Zen answer would be "who is it that gets angry (and gives the finger?)"… but that's a sort of stock Zen way of talking that my repeating would only be hollow. All I know is that the attitude of non-obtention, non-grasping seems pretty big in what we do. So at the risk of continuing to misunderstand the question, the improved bug-free self that doesn't get angry when cut off in traffic (or gets less angry), well, sure that's probably better from a practical point of view, but for me to see meditation as a kind of deliberate self-rewriting to reach that goal (or to reach a myriad goals that may arise through self-observation) is kind of missing the point. It'd be me getting caught up in that Me-Me-Me attitude all over again. It'd be me making a separation between the self that I don't like (that gets angry) and the ideal reprogrammed self. Whatever it is I'm doing, and even if I'm doing all the mental things, even if I'm being calm and observant, etc; I'd be fundamentally separating myself from the present. See what I'm trying to get at? Again, take this with salt. I'm really just some dude that goes to the zendo a couple of times a week. Not sure I know what I'm talking about. Not right thinking. You are making a prejudgement that you won't get the ability to 'get it' till you're farther down the road. It'd be me making a separation between the self that I don't like (that gets angry) and the ideal reprogrammed self. I don't know anything about formal Zen practice, but ask your teacher. This is exactly what we want. You don't NEED to make a separation between those two, because it already exists. This is a basic level acceptance. This is a perfect example of the zen story of the horse and rider. A rider is galloping down the road in a hurry. A bystander yells, "Where are you going?" The annoyed rider replies "Why are you asking me? Ask the horse" You are not the monkey mind that gets angry when cut off. You are the "ideal reprogrammed self". I only disagree with the reprogrammed part. There is no reprogramming, more of a rediscovering. The ideal rediscovered self. The ideal self. You. If you meditate, you have wrestled with the monkey mind. You try to count to ten, and the monkey mind wants you to think about that cool article you read on reddit. That's why we meditate. Because every time we wrestle, the better we get. And we start getting better at wrestling the monkey mind outside of meditation. So when you get cut off and you monkey mind goes into "shit-flinging" mode, you (having meditation experience) are able to find your center a lot faster than most people. What I'm asking is, have you ever considered the possibility that you might not have to wrestle with the monkey mind at all? When your monkey mind and YOU (soul/ideal rediscoverd self/divinity) have a contest of wills, what is the deciding factor? Has your monkey mind every "really" won? Sure there have been times it got it's way, but hasn't that always been because you allowed it? But here is why I wanted to talk to you specifically as a programmer who meditates. Pretend that you are a biological robot. Easy because you basically are. But we are very special robots. Robots that have this amazing ability to get unstuck when it gets caught in a loop because we are self aware. So most people are on autopilot because they are not mindful. They might be driving and not getting in an accident, but mentally they are anywhere other than now. They are replaying the past. The rough day they had. They are daydreaming about a possible future. That nice cocktail they'll order for dinner. When a person gets cut off, the auto-pilot response script kicks in. There is an entire spectrum of responses. At one end of the spectrum, is the response of escalation that ends in one or more deaths. At the other is the Buddha, who might chuckle but is never removed from the present. So line everyone up. The Buddha response on the left and "When Keepin' It Real Goes Wrong" response on the right. You fall somewhere in between, but if you're like most people, you would get angry. So in the line, you are closer to the Keepin' Real Response, than the Buddha response. Here is the thing. No matter where you are in the spectrum, you think everyone to the right (towards escalation) is an idiot. Without realizing that everyone on their left thinks you're an idiot. The guy who will honk and tailgate still thinks there is a point where it's stupid to escalate. While the guy who just fumes and let it ruin his entire day, thinks the tailgater is stupid. While the guy who replays the incident a dozen times in the course of the day, thinks the guy who fumes is stupid because he's doing all day while he's just doing it...most...of the day. Etc. So as a programmer, you know what your auto-response is. And being the clever biological robot, set up a secondary counter response to calm down and resume your mindful state. It could very well be that before you took up meditation, your auto-response was more extreme. That means you can changed your auto-response in the past. In fact the 'old you' might have never thought you could be the calmer person you are now. But now that you are that calmer person, if you realize it wasn't that difficult to reach this calmer state. It seemed effortless. So what is preventing you from changing your auto-response further? Instead of this hacky two step process, why not change the auto-response? Will it be as effortless as your previous change? What is stopping you for going full buddha? Do you see what I'm getting at? I'm trying to get you to pivot your mind Thanks for this very substantial effort! I confess I'm a bit in over my head here. Hmm, ask me in 30 years. Not right thinking. You are making a prejudgement that you won't get the ability to 'get it' till you're farther down the road. Indeed, sort of meant as a half-joke, on the one hand trying to acknowledge that how I understand the practice may be different in the future than now, and on the other hand, well just light-hearted back reference. And yes, it's wrong also in the sense that I'm doing it again, fantasising about some 30 year older wiser Eric rather than practicing right now. Much of what you say sounds like stuff I think I hear being taught and some stuff that maybe just needs digestion time. I found interesting your depiction of the scale of possible ways of responding and the ways people relate to both sides of the spectrum. But I didn't know what to do with it! :-) I guess what sounds familiar is the universal you (the old "everyone has Buddha nature" or "everybody already is Buddha" thing?) the sense of rediscovering what has actually been there all along I guess some things that may reflect me coming from a different culture of meditation are (as far as I can tell from our school), A tranquil state is not really presented as being inherently desirable The idea of taming the monkey mind never really seems to come up in our practice. Oh sure, people talk about "developing your come back muscle"… but well, how to say. You know how lots of people that practice meditation talk use the metaphor about clouds in the sky for busy vs still mind? I feel like we use the same kind of language but without the underlying idea that the clear sky is better than than the cloudy one. As one Zen teacher puts it, "our sitting practice is not a method to control the weather" You seem to present the possibility of no-conditioned-response as a programmer-insight alternative to conditioned-response-followed-by-returning-to-centre. Do I understand that correctly? If so, well it's interesting. But I'm not sure what to make of it. I mean, I guess in terms of what might be stopping me from going full-Buddha all-centre-all-the-time-because-I can-take-the-transitive-closure-of-self-observation-steps, is that I'd be a bit nervous about falling into what seems like a trap where people get an idea of what being a Buddha is, and engage in some sort of stereotypical behaviour or another (that's the thing that's so appealing for me about Zen is the seeming normality of the people who practice it) But I have seriously have no idea, and have no intention of sticking to my guns in this thread. I feel like if I did, I'd just be engaged in naive wrong-end-of-stick-grasping, along the lines of "noo! I'm supposed to be all non-dualistic and shit!". So, sorry for disengaging! I'm going to have to kind of throw up my hands for now and shrug. I do appreciate your effort though, I can see glimmers of what you're saying. Maybe we can come back to this later. No, thank you for taking the time to read my wall of text. I think you can tell when I say I appreciate it, I really appreciate it. It is very disorienting. I am trying to see if others see what I can see, and it was very disorienting for me as well. I've been trying to come up with different analogies and you are my "programmer" test subject. Just meditate on what I've said. Talk with your teacher. A lot of people from /r/atheism wander into /r/buddhism and there is a reason. Atheism is a partial awakening. At some point in your life you couldn't suspend your disbelief in religion any further. So you became self aware (awake) and started investigating. And you found that it was fractally wrong. Meaning wrong, on all levels. That these Men of God have the same flaws as those who are not men of god. If the sins of the father are not the sins of the son, why am I guilty of original sin? So Jesus did us a big favor and all he asks for in return is eternal allegience? So you said, "This doesn't make sense, so I'm not going to play along!" Then you went back to sleep. Why not put that focus on everything you are doing while in a mindful awake state? I mean at all levels. This is what is meant by zen mind, beginner mind. It's not enough to be mindful and in the moment of cooking. You can be in the moment of cooking in the now and still be blind. For example, I realized that when I cook I have a tendency to flip meat way too often. Even while in a mindful state, I didnt notice it. I guess I had burned something once, and developed a habit. So while mindful that I was running the "flip too often" script, it took a zen mind to realize that because I am mindful I no longer need to flip as often. My beginner mind can now see when it gets to the perfect time to flip. I see where you are. You left the religion nonsense behind. You gravitated towards zen. And why not? In the monks, you find a calm and serenity that the mega-church pastors and bible thumps have probably never experienced. That for all their talk of love, these Men of God possess a lot of hate. While the zen master are calm as a mountain lake, even when facing death. Monks have lit themselves on fire and maintained a silent lotus pose. You love everything about Zen Buddhism except the Buddhism part. You have found meditation and that alone has been a great gift to you. But you are afraid to explore the possibility Enlightenment and Buddhahood, because you probably think that's getting back into the whole gods bullshit you just left. What I would like you to meditate on is this: What if the Buddha and Enlightenment aren't what you think it is? What if Buddha was the first biological robot that fully woke up? What if Buddha was the first biological robot that looked at what he was doing and realized that he can reprogram himself? That he was something more than this hairless monkey that wants to eat, sleep and fuck. What if he was the first person to really look at everything that he was doing, and made a conscious decision on what is right and what is wrong instead of listening to his wants and the pressures of society? He realized that not only can he go counter programming, he could go counter to design. He looked around and saw everyone sleep walking. Spending their time in the past or future. And when a decision is made, in this sleep walking state they do what they have been taught. Those people are "Untouchable!" Buddha asked why? He could see that everyone could be awakened. He could see that "Untouchable" was just a lottery of birth, and an artificial belief that these people are bad. It's normal to be afraid of death. Buddha asked why? If it's inevitable, why worry? Why spend a moment away from enjoying a nice day? If in my meditation, I am separate from my mind and body, what does it mean when my body and mind dies? What happens to that me that is not my mind? You know that dwelling on that jerk who cut you off is non-productive. You have failed to ask if ANY moment in the past (good or bad) is worth trading for the moment now. Different meditation traditions see it differently. Mindfulness techniques, to me, while useful in a limited way (jugglers, race-car drivers, musicians, etc, all practice mindfulness afterall, every time they do their thing), are an attempt to consciously establish a state of mind that arises spontaneously after long-term practice of a radically different kind of meditation technique. If your "true self" is constant, pure non-judgemental awareness, present 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, there is obviously no point in practicing mindfulness. You ARE mindful: that is the essential quality of YOU. That is your "true self." And that naturally develops simply by alternating meditation (TM at least) with normal activity over a period of time. There's no effort or intent involved.As a programmer, if running a program frequently gives you an unwanted result. Instead of trying to modify the result after the program has run, you would want to avoid having that unwanted result come up at all, right? Sorry to kind of hi-jack this question, but what you're talking about is very similar to how cognitive behavioral therapy is sposta work. I believe it is typically referred to as "cognitive restructuring." You gain awareness of your own thought patterns and emotional reactions in order to "reprogram" them. In Buddhist terminology this is very similar to the concept of sampajañña, which involves a sort of meta-awareness of one's thoughts which arises through mindfulness. I just recently tried to explain the way that the Buddha (or at least early Buddhists) seemed to think of the automated process of perceiving and the actions that arise out of it, and how meditation is supposed to allow you to break out of it in this thread. I think you'll be able to see that this is very similar to what you're talking about. EDIT: That post mostly deals with the purported effects of meditation on cognitive/conceptual processes, but you find the same said about emotional reactions in the suttas. There is a parable where emotional reaction is described as being akin to the pain of a "second dart" which occurs after the initial sensory pain of a "first dart." Mindfulness is said to cut off this second dart. I think, presumably, the idea is that mindfulness allows you to gain this meta-cognitive awareness of your automatic affective-cognitive processes, "catch them in the act" so to speak, and nip them in the bud. Don't know if this is helpful at all to your question, but at least I hope it might give you some terminology and conceptual apparatus to think about what you're getting at with. Umm, I feel like the Buddhist concept of Enlightenment is somewhat hard to grasp (at least for me). I guess I'd say that I think that this "reprogramming", or even just "deprogramming," process is definitely a requirement for Enlightenment, in fact I think it is at the center of the Buddha's teachings. So it appears to be necessary for Enlightenment, but is it sufficient? -- that's a slightly harder question I guess. For example, in the texts you find a series of 4 meditative absorptions (jhanas) which arise out of this process being taken to a level of extreme subtlety. At the point of the 4th jhana, it seems that both your emotional and cognitive reactions to experience are entirely cut off and you enter a state of neither-pain-nor-pleasure (adukkhamasukha) and upekkhasatiparisuddhi ("purity of mindfulness due to equanimity"). So at this point it seems like you would have entered a fully "de-automatized awareness," so to speak, but it itself is not Enlightenment, it is just kind of the last stage which places you in the optimal position to attain Enlightenment. So, given that, it seems like maybe this whole process is not sufficient for Enlightenment, although it is absolutely crucial for getting you there. But then, the whole thing gets complicated when you see how Enlightenment is usually defined in the Pali. Canonically, the three sort of "defining factors of Enlightenment" (which are explicitly said to be led to by the jhanas, and are also said to be what the Buddha himself was "awakened to") are (a) the detailed recollection of one's past lives, (b) the ability to see the passing away and reappearing of beings with the "divine eye", and to understand how this occurs in accordance with those beings' actions, (c) the realization through one's own direct knowledge that one has destroyed the 10 fetters Whats odd about this description is that it really tells you nothing about "what happens" when you are Enlightened, it just kind of tells you what you know after it occurs. So, given this definition, it makes me wonder if the Enlightenment experience itself might just be thought of as being the refinement of this deconceptualized equaniminous state taken to the extreme, until somehow these knowledges emerge. Then again, all of this thought kind of gets shifted a bit in later Buddhism too... Sorry for another long post, I hope you find it helpful, or at least interesting. Skepdic is an interesting source to cite concerning TM. Skepdic in turn, cites former participants of the TM organization who are unhappy for many reasons, without providing any balance. For example, it mentions that the research is done by the TM organization while failing to note that the most recent research (done in the past 30 years) has often been done by groups of scientists, not all of whom meditate. It also fails to mention that the success of the David Lynch Quiet Time program (which includes TM practice) is so positive that there are students on the waiting list to learn TM via the DLF, including one million in the city of Rio de Janeiro alone. Ironically, the same criticism about TM research has always been leveled at research on all other forms of meditation: believers/practitioners are the main researchers involved, the experimental groups are generally small, etc. I meditate, or try to, daily. Once you start, the benefits are obvious. It calms you and puts your life in focus. It reduces stress and concern of frivolous matters. It also helps you regulate your emotions, and allows you to see the truth of a matter past your biases and coping mechanisms (denial, justification). Anyone that has been really angry or depressed knows that we think differently when our mood changes. Meditation is simply a mode of thinking while in a state of calm. I am an atheist and meditate on a daily basis. There is nothing supernatural or religious about meditation - it is simply training the mind to observe itself. As others have pointed out, there are decades of peer-reviewed scientific research showing the meditation has long many term benefits. Meditation may have been developed within a religious context but the practice itself can be entirely non-religious. Although Buddhist contemplative tradition and modern science have evolved from different historical, intellectual and cultural roots, I believe that at heart they share significant commonalities, especially in their basic philosophical outlook and methodology. On the philosophical level, both Buddhism and modern science share a deep suspicion of any notion of absolutes, whether conceptualized as a transcendent being, as an eternal, unchanging principle such as soul, or as a fundamental substratum of reality. Both Buddhism and science prefer to account for the evolution and emergence of the cosmos and life in terms of the complex interrelations of the natural laws of cause and effect. From the methodological perspective, both traditions emphasize the role of empiricism. For example, in the Buddhist investigative tradition, between the three recognized sources of knowledge - experience, reason and testimony - it is the evidence of the experience that takes precedence, with reason coming second and testimony last. This means that, in the Buddhist investigation of reality, at least in principle, empirical evidence should triumph over scriptural authority, no matter how deeply venerated a scripture may be. Even in the case of knowledge derived through reason or inference, its validity must derive ultimately from some observed facts of experience. Because of this methodological standpoint, I have often remarked to my Buddhist colleagues that the empirically verified insights of modern cosmology and astronomy must compel us now to modify, or in some cases reject, many aspects of traditional cosmology as found in ancient Buddhist texts. Different people respond to meditation differently. I started when I was 18 and didn't notice any direct effects for many months. I just liked being part of a reasonably accepting group, so I stuck with it. However, friends started asking "what has happened" when they spoke to me after a hiatus over the summer break (when I learned). In a very real sense, changes were apparently taking place for literally months without me noticing. On the other hand, David Lynch says that his first meditation was "amazing". PTSD veterans who learn TM often tell similar stories. This is common enough that TM teachers themselves point out that people under extreme stress are far more likely to notice benefits of TM immediately than people who are not in that category. I would assume that other meditation techniques, insomuch as they are also stress-reducing, show a similar pattern. /r/meditation is biased in its own way. I've been banned from it for mentioning TM too much. Ironically, one of the moderators who participated in banning me appears to have been banned from wikipedia, specifically for using myriad sock-puppets to make entries about his own favorite form of meditation: I'm an atheist, but I meditate somewhat regularly. I find meditation and religion to be independent. Religion is a belief in some supernatural god, while meditation is a practice that stills the mind and brings about a multitude of wonderful biproducts. I will say, it is very difficult to meditate at first. I would suggest subscribing to /r/meditation for a week. Best of luck :) I don't think "belief" really applies in the same way when we're talking about a subjective experience. Confusion between the subjective and the objective seems to be at the root of the problem with religion. We can all agree on certain patterns we observe in the outside world, and science is the process of clarifying and quantifying these patterns. But each of us examining what it is like to observe is a totally separate question, and unless we develop a way to live in another person's head, a Being John Malkovich-type technology, there will never be a way to form generalized beliefs about subjectivity that have any evidence beyond our own experience and taking people at their word. So saying you "don't believe" in meditation basically just amounts to saying you've never had a notable experience with it. And the natural response of anyone who has had an experience will be "try again." Meditation isn't "fake," and it's not Buddhist. It's in Buddhism, but not all meditation is Buddhist. Meditation can't be "fake" because it's not something you believe in. It has nothing to do with God, or spirituality. It's just sitting alone, in silence, with your eyes closed, clearing your head. That's it. There are certain types that bring supernatural stuff into it, but those are just types. For something to be meditation, it doesn't need to be religious or spiritual in any way. Meditation has something slightly related to one religion, therefore I must reject all aspects of it. lolwut ?????? Openmindedness man, its what separates the rest of us from the blind religion followers The point of meditation that people have tried to impress upon me is that you try to clear your mind and think of nothing. Of all the times when I have attempted meditation, I am never able to fully clear my mind and I get dizzy every time. There may be some benefits to closing your eyes and relaxing once in a while, but I am not sure that meditation is the right way to go about it, and any benefits are going to be physiological or psychological, not spiritual. I do not think that humans have a spirit, or can achieve the "enlightenment" described by buddhist philosophy. Meditation is not really about thinking of nothing - it's more about being aware of the present moment, by concentrating on your breath or something around you. It's not about giving up thinking, but observing your thoughts without judging them, accepting the emotions these thoughts may provoke. I don't mind a bit of meditation. I like chilling out now and then, but I don't attach anything spiritual to that. In fact, I wouldn't even call it meditation, it's just relaxing, really. Sitting and relaxing can have positive benefits, but beyond just making you more relaxed/happier, it won't do anything. I think they are the same thing and have the same effects, but people striving for a spiritual spin on it will see the effects as being some kind of spiritual awakening whereas people who don't buy that stuff will just feel more relaxed or comfortable. Sitting and thinking about things is usually a positive thing and sitting and thinking about nothing has another wonderful effect. After a while you start to feel less connected to the world (because you haven't allowed yourself to think about what goes on in the world) and this feels like a spiritual experience to some people. I put it down to the fact that you use your brain to constantly interpret reality and when you stop that process, you stop feeling a part of reality. Everything you see, hear, feel, taste or smell is your brain interpreting reality. Cut this off and you lose your feeling of being connected. "Mindfulness meditation" / Vipassana / "Atenção plena" is kind of like "thinking", except that the usual kind of thinking is "thinking with your conscious mind", and "mindfulness meditation" is "thinking with your unconscious mind". The only common opinion shared by ALL atheists is a lack of belief in gods. That being said, I personally think it depends on the goal you have in mind with meditation. If you're using meditation to try and bring yourself closer to something "spiritual" or "transcendent", then good luck with that. I don't believe either of those things exist and you're either wasting your time or fooling yourself or both. Just remember that the mind is a fantastic echo chamber and that you should compare what you find there to reality every now and then. That said, if you are using meditation as a way to quietly contemplate your life, your existence, and to review your own thoughts, more power to you. The only kind of meditation I really don't like is any sort of "guided" meditation. To me, that smacks of "Sit quietly and think what I tell you think. Don't ask questions or think for yourself." I can't abide that. . TM theory says that long term practice of TM for 20 minutes twice a day, alternated with normal activity, will lead to a situation where the physiological signature of Transcendental Consciousness starts to show up more and more outside of meditation. This will be correlated by a more stable, "mature" style of functioning of the nervous system that reduces counter-productive responses to stressful situations. Over time, this style of functioning will be come so pronounced that the person reports that they are perceiving some element of Transcendental Consciousness along with normal activity. This is generally identified as some kind of "pure watchfulness" that is uninvolved with what is being watched. When this perception becomes permanent, that "Pure Consciousness" is always present, 24 hours a day, during normal waking, dreaming and sleeping, then the person naturally starts to describe their "self" in terms of this Pure Consciousness perception. At this point, a person has become enlightened, in TM theory, at least to the "first stage." Research on physiological and psychological correlates of "enlightened" people has been published: Meditation is not a prayer (or, at least, it doesn't have to be), as long as you don't treat it as a religious activity that does some bullshit for the immortal soul or communicates to an imaginary being it has nothing to do with religion or not. I am a very outspoked atheist. Meditation is a real thing. It has nothing to do with the spiritual aspect some people attribute to it, but I have been practicing meditation since I was 14 (I am 21), and it clears my head, allows me to feel healthier, think more clearly, and generally just have a general well being of peace. It is a mental state, as well as lets you experience some pretty interesting stuff, like dreaming but being aware you are dreaming (I will lay on a bed and do my thing then basically fall out of my body and continue to do what I want), I have flown, talked to dead icons (As I imagine them as being I guess but cool nonethless), been to outer space and seen other planets, obviously this stuff is so far off what it would actually be like, but it lets you experience a new kind of like strictly in your mind, quite interesting.... you should look into it. Definitions of "meditation" in the "spiritual" sense vary from culture to culture. In the Yogic Tradition, dhyan is practiced using some kind of mental object of attention. This object of attention is referred to as an ishtava devata (rough translation: personal god) in the Yoga Sutras, though it goes on to note that "any attractive object" can be used as a personal god (obviously "god" isn't used quite the same way by modern people). Interpretations of spirituality, meditation, religion, etc., date back to a time when there was very little distinction made between secular and non-secular, and of course, full enlightenment, according to Yogic tradition, involves noting that one is "one with the universe," so in that context, distinctions are always artificial: if you are "one with everything," then everything, at its basis, is essentially "one thing," so such categorizing is superficial, at best. Meditation leads to enlightenment. This is just a fact. You can say this state of mind doesn't exist but that is a bit like telling a physicist certain things about physics without performing the experiment yourself, or telling an ultramarathoner that its impossible to run 100 miles. Different traditions define enlightenment differently. Some traditions hold that there's nothing that can be measured. Others hold that it only exists if it can somehow be measured. The founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement had this to say when people complained about him encouraging scientists to investigate TM (starting about 1959):One of my favorite quotes of my late guru, in the context of performing scientific research on meditationIn fact, while it is still primitive, there IS a consciousness-o-meter. It is a combination of EEG and psychological profile that purports to show how far along you are on the road to enlightenment, at least the first stage thereof: Well, when you can look at the measures on a wide variety of people, including the world-champion athletes vs non-world champion (but still olympic class) athletes, and find that the champions tend to be more enlightened (able to be "in the flow" during competition) as measured by the aforementioned scale, and find the same thing in award-winning management vs non-award-winning management, it starts to become plausible that maybe the scale is showing something "real."	eng	6227d8ec-ad39-4742-a14e-11fc67e196ac	http://ds.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/trzdt/question_about_meditation/
Week in Review The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was the European Union's (EU's) way of combating global warming. By making carbon emitters pay for their carbon emissions. But Europe is mired in recession. And the Eurozone is suffering a sovereign debt crisis. Which hasn't helped to pull Europe out of recession. And it appears that the economic reality in Europe is dooming the ETS (see If Carbon Markets Can't Work in Europe, Can They Work Anywhere? by Bryan Walsh posted 4/17/2013 on Time). But the ETS—and carbon trading more generally—is not doing well, and its problems are taking some of the green shine off of Europe. Since its launch the ETS has struggled, with the price of carbon falling as the 2008 recession and overly generous carbon allowances undercut the market. In the ETS business are given free allowances to emit carbon—too many free allowances mean they don't need to reduce their carbon emissions much, which erodes the demand for additional carbon allowances on the market and causes the price to drop. Prices fell from 25 euros a ton in 2008 to just 5 euros a ton in February. There was a way to fix this—take 900 million tons of carbon allowances off the market now and reintroduce them in five years time, when policymakers hoped the economy would be stronger and demand would be greater. As anyone who's taken Econ 101 would know, artificially reducing the supply of carbon allowances in such a drastic way—something called "backloading"— should force the price back up. But on April 16, the European Parliament surprised observers by voting down the backloading plan. In turn, the European carbon market collapsed, with the price of a carbon allowance falling by more than 40% over the day. "We have reached the stage where the EU ETS has ceased to be an effective environmental policy," Anthony Hobley, the head of climate change practice at the London law firm Norton Rose, told the New York Times. The ETS is a mess. Backloading failed because even in very green Europe, economic concerns seemed to trump environmental ones. European Parliamentary members worried that any action that would cause the price of carbon to rise would add to European industry's already high energy costs. This should make China happy. For there was no way no how they were going to pay for the carbon emissions from their airplanes entering European airspace. In fact they warned they would cancel their Airbus orders and give them to Boeing if the Europeans tried to force them to help bail out the Eurozone in their sovereign debt crisis. For this was what the ETS would ultimately do. Transfer great amounts of wealth from the private sector to the public sector. Which would have gone a long way in helping the Eurozone to continue to spend money they don't have. The ETS was nothing but a new tax on business. Cloaked in the guise of making the world a better—and greener—place. But the EU is suffering economically. A large part of the sovereign debt crisis is due to having less economic activity to tax. So the EU needs to improve the economy. So they can generate more tax revenue from the current tax rates. But increasing taxes on the carbon emitters will not help businesses. It will only increase the cost of business. Increasing their prices. Making them less competitive in the market place. Reducing their sales. And killing jobs. Which will generate even less tax revenue from the current tax rates. The problem in the EU is not global warming. Or insufficient tax revenue. They have a spending problem. This is what caused their deficits. That gave them their soaring debt. Just like every other nation that ever suffered a debt crisis. Including the U.S. Trying to fix a spending problem with more taxes just doesn't work. Only a cut in spending can fix a spending problem. It's not like the old chicken and egg question. Excessive and unsustainable spending always comes before a debt crisis. Always. Week in Review In the Seventies they were scaring kids about a coming ice age. And about air pollution so bad that we would one day have to wear gas masks when going outside. The planet is a lot cleaner now. And there is no talk about Americans one day having to wear a gas mask when going outside. And that coming ice age? Well, they were just wrong about that. For what they thought was global cooling was actually global warming. An easy mistake to make. Because they're both about temperature. One just moves in one direction. While the other moves in the other. And unless you do something like record temperatures periodically how are you going to know which direction those temperatures are moving? Remarkably, and we will argue importantly, the airborne fraction has declined since 2000 (figure 3) during a period without any large volcanic eruptions… The airborne fraction is affected by factors other than the efficiency of carbon sinks, most notably by changes in the rate of fossil fuel emissions (Gloor et al 2010). However, it is the dependence of the airborne fraction on fossil fuel emission rate that makes the post-2000 downturn of the airborne fraction particularly striking. The change of emission rate in 2000 from 1.5% yr-1 to 3.1% yr-1 (figure 1), other things being equal, would have caused a sharp increase of the airborne fraction (the simple reason being that a rapid source increase provides less time for carbon to be moved downward out of the ocean's upper layers). A decrease in land use emissions during the past decade (Harris et al 2012) could contribute to the decreasing airborne fraction in figure 3, although Malhi (2010) presents evidence that tropical forest deforestation and regrowth are approximately in balance, within uncertainties. Land use change can be only a partial explanation for the decrease of the airborne fraction; something more than land use change seems to be occurring. We suggest that the huge post-2000 increase of uptake by the carbon sinks implied by figure 3 is related to the simultaneous sharp increase in coal use (figure 1). Increased coal use occurred primarily in China and India… Associated gaseous and particulate emissions increased rapidly after 2000 in China and India (Lu et al 2011, Tian et al 2010). Some decrease of the sulfur component of emissions occurred in China after 2006 as wide application of flue-gas desulfurization began to be initiated (Lu et al 2010), but this was largely offset by continuing emission increases from India (Lu et al 2011). We suggest that the surge of fossil fuel use, mainly coal, since 2000 is a basic cause of the large increase of carbon uptake by the combined terrestrial and ocean carbon sinks… Sulfate aerosols from coal burning also might increase carbon uptake by increasing the proportion of diffuse insolation, as noted above for Pinatubo aerosols, even though the total solar radiation reaching the surface is reduced… Reduction of the net human-made climate forcing by aerosols has been described as a 'Faustian bargain' (Hansen and Lacis 1990, Hansen 2009), because the aerosols constitute deleterious particulate air pollution. Reduction of the net climate forcing by half will continue only if we allow air pollution to build up to greater and greater amounts. Let's review. The airborne fraction carbon dioxide has fallen since 2000. And, as a result, global temperatures did not rise as projected. Even though there were no large volcanic eruptions. Which cause global cooling. Tropical forest deforestation and re-growth are balancing each other out. So that's not a factor in this decline of airborne carbon dioxide. Which leaves the sole remaining answer for the decline in airborne carbon dioxide levels as China's and India's explosion in new coal-fired power plants. Yes, the wonderful air pollution from burning coal apparently cools the planet. Like a volcanic eruption does. Are you seeing the bigger picture here? For a hundred years or so the Industrial Revolution belched so much ash, soot, smoke, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide into the air that it left black clouds over cities. And a layer of soot and ash on everything. This is why we electrified trains in our cities. To keep coal-fired locomotives and their great black plumes of smoke out of the cities. Was there a global warming problem then? No. That didn't come into vogue until Al Gore started talking about it in the Nineties. When the planet was doomed if we didn't act immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Despite only a few years earlier the climate scientists were warning us of the coming ice age. Probably because of all that global cooling from our coal-fired power plants, steam engines and locomotives. As oil, gas and electricity replaced coal-fired boilers everywhere (we even used coal in our home furnaces) all that pollution from coal went away. And then came the Nineties. And catastrophic global warming. Just as China and India began to incorporate some capitalism into their economies. Which they fed with electricity provided by more and more coal-fired power plants. And as they belched all that wonderful pollution into the air the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide as well as global temperatures fell. So I ask again, do you see the bigger picture here? Yes, global warming is man-made. At least this is what one can conclude from this paper. And it is the climate scientists who made it. By telling us to reduce all of the cooling emissions from our coal-fired power plants. But, thankfully, the Indians and the Chinese still care enough about Mother Earth to pump those cooling emissions into the air. And gave us a reprieve from the global warming apocalypse. But if the climate scientists get their way they'll bring on that apocalypse. By pressuring China and India to stop putting those cooling emissions into the air. And for the sake of the planet we can only hope that they don't succumb to that pressure. Week in Review Something the American left really wants is a carbon trading system. For this in conjunction with a national health care system would give the government great control over the private sector. Because health care is one-sixth of the U.S. economy. And everything takes energy. So everything would be subject to the government's carbon oversight. A carbon trading system would basically turn carbon emissions (i.e., polluting greenhouse gases) into a commodity. If you want to pollute you must pay to pollute. By buying carbon permits to pollute. Or paying carbon taxes. Those who pollute heavily must buy more permits/pay more taxes. Those who pollute less buy fewer permits/pay fewer taxes. The idea is to take money from the polluters to give to others to reduce their carbon emissions. Thus giving everyone an incentive not to pollute. And a net zero carbon emission. But in reality it's just another way for government to pull more wealth out of the private economy so they can spend it how they want to spend it. Rewarding their campaign contributors. And providing businesses access to unneeded subsidies (see Auditor general delivers damning report on B.C.'s carbon trading system, Crown corporation that managed funds by Gordon Hoekstra posted 3/27/2013 on The Vancouver Sun). B.C. auditor general John Doyle delivered a damning report Wednesday on the province's controversial carbon trading system and the Crown corporation Pacific Carbon Trust. The report concludes the government did not reach its goal of carbon neutrality in 2010, the year under examination, because the carbon offsets it purchased that year were not credible… …NDP environment critic Rob Fleming said it's time to look at changes to the PCT, including ending transfers of public money for emission-reduction projects. He was referring to the fact that the carbon trading system involves transferring public money from institutions like hospitals and universities to the private sector so the government can declare the public sector is carbon-neutral… Under the carbon system, public institutions such as hospitals and universities have so far paid more than $50 million for their carbon emissions. That money has been used to fund greenhouse gas reductions projects at private sector pulp mills, sawmills, gas drilling rigs, hotels and greenhouses. The idea is the reduction projects in the private sector offset emissions in the public sector to zero, allowing the B.C. Liberal government to claim it is carbon neutral. That's a first. Transfer money from sick people to give to businesses in the private sector. So hospitals can pollute. Kind of a strange thing for a government to do that puts profits before people. Of course the big question is who measures the change in carbon emissions? And how? For you can't put a carbon meter on your business. It takes math. And some assumptions. You can tie it to one's electrical consumption. But if the user is attached to a section of grid powered by both a coal-fired power plant and a nuclear power plant that's more math. And more assumptions. Did your power come from the polluting coal-fired power plant? Or the emissions-free nuclear power plant? And what about burning fossil fuels? Did the fuel someone burn come from a refinery that processes a high-sulfur oil (sour crude)? Or a low-sulfur oil (sweet crude)? More math. More assumptions. When it comes to carbon emissions you can't really measure emissions. You have to measure inputs. Such as electric power. Consuming a lot of electric power could put a lot of carbon emissions into the air. But not where the consumer uses that electric power. But back at the power station that produced that electric power. So who pays those carbon permits/taxes. The user? Such as a hospital? Or the power plant? Or both? Anything so complicated makes it easier for people to game the system. Which is what is happening in Canada. And why despite spending C$50 million of public money the B.C. Liberal government is not carbon-neutral. Technology 101 (Originally published March 28th, 2012) A Lit Match heats the Fuel Absorbed into a Wick, Vaporizes it, Mixes it with Oxygen and Ignites It Fire changed the world. From when Homo erectus first captured it. Around 600,000 BC. In China. They saw it. Maybe following a lightning strike. Seeing it around volcanic activity. Perhaps a burning natural gas vent. Whatever. They saw fire. Approached it. And learned not to fear it. How to add fuel to it. To transfer it to another fuel source. To carry it. They couldn't create fire. But they could manage it. And use it. It was warm. And bright. So they brought it indoors. To light up their caves. Scare the predators out. To use it to heat. And to cook. Taking a giant leap forward for mankind. When man moved into man-made dwellings they brought fire with them. At first a one-room structure with a fire in the center of it. And a hole in the roof above it. Where everyone gathered around to eat. Stay warm. Sleep. Even to make babies. As there wasn't a lot of modesty back then. Not that anyone complained much. What was a little romance next to you when you were living in a room full of smoke, soot and ash? Fireplaces and chimneys changed all that. Back to back fireplaces could share a chimney. Providing more heat and light. Less smoke and ash. And a little privacy. Where the family could be in one room eating, staying warm, reading, playing games and sleeping. While the grownups could make babies in the other room. As we advanced so did our literacy. After a hard day's work we went inside. After the sun set. To read. Write letters. Do some paperwork for the business. Write an opera. Whatever. Even during the summer time. When it was warm. And we didn't have a large fire burning in the fireplace. But we could still see to read and write. Thanks to candles. And oil lamps. One using a liquid fuel. One using a solid fuel. But they both operate basically the same. The wick draws liquid (or liquefied) fuel via capillary action. Where a porous substance placed into contact with a liquid will absorb that liquid. Like a paper towel or a sponge. When you place a lit match into contact with the wick it heats the fuel absorbed into the wick and vaporizes it. Mixing it with the oxygen in the air. And ignites it. Creating a flame. The candle works the same way only starting with a solid fuel. The match melts the top of this fuel and liquefies it. Then it works the same way as an oil lamp. With the heat of the flame melting the solid fuel to continue the process. Placing a Mantle over a Flame created Light through Incandescence (when a Heated Object emits Visible Light) Two popular oils were olive oil and whale oil. Beeswax and tallow were common solid fuels. Candles set the standard for noting lighting intensity. One candle flame produced one candlepower. Or 'candela' as we refer to it now. (Which equals about 13 lumens – the amount of light emitted by a source). If you placed multiple candles into a candelabrum you could increase the lighting intensity. Three candles gave you 3 candela of light to read or write by. A chandelier with numerous candles suspended from the ceiling could illuminate a room. This artificial light shortened the nights. And increased the working day. In the 19th century John D. Rockefeller gave the world a new fuel for their oil lamps. Kerosene. Refined from petroleum oil. And saved the whales. By providing a more plentiful fuel. At cheaper prices. By shortening the nights we also made our streets safer. Some cities passed laws for people living on streets to hang a lamp or two outside. To light up the street. Which did indeed help make the streets brighter. And safer. To improve on this street lighting idea required a new fuel. Something in a gas form. Something that you could pump into a piping system and route to the new street lamps. A gas kept under a slight pressure so that it would flow up the lamp post. Where you opened the gas spigot at night. And lit the gas. And the lamp glowed until you turned off the gas spigot in the morning. Another advantage of gas lighting was it didn't need wicks. Just a nozzle for the gas to come out of where you could light it. So there was no need to refuel or to replace the wicks. Thus allowing them to stay lit for long periods with minimum maintenance. We later put a mantle over the flame. And used the flame to heat the mantle which then glowed bright white. A mantle is like a little bag that fits over the flame made out of a heat resistant fabric. Infused into the fabric are things that glow white when heated. Rare-earth metallic salts. Which change into solid oxides when heated to incandescence (when a heated object emits visible light). One of the first gases we used was coal-gas. Discovered in coal mines. And then produced outside of a coal mine from mined coal. It worked great. But when it burned it emitted carbon. Like all these open flames did. Which is a bit of a drawback for indoor use. Filling your house up with smoke. And soot. Not to mention that other thing. Filling up your house with open flames. Which can be very dangerous indoors. So we enclosed some of these flames. Placing them in a glass chimney. Or glass boxes. As in street lighting. Enclosing the flame completely (but with enough venting to sustain the flame) to prevent the rain form putting it out. This glass, though, blackened from all that carbon and soot. Adding additional maintenance. But at least they were safer. And less of a fire hazard. Well, at least less of one type of fire hazard. From the flame. But there was another hazard. We were piping gas everywhere. Outside. Into buildings. Even into our homes. Where it wasn't uncommon for this gas to go boom. Particularly dangerous were theatres. Where they turned on the gas. And then went to each gas nozzle with an open fire on a stick to light them. And if they didn't move quickly enough the theatre filled with a lot of gas. An enclosed space filled with a lot of gas with someone walking around with an open fire on a stick. Never a good thing. Fluorescent Lighting is the Lighting of Choice in Commercial, Professional and Institutional Buildings Thomas Edison fixed all of these problems. By finding another way to produce incandescence. By running an electrical current through a filament inside a sealed bulb. The current heated the filament to incandescence. Creating a lot of heat. And some visible light. First filaments were carbon based. Then tungsten became the filament of choice. Because they lasted longer. At first the bulbs contained a vacuum. But they found later that a noble gas prevented the blackening of the bulb. The incandescent light bulb ended the era of gas lighting. For it was safer. Required less maintenance. And was much easier to operate. All you had to do was flick a switch. As amazing as the incandescent light bulb was it had one big drawback. Especially when we use a lot of them indoors. That heat. As the filament produced far more heat than light. Which made hot buildings hotter. And made air conditioners work harder getting that heat out of the building. Enter the fluorescent lamp. If phosphor absorbs invisible short-wave ultraviolet radiation it will fluoresce. And emit long-wave visible light. But not through incandescence. But by luminescence. Instead of using heat to produce light this process uses cooler electromagnetic radiation. Which forms the basis of the fluorescent lamp. A gas-discharge lamp. The most common being the 4-foot tube you see in office buildings. This tube has an electrode at each end. Contains a noble gas (outer shell of valence electrons are full and not chemically reactive or electrically conductive) at a low pressure. And a little bit of mercury. When we turn on the lamp we create an electric field between the electrodes. As it grows in intensity it eventually pulls electrons out of their valence shell ionizing the gas into an electrically conductive plasma. This creates an arc between the electrodes. This charged plasma field excites the mercury. Which produces the invisible short-wave ultraviolet radiation that the phosphor absorbs. Causing fluorescence. One candle produces about 13 lumens of light. Barely enough to read and write by. Whereas a 100W incandescent light bulb produces about 1,600 lumens. The equivalent of 123 candles. In other words, one incandescent lamp produces the same amount of light as a 123-candle chandelier. Without the smoke, soot or fire hazard. And the compact fluorescent lamp improves on this. For a 26W compact fluorescent lamp can produce the lumen output of a 100W incandescent light bulb. A one-to-one tradeoff on lighting output. At a quarter of the power consumption. And producing less heat due to creating light from fluorescence instead of incandescence. Making fluorescent lighting the lighting of choice in commercial, professional and institutional buildings. And any other air conditioned space with large lighting loads. With the Steam Engine we could Build Factories Anywhere and Connect them by Railroads Iron has been around for a long time. The Romans used it. And so did the British centuries later. They kicked off the Industrial Revolution with iron. And ended it with steel. Which was nothing to sneeze at. For the transition from iron to steel changed the world. And the United States. For it was steel that made the United States the dominant economy in the world. The Romans mined coal in England and Wales. Used it as a fuel for ovens to dry grain. And for smelting iron ore. After the Western Roman Empire collapsed, so did the need for coal. But it came back. And the demand was greater than ever. Finding coal, though, required deeper holes. Below the water table. And holes below the water table tended to fill up with water. To get to the coal, then, you had to pump out the water. They tried different methods. But the one that really did the trick was James Watt's steam engine attached to a pump. The steam engine was a game changer. For the first time man could make energy anywhere he wanted. He didn't have to find running water to turn a waterwheel. Depend on the winds. Or animal power. With the steam engine he could build a factory anywhere. And connect these factories together with iron tracks. On which a steam-powered locomotive could travel. Ironically, the steam engine burned the very thing James Watt designed it to help mine. Coal. Andrew Carnegie made Steel so Inexpensive and Plentiful that he Built America Iron was strong. But steel was stronger. And was the metal of choice. Unfortunately it was more difficult to make. So there wasn't a lot of it around. Making it expensive. Unlike iron. Which was easier to make. You heated up (smelted) iron ore to burn off the stuff that wasn't iron from the ore. Giving you pig iron. Named for the resulting shape at the end of the smelting process. When the molten iron was poured into a mold. There was a line down the center where the molten metal flowed. And then branched off to fill up ingots. When it cooled it looked like piglets suckling their mother. Hence pig iron. Pig iron had a high carbon content which made it brittle and unusable. Further processing reduced the carbon content and produced wrought iron. Which was usable. And the dominate metal we used until steel. But to get to steel we needed a better way of removing the residual carbon from the iron ore smelting process. Something Henry Bessemer discovered. Which we know as the Bessemer process. Bessemer mass-produced steel in England by removing the impurities from pig iron by oxidizing them. And he did this by blowing air through the molten iron. Andrew Carnegie became a telegraph operator at Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He excelled, moved up through the company and learned the railroad business. He used his connections to invest in railroad related industries. Iron. Bridges. And Rails. He became rich. He formed a bridge company. And an ironworks. Traveling in Europe he saw the Bessemer process. Impressed, he took that technology and created the Lucy furnace. Named after his wife. And changed the world. His passion to constantly reduce costs led him to vertical integration. Owning and controlling the supply of raw materials that fed his industries. He made steel so inexpensive and plentiful that he built America. Railroads, bridges and skyscrapers exploded across America. Cities and industries connected by steel tracks. On which steam locomotives traveled. Fueled by coal. And transporting coal. As well as other raw materials. Including the finished goods they made. Making America the new industrial and economic superpower in the world. Knowing the Market Price of Steel Carnegie reduced his Costs of Production to sell his Steel below that Price Andrew Carnegie became a rich man because of capitalism. He lived during great times. When entrepreneurs could create and produce with minimal government interference. Which is why the United States became the dominant industrial and economic superpower. The market set the price of steel. Not a government bureaucrat. This is key in capitalism. Carnegie didn't count labor inputs to determine the price of his steel. No. Instead, knowing the market price of steel he did everything in his powers to reduce his costs of production so he could sell his steel below that price. Giving steel users less expensive steel. Which was good for steel users. As well as everyone else. But he did this while still making great profits. Everyone was a winner. Except those who sold steel at higher prices who could no longer compete. Carnegie spent part of his life accumulating great wealth. And he spent the latter part of his life giving that wealth away. He was one of the great philanthropists of all time. Thanks to capitalism. The entrepreneurial spirit. And the American dream. Which is individual liberty. That freedom to create and produce. Like Carnegie did. Just as entrepreneurs everywhere have been during since we allowed them to profit from risk taking. Week in Review It's pretty sad when a nation's green energy policies requires an energy bill to 'keep the lights on'. But that's precisely what's happening in Britain. Because they agreed to give up good, reliable electric power generation for something that may not be able to keep the lights on (see Energy Bill: The Plan To Keep UK's Lights On by Gerard Tubb posted 11/18/2012 on Sky News). The energy and climate secretary, Ed Davey, has to balance the need to create new generating capacity with commitments to a low carbon future and more electricity from renewable sources. Many power stations are coming to the end of their life and the Government estimates it will cost £110bn to replace and improve electricity infrastructure over the next decade… Electricity use is increasing, with suggestions that demand could double by 2050… The UK is signed up to providing 15% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and to reducing to zero the amount of carbon pumped into the atmosphere from electricity generation. Electricity use is on pace to double by 2050 and the UK is decommissioning power plants and spending a fortune on electric generation from renewable sources. Going from reliable power generation to intermittent power generation. Which is nothing more than a step backward to a time before Margaret Thatcher. And a return to the British Disease (strikes, industrial unrest and frequent power outages). Or worse. For the environmentalists would have Britain go back to the time of Stonehenge if they had their way. A time when there was no electricity. Or man-made carbon in the atmosphere. Or indoor plumbing, air conditioning, refrigerators, telephones, etc. Now that would make the environmentalists happy. Abject misery for the human race. Life was pretty precarious back in the 3rd century BC. We're lucky the human race survived to make it here today. A time where life is not so precarious. Thanks to technology. Especially electricity. Which helps keep our food safe, our water safe, our homes warm in the winter and allows hospitals to save lives. Just look to the recent devastation of Hurricane Sandy. And how the loss of electric power took away safe food, safe water, warm homes and life-saving hospitals from the victims of that storm. Electric power saves lives. And makes those lives safer. We should not be compromising our electric power to 'save the world' from global warming. At least not until man-made carbon moves the glaciers as far as Mother Nature did during the Ice Ages. Week in Review In the war to save the world from global warming one of the first campaigns was the battle against coal. The backbone of baseload power. One of the most reliable means to generate electric power. Fed by a large domestic supply of coal. You could always count on power being there in your homes with our coal-fired power plants feeding the electric grid. But coal had to go. Because they were melting the Arctic ice cap. And raising ocean levels. Not quite like they did during the Ice Ages when glaciers covered most of the Northern Hemisphere. Until global warming pushed them back a couple of thousand miles or so. At a time when only Mother Nature released the carbon boogeyman into the atmosphere. But we ignore this historical climate record. And only pay attention to temperature changes that suit the global warming agenda. Because the real goal of the war to save the world from global warming is to expand government control into the private sector economy. Australia wants to show the world that they take global warming serious. They enacted a carbon tax. To help fund their investment into renewable energy sources. Which has increased the cost of electric power. And if the carbon tax and higher utility prices weren't enough they also are talking about raising their GST. Of course the GST has nothing to do with climate change. But it just goes to show that Australia is trying hard to raise tax revenue. Which is perhaps the driving force behind their carbon tax. Revenue. On top of this there is a growing opposition to the only source of power generation that can duplicate what coal-fired power plants can do but without the pollution (see Meltdown fears crush case for nuclear power – Brisbane Times posted 11/11/2012 on Canberra Hub). THE Fukushima nuclear accident has quashed consideration of nuclear power in Australia, with the government's energy white paper arguing there is no compelling economic case for it and insufficient community acceptance… Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has said it should remain "a live debate". Foreign Minister Bob Carr said before he re-entered politics: "I support nuclear power because I take global warming so very seriously … [it] should certainly play a role in Australia's future mix of energy sources." Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop has said it should be considered "in the mix" and Senator Barnaby Joyce has said: "If we are fair dinkum [i.e., truthful] about reducing carbon emissions … then uranium is where it's going to be…" Labor argues nuclear power is not economically necessary in Australia, since the carbon tax and the renewable energy target are already shifting power generation to renewables. There are some fundamental truths about power generation. Coal, natural gas, and petroleum provide reliable and abundant electric power while being safe but they pollute. Nuclear power provides reliable electric power without any pollution but can be dangerous. Though for the half century or so we've been using nuclear power the number of accidents that have claimed human lives is statistically insignificant. There have been about 68 people killed in nuclear power accidents If you count the future cancer deaths from the Chernobyl accident you can raise that to about 4,000. Fukushima in Japan claimed no lives other than one apparent heart attack someone had carrying heavy things in the aftermath of the accident. It was nowhere near as bad as Chernobyl. But if it, too, claimed 4,000 lives in future cancer deaths that brings the total death toll from nuclear power to approximately 8,000 deaths for the half century or so we've been using it. Sounds like a lot. But you know what nuclear power is safer than? Driving your car. In 2010 the number of motor vehicle deaths was just over 32,000. Again, that's for one year. Making nuclear power far safer than getting into your car. The opposition to nuclear power is based on fear. And politics. Not the facts. Yes, nuclear power accidents are scary. But there are very few nuclear power accidents. For a statistically insignificant risk of a nuclear catastrophe we're giving up the only baseload power source than can do what coal can do. Give us abundant and reliable electric power. But without the pollution. However, they oppose nuclear power. Not because of facts but because of irrational fear and scaremongering. And if we know they're doing this for nuclear power can we not conclude that they're doing the same thing in the war to save the world from global warming? Especially considering how many thousands of miles glaciers moved long before man released any carbon into the atmosphere? Yes. We can believe they base their war to save the world from global warming on nothing but irrational fear and scaremongering. Week in Review We have new 'scientific' evidence that global warming will be worse than we thought possible. Because of carbon we can't see. But know it is there. Just waiting to unleash more global warming on us. Oh, the humanity (see Antarctica's Hidden Carbon Stores Pose Warming Risk in Study by Alex Morales posted 8/30/2012 on Bloomberg). Antarctic researchers found as much as 400 billion metric tons of carbon hidden under the ice sheets, with the potential to seep out as methane and accelerate global warming… "There's a potentially large pool of methane hydrate in part of the Earth where we haven't previously considered it," Wadham said in a telephone interview. "Depending on where that hydrate is, and how much there is, if the ice thins in those regions, some of that hydrate could come out with a possible feedback on climate…" "That hydrate is stable as long as you don't change the temperature or pressure," she said. "In Antarctica, though you might not have a big temperature change at the bed of the ice sheet, if the ice thins, the pressure drops and some of that hydrate could be converted into gas bubbles and then lost…" Wadham's team used computer models to predict how much methane might be trapped under the ice. They also tested sub- glacial soils from Antarctica and the Arctic in laboratory conditions to confirm organisms in the earth below the ice can produce methane. It isn't yet possible to say over what period it may escape because of the "many uncertainties," she said. So there may be an enormous amount of carbon hidden where we can't see it. Based on computer models with "many uncertainties." So people who want to find carbon trapped under the ice to raise alarms about further global warming have programmed their computer models to show that there is carbon trapped under the ice. Guess those "many uncertainties" come in handy. To let you produce the data you want to find. Okay, if there's bad stuff under the ice we need to keep it under the ice. Right? I mean, that's the danger of the melting ice sheets, yes? It provides a pathway for this carbon to enter the atmosphere. So what should we do right now? "All these things throw up more questions than answers initially," Wadham said. "That provides you with a reason to go to look to perhaps drill into sediments underneath the ice sheet to see if hydrates are there." Huh? Wouldn't drilling a hole through the ice provide a pathway for the carbon to enter the atmosphere? Sort of like an oil well striking oil. Only the gusher will be methane from the carbon we'll release. If this is the case then we can blame global warming on all these 'scientists' messing around where they shouldn't be. And not on manmade warming from our modern world. For it does seem that all our global warming has been happening while these 'scientists' have been looking for it. And these temperatures have been rising while we've never reduced our air pollution levels more. Something just doesn't add up. And it all seems to go back to these 'scientists'. As if they're creating global warming just to blame on the modern industrial economy. And the businesses that create it. A bit farfetched. But it would definitely keep the government research money coming in. Especially if the government can use their findings to enact further environmental regulations on businesses. Such as impose a carbon tax. Sell carbon permits. Or initiate some carbon emissions trading scheme. Which would bring enormous amounts of money into government coffers. But that's crazy talk. The government would never do that. It's just a coincidence that this push for new carbon revenue coincides with all these government budget shortfalls throughout the world. Week in Review The UN is still trying to impose a carbon trading scheme on the world. To fight global warming. Perhaps by 2015. To make people pay them (or their governments that fund the UN) for burning carbon. To create an egalitarian world. With them sitting at the top. More equal than others (see U.S. affirms support for U.N. climate goal after criticism by Alister Doyle posted 8/8/2012 on Reuters). Almost 200 nations, including the United States, have agreed to limit rising temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times to avoid dangerous changes such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels. The EU Commission, small island states and environmental activists urged the world to stick to the target on Tuesday, fearing that Washington was withdrawing support. Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 degree C… Many scientists say the 2 degrees target is getting out of reach because of rising emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels. Emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, rose 3.1 percent in 2011 to a record high. The decade ending in 2010 was the warmest since records began in the mid-19th century, U.N. data show. Anyone else see the fatal flaw in this plan? It assumes man alone controls global temperatures. Which we don't. We had the Little Ice Age following the Medieval Warm Period. It wasn't glaciers reaching halfway down North America but cool, wet growing seasons reduced harvests. And caused some famine. And this was before we burned gasoline in our cars. And coal in our steam engines during the Industrial Revolution. Man didn't cause these global changes. Man just suffered through them. And speaking of the Ice Ages, what about the Ice Ages? Just what made the glaciers advance then recede? These even preceded man's use of fire. So it clearly was something else cooling and warming the planet. Unless we were a far gassier people back then. (If so lucky for them there were no open flames.) The planet warms and cools. It did so before man burned fossil fuels with a vengeance. And after man burned fossil fuels with a vengeance. If the temperature moves a degree in one direction or the other there is absolutely no way to know if that was just a natural change (like through 99.9% of the planet's existence – including those ice ages) or if it was caused by man (whose been around approximately 0.1% of the planet's existence). This isn't science. This is politics. A way for the anti-Capitalists to turn back the hands of time. And make life truly unpleasant for the masses. As they produce an egalitarian world. Where everyone suffers equally. Except those sitting at the top ensuring the world is fair and just. As they determine what fair and just to be. The UN. The world's overlords. Once they control the world's economies, that is. Week in Review The Maldives is an archipelago about 1 meter above sea level in the Indian Ocean off India. It's a tropical paradise that survives on tourism. Now they want to tax their tourists to become carbon neutral. Despite the fact that tourists fly in to these islands on big polluting airplanes (see Maldives eyes $100 million tourist tax for CO2 plan by Nina Chestney, Reuters, posted 7/7/2012 on MSNBC). A voluntary tax on tourists who visit the luxury resorts and white sands of the Maldives could raise up to $100 million a year towards the country's aim to become carbon neutral by 2020, President Mohamed Waheed said… "We have proposed the idea of a voluntary fund for air travelers coming to the Maldives. Even if each tourist contributed $10, that's $10 million (a year) for us and a substantial contribution to the carbon neutral program," he told Reuters this week… The Maldives is reliant on imported fuel, like diesel, to generate electricity, which is estimated to have cost its economy around $240 million last year. I'm not sure how that math works. The voluntary tax could raise up to $100 million. Or $10 million. Which means they have from 1 million to 10 million tourists each year. Based on an approximate seating capacity of 500, that's 2,000 to 20,000 roundtrips for a Boeing 747-400. Or from 6 to 55 per day. At the low end that's a 747-400 landing or taking off every 2 hours each day. That's a lot of carbon. Which they can't get rid of. Unless they give up their tourist industry. And "75-80 percent" of their economy. It has now embarked on a $1.1-billion plan to generate 60 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020. Around 50 percent would come from solar photovoltaic power and the remaining 10 percent from wind energy and biofuels, Waheed said. The country is rapidly trying to introduce solar in the capital Male and three islands which make up the greater Male area, covering about a third of the population. It has plans to install about 2-3 megawatts (MW) of solar in the Male area but it would probably need 40 MW to meet electricity demand. Interesting. They're going to replace 50% of their electrical capacity with 2-3 MW of photovoltaic power. Which is only about 7.5% of the 40 MW they want to replace. Of course the capacity factor of what they're replacing, diesel-generated electricity, is about 90%. While they'll be lucky to get a 30% capacity factor from their solar cells. Reducing that 3 MW to 0.9 MW. Or about 2.3% of that 40 MW they're replacing with it. Which means their diesel generators will keep running. Or there will be nothing but romantic moon-filled and candle-lit evenings. And cool ocean breezes. Even in their hospitals. Perhaps they could find something better to spend that $1.1-billion on.	eng	ccd5887b-5b1e-4602-9d37-da77fd7f49fd	http://pithocrates.com/tag/carbon/
Sign up to receive free email alerts when patent applications with chosen keywords are publishedSIGN UP Abstract: A circuit for driving a load includes a power line, converter circuitry, and a controller. The power line is operable for providing an input current and an input voltage. The converter circuitry coupled to the power line is operable for converting the input voltage to a regulated voltage to drive the load, and for providing a current detection signal indicating whether a converter current flowing through the converter circuitry drops to a predetermined level. The controller coupled to the converter circuitry is operable for correcting a power factor of the circuit based on the current detection signal and the input voltage such that a waveform of the input current follows a waveform of the input voltage. Claims: 1. A circuit for driving a load, said circuit comprising:a power line for providing an input current and an input voltage;converter circuitry coupled to said power line and operable for converting said input voltage to a regulated voltage to drive said load, and for providing a current detection signal indicating whether a converter current flowing through said converter circuitry drops to a predetermined level; anda controller coupled to said converter circuitry and operable for correcting a power factor of said circuit based on said current detection signal and said input voltage such that a waveform of said input current follows a waveform of said input voltage. 2. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said load comprises a pair of light emitting diode (LED) strings wired in opposite polarity connections and coupled in parallel. 3. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said converter circuitry comprises a bridge circuit operable for transforming said regulated voltage to a regulated alternating current (AC) voltage to drive said load. 4. The circuit as claimed in claim 3, wherein said bridge circuit comprises:a voltage divider coupled to a first terminal of said load, and operable for dividing said regulated voltage to a divided voltage at said first terminal; anda switching circuit coupled to a second terminal of said load, and operable for alternately applying said regulated voltage and a constant voltage to said second terminal,wherein said regulated AC voltage is obtained between said first and second terminals. 5. The circuit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said voltage divider comprises a plurality of capacitors in series. 6. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controller further comprises:current detection circuitry operable for generating a switch-trigger signal to enable a current path of said converter current according to said current detection signal, wherein said converter current ramps up from said predetermined level when said current path is enabled. 7. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controller further comprises:a current regulator operable for providing a threshold proportional to said input voltage, for comparing a current monitoring signal indicating said converter current with said threshold, and for generating a switch-termination signal to disable a current path of said converter current according to a result of said comparison, wherein said threshold indicates a peak level of said converter current. 8. The circuit as claimed in claim 7, wherein a proportional coefficient between said input voltage and said threshold is determined by a load current flowing through said load. 9. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:a filter coupled to said converter circuitry and operable for attenuating high frequency components of said converter current to determine said input current, wherein said input current indicates an average current of said converter current. 10. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:a rectifier circuit coupled to said power line and operable for commutating an input alternating current (AC) voltage to provide said input voltage. 11. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:a sensor coupled to said load and operable for providing a sense signal indicative of a load current flowing through said load, wherein said controller adjusts said regulated voltage according to said sense signal to regulate said load current. 12. An electronic system comprising:a pair of light emitting diode (LED) strings wired in opposite polarity connections and coupled in parallel;a converter comprising a primary winding and an auxiliary winding, wherein said converter is operable for receiving an input voltage at said primary winding, for converting said input voltage to a regulated voltage, and for providing a current detection signal at said auxiliary winding, said current detection signal indicating whether a converter current through said primary winding drops to a predetermined level;a bridge circuit coupled to said converter and operable for transforming said regulated voltage to a regulated alternating current (AC) voltage to drive said LED strings; anda controller coupled to said converter and operable for correcting a power factor of said electronic system based on said current detection signal and said input voltage such that a waveform of an average current of said converter current follows a waveform of said input voltage. 13. The electronic system as claimed in claim 12, wherein said controller further comprises:current detection circuitry operable for generating a switch-trigger signal to enable a current path of said converter current based on said current detection signal; anda current regulator coupled to said current detection circuitry and operable for comparing a current monitoring signal indicating said converter current to a threshold proportional to said input voltage and for generating a switch-termination signal to disable said current path based on a result of said comparison. 14. The electronic system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said converter current ramps up from said predetermined level when said current path is enabled, and wherein a peak level of said converter current is proportional to said input voltage. 15. The electronic system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said regulated voltage is determined by a ratio of an ON time when said current path is enabled to an OFF time when said current path is disabled. 16. The electronic system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said current regulator determines a proportional coefficient between said input voltage and said threshold according to a load current flowing through said LED strings. 17. The electronic system as claimed in claim 12, wherein said bridge circuit further comprises:a voltage divider coupled to a first terminal of said LED strings, and operable for dividing said regulated voltage to a divided voltage at said first terminal; anda switching circuit coupled to a second terminal of said LED strings, and operable for alternately applying said regulated voltage and a constant voltage to said second terminal,wherein said regulated AC voltage is obtained between said first and second terminals. 18. The electronic system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said voltage divider comprises a plurality of capacitors in series. 19. The electronic system as claimed in claim 12, further comprising:A filter coupled to said converter and operable for obtaining said average current by removing high frequency components of said converter current. 20. The electronic system as claimed in claim 12, wherein said converter comprises a switch-mode converter selected from the group consisting of: a buck converter, a boost converter, a buck-boost converter, and a flyback converter. 21. A controller for controlling converter circuitry driving a light source, said controller further comprising:a first voltage input pin operable for receiving a first voltage signal indicating whether a converter current through said converter circuitry drops to a predetermined level;a second voltage input pin operable for receiving a second voltage signal indicating an input voltage received by said converter circuitry; anda monitoring pin operable for receiving a current monitoring signal indicative of said converter current,wherein said controller is configured to provide a threshold proportional to said second voltage signal and compare said current monitoring signal with said threshold, and wherein said controller is further configured to achieve a waveform of an average current of said converter current following a waveform of said input voltage by determining whether to enable a current path of said converter current based on said first voltage signal and determining whether to disable said current path according to a result of said comparison. 22. The controller as claimed in claim 21, wherein said first voltage signal has an edge if said converter current drops to said predetermined level. 23. The controller as claimed in claim 21, wherein said converter circuitry converts said input voltage to a regulated voltage whose voltage level is determined by a ratio of an ON time during which said current path is enabled to an OFF time during which said current path is disabled. 24. The controller as claimed in claim 23, further comprising:a sense pin operable for receiving a sense signal indicating a load current flowing through said light source,wherein said controller is further configured to adjust a proportional coefficient between said threshold and said second voltage signal according to said sense signal so as to adjust said ratio to regulate said regulated voltage. 25. The controller as claimed in claim 21, wherein said converter current ramps up from said predetermined level, and wherein a peak level of said converter current is proportional to said input voltage. 26. A method for driving a load, said method comprising:receiving an input current and an input voltage by a power line;converting said input voltage to a regulated voltage by converter circuitry to drive said load;providing a current detection signal indicating whether a converter current flowing through said converter circuitry drops to a predetermined level; andcorrecting a power factor based on said current detection signal and said input voltage such that a waveform of said input current follows a waveform of said input voltage. 27. The method as claimed in claim 26, further comprising;transforming said regulated voltage to a regulated alternating current (AC) voltage to drive said load. 28. The method as claimed in claim 27, wherein said transforming step further comprises:dividing said regulated voltage to a divided voltage at a first terminal of said load; andalternately applying said regulated voltage and a constant voltage to a second terminal of said load,wherein said regulated AC voltage is obtained between said first and second terminals. 29. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein said correcting step further comprises:enabling a current path of said converter current according to said current detection signal,wherein said converter current ramps up from said predetermined level when said current path is enabled. 30. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein said correcting step further comprises:generating a threshold proportional to said input voltage;comparing a current monitoring signal indicating said converter current with said threshold; anddisabling a current path of said converter current according to a result of said comparison, wherein said threshold indicates a peak level of said converter current. 31. The method as claimed in claim 30, further comprising:determining a proportional coefficient between said input voltage and said threshold according to a load current flowing through said load. 32. The method as claimed in claim 26, further comprising:attenuating high frequency components of said converter current to determine said input current, wherein said input current indicates an average current of said converter current. 33. The method as claimed in claim 26, further comprising:commutating an input alternating current (AC) power to provide said input voltage. Description: RELATED APPLICATION [0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/219,087, titled "Circuits and Methods for Generating Alternating Current (AC) Power," filed on Jun. 22, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND [0002]Currently, light sources such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) are widely used in the lighting industry, e.g., for backlighting liquid crystal displays (LCDs), street lighting, and home appliances. Direct current (DC) light sources are driven by DC power, e.g., supplied by a battery pack. Additional circuits such as transformers and converters are used to convert an alternating current (AC) electrical power to a suitable DC electrical power if an AC power source is served as the power supply. [0003]Some light sources are driven by an AC electrical power, e.g., a light source including LED strings coupled in parallel and wired in opposite polarity connections. However, voltage variations of the AC electrical power, e.g., an AC power with a sinusoidal voltage wave, can reduce the stability of a current through the AC light source. In addition, circuits such as transformers and converters can be employed to drive the AC light sources. However, non-linear elements and energy storage elements (e.g., capacitors and inductors) contained in the transformers and converters can store energy and distort an input current of such circuits. Thus, a power factor indicative of the power efficiency may be degraded. SUMMARY [0004]In one embodiment, a circuit for driving a load includes a power line, converter circuitry, and a controller. The power line is operable for providing an input current and an input voltage. The converter circuitry coupled to the power line is operable for converting the input voltage to a regulated voltage to drive the load, and for providing a current detection signal indicating whether a converter current flowing through the converter circuitry drops to a predetermined level. The controller coupled to the converter circuitry is operable for correcting a power factor of the circuit based on the current detection signal and the input voltage such that a waveform of the input current follows a waveform of the input voltage. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0005]Features and advantages of embodiments of the subject matter will become apparent as the following detailed description proceeds, and upon reference to the drawings, wherein like numerals depict like parts, and in which: [0006]FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a circuit for driving a load, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. [0007]FIG. 2 illustrates a circuit for driving a load, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. [0008]FIG. 3 illustrates a timing diagram of signals generated by a circuit for driving a load, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. [0009]FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a ZCD circuitry and drive circuitry, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. [0010]FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of a current regulator and drive circuitry, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. [0011]FIG. 6 illustrates another block diagram of a circuit for driving a load, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. [0012]FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of operations performed by a circuit for driving a load, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0013. [0014]Furthermore, in the following detailed description of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be recognized by15]Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure provide a circuit for driving a load, e.g., AC light emitting diodes (LEDs). The invention is described in relation to AC LEDs by way of example. However, the invention is not limited to power AC LEDs and can be used to power various light sources and loads. [0016]In one embodiment, the circuit includes a power line, converter circuitry, and a controller. The power line is operable for providing an input voltage and an input current. The converter circuitry converts the input voltage to a regulated voltage to drive a load, e.g., the AC LEDs. The converter circuitry further generates a current detection signal indicating whether a converter current flowing through the converter circuitry drops to a predetermined level such as zero ampere. Advantageously, the controller can correct a power factor of the circuit based on the input voltage and the current detection signal to achieve a waveform of the input current following a waveform of the input voltage. As such, the power efficiency of the circuit is improved. [0017]FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a circuit 100 for driving a load, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In the example of FIG. 1, the circuit 100 includes an alternating current (AC) power source 102, a rectifier circuit 103, a filter 105, converter circuitry 104, a load such as an AC light source 132, and a controller 108. The AC power source 102 generates an input AC voltage, e.g., 120V, having a sinusoidal voltage waveform. The rectifier circuit 103 rectifies the input AC voltage to a rectified AC voltage at a power line 101 coupled to the output of the rectifier circuit 103. Thus, the power line 101 provides an input voltage VIN and an input current IIN. The converter circuitry 104 includes a converter 110 for converting the input voltage VIN to a regulated voltage VREG having less voltage variation than the input voltage VIN. The converter circuitry 104 further includes a bridge circuit 112 for using the regulated voltage VREG to drive the AC light source 132. In one embodiment, the controller 108 can be integrated on an integrated circuit (IC) chip and is coupled to the converter circuitry 104 via multiple pins such as an HDR pin, an LDR pin, an SEN pin, a VFF pin, a ZCD pin, a DRV pin, and a MON pin. The controller 108 is used to control the converter circuitry 104. [0018]The AC light source 132 can include multiple light emitting diode (LED) strings such as LED strings 132_1 and 132_2. Each LED string can include multiple series-connected LEDs. Although two light source strings are shown in the example of FIG. 1, the invention is not so limited and other number of light source strings can be included in the light source 132. The LED strings 132_1 and 132_2 can be wired in opposite polarity connections and coupled in parallel between a pair of output terminals of the converter circuitry 104. Thus, the LED strings 132_1 and 132_2 require an AC power to properly operate. The light source 132 can have other configurations and is not limited to the example in FIG. 1. [0019]The bridge circuit 112 is operable for using the regulated voltage VREG to drive the AC light source 132. In one embodiment, the controller 108 can generate multiple switch control signals 160 and 161 at the HDR pin and the LDR pin, respectively. The bridge circuit 112 coupled to the HDR pin and the LDR pin transforms the regulated voltage VREG to a regulated AC voltage VDRV according to the switch control signals 160 and 161 to power the AC light source 132, which will be further described in relation to FIG. 2. Advantageously, instead of being directly driven by the input AC voltage, e.g., an AC voltage having a sinusoidal voltage waveform, the AC light source 132 is driven by the regulated AC voltage VDRV transformed from the regulated voltage VREG. The regulated AC voltage VDRV has less voltage variation than the input AC voltage. Therefore, the current stability of the AC light source 132 can be improved. [0020]The rectifier circuit 103 can include, but is not limited to, a half-wave rectifier, a full-wave rectifier, or a bridge rectifier. The rectifier circuit 103 is operable for commutating the input AC voltage from the AC power source 102 to provide the rectified AC voltage. More specifically, the rectifier circuit 103 can exclude negative waves/portions of the input AC voltage, or convert the negative waves/portions to corresponding positive waves, in one embodiment. Therefore, the input voltage VIN having positive voltage waves/portions can be obtained at the power line 101. In another embodiment, the input voltage VIN may be provided by a DC power source, e.g., a battery pack. [0021]The converter 110 can be, but is not limited to, a switch-mode converter such as a buck converter, a boost converter, a buck-boost converter, or a flyback converter. The converter 110 coupled to the power line 101 is operable for converting the input voltage VIN to the regulated voltage VREG. Moreover, a converter current ICON can flow through the converter 110. In one embodiment, the converter current ICON ramps up during an ON time when a current path of the converter current ICON is enabled and drops to a predetermined level I1 such as substantially zero ampere during an OFF time when the current path is disabled. The converter 110 can further generate a current monitoring signal 152 indicating the converter current ICON and a zero current detection (ZCD) signal 154 indicating whether the converter current ICON drops to the predetermined level I1. The current monitoring signal 152 and the zero current detection signal 154 are received by the controller 108 via the pin MON and the pin ZCD, respectively. [0022]The filter 105 is operable for filtering or attenuating high frequency components of the converter current ICON to obtain the input current IIN. In one embodiment, the filter 105 can include a capacitor coupled to ground. The capacitor of the filter 105 and the equivalent resistance of the rectifier circuit 103 can operate as a resistor-capacitor (R-C) low-pass filter. The converter current ICON ramps up when a current path of the converter 110 is enabled and ramps down when the current path is disabled. Since the filter 105 can filter high frequency components of the converter current ICON, the input current IIN can be a continuous current that is equivalent to an average current of the converter current ICON. The filter 105 can include other components, and is not limited to the example of FIG. 1. [0023]Furthermore, the controller 108 receives the input voltage VIN via the VFF pin, and generates a control signal 156 at the DRV pin based on the zero current detection signal 154 and the input voltage VIN. Advantageously, the converter 110 can receive the control signal 156 via the DRV pin and can adjust the current ICON accordingly to keep an average current of the current ICON, e.g., the input current IIN, to be in phase with the input voltage VIN, which are described in relation to FIG. 2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 6. That is, the controller 108 can correct a power factor of the circuit 100 according to the zero current detection signal 154 and the input voltage VIN to achieve a waveform of the input current IN following a waveform of the input voltage VIN. As such, the power efficiency of the circuit 100 is improved. [0024]In one embodiment, the bridge circuit 112 can generate a current sense signal 158 indicating a load current flowing through the AC light source 132. The controller 108 receives the current sense signal 158 via the SEN pin. Advantageously, the controller 108 can adjust the control signal 156 based on the current sense signal 158 to regulate the regulated voltage VREG, such that the load current through the AC light source 132 can be regulated and the current stability of the AC light source 132 can be improved. The operation of the controller 108 to regulate the load current will be further described in relation to FIG. 2 and FIG. 5. [0025]FIG. 2 illustrates a circuit 200 for driving a load, e.g., the AC light source 132, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Elements labeled the same as in FIG. 1 have similar functions. FIG. 2 is described in combination with FIG. 1. [0026]In the example of FIG. 2, the converter 110 can be a flyback converter including a switch 220, a diode 222, a current sensor 228, and a transformer T1. The transformer T1 includes a primary winding 216, a secondary winding 217, and an auxiliary winding 218. The bridge circuit 112 can include a switching circuit 212, a voltage divider 210, and a current sensor 238. In one embodiment, the switching circuit 210 includes a pair of series-connected switches S1 and S2. The voltage divider 210 includes multiple series-connected capacitors such as capacitors C1 and C2. The flyback converter 110 and the bridge circuit 112 can have other configurations, and is not limited to the example of FIG. 2. [0027]The flyback converter 110 can operate in a switch mode. The primary winding 216 coupled to the rectifier circuit 103 receives the input voltage VIN. The current ICON flows through the primary winding 216. The switch 220 coupled to the primary winding 216 is used to enable or disable a current path of the current ICON. The secondary winding 217 magnetically coupled to the primary winding 216 provides the regulated voltage VREG according to the current ICON. Another converter current IS flowing through the secondary winding 217 can be generated according to the current ICON. [0028]More specifically, in one embodiment, when the switch 220 is turned on, the current ICON flowing through the primary winding 216 can ramp up, and energy from the power line 101 is stored in the core of the transformer T1. Meanwhile, the diode 222 coupled to the secondary winding 217 is reverse-biased. The energy delivered to the AC light source 132 is provided by the series-connected capacitors C1 and C2. During the time interval when the switch 220 is turned on, the current ICON flowing through the primary winding 216 can ramp up according to: di/dt=VIN/L=ΔI/TON, (1) where di/dt represents a change rate of the current ICON, L represents the inductance of the primary winding 216, TON represents a time interval duration when the switch 220 is turned on, and ΔI represents a change of the current ICON during TON. [0029]When the switch 220 is turned off, the current ICON can drop to the predetermined level I1 such as zero ampere. The variation of the current ICON causes the secondary winding 217 to generate a positive voltage at a polarity end II of the secondary winding 217, in one embodiment. Thus, the diode 222 becomes forward-biased. The converter current IS flows through the secondary winding 217 to transfer the energy stored in the core of the transformer T1 to the bridge circuit 112. The current ISgradually decreases to substantially zero. [0030]As such, the flyback converter 110 converts the input voltage VIN to the regulated voltage VREG. The level of the regulated voltage VREG is proportional to the ratio of the time TON during which the switch 220 is turned on to the time TOFF during which the switch 220 is turned off. Therefore, the voltage variation of the regulated voltage VREG is less than that of the input voltage VIN and the input AC voltage. [0031]In one embodiment, the current sensor 228 can be a resistor coupled to the primary winding 216. The current sensor 228 senses the current ICON flowing through the primary winding 216 and provides a current monitoring signal 152 indicative of the current ICON. For example, the current monitoring signal 152 is represented by a voltage across the resistor 228 and is received by the controller 108 via the sense pin MON. [0032]In one embodiment, the auxiliary winding 218 is operable for generating the zero current detection signal 154 indicating whether the current ICON drops to a predetermined level I1 such as zero ampere. During the OFF time when the switch 220 is turned off, the current ICON flowing through the primary winding 216 can drop to the predetermined level I1 such as zero ampere. Accordingly, the current IS through the secondary winding 217 ramps down from ISPK. The auxiliary winding 218 senses the current variation of the current ICON and the current IS and generates a positive voltage at a polarity end III of the auxiliary winding 218, in one embodiment. When the current IS drops to substantially zero, the voltage across the auxiliary winding 218 also drops to substantially zero. Therefore, a falling edge of the zero current detection signal 154 is generated when the current IS drops to zero ampere. As a result, the falling edge of the zero current signal 154 indicates that the converter current ICON has dropped to the predetermined level I1, in one embodiment. [0033]The bridge circuit 112 transforms the regulated voltage VREG to the regulated AC voltage VDRV to drive the light source 132. In one embodiment, the voltage divider 210 coupled to a terminal 162 of the AC light source 132 divides the regulated voltage VREG to a divided voltage VDIV at the terminal 162. In one embodiment, the voltage VDIV at the terminal 162 is less than the regulated voltage VREG. [0034]The controller 108 generates the switch control signals 160 and 161 at the pin HDR and the pin LDR, respectively, for controlling the switching circuit 212. The switch control signals 160 and 161 can be, but are not limited to, pulse frequency modulation (PFM) signals or pulse width modulation (PWM) signals. [0035]The switching circuit 212 receives the switch control signals 160 and 161 via the pin HDR and the pin LDR. In one embodiment, the switch control signals 160 and 161 alternately enable the switches S1 and S2. For example, the switch control signals 160 and 161 can be digital zero and digital one, respectively, to turn off the switch S1 and turn on the switch S2. Thus, a substantially constant voltage which is less than the divided voltage VDIV at terminal 162, e.g., the voltage at ground, is applied to the terminal 164. At this moment, the AC regulated voltage VDRV can be represented by equation (2): VDRV=VDIV. (2) [0036]As such, a load current ILED1 flows through the capacitor C1, LED string 132_1, the switch S2, and ground, thereby enabling the LED string 132_1 and disabling the LED string 132_2. [0037]Alternatively, the switch control signals 160 and 161 can be digital one and digital zero, respectively, to turn on the switch S1 and turn off the switch S2. Then, the regulated voltage VREG which is greater than the divided voltage VDIV at terminal 162 is applied to the terminal 164 of the AC light source 132. At this moment, the AC regulated voltage VDRV can be represented by equation (3). VDRV=VDIV-VREG. (3) [0038]As such, a load current ILED2 flows through the switch S1, the LED string 132_2, the capacitor C2, and the sensor 238, thereby enabling the LED string 132_2 and disabling the LED string 132_1. [0039]In conclusion, the switching circuit 212 can alternately apply the regulated voltage VREG and a constant voltage (e.g., the voltage at ground) to the terminal 164 of the AC light source 132. As a result, the regulated AC voltage VDRV is obtained between the terminal 162 and the terminal 164 for driving the AC light source 132. [0040]In one embodiment, the current sensor 238 can be a resistor coupled between the capacitor C2 and ground, such that the load current ILED2 flowing through the LED string 132_2 is sensed when the switch S2 is turned off and the switch S1 is turned on. In an alternative embodiment, the resistor 238 can be coupled between the switch S2 and ground, and is operable for sensing the load current ILED1 that flows through the LED string 132_1 when the switch S2 is turned on and the switch S1 is turned off. Moreover, the sensor 238 can further generate a current sense signal 158 indicating the load current ILED1 or ILED2 flowing through the light source 132. [0041]In one embodiment, the controller 108 includes an LED driver 248 for generating the switch control signals 160 and 161, e.g., pulse width modulation signals, at the pins HDR and LDR, respectively. In one embodiment, the switch control signals 160 and 161 are complementary, and duty cycles of the switch control signals 160 and 161 are set to approximately 50% such that the LED string 132_1 and the LED string 132_2 can produce uniform brightness. [0042]The frequency of the switch control signals 160 and 161 can be set according to the series-connected capacitors C1 and C2. For example, if the total capacitance of the capacitors C1 and C2 is reduced, the capacitors C1 and C2 may store less energy. Accordingly, the frequency of the switch control signals 160 and 161 can be increased to shorten charging and discharging time periods of the capacitors C1 and C2. As such, the stability of the regulated voltage VREG and the load currents flowing through the LED strings would not be affected by the capacitance variations of the capacitors C1 and C2. [0043]The brightness of the LED strings is controlled by adjusting the switch control signals 160 and 161. For example, to decrease the brightness of the LED strings, the switch control signals 160 and 161 can be both adjusted to digital zero for a predetermined time period TDIM, which may turn off the switches S1 and S2 simultaneously. After the time period TDIM expires, the switch control signals 160 and 161 can recover to pulse width modulation signals. Since the total time period for light emitting is shortened, the total brightness of the LED strings is reduced. [0044]The controller 108 is capable of correcting a power factor of the circuit 200 and regulating the load current ILED1 and ILED2 flowing through the AC light source 132. In one embodiment, the controller 108 includes zero current detection (ZCD) circuitry 242, drive circuitry 244, and a current regulator 246. The drive circuitry 244 is operable for generating a control signal 156 at the pin DRV to control the switch 220. In one embodiment, the control signal 156 can be a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal. As the regulated voltage VREG is determined by the ratio of the ON time during which the switch 220 is turned on to the OFF time during which the switch 220 is turned off, the regulated voltage VREG can be controlled by adjusting the duty cycle of the control signal 156. [0045]The ZCD circuitry 242 is used to determine the OFF time during which the switch 220 is turned off. The ZCD circuitry 242 receives the zero current detection signal 154 indicating whether the current ICON drops to the predetermined level I1 and generates a switch-trigger signal 264 accordingly. For example, the switch-trigger signal 264 is generated when a falling edge of the zero current detection signal 154 is detected, which indicates the current ICON drops to the predetermined level I1. The drive circuitry 244 coupled to the ZCD circuitry 242 receives the switch-trigger signal 264 and turns on the switch 220 through the control signal 152 accordingly. Advantageously, the current path of the current ICON can be enabled after the current ICON reaches the predetermined level I1. Thus, the current ICON through the primary winding 216 can ramp up from the predetermined level I1, e.g., zero ampere, each time when the current path is enabled. [0046]The current regulator 246 is used to determine the ON time during which the switch 220 is turned on. As described in relation to FIG. 1, the controller 108 includes the input voltage pin VFF for receiving the input voltage VIN, the sense pin SEN for receiving the current sense signal 158 indicating the load current flowing through the AC light source 132, and the sense pin MON for receiving the current monitoring signal 152 indicating the current ICON through the primary winding 216. The current regulator 246 can provide a voltage threshold VTH based on the sense signal 158 and the voltage VIN. In one embodiment, the voltage threshold VTH is proportional to the voltage VIN, where the proportional coefficient is determined by the sense signal 158 indicative of the load current flowing through the AC light source 132. [0047]The current regulator 246 compares the current monitoring signal 152 to the voltage threshold VTH and generates a switch-termination signal 265 based on a result of the comparison. The drive circuitry 244 receives the switch-termination signal 265 and turns off the switch 220. Thus, the threshold VTH represents a peak level of the current ICON. [0048]Advantageously, the current ICON ramps up from the predetermined level I1 and the peak level of the current ICON is proportional to the input voltage VIN. Thus, an average current of the current ICON is approximately in phase with the input voltage VIN. In other words, the input current IIN indicating the average current of the current ICON has a waveform following the waveform of the input voltage VIN, which improves the power factor of the circuit 200. The operation of the current ICON and the input current IIN will be further described in relation to FIG. 3. In addition, the proportional coefficient between the voltage threshold VTH and the voltage VIN can be determined by the sense signal 158. Thus, the ON time is adjustable according to the load current flowing through the AC light source 132 so as to regulate the voltage VREG. In this way, the load current of the LED strings can be regulated. [0049]FIG. 3 illustrates a timing diagram 300 of signals generated by the circuit 200, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is described in combination with FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 3 shows the input voltage VIN, the voltage threshold VTH provided by the current regulator 246, the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152, the input current IIN, the converter current IS through the secondary winding 217, the voltage of zero current detection signal 154, and the voltage of the control signal 156. [0050]In one embodiment, the input voltage VIN has a rectified sinusoidal waveform since negative waves of the input AC voltage are excluded or converted to corresponding positive waves. The voltage threshold VTH is proportional to the input voltage VIN, where the proportional coefficient can be determined by the sense signal 158. [0051]The OFF time can be determined by the ZCD circuitry 242. At time t1, the voltage of the control signal 156 is changed to digital zero, which turns off the switch 220. Thus, the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152 drops to a predetermined level V0 such as zero volt, which indicates that the current ICON drops to a predetermined level I1 such as zero ampere. Accordingly, the current IS flowing through the secondary winding 217 rises to the level ISPK at time t1 and ramps down from t1 to t2 during which the energy is transferred from the core of the transformer T1 to the bridge circuit 112. At time t2, all the energy in the core of T1 is dissipated such that the current IS decreases to zero ampere. The auxiliary winding 218 senses both the current IS and ICON, and generates the zero current detection signal 154 having a falling edge when IS decreases to zero ampere. As shown in the example of FIG. 3, when the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152 drops to a predetermined level V0 at time t1, the zero current detection signal 154 rises to a constant level. When the current IS drops to zero ampere, a falling edge of the zero current detection signal 154 is generated. Thus, the zero current detection signal 154 having a falling edge indicates that the current ICON has dropped to the predetermined level I1. [0052]The ZCD circuitry 242 monitors the zero current detection signal 154, and generates the switch-trigger signal 264 based on a result of the monitoring. The drive circuitry 244 receives the switch-trigger signal 264. Therefore, the voltage of the control signal 156 can be set to digital one to turn on the switch 220 at time t2. [0053]The ON time can be determined by the current regulator 246. At time t2, the voltage of the control signal 156 is digital one which turns on the switch 220. Therefore, the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152 can ramp up according to equation (1). The current regulator 246 compares the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152 to the voltage threshold VTH that is proportional to the input voltage VIN, and generates the switch-termination signal 265 based on a result of the comparison. In one embodiment, the switch-termination signal 265 is generated when the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152 reaches the voltage threshold VTH at time t3. Therefore, the voltage of the control signal 156 is reset to zero at time t3, and the switch 220 is turned off accordingly. In other words, the voltage threshold VTH can indicate the peak level of the current ICON. During the time intervals of t3 to t5, t5 to t7, and t7 to t9, the circuit 200 can operate in a similar way as during the time interval of t1 to t3. [0054]Advantageously, peak levels of the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152, e.g., at time t1, t3, t5, t7 or t9, can be equal to the voltage threshold VTH that is proportional to the input voltage VIN at the power line 101. Additionally, the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152 can ramp up from the predetermined level V0 at time t2, t4, t6 or t8. The average level of the voltage of the current monitoring signal 152, e.g., indicating the current IIN, is obtained by filtering high frequency components of the current monitoring signal 152. As shown in the example of FIG. 3, the current IIN, which is equivalent to the average current of the current ICON (ICON is indicated by the current monitoring signal 152), follows the variation of the voltage VIN. In another word, the current IIN is in phase with the voltage VIN, which improves the power factor indicative of the power efficiency of the circuit 200. [0055]FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of the ZCD circuitry 242 and the drive circuitry 244 of FIG. 2, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is described in combination with FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. Elements labeled the same as in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 have similar functions. [0056]In the example of FIG. 4, the drive circuitry 244 includes a flip-flop 416 for receiving the switch-trigger signal 264 and the switch-termination signal 265, and for generating the control signal 156 to control the switch 220 accordingly. The flip-flop 416 can be a reset-set (RS) flip-flop. As such, the output of the flip-flop 416 is set to digital one if the switch-trigger signal 264 is digital one and the switch-termination signal 265 is digital zero. Conversely, the output of the flip-flop 416 is reset to digital zero if the switch-trigger signal 264 is digital zero and the switch-termination signal 265 is digital one. The drive circuitry 244 can have other configurations and is not limited to the configuration in the example of FIG. 4. [0057]The ZCD circuitry 242 can include a start circuit 402, a clamp circuit 404, a comparator 406, an edge trigger 408, and an OR gate 410. The ZCD circuitry 242 can have other configurations, and is not limited to the configuration in the example of FIG. 4. The start circuit 402 coupled to an input terminal of the OR gate 410 is operable for starting up the circuit 100 or 200. In one embodiment, the start circuit 402 outputs a digital one signal during a start-up period when the circuit 100 is initially powered on. Accordingly, the OR gate 410 outputs a digital one signal to set the flip-flop 416 so as to turn on the switch 220. After the start-up period, the start circuit 402 outputs a digital zero signal, such that the output of the OR gate 410 can be determined by the output of the edge trigger 408 during normal operation. [0058]The clamp circuit 404 receives the zero current detection signal 154 and outputs a clamp signal 422. The clamp signal 422 follows the zero current detection signal 154, and a voltage variation of the clamp signal 422 is clamped within a predetermined range. For example, the voltage variation of the zero current detection signal 154 can be in the range of 0˜100 volt, while the variation of the clamp signal 422 can be clamped within the range of 0-5 volt. [0059]The comparator 406 can be a hysteresis comparator. The comparator 406 is operable for comparing the clamp signal 422 with predetermined voltage thresholds such as a low threshold V1 and a high threshold V2, and for generating a comparing signal 424 according to a result of the comparison. More specifically, the comparing signal 424 can be set to digital one if the clamp signal 422 is greater than the high threshold V2, and can be reset to digital zero if the clamp signal 422 is less than the low threshold V1. As discussed in relation to FIG. 2, the zero current detection signal 154 rises to a constant level when the switch 220 is turned off, and decreases after the current ICON has dropped to a predetermined level I1. Accordingly, a falling edge of the comparing signal 424 can be generated. [0060]The edge trigger 408 is capable of detecting the comparing signal 424, and generating a trigger signal 428 to set the OR gate 410, e.g., if a falling edge of the comparing signal 424 is detected. Subsequently, the flip-flop 416 is set to turn on the switch 220. Advantageously, the switch 220 is turned on when the current ICON flowing through the primary winding 216 reaches the predetermined level I1, thereby enabling the current ICON to ramp up from I1. [0061]FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of the current regulator 246 and the drive circuitry 244 of FIG. 2, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is described in combination with FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. Elements labeled the same as in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 4 have similar functions. [0062]In the example of FIG. 5, the current regulator 246 includes a voltage divider 502, an error amplifier 504, a multiplier 506, and a comparator 508. The voltage divider 502 coupled to ground is operable for receiving the input voltage VIN and for generating a reference voltage VFF proportional to the input voltage VIN, which can be given by: VFF=kVIN, (4) where k is a constant indicating a proportional coefficient between VFF and VIN. [0063]The error amplifier 504 has an inverting input terminal for receiving the sense signal 158 and a non-inverting input terminal for receiving a predetermined reference voltage VREF. In one embodiment, VREF can be a predetermined constant voltage and can be set to an amount that is equal to the voltage of the sense signal 158, e.g., when the circuit 200 is powered on. The error amplifier 504 compares the sense signal 158 to the reference voltage VREF, and outputs an amplified signal whose voltage VC is a function of the load current through the AC light source 132 according to a result of the comparison. For example, if the reference voltage VREF is equal to the sense signal 158, the error amplifier 504 can output a voltage V4. If there is a difference ΔV between the reference voltage VREF and the sense signal 158, e.g., caused by the variation of the current I_LED1, the error amplifier 504 can amplify the difference ΔV. The voltage VC can be set to an amount that is equal to the voltage level V4 plus the amplified difference, which can be given by: VC=AΔV+V4=A(VREF-R--238ILED2)+V4, (5) where A represents an amplification coefficient of the error amplifier 504, and R_238 represents the resistance of the resistor 238. As shown in equation (5), VC is a function of the load current ILED2. [0064]In one embodiment, the multiplier 506 is capable of receiving the voltage VC from the error amplifier 504 and receiving the reference voltage VFF from the voltage divider 502. The multiplier 506 can further provide a voltage threshold VTH that is equal to a product of the voltage VC and the reference voltage VFF. Combining the equations (4) and (5), the voltage threshold VTH can be given according to: VTH=VCVFF=(AΔV+V4)(kVIN). (6) [0065]As shown in equation (6), the voltage threshold VTH is proportional to the input voltage VIN. In addition, the proportional coefficient between the voltage threshold VTH and the input voltage V_IN, e.g., k(A ΔV+V4), is also a function of the load current through the AC light source 132. That is, the proportional coefficient is determined by the sense signal 158. [0066]The comparator 508 is capable of comparing the current monitoring signal 152 indicative of the current ICON to the voltage threshold VTH, and generating a digital one signal to reset the flip-flop 416 if the current monitoring signal 152 is greater than the voltage threshold VTH. Advantageously, peak levels of the current monitoring signal 152 are equal to the voltage threshold VTH that is proportional to the level of the input voltage VIN. Thus, the power factor is improved as discussed in relation to FIG. 3. [0067]Advantageously, the proportional coefficient between the voltage threshold VTH and the voltage VIN can be determined by the sense signal 158 indicative of the current ILED2 flowing through the LED string 132_2, as shown in the equation (6). Therefore, the current of the LED strings 132_1 and 132_2 can be regulated. For example, if the current ILED2 is increased, e.g., caused by the variation of the regulated voltage VREG, the sense signal 158 is increased accordingly. According to equation (6), the proportional coefficient is decreased, which may decrease the voltage threshold VTH. As such, the current monitoring signal 152 may spend less time to reach the voltage threshold VTH, thereby decreasing the ON time. Consequently, the regulated voltage VREG is decreased, which results in a decrease of the current flowing through the LED strings 132_1 and 132_2. Similarly, if the current ILED2 is decreased, the current regulator 246 can operate to increase the ON time to increase the current flowing through the LED strings 132_1 and 132_2. In this way, the current of the LED strings can be regulated to remain within a desirable range, thereby increasing the stability of the LED strings. [0068]Advantageously, the brightness of the LED strings 132_1 and 132_2 can be adjusted by users. For example, to increase the brightness of the LED strings 132_1 and 132_2, the resistance of the sensor 238 can be decreased by users, which results in a voltage decrease of the sense signal 158. As shown in equation (6), the current regulator 246 can automatically increase the voltage VC, thus increasing the voltage threshold VTH. As such, the ON time can be increased to increase regulated voltage VREG. Therefore, the load current flowing through the LED strings 132_1 and 132_2 can be increased to increase the brightness of the LED strings 132_1 and 132_2. [0069]The configuration and method for correcting the power factor of the circuit and for regulating the load current in the present invention can also be employed in a system including other types of loads. For example, by replacing the bridge circuit 112 and the AC light source 132 to a DC light source such as multiple DC LED strings, the regulated voltage VREG can also be used to drive the DC LED strings. In this instance, the controller 108 can correct a power factor of the system by controlling a current path of the current ICON flowing through the primary winding 216. Also, by sensing a load current flowing through the DC LED strings, the controller 108 can adjust the regulated voltage VREG to regulate the load current. [0070]FIG. 6 illustrates another block diagram of a circuit 600 for driving a load, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Elements labeled the same as in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 have similar functions. FIG. 6 is described in combination with FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3. In the example of FIG. 6, the converter 110 includes a transformer T2, a switch 620, a current sensor 628, and a diode 622. The transformer T2 includes a primary winding 616 and an auxiliary winding 618. In this instance, the primary winding 616, the switch 620, the diode 622, and the capacitors C1 and C2 of the bridge circuit 112 constitute a boost converter for converting the input voltage VIN to the regulated voltage VREG. [0071]In one embodiment, the current ICON flowing through the primary winding 616 has two current paths such as L1 and L2. The switch 620 enables and disables the current path L1 according to the control signal 156. During the ON time when the switch 620 is turned on to enable the current path L1, the diode 622 is reverse-biased and the current ICON of the primary winding 616 can flow through the current path L1. Since the voltage difference across the primary winding 616 is positive, e.g., the input voltage VIN is greater than the ground potential, the current ICON ramps up to store energy in the primary winding 616. Meanwhile, the current sensor 628 provides a current monitoring signal 152 indicative of the current ICON, which is used by the current regulator 246 to determine the ON time of the switch 620. [0072]During an OFF time when the current path L1 is disabled, the diode 622 becomes forward-biased and the current ICON of the primary winding 616 can flow through the current path L2. Since the voltage difference across the primary winding 616 becomes negative, the current ICON ramps down to transfer the energy in the primary winding 616 to the bridge circuit 112. A waveform of the current ICON during the OFF time is similar to the waveform of the current IS during the corresponding OFF time as shown in relation to FIG. 3. The current ICON decreases to the predetermined level I1 when the energy stored in the primary winding 616 is dissipated. [0073]Similar to the auxiliary winding 218 in relation to FIG. 2, the auxiliary winding 618 magnetically coupled to the primary winding 616 can detect variation of the current ICON through the primary winding 616. More specifically, when the switch 620 is turned off, the current ICON starts to ramp down. Thus, the voltage of the zero current detection signal 154 rises to a positive level. When the current ICON decreases to I1, a falling edge of the zero current detection signal 154 is generated to indicate that the current ICON has dropped to the predetermined level I1. [0074]Advantageously, by using the boost converter disclosed in the example of FIG. 6, the controller 108 can also generates the control signal 156 to control the switch 620 based on the zero current detection signal 154 and the input voltage VIN. Thus, the current ICON ramps up from the predetermined level I1 each time when the current path L1 is enabled. Moreover, the peak level of the current ICON is proportional to the input voltage VIN. As such, the waveform of the input current IIN, e.g., indicating the average current of the current ICON, follows the waveform of the input voltage VIN. That is, the power factor of the circuit 600 is corrected and the power efficiency of the circuit 600 is improved. [0075]FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart 700 of operations performed by a circuit for driving a load, e.g., the circuit 100, 200 or 600, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is described in combination with FIG. 1-FIG. 6. Although specific steps are disclosed in FIG. 7, such steps are examples. That is, the present invention is well suited to performing various other steps or variations of the steps recited in FIG. 7. [0076]In block 702, an input current, e.g., the input current IIN, and an input voltage, e.g., the input voltage VIN, are provided by a power line, e.g., the power line 101. In one embodiment, an input AC voltage is commutated to provide the input voltage. In block 704, the input voltage is converted to a regulated voltage, e.g., the regulated voltage VREG, by converter circuitry, e.g., the converter circuitry 104, to drive a load, e.g., the AC light source 132. In one embodiment, the regulated voltage is transformed to a regulated AC voltage to drive the load. More specifically, in one embodiment, the regulated voltage is divided to a divided voltage at a first terminal of the load. Furthermore, the regulated voltage and a constant voltage are alternately applied to a second terminal of the load. Thus, the regulated AC voltage is obtained between the first and second terminals. [0077]In block 706, a current detection signal, e.g., the zero current detection signal 154, indicating whether a converter current, e.g., the converter current ICON, flowing through the converter circuitry drops to a predetermined level, e.g., I1. In block 708, a power factor is corrected based on the current detection signal and the input voltage such that a waveform of the input current follows a waveform of the input voltage. In one embodiment, a current path of the converter current is enabled according to the current detection signal. The converter current ramps up from the predetermined level when the current path is enabled. Additionally, a threshold proportional to the input voltage is generated. A current monitoring signal indicating the converter current is compared with the threshold. The current path of the converter current is disabled according to a result of the comparison. As such, the threshold indicates a peak level of the converter current. In one embodiment, a proportional coefficient between the input voltage and the threshold is determined according to a load current flowing through the load. In block 710, high frequency components of the converter current are attenuated to determine the input current. The input current indicates an average current of the converter current. [0078]While the foregoing description and drawings represent embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood that various additions, modifications and substitutions may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the principles of the present invention. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be used with many modifications of form, structure, arrangement, proportions, materials, elements, and components and otherwise, used in the practice of the invention, which are particularly adapted to specific environments and operative requirements without departing from the principles of the present invention. The presently disclosed embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and not limited to the foregoing description.	eng	151b9a33-c498-408d-a19c-81349b15d878	http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20100320934
Eurovoc young person social policy barring of penalties by limitation crime education of young offenders Summary Crime by young people can blight communities and make everyone feel unsafe. However, socially excluded young people and young offenders remain children first, offenders and/or antisocial individuals second, and thus cannot be treated in the same way as offending adults. It is important to find the right balance between protecting the community – and other young people – from crime, while making the best possible use of the fact that a child/young person, as a developing, learning human being, is still open to positive socialising influences. Retribution and punishment should thus take second place to social measures for, and education and rehabilitation of young offenders. Deprivation of liberty should be a last resort. Member states are therefore invited to take the necessary measures to prevent juvenile delinquency in the first place and to educate young offenders to avoid reoffending. A. Draft resolution (open) 1. Crime by young people can blight communities and make everyone feel unsafe. However, socially excluded young people and young offenders remain children first, offenders and/or antisocial individuals second, and thus cannot be treated in the same way as offending adults. 2. Young offenders often come from amongst the most disadvantaged groups in society. Many have histories of unemployment, educational disadvantage and/or disaffection, substance abuse, mental health problems, and disrupted and/or abusive family backgrounds. Systematic processes of social exclusion in terms of lack of formal education and training and ensuing low earning capacity often create barriers, preventing young people from entering the legal economy, making crime more attractive for them – including in financial terms. 3. The Parliamentary Assembly believes that it is important to find the right balance between protecting the community – and other young people – from crime, while making the best possible use of the fact that a child/young person, as a developing, learning human being, is still open to positive socialising influences. Whilst it is imperative that young persons are taught to take responsibility for their actions, young offenders are children first and foremost and must be protected by all the accepted human rights standards for children. Retribution and punishment should thus take second place to social measures for, and education and rehabilitation of young offenders. Deprivation of liberty should be a last resort, as posited in the Committee of Ministers European Rules for juvenile offenders subject to sanctions or measures (Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)11). 4. The Assembly shares the concern of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights about a disturbing trend in Europe today to lock up more children at an earlier age. Furthermore, in the last two decades, several Council of Europe member states have developed policies and plans based on retribution and behaviour-focused programmes, rather than on prevention of youth offending and addressing the welfare needs of young offenders. 5. The Assembly believes that this is in contrast to the proof of cost-effective welfare and community- based measures. Evidence strongly suggests that welfare-based responses lead to greater social inclusion, greater participation and greater commitment to education and socially acceptable behaviour. They are able to tackle different levels of social exclusion, offending and disaffection and incorporate mechanisms to ensure children's best interests and to protect their rights. Furthermore, inter-agency and multi-professional work is key both to the prevention of crime and to the rehabilitation of educationally disaffected young people and young offenders. 6. The Assembly therefore invites member states to: 6.1. prevent juvenile delinquency in the first place by: 6.1.1. providing family support services based on disadvantaged areas with high crime, low educational attainment and high unemployment rates; 6.1.2. encouraging young people at risk to continue beyond minimum leaving age in education/training, possibly with enhanced benefits; 6.1.3. designing specific programmes that provide help for young people and teachers in schools by the provision of social work, psychological and mental health support, with specialist teachers trained not just in academic development, but also in citizenship and relationship skills, and in dealing with difficult behaviour; 6.1.4. promoting mentoring, involving volunteers, appropriate peers and part-time workers who have credibility with young people in a specific area/ethnic/faith group, and who can provide emotional support and act as role models, to help increase personality development, social inclusion and feelings of connection within their own and the wider community, while avoiding pushing young people into conformity with traditional (gendered or culturally determined) stereotypes; 6.1.5. promoting community development and youth work with ethnic minority/faith groups in identified geographical areas; 6.1.6. providing alcohol and drug abuse counselling services; 6.2. educate young offenders to avoid reoffending by: 6.2.1. fully implementing the European Rules for juvenile offenders subject to sanctions or measures, which put the emphasis on community sanctions and measures while safeguarding children's and young people's rights in all settings (from court proceedings to the deprivation of liberty); 6.2.2. ensuring that the age of criminal responsibility is not set too low, and that sanctions and measures involving the deprivation of liberty are only applied to children and young offenders as a last resort; 6.2.4. working with police, prosecutors and youth judges to promote diversion and welfare- based approaches. B. Explanatory memorandum by Ms Karamanli, rapporteur (open) 1. Introduction 1. Juvenile delinquency is not a new phenomenon. The vast majority of Council of Europe member states have been faced with this problem for decades (even if reading the press sometimes tends to suggest the contrary). However, they have developed different ways of dealing with the problem, based on different theoretical and practical approaches. 2. To begin with, it is worth mentioning here that despite the high stakes, there is little quantitative and qualitative research monitoring juvenile offenders and the consequences of their imprisonment as regards possible reoffending. Moreover, the information available to date in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe is not sufficiently homogeneous. It is difficult to assert the superiority of one model over another on a general level. However, a number of elements can be taken into account which deserve the attention of the Parliamentary Assembly. 3. If we take the case of France, imprisonment represents one third of the sentences for those aged between 13 and 16 and about 40% for those aged between 16 and 18. The "criminal response rate" in case of recidivism has at the same time increased from 67.9% in 2000 to 83.6% in 2007 (91.5% for minors). 4. Moreover, as far as the risk of reoffending as a follow-up to the deprivation of liberty is concerned, research carried out in the Netherlands in 2005 on the relationship between reoffending and personality, post release environmental risk and protective factors, has highlighted the number of young offenders who reoffended after their release from the De Hunnerberg juvenile detention centre.Four studies were conducted of respondents' reoffending rates. In the study on personality and juvenile criminal offending and reoffending, it emerged that 61 of the 95 former prisoners (64%) had been arrested at one time or another after leaving De Hunnerberg. This figure was obtained from the criminal records statistics. In a more detailed study of the environmental risks following release and the factors likely to militate against juvenile reoffending, 75% of the respondents reported one or more criminal acts after their release. Both the official and the self-reported rates of reoffending in this study are high. The most likely explanation for the discrepancy between the official and self-reported figures is that a considerable number of offences remain undetected. 5. In the same line of thought, according to Milton L. Barron, "punishment is especially likely to be followed by recidivism, possibly because punishment does not reform and because it results in social ostracism of the punished.The younger the child is at the time of his or her first adjudication as a delinquent, the greater is the likelihood that there will be recidivism". 6. It is therefore clear that attention must be paid to preventing first offences, as well as reoffending. The two go together; offering a response to offending today is a means of preventing it in the future. What are needed are alternatives to prison, with an emphasis on establishments with an educational purpose. The European Forum for Urban Safety invites local elected representatives to recognise publicly that prisons and detention should be one of the last resorts for young people in conflict with the law. Preference must be given to alternative approaches, such as special education centres and open detention facilities, whose aim is social reintegration and which focus on the individual and his or her particular circumstances, while taking into account the interests of the victim. Consideration should be given to alternative, community-oriented, sanctions. 7. The overarching goal of all policies addressing juvenile delinquency must be to teach children and young people how to live a fulfilling life in society – without committing any crimes. The juvenile justice system comes into contact with children and young people only after they have already committed a crime (or are suspected of having committed one), while the welfare system can come into play both before and after a crime has been committed. The juvenile justice system tries to ensure respect for the societal norms as codified by criminal law. In contrast to the justice system for adults, punishment (and atonement through punishment) is less central to the juvenile justice system, which has at its heart the avoidance of future delinquency through education. This is where the welfare system touches the justice system: it also tries to avoid delinquency through education. However, its contribution can often be delivered in a more "positive" spirit, because it can be construed as an aid to help children and young people realise their right to be educated and to grow up to become independent personalities who are nevertheless integrated into society. 8. Crime by young people can blight communities and make everyone feel unsafe. It is thus important for every country to find the most appropriate response. At the Council of Europe level, harmonisation of the juvenile justice systems has gone further than that of the welfare systems for children and young people. In 2008, the Committee of Ministers adopted the European Rules for juvenile offenders subject to sanctions or measures (Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)11) which posit both the basic principles – that all sanctions and measures that may be imposed on juveniles, as well as their implementation, shall be based on the principles of social integration and education and on the prevention of reoffending – and put into place a clear legal framework governing community sanctions and measures as well as the deprivation of liberty. The rapporteur believes this recommendation is very complete; it remains only for it to be implemented. This is why this report concentrates on the contribution of child and youth welfare services, namely on social measures for, and education and rehabilitation of young offenders – a subject which the rapporteur fears has so far been rather neglected. 9. Nevertheless, a key issue remains regarding the extent to which the welfare and best interests of the child/young person, as a developing, learning human being, and still open to positive socialising influences, are incorporated in youth justice systems. 10. Against this background, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights recently stated that "there is a disturbing trend in Europe today to lock up more children at an earlier age. The age of criminal responsibility is already very low in some countries, such as the United Kingdom", whilst also recognising that "it is imperative that young persons are taught to take responsibility for their actions". The Commissioner at the same time emphasised that "Young offenders are children first and foremost and should be protected by all the agreed human rights standards for children". 11. In this report, the rapporteur would like to address all these interlinked issues. On 12 December 2008 in Paris, the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee organised a hearing with the participation of representatives of different NGOs and research institutes. On 11 June 2009, the rapporteur also visited the Rochester Institute for Young Offenders in Kent (United Kingdom) to nourish her reflections on this issue, which she first presented to the committee in November 2009. 12. There is evidence that the best crime prevention policy is social policy, and that the most effective social policy is one which reaches down from the national to the local level. 2. Social exclusion, child poverty and child well-being in Europe 13. A growing number of young people in Europe lack the means to participate fully in economic, social, cultural and political life or are prevented from doing so by economic disadvantage, lack of skills and knowledge, discrimination or personal attitudes. 14. Young offenders often come from amongst the most disadvantaged groups in society and have complex needs. Many have histories of educational disadvantage and/or disaffection, substance misuse, mental health problems, and disrupted and/or abusive family backgrounds. Systematic processes of social exclusion in terms of lack of formal education and training and ensuing low earning capacity often create barriers, preventing young people from entering the legal economy – a phenomenon exacerbated by the current economic and debt crisis. Many young people depend upon state benefits, such as unemployment benefits, and find it increasingly difficult to gain access to jobs that allow them greater legitimate integration into the social and economic fabric of society. Youth unemployment rates increased by 4.6 percentage points in the developed economies and the European Union between 2008 and 2009 and by 3.5 points in central and eastern Europe (non-European Union) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). These structural issues cannot be divorced from the personal effects of such changes on people. 15. Poverty in childhood has been identified as a key predictor of economic and educational disadvantage and poor levels of achievement and well-being later in life. In 2005, 22% of children in the United Kingdom lived in relative poverty (defined as 60% of the national median income); in Sweden this was 8%, and in Denmark 10%. Such exclusion from transition processes towards social and economic bonds means that young people are less likely to engage and commit to the other values of inclusion and acceptable social norms. 16. The rapporteur notes that the overlapping nature of the drivers of social exclusion for offending and educational disadvantage is borne out in statistics. For example, in the United Kingdom, nearly half of young people in custody in the criminal justice system have previously been in the public care system and have literacy and numeracy skills inferior to the norm for an 11-year-old. Reoffending rates within a year of leaving custody increase for those who are homeless. 17. Sociological theories such as labelling are important in policy considerations in terms of how such labelling can negatively affect agencies' and professionals' responses to individual young people due to the geographical area the young person lives in, his or her ethnicity, previous offending, and mental health problems. The mix of such labelling factors and structural and economic disadvantage and discrimination within jobs, housing, educational opportunities, and treatment by the youth justice system and staff towards young people can lead to further exclusion and offending. 18. In the rapporteur's opinion, these are important areas to address in policies, provision and also training and monitoring of educational and social agencies. Whilst sociological theories such as labelling may be important in understanding why such problems may occur, they do not provide concrete ideas of how to understand the way young people personally experience their situation, or how to deal with them; these are the areas this report would like to address. It is necessary to consider young people's individual feelings and deal with them on a personal intervention level, including motivation to socially acceptable income generation, attitudes towards others and feelings of social responsibility, mental health needs, experience of abuse, and experiences of being bullied and of bullying. 19. Welfare, school and community-based programmes can help young people desist from all forms of criminal and antisocial behaviour, including violence, bullying, theft, gang-related crime and intimidation, race hate crime and potentially, at the extreme end, terrorism. 20. A major study by UNICEF (2007) assessed the well-being of young people in 21 of the world's most economically advanced nations according to six criteria: family and peer relationships, education, health and safety, material well-being, behaviour and risks, and subjective well-being. It concluded that a country's wealth is not an indicator of child well-being (a finding also from the statistics presented by the OECD in 2009 ), with the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Switzerland and Norway ranked highest, with France 16th and the United Kingdom at the bottom of the overall well-being league table. As far as material well-being is concerned, the UNICEF study also found that in comparing the percentages of children that lived in households with the equivalent of less than 50% of national median income (relative child income poverty), in all the Scandinavian countries this was less than 4%, in Belgium and France 7%, in the Netherlands 9%, and in Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom 16%. In terms of material well-being, the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark) ranked highest. 21. The factors of well-being may well have a bearing upon how young people view themselves, their life opportunities and relationships, and on disaffection and offending. 22. The rapporteur noted that the countries which have welfare-based approaches as part of socially cohesive policies are the ones where young people feel most secure in personal and family relationships and do not fear for their prospects in terms of their economic and social future. These countries have the most inclusive and effective educational systems and the lowest rates of custody. In the UNICEF survey, in terms of subjective well-being, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Austria and Ireland came highest, whilst France was ranked 19th, and the United Kingdom 20th. For educational well-being, Belgium was ranked first, the United Kingdom 17th and France 18th. For educational achievement, Finland was highest, with France 13th. 23. Scandinavian countries generally have retained a strong welfare approach to juvenile offending, compared to many in the rest of Europe, and have not been swayed from this by media and political pressure. Seven of the 10 top-ranked countries for child well-being had prison populations of less than 80 per 100 000, including all the Scandinavian countries. The numbers of juveniles in prison-based custody is negligible in Scandinavian countries as a percentage of their youth populations, which is also the case in Belgium, France, Italy and the Czech Republic. 24. Despite low incarceration rates in recent years, crime rates have not tended to increase in these countries disproportionately compared to other countries. Conversely, countries which have increased their use of custody have not tended to see a decrease in crime disproportionately compared to other countries. The Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, Portugal and England and Wales have high rates of juvenile incarceration. Of the bottom 10 countries in the UNICEF report, six have prison populations of over 100 per 100 000. In England in early 2009, 2 625 children aged under 18 were held in custodial establishments in England and Wales, one of the highest rates of juvenile incarceration in Europe, compared to Finland and Norway's total of three. 26. The high-risk forms of behaviour pinpointed in sociological studies of young people, in particular the use of legal and illegal psychoactive substances such as alcohol, tobacco and cannabis, violence, both towards oneself and others, dangerous driving, dangerous forms of sport and high-risk sexual behaviour, have to be prevented, as the situation can easily and very rapidly deteriorate. Such high-risk behaviour is often rooted in a feeling of malaise, hence the importance of paying heed to children and young people's well-being, including their mental health. It is to be noted here that conduct and behavioural disorders among children and young people also result in significant costs to the community, and that it would be possible to treat these disorders more effectively through prevention. At the same time, the Committee of Ministers Recommendation Rec(2004)10 concerning the protection of the human rights and dignity of persons with mental disorder invites member states to make all necessary provisions. 27. High-risk behaviour also represents a quest for autonomy and independence. Acquiring independence, indeed, presupposes risk taking. This takes place at the boundaries between the known and the unknown, the allowed and the forbidden, the legal and the illegal. Such behaviour, which frequently conflicts with accepted standards and breaks the rules, enables those concerned to go one step further and thus appreciate the real meaning of social and individual conduct. This flirting with risk represents a desire to control one's environment, but also one's own behaviour, and is thus seen by the young person concerned as a crucial step towards greater autonomy. The rapporteur therefore wishes to emphasise the importance of the earliest possible positive intervention to prevent risks and enable young people to use other means of establishing their identity and for their development, without harm to their well-being. In the absence of such intervention, the risk of problems such as offending rises rapidly. 28. Peer pressure is key to many young people's engagement with disaffection at school and in offending. In the UNICEF survey, in the category of "peer relationships being kind and helpful", Switzerland ranked highest, France 18th, the Czech Republic 19th, and the United Kingdom 21st. For family and peer support, Italy was first, France 12th, Finland 17th, with the United Kingdom bottom, demonstrating the importance of positive influences from such groups in societies which do not make use of punitive policies. 29. As regards young people who declared having been drunk twice or more, France was ranked as having the lowest percentage and the United Kingdom the highest percentage, with Scandinavian countries ranked also quite low. For those aged between 15 and 19 not in education, employment or training, France had the highest percentage at 21st, Finland was 18th, and Norway, Denmark, Poland and Sweden had the lowest percentage. For the percentage of those in relative income poverty, Scandinavian countries ranked lowest, with France ranked eighth. As regards those experiencing fighting and/or bullying, young people in Finland, Sweden and Germany were least at risk, while France had the highest percentage reporting this. 30. The rapporteur notes that marginalisation is a risk factor. Recent studies have shown that group membership as such does not equate with delinquency. When a young person joins a group of delinquents, rather than a traditional group, this is often largely a result of his or her own functioning within other conventional social systems, such as school. Where the young person concerned is marginalised, he or she will tend to seek the company of other young people on the margins of society, where alcohol or drug consumption is encouraged and misbehaving is regarded as normal. 31. In neighbourhoods/communities with high levels of deprivation, illegal income sources such as drug dealing and selling stolen mobile telephones, often supplement or replace legitimate ones. One of the major reasons cited by young people who join gangs is that they see gangs as alternative reference groups, and see no life outside the gang. The gang provides social recognition and status which other areas of their lives, such as schooling, legitimate income, job status or relationships, do not. 32. Parenting is another key area of risk, if one is dealing with parents who are criminals, parents with mental health problems, parents who are too strict or too lenient or inconsistent or parents who are antagonistic to or disinterested in their child's education. For example, it has been determined that the impact of father absence on delinquency could be stronger than that of mother absence among both boys and girls. 33. The rapporteur notes that risk factors are clustered together in the lives of the most disadvantaged children. The chances of such young people becoming antisocial and criminally active increase exponentially as the number of risk factors for the young person increases. 34. Lack of adequately funded youth services has been pinpointed as contributing to the disenfranchisement of some young people, including specifically ethnic minority or faith groups. The rapporteur is convinced that provision of specialist enhanced educational schemes, and mentoring for parents and young people from credible role models from within their own communities can be important in avoiding such disaffection. This also applies to community-based groups which are set up to challenge and engage young people in activities which they see as relevant to their culture and ambitions. 35. At the same time, it is important to emphasise that some young people need to emancipate themselves from traditional role models, in particular in ethnic minority or faith groups. This is particularly true for girls, who are often traditionally assigned a passive and submissive, "victim" role, but also for boys, who may be pushed into "macho" roles, where they have to prove themselves "strong", aggressive, or even violently "protective". Both girls and boys should be encouraged to develop their individual personalities instead. 36. On a personal level, poor self-image can be a risk factor (including the risk of being recruited into gangs), as are mental health problems. In addition to the other strategies used to combat exclusion, the rapporteur stresses the need to involve assessment and liaison with specialist social work and mental health services. Drug and alcohol abuse risks again require careful assessment and a range of clinical and community-based provisions for assessment, with close liaison between schools, social work agencies and local drug and alcohol agencies. 37. The rapporteur firmly believes that the wide variety of risk factors related to low educational attainment, disaffection and offending means that preventing crime requires the active involvement of agencies outside the justice system, including education and health services. 38. Strategies aimed at combating educational disaffection and financial disadvantage include identifying the problems with educational engagement and attendance amongst groups and individuals, by working with schools and specialist educational units, employing educational psychologists, social workers, and adult and peer mentoring schemes within community programmes. The objective is to encourage participation in training and employment, in order to improve commitment to and confidence in education and thus enhance young people's life chances. 39. Comparisons of the educational backgrounds of young people caught up in the youth justice system with the general population show that, on average, young offenders have had difficulties in engaging and achieving at school. Low attainment, persistent truancy, exclusion, special educational needs and disabilities such as dyslexia are some of the most prevalent risk factors associated with offending behaviour. The correlations between low attainment in education, offending and reoffending and other forms of anti-social behaviour are well documented. Education potentially has a key preventative role, as lack of statutory education is one of the key factors associated with reoffending. 40. The wider role of an educative focus of social development, rather than just academic performance, is recognised in the pedagogical approaches in some countries. The Scandinavian countries, such as Sweden, have a high performance educationally, without the high use of exclusion from schools or other forms of social exclusion for children (such as a high use of custody), whilst the opposite is the case in other countries, for example in the United Kingdom, which has low educational achievement levels and uses exclusion from school and has a high use of custody. Germany, for example, uses "social training" courses which involve regular meetings with social workers and intensive weekend arrangements with sporting activities and challenges to engage and provide activities for young people to foster the development of social skills and appropriate behaviour. 41. Schools often exclude young people who are already socially excluded by family background factors, economically or by discrimination due to ethnicity or faith. In many countries, the highest rates of exclusion from schools are often in minority ethnic or faith groups, and this requires special attention. 42. The most basic of educational attainments, literacy and numeracy skills, need to be addressed in schools as part of prevention strategies to identify and help low achievers in all schools and also in community-based and custodial programmes for offenders. However important this is, though, the rapporteur stresses that policies should not just target young people and their families. They also need to address school ethos and staff attitudes to young people who are disaffected and offending, as well as young people who are at risk of low attainment and disengagement. The reluctance of schools to put in place support programmes for such young people is a key area to be addressed by training and guidance to schools. 43. In the rapporteur's view, it is not possible for one single agency to identify and deal with young people's problems which lead to social exclusion through disengagement with education, training and youth offending. One major obstacle in developing successful policies across agencies to co-ordinate and plan to increase social inclusion across Europe has often been in engaging mainstream schools in preventive approaches addressing such risk factors and in aiding social reintegration for those young people who have difficulties at school and/or are offending. 4. Models of intervention: the theory 44. "Welfare" models, "justice" models, and "restorative justice and mediation" models are the main ways of responding to these types of problems. These almost always overlap, to some extent, with different elements emphasised in different countries. 45. Welfare models of intervention consist of assessment and intervention strategies deriving to a large extent from psychological, ecological and systems-based approaches of understanding and treating educationally disaffected young people and offending by young people. Such models focus on deficits in families in raising their children and socialising them, leading to intervention strategies which look at treatment both within and outside of the family. 46. The welfare-based approach promotes methods and interventions outside the judicial system, for example by diverting young people from formal systems, as used extensively in the Scandinavian countries, often accompanied by family support services. These countries also make extensive use of psychological and psychiatric interventions, based on family-focused interventions and supervision in the community and residential treatments. Such approaches work well for the great majority of socially excluded young people; however, for a small minority recruited into race hate and terrorist groups, additional methods also need to include more targeted programmes, as well as police work, in conjunction with other agencies. 47. Justice models, in contrast to welfare approaches, state that young people should be subject to formal judicial (usually court) processes, where their rights before the law can be maintained. This approach assumes that punishment is the primary rationale for the youth justice system, with sentences set out as part of a "tariff" of increasing severity and punishment-based sentences, dependent on the seriousness of the offence and the perpetrator's offending history. Such countries make high use of custody and punishment- based approaches and little use of conditional orders (as used in Belgium) and diversion. However, in very rare circumstances, there is the need to pick up on the risk factors for very serious offending and the need for residential, social work, and psychological/psychiatric treatment, sometimes for long periods into adulthood. 48. Restorative justice and mediation approaches have been put forward in recent years as ways to move beyond the binary divide of welfare and justice-based approaches. These approaches concentrate on the idea of repairing the harm done, allowing the victim to receive an apology and/or reparation. They encourage and require the offender to feel some shame and sorrow for what they have done and to learn to appreciate the effects of their behaviour and attitudes on others. They have been successfully used for all types of disputes, for example conflicts between different ethnic and religious groups, and specifically in the Northern Ireland Belfast Agreement to end such violence. They have also been used most extensively in the Scandinavian countries, worked in with their welfare-based models. 49. This model has struggled rather more to make headway in punitive-based countries, partly because the adversarial approach militates against offenders admitting to what they have done and the effects of it, as this could negatively affect the outcome for them in such a system. 50. These approaches have also been used in education settings to deal with conflict, crime and bullying which affects educational disengagement and attainment. Whilst this method may be valuable in the great majority of situations, the risk for the victims, as well as the need for protection, have to be properly taken into account, for example in cases of severe bullying. 51. Whilst restorative justice and mediation can be very effective when perpetrators are genuinely willing to take part, there can be concerns that some young people can purport to be "buying into" the process but in reality are not. Victims may fear further intimidation. This is true also for hate crimes and community conflict. 5. Policy responses: the practice 52. The following is an analysis of current measures and existing policies and practices to deal with juvenile delinquency. 5.1. Age of criminal responsibility 53. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) encourages a minimum age to be set for criminal responsibility, "below which children shall be presumed not to have the capacity to infringe the penal law". The age of criminal responsibility correlates to a high degree with welfare or retributive regimes. In Scandinavian countries, it is 15 years, with very restricted use of penalties, especially custody, for older adolescents. This age varies greatly across Europe: Scotland 8; Northern Ireland, England and Wales 10; France 13; Spain, Italy and Germany 14; and Luxembourg and Belgium 18. In addition, Article 37 (b) of the United Nations Convention states that: "States Parties shall ensure that: No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time." This emphasises, as do many other of its articles, how children and young people should be dealt with by socially inclusive, rehabilitative methods rather that punitive ones where at all possible. The Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out other states' duties in relation to encouraging children's participation in decision making, providing access to legal representation for children and protecting children from capital or degrading punishment. 54. The rapporteur firmly believes that the age of criminal responsibility is a key area for reform as recently noted also by the Commissioner for Human Rights: "Time has come to move away from fixing an arbitrary age for criminal responsibility. Governments should now look for a holistic solution to juvenile offending." 55. In 2003, the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) stated that there should be separate systems of justice for under-18-year-olds. All provisions – residential, psychiatric, prison-based and community-based – should therefore be separate for under-18-year-olds. 5.2. Custody and community treatment 56. Many young people sent to custody have a history of a range of disadvantages: poverty; family conflict and abuse; being looked after by local authorities; drug and alcohol misuse; mental disorder and distress; ill-health; emotional, physical and sexual abuse; self harm and suicide attempts; homelessness; isolation; educational, skills, training and unemployment disadvantage – all areas associated also with education disengagement and poor attainment. All these areas have to be examined at an early stage for families and young people in order to combat social exclusion and reduce criminality amongst young people. 57. The rapporteur believes that custody and punitive-based measures as found in a number of European countries can only very rarely, if ever, achieve this. With few commendable exceptions, such as the Kent institute which the rapporteur visited in June 2009, prison-based custody almost always excludes young people from education and job prospects. In their peer groups, it leads to expectations (labelling) by peers, professionals and families on them to be criminal and antisocial, leading to further social exclusion from positive peer groups and family support. As stated in the United Nations guidelines for the prevention of juvenile delinquency "labelling a young person as 'deviant', 'delinquent' or 'pre-delinquent' often contributes to the development of a consistent pattern of undesirable behaviour". 58. Young people in custody need special measures to deal with their vulnerability, including issues of abuse, race hate and bullying. These factors contribute to murders and suicides of young people and exacerbate drug and mental health problems. 59. The rapporteur is of the opinion that prison-based institutions have failed to deal with educational disadvantage and social inclusion, as smaller custodial residential institutions based upon welfare and treatment models, like those that exist in Scandinavian countries, can do. 60. The extensive and serious criticisms of the welfare of young people in prison show that such custody can be argued to be contrary to young people's human rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides that no one shall be subject to inhuman or degrading treatment. The bullying, intimidation and high number of incidents of self-harm and suicide can also be argued to contravene several articles of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child, including: Article 3, "it shall be the duty of governments to consider the best interests of a child"; Article 19, "the right of children to protection from all forms of violence, abuse and neglect"; and Article 24, which provides for the highest attainable standards of health for children and young people, which also includes mental health and emotional health. 61. For these reasons, the rapporteur argues that custody should not be the chosen policy for young offenders. It should be used only where the crime is extremely serious and the young person represents a danger to others. There should be guidance on when, and at what severity of offending, it is acceptable for young people to be contained for the safety of others, as is the case in Norway, Denmark and Finland. Where custody is required, this should be in small units, with psychiatric, psychological and social work input, and near to the young person's family and community. A particular feature of these services should be mental health services in secure units, due to the high levels of abuse and suicide. 62. These are also important factors in resettling young people in their families and communities in post-release and aftercare work. In many countries, the cut off is a sharp one and the model of flexible jurisdictions developed in Germany has a good deal to commend it. However, there can be a marked reluctance on the part of social agencies (whether schools, colleges, clinics or residential facilities) to take on people who have been in prison and this requires attention from local multi-agency groups. 5.3. Targeted programmes 63. Early intervention programmes can be effective in reducing the risk of youth offending if targeted at high-risk children and young people in recognised geographical areas of poverty and disadvantage, at the appropriate stage, and if they take into account the specific needs of different economic, ethnic, faith and cultural groups. Whilst being integrated into a comprehensive prevention package, these programmes should include issues of family, community and personal and individual factors. They should be support- based and not label families as criminogenic. 64. Effective multi-agency groupings and policies at national and local levels are key to dealing with these multi-factorial issues. Welfare and education services need to be co-ordinated, at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, to prevent initial or further exclusion within schools. They include enhanced schooling, with an emphasis on education and training in custody and post-release programmes. 65. Low attainment of young people is partly due to family factors. Strategies to involve and engage parents in the aims of the school and in encouraging and supporting their children in their education remain critical. Poor engagement with schools by young people is correlated with weak parental supervision and poor attachment to parents and siblings. These areas are to be considered for parenting programmes in groups or by individual professionals and mentors to support parents. 5.4. Ethnicity/faith-based and hate crime 66. The effects of systematic disadvantage based on ethnic or faith-based groups are frequently present in and beyond education and employment and into the criminal justice system. Structural inequalities in relation to "race" have contributed to the tendency for certain ethnic minority groups, particularly their male members, to be under-represented in training schemes and higher education and over-represented at all stages of the criminal justice system, and especially in prisons. 67. According to the 2008 British Crime Survey, the profile of hate crime has an intra-neighbourhood element in that most hate perpetrators and victims live in the same neighbourhood. These factors point to the need for better training for all professionals and monitoring of these effects, as well as institutional and geographically based community responses. 5.5. Diversion 68. Diversion can be a very effective way of dealing with minor offending and, in appropriate circumstances, more serious offending. Measures can include enhanced support for education and training, counselling on job and career opportunities and the need to have attitudes which will keep them in employment, including mentoring on attitudes and personal approaches to others. Diversion is a key feature of the Scandinavian countries' responses, at prosecutor and court levels. In Belgium, there is also pre-trial probation, that is to say another form of diversion. In retributive and justice-based systems such as the United Kingdom, the use of diversion pre-court and in court sentences has, through policy and legal changes, diminished in the last twenty years. 69. In the United Kingdom, an example of a different type of diversion is the so-called "referral order", which is made for nearly all young people at their first appearance in the Youth Court. Panels consisting of community members and a professional from the local multi-agency "Youth Offending Team" meet with the young person, their parents and others (for example victims) to discuss the situation which led up to the offence and the factors which may have impacted on the young person's delinquent behaviour. 70. These include issues of family conflict, conflict with others, issues in education or work/training, accommodation, drug use and mental health problems. They then set work to be undertaken, which includes reparation, apology and treatment on the risk areas identified in the order, with further meetings to review the young person's progress. If the young person completes the order successfully, he or she has no offence recorded against them. Italy also has a system where many young people have pre-trial programmes, where they will not have a criminal offence recorded against them if they successfully complete the programme. 5.6. Participation 71. Young people engaged in criminal activity are "experts by experience" and research illuminating their first-hand experience is fruitful in gaining knowledge to tackle the antecedents of crime and formulating more meaningful and effective policy responses. Research should raise awareness of what impacts on young people's lives in disadvantaged, high-risk communities and young people from ethnic minority groups and disaffected groups, to feed into knowledge about the problems and solutions in local areas. 72. Another key area of participation can also be by way of young people's involvement in young people's panels in local areas, to gain their views on their situation and possible solutions to their perceived problems. At a more general level, in some countries there are "school councils" that foster young people's involvement and contribute to their integration while instilling in them a sense of responsibility. However, there does not seem to be any particular effort to involve disaffected young people. 5.7. Ethnically sensitive work with socially excluded young people/offenders 73. Children and young people from certain ethnic minority and faith communities continue in many countries to be disproportionately overrepresented throughout the youth justice system. In the police and prison systems in the United Kingdom, official reports have determined that there are forms of discrimination which act against the rights and interests of young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups. This can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people. 74. The rapporteur believes that this will almost certainly be the case in many other European countries to some extent or another. Training and monitoring of agency and staff approaches in the relevant agencies – police, judiciary, custody staff, school staff, social work staff – is important to ensure greater compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Council of Europe requirements. 5.8. Geographical and demographic issues 75. Evidence is increasingly showing high concentrations of young and adult offenders in localised geographical areas who are known to the criminal justice system and who are disaffected from education, training and work. This suggests the need for detailed mapping work on demographics, educational attainment and crime rates and then the exploration of alternative ways of deploying resources and offering family and youth support services and activities in those areas. 76. Enhanced schooling related sometimes to ethnic/faith groups and sometimes to help to overcome family antagonism or disinterest in education and aggressive/criminal behaviour, can be valuable. It is therefore important to examine the overlaps and commonalities between social groupings within geographical areas that are socially excluded in order to facilitate effective multi-agency intervention across a range of policy areas. At the same time, as mentioned above, it is important to help young people emancipate themselves from traditional role models and expectations (in particular those linked to gender) which can be imposed by families, clans and ethnic/faith groups. Educational activities outside school, which are diverse and open to all, can be personality enhancing and contribute to the development of positive group dynamics. 77. According to the rapporteur, providing high quality youth services (clubs, activities, enhanced schooling, restorative justice/mediation services, training and work opportunities) is a fundamental requirement for addressing social cohesion. Alongside this primary-based approach, services at the secondary level can be targeted at those children and their families who come to the attention of the authorities – potentially for all families in identified areas – where there are high indices of disadvantage, such as poor housing, low incomes, poor job opportunities, interpersonal and inter-ethnic conflict, and high crime rates. 78. Local multi-agency groups can identify such areas and groups of young people for interventions and formulate and review action plans for community and restorative programmes and also formulate action plans for young people who are clearly exhibiting offending and disaffected behaviours. For example, one programme in England has used a system to provide professional and mentoring services, by inviting families and young people to partake in a support programme if they became known to the triumvirate of social services, school, and police agencies. Wider use of functional family support programmes is also found in Sweden and in anti-bullying programmes in Norway. 79. Ideally, these programmes should be presented positively, as fostering safe and healthy communities by strengthening protective factors, rather than as a negatively framed labelling process. This is in accordance with the United Nations guidelines for the prevention of juvenile delinquency, which say that "formal agencies of social control should only be utilised as a means of last resort". Consequently, approaches to prevent criminality, particularly in young people, necessitate a broader approach focusing on prime influences – family, school and community, linking social and economic opportunities and ensuring the empowerment and renewed social capital of young people themselves. 5.9. Restorative justice and mediation 80. A key feature of social exclusion is not just economic and educational/training and job opportunities and difficulties, but also relationships. Restorative justice and mediation are increasingly being examined by different nations in order to develop new ways of making links between the welfare approaches which focus on the needs, development and well-being of the young offender/disaffected young person, as well as their commitment to understanding their responsibilities for their behaviour, both criminal and antisocial, on others. Such approaches include restorative justice and mediation at all levels from young people in schools through to communities where there are tensions between groups (ethnic/religious or otherwise). 81. The Committee of Ministers adopted recommendations for the development of mediation in penal matters in 1999. Finland and other Scandinavian countries use these methods extensively at all stages of the process. 82. Making reparation to the victim directly or indirectly by work on community projects is an important part of restorative justice, as is making a genuine apology to the victim, preferably face-to face. The benefits of restorative justice have been shown to be improved sense of responsibility and guilt, a feeling that the young people and the victims were part of the process, an understanding that actions have consequences, improved skills for managing conflict; greater empathy towards others, increased mutual respect, and an improved feeling of community. Another form of restorative justice/mediation, the so-called "family group conferencing", has also been shown to be able to reduce rates of reoffending. 83. One of the criticisms of restorative justice/mediation relates to the fact that legal representation is not present. A counter argument to this concerns the fact that if solicitors/advocates take part in these processes, the young person can have the solicitor/advocate argue their case for them and the young person does not have to engage personally with his or her responsibilities for any offences or harm caused. Any system of welfare-based or restorative approaches must take into account the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular in terms of proportionality and avoidance of degrading treatment. 6. Conclusions 84. The rapporteur took note of the many good examples of initiatives around Europe. Evidence strongly suggests that welfare-based responses lead to greater social inclusion, greater participation and achieving greater commitment to education and socially acceptable behaviour. They should tackle different levels of social exclusion, offending and disaffection and incorporate mechanisms to ensure children's best interests and to protect their rights. 85. Economic recovery and greater social justice are essential to prevent delinquency, but must not be regarded as the answer to all the problems, since it is also necessary to establish a family policy, a social policy, an integration policy and a citizenship policy in tune with the lives and the needs of today's young people. 86. National legal and policy provisions should see socially excluded young people and young offenders as children first, offenders and/or antisocial individuals second. Retribution and punishment, viewing young people as being responsible for their actions, to be controlled and punished for transgressions which are criminal, is, in my opinion, not only secondary, but the wrong approach. It is important to find the right balance between protecting the community – and other young people – from crime, while making the best possible use of the fact that a child/young person is a developing, learning human being and is still open to positive socialising influences. Welfare services and juvenile justice systems can and must work together, hand-in-hand, in order to educate children and young people with a view to them growing up to become independent personalities who are nevertheless integrated into society, and thus accept society's norms (which includes avoiding criminal and anti-social behaviour). 87. Inter-agency and multi-professional working is a key prerequisite to the prevention and rehabilitation of educationally disaffected young people and young offenders. Locally organised, multi-professional, multi-agency teams should include senior management representatives from schools, children's social care services, police, probation, health, mental health agencies, drug and alcohol agencies and youth work agencies. They would also benefit from career-focused agencies, which provide education, training, careers and work advice and support, to identify risks and action plans for excluded groups, communities and individual young people. 88. In the last two decades, different states within Europe, like the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, have developed policies and plans based less on prevention of youth offending and addressing the welfare needs of young offenders, and more on retribution and behaviour-focused programmes. The rapporteur believes that this is in contrast to the evidence of cost-effective welfare and community-based measures. 89. The Parliamentary Assembly should thus recommend that member states develop further their child and youth welfare services to prevent offending (and reoffending) in the first place, concentrating on social measures, education and rehabilitation of young offenders. Member states should also be encouraged to fully implement the European Rules for juvenile offenders subject to sanctions or measures (Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)11), which puts the emphasis on community sanctions and measures while safeguarding children and young people's rights in all settings (from court proceedings to the deprivation of liberty).	eng	d80170e6-5698-482d-8f58-3637814278d5	http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/XRef/X2H-DW-XSL.asp?fileid=12644&lang=EN
BaseballEvolving from older bat-and-ball games, an early form of baseball was being played in England by the mid-eighteenth century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed History of baseball in the United States The history of baseball in the United States can be traced to the 18th century, when amateurs played a baseball-like game by their own informal rules using improvised equipment... . By the late nineteenth century, baseball was widely recognized as theof the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America, parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and parts of East Asia), each with three divisions: East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs Four teams make the playoffs from each league: the three regular season division winners, plus one wild card Wild card (sports) The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.-International sports:... team. Baseball is the leading team sport in both Japan and Cuba, and the top level of play is similarly split between two leagues: Japan'sThe Cuban National Series is the primary domestic amateur baseball competition in Cuba. Formed after the dissolution of the Cuban League in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, the Series is a part of the Cuban national baseball system.-League structure:... . In the National and Central leagues, the pitcher is required to bat, per the traditional rules. In the American, Pacific, and both Cuban leagues, there is a tenth player,, who bats for the pitcher. Each top-level team has a farm system of one or more minor league teams Minor league baseball Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses... . Origins of baseball The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision. A French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule La Soule La soule, also known as choule, is a traditional team sport that originated in Normandy and Picardy.The ball, called a soule, could be solid or hollow and made of either wood or leather. Leather balls would be filled with hay, bran, horse hair or moss... , with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as théque, la balle au bâton, and la balle empoisonée also appear to be related. Consensus once held that today's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders RoundersBaseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game is a 2005 book by David Block about the history of baseball. Block looks into the early history of baseball, the debates about baseballs beginnings, and presents new evidence... (2005), by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other, and that the game's most direct antecedents are the English games of stoolball Stoolball Stoolball is a sport that dates back to at least the 15th century, originating in Sussex, southern England. It may be an ancestor of cricket , baseball, and roundersalso descended from such games, though evidence uncovered in early 2009 suggests that the sport may have been imported to England from Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly with Two Letters from Jack the Giant Killer is the title of a 1744 children's book by British publisher John Newbery. It is generally considered the first children's book, and consists of simple... John Newbery was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He also supported and published the works of Christopher Smart, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnsonthat shows a field set-up somewhat similar to the modern game—though in a triangular rather than diamond configuration, and with posts instead of ground-level bases. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford Guildford Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by English immigrants. Rounders was also brought to the continent by both British and Irish immigrants. The first known American reference to baseball appears in a 1791 Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield, Massachusetts town bylaw prohibiting the playing of the game near the town's new meeting house. By 1796, a version of the game was well-known enough to earn a mention in a German scholar's book on popular pastimes. As described by Johann Gutsmuths, "englische Base-ball" involved a contest between two teams, in which "the batter has three attempts to hit the ball while at the home plate". Only one out was required to retire a side. By the early 1830s, there were reports of a variety of uncodified bat-and-ball games recognizable as early forms of baseball being played around North America. These games were often referred to locally as "town ball Town ball The term town ball, or townball, describes the bat-and-ball, safe haven games played in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, which were similar to rounders and were precursors to modern baseball. In some areas - such as Philadelphia and along the Ohio River and Mississippi River - the... ", though other names such as "round-ball" and "base-ball" were also used. Among the earliest examples to receive a detailed description—albeit five decades after the fact, in a letter from an attendee to Sporting Life magazine—took place in Beachville in 1838. There were many similarities to modern baseball, and some crucial differences: five bases (or byes); first bye just 18 feet (5.5 m) from the home bye; batter out if a hit ball was caught after the first bounce. The once widely accepted story that Abner Doubleday Abner Doubleday Abner Doubleday, a member of New York City's Knickerbockers club, led the codification of the so-called Knickerbocker Rules Knickerbocker Rules The Knickerbocker Rules are a set of baseball rules formalized by Alexander Cartwright in 1845. They are considered to be the basis for the rules of the modern game.-The rules:... . The practice, common to bat-and-ball games of the day, of "soaking" or "plugging"—effecting aby hitting a runner with a thrown ball—was barred. The rules thus facilitated the use of a smaller, harder ball than had been common. Several other rules also brought the Knickerbockers' game close to the modern one, though a ball caught on the first bounce was, again, an out and only underhand pitching was allowed. While there are reports that the New York Knickerbockers New York Knickerbockersplayed games in 1845, the contest now recognized as the first officially recorded baseball game in U.S. history took place on June 19, 1846,: the "New York Nine" defeated the Knickerbockers, 23–1, in four innings. With the Knickerbocker code as the basis, the rules of modern baseball continued to evolve over the next half-century. The game turns professional In the mid-1850s, a baseball craze hit the New York metropolitan area. By 1856, local journals were referring to baseball as the "national pastime" or "national game". A year later, sixteen area clubs formed the sport's first governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players National Association of Base Ball Players The National Association of Base Ball Players was the first organization governing American baseball. The first, 1857 convention of sixteen New York City clubs... . In 1863, the organization disallowed putouts made by catching a fair ball Fair ball In baseball, a fair ball is a batted ball that entitles the batter to attempt to reach first base. In order for a batted ball to be fair, it must be hit in such a way that it:... on the first bounce. Four years later, it barred participation by African Americans. The game's commercial potential was developing: in 1869 the first fully professional baseball clubWhether to cover the National Association as a major league is a recurring and crucial matter of difference in historical work on American baseball—that is, among historians, encyclopedists, database builders, and others who work on the facts of baseball history on the playing field.- Firstwas founded in 1876. As the oldest surviving major league, the National League is sometimes referred to as the "senior circuit". Several other major leagues formed and failed. In 1884, African American Moses Walker Moses Fleetwood Walker Moses Fleetwood Walker [″Fleet″] was an American Major League Baseball player and author who is credited with being the first African American to play professional baseball.-Baseball career:... A gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two or more parties. It may be written, oral, or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or through mutually beneficial etiquette. The essence of a gentlemen's agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties... The color line in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Organized Baseball, or the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues, until Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the 1946 season... effectively barred black players from the white-owned professional leagues, major and minor. Professional Negro leagues Negro league baseballformed, but quickly folded. Several independent African American teams succeeded as barnstormers Barnstorm (sports) Barnstorming in athletics refers to sports teams or individuals that travel to various locations, usually small towns, to stage exhibition matches.... under the name of indoor baseball or indoor-outdoor, was invented as a winter version of the parent game. Virtually all of the modern baseball rules were in place by 1893; the last major change—countingIn baseball, the strike zone is a conceptual right pentagonal prism over home plate which defines the boundaries through which a pitch must pass in order to count as a strike when the batter does not swing.-Definition:... —was instituted in 1901. The National League's first successful counterpart, evolved from the minor Western League, was established that year. The two leagues, each with eight teams, were rivals that fought for the best players, often disregarding each other's contracts and engaging in bitter legal disputes. A modicum of peace was eventually established, leading to the National Agreement of 1903. The pact formalized relations both between the two major leagues and between them and the National Association of Professional Base Ball Leagues, representing most of the country's minor professional leagues Minor league baseball Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses pitting the two major league champions against each other, was inaugurated that fall, albeit without express major league sanction: The Boston Americans of the American League defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions... of the National League. The next year, the series was not held, as the National League champion New York Giants San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division.... In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized... John McGraw, refused to recognize the major league status of the American League and its champion. In 1905, the Giants were National League champions again and team management relented, leading to the establishment of the World Series as the major leagues' annual championship event. As professional baseball became increasingly profitable, players frequently raised grievances against owners over issues of control and equitable income distribution. During the major leagues' early decades, players on various teams occasionally attempted strikes, which routinely failed when their jobs were sufficiently threatened. In general, the strict rules of baseball contracts and which bound players to their teams even when their contracts had ended, tended to keep the players in check. Motivated by dislike for particularly stingy owner Charles Comiskey Charles Comiskey Charles Albert "The Old Roman" Comiskey was a Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key person in the formation of the American League and later owned was elected in 1920. That year also saw the founding of the Negro National League; the first significant Negro league, it would operate until 1931. For part of the 1920s, it was joined by the Eastern Colored League Eastern Colored League The Mutual Association of Eastern Colored Clubs, more commonly known as the Eastern Colored League , was one of the several Negro leagues, which operated during the time organized baseball was segregated.- History :... . Rise of Ruth and racial integration Compared with the present, professional baseball in the early twentieth century was lower scoring and pitchers, the likes of Walter Johnson Walter Johnson Walter Perry Johnson , nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Washington Senators, were more dominant. The "inside game", which demanded that players "scratch for runs", was played much more aggressively than it is today: the brilliant and often violent Ty Cobb Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb , nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia...ended in the early 1920s with several changes in rule and circumstance that were advantageous to hitters. Strict new regulations governing the ball's size, shape and composition, coupled with superior materials available after World War I, resulted in a ball that traveled farther when hit. The construction of additional seating to accommodate the rising popularity of the game often had the effect of bringing the outfield fences closer in, making the first great power hitter of the new era, helped permanently alter the nature of the game. The club with which Ruth set most of his slugging records, the New York Yankees New York Yankees The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division... , built a reputation as the majors' premier team. In the late 1920s and early 1930s general manager of a team typically controls player transactions and bears the primary responsibility on behalf of the ballclub during contract discussions with players.... Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses... and developed the first modern "farm system". A new Negro National League was organized in 1933; four years later, it was joined by the Negro American League Negro American League The Negro American League was one of the several Negro leagues which were created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The league was established in 1937, and continued to exist until 1960... The first elections to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame were held in 1936. Members of the Baseball Writers Association of America were given authority to select individuals from the 20th century; while a special Veterans Committee, made up of individuals with greater familiarity with... The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museumtook place in 1936. In 1939 Little League Baseball was founded in Pennsylvania. By the late 1940s, it was the organizing body for children's baseball leagues Amateur baseball in the United States Amateur baseball is a form of baseball in which the players either are not paid for playing, or receive only a modest stipend or employment arranged by the team's boosters... across the United States. With America's entry into World War II, many professional players had left to serve in the armed forces. A large number of minor league teams disbanded as a result and the major league game seemed under threat as well.Philip Knight Wrigley , sometimes also called P.K. or Phil. Born in Chicago, he was an American chewing gum manufacturer and executive in Major League Baseball, inheriting both those roles as the quiet son of his much more flamboyant father, William Wrigley Jr. After his father died in 1932, Philip... The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was a women's professional baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley which existed from 1943 to 1954. During the league's history, over 600 women played ball.-History:was held in 1947, and the Babe Ruth League youth program was founded. This program soon became another important organizing body for children's baseball. The first crack in the unwritten agreement barring blacks from white-controlled professional ball occurred the previous year: Jackie Robinson Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947... was signed by the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers—where Branch Rickey had become general manager—and began playing for their minor league team in Montreal. In 1947, Robinson broke the major leagues' color barrier when he debuted with the Dodgers. Larry Doby Larry Doby Lawrence Eugene "Larry" Doby was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseballthe same year. Latin American players, largely overlooked before, also started entering the majors in greater numbers. In 1951, two Chicago White Sox, Venezuelan-born Chico Carrasquel Chico Carrasquel Alfonso Carrasquel Colón, better known as Chico Carrasquel was a Venezuelan professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop for the Chicago White Sox , Cleveland Indians , Kansas City Athletics and the Baltimore Orioles baseball attendance at all levels declined. While the majors rebounded by the mid-1950s, the minor leagues were gutted and hundreds of semipro and amateur teams dissolved. Integration Major League Baseball Players Association is the union of professional major-league baseball players.-History of MLBPA:The MLBPA was not the first attempt to unionize baseball players... was founded. It was the first professional baseball union to survive more than briefly, but it remained largely ineffective for years. No major league team had been located westuntil 1958, when the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants relocated to Los Angeles added a black player in 1959. With the integration of the majors drying up the available pool of players, the last Negro league folded the following year. In 1961, the American League reached the West Coast with the Los Angeles and the major league season was extended from 154 games to 162. This coincidentally helpedbreak Babe Ruth's long-standing single-season home run record, one of the most celebrated marks in baseball. Along with the Angels, three other new franchises were launched during 1961–62. With this, the first major league expansion in sixty years, each league now had ten teams. Attendance records and the age of steroidsMarvin Julian Miller is a former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association , from 1966 to 1982. Under Miller's direction, the players' union was transformed into one of the strongest unions in the United States... , who was elected executive director in 1966. On the playing field, major league pitchers were becoming increasingly dominant again. After the 1968 season, in an effort to restore balance,was reduced and the height of the pitcher's mound was lowered. The following year, both the National and American leagues added two more expansion teams, the leagues were reorganized into two divisions each, and a post-season playoff system leading to the World Series was instituted. Also in 1969,of the St. Louis Cardinals made the first serious legal challenge to the reserve clause. The major leagues' first general players' strike took place in 1972. In another effort to add more offense to the game, the American League adoptedrule the following year. In 1975, the union's power—and players' salaries—began to increase greatly when the reserve clause was effectively struck downIn professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise.... . In 1977, two more expansion teams joined the American League. Significant work stoppages occurred again in 1981 and 1994, the latter forcing the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in ninety years. Attendance had been growing steadily since the mid-1970s and in 1994, before the stoppage, the majors were setting their all-time record for per-game attendance. The addition of two more expansion teams after the 1993 season had facilitated another restructuring of the major leagues, this time into three divisions each. Offensive production—the number of home runs in particular—had surged that year, and again in the abbreviated 1994 season. After play resumed in 1995, this trend continued and non-division-winning wild card Wild card (sports) The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.-International sports:... teams became a permanent fixture of the post-season. Regular-seasonwas introduced in 1997 and the second-highest attendance mark for a full season was set. The next year,Samuel Peralta "Sammy" Sosa is a Dominican former professional baseball right fielder. Sosa played with four Major League Baseball teams over his career which spanned from 1989-2007.... both surpassed Maris's decades-old single season home run record and two more expansion franchises were added. In 2000, the National and American leagues were dissolved as legal entities. While their identities were maintained for scheduling purposes (and the designated hitter distinction), the regulations and other functions—such as player discipline and umpire supervision—they had administered separately were consolidated under the rubric of Major League Baseball Major League Baseball Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League... Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds... established the current record of 73 home runs in a single season. There had long been suspicions that the dramatic increase in power hitting was fueled in large part by the abuse of illegal steroids (as well as by the dilution of pitching talent due to expansion), but the issue only began attracting significant media attention in 2002 and there was no penalty for the use of performance-enhancing drugs before 2004. In 2007, Bonds became MLB's all-time home run leader, surpassing Hank Aaron, as total major league and minor league attendance both reached all-time highs. Even though McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds—as well as many other players, including storied—have been implicated in the steroid abuse scandal, their feats and those of other sluggers had become the major leagues' defining attraction. In contrast to the professional game's resurgence in popularity after the 1994 interruption, Little League enrollment was in decline: after peaking in 1996, it dropped 1 percent a year over the following decade. With more rigorous testing and penalties for performance-enhancing drug use a possible factor, the balance between bat and ball swung markedly in 2010, which became known as the "Year of the Pitcher". Runs per game fell to their lowest level in 18 years, and the strikeout rate was higher than it had been in half a century. Baseball around the world Baseball, widely known as America's pastime, is well-established in several other countries as well. The history of baseball in Canada has remained closely linked with that of the sport in the United States. As early as 1877, a professional league, the International Association, featured teams from both countries. While baseball is widely played in Canada and many minor league teams have been based in the country, the American major leagues did not include a Canadian club until 1969, whenjoined the National League as an expansion team. In 1977, the expansion Toronto Blue Jays Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League .... joined the American League. The Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993, the first and still the only club from outside the United States to do so. After the 2004 season, Major League Baseball relocated the Expos to Washington, D.C., where the team is now known as the Nationals Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of the National League of Major League Baseball . The team moved into the newly built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium... . In 1847, American soldiers played what may have been the first baseball game in Mexico at Parque Los Berros Parque Los Berros Parque Los Berros, in Xalapa, Veracruz, is located a short distance to the southeast of the center of town, in the neighbourhood of the Stadium.Its name was derived from an edible herb called "berros" that used to grow in the area.... , they used the "wooden leg captured (by the Fourth Illinois regiment) from General Santa Anna Antonio López de Santa Anna". The first formal baseball league outside of the United States and Canada was founded in 1878 in Cuba, which maintains a rich baseball tradition and whose national team has been one of the world's strongest since international play began in the late 1930s (all organized baseball in the country has officially been amateur since). The Dominican Republic held its first islandwide championship tournament in 1912. Professional baseball tournaments and leagues began to form in other countries between the world wars, including the Netherlands (formed in 1922), Australia (1934), Japan (1936), Mexico (1937), and Puerto Rico (1938). The Japanese major leagues—the—have long been considered the highest quality professional circuits outside of the United States. Japan has a professional minor league system as well, though it is much smaller than the American version—each team has only one farm club in contrast to MLB teams' four or five. After World War II, professional leagues were founded in many Latin American nations, most prominently1946) and the Dominican Republic (1955). Since the early 1970s, the annual Caribbean Series has matched the championship clubs from the four leading Latin American winter leagues: the Dominican Winter League, Mexican Pacific League Liga Mexicana del Pacífico The Mexican Pacific League is a winter minor baseball league in Mexico. The eight-team league's regular season runs from October to December and is followed by a playoff series in January to determine the league champion... The Puerto Rico Baseball League formerly known as Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico or LBPPR, is the main professional baseball league in Puerto Rico. In 2007, the LBPPR recessed for the first time since its creation... The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League or Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional is the highest level baseball league in Venezuela.-Brief history:Baseball exploded in Venezuela in 1941, following the world championship in Havana(1990), and China (2003) all have professional leagues. Many European countries have professional leagues as well, the most successful, other than the Dutch league Honkbal Hoofdklasse The Honkbal Hoofdklasse is the highest level of professional baseball in the Netherlands. It is an eight-team league that plays a 42-game schedule and is overseen by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation . Games are played principally on weekends... The Italian Baseball League is a professional baseball league that is governed by FIBS , which has its headquarters in Rome... founded in 1948. Compared to those in Asia and Latin America, the various European leagues and the one in Australia historically have had no more than niche appeal. In 2004, Australia won a surprise silver medal at the Olympic Games. The Israel Baseball League Israel baseball league The Israel Baseball League was a six-team professional baseball league in Israel. The first game was played on June 24, 2007... , launched in 2007, folded after one season. The Confédération Européene de Baseball (European Baseball Confederation), founded in 1953, organizes a number of competitions between clubs from different countries, as well as national squads. Other competitions between national teams, such as the Baseball World Cup and the Olympic baseball tournamentThe International Baseball Federation is the worldwide governing body recognized by the International Olympic Committee as overseeing, deciding and executing the policy of the bat-and-ball sport of baseball at the international level... (IBAF) since its formation in 1938. , the IBAF has 117 member countries. Women's baseball Women's baseball Women's baseball is currently played in several countries. The strongest and most organized women's baseball leagues are in the United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Cuba, Hong Kong, and Canada. Those countries have national governing bodies that support girls' and women's baseball programs... is played on an organized amateur basis in many of the countries where it is a leading men's sport. Since 2004, the IBAF has sanctioned the Women's Baseball World Cup Women's Baseball World Cup The Women's Baseball World Cup is an international tournament in which national women's baseball teams from around the world compete. It is sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation... , featuring national teams. After being admitted to the Olympics as a medal sport beginning with the 1992 117th International Olympic Committee Session was held for the first time in Singapore from 2 July to 9 July 2005. The meeting was particularly significant as two important decisions were made through voting during the session - namely the selection of the hosting city for the 2012 Summer... . It remained part of the 2008 Games. The elimination of baseball, along with softball, from the 2012 Olympic program enabled the IOC to consider adding two different sports, but none received the votes required for inclusion. While the sport's lack of a following in much of the world was a factor, more important was Major League Baseball's reluctance to have a break during the Games to allow its players to participate, as. Such a break is more difficult for MLB to accommodate because it would force the playoffs deeper into cold weather. Seeking reinstatement, the IBAF proposed an abbreviated competition designed to facilitate the participation of top players, but the effort failed. Major League Baseball initiated the World Baseball Classic World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and created by Major League Baseball , the Major League Baseball Players Association , and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world... , scheduled to precede the major league season, partly as a replacement, high-profile international tournament. The inaugural Classic , held in March 2006, was the first tournament involving national teams to feature a significant number of MLB participants. Rules and gameplay A game is played between two teams, each composed of nine players, that take turns playing offense (battingor hitting) and defense (fielding or pitching). A pair of turns, one at bat and one in the field, by each team constitutes an inning. A game consists of nine innings. One team—customarily the visiting team—bats in the top, or first half, of every inning. The other team—customarily the home team—bats in the bottom, or second half, of every inning. The goal of the game is to score more points (runs) than the other team. The players on the team at bat attempt to score runs by circling or completing a tour of the four bases set at the corners of the square-shaped baseball diamondand must proceed counterclockwise to first base, second base, third base, and back home in order to score a run. The team in the field attempts both to prevent runs from scoring and to record outs, which remove opposing players from offensive action until their turn in their team's batting order Batting order (baseball) The batting order, or batting lineup, in baseball is the sequence in which the nine members of the offense take their turns in batting against the pitcher. The batting order is the main component of a team's offensive strategy. The batting order is set by the manager before the game begins... comes up again. When three outs are recorded, the teams switch roles for the next half-inning. If the score of the game is tied after nine innings,are played to resolve the contest. Children's games are often scheduled for fewer than nine innings. The game is played on a field whose primary boundaries, the foul lines, extend forward from home plate at 45-degree angles. The 90-degree area within the foul lines is referred to as fair territory; the 270-degree area outside them is foul territory. The part of the field enclosed by the bases and several yards beyond them is the infield Infield Infield is a widely used term in sports terminology, its meaning depends on the sport in which it is used.- In baseball :In baseball the baseball diamond plus a region beyond it , has both grass and dirt, in contrast to the more distant, usually grass-covered outfield... The outfield is a sporting term used in cricket and baseball to refer to the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield... . In the middle of the infield is a raised pitcher's mound, with a rectangular rubber plate (the rubber) at its center. The outer boundary of the outfield is typically demarcated by a raised fence, which may be of any material and height (many amateur games are played on unfenced fields). Fair territory between home plate and the outfield boundary is baseball's field of play, though significant events can take place in foul territory, as well.A baseball glove or mitt is a large leather glove that baseball players on the defending team are allowed to wear to assist them in catching and fielding balls hit by a batter, or thrown by a teammate.-History:... : The baseball is about the size of an adult's fist, around 9 inches (23 centimeters) in circumference. It has a rubber or cork center, wound in yarn and covered in white cowhide, with red stitching. The bat is a hitting tool, traditionally made of a single, solid piece of wood. Other materials are now commonly used for nonprofessional games. It is a hard round stick, about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) in diameter at the hitting end, tapering to a narrower handle and culminating in a knob. Bats used by adults are typically around 34 inches (86 centimeters) long, and not longer than 42 inches (106 centimeters). The glove or mitt is a fielding tool, made of padded leather with webbing between the fingers. As an aid in catching and holding onto the ball, it takes various shapes to meet the specific needs of different fielding positions. Protective helmets are also standard equipment for all batters. At the beginning of each half-inning, the nine players on the fielding team arrange themselves around the field. One of them,, stands on the pitcher's mound. The pitcher begins the pitching delivery with one foot on the rubber, pushing off it to gain velocity when throwing toward home plate. Another player, the, squats on the far side of home plate, facing the pitcher. The rest of the team faces home plate, typically arranged as four infielders—who set up along or within a few yards outside the imaginary lines between first, second, and third base—and three outfielders. In the standard arrangement Baseball positions There are 9 fielding positions in baseball. Each position conventionally has an associated number which is used to score putoutsto the right of third base. The basic outfield positions aresets up behind the catcher. Play starts with a batter standing at home plate, holding a bat. The batter waits for the pitcher to throw a pitch (the ball) toward home plate, and attempts to hit the ball with the bat. The catcher catches pitches that the batter does not hit—as a result of either electing not to swing or failing to connect—and returns them to the pitcher. A batter who hits the ball into the field of play must drop the bat and begin running toward first base, at which point the player is referred to as a runner (or, until the play is over, a batter-runner). A batter-runner who reaches first base without being put out Putout In baseball statistics, a putout is given to a defensive player who records an out by one of the following methods:* Tagging a runner with the ball when he is not touching a base... (see below) is said to be safe and is now on base. A batter-runner may choose to remain at first base or attempt to advance to second base or even beyond—however far the player believes can be reached safely. A player who reaches base despite proper play by the fielders has recorded. A player who reaches first base safely on a hit is credited with. If a player makes it to second base safely as a direct result of a hit, it is. If the ball is hit in the air within the foul lines over the entire outfield (and outfield fence, if there is one), it is: the batter and any runners on base may all freely circle the bases, each scoring a run. This is the most desirable result for the batter. A player who reaches base due to a fielding mistake is not credited with a hit—instead, the responsible fielder is charged with an error. Any runners already on base may attempt to advance on batted balls that land, or contact the ground, in fair territory, before or after the ball lands. A runner on first base must attempt to advance if a ball lands in play. If a ball hit into play rolls foul before passing through the infield, it becomes dead and any runners must return to the base they were at when the play began. If the ball is hit in the air and caught before it lands, the batter has flied out and any runners on base may attempt to advance only if they tag up Tag up In baseball, to tag up is to retouch or remain on the runner's time-of-pitch base until the ball either lands in fair territory or is first touched by a fielder. A runner must, by rule, tag up only when a batted ball is caught by a fielder . After a legal tag up, even if the ball was caught in... or touch the base they were at when the play began, as or after the ball is caught. Runners may also attempt to advance to the next base while the pitcher is in the process of delivering the ball to home plate—a successful effort is a stolen base Stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate... . A pitch that is not hit into the field of play is called either a strike or a ball. A batter against whom three strikes are recorded strikes out Strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout or strike-out occurs when a batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters.... . A batter against whom four balls are recorded is awarded a base on ballsor walk, a free advance to first base. (A batter may also freely advance to first base if any part of the batter's body or uniform is struck by a pitch before the batter either swings at it or it contacts the ground.) Crucial to determining balls and strikes is the umpire's judgment as to whether a pitch has passed through, a conceptual area above home plate extending from the midpoint between the batter's shoulders and belt down to the hollow of the knee. A strike is called when one of the following happens: The batter lets a well-pitched ball (one within the strike zone) go through to the catcher. The batter swings at any ball (even one outside the strike zone) and misses, or foul tip Foul tip In baseball, a foul tip is defined as "a batted ball that goes sharp directly from the bat to the catcher's hands and is legally caught. It is not a foul tip unless caught and any foul tip that is caught is a strike, and the ball is in play."...—one that either initially lands in foul territory or initially lands within the diamond but moves into foul territory before passing first or third base. If there are already two strikes on the batter, a foul ball is not counted as a third strike; thus, a foul ball cannot result in the immediate strikeout of the batter. (There is an exception to this exception: a two-strike foul bunt is recorded as a third strike.) A ball is called when the pitcher throws a pitch that is outside the strike zone, provided the batter has not swung at it. While the team at bat is trying to score runs, the team in the field is attempting to record outs. Among the various ways a member of the batting team may be put out, five are most common: In baseball or softball, a strikeout or strike-out occurs when a batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters.... : as described above, recorded against a batter who makes three strikes before putting the ball into play or being awarded a free advance to first base. The flyout: as described above, recorded against a batter who hits a ball in the air that is caught by a fielder, whether in fair territory or foul territory, before it lands, whether or not the batter has run batter (in this case, batter-runner) who hits a ball that lands in fair territory which, before the batter-runner can reach first base, is retrieved by a fielder who touches first base while holding the ball or relays it to another fielder who touches first base while holding the ball runner who is required to attempt to advance—either because the runner is on first base and a batted ball lands in fair territory, or because the runner immediately behind on the basepath is thus required to attempt to advance—but fails to reach the next base before a fielder touches the base while holding the ball. The ground out is technically a special case of the force out. A triple play is a baseball play in which three outs are made as a result of continuous action without any intervening errors between outs.Triple play may also refer to:... —is possible, though this is very rare. Players put out or retired must leave the field, returning to their team's dugout Dugout (baseball) ... or bench. A runner may be stranded on base when a third out is recorded against another player on the team. Stranded runners do not benefit the team in its next turn at bat—every half-inning begins with the bases empty of runners.is complete when the player reaches base, hits a home run, makes an out, or hits a ball that results in the team's third out, even if it is recorded against a teammate. On rare occasions, a batter may be at the plate when, without the batter's hitting the ball, a third out is recorded against a teammate—for instance, a runner getting caught stealing Caught stealing(tagged out attempting to steal a base). A batter with this sort of incomplete plate appearance starts off the team's next turn batting; any balls or strikes recorded against the batter the previous inning are erased. A runner may circle the bases only once per plate appearance and thus can score at most a single run per batting turn. Once a player has completed a plate appearance, that player may not bat again until the eight other members of the player's team have all taken their turn at bat. The batting order is set before the game begins, and may not be altered except for substitutions. Once a player has been removed for a substitute, that player may not reenter the game. Children's games often have more liberal substitution rules.(DH) rule is in effect, each team has a tenth player whose sole responsibility is to bat (and run). The DH takes the place of another player—almost invariably the pitcher—in the batting order, but does not field. Thus, even with the DH, each team still has a batting order of nine players and a fielding arrangement of nine players. Player rosters Roster, or squad, sizes differ between different leagues and different levels of organized play. Major League Baseball teams maintain twenty-five-player active rosters. A typical twenty-five-man roster in a league without the DH rule, such as MLB's National League, features: In baseball, a position player is a player who on defense plays as an infielder, outfielder, or catcher. This is generally all players on a team except for the pitcher, who is considered separate from the position players; in the American League, there is also a designated hitter, who bats but... s—catcher, four infielders, three outfielders—who play on a regular basis In baseball or softball, a starting pitcher is the pitcher who delivers the first pitch to the first batter of a game. A pitcher who enters the game after the first pitch of the game is a relief pitcherOther personnel of a team, oversees the team's major strategic decisions, such as establishing the starting rotation, setting the lineup, or batting order, before each game, and making substitutions during games—in particular, bringing in relief pitchers. Managers are typically assisted by two or more coaches; they may have specialized responsibilities, such as working with players on hitting, fielding, pitching, or strength and conditioning. At most levels of organized play, two coaches are stationed on the field when the team is at bat: the first base coach and third base coach, occupying designated coaches' boxes just outside the foul lines, assist in the direction of baserunners when the ball is in play, and relay tactical signals from the manager to batters and runners during pauses in play. In contrast to many other team sports, baseball managers and coaches generally wear their team's uniforms; coaches must be in uniform in order to be allowed on the playing field during a game., who make rulings on the outcome of each play. At a minimum, one umpire will stand behind the catcher, to have a good view of the strike zone, and call balls and strikes. Additional umpires may be stationed near the other bases, thus making it easier to judge plays such as attempted force outs and tag outs. In Major League Baseball, four umpires are used for each game, one near each base. In the playoffs, six umpires are used: one at each base and two in the outfield along the foul lines. Strategy and tactics Many of the pre-game and in-game strategic decisions in baseball revolve around a fundamental fact: in general, right-handed batters tend to be more successful against left-handed pitchers and, to an even greater degree, left-handed batters tend to be more successful against right-handed pitchers. A manager with several left-handed batters in the regular lineup who knows the team will be facing a left-handed starting pitcher may respond by starting one or more of the right-handed backups on the team's roster. During the late innings of a game, as relief pitchers and pinch hitters are brought in, the opposing managers will often go back and forth trying to create favorable matchups with their substitutions: the manager of the fielding team trying to arrange same-handed pitcher-batter matchups, the manager of the batting team trying to arrange opposite-handed matchups. With a team that has the lead in the late innings, a manager may remove a starting position player—especially one whose turn at bat is not likely to come up again—for a more skillful fielder. Pitching and fielding tactics The tactical decision that precedes almost every play in a baseball game involves pitch selection. Among the wide variety of pitches that may be thrown, the four basic types are the breaking ball is a pitch that does not travel straight like a fastball as it approaches the batter. A pitcher who uses primarily breaking ball pitches is often referred to as a junkballer. A breaking ball will have some sideways or downward motion on it slider is a pitch that breaks laterally and down, with a speed between that of a curveball and that of a fastball.... . Pitchers have different repertoires of pitches they are skillful at throwing. Conventionally, before each pitch, the catcher signals the pitcher what type of pitch to throw, as well as its general vertical and/or horizontal location. If there is disagreement on the selection, the pitcher may shake off the sign and the catcher will call for a different pitch. With a runner on base and taking a lead, the pitcher may attempt a pickoff Pickoff In baseball, a pickoff is an act by a pitcher or a catcher, throwing a live ball to a fielder so that the fielder can tag out a baserunner who is either leading off or about to begin stealing the next base.... In baseball, part of the infielders' job is to cover bases. That is, they stand next to a base in anticipation of receiving the ball thrown from another fielder, so that they may make a play on an opposing baserunner who is approaching that base... to keep the runner's lead in check or, optimally, effect a tag out. If an attempted stolen base is anticipated, the catcher may call for a pitchout Pitchout In baseball, a pitchout is a ball that is intentionally thrown high and outside of the strike zone with the purpose of preventing a stolen base or thwarting a hit and run. The pitcher delivers the ball in such a manner for it to be unhittable and in a position where the catcher can quickly leap to... , a ball thrown deliberately off the plate, allowing the catcher to catch it while standing and throw quickly to a base. Facing a batter with a strong tendency to hit to one side of the field, the fielding team may employ a shift, with most or all of the fielders moving to the left or right of their usual positions. With a runner on third base, the infielders may play in, moving closer to home plate to improve the odds of throwing out the runner on a ground ball, though a sharply hit grounder is more likely to carry through a drawn-in infield. Batting and baserunning tactics Several basic offensive tactics come into play with a runner on first base, including the fundamental choice of whether to attempt a steal of second base. The hit and run Hit and run (baseball) A hit and run is a high risk/high reward offensive strategy used in baseball.When the offense has a baserunner on first base , the runner on first breaks for second as the pitch is thrown... In baseball, the term contact hitter is used to describe a hitter who does not strike out often. Thus, they are usually able to use their bats to make contact with the ball and put it in play... : the runner takes off with the pitch drawing the shortstop or second baseman over to second base, creating a gap in the infield for the batter to poke the ball through. The sacrifice bunt calls for the batter to focus on making contact with the ball so that it rolls a short distance into the infield, allowing the runner to advance into scoring position Scoring position In the sport of baseball, a baserunner is said to be in scoring position when he is on second or third base. The distinction between being on first base and second or third base is that a runner on first can usually only score if the batter hits an extra base hit, while a runner on second or third... even at the expense of the batter being thrown out at first—a batter who succeeds is credited with a sacrifice. (A batter, particularly one who is a fast runner, may also attempt to bunt for a hit.) A sacrifice bunt employed with a runner on third base, aimed at bringing that runner home, is known as a squeeze play Squeeze play (baseball) In baseball, the squeeze play is a maneuver consisting of a sacrifice bunt with a runner on third base. The batter bunts the ball, expecting to be thrown out at first base, but providing the runner on third base an opportunity to score... . With a runner on third and fewer than two outs, a batter may instead concentrate on hitting a fly ball that, even if it is caught, will be deep enough to allow the runner to tag up and score—a successful batter in this case gets credit for a sacrifice fly Sacrifice fly In baseball, a sacrifice fly is a batted ball that satisfies four criteria:* There are fewer than two outs when the ball is hit.* The ball is hit to the outfield.... . The manager will sometimes signal a batter who is ahead in the count (i.e., has more balls than strikes) to take, or not swing at, the next pitch. Distinctive elements Baseball has certain attributes that set it apart from the other popular team sports in the countries where it has a following, games such as American and soccer. All of these sports use a clock; in all of them, play is less individual and more collective; and in none of them is the variation between playing fields nearly as substantial or important. The comparison between cricket and baseball Comparison between cricket and baseball Cricket and baseball are the best-known members of a family of related bat-and-ball games. While many of their rules, terminology, and strategies are similar, there are many differences—some subtle, some major—between the two games.... demonstrates that many of baseball's distinctive elements are shared in various ways with its cousin sport. No clock to kill In clock-limited sports, games often end with a team that holds the lead killing the clock Stalling (gaming) Stonewalling is the strategy of obstructing the flow of play in a timed game in the hopes of maintaining the lead.Stonewalling cannot generally be pursued in games without a time limit, such as baseball or tennis, unless to try the endurance of one's opponents... rather than competing aggressively against the opposing team. In contrast, baseball has no clock; a team cannot win without getting the last batter out and rallies are not constrained by time. At almost any turn in any baseball game, the most advantageous strategy is some form of aggressive strategy. In contrast, again, the clock comes into play even in the case of multi-day: the possibility of a draw often encourages a team that is batting last and well behind to bat defensively, giving up any faint chance at a win to avoid a loss. Baseball offers no such reward for conservative batting. While nine innings has been the standard since the beginning of professional baseball, the duration of the average major league game has increased steadily through the years. At the turn of the twentieth century, games typically took an hour and a half to play. In the 1920s, they averaged just less than two hours, which eventually ballooned to 2:38 in 1960. By 1997, the average American League game lasted 2:57 (National League games were about 10 minutes shorter—pitchers at the plate making for quicker outs than designated hitters). In 2004, Major League Baseball declared that its goal was an average game of merely 2:45. The lengthening of games is attributed to longer breaks between half-innings for television commercials, increased offense, more pitching changes, and a slower pace of play with pitchers taking more time between each delivery, and batters stepping out of the box more frequently. Other leagues have experienced similar issues. In 2008, Nippon Professional Baseball took steps aimed at shortening games by 12 minutes from the preceding decade's average of 3:18. Individual focus For a team sport, baseball places individual players under unusual scrutiny and pressure. In 1915, a baseball instructional manual pointed out that every single pitch, of which there are often more than two hundred in a game, involves an individual, one-on-one contest: "the pitcher and the batter in a battle of wits". Contrasting the game with both football and basketball, scholar Michael Mandelbaum argues that "baseball is the one closest in evolutionary descent to the older individual sports". Pitcher, batter, and fielder all act essentially independent of each other. While coaching staffs can signal pitcher or batter to pursue certain tactics, the execution of the play itself is a series of solitary acts. If the batter hits a line drive, the outfielder is solely responsible for deciding to try to catch it or play it on the bounce and for succeeding or failing. The statistical precision of baseball is both facilitated by this isolation and reinforces it. As described by Mandelbaum, It is impossible to isolate and objectively assess the contribution each [football] team member makes to the outcome of the play.... [E]very basketball player is interacting with all of his teammates all the time. In baseball, by contrast, every player is more or less on his own.... Baseball is therefore a realm of complete transparency and total responsibility. A baseball player lives in a glass house, and in a stark moral universe.... Everything that every player does is accounted for and everything accounted for is either good or bad, right or wrong. Cricket is more similar to baseball than many other team sports in this regard: while the individual focus in cricket is mitigated by the importance of the batting partnership Partnership (cricket) In the sport of cricket, two batsmen always bat in partnership, although only one is on strike at any time. The partnership between two batsmen will come to an end when one of them is dismissed or retires, or the innings comes to a close In the sport of cricket, two batsmen always bat in... and the practicalities of tandem running, it is enhanced by the fact that a batsman may occupyfor an hour or much more. There is no statistical equivalent in cricket for the fielding error and thus less emphasis on personal responsibility in this area of play. Uniqueness of each baseball park Unlike those of most sports, baseball playing fields can vary significantly in size and shape. While the dimensions of the infield are specifically regulated, the only constraint on outfield size and shape for professional teams following the rules of Major League and Minor League Baseball is that fields built or remodeled since June 1, 1958, must have a minimum distance of 325 feet (99 m) from home plate to the fences in left and right field and 400 feet (122 m) to center. Major league teams often skirt even this rule. For example, at Minute Maid Park Minute Maid Park Minute Maid Park is a ballpark in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States that opened in 2000 to house the Major League Baseball Houston Astros Crawford Boxes are a special section of seating in Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros. The boxes are named for their being parallel to Crawford Street in Downtown Houston... in left field are only 315 feet (96 m) from home plate. There are no rules at all that address the height of fences or other structures at the edge of the outfield. The most famously idiosyncratic outfield boundary is the left-field wall at Green Monster is a popular nickname for the thirty-seven foot , two-inch high left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox baseball team... is 310 feet (94 m) from home plate down the line and 37 feet (11 m) tall. Similarly, there are no regulations at all concerning the dimensions of foul territory. Thus a foul fly ball may be entirely out of play in a park with little space between the foul lines and the stands, but a flyout in a park with more expansive foul ground. A fence in foul territory that is close to the outfield line will tend to direct balls that strike it back toward the fielders, while one that is farther away may actually prompt more collisions, as outfielders run full speed to field balls deep in the corner. These variations can make the difference between a double and a triple or. The surface of the field is also unregulated. While the image to the left shows a traditional field surfacing arrangement (and the one used by virtually all MLB teams with naturally surfaced fields), teams are free to decide what areas will be grassed or bare. Some fields—including several in MLB—use an artificial surface, such as Surface variations can have a significant effect on how ground balls behave and are fielded as well as on baserunning. Similarly, the presence of a roof (seven major league teams play in stadiums with permanent or retractable roofs) can greatly affect how fly balls are played. While football and soccer players deal with similar variations of field surface and stadium covering, the size and shape of their fields are much more standardized. The area out-of-bounds on a football or soccer field does not affect play the way foul territory in baseball does, so variations in that regard are largely insignificant. These physical variations create a distinctive set of playing conditions at each ballpark. Other local factors, such as altitude and climate, can also significantly affect play. A given stadium may acquire a reputation as a pitcher's park or a hitter's park, if one or the other discipline notably benefits from its unique mix of elements. The most exceptional park in this regard is. Its high altitude—5282 feet (1,610 m) above sea level—is responsible for giving it the strongest hitter's park effect in the major leagues. is known for its fickle disposition: a hitter's park when the strong winds offare blowing out, it becomes more of a pitcher's park when they are blowing in. The absence of a standardized field affects not only how particular games play out, but the nature of team rosters and players' statistical records. For example, hitting a fly ball 330 feet (100.6 m) into right field might result in an easy catch on the warning track Warning track A warning track is the term for the part of the baseball field that is closest to the wall or fence and is typically made of dirt, instead of grass or artificial turf like most of the field. It runs parallel to the ballpark's wall and looks like a running track... at one park, and a home run at another. A team that plays in a park with a relatively short right field, such as the New York Yankees, will tend to stock its roster with left-handed pull hitter Pull hitter In baseball, a pull hitter is a batter who usually hits the ball to the side of the field from which he bats. For example, a right-handed pull hitter, who bats from the third-base side of the plate, will usually hit the ball to the third-base side of the field, termed "left field" according to the... s, who can best exploit it. On the individual level, a player who spends most of his career with a team that plays in a hitter's park will gain an advantage in batting statistics over time—even more so if his talents are especially suited to the park. Statistics Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.... to a greater degree than many other sports. Each play is discrete and has a relatively small number of possible outcomes. In the late nineteenth century, a former cricket player, English-born Henry Chadwick of Brooklyn, New York, was responsible for the "development of the box score Box score (baseball) In baseball, the statistical summary of a game is reported in a box score. An abbreviated version of the box score, duplicated from the field scoreboard, is the line score most of the common statistics and tables used to describe baseball." The statistical record is so central to the game's "historical essence" that Chadwick came to be known as Father Baseball. In the 1920s, American newspapers began devoting more and more attention to baseball statistics, initiating what journalist and historian Alan Schwarz Alan Schwarz Alan Schwarz is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter at the The New York Times best known for writing more than 100 articles that exposed the seriousness of concussions among football players of all ages... describes as a "tectonic shift in sports, as intrigue that once focused mostly on teams began to go to individual players and their statistics lines." The Official Baseball Rules administered by Major League Baseball require theto categorize each baseball play unambiguously. The rules provide detailed criteria to promote consistency. The score report Baseball scorekeeping Baseball scorekeeping is the practice of recording the details of a baseball game as it unfolds. Professional baseball leagues hire official scorers to keep an official record of each game , but many fans keep score as well for their own enjoyment... is the official basis for both the box score of the game and the relevant statistical records. General managers, managers, and baseball scouts Scout (sport) In professional sports, scouts are trained talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scout's organization... At bats: plate appearances, excluding walks and hit by pitches—where the batter's ability is not fully tested—and sacrifices and sacrifice flies—where the batter intentionally makes an out in order to advance one or more baserunners Hits: times reached base because of a batted, fair ball without fielding error orRBIs): number of runners who scored due to a batter's action (including the batter, in the case of a home run), except when batter grounded into double play or reached on an error Home runs: hits on which the batter successfully touched all four bases, without the contribution of a fielding error: credited to pitcher on winning team who last pitched before the team took a lead that it never relinquished (a starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings to qualify for a win) Losses: charged to pitcher on losing team who was pitching when the opposing team took a lead that it never relinquished Saves: games where the pitcher enters a game led by the pitcher's team, finishes the game without surrendering the lead, is not the winning pitcher, and either (a) the lead was three runs or less when the pitcher entered the game; (b) the potential tying run was on base, at bat, or on deck; or (c) the pitcher pitched three or more innings: times a putout by another fielder was recorded following the fielder touching the ball: times the fielder fails to make a play that should have been made with common effort, and the batting team benefits as a resultAmong the many other statistics that are kept are those collectively known as situational statistics. For example, statistics can indicate which specific pitchers a certain batter performs best against. If a given situation statistically favors a certain batter, the manager of the fielding team may be more likely to change pitchers or have the pitcher intentionally walk Intentional base on ballsthe batter in order to face one who is less likely to succeed.refers to the field of baseball statistical study and the development of new statistics and analytical tools. The term is also used to refer directly to new statistics themselves. The term was coined around 1980 by one of the field's leading proponents, Bill James Bill James George William "Bill" James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics(SABR). The growing popularity of sabermetrics since the early 1980s has brought more attention to two batting statistics that sabermetricians argue are much better gauges of a batter's skill than batting average: On-base percentage measures a batter's ability to get on base. It is calculated by taking the sum of the batter's successes in getting on base (hits plus walks plus hit by pitches) and dividing that by the batter's total plate appearances (at bats plus walks plus hit by pitches plus sacrifice flies), except for sacrifice bunts.(one per each single, two per double, three per triple, and four per home run) and dividing that by the batter's at bats. Some of the new statistics devised by sabermetricians have gained wide use:(OPS) measures a batter's overall ability. It is calculated by adding the batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.(WHIP) measures a pitcher's ability at preventing hitters from reaching base. It is calculated exactly as its name suggests. Popularity and cultural impact Morris Raphael Cohen was an American philosopher, lawyer and legal scholar who united pragmatism with logical positivism and linguistic analysis. He was father to Felix S. Cohen.... described baseball as America's national religion. In the words of sports columnist Jayson Stark Jayson Stark Jayson Stark is an American sportswriter who mainly covers baseball. He attended Syracuse University, where he earned a degree in newspaper journalism.-Biography:... , baseball has long been "a unique paragon of American culture"—a status he sees as devastated by the steroid abuse scandal. Baseball has an important place in other national cultures as well: Scholar Peter Bjarkman describes "how deeply the sport is ingrained in the history and culture of a nation such as Cuba, [and] how thoroughly it was radically reshaped and nativized in Japan." Since the early 1980s, the Dominican Republic, in particular the city of San Pedro de Macorís San Pedro de Macorís San Pedro de Macorís is a municipality and the capital of the San Pedro de Macorís province in the Dominican Republic.-Demographics:... , has been the major leagues' primary source of foreign talent. Both the local winter league and major league ball are closely followed in Puerto Rico; major league Hall-of-Famerremains one of the greatest national heroes in the island's history. In the Western Hemisphere, baseball is also one of the leading sports in Canada, Venezuela. In Asia, it is among the most popular sports in South Korea and Taiwan. The major league game in the United States was originally targeted toward a middle-class, white-collar audience: relative to other spectator pastimes, the National League's set ticket price of 50 cents in 1876 was high, while the location of playing fields outside the inner city and the workweek daytime scheduling of games were also obstacles to a blue-collar audience. A century later, the situation was very different. With the rise in popularity of other team sports with much higher average ticket prices—football, basketball, and hockey—professional baseball had become among the most blue-collar-oriented of leading American spectator sports. In the late 1900s and early 2000s, baseball's position compared to football in the United States moved in contradictory directions. In 2008, Major League Baseball set a revenue record of $6.5 billion, matching the NFL's revenue for the first time in decades. A new MLB revenue record of $6.6 billion was set in 2009. On the other hand, the percentage of American sports fans polled who named baseball as their favorite sport was 16%, compared to pro football at 31%. In 1985, the respective figures were pro football 24%, baseball 23%. Because there are so many more major league baseball games played, there is no comparison in overall attendance. In 2008, total attendance at major league games was the second-highest in history: 78.6 million, 0.7% off the record set the previous year. The following year, amid the U.S. recession, attendance fell by 6.6% to 73.4 million. Attendance at games held under the Minor League Baseball Minor league baseball Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses... umbrella also set a record in 2007, with 42.8 million; this figure does not include attendance at games of the several independent minor leagues. In Japan, where baseball is inarguably the leading spectator team sport, combined revenue for the twelve teams in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the body that oversees both the Central and Pacific leagues, was estimated at $1 billion in 2007. Total NPB attendance for the year was approximately 20 million. While in the preceding two decades, MLB attendance grew by 50 percent and revenue nearly tripled, the comparable NPB figures were stagnant. There are concerns that MLB's growing interest in acquiring star Japanese players will hurt the game in their home country. In Cuba, where baseball is by every reckoning the national sport, the national team overshadows the city and provincial teams that play in the top-level domestic leagues. Revenue figures are not released for the country's amateur system. Similarly, according to one official pronouncement, the sport's governing authority "has never taken into account attendance ... because its greatest interest has always been the development of athletes". As of 2007, Little League Baseball oversees more than 7,000 children's baseball leagues with more than 2.2 million participants—2.1 million in the United States and 123,000 in other countries. Babe Ruth League teams have over 1 million participants. According to the president of the International Baseball Federation, between 300,000 and 500,000 women and girls play baseball around the world, including Little League and the introductory game of Tee Ball Tee Ball Tee Ball or T-Ball is a sport based on baseball and is intended as an introduction for children to develop baseball skills and have fun. The name Tee Ball is a registered trademark while T-Ball is the generic name, although many sources use Tee Ball as a generic title.- Description :In T-Ball, the... Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting.... departments at most high schools and colleges in the United States. In 2008, nearly half a million high schoolers and over 35,000 collegians played on their schools' baseball teams. The number of Americans participating in baseball has declined since the late 1980s, falling well behind the number of soccer participants. By early in the 20th century, intercollegiate baseball was Japan's leading sport. Today,The National High School Baseball Championship of Japan, commonly known as "Summer Kōshien" , is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament... in the summer—are broadcast around the country. The tournaments are known, respectively, as Spring Koshien and Summer Koshien after the 55,000-capacity stadium Koshien Stadiumwhere they are played. In Cuba, baseball is a mandatory part of the state system of physical education, which begins at age six. Talented children as young as seven are sent to special district schools for more intensive training—the first step on a ladder whose acme is the national baseball team. American English has been enriched by expressions derived from the game of baseball. Sometimes referred to as "America's pastime," baseball has especially affected the language of other competitive activities such as politics and businessA baseball cap is a type of soft cap with a rounded stiff brim. The front of the cap typically contains designs or logos of sports teams ,... has become a ubiquitous fashion item not only in the United States and Japan, but also in countries where the sport itself is not particularly popular, such as the United Kingdom. Baseball has inspired many works of art and entertainment. One of the first major examples, Ernest Thayer Ernest Thayer Ernest Lawrence Thayer was an American writer and poet who wrote "Casey at the Bat".-Biography:Thayer was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts and raised in Worcester. He graduated magna cum laude in philosophy from Harvard in 1885, where he was editor of the Harvard Lampoon...", appeared in 1888. A wry description of the failure of a star player in what would now be called a "clutch situation", the poem became the sourceand other staged performances, audio recordings, film adaptations, and an opera, as well as a host of sequels and parodies in various media. There have been many baseball movies, including the Academy Award–winning The Pride of the Yankees The Pride of the Yankees selection of the ten best sports movies includes The Pride of the Yankees at number 3 and(1988) at number 5. Baseball has provided thematic material for hits on both stage—the Adler Richard Adler Richard Adler is an American lyricist, composer and producer of several Broadway shows.-Biography:Born in New York City, Adler had a musical upbringing, his father being a concert pianist. After serving in the Navy he began his career as a lyricist, teaming up with Jerry Ross in 1950... Jerry Ross.-Biography:Ross was bornBorn in Belfast, Ireland, he became one of the most popular singers the United States in the 1890s and was nicknamed the "Silver Voiced Irish Tenor". His earliest known recordings were done for the Edison North American Phonograph Company on June 2, 1891... Simon & Garfunkel are an American duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer chart-topping hit after "The Sound of Silence"... William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC is a Canadian novelist and short story writer who is well-known for his novel Shoeless Joe , which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989... 's Shoeless Joe (the source for Field of Dreams). Baseball's literary canon also includes the beat reportage ofJames Alan "Jim" Bouton is a former American Major League Baseball pitcher. He is also the author of the controversial baseball book Ball Four, which was a combination diary of his season and memoir of his years with the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, and Houston Astros.-Amateur and college... Ball Four is a book written by former Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Bouton in . The book is a diary of Bouton's 1969 season, spent with the Seattle Pilots and then the Houston Astros following a late-season trade. In it Bouton also recounts much of his baseball career, spent mainly with the... is considered a turning point in the reporting of professional sports. Baseball has also inspired the creation of new cultural forms. Baseball card Baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on some type of paper stock or card stock. A card will usually feature one or more baseball players or other baseball-related sports figures... Trade card describes small cards, similar to the visiting cards exchanged in social circles, that businesses would distribute to clients and potential customers. Trade cards first became popular at the beginning of the 17th century in London... s. A typical example would feature an image of a baseball player on one side and advertising for a business on the other. In the early 1900s they were produced widely as promotional items by tobacco and confectionery companies. The 1930s saw the popularization of the modern style of baseball card, with a player photograph accompanied on the rear by statistics and biographical data. Baseball cards—many of which are now prized collectibles—are the source of the much broaderindustry, involving similar products for different sports and non-sports-related fields. Modern fantasy sports began in 1980 with the invention of Rotisserie League Baseball by New York writer Daniel Okrent Daniel Okrentand several friends. Participants in a Rotisserie league draft notional teams from the list of active Major League Baseball players and play out an entire imaginary season with game outcomes based on the players' latest real-world statistics. Rotisserie-style play quickly became a phenomenon. Now known more generically as fantasy baseball Fantasy baseball Fantasy baseball is a game where participants manage an imaginary roster of real Major League baseball players. The participants compete against one another using those players' real life statistics to score points... , it has inspired similar games based on an array of different sports. The field boomed with increasing Internet access and new fantasy sports–related websites. By 2008, 29.9 million people in the United States and Canada were playing fantasy sports, spending $800 million on the hobby. The burgeoning popularity of fantasy baseball is also credited with the increasing attention paid to sabermetrics—first among fans, only later among baseball professionals. See also Professional baseball leagues and amateur-baseball organizations around the world, various sportswriting associations, and other interested groups confer awards on various baseball teams, players, managers, coaches, executives, broadcasters, and writers for excellence in achievement, sportsmanship,... Bat : A rounded, solid wooden or hollow aluminum bat. Wooden bats are traditionally made from ash wood, though maple and bamboo is also sometimes used. Aluminum bats are not permitted in professional leagues, but are frequently used in amateur leagues. Composite bats are also available,... Brännboll is a game similar to rounders, baseball, lapta and pesäpallo played on amateur level throughout Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, mostly on fields and in public parks, but it is also part of the PE curriculum in some areas... British baseball, sometimes called Welsh baseball, or in the areas where it is popular simply baseball, is a bat-and-ball game played primarily in Wales and England. It is closely related to the game of rounders, and indeed emerged as a distinct sport when governing bodies in Wales and England... Lapta is a Russian bat and ball game first known to be played in the 14th century. Mentions of lapta have been found in medieval manuscripts, and balls and bats were found in the 14th-century layers during excavations in Novgorod... Pesäpallo is a fast-moving ball sport that is quite often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other countries, such as Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and Northern Ontario in Canada... Stickball is a street game related to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game, played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball, typically a spaldeen, pensie pinkie, high bouncer or tennis ball. The... Stoop ball is a game that is played by throwing a ball against a stoop on the pavement in front of a building. The game is also known as "Off the Point". Historically, it has been popular in Brooklyn and other inner cities. It first became popular after World War II. A Portable Stoopball.... The Best Seat in Baseball, But You Have to Stand: The Game as Umpires See It (Southern Illinois University Press, 1999). ISBN 978-0809321957 Gary Gillette is a baseball writer, author, and editor. He is co-editor of both the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia and the ESPN Football Encyclopedia. For both series of books, he partnered with renowned statistician Pete Palmer, as well as writers Sean Lahman and Matt Silverman. As of October 2008 he... Pete Palmer is a major contributor to the applied mathematical field referred to as sabermetrics. Along with the Bill James Baseball Abstracts, Palmer's book The Hidden Game of Baseball is often referred to as providing the foundation upon which the field of sabermetrics was built.Palmer began his... George William "Bill" James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statisticsTom Tango and "TangoTiger" are aliases used online by a well-respected expert in baseball sabermetrics and ice hockey statistical analysis. He runs the Tango on Baseball sabermetrics website and is also a contributor to ESPN's baseball blog TMI .In 2006, Tango's book The Book: Playing the...	eng	df3724eb-da14-4a8f-8a3a-d577b1b727d1	http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Baseball
Is My Surname Jewish? Many of the names that people think "sound" Jewish are, in fact, simple German, Russian or Polish surnames. The point? You generally can't identify Jewish ancestry by a surname alone. Actually, there are really only three surnames (and their variations) that are generally specifically Jewish in nature: Cohen, Levy and Israel. Yet, even variations of these common Jewish-specific surnames may not be Jewish. The surnames Cohan and even Cohen, for example, could indeed be Jewish in origin; but could also be an Irish surname, derived from O'Cadham (descendant of Cadhan). While few names are specifically Jewish, there are certain surnames that are more commonly found among Jews: Estee Reider, in Jewish World Review, also points out that some Jewish surnames may originate from professions that are exclusive to Jews. The surname Shamash, and its variations such as Klausner, Templer and Shuldiner, means shamash, a synagogue sexton. Chazanian, Chazanski and Chasanov all derive from chazan, a cantor. Another common origin for Jewish surnames are "house names," referring to a distinctive sign attached to a house in the days before street numbers and addresses (a practice in use primarily in Germany, by both Gentiles and Jews). The most famous of these Jewish house names is Rothschild, or "red shield," for a house distinguished by a red sign. As I said before, you can't assume that any of these name are Jewish, no matter how Jewish they may sound to you, or how many Jews you know with that name. The third most common Jewish surname in America (after Cohen and Levy) is Miller, which is also obviously a very common surname for Gentiles as well. Goldberg etc… are nothing to do with wealth per se. These names are to do with Jews having been banned from trading and/or practicing in their professions of choice, and thus being forced to trade physical, not-so-tracebable things in their respective home countries, way back when. Analogous (or close) to a very well known example whereby Cromwell only let Jews back into England to lend money, as per it being forbidden for Christians. Unless you're trying to reinforce some horrible stereotypes. Which really don't need reinforcing. And especially as you claim to know something about geneology. March 29, 2010 at 8:43 pm (2) ~Kimberly says: I in no way mean to imply that the surname refers to someone who was wealthy – by "wealth" I was referring to the surname's origin. In the case of Goldberg, it derives from the German gold 'gold' + berg 'mountain', 'hill.' I appreciate your additional explanation! April 3, 2010 at 2:47 am (3) juli says: My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Kefferstein.She was an immigrant from Germany before W W II . Does anybody know if that is or was a traditional jewish name ? April 4, 2010 at 11:52 pm (4) Dawn Becker says: My father is a born-again Christian so when I married a nice Jewish boy and had my children raised Jewish, I was bashed for a long time. However, recently something came up that my grandmother may have been Jewish but her parents converted to save themselves from persecution, she gets angry at the thought of it. She was born in 1922 and her name is Helen Myrtle Jacobs. Could she have been Jewish? April 4, 2010 at 11:55 pm (5) Dawn Marie says: There is a some controversy in our family concerning the possibility of my grandmother being Jewish. She proclaims herself to be a Christian German born in 1922. Her name is Helen Myrtle Jacobs. Could it be possible that she was Jewish? Or is the name deceiving? Dawn August 1, 2010 at 3:29 pm (6) carl says: My wifes grandfather was named Goldsmith is this a jewish surname,her Granmothers surname was Allen? Cheers Carl September 1, 2010 at 10:40 am (7) LOVE says: I believe that if you're Jewish where the names are concerned you would know. I believe that you would always somehow experience favour in all aspects of your life. At our place of worship in my island, there is such a great prayer for the peace for the city of Jerusalem and for her people the Jews. Our hearts have grown so fond of the Jews and in our prayer for her peace, we experience such abundance of Blessings, there is NO LACK OF ANYTHING!!!. It is so intense when we pray for her, there is such great weeping in the building for her wounds and how for so long we as Christians have failed to perform our duty ie to stand in the gap for her safety and peace. But great is our God, His faithfulness endures forever. While we were still in slumber mode He has always been there for His people. For in their time of despair, He rises up against her enemies. The punishment He inflicts upon them in the form of natural disasters is beyond our comprehension. Professionals will blame these on climate change and scientific reasons, but this is the last days and i am sure in my heart that it is the hand of the Adonai Avir Yakov'(mighty God of Jacob). No one knows what the future holds but i for one knows who holds the future. My God, My Father and My Friend. The King of the Universe, Adonai Elohai Yisrael, who left His throne to die, to save us from the snares of the enemy, the God of the Jews, He holds the future. He was, even before time began, He spoke and things came to be!!!! So take heart friends, do not be worry, you will know if you have Jewish blood in you, you will experience a great sense of boldness and great great favour in where your family, education & work are concerned as my family and i stand in the gap with, by and for you. The God of your Fathers, Abraham, Isaac & Jacob with whom He made covenant with, is faithful to the end. He will protect you, provide for you and He will bless you with abundant Peace. Hope and Trust in Him only, for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye. We weep with you for your wounds and rejoice with you in your successes!! Shalom Yerushalayim! and Blessed be her people the Jews!!! October 2, 2010 at 11:08 pm (8) Terri says: Not sure I agree with Love that if you're Jewish where the names are concerned you would know. Too many names are common amongst Jews and Gentiles and too many times people changed their religion to survive. Too many names took on the sound of the country / region they moved too. Names were translated into that language and countries sound. Personally I think many of us think we are something other than we even know. If I married a man from Spain and moved there and had a dozen little ones and raised them in Spain , speaking Spanish, living a Spaniards lifestyle…And when they grow up and have kids, and their kids have kids 100-200 years later no one would even know that their great great great grandmother was American. What makes you think you know if your great great great great grandmother moved to another locale with her new husband and started a "new" life there or not? Many Many many many Years ago in Italy when there was a terrible recession many citizens moved to South America, Brazil…and other Spanish speaking countries. Were they Spanish no…did they "become' Spanish??? Genetically no, of course not, but when they had children and they had children and so on…did they speak Italian …no. Did they remember their great great great grandparents ways? No they were living the life of Spaniards….and there they remain. And so it has been since time began. Normans moved to England and their names lost their French sound and became Anglicized. And there they have lived in England for generations and generations calling themselves Brits! What do we really know unless our families have kept meticulous histories? February 28, 2011 at 10:02 pm (9) Josie says: Hi,I was told that some Spanish names are Jewish,would you know if that is true?Thank you Josie March 26, 2011 at 8:54 am (10) Dr. S.A. Visotsky says: You have to be careful to understand the goym, as they cannot understand what we are discussing here. Being Jewish, is not a religion. It is a culture. We have our own language, our own alphabet, we read and write right to left, our own customs, and our own book of worship known to others as the Old Testament. You cannot convert, and say you are a Jew now. You can say, you worship the faith, but you are by no means a Jew, that's a DNA issue. That's like an Asian saying they wish to convert to be an African. We Jews are non-caucasian, stemming from a gene pool that centered in/around Egypt. That's Northern Africa if you need to check a map. We are a minority that receives no special treatment, no box to tick on any form (which usually includes every ethnicity know), and don't want your sympathy. Pick your battles. April 15, 2011 at 1:41 am (11) Kevin says: Dr. S.A, as you said it is a gene pool. So how would you find out if this gene is in you? April 26, 2011 at 4:13 am (12) Samson says: What if names ending in – sky, like kowalsky, rockatansky, etc ? May 26, 2011 at 12:53 pm (13) Tamar says: Dr. S.A. Visotsky, your comments remind me of the exclusive nature of Judaism. It is a culture as you say AND a religion as well, but mostly a way of life. But even if you adopt the culture and follow every Jewish rule, you will never become a Jew according to the orthodox or conservative people in the Jewish community. You have to have Jewish DNA, which has be preserved by marrying a fellow Jew. I'm not sure the Jewish community understands the message this is sending out to the rest of the world. It basically says that anybody other than Jewish is not good enough. I think most goym understand very well what is being discussed here, they would like to know if they have Jewish ancestry and from what I read here, most would be proud to have it. That is a positive thing.. May 27, 2011 at 4:44 pm (14) Brooke says: There are some religious nuts on this site! Holy Mackeral! August 3, 2011 at 10:13 pm (15) Shemaya says: DNA? There is no "Jewish DNA" but however, if there are families identifiable/ verifiable you can trace that family. There are supposedly those of priestly families (Not always traceable) Kohan, Cohen, (equivalent to kaf-heh-nun) or Levy (from Lamed-waw-yod) and variants. But Judaism is a religion, not a race. And many names that sound Jewish can be German Catholic as I found out growing up in the Cincinnati area. My original last name was Phillips and although there are Jewish Phillipses like Jewish Phillipses who helped in the Revolutionary War and are buried in the Charleston and Savannah area. I was raised Baptist and became Jew by choice. Then I found out later MY own Phillips branch was possibly Jewish anyway and can be traced to SC. It is not a clear cut thing to go by names. Are you Jewish? BE Jewish whatever your name is. That's how you tell for sure. We all do this "you don't look Jewish/ name doesn't sound Jewish" and it can be disconcerting. I've changed my name. I try to eliminate the guessing. August 15, 2011 at 11:14 pm (16) Max says: To Dr. Vitosky, I have very serious doubts that you are a Dr. in any field. I, on the other hand, am an anthropologist, and I can tell you definitively that there is no "Jewish DNA". There are DNA sequences with Semitic indicators (Semitic meaning Middle Eastern), but absolutely NO genetic indicators specific to Jewish heritage. Your entire post made NO sense and completely failed to address the question asked. The question was "Is my surname Jewish?". Your completely inappropriate rant about Jewish genetic exclusivity has NO place in this forum. The people who find their way to this topic simply want to know if they might have Jewish ancestry. YOU NEED TO GROW UP AND STOP EMBARRASSING JEWS. You are the reason, you are the excuse, other groups use for holding prejudice against us. October 8, 2011 at 5:25 am (17) Tony says: Seems you cannot talk about Jews without someone getting into a fit about it or someone antagonizing someone else. November 13, 2011 at 1:32 pm (18) Mac says: I agree, Tony. And in response to Miss Rose, this thread, written by herself and other Jews reinforces negative stereotypes than the outside community does, in my opinion. Arabic and Farsi also written right to left and the Indian caste system is another prime example of marriage by blood (or "DNA" as these goofballs say). There is nothing exclusively unique about any of the arguments on this thread other than a common theme of hubirs. December 11, 2011 at 5:56 am (19) Dr. S A Visotsky says: To Max, You are misguided my friend, and my comments were not a rant.I am an academic, be sure of that. I have spent the majority of my adult life in Public Service, with a focus on International Security and Economic Policy, Law & Public Policy Administration, & Public Diplomacy, serving 5 Administrations. Every school boy knows what the word "Semitic" means, we are not intellectually challenged, and my post made perfect sense.I am an ethnic Jew, it is my ethnicity. In keeping with your Anthropological line of reasoning, we can agree that ethnicity is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, consisting of a common language, a common culture (including a shared religion) and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy. Biological anthropology, or physical anthropology, focuses on the study of human population using an evolutionary framework, as well as "trying" to explain geographical human variation and race. If trying is an exact a science as it has progressed, it's a coin toss at worst. In the 1980s, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Jews are indeed a race, for purposes of discrimination, full stop. Race is a genetic distinction, and refers to people with shared ancestry and shared genetic traits. 3) If there is no basis to my commentary, why is it that you are not considered a Jew, if your mother is not Jewish? I do not practice the Jewish faith. According to you then, I am not a Jew? You better call the World Jewish Congress, and the Jewish Diplomatic Corp and inform them then, and I suppose I better surrender my passport as well, nu?The Jewish faith, as a religion, is one small aspect of many, which make up the Jewish Culture, full stop. December 19, 2011 at 7:48 am (20) Syd says: Many German Catholic surnames that sound Jewish actually are. This is a result of the persecution suffered and the desire to escape. Upon retreat, many Jews sought to replace one way of life by substituting their religeon with a more socially acceptable faith. Jewish DNA is indeed identifiable. I believe the cost is not prohibitive should one choose this route. Dr. SA Visotsky, are related to the famous Russian singer of the 1970′s who challenged the Soviet Communist system through his songs? It's interesting that you worked in Public Relations through five administrations, but you neglect to say what you really did. Were you a clerk? A secretary? It's interesting also that you consider a ruling of the US Supreme Court to be the last word in a question of genetics, when they are not scientists nor do they claim to be. Persecution based on religion is one thing – but in the current US politic morass it's better to claim victimhood based on "race", so that's why US Jews had themselves declared a "race" by the highest (arbitrary) authority in the land. What's a few bribes to get what you want, nu? The court justices simply felt that the religious group called "Jews" deserved to be treated as a separate "minority" although they are classified as "white" on U.S. gov't documents. There is no checkbox yet on census forms for "Jew" or "Semite", and there won't be, since it implies a form of begging for assistance based on skin color. The Israelis are already receiving billions from the US taxpayers automatically and don't need to beg, anyway. If the Jews truly wish to be a separate and distinct race, there would be a mandatory category added to the standard list. Since Jews come in all colors and from all backgrounds, this would be a tough "race" category to prove. It's a ragbag case much like "Latino", since Latino can be anything, racially. Everyone knows this, but we nonLatinos kowtow and give scholarships to the "oppressed Latinos". I know many "half-Latinos" (usually the mother an immigrant) who as college kids check off "Latino", although the kid is pale-white-Irish or German, just to get affirmative action and scholarships over their half-brethren, the "whites". Obviously the categories that our great and marvelous U.S. Supreme court has decided upon are NOT related to blood. January 28, 2012 at 5:38 am (22) Denise Brown says: @Dawn Marie. It is most likely your grandmother is Jewish. Jacobs is a very common Jewish surname. There were and are many Jews who convert to Christianity and other religions. Her family may have had Jewish roots, but perhaps, they did become Christians to avoid mistreatment and persecution. That is a very common choice. March 16, 2012 at 5:12 pm (23) Ed says: My name is Miller and I'm not a Jew. The name Miller is supposedly the third or fourth most common of all the U.S. names, (after Smith and either Jones or Johnson) The two most common sources of Miller are English and German and both referring to a flour grinder. The German (and probably the English) version being a variation of Mueller. Anyway I have no desire, nor would I be especially proud, to be Jewish. Especially after following the events in Israel-Palestine over the last several decades. The worth of an individual is not about from whom he came from, other than maybe his direct descendents/parents. Its about what he/she makes of their life through one's own actions. March 30, 2012 at 11:33 am (24) Emily says: What about Bemrose? I've heard of many Jewish people with the last names containing "rose" or "rosen" but i'm not sure, I don't want to sound racist or anything, I just don't know diddly squat about my family history, so I was curious about where Bemrose originates. May 5, 2012 at 3:11 pm (25) Clarissa says: I have the documents showing I'm descended from Irish Jews, Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants. So what does that make me? A typical citizen of the United States of America! I embrace all religions, including those based on nature. My father created a beautiful place in the woods behind our house, with places to sit and pray. When I'm there I know that God is there, and it doesn't really matter what you call Him or what name you use for the building where you worship. May 30, 2012 at 9:59 pm (26) Rachel Sagar says: In England, most of the people with German surnames are Jewish, though that may be less the case now than it was in the last few generations. So I've tended to assume anyone with a German surname is Jewish and have to remember that in America that's not the case. I seem to remember that in genetic studies the group that came out closest to Jews genetically, apart from Arab groups, were Southern Italians! It's ridiculous to say that people can't convert to Judaism because several famous Jewish Biblical matriarchs were converts to Judaism and their children and subsequent generations were definitely counted as Jewish. God didn't create people Jewish – they formed as a cultural entity and then largely intermarried, though there has been a huge amount of marrying out in Northern Europe – how else would you get so many Jews with red hair and very pale skin and freckles and showing strong evidence of intermariage in their genes? June 25, 2012 at 8:42 pm (27) Sam says: Very interesting site. My interest lies in a life-long quest to unearth whether I have Jewish ancestry or whether my interest in Judaism and the culture of Jewish life is just that, – an almost obsessive interest! I am from the Laver family with roots in Somerset UK on one side and southern Irish catholics on the other. I have read that Laver is of Jewish roots and is possibly a derivation of Levi. Not sure whether the bronze temple laver is in anyway responsible for the surname. So many conflicting views – is anyone aware of the true facts. Love reading all your comments. Wonderful! Thank you. July 28, 2012 at 12:37 am (28) Cristal Smith says: Hello everyone. I'm trying to discover if my mothers parents which both had the last name Cantu ( no relation LOL!) was a Jewish name. My sister did some research and she found the town of Cantu in Italy and said she found a blog the the original people of Cantu were Jewish. After the Spanish Inquisition, some migrated to Mexico and Texas. She even found some pages that said the last name Cantu came from the name Cantor. Can someone make some suggestions. I would greatly appreciate it. August 5, 2012 at 8:57 pm (29) brittany-anna says: Ed you definitely not JEWISH!!! Your last name miller probably derived from mule stubborn and hard…far far away from the ways and plan of GOD. The Jewish people are a people of FAITH..beginning with Abraham, who was the father of FAITH, …to say you are not proud of Israel and the Jewish people is to harden your heart, and close your eyes to the truth, and the blessings of GOD!!!! No matter what this great nation is based and born from the very breathe of GOD -HaShem. Study up ED, jewishness happens in both, the spiritual and the natural. August 16, 2012 at 6:08 pm (30) Meira says: Being one of the few Jews in my school growing up, I was often asked questions about Jewish thought, culture and history that I felt that I should know the answers to. I asked my more devout cousin about the religion/culture question and he described said "We are a Nation." Yes you can be born Jewish, and Yes you can convert. The Torah says that Judaism is a gift from the father but you must also believe it yourself. It is not a trap but a mantle. To those of you wondering if you have Jewish ancestry. You probably do. We are a very life affirming people and we get around. Are you Jewish? No, You Aren't! Not unless your mother (or father) was Jewish (and you were raised Jewish) or YOU believe in the Torah and have converted. If you believe in the Divinity of Jesus or you pray to saints instead of directly to god or you think a priest has a closer connection with god than you, you aren't Jewish. September 12, 2012 at 8:17 pm (31) Cindylou says: My maternal family names are Levins and Salmon. Common Gentile names and common assimilation versions of Levi and Solomon. The names alone aren't much help. However the story of us being Jewish has been passed down the generations and interestingly down the maternal line. Years ago I was invited to Shabbat at a Friends house and was asked to light the candles. I covered my eyes whilst my hostess prayed and I had a very powerful sense of having done this before, that my ancestors had done this before me. We don't have enough data to ever know for sure but I go with what God whispered to me that Friday night. Shalom. September 14, 2012 at 7:08 pm (32) Sam says: Cindylou, I read your post with interest. I have had similar sensations. Several years ago I took private lessons in Hebrew and started to educate myself in the beliefs, history and culture of Judaism. I have always felt that strong pull. Sadly it appears there is no way of knowing what my ancestors were, however I will always feel strong connection with my Jewish brothers and sisters. Your experience was beautiful and very special. Best wishes. October 13, 2012 at 7:10 pm (33) Yankel Miller says: Two complete gentiles meet on the train from Pinsk to Minsk. One's name is Yankel Miller, the other is Moishe Cohen. They both take out their totally goyishe meals, Gefilte fish (which has nothing to do with Jews, its actually a regular Hungarian dish) and Tscholent (Polish). After saying the blessing in Hebrew (a language originally from the Phonecians) they shake hands (a Russian way of greeting) and say to each other "Sholom Aleichem" (which is Yiddish – an old German dialect). Hope you enjoyed, Yankel (Goy) Miller October 15, 2012 at 12:17 am (34) Dennis Hankinson says: I am curious about how widespread in "Amerika" the settlement was from the 1813 Bavarian Jewish emigration. According to a web-based genealogy or two the Bavarian side of my family arrived here at that time, though the evidence of Jewishness is scant. November 5, 2012 at 1:07 pm (35) Portia says: DNA tests on the Lemba tribe of central Zimbabwe and northern South Africa show that they are of Jewish or Semitic origin, the BBC reported. The tribe's customs are similar to Jewish ones, including male circumcision, ritual animal slaughter, abstaining from eating pork and wearing skull caps. And their oral tradition claims they are descended from seven male Jews who left Israel 2,500 years ago and married African women, according to the BBC. Their prized religious artifact is a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant known as the ngoma lungundu, meaning "the drum that thunders," the BBC reported. Their sacred prayer language is a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic. The Lemba also have 12 tribes, including a priestly clan that has a genetic element found in Jewish priests or Cohanim, according to the report. Many of the Lemba in Zimbabwe are Christians, while some are Muslims. Professor Tudor Parfitt of the University of London has spent 20 years researching the Lemba, and lived with them for six months. "Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science," Parfitt told the BBC. November 23, 2012 at 6:44 pm (36) Donna says: Hi, im from Jamaica and my mother name is Levine i was told that my great grandfather was a jew came to Jamaica via Portugal 2 jewish brothers married 2 sisters which were jamaicans they where several jews that came to the island they built four synagogue on the island i think there's still one standing,anyone with more info on this? thanks. December 2, 2012 at 7:35 am (37) Telvia says: @Denise. My ancestry is spaniards who change surname and religion in order to stay in Spain in 1492 ( during Isabel la Católica reign). My surname in Monteza and is in a list in the Noah Gordon's The Last Jew novel. But my interest arise due to a anomality in our blood. We have a inverted diferential in our linfocitos and neutrofilos. A doctor told my brother that this is something of arab people. Now I am confused, but want to know for medical reasons. I don't know what our original surname was. January 13, 2013 at 9:52 pm (38) Mike says: My maternal Grandfather was Jewish and called Solomon Lewis. He married an Irish girl, and mum was raised as an Anglican as was my Father. Mum, (aged 94) won`t talk about these people I never knew, since her father walked out and her mother left her with an aunt. In passing, the R5 broadcaster Adrian Goldberg refers to himself as a lapsed Catholic, as I understand the Jewish religion is passed down through the maternal side. February 16, 2013 at 10:53 pm (39) Mari says: Is Aeriansz a Jewish last name? I was looking back into my Dutch background and found that name. February 27, 2013 at 10:41 pm (40) Skeptic says: @ Portia … I'm generally very skeptical about what these corporate-financed entertainment channels broadcast under the "News" label, but I'm genuinely surprised that smart educated people like yourself (and my own brother, I might add) accept everything that they feed you so willingly and unquestionably It's wrong and it's alarming. The media, if not questioned, can be a dangerous weapon used for every kind of propaganda Given all this technology and learning opportunities that are available now-a-days ( and i'm saying this with consideration to the fact that whoever participates in this forum at minimum has access to the internet!!), it is a crime to be ignorant, not a blessing! … What I think about fanatically religious people won't fit here! I came here to learn about the origins of names because Language and People in general interest me… needless to say I didn't learn much about the names. (except for the very first post – thank you!) February 28, 2013 at 5:58 pm (41) Sue says: I have been researching my family tree in France and have come across two names which I have been told are Jewish names. They are Betbeder and Masure. They don't fit any of the classic 'rules' of Jewish names but neither of them are particularly French…. Does anyone know? March 9, 2013 at 4:23 pm (42) Remnant says: I found out at my mom's funeral that my mom was an Austrian_Jew.My brother knew because he is older, and heard the arguments about Hitler. They lived in fear during those times, as "sinful men" seem to always want to destroy what they don't understand. My Grandfather hid his identity for fear that "he" (Hitler) would win the war and destroy the family. My brother almost died too when he was 8, and the maternal side argued he "must be circumsized! So he was. Stranger yet my paternal side came from Calabria Italy, which was a jewish stronghold, my dad looked Jewish in his older years. So Mom's family his her heritage out of fear..and my Italian side may have had some in their line. And I married a german with a very Jewish sounding name. God my Father knows..He sent Yeshua to die for me..whether I am Jewish or gentile or both…He loves me and knows my name! March 19, 2013 at 9:45 pm (43) gary jackson says: I was told sellers was Jewish. Not sure tho.that is my grandfathers last name and believe. He came from that part of the country. I have been to Israel. And love it there and love the people. There.God has his hands on Israel. He is Jesus. Christ the son of the living. God.going back there next year. March 24, 2013 at 9:12 am (44) Hedy says: Dear Dawn Becker: I love that you raised your children Jewish and am sad your grandmother is angry of the thought of her heritage and ancestry. Yes, millions of Jews converted to save themselves. What a horrible world it was then. My opinion. Anyone who realizes and is aware of their Jewish Heritage which is a beautiful way of life, should convert back. Those are my feelings. April 9, 2013 at 11:07 pm (45) Dors Feline weight says: At this moment I am going away to do my breakfast, after having my breakfast coming yet again to read further news. April 15, 2013 at 3:47 pm (46) SHARON says: My late father used to say "everybody has got some jew in them – they just don't know it". - April 17, 2013 at 2:52 pm (47) Aura night club says: The reason I follow this web page is due to the fact I believe you really do generally offer a moderately unique leaning on things to numerous alternative web pages so high five from me. ! . ! April 18, 2013 at 1:16 am (48) Egalitarian says: During WW2 my father worked for a branch of the British government which assisted European Jews to establish a new identity, obtain a British passport, and to try to resume a normal life. Many chose to take an everyday English surname such as Clark, Brown, or Green and add an 'e' as a code for fellow Jews. These names are still around – Clarke, Browne, Greene and other examples. Even if the present owners are not Jews they may well discover that they have some Jewish ancestry. April 22, 2013 at 7:58 am (49) Micki says: I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here. The sketch is tasteful, your authored subject matter stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an edginess over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come further formerly again since exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this increase. April 23, 2013 at 4:51 pm (50) Daniel says: Is Frug /Fróg – a Jewish last name ? Frug / Fróg o (or u) z kreską /u/ boot [ʉ] between palatal or palatalized consonants. Frog -Frug-Fróg.Frug/Fróg surname in the Polish spelling written through at open" u" or "ó" is closed off in the process with surname, differently written Phroog/Frug/Fróg/Frog/-w was English, French, Фруг/-po Russian פרוג in a Hebrew manner surname Frug-w Latin written as the majority of west tongues not of which Slav, Frug/Fróg – written in Polish is going in languages as English, French on Frog – Frug-Fróg. April 25, 2013 at 6:17 pm (51) watch ek thi daayan movie online says: I don't even understand how I stopped up right here, but I assumed this publish was once great. I do not understand who you are but definitely you are going to a well-known blogger for those who are not already. Cheers! April 27, 2013 at 1:36 pm (52) serviced offices says: Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It really useful & it helped me out a lot. I hope to give something back and help others like you aided me. April 28, 2013 at 8:53 am (53) David Schroeder says: Growing up in Teaneck, New Jersey in the 1950s, we used to recieve phone calls enquiring about the Rabbi with surname Schroeder, presiding at the Synagogue a block from our house, since our surname was also Schroeder. Eventually our mom put a note on the phone table with the Rabbi's phone number for reference. A half century later I took a Y-DNA test, and was surprised to find our North German, Lutheran, paternal ancestor was in haplogroup E (E1b1b1a1b), which is concentrated in the South Balkans, Mediterranean, and Middle East, especially Northeast Africa. Y haplogroup E is also the second largest founding lineage for Jewish males after Y haplogroup J. Further research suggested that our paternal lineage may have originated from a Sephardic individual from the Catalonian region of Spain with surname Cordova, whose descendants Christianized, and eventually settled in Northern Germany near Hamburg.	eng	425cee71-1b46-4ab4-b14f-40229b5f8536	http://genealogy.about.com/b/2009/09/12/is-my-surname-jewish.htm
Sign up to receive free email alerts when patent applications with chosen keywords are publishedSIGN UP Abstract: The present invention provides a compound represented by the formula (I): ##STR00001##. Claims: 1. A compound represented by the formula (I): ##STR00156## wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group which may have one or more halogen atoms, A1 represents a divalent connecting group, X1 represents a C2-C36 heterocyclic group and one or more --CH2-- in the C2-C36 heterocyclic group can be replaced by --CO-- or --O--, R2 is independently in each occurrence a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a C1-C24 hydrocarbon group, a C1-C12 alkoxy group, a C2-C4 acyl group or a C2-C4 acyloxy group, and m represents an integer of 0 to 10. 2. The compound according to claim 1, which is represented by the formula (II): ##STR00157## wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group which may have one or more halogen atoms, A1 represents a divalent connecting group, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 and R8 independently each represents a hydrogen atom or a C1-C24 hydrocarbon group, and at least two selected from R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 and R8 may be bonded each other to form a ring, and one or more hydrogen atoms in the C1-C24 hydrocarbon group and the ring can be replaced by a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a C1-C12 alkyl group, a C1-C12 alkoxy group, a C2-C4 acyl group or a C2-C4 acyloxy group, and one or more --CH2-- in the C1-C24 hydrocarbon group and the ring can be replaced by --CO-- or --O--, and t1 represents an integer of 0 to 3. 3. The compound according to claim 2, which is represented by the formula (III): ##STR00158## wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group which may have one or more halogen atoms, A1 represents a divalent connecting group, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16, R17 and R18 independently each represents a hydrogen atom or a C1-C12 hydrocarbon group, and at least two selected from R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16, R17 and R18 may be bonded each other to form a ring, and one or more hydrogen atoms in the C1-C12 hydrocarbon group and the ring can be replaced by one or more --CH2-- in the C1-C12 hydrocarbon group and the ring can be replaced by --CO-- or --O--, and t2 and t3 independently each represents an integer of 0 to 3. 4. The compound according to claim 3, which is represented by the formula (IV): ##STR00159## wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group which may have one or more halogen atoms, A1 represents a divalent connecting group, R19 represents t4 represents an integer of 0 to 8. 5. A resin comprising a structural unit derived from the compound according to claim 1. 6. The resin according to claim 5, wherein the resin has an acid-labile group and is itself insoluble or poorly soluble in an alkali aqueous solution but becomes soluble in an alkali aqueous solution by the action of an acid. 7. A photoresist composition comprising an acid generator and the resin according to claim 5. 8. The photoresist composition according to claim 7, wherein the photoresist composition further contains a basic compound. 9. A process for producing a photoresist pattern comprising the following steps (1) to (5): (1) a step of applying the photoresist composition according to claim 7 or 8 on a substrate, (2) a step of forming a photoresist film by conducting drying, (3) a step of exposing the photoresist film to radiation, (4) a step of baking the exposed photoresist film, and (5) a step of developing the baked photoresist film with an alkaline developer, thereby forming a photoresist pattern. Description: [0001] This nonprovisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) on Patent Application No. 2010-153726 filed in JAPAN on Jul. 6, 2010, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a novel compound, a resin comprising a structural unit derived from the compound and a photoresist composition comprising the resin. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] US 2006/0194982 A1 discloses a resin comprising the structural units derived from the compounds represented by the following formulae: ##STR00002## and a photoresist composition comprising the resin. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0004] The present invention relates to the followings: <1> A compound represented by the formula (I): ##STR00003; <2> The compound according to <1>, which is represented by the formula (II): ##STR00004; <3> The compound according to <1> or <2>, which is represented by the formula (III): ##STR00005; <4> The compound according to <1>, <2> or <3>, which is represented by the formula (IV): ##STR00006; <5> A resin comprising a structural unit derived from the compound according to any one of <1> to <4>; <6> The resin according to <5>, wherein the resin has an acid-labile group and is itself insoluble or poorly soluble in an alkali aqueous solution but becomes soluble in an alkali aqueous solution by the action of an acid; <7> A photoresist composition comprising an acid generator and the resin according to <5> or <6>; <8> The photoresist composition according to <7>, wherein the photoresist composition further contains a basic compound; <9> A process for producing a photoresist pattern comprising the following steps (1) to (5): [0005] (1) a step of applying the photoresist composition according to <7> or <8> on a substrate, [0006] (2) a step of forming a photoresist film by conducting drying, [0007] (3) a step of exposing the photoresist film to radiation, [0008] (4) a step of baking the exposed photoresist film, and [0009] (5) a step of developing the baked photoresist film with an alkaline developer, thereby forming a photoresist pattern. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0010] The compound of the present invention is a compound represented by the formula (I): ##STR00007 (hereinafter, simply referred to as the compound (I)). [0011] Examples of the halogen atom represented by R1 include a fluorine atom, a chlorine atom, a bromine atom and an iodine atom. Examples of the C1-C6 alkyl group represented by R1 include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, a sec-butyl group, a tert-butyl group, a pentyl group and a hexyl group, and a C1-C4 alkyl group is preferably, and C1-C2 alkyl group is more preferable and a methyl group is especially preferable. The C1-C6 alkyl group may have one or more halogen atoms, and examples of the C1-C6 alkyl group having one or more halogen atoms include a perfluoromethyl group, a perfluoroethyl group, a perfluoropropyl group, a perfluoroisopropyl group, a perfluorobutyl group, a perfluorosec-butyl group, a perfluorotert-butyl group, a perfluoropentyl group, a perfluorohexyl group, a perchloromethyl group, perbromomethyl group and a periodomethyl group. [0012] R1 is preferably a hydrogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group, more preferably a hydrogen atom or a C1-C4 alkyl group, and especially preferably a hydrogen atom or a methyl group. [0013] Examples of the divalent connecting group represented by A1 include -T1-(CH2)n--CO-- in which T1 represents --O-- or --NH--, n represents an integer of 1 to 4, and represents a binding position to CH2═C(R1)--CO--, and T1 is preferably --O-- and n is preferably 1. [0014] Examples of A1 include a single bond, --O--CH2--CO--, --O--(CH2)2--CO--, --O--(CH2)3--CO--, --O--(CH2)4--CO--, --O--(CH2)5--CO--, --O-- (CH2)6--CO--, --NH--CH2--CO--, --NH--(CH2)2--CO--, --NH--(CH2)3--CO--, --NH--(CH2)4--CO--, --NH-- (CH2)5--CO-- and --NH--(CH2)6--CO-- in which * represents a binding position to CH2═C(R1)--CO--. [0015] Examples of the group represented by the formula (IA): ##STR00008## wherein X1 is the same as defined above and * represents a binding position to A1 include the following groups. [0016] R2 is independently in each occurrence a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a C1-C24 hydrocarbon group, a C1-C12 alkoxy group, a C2-C4 acyl group or a C2-C4 acyloxy group, and it is preferred that R2 is independently in each occurrence an alkyl group, and it is more preferred that R2 is independently in each occurrence C1-C12 alkyl group. Examples of the halogen atom include a fluorine atom, a chlorine atom, a bromine atom and an iodine atom, and a fluorine atom is preferable. Examples of the C1-C24 hydrocarbon group include an aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group and an aromatic hydrocarbon group. Examples of the aliphatic hydrocarbon group include a C1-C12 alkyl group such as a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, a pentyl group, a hexyl group, a heptyl group and an octyl group. The saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group may bemonocyclicorpolycyclic, and examples thereof include amonocyclic alicyclic hydrocarbon group such as a C3-C12 cycloalkyl group (e.g. a cyclopentyl group, a cyclohexyl group, a methylcyclohexyl group, a dimethylcyclohexyl group, a cycloheptyl group and a cyclooctyl group) and a polycyclic alicyclic hydrocarbon group such as a decahydronaphthyl group, an adamantyl group, a norbornyl group, a methylnorbornyl group, and the following: ##STR00024## [0017] Examples of the aromatic hydrocarbon group include a C6-C24 aryl group such as a phenyl group, a naphthyl group, an anthryl group, a p-methylphenyl group, a p-tert-butyl group, a p-adamantylphenyl group, a tolyl group, a xylyl group, a cumyl group, a mesityl group, a biphenyl group, a phenanthryl group, a 2,6-diethylphenyl group and a 2-methyl-6-ethylphenyl group. Examples of the C1-C12 alkoxy group include a methoxy group, an ethoxy group, a propoxy group, an isopropoxy group, a butoxy group, a sec-butoxy group, a tert-butoxy group, a pentyloxy group and a hexyloxy group. Examples of the C2-C4 acyl group include an acetyl group, a propionyl group and a butyryl group, and examples of the C2-C4 acyloxy group include an acetyloxy group, a propionyloxy group and a butyryloxy group. [0018] It is preferred that m is an integer of 0 to 6 and it is more preferred that m is an integer of 0 to 4. [0019] The compound (I) is preferably a compound represented by the formula (II): ##STR00025, and is more preferably a compound represented by the formula (III): ##STR00026, and is especially preferably a compound represented by the formula (IV): ##STR00027. [0020] Examples of the compound (I) include the following. ##STR00028## [0021] The compound (I) can be produced, for example, by reacting 2,10-camphorsultam with acrylic acid or methacrylic acid in the presence of a strong base such as sodium hydride. The reaction is preferably conducted at 10 to 30° C., and is preferably carried out in a solvent such as tetrahydrofuran and N, N-dimethylformamide. [0022] The compound (I) can be isolated by extracting the reaction mixture with an organic solvent such as ethyl acetate followed by concentrating the organic layer obtained. The obtained compound (I) can be further purified with conventional purification means such as column chromatography. [0023] The resin of the present invention comprises a structural unit derived from the compound (I). The resin of the present invention may contain one or more structural units derived from a monomer or monomers different from the compound (I) in addition to the structural unit derived from the compound (I). [0024] In the resin having one or more structural units derived from a monomer or monomers different from the compound (I) in addition to the structural unit derived from the compound (I), the content of the structural unit derived from the compound (I) is usually 3 to 80% by mole, preferably 5 to 70% by mole and more preferably 10 to 50% by mole based on 100% by mole of all the structural units of the resin. [0025] Examples of the monomers different from the compound (I) include a monomer having an acid-labile group and an acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group. [0026] The resin can be produced according to a known polymerization method. [0027] The resin of the present invention is preferably itself insoluble or poorly soluble in an alkali aqueous solution but becomes soluble in an alkali aqueous solution by the action of an acid. [0028] In this specification, "an acid-labile group" means a group capable of being eliminated by the action of an acid. [0029] In the present specification, "ester group" means "a structure having ester of carboxylic acid". Specifically, "tert-butyl ester group" is "a structure having tert-butyl ester of carboxylic acid", and may be described as "--COOC(CH3)3". [0030] Examples of the acid-labile group include a structure having ester of carboxylic acid such as an alkyl ester group in which a carbon atom adjacent to the oxygen atom is quaternary carbon atom, an alicyclic ester group in which a carbon atom adjacent to the oxygen atom is quaternary carbon atom, and a lactone ester group in which a carbon atom adjacent to the oxygen atom is quaternary carbon atom. The "quaternary carbon atom" means a "carbon atom joined to four substituents other than hydrogen atom". [0031] Examples of the acid-labile group include a group represented by the formula (10): ##STR00029## wherein Ra1, Ra2 and Ra3 independently represent a C1-C8 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C3-C20 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, and Ra1 and Ra2 can be bonded each other to form a C3-C20 ring together with the carbon atom to which they are bonded. [0032] Examples of the C1-C8 aliphatic hydrocarbon group include a C1-C8 alkyl group. Specific examples of the C1-C8 alkyl group include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, a pentyl group, a hexyl group, a heptyl group and an octyl group. The C3-C20 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group may be monocyclic or polycyclic, and examples thereof include a monocyclic alicyclic hydrocarbon group such as a C3-C20 cycloalkyl group (e.g. a cyclopentyl group, a cyclohexyl group, a methylcyclohexyl group, a dimethylcyclohexyl group, a cycloheptyl group and a cyclooctyl group) and a polycyclic alicyclic hydrocarbon group such as a decahydronaphthyl group, an adamantyl group, a norbornyl group, a methylnorbornyl group, and the following: ##STR00030## [0033] The saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group preferably has 5 to 16 carbon atoms. [0034] Examples of the ring formed by bonding Ra1 and Ra2 each other together with the carbon atom to which they are bonded include the following groups and the ring preferably has 3 to 12 carbon atoms. ##STR00031## wherein Ra3 is the same as defined above. [0035] The group represented by the formula (10) wherein Ra1, Ra2 and Ra3 independently each represent a C1-C8 alkyl group such as a tert-butyl group, the group represented by the formula (10) wherein Ra1 and Ra2 are bonded each other to form an adamantyl ring and Ra3 is a C1-C8 alkyl group such as a 2-alkyl-2-adamantyl group, and the group represented by the formula (10) wherein Ra1 and Ra2 are C1-C8 alkyl groups and Ra3 is an adamantyl group such as a 1-(1-adamantyl)-1-alkylalkoxycarbonyl group are preferable. [0036] The monomer having an acid-labile group (hereinafter, simply referred to as the monomer (a1)) is preferably a monomer having the acid-labile group represented by the formula (10) and a carbon-carbon double bond, and more preferably an acrylate monomer having an acid-labile group represented by the formula (10) in its side chain or a methacrylate monomer having an acid-labile group represented by the formula (10) in its side chain. [0037] Preferable examples of the monomer (a1) include a monomer having a C5-C20 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group. When the photoresist composition contains a resin derived from a monomer having a bulky structure such as a saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, the photoresist composition having excellent resolution tends to be obtained. [0038] Preferable examples of the monomer (a1) include a monomer represented by the formula (a1-1) and a monomer represented by the formula (a1-2): ##STR00032## wherein Ra4 and Ra5 independently represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, Ra6 and Ra7 independently represents a C1-C8 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C3-C10 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, La1 and La2 independently represents --O-- or --O--(CH2).sub.k1--CO--O-- in which * represents a binding position to --CO--, and k1 represents an integer of 1 to 7, m1 represents an integer of 0 to 14, n1 represents an integer of 0 to 10 and n2 represents 0 or 1. [0039] Ra4 and Ras are preferably methyl groups. [0040] The aliphatic hydrocarbon group preferably has 1 to 6 carbon atoms, and the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group preferably has 3 to 8 carbon atoms and more preferably 3 to 6 carbon atoms. [0041] Examples of the aliphatic hydrocarbon group include a C1-C8 alkyl group such as a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, a tert-butyl group, a pentyl group, a hexyl group, a heptyl group and an octyl group. The saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group may be monocyclic or polycyclic. Examples of the saturated monocyclic hydrocarbon group include a cycloalkyl group such as a cyclohexyl group, a methylcyclohexyl group, a dimethylcyclohexyl group, a cycloheptyl group, a methylcycloheptyl group, and examples of the saturated polycyclic hydrocarbon group include a decahydronaphthyl group, an adamantyl group, a norbornyl group, a methylnorbornyl group and the following: ##STR00033## [0042] La1 is preferably --O-- or --O-- (CH2).sub.f1--CO--O-- in which * represents a binding position to --CO--, and f1 represents an integer of 1 to 4, and is more preferably --O-- or --O--CH2--CO--O--, and is especially preferably --O--. La2 is preferably --O-- or --O--(CH2).sub.f1--CO--O-- in which represents a binding position to --CO--, and f1 is the same as defined above, and is more preferably --O-- or --O--CH2--CO--O--, and is especially preferably --O--. [0043] In the formula (a1-1), m1 is preferably an integer of 0 to 3, and is more preferably 0 or 1. In the formula (a1-2), n1 is preferably an integer of 0 to 3, and is more preferably 0 or 1. [0044] Examples of the monomer represented by the formula (a1-1) include the following. [0046] Examples of the monomer represented by the formula (a1-2) include the following. ##STR00047## ##STR00048## [0047] Among them, preferred are 1-ethyl-1-cyclohexyl acrylate, 1-ethyl-1-cyclohexyl methacrylate, 1-ethyl-1-cyclopentyl acrylate and 1-ethyl-1-cyclopentyl methacrylate, and more preferred are 1-ethyl-1-cyclohexyl methacrylate and 1-ethyl-1-cyclopentyl methacrylate. [0048] The content of the structural unit derived from the monomer (a1) in the resin is usually 10 to 95% by mole, preferably 15 to 90% by mole and more preferably 20 to 85% by mole based on 100% by mole of all the structural units of the resin. [0049] The resin can have two or more kinds of structural units derived from the monomer (a1). [0050] Other examples of the monomer (a1) include a monomer represented by the formula (a1-3): ##STR00049## wherein Ra9 represents a hydrogen atom, a C1-C3 aliphatic hydrocarbon group which can have one or more substituents, a carboxyl group, a cyano group or a --COORa13 group in which Ra13 represents a C1-C8 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C3-C8 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, and the C1-C8 aliphatic hydrocarbon group and the C3-C8 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group can have one or more hydroxyl groups, and one or more --CH2-- in the C1-C8 aliphatic hydrocarbon group and the C3-C8 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group can be replaced by --O-- or --CO--, Ra10, Ra11 and Ra12 independently represent a C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C3-C12 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, or Ra10 and Ra11 are bonded each other to form a ring together with the carbon atom to which Ra10 and Ra11 are bonded, and the C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group and the C3-C12 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group can have one or more hydroxyl groups, and one or more --CH2-- in the C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group and the C3-C12 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group can be replaced by --O-- or --CO--. [0051] Examples of the substituent include a hydroxyl group. Examples of the C1-C3 aliphatic hydrocarbon group which can have one or more substituents include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, a hydroxymethyl group and a 2-hydroxyethyl group. [0052] Examples of Ra13 include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, a 2-oxo-oxolan-3-yl group and a 2-oxo-oxolan-4-yl group. Examples of Ra10, Ra11 and Ra12 include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a cyclohexyl group, a methylcyclohexyl group, a hydroxycyclohexyl group, an oxocyclohexyl group and an adamantyl group, and examples of the ring formed by bonding Ra10 and Ra11 each other together with the carbon atom to which Ra10 and Ra11 are bonded include a cyclohexane ring and an adamantane ring. [0054] When the resin contains the structural unit derived form the monomer represented by the formula (a1-3), the content of the structural unit derived from the monomer represented by the formula (a1-3) is usually 10 to 95% by mole and preferably 15 to 90% by mole and more preferably 20 to 85% by mole based on total molar of all the structural units of the resin. [0055] Other examples of the monomer (a1) include a monomer represented by the formula (a1-4): ##STR00050## wherein R10 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a C1-C6 alkyl group or a C1-C6 halogenated alkyl group, R11 is independently in each occurrence a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a C1-C6 alkyl group, a C1-C6 alkoxy group, a C2-C4 acyl group, a C2-C4 acyloxy group, an acryloyl group or a methacryloyl group, 1a represents an integer of 0 to 4, R12 and R13 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a C1-C12 hydrocarbon group, Xa2 represents a single bond or a C1-C17 divalent saturated hydrocarbon group in which one or more --CH2-- can be replaced by --O--, --CO--, --S--, --SO2-- or --N(Rc)-- wherein Rc represents a hydrogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group, and Ya3 represents a C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group, and the C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, the C2-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group and the C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group can have one or more substituents. [0056] Examples of the halogen atom include a fluorine atom. [0057] Examples of the C1-C6 alkyl group include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, an isobutyl group, a sec-butyl group, a tert-butyl group, a pentyl group and a hexyl group, and a C1-C4 alkyl group is preferable and a C1-C2 alkyl group is more preferable and a methyl group is especially preferable. [0058] Examples of the C1-C6 halogenated alkyl group include a trifluoromethyl group, a pentafluoroethyl group, a heptafluoropropyl group, a heptafluoroisopropyl group, a nonafluorobutyl group, a nonafluoro-sec-butyl group, a nonafluoro-tert-butyl group, a perfluoropentyl group and a perfluorohexyl group. [0059] Examples of the C1-C6 alkoxy group include a methoxy group, an ethoxy group, a propoxy group, an isopropoxy group, a butoxy group, an isobutoxy group, a sec-butoxy group, a tert-butoxy group, a pentyloxy group and a hexyloxy group, and a C1-C4 alkoxy group is preferable and a C1-C2 alkoxy group is more preferable and a methoxy group is especially preferable. [0060] Examples of the C2-C4 acyl group include an acetyl group, a propionyl group and a butyryl group, and examples of the C2-C4 acyloxy group include an acetyloxy group, a propionyloxy group and a butyryloxy group. [0061] Examples of the C1-C12 hydrocarbon group include a C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group such as a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, an isobutyl group, a sec-butyl group, a tert-butyl group, a pentyl group, a hexyl group, a heptyl group, an octyl group, a 2-ethylhexyl group, a nonyl group, a decyl group, an undecyl group and a dodecyl group, and a C3-C12 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group such as a cyclohexyl group, an adamantyl group, a 2-alkyl-2-adamantyl group, a 1-(1-adamantyl)-1-alkyl group and an isobornyl group. [0062] Examples of the C1-C17 divalent saturated hydrocarbon group include a C1-C17 alkan group, a hexane-1,6-diyl group, a heptane-1,7-diyl group, an octane-1,8-diyl group, a nonane-1,9-diyl group, a decane-1,10-diyl group, a und. [0063] Examples of the C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, an isobutyl group, a sec-butyl group, a tert-butyl group, a pentyl group, a hexyl group, a heptyl group, an octyl group, a 2-ethylhexyl group, a nonyl group, a decyl group, an undecyl group and a dodecyl group. Examples of the C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group include a cyclopropyl group, a cyclobutyl group, a cyclopentyl group, a cyclohexyl group, a cycloheptyl group, a cyclooctyl group, a cyclononyl group, a cyclodecyl group, a norbornyl group, a 1-adamantyl group, a 2-adamantyl group, an isobornyl group and the following groups: ##STR00051## [0064] Examples of the C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group include a phenyl group, a naphthyl group, an anthryl group, a p-methylphenyl group, a p-tert-butylphenyl group and a p-adamantylphenyl group. [0065] Examples of the monomer represented by the formula (a1-4) include the followings. [0066] When the resin contains the structural unit derived form the monomer represented by the formula (a1-4), the content of the structural unit derived from the monomer represented by the formula (a1-4) is usually 10 to 95% by mole and preferably 15 to 90% by mole and more preferably 20 to 85% by mole based on total molar of all the structural units of the resin. [0067] The resin of the present invention preferably contains one or more structural units derived from the compound (I), one or more structural units derived from the monomer (a1) and one or more structural units derived from a monomer having no acid-labile group. The resin can have two or more kinds of structural units derived from the monomers having no acid-labile group. When the resin contains one or more structural units derived from the monomer (a1) and one or more structural units derived from a monomer having no acid-labile group, the content of the structural unit derived from the monomer (a1) is usually 10 to 80% by mole and preferably 20 to 60% by mole based on 100% by mole of all the structural units of the resin. The content of the structural unit derived from the monomer (a1) having an adamantyl group, especially the monomer represented by the formula (a1-1) in the structural unit derived from the monomer (a1), is preferably 15% by mole or more from the viewpoint of dry-etching resistance of the photoresist composition. [0068] The resin preferably contains the structural unit derived from the acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group. [0069] The acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group preferably contains one or more hydroxyl groups or a lactone ring. [0070] When the resin contains the structural unit derived from the acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group and having one or more hydroxyl groups or a lactone ring, a photoresist composition having good resolution and adhesiveness of photoresist to a substrate tends to be obtained. Hereinafter, the acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group and having one or more hydroxyl groups is simply referred to as the monomer (a2) and the acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group and having a lactone ring is simply referred to as the monomer (a3). [0071] When the photoresist composition of the present invention is used for KrF excimer laser (wavelength: 248 nm) lithography, EUV lithography and EB lithography, the resin of the present invention preferably contains a structural unit derived from the acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group and having one or more phenolic hydroxyl groups. The resin can have two or more kinds of the structural unit derived from the acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group and having one or more phenolic hydroxyl groups. [0072] Examples of the acid-stable monomer having no acid-labile group and having one or more phenolic hydroxyl groups include a monomer represented by the formula (a2-0): ##STR00059## wherein R8 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a C1-C6 alkyl group or a C1-C6 halogenated alkyl group, R9 is independently in each occurrence a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a C1-C6 alkyl group, a C1-C6 alkoxy group, a C2-C4 acyl group, a C2-C4 acyloxy group, an acryloyl group or a methacryloyl group, ma represents an integer of 0 to 4. [0073] In the formula (a2-0), examples of the halogen atom include a fluorine atom. Examples of the C1-C6 alkyl group include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, an isobutyl group, a sec-butyl group, a tert-butyl group, a pentyl group and a hexyl group, and a C1-C4 alkyl group is preferable and a C1-C2 alkyl group is more preferable and a methyl group is especially preferable. Examples of the C1-C6 alkoxy group include a methoxy group, an ethoxy group, a propoxy group, an isopropoxy group, a butoxy group, an isobutoxy group, a sec-butoxy group, a tert-butoxy group, a pentyloxy group and a hexyloxy group, and a C1-C4 alkoxy group is preferable and a C1-C2 alkoxy group is more preferable and a methoxy group is especially preferable. Examples of the C2-C4 acyl group include an acetyl group, a propionyl group and a butyryl group, and examples of the C2-C4 acyloxy group include an acetyloxy group, a propionyloxy group and a butyryloxy group. In the formula (a2-0), ma is preferably 0, 1 or 2, and is more preferably 0 or 1, and especially preferably 0. [0074] The resin containing the structural unit derived from the monomer represented by the formula (a2-0) can be produced, for example, by polymerizing a monomer obtained by protecting a hydroxyl group of the monomer represented by the formula (a2-0) with an acetyl group with other monomers followed by conducting deacetylation of the obtained polymer with a base. [0075] Examples of the monomer represented by the formula (a2-0) include the followings. ##STR00060## ##STR00061## ##STR00062## [0076] Among them, preferred are 4-hydroxystyrene and 4-hydroxy-α-methylstyrene. [0077] When the resin contains the structural unit derived from the monomer represented by the formula (a2-0), the content of the structural unit derived from the monomer represented by the formula (a2-0) is usually 5 to 90% by mole and preferably 10 to 85% by mole and more preferably 15 to 80% by mole based on total molar of all the structural units of the resin. [0078] When the photoresist composition of the present invention is used for ArF excimer laser (wavelength: 193 nm) lithography, the resin of the present invention preferably contains a structural unit derived from the monomer represented by the formula (a2-1): ##STR00063## wherein Ra14 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, Ra15 and Ra16 independently represent a hydrogen atom, a methyl group or a hydroxyl group, La3 represents --O-- or --O-- (CH2).sub.k2--CO--O-- in which represents a binding position to --CO--, and k2 represents an integer of 1 to 7, and of represents an integer of 0 to 10. [0079] In the formula (a2-1) Ra14 is preferably a methyl group, Ra15 is preferably a hydrogen atom, Ra16 is preferably a hydrogen atom or a hydroxyl group, La3 is preferably --O-- or --O--(CH2).sub.f1--CO--O-- in which * represents a binding position to --CO-- and f1 represents an integer of 1 to 4, and is more preferably --O--, and o1 is preferably 0, 1, 2 or 3 and is more preferably 0 or 1. [0080] Examples of the monomer represented by the formula (a2-1) include the followings: [0082] When the resin of the present invention contains the structural unit derived from the monomer represented by the formula (a2-1), the content of the structural unit derived from the monomer represented by the formula (a2-1) is usually 3 to 40% by mole and preferably 5 to 35% by mole and more preferably 5 to 30% by mole based on total molar of all the structural units of the resin. [0083] Examples of the lactone ring of the acid-stable monomer having a lactone ring and no acid-labile group include a monocyclic lactone ring such as β-propiolactone ring, γ-butyrolactone ring and γ-valerolactone ring, and a condensed ring formed from a monocyclic lactone ring and the other ring. Among them, preferred are γ-butyrolactone ring and a condensed lactone ring formed from γ-butyrolactone ring and the other ring. [0084] Preferable examples of the acid-stable monomer having a lactone ring and no acid-labile group include the monomers represented by the formulae (a3-1), (a3-2) and (a3-3): ##STR00069## wherein La1, La5 and La6 independently represent --O-- or --O--(CH2).sub.k3--CO--O-- in which represents a binding position to --CO-- and k3 represents an integer of 1 to 7, Ra18, Ra19 and Ra20 independently represent a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, Ra21 represents a C1-C4 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, Ra22 and Ra23 are independently in each occurrence a carboxyl group, a cyano group or a C1-C4 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, and p1 represents an integer of 0 to 5, q1 and r1 independently represent an integer of 0 to 3. [0085] Examples of La4, La5 and La6 include the same as described in La3. It is preferred that La4, La5 and La6 each independently represent --O-- or --O--(CH2).sub.d1--CO--O-- in which * represents a binding position to --CO-- and d1 represents an integer of 1 to 4, and it is more preferred that La4, La5 and La6 are--O--. Ra18, Ra19 and Ra20 are preferably methyl groups. Ra21 is preferably a methyl group. It is preferred that Ra22 and Ra23 are independently in each occurrence a carboxyl group, a cyano group or a methyl group. It is preferred that p1 is an integer of 0 to 2, and it is more preferred that p1 is 0 or 1. It is preferred that q1 and r1 independently each represent an integer of 0 to 2, and it is more preferred that q1 and r1 independently represent 0 or 1. [0086] Examples of the monomer represented by the formula (a3-1) include the followings. ##STR00070## ##STR00071## ##STR00072## ##STR00073## [0087] While the following monomer is an acid-labile monomer having a lactone ring, the resin can contain the structural unit derived from the following monomer. ##STR00074## [0088] Examples of the monomer represented by the formula (a3-2) include the followings. [0093] When the resin of the present invention contains the structural unit derived from the acid-stable monomer having a lactone ring and no acid-labile group, the content thereof is usually 5 to 50% by mole and preferably 10 to 45% by mole and more preferably 15 to 40% by mole based on total molar of all the structural units of the resin. [0094] Examples of the other monomer having no acid-labile group include the monomers represented by the formulae (a4-1), (a4-2) and (a4-3): ##STR00087## wherein Ra25 and Ra26 independently represents a hydrogen atom, a C1-C3 aliphatic hydrocarbon group which can have one or more substituents, a carboxyl group, a cyano group or a --COORa27 group in which Ra27 represents a C1-C36 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C3-C36 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, and one or more --CH2-- in the C1-C36 aliphatic hydrocarbon group and the C3-C36 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group can be replaced by --O-- or --CO--, with the proviso that the carbon atom bonded to --O-- of Ra27 of --COORa27 is not a tertiary carbon atom, or Ra25 and Ra26 are bonded together to form a carboxylic anhydride residue represented by --C(═O)OC(═O)--. [0095] Examples of the substituent of the C1-C3 aliphatic hydrocarbon group include a hydroxyl group. Examples of the C1-C3 aliphatic hydrocarbon group which can have one or more substituents include a C1-C3 alkyl group such as a methyl group, an ethyl group and a propyl group, and a C1-C3 hydroxyalkyl group such a hydroxymethyl group and a 2-hydroxyethyl group. The C1-C36 aliphatic hydrocarbon group represented by R5 is preferably a C1-C8 aliphatic hydrocarbon group and is more preferably a C1-C6 aliphatic hydrocarbon group. [0096] The C3-C36 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group represented by R25 is preferably a C4-C36 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, and is more preferably C4-C12 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group. Examples of R25 include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, a 2-oxo-oxolan-3-yl group and a 2-oxo-oxolan-4-yl group. [0098] When the resin contains a structural unit derived from a monomer represented by the formula (a4-1), (a4-2) or (a4-3), the content thereof is usually 2 to 40% by mole and preferably 3 to 30% by mole and more preferably 5 to 20% by mole based on total molar of all the structural units of the resin. [0099] Preferable resin is a copolymer comprising one or more structural units derived from the compound (I), one or more structural units derived from the monomer (a1) and the structural units derived from the monomer (a2) and/or the monomer (a3). The monomer (a1) is preferably the monomer represented by the formula (a1-1) or the monomer represented by the formula (a1-2), and is more preferably the monomer represented by the formula (a1-1). The monomer (a2) is preferably the monomer represented by the formula (a2-1), and the monomer (a3) is preferably the monomer represented by the formula (a3-1) or (a3-2). [0100] The resin of the present invention can be produced according to known polymerization methods such as radical polymerization. [0101] The resin of the present invention preferably has 2,500 or more of the weight-average molecular weight, and preferably 3,000 or more of the weight-average molecular weigh. The resin of the present invention preferably has 50,000 or less of the weight-average molecular weight, and preferably 30,000 or less of the weight-average molecular weight. The weight-average molecular weight can be measured with gel permeation chromatography. [0102] The photoresist composition of the present invention contains the resin of the present invention. The content of the resin in the photoresist composition is preferably 80% by weight or more based on sum of solid component. Hereinafter, "solid component" means the components other than a solvent among all components of the photoresist composition. The photoresist composition of the present invention contains an acid generator. The content of the acid generator is usually 1 part by weight or more and preferably 3 parts by weight or more relative to 100 parts by weight of the resin. The content of the acid generator is usually 30 parts by weight or less and preferably 25 parts by weight or less relative to 100 parts by weight of the resin. [0103] The acid generator is a substance which is decomposed to generate an acid by applying a radiation such as a light, an electron beam or the like on the substance itself or on a photoresist composition containing the substance. The acid generated from the acid generator acts on the resin resulting in cleavage of the acid-labile group existing in the resin. [0104] Examples of the acid generator include a nonionic acid generator, an ionic acid generator and the combination thereof. Examples of the nonionic acid generator include an organo-halogen compound, a sulfone compound such as a disulfone, a ketosulfone and a sulfonyldiazomethane, a sulfonate compound such as a 2-nitrobenzylsulfonate, an aromatic sulfonate, an oxime sulfonate, an N-sulfonyloxyimide, a sulfonyloxyketone and DNQ 4-sulfonate. [0105] Examples of the ionic acid generator include an onium salt compound such as a diazonium salt, a phosphonium salt, a sulfonium salt and an iodonium salt. Examples of the anion of the onium salt include a sulfonic acid anion, a sulfonylimide anion and a sulfonulmethide anion. The onium salt compound is preferable. [0107] Preferable examples of the acid generator include a fluorine-containing acid generator, and more preferable acid generator is a salt represented by the formula (B1): ##STR00088## wherein Q1 and Q2 each independently represent a fluorine atom or a C1-C6 perfluoroalkyl group, Lb1 represents a single bond or a C1-C17 saturated divalent hydrocarbon group which can have one or more substituents, and one or more --CH2-- in the saturated divalent hydrocarbon group can be replaced by --O-- or --CO--, Y represents a C1-C18 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, and the aliphatic hydrocarbon group and the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group can have one or more substituents, and one or more --CH2-- in the aliphatic hydrocarbon group and the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group can be replaced by --O--, --SO2-- or --CO--, Z.sup.+ represents an organic cation. [0108] Examples of the C1-C6 perfluoroalkyl group include a trifluoromethyl group, a pentafluoroethyl group, a heptafluoropropyl group, a nonafluorobutyl group, an undecafluoropentyl group and a tridecafluorohexyl group, and a trifluoromethyl group is preferable. Q1 and Q2 each independently preferably represent a fluorine atom or a trifluoromethyl group, and Q1 and Q2 are more preferably fluorine atoms. [0109] Examples of the C1-C17 saturated divalent hydrocarbon group include a C1-C17 alkylene group and a divalent group having an alicyclic divalent hydrocarbon group. Examples of the alkylene group include a linear alkan, a hexane-1,6-diyl group, a heptane-1,7-diyl group, an octane-1,8-diyl group, a nonane-1,9-diyl group, a decane-1,10-diyl group, an und, a branched chain alkanediyl group formed by replacing one or more hydrogen atom of the above-mentioned linear alkanediyl group by a C1-C4 alkyl group such as a 1-methylpropane-1,3-diyl group, a 2-methylpropane-1,3-diyl group, a 2-methylpropane-1,2-diyl group, a 1-methylbutane-1,4-diyl group and a 2-methylbutane-1,4-diyl group, a divalent saturated monocyclic hydrocarbon group such as a cycloalkylene group such as a 1,3-cyclobutylene group, a 1,3-cyclopentylene group, a 1,4-cyclohexylene group and 1,5-cyclooctylene group, a divalent saturated polycyclic hydrocarbon group such as a norbornane-1,4-diyl group, a norbornane-2,5-diyl group, a adamantane-1,5-diyl group and a adamantane-2,6-diyl group, and a group formed by combining two or more groups selected from the group consisting of the above-mentioned groups. [0110] Examples of the C1-C17 divalent saturated hydrocarbon group in which one or more --CH2-- are replaced by --O-- or --CO-- include --CO--O-Lb2-, --CO--O-Lb4-CO--O-Lb3-, -Lb5-O, -Lb7-O-Lb6-, --CO--O-Lb8-O--, and --CO--O-Lb10-O-Lb9-CO--O--, wherein Lb2 represents a single bond or a C1-C15 saturated hydrocarbon group, Lb3 represents a single bond or a C1-C12 saturated hydrocarbon group, Lb4 represents C1-C13 saturated hydrocarbon group, with the proviso that total carbon number of Lb3 and Lb4 is 1 to 13, Lb5 represents a C1-C15 saturated hydrocarbon group, Lb6 represents a C1-C15 saturated hydrocarbon group, Lb7 represents a C1-C15 saturated hydrocarbon group, with the proviso that total carbon number of Lb6 and Lb7 is 1 to 16, Lb8 represents a C1-C14 saturated hydrocarbon group, Lb9 represents a C1-C11 saturated hydrocarbon group, Lb10 represents a C1-C11 saturated hydrocarbon group, with the proviso that total carbon number of Lb9 and Lb10 is 1 to 12, and represents a binding position to --C(R1)(R2)--. Among them, preferred is --CO--O-Lb2-, and more preferred is --CO--O-Lb2- in which Lb2 is a single bond or --CH2--. [0112] The saturated hydrocarbon group of Lb1 may have one or more substituents, and examples thereof include a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a carboxyl group, a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group, a C7-C21 aralkyl group, a C2-C4 acyl group and a glycidyloxy group. [0113] Examples of the aralkyl group include a benzyl group, a phenylethyl group, a phenylpropyl group, a trityl group, a naphthylmethyl group and a naphthylethyl group. [0114] Examples of the substituent in Y include a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, an oxo group, a glycidyloxy group, a C2-C4 acyl group, a C1-C12 alkoxy group, a C2-C7 alkoxycarbonyl group, a C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C1-C12 hydroxy-containing aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C3-C16 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group, a C7-C21 aralkyl group and -(CH2).sub.j2--O--CO--Rb1-- in which Rb1 represents a C1-C16 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C3-C16 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group and j2 represents an integer of 0 to 4. Examples of the halogen atom include a fluorine atom, a chlorine atom, a bromine atom and an iodine atom. Examples of the acyl group include an acetyl group and a propionyl group, and examples of the alkoxy group include a methoxy group, an ethoxy group, a propoxy group, an isopropoxy group and a butoxy group. [0115] Examples of the alkoxycarbonyl group include a methoxycarbonyl group, an ethoxycarbonyl group, a propoxycarbonyl group, an isopropoxycarbonyl group and a butoxycarbonyl group. Examples of the aliphatic hydrocarbon group include the same as described above. [0116] Examples of the hydroxyl-containing aliphatic hydrocarbon group include a hydroxymethyl group. Examples of the C3-C16 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group include the same as described above, and examples of the aromatic hydrocarbon group include a phenyl group, a naphthyl group, an anthryl group, a p-methylphenyl group, a p-tert-butylphenyl group and a p-adamantylphenyl group. Examples of the aralkyl group include a benzyl group, a phenethyl group, a phenylpropyl group, a trityl group, a naphthylmethyl group and a naphthylethyl group. [0117] Examples of the C1-C18 aliphatic hydrocarbon group represented by Y include a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, an isobutyl group, a sec-butyl group, a tert-butyl group, a pentyl group, a neopentyl group, a 1-methylbutyl group, a 2-methylbutyl group, a 1,2-dimethylpropyl group, a 1-ethylpropyl group, a hexyl group, a 1-methylpentyl group, a heptyl group, an octyl group, a 2-ethylhexyl group, a nonyl group, a decyl group, an undecyl group and a dodecyl group, and a C1-C6 alkyl group is preferable. Examples of the C3-C36 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group represented by Y include the groups represented by the formulae (Y1) to (Y26): ##STR00090## ##STR00091## [0118] Among them, preferred are the groups represented by the formulae (Y1) to (Y19), and more preferred are the groups represented bythe formulae (Y11), (Y14), (Y15) and (Y19). The groups represented by the formulae (Y11) and (Y14) are especially preferable. [0119] Examples of Y having one or more substituents include the followings: ##STR00092## [0120] Y is preferably an adamantyl group which can have one or more substituents, and is more preferably an adamantyl group or an oxoadamantyl group. [0121] Among the sulfonic acid anions of the salt represented by the formula (B1), preferred is a sulfonic acid anion in which Lb1 is --CO--O-Lb2-, and more preferred are anions represented by the formulae (b1-1-1) to (b1-1-9). ##STR00093## wherein Q1, Q2 and Lb2 are the same as defined above, and Rb2 and Rb3 each independently represent a C1-C4 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, preferably a methyl group. [0122] Examples of the anions of the salt represented by the formula (B1) include the following. [0124] Examples of the cation part represented by Z.sup.+ of the salt represented by the formula (B1) include an onium cation such as a sulfonium cation, an iodonium cation, an ammonium cation, a benzothiazolium cation and a phosphonium cation. Among them, preferred are a sulfonium cation and an iodonium cation, and more preferred is an arylsulfonium cation. [0125] Preferable examples of the cation part include the cations represented by the formulae (b2-1) to (b2-4): ##STR00126## wherein Rb4, Rb5 and Rb6 independently represent a C1-C30 aliphatic hydrocarbon group which can have one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of a hydroxyl group, a C1-C12 alkoxy group and a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group, a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group which can have one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of a halogen atom, a C2-C4 acyl group and a glycidyloxy group, or a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group which can have one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a C1-C18 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group and a C1-C12 alkoxy group, Rb7 and Rb8 are independently in each occurrence a hydroxyl group, a C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C1-C12 alkoxy group, m2 and n2 independently represents an integer of 0 to 5, Rb9 and Rb10 independently represent a C1-C18 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group, or Rb9 and Rb10 are bonded to form a C2-C11 divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group which forms a ring together with the adjacent S.sup.+, and one or more --CH2-- in the divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group may be replaced by --CO--, --O-- or --S--, and Rb11 represents a hydrogen atom, a C1-C18 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group, Rb12 represents a C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group and the aromatic hydrocarbon group can have one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of a C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C1-C12 alkoxy group, a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group and a C2-C13 acyloxy group, or Rb11 and Rb12 are bonded each other to form a C1-C10 divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group which forms a 2-oxocycloalkyl group together with the adjacent --CHCO--, and one or more --CH2-- in the divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group may be replaced by --CO--, --O-- or --S--, and Rb13, Rb14, Rb15, Rb16, Rb17 and Rb18 independently represent a hydroxyl group, a C1-C12 aliphatic hydrocarbon group or a C1-C12 alkoxy group, Lb11 represents --S-- or --O-- and o2, p2, s2 and t2 each independently, represents an integer of 0 to 5, q2 and r2 each independently represents an integer of 0 to 4, and u2 represents 0 or 1. [0126] The aliphatic hydrocarbon group represented by Rb9 to Rb11 has preferably 1 to 12 carbon atoms. The saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group represented by Rb9 to Rb11 has preferably 3 to 18 carbon atoms and more preferably 4 to 12 carbon atoms. [0127] Preferable examples of the aliphatic hydrocarbon group include an alkyl group such as a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, a sec-butyl group, a tert-butyl group, a pentyl group, a hexyl group, an octyl group and a 2-ethylhexyl group. Preferable examples of the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group include a cyclopropyl group, a cyclobutyl group, a cyclopentyl group, a cyclohexyl group, a cycloheptyl group, a cyclodecyl group, a 2-alkyl-a-adamantyl group, a 1-(1-adamantyl)-1-alkyl group and an isobornyl group. Preferable examples of the aromatic group include a phenyl group, a 4-methylphenyl group, a 4-ethylphenyl group, a 4-tert-butylphenyl group, a 4-cyclohexylphenyl group, a 4-methoxyphenyl group, a biphenyl group and a naphthyl group. Examples of the aliphatic hydrocarbon group having an aromatic hydrocarbon group include a benzyl group. Examples of the alkoxy group include a methoxy group, an ethoxy group, a propoxy group, an isopropoxy group, a butoxy group, a sec-butoxy group, a tert-butoxy group, a pentyloxy group, a hexyloxy group, a heptyloxy group, an octyloxy group, a 2-ethylhexyloxy group, a nonyloxy group, a decyloxy group, an undecyloxy group and a dodecyloxy group. [0128] Examples of the C3-C12 divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group formed by bonding Rb9 and Rb10 include a trimethylene group, a tetramethylene group and a pentamethylene group. Examples of the ring group formed together with the adjacent S.sup.+ and the divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group include a thiolan-1-ium ring (tetrahydrothiphenium ring), a thian-1-ium ring and a 1,4-oxathian-4-ium ring. A C3-C7 divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group is preferable. [0129] Examples of the C1-C10 divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group formed by bonding Rb11 and Rb12 include a methylene group, an ethylene group, a trimethylene group, a tetramethylene group and a pentamethylene group and examples of the ring group include the followings. ##STR00127## A C1-C5 divalent acyclic hydrocarbon group is preferable. [0130] Among the above-mentioned cations, preferred is the cation represented by the formula (b2-1), and more preferred is the cation represented by the formula (b2-1-1). A triphenylsulfonium cation is especially preferable. ##STR00128## wherein Rb19, Rb20 and Rb21 are independently in each occurrence a halogen atom (preferably a fluorine atom), a hydroxyl group, a C1-C18 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a C3-C18 saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or a C1-C12 alkoxy group, and one or more hydrogen atoms of the aliphatic hydrocarbon group can be replaced by a hydroxyl group, a C1-C12 alkoxy group or a C6-C18 aromatic hydrocarbon group, and one or more hydrogen atoms of the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group can be replaced by a halogen atom, a glycidyloxy group or a C2-C4 acyl group, and v2, w2 and x2 independently each represent an integer of 0 to 5. [0131] The aliphatic hydrocarbon group has preferably 1 to 12 carbon atoms, and the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group has preferably 4 to 18 carbon atoms, and v2, w2 and x2 independently each preferably represent 0 or 1. [0132] It is preferred that Rb19, Rb20 and Rb21 are independently in each occurrence a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a C1-C12 alkyl group or a C1-C12 alkoxy group, and v2, w2 and x2 independently each represent an integer of 0 to 5. It is more preferred that Rb19, Rb20 and Rb21 are independently in each occurrence a fluorine atom, a hydroxyl group, a C1-C12 alkyl group or a C1-C12 alkoxy group, and v2, w2 and x2 independently each represent 0 or 1. [0133] Examples of the cation represented by the formula (b2-1) include the following. ##STR00129## ##STR00130## ##STR00131## [0134] Examples of the cation represented by the formula (b2-2) include the followings. ##STR00132## [0135] Examples of the cation represented by the formula (b2-3) include the followings. ##STR00133## ##STR00134## ##STR00135## [0136] Examples of the cation represented by the formula (b2-4) include the followings. [0137] Examples of the salt represented by the formula (B1) include a salt wherein the anion is any one of the above-mentioned anions and the cation is any one of organic cations. Preferable examples of the salt include a combination of any one of anions represented by the formulae (b1-1-1) to (b1-1-9) and the cation represented by the formulae (b2-1-1), and a combination of any one of anions represented by the formulae (b1-1-3) to (b1-1-5) and the cation represented by the formulae (b2-3). [0138] The salt represented by the formulae (B1-1) to (B1-17) are preferable, and the salt represented by the formulae (B1-1), (B1-2), (B1-6), (B1-11), (B1-12), (B1-13) and (B1-14) are more preferable. ##STR00142## ##STR00143## ##STR00144## [0139] Two or more kinds of the acid generators can be used in combination. [0140] In the present resist composition, performance deterioration caused by inactivation of acid which occurs due to post exposure delay can be diminished by adding a quencher such as a basic compound. The content of the basic compound is usually 0.01 to 1% by weight based on solid component. [0141] The basic compound is preferably an organic base compound, and more preferably a nitrogen-containing organic base compound. [0142] Examples thereof include an amine compound such as an aliphatic amine and an aromatic amine and an ammonium salt. Examples of the aliphatic amine include a primary amine, a secondary amine and a tertiary amine. Examples of the aromatic amine include an aromatic amine in which aromatic ring has one or more amino groups such as aniline and a heteroaromatic amine such as pyridine. Preferable examples thereof include an aromatic amine represented by the formula (C2): ##STR00145## wherein Arc1 represents an aromatic hydrocarbon group, and Rc5 and Rc6 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or an aromatic hydrocarbon group, and the aliphatic hydrocarbon. [0143] The aliphatic hydrocarbon group is preferably an alkyl group and the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group is preferably a cycloalkyl group. The aliphatic hydrocarbon group preferably has 1 to 6 carbon atoms. The saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group preferably has 5 to 10 carbon atoms. The aromatic hydrocarbon group preferably has 6 to 10 carbon atoms. [0144] As the aromatic amine represented by the formula (C2), an amine represented by the formula (C2-1): ##STR00146## wherein Rc5 and Rc6 are the same as defined above, and Rc7 is independently in each occurrence an aliphatic hydrocarbon group, an alkoxy group, a saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or an aromatic hydrocarbon group, and the aliphatic hydrocarbon group, the alkoxy group, the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group and the aromatic hydrocarbon group can have one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of a hydroxyl group, an amino group, an amino group having one or two C1-C4 alkyl groups and a C1-C6 alkoxy group, and m3 represents an integer of 0 to 3, is preferable. The aliphatic hydrocarbon group is preferably an alkyl group and the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group is preferably a cycloalkyl group. The aliphatic hydrocarbon group preferably has 1 to 6 carbon atoms. [0145] The saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group preferably has 5 to 10 carbon atoms. The aromatic hydrocarbon group preferably has 6 to 10 carbon atoms. The alkoxy group preferably has 1 to 6 carbon atoms. [0146] An ammonium salt represented by the formula (C2-2): ##STR00147## wherein Rc8', Rc9', Rc10' and Rc11' each independently represent and An.sup.- represents OH.sup.-, is also preferable. The aliphatic hydrocarbon group is preferably an alkyl group and the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group is preferably a cycloalkyl group. The aliphatic hydrocarbon group preferably has 1 to 8 carbon atoms. The saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group preferably has 5 to 10 carbon atoms. The aromatic hydrocarbon group preferably has 6 to 10 carbon atoms. The alkoxy group preferably has 1 to 6 carbon atoms. [0147] Examples of the aromatic amine represented by the formula (C2) include 1-naphthylamine, 2-naphthylamine, aniline, diisopropylaniline, 2-methylaniline, 3-methylaniline, 4-methylaniline, 4-nitroaniline, N-methylaniline, N,N-dimethylaniline, and diphenylamine, and among them, preferred is diisopropylaniline and more preferred is 2,6-diisopropylaniline. [0148] Examples of the ammonium salt represented by the formula (C2-C2) include tetramethylammonium hydroxide and tetrabutylammonium hydroxide. [0149] Other examples of the basic compound include amines represented by the formulae (C3) to (C11): ##STR00148## wherein Rc8, Rc20, Rc21, and Rc23 to Rc28 each independently represent an aliphatic hydrocarbon group, an alkoxy group, a saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or an aromatic hydrocarbon group, and the aliphatic hydrocarbon group, the alkoxy, Rc9, Rc10, Rc11 to Rc14, Rc16 to Rc19, and Rc22 each independently represents a hydrogen atom, Rc15 is independently in each occurrence an aliphatic hydrocarbon group, a saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group or an alkanoyl group, Lc1 and Lc2 each independently represents a divalent aliphatic hydrocarbon group, --CO--, --C(═NH)--, --C(═NRc3)--, --S--, --S--S-- or a combination thereof and Rc3 represents a C1-C4 alkyl group, O3 to u3 each independently represents an integer of 0 to 3 and n3 represents an integer of 0 to 8. [0150] The aliphatic hydrocarbon group has preferably 1 to 6 carbon atoms, and the saturated cyclic hydrocarbon group has preferably 3 to 6 carbon atoms, and the alkanoyl group has preferably 2 to 6 carbon atoms, and the divalent aliphatic hydrocarbon group has preferably 1 to 6 carbon atoms. The divalent aliphatic hydrocarbon group is preferably an alkylene group. [0152] Examples of the amine represented by the formula (C4) include piperazine. Examples of the amine represented by the formula (C5) include morpholine. Examples of the amine represented by the formula (C6) include piperidine and hindered amine compounds having a piperidine skeleton as disclosed in JP 11-52575 A. Examples of the amine represented by the formula (C7) include 2,2'-methylenebisaniline. Examples of the amine represented by the formula (C8) include imidazole and 4-methylimidazole. Examples of the amine represented by the formula (C9) include pyridine and 4-methylpyridine. Examples of the amine represented by the formula (C10) include di-2-pyridyl ketone, 1,2-di(2-pyridyl)ethane, 1,2-di(4-pyridyl)ethane, 1,3-di(4-pyridyl) propane, 1,2-bis(2-pyridyl)ethene, 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethene, 1,2-di(4-pyridyloxy)ethane, 4,4'-dipyridyl sulfide, 4,4'-dipyridyl disulfide, 2,2'-dipyridylamine and 2,2'-dipicolylamine. Examples of the amine represented by the formula (C11) include bipyridine. [0153] The photoresist composition of the present invention usually contains one or more solvents. Examples of the solvent include a glycol ether ester such as ethyl cellosolve acetate, methyl cellosolve acetate and propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate; a glycol ether such as propylene glycol monomethyl ether; an acyclic ester such as ethyl lactate, butyl acetate, amyl acetate and ethyl pyruvate; a ketone such as acetone, methyl isobutyl ketone, 2-heptanone and cyclohexanone; and a cyclic ester such as γ-butyrolactone. [0154] The amount of the solvent is usually 90% by weight or more, preferably 92% by weight or more preferably 94% by weight or more based on total amount of the photoresist composition of the present invention. The amount of the solvent is usually 99.9% by weight or less based on total amount of the photoresist composition of the present invention. The photoresist composition containing a solvent can be preferably used for producing a thin layer photoresist pattern. [0155] The photoresist composition of the present invention can contain, if necessary, a small amount of various additives such as a sensitizer, a dissolution inhibitor, other polymers, a surfactant, a stabilizer and a dye as long as the effect of the present invention is not prevented. [0156] A photoresist pattern can be produced by the following steps (1) to (5): [0157] (1) a step of applying the photoresist composition of the present invention on a substrate, [0158] (2) a step of forming a photoresist film by conducting drying, [0159] (3) a step of exposing the photoresist film to radiation, [0160] (4) a step of baking the exposed photoresist film, and [0161] (5) a step of developing the baked photoresist film with an alkaline developer, thereby forming a photoresist pattern. [0162] The applying of the photoresist composition on a substrate is usually conducted using a conventional apparatus such as spin coater. [0163] The formation of the photoresist film is usually conducted using a heating apparatus such as hot plate or a decompressor, and the heating temperature is usually 50 to 200° C., and the operation pressure is usually 1 to 1.0105 Pa. [0164] The photoresist film obtained is exposed to radiation using an exposure system. The exposure is usually conducted through a mask having a pattern corresponding to the desired photoresist pattern. Examples of the exposure source include a light source radiating laser light in a UV-region such as a KrF excimer laser (wavelength: 248 nm), an ArF excimer laser (wavelength: 193 nm) and a F2 laser (wavelength: 157 nm), and a light source radiating harmonic laser light in a far UV region or a vacuum UV region by wavelength conversion of laser light from a solid laser light source (such as YAG or semiconductor laser). [0165] The temperature of baking of the exposed photoresist film is usually 50 to 200° C., and preferably 70 to 150° C. [0166] The development of the baked photoresist film is usually carried out using a development apparatus. The alkaline developer used may be any one of various alkaline aqueous solution used in the art. Generally, an aqueous solution of tetramethylammonium hydroxide or (2-hydroxyethyl)trimethylammoniumhydroxide (commonly known as "choline") is often used. After development, the photoresist pattern formed is preferably washed with ultrapure water, and the remained water on the photoresist pattern and the substrate is preferably removed. [0168] The present invention will be described more specifically by Examples, which are not construed to limit the scope of the present invention. [0169] The "%" and "part(s)" used to represent the content of any component and the amount of any material used in the following examples and comparative examples are on a weight basis unless otherwise specifically noted. The weight-average molecular weight of any material used in the following examples is a value found by gel permeation chromatography [HLC-8120GPC Type, Column (Three Columns with guard column): TSKgel Multipore HXL-M, manufactured by TOSOH CORPORATION, Solvent: Tetrahydrofuran, Flow rate: 1.0 mL/min., Detector: RI detector, Column temperature: 40° C., Injection volume: 100 μL] using standard polystyrene as a standard reference material manufactured by TOSOH CORPORATION. Structures of compounds were determined by NMR (ECA-500 Type, manufactured by JEOL LTD.) and mass spectrometry (JMS-700, manufactured by JEOL LTD.). Example 1 Synthesis of Compound Represented by the Formula (I-1) ##STR00149## [0171] To a four-necked flask equipped with a condenser and a stirrer, 16.89 parts of sodium hydride and 152 parts of toluene were added. The resultant mixture was adjusted at the inner temperature of 23° C. To the mixture, a solution prepared by dissolving 55.56 parts of (-)-2,10-camphorsultam in 345 parts of toluene was added dropwise over 1 hour. To the resultant mixture, a solution prepared by diluting 34.97 parts of chloroacetyl chloride with 108 parts of toluene was added dropwise over 1 hour. The mixture obtained was stirred for 6 hours. To the reaction mixture obtained, 305 parts of water was added followed by extracting with 457 parts of ethyl acetate. [0172] The organic layer obtained was washed with 152 parts of 1M aqueous saturated sodium hydrogen carbonate solution and then with 251 parts of aqueous sodium chloride solution. The organic layer was dried over magnesium sulfate. After drying, the organic layer was concentrated and the residue was purified with silica gel chromatography (developing solvent: heptane and ethyl acetate) to obtain 58.67 parts of the compound represented by the formula (II-1). [0176] To a four-necked flask equipped with a condenser and a stirrer, 25.95 parts of methacrylic acid and 259 parts of N,N-dimethylformamide were added. To the resultant mixture, 41.65 parts of potassium carbonate and 12.51 parts of potassium iodide were added, and then, the resultant mixture was heated up to 50° C. To the mixture, a solution prepared by dissolving 58.63 parts of the compound represented by the formula (II-1) in 120 parts of N,N-dimethylformamide was added dropwise over 1 hour. The resultant mixture was stirred for 6 hours. To the reaction mixture obtained, 520 parts of water and 390 parts of ethyl acetate were added, and then, the extraction was conducted. The organic layer obtained was washed with 520 parts of water. The organic layer was dried over magnesium sulfate. After drying, the organic layer was concentrated and the residue was purified with silica gel chromatography (developing solvent: heptane and ethyl acetate) to obtain 67.24 parts of the compound represented by the formula (I-1). [0180] In the following Examples, Monomer (A), Monomer (B), Monomer (C), Monomer (D) and Monomer (1-1) represented by the followings were used. ##STR00150## Example 2 Synthesis of Resin A1 [018143/14/15 0.8 mol % based on all monomer molar amount and azobis(2,4-dimethylvaleronitrile) as an initiator in a ratio of 2.4 mol % based on all monomer molar amount were added, and the obtained mixture was heated at 6682] As a result, a resin having a weight-average molecular weight of 1.6×104 was obtained in a yield of 74%. The resin had the following structural units. This is called as resin A1. ##STR00151## Example 3 Synthesis of Resin A2 [018345/18/9 7584] As a result, a resin having a weight-average molecular weight of 8.2×103 was obtained in a yield of 71%. The resin had the following structural units. This is called as resin A2. ##STR00152## Example 4 Synthesis of Resin A3 [0185] To a four-necked flask equipped with a condenser and a stirrer, Monomer (A), Monomer (C), Monomer (D) and Monomer (I-1) were mixed in a molar ratio of 25/45/18/12 (Monomer (A)/Monomer (C)/Monomer (D)/Monomer (I-1)), and 1,4-dioxane in 1.5 times part based on total parts of all monomers was added thereto to prepare a solution. To the solution obtained, azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator in a ratio of 1 mol % based on all monomer molar amount and azobis(2,4-dimethylvaleronitrile) as an initiator in a ratio of 3 mol % based on all monomer molar amount were added, and the obtained mixture was heated at 75° C. for about 5 hours. The reaction mixture obtained was poured into a mixture of a large amount of methanol and water to cause precipitation, and this operation was further repeated twice for purification. As a result, a resin having a weight-average molecular weight of 8.5×103 was obtained in a yield of 71%. The resin had the following structural units. This is called as resin A3. ##STR00153## Comparative Resin Synthesis Example 1 Synthesis of Resin H1 [0186] To a four-necked flask equipped with a condenser and a thermometer, Monomer (A), Monomer (B) and Monomer (C) were mixed in a molar ratio of 50/25/25 (Monomer (A)/Monomer (B)/Monomer (C)), and 1,4-dioxane in 1.5 times part based on total parts of all monomers was added thereto to prepare a solution. To the solution obtained, azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator in a ratio 77° C. for about 5 hours. The reaction mixture obtained was poured into a mixture of a large amount of methanol and water (methanol/water=3/1) to cause precipitation, and this operation was further repeated twice for purification. As a result, a resin having a weight-average molecular weight of about 8.0×103 was obtained in a yield of 60%. [0187] The resin had the following structural units. This is called as resin H1. [0196] Silicon wafers having a diameter of 12 inches were each coated with "SR-309", which is an organic anti-reflective coating composition available from Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd., and then baked at 205° C. for 60 seconds, to form a 930 Å-thick organic anti-reflective coating. Each of the photoresist compositions prepared as above was spin-coated over the anti-reflective coating so that the thickness of the resulting film became 85 nm after drying. The silicon wafers thus coated with the respective photoresist compositions were each prebaked on a direct hotplate at a temperature shown in a column of "PB" in Table 1 for 60 seconds. [0197] Using an ArF excimer stepper for immersion exposure ("XT: 1900Gi" manufactured by ASML, NA=1.35, 3/4 Annular, X-Y polarization), each wafer thus formed with the respective resist film was subjected to line and space pattern immersion exposure, with the exposure quantity being varied stepwise. [0198] After the exposure, each wafer was subjected to post-exposure baking on a hotplate at a temperature shown in column of "PEB" in Table 1 for 60 seconds and then to paddle development for 60 seconds with an aqueous solution of 2.38 wt % tetramethylammonium hydroxide. [0199] Each of photoresist patterns developed on the organic anti-reflective coating substrate after the development was observed with a scanning electron microscope, the results of which are shown in Table 2. [0200] Effective Sensitivity (ES): It is expressed as the amount of exposure that 50 nm line pattern and the space pattern become 1:1 after exposure and development. [0201] Line Edge Roughness (LER): The photoresist pattern was observed with a scanning electron microscope, and the difference between the height of the highest point and height of the lowest point of the scabrous wall surface of the photoresist pattern was measured. When the difference is 5 nm or less, LER is good and its evaluation is marked by "◯", and when the difference is more than 5 nm, LER is bad and its evaluation is marked by "X". The smaller the difference is, the better the photopattern is. [0202] Exposure latitude (EL): Photoresist patterns which gave the space pattern split by the line pattern at the exposure amount of ES±10% and development were observed with a scanning electron microscope. Line widths of the obtained patterns of 50 nm line and space pattern were plotted against exposure amounts on forming the pattern to make a graph wherein a horizontal axis is an exposure amount and a vertical axis is a line width of the pattern. When the absolute value of the slope of the plotted line is 1.1 nm/(MJ/cm2) or less, exposure latitude is very good and its evaluation is marked by ".circleincircle.", when the absolute value of the slope of the plotted line is more than 1.1 nm/(MJ/cm2) and is 1.3 nm/(MJ/cm2) or less, exposure latitude is good and its evaluation is marked by "◯", and when the absolute value of the slope of the plotted line is more than 1.3 nm/(MJ/cm2) and is 1.5 nm/(MJ/cm2) or less, exposure latitude is normal and its evaluation is marked by "Δ", and when the absolute value of the slope of the plotted line is more than 1.5 nm/(MJ/cm2) or 50 nm line and space pattern was not developed, exposure latitude is bad and its evaluation is marked by "X".	eng	8b4a497f-ffe5-40f1-a7d6-2665c36f2960	http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20120009519
Return to: See also: A careful examination of Quantum Theory and General Relativity will show that the two doctrines are divided from each other not only on the question of method but also — and perhaps more radically — on the question of language. Quantum Theory uses an objective language and speaks of a 'substance' perceived by the human senses; General Relativity uses a symbolic language and speaks of a 'substance' intuitively perceived by man. There is a double circuit of knowledge connecting man with the cosmos. First, there is the circuit of knowledge passing through our senses and based upon observation. This kind of perception of the cosmos is indirect, since it is interpreted by a number of impulses travelling along our nervous system and ending in our brain. Such impulses are very closely associated with our external universe, but they are not the same thing as the external universe itself. The same is true of the electromagnetic impulses which are able to reproduce a picture of reality on the television screen. This picture is not to be confused with the reality itself; for example, we should never think of trying to drink the glass of water offered to us by an actor on the screen. It is also to be noted about this sensory knowledge of the cosmos that it is incomplete: for, the Universe being continuous, it must follow that any point is indissociable from its neighbours (however distant these may be); and in this sense there are present at any one point an infinite number of characteristics of the Universe. The human senses, being restricted in number and therefore not infinitely perfect, are unable to apprehend at any one point more than a certain number of these characteristics. This composite of characteristics gathered from the cosmos at a given point constitutes what man calls an 'object' at that point. This idea of an object is likely to be very clear to man, for he is dealing with a concept directly materialised by his senses and which he can therefore express in an immediate fashion. He can invent words, i.e., a language, to designate each of the objects he perceives; he can say, for example, "This is a red wooden sphere three centimetres in diameter". The next step towards some kind of 'intellectualising' of the concept of an object is to start from this simple notion and then make a number of abstractions from it. To do this, you will need to select only certain characteristics in the object perceived, thus making it possible to have a direct apprehension of the sense of a group of words which need not necessarily correspond to objects actually perceived. For example, in the sentence quoted above, a first step in abstraction would be to do away with the 'red' and read 'a wooden sphere three centimetres in diameter'. This would give a picture of the set of spheres of all possible colours, but of this shape and material. A further abstraction would be to do away with the word 'wooden', and read 'a sphere three centimetres in diameter'. Lastly, in a final abstraction, only the shape would be left — 'a sphere'. Thus we can pass from one abstraction to another, using the objective language which has to do with objects perceived by our senses, and construct a language in which each word has a meaning directly associated with our perception of Nature. The next stage in improving this objective language consists in using 'relationships' to bring about a correspondence between characteristics belonging to different observations, i.e., to different objects. Thus I can use my senses to consider the object 'Earth'; and I note that it has a characteristic in common with the 'red wooden sphere three centimetres in diameter'. So I state the relationship, 'The Earth has the form of a sphere'. The Quantum Theory, based entirely on observation, makes use of this objective language in its most elaborate form. Here, the network of objects, abstractions, and relationships reaches a complexity and refinement to which the language of everyday speech is unaccustomed. Nevertheless this language in the nature of the case remains objective; and we must note that it will never be able to express anything else but the Known, that is to say the immediate data of our senses. On the other hand, it will always be relatively easy to 'visualise' the meaning of this language by a direct appeal to the experience of our senses. Man is likewise linked with the cosmos through a quite different circuit of knowledge. Materially speaking, we are made up of the same physico-chemical elements as those that occur in Nature; and in the ultimate analysis, man is constructed from the elementary particles studied by physics. We know that these particles are not individual entities leading an isolated existence in space. Each of them has around it a field (nuclear, electromagnetic, gravitational), enabling it to act upon any other point in the cosmos, however distant (though the intensity of this action naturally decreases very rapidly with distance). Inversely, every speck of matter in the Universe acts on a given particle in the same way. In this sense, every single particle is united in an indissociable manner with the whole: it is coextensive with the whole Universe. The same is true of man, for the matter he is made of consists of a vast number of these elementary corpuscles. We must therefore not be blind to the fact that man is thus the possessor of a direct knowledge of the cosmos, that is, a knowledge not mediated by the channel of his senses. This knowledge may therefore be called intuitive. But this is where the difficulties begin. Man cannot put into words this 'communion' with the whole cosmos, for it represents an infinite number of perceptions, abstractions, and relationships all lumped together. It is thus not possible to dissect this total intuitive feeling into words. The first word tentatively invented to convey this feeling to someone else would have to be able to express the whole all at once; but it would certainly fail to suggest anything like what a normal 'word' conveys in any known language. What, then, is to be done? Man's first instinct is to say nothing; but he often has that feeling of silent awareness in front of some marvel of Nature, or when he stands at some sacred spot. But man wants to communicate to his fellows any experience he may have had of the knowledge of the cosmos, even if this is only intuitive knowledge. He therefore embarks upon a course opposite to that which has led him to work out an objective language. So he proceeds to do the opposite of abstraction, and begins a process of 'concretisation'. He borrows words from his objective language to symbolise this feeling of instinctive knowledge. This is how all religious language is built up — upon images and symbols. A new step forward in concretisation produces the language of art, which is likewise symbolic inasmuch as it attempts to apprehend a reality hidden beneath the appearances registered by our senses. The objective language was perfected by 'relationships' between different objects. But since intuition is awareness of the whole, symbolic language will follow the opposite course and progress by means of 'simplifications', reducing the infinite number of relationships between all the points of the Real to a finite number. Is it possible for a true science to arise from this symbolic language? This is an intensely interesting question, for it is certain that this circuit of direct knowledge brings us fundamental truths which it would be very desirable to incorporate into scientific knowledge. What science asks of any language with pretensions to being scientific is that it should be interpersonal, that is, so constructed as to have the same meaning for everyone. Could this be true of our symbolic language as applied to the intuitive awareness of the cosmos? It must be admitted that religion and art are two examples of symbolic languages which are not interpersonal, and so not scientific. A work of art — whether in music, painting, sculpture, or poetry — is very far from arousing the same emotional or visual response in everybody. Why is this so? Surely we should not simply accept this objection without pushing our inquiries a good deal further and discovering why this important circuit of intuitive knowledge could not be the basis of a science. As intimated above, reflection suggests that there is a particular importance in the first word to be coined as an expression of our intuitive knowledge of the cosmos. The intuition must be one, since it is an awareness of the whole; and the first word to be chosen to denote this intuition must define the whole 'substance' on which the rest of the language is to be constructed. We shall then go on to say that this 'substance' is like this or that by building up symbolical imagery from the vocabulary of our objective language. In order that the symbolic language should have some chance of being scientific, the first word must be scientific too, that is to say, interpersonal, and have one and the same meaning for all of us. Suppose we try to disconnect ourselves from the whole of our exterior world by withdrawing from all our sense-perception, blocking our ears, and closing our eyes. What instinctive awareness still persists apart from the channel of our senses? The answer given by religion is 'the soul'. Here is religion's first word: our 'substance' is to be the soul. But this is not a scientific word, for it is on too deep a level; it does not arouse the same feeling in everyone. The whole symbolic language of religion is destined to remain on this deep level and will never, unfortunately, become scientific. The answer of art is that the 'self' is primary. "A work of art", wrote Emile Zola, "is a corner of creation as seen through the medium of a particular temperament"; and he was quite right. But does the term 'self' express a scientific reality? Here too the level of intuitive knowledge remains too deep: no interpersonal symbolic language could be built up on the 'self'. What is the verdict of the scientist? He supports the philosopher's opinion, for he holds that the feeling of which man is aware when he has suppressed all the messages from his senses is that of the passing of subjective time, the notion of duration — in fact, the notion of our own ageing. The miracle has been accomplished! Here at last is our long-sought word, the word to serve as a basis for our scientific symbolic language. Present-day physics, and in particular General Relativity, does in fact tell us that the process of ageing has the following two characteristics: It is an 'invariant': ageing is the same for all observers in the Universe, whatever their particular movements may be. The physicists, however, call this 'ageing' by the more general term of 'characteristic time'. As far as ageing is concerned, man behaves in the same way as the atoms of which he is composed. The characteristic times (characteristic frequencies corresponding to the atomic bands in the spectrum) are only the 'measurements' of these characteristic times that can vary from one observer to another. This ageing, of which we are intuitively conscious, is a physical quantity analogous, when multiplied by c, the constant speed of light, to a 'distance' in space-time. The words 'ageing' and 'space-time' are therefore equivalent; and so space-time is the 'substance' that is intuitively apprehended and has an impersonal significance; it can therefore be the basis for the whole scientific symbolic language we are going to construct. These were precisely the conclusions reached by Albert Einstein in his Theory of General Relativity. By means of geometry he had been able to construct in a scientific manner a whole symbolic language bearing upon the unique intuitive concept of 'space-time'. The form and principal directions this space-time can assume from one point to another enabled him to arrive at a description of Nature, afterwards extended to constitute a Unitary Theory which carried the scientific knowledge of man as far as the map of the Real underlying the Known of our sensory data. These two stages in the progress of a symbolic language stand out very clearly in General Relativity, and provide it with its bases and its methods. First, there had to be a concretisation of the intuitive feelings in the form of this concept of space-time, which is the basis of all Relativity. Then there had to be a simplification of the number of relationships provided by space-time, obtained by choosing certain broad principles of Nature (such as the conservation of energy) as postulates on which the whole language would be built up. All this was the work of the a priori or axiomatic method discussed at great length in the previous chapter. We must not think that symbolic language expresses images which cannot be 'visualised by man'. Symbolic language is necessarily built up of words borrowed from the vocabulary of objective language. We can therefore imagine the meaning of each word separately by recalling what our senses tell us. But the peculiar feature of symbolic language is that its words are put together in such a way as to express a situation which does not correspond to our sense-perceptions of the Universe. As an illustration of this, let us first take the symbolic language of dreams. Imagine that in a dream I have seen myself stretch out my arms and fly through the air. I know that this picture can only be a symbol whose meaning is of necessity something different from what the dream set before me. I can describe my dream to someone else in the form of language, but my hearer and I will be perfectly aware of the symbolic meaning of this language, in spite of the fact that neither of us will have the slightest difficulty in 'visualising' a 'man flying through the air simply by holding his arms outstretched'. In the same way General Relativity, using the symbolic language of geometry, is able to describe what our Universe looks like quite independently of our sense-perception. Thus General Relativity tells us that an elementary particle can be expressed as 'a certain curvature of space-time'. Now this is an image we can perfectly well 'visualise'. It means that if one were to draw lines representing 'the shortest distance between two points' (the equivalent of our 'straight line' in empty space) in the region of space-time occupied by an elementary particle, we should notice that these lines were 'curved', just as the shortest route between two places with a mountain in between them is necessarily curved. Thus there is no difficulty in understanding what is meant by the 'curvature of space-time'. But — and this is where the symbolism comes in — our senses never reveal an elementary particle in this way; they merely give us a 'corpuscular' image of an elementary particle. Take, for example, the little luminous impact of an electron striking a cathode ray tube screen: this sensory perception of the electron has no direct relation to a curvature of space-time any more than the sensory image I can conjure up of man is related to 'a man flying through the air'. Here, then, is an important characteristic of this symbolic language: one can form a clear picture of the images expressed by it, but these images do not correspond to our sensory knowledge of the Universe. This leads at once to a further question: if this language is not addressed to the images of our 'known' universe, do the logical relationships of the objective language also hold good between the different terms of this symbolic language? Taking this symbolic language in its widest connotation, that is to say, as including the languages of religion, art, dreams, etc., the general answer to this question must be in the negative. It is possible that the connections between images suggested by the symbolic language may fit in to a logical framework, but this is not a necessary requirement. For the symbolic language may try to express — as it does in art and religion — unconscious and irrational links between man and the whole cosmos. In that case, language works only by way of 'suggestion'; it aims at producing 'feeling' rather than 'knowledge', and for this it is not necessarily bound to have recourse to the rules of logic. Thus one can hardly find any 'logical' relationships between the notes or harmonies of a musical score. The symbolical language of music is therefore not a 'logical' language. But if a symbolic language is also aiming at being scientific, it must of necessity also be logical. This is the case with the symbolic language of General Relativity. It uses the language of geometry and mathematics, which is the logical language par excellence. We have therefore reached the conclusion that a symbolic language is not necessarily logical except when it also claims to be scientific. Now let us turn our attention to the language of General Relativity — which is both symbolic and logical — and ask ourselves a question which is of prime importance for the knowledge of man. This language, particularly in the form occurring in a Unitary Theory, allows us to draw up a map of the Real, that is to say, to describe what the Universe is independently of man's sensory observations. This map does not appear to have any 'gaps' in it, for it gives an account of the look of the Universe not only at every point but also in its totality. So we have a right to ask the question: Is this map without 'gaps' a complete map? That is to say, can it give an answer to all the questions we could ask about the Universe? This is an important problem: for if the answer is in the affirmative, it will mean that once this map has been made there will be nothing more to discover — at least in principle. All that ever could be known about the Universe would be as it were 'foreseen' in this map; and anything that man could observe would find a place and an explanation in it. Very well then. Let us by way of example take the map of the Real proposed by the Unitary Theory, and let us see, by examining it on the smallest and on the largest scale, if we are not led to put at least one question that the map cannot answer. At the small end of the scale, all seems to be well: the distinction between the Real and the Known disposes of the wave/particle difficulty, for the real is continuous and undulatory; discontinuity appears only in the Known and arises from the limitations of our senses. The map of the Real then gives a place to all observed phenomena, in particular the physical fields — nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational. But there remains the problem of the Universe as a whole. This map shows space-time to be curved and bending back on itself like the surface of a sphere; so that if one set out on a journey through the cosmos 'following one's nose', one would in the end come back to one's starting-point — as happens on this Earth. We can 'visualise' this situation without any difficulty. We have only to realise that a 'straight line' drawn in space-time is never the straight line of Euclidean geometry, but is of necessity slightly curved, so that if produced far enough it becomes a circle and closes in on itself. But this raises a 'simple' question which, however, on further examination appears to be not quite so simple: if the Universe is analogous to the surface of a sphere, what is there 'inside' or 'outside' the sphere? Is this a question that can be answered? "Yes", says the physicist, on first thoughts. "I have just shown that the entire Universe consists of the surface of this sphere. You therefore have no right to ask me 'what there is' outside this sphere, for if there had been something it would have been part of the Universe (since the Universe is the sum total of all things), and I shouldn't have told you that the Universe consisted of nothing but the surface of the sphere. Your question is therefore meaningless; I can no more answer it than if you asked: 'What is there inside a shadow?' A shadow has no inside; and the Universe has no inside or outside." But if the questioner persists and is a bit of a geometrician (and probably persists because he is a geometrician!), he may comment as follows: "I cannot imagine any geometrical figure without giving it some sort of outline. And so I cannot imagine a straight line actually drawn in space without considering it as delimiting two regions of a surface, that is to say, a geometrical figure having one more dimension than my straight line. In the same way, I cannot understand what a plane surface is unless I endow it with the quality of separating two regions of a volume, that is to say, a figure with one more dimension. Thus I cannot imagine the surface of the sphere which symbolises the whole of our Universe without at the same time imagining the volume in which this surface is immersed. Without hesitation of fear of error, I can extrapolate these considerations to the space-time which constitutes the reality of our Universe. If this space-time is comparable to a four-dimensional geometrical figure, I am forced to admit that this figure in 'immersed' in a space of one more dimension, that is, five; moreover, if I admit that this fifth dimension is describable in geometrical language, I could continue this reasoning ad infinitum, and see the necessity for a sixth, and then a seventh, dimension, etc., etc. So I prefer to say that this fifth dimension does exist, but that the space that constitutes it is not describable in any language at all. This conclusion is different from the one that maintained there was nothing outside our Universe describable in four dimensions; for I have just shown that this 'outside' exists, though it cannot be described." It must be admitted that this kind of argument seems perfectly justifiable. If I describe the Universe as a map of space-time (and therefore four-dimensional), it looks as though I must at the same time admit, according to the foregoing reasoning, that this space-time is immersed in a space with at least one more dimension (that is, at least five). Now, as I postulated at the start that space-time constituted the whole of the Universe, I have reached a contradiction, since I am showing that there must necessarily be something 'outside' this Universe. Thus the question 'what is there outside the surface of the sphere representing our Universe?' has shown up a flaw in the 'logic' of the map we had made of the Real. Not only is the map unable to answer this question; but the very framing of the question exposes a contradiction in the map itself. This seems to be a serious objection which needs deeper analysis. After all, we built up all this geometrical language of symbolism from a certain number of postulates that had been well borne out by Nature; and from these postulates we reached the map of the Real by means of simple logical deductions, 'theorems' which are therefore as 'true' as the postulates themselves. Where then has the contradiction crept in? To answer this question involves the whole mechanism of knowledge. The answer was given by the logician and mathematician Kurt Gödel in 1934. Gödel succeeded in demonstrating quite conclusively the following fact: any logical language, such as that of mathematics or of geometry, is built up from a certain number of definitions and postulates on the basis of which this whole language is constructed by a series of logical steps. Within this logical language it is thus not possible to find any contradictions. But anyone has the right to choose a new set of postulates and definitions and, on them, to construct another language. It may then be possible for a 'theorem' deduced from this second language to be in contradiction to a 'theorem' deduced from the first language, in spite of the fact that the postulates from which both these languages set out were not themselves contradictory. On reflection, one can understand the significance, and even the physical explanation, of this important result arrived at by Gödel. The Universe is continuous and, as we have already demonstrated, each point is indissoluble from the whole, so that at every point there are an infinite number of relationships with the cosmos, appearing as an infinity of aspects. A language of any kind attempts to organise this infinite number of relationships according to a 'system' defined by postulates and definitions laid down as a basis for this language. Thus we make a sort of 'cross-section' of Nature. The language reduces the infinite number of relationships at any point to a finite number; it is therefore always incomplete. But on the other hand it introduces the possibility of a logical system, which is never possible when dealing with an infinite number of relationships in a continuous and unorganised milieu. This throws light on the fact that any aspect of the Universe described by a particular language is never an 'absolute' aspect, but is essentially dependent on the premises selected for the construction of the language in question. Since these aspects of the cosmos are infinite in number before language sets about organising them, they could just as well be described as 'black' or 'white' according to the way in which it was decided to 'organise' the infinite number of universal relationships at any given point. This is not to say that the Universe could not be described as both 'black' and 'white' in the same language; it simply means that one language will see as 'black' what another sees as 'white'. There is no contradiction in the 'territory' — that is to say, in 'what is'; but there may be contradictions between the 'maps' made by men by means of language to 'describe' Nature. A little while ago, I intentionally mixed two different languages to show how this can lead to a contradiction. Without warning the reader, I did in fact mix the objective language of the known with the symbolic language of the real. For the symbolic language had shown us that the Universe taken all together was like the surface of a sphere, and only the surface (without any talk of 'inside' or 'outside'). But then another question arose, coming — though we did not specifically mention the fact, nor was it very obvious — from the language of our senses (and not from the symbolic language). We had stated, it will be recalled, that it is not possible to imagine any figure other than as immersed in a space of at least one more dimension. Well, in that statement we had left the framework of our symbolic language, which had said to us: "I am talking of the surface of a sphere; I know exactly what that is — there is no ambiguity about it, for I can give you the equation for that surface. But mine is a symbolic language: don't try to see Nature through the medium of your senses as the surface of a sphere. To do this will probably land you in impossibilities or contradictions, just as it was impossible for you to 'see' the 'flying man' in Nature whom you described in the symbolic language of dreams." Yet the basic postulates of the 'objective-known' and the 'symbolic-geometric' languages are not contradictory: they are simply different, and in a certain sense complementary. Nevertheless their 'theorems' do lead to contradictions, for the Universe cannot be simultaneously four-dimensional (as the symbolic language assures us) and have at least five dimensions (as the objective language suggests). The apparent contradiction between the 'wave' and 'particle' theories was in fact also the result of mixing these two languages; it disappears as soon as a distinction is drawn between the language of the Known and the symbolic language of geometry. Kurt Gödel's great merit was to demonstrate mathematically that if one took two different languages (and more specifically the languages of mathematics and metamathematics — this last being a language constructed for discussing the language of mathematics itself), it was always possible to find a meeting-point between these two languages where there would be an apparent contradiction. An aspect described as 'white' by one language would be described as 'black' by the other. We have just seen why and how this is physically possible. To sum up, let us remind ourselves that language is very far from being a kind of 'modelling clay' that can be applied to things in order to obtain a replica of them. Language is inseparable from man himself, and provides us with an image of our internal or external world essentially dependent on the angle from which we decide to look at Nature. In this sense, things are not simply what they 'are'; they are only what we have chosen that they should be. The Universe is like the surface of an ocean. In the language of the air, above its surface, a wave would be a 'plenum'; but in the language of the water, beneath the surface, the selfsame wave is a 'hollow'. In short, each of these languages represents a different 'cross-section' of Nature, and so each of them gives us some additional information about Nature by showing a multiplicity of facets, without ever exhausting their infinite total number. The symbolic languages of religion, art, psychoanalysis, and General Relativity are thus 'cross-sections of Nature', at levels of varying depth; they are complementary to one another in their attempt to restore that direct intuitive liaison which exists between man and the cosmos as a whole. Objective language, which describes the sensory links between man and Nature, is yet another 'cross-section' on a different plane. Although all these languages help man to a better understanding of his Universe, it is nevertheless necessary to be very careful when putting questions in one language about the description given in another language. We have just stressed the contradictions that can arise, unless great care is taken, through the use of two languages at the same time — the symbolic language of geometry and the objective language of the senses. We must now go on to note that this sensory language, the language of our ordinary daily relationships with one another, is itself composed of a multitude of languages; and Kurt Gödel is there to warn us of these contradictions and the resulting difficulties which may arise unless the situation is appraised with the greatest possible insight. When analysed in its essentials, human life is seen to consist of a continual effort to communicate with others. Man is all the time attempting to communicate his own thoughts, and to know what his neighbour is thinking. All the advances in human knowledge are due to this dialogue; and it is also the vehicle for all the love and charity of which man is capable. There is no doubt that language, which is so important as a medium of communication between men, is itself of fundamental importance in each of our lives. But what exactly is its role, and how far is it really fundamental? If we are to give the right answer to this question, a very careful examination of it will be necessary. One's first reaction is to say that language is important, but that it is after all only a 'tool'. The primordial element in human communication is the idea and the personal character belonging to it, since the idea varies freely from one person to another. Language, on the other hand, is only a means, and is common to everybody; besides, in a certain sense, it is not free, for it is very generally applied to objects and phenomena which 'exist', and on which language is quite content to model itself. In other words, language appears to be conditioned by the idea. When two individuals do not agree with one another in the course of a discussion, the blame for the disagreement must be put upon their respective 'personalities' (that is to say, their ideas as a whole) with regard to the precise point under discussion. Language plays only a secondary part in the affair — an important part, but secondary. The same is true of two gladiators engaged in combat. Their weapons are important, yet secondary: the prime consideration is the strength and skill of each combatant. In the same way, language is a weapon; but it is the man behind it who really counts. Now, is this a true account of the position? How free are we to express our ideas? Is it not true that these ideas, as they come to us, are conditioned by the language we have at our disposal? We surely have a right to ask ourselves this question, after having seen in the preceding pages what a language really is. Each of us builds up his own language on the basis of a certain number of postulates and definitions which are certainly very closely linked with man himself. One man will choose certain postulates according to his temperament, his intellectual aptitudes, and the circle in which he has been brought up; another man will make use of other elements in the reality that constitutes his interior and exterior world to construct his own specific postulates. These two men's postulates are not, generally speaking, contradictory with one another: they are simply different. The possibility of choice in the postulates from which a language sets out arises from the fact that everyday language is based upon the objects perceived by the senses. Each of us, by associating objects with one another by means of certain relationships, and by making use only of some characteristics of these objects to form abstractions, arrives at certain concepts (which are in fact the postulates of language) that are specific to himself. Thus the word 'table' is a concept that does not hold exactly the same meaning for each of us. One person will conjure up the picture of a square four-legged table; another, living in a place where tables are usually different, will picture a round table with three legs. So there can be two 'postulates' in the language dealing with the concept of a 'table'; and they are not contradictory but simply different. Thus all language, setting out from postulates, is built up by logical steps — at least in the case of those who are considered 'sane'; and we are concerned only with them for the time being. So language is built up like geometrical theorems by way of logical deduction from a finite number of postulates. Now let us pay particular attention and, taking advantage of the comparison just made with the language of geometry, let us use it in the following example of a 'discussion'. A man who is well versed in Euclidean geometry is considering certain figures to which Euclidean language applies. Let us suppose that he is commenting for the benefit of his audience on a triangular figure drawn on a sheet of paper. He can choose from among a certain number of ideas and judgments referring to this triangle. He can affirm — amongst other things — that a particular side of the triangle is the greatest, or that a particular side is the shortest. All his audience agree with him. Then at a certain moment the geometrician states that the sum of the angles of this triangle is exactly equal to 180 degrees. At this point, one of his hearers expresses disagreement, and intervenes with a statement that the sum of the angles of a triangle is never exactly equal to 180 degrees, but slightly less. Here then is a problem on which these two geometricians are divided. It is clear that the sum of the angles of a triangle cannot simultaneously be equal to and less than 180 degrees. One way of treating this problem would be for the Euclidean geometrician to treat his interrupter as mad and, if he persists in his objection, throw the geometry book at his head. A second and wiser course would be to ask the interrupter to justify his statement that the sum of the angles of a triangle is less than 180 degrees. The interrupter would then reply that his geometrical postulates were not taken from Euclid, but from Riemann. Now in Riemann's geometry, there is a possibility of space being 'curved'. This curvature is confirmed by physics, but it is ignored in Euclid's 'ideal' geometry. Thus in a triangular figure drawn in our physical space, the sum of the angles is never exactly equal to 180 degrees, but always slightly less. Now let us put the following two questions: First, were these two geometricians free in the choice of ideas and judgments they made on the subject of the triangular figure? The answer must be no — they were not free at the actual moment of making their judgments. They had been free beforehand to choose the postulates belonging to their language, always supposing that society had given them any possibility of choice. But once the postulates were chosen, one of them was obliged, if he wished to remain logical, to assert that the sum of the angles of a triangle was equal to 180 degrees, whilst the other could continue to be logical only by asserting that it was less. In other words, this example clearly shows that ideas and judgments are conditioned by language, and not the other way round. It also shows with equal clarity that two languages built up on non-contradictory postulates (Riemann's geometry being simply more general that Euclid's) may lead to contradictory statements; for the sum of the angles of a triangle cannot at the same time be equal to and less than 180 degrees. And now our second question: can we say which of these two geometricians was right — the supporter of Euclid or of Riemann? Our first answer might be that both were in a sense right, for they had both argued logically on the basis of non-contradictory postulates. But the disciple of Euclid was speaking of a triangle in an uncurved space, that is, an ideal triangle — for our physical space is in fact always curved. Euclidean language is thus seen to be an ideal language. But the disciple of Riemann was thinking of a triangle in our physical space, and so was using a physical language and physical postulates. The confusion between these two languages led to a contradiction. Another answer might be that the problem of knowing which of the two was right no longer arises in practice as soon as each of the two observers realises that the same words belonged to two different languages. This realisation constitutes an enrichment of their knowledge. They now admit that both their statements have a right to be made, and it will certainly never enter their heads in the future to accuse each other of bad faith, or treat each other as mad. This was what Alfred Korzybski had been insisting upon since 1930 in his creation of the science of language and human behaviour usually known as General Semantics. He had seen the necessity for this realisation of what is truly implied by a language, and the importance of language as conditioning our judgments. Many of his views now appear out of date; but he had nevertheless caught a glimpse of the fundamental part played by language in the humane sciences, and even in sciences pure and simple. As already stressed, language is of prime importance in science, for it decides what 'cross-section' we shall choose to consider in Nature. We have already seen that dilemmas as crucial as that of continuity-versus-discontinuity, which has divided scientists for thousands of years, can be finally resolved by realising that it is a question of two different languages. But this problem of language is also very important in everyday life. The judgments any of us puts forward on racial problems, for example, are never entirely free: they appear logical, because they are logically deduced from the whole body of postulates which constitute our language, and we therefore think they must be right and are even prepared to fight against anyone who disputes them. Yet analysis will show that my questioner and I, though using analogous words, are speaking different languages. Our postulates are not necessarily contradictory, but simply different; and they happen to have suddenly met at a 'point of intersection' when dealing with the same problem where what looks white to one appears black to the other. Kurt Gödel, as we have seen, shows how such contradictory points of intersection have always existed wherever it was a question of two different languages. This is not always obvious, for these contradictory points of intersection are fortunately exceptional; we are well aware that it is possible to exchange views on most problems without fighting, even when it involves two different 'national' languages. It must, however, be constantly borne in mind that these contradictions may arise at certain moments even between men who think they are speaking the same language; all that is needed to produce this situation is for the basic postulates of one man's language to be slightly different from those of the other. On the other hand, once this fact has been realised, a new window has in fact been opened on to man and on to Nature. Its effect is to induce in us a certain tolerance which might be called 'an enlightened tolerance'. It must not be confused with a systematic and undiscriminating acceptance of any point of view, no matter what it may be. It is a tolerance based upon what we learn from our present sources of knowledge, not accepting everything, but willing to look at everything. It is a question of choosing our references on the scale of the Universe as a whole, instead of being content with that part of reality which is orientated towards us personally and individually, seeing that the individual can never detach himself from the postulates that have conditioned his thought in the material and social environment in which he has been brought up. It is a question of calmly assessing how another person talks and therefore thinks differently from us about the world. In short, it means looking for more than we have already seen. In order to progress, science needs observation and experiment. Yet it also needs to arrive at a method of classifying its new observations in an appropriate language. But what often happens is that, in a justified anxiety not to be continually questioning the foundations on which science rests, an attempt is made to keep to the same language as that in use before these new observations were made, and to preserve the same basic postulates. A point is reached, however, when this procedure is shown to be no longer valid and when the language itself needs to be changed. It was thus that a Unitary Theory of the Universe arose in physics from the creation of a new language, so unfolding the map that connects the Real and the Known. Surely it is time now to think of revising our language and launching an attack on the knowledge of man himself. Surely the mass of accumulated observations on the subject of man, from the biological as well as the psychological point of view, is a justification for choosing some broader postulates for the description and subsequent study of man. We have just seen the central importance, for the very ideas we form, of the language in which we express them. This broadening of our horizon through a change in language has already takem place in physics: should not an attempt be made to carry out a similar programme on the subject of man? For the problems connected with life, or even with psychism, will hardly be solved without a change in the postulates of the languages of biology and psychoanalysis. We shall attempt to examine these points in the next two chapters, which will deal respectively with biological man and psychic man.	eng	c99e0e96-dcc8-4bc8-ac2e-20c70d96090f	http://www.ardue.org.uk/university/study/03.html
Last Monday at New York's Pierre Hotel, outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens and physicist/theologian Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete met to tackle the question of whether or not science makes belief in God obsolete. According to the forum's hosts, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham and Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, religion riles its vilifiers when it makes truth claims without evidence -- at least evidence that would hold up in a court of science. The conflict seems to stem from a difference in understanding as to what evidence and truth truly are. This discrepancy of perspective was clear in a statement made by Monsignor Albacete: "Religion is a different form of knowledge that has its own evidence." "The credibility of the gospels is crucial," he said. "Faith without evidence: I don't know what that is." When rattling off his gripes with religion during the question-and-answer session, Hitchens argued that believers seem to love God out of a requirement, not out of freedom. "The compulsory love of someone you must fear is something of a celestial North Korea," said Hitchens. But Monsignor Albacete discovers truth in religion's ability to connect with his daily life. "If I can't relate doctrine to why I care about what I care, then it is all just theoretical matter and you can substitute the Great Lizard for Christ for all I care." Humans have always tried to find patterns and explanations for why things are the way they are. And religion can provide a relevant avenue for doing so, just as science does. 68 Comments I don't think it makes it obsolete unless you believe in the big bang, or at least part of it, if you believe god caused the big bang then both science and religeon can coexist at least if your christian. Then how can you prove that evolution happened? How can you prove that a big bang happened? That is faith WITHOUT evidence; at least evidence that would hold in a court of science! Now I do understand that you may have what SEEMS like evidence (such as similarity between animals), but how is that valid evidence? If you would be an automobile designer, then OBVIOUSLY your cars would be quite similar, only getting better each model! In the same way, God created creatures that have similarities! Imagine 1000 years into the future, not knowing that humans created cars, and saying that they evolved from some scrap metal! That would be a stupid assumption to make. As to believers loving God out of requirement, that is NOT true. You obviously have NEVER loved Him at all. But I can almost guarantee that if someone rescued you from dying a certain death, you would at least FEEL GRATEFULL to the person. In the same way, we love God because He saved us from eternal damnation and separation from Him. God didn't force me to love Him....I love Him because He loved me first! I am not AFRAID or SCARED of God at all! Something like the Big Bang must have happened because something created the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The CMB is proof of some inflationary point after the Big Bang where the Universe became cool enough to form electrons and protons. Thus it must have began small and hot. Well I have never lost an argument under estimating the intelligence of an Atheist. I say now that all should test the nature of debates between Science and Religion. What fuels them is the fact that Atheists are so frustrated. While Christians, for example, are content. Atheists try to argue using science. which, in my opinion, almost obviously proves God exists. You can pose many examples. I like to use Thermodynamics. Therein, our first law, everything moves to a state of disorder. Under this Law, our fuel, Hydrogen is abundant. The universal energy source. So if time were cyclic? We would have no Sun and we would have run out. The red shift, Doppler effect, proves the singularity or origin, If you will. The Bible states that the stars will fall from the sky. In one of it's most confrontational verses. Which explains the reversion to this singularity. Research the literal translations of the bible from Hebrew. As John Clayton stated. The Beginning of Genesis actually reads in English, That for which there were none before created the heaved up things. Heaved... and, when written, they had no ideas about a theory as complex as the Big Bang. Not until 1934 or so. That's always a fun debate. Can of worms, anyone. No one can prove or disprove the existence of god, thats the nature of it. Although no one can prove that I am not god, or that there isn't a purple scorpion god that lives in my freezer. As to the person who doesn't believe in evolution, viruses do it on a daily basis, we can literally watch it happen, don't lose all credibility with an ignorant statement like that. I am not going to sit here and list the volumes of rigorously debated and peer tested evidence of evolution, look it up. If you believe in a god, thats fine, if you believe in the teachings of the bible that was written less than 2000 years ago, then you assume god did not give the benefit of his teachings to thousands of generations of humans that preceded it. You also assume that the Earth is 5000 years old and that dinosaurs are another scientific error, as is plate tectonics, geology and astronomy, for if the universe if 5000 years old then how did the light from stars 10000 light years away reach us yet? Of course you will counter with the argument that God has simply worked this into his plan, or that for some strange reason he created the Earth with all signs pointing to it being older than it is. If you believe in a God then why was there many gods in the religions that preceded christianity? How do you know not to sacrifice lambs to Zeus? Did all those people simply go to hell? On the topic of Hell I will finish this comment (which I could go on for hours with), with a quote,"If god created man out of dust knowing that that man would be condemned to hell, then shouldn't he have left that dust alone in the first place?" The crucial problem with evolution is that it isn't science. According to the scientific method, science is repeatable and observable. The Big Bang isn't repeatable or observeable. Evolution fits more correctly in the religion category, in that it answers the three eternal questions, "Where did we come from?, Why are we here?, and Where are we going?" One of the things I truly dislike about this debate is that people always present the case as science vs religion. I don't believe that it has to be this way. Science does not oppose religion nor does religion science. Seeing the debate as science vs religion only shows an opposition overshadowing commonalities. In every part of the debate; cosmology, physics, biology (evolutionary debate), or the earths beginnings, there is evidence that is strongly presented on both sides using so called scientific reasoning. I'm not to fond of that term because even that definition becomes biased based on the case you are trying to debate. Someone could consider something a science while others would called it still a hypothesis or theory that cannot or has not been disproved. One example of this is faith based off personal experience. Is that true evidence. some would say yes, some no. Either way experience whether circumstantial or not cannot be taken away from someones case as evidence. Personally I believe that this is our biggest obstacle in a search for the truth about life's mysteries. Science does not combat religion, it is just that it is impossible to assess all given information on a subject in its entirety to reach any certain conclusion other than opinion. So do your research in an unbiased way and have a well backed opinion thats all our finite minds can do. To naterz_g, evolution is repeatable, like the virus example I gave earlier, the mechanisms for evolution and natural selection are built within cells themselves, can I prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that god didn't put them there in the beginning, no, but maybe it was the purple scorpion too, so why not bow to him. The big bang is not repeatable but at least there is indirect evidence that we can observe and measure which can lead us to a clearer picture. With god you always assume. I agree with eat_777 religion and science don't have to oppose each other, but religion does have a knack for getting in the way of science, (isn't that what the enlightenment was all about?) What is god anyway? Basically with a lack of any evidence of god or any evidence of what occurred before the big bang the are essentially the same thing, the great unknown, so yes we are all looking for a common answer to where did we come from. My problem is personifying the great unknown into something that is familiar to us and deriving teachings and guidance from from absolutely nothing. At least science tests new hypothesis and is willing to change based on what is learnt and observed where religion assumes to know and changes based on convenience. Ian1108 I absolutely believe in evolution. The bibles teachings don't reference time like you say. Foremost Adam could have lived for a billion years in the garden. He was aged from when he left this place. So every part of evolution works. Don't forget that when people were more innocent. They were closer to the lord. So every part of the linguistic origins makes sense. They would not have needed as much like animals evolving from lesser... Their knowledge has led them here. Evolution and The Big Bang both follow idea's of God, and the bible. I like the facts about Space and mention of Plate Tectonics, Geology and Astronomy. Religion only has a Knack for interfering with science when you turn it into a science which it is not. It's about seeing what is good like people, idea's, lifestyles, personalities. Everything that made you grow up and choose anger or happiness. Everything that makes an animal, content seem so amazing. Again though you are assuming there was a garden of Eden and that people were close to the lord, where did you learn that from? Somebody wrote that down during the last 2000 years, and since there was no christianity 3000 years ago the garden of eden story was not orally passed down either. That only leaves the option of god himself telling somebody to write it down in one language only for a certain group of people, because native americans would not be able to get this message he must have left them out, I guess. That doesn't sound very reasonable, what does sound reasonable is that somebody made it up and wrote it down, probably someone in a position of power and influence, who then used it to reinforce his own influence. It may have not been sinister in motive, people were quite superstitious and uneducated but still craved an explanation as to their origins, it may have been created to make them feel better, but nonetheless by pure reason it must have been a fabrication. Why then wouldn't he give his teachings (which failure to follow could result in eternal burning in the hellfires) to all the populations of the Earth in a clear and concise manor. Even us mere mortals know the danger of writing vague laws open to interpretation, they are inevitably broken or bent on perspective. If I had a child who disobeyed me, much like eve took the apple, I would correct him, but I probably wouldn't condemn him and all his future generations to the possibility of being burnt for millions of years by a demon, that is not love or forgiveness. And the Earth being approx 5000 years old was calculated by a bishop by counting back through the generations in the bible, so not directly stated by the bible but it is inferred, which highlights the danger of the scripture being so open to interpretaion, anyone can read what he wants to read. That is the major strength of the god argument and why it is hard to argue against it, even the followers don't know what it means so how can you counter point on it? Ian1108, The ignorance of some Christian and religious folks can be quite taxing and frustrating, but forgive me when I slightly, maybe alter your perspective on the subject. Now I'm a Coptic Orthodox Christian and quite ignorant when it comes to some degree of religion and definitely science, (first year college), but I feel when you mention that Christians state the earth was only around 5000 years, you may have been told that by an uninformed christian or just was some common understanding or belief, but in fact the bible would clearly state that the earth was made in six phases, or six days and the seventh was the rest day, as said in the first word and chapter of the bible (genesis). I wont post bible quotes here not to offend anyone, but it clearly outlines the phases that is actually accepted in the scientific community as how the planet earth developed billions of years ago. Scientists say after the big bang, the earth was nothing more than rock and poisonous gases, and asteroids from space hit the planet which were full of water, then the sun developed and somehow life developed. The days it took to build the universe according to the old testament, took 6 days and those six days could be even considered one day as a billion of years, since even the bible did not state at what time frame, or the meaning of the day was to god, it could be a billion years. I don't know if this is true but two scientists 2 years ago won the nobel peace prize for discovering the universe is actually around 300,000 years old somehow, and again I could be mistaken and completely wrong, it was in yahoo news is where I saw it. Now some common understandings and beliefs in science really confuse me and this may be pure ignorance and I really really do ask for your pardon, but stated in the big bang theory, it clearly accepts that out of nothing came something? Doesn't that defy the law of energy, where energy can neither be created nor destroyed and same for mass? Where did the energy required even mass come from? Again PLEASE forgive my scientific ignorance, there may have been a response to this and would really love to hear it, knowledge is power! Another thing that confuses me is how is it that the earth, placed on such a perfect degree as so are the other planets that they fail to collide together, even though nature as we know it is quite random, especially the big bang made it really random. This may be not so astronomical but why are we the "dominant" creatures living on this planet, although we posses all the animalistic instinct and urges we tend to posses a sense of creativity and yearn to explore and experience, rather then just focus on eating and sleeping and "mating" (which can be the lifestyle of many people)? Many animals posses great intelligence such as the simple bird when building a nest or a dog who can identify if his master is in danger. By the way, you mention something about the garden of eden, and was asking where did we know that. According to tradition, Moses was the first to write the actual book of the old testament, using past down tradition and I guess talking to god, he gained the wisdom to write down what was needed to be written, I know people in general, can greatly underestimate tradition which is passed down verbally but I can assure you some things get lost in history but some orally past down traditions were carefully passed down to the letter, and I can't prove that but I can almost guarantee it. I know you probably think Religious people can be quite ignorant, which can definitely be true, but I remember that there was the school of alexandria which was a theological school around the second century till the arabs invaded Egypt and destroyed the Library of Alexandria (mistaking it for one big christian library) and the school of alexandria which was greatly associated with the library thus the misconception of the arab invaders, the main things they would learn in that school is math and sciences, particularly Astronomy, while also studying philosophy. They would study religion along side math, science and philosophy. Again I'm sorry Ian1108 as using you as my focus point, but I meant no insult to you or anyone else, this post is clearly to state my opinion and belief on your post and the general subject. And please forgive my ignorance. There will probably be more that I wanted to post but will forget, aww well. It disgusts me how I can never wait to speak and barely listen to what people say, I always wait for my turn to talk. Ian1108 I didn't read your full post till now. If its alright with you, I would like to, in my best ability, to explain to you what the Bible clearly states, because to me it seems you may have skimmed through it or are not fully familiar with it. WARNING, this post may be to religious so if you're not even interested just don't read it. no offense taken, and hopefully none caused. Now when you mention that God only spoke on one language, and didn't focus on all people such as native Americans, It might be correct to mention how the Bible now is in nearly every language. Now the question as why Christianity didn't come to the new world as soon as it was preached is Gods wisdom, which may sound religiously cliche. When you state someone was at great power must have written the bible, According to Christian belief, Jesus Christ was born to a simple family whose guardian was a carpenter and mother was a simple woman who used to serve the temple. How can an individual from such humble beginnings and no education become suddenly unimaginably wise and giving people a more human way of living. One thing I believe is that people in ancient days were not stupid at all, nor were they as ignorant as we think, for crying out loud, look at the societies and empires they developed, some of the math and philosophy we learn today were developed even before Greek times in such places as Egypt, and Mesopotamia, I'm pretty sure you had know "Pythagorus" Theorem to build the pyramids, which were built thousands of years before Pythagorus birth and around 5,000 years from today. When you mention that failure to follow the laws written in the bible would result in the eternal burning, you forget to mention what those laws are. Usually they consist of no murdering, no rape,no theft, and to love God. What's scary is we think these things should be laws, and how RIDICULOUS that thought is that essential human rights should be laws, If someone raped me or killed me, shouldn't he be punished for that, and hopefully I can find the power to forgive and forget and for the one who victimized me realize that he did a mistake by violating my human rights or as some believe "these laws". Now this subject is really complicated religiously, why God treated mankind different in the old testament and treated us different in the new testament, and would be willing to explain if you are willing. So to say Jesus Christ is a cruel god or unfair, is kind of like saying a murderer should go to heaven, what's fair is fair, and hopefully you hope that person will regret and become good again then he/she is forgiven. Think of the court system but without the corruption, the ability to really know the truth, with infinite mercy. Its hard for me to explain this but I hope it gets through. Almost everybody asks, why did God create us even if he knew we would disobey him and even curse him? Why do we humans and animals feel the urge to reproduce? We all know children are a complete alteration of a lifestyle, they cry and are extremely demanding, and its completely not based as an economic decision at all! So why are we so in love with having children, do we love the way we look so much, or do we just want that experience? Why do we just want that experience??? WHY? I feel God encoded in us simple things to help explain his wisdom using our human nature. Im sorry for this and if you got this far, I hope I opened your spectrum of knowledge a bit on this subject, and again forgive my ignorance and anything I said to offend. TheI used to be a "believer" once and never thought i would ever be a "non-believer". I couldn't stand the close-mindedness and intolerance that comes with religion anymore. Many things never did make sense to me and I tried to just believe. The debate between science vs. religion will never end. Religion operates on emotion and emotion is a very strong force that can alter perception and reasoning. I find science to have much more humility than religion, that is, science is receptive to be proven wrong with evidence. Religions will continue to increase in sects because of differences in interpretation, i.e. many sects of christianity. How do you accept pre-marital sex is a sin (condemned to hell) and condemn those who do it, yet, when you commit the sin, you go back to the same bible that condemns it and find interpretation that say you can still go to heaven. Once again, believers will interpret whatever fit what they need in different situations. If god is all knowing, then why did he create sinners who are going to hell anyways? isn't that a waste of resources? I was intrigued by this phrase "when it makes truth claims without evidence". The truth was explained clearly in the Gospel. If you cannot find the truth in the Gospel then you are not the only one, even Pontius Pilate ask "What is truth?" So,please study the gospel and hope that one day, the true meaning of the Word shall set you free and make you understand the Truth. The evidence you are looking for are all around you, as written in the Gospel. For those who claims they know the truth, I hope you can understand the meaning of this sentence, "For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away." If you cannot understand this sentence then you have to consider the alternative logic that you might be biased against the truth. For this reason, there is no way for you to find the truth or the evidence in the Gospel. Im agnostic but i see the points made by both sides. Religion is what people use to make up for things they dont understand, science is providing evidence to show why things do things we didnt understand before. Although i have a strong belief that people should believe in a religion that benifits the world(exanple- the ten commandments are things everyone should follow) not have no faith in anything. This is to the people who say viruses evolved yes they did, but notice it is evolved with a SMALL e which evolution of this form occurs all around us. Everything around us adjust to its surroundings, its all in the DNA. Using the virus example if it is in a colder area the next generation will be born with cold resistance if there environment heats up then the next generation will be heat resistants. The evolution you are referring to is Evolution which is the theory that all these small changes could ad up into a perminite change in the species. This we have never seen before ever. So as of yet NOTHING HAS EVOLVED but Everything has evolved. I have way to many points to try and rebuff in one comment, but I will suggest that most of you helped prove my point about religion, you change what was written down as seven days of creation to possibly or maybe 7 epochs of creation, why because as I stated earlier, science changes on observation and religion changes on convenience. Thats the beauty of the vaguely worded bible, it can mean anything you want it to, somebody else will tell me it's 600 000 years or it was 60 years or whatever time frame and manor suits their own personal arguments. As for the bible being available in every language, sure now it is, the Mayans of Meso-America sacrificed people or "murdered" them to appease what they believed was god, without the scriptures how were they to know that was against the "real" gods way. Remember everyone I have not said that there can be no god, I must acknowledge the fact that as I said earlier he can be neither proved or disproved. I disagree with people diluting themselves into thinking they somehow commune with god, or the people who wrote the scriptures did. Give me a break, thats the oldest trick in the book, priests and big men throughout history have always taken that approach because it elevates them above those who they mean to rule. I honestly am not going to sit here for hours endlessly debating but if you read what I already said and understand it then I really don't need me to. Antoher quote perhaps " I cannot believe that the same god that endowed us with reason and intellect intended us to forego their use." How old do you guys think the religion is? (I am not just talking about Christianity. You should look at the essence of religion; believing in one God and avoidance of idolatry and sin) According to Bible and Quran there have been prophets on earth since the beginning starting with Adam. Especially in Quran it is mentioned that aside from the 5 prophets there had been hundreds of thousands of messengers. (Read the footnote) So there was guidance for people all thought out history. It is just the human nature to ignore and not believe in things are contrarily to ones beliefs. Anyways, religion is thousands of years old, and the last was about 1400 years ago. Now what I want you guys to know is that how else god was supposed to relay a message to his creatures without making their small brains to short circuit once they know about the universe. Do you think god 2000 years ago could have told people about the evolution, the idea that humans, for example, evolved from apes?! And expect people to start believing? Humans were ignorant at those times, still many many are at the 21st century. People tortured the prophets just because their ideology and beliefs were different from the norm. Now imagine prophets would have told the common men about the evolution, science and universe…. If that happened my guess would be that people would either start worshipping apes or they would kill the prophets on site. If god started talking about atoms and quantum physics do you think anyone would have understood? Instead, god explained to men the simplified version of the law of the universe, which he created, so that anyone from a 3 year child to an illiterate 90 year old human could understand. Adam and Eve, Heaven and Hell, good vs evil, souls, good deeds vs bad deeds….all of those are simplified versions of much more complex events. When it comes to religious beliefs it is the interpretations that should surface. It is up to people which version to believe. If you know science well then you can interpret religion through it, to some degree. But don't expect science to have all the answers. Our knowledge is still primitive. We still got a long time to go. Compare the the age of earth, billion of years, to the time humans have been on earth, merely tens of thousands! Now imagine how much knowledge we can acquire if live on earth for some million of years; if we don't exterminate our race by our own hands, that is. So what is the real interpretation of religion beliefs? I don't know. We could all have our own interpretations. What is a soul? Where does it come from? Is soul tangible? Is is matter? What about Dark matter? Could souls be the mysterious dark matters? It was until recently that we discovered the dark matter. What if there different types of matter. Or maybe there is another matter called white matter which souls are made of! That could make to normal matter/dark matter/ and white matter, white matter being the smallest and the most undetectable matter which constitute less than a billionth of all the matters in the universe. There are still lot of unanswered question.. What is life? How do you define life? Do sperms have life? Do seeds of the trees have life in them? Is life the same as the will? What is soul? Could souls evolve too? Could souls be some type of matter? What is heaven and hell? Maybe heaven and hell are not places… but they are different states/types/phases of matter… Another thing is that we are still now sure what we are doing on earth. What is the faith of men and why are we here? But one thing we are sure is that god doesn't want to spoil it for us. He doesn't come out and share the knowledge. He tells us to seek the knowledge ourselves instead. So don't expect god spoil it and tell us how the universe operates or tell us all about the evolution. Those are the knowledge that we have to obtain ourselves. Footnote from Wiki: Muslims regard Adam as the first prophet and Muhammad as the last prophet; hence Muhammad's title Seal of the Prophets. In Islam, Jesus is regarded as a nabi and a rasul because he received wahi (revelation) from God, through which God revealed the Injil (Gospel) to him.[1] Muslims believe that God has sent over 124,000 messengers all over the world as mentioned in the Sahih Hadith. Five (sometimes known as Ulul Azmi or the Imams — i.e. leaders — of the Rasuls) are accorded the highest reverence for their perseverance and unusually strong commitment to God in the face of great suffering. These five are Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Isa (Jesus), and Muhammad. 124,000 messengers with different messages, great thats an easily understandable way to inform everyone. How do you know these were messengers from god, and why tell small groups of people at a time? Surely he could have laid down one precise, easily understood set of rules for all to follow from the beginning of time. He didn't have to explain everything, he doesn't now anyway. So why follow these religious texts that contradict each other, Jesus was either just a prophet or the son of god not both, you either worship him as the son of god or you don't. Did god introduce to Muhammad the idea of the Jihad? That even though god created the universe he needs mere mortals to carry out his bidding, as if he couldn't just send down a lightning bolt and smyte those who oppose him. If he didn't explain evolution to those people 2000 years ago because they were too ignorant to understand then why did he give his teachings in a cryptic fashion to those who are obviously too ignorant to understand today? If they weren't then we would all follow the same set of rules. And these assumptions drive me nuts! God doesn't want to spoil it for us? Who told you that, YOU MADE IT UP. He tells us to seek the knowledge ourselves? He didn't tell me that, I must have been in the can when he dropped into my living room to inform me. Luckily though some other guy heard it 1500 years ago and wrote it down, he must have been more deserving of the complete truth than I. This reminds me of the telephone game that kids play where the message starts out with "red bike" and goes around a circle and comes out "purple monkey dinosaur". The problem with religion is precisely that anyone from a 3 year old child to the illiterate 90 year old man does NOT understand his teachings, that is why history is strewn with holy wars since the beginning. So where are our prophets today? Surely with greater understanding of the world god could clear up a few things for us now, that would be nice. Maybe send us down an internet version of his teachings, ya know The Commandments version 2.0. The avoidance of idolatry and sin is common, but what is considered sin has varied widely over that time. Sin is simply what is outlawed by a particular religion at a particular time. I also dislike the implied notion that if you don't follow an organized religion you are somehow morally bankrupt. There is no need to read the Quran or the Bible to know not to harm people, in fact more people have been harmed because of those books. Is it because people don't understand them? Then god should make man understand, he is all powerful remember. With the alternative to not understanding being eternal damnation then I think he owes us the chance to make an informed decision on our behavior. How can god be all powerful if Satan exists? Just eliminate him, his original intention according to the adam and eve story was to let us live in paradise, so why not now? Why make a man with the capacity to make mistakes and then put the path to eternal damnation in front of him? If I bring a dog home, and leave meat in a bag on the floor, who is to blame when I come home to find it strewn about the living room? MYSELF! I like the fact that it does seem through your comments that you are researching the reason for your existence. It does come off though that you are like many people researching with a bias. Are you looking at both sides of the coin in comparable depth. Your right not to want to list all the debates over evolution which is just one of many debates. It is too much material and people should "look it up". But you did state a couple problems you had with Christian beliefs. I am being carefull to not go too much in depth on these questions/answers becuase the topics are to broad to be fully discussed. If it leaves someone to speculate or need further information, then do that. Research it. 1. no one can disprove or prove God? I half agree. It is left up to each individual to decide for himself. I believe God wants us to chose him, and what Kind of choice would it be if He made himself blatantly obvious or completely absent. Personally though I believe there is much to prove his existence. 2.Can anyone or anything be a god? Sounds like your veering towards pantheism here and I would definitely say no. Can anyone you know create a universe? 3. Does the bible benefit preceding generations? Yes, Old and New Covenents/ Old and New Testiments. People though living pre Christ were able to be saved too. 4. Many gods before christianity. True, but look at the sources on how these religions came to be and some facts about them. It becomes clear that a lot of them are easily proven to be false ideology. 5. Man is condemned to Hell. (Your quote about mans creation from dust) No, That is just not true. Man believe it or not chooses his destination though his beliefs. What good is free will if we didn't have the right to chose. Otherwise we would be like machines or robots and they don't have free will. Our choice to choose God is worship and he honors our choice by following through with what we choose. 6. Lack of Evidence for God. I would say look around. Look how precise our environment is. How our earth works. Its placement in the Universe. We are on the perfect galaxy, on the perfectly sized placed and so on planet, with the perfect sun. Some would consider these things circumstantial but when studied the probability is astronomical. 7. Religion and religious people assume to know everything then adapt if they are wrong. I also personally hate it when someone assumes to know everything about a subject. There is just to much to know. But I think this happens in all walks of life, on all kinds of debates not just religious ones. I would also add that the opposite is true about science and religion. As time goes on science continually advocates religion. Where religious ideas seem to go astray is human error and bad human interpretation. Our minds are finite and the material is too overbearing and substantial for any one to never be wrong or vis versa always be right. More information is needed and subject by subject debates will always rage continuing in absence of perfect certainty based on opinion and interpretation. I still would challenge anyone to keep studying though and form a solid opinion with good logic and fact, but be flexible knowing that because we are human we are subject to human error and bias. Even though the task is overbearing and extremely critical to our lives. I have found more and more comfort in my choice by challenging myself to continually study. To ask "Does science obviate religion?" assumes that theistic religion holds a respectable position which is capable of being obviated. This simply isn't true. No rational basis for theistic religion, in any sense, has ever been put forward. So I, as should scientists everywhere, find it intellectually demeaning that the above question is even being considered a valid one. First show us that ANY god exists. Only then will it NOT be a complete waste of time to hold the discussion about what consequences exist. Okay here we go again 1 Prove or disprove god- if you make a choice with no evidence you have neither proved or disproved. 2 Can anyone be a god- Prove that I didn't create the universe, it's the same argument. 3 Precedeing generations-Well that is very nice of god, or the person who wrote that in the bible, I guess we'll never know. 4 Many Gods- Who decided they were a false ideology, they didn't think so at the time. I think christianity is false ideology. 5 Condemned to hell-Free will, maybe, but the creator of the universe and of time surely knows what that choice will be. I would not put my child in a position where the consequences were so dire if I could help it, thats real love. 6 Lack of Evidence- Everything around us is perfect to us because we evolved to suit it. Venus would work perfect to an organism that ate molten sulpher. Astronomical chances become inevitable when there are literally trillions of planet/ star combinations in the universe. 7 I do not know everything about the universe either, far from it, I have to often make choices on things that are not clearly laid out for me or do not have complete evidence. Yet the tool that I do possess is reason, and I have to make educated guesses to fill in the gaps, religion fails on so many points of reason, that while I cannot disprove it I will place my bet against it. I do not wish to be on the attack, but inevitably I must while political leaders, military leaders and others in power use what is clearly a concept on shaky ground to be a basis for their decisions. These decisions affect billions of people, and while I would prefer to stay out of the way, I will play the devils advocate to illustrate the point. Let reason prevail and if there is a god, then as the benevolent creator of all, he will understand in the end, you don't have to worship, you don't have to fight, and you can acknowledge concepts that may stray from your accepted doctrine if reason allows. If he made you then you are already doing what he intended. I have a wrist cramp now thanks. "124,000 messengers with different messages?" Different messages? There was NO different messages. They were all saying the same thing. Sure, there have been slight difference in details, but they were all basically saying the same thing. But don't forget all these messengers were living in different times, different locations, and living in different cultures. Even today you can not talk to people from different cultural backgrounds and expect them all to understand you exactly the same. This is one basic rule in operating a global business today. That's why these religions have very slight difference in details. But in my opinion you can define religion in one page…or even in couple paragraphs, and that is what is common to all of these religious beliefs. You don't need to read a couple thousand page book to be religious. And most importantly you don't even need to have a religion to be religious or be a good person! Religion helps people by teaching them how to control their self centered egos, their animal instincts, and their hunger for pleasure. Religion basically says: do good deeds, don't do bad deeds. Respect others. Treat other well. Don't want things (or do things) for others which you do not want for yourself. Also lot of stuff you are told about religion is not true. There is lot of Mumbo Jumbo in the religion that just came from bad practices, and just simply has been past down generations. As I read more and more comments there is a common theme here. lan1108 I think you play a good "devils advocate role" what I mean by that is I don't think your hiding your position on this debate. Just that you spend more time trying to debunk and christian ideas or naming more debatable subjects pertaining to religion. I have not really seen you or anyone really try and make to much of a case for science in the sense that it opposes religion. The debated case is religion is in opposition to science and no one is arguing the science thus it make religion out to be inferior. Now that I don't like no one has seemingly given the notion that they work in concordance with each other. Yes a lot of the bible is up for interpretation but that doesn't mean it is wrong just sometimes if certain subjects are not studied carefully enough that will happen. People are human and our ideas are limited by our humanity. But the same is true in the ideas of philosophies of science. In know that this is not a very current example but it is still a good one. The earth was once considered to be scientifically proven to be flat (and that adaptation was on more information needed by limited research ability). Science can adapt to further given information without any seeming consequence, why can't religious interpritaion in an individuals quest for knowledge also change. Note when reading this I said individuals interpretation because I believe there is an absolute truth, but from an individual standpoint, individuals will always be wrong in some aspect of some debate. The more an individuals learn the more they grow and learn shaping there interpretations a little crisper and bringing clarity to there mind on issues. Religion is not perfect by any means thus the different sects of religion, but there is an absolute truth out there. Also in saying these things that even though people have different opinions on the minute details of religion a lot of the core values of many churches and organizations are very similar and have not changed through time. The same seems to be true about science, in that it changes as more information comes along. But the changes are in a different way. It is not an individuals ignorance, it is a hypothesis or theory that many people take for fact that changes. One last thing I would say is that a lot of so called churches have really strayed from any form of truth or logic based upon someones interpretation. I don't mind little debates but some church sects take a personal interpretation to the extreme then corral a lot of people to there cause. Keep in mind it is not always this way. The core of Christian beliefs is very solid and has very factual and logical foundations. YES a lot of different messages, and not slightly different, some of them a polar opposites. Some say eating pork is a sin, others say do not kill period, while others say eye for an eye, some do not condone adultery while others advocate polygamy. These are not minor details but glaring contradictions. If religion teaches to control self centered egos, then how can the pope sit all powerful like a king at the center of the catholic universe? Control animal instincts like cleaving a mans head off with an axe for control of a holy city? Not to mention their hunger pleasure, isn't religion the pursuit of unlimited pleasure in the afterlife, 70 virgins, that kind of pleasure? I am not told these things about religion, I witness these things about religion. Please tell me that these are only perversions of religion, yeah, heard that before. If you want to believe in God, Great! No problems here, but as I said earlier and this pertains to science and religion was that they do conflict, that is what the enlightenment was about. Casting off superstition and ignorance to better the self and the human race through observation and reason. Science and god do not conflict but science and religion do. Yes religion is not all bad, teaching to love your fellow man is a great concept and the reason the major religions agree is because it is common sense. Another reason that they agree is that religion was created in lawless times where control of large areas could not be enforced, the solution was to make people fear retribution in the afterlife or give great reward in heaven and have them police themselves. Another fabulous benefit was that people fought a lot harder and died in battle if they thought they would go to heaven for it, such a great benefit that is still widely used today. Lan1108 Don't forget that I like the fact it seems you have definitely given some thought to these matters. But it is not enough to just bring up the other side of the debate a lot of people can do that. It is not enough to know the debate itself but I think you must research more on these topics. Spouting on a given side just proves you know another question, loophole, or idea that needs to be explained. The comments given as a rebuttle are not themselves an absolute answer it goes deeper. I have heard those arguments too but trust me even after that other issues are raised and it continues. I just hope readers don't suppose there aren't answers to you objections. We can point to point debate forever. But moreover I would just hope the readers would not be completely biased towards one side of researching. Yes know the debate, know both sides but don't just use your knowledge to try and prove your side. I wish debates were more about reaching clarity on given subjects rather than band wagoning and personal pride. The questions are the point, though, if religion is the answer to mans existence then it should provide answers, it doesn't. People on the religious side are quite vocal on their opinions and never seem to be challenged. Just look at the postings, even though I am one of the only ones advocating my side their are many people who agree and say nothing. That is why I raise the questions, right now there is an election going on where it would be suicide to admit you weren't a god fearing flag waver. Those who refuse to accept the smoke screen of religion are excluded, as if we couldn't possibly be competent. When I pose questions I expect answers because people use religion to make decisions on how to run their lives and others. If a religious president is elected then he may declare war on a country based on religious doctrine. If it wasn't this way I could let it go but it is forced on those who do not accept it, maybe not always in a direct fashion but it does happen. 9/11 had a direct impact on me and it sprang from religion, perversion of it or not. People are rarely killed in the name of evolution. An Atheist believes there is no God therefore his mind is closed to arguments or statements to the contrary. They often respond in anger or result to angry arguments (anger is a reaction to fear, in this case the fear that he is wrong). He/She relies on science to answer Why – How – Who which science cannot do as true science is agnostic in that it only deals with empirical data. A Religious believes he knows the answer to Why – How – Who close minded to and threatened by information that appears contrary to his belief. They often respond in anger (the fear is that the atheist is right and maybe there is no God). An argument between these two is untenable. Both sides ultimately relent to volition and close their minds while blaming the other for being close minded. They sling clever lines or hurtful statements or walk away in disgust. The one who Knows God and is Known by God understands these things and does not waste time in argument. He/She takes pleasure in the discovery of the things God has hidden. "it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of man to seek it out". The foundation of science was built by men and women who understood this. Not by lost people who desire to prove their own. The beauty is that there is truth, and it is Truth that sets man free. Seek Truth vs validation, seek Truth vs Ego seek Truth above all else and it will be revealed to you. Do not for an instant be so arrogant as to think you know lest you die ignorant and alone. If you replace the word god with "Invisible Pink Unicorn" in all of the comments they will make as much sense. Religion is there to keep people under control, nothing more. Nation states took over the role for a while and there was a movement to separate the church and state.. but now big business has taken over. Evolution is not a joke, and it's not open to discussion, it's fact, it's observable, TB has evolved to become immune to the same medicines we used to kill it in the 70's. Humans, reptiles etc. are all multi cellular organisms and therefore evolution will take much longer to be visible. If you fully understand the theory of evolution you will know that it's not something that happens in one generation, but over millennia. There are gaps in the fossil records yes but those gaps are due to the way in which fossils are created, nothing to do with the Invisible Pink Unicorns intervention. I can't believe that in a world so full of knowledge that seemingly intelligent people still believe in one God. This should not be a debate about science v's religion, it should be a debate about science v's fairytale... just because there is no evidence of God doesn't mean that he exists and no matter what way you choose to interpret the Bible remember that it's an interpretation, that's not to say it's a book of actual facts. It's amazing how religiously inclined people "interpret" the Bible when it suits them but quote it word for word when it suits them too. Science isn't open to interpretation, science is fact, it's about time churches were disbanded and Science was given it's rightful place at the top of the pecking order. I think we'd all benefit from an hour of a science lesson every week rather than an hour's exposure to the worlds greatest fairytale... seriously religion is a joke, it has no place in the 21st century Photo Phinish are you the one who knows god? What a mighty responsibility and lofty perch you sit on, how futile and trivial our pursuits must seem to you as you gaze from the perch of enlightenment. Please do not take a stance as this might require you to be thrust from the heights into the mass of confused ignorance that lies below. There are people who site the Bible as proof for the Bible. There are many people who believe in science because they are told the science encompasses all. A large portion of people who have a strong opinion seem to be stubbornly unopen to critic. I have an opinion on the matter, but I will not state it. Research has shown that simple fact correction merely reinforces faulty reasoning. However, I will state that this is NOT an argument of religion vs. science. Science covers only that which can be empirically proven, and therefore is not at all related to the basis of religion. After all, it is absolutely impossible to scientificly prove that George Washington was the 1st president of the United States. It is really an argument over wether the driving force in the universe was some kind of intelligent being or random forces acting on chance. As i have stated, fact correction merely reinforces fallicious reasoning. Instead I will try to present the arguments as I have heard them from competent individuals on each side. A:There is no proof that god exists, so ther is no reason to believe in him. I could say that there is a flying noodle monster. Just because there is no proof against it doesn't mean that it exists. T:The proof is that there is design. If you look at a clock, you wouldn't say that it was formed by the wind and the rain. You would say that there is a designer. Also, since it appears that the universe has design, you have the burden of proof by suggesting that the universe was created by random chance. Besides, since the universe is expanding, it shows that there must have been a begining. That which has a begining must have a beginer. Therefore the universe must of had a beginer. This beginer would have to exist outside the realm ofspace and time in order to begin the universe. That is where God comes in. A:We merely see a design because we exist, it appears that the conditions for life are perfectly met. If we hadn't have come into existence, then there wouldn'tappear to be design. There could be an infinite number of universes. ours just happens to be the one with life. The universe could merely be just one in a series of collaspsing and expanding universes, each with their own physics. Life is so complex because the more elegant and efficient crreatures survived.The universe doesn't have to be designed to appear designed, therefore you have the burden of proof. T:But the universe itself has many qualities that if changed at all, would cease to allow any existence of anything. The entire universe is specifically designed for life. The proposal that there aare multiple universes is impossible to test because of its very essence. There is absolutely no evidence that shows that there are multiple universes. Since there is evidence of a designer, suggesting that there isn't a designer is clearly the more absurd argument. (Evidence doesn't have to be scientific. It is commonly historical or based on logic.) Okay, I don't want to write more than two questions per side on each topic so moving on: T:How in the world can evolution occur? I have heard many forms of evolution used interchangeably so that there seems to be no concrete definition. What i am refering to is masive speciatation. Natural selection allows those with the most beneficial gametic traits to survive. However, it does not create new structures. It merely selects from existing ones. Meanwhile, mutation is basically a copying error. Almost all mutations are harmful, and the majority of nonharmful mutations are nuetral. I understand that given enough time, something like a smaller forehead could develop, but it seems that mutations merely changeexisting structures. They don't create new information. A:You are right in saying that these things have to occur over time. Evolutionisn't a line. It is a squiggle. Some things may arise that are slightly different from an existing structure. Eventually the environment changes, and the animal must change as well. A new structure then forms that is slightly different from the second one. As millions of these changes acrue, new structures or qualities arise. Anexcellentexample is the evolution that occurs in bacteria every day that wield antibacterial resitant strains. T:The bacterial mutations are effective because antibiotics work by inhibiting one of the structures necessary for reproduction or survival. The mutations, using laymens terms, screw up these structures. Since the structures are already faulty, the substance that would usually spell the germ's demise doesn't work. This leaves normally inferior bacteria as the dominant lifeform in the affected environment. If the healthy bacteria were reintroduced, then they would most likely outcompete the mutants for resources. What I meant with my earlier question was that some structures simply couldn't evolve gradually. Take a mousetrap for example. If you don't have the whole thing, then it is usless. You can't expect to catch a mouse with a spring and a block of wood. You can't expect to have an optic cell with just a membrane and and a mitochondrian. You can simplify almost any large structure, but eventually you may get down to something that is simply too complex to arise in one mutation, yet too simple to be brokendown into more simple structures. In Darwin's day, the cell was unknown. They thougth that the cell was simply a blob of goo with limitless potential. Now that we have a better understanding of of DNA, we can see that there isn't limitless potential for natural selection. Darwin himself admitted that if a structure was found that couldn't develop with small gradual changes was found, then his theory would be moot. I simply don't see how some structures like the flaggelum or sexual reproduction could have developed. I can see why (how they are beneficial), but not how (how the structures actually would have arisen.) A:The structures arise because they are beneficial (as you said). The fact that these structures are incredibly complex doesn't mean that they couldn't arise eventually. Anything is possible given enough time. T:So a dishwasher could form out of a cloud of metalic dust? A:You're speaking out of turn. T:Sorry. I'm just tired. A:yeah, me too Well, that's all for now. The point of doing both sides is not to avoid offending someone. It is because fact correctionputs someone on the defensive.This causes them to stop thinking clearly and resist logical arguments. Trying to ACCURATELY depict both sides can challenge the reader to think openly. Therefore it is a muchmoreeffective persuasion tool in my opinion. That was very well done, I suppose I would be the A. Hearing it put like that does persuade me more effectively, I am now an even bigger A. This is where the T comes in and says "yeah A stands for A#hole" and we all have a good laugh. Seriously though as good as that comment is, I by my argumentative nature have a hard time not taking a position, it is very diplomatic but I find it not very satisfying. Sitting on the fence is great but as much as you'll never be wrong, you'll never be right either. I like to take the chance that I may be wrong but push forward an idea rather than have it stagnate. Take a chance and pick a side, it's fun, unless you are scared to join me in Hell. To Maven. I am a person who believes in whats right and good and pleasing to everyone else. It happens to make me live in happiness. Coincidence? Well I can tell you that the people who don't care about others are the ones that make decisions like you say. They are the ones who created Science Vs Religeon. Do these people think that Christians don't believe in science? No. What motive then? I really enjoy the topic on debate, but this is ridiculous. This debate so far has not been about reaching a conclusion or clarifying given information. It has just been about winning or defending. Does anyone really care to find out the truth or is it more important to prove yourself on online post. I have already stated it is to much material to debate online, with to many aspects, and to many case and points. Seriously we haven't even touched the subject, unless you want an unbelievably long and comprehensive post. We have not even (really) touched on the issues of; cosmology geology historical records (verification of sited information is it viable reliable information) archeology biology Philosophy (which I consider a certain science in that science has hypotheses, philosophy poses theories on asked questions) physics etc. That still doesn't even touch it and those are broad subjects. So I would say stop trying to win an argument and concentrate your efforts more on being justified through time not in one debate. I still challenge people to study without bias, which it doesn't seem like some of the posters have done. Seriously do your research because it has serious implications. Don't let ego get in the way. First off, I don't really believe in god. However, there is insufficient evidence to rule it out. When you boil it all down, it comes to one of the following two situations. 1) God created the universe, matter, everything we know. Whether he did it directly (poof, there is a human) or indirectly (setting up the stages for the big bang and/or evolution) is irrelevant. 2) Energy/Matter spontaneously came into being from total and complete vacuum (Assuming God doesn't exist). Assuming #1 is true. Who created God? How did he come to exist? Most people will tell me "He has always existed!" Assuming #2 is true. This is as unimaginable to me as God spontaneously coming into being from total and complete vacuum (or always existing which is the same to me). I have read some weird theories about particles that pop in and out of existence but I won't even begin to say I understand of believe it. Therefore, I deduce that it is equally likely that God came to exist out of nothing as Energy/Matter came to exist out of nothing. Although, I must admit. I would be pissed to find out there was a God. I mean hell, why should I have to believe something without some kind of direct evidence? Its kind of crappy that I have to go to hell (or simply be withheld from some reward) because I don't believe. One other note. Someone once told me "I bet even if God showed himself right now and said. I am God. That I would not believe." I thought about it for a few minutes and I realized he was right. Even if God showed himself. I would put him through a hell of a lot of tests. I would make him teleport me here/there. Past/Future. All sorts of crazy stuff beyond the comprehension of our current science. But, at the end of the day, I would probably just assume he was some sort of advanced life form with scientific and technological understanding far greater than our own. I believe in science. God help me. Last thing. Who cares what I think. If you believe in God and your a happy camper. Good! I love a good argument anyways :) But, I don't like the idea of indoctrinating kids into religion from birth. It's kind of cheating isn't it? Thank you eat! You get my more subtle points from my last post. There really is no reason to debate online. It is impersonal and everyone subconciously equates everyone else to sniveling wombats bashing randomly on the key board while the spell-check makes a futile attempt to translate the mash into a coherent sentence. The only way to make any feasible attempt at convincing someone of something is by talking to them. You have to have a series of casual, calm, non argumentative descussions. Otherwise it puts someone on the defensive and closes their mind to reason. I was also trying to get the strawman users, like Ian to can it. To mike, you also grasped one of my points. Science and religion are completely seperate. Science is empirical eveidence while religion attempts to explain where we came from and/or why we are here. This isn't the dictionary definition, but if you look at any religion, then you realize that this holds true. Naturalism and theism are both religions using that context. (although you did forget that a god or the God is supernatural, meaning above natural. Therefore the laws of time and cause and effect don't apply. Hence that particular argument is not effective against most theistic belief systems.) I guess you guys jumped on here and didn't bother to read the other posts or you would see we covered this. It is amazing that even though you claim to be objective and rational you still come off just as smug and opinionated as the rest of us. If there is no reason to debate then why are you on here? You want to throw in your two cents like the rest of us so even though you take the middle ground don't act like it's not an opinion. I thought your rational approach was supposed to not people on the defensive, if anything it puts me more on the defensive because of the condescending tone that we couldn't possibly recognize the merits of the opposing sides argument without someone as wise as you to spell it out for us. sorry. What I was trying to reiterate was that online forums are a horrible medium for discussion. I apoligize for the personal attack on ian. A strawman argument is an argument derived from listening to the worst representative of the other side of the argument. My use of cacaphonous language was quite tactless though. My pointing out that the creation of god argument was a faulty one is because I despise fallicous reasoning (such as the strawman argument). It just so happens that theism has more instances of that form of reasoning against it because naturalism is in school textbooks, and thus most people are familiar with it. This is because of the fine line between the sciences of natural selection, mutation, and speciation, and the religion of purely natural causes. I was merely suggesting that one should read some form of theistic literature before one points out the arguments against it. Also, I assure you that my tone was not intended to be condenscending. That really is how I talk. This would not be the first time that I have unintentionally insulted someone... and I hate wombats. I don't understand the point of the debate. Are religious people somehow obligated to bring in converts? Why should we fill up heaven with a bunch of people who are so reluctant to believe in the first place? I say, leave me the elbow room. This ain't multi-level marketing. You want to be a skeptic? Go for it. I will say one thing: if you don't believe in religion, then you're just substituting science for it. You're still not free of the irrational. Prove the Big Bang occurred, and not just something else that would have left the same cosmic signature. You can't. Prove Evolution is correct (not natural selection, that's obvious and not debated) by pointing out just one complete chain of fossil evidence wherein one species became another one (and please look up the meaning of "species" before you reply). You can't. Believe what you want, just don't be hypocritical. Acknowledge that whatever you think, you're accepting it on faith. I'm fine with it, personally. But some of science's greatest minds (like Albert Einstein) were religious. Who am I to argue with that? Contentment is no measure of intelligence, mentally retarded adults are often quite content. They sometimes have a distinct world view that simplifies the world around them into an easy to understand metaphor. Science discovers what it discovers. It is not limited to a previously mandated doctrine, and not subject to validation from anything other than proof. It sees fact as a series of proven concepts. This in no way disproves the existance of God. It merely shows that mortal man really hasn't acheived a perfect concept of God. Science has shown the earth to be many millions of years old, not thousands of years. Science has shown that life didn't appear in it's present form in the blink of an eye. Science has shown that it is possible for man to leave the planet and travel to the moon. Science has shown definite genetic connections between the species of this planet. Science has shown man how to harness the power of the electron for use in everyday life. Science has shown many ways to use our understanding of physics to do many things that the biblical world wouldhave never conceived of in any other way than devine magic. Science doesn't really obviate religion. Nobody has ever proven that the universe doesn't operate by laws created by God. Science does obviate dogma. It shows time and time again that man really doesn't understand the nature of God and how God's universe works. Man has come up with a pretty wide selection of fairy tales over the centuries to convince others of his own divine recognition, but when you get down to it they are pretty much fairy tales. That being said, there is no future in trying to convince any person that has a deep need for religion that the teachings of that faith are part inspirational thoughts, and part self serving dogma designed to keep one entrenched and serving that religions cause. It's a complete waste of time. An Atheist just has no god belief. The same way a Christian doesnt believe in the existence of say, Zeus, Odin, or Thor, Atheists just place the Abrahamic god at the top of the list. You are not required to have a god concept to be a scientist nor is a god concept needed to be educated in science nor do you need a personal idea of an inconceivable deity in order to understand science. The scientist does however have to observe the cosmos for what it is. When someone believes words written by men approx. 2000 years ago about their primitive understanding of natural phenomena and apply it to today's understanding it pales in comparison. I see the ancient doctrine as a old, out dated version of windows 95, and the scientific method as the vista or xp operating system. BTW the comparison of the pile of metal evolving into a car is just stupidity. A car is not a living organism. And the metal is not being used to build an organism. I cant stand how people like to put their creator in there as a gap filler. They still want to have the "watch maker" or now the cosmic mechanic as the craftsman when there is no need for it. If you lived 2000 years ago without the modern scientific method, how would you explain the natural processes observed with the naked eye? Religious doctrine could give you magical or vague explanations, or a shaman may tell you that an eclipse is their doing and that they will only bring back the sun if you sacrifice a child or animal to their deity to ensure a good harvest, they will not be educated by modern standards nor will they be an authority on any of the known facets of empirical inquiry. Notice how many old religious creation stories there are. One for every culture's creator god. I'm an atheist and anyone around me who new me a little but not that, would NEVER know. That's because I still live my life by loving my neighbor and never wishing people harm. By having compassion for everything from the people who died in car accidents today, to the way a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The difference is I don't need god in order assure myself that this is who I am every Sunday. I'm comfortable with the fact that I wont exist after I die. Does ANYBODY here remember where they were before they were born? Of course not, they didn't exist. Well we go to the same happy place when we die, non existence. The reason a God fearing person will never accept that, is because they believe in a spirit and soul. Well just because my brain has the ability to hold thoughts and recollect them, does not mean to me that I find myself so elite I must have been custom made by a god. Even my dog remembers me when I come home from work. I don't believe a soul is created when a fetus is made. I believe a work of organic art has naturally formed through a process that has been perfected over millions of years. Survival of the fittest, so please believers out there- stay in your house and pray me into believing, I'll be out skydiving while I still can. I would like to Quote a few people on what they think about Religion, Science, Faith, and Evidence... Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."-Isaac Asimov "If we see that a tree has been knocked down, we can explain it with a flying elephant.... but then we unexplain everything else we know." - Isaac Asimov You will notice that in all disputes between Christians since the birth of the Church, Rome has always favored the doctrine, which most completely subjugated the human mind and annihilated reason. –Voltaire Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities. –Voltaire God is that of a three-headed monster and to know this monster better, look at those who say they serve him, liars and hypocrites...-Thomas Jefferson "Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." --Thomas Jefferson - Thomas Jefferson "In the 'bullsh* department' a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman" -George Carlin "Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile." -Kurt Vonnegut "Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."-Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor "Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one." – Richard Dawkins 'It is far better to grasp the universe as it is, rather than to persist in delusions, however satisfying and reassuring.''-Carl Sagan A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious." ~Aristotle (384-322 BC) "Why should I allow that same god to tell me how to raise my children, who had to drown all of his own?" – Robert G. Ingersoll "If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane." -Robert Green Ingersoll "Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery." Robert Green Ingersoll 1833-1899 Science is but an image of the truth.-Francis Bacon Lighthouses are more helpful then churches. -Benjamin Franklin Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions. - Blaise Pascal Religion is regarded by the common people as being true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. - Edward Gibbon "I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul.... No. All this talk of an existence for us, as individuals beyond the grave, is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life our desire to go on living … our dread of coming to an end." Thomas Edison, American inventor (1847-1931). "Faith is believing something you know ain't true."- Mark Twain "A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows." - Mark Twain-Samuel Clemens A belief, which leaves no place for doubt, is not a belief; it is a superstition. -José Bergamín To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy -David Brooks "I still say a church steeple with a lightening rod on top shows a lack of confidence." – Doug McLeod "What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof." –Christopher Hitchens "Contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one less god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. – Stephen Roberts "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." –Douglas Adams "I don't feel obliged to believe that the same god that would endow us with senses, reason, and intellect, would forego their use." Galileo 1615 AD You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. ~Anne Lamott "I think that naming your ignorance God and pretending that, having named it, you have converted ignorance to knowledge is a sorry approach to the unknown."...John Popelish "I turned to speak to god, about the world's despair; but to make matters worse, I found god wasn't there" -Robert Frost I believe, it's hard to believe in a belief system making believers believe in make believe. -me Man is a truly imaginative life form...here for a moment and gone, having accomplished nothing of value for the universe but imagines himself as being an Immortal. He is truly imaginative. Humans are very limited in our knowledge of our universe. We are barely down from the trees and we dare to claim we know the secrets of eternity. Theism is created by the deprived and wanting. It thrives amongst the needy and fearful. Unfortunately, the majority of mankind is involved. This is evidence of our infancy as a civilized species. We know the difference between hope and knowledge, we hope for happiness here, and we can wish for happiness hereafter, but we do not know for certain if there even is a hereafter. We cannot assert, we can only hope there is. We can imagine... so much invested in a dream… so much time and so many lives lost to it. A dream manifested for a small few, that's a nightmare to everyone else.....The Scriptures tell us "righteousness exalteth a Nation." ] "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but the God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto His people. Trust in Him at all times, ye people, pour out your hearts before him; God is a refuge for us." John Adams: ""We...took our horses to the meeting in the afternoon and heard the minister again upon "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." There is great pleasure in hearing sermons so serious, so clear, so sensible and instructive as these ...." "Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand." "Let them revere nothing but Religion, Morality and Liberty." As President, John Adams Addresses the nation March 6, 1779: "righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34)" As the Declaration of Independence was being signed, 1776, Samuel Adams declared: "We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come." Fisher Ames (Author of the First Amendment) "Should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a schoolbook? Its morals are pure, its examples are captivating and noble....In no Book is there so good English, so pure and so elegant, and by teaching all the same they will speak alike, and the Bible will justly remain the standard of language as well as of faith." Abraham Baldwin (Founder of the University of Georgia) "It should therefore be among the first objects of those who wish well to the national prosperity to encourage and support the principles of religion and morality, and early to place the youth under the forming hand of society, that by instruction they may be molded to the love of virtue and good order." Alexander Hamilton "In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent Measure should be taken to ward off the impending Judgements....All confidence must be withheld from the Means we use; and reposed only on that GOD who rules in the Armies of Heaven, and without whose Blessing the best human Counsels are but Foolishness--and all created Power Vanity" Patrick Henry ("give me liberty, give me death" guy)^^ I agree. But both Jews and Christians worship the same God - we just have different views as to how to worship Him, and different beliefs as to if Jesus truly was the Messiah. I think people also need to keep in mind that the entire Bible was NOT written 2000 years ago. The ancient Greeks wrote plays based on the events of the book of Exodus - proof that that book had been around for quite some time. Seeing that religious study has been made into a science, I believe it to be apparent who the victor is in this debate and going forward. As long as people are testing and recording and no religious dolts get in the way by destroying that information, which they have done before(several times), science will -eventually- find an answer. And if there is a deity, we will some day have a conversation with him through our own inventions. -OR- Confirm what many people are starting to believe, that there never was a supreme deity. It takes some evidence to believe in something. Supreme beings are no different. The amount of evidence required to believe in something varies from person to person. Science is expanding, and constantly refining itself. Religion(s) isn't(aren't). There will come a point when science can confirm the existence or lack there of a supreme deity. And since there is already enough evidence for an unignorable amount of these said people, it is just a matter of time before full conversion. "As long as people are testing and recording and no religious dolts get in the way by destroying that information, which they have done before(several times), science will -eventually- find an answer." It is quite funny to me - the entire world looks at business men and executives, CEOs, etc, and all agree that they are somewhat crooked - they are in it for the money. We say the same thing about many other professions - the entertainment industry: Why risk money on a new movie concept when they know that Shrek 39 will make them a gazillion dollars? But... everyone assumes that scientists work only for the people, that they are the most noble of workers, the most honest of citizens - everything they discover they will give to the people! They aren't in it for the money - NO! Now, I know that there are many, many scientists who are good people. I also know that there are many, many people who claim to be Christians who aren't - who use the church for power and glory, not the way they should. I guess what I am trying to say is this: In both fields, science and religion, there will be nuts, fruitcakes, and all around jerks. There will also be extremely loyal and true people on both sides as well. But to think that all scientists are telling the truth about every scientific discovery...that is just preposterous. All it takes is for one researcher, who is on a deadline to find some form of evidence before his grant money runs out... I have heard alot of bold statements from both sides claiming to know all there is about what they believe. I am a seminary student working on my masters in Advanced Biblical Studies. I know I'm coming into the debate late, but I will answer questions for those that have them. Just ask one at a time. By the way Ian1108 is a very smart and reasonable person. He or she is very misguided as well. I welcome your critiques. I have a question: Do you believe in a literal 6 day creation, or do you believe that God used evolution in some form or other over a much larger time span? If the latter, how do you reconcile it with Romans 5:12? Foyle, yes I do believe in a literal 6 day creation. Which I believe makes the earth between 6000 to 10000 years old (depending on how you take the data). Many have recently tried to say that it was not 6 days due to the science seeming to suggest that it could not be, but from the beggining it was assumed 6 literal 24 hour time periods. So, what about those stars billions of light years away? I think I can shed some light on this subject (no pun intended)Well, it is well known that our awsome solar system is very near to the center of the universe. You must understand creation in this way. When God spoke the words, "Let there be light" At that moment there came into existince all the matter that makes up the universe. This happened in an explosive way. Matter bursting fourth at the word of God. Even the Bible talks about the universe expanding. The reference is in Isaiah. So, that answers the cosmic microwave background question. What about star light? After all they weren't made until the fourth day. There has been lots of explainations as to how we can see stars so far away, such as God made the light in-transit. These types of assumptions don't really explain things to well. Here is my explaination. Many people assume that time flows at the same rate in all conditions. At first, this seems like a very reasonable assumption. But, in fact, this assumption is false. And there are a few different ways in which the nonrigid nature of time could allow distant starlight to reach earth within the biblical timescale. Albert Einstein discovered that the rate at which time passes is affected by motion and by gravity. For example, when an object moves very fast, close to the speed of light, its time is slowed down. This is called "time-dilation." So, if we were able to accelerate a clock to nearly the speed of light, that clock would tick very slowly. If we could somehow reach the speed of light, the clock would stop completely. This isn't a problem with the clock; the effect would happen regardless of the clock's particular construction because it is time itself that is slowed. Likewise, gravity slows the passage of time. A clock at sea-level would tick slower than one on a mountain, since the clock at sea-level is closer to the source of gravity. It seems hard to believe that velocity or gravity would affect the passage of time since our everyday experience cannot detect this. After all, when we are traveling in a vehicle, time appears to flow at the same rate as when we are standing still. But that's because we move so slowly compared to the speed of light, and the earth's gravity is so weak that the effects of time-dilation are correspondingly tiny. However, the effects of time-dilation have been measured with atomic clocks. Since time can flow at different rates from different points of view, events that would take a long time as measured by one person will take very little time as measured by another person. This also applies to distant starlight. Light that would take billions of years to reach earth (as measured by clocks in deep space) could reach earth in only thousands of years as measured by clocks on earth. This would happen naturally if the earth is in a gravitational well, which we will discuss below. Many secular astronomers assume that the universe is infinitely big and has an infinite number of galaxies. This has never been proven, nor is there evidence that would lead us naturally to that conclusion. So, it is a leap of "blind" faith on their part. However, if we make a different assumption instead, it leads to a very different conclusion. Suppose that our solar system is located near the center of a finite distribution of galaxies. Although this cannot be proven for certain at present, it is fully consistent with the evidence; so it is a reasonable possibility. In that case, the earth would be in a gravitational well. This term means that it would require energy to pull something away from our position into deeper space. In this gravitational well, we would not "feel" any extra gravity, nonetheless time would flow more slowly on earth (or anywhere in our solar system) than in other places of the universe. This effect is thought to be very small today; however, it may have been much stronger in the past. (If the universe is expanding as most astronomers believe, then physics demands that such effects would have been stronger when the universe was smaller). This being the case, clocks on earth would have ticked much more slowly than clocks in deep space. Thus, light from the most distant galaxies would arrive on earth in only a few thousand years as measured by clocks on earth. This idea is certainly intriguing. And although there are still a number of mathematical details that need to be worked out, the premise certainly is reasonable. Some creation scientists are actively researching this idea. Very, very interesting. You obviously know your stuff, which is something I'm glad of. Many other Creationists are quite arrogant and un-intelligent in their comments (as in this newsvine discussion: and so I thank you. Too many people who call themselves Christians but aren't, are making a tremendous negative stereotype for Christianity. Very interesting. Unfortunately, our reputation as Christians is being severely demoted by other creationists (as in this newsvine discussion: This angers, disappoints, and saddens me. Why is this even an issue for anyone, going that far back everything is pure speculation. everything about where we came from is just another theory among a pile of theories. Some people choose the big bang for their explanation for others it's religion. But no matter what you choose NOTHING CAN YET BE PROVEN IF EVER. Forgive me trueperspective for telling you how funny this sounds to me... Did you ever think that your just assuming they said it goes on for infinity? All I have ever heard is they can't see how far it goes on for, because we cant see any farther than what we can now. Your assuming that means it for sure goes on forever, and there are unlimited number of stars, when in fact they cant count them all because we cant see for forever ago. And one huge flaw in your interesting 'perspective' (pun intended, you'll get me soon..) of our universe, is this: You say that you MUST understand creation in the way that our solar system is very near the center of our universe. Well of course you do, because you take Edwin Hubble too directly, and of course would put yourself at the center of the universe again. To explain- The universe is NOT expanding from one center! As far as humans can determine, everything in the universe is expanding equally in all places. Which means that since everything appears to be expanding away from us, the same is true NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE! The big bang was not an explosion in space, it was an explosion of space. The CMBR (microwave radiation) is uniform in all directions. Proof that it is not matter expanding from one point, but instead space itself which expands evenly... Go back to school. Or at least check this out: Maybe you guys should check this out. A new book just came out and low and behold it gives us evidence of God, nature and scienceWell, The	eng	ed4a152f-9a2b-4f2c-ad52-9b7874141561	http://www.popsci.com/greg-soltis/article/2008-09/does-science-obviate-religion
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people South American Football Confederation , commonly known as CONMEBOL , is the continental governing body of association football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations... since 1916. Brazil is the most successful national football team in the historywith three titles. At continental level, Brazil has won eightNational football teams can be ranked by their average Elo scores over time periods, following similar approaches in for example chess. The averages over time are calculated from the scores on the .-Strongest teams since the mid to late 1960s:... in the world, and has also been marked as one of the most competitive teams of each decade since the 1960s. Brazil are the only national team to have played in every World Cup finals. Brazil is the only team to have won the championship in four different continents; once 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international association football tournament that will take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014.... and therefore, they are automatically qualified for the tournaments. Early history (1914–1957) The first match of the Brazil national football team ever is generally believed to be a 1914 match between aeter City Football Club is an English football club, based in Exeter, which is owned by its fans through the Exeter City Supporters Trust.The club was a member of the Football League from 1920 to 2003... , held in Fluminense's stadium. Brazil won 2–0 with goals by Oswaldo Gomes and Osman, whilst others claim a 3–3 draw. In contrast to its future success, the national team's early appearances were far from brilliant, partly due to an internal strife within Brazilian football associations over professionalism, which renderedRio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast... state football federations meant that the team would not be composed of players coming from either of the federations. In both the 1930 1930 FIFA World Cup The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in Uruguay from 13 July to 30 July 1930... The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934.... tournaments, Brazil were knocked out at the very first stage. But 1938 1938 FIFA World Cup The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third staging of the World Cup, and was held in France from 4 June to 19 June. Italy retained the championship, beating Hungary 4–2 in the final.-Host selection:... was a sign of things to come, as Brazil ended up in third place, with Leonidas da Silva Leônidas da Silva is the only time Brazil has hosted this championship to date (excluding the upcoming 2014 tournament 2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international association football tournament that will take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014.... ). The 1950 tournament was unique in not having one single final, but rather a final round-robin stage of four teams. However, for all intents and purposes, the deciding match between Brazilacted as that tournament's "final". The match was hosted at watched by 199,854 people, and Brazil only needed a draw to win, but lost the match 2–1 after being up 1–0. This match has since been knownas the "Maracanazo". In Brazil it is called the "Final Fatídica" ("fateful final").in Switzerland, the Brazilian team was then almost completely renovated, so as to forget the Maracanã defeat, but still had a group of good players, including NíltonThe Golden Era and Pelé (1958–1970) players were given a list of forty things that they were not allowed to do, including wearing hats or umbrellas, smoking while wearing official uniforms and talking to the press outside of allocated times. They were the only team to bringto the training camp (because the memories of 1950 still affected some players) or a(for, because of their humble origins, many players had dental problems, which caused them infections and also had negative impact on performance), and had sent a representative to Europe to watch the qualifying matches a year before the tournament had begun Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association .... . They beat Austria 3–0 in their first match, then drew 0–0 with England. The Brazilians had been worried about their match with the USSR, who had exceptional fitness and were one of the favourites to win the tournament; their strategy was to take risks at the beginning of the match to try and score an early goal. Before the match, the leaders of the team, Bellini Bellini -People:Vincenzo Bellini , opera composera family of Italian painters:Jacopo Bellini , father of Gentile and GiovanniGentile Bellini **Giovanni Bellini , the most famous of the three... Nílton Reis dos Santos is a Brazilian former association footballerand persuaded him to make three substitutions which were crucial for Brazil to defeat the Soviets and win the Cup: Zito,would start playing against the USSR. From the kick off, they passed the ball to Garrincha who beat three players before hitting the post with a shot. They kept up the pressure relentlessly, and after three minutes, which were later described as "the greatest three minutes in the history of football", Vavá gave Brazil the lead. They won the match by 2–0. Pelé scored the only goal of their quarter-final match final by 5–2, winning their first World Cup and becoming the first nation to win a World Cup title outside of its own continent. A celebrated fact was that Feola would sometimes take naps during training sessions and would sometimes close his eyes during matches, giving the impression that he was asleep. Because of this, Didi was sometimes said to be the real coach of the team, as he commanded the midfield Midfield Midfield is the part of a sports pitch that lies approximately in the center. It is a term most commonly associated with football to refer to the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region, but it can be used in field hockey to describe the same area, or in Brazil earned its second title with Garrincha as the star player, a mantle and responsibility bestowed upon him after the regular talisman, Pelé, was injured during the first group match against Mexico and unable to play for the rest of the tournament. the preparation of the team was affected by political influences. All the major Brazilian clubs wanted their players included in the Brazilian team, to give them more exposure. In the final months of preparation to the World Cup, the coach Vicente Feola was working with 46 players, of which only 22 would go to England; this caused lots of internal dispute and psychological pressure on the players and managing staff. The result was that, in 1966, Brazil had their worst performance in all World Cups. Another perhaps bigger issue was that Pelé, who possibly had been at the height of his career at this stage, was chopped off at seemingly every opportunity in the group matches.The 1966 tournament was remembered for its excessive physical play, and Pelé was one of the players affected by such play. After becoming the first player ever to score in three World Cups, with a direct free kick against Bulgaria, he had to rest, due to fatigue, for the match against Hungary, which Brazil lost. He then faced Portugal, and several violent tackles by the Portuguese defenders caused him to leave the match and the tournament. Brazil lost that match and were eliminated in the first round of the World Cup for the first time since 1934. After the tournament, Pelé declared that he did not wish to play in the World Cup again.. Brazil fielded what has since then been considered the best association football squad ever, led by Pelé in his last World Cup final, captain Carlos Alberto Torres Carlos Alberto Torres. After winning the Jules Rimet Trophy for the third time, Brazil were allowed to keep it for good. Six games, six wins. Jairzinho was second top scorer with seven goals, Pele finished with four goals. Most importantly, Brazil lifted the Jules Rimet World Cup trophy for the third time [the first nation to do so], which meant they got to keep it. The dominance of the Brazil teams of 1958 to 1970 are the reason we have a different World Cup trophy today. However, it would be 24 years before Brazil got their hands on the new version. The dry spell (1970–1994) After the international retirement of Pelé and other stars from the 1970 squad, Brazil were not able to overcome Netherlands Netherlands national football team The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands The generation of 1974 could not defend their title, finishing in fourth place, after failing to achieve victory against a strong Polish side.was notoriously controversial. In the second group stage, Brazil were competing with tournament hostfor top spot and a place in the finals. In their last group match, Brazil defeated Poland Poland national football team The Poland national football team represents Poland in association football and is controlled by the Polish Football Association, the governing body for football in Poland... In sports such as ice hockey and association football, goal difference is often the first tiebreaker used to rank teams which finish a league competition with an equal number of points.... of +5. Argentina were only on a goal difference of +2, but in their last group match, they managed, controversially, to defeat Peru Peru national football teamby 6–0 and thus qualify for the final. The Brazilian team were forced to settle for the third place match, where they defeated Italy by 2–1., the tournament favorites Brazil easily moved through the early part of the draw, but a 3–2 defeat Brazil vs Italy (1982) Brazil vs Italy was the final second round group stage match for Group C in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. The match was won by Italy 2-3 with Italian striker Paolo Rossi scoring a hat trick. The result eliminated Brazil from the tournament while Italy would go on to win it.Brazil had won all five of... to Italy, in one of the classic games in finals history, eliminated them from the tournament. Paolo Rossi Paolo Rossiscored all three of Italy's goals. The seleção was defeated in the match they still refer to as the "Sarrias Disaster", a reference to the stadium's name, and manager Telê Telê Santana Telê Santana da Silva, also known as Telê Santana , was a Brazilian football manager and former player... would be much blamed by the Brazilian media for using an attacking system while a 2–2 draw was enough. The 1982 team, with players like Sócrates Sócrates Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, MD, , more commonly known simply as Sócrates, is a Brazilian former association footballer.... The players of 1986 were older but still capable of an enchanting performance. They were troubled, however, by an injury Zico picked up before the World Cup. Incessant questions about whether and when he could play undoubtedly had some negative effect on the team. Brazil met France in the quarter-finals and the match is considered an absolute classic of "total football". Neither side deserved to lose but when Zico finally came on in the second half (with the score 1–1), and Brazil were awarded a penalty late in the game, Brazil seemed set to win. But Zico, the hero of a whole generation of Brazilian football fans, missed the penalty – and after a goalless but thoroughly exciting extra time it all came down to a penalty shoot out. There Zico managed to score from his penalty but Júlio César da Silva Júlio César da Silvaand Sócrates missed the goal in their turn, and despite French captain Michel Platini sending his effort over the cross bar, Brazil nevertheless were eliminated 4–3Sebastião Barroso Lazaroni, commonly known as Sebastião Lazaroni , is a Brazilian football manager, currently heading the Qatar national football team. He was born in Muriaé, Minas Gerais state.... , who was hardly known before the Cup. With a defensive scheme, whose main symbol was mid-fielder and three full-backs, the team lacked creativity but made it to the second round. Against a weaker Argentine side, the Brazilians applied heavy pressure and had numerous chances to score, but it was Claudio Caniggia Claudio Caniggiawho managed to find Brazil's net and eliminate them after a brilliant assist from Maradona. 1994 World Cup Brazil, to the surprise of many, went 24 years without winning a World Cup or even participating in a final. Their struggles ended at the 1994 tournamentin the United States, where a solid, if unspectacular side headed by the likes of Romário Romário Romário de Souza Faria , better known simply as Romário , is a former footballer who played striker,manager and current politician where is currently running for a mayor like position in his hometown... Jorge de Amorim Campos , aka Jorginho, is a retired Brazilian footballer who played mainly as a right defender, and the current coach of Figueirense Futebol Clube.... won Roberto Baggiolifted his spot kick over the crossbar, Brazil were champions once again. A new era of dominance had begun. 1998 After a very respectable campaign during which they beat Netherlands Netherlands national football team The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands... on penalties in the semi-final following a 1–1 draw with goals from3–0 in a final game. Brazilian marking at defensive set pieces was poor, and Zinédwas able to score two headed goals from France's corner kicks. Also, Brazilian star Ronaldo suffered an epileptic seizure a few hours before the match. Many criticized the decision to reinstate Ronaldo into the starting lineup as he put on a poor performance. 2002 World Cup groupings appeared at first glance to favor Brazilian team; their adversaries would be Turkey Turkey national football team The Turkey national football team represents Turkey in association football and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey. They are affiliated with UEFAThe Turkey national football team represents Turkey in association football and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey. They are affiliated with UEFA... finished the tournament in third place. Brazil went on to beat all three opponents, scoring 11 goals and conceding only three, and topping the group. The Turkey national football team represents Turkey in association football and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey. They are affiliated with UEFA... , Rivaldo fell to the ground clutching his face after Turkey's Hakan Ünsal Hakan Ünsal Hakan Ünsal is a Turkish former international footballer.Hakan Ünsal is remembered by many for his rocket left foot and his pinpoint passing as well as his nonstop desire for victory. He played most of his career at Galatasaray after joining from Karabükspor in 1993/94... had kicked the ball at his legs. Hakan Ünsal, who had already been booked, was sent off while Rivaldo Rivaldojumped to his feet and continued playing. Rivaldo escaped suspension but was fined £5,180 for play-acting. He became the first player ever ,to be punished in FIFA's crackdown on "simulation" and "diving." They followed with a 4–0 win over China and a 5–2 win over Costa Rica. Next, Brazil defeated Belgium 2–0, in the round-of-16. Against quarter finals, Brazil won 2–1. Ronaldinho scored the winner with a remarkable lofted free kick and also assisted teammate Rivaldo for their first goal, but was sent off for stamping on the right ankle of England's Danny Mills Danny Mills Daniel John Mills is a former English professional footballer best known for his time at Leeds United. His main position was right-back, though he could also play as central defender... The Turkey national football team represents Turkey in association football and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey. They are affiliated with UEFA... , which Brazil had faced in their group. Again, this match was difficult, as Brazil won 1–0 with a goal by Ronaldo. Rivaldo had scored one goal in all five games up to this one but did not manage to hit the target in the sixth. He had seemed all set to repeat´s great achievement in 1970 when he scored in every game of the World Cup. The final was between two of the most successful teams in the competition's history: Germany Germany national football team The Germany national football team is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association , which was founded in 1900.... and Brazil. Incredibly, the teams had never played each other in the World Cup before, besides a match between Brazil and East Germany East Germany national football team The East Germany national football team was from 1952 to 1990 the football team of East Germany, playing as one of three post-war German teams, along with Saarland and West GermanyOliver Rolf Kahn is a former German football goalkeeper. He started his career in the Karlsruher SC Junior team. He had his debut game in the professional squad in 1987... had been the tournament's best keeper, but was not able to maintain his post unscathed in this match, as Ronaldo vanquished his France '98 demons by scoring both goals in the Brazilian 2–0 triumph. Ronaldo also won the Golden Shoe as the tournament's leading scorer, though Kahn won the Golden Ball as the most outstanding player. Parreira returns (2002–2006) On June 29, 2005, Brazil won the Confederations Cup for the second time with an emphatic 4–1 victory over arch-rivals, Germany. They also won another championship, the 2004 Copa América in which Brazil defeated2006 World Cup Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira is a Brazilian former football manager. He managed Brazil to championships at the 1994 World Cup, the 2004 Copa América, and the 2005 Confederations Cup... presented a formation nicknamed "The Magic Square" by the Brazilian sport journalists, based in 4 offensive players:. During the preparation stages, the team presented some problems. The team's greatest star Ronaldo had got a bad build-up, after returning from a two-month injury recovery. He also had blisters on his feet and a fever during the training matches. The Croatia national football team represents Croatia in international football. The team is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation, the governing body for football in the country, and has been managed since 2006 by former player Slaven Bilić... (1–0) and Australia (2–0), the "Magic Square" didn't seem to work as expected and struggled to beat the opponents' defense. In the third game, manager Parreira tried a new squad with five former reserve players, including Robinho Robinho Robson de Souza , more commonly known as Robinho, is a Brazilian professional footballer who currently plays as second striker and winger for Serie A club AC Milan.... The changes were successful, as the team put on a comfortable 4–1 win against Japan. The Ghana national football team, popularly known as the Black Stars, is the national association football team of Ghana and is controlled by the Ghana Football Association... 3–0, with the Magic Square again this time. However, Brazil was eliminated in the quarterfinalsand by a strong defence which kept the Brazilian strikers under check for the duration of the game. Perhaps partially due to their uncommon formation, Brazil was shut out, attempting just one shot at French goalkeeper. The game was also notable for being the first time that the Brazil team had been shut out in 3 consecutive matches against France, now has a 2–1–1 all-time record in 1986, 1998 and 2006 in World Cup matches. After elimination to France, the Brazil team was largely criticized by the press and the fans. The media circulated images of the left wingback Roberto Carlos tying his shoes whileran unmarked to score the winning goal. The sporting legend Pelé blamed coach Parreira and Ronaldinho for the team's early elimination. Dunga period (2006–2010) 1994 World Cup-winning captain Dunga was hired as Brazil's new team manager on July 24, 2006, almost right after the World Cup was over. Dunga's former teammate, Jorginho, was hired as his assistant. His first match in charge was against Norway Norway national football team August 16, 2006, ended in a 1–1 draw. His second match was held against which Brazil defeated Argentina by a 3–0 score. On September 5, they won overThe Swiss national football team is the national football team of Switzerland... . Dunga's first defeat as Brazil's manager was on February 6, 2007. Respectively on March 24 and March 27, 2007, Brazil bounced back from their first defeat under Dunga with wins in friendly matches Ghana national football team, popularly known as the Black Stars, is the national association football team of Ghana and is controlled by the Ghana Football Association... (1–0) in Sweden. Unlike Parreira, Dunga has focused on the task of deemphasizing all players and treating them as equals. He did not just look for players in popular clubs such as etc., but looked at the whole scope of Europe, finding individual talents such as Vágner Love Vagner Love Vágner Silva de Souza , commonly known as Vágner Love, is a Brazilian football striker who plays for CSKA Moscow.-Palmeiras:... Elano Ralph Blumer , commonly known as Elano, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Santos and the Brazil national team.Elano has been noted for his accurate passing and precise set pieces.- Early career :. Of the four players who were dubbed as the 'Magic Quartet', Ronaldinho and Kaká were the only players who had a regular place in the Brazil squad. Adriano Adriano Leite Ribeiro Adriano Leite Ribeiro , commonly known as simply Adriano, is a Brazilian footballer who played striker who currently plays for Corinthians February 2007, which Brazil lost 0–2. Dunga did not select the last member of the Magic Quartet,Luís Fabiano Clemente , commonly known as Luís Fabiano, is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays for São Paulo and the Brazilian national football team as a striker.-Early career:... has made the majority of appearances at striker. 2007 Copa América Brazil participated in the 2007 Copa América which was hosted by Ecuadorian national football team represents Ecuador in international football competitions and is controlled by the Ecuadorian Football Federation. They generally play official home matches at Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa in Quito, but often play friendlies in other stadiums around the country2–0 in their opening match, then bounced back with a comfortable 3–0 victory over, Robinho scoring on a penalty kick. They advanced to the quarter-finals, where they defeated, after a 2–2 draw, Brazil won 5–4 on penalties. Their opponent in the final was which were the favorites to win, having won all their matches on the way to the final. However Brazil scored early in the 4th minute when Júlio Baptista Júlio Baptista Júlio César Baptista is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder or forward for Málaga CF of the Spanish La Ligascored on an own goal. Later in the second half, in the 69th minute, substitute Dani Alves scored Brazil's third goal, as the scoreline became 3–0. After the tournament, Robinho was awarded the Golden Boot in addition to being named the best player in the tournament. 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans... . Although they started with a shaky 4–3 victory over scoring a last minute penalty, having led 3–1 at half-time only for Egypt to pull level with two quick goals at the start of the second half. Egypt is also credited as the only African team to score three goals against Brazil. Brazil comfortably beat, as well as , both with a 3–0 scoreline. After beating in the semi-final with a late free kick, they went on to a rematch against USA in the final which they won 3–2, after coming in 2–0 down at half-time, to seal their thirdtitle. Kaká was named as the player of the tournament and Luís Fabiano Luís Fabiano Luís Fabiano Clemente , commonly known as Luís Fabiano, is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays for São Paulo and the Brazilian national football team as a striker.-Early career:... won the top goalscorer award with five goals in five matches. 2010 FIFA World Cup qualificationqualification with 9 wins, 7 draws and 2 losses. The 2 losses came during the away match to Bolivia Bolivia national football team The Bolivia national football team is the national team of Bolivia and is controlled by the Federación Boliviana de Fútbol. After playing in the 1930 and 1950 World Cups, they qualified just once—in 1994 Brazil also went undefeated at home during the qualification. 2010 FIFA World Cup On December 4, Brazil was drawn into Group G, dubbed as the Group of Death Group of death A group of death in a multi-stage tournament is a group which is unusually competitive, because the number of strong competitors in the group is greater than the number of qualifying places available for the next phase of the tournamenton June 15, 2010 and won 2–1. On June 20, Brazil played their second match against Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire national football teamand won 3–1, qualifying for the next round. Their last Chilean national football team represents Chile in all major international football competitions. The team is controlled by the Federación de Fútbol de Chile which was established in 1895. They have appeared in eight World Cup tournaments and were hosts of the 1962 FIFA World Cup finishing in... Robson de Souza , more commonly known as Robinho, is a Brazilian professional footballer who currently plays as second striker and winger for Serie A club AC Milan... scored the three goals to give Brazil a 3–0 win. In the quarterfinals they lost to the Netherlands Netherlands national football team The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands... 2–1 despite gaining an early lead. After the 2010 World Cup (2010–) On July 24, 2010, Mano Menezes was named as the new Brazil coach, replacing Dunga, whose contract was not renewed following Brazil's World Cup campaign. On July 26, 2010, Menezes announced his first 24 man squad, including 10 debutants. Only four players from the 2010 FIFA World Cup team were named in the squad (Robinho Robinho Robson de Souza , more commonly known as Robinho, is a Brazilian professional footballer who currently plays as second striker and winger for Serie A club AC MilanRamires Santos do Nascimento , commonly Ramires and Rambo, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Chelsea and the Brazilian national side. In 2008, he won a Bronze medal in the XXIX Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China... and Thiago Silva.) Players included in that squad but left out of the 23-man in the World Cup included Alexandre Pato Alexandre PatoLiverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups... The United States men's national soccer team represents the United States in international association football competitions. It is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF... . Neymar scored on his debut for the national team, and also won the man of the match award., Brazil was put in Group B with Venezuela, Paraguay, and Ecuador. In their first two games they drew with Venezuela and Paraguay. In their last game, Brazil beat Ecuador 4–2 to advance to the quarter-finals as well finishing first in their group. Eventually, Brazil lost in the penalty shootout against Paraguay and was eliminated in the quarterfinals. After receiving much criticism from Brazil's failure at the Copa America, Mano Menezes decided to call up the likes of Marcelo, Hulk Givanildo Vieira de Souza Givanildo Vieira de Souza , aka Hulk, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for F.C. Porto in the Portuguese first division. Mainly a right winger, he can also operate as a strikerwhich signals a return to the old Joga Bonito style. Olympicsthat Brazil has never won, although they have won two silver medals (1984 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984). The Brazilian Olympic team is often coached by the current national team coach, such as Mario Zagallo Mário Zagallo Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo is a Brazilian former football player and manager.-Biography:Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo was born in Maceió, Alagoas, to a family of Lebanese and Italian heritage.... Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri , commonly known as Dunga , is a former Brazilian football defensive midfielder and a World Champion for Brazil in the 1994 World Cup... in 2008. Nicknames The Brazilian national team has many nicknames and are known in different parts of the world by various nicknames. The most common one used to refer to them, especially in Brazil Brazil Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people... , is seleção, which literally means the selection. Brazilians call any national team from any country or sport a seleção and because of this it has become common for the national team to be referred to as the Seleção Brasileira or, more specifically in the case of the national football team, the Seleção Brasileira de Futebol. Although the Brazilian media have popularized seleção, other nicknames for the squad in Brazil include Canarinho, meaning "Little Canary", a phrase that was popularized by the late cartoonist Fernando Pieruccetti during the 1950 Other names like Amarelinha, "Little Yellow One", Verde-amarelo, or "Green-Yellow", Pentacampeão, "Five-time Champions", Esquadrão de Ouro (the Golden Squad), some Latin American commentators often refer to the Brazil National team El Scratch (The Scratch), among others. Venues Brazil does not have a home national stadium like many other national teams and as such rotate their home World Cup qualifying FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing bodyEstádio Cícero Pompeu de Toledo is a stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, home of São Paulo Futebol Clube and its formal name honors Cícero Pompeu de Toledo, who was São Paulo FC's chairman during most of the stadium construction, and died before its inauguration....Mineirão , officially Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto established in 1965 in Belo Horizonte, is the largest football stadium in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and the second largest in the country, after MaracanãEstádio José Pinheiro Borda, better known as Estádio Beira-Rio due to its location beside the Guaíba River, is a football stadium in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It serves as the home stadium for Sport Club Internacional. Since September 2006, Brazil have played many international friendlies at Republic of Ireland national football team represents Ireland in association football. It is run by the Football Association of Ireland and currently plays home fixtures at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which opened in May 2010..... Uniform evolution Brazil's first team colours were white with blue collars, but following defeat inat the 1950 World Cup, the colours were criticised for lacking patriotism. With permission from the Brazilian Sports Confederation, the newspaper Correio da Manhã Correio da Manhã (Brazil) Correio da Manhã was a Brazilian daily newspaper, published in Rio de Janeiro, from June 5, 1901 to July 8, 1974. It was an important part of the Brazilian press during most of its run... held a competition to design a kit incorporating the four colours of the Brazilian flag. The winning design was a yellow jersey with green trim and blue shorts with white trim drawn by Aldyr Garcia Schlee Aldyr Garcia Schlee Aldyr Garcia Schlee is a football kit designer from Pelotas, Brazil. He is most famous for creating the Brazilian national football team's kit of a yellow shirt with a green trim, blue shorts with white a white trim. It is still used today.... Pelotas is a Brazilian city and municipality , the third most populous in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Pelotas is located 270 km from Porto Alegre, the capital city of the state, and 130 km from the Uruguayan border... . The new colours were first used in March 1954 in a match, and have been used ever since. The use of blue as the away kit colour dates from the 30s, but it became the permanent second choice accidentally in the 1958 World Cup Final. Brazil's opponents were Sweden, who also wear yellow, and a draw gave the home team, Sweden, the right to play in yellow. Brazil, who travelled with no spare kit, hurriedly purchased a set of blue shirts and sewed on emblems cut from their yellow shirts. FIFA World Cup Brazil have never failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and, with 5 titles, have won the cup on more occasions than any other nation 1962 FIFA World Cup Final was the deciding match of the 1962 FIFA World Cup. It was contested by Czechoslovakia and Brazil. Brazil won the game 3-1 to record their second consecutive World Cup victory 1994 FIFA World Cup Final took place in Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California, United States. Brazil won the World Cup against Italy on a penalty shootout after the score was 0–0. This was Brazil's fourth World Cup title. It was also the first ever World Cup final to be decided by a penalty 1998 FIFA World Cup Final was a football match that was played on 12 July 1998 at the Stade de France in St-Denis to determine the winner of the 1998 FIFA World Cup a global football tournament held every four yearsGold CupSouth American Championship The Copa América —previously known as South American Championship—is an international football competition contested between the men's national teams of CONMEBOL, the sport's continental governing body... Year Round Position GP W D L GS GA 1916 Third Place 3rd 3 0 2 1 3 4 1917 Third Place 3rd 3 2 0 1 5 3 1919 Champions 1st 3 2 1 0 11 3 1920 Third Place 3rd 3 1 0 2 1 8 1921 Runners-up 2nd 3 1 0 2 4 3 1922 Champions 1st 4 1 3 0 4 2 1923 Fourth place 4th 3 0 0 3 2 5 1924 Withdrew 1925 Runners-up 2nd 4 2 1 1 11 9 1926 Withdrew 1927 1929 1935 1937 Runners-up 2nd 5 4 0 1 17 9 1939 Withdrew 1941 1942 Third Place 3rd 6 3 1 2 15 7 1945 Runners-up 2nd 6 5 0 1 19 5 1946 Runners-up 2nd 5 3 1 1 13 7 1947 Withdrew 1949 Champions 1st 7 6 0 1 39 7 1953 Runners-up 2nd 6 4 0 2 15 6 1955 Withdrew 1956 Fourth Place 4th 5 2 2 1 4 5 1957 Runners-up 2nd 6 4 0 2 23 9 1959 Runners-up 2nd 6 4 2 0 17 7 1959 Third Place 3rd 4 2 0 2 7 10 1963 Fourth Place 4th 6 2 1 3 12 13 1967 Withdrew Total 3 Titles 19/29 88 48 14 26 222 122Quarter-finals 8th 4 1 3 0 6 4 Total 5 Titles 14/14 78 46 19 13 156 61 Olympics record fifth edition of the football tournament at the Pan American Games was held in Winnipeg, Canada, from July 24 to August 3, 1967. Eight teams divided in two groups of four did compete in a round-robin competition, with Brazil defending the title twelfth edition of the Men's Football Tournament at the Pan American Games was held in Mar del Plata, Argentina from March 10 to March 24, 1995. Twelve teams competed, with title defender USA beingRound 1 6th 3 0 2 1 2 4 Total 4 Titles 10/16 45 31 9 5 131 32 Results and fixtures The following are Brazil's results and fixtures since Mano Menezes took over on July 2010, after-Climate:The city has a tropical wet and dry climate with an average temperature of . There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around 1,520 mm.... 1997, in oneLeandro Damião da Silva dos Santos , commonly known as Leandro Damião, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a striker for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Internacional. He has been capped at international level by Brazil....Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people... Lucas Rodrigues Moura da Silva known as Lucas , is a Brazilian football attacking midfielder. He currently plays for São Paulo and Brazilian national team. Lucas is in the list of FIFA's players to watch in 2011 Américas, an annual football match-up between the national teams of Argentina and Brazil.-First leg:-Second leg:Torreón is a city and seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the Mexican state of Coahuila. As of 2010, the city's population was 608,836 with 639,629 in the municipality. The metropolitan population, including Matamoros, Coahuila, and Gómez Palacio and Lerdo in adjacent DurangoAnderson Hernanes de Carvalho Andrade Lima , commonly known as Hernanes is a Brazilian midfielder who currently plays for Lazio.Hernanes can be used as a playmaker in the centre attacking midfield roleAn exhibition game is a sporting event in which there is no competitive value of any significant kind to any competitor regardless of the outcome of the competition... Current squad The following 21 players were called for the friendly matches against and on November 10 and 14, 2011. The squad only consists of foreign-based players because Brazilian clubs requested that their players be excluded from the friendlies. Most capped playersGilberto Aparecido da Silva, commonly known as Gilberto Silva, is a Brazilian footballer. He currently plays for Grêmio.Gilberto was raised in a poor family and as a child he balanced playing football with various labour jobs. He began his football career in 1997 with América Mineiro, where goodTop goalscorers like position in his hometown da Rosa Pinto, or simply Jair, was an association footballer who played offensive midfielder – one of the leading Brazilian footballers of the 1940s and 50s, who is best remembered for his performance in Brazil's 1950 FIFA World Cup campaign.-Pre-1950:Born March 21, 1921 in Quatis, Rio21 19 December 4, 1932 January 29, 1946 IFFHS Player of the CenturyNílton Reis dos Santos is a Brazilian former association footballer who played defender. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was a pioneering left back, being one of first full backs to participate in the offensive game.... like position in his hometownDomingos Antônio da Guia , nicknamed "the Divine Master" was a Brazilian footballer. He is regarded as one of the greatest players in Flamengo and Corinthians history, as well as the all time best Brazilian defender.He quickly rose to fame as one of Bangu's key players between 1929-19321970–1986 13 3 Barbosa 1949–1953 11 4 Manga 1965–1947 4 Brazilian Football Museum – Hall of FameCarlos Alberto Torres is a former Brazilian footballer, one of the most highly regarded defenders of all time. He captained Brazil to victory in the 1970 World Cup and is a member of the World Team of the 20th Century, as well as the U.SNílton Reis dos Santos is a Brazilian former association footballer who played defender. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was a pioneering left back, being one of first full backs to participate in the offensive game....Romário de Souza Faria , better known simply as Romário , is a former footballer who played striker,manager and current politician where is currently running for a mayor like position in his hometownAlfredo Moreira Júnior, usually known as Zezé Moreira was a Brazilian footballer and football manager that coached Brazil for some games in 1952. He was born in Miracema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was brother of Aymoré Moreira and Ayrton Moreira, both of them also successful coaches in theEvaristo de Macedo Filho is a former Brazilian footballer and coach. He was capped by Brazil 14 games scoring 8 goals. He played for Barcelona until 1962. Then, the Catalan officials tried to talk him into taking Spanish citizenship so he can play for Spain, but he refusedVanderlei Luxemburgo da Silva , better known as Vanderlei Luxemburgo, is a Brazilian football manager and former football player. He holds the distinction of being the most successful manager in the history of Brazil's Série A, with 5 league titlesHonours Official titles The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association Copa América —previously known as South American Championship—is an international football competition contested between the men's national teams of CONMEBOL, the sport's continental governing body... The South American Championship 1949 in football was held in Brazil and won by Brazil. Paraguay was the runner-up.Jair Rosa Pinto from Brazil was the top scorer of the tournament with 9 goals.-Final round:--------------------------------Bolivia hosted the Copa América for the second time in its 38th edition. It was held from June 11 to June 29, 1997. It was organised by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body.There is no qualifying for the final tournament... The 1999 Copa América was a football tournament held in Paraguay, from June 29 to July 18, 1999. It was organised by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body.There is no qualifying for the final tournament ninth South American Championship was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from November 29 to December 25, 1925.In 1925, the participating countries were Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Chile and Uruguay withdrew from the tournament, making this event the one with the fewest participating teams... The eighteenth edition of the South American Championship was held in Santiago, Chile from January 14, 1945 to February 28, 1945. This tournament an extra edition, with no trophy handed to the winners, but considered official by CONMEBOL.... The nineteenth edition of the South American Championship was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from January 12, 1946 to February 10, 1946. This tournament, an extra edition with no trophy handed to the winners, is considered official by CONMEBOL.... The South American Championship 1957 was a football tournament held in Peru and won by Argentina with Brazil as a second.Humberto Maschio from Argentina and Javier Ambrois from Uruguay became top scorers of the tournament with 9 goals each.-Final round:... The South American Championship 1959 was a football tournament held in Argentina, and won by Argentina with Brazil in second.Pelé from Brazil became top scorer of the tournament with 8 goals.-Stadium:All games played in Buenos Aires, at Estadio Monumental.... The 1983 Copa América football tournament was played between August 10 and November 4, with all ten CONMEBOL members participating. Defending champions Paraguay got a bye into the semifinals.-First round:... The 1991 Copa América football tournament was hosted by Chile, from July 8 to July 21, 1991. It was organized by CONMEBOL and all ten member nations participated.This was the last time that the tournament consisted of only CONMEBOL member nations... The 1995 Copa América football tournament was staged in Uruguay. It was won by Uruguay, who beat Brazil 5-3 in the penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw in the final. All 10 CONMEBOL members took part, with Mexico and the USA invited in order to reach 12 teams....Friendly titles The Superclásico de las Américas – Copa Doctor Nicolás Leoz , is an annual football match-up between the national teams of Argentina and Brazil. Founded in 2011, it is the successor of the Roca Cup.-Format:The Taça do Atlântico was a national football team's competition set between 1956 and 1976 under irregular bases and disputed among the national football teams from South America. The participating countries were Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Paraguay did not play in the first edition... The Roca Cup was a football competition contested between Argentina and Brazil from 1914 to 1976 on irregular basis.- History :The competition was created by former president of Argentina, general Julio Roca in 1913... : Winners (8): 1914, 1922, 1945, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1971, 1976 Olympic team CONMEBOL Men Pre-Olympic Tournament is a defunct international association football event in the South America region, and was the qualification tournament for the football at the Olympic Games.... The Brazil national futsal team represents Brazil during international futsal competitions. It is under the direction of the Brazilian Futsal Confederation or Confederação Brasileira de Futebol de Salão. The team is considered to be the strongest in the world earning a record three straight... The Argentina and Brazil football rivalry is a highly competitive sports rivalry that exists between the national football teams of the two countries, as well as their respective sets of fans. Games between the two teams, even those that are only friendly matches, are often marked by notable and... Many songs are used to express and love of Brazilians for football and commemorate the country's victories into the FIFA World Cup. Though foreign fans and broadcasters usually play Aquarela do Brasil in Brazilian matches, these are rarely associated with the game in Brazil.- Canal 100 TuneSantos Futebol Clube is a Brazilian professional football club, based in Santos have never been relegated,...	eng	cade25cf-7abc-48c9-8b6f-3943dcb46bd1	http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Brazil_national_football_team
Monday, May 06, 2013 As an entertainment attorney, I am often called upon to assist writers who have gotten themselves into trouble because they do not understand how their work may infringe the rights of others. A writer who learns the fine points of the law through trial and error is receiving an expensive education. Here is a brief explanation of how to protect yourself. I.FICTIONAL CHARACTERS If your script or film contains fictional characters -- characters from your imagination -- you generally do not need to obtain any permissions or releases. However, if there is a chance that the public could mistake your imaginary characters for real people, you could be liable if you have thereby infringed their rights. You can protect yourself by making sure your fictional characters cannot be mistaken for real people. Give characters unusual names that no living individual would have. Check the phone book to see if any people with your character's name reside at the location portrayed in your story. If there is a person in that community with the same name or a similar one, consider changing the locale or setting the story in a fictional locale. Add a disclaimer at the beginning of the film stating that any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. If fictional characters are drawn from another's literary work, you might be infringing that author's copyright unless the work has gone into the public domain, or your use is considered a fair use. You may borrow personality traits, so long as you do not infringe another's copyright. The first author to create a hard-boiled private eye, for example, cannot prevent other authors from creating their own hard-boiled private eyes. Characters that have a visual component, such as comic book characters, are more likely to be protected under copyright law. Moreover, if you borrow the name of someone else's character you may be infringing trademark rights they have in the character, and engaging in unfair competition. As explained later, in some circumstances you may have the right to portray real-life individuals without their permission, especially if those persons are public figures or public officials. II. FICTIONAL CHARACTERS BASED ON REAL INDIVIDUALS A writer's imagination necessarily draws upon one's life experiences and people the writer has met. A writer can freely borrow ideas, historical facts, personality traits of characters, and themes from other copyrighted work without liability. These items are not copyrightable. If a fictional character is loosely based on a real-life individual, and the public cannot identify the real-life individual from the context in which the fictional character is portrayed, there is little risk of liability. On the other hand, suppose you wrote a novel about the widow of a former American president assassinated in Dallas, and the widow character later marries a Greek shipping tycoon. Although, you have labeled the book a "novel," said that it is a work of fiction, and given the characters fictitious names, readers may nevertheless believe you are writing about Jackie Kennedy. If you defame her, or otherwise invade her rights, she may have a good cause of action against you. You can be liable for defaming an individual even if you do not name her. An interesting case is Leopold v. Levin. The plaintiff, Nathan Leopold, pled guilty in 1924 to kidnapping and murdering a young boy. Because of the sensational nature of the crime, the case attracted international notoriety, which did not wane over time. In 1956, Levin, the defendant, wrote a novel entitled Compulsion. The framework for the novel was the Leopold case, although Leopold's name did not appear in it. The book was described as a fictionalized account of the Leopold murder case. A motion picture based on the book was released with fictitious characters who resembled the actual persons from the case. The promotional materials referred to the crime but made it clear that the story was a work of fiction suggested by real-life events. Leopold sued for invasion of privacy. After the novel was published, but before the movie was released, Leopold published his own autobiography. The court was faced with the issue of whether Leopold, who had fostered continued public attention after having engaged in an activity placing him in the public eye, had a right of privacy in a fictitious account of that activity, or in the use of his name in promoting such an account. The court found against Leopold, stating that books, magazines, and motion pictures are forms of public expression protected by the First Amendment. The court noted that while the book and movie were "suggested" by Leopold's crime, they were evidently fictional works. The novel and film depicted portions of Leopold's life that he had caused to be placed in public view. The court did not consider the fictionalized aspects highly offensive, which is the standard for determining invasion of privacy. The court noted that a documentary account of the Leopold case would be constitutionally protected. Also, an entirely fictional work inspired by the case would be protected if matters such as locale were changed and the plaintiff was not identified. III. PORTRAYING IDENTIFIABLE PERSONS A person's right to privacy has to be balanced against other people's rights under the First Amendment. If Kitty Kelly wants to write an unauthorized biography about Frank Sinatra, she can do so without his permission. Likewise, Mike Wallace and his "60 Minutes" camera crew can film others without their permission. However, journalists' rights are not absolute. If Mike Wallace placed a hidden camera in a department store dressing room, he would be liable for damages for invading the privacy of customers. Determining whether a filmmaker has infringed upon the rights of a subject who has not consented to be portrayed can be a complex matter. The status of the subject -- whether he is a public figure or public official, and whether he is alive or deceased -- may be important. Whether the activities portrayed are newsworthy may also be decisive. And, the manner in which a person's likeness is used -- whether in a film or on a coffee cup -- is relevant as well. The most likely grounds upon which to sue for an unauthorized portrayal are defamation, invasion of privacy, right of publicity, and unfair competition. Let us consider each in turn. A. DEFAMATION Defamation is a communication that harms the reputation of another so as to lower him in the opinion of the community or to deter third persons from associating or dealing with him. For example, those communications that expose another to hatred, ridicule, or contempt, or reflect unfavorably upon one's personal morality or integrity are defamatory. One who is defamed may suffer embarrassment and humiliation, as well as economic damages, such as the loss of a job or the ability to earn a living. The law of defamation can be very confusing because the common law rules that have developed over the centuries are subject to constitutional limitations. To determine the current law, one must read a state's defamation laws in light of various constitutional principles. For example, recent United States Supreme Court decisions have imposed significant limitations on the ability of public officials and public figures to win defamation actions. If a state's law is inconsistent with a constitutional principle, the law is invalid. There are a number of defenses and privileges in defamation law. Therefore, in some circumstances a person can publish an otherwise defamatory remark with impunity. Why? Protecting a person's reputation is not the only value we cherish in a democratic society. When the right to protect a reputation conflicts with a more important right, the defamed person may be denied a recovery for the harm suffered. The most important privilege, from a filmmaker's point of view, is truth. If your remarks hurt someone's reputation, but your remarks are true, you are absolutely privileged. An absolute privilege cannot be lost through bad faith or abuse. So, even if you maliciously defame another person, you will be privileged if the statement is true. Truth is an absolute privilege because our society values truth more than a person's reputation. Keep in mind that while truth is an absolute defense, the burden of proving the truth may sometimes fall on you. Thus, if you make a defamatory statement, you should be prepared to prove that it is true -- which may not be an easy task. Another privilege is the conditional common law privilege of fair comment and criticism. This privilege applies to communications about a newsworthy person or event. Conditional privileges may be lost through bad faith or abuse. However, this privilege has been largely superseded by a constitutional privilege applied in the context of statements about public officials or public figures. Public figures, such as celebrities, or public officials, such as senators, have a much higher burden in order to prevail in a defamation action. They must prove that the defendant acted with "actual malice." Actual malice is a term of art meaning that the defendant intentionally defamed another or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Plaintiffs often find it difficult to prove that a defendant acted with actual malice. That is why few celebrities sue the National Enquirer. To successfully defend itself, the magazine need only show that it acted without actual malice. In other words, the newspaper can come into court and concede that its report was false, defamatory, and the result of sloppy and careless research. But, unless the celebrity can prove that the National Enquirer acted with actual malice, the court must dismiss the case. Mere negligence is not enough to create liability when the subject is a public figure or a public official. B. INVASION OF PRIVACY The right of privacy has been defined as the right to live one's life in seclusion, without being subjected to unwarranted and undesired publicity. In other words, it is the right to be left alone. Similar to defamation, the right of privacy is subject to constitutional restrictions. The news media, for example, is not liable for newsworthy statements that portray another in a false light unless the statements are made with actual malice. Unlike defamation, a cause of action for invasion of privacy does not require an injury to one's reputation. Many defenses to defamation also apply to invasion of privacy. Truth, however, is not a defense. Likewise, revealing matters of public record cannot be the basis for an invasion of privacy action. Express and implied consent are valid defenses. If you voluntarily reveal private facts to others you cannot recover for invasion of your privacy. Privacy actions typically fall into four factual patterns: 1.Intrusion into One's Private Affairs This category includes such activities as wiretapping and unreasonable surveillance. The intrusion must be highly offensive. Whether an intrusion is highly offensive depends on the circumstances. Most people would find it offensive to discover a voyeur peering through their bedroom window. On the other hand, a salesman knocking on your front door at dinner time may be obnoxious but his actions would not constitute an invasion of privacy. 2.Public Disclosure of Embarrassing Private Facts One who gives publicity to a matter concerning the private life of another is subject to liability for invasion of privacy if the matter publicized is highly offensive to a reasonable person, and if the matter is not of legitimate concern to the public, i.e., if the information is not newsworthy. This type of invasion of privacy occurs, for example, where someone digs up some dirt on another person and publicizes it, but the information is not of legitimate interest to the public. 3.Appropriation An action for appropriation of another's name or likeness is similar to an action for invasion of one's right of publicity. An invasion of privacy action seeks to compensate the plaintiff for the emotional distress, embarrassment, and hurt feelings that may arise from the use of his or her name or likeness. A right of publicity action, on the other hand, seeks to compensate the plaintiff for the commercial value of exploiting his or her name or likeness. As with the right of publicity, a person cannot always control another's use of his name or likeness. While you can prevent someone from putting your face on a pancake mix box, you cannot stop Time magazine from putting your face on its cover if you have been involved in something newsworthy. 4.False Light Publicity that places a plaintiff in a false light will be actionable if the portrayal is highly offensive. This type of invasion of privacy is similar to defamation, but harm to a reputation is not required. For example, false light invasion of privacy could entail a political dirty trick such as placing the name of a prominent Republican on a list of Democratic contributors. Although, this person's reputation may not be harmed, he has been shown in a false light. An interesting false light case is Spahn v. Julian Messner, Inc. Here, Warren Spahn, a well-known baseball player, sued over the publication of an unauthorized biography, alleging that his rights under New York's misappropriation (privacy) statute had been invaded. In the purported biography, the author took great literary license, dramatizing incidents, inventing conversations, manipulating chronologies, attributing thoughts and feelings to Spahn, and fictionalizing events. The invented material depicted the plaintiff's childhood, his relationship with his father, the courtship of his wife and important events in their marriage, and his military experience. The defendant argued that the literary techniques he used were customary for books aimed at young people. The defendant never interviewed Spahn, any members of his family, or any baseball player who knew him. The author's research was comprised of newspaper and magazine clippings, the veracity of which he rarely confirmed. The court concluded that the defendant invaded Spahn's privacy. The New York privacy statute protects a public person from fictionalized publication if the work was published with actual malice. Since the defendant writer invented large portions of the book, he obviously knew his statements were untrue. While Spahn could not prevent publication of an unflattering biography simply because he did not like its contents, this fictitious report masquerading as fact was not protected. Next blog: THE RIGHT OF PUBLICITY Self Defense Seminar: Date: May 21, 2013, New York This seminar explains how writers and filmmakers can prevent problems from arising by properly securing underlying rights, and encouraging the other party to live up to agreements by adding performance milestones, default penalties, and arbitration clauses. This seminar is an all-day class with Mark Litwak. Attorneys may earn CLE credit. Excerpts from Mark's last seminar in New York on financing films can be viewed at: Link Mark Litwakis a veteran entertainment attorney and Producer's Rep based in Beverly Hills, California. He is the author of six books including: Reel Power: The Struggle for Influence and Success in the New Hollywood; Dealmaking in the Film and Television Industry; Contracts for the Film and Television Industry; and Risky Business: Financing and Distributing Independent Film. He is an Adjunct Professor at the USC School of Law and the creator ofEntertainment Law Resourceswebsite. Wednesday, April 03, 2013 Mark will be returning to New York City on May 21st to present his Seminar Self Defense for Writers and Filmmakers under the auspices of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts Writers and filmmakers need to understand their legal rights and how to defend themselves from those who may seek to exploit them. Production companies and distributors often know all the tricks of the trade, while writers and filmmakers know little about how to protect themselves. This seminar explains how writers and filmmakers can prevent problems from arising by properly securing underlying rights, and by encouraging the other party to live up to agreements by adding performance incentives, default penalties, and alternative dispute resolution clauses. In the event of a dispute, participants learn what remedies are available to enforce their rights. Monday, March 04, 2013 In a suit filed recently in federal court in Chicago[1], a top Sherlock Holmes scholar alleged that many licensing fees paid to the Arthur Conan Doyle estate have been unnecessary, since the main characters and elements of their story derive from materials in the public domain. The suit was brought by Leslie S. Klinger, the editor of the 3,000-page "Annotated Sherlock Holmes" and other Sherlock Holmes-related books. It stems from his book "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes," a collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories by various authors, edited by Klinger and his co-editor Laurie King to be published by Pegasus Books. The creator of Sherlock Holmes was Arthur Conan Doyle. He published most of his Sherlock Holmes stories from 1887 to 1927. One might think that Sherlock Holmes is now in the public domain and any writer could freely borrow his character for inclusion in their own story. However, some of Doyle's stories were published in periodicals as late as 1927, they may be within the protection of U.S. copyright laws. Works published before 1923 are most likely in the public domain, at least under U.S. law. For those stories published after January 1, 1923, they could remain protected until 2023. According to the lawsuit all the Sherlock Holmes stories entered the public domain under the laws of the United Kingdom and Canada in 1980. However, with the passage of the U. S. Copyright Act of 1976 theauthor of a work that had passed into the public domain in the United States, or his heirs, were entitled to restore the work to copyright in the United States under certainconditions. In 1981, Dame Jean Conan Doyle, the last surviving child of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, applied for registration of the copyright to "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes," a collection of stories. This workis comprised of 12 stories that were first published in various periodicals between 1921 and 1927, and thecollection was first published as a book in the United States in 1927. The complaint asserts that the Doyle estate sent a letter to Pegasus Books threatening to prevent publication of "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes" unless it was paid a license fee. Kingler's prior publisher, Random House, had reluctantly paid $5,000 fee for an earlier Klinger collection he edited titled "A Study in Sherlock," even though Klinger believed he was not legally required to do so. The suit asks the court to make a declaratory judgment, establishing that the basic "Sherlock Holmes story elements" are in the public domain under U.S copyright law. Klinger claims that the stories in his new collection avoided drawing on copyrighted elements introduced in any of the Holmes stories published after January 1, 1923. In a 2004 decision, a U.S District court judge Naomi Reice Buchwald determined that of Doyle's 60 Sherlock Holmes stories, nine might still be under copyright.[2]Although the character of Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain, various storylines, dialogue and characters that first appeared in these nine stories could be protected under U.S. copyright law. A copyright for a derivative work based on a prior work does not create copyright protection retroactively for the underlying work but can protect new material that has been added. Sherlock Holmes continues to be an enormously popular character, even though he is 125 years old. He was recently featured in two Warner Brother films, the BBC's "Sherlock," and the television series "Elementary." The most recent Warner Brothers film "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," starring Robert Downey Jr., had an international box office gross of $543 million from distribution in more than 50 countries. The case raises the issue of which elements of the Sherlock Holmes stories are in the public domain, and which may remain under the protection of copyright law. Copyright can sometimes, but not always, protect characters and plot. Recognition of copyright protection for fictional characters goes back to Judge Learned Hand, who suggested that characters might be protected, independent from the plot of a story. He wrote "It follows that the less developed the characters, the less they can be copyrighted; that is the penalty an author must bear for making them too indistinct." So, while a writer cannot secure a monopoly on hard-boiled private eyes, one could protect a finely drawn character like Sam Spade. While plots can be protected, stock scenes cannot. The doctrine of scènes à faire excludes from copyright protection scenes that flow from common unprotectable ideas. These would include "thematic concepts or scenes which necessarily follow certain similar plot situations" and ordinary literary incidents and settings which are customary for the genre. Thus, a writer cannot preclude others from using such common devices as a car chase or cattle drive in their stories. The situation becomes even murkier when one considers that the Sherlock Holmes stories are subject to a confusing web of differing copyright laws across the globe. There is no such thing as an "international copyright" that will protect an author's work everywhere. Protection against unauthorized use in a particular country depends on the laws of that country. In other words, Copyright law is applied territorially by every country within its borders. Thus, the duration of copyright protection differs from country to country. Each country enforces its own laws, irrespective of the nationality of the author, or where the work was created or first published. The United States has joined several international copyright conventions to protect American works from infringement in foreign countries. These accords essentially provide for reciprocity of treatment for authors. For example, France agrees to protect the works of American authors in France. In return, the United States protects the work of French authors in the United States. This means that the United States will protect a French author in the United States in the same manner and extent as the United States protects American authors. It does not mean that French authors will have the same rights in the United States that they have in France under French law. Thus, it is often said that copyright laws are territorial in their application. French law applies in France; American law applies in the United States. This application can produce unexpected results, because American copyright law and French copyright law are quite different. American law focuses on economic rights while French law protects author's creative rights. The issue of whether a work is in the public domain can vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, because each country applies its own laws. This poses a potential minefield for publishers of works with international appeal. U.S. law recognizes the work-for-hire doctrine under which the "author" of a work can be the employer of an artist, not the artist himself. Few countries recognize this doctrine. On the other hand, some countries have doctrines that do not exist under U.S. law. France expressly recognizes the moral rights ("droit moral") of authors. U.S. copyright law only recognizes moral rights in the realm of fine art. Moral rights prevent others from changing the author's work (the right of integrity), or removing the author's name from the work (the right of paternity), even if the author has sold the work and the copyright to it. Under French law, the rights of integrity and paternity are perpetual, inheritable, inalienable and imprescriptible. Thus, the heirs of an artist can object to the use of their ancestor's work, even if that work's copyright has expired. In Huston v. Turner Entertainment,[3] the late American director John Huston was determined by a French court to be the author of the American film "The Asphalt Jungle." Under American law, Huston's employer was the author or owner. When Turner Entertainment which had acquired the film, sought to distribute a colorized version of it in France, over French television Channel 5, Huston's heirs initiated an action in the French Courts under the French moral rights law, seeking an injunction and damages against Turner and Channel 5. The French Supreme Court ruled that the transformation of the work from a black and white film to a colorized version was a breach of Huston's moral rights, even though these rights were not recognized in the United States. It did not matter that Huston was a U.S. citizen directing a movie for a U.S. company (MGM), which was shot on the MGM lot in Los Angeles. Moreover, the contract with Huston granted MGM all rights, and provided that American law would govern any dispute. France's highest court found for Huston's heirs on the grounds that French moral rights laws may not be violated in France regardless of the terms of a contract made elsewhere. The court held that it was against public policy to permit foreign law or foreign contracts to change the French system of moral rights within France. Ultimately, the French courts entered judgment against Turner Entertainment for 400,000 francs and against French Channel 5 for 200,000 francs, and prohibited distribution of the colorized film in France. So, while Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant detective, even he may find it difficult to sort out the conflicting copyright laws of different nations. Thursday, February 14, 2013 Mark Litwak has been named to the Southern California Super Lawyers list as one of the top attorneys in Southern California for 2013. No more than 5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by Super Lawyers. Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a rigorous multi-‐phased process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates, and peer reviews by practice area. The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines and in leading city and regional magazines across the country. Super Lawyers magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For more information about Super Lawyers, go to superlawyers.com. The first Super Lawyers list was published in 1991 and by 2009 the rating service had expanded nationwide. In February 2010 Super Lawyers was acquired by Thomson Reuters the world's leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals. This is the fourth time that Mark Litwak has been included in the Southern California Super Lawyer Edition. Sunday, January 20, 2013 Seminar Clips Now Online Clips from Mark's seminar last May for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in New York are now on-line for public viewing at YouTube. Link to Videos The clips cover the following topics: 1) Termination clauses, Performance Milestones, and Sales Agents 2) Importance of E & O insurance 3) Film Markets 5) Why Festivals are Important 6) The Risky Nature of Filmmaking 7) Importance of Chain of Title 8) Home video Deals Sundance 2013 As Sundance 2013 launches, it is a good time to review how well last year's titles performed. Indiewire recently published a review by Peter Knegt that listed the 40 films in Sundance that were acquired for distribution last year. Of that slate, only three films grossed more than $6 million at the domestic box office. Those films were Beasts of the Southern Wild, Arbitrage, and The Words. Many of last year's most successful indie films did not premiere at Sundance. 14 indie films surpassed $6 million mark. Some of these titles included The Best Exotic Margiold Hotel (Fox Searchlight) - $46,385,112, Moonrise Kingdom (Focus Features) - $45,512,466, Silver Linings Playbook (Weinstein Company) - $28,682,072, The Master (Weinstein Company) - $15,956,662, and Friends With Kids (Roadside) $7,251,073. And, the right-wing attack documentary 2016 Obama's America (Rocky Mountain) grossed $33,449,086. Thus, for those filmmakers whose work was not accepted by Sundance, all is not lost. I just returned from the Palm Springs International Film Festivalwhere I saw many great films including Jackpot, 80 Million, Beware of Mr. Baker, A Royal Affair, War Witch, and Kon-Tiki. Palm Springs is one of the largest film festivals in North America, welcoming 135,000 attendees each year for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries. The festival is especially known for screening many of the Academy Award nominees for best foreign language film. This year the festival screened 8 of the 9 films on the shortlist of films competing for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards. SXSW has also become a magnet for industry insiders. Last year 132 features screened, with 74 world premieres. At least three films shown there were acquired: Girls Against Boys(Anchor Bay),The Tall Man(Image), and Gimme the Loot (Sundance Selects). Mark joins faculty at U.S.C Gould School of Law Mark has joined the adjunct faculty at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law where he is teaching a class titled Legal Issues in the Motion Picture Industry. The class is one of the key courses in the school's Certificate in Entertainment Law curriculum. Mark has previously taught entertainment law courses at Loyola Law School and U.C.L.A. The U.S.C. Gould School of Law is considered one of the top law schools in the nation. Wednesday, December 19, 2012 Warner Brothers, New Line, and its affiliates ("Plaintiffs") recently achieved a rare courtroom victory by obtaining a court order restraining distribution of a film they claimed unfairly competed with one of its titles. The target of their ire was The Global Asylum's ("Asylum") film The Age of Hobbits. Asylum was set to release its film on December 11, 2012, three days before New Line rolled out its film "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." New Line's film revolves around the Hobbit characters, which first appeared in J.R.R. Tolkien's 1937 novel,The Hobbit,and were later in his The Lord of the Rings book trilogy, and the basis for the hit movie trilogy Lord of the Rings, which earned $3 billion dollars at the box office. New Line's film is the first in a series of three films, all shot in New Zealand by Sir Peter Jackson, produced at a reported cost of $500 million dollars, and set to be released over the next few years. New Line's film had its world premiere in Wellington, New Zealand, on November 28, 2012 and has been the subject of intense promotion and advertising. I was in Wellington right before the world premiere and was surprised at the massive and ubiquitous nature of the promotion across the city. Not only were Hobbit characters placed on buildings, but museum stores and numerous other outlets carried movie merchandise. Tourism New Zealand spent $10 million dollars promoting the trilogy. The promotion began when I boarded my Air New Zealand flight to Wellington and was delighted to watch the most entertaining in-flight safety video I have ever seen. It starred Tolkien elves, dwarves, Hobbits, and a wizard. The video has become an online hit viewed by millions The carrier has even rebranded itself the "Airline of Middle Earth," and plastered a plane with images from the film. Asylum's film, on the other hand, is a low budget indie film reportedly made for $2 million dollars. Asylum claimed that the word "Hobbits" as used in its film did not refer to the fictional Tolkien creatures, but to a human sub-species whose skeletons were discovered in Indonesia in 2003. In Indonesia, archaeologists discovered a human sub-species with the Latin name Homo Floresiensis, which they nicknamed "hobbits" because of their small stature. The legal dispute, in its simplest terms, comes down to this. Asylum claimed it had the right, under the First Amendment, to make a movie about ancient Indonesian people and refer to a name commonly used to describe the short-statured ancients in its movie title. Plaintiffs, on the other hand, asserted that Asylum infringed on their trademarks and tried to ride on the coattails of its massive promotional campaign and trick moviegoers to purchase the Asylum movie, thinking they are buying the Warner/New Line film. On August 31, 2012, Plaintiffs sent Asylum a cease-and-desist letter demanding that it refrain from using the "Hobbit" Marks. The parties then discussed Asylum's asserted fair use defense and possible changes to the title, design, and promotional materials. Asylum changed the design of its promotional materials, but refused to remove the word "Hobbit" from the film title for the domestic release of the picture. On November 7, 2012, Plaintiffs filed a complaint against Asylum for trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution, false advertising, and unfair competition. Then, approximately three weeks before the scheduled release of the Asylum picture, Plaintiffs filed an application seeking a temporary restraining order stopping the release of the Asylum film. As most movie aficionados know, there is a long history of independent filmmakers trying to cash in on viewer interest in topics made popular by the major studios. Roger Corman produced Black Scorpion, which imitated the Batman movies, Forbidden World, a knockoff of Alien, and Piranha, which borrows liberally from JAWS. Asylum has produced a number of low- budget films that resemble major studio releases. The company made a low-budget version of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, which was released the same year as Steven Spielberg's film based on the same 1898 public domain book. Blockbuster reportedly ordered 100,000 copies of the Asylum film, far more than it had for any of Asylum's previous titles. Seeing how profitable such films can be, Asylum produced several low-budget knockoffs, sometimes called mockbusters, including Transmorphers, Almighty Thor, Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies, Snakes on a Train, and Paranormal Entity. The major studios were not amused, but it was questionable whether they could legally stop Asylum. 20th Century Fox threatened legal action over the release of The Day the Earth Stopped, a film similar to The Day the Earth Stood Still.Last May, Universal Studios filed suit against Asylum over their film American Battleship, claiming infringement of their movie Battleship. Asylum then changed the title to American Warships. For the most part, Asylum has been successful in releasing its pictures and defending them from legal assault. The company claims that it has released more than 150 films and has only been sued twice for trademark infringement. One case was settled, and Asylum prevailed in the other. Asylum's legal success involved the film Haunting of Winchester House. Asylum wassued by the owners of the Winchester Mystery House, a popular tourist attraction in San Jose that consists of a 160-room Victorian-style mansion as well as a museum, gift shop, and café. The attraction is billed as the world's most haunted house. Sarah Winchester, according to legend, created this mansion to fend off ghosts. The owners objected to Asylum's plan to produce and market its movie, which allegedly was based on a "terrifying true story." When Asylum asked for permission to film at the Winchester Mystery House, the owners informed Asylum that they had signed a contract with another producer for exclusive rights to the Winchester story. The Asylum movie begins with a shot of a Victorian-style structure, but not the actual Winchester Mystery House. The movie includes the ghost characters of Sarah Winchester, her adolescent daughter, and her brother, who was deaf and could not speak. These characters, as well as the ghosts of those killed by Winchester guns, haunt Sarah Winchester's home. However, the real Sarah Winchester did not have an adolescent daughter or a brother who was deaf and unable to speak. The trial court dismissed the case against Asylum on summary judgment. On appeal, the appellate court agreed, stating that in trademark infringement cases involving First Amendment concerns, the finding of likelihood of confusion must be particularly compelling to outweigh the First Amendment interests of filmmakers. The owner of a trademark does not have the right to quash an unauthorized use of its mark by another who is communicating ideas or expressing points of view. However, with its Hobbit movie, Asylum apparently crossed the line. So the question arises, where exactly is that line? How closely can a filmmaker imitate another work or title without having a judge halt its distribution? It is rare for a court to restrain distribution of a film especially when copies have already been shipped. Films, like newspapers and books, are protected expression under the First Amendment. A party seeking a preliminary injunction must show that it is likely to succeed on the merits and will suffer irreparable harm if the relief is not granted. A basic principle of copyright law is that ideas, themes, facts, subject matter, and historical incidents cannot be copyrighted. Anyone can write a book about George Washington, and they can even borrow facts from prior books without infringing those authors' copyrights. Moreover, film titles generally cannot be registered as trademarks. Only a distinctive title to a series of books, periodicals, newspapers, or television programs like Bonanza could be registered. The reason is that trademarks are used to identify the origin of goods or services. Single books or films are one-offs. Their titles describe that particular work, not a series of works. Courts can, however, protect titles from confusingly similar uses, under the law of unfair competition, if the title has acquired a secondary meaning. A secondary meaning is when the title is sufficiently well known, that consumers associate it with a particular author's work. While courts are very protective of filmmaker's First Amendment rights, the law is also concerned about protecting consumers from being misled about the origin of products, which is what the laws of unfair competition and trademark address. There have been a number of cases in which courts have wrestled with a conflict between the freedom of expression of a filmmaker and the owners of trademarks and other rights. A commonly cited case is Rogers v. Grimaldi, which Asylum relied upon in its defense. In that case, Federico Fellini conceived, co‑wrote, and directed a film entitled "Federico Fellini's `Ginger and Fred'." The movie was a fictional work about two retired dancers. The dancers made a living in Italian cabarets imitating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, thus earning the nickname "Ginger and Fred." The story was a satire about the world of television. According to Fellini, the characters did not resemble or portray Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. However, Ginger Rogers brought suit, claiming that Fellini violated her rights of privacy and publicity. Her complaint alleged that the defendants violated her rights by creating the false impression that the film was about her or that she sponsored, endorsed, or was involved in the film, and that it violated her right of publicity, and defamed her by depicting her in a false light. The district court decided that Fellini's movie was a work protected under the First Amendment, and that a trademarked term could be used in the title of an artistic work if the use of the term has some artistic relevance to the work and does not explicitly mislead consumers as to the source and content of the work. The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court, explaining that movies, plays, books, and songs are all works of artistic expression and deserve protection, even though they are also sold in the commercial marketplace and thus can be the subject of consumer deception. Consequently, when the title of a movie or a book has acquired secondary meaning—that is, when the title is sufficiently well-known, that consumers associate it with a particular author's work—the holder of the rights to that title can prevent the use of the same or confusingly similar titles by other authors. The court concluded that filmmakers can use a celebrity's name in the title of an artistic work where the title does not explicitly denote authorship, sponsorship, or endorsement by the celebrity or explicitly mislead as to its content. The court also held that Oregon law on the right of publicity does not bar the use of a celebrity's name in a movie title, unless the title was "wholly unrelated" to the movie or was "simply a disguised commercial advertisement for the sale of goods or services." Other cases have given less weight to the First Amendment rights of filmmakers. In American Dairy Queen Corp. v. New Line Productions, Inc., the defendant produced and was preparing to release a film entitled Dairy Queens, which was described as a mockumentary satirizing Minnesota beauty contests. The plaintiff was the Dairy Queen ice-cream chain, which claimed trademark infringement and dilution of its trademark. The district court found that the likelihood-of-confusion factors weighed in favor of the plaintiff. Then, it considered whether the defendant's First Amendment interests were sufficient to outweigh the plaintiff's trademark interests in its Dairy Queen trademark. Ultimately, the court found that because other alternative titles like Dairy Princesses or Milk Maids were available, "the balance between the public's interest in free expression and its interest in avoiding consumer confusion and trademark dilution tilts in favors [sic] of avoiding confusion and dilution." Dairy Queen Corp. won because the court distinguished Rogers v. Grimaldi on the grounds that the Rogers case involved a title that directly referred to the content of the film – performers known as Ginger and Fred. On the other hand, defendant's film was about beauty pageants in Minnesota, without any connection to plaintiff's ice cream stores. The Dairy Queen decision has been widely criticized. Moreover, there are many cases that stand for the principle that filmmakers can refer to trademarks in their film, provided they do not do so in such a manner as to mislead moviegoers that the trademark owner is somehow affiliated or endorsing the picture. In Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Inc. v. Pussycat Cinema, Ltd., the defendant exhibited a pornographic movie, "Debbie Does Dallas," which portrayed a "Texas Cowgirl" engaged in sex acts. The character wears a uniform strikingly similar to that worn by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Ads for the movie showed the character in the uniform, and included such captions as "Starring Ex-Dallas Cowgirl Cheerleader Bambi Woods." In fact, Bambi Woods had never been a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders brought suit, alleging that they had a trademark in the particular combination of colors and the design of their uniforms. The uniform in which they appear and perform consists of a blue bolero blouse, a white vest decorated with three blue five-pointed stars on each side of the front of the vest and white fringe at the bottom of the vest, tight white shorts with a belt decorated with blue stars, and white boots. The trademark was not registered at the time, although Plaintiff contended that it was protected as a common law trademark. The defendant contended that the film was a parody or satire on female cheerleaders and was protected expression under the First Amendment. Moreover, the defendant claimed that no one could rationally believe that the film originated or was associated with the actual Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. The court disagreed and issued an injunction against further distribution of the film. The court found that the association with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, both in the film and in the advertising, had the single purpose of exploiting the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders' popularity in order to attract an audience to view sex acts in the movie. Then there is the Agatha Christie case. Casablanca Records produced a film titled "Agatha" about the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie. The story is a fictionalized account of an 11-day disappearance of Christie in 1926. Christie is portrayed as an emotionally unstable woman who engaged in a sinister plot to murder her husband's mistress. The heir to Christie's estate brought suit to enjoin Casablanca from distributing the movie, alleging unfair competition and infringement of the right of publicity. During her life, Agatha Christie agreed to have her name used in connection with various motion pictures and plays based on her books. Her heir alleged that Casablanca's use of the name "Agatha" and "Agatha Christie" would cause confusion in the minds of the public in general, and Agatha Christie readers in particular, by creating the impression that the movie and novel were authorized or even written by Ms. Christie. The court, however, summarily dismissed this claim, without much explanation other than finding that the heir "can prove no set of facts in support of [this] claim which would entitle [them] to relief." These cases were decided by different judges, under different state laws, and federal and state laws have evolved over time. Still, it is difficult to distinguish how the use of the word "Agatha," is not likely to confuse moviegoers about the origin of the film about her, but the use of the word "Hobbit" is likely to confuse moviegoers about the source of Asylum's movie. The judge in the Asylum case seemed to be greatly influenced by Plaintiffs' data showing that Asylum's title was likely to mislead moviegoers about its movie. Plaintiffs presented evidence from a weekly tracking study conducted by Nielsen National Research Group ("Nielsen") in which 30 to 40 percent of survey respondents indicated confusion about the source of "Age of Hobbits." The survey included 1200 respondents divided into two groups. The Test Group was shown an image of the "Age of Hobbits" poster while the Control Group was shown the same poster with an alternative title. Thirty percent of those in the Test Group who had an opinion about the source of "Age of Hobbits" (about 200 respondents) said they believed the movie was made or distributed by Plaintiffs. On the other hand, only 6 to 14 percent of the respondents in the Control Group, who were shown the movie poster "Age of Java Men," associated the film with Plaintiffs. The court also mentioned that Asylum's release of its film three days before the release of the Plaintiff's film demonstrated intent to capitalize on the publicity surrounding Plaintiffs' film, and its similar artwork and prominent use of the trademark showed intent to deceive.	eng	d322d45e-9f45-4e6c-9357-885689c88d05	http://marklitwak.blogspot.com/
. Exactly. Why on earth would a woman living in one of the safest suburban communities in the country feel the need to have multiple firearms in her house when she has a child who has a long history of mental illness? I cannot imagine that rationale at all. I grew up in a house full of guns - my father was a hunter and we lived in a rural area. I can see both sides of the argument on gun control. But this idea that you are safer in the house if you have a gun is pure fantasy in most cases. Why do we read in the papers about people scaring intruders or assailants off with guns? Because it's NEWS - it happens so rarely that it makes headlines. Unless you live in a terrible neighborhood, or out in the middle of nowhere, a gun is more likely to be a major liability. Home invasions are NOT common in most areas. Violent crime is at historic lows in this country. If you want to protect yourself and your family, invest in some decent security doors, an alarm and a big friendly dog that barks when anyone comes around. The real problem with guns is that too many idiots own them. In my version of gun control, people would take rigorous classes and training before owning one or receiving any kind of permit to carry (current standards are mostly a joke). Too many people treat them like toys, store them improperly, handle them carelessly and respond inappropriately when they feel threatened. And yet, in many states, gun ownership requires less testing and training than driving a car. That's insane. The NRA can fight every attempt at regulation if it wants, but a few more cases like this and all they will succeed in doing is uniting the majority of the public against guns entirely. I agree with just about everything you said. What I wonder about is how many more of these events we have to have to unite the majority of the public against guns? Or at least against unrestricted, unregulated gun ownership? What does the body count have to be? JRzWrld- You may want to take a look at the gun laws in Norway. Didn't seem to help all those dead kids. You need to look at the real issue. The shooters in Arizona, Colorado and this one all seem to have a common issue. Mental Health issues. Not sure about the last mall shooters mental health but it sure sounds like he had some thing going on. The left want to blame the guns and not the person with the Mental health issues. Maybe we ought to place the same regs in place for guns as the govt did with medical marijuana. High surveillance, acces to the business owners nank records, audits, etc. Yes this will put a lot of businesses out of nusiness, but thoses are also not playing the game. One 410 shotgun with a good dog is all you need to protect your house. Anymore than this is overkill, no pun intended. Ban handguns and assualt weapons and recognize there is a major illness in America and it is mentel illness!!!! The two do not go togehter very well. I also have to ask why five guns in a safe neigborhood with a child with history of mental illness? REALLY!? Exactly my brother, there was no need to have five guns, one is just enough and they kept the bullets in the gun to shoot. There are numerous errors conducted here. When I was in the army we kept the ammo locked up and only one person have access to it as well as the m16 riffle inwhich I was in charge of locking up the riffle, there is no problem with that and it work just fine. Two why on earth the teacher was trying to prove that guns are safe, yes in the right hand if properly trained no in the wrong hand if unproperly trained, look at prior incidents like the one at the malls which frequently occurs. That person was hunting for vicitms. I stand firm against hunting animals for the sport, you can hunt for food and not all the animals, but in hunting season anything goes which is wrong, there is no order or principals. I always said, Police are promoting weapons of mass destruction, look at those two officer they have guns, showing them which teaches the children its ok to have guns and they are not properly trained. And as far as the administrator, well I have known that they lie about how truly she was, so I am bais about what was said about her. A teacher has to be train on conducting teaching business, a law enforcement has to be trained in law enforcement and its not adequate the training they have because they don't know how to handle a cituation like this. training can be done to get familiarized with cituation like this. Another thing, why on earth does that swat teams come after the fact, gee the school have enough employees. Where was the school police at the time and why they were not stationed in from of the school guarding it the children. This is the prime example of people trying to blame inanimate Object! I got an idea for the people who like to blame the gun while were trying to make gun ownership illegal we should try to make Cocaine, Crack and other bad drugs illegal as well! Ohhhh Wait we already did! Yet its so plenty available, the same kinda people that can get ahold of illegal guns can purchase almost any kind of drug they want on a daily basis. What i cant believe is that so many people are so blind to whats going on around them that they have no clue whats going on. The real issue should be How can a person walk right up to a school full of children and enter so easily? RThats what i want to know. How can Our house of represenatives (The House that is and has been Republican Majority ruled sit there spend trillions on wars that they never found the weapons of mass destructions they started them for in the first place), Sit there destroying and rebuilding other countries while they cut funding for our federal education system, knowing full damn well whats been going on in the past 15 or so years. Why is does everyone focus on an Inanimate object when our attentiopn should be doing something that actually protects the children. Maybe our represenatives should stop giving 100s of millions in tax breaks to the Big oil companies and use some of the money to make a federal law to put guards at our schools. While the house sits there and refuses to work to help its own people and send our soldiers off to fight wars only to protect the Big oil profits, Americas kids pay with the tax cuts by staring down the barrel of a Gun! people try to say this has nothing to dow ith politics? It sure as Hell does, the politcis are the ones cutting the funding so the schools cant even afford to give the kids a pencil and paper needed to provide the education the government claims everyone has the right too! We all know that Gun wills always been gotten anytime a person wants even if its obtained illegally, i hate to tell ya this but Illegal guns are on the streets just like the drugs that have been illegal for many years! The only way to protect the kids is to get the funding out of other countries for once and put it back in the places it belongs. The Bushs family War Vendette is over, lets start taking care of our own! wait and see... in the competative world of crazy...their will be another school shooting...these nut's like the media hype...seem's like every time this happens some dummy...does his worst to top the other guy...kind'a wish they would down play the story... I am just sick about this. I am a 57 year old man with 8 children between me and my wife. We have Grand children of this age. I got a pop up on my face book yesterday right after this that said more guns less crime. I really couldn't believe my eyes. Someone I know liked the pic. I lost it right then and there. Now I own many guns as I am or should say used to be a hunter. But we need to have some restriction on guns. The second amendment does not say anything about military weapons being in the hands of everyday people. Think about this! When the amendment was written, Our country was a wilderness. We had no police, hell we didn't have a Army or national guard. So we needed our guns for protection. Maybe we still do. There are still people out there that would do us harm in our homes and land. I don't have a problem with the 9mm with a 9 shot clip. I do have a problem with the 30 round clips. There is no reason for the assault rifles. These people that think the government is so bad are the ones that have these. They are for killing men and nothing else. We can meet somewhere in the Middle. The NRA wants no control. Walstreet whats no control on them either and look where this letting people do what they want has gotten us. NRA is the lobby for the Gun makers and nothing else. Who are they looking out for? There profits and nothing else. Company's Profits are not the most important thing to America and Americans. Are we going to keep letting company's pollute our air and water just so they can make more profits. HELL NO. Are We going to keep letting the NRA Dictate to us what can and can not be sold in America? HELL NO. We can not trust people to do the right things. That is why we need to push our Government to Regulate things. Now having said that. We need something in the middle. So many times we go to fare with new laws, then we have to come back to the middle. Less go to the middle to start with. Less not walk all over others to get what we want. Some Gun control is ok. Maybe something like putting limits on how many rounds a gun hold. we have serveral guns more then 5 and the are of different calibers gages whatever his father gave him his when he died and my husband had some of his own the 410 I use for my protection if needed no aim needed just shoot. the 22 is for shooting small type hunting squirrels snakes etc. 306 my husband uses to hunt deer. the pistols are to carry around when you can't carry a rifle or shotgun maybe if some idiot thought a person had a gun on them they wouldn't be so out to rob or try to kill them. Maybe the guns belonged to her grandfather and father who gave them to her to give to her sons who knows and who is going to abide the gun ban, law biding citizens the others will get the guns any way they can they already do. banning guns isn't the answer You can not take that right away from everyone I don't know what will stop this kind of killings maybe banning these games that allow kids to think it s okay to walk into a place and kill people maybe locks that go on all kinds of guns and gun cabinets that are affordable to buy. Banning the rights to own a gun won't do it people wake up this world is "all about me" parents pass it to their kids and when its no longer about them then there is problems you don't have to respect your parents or anyone else People wanted God out of everything and now kids don't think theres anyone to answer to for what the do. This world is in a bad place where there is no turning back til it is over........ We definitely need limits. There are a lot of people in America with mental issues, who don't get help or are on meds that are mind-altering. There's simply no way of knowing who is going to reach their limit of tolerance, or how they may react. I see absolutely no reason for the average citizen to have an assault weapon or anything more than the six bullets a regular handgun holds in its chamer. There should be trigger locks on ALL guns when children are present or may be present (eg., grandchildren, nephews, nieces, etc.) Kids have little concept of death and that it is the ending of life. There have been several stories of kids killing themselves and others, also. Way too many. Short of having armed security forces at each and every school, roaming the grounds and metal detectors in ALL schools, I don't know of any other answer to this kind of violence, except to homeschool, which brings about all kinds of other issues. The TODAY show also mentioned this morning about "bars being set" in these types of mass killings. Once these start to occur, you're going to have other sickos thinking, "Oh, well I can top that one." It doesn't matter whether that type of person dies committing this type of murder, as they already aren't thinking correctly. All they are thinking about are their own selfish reasons for "martyrdom". It's rather telling that we know the name of the murderer here, but nothing about the victims. No names, nothing. I know this will come out eventually, but already, the murderer is "famous" (infamous). Let's get some real perspective, People! Guns don't shoot themselves, and, tougher gun laws will only remove guns from law abiding citizens, leaving honest citizen's at the mercy of people like this... Be realistic, Cops and the Military can't be everywhere to protect everyone, which is why we have the Constitutional Amendment to "Bear Arms". (and before you ask, the definition "Bear" is more than just a furry animal!) Don't be so willing to throw away a Constitutional Right that has kept this country safe from foreign assault for centuries.. Everyone knows one country may be able to overpower another countries military; but, it is impossible to capture a nation that is citizen armed. If someone wants to go on a shooting spree, they can find guns on line, in street black market sales, at gun shops and just about anyplace they want. There is no way to remove ALL THE GUNS.... What we need is tougher accountability laws... Make the punishment sooo bad, people won't want to use the guns on others..... And make these crimes ineligible for appeal if convicted. Maybe America should take a look at tougher countries courts... If convicted for a heinous crime like this, the guilty are executed within a timely manner... They don't sit in a jail cell for years, being fed, clothed, watching videos and using the computer, like a jailed hotel.. You can't have it both ways People.... You can't ask for legal accountability for the crime; and then worry more about the criminals civil rights, than the victims rights for justice.... As for this guy, well, tougher gun laws wouldn't have made a difference. He already massacred his parents and planned to kill himself as well.. Like it or not, he is already receiving his eternal judgement; which is far worse than anything the courts could do on earth... The only consolation to all this... If you believe in God and read your bible.. one of the biggest abominations in God's eyes is the slaughter of the innocents.. There is nothing more innocent than small children, before they reach the age of accountability... Judgement has been rendered and this guy is warming his backside the hard way.... You all seem to forget, or just not realize that millions of Americans own guns. There are vastly more responsible gun owners than people like the man who caused this tragedy. You may not live in rural areas, but the do still exist. Many people still use guns as a means of providing food for their family. You may find this backwards, but I promise you I'll never go hungry nor will my family. Many young women, like myself, carry concealed. Why? What am I so afraid of you ask? Not much, but I do recognize the potential to be a victim of violent crime. What can I do to protect myself from a man who wants to hurt me? I am not big, that fast, or very strong. But I can defend myself with my firearm. Guns are useful tools. Those of us who have grown up around them know that you can teach gun safety and respect to young kids. To anyone. The sport is fun, I enjoy shooting different guns. That's why I have more than one. Please don't advocate taking away my means of putting food on the table or protecting myself and my family. Please don't advocate the complete destruction of my privacy with surveillance. Don't take away my rights because you are scared of something you don't understand. Also, 2nd Amendment is to protect you from your government, not for the government to protect you. Putting a ban on guns will do nothing to stop nut jobs from getting guns. If they want them they will get them one way or another. Drugs are banned but people still do not have any trouble getting those. But nuts8, you just argued against yourself. Of course drugs are banned, yet of course criminals still get them. You still try and fight them. Your argument is so dumb, and repeated over and over mindlessly. Brainwashed. I am sickened by the pictures or interviews with the victims especially the children. Shame on the journalists and the broadcast companies for using these images. Having to answer questions or see these images can be traumatizing to the victims. Has the need to "get the scoop" numbed any sense of sensitiving or compassion. Obviously this gunman (as others in the past)struggled with mental illness. None of us understands how this media attention might encourage a disturbed mind. When are we going to come to our senses and use the media to support this community with out sensationalism and provide information that could perhaps disuade these acts in thr future. We have to hold ourselves accountable for doing what we can to change the attention/focus of these news stories not just gun laws. Mr. President, I have heard it said that you are a smart man, if this is true then you know more gun laws will serve no purpose. We already have laws that prohibit the purchase of weapons by convicted felons and the mentally ill and military type weapons. The problem is not with guns, and you know that Mr. President. Either you have another reason for taking away Americans right to bear arms or you are not as smart as I took you to be. You also know that a criminal can get a weapon anytime they want. There is nothing that could have been done about what happen at this school. This young man was mentally disturbed and the only other possible people who knew this, was his mother and his brother and possibly his father. If there is fault to be put anywhere it might be on the mother as she could have had the weapons under lock and key, but that probally still would not have stopped this man as he would have forced her to get them for him. Also if his intent was to kill, then he would have found away. Mr. President if you were to look at this and see that the only way this could have been minimized would actually have been if all the personel in the office had been armed. I believe that had this been the case and these people had been trained in the use of their weapons, one of them would have taken this guy out. Thank You Mr. President for your heart felt sympathy for these children and their teachers and loved ones. I to as a grown man cannot stop crying about this. May God bless all the family's and give them strength to go on. I am so sick and tired of gun activists hiding behind the 2nd amendment....The 2nd amendment was included in the Constitution to permit people to bear arms against the British who wanted to suppress us when we declared our independance... The only people who should be permitted to have guns are law enforcement, the military and people who have to hunt for food (not sport). Yes, its not the guns, but insane people who do these things, but its even more insane to allow people to amass an arsenal. Think of all the violence that would be eliminated if the only people with guns were law enforcement and the military. We wouldn't hear of kids shooting themselves by accident, people going into theatres and schools and massacring dozens, or driveby shootings or people shooting their families.....Contrary to any argument, the world would be a safer place. Its much more difficult for someone to do damage with a knife or a club than it is to blow your head off with one shot. Sorry, but all those that think mental illness is behind all gun violence...guess again. Yes, it takes a mentally ill person to shoot up a school or theatre full of people...but how much gun violence occurs one on one....make your arguement to the inner city kids who cant play outside because the drug dealers on the street can open fire at any moment...or to the person who had a gun put to the back of their head as someone demands their wallet. Alot of criminals (and others) are far from crazy...theyre just acting out of desperation. Of course, the parochial reaction is to blame the guns that took the lives of these children and teachers. It's the easy way out. Just throw the blame on the guns for being misused. If the guns weren't there none of this would have happened. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe not yesterday, maybe not today, but someday it would have happened. Creating more laws, rules, regulations and inconveniences has never worked. No law has ever prevented a crime. We have tens of thousands of laws, rules and regulations to make motor vehicles safer yet we still had more than 34,000 people killed last year by motor vehicles. We have thousands of laws, rules and regulations for alcohol and drug abuse and we still had over 40,000 and 26,000 deaths last year respectively from them. Last year there were 11,101 homicides by discharge of firearms. But there were also 4,852 homicides by unspecified means. Almost 1/3 of the homicides were by means other than firearms. As we have seen, the "wars" on drugs, crime, poverty and illiteracy have been abject failures. What makes us think we can control guns any better than we control drugs, alcohol, poverty or illiteracy? We can't. The only thing we can do is to educate ourselves and our children as well as possible to be familiar with the warning signs that usually precede these tragedies. This horrific event wasn't due to guns, or access to them, it was due to evil. Evil walked into Sandyhook elementary school yesterday and uncaringly murdered innocent children and teachers. This was a very sick individual. Something horrible happened to a 20 year old man in Newtown and he couldn't control himself any longer. If he didn't get the guns from his mothers home he would have gotten them some other way. Just like we think we control the effects of drugs and alcohol, we don't. Hundreds of similar scenarios like this happen every day. They're not as sensational as this, but they do happen. Drugs and alcohol kill dozens of people every day, often young children are involved. They kill by overdoses or being impaired behind the wheel of a car. They kill themselves and innocent people they never knew. Adam Lanza was obviously mentally ill. There are millions of Americans who have mental illnesses. The vast majority of these mentally ill people do not go on murderous rampages. Historically all these tragedies end up being by unstable individuals. From Virginia Tech to Columbine to Aurora and others these were crimes of questionable sanity. Why did Adam Lanza turn into this monster? We will probably never know. There will be analysis, theories and conjecture but chances are we'll never know. He came from what seems to be a reasonably educated family, the fact that they didn't notice any impending problems shows the difficulty with mental illness. Even some of the subtle signs would probably never alarm anyone. Perhaps he left a note or some sign of his rage that consumed him. Time will tell. For those demanding psychiatric evaluations to purchase or own a firearm, this is wishful thinking. Who evaluates you? What criteria are necessary to own a firearm? Who is responsible if someone is cleared to own a gun and 2 years later he/she snaps and murders innocent people? Is it the killers fault? Is it the psychiatrist/psychologist who evaluated them fault? Is it the gun dealers fault? There are 311 million people in America, along with over 6.7 billion other people on the planet. Every single person has a different personality. Yes, we can bunch most people as "normal" but many aren't. These atrocities will continue, the best we can do is make sure we educate ourselves and those around us to be aware of possible mental handicaps. Unfortunately this requires us to have a functional education system, we don't. Even then there is no one single solution to madness or evil at this level. The one law we are all familiar with should be a good starting point,,,, Thou shalt not kill. We all cry for these innocent victims, this should never have happened, but it did. We will heal, just as we did from Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, The Zodiac Killer, Ted Kaczinski, Jared Loughner, the Westside Middle School massacre of 1998 and others. Hopefully we learn from this tragedy and minimize the possibility of future tragedies. Condolences to the families and friends of those lost and injured. As a nation our thoughts and prayers are with you. because the media always wants to one up anything and therefore draw attention to itself. I would not be surprised if news anchormen/women aren't masturbating under the desk while reporting things like this. I loved that they made the media wait in the cold for over an hour this morning (Saturday) before starting the press conference Nobody says we should blame the guns. Nobody I know is saying we should take all guns away from everybody. What some ARE saying is we need to find a better way to keep guns out of the hands of people with mental problems. You don't ban cars when someone kills others in a drunk driving wreck, but you DO take steps to keep the drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel. We probably need to do more in that area also. Owning a firearm should come with some responsibility, and presently we do not have enough accountability in this area. Wayne, that is far too intelligent a reply for the gun fetishists to fathom. To the, any attempt to control the internal arms trade is an attempt to take all guns away. Wayne LaPierre has done his job well with those sheeple... In her home, Adam's mother had stockpiled multiple guns. This makes one think that she was reacting to the violence outside of her neigborhood. Ms. Lanza responded to what she saw on tv and read in the newspapers. By being armed, she thought she was protecting herself. Sadly, Adam's mother conjured up violence that did not exist in her community...until her son grabbed her guns and killed these young children. This crime is unbelievable and truly horrific. It really makes you wonder what goes on in people's minds. Like the analogies of most leftists yours fails as well. A drunk driver is arrested and incarcerated, then adjudicated. His punishment follows the illegal act. What you want is for restrictions (we already have tens of thousands of laws and regulations) to stop a possible future bad act. So what is the law or restriction which stops the drunk driver in the first place? I doubt you will get the point but I hope I'm wrong. To all, Stop with this silly argument about the guns. Why she had them I don't know, and I'm not sure I care unless the reason was nefarious. We don't know the killer has a long history of mental illness, at least not yet. All we know is that his brother says so. But a former classmate says the killer was happy and smart, maybe even a genius. Maybe, I say with great facetiousness, being smart is the key! Maybe we need more stupid people since smarts is correlative to violence! If you can't see how utterly stupid such comments are, then perhaps you are not in any way a risk for committing such violence yourself. His mother having the guns didn't cause the crime to occur. He shot his own mother in the face. Speculation alert...This shows great rage against her. He then went to a school he attended and targeted a specific grade level. Speculation alert...this hints at motive. Maybe something terrible happened to him in 1st grade? Maybe he was tired of hearing his mother speak about how wonderful all those little kids are and how they are so much smarter and work harder than her own pitiful son? We just don't know. What we do know are lots of people are hurting and lots of innocent lives were snuffed out. Please direct your wasted efforts over gun control to root causes, and if nothing else just send your best wishes to those still alive who will grieve for the rest of their lives. In other words, quit trying to find blame where none exists while ignoring everything that does matter. People, protection of one's property and family is the reason to own guns. Calls to 911 all the time of intruders trying to break into your home. By the time police arrive the intruder has already gone and done their damage. A pipe bomb isn't harder to get, it is harder to make. A Molotov Cocktail, as you apparently have no idea what one is, is easy to make. A bottle filled with gasoline with a rag stuffed into the opening lit on fire, then thrown at an object so it breaks. Simple. Flames spray out, following the flying gasoline, and ignite all in the way. Maybe where you live glass bottles and gasoline and rags are illegal, but not in Realityville. how many more of these events we have to have to unite the majority of the public against guns Wrong again, How many of these events do we have to go through till this country takes a real look at Mental illness. Along with that the need to medicate everything so when a person and not saying this one is not on their meds they can't cope. We also have a society where many think abortion is OK. I'm on the fence on this as what happans when a small child hears about someones abortion and is told that it was a mistake then in their minds if something is or goes wrong then it is ok to take a life or life to be. The number of abortions in this generation is appalling. Shouldn't this be Gunmen? When this thing started they showed another man in the woods firing into the School. People on the ground said a Second Gunman was firing from the woods..... I even saw on either CNN or MSNBC shots being fired from the woods... The Police brought a man out of the Woods. And those speaking out about guns and how much easier it is to kill with then. Well how many died on 9/11...no guns, how many did McViegh kill on April 19, 1995...168 and no gun. It is much easier to kill many with a bomb which for many is very easy to make or get. .00001% goes nuts so everyone else must be restricted due to them, makes no sense. How many times have you folks even hugged your kids everyday and told them you love them? Then do you punish them because someone in their class was bad and they were not? A dangerous example to talk about, but your larger point that our culture has been coarsened by our turn from a belief in life as being intrinsically valuable and towards life having only a utilitarian value is spot on. If it's okay, say modern leftists, to decide for yourself who should pay your way and without their consent, or if you can decide for yourself alone whether the most innocent of future beings should be allowed to live, then why should we be shocked when people take these ideas to their absurd ends? I know what you mean. I just bought my little girl "Dance Fever 4" for Christmas but I fear it may turn her into a maniacal killer. Or possibly even a twit who makes inane comments on a story. We are not the most violent nation on earth, ever. I doubt we even make the Top 100. Which isn't to say there is no violence, or that whatever level exists is fine with me. Just that hyperbole is of no use in discussing real issues. I expect this kind of thoughtless drama from 5th grade girls. Sometimes bad things happen, it really sucks, but that is life. And there is nothing we can do to keep bad things from happening. We can point fingers and blame all we want, but things like this will happen. My heart goes out to the survivors and the families of those lost this week. But to be honest, I have to accept that sometimes there isn't an answer to the question of "Why?" So, cry, pray, be charitable, do whatever you have to do to mourn. I believe all we can do to attempt to prevent this kind of tragedy is to be more loving, compassionate and tolerant of our brothers & sisters. Perhaps the necessary action isn't more laws or restrictions, but just plain simple hugs. Why does a woman need these many guns the first or second person asked above. We will never know the true reason why since the person who can answer that best is now dead. With that being said you can question why any person needs so many guns ? Why do people have so many fishing poles, knives, Sword, rocks, butterflies and any other collection you can think of. A person has every right to own a gun and have as many as they want. Gun control isnt a solution. Even if you were to change the ammendment ( which you wont ) to ban guns all together in the USA, criminals will still get guns some how, then you leave society defenseless. You cant prevent stuff like this from happening. Even if you took away guns, people will still find a way to kill other people. Someone could go on a killing spree with swords, knives, harpoon guns, bow and arrows, crossbows what ever.. You cant predict what people will do. Gabriel is right. The police didn't arrive on the scene of this shooting for TEN minutes. A crazy guy with a sword could do immense damage in ten minutes. What a shame that no one in the office had a concealed weapon--having weapons at a school is illegal, you know, unless apparently your goal is to wipe out little kids, in which case it's still illegal but it isn't preventative. Maybe the end result would've been identical had someone or several someones at the school been armed, but we will never know because that path is the one this society has decided to not walk down. Could it have been worse though had someone at the school been armed? I mean besides the killer. I'm sure leftists will immediately, and perhaps correctly, note that a gunfight might kill even more people. But just as my ponder is supposition and guesswork, so must theirs be the same. Guns are not an issue because if this guy didn't have a gun, he could have use a rock to bash 28 people to death, unstopped in a relatively short amount of time, then bash his own head with the rock till he ended his life to escape prosecution. /Sarc EDIT: A guy with a sword could have done immense damage in ten minutes if people just stood there and let him have them. And he would have required a far higher level of skill, physical consitioning and musculature to do it effectively. With a gun, people could have run and he still could have shoot them in the back as they fled. Swords are not on the same level of magnitude as a gun--PERIOD. A client of mine who teaches psychology at an advanced level has referred to the media as "Social Terrorists." Here is her reasoning in a nutshell. Beginning immediately after 9/11, "the media beat the violence of the day and the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, to a froth." you couldn't turn on the Radio and particularly the TV without having every nuance of the day's events dissected repeatedly. She is convinced that a generation of kids, now adults or approaching adulthood, have been numbed into thinking this way of life is the norm. Remember world of warcraft earlier? They haven't been bombed or shot at but the pictures of such no longer have any shock factor hence the term, "Social Terrorists." I don't know about other parts of the country but tonight, the news of the day was being reported, analyzed, editorialized, dissected, dramatic questions asked, dramatic questions asked as answers to the previous questions, all of the previous was constantly interrupted by some news 'flash' from the next somebody with something to say and then repeated. Some of what was reported earlier in the day has now been shown to be false. All manner of public figures have been interviewed with their take on how to prevent a future occurance. Some elected officials interviewed stated they had bills already prepared for introduction and it goes on and on. Would someone please explain to me when and where responsible reporting of news starts and ends. And where irresponsible 'reporting' begins? They are apparently at liberty to report as they please with no fear of consequences. To me, this makes them the American Taliban. Their behavior and thinking is almost identical to the Afgan Taliban. Why are they not accountable for their capriciousness? As an individual, what would happen if one were to falsely yell fire in a public place? Where is that accountability for the media? you people clearly don't understand why we have the 2nd amendment.. it wasn't because of the british and it wasn't so we can hunt... its so that if our constitutional republic ever devolved into a monarchy or totalitarian state, we would be armed and would be able to revolt and institute a new government. the founding fathers saw that the british and many other countries citizens were not allowed to bear arms which meant they could not revolt against their government. please don't misconstrue the use of the 2nd amendment. all of you liberals that like to see dictators being overthrown need to realize that it only happens when our government arms their citizens. It isn't even about the guns. It is about the moral and physical decline of our society. The joblessness, the hopelessness, and stresses of life. Think back to times when life was much more simple. All worked hard, kids could find summer jobs, and the future was something to look forward to. It is not that way anymore. Not only can't kids find summer jobs to fill the summer, but most of their parents don't have jobs either. Things that we once took for granite, like food on the table, a nice fire in the fireplace, and quiet evenings had home with the family. This is no longer the scenario for many. People continuing to give birth with no ability, or thought, of how they will support and take care of them. Most of the time the fathers of these babies are not actually involved in the mother's life. It was a passing moment. And the cycle repeats itself, over and over. Hope is coming. But it will not be earthly. Man has shown he can not govern himself. "gun control" is not about banning guns. It's not about taking them away. It's about making sure that people are responsible with them. Some moron wrote "." Are those guns in a LOCKED case? Are they under a cobination lock, or could someone get their hands on the key? If your cousin comes over and brings a buddy, do you do a background check before they come into your home? No, you don't. But if someone takes those guns out of your hosue and uses them to commit a crime, YOU are just as responsible as the shooter. THATS what this is about. Everyone says "well, I'm not crazy, so I can have guns." But how do you safeguard your guns so they don't fall into the wrong hands? Had the mother of the shooter in Newtown had her guns in a safe, and the son did not have the combination, then maybe we wouldnt be having this conversation right now. Your confusing the ENGLISH bill of rights with the AMERICAN bill of rights. Our second ammendmant was instituted because most of our early colonies were still controlled by the British, who tried to supress us into submission when we declared our Independance.. The English bill of rights protected the Protestants against tyranical Kings (i.e King James II) who disarmed them because he feared they were outnumbering his army. Although your premise is correct, it wasnt a revolt against OUR government...it was a revolt against THEIRS. While NBC goes out of its way to note that the guns were legally purchased (if purchased for herself and not somebody else), what they fail to mention was that Adam Lanza illegally possessed the guns. The guns were in fact stolen from his mother who he had murdered. For those of you crying for stricter gun laws, there is no evidence that it helps. In fact there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Chicago -- a city that has probably the most restrictive gun laws in the US -- has a rampant epidemic of gun-related violence on its hands and leads the nation in gun violence. The same goes with other cities like Camden and Newark, New Jersey and Baltimore, Maryland. These cities and states have more restrictive gun laws, yet the end result shows that this hasn't helped at even one bit. If I owned the gun shop where this guy tried to buy a gun and he did not want to endure the "waiting period", would I be violating his rights by reporting suspicious behavior to the "crime stoppers program" in the community?? I think this called "nip it in the bud" procedure. Not surprisingly you entirely missed the point. Whatever the weapon used, so long as the cops are ten minutes away, massive damage can be inflicted. Maybe we need more cops, or cops stationed at schools, or some other way to get cops there more quickly if needed, but so long as the response time is that long then all of our hand wringing over these dastardly guns is for our benefit, not for protecting future unknown victims. What a shame. Hi Robin, It fascinates me that so many people, perhaps you are one, have favored for decades various laws and policies which have degraded our culture who then, when the nefarious fruits are harvested, suggest we need yet more laws which do not go after the causes but instead punish the innocent. And we wonder why we can do nothing to stop these things. Hi Renee, Very good points, but something else must be at work here. During the depression era this kind of criminality didn't accelerate (presuming it is accelerating now). There was more violence but it was tied more to Prohibition and the criminal element that grew out of that. Very often the vest of all intentions, as in my point to Robin, result in exactly what we didn't intend. I think Pete has it about right. Bad things will happen, and will always happen. It doesn't mean we should submit to it, but it does mean we can't in every case, or even many cases, do all that much to prevent it. This killer, apparently, stole a rifle. While it wasn't used in the crime that theft surely must imply that even if his mother didn't have the pistols he did use that he was still determined to do great violence. So leftists, like Robin, think that if your gun is stolen that you should be held criminally responsible, but she claims to not want to confiscate all weapons (I think). Yet her idea would, essentially, have the same effect. Her disingenuity to me means she doesn't actually want to solve the problem, but instead wants to forward her own political position. Shame. The gold club comment above was clearly not meant to say people who own multiple golf clubs are going to go killing people. His point was people who do not own guns, have never been taught responsible gun use, and probably havn't even touched a gun saying "why would someone own five guns?!," would be like someone who has no idea about golf saying "why do you own more than one golf club?!" It's the stupid gun culture the NRA has given us that made the mother(or whoever) buy the small arsenal she had. If she had been limited to one handgun, perhaps some of those kids would be alive today!! No doubt the shooter also got several of the large ammunition clips for killing 100 people... Just insane.... Are people really this stupid to allow this?? Mothers, women, and concerned citizens are a much larger and influential voting block than the NRA. Use your power for GOOD!!!! Hello folks, as you have heard a million times, guns don't kill people, idiots pulling the trigger kill people. If you eliminate our 2nd amendment constitutional right only criminals/government will have guns. I had a close loved one shot to death and the murderer was legally banned from having weapons and that didn't stop him from getting a gun. I would still rather face the dangers then lose my civil rights. "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." Logical, remember the shooter is Norway was a right-wing racist neoNazi, opposed to immigration, who shot up that kids camp because it was sponsored by a left-wing political party. Who knows how he got his weapons, considering who he kept company with? Besides, though it was a horrific event, it happened ONE TIME, once. Correct me if I am wrong, but I saw a list of mass shootings over the past 40 years - and almost all of them were in the USA. So Norway had one, Germany had the one crazy guy who shot up his old school. England, 1 or 2. I in Quebec. I saw none listed for Italy, Spain, France, Sweden or Japan. But America? Dozens -- increasing in frequency too. We're gone from once a year to monthly to weekly now. Did we not just have a shootout at a shopping mall in Oregon last week? So IT IS OFFICIAL; Nancy Lanza purchased and registered All 4 of the 9MM SemiAuto Handguns and let Adam, her son, have TOTAL Access to those weapons and the Bullets Even Though Adam, had A HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS. There is always a guilt syndrome for parents over a divorce and what it will do to their children BUT being coerced by constant badgering and guilt, in this case, to buy instruments of death IS NO SOLUTION to the problem of family breakup. The Next Piece in the Puzzle??? Did Adam Lanza play and interact with violent video games and/or movies. There is NO protection for children who want to play those type video games at home in their players, which doting parents gave them. A reoccuring situation is at hand in our society because the Three Essential Ingredients; Mental and/or Emotional Dysfunction, Very Violent video games and easy access to parents firearms is not corrected. Banning All guns in The United States IS NO Solution as MILLIONS of Military Grade weapons of choice are made ALL OVER THE WORLD and the Bad Guys WILL ALWAYS Get Guns. "The gunman in the Newtown massacre tried unsuccessfully to buy a rifle three days before..." So the existing "gun regulations" worked; they kept the shooter from purchasing a gun as the waiting period would have caused him to possibly get over his "anger" from the altercation, except........... Thanks to the news media even a retard now knows that every school in our nation is defenseless. That they can walk into a school and open fire without any expectation of return fire. There were 600 children and teachers with not a single weapon to defend them with. Our schools have a responsibility to protect our children, the parents should sue the school. NO DEFENSE, NOT ONE GUN, NOT ONE SECURITY GUARD, TOTAL DISREGARD FOR OUR CHILDRENS SAFETY. What if a rabid dog got into school and was killing children??? Call animal control?? It would take as long as it took the police to respond, WHEN IT WAS OVER!!!!!! DO SOMETHING REAL ABOUT PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN, NOT JUST BLAH BLAH BLAH. Phantombeast: How do you know the Mom let her son have TOTAL access to her guns? Perhaps she had them locked up and after he killed her he took them. She may have had them to protect herself from him and couldn't get to them in time to save herself. People focus on the guns in the home. This guy proved that even someone who doesn't own a gun and who may not even be able to purchase a gun legally, can still get their hands on guns - if not his mother's guns, I'm certain he may know someone else who had some. I'm still waiting to hear exactly what kind of mental disorders this shooter had, they don't seem to want to tell us this and try and put up a smoke screen to distract us. I'm betting on this guy having one of those attention problems throughout school where they force the parents to make their kids take those drugs or their kids aren't allowed in school. It shouldn't be surprising, it'd be about the 12th time a mass shooting like this has happened and it was done buy someone who used to be on those drugs. You realize, once they are out of school, they are no longer on those behavioral and mind altering drugs, right? Through all of these shootings, people focus on the guns and no one seems to connect that these drugs may be the cause. These types of shootings pretty much began several years after these drugs became mandatory for kids with attention problems, just long enough for the kids taking them to reach their late teens or so. There were no shootings like this when I was a kid going to school and the gun laws were less restrictive back then too. But, you know what? There is so much money (money Money MONEY!!!!) being made off of these drugs and so much money (money Money MONEY) being made off the sale of guns - do you really expect anything to change?! I own gun and there were guns in my home while I was growing up. From the time I was around 13/14, I had a .22 rifle of my own in my own bedroom along with ammo. But I never killed anyone with it or even thought of pointing it at anyone even when I knew it was empty. I wasn't raised to think of guns as toys. Another thing I didn't have growing up - violent video games or violent R-rated movies and a DVD player or even a VHS player for me to watch those movies on while no one was around. Even on regular TV the violence and language are getting out of hand. If you believe all of this has no effect on children growing up today, well then, stay under your rock. So imagine all of these kids forced to take some behavioral altering drug from age 6 - 18 or so and watching all these violent shows and playing all these violent games. Then suddenly "OUT OF SCHOOL" and no more behavioral drugs! What is a bored kid who relied on drugs to correct his behavior so has no skills of his own to control it himself supposed to do?! These drugs CONTROL their behavior while they are gong to school. They finish school and they are NO LONGER required to take these drugs. They have NEVER LEARNED the SKILLS necessary to CONTROL their BEHAVIOR. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize this is a recipe for disaster! Just wondering...Did he try and do this on Thursday and get turned away? If he was just on school grounds and had words with school officials and came back to "settle the score" on Friday how did he know to buy guns on Tuesday? All of the appropriate gun control laws were followed. Dick's turned him away because he didn't want to follow the rules. Which is why we have the background check and the waiting period. His mother had legally purchased and registered the guns she had. He may have killed her to get ahold of her weapons. Yet she followed the laws. So the laws that are in place to prevent this sort of thing worked. The person that was hell-bent on destruction found away around them. What do you do now? @Brendan: The thought behind the 2nd amendment is accurate, but at the time, a cannon was about the most serious artillery known to mankind. In order to keep with the times, i.e., the modern era, we need drones and nuclear bombs to have parity with the government. Do you think it is appropriate for the average US citizen to own these weapons? My answer to the question is "No", no one should be able to own these types of weapons, especially without training in their use and capabilities. That's why we have a standing Military, so they can use them for us. Which brings up the second part of my question: what makes you think we as a nation could EVER "... revolt and institute a new government.", should a totalitarian or etc government emerge? The US military would belong to them, and resistance, as is said, would be futile. My point is this; the 2nd amendment is no longer viable as it stands now. It needs an overhaul. Handguns, automatics, and stock-piling need to be eliminated. And I doubt that any overhaul is going to include letting the gun nuts own drones, either. I agree. the 2nd amendment is outdated. We have advanced technologically to the point that weapons nowadays are more effective at killing. They need to redo that amendment and advance it for today's standards. The right to bear arms has been taken out of context today and has been used to the point it has been abused by the US citizens. I know we are a free country, but some things should be regulated for the sake of the safety of individuals. This is not the first time a deranged person has shot a classroom full of kindergartners. In 1996 at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, a man burst into a room full of 5 and 6 year-olds and killed sixteen small children and their teacher. Following this massacre, handguns were banned in the United Kingdom, and now the UK has one of the lowest rates of gun homicides in the world. Now is the time, America, for us to stand up and say NO to the gun advocates and start enforcing stricter gun laws. Take a look at this link of the children and their teacher killed in Scotland, and think of the children and teachers killed yesterday. I want to note that most post in here today are pretty level headed. No one has gotten to crazy and gone after someone that has a different way of thinking. You know we can make some changes that will not hurt anyone but the gun makers. I say any assault rifles and the mac 10 and the like should be banned outright. Then we must go after the Clips that hold more then the gun was made to hold witch is 9 I think. Make the gun makers these guns so they can't be so easily made to be automatic. And make it harder to buy. We have to learn to drive before we get a license. Why not do the same before you can buy a gun. Right now all you have to do is be a friend of the Local police Captain and you can get a CCW. But a big thanks for everyone talking and not getting so crazy today. Restricting guns, banning guns, whatever is treating the symptom and not the disease. That's how we do in America though. We are a culture of violence accepted through our indifference and we are all to blame. Blaming the gun is too easy. We're better than that aren't we? she had five guns because its her RIGHT to have as many guns as she wants do you judge people because they have 3 or 4 cars? Cars and guns don't kill people People kill people .. get it through your thick libtard skulls People who want to use guns will get them if they are legal or not so trying to ban guns will solve nothing except punish those responsible people who want to protect themselves or just shoot for recreation don't you people realize he chose a gun because it was easiest .. if guns were not available he would have used explosives .. you cannot stop these crazy people from doing things like this .. if they want to do it .. they will find a way WE either need to round up and get rid of the guns, legally purchased or not....or we need to purchased body armor for ourselves and children and stop engaging in risky activities such as going to the movies, going to a mall, attending church (or temple) and sending kids to school..... Which option makes more sense? (although I realize common sense is a very rare commodity these days) The "right to bear arms" came about at a times when guns were necessary for the survival of the majority of the population; now days they are used to pretty much just to reduce the size of the population. Some places where people live in the "wild", they may still depend on guns for hunting or getting rid of dangerous animals, but most people have them for "show", there is the third group who use them to intimidate or kill others. Ask yourselves is the "right" to have guns more important than the lives of innocents humans like these children? People have the right to own as many weapons as they want. She may have had a need for the weapons or they may have been left to her and had sentimental value. You never know. Just as you will never know what sent him off on this rampage. But one thing is certain he did not have access to the guns or he would not have been trying to buy one prior to using her guns. People he KILLED HER. That is when he gained access to the guns. Gun bans will not help this. Crazy people will find a means to aquire guns, just as they aquire and sell illegal drugs to our kids. That is killing more kids everyday than guns have ever killed! If the school would have had a right to have a firearm they could have protected the kids from this crazy person. You people that blame the gun are in need of some serious help. If we cannot have guns we are left wide open to all the crazies and killers of the US. GUNS DO NOT KILL, PEOPLE DO and these people will find a way. My family have had guns all my life and My family now own guns. We were taught as children that guns would kill and how to handle them, and we now teach our children and grandchildren. All of which respect the gun. It is the killers that do not respect the gun and that will kill you if you do not have the means to protect yourself. And this is what the 2nd amendment is about, the right to bear arms, and gun owners do not hide behind it, they are proud that they have that right. I own guns and would never use them unless I had to protect my family, or to hunt. Just as you don't know what set him off, you never know when the situation might rise for you to need a gun. I believe the ban on guns at this school has these kids on them. I am confused why a single educated woman with a mentally challenged mature son would have 5 firearms in her home. I can see having 1 gun for protection if she felt that was needed, but multiple guns is a red flag to me. Those advocating fewer guns out there should hand in their weapons to law enforcement today to reduce the count. So don't be that stat of gun owners if you think owning a gun is the problem. Hollywood is quick to want stricter gun laws, but most movies made today are often violent if not gruesome. Some years ago, a deranged doctor lived across the street from us. He tried to drown his wife one Xmas night and then tried to shoot my neighbor. When the police came and took him away, we found guns everywhere in the house. Too many to count. The police would not allow us to get rid of the guns, and so when he was eventually released from a mental hospital, he came back to all those guns. We moved. Maybe the problem today is that many of our laws make no sense at all. The man was crazy, but he got to keep his guns and his job at the VA. So if I'm not mistaken, she had 5 guns which were in reach of her mentally ill son? She couldn't even think to invest for a safe or something? I'm pretty sure he gave other signs of violence before it building up to this... This is a tradegy to be sure, a sad day. That being said we as a country move on as we must. The liberals yelling for gun control simply don't have any common sense at all and no ability to rationalize or care about anything other than their agendas and not wasting an opportunity to push it. My wife and I are older and just this week had our house broken into while she was in the shower and I was sleeping. Our two #140 dogs let us konw someone had gotten into the house but all they would do other than bark would be to lick someone to death. These thieves knew my wife had just let the dogs back into the house and all of our lights were blazing but they came in anyway. This time luckily a dog bark scared them away, Guns at strategic locations throughout my house and video surviellance will secure my life and belongings should it come to more the next time it happens and it will happen again. Just how far were they prepared to go? Was it me yelling at my dogs barking that scared them away? What if my wife was alone? The police are for crime follow-up 99% of the time so don't rely on them when they have no way of knowing until after. It is those people that are robbing, raping and murdering who are the problem not law abiding gun owners like myself who hunt, shoot, collect. It is my right to own as many guns and as much ammo as I could imagine. Stop inciminating people who have done nothing wrong with your biased attempts at supressing freedom, criminals don't care about gun laws. Guns are not the problem here it is people that are the problem. If you do not like Guns, or the second amendment then just do a google search and look for countries that do not allow them and then make the next search "how do I move to another country". I am a teacher and I hate that you can not carry your firearm into a school becuse of this very reason. It make syou helpless.....it is important to rememeber that a shooter has to reload and an armed teacher could have ended this all. After the shooting at VT I began brining mine because I will take my chance being tried by 12 rather than carried by 6. Yet again, we see people with little to no logical thinking skills blaming an object for the actions of a person. Guns are not the problem....PEOPLE are the problem. The large shooting episodes seem to be being committed by people with mental illnesses...and KNOWN to have mental illnesses. The problem is not guns but how we deal with people with mental illness. In a country where we have hundreds of millions of people, we are bound to have to poor specimens. Advocating taking away the constitutional rights of the citizenry to arm themselves because a handful of mentally disturbed people commit acts of insanity is simply the wrong answer. The mentally ill used to be sequestered from society and in treatment and somewhere along the line the idea of "mainstreaming" them became the preferred method for dealing with them. Mainstreaming the mentally ill is going to have it's bad days. The reason we have a right to arm ourselves is to keep the government from becoming intolerable. We know from history that the most important thing tyrants do is disarm the people they aim to oppress. You gun lovers there just make me sick. Here we have 20 children - really babies dead and all you are worried about is losing your dam guns. I dont think anyone is saying guns should be banned - I believe people are saying that their should be stricter laws regarding owning guns and they should be enforced. This is a complex situation and means several things need to be looked at and fixed as best they can. It isnt just the guns - it has to do with mental illness, laws that arent being inforced, why people who may detect their son isnt quite right reaching out for help and not sitting there in denial cause it would embarrass their family if they went public with it and got their kid help. I believe it is the same there as it is here - if you suspect that someone might harm others or himself there is a 72 hours hold that they (medical centres) can enforce and they wont be cured in 72 hours but in this case he may not have been in the mind set to kill following being held and treatment started. We here in Canada have very strict gun laws. I heard a person on TV last night that had the statistics and we have 150 shootings a year here. Doesnt that say something. Why do you not need a license to purchase a gun - you need one to drive a car. You arent going to find the mentally ill if you cannot not do a background check on the person. We fingerprint the people and they take intensive training on gun use. We dont ban them cause we dont need to. In my 65 years on this earth I have never known one person that owned hand guns or the kind of weapons used in combat. We have hunting rifles and they are locked in a cabinet and then put in a closet and that is locked too. We dont have tons of ammunition readily available to us. We arent so paranoid that we dont feel safe without a gun in the house. That is what I cant wrap my head around. Why are people so paranoid that they dont feel safe in their own homes or on the street. Where does that mentality come from. I saw ads not so long ago that if you bought a diamond ring you got a free gun and in Walmart apparently it is the same. This is ludicrous. I just think people need to wake up and at least push for SOMETHING - ANYTHING to be done. Dont wait until the governments try and brush things under the rug again. What is next - someone going into a Daycare and killing those babies. It has to stop NOW. As tragic as this is and it is tragic, for those who propose to ban or further limit gun ownership or make it so expensive or difficult to own, I propose we charge you a thousand dollars for your gallon of beer and for your drivers license renewal. Your ideas are irrational and further don't work, a person has the right to self defense and hunting and flat out sporting ownership. We saw prohibition didn't work and laws like this never do, your answers lie elsewhere start putting your efforts into rational thought and stop giving away your freedom and being opportunists over a tragedy. Guns don't kill people,people kill people. Yeah, very profound. Okay, I believe a large part of why people kill people is because of the violence on television and the violence of the video gaming world. I believe that is where some of the ideas are coming from. Are these "genius type" of individuals being challenged today with worthwhile projects or are they consumed with video games and television. I like the idea that a previous person submitted about requiring a person to have a training course plus getting a license, as in driving, prior to being able to legally obtain a firearm. Also I do not beieve there is any reason for any individual to have any type of automatice weapon. Robert you should be put in an institution for mental disease as you are quite clueless to the realities of life. Arnie this wasn't an automatic weapon, do you not know these terms and what they mean? Or is it that you read into media hype and drink the koolaide... automatic weapons are illegal except for a select few and law enforcement, semi auto however is a different story. Comments such as yours add to the misleading of Americans and cause people like Robert to comment from a point of view that is uneducated. Sad you brainless people let the media inform you, you should of just stayed home from school and watched tv all day instead of doing your own homework. This is why we are where we are today, the regurgitation of media mass hype and scare tactics and a corrupt political system and quite possibly mental illness and depression that caused this tragedy. I have no faith in the government setting up better gun policies. Not that i do believe we should. But the weapons manufacturing companies have way too much of a sway in washington to give in to us peasants of logic. And the body count means nothing, case in point almost every war since ww1, major companies have made major money off dead, look it up if you don't believe me. Hell Mercedez-benz made the ovens in freaking concentration camps! if you want reform then mean it and lets take it around the table, if you want classes and tests and background checks for gun owners lets hook up anyone and everyone in or thinking about going in to politics to certain nerological machines and lets give them pyche tests. Because if doesn't wake them all up to whats really goiong on in America then, we got some people in high places that shouldn't be there. But i am very leery of complete disarming of the citizens, because as a famous, subversive writer once said, "i would adhor living in a society where the only people allowed to carry a gun are the police and military" Exactly what are forefathers were wise enough to know. So i'm very torn. All i know is its not just us, the gun problem is global. It would almost take a race of aliens to come down and take all of our weapons and say 'look you build anymore, we'll come back and f#k you all up.' for us as humans to understand. God has been taken out of the schools. Morality has been taken out of the schools. Right and wrong are now considered relevant. Horrific video games and movies have removed the line between reality and fantasy. A person who is godless, who has no morality, and who has little sense of reality. A perfect storm for something like this to happen. What morons quoting a law from the 1700's. Time to be proactive and jail all republicans. They are clearly diseased. Look young lady, those times, 1800's when our government was starting was done by a society who had a hell of a lot more wisdom then the people we have in offices today, that goes for the left and right. I agree with Samantha, society has taken a hard turn into decay , especially in these past 70 years. . Shoot em up video games, degenerate talk from music , with all kinds of violence in the words. Taking God out of the picture of Society. And people think we are moving forward as a society ? You all must be crazy, read the news, its not going any where. American will one day fall. It may no tbe in my time, or my kids time, but at the rate america is going, its a ticking time bomb that is going to implode from the inside one day. America is the most violent society in the history of mankind, bar none. @MtMike ... really? I suggest that you study your European history (you don't have to go back many decades) if you think that the US is the "most violent society in the history of mankind." You don't do your arguments any favor when you make such outrageous and unsupportable statements. I really didn't want to open my browser today...........I should have left it closed. This is so sad that we have to deal with this. What makes it worse is the media creating and encouraging these MONSTERS with wall-to-wall coverage, posting the creep's photo, telling about HIS life and all the gun-huggers posturing themselves against the second ammendment in order to keep their boners and the liberals demanding a police state.......OVER the fallen victims and their families. Its all pretty messed up with no sign of letting up and bickering back and forth and mass coverage doesn't help matters, it just perpetuates the evil and invites reoccurance. Hal I don't pretend to have answers but I do know which answers to shoot down (no pun intended). Guns will always be around and if you outlaw them then only outlaws will have them. Anyone intent on committing a crime like this will find a way and it will be just as devastating as this one way or another. Those who think creating laws against guns is the answer are living in dreamland it simply doesn't work that way. That being said when more people have guns those that are intent on using them in crime will think twice before bringing one out because they will know they have the possibility of losing their life in committing their act. Will it cause some wild shootouts, oh I am sure at some point it will but obviously the current cities with strict laws such as Chicago are not your poster children for laws against guns it isn't working. Taking them away from everyone??? Never gonna happen. Forcing people to carry, never gonna happen. Training those who want to, yes... keeping them from phsyco's yes, but how. I am not bullied by the NRA. I'm not a member of the NRA either, but I do own several guns. I've never committed a crime. I have taught each of my kids how to properly handle a weapon as well as how to shoot it. It's a terrible shame that these people were killed. But you will never take my guns simply because you think you know what makes for a safer society. We've been treated to falsehoods above about how in the UK the banning of guns just a few short years ago has done wonders. Except it was already nearly impossible to get guns in the UK before the mass murder that was referred to. We have seen how in Australia guns have, essentially, been outlawed, and have seen the sharp increase in gun criminality that has resulted. But we should look to our own history, constitution included, to decide what is best for us. For instance, how is it that gun violence remained fairly constant, and low, through good times and bad during most of our nation's history. At least until the mid-1960s. It was then, despite no increase in gun ownership rates, that we saw gun violence spike. Liberals, rather than deal with why there is this kind of crime, simply think that if we ban guns (or radically reduce their availability) that we will become a more docile and peaceful nation. I think the opposite will occur. There are over 1 million concealed weapons permitees in Florida, yet they have a lower incidence of gun violence than Illinois, where the big city virtually bans weapons. Maybe, and for leftists I know I am going WAY out on a limb here, the problem isn't the gun itself, but the mind of the person holding it? Maybe we can never prevent all criminality, but if more people respected life for its intrinsic value (as opposed to the utilitarian value leftists use) is it not possible that fewer people would want to take someone elses life? What worries me most, and it's not just because of this horrible crime in Newtown, is that leftists who are ever eager to limit someone elses liberty are in this case saying that less freedom would result in less crime. It sounds so plausible after all. But will these same leftists be willing to face the hundreds of thousands of potential victims to crime that the presence of a gun in the hands of someone other than the criminal have saved? Twenty kids, six adults...it's horrendous. Yet if liberals had their way the victim count could well be in the tens of thousands. But because THOSE people are at present hard to see, and the 20 kids are easy to see, it makes it easy for so many people to come up with stupid ideas thinking that they are doing good, if not great, work. Sorry, but the people above making all these wild claims are not noble. They are ignoble. So, the mom was a "prepper", that is to say a "survivalist", who felt the world was coming to an end. She home-schooled the boy, for a while. She hoarded food and water. Hmmmm, a tin foil hat collection, also? I don't want to take your guns away, just please tell me, someone, what are you doing to make America safer from gun violence?" Unfortunately, mankind was created with violence "in our blood", or DNA. Unless our DNA is altered, man will continue the violence until the end of mankind. Why our creator chose this heinous and detrimental formula, who knows. What is even more concerning, for those believing in the bible, Genesis 1:26 states: Then God said "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,...". Seriously ? You did a great job at butchering and trying to use passages to have a different meaning than their intents. Here are a few paragraphs to read to explain your bad example :D """Having the "image" or "likeness" of God means, in the simplest terms, that we were made to resemble God. Adam did not resemble God in the sense of God's having flesh and blood. Scripture says that "God is spirit" (John 4:24) and therefore exists without a body. However, Adam's body did mirror the life of God insofar as it was created in perfect health and was not subject to death. The image of God refers to the immaterial part of man. It sets man apart from the animal world, fits him for the dominion God intended him to have over the earth (Genesis 1:28), and enables him to commune with his Maker. It is a likeness mentally, morally, and socially. Mentally, man was created as a rational, volitional agent. In other words, man can reason and man can choose. This is a reflection of God's intellect and freedom. Anytime someone invents a machine, writes a book, paints a landscape, enjoys a symphony, calculates a sum, or names a pet, he or she is proclaiming the fact that we are made in God's image. Morally, man was created in righteousness and perfect innocence, a reflection of God's holiness. God saw all He had made (mankind included) and called it "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Our conscience or "moral compass" is a vestige of that original state. Whenever someone writes a law, recoils from evil, praises good behavior, or feels guilty, he is confirming the fact that we are made in God's own image. Socially, man was created for fellowship. This reflects God's triune nature and His love. In Eden, man's primary relationship was with God (Genesis 3:8 implies fellowship with God), and God made the first woman because "it is not good for the man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). Every time someone marries, makes a friend, hugs a child, or attends church, he is demonstrating the fact that we are made in the likeness of God. Part of being made in God's image is that Adam had the capacity to make free choices. Although he was given a righteous nature, Adam made an evil choice to rebel against his Creator. In so doing, Adam marred the image of God within himself, and he passed that damaged likeness on to all his descendants (Romans 5:12). Today, we still bear the image of God (James 3:9), but we also bear the scars of sin. Mentally, morally, socially, and physically, we show the effects of sin. """"" Hey rich you make perfect sense about us looking at what has changes over the last 50 or so years. People have always had guns and even though there were killings in our past, it wasnt to this extent. I would look more to the incredible society cultural shift we are taking in america and start with that. Video games that incite violence. I actually was playing one once, I forget which one it is. I thought ok this isnt too bad, im just a guy who is defending my country . Then in one scence Im at an air port with russian people , i have a huge automatic weapon firing on innocent people in the place.. I was amazed at the mindset it puts you in when you go on a killing spree like that . Needless to say I have never played it again , or any other shooting game. These reality TV shows that praise trash talk, and trash lives, lyrics in music that incite horrific acts of violence and looking down on women treating them like sluts .. We are not moving forward as a society, we are not going up. The biggest and main issue with this nation is the need for power, and greed of money. No one wants to humble themselves, no one wants to help each other out. Everyone is afraid to do anything with out severe repercussions from society. As America is becoming more diverse, it is also becoming more torn. Im sorry but we can not live together as a society if we all dont have same views in life, or a common goal. Me personally, as extreme as it may seem, I wish there would be some new piece of land found, and USA claimed it, and its rule would be like that of our past not present. I would like to have lived in a nation like our founding fathers who believed in God, and it wasnt some taboo thing in society. Morals were based off of Gods word, and prayer was still in school ect ect . Of course you cant have that now because of the influx of so many immigrants from other countries with so many other beliefs. Thats why I think birds of a feather flock together mentality. People who are like minded should be living together and not people who have such extreme different views. Maybe the states should be able to break free and be able to lay down their own laws with out persecution from the federal government, and people can move to such states that suits them best. As for the gun control thing.. I think Archie Bunker said it best on how to prevent this from happening in an example here. Why would you, in an article about the victims, even mention the killer. You do a disservice to the victims. I am appalled at the media's coverage of events such as this. The killer should not be known to the human race. I am also appalled that the media would use the descriptor "massacred". Does the media really think that with all that the families are going through, that they need to envision their children getting "massacred"? That seems a little harsh, true or not, so why not just say killed or murdered? Or aren't those words sensationalist enough? It would not lessen the severity of the loss to describe it differently. A little more respect for what the families are going through without causing any more grief would be the humane way to treat the victims. In my opinion anyways... The point is to figure out why....so it doesn't happen again. If you can't handle it then don't read it. Most of us want to get to the bottom of it and at least try and do something about it. Not nick pick about the media. You know what they say, E=; if it bleeds, it leads, and the more blood the better. There are plenty of legitimate conversations this incident could spark, but already, too much of the coverage is just to luxuriate in the carnage and the pathos... When the dead are named, I would like to see a photo of each. So we can remember each tiny child by name, remember that brave principal and school counselor, remember the teachers who sacrificed. The killer, I do not care. And, sadly, I do not care about his mother, either. She put guns in the hands of a mentally sick son who used them to kill children who were still too young to read. She is a cautionary tale. Every part of this event belongs in the evolving story. There's a reason it's called NEWS. It is a disservice to the 26 murdered children and adults, as well as to the rest of us who want this toxic cancer out of American society, not to figure out what the heck is wrong with gun nuts who do this kind of thing, over and over and over. The debate is over the intersection of guns and mental illness, violent males and the dysfunctional families that breed these individuals who harm us all. The best way to honor the dead is to fix this national disgrace and heartbreak. To do that, one has to get collective heads out of the sand. What are the chances this "avid gun collector" mom and her looney tunes son belonged to this federally subsidized national "sport" assault weapon organization headquartered in, of all places, Newtown, CT? How sad that the parents of these dead little children paid taxes that went to this organization that advocates for assault weapons and guns in schools. For everyone trying to say you want more gun control while at the same time saying you supporting the 2nd amendment, that is BS. Calming you want to allow hunting rifles and handguns for personal protection while banning the "assault weapons". You do realize that he done the shooting with handguns. Most shooting are with handguns. He had an AR-15 but it was NOT found in the school. Few people can define what an "assault weapon" is. I have an AR-15, I bought it during the Clinton "assault weapon" ban, which did NOT ban weapons. What it did was I was not allowed to have the bayonet lug or the flash suppressor on my riffle which is not an assault weapon. It is a .223 cal semi-auto center fire rifle that is it. Why is the media using these photos that are 8 years ago? Ive seen his facebook photo in a militant pose with arm tattoos. Lots of people know he was a wanna be jewish militant. So where's this information and why is the media soft pedaling him as a troubled youth when he was a grown man and into some pretty bad crap. If you look at the killer's face, don't know about anyone else but I see meth written all over it. My deepest sympathy goes out to all the families and friends of the victims and school children who had to witness this horrific event. Isn't that exactly what they did with that Trayvon Martin piece? Are you looking for honest reporting? Hell, they blatantly accused his brother as being the lunatic for the first 8 hours of the story. But it's OK-- it wasn't FOX. All is forgiven. Take a look at Lanza's facebook page with current photo. Notice the Clinched fist (International sign of communism). Adam Lanza was a Militant of Jewish decent. Just like Klebold and Harris of Columbine and others. I am also appalled that the media would use the descriptor "massacred". Does the media really think that with all that the families are going through, that they need to envision their children getting "massacred"? It was a massacre, and it should be described as such. Some people are offended by the pictures. I'm not. If we as a society are finally going to put a stop to atrocities like this, whether it is through gun control, better mental health treatment or whatever, we need to be exposed to the true horrors of the situation. Soft-pedaling it with less harsh language does no one any favors. People never cease to amaze me, we are a country that loves violence and gore just look at the media today. Yeah for the most part nothing happens except when those few snap and then there is hell to pay. For that time we will have our usual feast on this blood and violence, point fingers and be all shocked when it happens again. Although there is no way to totally prevent such horrors our love for violence and mayhem keeps the embers burning. Automatic weapons are only possessed by a few with very stringent licensing requirements. While I possess a CCW and own several Semi-Auto hand guns and a few home protection shotguns, I do think there is no reason for everyone to own what we now classify "Assualt Weapons" I live in Detroit where the average police response is over an hour for anything not classified as "Shots fired"! A jacked car is a website reportable offense, so personal protection is really a personal responsibility. Then why did they take The Three Stooges off the air: children were going around poking each other in the eyes, I saw that myself when I was a kid. We are affected by what we see. Otherwise they would quit advertising on TV if it didn't work. Look at stupid videos, people trying to do what they see on videos, flying around like spider man. I think we actually are affected, and desensitized by it. We see so much death that it no longer is a big deal. And the games and videos just keep getting more realistic. I also wonder if they won't find some drugs involved, along with such realistic games, it seems like a dangerous combination to me. @ Kris1234-3592742 Honestly, I disagree. I work with mental disorderly children in the schools as a paraprofessional. I've examined their behavior and have seen that violent video games DO effect their minds. Most of the children who play video games out of their age range, like Call of Duty, often draw and imagine themselves as first person shooters. It may seem out of innocence at first when they pretend on the playground that they are such characters. However, as they get older, they begin to want to reenact these scenarios they see on Tv. As a society we have become emotionally underdeveloped thanks to technology. People are more socially withdrawn as a result and this is what desensitizes people. With watching violence added to the mix, I observed that when the children get angry they say things like "I want to kill somebody" and they know the name of the gun that they want to use, usually because they played a Gun game that has one. Some of the children who say this are normal, but one thing is for certain. Majority of them are young boys. Majority of males in the US play video games. I've observed that boys and male adolescents are more impulsive than females of any age as a whole. When you give them an inch they take it a mile, and it can be for positive or negative. When the Dark Knight's joker came out, he was idolized by male adolescents more than Batman was in its released. People would even dress like him and I observed several fan clubs promoting his existence. One boy just kept saying why so serious, which made me quite uncomfortable. Overall, the people who sell these games and the people who buy these games need to rethink what they are doing and how this will effect the minds of children. After all media is also another form of teaching. And just like children learn in school and learn from their parents, they also learn from the media how to be in today's society. Raygirl - Sorry, I respect your opinion, but you're talking about mentally ill people and how videos, etc. affect them. Most sane people who play these games know the difference between killing someone in a video game and physically grabbing a weapon to really hurt someone in real life. Most of the people I know who play these videos have qualms about hurting anyone or anything, since they can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. If you're mentally ill, you may not be able to tell the difference. It's much easier to blame violence on TV, video games, comic books, etc. Blaming parents or people who have no respect for life and dealing with the fact that's they don't take proper precautions to guard against the misuse of guns, knives or any other real weaponry, is the real problem here. Raising children to be responsible, respect the power of a gun, taking parental responsiblities seriously and talking to them about real situations and how to deal with them, goes far in preventing children/young people from resorting to acts of violence. Why did this man's mother have so many guns in her house, not under lock and key or with trigger locks, available when her son had mental issues? That's a big problem. Some questions have no real answers even though the media asks so called "experts "what they think about this. The one that may have the answers can't be asked any questions. Sadly this will happen again and there is not much you can do about someone hell bent on destruction. Not much you can do? How about the sober adults who recognize the ubiquity of evil in our modern society, accept the responsibility to confront it if encountered, and are fully prepared to act decisively to protect themselves and the innocent lives of others? 99.9999999% of victims are UNARMED, and of no good to themselves of anyone else in these situations. Not me-- especially in Virginia. He may have had mental health issues and I am suspicious of the mother as well, considering all the weapons in the home. Paranoid Personality on her part, perhaps. People are looking a all the systemic issues as we should, but the bottom line is this, Pro or anti gun, there is no way he could have killed 28 people with a knife. Easily accessible guns in the home are the culprit..guns in the home are rarely used in self defense. But are used for suicide and/or homicide. not always and wouldn't you rather be able to kill some one breking into your home with a gun or do you want to get close enough to use a knife of better yet hide and hopr the law gets there before he/they finds you. don't say it won't happen had 3 or 4 home invasions in our surrounding areas just in the last few months one being with the intruder dyingby the owner who was not afraid to use his gun against gun carry young punks who thought they were so bad with their guns Don't tell me guns are used for protection most of the time. doesn't matter if i haven' t used mine for that yet hope I never have to but sure feels good to know i have one just in case. I live in a rural area off the road a ways and trust me an alarm won't run some one off that is up to no good but I can tell you knowing the home owner may shoot your ass will make one think twice a bout breaking in Once again we have to be bludgeoned by people's comments regarding what guns should or should not be permissable. The people making these comments have no concept of what really is happenning here but rather are only seeing their own internal fears and paranoia. This situation has nothing to do with the issue of guns or weapons or magazine capacities. It has everything to do with mental illnes and the ability of our society to react to and treat these unfortunate illnesses. This individual was sick and saying that the availability of guns is what caused this situation is a misnomer. What caused this terrible tradjedy was the individual's mental illnes, the weapon was only a sypmtom, it is his illnes that was the cause. Had the guns not existed, his illnes would still have consumed him and resulted in numerous deaths. The solution is to treat and prevent the illnes that causes such behaviour. But of course, it is much easier to just say "ban the guns" All of you who hold this position need to get over your fear and loathing of inamimate objects and mourn for these poor victims. If you really want to help the families involved then help prevent this from happening again by supporting the implementation of proper mental heath treatments and facilities. All fine and good, EPF, but are you willing to pay taxes to foot the bill for those mental-health facilities? Oh, and while I'm at it, you don't know that Lanza's illness would have definitely led to the death of 20 kindergartners if he hadn't had access to his mother's arsenal; that too is nothing but a guess... I am guessing the woman had all those weapons in her home in an attempt to make herself feel safe. Unless you carry your gun around the house all day, you may distribute your guns, in order to have one available in case of a break-in. Many gun owners own them because they are essentially fearful, insecure people with little guts. They need a gun to make them feel safe. I know of one person who has a handgun in a hollowed out book next to his TV chair, waiting for someone to try to rob him. squirrel. Your point is taken. But protection is best done with a shoot gun or a hand gun. These people were waiting for the government to come for them. They had enough fire power to hold off a small army. No reasonable person whats to outlaw all guns. But a Reasonable person could argue for controls and bans on many of the weapons that are being sold in the US right now. No one really needs a AK47. and we dam sure don't need one that can shoot 100 rounds before you reload. We don't need a 9 mm that can shoot 30 rounds before your empty. I have no problem with the 9mm. I have a problem when it can shoot 30 rounds. Nine is enough and you can have a few extra clips that hold 9. That seems more then enough to protect yourself. No one needs an AK 47, or a 9mm, or a [shoot]gun... until they need one. You didn't need a spare tire on your car yesterday either. What if the small army is exactly the threat that has to be confronted? By the way, the 9mm is of negligible value as a personal defense round. A rifle trumps all. Handgun shootings have an 86% survival rate and are a compromised tool for effective threat elimination. I'm glad libs hate guns (labor union storm troopers excepted). Connecticut state police's Lt. Paul Vance and Lt. George Sinko - This is your big chance boys, Your 15 minutes of fame is here. A good on camera cry like commie Obama's would be good for the media to use, might get your name spread around a little more Hey Mary...if you are so gung ho about owning guns...then where are your actions in keeping this type of tragedy from happening? Stop name calling and step it up...with rights come responsibility. And for those hollering about putting politics in this...Politics are part of this..the NRA lobbies heavily to keep status quo. Even NRA members are for universal background checks...are they done?? Nooo. NRA lobbies to stop by spreading falsehoods about taking the guns. phooey. Attitudes like this is why the republicans lost BADLY in the last election. Your kind are on their way out, Mary. Not a moment too soon. You guys just don't know how to solve problems anymore. All you're good for is conspiracy theories and vile. Our schools are totally defenseless. Lets say for example a big rabid dog got into the school and started killing children, what would they have done? Oh yah call animal control, an hour later someone might have shown up. Or some gang bangers decided to have some fun? Or a hundred other times when some armed could have made all the difference. This nut case had full reign of the school, he killed several adults first, going from room to room. This takes time, if someone was armed in the school they would have had plenty of time to take him out before he got to the children. Our schools are totally defenseless, I hold the federal board of education responsible for all of these massacres. If our response to this most recent instance of gun violence and death is "more security" at the schools and/or a witch hunt of pre-teen and teen boys who are weird, geeky, and smart, we are absolutely looking at the wrong responses. We have completely missed the point. Better health care in this country? We definitely need to address that issue. We have de-funded mental health initiatives, closed supervised living programs for the developmentally disabled, and quite often our mental health professionals in the schools are completely overwhelmed. The point is this - in absolutely no scenario is the ability to fire off hundreds of rounds from an assault weapon, killing as many innocents as there are rounds in a magazine, acceptable or protected as a right. If you "hunt" game with assault rapid fire weapons, well you're really not "hunting" are you? Lots of talk about the laws already on the books - well I'm from Chicago and our responsible gun laws are under constant attack. And since our handgun ban was found to be unconstitutional, gun death skyrocketed. Hunters can hunt with unmodified rifles and shotguns. Rural folks can protect their homes and farms with shotguns - and let me tell you, a barking dog does wonders to deter intruders no matter where you live. We have no use for assault multiple round weapons of war. There is not now, nor has there been, a governmental "big brother" knocking at our doors to steal our guns. Let's do away with that idiotic conspiracy theory once and for all and get our stuff together. For ourselves and more importantly for our dear children. It's not too early to talk about ending gun violence, it's too late. But it's not too late to DO something besides talking. I hate to be insensitive to the current crisis, but I feel the need to add this personal bit of info: I felt no emotion towards either the victims or the killer. It was like "Oh. So several people died today and a murderer shot himself to avoid being taken alive. Doesn't that crap happen every day though?". At least, that's what my gut instinct is telling me - I can tell when the sorrow I feel is for another person other than myself, and that's not what I'm feeling. I'm feeling a "So what?" kind of emotion. It's sad really - I realize I don't have a heart, and that most likely if I were in the situation that that murderer was in, chances are I MAY have ended up the same way (I say "may" because I would feel the shivering fear and doubt of my intent before I steeled enough resolve to go through with the action - though the reasons for feeling that would be completely selfish). While I'm thankful for the fact MY situation isn't like this, the thought of what could occur if it WERE kinda worries me. On the other hand, it's not like I care about the human race - you guys do enough slaughtering and butchering of each other as it is. Y'know, maybe one day this world will learn just how poisonous "hatred" is, shut up, calm the @!$%# down and stop labeling people based upon groups just so we can have excuses to justify genocide like this. Oh, and just to clarify, I know for a fact race/sexuality/politics/etc, isn't involved in this - but although it isn't related to this atrocity, it still doesn't change the fact that I'd brutally slaughter one hundred people like this killer if it'd protect a thousand people like the victims mentioned here, regardless of what they might be. I think I've just seen so much death, destruction, murder and such that I've become desensitized to this kind of BS. Which is lame, because I've realized that to survive in this world, you'll have to use violence on the ones who are most in danger of using it to harm the innocent. That said, I don't think this article accurately describes how I feel about this whole ordeal. It certainly doesn't affect me, and the whole incident doesn't change the fact that I believe humanity's nothing more than trash. "On the other hand, it's not like I care about the human race - you guys do enough slaughtering and butchering of each other as it is." Hate to break it to you, CrimsonCujo, but you are part of the human race. You are indeed one of "us guys." You may not be happy about it, but you are. I understand the feeling of wanting to distance yourself from society's ills. It's obvious that we are doing something wrong. You say that you feel no emotion about this tragic event, but then later state that you would "brutally slaughter one hundred people like this killer if it'd protect a thousand people like the victims mentioned here." You care more than you realize. It's hard NOT to care when envisioning a classroom of kindergarteners being terrorized. I wish you well. Kevin, Takenaka - I realize this. I realize how much of a disgrace that makes me appear. I was only stating what my body was saying of the situation. I look to my body for notifications of what I'm truly "feeling" so to speak. Yes, I'm fully aware that people like this "murderer" are the source of all the death and destruction. At the same time, my body keeps giving me an apathetic sensation - and I've learned that if that's how my body feels, then it how I* truly feel deep down inside. I can't trust my words - I have to trust my body's sensations. Furthermore, I've never been exposed to the raw fear of a gun - I'm more afraid of handcuffs than I am a gun. I've lived a very sheltered, pacifistic life where the biggest threat I ever faced was being locked in a cage. At the same time though, if I or my family were threatened with having their freedom and happiness taken away, I think my body would feel a kind of violent and destructive desire to "kill" that I don't think I could quite accurately describe how heavy said urge would be (merely because it'd be too vast for a mere human to comprehend, much less put into words). I don't WANT to end up like him (the killer, that is), but I'm still trying to figure out whether I need to please the old religious geezers or the young anarchistic thugs of this world. I can't please both, but I feel agitation and irritability from dealing with the former (because a majority of their hobbies BORE me to death), and fear and suppression of my true feelings from the latter (mostly because I fear angering or alienating them). That said, while I WILL say this crime was atrocious, I know I can't trust my words - they aren't my true thoughts (whether I say them out loud or on a texty piece of internet). My true feelings dictate who I am and what I feel about what I see, but if those feelings are unwanted in society, it leaves ME scrambling to find something redeeming about myself so that I don't end up like that loser Adam Lanza. I just hope that the FBI and local authorities locate crimsoncujo and give him some time to think about what he is saying. Sounds like it is another mental illness situation that needs to be taken off the steet. Just do us all a favor crimson, just do yourself in and leave everybody else alone. F#$%OFF A-Hole!!!! Ban assault weapons and handguns. You cannot hunt with a handgun and these are used for the specific purpose of concealing and murder. Assault weapons are made for the battlefield. When was the last time we heard of a person with an arsenal using the guns for "protection". Guns in the home only lead to suicide and murder. A house can easily be protected by a 410 shotgun. Do we really need weapons that can hold 50 bullits to protect our homes. I did not realize that when the home invasion happens there is a large group of criminals attacking where we need assault weapons and guns with 52 bullit clips. NRA sucks and guns suck period. Sickandtired - Tell me, if I told you where you could find me, would you come and end my life yourself? I'd actually prefer to die than to remain alive and a threat to anyone else. If my death prevents others from suffering, that'd probably be a GOOD thing. Look at it this way: the whole reason I came clean about my feelings on this issue was because every time I hear a story like this, it makes ME realize that if all the conditions of THIS PARTICULAR INCIDENT - like the guns and such - were in place, odds are my bestial-like nature of acting on impulse and instinct would force me to do something I might actually regret afterwards (although said regret would be for a very selfish reason, as I've said). Thank god I've never seen a gun up-close, and thank god my single-misdemeanor-stained criminal record prevents me from being near stuff like that (hell, other than the cops, I don't know anyone who owns a gun in this area - not like I'd try to find out anyways). Oh yeah, and there's a police station not but 4 or 5 blocks from my apartment - if things were as bad as you say, it wouldn't take long for them to get here. But then of course I worry what may result from the cops showing up (especially if their intent is to handcuff me). @Abby - Abby, it's not just that. According to what I know of the definition of "being human", you're supposed to cry over a death like this. The fact that I'm not shows a form of soullessness or heartlessness. And as I recall, part of "being human" requires that you "have a heart and soul" that is "capable of shedding tears of sorrow". Add to the fact that I act more like a wild animal in regards to the fact that I obey my impulses and instincts (AKA act without thinking things through) and the realization that those impulsive and instinctual actions tend to harm more than help, and you have the general reason why I think myself as NOT a human and as more of a beast or a sociopathic monster. It's why I'm looking for where I CAN make people happy so that at least I retain an excuse to exist amongst you all. @Kevin - About me?! The hell?! I realize it ain't about me, but at the same time I worry of a possibility that IT COULD BE ABOUT ME! Studies are showing a huge drop in empathy for college aged people. This is really bad for our future... and the future of our children. It's easy to distance yourself when you're wrapped up in yourself. I hope that anybody who recognizes they have issues, please realize they they need to talk to a someone and figure out why. Not having empathy is not normal. crimsonsounds like u are too much into your own feelings. 99.9% of us dont do bad things like this. How do we stop the evil people that do? Well the religious geezers do know one thing. If a kid is in church he is far less likely to get in trouble. If he is an anarchist he is far more likely to get in trouble. Life is tough enough. You dont need trouble. Now, get over yourself work hard and relax and drink a beer. @Janellect - Just who exactly? The only people I can really talk to are those that accept Medicare/Medicaid, and they're no better than the people who take more advanced health plans that claim to offer BETTER services in return for more money. If I could obtain some empathy, I'd do so in a heartbeat. But I realize that isn't something you can buy - it's just something you "have". @Unfiltered - First off, alcohol tastes like crap. So there will not be any "having a beer" from me. Second, I don't go to Church because I've yet to find one that won't label my own parents (lesbians) as blasphemous stains. It's why I tend to harp on the Mormons so badly - they're so close by and they've done this stuff a number of times. You don't get me without at least tolerating my parents for WHO they are and WHAT they are. Finally, knowing my emotions gives me at least a sense that I have a brain worth even one thing to society - and without that I'd probably lose all hope at life (if that were the case though no one else would be in danger because of it). Calm. The hell. Down. I can tell that the severity of this crisis is leading you to make irrational statements. Nobody is in any danger from me (in fact if that were the case I would be the one alerting authorities). I was having one of my usual pessimistic moments. Crap like this ALWAYS happens, and I wish it didn't. Just once, I'd give my legs or any other seriously valuable body part to be able to really fit under what this article is saying (and honestly, me being affected wouldn't make a difference, but it WOULD make me feel less guilty about the whole affair). The fact that I DON'T feel sorrow over this tragedy makes me feel guilty. That's all I was trying to say - and I got carried away and went all overcomplicated on it. Without reading Every post of people commenting to your original post, I felt the need to say this. I have realized in my time that what our bodies feeling is attributed to our emotional stance on a situation and our past trials and tribulations. This being said I am wondering if you have become disconnected from emotion. Which in my experience happens when you have to much emotion at one time for something else. If you are not already seeing a therapist I would strongly urge you to give one a try to help you come back to a safer place. If you are currently seeing one I would mention the fact that you seem to have become dissociated. There are many reasons for this however do some research and maybe you'll find this will be helpful. I am not a therapist however I have seen enough to feel comfortable in saying that you appear to be dissociated, this would explain your lack of empathy in this situation. You make other points in your comment however this is the point i felt the need to comment on. You feel something otherwise you wouldn't have responded. These situations can make a person numb and while you may not have shed a tear this horrific tragedy has touched you. That is obvious to me in several things you have said. Many of the responders to you have gone on the attack because for many if you don't grieve or react the way they think you should or the way they do then you are seen as callous and possibly dangerous. One cannot say there is a proper way to react as everyone has circumstances and happenings in their lives that will be reflected in their being able to process tragedies like this. As a parent and a grandparent I was close to tears yesterday but I didn't break down either. There are little ones who needed the strength of an adult telling them yes this is so so horrible, so so sad but I am here to keep you safe and provide the hugs. Believe me there are others and probably some of your responders who would be capable of doing the same were anyone to attempt to harm one of theirs. You are feeling the impact of this in your own way... nobody can tell you the proper way to grieve for such a loss. You have brought into your process actually from what I see the frustrations of many with the destruction of their dreams and feelings of hopelessness. I am not a religious nut although I believe in a higher being. I belong to no organized religion and do not preach to others. However, I was raised with learning right from wrong and instilled it in my own children and grandchildren. You have been doing a lot of introspection with this tragedy it appears and some of it has scared you. I wish you well and know there is good and bad in the world. It has always been so but live to do good. It is far more rewarding on a personal level. hey he is one of many he is just saying it out loud as as I said ITS A ME WORLD theres alot out their that think like him ast like him and unless you work with the public you don't see it or just don't care to see it Maybe it is just me, maybe I am became OVERsensitized, but since I came back to my quiet little town in northern Canada from 2 trips to Afghanistan, I value life even more. I do not like seeing ANY person die. I can now feel total empathy with those who have lost loved ones and I bleed for them inside. But that is just me..... Excuse the bad English in my previous post 8.24. I meant "I have become". Also to further my statement that I do not like seeing any person die, I meant innocent people like bystanders, kids etc., they are the ones I grieve for. I have absolutely no problem with the death of someone trying to either kill me or an innocent person. Crimson, you may well be the most sane and balanced person here. Most of these others are in serious denial and can't maintain a working relationship between their hyper-sensitive emotions and their well-suppressed intellect. You're alright. Your touchy-feely judges passing sentence are actually the criminals. I agree that there are not many great resources. Have you tried a local university that has a graduate psych program? Email them to ask about any clinical programs that offer counseling for free or at a discount. Also, sometimes you have to try visiting more than one person before you "click." I still think you would benefit. There's a lot of interesting research on mirror neurons. It has been shown that when watching someone perform an action or even speak an action word, the person watching has activity in the same area of the brain as the performer. They theorize now that people with autism are lacking those neurons. I'm sorry I don't have much helpful information. Some of what you are saying does sound a bit antisocial, but I am far from being an expert, or even very knowledgable. However, I can recommend a movie, a documentary Are You Good or Evil?, which you can find for free on Top Documentary Films website, topdocumentaryfilms.com . It's about a professor who researched what makes someone good or evil, what turns people into psychopaths or not, only to find out that he perfectly fit the profile of a psychopath, including genetical predispositions and his family's testimony. But it was the upbringing that helped him act correctly and even become very useful and highly functional, both for himself and for the society. Similarly to his personal findings, societies that are more turned toward collective good (than personal) have less reported antisocial behavior according to some studies. It has been suggested by a number of studies that the highly driven, personal goal oriented societies, where materialistic individualism is highly regarded have more incidences of antisocial behavior: meaning acting upon that lack of empathy and feelings. It's not that people's brains are different. It's that the rules are different. Antisocial behavior runs into serious resistance early on, as it's completely rejected by society, while here, society is more lenient toward it, and it's even supportive in very intelligent people, who often become CEOs of companies (larger percentage of sociopaths has been found among CEOs than among the rest of the population), because they are so reckless that they'll do anything to achieve what they want. Since you are so wonderfully honest and open, which I really admire and appreciate, I did want to ask you a few questions, just for my own information. I know I have no right to ask, so it's OK if you ignore me. Do you play video games and how would you rate your Internet usage? If you do, how long have you been using those practices, or when did it increase, if it did? If you do use one or both, how violent are they, and how exposed are you to violence through electronic resources? Have you been seeing much violence in real life? Thank you for what you shared with us. It was interesting and rarely sincere. I know this article's rather outdated, but I feel the need to respond to all people who replied to me. This is gonna get long, so stick with me for a bit - I tend to have lengthy rants. @Suzi - Yes I can. Of note, some of my favorites include SEGA games like Sonic, Phantasy Star Online 2, Touhou, and a couple of Korean MMOs (MapleStory, Mabinogi, Elsword - just to name a few). I heavily dislike games with blood - it makes me squirm and squiggle. I especially hate horror games, as those tend to have the highest amounts of gore and violence in them. I EXTREMELY - and I hate using this word - EXTREMELY hate games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Gears of War, GTA - just to name a few. They feel to me like they have everything that's wrong with our fictional culture packed into them. Not to mention WoW feels and plays extremely blocky (which isn't the only reason I dislike it). @Erby - I've been seeking help for my emotions since I was 7. Even after spending my entirety of high school in a mental residential academy (read: school for mentally ill delinquents), the problem never vanished. I'm more aware of the problem now than I was then, but nowhere nearer the solution compared to that time either. @Kevin - No white bus ever arrived. Like I said, I live 4~5 blocks from a police station - that would have been an easy feat for Springfield PD given how close they are (and I've had run ins with them before, all of which ended rather peacefully). @Jeanette - Handsome? Pshhh, please, if that were true don't you think I'dve gotten a few passes from women? They all seem to think me worthless retarded trash. It's not that they don't give me bad raps. Far from it. They do something far worse: they completely ignore me. As a wise man once said: To be forgotten is worse than death. I'm always the one making advances that are never returned - my reasons for being here inside my house are so that I don't harm them from my impulsive reaction to being silently rejected. P.S. And yes, that is really me - that picture's sorta outdated though. I've a recent one I wouldn't mind sharing. @parabellum - I'm aware of that. Thing is, what can I really do about it? They're gonna vindicate me no matter what I do. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. @Janellect - As of DSM-V, I fall into Autism Spectrum - however, if we were to use DSM-IV, I'd fall into the category of an Aspie. And I've actually felt the pain of letting my emotions rule me to know full well what the consequences of said actions are (as well as gaining a powerful fear of those emotions and the actions that stem from). @bhgal - I won't respond to your first rant about the documentary (only because the mere mention of it kinda insults me). However, I will respond to the inquiry that comes after: I am a big video gamer. I've been playing games (rather lightly due to parental restrictions) since I was 3 or 4. Even then, I wasn't the type to wander towards games with excessive blood and gore. I'm a "Looney Tunes" type of person, in that I like violence void of blood and gore - wacky violence. I abhor the kind that tends to be more realistic (the kind of violence I like actually makes it easier to vent my anger). When I was younger, the internet didn't exactly exist in the form it does now (when I first encountered it, I was 5 or 6, so that would've been the era of 56k Dialup). Even then, I tended to browse sites that had video game demos, and as an impulse steered far away from games with blood (they creep me out). And I will admit - I've never been face to face with a gun, let alone even heard for myself the sound of a gunshot. A lot of the adult-rated things in life (like sex, drugs, guns) are things I've only seen through a TV or Monitor (movies and pr0ns, for example). As for having been exposed to them IRL? Nein (well, maybe except for tobacoo and alcohol, of which a couple relatives of mine use). Kevin from Left Coast: They may not have anything to do with this, though that's arguable (put on your lib conspiracy cap and think of all the possibilities). You can be well-assured they will milk it for everything it's worth. As Ubama's Godfather said, "Never let a crisis go to waste." I can hear their champagne corks popping as you drone on. Mental illness is worse than Cancer.The same painstaking research and funding that goes into other diseases should be applied and funded into this incurable nightmare of a disease. That being said,we cannot monitor all the households that have various weapons today.The need to have an arsenal of weapons at home is inexcusable.to have one gun registered is sufficient ,if you are a licensed hunter,there too should be a tighter monitoring of hunting weapons.The right to bare arms is a stretch of the United States Constitution. Too easy to say we need to attack "mental illness". Make's it someone elses problem. The real issue as I see it is that we, as a society, tolerate sociopaths. That is a burden all of us must bear. Consider Hawaii where my family lived for two years. Petty crime is off-the-charts there (my 2yr old son's back-pack was stolen while we were in the restroom for goodness sake. I was told I should keep better track of my stuff by security staff. ok...), but violent crime is almost non-existant. I suggest this is because as a culture you simply cannot opt for the sort of isolationist behavior we see in these horrific killers. In Hawaii you must either be part of society or leave. The loners get rooted out. Unfortunately on the mainland our (and I'm as guilty of this as anyone) "you take care of you and I'll take care of me" MO allows sociopaths to happiliy persist and grow increasingly dangerous...knowing they will be "left alone". I'm all for getting rid of the guns...but in the mean time I think I'll get to know my neighbors. Ah, but the government does have a lot to do with it. The government can pass as many laws about as many things as they want but they can not be in the human heart. There is one Moral Law Giver and he has been banned. Banned because moral rules apply to all not 'everyone but me'. As long as babies are killed for convenience, folks are robbed under the pretense of Robin Hood, and the government pretends to be the moral authority, we are doomed as a society. The Constitution was crafted to avoid where we are but that was not convenient. The establishment clause was not to remove religion it was to prevent a Sharia law type issue. Several of you need to engage your brains and do some reading. Guess Jesus was right we are just a bunch of sheep. Yeah, maybe Jesus as right maybe we should Pray and ask him where him and God were while the kids were staring down the barrel of those Guns. Maybe they were having Tea and strumpets with Satan and Satan is petitioning for all the schools who don't preach the word of God in them. God supposively says he will not get involved in Free Will so not matter how many Schools hes in he still wouldnt protect his own people! And about engaging our Brains in reading I challange your brain as well , read Genesis Chaper 1 about when God created everything, the plannets, stars, earth ect then get your calulator out and count back the years to when god was supposed to have done this, you can count back to around the time of Abraham! Ill give ya a clue though to save ya the time religous Scholars have already done this for you and Ill tell ya the awnser: A little over 6000 years! Do your math and googleing for yourself but this is their best calulation and they pretty much all agree. Now heres the question of the day if weve only been here a little over 6000 years like the Scholars have dated the Bibles accounts too, then explain why we are finding Dinosaur Bones that are around 150 to 300 billion years old, and have the fossil fuel to prove it! You use to to drive around daily. And then again those pretty stars you see at night take millions of light years to reach earth for us to see them. Isnt that something? Maybe God or jesus dont have anything to do with this at all? Id say If our government would stop all the needless bush Vendette wars and giving all the 100s of billions is tax breaks to the oil companies maybe they wouldnt have to cut federal funding to the school. they could make a law and put security in place to protect those schools. But hey what do I know I probally dont engage my brain enough! Vernva does make a good point I think, or maybe I'll make it for him/her :) When you abolish state endorsement of even watered down religious or moral expression, you have indeed prevented the preeminence of any one religion over the others. Similarly, in our democracy, we abolished the preeminence of any one man or woman over all others. So, the constitution is satisfied. Most agree that our constitution functions as intended: by abolishing religious endorsement by the state, we avoid religious oppression. We fight tyranny with the vote. But democracy is not the best form of government, it may simply be the least bad. When the state cannot endorse religion, it is left with little to endorse. When a leader can only "lead" for a few years, there is little leadership. The tea party and the far right wing of the republican party are good examples of why religion was separated from the state. They both are also a product of that separation in my opinion. I personally saw a fossilized tree in the upright position that intersected two coal seams which were dated by archeologist's to be 30 million years apart. So YOU explain to me how a tree stood up for 30 million years and then became fossilized??? One other thing, just a few hundred years ago scientists were telling us the earth was flat, even though in the bible it is described as a ball. Just food for thought. Ugh, not to take attention off of this horrid, awful tragedy, as I photographer, I always dress in black to avoid color casts on my subjects. White would work as well, but I look awful in white, it's harder to care for, harder to find, etc. Can we just leave dressing in black off the checklist of Evil Doer? Yeah let's ban weapons so that people are totally defenseless when some mad person who has obtained guns illegally gun them down! That being said, this is a tragedy and not only because it was done at an elementary school. From what I hear, this gun man had a mental illness and there had to have been some signs. Not necessarily that he was going to shoot down a school but there's signs that someone needs help. His brother even said that he was mentally ill. It brings to question why the mother had had guns in the house as well. This is a tragedy for multiple reasons. It could have been prevented as well. Why someone needs that many guns in a house is too much. I agree something has to be done but tighter gun control isn't going to help. Criminals are always going to get a gun somewhere and there will be no way to track that. There is absolutely no reason to give this antiquated theory any credence whatsoever. It doesn't work that way. Antiquated theory with no credence huh? So what exactly is happening in Chicago these days if not exactly what she describes? Do you think all those people killing eachother walk in to Walmart sporting goods and legally buy and register those guns? Well think about it this way. Its better to keep the number of guns already distributed than to have even more people buy guns legally. How so? Well let me give a scenerio. There are a high number of people who carry guns in America. Out of all those people about half of them have mental issues. Some of them don't. Yet, make someone who does or doesn't have mental issues angry or make them depressed, they might decide to shoot dozens of people. Now, let's lossen gun control so that it can be in EVERY citizens hand. Out of every citizen that has a gun, only a few know how to shoot a gun. So one decides to shoot down a potential gunman. But gasp! He accidentally shoots an innocent bystander. Then the gunman proceeds to also shoot and kills the one that missed and everyone else. So now we have more casualties than we would have had had it had been only one gunman. My point? Its better to have gun control and keep the number of criminals we have than to loosen gun control and let the number of criminals increase. at least at this level it would be a little more manageable. If everyone had a gun, which is about how it is today anyway, then there's a chance more crazy people will do this and on an even grander scale. @Tim- you must not live near criminals. I live in New York City, we have very strict gun laws- 6 month background check per gun purchase, only guns allow are handguns under .45 caliber, and guns can only be shown in a gun range or gun permitted zone(there are none), and concealed carry is a 10 year prison sentence Minimum- but there are still local news stories of shootouts between people with full-auto military grade weapons that are not even allowed to be sold New York State much less New York City. I- an average 18 year old college student-can set up a meeting with criminals-through online or face to face interaction- and be better equipped than my local SWAT team for much less than legally purchasing i might add. Criminals care only about profit, as long as you don't appear to be a snitch, they will do business with you. I know hindsight is 20/20 but there must be a way to install re-enforced doors on classrooms that can prevent nuts like this from entering much like airliners have now. Perhaps they can be locked and unlocked only from the inside and activated in just such situations like this. Just a thought,the cost would probably be high but you can't put a value on children's lives. Sandy Hook just finished installing a new security system. If you notice, the killer had to break the glass next to the locked door in order to enter the school. Many schools are now going to a locked security door system. Where one needs to push a button and the office let's you in after they speak to you to find out what you want. Other schools have all the doors locked except one near the office. So a person can't gain excess inside without passing the office. Most classroom doors do have locks which can be used. However, some schools from the early 1990's have an open floor plan, dividing students into smaller groups which rotate. There aren't actual walls which go up to the ceiling.These are used for the lowest grades. More like modules they have been designed to maximize air flow, energy efficiency and can be adjusted for class size if needed.There is literally no door at all. While most of us probably are familiar with the metal detectors often used in inner cities. Then there are literally the armed guards or police officers. The list goes on as far as how much protection a school might need. Depending on the threat level it faces. But how does a place like sandy Hook prepare when something has never happened before. How does one plan for the impossible horrible nightmare which may never come in your lifetime? Do you need to plan for such an event yourself? So; the title of the article is: Victims' Bodies Identified, but, it contains no list or reference to a list of the identities? NBC and ABC took the opportunity to compete for ratings during prime time. Looks like they'll use any excuse to sell ads. I wonder what a grade school T.A. planned to do with 9mms and ARs. Looks like she lived in a pretty nice home on a grade school T.A.'s pay. Maybe I should be a grade school T.A. in CT. If you remember a man in China entered a school and killed multiple children with a knife or knives. Humans who want to commit these types of horrors will find any way they can to commit these horrible crimes against humanity. The only chance we would have against these people is for others to speak up when they know people need help. We will find out much more about this evil person and his family. I know this evil person did not just wake up yesterday and say......" I feel like doing something evil" People knew this person was sick, they just chose to not do anything about it for some reason. Mind you....I live in Detroit and have NO faith in the Police's ability to protect me or my family. If you notice there were no deaths in that incident. Obviously, guns kill faster and more effectively. Do you know why Japan is such a nice place to live? Guns are outlawed to the public. Not to say they don't have murders, but they have way less than we do. @Raygirl- I read that article too, and i agree with you to a point. yes this country would be far safer without guns but do you realize that there are millions of gun owners in the US, what are those guns going to just disappear. Plus unlike America, Japan does not have major gang problems, and a lucrative drug market. Guns will never disappear from America if the criminals have guns i don't trust my authorities- who are more likely to target me a law abiding black man-to be responsive enough to stop crimes. Superstorm sandy hit and bam there was looting, how did the looting stop, citizens took up arms against the offenders. I'm not saying that we should have a wild west attitude i'm saying that i would feel better with a nine milometer in my holster then having to wait for the slow response of the authoritiesI agree. And most people try to pretend like it has nothing to do with Gun violence...that gory shows and video games don't effect the minds of the young and mentally deranged. But it does. I know a lot of people who watch and play these things get the urge to do these things in the real world. All you need to do id put it in the hands of someone mentally vulnerable... The violence depicted in media is prevalent but i feel it is the parents responsibility to control their child's exposure to that said violence. Most big home viewing companies have parental control on there content and R-Rated movies can only be seen with a person 17 and up. All American sold video games have the ESRB rating system. Even comic books have a rating system. There are regulations in place but if parents don't listen to these regulations there will be repercussions. Sane, rational persons do not slaughter anyone, unless attacked. So...how many guns, what caliber or type and banning this and that or "toning down our violence" or worrying about the "violence" we watch on movies or TV shows is nonsense. Mentally ill persons can watch a movie, listen to an album, eat ice cream, watch a fly go by or hear a message from their invisible friend, and it can trigger a psychotic episode resulting in murder or injury for an innocent person. We rational persons do NOT need our freedoms lessened in any way. The crazies will not respect the rules, and they will still be crazy, so no matter what we do it won't matter to the psychos what we do or don't do. It is lunatics and criminals who need their liberties restricted, not decent people. I am not giving up my guns, knives, bows and arrows, box cutters, screwdrivers, cars or my right arm because there are crapheads who can't control themselves. THEY need their rights curtailed, not us. My only problem with it is, much like everything else, who decides? I heard a radio announcer mention video games, he said "assassins creed, I mean come on, what more do you need to know??" The problem is this moron had clearly never even looked at the game, in Assassins Creed the game will actually fail you for killing innocents. Part of The Creed is that you d not harm civilians, so right there that game sends a better message then many movies. I think there a just a lot of shocked people looking for easy answersErnie, If you live where I do and you deal with 4 to 7 people shot on a good weekend and 2 to 4 home invasions on any given weekend you have two choices. Hope your not the next one and worry when you go to bed, or learn to protect your family and yourself. I choose not to be a victim in any situation. I have many years military experience as a range supoervisor and know how easy it is to teach people safe personal protection. "If you do what you always do you will get what you always got" Why is this discussion even about guns - it has nothing to do with guns. This young man was mentally ill and regardless of the fact that his Mom had a gun, he would have found them and done this. We should be talking about the state of the mental health services in this country. I believe that we will learn in the coming weeks that this Mom could not have afforded services for her son, and that once he reached the age of conscent, he was lost. If we truly want to do SOMETHING that will honor the lives of the young ones lost in this tragedy, we should look at how we interact, treat, and deal with mental illness here in this country. We have to stop ignoring it and all that it brings and do something or this tragedy will become an everyday occurence and we will all be like crimoson above and numb to it all. This young man was mentally ill and regardless of the fact that his Mom had a gun, he would have found them and done this. Um, no. If it were virtually impossible for a non-law-enforcement, non-military person to obtain a handgun, he would not have been able to do this. With a lesser weapon (a knife, for example), the death toll would have been much, much lower. In fact, without a gun, he wouldn't have been able to get through the locked front door of the school. Thats not true, history is full of stories of mass murderers using weapons other than guns. Earlyout..... again if you lived in Detroit where 1 out of every 5 young adults carry an ILEAGAL weapon with intent to use it. And if you follow the Detroit news (or Chicago for that matter) you will see what I mean. In the last 6 months 2 people have been found shot within 100 ft of my home. In the US people with mental defects used to be committed to remove them from public. They were tossed in a room and locked up. The conditions were very bad and that practice was stopped. Now we just feed them high dollar meds and say have a nice day. It is almost impossible to have someone committed today. "If you do what you always do you will get what you always got" This is true. So many massacres occur because the gun laws remain loose and mental illness are not taken care of. But a few massacres were not done by people with mental illness such as James Holmes. By the way everything was planned, he couldn't possibly by scientific standards have a mental disorder. So mental disorder is not necessarily the issue. Added, there is so much violence in popular media today that it can CAUSE a mental dysfunction even if a person were taking medication. The media today has a negative affect on children and the mentally vulnerable. Its not uplifting or positive. But people are stuck in an illusion that violent media is our friend. This is because no one wants to admit the things they like are always bad. I used to defend violent media too, until I started working in the schools and observed the children and mentally ill for my safe. You have to be objective. Observe the behavior of the people around you. Make a statistic of how many people participate or watch violent entertainment. Then we can officially see the root of the problem. There are just way too many mentally ill people. We need to control what motivates them...violent entertainment and Gun availability. These things work hand in hand Note: Majority of young people who are socially withdrawn play video games, usually of a violent nature. like Call of Duty or Resident Evil. Socially withdrawn people already feel like outcasts from the world, so when they play these games it gives them the urge to "get back" at the world that made them feel different. I've seen it. And honestly these are things that need to be addressedThis is a global issue, it just gets reported more here in the US and the more civilized countries. Not if you're talking about gun violence, it isn't. The U.S. has the highest per capita rate of gun ownership of any country in the world. It also has the highest rate of gun violence of any developned nation. Gun violence and homicide rates tend to track proportionately with the availability of the weapons. Of the 20 worst gun related massacres worldwide in the past thirty years, 11 of them happened in the U.S. First runner up was Finland, with 2 incidents. There have been 15 mass murders in the U.S. involving guns this year alone. I think it has been said by a lot of people to take care of the issues here first before worrying about other countries, and it starts with the economy and illegal immigrant problem. Then violent crimes and penalties have to be addressed. Carrying out penalties also need to happen quicker. There is no reason why a convicted murderer should be on death row for 20 plus years. Death sentences need to be carried out within the year, especially the DNA technology we have today. Even if all the ills are address, unfortunately, episodes like this one will happen from time to time. You cannot totally root out evil, but you can address issues, like the whole goth thing, to try and prevent these sort of tragedies. I agree with you that the penalties, like death should be carried out within a year due to my technology (DNA, and other test equipment), but on the other hand when we have someone in jail for 20 years and we find they were not even there at the scene, and they due to politics and the "slogan" "we got him" and later find out it was all politics and lies by low educated police, and lyeing police, placing guns on people etc, or only try to come up with things that look bad on the defendant, then I also agree that if such a person was in jail for a number of years, then the police people involved and the judge and the prosecute should have 24 hour death penalty, so they do not get elected governors or police chiefs due to their lie, and this my friend is rampant in USA, not anywhere near as much in most other western countries. Unfortunately this terrible killing is being over analyzed, this can happen anywhere, any day all over the globe--Forget gun control, that is just politics in the USA with several hundred million guns, many people have more guns here than cars, but after 6 years in mil in EU, I have no idea, why people here have to have guns, other than in US where so many have guns--so everyone feel they have to have guns, because 2/3 of population can show up any time at ones front door with a gun and threaten Grandpa for money, since they are out of a job, since all of those for low people jobs are gone to China, AND you never know when someone did not get his med, especially here--due to a horrific medical system, for 2/3 of the population.. EarlyOut thinks America needs to take a back seat to the "rest of the world". We're not the leaders, we're the backward dolts clinging to out little experiment in personal liberty and the sovereignty of the individual citizen. How quaint. Why can't we embrace the dominating trend of the history of humanity and live like servants under authoritarian rule like so much of the rest of the world? Why can't we deprive all out citizens of their God-given rights in order to save these 20 children to be productive drones in government labor camps or starving on collectivist farms? Freedom and democracy have no place in this evolved modern world. Just think how loved and respected we could be by all the world's dictatorships if we would just surrender our obsession with natural law. Side note: There seems to have been a trend showing human life to have a 100% mortality rate, but if we can achieve the IMPOSSIBLE task of eliminating guns, just maybe we could live forever. When Americans pretend we are a 'standard bearer of the "civilized" world' as you claim, it is due to our constitution. No one pretends Americans are better then anyone else, our form of government is. A Representative Republic is better then a dictatorship or Monarchy for the people of the country as no human can have absolute power without becoming corrupt and Dangerous to the people. America was founded to be a nation of free, independent, self reliant people. That and our constitution mean that yes, this level of gun violence may be a distinctly American thing. We do not strip the populace of the means to defend themselves should the government go overboard. With our rights come responsibility to behave properly, this means that while our Constitution protects our rights we all have the responsibility and sadly, like anywhere else in the world where humans live we have people here who abuse our rights while neglecting any of the associated responsibilities. This issue here is really less about guns or 'culture' then it is about people and people everywhere are the same. Some people when Given an inch will take a mile. I will never understand the need to own a single gun let aside multiple weapons. Guns are made to KILL and nothing else. Their one purpose is to kill. If your life is in such danger or you are so hungry that you must have a weapon, I feel terribly sorry for you. This nation is so divided nowadays, from the top down that people seem to be more and more unstable. Mom had all these weapons? What was her problem? I have more than enough extra large dogs to defend my property and myself. Warning will be given when anyone is within 1/2 mile of my house and police are on speed dial. I could never kill anyone so a gun would be stupid to own. On the other hand I could kill someone in a fit of rage so it is best that I never have a weapon.	eng	7322c73e-d9d4-4dd0-9fa0-28c0cd422894	http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/15/15926718-newtown-gunman-forced-his-way-into-school-police-say
A Christmas to Remember "Yeah, said she had to go out and see that Fulton fella at the chateau," Hank answered. He noted Sully's look of slight annoyance. "What's the matter. She get a better offer for lunch?" * * * * * Loren looked out the window to see what was holding Sully's attention, and he saw Dr. Mike with Dr. Fulton. "Them two sure have been getting' pretty chummy lately!" "Yes, in fact, I've seen them quite often together out at the Chateau. They certainly do spend a substantial amount of time together," Preston remarked. He turned to face Sully. "They must have quite a lot in common." Sully pulled his gaze away from his wife after the door to the clinic closed and turned to face the two men. "They're both doctors. Why wouldn't they have something in common?" He tried to sound nonchalant. "Yes, but I have seen them together without any patients, and the door is always closed when Michaela is inside," Preston said, unable to resist driving the point home. "Preston, when are ya gonna start payin' attention to what concerns ya, instead of gettin' involved in everyone else's business?" * * * * * Sully leaned against the examination table and crossed his arms. "Sorry I wasn't there to pick ya up earlier." "Oh, that's all right, Sully. John had to come into town anyway, and he offered me a ride," Michaela quickly assured him. * * * * * Sully placed his cup on the table between them and stood to his feet. He picked up a piece of paper Michaela hadn't noticed before and walked to the fireplace. "I got a telegram from Welland Smith," he said without preamble. Michaela closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and looked directly at him. "When do you leave?" she said softly. "Wednesday," he replied. "He says it will only take a couple of days, and I'll be back by the weekend." "Oh." "What's that mean? You know my jobs take me away once in a while." "Oh, it's not that, Sully. It's Colleen and Andrew. They're coming on Thursday. I had hoped you would be here to greet them. We haven't seen them in almost six months, and I was hoping we could all be here when they arrived." Sully stared back into the fire and looked again at the telegram in his hand. "Well, I'll be back on Friday, so it'll only be a day later." * * * * * "Dr. Mike," Horace repeated. "Got a telegram for ya. Just came in, and thought ya might wanna see it." He handed the paper to her. Michaela quickly scanned the words and she couldn't keep the disappointment from showing on her face. "What is it, Michaela?" Dorothy asked. "It's from Sully," she replied. "It says they've run into some unpredicted delays, and he's going to be a little longer than he originally planned." * * * * * "Where's Brian?" Michaela avoided his eyes, briefly. "Oh, he and John left a little while ago to get a tree." "He and John?" Sully asked. "They went out together?" "Yes," she replied, chancing a glance in his direction. She was quietly defensive. "He was really looking forward to getting the tree, and you weren't here " She didn't finish, but waited for him to say something. "John simply offered, and we didn't think you would mind. After all, we didn't know when you were going to be home." * * * * * "Well, seems to me you been spendin' a lot of time with John, lately." "And what do you mean by that, Sully?" "I don't know, Michaela. Why don't you tell me?" he demanded. "I only agreed to John accompanying Brian because he was so discouraged when you weren't here in time to take him yourself. If you had been here, I wouldn't have had to do that," she challenged. * * * * * "You seem to have someone else waitin' to take my place when I'm not here, so I'll make it easy on ya. I'll just leave!" he stated, firmly, brushing past her to grab his coat and reach for the doorknob. "Sully, please, don't rush off in anger. We can work this out, if you'll just listen to reason," she pleaded. "No, Michaela. Not this time. I need to think." With that, he stormed out of the homestead and closed the door behind him. * * * * * Wolf lifted his head from the floor and whined. Sully reached down and patted his head, rubbing his ears. But, he wasn't comforted. He sniffed the air and continued to whine. "What is it, boy?" Sully asked, and Wolf got up, walking to the door and scratching at it. It didn't take long for Sully to meet him at the door. He wrapped the blanket more securely around him and reached for the knob. Wolf continued to scratch at it. "It's okay, boy. We'll see what's out there." He turned the knob and opened the door at the same moment a figure fell against it and collapsed at his feet. "Michaela!" A Christmas to Remember Sully was frozen to the floor for a split second before his survival instincts took control. He lifted Michaela into his arms and kicked the door to the cabin closed with his boot, walking back over to the fireplace and sitting down with Michaela still held in his arms. He tried to wrap his blanket around her, but it wasn't enough for the both of them, so he looked around the small cabin for something else he could wrap around her chilled body. Spotting a couple of blankets on the straw mattress in the corner, he gently laid Michaela down on the rug and stood to retrieve them. On his way back, his eyes happened to fall on a metal tub. Good. He could use that for a hot bath once she regained consciousness. First things first, though. He had to do everything he could to keep her from succumbing to the cold. He laid the blanket across a chair on his way into the kitchen area and grabbed the small basin from the set on the side table as he went to the inside pump to fill two pots with water to heat. He did this so he could cycle the hot water without having to wait each time for a new pot to heat. It was a good thing the people who lived here had thought to include this somewhat modern feature. He was also lucky the pipes weren't frozen from the cold temperatures. He set the pot on the stove, grateful he had already found the cabin before Michaela arrived and had been able to get the fire going in it. While he waited for the water to heat, he returned to Michaela, kneeling once again beside her and cradling her against him. He removed her cloak and spread it out beside them on the floor before wrapping her in his arms. He began to vigorously rub her arms and hands, all the while praying that she would awaken. Her head fell back against his cheek and he started at how cold her face was. "This isn't working," he thought out loud. "I've gotta find a faster way." He estimated the water being hot enough to work, so he again stood and walked to the stove, taking the pot off and carefully pouring the water into the basin. He slowly returned to Michaela and set the basin down beside her. He quickly removed her boots and reached up to remove her stockings before immediately placing her feet in the hot water. Her body reacted to the change in temperature, flinching slightly, and Sully took that as a good sign. Then, he suddenly realized Michaela must have had Flash with her, and the horse was most likely still outside in the storm. Not really wanting to leave her, but knowing he had no choice, he propped up Michaela with the extra blankets and made sure her feet rested in the basin, before getting up and putting on his coat to go find Flash. He braced himself against the blast of wind he knew would hit him the moment he opened the door. Just as quickly as he opened it, he closed it and stood to allow his eyes to adjust to what little he could see. He whistled and heard a responding whinny, so he whistled again and came to see Flash only a few feet from the door, standing up against the front side of the cabin. Praying for guidance and help, he reached out for Flash's bridle and led her the few feet in the direction of the animal barn, a crude structure erected solely for the purpose of sheltering any animals which might belong to the residents of the cabin. Thankful he had made it directly to the barn without much trouble, he opened the door and led Flash inside, walking her to one of the posts where he unsaddled her, tied the reins around the post and found a blanket to throw over her back to protect her from the cold. There were no other animals in the barn, but he was sure Flash would be safe, here, a lot safer than she would be outside. He gave her a final pat and piled some hay in front of her, just in case it was a long time before anyone was able to venture out here again, then drew his coat around him before making his way slowly back to the cabin. Grabbing the saddlebags he had taken from Flash, he again prayed for guidance and help from above in not being misdirected by the storm. A few steps later, and he was back at the door, which he quickly opened and closed, breathing heavily from the exertion. He immediately shed his coat, dropped the saddlebags on the table and made his way to Michaela, dropping to his knees. Shifted to gently lift Michaela into an almost sitting position, he took the extra blankets and wrapped them around her, leaned her against him and wrapped his arms around her to add his warmth to that of the blankets. "God, please," he pleaded. "I can't lose her, now......not like this!" He resumed the vigorous rubbing of her arms and hands and made sure the blankets were tucked securely around her. He still couldn't believe she had ventured out in this storm to come after him. That, in and of itself, was enough to change his attitude about things. He sat with her like this for quite some time before he felt her breathing change ever so slightly. His senses were immediately alert. "Sully," she whispered, faintly. "I'm here," he replied. It took her a moment to focus and formulate her words. "What...what happened?" she asked. "Ya got caught in the snowstorm outside and somehow managed to find the same cabin I did," he answered her. "I think the cold was startin' to get to ya, and now I'm tryin' to get you warm again." Sully had to strain to hear her, but he understood what she meant. "Your clothes, Michaela? What about 'em?" "Wet," she replied. "Must come off," she chattered in broken sentences, trying to take some deep breaths of the warm air around her. "Your wet clothes! Why didn't I think of that?" Sully exclaimed. He immediately turned her slightly and pushed back the blankets from her shoulders, letting them fall to the floor. He kept one leg supporting Michaela's back and the other tucked underneath him as he reached for the first buttons of her blouse. When that was off, he reached to unfasten her skirt, lifting her feet from the water, briefly, so he could slide the skirt and wool petticoat off her legs. He felt her chemise and pantalettes and realized the snow and moisture hadn't penetrated enough to do more than dampen them, so he didn't see the need to completely disrobe her. With the blouse and skirt somewhat spread out next to them to absorb the heat from the fireplace, he placed Michaela's feet back into the basin of water and turned her back around into his arms, carefully tucking the blankets around her again. "Sully?" Michaela called softly. "Shhh," Sully crooned against her hair. "Just rest," he advised. "There's time for talkin' later. Right now, we gotta get ya warmed up." Michaela leaned more securely into his arms and took in some deep breaths. There was so much unspoken between them. They had parted on less than amiable terms, and she knew they had to talk, but Sully was right. She had to do what she could to help her body recover from the exposure to the cold and the elements. They could worry about what they would say later. * * * * * "I'm worried about Ma and Pa," Brian admitted to his brother and sister later that night. "She left before lunch, and the weather's only gotten worse." "I'm worried, too, Brian, but Ma wouldn't do anything foolish. She's lived her long enough to be aware of the warning signs. I'm sure she found someplace to take shelter before things got too bad,"Colleen comforted. "Yeah, you know Dr. Mike. She ain't about to keep goin' when she knows it ain't a smart thing to do," Matthew added. "She may have even found Sully," Colleen continued. "Yes, Michaela is quite intelligent. She is aware of the dangers, and I am certain she would not take any unnecessary risks which would put her in harms' way." Andrew reached for Colleen's hand without being seen and gave it a quick squeeze. They all knew they were just trying to comfort themselves as well as reassure Brian. After all, it didn't take much in a blizzard to lose your way. They all knew that, having lived in the area all their lives. Even Andrew had lived there long enough to learn this. You could be five feet from your home and freeze to death from being unable to see the door. Nevertheless, they all needed to keep their spirits high. It wouldn't do them any good at all to allow themselves constant worry. "Papa? Mama?" Katie pouted as she looked from one worried face to the other of her brothers and sister. "Come here, Katie," Colleen called softly, holding out her arms to her little sister. Katie toddled over and willingly went into Colleen's arms. She grabbed her bunny and hugged it to her, a sad look on her face. "Aw, Katie, don't worry," Brian consoled. "Ma and Pa are gonna be all right. They're just takin' some time to talk together." "Why?" the little girl wanted to know. "Well," Matthew began. "Ya know how ya get upset and ya wanna tell someone about it?" Katie nodded. "That's what Dr. Mike and Sully are doin'. They gotta talk to each other so that they're not upset anymore," he explained. "I bad?" "No, Katie! You weren't bad at all!" Brian assured her. "Ma and Pa aren't mad at you or any of us. They're just upset with things that've been happenin.' Don't worry. They'll be home soon, and we can have a lot of fun for Christmas." He tried to keep things light. Andrew watched the family with awe. This closeness they had was something he had never had with his family. Of course, he lived in the more priveleged area of Boston and never had to worry about anyone getting lost in a blizzard or going hungry or even wondering if they had clothes to wear. Looking at these siblings comforting the youngest member of their family almost made him feel like an outsider. He really was lucky to have met and married someone like Colleen. "I have an idea," Brian suddenly suggested. "What's that," Matthew asked. "Why don't we play some chess or checkers? It'll help us keep our mind off of things and we could even have Katie play with us." "That sounds like fun!" Colleen exclaimed. "Yes, that certainly sounds like it could be quite entertaining," Andrew agreed. "We play games?" Katie immediately brightened. "Yeah, Kates," Brian replied. "Ya wanna be my partner?" The little girl nodded, and the young family set out the boards and pieces and began their battles of fun. * * * * * "It's really gettin' bad out there," Loren remarked to the Reverend, who had joined him for a cup of hot coffee. "Yes, I can sense the cold and hear the wind blowing," the Reverend agreed. "I only pray those who were heading home were able to make it there before the worst of the storm hit." "Yeah, it'd be a real shame and sad tragedy to have someone get caught out in somethin' like this. Good thing everyone here in town thought to close down early at the signs of the weather gettin' worse." "That was certainly a good idea. If they hadn't, we might all be gathered in one place waitin' out this storm." A loud knocking on the mercantile door downstairs startled them both. "What the blue blazes!" Loren exclaimed. "Who'd be out in this?" He stood from his seat in the rocking chair next to the Reverend's bed. "I'd better go and find out. Sure don't want 'em freezin' to death tryin' to get in." The knocking came again, only this time it was louder. "I'm comin'. I'm comin'. Hold your horses!" Loren yelled to the person standing outside. He maneuvered the stairs as fast as he could and made his way to the door, quickly unlatching the lock and opening it just a crack to reveal Hank and Daniel standing on the threshold. "Daniel! Hank! What're you fellas doin' here? Ya wanna come in?" "Nah, we just came to check to see if you an' the Reverend's all right," Hank replied. "Yeah, we figured it'd be a good idea to make sure everyone was safe at home here in town," Daniel added. "Ya mean the two of ya are walkin' around in this, tryin' to get to all the buildings?" Loren asked incredulous. "Yeah, we needed ta make sure there ain't anyone out in this," Hank told him. "We can't be sure about anyone caught outside of town. We just have to hope they made it home. I'm thinkin' of gettin' a search party goin' just a little ways outside of town, just in case," Daniel said, thinking more out loud than talking. "Well, me an' the Reverend's doin' just fine, so the two of ya can just be on your way." Then, a thought crossed his mind. "Just how do ya think you're gonna get to all these buildings without gettin' lost in this?" Hank stepped aside to reveal his hand gripped to a piece of rope. "We each got us a rope tied to the jail bars in the sheriff's office. Robert E loaned us some, since he was right next door." "We had to tie several long ropes together, but Robert E helped us make sure they were knotted real tight. They should get us where we need to get to," Daniel added. "We best be on our way. Keep things closed tight in here," he admonished. "Don't you go worryin' about us. Me an' the Reverend'll be just fine. Go on and check on everyone else," Loren replied. "See ya," Hank called as Loren closed the door behind them. The two men walked together towards the Gazette building. Since it was easier to get there by going through the narrow walkway behind the jail and clinic, they chose that route. They were less likely to get deterred by the storm. They were able to see Dorothy and find she was all right, sitting in front of her fireplace wrapped up in several blankets and drinking a cup of hot cocoa. They made sure she didn't need anything before venturing out in the cold once again. The next stop was the train station. They had to untie one of their ropes and tie the ends together, since it wasn't going to reach, and they only hoped this one was long enough. It took them a while to fight their way through the snow blowing in their faces, but they finally arrived and Horace answered their knocks, surprised to see them. "Just got a telegram come in from Denver sayin' the trains are stopped and ain't comin' through until the weather clears up," he announced to them both. "You two wanna come in and warm yourselves a little?" he invited. "That might not be a bad idea," Daniel accepted. He tied off the rope to one of the posts outside and followed Hank into the depot's office. Neither one of them had ever really been inside, but it was kept real tidy and organized, out of necessity, they both guessed. Horace had to know where the mail was as well as any telegrams and packages which arrived, schedules and train information. He was a man who was most often taken for granted, but everyone did appreciate his work. They just didn't tell him all that often. "So, they tell ya how bad things are in Denver?" Hank asked. "Nah, just that they're holdin' the trains until it stops snowin' and they can see the tracks enough to clear em'," Horace replied. "That means we won't be gettin' no supplies in, neither, and I won't be takin' the train tomorrow to go see Myra and Samantha for Christmas." "Well, I'm sure they'll understand, Horace, and I think the town'll be all right for a little while," Daniel stated. "As long as this thing doesn't last long, we won't be in any trouble." "And what happens if it does last long, sheriff," Hank remarked, sarcastically. "We'll deal with that when it happens," Daniel replied. It was obvious neither one of them liked working together any more than the other, but they didn't have much of a choice. Besides, if truth be told, Daniel couldn't ask for a better man for deputy than Hank. Of course, he'd never tell Hank that. "I think we'd best be goin'," Hank announced. "Yeah, we gotta check on Robert E and Grace and the twins again. Thanks, Horace, for allowin' us in for a few minutes." "Sure thing," Horace replied. "You two be careful out there." "Thanks," the two replied in unison and left the depot. They each grabbed hold of the rope and ducked their heads to fight their way through the blowing snow yet again. * * * * * Morning sunlight filtered in through the windows of the small cabin and fell upon the two sleeping forms on the floor. Wolf lifted his head and stretched, then nudged his master's leg. Sully stirred slightly and opened his eyes, taking a moment to remember where he was. He looked down and saw Michaela sleeping peacefully and everything returned in a flash. He was immediately concerned about her body temperature, so he placed his hand on her face and felt no chills. He then reached for her hands and found them just as warm, relaxing slightly and sighing with relief. He didn't know how he could have allowed himself to fall asleep with Michaela being the way she was last night, but thank God, she was all right. "Hey, boy," he said softly. "Ya keepin' her feet warm?" he asked, noticing that Wolf was lying at Michaela's feet, allowing the bulk of his body around his chest to cover them. Wolf only yawned in response, and Sully chuckled. Michaela moaned slightly and took a deep breath, starting to come awake. "Mmmm." She stretched and opened her eyes, surprised at how rested she felt. She was immediately aware of a weight on her feet and looked down to find Wolf lying partially on them. Seeing him brought back what had happened last night, and she turned to find Sully right behind her, his arms still lightly touching her. "Mornin', Michaela." "Good morning, Sully," she replied, quietly, unsure of his mood. She wasn't about to instigate conversation centered on their recent argument, so she steered talk towards something safer. "How long have we been here?" Sully expelled a breath. "I don't know, Michaela. You got here sometime around evenin', but it's hard to say with the sun bein' hidden by the storm. We've been here more than twelve hours, I'd say." "The children!" she suddenly exclaimed. "They're going to be so worried about me....about us," she quickly amended. "I left a couple of hours after breakfast yesterday morning to come find you, despite Matthew and Andrew advising me not to come." "Why didn't ya take one of 'em with you?" Sully asked, a little upset at her stubborness. "I truly didn't think it would take me long to find you, and I certainly didn't expect the storm to worsen," she defended her actions. "Michaela, this is Colorado. What do ya expect to happen in the winter?" He was immediately aware of how accusing his voice and words sounded and instantly regretted it. "I'm sorry, Sully. So, I was mistaken. I don't wish to argue about what I should or shouldn't have done," she stated, hotly. "Michaela," Sully began, moving his hands to wrap around her shoulders as he tried to pull her back against him. She resisted, however. "No, Sully. It's obvious that whatever was bothering you is still bothering you, so just leave me alone for the time being. I'm not in any mood to fight with you, but I also don't want you to act like there's nothing the matter," she told him. "Fine," Sully replied, removing his hands from her shoulders and scooting away from her. Michaela grasped the edges of the blankets and pulled them more tightly around her, tucking her feet under her for added warmth. Sully stood to his feet and went to add a few more logs to the stove and checked to be sure there was water in the pot for heating. He thought it was a good idea to keep hot water, just in case. Then, he walked back to the fireplace, adding a few more logs there and stoking the fire until it was blazing again. It wouldn't do either of them any good to let the fires go out. He glanced at Michaela out of the corner of his eye and saw her just staring into the fire, no emotion on her face, whatsoever. "What was she thinking?" he wondered. He couldn't exactly blame her for being upset with him. After all, it was him who left in a fit of anger, but he just couldn't help it. So much had been bothering him, lately, mostly his own feelings of guilt at not being there for his family. He knew he was doing what was best for them, but that didn't prevent the feelings from intruding once in a while. He turned his eyes back to the fire, then he went to sit next to Michaela, but made sure not to touch her. Wolf immediately rose and came to lie next to him, and he patted the dog's head in soothing strokes. The two of them sat like that for a long while, neither one talking, neither one moving, just staring at the fire or into space, lost in thought. Michaela wondered if she should be the first to break the silence, or if she should wait for Sully to say something. Knowing him like she did, it wasn't likely he would offer any form of conversation first. How did this happen all over again? How did they get to the poing of not talking over something so trivial? Was this how things were going to continue to be between them? Were they just going to exist, occasionally sharing their thoughts and feelings? What had happened to them in the past year? What had happened to the bond they shared for so long, a bond which had held through the most trying of circumstances? Michaela thought back to not too long ago when they had been close, when they could read each other's thoughts and know what the other was feeling. That sense of companionship and connection hadn't been very evident lately, and she found herself wondering what went wrong. Would it be possible to put things right again? She let one lone tear fall from her eye and run the course down her cheek. Several more followed only moments later, and she was unable to keep them in check. Sully turned towards her at that moment. "Michaela?" he asked, concerned. "What is it? What's the matter?" Michaela sniffed and lifted her hand to wipe the tears from her face. She wasn't sure she could bring herself to talk to him at this point. Sully scooted himself closer to her and placed his hand over hers, which was holding the blankets around her. "Michaela, ya know you can talk to me. Tell me what's upsettin' ya," he pleaded. She swallowed, then took a deep breath. "I miss us," Michaela replied in a whisper, allowing the tears to fall, unabashed. "Us?" Sully questioned, confused. "Yes, us," she repeated. "You and me, together. Us, working together to help someone in need. Us, spending time together alone. Us, being so in tune with each other that we don't even have to speak our feelings. We just know them. Us, taking wagon rides or going horseback riding just to ride. Us, visiting a patient of mine or a friend of ours. Us, sitting on the front porch and reading poetry, sipping tea or coffee. Us, Sully." Sully closed his eyes for a moment, then turned his head and stared into the fire, not speaking. Michaela wasn't sure what he was thinking, so she continued. "What happened to us, Sully? What happened to the couple we used to be?" "I don't know, Michaela. I miss all that, too." Sully sighed. "Lots of things have happened to us, lately. Things like we been through ain't all that easy to overcome." "Like you running from the army, or me suffering from a miscarriage," she whispered, lost in her own memories. "Michaela, ya don't know how many time I beat myself up about not bein' there for you durin' that." "I know, Sully, and I'm no longer hurting from that, although I will never forget having to endure it. I am well aware that both of us lost a lot during that time. I just feel like we buried it inside instead of really opening up and talking about it." She paused a moment and turned to look at him. "I know we talked about it several months ago, and I know we came to a resolution about it, but there is still a small part of me that feels we haven't resolved everything between us." "I know what ya mean, Michaela," Sully agreed. "We've tried to talk things out, but there always seems to be somethin' gettin' in the way or comin' up once in a while to slow us down from really talkin'." "Yes, and I don't want that to be the case with us, Sully. I want to be able to tell you anything, to be honest about my feelings and not feel like I have to keep them inside for fear of what you might think," she confessed. "I want that, too, Michaela." He looked away and into the fire again. "I know I was wrong in jumpin' to conclusions about you and John," he said, softly. "I know I shoulda talked to you about it, and I shouldn't have let my feelin's of jealousy interfere with what was really happenin'." Michaela reached out a hand and turned his face back to hers. "No, Sully, I understand why you felt the way you did, why you feel the way you do about us. I won't say I agree, or admit that I was doing anything wrong, but I can see how it could be misunderstood. It certainly didn't help having our friends talking about me the way they were, but that isn't something we're going to be able to avoid. I simply need to be more careful." She paused for a moment, wondering if she should continue with what she was thinking. Sully sensed her hesitation. "What is it, Michaela?" She sighed, then continued. "I was just realizing that this situation is no different than what happened between you and Catherine." "Michaela," Sully mildy protested, but Michaela cut him off. "No, Sully, please, let me finish." He nodded. "You told me, then, that there was nothing going on between the two of you, but I refused to believe it. Instead, I listened to what others were saying, and I allowed my eyes to convince me there really was something there. "My spending time with John and your understanding of it is no different. John and I just have medicine and our professions in common. I spend time with him in the same way I spent time with Andrew, when he was practicing here in Colorado Springs. No one thought anything of the time we spent together because Andrew is so much younger than me. However, John is much closer in age, and I can see why others would view that as being questionable behavior." "But, that don't excuse me not willin' to talk about it with ya," Sully replied. "Was I any different when you tried to talk to me about Catherine?" Michaela countered. Sully didn't reply, so she continued. "Sully, how long is it going to take us to realize what we really have together?" "I don't know, Michaela. I'm hopin' not long, since I don't like fightin' and arguin' with ya. It especially ain't easy on the kids seein' us not gettin' along, and I don't like hearin' the townsfolk talkin' about us the way they do when they can see we're not close the way we should be," Sully confessed. "I know, Sully," Michaela stated. "The townsfolk are going to talk, no matter what we do, and our friends are going to try to help in any way they can, even if their efforts aren't always beneficial." "They mean well." Sully defended them a little. "Yes, they do, but that doesn't make it any easier to handle when you and I are at odds with each other, does it?" "Nope, sure doesn't," he agreed. Michaela fell silent, unsure about all that she had said and how Sully was taking everything. He seemed to agree with her; in fact, he seemed to want just what she wanted, missing what she missed about them, as well. However, their recent strains gave her cause to doubt her intuitions about him, another thing she missed. "Hey," Sully whispered, lifting her chin with index finger to look into her eyes. "You sure you're all right?" "Yes, Sully, I'm fine," Michaela replied. "I'm just wondering how you feel about all of this," she confessed. "Me? You're wonderin' how I feel?" She nodded. "Well, let me show ya," he replied, pulling her face towards his and lowering his mouth to cover hers in what quickly became a very passionate kiss. It had been a long time since they had shared such a kiss, much less such a sense of rightness between them. Michaela trembled, slightly, and Sully broke off the kiss, staring into her now passion-glazed eyes. He gave her a quick peck, almost like an exclamation point on their kiss, and Michaela sighed in contentment. "Ya still wonderin' how I feel?" he teased. She smiled, slightly, one corner of her mouth turning up. "I'll admit, I prefer that type of a greeting in the mornin' better than anythin' else," he continued to tease. Michaela dipped her head in embarassment, and Sully reached out to lift her gaze to his once more. "So, are we startin' to get a little better again?" he asked. "I hope so," she breathed. He pulled her to him again for a brief, yet satisfying kiss, then wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, as well, and the two of them simply sat and rocked in each other's arms for several moments. Finally, Sully pulled away. "Whaddya say we take a look outside at things?" "Do you mean to see if we are able to go home?" Michaela asked. "Yep, although I wouldn't mind stayin' here a little while longer." He ran his thumb across her still kiss-swollen lips and grinned. "I, uh...I think we should look outside," she stammered. Sully smiled. "I love you," he said, seriously. "I love you, too," she replied, looking him directly in the eyes. He placed a quick kiss on her lips and rose to his feet, pulling her up with him and leading her to the window. "Snow's stopped," Sully remarked. "Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything," Michaela countered, turning to grab her cloak and walk towards the door. She pulled her cloak tightly around her and opened the door, then took a step out. Glancing up at the sky, but she didn't know enough about the weather to make a prediction. Sully joined her and looked up as well. "Don't look like it'll be holdin' for long," he noted. "What are we going to do? It's Christmas Eve, and we have to get word to the children, or they're likely to come out and look for us, themselves. We can't risk anyone else getting lost in this on account of us." "You're right, Michaela. How about we send a message with Wolf?" he suggested. "It ain't the best idea, but it's better than anythin' else I can think of." "That just might work, Sully! Wolf is far more accustomed to this weather than you or I, and he's also faster." "What are we waitin' for? Let's find some paper and get that note written!"	eng	4362d453-dc42-4ea3-a9b6-65793470ff33	http://www.amberstockton.com/fanfic/christmas.html
In its early history, Bangladesh was part of a succession of empires that included today's India and Pakistan starting with the Mauryan Empire (320-180 BC) during which Buddhism came to Bengal. Buddhism prevailed through the next two empires - the Harsha Empire (AD 606-47) and the Pala Dynasty (AD 750-1150). The orthodox and militant Hindu Senas replaced the Buddhist Palas until the Turkish conquest in 1201. During the Sena period, vast numbers of lower caste Bengalis were converted to Islam by Sufi religious teachers, followed by the spread of Islam under the Turkish Mughal Empire. The British who controlled India during the 19th Century defeated the Turks first in Bengal, and then extended their rule to all of India. British attempts to Westernize the culture of the region through revising its government and criminal justice system, as well as to make English rather than Persian the official language, ultimately led to a mutiny in 1857 started by Indian soldiers mostly from Bengal. The uprising, which seriously threatened British rule, has been called the "first war of independence." After this revolt, the Muslims become second class citizens for the duration of British rule, lagging behind the Hindus who more readily acquiesced to British reforms. In the words of Bengali commentator Mansur Ali, "In Bengal, the landlord is Hindu, the peasant Muslim. The moneylender is Hindu, the client is Muslim. The jailor is Hindu, the prisoner is Muslim. The magistrate is Hindu, the accused is Muslim." For the remainder of history, the religious divide between Hindus and Muslims dominated much of politics in India. In 1905, the British Governor General Lord George Curzon divided Bengal (then part of India) into eastern and western sectors, in part as a remedy to this problem. The Hindu dominated Indian National Congress (Congress) opposed Curzon with a "swadeshi" movement, boycotting British made goods, but the Muslim League supported the partitioning. Nevertheless, in 1912 the British voided the partition of Bengal. In 1916, the Muslim League signed the Lucknow Pact with Congress, a joint platform calling for national independence. In return for the Muslim League support, this pact included an understanding that Muslims would have separate communal electorates (the right to vote for and be represented by Muslims). After WWI, the idea of a separate Muslim state (Pakistan) was proposed by Sir Muhammad Iqbal, giving the Muslims a political orientation. In 1934, Mohammad Ali Jinnah took over leadership of the Muslim League. After WWII, the British attempted to prepare India for independence, but the Muslim League was excluded from the interim government, resulting in communal rioting. Originally proposed by the British viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten, the India/Pakistan partition became a reality in 1947, and Jinnah took office as the first Governor General of the new Dominion of Pakistan. Pakistan itself was divided in two sections, Western Pakistan and Eastern Pakistan (today's Bangladesh) which were separated by 1,000 miles of Indian territory. Political instability and economic difficulties marked Pakistan's history from 1947 to 1971. Attempts at civilian political rule failed, and the government imposed martial law between 1958 and 1962, and again between 1969 and 1972. Almost from the advent of independent Pakistan in 1947, frictions developed between East and West Pakistan. East Pakistanis felt exploited by the West Pakistan-dominated central government. Linguistic, cultural, and ethnic differences also contributed to the estrangement of East from West Pakistan. Bengalis strongly resisted attempts to impose Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan (preferring Bangla as their language). Responding to these grievances, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman--known widely as "Mujib"--in 1949 formed the Awami League (AL), a party designed mainly to promote Bengali interests. Mujib became president of the Awami League and emerged as leader of the Bengali autonomy movement. After the Awami League won all the East Pakistan seats of the Pakistan national assembly in 1970-71 elections, West Pakistan opened talks with the East on constitutional questions about the division of power between the central government and the provinces, as well as the formation of a national government headed by the Awami League. The talks proved unsuccessful, however, and on March 1, 1971, Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan. Mujib was arrested; his party was banned, and most of his aides fled to India, where they organized a provisional government. On March 26, 1971, following a bloody crackdown by the Pakistan army, Bengali nationalists declared an independent People's Republic of Bangladesh. As fighting grew between the army and the Bengali mukti bahini ("freedom fighters"), an estimated 10 million Bengalis, mainly Hindus, sought refuge in the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal. Indian sympathies lay with East Pakistan, and in November, India intervened on the side of the Bangladeshis. On December 16, 1971, Pakistani forces surrendered, and Bangladesh--meaning "Bengal nation"--was born; the new country became a parliamentary democracy under a 1972 constitution. The provisional government of the new nation of Bangladesh was formed in Dhaka with Justice Abu Sayeed Choudhury as President, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ("Mujib")--who was released from Pakistani prison in early 1972--as Prime Minister. Mujib came to office with immense personal popularity, but had difficulty transforming this popular support into the political strength needed to function as head of government. The new constitution, which came into force in December 1972, created a strong executive Prime Minister The first parliamentary elections held under the 1972 constitution were in March 1973, with the Awami League winning a massive majority were obliged to join. Despite some improvement in the economic situation during the first half of 1975, implementation of promised political reforms was slow, and criticism of government policies became increasingly centered on Mujib. In August 1975, mid-level army officers assassinated Mujib, and most of his family. His daughter, Sheikh Hassina, happened to be out of the country. Subsequently, political instability, attempts at parliamentary democracy, followed by reversion to martial law, and corruption have characterized Bangladesh's government. Success In November 1976, Zia became Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA) and assumed the presidency upon Sayem's retirement 5 months later, promising national elections in 1978 The AL and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), founded by Zia, emerged as the two major parties. In May 1981, Zia was assassinated in Chittagong by dissident elements of the military Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. H.M. Ershad assumed power in a bloodless coup in March 1982. Like his predecessors, Ershad suspended the constitution and, citing pervasive corruption, ineffectual government, and economic mismanagement, declared martial law. The following year, Ershad assumed the presidency, retaining his positions as army chief and CMLA. Political life was further liberalized in early 1986, and additional political rights, including the right to hold large public rallies, were restored. At the same time, the Jatiya (People's) Party, designed as Ershad's political vehicle for the transition from martial law, was established. Despite a boycott by the BNP, led by President Zia's widow, Begum Khaleda Zia, parliamentary elections were held on schedule in May 1986. The Jatiya Party won a modest majority of the 300 elected seats in the national assembly. The participation of the Awami League, led by the late Prime Minister Mujib's daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, lent the elections some credibility, despite widespread charges of voting irregularities. Ershad easily outdistanced the remaining candidates, taking 84% of the vote. Ershad continued his stated commitment to lift martial law. but in 1988, the government began to arrest scores of opposition activists under the country's Special Powers Act of 1974. In 1989, opposition to Ershad's rule began to regain momentum, escalating by the end of 1990 in frequent general strikes, increased campus protests, public rallies, and a general disintegration of law and order. On December 6, 1990, Ershad offered his resignation. On February 27, 1991, after 2 months of widespread civil unrest, an interim government oversaw what most observers believed to be the nation's most free and fair elections to date. The center-right BNP won a plurality of seats and formed a coalition government with the Islamic fundamentalist party Jamaat-I-Islami, with Khaleda Zia, widow of Ziaur Rahman, obtaining the post of Prime Minister. The electorate approved still more changes to the constitution, formally re-creating a parliamentary system and returning governing power to the office of the Prime Minister, as in Bangladesh's original 1972 constitution. In October 1991, members of Parliament elected a new head of state, President Abdur Rahman Biswas. In late December 1994, the opposition again In conduct new parliamentary elections; former Chief Justice Mohammed Habibur Rahman was named Chief Advisor (a position equivalent to Prime Minister) in the interim government. New parliamentary elections were held in June 1996 and were won by the Awami League; party leader Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh's first Prime Minister, became Prime Minister. SheikhM Hasina struggled with the countries economic problems, but a series of opposition-led strikes paralyzed the country. In 2001, a caretaker government leaded by Latifur Rahman was appointed in advance of parliamentary elections during which Zia and the BNP won a landslide victory, and she again became Prime Minister. INCIDENCE OF CRIME Bengalis have been opposing governments since those imposed by the Mughals in the sixteenth century. Bengali secession movements, first from Britain and then from Pakistan, were violent struggles that exacted an enormous human toll. This legacy of violence, coupled with the propensity to organize the population into mass movements to overthrow governments, carried over into the postindependence era. A number of fringe parties that embrace violence as an acceptable political tactic existed. In the mid-1970s, Maoist splinter groups such as the Bangladesh Communist Party/Marxist- Leninist carried on a rural-based insurrection. Acting under the direction of two renowned freedom fighters, Mohammed Toaha and retired Colonel M. Ziauddin, guerrilla bands executed landlords and moneylenders and staged hit-and-run raids on police stations and government armories. By the late 1970s, however, Maoism had lost much of its appeal in the countryside, and most guerrilla factions sought to become legal organizations. The Bangladesh Communist Party/Marxist-Leninist, the Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal, and dozens of other left-wing parties all followed this route. The country's mainstream Marxist party, the pro-Soviet Bangladesh Communist Party, did not promote organized antigovernment violence, although its student and labor union fronts have been suspected of engaging in violent acts. Government officials tend not to make a sharp distinction between ordinary crime and political crime or subversion but describe it all as destructive to the country. Customarily, authorities speak of criminal and subversive elements as "antisocial forces" or "miscreants" and frequently describe them as composed of persons who oppose independent Bangladesh. Probably the longest running source of domestic violence has been the tribal insurgency that has festered in the remote Chittagong Hill Tracts since the late 1970s. Spearheaded by the predominantly Chakma guerrilla band known as the Shanti Bahini (Peace Force), in the late 1980s the rebels were still seeking autonomous status for the Chittagong Hills, the expulsion of Bengali settlers from traditional tribal lands, the restoration of tribal rights and privileges enjoyed under British and Pakistani rule and subsequently repealed by the Mujib government, and the withdrawal of the army from the Chittagong Hills. With an estimated strength of 2,000 lightly armed guerrillas, the Shanti Bahini carried out attacks against Bengali settlers, government facilities, and army convoys. Through the late 1980s, military pacification efforts had been ineffective and often brutal. The Twenty-fourth Infantry Division, headquartered in Chittagong, was the army's largest formation with four infantry brigades and a specialized counterinsurgency unit based at Khagrachari. It mounted reprisal raids against civilian tribespeople as warnings against further attacks. Observers through 1986 estimated that about 400 security personnel had lost their lives in the Chittagong Hills; the civilian death toll was estimated at around 2,000. According to a September 1986 report by Amnesty International, the army regularly engaged in "unlawful killings and torture," acts that are specifically prohibited under the Constitution and various international accords to which Bangladesh is a party. Another human rights organization termed the army's Chittagong Hills campaign "genocide." Some commentators allege that the army has been overly zealous in stamping out the insurgency because the tribespeople are not Muslims. In the late 1980s, the Chittagong Hills remained off-limits to all outsiders without a special permit. Details of the fighting therefore have been sketchy. Ershad, like his predecessors, denied reports of human rights violations and maintained that tribal rights would be safeguarded if the Shanti Bahini laid down their arms, accepted government offers of amnesty and rehabilitation, and participated in elections. Aside from the domestic implications of widespread violence in the Chittagong Hills, the fighting also had serious regional consequences. Bangladesh has frequently asserted that India has aided the Shanti Bahini by offering arms assistance, military training, and bases. India has denied the charges and has countered that Bangladesh Army operations in the Chittagong Hills have precipitated a massive exodus of Chakma refugees into the Indian state of Tripura. Public demonstrations, marches and labor strikes are widely used as means of political expression in Bangladesh. A number of general strikes, or "hartals," have been called by the political opposition over the past several years, resulting in the virtual shutdown of transportation and commerce, and sometimes attacks on individuals who do not observe the "hartals." Clashes between rival political groups have resulted in deaths and injuries. Violence is a particular problem on university campuses. Following U.S. military action in Afghanistan in October 2001, Bangladesh has experienced some anti-American sentiment. In addition, there have been several anti-American demonstrations throughout Bangladesh. While these demonstrations generally occur on Friday afternoons, they have the potential to take place any time and to be unruly. In addition to political violence, street crime is a growing problem in Bangladesh, particularly in the major cities of Dhaka and Chittagong. Weapons are increasingly used in criminal incidents. Pick-pocketing, purse-snatching, and other forms of street crime occur often, especially in areas frequented by foreigners. CRIMINAL CODES In general, the criminal codes and procedures in effect in Bangladesh derive from the period of British rule, as amended by Pakistan and Bangladesh. These basic documents include the Penal Code, first promulgated in 1860 as the Indian Penal Code; the Police Act of 1861; the Evidence Act of 1872; the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1898; the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1908; and the Official Secrets Act of 1911. The major classes of crimes are listed in the Penal Code, the country's most important and comprehensive penal statute. Among the listed categories of more serious crimes are activities called "offenses against the state." The Penal Code authorizes the government to prosecute any person or group of persons conspiring or abetting in a conspiracy to overthrow the government by force. An offense of this nature is also defined as "war against the state." Whether or not an offense constitutes a conspiracy is determined by the "intent" of the participant, rather than by the number of the participants involved, so as to distinguish it from a riot or any other form of disturbance not regarded as antinational. Section 121 of the Penal Code makes antinational offenses punishable by death or imprisonment for twenty years. The incitement of hatred, contempt, or disaffection toward a lawfully constituted authority is also a criminal offense punishable by a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Among other categories of felonies are offenses against the public tranquillity (meaning unlawful assembly), rioting, and public disturbances; offenses relating to religion; and offenses against property, such as theft, robbery, and dacoity (robbery by a group of five or more persons). Punishment is divided into five categories: death; banishment, ranging from seven years to life; imprisonment; forfeiture of property; and fines. The imprisonment may be "simple" or "rigorous" (hard labor), ranging from the minimum of twenty-four hours for drunken or disorderly conduct to a maximum of fourteen years at hard labor for more serious offenses. Juvenile offenders may be sentenced to detention in reform schools for a period of three to seven years. For minor infractions whipping, not exceeding fifteen lashes, may be prescribed as an alternative to detention. Preventive detention may be ordered under the amended Security of Pakistan Act of 1952 and under Section 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure when, in the opinion of the authorities, there is a strong likelihood of public disorder. Bangladeshi regimes have made extensive use of this provision. Similarly, Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, frequently invoked by magistrates for periods up to two months, prohibits assembly of five or more persons, holding of public meetings, and carrying of firearms. In addition, the Disturbed Areas (Special Powers) Ordinance of 1962 empowers a magistrate or an officer in charge of a police contingent to open fire or use force against any persons breaching the peace in the disturbed areas and to arrest and search without a warrant. The assembly of five or more persons and the carrying of firearms may also be prohibited under this ordinance. Persons charged with espionage are punishable under the Official Secrets Act of 1911, as amended in 1923 and 1968. As revised in May 1968, this statute prescribes death as the maximum penalty for a person convicted of espionage. POLICE The Armed Police is an elite unit of the national police system that is specifically charged with responding to violent disturbances and threats to public order whenever local police units prove unequal to the challenge. Functioning under the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Armed Police responds to emergencies anywhere in the country. The unit ordinarily cooperates closely with the army and paramilitary forces. It also operates an intelligence wing. Except for perhaps its elite Presidential Security Force, the army does not acknowledge having any specialized counter-terrorist squad for protecting dignitaries, thwarting hijackings, and rescuing hostages. Units of the Armed Police probably handle these functions. The police, or local constabulary, are the lowest echelon of Bangladesh's security forces. The upper echelons of the police, or "gazetted officers," rank high in the civil service and are relatively well trained and well paid. By contrast, the lower ranks are often poorly trained, poorly equipped, and poorly paid. In the subordinate grades, whose numbers account for about 90 percent of the police, advancement is slow and educational levels low. In addition, the police are overworked. Further, the police are often viewed by the public as an oppressive arm of government characterized by widespread petty corruption and political manipulation. Despite their reputation for corruption, inefficiency, and occasional brutality, the police remain the most vital component of domestic security. Total police strength in 1988 was estimated between 40,000 and 50,000 personnel. The police services have had to be rebuilt by the new Bangladeshi government because during the independence war the police system of East Pakistan broke down and there was, in effect, no police system except that maintained by the combatant armies in the areas they controlled. The senior police posts had been held by officers of the elite Police Service of Pakistan, most of whom were from West Pakistan. Lower ranking officers and the police rank and file were Bengalis. When the war of independence broke out in March 1971, most of the East Pakistani police defected and either joined the Mukti Bahini or simply disappeared. Under administrative decentralization programs first introduced by Zia and later implemented and expanded by Ershad, police administration is headed by the inspector general of police, the equivalent of an army lieutenant general and popularly and officially referred to as the IG. He is responsible to the Ministry of Home Affairs. At the district level there is a superintendent of police, and at the subdistrict level, an inspector of police. Commissioners of police direct the work in major urban areas and report directly to the inspector general. As part of Ershad's political strategy of moving decision-making power closer to the grass-roots level, police administration in 1988 generally paralleled the administrative reorganization introduced by the Ershad regime. As discussed previously, police officers are categorized as gazetted and subordinate, roughly analogous to commissioned and noncommissioned officers in the military services. The top four gazetted police grades, in descending order, are those of inspector general, deputy inspector general, superintendent, and assistant superintendent. Below these gazetted ranks are the upper subordinate positions of inspector, subinspector, and assistant subinspector. Below them are the bulk of police in the lower subordinate grades of head constable and constable. The inspector general supervises staff departments handling criminal investigation, identification, communications, administration, and supply. He is further responsible for supervision over the police "ranges," each of which includes a number of districts and is under a deputy inspector general. Within the ranges, police superintendents control districts and supervise one or more assistant superintendents, a number of inspectors, and other personnel. The station house, at the subdistrict level, is supervised by one of the upper subordinate officers, called the station house officer, with about ten head constables and constables at the station. Assisting the regular police are part-time village constables and Village Defense Party volunteers, who report violations to the nearest police station or apprehend offenders on police orders. These village constables are recruited locally and receive a very small salary. At all levels, the senior police officer responds to the chain of command within the police organization, but he is also responsible in many matters to the general direction of designated civil government officials. These multiple lines of command sometimes cause confusion and disagreement, but the principle of ultimate civilian control has remained dominant since the colonial period. At the national level the inspector general reports to the home secretary; at the range level the deputy inspector general answers to the division commissioner; and at the district level the police superintendent is subordinate to the deputy commissioner, who is in charge of tax collection, law and order, and administration of justice. Although the deputy commissioner has no authority to interfere directly in the internal organization and discipline of the police, one of his duties is to inspect the police stations of his district at regular intervals. If the deputy commissioner and the police chief disagree on issues relating to police functioning, the deputy commissioner's judgment prevails, but he is dependent upon police cooperation. In case of serious differences, however, both may refer the disputed matter to higher authorities for reconciliation; the deputy commissioner to his commissioner and the superintendent to his deputy inspector general. The Home Affairs Ministry controls the police and paramilitary forces, which have primary responsibility for internal security. Primarily due to the police's accountability to the executive, police often are reluctant to pursue investigations against persons affiliated with the ruling party. The Government frequently uses the police for political purposes. There is widespread police corruption and lack of discipline. Police officers committed numerous serious human rights abuses and were seldom disciplined, even for the most egregious actions. The Constitution prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment; however, police routinely employ physical and psychological torture and other abuse during arrests and interrogations. Torture may consist of threats, beatings and, occasionally, the use of electric shock. The Government rarely convicts or punishes those responsible for torture, and a climate of impunity allows such police abuses to continue. Police commit a number of extrajudicial killings, and some have persons died in police custody under suspicious circumstances. Police frequently beat demonstrators. Most police abuses go unpunished, and the resulting climate of impunity remains a serious obstacle to ending police abuse and extrajudicial killings. Police corruption remains a problem and there were credible reports that police facilitated or were involved in trafficking in women and children. DETENTION The Government arrests and detains persons arbitrarily and uses national security legislation (the Special Powers Act (SPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA)) to detain citizens without formal charges or specific complaints being filed against them. The Constitution states that each person arrested shall be informed of the grounds for detention, provided access to a lawyer of his choice, brought before a magistrate within 24 hours, and freed unless the magistrate authorizes continued detention. However, the Constitution specifically allows preventive detention, with specified safeguards, outside these requirements. In practice authorities frequently violate these constitutional provisions, even in nonpreventive detention cases. In an April 1999 ruling, a two-judge High Court panel criticized the police force for rampant abuse of detention laws and powers. There is a system of bail for criminal offenses. Police sometimes detain opposition activists prior to and during general strikes without citing any legal authority, holding them until the event is over. Newspapers report instances of police detaining persons to extract money or for personal vengeance. Under the SPA the Government or a district magistrate may order a person detained for 30 days to prevent the commission of an act likely "to prejudice the security of the country." Other offenses subject to the SPA include smuggling, black market activity, or hoarding. The Government (or magistrate) must inform the detainee of the grounds for detention within 15 days, and the Government must approve the grounds for detention within 30 days or release the detainee. In practice detainees sometimes are held for longer periods without the Government stating the grounds for the detention or formally approving it. Detainees may appeal their detention, and the Government may grant early release. An advisory board composed of two persons who have been, or are qualified to be, high court judges and one civil servant are supposed to examine the cases of SPA detainees after 4 months. If the Government adequately defends its detention order, the detainee remains imprisoned; if not, the detainee is released. If the defendant in an SPA case is able to present his case before the High Court in Dhaka, the High Court generally rules in favor of the defendant. However, many defendants either are too poor or, because of strict detention, are unable to obtain legal counsel and thereby move the case beyond the magistrate level. Magistrates are subject to the administrative controls of the Establishment Ministry and are less likely to dismiss a case. Detainees are allowed to consult with lawyers, although usually not until a charge is filed. They are not entitled to be represented by a lawyer before an advisory board. Detainees may receive visitors. The Government has held incommunicado some prominent prisoners. According to a September 2000 study carried out by a parliamentary subcommittee, 98.8% of the 69,010 SPA detainees over a period of 26 years were released on orders from the High Court. The study asserted that SPA cases generally are so weak and vague that the court had no alternative but to grant bail. In response to a deteriorating law and order situation, Parliament passed the restrictive new PSA in January 2000. The law established special tribunals to hear cases under the act, and made particular offenses non-bailable. Opposition leaders expressed fears that the law would be used to arrest political opponents of the ruling party, as the law, like the SPA, allows police to circumvent normal procedures designed to prevent arbitrary arrest, and precludes detainees from being released on bail, which often is the result of arrests based on little or no concrete evidence. It is difficult to estimate the total number of detentions for political reasons. In some instances, criminal charges may apply to the actions of activists, and many criminals claim political affiliations. Because of crowded court dockets and magistrates who are reluctant to challenge the Government, the judicial system does not deal effectively with criminal cases that may be political in origin. There is no independent body with the authority and ability to monitor detentions, or to prevent, detect, or publicize cases of political harassment. Most such detentions appear to be for several days or weeks. Defendants in most cases receive bail, but dismissal of wrongful charges or acquittal may take years. There is a system of bail for criminal offenses. Bail is granted commonly for both violent and nonviolent crimes. However, some provisions of the law preclude the granting of bail. The Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, passed in January 2000, replaced an earlier law of the same name. The act provides special procedures for persons accused of violence against women and children. The new law calls for harsher penalties, provides compensation to victims, and requires action against investigating officers for negligence or willful failure in duty. Persons arrested under this act cannot be granted bail during an initial investigation period of up to 90 days. Some human rights groups express concern that a large number of allegations made under the act are false, since the nonbailable period of detention is an effective tool for exacting personal vengeance. Typically, fewer than 3 percent of detainees under this Act are convicted. If bail is not granted, the law does not specify a time limit on pretrial detention. Rape of female detainees in police or other official custody has been a problem. Police sometimes rape women who are not in custody. In addition after women report that they have been raped (or are involved in family disputes), they frequently are detained in "safe custody" where they endure poor conditions, and sometimes are abused or, as has been reported in prior years, are raped. Although the law prohibits women in safe custody from being housed with criminals, in practice, no separate facilities exist; therefore, women in safe custody are kept with women convicted of crimes. Men and women are detained separately. While women initially may consent to this arrangement, it often is difficult for them later to obtain their release, or to gain access to family or lawyers. There have been reports in prior years of police raping women in safe custody. By law, juveniles are required to be detained separately from adults; however, due to a lack of facilities in many areas, in practice many are housed with adult prisoners. COURTS The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, under a longstanding "temporary" provision of the Constitution, the lower courts remain part of the executive and are subject to its influence. The higher levels of the judiciary display a significant degree of independence and often rule against the Government in criminal, civil, and even politically controversial cases; however, lower level courts are more susceptible to pressure from the executive branch. There also is corruption within the legal process, especially at lower levels. The court system has two levels: The lower courts and the Supreme Court. Both hear civil and criminal cases. The lower courts consist of magistrates, who are part of the executive branch of government, and session and district judges, who belong to the judicial branch. The Supreme Court is divided into two sections, the High Court and the Appellate Court. The High Court hears original cases and reviews cases from the lower courts. The Appellate Court has jurisdiction to hear appeals of judgments, decrees, orders, or sentences of the High Court. Rulings of the Appellate Court are binding on all other courts. The government operates courts in the regions, districts, and subdistricts that make up the local administrative system. The judges in these courts are appointed by the president through the Ministry of Law and Justice or the Ministry of Home Affairs. Most cases heard by the court system originate at the district level, although the newer subdistrict courts experienced an increased caseload in the late 1980s. Upon appeal, cases may go up to the Supreme Court, but litigation may be very slow; in 1987 there were 29 Supreme Court judges dealing with 21,600 pending cases. The Supreme Court, as of June 1988, had permanent benches--called the High Court Division-- in Dhaka, Comilla, Rangpur, Barisal, Sylhet, Chittagong, and Jessore. It hears appeals from district courts and may also judge original cases. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in Dhaka reviews appeals of judgment by the High Court Division. The judges of both divisions are appointed by the president. At the grass-roots level, the judicial system begins with village courts. An aggrieved party may make an official petition, which requires a fee, to the chairman of the union council (the administrative division above the village). The chairman may call a session of the village court with himself as chairman and two other judges nominated by each of the parties to the dispute. The parties may question the impartiality of the chairman and have him replaced. The majority of cases end at the village court level, which is inexpensive and which hands down judgments that reflect local opinion and power alignments. There are occasions, however, when the union council chairman may reject an official petition to constitute a village court or when one party desires a higher opinion. In these cases, the dispute goes to a government court at the subdistrict level. Cases may wind their way up from district courts to permanent benches of the High Court Division. Once cases leave the village courts, they become expensive affairs that may last for years, and few citizens have the financial resources to fund a lengthy court battle. Rapid political changes in independent Bangladesh have compromised the court system. The Constitution originally stated that the president could remove members of the Supreme Court only if two-thirds of Parliament approved, but the Proclamation (Amendment) Order of 1977 included a clause that eliminated the need for parliamentary involvement. The clause set up the Supreme Judicial Council, consisting of the chief justice and the next two senior judges. The council may determine that a judge is not "capable of properly performing the functions of his office" or is "guilty of gross misconduct." On their advice, the president may remove any judge. In addition, executive action has completely eliminated judicial authority for long periods. For example, under martial law regulations enacted in 1982, the Supreme Court lost jurisdiction over the protection of fundamental rights, and all courts operated under provisions of law promulgated by the chief martial law administrator; special and summary martial law courts handed down judgments that were not subject to review by the Supreme Court or any other court. Furthermore, the Fifth Amendment and the Seventh Amendment placed martial law proclamations and judgments outside the review of the court system. In these ways, the courts have been forced to serve the interests of the ruling regime, rather than standing as an independent branch of government. The court system suffers from an overwhelming backlog of cases, which produces long pretrial delays. Trials underway typically are marked by extended continuances while many accused persons remain in prison. These conditions, and the corruption encountered in the judicial process, effectively prevent many persons from obtaining a fair trial or justice. According to one independent survey conducted by Transparency International Bangladesh, more than 60 percent of the persons involved in court cases paid bribes to court officials. According to research by one human rights organization, most prison inmates never have been convicted and are awaiting trial. The Government explains that many convicted persons who are appealing their cases sometimes mistakenly are counted as pretrial detainees. Government sources report that the period between detention and trial averages 6 months, but press and human rights groups report instances of pretrial detention lasting several years. Trials often are characterized by lengthy adjournments, which considerably prolong the incarceration of accused persons who do not receive bail. One human rights organization asserted that the average time in detention before either conviction or acquittal is in the range of 4 to 7 years. Reportedly some prisoners awaiting trial have been in prison longer than the maximum sentence they would receive if convicted. Due to the judicial system's million-case backlog, the Ministry of Law initiated a pilot program in Comilla offering Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in some civil cases, whereby citizens have the opportunity to have their cases mediated by persons with a background in law before filing their cases. According to Government sources, the pilot program has been very successful, and is popular among citizens in the area. This program also has been implemented in Dhaka and Chittagong. Trials are public. The law provides the accused with the right to be represented by counsel, to review accusatory material, to call witnesses, and to appeal verdicts. State-funded defense attorneys rarely are provided, and there are few legal aid programs to offer financial assistance. In rural areas, individuals often do not receive legal representation. In urban areas, legal counsel generally is available if individuals can afford the expense. However, sometimes detainees and suspects on police remand are denied access to legal counsel. Trials conducted under the SPA, the PSA, and the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act are similar to normal trials, but are tried without the lengthy adjournments typical in other cases. Under the provisions of the PSA and the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, special tribunals hear cases and issue verdicts. Cases under these laws must be investigated and tried within specific time limits, although the law is unclear as to the disposition of the case if it is not finished before the time limit elapses. Persons may be tried in absentia, although this rarely is done. There is no automatic right to a retrial if a person convicted in absentia later returns. Absent defendants may be represented by state-appointed counsel, but may not choose their own attorneys, and, if convicted, may not file appeals until they return to the country. CORRECTIONS The custody and correction of persons sentenced to imprisonment is regulated under the Penal Code of 1860, the Prisons Act of 1894, and the Prisoners Act of 1900, as amended. The prison system has expanded but in 1988 was basically little changed from the later days of the British Raj. The highest jail administration official is the inspector general of prisons or, if this office is not separately assigned, the inspector general of police. At the division level or the police range level, the senior official is called director of prisons; at the district level, he is the jail superintendent. Below the district jail level are the subdistrict and village police lockups. Dhaka Central Jail is the largest and most secure prison and has more extensive facilities than those at the successive lower echelons. Prison police usually permanently assigned to this duty staffs all installations. In general, prisons and jails have low standards of hygiene and sanitation and are seriously overcrowded. Rehabilitation programs with trained social workers were rudimentary or nonexistent through the late 1980s. Prison conditions are extremely poor for the majority of the prison population. Rape of female detainees in prison or other official custody has been a problem. Most prisons are overcrowded and lack adequate facilities. Government figures indicate that the existing prison population of roughly 66,550 is 278 percent of the official prison capacity. Of those, approximately 25 percent of those detained had been convicted and 71 percent were awaiting trial or under trial. In some cases, cells are so crowded that prisoners sleep in shifts. The Dhaka Central Jail reportedly houses more than 9,775 prisoners in a facility designed for fewer than 3,000 persons. A 1998 judicial report noted that the physical condition of jails is poor, and food is unhygenically prepared. Drugs are abused widely inside the prisons. The treatment of prisoners in the jails is not equal. There are three classes of cells: A, B, and C. Common criminals and low-level political workers generally are held in C cells, which often have dirt floors, no furnishings, and poor quality food. The use of restraining devices on prisoners in these cells is common. Conditions in A and B cells are markedly better; A cells are reserved for prominent prisoners. A new prison facility in Kashimpur, north of Dhaka, opened in September. Few facilities exist for children whose parents are incarcerated. Prison conditions are extremely poor for most prisoners. One human rights organization reported that 72 persons died in prison or police custody during the year 2000. According to credible sources, poor conditions were at least a contributing factor in many of these deaths. Probation as a correctional program, in Bangladesh, came into existence through the promulgation of the probation of Offenders Ordinance in 1960. During second 5 - year Plan period, two projects: Probation of Offenders project and After Care Service Project were initiated (in 1962). At the beginning, these programs were started separately in ten places in the country. Later in 1965, these two projects were merged into an integrated one and since then 21 units have been in operation in 21 district headquarters (mainly old) under the management of the Social Service Department, Government of Bangladesh. WOMEN Violence against women is difficult to quantify because of unreliable statistics, but recent reports indicated that domestic violence is widespread. A report released by the U.N. Population Fund in September 2000 asserted that 47 percent of adult women report physical abuse by their male partner. Much of the violence against women is related to disputes over dowries. According to a human rights group, there were 126 dowry-related killings during the year 2000. The law prohibits rape and physical spousal abuse, but it makes no specific provision for spousal rape as a crime. According to one human rights organization, 622 women and girls were raped during the year 2000. Prosecution of rapists is uneven. While some rapists receive sentences of "life imprisonment" (in practice generally 221/2 years), other cases are settled by village arbitration councils, which do not have the authority to prosecute criminals and therefore issue only a fine. Many rapes go unreported. The Government also has enacted laws specifically prohibiting certain forms of discrimination against women, including the Dowry Prohibition Act, the Cruelty to Women Law, and the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act. However, enforcement of these laws is weak, especially in rural areas, and the Government seldom prosecutes those cases that are filed. According to a human rights organization, there are 7 government-run and 13 privately run large shelter homes available for use by women who are victims of violence. Some smaller homes also are available for victims of violence. However, these are insufficient to meet victims' shelter needs. As a result, the Government often holds women who file rape complaints in safe custody, usually in prison. Safe custody frequently results in further abuses against victims, discourages the filing of complaints by other women, and often continues for extended periods during which women often are unable to gain release. Human rights groups and press reports indicate that incidents of vigilantism against women--sometimes led by religious leaders--at times occur, particularly in rural areas. These include humiliating, painful punishments, such as the whipping of women accused of moral offenses. Acid attacks are a growing concern. Assailants throw acid in the faces of numerous women and a small but growing number of men, leaving victims horribly disfigured and often blind. According to the Acid Survivors' Foundation, a local organization that offers assistance to acid attack victims, approximately 300 acid attacks occur each year. Nearly 80 percent of acid attack victims are female; more than 40 percent are under the age of 18. Even after extensive treatment in the country and abroad, victims remain severely scarred, making social reintegration very difficult. The most common motivation for acid-throwing attacks against women is revenge by a rejected suitor; land disputes are another leading cause of the acid attacks. Few perpetrators of the acid attacks are prosecuted. Often the perpetrator flings the acid in through an open window during the night, making cases difficult to prove. Of approximately 750 reported assaults with acid since 1998, 25 perpetrators have been found guilty. Of the 25 guilty verdicts, 9 perpetrators were sentenced to death. Sentences are commensurate with the extent of the victim's burns. The law prohibits trafficking in persons and trafficking is a serious problem. There is extensive trafficking in both women and children, primarily to India, Pakistan, and destinations within the country, mainly for the purpose of prostitution, although in some instances for labor servitude. Some children also are trafficked to the Middle East to be used as camel jockeys. The exact number of women and children trafficked for purposes of prostitution is unknown; however, human rights monitors estimate that more than 20,000 women and children are trafficked from the country for such purposes annually. Most trafficked persons are lured by promises of good jobs or marriage, and some are forced into involuntary servitude outside of the country. Seeing no alternative for breaking the cycle of poverty, parents sometimes willingly send their children away. Unwed mothers, orphans, and others outside of the normal family support system also are susceptible. Traffickers living abroad often arrive in a village and "marry" a woman, only to dispose of her upon arrival in the destination country, where women are sold by their new "friends" or "husbands" into bonded labor, menial jobs, or prostitution. Criminal gangs conduct some of the trafficking in persons. The border with India is loosely controlled, especially around Jessore and Benapole, making illegal border crossings easy. The number of child prostitutes is difficult to determine. Prostitution is legal, but only for those persons over 18 years of age with government certification; however, this minimum age requirement commonly is ignored by authorities, and is circumvented easily by false statements of age. Procurers of minors rarely are prosecuted, and large numbers of child prostitutes work in brothels. Trafficking in women for purposes of prostitution carries a sentence varying from 10 years in prison to the death penalty. Trafficking in children for immoral or illegal purposes carries the death penalty or life imprisonment. However, few perpetrators are punished. Human rights monitors also credibly report that police and local government officials often ignore trafficking in women and children for prostitution, and easily are bribed to look the other way. The number of persons arrested for trafficking is difficult to obtain as charges against traffickers usually are for lesser crimes, such as crossing borders without proper documents.	eng	471ed2bc-9189-4a40-bc55-55369acf2974	http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/asia_pacific/bangladesh.html
ECE - ECE Departmental News, Events and Seminars ECE RSS News Feed.en-usThe bubble-blowing machine created by Morgan Danyi and her team worked just fine except for one minor problem: It didn't blow any bubbles. Some parts spun too fast. The unstable platform wobbled. The bubble solution carried by spinning wands spilled before reaching the bubble-blowing fan. No solution, no bubbles. Something had to be done. In two weeks, Danyi and her team planned to enter the machine into NC State's 13th Annual Freshman Engineering Design Day. "Being an engineer is all about trial and error," Danyi, a freshman in chemical engineering, said after some last-minute tweaks made the machine competition-ready. "You identify the problem, brainstorm a way to resolve it and then create the finished product." Freshman Engineering Design Day brings together more than 1,300 students on more than 400 teams who have completed design projects assigned in the College's introductory engineering course. Students huddle in groups for several weeks before the event, assembling hovercrafts, stitching together fabric buckets, molding concrete canoes, engineering nuclear reactor probes and tinkering with chain-reaction-driven Rube Goldberg machines. All that work culminates in a day-long competition held in two packed rooms of students, faculty, judges and parents at NC State's McKimmon Center on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Medals are awarded to the winners. "Design Day is the defining first-semester experience for engineering students," said Brian Koehler, the director of international engagement for the College who helps run the event. "It's a great opportunity for our first-year engineers to tackle difficult engineering problems they'll be facing during the next four years and ultimately in their professional careers." Each project comes with its own set of constraints. Students must not exceed a $40 spending limit, which encourages creativity and innovation by forcing them to reuse, borrow and find creative resources in places other than store shelves. That spirit of frugality and reusability was on display at this year's event, where students used toy cars, old plastic containers, aluminum foil, scrap wood, oil funnels, rubber bands, Pez dispensers, Tupperware containers and duct tape to build their entries. Personalization is encouraged. A plastic watering can and holiday lights topped a flower-rimmed fountain. Arcade pinballs pummeled miniature Duke and UNC mascots. 18-inch concrete canoes - they can hold 10 pounds of marbles if built properly - were proudly painted NC State red. For Danyi, the event turned out to be more than just a first-semester highlight. It gave her the chance to be a team leader and employ problem-solving skills when things didn't go as planned. After the bubble-blowing failure, the team regrouped and devised a new design. A battery-powered motor in an overturned toy truck spun a wheel that had been cut from the bottom of a five-gallon plastic bucket. Because the wheel was larger and heavier than the CD covers they had originally used, the spinning wands that cradled the bubble solution became much more rigid, allowing the machine to spit out bubbles by the dozens. The relieved team had its entry. "The experiences at Design Day are a very accurate taste of what engineers will have to deal with in the real world," Danyi said. Kathan Bender, a freshman majoring in civil engineering and environmental engineering, said the event improved his team's time management skills and taught team members the value of advance planning. The group entered the water fountain competition, in which students must create a device that propels water upward against gravity. Bender and his team decided to meet early in the semester to begin work. The group built its waterfall from bamboo stalks. The stalks were tied together with twine and then set into a bamboo box filled with water and small stones. The water, propelled by an electric pump, was able to flow through a plastic tube encased in the central bamboo stalk, emerging out of the top and flowing back down into the box. "After choosing the water fountain as our project, we had to decide on a theme and what parts of the project we wanted to assign to each person," Bender said. "Then we started planning the layout, gathering materials and putting it all together. It helped me learn the necessity of getting everything drawn out in advance before you start working." Although Bender's team didn't receive a medal, he believes the group's bamboo water fountain was a crowd-pleaser that "gained the popular vote" of visitors to their table. Danyi's team didn't medal either, but that didn't take away from the event's positive experiences. "Figuring out how to put our strengths together and working through problems are going to be very valuable experiences for the future," Danyi said. "Teamwork and effective communication are highly important for any group of people working together on a project." The skills learned through Design Day help prepare Danyi, Bender and hundreds of other students for the more challenging projects to come in their academic and professional careers. "Design Day helps our first-year engineers continue developing their interdisciplinary teamwork, problem-solving and communication skills while creating something that works," Koehler said. "With these skills, students can become leaders who solve challenging problems." ]]> 16 May 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2The global population is growing, and feeding this expanding population poses a formidable challenge. How will emerging diseases, and global climate and environmental changes affect the crops that we rely on? How do we provide a growing global population with nutrient-rich foods in the face of shrinking arable land? These are important questions, and NC State has pulled together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers with expertise in everything from plant genetics to computer engineering to come up with answers. NC State has received an INSPIRE grant from the National Science Foundation to better understand how plants will respond to various stresses, such as a lack of essential nutrients. In particular, the project investigates how a plant called Arabidopsis thaliana responds when deprived of iron, which is essential to the plant's biological processes. However, a more significant goal of the project is to improve our understanding of the specific proteins (or "transcription factors") that control how the plant responds to environmental conditions. "That information will be used to create computer models that can give us insight into how plants respond to various stresses," says Cranos Williams, the lead investigator on the project and an assistant professor of computer engineering. "Ultimately, we want to create models that can help us determine the best practices for breeding plants with increased nutritional value and the best agricultural practices for different conditions - ranging from how growers should respond to stresses related to climate change or new plant diseases to farming on marginal crop land." Williams' work focuses on using computational models to understand the behavior of complex biological systems. And project collaborator Joel Ducoste, a professor of environmental engineering, has experience in creating models of cellular processes. That's the kind of know-how you need to develop mathematical and computer models that can predict how plants will respond to various stresses - but that's not all you need. For instance, you also need someone who understands the plants themselves. Enter Terri Long, an assistant professor of plant biology who uses genomics, molecular biology and genetics to determine how the activity of specific genes triggers physiological changes in plants. When certain genes are "switched on" they produce transcription factors that can then "switch on" other genes, triggering a range of behaviors in the plant. Long is already working to determine which of these transcription factors are triggered when Arabidopsis is deprived of iron, and how these various groups of genes interact with each other. All of that information will go into the creation of a prototype model - which Williams and Ducoste can test by comparing model predictions to the results that Long is seeing in her biology lab. But running complex models like this one can take a long time, requiring a significant amount of computing power. This is where James Tuck comes in. An assistant professor of computer engineering, Tuck is working with the team to help streamline the model's computation in order to make it run more quickly and efficiently. "Without modifications, the model could take weeks or years to run, making the resulting calculations effectively useless," said Tuck. "It's like the problem of weather prediction-if the calculation takes so long that the storm hits before the prediction is made, it's not useful." Efficient implementations that leverage hundreds to thousands of computers are projected to solve large models in minutes or days, and that means finding answers quicker and more efficiently. By sharing expertise in computer modeling, plant biology, genetics, biological systems and high-speed computing, the researchers hope to shed light on issues related to the most fundamental of real-world problems: ensuring that the human population has enough to eat. And this is only a taste of things to come. Through the Chancellor's Faculty Excellence Program, NC State is planning to apply this sort of interdisciplinary approach to a range of additional research areas, from medicine to forensic science. Credit: Matt Shipman \| NCSU News Services ]]> 02 May 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University will be launching it's first Online Open Course (OOC) starting in the summer of 2013. Digital ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) are at the core of all modern Information Technology. They rely on silicon chip technology to enable society to build complex systems including wireless devices, tablets, computers, network routers, and more. Due to the rapid rate of improvement of the underlying silicon technology, these chips are constantly being redesigned. Thus digital ASIC design companies are strong employers around the world. Beginning on May 21st, 2013, this open online course will teach you how to design a digital ASIC (standard cell or FPGA) using the Verilog Hardware Description Language. At the end of 10 weeks, you will have an understanding of what ASICs are, and how they are designed and verified -- in addition, you will have demonstrated those skills via a small project. Anyone may enroll in this course. During the course you will use Windows based computer aided design tools that are freely available on the web. All the course content and automated/peer grading is identical to the regular on-campus version taught at North Carolina State University. Students who successfully complete the online course with a grade of 80% or better will have an opportunity to "upgrade" their achievement. By enrolling as a non-degree studies distance education student and completing the human graded and proctored portions (not available in the pure online version), students can receive regular course credit from NC State University. The instructor for this course -- Dr. Paul Franzon, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering -- has twice been honored as the ECE Graduate Teacher of the Year. He was awarded the Australian Defense Medal in 2007. His primary teaching and research focuses on building microsystems (systems constructed of silicon chips, both analog and digital, and silicon micromachined components) for applications in computing, communications, sensors, robotics, and signal processing. Dr. Franzon is the Conference Co-Chair for the 2013 3DIC (IEEE International 3D Systems Integration Conference), that will be held in San Francisco, CA in October of 2013. ]]> 02 May 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Travis Tippens, a student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, has been selected as a Vice President of the NCSU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi for the next academic year. Travis was selected as the most outstanding 4.0 Junior who is eligible for membership with the highest number of NCSU credits. Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest, largest, and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Its chapters are on more than 300 campuses in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Each year, approximately 30,000 members are initiated. Membership into Phi Kappa Phi is by invitation only and they must meet strict requirements in order to be eligible for membership. ]]> 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Devesh Tiwari, a teaching assistant and PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, has received an Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award. The Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards serves as the primary university-level forum for recognizing exceptional contributions made by Graduate Teaching Assistants to the educational excellence of the University. This annual event is a celebration of excellence in graduate student teaching in the laboratory and classroom. The UGSA Teaching Effectiveness Committee invites the Directors of Graduate Programs (DGPs) to nominate a small number of TAs that exemplify outstanding teaching and mentoring and go beyond what is required of them. All departments are encouraged to participate so that their students receive the recognition they deserve. Tiwari taught a section of ECE 209 in Fall 2012 and was mentored by Dr. Greg Byrd. The award ceremony was held on March 18, 2013 at the McKimmon Center. ]]> 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2]]> 26 Apr 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Edgar Lobaton, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, and Researches from TheMany surgical procedures now use long, thin devices - such as "steerable needles" - that can be inserted into a patient's body through a small incision and then steered to a target location. These "minimally invasive" procedures allow doctors to perform surgeries without having to make major incisions, which decreases the risk of infection and shortens the patient's recovery time. However, these techniques pose a challenge to surgeons, because it is difficult for them to determine precisely where the surgical device is in the patient's body. One solution to the problem is to use X-rays to track the progress of the surgical device in the patient. But doctors want to minimize the number of X-rays taken, in order to limit the patient's exposure to radiation. "We have now developed an algorithm to determine the fewest number of X-rays that need to be taken, as well as what angles they need to be taken from, in order to give surgeons the information they need on a surgical device's location in the body," says Dr. Lobaton, lead author of a paper on the research. The new tool is a computer program that allows surgeons to enter what type of procedure they'll be performing and how precise they need the location data to be. Those variables are then plugged into the algorithm developed by the research team, which tells the surgeon how many X-rays will be needed - and from which angles - to produce the necessary location details. For example, if a surgeon needs only a fairly general idea of where a device is located, only two or three X-rays may be needed - whereas more X-rays would be required if the surgeon needs extremely precise location data. The paper, "Continuous Shape Estimation of Continuum Robots Using X-ray Images," will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, being held in Karlsruhe, Germany, May 6-10. The paper was co-authored by Jingua Fu, a former graduate student at UNC; Luis Torres, a Ph.D. student at UNC; and Dr. Ron Alterovitz, an assistant professor of computer science at UNC. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. You can read the paper that was will be presented on May 6-10, 2013 at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Karlsruhe, Germany, below. "Continuous Shape Estimation of Continuum Robots Using X-ray Images" Authors: Edgar J. Lobaton, North Carolina State University; Jingua Fu, Luis G. Torres and Ron Alterovitz, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Presented: May 6-10, 2013, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Karlsruhe, Germany Abstract: We present a new method for estimating the shape of a continuum robot continuously during a medical procedure using a small number of X-ray projection images. Continuum robots have curvilinear structure, enabling them to maneuver through constrained spaces in a snake-like manner. An accurate estimate of the robot's shape is crucial for the success of procedures that require avoidance of anatomical obstacles and sensitive tissues. Online shape estimation of a continuum robot is complicated by uncertainty in its kinematic model, movement of the robot during the procedure, noise in X-ray images, and the clinical need to minimize the number of X-ray images acquired. Our new method integrates kinematics models of the robot with data extracted from an optimally selected set of X-ray projection images. Our method represents the shape of the continuum robot over time as a deformable surface which can be described as a linear combination of time and space bases. We take advantage of probabilistic priors and numeric optimization to select optimal camera configurations, thus minimizing the expected shape estimation error. We evaluate our method using simulated concentric tube robot procedures and demonstrate that obtaining 3 images from viewpoints selected by our method achieves shape estimation errors significantly lower than using the kinematic model alone or using uniformly spaced viewpoints. Research Abstract: NCSU's FREEDM Systems Center will assist Cree in the testing, characterization and design optimization of future generation of high voltage gate turn-off (GTO) thyristior. ]]> 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Ginger Yu, Teaching Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, has been given the Outstanding Teacher Award by the College of Engineering. The Outstanding Teacher Award recognizes excellence in teaching at all levels. Faculty must be recognized as an Outstanding Teacher before they can receive the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Alumni Distinguished Professor Award. Upon being selected as an Outstanding Teacher, recipients become members of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers for as long as they are NC State faculty. Recognition is given at Commencement, the Celebration of Academic Excellence, and the Celebration of Teaching and Learning. In the ECE Department, the winner of the ECE Lane Teaching Award is submitted to the college for consideration for an Outstanding Teaching Award. Dr. Yu was selected for the Lane Teaching Award by the ECE Awards Committee. The William F. Lane Outstanding Teacher Award recognizes excellence in teaching or educational leadership in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). The award is presented annually by ECE along with a $500 cash prize. Dr. Yu's main research areas include Nanoelectronics and Photonics (including Nanotechnology, Silicon Devices and Fabrication). ]]> 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Joel Trussell, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, has been elected as the Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings of the IEEE. The Proceedings of the IEEE publishes comprehensive, in-depth review, tutorial, and survey articles written for technically knowledgeable readers who are not necessarily specialists in the subjects being treated. The articles are of long-range interest and broad significance. Coverage includes all aspects of electrical and computer engineering and science, including the managerial, historical, economic, and ethical aspects of technology. "The Proceedings of the IEEE has a varied and diverse readership," says Dr. Trussell. "Our current thrust is to attract new and younger readers who have a perspective that goes across all boundaries. We find that our readers view the journal's special issues as mini-textbooks and this is especially useful for someone who might be transitioning to a new field of responsibility." The most current Journal Citation Reports (JCR) rankings list Proceedings of the IEEE as the highest rated IEEE journal and the second rated of all electrical engineering journals in the world. Candidates for Editor-in-Chief are nominated by the current EIC in consultation with the Editorial Board. The names are submitted to PSPB Nominations & Appointments Committee who in turn submit to IEEE Publication Services and Products Board for appointment. Dr. Trussell was nominated by Dr. Bob Trew, Alton and Mildred Lancaster Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University. The duties and responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings of the IEEE include but are not limited to: Assures that the content follows the approved scope of the publication. Manages the editorial aspects of the publication under a peer review process in order to publish high-quality articles consistent with accepted IEEE standards and the scope of subject areas approved for the publication. Delegates responsibility, as necessary, for various publication activities to other editors of the publication but retains ultimate responsibility for the editorial process. Attends and participates in the annual meeting. Dr. Trussell's involvement with Proceedings of the IEEE started in January of 2008. Dr. Joel Trussell received his B.S. Math from Georgia Tech (1967), M.S. Math from Florida State (1968) and Ph.D. Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico (1976). He worked at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from 1969 to 1980 in image and signal processing. During 1978-79, he was a visiting professor at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland working with both the university and with industry on image processing problems. In 1980, he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, where he is now professor. He served as Director of Graduate Programs (2002-2010) for ECE. During 1988-89, he was a visiting scientist at the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY. He was visiting scientist for Color Savvy Systems in 1997-98. He was a visiting fellow commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK (6 months 2007), and Visiting Scientist at Hewlett-Packard Labs, Palo Alto, CA (6 months 2008). ]]> 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Veena Misra, Professor of Electrical Engineering at NC State and Director of the NSF ASSIST Center has been awarded $399,798 by the US Dept. of Education (DED) for research on Nanoscale Electronic and Energy Materials (NEEM) GAANN Program. Co-PI's for this research project are Gregory Parsons, David Aspnes, Duane Larick, David Shultz, and Jon-Paul Maria. The award will run from August 16th, 2012 to August 15th, 2013. Research Abstract: Through interdisciplinary doctoral education in Nanoscale Electronic and Energy Materials (NEEM), North Carolina State University (NC State) proposes to increase its commitment to interdisciplinary graduate training in electronic and energy materials related to nanotechnology. This interdisciplinary field comprises several areas designated by the GAANN Program as critical to national need: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics. Our goal is to enlarge the pool of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who pursue teaching and research careers in nanoscale electronic and energy materials, thereby developing the academic and research infrastructure and increase U.S. competitiveness. Spotlight on Optics (Spotlight) features articles nominated by The Optical Society's (OSA) Topical and Associate Editors to show the breadth and quality of OSA content from six major technical divisions: Information Acquisitions, Processing, and Display; Light-Matter Interactions; Optical Design and Instrumentation; Optics in Biology; Optoelectronics; and Vision and Color. "In this work," says Dr. Escuti, "we study a novel optical element that efficiently controls a quantum property of light, its orbital angular momentum (OAM). Among other applications, OAM is useful in studying and manipulating individual cells, molecules, and nanoparticles, as well as in high-capacity optical telecommunication systems. Our new optical element, called a Forked Polarization Grating ("FPG"), can easily change OAM with ~100% efficiency, replacing entire lab benches full of optics in a single thin film. In one configuration, FPGs can nonmechanically switch between various states with simple applied voltages. In another configuration, FPGs can generate and detect OAM states. In our work, we show for the first time that a thin liquid crystal layer, not unlike those in common LCDs, can experimentally realize all of the advantageous properties predicted theoretically, when holographically patterned to include the fork-shaped singularity." Dr. Escuti is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University. Dr. Kim is a Post Doctoral Research Scholar in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dr. Li is a Graduate Research Assistant. ]]> 15 Feb 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2North Carolina State University received more accolades for providing a quality education at an affordable price today as the university ranked sixth in the "Top 10 Best Value Public Colleges for 2013," released by The Princeton Review. An education services company, The Princeton Review chose its "Best Value Colleges" for 2013 based on criteria covering academics, cost of attendance and financial aid. The methodology examined more than 30 factors using data from the company's surveys of administrators and students at 650 colleges with strong academic programs. NC State is no stranger to Princeton Review best-value rankings. In 2006 it was named both second best value among the nation's public colleges and universities and one of the nation's 25 "most connected" campuses; in 2009 it was sixth on the best value list and was ninth in 2011. NC State also appeared on 2012-13 best-value lists recently compiled by Kiplinger's (21st in-state best value) and U.S. News & World Report (fifth in best overall public university value). ]]> 11 Feb 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Eric Rotenberg, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, has been inducted into the "MICRO Hall of Fame" which recognizes authors who have published eight or more papers in MICRO over its 45 years of existence. Currently, 39 authors have achieved this distinction - MICRO is the flagship conference for microprocessor architecture and one of the four top-tier computer architecture conferences. MICRO-45 had 228 submissions of which 40 were accepted after a rigorous review process including rebuttal and shepherding phases. SIGMICRO is ACM's Special Interest Group on Microarchitecture. They co-sponsor several premier computer architecture conferences, including MICRO. The award that Dr. Rotenberg received is sponsored by ACM SIGMICRO, but is in fact related to the MICRO Conference. Dr. Rotenberg has published papers on topics such as new paradigms for exploiting instruction-level parallelism (ILP), novel high-performance processors, automating superscalar processor design, and more, with his first MICRO paper being published in 1996. According to Dr. Rotenberg, "'Microarchitecture' deals with the design of microprocessors, memory systems, etc., that can be found in all computers, including smart phones and other handheld devices, laptops and PCs, Cloud data centers, and supercomputers." The paper, "Control-Flow Decoupling," that put Dr. Rotenberg over the top was co-authored by Rotenberg, Rami Sheikh, and Dr. James Tuck. Sheikh is a PHD student who is being advised by Dr. Rotenberg and Dr. Tuck is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University. ]]> 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Omer Oralkan, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been selected to serve as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (T-UFFC). Dr. Oralkan has been a reviewer for the T-UFFC since 2003. He has also published some 20 articles in the T-UFFC since 1999, almost half of his published journal papers. When asked for comment, Dr. Oralkan said, "I am honored to be selected as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control. This is the leading publication in our field. I am happy to have the opportunity to serve the scientific community at increased capacity." ]]> 05 Feb 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Engineering Online at North Carolina State University has been ranked among the nation's top 10 online graduate engineering programs by U.S. News & World Report. The College of Engineering at NC State established what is now known as Engineering Online in 1978. The program, designed for working professionals, allows students to earn master's degrees in engineering without coming to campus. Courses offered by Engineering Online are identical to on-campus courses in terms of content, requirements and academic rigor. GetEducated.com ranked Engineering Online's master's programs sixth nationally in its most recent "Best Buy" rankings. ]]> 30 Jan 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Edgar Lobaton, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, has been awarded $206,192 by the University of California - Berkeley for research on Provably Safe Automotive Cyber-Physical Systems with Humans-in-the-Loop. The award will run from October 1st, 2012 to September 30th, 2015. Research Abstract: The automotive sector is one of the richest targets for emerging innovations in Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). Increased content electronics, non-contact sensors, controls and communication with the environment and the driver will change the way we drive and interact with our cars in the near future. However, despite the enormous number of fatalities and injuries on US and world roads, there is an enormous gap between research achievements in autonomous drive and the active safety systems currently available in production vehicles. We propose a paradigm shift which looks at whole cyber physical vehicle/environment/driver and thus address all its three main critical components: (A) the vehicle/environment interaction, (B) the driver uncertainty and (C) the provably-safe intervention under the predicted uncertainty of A and B. We will develop a novel science for of Cyber-Physical Systems with the goal of obtaining a provably safe human-centric autonomy where certification is evidence-based and evolves with the system (as new driver behaviors, scenes, slipping dynamics enter in the database of the CPS we construct in real-time). Robustness is measured against bounded state-dependent uncertainty of a driver/vehicle interaction model and of the scene reconstruction. ]]> 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Alex Huang, Progress Energy Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of NSF FREEDM Systems Center and David Lubkeman, Research Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, have been awarded $262,500 by the GridBridge for research on AIR: Accelerating Commercialization of the Solid State Transformer Through Strategic Partnership. The award will run from July 15th, 2012 to June 30th, 2014. Research Abstract: The main objective of this project is to develop cost effective power electronics technology for smart grid application. More specifically, the emphasis will be on converter efficiency, size and weight reduction, as well as cost reduction. Effort will also be spent on isolated features. ]]> 03 Jan 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Edgar Lobaton, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University and Wesley Snyder, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering are working with graduate student Namita Lokare to obtain three-dimensional footprints of large animals for computer-based footprint recognition. Namita Lokare just started her PhD in Electrical Engineering this fall but is already working with staff from a company named Wildtrack ( which has developed a non-invasive Footprint Identification Technique (FIT). Animals have unique feet, in the same way that humans have unique fingerprints and this process can identify endangered animals at the species, individual, age-class and sex levels. This allows researchers to monitor their status and work with decision-makers in environmental and conservation sciences to implement effective policies. Once researchers have identified and measured features on the footprint, statistical software provided by SAS completes the identification of the animal. WildTrack staff are actively working with SAS staff on this project. Their algorithm is quite accurate, but requires humans to analyze the footprints, and the process of individually identifying the features of the footprint is very time consuming. In attempt to speed up the process, Lobaton, Snyder and Lokare are developing image analysis algorithms to automate the feature measurement process. In the past, the footprints have been obtained using conventional cameras. In this photograph, the NC State researchers are shown using a three-dimensional camera to measure both extent and depth of the footprints. The work, if successful, will help to more rapidly identify individual animals, track them, and lead to improvements in the monitoring of their health. ]]> 02 Jan 2013 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2]]> 19 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2 with ]]> 19 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Research that produced the world's first message sent using tiny neutrino particles - a project led in part by Dr. Daniel Stancil, head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State and Dr. Brian Hughes, professor and associate head of electrical and computer engineering at NC State - has been named among Physics World magazine's top 10 breakthroughs for 2012. Earlier this year, the team of researchers successfully sent a beam of neutrinos through 240 meters of earth with a message in binary code that read, "neutrino." The communication marked the first time information had been transmitted with the particles, which can pass through almost anything because they have no electrical charge and very little mass. The story was featured on the Physics World website in March. The magazine made its selections from a pool of more than 350 news articles about advances in the physical sciences published on its site in 2012. Neutrinos have long held promise for communications. As the Physics World story notes: "For ease of transmission through any material, nothing beats the neutrino. The ghostly particle is affected only by the weak nuclear force and, very faintly, by gravity. As a result, it can pass through almost everything and interacts with virtually nothing." But, the story says, one problem makes neutrino-based messaging difficult. "Although neutrino-based systems have been proposed since the 1970s, they have all come up against the same problem: how to detect the neutrinos at the receiving end when the vast majority of the particles will pass straight through any detector. To detect enough neutrinos to transmit information at a reasonable rate, either an extremely intense neutrino source or a very large detector (or both) would be needed." About three years ago, the story continues, Dr. Stancil, was thinking about possibilities for communicating using axions - hypothetical particles that pique researchers' interest because they might be part of dark matter. From a communications perspective, axions are interesting because, if they exist, they could pass through any material. A former student pointed out that the concept could be tested with neutrinos at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab (FermiLab) outside of Chicago, where researchers were conducting a neutrino scattering experiment called MINERvA. Physicists with the experiment agreed to collaborate with the engineers, so the lab's high-energy neutrino beam and multi-ton MINERvA detector were employed to send and receive the word "neutrino," which was spelled out in binary code as 1's and 0's. Given the huge amount of technological muscle needed to send and receive one word, neutrinos won't be carrying messages for millions of people anytime soon. But the work does open up possibilities for future advances, including sending messages through the center of the earth and inter-stellar communications. The team also included engineers from the NASA Glenn Research Center. ]]> 17 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. John Muth, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Deputy Director of the NSF ASSIST Center, has been selected as a University Faculty Scholar. Muth is one of 24 that were selected for this inaugural award. North Carolina State University Chancellor Randy Woodson announced on November 16, the inaugural group of University Faculty Scholars, a recognition and reward program for top NC State early- and mid-career faculty who will receive $10,000 - in donated funds - for each of the next five years to support their academic endeavors. The program is part of the university's strategic initiative to invest in and retain top faculty. It is funded by generous gifts totaling $5.7 million: $3 million from Jim and Ann Goodnight and $2.7 million from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust. "Investing in retaining and attracting the best faculty to teach our students and lead innovative research that improves lives and enhances the state's economy is a key strategic goal for NC State," Woodson says. "The generous support of Jim and Ann Goodnight and the Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust enables NC State to make this strategic investment in some of our most outstanding and promising faculty scholars, for the benefit of our students as well as the citizens of North Carolina." Those eligible for awards include assistant professors who have been reappointed for a second term; all associate professors; and full professors within the first three years of appointment at that rank. Nominees were evaluated based on evidence of their significant achievements in scholarship, teaching and/or service appropriate to their rank and discipline. Faculty members are nominated by their colleges and selected by a committee of senior faculty. Forty faculty members were nominated for the award. ]]> 30 Nov 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2After more than three decades of innovative work in the US and Turkey, two NC State Electrical and Computer Engineering alumni reconnect with their alma mater in Istanbul. She is an Internet entrepreneur turned record-setting marathoner. He is a multimedia communications pioneer who built an engineering school from scratch. Seyhan Civanlar and her husband, Reha, owe much of their success to intelligence and hard work, but they also recognize the irreplaceable role that NC State, where both earned PhDs in electrical and computer engineering, played in their globe-trotting lives. So when they learned that an NC State contingent led by Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering, would be holding a dinner for alumni and friends in their hometown of Istanbul in July, they knew they had to be there. "It was an excellent dinner and it was great getting to know Dr. Martin-Vega," Seyhan said. "And it created a networking platform for all of us here in Istanbul." The Civanlars have followed a fascinating path from Turkey to Raleigh and back. They met in the 1970s while studying at Middle East Technical University in Ankara. The couple later married and earned their undergraduate and master's degrees. NC State became part of their lives in 1981 when they both received Fulbright Scholarships to pursue their PhDs in the United States. They came to NC State with their infant son and lived in King Village. Once in Raleigh, they focused on their electrical engineering studies. Reha was interested in digital communications and signal processing. Seyhan studied electric power distribution systems. But life at NC State wasn't easy. The couple had a small child and two research loads to carry. What helped was the kindness shown to them by other students and faculty. "Graduate students loaned us TVs, chairs and sofas," Seyhan said. "Everybody was so nice and accommodating. Professors would invite us to Christmas parties and Thanksgiving dinners. "We never felt alone in Raleigh. We felt right at home." They remained at NC State after graduation, Reha as a postdoctoral researcher and Seyhan as an assistant professor. She was the first foreign-born graduate of NC State to become a faculty member at the university. A short time later, the couple moved to New Jersey for jobs with AT&T research labs, and that's when their careers really took off. Reha found a niche working on the development of hi-definition television and Internet video; he later became the head of the visual communications research department at AT&T Research and received about 50 patents in the field. A landmark came in 1994, when at an international conference his group demonstrated the first high-quality, intercontinental video streamed live online. "On one side was us and on the other side was Japan," he said. "We showed it was possible to move digital, TV-quality video over the Internet." Seyhan also excelled, performing pioneering work in electric feeders and systems. In the mid-1990s, she led the group charged with building AT&T's Internet services. She later used that experience to found and lead Lemur Networks, raising about $6.5 million for the Internet protocol startup. Anxious for new challenges, the last 10 years have seen the Civanlars traveling the world supporting each other. In 2002, they moved back to Turkey so Reha could teach computer engineering at Koc University in Istanbul and Seyhan could focus on startups in her home country. Then the couple moved to Palo Alto, Calif., so Reha could serve as vice president for research at a Japanese multimedia company. Seyhan, meanwhile, worked on starting a US subsidiary of a Turkish software company in Silicon Valley. In 2008, Reha was offered an opportunity to return to Turkey and become the founding dean of the new engineering school at Ozyegin University in Istanbul. His job: Build a new engineering program from scratch. "When I started at Ozyegin, it was just me in the entire School of Engineering," he said. "It was a very interesting and challenging task to find good people and grow the school." Today, the school boasts about 900 students, 40 faculty members, five engineering programs and $7 million in research expenditures. By emphasizing entrepreneurship in the curriculum, Ozyegin has helped its faculty and graduate students launch several high-tech startups. "This is a different approach in Turkey," Reha said. "We are the first ones doing it, and I believe my US engineering education and experience was helpful." Seyhan recently began to seriously pursue an entirely different passion: running. She holds two Turkish records in her age group for the marathon and half-marathon, and her times have earned her a spot in the 2013 Boston Marathon, one of the most difficult marathons to qualify for in the world. "I'm a late-blooming marathoner," she joked. "I'm lucky to have good knees and good ankles." Now settled back in their home country, the Civanlars had the chance to re-forge old ties with NC State. Martin-Vega was scheduled to travel to Istanbul to be the opening keynote speaker at the 3rd International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, and he arranged to connect with people in Turkey who had connections to NC State. Also on the trip was Dr. Russell King, professor and director of the Furniture Manufacturing and Management Center in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State. "Meeting them both was wonderful, and Reha and I realized that there were a lot of people like us from NC State right here in Turkey," Seyhan said. "I now have a NC State engineering sticker on the back of my car." ]]> 16 Nov 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Drs. Iqbal Husain and Subhashish Bhattacharya, professors of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at North Carolina State University have been awarded power engineering professorships created by ABB's recent gift to the university. NC State has also begun awarding ABB scholarships created by the gift. An event celebrating the awards took place on NC State's campus Thursday, November 8th and recognized Husain, the ABB Distinguished Professor, and Bhattacharya, the ABB Term Associate Professor, as well as five students who make up the 2012-13 class of ABB SmartGrid Scholars. The professorships and scholarships were made possible by ABB's 2011 gift to NC State's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering that aimed to strengthen the organizations' cooperative research in electric power technologies and aid the company's recruiting of top engineering professionals. ABB - a global power and automation technology group and one of the world's largest power grid suppliers - has its North American headquarters in Cary, NC. "We are delighted to recognize the outstanding faculty and students who have benefited from this generous gift from ABB," said Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering at NC State. "These talented engineers will be key players in a rapidly growing industry that is creating a smarter and greener electric power grid. We also appreciate ABB's significant commitment to the education of the next generation of power engineers and its support of this program." Husain joined NC State in 2011 after serving as a faculty member at the University of Akron for 17 years. He has extensive experience creating and improving advanced motor drives for automotive and industrial applications, including electric and hybrid vehicles, and has also developed sensorless control methods for switched reluctance and permanent magnet machine drives. At NC State, he is co-director of the Advanced Transportation Energy Center (ATEC), a hybrid and electric vehicle research initiative. ATEC is located within the headquarters of the FREEDM Systems Center, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center that is developing smart grid technologies. Bhattacharya, who joined NC State in 2005, works in the areas of power electronics systems, solid-state transformers, utility applications for power electronics such as flexible alternating current transmission systems, high-frequency magnetics, and application of new power semiconductor devices, such as those made with silicon carbide, for power converters. At the FREEDM Systems Center, his leadership of the solid-state transformer sub-thrust helped earned that work recognition by MIT Technology Review as one of the world's 10 most important emerging technologies. He previously worked in power electronics at Siemens and Westinghouse research and development centers. The gift from ABB also created the ABB SmartGrid Scholars Program, which offers five awards annually to NC State students taking classes in power engineering. The field deals with the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power, as well as the electrical devices connected to those systems. "One of our biggest continuing challenges is finding and hiring skilled engineers," said Enrique Santacana, president and CEO of ABB, Inc. "Our close relationship with North Carolina State helps us establish a pipeline of talented people for ABB and builds North Carolina's reputation as an important player in energy and smart grid technologies." ABB and NC State have a long-established relationship. In 1991, ABB became the first corporate tenant on NC State's Centennial Campus, where the company currently manages two of its five North American regional divisions. Centennial Campus is also home to ABB's recently opened Smart Grid Center of Excellence, which includes a testing and development laboratory and demonstration center. ABB is also an industry partner of the FREEDM Systems Center. The NC Department of Cultural Resources has produced a video tribute to Dr. B. Jayant Baliga, the 2012 winner of the NC Award for Science. Baliga is Distinguished University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center at North Carolina State University refrigerators and light bulbs, have saved the world's consumers more than $15 trillion and now help form the basis for the emerging smart grid. The IGBT's widespread impact earned Baliga the 2010 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation's highest honor for technological achievement. He has been listed among the "Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution" by Scientific American. A member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1993, Baliga holds more than 120 US patents and is an author of 18 books and more than 550 publications. He joined the NC State faculty in 1988. ]]> 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Paul D. Franzon, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State, is launching an initiative to develop a computer that utilizes three-dimensional integrated chip (3DIC) technology and is significantly more energy efficient than anything else on the market today. The work is supported by $1 million in funding as Phase 1 of a negotiated $4 million cooperative agreement contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). "Computers are becoming faster and able to tackle more complex challenges, but they are also consuming larger amounts of electrical power," says Franzon, lead researcher under the DARPA cooperative agreement. "For example, the amount of computing power in unmanned vehicles is limited by the power supply they can carry." To address that challenge, the NC State research team is tasked with designing a multiprocessor computer system that has a computing-to-power ratio of 75 gigaflops per watt. That means the system must be able to process 75 billion floating point operations per second for every watt of power used. By contrast, the most efficient processors currently on the market have a computing-to-power ratio of 16 gigaflops per watt. "We plan to use 3DIC technology and heterogeneous computing techniques to develop what will essentially be a highly-efficient multiprocessor that would fit in a matchbox," Franzon says. Franzon is the primary investigator (PI) under the cooperative agreement, which has negotiated options through 2017. The co-PIs, all of whom are also on faculty at NC State, are: Dr. Eric Rotenberg, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Dr. Rhett Davis, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering; Dr. James Tuck, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Dr. Huiyang Zhou, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. ]]> 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Michael Devetsikiotis, and his PhD student Islam Safak Bayram, have won the Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications. The paper, entitled "Strategies for Competing Energy Storage Technologies in DC Fast Charging Stations," has been co-authored with George Michailidis, a faculty member from the University of Michigan, and Dr. Babak Parkideh during his time at the NSF FREEDM Systems Center. It will be presented on November 5-8, 2012 in Tainan City, Taiwan. The authors propose an intelligent design of fast charging station architecture that ensures grid reliability. The critical component of their architecture is the energy storage, which is used to smooth the stochastic customer demand. "On the other hand, the choice of energy storage is application dependent; there is no single right answer. We developed a metric that enables researchers to compare the candidate energy storage technologies at fast charging stations. Moreover, we showed that optimal charging strategies, depending on the type of the energy storage employed at fast charging stations can increase the number of vehicles charged with the same amount of grid resources. Since the deployment of fast charging stations is in its infancy stage, our contribution will provide insights to network planners," says Professor Devetsikiotis. Islam Safak Bayram won the Student Travel Grant at a previous Smart Grid Communications Conference, and continues his work in this field. The Network Performance Research Group, led by Dr. Devetsikiotis is actively engaged in the optimization and control of Smart Grid networks. ]]> 26 Oct 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2A paper titled "A Novel Double Floating-Gate Unified Memory Device", authored by Dr. Neil Di Spigna, Research Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has won the Best Paper Award at the IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI-SoC) 2012. This years conference was held October 8-11 in Santa Cruz, CA. VLSI-SoC 2012 is the 20th in a series of international conferences sponsored by IFIP TC 10 Working Group 10.5, IEEE CEDA and CASS that explores the state-of-the-art and the new developments in the field of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), System-on-Chip (SoC) and their designs. Previous Conferences have taken place in Edinburgh, Trondheim, Tokyo, Vancouver, Munich, Grenoble, Gramado, Lisbon, Montpellier, Darmstadt, Perth, Nice, Atlanta, Rhodes, Florianopolis and Madrid. The purpose of VLSI-SoC is to provide a forum to exchange ideas, and show industrial and research results in the fields of VLSI/ULSI Systems, SoC design, VLSI CAD and Microelectronic Design and Test. The presentation of the award came during the banquet at the close of the conference. Co-authors of this paper were Drs. Daniel Schinke and Srikant Jayanti of Intel Corp. and Drs. Veena Misra and Paul Franzon, Professors of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State. Neil Di Spigna is a research assistant professor in the ECE department at NCSU and the CTO of Polymer Braille Inc. His research interests include nanoelectronic devices and assistive technologies. Di Spigna received a PhD in electrical engineering from NCSU. Daniel Schinke received a PhD in electrical engineering from NCSU. His research interests include digital circuit design and nonvolatile memory devices. He currently works for Intel Corp. Srikant Jayanti received a PhD in electrical engineering from NCSU. His research interests include fabrication and characterization of high-k dielectrics/metal gate electrodes for advanced logic/memory devices. He currently is a process engineer for Intel Corp. ]]> 26 Oct 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Yazan Siam, a recent Bachelor of Science graduate in Computer Engineering at NC State University has extended the work of his ECE Senior Design project of Spring 2012 during the Summer, helping to advance an open-source project in the field of networking. The original project was completed by Siam and two senior NCSU students and during the Spring of 2012. Titled "tcpreplay-NewConn," its purpose was to extend the functionality of the current Tcpreplay suite to enhance replaying functionality with TCP flows against live devices. By using the tool along with a packet capture of a TCP connection, someone would be able to replay the packets on live networks using new TCP connections. The tool will simply replay the entire packet capture and will communicate with the remote host as if it were the original connection, contained in the capture, happening all over again. The only difference is that it is at a new time and uses new TCP connection parameters. The tool is intelligent enough to respond to the remote host in an appropriate behavior that complies with TCP protocol by simultaneously following the payloads sent in the captured packets. Being able to reproduce network traffic related problems can help manufacturers and software developers of network devices improve their products' resiliency against security and software vulnerabilities. The project was sponsored by Cisco Systems' Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT). Cisco PSIRT proactively tests vulnerabilities of Cisco devices as part of Security Vulnerability Policy. The group collaborated and worked with Cisco engineers over the course of their Senior Design project during the Spring 2012 semester. By the end of the semester, they had a working tool that could replay TCP connections. With this tool, Cisco PSIRT was able to replay an entire packet capture as part of their testing. Siam wanted to take his work a step further -- making it open-source software available to the larger networking community. During this process, Siam renamed this tool to "tcpliveplay" which is a more representative name of what it does, added extensive enduser documentation, and developed additional code to increase the tool's intelligence and usability. The handling of packet loss was improved as was user output statistics to help the user see both the fine-grained details and summary of the packet replay result. As of September 26 2012, tcpliveplay, with about 1,200 lines of code, became part of the Tcpreplay 3.4 software suite which was created and maintained by Aaron Turner, an enthusiastic supporter of Siam's efforts. The Tcpreplay software suite is downloaded 200 times a week from Sourceforge.net. The scope and potential of tcpliveplay is much broader and wider than simply Cisco using it for testing. It can be used in all kinds of testing scenarios where there is a TCP packet capture that needs to be replayed against a live device. Siam plans to continue to support and improve the software -- increasing the intelligence of the code to allow the replay of multiple TCP connection flows at the same time, and to make the tool available on additional platforms beyond the currently supported Linux. Cisco Systems and Panos Kampanakis helped sponsor the project and provided expertise in the subject area. Dr. Yannis Viniotis of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University was the advisor on this project and helped sponsor this project in collaboration with Cisco Systems. Other members of the Spring 2012 Senior Design team who contributed in the first stage of the project were Andrew Leonard and Beau Luck. The Distinguished Service Award to Davis is based on his ten years of support of Si2. Davis was the first academic to adopt OpenAccess into his course work and lab exercises at NC State. This served to train fresh students in this new platform and expand knowledge in this new area. Si2 is the largest organization of industry-leading semiconductor, systems, EDA and manufacturing companies focused on the development and adoption of standards to improve the way integrated circuits are designed and manufactured, in order to speed time-to market, reduce costs, and meet the challenges of sub-micron design. Now in its 24th year, Si2 is uniquely positioned to enable timely collaboration through dedicated staff and a strong implementation focus driven by its member companies. Si2 represents nearly 100 companies involved in all parts of the silicon supply chain throughout the world ]]> 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Matt Purvis, a senior in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has won the College of Engineering Faculty Senior Scholarship. The COE Faculty Senior Scholarship is awarded annually to a full-time student who exemplifies academic excellence, intellectual breadth and a depth of character. The recipient must be a full- time student with a projected graduation date in the following academic year. Matt says that one of his immediate goals is to complete both the BSEE and MSEE programs at NCSU. "This goal will allow me to obtain employment in a field that I enjoy." Matt would like to lead research in novel communications protocols and devices. "Digital wireless communications is proliferating at a fast rate and the frequency spectrum is a limited resource. Efforts are on-going in developing methods to use the spectrum more efficiently and I would like to be at the forefront of the field", says Purvis. Matt has a deep desire to spark interest in science, math and engineering among rising generations. He says "Our nation is in need of youth that are interested in STEM disciplines. At some point in my career, I would like to take the opportunity to act as an educator or mentor to students in middle and high schools." As a decorated six year veteran of the US Army, Matt was the winner of the 229th Military Intelligence Battalion Soldier of the Year, US Army Airborne School Enlisted Honor Graduate and the 3rd Special Forces Group Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year, to name a few. Matt, who is married with one son, says that he and his wife are currently working to start a scholarship for non-traditional students pursuing an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering. "We have faced many of the challenges returning to school in mid-life presents and would like to help other non-traditional students overcome those same challenges" says Purvis. Currently, Matt works at Signalscape, Inc. as an engineering technician where he has been afforded the opportunity to work on complex projects ranging from wireless devices to custom handheld computing platforms. Purvis, who has been on NCSU Dean's List since 2010, also serves as an On-Campus Events Committee Member for the IEEE NCSU Student Chapter. He also serves an Eagle Scout Mentor and Committee Member for Troop 331 of the Boy Scouts of America. He was also the recipient of the 2011/2012 Thomas J Martin, Jr. Memorial Scholarship and the 2011/2012 AFCEA General Emmett Paige Scholarship. ]]> 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Mo-Yuen Chow, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Habiballah Rahimi-Eichi, a Ph.D. student at NC State, have developed a new technique that allows users to better determine the amount of charge remaining in a battery in real time. That's good news for electric vehicle drivers, since it gives them a better idea of when their car may run out of juice. The research is also good news for battery developers. "This improved accuracy will also give us additional insight into the dynamics of the battery, which we can use to develop techniques that will lead to more efficient battery management," says Dr. Mo-Yuen Chow, co-author of the paper. "This will not only extend the life of the charge in the battery, but extend the functional life of the battery itself." At present, it is difficult to determine how much charge a battery has left. Existing computer models for estimating the remaining charge are not very accurate. The inaccuracy stems, in part, from the number of variables that must be plugged in to the models. For example, the capacity of a battery to hold a charge declines with use, so a battery's history is a factor. Other factors include temperature and the rate at which a battery is charged, among many others. Existing models only allow data on these variables to be plugged in to the model once. Because these variables - such as temperature - are constantly changing, the models can become increasingly inaccurate. But now researchers have developed software that identifies and processes data that can be used to update the computer model in real time, allowing the model to estimate the remaining charge in a battery much more accurately. While the technique was developed specifically for batteries in plug-in electric vehicles, the approach is also applicable to battery use in any other application. Using the new technique, models are able to estimate remaining charge within 5 percent. In other words, if a model using the new technique estimates a battery's state of charge at 48 percent, the real state of charge would be between 43 and 53 percent (5 percent above or below the estimate). The paper, "Adaptive Parameter Identification and State-of-Charge Estimation of Lithium-Ion Batteries," will be presented at the 38th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society in Montreal, Oct. 25-28. Lead author of the paper is Rahimi-Eichi. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, in collaboration with the foundation's Engineering Research Center for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management, which is based at NC State. Abstract: Estimation of the State of Charge (SOC) is a fundamental need for the battery, which is the most important energy storage in Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the Smart Grid. Regarding those applications, the SOC estimation algorithm is expected to be accurate and easy to implement. In this paper, after considering a resistor-capacitor (RC) circuit-equivalent model for the battery, the nonlinear relationship between the Open Circuit Voltage (VOC) and the SOC is described in a lookup table obtained from experimental tests. Assuming piecewise linearity for the VOC -SOC curve in small time steps, a parameter identification technique is applied to the real current and voltage data to estimate and update the parameters of the battery at each step. Subsequently, a reduced-order linear observer is designed for this continuously updating model to estimate the SOC as one of the states of the battery system. In designing the observer, a mixture of Coulomb counting and VOC algorithm is combined with the adaptive parameter-updating approach and increases the accuracy to less than 5% error. This paper also investigates the correlation between the SOC estimation error and the observability criterion for the battery model, which is directly related to the slope of the VOC- SOC curve. ]]> 11 Oct 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dror Baron has been awarded $238,678 by the US Army - Army Research Office for research on Minimax Compressed Sensing Reconstruction. The award will run from October 2nd, 2012 to January 1st, 2014. Research Abstract Compressed sensing is an emerging area where signal acquisition and reconstruction is possible for sparse and structured signals from a reduced number of measurements. The majority of compressed sensing research has focused on algorithms that are optimized to minimize the energy in the reconstruction error. We will instead focus on algorithms that can target a reconstruction that is optimized for any reconstruction metric, and in particular a minimax approach that minimizes the largest component-wise error. ]]> 09 Oct 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2If you have ever had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Joel Trussell, you will quickly see that he has a passion for digital imaging. Dr. Trussell, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University and Co-Author of Fundamentals of Digital Imaging (Cambridge University Press, 2008), along with Dr. Michael Vhrel, a Color Scientist from Artifex Software, Inc., wanted to acquaint people on how digital imaging is affecting them. That's where his new "Fundamentals of Digital Images" three-day course came in this summer. "The goal of this short course, and the Digital Imaging Class (ECE558) being offered at NCSU, is to show the student how to accurately record, process and display images," says Dr. Trussell. "There is no way to accurately reproduce an image unless the data from which you are working is accurate to begin with. We teach the definitions of the quantities that matter and how to record them." What do people know about how you capture an image? What goes on inside an image and scanner? How do we store that data? How do you display this image so that it's an accurate portrayal of the original? These are just a few of the questions that were answered in this course. "More and more, images are going online and more people are dealing with them. And you want to have the best interpretation of them." In the class, students studied the formats used to store and display images -- and how each affect the quality of digital images -- as well as the science behind (and practical application of) the calibration of scanners, cameras, flat-panel displays and printers. "The accurate reproduction of an image requires knowing the characteristics of the display device, including what color it can produce and how to produce them." says Dr. Trussell. Between the capture and the display is the processing. And typical processing includes translating raw values into colorimetric values that can be used by anyone in the world, storing and transmitting data between devices so they can display the same image accurately. This is even despite different hardware and calibration of input and output devices. This will allows for the image data to be interpreted appropriately. The image of Lena is used by many in industry and academia to test image coding methods. A typical copy of Lena is shown in Figure 1. You can see many reproductions of Lena by searching "Lena image processing" in Google Images. Dr. Trussell says "The images vary tremendously because the original data was not capture accurately and there is no conversion to a standard display format so that all the images, starting from the same data, would look the same." The second image (Figure 2) is very nearly how Lena should look. This image was produced by capturing an original print of the image with a calibrated scanner and translating the data to a standard format recognized by most displays. "For librarians and archivists, it is important to preserve images and documents accurately, so they can be studied by researchers many years in the future", states Dr. Trussell. This workshop was a semester's worth of information distilled from ECE558X "Digital Imaging Systems", a Graduate Level course being offered at North Carolina State University that has been geared toward engineers that are working in the digital imaging field. Dr. Trussell saw a need for a curriculum designed for those at the document level -- such as librarians and archivists who require accurate acquisition of imaging -- however the class was open to anyone with the sole requirement of having worked with images previously. The workshop was offered in July on North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus and due to its popularity is expected to be offered again during spring break or next summer. ]]> 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2SACNAS-NCSU, a new group being lead by Dr. Edgar Lobaton, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the SACNAS 2012 Most Outstanding Recruitment Effort Role Model Award. As stated in the award notification letter, "Your efforts for the 2011/2012 academic year are exemplary of the type of accomplishments and activities that are in line with the SACNAS mission, vision, goals and values." The SACNAS-NCSU is in their first year as a chapter at NC State. SACNAS is the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in the Sciences. The main goal of the chapter at NCSU is to provide mentoring between graduate students and undergraduate students who are underrepresented in the scientific disciplines. They aim to improve the public understanding of and appreciation for Chicanos, Latinos, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other underrepresented minorities in the sciences. This chapter will provide a forum for students from all science-related majors to come together for academic, community service and social activities at North Carolina State University. As a chapter awardee, the SACNAS-NCSU has been asked to participate in the SACNAS Chapter Recognition Reception that will be held at the 2012 SACNAS National Conference in Seattle, WA. ]]> 28 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Alper Bozkurt, Edgar Lobaton and Mihail Sichitiu have been awarded $880,000 by the National Science Foundation Cyber-Physical Systems Program for their research on "CPS: Synergy: Collaborative Research: Cyborg Insect Networks for Exploration and Mapping (CINEMa)". The total award amount is $1,000,000 as an additional award of $120,000 was granted to Ty Hedrick at UNC-Chapel Hill Biology Department as a part of this research effort. The award will run from October 1st, 2012 to September 30th, 2015. Research Abstract Autonomous navigation in unknown and dynamic environments has been a major challenge for synthetic mobile robotic agents. On the other hand, insects can easily solve such complex navigational problems and demonstrate remarkably stable and optimized locomotion skills in almost any environment. This project aims to develop a mobile sensor network where insects are used as mobile biological-robotic (biobotic) nodes. Insects, in fact, build a "natural" sensor network through the use of their biological sensing organs and release of chemical, mechanical and optical cues to communicate the information to the rest of the group. In the scope of this project, a novel cyber-physical communication network will be established among the individual insect in addition to the aforementioned natural one. For this, insects will be equipped with synthetic electronic sensors to sense additional cues, neuromuscular stimulation systems to direct the control of the insect and microcontrollers with radios to establish an RF link between the insects. This novel network will enable operation of insect biobots in complicated and uncertain dynamic environments for applications such as environmental sensing and search-and-rescue operations after natural disasters. ]]> 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. B. Jayant Baliga, Distinguished University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center at North Carolina State University, has been selected to receive the 2012 North Carolina Award for Science, the state's highest civilian honor. Baliga, one of six honorees, will receive the award Oct. 30 at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. Created by the General Assembly in 1961, the North Carolina Awards have been presented annually since 1964. The awards recognize significant contributions to the state and nation in the fields of fine arts, literature, public service and science. The awards are administered by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. "We are honored each year to pay tribute to men and women who embody the very best of our state with their imagination, exploration, creativity, and humanitarian service," said Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle. "They have made a difference in many lives." Baliga is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in electronics engineering and has been listed among the "Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution" by Scientific American refrigerators and light bulbs, have saved the world's consumers more than $15 trillion and now help form the basis for the emerging smart grid. The IGBT's widespread impact earned Baliga the 2010 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation's highest honor for technological achievement. A member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1993, Baliga holds more than 120 US patents and is an author of 18 books and more than 550 publications. He joined the NC State faculty in 1988. The other North Carolina award winners: writer Gary Neil Carden for Literature; saxophonist Lou Donaldson for Fine Arts; former NC Secretary of State Janice H. Faulkner and former US ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter for Public Service; and sculptor Thomas H. Sayre for Fine Arts. The proposed effort will investigate new approaches to building ultra low power computers. ]]> 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2NC State University has won a MRI (Major Research Instrumentation) proposal for the acquisition of the university's first Electron Beam Lithography System. This proposal was lead by Dr. Mehmet Ozturk of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Ozturk said, "This will be the first E-Beam Lithography System that NC State will have on campus. Prior to this system, users had to travel to other campuses as far away as Cornell University in order to use an E-Beam Lithography System." An Electron Beam Lithography System is a direct-write system that allows users to try different patterns without having to purchase expensive masks used in conventional lithography systems. Lithography systems use light to expose the photo-resist and the wavelength of that light determines how small the features are. NC State currently has a state-of-the-art conventional lithography system that operates at a wavelength of 193 nm (nanometers). This is referred to as "Deep Ultra Violet Lithography." At that wavelength, the machine NC State currently has, can write features down to 100 nm. The E-Beam Lithography System that NC State will be acquiring will be able to go down to 10 nm. Its much higher resolution over most conventional lithography techniques is its advantage. Dr. Ozturk says, "One hundred nm is too large for state of the art nanotechnology." Another advantage is that the E-Beam Lithography System will also work as an electron microscope, which will be located in the clean room. "An Electron Beam Lithography System is essential for a Nanofabrication Facility to be able to claim itself as a Nanofabrication Facility" says Dr. Ozturk. NC State has a large community of users that are excited about obtaining this system. Dr. Ozturk says, "We hope that this will be a major resource for our faculty and graduate students at NC State." This system will be available to users in every department and school at NC State and will be installed in the NNF (Nanofabrication) Facility. Dr. Ozturk had co-principals (co-PI's) and senior personnel from different departments from NC State. The co-PIs and senior personnel provided paragraphs in the proposal that explained what they would do with the Electron Beam Lithography System. "Without their input, we would have not been able to win this proposal" says Dr. Ozturk. The co-PI's on this project were Drs. Veena Misra, Michael Dickey from Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Robert Riehn from Physics and Steven Soper from Biomolecular Engineering. The total cost of this proposal, including cost sharing, was $1,371,370. ]]> 17 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Cranos Williams, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has found an effective means of estimating the "regions of attraction" (ROA) when developing computer models of biological systems - improving the ability of these models to predict how a system will respond to changing conditions. But to talk about that, we probably need to explain what an ROA is - and why it matters. When developing computer models to predict the behavior of biological systems, an enormous number of variables come into play - ranging from nutrient concentrations to the presence (or absence) of specific environmental stressors. In most cases, the value of these variables leads to a specific phenotype, or observable characteristic. For example, a tree growing in a damp environment is less likely to drive its roots deep into the soil. A tree growing in a dry environment is more likely to drive its roots deep into the soil, in search of water. The variable in this example is the presence of environmental water. The amount of water affects which phenotype is expressed - deep roots or shallow ones. The range of possible values for a given variable that result in a specific phenotype is called an ROA. Using the previous example, the point at which the soil becomes so dry that a tree begins to send its roots deeper into the ground is the point at which it passes from the "shallow roots" ROA to the "deep roots" ROA. And being able to accurately estimate the ROA, or range of values that lead to a given physical characteristic, for all of a system's possible phenotypes is an important part of the modeling process for biological systems. "Accurate estimates of the regions of attraction of biological systems allow us to assess how systematic changes in control variables, and even changes in environmental stressors, can change the relative size of the ROA - making them larger or smaller," says Dr. Williams, who co-authored a paper on the research. "Changes in ROAs associated with plant metabolism, for example, can have a potential impact on the plant's ability to survive or adapt to changing conditions such as climate, drought, or pollution. "Furthermore, if we understand what changes these ROAs, we may be able to determine how the relevant variables can be manipulated to minimize the likelihood of unwanted phenotypes - such as characteristics linked to premature cell death." Most existing tools that estimate ROAs were developed for use in models that aren't designed to capture the dynamic nature of biological systems. And while a few, more sophisticated, estimation techniques have been developed, it remained unclear whether they could be used in conjunction with biological systems. But now we're back where we started. Researchers from NC State have identified an ROA estimation technique that is compatible with at least some complex biological models - and may be applicable to many more. Williams and Megan Matthews, a Ph.D. student at NC State, applied this technique - developed by Sascha Warthenpfuhl, et al., at the University of Wuppertal - to two biological models, and found the approach was able to successfully estimate ROAs associated with these systems. Matthews is currently leading an effort to modify the technique to improve its accuracy, as well as determine how broadly the technique may be applied. The paper, "Region of attraction estimation of biological continuous Boolean models," will be presented at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, being held Oct. 14-17 in Seoul, Korea. ]]> 17 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Aranya Chakrabortty has been awarded $360,000 by the National Science Foundation for research on SEP Collaborative: Integrating Heterogeneous Energy Resources For Sustainable Power Networks - A Systems Approach. The award will run from September 15th, 2012 to August 31st, 2016. Research Abstract This project will take a unique approach in examining how management and control of large-scale and distributed energy resources can contribute to both stabilization and improving the performance of for power systems with high penetration of renewable energy. The research will involve a system theoretic end-to-end analysis from detailed characterization of the energy sources through propagation of these inputs through the power transmission and distribution network. An important aspect of the proposed research is the ability of this interdisciplinary team to examine not only the technical and physical system challenges but to include the related regulatory, policy and market challenges that must be dealt with in order to implement any proposed power system changes. ]]> 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Michael B. Steer has been awarded $450,000 by the US Army - Army Research Office for research on Time-Frequency and Non-Laplacian Phenomena at Radio Frequencies. The award will run from September 30th, 2012 to August 31st, 2016. Research Abstract Recent phenomenological investigations of the fundamental limits to the performance of radio, radar and sensor systems have revealed radio-frequency (RF) interference effects that do not have the expected integer calculus descriptions. Some of these effects derive from electro-thermal diffusive interactions and it is believed that many other effects similarly derive from diffusion. Also, time-frequency effects have been discovered in which the temporal response of electronics excited by a pulsed RF signal is significantly longer than linear frequency-domain analysis would imply. It is believed that these derive from diffusion-like effects as well and require fractional calculus. The project's premise is that using integer calculus-based analysis has resulted in sources of interference in RF systems being missed. This project investigates the underlying physics of diffusive RF phenomena. Time-domain fractional calculus-based descriptions transformed into the frequency-domain become non-Laplacian (i.e. non-integer-based). However, conventional analysis of RF structures is based on integer-based Laplacian frequency-domain analysis derived from integer calculus. The project extends the engineer's RF analysis toolkit to include non-Laplacian models and abstractions. The work will lead to new paradigms for understanding interference at RF, for enhancing RF systems, for deriving fundamental limits of performance at RF, for developing signatures, and for manipulating RF electronics. ]]> 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Alper Bozkurt , an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has developed a technique that uses an electronic interface to remotely control, or steer, cockroaches. ". " Researchers were able to precisely steer the roaches along a curved line. . . . . In a recent experiment, the researchers were able to use the microcontroller to precisely steer the roaches along a line that curves in different directions. Here is video of the experiment: The paper, "Line Following Terrestrial Insect Biobots," was presented Aug. 28 at the 34th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine &. ]]> 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2A paper authored by Dr. Brian Floyd, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University, has been awarded one of the Pat Goldberg Best Paper Awards for 2011 by IBM Research. The paper, titled "Organic Packages with Embedded Phased-Array Antennas for 60-GHz Wireless Chipsets", was among more than 110 papers in computer science, electrical engineering and mathematical sciences that were published in refereed conference proceedings and journals in 2011 that were submitted by IBM Research authors worldwide Dr. Floyd says, "The 60-GHz application space is very exciting, where the large amount of available bandwidth enables high-speed wireless communications for applications like uncompressed wireless HD video streaming across your living room and multi-gigabit-per-second short-range file transfer between portable devices. For these markets to flourish, low-cost electronics are required, which includes a low cost integrated circuit and a low-cost antenna and package solution. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time a complete packaged 16-element phased-array chipset solution with embedded antennas, based on low-cost organic packaging technology." ]]> 05 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2North Carolina State University will lead a national nanotechnology research effort to create self-powered devices to help people monitor their health and understand how the surrounding environment affects it, the National Science Foundation announced today. The NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST), to be headquartered on NC State's Centennial Campus, is a joint effort between NC State and partner institutions Florida International University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Virginia. The center, funded by an initial five-year $18.5 million grant from NSF, also includes five affiliated universities and about 30 industry partners in its global research consortium. "Tackling the world's grand challenges is one of NC State's strategic imperatives," said NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson. "The ASSIST center holds the potential to transform health care, leading to advanced environmental health research and enhanced environmental policy." With the addition of ASSIST, NC State is the only university in the country currently leading two active NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERCs), among the largest and most prestigious grants made by the engineering directorate of the federal agency. The FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid ERC formed in 2008, is also headquartered at NC State. ASSIST researchers will use the tiniest of materials to develop self-powered health monitoring sensors and devices. These devices could be worn on the chest like a patch, on the wrist like a watch, as a cap that fits over a tooth, or in other ways, depending on the biological system that's being monitored. Wireless health monitoring is already a fast-growing industry, but the self-powered technology being developed by ASSIST means that changing and recharging batteries on current devices could soon be a thing of the past. By using nanomaterials and nanostructures - a nanowire is thousands of times thinner than a human hair - and thermoelectric and piezoelectric materials that use body heat and motion, respectively, as power sources, ASSIST researchers want to make devices that operate on the smallest amounts of energy. "Currently there are many devices out there that monitor health in different ways," said Dr. Veena Misra, the center's director and professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State. "What's unique about our technologies is the fact that they are powered by the human body, so they don't require battery charging." These devices could transform health care by improving the way doctors, patients and researchers gather and interpret important health data. Armed with uninterrupted streams of heart rate readings, respiration rates and other health indicators, as well as personalized exposure data for environmental pollutants such as ozone and carbon monoxide, sick people could better manage chronic diseases, and healthy people could make even better decisions to keep themselves fit. On a larger scale, data gleaned from research studies employing these devices could prove invaluable to lawmakers crafting environmental policy. And if people using the devices make better decisions about where and how healthfully they live, national health care costs, which topped $2.5 trillion in 2010, could come down. The center's headquarters will be housed in the Larry K. Monteith Engineering Research Center on NC State's Centennial Campus. There, ASSIST researchers will develop thermoelectric materials that harvest body heat and new nanosensors that gather health information from the body such as heart rates, oxygen levels and respiration data. In addition, the researchers will find ways to package the technology developed by the center into wearable devices. The center's partner institutions will also play important research roles. At Penn State, researchers will create new piezoelectric materials and energy-efficient transistors. The team from the University of Virginia will develop ways to make the systems work on very small amounts of power, while the group from Florida International University will create sensors that gather biochemical signals from the body, such as stress levels. The results of that work, coupled with low-power radios developed by the University of Michigan, will be used to process and transmit health data gathered by the sensors to computers and consumer devices, such as cell phones, so patients, doctors and researchers can easily digest it. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will provide ASSIST with medical guidance and arrange testing of the center's technology. "We have assembled a comprehensive team that works together closely under a systems-driven approach to tackle this challenging set of global health problems," Misra said. ASSIST also has foreign partnerships with the University of Adelaide, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. "The research conducted at ASSIST will help patients, doctors and scientists make direct correlations between a person's health and the surrounding environment, leading to better prediction and treatment of chronic diseases," said Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering at NC State. "The fact that NC State now leads two NSF Engineering Research Centers is a testament to our world-class engineering faculty, students and facilities." ASSIST will also draw on the expertise of industry partners to help guide the center's work to the marketplace. These partners include companies and agencies involved in nanomaterials and nanodevices, integrated chip manufacturing, software development, bioengineering and health care. The center will feature a nanotechnology education program, including an undergraduate concentration and a graduate master's certificate, as well as a personalized professional-development program for graduate students. The center will also partner with 11 middle and high schools in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania to develop outreach activities that bring nanosystems engineering into K-12 classrooms. Students in partner high schools will have the chance to be involved in ASSIST research. The five-year NSF grant for ASSIST is renewable for an additional five years and follows a two-year selection process by the federal agency. The grant is among a new group of Engineering Research Center awards that invest in nanosystems. Dr. John Muth, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, will serve as the center's deputy director. The ASSIST leadership team also includes Dr. Thomas Jackson, Kirby Professor of Electrical Engineering at Penn State, research director and partner campus director; Dr. David Peden, senior associate dean for translational research at the UNC School of Medicine, medical director; Dr. Benton Calhoun, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Virginia, partner campus director; Dr. Shekhar Bhansali, Alcatel-Lucent Professor and head of electrical and computer engineering at Florida International University, partner campus director; Dr. Mehmet Ozturk, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the NC State Nanofabrication Facility, education and diversity director; Dr. Gail Jones, professor of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in NC State's College of Education, pre-college education director; and Dr. Ted Baker, associate professor of management, innovation and entrepreneurship in NC State's Poole College of Management, industry collaboration and innovation director. ]]> 05 Sep 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Michael Escuti has been awarded $259,966 by the ImagineOptix Corp for research on Yr V Development of Complex Birefringent Optical Elements. The award will run from September 1st, 2012 to August 31st, 2013. Research Abstract The PI and team will investigate Geometric Phase Holograms (GPHs), polymer Polarization Gratings (PGs), and multi-twist retarders (MTRs) optimized for and integrated into projector systems, optical filters, and other devices. The target is to employ optical techniques and materials improvements to develop these complex optical elements, and additional new ones, which produce enhanced performance or enable commercially viable fabrication. As part of the effort, the NCSU team will coordinate and interact with the sponsor and with various third party vendors and partners, who are engaged by the sponsor, in order to facilitate access to advice, materials, components, fabrication tools, and independent verification supporting the research goals. ]]> 30 Aug 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Drs. Cranos Williams (PI), Terri Long (CoPI), James Tuck (CoPI), and Joel Ducoste (CoPI) have been awarded $999,754 by the National Science Foundation for research on Dynamic Regulatory Modeling of the Iron Deficiency Response in Arabidopsis thaliana. The award will run from August 15th, 2012 to July 31st, 2017. Research Abstract Multicellular organisms such as plants react to abiotic stress with a multitude of physiological and molecular responses orchestrated by key regulatory proteins, or transcription factors. Experimental datasets, such as transcriptional profiles, are often used to identify critical, yet, uncharacterized transcription factors in these responses. Limitations in these datasets caused by constraints in experimental perturbations and finite experimental resources are the reasons why traditional approaches have revealed few key regulating and controlling elements, particularly in model organisms such as Arabidopsis thaliana. The PIs hypothesize that additional computer-based simulations from dynamic gene regulatory models can be used in combination with clustering approaches to expand the perturbation space and assess secondary and tertiary control mechanisms, leading to the identification of hidden regulatory relationships between genes and transcription factors. They propose to develop a novel modeling and parallel computing paradigm to identify previously uncharacterized regulatory components that control iron homeostasis in A. thaliana across multiple cell types. The interdisciplinary approach proposed by these PIs presents a new paradigm that 1) unifies novel genomic experimental techniques, engineering modeling approaches, and parallel computing to clarify the role of known regulatory elements and 2) identifies new regulating components involved in iron homeostasis within and across different cell types. Their integration of systems engineering, plant biology, and computer engineering will help create new solutions to existing problems and encourages a vision for addressing challenging issues that have, to date, remained intimidating using traditional approaches. Their results will lead to methods for stretching critical resources and increasing crop yields to feed the projected 9 billion people in 2050 through development of plants that exhibit improved function in low nutrient soils, or plants that can contain elevated nutrient content. Motivation: A ubiquitous feature in many signal processing systems is to learn the input statistics from historical data. In these systems, Bayesian methods perform statistically optimal signal processing. However, there are applications including file compression, speech recognition, network monitoring, and compressed sensing in which it might be impractical to learn the statistics a priori. In such applications, a statistical approach that adapts to the data at hand must be used. The information theory community has championed the use of universal algorithms, they achieve the best possible statistical performance asymptotically despite not knowing the input statistics. These algorithms have had tremendous impact in lossless compression, where the goal is to describe data as succinctly as possible while allowing a decoder to reproduce the input perfectly. In sharp contrast, universal algorithms have had little impact on other areas. ]]> 09 Aug 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Do Young Eun has been awarded $366,928 by the National Science Foundation for research on NeTS: Small: Distributed and Efficient Randomized Algorithms for Large Networks. The award will run from August 1st, 2012 to July 31st, 2015. Research Abstract Designing efficient and distributed algorithms has been central to almost all large networked systems. Examples include crawling-based sampling of large online social networks, statistical estimation or inference from massive scale of networked data, efficient searching algorithms in unstructured peer-to-peer networks, randomized routing and duty-cycling algorithm for better performance-energy tradeoff in wireless sensor networks, and distributed scheduling algorithms leading to maximal throughput and smaller delay in multihop wireless networks, to list a few. Except for small-sized, static networks for which centralized design is not much of an issue, virtually all large networks necessarily demand distributed algorithms for inherent lack of global information and also randomized algorithms for autonomous load balancing and their resilience/robustness against possible points of failure/attacks, yet often with close-to-optimal performance. ]]> 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Researchers from North Carolina State University and ImagineOptix Corporation have developed new technology to convert unpolarized light into polarized light, which makes projectors that use liquid crystal (LC) technology almost twice as energy efficient. The new technology has resulted in smaller, lower cost and more efficient projectors, meaning longer battery life and significantly lower levels of heat. All LC projectors - used from classrooms to conference rooms - utilize polarized light. But efficient light sources - such as light-emitting diodes, or LEDs - produce unpolarized light. As a result, the light generated by LEDs has to be converted into polarized light before it can be used. The most common method of polarizing light involves passing the unpolarized light through a polarizing filter. But this process wastes more than 50 percent of the originally generated light, with the bulk of the "lost" light being turned into heat - which is a major reason that projectors get hot and have noisy cooling fans. But the new technology developed at NC State allows approximately 90 percent of the unpolarized light to be polarized and, therefore, used by the projector. The ImagineOptix-sponsored research team was also able to use the technology to create a small "picoprojector," which could be embedded in a smartphone, tablet or other device. "This technology, which we call a polarization grating-polarization conversion system (PGPCS), will significantly improve the energy efficiency of LC projectors," says Dr. Michael Escuti, co-author of a paper describing the research and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State. "The commercial implications are broad reaching. Project percent of the unpolarized light is converted into heat - as opposed to the more than 50 percent light loss that stems from using conventional polarization filters - the new technology will also reduce the need for loud cooling fans and enable more compact designs. The technology is a small single-unit assembly composed of four immobile parts. A beam of unpolarized light first passes through an array of lenses, which focus the light into a grid of spots. The light then passes through a polarization grating, which consists of a thin layer of liquid crystal material on a glass plate. The polarization grating separates the spots of light into pairs, which have opposite polarizations. The light then passes through a louvered wave plate, which is a collection of clear, patterned plates that gives the beams of light the same polarization. Finally, a second array of lenses focuses the spots of light back into a single, uniform beam of light. The paper, "Efficient and monolithic polarization conversion system based on a polarization grating," was published July 10 in Applied Optics. The paper was co-authored by Drs. Note to Editors: The study abstract follows. "Efficient and monolithic polarization conversion system based on a polarization grating" Abstract: We introduce a new polarization conversion system (PCS) based on a liquid-crystal polarization grating (PG) and louvered wave plate. A simple arrangement of these elements laminated between two microlens arrays results in a compact and monolithic element, with the ability to nearly completely convert unpolarized input into linearly polarized output across most of the visible bandwidth. In our first prototypes, this PG-PCS approach manifests nearly 90% conversion efficiency of unpolarized to polarized for +/-11 degree input light divergence, leading to an energy efficient picoprojector that presents high efficacy (12 lm/W) with good color uniformity. ]]> 27 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Huiyang Zhou has been awarded $376,484 by the National Science Foundation for research on SHF:Small:CPU-GPU Collaborative Execution in Fusion Architectures. The award will run from August 1st, 2012 to July 31st, 2015. Research Abstract Recent advances in semiconductor technologies have led to fusion architectures, in which the central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) are integrated onto the same chip. Sandy Bridge processors from Intel and accelerated processing units (APUs) from AMD are such examples. However, current fusion architectures mainly take advantage of form factors and CPUs and GPUs operate very similar to discrete parts. In this proposal, we make the key observation that fused CPU-GPU architectures enable new opportunities to address important challenges in either CPU computing or GPU computing, which is also referred to as general-purpose computation on GPU (GPGPU). We propose novel CPU-GPU collaborative execution paradigms, in which CPUs and GPUs execute programs in a synergic manner. In CPU-assisted GPU computing, CPUs runs ahead either to warm up the shared data cache for GPU threads or to inform GPUs the thread organization for incoming divergent branches so as to improve the GPU resource utilization. In GPU-assisted CPU computing, GPUs will either profile the locality of CPU programs to improve the memory hierarchy performance or monitor the run-time anomalies to enhance the reliability of CPU execution. ]]> 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Alex Huang and David Lubkeman have been awarded $629,254 by the National Science Foundation for research on AIR: Accelerating Commercialization of the Solid State Transformer Through Strategic Partnership. The award will run from July 15th, 2012 to June 30th, 2014. Research Abstract This project seeks to form a partnership for innovation between NCSU's FREEDM Systems Center, Duke Energy and GridBridge Inc., to speed up the translational research at the FREEDM Systems Center through market guided research and commercialization strategy. ]]> 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2We are pleased to announce the addition of five new members of the NCSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Jake Adams will join the ECE department as an Assistant Professor beginning in January of 2013. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbania-Champaign in May, 2011. His teaching and research will focus on antennas and applied electromagnetics. Dr. Mike Kudenov will join the ECE Department as an Assistant Professor beginning in August. He received his Ph.D. in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona in 2009 and is presently an Assistant Research Professor there. His research and teaching interests include biomedical imaging, remote sensing, and active learning. Dr. Ning Lu will join the ECE Department as an Associate Professor beginning in January. She comes to us from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA where she is a senior research engineer with the Energy and Environment Directorate. She worked in industry prior to earning her Ph.D. in Electrical Power Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has over 18 years of experience in electric power engineering. Her research and teaching interests include renewable integration, energy storage management and modeling, integrated information management systems for the smart grid, and climate charge impacts on power grids. Dr. David Lubkeman has joined the ECE Department as a Research Professor in the FREEDM Center. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and comes to us with over 28 years of experience in electrical power systems engineering. His experience includes 16 years of faculty experience at NC State and Clemson, 3 years of consulting experience with KEMA, and 9 years of R&D project management experience with ABB. Dr. Lubkeman has had a number of occasions to collaborate with faculty in the FREEDM Center over the past several years, and we are excited to have him as one of us. Dr. David Ricketts will be joining the ECE Department as an Associate Professor. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Science from Harvard and comes to us most recently from Carnegie Mellon. His teaching and research interests include applied electromagnetics, microwave and millimeter wave circuits, and nano-electronic devices and circuits. We are excited about the wealth of knowledge and experience that each of these faculty members will bring to our department. We believe they will compliment our existing strengths nicely, and add valuable new insights to the department. The IMSD program is an initiative at NC State whose focus is to increase in a meaningful way the number of students from underrepresented groups receiving doctoral degrees and entering into the professoriate in bio-related disciplines (e.g. Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Genetics, and Plant Biology). This program is funded through the National Institute of Health. The assistantship will be awarded starting August 2012 where Megan will continue into the Ph.D. program in Electrical Engineering under Dr. Williams. Megan will focus on applying mathematical modeling techniques and control systems theory to understanding how environmental stressors such as drought, elevated temperature, salinity, and elevated CO2 concentrations impact lignin, cellulose, and other useful compounds generated by plant systems. This multi-disciplinary research topic combines the fields of electrical engineering, systems theory, plant biology, and mathematics. ]]> 17 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2It's not easy: Designing a robot that can operate underwater, be autonomous, move through a gate, glide between buoys and use a camera to navigate. But that's what 15 members of the Underwater Robotics Club (URC) have been grappling with since last July. And now with the national RoboSub Competition looming in San Diego on July 17, the engineers must have Seawolf V, their 65-pound robot and its microcontroller, performing in peak form. "The pressure is on," admits URC captain Chris Thunes. A Popular Challenge This year's event, cosponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, is the NC State team's seventh consecutive challenge. Thirty-five teams from the United States and abroad are competing, up from 30 teams three years ago. NC State's team includes sophomores, juniors, seniors and Thunes, who graduated with computer science and mathematics degrees in May. The Underwater Robotics Club prepares for this year's challenge at the Carmichael Pool. Teams qualify by having their robot perform a long task list. This includes striking two or three buoys in a given order, navigating through an obstacle course, and placing markers within designated bins. "It's very intense," says Matthew Wiggins, a junior in computer and electrical engineering. Last year, the NC State team was one of four finalists. What It Takes To remain competitive and viable the engineers have worked in the evenings and on the weekends to get the robot up and running. There have been multiple setbacks. For instance, two Sundays ago at the Carmichael Pool, the microcontroller stopped talking to the computer, causing the robot to shut down. Then, new electronics kindly donated by Intel haven't worked so well. "To be honest, something's gone wrong with every pool testing," Wiggins adds. Added Experience But morale remains high. One of the Seawolf V's distinguishing qualities is its binocular vision. The team has also built this year's robot from scratch, giving new engineers a chance to learn what robot making entails. Thunes likens the competition to the business world. "The technical skills, the hiccups and collaboration is fantastic training and so helpful once graduating," he says. URC secretary Michael Brown says the contest shows him how complicated systems truly work. "You can only learn this by doing," he says. With less than a week to go, the team is convinced they'll do just fine. Prize money is $5,000, enough to cover travel expenses. Wiggins says this year's robot is even better than last year's. "We hope to at least make the final round." Author: Debbi Gardiner McCullough \| dgmccull@ncsu.edu \| News Services ]]> 16 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is pleased to announce that Adam Wilkerson and Scott Clouse, two students pursuing their PhD's in Electrical Engineering, are the recipients of Department of Defense SMART Scholarships. The Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program has been established by the Department of Defense (DoD) to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The program aims to increase the number of civilian scientists and engineers working at DoD laboratories. Adam Wilkerson is pursuing his PhD in Electrical Engineering at NCSU after completing his Master's in pure mathematics from Indiana University, where his focus was on Algebraic Topology. While finishing his PhD over the next two years, he will be working on analyzing social networks using techniques in algebraic topology beyond graph theory. These techniques are a combination of ideas derived from the social science and network community and ideas developed in the study of sensor network deployments over the last 15 years. The idea is that pairwise relationships in a social network don't determine all the social structure within that group, and that higher-dimensional data will shed some light on these holes in our understanding of human interactions. After that, he'll be working in Huntsville, AL, studying sensor network deployments and continuing his social networks research. Hamilton Scott Clouse is pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering at NCSU with an emphasis on pattern recognition. In the field of remote sensing, measurements are made from a distance with sensors of various modalities. Scott's work centers on the combination of phenomenological understanding and signal/image processing techniques to extract high-level descriptions of scenes observed in this manner. These data are of great dimensionality and, under the direction of Dr. Hamid Krim, Scott focuses specifically on geometric analysis techniques for such high-dimensional data. NCSU will model AlGaN/GaN HFETs for TriQuint under the MPC/DARPA effort over the next 2 or 3 years. Twice a year, NCSU will develop a time domain model of TriQuint's current GaN FETs, validate it against TriQuint characterizations of devices, then simulate the operation. There are three devices in each interation, a depletion mode logic device, an enhancement mode logic device, and a RF switch. Quantities of interest include Ron, Roff, propagation delay and transition energy for the E/D logic, and off-state reactance. ]]> 06 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Subhashish Bhattacharya has been awarded $234,444 by the GE Global Research for research on Resilient Multiterminal HVDC Using High Voltage High Frequency Electronics Capability. The award will run from April 4th, 2012 to January 22nd, 2015. Research Abstract GE Global Research in collaboration with North Carolina State University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute proposes a resilient multi-terminal current-link based HVDC transmission technology, to enable dynamic routing of electric power with high efficiency and reliability. The proposed technology is modular which allows system scalability to achieve any voltage and power rating. Each module is based on a high-voltage high-frequency power conversion topology in which the galvanic isolation is achieved by a high-frequency (20-50kHz) step-up transformer. Hence, the low-frequency grid side transformer is eliminated which results significant reduction in the system footprint. Due to current-link based power transmission, the proposed technology is naturally fault tolerant and hence it is suitable for multi-terminal HVDC system. The nature of the proposed work includes both proof of concept and early stage device prototyping categories. Following tasks will be executed to satisfy the technical performance targets of the proposed technology: Circuit level analysis, design and control of the module Steady-state and dynamic analysis of the system Real-time demonstration of the system based on a commercial RTDS platform ]]> 06 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Tania Paskova and Dr. John Muth have been awarded $383,532 by the National Science Foundation for research on III-Nitride LED Structures on Sidewall Grown Semipolar Facets. The award will run from July 1st, 2012 to June 30th, 2015. Research Abstract The proposed research addresses a long-standing issue of growing importance to the nitride-based optoelectronic technology, namely the internal quantum efficiency of nitride emitters in green-yellow region, and how the nonpolar/semipolar alignment of the active device regions can help to improve the device performance. An in-depth investigation will be undertaken to gain a comprehensive understanding of the basic properties of semipolar GaN/InGaN LED structures produced by lateral sidewall growth. The dominating growth mechanisms, the defect formation and evolution, the In and doping element incorporation efficiency, and the strain in structures with different semipolar orientations will be studied, aiming to establish the best approach for producing low-defect-density semipolar LED structures with enhanced internal quantum efficiency. For two decades, personal computers and servers have been powered by increasingly sophisticated superscalar processors. The last few years has even witnessed the introduction of superscalar processors into smart phones and tablet PCs, in order to provide richer user experiences. There are important trends in both domains: server-class processors require unsustainable design effort, as evidenced by a select few, highly trained, large design teams in industry proliferating superscalar processors; mobile devices are evolving at an extraordinary pace. These trends suggest it is time to take a radical departure in the way superscalar processors are designed. In particular, the PI proposes superscalar processor design automation. This project explores challenges and solutions at key levels: Automatic FPGA-based processor-in-system exploration Efficient and automatic ISA/microarchitecture decoupling Automatic RTL generation via a superscalar design language A low-effort physical design strategy and alternative to custom design. ]]> 06 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Researchers have developed a tool that makes it faster and easier to develop new cores - also known as central processing units - for computer processors. The new tool could spur the development of processors with many different types of specialized cores. Manufacturers have been developing multi-core computer chips, or processors, for years. Each core is capable of processing computer code, executing instructions from a wide variety of software programs. Such processors are found in everything from cell phones to laptops. But not all cores are created equal. Depending on their design specifications, each core has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, one core may be able to execute many operations in parallel, but not be very efficient at executing operations while retrieving data from memory, or vice versa. Thus, some core designs may be particularly well-suited to running multimedia programs, while others may be better for running database applications. Most multi-core processors incorporate identical, non-specialized cores, which are designed to be fairly good at any task they might be assigned. However, with the rise of multi-core chips, there has been a growing sentiment that computer performance could be improved by incorporating a variety of cores with different design specifications into a single processor - and assigning different computing tasks to the cores best-suited to handle those tasks. But this approach poses its own challenges, because core design is a painstaking process involving the efforts of hundreds of engineers. The first step in core design is to determine what the dimensions of a core's constituent components should be in order for it to excel at tasks with certain characteristics (such as executing useful operations while retrieving data from memory). This is called a core's "architectural specification." Once the architectural specification is complete, it then needs to be effectively translated into an implementation design that can be used to physically fabricate the core itself. Moving from the architectural specification to the implementation design can take years. Now a team of researchers led by Rotenberg has developed a tool that automates this process, allowing core designers to plug in the architectural specifications - and using those specifications to create an implementation design. Specifically, the tool creates a "synthesizable register-transfer-level design" of the core. This design can be used to create the suite of manufacturing blueprints manufacturers need to actually fabricate the cores. By automating the process, the tool allows core designers to move from the architectural specification to the factory floor in months, rather than years. "Processor designers will be free to create interesting ensembles of diverse cores because they won't be bogged down by the minutiae of core implementation," Rotenberg says. "In turn this will lead to faster and more capable computing devices that last longer between battery charges." A paper describing the work is published in the June issue of IEEE Micro. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Intel and IBM. ]]> 02 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Seventy-eight of the nation's brightest young engineers have been selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE) 18th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium. Engineers ages 30 to 45 who are performing exceptional engineering research and technical work in a variety of disciplines will come together for the 2 1/2 day event. The participants -- from industry, academia, and government -- were nominated by fellow engineers or organizations and chosen from approximately 300 applicants. "Our nation's health, quality of life, and security will depend on the engineering achievements of the 21st century," said NAE President Charles M. Vest. "The Frontiers of Engineering program gives young engineering pioneers the opportunity to collaborate and share approaches across fields. We believe those interactions will generate new ideas for improving the future." The symposium will be held on Sept. 13-15, 2012, at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Mich., and will examine serious games, vehicle electrification, climate engineering, and engineering materials for the biological interface. Alan I. Taub, retired vice president of General Motors global research and development, will be a featured speaker at the symposium. Sponsors for the 2012 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering are General Motors, the Grainger Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation, Microsoft Research, and Cummins Inc. The mission of NAE is to advance the well-being of the nation by promoting a vibrant engineering profession and by marshalling the expertise and insights of eminent engineers to provide independent advice to the federal government on matters involving engineering and technology. The NAE is part of the National Academies (along with the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council), an independent, nonprofit organization chartered by Congress to provide objective analysis and advice to the nation on matters of science and technology. ]]> 02 Jul 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2ImagineOptix, a company developing a revolutionary projection technology for phones and other uses, is one of NC State's Fast 15 - startup companies launched by the campus research community. The company is commercializing technology developed by Dr. Michael Escuti, head of the Opto-Electronics and Lightwave Engineering Group in the College of Engineering, who earned White House honors last year. Company officials say the technology they're developing will allow anyone to easily share presentations, photos and movies with crisp and clear resolution. "We're now shifting from 'research mode' to 'production and sales mode' with the technology," Erin Clark, president and CEO of the Cary-based company, explains. ImagineOptix and its Fast 15 peers exemplify the university's commitment to helping researchers take cutting-edge research to the marketplace. NC State established the Fast 15 in 2011 to help achieve an ambitious goal: doubling the number of startup companies launched by the campus research community. The university's New Venture Services supports the Fast 15 through customized support for faculty and student projects and startups. The goal is to create stronger, more viable early-stage companies that are poised for future success. The Fast 15 includes a spectrum of experience, from teams just starting with great ideas, to startups focusing on discoveries with great potential for commercialization, and also young companies marketing initial products but needing assistance to reach their full potential. NC State staff, faculty, industry leaders and entrepreneurs vet potential Fast 15 participants. New Venture Services, within the Office of Technology Transfer, then provides mentoring from experienced entrepreneurs, business launch planning and assistance building management teams. "The designation also offers the startup companies visibility that helps to attract interest from investors and prospective early stage stakeholders," adds Russell Thomas, who leads New Ventures services. The Fast 15 project complements the NC State's partnership with the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network, which is working with several campuses in the Triangle. Check out the Fast 15, listed in alphabetical order. Certalgo Small, highly transportable devices cool saline needed to induce hypothermia. With no refrigeration needed, they expand the situations where therapeutic hypothermia treatment can be used. DiscoverLit A concept for an e-publishing platform for short-form literature - serial novels, web fiction, poetry and short stories -has been put on hold as the developers focus on other projects. Galaxy Diagnostics A spinout from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Galaxy offers the most sensitive diagnostic test for the detection of active Bartonella bacteria, which infects animals and humans. Huffines Design These tactical defense accessories can be used in police and defense applications. The student designer anticipates licensing his patent to an established company. This filtration system removes blood phosphates during dialysis, extending the lives of those with chronic kidney disease and reducing or eliminating associated medications. Katharos is a joint venture between NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Knowit This online, knowledge-sharing and curating platform enables users to share what they are learning with friends and followers. Leiva Strings A music education start-up company, Leiva Strings uses a color-coded learning system that enables individuals to learn to play stringed instruments faster - and with less frustration. Oryx Bio Based on Centennial Campus, Orxy Bio is a spin-out of the College of Engineering. Its bioseparations technology platform will improve the manufacturing of therapeutic biological products. Oryx acquired Ligamar in early 2012. Nanovector This nanoparticle-based therapy uses a plant virus to deliver therapeutics into a cell and its nucleus, technology developed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Polymer Braille A book-size electronic reading device for the blind and visually impaired will convert pages to Braille dots that rise up through the screen. The product could increase Braille literacy, a key for employment for the blind. SPARKmoto An intelligent, electric supercharger will improve the performance of motorcycles and cars. Using a new method for applying nanocoatings developed in the College of Engineering, Vapor Pulse has initial markets for fabric protection, defense, and healthcare applications. Vapor Pulse was selected for the Chancellor's Innovation Fund in 2011. Xanofi Using unique advances developed in the College of Engineering, this team produces quality nanofibers for filters and medical uses using a unique, liquid-based process. Xanofi is now operational with several customers. Research Abstract The project will evaluate and design a non-rare earth electric machine concept for electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The machine will use a standard traction inverter commonly used in traction applications. The design is based on an alternative configuration of switched reluctance machines that can use the standard inverter topology. A prototype machine will be designed and built based on DOE specifications, and tested on an electric dynamometer for validation of results. ]]> 26 Jun 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Dr. Srdjan Lukic and his student Zeljko Pantic have developed a new way to fine-tune wireless power transfer (WPT) receivers, making the systems more efficient and functional. WPT systems hold promise for charging electric vehicles, electronic devices and other technologies. Researchers have shown that it is possible to transmit power wirelessly by using magnetic resonance. Even minor changes in how the transmitter or receiver is tuned, however, can result in faulty power transmission. A new prototype developed at NC State addresses the problem by automatically - and precisely - re-tuning the receivers in WPT systems. The researchers focused on receivers because methods already exist that allow researchers to use electronics to precisely tune the transmitters. "We're optimistic that this technology moves us one step closer to realizing functional WPT systems that can be used in real-world circumstances," says Dr. Srdjan Lukic, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the research. WPT systems work by transmitting magnetic waves on a specific frequency from a transmitter to a receiver. These magnetic waves interact with a coil in the receiver to induce an electric current. If the coil is tuned so that its resonant frequency matches the frequency of the magnetic waves, the current it produces is amplified. However, if the receiver and the transmitter are out of tune, the system becomes inefficient and doesn't transfer a significant amount of power. The receiver coil still picks up a trace amount of current, but it is not amplified. This is a problem because many factors can affect the tuning of a receiver or transmitter, such as temperature or proximity to other magnetic objects. In other words, a hot summer day could wreak havoc on the tuning of a receiver. Lukic and NC State Ph.D. student Zeljko Pantic developed an electronic prototype that incorporates additional circuitry into the receiver that does two things: it injects small amounts of reactive power into the receiver coil as needed to maintain its original resonant frequency; and, if the transmitter's tuning changes, the prototype can read the trace amount of current being transmitted and adjust the receiver's tuning accordingly. "Because we are using electronics to inject reactive power into the receiver coil, we can be extremely precise when tuning the receiver," Lukic says. "This degree of fine-tuning maximizes the efficiency of the WPT system. "The next step is to try incorporating this work into technology that can be used to wirelessly charge electric vehicles." ]]> 24 May 2012 00:00:00 ESTTown Crier v2Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) allow people in multiple, rapidly-moving vehicles to communicate with each other - such as in military or emergency-response situations. Researchers from North Carolina State University have devised a method to improve the quality and efficiency of data transmission in these networks. "Our goal was to get the highest data rate possible, without compromising the fidelity of the signal," says Dr. Alexandra Duel-Hallen, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. Transmitting data within MANETs is challenging because every node that transmits and receives data is in motion - and the faster they are moving, the harder it is for the network to identify effective relay "paths" for transmitting data. This is because the power of the data-transmission channels fluctuates much more rapidly at high speed. In other words, a transmitter may try to send a message through Relay A, because Relay A has a strong signal. However, because the transmitter and Relay A are both moving quickly, Relay A's signal might be weak by the time the message actually gets there. And a weak signal could result in the message being garbled. To address this issue, researchers developed a method to improve the ability of each node in the network to select the best path for relaying data, as well as the best for transmitting the data that ensures reliable reception. When a node needs to transmit a message, it first measures the strength of transmissions it is receiving from potential relays. Those data are then plugged in to an algorithm that predicts which relay will be strongest when the message is transmitted. By predicting the strength of the relay, the algorithm also tells the node the rate at which it should transmit the data. If it tries to send too much data too quickly, the data quality will suffer - the data could be compromised. If the rate of data transmission is too slow, the network won't be operating at peak efficiency. The paper, "Enabling Adaptive Rate and Relay Selection for 802.11 Mobile Ad Hoc Networks," will be presented at IEEE's International Conference on Communications in Ottawa, June 10-15. The paper is co-authored by Neil Mehta, an NC State Ph.D. student; Duel-Hallen; and Dr. Wenye Wang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office.	eng	5158ce19-2d26-46f3-bac0-3e4b3ea5b151	http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/rss/ece
. He advocated policies of neutrality and positive, upbeat journalism through the Great Depression and the beginning of the Cold War. By the 1950s Grosvenor and his staff were criticized as being conservative and unwilling to modernize which lead to the National Geographic's subscription base to fall. Grosvenor stepped down from his role in National Geographic in 1954. Dr. Mabel Harlakenden Grosvenor became one of the first female graduates of the Johns Hopkins University medical program in Baltimore, Maryland. She became a pediatrician and worked with disadvantaged children in Washington, D.C.'s Children's Hospital. Grosvenor had worked as a secretary for her grandfather Alexander Graham Bell. In October 1920, she accompanied her grandfather on his "farewell visit" of Europe, where he searched for long-lost ancestors. They found several cousins he didn't know existed by scouring genealogical records in Scotland which was where Bell was born. Grosvenor oversaw the stewardship of Bell's legacy Canadian estate at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia until her death in 2006. Melville Bell Grosvenor was the president of the National Geographic Society and editor of National Geographic Magazine from 1957-1969. During this time he increased the size of printed photographs in the magazine, and initiated the practice of opening articles with a two-page photo feature. The magazine began to branch out from land expeditions to cover investigations into space and the deep sea. Grosvenor expanded into the production of documentaries bearing the National Geographic name among them were the first American expedition to Mount Everest and Jacques Cousteau's underwater exploits. Melville's son Gilbert Melville Grosvenor is a past president and chief executive of the National Geographic Society (1980-1996). He was also a former editor of National Geographic Magazine (1970-1980). Grosvenor was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2004. Gilbert's brother Edwin S. Grosvenor is the editor in chief of American Heritage magazine. He is a former president of the National Geographic Society. Edwin along with Morgan Wesson wrote a biography of his great-grandfather, Alexander Graham Bell: The Life and Times of the Man Who Invented the Telephone. ]]> Recap for May 20, 2013 20 May 2013 20:00:18 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Check out some interesting genealogy related articles from the past week! Profile of the Day ]]> Amazing Discoveries Made Through Record Matches and Smart Matches™ 17 May 2013 20:12:11 +0000Amanda the full story]]>We love hearing how valuable Geni users are finding their new Record Matches and Smart Matches™. Recently, we shared how Record Matches and Smart Matches™ have led to exciting new discoveries for many users. We're happy to share even more amazing stories from users who have made great breakthroughs in their family tree. Check them out below: Jennifer Lynn Young: "So far Smart Matches have led me to 17 collateral ancestors (siblings of ancestors in my direct line), a photo for one gr-grandmother whose profile has been faceless up til now; and – the biggest thrill of all – Smart Matching connected me with a family tree on MyHeritage that may have given me the parents of a Scottish ancestor who has been a genealogical brick wall for fifty years! My great-aunt hired a researcher in Scotland to gather information on this family line in the Sixties, but they struck out. My family will be thrilled, and although I didn't start out as a fan of SmartMatches I have to say I'm an enthusiastic convert now!" Kris Stewart: " I have had my Irish 3rd great grandmother in my tree for many years but could never find any info on her parents. Following a Smart Match the other day, I was able to contact a cousin who lives in Ireland. In her MyHeritage tree, she had the parents and additional info from the church records there in Ireland." "This ancestor was actually an ancestor of the great grandmother whose photo I found the other day through a Record Match. The Record Match led to a photo on the Canadian Headstones site. I had the name and date of death and I knew of the site, but had never searched that site for that particular ancestor before. Many other family members were also buried there, and came up in Record Matches in the tree as well. The time saved by being pointed in the direction of existing records without having to enter the name and info of each person into a search box is invaluable." Jason Wills: "Thanks to record matching i just discovered my aunty is Estonian." "I had searched for the surname and drew a blank, and had heard my great aunt was "Croatian", but straight away found the Smart Match, and that she was Estonian and now have a short link to Estonian Jaak Tulp through her." "Here's her Estonian grandfather:" Georgett Studnicka: "You are giving me many matches (I love it!)." Randy Schoenberg: "I like to add new profiles to the tree. Now, as soon as I add a profile, I wait for the little blue circle to appear and tell me if there is a Tree Match to an existing profile on Geni, a Smart Match to a tree on MyHeritage or a Record Match to one of MyHeritage's billions of records, including census data, birth records, social security death records and newspaper articles. The data is so comprehensive that it is hard to add more than a few profiles without getting a match to something helpful." Jaak Tulp: "First of all i wanna apologize that i even thought first that RM and SM are somehow obsolete. I can say now for sure, that they are not. I hit a real gold mine – all of the added profiles are either pastors, professors, scientists, doctors, militarists and they are connected to me via the dearest childhood friend of my grandmother she played with in the castle of Karksi, Estonia. The father´s branch of bloodline of the friend includes also the father of "Õ" letter in Estonian alphabet Otto Wilhelm Masing a.s.o. So…thank you, thank you and one more time thank you. I´m thrilled and exited! After a while my collaborator found the connection point to existing profiles in Geni and merged them, but i have still lots of profiles to add and looking for the data extraction tool to save my fingers for clicking, not typing " We always happy to hear more success stories. If you have a story you would like to share with us and possibly feature on the blog, please email us at community@geni.com . ]]> a Faster Way to Research Your Ancestry 14 May 2013 22:44:26 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Recently, we added SuperSearch™ to Geni to enhance your family research experience. Today we're excited to tell you about an even faster way to research your genealogy on Geni – we've added a "Research this person" link to the Matches module on your relatives' Geni profiles! "Research this person" link on a profile (click to zoom) Clicking on this convenient link will automatically take you to MyHeritage's SuperSearch™ results for that profile. There's no need to type in information about your relative to start your search; Research this person takes the information on the profile, including the full name, gender, birth date, and death date, and automatically searches for matching records from MyHeritage's collection of 4 billion historical records and millions of newspaper articles. This link provides a simple and easy way for you to discover more about the lives of your family members. MyHeritage SuperSearch™ results (click to zoom) The "Research this person" link is especially useful in cases we do not find a Record Match for someone. Remember, just because there are no Record Matches doesn't mean there are no records for that person. Our matching technologies are incredibly accurate because we only show you matches that we are highly confident belong to that individual. When no Record Matches are found, it means that we were unable to locate records that meet our confidence threshold. In order to maximize your results, we recommend you make it a habit to use the "Research this person" link on every profile on Geni that you want to learn more about. In the example above for Margaret Mitchell, we see there is 1 Record Match and 17 Smart Matches™. When we click on the "Research this person" link, we discover that there are many more results matching her name, birth and death dates! A summary view of the SuperSearch™ results is free, as is drilling-down and viewing full records from certain free data collections such as Find-A-Grave or the 1940 Federal U.S. census. A MyHeritage Data subscription is required to view other historical records in full. With instant access to SuperSearch™ as well as Record Matches and Smart Matches™, you will find your Data subscription more valuable than ever. Fast and automatic, researching your ancestry has never been easier. With more and more historical records being added to the tree everyday, Geni's World Family Tree is quickly becoming an even better reference family tree for the whole world. Keep an eye out for more enhancements soon to make your genealogy research on Geni a valuable and productive experience for all. Pillsbury had created his own brand called "Pillsbury's Best" and was claimed as the finest flour in the world. The use of a series of carefully gauged steel rolls in the crushing of grain into flour effected an entire revolution in all the large flour mills of the United States since it was efficient and produced excellent quality. In 1872, he had persuaded his father and his uncle, John S. Pillsbury, to join him in an expansion of the business. Pillsbury introduced a system of company profit sharing in addition to regular wages to his employees as a reward for their interest in the success of the business. As a consequence, no strikes ever interrupted the Pillsbury business. John S. Pillsbury John S. Pillsbury was a politician, businessman and philanthropist. He had served as the eighth Governor of Minnesota from 1876-1882. He often anonymously donated funds to causes he favored. Pillsbury helped the University of Minnesota recover from debt in its early years, later served as a regent and became known as "The Father of the University." Charles A. Pillsbury's great-grandson is Charles A. Pillsbury, he is a lawyer and community activist in New Haven, Connecticut. He ran for United States Congress as a Green Party candidate in Connecticut in 2002. Pillsbury was college roommates with cartoonist Garry Trudeau at Yale University. The comic strip Doonesbury created by Trudeau used the combination of the word doone and the surname of Charles A. Pillsbury. ]]> with Geni 13 May 2013 20:24:52 +0000Amanda the full story]]>We're excited to announce our latest enhancement to your family research experience on Geni – MyHeritage's SuperSearch™! SuperSearch™ will bring you even greater access to billions of historical records to enrich your genealogy. SuperSearch™ is a family history search engine that lets you search billions of historical records and millions of newspaper articles. With over 4 billion records including birth, marriage, death, burial, census, military, immigration, yearbooks, plus scans of the original documents, SuperSearch™ will help you add color to the lives of your ancestors. Because SuperSearch™ is international, it has content relevant to all countries, with strong data collections from the USA, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada. We're rapidly expanding the data sets with the ambition to grow SuperSearch over time to be the largest worldwide collection of historical documents available online. For one low price, a MyHeritage Data subscription will give you full access to SuperSearch™ on MyHeritage as well as Record Matches and Smart Matches™ on Geni. SuperSearch™ at a Glance When you search for a name on Geni, a banner will appear above your Geni search results indicating SuperSearch™ has found additional records that match your search. Search results on Geni (click to zoom) Click "View these results now" to see a list of historical records and family trees matching the person you are searching for on MyHeritage. A summary view of your SuperSearch™ results is free. A MyHeritage Data subscription is required to view records in full. You'll find your Data subscription more valuable than ever with instant access to SuperSearch™ on Geni. And with Record Matches and Smart Matches™ included in your Data subscription, never before have you had such amazing access to billions of historical records right at your fingertips. Historical records are key to creating a family tree of the highest quality and we cannot stress enough how powerful and valuable they are to furthering your family history research. MyHeritage is adding more data at a fast pace. For example, recently MyHeritage added the entire collection of U.S. Federal Censuses conducted in each decade from 1790 to 1930, with scanned original images. That's a total of more than 530 million names! Geni users who have already purchased a Data subscription can go ahead and use SuperSearch™ now and view all records in full. Many, many new collections are coming soon, making your subscription more useful every week. We're committed to bringing you the tools you need to make researching your family legacy even better. We hope that SuperSearch™ will help you unravel mysteries in your family history and that you'll have lots of fun while you're at it. Start searching now! He was born on January 14, 1831 in Livermore, Maine to Israel Washburn and Martha Benjamin. He made a large fortune from his business ventures in lumber and flour milling, and by the 1880s he was among the wealthiest men in Minnesota. Washburn served as the first president of Soo Line Railroad from 1883 to 1889. He built a mansion in 1883 known as "Fair Oaks", it was designed by E. Townsend Mix, who also designed Minneapolis' Metropolitan Building but the mansion was eventually demolished in 1924 to make way for a park. Elihu Washburn Three of his seven brothers became politicians as well – Israel Washburn, Jr., Elihu Washburn and Cadwallader Washburn. Israel Washburn, Jr. was originally a member of the Whig Party, but later became a founding member of the Republican Party. The Republican Party was formed when Israel was angry over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and had called a meeting of 30 members of the U.S. House of Representatives for a discussion. Israel was the 29th Governor of Maine from 1861 to 1863, he helped recruit Federal troops from Maine during the American Civil War and in 1862 he attended the Loyal War Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which ultimately gave Abraham Lincoln support for his Emancipation Proclamation. The town of Washburn, Maine is named in honor of Israel. Cadwallader C. Washburn Elihu Washburn was appointed as the United States Secretary of State in 1869 by President Ulysses S. Grant out of respect for his championship in the House during the Civil War and to give Washburn diplomatic clout after being appointed Minister to France. Although he was Secretary of State for only eleven days, he ended up being Minister to France for eight years. Washburn was known for his diplomatic integrity and for his humanitarian support of Americans and Germans in France during the Franco-Prussian War. Cadwallader Washburn was the founder of General Mills. Prior to founding General Mills he was a United States Congressman from 1855 to 1861. He had served in the Union Army during the Civil War, becoming colonel of the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, brigadier general of Volunteers and major general in 1862. The city of Washburn, Wisconsin and Washburn County in northern Wisconsin was named after Cadwallader. ]]> Recap for May 6, 2013 06 May 2013 20:22:13 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Check out some genealogy articles from the past week! Profile of the Day ]]> 2013: Geni is Heading to Las Vegas! 02 May 2013 20:37:14 +0000Amanda the full story]]>In just one week, Geni will be at the National Genealogical Society 2013 Family History Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada! Between May 8 – 11, genealogists from around the country will meet in Sin City for a fun-filled genealogy adventure. The conference is a great opportunity for genealogists and those interested in family history to meet and share ideas on how to advance family research. Will you be at NGS? We love meeting Geni users – come find us at the MyHeritage booth #431 and meet the entire NGS 2013 team! Let us know you're a Geni user and we'll give you one of our famous "Who's Your Daddy?" t-shirts for free! Can't make it to Vegas? You can receive instant updates by following us on Facebook and Twitter. And follow the official Twitter hashtag #ngs2013 for updates from other attendees too! See you there! ]]> U.S. Census Records Now Available! 02 May 2013 01:26:06 +0000Amanda the full story]]>When we first introduced Record Matches and Smart Matches™ on Geni, we told you that you could look forward to additional collections of historical records in the future. Today, we're happy to announce that the entire collection of U.S. Federal Censuses are now available to Geni users through Record Matches. This collection is the nation's largest and most important set of records and includes a huge searchable index and all scanned images of the original census documents, spanning every decade from 1790-1940, covering some 520 million names. A page from the 1790 U.S. Census (click to zoom) Historical records are invaluable to everyone interested in his or her family history. Census records are among the best records available as they document almost everyone in a given country on a specific date or dates during that year. They are a source of rich information about those individuals recorded, offering name, age, address, birthplace, members of household, occupation and education. The U.S. Federal census is conducted every 10 years. The censuses are released to the public after 72 years. Finding a person in a census record often opens the door to additional discoveries. This collection helps people to step back in time as it provides a snapshot into the lives of our ancestors from 1790 to 1930. Here's an infographic from MyHeritage depicting life in America during this time: Life in the USA 1790-1930 (click to zoom) With our Record Matching technology, you'll automatically receive notifications about census records which match profiles in your family tree. A summary view of the match is free; as are matches to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census. A MyHeritage Data subscription is required to view the censuses from 1790-1930 in full and attach them as sources to your family tree on Geni. Once you upgrade, you will be one click away from finding matching U.S. census records for your family. Note that it may take time for matches to this new census collection to appear on your tree. In the meantime, you can use your MyHeritage Data subscription to search the census records on SuperSearch – MyHeritage's online digital archive. SuperSearch contains over 4 billion records, including birth, marriage, death, burial, military, immigration, yearbooks and the world's largest collection of newspapers. A single Data subscription will provide you with full access to Record Matches and Smart Matches™ on Geni, as well as full access to SuperSearch, thus making a subscription even more valuable! The new records include the remaining fragments of the 1890 U.S. Federal Census, which was mostly destroyed in a fire. A page from the 1890 U.S. Census (click to zoom) MyHeritage is the only company to deliver discoveries from the U.S. censuses to a global audience. We're focused on bringing worldwide content to our international audiences, so expect to see significant record collections from many countries being added in the near future and beyond. New information revealed in the censuses automatically triggers a domino effect of new discoveries. A summary of the record can be viewed for free, and users can choose to upgrade to a MyHeritage Data subscription for full, unlimited access to all Record Matches and Smart Matches™. A page from the 1910 U.S. Census (click to zoom) If your family includes people who lived in the U.S. during these years, you will be able to find them here, learn more about them, and perhaps discover additional family members you didn't know about previously. Having these census documents enables families worldwide to trace snapshots of their ancestors' lives from 1790 to 1930, and discover family data throughout American history. Add character and personality to your family legacy – check out your Record Matches now to see what new discoveries await. Hoover from President Herbert Hoover which now hangs in the White House. She was born on January 23, 1866 in New Rochelle, New York to merchant William Jenkins Emmet and illustrator Julia Colt Pierson. Thomas Addis Emmet was Lydia's paternal great grandfather. He was a prominent lawyer who later served as New York State Attorney General. He was an Irish nationalist who held a pivotal position in the Dublin Society of the United Irishmen after the failure of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Emmet immigrated to the United States with his family after his younger brother, Robert Emmet, was hanged in 1803 for high treason by the British government for his attempt to implement an Irish rebellion. Robert Emmet became an heroic figure in Irish history. Jane Emmet de Glehn, Lydia's sister, was also an artist and married Wilfrid de Glehn, a notable British impressionist painter. In 2007, Arden Galleries in Manhattan held an exhibition of paintings by five generations of women in the Emmet family which included Lydia's great aunt Elizabeth Emmet and her great-great grandnieces Julia Townsend and Beulah Emmet. Playwright, editor, and screenwriter Robert Emmet Sherwood was Lydia's nephew, he was the son of her sister Rosina Emmet. Sherwood won four Pulitzer Prizes, one of them for his book Roosevelt and Hopkins which recounted his time working as a speechwriter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for the film The Best Years of Our Lives. ]]> Matches and Smart Matches™ Lead to Exciting New Discoveries 29 Apr 2013 21:01:21 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Just last week we launched Record Matches and Smart Matches™ on Geni and already it's made a huge impact on the quality of the World Family Tree. Many users are finding new and exciting information and relatives that they never knew before. Check out what some Geni users are saying about their latest discoveries: Wendi Newman: "The new matches between Geni and MH are not just Smart, but extremely intelligent and very easy to use. I'm adding credibility to my profiles with matches to records like census data and international birth/death records, finding potential cousins I didn't even know about who are active on MH, and the BEST part is finding photographs of family members I might otherwise never know what they look like! Admittedly, I was hesitant to pay an additional data fee to MH at first, but the additional family information I'm gaining is invaluable." Jeff Gentes: "The new matches are awesome! Finding a ton of new information. " Jeff's most interesting find so far… "Tough one, but I think a newspaper entry about the person's wedding. It described many of the family members including the parents, who I didn't have listed. This led to some great break throughs." Ashley Odell: "These are easily the very best development at Geni in terms of expanding research capabilities since I joined in 2007. I can't get over how much fun the newspaper records are, and also how beautifully the matching works. The only problem I have right now is figuring out which new leads to chase, because I have so many branches that I can expand dramatically now, but only so many hours in a day! Guess I'll just have to spend more of them on Geni. I found a rural Vermont newspaper article from 1972 in which my great-aunt was complaining about a bear that kept wandering through her yard and eating her berries. In other articles, I also found the name of the school where she was a teacher and the names of some of her cousins who came from Massachusetts to visit one summer. You can find names, dates, and locations on just about any genealogy website. But now with Record Matches on Geni, you can find records that capture more personal stories, which are helping me get to know my ancestors and what happened in their lives better." And the new Record Matches and Smart Matches™ are just the start – you never know where they might lead. Read how Ashley learned more… "By following a lead through a Record Match, I just found this really fantastic photo of my great-great-uncle Marcus (front left, seated) and the Jamaica, Vermont baseball team from I think 1922. (His cousin Wales is in there, too, but I don't know which one he is.)* I knew the story from local lore — the tiny town of Jamaica beat the "big city" Brattleboro in the West River Valley baseball championship, something the old-timers still talk about all the time — but had never seen a picture. And in looking at the picture, I recognize the trophy in the front center from having seen it at the Jamaica Historical Foundation so many times. Could I have found it without Record Match? Probably; it's on the UVM website. But would I have? I doubt it, because a) it never would have occurred to me to go looking and b) the UVM website doesn't give names with the picture. And yet, there he is, in uniform! Very cool. " We're glad Record Matches and Smart Matches™ are so useful to our users and we'll continue to make improvements going forward. Have you checked out your new Matches? Update: From Ashley, "By the way, I've since figured out that it was Hubert, not Wales, and that he's the guy seated on the far right of the middle row. Thanks, Geni" ]]> Recap for April 29, 2013 29 Apr 2013 18:59:58 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Having fun finding your new Matches? Why not take a short break to check out some of the latest genealogy articles on the web? Profile of the Day ]]> Record Matches and Smart Matches™ for Your Family Tree 23 Apr 2013 23:28:16 +0000Amanda the full story]]>When Geni joined the MyHeritage family in November 2012, our combined teams started working together to bring the best features of MyHeritage to Geni. Today we're very excited to announce the first fruits of this work – perhaps the most important new feature on Geni since we launched the site in 2007 – MyHeritage's powerful Record Matching and Smart Matching™ technologies are now available on Geni! Two new technologies for Geni Record Matching automatically finds matching historical records for your family tree on Geni from MyHeritage's growing collection of billions of newspaper articles, birth, death, census and other records. Add color to your family history with the first and only service in the world to automatically discover historical newspaper articles about the people in your family tree. Save yourself valuable time in your research and shine new light on your ancestors' lives and personalities with new revelations right at your fingertips. Smart Matching automatically finds matches for your family tree on Geni in MyHeritage family trees so you can discover new ancestors and relatives, connect with other family tree owners, and reunite with long-lost family members. With more than 1.2 billion profiles on 27 million MyHeritage family trees around the world, you're bound to make an exciting discovery – many discoveries in fact. Sophisticated name-matching technology uses synonyms, phonetics and international variations to find your relatives even when spelled differently or written in another language in other family trees. Record Matching and Smart Matching work together to make each other better. If a person in your tree on Geni has a Smart Match, the system will use the extra information in that Smart Match to get you more Record Matches. As you add new information from matches to your tree on Geni, including new relatives that you discover, you will receive more matches; it's a cycle that will help you improve and grow your family tree. How to use the new matches Whenever you view a profile or family tree on Geni, the system checks in the background for relevant matches, and automatically displays them right on the tree or the profile. Visit your Merge Center to view a convenient list of all matches in your tree. The new Merge Center (click to zoom) New matches are found all the time as MyHeritage keeps adding more historical records and family tree profiles, so the matches you see today are just the beginning and there is much more to look forward to. Let's take a look at these new Matches in action. Record Matches Below you can see the new buttons for Tree Matches, Record Matches and Smart Matches on a profile. Matches shown on a Geni profile The Tree Matches (leftmost box out of the three) are matches with other profiles on Geni – these have not changed. Next to them are the buttons for Record Matches (middle box in brown) and Smart Matches (rightmost box in green). Click on the Record Match button to view a list of matching records, or the Smart Match button to view matching MyHeritage tree profiles. Record Matches and Smart Matches are displayed on a single page, with Record Matches at the top followed by Smart Matches. The page is co-branded MyHeritage and Geni. List of matches (click to zoom) In the top left corner there is a box summarizing the main information about this person and close relatives as known on Geni. This makes it easy for you to compare this information at a glance with the information provided by the matches. The matches are listed on one page, Record Matches followed by Smart Matches, and you can change the criteria by which they are sorted. By default, matches are listed by confidence so that matches listed at the top are more likely to be correct. But worry not, the matching technologies of MyHeritage have a 97% accuracy so you will rarely encounter incorrect matches. The recommended modus operandi with your matches is to review them all, glean as much information from each match by adding it to your tree on Geni, and then confirm correct matches and reject wrong ones. There are three buttons on each match in the list to facilitate this: Review match, Confirm this match (checkmark), and Reject this match (X). Use the Review match button to view all of the details for that record on its own record page, including an image of the record if there is one, such as for a census record or newspaper. It is recommended to drill down into every match rather than using only the abbreviated summary in the list. There are many types of records that include a scanned image of the original document, so don't miss them. You can confirm or reject each match from the record page or from the list of matches. Use the Confirm this match (checkmark) button to add that record to the matching Geni profile. This will add the record as a source to the profile and add the record to the Confirmed Matches module on the profile. Keep in mind that you will have to enter any new information manually to the Geni profile; in the future you'll be able to add new information from the record to the Geni profile in a special data extraction screen with a few clicks. Use the Reject this match (X) button to indicate that the record is not a correct match for that Geni profile. As you confirm or reject the matches, the counter numbers of pending matches on Geni will automatically be updated. Rejected matches will disappear and confirmed matches will be associated with the respective Geni profiles. Work your way through all matches this way. Then, as MyHeritage adds new content, you will get new matches and new discoveries will present themselves to you. Viewing the list of matches is free, as is drilling-down and viewing full records from certain free data collections such as Find-A-Grave or the 1940 Federal US census. A MyHeritage Data subscription is required to view other historical records in full, and to confirm matches. MyHeritage Data subscriptions work on both Geni and MyHeritage and also provide unlimited access to MyHeritage SuperSearch, a powerful search engine for historical records with more than 4 billion records. Here's an example of a Record Match from The Salt Lake Tribune, matching Charles Brent Hancock published in November 26, 1921, soon after his death: A record page showing a newspaper Record Match (click to zoom) Typical to many newspaper articles, a lot of information is provided that may be new to the Geni tree. For example, this specific article mentions the person's cause of death, names his parents C. B. Hancock and Samantha P. Rawson Hancock who are missing in the tree on Geni. The article also names his wives and all his surviving relatives. Lots of new material here for the Geni tree, from a 1921 newspaper article delivered automatically. A simple click of the Confirm button will add the record to Charles Hancock's profile on Geni. A thumbnail of the document will now appear as a Confirmed Match on the profile's page. When you confirm a match, all users benefit, as they will see the record and a summary of the data in the record. Viewing the full record will be free in some collections, such as Find-a-Grave and the 1940 U.S. census, and in others, it will require users to get a Data subscription. This effort makes the World Family Tree on Geni better, because each record need only be associated with a profile once, to benefit all users. The screenshot below shows how the profile will look on Geni after a match has been confirmed with it: Geni profile with a confirmed match Confirming a Record Match also automatically creates a source and citation for the record and adds them to the profile. This is important for keeping track of the evidence that has allowed the user to reach the conclusions entered in the Geni profile. Sources and citations are vital in genealogy but because of the extra work many users still don't add them. We hope that by introducing one-click confirmations that create such sources and citations, their quantity and quality will increase substantially in the World Family Tree. Also note that citations come with all information from the record for future reference. Source and citation created for a confirmed match Smart Matches Smart Matches are similar to Record Matches, but they compare your tree to over 1.2 billion MyHeritage family tree profiles, growing at more than one million new profiles per day. These matches are separated from Record Matches for several reasons. A match with another family tree is for some users more exciting, because that other tree has an owner who might be an unknown relative of yours: someone to get in touch with and learn more from. Historical records usually don't provide another user for you to get in touch with. For other users, family trees are less reliable than historical records like census and birth records, and are treated with more doubt. For those reasons, Smart Matches and Record Matches are listed separately so you can handle them separately with different expectations. Always remember, however, that a Smart Match can help you discover new information about your relatives; you'll also find new relatives from the MyHeritage tree that you can add to your tree on Geni. So for every Smart Match you get, don't look only at the person but also at the close relatives. Let's look at an example, this time starting from a tree rather than an individual profile. Below you can see what it looks like when you have matches in your tree view. Matches shown in the tree The number you see in the tree is the total number of matches (Tree Matches + Record Matches + Smart Matches) for that profile. Hover the mouse over the magnifying glass to learn more about the matches and see their breakdown by type. Just like on a profile, click on the green Smart Matches button to view the list of Smart Matches for that profile. This will take you directly to the Smart Matches section of the list of matches for this profile. Accessing a person's Smart Matches from the tree Just like with Record Matches, when viewing Smart Matches you can Review the match, Confirm the match (checkmark), or Reject the match (X). Always confirm if the match is correct and reject if the match is incorrect. If the match is correct but does not add value, also confirm, do not reject it. Use the Review Match button to view all of the details for that match on its own page, including birth and death dates and locations and a list of the immediate family members. Always remember to review every match because it is often where you can find more relatives to add who are missing on Geni. You can either confirm or reject the match from that page too. Use the Confirm (checkmark) button to add that match to the Confirmed Matches module on the corresponding Geni profile. Confirming a Smart Match offers you the choice of whether or not to create a source for it within Geni. Simply select "Yes" to create a source within the Geni profile. By default, sources are not created for confirmed Smart Matches. Opinions vary and the debate is sometimes heated on whether another family tree can be a source. Our advice is that if a Smart Match is correct but does not provide new information that you can add to Geni, confirm it but don't make it into a source. If, however, you have found valuable information in a Smart Match that has led you to add more information or more people to the Geni tree, then you should confirm it and make it into a source, and other users will be able to follow where you have taken the information from. Since family trees owners do copy information from each other, it is better to have each taker pointing at the source rather than not leaving any information on its provenance. Here's a Smart Match example: A "Titanic" Smart Match In the above Smart Match, you can see that the matching profile on MyHeritage has some information that was missing from the Geni profile. Here we not only have a picture of Daniel Warner Marvin and information on the city in which he was born, but we also learn an interesting anecdote about Marvin – he was once friends with Thomas Edison; He and his wife Mary had their wedding in the home of the bride's parents by the Reverend Dr. John Caughey of the Harlem Presbyterian Church on March 17, 1912; They returned from their European honeymoon aboard the RMS Titanic. Although Daniel Warner met with an unfortunate fate on board the Titanic, his documentation in the World Family Tree is now about to get a whole lot better. Optionally creating a source on Geni from a confirmed Smart Match A simple click of the Confirm button will add the Smart Match to your relative's profile on Geni and give you the option to create a source within the profile. The profile photo from the MyHeritage tree will appear in the Confirmed Match module on the profile's page. You can manually add the new details found in the match to your Geni profile. You can also add any immediate family members that aren't already on your tree. In the future, you'll be able to add this information with just a few clicks. The screenshot below shows how the profile will look on Geni after a Smart Match has been confirmed, a source created and the information from the match has been added: Geni profile with a confirmed Smart Match You'll notice that in addition to the Smart Match photo, the profile now has a more detailed birth location. The new anecdote and the story about his marriage and death was added to the profile's About section to give everyone a greater insight into the life of Daniel Warner Marvin. This is a great way to add new information to your tree. As you confirm matches and add new information and profiles to your tree, more matches will be found, in a virtuous cycle. Contacting another tree owner Another powerful benefit of Smart Matches is the ability to contact the MyHeritage Site Manager (the tree owner) to connect with new relatives and exchange more information that you can add to Geni. Contacting other users on MyHeritage requires a Data subscription. To contact the Site Manager of your Smart Match, click on the Contact link at the right of the page under "Site Manager." A MyHeritage inbox will open for you to compose and send your initial message. Smart Matches are a great way to make new discoveries and reunite with long lost family. Please note that initially, Geni users will receive Smart Matches with MyHeritage trees, but not vice versa. We are working to make the matches completely mutual and this will take a few more months to complete. Newspapers Newspaper articles can add a lot of color to your family tree. They can reveal something about your ancestor that you would have never found just looking at vital records. Here's an example of an unexpected discovery found for the family tree of MyHeritage founder & CEO, Gilad Japhet. He discovered a Record Match for his relative, Gertrude Sarah Levin, who married Solomon Dietch. Gilad knew little else about them until he made this unexpected discovery. The Record Match was a newspaper from Kansas in the 1930's. It included their wedding photo and the intriguing caption, "Love needed no words." It turns out that the wedding was conducted in sign-language as they were both deaf mute. This is just another great example of how Record Matches add color to what we know about the lives of our ancestors and relatives. What next? We're committed at Geni to building the largest, most accurate and best documented family tree of the world. Historical records are key to creating a world tree of the highest quality. The historical records on MyHeritage are a very large and extensive collection, rapidly growing, some of them exclusive and found nowhere else. MyHeritage is adding more data at a fast pace. For example, next week MyHeritage will be adding the entire collection of U.S. Federal Censuses conducted in each decade from 1790 to 1930, with scanned original images, a total of more than 530 million names, and all this data will be matched automatically to all the Geni profiles! The collections are global in nature and not USA-only. New collections are added every month. With a wealth of historical records, the most powerful technology in the market to match them to your family tree on Geni, the ability to associate records with profiles and create sources in one click, and Smart Matches with more than a billion family tree profiles, the World Family Tree on Geni will quickly become an even better reference family tree for the whole world. We think Record Matches and Smart Matches will be of tremendous value for every Geni user and we can't wait to have you check them out. In the future, we'll provide tools to help you add information from matching records and trees into your tree on Geni, including new relatives, in just a few clicks (until then you'll need to add new information manually). As with any new release, please excuse us for any glitches, that may characterize the initial launch of this important new functionality, and be sure to send us your feedback and suggestions. A Data subscription is required for viewing all historical records (except those provided free). A single Data subscription provides full access to all Smart Matches and Record Matches, allows contacting tree owners, and gives unlimited access to the MyHeritage SuperSearch engine for historical records. For a limited time, Data subscriptions are discounted 36% off the regular price ($76.10 instead of $119.40 per year). Don't miss this opportunity to discover more about your family history at such an affordable low price. The 36% introductory discount will be lifted soon after the US census records are added, so act now to secure this low price for yourself. Look for the Record Match and Smart Match buttons on your relatives' profiles and see what new discoveries await you. View your Matches now! Profile of the Day ]]> for Your Next Family Reunion 19 Apr 2013 20:00:39 +0000Amanda the full story]]> Are you planning a family reunion in the near future? Here are some fun activities to get your entire family involved in learning about your family history. 1. Fill in the family tree Here's a fun game to get some of the younger members of your family interested in their genealogy: make copies of blank family trees for each youngster and have them ask relatives to help them fill out the tree. This is a good way to get children to catch the genealogy bug early. You can even make it a competition and see who can fill out the tree the most. 2. Who's the baby? Everybody loves seeing pictures of babies. Print out the baby pictures for each of your relatives and if you have them, of your ancestors, and have your family guess who is in the picture. Not only will your family have fun seeing cute baby pictures, but it presents the perfect opportunity to share family stories of your relatives when they were young. 3. Bring those family recipes to life No family gathering is complete without food. Many families have recipes that have been passed down between generations. Bring those recipes to life by cooking your family dishes for all to sample. If possible, invite your relatives to bring their own dishes to share. You may find that each dish has a story behind it. What could be more fun than to learn about your heritage while filling your tummy with homemade deliciousness? Have you been to a family reunion? Share some of your family reunion experiences with us in the comments below! be extended beyond where it was currently allowed even though he held slaves. In the 1860 Republican convention Blair supported the nomination of Abraham Lincoln and took it upon himself to advise Lincoln. The city of Silver Spring, Maryland was was founded and named after Blair's summer home. He had encountered a "mica-flecked" spring in the vicinity of Seventh Street Pike in 1840 which he liked so much that he bought the surrounding land and created a summer home for his family which he called "Silver Spring." Montgomery Blair was a politician and lawyer from Maryland. He was an abolitionist and a loyal member of the Cabinet of Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. He served as Postmaster-General in Lincoln's Cabinet from 1861-1864. He married Mary Woodbury, she was the daughter of Levi Woodbury who was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a U.S. Senator, Governor of New Hampshire and cabinet member in three administrations. Montgomery and Mary were the great-grandparents of actor Montgomery Clift. Francis Preston Blair, Jr. was a politician as well and a Union Army general during the American Civil War. He represented Missouri in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and he was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President in 1868. He was an accidental witness to an incident in a famous homicide case in 1870 while he was staying at the then famous Fifth Avenue Hotel. Blair had woken up to cries of help from across the street and watched from his hotel window as two men ran out of a brownstone mansion across the street. They were two of the sons of Benjamin Nathan, the Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange, who had been bludgeoned to death the previous night. The mystery of the homicide was never solved. Benjamin Gratz Brown was the great nephew of Elizabeth Gist, but was also related to Blair through their common ancestors John Preston and Elizabeth Patton. He was a Senator, the 20th Governor of Missouri and the Liberal Republican and Democratic Party Vice presidential candidate in the presidential election of 1872. In 1856, he fought a duel on Bloody Island in the Mississippi River with Thomas C. Reynolds who was then the St. Louis District Attorney over the slavery issue. Reynolds was not hurt, but Brown was shot in the leg and limped for the rest of his life. Did you know Blair House, the official state guest house for the President of the United States at one time belonged to Francis Preston Blair, Sr.? Blair acquired the property in 1836 during his time in Washington when he was serving Andrew Jackson, the house was purchased by the U.S. government in 1942. ]]> Recap for April 15, 2013 15 Apr 2013 20:03:31 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Check out some interesting genealogy related articles from the past week! The Genealogy Sphere Warning! Don't do THIS (Nutfield Genealogy blog) – A good warning to all genealogists – keep your old paper journals Profile of the Day ]]> Family History Discoveries 12 Apr 2013 23:54:35 +0000Amanda the full story]]>We recently shared an article on Facebook about how two Norwegian relatives who found each other at a Miami CVS. By chance, these two women struck up a conversation while shopping. Soon they discovered that their families both came from a remote village in Norway and that they were cousins! It's always interesting to hear these type of stories and several of you had a few to share of your own on Facebook. Here are a couple we wanted to share with you below. From Karen Macagno: About 8 years ago I met a young Italian fellow named Flavio online. It turned out that we shared a common ancestor, Tommaso di Saluzzo (my 23rd great-grandfather, died in the 1200s.) It seems that Flavio's line continues through Tommaso's son, who remained in Italy, and my line through his daughter, who married an English noble. So I thought it was pretty amazing to find my far-off, distant "Italian connection." But then the story gets…interesting. Seems that Flavio's great-grandfather was from the same small town (Villafalletto, Cuneo) as my husband's dad. In fact, my husband's great-uncle and Flavio's 2nd great uncle traveled together* to the USA in 1900! From Kristin Roca: I tried to research my 2nd great aunt whose name is Hilda Arendal Hanson (named after Arendal Norway where our relatives come from) She grew up in Patten Maine (1900′s-1930′s) where her father was a doctor. I popped onto facebook and found so many people who knew her or her father and even was able to get never seen before pictures of her and her senior yearbook! I also learned her father saved the life of a mother and child during childbirth-The mother and father being so grateful allowed my 2nd great uncle,the dr to name the baby-GALEN. Well, Galen is still alive (in his 80′s) and also the longest living member of his family. His sister wrote to me to thank my family because if the mother died during his birth she and 4 other siblings would not even be here-a whole family would have been wiped out. Amazing! Do you have similar stories to share? If you're interested in sharing your stories or breakthroughs with us, send it to community@geni.com. John Huston was born on August 5, 1906 in Nevada, Missouri to Walter and Rhea (Gore) Huston. Walter and Reah divorced in 1913 and as a result John spent his childhood living in boarding schools, but would travel with each of his parents separately during summer vacations. Walter Huston was born in Toronto, Ontario and of Scottish and Irish descent. He began as a vaudeville actor and later a stage and screen actor. He was directed by his son, John in the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Anjelica Huston John married five times and with his fourth wife Enrica Soma he had actress Angelica Huston and Walter "Tony" Huston. Although Soma's daughter writer and editor Allegra Huston was not John's biological daughter, he treated her one of his own. He had another son, actor and director Danny Huston with Zoe Sallis. Did you know three generations of Huston's won Academy Awards? Walter Huston won for Best Supporting Actor for the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, John Huston won for Best Director for the same film making them the first father and son to win at the same ceremony; and Anjelica Huston won for Best Supporting Actress for the film Prizzi's Honor. Hercules. To some, the painting seemed to represent a political statement against the British and also the American Federalists. He started pursuing a means of rapid long distance communication because he was unaware of his wife's failing health and her lonely death for days do to the current way of communication of a horse messenger. He had witnessed various experiments with Charles Thomas Jackson's electromagnets which helped him develop the concept of a single-wire telegraph. The original Morse telegraph is part of the collections of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution. With the help of Professor Leonard Gale, who taught chemistry at New York University, Morse introduced extra circuits of relays at frequent intervals and was soon able to send a message through ten miles of wire instead of just a few hundred yards. In time the Morse code would become the primary language of telegraphy in the world, and is still the standard for rhythmic transmission data. Original Morse telegraph Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts to Jedidiah Morse and Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese. Jedidiah was a preacher of the Calvinist faith and supporter of the American Federalist party. He thought it helped preserve Puritan traditions and believed in the Federalist support of an alliance with Britain and a strong central government. He was a notable geographer whose textbooks became a staple for students in the United States. He made significant contributions to Dobson's Encyclopedia, the first encyclopedia published in the United States after the American Revolution. He became a pastor in Charlestown, Massachusetts and served until 1820. Throughout his life he was occupied with religious controversy, and in upholding the faith of the New England church against the assaults of Unitarianism. Jedidiah Morse painting by Samuel Morse Sidney Edwards Morse was Samuel's brother who was a geographer, journalist and also an inventor. He became a contributor to the Columbian Centinel of Boston, writing a series of articles that illustrated the danger of the American Union from an undue multiplication of new states in the south, and showing that it would give to a sectional minority the control of the government. He moved to New York in 1823 and founded the New York Observer with his brother Richard Cary Morse. The newspaper became the oldest religious newspaper in New York and the oldest weekly newspaper in New York City. Sidney remained as senior editor and proprietor until 1858 when he retired. ]]> Recap for April 1, 2013 01 Apr 2013 21:24:37 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Check out some interesting articles from the past week. family. Poet John Giorno calls him "the last beatnik" in the documentary. William S. Burroughs III (known as William S. Burroughs, Jr.) was born on July 21, 1947 in Conroe, Texas to William S. Burroughs II and Joan Vollmer. Joan Vollmer was the most prominent female member of the early Beat Generation circle. She became the roommate of Edie Parker, who later married Jack Kerouac, while she was a student at Barnard College. Their apartment became a gathering place for the Beats during the 1940s. Vollmer was shot and killed accidentally by Burroughs II in a drunken game of 'William Tell' in Mexico City. Burrough III relates his memory of the day his mother was shot dead, as well as the following reunion with his father after he was freed from a Mexico City prison in chapter three of his novel, Kentucky Ham. He went to live with his paternal grandparents, Mortimer and Laura Lee Burroughs, while his father stayed in Mexico. William S. Burroughs II William S. Burroughs II was a novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer. He was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author. His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. While living in New York City in 1943, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the counter-cultural movement of the Beat Generation. During his later years, Burroughs Calculating Machine Patent William S. Burroughs I was Burroughs III's great-grandfather, who was an inventor. He invented a "calculating machine" designed to ease the monotony of clerical work. He was a founder of the American Arithmometer Company, which later became the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, then the Burroughs Corporation which later merged with Sperry Corporation to form Unisys. ]]> 2013 Recap 26 Mar 2013 19:00:28 +0000Amanda the full story]]>We had an amazing time at RootsTech in Salt Lake City, Utah. Over 6,700 people came out to the conference, drawing an even larger crowd than last year. The first day was a whirlwind as the booth was crowded with people interested in learning more about MyHeritage and Geni. This was the first time we attended as a part of the MyHeritage family and we had an amazing team manning the booth. It was a blast to meet Geni users and hearing about their genealogy adventures on Geni. Here's our busy booth on the first day. Geni Curator Adam Brown spent a lot of time at the booth helping people with their genealogy. He was even able to help connect a new Geni user to the World Family Tree. Special thanks to Adam for hanging out with us! On the first day, Noah Tutak, General Manager USA for MyHeritage, gave a presentation entitled "Collaborative Genealogy: The Ugly, the Bad, the Good" about the benefits of collaborative online genealogy. He had an amazing turnout and some really great questions from the audience. There was plenty to do the second night of the conference. Geneablogger Thomas MacEntee held a fun party for his 50th birthday complete with beaded necklaces, a photobooth and lots of cupcakes and treats. Friday night was also Late Night at the Library, where the Family History Library was open for extended hours for both experienced and novice genealogists to discover records for their genealogy research. Thanks to the extended hours, some of us on the MyHeritage and Geni teams had the opportunity to do our own family history research at the library. Geni's Customer Service Manager Charles Edmonds was even able to get some help on finding Jamaican birth and death records. The best keynote of the conference was given by David Pogue and MyHeritage's Chief Marketing Officer Ori Soen on Saturday. After an incredible musical number by David, Ori jumped in to talk about MyHeritage's continued growth and success. Genealogy blogger James Tanner then joined the stage to share the power of collaboration and automation in genealogy. He also gave a little preview of what's coming soon to Geni! If you missed it, the video of the keynote will be posted on the RootsTech website very soon. At the end of the keynote, it was announced that MyHeritage would be giving away free 6-month data subscriptions to the first 500 people at the booth. As soon as the exhibit hall opened, the booth was swarmed by eager genealogists. Overall, it was an amazing experience and we can't wait to see everyone again next year. Be sure to check back on Facebook later for even more photos from RootsTech 2013. ]]> 2013: Day 1 22 Mar 2013 20:51:58 +0000Amanda the full story]]>We had a great first day at RootsTech and we wanted to share a few pictures from the day with you. Within minutes of the expo hall opening, we had swarms of people at the booth. It's estimated that there are over 6,800 people registered – that's over 2,000 people than last year! This year was especially exciting as it was the first time we attended RootsTech as a part of the MyHeritage family. Check out a picture of our booth early morning before the crowd came in: We even had the pleasure of meeting Curator Adam Brown. Here he is working on his tree at the booth: Stay tuned for more RootsTech posts and pictures on the blog, Facebook and Twitter! ]]> Territory ~ 150 years 19 Mar 2013 20:00:10 +0000Geni the full story]]>We're happy to present a guest post written by blogger Leslie Ann of Ancestors Live Here. Today she shares some interesting facts about the Idaho Territory and how you can honor your Idaho ancestors by sharing their memories in the Idaho Pioneers Project on Geni. It has been 150 years this March since Idaho Territory was created. President Lincoln signed the bill creating Idaho Territory March 4, 1863 from Dakota Territory, Nebraska Territory, and Washington Territory. Originally, the territory included all of modern-day Idaho and Montana, and most of Wyoming. Idaho was home to Native people thousands of years before it became a Territory. You may know of one in particular who was born in 1787 named Sacajawea. The area was also busy with explorers, trappers and traders. Kullyspell House was the first non-native establishment in the Northwest and was built in 1809 near Lake Pend Oreille. In 1836 Henry Spalding and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding established a mission for the Nez Perce near Lapwai. and opened Idaho's first school, created the first irrigation system, printed the first book in the Northwest and grew the first Idaho potato. In 1860, Idaho's first town Franklin, was established near the Utah border, and as gold and silver were discovered, mining towns sprung up between 1860 and 1863 at Pierce, Idaho City, and Silver City. Idaho communities are celebrating its sesquicentennial birthday with speeches, exhibits, performances and more. Since I can't be in Idaho, my favorite form of celebration is reading the histories of the Pioneers, miners and other settlers of Idaho. Profile of the Day ]]> the Geni Team at RootsTech 2013 14 Mar 2013 20:44:43 +0000Amanda the full story]]>RootsTech 2013, one of the biggest genealogy events of the year, is just around the corner. Between March 21 – 23, the Geni team will be at the RootsTech 2013 conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Unlike any other conference, RootsTech provides you with the unique opportunity to connect with industry experts and discover the latest tools and techniques for researching your family history. From genealogists to developers, RootsTech offers hands-on workshops, presentations and more for all skill levels. This year we're especially excited because it will be the first time Geni will be attending as a part of the MyHeritage family! Find us at booth 325 with the entire team. We love meeting Geni users, so be sure to stop by, say hi and pick up a free "Who's Your Daddy?" Geni t-shirt. Here's a list of all MyHeritage and Geni team members who will be speaking throughout the conference: Thursday, March 21 Noah Tutak of Geni.com will discuss the benefits of collaborative genealogy, with "Online Collaboration: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," at 11am in Room 255F. Daniel Horowitz, MyHeritage Chief Genealogist, will give an introduction to MyHeritage, with his talk on "MyHeritage Treasure Trove: An overview of all products and features for genealogists on MyHeritage" at 1.45pm in Room 255A. Daniel Horowitz, MyHeritage Chief Genealogist, will be on a "Future of Genealogy" panel at 11am in Hall 1. Friday, March 22 Justin Balthrop, CTO of Geni.com, will teach basics of Clojure programming language to in "Building Genealogy Apps using Clojure and Functional Programming," at 1.45pm in Room 257A. Michael Berkovich, MyHeritage Software Architect (USA), will discuss building iOS mobile applications for genealogy in his workshop "Family tree in your pocket – how to build an iPhone app using Geni API," at 4.15pm in room 257A. Daniel Horowitz, MyHeritage Chief Genealogist, will give a talk on "Crowdsourcing: When the power of many benefits all," at 4.15pm in Room 258. Saturday, March 23 MyHeritage Founder and CEO Gilad Japhet will give the keynote speech at 8.30am in Hall 1, with David Pogue, weekly personal-technology columnist for The New York Times and a monthly columnist for Scientific America Daniel Horowitz, MyHeritage Chief Genealogist, will present "Meet your Match: How MyHeritage SmartMatches and Record Matches can help you overcome brick walls," at 11am in Room 255A. Mark Olsen, Business Development Manager at MyHeritage USA and WorldVitalRecords will speak on "SuperSearch: How to find your missing ancestors on the MyHeritage search engine," at 1.45pm. We can't wait to meet everyone, so be sure to come by and if you're a Geni user, pick up your Geni gear. If you can't make it to the conference, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for the latest updates and photos. Follow the #RootsTech hashtag on Twitter for updates from other attendees too. See you there! resemblance to geodesic spheres. He was the second president of Mensa from 1974-1983. He was born Richard Buckminster Fuller on July 12, 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts to Richard Buckminster Fuller and Caroline Wolcott Andrews. Like his father and ancestors before him, Bucky attended Harvard University. Although unlike them, he was expelled from Harvard twice – first for spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe, and then, after having been readmitted, for his "irresponsibility and lack of interest." By his own appraisal, he was a non-conforming misfit in the fraternity environment. Fuller was living in low-income public housing in Chicago, Illinois when he was 32. Drawing from Fuller's Patent - Laminar Geodesic Dome While he was serving as the Summer Institute director in 1949 at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, he began reinventing a project that would make him famous which was the geodesic dome. Although the geodesic dome had been created about 30 years earlier by Dr. Walther Bauersfield, Fuller was awarded United States patents. He is credited for popularizing this type of structure. In 1949, he erected his first geodesic dome building that could sustain its own weight with no practical limits. To prove his design, and to awe non-believers, Fuller suspended from the structure's framework several students who had helped him build it. The U.S. government recognized the importance of his work, and employed his firm Geodesics, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina to make small domes for the Marines. Fuller believed human societies would soon rely mainly on renewable sources of energy, such as solar- and wind-derived electricity. He hoped for an age of "omni-successful education and sustenance of all humanity." He referred to himself as "the property of universe" and during one radio interview he gave later in life, declared himself and his work "the property of all humanity". For his lifetime of work, the American Humanist Association named him the 1969 Humanist of the Year. He was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February 23, 1983 by President Ronald Reagan. Bucky's great grandfather was Timothy Fuller. Fuller served as member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as a State councilor and served in the Massachusetts State Senate from 1813 to 1816. He was distinguished as an orator, making effective speeches in behalf of the Seminole Indians, and against the Missouri compromise. Fuller was an ardent supporter of John Quincy Adams, and published a pamphlet entitled "The Election for the Presidency Considered." Arthur Buckminster Fuller, Bucky's grandfather, was a Unitarian clergyman of the United States. He attempted to give the Unitarian Church appeal to all social classes and championed the important liberal reforms of the day. He became a United States Army chaplain during the American Civil War accompanying soldiers into battle and lost his life to a cause in which he firmly believed. Margaret Fuller He was the grandnephew of American journalist and women's rights advocate, Margaret Fuller. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism and her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first major feminist work in the United States. She became the first woman allowed to use the library at Harvard College and she was the first female correspondent for the New York Tribune. Her father Timothy Fuller, offered her an education as rigorous as any boy's at the time and forbade her from reading the typical feminine fare of the time, such as etiquette books and sentimental novels. Margaret later blamed her father's exacting love and his valuation of accuracy and precision for her childhood nightmares and sleepwalking. Bucky Fuller famously wore three watches; one for the current zone, one for the zone he had departed, and one for the zone he was going to. ]]> Recap for March 11, 2013 11 Mar 2013 22:14:08 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Read any good genealogy articles lately? Check out a few we've found below! Profile of the Day ]]> International Women's Day 09 Mar 2013 01:49:44 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Today, the world celebrates International Women's Day. Celebrated since the early 1900s, the holiday found its roots in the United States when 15,000 women marched through New York City protesting inequality and oppression in the workplace. In 1911, the first official international women's day was celebrated across Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland as women banded together to demand women's worker rights. Now the day is celebrated in over 100 different countries all around the world to acknowledge and champion the advancement of women's economic, political and social achievements throughout history. Let's take a look at some influential women in history: Marie Curie was a brilliant Polish physicist and pioneer. Famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity, Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win a Nobel Prize in two fields (Physics and Chemistry) and the first woman to be entombed in Paris' famed Panthéon on her own merits. Margaret Thatcher is a British politician and the longest serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of the 20th century, holding the position from 1979 – 1990. She is also the only woman to have held the post. Nicknamed the "Iron Lady," Thatcher defined her own conservative political philosophy that has come to be known as Thatcherism. Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony was a leading civil and women's rights leader in the United States. An instrumental figure of the 19th century women's suffrage movement, Anthony championed the right for women to vote. She helped draft the 19th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which prohibits any citizen to be denied the right to vote based on gender. Fourteen years after her death, the 19th Amendment was finally ratified, giving women the right to vote. Are you related to these influential women? Do you have some great inspirational stories about women in your family trees? Share them with us in the comments below! and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family on November 30, 1874 to Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome. Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite who was the daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome. Leonard Jerome was known as 'The King of Wall Street", he held interests in several railroad companies and was often a partner in the deals of Cornelius Vanderbilt. He was a patron of the arts, and founded the Academy of Music, one of New York City's earliest opera houses. Lord Randolph Spencer-Churchill Lord Randolph Churchill was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. His title was a courtesy title only, and therefore was not inherited by his eldest son, Winston Churchill. In 1885, he had formulated the policy of progressive Conservatism which was known as "Tory Democracy". He declared that the Conservatives ought to adopt, rather than oppose, popular reforms, and to challenge the claims of the Liberals to pose as champions of the masses. Winston Churchill was the grandson of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough. He was Member of Parliament for Woodstock from 1844 to 1845 and again from 1847 to 1857, when he succeeded his father in the dukedom and entered the House of Lords. Sarah Churchill, daughter of Winston and Clementine, was a British actress and dancer. She was named after Winston's ancestor, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. During World War II, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Churchill is known for her role in the film Royal Wedding (1951) as Anne Ashmond, starring opposite Fred Astaire. Today in 1946, Sir Winston Churchill used the phrase "Iron Curtain" in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri. ]]> Recap for March 4, 2013 04 Mar 2013 21:41:39 +0000Amanda the full story]]>What great finds have you been up to? In case you missed them, here are some interesting genealogy articles from the past week.. He played a major role in the Central Intelligence Agency operations to overthrow the Mossadegh government of Iran in 1953 (Operation Ajax) and the Arbenz government of Guatemala in 1954 (Operation PBSUCCESS). As Secretary of State, he supervised the completion of the Japanese Peace Treaty, in which full independence was restored to Japan under United States terms. Dulles spent considerable time building up NATO and forming other alliances as part of his strategy of controlling Soviet expansion by threatening massive retaliation in event of war. Allen Dulles John Foster Dulles was born on February 25, 1888 in Washington, D.C. to Presbyterian minister Allen Macy and Edith (Foster) Dulles. Dulles' younger brother Allen Welsh Dulles was the first civilian and the longest-serving (1953-1961) Director of Central Intelligence and a member of the Warren Commission. Under Dulles' direction, the CIA created MK-Ultra, a top secret mind control research project which was managed by Sidney Gottlieb. He is considered one of the essential creators of the modern United States intelligence system and was an indispensable guide to clandestine operations during the Cold War. He established intelligence networks worldwide to check and counter Soviet and eastern Europe communist advances as well as international communist movements. Eleanor Lansing Dulles, Dulles' sister, was noted for her work in the successful economic rebuilding of post-war Europe during 20 years with the State Department. Robert Lansing, Dulles' uncle, also served as Secretary of State. He served as Legal Advisor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson from 1915-1920. He negotiated the Lansing-Ishii Agreement with Japan in 1917 and was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919. John Foster Dulles' son with Janet Avery, Avery Dulles, converted to Roman Catholicism, entered the Jesuit order, and became the first American priest to be directly appointed as a Cardinal. Dulles' maternal grandfather was John W. Foster, who was Secretary of State under Benjamin Harrison. Did you know John Foster Dulles tried to join the United States Army during World War I but was rejected? He was rejected because of poor eyesight and instead he received an Army commission as Major on the War Industries Board. ]]> Recap for February 25, 2013 25 Feb 2013 21:11:42 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Check out some interesting articles from the past week! The Genealogy Sphere The Wismer Saucepan (Adventures in Genealogy blog) – Deb Ruth shares her husband's second cousin twice removed's patent record for a new saucepan Profile of the Day ]]> Buffalo Soldier 22 Feb 2013 20:29:41 +0000Amanda the full story]]>February is Black History month in the U.S., where we celebrate and remember the past and present achievements of African-Americans. In 1866, to help rebuild the country after the Civil War, the United States Congress established the first peacetime all-black regiment in the U.S. Army to help patrol the western frontier. About 6,000 African Americans were recruited into six regiments: 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry Regiments. The last four were later merged into the 24th and 25th infantry. According to some stories, the name "Buffalo Soldier" was given to the cavalry men by the Native Americans tribes they fought because of their resemblance to the dark, curly-haired buffalo that roamed the plains. In total, 23 Buffalo Soldiers received the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars. Did you know they were also among the first national park rangers in the Sierra Nevada? We remember these soldiers not only for their bravery in combat, but also for their enduring commitment and honor to stand in service to the United States despite facing discrimination and segregation. Today, over 400 Buffalo Soldiers are buried at the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presido. The purpose of this project is to research the black soldiers who served in the U.S. Army in the 1860′s, to create their Geni profiles, and to follow their families forward to today. This project will focus on the soldiers of the 9th & 10th Cavalry and of the 24th & 25th Infantry Regiments. Join the Buffalo Soldiers project and help connect these brave soldiers to Geni's World Family Tree. traveled to Washington, D.C. and there met President Abraham Lincoln. Legend has it that, upon meeting her, he greeted her by saying, "so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." Although little is known about the meeting, except for Stowe's letter to her husband writing "I had a real funny interview with the President." Lyman Beecher She was born on June 14, 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut to Lyman and Roxana Beecher. Roxana Beecher was a deeply religious woman who died when Harriet was only five years old. Lyman Beecher was a Presbyterian minister and co-founder of the American Temperance Society. He gained popular recognition in 1806, after giving a sermon concerning the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Beecher stoked controversy by advocating "new measures" of evangelism that ran counter to traditional Calvinist understanding. These new measures at the time brought turmoil to churches all across America. He was charged with heresy in 1835 by fellow pastor, Joshua Lacy Wilson. The trial took place in his own church, and Beecher defended himself, while burdened with the cares of his seminary, his church, and his wife at home on her death bed. The trial resulted in acquittal, and, on an appeal to the general synod, he was again acquitted, but the controversy engendered by the action went on until the Presbyterian church was divided in two. Beecher took an active part in the theological controversies that led to the excision of a portion of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church in 1837/8, Beecher adhering to the new school branch. Harriet moved to Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 21 to join her father. She joined the Semi-Colon Club, a literary salon and social club which was where she met her future husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe. He was an ardent critic of slavery, and the Stowe's supported the Underground Railroad, temporarily housing several fugitive slaves in their home. Calvin was an American Biblical scholar who helped spread public education in the United States. He was critical in the establishment of the College of Teachers in 1833. Catharine Beecher, Harriet's sister was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on female education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education. In 1823, Beecher opened the Hartford Female Seminary where she taught until 1832. Henry Ward Beecher Prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker Henry Ward Beecher was Harriet's brother. He was an advocate of Women's suffrage, temperance and Darwin's theory of evolution, a foe of slavery and bigotry of all kinds. Beecher held that Christianity should adapt itself to the changing culture of times. He was accused of having an affair with a married woman, it became a highly publicized scandal known as the Beecher-Tilton Affair. He was tried on charges that he had committed adultery in 1875, it was one of the most notorious American trials of the 19th century. Harriet's half sister Isabella Beecher Hooker was a leader, lecturer, and activist in the American Suffragist movement. Following the Civil War, Isabella carefully ventured into the divided women's movement with the unsigned "A Mother's Letter to a Daughter on Women Suffrage," which relied on the idea that, "women would raise the moral level of politics and bring a motherly wisdom to the affairs of government." During 1887, Isabella spoke on the need for women to have greater roles in society, including the benefits of female police officers. ]]> for February 19, 2013 19 Feb 2013 19:29:44 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Hope everyone had a great long weekend! Check out some interesting genealogy articles from the past week! Profile of the Day ]]> Love Story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning 15 Feb 2013 00:12:50 +0000Amanda the full story]]>It's Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day brings out the romantic in many of us and what better way to spend Valentine's Day than to read about great love stories in history. Baylor University, in collaboration with Wellesly College digitized the love letters between English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. The entire collection is now available online for your viewing pleasure. Elizabeth Barrett came from a prominent and wealthy family and she was already a well established poet before she met fellow poet Robert Browning. She lived as a semi-invalid in her father's house, under his domineering hand, and had become a bit of recluse. Robert had been an admirer of Elizabeth's work for some time, and with the help of a friend, John Kenyon, met Elizabeth in 1845. The two quickly fell in love and thus, began one of the most famous courtships in literature. Her father disapproved of Robert, who believed he was an unreliable fortune hunter, so the couple kept their relationship a secret. Together, they exchanged hundreds of love letters, and by 1846, the couple eloped. Her father disowned her and she faced disgust from her brothers, who believed she had married a low-class gold digger. However, Elizabeth stood by her husband, and shortly after their wedding, they fled to Italy. She lived the remainder of her life in Italy, and the couple had a son in 1849. Later, she published her best-known work, Sonnets from the Portuguese, which consisted of a collection of sonnets chronicling the couple's courtship and marriage. I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett,-and this is no off-hand complimentary letter that I shall write,-whatever else, no prompt matter-of-course recognition of your genius and there a graceful and natural end of the thing: since the day last week when I first read your poems, I quite laugh to remember how I have been turning and turning again in my mind what I should be able to tell you of their effect upon me-for in the first flush of delight I thought I would this once get out of my habit of purely passive enjoyment, when I do really enjoy, and thoroughly justify my admiration-perhaps even, as a loyal fellow-craftsman should, try and find fault and do you some little good to be proud of hereafter!-but nothing comes of it all-so into me has it gone, and part of me has it become, this great living poetry of yours, not a flower of which but took root and grew .. oh, how different that is from lying to be dried and pressed flat and prized highly and put in a book with a proper account at top and bottom, and shut up and put away .. and the book called a "Flora," besides! After all, I need not give up the thought of doing that, too, in time; because even now, talking with whoever is worthy, I can give a reason for my faith in one and another excellence, the fresh strange music, the affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought-but in this addressing myself to you, your own self, and for the first time, my feeling rises altogether. I do, as I say, love these Books with all my heart-and I love you too: do you know I was once not very far from seeing .. really seeing you? Mr Kenyon said to me one morning "would you like to see Miss Barrett?"-then he went to announce me,-then he returned .. you were too unwell-and now it is years ago-and I feel as at some untoward passage in my travels-as if I had been close, so close, to some world's-wonder in chapel or crypt, .. only a screen to push and I might have entered-but there was some slight .. so it now seems .. slight and just-sufficient bar to admission, and the half-opened door shut, and I went home my thousands of miles, and the sight was never to be! Well, these Poems were to be-and this true thankful joy and pride with which I feel myself. Yours ever faithfully, Robert Browning. Have you found love letters in your family history research? Share your stories in the comments below! Boston Association of Ministers. He later left the Unity Church in 1856 to become pastor at the South Congregational Church where he served until 1899. His best known work was "The Man Without a Country" which was published in the Atlantic in 1863 and it was intended to strengthen support for the Union cause in the North. He employed a minute realism which led his readers to suppose the narrative a record of fact. Hale's short story "The Brick Moon", serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, is the first known fictional description of an artificial satellite. He assisted in founding the Christian Examiner, Old and New in 1869 and became its editor. In 1875, the Christian Examiner merged with Scribner's Magazine. Hale became Chaplain of the United States Senate in 1903 and the following year he was elected as a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Nathan Hale Hale was born on April 3, 1822 in Boston, Massachusetts to Nathan Hale and Sarah Preston Everett. Nathan Hale founded the Boston Daily Advertiser in 1813 serving as editor and publisher until his death in 1863. He was one of the founders of the North American Review in 1815 and the Christian Examiner in 1823. Hale was active in promoting industrial improvement, especially the Boston and Albany Railroad and diverting the Lake Cochituate for potable water in the Back Bay, the Neck and the South Cove. Charles Hale, Edward Hale's brother, was a legislator in the Massachusetts state House and Senate intermittently between 1855 and 1877. He was house speaker in 1859 and in the 1860s he lived in Cairo, Egypt as the American consul-general. In Cairo he arrested the conspirator, John Surratt, suspected of plotting the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Susan Hale Edward Hale's sister was author, traveler and artist Susan Hale. Without any particular teaching, she learned to draw and to paint early in life. She became a teacher when her father became ill and the family income needed to be supplemented. In 1872, she studied art in Paris, France and Weimar, Germany to get the best training in watercolor she could for nearly a year. When she returned she began giving lessons in watercolors. She educated her niece Ellen Day Hale, daughter of Edward and his wife Emily Baldwin Perkins, who became a painter and printmaker. Ellen Day Hale's 1893 portrait, June, which depicts a young woman sewing, wearing a bun and checked dress, is in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Edward Everett Hale's fourth great-grandfather was Richard Everett, founder of both Springfield, Massachusetts and Dedham, Massachusetts. Edward's uncle was Edward Everett, one of the great American orators of the ante-bellum and Civil War era. He is often remembered today as the featured orator at the dedication ceremony of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg in 1863, where he spoke for two hours, immediately before President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous, two-minute Gettysburg Address. ]]> Recap for February 11, 2013 11 Feb 2013 21:12:20 +0000Amanda the full story]]>We hope everyone had a great weekend! Check out some interesting articles in the world of genealogy below! Profile of the Day ]]> on Geni: DNA Tests for Genealogy! 09 Feb 2013 01:55:44 +0000Amanda the full story]]>We're thrilled to announce that DNA tests for genealogy are now available on Geni! Take your genealogy into the new millennium with this cutting-edge technology to enhance your family history research. And for a limited time, we're offering you a special discount on this revolutionary technology! Have you hit a brick wall in your genealogy research? You can break through these brick walls by identifying your direct paternal line (Y-DNA), direct maternal line (mtDNA) and relatives across all lines via autosomal DNA (Family Finder). DNA tests can help you: Discover your origins and find new relatives – solve the missing pieces of your family history by uncovering your family's origins and discover new relatives through DNA matches Map your ethnic origins – do you have European, Native American, Jewish or African American ancestry you didn't know about? Prove your surname's ancestry – find out if the males carrying your surname are actually related to each other Geni has partnered with Family Tree DNA, a global leader in DNA tests specialized for genealogy, to bring you the highest quality DNA testing available on the market. Family Tree DNA established the world's largest DNA database for genealogy (with more than 400,000) DNA records. You may know them from their work with National Geographic on the Genographic Project. All results are analyzed in an advanced genetic genealogy lab in Houston, Texas. You can rest easy knowing privacy is strictly enforced and the results are not shared with anyone but you. What kind of DNA tests are available? You can choose from a wide range of DNA tests that will analyze your direct paternal lines and direct maternal lines and other comprehensive ancestral tests to further advance your genealogy research. As an added bonus, all Pro members receive an exclusive 10% discount! That's not all – for a limited time, we're offering a massive discount on the most versatile DNA test available, Family Finder. Normally priced at $289, all Geni members can purchase the Family Finder test for only $169! Based on autosomal DNA, Family Finder can find people related to you through any shared ancestor, within the last 5 generations, not just through the direct paternal or maternal lines. Hurry, this special offer won't last long! All DNA Tests (click to enlarge) Curious to try out some of the most revolutionary technology for genealogy available? Check out all the DNA tests on Geni and pick the one that best fits your family research needs. If you have any questions about these DNA tests, please read our detailed DNA FAQ. Ames by many historians as being the single most important influence in the building of the Union Pacific portion of the transcontinental railroad. He is also noted for the subsequent scandal that alleged the improper sale of stock of the railroad's construction company. Oakes Ames Oakes Ames was the son of Oliver Ames, Sr. who was a blacksmith that had built a business of making shovels and was nicknamed "King of Spades". Ames eventually became a partner in the business and established the firm Oliver Ames & Sons with his brother Oliver Ames, Jr. Ames made a large fortune during the Civil War. Through his influence, Ames obtained contracts for his family firm in the construction of the Union Pacific and staked nearly all the family's holdings as capitalization for the project. The contracts were later transferred to the Credit Mobilier Company of America after Ames ousted its founder Thomas Durant. His brother Oliver, Jr. (1807-1877) was appointed president of the Union Pacific in 1866. It was disclosed in 1872 that Oakes Ames sold shares in Credit Mobilier to fellow congressmen at a price greatly below the market value of the stock which became a public scandal. In 1873, the House passed a resolution formally censuring Ames, detractors referred to him as "Hoax Ames". As his father's heir, Oliver Ames, spent several years in paying off the obligations of millions of dollars incurred by the Union Pacific Railroad and other undertakings. On the 14th anniversary of the completion of the railroad in 1883, the state legislature of Massachusetts passed a resolution exonerating Ames. Oakes Ames (1874-1950) was the son of Oliver Ames (1831-1895), he was an American botanist specializing in orchids. He spent his entire professional career at Harvard and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1911. The Orchidaceae were little-known before Ames' study and classification. With his wife, Blanche Ames they made expeditions to create scientifically accurate drawings of the plants they cataloged. Their work was published in the seven-volume Orchidicae: Illustrations and Studies of the Family Orchidicae. They also developed the Ames Charts, illustrating the phylogenetic relationships of the major useful plants, which are still used. His estate is now the Borderland State Park in Massachusetts. George Plimpton American journalist, writer, editor, and actor, George Plimpton was Oakes Ames' grandson. Plimpton is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. He has appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. At Harvard, he was a classmate and close personal friend of Robert Kennedy. Plimpton, along with former decathlete Rafer Johnson, was credited with helping wrestle Sirhan Sirhan to the ground when Kennedy was assassinated at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Silas Wright Titus was born on January 18, 1849 in Syracuse, New York to Colonel Silas Titus and Eliza McCarthy. Titus was named for a friend of his father's, Silas Wright, a U.S. Senator, Governor of New York, and a member of Andrew Jackson's cabinet. When he was 20 years old he worked with the engineering force in the construction of the New Orleans, Mobile and Texas Railroad. He helped to develop and construct 125 groundwater wells in the vicinity of San Angelo, Texas. He subsequently invented a method for locating and procuring groundwater by means of drilling and pumping. He was granted seven patents on lifting water by air. In the early 1900s the New York City water supply began to experience severe water shortages. Even with the best machinery the city engineers that operated the wells near the town of Jameco were unable to produce enough water. The city was about to abandon the wells when Titus offered to run the plant. He was allowed to run the plant under a contract with machinery he invented and patented, the wells were producing 8,000,000 US gallons per day. According to Titus, the engineers were jealous and they persuaded the Water Commissioner to "dispense with his services" and under the City's operation of the wells, production dropped to 1.5 million US gallons per day. The city was about to abandon the wells again when Titus made another proposal to operate the wells with his own machinery and furnish 1.5 million US gallons per day free of charge. He requested payment of $40 for each 1 million US gallons a day over the first 1.5 million US gallons. The city engineers laughed at him but allowed him to operate the well at Jameco again. In a short time the wells were producing 8 million US gallons per day and later reached 11.0 million US gallons per day. Silas Titus His father Colonel Silas Titus was a military officer who fought in the American Civil War in the Union Army. In 1835, Titus took a stage coach to New York City travelling through Buffalo and Albany. He saw the first railroad in New York running from Schenectady to Albany and he was impressed by the new technology that he organized a town meeting upon his return to Detroit that approved the building of a railroad from Detroit to Ypsilanti, Michigan. He became one of the commissioners of the Detroit and Shiawasse Railroad Company which was responsible for the first continuous 30 mile stretch of railroad in the United States. Although Titus was a Seventh-day Adventist his marriage to Eliza McCarthy was performed by Catholic Bishop John DuBois, it became the first catholic marriage record in Onondaga County, New York. In the late 1890s, Colonel Titus lived with his son Silas Wright Titus in Brooklyn, New York. A fire was caused in the home by Colonel Titus smoking on the couch in 1899. Titus was dragged to safety by his daughter-in-law, however, he died two weeks later. Silas Wright Titus' maternal grandfather Thomas McCarthy was nominated as the first Mayor of Syracuse, New York in January 1848 and was a veteran of the War of 1812. Although he was nominated as the first Mayor of Syracuse, he never served his term as he died days before knowing he was nominated. McCarthy was born in Cork, County Cork, Ireland, he was bound as an apprentice draper in Dublin at the age of 14. He was an influential citizen in early Onondaga County, New York and helped to found the first Catholic church in the county as well as the Bank of Salina. Did you know Silas Wright Titus never failed to produce a successful water plant? Titus worked on locating and installing water plants in dry towns all throughout the U.S. and Canada. He would install the plants at his own risk and sell them to the towns only after they were fully developed and guaranteed. ]]> Recap for January 28, 2013 28 Jan 2013 21:35:49 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Check out some interesting genealogy articles from the past week! Profile of the Day ]]> Hitchcock Travels Abroad 26 Jan 2013 01:00:28 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Genealogists know that passenger lists and travel documentation can hold a great deal of genealogical information. Here's an interesting one that I thought I'd share. Recently, I came across this immigration form for legendary director Alfred Hitchcock. Check out the title of the document: Information Sheet (concerning passenger arriving on aircraft). I have to say this is the first time I've seen an immigration form for a passenger arriving via airplane! When you take a closer look at this document, you can find a ton of useful genealogical information. This document shows Hitchcock took TWA NC 513 departing from Paris on May 25, 1946 and arrived in New York the next day. His full name, labeled "Given Name" and "Family Name," is written as Alfred Joseph Hitchcock. He gives his age as 46 and his sex as male. His country of citizenship is England. Under destination, Hitchcock states he was heading to his home at 10957 Bellagio Road Los Angeles, California. He lived at this residence with his wife, Alma Hitchcock. Here's were it gets really interesting – the document also contains Hitchcock's passport number: RP 1403899 issued in Philadelphia on March 20, 1946. His ticket was issued in London, England on May 24 and was paid for by Vanguard Films, the production company behind Hitchock's 1946 film Notorious. I found this document to be really intriguing. Also included is his physical description – height: 5′ 8"; complexion: flesh; color of hair: brown; color of eyes: brown; race: white; married. When asked if he could read and write, Hitchcock said "yes" to both. His calling or occupation is listed as "Motion Picture Dir." As you proceed to the other questions, you'll notice that they can potentially provide you with new clues. These include questions about the passenger's health (both mental and physical), criminal history and deformities or marks of identification. Hitchcock answered "no" to most of these, but if he hadn't, imagine how many different directions his answers could have taken you! Have you found immigration forms in your genealogical research? What interesting discoveries have you made? Tell us in the comments below! He was born on September 4, 1805 in Hartford, Connecticut to David Low Dodge and Sarah Cleveland. David Dodge helped establish the New York Peace Society, he managed the first cotton factory built in Connecticut. Dodge, Sr. married Melissa Phelps who was the daughter of Anson Greene Phelps and Olivia Eggleston. Dodge and his father-in-law Anson founded the mining firm Phelps, Dodge and Company, one of America's largest mining companies. He built the Macon and Brunswick Railroad along with his associates, connecting Macon to what was then a remote area of the state. He was also a founding member of the Board of Trustees for the Syrian Protestant College which was later renamed the American University of Beirut. His eldest son William Earl Dodge, Jr. was one of two controlling partners in the Phelps, Dodge and Company for many years. Dodge, Jr. married Sarah Hoadley, daughter of David Hoadley who was president of the Panama Railroad Company. Dodge, Jr. and his cousin, Daniel Willis James, transformed the Phelps, Dodge and Company from a placid and profitable import business into one of the world's largest and wealthiest mining corporations. Dodge, Jr.'s daughter Grace Hoadley Dodge donated about $1.5 million and many years of service to philanthropic work. She was the main source of funds for the New York College for the Training of Teachers, which became Teachers College, and subsequently a school of Columbia University. Elizabeth Clementine Stedman, sister of William E. Dodge, Sr., was first married to Edmund B. Stedman and later to U.S. diplomat and politician, William Burnet Kinney. Elizabeth was an American writer, she published Felicita, a Metrical Romance (1855), Poems (1867), and Bianco Capello, A Tragedy, written during her time abroad in Europe. Her son by her first marriage, Edmund Clarence Stedman was an American poet, critic, essayist, banker and scientist. He was one of the first seven chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1904. Did you know that Dodge County, Georgia is named after William E. Dodge, Sr.? Check out William E. Dodge, Sr.'s family tree and see how you maybe related! ]]> Recap for January 21, 2013 21 Jan 2013 20:00:37 +0000Amanda the full story]]>Have you made any interesting discoveries recently? Check out some interesting articles from the past week.	eng	36ee1448-237d-4bcd-9574-44bdc3698fde	http://feeds.feedburner.com/geni/blog
Anyone who watched more than 10 minutes of a new Battlestar Galactica episode when it was on -- or read this TR list -- the show is pretty frakking dark. In fact, some of the comments received last time questioned the point of watching a show that was so depressing. In looking back, particularly at the list, the show indeed did have some very dark moments. Being that the show started off with the extermination of 99% of all of the humans in the 12 Colonies, there wasn't much room for sunshine, lollypops, obnoxiously cute kids and their robot dogs. Instead, the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica became a show about survival against insurmountable odds, a show that was more a commentary on the early 21st century, war, and terrorism than a space opera in the classic sense. That being said, the show was not without its moments of happiness and levity, because quite frankly with all of the bad shit that happens to the Rag Tag Fugitive Fleet, it's a wonder that the majority of the survivors didn't pull a Dualla and spray brain matter across the bulkheads. While the last list centered on the most disturbing episodes of the series, this time we are focusing on the moments of happiness experienced in the fleet. Note that these are only moments, in my rewatching of pretty much the entire series for my lists, I never quite found a single episode that I would consider a happy one. These moments usually prefaced or followed some sort of tragedy, and often the happiness was short lived, but for a short time, these characters got to feel what it was like to feel alive, without all of that whole pain and suffering thing. Note, if you haven't watched Battlestar Galactica, I'm about to spoil just about every single positive moment in the series... all 10 of 'em. 10) A Child is Born, "33" After a long hiatus between the miniseries and the start of the regular season, Battlestar Galactica started off with a bang, with its Hugo Award-winning episode "33". While the miniseries ended on a somewhat upbeat note, the Galactica and the remains of the human race setting a course for Earth, the series started off on a pretty grim note, with the Cylons relentlessly attacking the fleet every 33 minutes. Exhaustion follows the fleet just as much as the Cylons do, and matters get worse when a ship, the Olympic Carrier goes missing after a jump. It becomes clear how high the stakes are in this new series when the Carrier reappears, most likely a trap. Radiation alarms go off signaling the presence of nukes aboard the ship, now on a collision course with the fleet. Apollo and Starbuck have no choice but to open fire on their own. Throughout the episode, new president Laura Roslin has been keeping track of the number of souls aboard the fleet, a number that has been steadily dwindling, particularly quickly after the destruction of the Olympic Carrier. After receiving a report from her aide Billy, she goes back to the board one final time, however instead of subtracting a large amount from the number, she adds one. Apparently in all of the chaos and combat, a small miracle has taken place: A baby boy was born in the fleet, the first glimpse of hope for the exiled humans. 9) Galactica Finds an Ancient Copy of Rand McNally, "Home" The second season begins in a very dark place, with Commander Adama suffering from a pair of holes in his chest, the fleet torn apart due to the conflict between President Roslin and the military, Lee Adama in the brig, Kara Thrace and Helo on Caprica, and crew members marooned on a Cylon-infested Kobol. Then things go from bad to worse: Kara gets shot; riots ensue when the fleet is under Commander Tigh's rule, and the people on Kobol are dying. But things change when Starbuck returns to the fleet with the Arrow of Apollo. With most of their issues resolved the crew of Galactica searches Kobol for answers in the quest for Earth. When the series began, Commander Adama expressed that Earth was a myth, something to keep the people moving forward. His beliefs change when he recovers from his attempted murder, and joins Roslin, Zarek and others down on the surface of Kobol. Once the pragmatist, he is at least willing to go along with Roslin's quest, and keeps an open mind for the most part. The expedition arrives at the legendary Temple of Athena, but upon entering it, finds that most of it is crumbled ruins of statues representing the original names of the colonies, which ironically are the signs of the zodiac. When they find a mostly intact statue of Sagittarius missing his trademark arrow, it becomes pretty obvious where the Arrow of Apollo goes. When inserted, the Temple seals shut, locking in Adama, Roslin, Starbuck and others, but when they look around, they are no longer in ruins but are in a field of tall grass, with large Stonehenge looking rocks surrounding them, each with a depiction of a constellation that coincides with the names of the colonies. After pondering for a few minutes they discover the truth, they are not looking at a map to Earth; they are standing ON Earth, at least a representation of it. Looking up in the night sky shows the planet's position in relation to the constellations, essentially showing the Galactica crew where it is, based on the stars around it. Looking for clues to where in the universe these constellations all exist, they see an object most of them easily recognize, what they refer to as the Horsehead Nebula. Skepticism turns to determination, as prophecy aside, everyone in that room seems pretty sure that Earth exists, and it is where they are supposed to be going. The leave the temple with the first real signpost towards a new home, and have direction for the first time since leaving the ruins of the colonies. 8) Kat Finds Her Ship, "The Passage" Kat had spent most of her time among the Colonial Fleet in constant competition with Starbuck. The pressure to perform as one of the top Viper pilots consumed Lieutenant Louanne Katraine, up to the point where she started taking and eventually overdosed on stims to keep up. This constant battle with Starbuck (whom Kat felt was a risk due to Starbucks constant drinking and irresponsibility) came to a head when Kat's secret was revealed: She's not Louanne Katraine. Apparently, Sasha (as she was known on the Colonies) was a drug runner in her previous life. When she escaped, she took the name of a dead person, stealing her identity and her crime-free life, and then joined the Colonial military, leaving her past behind. Of course, her secret was out when she ran into an old flame/partner in crime from her clandestine days, who tried to blackmail Kat for food. Of course, Starbuck happens to question Kat's old flame and threatens to out her to the Admiral. While all of this interpersonal drama is going on, the starving fleet is trying to make its way across a radioactive expanse to reach a planet with copious amounts of edible algae (yum). Each of the ships has to be guided by a Raptor, and thus far the mission hasn't been going well, with multiple ships being lost, including the Carina which was escorted by Kat. Her personal issues drive Kat to vow not to lose another ship, and despite having a pretty heavy dose of radiation thus far, she steals another pilot's radiation badge and continues on mission. When she loses yet another ship, the Faru Sadin, she is ordered with the rest of the fleet to jump due to increased radiation and spacial instability. She defies orders and continues to search for the Faru Sadin, eventually finding it while receiving a fatal dose of radiation. At this point you might be asking, "How is this happy?" When she arrives back at the fleet with the missing ship, she exits her smoking ship to thunderous applause from everyone on the flight deck, and in a final act of defiance and pride, thrusts her hands in the air in triumph. While her act eventually did result in her death, the joy and pride she showed when arriving home one last time showed how much of a change she had made in her life, a change that was worth dying for. 7) Tyrol Meets his Family, "Someone to Watch Over Me" Poor Galen Tyrol. This man... wait... machine... wait... man-like machine goes through a good bit of hell throughout the series. First he discovers that the woman he loves is a Cylon, which he finds out when she busts a cap in Commander Adama. Eventually he hooks up with the ever adorable, dental school destined Specialist Cally, who we learn later was "the best of limited options." He finds out he himself is a Toaster, then finds out his kid isn't his, this Cylon just doesn't get a break. But he does have one moment of true beauty in season four, which quickly turns to a moment of grand betrayal. The apparent love of his life, Boomer, is in the brig aboard Galactica, after bringing Ellen Tigh back from a Resurrection Ship. Looking for closure, he visits her in her cell, trying to figure out if she ever did love him, or if he was just a part of her mission as a sleeper Cylon. While he is initially resistant to her explanations, his emotional defenses crumble when she introduces him to the Cylon ability of "Projection." For those who haven't seen the series, projection is the ability the humanoid Cylons have which lets them view the world in a theme which is pleasing to their own individual tastes. They essentially have an area of the brain that acts like a blank canvas, where they can paint their own world for them to fantasize about, to the point where it seems real. Think of it as a holodeck in their head, which they can share with other Cylons. When they touch hands and she shares her projection with him, any doubts of their relationship are stripped away from Tyrol's mind. She shows him the house she planned for them on Picon, where she expected them to go after they left the military. As he explores his "home", he stops in his tracks as he sees evidence of the evolution of their relationship, marks on the wall to show the growth of a child. Boomer shows him to the door of their fantasy daughter, and instantly you can see his heart melt, tears forming in his real-world eyes. An interesting contrast to how he seemed to be with Nicki, the child he thought was his for the last season and a half, who seemed more of an annoyance to him than anything. This single moment of peace he experiences is most likely the happiest moment of the series for Tyrol, and it doesn't last long. It turns out that this was all a setup for Boomer (who just so happens to be frakking Brother Caval, the old ass Cylon played by Dean "Al" Stockwell), who uses Tyrol to break out of the brig, steal Helo's mixed species daughter, and make a run for it. 6) Roslin and Adama, Sitting in a Tree, "The Hub" When Bill Adama and Laura Roslin meet for the first time, they immediately don't see eye to eye. Roslin wants to install an educational computer network aboard the Galactica, while Adama insists that it will never happen so long as he is in command. The good news for Roslin is that he won't be in command for long, with both the ship and her commander due to stand down. Plans change however when the attack on the colonies begins, and the Galactica is thought to be the only surviving Battlestar. Their relationship has its fair share of ups and downs, such as when Adama had the president arrested and sent to the brig, where she spent a good portion of the second season of the show. Over time his stance toward her lightens, and where once he thought of her as an adversary, he begins to develop a level of respect and eventually friendship with her. As her health deteriorates, it becomes apparent that Adama feels more for her than just friendship, as he sits by her bed reading to her during cancer treatments, but his feelings for her become completely obvious when he opts to stay behind and wait for her after she was shanghaied on a Cylon baseship, stating "I can't live without her." Upon their reuniting in the episode "The Hub", it becomes apparent that her feelings for him are the same. They embrace, and she whispers in his ear that she loves him, and in true stoic Adama fashion, he simply replies "It's about time." (Note: The video example is from the episode "The Oath" as no examples from "The Hub" were available online.) 5) Oh Hai Pegasus, "Pegasus" Once the Galactica was on the lam from the Cylons, things generally went downhill. In the first season there were few moments to celebrate, and the most miniscule of victory generally came with a price, sometimes a pretty large one. When the Galactica saw a large ship jump in, they immediately diverted the combat air patrol to intercept and investigate the object. It was described as a dream by Apollo, who was the first to spot the Battlestar Pegasus, long thought destroyed in the destruction of the colonies. Despite contact via the wireless, skepticism remained until at last a Raptor and escort Vipers landed on the Galactica, carrying Admiral Helena Cain, welcoming the crew of the Galactica back to the Colonial Fleet. Military discipline is for the most part thrown out the airlock as the Galactica crew erupts into cheers and hugs, welcoming this new batch of humans. Of course, over the course of the episode, the relationship between the Galactica and Pegasus crews goes to shit pretty quickly, and before the end of the episode, Vipers from both ships are playing a game of interstellar chicken. For a time though, the universe seems a lot less hopeless, and the Rag Tag Fugitive Fleet is not as alone as they once though. 4) Apollo and Kara Hook Up, "Unfinished Business" The sexual tension between Starbuck and Apollo is as constant a force in the Battlestar universe as the "One True God." It's apparent throughout the entire series that they secretly want to frak each other silly, that is up until Starbuck returns from New Caprica. To say that her experiences on New Caprica changed her would be an understatement. Starbuck went through an enormous battery of psychological torture, including forced cohabitation with Leoben, a daughter that didn't really belong to her and lots of fun involving steak knives. Needless to say, once she was released, she was a little jaded, coming to a head during the episode "Unfinished Business" and an event called the Dance, a ship wide boxing competition. It's not long before Starbuck calls out Apollo to settle some issues. The two of them go at it like Tasmanian Devils... fighting that is, relentlessly pounding on each other without any semblance of mercy. It's during the fight that we start to see flashbacks of events on New Caprica prior to the invasion. Apparently on a night of celebration on their new homeworld, Kara and Lee after a fierce night of drinking, wander off from the settlement, and end up making passionate love under the stars of New Caprica. Afterwards, they ponder over what to do with their significant others, Cylon Sam Anders for Kara, and Dualla for Lee. In a scene where Lee is as giddy as a 9-year-old girl, he screams it to the stars for all of New Caprica, the universe and the gods to hear: "I'm Lee Adama, and I love Kara Thrace" " With some coaxing, giggling all the way, Kara does the same. It's arguably the cutest moment of the series, with both of them acting like lovesick teenagers, and for a short time, the happiest people in the universe. Of course, it wouldn't be Battlestar without some drama, so when Lee wakes up alone and wanders back to the city, he discovered Kara ran off and eloped with Sam first thing that morning. 3) Apollo Destroys the Death Star, er... the Fuel Depot, "Hand of God" Once the destruction of the colonies takes place, the members of the fleet depend on a small number of Viper pilots to keep them safe. The most decorated and combat hardened of these pilots is Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, and Lee is always operating in her shadow. When the Fleet runs out of fuel, there are very few options for them if they want to survive. It seems the only viable one is to go on the offensive, attacking a Cylon refinery. Of course said refinery is under heavy guard, and to make matters worse, ace pilot Starbuck is grounded due to injuries sustained a few episodes prior. That leaves Lee leading the strike force, and the odds are certainly stacked against him. It's pretty obvious that people have concerns about his ability. Starbuck challenges him on it, and his still somewhat estranged father comes by to offer a pep talk. Apollo has his doubts, but the mission launches regardless. Immediately things go poorly, with the first squadron of Vipers outnumbered greatly. It's when all seems lost that we discover the real plan, a secret strike force hidden among some mining vessels. Apollo leads the charge and ends up bravely navigating a tunnel about the size of the Death Star trench, eventually reaching his target and singlehandedly obliterating it. As much as this is a happy moment, the real fun begins when the pilots return home and celebrate their first real victory in the war. Ambrosia is flowing, Starbuck congratulates Lee "The Magnificent Bastard" Adama with one of the last cigars in the universe, and Apollo seems to have finally won the respect of his father. Besides the celebration, the victory scene is the first time we hear "Wander My Friends," the tune that eventually develops into one of the major musical themes in the show, acting as the Adama family theme for both Battlestar Galactica and Caprica. 2) Pegasus to the Rescue, "Exodus" While dynamic space battles were not something seen on a weekly basis, but when they were they were absolutely mind blowing. The scene that springs to mind as the most memorable is when the Galactica jumps into the atmosphere of New Caprica in a maneuver sometimes referred to as the "Bucket Drop," launching her fighters in a surprise attack and jumping out just in time to prevent becoming a very large crater. While the rebellion on New Caprica was in full effect, the Galactica goes toe-to-toe with four Cylon Basestars and their complement of Raiders, two more than expected. The Galactica is able to hold them off long enough for the civilian ships to get away, but Adama, always expecting the mission to be one way, accepts that the end is near, something that seems to be a guarantee when their DRADIS picks up another ship jumping into the fight. The camera pulls back from the view of the Galactica getting pounded by multiple Basestars to reveal exiting the nebula, the Battlestar Pegasus, violating orders and coming to the rescue. As Adama both curses and thanks his son, the Pegasus unleashes a massive volley from her main cannon, literally bisecting one of the Cylon carriers in almost an instant. Moving in the middle of the fight and blocking enemy access to the Galactica, the Pegasus continues to duke it out with the Cylon fleet, handing out a ton of damage while suffering greatly. Seeing that the Pegasus has had her last day, Lee Adama orders his crew to abandon ship before setting a collision course with a Basestar, ramming the mighty Battlestar into her, destroying both the Pegasus and the Basestar, and causing debris from Pegasus (namely a flight pod) to carom into another Basestar, possibly destroying it as well. So while it had its cost (I still doubt the validity of a strategy that involves using your more modern and power starship as cannon fodder so your old broke-ass ship can get away), Pegasus saves the Admiral's ass and the show's namesake, looking completely badass in the process and preventing a name change to the show, something that test audiences would have hated just a little bit more than an eighteen-month hiatus. 1) Look, Earth!, "Revelations" Things in the fleet couldn't get much worse. The Cylons have taken President Roslin and dozens of Colonial soldiers' hostage in a play for the Fleet to give up the "Final Five". Of course, matters are complicated due to the Fleet leadership not knowing who the Final Five are. Admiral Adama hits an all-time low, as his lifelong friend Saul Tigh reveals his true Cylon nature. The tension becomes violent when the Cylons launch a meat satellite (one of their hostages), forcing acting president Lee Adama to load Tigh into a launch tube. While this is going on, Starbuck, investigating a hunch from her newly discovered robot hubby, discovers a signal; one she thinks is the key to everything. Running to the flight deck to stop the execution, Starbuck arrives just in time to reveal her discovery: She really does know the way to Earth. Putting their differences aside, human and Cylon forces decide to head to Earth together. The tension is high as Lieutenant Gaeta counts down the jump, and the combined human and Cylon fleet jumps into the unknown. Where they end up is a beautiful blue and green world, the planet that has been the stuff of legends made real. The scene of joy is overwhelming, characters that had been emotionally stressed to limits no one could ever fathom, finally having a triumphant release. Scenes of people throughout the fleet cheering, weeping, mourning for those who didn't make it, and anticipating starting their lives over on a brand new world grace the screen. It is a moment of pure happiness, at least until they land on a Earth that is extra crispy. Though the outcome is nothing that the human/Cylon alliance expected, for just a few moments people have something to rejoice about, even if it's to be short lived. I love the board game based on the property, but good Lord, does it seem depressing. If I were one of those crazy Roman fellows committing ritual and politically-motivated suicide, I'd probably make Battlestar Galactica my post-suicide-party bath time entertainment. Yeah, it's all that. But it comes with the premise of merciless robots hunting the human race to extinction. When you really start to tell a story about what that means, it should go to a dark place where people die, the conditions are shitty, and bad stuff happens. All the time. Nobody complains that The Walking Dead is, you know, relentlessly bloody and depressing and stuff. (There are much better reasons to complain there.) When people do complain about Terminator, it's usually when it becomes dopey, jokey, or attempts warm'n'fuzzy. So I don't quite get why people want this particular robot apocalypse to be fun and bouncy or Up With People. It's about resilience and survival, no matter what gets thrown at you. (That's why I don't like the ending, but I'm not going to complain about one hour out of an entire series.) It's about taking the moments when they come. I'll take Adama and Roslin's relationship over lots of other sci-fi relationships because theirs felt real. #6 on the list is one of my favorite TV moments because instead of feeling preordained or inevitable, it felt fragile. There were plenty more moments like the ones in this list that weren't events. Helo and Athena carving a family out of the chaos. Starbuck escaping her crash using her wits and a crippled Cylon fighter. The curious and always-entertaining "relationship" between Baltar and Six. People responded to impossible events with humor, drive, and the utterly human ability to carve some semblance of normalcy out of the worst situations. I have no problems with you enjoying this show, and I am sure it was a great piece of television. I agree with you on most points..... However, I disagree with your comment about how people do not complain about the tone of the Walking Dead.... The original Walking Dead was not light or campy. The original Battlestar was. What was done to the BSG franchise was to use the names (sort of) of the original series, and then spin their own dark story. In the original BSG, Cylons were NOT created by humans, Starbuck was NOT a woman, Boomer was more then a supporting character, and was really the third brother to Apollo and Starbuck's little brotherhood, and he was a black man and NOT an asian woman and definitely NOT a fucking Cylon! The tone of the original show was definitely a lot lighter, but the show was meant to portray hope, human ingenuity, and courage in the face of nearly insurmountable odds. It was meant to show how people can rise to be better when faced with such darkness. It was about picking yourself up after losing a war, and finding a way to continue, survive, and thrive. (hmmmm... sound familiar?) It might not have been a realistic view of humanity, but then the whole angst driven darkness and despair is no more realistic either. I just found the original show to be a LOT more optimistic. That's all. There was a season 9 episode of CSI ("A Space Oddity") that pretty much addressed this head on. In the episode, someone was looking to reboot/reimagine a beloved Star Trek type franchise. When the pilot was aired at a sci-fi convention, all of the convention attendees went nuts (in a bad way) saying that the producer was ruining the franchise by turning a previously hopeful (albeit campy) show into an overly dark and violent show. In a great nod, the person who started this riot was Ronald D Moore, producer of the new BSG. Some other nods include Grace Park (Boomer) in the angry mob and Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh) as the murderer of said blaspheming producer. surprised given how dark the show got that these moments existed to make this list. espically number one.at least this list shows that the show did know it could not be dark and depressing all the time. I don't understand why some people knock the ending of NewBSG (yes it wasn't perfect)...but considering that the only real alternative was a re-hash of Galactica 1980....I think we got the better deal. I thought it was a fittingly dark/depressing ending for a dark series. For me, the biggest problem the show ran into was that they wrote the series like there was some kind of long term plan, but there wasn't a long term plan. The whole last couple seasons ended up a mess as they tried to sort out the various threads that were all tangled up into incoherence. Character drama was always the show's biggest strength, and I think it's much more important than plot, but all the nonsense going on in the plot became too big of a distraction to me, to the point that it undermined my enjoyment of the show. And then they end the show with biggest series of coincidences and bad ideas they ever had and confirmation that "God did it" where "it" is everything important in the show. Honestly, I think the best ending would have been after they find the burnt out Earth. They've achieved their goal, even if it didn't turn out like they'd hoped. The reality of what happened to Earth would be revealed and would be enough to end the war. The Fleet would then set a course for another system, looking not for some mythical place, but a safe world where they could make their own home. It'd be kind of a bummer mixed with just a bit of hope, which I think would have been appropriate for the show. Why not rehash the ending? It was a 'remake'. It had a giant ship called Battlestar Galactica, enemies called Cylons, similar fighters, same character names. So what if the end planet is our Earth? That could have been done well, it could have been satisfying. Instead, it seemed to be a blatant, forced attempt to be different. Dark smark, I loved the mini-series but the regular series was just boring.Angst ridden interpersonal boring coupled with pointless special effects boring.Oh, I almost forgot fake political boring - here you have the opportunity to abstract contemporary politics and make a statement but they went with boring instead.Then there was shakey cam and lens flare which wasn't boring but was annoying. I disagree strong;y about the missed opportunity of making statements on contemporary politics. It was an indictment of all of the United States (and England's) 21st Century war policies. Hell the whole New Caprica sequence was a way of twisting our views of insurgents in Iraq into one that showed how terrorism could be viewed as a "necessary" and even "heroic" act. Tigh sent a suicide bomber into a police graduation, which is exactly what the Iraqi insurgents were doing. Tyroll was making IEDs to blow up Cylon occupiers. The Cylons were subjecting suspected insurgents to enhanced interrogations and straight up torture. Jeebus, even the destruction of the Colonies was an allegory for 9-11. And you missed that? The series was skewering Bush and Blair polices left and right, and no one was coming out looking like a good guy. Understanding that what speaks to one person doesn't always speak to another and answering your second question first; I watched the first season - if I recall I watched the whole thing, and the mini-series of course. I don't generally watch "entertainment" for political insights, my gripe was that the political part of the show with the Politic and the Military conflicting was boring (and absurd since the military must always answer to the politic or it becomes the politic) and it was a fairly major part of the show that first season. When I think of insightful abstracted political commentary I look back to stuff like A Taste of Armageddon and it's commentary on how "Rules of War" cause conflicts to become endless - that was abstract, wasn't main stream thought and remains far more pertinent than anything else I've seen on television most of which is little more than skewering unpopular policies, which falls under pandering in my book and makes me roll my eyes - not tune in. I still don't think it was depressing because it was dark. Dark isn't any more depressing than light. That's not a counter argument that's conceeding the main point and hiding the fact by obsessing over minutia. Oh I'd give you the politic thing based solely on your assertion but from what you actually described it's not. Sure for the masses it's considered avant-garde to say terrosist can be the good guys but that hasn't been true in popular conception since the '60s - heck the President's closest friend is an unrepentant terrorist and no one gives a crap. So no it's not provocative political commentary it's reinforcement of popular mainstream views - which is pandering at it's most base. But you also asserted as a fact that they didn't address contemporary politics. And that fact is in error. They did address contemporary politics, the show was pretty much only about contemporary politics, and the fact that you missed that is due to the fact that you DIDN'T WATCH THE SHOW. Because you found 15 episodes of 75 episodes boring. So the only valid thing you can say about the show is "I didn't like what I saw of it, so I stopped watching." Anything else you have to say is conjecture and not fact based, and therefore you're talking out your ass. So you're conceeding my inital position that the show was boring which caused it to be depressing as opposed to the articles assumption that the dark tone made it depressing?Because that's what I said.Explicitly.Please pay closer attention.;) I'm talking specifically about your assertion that they didn't address contemporary politics. If you did not watch the entire thing, then your assertion that they did not address contemporary politics is one from an incomplete data set, and therefore invalid. Because they did. Explicitly. So your point is that I have to watch the whole thing to know that dark doesn't make a setting depressing but boring does? A truth transcends context when it can be applied equally to things beyond that context. My comment does apply to everything equally or do I need to provide a list of dark settings that aren't also boring and depressing? Seems a bit silly to me. I'm confused - did you just watch the mini-series and first season? If you missed the other 3/4's of the series it kind of reduces the credibility of your criticism that they didn't "abstract contemporary politics and make a statement." They may have not done it in a style that you like, but it's indisputable that they most certainly were abstracting contemporary politics to make a statement. Besides the examples I mentioned above, all of which were tied pretty closely to actual events, not only in the telling but also temporally, there were many others. Sometimes it seemed the writers anticipated actual events or did last second revisions to change lines to nearly quote actual people from the week prior's news. "Dark smark" is my dismissal of "dark" as a factor in the show being depressing.I suppose I could argue that darkness adds depth and contrast thus making things interesting, unless everything is dark and then there's no contrast, but that wasn't the point I was making. How does a comment that dark is not depressing lead you to believe that I'm opposed to dark?I'm starting to think the show's fans are responding knee jerk fashion since I'm being asked to defend points I didn't make.Whatever. So, the entire human race is being hunted to extinction by a race of sadistic robots, and you don't think it should be dark? Apparently you just wanted that stupid robot dog and annoying little kid from the original BSG. You know, the original BSG where they were all that was left of the entire human race.... except for all the human settlements on every planet they encountered every week. The trouble is that I want to re-watch this series, and introduce The Girl™ to it, but I'm not so sure she would want to watch so relentlessly depressing a show. Perhaps if we took 18 month breaks between seasons.... The way to watch BSG on netflix. Watch two episodes of BSG. Watch three episodes of Stargate SG-1. Watch two episodes of BSG. Watch four episodes of Chuck. Watch three episodes of BSG. Go to bed crying. Start process over again. BSG brought out the inner pessimist in all of us. Because, much as people hate to hear it, life really can be quite treacherous and shitty. The rare moments of happiness in this list are all the more effective because they are rare. Well the series finale has a pretty happy moment when they end up on our Earth from 150,000 years ago. But yeah, great list. I personally always loved when they blew up the fuel depot. Especially since Baltar just randomly guessed what target to pick. Basically what the ending points out is that the cast of Galactica gave us a second chance but its up to us to keep ourselves alive and not make any stupid mistakes, space magic isn't going to just save us. Sounds like a good message to me. The RTF discovers that humans did in fact originate from Earth, about nine generations ago: a war on Earth and in our solar system cut off Earth from colonies that Earth had set up (it turns out getting into space and setting up colonies didn't make mankind more peaceful-it just started competition on Earth between the two big power blocs) and the planet Kobol was where humanity began to thrive. Eventually, they got into space too, and founded colonies in the Cyrannus system. Over the centuries the Twelve Colonies also thrived, and Kobol, along with Earth, became a distant memory (well, Earth did) Everything that happened in the prequel shows and in BSG happens, with the human race ending up back at Earth-an Earth that is now recovered from the effects of the nuclear war, and also where they discover the shocking true fact: man did not originate from Kobol, but from Earth! The Colonial settle down and begin to use their technology to rebuild Earth and the human race anew, unlike what happened on the TV show (and no, God did not do it!) What human achievements? You say that, but I am not sure what you are arguing, other than calling me a luddite (In reality, I love science and technology and can only hope we spread amongst the stars before killing ourselves, I am merely playing devil's advocate here). Name a human achievement not done either to gain influence or marginally improve quality of life? I'm not disagreeing, I just wish you would say something other than 'human achievements'. Yes. Billions of people died. And if they hadn't died of disease they would have died of old age. People die. Lives literally cannot be saved because everybody dies. That is the fundamental flaw of your argument. What you are arguing is quality of life, not life itself. Those billions 'saved' by science would be dead today anyway. Your argument makes no sense. I do agree, partly, with your very last sentance. I agree the abandonment of history is something that I take issue with. But it does not take long for books to disintegrate, word of mouth to turn into incoherent fables, we barely have history from 5,000 years in the past, let alone 30 times that. Well, I think the biggest flaw, from a believability perspective, is that they'd be able to interbreed with the native life. That being said, yeah, giving up all modern technology doesn't make any sense. And, of course, they really couldn't. Even if send Galactica into the sun, are people really going to accept giving up agriculture for a purely hunter/gatherer society? Will they accept the malnutrition and unsanitary conditions that would come with that when they already KNOW that doing X, Y, and Z will prolong their lives and the lives of their children? They're choosing ignorance and death. Nobody, even people shocked by a cataclysmic war, is going to choose that. It's just stupid. "Well, hundreds of thousands of years of disease and other maladies that could have been addressed with medicine and technology that they chose to launch into the sun." That's the biggest flaw (out of many). Apparently (as we are told very briefly) the whole crew was able to unanimously agree (for the first time ever) that all their technology should be launched into the sun. Now we all know what the doctor was like right? Unless they offered him his own tobacco field, I doubt he would have consented to that... EVER. That's just crazy, man. Sure, the Raptor's power supply can't be replicated and would have a limited life span, but we're talking about a fleet of ships here much bigger than a Raptor. These could provide power to machines that would construct buildings, provide heat, power mining operations, etc. In short, they would give the settlers a chance to establish a more or less modern society. Indeed, rejecting modern society was the specific reason for Lee sending it into the sun, but that's stupid. Yes, Cylons were a really wrong turn, technologically, but we're talking about getting rid of advancements that save tons of lives to avoid a single technological literal dead end. And no, science doesn't just make things more convenient. Billions of people died from various plagues before we figured out modern science and medicine. The same goes for child birth mortality, etc. Our lives are decades longer due to improvements in agriculture and a variety of other fields. Science saves lives. Deliberately going back to the literal Stone Age is a disasterous decision that resulted in the loss of billions of lives. And if anything, it made the re-emergence of Cylons all the more likely because the knowledge of past mistakes was lost. The power supply in a raptor is reliant upon elements we don't have here on Earth. Keep the fleet or not, civilization will have to completely reboot. That technology won't last more than a few decades before it crumbles, and 50,000 plus indeterminate number of natives arent enough to keep a global culture going. I think you have put scientific inquiry on a pedestal, really hasn't made this world better, more convenient, maybe. But it would just mean we would kill this planet a few millennial early. I appreciate the response, but I have to say that I think it's fairly silly. Yes, they probably encountered new diseases on Earth 2 that they didn't have on the colonies. But rather than set up a society based around scientific principles, they mate with cave people (with whom there is no reason to believe they should be compatible) and thrust their children back into the stone age. Sure, they may have been low on medical supplies, but does that mean humanity had to suffer through tens of thousands of years of suffering before we rediscovered the principles of scientific inquiry? Got rid of a great deal of our silly superstitions? Maybe we didn't have hypodermic needles, but the power supply necessary to make a Raptor fly would power a relatively modest society for years, let alone all the materials that went into constructing the fleet. All the stuff that they just dumped into the sun would have made life better for generations of people. The Cylon War was certainly a big problem, but I think literally sending humanity back to the Stone Age is worse, or at the very least an extremely stupid response. Except the diseases they encountered in the colonies probably do not resemble the diseases on Earth. They established in fact that the colonials had immunities the Cylons didn't and vice versa. It seems silly to whine about people dying over 150,000 years, since it happens pretty inevitably. I'm sure the world would be a much better place if Alexander the Great had got a dose of penicillin and his conquest of the world crumbled in fifty years instead of overnight. Futhermore, as Cottle was keen to point out on New Caprica, they were pretty fucked on medical supplies, seeing as they lacked the resources to make new ones. So basically the technology they would give us is guns, nukes, and FTL drives. Sounds like just what we need to jump start the next death of the human race. Happy? They were tricked by "angels" into starting the cycle all over again on an unspoiled paradise. They ruined our future. Fuck those colonials sons-of-bitches and their artificial intelligence spawn.	eng	9db1c8a7-d9ca-4c85-a6f5-ae0680fb6d02	http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/05/the_10_happiest_moments_in_battlestar_galactica.php
Recent Changes for "Abandoned Subway" - Rochester Wiki Changes of the page "Abandoned Subway" on Rochester Wiki.en-us Subway2012-11-28T03:28:11ZLVVQ * [ Roc Subway Photos] A small collection of photos from 2009 - 2012.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2012-09-22T01:51:54Zalex-c 118: </td> <td> Line 118: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> <span>+ ------<br> + ''2012-09-21 21:51:54'' [[nbsp]] Well, 30 years ago, the best place to get in was on the west end, south side of the Broad St. Bridge, down at the park level. Hop up on the stone wall, shimmy past the fence, and climb down into the subway bed. I doubt that access point is still as easy as it used to be to get through, and I doubt that I'm still able to do the contortions needed. --["Users/alex-c"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2012-09-21T23:27:43Zgnova 116: </td> <td> Line 116: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> <span>+ ------<br> + ''2012-09-21 19:27:43'' [[nbsp]] hey does anyone know if its possible to visit this place i would luv to take some pictures...please let me know.. as i love the view of this place --["Users/gnova"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2012-06-21T23:29:28ZRocExplorer 114: </td> <td> Line 114: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> <span>+ ------<br> + ''2012-06-21 19:29:28'' [[nbsp]] Rochester's a pretty cool city; the tunnel and the piece of old road above it could be used to create an urban duality much like that of New York's High Line Park project. And, upon some thought and... well, exploration... there are lots of places which could be used to create an above/below park of sorts with shops and the like. I've considered drawing up a proposal to the city but further research would be necessary. --["Users/RocExplorer"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2011-12-30T00:39:43Zpetebfixed url's * Private Studies indicate it would cost around $24 million to 'completely repair' it[[FootNote(From the D&C Article)]]. </td> <td> <span>+</span> * Private Studies indicate it would cost around $24 million to 'completely repair' it<span> </span>[[FootNote(From the D&C Article)]]. * Create a new waterway using the old aqueduct - was {{{ Create a new waterway using the old aqueduct - was {{{<span>[</span> <span>+</span> * Found an urban art center in the tunnel, embracing and showcasing the artwork that has naturally been drawn to that location.<span> </span>[[ * [ 2009 Bids for Filling in the Tunnel] on RochesterSubway.com </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ 2009 Bids for Filling in the Tunnel] on RochesterSubway.com </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2011-04-09T16:17:06 112: </td> <td> Line 112: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> <span>+ ------<br> + ''2011-04-09 12:17:06'' [[nbsp]] It's official: This is THE place for bums to hide! I saw a commercial on the local tellie about it! (Full Disclosure: I've been in here many times and have yet to see a bum.) --["Users/BatGuano"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2011-01-21T14:47:01Zandrew88moved "west end fill" from layout section into the "controversy" section ==West End Fill==<br> - In the spring of 2010 the city moved foward with the west section fill of the subway tunnel (near ["Nick Tahou's"]). The West Tunnel no longer exist and have been "filled in" for the West Broad Street improvment.<br> - [[Image(Subway_WE.jpg,"Former West Tunnel Partially Filled - by ["Users/Andrew88"]",right,thumbnail,noborder)]]<br> - [[Image(fill2.jpg,"Remains of The West Tunnel - by ["Users/Andrew88"]",right,thumbnail,noborder)]]</span> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 56: </td> <td> Line 52: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> In the fall of 2009 the City was granted funding under the stimulus package. On Monday, February 8, 2010, Broad Street [ was closed between Allen and West Main] to fill in the West Tunnel and repair the road's surface. </td> <td> <span>+</span> In the fall of 2009 the City was granted funding under the stimulus package. On Monday, February 8, 2010, Broad Street [ was closed between Allen and West Main] to fill in the West Tunnel and repair the road's surface.<span> The city moved foward with the west section fill of the subway tunnel (near ["Nick Tahou's"]) and the West Tunnel no longer exist and have been "filled in".[[ </span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-12-13T13:52:28Zandrew88quick format change to west end fill (moved images below writing In the spring of 2010 the city moved foward with the west section fill of the subway tunnel (near ["Nick Tahou's"]). The West Tunnel no longer exist and have been "filled in" for the West Broad Street improvment.</<span>-<td> <span>+ </span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-12-12T16:43:33Zandrew88Added info on west end fill ==West End Fill==<br> + [[</tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-12-12T16:40:50Zandrew88Upload of image <a href=" Subway2010-12-12T16:34:38Zandrew88Upload of image <a href=" Subway2010-12-12T16:34:06Zandrew88Upload of image <a href=" Subway2010-11-15T23:16:132010-11-15 18:16:13'' [[nbsp]] Thumbs up, jondaggar. I believe light rail has a place here, it just needs to be approached using new ideas/approaches. Double thumbs up for the Robert Moses diss, as well. --["Users/BatGuano"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-11-15T22:01:26Zjondaggar</span> ''2010-11-15 16:57:25'' [[nbsp]] <span>"<i></span>It was a mistake to re-use the canal for transit in the 1920s and it would be a mistake to re-re-use the route for transit in the 21st century.<span></i>"</span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> ''2010-11-15 16:57:25'' [[nbsp]] <span>''</span>It was a mistake to re-use the canal for transit in the 1920s and it would be a mistake to re-re-use the route for transit in the 21st century.<span>''</span> You realize that 490 runs along the bed of this, ahem, obsolete transit corridor? And that the current tunnel runs straight through the center of the city?</span> </td> <td> <span>+ Sir, 490 runs along the bed of the old canal corridor. The current tunnel runs straight through the center of the city. I don't see how right-of-ways that through the busiest part of the community can be considered obsolete.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-11-15T21:57:25Zjondaggar2010-11-15 16:57:25'' [[nbsp]] "<i>It was a mistake to re-use the canal for transit in the 1920s and it would be a mistake to re-re-use the route for transit in the 21st century.</i>"<br> + <br> + You realize that 490 runs along the bed of this, ahem, obsolete transit corridor? And that the current tunnel runs straight through the center of the city?<br> + <br> + Possibly the mistake would be applying Robert Moses' 20th century transit theories to the 21st century. --["Users/jondaggar"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-10-13T14:52:08Zandrew88added image to Rundel Memorial LibraryImage(Under.jpg, "Beneath the Rundel Library - by ["Users/Andrew88"]", right, thumbnail, noborder)]]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-10-13T14:50:04Zandrew88Upload of image <a href=" Subway2010-10-13T14:31:34Zandrew88added image of [[Image(Enter.jpg,"East entrance to the Subway - by ["Users/Andrew88"]",right,thumbnail,noborder)]]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-10-13T14:30:03Zandrew88Upload of image <a href=" Subway2010-07-08T22:23:08Zdawntuckeradded link to D&C article 8 Jul 10 [ West Broad Street work proceeds silently below], ["Democrat & Chronicle"], 2010-07-08. "The work going on now is part of a $17.5 million, two-year project that will either fill the channel and build a new street, or fix the road and what supports it underneath." Also on that D&C page is a panoramic video of the tunnel near South Avenue.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-02-08T14:05:09ZRyanTuckeradding d&c article to media section for posterity * [ Part of Broad Street closed to repair road, fill old tunnel], ["Democrat & Chronicle"], 2010-02-08. "The road was built over what had been a subway tunnel, which is no longer used. The tunnel will be filled in between Brown and West Main streets [... and] the tunnel structure will be repaired from West Main to Exchange streets."</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-02-08T14:00:50ZRyanTucker(quick edit>{{{ </span> <span>- Und</span>ergro<span>und</span> from opacity.us </td> <td> <span>+</span> * <span>[</span> <span>Rochest</span>er<span> Subway] photo</span>gr<span>aphs by T</span>o<span>m Kirsch,</span> from opacity.us </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-02-08T13:57:21ZRyanTuckerdetypoingemporary<td> <span>+<span>-</span> at<span>h</span> atmosphere<td> <span>+</span> This section starts with near complete darkness, light only visible coming in through a street level drain. There are fewer noteworthy stru<span>c</span>t <span> </span> Create a new waterway using the old aqueduct - was {{{ }}}. </td> <td> <span>+</span> Create a new waterway using the old aqueduct - was {{{ }}}. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-02-08T13:54:12ZRyanTuckerupdate with today's closing In the fall of 2009 the City was granted funding under the stimulus package and plans and bids are under way to fill in part of the subway.</span> </td> <td> <span>+ In the fall of 2009 the City was granted funding under the stimulus package. On Monday, February 8, 2010, Broad Street [ was closed between Allen and West Main] to fill in the West Tunnel and repair the road's surface.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2010-01-27T23:06:052010-01-27T23:032009-12-26T12:18:24ZBradMandellfix more links and add link from comment to current list * [ 1955 map of the Rochester Subway].</span> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 64: </td> <td> Line 63: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> <span>+ * [ 2009 Bids for Filling in the Tunnel] on RochesterSubway.com>[</span> Underground<span>],</span> from opacity.us </td> <td> <span>+</span> * <span>{{{ </span> -</span> Underground from opacity.us</span> * [ "The Rochester Subway" Poster - a modern day Rochester Subway map with proposed extensions<span>]</span>. </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ "The Rochester Subway" Poster<span>]</span> - a modern day Rochester Subway map with proposed extensions. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 73: </td> <td> Line 73: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> * [ "Walking the Rails" (YouTube)] <span>or [ (Google Video)]</span> A short documentary on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels. </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ "Walking the Rails" (YouTube)] A short documentary on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-12-26T11:34:12ZBradMandellcleanup more outdated material and bad links<span>"</span>]<span>" Gannett</span> News] -->[ The subway is scheduled to be partially filled in with dirt!]<--</span> ["SECR"] (<span>[ is an</span> umbrella group tr<span>ying</span> to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people ha<span>ve</span> for objecting to this <span>a</span>re: </td> <td> <span>+ The subway was scheduled to be partially filled in with dirt back in 2005 and the</span> ["SECR"<span> Subway Erie Canal Revitalization</span>] (<span>SECR), also known as ''Chill the </span>Fill<span>'',</span> umbrella group tr<span>ied</span> to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people ha<span>d</span> for objecting to this <span>we</span>re: <span>[</span>"Rochester Schools Problems"<span>]</span>. </td> <td> <span>+ "Rochester Schools Problems". </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 45: </td> <td> Line 44: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> Alternative proposals <span>exist. Among these are</span>:<br> <span>-</span> * A new rapid transit system in Rochester which would use some of the old tunnels; this idea is advocated for by the [ Rochester Rail Transit Committee].<br> - <span> * [</span> Create a new waterway] using the old aqueduct.</span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> Alternative proposals <span>raised during the controversy</span>:<br> <span>+</span> * A new rapid transit system in Rochester which would use some of the old tunnels; this idea is advocated for by the [ Rochester Rail Transit Committee]<span> (outdated website)</span>.<br> <span>+ * Create a new waterway using the old aqueduct </span>- <span>was {{{</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 50: </td> <td> Line 49: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> <span>+ In the fall of 2009 the City was granted funding under the stimulus package and plans and bids are under way to fill in part of the subway.<br> </span> * <span>[ </span>Filling in subway would hurt city's past and future<span>]</span>, op-ed in the ["Democrat & Chronicle"], 2005-06-14 </td> <td> <span>+</span> * <span>''</span>Filling in subway would hurt city's past and future<span>''</span>, op-ed in the ["Democrat & Chronicle"], 2005-06-14 </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-12-26T01:20:21ZBradMandellredo table by hdr edits, table fmt, img noborder, etc, minor edits The Abandoned Subway =<br> - [[Image(map.jpg, 254, right, thumbnail)]]<br> -<br> - == History ==<br> - [[Image(m0000120.jpg, "Passengers boarding subway at City Hall Station, 1956. Credit: Rochester Municipal Archives", 254, right, thumbnail)]]</span> </td> <td> <span>+<br> + = History =<br> + [[Image(m0000120.jpg, "Passengers boarding subway at City Hall Station, 1956. Credit: Rochester Municipal Archives", 254, right, thumbnail,noborder)]]</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 16: </td> <td> Line 14: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>= Layout =<span>=</span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> = Layout = </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 18: </td> <td> Line 16: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>== East Entrance ==<span>=</span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> == East Entrance == </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 20: </td> <td> Line 18: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>== Rundel Memorial Library ==<span>=</span><br> <span>-</span> [[Image(water.jpg, "An underground pool, part of the former ["Johnson and Seymour Millrace"]<span>.</span>", right, thumbnail)]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> == Rundel Memorial Library ==<br> <span>+</span> [[Image(water.jpg, "An underground pool, part of the former ["Johnson and Seymour Millrace"]", right, thumbnail<span>,noborder</span>)]] </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 25: </td> <td> Line 23: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>== Broad Street Aqueduct ==<span>=</span><br> <span>-</span> [[Image(bridge.jpg, "["Broad Street Aqueduct"]<span>. Image</span> by ["RobertPolyn" Robert Polyn]<span>.</span>", right, thumbnail)]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> == Broad Street Aqueduct ==<br> <span>+</span> [[Image(bridge.jpg, "["Broad Street Aqueduct"] by ["RobertPolyn" Robert Polyn]", right, thumbnail<span>,noborder</span>)]] </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 28: </td> <td> Line 26: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>== Gannett Building ==<span>=</span><br> <span>-</span> [[Image(gannettloadingdock.jpg, "Inside the loading docks beneath the ["Gannett Building"].", right, thumbnail)]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> == Gannett Building ==<br> <span>+</span> [[Image(gannettloadingdock.jpg, "Inside the loading docks beneath the ["Gannett Building"].", right, thumbnail<span>,noborder</span>)]] </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 31: </td> <td> Line 29: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>== West Tunnel ==<span>=</span><br> <span>-</span> [[Image(TunnelWest.jpg, 254 "Looking into the tunnel's West section<span>.</span> - <span>P</span>hoto by ["TomMaszerowski"]", right, thumbnail)]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> == West Tunnel ==<br> <span>+</span> [[Image(TunnelWest.jpg, 254 "Looking into the tunnel's West section - <span>p</span>hoto by ["TomMaszerowski"]", right, thumbnail<span>,noborder</span>)]] </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 34: </td> <td> Line 32: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>== West Entrance ==<span>=</span><br> <span>-</span> [[Image(WesttEntrance.jpg, 254 "The tunnel at Brown and Broad. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]", right, thumbnail)]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> == West Entrance ==<br> <span>+</span> [[Image(WesttEntrance.jpg, 254 "The tunnel at Brown and Broad. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]", right, thumbnail<span>,noborder</span>)]] </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 37: </td> <td> Line 35: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>= Controversy =<span>=</span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> = Controversy = </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 47: </td> <td> Line 45 53: </td> <td> Line 50: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>= In the Media =<span>=</span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> = In the Media = </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 57: </td> <td> Line 54: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>= Links =<span>=</span><br> <span>-</span> * Historical </td> <td> <span>+</span> = Links =<br> <span>+</span> * <span>'''</span>Historical<span>''':</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 65: </td> <td> Line 62: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>- <br> -</span> * Current </td> <td> <span>+</span> * <span>'''</span>Current<span>''':</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 73: </td> <td> Line 69: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> <span>=</span>= Photos and Videos =<span>=</span><br> <span>- <br> -</span> [[Image(untitled.jpeg,right,300,thumbnail)]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> = Photos and Videos =<br> <span>+</span> [[Image(untitled.jpeg,right,300,thumbnail<span>,noborder, "RocWiki Banner"</span>)]] </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 79: </td> <td> Line 74: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>- =</span>=Other=<span>=</span><br> <span>-</span> * [ Custom Google Map] of entrances to the subway<br> <span>- </span> </td> <td> <span>+ </span>=Other=<br> <span>+ </span> * [ Custom Google Map] of entrances to the subway<br> <span>+ [[Footnote]]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-12-24T19:17:33ZChrisStonecurrently plans to transform</span> the former ["Broad Street Aqueduct"] portion, and section beneath the ["Rundel Memorial Library Building"]<span> into</span> an underground walkway with a <span>transportation museum and shops</span>.\|\| </td> <td> <span>+is currently studying ways to re-use</span> the former ["Broad Street Aqueduct"] portion, and section beneath the ["Rundel Memorial Library Building"]<span>. Possibilities include</span> an underground walkway with a <span>museum and retail shops, a connection between the Riverside Convention Center and Blue Cross Arena, or restoring the former canal</span>.\|\|. </td> <td> <span>+ downtown area was the subway in a tunnel, under ["Broad Street"]. The cars were powered by overhead electric wires, like streetcars (such as current systems in Buffalo and Seattle), not an electrified "thi<span>r</span>d rail" (such as New York and Toronto). The line opened for passenger traffic in 1927, after several construction delays. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-12-24T19:13:38ZChrisStoneexpanded history of subway In 1918.</span> </td> <td> <span>+.<br> + <br> + The Rochester Subway was plagued by limited resources and a transportation and land-use system that already was becoming more and more automobile-oriented. Rochester abandoned all surface streetcars by 1940, leaving the subway as a single line of what had been a much more comprehensive system. While ridership peaked during WWII due to gasoline and rubber rationing, it quickly declined after the war. The region's population was growing, but in an auto-oriented way as new, low density developments sprawled across suburban towns far from the route of the subway, which was never extended.<br> + <br> + In addition, the subway suffered from the meandering, northwest to southeast route that was pre-determined by the route of the old Erie Canal. While this route had advantages for a long-distance canal built in the 1810s and 1820s, it was not necessarily a good route for intra-city transit in the 20th century. Federal funds sought to extend the eastern terminus to Monroe Avenue in Brighton in the 1930s were denied.<br> + <br> + By the late 1940s and early 1950s, plans were developed for the system of high-speed expressways in and around Rochester. The eastern part of the subway route was chosen for a portion of Interstate 490. With declining ridership and governmental policies that supported private automobile over public transportation, there was little resistance to the abandonment of the subway. Passenger service ceased June 30, 1956.<br> + <br> + The western end of the former subway was still used for freight traffic through the 1970s. ["Gannett"] used the tunnel for delivery of newsprint to its downtown facility at Broad Street and Exchange Boulevard until new presses were installed for the ["Democrat and Chronicle"] at Canal Ponds Business Park in the Town of Greece in the late 1990s.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-12-24T18:51:33ZChrisStoneCorrected date on Erie Canal route relocation 19<span>00<td> <span>+</span> In 19<span>18</tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-12-24T17:47:54ZChrisStone</td> <td> <span>+ ------<br> + ''2009-12-24 12:47:54'' [[nbsp]] Contrary to previous comments, there IS an urgent need to fill in the tunnel. The tunnel is essentially a long bridge carrying Broad Street over the former railroad tracks and that bridge is over 80 years old and collapsing. Broad Street west/north of Main Street already has lane reductions. Unless the tunnel is filled (or costly repairs made) Broad Street will have to be closed entirely.<br> + <br> + The notion of re-using the tunnels for transit, while popular, is misguided. The route of the former Rochester Subway was dictated by the early 19th century route of the Erie Canal, which was located where it was for reasons of topography. Topography is a poor organizing principal for a high-capacity transity corridor. It was a mistake to re-use the canal for transit in the 1920s and it would be a mistake to re-re-use the route for transit in the 21st century. --["Users/ChrisStone"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-11-28T23:46:42ZMichaelGovernale11-28 18:46:42'' [[nbsp]] Yes, the fill is coming this Spring 2010 — at least to the west end of the tunnel. You can read more about it here... --["Users/MichaelGovernale"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-11-28T23:43:09 * [ 1928 map of the Rochester Subway]. </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ 1928 map of the Rochester Subway]. Current photos of the abandoned Rochester Subway]. </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ Current photos of the abandoned Rochester Subway]. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-08-29T14:31:23 A slideshow from ''Urban infiltrators'' who explored the Rochester Subway].<br> - * [ Skyehigh Subway Photos]</span> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 65: </td> <td> Line 63: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>- * [ Rochester Insider Article]</span> </td> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-08-29T14:28:13 Current photos of the abandoned Rochester Subway].</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-07-23T18:01:59ZBradMandellsome text from SECR page * [ Rochester History Vol XXXVI: The Rochester Subway] </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ Rochester History Vol XXXVI: The Rochester Subway]<span> - Experiment in Municipal Transit by Andrew Lipman 58: </td> <td> Line 592009-05-07T15:47:17ZGoldenGirl05-07 11:47:17'' [[nbsp]] Does anyone know when the subway is supposed to be filled in? I'd love to explore it before they do. --["Users/GoldenGirl"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-04-15T03:34:43</td> <td> <span>+ <br> + ==Other==<br> + * [ Custom Google Map] of entrances to the subway</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2009-02-17T17:27:36ZbatguanoJesse</span>G<span>otham</span>"] </td> <td> <span>+Bat</span>G<span>uano</span>"] </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2008-12-10T17:26:59 ------<br> +JesseGotham"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2008-10-15T20:16:32ZAndrewAnissi * The homeless currently residing in the subway would be displaced. Our city currently has no emergency ["Hypothermia Shelter"].</span> </td> <td> <span>+ * If Rochester is ever to grow, it will eventually need a subway system again, and filling in the existing tunnels would make it much more difficult to install a new subway system. The existing tunnels could make a new subway system fairly easy to construct.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2008-10-11T03:17:20 [ "The Rochester Subway" Poster - a modern day <span>map </span>o<span>f t</span>he <span>s</span>ubway a<span>nd</span> proposed extensions]. </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ "The Rochester Subway" Poster - a modern day <span>R</span>o<span>c</span>he<span>ster</span> <span>S</span>ubway <span>m</span>a<span>p with</span> proposed extensions]. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2008-09-01T19:56:01ZPhilNg2008-09-01 15:56:01'' [[nbsp]] Now one might wonder where all the track went - it was scavenged and is now being used as the main track in the New York Museum of Transportation. --["Users/PhilNg"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2008-08-10T11:53:13ZBradMandellthumbnail last pic add photos to header and aRochester<td> <span>+</span> \|\|<align="left" valign="top">[[TableOfContents]]\|\|<span>["</span>Rochester<span>"]</span> == Videos ==</span> </td> <td> <span>+ == Photos and Videos ==<br> + [[Image(untitled.jpeg,right,300,thumbnail)]]<br> + * [ Flikr Photo Search] - 138 great photos by Jack1962 of the subway, aqueduct and bridge.</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 69: </td> <td> Line 71: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>- [[Image(untitled.jpeg)]]</span> </td> <td> <span>+ </span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2008-08-05T15:43</td> <td> <span>+ * [ "The Rochester Subway" Poster - a modern day map of the subway and proposed extensions].</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2008-07-16T15:37:25 <span> "Walking the Rails" </span>(Google Video)] <span>or [ (YouTube)] A short docum</span>entary on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels. </td> <td> <span>+</span> <span> [ "Walking the Rails" (YouTube)] or</span> [ (Google Video)] <span>A short docu</span>mentary on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2008-06-18T21:13:36ZRyanTuckeradding link to WXXI article [ Rochester Wants to Fill Part of Erie Canal Bed], ["WXXI"], 2008-06-11. "The City of Rochester says it will have to close one of the four lanes on West Broad Street this month, and the fix is to fill in the abandoned subway tunnel that lies beneath it."</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2007-10-13T15:57:29ZChristopherMoshier</td> <td> <span>+ ------<br> + ''2007-10-13 11:57:29'' [[nbsp]] "It lots of things in the city which would be better uses of the $21 million, such as the Rochester Schools Problems."<br> + <br> + That's a silly statement after the whole fast fairy nightmare. Why wasn't that money spent on City Schools? --["ChristopherMoshier"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2007-09-20T17:40:53ZIdSaysgo</td> <td> <span>+ [[Image(untitled.jpeg)]]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2007-09-20T17:40:25ZIdSaysgoUpload of image <a href=" Subway2007-08-15T15:04:08ZLesleyChenAdded canal Create a new waterway using the old aqueduct. </td> <td> <span>+</span> <span> [ Create a new waterway<span>]</span> using the old aqueduct. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2007-07-25T19:32:41Zalexandergartleyremoved video link that no longer worked</table> </div> Subway2007-03-08T20:59:03ZEastSideStephen ------<br> + ''2007-03-08 15:59:03'' [[nbsp]] The End of the Line is a really fascinating DVD if you're into Rochester history. It gives an interesting view of our fair city during the time the subway was in service. --["EastSideStephen"]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2007-03-08T20:49:55ZEastSideStephenfixed comments macro <span>== </span>Comments<span> ==</span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> <span>[[</span>Comments<span>]]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2007-03-08T20:49:11ZEastSideStephenfixed public library availability of "The End of the Line" [ "The End of the Line" documentary] - Now available as a Special Edition DVD from Animatus Studio! (<span>The</span> VHS <span>version is available</span> through the Public Library.) </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ "The End of the Line" documentary] - Now available as a Special Edition DVD from Animatus Studio! (<span>Also available on</span> VHS <span>or DVD</span> through the Public Library.) </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2007-01-31T18:24:24Zadamdewitzupdated D&C wiki link, +grammarfe</span>red to by either their historic significance or the buildings above them. Feel free to rename as you find appropriate. </td> <td> <span>+er</span>red to by either their historic significance or the buildings above them. Feel free to rename as you find appropriate. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 11: </td> <td> Line 11: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> -<span> Beyond the chain</span><td> <span>+ Beyond the chain</span>-and&</table> </div> Subway2006-10-18T18:08:05 "Walking the Rails" (Google Video)]<span><br> - </span>[ (YouTube)] A short documentary on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels. </td> <td> <span>+</span> [ "Walking the Rails" (Google Video)]<span> or </span>[ (YouTube)] A short documentary on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-09-02T00:58:25ZFarMcKonmoved videos into their own "Walking the Rails" (Google Video)] [ (YouTube)] A short documentary on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels.</span> </td> <td> <span> == Videos ==<br> + * [ Incredible Flash QTVR tour by Mauvis Ledford]<br> + * [ "Walking the Rails" (Google Video)]<br> + [ (YouTube)] A short documentary on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-09-02T00:33:23Walking the Rails"<span>] A short documentary</span> (Google Video) on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels. </td> <td> <span>+</span> [ "Walking the Rails" (Google Video)<span>] [ (YouTube)] A short documentary</span> on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-09-01T22:17:35 * [ "Walking the Rails"] A short documentary (Google Video) on exploring the abandoned subway tunnels.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-09-01T02:06:40 As you reach the end of the.<span> </span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> As you reach the end of the.<tr> <td> Line 65: </td> <td> Line 64: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> == Comments ==<span>  - </span> </td> <td> <span>+</span> == Comments == </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-04-16T22:33:59ZTomMaszerowskiAdded photo of the tunnel end right, <span>254</span>)]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[<span>I</span>ma<span>ge</span>(map.jpg, <span>254, </span>right, <span>thumbnail</span>)<span>Thu</span>m<span>bn</span>a<span>il</span>(m0000120.jpg<span>, 254, right</span>, "Passengers boarding subway at City Hall Station, 1956. Credit: Rochester Municipal Archives")]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[<span>I</span>ma<span>ge</span>(m0000120.jpg, "Passengers boarding subway at City Hall Station, 1956. Credit: Rochester Municipal Archives"<span>, 254, right, thumbnail</span>)]]<span>Thu</span>m<span>bn</span>a<span>il</span>(water.jpg<span>, right</span>, "An underground pool, part of the former ["Johnson and Seymour Millrace"].")]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[<span>I</span>ma<span>ge</span>(water.jpg, "An underground pool, part of the former ["Johnson and Seymour Millrace"]."<span>, right, thumbnail</span>)]]bridge.jpg<span>, right</span>, "["Broad Street Aqueduct"]. Image by ["RobertPolyn" Robert Polyn].")]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[<span>I</span>ma<span>ge</span>(bridge.jpg, "["Broad Street Aqueduct"]. Image by ["RobertPolyn" Robert Polyn]."<span>, right,<span>Thu</span>m<span>bn</span>a<span>il</span>(gannettloadingdock.jpg<span>, right</span>, "Inside the loading docks beneath the ["Gannett Building"].")]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[<span>I</span>ma<span>ge</span>(gannettloadingdock.jpg, "Inside the loading docks beneath the ["Gannett Building"]."<span>, right, thumbnail</span>)]]<span>Thu</span>m<span>bn</span>a<span>il</span>(TunnelWest.jpg,<span>right,</span>254 "Looking into the tunnel's West section. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]")]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[<span>I</span>ma<span>ge</span>(TunnelWest.jpg,<span> </span>254 "Looking into the tunnel's West section. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]"<span>, right, thumbnail</span>)<span>Thu</span>m<span>bn</span>a<span>il</span>(<span>Subway</span>WestEn<span>d</span>.jpg,<span>right,</span>254 "The t<span>racks</span> at <span>the</span> <span>West</span> <span>secti</span>o<span>n</span>. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]")]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[<span>I</span>ma<span>ge</span>(West<span>t</span>En<span>trance</span>.jpg,<span> </span>254 "The t<span>unnel</span> at <span>Brown</span> <span>and</span> <span>Br</span>o<span>ad</span>. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]"<span>, right, thumbnail</span>)]] </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-04-16T22:32:17ZTomMaszerowskiUpload of image <a href=" Subway2006-04-16T22:26:30ZTomMaszerowskiAdded some details about the Western tunnel <span>end</span>. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]")]]<br </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[Thumbnail(TunnelWest.jpg,right,254 "Looking into the tunnel's West <span>section</span>. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]")]]<br> <span>+.<span> Unlike the Court Street entrance, the original tracks are still in place here.</ <span>end</span>. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]")]]<br> <span>-</span> As you reach the end of the tunnel, or the West Entrance, there will be manholes along the tracks. This access point has been fenced in the past, so be prepared to turn back. </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[Thumbnail(SubwayWestEnd.jpg,right,254 "The tracks at the West <span>section</span>. - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]")]]<br> <span>+</span> As you reach the end of the tunnel, or the West Entrance, there will be manholes along the tracks. <span>Be careful as most, if not all, of the manhole covers have been removed. </span>Th<span>e tunnel ends at the intersection of Brown and Broad streets. Th</span>is access point has been fenced in the past, so be prepared to turn back.<span> </span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-01-22T20:06:30ZTomMaszerowskiAdded photo credits end.")]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[Thumbnail(TunnelWest.jpg,right,254 "Looking into the tunnel's West end.<span> - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]</span>") end.")]] </td> <td> <span>+</span> [[Thumbnail(SubwayWestEnd.jpg,right,254 "The tracks at the West end.<span> - Photo by ["TomMaszerowski"]</span>")]] </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-01-21T23:04:33ZTomMaszerowskiAdded a photo of the tunnel's WestThumbnail(TunnelWest.jpg,right,254 "Looking into the tunnel's West end.")]]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-01-21T23:02:22ZTomMaszerowskiUpload of image <a href=" Subway2006-01-21T22:53:25ZTomMaszerowskiAdded a photo of the tracks at the West end <div id="content" class="wikipage contentThumbnail(SubwayWestEnd.jpg,right,254 "The tracks at the West end.")]]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2006-01-21T22:50:28ZTomMaszerowskiUpload of image <a href=" Subway2005-12-26T18:55:49ZTomMaszerowskiAdded link to gallery at opacity.us Underground], from opacity.us</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-12-15T14:46:58 * ["An essay about the subway" An Essay About the Subway, by Brette Luck]</span> </td> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-11-28T19:46:33ZRobertPolynremoved dead September 2004 Photos]</span> </td> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-11-28T17:03:48Zrottenchesteradded haiku from orphans * ["A Subway Tunnel Haiku"]</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 64: </td> <td> Line 65 Subway2005-11-10T23:22:03ZFarMcKonre-added library availablityh of End of the Line Documetary * [ "The End of the Line" documentary] - Now available as a Special Edition DVD from Animatus Studio </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ "The End of the Line" documentary] - Now available as a Special Edition DVD from Animatus Studio<span>! (The VHS version is available through the Public Library.)</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-10-10T19:02:16ZMikeBoasUpdated End of the Line address and info * [ Preview of a documentary on the Rochester Subway] - The full (VHS) version is available through the Public Library. Check it out, it's pretty well done.</span> </td> <td> <span>+ * [ "The End of the Line" documentary] - Now available as a Special Edition DVD from Animatus Studio</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-08-17T22:51:50 * [ Rochester Insider Article]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-08-17T22:47 * [ Skyehigh Subway Photos]</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 61: </td> <td> Line 622005-08-16T22:40:50ZTomMaszerowskiFixed a photo date September 200<span>5</span> Photos] </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ September 200<span>4</span> Photos] </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-08-14T19:46:27ZJayUnnikrishnanfixed mistake in * ["An<span>_</span>essay<span>_</span>about<span>_</span>the<span>_</span>subway" An Essay About the Subway, by Brette Luck] </td> <td> <span>+</span> * ["An<span> </span>essay<span> </span>about<span> </span>the<span> </span>subway" An Essay About the Subway, by Brette Luck] </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-08-14T19:44:01ZJayUnnikrishnanadded link to BretteLuck's previously orphaned essay ["An_essay_about_the_subway" An Essay About the Subway, by Brette Luck]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-07-22T17:43:21 abandoned subway is without a doubt one of the creepiest and coolest places I've ever been. Check out its [ history], which has a map at the end. We entered from where the southwest side of the Broad St. Bridge meets the riverbank. Make sure to bring a flashlight and announce when you move from room to room. -- ["BretteLuck"]</span> </td> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-07-22T15:23:41ZKristinPerrah ([ is an umbrella group trying to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people have for objecting to this are: </td> <td> <span>+</span> ["SECR"] ([ is an umbrella group trying to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people have for objecting to this are: </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-06-15T18:45:28ZTobinFrickeAdded "In the Media" section with link to current op-ed == In the Media ==<br> + * [ Filling in subway would hurt city's past and future], op-ed in the ["Democrat & Chronicle"], 2005-06-14<br> + </span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-06-13T15:34:51ZStephanMokeyFixed spelling errorin</span>ated. </td> <td> <span>+anti</span>ated. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-06-12T19:01:51ZJackCalcines * [ Preview of a documentary on the Rochester Subway] </td> <td> <span>+</span> * [ Preview of a documentary on the Rochester Subway]<span> - The full (VHS) version is available through the Public Library. Check it out, it's pretty well done.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-06-06T17:51:18 SECR ([ is an umbrella group trying to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people have for objecting to this are: </td> <td> <span>+</span> <span>["</span>SECR<span>"]</span> ([ is an umbrella group trying to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people have for objecting to this are: <br> -<td> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-06-04T18:29:30ZJackCalcinesAdded info on Tour <br> +</tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-31T20:56:31ZBretteLuckupdated secr page, again <span>["</span>SECR<span>"</span>] is an umbrella group trying to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people have for objecting to this are: </td> <td> <span>+</span> SECR<span> ([ is an umbrella group trying to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people have for objecting to this are: </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-30T15:38:15ZRobertPolyncorrected typo Between this section and the aqueduct is another small section that stretches East under ["Broad Street"]. You won't find much here beyond the twisted remains of a metal staircase and homeless living in a raise alcove along the North wall. </td> <td> <span>+</span> Between this section and the aqueduct is another small section that stretches East under ["Broad Street"]. You won't find much here beyond the twisted remains of a metal staircase and homeless living in a raise<span>d</span> alcove along the North wall. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T17:04into our city</span>.here</span>. This is exactly the type of thing that would allow us to stand out in a positive way. Who wouldn't want to visit a museum showcasing graffiti in an abandoned subway? -- RobertPolyn)]] </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T17:03:34ZRobertPolynorganized links into categories: historical/current * Historical<br> + * [ Preview of a documentary on the Rochester Subway]<br> + * [ Rochester History Vol XXXVI: The Rochester Subway]<br> + * [ Railroad.net's page devoted to the Rochester Subway].<br> + * [ 1928 map of the Rochester Subway].<br> + * [ 1955 map of the Rochester Subway].<br> + * [ Pictures from the construction of the tunnels].<br> + * Current<br> + * [ Incredible Flash QTVR tour by Mauvis Ledford]<br> + * [ A slideshow from ''Urban infiltrators'' who explored the Rochester Subway].<br> + * [ The Beautiful Abandoned Subway of Rochester, NY], from Infiltration.org<br> + * [ September 2005 Photos]<br> + * [ Site of the ''Rochester Rail Transit Committee].</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 45: </td> <td> Line 58: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>- * [ Preview of a documentary on the Rochester Subway].<br> - * [ Railroad.net's page devoted to the Rochester Subway].<br> - * [ A slideshow from ''Urban infiltrators'' who explored the Rochester Subway].<br> - * [ 1928 map of the Rochester Subway].<br> - * [ 1955 map of the Rochester Subway].<br> - * [ Site of the ''Rochester Rail Transit Committee].<br> - * [ Pictures from the construction of the tunnels].<br> - * [ The Beautiful Abandoned Subway of Rochester, NY], from Infiltration.org<br> - * [ The Rochester Subway Experiment In Municipal Transit], PDF file from the Rochester Library.<br> - * [ September 2005 Photos]</span> </td> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T16:09:48ZBretteLuckMade a quick change about SECR an<span>d</span> <span>["Waterway S</span>ub<span>way Revitalization"] a</span>re group<span>s</span> trying to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people have for objecting to this are: </td> <td> <span>+</span> ["SECR"] <span>is </span>an u<span>m</span>bre<span>lla</span> group trying to stop this from happening. Among the reasons people have for objecting to this are: </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T15:13:53 Between this section and the aqueduct is another small section that stretches East under ["Broad Street"]. You won't find much here beyond the twisted remains of a metal staircase and homeless living in a raise alcove along the North wall.</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Line 18: </td> <td> Line 19: </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span>-</span> This section of the tunnel<span> is awe inspiring. It</span><td> <span>+</span> This section of the tunnel</tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T13:15:38ZFarMcKonadded a point or 2 * It would needlessly destroy property that could otherwise be put to use to benefit the city. Funds don't currently exist to redevelop the subway, but the money being used to fill it could easily be used to maintain it for several years while funds are sought.</span> </td> <td> <span>+ ["Rochester Schools Problems"].<br> + * Private Studies indicate it would cost around $24 million to 'completely repair' it[[FootNote(From the D&C Article)]].<br> + * Rumor has it this project is just a 'gimme' to the highway and construction lobby to keep their workforce employed somewhere during the winter, since the upstate economy is bad. These rumors, to my knowledge, are unsubstinated.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T02:34:00 == <span>Sec</span>t<span>ions</span> == </td> <td> <span>+</span> == <span>Layou</span>t == </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T02:09:42 </td> <td> <span>+.<span> Passenger service ceased June 30, 1956. The western end was still used for freight through the 1970s, and ["Gannett"] used the tunnel for delivery of newsprint.</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T02:01:46typ</span>estyl</span>e opening. </td> </tr> </table> </div> Subway2005-05-29T02:01:03span>+ [[Thumbnail(m0000120.jpg, 254, right, "Passengers boarding subway at City Hall Station, 1956. Credit: Rochester Municipal Archives")]] [[Thumbnail(gannettloadingdock.jpg, right, "Inside the loading docks beneath the ["Gannett Building"].")]]</span> </td> </tr> </table> </div>	eng	f5eb94aa-605f-47fa-b9fa-ebc0c37746fb	http://rocwiki.org/Abandoned_Subway?action=rss_rc
In our Rapid Software Testing class, James Bach and I have lately taken to emphasizing this: We must learn to describe and report on the product, our testing, and the quality of our testing. This involves constructing, editing, narrating, and justifying a story in three lines that weave around each other like a braid. Each line, or level, is its own story. Level 1: TellLevel 2: ToLevel 3: To stories elsewhere Not having fully detailed test steps may lead to insufficient data in bug reports. Yup, that could be a risk (although having fully detailed steps in a test script might also lead to insufficient data in bug reports; and insufficient to whom, exactly?). So what do you do with a problem like that? You manage it. You train the tester, reminding her of the heuristic that each problem report needs a problem description; an example of something that shows the problem; and why she thinks it's a problem (that is, the oracle; the principle or mechanism by which the tester recognizes the problem). Problem, example, and why; PEW. You praise and reward the tester for producing reports that follow the PEW heuristic; you critique reports that don't have them. You show the tester lots of examples of bug reports, and ask her to differentiate between the good ones and the bad ones, why each one might be consider good or bad, and in what ways. If the tester isn't getting it, you have the tester work with and be coached by someone who does get it. The coach talks the tester through the process of identifying a problem, deciding why it's a problem, and outlining the necessary information. Sometimes it's steps and specific data; sometimes the steps are obvious and it's only the data you need to specify; sometimes the problem happens with any old data, and it's the steps that are important. And sometimes the description of the problem contains enough information that you need supply neither steps nor data. As a tester under time pressure, she needs to develop the skill to do this rapidly and well—or, if nothing works, she might have to find a job for which she is better suited. You can argue that a good tester should include the needed information and steps in her bug report, but this raise (at least) two problems: - The same information may be duplicated across many bugs, and even worst it will not be consistent. As a manager, I can not only argue that a tester should include the needed information; I can require that a tester include the needed information. Come on, Mr. Advocate… this is a problem that a capable tester and a capable test manager (and presumably your client) can solve. If "the same" information is duplicated across many bugs, might that be an interesting factor worth noting? A test result, if you will? Will this actually persist for long without the test manager (or test leads, or the test team) noticing or managing it? And in any case, would a script solve the problem that you post above? If you can solve that problem in a script, can you solve it in a (set of) bug report(s)? Writing test steps is not as trivial as it sounds (for example due to cognitive biases, or simply by overlooking steps that seems obvious to you), and to be efficient they also need to be peer reviewed and tested. You don't want that to happen in a bug report. "Writing test steps is not as trivial as it sounds." I know. It's non-trivial in terms of time, and it's non-trivial in terms of skill, and it's non-trivial in terms of cost. That's why I write about those problems. That's why James Bach writes about them. Again: how do you solve problems like testers providing inefficient repro steps? You solve it with training, practice, coaching, review, supervision, observation, interaction… that is, if you don't like the results you're getting, you steer the testers in the direction you want them to go, with leadership and management. The tester may choose the same steps over and over, or steps that are easier for her but does not represent real customers. Yes, I often hear things like this to justify poor testing. "Real customers" according to whom? It seems as though many organizations have a problem recognizing that hackers are real; that people under pressure are real; that people who make mistakes are real; that people who can become distracted are real. That people who get up and go away from the keyboard, such that a transaction times out are real. Is it the role of testers to behave always like idealized "real" customers? That's like saying that it's the role of airport security to assume that all of the business class customers are "real" business people. I'd argue that it's nice for testers to be able to act like customers, but it's far more important for testers to act like testers. It's the tester's role to identify important vulnerabilities in the product. Sometimes that involves behaving like a typical customer, and sometimes it involves behaving like an atypical customer, or and sometimes it involves behaving like someone who is not a customer at all. But again, mostly it involves behaving like a tester. Again you may argue that a good tester should take all that into account, but it's not that simple to verify it especially for tests involving many short trivial steps. Maybe it isn't that simple. If that's a problem, what about logging? What about screen capture tools? Such tools will track activities far more accurately than a script the tester allegedly followed. After all, a test script is just a rumour of how something should be done, and the claim that the script was followed is also a rumour. What about direct supervision and scrutiny? What about occasional pairing? What about reviewing the testers' work? What about providing feedback to testers, while affording them both freedom and responsibility? And would scripts solve that problem when (for example) you're a recording bug that you've just discovered (probably after deviating from a script)? How, exactly? What happens when a problem identified by a script is fixed? Does the value of the script stay constant over time? Detailed test steps (at least to some extent) might important if your test activity might be transferred to another offshore team someday (happened to me a few weeks ago, I sent them a test document with only high level details and hoped for the best), or your customer requires in-depth understanding of your tests (a multi-billion Canadian telecommunication company insisted on getting those from us during the late 90's, we chose the least readable TestDirector export format and shipped it to them…). Ah, yes. "I sent them a test document with only high level details and hoped for the best." What can I say about "hope" as a management approach? Does a pile of test scripts impart in-depth understanding? Or are they (as I suspect) a way of responding to a question that you didn't know how to answer, which was in fact a question that the telco didn't know how to ask? Going through some set of actions by rote is not a test. A test script is not a test. A test is what you think and what you do. It is a complex, cognitive activity that requires the presence or the development of much tacit knowledge. Raw data or raw instructions at best provide you with a miniscule fraction of what you need to know. If someone wanted in-depth understanding of how a retail store works, would you send them a pile of uncontextualized cash register receipts? The Devil's Advocate never seems to have a thoughtful manager for a client. I would suggest that a tester neither hire nor work for the devil. This week I had the great misfortune of reading yet another article which makes the false and ridiculous claim that exploratory testing is "undocumented". After years and years of plenty of people talking about and writing about and practicing excellent documentation as part of an exploratory testing approach, it's depressing to see that there are still people shovelling fresh manure onto a pile that should have been carted off years ago. Like the other approaches to test activities that have been discussed in this series ("touring", "after-everything-else", "tool-free", and "quick testing"), "documented vs. undocumented" is in a category orthogonal to "exploratory vs. scripted". True: usually scripted activities are performed by some agency following a set of instructions that has been written down somewhere. But we could choose to think of "scripted" in a slightly different and more expansive way, as "prescriptive", or "mimeomorphic". A scripted activity, in this sense, is one for which the actions to be performed have been established in advance, and the choices of the actions are not determined by the agency performing them. In that sense, a cook at McDonalds doesn't read a script as he prepares your burger, but the preparation of a McDonald's burger is a highly scripted activity. Thus any kind of testing can be heavily documented or completely undocumented. A thoroughly documented test might be highly exploratory in nature, or it might be highly scripted. In the Rapid Software Testing class, James Bach and I point out that when someone says "that should be documented", what they're really saying is "that should be documented if and how and when it serves our purposes." So, let's start by looking at the "when". When we question anything in order to evaluate it, there are moments in the process in which we might choose to record ideas or actions. I've broken these down into three basic categories that I hope you find helpful: Before During After There are "before", "during", and "after" moments with respect to any test activity, whether it's a part of test design, test execution, result interpretation, or learning. Again, a hallmark of exploratory testing is the tester's freedom and responsibility to optimize the value of the work as it's happening. That means that when it's important to record something, the tester is not only welcome but encouraged to initiate logging (if it doesn't start by default on the product you're testing—and if logging isn't available, you might consider identifying that as a testability problem and a related product and project risk) sketch out a flowchart diagram type notes into a private or shared repository add to a table of data in Excel fire off a note to a programmer or a product owner and that's an incomplete list. But they're all forms of documentation. Freedom to document at will should also mean that the tester is free to refrain from documenting something when the documentation doesn't add value. At the same time, the tester is responsible and accountable for that decision. In Rapid Testing, we recommend writing down (or saving, or illustrating) only the things that are necessary or valuable to the project, and only when the value of doing so exceeds the cost. This doesn't mean no documentation; it means the most informative yet fastest and least expensive documentation that completely fulfils the testing mission. Integrating that with testing work leads, we hold, to excellent testing—but it takes practice and skill. For most test activities, it's possible to relay information to other people orally, or even sometimes by allowing people to observe our behaviour. (At the beginning of the Rapid Testing class, I sometimes silently hold aloft a 5″ x 8″ index card in landscape orientation. I fold it in half along the horizontal axis, and write my first name on one side using a coloured marker. Everyone in the class mimics my actions. Without a single word of instruction being given or questions being asked, either verbally or in writing, the mission has been accomplished: each person now has a tent card in front of him.) There's a potential risk associated with an exploratory approach: that the tester might fail to document something important. In that case, we do what skilled people do with risk: we manage it. James Bach talks at length about managing exploratory testing sessions here. Producing appropriate documentation is partly a technical process, but the technical considerations are dominated by business imperatives: cost, value, and risk. There are also social considerations, too. The tester, the test lead, the test manager, the programmers, other managers, and the product owner determine collaboratively what's important to document and what's not so important with respect to the current testing mission. In an exploratory approach, we're more likely to be emphasizing the discovery of new information. So we're less likely to spend time on documenting what we will do, more likely to document what we are doing and what we have done. We could do a good deal of preparatory reading and writing, even in an exploratory approach—but we realize that there's an ever-increasing risk that new discoveries will undermine the worth of what we write ahead of time. That leads directly to "our purposes", the task that we want to accomplish when documenting something. Just as testing itself has many possible missions, so too does test documentation. Here's a decidedly non-exhaustive list, prepared over a couple of minutes: to express testing strategy and tactics for an entire project, or for projects in general to keep a set of personal notes to help structure a debriefing conversation to outline testing activities for a test cycle to report on activities during testing execution to outline attributes of a particular quality criterion to catalogue ideas about risk to describe test coverage to account for the work that we've done to program a machine to perform a given set of actions to alert people to potential problems in the product to guide a tester's actions over a test session to identify structures in the application or service to provide a description of how to use a particular test tool that we've crafted to describe the tester's role, skills, and qualifications to explain business rules to someone else on the team to outline scenarios in which the product might be used or tested to identify, for a tester, a specific, explicit sequence of actions to perform, input to provide, and observations to make That last item is the classic form of highly scripted testing, and that kind of documentation is usually absent from exploratory testing. Even so, a tester can take an exploratory approach using a script as a point of departure or as a reference, just as you might use a trail map to help guide an off-trail hike (among other things, you might want to discover shortcuts or avoid the usual pathways). So when someone says that "exploratory testing is undocumented", I hear them saying something else. I hear them saying, "I only understand one form of test documentation, and I've successfully ignoredevery other approach to it or purpose for it." If you look in the appendices for the Rapid Software Testing class (you can find a .PDF at you'll see a large number of examples of documentation that are entirely consistent with an exploratory approach. That's just one source. For each item in my partial list above, here's a partial list of approaches, examples, and tools. Recording activities and ideas during test execution A video camera or a screen recording tool can capture the specific actions of a tester for later playback and review. Well-designed log files may also provide a kind of retrospective record about what was testing. Still neither of these provide insight into the tester's mind. Recorded narration or conversation can do that; tools like BB Test Assistant, Camtasia, or Morae can help. The classic approach, of course, is to take notes. Have a look at my presentation, "An Exploratory Tester's Notebook", which has examples of freestyle notes taken during an impromptu testing session, and detailed, annotated examples of Session-Based Test Management sessions. Shmuel Gerson's Rapid Reporter and Jonathan Kohl's Session Tester are tools oriented towards taking notes (and, in the former case, including screen captures) of testing sessions on the fly. Outlining many attributes of a particular quality criterion See "Heuristics of Software Testability" in the RST Appendices for one example. Cataloguing ideas about risk Several examples of this in the RST Appendices, most extensively in the "Deployment Planning and Risk Analysis" example. You'll also find an "Install Risk Catalog"; "The Risk of Incompatibility"; the Risk vs. Tasks section in the "OWL Quality Plan"; the "Y2K Compliance Report"; "Round Results Risk A", which shows a mapping of Risk Areas vs. Test Strategy and Tasks. Describing or outlining test coverage A mapping establishes or illustrates relationships between things. We can use any of these to help us think about test coverage. In testing, a map might look like a road map, but it might also look like a list, a chart, a table, or a pile of stories. These can be constructed before, after, or during a given test activity, with the goal of covering the map with tests, or using testing to extend the map. I catalogued several ways of thinking about coverage and reporting on it, in three articles Got You Covered, Cover or Discover, and A Map By Any Other Name. Several examples of lightweight coverage outlines can be found in the RST Appendices ("Putt Putt Saves the Zoo", "Table Formatting Test Notes", There are also coverage ideas incorporated into the Apollo mission notes that we've titled "Guideword Heuristics for Astronauts"). Programming a machine to help you to explore See all manner of books on programming, both references and cookbooks, but for testers in particular, have a look at Brian Marick's Everyday Scripting with Ruby. Check out Pete Houghton's splendid examples of exploratory test automation that begin here. Cem Kaner (often in collaboration with Doug Hoffman) write extensively about automation-assisted exploratory testing; an example is here. To identify structures in the application or service The "Product Elements" section in the Heuristic Test Strategy Model provides a kind of framework for documenting product structures. In the RST Appendices, the test notes for "Putt Putt Saves the Zoo" and "Diskmapper", and the "OWL Quality Plan" provide examples of identifying several different structures in the programs under test. Mind mapping provides a means of describing and illustrating structures, too; see Darren McMillan's examples here and here. Ruud Cox and Ru Cindrea used a mind map of product elements to help win the Best Bug Report award in the Test Lab at EuroSTAR 2011. I've created a list of structures that support exploratory testing, and many of these are related to structures in the product. Providing a description of how to use a particular test tool that we've crafted While working at a bank, I developed (in Excel and VBA) a tool that could be used as an oracle and as a way of recording test results. (Thanks to non-disclosure agreements, I can describe these, but cannot provide examples.) When I left the project, I was obliged to document my work. I didn't work on the assumption that anyone off the street would be reading the document. Instead, I presumed that anyone assigned to that testing job and to using that tool, would have the rapid learning skill to explore the tool, the product, and the business domain in a mutually supportive way. So I crafted documentation that was intended to tell testers just enough to get them exploring. Explaining business rules to someone else on the team I did include documentation for novices of one kind: within the documentation for that testing tool, I included a general description of how foreign exchange transactions worked from the bank's perspective, and how appropriate accounts got credited and debited. I had learned this by reverse-engineering use cases and consulting with the local business analyst. I summarized it with a two-page document written in simple, direct language, referring disrectly to the simpler use cases and explaining the more confusing bits in more detail. For those whose learning style was oriented toward code, I also described the tables and array formulas that applied the business rules. Outlining scenarios in which the product might be used or tested I discuss some issues about scenarios here—why they're important, and why it's important to keep them open-ended and open to interpretation. It's more important to record than to prescribe, since in a good scenario, you'll observe and discover much more than you've articulated in advance. Cem Kaner gives ideas on how to produce scenarios; Hans Buwalda presents examples of soap opera testing. Identifying required tester skill People with skill don't need prescriptive documentation for every little thing. Responsible managers identify the skills needed to test, and who commit to employing people who either have those skills or can develop them quickly. James Bach eliminated 50 pages of otiose documentation with two paragraphs. (Otiose is a marvelous word; it's fun to look it up in a thesaurus.) Identifying, for a tester, a particular explicit sequence of actions to perform, input to provide, and observations to make. Again, a document that attempts to specify exactly what a tester should do is the hallmark of scripted testing. James Bach articulates a paradox that has not yet been noted clearly in our craft: in order to perform a scripted test well, you need signficant amounts of skill and tacit knowledge (and you also need to ignore the script on occasion, and you need to know when those occasions are). There's another interesting issue here: preparing such documents usually depends on exploratory activity. There's no script to tell you how to write a script. (You might argue there's one exception. You can follow this script to write a test script: take each line of a requirements document, and add the words "Verify that" to the beginning of each line.) Now, just as you can perform testing badly using any approach, you can perform exploratory testing and document it inappropriately, either by under-documenting it OR over-documenting it using any of the kinds of documentation above. But, as this document shows, the notion that exploratory testing is by its nature undocumented is not only ignorant, but aggressively ignorant about both testing and documentation. Whenever you see someone claim that exploratory testing is undocumented, I'd ask you to help by setting the record straight. Feel free to refer to this blog post, if you find it helpful; also, please point me to other exemplars of excellent documentation that are consistent with exploratory approaches. If we all work together, we can bury this myth, while providing excellent records and reports for our clients. In the Rapid Software Testing class, we focus on ways of doing the fastest, least expensive testing that still completely fulfills the mission. That involves doing some things more quickly, and it also involves doing other things less, or less wastefully. One of the prime candidates for radical waste reduction is documentation that's incongruent with the testing mission. Medical device projects typically present a high degree of risk. Excellent testing helps teams and product owners to identify risks and problems in the product. The quality of testing is a function of the skill of the tester; one would not set loose an incapable tester on high-risk project. Yet some managers have told me that they commission people to write test documentation in a particular style. That style is, to me, overly elaborate and specific with respect to actions to perform and observations to make. Yet at the same time, that style is remarkably devoid of ideas about motivation or risk. I sometimes ask managers why they use this style of instruction. They usually answer, "because we want anyone to be able to walk up to this system and test it." "Anyone?" I ask. "Why anyone?" "You know how it is. If we have to test a new revision of this program a year from now, there's a good chance that we won't have the same testers." (Dude. If you're inflicting on your staff the idea of testing as writing or following instructions for an automaton, I might have an explanation for you.) "Anyone?" I ask. "How about a cat?" "Well, Michael, that's silly. Cats can't think. Cats can't read." "How about my daughter? She's seven, and she can read well enough to read that. And she could follow the steps pretty well, too." "We don't hire children here!" "Okay," I offer. "Would you hire a completely incompetent tester who needed to be told absolutely everything, in painful detail?" "We wouldn't hire anyone like that." "Fair enough, and I'd hope not. So, why do you insist that people write instructions for them that way?" Here's a splendid example of a machete that we believe that managers could use to cut through jungles of waste. In a recent project that involved work with FDA-regulated medical devices, James Bach found a huge number of excruciatingly overspecified, low-value test cases aimed at "anyone". The following two paragraphs replaced 50 pages of waste. 3.0 Test Procedures 3.1 General Testing Protocol In the test descriptions that follow, the word "verify" is used to highlight specific items that must be checked. In addition to those items, the tester shall at all times be alert for any unexplained or erroneous behaviour of the product. The tester shall bear in mind that, regardless of any specific requirement for any specific test, there is the overarching general requirement that the product shall not pose an unacceptable risk of harm to the patient, including an unacceptable risk due to reasonably foreseeable misuse. Test personnel requirements: The tester shall be thoroughly familiar with the Generator and Workstation Function Requirement Specifications, as well as the working principles of the devices themselves. The tester shall also know the workings of the power test jig and associated software, including how to configure and calibrate it and how to recognize it is not working correctly. The tester shall have sufficient skill in data analysis and measurement theory to make sense of statistical test results. The tester shall be sufficiently familiar with test design to complement this protocol with exploratory testing in the event that anomalies appear that require investigation. The tester shall know how to keep test records to a credible professional standard. To me, that's something worth writing down. Follow those instructions, and your team will save time, save work, and put the emphasis in the right places: on risk, and on meeting and mitigating that risk with skills. I have started following your blog just from past few days and I like to thank you for all of your thoughtful posts by which reflects your craftsmanship. Thank you for reading, and thank you for thanking me. I have solely agreed all of your points/advice/discussions on this post. I had many confusion about the term QA and QC since the start of my testing career and still have many confusion, i think other testers have the same. i have been working in a department called "QA" in my organization but doing mostly testing tasks as like other companies in Bangladesh. But along with testing we have also doing some of the QA tasks (i think) and below i have mentioned some of these: Check-in Review: we check, each developer at-least once in a day Check-in their source code into the svn repository (source code management system) with the comment what changes he made for this particular check-in and also reviewer name who pair reviewed the code before check-in. Code review: we check, is the code reviewed by the technology expert in witch technology project is developing in the regular interval (at least for the new developer's code, code of complex functionalities, etc) and also we ensure that actions has been taken for all the review comments. Audit Process Framework: we check, are all the development processes are following by the all project members except their have enough justification and approval not to follow the particular process(es). Audit Bug repository: we ensure all the reported bugs have been taken into action (not a bug, assigned, WIP, fix, won't fix). Audit Document Management System: we ensure that all the updated version of all documents of the particular project are stored on the DMS. Are not all above activities are part (of course, not all) of QA? Your kind words will be very much helpful to me. Regards, - Selim What a great question! Thank you for asking. The overarching mission for a tester, in my view, is to be of service to the project. Now, that's not only the case for testers; I think it's the overarching mission of anyone, everyone, on the project. We're all in service to our paramount clients—the product owners, the business owners, the gold owners and the goal donors (as some Agile wags have said)—but we're also in service to each other. When we're thinking that way, the testers help the programmers by testing the product using a different skill set and mind set from the programmers; the programmers help the testers by providing a more testable product (log files, scriptable interfaces, and so on). Testers may help programmers to pinpoint the circumstances in which a bug happens; programmers help testers by providing explanations, test programs, hints on what to test. Testers learn to program; programmers learn to test. We support each other and learn from each other. The Agile people for years have been advocating the idea of the self-organizing team. I believe in that too. That means that, in principle, anyone on the team is empowered to do whatever work needs to be done. So if a programmer takes on the tasks of setting up and configuring test environments, or if the tester is recruited to review code or models or bugs—activities that help to assure quality as a part of collaborative process, I'd say that's cool. The audit stuff gives me pause. Auditing, in my view, is a kind of testing role: gathering information with the intention of informing a decision. Auditors don't set policy or enforce rules; they provide information to management. In many process-model-obsessed organizations (here in the West, at least) the role has taken on a different slant: auditors are a kind of process police. In such organizations, people rearrange and reprioritize their work not to optimize its value, but to keep the auditors happy. This is a form of goal displacement. To me, the priority should be on providing service and value to our clients, including each other. In my view, if auditors discover some deviation from a set policy or a process model, I'd argue that the first step is to question the reasons for the deviation. Maybe someone is being sloppy; maybe someone is cutting corners; maybe someone is adding risk. But maybe someone has discovered a faster, less expensive, more efficient, more informative, more productive way of handling a task. Models always leave out something. Process models often leave out means by which we can encourage beneficial variation and change. I've never heard of an auditor reporting on some fabulous new problem-solving approach that someone has discovered internally. Most often, in my experience, process models leave out adaptability and people, as this remarkable TED talk describes. It's neither a tester's job nor an auditor's job, in my view, to set or enforce policy, and I think it's politically dangerous for us to be perceived that way. As soon as we are perceived to be responsible for enforcement, we run the risk of being seen as tattletales, busybodies, quality police. In that kind of environment, information will soon start to be hidden, which undermines the task of investigating the product and identifying problems with it that threaten its value. So, to the extent that you're doing development work that helps to assure quality; to the extent that your teammates themselves are asking you to assist them; to the extent that you're providing a service to them; to the extent that they appreciate what you're doing as a service to them; and to the extent that they thank you for it, I'd say "rock on", and congratulations. In another forum, a correspondent suggested "Maybe it's all down to the "overall" thing – be part of the process, not a megalomaniac who thinks he owns it." I absolutely agree with that. To the extent that you're doing "quality assurance"; to the extent that your managers are requiring you to impose on your teammates (or even worse, to the extent that you're imposing without being asked by anyone); to the extent that you're slowing down the project or inflicting help; to the extent that the programmers see your work as enforcing the contents of a process model or policy document; to the extent that you are barely tolerated or outright resented—well, as always, that's up to you and your organization. But it's not the kind of work that I would condone or accept myself. A few weeks I went down to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto to register Ariel, my daughter, as an American citizen born abroad. (She's a dualie, because she was born in Canada to an American parent: me. I'm a dualie too, born in the U.S. to Canadian parents. Being born a dual citizen is a wonderful example of a best practice. You should follow it. But I digress.) The application process is, naturally, fraught with complication and bureaucracy. There's also a chilling and intimidating level of security; one isn't allowed to bring anything electronic into the Consulate at all. No cell phones, no PDAs, and certainly no laptop computers. That means no electronic records, and no hope of looking anything up. So one has to prepare. There's a Web site for the Consular services. One of the first items that one sees on the site is a link for telephone inquiries. Note a couple of things here: the telephone services are for visa information, not for general information; and that visa information costs USD$0.90 per minute for a recorded system with no operator. (Oddly, that's the price for calls from the U.S.; calls from Canada are cheaper, at CAD$0.69 per minute.) I didn't test that. With only a little digging, I was able to find information related to registering a birth abroad. I gathered the information and documents that I figured I needed, and took it all down to the Consulate. I was getting ready to travel the next day, and so in typical fashion, I pushed things out to the noon deadline for receiving applications. I watched the clock on the car anxiously, parking at 11:53 and getting to the Consulate at 11:55. "Wow, that's pushing it," said the security guard. "Last one today." When I spoke to the friendly, helpful lady behind the counter (I mean that; she was genuinely friendly and helpful) she they told me some things that the Web site didn't. The application form itself is online, and these days it's one of those PDFs that has input fields, so everything can be nice and tidy. Again, though, there are some fields in the form that have several possible answers. There is some helpful information available, but I still had questions. The consular officers want to see original documents, but accept and keep only photocopies of them. You need to come with your own photocopies. If you don't, it costs you $1.00 per document—and there are lots of documents. This isn't noted anywhere on the Web site that I could see. On one of the Web pages listing documentation requirements, it says "In certain cases, it may be necessary to submit additional documents, including affidavits of paternity and support, divorce decrees from prior marriages, or medical reports of blood compatibility." Well, what cases? The page doesn't tell me, and getting it wrong means an extra trip. The lady behind the counter reviewed what I had brought, answered a number of questions, and told me exactly what to bring next time. As I travel around, I sometimes see an implicit assumption that documents tell us all we need to know. Yet documents are always a stand-in for some person, an incomplete representation of what they know or what they want. They're time-bound, in that they represent someone's ideas frozen at some point in the past. They can't, and don't answer followup questions. As Northrop Frye once said, "A book always says the same thing." Yet if we look more closely, not even ideas that are carefully and thoroughly debated can be expressed unambiguously. That's why we have judges. And lawyers. The next thing that happened emphasized this. After I left the Consulate, I returned to my car. At the collection booth, the posted time was 12:20. I'd been less than half an hour, which is good because parking at that garage costs $3.00 per half-hour. I handed the attendant my ticket. The charge was $6.00. "What?! I've only been gone for 25 minutes." She looked at the ticket. "Sorry, sir. You checked in at 11:40." "No way," I said. "I know what time I checked in; I was running late. It was at least 12 minutes later than 11:40. I got to the entrance to the Consulate, just over there, at 11:55. No way I could have taken 15 minutes to walk 75 metres!" She showed me the ticket. It said 11:40. "That's impossible. I want to check the clock." The difference was only $3.00, but I was furious. I exited the garage, drove around to the entrance and check the display. It read 12:24, the correct time. I pushed the button and pulled out a ticket; it too read 12:24. To her credit, the attendant appeared and checked the clock, and asked to see the ticket I had just printed. "12:24. I'm sorry, sir, there's nothing I can do." Quite true, no doubt. In this case, the (clearly fallible) machinery and the (clearly fallible) documentation were more credible than I. I didn't check the ticket on the way in. And yet I know when I arrived, and I know that there must have been some kind of failure with the machinery. A one-off? A consistent pattern? Happens only at a certain time of the day? A mechanical problem? A software problem? All the way home, I pondered over how the failure had occurred, and how one might test for it. But what impressed me most about my experience with the Consulate's Web site, and the consular officer, and the the parking ticket machine, and the parking attendant, was the way in which we invest trust, to varying degrees and at various times, in machines and in documents and in people. When is that trust warranted, and when is it not? Postscript: Just now, as I attempted to publish this post, the net connection at this hotel was suddenly unavailable. Again. In response to this posting, Clive asks, "So in your opinion what should a test plan contain?" First, Clive, thank you for asking. Let's consider first what we might mean by "plan". The way James Bach and I talk about planning (and the way we teach it the Rapid Software Testing course) is that a plan is the sum or intersection of strategy and logistics. Strategy is the set of ideas that guide your test design. Logistics is the set of ideas that guide your application of resources. Put those things together, and you have a plan. The most important thing to note about this is that a plan is not a physical thing; it's a set of ideas. Thus, it's important to keep clear the difference between the plan and the planning documents—that is, the documents that contain some information about the plan. It's possible to interpret your question in at least two ways—first, as a question about the plan, and second as a question about the planning document. Let's start with the plan. For ideas on strategy, I consult the Heuristic Test Strategy Model (download it and have a look). Heuristics are fallible methods for solving a problem or making a decision; "heuristic" as a adjective means "(fallibly) conducive to learning". "Heuristic" here does triple duty, modifying "model" (all models are heuristic), "strategy" (all strategies are heuristic too), and "test" (all tests are heuristic). The HTSM is a set of guideword heuristics and associated questions; you can find it here. I've memorized the 36 guidewords. They're not hard to remember, using the mnemonics found in the course notes and a little practice. Having the guidewords in my head makes it fast and easy to come up with lots of questions to ask, ideas to follow, and risks to evaluate in four broad categories. Product elements and their dimensions, important in evaluating coverage (structure, function, data, platforms, operations, and time); Quality criteria—questions about the characteristics of the product that appeal to the users we like and discourage users we don't like (capability, reliability, usability, security, scalability, performance, installability, compatibility, supportability, testability, maintainability, portability, and localizability); and For ideas on application of resources, I consider the Heuristic Test Planning Context Model (download this, too), which helps me think about who my clients are, the mission that I'm being asked to accomplish and the givens that I've got. Then I ask myself (and, if necessary, my client) questions about the things that might be missing from the givens. Based on risk, the value of the information we seek, and the cost of discovering it, we might decide to go with what we've got and exploit whatever resources we have, or we might decide to seek and apply more resources. With these two tools, I have lots of ideas in my head, and the sum of those ideas constitutes the plan. The guidewords lend structure and stability to the plan; the ever-changing context and choices constantly focus and re-focus the plan. The planning ideas must diversified, risk-focused, specific to the product or system that we're testing, and practical and achievable. So, in one sense, the plan contains all of these ideas. Note that the plan itself is entirely thought-stuff, so in a literal physical sense the plan doesn't actually contain anything. Planning documents contain representations—literally, re-presentations—of elements of the plan. Planning documents are highly audience- and purpose-dependent. They might include a subset of the ideas that might be in my head; mass storage for things that I might forget; a means of co-ordinating the test team's work; ideas about risk, including ideas about knowns, known unknowns, and potential unknown unknowns; a checklist of known problems in our application; a general set of ideas about test coverage; a specific set of ideas on co-ordinating risk ideas with tasks that we believe will help us to investigate and understand them; - notes on how we intend to assign people to certain tasks; a detailed schedule for specific activities that we anticipate; a very broad schedule for activities that we haven't hammered out yet; or anything else that might be useful to impart to some person in some context. I produced this procedure for Microsoft to help them do a better job of assuring that applications that claim to be Windows 2000 compatible really are compatible. The procedure itself is documented in 6 pages. As far as I know it is the first published exploratory testing procedure. It's used along with a second non-exploratory procedure (which is 400 pages long!) to perform the certification test. What's interesting about that is the fact that my 6 pages represent about one third of the total test effort. So what should a test planning document look like? The default answer, to me, is nothing, because the test plan is idea-stuff, and translating ideas into some other form costs something. However, there may be value associated communicating the idea to someone else, so the default answer is not the final answer. The final answer is "the very least expensive representation of the idea that can sufficiently store or communicate the idea." That might be vague—especially that "sufficiently" business. Yet there are a few important things to remember. Planning comes with opportunity cost attached. In general, the more time we spend planning, the less time we spend interacting with the product. This is not to advocate no planning, but rather the least amount of planning that nonetheless sufficiently guides the accomplishment of the mission. Writing plans—translating thoughts into some other format—tends to take more time than planning—thinking those thoughts. Writing things down, sketching them, outlining them, can be a productive form of working, learning, and remembering for many people. So writing things down usually has some value. Writing things down tends to become more important when people are separated in distance, time, and knowledge and when the knowledge is valuable. Documents can be useful in transmitting specific and detailed information to others. Again, in this context, writing things down can have some value. Writing things down may help people to learn something, or it may give people the illusion of having learned it. It may even prevent people from learning things on their own. (This is not a new problem; see Plato's Phaedrus, and the dialog between the King of Egypt and the god Theuth). Conversation (or an internal questioning process) may be more useful in a circumstance where things are not known, but must be explored. Aspects of the two approaches can supplement each other. One useful heuristic, which I learned from Cem Kaner, is to ask whether your test planning document is intended to be a product, generally designed to supply someone else with something that they want, or a tool, generally designed to supply ourselves with something that helps us to accomplish our own mission. These are not distinct categories, but thinking about them might help to set priorities. New information prompts us to change our plans. As testers, discovering new information is arguably the most important part of our role. We should be careful to limit our investments in planning, in light of the fact that we'll know more this afternoon than we did this morning—and, for any given cycle in time, we'll tend to know significantly more at the end of this cycle than we do now. Part of the Rapid Software Testing philosophy involves reducing waste wherever possible. For many organizations, documentation is an area where we might want to cut the clutter. It's not that documentation is valueless, but every minute that we spend on documentation is a minute that we can't spend on any other activity. Thus the value of the documentation has to be compared not only to its own cost, but to its opportunity cost. More documentation means less testing; that might be okay, and even important, but it might not. This leads to the White Glove Heuristic: if we have documentation somewhere in our process, such that running a white-gloved finger over it would cause the glove to pick up a bunch of dust, let's at least consider applying less work to that document, or eliminating it altogether. In the RST class, there's often push-back to this idea. That's understandable; at one point, someone started producing the document in an attempt to solve some problem or mitigate some risk. The question then becomes, "Has the situation changed such that we no longer need that document?"–and the problem I see most often is that the question is begged. On a recent trip to India, many of the participants in the class pushed back on the very idea of reducing documentation in any way, claiming "our project managers would never accept that." I was curious. "Have you asked them?" The answer was, as I suspected, No. "So suppose you're producing a forty-page test report for a busy executive. What if that executive only ever reads the summary on the first page? Might she approve of a shorter document? If she had important questions about things in that document, could you answer those questions at a lower cost than preparing the big document?" Maybe, came the answer. "So: your project managers would never accept changes to your test documentation, unless they're not reading the whole thing anyway. Or they'd never accept changes unless they were aware of the amount of testing time lost to preparing the document. Or they'd never accept changes unless they had the confidence that you could give them the information they needed on demand." The class participants then began to recognize that a session-based test management approach might allow them to make their testing sufficiently accountable while satisfying the executives with more lightweight summary reports. Later in the class, we were talking about oracles, and how slippery they can be. Oracles are heuristic; that means that they often work, but they can fail, and that we learn something either way. The class presents a list of consistency oracles (the list is now a little longer than in the linked article); for example, a product should behave in a manner consistent with its history– unless there's a compelling reason for it to be otherwise, like a feature enhancement or a bug fix. This led me to formulate The "Unless…" Heuristic: Take whatever statement you care to make about your product, your process, or your model, and append "unless…" to it. Then see where the rest of the sentence takes you	eng	23bc0383-4148-4312-969b-6d8144a86267	http://www.developsense.com/blog/category/documentation/
Navigation Welcome to X3DOM's documentation. This documentation is divided into different parts. We recommend that you read the Getting started section first. Besides the getting started there is also a more detailed First steps with X3DOM tutorial that shows how to create complete (albeit small) application. If you'd rather dive into the internals of X3DOM, check out the API documentation. You want to develop an application with X3DOM? Here you have the chance to learn that by example. In these tutorials we will create simple applications of different kinds, but they still feature everything you need to get started. This tutorial is intended to be a quick start for people who have no experience with 3D graphics so far but want to try out X3DOM. Those who want to learn more about it, should have a look at the book X3D: Extensible 3D Graphics for Web Authors about X3D, on which X3DOM is based, by Don Brutzman and Leonard Daly. Authoring X3DOM content is very similar to authoring HTML. So just open an editor and start with the usual stuff as shown next. Please note the <link> tag, which includes the X3DOM stylesheet for having everything nicely formatted, and the <script> tag, which includes all JavaScript functions that are necessary to run your 3D scene: <html><head><title>My first X3DOM page</title><linkrel="stylesheet"type="text/css"href=" type="text/javascript"src=" X3DOM world</h1><p> This is my first html page with some 3d objects. </p></body></html> Save your file and open it in an WebGL capable browser. As you can see, there is only some text. What's missing are the X3DOM-specific tags for specifying the 3D objects. Hence, we'll now insert a red box into our page by inserting the following code after the closing <p> tag. Similar to a <p> or <div> element, the <x3d> element defines a rectangular region that contains all its children elements (in this case the red box). You might wonder, why the <box> tag isn't enough and what the other tags are good for. <scene> simply says, that you are going to define a 3D scene. And a <shape> defines the geometry (here a <box>) as well as the <appearance> of an object. In our example, the whole appearance only consists of a red <material>. If you want to learn more about these elements (or nodes as they are called in X3D), just follow this link and click on the node you are interested in. Because simply looking at one side of the box is bit boring, you can navigate within your scene with the help of the mouse. If you move the mouse with pressed left mouse button inside the area surrounded by a black border, you'll rotate the point of view. With the middle mouse button you can pan around and with the right button you can zoom in and out. For more information see: Camera Navigation. Ok, now you can move around, but admittedly this scene still is sort of boring. Thus, we'll add another object, a blue <sphere>, into our little scene. As is shown next, the <shape> is now surrounded by another element, the <transform> tag. This is necessary, because otherwise both objects would appear at the same position, namely the virtual origin of the 3D scene. Thereto, the 'translation' attribute of the first <transform> element moves the box two units to the left, and the 'translation' attribute of the second <transform> element moves the sphere two units to the right. As can be seen in the example below, the value of the 'translation' attribute consists of three numbers. The first denotes the local x-axis (movement to the left/ right), the second defines the movement along the local y-axis (up/ down), and the third defines the movement along the local z-axis (back/ front). Now you know the basics of X3DOM. As you might have expected, there are certainly more nodes or elements you can try out like the <cone> or the <cylinder>. Also, there are other material properties like 'specularColor' and 'transparency'. By applying an <imageTexture> to your object, you can achieve fancy effects like a teapot that looks like earth as demonstrated in this example. When you have a look at the example's source code, you'll find a new tag called <indexedFaceSet>, which can be used for creating arbitrary kinds of geometry. The example discussed here is also available online. Moreover, there are already lots of other X3DOM examples. Just try them out, and even more important, have a look at the source code to learn what's going on. Please note, that there are slight differences between XHTML and HTML encoding: e.g. the latter does not yet work with self-closing tags but requires that tags are always closed in the form </tagName>. If you ever have problems, please first check the Troubleshooting section of this guide, much helpful information is collected there. This tutorial guides you through the process of using CSS with X3DOM. In order to demonstrate the functionality, we are going to create a HTML document with a X3DOM scene. That scene is then amended with a button that allows to resize the scene by setting CSS attributes using JavaScript. In the initial example above, we created the scene using the <x3d> tag initializing it with `width` and `height` attributes. In order to take advantage of CSS, we can use a CSS rule to set height and width in the visual layer. The following CSS rules, added to the <head> of the HTML document element will resize the scene to 50% height and with of the parent element - in this case the body element. In order to make this work with IDs, we need to add the `id` attribute to the <x3d> element: We need to remove the width and height attributes as well because they take precedence over the CSS rules. In order to change the background of the WebGL viewport we add the CSS background rule. To make this work, the scene must be transparent (default). If you change the background in the X3D definition, it will not be visible because it is disguised by the X3D background. The dynamic resizing showed in the last chapter is great for automatically adapting to browser resize and for positioning elements in your layout. In order to add more elaborate interaction with the scene, we can use JavaScript. For example, to change the dimensions of the X3D element so we can resize it to "fullscreen" like the ubiquitous video player. In order to achieve this we are going to add a button to our example that allows to switch our X3D element to fullscreen – or more precisely to 100% of the parent HTML element. First step is adding a piece of markup that we can use for styling as a button. Fortunately there already is a HTML element that is meant for exactly this purpose: <button>. And since we move in a HTML5 context, we put the button element within the <x3d> element: Semantically we are fine, but now we need to style the button so it floats over the scene. The following style rules will accomplish this. Please note the position: realtive property we are setting on the x3d element. We need this to allow absolute positioning of the button within the x3d element. Otherwise it would position absolute to the page. Additionally we need to remove the default 1 pixels border added by the X3DOM default stylesheet. Looking at our example in a browser reveals that there is a "Zoom" button floating over the x3d element in the top left corner. ### A button alone isn't interaction Nice. But a button alone is quite useless, we need to be able to do something with it. But first things first. In order to give the user some feedback what is going on, we add a hover effect by simply changing the background color. This is basic usability and a simple style rule will do the job: #toggler:hover{background-color:blue;} Next we add some JavasScript to the mix, because we want to actually change something when the user clicks on the button: Fullscreen. First we think of a method name to use, like toggle() and attach it to the onclick event of our button: <buttonid="toggler"onclick="toggle(this);return false;">Zoom</button> Note to the purists: Yes, there are several, more elegant ways of achieving this. For the sake of clarity of this tutorial, we are using the onclick attribute of the button element. In practice you probably want to use a DOM library like jQuery et al. Next, we need to implement the toggle function. Within a script element. After the inclusion of x3dom.js we add the following code: This code implements a simple toggle function. The boolean variable zoomed tracks the state of the resize. Depending wether the x3d element is sized to 100% or not, the new size is set and applied to the x3d element (x3d_element). Since we use a square viewport width and height have the same values. Additionally, the text of the button is changed to show the action performed when the user is clicking it. The rest of the styling affects the surrounding elements like the title and the body. In order to achieve the fullscreen effect we obviously hide the h1 title and remove the default padding of the body element. Likewise when zooming back, the values are restored. The last bit in the puzzle is another style rule which resets margin and padding of the body element. Add this rule in front of all others: You can use PNG, JPEG or GIF to encode your static Texture data. JPG has a low memory profile but has a lossy compression and it does not support alpha channels. PNG compression is lossless and can handle alpha. GIF is also lossless and has alpha. General: If you do not need an alpha channel and the content does not have hard edges (e.g. Text) use JPG. Otherwise use PNG. You should really not use GIF anymore. PNG is more flexible for future content (e.g. 16-bit channels). Usually people use some form of Digital Content Creation (DCC) tool to build the 3D models. This can be a modeling system like Maya or 3D Studio Max, and also a CAD-System or simulation package. They all usually allow exporting the internal representation to some form of 3D data file. Most support X3D or VRML, some even both (e.g. blender) plus other formats. For X3DOM you should look for a X3D exporter. VRML is your second best choice. X3D is a VRML derivate and superset. If your DCC-tool does not support X3D or VRML you are forced to utilize another tool which will introduce a extra level of conversion. Depending on your format there are usually different converters. Refer to X3D/web3d.org data conversion for more information. However, you should really try to avoid this step and export directly to X3D or VRML. If you have an X3D-XML or VRML file you can easily recode your data without any data loss. There are different options but the easiest right now is properly the Avalon-Optimizer (aopt) from the InstantReality packages. You can use it online or on your local machine to recode your data. Download and install the InstantPlayer system. The package includes a command line tool called aopt(.exe) which we will use for conversion. Setup your shell-environment to find and include the binary. The usually paths are: Windows: C:\ProgramFiles\InstantPlayer\bin\aopt.exe Mac: /Applications/InstantPlayer.app/Contents/MacOS/aopt Linux: /opt/instantReality/bin/aopt Then run aopt-h command to get a full list of options and usage instructions. For this tutorial the most important are: A hierarchy of files can be built up with Inline nodes. The advantage here is that bigger objects/ meshes do not need to be directly part of a page's source code, but can be loaded in parallel in the background. Important: If you use <Inlineurl="foo.x3d"/> nodes in your content, you need a real server to run your application. This will not work locally from your disc. Converting Blender scenes into X3DOM webpages is pretty simple: Blender already supports direct X3D export even so there are some issues (Don Brutzman wrote about). Blender Version 2.4 seems to export some more nodes (e.g. lights), but in general it works. We will explore this more in the future, but an exported X3D file (such as the little horse shown below) may afterwards be easily be integrated into an HTML webpage using X3DOM. Just use a very simple X3D scene in your HTML file, which, more or less, only includes an <inline> node. This nodes references and asynchronously downloads the X3D file. Therefore you need a real web server (e.g. Apache) running while using <inline> nodes in X3DOM. You can embed the X3D file by hand in a (X)HTML page, but this may include some hand-tweaking. Better use the aopt-converter described in Generic 3D data conversion. This can be done offline with a single command: aopt -i horse.x3d -N horse.html You also may use the converter online. Just open horse.x3d with your favorite text editor and paste it into the source text field. Choose XML encoding (X3D) as input type and HTML5 encoded webpage as output type and press the Convert encoding button. The main difference between the two versions is the handling of Viewpoint nodes (as cameras are called in X3D). If you use the two-file solution, you get a spec-compliant standard camera, while the viewpoints in the included data are not available at the beginning. In the one-file solution you already have the Viewpoint nodes from Blender at the start time. Just copy one of the viewpoints into the main HTML page to correct this behavior if you want. Here is a zip archive (272kb) with all files used in this tutorial including blender model, texture, and x3d model. If you are using Autodesk 3ds Max for modeling (available only for Microsoft Windows), you can install our exporter plug-in InstantExport. If you do not yet have installed 3ds Max, there is also a 30-day trial version of the modeling software available. Nightly beta builds of InstantExport are available for download here. InstantExport is the InstantReality X3D exporter for 3ds Max and not only exports XML-based X3D as well as VRML, its classic encoding, but it can also now directly export to HTML/XHTML. But please note that – as the exporter plug-in is still under development – there are still lots of features in Max, which yet cannot be properly exported. So, if you find a bug, please report it in the InstantReality forum. After having downloaded the exporter, unzip the zip file and choose the correct version for your system and Max version. After that, (assumed you are using the standard installation path and 3ds Max 2008) copy the file InstantExport.dle (the Max version of a DLL) into C:\ProgramFiles\Autodesk\3dsMax2008\plugins. Then start 3ds Max, load the 3d model you want to export, choose Export in the File menu, type in a file name, e.g. test.xhtml, and select the file type – in this case InstantExport (.WRL,.XHTML,.X3D)* After that, the exporter GUI pops up. Here, under Encoding choose XHTML, as shown in the screenshot below. Finally, press the Export button. For more information, the zip file also includes a help file for the exporter. If you are working with Autodesk Maya for modeling, shading and animating your 3d scenes, use this tutorial to create an interactive X3DOM website out of your model. This tutorial is tested with Autodesk Maya 2011. Nevertheless, the procedure should work even for older Maya versions. The basic idea is to export your scene to VRML and convert this to an X3DOM/HTMLsite using InstantReality's aopt binary (see Generic 3D data conversion). Open a terminal or command prompt, change to the folder containing your vrml2 model and your textures and run aopt (part of InstantReality, see Generic 3D data conversion for details) by typing the following command (assuming to be spaceship.wrl the name of your model): Note:aopt is automatically coming with your InstantReality player installation. You will find the executable within the bin folder of the Player. If you don't have Instant Reality installed yet, download and install from WARNING: World of Warcraft Models are Blizzard property.You can not use them on your site without permission from Blizzard. The WOWModelViewer project is an open source application to create machinima with characters and models form the World of Warcraft MMORPG. One of its features is the ability to export models into various formats, two of them being X3D and X3DOM. The X3DOM option directly outputs an XHTML file with the appropriate header code. In its current released version 7.0.1 r462, only static models can be exported, but an option to export animations as well is already available in the code. To export a model you'll need a full World of Warcraft installation (for instance a 10 day trial version) and the WOWModelViewer. Open the application, select a model on the right hand side and click on File->Export model->X3D in XHTML. This tutorial describes how to create a simple desktop augmented reality scene. We are using Adobe Flash based FLARToolkit for marker tracking and X3DOM for rendering of the 3D scene. By Jens Keil and Michael Zoellner. The tutorial shows the first online Augmented Reality application with Plugin-free hardware accelerated rendering on a GPU. Having the advantages of browser-supported WebGL technology, there is no need to download any kind of plug-in anymore to create Augmented Reality inside web browsers. Its a fast, simple and declarative way to integrate 3D content into HTML and bases on well known and documented standards, like HTML 5, CSS and JavaScript. Although the tracking still uses Adobe Flash, its modular enough to change and switch tracking as soon as there are native standards for camera access available. Our FLARToolkit marker tracker shows the webcam in the background and sends a model view matrix of the recognized marker to a Javascript function in the HTML file. From there the MatrixTransform around a bunch of 3D objects in the X3D scene is set with these values. Don't worry. You don't need the Flash IDE or any Actionscript knowledge for this tutorial. We are providing a compiled FLARToolkit marker tracker ready for including into an HTML page. It consists of the compiled SWF file (x3domflartoolkit.swf) and a Data folder with the camera parameters (camera_para.dat) and the marker pattern (x3dom.pat). You can change the marker by creating a new one with the pattern generator, putting the results into the Data folder and renaming it to x3dom.pat. Please note that you should keep the generator's default values for marker resolution and segment size of 16×16 and 50% in order to work properly. The demo scene shows a simple AR application: The earth globe, which hovers above the marker. A second layer shows the actual clouds surround the whole planet; live data loaded into the 3D scene. Our demo is declared in HTML and structured in several divisions. Both, the 3D content and the compiled SWF, are grouped inside two several <Div /> nodes. The layer containing the 3d markup is styled with CSS and positioned on top of the compiled flash movie. Note that both have to have the same size and position in order to achieve a well augmentation effect. Then, we set up a <MatrixTransform/> node, which groups every 3D object we want to be positioned on the marker. Inside we declare a simple <Sphere/> geometry and texture it with a png file of earth's appearance. Around the first one, we place a second <Sphere/> object at the same position but with a larger scale and texture it with the transparent cloud data. You don't need to calibrate your webcam. All of this is handled by the tracker's camera_para.datfile. Hence, our <Viewpoint/>, i.e. our 3D camera, is fixed in its fieldOfview 0.6 and position of 0. The tracker's values only change and transform our 3D objects; not the camera. After declaring the 3D content, we add the Javascript code, that handles the data exchange between the Flash based marker tracking and our 3D scene. First, we declare a function that hides the X3DOM canvas with the 3D content after the document has loaded. The user needs to allow the Flash tracker to access his camera by clicking a button. This is not possible, when x3dom is rendered on top at start up. As soon as the user confirmed and the marker is detected, we show the 3d content up again. Lets take a closer look to the data exchange between X3DOM and the optical tracking: We declare the set_marker_transform(value) function, which is expected by and triggered from inside the flash tracker. The function sets the new values for the MatrixTransform's position and rotation. Then we fetch the root MatrixTransform node varroot_transform=document.getElementById('root_transform'); and update the values with the setAttribute(attribute,value) function root_transform.setAttribute('matrix',q.toString()); Since the tracking triggers new values for every (video) frame, the position is updated as long as the marker is detected. Note, that we also need to convert the received marker values, since X3DOM's and the tracking's coordinate system don't match. Our code: //This function is triggered by flash based trackingfunctionset_marker_transform(value){varq=value;varroot_transform=document.getElementById('root_transform');// if not enabled, show x3dom canvasif(!show_canvas)show_x3dom_canvas();// Convert rotation form left to right handed coordinate system// mirror zq[2][3]=-q[2][3];q[0][2]=-q[0][2];q[1][2]=-q[1][2];q[2][0]=-q[2][0];q[2][1]=-q[2][1];// update the grouped 3d object's matrixTranformroot_transform.setAttribute('matrix',q.toString());} The tracking also gives feedback when the marker is lost. If you want to work with this information, just declare and use this function inside your Javascript: functionon_marker_loss(value){//marker not detected anymore, do something} Sometimes the 3D content doesn't show up. This may have two reasons: Be sure you are using a browser who supports WebGL. Also texture loading may take a bit longer and hence may take X3DOM several seconds until the geometry shows up. You can also control if the marker tracking is working: Check, whether there is a red outline around your marker. If not, ensure the marker is on a plane surface, not occupied and there is enough ambient light. This tutorial describes how to load arbitrary 3D geometry inside your web page with x3dom. We are going to develop an online catalog of 3D objects, that popup inside our page using the popular lightbox overlay principle (click here for the demo). In our case, the 3D objects are X3D files of 3D scanned historical objects. By Jens Keil. Our main page is only the overview of all objects. Hence, we are going to generate a grid with thumbnail images of our objects. We link these images to a second page with the X3DOM content. Since we have 36 objects our grid consists of 6 rows and 6 columns. Let's use a table for that. As mentioned, our 3D content is displayed inside a lightbox popup. This is a JavaScript based script that is normally used to overlays images inside the current web page. In our case, we are going to overlay a external page with the 3D object in it. We have used the prettyPhoto lightbox version of Stephane Caron, since it features the iframes which we need to load a second HTML file into our main page. In order to tell the script that our linked content should be opened inside the overlay, we add some query parameters at the end of the URL. For example: Now, let's take a look on the inlined page. We have such a page for every 3D object inside our grid. First, we export the scanned data into the X3D file format. Then we convert the X3D file into a X3DOM/HTML file (see Generic 3D data conversion). Our X3D decoded 3D content is inside the generated HTML now. We may add a headline or some textual explanation here; indeed, even any other media we'd like to be displayed inside our lightbox overlay. Note, that adding the script node with a link to x3dom.js at the end is doing all the magic: from declarative X3D/HTML5 to visual 3D content inside your web page. This tutorial explained how to generate a grid of 3D object inside a web page. Clicking on a thumbnail image opens the 3D object inside a lightbox popup within the current page. Rendering as well as basic navigation is handled by the X3DOM Javascript back end. Elsewhere If you can read german, there is also some german content available on our website: The current WebGL/JS implementation of X3DOM provides some generic interaction and navigation methods. Interactive objects will be handled by HTML-like events. Navigation can be user-defined or controlled by specific predefined modes. If the web page has scroll bars and autoscrolling is enabled, Mid-Button currently does not work yet. As a workaround, you can disable autoscrolling by unchecking the Use autoscrolling checkbox in the Firefox browser options, as is shown in the screenshot below (for the Firefox case). This is most likely an encoding problem or errors generated by using unsuited editors or HTML export tools (looking at you Word). Gobbledygook may be caused by improperly closed tags (see above). Check if you file encoding is OK. UTF-8 is recommended unless otherwise required. Use a HTML meta to denote the file encoding and make sure your file endcoding matches your meta tag. In case you are serving your files from a web server: make sure the server sets proper HTTP headers (especially mimetype and encoding) and middleware does not alter the file encoding (PHP et al. are sources for messing up multi-byte encodings). Again, maintaining UTF-8 throughout is a sensible choice (also read this). In order to analyze and debug your problem, please be more specific about the nature of your problem. Before you sit down and write a mail or forum post, it is helpful to ask yourself these questions and include this info in your question/report: Also note that hot-linking x3dom.css/js should only be used for testing and development. Once you deploy your site, it is best to copy those files over to your server or a CDN. We can not guarantee that those URLs are stable and our network bandwidth is rather limited. Some methods, like the x3dom.ready() function need to be called before the proxy object can be initialized. You can still override these functions globally. In order to provide you with the means to scope your actions to a specific X3D element, the methods receive the X3D element they are working on as first parameter: It is important to create this override before the document onLoad event has fired. Therefore putting it directly under the inclusion of x3dom.js is the preferred way to ensure overloading of this function. X3DOM features a component system which allows you to load parts of the system at runtime. Components are a set of X3D nodes logically grouped together and put into a file. For example, the Geometry2D component consists of nodes named Arc2D, Circle2D, etc and is stored in a file named Geometry2D.js. Those components are then further grouped into profiles which combine them for specific application domains. For example there is a core profile, an immersive profile, Interchange profile, and so on. Except for the full profile, profiles are an abstract concept and not reflected in file layout. While logical grouping like this falls mostly into the category of code organization, it can be utilized to load only the parts you need for your application. With X3DOM there are two versions of the library in the distribution package: the standard full profile file: x3dom-full.js the core containing only basic nodes: x3dom.js You will find these files in release directory of X3DOM. Note that this is currently the development version of X3DOM. The full profile contains all the nodes of the official X3D specification, as far as they are implemented in X3DOM, merged into one file. When using x3dom.js (core) you may need to either include or dynamically load additional nodes you need to render your model. This can be achieved by including the required node implementations files in your HTML using the <script> tag, or by instructing X3DOM to load the components at runtime. By default X3DOM comes with the following additional nodes: Geometry2D VolumeRendering Geospatial If you are using x3dom.js and you need to load the nodes above, you can use one of the methods described below. Note: It is recommended that you use the full X3DOM version (x3dom-full.js) in production environments - unless there is a very specific reason not to. The full version is compacted, optimized and in almost all cases the right way of including X3DOM. Should you opt for using the methods described here, you are trading negligible saving in initial download size for a much slower loading system, additional requests, way more complicated setup and maintenance, inability to use the browsers cache, problems with firewalls, proxy servers, CORS issues, CDNs, and not being able to run run locally without a web server. more files to manage in complex setups (could be somewhat mitigated using something like Sprockets) This is essentially how we build the full profile library, except that we deliver everything in one optimized file. When you write your own components, you can use this method - it also works with the full profile X3DOM file. X3DOM features a mechanism to load files at runtime. With this approach it is possible to load anything from anywhere and inject that code into your application. Be aware of this possible exploit when using the technique described here. Warning In order to allow dynamic loading of components, you need to tell X3DOM to turn off its security precautions before including the X3DOM library. These precaution prevents the library from executing code that is known to be insecure. Only use this feature if there is absolutely no other option for you. In order to disable security measures in X3DOM, put the following statement in your document <head> section and before the inclusion of X3DOM: If loadpath is not set X3DOM tries to load the component from the documents parent URL. Keep in mind that the dynamic loading of X3DOM components performs an synchronous Ajax request. As such all the limitations of Ajax requests apply, plus the library is blocking your browser until it gets a response. In this chapter you will learn how to extend X3DOM with your own nodes which you can load using the methods outlined above. We recommend to use the static loading approach in combination with the core profile x3dom.js. This results in the inclusion of x3dom.js and YourComponent.js which will contain your custom code. To follow this chapter you need at least basic understanding of the following concepts, principles, or technologies: In order to register a new node within the X3DOM system, you need to create the equivalent of a class that inherits properties from a superclass. Javascript itself does not implement a class based object model, it provides a prototype model. A prototype based object model can be seen as a superset of a traditional class based model. With a prototype based object system, one can implement a more limited class based system. That is exactly what X3DOM does. For each node you want to implement in X3DOM you need to call the function: x3dom.registerNodeType("YourNodeName","GroupName",definitionObj); This registers a node within the X3DOM system and provides a hook to the implementation of this class. The first parameter also is the name of the XML tag you are writing code for. The third parameter to registerNodeType is the return value of a call to the X3DOM function: defineClass(superclassObj,constructorObj,implementationObj); This function is roughly equivalent to creating a class definition in a language with an traditional class based object system. Note: The defineClass function resides in the global Javascript namespace whereas the registerNodeType function is nested within the x3dom namespace. This is intentionally so and not a typo. Let's say we want to implement a custom node which echos a "Hello World" to the console, we first need to decided how the XML should look like. In this case, we simply want another XML tag that looks like this: <x3d> <scene> <hello></hello> <-- this is new </scene> </x3d> Since there is no Hello node in the X3DOM system nothing happens when we run this X3D in the browser. The <hello> tag is not recognized and therefore ignored by X3DOM. In order to make X3DOM aware of the <hello> tag we need to register a new node with the system and provide an implementation for that node. In order to do so we are using the two function calls described above: x3dom.registerNodeType("Hello","Core",defineClass(x3dom.nodeTypes.X3DNode,function(ctx){x3dom.nodeTypes.Hello.superClass.call(this,ctx);},{nodeChanged:function(){x3dom.debug.logInfo('Hello World from the console');}})); First, the hello node is registered with X3DOM, the hello node belongs to the core nodes. We then create an implementation object of the type x3dom.nodeTypes.X3DNode, the superclass. We also define a constructor for our node in form of a function object that we pass to the defineClass() function (second positional parameter). The last parameter consists of an object literal containing function definitions for the node API. In this example we implement a function called nodeChanged which will be called by X3DOM anytime there is a change to the node element in the DOM. It is also called when the node is encountered the first time. This is the place where print a message to the console using the X3DOM debug facilities. The nodeChanged function is not the only function you can pass your implementation. For example, there is a fieldChanged method which is called whenever a attribute in the DOM changes, and you can implement your own methods here. Sometimes it is desirable to load resources, like textures, from other locations than your web server. The most common use case being serving textures from a CDN. While technically not a problem, there are security mechanisms in place to prevent injection of malicious code into your application. Browser vendors started to block loading of resources originating from domains unless these resources marked safe by the foreign web server. The corresponding W3C specification is called Cross-Origin Resource Sharing [CORS2010] and adhered to by most browsers. And in essence, you need to configure the foreign web server to add a HTTP header that marks the resource safe for your domain. Say, your application is served from and needs to load resources from the webserver of othersite.org needs to set a HTTP header that marks yoursite.org safe for cross site requests. For example: Access-Control-Allow-Origin: An alternative to adhering to the CORS protocol, is to setting up a proxy server forwarding requests to the foreign server in the background. If you can do away with the benefits CDN provides this technique may be a viable alternative. While the HTTP headers method presented above is the best practice in production environments, it is unpractical for local development of your application. Fortunately there are a couple of workarounds making you develop with pleasure. Use a real web server (e.g. Apache) to deliver your site locally Use a web server with proxy module to fetch external resources form a live website Use browser flags to disable security measures The latter one being the most flaky. It is not guaranteed that the browser will support disabling security in the long run. Also strange behaviour in case of magically enabled security after updates in combination with browser caches. Installing a web server locally and serving your files under the localhost domain is the best way of developing web applications. We also recommend you use this technique when developing with X3DOM. Using a full web stack locally ensures that your browser behaves the same way it would when loading a website over the internet. Requests are sent and received by the browser just like they would in a production environment. It is also the only way to properly test Ajax functionality and HTTP features, like expiry headers. There are various ways to install a web server on your machine. In case of Mac OS X, Apache is already installed and you can just put your documents in your Site folder. What about external resources in local development, I want to develop locally and load textures from textureheaven.net. You could install as system wide proxy server, which processes the request and response to textureheaven.net and adds the correspoding CORS header to the response. Another straight forward way is to leverage the power of what you already have: your local web server. The setup is more elaborate and out of the scope of this document. Here are some pointer of how to get started. First you need to confiture your web server to answer requests to textureheaven.net instead of sending those requests to the real textureheaven.net web server. To do so you need to make an entry in your /etc/hosts file so the address does not resolve to the real site but to localhost. Within your web server configuration you now create a virtual host that answers requests to textureheaven.net and proxies them request to the real textureheaven.net site. In order to make this all work, you finally need to add a CORS header to the response (e.g. Access-Control-Allow-Origin: Sounds too complicated? There's a shortcut way. But as with all shortcuts, use it with caution. While X3DOM is very well suited for small models up to a few kilobytes in size, big models can become a major problem. This section takes a look at the different aspects involved and tries to find partial solutions to the problem. The problems can be broken down to the following areas: Loading a HTML/X3D file containing a lot of data Parsing data into the DOM Storing data in memory And server side: I/O when sending big files (sendfile) Server stalling because user presses "reload" endlessly when not informed that an operation is in progress and consequently exhausting free server slots. While most of these problems are inherent to the domain we are moving in, and not X3DOM specific, measures can be taken to optimize loading of large chunks of data, especially cutting down transmission time over the network. Another, more complex problem, is presented by the way JavaScript and DOM work. There is no manual memory management possible and freeing up memory is left to the garbage collector that runs at intervals out of our control. We can not even manually start garbage collection. And if we could, there is quite some overhead involved in garbage collection. The only alternative to cope with the memory specific problem is circumventing the DOM entirely parsing. While this somewhat defies the purpose of X3DOM, it may present a viable alternative for performance critical applications. Various techniques and ideas are explored further in the following sections. It is paramount to keep in mind, no matter how much we optimize, the use of complex models is limited by the following boundaries: Memory of client (storing more data) Processing power of client machine (parsing more faster) In the following sections we are presenting various tools and techniques to optimize various aspects of loading big models. The most obvious idea is to compress the HTML/XML files. Luckily this is the easiest to implement and will improve performance of loading time significantly. Most web browsers support the deflate algorithms (ZIP) and can handle compressed files on the fly. The web server is configured to compress HTML files before delivering them to the client. By means of setting the HTTP (Accpet-Encoding), header, denoting a compressed file arrives, the client can act on this information and decompress the deflated file on the fly. Any browser that supports the HTTP/1.1 should be able to handle deflated input. In order to enable your webserver to compress the files during transport, the configuration needs to be alterd. How to achieve this can be found in you web server documentation. For exmaple: It is considered good practice for web development to enable in-memory compression for text resources like HTML, CSS, JS. Tests showed that file size can be reduced to about 50%. Transmission time should be typically cut in half. For exmaple, the vary large model of the walking soldier () is about 13MB in size. Using GZIP compression, this model is only 5.2MB big. Drawbacks This method does not present us with any significant drawbacks. A slight overhead on server- and client-side processing power is inherent with on-the-fly compression. Caching techniques of web servers and browser mitigate the small performance hit of on-the-fly compression. An actual benchmark of decompressing the soldier model has not yet been conducted. However the ventured guess is that the savings of network time outperform the decompression algorithm which runs naively. For very large files this technique may not be beneficial since the server may block too long during compression or the client, especially with slow clients, may take to long to decompress. This however needs to be verified and tested. We recommend to enable compression on your web server and only out out if there are performance hits than can be attributed to compression. The most significant drawback of the current XMLHttpRequest object implementations is the complete ignorance of the HTTP Accept-Encoding header. While lazy loading geometry data is possible using either the X3D inline element or custom code to load a model and modify the DOM, the lack of compression makes this process rather slow. In order to be able to work with X3DOM, you need a WebGL enabled web browser. We also support different fallback models for browsers not supporting WebGL natively. The best support of features however is only ensured with a browser sporting a WebGL implementation. You can check the status of supported browser here. While WebGL is supported in most current browsers, there are various little differences in operating system and graphics driver support. We can not discuss any possible OS/GPU/Driver combination here, but you might find some valuable hints if you can not get WebGL up and running on your system. With all systems be sure to use latest drivers for your graphics card and be sure those drivers support the OpenGL standard. Currently, the only way to use WebGL with Internet Explorer is by using the Google Chrome Frame plugin. In order to make X3DOM use the WebGL renderer with Internet Explorer, you need to install Chrome Frame and enable it in your HTML or web browser configuration. The most simple way to enable ChromeFrame is to put this line in your HTML head section: Safari 5.1+ is supporting WebGL, however you need to enable it in the Developer menu. This menu is invisible by default. Go to "Preferences" (Cmd-,) and select the "Advaned" tab. Enable the option "Show Develop menu in menu bar". Rubber band scrolling in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion On Mac OS Lion, with Apple input devices scrolling behaves differently. When reaching the end of a page, a rubber band effect kicks in. This behavior is also present on iOS devices. If you don't like the effect, you can turn if off using a CSS rule: body{overflow:hidden} Keep in mind that this rule changes the default behavior of your browser and scrollbars might disappear entirely. It is only a workaround and the preferred fix is to wait for Apple to provide a switch to turn this functionality off. Also note that the rubber band scrolling might not be visible at all with non Apple pointing devices. WebGL, O3D or [your favorite 3D-JS lib] are made by gfx-coders for gfx-coders who know how to deal with a 4×4 transformation matrix and speak GLSL as their first language. Most web-page developer have a different profile. They just would like to build their 3D-UI, Visual-Analytics or Web-Shop application and want to utilize some 3D technology. If you build the next high-end browser-based online game or visualization demo then use WebGL or O3D. But if you simply need some 3D elements in your Web-App then try X3DOM. Q: Why X3D? Can I not just use Collada, VRML, OBJ, etc. 3D (X)HTML-ized graphics requires a royalty-free, open and standardized XML-encoded format. Therefore Collada or X3D are the best candidates (however you can easily convert VRML to X3D-XML). Collada is really designed as interchange and intermediate format to transport and manage your 3D data. The Collada specification does not include, unlike X3D, a runtime or event model, which is needed for per-frame updates on the 3D-side (e.g. animations). Therefore this project uses a well defined subset of X3D (called Profile in the X3D-World) for X3DOM. For more background information about how Collada and X3D relate and why "X3D is ideal for the Web" please read the Whitepaper by Rémi Arnaud and Tony Parisi. Q: Why JS? Can you not write the system/plugin in C++, Java, … Well, the developer of this project worked on different native commercial and open-source X3D-runtimes before. The limitations of the current plugin interface (e.g. how to monitor DOM-changes) would make a implementation hard or even imposible. In addition, we just wanted an open source test environment, which is small, works without any plugin and can be easily modified to inspire and follow the integration-model easily. And first tests showed that the increasing performance of JavaScript and WebGL would lead to impressive results. Q: Why any standardization and native implementation if there is already the X3DOM-JS runtime? Short answer: Feature and Speed. The current JS/WebGL layer does not allow to implement e.g. spatial Sound or specific image loader and although WebGL is an impressive step forward we still have to do all the scene management and updates in JS. ==[MIT]==================================================================== Copyright (c) 2009 X3DOM==[GPL]==================================================================== X3DOM - Declarative 3D for HTML Copyright (C) 2009 X3DOM This program is free software: you can redistributeAbout X3DOM X3DOM is an experimental open source framework and runtime to integrate HTML5 and declarative 3D content. You are currently looking at the documentation of the development version. Things are not stable yet, but if you have some feedback, let us know.	eng	382dcee2-0eb0-4cbf-80ba-b0f591614e91	http://x3dom.org/download/1.3/docs/singlehtml/
Junior School Head's Page May is National Teacher Appreciation Month. One of my favorite educational websites, Edutopia, has devoted a number of articles to this annual event as well as providing tips and ideas for recognizing the important educators in our lives. But one article in particular stands out: Edutopia founder George Lucas' note on Celebrating Unsung Heroes in Education. In his highly personal piece, the acclaimed director and educational technology innovator talks about how teachers have enriched his life, and how much he respects and admires the many educators he and his foundation members have met through their work with Edutopia. Lucas also mentions some of the research he and his team intend to pursue on behalf of teachers, focusing in particular on their work with Project-Based Learning and Social and Emotional Learning. But one line in particular from his post stands out, and it is advice that can apply to students, parents and teachers alike: "What matters most is that you keep pushing for greatness and that you don't give up -- even when it seems like you're being underappreciated and overly stressed and frustrated beyond all belief." As the school year is winding down and the realization of just what needs to be done before the end hits teachers and students (and parents), it is undeniably a time of tremendous pressure. Tempers and patience can be short, and days can seem long. But it is also a time for looking back on all of the greatness that has already occurred throughout the school year and looking forward to what new achievements and milestones will be met in the year to come. This is a wonderful opportunity for parents to sit down with their children and talk to them about what they have done throughout this school year. Ask them what has made them proud of themselves, where they have seen academic, athletic, artistic and personal growth, and what have been some of the highlights of this grade level for them. It's also a prime time to look at areas that still need improvement, things on which they want to work in the upcoming year and where they still need help and support. This kind of honest self-examination is a key part of both celebrating their successes and continuing to strive for just the kind of greatness Lucas is talking about. After the books and supplies have been boxed up for the summer, the desks wiped down and the whiteboards erased one final time, our teachers will meet to discuss these same topics amongst themselves. They will individually and collectively celebrate their successes, examine the areas of instruction they want to amend in the upcoming school year and begin their much-earned summer vacations with a sense of purpose that will carry them through to next August and beyond. In this fashion, and in so many more ways that are too numerous to detail here, teachers are yet again doing what they do best: being role models for us all. While their heroism may be, as Lucas suggests, "unsung," there is no question that teachers lead by example, and by following their lead in helping your child reflect on his/her successes and areas still in need of improvement, you are showing teachers your appreciation in the best way possible. As is always the case at this time of year, it's time to provide you with some staffing updates. Melanie Dorn and Carolyn Mericle have both decided to move on from Shady Side. After a national search, we have hired two extremely qualified teachers to continue in the wonderful Pre-Kindergarten program. We have hired Gerri Primak from Massachusetts. She received her B.A. from Penn State University and has a master's degree from the University of Maryland. Gerri has worked in school as well as had a career in editing. Gerri was the editor for The Mailbox magazine for eight years and has written four books on phonics and phonemic awareness for PK and K. Gerri will be moving to Pittsburgh with her husband and two children. We have also hired Shannon Sciulli from Pittsburgh. Shannon has a B.A. from Duquesne University and an M.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. Shannon has spent the last five years working at the Cyert Center at CMU. Shannon has excellent training in the Reggio Emilia Approach to teaching young children and we look forward to learning more about this child-centered approach. Art teacher, Britton Wean will also be moving on next year. Cydra Vaux and I interviewed a wonderful candidate recently who I met this summer. Ashley Irwin graduated with a B.A. from Penn State University in 2011. Currently, Ashley is working at Park Forest Middle School in State College. Ashley has also been running art workshops in Altoona for the past three summers. These workshops were run by Ashley all summer for her neighborhood children. Ashley will also be joining us next year to teach art to grades PK, kindergarten, first and second. Spring has sprung! With spring comes lots of beautiful daffodils on our campus, muddy knees on our playground and open windows all around the school! It's been quite a long winter (especially for someone from New Orleans) and we couldn't be happier to see spring! On Friday, we welcomed more than 400 visitors to the Junior School for Grandparents and Special Friends Day. From near and far, grandparents and special friends enjoyed watching their student perform and loved visiting the busy classrooms for a first hand take on life in the Junior School. I would like to announce some exciting happenings in the Junior School. Shady Side Academy is extremely fortunate to offer its teachers the chance to take a sabbatical. During the next school year two of our Junior School teachers have been awarded this opportunity. Janice Brozek, one of our kindergarten teachers, will take a full-year sabbatical. We have hired Richelle Dodaro to replace Mrs. Brozek. Ms. Dodaro is a graduate of Seton Hill University and did her student teaching in our PK and fourth grade. Ms. Dodaro's kind and gentle nature is one of the first things you will notice about her when you meet her. I'm sure our PK friends will be so happy to have such a familiar face in their kindergarten classroom. We are so lucky to have Ms. Dodaro join our Shady Side family for the year. Lisa Budd, one of our fourth grade teachers, will be taking a half-year sabbatical next year as well. Mrs. Budd will be taking the second half of the year for this. We have hired Shelly Burr to take over for Mrs. Budd. Mrs. Burr is a doctoral candidate in instruction and curriculum leadership at the University of Memphis. Mrs. Burr received her master's degree at the University of Pittsburgh and her bachelor's degree from Penn State University. Mrs. Burr has taught previously at the University of Memphis Campus School as well as Winchester Thurston. Mrs. Burr will be moving back to Pittsburgh this summer with her family. I'm also happy to announce that our Shady Side Academy family will be growing by two more! Both Mrs. Wolf, kindergarten teacher, and Mrs. Peterson, our Spanish teacher, will be welcoming bundles of joy at the end of the school year. Mrs. Burr will be covering Mrs. Wolf's maternity leave for the first half of the school year. We have also hired Lucia Ortiz who will be covering all of our Spanish classes for the first six weeks of school. Ms. Ortiz received her bachelor of educational sciences from la Universidad de Monterrey, in San Pedro Garza García, Mexico. Ms. Ortiz is currently teaching at the American School Foundation of Monterrey in Mexico and will be moving to Pittsburgh for her wedding this summer. We are so fortunate that Ms. Ortiz will be joining us. As for our kindergarten program next year, in order for program consistency, Marilyn Martens and Fran Gardiner will split to work in the two kindergarten rooms. Mrs. Gardiner will be working with Ms. Dodaro, and Mrs. Martens will be working with Mrs. Burr for the first half of the year and Mrs. Wolf for the second half of the year. It is always exciting to welcome new faces to Shady Side Academy, and I know you will join me in welcoming these new folks at the start of the next school year. As we fly into the final weeks of school, there will be many exciting days in our Junior School students' lives. Please be on the lookout for announcements of the special days ahead! As parents and teachers, one of the hardest things we have to do is to allow the children in our lives to make mistakes. We want our students to feel good about themselves and their achievements, and to see them struggling with their own limitations (perceived or real) is truly challenging. Recently I walked into a fifth grade math class and heard Mrs. Hilton reminding the students "Mistakes are proof that you are trying!" As we reflect on how our new math program is going, I'm happy to think of all of the mistakes that the kids have made! There is a good deal of evidence, both scientific and anecdotal, that indicates that students who are not allowed to struggle, and sometimes even fail, end up on the short end of the learning stick. In a 2011 blog on the education-focused website Edutopia, author Alina Tugend, who also writes for The New York Times, discussed the value of allowing the students in our lives to make mistakes. Her piece, aptly entitled The Role of Mistakes in the Classroom, contains examples of lessons and research that can be extended beyond school walls to include our homes, for the message is the same across the board: students need to learn how to face adversity if they are to become resilient, open-minded learners. Tugend cites one extensive research study out of Stanford University that drives this point home and which has even become the basis of a change in academic policy in a number of schools. The two-part study, conducted by Professor Carol Dweck, began with a large pool of fifth graders taking an "easy short test" on which all of them did well, according to Dweck. The group was then divided in two, and half the kids were told that they were "really smart" while the other half were told they "[had worked] really hard." The entire test group was then given a choice in taking a second test: either another easy test on which they were practically guaranteed a high score, or a test which was likely to prove more challenging and presented a greater risk of losing points. The majority of students who had been told they were smart chose the easier test, while a whopping 90 percent of the "hard-working" students chose the more difficult one. What are the lessons we can take away from this? First of all, praise needs to be focused on what a student does and not who s/he is, and it needs to be specific if it is to be effective. Secondly, we need to encourage children to try new things or things at which they might not initially be successful. Dweck speaks about the "fixed mindsets" of students who believe they are not good at something and that their mistakes only serve to validate their impression of themselves as underachievers. This is in sharp contrast to those students who have a "growth mindset" and see their mistakes as part of the process of improving in areas in which they may not begin as superstars but in which they can definitely improve with effort – including learning by initially doing something incorrectly or less well. So it is our job, as parents and teachers, to encourage our students to be risk-takers in the classroom and at home. By allowing children to make mistakes (and, yes, even fail) and learn through these challenges that hard work can pay off with improvement and genuinely enhanced self-esteem, we are helping create resilient learners who will not allow the obstacles in their way to impede their educational process. Next time your child brings home an assessment, instead of focusing on the score, ask your child how much effort they put into it! Once again, I'm reminded of growing up in New Jersey as my plane touched down at Pittsburgh International Airport. The ground was covered in white, beautiful snow. After spending two weeks in tropical Hawaii with my family, the foot of snow on the ground was a sight to be seen! But that was nothing compared to the sight of the beautiful faces of the Junior School students as they happily returned to school. Everyone was so happy to greet their teachers and their friends. As carpool began, students poured out of their cars with book bags, snack bags, water bottles and bags filled with something else. As I got a closer look into their voluminous bags, I realized that these bags were filled with snow boots, snow pants, hats, mittens and gloves! With a foot of snow on the ground, that means a winter wonderland at recess! The Junior School students hit the untouched snow on our beautiful playground with joyful abandon. As I made my rounds of the school welcoming all of the children back after our two weeks away, I found myself in the gymnasium with a pile of shoes and bags. I followed the trail out to the playground where the children were having the greatest time with sleds that Ms. Disbrow and Mrs. DiFiore brought to school. Not only does New Orleans have no snow, but the whole city is flat as a pancake. Our 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders had the greatest time sledding down the big hill on our playground. I also saw The Shady Side Way in action, as students helped one another navigate the hill, cheer on one another as they attempted to get father than their classmates' sled ride and help a friend after an inevitable wipeout. Next stop on my Tour de Junior School was the Pre-K. Now I'm sure all of you can remember attempting to get your 4 year-old into snow pants, boots, gloves, jackets and hats. Well, imagine helping 26 of them! I popped into the Pre-K just as this miraculous feat of nature was occurring. Ask anyone in the Junior School and you will hear the same thing, "I don't know how the Pre-K teachers do it." I can tell you how they do it, with lots of laughter and perseverance! I happened upon this laughter and helped three of our Pre-K friends with their snow pants, boots, gloves, etc. I managed to get one little girl into her full outfit only for her to tell me that her snow pants were on backwards! I would have happily sent her out into the snow until I noticed that her boots were on the wrong feet as well! Ha! I can tell you, after helping these three small students, I was exhausted! Rosy cheeks and smiling faces is what winter is all about in the Junior School. I am so happy to see everyone. I hope all of you had a relaxing and recharging winter break. Now we begin a wonderful time in the school year with six uninterrupted weeks of learning, with one day off for Dr. Martin Luther King Day. This year we will continue in the tradition of celebrating Dr. King's work with a day of service on Jan. 21. I hope to see many of you lending a helping hand. At the Head's coffee on Thursday, I announced that I would like to begin a book club where all parents could come together having read a book to discuss different topics of interest to parents in the Junior School. At the next coffee on March 4, we will be discussing the book Parenting for Character: Five Experts, Five Practices edited by David Streight. The book will be available in the front office on Wednesday, Jan. 23. Each book will be $5 and you can pay by cash or check made out to "Shady Side Academy." In the interest of safety, we will be practicing our lock down procedure here at the Junior School on Jan. 24. There will be an announcement over the speaker system saying that we need to "Secure the Building." Students will know that this means that their teacher will lock the classroom door from the inside and cover the windows. Teachers will notify me that all of their students are secure via email and I will announce that the drill is over. I wanted to let you all know this so that if your children come home with any questions, you will know what happened. With the tragic events in Connecticut in December, we wanted to make sure we practiced this procedure. This procedure has always been in place, but it is very important to practice it, just like we practice our fire drills. On another safety note, all doors to the school will be locked until 8 a.m., except for the front door where Mrs. Vrcic will welcome students. If you are dropping students off for our early morning care from 7:30-8 a.m., please be sure to drop them off at the front door so they can make their way to the library. At 8:15 a.m., all doors will be locked and anyone visiting the school must be buzzed in the front door after they are identified on our closed circuit television. Looking ahead to the spring time, please mark your calendars for a Garden Build day on April 27. We will be building three raised beds in front of the Pre-K building as well as working on the Foster Garden in the back of the school. Parent-teacher conferences are almost upon us, and I am very excited for this opportunity for our community to join together around the whole child, your child. Parent-teacher conferences offer the valuable currency of time with an intentional focus on your child. This moment to pause, focus and evaluate is crucial to your child's learning and growing experience here at school. On Friday, Dec. 7, the Junior School will hold these conferences. If you should need child care for your children during your student's conference time, we will provide this for you in the Junior School library. If you need child care for the whole day, please sign up with our After School Explorers program. This December conference is a chance to share success stories, noteworthy observations, areas to work on, and specific knowledge about your learner with each other. Report cards are available on the Parent Portal starting today, Tuesday, Dec. 4. Again, these conferences are a time to discuss the whole child and discover even more about each other in our partnership around our common focus, your child. I am confident that you will find our teachers are incredibly dedicated to their craft and your children's growth as learners and citizens of the world. At Friday's conferences, teachers will hand out global reports that we have put together with updates from all of the specialists. Your child's school day is multifaceted and thus, knowing what is happening in music, PE, art, science, technology, library and Spanish is very important. We hope you enjoy reading these global reports; our students certainly enjoy their experiences as athletes, artists, literature lovers, scientists and linguists! In our second semester, we will have optional conferences on Friday, Feb. 22. These conferences will not center around a report card, but rather they will be a chance to revisit some of the goals set in the December conferences. We will have a final conference day at the end of the school year on Friday, May 31. to finish out our year and discuss goals for next year. Another report card will be sent out for this conference. Michael Thompson, Ph.D., noted author and school consultant, is someone from whom I have had the pleasure and privilege of learning. His wisdom on parent conferencing is striking, and I hope that you will find the below tips helpful. Should you have any questions regarding this process, please contact your child's teacher. Additionally, do not hesitate to let me know if I can help you with any concerns. Sincerely, Ellen McConnell Making the Best of Parent-Teacher Conferences: Eight Steps to Success for Parents Remember the F-word: Focus. The aim of a parent-teacher conference is for adults to build a mutually respectful alliance that will support a child's (sometimes difficult) journey through school. Kids thrive when they feel the adults in their lives see them in the same way. Parents and teachers should try to use the precious minutes of a conference to reach agreement about a child's strengths and challenges – and how to respond to each. Be there. We expect our children to attend school every day. Research shows that they do better academically when both parents attend conferences and PTA meetings. A parental no-show sends a message to a child that maybe school isn't such a high priority, or perhaps that they aren't. Leave your old school baggage at home. We all have memories of teachers and classes that made us miserable. It's important to set those aside and approach your child's teacher as a peer and partner. Assume a teacher wants to see your child succeed in school and life – just as you do. The respect you show a teacher is contagious and will find its way back to your child. Use a report card as a tool, not a centerpiece. Turn any review of grades or other evaluations into an opportunity to ask what's working and what's not for your child, and the teacher's observations. Do not dwell on the grade itself and do not attempt to pressure a teacher to change a grade, especially at a conference. (If there is a real issue of injustice, take it to an administrator.) Remember, an "A" student won't die from getting a "B", nor will a "B" student suffer irreparable harm from getting a "C." Most of us learned lessons about life and about ourselves from getting lower grades than we wished. Share insider information: Tell the teacher what you know about your child as a learner. You've seen plenty. You know what motivates your child, what has worked with teachers in the past, and what your child loves and hates about school. Also, tell your child's teacher about your hopes and fears for your child. All parents worry from the day they send their children off to kindergarten, and on through high school. No parent ever has all the information they'd like to have about their child's school life. When you articulate your concerns and wishes, it alerts a teacher to something important about your child's life. That information can help a teacher fine-tune instruction or interactions to be more effective for your child. Ask about the things that matter most. Go beyond grades. Ask about your child as a citizen of the classroom. Is he or she respectful of adults and other students? Not every child is going to be a brilliant student, but brilliant or not, you want your child to be a loving, respectful, productive citizen who can live in community with others. Ask about your child's social life in school. Ask whether she or he has friends, is part of a group, knows how to socialize and work respectfully with other children. How your child functions with other people is going to make a big difference in later life. Ask what you can do. Ask how you can support your child's success without micromanaging or rescuing him or her from mistakes and the valuable lessons they offer. As our year progresses, I always think of the milestones that we continue to hit. One of my favorites: school pictures! Students had their photos taken to record the 2012-2013 school year a few weeks ago, and the photos went home in book bags Friday. I LOVE to look through these mementos of the year as we record each child's growth. Don't you just love seeing those holes where teeth used to be? Or that hairstyle that your child INSISTED that she needed on photo day? What I see in these photos is growth. Another year of exciting new things to be learned, another year of milestones reached, and another year to learn more about your child! When I think about how much the students have already learned, and how much they have yet to learn, I can't help but to be excited. I wanted to thank all of the parents who attended our first ever Math Night here at the Junior School. I think the teachers did an incredible job of presenting this new material and those of you in attendance agreed with me. I have received so many positive comments from parents. There were a lot of "aha" moments for parents as they saw the scope and sequence of our new Math in Focus: A Singapore Math Approach presented. I also wanted to thank parents for being such good sports as they worked on some very challenging math problems! For those of you who weren't able to attend, here's an example of a 4th grade word problem for you to figure out: At Shady Side Academy Junior School, 3/5 of the 570 students were 4th graders, and 2/3 of the remaining students were 5th graders. If the rest were 3rd graders, how many 3rd graders were there? You can email me for the solution and how we used the bar model to solve this problem. Now that I'm back in the land of windchill factors and fall leaves, I was certainly reminded of the glories of a Northeastern Halloween when moms tell you to put a jacket on over your costume! This year's Halloween Parade was such a fabulous delight! The 5th graders started the event off with a spooky rendition of our alma mater, presented as a Gregorian chant. As the 5th grade studies Medieval Europe, our music teacher, Ms. Price, wanted to connect the music of this time period to the humanities studies, the result being this spooky chant. The 4th graders showed off their recorder skills to celebrate All Saint's Day and my move from New Orleans with a lively "When the Saints Go Marching In." Our pre-kindergarten students charmed us with an adorable "In the Dark, Dark House" and the kindergarten and 1st grade students got us jamming with a hand jive to the Ghostbusters theme song. To close this wonderful event, the 2nd and 3rd graders spooked us all with a chilling zombie dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." As I said at Parents' Night, I truly feel like I've found a home here in Pittsburgh, and with each passing season of delightful school milestones, I am so grateful that I have! Some upcoming events to mark on your calendar: On Friday, Nov. 9, at 5 p.m. is the Flavors of Fall cocktail party sponsored by the Parents' Association. I look forward to seeing you all there! On Nov. 12, 13 and 14, a visiting team from PAIS (Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools) will be visiting Shady Side Academy. Every 10 years, Shady Side Academy goes through a re-accreditation visit, and 2012 is our year. Professionals from various Pennsylvania schools will be coming to Shady Side Academy for three days to learn everything they can about our school. Specifically, we will have four people visiting the Junior School to see everything that we do. These professionals will be observing carpool, checking in on classes, and even speaking to a few students. This is such an important process, and I'm happy to show off the Junior School to our visitors. And finally, we will have an Evaluation Day on Friday, Nov. 16. This is a day set aside for teachers to communicate meaningfully the growth that each child has made this semester as they carefully craft the December report cards. There will be child care that day provided by After-School Explorers and the theme of the day is "Thanksgiving Festival!" We are well into what feels like a happy and productive year, and are enjoying working with your children every day. I look forward to seeing you at any or all of our upcoming Junior School events, and thank you for being such excellent partners. Leadership "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." ~John F. Kennedy Leadership takes on many forms in a Junior School environment. I firmly believe children are born with leadership skills, and what teachers actually affect through teaching is what type of leaders they will grow to be. No matter what leadership skills a child is born with, he/she will not be as effective a leader as they could be if they are unable to communicate their ideas to others. Beginning in PK, our students are asked to hand out take-home notebooks to their classmates. When they give a clue as to whose notebook they have, they have the whole class' undivided attention. Students in grades K-5 are often asked to read aloud, a type of public speaking that virtually every person will do at some point in their lives. It is a starting point for the type of public speaking that may be required of a person in a leadership role later on in life. A reading exercise can be vital to developing good communication skills in a child. Having the child practice listening skills can also enhance communication skills. In the Junior School, all children have a chance to speak publicly in front of their peers at our Tuesday assemblies. By helping children feel comfortable speaking in front of a group, we are building leadership skills. As our community becomes more familiar with "The Shady Side Way," we are discussing how it is up to each and every one of us to hold each other to The Shady Side Way. Setting an example and reminding peers of responsible behavior is indeed leadership in action! This past week brought another chance for members of our community to test their leadership skills. Our fifth graders learned their leadership positions for the year. It was indeed quite a process! The adventure began five weeks ago when the students first heard the 5th grade "throughline": "How do we develop a sense of leadership and community as Shady Side Academy fifth graders?" After hearing the overarching goal, they used a thinking routine called "compass points" to talk about what excited and worried them, what else they needed to know, and what suggestions they had to accomplish the throughline. The students suggested many leadership opportunities, such as tour guide, morning announcer, recycling team captain, historian, science lab assistant, advertising agent and photographer. Then the children began the process of self-reflection. In small group advisory sessions, students and teachers discussed and shared their personal strengths and opportunity areas. Afterward, the students took an objective look at the leadership opportunities and thought about what skills were needed for each. Each student matched his/her skills to one or more of the leadership opportunities. Then it was time to apply for the positions. Every student applied for two positions. They wrote about why they would be good candidates for those particular opportunities and participated in two interviews with Ms. Dauer, Mr. Chuck Scott, Nurse Julianne, Mrs. Vrcic and me. By greeting each person with eye contact and a strong handshake, the students learned valuable life skills. On Sept. 25, fifth graders received their medallions as I announced their names and leadership positions. The medallions are a Junior School tradition and are passed down to rising 5th graders each year at the Moving-Up Day Ceremony, representing their role as leaders of the school. Since our fifth graders will be leaders all year in many different capacities, we thought they should wear them all year while in these roles. Congratulations to all of the leaders in the Junior School! Community "What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured." ~Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Community is such an important word in our Junior School. One of my favorite things about our school is when we come together as a community during weekly assemblies. On Tuesday mornings we are welcomed into the gymnasium by fun, upbeat music and sit with our classes. I introduce the fifth graders, who lead the assembly and share something I've been thinking about, usually revolving around The Shady Side Way. We then hear from the class representatives from each class. This gives all of our students a chance to speak in front of a large crowd! Luckily, all students have an opportunity to be a leader in their classrooms before this ever happens. Part of the unwritten curriculum of a Junior School is to build each child's self-confidence, and we strive to do this by having students share important events from their classrooms at our Tuesday assemblies. Once a month, we meet in our Tuesday Teams. In this program we gather to meet and befriend each other with the goal of promoting positive behaviors, skills and attitudes. The rationale behind Tuesday Teams is simple: Successful learning communities thrive on relationships, and the stronger the relationships, the stronger the learning community. Teams are made up of 18-20 students representing grades K-5, plus teachers and staff members. Every student is assigned to a Tuesday Team, and team sizes ensure everyone can participate. Our teams met for the first time this week to work on a community art project. Students wrote on multi-colored strips of paper how they have lived The Shady Side Way so far this year and how they might live it in the future. It was so wonderful to see these mixed-age groups work together to help one another write down their ideas. Some examples that I saw: "I helped kids who came in the morning get out of their cars safely. I was kind and responsible. I lived The Shady Side Way!" or "I will try to be kinder to my little brother" or "I cheered my brother on in soccer games he plays, even when it's wet and muddy outside. I was kind." These colorful strips of paper will be weaved into the chain link fence surrounding the play yard to create a community art piece. We'd love to see you at any of our Tuesday assemblies! While you are here, please check out the incredible piece of community art work in our lobby. EVERY member of the Junior School community traced their hands to create this piece, showcasing the idea that we are all members of this very special community. Monday, Oct. 15 is Picture Day at the Junior School. Students received an order form in their backpacks last week. Please be sure to send the order form and payment with your child on Monday, along with their best smile! Please mark your calendars for our Junior School Math Night on Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. This will be an adult-only evening with teachers in the gymnasium. Please come and learn more about our new Math in Focus: Singapore Math Approach program and what math instruction looks like in our Junior School classrooms. All of our teachers will be presenting ways for you to encourage mathematical thinking at home as well. Also mark your calendars for Friday, Nov. 9, for our Flavors of Fall event. This fun evening is a great opportunity to meet other Junior School parents in a laid-back, social atmosphere – another great chance to build community in the Junior School! I had the pleasure of visiting each classroom this week and am quite envious of your children. They have immersed themselves in routines that are based upon inquiry, sharing, and reaching towards new goals. The buildings are alive with their individual personalities, shared experiences, and the thrills of experiential learning. This, my first school time letter, has images from the start of our year together, as well as a few reminders. We look forward to welcoming you to the Junior School Parents' Night on Thursday, Sept. 6. The program will begin in the gymnasium at 6:30 p.m.; please view a detailed schedule of our evening. As you know, your children receive a very important message when you attend such evenings, or any school events. If you are unable to make this evening, we certainly understand and our faculty will ensure that you receive any important information in another format. To accommodate families with multiple children, the teachers will present to parents twice during the evening. Parents will also have the chance to meet and speak with our specialists in the library and the gymnasium. Parents of third, fourth, and fifth graders will also be able to purchase P.E. uniforms in the gymnasium. On the heels of Parents' Night will be our Hopes and Dreams Conferences. Thus, Wednesday, September 12 and Thursday, September 13 will be noon dismissals. Mini-camp information can be found on online for those wanting or needing activities and care after dismissal. During your conference time, we will have supervision on the Junior School "Big Kids' Playground" for your individual conference time. Thank you for helping us have a wonderful start to our school year together. I know how much coordination and planning goes into shifting routines on the home front. I hope you enjoyed your long weekend; we look forward to seeing you on Thursday, Sept. 6. As I craft this letter, I long for the calls of children having fun and learning. I have had a wonderful summer here at 400 South Braddock as I have gotten to know the teachers and staff as well as the building. The library renovations look wonderful and the beautiful fish tank given in honor of Mrs. Little keeps bubbling. I had an opportunity to travel to Chicago with many of the classroom teachers to learn more about Math in Focus: Singapore Math as well as receive a few friends and family members who just had to check out the wonders of Pittsburgh! I have fallen in love with my new home as well as the Café at the Frick, the Oakmont Bakery, the Carnegie Science Center and a penguin named Vicki at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. In a recent mailing, you will find information about parent conferences, curricular updates and a calendar for the start of our school year. You will also find your name plaque for the carpool line. Please display this on the passenger side visor during afternoon pick up. It is very important to us that you take the time to read, review and discuss the information in this packet as a family. This joint effort will contribute to a smooth start of your student's school year. In addition, this directed attention to school matters will send an important message to your student about your partnership in their educational journey. For future reference, this information is also available on Shady Side's website. Should you have any questions about this information, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our office. In addition to the nuts and bolts of this mailing, I want to share some reflections with you. The Junior School faculty is a group of people determined to make an impact on each individual heart and mind that they encounter. We are committed to our community looking, feeling and being a student-centered place of excellence in character, community and learning. We are a community wherein committed members intentionally work together, within a hub of experiential learning of lifelong skills. This is The Shady Side Way. Based on our guiding principles of honesty, kindness, respect, responsibility and safety, we celebrate ways, small and large, in which our students, faculty and communities members live and learn The Shady Side Way. For each of us, it is a privilege to be a part of the Shady Side community and with this privilege is great responsibility. I am passionate about my role as the Head of the Junior School. I will continue to work with all members of our community to craft a place where we help learners understand themselves, the world around them and encourage healthy risks in a nurturing environment. Our teachers ended their 2011-2012 school year with professional development. Trainers in our new math program Math in Focus: Singapore Mathematics joined us during the last week of school. As we embark upon new curricular endeavors, our faculty is eager and engaged. Whether meeting on a summer afternoon to craft model lessons for our math program, or gathering just days after their work schedules ended to organize manipulatives, our teachers are actively learning and teaming. This is an outstanding testament to their dedication and to Shady Side's commitment to ensure we are at the front of the learning curve. We continue to improve upon that which we do well and model the joy and excitement of learning for your children, our students. To help you all learn more about our new math program, please join me and the classroom teachers in a Math Night in early October. More information on this special night will be forthcoming. I am pleased to give you some information regarding programmatic enhancement for the 2012-2013 school year. Let me begin with our new parent- teacher conference structure. This year, all parents will join their child's classroom teacher for a "Hopes and Dreams" conference. Dr. Michael Thompson, acclaimed speaker, author, educator and independent school consultant, is truly the brain behind this type of conference. Many independent schools around the country use this model to create an early partnership between parents and teachers on behalf of the individual child. There is no substitute for such a conference and the foundation crafted ahead. These conferences occur on Wednesday, Sept. 12 and Thursday, Sept. 13. For 20 minutes, you will have the opportunity to meet your child's teacher and share your thoughts and experiences around your child's social, emotional and intellectual journey. The teacher's role is to listen and reflect upon your words. In order to allow for this opportunity, Sept. 12 and 13 will be half days for students with a noon dismissal. We will have two more set conferences, around our semester reporting periods in December and May. We will be moving to two reporting periods to allow growth in our young learners. During these conferences, the report card will be a "tool and not the centerpiece" as described by Dr. Thompson in the attached article. Should these set dates not be sufficient, you will have the opportunity to schedule an optional February conference to discuss any interim thoughts with your child's classroom teacher/ advisor. A detailed list of Junior School dates is included in this packet; however, I want to highlight the increased opportunity to meet with our faculty on a scheduled basis. As usual, should you want to discuss your child's academic, emotional or social development contacting the appropriate faculty member to schedule a mutually convenient time is always an option. There is no need to wait to a specific calendar date to do so. As we are always seeking balance in our curriculum, I would like to let you know that in third, fourth and fifth grade, students will be having art class taught by Ms. Cydra Vaux twice a week increased from once a week last year. This also means students will have physical education class team taught by Ms. Kim Disbrow and Ms. Karen DiFiore three times a week instead of four times a week like last year. I am also happy to announce that Jennifer Asmonga, a fifth grade teacher last year, will be our new Learning Specialist. As the Learning Specialist, Jennifer will work with students in grades 4 and 5 on study skills, comprehension strategies and learning differences, including, but not limited to attention difficulties. Jennifer will also identify students' needs and accommodation plans based upon evaluations, teacher referrals and parent questions. She will collaborate with teachers, tutors and work to offer ideas about instructional models for students. Lastly, we are introducing a new course for our fifth grade students. We are combining our Language Arts and Social Studies courses to better meet the needs of our students. The double period will allow for one teacher to work with half of the students in the grade on the writing process, language, time, place and history in the context of literary works. Mrs. Lisa Anselmo will be moving from second grade to fifth grade and she is thrilled to build a new level of proficiency and joy upon these important foundations and topics. This is a very exciting addition to our academic model and we are confident that such focused instruction will provide an optimal learning experience for our students and faculty. To assist in this new curriculum endeavor, we will be introducing a 1:1 iPad program in fifth grade as well. Each student will have an iPad to use throughout the day during all of the academic classes. Parent communications at Shady Side Academy are primarily electronic, so it is important that you check your email and visit the SSA website regularly. During the school year, you'll receive the SSA Parents' Newsletter via email every other Thursday. This newsletter contains announcements, reminders, news, event photos and other important information, so please be sure to read it. In addition, I write a monthly letter to parents such as this; while this first letter has been mailed to your home, future letters will be sent via email and posted on the website. You also will receive emails from the Junior School Office and your children's teachers periodically. The SSA website is an important resource for parents as well. Please visit the Junior School teacher pages regularly to keep up with what is going on in your child's classroom, and log in to the Parent Portal to access the online S-Book (community directory), handbooks, forms, report cards and more. The most up-to-date version of the Junior School calendar is kept online as well. It is a privilege to lead this division and serve you and your families. I am so proud of our committed faculty and know that they look forward to meeting their new students at the end of the month. Wherever you are in your Shady Side journey, either brand new or seasoned alma-mater singer, we are so pleased to be here with you, our Shady Side Family. Ellen McConnell began serving as Head of the Junior School in 2012, with more than 15 years experience as an independent school teacher and administrator at the elementary level. She was previously the assistant head of the Lower School at Isidore Newman in New Orleans for four years, where she overssaw curriculum, professional development, divisional operations, budget and discipline. Prior to Newman, McConnell spent six years at Trinity School in Atlanta, Ga., including five years as a kindergarten teacher and one year as an instructional technology specialist. McConnell spent the first seven years of her teaching career in New York City, serving as a kindergarten teacher at The Marymount School and The Caedmon School, and as a technology coordinator at The Dalton School. A native of Cresskill, N.J., and a graduate of Dwight Englewood School in Englewood, N.J., McConnell earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology and history from Wellesley College in 1995 and a Master of Arts in communications, computing and technology from Columbia University Teachers College in 1996.	eng	6d1a6df8-ec18-4ac4-acc7-fdca742520e0	http://www.shadysideacademy.org/page.cfm?p=10266
Art and Culture Art and Culture The charm of the Parisian landscape is unquestionably due to its talented artists and craftsmen over the centuries; but it is also a result of its successful blending of styles from different periods, including contemporary buildings. Paris is a dynamic city whose contrasting faces never cease to astonish visitors and inhabitants alike. Architecture Medieval Paris From the 6C to the 10C marshy areas were dried up and cultivated, while the city's port and trade activities developed around place de Grève. Walls were built around the city, and its first streets constructed – extensions of the town's few bridges. Traffic and hygienic conditions improved when Philippe-Auguste had the streets paved. Soon, fountains began to dot the Parisian landscape, and springs – such as the one in Belleville – were tapped more frequently, providing a better water service. Romanesque architecture, known as Norman style in England, didn't blossom in Paris as it did in the rest of France. Some rare examples include the chancel columns and bell-tower porch at St-Germain-des-Prés, the apse of St-Martin-des-Champs, and a few capitals in St-Pierre-de-Montmartre and St-Aignan Chapel. Greater Paris was the cradle of Gothic architecture. Vast churches were built as tall and light as possible, using ogive or pointed arches and groin vaults (St-Germain-des-Prés chancel), whose thrust and weight are contained by side aisles and external buttressing (St-Julien-le-Pauvre apse). Early Gothic (12C) architecture is best illustrated by Notre-Dame Cathedral, where the transition of building techniques and styles from the 12C to the early 14C can be seen in the vast chancel, slightly projecting transept and the dark triforium gallery. Capitals are decorated with motifs of plants and flowers from the greater Paris area. Sources of light are limited to narrow windows in the nave, topped by small round windows, or oculi, at the transept crossing. High or Rayonnant Gothic (13C-14C) is a style developed during the reign of Louis IX, when structural engineering reached new heights under architect Pierre de Montreuil. Walls are replaced by huge panels of glass, allowing light to flood in. Slender piers support the vault, reinforced externally by unobtrusive buttressing or flying buttresses (St-Martin-des-Champs refectory). With the new use of light, stained glass began to flourish. The chevet of Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle and the Royal Chapel at Vincennes are Paris' masterpieces of High Gothic architecture. The gargoyles were another innovation, designed as spouts to drain off rainwater. It is this style, in particular, that was assimilated in England at Canterbury and London (St Stephen's, Westminster). In the 15C a trend emerged towards more exaggerated decoration during the Late or Flamboyant Gothic period (15C) with an increase in purely decorative vaulting (St Merri transept, St-Germain-l'Auxerrois porch) – flame motifs flourish on window tracery; the triforium gives way to ever taller clerestory windows; piers culminating in ribs without capitals run straight to the ceiling (St-Séverin ambulatory), from which hang monumental vault bosses (St-Étienne-du-Mont). With the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), civil architecture reverted to the sombre, massive style of feudal times (the Bastille and Men at Arms Hall in the Conciergerie). Large residences with huge gardens such as the Hôtel St-Paul were built in the Marais district, along with many small half-timbered houses, a few of which can still be seen on rue François-Miron and on Île St-Louis. The Renaissance In the 16C, the war with Italy kindled the interest of French artists in Antiquity and non-religious decoration. Cradle or coffered ceilings (St-Nicolas-des-Champs) replaced ogive vaults, and architectural orders – especially lonic and Corinthian – were reintroduced. The rood screen at St-Étienne-du-Mont and the stalls at St-Gervais are the finest examples of this style. However, Paris was not entirely loyal to the Italian influence. The capital preserved its own style, at least in terms of religious architecture. A trio of Renaissance Parisian architects – The Renaissance in France is inextricably linked with the châteaux de la Loire. But Paris stands out for two majestic new edifices, the Louvre and the Tuileries, built by three men: Pierre Lescot (1515-78), Baptiste Androuët Du Cerceau (1560-1602) and Philibert Delorme (1517-70). All three were influenced by Italian architecture. The former two introduced from Italy the continuous façade broken by projecting bays with semicircular pediments. The Cour Carrée in the Louvre combines the splendour of Antiquity with rich decoration: statues nestling in niches between fluted pilasters; a frieze and cornices above doorways; and inside, coffered ceilings (Henri II staircase in the Clock Pavilion of the Louvre). Work on the first Hôtel de Ville was begun in 1533 by Le Boccador and Pierre Chambiges. Classical Architecture Paris continued to expand, and new civil and religious edifices were always underway, despite the Wars of Religion and the siege of the city by Henri de Navarre. Charles IX and Louis XIII pushed the walls built by Philippe-Auguste farther west. The right bank benefited from this dynamic urban development. Paris was transformed in the 17C with the rise of Classical art and architecture inspired by Antiquity. Rules were established by the Academy of Architecture, founded in 1671, and strengthened by an absolute monarchy, asserting the need to combine religion and Antiquity and leading Classical art to its pinnacle. Religious architecture was modelled on Roman churches, with columns, pediments and statues competing for space. The Jesuit style of the Counter-Reformation adopted for the design of St-Paul-St-Louis caught on and the Paris skyline was soon filled with domes. Lemercier built the Sorbonne and Val-de-Grâce (finished by Le Muet). The Sun King's architects demonstrated their progressive assimilation and mastery of the dome through the magnificent creations that beautified the city under Louis XIV: Hardouin-Mansart (Invalides, St-Roch), Libéral-Bruant (Salpêtrière), Le Vau (St-Louis-en-l'Île), Soufflot (Panthéon). Public buildings were shaped by Classical symmetry and pure lines. Place des Vosges, place Dauphine and Hôpital St-Louis typify the Louis XIII style with the use of brick and stone; whereas Salomon de Brosse blended French and Italian features in the Luxembourg Palace built for Marie de Medici. Mansart, Androuet Du Cerceau, Delamair and Le Muet created a new design in the Marais for the Parisian town house, or hôtel particulier, smaller than before and featuring a garden. Classical architecture reached its height between 1650 and 1750 with magnificent buildings by Perrault (Louvre Colonnade), Le Vau (Institut de France) and Gabriel (place de la Concorde, École Militaire). Although originality was in vogue at the end of the 17C, the Rococo style (decorations on the Hôtel de Soubise) never was very popular in Paris. Under Louis XVI, taste gravitated towards the more elegant simplicity of Antiquity (Palais de la Légion d'Honneur) as epitomised by Ledoux (Farmers General Wall toll-houses). Urban development – Construction work was ongoing throughout the 17C in Paris. François Mansart (1598-1666) designed the Val-de-Grâce, the Hôtel de la Vrillière (Banque de France), and the façade of the Hôtel Carnavalet. His nephew, Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646-1708) built the Invalides dome, place Vendôme, place des Victoires and the Hôtel Conti. Paris was fitted out with magnificent buildings and avenues. The right and left banks tried to outdo each other. The Palais Cardinal designed by Jacques Lemercier, as well as the Cours de la Reine (Champs-Elysées), and place Royale – a model of Classical symmetry – were constructed on the Right Bank. The Hôtel Lambert was built on Île St-Louis by Le Vau (1612-70), who also designed St-Sulpice and the Collège des Quatre Nations (now the Institut de France) on the Left Bank. The Manufacture des Gobelins and the Observatoire were erected in the late 17C. The building frenzy continued into the 18C, when an impressive number of new monuments appeared on the Paris skyline: the Palais-Royal arcades, the Hôtel des Monnaies, the Palais de l'Élysée, the Palais-Bourbon, the Théâtre de l'Odéon, and the Palais de Bagatelle. After the Revolution, the city was divided into chic areas and the working-class districts west of the Marais, whose winding streets add a touch of charm from the past to present-day Paris (Latin Quarter and St-Merri Quarter). Safety and cleanliness improved with the addition of lanterns that were lit until midnight, as well as a road maintenance service and fire brigade. Traffic problems were alleviated by ring-roads built around the capital. The banks of the Seine were remodelled and new bridges constructed, allowing fresh supplies to be brought in by boat on a daily basis. Finally, Paris adopted its current system of street names and numbers with no 1 being the house closest to the Seine. Second Empire and innovation The Empire and Restoration were not marked by any significant architectural achievements. Napoléon I continued construction of the Louvre and built monuments such as the Madeleine, the Arc de Triomphe and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. But the real transformation of Paris took place during the Second Empire, when Baron Haussmann's massive urban planning programme and the new application of cast iron in construction irrevocably altered the city. The technique of cladding metallic sub-structures was refined by Baltard (St Augustin, Pavillon Baltard at Nogent-sur-Marne), Labrouste (Bibliothèque Ste-Geneviève), and Hittorff (Gare du Nord), the most famous example of the new building method being Gustave Eiffel's Tower. Paris was enlarged to encompass some of its surrounding villages, and the current system of the 20 arrondissements was created. Haussmann's wide avenues enhance buildings such as the Opéra Garnier, one of the finer stone edifices of a period that was less preoccupied with monumental buildings. Towards the end of the century, new trends developed that were different from the official style. Art Nouveau architects, the most well known being Guimard, defined a new decorative vocabulary for façades, interiors and furniture featuring stylised floral motifs, asymmetrical designs and materials such as glass and ceramics. The 20C The 20C marks a turning point in urban architecture. Architects and structural engineers collaborated on ever more economical and functional designs using industrially manufactured, thus cheaper, materials (cast iron, plate-glass, artificial stone) and improved building methods. Buildings in totally different styles have gone up side-by-side. While the Grand and Petit Palais, Pont Alexandre-III and Sacré-Cœur look to the past for their inspiration, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (Frères Perret), Palais de Chaillot and Palais de Tokyo, fashioned in reinforced concrete, look resolutely ahead to the modern age. Late 20C – Since 1945, under the influence of Le Corbusier (Fondation, Cité Universitaire), architectural design has undergone a fundamental reappraisal. A wide variety of new forms, styles and lines strive to fit into the existing urban landscape, starting with social housing in the 1970s. Ricardo Bofill's buildings use elements of Classical architecture while employing modern materials such as glass and cement. Blending past and future – Architecture today falls within the wider scope of town planning, with new buildings designed as part of a larger scheme of renovations in a district (Maine-Montparnasse, Les Halles, La Villette, Bercy) or of newly created areas (La Défense, Tolbiac). Green spaces, pedestrian zones and bicycle paths have also been designed as part of the restructuring of the city. The International Foundation for Human Rights in the Arche de La Défense, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Palais Omnisports de Bercy are only a few examples of how the city's reputation as an important centre for culture and sports has been enhanced in recent years. Paris has often chosen foreign architects to undertake its large-scale buildings. The Louvre Pyramide, one of the finest examples of a successful alliance of old and new, is the work of American architect Ieoh Ming Pei. But the era of huge projects seems to be coming to an end. Today the accent is on improving and preserving existing monuments. Now, just a few years into the 21C Paris has experienced exciting contemporary developments such as Jean Nouvel's harmonius balance of glass and metal at Musée du Quai Branly. Art Painting and Sculpture Painting and sculpture have always been closely interwoven into Parisian life. After centuries of working on commission from the monarchy, 19C and 20C artists began to reach levels of freedom and creativity acclaimed throughout the world. In the Middle Ages Painting and sculpture appeared within a religious context during this period, as Gothic buildings were gradually decorated. Stained glass, the main medium, reached stunning heights (Sainte-Chapelle, rose windows in Notre-Dame). The palette of colours was broadened and became increasingly suffused with light. The realism of painting from the Middle Ages is striking through its expressive faces and minutely detailed clothing. Painters from this period were given the name Primitives. Gothic sculpture also flourished. Realism and a sense of drama combined to transform what was until then mere decoration into a true art form. Churches were covered with statues: little sculptures adorn the balustrade and the sides of the chancel at Notre-Dame, whereas the Portal of the Last Judgement marks the beginning of a more sober style that developed in the 13C into French Gothic. The Renaissance At the beginning of the 14C the Parisian schools of painting chose a style that was still realistic but more subdued. Expressions became finer and details more important, leading to a mannerist style. Painting evolved and adopted new themes such as mythology and portraits, as well as humanist themes with Antiquity as the ideal. The influence of Italian art is omnipresent in French painting, whereas sculpture preserved its own character. The art of stained glass was at its peak. Jean Cousin the Younger (1522-94) delved deeper into colour techniques. The Judgement of Solomon and the Story of the Virgin in St-Gervais, and the Story of St-Joseph in St-Merri are like paintings made of stained glass. Jean Goujon (1510-68) – The master of 16C French statuary. While he didn't reject Italian mannerism, nature was his fundamental ideal. His works combine grace and elegance despite their complex composition. Fitting into the architectural design, they provide a preliminary idea of French Classicism. The Cariatides (Louvre) and bas-relief sculptures of the Fontaine des Innocents (1547-49) are his two greatest masterpieces. The 17C Italian influence continued during the early 17C. Paintings were designed mainly as decoration for royal palaces such as the Louvre and Luxembourg. Sculpture also adopted the Italian style, becoming strictly decorative for the niches designated by architects. But Classical French art asserts itself under the king's patronage in the second half of the 17C; and despite competition from Versailles, Paris was its main beneficiary. The main purpose of painting and sculpture became the glorification of the French monarchy, which enriches its 'great city' with magnificent monuments decorated by the Court's best sculptors: Girardon (Richelieu's tomb), Coysevox (Tuileries Gardens), and Coustou (The Marly Horses). In 1648, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture was founded; it was to be the most important French art school until 1793. Quarrelling between the corporatists, represented by Vouet, and the independents, represented by Le Brun, kept things lively. Pierre Mignard (1612-95) – Succeeding Le Brun as First Painter to the King, he was instrumental in the transition from the 17C to the 18C. His little paintings imitating Raphael are known as mignardes. By introducing a lighter, more elegant and realistic touch in his compositions, he started the quarrel between the Poussinist and the Rubenists similar to the literary spat between Ancients and Moderns. The modern painters gave nature the place of honour (the Le Nain brothers' landscapes), rejecting the Academy's sobriety. Between Baroque and Classic 18C French painting was characterised by a surfeit of detail embellishing the themes of religious paintings (Boucher, Pastoral Scene, Louvre) as well as by the humanisation of mythology. This mannerist French style launched the "Fête Galante" genre illustrated by Watteau (1684-1721) in Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera (1717, Louvre). Portraitists such as La Tour (Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour, 1752-55, Louvre) preferred pastel techniques. Jean-Baptiste Siméon-Chardin (1699-1779), the great master of the French School, devoted himself to still-life paintings and portraits. Boucher's delicate landscapes heralded the pre-Romantic period. The late 18C wavered between the pre-Romantic J-H Fragonard (1732-1806) and Neoclassicism, typified by J-L David and his Oath of the Horatii (1784-85, Louvre). Monumental sculptures were as numerous as in the 17C: Robert le Lorrain (Les Chevaux du soleil, Hôtel de Rohan), Bouchardon (Quatre-Saisons Fountain), and Peigalle (St-Sulpice). The 19C and 20C Mirroring the era's political movements, painting and sculpture reacted violently to the new trends. Bright colours and fantasy came into fashion. Géricault (1791-1824) launched Romanticism: through its bold composition, dynamism and the characters' striking expressions, Raft of the Medusa (1819, Louvre) is in total opposition to the Classical style. Delacroix carried on in the same spirit. The official Salons were the scenes of battles between the two major trends: one advocating the superiority of drawing, the other that of colour. Ingres (1780-1867), taking his inspiration from Antiquity, lost the battle when he exhibited The Apotheosis of Homer at the 1827 Salon. However, the return to Academic art was successful at the 1863 Salon. In reaction, Manet organised the 1863 Group featuring all of the painters rejected by the Salon. Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) and Manet portray everyday pleasures on their canvases, sometimes in a provocative manner in their drawings of women (Olympia, 1863, Orsay). Like Courbet before them, they were the precursors of Impressionism. From Impressionism to Expressionism – The Impressionists use the precepts of Realism (works based on nature) while adding a powerful luminosity to their paintings through the use of a chromatic palette. They also relied on the art of drawing. Edgar Degas' sketches of dancers show firm strokes. Above all, they had a strong penchant for landscapes (Claude Monet, Argenteuil Bridge, 1834, Orsay). Cézanne (1839-1906) and Pissarro (1830-1903) blended characters and landscapes or indoor scenes (Paul Cézanne, The Card Players, around 1890-95, Orsay). The success of the genre opened up new possibilities: Seurat created scientific Impressionism in which characters are placed in a subtle balance; systematic juxtaposition of primary colours and their complementary tones gives rise to Pointillism. Nature becomes a symbol under the brush strokes of Puvis de Chavannes (1824-98). Gauguin (1848-1903) and Van Gogh (1853-90) had a different reaction to Impressionism: while not breaking off from it, their explorations were directed towards expressive intensity through the use of bright colours. The Expressionist movement was associated with a new concern over social problems prevalent at the beginning of the 20C, as illustrated by painters such as Rouault and Soutine. From Fauvism to Cubism – The Fauvists were a new, modernist movement in the early 20C who had nothing left in common with the Realists or Symbolists. Their palette of colours and the shapes represented are often aggressive, which created a scandal at the 1905 Autumn Salon. Vlaminck, Matisse and Derain are the masters of this movement advocating freedom. They strove to free themselves of all constraints and conventions in their daily lives, living a bohemian existence in the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre. Nevertheless, Matisse reintroduced the concept of rigour and constraints, with the idea that the emphasis on colour shouldn't lead to an overshadowing of form – however primitive – or composition. Picasso brought this trend to the fore with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). Braque applied it to landscape painting. But some preferred more creative impulses to this spirit of discipline. Modigliani, Soutine, Chagall, Zadkine and Léger settled in the La Ruche workshop in Montparnasse, where they gave free rein to their moods, reviving Expressionism. This was the golden age of the Paris School, which came to an end with World War II, when Surrealism burst upon the scene. Sculpture – During the Second Empire and the Third Republic, Paris was gradually transformed into an open-air museum. Works by Carpeaux (Observatory Fountain) and Rude (Marshal Ney, the Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe) precede those of the great masters of the late 19C and the period between the two World Wars, including Rodin (Balzac, Victor Hugo, Bronze Age), Dalou (place de la Nation), Bourdelle (Palais de Tokyo, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées), Maillol (Tuileries Gardens) and Landowski (Ste-Geneviève on the Pont de la Tournelle, Animals at the Porte de St-Cloud). The Art Nouveau style is epitomised by Hector Guimard's famous wrought-iron metro entrances, created around 1900. Abstract sculpture is also given its place: Calder's mobile, Louis Leygue, and Agam. Renewing a 19C tradition, sculptures were erected in streets and gardens: of famous people (Georges Pompidou, Jean Moulin, Arthur Rimbaud) along with Symbolist works, and sculpture-fountains (Fontaine Stravinski, by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle, next to Beaubourg). Paris in paintings Paris began to be the subject or background in paintings at the time of the Wars of Religion. During the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIII, it was used as a theme by Jacques Callot (1592-1635) in his engravings and by Dutch landscape painters (De Verwer, Zeeman) fascinated by the light and atmosphere on the banks of the Seine. The urban landscape of Paris really came into its own with the Impressionists, who preferred painting outdoors rather than in a studio. Corot painted the Paris quaysides and Ville d'Avray a few miles away. Lépine, Monet (St-Germain-l'Auxerrois, Gare St-Lazare), Renoir (Moulin de la Galette, Moulin Rouge), Sisley (Île St-Louis) and Pissarro (The Pont Neuf) depict light effects in the capital at all hours and in all seasons. Paris is also an important focus in works by Seurat (The Eiffel Tower), Gauguin, Cézanne and Van Gogh (Montmartre scenes). Toulouse-Lautrec portrays a totally different view of Paris life in his witty, intimate sketches of cabaret artists. Among the Nabi artists, Vuillard captures the peace of Paris squares and gardens in a more poetic vein. In the early 20C, Paris figured prominently in the work of Fauve painters Marquet and Utrillo with their scenes of unfashionable neighbourhoods. Views of the capital by the naïve painters are sensitive, imaginative and highly colourful. Among more modern artists, Balthus (Paris between the wars), Yves Brayer and Bernard Buffet have cast Paris in a new light. Photography In 1825, French inventor Nicéphore Niépce became the first to produce a permanent photograph – an image produced on a polished pewter plate. Not long after this, Niépce teamed up with Louis Daguerre (born near Paris) and together they refined the process. However, the breakthrough in photography came when William Henry Fox Talbot in England invented the negative/positive photographic process in the 1830s, which led to the modern understanding of photography. Eugène Atget, one of the fathers of modern photography, immortalised street scenes and tradesmen in a Paris that no longer exists (cabbies, street singers, rag merchants, lace sellers). In more recent times, Edouard Boubat, izis, Brassaï (known as the "Toulouse-Lautrec of the camera lens") and Marcel Bovis captured the magic of Paris at night; Jacques-Henri Lartigue recorded the Roaring Twenties; Cartier-Bresson, the archetypal globe-trotter and founding member of the Magnum agency, caught views of Paris that resemble watercolours (Île de la Cité); Willy Ronis shot scenes of Belleville-Ménilmontant, now changed beyond all recognition. Robert Doisneau (1912-94) – One of the great photographers of Paris, he specialised in humorous shots of ordinary people filled with depth and poetry: children playing, concierges, scenes of cafés and markets. The Kiss, taken in front of the Hôtel de Ville in 1950, remains his most famous work. Film In the late 19C and early 20C, Paris encourages the development of the cinema by helping some of its pioneers, who were inspired by photography and theatre. The Lumière Brothers and the cinematograph – In February 1895, Auguste (1862-1954) and Louis (1864-1948) Lumière registered the patent for the cinematograph, a machine that projects animated scenes at a speed of 18 frames per second. Their Sortie des usines Lumière (shot in 1894) was a success, and showings were held in the Salon Indien at the Grand-Café, boulevard des Capucines. Léon Gaumont (1863-1946) – Pursuing the work begun by the Lumière Brothers with his chronophone, he added synchronised sound to films. Early 20C – Charles Pathé created his studios on rue Francœur and turned the cinema into an industry. Posters Paris was the major source and beneficiary of this new art between painting and photography. The French masters – Their goal was to depict the joys and sorrows of everyday life, and to combine Parisians' social and cultural demands. Gavarni (1804-66) evokes the seedier side of Paris in his black-and-white posters of street-walkers and poor neighbourhoods. He created posters based on Selected Works by Balzac, who also inspired Grandville's Petites misères de la vie humaine. Chéret revolutionised the art of poster-designing in the second half of the 19C with his inflated, or Rococo, style and lively figures in colour. Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) – As a lithographer, he adopted the principles of his teachers Chéret and Bonnat, but with a more cutting style. He portrayed the poverty in certain areas of Paris and frequented cabarets, where he created some of his greatest pieces such as La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge. His illustrations – verging on caricature and the grotesque – stirred up many a scandal. Alphonse Mucha – Arriving in Paris in 1887 from his native Prague, Mucha lived in the city during a time of cultural blossoming. While Toulouse-Lautrec sought to bring out the truth of his subjects, Mucha created figures surrounded by great decorative verve and an abundance of motifs. Like Lautrec, he made poster designs for theatre openings, notably for Sarah Bernhardt. Literature The story of Paris as a literary capital began with the creation of its university, while the 18C saw the rise of the city's intellectual and cultural prestige. The history of French literature is closely linked with that of Paris. Many writers who were born in the city have celebrated it in their books, giving Paris a special place in literature. Middle Ages and Renaissance 12C-13C – The first Paris university opened its doors. It was the only university in northern France, and gave a boost to intellectual life. The Parisian dialect was adopted by the Court as its official language, putting Paris on the literary map. 15C-16C – Writers, and the heroes of their stories, "go up"' to Paris, the former in order to write, the latter to study. Low life on the streets was portrayed in epic poems and mystery plays, whereas Rutebœuf and Villon wrote poems about individuals and everyday life. Although Rabelais criticised the Parisian character, he had Gargantua and Pantagruel attend the Sorbonne; and he himself lived and died in the Marais (d. 1553). 1530 – The Collège de France was founded by François I and Guillaume Budé. As the city grows into its role as capital, many writers choose to make it their second home, including Montaigne, Ronsard and the Pleiade poets, as well as Agrippa d'Aubigné, who witnessed the religious conflicts that overtook Paris and the rest of France in the late 16C. The 17C As the city was embellished by Henri IV and Louis XIII, and agitated by the Fronde during Louis XIV's minority, writers and noted wits of the period developed the famous literary salons, first at the Hôtel de Rambouillet (17C) and later on in the homes of the Marquise de Lambert, Madame du Deffand, and Madame Geoffrin (18C). After its role as a centre of humanism in the 16C, Paris promoted classicism in the 17C with the assertion of absolute monarchy. Writers during the reign of Louis XIV, such as Molière, went beyond prior conventions and were allowed to criticise society. 1634-1635 – The Académie Française was founded by Richelieu. Paris became the centre of French literature. Contrary to the salons, where open discussion was encouraged, the Académie sought to standardise the French language and exert a restraining influence on all branches of literature. 1680 – The Comédie Française was created under the king's patronage. 18C – Revival of the literary salons In the 18C, Louis XV and Louis XVI showed little interest in literature. Society resorted to philosophy salons and cafés (Procope, La Régence), where new ideas developed and the fates of French writers were decided. 1710-1780 – Prominent authors such as Marivaux and Montesquieu attended the salons, where Voltaire and Diderot also congregated. Marivaux and Beaumarchais (Barber of Seville and Marriage of Figaro) tinged their light comedies about Paris society and lifestyle with irony, whereas Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), a precursor of Romanticism who was born in the provinces, expressed disdain for the place so full of "noise, smoke and mud!" Others concerned with the dichotomy between ethics and society include the Abbé Prévost (Manon Lescaut), Restif de la Bretonne (Nights of Paris) the Marquis de Sade and Choderlos de Laclos (Dangerous Liaisons). It is Voltaire (1694-1778), master social critic, historian, novelist (Candide), essayist, letter-writer, diarist, dramatist and Humanist philosopher, who perhaps epitomises the best of 18C writing in Paris: ironic and witty with a light touch and perfect turn of phrase. During the Age of Enlightenment, Paris wielded a great deal of influence in international intellectual circles with emissaries such as d'Alembert and Diderot, who secured subscriptions to their 28-volume Encyclopedia from Catherine the Great of Russia among others. The 19C and 20C After the French Revolution, literature was no longer restricted to a small section of society. Writers were active in the social and political debates of their times through its major literary trends: Realism, Romanticism, Symbolism, Naturalism and Surrealism. Paris has a double image, portrayed at times as rich and prestigious, and at others as a more popular city full of vices. Heroes in novels head for Paris, leaving behind their native provinces. In Les Illusions perdues, Lucien de Rubempré dies there. In Les Misérables and La Comédie humaine, by Hugo and Balzac respectively, the city is portrayed as a character with a personality of its own subject to moods and illness. Both Julien Sorel, the hero of Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir, and Léon the notary in Flaubert's Madame Bovary run away from Paris society; and some of Zola's novels depict certain circles and areas of the city as a kind of prison. Parisian writers such as Dumas the Younger, Musset, the song-writer Béranger, Eugène Sue (Mysteries of Paris), Murger (Scenes of Bohemian Life) and Nerval vacillate between the two images of the city. Contrasts in humour and reflections on life's contradictions are explored, against the back-drop of Haussmann's upheavals, in verse by Baudelaire, the Parnassian and Symbolist poets, and in the emerging social-history, realist novel by Émile Zola (Les Rougon-Macquart). Old Montmartre lives on in the songs of Bruant (1851-1925), the novels of Carco (1886-1958) and Marcel Aymé (1902-67), Montparnasse in the poems of Max Jacob (1876-1944) and Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947); still other writers and poets such as Colette and Cocteau, Simenon, Montherlant, Louise de Vilmorin, Aragon, Prévert, Sacha Guitry, Eluard, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Beckett have celebrated Paris-as-muse in their many works. Playwrights' reputations, like novelists', are made and broken in Paris. Vaudeville, the soul of boulevard theatre, was the 19C heir to the farces featuring dialogue and songs that were performed at the St-Germain and St-Laurent fairs in earlier days, as well as the bawdy tableaux and pastiches of scenes from well-known plays. Talented playwrights also wrote serious vaudeville. Light opera and revues emerged during the Second Empire, whereas dramas were another outgrowth of boulevard theatre. Music Paris is rather like a grand orchestra where enchanting music is played. It has been both the theme and setting for a host of musical compositions, and its streets are often filled with the sounds of this art with its long-standing tradition in the city. In the Middle Ages Late 12C – A school of polyphony was established at Notre-Dame characterised by its refined expression of the deep religious faith of the period. 13C-14C – Musical works such as Machaut's Masses (c. 1300-77) and motets by contrapuntist Dufay are composed of several parts. Under François I – A national musical printing works was created, illustrated by narrative ballads written by Janequin (Les Cris de Paris). Renaissance-style madrigals and courtly songs accompanied on the lute become popular. 1571 – The poet Baïf founded the Academy for Music and Poetry in an attempt to revive Classical verse-form and poetic rhyme. The Renaissance "That most noble and gallant art" developed naturally at the Royal Court, first at the Louvre and later at Versailles, where sovereigns, their consorts and companions disported themselves in masques, ballets, allegorical dances, recitals, opera and comedy. The first Parisian songs were published. The 17C: a musical high point Music, like literature, flourished under the renewed interest of the Court. Italian opera was welcomed, thanks to Mazarin, and major foreign operas such as the Marriage of Orpheus and Eurydice (1643) were staged in Paris. Lully and lyric opera – Florentine composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-87) settled in Paris, and Louis XIV appointed him to direct music first at Court, then at the Académie Royale de Musique (1672). He created operas and ballets (Ballet des Bienvenus, Ballet de la naissance de Vénus), dominating every genre. In 1661, he collaborated with Molière, developing a new genre, ballet-comédie (Les Fâcheux, Le Sicilien, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme). Religious music was also part of his repertory (Te Deum, 1677), and he attained new heights in choral music at Notre-Dame (with Campra) and Notre-Dame-des-Victoires. New operatic forms in the 18C After the prestigious operas of the 17C, music was made more accessible to the general public in the comic operas given at the St-Germain and St-Laurent fairs. However, Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) carried on in the tradition of Lully, while accentuating the orchestra's role. His opera-ballets (Les Indes galantes), lyric tragedies (Castor et Pollux, Dardanus) and comedies (Platée) gave birth to the French style. Rameau moved away from the Italian tradition without renouncing it, prompting the so-called War of the Buffoons. The Musical Wars – The War of the Buffoons was a quarrel over French and Italian opera in which Rameau was pitted against the Encyclopaedists. The main protagonists in the quarrel were Diderot (Le Neveu de Rameau) and J-J Rousseau (Le Devin de village, Lettre sur la musique française), who enumerated all of the flaws in French music, which Lully still dominated. The second war developed over the new genre, comic opera, which grew out of the Parisian fairs and was launched by Gluck and Puccini, two foreigners who had settled in Paris. Gluck stressed dramatic intensity in his operas, reformed the opera by reducing the action to three acts and replacing the harpsichord by the flute. His works (Orphée et Eurydice, Iphigénie en Aulide and Alceste) transformed the principles of French tragic opera. 1795 – The Conservatoire de Musique de Paris was founded in 1795 and directed successively by Cherubini, Auber and Ambroise Thomas. The 19C 1801 – The Théâtre de Feydeau and the Théâtre de Favart joined to form the Opéra-Comique de Paris. Music in Paris was associated with the political and military events that were taking place there: the Revolution produced many popular songs, the most famous being La Carmagnole, a satirical song from 1792. In the 19C the city became the international capital of music, attracting the greatest masters of the century. 1830 – Berlioz composed the Symphonie Fantastique, which still resounds as the manifesto-opus of the young Romantic school. 1866 – Premiere in Paris of Offenbach's La Vie parisienne. From 1870, symphonic composition and opera evolved through the work of Bizet, St-Saëns, Charpentier and Dukas, Parisians by birth or adoption. France was the leader in ballet music, which draws inspiration from history and mythology. Debussy and Ravel were the two major French impressionist composers at the end of the 19C. Refusing all foreign influence (including Wagner) in symphonic music, they gave it a national character. Debussy and Ravel collaborated with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. 1894 – The Schola Cantorum was found-ed by Bordes, Guilmant and d'Indy. 1885-1899 – The Chat Noir was the chansonniers' favourite cabaret. 1899 – Premiere of La Prise de Troie by Berlioz at the Opéra. The Garde républicaine – A description of Parisian musical life wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Garde Républicaine, formed in 1871. Originating with the Garde de Paris, created in 1848, it is composed of 127 musicians. Its military marches (Sambre et Meuse, Marche lorraine, La Fille du régiment) are hymns to French victories. The 20C Cabarets – These popular venues were all the rage at the beginning of the century. The chansonniers (singers) performing in Montmartre's cabarets are portrayed by Toulouse-Lautrec in his famous posters and lithographs. 1902 – Premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy at the Opéra-Comique. 1903 – The Lapin Agile opens. The Group of Six – Founded by Auric, Durey, Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc and Tailleferre in 1920, the group created a new musical aesthetic rejecting Romanticism and Impressionism. 1936 – Writers such as Prévert, Aragon and Apollinaire flocked to the Bœuf sur le Toit, where their works were set to music. During World War I, Nadia Boulanger led a new Parisian movement known as the Neoclassical School, drawing inspiration from Stravinsky and Latin music. After 1920 Paris continued to nurture new forms of musical expression. From the ondes martenot to the Jeune-France Group and its humanist music, Schaeffer and his concrete sounds, Henry, Boulez, Xénakis and Messiaen, each one made an important individual contribution to the musical scene. As major foreign musicians continued to arrive in Paris, the Paris School was created in 1951. The piano sonatas, ballet (Le Loup, 1953), symphonies and orchestral pieces by composer Henri Dutilleux (b. 1916) are among the greatest works from the second half of the 20C. National orchestras – Paris possesses some internationally renowned orchestras. The Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France and its Maîtrise (Choir School created in 1981), the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Orchestre de Paris and Université de Paris-Sorbonne choirs and the Petits Chanteurs de la Croix de Bois interpret major works. Parisian organists – Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier, Olivier Latry, Philippe Lefebvre, Jean-Pierre Leguay and Riccardo Miravet; each of these organ players – many of whom are known throughout the world – is connected to a particular church. Organ music is also featured at the Festival d'Art Sacré in the autumn. Major venues for music – While the Opéra Garnier (inaugurated in 1875) continues to be a highly prestigious opera house (home of the Paris Ballet), the Opéra Bastille (designed by Carlos Ott) has become the main venue for staging operas since it opened in 1989. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées has maintained its spirit of musical innovation since it was founded in 1913 by Gabriel Astruc. The Théâtre du Châtelet was a mecca for light opera fans from 1928 to 1970. Renamed the Théâtre musical de Paris in 1980, it presents prestigious concerts and opera productions. The Cité de la Musique (Parc de la Villette), designed by Christian de Portzamparc, includes the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, the Musée de la Musique, and the Institut National de Pédagogie Musicale, as well as a concert hall. IRCAM (Institute of Acoustic and Musical Research) is a department of the Centre Pompidou devoted to experimental music. Thanks to the fervour of composer Pierre Boulez and to sophisticated technology using computers, electronic laboratories and sound processors, IRCAM has won international acclaim.	eng	c7368caa-5bb0-4f04-bfd3-ecc3fc039be2	http://travel.michelin.com/web/destination/France-Northern_France_and_the_Paris_Region-Paris/history-culture/Art_and_Culture
, composing the music for all but two of Spielberg's feature films. Discussion Ask a question about 'John Williams' Start a new discussion about 'John Williams' Answer questions from other users Full Discussion Forum Quotations "So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories." "There's a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn't have to do with body movements, it doesn't have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual." John Williams, quoted from the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial CD liner notes Encyclopedia John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film score Film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effectsLiberty Weekend was the celebration of the restoration and centenary of the Statue of Liberty in New York City, New York. It began on Thursday, July 3 and ended on Sunday, July 6, 1986.-Opening Ceremonies:... A production logo, vanity card, vanity plate, vanity logo or vogo is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce. Vanity logos are usually seen at the beginning of a theatrical movie , or at the end of a television program or TV movie Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra Boston Pops Orchestra The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music.... John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk awardFilm and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances... A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that fieldin 2004. Early life and family in New York City... North Hollywood High School, originally called Lankershim High School when it opened in 1927, is a secondary school in North Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. The school mascot is the husky, and the school colors are blue, white and grey.... graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an Italian composer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he migrated to the United States and became a film composer for some 200 Hollywood movies for the next... . In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band as part of his assignments. After his Air Force service ended in 1955, Williams moved to New York City and enteredRosina Bessie Lhévinne was a Russian American pianist and famed pedagogue.... . During this time, Williams worked as a jazz pianist in New York's many clubs and eventually studios, most notably for composer Henry Mancini Henry Mancini Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995... Jack Sperling was an American Big Band, television and studio drummer. He was a recording artist, versatile jazz combo and dynamic Dixieland musician.-Career:In 1941 he played with trumpeter Bunny Berigan... on drums, and Bob Bain on guitar—the same lineup featured on the Mr. Lucky television series. Williams was known as "Little Johnny Love" Williams during the early 1960s, and he served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singerYouth:Ruick was the daughter of actors Lurene Tuttle and Melville Ruick. She grew up acting out scenes with dolls, employing her mother as an audience. She attended Theodore Roosevelt High School , Burbank High School , and North Hollywood High School. She did little acting in high school but... from 1956 until her death on March 3, 1974. The Williamses had three children: Jennifer (born 1956), Mark (born 1958), and Joseph (born 1960). Williams' younger son is one of the various lead singers the band Toto Toto (band)has had over the decades. John Williams married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, on July 21, 1980., the national fraternity for college band members. Film and television scoring While skilled in a variety of twentieth-century compositional idioms, Williams's most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism Neoromanticism (music) Neoromanticism in music is a return to the emotional expression associated with nineteenth-century Romanticism. Since the mid-1970s the term has come to be identified with neoconservative postmodernism, especially in Germany, Austria, and the United States, with composers such as Wolfgang Rihm and... , inspired by the same large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century—especially the compositions of Richard Wagner Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas—that inspired his film music predecessors. After his studies at Juilliard, Williams returned to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. Among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman Franz Waxman Franz Waxman was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films....Conrad Salinger was an American arranger, orchestrator and composer, who studied classical composition at the Paris Conservatoire. He is credited with orchestrating nine productions on Broadway from 1931 to 1938, and over seventy-five motion pictures from 1931 to 1962... and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring.... Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995... . Williams recorded with Henry Mancini on the film scores of Peter Gunn Peter Gunn Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards... The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data.... Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards... theme.) Williams (often credited as "Johnny Williams") also composed the theme music for various TV programs in the 1960s: The pilot episode ofKraft Suspense Theatre, an anthology series, was telecast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall specials once monthlyThe Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen, his third science fiction television series. The show's main theme was Time Travel Adventure. The Time Tunnel was released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran...... Irwin Allen was a television and film director and producer nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.- Biography :... ). Working at Universal Studios, Williams shared music credit on a number of films, the most notable being The Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954. Williams's first major film composition was for the B movie B movieDaddy-O is a 1958 B-movie starring Dick Contino. It was directed by Lou Place and written by David Moessinger. The film is notable for its soundtrack as being the debut film score for composer John Williams... Because They're Young is a 1960 film from Columbia Pictures, starring Dick Clark as Neil Hendry, an American high school teacher who tries to make a difference in the lives of his students. The film co-starred Tuesday Weld, Warren Berlinger, Roberta Shore, Doug McClure, and Victoria Shaw. It was symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle... music. Williams received his first nomination for an Academy Award for his film score Film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects... The soundtrack was released in 1967. Dionne Warwick sang the title track; however, her version is not on the soundtrack. Warwick was signed to Scepter Records at the time and could not contractually appear...(1969). Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his adapted score for the film Fiddler on the Roof Fiddler on the Roof (film)Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta (born is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is sometimes credited as Stomu Yamash'ta. His father was the band director Kiyoharu Yamashita (1907–1991).... ) which earned him another nomination in the category 'Best Music, Original Dramatic Score' at the 1973 During the early 1970s, Williams' prominence grew thanks to his work for now–film producer Irwin Allen's disaster films, composing the scores for The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno The Towering Inferno The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.A co-production between Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros... Earthquake is a 1974 American disaster film that achieved huge box-office success, continuing the disaster film genre of the 1970s where recognizable all-star casts attempt to survive life or death situations, completing a "trinity" of scores for the highest grossing "disaster films" of the decade. He also wrote a very memorable score to The Cowboys The Cowboys. In 1974, Williams was approached by director Steven Spielberg to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, The Sugarland Express The Sugarland Express. The young director had been impressed with Williams's score for the movie The Reivers The Reivers The Reivers, published in 1962, is the last novel by the American author William Faulkner. The bestselling novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963. Faulkner previously won this award for his book A Fable, making him one of only three authors to be awarded it more than once... (1969), and Spielberg was convinced that Williams could compose the musical sound that he desired for any of his films. They teamed up again a year later for Spielberg's second film, J(CE3K, 1977). In an unusual step for a Hollywood film, Spielberg and Williams developed their script and musical concepts simultaneously, as in the film these entwine very closely together. During their two-year-long collaboration, they crafted its distinctive five-note figure Figure (music) recognition signal is a signal where a person, a ship, an airplane or something else is recognized. They can be used during war or can be used to help the police recognize each other during undercover operations... Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth... . Williams also used a system of musical hand signals in CE3K that were based on hand signs created by John Curwen John Curwen Reverend John Curwen was an English Congregationalist minister, and founder of the Tonic sol-fa system of music education. He was educated at Wymondley College and University College London.-Tonic sol-fa:. During the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow). Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashionErich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest... . Its main theme, "Luke's Theme" is among the most widely recognized in motion picture history, and the "Force Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples. Both the film and its soundtrack were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:Ewoks originate from the Star Wars films. In the series, they are a species of teddy-bear-like hunter-gatherers that inhabit the forest moon of Endor. The Ewoks live in various tree-huts and primitive dwellings. They first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedito score the 1978 film Superman. The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as "Can You Read My MindRaiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise... , created and directed by Lucas and Spielberg, Williams wrote a rousing main theme known as "The Raiders March" to accompany the film's hero, Indiana Jones(1989), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy The music conveys the film's benign, childlike sense of innocence, particularly with a spirited theme for the freedom of flight, and a soft string-based, harp-featured theme for the friendship between characters E.T. and Elliott. The film's final chase and farewell sequence marks a rare instance in film history in which the on-screen action was re-edited to conform to the composer's musical interpretation. Williams was awarded a fourth Academy Award for this score.is the only theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg for which John Williams did not serve as composer. The film's producer, wanted to personally arrange and compose the music for the project. Williams also did not score Twilight Zone: The Movie Twilight Zone: The Movie but Spielberg had directed only one of the four segments in that film; the lead director and producer of the film,Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring.... as composer. The Williams-Spielberg collaboration resumed with the director's 1987 film Empire of the Sun Empire of the Sun (film), and has continued to the present, spanning genres from science fiction thrillers (1993's). Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend." In 1999, George Lucas launched the first of a series of prequels to the original Star Wars trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three films, starting with The Phantom Menace Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Along with themes from the previous movies, Williams created new themes to be used as leitmotifs in Attack of the Clones Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones"Duel of the Fates" is a musical theme recurring in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the Expanded Universe. It was composed by John Williams and recorded for the film soundtrack by the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices. This symphonic piece is played with both a full orchestra andlyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme," which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March" of the prior trilogy. For Episode II, Williams composed "Across the Stars," a love theme forand Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for the second film of the previous trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back). The final installment combined many of the themes created for the series' previous movies, including "The Emperor's Theme," "The Imperial March," "Across the Stars," "Duel of the Fates," "The Force Theme," "Rebel Fanfare," "Luke's Theme," and "Princess Leia's Theme," as well as new themes for General Grievous General Grievous General Grievous is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, an antagonist in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. He was voiced by Matthew Wood... and the film's climax, entitled "Battle of the Heroes." Few composers have scored an entire series of this magnitude: The combined scores of all six Star Wars films add up to more than 14 hours of orchestral music. In the new millennium, Williams was asked to score the film adaptations of the widely successful book series, He went on to score the first three installments of the film franchise Harry Potter (film series) The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling... . As with his Superman theme, the most important theme from Williams's scores for the adaptations of J. K. Rowling J. K. Rowling Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy seriesNicholas Hooper is a British film and television composer. He has scored the award-winning BBC productions Land of the Tiger and Andes to Amazon, as well as the TV movies The Girl in the Café and My Family and Other Animals among othersrespectively. Like the main themes from Star Wars, Jaws, Superman, and Indiana Jones, fans have come to identify the Harry Potter films with Williams's original compositions. Williams was asked to return to the film franchise to score the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, but director David Yates David Yatesstated that "their schedules simply did not align" as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible.to incorporate Williams's original Superman theme, as well as those for Lois Lane Jurassic Park III is a 2001 American science fiction film and the third of the Jurassic Park franchise. It is the only film in the series that is neither directed by Steven Spielberg nor based on a book by Michael Crichton, though numerous scenes in the movie were taken from Crichton's two books,... , recommended to the producers by Williams himself. (Film scores by Ottman and to a lesser extent Davis are often compared to those of Williams, as both use similar styles of composition.) In 2008, Williams returned to the Indiana Jones series to score the fourth film—The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on the film. During 2008, he also composed music for two documentaries, Warner at War, and A Timeless Call, the latter of which was directedWilliams also composed the score to The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the first film in the upcoming Tintin trilogy based on the comics by. This film continues his long-time collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, and he worked with producerfor the first time. Williams is also scheduled to score Spielberg's upcoming films War Horse War Horse (film) War Horse is a 2011 British-American war drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and is intended for release in the United States on 25 December 2011 and in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2012... Conducting and performing The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music.... . Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke with him by telephone. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for The Empire Strikes Back, in addition to conducting many Fiedler audience favorites. Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984. Considered a customary practice of opinion, some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and turned in his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule, but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in and respect from the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years. In 1995 he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart Keith Lockhart For the baseball player, see Keith Lockhart Keith Lockhart , to Newton Frederick and Marilyn Jean Woodyard Lockhart, is an American orchestral conductor.... As the fifth oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours. Williams is now the Laureate Conductor of the Pops, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent,BSO). Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall andThe Tanglewood Festival Chorus is a chorus which performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops in major choral works. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus was organized in the spring of 1970, when conductor John Oliver became director of vocal and choral activities at the Tanglewood Music... , official chorus of the BSO. Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a Concerto for Horn written for Dale Clevenger, principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony; a Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist) in 1991; a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011... and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994; concertos for the flute and violin recordedand their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees The Five Sacred Trees John Williams composed The Five Sacred Trees for Judith LeClair, the principal bassoonist of the New York Philharmonic in 1995, to honor the orchestra's 150th anniversary. The first performance was given by LeClair and the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur on April 13 of that yearin 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished pianist, as can be heard in various scores in which he provides solos, as well as a handful of European classical music recordings. magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events... 20/20 in 1983. In 1985, Williams was commissioned by NBC to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named "The Mission The Mission (theme song) "The Mission" is a television news music package composed by John Williams in 1985. Originally commissioned for NBC's national news programs, the theme has also been used on some NBC affiliates for their local newscasts.... ", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for The Today ShowLiberty Fanfare is a composition for orchestra by John Williams. Written in 1986, the piece was commissioned to celebrate the centennial of the Statue of Liberty on July 4 of that year. However, the piece was actually premiered a month beforehand, on June 4, when Williams conducted the Boston Pops... The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886... , "We're Lookin' Good!" for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2002 Olympic games. His most recent concert work, "Seven for Luck", for soprano and orchestra, is a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"... . "Seven for Luck" was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon Cynthia Haymon Cynthia Haymon-Coleman is an American soprano, born September 6, 1958 in Jacksonville, Florida. She is known for the beauty of her voice and seeming ease with which she uses it. She obtained her Bachelor's degree of Music in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the... in 2003. In April 2005, Williams and the Boston Pops performed "The Force Theme" from Star Wars at opening day inhip since 1918, received their championship rings. For Game 1 of the 2007 World Series, Williams conducted ain New York City. The initial program was intended to be a one-time special event, and featured Williams's medley of Oscar-winning film scores first performed at the previous year's Its unprecedented popularity led to two concerts in 2006: fundraising gala events featuring personal recollections by film directorsand Steven Spielberg. Continuing demand fueled three more concerts in 2007, which all sold out. These featured a tribute to the musicals of film director Stanley Donen Stanley Donen had the distinction of serving as the opening event of the New York Philharmonic season. After a four-season absence, Williams conducted the Philharmonic once again in Octoberand four Golden Globe Awards. He has been nominated for 21 Golden Globes and 59 Grammys. With 45 Oscar nominations, Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person, and is the second most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards, tied with late fellow film composer. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score and one for Best Adapted Score (Fiddler on the Roof). Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition has been awarded since 1960. The award is presented to the composer of the music.There have been several minor changes to the name of the award:... for his scores for Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Angela's Ashes (1999), Munich (2005), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The competition includes not only composers of film scores, but also composers of instrumental music of any genre, including composers of classical fare such as Olympic Order is the highest award of the Olympic Movement, created by the International Olympic Committee in May 1975 as a successor to the Olympic Certificate previously awarded. The Olympic Order originally had three grades , although the bronze grade was retired in 1984in the White House in Washington for his achievements in symphonic music for motion pictures, and "as a pre-eminent composer and conductor [whose] scores have defined and inspired modern movie-going for decades." AFI Jaws and E.T. also appeared on the list, at No. 6 and No. 14, respectively. Other Williams scores for the following films were nominated for the list:Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchiseThe soundtrack was released in 1967. Dionne Warwick sang the title track; however, her version is not on the soundtrack. Warwick was signed to Scepter Records at the time and could not contractually appear... The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... The 42nd Academy Awards were presented April 7, 1970 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. There was no host.This is currently the highest rated of the televised Academy Awards ceremonies, according to Nielsen ratings....The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... The 45th Academy Awards were presented March 27, 1973 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson.... Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives: Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... The 48th Academy Awards were presented March 29, 1976 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, George Segal, Goldie Hawn, and Gene Kelly... The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... The 50th Academy Awards were held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California on April 3, 1978. The ceremonies were presided over by Bob Hope, who hosted the awards for the eighteenth and last time.... Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives: 53rd Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1980, were presented March 31, 1981, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies, which were presided over by Johnny Carson, were originally scheduled for the previous day but were postponed due to the assassination attempt... The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchiseYes, Giorgio is a 1982 musical/comedy film starring Luciano Pavarotti, his only venture in film acting. Michael J. Lewis provided the original music for the film with cinematography by Fred J. Koenekamp 56th Academy Awards were presented April 9, 1984 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Johnny Carson.The Best Supporting Actress winner this year was unique... The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... The 62nd Academy Awards were presented March 26, 1990 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. The venue, half the size of the one used the previous year, prompted Gil Cates and Karl Malden to put a memo to "our friends in the industry" in the March 13th edition of the DailyThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-SuperlativesThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of 66th Academy Awards were presented March 21, 1994, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The show was landmark in that it featured a female African American host for the first time, Whoopi Goldberg, and represented a direct contrast in edgy style from Billy Crystal who had hosted the... The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... The 68th Academy Awards were held on March 25, 1996, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. The show was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The ceremony was watched 44.48 million viewers, with 30.5% households watching... Nixon is a 1995 American biographical film directed by Oliver Stone for Cinergi Pictures that tells the story of the political and personal life of former US President Richard Nixon, played by Anthony Hopkins.... Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... The 70th Academy Awards were noted for their high ratings and the 11 wins obtained by the Best Picture Titanic. Billy Crystal hosted the ceremony for the sixth time, and received an Emmy award for his performance.... The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:Angela .-Plot:Angela's Ashes tells the story of Frank McCourt and his childhood... The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives: Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives: Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives: Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives: Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... \| BAFTA AwardsRaiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise\| Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed for Television \| \|- \| 1963 15th Primetime Emmy Awards The 15th Emmy Awards, later known as the 15th Primetime Emmy Awards, were handed out in May 1963. The ceremony was hosted by Annette Funicello and Don KnottsHeidi was a 1968 NBC made-for-TV film version of the original 1880 novel of the same name which debuted on November 17, 1968. It starred actress Jennifer Edwards, stepdaughter of Julie Andrews and daughter of Blake Edwards, in the title role, alongside Maximillian Schell, Jean Simmons, and MichaelGolden Globe Awards since its institution in 1947Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance was awarded between 1969 and 2011.In 1969 it was awarded as Best Contemporary-Pop Performance, InstrumentalFrom 1970 to 1971 it was awarded as Best Contemporary Instrumental Performance... The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition has been awarded since 1960. The award is presented to the composer of the music.There have been several minor changes to the name of the award:... \| \|- \| Star Wars \| Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture \| \|- \| rowspan=2 \| 1978 \| "Theme" from Close Encounters of the Third Kind \| Best Instrumental Composition \| \|- \| Close Encounters of the Third Kind Close Encounters of the Third Kind\| Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture \| \|- \| rowspan=2 \| 1979 \| "Main Title Theme from Superman" \| Best Instrumental Composition \| \|- \| Superman \| Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture \| \|- \| rowspan=2 \| 1980 \| Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (soundtrack) The score from The Empire Strikes Back, composed by John Williams, was recorded in 18 sessions at Anvil Studios over three days in December 1979 and a further six days in January 1980 with Williams conducting the London Symphony Orchestra... \| Best Instrumental Composition \| \|- \| Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back \| Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture \| \|- \| 1981 \| Raiders of the Lost Ark Raiders of the Lost Ark (soundtrack) The soundtrack to Raiders of the Lost Ark was released by Columbia Records in 1981. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Orchestrations were done by Herbert W. Spencer with additional orchestrations done by Al Woodbury.-Track... \| Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture \| \|- \| rowspan=3 \| 1982 \| "Flying" (Theme from E.T.) \| Best Instrumental Composition \| \|- \| Return of the Jedi score was recorded at the Abbey Road studios in January and February 1983. Again, John Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and served as producer. Orchestrator Herbert W. Spencer, engineer Eric Tomlinson, music editor Kenneth Wannberg, and record supervisor\| Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| 1989 \| Empire of the Sun Empire of the Sun (soundtrack)#"Indy's Very First Adventure"#"The Boat Scene"#"X Marks The Spot"#"Ah, Rats!!!"#"Escape From Venice"#"Journey to Austria"#"Father and Son Reunited"#"The Austrian Way"#"Scherzo For Motorcycle & Orchestra"#"Alarm!"#"No Ticket"#"Keeping Up With The Joneses"... \| Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| 1992 \| "Somewhere in My Memory" (with\| \|- \| Hook \| Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| 1994 \| Jurassic Park \| Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| 1997 \| "Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman Alan BergmanSabrina is a 1995 romantic comedy-drama film adapted by Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel, based on the 1954 screenplay of the same name, which in turn was based upon a play titled Sabrina Fair.... \| Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| rowspan=2 \| 1998 \| Seven Years in Tibet Seven Years in Tibet (1997 film) Seven Years in Tibet is a 1997 film based on the book of the same name written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer on his experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War, the interim period, and the Chinese People's Liberation Army's invasion of Tibet in 1950. The film... \| Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| The Lost World: Jurassic Park \| Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| rowspan=2 \| 1999 \|\| Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| Amistad \| Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television \| \|- \| rowspan=2 \| 2000 \| "Theme" from Angela's Ashes Angela's Ashes (soundtrack) Angela's Ashes is the soundtrack, on the Sony Classical label, of the 1999 film Angela's Ashes starring Emily Watson and Robert CarlyleA.I. Artificial Intelligence is the soundtrack of the 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The original score was composed by John Williams and featured singers Lara Fabian on two songs and Josh Groban on one.-Background:A.I... \| Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media \| \|- \| 2003 \| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone \| Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media \| \|- \| rowspan=2 \| 2004 \| Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets original motion picture soundtrack was released on 12 November 2002. The score was originally slated to be conducted entirely by John Williams, but due to scheduling conflicts with the scoring of Steven Spielberg's film Catch Me If You Can, composer...The soundtrack to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released by Sony Classical on May 3, 2005, more than two weeks before the release of the film. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices... \| Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media \| \|- \| rowspan=3 \| 2007 \| Memoirs of a Geisha Memoirs of a Geisha (film)\| Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media \| \|- \| Munich Munich (film)\| "The Adventures of Mutt" from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull \| Best Instrumental Composition \| \|- \| Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull \| Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media \| Charting Hits (U.S., Billboard) 1975 - Theme From Jaws, #32 1977 - Star Wars Theme - Main Title, #10 1978 - Theme From Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, #13 1979 - Theme From Superman, #81 See also	eng	aa1b34b0-044b-4c23-ac5e-f5d6c44dbbaa	http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/John_Williams
... US6260057 - Apparatus and method for high performance implementation of system calls Apparatus and method for high performance implementation of system calls US 6260057 B1 Zusammenfassung execution for the system call or TRAP. Otherwise execution follows a slow instruction path. The slow path flags are set, cleared, and checked at appropriate times. The invention improves the execution time of a thread in a software process and may be used in a data processing system employing multiple threads. Each thread in the data processing system has its own set of slow path flags. The invention can set, clear and check the slow path flags of each thread independently, in subsets of threads, or in all threads. Zeichnungen(7) Ansprüche What is claimed is: 1. A method for improving an execution time of a system call issued by a software thread in a data processing system, comprising: initiating the system call of the software thread; and performing the system call, including checking whether a slow path flag for the thread2. The method of claim 1, wherein the slow instruction path includes a test condition that is not contained in the fast instruction path, and further comprising setting the slow path flag under circumstances affecting the test condition, before the checking of the slow path flag. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising clearing the slow path flag after the checking of the slow path flag. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the slow instruction path includes a test condition that is not contained in the fast instruction path, and performing of the slow instruction path includes determining whether the test condition is true and setting the slow path flag when the test condition is true. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing of the system call includes executing instructions of a system call function, and the checking of the slow path flag is performed before the executing of the instructions of the system call function. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing of the system call includes executing instructions of a system call function, and the checking of the slow path flag is performed after the executing of the instructions of the system call function. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the slow path flag is a t_pre_test flag, indicating whether a test condition should be checked before a system call function is executed. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the slow path flag is a t_post_test flag, indicating whether a test condition should be checked after a system call function is executed. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the slow path flag includes a combination of an asynchronous-event flag and a signal-check flag, the combination indicating whether a test condition should be checked after a system call function is executed. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions in the slow instruction path include a plurality of test conditions to be checked before a system call function is executed. 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions in the slow instruction path include a plurality of test conditions to be checked after a system call function is executed. 12. A method for improving an execution time of a TRAP that is caused by a system event in a data processing system, comprising: recognizing that an event causing a TRAP condition has occurred, wherein the event interrupts execution of a software thread by the data processing system; and processing the TRAP condition, including checking whether a slow path flag for the thread is set, performing13. The method of claim 12, wherein the slow instruction path includes a test condition that is not contained in the fast instruction path, and further comprising setting the slow path flag under circumstances affecting the test condition before the checking of the slow path flag. 14. The method of claim 12, further comprising clearing the slow path flag, after the checking of the slow path flag. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the slow instruction path includes a test condition that is not contained in the fast instruction path, and the performing of the slow instruction path includes determining whether the test condition is true and setting the slow path flag when the test condition is true. 16. The method of claim 12, wherein the processing of the TRAP condition includes executing instructions of a TRAP function, and the checking of the slow path flag is performed before the executing of the instructions of the TRAP function. 17. The method of claim 12, wherein the processing of the TRAP condition includes executing instructions of a TRAP function, and the checking of the slow path flag is performed after the executing of the instructions of the TRAP function. 18. The method of claim 12, wherein the slow path flag is a combination of an asynchronous-events flag indicating whether the event causing the TRAP was caused by an asynchronous event, and a signal-check flag indicating whether the asynchronous event was a signal. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the performing of the slow instruction path includes: performing a function to process a pending signal; determining whether there are more pending signals in the data processing system corresponding to the thread; and setting the signal-check flag if there are more pending signals. 20. The method of claim 1 or claim 12, wherein the software thread is one of a plurality of software threads executing in a multi-threaded computer system. 21. A method for improving an execution time of a system call issued by a software process in a data processing system, comprising: initiating the system call; and performing the system call, including checking whether a slow path flag for the software process22. An apparatus for improving an execution time of a system call issued by a software thread in a data processing system, comprising: circuitry performing one or more software thread instructions forming a part of the software thread, where the software thread instructions include the system call23. An apparatus for improving the execution time of a TRAP that is caused by a system event in a data processing system, comprising: a memory storing a slow path flag for a software thread; circuitry recognizing that an event causing a TRAP condition has occurred, wherein the event causes execution of the software thread to become interrupted; circuitry checking whether a slow path flag corresponding to the thread is set; circuitry performing, when the slow path flag is set, instructions placed in a slow instruction path of the TRAP; and circuitry performing, when the slow path flag is clear, instructions in placed a fast instruction path of the TRAP to avoid at least one of a pre-test or a post-test in connection with the system call when the at least one pre-test or post-test is known to be inapplicable. 24. An apparatus for improving an execution time of a system call issued by a software process, comprising: a memory storing a slow path flag for the software process; circuitry performing software process instructions of the software process, the software process instructions including the system call; circuitry checking whether a slow path flag for the process is set25. A computer system executing a plurality of software threads, comprising: a memory storing a first slow path flag corresponding to a first thread and a second slow path flag corresponding to a second thread; circuitry performing first thread instructions of the first software thread, the first thread instructions including a first system call; circuitry performing second thread instructions of the second software thread, the second thread instructions including a second system call; circuitry checking whether a slow path flag corresponding to the first thread is set; circuitry checking whether a slow path flag corresponding to the second thread is set; circuitry performing, when the first slow path flag is set, instructions placed in a slow instruction path corresponding to the first system call; circuitry performing, when the first slow path flag is clear, instructions placed in a fast instruction path corresponding to the first system call to avoid at least one of a pre-test or a post-test in connection with the first system call when the at least one pre-test or post-test is known to be inapplicable; circuitry performing, when the second slow path flag is set, instructions placed in a slow instruction path corresponding to the second system call; and circuitry performing, when the first slow path flag is clear, instructions placed in a fast instruction path corresponding to the second system call to avoid at least one of a pre-test or a post-test in connection with the second system call when the at least one pre-test or post-test is known to be inapplicable. 26. A method, in a processing system employing threads and at least one of system calls and TRAPs that is capable of being initiated in conjunction with execution of a plurality of the threads, comprising: determining at least one of a pre-test and a post-test that, while executed in conjunction with performing at least one of the system calls and TRAPs during ongoing processing system operation, can be rendered inapplicable during a selectable processing of the at least one of the system calls and TRAPs; providing a slow instruction path and a fast instruction path; placing the at least one of a pre-test and a post-test in the slow instruction path and excluding the at least one of a pre-test and a post-test from the fast instruction path; designating a slow path flag that is capable of being set such that instructions in the slow instruction path will be executed during the at least one of the system calls and TRAPs, and that is capable of being cleared such that instructions in the fast instruction path will be executed during the at least one of the system calls and TRAPs. 27. A slow instruction path formed according to the method of claim 26. Beschreibung BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to operating system software, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for decreasing an execution time of system calls in a data processing system. Data processing systems commonly are controlled by a software program called an "operating system" (OS). The operating system acts as the "brains" of the data processing system and controls the scheduling and execution of other software programs being executed by the data processing system. These other software programs are called "application programs" or "processes". The UNIX operating system is an example of a commonly used operating system. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries exclusively licensed through X/OPEN, Ltd. Sun Microsystems, Inc. manufactures a version of UNIX called Solaris, which is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. An operating system controls the performance of many common system operations, such as printing data to a printer or reading data from a document scanner. Thus, if an needs to read or write data, it does so by "calling" the operating system and requesting that the operating system perform a "system call function." The operating system performs the system call function, such as reading or writing, and returns a result to the application program. The UNIX operating system is formed of two separable parts: the kernel and the systems programs. Systems programs include system libraries, compilers, interpreters, shells, and other such programs that provide useful functions to application programs user. The kernel provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory management, and other operating-system functions by responding to system calls from application programs. Conceptually, the kernel sits between the hardware and the application programs. System calls are made by a "trap" to a specific location in the computer hardware. Specific parameters are passed to the kernel on the stack and/or in registers and the kernel returns with a code in specific registers or memory locations indicating whether the action required by the system call was completed successfully. For more detailed information on the UNIX operating system see "The Design of the UNIX Operating System" by Maurice J. Bach, Prentice-Hall, 1986, which is herein incorporated by reference. Some data processing systems execute application programs that consist of multiple processes. Other data processing systems allow each process to contain multiple "threads." Still other data processing systems allow programs to be re-structured to make use of more than one hardware processor (CPU) at a time. Such programming capabilities are generally embodied in a programming paradigm called "multi-threading." A "thread of control" or more simply, a "thread" is a sequence of instructions being executed in a program. Each thread has a program counter and a stack to keep track of local variables and return addresses. Threads execute independently of other threads. A thread shares the instructions of its process, and most of the data of the process, as well as sharing the operating system state of its process. Each thread may make arbitrary system calls. Threads and the associated controls and services of a multi-threaded system may be implemented as objects. The software of an operating system typically contains special programs (or "handlers") that execute systems calls from threads. The operating system typically performs certain tests before performing the function requested by the system call. Tests performed by the operating system before the requested system call function is executed by the kernel are called "pre-tests." For example, the operating system may test to determine whether the system is operating in "debug" or "TRACE" mode before executing a system call function. Some pretests have actions associated therewith that are performed when a condition in the pre-test is true. The operating system also typically performs certain tests after performing the function requested by the system call. Tests performed after the requested system call function is executed are called "post-tests." For example, the operating system may test for the existence of non-standard error codes after executing a system call function. Some post-tests have actions associated therewith that are performed when a condition in the post-test is true. As operating systems have become larger and more complicated, the number of pre-tests and post-tests that the operating system performs in connection with each system call has increased. Because the tests are performed for each system call, even relatively simple system calls that would otherwise execute in a short period of time have begun to take relatively long periods of time to execute. What is needed is a way to avoid execution of multiple pre-tests and pre-tests or post-tests are known to be inapplicable. Accordingly, there is a need for a way to decrease system call execution times. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an apparatus and method for "bypassing" multiple pre-tests and multiple post-tests during a system call or TRAP when those tests are known to be inapplicable. The invention uses a "slow path" flag to control the operation of the operating system during a system call. When the slow path flag is set, the operating system executes a "slow" instruction path during the system call. The slow instruction path includes at least one pre-test or at least one post-test and usually includes multiple pre-tests or multiple post-tests. In contrast, when the slow path flag is clear, the operating system bypasses the pre-tests or post-tests to execute a "fast" instruction path. The fast instruction path does not contain the pre-tests (or post-tests) that are included in the slow instruction path. Because the fast instruction path contains a subset of the instructions in the slow instruction path, use of the fast instruction path improves the execution time of the system call. These and other advantages illustrates a general architecture of a data processing system. FIG. 2 illustrates a general architecture of a multi-threaded, multi-processor system. FIG. 3 is a data structure in a memory of FIG. 1 showing examples of slow path flags for a thread. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing steps performed by a thread to execute a system call. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing steps performed by the kernel due to the occurrence of a synchronous or an asynchronous event TRAP. FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing steps performed by the kernel during a system call. FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing additional steps performed by the kernel during a system call. FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing steps performed by the kernel during a TRAP. FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b) are flow charts showing a step performed by a kernel routine, where the kernel routine will affect a pre-test or a post-test. FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing a step performed by a kernel routine that initiates a new thread. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The following description is of the best presently contemplated modes of carrying out the invention. This description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention and is not to be taken in a limiting sense. 1. GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MULTI-THREADED SYSTEMS The implementation described is a portion of the SunOS 5.4 Operating System to be released under the name Solaris 2.4 by Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Solaris," "Sun Microsystems" and "SunOS" are registered trademarks, of Sun Microsystems, Inc. A general understanding of the UNIX Operating System as described in the referenced text by Bach, as well as a general understanding of multi-threading explained in the reference by Powell et al. is assumed. While this description of the present invention is made in terms of SunOS 5.4 it will be clear to those skilled in the art that the method and apparatus described herein may be implemented in various multi-threaded operating systems and in various configurations, makes, or models of tightly coupled processors. This first section of this document provides a general discussion of multi-threading in SunOS 5.4, in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is implemented. A second section of the document discusses improvement of execution time in a preferred embodiment of the invention. SunOS 5.4 is intended to run on uni-processors and tightly-coupled shared memory multiprocessor systems. Referring now to FIG. 1, the computer system is assumed to have one or more central processor units (CPUs) 10,12,14 sharing a memory 20 and clock 18. The kernel 16 assumes all processors are equivalent. Processors 10,12,14 execute kernel threads selected from a queue of runnable kernel threads 26. If a particular multiprocessor implementation places an asymmetric load on the processors (e.g., interrupts) the kernel 16 will nonetheless schedule threads to processors 10,12,14 as if they were equivalent. In general, all processors 10,12,14 see the same data in memory 20 and share data 22. All of the processors 10, 12, 14 in the system can execute the shared kernel code simultaneously, and use the data structures in the shared memory 20 to communicate between the processors 10, 12, 14 as required. Kernel threads represent the fundamental entities that are scheduled and dispatched on any of the CPUs in the system. A kernel thread is preferably very lightweight, having only a small data structure and a stack. When switching between kernel threads it is not necessary to change virtual memory address space information, so it is relatively inexpensive. Kernel threads are fully preemptible and may be scheduled by any of the scheduling classes included with the system, including the real-time (fixed priority) class. Since all other execution entities are built using kernel threads, they represent a fully preemptible, real-time "nucleus" within the kernel. "Preemption" is the action whereby a runnable thread with a higher dispatching priority may force a CPU to cease executing a thread with a lower dispatching priority in favor of executing the higher dispatching priority thread. Kernel threads synchronize using synchronization primitives that support protocols for preventing dispatching priority inversion, so a thread's priority is determined in accordance with the activities it is impeding (by holding locks) the service it is performing. Kernel threads are used to provide asynchronous kernel activity, such as asynchronous writes to disk, servicing STREAMS queues, and callouts. (A "STREAM" is a fill-duplex connection between a process and a device driver, designed to provide flexibility and modularity for the I/O subsystem within a UNIX system.) This removes various diversions in the idle loop and trap code and replaces them with independently scheduled threads. Not only does this increase potential concurrency (these activities can be handled by other CPUs), but it also gives each asynchronous activity a priority so that it may be appropriately scheduled. Each thread has an associated data structure called a "thread object" 24 stored in memory 20. Thread objects are discussed in more detail in connection with FIG. 3. FIG. 2 illustrates the relationship of a traditional single threaded process 30 and multi-threaded processes 32, 34 to the user-level software 80, kernel 82, and processor hardware 84 in a multi-threaded system. The multi-threaded programming model has two levels in the user-level software area 80: threads 40-47, and Light Weight Processes (LWPs) 50-55. In the multi-threaded paradigm, programmers write programs using threads (which may be thought of as independent program execution entities). A multi-threaded UNIX process can have several threads of control, which can run independently on different CPUs. User threads are implemented by the library and are not known to the kernel. To the kernel, the LWP is the execution part of a traditional UNIX process. LWPs are implemented by the kernel. User threads are implemented using LWPs in the following way: User threads are actually represented by data structures in the address space of a program. An LWP chooses a user thread to run by locating the user thread state in the program's memory. Loading the registers and assuming the identity of the user thread, the LWP executes the user thread's instructions. If the user thread cannot continue, or if other user threads should be run, the LWP saves the state of the user thread back in memory. The LWP can now select another user thread to run. Because a user thread is implemented by an LWP, the capabilities of a user thread are the same as those of an LWP. When a user thread needs to access a kernel service by performing a system call, or to interact with user threads in other UNIX processes, it does so as an LWP. The user thread needing the system call remains bound to the LWP executing it until the system call is completed. If a user thread needs to interact with other user threads in the same program, it can do so without involving the operating system. Switching from one user thread to another occurs without the kernel knowing it. Just as the UNIX "stdio" library routines (fopen( ), fread( )) are implemented using the UNIX system calls (open, read), the user thread interface is implemented using the LWP interface, and for many of the same reasons. Returning again to FIG. 2, kernel threads 60-61, and 63-66 are associated with the LWPs 50-55. Kernel threads 60-66 represent the fundamental entities that are scheduled and dispatched on any of the CPUs 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 in the system. Like the LWP, a kernel thread may be very lightweight having only a small data structure and a stack. The third process 34 has a thread 46 permanently bound to LWP 54, and in addition, the process 34 has asked the system to bind one of its LWPs 55 to a CPU 78. The bound and unbound threads 40-47 can still synchronize with each other both within each process 30, 32, 34 and between processes 30, 32, 34 in the usual way by means of mutex locks, condition variables, semaphores, or readers/writer locks. The kernel supports the execution of user LWPs by associating a kernel thread 60-61, 63-66 with each LWP 50-55. While all LWPs 50-55 have a kernel thread, not all kernel threads have an LWP, (note kernel thread 62 for example). This type of kernel thread 62, with no LWP associated, would be used for handling interrupts, executing STREAMS code, or providing Network File System (NFS) service, for example. Kernel threads 60-66 represent a thread of control inside the kernel 82. They are scheduled to execute on the processors 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 available to the kernel 82 within the shared kernel address space. A kernel thread contains the following state: a stack, a set of registers, a pointer to thread local storage, a state flag, a priority, and a processor affinity mask. Typically, the stack is used for thread local storage. Every thread logically has its own set of registers. The state flag indicates whether a thread is running or blocking. The priority is used for scheduling. The processor affinity mask is used to restrict the thread to running on a subset of the available processors. The function "thread_create( )" creates a new kernel thread having a stack of a specified size, at a specified address, a procedure entry point, and an argument to be passed to the procedure. A routine "thread_exit( )" terminates a current thread. 2. IMPROVEMENT OF EXECUTION TIME In the present invention, pre-tests and post-tests occur mainly during system calls to the kernel, and during TRAPs. TRAPs are initiated, e.g., by synchronous or asynchronous events. Both system calls and TRAPs are discussed below in more detail. FIG. 3 shows a "thread object" data structure 24 stored in memory 20 of FIG. 1. In the present invention, each active thread has a data structure akin to thread object 24. Many of the fields in thread object 24 are not germane to the present invention and will not be described in detail herein. As will be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art, an instance of thread object 24 includes data describing a current state of a thread. Thread object 24 includes a thread ID field 302 that identifies the thread associated with a particular thread object and a process ID field 303 that identifies a process of which the thread is a part. Thread object 24 also includes a t_pre_test flag 304, a t_post_test flag 306, a t_ast_test flag 308, and a t_signal_check flag 310. The uses of flags 304, 306, 308, and 310, which are collectively termed "slow path" flags are described below in more detail. In the described implementation, flag 304 takes up a partial word of memory 20. The rest of the word contains field 312. Similarly, flags 306, 308 and 310 take up part of another word of memory 20. The rest of this word contains field 314. Fields 312 and 314 are not necessary to implement the present invention and are not described herein. In the described embodiment, flags 306, 308, and 310 are contained in a single word. This arrangement allows for efficient checking of these flags, but is not required to implement the invention. The present invention may be implemented with any grouping or arrangement of slow path flags 304, 306, 308, and 310. Other implementations may use other types of slow path flags. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing steps performed by a thread to execute a system call to the kernel. It should be understood that the steps in FIGS. 4-10 identified as being performed by a thread or by the kernel are implemented as program instructions of a thread or of the kernel being executed by an associated CPU. These program instructions are stored in memory 20 or in any other appropriate memory of the data processing system. In FIG. 4, the thread first issues a system call in step 402, which passes control to the kernel of the operating system. In step 404, the operating system executes the requested system call and, in step 406, the operating system returns an error code to the calling thread. Details of the system call are discussed below in connection with FIG. 6. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing steps performed by the operating system kernel due to the occurrence of a synchronous or asynchronous event. An asynchronous event is an event that can occur at any time, such as an interrupt, a signal received from another process, a timer or a key press. A synchronous-event is an event that occurs immediately upon some program action. As shown in FIG. 5, when an event occurs in step 502, the operating system issues a TRAP in step 504, which passes control to the kernel of the operating system. In step 506, the kernel returns an error code from the TRAP routine to the thread. Details of the TRAP routine are discussed below in connection with FIG. 8. FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing steps performed by the kernel during a system call. Control passes to the steps of FIG. 6 from step 404 of FIG. 4. When the kernel begins processing a system call, it first determines whether a pre-test flag is set in step 602. Flag 304 of FIG. 3 is an example of a pre-test flag. The pre-test flag is also called a "slow path" flag. If the pre-test flag is set, the kernel clears the pre-test flag in step 604 and performs multiple pre-tests 1 . . . N in steps 606-608. The nature of the pre-tests themselves is discussed below in connection with FIG. 7. If the pre-test flag is clear in step 602, the kernel bypasses the pre-tests 1 . . . N and control passes to step 610. Thus, if the pre-test flag is clear, the kernel performs a fast instruction path including step 610, but excluding steps 604, 606, and 608. If the pre-test flag is set, the kernel performs a slow instruction path including steps 604 through 610. The fast instruction path is a subset of the slow instruction path. Thus, the slow instruction path contains more instructions than the fast instruction path and takes more time to execute. In step 610, the kernel performs the requested system call function. For example, the kernel may read or write data or may return a process ID for the current thread. After the requested system call function has been performed, the kernel determines whether a post-test flag is set in step 612. Flags 306, 308, and 310 of FIG. 3 are examples of a post-test flag. The post-test flag is another type of slow path flag. If the post-test flag is set, the kernel clears the post-test flag in step 614 and performs multiple post-tests 1 . . . N in steps 616-618. The nature of the post-tests is discussed below in connection with FIGS. 7 and 8. If the post-test flag is clear, the kernel bypasses the post-tests 1 . . . N and control passes to step 620. Thus, if the post-test flag is clear, the kernel performs a fast instruction path including step 620, but excluding steps 614, 616, and 618. If the post-test flag is set, the kernel performs a slow instruction path including steps 614 through 620. The fast instruction path is a subset of the slow instruction path. Thus, slow instruction path contains more instructions than the fast instruction path and takes more time to execute. FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing additional steps performed by the kernel during a system call. The steps of FIG. 7 correspond to one of the pre-tests or one of the post-tests of FIG. 6 (or a post-test of FIG. 8). Thus, for example, if a system call includes N pre-tests, and the kernel performs the slow instruction path, the steps of FIG. 7 would be repeated N times, once for each pre-test before the requested system call function is performed. In step 702, a condition is tested. For example, the kernel may test to see whether a TRACE flag is set, indicating that the thread is in a TRACE debugging mode. Examples of conditions tested for as pre-tests in step 702 when the step is part of a pre-test check include: microstate accounting flag set, credential change, single-step hook, FPU (floating point unit) exception pending hook, profiling hook, loadable system call loading and locking, debugger (TRACE) hook for system call tracing, and security auditing. Examples of conditions tested for as post-tests in step 702 when the step is part of a post-test check include: handle unusual returns (e.g., fork/exec/setcontext), handle error return (e.g., set carry bit), debugger (TRACE) hook for post system call tracing (e.g., "truss"), vfork hook, MT (Multi-threading) (i.e., whether another LWP in this process wants this LWP to hold in order to fork the process) signal check (checks multiple possible types of signals), debugger hook (e.g., xregrestore), microstate accounting flag, LWP state change, scheduling class hook (e.g., CL_TRAPRET), preemption check flag, and single step hook. As will be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art, the above lists are not exclusive and other pre-test and post-test conditions may also be checked in step 702. The above lists are intended as examples only. In general, any conditions that do not need to be checked during all system calls should be placed in the slow instruction path for pre-tests or post-tests. Similarly, care should be used in the placement of conditions during TRAP, so that as many conditions as possible are placed in a slow instruction path. The following discussion assumes that FIG. 7 is part of a pre-test, such as step 606 of FIG. 6. A similar description that applies when FIG. 7 is part of a post-test, such as step 614 of FIG. 6 (or the post-tests of FIG. 8) has been omitted for the sake of brevity. If the condition of step 702 is met (e.g., if the TRACE flag is set), then, in certain circumstances, the pre-test flag, which was cleared in step 604, is set again in step 704. Step 704 is shown in dotted lines in FIG. 7 to indicate that it is performed only in certain circumstances. In general, the pre-test flag is set again for what are termed "persistent conditions." For example, when the TRACE flag is set, indicating that the thread is running in TRACE debug mode, it is desirable for the TRACE flag to be tested every time a system call is made. Therefore, the TRACE mode is a persistent condition. At the time when step 704 is executed, the kernel has previously cleared the pre-test flag in step 604 of FIG. 6. If the condition tested in step 702 indicates that the TRACE flag is set, however, and that the TRACE mode is "on", then it is desirable to set the pre-test flag (e.g., t_pre_test of FIG. 3) again so that the kernel will take the slow instruction path again during the next system call. In the example, when the TRACE routine eventually is turned off by the user, the TRACE flag test in step 702 will become false and the pre-test flag will remain cleared, i.e., will not be set again by step 704 because control will not reach step 704. Step 706 passes control to the portion of the kernel that performs the instructions associated with a response of True in step 702. For example, control may pass to a routine performed when the TRACE flag is set. FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing steps performed by the kernel during a TRAP. Control passes to the steps of FIG. 8 from step 504 of FIG. 5. As discussed above, a TRAP can be performed as a result of detection of an asynchronous event. A TRAP can also be caused by synchronous events such as an error, a page fault, etc. Although not shown in FIG. 8, in a preferred embodiment, a pre-test flag is tested prior to step 802 and if the pre-test flag is an set, a slow instruction path including pre-test conditions is executed. In step 802, the kernel performs a TRAP function to deal with the TRAP event. For example, the TRAP function could handle a page fault or could deal with a received signal. After the TRAP function has been performed, the kernel determines in step 804 whether either one of an asynchronous-event flag and a signal-check flag is set. An example of an asynchronous-event flag is t_ast_test flag 308 of FIG. 3. An example of a signal-check flag is t signal check flag 310 of FIG. 3. The asynchronous-event flag and the signal-check flag together act as another type of slow path flag. If either of the asynchronous-event flag and the signal-check flag is set in step 804, the kernel clears both the synchronous-event flag and the signal-check flag in step 806 and performs multiple post-tests 1 . . . N in steps 808 through 814. In FIG. 8, steps 808 through 812 form a first post-test and step 814 forms second through Nth post-tests, the details of which are not shown. For the purpose of example, the nature of the first post-test of FIG. 8 is discussed below in more detail. Step 808 determines if a signal is pending by checking one or more flags (not shown) in memory indicating different types of pending signals. These flags differ from t_signal_check flag 310 of FIG. 3, which indicates whether any signal is pending, because they indicate which specific types of signals are pending. If at least one signal is still pending (after performance of the TRAP function in step 802) the t_signal_check flag is set again in step 810. Thus, the signals that are still pending will be dealt with in the slow instruction path of a next system call or TRAP. It is necessary to check the t_signal_check flag 310 after the TRAP routine because more than one signal can be pending at a time. If no signals are pending in step 808, the t_signal_check flag 310 remains clear. Otherwise, step 812 performs any processing associated with a pending signal. As discussed, the slow instruction path may include multiple post-tests 1 . . N. The details of other post-tests of step 814 are not discussed for the sake of brevity. Any appropriate post-test (i.e., one which is not performed regardless of the state of the signal-check flag and asynchronous-event flag) may be placed in the slow instruction path. If the slow path flag is clear in step 804, the kernel bypasses the post-tests 1 . . . N and control passes to step 816. Thus, if the slow path flag is clear, the kernel performs a fast instruction path including step 816, but excluding steps 806-814. If the slow path flag is set, the kernel performs a "slow instruction path" including steps 806 through 816. The slow instruction path contains more instructions than the fast instruction path because the fast instruction path is a subset of the slow instruction path. Thus, the slow instruction path takes more time to execute. In step 816, control returns to the point where the TRAP occurred. It will be understood that the post-test flag checking step 804 can also occur during the slow instruction path of FIG. 6 (i.e., after a regular system call). The post-tests of steps 804-814 can also occur in FIG. 6. In this case, checking the signal-check and asynchronous-event flags is considered to be a check of a sub-slow path flag (i.e., a flag that controls entry to a slow path within a slow path). The above discussion of FIGS. 4-8 relates to how the slow path flags are used once they have been set or cleared to control entrance to a long instruction path or a short instruction path. The following discussion relates to the circumstances under which the slow path flags are set and/or cleared. FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b) are flow charts showing a step performed by a kernel routine, where the instructions performed by the kernel routine affects a test performed in a slow instruction path. FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing a step performed by a kernel routine that initializes a new thread. To implement the present invention in a particular operating system kernel, it is necessary to determine which kernel routines perform steps affecting the pre-tests of FIG. 6 or affecting the post-tests of FIGS. 6 and 8. Whenever the kernel calls a function that affects a pre-test or a post-test, where those tests are located in a slow instruction path, the called routine must set a slow path flag to ensure that the kernel will enter the slow instruction path and check the appropriate pre- or post-test condition when control later enters the slow instruction path. For example, when the kernel calls a TRACE_ON function to initialize the TRACE flag for a thread, the code of the TRACE routine function sets a TRACE flag (to indicate that tracing is "on") and also sets the pretest flag (e.g., t_pre_test) to indicate that the TRACE flag needs to be checked, where this check is a part of the pre-test slow instruction path. Thereafter, once tracing is set to "on", when any system call is performed (see, e.g., FIG. 4), the fact that the pre-test flag is set causes the kernel to execute the slow instruction path prior to performing a requested system call function, including the routine required to check the TRACE flag and perform the tracing function. It will be understood that improvement of execution time in the present invention occurs during those times when a system call is made (or a TRAP is performed) and the slow path flag or flags remain clear. For example, if the t_pre_test and t_post_test flags of FIG. 3 are clear, the kernel will execute a "get process id" system call about five times as fast as if both flags were set. Step 902 of FIG. 9(a) sets an event flag, such as a TRACE flag. This event flag will be tested in a pre-test condition in the slow instruction path when a system call is performed. Step 904 of FIG. 9(a) indicates that certain kernel routines must set certain of the pre-test slow path flags (e.g., t_pre_test) to ensure that the slow instruction path will be executed during a system call. Examples of kernel routines that affect pre-tests in the pre-test slow instruction path are listed above in connection with step 702 of FIG. 7. Step 906 of FIG. 9(b) indicates that certain kernel routines must set certain ones of the post-test slow path flags (e.g., t_post_test, t_ast_test, or t_signal_check) to ensure that the slow instruction path will be executed during a system call or a TRAP. Examples of kernel routines that affect post-tests in the post-test slow instruction path are listed above in connection with step 702 of FIG. 7. In FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b), it is important that the event flag be set prior to the pre-test or post-test flag in case the routine is interrupted (e.g., by a TRAP) between the two steps. As shown in step 1002 of FIG. 10, when a thread is first initialized, the thread initializing routine of the kernel sets predetermined slow path flags for the thread (e.g., t_pre_test, t_post_test, and t_ast_test) so that all slow instruction paths will be entered in a first system call or a first TRAP for the thread. (In the described embodiment, the t_signal_check flag 310 is not set until a signal is detected). Predetermined slow path flags for the new thread are initially set because this is simpler than determining the state of other threads in the system prior to a first system call or TRAP for the new thread. For example, if TRACE has previously been turned on for all threads of a process, the slow path flag for all threads in the process should always be set, since TRACE affects all the threads. Thus, in general, when a new thread is initialized, predetermined slow path flags for the new thread are initially set and appropriate slow path flags will be repeatedly set within the tests in the slow instruction path for persistent conditions. (see, e.g., step 704 of FIG. 7). Conversely, each time control passes through a system call, such as that shown in FIG. 6, the slow path flags will be cleared in steps 604 and 614 and will stay cleared if not set again by a persistent condition, such as TRACE or signal pending. Thus, if no persistent condition exists, a slow path flag is in a cleared state after a first pass through the system call routine of FIG. 6 or through the TRAP routine of FIG. 8. When the slow path flag for a thread is clear, the system calls (and TRAPs) for the thread execute up to five times faster than system calls for the thread in which the slow path flag is set, thus resulting in a large improvement in execution time for the thread. In a second preferred embodiment, the present invention is included in a system that does not use multi-threading. For example, the present invention can be implemented in a traditional Unix system with only one thread of execution per process. In this embodiment, a data structure such as the data structure of FIG. 3 exists for each process and each process has its own set of slow path flags, similar to those of FIG. 3. The present invention can be included in a system having multiple processes and/or multiple threads for some processes. Kernel routines exist to set, e.g., predetermined slow path flags for a process, all pre-test flags for a process, all post-test flags for a thread, all pre-test and post-test flags for all threads, etc. For example, TRACE-on calls a kernel routine to set all pre-test and post-test flags for a process but does not set the asynchronous-event flag. Various operating system functions set, clear, and check various combinations of slow path flags as needed. Several preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the invention can be implemented with "fast-path" flags instead of slow path flags. As another example, the invention can include slow instruction paths that include some, but not all pre-tests (or post-tests) performed by a system call or TRAP. Such an implementation is slower than an implementation where all pre-tests (or post-tests) are in a slow instruction path, but faster than conventional systems. In addition, the invention can include several slow instruction paths that overlap each other or that overlap the fast path or that are subsets of other slow instruction paths. For example, in a preferred embodiment, steps 804-812 of FIG. 8 can form a post-test in one of steps 616-618 of FIG. 6 during a system call. In such a case, the signal-check flag and the asynchronous-event flag act as sub-slow path flags, since a main slow path flag was tested in step 612. In describing the preferred embodiments, a number of specific technologies used to implement the embodiments of various aspects of the invention were identified and related to more general terms in which the invention was described. However, it should be understood that such specificity is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention.	eng	fd40f3a1-193f-451d-a39a-cb05d86e67f2	http://www.google.de/patents/US6260057
The problem is that, even here, there are many that refuse to believe the overwhelming evidence before their eyes. I've heard things, not here fortunately, as stupid as "The scientists want to take away our freedom." We, as a people and species, will continue to ignore the obvious until it's way too late. I'm old and will be dead soon but I fear for the next generation and certainly the one after. They will pay a dear price for our greed, stupidity, and ignorance. We just have to get together and everyone must agree on change what needs to be changed to fix the climate. Â Not that its easy for us to change our ways. Â It`s probably easyer for us to convince the others to change. Norway is a proud example, telling the rest of the world what to do while constantly searching for, and fortunately finding, more oil below the ocean. Â We`re saved, and fu@k the rest of you. Last I heard is that the Norwegian landmass is still rising more than the expected rise in the ocean, so the new opera house in Oslo will stay abowe the water level while the rest of you suffer your puny catastrophe. Â Our weather will possibly become a bit more "wild" in the future, but nothing like most of you will experience. But the rest of you should really go on and save yourself from the catastrophe. Â Might make it even better for us too. Â Moahahaha timann Personal I think we are experiencing an epochal weather change at the moment. That is just my opinion and as such is worth zilch. That's just my belief. Yeah I'm skeptical too and I pretty much agree with what you said. I totaly beleive in climate change though. Yesterday we had perfect weather with sun, 70's, and a slight breeze, and today it was windy and very rainy. This summer it will heat up and it will cool down in the winter, I'm not going to panic about it. Climate change has been around since there has been climate to change. Ice ages have come and gone, for instance. One of the latest news articles I've seen on the subject said that dinosaur flatulence may have put huge amounts of methane, a "greenhouse gas" into the atmosphere. I'm not too sure how accurate the estimates of dino f@rts might have been. And don't get me started on blue-green algae. Releasing all that horribly corrosive oxygen. I'd say that climate change is a reality— because of the frequency of extreme weather events, or phenomena like Texas drought-- in the long run, and that it is man-made. The majority of professional climate scientists agree on that. So two paths: 1. Industrialised world settles this economic crisis thing (done by expansionary spending by governments, to create demand; once the good times start again, pay down the debt, and invest in infra-structure); then collaborates to find inventive solutions to limit damage due to man-made climate change. 2. Industrialised world trapped in long depression (largely self-inflicted, since textbook economics tells us the solutions), the issue of climate change gets shelved until too late, feedback mechanisms mean the phenomena speed up. The resulting hardship, cost, and unrest will compound the impact of the economic depression. Cold, wet countries (basically NW Europe) may do well out of the changes; the US (largely southern and hot) may not do so well; China, with large mass, despotic government which allows implementation of strong measures, and has planned ahead in terms of resource grab, may do well. eh. Having spent time in academia you quickly learn that there is an expert opinion out there agreeing with every position and every extreme position. US incarceration rate is horribly worse than Europe. US incarceration rate is proportional to crime. US is more violent than other countries. US is only more violent because of handguns. Prison is the US replacement for slavery because we're all scared of black people and racist etc, etc, etc. There is no position so ludicrous that some Ph.D. out there has not endorsed it. And the more you study statistics the more you realize how useless they can be. Consider: I can construct a statistical model predicting violent crime using ice cream sales that will come out significant in most major cities in the US. Statistical significance =/= causal proof. We think that what's really pushing it around is the heat, and in fact ice cream might be a better indicator of perceived heat than actual temperatures but it is ludicrous to believe that ice cream sales push around violent crime, yet statistically it cannot be disproved (even if you did construct a multi-variate model taking into account temp, humidity, breeze etc, parsimony says icecream model is preferable). But statistics can't pull them apart, you have to use theoretical arguments which ultimately have a deontological component. Or if academics were more honest a leap of faith as a component. As to consensus. Consensus was the ptolemic model of stars and planets was infinitely preferable to the heliocentric model. Consensus was that it was ridiculous that little microscopic organisms could cause death/disease or that spontaneous generation was anything other than demonstrated fact. Please note that I am not disrespecting scientific inquiry or analysis. It has led to great progress but as a rule: trust engineers more than scientists. I tend to agree with Morphy. Change is occurring, to what end or extent and the amount of man's responsibility in changing it I don't know. I'm not convinced by the arguments I've seen. And the original article saying "it's worse than scientists have been saying". I disagree. I've heard all about how it's going to be armageddon. No place to live on earth etc. I really don't see that as holding back, which makes me distrust anything else the article says. Propaganda to be analyzed as propaganda, not as something that I can accept. I know I know nothing about economics. But given a brief study of the last 100 years of economics experts: neither have they. But if my reading of history has yielded me one thing it's that we won't change our habits until we have no choice. Often when we have no choice we lose a proportion of the herd but this far some of us have always survived, adapted, and continued. C'mon. The vikings deforested Iceland, every organism depletes its environment often irreparably at which point they adapt or move on. I'm confident that this will continue. Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to actually lose our standard of living which would have to happen if we accept everything scientists have said as true. And even then I doubt it would matter, this is analogous to the arguments for dispersing cities once Russia became nuclear capable. Very intelligent people thought Nuclear war was inevitable unless the UN only posessed Nukes or we spread out all our cities, fundamentally altering our way of life. As intelligent as they were, as good as the arguments were, they were wrong. People have been decrying the end of the world for centuries. I can't really get worked up over our version. I don't think the Ptolemaic model or scepticism about micro-organisms really qualify as scientific consensus-- precisely as prescientific. What's striking about the paper I posted a link to is that there is a consensus among modern scientists about an applied science (not particle physics) which is usually extremely cautious. Why take the bet that they might be wrong ? When the odds are that they are right ? Because it's more comfortable, sounds flip or cool, or because it's worse to think about the alternative. For me, I have kids, and the thought of what the world might look like when they're my age does not please me. Things balance out in the long run-- like epidemics do (dying out when the population's changed enough). In the short run and the middle run, a lot of people suffer and die. That's what we should worry about. For me, the twin facts of the impact of man-made climate change and the limited abilities of the average citizen to do something directly about it should be hovering on our consciousness, and influencing our political and individual choices. With respect Thearos, I disagree. That this is any different from those times, or that this is an applied science. I will predict that in 75 years we'll look back at this and re-cast it as pre-scientific. This current generation is always different. I'm not taking any bet. I care about the future and future generations, but I don't buy the doomsday argument. I would have bought the world is going to end in thermonuclear war as there were far more intelligent people making better arguments that are incredibly compelling. Seriously go back and read some of the articles and analyses from the 1950's. This kind of macro-level unstoppable environmental disaster is always in the offing. I'll teach my children all that I think is worth teaching them. I'll teach them to look at the news and see what forces are acting in which ways (in their opinion), teach them to be skeptical of their interpretation and keep it open to change, teach them what humans have done in the past when things have gotten bad, and teach them to live their lives no matter which infallible source assures them the world is going to end. BTW I'll also teach them to be environmentally conscious and not waste resources, but I'd do that not because of the impending eco-disaster (forecast since at least the 1970's) but because it is simply the wise thing to do. To be blunt: we as a country and a world will not act in accord to what the scientists say, we will adapt to whatever comes, it won't be as bad as is currently forecast, science will pick the correct predictions among the plethora that are offered and thus prove that "true" science was always right, and life will go on. And our kids and grandkids will have their own impending doom. I realize I'm young to be this jaded and cynical, but I'm very confident that that is how it will be. As to the climate change. I don't think anything can be done. There is no world organization of significant power to do anything about it and enforce whatever rules are developed. Worse, it's the most developed countries that have the luxury of reducing their carbon footprints. Countries like China and India are producing more CO2 every year. In 2008, China was producing two million metric tonnes more CO2 than the US, and that number is growing, by 2010 it is estimated to have reached 3 million metric tonnes more. By contrast, US CO2 levels increased by only 30,000 metric tonnes (still a lot, but not nearly as much as a developing country), and some countries like Canada actually reduced their emissions. China is also using coal, without proper scrubbers like it's going out of style - and they have a lot of coal to use. The same story is true over much of the developing world. Even if the "first world" creates treaties and laws and all the rest of it, I don't think it will matter much. Global CO2 production will still go up. Regardless of who or what is causing the climate change, I doubt our species will do anything about it. The most we'll do is have a huge facebook campaign that sounds somewhat like this: Quote: Every year our average temperature rises by .01 degrees, our ice caps lose a 1000 gallons of water, and 300 polar bears die. 99% of you will keep scrolling. 1% will care about the future generation and share this As far as climate change goes, I do believe that our climate is actually changing, and not just temporary weather wise, but actual year averages. Whether or not this is just a natural cycle in the earth's phases, caused by the earth, caused by humans, or caused by a natural phenomenon remains to be seen. I think as human's we are definitely affecting the climate, but I don't think it's the only reason. BTW: Anyone notice that so far all we've done is point fingers at everyone else for not caring enough and pointing fingers at everyone else, when we ourselves haven't even provided a possible solution? The problem is also that whatever country does something first will shoulder the burden-- will be the "sucker" while other countries act as free-riders. That, plus rationalisation mechanisms at the individual level (it's only weather, people have always panicked, those scientists must be wanting more grants, it's an anti-capitalist plot). Assuming all those rationalizations are false and utterly unfounded (which except for the last one have at least a grain of truth in them), the free rider problem is a real problem but not in the way you present it. As Atlatlista pointed out it's multiple countries, particularly developing ones. One nation cannot solve this which is what your "free rider" argument fails to consider. Even if the US stopped all C02 production (except for what we exhale) it wouldn't matter overmuch given the rate the developing countries are lighting up old coal technology. To say nothing of the rationing of electricity, increased governmental power and regulations to change human habits, and general change in lifestyle that a serious response would require. I'm not even sure you could come up with changes that wouldn't cripple or fundamentally alter our way of life and economic system. Don't get me wrong, I think we're wasteful useless humans as a society and our economic system and way of life have multiple gaping problems but I don't trust those advocating the change to give a real alternative that is in any way betterExactly. For instance (what I have heard) when there is a major volcano eruption (not like St. Hellens but a moderately large eruption) it puts about the amount of pollution in the atmosphere as cars have in the past 30 years. So when you add the fact volcanoes have been around for a while, it seems unlikeley buying a prius will solve this problem. No doubt we should be responcible in anything, but I think ,if there is a large change, it would just be natural. And like perpetual student said, to change would be an incredible undertaking, that would change a lot of good things as well. And I am positive it wouldn't happen here in the U.S.A The US is a free-rider on the Chinese efforts? Have you looked at the carbon footprint of China, the unabashed use of coal technology without scrubbers, the huge air pollution problems plaguing China's major cities like Shanghai? China is like Victorian England in its concern for the environment. I listen to and read a lot of science-related material. I follow NPR's excellent Science Friday" religiously. Ira Flatow, the host, has all of the cutting edge stories up the week they come out. Those cute little "science tidbit" news stories that run in the papers? Flatow will be interviewing the actual researchers on his show that week, not some science-writer's take on same. Anyway. Science Friday has consistently covered the global warming story over many years now. The show has had three round-table discussions with researchers in the various involved fields. Earth science, geology, climatology, oceanography.. etc. All of these round-table groups have had absolute consensus. Global warming is occurring and human activity is a major contributor. Essentially, in the scientific community, there is no controversy. The only scientists who are not on board are those individuals who are in the pay of major fossil-fuel industries. I've said before... Follow the money. Who is threatened by "green" energy? Who stands to gain from continued exploitation of fossil fuels? Who is so thoroughly in bed with our august politicians that said politicians may be said to be "in their pocket"? If you answered, "The fossil fuel industry".... You'd be right. There are entire countries who's entire economy is based on fossil fuel. Economies in Nigeria, Venezuela, and many more would collapse if we weaned ourselves off of fossil fuels. And we constantly hear the "authorities" (the same ones who are in the pay or pocket of the oil companies) say that green energy is impossible. That it can never supply what we need. That it's "pie in the sky". Yet, Germany plans to have at least 25% green energy in only a few years. The various pundits I've listened to say this figure is easily achievable in the US in as little as 20-25 years. We have vast areas of sun-shiney desert aching for solar arrays. We have entire states with wind energy to burn. That's just the tip of the preserved iceberg.... And they go on about the cost, yet study after study has shown a net gain for the economy. It's just that some sectors will not benefit... The ones who already pay for our political campaigns.... These industries have plenty of money to invest in the burgeoning clean energy field; it's just cheaper (and more profitable) to continue doing what they're doing. While I respect that viewpoint Bikewer the problem is it applies to both sides of this issue. Science is funded by multimillion dollar grants from the government (and universities that house the scientists get to take significant percentages as overhead and use those funds however they choose), NPR has government funding, and if this argument carries the day it means expanded governmental power and more money from for the scientists who study this and the companies that want to produce "green" energy and other solutions. Like I said. I don't know. I stay fairly well informed. I read the published scientific papers from stories in the news that give me pause. And I don't know. I do know that science is not as pristine as it presents itself, and there are power/money relations on both sides of the issue. Significant ones. I think honest, searching individuals can come down on both sides of this issue and only time will tell what comes. The more I read history, and science from then and now, the more convinced I become that all issues are more complicated than either side allows Â The US is a free-rider on the Chinese efforts? Â Have you looked at the carbon footprint of China, the unabashed use of coal technology without scrubbers, the huge air pollution problems plaguing China's major cities like Shanghai? Â China is like Victorian England in its concern for the environment. I see China going three ways -green investment decided on by the political elite -polluting by the industry -Chinese middle class wanting to consume (meat eating, mcmansions, cars) in US style. The latter two, of course, are structurally inclined towards polluting. The first feature is driven by Chinese state power. Not clear which will win. My impression is that those scientists that don`t believe in man made climate change is bullshitters which can be easily dismissed. Â But how the climate would have been, and on it`s way toward, without us, as another matter. Â Some say the earth should have really been on it`s way toward a new ice age, I don`t know how cool that would have been either I got a strong impression that there is some differenses in the way media present climate issues in USA compared to Europe, and Norway, in my case. @ perpetualstudent Fun fact, the violence and incarceration rate in USA is not even comparable to Norway, but the percentage guns vs people is. Hunting and competition shooting is big here with shotguns and rifles, handguns is permitted for competition only, not hunting or self defence. This means lots of people has guns at home, but people usually don`t shoot each other. Some people do it sometimes, but seldom. @ Atlatlista, if you do you could perhaps coach me in the use of atlatl, atlatl instructors is not all that common around here timann In the US, the problem with the media is that it believes (well, the serious outlets) that its job is to give equal coverage to "both sides", or indeed find another side even if there's patently a consensus. So for instance, with Holocaust revisionism, you always have to give equal time to those who say there was a Holocaust, and the crackpots. And the result is that things look "controversial" (which incidentally is good to help sell papers). Applied to climate change, this produces this impression of something controersial-- when the professional scientists have reached substantial agreement. It's called weather. And it happens on a daily scale, a seasonal scale and epochal scale. Personally I think we are experiencing an epochal weather change at the moment. (The cause behind it is anyone's guess...) That is just my opinion and as such is worth zilch. That's yep - the earth is currently in a warm up phase. The last ice age wa snot that long ago (on a truly global scale) if you look back through the fossil records the earth regularly goes through these warm up and cool down phases. Is it caused by greenhouse gasses - possibly. life proliferates and produces co2 and methane. the earth cools down and some of the life disappears. the earth warms up and it comes back. and the cycle starts again. So while man and his civilisations are probably contributing a little to this current phase - it's something that would have happened anyway. That's interesting Timann, I might have to look into it further. Here in the US most of the violence is done with handguns not long guns (including "assault weapons" a political category that makes no sense). And in rural areas where you find most of the guns there tends to be less violence. Â I wonder if US rural area statistics are comparable to Norway's. Thearos: I'm quick to point media hypocrisy and stupidity and agree with condemnations of it but in this case I don't see it. All the stories I've seen about global warming with someone who disagrees with the dominant interpretation is called (in many cases explicitly) a flat earther. Or is ridiculed as a conservative puppet for the evil corporations. I can't ever recall seeing an expert who gives a measured understandable response to the data. And if it at this point your reaction is "it's because there isn't one" please understand that you're switching argument. That may be a reasonable argument (I disagree) but it signals a form of cognitive conditioning where you jump back to comfortable ground. Thearos you have the zeal of a true believer. That is a great strength and can lead to great understanding. But I don't think you can yet give the other side full shrift and that is a weakness. People who disagree with the interpretation (not the observed data) do so for many reasons, some of them not because they are fools or bought, but for fair and honest reasons they doubt the interpretation. And there are always multiple ways to interpret data. Some of them are idiotic, some of them seem idiotic but are actually very intelligent (Relativity for instance), and some just have a different mixture of truth and mistake. Consider that Galileo thought the tide was evidence of the earth's motion and not tied to the moon as his contemporaries believed. Truth and mistake tied into one. Not all of those who disagreed with him were fools protecting a power base (though some were) and despite having more truth he incorporated mistake into his view as well. We all do. I certainly do, but where I don't yet know. All I can do is search for it. Understand other points of view and see where that leaves my view. I'm not a scientist. I don't claim to be fully in command of the science or the arguments. I just notice clear reports that there is a scientific consensus emerging that there is a problem, that it is identified, that action can be taken but that it's not happening. I think this is serious. My reasons for believing in man-made climate change and its impact are the following. 1. What I read in the press, both current affairs and pop-scientific, shows that the scientific community, in peer-reviewed work, agrees on it. As a professional academic, I trust processes of peer review and debate in seeking scientific truth (as well as, and probably more than, good interpretations or explanations in the humanities). My colleagues who are scientists also, in conversation, agree with the scientific consensus. 2. I understand that those who argue in public against this consensus usually do so out of economic interest, or ideological conviction. I distrust their arguments and stances but see their motivations. To answer Perpetualstudent: to cast opposition to the scientific consensus by appealing to Galileo, as if it were some heroic act of free-thinking, is not a good thing. It echoes talking points put out by the right-wing-- either out of useful-idiotism ("by making this stand I am showing my freedom of thought, which makes me feel good about me"), or bad faith ("There is a consensus but let's pretend to be "scientific" and push positions such as "hey can you prove this 100% ?""), or frightened ducking ("it can't be that bad if I refuse to believe it"). It is comparable to saying that "just because the scientific community tells us that a virus causes AIDS doesn't mean we have to believe it-- after all Galileo etc etc". Not a heroic act of free-thinking at all. I'm reminded of the parallels with the response to the discovery of the Ozone hole'. For those who are too young to remember it there is a lengthy article in Wikipedia which from my quick look at it is pretty good. I'm not sure if any of the same scientists were prominently involved with that were also involved with the early work in effects of CO2 emissions, although it shouldn't be too difficult to find out. Whatever the politics involved there, and there was plenty, a consensus was reached and some actions taken. It did at least open the mind of politicians and other 'opinion formers' that we (the human race) might influence our environment in significant and potentially damaging ways through our actions. What is beyond doubt is that the debate within the U.S., and pretty much there alone, has been so utterly poisoned by party political interests that I see no consensus occurring. It certainly didn't help that the Nobel committee saw fit to award a prize to Gore, and then rub salt in the wound with another to Obama. It was to say the least impolitic. Thirty years ago I cannot imagine a debate where an admittedly highly complex model is being opposed on apparently equal terms by 'no it isn't' arguments would be taken seriously. The portrayal of scientists as 'scoundrels' may have it's element of truth, but I think you will find a considerably higher ratio of scoundrels in corporate 'public relations' departments. Scientists put their personal reputations on the line when they make statements. In the end mistakes let alone lies can end a career. Not so for the characters who issue press releases for corporate entities. There is probably a sense of collective safety in the 'bandwagon' of many scientists believing the same conclusions, and the physical models used in the analysis and predictions are wrapped up for the most part in enormous and complex computer code, that quite a small fraction of the scientists probably fully understand, let alone a 'layman'. These all lead to uncertainties in the conclusions which it seems to me the scientists (as embodied in the UN group) have striven to be honest about. However I think it can be taken that they have argued this out amongst themselves. perpetual student: Whether corporations are 'evil' or not, what is striking is that the obligation for moral behavior and integrity (I'm not going to get in to a pointless debates about subtle definitions here) which are felt by most individuals other than psychopaths, are not required behavior on the part of these entities. We've seen enough cases of 'immoral but not illegal' behavior in the past few years to think otherwise. In the current case, it is clear that any disruption to their business model is a nuisance reflected in loss of profitability. Anything that can be done to allow them time to adapt is going to be to their benefit. Personally, I suspect most if not all of these corporations see the writing on the wall, they just need to buy time to adapt so that they can keep making money. What they are all terrified of is allowing a competitor an advantage. I'm not clear at all what Galileo being wrong about the tides is supposed to demonstrate. Galileo is a justly revered figure who was a great thinker. He precedes the quantitative stages initiated by Newton and his contemporaries, and so lacked the concept of physical law which developed after his time. In modern terms we might say that he had wonderful physical insight but he did not express his understanding in the mathematical language of later generations. Had the results of later generations been available to him, I think Galileo would have either realized his insight had failed him, or had some very stimulating arguments for why he was still 'right'. Then as now scientists can be wrong. There is nothing more misleading than the popular portrayal of the physical scientist as an arrogant s.o.b. who will not listen to reason, and 'knows' he is right (usually he! . Most scientists in my experience do not fit this profile. One of the advantages with 'externalizing' the formal reasoning in to mathematical ideas is that assumptions and flaws can be laid bare explicitly, and seen by others. People may honestly disagree over the aspects of a model - but in a sober discussion they should be capable of pointing out the places at which they disagree. The trouble with so many politically loaded debates nowadays is that this point is never reached. The practical point is also that to have any hope of understanding the model involves far more intellectual effort than most of us can be bothered to assign to it, which is why we fall back on proxies to argue the details. If we do that (as at least 99.9% of the people here are doing, on one side or the other) we have to recognize the fact and carefully reflect on whether those proxies are worthy of our high trust in themMy point was merely that people who disagree intelligently aren't put on TV on those segments. Rather just somebody who is easy to defeat. Which actually works better for convincing people. People forget facts but they like agreeing with winners. I'm not arguing for the media either way so much as countering Theros argument that the media are to blame. Back to top bloody hell - took you long enough to get to that point But it makes sense don't think science claims to be pristine or authoritative. I think that alone puts scientists head and shoulders above the people contending with them in this arena - politicians, the clergy, and laypeople. Yes, I know reading the Huffington Post might be construed as making a political statement, but whatever that be, the content is I believe interesting, and it was high on the list of Google search for 'global warming skeptic'. The gist for those who can't be bothered is that a scientist who wanted to investigate his suspicions over the whole business did so, and apparently feels his suspicions were not confirmed. As they point out the funding came from a strongly 'right wing' skeptical group. I have not read the article fully, or read any other of the links there - yet however I would much rather the tone of the article were less of a gloat. On the other hand, I can't resist a link to his web page where you will discover he has a sense of humor . Here's a review-essay on the moral problems of responsability involved in climate change, starting from a baseline of things that are "almost certain" (there is warming, there is more CO2 linked to industrialisation, it will have an impact, there are things we could do). Issues touched on: democracy, collaboration, the role of the nation state, our debt to the poorer nations and to future generations. Everyone who want's to know something about the future, may want to have an idea of the past. Therefore I'd like to give you a very interesting lecture hint: John McNeill. Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the 20th-Century World. New York: Norton, 2000. I run over this book during a lecture in environmental history, which I have chosen to attend to brighten up the sky of all the dry electrodynamics and optics lectures. It's not a "scientific" book, as it is written in a very readable and informative way. Also it is quite neutral (as neutral as you can be in this discussions). It gives more or less a summary of the environmental history of the 20th century, focussing on different subjects and treating different environmental problems regarding what the problems were and which actions were taken (or not) against it (e.g. the air pollution in London due to coal stoves). It gives some nices examples how humans can affect the environment. Therefore my personal oppinion is: Yes, humanity can change the climate and Yes, we do it right now. I don't want to argue about what are we exactly doing or where are we heading to, as this involves complex simulations in which you may believe or not believe, after having studied (or in my case: not studied) them for a while (say about 5 years). I'd more like to point out, that there are other reasons to pay attention to our resources which in my oppinion would also lead to an environmental/climate improvement. To illustrate this I would like to pick up the Chinese topic with this caricature: (China Daily) I think, the main message of the picture for us (considering us beeing The West) would be: We don't know what we want. A new IPad now or a new IPad for our children in twenty to fifty years. There is not an infinite supply of resources. The second reason is about energy, which is more related to the climate discussion: Our current industry is mainly dependant on oil, therefore if oil runs out, we can say goodbye to cars and plastic. But oil does not have to run out, the saudis could also just decide to close the tap (or have another rebellion). Therefore if you want to be independent, consume as few oil as possible. How to do this? Save energy, don't produce waste would be some of the first things to say. An other approach would be to substitute the missing energy by e.g. solar cells, wind and water energy. Therefore we would be able to substitute certain "oily" things by more energy consumpting products. The positive sidekick would be producing less CO(2) (at least in your country) and advanced ways to produce energy when the oil realy runs out, giving us a headstart before the still "oily" countries. The negative sides: Get me these rare earths from china to produce my solar cells! and Who will pay for it? and The others don't join in and I'm the ** who pays the bill! as was already mentioned here in the preceding discussion. I think this is were the natural sciences end and politics as well as human minds (and wallets) begin to work and it gets even more complicated than the simulations of the climate scientists already are . There's getting to be far too much 'required reading' to continue on this thread . Thearos, I had a read through, I'll need another one. I think he makes some very reasonable points. Teg (are you the old Teg or a new one?!) - Your point about the puzzlement of the Chinese has got to be about right. As it is the West has already gleefully exported what I suspect is a significant amount of industrial pollution to China. I suppose it's an interesting point whether you should account the pollutant production against the producer or the consumer in that case, even though their per capita CO2 emissions are still way below the U.S. and Europe. I am not appealing to Galileo to cast doubt on scientific consensus. No, if I were to do that I would point to how the scientific consensus of the molecular weight of carbon changed with the change in atomic theory. As concepts of atomicity were refined discrepancies were recognized. I don't think there was a change in consensus in this case either. This is an excellent case of science actually working, isn't it? A model was improved by realizing discrepancies in observations could be accounted for through the introduction of the concept of isotopes. If you are worried about 'herd instinct' among scientists, quite right. So am I. But if someone warns you that they think someone might be coming to burn your house down, do you ignore them, or do you take precautions? Quote: Or I would point to the well known expression that scientists don't change their minds, they die (or stop publishing) and others replace them. Similar remarks are not confined to scientists. Quote: ButWas there any disagreement contemporary with Galileo on this matter, since no one else had any explanation at all. I think the operative term is 'intelligent disagreement'. Quote:No it isn't, I think it is worse. Quote: Then why bring them up? Writing such things gives the impression that whatever items you do choose to discuss there is a never-ending supply of others with which to bludgeon anyone who speaks to a subset of them. Quote: TheI think perhaps you expect too much of science. Quote: Which leads in to the point Wanderer made. I agree that businesses have been run by people who made "immoral but legal" decisions. I don't think anybody would seriously disagree with that. Well good. The point was that this is a very good reason to be suspicious, as Thearos pointed out, of their motives. Quote: My havn't listened to the Science Friday items that Bikewer mentioned - maybe there are podcasts of them - but I suspect you will get the most intelligent discussion available from an American source there, government (partial) funding notwithstanding. It would be nice if scientists could do their work unsullied by the inconvenience of earning a living. However, the age of gentlemen scientists is over, and scientists have to live. Where do you propose they should obtain funding from to alleviate the air of suspicion? If there is a change in administration come this November, we may find out. I don't think science claims to be pristine or authoritative. Â Â I think that alone puts scientists head and shoulders above the people contending with them in this arena - politicians, the clergy, and laypeople. I agree with this. ^ I think that anyone who thinks that man isn't a contributor to climate change should examine history. Look at any resource that humankind has ever wanted, or found important, and see what man has done to it. Take whale oil for example. There used to be hundreds of thousands of whales in the ocean 150 years ago, but because of man alone, their numbers are a fraction of that today. Just because we wanted to use them for blubber to make oil, many are endangered species now. Man has made numerous species go extinct to extract material from these animals. If we want something, we continue to take it until it is almost too late, or it is too late to stop the damage it is doing. This a recurring theme in our history. If someone believes that man can't have a major impact on their environment should examine history. The degree that we are affecting it is debateable, however, IMO. Wanderer: a structured response follows. I omitted one or two paragraphs but I think I retained all the points. Kuhn's Structure of scientific revolution Chapter 10 pg 135 "Chemists could not, therefore, simply accept Dalton's theory on the evidence, for much of that was still negative. Instead, even after accepting the theory, they had still to beat nature into line, a process which, in the event, took almost another generation. When it was done, even the percentage compositions of well-known compounds was different. The data themselves had changed." Not simply reconciling theory to facts, but in fact versa. While this is incredibly useful, it bothers me deeply. And this sort of dissatisfaction is not specific to now. Descartes in meditations said that "I realized there was not a science in existence that was of such a nature as I had been led to believe." And the answer about warning me my house is in danger is: it depends who warns me. It also depends the extent of the response that is necessary. And it also depends on what I see in it for them, because humans are human. One of the few constants in this universe. Do the villagers run out to deal with the wolf? It's a damn good question. Which is the point of that story. No, it's certainly not confined to scientists. But it applies to them as well. Whenever a group has authority to pronounce truth, I get edgy. And I worry more about normal human processes at work in an elevated group. At the same time, sometimes only an expert has a right to an opinion. One of my favorite stories by Heinlein has a line "you are none of you nuclear engineers, you are not entitled to an opinion in this matter." There's a paradox here that I haven't resolved to my own satisfaction. The only guaranteed way to be a fool is to resist everything they say or follow lockstep. No there was an understanding of the universe. The ptolemic system had been refined for decades. There were explanations for why the planets wandered while the stars were different in their patterns. It was large and unweildy but it was there and had its defendants. The simple story of Galileo and the Pope masks that there were good arguments and intelligent men on both sides of the issue. I bring them up not in an attempt to bludgeon anyone. In fact, all I've asked is the opposite: to not have those who disagree bludgeoned into silence and submission. All of those things are incredibly important and relevant to any sort of real inquiry into this question. Each of which is worth reading several books and listening to lectures to come to a fair stance on them. While I don't claim to have the truth on all of them I have a fair right to an opinion on them. And all of them inform my decisions on what arguments convince me. Using "scientific consensus" is no less a bludgeon. I sought to introduce balance, nothing more. A real inquiry by an individual would have touch on all those things, otherwise it's just picking a side. Which is part of why I've said multiple times: I don't know and I don't like the makeup of either teamPossibly. I do find that BBC and PBS tend to do a better job of presenting legal cases, I do not have enough knowledge to measure their discussions on this subject. I don't know. But if funding introduces bias, as was argued, it must also be considered here. In fact I'd go a step further and say that power and money both introduce bias, and power and money on both sides of this issue are large. I really don't see one side's bias being less than the other. Where the funding should come from is another damn good question. Hell, even if the funding was better spent I'd be happy. Business expense account abuse and grant money abuse are…depressingly and terrifyingly similar. I don't claim have a solution, how to get humans to behave ethically around large sums of money is an age old question. But the danger of it must be noted. Humans will behave like humans. Scientist, priest, businessman, lawyer…it doesn't matter. Humans are human. C. S. Lewis wrote "that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor in earth" I live on a graduate student's stipend in NYC. I'm well aware of financial difficulties for lower levels in academia. But the reality is that grant money is horribly horribly abused. And the plain fact of the matter is that whoever pays at a minimum has influence over whoever recieves. Usually more than that. It's why academics look down on private funding as they think it biases the results found but, thanks the marvelously supple human psyche, they avoid that thought when working with grant money from the government. I am truly not seeking conflict. I try hard to understand both sides of an argument and it bothers me when one side is treated as composed of fools. Another quote: "no matter what side you are on, you will find people on your side you will wish were on the other side". I think it's important to be able to disagree respectfully, part of that requires having a modicum of respect for the opposing viewpoint. If we can't manage that we will inevitably wind up angry, hurt, and no further along in understanding. That is my entire goal in all this. And I see intolerance and true belief on both sides of thisWhat non-scientists claim about science and what scientists themselves claim are two very different things. I think that what science as an entity purports to be is bound up more with the latter than the former. I, for one, am glad that archaeology and paleontology are considered science and not history. History as it exists in a professional form is something I really don't like very much. It's the reason that, even with an undergrad degree in history, I changed paths and went to anthropology instead. The hard science element of it leads to so much more openness, so much better collaboration, it's remarkableSorry, but just from personal observation, this old joke rings true: Why are the battles in academia so fierce? - Because the stakes are so low. That's the way I view a lot of the discipline of history. When you have concrete data that is unshakeable and backed up by hard science, you can afford to be very open with others, even those with opposing viewpoints, because you have something very real to display. With history, there are certainly established facts, but things get very muddled very quickly even with primary source documents. I think this causes a lot of historians to be prickly and defensive, even when they don't have to be. That's just been my experience of things. I'm very glad I decided not to go to grad school for history in the end, though history has been a lifelong passion of mine. I just want to work on it from the angle of archaeology rather than musty tomes does indeed appear to be credited to E.M. Forster. Such a disappointment; I was hoping that it might have been A.J.P. Taylor. One of whose quotes I recall, and relocated: "All other forms of history - economic history; social history; psychological history; above all sociology - seem to me history with the history left out."~A.J.P. Taylor I agree with much of what Student says. Especially the idea that science is not always the dispassionate review of facts and data. In reality the human element, i.e. money, pride, control etc, always play a larger part than some might want to admit. Please feel free to correct me Student if I've overstated what you believe. You have stated my own beliefs much better than I could have so I won't bother in trying to to elaborate. I have lovingly given it my very own term. Agenda-science. That's not to imply that there is always some kind of grand conspiracy involved within these scientific circles. Most of the time it's just people being people. Selfish, arrogant, money hungry, power tripping, or simply afraid to go against the majority; people. On the other hand do I find it strange that people like Al Gore fly around the world in their own private jet all the while portraying himself to be the prophet of environmentalism? Sure. Does it seem fishy to me that he's spent so much time pushing the "green" movement, cap and trade etc and just happens to be heavily invested in companies that will reap huge profits from these things? Sure. Everyone should be suspicious. Follow the money. I liked the idea of cap and trade, it was the closest to being a capitalist solution to environmental protection. IMHO, capitalism has its flaws but consistently seems to provide the most material wealth to the most people in the way that the people want to be wealthy. If there's any flaw in capitalism, democracy, and even science it's people. People want what isn't in their best interest, and then complain when it doesn't work out in the long run. People see what they want to see, and then their plans are ruined when reality intervenes. People vote for what makes them feel good now, and future generations be damned. Being a fan of the idea of the hunter-conservationist, a believer in the stewardship of man over the earth (from Genesis in the Bible), and a general misanthropist I think that we can never do enough to protect against the stupidity of man and that includes conservationism. On the topic of green energy, it doesn't exist. As an engineer, I'm disgusted by the propaganda about "clean coal," the need to switch to bio-fuels, the need to switch to hydrogen, and the notion that solar panels are an improvement upon existing means of energy production. Solar panel manufacturing leaves behind lots of toxic waste and that solar panel fields promote soil erosion. Carbon sequestration a.k.a. clean coal only bottles up the emissions from coal burning instead of producing fewer emissions. Bio-fuels have similar carbon footprints as existing petrol and natural gas with their only real advantage being that we can make more. And hydrogen gas is incredibly hard to contain and will require a lot of plastics and heavy metals to produce adequate fuel tanks. As for Global Warming, I accept that it is occurring based on what data I've seen. I also accept that industrialization has had a profound affect on the rate of change of global warming. I further accept that this change has had a slight, negative effect on local weather (a longer hurricane season and increased flooding). I do not accept the predictions of catastrophe, nor do I accept that global warming will have a long term, negative outcomeThe "clean coal" ads they run constantly on CNN drive me buggy too. Modern burning methods are slightly cleaner in terms of sulpher dioxides and such, by means of "scrubbers" used on stacks. They don't do a thing about carbon, which is curently the problem. In fact, the proposed test-bed "clean" generation facility that had been planned was cancelled by the Bush administration as being "too expensive". I saw the plans for plants of this type in a Popular Science article. Very nice... Carbon sequestration and all... But very complex and very expensive. You can only do sequestration in certain areas with certain geological formations. "Cap and trade" always impressed me as a shell-game. It's true that the production of solar panels produces various pollutants. However, not carbon. Although currently more expensive than fossil fuels in terms of kilowatt-hour for initial expense, once they are in place and running you need only pay for maintanence, and not much of that. They are quite clean, but the problem is energy storage. When the Sun is shining and everything is running, it's great. We need low-loss transmission technology and storage that will keep things on "the grid" at a stable level. Wind is potentially huge and there are many areas with sufficient constant ambient wind to power large sectors. Again, transmission and storage need to be factored in. Nuclear is problematic, as we have seen. It can be less so. There are designs for plants that have very low risk and high efficiency. Problem is no one is using them. Our nuclear industry in the US is a hodgepodge of different designs put together by different groups and operating under different political realities. A single, high-efficiency plant design built to a standard model would be muchly preferrrable. As I said before, the real problems are complex and involve politics and money more so than the actual mechanics of energy production. The fossil fuel industry is enormously profitable, enormously wealthy, and can afford inordinate political influence and propaganda. Individuals like the Koch brothers have spent many millions on concerted programs of disinformation about alternative energy production, so that they can continue to make high profits. At least in the US, we have some functional regulation and control. In much of the world, the word "exploitation" hardly describes what goes on. In more than a few nations, government cronies line their pockets with oil-wealth monies while the populations suffer from pollution, miserable working conditions, land-grabs, and poverty. There are those currently who have simply thrown up their hands. It's too late. There is already sufficient carbon in the atmophere that we cannot stop or slow global warming in a time-frame that would have any effect. They say what we have to do is learn to cope with the effects. And the effects are going to be severe. If sea-rise levels even approach projected figures, we may loose huge quantities of coastal lands. This would include many of the world's largest and most populous cities and it's true as well that a very large percentage of the Earth's population lives along coastal areas. The potential for population migration, civil strife, war, and so forth are very high. We humans tend to be short-sighted. Our governments even more so. If they can get through another election cycle it's OK. "Not on my watch". Let the other guy worry about it. With luck, disasters will fall when the other party is in power.... I won't be around to see it, but we might give a thought as to what we're handing on to our grand-kids. --How much do the actions of oceanic thermal vents contribute to ocean temperature? --If the earth has had periodic warming and cooling before (and during) the (western) industrial revolution, how much has man contributed to warming? --If man has contributed measureably to warming, is it proportionately possible to change the current direction of temperature change if the earth was warming anyway? --What is the motivation for energy users and producers not to cheat if everyone else agrees to reduce energy production and consumption? I choose to make as limited environmental impact as possible...yet, I drive a fossil-fuel vehicle every day to work, I type on a labor- and material-intensive PC, and my favorite hobby includes hurling energy-neutral stones with industrially-made paracord. So, he who is not guilty will (not) sling the first stone at anyone else. I find the lack of trust in 'science' depressing, but not surprising. In any case, the U.S. will not be the first to hurt badly should the effects turn out bad. I think in about fifty years we'll see one of two lines about this in the U.S. history books: 1. Scientists attempted to subvert the American economy with scare stories of global warming. 2. Despite warnings from western scientists the Chinese continued to generate excessive amounts of pollutants leading to a world-wide crisis. Well that's ok then. There's always someone else to blame . Whatever happens it will not lead to the 'end of the world' except possibly in human conflict. The 'worst case' scenarios that get all the head-lines are that in a reasonably precise statistical sense, and are by definition not very likely to occur. The only reason they are worth considering is because the consequences, should they occur, are significantly unpleasant. So if, as I Â expect - and hope - these worst case scenarios do not occur, don't smile and think "that's one the scientists got wrong" because that would not be the case. --What is the motivation for energy users and producers not to cheat if everyone else agrees to reduce energy production and consumption? As far as I can see this is the purpose of the 'cap and trade' approaches. They recognize that corporations don't operate constrained very much by moral principles, but rather by attempting to maximize profit. Cap and trade tries to make it worthwhile in monetary terms for those institutions to follow the rules, because it holds the promise of being able to convert their compliance into a direct monetary rewardIt's 99 here now and it could get as hot as 103 F. today. That's unusual for this area. The hottest it ever got here in my lifetime was 105 about 17 years ago. Local events don't prove anything one way or the other. Some areas might get cooler during a global warm up. You have to look at the average temperature across the entire planet. This is what has scientists concerned. Almost all scientists, people with PHDs that are much smarter than you or I. As Grandmom said, "It's good we don't live forever. There's things I don't want to see."I'm with you, Morphy. And the motivations of lots of big climate change proponents is TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF IT. All the more reason to think that they're full of s#!tWe had 90 for 2 weeks here,which is quite rare..no rain during..yesterday we had some thundery quick spray but it instantly evaporated,and the air got so humid,like in a rain forest..it made us sweat like fireman in a wildfire. Friend of mine who's an investment banker, hard as nails, and holds a PhD in biology, told me that man-made climate change was as sure as established; and he really feared for his children, and his grand-children. As simple as that. I'm with you, Morphy. And the motivations of lots of big climate change proponents is TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF IT. All the more reason to think that they're full of s#!t. [/quote] But, as I said before regarding "follow the money"....The motivation of the deniers ( the fossil-fuel industries and those in their pay) is, guess what....To continue making billions. Enough to have prominent members of Congress in their pockets, to hire "scientists" to deny the findings of the scientific community at large.... One could go on and on... Sure, folks that are producing solar cells and windmills and all those things want to make a buck as well; but the total amount of money generated by these industries is so miniscule compared to fossil fuel as to be almost invisible. And... The fossil fuel industries enjoy massive government subsidy and tax breaks and all that... Something the "green" energy promoters usually go begging for. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is busily getting on with things; Germany recently managed to generate about half of a busy week's energy with solar alone. China is gearing up their solar-panel industry; using technology WE invented...And will likely corner the market in a few years. Do you seriously think that the world's Earth and Climate scientists are getting rich off their research? Most are employed as research/professors at universities and (if ours is a good example) make enough to get by comfortably after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in their education. You don't often hear the term "wealthy climate scientist". The BBC recently ran the results of a large survey which showed a net gain for the economy by going to "green" energy sources. Recently, a number of people have been promoting the idea of "point produced" energy sources all tied into a "smart grid". The smart grid would control electrical use down to the level of even individual appliances, with large numbers of buildings and facilities producing their own electricity and contributing to the grid as well. Such a construct would require years of work, however there would be huge employment opportunities in installation, building, maintenance, and production... And all of those jobs could be handled by "working" class people who would at best only require technical training and not expensive degrees. Even the fossil fuel guys could cash in on this by investing some of their huge profits in the new sectors while their existing infrastructure stands to fill the gap. However, Fossil Fuel has to date been rather reluctant to show any such initiative. My lack of trust is in the men behind the science. There has already been a big scandal with Climate Gate. Sure I want what's best for the earth. I really do. I just don't think giving these blood sucking elite even more power over our system is the way to do it. It's always problem, reaction, solution. Tout some huge fear, steer the reaction and provide the solution that you wanted in the first place. Science is wonderful, people suck. PeriodExactly, and as I noted as well. Working scientists are hardly in the wealthy and privileged class; they are generally underpaid and much of what they do could hardly be done at all without grants and such. That's where the politics come in... If you happen to be working in an area that's not popular with the current administration, or your institution isn't properly "connected", you can go begging. I listen to Science Friday religiously, have for years. This is a multi-award-winning show that has always managed to interview the guys actually making those discoveries you see featured in the news each week. Where most media outlets will simply read from the press release or perhaps have a "science reporter" make a call or two, host Ira Flatow is almost always interviewing the actual researchers making the news. Even if they are dreadful interviews or don't speak particularly good English.... Anyway, scientists at this level come across as vastly enthusiastic, vastly interested in the why and the wherefore of why and how the universe works, and not much else. Certainly not politics or fame or money. I think the idea of evil scientists manipulating things behind the scenes is a movie and literature meme that's been around since Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein as a sop against the dangers of technology. Out of everything we discuss here this topic depresses me more than any other. The number of people, and this isn't unique to slinging.org, who refuse to believe the plain and simple evidence in front of them and instead stick their heads in the sand means that we are doomed as a species to suffer tremendously over the next century or so. What possible reason would almost every scientist on the planet have for lying? How could they possibly benefit? Ridiculous. I'll admit now, I've read none of the previous thread, but I just want to shoot out a question to those who disagree that the earth is primarily warming now due to human action. Let's say you're wrong, the earth is warming primarily due to us humans and our activities in the last few centuries. Then what? How can we fix our mistakes? We need to act now, sooner rather than later. Does it make sense that we should err on the safe, rather than sorry side? Assume for the betterment of our earth and species that there are dangers we are facing, and work to change them, lest we risk being wrong and cause damage? OKAY...Y'ALL HAVE TOUCHED A NERVE!!! in processes Bird strikes? Â Inconsequential. Â A tiny percentage, so tiny as to be insignificant. It's grasping at straws. I wouldn't call 20,000 bird deaths per year in the US entirely inconsequential. It is a low figure now, but if we plan to expand wind farming that number will most definitely grow into a major problem. I'm not saying that the deaths far outweigh the need for electricity, but it needs to be solved before true large scale implementation of wind farms. Assuming 900% growth in wind farms (a conservative estimate, as wind farms are currently a very small part of the US's energy production) would more than double the number of birds killed each year for power generation and that doesn't include any projected increase in the number of power lines in the US or an increase in the turbine density of wind farms. Very interesting discussion,with many valid points. IMO: We are causing great harm to the planet,and to the life on it,greater than ever before. We consume MUCH more than we ever had. There are MUCH more humans than there ever were before. Many will close their eyes or do seriously wrong things for money. Mother Earth can't sustain us living like this for too long. Solution:total reform of how we live,what we do,how we do it,how we see life,and what are our needs,how much we consume,especially in a consumer society in the "developed world". I think technology is reaching it's top at least in the direction it's going.Not because humans lack inventiveness or the theoretical possibilities,but because of limited resourses. Maybe there are "magical technological" solutions with very little impact ,that the Earth can handle without causing imbalance in it's fine equilibrium. But I doubt it. I think the earth wasn't designed ,or isn't (if you prefer more) able to sustain the amount of material need,that humans have today.When we die,what do we carry? Do we NEED all this sh1t? Do we really want to face the consequencies of all this? Do we want our children to live in a world we are creating,and leading to? Are we ready to entirely change our ways,or we choose to ignore everything? Did we cause global warming? No, it would be happening without us. But we've greatly accelerated it and are continuing to do so. What can be done, Morphy? The sun shines all over the planet. There are many ways to harness its energy. Besides solar panels there are currently solar power stations. Spain is into them big time. They work great. You take a field of parabolic mirrors and aim them to reflect the sun at a tank filled with either water or oil. Free energy, there for the taking, everywhere. We could greatly increase the number of wind turbines currently in use. Easy. Hydroelectric power is always an option. Nukes also produce power without making greenhouse gasses, but of course they have their own set or problems. Iceland is into geothermal power. It works quite well for them. This is just off the top of my head. Everyday across the planet the sun shines, rivers flow, the wind blows, and the earth cooks just a few miles below the surface (in some places much less than that). The technology to use these resources has been with is for over a century. Sadly it's repressed because the oil lobby is all powerful and will remain so until they've caused the end of life as we know it. This is the whole truth, plain and simple. I mean no one any disrespect, but the stakes are huge here and we're failing miserably. No disrespect taken RM. And these are all good ideas. I am 100% behind you on this course of action. My serious concern, and I assume this is a concern shared by others here based on what they have written is when laws are put in place destroying the sovereignty of the common man. I wish this was just me running around saying the sky is falling but many of the ideas proposed already would give far too much power to organizations whose real goal is not to help the environment, but to exercise greater degrees of control over mankind and make the heads of such organizations ridiculously wealthy. I mean no disrespect either, if I have come off that way, please accept my apology. No apology necessary, Morphy. I can appreciate what you are saying but then what's the solution? If we do nothing or we've failed our children and grandchildren miserably. Not just failed but condemned them.	eng	75ad71c5-2b3c-4fd3-8736-61df362d8e94	http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1336906685;start=all
I think I'm going to learn the writing by writing stuff in English but with Japanese letters. That and I will probably download Rosetta stone again - that was quite good actually. (recommend) But I need to learn some Japanese before I go back there, It got kinda boring at times seeing as practically NO ONE speaks any English. Alchemist007 2012-01-18, 09:00 You're going to want to take a more serious approach if you want to actually learn the language. Unless all you intend to do is use a few words for travel purposes, people do that all the time. But if you're talking about investing time and effort, you have to commit. Rosetta Stone is nice for learning a few words and sentences (to travel by) but it's no substitute for proper learning. You've got 175 previous pages in this thread, try looking at a few suggestions for beginners (not all 175 mind you, there lots of repeating things since there's people asking these types of things all the time). Shinji01 2012-01-20, 08:29 Having plans to study in Japan for the Japanese language program. Right now I plan to look at Kansai Gaidai, Waseda, Keio, Ritsumeikan and perhaps ICU and Sophia since my Japanese political science teacher said that they have "excellent" Japanese language programs. I'll go and look at them carefully when I can...TheB0a 2012-02-06, 02:22 Is this thread dead ? I'm interested in learning some japanese but after a page or two the "lessons" just stopped. Will there still be people posting on this thread ? Whether it be small lessons, links for learning, and such. LeoXiao 2012-02-06, 02:25 I've kind of given up learning anything from this thread. I feel that I've I've reached the peak of whatever self-study can offer me and I'll just have to take the language in school if I want to go any further. TheB0a 2012-02-06, 02:28 Will there still be people posting on this thread though ? LeoXiao 2012-02-06, 02:36 Ask a question, and see if it gets a response, is all I can say. warita 2012-02-06, 02:37 Sure why not. I am kind of an expert on self study, hahaha But it is like LeoXiao said, you dont really get very far this way, you have to understand that. TheB0a 2012-02-06, 02:41 LeoXiao 2012-02-06, 02:44 Sure why not. I am kind of an expert on self study, hahaha But it is like LeoXiao said, you dont really get very far this way, you have to understand that. Now it's not so much that self-study really can't get you anywhere, but that at least for me, after a certain point it just becomes hard to keep yourself sufficiently motivated. I don't know why but having a teacher with regular classes seems to intrinsically allow me to learn languages much more effectively. = There is, of course, the time-honoured method of taking a Japanese textbook, trekking into the mountains, and dedicating yourself to every lesson in the volume before returning to civilization like a boss. LeoXiao 2012-02-06, 03:07There are decent sites and audio lessons that can help you with this. Case in point: I used this a few years back and in conjunction with watching too much anime it seemed to make some sense. Read the first few lessons, learn the hiragana and katakana, and then when you watch anime, watch it subbed and try to figure out and and get an ear for the way they build sentences. A great thing about Japanese is that the sounds are very simple and thus easy to hear correctly. Once you've gotten the basic pronouns and sentence structure memorized, make a point of thinking "how would that sentence be structured in Japanese?" whenever you think of something in English. This helps embed the workings of the language in your brain. As for learning the alphabets, there being 50 symbols in each alphabet to learn looks difficult, but remember them in order (a i u e o, ka ki ku ke ko, etc) and rewrite them over and over again like crazy and you'll get it eventually. I used to take a sheet of lined paper, divide it into fifteen rectangles, and write the alphabet fifteen times, and then repeat the same process on the other side. I found that I didn't have to even fill the whole page before I could do it without mistakes. Kanji, which is quite important, is a measure more difficult since you have to just memorize each character. But it's the kind of thing that you should honestly avoid learning until you've mastered the basics of the spoken language and the hiragana/katakana. Kanji is most important for nouns and verbs, especially more intellectual ones. You would write "sakana" (fish) as either さかな (hiragana) or 魚 (Kanji), but things like "Shogun" (general) or "hiragana" would probably always be written in Kanji ("將軍" and "平假名", respectively).That's all for now. If you have complicated questions, ask someone who's actually Japanese. ;) warita 2012-02-06, 03:52 LeoXiao 2012-02-06, 05:19chikorita157 2012-02-06, 15:30 Actually, Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese ( teaches the short forms (also puts more emphasis on it too while teaching the polite forms). Also, a few textbooks like Genki series also covers this as well along with other usages. Yu Ominae 2012-02-14, 17:16I probably will stick to Tokyo, so it is nice to get some suggestions on probably where to check out first. word sux 2012-03-09, 20:01 I am using Tae Kim's guide right now just to get started. Its pretty good, I am copying the Hiragana over and over for a line while pronouncing it aloud. Just finished the vowels. I am going to make up some flash cards so I can quiz myself Alchemist007 2012-03-10, 13:22 Flash cards are your best friends. After trying some techniques out myself (after my lovely Japanese The Written Language ran out of kanji to teach me), I'm just reading this other book filled with tons of Kanji and making flash cards out of every new one I encounter. I then look them up here ( (which is simple because the book gives the kana on top of the new kanji it introduces). And I add it to my flash card collection (the new book is this ( btw, also includes listening practice with that cd). word sux 2012-03-10, 18:30 would it be wise to get down hiragana first as well as concentrating on the spoken language then once I have a better grasp on the hiragana and spoken language then move on to the katakana and kanji?? It seems to try and learn all three syllabus's before having a better grasp on the language itself would just be confusing and take longer. I am hesitant to use the "romaji" because I want my brain to associate the sounds and words with the kana. would it be better to just get the spoken language down first to at least a basic level then start to incorporate the written language like you do when your a little kid? You learn to speak before you learn to write as a child so would it be logical to learn how to speak the language first?? man its hard learning a language from scratch.. Seitsuki 2012-03-11, 20:25 Hey there everyone Over the past few years I've been dipping in and out as a translator. It's alright, I can get stuff done at a reasonable pace, but recently after trying to scanlate a manga one major glaring inconsistency has been thrown into focus: my kanji. Basically all my work earlier was based off txt files, whether VN or LN; if I didn't recognise something I could just throw it into a translator. For that chaper I spent far too long agonisingly searching up phrases and turning what should have been a few minutes work into hours. It was not enjoyable. Aoie_Emesai 2012-03-11, 20:47 I used and it has worked well for me so far. (and the work book) I've known so many people trying to learn the language and if you cannot at least partially dedicate yourself to learning grammar and the kanji it's almost pointless. But of course my goal is to be able to write, read and speak it. word sux 2012-03-11, 21:06 I just downloaded the pimsleur cd's to my mp3 player. going to start working on basic conversation and pronunciation on my way to work and back Alchemist007 2012-03-11, 22:57Miko Miko 2012-03-28, 11:43 HEY GAIIZ. How effective is a conversation class? It's a 4 year thing, like uni, but it only covers the speaking side of things I believe. I don't think you learn things like reading and writing. :( I can't afford uni though, that's the huge difference. I also don't have the right qualifications, so I'm counting on this to learn Japanese. How effective is it? Will they teach at least Hiragana and/or Katakana? What will be my level by the time I finish it? - Like will I be able to hold a PROPER conversation whether it be over the phone, or in person about literally anything. Or will their be huge chunks missing like language lessons when I was at school. :( Alchemist007 2012-03-28, 20:37 I can't say I know what that really is, but I would think they would at least point you in the right direction in getting to learn the written language, resources and stuff. I'd say go for it, at least you'd have something. I'd at least recommend doing the reading/writing on your own if they don't offer anything. That way you have physical associations with the things you hear. warita 2012-03-29, 05:55 For most people this is true, because they lack the necessary self discipline to study as they should. So they need a teacher, who will go through the exercises with them, give them homework and check whether they did it or not. It is simply a lot harder to be lazy, if you have somebody behind you making sure you study. Also, if you already paid for the courses, they it would be a waste to drop it, so that is an additional motivation. If you however can force yourself to be motivated and study every day for lets say one hour, then self study is actually far more efficient way of learning a language. I know this, because I learned english and spanish on my own. Especially spanish is my hobby and I managed to master the language in half a year. Admittedly, I invested a lot of time into it, I studied 2h every day and dedicated it a good part of the weekend. And thats pretty good for a person, who is not language talented. Alchemist007 2012-03-29, 15:56 Did you consider that you are language talented? :heh: warita 2012-03-29, 17:47 Did you consider that you are language talented? :heh: Considering how extremely hard it is for me to learn another language, I would say I am not. it isnt just a subjective feeling. I had plenty of comparisson in my school during language classes. Other people seem to pick it up relatively easy, I was sweating blood and failing in english year after year, until I decided to change that (mainly because my english teacher called my english a train wreck and said, that if I wont do something about it, he will have to give me a failing mark the following year). Also, my brother and sister learn languages surprisingly easy too... how much I envy them, sigh.... they come after father in this respect.... and I after mother, who has never managed to learn a second language. Some people are just really bad with languages and they have to invest inhuman effort into learning it. ranran 2012-03-29, 18:31 If you however can force yourself to be motivated and study every day for lets say one hour, then self study is actually far more efficient way of learning a language.Qikz 2012-03-30, 07:35To extend on what you said, I never took any classes and started learning by myself, add playing games onto that and it's pretty much how I've learnt until now (I'm a third year student just I think). I found it much easier to learn while doing things I love and my skills grew much quicker than I thought they would. The Wild Turkey 2012-03-30, 17:37Mystique 2012-03-30, 18:11This should be in the 'translate this' thread, for starters and um.. I don't know how close you are with the father but the entire thing needs re writing :heh: Watashino warui nihongo gomen. The nuance of this would be like 'I've still got a long way to go with my Japanese but please bear with me' 日本語はまだまだのことすみません。 Not sure what you wanna say in the 2nd part :upset: 突然すみませんが[name]とプロポーサルしたいと思っていますのでプロポーサルする前許可を願いたいと思います。 Even then, this would be done in super keigo and asking for someone's permission wouldn't go in the English way of saying 'Id like to ask your permission for your daughters hand's in marriage' But something like 'Could you do me the great favour of allowing me to marry your daughter' It'd be written in the passive form in Japanese. Anyways, I'm sure one of the natives or fluent lot will pop on here and write you something lovely, so wait a while but requests like this go in the 'translate this' thread. All the best with the proposal ;) The Wild Turkey 2012-03-30, 18:57 Oops, I didn't realize there was a 'translate this' thread. If it belongs there better, could it please be moved? Urzu 7 2012-04-13, 22:38 I read that there is the female name "Ruri" and the male form "Ru-ri". Would you pronounce the two differently? How would you pronounce the two? Also, would a male person with the name "Ru-ri" just write it as "Ruri" in most instances (when writing their name in English)? Kizoku Keenan 2012-04-14, 11:49 can anyone recommend a great app for iphone or macs that can teach you japanese or specifically kanji? I mostly use my language coach for Nintendo DS but it only teaches you hiragana & katakana. Zakoo 2012-04-22, 07:20 Hey guys, how do you do when you meet for the first time a new kanji? Totally no-existant so far, do you have a website with easy search or something? larethian 2012-04-22, 09:28 Hey guys, how do you do when you meet for the first time a new kanji? Totally no-existant so far, do you have a website with easy search or something? I say 'Hi' to it, but maybe you want to post the kanji. Solafighter 2012-04-22, 09:56 I got pretty much all Hiragana in my head in recognising and writing. Can someone recommend me some sides, where i can do some practise reading? To get better into the fluent reading by doing it, doing it, doing it and doing it. Thanks! :) Zakoo 2012-04-22, 10:14 I say 'Hi' to it, but maybe you want to post the kanji.larethian 2012-04-22, 21:21Generally, you can use any site that supports multiple radical search. To do this, you have to learn the radical strokes of kanji, and you identify the radicals, which are categorized by the number of strokes, and select them. Try this: But you can screen-cap it and post it if you want. O.D. 2012-04-22, 23:45 @Zakoo: If you have Japanese locale installed you can just use the handwriting (or better said mousewriting) recognition utility that comes with IME. Open up the language bar, go to IMEパッド -> 手書き, write the character that you don't know (using the correct stroke order), check up on the list to the right to see if your character was found and then insert the said character into your favourite dictionary. Simple, right? Zakoo 2012-04-23, 05:56 Oho nice one for the IME; I didn't know, thanks for the website too, it helps a lot. Zakoo 2012-10-18, 17:29 Hello guys, again in need of you. Just a grammar basic I don't manage to get. 顔見られてる The sentence was translated as "She's looking at me", but I don't understand why, the form -rareru is used for passive or ability, but in this example there's the -teru after, what does that mean?Thanks in advance. Seitsuki 2012-10-18, 19:41 Yep, that would be the literal TL. A more natural way of expression would probably be something along the lines of 'I'm being looked at'. 'Teiru' generally means 'currently (doing)' to clarify tense as the plain form alone is rather ambiguous. As an irregular verb the potential of 見る is 見える/見えられる so you can be sure it's the passive form here. It's still pretty much the same meaning as what they've TLed it as. So long as there are no real inaccuracies, I don't believe being literal is terribly good English in many cases (the grammar and syntax are just fundamentally different). Avatar of Dreams 2012-10-18, 20:52Yes, writing/saying "teru" is shorthand for "te iru" as they sound very similar so you can slur it in casual conversation. The meaning is the same. This actually occurs with many "te+verb" forms such as "te+iku" = "teku" or "te+oku" = "toku" As an irregular verb the potential of 見る is 見える/見えられる so you can be sure it's the passive form here. This is misleading. The potential form of 見る is the same as its passive form, 見られる. 見える is a verb that is extremely similar to 見られる and can be used interchangeably in many cases. They are however not always equivalent in meaning. 聞ける and 聞こえる are in a similar vein. 見えられる is not used as a potential verb as you are trying to attach the potential ending to what is already essentially a potential verb. It can be used with a completely different meaning in polite Japanese but I will not go into that. Cosmic Eagle 2012-10-18, 23:06Zakoo 2012-10-19, 02:01 Thanks to everybody, I will come again if I need help, I'm finally at the end of JPLT 3. So it's time I put the kanji on the side and enter the gramatical woorld. Seitsuki 2012-10-19, 02:51 I.. don't know. They TL close enough for me so I think of them the same. Now that I think about it though my teacher may have said something along those lines.. but.. orz Cosmic Eagle 2012-10-19, 04:07 Yeah for rendering into english puposes it's usually interchangeable...but because of that nuance, well, sometimes a different word choice in translating may be appropriate. And usage-wise...Like I said, I've never seen them used in situations where the other would fit... Avatar of Dreams 2012-10-19, 07:54Perhaps 'interchangeable' is too strong a word. Yes, 見られる only implies that there is the possibility of "seeing", perhaps requiring some form of effort, while 見える denotes the spontaneous notion of something being visible. I was merely implying that there are situations where the use of one word over the other will not have a drastic change to the meaning of a sentence. For example, when the "effort" relating to 見られる is merely the action of turning your head in the right direction which in case the word choice will depend on the speaker's perspective. Cosmic Eagle 2012-10-19, 09:43 I see...that's actually more subjective than I imagined... erneiz_hyde 2012-11-02, 05:56Are there any more names that is read uniquely like this?九(Ichijiku) 四月朔日(Watanuki) 八月朔日(Hozumi) 月美里(Yamanashi) Avatar of Dreams 2012-11-02, 08:00 When it comes to names, readings tend to be a little...flexible. I believe that particular character's name is written 「小鳥遊」(well, according to wikipedia and the official website), though Takanashi can be written both ways. You are correct on its nuance though. And I'll explain the meanings of the names JINNSK posted: 九(いちじく)=一字で九 = Literally "nine" with one character 四月朔日, also 四月一日(わたぬき)=綿を抜く=The written name literally means April 1st while the reading means 'to take the cotton out' (of your clothes). This is a reference to the old days where people would take out the cotton that was padding their clothes because the weather gets warmer in Spring. 八月朔日, also 八月一日(ほづみ)=穂を摘む = August 1st/ 'Pluck the ear of plants' (of wheat and such) because August is harvest season. 月美里, also 月見里(やまなし)=山がない=Name means 'the town where the moon is beautiful/visible' while the reading means 'no mountain' (so nothing blocks the moon). Personally I would never name a child these names, but to each his own. erneiz_hyde 2012-11-02, 08:30 Zakoo 2012-11-02, 17:21 Hue hue hue me again. So well as always grammar, my weak point, french is totally different than japenese, nah actually I'm bad at french grammar too so whatever. The word から can be used to show either the causis (after verb or adjective) or the point of beginning (after a noun), fine I understand this. but let's take this sentence : 聞くだけわ聞いてあげるからいってみなさいよ I understand it as "Fine if it's only listening, I'm going to listen to you so ask me." Context is a brother asking a request... I guess? I can not see the word kara here being used as a causis, yet its after a verb. am I getting this wrong? Cosmic Eagle 2012-11-02, 21:45 Errm....I don't really understand proper terms for grammar but to me, the kara here is acting as denoting a reason for something I would translate as If it's only listening, I'll listen, so ask away. He's saying to ask because he'll listen And the wa particle is mistyped btw I may be wrong though, just saying first.... Avatar of Dreams 2012-11-03, 18:22 ^This is correct. A から B B because A Basically 'ask/tell me because I'll listen'.Common? No. In use? Yes. For how long? My knowledge of Japanese history does not extend long enough for me to really know. I am not aware of any special designation given to these names. I suppose they are a form of 'wordplay' (言葉遊び)but I can't think of anything more specific than that. Zakoo 2012-11-03, 18:27 I see .. thank to both of you. Honestly what a weird way of putting it but that's what make different language so interesting. I will be back. Cosmic Eagle 2012-11-03, 19:39 It's not weird.....The thing before the kara is the reason. This one here may look complicated to newcomers to the language because 聞くだけは聞いてあげる may seem long but it helps if you mentally break that up into parts 聞くだけは聞いてあげる The red elaborates on the blue (as in "I'll listen" further elaborates on "as it's just listening") but the whole thing serves as the reason. Alchemist007 2012-11-03, 20:53 Really, you just need to do some more reading, it helps to digest a lot of concepts. A good book will give you many examples and translations to get it (useful for basics). larethian 2012-11-03, 22:59To find out whether a family name exists in reality and how it's read, you can use this: Lawfer 2013-01-13, 07:59 I dont have an Ipad or a mac, so what is the best paying software for windows? NK141 2013-01-13, 08:16 :) Lawfer 2013-01-13, 08:25 :)Lawfer 2013-01-13, 08:38jcdietz03 2013-01-28, 15:53Kudryavka 2013-01-28, 17:52I also feel this way. For a native English speaker, the only really hard part of Japanese for me is writing. Grammar is somewhat simple compared to English (not way simple like Mandarin, but still more simple). GenjiChan 2013-01-28, 18:12:uhoh: LeoXiao 2013-01-28, 18:20erneiz_hyde 2013-01-28, 20:04Kudryavka 2013-01-29, 06:22erneiz_hyde 2013-01-29, 07:31Kudryavka 2013-01-29, 07:34hyl 2013-01-29, 07:36Cosmic Eagle 2013-01-29, 10:56LeoXiao 2013-01-29, 13:59Ugh...no way. Japanese grammar with pure kanji is a nightmare I don't ever want to face. And I'm speaking as someone who is racially Chinese...Kudryavka 2013-01-29, 14:58How are those two languages fundamentally similar at all?? LeoXiao 2013-01-29, 15:48 Oh, I thought you were talking about the function of the hanzi. The languages themselves are quite different. Kudryavka 2013-01-29, 15:56 Yea, that's all I say. :meh: DonQuigleone 2013-01-29, 17:40 LeoXiao 2013-01-29, 18:41Sure, characters take quite a bit of time to master, but the Chinese whose entire language is made of them seem to have no real trouble with it. There is the question of expedience - it is true that an English speaker is theoretically fully literate after second grade (in comparison to a Chinese who reaches the same level probably a couple years later) - I say, why bother? There is culture in the characters. You can still read the texts of the ancients even though the spoken language is now completely different. Using a phonetic system it would be impossible to understand their words as every tenth one would have the same reading. There is no hindrance other than to people used to alphabets complaining about the learning curve. Sumeragi 2013-01-29, 18:45The main difference between Japanese and Korean is that Korean uses only the sound of the character in regular speech, while Japanese has the difference with On'yomi and Kun'yomi. Taking 東 as an example: Korean: 東 is read only as "Dong". Japanese: 東 can be read as "Tou", "Higashi", and "Azuma". LeoXiao 2013-01-29, 19:03 Wouldn't that make Korean work even less well than Japanese without characters, or do they have their own native word for "east"? There must be tons of different Hanja with the reading "Dong", which I imagine would complicate things if they all were written the same. Cosmic Eagle 2013-01-29, 19:06Lol...actually, when you see it often enough, the freeze doesn't last more than a split second or so. About Japanese readings for Chinese words...I rather they remain with kanji for everything. Imagine, would you rather see stuff like ikazuchi, tsurugi, yaoyorozu etc in kanji or the full thing spelt out in kana everytime While most of the kanji they use are not common in Chinese, well...it IS a different language after all. And the similarities are still present between the characters Sumeragi 2013-01-29, 19:06 It's called context. You know what word is being said by the context. LeoXiao 2013-01-29, 19:27 Looking at a sample of Korean text, I see that some of the "characters" (yes yes I know they are actually phonetic clusters) are more complicated-looking than others. I guess these "big words" are the actual nouns, verbs, and adjectives as opposed to connectors and grammatical particles, so reading it shouldn't be too hard. The problem with kana, it seems, is that they are all the same size, so it makes more sense to write 美しい than spell the whole thing ( うつくしい) out. Not to mention the language has no spaces so god forbid it all be in kana. Alchemist007 2013-01-29, 20:47 It's called context. You know what word is being said by the context. This is what I used to think. Then you learn that there's a billion different ways to interpret "shin." Context can only go so far but with kanji you have a much higher rate of knowing what it means then and there. If you had nothing but kana for the writing system then believe me you'll have no idea what the hell is being talked about when it comes to sentences beyond the basics. Though the Japanese are aware of the craziness that is kanji, but they grow up with it so it's just a thousand times more difficult for foreigners. The Koreans eventually saw fit to break out of it, it's possible the Japanese may one day. Sumeragi 2013-01-29, 20:55 It's not that simple. The complexity of Japanese in terms of On'yomi and Kun'yomi forces it to use Kanji regularly in order to completely relay ideas. To consider Japanese as the equivalent of Korean is the thought of those who do not know both languages and focus only on superficial aspects. Korean always had the advantage that only the reading is read when Hanja is used. Japanese does not have that luxury short of a radical change in the language itself. LeoXiao 2013-01-29, 21:25 I'm still not sure I understand why Japanese needs Kanji if Korean doesn't need Hanja based on the on'/kun'yomi logic. Whether you say "utsukushi/mi/bi/"etc. for what was once that one single character, what is the problem as long as there is context? It is like the two English suffixes "after-" and "post-", we don't need one word with those two different readings for different circumstances, so why does Japanese? Sumeragi 2013-01-29, 21:30 Whether you say "utsukushi/mi/bi/"etc. for what was once that one single character LeoXiao 2013-01-29, 21:35 uh... would the reading of both 川 and 河 being かわ serve as a good example of what you mean? EDIT: Japanese always split the same Kanji character into multiple readings, to the point its basically impossible to understand what a certain sentence is supposed to mean without having the Kanji.Alchemist007 2013-01-29, 23:10 To consider Japanese as the equivalent of Korean is the thought of those who do not know both languages and focus only on superficial aspects. Languages evolve daily, Japanese is no exception. It'd certainly be a lot harder for the Japanese to do it (stop using kanji) but the fact that it's not static already (in both spoken and written forms) means that it's possible that they could drop Kanji one day. The likelyhood of which depends on how hard they want to try. Obviously context is present when having a spoken conversation, not to mention nuances and speaking patterns. But the written language in only kana gets very confusing because of the many ways you could interpret any given set of hiragana characters. Context in that regard really only goes so far considering the sheer amount of dependency Japanese has in Kun and On'yomi not to mention how many words are in a language. Perhaps you might have to know and get used to how the language works before this really sinks in. DonQuigleone 2013-01-30, 02:43Sounds to me like spoken Japanese and written Japanese are diverging. Written Japanese is so different from spoken Japanese that it has to be written in Kanji to be understandable. That written Japanese is different from the vernacular, surely must damage literacy? A similar problem existed in Europe until quite recently as well, the primary written language was Latin (not a vernacular like English), which proved to be a great impediment to literacy. Today written and spoken English are largely the same. You could speak in written English and be perfectly understood, and write in spoken English (minus filling words like ums or uhs) and be considered a proficient writer. (Of course English has different issues surrounding spelling, but even if spelling was reformed, English would not have a problem with homophones) But in Japan if you spoke in written Japanese it sounds to me like you wouldn't be understood (heaven help those who try to sell book readings...), and I can gather that if you tried to write in a manner similar to spoken Japanese your writing would be judged inferior. Sounds almost as absurd as that Shi poem ( Cosmic Eagle 2013-01-30, 02:57 uh... would the reading of both 川 and 河 being かわ serve as a good example of what you mean? EDIT: Uh huh...but in written language, imagine a book completely in kana. Then compare to with kanji But in Japan if you spoke in written Japanese it sounds to me like you wouldn't be understood You would but it's just that well, you don't write like the way people speak in 2ch (the way youth talk to each other normally) for a formal setting do you? LeoXiao 2013-01-30, 03:05 Uh huh...but in written language, imagine a book completely in kana. Then compare to with kanji But if Korean does it without issue, it should be fine right? I guess I'm just not understanding the argument for why having kun-yomi makes Japanese so much different from Korean... (I am against abolishing kanji, I know what you mean by the "kana-only" nightmare) Cosmic Eagle 2013-01-30, 03:13 Don't know a single drop of Korean but it's the way Japanese words are constructed. Kanji+kana= a word. That format. Then you consider due to the yomi there's so many ways of sounding. If you understand the pure kana issue then yeah...you got the main gist of the problem Magin 2013-02-04, 12:56 LeoXiao 2013-02-04, 14:31My suggestion would be simply to read as much as possible. Now that might sound really difficult but there are books where the kana is added to the top or sides of the kanji so you can tell how it should be read. I have a textbook for instance with a collection of essays that have this feature. Brute memorization, while it sounds terrible, is actually quite effective in conjunction with normal reading. The trick is quantity and volume. Say you want to learn 20 characters a day: in the morning, take twice that number and go over their meaning and readings, making sure to repeat the readings aloud and write each one 5-10 times. Then take a break and read an essay. If you see any kanji you just reviewed, make mental notes for reinforcement's sake. Then at the end of the day go back and try to write and read out all the kanjis you can remember. As long as you retained a few you are fine. Then create a new set for the next day/session/class/whatever. You may forget some of the kanji you thought you learned well, but don't worry, just keep sending them into the memorygrinder, keep reading different texts, and they will stick eventually. Zakoo 2013-02-04, 14:36 Imho I more or less passed the JPLT 3, I will say it straight, hooray for kanji. a full sentence in hiragana is aweful, really aweful, at least when there's a kanji you can "not read", since japenese grammar becomes somehow basic once you become used to it, just the fact of looking the kanji can gives you the vibes for the sentence. Just thinking about making the difference between 以外 and 意外 in hiragana drives me insane. At least that works for manga, I will let the pros talk about real litterature and newspaper. Ittekimasu (not to be confused with itadekimasu) is actually used more primarily for goodbye over sayonara. LeoXiao 2013-02-04, 18:14 Ittekimasu (not to be confused with itadekimasu) is actually used more primarily for goodbye over sayonara. It means "I'm going" (and coming back presumably), whereas "sayonara" is more like "farewell", and has a finalizing tone. Kimidori 2013-02-05, 12:12 Kudryavka 2013-02-05, 13:16All the VNs I played have a lot of kanji, and there are some that start getting so poetic you might as well have the skill to read a book of literary merit. I can see how you did that with English, but kanji don't really work the same way since they are all new signs and symbols (until you get a feel for the radicals and stuff). I think you could learn Japanese from games if you really wanted to, but not VNs, at least not for starting out. Maybe some games aimed at children like Nintendo? I know Kingdom Hearts in particular includes furigana for kanji that aren't extremely common/easy. erneiz_hyde 2013-02-05, 15:08 DonQuigleone 2013-02-05, 15:29 I'd say if you can find a game with Furigana it would be a good start. Otherwise that mass of symbols will be difficult for you to get a start on deciphering, and you'd quickly get discouraged. Kudryavka 2013-02-05, 15:52Yes, I think reading anything would be practice... It's just that if you're starting out with kanji (as I assume OP is since s/he implies s/he will have his/her first JPN class soon?), reading VNs is just not feasible. Unless you have a tooon of patience to use AGTH. Though the more you know, the less you'll be leaning on AGTH for support. I tried reading a VN with AGTH back when I only knew 40 kanji, and uggghh... It took way too long. :heh: But that is me, I'm sure if you have a game you really want to play no matter what you would perservere. But if OP already has decent kanji knowledge, then I'm sure they'll get great, efficient use out of AGTH. But still, learning kanji is not really like learning words in languages which only use alphabets. With alphabets, no matter what you will be able to at least pronounce the word with even basic skills. With kanji you must study and commit them to memory, at least in the beginning.Alchemist007 2013-02-05, 17:55 By OP I assume you mean erneiz? Because the actual OP made this thread 10 years ago :heh: Kudryavka 2013-02-05, 17:55 By OP I assume you mean erneiz? Because the actual OP made this thread 10 years ago :heh: Yep, I am talking about the OP of this current topic/the question asker, Kimidori. Cosmic Eagle 2013-02-05, 19:56I wonder how you even guage how many kanji you know....you can't recall every single word in your vocabulary off the top of your head like that yet it's such a commonly used marker Kudryavka 2013-02-05, 20:02 I wonder how you even guage how many kanji you know....you can't recall every single word in your vocabulary off the top of your head like that yet it's such a commonly used marker When that is said, it doesn't want the person to know exactly how many kanji they know, that'd be impossible unless she knew that few or just passed a JLPT (which would not be an exact gauge, but could give a ballpark unless you passed the test with flying colors or something). When I say "how many do you know", I'm more like "Do you know 0? 10? 100? or 500? or 10000?". Huge ballparks, except for the lower numbers. erneiz_hyde 2013-02-05, 20:38 Kudryavka 2013-02-05, 20:58Yes, I was asking Kimidori. My bad, I just copied your name because the person I quoted used your name. I fixed it now. Wow good job finishing LB with AGTH and a translator. LeoXiao 2013-02-05, 22:31 My thoughts: If you can count how many kanji you know, it's probably not very many. When you get used to learning them you can find patterns and kind of guess how a character is read. Alchemist007 2013-02-06, 12:52 Well personally, I write down every new kanji I come across on flashcards. I just review them time to time for memorization. DarkSkiper 2013-02-06, 14:17 Hello! I recently started learning Japanese via self-learning and I have a question. What is better, to learn words or kanji? I decided to learn grammar + pick up some words along the way, but decided to leave kanji for later once I'm done with the grammar. Is it a good course of action or not? I'm under the impression that if I learn words to increase my vocabulary, kanji will be come naturally or something along those lines. Am I wrong in thinking so? -Necromancer- 2013-02-06, 14:30 DarkSkiper: Im in the exact same situation at the moment xD So I'd like an answer too. Also does any one know anywhere, where they say the japanese then the english right after? preferably a song. Since I learn a lot faster using songs and listening to them than reading or speaking etc. I have a few where they say the words then the english but it's not in a beat or song so it's still a little hard and I have some where they have the english but in a sub so it doesn't work on my mp3 :o Thanks in advance LeoXiao 2013-02-06, 19:39 You want to start with the core of the language, which includes basic vocab and grammar, and in the case of Japanese, the alphabet. Hiragana should be your starting point since it is what the most basic words are composed with. Kanji only really becomes necessary when you start dealing with more abstract or intellectual concepts; think of it like all the Latin and Greek stuff we have in English. As for learning from songs... I'd say it works (I've learned quite a few Russian words that way), but as for the English following it thing, if I were you I'd just find the lyrics (in English, romaji, and hiragana/kanji) online somewhere, print or write them out, and look at them as you listen. And do not actually sing them out loud unless you have a good voice and pronunciation or else it will sound terrible and create a public disturbance. :heh: DarkSkiper 2013-02-07, 00:28 ^Thanks! I didn't mention hiragana since I already learned them along with katakana. Kudryavka 2013-02-21, 22:44 What are the rules for adding な to a noun to make it a modifying word/adjective? Can I add な to any noun for which an adjective doesn't already exist? LeoXiao 2013-02-22, 01:42 What are the rules for adding な to a noun to make it a modifying word/adjective? Can I add な to any noun for which an adjective doesn't already exist? larethian 2013-02-22, 03:06There are plenty of na-adjectives that terminate with 'い'. What are the rules for adding な to a noun to make it a modifying word/adjective? Can I add な to any noun for which an adjective doesn't already exist? LeoXiao 2013-02-22, 03:08 There are plenty of na-adjectives that terminate with 'い'. Excuse me, but did you read? I said "ii", not "i". larethian 2013-02-22, 03:12 Excuse me, but did you read? I said "ii", not "i". yasashii (優しい) does not end with 'ii'; it ends with 'shii'. same for oishii (おいしい). osoi (遅い) is an i-adjective and ends with い. All i-adjectives end with い. But the converse is not true, thus we have to memorize by heart which are na-adjectives and which are i-adjectives. LeoXiao 2013-02-22, 03:40 But they still end in the -ii sound. The consonant sound before it is not important. Cosmic Eagle 2013-02-22, 11:04 But they still end in the -ii sound. The consonant sound before it is not important. kirei is a na-adj....just saying... LeoXiao 2013-02-22, 12:07 kirei is a na-adj....just saying... Argh, "kirei" has only one "i" sound at the end, not two! Cosmic Eagle 2013-02-22, 12:24 Argh, "kirei" has only one "i" sound at the end, not two! You are saying the consonant sound before the i is not important LeoXiao 2013-02-22, 12:37 You are saying the consonant sound before the i is not importantJINNSK 2013-02-22, 12:42 :confused:i of kirei(綺麗 in kanji) is from 麗(rei).It isn't an adj though the end is i. Kudryavka 2013-02-22, 13:08I mean for words that are just nouns, not already common -na adjectives. Like could I do 犬な? Thank you. I think my new clarification is better to understand. LeoXiao 2013-02-22, 13:20 I mean for words that are just nouns, not already common -na adjectives. Like could I do 犬な? As seen in the example "keizaiteki" (economical), rendered 经济的 (sorry, computer can only type PRC characters), what we have is "keizai", or the noun "economics", followed by the kanji " 的" (teki), which indicates an adjective. But to make this work in Japanese you need the "-na", as "keizaiteki" is indeclinable according to the "-ii" adjective rules. Note that none of these examples end in a double "-ii" sound. Also, all of these examples are in the On'yomi form of pronunciation, i.e. adapted directly from Chinese, while the "-ii" examples like "yasashii", "mezurashii" or "muzukashii" are Kun'yomi and therefore native Japanese words. Seitsuki 2013-02-23, 15:04erneiz_hyde 2013-02-23, 15:44 Onee san or the like) and those who do understand JP may take it to mean mother instead. Thoughts?If this character was adopted by the aunt then I think 'mom' would suffice. I can't think of any other reason why someone would call their aunt as mother. Cosmic Eagle 2013-02-23, 21:39れ is not a consonant sound? LeoXiao 2013-02-23, 21:47 れ is not a consonant sound? It is a consonant sound, but it does not end in "i". Cosmic Eagle 2013-02-23, 22:21 And anyway what about stuff like 大きな ? Can take both na and i form i being simply 大きい LeoXiao 2013-02-23, 23:31 I actually don't know, maybe there are irregular cases. My Japanese isn't all that good. I was always under the impression that 大きい was the correct form. Avatar of Dreams 2013-02-23, 23:49 And anyway what about stuff like 大きな ? Can take both na and i form i being simply 大きい I think you're missing his point. He means to say that when the adjective is written out in romanized form, if the last two letters are both 'i', the verb is an i-adjective (形容詞). 大きな would be romanized as 'ookina' so there is only one 'i' before the 'na', thus his rule technically holds in this case. Unfortunately that rule is not correct. Counterexamples: 奇異な(きいな)、軽易な(けいいな). LeoXiao 2013-02-24, 00:00 Okay, I guess that theory no longer works. Is the rule actually based on the differences between native vs. Sino-Japanese words? AmeNoJaku 2013-02-24, 12:09 About J-adjectives: The original question makes little sense, both types of adjectives are always used as adjectives, just follow different conjugation rules. If you have to use a noun as an adjective, use the no particle. Now what LeoXiao wrote is correct and this is how textbooks introduce adjectives. But it does not cover everything, if one succumbs to japanese grammar nazism :pExplanation in brackets or a translation note are the best solutions, if the target language doesn't have a similar way to express something. Localization is as bad as dubbing in these cases, not being able to convey all the information from the original language. larethian 2013-02-24, 22:34I agree with what you said in bold, that '-ii' sounds don't take 'na' during conjugation with nouns, but it doesn't mean that it has to be '-ii' to not take 'na' during conjugation with nouns, which was what I understood from your earlier post and other points. To phrase it another way, it sounds to me that you were saying that if it doesn't contain '-ii' sound, it will take 'na' during conjugation with nouns, which I know to be false. That's why I quoted 'osoi' as an example. I might have misunderstood your post and your meaning though, and apologize if that's the case. Nevertheless, my 2 cents is that, determining conjugation rules from how words sound is not the proper way. And I'm curious as to what textbook uses this manner of teaching, as none of my textbooks, reference books, nor the language school I had attended taught me in this manner. The proper way is to learn what class of words does a word fall into, whether it's a noun, i-adjective, na-adjective, godan verb, ichidan verb etc. etc., and learn the conjugation rules for that class and their exceptions. :confused:i of kirei(綺麗 in kanji) is from 麗(rei).It isn't an adj though the end is i.This is just another school of thought which classifies na-adjectives as adjectival nouns because they have similarities to 'behavior' of nouns. Another school of thought classifies them as nominal adjectives...... plain confusing if you ask me...... It's fine to see them as nouns if you want to (though I'm personally against that line of thought), but one must be careful to remember that they are not nouns in the truest sense, i.e. they cannot stand alone by themselves as a subject by taking the 'が' and 'は' particles. LeoXiao 2013-02-25, 01:49 Thanks for the informative response. My "-ii" theory has been further invalidated.Avatar of Dreams 2013-02-25, 08:59Sorry, that rule doesn't work either(静かな、エッチな、いやな of the top of my head). I'm not aware of any rule that separates the two types of adjectives. Usually you can tell just by looking though. Alchemist007 2013-02-25, 17:52 There are exceptions to damn near any rule, and not just in languages! taurosground 2013-02-25, 18:04 Newbie to Japanese here: Are there any sites/other places that you would recommend to an English speaker? Preferably free, thanks :D Alchemist007 2013-02-25, 19:36 These are resources I could recommend to any level learner (chances are you'd start as an intermediate since it's kanji stuff). I recommend this to get some pronunciations of words you don't know (basically a kanji -> romanji converter): Also you can enter kanji at the end of this url to get the wiki page on it if one exists: Just replace the 代. Here's a list of common kanji: And of course google translate: I'd be wary of that because it's easy for that thing to misunderstand too, so it's more of a helper than an actual translator. Kimidori 2013-03-14, 07:24 where to download a japanese sub track for the anime? erneiz_hyde 2013-03-14, 07:27 It's similar with English's "Hard" I guess. English isn't my first language, but I learned it quite early through games. So when in a class, I answered "Hard" instead of "Difficult" for what's the opposite of "Easy". edit: btw, it's apparently a case of different word indeed: 易しい and 優しい. The latter is what you usually hear of "kind". The former indeed means "easy". Irenicus 2013-03-14, 11:30 edit: btw, it's apparently a case of different word indeed: 易しい and 優しい. The latter is what you usually hear of "kind". The former indeed means "easy". The kanji of "yasashii" are actually used rather rarely. Often you see the word in hiragana. So it's probably most useful to treat it as one word with double meanings depending on context. English, too, have quite a few words like that. For me, I let my friend who can read well to read aloud for me first. Then I followed and read with the pace she read. oompa loompa 2013-05-07, 13:17 where to download a japanese sub track for the anime?EDIT:Theres still Katakana to go (which is way more irritating, at least for me) before Kanji. In any case, reading speed also has a lot to do with your familiarity with the language and seeing words (or in this case Kanji.. though I guess there is more spacing between words in Japanese than before). While it is important, I don't think you should be too worried about reading speed, focusing on increasing your reading speed is something that you would do if you were lagging behind your peers in reading, or after you have a good enough grasp to be reading a lot. AmeNoJaku 2013-05-09, 18:27Where did you hear that, I highly doubt that it is true. Was the source reliable?Don't they use the same expression in English too? But yeah, sounding the same can lead to some "interesting" misunderstandings :heh: Seitsuki 2013-05-09, 18:37 易しい and 優しい are completely different things. Context. Avatar of Dreams 2013-05-09, 22:21oompa loompa 2013-05-11, 04:32 The source is denshi jisho. I said I got it from there in the original post. and I said I hadn't heard of it before either.. which is exactly why I qualified it as apparently having that meaning. Where did you hear that, I highly doubt that it is true. Was the source reliable? Hate to break it to you buddy. " So the sequence "hashi" spoken in isolation can be accented in two ways, either háshi (accent on the first syllable, meaning 'chopsticks') or hashí (flat or accent on the second syllable, meaning either 'edge' or 'bridge'), while "hashi" plus the subject-marker "ga" can be accented on the first, second, or be flat/accentless: háshiga 'chopsticks', hashíga 'bridge', or hashigá 'edge'. " If you were asking about Japanese being limited in its syllables.. I couldn't find a source on the first google page.. but, I'm pretty sure its true (from experience speaking, listening, and studying). I think there are about 80 unique sounds not counting some katakana-specific ones. Thats one of the reasons why punning is so great in Japanese Alchemist007 2013-05-11, 12:12 I don't want to put any false information out there but I do recall hearing the 'easy person' (sexually) before, I think it depends on how the sentence is structured. Malkuth 2013-05-11, 17:46 Hate to break it to you buddy. HoennSora 2013-05-11, 18:23 I'm working on learning hiragana and I have a japanese version of Pokemon Sapphire which I'll work with to help learn better. I have begun weekly classes so that is something to look forward too :) oompa loompa 2013-05-11, 22:15Avatar of Dreams 2013-05-11, 22:23 I don't want to put any false information out there but I do recall hearing the 'easy person' (sexually) before, I think it depends on how the sentence is structured. definition. Malkuth 2013-05-12, 07:25I am far from convinced... it sounds more like personal opinions in obsolete matters. Then again my interest in linguistics is amateurish, empirical, and statistical... those old men that make money out of it (pretending to have some deeper insight in the matter) probably should disagree :heh: In any case, on my practical side, I was discussing the writings, pronunciations and uses of yasui(s) with a couple of friends from Kyuushuu and another from Kansai recently that enforced my current understanding, and crushed my hopes for the existence of some logic rule behind homophones in Japanese, or at least how Japanese are normally used in order to be understood by the native speakers and not how complicated they can be made in order to promoted social stratification :rolleyes: Alchemist007 2013-05-12, 22:47Might've just been a different word I'm recalling altogether then. larethian 2013-05-12, 23:00 I agree with using "chiebukuro", especially when 'cultural colloquialism' is suspected. While it is not a 100% given to have accurate or definitely right answers (since anyone can answer), one can attract quite quality (and sometimes backed-up) posts, especially when 'chi' is offered :heh: I have found it quite useful myself when I can't get hold of my pals on IM. Incidentally, one of my native Skype pals gave 'nay' as the answer as well. Mainly because 易しい人 appears to be misuse of 易しい to her. Seitsuki 2013-05-12, 23:10 I think it's simply an English problem. 易しい = easy > 易しい人 really should be something like an 'easygoing/easy person to get along with', but due to 'easy' also having the colloquial meaning of 'promiscuous' in some parts... well, one thing leads to another. Haiprbim 2013-05-13, 08:21 "thank you = arigato Pleased to meet you = Yoroshiku" Well, I say Arigatou and Yoroshiku-ne all the time, so... :P Malkuth 2013-05-13, 15:10 Avatar of Dreams 2013-05-13, 15:55Ah, you're right! It doesn't necessarily mean promiscuous but it can be used that way. Now it makes a lot more sense. Someone probably made the mistake of going: 安い → 易い → 易しい Thank you for the help Malkuth! お前は何でも知ってるな… ;) Malkuth 2013-05-14, 02:59 Glad to help... [rant-mode] ... but let me add that 安いー>易(し)い(+優しい)人 can be used potentially for very similar circumstances, one indicating that it's easy to "do" the said person, while the other that the person in question isn't particularly picky about his/her partners, plus there is the not yet mentioned case of someone receiving such lewd request kinder then usual and unfortunately both are not literal uses... so except form sounding similar, sharing the homophone kanji and some of the adjectival endings; the person used for usually can potentially share all these attributes :eyespin: But as with all languages, a context is the key to understanding, followed by clarification inquiries is the way to communicate correctly; definitely not those definitions that old geezers and hags get paid for and ask us in language exams... oh! and let's not forget that 99% of humans don't care about such differences, since outside unproductive language tutoring fads, even if one uses the "wrong" one, everyone will understand the point, unless he is a grammar/accent/pronunciation/kanji-nazi, in which case he doesn't want to ;) [/rant-mode] PS: I just remembered, LINDA published a story about a decade ago using the above kanji in its title as a wordplay :naughty: AmeNoJaku 2013-05-16, 12:02 Let me change the subject, since this discussion about "easy people" seems clarified, if not strangely referenced. Japanese language has a lot of verbs (used literally and metaphorically) for having sex (particularly non-consensual), but what about making love? You know the romantic variety that is the case 99,...% IRL. Unfortunately, anime, manga and doujinshi are not very helpful in the matter, and it's the kind of question that is very hard to ask in person :p erneiz_hyde 2013-05-16, 18:56 Not sure I understand the question, so are you asking about the euphemisms the Japanese use when referring to consensual sex? I can only think of 抱く(daku) for now. Seitsuki 2013-05-16, 19:03 I'm pretty sure しますalso works. Like, 'しよう'. I've seen it used quite a bit in yuri, which is some of the the sweetest stuff known to man. Or I dunno, やらないか Gundamx 2013-05-19, 09:05 Anyone here manage to solo Japanese language? Solafighter 2013-05-19, 15:18 Anyone here manage to solo Japanese language? Not sure, what exactly you mean by "solo", but I basicly learn Japanese on my own, just with a couple of books and more various infos out of the internet. Though, watching Japanese series helps you to listen to the language and helps you to pronounce it right. Also, I often talk with some of my Japanese friends. They don't teach me directly, but this talking helps me to get more fluend with the stuff, I have learnt so far. Not sure, if one can call that "solo" by summing all that up. :heh: Hooves 2013-05-19, 15:39 I'm basically reading through this entire thread just to learn it. So it's impossible for me to 'solo' it if that's what you're referring to. Solafighter 2013-05-19, 16:38 I think in the theory, it might be possible to solo it, though it might not be as efficient and time sparing. To not drift away from the main topic, I made myself some verb- and adjective conjugation sheets. I will print them out and hang them right next to me on the wall, so that I can take a look at it again, if needed. Maybe it is easier to have things simple to burn them into your mind.If you don't understand these, then please don't use them. The first and main reason I made them was for myself(yea, me unsocial bastard) but I thought "Hey, why not sharing these". Verb Conjugation (image on imgur.com) ( This might need a short explaination: Besides the irregular verbs, there are three verb types. Behind the "examples:" is one example for each verb type. The rest should speak for itself. Tenses (image on imgur.com) ( This is mostly focusing on the right endings. You RandomGuy 2013-05-20, 19:03Adjective Conjugation (image on imgur.com) ( It's pretty basic, but I have a few points here: First, you seem to have misspelled しろい as "しるい" You seem to treat く as part of the entire ending, rather than a particular (in this case, adverbial) ending for the stem. It's worth having that separately, since it's used quite a bit. Same thing for に on the な adjective side. "〜くありません", while correct, is less common and quite formal. Many people nowadays would say "〜くないです" and "〜くなかったです", so it might not hurt to have that in there. Tenses (image on imgur.com) ( This is mostly focusing on the right endings. YouYou drink buildings?!:confused:	eng	2b427ec3-3ecc-4705-9521-813ecdcc4f3d	http://forums.animesuki.com/archive/index.php/t-180-p-15.html
Habaritag: Blinkity - Society and Gender PoliticsCrocodile-related confusion since 2011.2012-06-14T07:04:49+00:00<p>Today in the Kyriarchy: Sexism in IndyCar</p> Brian Mann just wrote <a href=" great article about the glass ceiling in race car driving, and her new role mentoring young women</a>.</p><p>But <a href=" to this fine gentleman, Pippa Mann should just realize she's an obvious failure and go make him a sandwich</a>. And yes, there are lots of comments telling him to be more civil, and that he's probably a sexist jerk, and other remarks defending her driving record, and the usual chorus of "me too" all around. It's mostly all noise, though.</p><p>The truth of the matter is that sexism is still alive and well, and definitely affecting Mann's ability to get rides and sponsorship, and she has a right to talk about this and help other women without people running their mouthes about it.</p><p>But just for fun, let's say the critic is right. Say she's personally gotten a bit of an unfair advantage because she's a woman. Hell, say his favorite driver (who we're all just <em>sure</em> is so much more talented) didn't get a chance because she got her grand total of three Indycar rides last year.</p><p>Big. Fucking. Deal.</p><p>Guess what? The glass ceiling is still unquestionably there in racing. So's the glass floor. Only 1% or so of race car drivers are women, and there's no reason it shouldn't be 50%. Racing is obscenely, ridiculously male-dominated. It's systemic sexism, through and through. Women in racing have every right to take any advantage they can get.</p><p>In other words: dive-bombing the turns is entirely defensible.</p><p>Now, I wasn't going to talk about Danica Patrick here, but it's unavoidable; that whole situation is at the root of quite a lot of this. Look, Patrick's not my personal favorite either. She's a bit of a sellout—something she owns up to, by the way—and millions of words have been written whether her alleged "sexualization" of racing is productive or not. But she's literally the only woman, ever, who can be called a really successful race car driver. And in the generally corrupt, money-laden, mess of a sport that racing has been for the past 70 years, she's no better or worse than anybody else.</p><p>And Ms. Mann hasn't had even a thousandth of Danica's attention and hype. You can argue about whether Pippa's been personally affected one way or the other if you really want to, but it makes a great deal more sense to trust what she has to say on the subject. She's not a sellout. She just loves the sport. She wants to be involved with it however she can, and wants other people, especially women, to be involved too.</p><p>There's no victim card here. Just an admirable passion for driving race cars.</p><p>We'd all do well to care about things as much as she does.</p><p>Cotton Ceilings and Male Genitals</p> Brian <a href=" the best thing you'll read all day on this subject</a></p><p>There's a trans theory concept called the "Cotton Ceiling." (Basically, it tries to explain why some, especially lesbian, women don't really see trans women as real women), <a href=" don't like it</a>, as one might expect. I'm not going to try and discuss the contents of that article, or the comments on it; I might do so later, but it's tricky and I'm only marginally qualified to talk about this.</p><p>I will link to <a href=" who thinks it's all a big miscommunication</a>..</p><p>But I would like to make an observation. It's been made before, but it bears repeating: our culture is obsessed with penises, and this needs to stop.<br><!--more--><br>At one point, this obsession did make a kind of sense in the following way: Men had nearly all of the power in society. Men have penises. Hence, power and penis were thought to be related. People are interested in power, ergo a fascination with the penis. See: Freud. But this way of thinking hasn't been widely subscribed to in a very long time. Yes, male-bodied people still retain a majority of the world's power, but it's also clear that this is being maintained by inertia. Men have power because men have power. Genitals don't have anything to do with it, not in a direct sense, not anymore.</p><p>Still, the obsession remains. So far as I can tell:</p><ul> <li>Non-feminist spectrum straight men are obsessed with both their own penises and other people's, but are terrified of thinking about those other penises. This causes them extreme psychological discomfort. (No homo!)</li> <li>Non-feminist spectrum straight women are obsessed with penises as the perceived source of all power.</li> <li>Gay/bi/pan men are just obsessed with penises. I could argue that we have an excuse, because we sort-of do for obvious reasons. We still need to get over it; if nothing else it would make our sex lives more interesting.</li> <li>Radical feminists (straight, political lesbian, and lesbian) of the modern variety are obsessed with penises as the root of all evil.</li> <li>Second-wave feminist women are obsessed with penises as a source of power, with a view toward dismantling it.</li> <li>Many third-wave feminist straight women are conflicted: they like penises sexually, but are concerned about the penis's role in society as a whole. See: small penis jokes about anti-women politicians.</li> <li>Third-wave feminist straight men are obsessed with penises because they're either feeling guilt about having them, or because they're still under the illusion that having one gives them special privileges. Observe your garden-variety mansplaining male baby-feminist at your local web forum, blog, or feminist lecture.</li> <li>Third-wave feminist lesbians aren't usually too obsessed, but they've absorbed a lot of rad-fem ideology and culture, which exhibits itself under stress.</li> <li>Trans spectrum people (both male and female) are obsessed with penises, if for no other reason than because they are forced to be by the obsession permeating the rest of our culture.</li> </ul><p>Excluding asexuals (who generally don't talk about penises a lot as far as I can see), that basically leaves three groups, who do have a more balanced view of penises.</p><ul> <li>Sex-positive (kink, straight, lesbian) types, who tend toward live-and-let-live, and don't mind penises as long as there's mutual enthusiastic consent. </li> <li>Non-feminist (or not overtly feminist) lesbians, who think penises are just whatever (or funny), but don't give much of a shit about academic gender politics. (Yes, people like this <a href=" exist</a>; see also every conservative gay women ever).</li> <li>A smattering of very third-wave feminist straight women, who like penises, but don't think they're that important.</li> </ul><p>The trouble is that only the last group is interested in engaging with the subject in any meaningful way, and they're being drowned out by the crowd.</p><p>So I'd like to propose this: let's just stop being so serious about penises. A penis is merely just a small piece of some people's bodies. It doesn't have a mind of it's own. It's only related to sexual desire by association (yep, that's in the brain, turns out). It has no practical function outside of sex and urination, and, surprisingly for some, it isn't even remotely necessary for having sex. A penis or the lack therof shouldn't hold the complexity it does. Yes, sometimes the subject will come up. Penises do exist. But let's not give them undue importance.</p><p>Even jokes about penises are loaded. There's always this undercurrent, that penises are inherently threatening, or that men can afford to joke because having a penis makes one unassailable. (I think the recent trend toward vagina jokes is actually quite positive. If female genitals are no longer sacred, they too can be seen as a minor source of power). Gender/power issues are confusing enough without complicating the subject with specific physical attributes. </p><p>There's a real issue in this whole cotton ceiling debate—namely the true nature of sexual orientation. It's probable that many rad-fem-lesbians honestly think having a vagina is the sole determining factor for femaleness, but it's nearly always actually expressed in the sense of not having a penis. This obscures the issue tremendously.</p><p>There's this thing about genitals: Turns out, everybody's got 'em. It shouldn't be such a big deal.</p><p>A Health Care Suggestion</p> Brian href=" third world, it seems, is losing their best doctors to the United States</a> (via NYT magazine)</p><p>So I want to offer up this suggestion: health care in this country is, as a whole, good enough. Our life spans are long, our recovery rates for all kinds of previously fatal conditions is excellent, and our technology is astounding. So let's not worry so much about making it better. Let's focus on fixing our broken system of paying, and on allowing everyone access instead.</p><p>Now, I'm not saying give up on improving medicine completely—research can potentially help people all over the world. I'm just saying, we need to take a step back, and say look, we've got it pretty damn good. Let's not worry so much about quality in the practical side of our health care system. We've got enough doctors. We've got enough hospitals.</p><p>If nothing else, don't go to the doctor unless it's really necessary. Don't go for the most expensive procedures unless it will make a significant difference. And so on. If we decrease demand, we'll need less supply, and give more negotiating power to others. Remember, in the third world, overworked doctors are performing surgery using Bosch power tools. If they're lucky.</p><p>Why do we even care about lottery winners on food stamps?</p> Brian been a <a href=" of complaining</a> about lottery winners getting food stamps. This makes a certain amount of sense, I suppose, but you've got to wonder how big of a deal this really is. So I thought I'd find out. Lottery winners over a certain amount times $200 per month food stamps times 12 months.</p><p>As it turns out, figuring out the number of lottery winners isn't easy. But according to <a href=" there are about ten 1 million+ winners in California per year. There are similar numbers on the Oregon lottery website. So let's assume 40 "big" winners per year for each state. That's 2080 winners. Multiply it out, this is about 5 million dollars in wasted food stamps. For the whole country. Assuming every single lottery winner collects food stamps. </p><p><a href=" billion dollars</a> in food stamps were given out last year, so the lottery winners are potentially ripping us off for a grand total of... 0.006%. Clearly, they must be stopped!</p><p>So. A lottery winner collecting food stamps may be a nasty thing to do, and perhaps states should pass regulations to prevent it. But at the same time, I'm quite sure that there are much bigger corruption concerns in the food stamp distribution business. Can we stop running our mouths about it already?</p><p>Why men need to STFU about reproductive rights</p> Brian <em>like</em> to have them either.</p><p> </p><p>But in the end, it shouldn't really matter what I think. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that abortion is actually equivalent to murder. How are we going to figure this out? One half of the population is qualified to understand the issue, the other half is not. Do we seriously mean to suggest that women as a whole—again, half of the population, give or take a few—are incapable of coming to the correct conclusion? And how can a bunch of men with big mouths possibly help the process in the slightest? It's bad enough when people who haven't ever experienced something (say, being in prison) take over a conversation, but at least it's generally <em>possible</em> for them to experience it. But men who take over a conversation about women's reproductive issues are dealing with something they cannot <em>ever</em> experience. It's simply ridiculous to even consider. But to hear some people talk, it's as if we were suggesting that only murderers be allowed to discuss the morality of murder. </p><p>One more time: this is not a small minority we're talking about here. Women are half of the population of humans on this planet.</p><p>Now, don't get me wrong—it's perfectly fine for men to have opinions about this. It's also fine for men to talk about their opinions. Heck, I'm doing it right now. What's not okay is for men to dominate the conversation to the exclusion of women. And what's really not okay is for the most important conversations—testimony in front of a legislative body, for instance—to involve men in any but the most minor of ways.</p><p>So please, men everywhere, just shut up and listen for a bit. The debate will get on just fine without you. Trust women to make their own decisions about their own bodies.</p><p>The ESPN Body Issue, tabulated</p> Brian</p><p>By contrast, ESPN The Magazine's <em>The Body Issue</em>.</p><p>So, then, what is the result? Rather than just discuss the concept abstractly, I'm going to try and actually look at the photos and let them speak for themselves. We'll see what comes of it.<br><!--more--></p><h4>First, is it possible?</h4><p>One of the key questions which <em>The Body Issue</em> brings up is, even given the right motives, is a positive, non-male gaze-centric portrayal of nude women even possible? <a href=" are confident it is</a>, while <a href=" would insist it's simply not</a>. The latter article is particularly interesting:</p><blockquote><p>Women look quite strong and independent in their uniforms, but the media purposefully accentuates the sexier, feminine portrait off the playing field.<br></p></blockquote><p>Now, the media definitely does this to an unfortunate degree. And the author is absolutely correct when she goes on to point out the sexism in older depictions of female athletes. But, I would ask, what does this have to do directly with posing nude? A male athlete who poses nude will not be seen as any less of an athlete (or a person) than if he hadn't. If fact, if women are required to wear uniforms in order to be seen as "strong and independent," this strikes me as yet another form of the virgin-whore dichotomy. You can be a strong woman, it seems, only so long as you keep your clothes on.</p><p>Of course, some people will tend to see women as weak and objectified no matter how they present themselves, and will tend to think the opposite of men, but the blame for this lies squarely on the overall culture. It should still be possible to produce a magazine which treats male and female bodies equally, and ESPN seems to at least be trying.</p><p>If we're going to allow men to own their bodies and their sexuality (and it's rather ridiculous to suggest otherwise), we must allow women to do the same.</p><h4>Analysis</h4><p>For the interested, the pictures I'm going to discuss are available: <a href=" <a href=" <a href=" </p><p>It's not entirely clear whether those included are all the athletes featured in the magazine, and of course there are more shots of each in the magazine proper, so we're at the mercy of the online editors. If I get the chance, I'll try and get the paper copies to compare (don't hold your breath). It still seems reasonable to assume that they're fairly representative. For the record, I'm male, so I'm certainly not unbiased, but I also think guys are hot (and have seen enough male pin-ups, etc.) to be able to be reasonably fair. I hope.</p><p>The question: comparing the male to the female athletes, are the women more or less sexualized, and how do these portrayals stand up? I divide the photos into two categories: action shots, emphasizing the athlete's skill, strength, power, etc., and posed shots, which feature the athlete standing, leaning, or laying on the ground. In general, the first are less sexualized and more importantly feature the athlete in an active role. The latter are more sexualized, and portray the athlete in a passive role.</p><p>In more detail: if the athlete was running, jumping, performing the actions of their sport, or obviously using their muscles, the picture counted as active. If they were relaxing or doing something unrelated (like watering the lawn), the picture counted as posed. If they were somewhere in between (standing in a tense position), I used my best judgement; looking at the camera (especially in a come-hither fashion) counted toward posed, looking off into the distance and concentrating counted toward active.</p><h5>2009</h5><p><strong>Men</strong>: 5 active, 5 posed.<br><strong>Women</strong>: 4 active, 7 posed.</p><p>The first year was not especially great. A substantial number of the women are in bikinis, and the photographers shot the photos accordingly. The picture of Serena Williams, for instance, could have been straight out of the SI Swimsuit issue. I probably fudged a bit, as well; only the photos of Gina Carano and Steph Davis were unequivocally active. The men have no such issues; even the posed shots make them seem confident and in-control.</p><p>Not a good start. But bonus points for showing women with body art and women who weren't thin.</p><h5>2010</h5><p><strong>Men</strong>: 5 active, 5 posed.<br><strong>Women</strong>: 5 active, 4 posed.</p><p>Significantly better. For one thing, the bikinis are gone, so the photographers were forced to be just as creative in shooting the women as with the men, and couldn't rely on standard poses. Also, the worst of the awkward fashion model poses are gone (with the exception of Diana Taurasi), so the sexualization was nearly equal between the men and the women. Note that I counted one of the women's water polo team's photos as active and one as posed, since both were a bit of a tossup. I initially counted Jeanette Lee as posed, but given that billiards is, after all, her sport, and considering that she is visibly pregnant, it seemed like it should count toward active/empowering. They could have tried harder to not let the photo look like one of those 'pin-up leaning over a pool table' shots, though. Also, note that Amare Stoudemire is in a quite throughly sexy (he's smiling and seems almost embarrassed) and passive pose.</p><p>Better, if not perfect. The men and women are almost treated equally, at least. Bonus points for including a not-young person: Jeff Farrell.</p><h5>2011</h5><p><strong>Men</strong>: 8 active, 4 passive<br><strong>Women</strong>: 6 active, 5 passive</p><p>This year features further improvements. Only three of the women's photos were unequivocally passive. There were a pair of, well, "weird" pictures—-Hope Solo watering a lawn and Helio Castroneves sitting in a tire swing—but since they're probably not representative of the entire photo shoot, and there's one for each gender, we'll call it a wash. On the downside, the photos of the three women striking very passive poses (especially Belen Mozo and Vera Zvonareva) looked as if they could have been taken straight from Zoo or FHM. But all the active shots were done very, very well.</p><p>Also, I totally thought Silvia Fowles was male until I recognized her face. Something about her hairstyle, I think. So bonus points for that.</p><h4>Overall impressions</h4><p>First, I don't think there's any question in my mind: they've done a very good job. I certainly didn't come away with the impression that, taken as a whole, women were being sexualized in a traditional way. And some of the male athletes were shot in a manner that was quite daring for a mainstream magazine.</p><p>It's not at all perfect—there's still far too much reliance on poses for women which are coded to be highly sexualized. Effectively, the active poses were equally active, but the passive ones treated the women badly. It also seems like the sexualization of women's breasts is holding the concept back quite a bit, as the women are often required to strike awkward or artificial poses. There's not much to be done about this, of course (well, not in the current culture), but it's a serious drawback, since awkward and uncomfortable poses make people appear more vulnerable. Also, one of the default poses for the men has him standing and facing the camera squarely, legs apart, with his arms at his sides. The equivalent pose for a woman requires her to hold an arm across her chest for the purposes of this magazine, which of course makes her look for more defensive and weak. I nearly always felt like these were passive, while the male equivalent often still seemed active.</p><p>In sum, the ESPN Body Issue doesn't do that badly at all. Better still, they seem to be learning from issue to issue. There are certainly worse magazines (i.e. anything called a "women's" or "men's" magazine) as far as portrayals of women are concerned. If nothing else, it's a solid light-year ahead of any similar concept at the moment.</p><p>Komen Foundation Backs Down</p> Brian thanks to all the backlash, the Susan G. Komen Foundation <a href=" that defunding Planned Parenthood was a bad idea</a>. Good for them.</p><p>But as the Feministing article points out, it's quite likely they'll just remove funding at some later date, just more quietly. And in the meantime, a donation to the Komen Foundation mostly goes to buying pink billboards and other questionable "awareness" activities, instead of, y'know, actual research and prevention.* (News flash: people in the United States are pretty damn aware. What we need, ironically enough, is a cure).</p><p>If you want to fund cancer screening, cut out the middlewoman and donate to Planned Parenthood or your favorite local screening organization directly. If you want to fund research, try the <a href=" Cancer Research Foundation</a>. <a href=" million out of 41.5 million</a> - 87% - of their funding goes toward research grants.</p><p>There are many, many sensible and efficient cancer prevention organizations in the world. Komen isn't one of them.</p><p>* <small><a href=" their financials here</a>. Out of about 409 million dollars, $75 million (18%) is burned in administration, $181 million (44%) is spent on "public health education" i.e. pink billboards, while the remainder - less than half - is used for screenings/treatment and research ($77 million/19% and $75 million/18% respectively). In other words, they spend as much on administration as they do funding research.</small></p><p>Masculinity and The Mystique of Men</p> Brian Amanda Marcotte <a href="</p><p>The Good Men Project just published a pile of crap, entitled "<a href=" a Dude Is a Good Thing</a>," by Tom Matlock. The core of it all is this little gem:</p><blockquote><p>Men know women are different. They think differently, they express emotion differently, they are motivated by different things, they think about sex differently, and they use a very different vocabulary.</p></blockquote><p>Yipperoo, here comes the patriarchy! </p><p>Now, I've spent a lot of time - way too much time, actually - trying to come to grips with the various men's rights crowds over the last few months. The Good Men Project is one of the better places to do this, if for no other reason than that the writing is reasonably high quality and comes across as honest and thoughtful. <em>We're human beings, not monsters</em>, it pleads, <em>we just want to be ourselves</em>. So I tried, carefully, to engage in this particular conversation. I asked for clarification about the gender essentialist bullshit that was steaming around. In return, I was told in no uncertain terms that yes, men are <em>totally different</em>.</p><p>But I think I've got it all sorted. This stuff? It's just the new boss, same as the old. Much, much more after the break.<br><!--more--></p><h4>The Rebuttal</h4><p>I'm a little angry right now, and I was far too nice in my comments on the article itself, so I'm giving this one the old-fashioned rebuttal/tirade. Skip to the next section if you don't care...</p><blockquote><p>As the founder of the Good Men Project, I am the butt of my share of jokes. Guys in high places love to take pot shots at me.... that's in public.... But behind the scenes, that same guy who made fun of me at the table always has a question. Or a story to tell.</p></blockquote><p>Actually, this is a good start. You see, this is one of the nastiest aspects of the kyriarchy: men, while given a great deal of freedom in many areas, feel obligated to keep to a very, very narrow means of self expression. Anger, outrage, disdain, protectiveness, and perhaps a few others. So, they make fun of Tom as a self-defense mechanism - they feel like "man" is their only identity, and that lacking that there would be nothing left. Surprising that they would see a threat in a website that's mostly on their side anyway, but that shows you just how the system self-perpetuates.</p><p>But, one would think, the solution is simple! Stop living the lie. Express yourself in private, in public, everywhere. Live your truth. Right? Hardly.</p><blockquote><p>[Skipping the part where he claims that men are being blamed for everything, and that this makes them Sad, and men don't like to feel Sad...]</p><p>So are dudes as a gender really assholes?</p><p>If you look around in the press, on TV, and in popular culture you certainly might conclude that. Again, that was the whole point of starting the Good Men Project—to provide example after example of not perfect men but damn good ones.</p></blockquote><p>Except... this isn't true. Men might be portrayed as assholes some of the time, but the rest of the time they're leaders and businessmen and on and on and on. Studies consistently <a href=" that the vast majority of characters, writers, etc., etc., in culture are men, writing for men. Which is a key point: men, by and large are treated as individuals, not as a group. The actions of one man only reflect on the whole gender in Lifetime movies, not in the real world.</p><p>Nobody, and I mean <em>nobody</em>, except a few over-the-top radfems, thinks that dudes are inherently assholes.</p><blockquote><p>Here's my theory, and it's nothing but a theory. Men and women are different. Quite different in fact. But women would really like men to be more like them.</p></blockquote><p>Sorry to break it to you, but your theory is wrong. As you admit, you don't have any evidence for it. So why, Tom, why? Why espouse a useless theory that can only limit and hurt people?</p><blockquote><p>One close friend jokes, "When speaking to my wife I always make sure to look at the ground in deference. And I make sure not to make any sudden movements." I've watched him. He loves his wife.</p></blockquote><p>Does he? Or does he think of her as fundamentally different from his - someone who needs him for protection or support or something - such that he feels free to joke about deferring to her when in reality he does no such thing? But let's leave the loaded language aside (when one stereotypical man states unequivocally that another man loves his wife it usually means objectification), and take it at face value. What if he does defer to his wife? Big deal! Is that bad? Does it make him "less of a man"?</p><blockquote><p>.</p></blockquote><p>Pics, plz, or it didn't happen. As I said in my comment, what might these things be? What vocabulary? What different thinking? Tom tried to clarify: "The vocabulary of masculinity, to me, is what guys talk about to each other because they are afraid to when women are around for fear that they will say the wrong thing." Does he mean actual word usage? Yes, it has been shown that men, for instance, tend to use more "I" phrases, while women use more "you" and "we" phrases, and men speak directly while women to use tags. It's also equally true that since gender identify is ingrained in us from an early age, all of this is as likely to be a social construct as anything fundamental. And even observable differences differ primarily in <em>style</em>, not in content.</p><blockquote><p>God knows men have done some really bad shit. And god knows as guys we can, at times, live up to the stereotype of knuckle-draggers looking to eat, fuck, drink, and sleep. In that order.</p></blockquote><p>Holy crap! Tom's found it! Eat, fuck, drink, and sleep, in order! Women almost never do that - they always drink, eat, sleep, and <em>then</em> fuck! Seriously, this is our example of fundamental male behavior? Each and every one of those things is necessary for men, women, and otherwise-gendered people to do on a regular basis, or we wouldn't be here talking about it. Try again!</p><blockquote><p>We.</p></blockquote><p>Notice he says "become female," not "feminine," even though it would correspond more closely with "macho". And is he actually saying that men would about their feelings if they had a way to express it that wasn't coded feminine? Not, say, that men don't express because the act of expression is itself forbidden?</p><blockquote><p>Sweeping generalizations about individual relationships are pretty useless.</p></blockquote><p>You don't say.</p><blockquote><p>How a guy who teaches Gender Studies relates to his spouse is probably pretty different than how some Navy SEAL does.</p></blockquote><p>Well, unless the Navy SEAL's spouse was, say, also a Navy SEAL? Yes, I'm aware that this currently isn't allowed. That's not the point. The point is that the status of being a Gender Studies prof or a Navy SEAL don't have any <em>necessary</em> bearing on the nature of a spousal or any other relationship, just an incidental one supplied <em>for</em> us by cultural stereotypes.</p><blockquote><p>And I am sure there are plenty of heterosexual relationships where the gender roles are reversed before even getting in gay marriages.</p></blockquote><p>Well looky thar, a Freudian slip! So first the gender roles get reversed, and <em>then</em> comes the gay. Got it. Awesome. Homophobia.</p><blockquote><p>But my basic point is that many men, I think, feel blamed for being simply men. That their most basic instincts are twisted around to torture rather than celebrate who they are.</p></blockquote><p>Again, <em>who are they</em>? You just said they wanted to be all "express our emotions" and stuff, so what's distinctly male here? That's the real key to this - I think what Tom is trying to say here is that men are being blamed for being <em>masculine</em>. Which is very, very different. It's the old conflation of gender expression and biological sex all over again...</p><blockquote><p>One of the most interesting things about the Good Men Project is the readiness of women to talk about men.</p></blockquote><p>Meh. I've been reading GMP for a while. It looks like about half and half. But more than that, doesn't it matter more what's being said than who's saying it? (Wait, no, I'm secretly a radical feminist militant lesbian separatist infiltrator who only writes this blog when I'm not riding my giant motorcycle to the Michigan Women's Music Festival, and I've got you <em>all</em> now!)</p><blockquote><p>We are no longer willing to be blamed for being men. We are no longer willing to avert our gazes and stay silent about our feelings. We are raising our voices and telling our stories in our own male vocabulary.</p></blockquote><p>Are we? Actually, since you used the word "we," and spoke of men in a collective since, identifying yourself as part of the community, you just used a typically female vocabulary. Whoops! </p><p>In my opinion, at least, I guess, anyway, I think?</p><blockquote><p>.</p></blockquote><p>Yeah! Take that biatches!</p><p>Seriously, though, I'm at a loss for what Tom is saying. It's as if he thinks we speak different languages. I happen to think that if someone says something, we should use the language facilities in out brains to decode its meaning (this happens automatically, by the way), and, y'know, understand it.</p><p>Or maybe he just wants to shout "SCREW YOU" two or three times and have that be taken seriously? But wait, women do that too...</p><p>Also, don't fucking assume.</p><h4>"Less of a man"</h4><p>A fine, questionably articulate fellow by the name of "jameseq" kindly informed me (and I mean no sarcasm here) that I wasn't "less of a man," but simply a different kind of man. I don't really give a shit about whether I'm a man or not, but I think he meant well. He, and hundreds of other men's rights activists, seem to think that there is something inherit about manhood, which men are in danger of loosing, but which they (seemingly) can't lose regardless of what they do or how feminine* they act. By the same token, women can't attain it, even if they're as masculine as humanly possible. But what <em>is</em> this attribute of manhood?</p><p>There's a scene in a episode of Modern Family where Mitchell, a stereotypically gay character, blows up a birdhouse. This is seen, by him and the audience, as proof that underneath he still has the ability to do a "boy thing" (as I believe he calls it). This, I think, is representative of this mysterious core of manhood that everybody is obsessed with, but which nobody wants to articulate.</p><p>You see, traditional manhood has trappings of competitiveness, of posturing, of sex and violence and swearing and everything else, but all those things are merely incidental. The real core (as any "man" will tell you), is, well, being a man. That is, when life becomes difficult men are expected to step up and do it. "It" can be almost anything, from fighting in a war, to rescuing a drowning child, to getting a job, to simply proposing to one's girlfriend. The exact act isn't important - it's the idea that men are specially equipped to perform extreme acts under pressure, to do the "right thing", to sacrifice when it really matters. In return, men are traditionally allowed privileges of bad behavior, etc., in part because the needed training to enable this kind of self-sacrifice tends to produce it. Women might be encouraged to step up, but they're not generally <em>required</em> to do it in quite the same way.</p><p>So this, I think, is what the MRAs are referring to when they reassure themselves and others that they're not "less of a man." They've disassociated "real" manhood from its trappings, and want to be certain that no matter how many flower arrangements they photograph, they'll still be able to stand up to the grizzly bear when they need to.</p><p>The problem with this? It's all bullshit. Unless "stepping up" actually requires a physical penis, it's patently obvious that a woman could potentially do the exact same thing. Historically, there may have certain tasks that required higher testosterone levels, which men were more (but not exclusively) suited to perform, but in the modern world that's nothing more that a relic. I say again, show me a behavior that's exclusive to men, and I'll show you someone who's being a sexist pig. There's definitely a place for highly masculine people - arguably not many, and very dangerous to rely on - but there's no reason to limit who gets to join their ranks.</p><p>But men are so reliant on this sense of manhood to give their lives meaning that it's become nearly impossible for them to recognize that's it's neither gender specific nor a requirement for life as we know it. It's almost a "mystique of men," if you will - that underneath, all men are the same, that they can all relate, that there's something essential about being male, revolving around this thing that supposedly only they can do. To take that away, they think, would mean that their lives are wasted*. But this only leads to abuse and misery for those who dare to be different. The feminist movement has been tearing down the feminine mystique for years now. It's time that we take a good look at manhood and do the same.</p><p>--</p><p><small> I'm currently using the words "masculine" and "feminine" purely to describe behaviors, not associated with gender identity. This is not the best use of language - at least until masculine and feminine become completely separated from their connotations - but finding an equivalent shorthand has proven difficult.</p><p>** And, they might (horrors) loose their masculine privilege in the process. Which, being honest, is the main motivator for men who make this argument. Guess what? You do actually have to act like a decent human being. That part can't be gendered.</small></p><p>Womanist Musings: The Occupy Movement is NOT as Progressive as it Seems </p> Brian don't have much more to say about this myself, but we'd all do well to listen to <a href=" title="Womanist Musings on Occupy">this</a>:</p><blockquote><p>I am so damn sick and tired of Occupy Wall Street. Every so called "progressive" I know of is riding the</p></blockquote><p>.<br><!--more--></p><p>Occupy Wall Street: Shaking up the Priviledged?</p> Brian is an important thing to note:</p><blockquote><p> <br> -- <a href=" @ Echide of the Snakes</a></p></blockquote><p>.</p><p><a href=" title="Autostraddle on Occupy Wall Street">So here's something to think about for potential supporters</a> (Via autostraddle). If Occupy Wall Street accomplishes absolute nothing besides shaking up the worldviews of a bunch of privileged-to-various-degrees people, it will still accomplish something very, very worthwhile.<br><!--more--></p><p>Be the change, from Tiger Beatdown</p> Brian is the most thought-provoking thing I've read in a month:</p><p><a href=" beatdown takes on blogging as performance and callouts</a>.</p><blockquote><p>Bloggers are expected to exhibit the personal and the political for your amusement. We flail ourselves open. We bleed for your entertainment. We tell the stories of our struggles, we write about our daily lives, about our encounters with oppression, we harangue you to take our side. And the reader, the audience receives this as a performance.<br></p></blockquote><p><!--more--><br></p><blockquote><p>Human beings are complex creatures, not these receptacles of "good" OR "evil". At once good in some aspects and gross in others. Simultaneously oppressed and oppressors. However, in this performative culture of blogging all of this subtlety is often obscured. You are either "one of the good guys" or "you are the worst person ever". You play the role of "hero" or you play "the villain". However, I must question this dichotomy because call outs, and the modus operandi behind them, the pile-on, can potentially kill people.</p></blockquote></p><p>I've participated in call-outs in the past, some of which I deeply regret. I'll probably do so in the future. And while I try to fool myself into thinking that I only see blogging as a literary form just like any other, the reality TV effect, imagining we can see into someone's life, is so tempting it actually sometimes hurts.</p><p>It's all in the yearning for connectedness, I suppose. Anyway, read the whole thing, please please please.</p><p>Why I am a feminist, and not a masculist.</p> Brian believe in equal rights, and that people currently don't have them. I believe in that engaging with intersectionality is the only solution to this. I'm particularly cognizant of gender-based inequalities. I'm a feminist because it covers all these things. I call myself an egalitarian as well.</p><p>I want to solve systemic societal problems, problems that arise not because a few people break the social contract, but because the contract itself is flawed.</p><p>Now, you'd think that masculism would fit in as well. Equal rights for everybody equals equal rights for men, right? But I'm not a masculist, because of, well, <a href=" If you've not heard of intersectionality, stop reading my nonsense and go read <a href=" right now. You can come back afterwards.</em><br><!--more--><br>The linked article is about Schrodinger's Rapist. This is the concept that all men are <em>potentially</em> rapists, and it has a long history. The main post is decently thought-provoking, if quite debatable in places. But I'm not going to engage with that here; it's a few months old and that topics has been done to death by much smarter people. The real issue here is with the comments.</p><p>Glancing through them, there's the usual assortment of trolls, troll feeders, angry people getting carried away, arguing at cross-purposes. Combine that with an slightly excessive lack of moderation, and you get, well, a mess. Over 500 comments worth of mess, in fact. But look past all that and you'll find something quite surprising: there are a surprising number of seemingly well-intentioned men and women who honestly believe that men in Western society are systemically discriminated against to the same or nearly the same extent as women. And it's not just this blog, the same arguments pop up in men's rights and masculist thought of all kinds. (I'm only picking on this because it's a veritable public opinion poll of examples.)</p><p>The basic argument here, is that since only a small minority of men are rapists, and since something 1 in 33 men have been raped, that any random man is more likely to be a victim than a rapist. This is likely true. (A digression: this 1 in 33 stat gets thrown around a lot in theses discussions, but what nobody ever seems to mention is that something like 50% of the 1 in 33 were children at the time, and since less than 1% of rapists are female, the dynamics between adult women and adult men are pretty much unaffected. See, for instance, the well known NVAW study for more numbers. But let's ignore this for now.) So, their argument goes, how <em>dare</em> women suspect perfectly harmless men of being rapists! One argument occasionally trotted out even compares being falsely accused of rape with actually being raped, since "they can both ruin your life!"</p><p>But not to get hung up on technicalities, what all this fails to recognize is that rape in our culture is a systemic problem, not only an individual one. As such, it is committed by people with systemic power (primarily men), against people lacking systemic power (primarily women, and men who are seen as feminine in context), in order to make up for a lack of perceived individual power. Thus: date rape. The date rapist isn't one because they just randomly decided to, or somehow thought "no" meant "yes." Instead, they felt like they were entitled to sex and its attendant power, and raped when they weren't given it. Meanwhile, the rest of society either turns a blind eye, or actively encourages it. See for instance the current popularity of the word 'rape' to describe any minor bad experience. And none of this adds up to a systemic problem against men.</p><p>So what is it that masculists want? As far as I can tell, they want something of an inverse to goals that feminists work towards. Feminism, despite all its diverse voices, largely argues that all women are individual humans, and should be treated as such, while showing that the patriarchy, not individual men, is largely responsible for the problem. Most masculists, instead, are trying to show that since most men aren't extremely sexist, and since bad things happen to men too, that the patriarchy must therefore not exist, and can't we treat the men who act out as mere aberrations? They want to absolve themselves of responsibility for individual actions which have both led to and continue to perpetuate these systemic problems.</p><p>In short: "I'm a <em>nice guy</em>, why is everyone talking <em>bad</em> about me? What about <em>my</em> problems?" All the while failing to realize that nobody was talking about them specifically to begin with. What about the men, indeed.</p><p>Men do have problems, and many of them are based in systemic issues of, sex, class, race, or others. But there's no double discrimination here: none of their systemic problems are a result of purely being male. Masculism simply doesn't make sense as a movement to me. We need to be engaging problems that affect both men and women, but we need to do it from a systemic context, not the individual one, if we want real change.</p><p>All that said, I do like "No Seriously, what about teh menz?" - I just wish they weren't so stuck on the idea of masculism. More on men's issues later.</p><p>What Occupy Wall Street needs</p> Brian protesters on wall street have a problem. The rest of us don't know what they want, which means they don't know either. And this means they won't get anything done. The curse of true democracy, if you will.</p><p>That this is the case was made quite clear by <a href=" NPR story</a>, but there were signs of it before. For instance, look at <a href=" list of "one demands"</a>. There are two real demands in there:</p><ul> <li>Ending capital punishment</li> <li>Ending American imperialism (By this, I assume they mean a large scale troop withdrawal)</li> </ul><p> <a href=" declaration</a> is equally problematic. It's patterned after the Declaration of Independence, including a list of grievances, most of which are clearly true. But one thing is missing. The Declaration of Independence contained this: </p><blockquote><p>We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, .... solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States...<br></p></blockquote><!--more--><p>While the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City contains this:</p><blockquote><p>We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.</p><p>Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.<br></p></blockquote><p>As far as I can see, this is just calling for a giant brainstorming session in the park. The NPR story illustrates this further. How long did they spend discussing sleeping bags? And the communications leader wants this to be the new decision paradigm?</p><p>Actually, we have this already; it's called a public hearing. You're a land developer, you want to build certain things, then you have to let the public comment on it and ask questions (just an example, affected activities vary, of course). If you piss people off too much, you won't be allowed to do it. Now, if you've never attended one of these events, you really should. People bring up irrelevant concerns, there's always a libertarian-type who opposes everything, and all of the public and the government and the industry are mostly uninformed. But all in all they are occasionally effective at, say, making the landfill people perform an environmental impact study to help protect the groundwater, because the issues are small in scope and the number of participants limited. This process is not going to fix the heathcare system, though - that's why we have representatives: smart people with the time and information to make really good decisions.</p><p>Of course, sometimes they don't make good decisions, and something needs to be done, which is where protests can come in. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is of course the ultimate model. Think about how clear it was, despite the leaders not agreeing completely on the exact goals. They wanted to end discrimination, which seems like an enormous task (clearly; it's still not completed), but conceptually it's very simple: treat minorities like everyone else. Not to mention, there were specific bills in Congress which needed passing; that was done as well.</p><p>The various Arab Spring protests are simple too: mostly, they want the government replaced.</p><p>Occupy Wall Street doesn't have this. There's no jobs plan in place which needs support, and I daresay the the individuals involved couldn't ever agree on a solution for this anyway (check out the comments on the various websites - polite debate, but they're working at cross-purposes). And while some might want to replace the government, most don't, and there's no model for a replacement available (as with, say, the Egyptian revolution).</p><p>I certainly don't think that a capitalistic democratic republic is the ideal form of government (I favor a set of philosophies called Communalism myself), but coming up with a replacement will take a lot of very smart people a very long time. The Constitutional Convention took months, and had a failed attempt to build on. They did a pretty good job. Which says to me that the next iteration of government will have to be made by equally brilliant people, only this time actually representing all parts of our society. It will also take longer, and be harder. And since the constitution can be amended, we shouldn't even need to have a revolution. In the meantime, protesting <i>everything</i> is quite pointless.</p><p>It makes me sad, really, because I want to support this. The Occupy Wall Street movement has a great deal of potential. By all accounts, the organizers are very careful to be inclusive, and are trying to ensure that oppressed voices can be heard. The police are acting like, well, pigs. It's timely, and relevant. But unless they can come up with a small set of ideas to promote (and barring a miracle this will come from a small number of leaders, not group consensus), and in the meantime there's always a danger that some demagogue will use this lack of purpose to sell the crowd something pointless or downright wrong. And with the unions getting involved now, I fear the the uniqueness of this protest is on its way out.</p><p>I don't know the answers. I don't know how to fix things. That's why I'm not protesting myself; if you were to suddenly make me president, I wouldn't have any good solutions. Now, there <b>are</b> certainly things worth protesting for. Let's start with protesting continued racism and sexism - Slutwalk is definitely making a valuable point. Also, we need to advocate for the homeless, veterans, the disabled, and more. I'm personally adamant about the value of single-payer healthcare. But when we actually get out in the street, we need a demand, a timetable, and a clear purpose. Otherwise, we'll just fade into obscurity without accomplishing anything.</p><p>All this is to say, get on it, Occupy Wall Street people! Make some hard decisions. You'll either succeed or fail, but something will definitely happen.</p><p>Athletes, sex, and double standards</p> Brian class="alignright" alt="a-rad.jpg" src=" width="140" height="242" style="border: 2px solid black">A few days ago, Aga Radwańska apparently said this:</p><blockquote><p>I play tennis to look good, have a nice body. It is most profitable to play and win on the centre court as after match you can meet nice boys.<br>-- A. Radwańska in Polish press</p></blockquote><p>Now, this could very well be spurious: it could have been a joke, mis-translated, out-of-context, et cetera. Not to mention, the source for this as far as I can see is <a href=" tennisforum post</a> (warning: obnoxious paparazzi photos), which is hardly home of high-quality journalism. But for argument's sake, let's just take it at face value. Check out the responses. They fit these basic categories:</p><ul><li>"I respect her less now, how shallow."</li> <li>"Yeah, she's got a nice body, hur hur hur."</li> <li>"What a slut."</li></ul><p>The last two are obviously sexist, but the first seemed reasonable to me for an instant. I mean, it trivializes women's tennis, and women's sports in general if she's only 'doing it for the boys', right?</p><p>Wrong.<br><!--more--><br>Switch the gender of the people involved, and you'll immediately see why. From the high school football star (who possibly even started playing to attract girls) to professional athletes known for their high number, or high profile, of partners, our society associates male athletic ability with male sexual potency, and usually admires it. And while we might not personally approve, we never see it as a professional failing.</p><p>In short: I don't see anyone suggesting the Wilt Chamberlain was less of a basketball player because of his sexual activities, which were largely made possible by his fame due to his athletic skills. If A-Rad likes tennis for similar reasons, we owe her the same respect. Women must allowed to be sexually aggressive in precisely the same ways that men are; anything else is sexism, plain and simple.</p><p><small><i>Photo is cropped from a photo by <a href=" licensed under <a href=" BY-NC-SA 2.0</a></i></small></p>	eng	29b5e087-9bd7-43c2-bc38-7fe64e3f4308	http://www.definish.com/blog/category/society/atom
The Online Library of Liberty A project of Liberty Fund, Inc. Search this Title: Also in the Library: CHAPTER I.: BANKING IN ENGLANDBANKING IN ENGLAND. SECTION I. A RECORD OF BEGINNINGS. Banking Originates in Royal Rapacity—Goldsmiths Become Bankers—Cromwell Encourages Them—The King Seizes Their Treasure—His Promises of Compensation Never Honored. BANKING, in the modern sense of the word, had no existence in England before 1640. Up to that date, merchants had been for a considerable time in the habit of depositing their bullion and cash in the Mint in the Tower, under the guardianship of the Crown. In that year, however, Charles I. being in great straits for money, in consequence of his fatal dissolution of the Parliament before it had voted supplies, seized upon the merchants' bullion and cash in the Mint, to the amount of £120,000. The merchants were in consternation, as the cash was the provision they had made to meet their bills with. They immediately met, and drew up and presented a strong remonstrance to the Council. They ultimately agreed to let the King have £40,000, upon receiving adequate security for its repayment with interest. The whole of the loan was ultimately repaid to them with interest. But their confidence in the royal honor was gone; and henceforth they determined to keep their cash in their own houses, under the care of their own clerks and apprentices. But their treasures were no safer than before. The plebeian cashiers were more dishonest than the King. As the war went, these gentlemen of the quill were seized with a martial ardor; they deserted their desks in multitudes to join the army, and carried off their masters' cash with them. Others lent out their masters' funds to the goldsmiths clandestinely, at 4d. per cent. per day, which they kept to themselves. The goldsmiths lent out the money which came into their hands in great quantities to merchants and others, weekly or monthly, at high interest, and then began to discount mercantile bills. Finding this to be very profitable, they began to attract money from the general public by offering them interest at the rate of six per cent. and engaging to repay the sums placed with them on demand. When a customer paid in money to his account, and when they discounted a merchant's bill, i. e., bought the debt, or right of action to the money due to him, they simply gave them in exchange for it a credit, debt or right of action in their banks, which in the technical language of banking is termed a deposit. Moreover, in order to diminish the demand for actual money as much as possible, they agreed with their customers to make these credits or deposits as transferable as money itself, and to pay any person to whom their customers had transferred their credits, in the same way as to themselves. These credits or deposits, were transferred by means of paper documents, which were of two forms: 1. Either the goldsmith gave his customer a written promise to pay to himself, or to his order, or to bearer, on demand, a certain sum of money. These notes were in simple writing, and were called goldsmith's notes. 2. The customer might write a note to the goldsmith directing him to pay a certain sum to any person, or to his order, or to bearer, on demand; these notes were, at first, called cash notes, but in modern language they are termed cheques. These two forms of documents were as transferable as money itself, and produced all the effects of money. By experience, the goldsmiths soon found that they could keep afloat an amount of credit several times exceeding the amount of cash they kept to meet the demands upon them; and this increased quantity of credit was in all its practical effects exactly equivalent to an increase of money of equal amount. People found it much more convenient to place their money with the goldsmiths, where they could have it back whenever they pleased with interest at six per cent., than to lend it out on real or personal security. The goldsmiths soon received the rents of all the gentlemen's estates which were transmitted to town. Five or six stood pre-eminent among their brethren; and Clarendon says, that they were men known to be so rich, and of such good reputation, that all the money in the kingdom would be trusted to their hands. These goldsmiths then, for the first time, came to be called bankers. Several schemes for the foundation of joint stock banks, similar to those which existed in considerable numbers in Italy, were proposed under the government of Cromwell, but none of them were carried into effect. The goldsmith bankers however flourished; and their command of ready money soon brought them a much higher customer than the merchants. Notwithstanding the fame and strength of the Protector's Government, and his unquestionable sincerity in wishing to govern with free Parliaments, he and they were unable to agree better than his royal predecessor had done with them. They were jealous of his power, and kept him in a constant state of financial embarrassment. He then applied to the "Bankers," and they advanced him money, in anticipation of the supplies. They thus became almost indispensable to the Government. The position the bankers had gained under the frugal government of Cromwell was not lost under his dissolute successor. The first care of the restored monarch was to disband the terrible republican armies. But they had to be paid off, and some hundreds of thousands of pounds were required to be got together in a few days. The slow receipts of the taxes were quite inadequate to effect this, and the Ministers were compelled to have recourse to the bankers; and they were so well satisfied with their proceedings that they declared that the King's affairs could not be carried on without their assistance. Their method of doing business with the Crown was as follows. As soon as the supplies were granted, they were sent for to attend the King. He having consulted his Ministers as to what immediate sums were needed, desired them to be called in, and they were then informed what ready money he would require to be provided by such a day. They were then asked how much they could lend, and what security they would require. Each answered according to his several ability; for there was no joint stock among them; one perhaps £100,000, another more, another less. They were desirous of having eight per cent. for their money, which the King and his Ministers were perfectly ready to give as a reasonable remuneration; but, upon further consideration, they determined to leave it to the King's own bounty, lest it might afterwards be turned to their disadvantage; mentioning at the same time, that they themselves paid six per cent. for it to their customers, which was known to be true. They then received an assignment for the first moneys that came in under the Act of Parliament, or tallies upon such other branches of the revenue as were least changed. But even this was no security; as the King and the Treasurer might divert these payments to other purposes. "Therefore," says Clarendon, "there is nothing surer, but that it was nothing but the unquestionable confidence in the King's justice and the Treasurer's honor and integrity which was the true foundation of that credit which supplied the necessities of the Government. The King always treated them very graciously as his very good servants, and all his Ministers looked upon them as very honest men." We shall now see how their confidence in the King's honor was repaid. In 1667, the Government provoked a war with Holland. Parliament voted supplies of unexampled magnitude; but they were all embezzled by the courtiers, who made fortunes, while the seamen mutinied for want of pay and the ships were rotting. The Dutch destroyed Sheerness and Chatham, burnt the ships there, and attacked Tilbury; the sound of the enemy's guns was heard in London. The citizens were seized with the utmost alarm, and rushed to demand their money from the bankers. It was known that they had advanced large sums to the King, and the people believed that regular payments out of the exchequer could not be made. To quiet the public alarm, the King, in June, 1667, issued a proclamation that the payments out of the exchequer would continue as usual; but it was his steadfast resolution to preserve inviolable to all his creditors all the securities and assignments made for repayment of their advances, and that he held this resolution firm and sacred in all future assignments and securities to be granted by him upon any other advances of money for his service by any person on any future occasion. However, in 1672, the Court was in greater difficulties than ever, and the King declared that the Treasurer's staff should reward the ingenuity of the man who should discover an expedient for "raising the wind." The expedient hit upon was to shut up the exchequer. On the 2d January, 1672, a proclamation was issued stating that payment out of the exchequer would be suspended for one year; but a rent, or interest, at the rate of six per cent. was promised. The sum seized by the King was £1,328,526. So much for the King's proclamation of 1667. The bankers, it is true, were not many; but the money they had belonged chiefly to their creditors, and there were 10,000 of them. The coup de finance was so cleverly done, that no one, except one or two intimate friends of the conspirators, had the slightest warning. The consternation was dreadful in the city. Numberless merchants were ruined. The distress was felt in all ranks of society. Widows and orphans who had no other means of subsistence had placed their all with the bankers. Many persons went mad; many died of a broken heart; many destroyed themselves. It was at first promised that the suspension should only be for a year; but year after year passed away and nothing was done, and neither the principal nor the interest was paid. What seems to be a most extraordinary circumstance was that no notice was taken of the transaction in Parliament. But the intensity of the public distress was too great, and the public indignation was too fierce to be entirely neglected. At length in April, 1676, the King was obliged to order the accounts of the creditors to be examined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This having been done, in April, 1677, the King issued letters patent granting to each of the goldsmiths' heirs and assigns, for the benefit of their creditors, in lieu and satisfaction of their debts, a yearly rent out of the hereditary excise equal to six per cent. upon the debt, with a clause of redemption upon payment of the principal and interest. These letters patent were printed and made public on the 23d of May, 1677, and a bill to ratify them was passed by the House of Lords; but by some misadventure (?) it did not reach the Commons before the end of the session and never became law. The rent, or interest, was paid till Lady Day, 1683, when it ceased, and none was paid during the reign of James H. At length, in 1689, the creditors, worn out with despair, petitioned the Court of Exchequer to make an order for the payment of their claims. In 1691, the Court gave judgment in their favor, and made an order on the exchequer for payment; but the judgment was reversed by Lord Somers on a technical point. But, in 1700, the Lords reversed the judgment of Lord Somers. This judgment of the Lords established the rights of the petitioners to their principal and interest; but they were not paid one farthing. In 1700, an act was passed that after the 31st December, 1701, the hereditary excise should be charged with interest at three per cent. on the principal until payment was made of one-half the debt. Thus ended this monstrous injustice. It was calculated that the bankers and their creditors lost £3,000,000. The principal was never repaid, and forms the first item of our National Debt. SECTION II. FOUNDATION OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND. Financing of the War Against Louis XIV.—Failure to Borrow from the Bankers—Bank of England Established—First Issue of Notes Against Securities—Debasement of the Coinage—Lowndes' Report—Suspension by the Bank—A Fictitious Increase of the Bank's Capital—The Bank Made a Monopoly, and Exempted from the Usury Laws—The Bank "Rest" Introduced—Extension of Its Charter. THE chief object which tempted the ambition of William of Orange to obtain the crown of England was to head the great European alliance against the overwhelming power of France. No sooner was William pretty firm on his throne than he declared war against Louis XIV. Parliament was eager for the war, and readily voted supplies; but they were scarce and difficult to be got in. The Government at first attempted the old plan of mortgaging the grants to be voted by Parliament, but they were not successful. In 1690. Parliament began the system of allowing money to be raised on short annuities, which was attended with good success. The increasing expense of the war, however, rendered this plan too burdensome; and, in 1692, a plan was brought forward for raising duties for the space of ninety-nine years to pay the interest of an intended loan of £1,000,000 upon a tontine scheme. The subscribors were to receive ten per cent. till 1700; and after that £7000 per annum was to be divided among the survivors till their number was reduced to seven; when, upon the death of each, his annuity was to lapse to the State. So low was the credit of the Government that only £108,000 was obtained on these tempting terms; and a clause was introduced by which the subscribers might receive fourteen per cent. upon any life they chose to nominate. But these schemes produced only £881,493. All these devices, however, failed of producing an adequate supply of money to support the war, which languished in consequence. The fatal proceedings of Charles II. seem to have ruined the bankers; or at least deterred them from making advances to Government in their former style. The Government was obliged to revert to the humiliating plan of borrowing from every one in the city on whom they could prevail to lend. They were obliged to solicit the Common Council of London for so small a sum as £100,000; and if they granted it, the Councilmen had to make humble suit to the inhabitants of their respective wards, going from house to house for contributions; and for these advances they had to pay in premiums, discount and commissions from thirty to forty per cent. The inextricable financial difficulties of the Government turned attention towards a scheme for a public bank, such as existed in several of the Italian States. Mr. William Paterson, a Scotchman from Dumfriesshire, whose antecedents were gravely suspected, and who was so notorious for his Darien scheme, which ruined half Scotland, but who had traveled widely, and studied foreign financial institutions, proposed several schemes which proved abortive. At last, one succeeded. He proposed to raise and circulate £1,200,000 upon a fund of £100,000 a year. Some party jealousy came at the opportune moment to assist him. Mr. Michael Godfrey, brother of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, and some merchants who were nettled with some transactions with the East India Company, now took Paterson up and in effect supplanted him; for, though he continued to advise and assist in the direction of the measure, Godfrey stood foremost in it, and was considered, both by the Ministers and the Parliament, as the efficient man on whom all depended, and to whom all acknowledgments were to be paid. The scheme succeeded. After the details had been settled in concert with the Ministers, it was brought before the Privy Council, and long and anxiously discussed in the presence of the Queen; and at last the Statute 1694, c. 20, was passed by which the Bank of England was established. The Act, Statute 1694, c. 20, incorporating the Bank of England, received the royal assent on the 25th April, 1694; and its provisions, material to our present purpose, were as follows: 1. It provided that the sum of £100,000 a year should be appropriated to the encouragement of persons making a voluntary loan of £1,200,000 to the Government for the purpose of carrying on the war with France; such persons to be erected into a corporation, to be called the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, with all the usual privileges of a corporation. 2. The corporation was strictly forbidden to borrow or give security by bill, bond, covenant or agreement, under their common seal, for any sums exceeding £1,200,000, except they were permitted by act of Parliament. Thus it will be seen that the bank advanced the whole of its capital to the State and received in exchange for it an annuity of £100,000; and also received the right to issue notes to the amount of the capital they had advanced to the Government, it being supposed that the annuity would be sufficient to support the credit of the notes. Now, the whole of the capital was advanced to the Government and put into circulation by them; and the bank was authorized to issue an equal amount of notes to be used in commerce. This, therefore, was an augmentation of the currency to the amount of £1,200,000. This was the first example of issuing notes based upon public securities—a most seductive but most dangerous principle, which was one form of Law-ism. The immense benefit which accrued to the State by the establishment of the bank was shown by the increased vigor with which the war was carried on. Mr. Michael Godfrey, the Deputy Governor, published a pamphlet on the bank, written in a strain of the warmest congratulation upon the great success of the experiment, which he had taken so leading a part in promoting. He states that, whereas in the beginning of 1694, the Government bills were at a discount of £25 to £30 per cent., in addition to the public interest, the bank took them at par; and from the former heavy discount they had risen to a premium, so that they were then better than money; because there was seven or eight per cent. per annum benefit while they were kept, which never could have been done without the bank. He said that those who lodged their money with the bank had it as much at their disposal as if it were in the hands of the goldsmiths, or in their own chests; and he certainly countenances an accusation against the goldsmiths in contemporary pamphlets; for he says that if the money which had been lodged with them for four or five years past had been lodged with the bank, it would have prevented it from being so scandalously "clipped"; which he predicts would cost the nation some day a million and a-half or two millions to repair. He notes it as very surprising, and quite unexampled, that after the nation had been at war for six years, and had spent £30,000,000, besides great quantities of bullion being exported and captured by the enemy, that there had been so great a fall in the rate of interest, instead of a rise, as in all previous wars, which was entirely due to the bank; and he predicted that it would, in the course of a few years, reduce it permanently to three per cent. He says that, within thirty years of that time, the public had lost between two and three millions by the goldsmiths and scriveners breaking, which would not have happened if the bank had been established. Further, he affirms that there were some who were for having a forced currency of bills and tallies, thinking that they might pass as well as bank bills; but "they do not consider that it is nothing makes bank bills current but only because all those who desire it can go, when they will, and fetch their money for them"; and to force anything to pass in payment but money would soon end in confusion. He then enters into numerous arguments to show that any attempt at a forced currency would only end in damaging the public credit. The Bank of England was a Whig project, and had been eminently successful in supporting the Government in the prosecution of the war. It had excited the warmest feelings of joy and congratulation among its friends, and the bitterest feelings of rage and indignation among its enemies and the enemies of the Government. But it received no monopoly of banking. The Government of William was composed of a mixture of Whigs and Tories. William not only reigned but governed. The resources of the Bank of England were entirely devoted to supporting commerce. But the spirit of industry began to be developed in agriculture as well as in commerce, and many schemes were devised to found a bank in the interest of agriculture. The Tory portion of the Ministry determined to get up a rival bank on a much larger scale. The capital was to be £2,564,000, advanced to Government on the same principle as that of the Bank of England, but its trading capital, notes, etc., were to be advanced solely to land owners at three per cent. It was therefore called a land bank. It was warmly patronized by the Tory party. The Bank of England and all its friends opposed it with all its power; but the temptation was too great; and it was sanctioned by Act of Parliament in April, 1696. The time for receiving subscriptions was limited, as in the case of the Bank of England. The Lords of the Treasury subscribed £5,000 on behalf of the King; but, notwithstanding all the vaporing of the Tory party, the other subscriptions only amounted to £2,100 when the time came for its closing. It was therefore a total and complete failure; but its failure, combined with other circumstances which we have now to detail, exercised a most disastrous influence on the Bank of England. We must now retrace our steps a little, and examine the condition of the coinage, which is necessary to understanding the subsequent history of banking; for controversies on the subject then began which have lasted almost until our own times, if indeed they are yet extinct. In April, 1690, the scarcity of silver coins occasioned great public inconvenience. The goldsmiths complained to the House of Commons that they had ascertained that immense quantities of silver bullion and dollars had been exported. That many Jews and merchants had recently bought up large quantities of silver to carry out of the kingdom, and had given three-halfpence per ounce above its regulated value. That this had encouraged the melting down of much plate and milled money, whereby for six months past no bullion had been brought to the Mint to be coined. These allegations were verified by a committee of the House. It was shown that the profit of melting down the milled money for exportation was about £25 per £1,000; that the Mint price of silver was 5s. 2d. per ounce, but it was generally sold for 5s. 3 1-2d. The House in consequence passed one of their useless laws against exporting bullion. The state of the coinage now became every day more disgraceful. By law, in 1666, it was enacted that every one might bring gold and silver bullion to the Mint and have it coined free of all expense. The guinea, then first coined, was intended by the Mint indentures to be equal to 20s. in silver. But there was no legal ratio established between the coins, so as to make them compulsorily taken by the public at that rate. They were left to be received by the public at such rates as they pleased. The guinea passed current at 22s. Quantities of base and counterfeit coin were in circulation. The silver coins were being constantly clipped, so that in 1694 they had lost nearly half their weight. By the end of 1694, guineas, which had been coined to be equal to 20s., rose to 30s. in the clipped and degraded coin. The exchange with Holland, which was reckoned in the degraded silver coin, fell to twenty-five per cent. below par, and it would have fallen still lower only it was shown that the real exchange was in favor of England. The exchange with Ireland fell so much that £70 there was worth £100 in England, The frightful condition of the coinage may be judged of by the following facts. In the months of May, June and July, 1695, 572 bags of silver coin, each of £100, were brought into the Exchequer, whose aggregate weight, according to the standard, ought to have been 18,451 lbs; their actual weight was 9,480 lbs; showing a deficiency in the weight of the current coin in the ratio of 10 to 22. Bags of coin collected in various parts of the country showed a similar deficiency. A warm controversy arose whether the new money should be coined of the old standard weight, fineness and denomination; or whether it should be depreciated, or raised in value, as it was absurdly called. This controversy was keenly disputed then, and it was revived 116 years later, when the notes of the Bank of England were depreciated, and a strong party maintained that the standard of the coin should be depreciated to the level of the depreciated notes. Mr. William Lowndes, the Secretary to the Treasury, was ordered to make a report on the coinage. In this, he enters into a long and, at the time, valuable investigation of the history of the coinage, and its successive depreciations in weight and fineness, in which he maintained the extraordinary hallucination that the successive frauds committed by the English kings in diminishing the bullion in the coin had raised its value. His doctrine was that by raising the name of the coin it thereby acquired increased value. His proposal was either that the new coinage should be made of a diminished weight; or that the same pieces should be rated at a higher price in tale; or that 60 pence were equal to 75 pence. Locke published a reply to this infatuated idea, showing that it was quite illusory. All this time the Bank of England, with infantine simplicity, had received the degraded coin at its full nominal value. Its notes were payable to bearer on demand. As soon as the new coin came out, they were bound to pay them in full-weighted coin—that is, for every seven ounces they had received they were bound to pay twelve ounces. Such a state of things could have but one result; an immediate run upon the bank. Its success had enraged the private bankers and money-lenders, whose profits it had diminished. All its enemies now made a combined effort to destroy the Bank. They collected its notes in all directions, and on the 5th May, 1695, they suddenly presented them for payment. The directors, knowing the purpose for which these notes were presented, refused payment of them, but continued their payments to their ordinary customers. Their enemies ran about crying out that the Bank was destroyed. But the public, who quite understood the transaction, received their notes at first at their full value. The extreme scarcity, however, of silver continuing, compelled the Bank to make a general suspension. The managers gave notice that they could only pay ten per cent. on their notes once a fortnight; and as the demand continued they were unable to maintain even that payment, and a short time later they gave notice that they could only pay three per cent. every three months. On the 3d of August, bank notes were at a discount of fourteen and fifteen per cent. and exchequer tallies at thirty per cent. Fresh coin, however, continued to be issued from the Mint, and the exchanges, which were reckoned in the silver coin, were restored to par, although the bank notes were at a heavy discount. Parliament met in October, 1696. At that time, bank notes were at a discount of twenty per cent. and exchequer tallies at forty, fifty and sixty per cent. discount, while at the same time the exchanges were at par. When the Bank of England was obliged to suspend payments in cash, it endeavored to retrieve its credit by making two calls of twenty per cent. each on its proprietors. These measures, however, were not successful, and Parliament had to take in hand the business of restoring the credit of the bank notes and exchequer tallies. By an Act of Statute, 1697, the capital of the bank was to be increased, and the subscriptions might be paid, four-fifths in exchequer tallies and one-fifth in bank notes, upon which the Crown would allow eight per cent. The time when the Crown might put an end to the corporation was prolonged to twelve months after the 1st August, 1710, and repayment of all Parliamentary debts. During the continuance of the corporation, no other bank, or any other corporation, society, fellowship, company, or constitution in the nature of a bank, should be erected or established, permitted, suffered, countenanced or allowed by act of Parliament within England. The bank was allowed to extend its issues of notes beyond the original capital of £1,200,000 to the amount of new capital which should be subscribed, provided that they were made payable to bearer on demand. We observe that the depreciated notes of the bank itself were taken at their full value at par, and treated as capital; the first practical instance on a great scale in this country of the doctrine that the release of a debt is in all respects equivalent to a payment in money: or the algebraical doctrine that − × − = + × +. One reason probably that bank notes were at such a heavy discount was that there were none under £20; and those were of little use in current transactions. Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, hit upon the plan of issuing bills upon the exchequer for £5 and £10. These bills passed, at first, at a small discount; but, upon the second issue of them, interest at £7 12s. per cent. was allowed upon them, and they were received at par in payment of taxes. They then rose to par. The Treasury was authorized to contract with any persons to cash these exchequer bills on presentment, allowing them a moderate premium. They were allowed ten per cent. at first; but the exchequer bills soon rose above par, and the interest upon them was reduced to four per cent. Under this act, upwards of £2,000,000 of exchequer bills were issued. The new subscription to the bank under this act amounted to £1,001,171 10s.; £200,000 being paid in bank notes and £800,000 in exchequer tallies. These large amounts were taken out of circulation and received at par in the subscription, which raised the value of the remainder; and in the course of the year bank notes which bore no interest were at par, and those which bore an interest were at a premium. In 1709 the Government were in great pecuniary embarrassment. The produce of the taxes barely covered half of the expenses. The Ministry sought the assistance of the bank; and the following terms were accepted and ratified by Parliament: 1. The interest upon their original stock of £1,200,000 was reduced to six per cent., with an allowance of £4000 for managing the debt. 2. The bank was to advance a further sum of £400,000 at six per cent. interest. 3. The bank might double its then capital of £2,201,171 10s. at the price of £115 per cent. for the new stock. The bank agreed to circulate £2,500,000 of exchequer bills and receive an allowance of six per cent., one-half for interest and the other for repayment of the principal: that no more exchequer bills should be issued without the consent of the bank. 4. Their privileges as a corporation should be continued for twenty-one years from the 1st of August, 1711. The Act of 1697 had only provided that no other bank should be erected or allowed by Act of Parliament; it did not prohibit private joint stock banks from being founded, nor any other corporation or company from setting up banking business. A company called the Mine Adventurers of England, at the head of which was Sir Humphrey Mackworth, who turned out to be a great rogue, commenced doing banking business of all sorts, issuing notes, etc. To put a stop to this it was enacted: "That during the continuance of the said Corporation of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, it shall not be lawful for any body politic or corporate whatsoever, erected or to be erected (other than the said Governor and Company of the Bank of England), or for any other person united or to be united in covenants or partnership exceeding the number of six (now ten) persons in that part of Great Britain called England to borrow, owe, or take up any sum or sums of money on their bills or notes payable at demand, or at any less time than six months from the borrowing thereof." The Bank of England was strictly forbidden to issue notes to a larger amount than their capital stock. That is, each loan to Government was attended with an augmentation of currency to an equal amount. Now, to a certain small extent, this plan might be attended with no evil consequences; but as a scientific principle it is utterly vicious. This is indeed one form of John Law's Theory of Money. His scheme of basing paper money on land, is sober sense compared to it; because in that, the quantity of paper money was limited to twenty years' purchase of the land. But in such a scheme as basing paper money on the public debt, there is absolutely no limit whatever. If this principle had been carried out to the present time, we should have had a national debt of about £800,000,000, and bank notes to the amount of £800,000,000. At this time, no one had framed a definition of banking; but the issue of notes was considered to be so essentially "banking" that to prohibit that was supposed to be effectual in prohibiting banking. The clause quoted above was intended to disallow any bank being formed with more than six partners, so as to prevent any private company from being formed of sufficient power and influence to rival the bank; and it did have that effect for more than a century. When we consider the unquestionable services the bank had rendered to the Government, which contributed so greatly to the success of the war and the pacification of Ryswick, and when we consider the terrific state of public credit when the Land Bank project failed, and the calamity of the Mine Adventurers, we need not be surprised that the Bank of England employed these circumstances for the purpose of securing a monopoly for themselves. Now, considering the ideas of the age, can we be surprised that they received it? Nevertheless, after making due allowances for these circumstances, it is one of the most deplorable acts which have come down to our times. The founders and contemporaries of the bank felt the benefit of its eminent services; but the consequences of this original sin fell with fearful force on their descendants of succeeding generations. The frightful convulsions and collapses of public credit which have taken place for more than a century, are chiefly due to this great wrong and violation of the true principles of trade. English banking has never recovered from its fatal effects to this day, and many years must elapse before it will arrive at the form to which it is tending, and which it would naturally have assumed, if its development had been left free to the skill and experience of men of business. We shall later show how much more wisely the people of Scotland acted with respect to their bank. In 1713, the financial difficulties of the Government at the peace of Utrecht made it necessary to have recourse to the bank. It agreed to lend the Government £100,000, secured upon exchequer bills at three per cent., upon receiving an extension of their charter, which had still twenty years to run. By the Statute I. 1713, c. 11. its existence as a corporation was prolonged to twelve months' notice, to be given after the 1st August, 1742, and the payment of £1,600,000. The excessive absurdity and inconvenience of the usury laws were even then felt, and the bank was exempted from their operation in 1716. In the quaint phraseology of the act, they were authorized "at their own good liking" to borrow, owe, or take up money at any rate of interest they pleased, above the legal rate, upon their bonds, bills, or any obligation under their common seal, or upon credit of their capital stock for any time, or to be paid upon demand. What portentous folly it was that anyone else might not observe "his own good liking" in the rate he paid for a loan of money. Yet this egregious folly was not relaxed till 1833, nor finally swept away till 1854. The Bank of France was similarly exempted from the usury laws after the panic of 1857. The bank's existence was prolonged indefinitely until all the public debts due to it were discharged. In 1717, guineas were finally made current at 21s., although Sir Isaac Newton showed that their value in the markets of the world was only 20s. 8d. The effect of this was that, although gold and silver coin were equally legal tender, all the good silver left the country, being more valuable abroad than at home; and it became an established custom among merchants that all bills of exchange were understood to be payable in gold, as being the cheaper metal. The exchanges continued to be reckoned in silver, but were actually paid in gold, which rectified them; and, from this period, England became practically a gold monometallic country; although the law of bimetallism lingered on in the statute book for another hundred years. Up to 1722, the bank divided the whole of its profits among the shareholders, and made no reserve for contingencies. The dividend varied from 18 1-4 per cent. in 1706 to 6 per cent. in 1722. The inconvenience was strongly felt, as well as having no friend to fall back upon in cases of emergency. These had hitherto been met by making calls on the proprietors. In this year the directors established a reserve fund, which is termed the Rest. When the charter had been renewed on former occasions, there had been many public discussions as to the expediency of the bank's monopoly. It had always purchased its privileges by aiding the Government. As the time was drawing near for the expiring of its charter, in 1742, these discussions became more frequent and animated, and several attempts were made to set up banks in such a manner as not to violate the clause in the Act of 1709. When the time for the renewal came, the Government were, as usual, in difficulties, and the bank agreed to lend them £1,600,000 without interest. To raise this sum, they made a call upon their proprietors, which raised their capital stock to £9,800,000. In consideration of this, their exclusive privileges were continued till twelve months' notice after the 1st of August, 1764. It was also determined to stop up all loop-holes in the Act of 1709; and the following clause was inserted in the Act, Statute 1742, c. 13, s. 5: "And to prevent any doubts that may arise concerning the privilege or power given by former acts of Parliament to the said Governor and Company of exclusiveBanking; and also in regard to the erecting of any other bank or banks by Parliament, or restraining other persons from banking, during the continuance of the said privilege granted to the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, as before cited; it is hereby further enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid, that it is the true intent and meaning of the act that no other bank shall be erected, established or allowed by Parliament; and that it shall not be lawful for any body politic or corporate whatsoever, united or to be united, in covenants or partnership exceeding the number of six persons, in that part of Great Britain called England to horrow, owe, or take up any sum or sums of money, on their bills or notes payable at demand, or at any less time than six months from the borrowing thereof, during the continuance of such said privilege of the said Governor and Company, who are hereby declared to be and remain a corporation, with the privilege of exclusiveBanking, as before recited." This clause demands the most earnest attention, because it is the one which contains the sole monopoly of the Bank of England, which has recently attracted considerable attention. It is a penal clause, and therefore of course to be construed strictly; and we must now examine its force and effect. All "Banking" consists in "Issuing" rights of action, or credit in exchange for money and securities. When a banker has once issued this right of action, credit or deposit, to his customer, the customer may transfer this right of action to any one else by two methods: (1) Either by the banker giving him his promissory note to pay the money to himself, or to his order or to bearer; (2) The customer may write a note to his banker, in modern language termed a cheque, directing him to pay a sum to some person, or to his order or to bearer. Now, Parliament undoubtedly intended to confer an absolute monopoly of banking on the Bank of England; and if it had been enacted in general terms that the bank was to have an absolute monopoly of "banking," such words would have been effectual. But, unfortunately for their own purpose, though fortunately for the country, they proceeded to define "banking," and they restricted their definition to only one of the two methods of circulating bank credits—that of bank notes. Consequently, the monopoly was restricted to that single method of circulating banking credits and left the other method,—by means of cheques,—untouched. The fact was that, at that time, the system of cheques was very undeveloped, and no one conceived that "banking" could be carried on without issuing notes, as indeed the fact was in those days. But subsequently cheques prevailed over notes; and when it was afterwards discovered that "banking" could be carried on without notes, the lacuna in the monopoly of the bank became clear to lynx-eyed economists, and ultimately led to the formation of joint stock banks in London. In September, 1745, the rising in Scotland assumed formidable dimensions. The Chevalier captured Edinburgh, and the news produced a run upon the bank. Bank notes fell to a discount of ten per cent. A meeting of 1600 of the most eminent merchants was held, who pledged themselves to support the credit of the bank notes. In 1746, the bank again assisted the Government. The proprietors authorized the directors to cancel £986,000 of exchequer bills on receiving an annuity of four per cent., and to create new stock for the purpose. The capital of the bank then became £10,780,000, and was not further increased till 1782. In 1750, the interest on £8,486,000 of the Government debt was reduced to three per cent. In 1759, the bank began to issue notes for £15 and £10. In 1764, the bank's charter was renewed. The terms were an absolute gift of £110,000 to the nation, and a loan of £1,000,000, on exchequer bills for two years at three per cent. interest. SECTION III. AN ERA OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. Great Industrial and Engineering Progress Follows the Peace of 1763—Introduction of a Vast Canal System—Bank's Monopoly Prevents Required Increase in Note Circulation—Hence Came an Overwhelming Crop of Rotten Private Issues—Great Expansion of Foreign Trade—Suspension of Specie Payments—Bank Charter Extended Under Pitt's Administration. THE termination of the seven years' war took place in 1763, when it is usually said that this country took that place in the scale of nations which she at present holds. After long and doubtful contests, in which victory often trembled in the balance, the star of England triumphed over that of France, both in the East and in the West. Coincidently with this, the industrial energies and mechanical genius of the nation burst forth with unparalleled splendor. Previously to this time, England was probably more backward in great public works than any State in Europe. She could show nothing to compare with the great engineering works of France and Spain. Spain owed the canal of the Ebro to the genius of Charles V. The first canal in France preceded the first canal in England by 150 years. The great canal of Languedoc was completed upwards of half a century before the smallest canal was begun in England. In Italy, Gerbert, the morning star of literature and science, was famous for his hydraulic works in ad 999. Those of Lombardy, executed in the eleventh century, are still the admiration of modern engineers. The first act for a work of this nature, however small, in England was passed in 1755. Facility, quickness and cheapness of transit are the very foundations of commercial greatness. Brindley, the father of the modern commercial greatness of England, completed the canal from Worsley to Manchester in 1762. This was as prodigious a stride in advance of the age as the opening of the railway from Manchester to Liverpool was in its day. The success of this was triumphant. Then commenced the great era of canal making. Within twenty-five years, the country was covered with such a network of canals as no other country but Holland can boast. Considering the comparative wealth of the country at the two periods, the period from 1770 to 1795 was fully as wonderful an effort in canal making as the period from 1830 to 1855 was in railway building. Concurrently with this prodigious extension of the facilities of transport, an equal extension of the powers of production took place. It would almost seem like a dispensation of Providence that at this particular period such an extraordinary outburst of mechanical genius took place. It would almost seem that these three men—Brindley, Arkwright and Watt—were specially raised up by Providence to elaborate those miraculous resources, which it is impossible to doubt carried this country triumphantly through that terrific contest which was then about to burst upon the world. It was just at this period that the original sin of the monopoly of the Bank of England began to tell with full force on the country. Now were the seeds of future ruin, misery and desolation sown broadcast throughout the land. The prodigious development of all these industrial works demanded a great extension of the currency to carry them out. What was required was, to have banks of undoubted wealth and solidity to issue such a currency. Bank of England notes had no circulation beyond London. Its monopoly prevented any other great banks being founded either in London or the country, and it would not establish branches in the provinces. England required to have a currency, and as she could not have a good one, she had a bad one. Multitudes of miserable shopkeepers in the country—grocers, tailors, drapers—started up in all directions as "bankers," and issued their notes, inundating the country with their miserable rags, in many parts as low as a shilling. Burke says that, when he came to London in 1759, there were not twelve bankers out of London; in 1793 there were nearly 400. It is no doubt true that many of the most respectable banking firms of the present day took their rise at this time, but they were comparatively speaking few. The great majority were such as we have described. Nevertheless these great engineering works were executed by means of the notes of these bankers; and though afterwards they failed by scores, the solid works remained. In 1775, an act was passed to prohibit bankers from issuing notes of less than 20s., and two years afterwards of less than £5. In 1782, the unhappy war with our American colonies was fortunately terminated; and immediately a prodigious extension of foreign commerce, which had been previously unusually restricted, took place. The enormous markets thrown open led to extravagant overtrading, which was greatly fostered by incautious issues by the bank, and a very alarming drain of specie, which produced a crisis, threatened to compel them to stop payment. The directors however considered that, if they could restrain their issues for a short period, the returns in specie in payment of the exports would soon set in, in a more rapid manner than they went out. They made no communication to the Government, but they contracted their issues until the exchanges turned in their favor. The alarm felt by the bank was greatest in May, 1783. They then refused to make any advances to Government on the loan of the year; but they did not make any demand for payment of the other advances to Government, which were then between nine and ten millions. They continued this policy up till October, when at length the drain had ceased from the country, and money had begun to flow in from abroad. At length, when the exchanges had turned in their favor, they advanced freely to Government on the loan; although at that time the cash in the bank was actually lower than at the time when they felt the greatest apprehension. It was then reduced to £473,000. Mr. Bosanquet said that the doctrine which guided the directors was this: that while a drain of specie was going on their issues should be contracted as much as possible; but that as soon as the tide had given signs of ceasing and turning the other way, it was safe to extend their issues freely. This policy was entirely successful, and it saved the credit of the bank. In 1793, occurred the first of those great monetary panics which shook the country to its foundations, and have occurred periodically: but we think it better to defer notice of it until we come to treat of monetary panics in general. It was in 1793 that London bankers, after experiencing their ill effects in the great panic, discontinued issuing their own notes and restricted their customers to cheques. This proceeding attracted no notice at the time, but produced the most momentous consequences in English banking some forty years later. The suspension of cash payments in 1797, which will be fully detailed hereafter, naturally produced the warmest discussions in Parliament. Sir William Pulteney spoke with great ability against the national evils and inconveniences of the monopoly of banking by one company, and moved for leave to bring in a bill to establish another bank, unless the Bank of England resumed cash payments by the 24th of June; but the interests arrayed against him were so strong that leave to bring in the bill was refused by a majority of fifty to fifteen. The arguments and ability of Sir William Pulteney in advocating the foundation of another bank produced a great effect, and during 1799 it excited great public interest. Meetings were held to promote it, and numerous pamphlets were published in support of it. The directors of the bank took alarm; and as the Minister was in want of a supply, they took advantage of his necessities to obtain a prolongation of their monopoly. The charter had still twelve years to run; but upon their advancing £3,000,000, without interest for six years, Mr. Pitt agreed to renew it for twenty-one years from 1812. In 1800, an act to effect this was passed. SECTION IV. STATE OF THE IRISH CURRENCY. An Era of Theory—Bad State of the Irish Currency—Lord King's Law of Currency—A Parliamentary Committee on the State of the Currency of Ireland—Testimony Before the Committee—Strange Incongruities of Evidence—Recommendations of the Committee. WE have now to enter upon a new era, as it were, in banking. During the eighteenth century, the bank had not been managed on theories, but by rule of thumb; and though there had been several commercial crises, there had never been any general monetary panics till 1793. But since 1800, the bank had been managed on a succession of theories, each of which was considered as the acme of human wisdom by its own generation, and was condemned as the ne plus ultra of human folly by the next. A few years after the suspension of cash payments in 1797, bank notes suffered a serious depreciation, which gave rise to several important pamphlets on paper money; among others to Lord King's Law of Paper Money. This however passed away. The bank note recovered its value to a considerable extent, and discussion died out. In 1804, the Irish currency was in a dreadful state. The Bank of Ireland having been directed to suspend payments in cash at the same time as the Bank of England, issued notes with extravagant profusion. The foreign exchanges fell and the price of guineas rose. This led to the appointment of a committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the state of the Irish currency, of which we must give some account. In the space of six years after the suspension, the directors had increased their issues to nearly five times the amount they were before the restriction. For, while on the 1st of January, 1797, they were £627,917, by November, 1803, they were £2,911,628. The exchange between London and Dublin fell very rapidly in proportion to these increased issues. At this time, the Irish shilling was 13d., and as both the Irish and English pounds were 240d., £100 sterling was equal to £108 6s. 8d. Irish currency. The par of exchange between Ireland and England was called 8 1-3. Hence, when the exchange was favorable to Ireland, it was below 8 1-3; when it was above 8 1-3, it was adverse. During the first year of the restriction, the exchange between London and Dublin was 7, and therefore favorable to Ireland. But immediately after that it began to fall; at the end of 1798 it was 9 1-4; at the close of 1799 it had fallen to 14 1-4. After some fluctuations, in November, 1803, it stood at 19, and was therefore highly unfavorable to Ireland. At this time, the note issues of the Bank of Ireland were £2,911,-628. This extraordinary derangement of the exchanges was productive of the utmost mischief and confusion to all commerce; and, Lord King states, was repeatedly brought before Parliament in the debates as the Irish Bank Restriction Bill. It also forcibly attracted the notice of economists. In 1803 and 1804, Lord King and Mr. Parnell, afterwards Lord Congleton, published most able pamphlets supporting the doctrine that the depression of the exchange below the cost of transmitting bullion from one place to the other was the proof and the measure of the depreciation of the paper currency. Both these pamphlets deserve the most attentive study, because they most clearly and unanswerably establish the great fundamental law of paper money, which many persons most unjustly attribute to Ricardo, in 1809. This great law which we have designated Lord King's Law of Paper Money, because he bore the most conspicuous part in establishing it, is this: "A rise of the market or paper price of gold above the Mint price, and a fall in the foreign exchanges beyond the cost of sending bullion from one place to another, is the proof and the measure of the depreciation of the paper money." Lord King also showed most forcibly the fallacy of Adam Smith's doctrine, that as long as the issues of bank notes are confined to the discount of mercantile bills, founded upon real transactions and of undoubted solidity, they could not exceed the amount which would necessarily circulate if the currency were purely metallic, and therefore could not be excessive. This doctrine was stoutly maintained by the directors of the Bank of Ireland before the committee of the House of Commons, and by the directors of the Bank of England before the Bullion Committee of 1810. The doctrine is very specious, but is wholly delusive, and Lord King has the merit of having first shown its fallacy. In 1804, the extravagant issues of the country bankers and others reached such an intolerable height, that all the monetary transactions between Dublin and London were destroyed; while those between Belfast (where nothing but specie was tolerated) and London were perfectly regular. Lord Archibald Hamilton called the attention of the House very strongly to the evils of the excessive issues of paper. In 1797, when the first Irish restriction bill was passed, the issues of the Bank of Ireland were £600,000; they were then £2,700,000. While the par of exchange between Ireland and London was 8 1-3, it was then 17, 18, 19 and even 20. Thus an Irish gentleman who came to attend to his duty in Parliament, after he had allotted £500 for his expenses, found at the end of his journey that he had only £400 to receive. On the 2d of March, 1804, Mr. Foster moved for a committee to inquire into this monetary derangement. He said that guineas were then at a premium of 2s. 4d. and 2s. 6d. in the current paper of the country; and, to whatever causes it might be attributed, the whole bank paper of Ireland was then at a discount of ten per cent. There was scarcely anything in the shape of money to be seen; but a miserable coinage of adulterated copper and of counterfeit shillings, so bad that for a £1 note, even at its depreciated state, 26 or 27 of such shillings would be given in exchange. The circumstances which caused the appointment of this committee and its report are deserving of great attention, because it was the first investigation by a Parliamentary Committee into the theory of the paper currency; and they are the antitype of what occurred afterwards in England, and gave rise to the appointment of the Bullion Committee in 1810. The evidence of the state of the currency of Ireland given before the committee was most extraordinary. Mr. D'Olier, a director of the Bank of Ireland, had some of the base currency in circulation weighed. He found that it took 126s. to the pound weight; such as remained of the old Mint issues weighed 94s. 6d. to the pound—the Mint weight being 62s. to the pound. He estimated that the best of the base silver shillings were not worth 6d. and the worst about 3d. The makers of the base coinage sold it to persons who had an opportunity of circulating it at the rate of 28s. to 35s. the guinea. Mr. Roach said that, in the south of Ireland, the silver currency had entirely disappeared from circulation, and its place was supplied by the issue of silver notes. These, together with the increasing issue of bankers' notes of all descriptions, had enhanced the price of all articles of the export trade above their natural value, and had created a degree of false credit in the southern parts of Ireland, which increased the price of land and everything else. These issues of silver notes were constantly increasing, especially during the last twelve months. There was in reality a very good supply of real silver in the south of Ireland, which was hoarded and concealed, and which would again come into circulation, if these silver notes were suppressed. Traders almost universally issued notes for 3s. 9 1-2d. and 6s., payable to bearer at twenty-one days after date, to evade the law. Mr. Colville, a director of the Bank of Ireland, said there might be some small proportion of Mint silver, greatly worn, in circulation in Dublin, but not more than two per cent. This had been gradually getting worse and worse for more than five years. Crowns and half-crowns, originally issued from the Mint, were not circulated, but kept as curiosities; and from the high state of the exchange, the best pieces were carefully picked out for exportation. There were at this time in Ireland seven bankers issuing notes; twenty-eight issuers of gold and silver notes; sixty-two issuers of silver notes; and 128 issuers of I. O. U.'s. In the Youghal district alone, there were seventy issuers of currency, of which sixty-two issued I. O. U.'s from 6s. down to 3 1-2d. In the north of Ireland, where nothing but gold was current, the exchange at Belfast with London had always continued favorable to Belfast; and even while the exchange at Dublin was progressively sinking, the exchange at Belfast continued to rise. From 1794 to the end of 1798, the exchange had been invariably favorable to Dublin, being generally about 7 1-2, and sometimes even so high as 5; but at the end of 1798 it fell to 9; in December, 1799, it fell to 14; but it being expected that Bank of England notes would be substituted for those of the Bank of Ireland, it rose to 9. From this time, it gradually fell to 18 and 19 in January, 1804, when the matter was brought before the House. The following figures exhibit the difference of the exchange on London between Dublin, where all the currency was paper, and Belfast, where it was all specie: 1802. dublin. belfast. Average of £ s. d. £ s. d. 1st Quarter, 11 5 11 6 13 4 2d Quarter, 11 11 3 7 15 0 3d Quarter, 11 2 7 8 0 10 4th Quarter, 10 13 5 7 3 9 1803. 1st Quarter, 11 1 9 7 12 6 2d Quarter, 13 8 11 8 8 8 3d Quarter, 15 17 0 7 12 6 4th Quarter, 15 8 7 5 12 6 1804. January 27, 18 0 0 6 0 0 At Newry, which was a kind of debatable land between specie and paper, the exchange upon London, according as bills were purchased with specie or bank notes, was as follows: specie. bank notes. 1803. £ s. d. £ s. d. January, 7 17 6 12 17 6 April, 8 0 0 13 0 0 July, 8 10 0 13 10 0 October, 6 0 0 15 10 0 1804. January, 6 0 0 15 10 0 In 1696, the extremely depreciated state of the silver coinage had turned the exchanges greatly against the country. But it was a principle perfectly well understood at that time, that the real exchange between any two places could never vary by more than the cost of sending bullion from one place to the other. The question, therefore, before the committee was, to what could the extraordinary state of the exchange at Dublin upon London be owing? What could be the reason of the difference of the rates between Dublin and Belfast? Some of the witnesses declared that it was owing to the over-issues of paper in Dublin. The directors of the Bank of Ireland indignantly denied that the bank's notes were depreciated. Mr. Colville being asked what could be the motive for so large an increase of its issues, from £600,000 to £3,000,000 in so short a time, said, that the course of exchange about two years after the restriction having become very high, and greatly against Ireland, the money of the country was carried out of it, for the purpose of paying the balance of remittances against Ireland; that as the gold decreased, it became necessary to supply its place with paper. This amount he placed at £1,200,000. He contended that it was a great error to suppose that the increased issues caused the raising of the exchange, as was often done. In his opinion it was directly the reverse, inasmuch as the paper enabled the gold which before stood in its place to be exported; and as far as it went in weight and measure, so far was it a clear and decided cause of preventing the exchange getting higher than it was. It was evident, he said, that the more paper issued by the bank in extension of loans enabled a greater drain of specie to take place, and consequently to strengthen the cause which kept down the rate of exchange. Mr. Colville repeatedly said that the state of the exchange was exclusively due to the fact that Ireland owed a great deal more money than she was able to pay. Mr. Colville's evidence was an amusing specimen of reasoning in a vicious circle. He decidedly held that the sole cause of the unfavorable state of the exchange was that Ireland owed a heavy balance of payments to Great Britain. And, being asked what was his criterion of such a heavy balance being due, he said it was the state of the exchange. That is, the reason why the exchange was unfavorable was that Ireland owed money; and the proof that Ireland owed money was that the exchange was unfavorable. Admirable logic! He admitted that the rate of exchange would be influenced if degraded and adulterated coin was the medium in which the balance of debt was paid; but he strenuously denied that such views in any way applied to Bank of Ireland paper. The directors maintained that it was no proof that Bank of Ireland paper was depreciated because gold was bought at a premium. They maintained that buying gold at a premium was the effect and not the cause of the exchange, and, therefore, no proof of the depreciation of the paper. The theory of these gentlemen was that the exchange could only be depressed on account of money being remitted; and that it might be depressed to any extent in proportion to the money which had to be remitted. Now, if this theory was true, it happened, as may be seen from the above figures, that while the exchange was adverse to Dublin, it was highly favorable to Belfast. Therefore, while large remittances were being made from Dublin to London, there were at the same time large remittances being made from London to Belfast! The phenomena at Newry were more astounding still; for at that place, where payments were made both in specie and in paper, the exchange if paid in specie was favorable to Newry; but if paid in paper was favorable to London. Consequently, that reasoning would show that Newry was largely in debt to London, and London was largely in debt to Newry! Mr. Colville fully admitted that, before the restriction, the bank was obliged to contract its issues during an unfavorable exchange and a drain of guineas; and also that the directors would have been very unfit for their business if they had not done so. The gist of the evidence of several of the witnesses was that, before the restriction, the directors had felt the necessity of contracting their issues during an adverse exchange, no matter how good the bills presented for discount were. But after the restriction, they adopted different principles. Then the doctrine of Adam Smith was brought forward, which we have noticed above as having been denounced by Lord King—viz., that the bank's issues could not be excessive, so long as they were advanced on mercantile bills of undoubted solidity, and based on a real transaction. This was a very plausible theory, and was stoutly maintained afterwards by the directors of the Bank of England before the Bullion Committee. But the very admission of the directors that it was incapable of being acted upon, so long as cash payments were maintained, was sufficient to condemn it. In 1696, during the re-coinage of the silver money, the Bank of England stopped payment, and a difference of twenty per cent. arose between specie and paper, and between tallies and specie of forty per cent.; and it was universally said that bank notes and tallies were at a discount of twenty and forty per cent. respectively. There is no trace of any other language being applied to them. In 1804, the Bank of Ireland had suspended cash payments; and Irish bank notes and specie exchanged at a difference of ten per cent.; so that it required a guinea note and 2s. 6d. in specie to buy a guinea in specie. The statesmen and merchants of 1696 would have expressed this state of things by saying that Irish bank notes had fallen to a discount of ten per cent. But at this period, a new mode of expressing it was discovered. It was stoutly maintained that it was not the paper which was depreciated; but the gold which had risen in value! or was appreciated, as the jargon was. When those directors maintained that a rise in the price of gold was no more a proof of the depreciation of the note than the rise in the price of any other commodity, they did not remember that a bank note is a "promise to pay" gold, and is not a promise to pay anything else. The same opinions were expressed by other witnesses, who seemed to think that there could be no possible cause which influenced the rate of exchange, but the remittances to be made to or from the country. They totally forgot, what was fully understood in 1696, that a bad state of the coinage influenced the rate of exchange, as well as the remittances to be made. When we consider the nature of an exchange, and the state of facts proved with regard to the Irish coinage at that time, we might almost smile at these ideas, and attribute them to the peculiar modes of thinking which are sometimes prevalent on the western side of St. George's Channel. But when a precisely similar state of things took place in England with regard to the foreign exchanges, the very same doctrines were long and stoutly maintained by a very numerous party in this country. One thing, however, made the investigation of the subject much simpler in Ireland than in England. In England, the use of bank paper extended throughout the whole country, and the exchanges were reckoned solely in bank notes. No part of the country used specie. But in Ireland, Dublin and the South used bank paper exclusively; Belfast and the North specie exclusively; and Newry used both specie and paper. The distinction between the two was therefore open and manifest. One very clear-headed witness, however, Mr. Marshall, Inspector-General of imports and exports of Ireland, controverted all these views. Upon considering the facts detailed above, he was clearly of opinion that Irish bank notes were depreciated from over-issue. Mr. Marshall also showed most clearly that the real exchange, arising from a balance of payments, was in favor of Ireland; and not adverse, as appeared by the nominal exchange. The exchange appeared to be against Dublin, because it was computed in bank notes, which, having ceased to represent the full quantity of specie for which they were issued, required an additional number of them to make up that quantity. This additional number swelled the exchange, and made it appear to be against Dublin, when it was in reality in its favor. The proof that the real exchange was in favor of Dublin was very simple. Bills of exchange purchased with specie in Dublin, or with Bank of Ireland notes equal in amount to specie at their market price, would then yield about £1 16s. 8d. more in London than they cost in Dublin. Whereas, if the exchange was unfavorable to Dublin, a merchant would always get more for his bill in Dublin than in London. This fact decisively proved that the real exchange was in favor of Dublin. Mr. Marshall then entered into a masterly analysis of the exchanges, showing that the depreciation of the note commenced when specie was flowing into Ireland; that it was always depreciated, whether specie was flowing in or flowing out, and had never been influenced by the balance of debt. He maintained that the high exchange which then existed arose like all other permanently high exchanges which ever existed, from the depreciated state of the currency in which bills of exchange were purchased. The report of the committee condemned in the strongest terms the opinions of the Irish Bank directors and merchants, and adopted those of Mr. Marshall. It declared that the difference in the rates of exchange when paid in specie and in paper was due entirely to the depreciation of paper; that guineas were the true standard to which the value of the circulating paper was to be referred. It was not to be supposed that, by any circumstances, guineas could be ten per cent. higher in Ireland than in England, when the expense of conveying them from one country to the other was not so much as one per cent. From the official accounts it was certain that the balance of payments due to Ireland was about two and one-half millions; consequently the real exchange ought to be, and was, under par. The Irish Restriction Act was adopted purely for English considerations. There was no drain of specie; the exchange was highly favorable to Ireland; nor had the Bank of Ireland any reason to dread any alarming demand on it, as the Bank of England had. The committee attributed the unfavorable state of the exchange to the consequences of that restriction. It compelled the bank to refrain from sending gold, the only common medium between the two countries, into circulation. Paper was issued to supply the place of the gold so withdrawn; and at the same time the best and most effective check against the depreciation of paper—namely, convertibility into gold at the will of the holder—was removed. By being released from its engagements, the bank was encouraged to make excessive issues. The natural and constant effect of an adverse exchange, correcting itself by diminishing the issue of paper, was counteracted by this measure. When the exchange was so adverse as to draw gold out of the country, for every guinea drawn out of the bank an equal quantity of paper must be paid to buy the guineas. The directors would also be probably induced to lessen their discounts, so that the paper would be reduced in a greater degree than the gold withdrawn. Mr. Colville admitted that, before the restriction, such was the practice of the Bank of Ireland and of every other bank. If prudence had not dictated such a course, necessity would have compelled a diminution of issues, by diminishing the stock of specie, which could only be replaced at a loss proportionate to the existing rise of exchange; and in fact, as well as in theory, the result of such practice always was, and must be, the redress of the unfavorable exchange. But the Restriction Act freed the directors from that necessity; and, so far from contracting their issues in consequence of the unfavorable exchange, they had increased them, which the state of the exchange would have prevented them from doing if they had not been relieved from the necessity of paying their notes in cash. The fact of the excessive issues of paper in 1753-4, and the adverse exchange which accompanied it, proved that excessive issues of paper produced a corresponding rise in the rate of exchange; and when the excess of paper was annihilated by the failure of the bankers, the exchange immediately became favorable. The reason was obvious: the nominal rates of exchange are influenced by the medium in which the payments are made, and the quantity of that medium necessary to effect a given payment must be increased as the value of the medium diminishes. This must equally take place, whether the payments are made in a degraded or adulterated coin or in a depreciated paper. The exchange between London and Holland in 1694 was a case in point. The currency of England was then degraded twenty-five per cent. below its proper value, and the exchange with Holland was twenty-five per cent. against England. As soon as the coin was reformed the exchange fell to par. If paper, therefore, by depreciation comes to represent a less quantity of money than it professes to do, it must make the exchange which it has to pay appear unfavorable, in the same manner as coin which contained less gold than it ought would do. And the removal of the degradation in the one case and of the depreciation in the other would have the same effect in bringing the exchange to its true state. It was probable that this depreciation in Ireland arose almost entirely, if not solely, from excessive issues of paper. The rise in the exchange was concomitant with the extended issues of the bank. In March, 1797, the issues of the bank were under £700,000, and the exchange on Dublin was 5 1-2 to 6 3-4. In April, 1801, the paper was £2,266,000, and the exchange rose to 11 3-4 and 13. In January, 1804, the paper was £2,986,999, and the exchange rose to 17 and 18. How far these increased issues from the Bank of Ireland facilitated an increase from private bankers was not clearly proved, but it certainly did so to an immense extent; silver notes and I O U's especially, were issued with the greatest profusion. In 1799, the number of bankers issuing notes was eleven; in 1800, there were twenty-three; in 1801, there were twenty-nine; in 1802, there were thirty; and in 1803, there were forty. In 1799, the issues of the private bankers were £450,721; in 1800, £458,085; in 1801, £1,233,502; in 1802, £1,096,207, and in 1803, £1,457,283. These immense issues, along with the profusion of silver notes and the base and counterfeit coin, kept up the prices of all necessaries and manufactures, drove out of circulation what little good silver was in it, and above all kept up a high and unexampled rate of exchange against the kingdom, unwarranted in its height and continuance by any other great or adequate cause than that depreciation, which such extravagant issues had assisted. The total number of houses that issued tokens and notes, according to the best accounts they could procure, was considerably above two hundred. Mr. Beresford, a Dublin banker, estimated that the country issues had increased four-fold since the restriction. The repeal of the Restriction Act, from which all these evils flowed, would undoubtedly be the great and effectual remedy for the high and fluctuating rates of exchange. The common medium of payment being thereby restored, the rise of exchange above par would be limited to the expense of transporting specie; and paper being convertible into gold, its depreciation would be prevented. The inconveniences, however, to which the Bank of Ireland and other banks would be exposed, if such a measure were suddenly adopted at the present rate of exchange, was a strong argument against its being done then. But there was no commercial reason against its being done, as the real exchange was undoubtedly in favor of Ireland. Seeing, however, that the repeal of restriction could not be expected at that time, other measures might be adopted to cure the evil. One was that the Bank of Ireland might give bills of exchange on London for its paper. This would certainly have the effect of rectifying the exchange. The bank objected to the difficulty and expense of establishing a fund for that purpose. But the argument had no weight, because the expense of this would not be so great as the bank was subject to before the restriction, in order to maintain the convertibility of its notes, and which they must again incur when the restriction should be removed. Besides, the Scotch banks had done the very same thing with the greatest success. The Scotch currency had never varied from par since they had organized a measure of this sort, even during periods of great discredit, and no restriction had been imposed upon them, as it was on the banks of England and Ireland. The undoubted success of this measure in the case of the Scotch banks was a strong argument that the Bank of Ireland should do the same thing. And there was a stronger argument still why the Bank of Ireland should do it. The Scotch banks, of their own good sense and patriotism, organized this measure without a precedent, and provided a fund at their own expense. But the Bank of Ireland had now an opportunity of doing it without any risk, difficulty or expense. The sums to be remitted during that year from England to Ireland amounted to £5,000,000 Irish. This sum, or a portion of it, might be appropriated for that purpose. It might be paid into the Bank of England to the credit of the Bank of Ireland, and though no doubt it would be an expense to that bank, it would furnish a fund to draw upon, by which it would effectually control the exchange, and the evil of the expense would be temporary: the good would be permanent to the bank and to the public. But all the benefits derived from these remedies would be of little avail and of very short duration if they did not at the same time cure the depreciation of Irish paper by diminishing its over-issue. This consequence must necessarily follow from Bank of Ireland notes being made convertible into Bank of England notes, almost as they would be into gold, if the restriction were to cease. For, if their fund in London were too rapidly drawn upon at any time, they must immediately limit their issues to lessen the demand; the notes would become of equal value with the English notes, and therefore with guineas, so long as the English notes were at par. The committee did, in express terms, declare their clear opinion that it was incumbent on the directors of the Bank of Ireland, and their indispensable duty, to limit their paper at all times of an unfavorable exchange during the continuance of the restriction, exactly on the same principle as they would, and must have done, in case the restriction did not exist; and that all the evils of a high and fluctuating exchange were to be imputed to them if they failed to do so. The effect which making Bank of England notes procurable in Ireland would have on the exchange was clearly shown by the great fall in it in March, April and May, 1797, when Government passed Bank of England notes in Dublin. They recommended that the Irish currency should be equalized with the English, by making the Irish shilling 12d. before any new coinage was struck, and that the English copper coinage should be as current in Ireland as the silver and gold coinage. This admirable report is the first Parliamentary investigation into the theory of a paper currency; and is the first authoritative declaration that it ought to be governed by the foreign exchanges. In this it fully adopted the truths demonstrated by Mr. Boyd, Lord King and Mr. Parnell, and is in entire accordance with the more celebrated Bullion Report of 1810. These two reports are the most masterly papers which were ever drawn by Parliamentary committees. This report did not discuss the new theory propounded, that the paper currency should be regulated by the discount of mercantile bills. The Bullion Committee did, and entirely condemned it. IN 1807, speculation burst out with redoubled fury. Napoleon's Berlin decree, placing the whole of Great Britain under a paper blockade, and interdicting all commerce between all nations under his influence with Great Britain, was met with equally insane counter decrees by Great Britain. These decrees caused violent changes in the value of a multitude of commodities; and, as a natural consequence, immense speculation in them. The deposition of the House of Braganza from the throne of Portugal was followed by their emigration to the Brazils. This opened out the whole of the South American markets to British commerce, which had hitherto been closed against it. The speculation of the merchants swelled in proportion to the vastness of the markets opened up to them. A complete frenzy of speculation seized upon the nation. It spread from commerce to joint stock companies. The infatuation in 1720 was reproduced. Joint stock companies of every conceivable sort started up like mushrooms. At the same time the Bank of England fanned the flame of speculation beyond all the bounds of ordinary rashness. Sir Francis Baring said in his evidence before the Bullion Committee, that since the restriction, he knew of many clerks not worth £100 who had turned merchants, and got discount accounts from £5000 to £10,000 from the bank, which could not be done if it were not for the restriction. The paper discounted by the bank, which had been £2,946,500 in 1795, rose to £15,475,700 in 1809, and to £20,070,600 in 1810. Along with this extravagant speculation, partly caused by it, and partly fanning it, a multitude of country banks started up in all directions and inundated the country with their notes, exactly as had happened before 1793. In the year 1797 they had been reduced to 270; in 1808 they had increased to 600; and in 1810, when the Bullion Committee was appointed, they amounted to 721; and the quantity of paper they put into circulation was supposed to amount to £30,000,000. At the same time the Bank of England had increased its issue to £21,000,000, a quantity declared by some of the most eminent witnesses far to exceed the legitimate wants of the country. Concurrently with these extravagant speculations and issues of notes, the price of gold bullion rose rapidly, and the foreign exchanges fell with great rapidity—exactly the same symptoms as had been manifested in Ireland in 1804. Mr. Baring said that guineas sold for 26s. A celebrated war of pamphlets broke out. When the value of bank notes in 1797 had differed from specie, it had been universally said that bank notes had fallen to a discount. But in 1809, when exactly the same phenomena took place, an ingenious and powerful party made the wonderful discovery that it was not bank notes which had fallen, but gold that had risen! A host of writers, among whom one of the most distinguished was Ricardo, who now first appeared as a writer, maintained that bank notes were at a discount, which was caused by their excessive issues. The following figures, taken at intervals, are sufficient to show the rapid rise in the price of bullion and the fall in the foreign exchanges: Price of Sterling Gold. Price of Silver. Exchanges with Hamburg. £ s. d. s. d. s. d. January, 1805 4 0 0 5 4 35 6 October, 1805 4 0 0 5 5 33 9 July, 1808 No quotation 5 3 34 9 February, 1809 4 10 0 5 3 31 0 May, 1809 4 11 0 5 5 29 6 January, 1810 No quotation 5 7 28 6 On the 1st of February, 1810, on the motion of Mr. Horner, the famous Bullion Committee was appointed. The Bullion Report of 1810 has, from various circumstances, attracted so much public attention, as to have thrown completely into the shade the Report on Irish Currency in 1804. That report was soon so forgotten that the Directors of the Bank of England seem to have had no knowledge of it. The circumstances, however, of the derangement of the Irish currency in 1804 were precisely similar with those of the English currency in 1810. The same sets of opinions were delivered and adhered to stoutly by the professional witnesses in both cases, and the report of the committee in each case was precisely identical. In each case they condemned the doctrines and policy of the bank directors in the most emphatic manner. The report of the Bullion Committee of 1810 is written in a more methodical and scientific form, and is superior as a literary performance, but the principles adopted and enforced in it are absolutely identical with those of the report of 1804. The witnesses examined before both committees consisted of the same varieties: bank directors, private bankers, general merchants and independent witnesses. The opinions given by the English bank directors and merchants were precisely similar to those of the Irish bank directors and merchants. The directors of both banks vehemently repudiated the idea that the bank paper was depreciated; they equally maintained that it was the price of specie which had risen; they both admitted that while they were liable to pay their notes in specie, they were obliged to regulate their issues by the foreign exchanges and the price of bullion; they both admitted that since the restriction they had paid no attention to their former rules, and they denied the necessity of so doing. They both denied that the issues of their notes had any effect on the exchanges, or were in any way the cause of the high adverse exchange, and they both denied that a limitation of their issues would have the slightest effect in reducing the exchanges to par. They both maintained that there could be no over-issue of their notes so long as they were confined to the discount of paper of undoubted solidity, founded upon real transactions. Nothing can be more remarkable than the perfect identity in sentiment in every point of opinion and policy between these two sets of directors; but we must remark what will detract considerably from the weight of their opinion, that they were all interested witnesses. In the first place, since the restriction on cash payments, and so being relieved of fulfilling their obligations, they had extended their discounts enormously, and as their profits upon their extended issues had been proportionate, the dividends of the proprietors had greatly increased. Secondly, they were in the position of semi-defendants; their policy was certainly impugned. The committee was a court of inquiry into their conduct; and it certainly was not likely that they would admit that the principles they were acting upon could be wrong, when they were so very lucrative to the proprietors of the bank. The same objection of interested testimony equally applies to that of the merchants; for they were interested in obtaining as large an amount of accommodation from the bank as possible; and a restriction on its issues would have curtailed their operations, speculative or otherwise; consequently, their interests were better served by the doctrines and policy of the bank directors. Both committees, however, examined witnesses of an independent position, who had no interest one way or the other; and in each case they totally disagreed from the opinions and the doctrines of the bank directors, and condemned their policy. And in both cases the committee, having examined all these witnesses of different shades and of opposite opinions, presented reports strongly condemning the opinions and practice of the directors of each bank, and called upon them to alter their policy; the report in the Irish case in language of great severity; that in the English case equally strong in fact, though milder in expression. As this division of opinion on these financial questions exercised the most momentous consequences on the welfare of the country, it will be of advantage to state shortly and precisely the points upon which the respective parties were at issue. The facts were, of course, easily ascertained and agreed upon. They were as follows: 1. That the Mint price of gold bullion, or the legal standard of the coin, was £3 17s. 10 1-2d. per ounce. 2. That the market price of gold bullion was then £4 10s. per ounce. 3. That the foreign exchanges had fallen to a great extent—that with Hamburg, 9 per cent.; that with Paris, 14 per cent. 4. That the increase of bank notes had been very great during the last few years; and was rapidly augmenting. 5. That specie had disappeared from circulation. Upon this acknowledged state of facts the opposite issues maintained by the two parties were as follows: The one party maintained— 1. (a) That the bank notes were depreciated. (b) That the difference between the market price and the Mint price of gold bullion was the measure of the depreciation. 2. (a) That the extreme limit to which the foreign exchanges could, by the nature of things, fall in any case, was defined and easily ascertained, and consisted of the expense of freight, insurance and some other minute causes. (b) That, in the then state of the foreign exchanges, there was a very large excess of depression over and above that limit, which was not attributable to any of these causes. (c) That this residual depression of the exchanges, and the rise of the market price above the Mint price of gold, was caused by the excessive issues of bank notes in circulation. 3. That a diminution on the quantity of bank notes would increase the value of the domestic currency, would cause the foreign exchanges to rise to par, and cause the market price of gold to fall to the Mint price. 4. That the Directors of the Bank of England ought to follow the same rules in the extent of their issues during the restriction of cash payments as they had been obliged to do before the restriction—namely, by regulating them by the foreign exchanges. When the exchanges were favorable and bullion flowing in, they might enlarge them; when the exchanges were adverse, they must contract them. In opposition to these principles the other party maintained: 1. (a) That it was not the bank notes which had fallen, but specie which had risen. (b) That there was no difference between the price of bullion, whether paid in bank notes or in specie. 2. That the depression in the exchanges was in no way whatever attributable to the depreciation of the currency, but was entirely caused by the adverse balance of payments to be made by Great Britain, the remittances to the army, the Continental measures of Napoleon and other political measures. 3. That no diminution or increase of the issues by the bank could have any effect whatever on the foreign exchanges, either in raising or depressing them, or on the market price of bullion. 4. That since the restriction there was no necessity for observing the same rules in issuing their notes by discounts as before—i. e., by observing the course of the foreign exchanges; but that the public demand was the sole criterion; and so long as they adhered to these rules there could be no over-issue. With respect to the first point at issue between the two parties, after the previous full exposition of the principles involved in it, we need say very little about it here, as according to what has already been said, it is quite clear that it was a very fantastic opinion indeed to suppose that gold could rise in comparison to a "promise to pay" gold. There was one circumstance, however, different in the cases of England and Ireland. In the latter country, the bank notes were openly at a discount; there were two prices in every transaction—a money price and a paper price; and there were specie shops where guineas were openly sold for bank notes and several shillings over. In England, this was not the case, partly because Bank of England notes were received at their full nominal value in payment of taxes; but chiefly because it was held to be an indictable offence to sell guineas for more than 21s. Shortly before the Bullion Committee was appointed, a man named De Yonge was tried and convicted for the crime of selling guineas for more than 21s. This law only applied to heavy guineas. Light guineas, below 5 dwts. 8 grns. might be sold, and usually brought a bank note of £1, and 6s. or 7s. over. But though it was supposed to be an offence to sell heavy guineas openly for more than 21s., there was abundant evidence to show that when persons were dealing privately they made a difference between payment in gold and payment in notes. However, De Yonge's conviction was afterwards quashed. As Mr. Huskisson said, the doctrine of those persons who held that bank notes were not depreciated was, that bank paper was the real and fixed measure of all commodities, and that gold was only one of the commodities of which the value, like that of all others, was to be determined and ascertained by reference to this invariable standard and universal equivalent, bank notes. These views pervaded the whole of the mercantile evidence adduced, the reply to which is so obvious. A bank note was the promise to pay a certain specified weight of gold of standard fineness; it did not promise to be of the value of any amount of indigo, broadcloth, corn, or anything else. A £1 bank note professed to be of the value, and to be exchangeable for 5 dwts. 3 grns. of standard gold, and nothing else; and if it would only purchase 4 dwts. 8 grns., those who maintained that it was not depreciated, must also have maintained that 4 dwts. 8 grns. were equal to 5 dwts. 3 grns. There is no escape from this conclusion. Those who maintained that a £1 bank note, which was a promise to pay 5 dwts. 4 grns. was still a "Pound" when it would only purchase 4 dwts. 8 grns., ought also to have maintained that if the fifth part were to leak out of a pint bottle of wine, it was still a "pint of wine" because it was contained in a pint bottle. In each case the "promise to pay" and the "pint bottle" were only the outward sign of what the contents ought to be; in either case, it was the quantity of the substance, either of gold or of wine, they actually did contain, which was their true value. There was, however, one argument to show that there was no difference between specie and paper in transactions; for specie had totally disappeared from circulation; it had no existence. Bank notes and tokens were the sole circulating medium of the country. When people found that they could get no more for their good golden guineas than for the depreciated bank notes, they hoarded them; they either retained them locked up, or melted them down for exportation—the temptation to perjury being exactly 12s. per ounce. The explanation of this phenomenon is very simple. When bank notes are convertible into gold at the will of the holder they cannot fall to a discount; and if bankers issue too great a quantity of them the holders demand gold. But when bank notes are inconvertible, they take rank as a new independent, substantive currency, exactly like silver. Now the relative value of gold and silver purely depends upon the law of supply and demand; and when their relative values are fixed by law, if the legal, or artificial value does not agree with the market, or natural value, it invariably happens that the metal which is undervalued disappears from circulation. So, also, when heavy and light coins of the same metal circulated together, the heavy coins invariably disappeared from circulation, because the heavy coins were undervalued; and nobody would give six ounces of silver for what they could purchase with five ounces. It was exactly the same with inconvertible bank notes. They could only preserve their relative value with gold by preserving certain relative proportions in their quantity. As soon as this relative quantity was exceeded their relative value fell; and as their relative value for gold was fixed by law, a change in their market value was followed by exactly the same consequences as a difference between the market and the legal value of gold and silver. The guineas which were undervalued were driven out of circulation, as has always been done under similar circumstances, and as always will be done to the end of time. Thus this iniquitous and ignorant law to force down the value of guineas brought its own punishment with it. It destroyed their existence as a circulating medium. But then it became literally true that there was no difference between specie and paper; the power of making an invidious distinction between specie and paper was effectually cured. Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. When the inhabitants were massacred, the Russians proclaimed: L'ordre regne à Varsovie. With respect to the second issue joined between the parties, the principal places with which London had established exchanges were Amsterdam, Hamburg and Paris. The witnesses examined by the committee proved that the whole expenses of freight, insurance, war risk, and every other charge, varied from about four to five and a-half per cent.; but beyond these there was a depression of twelve to fourteen per cent., totally unaccountable for by any of these causes. If it were true that this difference arose from a demand for gold on the Continent, it is quite evident that gold should equally have risen in the Continental markets. But those who alleged this cause should have been prepared with a proof of their assertions, which, however, they were totally unable to produce. On the contrary, it was proved that there was no alteration in the Mint price of gold in foreign places, and that the market price had experienced no rise at all in proportion to the rise in England. Of all the witnesses examined by the committee, one foreign merchant alone maintained in opposition to the English witnesses, that the rate of exchange was in no way due to the balance of payments due by England, but that it was solely due to the depreciation of the bank notes in which payments were made. With respect to the third issue joined between the parties, nothing can be clearer than that a diminution in the quantity of paper in circulation must have enhanced its value relatively to all other commodities, gold included. And as the market price of gold was determined solely with reference to the price paid for it in bank paper, and not in guineas, it is evident that a reduction in the quantity of paper must have reduced the price of gold when expressed in paper, and brought the real value of the bank note nearer its nominal value. And thus, by raising the value of the whole currency, if the diminution had been carried far enough, it must necessarily have raised the foreign exchanges to par, and so would have brought gold back again into circulation. The fourth issue between the parties contains a perfectly new theory of the paper currency, which had been previously maintained by the directors of the Bank of Ireland. As this is a very important, but very delusive, theory of paper currency, we shall defer the discussion to a future chapter. The Bullion Report especially condemned it. Upon all this conflicting evidence the committee produced a most masterly report, probably the most able ever drawn up by a Parliamentary committee. It was the joint work of Mr. Horner, Mr. Huskisson and Mr. Henry Thornton—each a master in his own department. It is one of the great landmarks in economics, as containing the infallible principles upon which a paper currency must be regulated. Nothing can be a more amusing example of reasoning in a vicious circle than the unanimous doctrines of the English merchants. They laid down as a dogma that an adverse state of the exchanges and an export of bullion could only be caused by a balance of payments being due by England; and because the exchanges were adverse, and an export of bullion had taken place, they maintained that it must be owing simply to a balance of payments being due by England, without the least investigation into the facts. But an inquiry into the facts entirely disproved this assertion; because it was decisively proved that when the exchanges were reduced to their true value in specie, that the real exchange was in favor of England, which we know must necessarily have been the case, from the enormous exports of English commodities to all quarters of the globe. The committee decisively proved that an excessive quantity of inconvertible paper necessarily causes the exchanges to be apparently adverse, whatever the real exchange may be, and an export of gold. They thus showed that instead of there being only one cause of an adverse state of the exchanges and an export of gold, there were two. The committee then laid down the rule that the issues of paper must be governed and regulated by the state of the foreign exchanges and the market price of gold bullion. Unfortunately, however, they laid down no rule for carrying these principles into practical effect; and consequently their theory, correct as far as it went, was incomplete, and was never properly worked. In 1856, we showed that besides the two causes of an adverse state of the exchanges, and an export of bullion, there is a third, which up till then had never attracted sufficient attention. By stating this new cause and devising a rule founded upon it, showing how the theory of the Bullion Report is to be carried into practical effect, we completed the theory of the Bullion Report; and by this rule the Bank of England and every bank in the world is now managed. Some proposals were made for remedying the evil by imposing a limit on the issues of the bank; but the committee entirely condemned the plan of imposing a cast-iron limit on the issues of the bank; because doing so would prevent the bank from rendering that assistance to commerce in times of trouble which repeated experience had proved to be necessary, and might very much aggravate the inconveniences of a temporary pressure. The only true and proper remedy for all these evils was, therefore, a resumption of cash payments. That, however, was an operation of the greatest delicacy, and it must be left to the discretion and prudence of the bank to carry it into effect. Parliament should merely fix the time, and leave it to them to carry it into effect. Under all the circumstances a period of two years seemed to be not longer than necessary, and at the same time sufficient to enable them to prepare for it. This report contains the eternal and immutable principles which must regulate every paper currency which makes any attempt to conform to the value of gold; and if any legislation on paper currency be considered necessary, it must endeavor to enforce the practical application of the principles of this report; and just in so far as it deviates from or contravenes them, so it will be found to thwart and contravene the eternal principles of economics. All legislation, then, on the currency should have as its object merely to provide the best machinery for ensuring the practical application of the principles. The general principles laid down in this report are as complete a matter of demonstration as any in Euclid. The method of treating the subject is as scientific as any of the great discoveries in natural philosophy, which have excited the admiration of the world; nor could it fail to carry conviction to any one of ordinary intelligence who was capable of understanding the force of the arguments. No sooner was it published, than it was assailed by a whole multitude of pamphleteers, whose obscure memory it is not worth while now to revive. The interests affected by the report were too deep and extensive for it not to be attacked by every species of ridicule and acrimonious controversy. In May, 1811, a debate of four nights took place on the report. Mr. Horner embodied the conclusions of the report in a series of sixteen resolutions. The first was negatived by a majority of 151 to 75. The next fourteen were negatived without a division; and the last was rejected by a majority of 180 to 45. Among the names of the majority was that of Robert Peel. Mr. Vansittart, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a speech of enormous length moved counter-resolutions to Mr. Horner. The purport of these was that there was no legal weight of bullion in the coins beyond what the caprice of each sovereign might dictate; that the bank notes were merely promises to pay these coins, and that they always had been, and at that moment were, held equivalent in public estimation to the legal coin of the realm, and were generally accepted as such in all pecuniary transactions to which such coin was lawfully applicable; and that the price of bullion and the state of the foreign exchanges were in no way owing to excessive issues of bank paper. Mr. Canning in vain attempted to persuade the Ministers to rest satisfied with the defeat of the Bullion Report; and, for the sake of the reputation of the House, not to make them pass a vote which no one outside of it could speak of without laughter. His amendment was rejected by a majority of eighty-two to forty-two, and Mr. Vansittart's resolutions were carried. After the House had indulged in this wild freak,—the very saturnalia of unreason,—and given the bank so great an encouragement to pursue its wild career, it became evident to everyone who understood the subject, that the value of every man's property depended on the will of the bank. This was fraught with the most alarming consequences to every one with a fixed income; as, while the price of every article of necessity kept pace with the depreciation of the currency, anyone like a landlord, having a fixed rent to receive, was paid in a depreciated paper, while his tenants received the increased nominal prices of their commodities. As matters were continually getting worse,—gold having risen to £4 16s. in March,—Lord King, who had distinguished himself some years before regarding paper money, issued a circular to his tenants, reminding them that their contract was to pay a certain quantity of the legal coin of the country, and that the present paper currency was considerably depreciated. He said that in future, he should require his rents to be paid in the legal gold coin of the realm; but that, as his object was merely to secure the payment of the real intrinsic value of the sum agreed to be paid, he should be willing to receive the amount in Portugal gold coin of an equal weight with that of the stipulated number of guineas, or in an amount of bank notes sufficient to purchase the weight of standard gold requisite to discharge the rent. That such a demand was legal no one pretended to deny. But when, this practical sarcasm was passed upon the resolution of the House of Commons, it drove that party wild. The most unmeasured abuse was heaped upon Lord King for incivism. Not only was the measure in every way legal, but nothing could have been more equitable. His tenants were receiving increased market prices for their produce, and only paid him in the same number of depreciated notes. It is quite clear that, if his tenants got an increase in the price of their products, owing to the depreciation, he ought to have received a proportionate increase in his rents. Lord Stanhope brought in a bill which, after being considerably modified, was ultimately passed, making it a misdemeanor to make any difference between specie and paper in payments. He mentioned several instances which he had been informed of in which 27s. were demanded for a guinea. Lord Holland also said that a £1 note and seven shillings were currently given for guineas. Admirable commentary upon the resolutions so triumphantly carried only two months before in the House of Commons, and then standing in their journals, that in public estimation guineas and bank notes were equal! This act was originally limited to the 24th March, 1812, but it was subsequently prolonged during the continuance of the Restriction Act. The harvest of 1811 was extremely deficient, and that was the period when the power of Napoleon was at its height, and the Continental sources of supply were cut off. In August, 1812, corn reached its highest price during the war. The average price of wheat in England and Wales was then 155s.; some Dantzic wheat brought 180s.; and in some instances oats were at 84s. The advocates of the rival theories attributed this great rise in the price of cereals to different causes—one party almost entirely to the depreciation of paper, the other to the scarcity. Mr. Tooke was a distinguished advocate of the latter view, and in support of it urged forcible arguments from the corresponding rise which took place in France during the same period, where the currency was almost purely metallic. Mr. Tooke's powerful arguments derive additional force from his being a contemporary of the circumstances he describes. But we think he can hardly be correct in so entirely neglecting the effect of the depreciation of the paper currency as he does. We have abundant evidence that, before the gold coin and the bank note bill, there were very generally two prices in the country—a gold price and a paper price. After that act, gold totally disappeared from circulation, and there was nothing but a paper price. But, if any price had been paid in gold, would there not have been exactly the same difference in the price as before the act? If then such would have been the case, it is evident that when paid in paper, the paper was depreciated by exactly the difference that would have been between gold and paper. There does not appear to be the least reason to suppose that the scarcity was greater in 1812 than in 1800; in fact, the evidence seems to be all the other way; yet while corn only rose to 133s. in 1800, it rose to 155s. in 1812. Whence this difference? It was evidently due to the depreciation of the paper. In August, 1812, the price of gold was £4 18s. per ounce, at which the real value of the note was 15s. 11d. How is it to be supposed that the enhancement of prices when paid in paper, which was quite notorious before Lord Stanhope's Act, was actually annihilated by that act? The principles of the Bullion Report having been decisively rejected by Parliament, and pronounced to be fallacious by the resolutions which declared twenty-one to be equal to twenty-seven, the bank took no measures to bring their notes to a nearer conformity to their nominal value; and the market or paper price continued to rise, till November, 1813, it stood at £5 10s.; the greatest height it ever reached. The long continuance of high prices, caused partly by a series of deficient harvests and partly by the depreciated paper in which prices were paid, gave rise to the belief that they would continue permanent. Immense speculations began in land jobbing; vast tracts of waste and fen land were reclaimed. It was at this time that the immense agricultural improvements in Lincolnshire were effected. Rents in most cases rose to treble what they were in 1792; all the new agricultural contracts entered into at this period were formed on the basis of these extravagant prices. Landlords and tenants increased their expenditure in a like proportion; family settlements were made on a commensurate scale. As a natural consequence, country banks multiplied greatly. In 1811 they were 728; in 1813 they had risen to 940; and the amount of their issues was supposed on the most moderate estimate to be about £25,000,000. After the disaster of the French in the Russian campaign of 1812, and the battle of Leipzic in 1813, the ports of Russia and Northern Germany were thrown open to British commerce. This naturally gave rise to enormous speculative exports and overtrading. The harvest of 1813 was prodigiously abundant, so that the price of wheat, which in August, 1812, had been 155s. gradually fell till in July, 1814, it was only 68s. The exporting speculations were at their height in the spring of 1814, and the prices of all such commodities rose to, in many cases, double and treble what they had been before. Every branch of industry was affected by the preceding causes, and the natural and inevitable consequences soon followed. A violent revulsion and general depression of the price of all sorts of property, which entailed such general and universal losses among the agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, mining, shipping and building interests, as had never before been paralleled. As is always the case, the consequences of the wild speculations and engagements persons had entered into during the continuance of the fever, continued to be felt for many years afterwards. The disasters commenced in the autumn of 1814, continued with increasing severity during 1815, and reached their height in 1816-17. During these years, eighty-nine country bankers became actually bankrupt; probably four or five times that number ceased business, and the reduction of their issues of country paper was such, that in 1816 its amount was little more than half what it had been in 1814. This discredit of country bank paper, similar to what had previously occurred in 1793 and 1797, caused a demand for additional issues from the Bank of England, to help to maintain public credit. This caused an extension of the bank paper by upwards of three millions; but so great was the abstraction of country bank paper, to certainly four times the amount of the increased issues of the bank, that the value of the whole currency gradually rose, so that while in May, 1815, the market or paper price of gold was £5 6s., the exchange on Hamburg 28·2, and the exchange on Paris 19·00, in October, 1816, the paper price of gold was £3 18s. 6d., the exchange with Hamburg was 38·00, and that on Paris was 26·10, and they remained at these prices with little variation till July, 1817. Hence at length was manifested the most complete triumph of the principles of the Bullion Report. The great plethora of this worthless quantity of paper currency being removed, the value of the whole currency was raised almost to par; so near, in fact, that the smallest care and attention would have brought it quite to par; and if means could have been taken to prevent the growth of the rank luxuriance of country bank notes, cash payments would have been resumed at this period with the utmost possible facility, and, as a matter of course, without exciting the least comment. On several previous occasions, the bank had intimated to the Government their perfect ability and readiness to resume payments in cash, but had always been prevented from doing so for political reasons. In 1815, when peace was finally restored, they prepared in good faith to be ready to do so as soon as they should be required; and during that year and 1816, they accumulated so much treasure that, in November, 1816, they gave notice of their intention to pay all their notes dated previously to the 1st January, 1812; and in April, 1817, all their notes dated before the first of January, 1816. When this was done, there was found to be scarcely any demand upon them for gold. The nation had got so accustomed to a paper currency, that they were most unwilling to receive gold for it. Mr. Stuckey, one of the largest bankers in the west of England, said that during this partial resumption of cash payments, it cost him nearly £100 to remit the surplus coin which accumulated upon him to London, as he could not get rid of it in the country, his customers all preferring his notes. Many persons who had hoarded guineas requested as a favor to have notes in exchange. In March, 1814, the restriction was prolonged till July, 1816. Just after that, took place the Hundred Days. The expenses of the campaign made the Ministers dread a monetary crisis, and the restriction was prolonged till July, 1818. The partial resumption of cash payments was attended with perfect success; it caused no very great demand for gold; which continued to accumulate in the bank till October, 1817, when it reached its maximum, being £11,914,000. The bank gave notice that it would pay off in cash all the notes dated before the 1st of January, 1817, or renew them at the option of the holders. In the course of 1817, a very large amount of foreign loans was contracted for. Prussia, Austria, and other lesser states were endeavoring to replace their depreciated paper money by specie; and as money was abundant in England, a very large portion of these loans were taken up here. The effect of this began to manifest itself in April, 1817, when the exchanges with Hamburg and Paris began to give way and the market price of gold to rise. These phenomena gradually increased throughout 1818, until in January, 1819, the market price of gold was £4 3s., the exchange on Hamburg 33·8, and that on Paris 23·50. In July, 1817, the new gold coinage began to be issued from the Mint in large quantities. The consequence was, that a steady demand for gold set in upon the bank, and, in pursuance of its notices, the sum of £6,756,000 was drawn out of it in gold. Just at this time the British Government reduced the rate of interest upon exchequer bills. The very much higher rate of interest offered by Continental governments caused a great demand for gold for export; and in the beginning of 1818, a very decided drain set in. The bank directors, however, determined to set all the principles of the Bullion Report ostentatiously at defiance. While this great drain was going on, they increased their advances to the Government from £20,000,000 to £28,000,000; and though they knew perfectly well that the demand for gold was for export, they took no measures whatever to reduce their issues for the purpose of checking the export. At the same time, the issues of the country banks had increased by two-thirds since 1816. This demand for gold became more intense during 1818 and January, 1819; and it became evident that the bank would soon be exhausted if legislative interference did not take place. Accordingly, on the 3d of February, 1819, both Houses appointed committees to inquire into the state of the bank; and on the 5th of April they reported that it was expedient to pass an act immediately to restrain the bank from paying cash in terms of its notices of 1816-17. An act for that purpose was passed in two days. The report of the Commons stated that in the first six months of 1818, 125 millions of francs had been coined at the French Mint, three-fourths of which had been derived from the gold coin of this country. The act forbade the bank to make any payments in gold whatever, either for fractional sums under £5 or any of their notes, during that session of Parliament. The bank was, therefore, totally closed for cash payments. This was the second notable triumph of the principles of the Bullion Report. The first had proved the truth of its doctrine that a reduction of the paper currency would reduce the price of gold, and bring the exchanges to par. The second showed that an ostentatious defiance and contravention of its doctrines brought on a total suspension of cash payments. The chief points of interest in these reports of the committees are the opinions of the witnesses respecting the great doctrines of the Bullion Report. The reports of neither House entered into any question of the theory of the currency; they were confined to recommending a certain course of action; but they examined a number of witnesses of the first eminence on the subject, and the result of their evidence is most extraordinary. In 1804 and 1810 the immense preponderance of commercial testimony scouted the doctrine that the issues of paper currency had any effect on the exchanges or the price of bullion, or should be regulated by them. Nevertheless, the reports of both committees were certainly in the teeth of the mercantile evidence. The Bullion Report had now been before the country for nearly nine years; and had caused more public discussion than almost any subject whatever, both in Parliament and in the press. It is perfectly manifest that if its principles were erroneous, the commercial world would only have been further strengthened against them. But what was the result now? The overwhelming mass of commercial evidence was entirely in their favor. The current of mercantile opinion was now just as strong in their favor as it had been formerly against them. A few old, antiquated fossils still stuck to the exploded fallacies to the last. What could be more triumphant than this? What could be more splendid testimony to their soundness and accuracy than the fact that they had converted the immense hostile majority of the commercial world? Notwithstanding that the Governor and the Deputy Governor of the bank had given strong evidence in favor of the doctrines of the Bullion Report, they were not able to carry the majority of the court with them, who persisted in the old opinions. On the occasion of some questions being sent to them for their consideration, the court took the opportunity of recording publicly their disapproval of the doctrines which were now in the ascendant. On the 25th of March they resolved: "That this court cannot refrain from adverting to an opinion strongly insisted upon by some, that the bank had only to reduce its issues to obtain a favorable turn in the exchanges, and a consequent influx of the precious metals; the court conceives it to be its duty to declare that it is unable to discover any solid foundation for such a sentiment." In pursuance of the reports of both Houses, the celebrated Act of 1819 was passed, commonly called Peel's Act, because he was Chairman of the Committee of the Commons, and the Ministry entrusted the bringing in of it to him. The chief provisions of this Act, Statute 1819, c. 49, were: 1. The acts then in force for restraining cash payments should be continued till the 1st of May, 1823, when they were finally to cease. 2. That on and after the 1st of February, and before the 1st of October, 1820, the Bank of England should be bound, on any person presenting an amount of their notes, not less than of the value or price of sixty ounces, to pay them on demand at the rate of £4 1s. per ounce, in standard gold bullion, stamped and assayed by the Mint. 3. That between the 1st of October, 1820, and the 1st of May, 1821, it should pay in a similar manner in gold bullion at the rate of £3 19s. 6d. per ounce. 4. Between the 1st of May, 1820, and the 1st of May, 1823, the rate of gold bullion should be £3 17s. 10 1-2d. per ounce. 5. During the first period above mentioned it might pay in gold bullion at any rate less than £4 1s. and not less than £3 19s. 6d. per ounce; in the second period, at any rate less than £3 19s. 6d. and not less than £3 17s. 10 1-2d.; upon giving three days' notice in the Gazette and specifying the rate; but after doing so they were not to raise it again. 6. These payments were to be made in bars or ingots of the weight of sixty ounces each; and the bank might pay any fractional sum less than 40s. above that in the legal silver coin. 7. The trade in gold bullion and coin was declared entirely free and unrestrained. The fantastic plan of paying in bars or ingots of gold bullion, instead of in gold coin, was a scheme of Ricardo's, who had by this time acquired great celebrity on account of the prominent part he took, in 1810, in proving that the bank note was depreciated, and the admirable evidence he gave before the committees of both Houses in 1819. But it proved a dead letter—it never took effect at all. Although the bank was permitted to pay its notes in bars of gold bullion at the rate of £4 1s. per ounce, they were actually at par. In August, 1819, the market price of gold fell to £3 17s. 10 1-2d., and continued at that rate till June, 1822, when it fell to £3 17s. 6d. The accumulation of treasure became so rapid in the vaults of the bank in 1820, that early in 1821 the directors felt themselves in a position to resume complete payments in cash. An act was passed to enable them to do so on the first of May, 1821, instead of in 1823. By this time the Government had repaid £10,000,000 of the debt it owed to the bank, which all the witnesses agreed was a necessary preliminary to enable the directors to contract their own issues. The Act, Statute 1819, c. 49, commonly called Peel's Act, has probably been the subject of more gross misapprehension and misrepresentation than any other act which was ever passed, even by grave historians who were culpably negligent in not accurately ascertaining the facts. The almost universal opinion is, that while bank notes were heavily depreciated, Peel's Act of 1819 compelled the bank at once to resume payments in cash at their full nominal value, thereby causing a great contraction of the currency, which it is alleged produced the dreadful agricultural distress in 1821 and succeeding years. The preceding narrative shows that this is a complete misstatement of the facts. The great contraction of the currency was caused by the failure of somewhere about three hundred country banks in 1815-16, and the destruction of about £12,000,000 of their worthless paper. This brought the bank note to all but its par value; and the bank of its own accord commenced a partial resumption of cash payments in November, 1816, and a further resumption in April, 1817; and there can be no doubt it would have completely resumed payment in 1818, without exciting the least comment, if it had not been so grossly mismanaged in that year. The Act of 1819 produced absolutely no contraction of the currency whatever. The bank note was at par in October, 1819, although the act allowed the bank to redeem their notes at £4 1s.; and the bank did not ultimately resume cash payments in pursuance of the Act of 1819, but in pursuance of an act passed at the instance of the bank itself in 1821. Mr. Turner, a director of the bank, says in a pamphlet: "With regard to the effect of Mr. Peel's bill on the Bank of England, I can state, from having been in the direction of the bank during the last two years, that it has been altogether a dead letter. It has neither accelerated nor retarded the return to cash payments." London bankers, as we have said, of their own accord, discontinued issuing their own notes in 1793; and proved that in such a place as London banking can be carried on without issuing notes, but only allowing their customers to draw cheques. For a long time the consequences that might be deduced from this apparently unimportant change in the method of banking escaped notice. But about 1820 Mr. Joplin, a well-known writer on banking in his day, maintained that the monopoly of the bank was exclusively confined to issuing notes; and that there was nothing in its charter which prevented joint-stock banks being founded, and carrying on their business according to the then usual method of London bankers. He says:* "That public banks have not hitherto existed, more especially in London and Lancashire, seems to have arisen from the want of a proper knowledge of the principles of banking, rather than from the charter of the Bank of England, which I find does not prevent public banks for the deposit of capital from being established. * * * That banks ought to be the permanent depositories of the capital of the country is an idea which no writer has hitherto entertained, and the silent operations of the Scotch banks have eluded observation. It has, in fact, always been hitherto considered that the proper business of a bank was to issue notes and discount bills at short dates. It is quite evident that the framers of the above clause (the monopoly clause) considered the business pursued by the Bank of England the only proper banking. It appeared to them that preventing banks with more than six partners from issuing bills at short dates or notes payable on demand was altogether conferring on the bank the privilege of exclusive banking as a public company. This it did, no doubt, according to their definition of the term, but it still leaves the most important part of banking open to the public. There is at this moment no legal impediment to the establishment of joint stock companies for trading in real capital. Both the letter and the spirit of the charter has reference to the circulation of bills and notes alone. A bank which traded only in capital would not in the least trench upon the monopoly of the Bank of England, nor be any infringement of its charter." In this passage, Mr. Joplin shows that he had not well considered the nature of banking. He, as well as many others, consider that the private bankers and the joint stock banks of London trade only in real capital, i. e., money; but this is a pure delusion. All London bankers discount bills by creating rights of action, or credit; the only thing is that these credits are circulated by means of cheques only, and not by cheques and notes. However, Mr. Joplin has the merit of being the first, as far as we are aware, who perceived that the charter of the Bank of England did not prevent joint-stock banks being founded so long as they did not issue notes. But, like many good ideas, it remained a considerable time unfruitful, and it was not till ten years later that the first joint-stock bank was founded in London. In 1823, the Government endeavored to persuade the Bank of England to give up the privileges of their charter, so far as to permit joint-stock banks to be formed in the country. But the bank refused. Nothing further took place till 1826, when the disasters of the preceding year being very generally attributed to the improper management of the country bankers, the Ministers were powerful enough to compel the bank to give up its unjustifiable monopoly, and at length agreed to permit joint-stock banks to be formed beyond sixty-five miles from the metropolis. An Act, Statute 1826, c. 46, was passed for this purpose. The provisions which touch our present subject are: 1. Banks of an unlimited number of partners may be formed and carry on all descriptions of banking business by issuing notes and bills payable on demand, or otherwise, provided that such corporations or partnerships should not have any house of business or establishment as bankers in London, or at any place within sixty-five miles of London; and that each member of such corporation should be liable for all its debts of every description contracted while he was a partner, or which fell due after he became a partner. 2. No such banking company was to issue or re-issue, either directly or indirectly, within the prescribed distance, any bill or note payable to bearer on demand; or any bank post bill; nor draw upon its London agents any bill of exchange payable on demand; or for any less sum than £50; but they may draw any bill for any sum of £50 or upwards, payable in London or elsewhere, at any period after date or after sight. 3. Such banking companies are forbidden by themselves or their agents to borrow, owe or take up in London, or at any place within sixty-five miles of London, any sum of money on any of their bills or notes payable on demand; or at any time less than six months from the borrowing thereof; but they may discount in London or elsewhere any bill or bills of exchange, not drawn by or upon themselves or by or upon any person on their behalf. 4. The Bank of England was authorized to establish branches at any place in England. 5. The rights and privileges of the Bank of England were to remain intact and unaltered, except so far as varied by the act. The formation of joint-stock banks under this act proceeded very slowly at first; not more than four or five being formed in as many years. In fact, such banks could only be formed by influential persons; and, of course, such persons had already their own banker, whom they would naturally be unwilling to injure by the formation of so powerful a rival. The first joint-stock bank was formed at Lancaster; the second at Bradford, and a third at Norwich, before any one was founded in the great manufacturing towns. It was not till the prosperous years of 1833-4-5-6 that any remarkable increase took place in their numbers. In these years, however, they multiplied rapidly, more especially in 1836, when upwards of forty were established in the spring. The great crisis and panic of 1825 was attributed to the excessive issues of £1 notes by the country bankers. These were suppressed by the Act, Statute 1826, c. 6. By this act: 1. The act repealing the Act, Statute 1777, c. 30, which prohibited promissory notes and bills under 20s. was repealed, thereby reviving the former act, but all notes of private bankers stamped before the 5th of February, 1826, or of the Bank of England stamped before the 10th of October, 1826, were exempted from its operation, and were permitted to be issued, re-issued and negotiated until the 5th of April, 1829. 2. Any person after that date making, issuing, signing or re-issuing any note or bill under £5 was subject to a penalty of £20. 3. Any person who published, uttered or negotiated any promissory or other notes, or any negotiable or transferable bill, draft or undertaking in writing for the payment of 20s. or above that sum and less than £5, or on which such sum should be unpaid, should forfeit the sum of £20. 4. These penalties were not to attach to any person drawing a cheque on his banker for his own use. 5. All promissory notes under £20 made payable to bearer on demand were to be made payable at the bank or place where they were issued. When the Government determined to suppress the issue of £1 notes in England, they said it was their intention to extend the measure to Scotland and Ireland. However Scotland may have suffered from commercial overtrading, as all commercial countries must occasionally do, no banking panic had ever occurred such as those which had so frequently desolated England. The Ministerial intentions raised a prodigious ferment in Scotland. Sir Walter Scott published three letters on the subject, under the name of "Malachi Malagrowther," which greatly fanned the public enthusiasm; and such an opposition was organized, that the Ministry were obliged to consent to appoint committees of both Houses on the subject. These committees sat during the spring of 1826, and investigated the whole subject of Scotch banking, which had been very little understood in England before that time; and the result was so favorable to the system of Scotch banking, that the Ministry abandoned their intention of attempting to alter it. Although the act of 1775 had forbidden notes under £5 to be issued in England, it did not prohibit the circulation of Scotch £1 notes in England, and they had always circulated in the districts adjacent to Scotland, and even as far south as York. When the English £1 notes were suppressed, it seemed naturally to follow that the circulation of similar Scotch notes in England should also be suppressed. But the districts in which they had always circulated were as unanimous as Scotland itself against the measure. In 1828 the Ministry brought in a bill to restrain the circulation of the small Scotch notes in England. Sir James Graham presented a petition from the borderers, deprecating in the most earnest terms the withdrawal of the Scotch notes, to which they had been so long accustomed. For seventy years they said they had possessed the advantage it was now sought to deprive them of—namely, the Scotch currency. Seven-eighths of the rents of estates were paid in the paper currency of Scotland, and no loss had been sustained in consequence of it. After a debate of two nights the motion was carried by 154 to 45. The Act, Statute 1828, c. 65, provided that after the fifth of April, 1829, no corporation or person whatsoever should publish, utter, negotiate or transfer, in any part of England, any promissory note, draft, engagement, or undertaking in writing, payable to bearer on demand, for less than £5, or upon which less than £5 remained unpaid, which should have been made or issued, or purport to have been made or issued, in Scotland or Ireland, or elsewhere out of England, under a penalty of not less than £5, or more than £20. The charter of the bank expired at the end of one year's notice to be given after the first of August, 1832, and this time the bank had done no such services to the Government as to be in a position to demand from it a renewal of its monopoly several years before it expired. Moreover, as Lord Liverpool said in 1826, these exclusive privileges were out of fashion. Many great monopolies were on the eve of breaking up; and the public mind was more roused and enlightened on the subject of banking from the discussions caused by the great panic of 1825. Before taking any steps towards a renewal of the charter, the Government determined to have an inquiry before a committee of the House of Commons. This committee sat for some months, and reported the evidence given before them at the end of the session. It was not reappointed, as the Government had made up their mind on the subject. On the 31st May, 1833, Lord Althorpe moved a series of resolutions for the renewal of the bank charter—one of which was that, so long as the bank continued to pay its notes in gold, bank notes should be declared legal tender, except by the bank itself. Several members wished for further delay to consider the resolutions, as the session was nearly at an end. But Sir Robert Peel was decidedly of opinion that the resolutions should be passed at once. He held it alarm, which it could not give with the same effect if it were subject to the rivalry of another establishment [why not?]. He resisted at great length the proposition for making bank notes legal tender, as a departure from the principle of the Act of 1819 and the true principles which should govern a paper currency. It was decided by a majority of 316 to 83 to proceed with the resolutions. The plan of making bank notes legal tender was strongly opposed, but was carried by 214 to 156. We have already shown that the public had at various times attempted to form rival banking companies to the Bank of England; and in 1709 and 1742 the Bank Acts had been framed to stop up various loop-holes which had been successively discovered. In 1742, the phraseology used had been supposed to be quite effectual for the purpose. At that time, the custom of issuing notes payable to bearer on demand to their customers in exchange for money and bills, was considered so essentially the fundamental idea of "banking," that to prohibit the issue of these notes was deemed an effectual bar upon the business of "banking." But in process of time—in 1793—the London bankers of their own accord discontinued the practice of issuing their own notes to their customers. The Act of 1742 was considered to be so effectual a bar against banking companies in general that it escaped public observation that the way of doing business by way of cheques enabled banking companies to elude the wording of the Act of 1742. In 1796, when in consequence of the restrictive measures of the Bank of England, much distress was felt in London from the want of a circulating medium, an association of merchants and bankers was formed for the purpose of providing a circulating medium which should not infringe the privileges of the bank. The question was considered by them in what the bank's privilege of exclusive "banking" did consist, and they determined that, "The privilege of exclusive 'banking' enjoyed by the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, as defined by the acts of Parliament under which they enjoy it, seems to consist in the power of borrowing, owing, or taking up money on their bills or notes payable on demand." About the year 1822, Mr. Joplin and other writers detected the flaw in the monopoly of the bank, and maintained that a joint-stock bank of deposit was no infringement of the charter, and that such banks might be formed and carry on a very successful business without issuing notes at all, but by merely following the practice of the London bankers by adopting cheques only. It is somewhat remarkable that this discovery should have been allowed to lie unfruitful so long. When the Government first entered into negotiations with the bank in 1833, concerning the terms of the renewal of the charter, they, as well as the general body of the mercantile community, were persuaded that the monopoly forbade any banks of any description whatever, with more than six partners, being formed. In the course of the negotiation this point was brought under the notice of the Government, who took the opinion of their law officers upon so important a point. The opinion of the Crown lawyers was that the clause did not prohibit joint-stock banks of deposit being formed. The flank of the monopoly of the bank being, as we may say, turned in this extraordinary and unexpected manner, created the greatest consternation and alarm in that body, and they requested the Government to have the omission rectified. But Lord Althorpe decidedly refused anything of the sort, and told them that the bargain was that their privileges should remain as they were, and that he would not consent to any extension of them. In order to remove all doubts upon the subject, the Solicitor General brought up a clause by way of rider, declaring the right to form such banks. He said that the basis of the contract with the bank was, that they were to enjoy whatever monopoly they already possessed, but nothing beyond it. He had examined the case with the utmost care, and there was no pretence for saying that such banks were an encroachment on the monopoly of the bank. The bank as originally founded was a bank of issue, and the monopoly first granted in 1697 must be held to refer to banks ejusdem generis. Such had been the uniform language of all the subsequent acts. The clause upon which their monopoly was founded was strictly confined to the issue of paper money. Joint-stock banks of deposit were legal at common law, and it rested with those who said it was forbidden to point out the act which prohibited them. The chief provisions of the Act, Statute 1833, c. 98, were as follows: 1. The bank was continued as a corporation with such exclusive privileges of banking as were given by the act, for a certain time and on certain conditions, during which time no society or company exceeding six persons should make or issue in London, or within sixty-five miles thereof, any bill of exchange or promissory note, or engagement for the payment of money on demand, or upon which any person holding the same may obtain payment upon demand. But country bankers might have an agency in London for the sole purpose of paying such of their notes as might be presented there, but no such bill or note was to be under £5, or be re-issued in London or within sixty-five miles thereof. 2. For the purpose of removing any doubts that might exist as to what the exclusive privilege of banking which the Bank of England enjoyed consisted in, it was enacted that any body, politic or corporate, or society or company, or partnership, of whatever number they consisted, might carry on the business of banking in London, or within sixty-five miles thereof, provided that they did not borrow, owe, or take up in England, any sum or sums of money on their bills or notes payable on demand, or at any less time than six months from the borrowing thereof, during the continuance of the privileges of the Bank of England. 3. All the notes of the Bank of England which should be issued out of London, should be payable at the place where they were issued. 4. Upon one year's notice, to be given within six months after the expiration of ten years from the 1st day of August, 1834, and repayment of all debts due by Parliament to the bank, its privileges were to cease and determine at the end of the year's notice. 5. So long as the bank paid its notes on demand in legal coin, they were declared to be legal tender of payment for all sums above £5, except by the bank itself, or any of its branches. No notes not made payable at any of the branches were liable to be paid there, but the notes issued at all the branches were to be payable in London. 6. Bills and notes not having more than three months to run were exempted from the usury laws. 7. The Government was to pay off one-fourth of the debt due to the bank, and the proprietors might reduce the capital stock of the bank by that amount if they chose. 8. In consideration of these privileges, the bank was to give up £120,000 a year of the sum they received for managing the public debt. By this act, declaring the common-law right to found joint-stock banks which did not issue notes, the second great breach on the monopoly of the bank was effected, and the joint-stock banks of London were founded. As the next renewal of the charter in 1844 was for the first time founded on certain specific theories of currency and banking, we shall defer mentioning and examining them for the present perform is regulation exchange just reasons law them buys we A FEW years after the Bank Restriction Act of 1797, the market price of gold in bank paper rose very considerably, and the foreign exchanges fell and produced great derangement in the foreign commerce of the country. The most sagacious observers of the day attributed the rise in the market price of gold and the fall in the foreign exchanges to the depreciation of the bank notes, caused by excessive issues. Many persons began to think how the bank was to be prevented from making these excessive issues of notes, which, being the only measure of value left in the country, caused the most violent changes in the value of all kinds of property. It was proposed by many that its issues should be limited by law. But Mr. Henry Thornton, M. P., one of the most eminent bankers in London, and one of the joint authors of the Bullion Report, says:* "It was the object of several former chapters to point out the evil of a too contracted issue of paper. The general tendency of the present, as well as the preceding one, has been to show the danger of a too extended emission. Two kinds of error on the subject of the affairs of the Bank of England have been prevalent. Some political persons have assumed as a principle that, in proportion as the gold of the bank lessens, its paper, or, as it is sometimes said, its loans (for the amount of the one has been confounded with that of the other), ought to be reduced. It has already been shown that a maxim of this sort, if strictly followed up, would lead to universal failure." We shall see afterwards whether this prognostication was verified. This disturbance, however, passed away, and for several years the value of the bank note did not differ very much from par, and consequently these discussions slumbered. In 1804, a committee was appointed on the Irish currency in consequence of the excessive rise in Irish bank notes and the severe fall of the Dublin exchange. The committee condemned in the strongest terms the excessive issues of Bank of Ireland and other paper; and laid down most emphatically the doctrine that the issues of bank paper should be governed by the foreign exchanges, exactly as they were before the restriction. The most extravagant over-trading in 1808 and 1809 in England, fostered by the most reckless over-issues by the Bank of England, produced exactly the same phenomena, and led to the appointment of the Bullion Committee in 1810. The directors of the Bank of England maintained exactly the same doctrines as the directors of the Bank of Ireland. The directors of both banks acknowledged that before the restriction they regulated their issues by the state of the foreign exchanges; contracting them when the exchanges were adverse, and expanding them when the exchanges were favorable. But the directors of both banks maintained that they were in no way bound to follow such a rule after the restriction; and they all agreed in scouting the notion that their issues could have any effect on the exchanges. The directors of both banks stated that they regulated their issues solely by the discount of mercantile bills. The Bullion Report laid down that the issues of the bank should be regulated by the price of gold and the foreign exchanges; but how this was to be done they did not say. As in 1802, it was strongly urged that the issues of the bank should be limited by law. But the Bullion Report emphatically condemned the idea of imposing a cast-iron limit on the issues of the bank. The report gave some statistics regarding the quantity of notes in circulation at different periods since the restriction. However, they said that the actual numerical amount of notes in circulation at any given time was no criterion whatever as to whether it was excessive. Different states of trade and different extents of commercial operations would require different amounts of notes. When public credit was good a smaller amount would be required than when public alarm was felt, and people had recourse to hoarding. Moreover, the different methods of doing business and economizing the use of the currency much influenced the amount which might be necessary at any period. The improved methods of business, the policy of the bank, the increased issue of country bankers, had all tended to diminish the quantity of notes necessary for commerce. Consequently, the numerical amount alone was no criterion whatever. A surer test must be applied; and that sure criterion was only to be found in the state of the exchanges and the price of gold bullion. The experience of the crisis of 1793 had proved that an enlarged accommodation was the true remedy for the failure of confidence in country districts, such as the system of paper credit was occasionally exposed to. That it was true that the bank had refused the enlarged accommodation in 1793. But the issue of exchequer bills was the same in principle, and the good effect that followed that issue proved the truth of the principle, that if the bank had had the courage to extend its accomodation in 1797, instead of contracting it as they did, the catastrophe which followed might probably have been avoided. Some persons thought so at the time, and many of the directors since the experience of 1797 were now quite satisfied that the course adopted by the bank in that year increased the public distress, in which opinion the committee fully concurred. A very important distinction, however, was to be observed between a demand for gold for domestic purposes, sometimes great and sudden, and caused by a temporary failure of confidence and a drain arising from the unfavorable state of the foreign exchanges. A judicious increase of accommodation was the proper remedy for the former phenomenon, but a diminution of issues the correct course to adopt in the latter. Some proposals had been made of remedying the evil by a compulsory limitation of the amount of the bank's advances or discounts, or of its profits or dividends. All these, however, were futile, because the necessary proportion could never be fixed; and even if it were so, might very much aggravate the inconveniences of a temporary pressure; and even if their efficiency could be made to appear, they would be most hurtful, and an improper interference with the rights of commercial property. Thus, the Bullion Report, the ablest commercial report ever presented to Parliament, absolutely condemned the plan of imposing a cast-iron limit on the issues of the bank. Mr. Peel, who was chairman of the Committee of 1819, had become an entire convert to the doctrines of the Bullion Report, which he had voted against in 1811, contended in the debate on moving for the Act of 1819, that there was no test of the excess or the deficiency of bank notes, but a comparison with the price of gold. As the bank had repudiated the principles of the Bullion Report, they could not be expected to act upon them. It might, therefore, appear necessary to prescribe such a limitation of their issues as would secure the power of the bank over the exchanges. He himself thought this a very unwise plan, because it depended so much on circumstances whether or not there was an excess of circulation. There were occasions when what was called a run upon the bank might be arrested in its injurious consequences by an increase of its issues. There were other occasions when such a state of things demanded a curtailment. In the year 1797, when a run was made on the bank, but when the exchanges were favorable and the price of gold had not risen, it was proved that an extension of issues might, by restoring confidence, have rendered the original restriction unnecessary. On the other hand, if the run was the effect of unfavorable exchanges and the consequent rise in the price of gold, the alarm must be met by a reduction of the issues. It was, therefore, impossible to prescribe any specific limitation of issues to be brought into operation at any period, however remote. The quantity of circulation which was demanded in a time of confidence varied so materially from the amount which a period of despondency required, that it was an absolute impossibility to fix any circumscribed amount. In the great monetary crisis of 1825, it was shown that the only method of arresting the run on the bankers, and saving their existence, was by greatly extending the bank's issues. For three days after the panic began, the bank restricted its issues with extreme severity; then, when every banker and merchant in London was in danger of stopping payment, the bank extended its issues with the greatest liberality; and in an instant the whole commercial world, mercantile and banking, was saved. Consequently, although the commercial crisis was alleged to have been greatly aggravated, if not originally produced, by the excessive issues of country bankers, no sane statesman breathed a word as to imposing a cast-iron limit on the issues of the Bank of England. Mr In 1793, upwards of 100 banks had failed. In seven years, from 1810 to 1817, 157 commissions in bankruptcy were issued against country, than one which admitted of within his recollection, and said, that there had been only one; that the creditors had been paid 14s. in the pound immediately, and, finally, the whole of their claims. These facts were a strong presumption that the Scotch system, if not quite perfect, was at least far superior to the one existing in England. The present system of country banking was most prejudicial in every point of view. He then described the misery caused by the failure of the country banks. He trusted that the institution of joint-stock banks would place the currency on a firmer footing. He most sincerely trusted that the great obstacle to the proposed institutions, the want of a charter, would be removed. He hoped that the directors of the Bank of England would seriously consider what advantage they would derive from refusing charters to these banks. He, himself, could not imagine what benefit they would derive from it; they, no doubt, had the right to prevent such charters being granted, but he hoped they would refrain from exercising their right. On the renewal of the charter in 1833, Sir Robert Peel maintained the same opinion. He had, however, recanted his opinion as to the evil of the monopoly of the bank, and the expediency of adopting the Scotch system of a multiplicity of banks. He was of opinion that it was danger, which it could not give with the same effect if it were subject to the rivalry of another establishment. This, however, is an obiter dictum—a long way from proof. Thus, up to 1833, all statesmen, financiers and economists held that the circulating medium or currency, the measure of value in which the price of commodities is expressed, consists of and comprehends money and credit in all its forms, both written and unwritten; that it had no definite fixed limit; that the sole test of its value is the price of gold and the state of the foreign exchanges, and that commercial crises, when they attain a certain degree of intensity, can only be alleviated and allayed by cautious and judicious but liberal extension of the issues of the bank. And as Sir Robert Peel is to play such a conspicuous part in the monetary legislation of the country, it is well to note the phases of opinion he underwent on the subject. In 1811 he voted in the majority against the principles of the Bullion Report. In 1819 he had adopted to the full the principles of the Bullion Report; saw the necessity of leaving the bank free to assist commercial difficulties, and declared that at no period, however remote, would he ever consent to impose a cast-iron limit on the issues of the bank. In 1826 he was dead against the monopoly of the bank, which he declared was the root of all the evil in the banking system of England, and recognized the superiority of the Scotch system of a multiplicity of banks. In 1833 he was decidedly in favor of perpetuating the monopoly of the bank. THE BANK ACT OF 1844. In 1844, Sir Robert Peel cast all his own opinions and the opinions of the Bullion Report, and of all the soundest and most able economists and statesmen, to the winds. The bank in 1827 had at last adopted the principles of the Bullion Report, and had endeavored to carry them into effect. But the measures they adopted so utterly failed, and brought the bank into such discredit and up to the very verge of bankruptcy, that Sir Robert was naturally irritated and disgusted, and he delivered himself over, bound hand and foot, to the dogmas of Lord Overstone and his sect. which we have explained in a previous chapter. Hopeless of discovering any other method of controlling and curbing the mismanagement of the bank, Peel at length, after long hesitation and doubt, determined to impose a legal cast-iron limit on the bank's power of issue. If Peel had done this simply as a plain, practical measure; if he had said that the directors seemed so utterly incapable of managing the bank with unlimited powers of issue, that he saw no alternative but to try the effect of imposing a legal limit on their power, it might perhaps have been difficult to gainsay him. But, unfortunately, he founded his act upon a whole nest of theories. He adopted Lord Overstone's dogmatic heresy, that bank notes payable to bearer on demand alone are currency, to the exclusion of all other forms of credit, even cheques. He then adopted the theory which his supporters designate the "Currency Principle"—that is, that when bank notes are permitted to be issued, they should exactly equal the gold they are alleged to displace; and that for every five sovereigns drawn out of the bank, a £5 note should be withdrawn from circulation; and that any excess of notes above the gold they displace is a depreciation of the currency. He was aware that the doctrine was in diametrical contradiction to his own often-expressed opinion, and to the unanimous doctrine of every statesman in 1819. He then deliberately took away the power of the bank to act in support of commerce in a crisis, by propounding the astounding dogma that all commercial crises originate in excessive issues of notes by banks; and, therefore, he concluded that if he could prevent excessive issues by banks, he would thereby prevent the occurrence of commercial crises, and, therefore, there would be no need for the bank to have this power. Now, it shows Peel's want of knowledge of the simplest mechanism of banking to suppose that the Act of 1844 really does carry out the "currency principle." It has been shown that, in order really to carry out the "currency principle" into effect, it would have been necessary to prohibit the Bank of England from discounting bills of exchange, because every bill a bank discounts is a violation of the "currency principle." The banks really constructed on the "currency principle" never discounted bills of exchange, and never made, and by no possibility ever could make, any profits. Secondly, if Peel had been acquainted with commercial history, he would have known that the "currency principle" is no preventive against commercial crises, because some of the very worst commercial crises on record took place in those very cities where the "currency principle" was really in force. Lastly, it was the very worst delusion of all to suppose that all commercial crises are produced by excessive issues of notes. Speculation originates with the mercantile community; and all rapid and sudden changes of price, all new fields of operation and new markets suddenly thrown open, naturally produce over-speculation. Banks, no doubt, may and do foster over-speculation and aggravate commercial crises; but the speculations do not originate with bankers; it is merchants who originate speculations, and who frequently drag bankers into them by the most unscrupulous. nefarious and (though not legally, yet morally) fraudulent means. To suppose that it is possible to prevent mercantile speculation and commercial crises by imposing an absolute limit on the currency, is as vain a delusion as that of the London alderman who declared that he would put down suicide. On the 6th of May, 1844, Sir Robert Peel moved a resolution of the House that it was expedient to continue for a limited time certain of the privileges of the Bank of England, subject to any provisions that might be passed by any act for that purpose. In bringing this resolution forward, he gave a preliminary sketch of the evils of the paper currency as it then stood, and the methods he proposed for placing it on a sounder footing. After dwelling on the importance of a metallic standard, and exposing the absurdity of the theories which were so prevalent during the Restriction Act (by which he himself was beguiled), and the advantage of having a single standard of value, he addressed himself to the more immediate subject of consideration—the state of the paper circulation of the country, and the principles which ought to regulate it, remarking: "I must state at the outset that, in using the word money, I mean to designate by that word the coin of the realm and promissory notes payable to bearer on demand. In using the word paper currency, I mean only such promissory notes. I do not include in these terms bills of exchange, drafts on bankers, or other forms of credit. (But unfortunately all judges do.) There is a natural distinction, in my opinion, between the character of a promissory note payable to bearer on demand and other forms of paper credit; and between the effects which they respectively produce upon the price of commodities and the foreign exchanges. [There is no real difference on its effect on price between a note and a bill of exchange. They both aggravate prices, and thus by causing goods to be too dear to export they lead to an export of gold. An excessive importance was attached to notes in those days, because notes were almost the only credit payable to bearer in circulation. But at the present day cheques have, to a very large extent, superseded notes, and have increased at an enormously greater rate than notes, and cheques are in all respects absolutely identical with notes.] "The one answers all the purposes of money, passes from hand to hand without indorsement, without examination, if there be no suspicion of forgery; and it is, in fact, what its designations imply it to be, currency or circulating medium (which words, though having radically different meanings, comprehend exactly the same quantities). * * * I think that experience shows that the paper currency—that is, promissory notes payable to bearer on demand—stands in a certain relation to the gold coin and the foreign exchanges in which other forms of paper credit do not stand. [Cheques and notes stand exactly in the same relation to the gold coin and the foreign exchanges; and, as we shall see, it was this extraordinary oversight which brought about the failure of the Bank Act of 1844.] There are striking examples of this adduced in the report of the Bullion Committee of 1810, in the case both of the Bank of England and of the Irish and Scotch banks. In the case of the Bank of England, and shortly after its establishment, there was a material depreciation of paper in consequence of excessive issues. The notes of the Bank of England were at a discount of seventeen per cent. After trying various expedients, it was at length determined to reduce the amount of notes outstanding. The consequence was an immediate increase in the value of those which remained in circulation, the restoration of them to par and a corresponding improvement in the foreign exchanges. [The troubles of the bank were not brought about by excessive issues, but by the shameful state of the coinage; and the bank having promised to pay twelve ounces of coin for every seven it had received, as soon as the new good silver coin came into general circulation, the exchanges were restored to par, while the note was at a discount of twenty per cent. and eleven months before the note was brought to par. Moreover, the notes were not reduced in amount. It is true that £200,000 were added to the new capital of the bank, but at the same time £800,000 in exchequer tallies were also added, and made the new capital exceed a million; and the bank was allowed to issue new notes to the full amount of its new capital, tallies and notes together; so that, in fact, the notes, instead of being reduced, were greatly increased.] In the case of Ireland, in 1804 the exchange with England was extremely unfavorable. A committee was appointed to consider the causes. It was denied by most of the witnesses from Ireland that they were at all connected with excessive issues of Irish notes. In the spring of 1804, the exchange of Ireland with England was so unfavorable that it required £118 10s. of the notes of the Bank of Ireland to purchase £100 of the notes of the Bank of England. Between the years 1804 and 1806, the notes of the Bank of Ireland were reduced from £3,000,000 to £2,410,000, and the effect of this, taken in conjunction with an increase of the English circulation, was to restore the relative value of Irish paper and the exchange with England to par. [At this time Bank of Ireland notes were inconvertible and the sole medium of paying the exchanges, and consequently excessive issues would necessarily cause a heavy depression of the exchanges.] In the same manner an unfavorable state of the exchange between England and Scotland has been more than once corrected by a contraction of the paper circulation of Scotland. [Not more than once. The cause of the Scotch notes falling to a discount was the optional clause, which in fact made them payable at six months after demand, at the will of the bank. As soon as the optional clause was abolished by law, the Scotch notes at once rose to par, and have never varied from it since.] In all these cases the action has been on that part of the paper credit of the country which has consisted of promissory notes payable to bearer on demand. There had been no interference with other forms of paper credit, nor was it contended then, as it is now contended by some, that promissory notes are identical in their nature with bills of exchange, and with cheques on bankers and with deposits, and that they cannot be dealt with on any separate principle." It is well known now that all these ideas are entirely antiquated. They are in direct contradiction to the doctrines of Ricardo and the Bullion Report. All statesmen, economists and financiers of that time held that the actual amount of paper issues was no proof of excess; the sole criterion was the price of gold and the state of the foreign exchanges. All modern economists of reflection have reverted to the doctrines of Ricardo and the Bullion Report; and it is now well known that the true way of restricting paper currency, i. e., credit, is not by imposing an arbitrary cast-iron limit on its amount, but by sedulously regulating the rate of discount by the bullion in the bank and the state of the foreign exchanges. The truth of this doctrine, which had not even been thought of in Peel's time, is now universally recognized, and it is the principle on which the Bank of England has been managed for more than thirty years. Mr. Peel then proceeded to expatiate on the evils of the unlimited competition of issues: "Are the lessons of experience at variance with the conclusions we are entitled to draw from reason and from evidence? What has been the result of unlimited competition in the United States? In the United States the paper circulation was supplied, not by private bankers, but by joint-stock banks established on principles the most satisfactory. There was every precaution taken against insolvency, unlimited responsibility of partners, excellent regulations for the publication and audit of accounts, immediate convertibility of paper into gold. If the principle of unlimited competition, controlled by such checks be safe, why has it utterly failed in the United States? How can it be shown that the experiment was not fairly made in that country? Observe this fact, while there existed a central bank (the United States Bank) standing in some relation to the other banks of the United States as the Bank of England stands to the banks of this country, there was some degree (imperfect it is true) of control over the general issues of paper. But when the privileges of the central bank ceased, when the principle of free competition was left unchecked, then came, notwithstanding professed convertibility, immoderate issues of paper, extravagant speculation, and the natural consequences, suspension of cash payments and complete insolvency. Hence, I conclude, that reason, evidence, and experience combine to demonstrate the impolicy and danger of unlimited competition in the issue of paper." It is impossible to say which is the more remarkable—the evidence Sir Robert Peel omitted, or the evidence he adduced. What was the need for Sir Robert Peel to cross the Atlantic in search of an example of joint-stock banks with unlimited competition of issues? Why did he not cross the Tweed? On the north side of the Tweed there had existed joint-stock banks with unlimited issues for 150 years, and no central bank to control the others; the principle of free competition had been left unchecked, and the natural consequences, "suspension of cash payments and complete insolvency," had never occurred. In 1826, Sir Robert Peel had denounced the monopoly of the Bank of England in the severest terms, and lauded the Scotch system of competing banks with unlimited issues to the skies. Why had his zeal for the Scotch system cooled down to zero in 1844? But he carefully avoided saying one word about that case, because it militated against the theory he was determined to carry at all hazards—namely, that of one Central Bank of Issue. But the evidence he adduced was as great a misrepresentation of historical fact as what we have already quoted in a former section. The American banks, indeed, established on principles the most satisfactory! Why, John Law was the inspiring genius of American banking in 1834 till the subsequent crash. It was not because they were unlimited that was the cause of the catastrophe, but because the American legislatures fostered Law's wildest ideas of paper money. But as to the fact of the Central Bank of the United States exercising any due controlling influence over the other banks, we need only cite a passage from President Van Buren's message to Congress in 1839. "I am aware that it has been urged that the control over the operations of the local banks may be best attained and exerted by means of a national bank. The history of the late national bank, through all its mutations, shows that it was not so; on the contrary, it may, after a careful consideration of the subject be, I think, safely stated that at every period of banking excess it took the lead; that in 1817 and 1818, in 1823 and in 1833, and in 1834, its vast expansions, followed by distressing contractions, led to those of the State institutions. It swelled and maddened the tides of the banking system, but seldom allayed or safely directed them. At a few periods only was a salutary control exercised, but an eager desire on the contrary exhibited for profit in the first place; and, if afterwards its measures were severe towards other institutions, it was because its own safety compelled it to adopt them. It did not differ from them in principle or in form; its measures emanated from the same spirit of gain; it felt the same temptation to over-issue; it suffered from, and was totally unable to avert, these inevitable laws of trade by which it was itself affected, equally with them, and at least on one occasion, at any early day, it was saved only by extraordinary exertion from the same fate that attended the weakest institution it professed to supervise. In 1837 it failed, equally with others, in redeeming its notes, though the two years allowed by its charter had not expired, a large amount of which remains at the present time outstanding." Such was the language held by the Government regarding that bank which Peel held up as a model for that of England, and to whose abolition he attributed the destruction of American credit! And if we were to descend from the language of the Executive to that of private writers, such as Gallatin, Lee and Appleton, and others, we shall find that the most reckless mismanagement was the chief characteristic of that bank. When it stopped payment it was found to be utterly insolvent. So much for the value of it as an argument in support of Peel's views. Sir Robert Peel then stated that it was the intention of the Government to increase as much as possible the power of a single bank of issue, and that bank should be the Bank of England. The bank was, therefore, to continue its privileges of issue, but it was to be divided into two departments—the one for the purpose of issuing notes, and the other for the ordinary business of banking. But the bank was to be deprived, once for all, of the power of unlimited issues. These were to take place in future on two foundations only: 1st. A fixed amount of public securities. 2d. Bullion. The amount of issues upon public securities was permanently fixed at £14,000,000; every other note was to be issued in exchange for bullion only, so that the amount of notes issued on bullion should be governed solely by the action of the public. Although he wished that there should only be a single bank of issue, yet existing interests were to be regarded, and those banks which were at that time lawfully issuing their own notes might remain banks of issue, but their amount was to be strictly limited to a certain definite average. On the 20th of May, Sir Robert introduced further resolutions, and proposed that, in the event of any country banks of issue failing, or withdrawing their notes voluntarily from circulation, the bank might, with the consent of the Crown, increase its issues to a definite proportion of the notes thus withdrawn. And further, that the bank should be obliged to buy all gold bullion presented for purchase at £3 17s. 9d. per ounce. It had only previously been giving £3 17s. 6d.; and a certain proportion was allowed on silver bullion, as the export of that was a proper remedy for the inconvenience of our standard differing from that of other nations. It was, therefore, of great importance to insure such a stock of silver in this country as might meet the wants of merchants, and prevent them having to send to the Continent for it. He proposed that the silver bullion on which the bank might issue notes should not exceed one-fourth of the gold bullion. It was impossible for Sir Robert Peel not to see that his measure of 1844 was in express contradiction with his recorded sentiments in 1819 and 1833, the emphatically expressed doctrine of the Bullion Report, all the statesmen and financiers of that period and of 1819; that it was impossible to limit the issues of the bank to any fixed amount, because in time of commercial trouble, increased issues were indispensable. Sir Robert Peel knew that he was now taking away this power from the bank, and he was, accordingly, obliged to meet this objection. He said: "It is said that the Bank of England will not have the means which it has heretofore had of supporting public credit, and of affording assistance to the mercantile world in times of commercial difficulty. Now in the first place, the means of supporting public credit are not means exclusively possessed by banks. All who are possessed of unemployed capital, whether bankers or not, and who can gain an adequate return by the advance of capital, are enabled to afford, and do afford, that aid which it is supposed by some that banks alone are able to afford. In the scond place, it may be a question whether there be any permanent advantage in the maintenance of public or private credit, unless the means of maintaining it are derived from the bona fide advance of capital, and not from a temporary increase of promissory notes, issued for a special purpose. Some apprehend that the proposed restriction upon issue will diminish the power of the bank to act with energy at the period of monetary crisis and commercial alarm and derangement. But the object of the measure is to prevent (so far as legislation can prevent) the recurrence of those evils from which we suffered in 1825, 1836 and 1839. It is better to prevent the paroxysm than to excite it, and to trust to desperate remedies for the means of recovery." Sir Robert Peel, therefore, deliberately took away the power of the bank to act on extreme occasions, because he fondly hoped that his act would prevent those extreme occasions from arising. We shall see how these hopes were fulfilled. Sir Charles Wood followed Sir Robert Peel, whose mere alter ego he was, travelling over the same ground, and giving the same caricatured description of American banking as he had done. He, of course, was a zealous devotee of the "currency principle." He said: "It is not enough, then, to enact that the bank notes shall be convertible. The paper circulation must not only be convertible, but must vary in amount from time to time as a metallic circulation would vary. A system, therefore, of paper circulation is required which will attain this object, and insure a constant and steady regulation of the issues on this principle. This, and this alone, affords a permanent security for the practical convertibility of the notes at all times, and for the consequent maintenance of the standard." Thus, at length, the entire overthrow of the doctrines which had been held for half a century by the most experienced, the wisest, and the most sagacious statesmen, economists and financiers was effected, and doctrines which had been especially condemned and rejected, and which they had expressly declared would, if carried out, lead to universal failure, were exalted in their place. A nest of untried theories and facts set up against the lessons of experience and reasoning, and we shall see the result. This was a striking instance of the mutability of fortune— "Sic volvenda ætas commutat tempora rerum; Quod fuit in pretio, fit nullo denique honore, Porro aliut succedit et e contemptibus exit, Inque dies magis appetitur, floretque repertum Laudibus, et miro'st mortalis inter honore." "Thus time, as it goes round, changes the seasons of things. That which was in esteem falls at length into utter disrepute, and then another thing mounts up, and issues out of its degraded state, and every day is more and more coveted, and blossoms forth high in honor when discovered, and is in marvellous repute with men."—(Munro.) But we shall find that fickle Fortune rolled her wheel a full round in the not very distant future. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BANK. The chief provisions of the Bank Charter Act, Statute 1844, c. 32, are as follows: 1. After the 31st August, 1844, the issue of bank notes by the Bank of England should be kept wholly distinct from the general banking business, and be conducted by such a committee of the directors as the court might appoint, under the name of the "Issue Department of the Bank of England." 2. On the same day the governor and company should transfer, appropriate and set apart to the issue department securities to the value of £14,000,000, of which the debt due by the public to the bank was to be a part; and also so much of the gold coin and gold and silver bullion as should not be required for the banking department. The issue department was then to deliver over to the banking department an amount of notes exactly equal to the securities, coin and bullion so deposited with them. The bank was then forbidden to increase the amount of securities in the issue department, but it might diminish them as much as it pleased, and increase them again to the limit defined, but no further. The banking department was forbidden to issue notes to any person whatever, except in exchange for notes, or such as they received from the issue department in terms of the act. 3. The proportion of silver bullion in the issue department on which notes were to be issued, was not at any time to exceed one-fourth part of the gold coin and bullion held at the time by the issue department. 4. All persons whatever, from the 31st August, 1844, were to be entitled to demand bank notes in exchange for standard gold bullion, at the rate of £3 17s. 9d. per ounce. 5. If any banker who, on the 6th May, 1844, was issuing his own notes, should cease to do so, it should be lawful for the Crown in council to authorize the bank to increase the amount of securities in the issue department to any amount not exceeding two-thirds of the amount of notes withdrawn from circulation. 6. Weekly accounts, in a specified form, were to be transmitted to Government, and published in the next "London Gazette." 7. From the same date the bank was relieved from all stamp duty on their notes. 8. The annual sum payable by the bank for their exclusive privileges should be increased from £120,000, as settled in 1833, to £180,000. And all profits derived by the bank from the increase of their issues above the £14,000,000, as prescribed by the act, shall go to the public. 9. After the passing of the act, no person other than a banker, who was lawfully issuing his own notes on the 6th May, 1844, should issue bank notes in any part of the United Kingdom. 10. After the passing of the act, it was forbidden to any banker to draw, accept, make or issue in England or Wales any bill of exchange, or promissory note, or engagement for the payment of money payable to bearer on demand, or to borrow, owe or take up in England or Wales any sum or sums of money on the bills or notes of such banker, payable to bearer on demand, except such bankers as were on the 6th May, 1844, issuing their own bank notes, who were allowed to continue their issues in such manner and to such an extent as afterwards provided. The rights of any existing firm were not to be affected by the withdrawal, change or addition of any partner, provided the whole number did not exceed six persons. 11. Any banker who ceased to issue his own notes from any reason whatever, after the act, was not to resume such issues. 12. All existing banks of issue were forthwith to certify to the commissioners of stamps and taxes the place and name and firm at, and under which, they issued notes during the twelve weeks next preceding the 27th April, 1844. The commissioners were then to ascertain the average amount of each bank's issues, and it should be lawful for such banker to continue his issues to that amount, provided that on an average of four weeks they were not to exceed the average so ascertained. 13. If any two or more banks of issue had become united during that twelve weeks, the united bank might issue notes to the aggregate amount of each separate bank. 14. The commissioners were to issue in the "London Gazette" a statement of the authorized issues of each bank. 15. If two or more banks afterwards became united, each of less than six partners, then the commissioners might authorize them to issue notes to the amount of the separate issues. But if the number of the united banks exceeded six, their privilege of issuing notes was to cease. 16. If any banker exceeded his authorized issue, he was to forfeit the excess. 17. Every bank of issue was to send a weekly account of its issues, which was to be published in the "London Gazette." 18. The mode of taking the average was laid down, and bankers were to permit their books of accounts to be inspected by a Government officer properly appointed, and to make a return to Government once a year, within the first fortnight in January. 19. The Bank of England was allowed to compound with private banks of issue, to withdraw their own notes and issue Bank of England notes, for a sum not exceeding one per cent. per annum, up to the 1st August, 1856. 20. All banks whatever, in London or within sixty-five miles of it, were allowed after the passing of the act to draw, accept or indorse bills of exchange, not being payable to bearer on demand. 21. The privileges of the bank were to continue till twelve months to be given after the 1st August, 1855, and repayment of all the public debts and all the other debts whatever. THE SCOTCH BANK ACT OF 1845. Sir Robert Peel having carried his Bank Charter Act of 1844 with scarcely a breath of opposition, and which was considered at the time to be the ne plus ultra of human wisdom, passed acts in 1845 to regulate banking in Scotland and Ireland. The chief provisions of the Scotch Bank Act of 1845, Act, Statute 1845, c. 38, are as follows: 1. All persons had been prohibited by the Act, Statute 1844, c. 32, from commencing to issue notes in the United Kingdom after the 6th May, 1844; and all such persons in Scotland as were lawfully issuing their own notes between the 6th May, 1844, and the 1st May, 1845, were to certify to the Commissioners of Taxes the name of the firm and the places where they issued such notes. 2. The commissioners were to ascertain the average number of such bankers' notes in circulation during the year ending 1st May, 1845. 3. Such bankers were authorized to have in circulation an amount of notes, whose average for four weeks was not to exceed the amount thus certified by the commissioners, together with an amount equal to the average amount of coin held by the banker during the same four weeks. Of the coin, three-fourths must be gold and one-fourth might be silver. 4. In case the bank exceeds the legal amount, it is to forfeit the excess. 5. If two or more banks unite, they are authorized to have an issue of notes to the aggregate amount of issues of the separate banks, as well as the amount of coin held by the united banks. 6. Notes of the Bank of England not to be legal tender in Scotland. THE IRISH BANK ACT OF 1845. The chief provisions of the Irish Bank Act, Act Statute, 1845, c. 37, are as follows: 1. All restrictions enacted by former acts, prohibiting banking partnerships of more than six persons to be formed and carry on business within fifty miles of Dublin, were repealed. 2. Interest was allowed to the Bank of Ireland on its capital of £2,630,769 at the rate of 3 1-2 per cent. per annum. 3. The bank was to manage the public debt of Ireland without any charge. 4. The bank might be dissolved at any time after twelve months' notice, to be given after the 1st January, 1855, and repayment of all Government debts. 5. Bank of England notes were not to be legal tender in Ireland. 6. All bankers issuing notes in Ireland were, within one month after the passing of the act, to give in a statement to the Commissioners of Taxes of their claim, and the name and place of the firm where they issued such notes, during the year preceding the 1st May, 1845; and if they were found to be lawfully issuing notes between the 6th May, 1844, and the 1st May, 1845, they might continue to issue notes to the amount of the average they issued during that year, together with the amount of gold and silver coin held by the banker. 7. If two or more banks united, they might issue notes to the combined amount of the separate banks, together with the coin held by the united bank. Three-fourths of the coin must be gold and one-fourth might be silver. 8. All bank notes under £1 prohibited, under a penalty of not less than £5 and not more than £20. 9. Bank notes above £1 and under £5 subject to certain regulations. 10. Any persons, except those specially authorized, issuing promissory notes payable to bearer on demand for less than £5, should forfeit £20. 11. All bank notes were to be for complete pounds. Such are the acts which at the present time regulate the issue of bank notes in England, Scotland and Ireland; and we observe that, while the Bank of England was obliged to hold Government security for its fixed issue of £14,000,000, the country bankers in England were strictly confined to their fixed issue, and in Scotland and Ireland the banks might issue their fixed limit without any security, and in addition to that an amount equal to the gold and silver coin they hold. The English Bank Act was founded on certain specific theories of currency; but the Scotch and Irish acts were merely rough-and-ready methods of compelling the banks to hold a greater amount of specie in proportion to their liabilities than they had hitherto done. As the chief point of interest with regard to Sir Robert Peel's banking legislation is the operation of the act in a commercial crisis and a monetary panic, we shall defer the consideration of its practical working till the chapter on monetary panics. Sir Robert Peel had also passed an act in 1844 to regulate the joint-stock banks in England; but having turned out a complete failure, it was totally repealed in 1857, and so does not require further notice. By this Act, Statute 1857, c. 49, the number of partners allowed in a private bank was increased to ten. EXTENSION OF LIMITED LIABILITY TO BANKS. The question of admitting the principle of limited liability into commercial partnerships had long been resisted with the fiercest acrimony in England. The old theory of the law was expressed by Lord Eldon, who said that a man who entered into a commercial partnership rendered himself liable "to his last shilling and his last acre" for the debts of the company. And this was no doubt true with regard to ordinary private trading partnerships. But many great companies had been formed and incorporated, and being corporations they were, ipso facto, endowed with the privilege of limited liability. A principle may reasonably apply to a private partnership, whose members all take an active part in the business, and have full knowledge of all transactions, which does not apply to a large joint-stock company, whose affairs are expressly left in the hands of a small committee, and the great majority of the members are specially debarred from all knowledge of its transactions. Now, as there are many great objects in commerce which can only be effected by a large company, it had long been the practice in granting acts to these companies to limit the liability of the shareholders. This was done in the case of the Bank of England; in railway and other companies, and in the charters granted to colonial banks. But for a very long time, the application of this principle to private partnerships in England was vehemently resisted. This resistance, however, was at length overcome in 1855, and in that year the Act, Statute 1855, c. 133, permitted the formation of joint-stock companies with limited liability, But though the principle was allowed to other companies, joint-stock banks were still jealously excluded from it, from some unintelligible distinction being drawn between banking and other kinds of trading. However, as is usual in this country, what good sense and reasoning could not effect was at last brought about by several most dreadful calamities. In 1857, some joint-stock banks failed. At that time there was no method of calling upon the shareholders to contribute ratably in proportion to their holding, to discharge the debts of the company. But the creditors might single out any individual shareholders they thought worth powder and shot, and claim their full debts from them. The consequence was, that on the failure of a joint-stock bank, the responsible shareholders disposed of their property, and put the Channel between themselves and their creditors, until they could make terms with them. The terrible bank failures of 1857 at length compelled the legislature to concede limited liability to banks. The chief provisions of this Act, Statute 1858, c. 91, were: 1. So much of the statute of 1857 as prevented banks being formed with limited liability was repealed. 2. All banks which issued promissory notes were to be subject to unlimited liability with respect to their notes, for which they are to be liable, in addition to the sum for which they are liable to the general creditors. 3. Every existing banking company might register itself under the act, upon giving thirty days' notice to each and all of its customers. Any customer to whom it failed to give notice retained his full rights as before. This act, however, had a very limited success. It was adopted in very few instances. Banks do not readily change their constitution, and almost all the great banks had a pride in maintaining unlimited liability, and thought that adopting the act might endanger their credit. Not one of the London joint-stock banks, nor any of the Scotch banks—which, except the three chartered banks, were all of unlimited liability—brought themselves under the Act of 1858. But the stupendous catastrophe of the City of Glasgow Bank, in 1878, created such consternation among the shareholders of banks, that they made determined efforts to compel their directors to adopt the principle of limited liability. This was the case, especially in Scotland, where investment in bank shares was recognized by the law courts as a legitimate investment of trust funds. But banks do not recognize trusts. Consequently, unfortunate trustees were liable, not only personally for all losses sustained by the banks, but also to make good the losses of their clients. This created such alarm that the shares in the Scotch banks fell thirty per cent. To facilitate the adoption of limited liability by banks, and also to preserve all reasonable security for creditors, the Act, Statute 1879, c. 76, was passed, which enacts: 1. That any unlimited company may increase the nominal amount of its capital by increasing the nominal amount of its shares; provided, that no part of such increased capital shall be capable of being called up, except in the event of and for the purpose of the company being wound up. 2. A limited company may declare that any portion of its still uncalled-for capital shall not be capable of being called up, except in the event of and for the purpose of the company being wound up. 3. All banks are subject to unlimited liability with respect to their notes in circulation. The Bank of England and the three senior chartered banks in Scotland were created corporations before the Crown was authorized by act of Parliament to create trading corporations with unlimited liability. They therefore had always been limited banks, and did not require to avail themselves of the Act of 1879 to become so. But almost all the English jointstock banks and all the other Scotch banks, without loss of time, registered themselves as limited companies under the Act of 1879, and the result has been to show that all the fears which had been entertained that limited banks would sustain a diminution of credit were entirely groundless. THE DIFFERENCES IN PRINCIPLE BETWEEN SUPPORTERS OF THE BANK ACT OF 1844 AND THOSE OF THE BULLION REPORT AND THE BANK ACT OF 1819. The supporters of the Bank Act of 1844 strenuously maintain that it is the complement of, and in strict accordance with, the principles of the Bullion Report and of the Act of 1819. Such statements are, however, entirely incorrect. Beyond the simple fact that both were desirous to maintain the convertibility of the note, the principles maintained by the framers of the Bank Charter Act of 1844 are in all other respects radically different from those of the Bullion Report and of the supporters of the Bank Act of 1819. The following are the differences of principle between them: 1. In all the great Parliamentary debates and in the opinion of statesmen, it was invariably assumed that the term currency includes money and credit in all its forms, written and unwritten, although no specific definition of currency was ever attempted. Lord Overstone and his sect, whose doctrines prevailed with Sir Robert Peel, maintained that the term currency includes money and bank notes payable to bearer on demand only, to the exclusion of all other forms of credit. Does the definition of currency by the framers of the Bank Act of 1844 agree with that of those who supported the Bank Act of 1819? 2. The Bullion Report declares that the mere numerical amount of notes in circulation at any time is no criterion whether they are excessive or not. The dogma of the framers of the Bank Act of 1844 is that the notes in circulation ought to be exactly equal in quantity to what the gold coin would be if there were no notes, and that any excess of notes above that quantity is a depreciation of the currency. Does the dogma of the framers of the Bank Act of 1844 agree with the principles of the Bullion Report on this point? 3. The Bullion Report declares, and the supporters of the Bank Act of 1819 uniformly maintained, that the sole test of the depreciation of the paper currency is to be found in the price of gold bullion and the state of the foreign exchanges. Ricardo says:* "The issuers of paper money should regulate their issues solely by the price of bullion, and never by the quantity of their paper in circulation. The quantity can never be too great or too little while it preserves the same value as the standard." The dogma of the framers of the Bank Act of 1844 is, that the true criterion of the depreciation of paper is whether the notes do or do not exceed in quantity the gold they displace. Is the dogma of the framers of the Bank Act of 1844 in accordance with the principles of the Bullion Report and of Ricardo on this point? 4. It was proposed to the Bullion Committee to impose a positive limit on the issues of the bank, in order to curb their power of mismanagement. The Bullion Report expressly condemns any positive limitation on its issues; Peel himself in 1819 and in 1833 fully concurred in this opinion, and said that at no time, however distant, would he impose a positive limit on the issues of the bank. But, in 1844, Peel himself, by the Act of 1844, imposed a cast-iron limit on the issues of the bank. Was the dogma of Peel in 1844 in accordance with the doctrines of the Bullion Report and of himself in 1819 and 1833? 5. The Bullion Report, after discussing the most important monetary crises which had occurred up to that time, expressly declares that it is the proper policy for the bank in certain times of commercial crises to expand its issues to support commercial houses and avert a monetary panic. The history of commercial crises, both before and after the Bullion Report, has proved the indubitable wisdom of this doctrine. The Bank Charter Act of 1844 expressly prevents this from being done. The consequence has been that on three several occasions since the passing of the Act of 1844 it has been found indispensable to suspend the act, in order to prevent every bank in England stopping payment, and probably nineteen merchants out of every twenty being ruined. Is the dogma embodied in the Act of 1844 in accordance with the principles of the Bullion Report? The above are the glaring and radical differences of doctrine between the principles of the Bullion Report, the supporters of the Act of 1819, and those of the framers of the Act of 1844, and experience has fully demonstrated the superior wisdom of the principles of the Bullion Report and of the supporters of the Act of 1819, to those of the framers of the Bank Act of 1844. SECTION VIII. COMMERCIAL CRISES. IN another part of this work we have explained the scientific and juridical principles and mechanism of solid credit, and shown how it augments the wealth of a country—meaning, by solid credit, that which is actually and punctually redeemed at maturity. But there is a reverse to the medal. If solid, and judiciously used, credit has conduced more to the wealth of the world than all the mines of gold and silver; its abuses, in the hands of incautious and unscrupulous persons, has produced the most terrible calamities of modern times—namely, commercial crises and monetary panics. We have now to contemplate the dark side of the picture, and to show how commercial crises and monetary panics arise; how they are to be dealt with and brought under scientific control, which has hitherto been the opprobrium of economics and of financial statesmanship. We have shown clearly that all credit is the present right to, or the present value of, a future payment; and so long as the credit is actually redeemed at maturity, by the various methods described in another chapter, the credit is not excessive. But all credit created in excess of the future payment, and which is not fully redeemed at maturity, is excessive. And it is excessive credit which produces all commercial crises; and if they are not properly and judiciously controlled, and are allowed to obtain a certain magnitude and intensity, they are very apt to culminate in monetary panics. The fact is, that commercial crises are innate in the gigantic system of credit which has grown up in modern times; and if they are not skilfully dealt with, they have a great tendency to develop into monetary panics; but if they are dealt with on the principles which repeated experience and reasoning have suggested, though periodical commercial crises cannot in the nature of things be avoided, yet they may be prevented from developing into monetary panics. As all traders in modern times trade on credit, it must necessarily be that there are a considerable number of bad speculators among them. They create bills in excess of future profits; and if there were any methed of compelling them to incur and bear the loss at once, there would be comparatively little harm done. A few individuals would suffer, but there would be no general commercial crisis. But traders are not usually very willing to put up with a present loss. They always hope to recoup themselves by future and more fortunate speculations. Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Traders endeavor to acquire a good character with their bankers; and they keep their losses to themselves. They not only create fresh bills, by which they hope to retrieve their former losses, but they manufacture fictitious bills by cross-acceptances amongst each other for the express purpose of extracting fresh funds from their bankers to speculate with. Now, when a trader has established a good reputation with his banker, and is accustomed to have a discount account with him to a certain amount, it is very serious indeed for his banker to stop it. We have already explained that, at the present day, bills of exchange are almost universally paid, not by money, but by discounting fresh bills. If, therefore, a customer has his own acceptances to meet, and his banker refuses to discount fresh bills for him, it means nothing less than instant ruin. Now a banker may have a very shrewd suspicion that his customer is overtrading; but, as he has no access to his customer's books, it may be very difficult for him positively to ascertain the fact. And if a banker acts upon insufficient grounds, and without sure cause ruins his customer, he will get himself into very bad odor, and may do himself much injury. Of course, the greater the merchant the more difficult it is to deal with him. And great merchants, who have numerous and powerful connections, can manufacture bills to an incredible extent to cover up losses, and keep themselves afloat by extracting fresh funds from their bankers to speculate with; until, when the final collapse comes, it is found that their assets are almost all eaten away, and left perhaps a shilling or two in the pound to meet the masses of paper. ACCOMMODATION PAPER. We must now examine more closely a species of credit which requires great attention; because it is the curse and the bane of commerce, and it has been the chief cause of those frightful commercial crises which recur periodically; and yet, though there can be no doubt that in the majority of cases it is morally fraudulent, it is of so subtle a nature that it defies all powers of legislation to cope with it. We have shown by the exposition of the system of cash credits in Scotland that there is nothing essentially dangerous and fraudulent in creating credit for the purpose of promoting future operations. On the contrary, such credits have been the most powerful method ever devised by the ingenuity of man for promoting the wealth and the prosperity of a country, and have accelerated the wealth and prosperity of Scotland by centuries. A certain species of this credit, however, having been grossly abused by unscrupulous persons for fraudulent purposes, and having produced the most frightful calamities, we must now examine and point out wherein the danger and the fraud of this particular species of credit consists. When bills of exchange are given in exchange for goods actually purchased at the time, they are often called real bills; and it is often supposed that there is something essentially safe in them; because, as the goods have been received for them, it is supposed the goods are always ready to provide for the payment of the bills, and that only so much credit is created as there are goods to redeem it. It is the inveterate error of a multitude of persons who will write upon the subject without the slightest knowledge either of mercantile law or of practical business, that the holder of a bill has a title to the goods for which it is given. This pestilent and mischievous delusion appears very strongly in Stanley Jevons. He says:* "What greatly assists a rise of prices started in a period of free investment is the system of credit, on which trade is necessarily conducted. By this system, a trader is not obliged to be the real owner of the goods in which he trades, but may buy freely by giving the promise of payment in, perhaps, three months' time. Thus, the goods really belong to the holder of his promissory note or bill. * * * Though the merchant does not own the goods, there must be some one to own them, to advance capital, or, as it is said, to discount the bills arising out of the transaction." Thus Jevons holds that the merchant who buys goods on credit is not the real owner of them; that the person who holds the bill given for them is their real owner; or the person to whom he transfers it, such as the banker who discounts it, has the real title to the goods in respect of which it is given. But every lawyer and banker in the world would laugh at such ideas. Nothing is more common than for uninformed persons to say that a trader who buys goods on credit trades on borrowed capital. Such an idea, however, is a pure delusion. When a trader buys goods on credit and gives his bill for them, the goods become his actual property just as much as if he had paid for them in money. The bill of exchange is payment for the goods, just as money is. A purchase on credit is just as much a sale or an exchange as a purchase with money. What the trader has to do after having bought goods with his bill is to pay the bill when it becomes due. Mr. Henry Thornton long ago pointed out the fallacy of supposing that there is any security in real bills because they are given in exchange for goods, or that the holder of the bill has any title to the goods.† When a wholesale dealer buys a quantity of goods from a merchant on credit, he perhaps sells those goods to fifty different retail dealers, and takes their bill for them. These very goods are sold by the retail dealers, perhaps, to hundreds of their customers, and consumed by them, before the bill given by the wholesale dealer becomes due. How in the name of common sense is the holder of the bill to follow the goods into the hands of hundreds of customers, who will most probably have consumed them before the bill becomes due? How, even, is he to ascertain their names? But, suppose that the wholesale dealer does not divide the goods into parcels and sell them to different dealers, but sells them in a lump to some other single person and takes his bill for them; then a new bill must be created to transfer the goods, and if the same goods are transferred in a lump a dozen different times, a new bill must be created on each transfer. Hence, there will be a dozen bills relating to the very same goods, and perhaps every one of these bills may have been discounted with a banker: which banker has a title to the goods? Every banker in the world would laugh at the idea that he has any title to the goods for which a bill has been given, which he has discounted. Nor have any of the bills any relation to any specific money, such as the purchaser of the goods may receive in payment for them. They are nothing but pure rights of action against the person of the debtor. Every lawyer and every merchant knows that every bill is a separate and independent article of merchandise, exactly like money itself, and that it is bought and sold solely on the belief that the acceptor will have the means of extinguishing it when it becomes due. Mr. Thornton also points out the fallacy of making a distinction between the security of real bills and accommodation bills, qua accommodation bills. After describing an accommodation bill, he says: "They agree; inasmuch as each is a discountable article, each has also been created for the purpose of being discounted, and each is perhaps discounted in fact; each therefore serves equally to supply means of speculation to the merchant. So far, moreover, as bills and notes constitute what is called the circulating medium or paper currency of the country and prevent the use of guineas, the fictitious and the real bill are upon an equality, and if the price of commodities be raised in proportion to the quantity of paper currency, the one contributes to that rise exactly in the same manner as the other." The fact is, that in a real bill goods have already been purchased wherewith to redeem it; in an accommodation bill goods are to be purchased to redeem it. And if each transaction is equally sound and judicious, there is exactly the same security in the one bill as in the other. In fact, we may say that all commercial credit is of the nature of accommodation paper; because, in this case, a credit is always created for the express purpose of buying goods to redeem it. There is, therefore, clearly nothing in the nature of accommodation paper worse than "real paper," and when it is carefully used, nothing more dangerous. Cash credits, which have been one of the safest and most profitable parts of Scotch banking, and which have done so much for the prosperity of the country, are all of this nature. They are created, as we have seen, for the express purpose of stimulating future operations out of which the credit is to be redeemed. There is, therefore, nothing more atrocious, vicious and criminal in the one species of paper rather than in the other; or, if there is, it must lie in the difference between has been and is to be. Nevertheless, as it is indubitably certain that most, if not all, of those commercial crises and monetary panics which have so frequently convulsed nations, have sprung out of this species of paper, it does merit a considerable portion of the obloquy and vituperation which has been heaped upon it. It is, therefore, our duty to investigate the method in which it is applied, and to point out wherein its true danger consists. The security supposed to reside in real bills, as such, is, as we have seen, exaggerated. But there is at least this to be said for them, that as they only arise out of the real transfers of goods, their number must be limited by the very nature of things. However bad and worthless they may be individually, they cannot be multiplied beyond a certain limit. There is, therefore, a limit to the calamities they can cause. But we shall show that with accommodation paper the limits of disaster are immensely and indefinitely increased, frequently involving in utter ruin all who are brought within their vortex. THE REAL DANGER OF ACCOMMODATION PAPER. We must now explain wherein the difference between real and accommodation paper consists, and wherein the danger of accommodation paper lies. Suppose that a manufacturer or wholesale dealer has sold goods to ten customers, and received ten bona fide trade bills for them, he discounts these ten bills with his banker. The ten acceptors of these bills having received value for them, are the principal debtors to the bank, and are bound to meet them under the penalty of commercial ruin. The bank has their names as acceptors or real principal debtors on the bills, and its own customer as security on each of them. The bank also keeps a certain balance of its customer's in its hands, proportionate to the discount allowed. Even under the best of circumstances, an acceptor may fail to meet his bill. The banker then debits his customer's account with the bill and gives it to him back. The drawer has an action against the acceptor, because it is a real debt due to him. If there should not be enough, the customer is called upon to pay the difference. If the worst comes to the worst, and its customer fails, the bank can pursue its remedy against the estates of both parties, without in any way affecting the position of the other nine acceptors, who, of course, are still bound to meet their own bills. In the case of accommodation bills there are very material differences. To the eye of the banker there is no visible difference between real and accommodation bills. They are, nevertheless, very different, and it is in these differences that the real danger of accommodation paper consists. In accommodation bills, the person for whose accommodation the drawing, indorsing or accepting, as the case may be, is done, is bound to provide the funds to meet the bill, or to indemnify the person who gives him his name. In a real bill the acceptor is the principal debtor, who is bound to provide funds to meet the bill, and the drawer is a mere surety. In the most usual form of accommodation, that of an acceptance, the drawer is the real principal debtor, who has to provide funds to meet the bill, and the acceptor is a mere surety, and if he is called upon to meet the bill he is entitled to sue the drawer, as the principal debtor, for the amount. Now, suppose as before, A gets ten of his friends to accommodate him with their names as acceptors, and discounts these bills with his banker, it is A's duty to provide funds to meet every one of the ten bills. There is, in fact, only one real principal debtor and ten sureties. Now, these ten accommodation acceptors are ignorant of each other's proceedings. They only gave their names to the drawer on the express understanding that they were not to be called upon to meet their bill; and, accordingly, they make no provision to do so. If any one of them is called upon to meet their bill, he has an immediate remedy against the drawer. In the case of real bills, then, the bank has ten real principal debtors, who would each take care to meet his own acceptance, and only one surety. In the case of accommodation bills, the bank has only one real principal debtor to meet the acceptances of ten. Thus, there is only one real principal debtor and ten sureties. Furthermore, if one of ten real acceptors fails to meet his bill, the bank can safely press the drawer, because it will not affect the position of the other nine acceptors. But if the drawer of the accommodation bills fails to meet any one of the ten acceptances, and the bank suddenly discovers that it is an accommodation bill, and it is under large advances to the drawer, it dare not for its own safety press the acceptor, because he will of course have immediate recourse against the drawer as his debtor, and the whole fabric will probably tumble down like a house of cards. Hence, the chances of disaster are much greater when there is only one person to meet the engagements of ten, than when there are ten persons, each bound to meet his own acceptance. The real danger to a bank, then, in being led into discounting accommodation paper is that the position of principal and surety is reversed. It is deceived as to who the real debtor is and who the surety is, being precisely the reverse to what they appear to be, which makes a very great difference in the security of the holder of the bills. In fact, the parties are not governed by the contract visible on the face of the bills, which the banker believes in; but by a latent contract, collateral to the bills, of which he knows nothing. To advance money by way of cash credit, or by loan with security, is quite a different affair; because the bank then knows exactly what it is doing; and as soon as anything occurs amiss, it knows the remedy to be adopted. Moreover, it never permits the advance to exceed a certain definite limit; but it never can tell to what lengths it may be inveigled into in discounting accommodation paper until some commercial reverse happens, when it may discover that its customer has been carrying on some great speculative operation with capital borrowed from it alone. This is the rationale of accommodation paper pure and simple. We have now to examine a species of accommodation paper still more subtle and still more dangerous; and this because, though it is really and in its very nature accommodation paper, yet it is not so in technical jurisprudence. MUTUAL ACCOMMODATION PAPER—ITS DANGER TO A BANK. We have shown that the real genuine distinction between real and accommodation paper is, that real paper is based upon a simultaneous transfer of goods, the proceeds of which are expected to redeem the bill at maturity; and in accommodation paper, bills are created, not based upon any past or simultaneous transfer of goods, but for the express purpose of purchasing goods in the future to redeem the bills. If these two species of transactions are done with equal care and judgment, and with the full knowledge of all parties of the real nature of the transaction, there is nothing more dangerous or improper in one species of paper than in the other. We have now to deal with a species of paper which is in its real nature accommodation paper, because it consists of paper not founded on any past or simultaneous transfer of goods, but consists of paper created for the express purpose of purchasing goods after it has been created; but yet in jurisprudence it is not accommodation paper, because it is held to be given for good and valuable consideration; and therefore, though in very many cases it is a moral fraud, yet it is not a legal fraud; and it is to this species of paper that most of the great commercial crises are due. We have now to explain how very much more dangerous to a bank this species of paper is than the worst calamities which can happen from real paper. We have already pointed out the very common error that all bills of exchange are paid in money. Bills in modern usage are very seldom paid in actual money; only in a very few isolated instances; they are paid by discounting fresh bills. Thus, in ordinary times, debts are always paid by creating new debts. No doubt, if the banker refuses to discount the new bills, the customer must discharge his bills in money. But then no trader ever expects to have to do that. He has usually a fixed discount limit, and if he brings good bills he has little less than an absolute right to have them discounted. And if the banker suddenly calls upon him to meet his bills in money, it might oblige him to sell his goods at a great sacrifice, or might cause his ruin. However, it is always supposed that the bills discounted are good ones; that is, they could be paid in money if required. Thus, though in common practice very few bills are really ever paid in money, it is manifest that the whole stability of the bank depends upon the last bills discounted being good ones. Now, suppose that a customer for a considerable time brings good bills to his banker and acquires a good character with him, and so throws him off his guard. Owing, perhaps, to some temporary embarrassment, or wishing to push his speculations, he goes to some of his friends, and gets them to accept bills without having any property to meet them. He then takes these accommodation bills to his banker. The banker, trusting to his good character, discounts the bills. In course of time these accommodation bills must be met, and the way he does it is to create fresh similar bills. The drawer may be speculating in trade and losing money every day. But his bills must be met; and there is no other way of meeting them but by constantly creating fresh accommodation bills. By this means the customer may extract indefinite sums from his banker, and give him in return—so many bits of paper. Now, when discounts are low, and times are prosperous, this system may go on for many years. But at last a crisis comes. The money market becomes "tight." Bankers not only raise the rate of discount, but they refuse to discount so freely as before. They contract their issues. The accommodation bills are in the bank, and they must be met. But if the banker refuses to discount fresh bills, they must be met in money. But all the property the speculators may have had may have been lost twenty times over; so when the crisis comes they have nothing to turn into money. Directly the banker refuses to meet his customer's bills by means of his own money, he wakes to the pleasant discovery that, in return for the money he has paid, he has got so many pieces of paper! This is the rationale of accommodation paper; and we see how entirely it differs from real paper. Because with real paper and bona fide customers, though losses may come, yet directly the loss occurs there is an end of it. But with accommodation paper, the prospect of a loss is the very cause of a greater one being made; and so on in an ever widening circle, until the canker may eat into the banker's assets to any extent almost. It is also clear that if a trader, having got a good character and a high position in commerce, may do so much mischief to a single banker, his capacity for mischief is vastly increased if, from his high position and old standing, he is able to discount with several banks, for then he is able to diminish greatly the chances of detection. From these accommodation bills to forged bills there is but one step. It is but a thin line of division between drawing upon a man who is notoriously unable to pay, and drawing upon a person who does not exist at all, or forging an acceptance. In practical morality, and in its practical effects, there is none. Traders do not even take the trouble to get a beggar to write his name on their bills, but they invent one. The case of traders in a large way of business, dealing with a vast number of small country connections, affords great facilities for such rogueries. They begin by establishing a good character for their bills. Their business gradually increases. Their connections, as they say, gradually extend all over the kingdom. The banker, satisfied with the regularity of the account, cannot take the trouble of sending down to inquire into the acceptor of every small bill. The circle gradually enlarges, until some fine morning the whole affair blows up. The ingenuity sometimes exercised by traders in carrying out such a system is absolutely marvellous. It is in times of speculation in large commodities that accommodation paper is peculiarly rife. In a great failure of the harvest, when great importations were required, and it was expected that prices would rise very high, every corn merchant wanted to buy as much as possible. But if no real sales had taken place, there could be real trade bills. They therefore proceeded to manufacture them in order to extract funds from bankers to speculate with. No banker in his senses would actually advance money for them to speculate with, with his eyes open. Nevertheless they must have funds. This they did by cross-acceptances. One merchant drew on another, who accepted it; he then in turn drew upon his drawer, who accepted in his turn. They then went and discounted these cross-acceptances with as many bankers as possible, in as many different parts of the country as possible, so that their proceedings might not come too much under the notice of any particular bank. In the Crimean war there was a great and sudden demand for shipping; an enormous amount of accommodation paper was manufactured by the Liverpool ship owners and discounted all over the kingdom. The results were frightfully disastrous. Whenever great speculation in commodities may take place, again the same things will recur. And the quantities of accommodation paper manufactured on such occasions is something astonishing. But this paper is discounted by banks creating fresh credits in the form of deposits. So, these deposits swell up; and they are only so many bank notes in disguise; and then the public holds up its hands in astonishment at the vast sums the banks have to trade with; whereas it is not solid money at all, but only paper. But this immense augmentation of the circulating medium, or currency, raises prices all round. The insurmountable objection, therefore, to this species of paper is the dangerous and boundless facility it affords for raising money for speculative purposes. And there is much reason to fear that this pernicious system prevails to a much greater extent than is commonly supposed. Even in quiet times it has been said that it is surmised that one-fourth of the paper in circulation is accommodation paper; and in times of great speculation the proportion is far greater than that. The Legislature has imposed rigid limits on the issues of banks, and many persons think that it might be possible to curb the creation of this pestilent kind of paper by law. But, unfortunately, such a thing is not possible. The difficulty consists in determining what is really accommodation paper. As a matter of economics, all these cross-acceptances are pure accommodation paper; but they are not so in jurisprudence. The whole question turns on the consideration. An accommodation bill in law is a bill to which the drawer, acceptor or endorser, as the case may be, puts his name without consideration for the purpose of benefiting or accommodating some other party, who is to provide the funds to meet the bill when due. But the consideration may be of many sorts. It does not by any means necessarily imply a sale of goods at the time. Moreover, a bill may be an accommodation bill at the time it is created; but if any consideration is given for it during the period of its currency, it ceases to be an accommodation bill. Moreover, the consideration may be of many sorts. If A draws a bill upon B, who accepts it for A's accommodation for the express purpose of enabling him to get it discounted by a bank, that is a pure accommodation bill. But if B draws an exactly similar bill upon A, who accepts it for the accommodation of B, to enable him to get it discounted by a bank, then neither of the bills is an accommodation bill, but they are each of them given for a good consideration. To an unlearned reader this may seem somewhat strange doctrine: but it is nevertheless firmly established law. This doctrine, which is quite unanswerable, shows how impossible it is to deal legislatively with this kind of accommodation paper. At least they must be very poor rogues who cannot manufacture any amount of bona fide bills they please. Two ragamuffins have only to get as many bills as they please—if they can only pay for the stamps. One engages to pay £1000 to the order of the other. That would be an accommodation bill. The second then engages to pay £1000 to the order of the first. These are no longer accommodation bills; but are two good bona fide bills; each given for a good consideration. If two such bills are good, then two thousand or any larger number are equally good. Bankers would look askance at such paper; but Westminster Hall declares them all to be bona fide bills given for a good consideration. Stated in the above form, the doctrine may appear somewhat startling to some. But when we consider the principle of the case, and not the accidental circumstance that the two persons who may do it are insolvent, the difficulty disappears; for it is just what happens every day in banking. It is quite common for a banker to discount the simple promissory note of his customer. The note given by the customer is the consideration for the deposit, credit or right of action created by the banker; and the right of action or deposit created by the banker is the consideration given to purchase the note of the customer. Each, therefore, is the consideration for the other. Each party gives value to the other. It is precisely the same in principle in the other case. If the issuers of the bills are able to purchase goods with them, they may be paid off at maturity. If they cannot do so, the re-exchange of the securities is the mutual payment of each debt; precisely in the same manner as when two bankers exchange notes, or when a merchant pays his acceptance to a banker in the banker's own notes. The two contracts are extinguished by compensation. The accident that both the creators of the bills are insolvent does not affect the juridical principles of the case. Now, in times of great speculation, these cross-acceptances are manufactured to an enormous extent among merchants. And the more cross-acceptances they can manufacture and get discounted by bankers, the more funds the adventurers have to speculate with. But such things are always sure to be overdone. As soon as any new and extensive market is suddenly opened up, multitudes of speculators are sure to rush in and create vast amounts of paper which can never be redeemed. And when this is done on a sufficiently large scale, a commercial crisis is produced. And if this commercial crisis is not properly and judiciously met, and it reaches a certain degree of intensity, it produces a monetary panic in which merchants and bankers fall together. All commercial crises, therefore, originate in the overcreation of credit, and this is innate in the modern system of credit. Suppose that at any time the commercial world started with a perfectly clean slate. When such multitudes of persons are trading on credit, it must inevitably happen that a considerable number will speculate unsuccessfully and create an excess of credit, which cannot be redeemed by fair means. All excess of credit may be considered as so much virus or poison in the body commercial. However, by various tricks and devices known to traders, they can keep themselves afloat many years after they are utterly insolvent; and thus the poison constantly accumulates. Then perhaps a fever of speculation takes place, giving rise to the creation of vast masses of speculative paper; and then the poison, having accumulated to a sufficient extent, bursts forth in a tumor, or an abscess, called a commercial crisis. Now, it is clear that these things cannot take place in a day; it takes a certain time for a sufficient amount of excessive credit to be generated and accumulate in the body commercial to produce a commercial crisis. During the last 130 years, in which the credit system has attained its gigantic development, a commercial crisis has usually returned in periods of ten years, or thereabouts, and sometimes oftener. But on each occasion the circumstances which brought it about are perfectly well known. And because the spots on the sun's disc have also a period somewhat approaching to ten years, it gave rise to the Bedlamite craze of Stanley Jevons that commercial crises and monetary panics are due to spots on the sun's disc and conjunction of the planets! One cannot fail also to be surprised that Sir Robert Peel, with all his long and extensive experience, should have conceived the idea that all commercial crises originate in excessive issues of bank notes, and that if the quantity of notes could only be restricted to the quantity of gold there would be if there were no notes, commercial crises would be prevented. Excessive issues of notes have, no doubt, in many cases fostered and aggravated commercial crises; but they do not originate with bankers. They always originate with the mercantile community; and no restrictions on the issues of banks can, by any possibility, prevent their occurrence, as will be shown in the following chapter. SECTION IX. MONETARY PANICS. The Panics of 1764, 1772, 1782, 1793—Remarkable Remedy of the Latter—The Panic of 1797—The Bank Suspends—£1 and £2 Notes Issued—The Famous Panic of 1825—Speculation its Cause—Opposition to £1 and £2 Notes—The Crisis of 1838-39—The Panic of 1847—Its Instant Remedy by Releasing the Bank Restriction—Sir Robert Peel's Review of the Workings of the New Bank Act—Parliamentary Committee of 1848—The Author's Currency Discoveries—The Panic of 1857—The Panic of 1866—Overend, Gurney & Co.'s Great Failure—The Crisis of 1890—The Barings' Suspension. ALL commercial crises originate, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, in the over-creation of credit, in credit created which cannot be redeemed, and not in spots on the sun's disc or conjunctions of the planets. It is the express business of merchants and traders to speculate. And in the vast numbers of the mercantile community who are always speculating, a considerable number must speculate badly, especially in times of great changes in price, and consequently over-creations of credit are constantly accumulating, and in process of time they come to a head and burst in a commercial crisis. Commercial crises are, therefore, innate in the colossal system of modern credit and are unavoidable. A monetary panic is a general run upon bankers for gold. It is not the business of bankers to speculate themselves, but to judge of and control the speculations of others. No doubt bankers are often duped and deceived into supporting bad speculations; but they do not originate them,—which shows the fallacy of Sir Robert Peel's fancy, that all commercial crises originate in excessive issues of bank notes. But when a commercial crisis attains a certain magnitude and intensity, there is great danger of its developing into a monetary panic, or a general run for gold upon bankers. Monetary panics, in this country at least, have been invariably produced by bad banking legislation, or by bad management of the Bank of England; sometimes by both. Monetary panics are, therefore, generally speaking, avoidable. Ever since the prodigious development of the system of credit, from the latter end of the seventeenth century, there have been periodical commercial crises which, after a certain degree of tension, have deepened into monetary panics, accompanied by great failures of banks, and very severe runs for gold on those banks which were able to stand their ground. And it has been a subject of sore perplexity to know how these monetary panics are to be controlled, and the proper action of the Bank of England during their continuance. There have been, and still are, two conflicting theories on the subject: 1. That in periods of great commercial crisis, the issues of the Bank of England should be rigorously restricted, and give no aid to commercial houses. This may be called the restrictive theory. 2. That, at such periods of extreme commercial pressure, the issues of the Bank of England should be liberally expanded so as to support all commercial houses which can prove themselves to be solvent. This may be called the expansive theory. In the series of commercial crises and monetary panics which have taken place during the last 140 years, each of these theories has been tried, and we have now to examine the circumstances of each crisis seriatim, and show the effect of each theory upon it. The experience on the subject has now been ample and abundant, so as to enable us to come to a definite conclusion. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1764. The first great monetary panic in modern times which we need notice, took place in 1764 in Holland and neighboring countries. The banks of Amsterdam, Hamburg and Nuremberg did not issue notes in the discount of bills. They were pure examples of what is called by a certain party the "Currency Principle." That is, those banks did not issue any credit except in exchange for specie. Thus, the credit they issued was exactly equal in amount to the specie it displaced. This principle was that advocated by the supporters of the Bank Act of 1844, and of Sir Robert Peel, who considered it as the panacea for all commercial crises. The seven years' war had just come to an end; and changes from peace to war or from war to peace, causing great fluctuations in price, are great promoters of commercial crises. The Neufvilles, two bankers at Amsterdam, were among the principal merchants and speculators, who had connections all over the Continent. At length their embarrassments became so great that the bankers at Amsterdam could no longer support them, and they failed for 330,000 guineas on the 29th July, 1763. Before the news of the actual stoppage reached Hamburg, the bankers of that town were thrown into the utmost consternation by hearing that it was intended at Amsterdam to allow the Neufvilles to fail. On the 4th August, 1763, the bankers at Hamburg met to consider how the tottering state of credit in that town was to be supported. They said: "We received a fatal express with the terrible news that you, the gentlemen of Amsterdam, would leave the Neufvilles to sink, by which we were all thunderstruck; never dreaming that so many men in their senses in your city would take such a step—a step which will infallibly plunge all Europe into an abyss of distress, if not remedied by you while it is time. We therefore send this circular and general letter to you by express, to exhort and conjure you, as soon as you receive this, to undertake still to support the Neufvilles, by furnishing what money they want, and giving them two or three persons of unquestionable probity and skill for curators, that their affairs and their engagements may be concluded and terminated without causing a general ruin, which will otherwise infallibly happen. If you do not, gentlemen, we hereby declare to you that our resolution is taken—that is to say, that though we represent a very respectable body of rich and respectable men, we have unanimously resolved to suspend our own payments, as long as we shall judge it proper and necessary, and that we shall not acquit them or the counter protest that shall come from you, or any whatever. This is the resolution we have unanimously taken, and from which we will not depart, happen what will. The fate of the general commerce of all Europe is, at present, absolutely in your hands; determine, gentlemen, whether you should crush it totally, or support it." The letter, however, came too late to exercise any influence, as the Neufvilles had been allowed to fail six days previously. A general failure took place; eighteen houses in Amsterdam immediately stopped payment. A much greater number in Hamburg immediately followed, and no business was transacted for some time except for ready money. The failures were equally general in many of the other chief cities of Germany. This crisis extended to England; and Smith says, that the bank made advances to merchants to the amount of a million. Thus this first great commercial crisis was in direct contradiction to the doctrines of the devisers of the Bank Act of 1844, for it occurred in places where the "currency principle" was in full force; and the Bank of England acted on the expansive theory. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1772. In 1772, the first great monetary panic took place in England, in which the Bank of England was called upon to take a prominent part in supporting commercial credit. The preceding two years had been distinguished by the most extravagant over-trading. On the 10th June, Heale & Co., bankers in Threadneedle street, stopped payment, involving many others. The Bank of England and some merchants came forward to support credit; which had the appearance for a few days of being successful. But, in ten days' time, a general crash ensued. The whole city was in consternation. There had not been such a prospect of general bankruptcy since the South Sea scheme. By the liberal advances of the Bank of England, the panic was at length allayed. But the bankruptcies of that year amounted to the then unprecedented number of 525. These speculations had been general throughout Europe; and in 1773 the crash extended to Holland. About the beginning of the year, the failures in that country were so alarming, and so extensive, that they threatened a mortal blow to all credit, public and private, throughout Europe. They were caused by great speculative dealings in trade, as well as in the public funds of different countries. The losses were estimated at £10,000,000—an immense sum for that period. Thus, the circumstances of this great crisis were like those of the first, in direct contradiction to the doctrines on which the Bank Act of 1844 is based; because English commerce was only saved by the expansive theory—by liberal advances by the Bank of England; and the crisis extended through countries in which the currency principle was in full force. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1782. As we have remarked at pages 17 and 18, in 1782, the unhappy war with America was fortunately terminated, and immediately a prodigious extension of the foreign commerce, which had previously been unusually restricted, took place. The enormous markets thrown open to the merchants led to the most extravagant overtrading, which was greatly fostered by very incautious issues by the bank; and this led to a very alarming drain of specie from the bank, which produced a crisis, threatening to compel them to stop payment. The directors, however, considered that if they could only restrain their issues for a short period the returns in specie in payment of the exports would soon set in in a more rapid manner than they went out. They determined therefore to make no communication to the Government, but for the present to contract their issues until the exchanges turned in their favor. The alarm felt by the bank was greatest in May, 1783. They then refused to make any advances to the Government on the loan of that year, but they did not make any demand for payment of their other advances to Government, which were then between nine and ten millions. They continued this policy up to October, when at length the drain had ceased from the country, and money had begun to flow in from abroad. At length, in the autumn, when the favorable signs had begun to appear, they advanced to Government freely on the loan; although, at that time, the cash in the bank was actually lower than at the time when they had felt the greatest alarm. It was reduced to £473,000. The doctrine which Mr. Bosanquet stated guided the directors was this: That while the drain was going on, their issues should be contracted as much as possible; but as soon as the tide had given signs of ceasing and turning the other way, it was safe to extend their issues freely. This was the policy they acted upon, and it was entirely successful, and the credit of the bank was saved. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1793. Mr. Tooke states from his own personal recollection that there had been an enormous and undue extension of commercial speculation, not only in the internal trade and banking of this country, but also throughout Europe and the United States, for some years previous to 1792. The amount of bank notes in circulation, which was under six millions in 1784, had increased to nearly eleven millions and a-half in 1792. At length, in the autumn of 1792, commercial failures began both here and abroad, as well as in America. The average of bankruptcies during the ten months had been fifty, in November they suddenly rose to 105. This unusual number created much uneasiness, but they diminished greatly in December. In January, 1793, they rose again. The French Revolution was now advancing with rapid strides; the King had been a prisoner ever since the 10th August. In November, the convention published what was tantamount to a declaration of war against every established government in Europe. Great Britain thought it time to arm. The militia were called out; on the 13th December Parliament met; and the King called the attention of the Houses to the increasing political ferment of the country, which had shown itself in acts of riot and rebellion. He said that the agitators were evidently acting in concert with persons abroad, and that it was impossible to see without the most serious uneasiness the evident intention of the French to excite disturbances in foreign countries, wholly contrary to the law of nations. Under these circumstances, it became necessary to augment the military and naval forces of the country. An angry correspondence inflamed the passions of both nations; and on the execution of the King, the British Government expelled the French Ambassador, and the convention instantly declared war. The declaration of war, though it must evidently have been foreseen, gave a shock to credit, which was already staggering. On the 15th of February, a house of considerable magnitude, deep in corn speculations, failed; and on the 19th the bank refused the paper of Lane, Son & Fraser, who stopped next morning, to the amount of nearly one million, involving a great number of other respectable houses. In the meantime the panic spread to the bankers. It began at Newcastle. The partners in the banks at Newcastle were opulent, but their private fortunes were locked up. They issued notes which allowed interest to commence at some months after date; and then they were payable on demand; when the run came they were unable to realize, and stopped payment. The panic immediately spread throughout the country. It was computed that there were nearly 400 country banks at that time; of these 300 were much shaken, and upwards of 100 stopped payment. The Banks of Exeter and the west of England almost alone stood their ground. They issued notes payable at twenty days' sight; with interest commencing at the date of the note, and ceasing on the day of acceptance. The best contemporary authorities are unanimous in attributing this terrible disaster to the inordinate multiplication and reckless operations of these country "bankers," which had been established in almost every town and even village in the country. This great pressure extended to the London bankers as well as those of the country. One of them says that the extraordinary state of credit had obliged every person connected with trade and money transactions to gather in and husband every resource to meet all demands. That for six weeks back every man of money and resources had been straining every nerve to support himself and immediate friends, and could not give that support to others which they would have been disposed to do. All these circumstances naturally produced a demand on the Bank of England for support and discounts. But the bank being thoroughly alarmed, resolved to contract its issues. Bankruptcies multiplied with frightful rapidity. The Government urged the bank to come forward and support credit; but they resolutely refused. Sir Francis Baring greatly blames the directors for their action on the occasion. He says that they first accommodated themselves to the crisis; but their nerves could not stand the daily demand for guineas; and, for the purpose of checking the demand, they curtailed their discounts to a point never before experienced; and that, if they determined to reduce their issues, they should have done it more gradually. Their determination and the extent to which they carried it, came like an electric shock. He says that there are three different causes for a great demand for guineas: 1. For export; 2. For the purpose of hoarding, from want of confidence in the Government and in the circulating paper; and 3. To enable country banks to discharge their demands while confidence in the Government and in the bank remained entire. That every measure ought to be taken to prevent and mitigate the first cause except prohibition and bankruptcy. We may reserve the second till we come to 1797. That the third ought to be viewed not with indifference, but with a disposition to spend almost their last guinea. He shows, from the state of the exchanges, that it was quite impossible that the guineas could have left the country, as the loss on exporting them to Amsterdam was £3 6s. 3d.; and to Hamburg, £4 2s. 6d. per cent.; and it was notorious that large quantities of gold and silver were coming in from France. The cause of this was the continued depreciation of the assignats. Under these circumstances, he says that the directors acted quite wrongly; they ought to have seen that the guineas would have very soon come back to them, and that, in fact, they ought to have followed the precedent of 1783, which had been so successful. When the bank adopted this perverse course, universal failure seemed imminent. Sir John Sinclair remembered the precedent of 1697, when Montague had invented exchequer bills to sustain public credit, and thought that a similar plan might be followed in this crisis. The Minister desired him to propose a scheme for the purpose, which he presented on the 16th April. A committee of the House of Commons was immediately appointed. In the meantime a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland came up with the most alarming news from Scotland. The public banks were wholly unable, with due regard to their own safety, to furnish the accommodation necessary to support commercial houses and the country bankers; that unless they received immediate assistance from Government general failure was inevitable. Numerous houses which were perfectly solvent must fall unless they could obtain temporary relief. Mr. Macdonald, M. P. for Glasgow, stated that the commercial houses and manufactories there were in the greatest distress from the total destruction of credit; that this distress arose from the refusal of the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock banks to discount, as their notes were poured in upon them for gold. The committee recommended that exchequer bills to the amount of £5,000,000 should be issued under the directions of a board of commissioners appointed for that purpose, in sums of £100, £50 and £20, and under proper regulations. After considerable doubts were expressed by Mr. Fox and Mr. Grey as to the policy of this extraordinary measure, which was unknown to the constitution, and might subvert our liberties, the bill passed. No sooner was the act passed than the committee set to work. A large sum of money (£70,000) was sent down to Manchester and Glasgow, on the strength of the exchequer bills, which were not yet issued. This most timely supply, coming so much earlier than was expected, operated like magic, and had a greater effect in restoring credit than ten times the sum would have had at a later period. When the whole business was concluded, a report was presented to the Treasury. It stated that the knowledge that the loans might be had operated in many instances to prevent them being required. The whole number of applications was 332, and the sum applied for was £3,855,624; of which 238 were granted, amounting to £2,202,000; forty-five for sums to the amount of £1,215,100 were withdrawn, and forty-nine rejected. The whole sum advanced was repaid; two only of the parties assisted became bankrupt; all the others were ultimately solvent, and in many instances possessed of great property. A considerable part of the sum was repaid before it was due, and all the rest with the utmost punctuality. So much scrupulous care was taken to preserve secrecy as to the names of the applicants, that they were not known to that hour except to the commissioners and their own sureties. After all expenses were paid, the transaction left a clear profit to the Government of £4,348. Whatever were the prognostications of its futility and danger before it was done, its success was perfect and complete. The contemporary writers all bear witness to the extraordinary effects produced. Macpherson says that the very intimation of the intention of the Legislature to support the merchants operated like a charm all over the country; and in a great degree superseded the necessity of the relief by an almost instantaneous restoration of confidence. Sir Francis Baring concurs in this view, and adduces the remarkable success of the measure as an argument to show the mistaken policy of the bank. The panic was at length happily stayed. The failures up to July had been 932; in the remaining five months they were reduced to 372. Gold continued to flow in; and in the last six months of 1793, and during the two following years, money became as plentiful as in time of peace, and four per cent. interest could scarcely be got. After careful deliberation, the Bullion Report warmly approved of it, censured the proceedings of the Bank of England, and especially cite it as an illustration of the principle they laid down, that an enlarged accommodation is the true remedy for that occasional failure of confidence in the country districts to which our system of paper credit is unavoidably exposed. Notwithstanding all this weight of testimony, practical and theoretical, in favor of the happy effects of this measure, some rigid doctrinaires afterwards condemned the proceedings as a violation of the true principles of economics. Even some who helped to devise it afterwards changed their opinion on the subject. Lord Sidmouth, in 1811, observed that he was, on consideration, inclined to doubt of its wisdom and policy. Lord Grenville also said, from experience and reflection, he was convinced the measure was founded on wrong policy; as one of those who were concerned in the measure, he was perfectly ready to avow his error; for he was perfectly satisfied in his own mind that it was unwise and impolitic. The reply to these objections seems to us to be perfectly plain and simple. In the first place, if it were a violation of the true principles of economics, it immediately resolves itself into a question of loss of capital. It is quite easy to show that all great errors in economics are destructive of capital. They may be estimated in money. Was this measure a pecuniary loss to the country? But what would have been the loss to the country if it had not been adopted? The simple result would have been that every bank in the country would have stopped payment, and nineteen out of every twenty merchants would have been ruined. Who can estimate the destruction of capital that would have ensued in the general wreck of public credit? It might have endangered the safety of the State. But there are other arguments which appear to us to be conclusive as to its propriety. The general loss of credit was chiefly caused by a thorough want of confidence in the circulating medium, or the currency of the country. The miserable notes of the majority of country bankers were utterly blown upon. The indispensable necessity was a solid currency. Now, what was it that caused such an unsafe currency to be in circulation? It was nothing but the unjustifiable monopoly of the Bank of England. It was this monopoly, which was itself the most flagrant violation of the true principles of economics, which was the cause of the bad state of the circulating medium. This monopoly prevented the formation of solid banks in the country. Consequently, the measure of the Government in providing a solid currency, in which everybody had confidence, was merely the correction of the error which led to these deplorable results. An undesirable one it may be, but yet no better one was possible under the circumstances. The superior wisdom of the Bullion Report, one of the wisest and most masterly reports ever presented to Parliament, and one of the great landmarks of economics, corroborated by the subsequent series of monetary panics, infinitely outweighs the morbid doctrinairism of Lord Sidmouth and Lord Grenville. This crisis alone is amply sufficient to decide between the merits of the restrictive theory and the expansive theory. While the restrictive theory, if it had been persevered in, would have involved the whole mercantile and banking community in absolute ruin, the expansive theory instantly saved them. We shall find the experience of this monetary panic amply borne out by the experience of all subsequent monetary panics. It was at this period, as far as we can ascertain, that London bankers introduced a slight, and to all appearance, an unimportant change in the method of doing business, which was yet followed by the most momentous consequence in the history of banking. The panic extended, as we have seen, to London bankers. Now, when bankers issue notes in a dense population like London, it gives great facilities to their enemies to work them injury. Their enemies had only to go and buy up their notes in all directions, and then go and present them suddenly for payment, and the bankers, not being prepared for such a sudden demand, may be ruined. Now, in that unique and unrivalled collection of banking documents in the possession of Messrs. Child and Co., the latest note of a London banker in it is dated April, 1793. From this time, London bankers wholly ceased to issue their own notes; and exclusively allowed their customers to circulate their bank credits by means of cheques. This slight change in the method of doing business ultimately produced a result which no one could have foreseen. The business of "banking" was considered so essentially to consist in issuing notes, that to prevent persons from issuing notes was considered as effectual to prevent them from "banking." Accordingly, the monopoly clauses of the Bank Charter Act conferred upon the bank the monopoly of issuing notes. But about thirty years after London bankers had shown that banking business could be carried on in London without issuing notes, persons began to scrutinize the privileges of the Bank of England, and they maintained that its privileges were exclusively confined to issuing notes. By a fortunate accident, the opportunity which this method offered of circumventing the monopoly of the bank was not discovered for many years afterwards. If it had been, there cannot be any doubt but that Parliament would have put it down very quickly. When it was discovered and acted upon, the age of such monopolies had passed away, and the demand of the bank to have it provided against was refused. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1797. We must now be very minute in detailing the circumstances of the monetary panic of 1797, in which the restrictive theory was carried out to the bitter end, and resulted in the stoppage of the bank. Sir Francis Baring and Mr. Tooke, two financial authorities of the very highest eminence, both agree that nothing could be more satisfactory than the financial condition of the country during 1794 and part of 1795. Both agree that the circumstances of the embarrassments which led to the catastrophe in 1797 began in the latter part of 1795. Mr. Tooke places the commencement rather earlier than Sir Francis Baring. He states that the winter of 1794-95 was one of the severest on record; and that in the spring or summer of 1795 apprehensions began to be felt for the growing crops. The prices of all sorts of corn advanced rapidly. The spring of 1795 was very cold and backward, the summer wet and stormy, and the harvest unusually late. Wheat, which was at 55s. in January, rose to 108s. in August. The same scarcity was general throughout Europe and America. France was in a still worse position than England; and the Government, still further to embarrass her and afford relief to England, seized all neutral vessels laden with corn and bound for France. It also employed agents to buy corn in the Baltic ports, where its price had already been greatly raised in consequence of large purchases on account of the French Government. Sir Francis Baring also states that the method in which the Government contracted the loan that year tended much to aggravate the evil. He says, that in former wars it had been usual for the Government to contract with none but the most respectable moneyed men, who had the undoubted power to fulfill their engagements. On this occasion the Minister contracted with men who did not possess those powers; and, in order to make good their payments, they were obliged to have recourse to operations on foreign places, which deranged the exchanges, and had a still greater effect in raising the rate of interest in this country. These causes alone were sufficient to create a monetary pressure; but though they were inconvenient, there would have been nothing to create alarm in them. They were, however, aggravated and intensified by other circumstances, which we must now relate. The enormous abuses which might be perpetrated by an unscrupulous government, and the dangerous power which so potent an engine as the Bank of England would confer upon them, had been clearly foreseen by its antagonists at the time of its foundation, and had inspired them with a well-grounded jealousy. Stringent precautions were taken in the first Act of 1695 to prohibit the bank from making any advances to Government without the express permission of Parliament. It had been the custom, however, time out of mind, to advance for the amount of such Treasury bills as were made payable on the bank, up to the amount of £20,000 or £30,000, when it was usual for the Treasury to send down orders to set off such advances against the accounts to which they properly belonged. If ever these advances reached £50,000, it was a subject of complaint. In the American war these limits had been much exceeded, and sometimes reached £150,000. Mr. Bosanquet was governor of the bank in 1793, and the legality of such proceedings excited grave doubts in his mind. After consulting with his brother directors, they agreed that it was a serious question whether the penalties provided in the act did not extend to such transactions. They, therefore, thought it would be expedient to apply to the Government to obtain an act of indemnity to relieve them from any penalties they might have incurred, and to permit such transactions to a certain limited amount. Mr. Bosanquet, who conducted the negotiation with Mr. Pitt, expressly says that Mr. Pitt proposed to bring in a clause which should indemnify the directors to advance to a limited amount. He says that it was originally intended that the penalty should be taken off only in case the advance on Treasury bills should be restrained within a limited sum. This limited amount was intended to be fixed at £50,000 or £100,000. Mr. Bosanquet, however, went out of office, and was unable to attend further to the negotiation. Mr. Pitt was much too keen not to see at once the enormous facilities Government would obtain if this act was passed. Accordingly, he pressed it quickly through Parliament; but he took care to omit any clause of limitation (Act, Statute 1793, c. 32). Never had such a formidable engine been placed in the hands of a Minister. He was now armed with the unbounded power of drawing upon the bank; with nothing to restrain him, unless the directors should take the audacious step of dishonoring his bills. The bank was henceforth almost at his mercy, and then he plunged headlong into that reckless career of scattering English gold broadcast over Europe. No sooner had Mr. Pitt obtained this surreptitious power over the bank than he set all bounds of moderation at defiance; and, sure of being able to command unlimited supplies at home, he proceeded to send over enormous amounts of specie to foreign powers. In 1793, the subsidies and sums paid to foreign governments amounted to £701,475. In 1794, the foreign subsidies were £2,641,053; in 1795 they amounted to £6,253,140. Thus, in three years, the sums sent abroad amounted to upwards of nine millions and a-half. These were, however, not the totals of the specie sent abroad on other accounts. In 1793, it was £2,715,232; in 1794, £8,335,592; in 1795, £11,040,236. These great remittances had the inevitable effect of making the foreign exchanges adverse, and excited the greatest alarm in the bank parlor. At the same time that this great drain of specie was going on, the Treasury bills increased to an unprecedented amount, and the demands for accommodation from the commercial world were equally pressing. Nothing could be more unpleasant than the position of the directors, placed between these powerful parties contending for accommodation, which it was daily becoming less in their power to give. So early as the 11th December, 1794, the directors foresaw the ensuing pressure, and made representations to Mr. Pitt. In January, 1795, it became necessary to adopt a firmer attitude; and, on the 15th, they passed a resolution that a foreign loan of six millions and a home one of eighteen millions being about to be raised, the Chancellor of the Exchequer must be requested to make his financial arrangements for the year without requiring further assistance from them; and more particularly, that they could not allow the advances on Treasury bills at any one time to exceed £500,000. Mr. Pitt promised to reduce them to that amount by payments out of the first loan. He, however, paid little regard to these remonstrances; and, on the 16th April, they were compelled to remind him that he had not kept his promise, that the sum should be reduced. They told him that they had come to a resolution that they would not, in future, permit the advances to exceed the stipulated sum. Mr. Pitt pretended that he had forgotten the circumstance in the multiplicity of business, and promised that the sum should be immediately paid. Nevertheless, no reduction took place in the amount; another remonstrance was equally ineffectual, and on the 30th July, the directors informed him that they intended, after a certain day, to give orders to their cashiers to refuse payment of all bills, when the amount exceeded £500,000. Mr. Pitt was not prepared to comply with this request, and on the 6th of August he applied to them for another advance of two millions and a-half; but they refused to take his letter into consideration until he had made satisfactory arrangements with them for the repayment of the other advances. After some further communication, he persuaded them to agree to the loan for £2,000,000. The act of Mr. Pitt had, in fact, deprived the directors of all control over the bank. The foreign exchanges began to fall rapidly towards the end of 1794, and in May, 1795, had reached such a depression as to make it profitable to export bullion; and this circumstance, as well as the knowledge that several foreign loans were in progress, should have warned the directors of the necessity of contracting their issues. Such was the course of the directors in 1783. Instead of that, their issues were greatly extended. In the quarter, from January to March, 1795, they stood higher than they had ever done before; though we must, in common fairness, acquit the directors of the whole blame. The amount of their issues, in August, 1794, was little more than ten millions; in February, 1795, it had increased to fourteen millions; but this was chiefly caused by the bills which were drawn on the Treasury on behalf of foreign governments and made payable at the bank. The directors had then to choose between endangering their own safety, or making the Government bankrupt. All these concurrent causes began to produce their full effect in the autumn of 1795. The drain commenced in September, and proceeded with alarming rapidity. On the 8th October the bank made a formal communication to Government, that it excited such serious apprehensions in their minds as to suggest an absolute necessity that the advances to Government must be reduced. They reminded him of the warning they had given in the beginning of the year as to the danger of the foreign loans, which had been fully verified, and that numerous other payments must be shortly provided for. That the market price of gold was then £4 4s. per ounce. Under these circumstances, the bank could lend no further assistance to the Government. On the 23rd of the same month, the directors, having heard of a new loan, waited on Mr. Pitt, who professed that he had not at the time the most distant idea of one. On the 18th November, the governor informed Mr. Pitt that the drain continued with unabated severity; and that the market price of gold was £4 2s. per ounce; and said that rumors were in circulation that another loan was intended, notwithstanding Mr. Pitt's denial of it so lately. Mr. Pitt said that, since their last interview, the successes of the Austrians had been so great against the French, that he was of opinion that it would highly conduce to the common cause to aid them with another loan not exceeding two millions; but he added that if such a course would be hazardous to the bank, every other consideration should be overlooked and the loan abandoned. Parliament met on the 29th October, in the midst of great public excitement and dissatisfaction. The King was saluted with loud groanings and hootings, and volleys of stones were flung at his carriage, as he went to open the session. The speech said that for some time past he had observed with the greatest anxiety the very high price of grain, and that this anxiety was much increased by the deficiency of the harvest this year. A committee of the House of Commons was immediately afterwards appointed to consider the high price of corn. In December the House came to strong resolutions as to the necessity of diminishing the consumption of wheat as much as possible, and the members of both Houses signed an engagement to diminish the quantity by at least one-third, and to use their influence to persuade others to do the same; and an act was passed offering heavy bounties on the importation of corn. The project of a loan going on, and it now being proposed to be £3,000,000, the directors, after a very solemn deliberation on the 3d of December, came to the unanimous resolution that, if the loan proceeded, they had the most cogent reasons to apprehend very momentous and alarming consequences from the actual effects of the last loan, and the continued drain of specie and bullion. In answer to this representation, Mr. Pitt solemnly promised them that he would lay aside all thought of it, unless the situation of the bank should so alter as to render such a loan of no importance to them. The directors at last found it necessary to choose between making the Government bankrupt, and taking stringent measures to restrict their accommodation to the merchants. They resolved to fix beforehand the amount of advances they could make day by day; and gave notice that if the applications on any day exceeded the sum so resolved to be advanced, a pro rata proportion of each applicant's bills should be returned, without regard to the respectability of the party or the solidity of the bills. As matters continued to get worse, the directors had several communications with Mr. Pitt in January and February, 1796; but the project of the foreign loan being much dwelt upon with great earnestness by Mr. Pitt, on the 11th February they came to a resolution which was communicated to him the same day: "That it is the opinion of the court, founded upon its experience of the effects of the late Imperial loan, that if any further loan or advance of money to the Emperor, or other foreign State, should, in the present state of affairs take place, it will, in all probability, prove fatal to the Bank of England. The court of directors do, therefore, most earnestly deprecate the adoption of any such measure, and they solemnly protest against any responsibility for the calamitous consequences that may follow thereupon." Mr. Pitt replied that after the repeated promises he had made that no further loan should be made without communication with the bank, and a consideration of their circumstances, he saw no occasion for these resolutions, and that he should consider them as having been made in a moment of needless alarm. We have already seen from Mr. Pitt's conduct with respect to the affair of the clause relating to the advance on Treasury bills, that he was not bound by any very scrupulous notions of honor. On this occasion, he departed still more widely from the right path; for, notwithstanding all his solemn promises, so frequently and emphatically made, the directors discovered that remittances were still continuing to be clandestinely made. In several interviews with him, the governor of the bank stated that he apprehended these remittances were being made. Mr. Pitt did not offer any explanation, and it was afterwards ascertained that they were being made. The stringent measures adopted by the bank to contract its issues, caused much complaint amongst mercantile men, and a meeting of bankers and merchants was held at the London Tavern, on the 2d of April, who resolved that an alarming scarcity of money existed in the city of London, which was caused chiefly, if not entirely, by an increase in the commerce of the country, and the great diminution of mercantile discounts by the bank. They resolved that if means could be found to augment the circulating medium without infringing the privileges of the Bank of England, so as to restore the amount to what it was before the contraction of discounts, it was the duty of every friend of trade to give such a plan the most earnest support. The meeting appointed a committee to prepare a plan for such a purpose. Mr. Boyd drew up a long report on behalf of the committee, which proposed that a board of twenty-five members should be appointed by Parliament, who should be authorized to issue promissory notes, payable at six months after date, bearing interest at 1 1-4d. per £100 per day, upon receiving the value in gold, silver, Bank of England notes, or bills of exchange having not more than three months to run. The committee had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the subject, and he informed them that the directors of the bank had proposed as a remedy that the floating debt should be funded, which plan he determined to try before adopting their scheme. Mr. Pitt had never fulfilled his promise so often repeated to the directors, that the advances on Treasury bills should be reduced to £500,000; on the 14th June they were as much as £1,232,649. At the end of July he sent an earnest request to have £800,000 more at once, and a similar sum in August. They were induced to consent to the first, but refused the second advance. Mr. Pitt said that the first advance without the second would be of no use to him, and begged them to reconsider their decision. The directors, thus pressed, were driven to assent to it, but they accompanied it with a most serious and solemn remonstrance, which they desired should be laid before the Cabinet. They said that nothing under present circumstances could induce them to comply with the demand, except the dread of a worse evil following the refusal; and they said that this advance would incapacitate them from granting any further assistance during the year. They closed their remonstrance by saying: "They likewise consent to the measure in a firm reliance that the repeated promises so frequently made to them, that the advances on the Treasury bills should be completely done away, may be actually fulfilled at the next meeting of Parliament, and the necessary arrangements taken to prevent the same from ever happening again, as they conceive it to be an unconstitutional mode of raising money, which they are not warranted by the charter to consent to, and an advance always extremely inconvenient to themselves." However, in November, Mr. Pitt made a fresh demand on them for £2,750,000 on the security of the land and malt taxes of 1797, which was granted on condition that the advances on Treasury bills, amounting to £1,613,345 were paid out of it. Mr. Pitt took the money, but never paid off the bills. The directors sent again on the 1st February, 1797, to demand payment of them, as they then amounted to £1,554,635, and would in a few days be increased by £300,000 more. Mr. Pitt made many excuses for the non-payment, and promised to make an endeavor to do so; but he dropped a hint that another large sum of bills had come in from St. Domingo. Upon being pressed as to the amount, he said that it was about £700,000. The governor expressed the greatest apprehensions, and begged him to delay the acceptance as long as he could. Mr. Pitt then hinted that he should want a large sum for Ireland, which he said would be about £200,000. The governor assured him that the drain of cash had been continuous and severe of late, and that such a demand would be very dangerous. The enormous failures of the country bankers in 1793 had been followed by a diminution of the issues of country banks to a very large extent. Mr. Henry Thornton, after instituting extensive inquiries in different parts of the country, stated as the result that the country bank notes were reduced by at least one-half, and that the wants of commerce had caused a very large quantity of guineas to be drawn into the country to supply their place. Meantime, as we have already observed, although the foreign exchanges had become favorable, the bank still continued to adhere, with the utmost severity, to its policy of restriction throughout the autumn of 1796; and during the last three months of that year they were no higher than they had been in 1782, though commerce was many times larger than it had been in that year. Commercial payments had to be made in some medium in which the public had confidence. As the public could not get notes, they made a steady and continuous demand for guineas. The bullion in the bank in March, 1796, was £2,972,000; in September, £2,532,004; and in December, £2,508,000, when a drain set in more severely than ever. At this period, the political situation of the country was in the most gloomy condition. The warlike combinations of Mr. Pitt had totally failed, and all Europe was now smarting under the consequences of their suicidal policy in meddling with the French republic. Mr. Burke had pronounced, in 1790, that France was, in a political light, expunged from the system of Europe. That it was doubtful whether she would ever appear on it again. That Gallos quoque in bellis floruisse audivimus would possibly be the language of the next generation. So much for political prophecy! That country which had been supposed to offer so easy a prey to surrounding nations, and whose epitaph Mr. Burke had so kindly and sagaciously suggested, was now the most powerful State in Europe. She had quelled internal dissensions in oceans of blood, and poured forth her armies in resistless torrents to avenge herself on the haughty States which had presumed to meddle with her internal condition. Great Britain, which had commenced the war with every other State in Europe as her ally, was now left alone. The Directory had subdued Spain by artifice and negotiation, and concluded a treaty with her, offensive and defensive, at St. Ildefonso, on the 19th of August. The campaign of Napoleon in the north of Italy in 1796 is generally allowed to be equal, if not superior, in brilliancy to any subsequent one. By a series of marvellous victories he drove the Austrians out of Italy, and in the beginning of 1797 Rome was only saved from conquest by absolute submission at Tolentino, and within a month Venice was annihilated, and Austria sued for peace at Leoben. This great reverse of circumstances had strengthened the party which had always been advocates for peace in England, and Mr. Pitt was compelled to make overtures for peace in October, 1796. A British Envoy was sent to treat with the Directory, and he stayed in Paris for two months; but, as neither party was sincere, the treaty came to nothing. The fact was that peace was the furthest thing possible from the thoughts of the Directory. After the conquest of La Vendée, they had an army of 100,000 men set free under a general who is usually acknowledged to have been the equal of Napoleon in military talent, and who was burning to emulate his exploits in Italy. While the pretended negotiations for peace were going on, the Directory were organizing an immense expedition for the invasion of Ireland. The orders to sail were transmitted to it several weeks before the British Envoy was expelled from Paris, and it actually sailed two days before he left. Fortunately this great Armada was, like its predecessor, dispersed by a tempest; a few straggling vessels reached Ireland in the last week of December, but the rest were obliged to put back to France. This terrible menace, which had been so long hanging over the country, and whose destination it was vain to conceal, inspired the utmost alarm, and there was a continual demand for guineas for Ireland. The year 1797 commenced with the most gloomy apprehensions and depression. The country bankers discerned that the first burst of the tempest would fall on them, and determined to provide for it, by obtaining as much specie as they could from London; and, accordingly, the drain from the bank continued with increased rapidity after the beginning of the year. Mr. Pitt had hinted in his interview with the governor of the bank, on the first of February, that a loan for Ireland would probably be required, which was not likely to exceed £200,000; but soon afterwards, the directors were struck with dismay on hearing that the amount required was £1,500,000. On the 10th of February, the directors came to a resolution that, before they could entertain any proposal for the Irish loan, the Government must pay off the debts to them amounting to £7,186,445, of which they handed him in the details. At that time, the banks of Newcastle had a more than usual demand upon them for cash. In addition to the manufactories and collieries, the number of troops stationed in that part of the country had been considerably augmented. The banks had imported an extra supply of cash to meet their purposes, and were negotiating for more, when an event happened which brought on the crisis. A French frigate ran into one of the Welsh harbors and landed 1,200 men. At the same time an order came down from the Government to take an inventory of the stock of the farmers all along the coast, and to drive it into the interior if necessary. These circumstances created a perfect panic among the farmers. On Saturday, the 18th day of February, being market day, the farmers, who at that time of the year had the principal part of their rents in their hands, actuated by the terror of an immediate invasion, hurried into Newcastle the produce of their farms, which they sold at very low prices; and immediately rushed to the banks to demand specie. Seeing the universal panic, the banks came to an agreement to stop payment on the Monday, which they accordingly did. On the 21st February the state of the bank became so alarming, that the directors resolved that the time had come when they must make a communication to the Government. The quantity of bullion had been rapidly diminishing, and the constant calls of the bankers from all parts of the town for cash showed them that there must be some extraordinary reason for it. Mr. Pitt was aware that this proceeded from the general fear of invasion, which he thought was magnified much beyond anything to warrant it. It was agreed that a frigate should be sent over to Hamburg to purchase specie. On the 24th of February the drain became worse than ever, and inspired them with such alarm for the safety of the house that they sent a deputation to Mr. Pitt to ask him how long he considered that the bank should continue to pay cash, and when he should think it necessary to interfere. Mr. Pitt said it would be necessary to prepare a proclamation to put a stop to cash payments, and to give Parliamentary security for the notes. But in that case it would be necessary to appoint a secret committee of the House to look into the affairs of the bank. The deputation assured him that the bank would readily agree to this, and it was resolved to call a meeting of the chief bankers and merchants of London to come to some resolution to support public credit in this alarming crisis. The news of the stoppage of the Newcastle banks spread like wildfire throughout the country, and soon reached the metropolis. The drain upon the bankers' coffers now became a run. The first serious apprehensions that danger was imminent were felt on the 21st of February; but the drain then became unexampled, till on Saturday, the 25th, the cash was reduced to £1,272,000. Before this the directors, in utter bewilderment at the state of the country, had used the most violent efforts to contract their issues. In five weeks they had reduced them by £2,000,000. On the 21st of January the issues were £10,550,830; on the 25th of February they were £8,640,250. But even this gave no true idea of the curtailment of mercantile accommodation; for the private bankers were obliged for their own security to follow the example of the bank. In order to meet their payments, persons were obliged to sell their stock of all descriptions at an enormous sacrifice. The three per cents. fell to 51, and other stock in proportion. On Saturday, the 25th, the court felt that the fatal hour was at last come, when they must for the first time since the institution of the bank come to a total suspension of payments. A meeting of the Cabinet was held on Sunday at Whitehall, and an order in council was issued, requiring the directors of the Bank of England to suspend all payments in cash, until the sense of Parliament could be taken on the subject. The King the next day sent a message to Parliament to inform them of the step that had been taken; and recommended the subject to their most serious and immediate attention. Mr. Pitt moved that the message should be taken into consideration next day; and he should propose that a select committee be appointed to investigate the state of the bank's affairs, which he believed were in the most solid condition. The directors of the bank had the order in council printed and widely circulated, and issued a notice of their own to say that the general concerns of the bank were in the most affluent and prosperous condition, and such as to preclude every doubt as to the security of the notes. At this time the cash in the bank was reduced to £1,086,170. The relief produced at the instant, by the definite determination to suspend cash payments and extend their issues of paper, was very great. Within one week it increased its accommodation by nearly two millions. On the same day, a resolution was entered into by 4000 of the merchants in the city to combine to support the credit of the notes. Both Houses of Parliament appointed committees to examine into the affairs of the bank. The committee of the House of Commons reported that the outstanding obligations of the bank on the 25th of February were £13,770,390, and the total amount of their assets were £17,597,280; leaving a surplus of £3,126,890 over and above the debts of the Government, amounting to £11,686,800, which paid them three per cent. Both Houses reported that it was advisable, in the public interest, that the suspension of cash payments should be continued for a limited time, and a bill for that purpose was accordingly brought in. After some debates, which threw very little light on the subject, the Act, Statute 1797, c. 45, was passed. Its chief provisions were: 1. A clause of indemnity to the bank and all connected with it for anything done in pursuance of the order in council. 2. The bank was forbidden to make any payments in cash to any creditors, except in certain cases, and protected from all law proceedings. 3. The bank might issue cash in payments for the army, navy or ordnance, in pursuance of an order from the Privy Council. 4. The bank was to make no advance above £600,000 for the public service, in cash or notes, during the restriction. 5. If any person deposited any sum, not less than £500, in gold, in exchange for notes in the bank, it might repay three-fourths of the amount. 6. It might advance £100,000 in cash to the bankers of London, Westminster and Southwark, and to the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland, £25,000 each. 7. Payment of debts in bank notes to be deemed as payment in cash, if offered and accepted as such. 8. No debtor was to be held to special bail unless the affidavit stated that payment in bank notes had not been offered. 9. Bank notes were to be received at par in payment of taxes. 10. The bank might issue any cash it received since the 26th of February, upon giving notice to the Speaker of the House of Commons and advertising in the "London Gazette" and on the Royal Exchange. 11. The act to continue to the 24th of June. An act was also passed to enable the bank to issue notes under £5 (Statute 1797, c. 28), and, by chapter 32, this was extended to the country banks; but they were to continue liable to pay money on demand for them; and on failure of doing so within three days after demand any justice of the peace might cause the amount and costs to be levied by distress. All banking companies and bankers in Scotland might issue notes payable to bearer on demand for any sum under 20s. An event of such portentous magnitude as the suspension of cash payments by the Bank of England could not fail to give rise to the most conflicting opinions as to the necessity of the measure, of the course of conduct of the directors which led to it, and as to the policy which ought to have been adopted under the drain which occurred in the last week of February, 1797. Many men of great eminence and ability changed their opinions in after times, when they came to look back upon the subsequent events. In examining this question, so as to form a just estimate of the conduct of the directors, we must remember that they were not masters of their own policy. They were distracted by two antagonistic claims, both of which they conceived it impossible to satisfy at the same time—namely, that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the demands of commerce. They considered that if they advanced to the Government they must contract their issues to the merchants; and, as the Minister was the more powerful and imperious party of the two, they were obliged to yield to his power. Several of the directors, being examined before the committees, unanimously attributed the necessity of stopping payment to the enormous amount of their advances to Government, and gave it as their decided opinion that if the Government had repaid those advances, as they ought to have done, the great catastrophe would have been avoided. It may, therefore, be taken as admitted on all hands that, if they had been repaid by Government, they would have very greatly extended their advances to the merchants. The real question therefore is whether, considering that they were under such advances to Government, it would have been prudent to be more liberal in their accommodation to merchants? Mr. Henry Thornton was very strongly of opinion that the excessive contraction of the bank notes had produced the most injurious effects in shaking public credit of all descriptions; that the excessive reduction of notes had caused an unusually severe demand for guineas; that the great public distrust was directed against country bank notes, and that the bank ought to have extended its issues to supply the place of the country notes. Mr. Walter Boyd, an eminent merchant and financial agent, was very clearly of opinion that the restriction of the issue of notes by the bank was the chief cause of the forced sale and depreciation of the public securities; and if the bank had only maintained its issues at the same height as they were in December, 1795, the drain of specie from the bank, as well as the embarrassments of the mercantile world, would have been avoided, and a great portion of the fall which public securities had experienced would have been prevented. Mr. George Ellison, who was secretary to an association of a large number of country banks, considered that the quantity of coin in the country was greater than it was in 1793, but that a very considerable part was hoarded away, owing to the public alarms that were abroad. He attributed the great public distrust to the remembrance of the conduct of the bank in 1793, when it suddenly contracted its discounts just at the period when they were most wanted. The Committee of the Lords called the attention of the House very strongly to these opinions, but they did not venture themselves to pronounce an opinion on their justness. The Committee of the Commons went considerably nearer to approving of them. In the year 1810, the governor of the bank being examined before the Bullion Committee, stated that after the experience of their policy of restriction, many of the directors repented of the measure, and the Bullion Committee explicitly condemned the policy of the bank both in 1793 and 1797. The directors of the bank, acting in the midst of such unprecedented circumstances and so tremendous an emergency, are entitled to have their conduct examined with all forbearance. But, taking all these circumstances into consideration, we cannot fail to acquiesce in the opinion expressed by so many eminent bankers and merchants at the time, by the subsequent avowal that experience had led many of the directors to repent of the policy they then pursued, and by the emphatic judgment of the Bullion Committee, that the policy pursued by the bank in this momentous crisis was erroneous, and that the severe restrictions they attempted to place upon commerce very greatly contributed to bring on the calamity which subsequently overwhelmed them. Nothing, in short, could be more unhappy than their management of their issues. When the exchanges were violently adverse, so that it was extremely profitable to export gold, they enlarged them to an extravagant extent; and when the exchanges were extremely favorable, so that gold was flowing in, they restricted them with merciless severity. The issues of notes, which were £14,000,000 when the exchanges were against the country, were reduced to £8,640,250 when the exchanges had for several months been eminently favorable. It is perfectly certain that the directors who managed the bank in 1783 would have acted very differently to the directors who managed it in 1797. In 1783, as soon as the exchanges became favorable, the directors expanded their issues, though the cash in the bank then was less than half what it was in 1797. It appears from the entire evidence in the reports, that it was this excessive restriction of notes which drained their vaults during the autumn of 1796, and that if they had been more liberal in their issues, their vaults would have been much better replenished with cash. It was a pregnant instance of the truth well known to all bankers, that an excessive restriction of credit causes and produces a drain of gold. This great catastrophe was the second notable penalty which the country paid in four years for the unjustifiable monopoly of the bank. Never was there a more unfortunate example of monopolizing selfishness. It would neither establish branches of its own in the country, nor would it permit any other private company, of power and solidity, to do so, whose credit might have interposed and aided in sustaining its own. Moreover, when a failure of confidence was felt in the country notes, it refused to issue notes of its own to supply their place. The power of issuing, which plays so important a part in commerce, was absolutely forbidden to powerful and wealthy companies, and left in unbounded freedom to private persons—a vast number of them nothing but small shopkeepers, with no adequate capital or property to support their issues, and whose credit vanished like a puff of smoke in any public danger. The bank consequently was left alone to bear the whole brunt of the crisis, solitary and unsupported, and finally succumbed. From the foregoing considerations, as well as the weight of authority on the subject, we can scarcely doubt that the suspension of cash payments was brought about at that particular time by the erroneous policy of the directors. But it appears open to much doubt whether any management, however skilful, could have prevented such an event at some period of the war. Several of those who concurred in the measure at the time, after their judgment had been corrected by subsequent experience, expressed their regret at having done so. Sir Robert Peel, in 1844, said it was a "fatal" measure. Notwithstanding, however, the concurrence of so many weighty authorities—and this is peculiarly a case where great authorities carry much weight—we cannot help thinking that it was fortunate that it occurred at this early period. The alarm and dangers which preceded its stoppage were comparatively slight compared with those which menaced the country after that event. The mutinies in the fleet, the rebellion in Ireland, a great army being gathered together, avowedly for the invasion of England, under the command of a more fortunate, though probably not a greater soldier than Hoche, were probably dangers of such portentous magnitude as to render it in the last degree improbable that any paper currency convertible into gold could have survived them. That Montague was a greater financier than Pitt can, we think, scarcely be doubted, and the carrying through the recoinage of the silver, in the midst of so much public distress, was a financial operation of which the skill, audacity and success must ever be regarded with admiration. But it must be remembered that the crisis in that reign lasted a much shorter time than the revolutionary war, and was never fraught with so much real danger to the independence of the country. At that period, there was no paper credit except the notes of the Bank of England and a few London bankers; and William was at the head of a great European confederacy against one overgrown power. So that the circumstances of the two periods were in no way parallel, but rather, we may say, reversed. The confederacy against England at the latter period was far more menacing and formidable than the alliance against France. The fortunes of the British Empire were apparently at their lowest ebb in 1798; the state of Venice in the war of Chiozza was scarcely more desperate; and there seemed to be but one thing wanting to complete the destruction of the country—the loss of public credit. However great and invaluable are the blessings of a solid paper currency in the time of peace, there does not appear to be any instance of its having successfully withstood the danger of an invasion by a foreign enemy. The banks at Edinburgh, no doubt, survived two rebellions; but they took refuge in the impregnable fortress of the Castle of Edinburgh, which the insurgents were never able to capture. And at a later period, when banking was confessedly founded on a better system, and obtained the confidence of the country to a much greater degree, it could not have withstood the dread of invasion if it had not been for the timely assistance of the Bank of England. And if it could not do so in that country, where the danger was remote, it is morally certain that it could not have done so in England, where not only was it of much inferior stability, but was the very part of the Empire aimed at, and the first exposed to danger. Moreover, the constant power of producing public embarrassments by demands for gold, would have been a powerful weapon in the hands of the enemy, in which they would have found many to support them from political sympathy. The scarcity of guineas, which led to the supposed necessity of issuing the order in council, also rendered a more abundant supply of the circulating medium necessary, and an act was immediately passed suspending till the first of May the Act, Statute 1775, c. 51, restraining the negotiation of small promissory notes. In a few days the bank caused to be prepared and issued £1 and £2 notes; and to supply still further the demand for small currency, they issued a notice that they had imported a large number of Spanish dollars, which were to be current at 4s. 6d. However, it was discovered that the dollars were undervalued by 2d. each, so their current value was enhanced by 3d. These dollars were stamped with a small king's head. The bank having put the dollars into circulation at 1d. each above their market value, the bullion merchants were not slow in seizing the advantage and imported an immense quantity of similar dollars, which they stamped in a similar manner. They were called in on the 31st October, 1797, by which time the bank had put 2,325,099 into circulation. It at first attempted to refuse payment of the illegitimate ones, but they were executed in so close an imitation of the legitimate ones, that it was impossible to detect them, and they were obliged to pay them all. Parliament met again on the 2d of November, and on the 15th the House of Commons appointed a secret committee to inquire whether it was expedient to continue the restriction. They presented a resolution of the directors stating that the condition of the bank's affairs was such that it could with safety resume its usual functions. The committee, however, recommended that, in consequence of the state of public affairs, it was advisable that the restriction should be continued for a further period. After a short debate an act was passed to continue the restriction until one month after the conclusion of a definite treaty of peace. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1825. The monetary panic of 1825 was the next instance in which the two conflicting theories—the restrictive theory and the expansive theory—were brought into contrast. The harvest of 1823 was deficient both in quantity and quality, and prices rose considerably in the beginning of 1824, old wheat being then at 78s.; later in the year, however, they declined; but the harvest of 1824 being inferior, they rose again. The bank had for some years been accumulating treasure to meet the anticipated deficiency of the country issues expected to follow the suppression of the £1 notes. When the unhappy change in the policy of the Government took place this great amount of bullion was rendered comparatively useless, and the country banks began to extend their issues in 1824; and in 1825 they exceeded what they were in 1818. In January, 1824, the bullion in the bank was £14,200,000. During the preceding year an adjustment of rents, to meet the altered state of prices, had taken place; and the old stocks having been gradually worked off, the energy of the people began to revive. The enormous amount of cash in the bank, for which there was no immediate use, enabled the Government to carry through a great financial operation—the reduction of the interest upon nearly one-quarter of the public debt. The navy five per cents. were reduced to four per cent., and the four per cent. stock was reduced to three and a-half. This operation, only equalled and exceeded in our own time by the vast and successful transaction carried through by Mr. Goschen, had a very considerable influence in curtailing the incomes of many persons who could ill afford it to a very inconvenient extent, and prepared them to look out for more favorable investments for their money. Notwithstanding the unhappy and severe distress of the agricultural portion of the community, Mr. Tooke says that the trading and manufacturing interests had never been in a more regular, sound and satisfactory state than in the interval from 1821 to 1824. At the close of the session of 1823, the King congratulated Parliament on the flourishing condition of all branches of our commerce and manufactures and the gradual abatement of agricultural distress. At the close of 1824 the seeds of the disasters which ensued at the end of 1825 were sown. The royal speech opened Parliament with the same strain of congratulation as had closed the preceding session; and the same congratulations were used at the close of the session of 1824. Towards the end of that year, it became visible that in some of the leading articles of consumption the supply was falling short of the demand, which gave rise to a spirit of speculation; and, as in all similar cases, a few early purchases which were successful induced extensive imitation. At the end of 1824 and in the beginning of 1825, this had amounted to positive infection, numbers of persons being induced to go out of their own line of business to speculate in articles with which they had no concern whatever, but induced by representations of their brokers to do so in hopes of realizing great and immediate gains. Just at this period occurred one of those events which have so often lured the commercial world to their destruction. The long contest between Spain and her South American colonies had now finally terminated in favor of the colonies. We have already noticed the great commercial catastrophe brought about in 1810 by the extravagant speculations on the opening of Brazil to British trade. Precisely the same course occurred in 1824. The recognition of the independence of the South American States and Mexico opened out a boundless field for speculation and for the consumption of British manufactures. The spirit of speculation was aggravated to the utmost by the visions of wealth which was to be extracted from the gold and silver producing countries; and immense schemes were formed for working the mines with British capital. However, the long struggle for independence had inspired the British people with much sympathy for the juvenile republics; and when they wanted to borrow money to support their public credit the British were only too eager to lend it. It was alleged that £150,000,000 of British capital was then sunk in different ways in Mexico and South America. Although the symptoms of a coming mercantile catastrophe were plainly evident in the beginning of 1825, the speech put into the King's mouth declared the utmost gratification at the continuance and the progressive increase of the public prosperity. "There never was a period," it said, "in the history of this country when all the great interests of the nation were at the same time in so thriving a condition, or when a feeling of content and satisfaction was more widely diffused through all classes of the British people." The speech of Lord Dudley and Ward was exactly in the same strain. After contrasting the suffering the nation had gone through during the last thirty years, he said it was his good fortune to ask their lordships to carry to the foot of the throne their unmixed aid and, he hoped, their unanimous congratulations upon a state of prosperity such as he believed was unequalled in this country and had never been surpassed in any age or nation. And yet, though the whole debate was in this strain, no sooner was it ended than the Lord Chancellor called the attention of the House to the dangerous extent to which the mania for joint-stock companies had gone, and said he would move for leave to bring in a bill to restrain the system. Within seven weeks after that Lord Lauderdale called the attention of the House to the "fury for joint-stock companies which had taken possession of the people," and said that the schemes already subscribed for amounted to £200,000,000. The following extract from the Annual Register of 1824 contains a description of the rising of the joint-stock mania. After stating that the "mines of Mexico" was a phrase which opened visions of boundless wealth to the imagination, and how the mania spread from foreign enterprises to home ones, it says: "In all these speculations only a small instalment, seldom exceeding five per cent., was paid at first, so that a very moderate rise in the price of the shares produced a large profit on the sum actually invested. If, for instance, shares of £100 on which £5 had been paid rose to a premium of £40, this yielded on every share a profit equal to eight times the amount of the money which had been paid. This possibility of enormous profit, by risking so small a sum, was a bait too tempting to be resisted. All the gambling propensities of human nature were constantly solicited into action, and crowds of individuals of every description—the credulous, the suspicious; the crafty and the bold; the raw and the experienced; the intelligent and the ignorant; princes, nobles, politicians, placemen, patriots, lawyers, physicians, divines, philosophers, poets, intermingled with women of all ranks and degrees, spinsters, wives and widows—hastened to venture some portion of their property in schemes of which scarcely anything was known except the name." As a specimen of the madness of the speculations, we may quote the price of mining shares. The Anglo-Mexican, on which £10 was paid, were at £43 on the 10th of December, 1824; on the 11th of January, 1825, they were at £150. The Real del Monte, with £70 paid, were at £550 in December and at £1350 in January, and others in similar proportion. The price of most other commodities doubled and trebled. Now what was the conduct of the Bank of England during this period? The bullion which stood above £14,000,000 in the beginning of January, 1824, was reduced to £11,600,000 in October. The exchange on Paris had been falling ever since the close of 1823. The last time it was above par was in June, 1823, and since then the fall had been continuous. The decrease in bullion had been steady, uniform and rapid ever since March, 1824. Now, when it was known that immense sums were leaving the country, and the exchange falling lower, what did the bank do? It increased its issues. During the month of October, 1824, they were increased by £2,300,000. While every consideration of common sense and prudence demanded a rapid contraction when the speculative fever was plainly declared, instead of doing what they could to check it, they added fuel to the flames. But the directors seemed determined to set all the principles of the Bullion Report at defiance, and the drain upon them proceeded with increased severity. In April, 1825, the bullion was diminished by upwards of £4,000,000; and their issues were £3,600,000 higher when they had only £6,650,000 of bullion than when they had £14,000,000. The speculative fever was at its height in the first four months of 1825, when it had spent its force and came to an end in the natural course of things. Vast numbers of persons who had embarked in these wild schemes, with the hope of selling out of them before the inevitable crash came, were now called upon for their subscriptions. Vast quantities of capital having been already absorbed, had the inevitable effect of raising the rate of interest. Successive calls compelled the weaker holders to realize; and while the calls for ready money were immediate and pressing, the prospect of returns was distant and uncertain. Accordingly, after May and June, the decline was rapid. The South American loans and the Mexican mining schemes proved almost universally total losses. In the meantime, that slack water which, as Mr. Tooke observes, always precedes a great turn in the tide of prices, took place. The increase of commodities, which speculation had caused, could no longer be kept from being realized; prices fell as rapidly as they had risen. The obligations of the speculators now became due, and the sale of commodities had to be forced to meet them. Universal discredit now succeeded; goods became unsalable; so that stocks which are usually held in anticipation of demand, were wholly unavailable to meet the pecuniary engagements of the holders. Merchants, who had accepted bills for only half the value of the goods consigned to them, were unable to realize even that half, or even to obtain advances on security of the bills of lading; and even the advances already made were peremptorily called in. The usury laws, which limited interest to five per cent., greatly aggravated the distress; nobody would lend money at five per cent. when its real value was so much greater; hence, numbers who would gladly have paid eight or ten per cent. interest, were obliged to sell goods at a difference of thirty per cent. for cash, compared with the price for time. The bankers in the country had followed exactly in the steps of the Bank of England. While the fever was raging, they had increased their issues and liabilities by speculative advances on commodities. The persons to whom these advances had been made had no means of repaying them, but "the promises to pay" the bankers had advanced them remained in circulation and must be met. The bankers foresaw the coming storm and endeavored to provide funds to meet it. The Bank of England itself had its eyes open to the suicidal career it was following in May, and then endeavored violently to contract its issues. This sudden change of policy only aggravated the general feeling of discredit. During the autumn, everything portended the approach of the impending catastrophe. The following table shows the progressive decrease in the bullion at the bank during 1824 and 1825: 1824. £ 1825. £ Jan. 31, 13,527,850 Jan. 29, 9,490,420 Feb. 28, 13,800,390 Feb. 26, 8,857,730 March 27, 13,871,280 March 26, 8,152,340 April 24, 13,405,550 April 30, 6,659,780 May 29, 12,887,840 May 28, 6,131,300 June 26, 12,809,140 June 25, 5,482,040 July 31, 11,814,720 July 30, 4,174,830 Aug. 28, 11,763,550 Aug. 27, 3,626,570 Sept. 25, 11,811,500 Sept. 24, 3,496,690 Oct. 30, 11,433,430 Oct. 29, 3,150,360 Nov. 27, 11,323,760 Nov. 26, 3,012,150 Dec. 24, 10,721,190 Dec. 31, 1,260,890 The inevitable contre coup of the undue expansion of credit in the spring began to press heavily on the country banks in the autumn of 1825. It gradually became severer during the month of November. On the 29th of November it was announced in the London papers that Sir William Elford's, a large bank at Plymouth, had failed, and that was immediately followed by the fall of Wentworth & Co., a great Yorkshire firm. By the 3d of December the panic had fairly set in, and the whole city was thrown into the most violent state of alarm and consternation. On that day (Saturday) some of the directors were informed that Pole, Thornton & Co., one of the leading city banking houses, was in difficulties; and at a hurried meeting held the next day it was resolved to place £300,000 at their disposal upon proper security. During that week, the utmost attention was paid to the position of that house, which fought it through the following week, though it was privately known to the governor that, if the storm did not abate, they must fail on the following Monday morning. Instead of abating, however, it became more furious than ever on Monday; and Pole & Co. stopped payment, and the ruin of forty country banks, which were connected with them, was expected. The fall of this great banking house was the signal for a general run upon the London bankers; and three or four more gave way, and spread universal consternation among the country banks, sixty-three of which stopped payment; though several paid 20s. in the pound, and eventually resumed business. From Monday, the 12th, to Saturday, the 17th December, was the height of the crisis in London. Mr. Richards, the deputy governor of the bank at that time, said: "On Monday morning the storm began, and till Saturday night it raged with an intensity that it is impossible for me to describe. On the Saturday night it had somewhat abated. The bank had taken a firm and deliberate resolution to make common cause with the country as far as their humble efforts would go; and on Saturday night it was my happiness when I went up to the Cabinet, reeling with fatigue, to be able just to call out to my Lord Liverpool, and to the members of his Majesty's Government then present, that all was well; that was, I believe, on the evening of Saturday, the 17th of December. Then, in the following week, things began to get a little more steady; and by the 24th, what with the £1 notes that had gone out and other things, people began to be satisfied; and then it was, for the first time in a fortnight, that those who had been busied in that terrible scene could recollect that they had families who had some claim on their attention." As the crisis was evidently approaching, at the end of November, the papers discussed the probable policy of the bank, and it was generally anticipated that it would continue to contract its issues, and let the evil work its own cure by the fall of those houses which had been imprudent in their speculations; and this was the course adopted by the bank, and to which they adhered as matters grew worse; and they were supported in it by public opinion. On the day after Pole & Co. fell, another house of equal magnitude, Williams, Burgess & Co., stopped payment. The panic then became universal; and the directors thought that they would certainly have to stop payment; they sounded the Government as to a restriction act; but the Government absolutely refused it, and it was resolved that the bank should pay away its last sovereign. The Mint was kept constantly at work day and night; but it could not supply coin with sufficient rapidity, so that it kept constantly diminishing. On the Saturday, the coin in the bank's vaults scarcely exceeded one million; but fortunately, when the Saturday evening came, the tide had receded, and the directors were able to assure the Ministry that all danger was over. The great pressure had produced its necessary effect in such circumstances. The great increase in the value of money here had turned the exchanges in favor of the country; the directors expected remittances from Paris, and they fortunately came earlier than was expected. On the Monday following, the 19th, about £400,000 came from France; and the demand having sensibly abated, the supplies from the Mint fully equalled the sums drawn out of the bank—or rather exceeded them. Mr. Huskisson said afterwards in the House of Commons that, during forty-eight hours, Monday and Tuesday, December 12th and 13th, it was impossible to convert into money to any extent the best securities of the Government. Persons could not sell exchequer bills, nor bank stock, nor East India stock, nor the public funds. Mr. Baring said, that men would not part with their money on any terms, nor for any security. The extent to which the distress had reached was melancholy to the last degree. Persons of undoubted wealth were seen walking about the streets of London, not knowing whether they should be able to meet their engagements for the next day. The exchanges had, however, turned in favor of the country; and on Wednesday, the 14th, the bank totally changed their policy, and discounted with the utmost profuseness. They made very large advances on exchequer bills and securities of all sorts. Mr. Harman said: "We lent by every possible means and in modes we had never adopted before. We took in stock as security; we purchased exchequer bills, and we made advances on exchequer bills; we not only discounted outright, but we made advances on deposit of bills of exchange to an immense amount; in short, by every possible means consistent with the safety of the bank; and we were not on some occasions over-nice; seeing the dreadful state in which the public were, we rendered every assistance in our power." This audacious but prudent policy was crowned with the most complete success; the panic was stayed almost immediately. On Friday evening, the 16th, the "Courier" said: "We are happy to think that the worst is over, though there are still great demands upon the bank, particularly from the country." On the next day the same paper said: "Although public confidence is on the return in the metropolis, and things are resuming their usual course, yet, as might be expected, this has not yet communicated itself to the country." In fact, the London panic was completely allayed in this week by the profuse issue of bank notes. Between Wednesday, the 14th, and Saturday, the 17th, the bank issued £5,000,000 of notes. The waves of discredit, however, were propagated through the country, and throughout the following week the demand still continued great from the London bankers for their country correspondents. During the course of it, it came to the remembrance of some of the directors that there was a chest of their £1 notes which had never been used. As soon as this was discovered, it occurred to them that they might be used to stay the panic in the country districts and the discredit of the country notes. Upon communicating this idea to the London bankers, it was eagerly approved of and the sanction of the Government asked for the experiment. The Government consented and the notes were sent off to the country bankers without delay, and produced instantaneous relief. At Norwich, when the Gurneys showed upon their counter piles of bank notes, it at once stopped the run in that part of the country. By the 24th of December the panic was completely allayed all over the country, and the amount of the £1 notes which the bank issued was under £500,000. By the beginning of 1826 the credit of the banking world was completely restored. The circumstances of this famous crisis are the most complete and triumphant examples of the unquestionable truth of the principles of the Bullion Report and of Sir Francis Baring, already quoted. When the drain of treasure from the bank was severe and increasing, and notoriously for exportation on account of foreign loans, the bank, with infatuated obstinacy, had extended their issues instead of contracting them, in defiance of the clearest warnings of the Bullion Report. After six months' continuance of this fatal policy, they at last reversed their course and greatly contracted their issues. In the course of the autumn the drain for exportation ceased, but continued for internal purposes; the demand for gold was entirely to support the tottering credit of the country bank notes. Now, as the country bankers were only too glad to withdraw their own notes and substitute gold for them, there was not the slightest danger of an increase of Bank of England notes adding to the general amount of paper currency in the country, but just the reverse; consequently, it was just the precise case in which Sir Francis Baring and the Bullion Committee said that it was the duty of the Bank of England to extend its issues of paper to support general credit. There was not the smallest danger that an extension of issues would, under such circumstances, turn the foreign exchanges against the country. The character of the demand was declared in the most unmistakable manner. On Thursday, the 15th, a meeting of merchants and others took place at the Mansion House, when it was stated that Sir P. Pole & Co. had a surplus of £170,000 after payment of all claims against them, besides large landed property belonging to Sir Peter Pole, and about £100,000 the private property of other members of the firm. Williams & Burgess had enough to pay 40s. in the pound. Now, if the course which was adopted on the Wednesday had been adopted on the Monday, the whole of that terrific crisis might have been saved. Mr. Vincent Stuckey, one of the most eminent of the country bankers in the kingdom, says: "My opinion was that the crisis at that time was brought on by excessive issues; but when the panic came country bank paper was bought in for Bank of England paper, and therefore all that was immediately wanted was an exchange of paper. I stated in a letter I wrote upon the subject to the bank on the 14th of December, 1825, that they would not have to increase the sum total of circulation, but that all they would have to do was to exchange A for B; and in my letter I recommended them to issue a million of paper a day, which they did; for otherwise most of the banks in London as well as in the country must have stopped." And, accordingly, they did issue, and all contemporary evidence proves that it was this profuse issue of £5,000,000 of paper in a few days that stopped the panic and saved the whole banking and mercantile community from ruin. If they had persevered in the restrictive policy for three days longer, the total and entire destruction of commercial credit would infallibly have ensued. In short, if they had followed the precedents of 1793 and 1797, so strongly condemned by the Bullion Report, all credit, both banking and mercantile, would have been destroyed. They followed the principles laid down in the Bullion Report, and the country was saved. This panic adds another to the previously conclusive ones of the truth of the expansive theory in a monetary panic, and the mischief and fatal erroneousness of the restrictive theory. When the causes of this terrible calamity came to be discussed, there were not wanting many who laid the whole blame on the excessive issues of the bank as well as the excessive issues of the country banks. But, though it is indisputable that the bank acted on the most erroneous principles, in not contracting its issues when the great drain of bullion was going on, it is a mere delusion for men to attribute the consequences of their own wild and extravagant mania to the Bank of England or to any bank. The errors of all the banks put together were trivial, compared to the outbreaks of speculative insanity which seized upon all classes. Was it the issues of some banks which led a respectable bookselling firm to risk £100,000 in a speculation in hops and ruin themselves, and drag down Sir Walter Scott along with them? The bank had committed many errors before, as serious as those of 1825, without leading to any such disaster. In fact, it was the nature of the speculations which men had rushed into headlong, that must inevitably have brought about that great catastrophe, if there had not been a bank note in existence. The speculative mania of 1694 took place before the bank was founded; the great South Sea Bubble mania took place when there were no country banks at all; and no one accused the Bank of England or the London bankers of having made too profuse issues then. The great railway mania of 1845-46 took place after it was fondly supposed that the Bank Act of 1844 had effectually secured the country against the recurrence of similar calamities. The worthless character of a great portion of the country paper had greatly aggravated the intensity of the calamity; in fact, it began with the country banks; and the great commercial failures did not commence until after the banking panic had subsided. The Government and the bank, at last learning wisdom from repeated convulsions, which seemed to recur periodically, became sensible that it was imperatively necessary to provide a currency of a more solid description for the country; and that the frightful evils of the monopoly of the Bank of England must come to an end. Parliament met on the 3d of February, 1826, and six paragraphs of the speech from the throne were occupied with the commercial catastrophe. It said that part of the remedies to be applied consisted in placing the currency and circulating credit of the country on a firmer foundation. Lord King said that the causes of the calamity were partly to be attributed to the Government; in a greater degree to the country banks; and in a still greater degree to the monopoly of the Bank of England. There was no period of distress during the last thirty or forty years in which the conduct of that establishment had not been injurious, and in every way aggravated it. It was a most faulty machine. It was impossible that a bank so incorporated could do good. If the purpose was to erect an establishment to do mischief, they would erect it on the very principles of the bank. They would give it a monopoly; remove from it all fear of rivalry; and connect it with the Government. He lamented that the pressure of the country gentlemen and the country bankers had been too powerful to be resisted by the Ministry in 1822, and had forced them to continue the issues of £1 and £2 notes to keep up prices and encourage speculation. The Earl of Liverpool chiefly blamed the excessive issues of the country bankers, and said that the small notes must be gradually withdrawn and a metallic currency substituted. He said that he was perfectly satisfied, and had entertained the conviction for years, that the country had grown too large, and that its concerns had become too extensive to allow of the exclusive privilege of the Bank of England. Its privileges had operated in a most extraordinary, and, as he thought, unfortunate manner for the country. Any small tradesman, a cheesemonger, a butcher, or a shoemaker, might open a country bank, but a set of persons with a fortune sufficient to carry on the concern with safety were not permitted to do so. The Ministry took upon themselves to prohibit any more stamps being issued to the country banks for £1 and £2 notes. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that these notes were to be deprecated as an infringement of the Act of 1819, which no one could deny was passed, if ever any act was, with the unanimous approbation of all the parties of which Parliament was composed; an act which had solemnly been resolved upon as the only measure which could enable the country to meet any future danger by placing the circulating medium on a permanent and stable footing. No man could insinuate that that act was not the result of the deliberate conviction of almost every individual of every party in that House. He then detailed the continual evil and insecurity of the small notes, and said that he always had regretted, and still regretted, the step taken by Parliament, in 1822, which permitted them. The intention of the Government was, therefore, to suppress them as soon as possible in England, and subsequently in Scotland and Ireland. He moved a resolution that no fresh notes were to be issued by country bankers in England under £5; and that those printed before the 5th February, 1826, might be issued, re-issued and circulated until the 5th April, 1829, and no longer. The opinions as to the causes of this great catastrophe, expressed in Parliament and the country, were, of course, most conflicting, but the great preponderance of opinion was adverse to the small note issues. Mr. Baring, who defended the country bankers from the accusations levelled against them, said that their small notes were bad as a permanent system, and they ought to be called in. Even although they might sometimes be of almost indispensable use to the country, still, if the misery which had been caused by their use among the poorer classes was taken into consideration it was a sufficient reason why the nuisance should be abated, and it was his opinion that the House had not got rid of this deluge of paper at the time when it had the power to do so, and that it had not resisted, as it ought to have resisted, the importunity of the country bankers, that these small notes should be abolished as soon as practicable. Mr. Huskisson described the frightful nature of the panic during forty-eight hours (Monday and Tuesday, December 13th and 14th), and said that it had been truly observed that the bank, by its prompt and efficacious assistance, had put an end to the panic and averted the ruin which threatened all the banking establishments in London, and, through them, the banking establishments and moneyed men all over the country. The conduct of the bank had been most praiseworthy, and had, in a great degree, saved the country from a general convulsion. The bank, through its prompt, efficacious and public-spirited conduct, had had the countenance, advice and particular recommendation of the Premier and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He admitted that the commercial distress in Scotland was very great, but that did not prove that the system of Scotch banking did not afford greater securities than the English system, and that it was desirable to introduce it into this country. He then described the wild spirit of speculation which had seized the country, and which produced a rise of prices so rapid as had never been equalled. He might mention, as an instance, the price of nutmegs, which rose in one month from 2s. 6d. to 12s. 6d. a pound; and speculation in other spices caused a corresponding rise in their prices. The mania extended equally to other articles of consumption; merchants, traders, shop-keepers, clerks and apprentices partook equally of the frenzy of vieing with each other in their endeavors to secure a monopoly of each article. And this state of things took its rise, not among the wild, insane and bedlamite schemers, but among those who were considered the sober, steady merchants and traders of the metropolis. And all this took place at a time when money was rapidly leaving the country. Now, if when it was leaving the country so rapidly, it was still hawked about at a greatly lowered rate of interest, that showed that there must be something wrong in the currency. And to what would any sober man say such a state of things must come at last? The bank at last was obliged to provide for its own safety by narrowing its issues, which checked the spirit of speculation, and, as a necessary result, those country banks which had been most rash and immoderate in aiding these speculations by advances were ruined. The ruin of these bad and unstable banks had affected even the stability of the most solvent ones. A general panic ensued, and seven or eight hundred country banks had asked for assistance from the Bank of England. She had 700 or 800 drains for gold suddenly opened upon her. Was this a safe or proper condition to leave the country in? Certainly not. It was his opinion—an opinion not hastily formed, but the result of long and anxious observation—that a permanent state of cash payments and a circulation of £1 and £2 notes could not co-exist. If there were in any country a paper and a coin currency of the same denomination, the paper and the coin could not circulate together—the paper would drive out the coin. Let crown notes be made, and a crown piece would never be seen; make half-crown notes, and no half-crown would remain in circulation. Allow £1 notes to circulate, and we should never see a sovereign. One of the great evils they were called on to correct was the excessive issue of paper. This had been the cause of the greatest distress; it had caused the ruin of thousands of innocent persons. Nothing but disgrace and danger could attend the deviation from the true principles of currency, which Parliament had solemnly recognized. If they wished to prove the value of a steady, unchangeable currency, they had it in the example of France, which had twice been invaded by a foreign army, her capital had been taken, and she had been obliged to pay a large sum to foreign countries for corn, but she had a steady metallic currency; and, however the great contractors might have suffered, the great body of the people had remained uninjured. This was due to the excellent footing upon which the currency of that country was established. If this measure was adopted, every country banker would be obliged to have as great a regard to the exchanges as the Bank of England, and be compelled to provide for his own safety, without leaning on the bank in times of danger. Now was the time to withdraw these small notes, when the bankers were smarting under the consequences of their over-issues. They had, at present, a large amount of gold and bank notes; if they allowed the favorable time to pass by, the small notes would soon be issued again. It would be advantageous to the public to have chartered joint-stock banks, established under a proper system, with only a limited liability. This would, no doubt, induce many persons of great fortune and credit to take shares in them; but the bank objected to the extension of limited liability, and stipulated that the banks of Scotland and Ireland should not have this privilege. Some thought that the currency should be even more purely metallic than was now proposed, and that notes of a higher denomination should be suppressed. For himself, he entirely differed from Mr. Ricardo as to the true basis of the currency; and he believed that if Mr. Ricardo, ingenious as he was, had been sole director of the Bank of England, it would, before now, have stopped payment. He thought Mr. Ricardo's view of the currency quite erroneous. Sir John Newport, as a banker himself, considered the issue of small notes to be most injurious to all connected with them, as affording the most dangerous facilities for extravagant speculation. It had been said that a considerable portion of the commerce of the country could not be carried on if these notes were abolished. He was quite willing to accept that alternative and abandon a portion of our commerce rather than continue them. He did not believe that such would be the case. Now was the best time to abolish this pernicious system, when so many of the country bankers had failed. Mr In 1793, upwards of 100 banks had failed. In seven years, from 1810 to 1817, 157 commissions in bankruptcy were issued against country than one which admitted in his recollection, and said, there had only been one; that the creditors had been paid 14s. in the pound immediately, and finally the whole of their claims. These facts were a strong presumptive proof that the Scotch system, if not quite perfect, was, at least, far superior to the one existing in England. The present system of country banking was most prejudicial in every point of view. He then described the terrible misery caused by the failure of the country banks. He trusted that the institution of joint-stock banks would place the currency on a firmer footing. He most sincerely trusted that the want of a charter, the great obstacle to the proposed institutions, would be removed. He hoped the directors of the Bank of England would seriously consider what advantage they would derive from refusing charters to these banks. He himself could not imagine what benefit they would derive from it; they, no doubt, had the right to prevent such charters being granted, but he hoped that they would refrain from exercising such right. He eulogized highly the conduct of the directors during the late crisis; he could not conceive it possible for any body of men to have acted better; or to have exercised more judgment, discretion and liberality than they had done—of which he hoped they would give a further instance, by not opposing the grants of charters to the proposed new banks. He fully concurred with Mr. Huskisson, that it was impossible to maintain coin in circulation if paper of the same denomination were allowed to circulate along with it. Now was the most favorable opportunity of getting rid of the small notes. It would be impolitic and unsafe to wait the moment of returning prosperity, as the country bankers would be more reluctant to agree to it, and more able to oppose it. To stand gazing on the bank, in idle expectation, now that the river was passable, would be an irreparable mistake. The Ministers carried their proposals by 222 to 39; and a motion to continue the small notes of the Bank of England was rejected by 66 to 7. THE MONETARY CRISIS OF 1838-9. In 1827, the directors of the bank had become convinced of the truth of the principles laid down by the Bullion Committee for regulating their issues of paper, and had formally rescinded the resolution of the directors of 1819 condemnatory of them. Mr. Horsley Palmer, the governor of the bank, being asked by the Committee on the Bank Charter Act, in 1832, by what principle in ordinary times the bank was guided in the regulation of its issues, said, that in a period of full currency, and consequently with a par of exchange, the bank considered it desirable to invest two-thirds of its liabilities of all sorts in interest-bearing securities and one-third in bullion. The circulation of the country being then regulated by the action of the foreign exchanges, the bank was extremely desirous to avoid using any active power of regulating the circulation, but to leave that entirely in the hands of the public. The action of the public was fully sufficient to rectify the exchanges without any forced action of the bank in buying and selling securities. He thought it desirable to keep the securities very nearly at the same amount; because, then the public could always act for themselves in returning notes for bullion for exportation when the exchanges were unfavorable; and, if there was a great influx of gold, the bank could always reassume its proportion by transferring part of the bullion into securities. He considered that the discount of private paper was one of the worst means which the bank could adopt for regulating its notes, as it tended to produce a very prejudicial extension of them. He condemned strongly the practice of the bank, during the restriction, with respect to the extensive discounts of mercantile paper at five per cent. when the market rate was so much higher, which necessarily led to an excessive issue. For several years after the renewal of the bank charter, in 1833, the harvests were unusually abundant, which caused all sorts of agricultural produce to be ruinously depressed. Wheat fell continuously through 1834 and 1835, till in the last week in December, 1835, its price was 36s. the imperial quarter. As all agricultural contracts were framed on the expectation that wheat would not be much less than 70s. a quarter, this long-continued depression produced the most severe distress. At the same time, however, all the manufacturing interests were in a state of unexampled prosperity from the abundance and cheapness of food. The continued low price of corn caused less to be sown in 1835, and the spring of 1836 was unfavorable. From these causes, the price of wheat rose in 1836, and the harvest time being wet and cold, wheat rose to 61s. 9d. in the autumn. The extraordinary prosperity enjoyed by the commercial interests in 1833-34-35, gave rise to an immense amount of speculation and dabbling in foreign loans, as if people had forgotten 1825. The unexpected success of the first railway gave rise to a considerable amount of speculation in the formation of railways. An immense extension of the joint-stock banking system multiplied banking credits to an enormous extent, reduced the rate of interest, and immensely extended credit. On the 14th August, 1834, Lord Wharncliffe called the attention of the Ministry to the prodigious extension of joint-stock banks and their branches, and the insufficient capital they were trading with. The important subject of joint-stock banking was brought before the House of Commons in 1836, and a committee was appointed to inquire into it. The committee sat during the session and made two reports. The fever of speculation reached its acme in the spring of 1836. Mr. Poulet Thompson, President of the Board of Trade, said in the House of Commons on the 6th of May, 1836: "It is impossible not to be struck with the spirit of speculation which now exists in the country, but I believe that there is a great difference in the state of things from what took place in 1825. The spirit of speculation was then turned to foreign adventure of the most extraordinary description; but now speculation is directed to home objects, which, if pushed too far, may be very mischievous, though the consequences may not be quite so mischievous as in 1825. But, really, on turning to any newspaper or any price current, and observing the advertisements of joint-stock companies upon every possible subject, however unfit to be carried on in the present state of society, every man must be struck with astonishment at the fever which rages at this moment for these speculations. I felt it my duty some time ago to direct a register to be kept, taking the names merely from the London and a few country newspapers of the different joint-stock companies, and of the nominal amount of capital proposed to be embarked in them. The nominal capital to be raised by subscription amounts to nearly £200,000,000, and the number of companies to between 300 and 400. * * * The greater part of these companies are got up by speculators for the purpose of selling their shares. They bring up their shares to a premium, and then sell them, leaving the unfortunate purchasers who are foolish enough to invest their money in them to shift for themselves. I have seen also with great regret the extent to which joint-stock banks have sprung up in different parts of the country. I believe, indeed, that great good has arisen from joint-stock banks, but the observations I have made with regard to other companies are equally applicable to many of the joint-stock banks that are springing up in different parts of the country, and the existence of which can only be attended with mischief." The Bank of England had adopted the principles of the Bullion Report in 1827. The method they adopted of carrying them into effect was, to keep their "securities" as nearly as possible even; and to keep their bullion and cash equal to one-half of the securities—the bullion, cash and securities, being together equal to their liabilities. The bank was got into this normal condition in October, 1833, when its liabilities, i. e., its notes and deposits, were £32,900,000; the securities were £24,200,000, and the bullion, £10,900,000. Some transactions with the East India Company and speculations in South American stock occurred to derange these proportions in 1834, and caused an export of specie; but in 1835 the foreign exchanges became favorable, and the drain was arrested. But, in the meantime, the bank had totally lost all power of preserving the proportion between the bullion, securities, and liabilities it had professed to adhere to. The following table, taken at intervals, exhibits this very clearly: Liabilities. Securities Bullion. 1833, Oct. 1, £30,937,000 £22,640,000 £10,527,000 1834, March 11, 31,372,000 24,777,000 8,901,000 1834, July 15. 37,554,000 31,735,000 8,298,000 1834, Sept. 9, 31,058,000 26,643,000 7,010,000 1835, Jan. 13, 33,071,000 29,165,000 6,608,000 1835, May 5, 29,417,000 26,179,000 5,951,000 This was the lowest point which the amount of bullion reached, and the drain was arrested. The above table shows how totally deranged the proportions were to what the directors considered to be a proper position for the bank. From that time bullion continued to flow in, till in March, 1836, it slightly exceeded eight millions; but even then, the securities were three times the bullion, instead of twice, as they ought to have been. The amount of bullion in the bank was at its height in March, 1836, and then began steadily to decline again; in the middle of July it had fallen below six millions, when the bank thought it necessary to endeavor to stop it; and it raised the rate of discount to four and a-half per cent. This however had no effect in stopping the demand for discount. In September the bullion barely exceeded five millions and the bank raised the rate of discount to five per cent. Now the bubbles blown in the preceding year and spring of 1836 were fast bursting on all hands. The drain on the coffers of the bank proceeded at a rapid rate, both from external and internal causes. President Jackson had determined that the charter of the National Bank of the United States, which expired in 1836, should not be renewed, and that the currency of that country should be placed on a sounder footing than it had hitherto been by forming a sound metallic basis. Operations to effect this purpose soon commenced. Immense quantities of American securities of all sorts were imported into England, and negotiated for the purpose of remitting the specie to America. The improperly low rate of discount in this country, favored by the inordinate multiplication of banks, enabled a great quantity of these securities of various descriptions to be realized in England, and the cash was remitted to America. The joint-stock banks had been blowing the bubble of credit to the utmost tenuity, by re-discounting most of the bills they discounted. This most objectionable practice, which renders the position of the bank which adopts it dependent on the good will of the discounter, adds greatly to any peril in times of discredit. The Bank of England at length (but too tardily, as has almost invariably been the case) awoke to the impending danger, and determined to strike a blow at the distended state of credit. It not only raised the rate of discount to five per cent. in August, but absolutely refused to discount any bills indorsed by any joint-stock bank of issue. This was a great blow at the vast amount of American securities afloat in the country, as most of these bills had been purchased by the joint-stock banks, and re-issued with their endorsement upon them. In the autumn of 1836, the symptoms of the coming storm were very apparent, especially in Ireland. One very large joint-stock bank, the Agricultural and Commercial, was known to be in difficulties early in the autumn, and it made several applications to the other joint-stock banks in Ireland and England and Scotland for assistance, which they all refused. It also made a call upon its shareholders, which was not responded to. The other Irish banks, foreseeing a stoppage of the Agricultural and Commercial, had been laying in a stock of gold to meet the run which would necessarily follow the failure of a bank with so many ramifications. The sum in gold which the Irish banks laid in to provide for the run was estimated to be not less than £2,000,000, all of which came from the Bank of England. Much of this was required on account of the extraordinary differences of opinion, which were given by the most eminent counsel, as to whether Bank of England notes were legal tender in Ireland. Three very eminent lawyers held that they were legal tender, and three equally eminent held that they were not. The Bank of Ireland itself thought that they were not, and were still less inclined to make the experiment, when there was such a difference of opinion among the lawyers. The other banks followed the example of the Bank of Ireland and provided gold. The catastrophe which had been foreseen took place on the 14th of November, when the Agricultural and Commercial Bank stopped payment, which was immediately followed by a general run upon all the banks in Ireland; but it was well met, from the care which had been previously taken to provide specie. So great was the state of discredit, that even Bank of England notes were at a heavy discount in Dublin. The Bank of Ireland would only take them in very small quantities from their customers at a discount of 2s. 6d. each. During all this time the diminution of bullion in the Bank of England had been going on rapidly. At the beginning of October it had £5,035,000 in bullion to meet £29,869,000 of liabilities; at the end of November its liabilities were £30,941,000, and its bullion £3,640,000. During December its bullion slightly increased, and in January diminished again. In November, the Northern and Central Bank, with its head office in Manchester, and thirty-nine branches in the manufacturing districts, became seriously embarrassed, and applied to the Bank of England for assistance, which the bank at first refused; but, upon consulting the leading bankers in London, their opinion was that the stoppage of so extensive a concern in the manufacturing districts would very probably bring on a general panic. The bank, therefore, determined to advance the sum of £500,000 to enable it to meet its engagements; which, upon suddenly discovering that these were more extensive than had at first been represented, was further increased to £1,370,000. Early in January, a London banking house applied for assistance to the bank, and on the other London bankers giving their guarantee to the bank, it made advances sufficient to enable that house to meet its engagements. The difficulties attending the American houses, both in London and Liverpool, became now so pressing, that they also were obliged to apply to the bank. Persons were appointed to look into their affairs, who represented that if assistance were given to them to meet their outstanding engagements, they would ultimately prove solvent. As an additional reason for granting this assistance, it was stated, that if these American houses were permitted to stop payment, their concerns were so vast and so extended through the north of England, that a general destruction of credit would ensue. After full consideration, the bank determined to attempt to carry these houses through their embarrassments, and for this purpose it advanced the enormous sum of £6,000,000. This great operation was, however, successful, though the final liquidation of the account was retarded by the great prostration of American credit in 1839. The advance made to the banking interests in England were all repaid, principal and interest, with one very trifling exception. The bank thus followed, for a second time, the principles of the Bullion Report, and there can be no doubt averted a calamity only second in magnitude to the catastrophe of 1825. The assistance of the bank was only intended to be of a temporary nature, to give time for the withdrawal of the great mass of unsound paper from circulation. This having been effected to a large extent, the result followed which always has been the case—a great influx of gold to fill the vacuum caused by the great annihilation of this unsound paper currency. During the whole of 1837, bullion rapidly flowed into the bank, and in December it reached the sum of £10,500,000. The position of the bank on the 13th of March, 1838, was as follows: Liabilities, £31,573,000; securities, £21,046,000; bullion, £10,527,000. Thus, after the long period of nearly five years, the bank was at length brought back again into what the directors had laid down for themselves as the normal position; and it enabled credit to pass through a crisis which would have been tenfold more severe, and would infallibly have ended in a monetary panic, if it had not been met by that "judicious increase of accommodation" which the Bullion Report declared to be the proper remedy for a temporary failure of credit. Thus was seen the most magnificent triumph of the principles of the Bullion Report and of the truth of the expansive theory in a commercial crisis. After, no doubt, many errors of management, when the great commercial crisis at length declared itself, the bank met it boldly and promptly by the most audacious application of the expansive theory, and averted a monetary panic. THE MONETARY CRISIS OF 1839. From 1832 to 1837, there had been a series of seasons of remarkable abundance. For some years a series followed of extreme scarcity. The crop of 1838 was the worst which had been known since 1816; that of 1839 was scarcely, if at all, better. This great deficiency rendered it necessary to import foreign corn to the value of £10,000,000; a considerable portion of this required to be remitted in specie. But, just at this period, a number of concurrent causes happened to create a great demand for gold for foreign countries. During the preceding years, America, France and Belgium had carried the extension of paper credit to most extravagant lengths. In America, the fatal system of issuing bank notes upon "property" and "securities" had been carried to a length almost worthy of Law. In France and Belgium, joint-stock banks had been extensively formed. This great extension of paper currency had the very same effect as the excessive issues of paper in England had; it drove bullion out of those countries, and was one of the great causes which, together with the fortunate destruction of the extravagant paper credit in England in 1837, caused such an influx of gold to this country up to March, 1838. But in this year these bubbles burst. In the autumn of 1838 the Bank of Belgium failed; and a severe run upon the banks in Paris took place. This revulsion of credit and extinction of paper issues in those countries caused a current of bullion to set in towards them which came from the Bank of England. In the beginning of 1838, when the bullion in the bank had been rapidly increasing for several months, the commercial world thought it was time for the bank to make use of the treasure in its vaults. And with extraordinary fatuity, although the exchanges were unfavorable, it reduced the rate of interest from five to four per cent., and while every one else was exporting bullion to America in consequence of the destruction of paper in that country, it conceived the extraordinary idea of doing a little business on its own account and exported a million to America, when every consideration of common sense showed that it ought to have kept the tightest grip possible upon its bullion. Of all acts of mismanagement in the whole history of the bank, this is probably the most astounding. The bullion in the bank kept a pretty even amount till December, 1838. On the 18th of that month the liabilities were £28,120,000; the securities, £20,776,000, and the bullion, £9,794,000. From this date a rapid and steady drain set in, which continued with unabated severity till October, 1839. When the bank lowered its rate of discount to four per cent. in February, 1838, the market rate had fallen lower still, and in summer was about three per cent. From that time forward it began to rise, and at the end of autumn was level with the bank. While everything was symptomatic of an impending drain of bullion, the bank on the 29th of November suddenly lowered its rate to 3 1-2 per cent. for advances upon bills of exchange, East India bonds, exchequer bills and other approved securities. The market rate of interest was now decidedly higher than that of the bank, and the consequence was an immediate pressure for accommodation on the bank. The securities which in December, 1838, were £19,536,000, mounted up in January, 1839, to £27,594,000, and the bullion fell from £9,522,000 to £8,826,000. The following table exhibits the progressive diminution of bullion: Liabilities. Securities. Bullion. 1838, Dec. 18, £28,120,000 £20,776,000 £9,794,000 1839, Jan. 1, 28,136,000 22,377,000 9,048,000 1839, Jan. 15, 30,305,000 24,529,000 8,336,000 1839, Feb. 12, 26,939,000 22,628,000 7,047,000 1839, March 12, 26,088,000 22,143,000 6,580,000 1839, April 9, 29,039,000 22,173,000 5,213,000 1839, April 30, 26,475,000 24,536,000 4,455,000 1839, May 14, 25,711,000 24,098,000 4,117,000 Up to this time the bank seemed to have been struck with actual paralysis. Notwithstanding the continuous rise in the market rate of interest and the unmistakable drain of bullion that had set in, they, on the 28th of February, issued a notice continuing the same rates on the same securities as in the previous November. And it was not until the 16th of May that they suddenly raised it to five per cent. The above figures show how completely the directors had belied their own principles of keeping the bullion at one-third of the liabilities. On the 14th of May, 1839, instead of being one-third, it was less than one-sixth. The market rate had advanced considerably more rapidly, so that the bank rate was yet below it. The drain still continued. On the 28th of May the bullion stood at £3,910,000, and the liabilities were upwards of £24,500,000. But the directors seemed so utterly blind that on the 30th of May, the time for shutting the books for the dividends, they still offered advances at five per cent. till the 23d of July, on the same securities as have been last mentioned. However, on the 20th of June they at last became alarmed, and issued notices that the rate of discount would be 5 1-2 per cent., and no securities would be received except bills of exchange. On the 16th of July the liabilities were £28,860,000, the securities were £28,846,000 and the bullion £2,987,000. The directors at last awoke to the fact that the bank was rapidly drifting into bankruptcy. On the 13th of July they gave notice that they would be ready to receive tenders for the purchases of some terminable annuities, but the minimum price they fixed was so high that no sale took place. Besides raising the rate of discount in May, the bank sold public securities to the amount of £760,000, and it authorized bills upon Paris to be drawn on its account to the amount of £600,000. These measures had the effect of arresting the drain for a short time. But when these bills became due the bank was in no better position to meet them, and it then became necessary to create a larger credit in Paris to meet the first. The position of the bank was, of course, well known to all the foreign dealers in exchange; and in June it was generally expected abroad that the bank would have to suspend payments in specie. In consequence of this, all long-dated bills upon this country were sent over for immediate realization and the values withdrawn as speedily as possible. To counteract this drain, as well as to meet the payments of the first credit which had been created on behalf of the bank, it was obliged in July to organize a measure of a much larger nature. The house of Baring entered into an agreement with twelve of the leading bankers in Paris to draw bills upon them to the amount of £2,000,000; and as each of them had only a fixed credit at the Bank of France that bank agreed to honor their acceptances in case they should be presented there and exceed their usual limits. An operation of a similar one to the amount of £900,000 was organized with Hamburg. As soon as any bill was drawn on account of one of these operations the bank transferred an equal amount of the annuities it had offered for sale in July to two trustees, one for the drawers and the other for the acceptor. Out of this second credit, the bills which fell due from the creation of the first credit were paid. This measure had the effect of gradually arresting the drain of bullion, which reached its lowest point in the week ending the 2d of September, 1839, when it was reduced to £2,406,000. From that time, it began slowly to increase, and in the last week of the year it stood at £4,532,000; the liabilities being £23,864,000 and the securities £22,098,000. The operations ensuing from this foreign credit extended over nine months—from July, 1839, to April, 1840; and the highest amount operated upon was in November, 1839, when it was £2,900,000. The figures we have quoted, showing the proportion between the bullion and the liabilities of the bank, are sufficient to show either that there was some natural impossibility in adhering to the rule the directors had laid down for themselves in 1832, or that they had not sufficient firmness to contract their securities in time of pressure to maintain it. The flagrant disproportion which these figures had assumed, which would scarcely be safe in an ordinary banking house, but which were to the last degree perilous in the Bank of England, which was known to be the last resource of every bank in the kingdom in times of difficulty, turned the attention of writers to devise some plan by which, if possible, the bank should be compelled to maintain the proper proportion between bullion and liabilities. Colonel Torrens appears to have been the originator of the idea, which was eventually adopted, of dividing the bank into two distinct departments, independent of each other—one for the purpose of issuing a regulated amount of notes and the other for carrying on the business of banking. This plan was first started in 1837, and was much canvassed and discussed by several eminent writers on the subject, such as Mr. Tooke, Mr. Norman and others, and was the prominent feature in the Bank Charter Act of 1844. The great commercial and monetary crisis the country had passed through within the few preceding years attracted much public attention, and several petitions were presented to Parliament; and, in 1840, the Government determined to institute an inquiry into the whole system of paper issues. On the 10th of March the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved for a committee for that purpose. He reminded the House that the bank charter would terminate in 1844, and he thought it expedient that they should not postpone inquiry into the subject until the last moment. That, whatever might be the difference of opinion among the most intelligent men as to what part of the difficulties they had gone through were to be attributed to the Bank of England or other banks, still they were very strongly of opinion that the present system required revision and alteration. Leaving out of consideration former transactions, the difficulties and embarrassments which the country had gone through within the last few years had led the most important bodies and the largest of the manufacturing towns to make complaints, in calm and temperate language, and to express an anxiety that the House should institute an investigation into their complaints and endeavor to provide adequate remedies. The chief points of interest connected with the report and evidence were: 1. The principle propounded in 1832 for the management of the bank, for the purpose of carrying into effect the principles of the Bullion Report, was totally condemned. 2. The great modern heresy that bills of exchange form no part of the circulating medium or currency, which was first asserted before a Parliamentary committee in 1832, was now maintained by the great majority of the commercial and banking witnesses. 3. This seems to have been the first adoption by mercantile men of what became the reigning banking fallacy for a time, but which is now utterly exploded, of what is known by the name of the "Currency Principle." This principle is: "That when bank notes are permitted to be issued, the number in circulation should always be exactly equal to the coin which would be in circulation if they did not exist." The advocates of this principle maintain that it is the only true method of regulating a paper currency and of preserving the paper of equal value with the gold coin. This theory sounds remarkably specious and plausible, and from the eminence of the persons who adopted it, acquired for a time much importance. Nevertheless, there never was a greater delusion palmed off upon the credulity of mankind, and could never have emanated from or been believed in by any one who had an accurate knowledge of the mechanism of banking. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1847. The Bank Charter Act of 1844 was passed amid universal applause, and was supposed to have put an end forever to commercial crises and monetary panics. We have now to see how these hopes were realized. The harvests of 1842-3-4 were extremely abundant; the bullion in the bank accumulated very rapidly in these years, and a very large quantity of money which the nation must otherwise have spent in food was set free for commercial purposes. Other circumstances occurred at the same time to liberate a large quantity of the capital of the country from its accustomed use and to render it applicable to commercial purposes, which have been very clearly and ably pointed out by Mr. James Wilson. He shows that the rapidity and certainty of conveyance reduces very greatly the amount of stock it is necessary at all times to keep on hand when communications are slow and uncertain; that the amount of goods in transit is much larger with a slow conveyance than with a quick one. For example: When Manchester supplies London with manufactured goods, if it takes seven days by canal for these goods to reach London, it is clear that there must always be seven days' consumption of goods on the way. If the same transit is accomplished by railway in one day, it is only necessary to have one day's consumption on the way; and the capital employed in producing the other six days' consumption is liberated and may be employed in promoting other commercial operations. When we consider the enormous economy of capital required in the same amount of business which was effected by the introduction of more rapid modes of communication, whether by railways or steamers, we shall understand how greatly they increased the national resources. There can be no doubt that the economy of national capital effected by the extension of railways far exceeded the losses which occurred from unsuccessful speculation in them. Now, these operations were beginning to have their full effect in saving the national capital simultaneously with the good harvests of 1842-3-4, and helped to swell the quantity of disposable capital to an unprecedented extent. An attentive consideration of these circumstances is absolutely necessary, because they show the fallacy of the doctrine that the price of goods must vary exactly with any increase or decrease of the amount of the currency, whereas there is no necessary relation between the two whatever. The particular methods of doing business have the most important influence on the quantity of currency necessary to carry it on with; and a clumsy or more ingenious method of transacting business may make the most important changes in the quantity of money necessary to circulate any given amount of commodities without causing any alteration in the price of these commodities. The Act of 1844 having placed an absolute limit upon the discretion of the bank in issuing notes, Sir Robert Peel said that he thought that banking business could not be too free and unrestrained. The extraordinary accumulation of capital arising from the circumstances we have just detailed lowered the market rate of discount to one and three-quarters and two and a-half per cent. on the best bills, and the Bank of England immediately conformed to the market rate on the passing of the act, and reduced its rate from four per cent. to two and a-half for the best bills. The day the act came into operation, indeed, the whole of the discounts were done at one and three-quarters; and they continued at that rate for a fortnight, when some were done at two per cent.; and up to the 26th October a considerable portion were done at two and a-quarter. From this date, however, up to October, 1845, the rate was two and a-half. In November, 1845, the rate was suddenly raised to three and a-half, and continued at that figure till August, 1846, when it was lowered to three per cent.; these rates being governed by the flow of bullion, which diminished from fifteen and a-half millions when the Act of 1844 passed, to thirteen and a-half millions in November, 1845; after which it increased again to above sixteen millions in August, 1846, and then began steadily to decline till it reached its minimum in the great crisis of October, 1847. The first failure of the potato crops in Ireland, in 1845, and the railway mania of that year, are too well known to need repetition here; nor had they anything to do properly with the management of the bank, whose sole proper duty it was to look after its own affairs and preserve its own stability. The calamity of 1846 was far more severe and extensive than that of the preceding year. It was absolutely certain that an immense quantity of bullion would require to be exported in payment of the grain which it would be necessary to import. Accordingly, from the middle of September, 1846, a steady and continuous drain of bullion set in, but the bank made no alteration in the rate of discount until the 16th January, 1847; when the bullion had fallen to £13,949,000, it raised the rate of discount to three and a-half; and on the 23d, the bullion having been further diminished by £500,000, it raised the rate to four per cent. Henceforth, the drain continued rapidly, but the bank still continued to make no alteration until the 10th April, when, its treasure being reduced to £9,867,000, the rate of discount was raised to five per cent. Here we have the same inveterate blunder committed by the bank as on so many previous occasions—an immense drain of bullion, and yet none but the most feeble, inefficient and puerile means taken by the bank to raise the value of money here. But the operation of the bank at this time is an excellent example of the self-acting nature of the Act of 1844. We need only observe that the banking capital of the bank was £14,000,000 of notes based upon public securities, together with notes representing as much bullion as there is in the issue department. Consequently, the notes held in reserve must always be equal to the difference between the notes in circulation, or held by the public, and the sum of £14,000,000 added to the quantity of bullion. Now, we have seen that the intention of the framers of the Act of 1844 was that, as the bullion diminished, the notes in the hands of the public should be diminished in conformity with the "currency principle." Let us now see: 1. How the bank was inclined to act on the principle. 2. Supposing that they were disinclined to do so, how far the act, by its own self-acting principles, compelled them to do so. The table on the following page shows the utter futility of the idea that, as the bullion diminished, the act could compel a reduction of notes in the hands of the public; for the notes in circulation were within an insignificant trifle as large in amount when the bullion was only £9,867,000 as when it was £16,366,000. Consequently, nothing could be a more total and complete failure of the Act of 1844, on the very first occasion on which its services were required. Now, let us recall to our readers' attention what Mr. S. J. Loyd had pointed out as the fatal defect of the bank rule of 1832, which we have just given. He said that under it the whole bullion in the bank might be drained BANK NOTES. Total Amount of Bullion. Minimum Rate of Discount Per Cent. Held by the public. Held in Reserve by the Bank of England. 1846. August 29 20,426,000 9,450,000 16,366,000 3 October 3 20,551,000 8,809,000 15,817,000 3 November 7 20,971,000 7,265,000 14,760,000 3 December 19 19,549,000 8,864,000 15,163,000 3 1847. January 9 20,837,000 6,715,000 14,308,000 3 January 16 20,679,000 6,546,000 13,949,000 3 1-2 January 30 20,469,000 5,704,000 12,902,000 4 February 20 19,482,000 5,917,000 12,215,000 4 March 6 19,279,000 5,715,000 11,596,000 4 March 20 19,069,000 5,419,000 11,232,000 4 April 3 19,855,000 3,700,000 10,246,000 4 April 10 20,243,000 2,558,000 9,867,000 5 out without any contraction in the circulation, and it was especially supposed that the Bank Act of 1844 had distinctly provided against this defect. In fact, the whole theory of the framers of the act was, that for every five sovereigns which left the country, a £5 note should be withdrawn from circulation; and that if the directors failed to do so of their own accord, the "mechanical" action of the act would compel them to do so. But what was the actual result? The bank had lost £7,000,000 of treasure, and its notes in circulation were only reduced by £200,000; the whole of the reduction had been thrown on its own reserves. Hence, the Bank Act of 1844 was open to exactly the same charge as the bank rule of 1832! Mr. F. T. Baring, ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, who maintained that the act had been successful on several points, yet allowed that it had completely failed on this point:* "I find that the amount of bullion in the bank on September 12, 1846, was £16,354,000; and on the 17th of April, 1847, it was reduced to £9,330,000, being a diminution of £7,024,000. Now, I take the same dates with respect to the circulation of notes, and I find that on September 12, 1846, the amount was £20,982,000, and on April 17, 1847, it was £21,228,000, being an increase of £246,000. * * * I must say that I never entertained the idea that it would have been possible under the operation of this act to have shown such a set of figures. * * * I believe, if we look back, we shall find that the operation of the deposits and the question of the reserve was not sufficiently considered, either by those who were favorable or those who were opposed to the bill. I cannot find in the evidence before the committee of 1840 more than a few sentences leading me to suppose that danger arising from such a cause was contemplated or referred to; yet this was a most important consideration; for it was by the reserve the bank was enabled to do what was contrary to the spirit of the bill when gold was running out, not to reduce their circulation by a single pound. I do not think that the system works satisfactorily in this respect; and in fact, the point did not receive anything like a sufficient consideration. Perhaps it was impossible before the bill was in practical operation to see how the reserve of notes would operate; but it certainly never entered into the contemplation of anyone then considering the subject that £7,000,000 in gold should run off, and yet that the notes in the hands of the public would rather increase than diminish." The number of notes held in reserve in the banking department, under the system of 1844, correspond to the amount of bullion held by the bank before the division. When, therefore, the public saw that the whole banking resources of the bank were reduced to £2,558,000, a complete panic seized both the public and the directors. The latter adopted severe measures to check the demand for notes. The rate was not only raised to five per cent., but this was only applicable to bills having only a few days to run, and a limit was placed upon the amount of bills discounted, however good they might be. Merchants who had received loans were called upon to repay them without being permitted to renew them. During some days it was impossible to get bills discounted at all. These measures were effectual in stopping the efflux of bullion; and a sum of £100,000 in sovereigns, which had been actually shipped for America, was relanded. During this period, the rate of discount for the best bills rose to nine, ten and twelve per cent. During all this time, the price of wheat continued steadily to rise, notwithstanding the monetary pressure, and at the close of May the price on one occasion reached 131s. in Windsor market. The foreign exchanges, which had been adverse to the country during the latter part of 1846 and the beginning of 1840, from the immense quantity of foreign corn which was imported, became favorable in the middle of April, partly owing to the great monetary pressure. The pressure passed off after the first week in May, having lasted about three weeks, and bullion began to flow in after the 24th of April, until at the end of June it amounted to £10,526,000, the notes in circulation being £18,051,000 and the notes in reserve £5,625,000. The conduct of the bank in keeping down the rate of discount when a rapid drain was going on, and the foreign exchanges unfavorable, was the exact counterpart of what it had done on so many previous occasions, and excited much comment and adverse criticism by the whole commercial community of London. The market rate rose decidedly above it, so that a rush for discounts was made to the bank, which were no sooner granted than the gold was immediately drawn out. On the 27th of May, the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought the subject of the monetary pressure before the House, and stated that he had numerous deputations to him respecting a suspension of the Act of 1844, which the Government was not prepared to adopt. However, he meant to assist the bank so far as to dispense with the aid the Government usually had from the bank at Quarter day. With this view, he intended to raise the interest on exchequer bills, which were then at a greater depreciation than any other kind of Government security, to 3d. per day. On the 10th, he brought in a resolution to allow all persons who had subscribed to the eight million Irish Ioan a discount of five per cent. on any installment paid in before the 18th of June, and four per cent. if paid in before the 10th September. On the 9th of August the first of the frightful catalogue of failures began. Leslie, Alexander & Co. stopped payment, with liabilities amounting to £500,000. On Wednesday, the 11th, Coventry & Sheppard stopped for £200,000; and King, Melville & Co. also for £200,000; and several other minor firms made the total failures in the first week amount to £1,200,000. In the next week Giles & Co. failed for £100,000; and the total in the second week was £300,000. In the following week Robinson & Co. failed for £110,000, the senior partner of the firm being the governor of the Bank of England. Week after week followed, each one increasing in severity, until at last the total exceeded £15,000,000. In the middle of September, Saunderson & Co., the eminent bill-brokers, stopped payment, being much involved with the great houses in the corn trade. The exchanges, which had been brought to par in April by the monetary pressure in that month, were, in consequence of the increasing severity of the crisis, become decidedly favorable, and on the 25th September bullion began to flow in. During the whole of September the commercial calamities were falling fast and thick. Almost all the firms connected with the Mauritius, such as Reid, Irving & Co., failed—principally from having their funds locked up in sugar plantations. This was accompanied by immense failures in the India trade, the credit given in that trade being commonly of unusual length, which affords dangerous facilities for stretching it to too great a length. The railway works which had been sanctioned in the session of 1845-46 were now in full operation, causing an immense demand for ready money. Almost every tradesman in the kingdom, from Land's End to John o' Groat's, was deep in railway speculations. The extravagant delirium of prosperity in 1845-46 had caused great numbers of them, not only to go far beyond their means themselves, but to trust their customers beyond the bounds of ordinary credit. There can be no doubt whatever but that commercial credit of all sorts and descriptions, among all classes of traders, was in all probability in a more unhealthy state than it had ever been before; and that an unprecedentedly large portion of the community were entangled in obligations, of which there was no prospect of their ever working themselves free. Sharp and severe as the remedy was, therefore, it unquestionably was the best thing that could happen, that this unhealthy superstructure should be cleared away, and that commerce should be reconstructed upon an improved and renovated basis. The extreme pressure may be considered to have begun on the 23d of September, when the bank adopted more stringent measures for curtailing the demand upon its resources. Ever since the 25th of June the diminution of bullion had been going on rapidly; on the 2d of October it was reduced to £8,565,000; the notes in circulation being £18,712,000, and the reserve £3,409,000. The rapid diminution of their resources showed the directors that the time had come when they must think of their own safety; and on that day they gave notice that the minimum rate of all bills falling due before the 15th of October would be five and a-half; and they refused altogether to make advances on stock or exchequer bills. This last announcement created a great excitement on the stock exchange. The town and country bankers hastened to sell their public securities to convert them into money. The difference between the price for consols for ready money, and for the account of the 14th October, showed a rate of interest equivalent to fifty per cent. per annum. Exchequer bills were sold at 35s. discount. Everything became worse day by day. On the 18th of October the bank rates of discount varied from five and a-half to nine per cent. At this time the bullion was £8,431,000; the notes in circulation £19,359,000; and in reserve £2,630,000. The following week, from Monday the 18th to Saturday the 23d, was the great crisis. On that Monday, the Royal Bank of Liverpool, with a paid-up capital of £800,000, stopped payment, which caused the funds to fall two per cent. This was followed by the stoppage of the North and South Wales Bank, also of Liverpool; the Liverpool Bank, the Union Bank of Newcastle, heavy runs upon the other banks of the district, and other bank failures at Manchester and in the west of England. As the whole of the commercial world knew that the resources of the banking department were being rapidly exhausted, a complete panic seized them. A complete cessation of private discounts followed. No one would part with the money or notes in his possession. The most exorbitant sums were offered to, and refused by, merchants for their acceptances. The continued and ever increasing severity of the crisis caused deputation after deputation to be sent to the Government to obtain a relaxation of the act; and on Saturday, the 23d of October, the final determination of the Ministry to authorize the bank to issue notes beyond the limits prescribed by the act was taken and communicated to the bank, who immediately acted upon it, and discounted freely at nine per cent. The letter itself was not actually sent till Monday, the 25th. It stated that the Government had expected that the pressure which had existed for some weeks would have passed away as the one in April had done, by the operation of natural causes; that, being disappointed in this hope, they had come to the conclusion that the time had come when they ought to attempt by some extraordinary and temporary measure to restore confidence to the mercantile community. That, for this purpose, they recommended the directors of the Bank of England in the emergency to enlarge the amount of their discounts and advances upon approved security; but that, to restrain this operation within reasonable limits, a high rate of interest should be charged which, under the circumstances, should not, they thought, be less than eight per cent. That, if such a course should lead to any infringement of the law, they would be prepared to propose to Parliament, on its meeting, a bill of indemnity. This letter was made public about one o'clock on Monday, the 25th, and no sooner was it done than the panic vanished like a dream! Mr. Gurney stated that it produced its effect in ten minutes! No sooner was it known that notes might be had than the want of them ceased! Not only no infringement of the act took place, but the whole issue of notes in consequence of this letter was only £400,000; so that while at one moment the whole credit of Great Britain was in imminent danger of total destruction, within one hour it was saved by the issue of £400,000. The extraordinary and disastrous state of public credit at this period may be judged of by the aid afforded by the Bank of England to different establishments from the 15th of September to the 15th of November, as follows: 1. It advanced £150,000 to a large firm in London, who were under liabilities to the extent of several millions, on the security of debentures of the Governor and Company of the Copper Miners of England, which prevented them from stopping payment. 2. It advanced £50,000 to a country banker, on the security of real property. 3. It advanced £120,000 to the Governor and Company of the Copper Miners, which prevented them from stopping payment. 4. It advanced £300,000 to the Royal Bank of Liverpool on the security of bills of exchange, over and above their usual discounts; but this was inadequate, and the bank, having no further security to offer, stopped payment. 5. It advanced £100,000 to another joint-stock bank in the country. 6. It advanced £130,000 on real property to a large mercantile house in London. 7. It advanced £50,000 to another mercantile house on the security of approved names. 8. It advanced £50,000 on bills of exchange to a joint-stock bank of issue, which soon after stopped payment. 9. It advanced £15,000 on real property to another mercantile house in London. 10. It saved a large establishment in Liverpool from failing by forbearing to enforce payment of £100,000 of their acceptances falling due. 11. It assisted another very large joint-stock bank in the country by an advance of £800,000 beyond its usual discount limit. 12. It advanced £100,000 to a country banker on real security. 13. It advanced to a Scotch bank £200,000 on the security of local bills and £60,000 on London bills. 14. It assisted another Scotch bank by discounting £100,000 of local and London bills. 15. It advanced £100,000 to a large mercantile house in London on approved personal security. 16. It assisted a large house in Manchester to resume payment by an advance of £40,000 on approved personal security. 17. It advanced £30,000 to a country bank on real property. 18. It assisted many other houses, both in town and country, by advances of smaller sums on securities not usually admitted; and it did not reject in London any one bill offered for discount except on the ground of insufficient security. The far larger portion of this assistance was given before the 23d of October. A general election had taken place in the autumn of 1847; and the Ministry, having taken upon themselves the responsibility of authorizing the Bank of England to violate the Act of 1844, lost no time in calling a meeting of the new Parliament. It met on the 18th of November, and after a few preliminary days were occupied in swearing in the members, the speech from the throne was delivered on the 23d. The first paragraph stated as a reason for calling them together that the embarrassments of trade were so alarming, that the Queen had authorized the Ministry to recommend to the Bank of England a course which might have led to an infringement of the law. Happily, however, the power given to infringe the law, if necessary, had allayed the panic. On the 30th of November the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved for a committee to inquire into the causes of the recent commercial distress and how far it had been affected by the Act of 1844. He spoke of the panic in the spring. He said that he had seen no reason to change the opinion he had then expressed, that it was mainly owing to the imprudence of the bank, which, having full warning of the various demands it would have upon it, was too tardy in raising the rate of discount and had lent out, over the period when the dividends became payable, the money they had provided for that purpose, so that they were not in possession of adequate funds when they were required. The low state of their reserve then excited consternation. The bank then took the severe step of reducing the amount of discounts. They pulled up as suddenly as they had unwisely let out their reserve before. With respect to the panic in October, he said that the severe pressure in the money market had abated when the bank failures in Liverpool and the north of England took place, which renewed the alarm. After describing the great pressure on the banks in the country, the Chancellor said: "The Bank of England were pressed directly for assistance from all parts of the country and indirectly through the London bankers, who were called upon to support their country correspondents. The country banks required a large amount of notes to render them sure against possible demands—not so much for payment of their notes as their deposits. Houses in London were constantly applying to the bank for aid. Two bill-brokers had stopped, and the operations of two others were nearly paralyzed. The whole demand for discount was thrown upon the hands of the Bank of England. Notwithstanding this, the bank never refused a bill which it would have discounted at another time; but still the large mass of bills which, under ordinary circumstances, are discounted by bill brokers, could not be negotiated. During this period we were daily, I may say hourly, in possession of the state of the bank. The governor and deputy governor at last said that they could no longer continue their advances to support the various parties who applied to them; that they could save themselves—that is, they could comply with the law—but that they could not do so without pressing more stringently on the commercial world. At this crisis a feeling as to the necessity of the interposition of Government appeared to be generally entertained; and those conversant with commercial affairs, and least likely to decide in favor of the course we ultimately adopted, unanimously expressed an opinion that, if some measures were not taken by the Government to arrest the evil, the most disastrous consequences must inevitably ensue. Evidence was laid before the Government which proved not only the existence or severe pressure from the causes I have stated, but also that it was aggravated in a very great degree by the hoarding on the part of many persons of gold and bank notes to a very large extent, in consequence of which an amount of circulation which under ordinary circumstances would have been adequate, became insufficient for the wants of the community. It was difficult to establish this beforehand, but the best proof of the fact is in what occurred after we had interfered. As soon as the letter of the 25th October appeared and the panic ceased, thousands and tens of thousands of pounds were taken from the hoards, some from boxes deposited with bankers, although the parties would not leave the notes in their bankers' hands. Large parcels of notes were returned to the Bank of England cut into halves, as they had been sent down into the country; and so small was the real demand for an additional quantity of notes that the whole amount taken from the bank when the unlimited issue was given was under £400,000. The restoration of confidence released notes from their hoards and no more was wanted, for this trifling quantity of additional notes is hardly worth notice. * * * Parties of every description made application to us with the observation, 'We do not want notes, but give us confidence.' They said: 'We have notes enough, but we have not confidence to use them; say you will stand by us and we shall have all we want; do anything, in short, that will give us confidence. If we think we can get bank notes we shall not want them. Charge any rate of interest you please; ask what you like'—(Mr. Spooner, No! No!) I beg pardon of the honorable gentleman, but I may be permitted to know what was actually said to me. I say that what I have stated was the tenor of the applications made to me. Parties said to me: 'Let us have notes; charge ten or twelve per cent. for them; we don't care what the rate of interest is. We don't mean, indeed, to take the notes, because we shall not want them; only tell us that we can get them, and this will at once restore confidence.' We have been asked what was the change of circumstances which induced us to act on Saturday, when we declined acting a day or two before. I reply that the accounts which we received on Thursday, Friday and Saturday were of a totally different description from those which had been previously brought to us. It was on Saturday, and not before, that this conviction was forced upon us; and it was not till then that we felt it necessary to sanction a violation of the law." The persons applying generally said that it was necessary to place a limit on the amount to be authorized, which they proposed should be £2,000,000 or £3,000,000, but the Government thought that the limit should be placed on the rate of interest, and accordingly this was the method adopted. Sir Robert Peel felt particularly called upon to defend the Act of 1844. After defending himself from some minor charges, he protested against singling out individual members of Parliament and making them responsible for the acts of the whole Legislature. He said that some persons alleged that the Act of 1844 had been passed without due inquiry; but he recounted the committees that had sat for five years, and had asked, on the whole, upwards of 14,000 questions—questions and answers without end—but with no practical result from those apparently interminable investigations. The last committee had closed its labors without any practical results. At last, the Ministry determined to bring forward a measure on their own responsibility, which had been carried by extraordinary majorities; but, nevertheless, if it could be shown that the Act of 1844 could be amended that it ought to be done. Sir Robert remarked: "There has been some misrepresentation respecting the objects of this act. I do not deny that one of the objects contemplated by the act was the prevention of the convulsions that had heretofore occurred, in consequence of the neglect of the Bank of England to take early precautions against the withdrawal of its treasure. I did hope that, although there was not imperative obligation on the Bank of England to take those precautions, that the experience of 1825, 1836 and 1839 would have induced that establishment to conform to principles which the directors of the bank acknowledged to be just, and which they had more than once professed to adopt for their own regulation. I am bound to say, that in that hope, that in that object of the bill, I have been disappointed. I am bound to admit, seeing the extent of commercial depression which has prevailed, and the number of houses which have been swept away—some of which, however, I think, were insolvent long before the bill came into operation, and others of which became insolvent in consequence of the failure of those who were connected with them, and were imprudent in their speculations—I am bound to admit that that purpose of the bill of 1844 which sought to impress, if not a legal at least a moral obligation on the bank, to prevent the necessity for measures of extreme stringency by timely precautions, had not been fulfilled. I must contend that it was in the power of the bank, if not to prevent all the evils that have arisen, at least to diminish greatly their force. If the bank had possessed the resolution to meet the coming danger by a contraction of its issues, by raising the rate of discount, by refusing much of the accommodation which they granted between the years 1844 and 1846—if they had been firm and determined in the adoption of these precautions, the necessity for extrinsic interference might have been prevented; it might not then have been necessary for the Government to authorize a violation of the Act of 1844. * * * The bill of 1844 had a triple object. Its first object was that in which I admit it has failed—namely, to prevent by early and gradual, severe and sudden contraction, and the panic and confusion inseparable from it. But the bill had at least two other objects of at least equal importance—the one to maintain and guarantee the convertibility of the paper currency into gold; the other, to prevent the difficulties which arise at all times from undue speculation being aggravated by the abuse of paper credit in the form of promissory notes. In these two objects my belief is that the bill has completely succeeded. My belief is, that you have had a guarantee for the maintenance of the principle of convertibility such as you never had before; my belief also is, that whatever difficulties you are now suffering, from a combination of various causes, the difficulties would have been greatly aggravated if you had not wisely taken the precaution of checking the unlimited issues of the notes of the Bank of England, of joint-stock banks and of private banks." Sir Robert Peel then entered into a most able description of the true evils the country was suffering from, which arose from the enormous destruction of capital, by the dearth of food, the unusual absorption of capital in one channel of commerce, and the construction of railroads which were not yet remunerative. He showed the absurdity of having cheap money while capital was scarce. The whole of his remarks are so admirable, that we regret that their length prevents us from giving them entire. He cordially approved of the course the Government had taken in not issuing the letter sooner than they did, and in doing it when they did. The true remedy for the state of things under which the country was suffering was individual exertion, the limitation of engagements, the cessation of all demands which could be postponed; an earlier issue of the latter would have relaxed those exertions. But to that pressure a panic succeeded, which could not be provided against or foreseen by legislation; which could not be reasoned with, and which could only be met by a discretionary assumption of power by the Government suitable to the emergency. Whether any modification of the Act of 1844 was desirable was a question for future consideration. His own opinion was in favor of the maintenance of the great principles of that measure. If the identical restrictions were not imposed upon the bank as were then in force, still there must be some restrictions; for, after the experience of 1825, 1836 and 1839 he, for one, would not be content to leave the regulation of the monetary concerns of this country to the uncontrolled discretion of the bank. In 1844, the general conviction was that it ought not to be so left, and he knew no better mode of imposing restriction than that which was devised by the Act of 1844. The committee appointed by each House began to sit in February, 1848. The Governor, Mr. Morris, and the Deputy Governor, Mr. Prescott, were examined at great length before each committee, and expressed their unqualified approbation of the Act of 1844, and the manner it had worked. The object of the act was to place the circulation of this country exactly in the same position as it would have been if the currency had been entirely metallic. Mr. Morris was asked: "Your opinion is, then, that with regard both to the contraction of the currency and the expansion of the currency, they would both have taken place precisely in the same mode, and to the same degree had the currency been purely metallic?" Mr. Morris: "Yes, I have not the slightest doubt upon the subject." These gentlemen testified that the object of the act was to secure the convertibility of the note, which it had effectually done. That the bank acted erroneously in the spring of 1847 in not raising their rate of discount sooner, which much contributed to the monetary pressure in April. They said that the Government letter of the 25th October was not sought for by them, nor issued in any way at their instance; that they had no fear whatever for the bank, and that it was not required to maintain the solvency of the bank; but, nevertheless, it had the best effects in allaying the commercial panic. That the panic would have inevitably occurred even without the Act of 1844; but the act brought it on sooner, and probably made it less severe. That the great merit of the act was, that when the pressure did come, the bank was in possession of £8,000,000 of treasure; that if the bank had been left free it would probably have followed the course of dangerous liberality, which it had done on so many occasions previously. That though the Government letter did relieve the panic, it would probably have passed away without it. They earnestly deprecated any alteration in the act, except that they thought the permission to issue notes on silver too limited. Mr. S. Gurney agreed in blaming the management of the bank during the first three months of 1847, and said that if the bank had commenced restrictive measures much earlier, the pressure of April would have been mitigated. He said that in October the rapid diminution of the reserve caused a very general distrust among the public as to how they were to obtain circulating medium. The wealthy and more powerful took care to very largely over-provide themselves, infinitely beyond the necessities of the case. The consequence was that the notes in the hands of the public amounted to nearly £21,000,000, of which he had no doubt that four or five millions were locked up and inoperative, in consequence of the alarm and fear of not being able to get bank notes at all. In illustration of this, he said that his own house was largely called upon for money on Saturday, the 23d, not from the distrust of the house, but from doubts that the bank notes were to be had at all. They applied to the bank for discount to a large amount, which was agreed to, but they were told the rate must be ten per cent. Upon remonstrating with the governor, and saying it would have the worst effect if it became known that their house was paying ten per cent. for money, the rate was finally agreed upon at nine per cent. At this rate they took £200,000. On Monday, the 25th, however, the demand was very heavy, and they took £200,000 more. It was a case of difficulty with the bank, under its reduced reserve and the limitation of the act, and a final decision was postponed until two o'clock. At one o'clock, however, the letter from the Government was announced, authorizing the relaxation. Its effect was immediate. Those who had sent notice for their money in the morning sent word that they did not want it, and that they had only ordered payment by way of precaution. After the notice they only required £100,000 instead of £200,000; the alarm passed off, and by the end of the week they had to ask the bank, as a favor, to be allowed to repay the money they had taken. Mr. Gurney stated that the experience of the last two years had altered his opinion respecting the act, and that he thought it necessary that there should be a relaxing power somewhere. Thus it is seen that this occasion demonstrated, as all previous ones had done, that the restrictive theory in a very severe commercial crisis brings universal failure; and that the expansive theory is indispensable to preserve the existence of merchants and banks. THE TRUE AND SUPREME POWER OF CONTROLLING CREDIT AND THE ISSUES OF THE BANK. It was in the autumn of 1855 that I discovered what I conceive to be the true method of controlling credit and the paper currency; showing how the principles of the Bullion Report are to be carried into practical effect, and thus completing the theory of the paper currency which is now universally accepted. As soon as I came to examine critically the Bank Charter Act of 1844, and the ideas, concepts and theories upon which it is founded. I saw at once—as every mercantile lawyer would—that its very basis, the definition of currency, upon which it is founded, is absurd, and in diametrical contradiction to a whole series of decisions of the courts of law, and to the doctrines previously held by all statesmen and economists. That its very aim and object was to enforce a theory which had been uniformly condemned by all the most eminent financial authorities of former times; by the Bullion Report; by Sir Robert Peel himself on several previous occasions; and confuted by the uniform practical experience of all preceding monetary panics. All preceding financial authorities of the highest eminence—the Bullion Report, Sir Robert Peel himself—had condemned the restrictive theory in a commercial crisis; and had declared that, after it had attained a certain degree of intensity, it was indispensable to adopt the expansive theory to avert universal failure. These doctrines were founded upon irrefragable reasoning, and ample and uniform experience. In 1764 the bank had advanced a million to support commerce in the great crisis of that year. In 1793 the bank had adopted a rigorously restrictive system, and persevered doggedly in this course in defiance of the repeated advice of the highest financial authorities; at length, when universal failure was imminent, the Government came forward and, following the precedent of Montague in 1697, issued a moderate amount of exchequer bills, and commerce instantly was saved. In 1825, for three days, the bank adopted the rigorously restrictive system; and when it had pulled down several powerful and wealthy banks, and commerce was on the very brink of universal failure, it suddenly adopted the expansive system, and commerce was saved. In 1836-38, when a commercial crisis and a monetary panic were impending as severe as any which had happened before, the bank with great skill, wisdom, courage and audacity at once boldly adopted the expansive system, and the monetary panic was averted. Nevertheless, in defiance of all this unanimous consent of financial authorities, and the uniform experience of commercial crises and monetary panics, Sir Robert Peel, in flat contradiction of his own repeatedly expressed opinions, enforced the restrictive theory by law, by imposing a cast-iron limit on the power of the bank to issue notes. And why did he do this? Because he evolved a fantastic theory out of his own inner consciousness that commercial crises are solely due to the excessive issues of bank notes. Now, any banker and practical man of business would have told him that such an idea was a fond delusion. As a matter of positive fact, one of the most terrible commercial crises of modern times took place at Amsterdam and Hamburg in 1764, where there were no bank notes except those issued in exchange for specie. The fact is that the Bank Act of 1844 is founded upon a whole nest of definitions and theories which are pure moonshine. In 1847 the whole of Sir Robert Peel's anticipations and theories were blown to the winds by the monetary pressure in April, and the monetary panic in October, when it was found indispensable to abandon the restrictive theory and to adopt the expansive theory, just in the old, old way; and the mercantile community was saved from universal ruin thereby. Nevertheless, although all the theories upon which the Bank Act is founded are erroneous, and were shattered to pieces by the rude experience of facts, on the very first occasion on which they were really tested, there was one great, solid, practical benefit derived from it. When the monetary panic actually came, the bank possessed an ample store of gold to meet it. In April, 1847, the directors had proceeded exactly in the way of their predecessors. They allowed their gold to ebb away without taking any efficient measures to prevent it. It was evident that at that time they had not perceived the true way of stopping it—i. e., by a bold and rapid raising of the rate of discount. Now, whatever might be the theoretical errors of the act, statesmen saw that at all events it compelled the bank to keep a greater store of gold to meet the panic when it did come, which it was wholly out of their power to touch. And it was hopeless to expect that the Government or Parliament would consent to any alteration of the act while it secured that inestimable practical benefit—or at least until a better method was discovered of attaining the same practical end. Now let us recall to the reader the state of the question. The witnesses before the Irish Committee of 1804 and the Bullion Committee of 1810 maintained that there is only one cause of an export of bullion—namely, a balance of payments to be made on account of goods imported. But the Bullion Committee showed that there is a second cause—namely, a depreciated paper money. Thus it was established that there are two causes of an export of bullion. The Bullion Report laid down as a doctrine that, in order to prevent the export of bullion on account of a depreciation of the paper money, it was indispensable to regulate the amount of paper money by the market price of bullion and the state of the foreign exchanges. But they gave no rule or principle by which this was to be done. They emphatically laid down that the absolute quantity of paper money was no criterion whether it was excessive or not. The sole criterion was the market price of bullion and the state of the foreign exchanges. In 1819 the directors of the bank repudiated the doctrines of the Bullion Report, and strenuously denied that the amount of their issues could have any effect on the price of gold or on the foreign exchanges. In 1827, however, they became convinced of the truth of the doctrines of the Bullion Report; they expunged the resolution of 1819 from their books, and made an attempt to regulate their issues by them. But the scheme they adopted turned out a complete failure, and was condemned by Lord Overstone, who was no doubt a practical banker of the first eminence; and the proof was that in 1836 and 1839 they brought the bank to the very verge of bankruptcy. The specific indictment which Lord Overstone brought against the scheme of the directors was, that under it every single sovereign might be drawn out of the bank, and yet not a single note be withdrawn from circulation. Then the sect of which Lord Overstone was the most influential member maintained the dogma, which they termed the "currency principle"—which is, that when bank notes payable to bearer on demand are permitted to be issued, they ought to be exactly equal in quantity to the amount of gold they displace; and that for every five sovereigns drawn out of the bank a £5 note ought to be cancelled. This they held to be the sole criterion whether paper was excessive or not. This scheme, it was alleged, would secure the country from all future monetary troubles; it was supposed to be the ne plus ultra of human wisdom; and the Bank Act of 1844 remodeled the bank so as to carry this principle into effect. But the experiences of April and October, 1847, shattered all these theories to pieces. For it was found, on both these occasions, that vast quantities of gold were drained away from the bank, and not a single bank note was withdrawn from circulation. This shows how much easier it is to criticise the schemes of others which are seen in operation than to devise one's own. In 1854, I was led to take up the subject of political economy, or economics. On examining the current text-books on the subject, I found that they had not the remotest conception of the juridical and mathematical principles of credit, or of the mechanism of the colossal system of mercantile and banking credit. I therefore undertook to write a treatise on the subject. I carefully studied all the Parliamentary debates and all the Parliamentary reports on the subject, the different principles which the directors had adopted for the management of the bank, and the history of the various commercial crises and monetary panics which had occurred up to that time. On examining the doctrines of the sect which embodied the Act of 1844, and the act itself, I at once perceived—as any mercantile lawyer would—that the definition of currency on which it is founded is absurd—that all the theories on which it is based are pure moonshine—and, furthermore, that the act itself does not carry out the theory it professes to adopt. In order really to carry out the "currency principle" into effect, it would be indispensable to prohibit the bank from discounting bills of exchange; because every time the bank discounts a bill of exchange it violates the "currency principle." Moreover, its principles were in diametrical contradiction to the doctrines of all the great financial authorities of previous times and of the Bullion Report. The experience of the monetary panic of 1847 proved to demonstration that the doctrines of the Bullion Report are correct, and those of the Bank Act of 1844 erroneous. Nevertheless, there was one inestimable practical merit of the Act of 1844—it insured a store of gold to meet the panic when it did come, and prevented the directors from allowing their gold to be all drained away, as they had uniformly done previously, and as they would have done in 1847, if they had not been stopped by the provisions of the act. In the eyes of practical statesmen this single merit would outweigh all the fantastic theories upon which it is founded. The problem, therefore, was to discover a method which should protect and preserve the store of gold in the bank as effectually as the Bank Act of 1844 had indisputably done; and at the same time emancipate the bank from the fantastic theories which held it in thraldom, and permit it to act in commercial crises and monetary panics in accordance with the principles of the Bullion Report and of all former financial authorities, which had been proved to be true by uniform experience, and further confirmed by the experience of 1857 and 1866, shortly to be described. In this I claim to have perfectly succeeded. While I was reflecting on this complex problem, and hitherto saw no solution to it, a very sudden and severe monetary drain took place in the autumn of 1855. One day, during this drain, happening to be on duty at the bank, a customer came in and wanted me to do something. Having been only a few months in the bank, and therefore a perfect neophyte in banking, I had not the remotest idea what he wanted me to do; and, accordingly, I set him to talk, in order to give myself time to think. He then made this revelation to me. He said that when the rate of discount between two monetary centres differs by more than sufficient to pay the cost of sending bullion from one to the other—as was the case then between London and Paris—bullion dealers and others, who have had no operations necessitating remittances of gold, fabricate bills for the express purpose of exporting bullion from the cheaper centre to the dearer for the purpose of reaping the profit during the currency of the bills. Not only that, but foreign merchants and bankers hurry over their bills for discount and take away the gold. To take an extreme case. Suppose that London bankers perversely maintained their rate of discount at two per cent., while the rate in Paris was ten per cent. The meaning of that would be that persons could buy gold for two per cent. in London and sell it at ten per cent. in Paris. What would be the consequence? First, every post from foreign parts within a certain distance would bring over shoals of foreign bills to be discounted in London, and the proceeds immediately remitted abroad. Secondly, bullion dealers and others would immediately fabricate bills for the purpose of having them discounted, drawing out the proceeds and remitting them abroad. Now, both these classes of persons do not want bank notes at all—they want nothing but solid gold. The error upon which the whole theory of the Bank Act made shipwreck was the popular one, that when a banker discounts a bill he hands over bank notes in exchange for it over the counter in the first instance. But a banker never discounts or purchases bills of exchange with bank notes in the first instance. It is the very essence of "banking" that a banker in the first instance purchases a bill of exchange by creating a credit or a deposit in his customer's favor in his books. Then after, but not before, this credit or deposit has been created in his favor in the banker's books, the customer may either (1) have notes in exchange for it, or (2) may draw out the gold by means of a cheque. Now, persons engaged in the operations above described have no use for notes; their great object is to obtain credits or deposits in the books of bankers; and as soon as they have succeeded in obtaining these they instantly draw out all the gold and export it. Thus the whole of the gold may be drained away from the banks, and not a single note be withdrawn from circulation; which plays utter havoc with the brain-spun theories of the Bank Act of 1844. The express object of that act was to compel a £5 note to be withdrawn from circulation for every five sovereigns that were drawn out of the bank. And it was stoutly maintained that, if the directors perversely refused to do this, the mechanical action of the act would compel them to do so. It is now proved decisively, by a simple statement of facts and abundant practical experience, that by a due course of mismanagement every single sovereign may be drawn out of the banking department of the bank, and yet not a single note withdrawn from circulation, as all but happened in the great panic of 1857, and would actually have happened within an hour if the doors of the bank had been opened on the morning of the 13th November, and the act had not been suspended on the previous evening. Thus the Bank Act of 1844 is open to exactly the same fatal defect as the former scheme of the directors. The outside public only see the contests between bankers and merchants on the question of accommodation; but, as a matter of fact, it is the bullion dealers who are the natural enemies of bankers. Bullion dealers import and export bullion for profit, just as merchants do other merchandise. Like every one else, they buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest. And if they see that English bankers are willing to sell them their gold at two per cent., when the market price is ten per cent., they are quite ready to fool them to the top of their bent, and buy every ounce of gold they possess; thus draining away the bullion basis of the paper currency, and leaving the entire currency so many pieces of paper. This is so perfectly well understood now that there is no need of giving any further examples. It is very remarkable that, though this circumstance must have been known to hundreds of business men, yet it has never before, that we are aware of, found its way into print; it was never on any occasion alluded to in the Parliamentary debates; it was never mentioned by a single witness before the Parliamentary committees, nor in any Parliamentary report; and yet it is decisive of the whole question, and it gives the key to the solution of the whole difficulty. It is now demonstrated that instead of there being only one cause of the export of bullion, as maintained by the witnesses before the Bullion Committee—or two, as proved by the Bullion Report—there are in reality three causes: 1. Payments due for goods imported. 2. A depreciated paper money. 3. A difference in the rates of discount between two monetary centres more than sufficient to defray the cost of the transport of bullion from one to the other. This last discovery puts the coping-stone on the theory of the Bullion Report, and renders it absolutely complete; and shows how the principles of the Bullion Report are to be carried into practical application. The theory of credit and the paper currency is now complete. Ricardo and the Bullion Report utterly denied that the absolute quantity of paper at any time is any criterion of its being defective or excessive. They maintained that the only criterion of the legitimate quantity of paper—i. e., credit—is the market price of bullion and the state of the foreign exchanges. And their doctrines, after having been temporarily submerged by the fantastic theories of Lord Overstone and his sect, who beguiled Sir Robert Peel away from his sager mentors, have now re-emerged triumphant, and are now universally acknowledged to be true by all practical men of business in the world. I published these doctrines in my "Theory and Practice of Banking" in 1856; and from that time forward these principles have been understood and acted upon by the directors of the bank, and they received the most satisfactory confirmation; because in the Committee of the Commons on the great monetary panic of 1857, Mr. Norman, who had been one of the leading supporters of Lord Overstone's dogmas and of the Bank Act of 1844, candidly acknowledged that the directors of the bank had found the rate of discount amply sufficient means of controlling their issues. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1857. The crisis we have last considered was the inevitable termination of a multiplicity of derangements of the proper course of commerce. No one conversant with commercial history could fail to foresee that the entanglements of so large a portion of the public with railway speculations, and the losses caused by the failures of the harvest, must produce a crisis. We have seen that this panic gave a fatal blow to the prestige of the Bank Act of 1844, which was enacted in express contradiction to the unanimous opinions of the most experienced authorities of former times whom it professed to follow. They had invariably protested against imposing a cast-iron limit on the issues of the bank. The experience of the crisis of 1847, amply confirming that of 1793, 1797 and 1825, and also proving the wisdom of the action of the bank in 1836, showed that such a restriction cannot be maintained in the paroxysm of a great crisis without endangering the existence of the whole mass of commercial credit. The crisis we are now going to describe was of a very different nature. It burst upon the world in the most unexpected manner. It gave no premonitory symptoms which were apparent to any but very watchful and experienced eyes; and when it did come it revealed a depth of rottenness in the commercial world which appalled every one, and proved to be of much more severe intensity than that of 1847. The supporters of the Act of 1844 were much crestfallen by its failure in 1847, but they took courage again after the Crimean war. The act had been subjected to the test of a great commercial crisis and had failed. It was now subjected to the test of a war, and many of its opponents predicted that it would fail again; but it did not. Its effects during the Crimean war were probably salutary; but the war did not proceed to any such lengths as to test its powers severely. Peace was restored before the resources of the country were in any measure strained. For several weeks preceding, the "Economist" reported the money market to be as tight as it could well be. But on the 29th December it said: "The money market continues as stringent as it can well be. Paper at long dates cannot be discounted on any terms. The great extent of our trade, as indicated by the returns for November, confirms the suspicion awakened by the continued demand for money, that trade has received no serious check from the advance in the rate of discount, and is still more extensive than prudence warrants, or in the end will be justified." In the course of 1855 the directors began to perceive that the rate of discount was the true method of protecting the reserve of the bank. The following table—showing the bullion in the bank and the rate of discount during 1855—shows a most marked difference in the action of the bank in 1855 and during former periods: 1855. Bullion in the Issue Department. Rate of Discount. £ January 4 13,180,835 5 per cent. January 20 11,880,560 5 per cent. February 22 12,313,230 5 per cent. March 22 13,479,975 5 per cent. April 12 14,392,500 4 1-2 per cent. May 3 14,791,785 4 per cent. May 17 15,336,510 4 per cent. May 31 16,337,685 4 per cent. June 14 17,056,945 3 1-2 per cent. June 28 17,429,435 3 1-2 per cent. July 19 16,631,890 3 1-2 per cent. August 9 15,601,590 3 1-2 per cent. September 6 14,368,010 4 per cent. September 13 13,668,005 4 1-2 per cent. September 27 12,695,250 5 per cent. October 4 12,368,255 5 1-2 per cent. October 18 11,205,855 6 per cent. for bills not longer than 60 days. November 8 10,741,320 7 per cent. for bills not longer than 95 days. December 6 10,580,570 7 per cent. for bills not longer than 95 days. December 27 10,369,595 7 per cent. for bills not longer than 95 days. This most judicious conduct on the part of the bank, which merited nothing but the most unqualified commendation, excited a great clatter among a certain number of people who think that money is to be created ad libitum by writing "promises to pay" on bits of paper, when there is no money to pay them with, and who think it possible to send one's money abroad and also to have it at home. The papers were filled for weeks with letters and articles exhibiting all the rank follies which were once prevalent on the subject of the price of corn, and which have been so admirably exposed by Adam Smith. But not many years afterwards a marked change for the better took place. The majority of writers then began to understand that the rate of discount is the true and supreme regulating power of the paper currency; and instead of assailing the bank with howls of execration when it did its duty in raising the rate of discount, they generally commended it. This was great, real and sound progress in the spread of economic science. At the end of 1855 the Queen exercised the power reserved in the Act of 1844 to enable the Bank of England to extend its issues to not more than two-thirds of the amount of those of any banks of issue that might cease to issue notes. From the passing of the act up to this period, forty-seven banks, whose authorized issues amounted to £712,623, ceased to issue their own notes; and on the 13th December, 1855, the Queen in Council issued an order authorizing the Bank of England to increase its issues to the amount of £475,000 upon public securities. But this is not the bona fide increase in the issuing power of the bank; for in the year 1854 the Clearing House was organized on a better plan; and whereas before that an average amount of £200,000 of bank notes was required to adjust its transactions, by the new system these were totally dispensed with, and no notes at all are now used. Moreover, by the admission of the joint-stock banks to the Clearing House they were saved from keeping an enormous amount of notes to meet the "bankers' charges," which no one who was not behind the scenes could estimate. These notes, therefore, now became available to the bank to use for commercial purposes; and consequently are to be considered as so much additional power of issue to the bank, which thus had in reality acquired an increased power of issue far exceeding a million. For several months after the beginning of 1856 the money market continued in a state of great "tightness" and the bullion in the bank scarcely varied. The lowest was on the 26th of April, when it stood at £9,081,675; after that it gradually rose, and the rate of discount fell in summer to about 4 1-4 to 4 1-2; but in October the bullion fell very considerably again, and discount rose to 7 and 8 per cent., and a pressure followed of about the same severity as in 1855 and continued with very little variation to the end of the year. On December the 4th discount was 6 1-2; on the 18th, 6 per cent., and it continued so till the autumn of 1857. These rates were, of course, very much higher than the average ones of former times, and they were one ground of accusation brought by many against the act; but in truth they were its very merit. The directors had now learned from experience, and it was these very variations which preserved the security of the bank. In August nothing seemed amiss to the public eye. "Things were then pretty stationary," said the governor of the bank. "The prospects of the harvest were very good; there was no apprehension that commerce at that time was otherwise than sound. There were certain far-seeing persons who considered that the great stimulus given by the war expenditure, which had created a very large consumption of goods imported from the East and other places, must now occasion some collapse, and still more those who observed that the merchants, notwithstanding the enhanced prices of produce, were nevertheless importing, as they had done successfully in the previous years. But the public certainly viewed the trade as sound, and were little aware that a crisis of any sort was impending, far less that it was so near at hand." The bullion at this time was £10,606,000, the reserve £6,296,000 and the minimum rate of discount 5 1-2, when on the 17th of August the bank entered into a negotiation with the East India Company to send one million of specie to the East. Things were in this state when, about the middle of September, news came of a great depreciation of American railway securities. It was found that for a long time they had been carrying on an extravagant system of management and paying dividends not earned by traffic. The system had at last collapsed; and, of course, an enormous depreciation of their stock followed, to the amount of nearly twenty per cent. It was supposed that as much as eighty millions of this stock was held in England, and that the effects of this fall would be very serious. On the 25th of August the Ohio Life and Trust Company, with deposits to the amount of £1,200,000, stopped payment. The panic spread throughout the Union. Discount rose to 18 and 24 per cent. On the 17th of October news came that 150 banks in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Rhode Island had stopped payment. The drain was then beginning to be severe on the Bank of England. On the 8th October the bullion was £9,751,000, the reserve £4,931,000, and discount was raised to 6 per cent. On the 12th the rate at Hamburg was 7 3-4, and bullion was flowing to New York; discount was then raised to 7 per cent. About this time rumors strongly affecting the Western Bank of Scotland were abroad. On the 19th discount was raised to 8 per cent. The commercial disasters were increasing in America. In one week the Bank of France lost upwards of a million sterling. The bullion in the bank had sunk to £8,991,000, and the reserve to £4,115,000. Discount was raised to 7 1-2 in Paris and 9 per cent. in Hamburg. On the 20th a deputation from the Western Bank of Scotland applied for assistance, but the bank was afraid to undertake so enormous a concern. The Borough Bank of Liverpool was also in difficulties, and after some time the bank agreed to assist them to the amount of £1,500,000, on condition of their winding up; but the arrangements fell through in consequence of the Liverpool bank closing its doors before it was completed. On the 13th October a general run took place on the New York banks in consequence of the severe measures of restriction they were obliged to adopt to protect themselves. Eighteen immediately stopped, and soon afterwards, out of sixty-three banks, only one maintained its payments. This immediately reacted on Liverpool and Glasgow, which were much involved with American firms. By the 19th October, the failures began to be numerous in this country. Uneasiness greatly increased in London. On the 28th, the principal discount house applied to the bank for an assurance that they would give them any assistance that they might require. On the 30th, an express came for £50,000 (sovereigns) for a Scotch bank, part of £170,000, and £80,000 for Ireland. On the 5th November discount was raised to 9 per cent. The great house of Dennistoun, with liabilities of nearly two millions, stopped payment on the 7th, and the Western Bank closed its doors on the 9th. Failures in London rapidly increased. Purchases and sales of stock were enormous, much beyond what they had ever been before. The bullion in the bank had sunk to £7,719,000, and the reserve to £2,834,000. On the 9th, discount was raised to 10 per cent. On the 10th of November, a large discount house applied to the bank for £400,000. The Bank of France raised its rate to 8, 9 and 10 per cent. for one, two and three months. Another English bank was assisted. The City of Glasgow Bank then stopped. On that day the discounts at the bank were £1,126,000. On the 10th and 11th, upwards of one million sterling in gold was sent to Scotland, and there was a great demand for Ireland. On the 11th, Sanderson & Co., the great bill-brokers, stopped payment, with deposits of three and a-half millions. On the 12th, the discounts at the bank were £2,373,000. On the 11th, in consequence of these sudden demands for Scotland and Ireland, the bullion was reduced to £6,666,000 and the reserve to £1,462,000. As the failures in London became more tremendous, discounts became more and more contracted. The stunning news of the stoppage of so many banks created a banking panic. Private banks stopped discounting altogether. The only source of discount was the Bank of England. The public, however, and the directors knew that the precedent of 1847 must be followed; and though they made no direct application to the Government for the suspension of the act, they laid the state of the bank continually before them and continued to discount as if they knew the act must be suspended. Then private persons, being unable to obtain discounts, began to make a run for their balances. When universal ruin was at last impending, the Government, on the 12th of November, sent a letter to the bank to say that, if they should be unable to meet the demands for discounts and advances upon approved securities, without exceeding the limits of their circulation prescribed by the Act of 1844, they would be prepared to propose to Parliament a bill of indemnity for any excess so issued. In order, however, to prevent the temporary relaxation of the act from being extended beyond the necessities of the case, the rate of discount was not to be reduced below the then present rate, ten per cent. The issue of this letter immediately calmed the public excitement. But on the evening of the 12th the total banking reserve of the bank and all its branches was reduced to £581,000. To show the state the bank was reduced to, the governor gave in a paper to the Parliamentary committee with the following figures, showing its reserve on the 11th and 12th November. On Wednesday, November 11th, the reserve consisted of: Notes in London £375,005 Notes at branches 582,705 £957,710 Gold coin in London £310,784 Gold coin at branches 97,665 408,449 Silver coin in London £44,046 Silver coin at branches 51,948 95,994 Total reserve £1,462,153 On Thursday, November 12th, at night, the reserve consisted of: Notes in London £68,085 Notes at branches 62,545 £130,630 Gold coin in London £274,953 Gold coin at branches 83,255 358,208 Silver coin in London £41,106 Silver coin at branches 50,807 91,913 Total reserve £580,751 That is to say, the total reserve in London on the evening of the 12th was £384,144! Such were the resources of the Bank of England to commence business with on the morning of the 13th! "Truly," said the governor, "it must have entirely ceased discounting, which would have brought an immediate run upon it; and the bankers' balances alone were £5,458,000. It is easy to see that the bank could not have kept its doors open an hour." The governor of the bank said that the panic of 1857 was not so great as that of 1847, but that the real commercial pressure was more intense. This is proved by the fact that, while in the former year the issue of the letter immediately allayed the panic, and by that means stopped the demand for notes, and there was only required an issue of £400,000 in notes to surmount all difficulties, which did not exceed the statutory limits; in 1857 the issue of the Government letter produced no cessation of the demand for advances. The statutory limit was £14,475,000 of notes issued on securities, and there were issued in excess of them: Nov. 13 £186,000 14 622,000 16 860,000 17 836,000 18 852,000 19 896,000 20 998,000 21 617,000 Nov. 23 £397,000 24 317,000 25 81,000 26 243,000 27 342,000 28 184,000 30 15,000 Being a total of £7,376,000. On the meeting of Parliament, an act was passed permitting a temporary suspension of the Bank Act till February 1st, 1858, provided that the directors did not reduce their discount below ten per cent. On the 24th December they reduced it to eight per cent., thereby reviving the operation of the act. This great crisis of 1857, far exceeding in intensity that of 1847, added another proof upon proof that, in a great commercial crisis, the restrictive theory will bring about the universal failure of merchants and bankers; and that the expansive theory is the only one which can save both. THE MONETARY PANIC OF 1866. In 1858, the inevitable consequence followed from the crash of 1857. The enormous mass of false trading being cleared away, money naturally flowed into the bank, and the quantity of bullion gradually and steadily increased up to the end of the year. The bank now learned to adopt much higher rates of discount than formerly. In 1847, it kept the rate at five per cent. while the bullion was under £10,000,000; in 1858, the rate of five per cent. was maintained till the bullion exceeded £15,000,000—a great advance in sound principle. In my "Dictionary of Political Economy," Art. "Banking in England," § 254, published not long after this great crisis, we said: "This year (1858) passed away in great tranquillity, persons not having forgotten the lesson of 1857. But we cannot doubt, judging from all former experience, that an uneasy spirit will soon be abroad again; we cannot doubt that the brood of speculators are now anxiously casting about to see if they can plant the seeds of the next crisis; and it is the duty of those who are now at the head of monetary affairs to be on the watch to counteract all such attempts as they can detect; and in the meantime, the most interesting question, in a banking point of view, is—What is to be the next mania? Time in due course gave an answer to this question. There is nothing special to arrest our attention during the next few years. The rates of discount continued generally moderate throughout 1859 and 1860. In February, 1861, it rose for a short time to eight per cent., but soon subsided again. The unhappy civil war in America then being imminent, created natural apprehension as to our cotton supplies, and most persons could foresee that this would lead to monetary complications. These, however, were for the future. During 1861 and 1862, the money market was, generally speaking, extremely easy; the issue of paper by both the belligerent governments having the inevitable effect of driving bullion over to this country; consequently, trade flourished surprisingly, and the price of money was very easy. So things went on until October, 1863, when every one began to foresee a disturbance in the money market. In the first place, the rapid rise in the price of cotton, from the failure of the supply from the Southern States of America, forced up the price to a great height. The world had to be searched to produce the supply. Immense quantities came from the East Indies, from Egypt, from the Brazils, besides other quarters. This vast trade, being suddenly created, had to be paid for in cash. Consequently, a great drain of silver began towards the East, which was obtained from Paris and Hamburg—the great marts for silver as London is for gold. The Italian Government also contracted a loan at this time. The law of limited liability began to operate at the same time, and the number of new companies being formed under it inspired uneasiness. The Bank of France lost great quantities of specie. The Bank of England raised its rate twice in one week from five to six and then to seven. The Bank of France also raised its rate to seven, and spoke of issuing 50-franc notes; on the 2d of December the bank raised its rate to seven, and on the 3d to eight. At the same time a great fall took place in the Russian exchange, in consequence of certain Government measures not having succeeded. In consequence of these circumstances, the reserves of the bank were considerably strengthened after a short time. But in January, 1864, a fresh export of specie began, and continued with great severity till the middle or end of May, so that discount varied from eight to seven and six, and again up to nine. With a few fluctuations, this great pressure continued all through the summer. Having fallen to six per cent. in June, it gradually rose again to nine in September. After that it gradually fell to five per cent. in June, 1865. Already in March, 1864, the number of new companies formed under the limited liability principle gave great uneasiness. Up to that time, it appeared there were 263 companies formed, with a nominal capital of £78,135,000, of which twenty-seven were banks and fourteen discount companies. In August, 1864, the long-dated acceptances of the new financial companies began to press on the market and lay the foundations of the crisis of 1866. In April, the Bank of England was admitted into the Clearing House, thereby still further economizing the use of bank notes. On the 8th of September, the bank raised its rate to nine per cent., and this measure stopped the foreign drain, lowered the price of foreign commodities and strengthened their reserves. The price of cotton was greatly lowered, owing to the expected peace in America; and this rise in the rate of discount, striking on a falling market, produced an immense curtailment of business in all directions. On the 20th of June, 1865, the rate of discount reached its minimum—three per cent. On the 5th of August it was raised to four, and then gradually and continuously, with very slight fluctuations, till it culminated in the crisis of May, 1866. In November, a strong foreign drain began; the exchange fell, and this growing stronger in January, 1866, the bank raised its rate on the 6th. This had some effect in arresting the drain, but it did not bring in fresh supplies from abroad. At this period, the National Provincial Bank transferred its head office to London, and in consequence was, by the Statute of 1826, obliged to give up its issues of notes, which amounted to £442,371. Several other banks having ceased to issue since the Bank of England was last authorized to increase its issues of notes, the bank was now permitted to increase its issues on securities to £15,000,000. The high rate of interest here caused a good deal of foreign money to be invested in long-dated bills. Towards the end of January, the difficulties began, which brought on the panic of May. In consequence of there having been no Parliamentary inquiry, as might have been expected, the circumstances of this panic have never been fully explained. But it may be stated, generally, that these finance and discount companies had advanced enormous sums of money to promote great enterprises, such as railways and other schemes which could never repay their cost until completed, which might take years. The first company that failed was the Joint Stock Discount Company, in February. This spread a general feeling of alarm, as the doings of this company were merely a type of a large amount of business, which was known to have been engaged in by numerous other companies. In March, Barned's Bank, at Liverpool, stopped payment, with liabilities of upwards of three and a-half millions. Several great railway contractors suspended, involving in discredit the companies with whom they were known to have "financed." On the 3d May, the bank raised its rate of discount to seven per cent. Every one now felt that the long-dreaded crisis was at last come. The air was thick with rumors. Every one knew that it was now merely a question of weeks, perhaps of days, when the storm would burst. On the 8th of May, the bank raised its discount to eight per cent. The advocates of the Bank Act, in their usual strain, proclaimed that on no account whatever must the act be suspended. Such a thing was not to be thought of. These wise persons were quite oblivious of 1847 and 1857. Credit was then tottering, and received a blow from the report of the speech of the Emperor Napoleon III., said to have been addressed by him to a meeting at Auxerre, in which he expressed his detestation of the treaties of 1815. This, in the feverish political state of the Continent, was held to mean that he was determined on war. It is possible that this excitement might have passed off, as the bank had a fair reserve in the Banking Department, and abundance of bullion in the Issue Department. On the 9th of May, the bank revised its discount to ten per cent. On this day, however, occurred the event which it is probable produced the great panic. The Mid-Wales Railway Company had accepted bills of exchange to the amount of £60,000, which were held by three parties—Bateman; Overend, Gurney & Co., and the National Discount Company. The company had dishonored the bills, and actions had been brought against them by the three parties above named. As ill fortune would have it, judgment in these actions was delivered on the 9th of May in the very height of the excitement. The Court of Common Pleas held unanimously that the railway company had no authority whatever to accept such bills; and, consequently, that they were absolutely invalid and so much waste paper. For some time back, it was known that Overend, Gurney & Co. were very deep in with contractors and other parties. Moreover, they held forged bills to a large extent on another firm. Their shares were pressed on the market and were going down. This fall in their shares produced a steady withdrawal of their deposits. The judgment in the case of the Mid-Wales Railway converted this into a complete panic. And on the afternoon of the 10th of May the terrible news spread through London that the great establishment of Overend, Gurney & Co. had stopped payment, with liabilities exceeding £10,000,000—the most stupendous failure that had ever taken place in the city. This news only spread about after banking hours; but every one could foresee what the effects would be next morning. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said next evening, in the House, that the oldest inhabitant in the city declared that the excitement was without a parallel. Early in the evening, he was questioned as to whether Government had authorized the bank to issue notes in excess of the legal limit. The Chancellor replied that he had not yet done so, but that he had received a deputation from the private bankers, and was expecting one from the joint-stock banks on the subject. Very soon afterwards this came, and the members of the Cabinet having retired to a committee room and consulted, the Chancellor, later in the evening, announced, amidst the loudest cheers from all parts of the House, that the Government, following the precedents of 1847 and 1857, had informed the bank that, if they thought proper to make advances beyond the legal limit the Government would bring in a bill of indemnity. He also stated that the bank had advanced £4,000,000 that day. The announcement of the suspension of the Bank Charter Act produced the best effects next morning. The bank raised its rate to ten per cent., and everything calmed down; and though, subsequently to this, some other stoppages took place, yet the knowledge that the bank had the power to issue notes on good securities abated the panic. On the 18th of May, the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that the bank had advanced £12,225,000 in five days. The sum that was paid away during the panic will probably never be known, but it was something fabulous. We were informed, on good authority, that one bank alone paid away £2,000,000 in gold in six hours. Establishments, whose names need not be particularized, stopped payment, whose liabilities according to their last published balance sheet amounted to £37,222,716; besides several others whose liabilities were not stated, but which would probably bring up the sum total to £50,000,000. Besides these actual stoppages, several other banks connected with the East confessed to immense losses. Thus, the Bank of Hindostan, China and Japan stated its profits at £23,485, and its losses at £87,796, with a further expected loss of £70,000; the Asiatic Bank stated its profits at £61,494, and its losses at £142,000; the Bank of Queensland stated its profits at £10,373, and its losses at £42,071. What losses the other banks made we, of course, have no means of knowing, but they were probably very heavy. In the great crisis and panic of 1866, the law that the rate of discount is the most powerful method of controlling the exchanges, seemed for some time to be at fault. From the beginning of that year the difference in the rates of discount at London and Paris was constantly two per cent.; and gradually increased to three, four and even six per cent.; and, while the storm was raging in England the Bank of France was in a state of the greatest serenity. The high rates in England were totally unable to prevent a severe foreign drain; and the Bank of France rapidly gained large quantities of bullion while its rate of discount was only four per cent. This remarkable, and indeed unprecedented, phenomenon led many persons to question the truth of the law; and even to maintain that the rates of discount in different countries ought to be quite independent of each other. But, it is to be remembered that the rate of discount, although in modern times the most powerful, is only one of several causes which influence the flow of bullion which may at any time act in the same or contrary directions. On this occasion, it was for a short period overpowered by other causes. The principal of these was the utter discredit into which England had fallen. It was fully expected that the Bank of England would stop payment, and that there would be a general stoppage of the other banks, involving the whole mercantile community in ruin. The high rate of discount failed to attract supplies, because it was feared that the whole principal would be lost. In consequence, large quantities of long-dated bills on England were hurried over and realized at any sacrifice, and the proceeds remitted abroad. But as soon as these temporary causes had ceased to act, large supplies of bullion poured in, and the equilibrium between credit and bullion was restored. As was well pointed out in a pamphlet by Mr. Fowler at the time, it was only that a longer period than usual was required to produce the effect on the exchanges than had been found needful on former occasions. With respect to the Bank of France, the explanation is also easy. There was no commercial crisis in France, but strong expectations of war. Consequently, mercantile enterprise was curbed, and specie naturally flowed into the Bank of France. Also, in anticipation of war, the Government of Italy suspended cash payments and issued paper money. This, of course, necessarily drove specie out of the country, and it also naturally went to the Bank of France. Thus, it is seen how necessary it is to have a knowledge of the circumstances at any period to understand the operation of the laws of economics. Thus we see that true science is vindicated by experience. and the history of banking since 1866 has amply confirmed the truth of this doctrine, which was first demonstrated in the first edition of my "Theory and Practice of Banking" in 1856, and has since then made its way to universal acceptance. The Bank of France was exempted from the operation of the usury laws in France to enable it to adopt it, and by a sedulous attention to this principle, the notes of the Bank of France, which were for several years inconvertible after the war of 1870, circulated exactly at par with specie, and in fact every bank in the world is now managed on this principle. THE CRISIS OF 1890. The recent crisis, from which we are only now emerging, which was only prevented by the splendid management of the Bank of England from culminating in the most terrible monetary panic recorded in history, amply confirms all the principles and doctrines enunciated in this work. After the severe crisis of 1878, when the country only escaped a monetary panic by the skin of its teeth, things went pretty smoothly for several years. But soon after that the great Argentine Republic, of immense extent and boundless resources, which was constantly receiving a vast immigration, especially from Italy, got into the hands of an unscrupulous "ring," who created loan after loan for the ostensible purpose of developing the resources of the country. Most unfortunately, the great house of Baring Brothers & Co., one of the leading merchant-bankers of the world, constituted themselves one of the principal agents for floating these loans with the public. Argentina was advancing by leaps and bounds, and for several years these loans were received with great favor. But when loan after loan was launched with boundless profusion, people began to take alarm, and they ceased to be taken up by the public. Added to this, one of the usual South American revolutions took place; and the crew who were chiefly responsible for the loans, and who according to popular report, had feathered their own nests to the tune of millions, were driven from power, which of course, was a fatal blow to Argentine credit. Rumors and reports got about affecting many great houses, but as yet no one ventured to question the stability of the great house of Baring Brothers & Co. But, at last, on the 8th November, the appalling intelligence was made known to the governor of the bank that this great house was in the extremest danger of stopping payment, with liabilities to the amount of £21,000,000; and that the most energetic measures must be taken without a moment's delay to avert the catastrophe. The magnitude of the panic which would have ensued if this house had been allowed to shut its doors, may be gauged by the fact that, in 1866, the liabilities of Overend, Gurney & Co., which was up to that time the most stupendous failure in the city, were only £10,000,000; whereas those of Baring Brothers & Co. were £21,000,000. Moreover, Overend, Gurney & Co.'s liabilities were entirely internal, whereas the paper of Baring Brothers & Co. was held by millions in foreign countries. It is not too much to say that, if this house had been allowed to stop, it would have produced a monetary panic throughout the whole world. Now, at this time, the whole available resources of the bank, under the Bank Act of 1844, to meet the awful calamity, were just about £10,000,000, which would have been nothing but a drop in the bucket. In this emergency, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was summoned in hot haste to give counsel in the city. Popular report attributes the measures taken chiefly to the wisdom of Mr. Lidderdale, the governor. With magnificent energy, the bank itself being utterly unable to meet the crisis unaided, the joint-stock banks in London, the provinces, and in Scotland were summoned to combine, and a guaranteed fund of £15,000,000 was subscribed for. Moreover, the news of the danger would not improbably have brought on a panic and a run for gold. Vast quantities of stock were thrown on the market, which reduced it lower than it had been for years, and far different from the halcyon days when Mr. Goschen effected his conversion. It is also said that some of the joint-stock banks contemplated ceasing to discount, which would have at once brought on a panic—and were only dissuaded from so doing by the peremptory and energetic remonstrances of the governor. But to insure against a possible panic, it was necessary to have a provision of notes; and as, under the Bank Act of 1844, additional notes could only be issued against an equal amount of gold, several millions of gold were required to be got together without a moment's delay. The rate of discount was six per cent., and the bank did not dare to raise it higher; because, with its exceedingly restricted power of issue, raising the rate of discount would have been the very thing to aggravate the panic, and bring on the bank a demand for gold and notes. Accordingly, the bank contracted a loan for £3,000,000 for a short period with the Bank of France; and £1,500,000 with St. Petersburg, and obtained £500,000 from other quarters. It had, therefore, the power to issue £5,000,000 in notes and felt itself secure. By these energetic means, in such splendid contrast to the proceedings of the bank on former occasions, it was at length announced that all the liabilities of Baring Brothers & Co. were protected; but at the cost of the liquidation of this world-renowned firm; and the frightful monetary panic was averted, which would have thrown all former ones into the shade. The nearest parallel to this crisis was that of 1838, when the greatest American houses were in danger, and the bank promptly and instantly advanced £6,000,000 and averted a monetary panic. The circumstances of this great crisis suggest the following reflections: 1. It dissipates the last vestiges of Peel's hallucination, that all commercial crises are due to excessive issues of bank notes, and that if these could be suppressed commercial crises could be prevented. 2. Although in ordinary times, the rate of discount is the true supreme power of controlling credit and the paper currency, it is utterly too slow to attract millions of gold, if required to be got together in a few days. 3. That while the bank is bound down to such a narrow restriction of its power of issuing notes, raising the rate of discount too much will aggravate the panic, and bring on a run for notes and gold. 4. That to give full play and efficacy to the power of the rate of discount, it must be free and uncontrolled, and trusted as the sole controlling power, without any restriction in the power of issuing notes. 5. It also demonstrates the absurdity of not only restricting the power of issuing notes, but also of locking up half the resources of the bank out of the power of the directors. While the bank was busily scouring the world to scrape up £5,000,000 of gold, it actually had £10,000,000 of gold in its own vaults, which it was unable to touch. 6. It demonstrates that the Bank of England is utterly too small a machine to meet such a crisis alone, when it would have had the whole banking and mercantile community on its shoulders at once. To meet such tremendous crises, as all future ones will be, the Bank of England must act together with all the other banks in the country to support the mercantile community. 7. It proves that while commercial crises in our modern system of credit are unavoidable, monetary panics are preventable, and are brought about by bad banking legislation and bad management of the bank. 8. It gives the coup de grâce to the restrictive theory; and shows that, when a great commercial crisis is imminent, the banks must act together instantly and promptly, and energetically support the mercantile community, and not wait till half the city is in ruins, as on former occasions. The bank on this occasion was saved by the energetic measures of Mr. Lidderdale, who is entitled to the gratitude of the whole banking and mercantile community in the world for his bold, prompt and energetic measures, which were the only ones possible under the circumstances. But it is too degrading to be repeated. Of course our excellent friends, the French, were jeering and gibing, and mocking at the Bank of England having to be taken in tow by the Bank of France. If the Bank of England had had the whole of its resources at command; if it had had a reserve of £20,000,000 of gold instead of £10,000,000, with unlimited powers of issue, it, with the assistance of the other banks, might have tided over the crisis with perfect security, by means of the rate of discount alone. If the present Bank Act had been in force in 1838, the bank could never have saved the American merchants, and there would have been a panic, as in 1847, 1857 and 1866. All these things show the indispensable necessity of a thorough and scientific reform of the entire banking system of the country. Condition of Joint-Stock Banks (1) of England and Wales and (2) of Ireland, October 19, 1895. SECTION X. GENERAL CONCLUSION. I NOW may conclude by some remarks on the existing banking system of England. On its foundation in 1694, the Bank of England received no monopoly in its favor, and not till 1708; and this monopoly, with some modifications, has endured to the present day. The Bank of Scotland, founded in 1695, at first received a monopoly in its favor for twenty-one years; but it was not renewed; and at the very notion of the bank claiming a monopoly of banking, the Scotch rose up with their usual democratic fervor, and scouted the idea that a single company should possess a monopoly of banking. Since then, banking in Scotland has been allowed to develop itself freely and spontaneously, so as to meet the growing requirements of the country. And though there have been some terrible catastrophes, such as the Ayr Bank, the Western Bank and the City of Glasgow Bank, these disasters never shook the solid system of the older and well-managed banks. There have also been commercial crises, as there must necessarily be in every commercial country; but there have not been any such monetary panics as those which have shaken England to its foundations—a very good proof of what has been advanced, that although commercial crises are innate and inevitable in the modern system of credit, yet the monetary panics are brought about by bad banking legislation and bad management of the bank, and that they are preventable. Under the circumstances, I think that the monopolies conferred on the Banks of Scotland and England were justifiable as temporary measures, in consequence of the subject not being properly understood, and the number of wild, reckless speculations which were abroad. I think that the monopoly of the Bank of England was justifiable up to 1742; or at latest up to 1762; but after that it has been nothing but an unmitigated evil. For it was after 1762 that the industrial energies both in England and Scotland burst forth with unparalleled splendor; and they required an immense extension of banking accommodation. This was supplied in Scotland by the chartered banks throwing out branches in all directions, and carrying banking accommodation into all the principal towns of the country; and these, of course, were not independent institutions, governed by their own will; but they were integral parts of their head offices, and under the supervision and control of their experienced managers and directors. But in England, when the very same accommodation was required to develop the multiplied industries—canal making, agricultural and manufacturing—with which the country was teeming, the Bank of England would neither establish branches of its own in the various provincial towns, nor would it permit powerful and local solid banks to be founded in them. The consequence was that hundreds of country traders sprung up as bankers to supply the indispensable currency. The majority of them were perfectly unfit from their want of capital and experience to do so; and they were all perfectly independent of each other, without any central control and supervision. No doubt great things were effected by them; but when terror and alarm came in 1793 and 1797, they were swept away in multitudes. These local banks being, the majority of them, not possessed of any sufficient capital to bear such a strain, flung themselves for support on the Bank of England. Thus, in 1797, there were Mr. Pitt, the whole mercantile world, and hundreds of country banks all tugging at the money bags of the Bank of England. Thus, the bank, by its unjustifiable monopoly, not only prevented solid banks being founded, capable of maintaining themselves, but brought hundreds of country banks on its shoulders; and the directors, dazed and confused, were wholly unable to manage the bank under such an unexampled strain, and thus brought on a stoppage. Up till 1762, I think that the bank was adequate for the wants of the country. It would be impossible to over-estimate the services of the Bank of England to the State—it was a great pillar of State. It was entirely owing to the reorganization of the finances, and the extension of solid credit by the bank, that under the masterful and sagacious guidance of William, England gradually rose from the nadir of her degradation under the two last Stuarts, when she was scarcely better than a wretched little island in a stormy sea, and very little more than an appanage of the Crown of France. It was the Bank of England alone that enabled William to prosecute his Continental wars; that supplied the funds for Marlborough's immortal campaigns, when the name of England was heard for the first time on the Continent with terror and respect, after an eclipse of half a century, and which steadily led her onward through the matchless Ministry of Pitt, till in 1763 she attained that place in the scale of nations which she has since held. But statesmen are mostly purblind; they live from hand to mouth; their energies are exhausted in providing for the wants of the moment, and maintaining themselves in power; and they usually fail to see that many institutions which may have been useful in their day have become inadequate and insufficient under changing circumstances. Things, they think, will last their day; after them the deluge; until at the last the organization comes down with a crash, and then they are compelled to pay attention to it. After 1762, one such pillar as the Bank of England became wholly insufficient for the expanding wealth and commerce of England. It required many such. In the natural course of things a multitude of joint-stock banks would have grown up to meet the wants of expanding commerce. Decades of years passed away, and still the Ministers allowed the solid progress of commerce to be throttled in the grasp of a single joint-stock company. And instead of the gradual formation of powerful institutions, which would have given additional support to the State and to each other, multitudes of small banks sprung up, which not only were no support to each other, but which in moments of danger threw themselves on the single bank, and were an additional source of embarrassment to it and aided to bring it down. It seems to me a deep blot on the financial statesmanship of Mr. Pitt that he always steadfastly resisted the formation of powerful banks. I do not share the opinion of Sir Robert Peel, that the suspension of cash payments in 1797 was a "fatal" measure; on the contrary, I believe that it was absolutely indispensable. Nor did the suspension of cash payments to the public in any way involve the necessity of the depreciation of the bank note. In 1797, the Scotch banks, without any protection from legislation, agreed among themselves to suspend cash payments to the public. But they rigorously maintained their system of exchanges among themselves. By this means no single bank could continue to over-issue, because it would have been called upon to redeem its over-issues. This state of matters continued for twenty years; and during that period the Scotch bank notes never sustained any depreciation beyond that of the Bank of England note, which they were bound to follow. When the time came they resumed payments in cash to the public without the slightest trouble or difficulty. And why was this not the case in England? The reason was this, the Clearing House of London was a purely private institution, to which the Bank of England was not admitted. Now, from the evidence given before the Parliamentary committees, the management of the bank was most reckless during this period, and we know that she must have sustained immense losses. Now, when the notes she issued never came back to her in due course, what did she do? No outsider, of course, knew what these losses were. But to cover them up, she had nothing to do but to issue fresh torrents of paper, which were continually aggravating and inflating the channel of circulation, and sending up prices. If banking had been allowed to develop itself in England in its natural course, as it did in Scotland, there would have been a considerable number of joint-stock banks in London who would have established a clearing house; and every bank would have been obliged to redeem its over-issues in specie, and by this system of exchanges, the excessive issues would have been removed from circulation and the notes would have been kept at par, even though inconvertible with respect to the public, as the Scotch bank notes were. But the Bank of England not being in the Clearing House, was never called to account for its over-issues, and so could issue unlimited torrents of inconvertible notes, which fell to a ruinous discount, shaking the value of all property. Moreover, the unparalleled increase of manufactures, agricultural improvements, in consequence of the enhanced price of cereals and stock, commerce and population demanded an increased amount of currency, and country banks multiplied in all directions. In 1814, there were 900 country banks pouring forth torrents of paper currency; and this flood of paper, combined with the excessive issues of the bank itself, at last reduced the bank note to 14s. 6d. But in 1814-15-16 hundreds of these banks failed, and many millions of their notes were withdrawn from circulation. In consequence of this, the bank note rose almost to par, and if the bank had been managed with common prudence, it would have risen quite to par, and cash payments would have been resumed in the ordinary course of business without the least disturbance. The circumstances of this period afford one lesson of great importance. It is this: Governments and States should never issue paper money themselves. When States and Governments once begin to issue paper money, they never can resist the temptation to issue it in boundless quantities, so that it soon begins to depreciate, they have no power to redeem it, and the depreciation is incurable. Even those statesmen in 1813, who were most anxious to revert to cash payments, were constrained to allow that in process of time the argument passes over to depreciation. When depreciation has continued a certain time, all contracts and engagements are made in the depreciated paper and under inflated prices, and to compel them to redeem their debts in solid cash would be ruinous to all debtors. If the depreciation in 1814 had been brought about by issues of State paper money, England would have been in exactly the same position as Russia, Austria and many other States which have indulged in that fatal practice and were never able to resume cash payments. But in England this paper currency was supplied by the banks; and when the depreciation of the notes seemed absolutely hopeless, the failure of hundreds of banks withdrew many millions of paper currency from circulation, and enabled the remainder to right itself suddenly, at the cost of terrific suffering to those who had entered into engagements, based upon the inflated prices of this rotten paper. The sufferings endured for many years, and were produced by the disappearance of this rotten paper, and not by the Bank Act of 1819, as is so often ignorantly asserted. When governments want funds for public purposes, they should apply to the banks, and not issue paper money themselves. It is the duty of banks to supply the paper currency of the country, and not the Government; and to take measures to keep it at its par value by properly adjusting the rate of discount. The Government has no power to keep its paper money at par value by raising the rate of discount. In the dreadful calamities of 1870-71, the Government of France did not issue their own paper money; they applied to the Bank of France, and by the admirable management of the bank, its inconvertible notes, which for a short time suffered a very small depreciation, soon recovered, and for years circulated at an absolute par value with specie. When the Government wants accommodation, the banks should treat it exactly as they would do any other customer. They should grant it the accommodation required, if advisable, and charge it the market price for it. And it is the business of the banks, and they alone can take measures, to maintain their notes at their par value, even though inconvertible to the public, and then they would avoid the curse of irredeemable paper money. But if the Government issues torrents of inconvertible paper money it will drive all specie out of the country, and affect all values with the most ruinous fluctuations. And so the bank went on till 1826, when the great catastrophe of 1825 awoke the sleepy Ministry from their lethargy, which nothing but such a cataclysm could have done; and it was the clearly expressed opinion of all statesmen that the Bank of England was far too small a machine for the requirements of the country, and that its monopoly was an intolerable evil which must come to an end, and that the Scottish system of banking was far superior to the English. The bank was coerced into giving up a part of its monopoly, and allowing joint-stock banks to be formed in the provinces at a distance of not less than sixty-five miles from London, on the condition that they should do no business in London or within sixty-five miles therefrom. Now, this was not the Scottish system of banking, which is to have the head offices in the leading cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, with a network of branches in all quarters of the country, all under one management. But the provincial joint-stock banks of England were, on a large scale, only a number of isolated banks, and forbidden to have their head offices in London. But a few years afterwards, another most important breach was effected in the supposed monopoly of the bank. And now we see the important historical consequences of a total misconception of the nature of banking. In former days, it was understood that the express business of banking was to issue notes; and that was supposed to be the definition of banking. Now, that was not strictly accurate. The business of a bank is to create and issue rights of action, credits, debts (termed deposits) to its customers. And their customers might circulate these rights of action either by means of notes or cheques. No doubt, in the early days of banking, when it was a luxury of the rich, notes vastly predominated over cheques. Still, these documents are identical and their sole function is to circulate banking credits. Nevertheless, notes were conspicuous in the public eye, while cheques escaped observation. In 1742, when the words of the monopoly clause were tightened, the bank's privilege was defined to consist in issuing notes. But the use of cheques instead of notes gradually increased; and their greater safety than notes, in masses of a dense population, made London bankers discontinue issuing notes in 1793 of their own accord, and restrict their customers to the use of cheques. Thus it was shown, what had never been dreamed of before, that in such places as London banking could be carried on without the use of notes at all. In process of time persons who were anxious to establish joint-stock banks in London began to scrutinize the words of the monopoly clause, and they found that it did not prohibit the formation of joint-stock banks which should carry on their business in the then mode of London bankers without the use of notes. This opinion was declared to be correct by the Law Officers of the Crown, who pronounced that such banks were perfectly legal at common law. Thus the second great breach was effected in the monopoly of the bank, and joint-stock banks were founded in London. But still this was not the Scottish system of banking. All these banks, London and provincial, were merely isolated and local banks, having no communication with each other. I will now explain in what the essential superiority of Scotch banking consists. Money always has a tendency to accumulate in agricultural districts, or the supply exceeds the demand; and in manufacturing districts the demand exceeds the supply. Now, in Scotland, all the banks have some branches in the agricultural districts and other branches in the manufacturing districts. Consequently, the branches in the agricultural districts remit their surplus money to the head office, which transmits it to the manufacturing districts. And all this is done under one management, which does not conflict with its separate parts. But this could not be done in England, where all the banks are purely local. Consequently, banks in the agricultural districts had to send up their surplus money to establishments in London, and so lose their absolute control over it; and banks in the manufacturing districts remitted their bills to this establishment in London to be discounted and had the money sent down to them. Thus the monetary nervous system was severed into three parts, under three managements, instead of being all under one management, as in Scotland. These London establishments were the great discount houses, of which the chief was Overend, Gurney & Co. The danger of this system was that the agricultural banks lost all control over their own money, which was involved in the speculations of the London discount house; and the manufacturing banks were dependent for their very existence on their bills being discounted by the London house. The great panic of 1866, which brought about the fall of Overend, Gurney & Co., contributed greatly to break up this system. Since then, a far more healthy and natural system has been growing up. The Act of 1826 provided that if the provincial banks formed under it chose to establish their head offices in London and do London business they must give up their issues of notes in the provinces. The National Provincial Bank was a great provincial bank, with a large multitude of branches and an issue of £450,000 of notes in the provinces. But, in course of time, it found it expedient to establish its head office in London, even at the cost of giving up its issues in the provinces. This was similar to a genuine Scotch bank, with its head office in the capital and branches in every part of the country. Besides that, several banks in the southern counties agreed to amalgamate and open their head office in London, under the name of the Capital and Counties Bank, giving up, of course, their provincial issues. Moreover, the process of healthy amalgamation has been proceeding rapidly. Banks in Birmingham and Manchester have amalgamated with London banks; provincial banks have amalgamated with each other, and several private banks have amalgamated with joint-stock banks. Thus the banking system of this country has been gradually, and in recent times even rapidly, assuming the natural system—i. e., the system it would have assumed if it had been allowed to develop itself free from the monopoly of the Bank of England. And the more rapidly the process of amalgamation proceeds the better; till at last the system will be reduced to the natural one—namely, a comparatively small number of very powerful banks instead of a vast multitude of small ones. Then as this system proceeds with an accelerated pace, the great question will come of the restoration of the power of issuing notes to these great banks. The Bank Act of 1844 was of service in its day as a temporary measure until fuller knowledge and experience was obtained on the subject, and to give statesmen and financiers time to think upon devising a better system. But every one knows that it is utterly unsuited to the gigantic development and magnitude of modern commerce. All the theories upon which it is founded are utterly disproved; and Sir Robert Peel's extraordinary hallucination that all commercial crises originate in excessive issues of notes, which every one knew to be fallacious in his own day, has been scattered to the winds by 1847, 1857, 1866 and the crisis of 1890. Was it excessive issues of notes that tempted the great house of Baring to wreck its splendid name in wild speculations in South American securities? The experience of every commercial crisis for the last 130 years has incontestably demonstrated the indispensable necessity of the expansive theory in a great commercial crisis, in accordance with the unanimous doctrine of all the great financial authorities of former times, and given the coup de grâce to the restrictive theory which is enacted by the Bank Act of 1844. The great question will have to be considered of the restoration of the power of issuing notes to the banks of great power and undoubted solidity. No doubt, the unlimited power of issuing notes has left very evil memories in this country, somewhat similar to the horror of banking caused in France by the catastrophe of Law's Mississippi scheme. But that was owing to the erroneous nature of the system so long maintained by our purblind statesmen of allowing a single joint-stock bank to have a monopoly of banking in London, and preventing solid and powerful joint-stock banks being formed in the provinces, while every tinker and tailor, grocer and cheesemonger might issue unlimited torrents of notes at his own sweet will. But the question stands in a wholly different position at the present day. There is nothing more odious and intolerable than privileges and monopolies in banking. No English-speaking race will tolerate a dominant bank. When the monopoly of the Bank of Scotland expired, and when it growled because another bank was founded, the republican spirit of the Scotch utterly scouted the idea that one set of persons should have a monopoly of banking. Sir Robert Peel, who in 1826 was keen in favor of the Scotch system of an equality of banks, in 1844 completely turned his back on himself, and cited the example of the United States. But unfortunately the Bank of the United States had failed, utterly insolvent, six years before; and its action and its influence had been condemned in the severest terms by the President and every independent writer in the country. The people of the United States will not tolerate a dominant bank. No English colony will tolerate a dominant bank. But the system exists in England, and therefore it must be dealt with cautiously, temperately and tenderly. If, during the long period of its monopoly, the bank had extended its branches into all the great provincial towns, as the Bank of France has done, the case might have been different. But it lost the opportunity and it can never return. By the breaches in its monopoly a vast number of joint-stock banks have grown up in London and the provinces, daily growing in magnitude and some even approaching in magnitude to the bank itself. The bank is therefore no longer the absolutely supreme power; it is only primus inter pares. Now, a bank in this position is wholly unable to bear the stupendous strain cast upon it in the crisis of 1890. The system of banking ought to be an aristocratic republic. All banks ought to act together as they wisely did in that year. The Bank of England, under present circumstances, is quite incompetent to support the whole banking and mercantile interests, as it used to have to do in former times. The banks must unite to support the mercantile community, as they did for the first time in the recent crisis, and to be able to do this effectually they should be on an equality. There is nothing more odious and intolerable to English-speaking people than peculiar privileges and monopolies in banking. We freely admit that according to the prevailing ignorance on the whole subject, and according to his lights, the Bank Act of 1844 was probably the best thing that Sir Robert Peel could have done. But circumstances have changed. Floods of light have been thrown on the subject. The whole system of banking has been rapidly assuming a much healthier and more stable form, and the one it would have assumed in the course of nature, if it had not been forcibly prevented by law. Why then cling with fetish superstition to an act which is demonstrated to be founded on a whole series of erroneous theories, is in flat contradiction to all experience both preceding and subsequent to itself, and has failed in all the purposes it was intended to effect except one? The Bank Act of 1844 prohibited any new banks, private or joint-stock, formed after its date, from issuing notes; so that we have now a number of joint-stock banks which have the right to issue notes; and a great number of others, far larger and more powerful, which are prohibited from issuing notes. The National Provincial Bank was for many years allowed to issue notes to an unlimited extent; and never abused its rights. Now it is the greatest bank in England next to the Bank of England; and because it has greatly increased the solidity of the banking system by removing its head office to London, it has had to suppress an issue of £450,000 of notes in the provinces. The fact is that the still prevailing feeling with respect to notes arises from the dangerous system on which they were formerly allowed to be issued, and a total misconception of the nature of banking. No one would dream of reviving the old system of allowing every small trader in the country to issue notes ad libitum. In fact, it was only tolerated in former times because powerful banks were not allowed to be formed. Again, banking is almost universally supposed to consist in "borrowing money from one set of persons and lending that same money to another set of persons." And Mill supposes that issuing notes is an extension of a banker's business—which is, no doubt, the popular idea. But as we have fully shown, this is a pure fallacy and delusion. The essential business of all banks is to issue circulating rights of action, credits or debts to their customers, recorded in the first instance as entries in their books, termed deposits, and their customers may circulate these rights of action, credits or debts, either by means of notes or cheques. It lies with the customer to determine whether he will circulate these credits by notes or cheques, and not with the banker. And notes and cheques are absolutely identical in law and economics. As a matter of fact, notes of late years have been constantly diminishing both in absolute and relative importance as compared with cheques. We believe that there is not a single bank in England, private or joint-stock, which has the right of issuing notes, which has in circulation anything like their legal maximum. The total amount of banking credits in the United Kingdom may be taken in round numbers as about £1,000,000,000. It is these banking credits which are, for all practical purposes, the current money of the country. And the amount of these banking credits, circulated by means of notes, is absolutely insignificant, as compared with those which are circulated by means of cheques. In Scotland, with banking credits to the amount of £95,000,000, there are only £5,000,000 of notes in circulation; because in recent times cheques have come greatly more into use in Scotland, and have superseded notes. A similar cause has greatly diminished the circulation of notes in England. And yet notes alone are the subject of alarm, and are held to be currency; and cheques are wholly overlooked and neglected; and it is supposed that it is only necessary to provide for the safety of notes. The truth is that banks must provide for the safety of the whole of their liabilities both notes and deposits. Now, while banks were few in number and confined to the rich, and moreover were isolated from each other, notes were the most convenient form of circulating banking credits. But now that banks have multiplied in number, and entered into relations with each other by means of clearing houses, when population has so vastly increased, and almost every one keeps a banking account, cheques have not only superseded notes to a vast extent, but have increased to an enormous amount; so that the quantity of notes is constantly diminishing and the quantity of cheques is constantly increasing; and both are equally currency and banking liabilities. It is not then in issuing notes at the present day that the great danger of bad banking consists; but in granting the original credit; and when the credit is once granted, it is wholly immaterial whether it is circulated by notes or cheques; the liability and the danger is exactly the same in either case. Now there are certain circumstances, especially in commercial crises and in country districts, where the issue of notes is indispensable. To suppress £1 notes in Scotland would at once destroy one-third of the business of the banks, compel them to shut up multitudes of their branches, deprive large extents of thinly peopled districts of all banking accommodation, and compel the banks to keep double the quantity of gold they are now required to do under the present system. It is sometimes alleged that £1 notes tend to increase a panic; this no doubt was the case under the former system. But it is not the case when notes are issued by powerful and well organized banks like those of Scotland. When the Western Bank was known to be failing, the demand for gold was absolutely insignificant. When its customers drew their balances they took them in the bank's own notes and paid them into other banks. The other banks then called upon the Western Bank to meet its notes in the Clearing House in the usual way. This bank stopped payment, not from any run for gold, but from being unable to meet its exchanges. A certain number of banks still kept an insignificant amount of notes in circulation, which can only be done by the option of their customers. And it shows that their customers find notes more convenient than cheques. But the customers of non-issuing banks also want notes; and these banks are obliged to get them from the Bank of England. This is not only a heavy expense to themselves, but a severe strain on the resources of the Bank of England, because all the notes issued to the non-issuing banks are so much subtracted from the banking power of the Bank of England. Now, why should the customers of such splendid institutions as the National Provincial Bank, the London and County Bank, the Capital and Counties Bank, and many others, be deprived of the right of having the notes of these banks if they choose to have them? These banks are permitted to create banking credits to any unlimited amount they please; but directly it is proposed to allow their customers the choice between notes and cheques it sends a tremor of alarm through every old woman in the country of either sex. Thus the whole question now stands on a totally different footing to what it did in former times. The subject, supposed to be so complicated and incomprehensible, is now reduced to the most perfect simplicity and the strictest scientific demonstration, which is now perfectly well understood. It is perfectly well recognized now that the whole mystery of banking consists in keeping strong reserves of specie as compared to total liabilities, notes and deposits, and steadily adjusting the rate of discount by the bullion in the bank and the state of the foreign exchanges. That is the whole secret of banking, and it was the ignorance and neglect of these principles which has been the cause of all the monetary panics during the last century. It is the rate of discount, and not a cast-iron limit imposed on the issues of notes by the Bank of England, which is the true, sole and supreme controlling power of credit and the paper currency, and which is the true method of carrying into effect the principles of the Bullion Report and of Sir Robert Peel himself until 1844. It is these principles combined with the power to issue notes adequate to meet a commercial crisis, together with placing all the great leading London banks on an absolute equality, and so enabling them to act together instead of in antagonism to each other, as was too often the case formerly—though they cannot prevent commercial crises, which are innate in the modern system of credit, yet will forever avert a monetary panic. It is then the very essence of banking reform that all joint-stock banks should be placed on an absolute equality like the Scotch banks, as Sir Robert Peel and all the statesmen of 1826 desired. But in order to effect this thorough and effectual banking reform, one thing is indispensable. It is that Government should pay off the public debt to the Bank of England. It is this debt which bars all reform. The act provides that all the privileges of the bank shall remain untouched until all the public debts to it are discharged. Chancellors of the Exchequer are apt to vaunt of the millions of the public debt they have paid off. It would have been infinitely more to the public advantage if they had paid off the comparatively trifling debt due to the bank. At all events, that is the point which all persons who are anxious to promote banking reform must steadily keep in view, and bring their influence to bear on the Government to effect. All mere tinkering with the present system, such as permitting the bank to issue two or three more millions of notes on public securities, is wholly ineffectual. It is not only utterly vicious and dangerous in itself, but the more it is extended the more dangerous it becomes. As a matter of fact, in a great monetary panic, this kind of property becomes absolutely unsalable and inconvertible. In the crisis of 1890, the action of the bank alone saved the world from the most terrific monetary panic recorded in history. But it ought not to be repeated. It is neither consistent with the dignity of this great mercantile country, nor with common sense, that the Bank of England should expose itself to the mockery and jeers of our not too ardent friends abroad, by running about to scrape up a few millions of gold on the Continent; when she had double the quantity required stored up in her own vaults which she could not touch. England ought to be sufficient for herself. Fortunately, the crisis took place in a time of profound peace. We fervently hope that we may maintain perpetual peace with our neighbors across the Channel. But who can tell how long this may last? Every one knows that the furies of revolution permeate every country on the Continent, and that they are only kept under restraint by the overwhelming hand of force. But this very force is an intolerable burden upon nations, and in process of time may break down from its own weight. How could the bank have effected its recent operation if we had been at war?—and in a period of war it would have been certain to happen. No doubt, the proposal to restore the power of unlimited issues to the bank rouses alarm in many persons who have heard by dim tradition how the bank misused its powers during the present century. But these persons forget that the bank had powers of unlimited issues for more than a century, and used them with consummate skill. It was the suspension of cash payments in 1797, and the power of the bank to issue unlimited quantities of paper money that debauched the minds of the directors. Then, instead of controlling their issues by rule of thumb, which they had observed with the greatest success during a century, they maintained that they were no longer bound by these practical rules, but issued paper money and notes on certain theories which they formed out of their own imagination, each of which was supposed to be the perfection of wisdom by its inventors, and condemned as utterly erroneous by the succeeding generation. Adam Smith started the theory that it was perfectly safe to issue any amount of notes on the discount of good mercantile bills. This theory was maintained with exceeding pertinacity by the directors of the Bank of Ireland and the Bank of England; but it was utterly condemned by the Bullion Report, and by Mr. Horsley Palmer, the Governor of the Bank in 1832, who said that it was the worst method that could be conceived. Mr. Horsley Palmer, then, and his directors concocted a new theory, which was equally supposed to be the perfection of wisdom. But this theory utterly broke down in practice; and Lord Overstone, who certainly was a practical banker of the highest eminence, said that the wonder was, not that this theory had broken down in practice, but that it should ever have been thought of at all. Lord Overstone then concocted a wholly new set of theories of his own, which were embodied in the Bank Act of 1844—which was again supposed to be really the perfection of wisdom; and, by putting the bank in a strait waistcoat, had forever put an end to commercial crises. But, alas! the logic of facts blew all these theories to the winds; and showed that the very act which was supposed to have prevented all commercial crises, not only did not prevent them, but was the very thing which, when they reached a certain degree of intensity, surely and certainly, in exact fulfillment of the predictions of the highest authorities of former times, brought on a monetary panic. Thus the Bank Act of 1844 has gone the way of all its predecessors. Many persons have implicit confidence in the consummate practical wisdom of Sir Robert Peel. But these persons are probably not aware that Sir Robert Peel had three totally different states of mind on the subject. In 1811 he was one of the majority who carried that unique vote that 27 equals 21. In 1819, he was converted, and became the ardent adherent of the doctrines of the Bullion Report, Horner; Huskisson, Ricardo, Thornton; and maintained these doctrines till 1844, when he delivered himself over, bound hand and foot, to the theories of Lord Overstone, Colonel Torrens and that sect. And we have shown that the doctrines of Lord Overstone were diametrically antagonistic to those of the Bullion Report. In 1856, we demonstrated that all these great directorial banking theorists had entirely missed the true method of controlling credit and the paper currency—which is the rate of discount. And before the committee on the panic of 1857. Mr. George Warde Norman, who was an ardent adherent of the Bank Act of 1844, acknowledged that it was amply sufficient for all purposes. This is now universally recognized to be true; and the bank has been managed with the greatest success on this principle ever since 1857. Thus it is evident that the question of restoring the power of unlimited issues to the bank, when the true principle of controlling credit, which is acknowledged to be amply sufficient, is universally recognized and acted upon, stands upon a totally different footing now from what it did when the directors were deluded by a series of fantastic theories which utterly broke down in practice. The power of unlimited issues is absolutely indispensable to enable the bank to meet a great emergency promptly and successfully, when millions of notes have to be issued without delay to avert a monetary panic, and perfectly safe when done under a high rate of discount, so as to prevent the exchanges being turned against the country. It is the completion and the coping-stone of the doctrines of the Bullion Report; and the theory of banking, credit, and the paper currency is now absolutely complete. It has long been the fancy that the whole business of credit, banking, commercial crises, and monetary panics is pure haphazard empiricism and rule of thumb; and not capable of being brought to strict scientific demonstration. Considering the stupendous advance of modern times—when science is advancing by leaps and bounds and bringing under its dominion every department of human knowledge, and bringing under its sway subjects which would have been beyond the dreams of the most sagacious and far-seeing philosophers of the last century,—it would be fatuous to suppose that the human intellect is incapable of bringing economics, or the science of commerce or exchanges,—which is a pure science of facts—under the strictest scientific demonstration, if the same general methods are adopted as have been employed in every other department of knowledge which has been brought under scientific control and adapted to the peculiar circumstances of economics. It was the essential glory of Bacon, the founder of inductive philosophy, to foresee and proclaim with the voice of a trumpet that the same methods and principles by which the physical sciences were to be constructed were to be applied to the construction of all other sciences. And has not every economist of note, J. B. Say, John Stuart Mill, and hosts of others, maintained that economics can only be erected into a positive, definite science by following the same principles and methods by which the physical sciences have been constructed?—and if it has not hitherto been done, it is only from the inaptitude of those who have attempted it. But the science of pure economics—that is, of commerce or exchanges, including credit, banking, the foreign exchanges, commercial crises and monetary panics—has now been brought to the strictest scientific demonstration, and its principles are now universally recognized and acknowledged to be true. Economics is a pure science of variable quantities. It is a science of causes and effects measured numerically, produced by the properties of men; and its types and standards of reasoning are to be found in the sciences which treat of the causes and effects measured numerically, produced by the properties of material substances. The special science of variable quantities, termed economics, must be governed by the rules which govern the science of variable quantities in general. The principles which govern the varying relations of economic quantities must be the same which govern the varying relations of the stars in their courses. The same general method of investigation is common to them all. In all, the inductive logic reigns supreme. A new inductive science is created, and a new monument raised to the everlasting glory of the monarch of philosophy. It only remains to bring banking legislation into harmony with the demonstrated and acknowledged principles of economic science. Nor is it any part of our duty to suggest how that is to be done. Our duty is solely to set forth the true scientific principles of the subject. It is the part of the highest and most responsible statesmen and financial authorities to determine and devise the measures by which banking legislation is to be brought into harmony with demonstrated economic science. The wisdom of statesmen, in this country at least, has been usually Epimethean. It would redound to the immortal honor of a powerful government for once to display Promethean wisdom, and bring the banking system of this country into harmony with demonstrated scientific truth, before another catastrophe arrives, and to create a system which would last to the end of time. [* ] Supplementary Observations to the Third Edition of an Essay on Banking, 1823, p. 84.	eng	da6b30c3-a9d1-4f1d-8a33-94f1a49dfe46	http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2238&chapter=216612&layout=html&Itemid=27
... US7643367 - Semiconductor memory device memory device includes a plurality of memory banks, a plurality of second bit lines, a plurality of selector circuits, a voltage supply circuit. Each of the memory banks includes a plurality of first bit lines, a plurality of word lines, and a plurality of memory banks which are installed between the first bit lines and the word lines. The voltage supply circuit holds non-select bit lines of the first bit lines at the GND level at all times. Zeichnungen(9) Ansprüche 1. A semiconductor memory device comprising: a plurality of memory banks including a plurality of memory cell transistors respectively, each of the memory cell transistors having a first main electrode, a second main electrode and a control electrode, each of the memory cell transistors being written with a stored value depending on whether a connection is made between the first main electrode thereof and a first voltage line; a plurality of word lines connected to the control electrodes of the memory cell transistors respectively; a plurality of bit lines connected to the second main electrodes of the memory cell transistors in the memory bank respectively; a plurality of global bit lines connected to the bit lines in the memory banks; a plurality of bank selector circuits, each of the bank selector circuits being provided for the memory banks respectively, each of the bank selector circuits being adapted to receive a bank selector signal having any one of a select level and a non-select level, and each of the bank selector circuits electrically connecting the bit lines in the corresponding memory bank with the global bit lines when the bank selector signal assumes the select level, at least one pull-down circuit connected to the global bit lines, the pull-down circuit pulling the global bit lines down to the voltage level of the first voltage line when a first input signal, having any one of a first active level and a first inactive level, inputted thereto assumes the first active level; a data line for selectively outputting voltages of the global bit lines; a plurality of selector circuits connected between the global bit lines and the data lines, each of the selector circuits electrically connecting the corresponding global bit line with the data line according to a select signal inputted thereto; and a least one precharge circuit connected to the data line, the precharge circuit precharging the global bit lines to a predetermined voltage level when a second input signal having any one of a second active level and a second inactive level, inputted thereto assumes the second active level, the predetermined voltage level being different from a voltage level of the first voltage line, wherein the selector circuits comprise a plurality of first selector circuits, a plurality of second selector circuits, and a plurality of third selector circuits; the first selector circuits being connected between the global bit lines and the third selector circuits, each of the first selector circuits electrically connecting the global bit line with the third selector circuit when a first select signal inputted thereto assumes the select level, and electrically isolating the global bit line from the third selector circuit when the first select signal assumes the non-select level; the second selector circuits being connected between the global bit lines which is adjacent to the global bit lines connected with the first selector circuits and the third selector circuits, each of the second selector circuits electrically connecting the global bit line with the third selector circuit when a second select signal inputted thereto assumes the selected level, and electrically isolating the global bit line from the third selector circuit when the second select signal assumes the non-select level; and the third selector circuits being connected between both of the first selector circuit and the second selector circuit and the data line, each of the third selector circuits electrically connecting both of the first selector circuit and the second selector circuit with the data line when a third select signal inputted thereto assumes the select level, and electrically isolating both of the first selector circuit and the second selector circuit from the data line when the third select signal assumes the non-select level. 2. The semiconductor memory device as set forth in claim 1, wherein: each of the global bit lines has one of the pull-down circuits connected thereto. 3. The semiconductor memory device as set forth in claim 1, wherein: each of the bank selector circuits is adapted to receive the first input signal and the bank selector signal, each of the bank selector circuit electrically connecting the bit lines in the corresponding memory bank with the global bit lines when the first input signal assumes the first active level or the bank selector signal assumes the select level. 4. The semiconductor memory device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the memory cell transistors are arranged in rows and columns. 5. The semiconductor memory device as set forth in claim 4, wherein: the word lines are respectively connected to the control electrode of the memory cell transistors in the same row; and the bit lines are respectively connected to the second main electrode of the memory cell transistors in the same column in the memory bank. Beschreibung BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, such as a mask read only memory (ROM). 2. Description of Related Art Known as a semiconductor memory device is, for example, a mask ROM. The mask ROM is a read only semiconductor memory device in which values to be stored are written in memory cells in a manufacturing process. A read circuit of a conventional mask ROM will hereinafter be described with reference to FIG. 1. A memory cell array 100 includes a plurality of memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn. The memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn have gates connected to word lines WL1 to WLm arranged in rows. The memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn also have drains connected to bit lines BL1 to BLn arranged in columns. Some of the memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn have sources connected to a first voltage line which is at a ground voltage level (GND level), namely, grounded. The other memory cell transistors have sources which are in a floating state. In FIG. 1, the sources of the memory cell transistors T12, T1n, T21, Tm1 and Tmn are at the GND level, and the sources of the memory cell transistors T11, T22, T2n and Tm2 are in the floating state (denoted by a character F in this figure). Values to be stored are written according to the connection states of the sources of the corresponding memory cell transistors, namely, according to whether those sources are grounded or float. For example, voltages to be read (also referred to hereinafter as "read voltages") from the memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn may be set to a low level by grounding the sources of the memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn. On the contrary, the read voltages of the memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn may be set to a high level by allowing the sources of the memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn to float. Selector circuits 110-1 to 110-n and precharge circuits 130-1 to 130-n are connected to the bit lines BL1 to BLn, respectively. The selector circuits 110-1 to 110-n are composed of, for example, pMOS transistors (shortly referred to hereinafter as "pMOSs") 122-1 to 122-n, respectively. The pMOSs 122-1 to 122-n have sources connected respectively to the bit lines BL1 to BLn and drains connected in common to a data line DL. When select signals (denoted by arrows S1-1 to S1-n in this figure) inputted respectively to the gates of the pMOSs 122-1 to 122-n are low in level, the pMOSs 122-1 to 122-n are turned on to electrically connect the bit lines BL1 to BLn with the data line DL, respectively. On the contrary, when the select signals S1-1 to S1-n are high in level, the pMOSs 122-1 to 122-n are turned off to electrically isolate the bit lines BL1 to BLn from the data line DL, respectively. In the following description, it is assumed that the selector circuits 110-1 to 110-n are turned on when the pMOSs 122-1 to 122-n thereof are turned on, and off when the pMOSs 122-1 to 122-n are turned off. The precharge circuits 130-1 to 130-n include, for example, pMOSs 142-1 to 142-n and inverting circuits 144-1 to 144-n, respectively. The pMOSs 142-1 to 142-n have sources connected in common to a second voltage line which is at a supply voltage level (VDD level), and drains connected respectively to the bit lines BL1 to BLn. The select signals S1-1 to S1-n are inverted by the inverting circuits 144-1 to 144-n and then inputted to the gates of the pMOSs 142-1 to 142-n, respectively. As a result, when the select signals S1-1 to S1-n are high in level, the pMOSs 142-1 to 142-n are turned on to apply the supply voltage VDD to the bit lines BL1 to BLn, respectively, thereby causing the bit lines BL1 to BLn to assume the VDD level, or high level. On the other hand, when the select signals S1-1 to S1-n are low in level, the pMOSs 142-1 to 142-n are turned off. In the following description, it is assumed that the precharge circuits 130-1 to 130-n are turned on when the pMOSs 142-1 to 142-n thereof are turned on, and off when the pMOSs 142-1 to 142-n are turned off. A read operation of the conventional mask ROM with the above-mentioned configuration will hereinafter be described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2D. In the initial state of every read cycle, all the select signals S1-1 to S1-n are set to a high level. At this time, the selector circuits 110-1 to 110-n are turned off, whereas the precharge circuits 130-1 to 130-n are turned on, so the bit lines BL1 to BLn assume the VDD level. Also, the word lines WL1 to WLm are set to the GND level, thereby causing all the memory cell transistors T11 to Tmn to be turned off. A description will hereinafter be given of the case of reading a stored value of the memory cell transistor T11 set to a high-level read mode. For reading of the memory cell transistor T11, the bit line BL1 and the word line WL1 are selected. When the bit line BL1 is selected, at a (also referred to hereinafter as a "select bit line") BL1 and the data line DL are electrically connected with each other, so as to have the same voltage level. When the word line WL1 is selected, at a time t12, the selected word line WL1 is set to the VDD level, which is the level of a drive voltage of the memory cell transistor, and the other word lines WL2 to WLm are set to the GND level. If the word line WL1 becomes high in level, all the memory cell transistors T11 to T1n connected to the word line WL1 are turned on. In contrast, all the memory cell transistors T21 to Tmn connected to the other word lines WL2 to WLm remain off. Because the source of the memory cell transistor T11 is in the floating state, the bit line BL1 remains high in level although the memory cell transistor T11 is turned on. Accordingly, in a read period from the time t12 until a time t13, the voltage of the data line DL is VDD, so as to be outputted as a high-level signal (see FIG. 2A). Next, a description will be given of the case of reading a stored value of the memory cell transistor T21 set to a low-level read mode. For reading of the memory cell transistor T21, the bit line BL1 and the word line WL2 are selected. When the bit line BL1 is selected, at the BL1 and the data line DL are electrically connected with each other, so as to have the same voltage level. When the word line WL2 is selected, at the time t12, the selected word line WL2 is set to the VDD level and the other word lines WL1 and WL3 to WLm are set to the GND level. If the voltage of the word line WL2 is VDD, all the memory cell transistors T21 to T2n connected to the word line WL2 are turned on. In contrast, all the memory cell transistors T11 to T1n and T31 to Tmn connected to the other word lines WL1 and WL3 to WLm remain off. Because the source of the memory cell transistor T21 is grounded, the voltage of the bit line BL1 gradually falls due to through-current between the source and drain of the memory cell transistor T21 if the memory cell transistor T21 is turned on. As a result, in the read period from the time t12 until the time t13, the voltage of the data line DL, electrically connected with the bit line BL1, also gradually falls, so it is outputted as a low-level signal (see FIG. 2B). Meanwhile, because the memory cell transistor T12 connected to the bit line (also referred to hereinafter as a "non-select bit line") BL2, not selected when the memory cell transistor T11 is read, is turned on, through-current flows between the source and drain of the memory cell transistor T12, thereby causing charges stored on the bit line BL2 to be discharged to the first voltage line. At this time, since the select signal S1-2 is high in level, the precharge circuit 130-2 is turned on so as to supply current to the bit line BL2. As a result, the voltage of the bit line BL2 is stabilized at a value slightly lower than VDD (see FIG. 2C). Also, when the memory cell transistor T21 is read, the bit line BL2 is held at VDD because the source of the memory cell transistor T22 is in the floating state although the memory cell transistor T22 is turned on (see FIG. 2D). As aforementioned, in the read circuit of the conventional mask ROM, a non-select bit line is supplied with current by a corresponding precharge circuit, so that it is held at VDD or a value slightly lower than VDD, thereby making it possible to prevent the voltage of a select bit line from being reduced. For example, when the memory cell transistor T11 is read, the memory cell transistor T12 is in its on state. For this reason, provided that no current is supplied to the bit line BL2 because the corresponding precharge circuit 130-2 is not provided, the voltage of the bit line BL2 will be reduced due to through-current between the source and drain of the memory cell transistor T12. If the voltage of the bit line BL2 is reduced, the voltage of the bit line BL1 may be reduced by the action of coupling capacitance between the bit line BL1 and the bit line BL2. This reduction in the voltage of the bit line BL1 may result in misreading of the voltage of the bit line BL1, namely, the stored value of the memory cell transistor T11. For this reason, the read circuit of the mask ROM holds the voltages of non-select bit lines at VDD or a value slightly lower than VDD using the precharge circuits 130-1 to 130-n. An example of the ROM read circuit is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-90685 (Patent Document 1). However, in the above-mentioned conventional mask ROM read circuit, power consumption is increased because precharge circuits need to supply non-select bit lines with current during a reading period in order to prevent the voltage of the non-select bit lines from being reduced. Particularly, when there are a large number of bit lines, a big problem occurs in peak current in that through-currents flow through all memory cell transistors of the low-level read mode connected to a selected word line. In addition, in large scale ROM, capacitance of bit lines becomes larger because length of bit lines becomes longer. Therefore, transition duration of bit lines during reading will increase. In other words, there is a problem that duration of reading bit lines becomes longer and reading speed of bit lines becomes slower. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor memory device having a read circuit for preventing the voltage of a select bit line from being reduced due to the action of coupling capacitance between the select bit line and a non-select bit line, reducing current consumption, and enabling high speed reading of bit lines. In accordance with the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a semiconductor memory device comprising, a plurality of memory banks, a plurality of second bit lines, a plurality of selector circuits, and a voltage supply circuit. Each of the memory banks includes a plurality of first bit lines, a plurality of word lines, and a plurality of memory banks which are installed between the first bit lines and the word lines. Each of the second bit lines are connected to the first bit lines in the memory banks respectively. Each of the selector circuits are provided for the memory banks respectively. Each of the selector circuits electrically connects the first bit lines in the memory bank to the second bit lines responding to a selector signal. The voltage supply circuit holds non-select bit lines of the first bit lines at the GND level at all times. The semiconductor memory device of the present invention comprises the voltage supply circuit and the memory banks. According to the voltage supply circuit, non-select bit lines of the first bit lines can be held at the GND level at all times, and changes of the voltage level of the non-select bit lines can be eliminated non-select bit lines with current during reading period, and current consumption of non select bit lines during reading period can be reduced. According to the memory banks, the length of respective bit lines can be shortened. Therefore, it is possible to reduce capacitance of bit lines and achieve high speed reading of bit lines circuit diagram schematically showing the configuration of a conventional semiconductor memory device; FIGS. 2A to 2D are views illustrating the operation of the conventional semiconductor memory device; FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram schematically showing the configuration of a mask ROM, which is a semiconductor memory device according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a view illustrating the operation of the respective control signal of the semiconductor memory device according to the first preferred embodiment; FIGS. 5A to 5D are views illustrating the operation of the bit line of the semiconductor memory device according to the first preferred embodiment; FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram schematically showing the configuration of a mask ROM, which is a semiconductor memory device according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram schematically showing the configuration of a mask ROM, which is a semiconductor memory device according to a third preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 is a view illustrating the operation of the respective control signal of the semiconductor memory device according to the third preferred embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout and the structures and arrangements of respective constituent elements are shown so schematically that those skilled in the art can understand the present invention. The embodiments are described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures. These embodiments are nothing but preferred examples, and the present invention is not limited thereto. Configuration of First Preferred Embodiment FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram schematically showing the configuration of a mask ROM, which is a semiconductor memory device according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention. The mask ROM comprises a memory cell array 1000, n pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n, n/2 first selector circuits 110-1, 110-3, . . . , n/2 second selector circuits 110-2, 110-4, . . . to 110-n, m third selector circuits 120-1 to 120-m, and a precharge circuit 36. Here, m and n are natural numbers which are greater than or equal to 2. Incidentally, the pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n can also be referred to as a voltage supply circuit in the present invention. The memory cell array 1000 includes k memory banks 200-1 to 200-k and k bank selector circuits 70-1 to 70-k. Each of the memory banks 200-1 to 200-k includes m memory cell transistors in row direction and n memory cell transistors in column direction. Here, k is natural numbers which are greater than or equal to 2. In the present embodiment, n channel type MOS transistors (also referred to hereinafter as "nMOSs") are used as the memory cell transistors T11 to Tmnk. The control electrodes, or the gates, of the memory cell transistors T111 to Tmnk are connected to the word lines WL1-1 to WLm-k installed in row direction. The second main electrodes, or the drains, of the memory cell transistors T111 to Tmnk are connected to the bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k installed in column direction in the respective memory banks 200-1 to 200-k. Incidentally, the bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k can also be referred to as a first bit lines in the present invention. The first main electrodes, or the sources, of some of the memory cell transistors T111 to Tmnk are connected to the first voltage line of the GND level, namely, they are grounded (denoted by a downward arrow in this figure). The sources of the other memory cell transistors T111 to Tmnk are not connected to the first voltage line, namely, they are in a floating state (denoted by a character F in this figure). Therefore, values to be stored are written in the memory cell transistors T111 to Tmnk according to the connection status of whether the source is grounded or in a floating state. Concretely, read voltages from the memory cell transistors T111 to Tmnk may be set to a low level by grounding the sources of the memory cell transistors T111 to Tmnk. On the contrary, the read voltages of the memory cell transistors T111 to Tmnk may be set to a high level by allowing the sources of the memory cell transistors T11a to Tmnk to float. Each of the bank selector circuits 70-1 to 70-k comprises OR circuits 84-1 to 84-k and nMOSs 82-11 to 82-nk. Each of the OR circuits 84-1 to 84-k is installed in the respective memory banks 200-1 to 200-k. Each of the nMOSs 82-11 to 82-nk is disposed between the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k and global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn. Incidentally, the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn can also be referred to as a second bit lines in the present invention. Each of the OR circuits 84-1 to 84-k is adapted to receive one of bank selector signals S4-1 to S4-k and an input signal S3. The bank selector signals S4-1 to S4-k have two voltage levels consisting of a high level as a select level and a low level as a non-select level. The input signal S3 has two voltage levels consisting of a high level as an active level and a low level as an inactive level. The gates of nMOSs 82-11 to 82-nk are adapted to receive one of outputs S4b-1 to S4b-n of OR circuits 84-1 to 84-k. When one of the bank selector signals S4-1 to S4-k assumes the select level, the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k in the memory bank to which the bank selector signal is inputted are electrically connected to the corresponding global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn. On the other hand, when one of the bank selector signals S4-1 to S4-k assumes the non select level and the input signal S3 does not assume the active level, the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k in the corresponding memory bank are electrically isolated to the corresponding global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn. When the input signal S3 assumes the active level, the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k in all the memory banks are electrically connected to the corresponding global bit lines. On the other hand, when the input signal S3 assumes the inactive level and all the bank selector signals S4-1 to S4-k does not assume the active level, the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k in all the memory banks are electrically isolated to the corresponding global bit lines. The memory bank including the bit lines which are electrically connected to the global bit line is referred to as a "select bank". The memory bank including the bit lines which are electrically isolated to the global bit line is referred to as a "non-select bank". The first selector circuits 110-1, 110-3, . . . , the second selector circuits 110-2, 1110-4, to 110-n, the third selector circuits 120-1 to 120-m, and the pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n are connected to the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn. The first selector circuit 110-1 is located between the global bit line GBL1 and a node n1-1. The second selector circuit 110-2 is located between the global bit line GBL2 adjacent to the global bit line GBL1 and the node n1-1. The node n1-I is commonly connected to the first selector circuit 110-1 and the second selector circuit 110-2. The third selector circuit 120-1 is located between the node n1-1 and a data line DL. Namely, because the first selector circuits 110-1, 110-3, . . . are connected to the respective odd global bit lines GBL1, GBL3 . . . , and the second selector circuits 110-2, 110-4, . . . 110-n are connected to the respective even global bit lines GBL2, GBL4, . . . GBLn, the number of the first and the second selector circuits 110-1 to 110-n is n in total. On the other hand, because the third selector circuits 120-1 to 120-m are respectively located for the pair of the first and the second selector circuits 110-1 to 110-n adjacent to each other, the number of the third selector circuits 120-1 to 120-m is m (m=n/2) in total. A first select signal S1a-1 is commonly inputted to the first selector circuits 110-1, 110-3, . . . . A second select signal S1a-2 is commonly inputted to the second selector circuits 110-2, 110-4, . . . , 110-n. Third select signals S1b-1 to S1b-m are inputted to the respective third selector circuits 120-1 to 120-m. As described above, the selector circuit in this embodiment is a two stages configuration comprising a first stage which includes the first and the second selector circuits 110-1 to 110-n and a second stage which includes the third selector circuits 120-1 to 120-m. Accordingly, the number of the select signals can be reduced to m+2 in total, namely, one first select signal, one second select signal, and m third select signals. Incidentally, although the selector circuits are configured as described above in this embodiment, other configurations are also adoptable as long as it can electrically connect or isolate one of the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn and the data line DL responding to the voltage level of select signals. For example, a one stage configuration is adoptable in which selector circuits are located for the respective global bit lines and select signals are inputted to the respective selector circuits. According to this one stage configuration, the configuration of selector circuit could be more simplified although the number of the select signals to be needed amounts to the number of the global bit lines, namely n. For example, a configuration of more than three stages is also adoptable. This configuration provides a greater reduction of the selector signals although the configuration of the selector circuits becomes more complicated. The precharge circuit 36 is connected to the data line DL. The precharge circuit 36 comprises a pMOS 41 and an inverter circuit 43. An inverted signal of an input signal S2 is inputted to the gate of the pMOS 41. The source of the pMOS 41 is connected to a VDD. The drain of the pMOS 41 is connected to the data line DL. The precharge circuit 36 is adapted to receive the input signal S2 having two voltage levels consisting of a high level as an active level and a low level as an inactive level. The precharge circuit 36 is able to precharge the voltage of the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn connected to the data line DL(namely, precharge the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn to a predetermined voltage level). Incidentally, although only one precharge circuit is used as described above in this embodiment, it is possible to configure by using a plurality of precharge circuits. In this configuration, precharge circuits are respectively connected to the respective global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn. Each of the pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n is connected the respective global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn in one-on-one relationship. nMOSs 62-1 to 62-n are used as the pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n. The input signal S3 is inputted to the gates of the pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n. That is, the input signal S3 is commonly inputted to both the bank selector circuits 70-1 to 70-k and the pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n. The sources of the nMOSs 62-1 to 62-n are grounded. On the other hand, the drains of the nMOSs 62-1 to 62-n are connected to the respective global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn. Incidentally, although n pull-down circuits are used as described above in this embodiment, it is possible to configure by using only one pull-down circuit. In this configuration, one pull-down circuit is commonly connected to all the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn. When the input signal S3 assumes the active level, namely, when the input signal S3 is high in level, the nMOSs 62-1 to 62-n are turned on. When the nMOSs 62-1 to 62-n are turned on, the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn are pulled down, namely, the voltage level thereof becomes the GND level. On the other hand, when the input signal S3 assumes the inactive level, namely, when the input signal S3 is low in level, the nMOSs 62-1 to 62-n are turned off. Incidentally, the input signal S3 is inputted to the OR circuits S4-1 to S4-n of the bank selector circuits 70-1 to 70-k as described above. The operation of the semiconductor memory device according to the first preferred embodiment will hereinafter be described with reference to FIG. 4 and FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D. FIG. 4 illustrates the operations of the respective control signals S1a-1, S1a-2, S1b-1, S1b-2, S2, S3, S4-1, S4-2, S4b-1 and S4b-2 according to the first preferred embodiment. FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D illustrate the operation of one of the bit lines. In FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D, the abscissa axis represents time and the ordinate axis represents bit line voltage level. FIG. 5A illustrates a preferred example of the operation of the bit line BL1-1 in the case of reading the memory cell transistor T111. In this preferred operation example, it is assumed that the source of the memory cell T111 is in the floating state, namely, the memory cell transistor T111 is set to the high In order to set all the bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k and all the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn to the GND level, the input signal S3 is set to the active level. Namely, setting the input signal S3 to the active level causes all the nMOSs 62-1 to nMOSs 62-n which constitute the pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n to be turned on. Accordingly, all the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn become the GND level. Simultaneously, all the outputs S4b-1 to S4b-k of the OR circuits 84-1 to 84-k which constitute the bank selector circuits 70-1 to 70-k become high in level as the select level. Accordingly, all the memory banks 200-1 to 200-k become the select banks, and the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k of all the memory banks and the global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn are electrically connected. Therefore, all the bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k become the GND level. Incidentally, all the bank selector signals S4-1 to S4-k are set to be non-select level, and all the word lines WL1-1 to WLm-k is set to be GND level. At a aIncidentally, with regard to the time in which the select signal S1a-1 and the select signal S1b-1 are set to be the select level and the time in which the bank selector signal S4-1 is set to be the select level, it is both applicable if one of the times is earlier than the other time and if both of the times are at the same time. At aA. Here, the reason the voltage level of the bit line BL1-1 does not increase to the VDD level is that the bank selector circuits consist of nMIncidentally, the time in which the input signal S3 is set to the inactive level can vary to any time by the time t3 in which the precharge circuit 36 is turned on. Here, the input signal S3 is set to the inactive level at the time t3. At a time t4 after the global bit line GBL1 becomes the VDD level, the input signal S2 is set to the inactive level. As a result, the precharge circuit 36 is turned off. Similarly, at the time t4, the word line WL1-1 is set to the VDD level, so as to turn on the memory cell transistor T111. At the same time, the memory cell transistors T121 to T1n1 whose gates are connected to the same word line WL1-1 are turned on. In contrast, the memory cell transistors T211 to Tmnk which are connected to the word lines WL2-1 to WLm-k other than the word line WL1-1 remain off. Even when the memory cell transistor T111 is turned on, the bit line BL1-1 which is connected to the drain of the memory cell transistor T111 is also in a floating state because the source of the memory cell transistor T111 is in a floating state. Namely, the bit line BL1-1 remains near the VDD level (see FIG. 5A). Consequently, the voltage of the global bit line GBL1 is in the high-level read mode and is read via the data line DL electrically connected to the global bit line GBL1. At a falls to the GND level as shown in FIG. 5A. At a time t6 after the voltage level of the global bit line GBL1 become the GND level, the select signals S1a-1 and S1b-1 are set to the non-select level. As a result, the global bit line GBL1 and the data line DL are electrically isolated. At a time t7, the bank selector signal S4-1 is set to the non-select level. Incidentally, all the memory banks 200-1 to 200-k remains the select banks because the input signal S3 remains the active level. Similarly, at the time t7, the word line WL1-1 is set to the GND level, thereby causing the memory cell transistors T111 to T1n1 whose gates are connected to the word line WL1-1 to turn off. In this manner, it moves to the initial state of the next cycle. FIG. 5B illustrates a preferred example of the operation of the bit line BL1-1 in the case of reading the memory cell transistor T211. In this preferred operation example, it is assumed that the source of the memory cell T211 is in the grounded state, namely, the memory cell transistor T211 is set to the low At the theAt theB. Here, the reason the voltage level of the bit line BL1-1 does not increase to the VDD level is that the bank selector circuits consist of NMAt the time t4 after the global bit line GBL1 becomes the VDD level, the input signal S2 is set to the inactive level. As a result, the precharge circuit 36 is turned off. Similarly, at the time t4, the word line WL2-1 is set to the VDD level, so as to turn on the memory cell transistor T211. At the same time, the memory cell transistors T221 to T2n1 whose gates are connected to the same word line WL2-1 are turned on. In contrast, the memory cell transistors which are connected to the word lines other than the word line WL2-1 remain off. When the memory cell transistor T211 is turned on, the voltage level of the bit line BL1-1 falls from near the VDD level because the source of the memory cell transistor T211 is in a grounded state (see FIG. 5B). The voltage level of the global bit line GBL1 falls from the VDD level. Consequently, the voltage of the global bit line GBL1 is in the low-level read mode and is read via the data line DL electrically connected to the global bit line GBL1. At the remains the GND level as shown in FIG. 5B. At the time t6, the select signals S1a-1 and S1b-1 are set to the non-select level. At the time t7, the bank selector signal S4-1 is set to the non-select level. Similarly, at the time t7, the word line WL2-1 is set to the GND level, thereby causing the memory cell transistors T211 to T2n1 whose gates are connected to the word line WL2-1 to turn off. In this manner, it moves to the initial state of the next cycle. FIG. 5C illustrates the voltage of the non-select bit line in the select bank when the memory cell transistor T111 is read in the above-described read cycle. Here, a description will be given of the bit line BL2-12-1 is also at the GND level. At the time t1, the global bit line GBL1 is selected. In contrast, the global bit line GBL2 is not selected because the select signal S1a-2 is non-select level. The pull-down circuit 50-2 remains on state. Accordingly, the voltage of the bit line BL2-1 remains at the GND level. At the time t2, the bank selector signal S4-1 is set to the select level. However, because the input signal S3 is already set to the high level, the global bit line GBL2 and the bit line BL2-1 remain electrically connected with each other. Accordingly, the voltage of the bit line BL2-1 However, the global bit line GBL2 and the data line DL are not electrically connected because the input signal S1a-2 is at the non-select level. Accordingly, the global bit line GBL2 and the bit line BL2-1 remain at the GND level. At the time t4, the word line WL1-1 is set to the VDD level, thereby causing the memory cell transistor T121 which is set to the low-level read mode to the on state. However, the voltage level of the bit line BL2-1 remains at the GND level because the voltage of the bit line BL2-1 has already been at the GND level. Similarly, the voltage level of the bit line BL2-1 does not change even if the memory cell transistor T121 is set to the high-level read mode Accordingly, the voltage level of the bit line BL2-1 continues to remain the GND level as shown in FIG. 5C. FIG. 5D illustrates the voltage of the non-select bit line in the non-select bank when the memory cell transistor T111 is read in the above-described read cycle. Here, a description will be given of the bit line BL1-22 is also at the GND level. At the time t1, the global bit line GBL1 is selected. Namely, the global bit line GBL1 and the data line DL are electrically connected with each other. At the time t2, the bank selector signal S4-1 is set to the select level. However, because the input signal S3 is already set to the high level, the global bit line GBL1 and the bit line BL1-2 remain electrically connected with each other. Accordingly, the voltage of the bit line BL1-2 As a result, the global bit line GBL1 becomes the VDD level. However, the bit line BL1-2 is not electrically connected to the global bit line GBL1 because the input signal S3 is at the inactive level and the bank selector signal S4-2 is at the non-select level. Accordingly, the bit line BL1-2 remains at the GND level. At the time t4, the word line WL1-1 is set to the VDD level, thereby causing the memory cell transistors T111 to T1n1 to the on state. However, this does not influence the bit lines in the non-select banks. Accordingly, the bit line BL1-2 remains at the GND level the global bit line GBL1 and the bit line BL1-2 are electrically connected with each other. Accordingly, the voltage level of the bit line BL1-2 continues to remain the GND level as shown in FIG. 5D. As stated above, the semiconductor memory device according to the first preferred embodiment comprises the pull-down circuits to set bit lines to the GND level. Accordingly, the non-select global bit lines and bit lines of the non-select banks can be held at the GND level at all times the non-select bit lines with current during reading period, and current consumption of the non-select bit lines during reading period can be reduced. In other words, it is possible to prevent misreading of a stored value of a memory cell transistor connected to the select bit line without supplying the non-select bit lines with current during reading period. In addition, since the semiconductor memory device according to the first preferred embodiment comprises k memory banks, the number of the memory cell transistors which are connected to one bit line is reduced to 1/k in comparison with the conventional configuration. Accordingly, junction capacitance between gates and drains of memory cell transistors and bit lines can greatly be reduced. A precharge period can also be shortened since load capacitance is reduced, thereby making it possible to realize a reduction of current consumption and a high speed operation. Furthermore, a period of a bit line voltage falling down after a precharge is shortened, thereby enabling to shorten a reading period of bit lines and resulting in a high speed operation. In addition, the input signal S3 is commonly inputted to both the bank selector circuits and the pull-down circuits. For this reason, firstly, all the bit lines can be set to the GND level by setting the input signal S3 to the active level in the every initial state in the normal read cycle. Therefore, only a normal operation can enable all the bit lines to the GND level in the initial state without doing any special initial operation which is different from a normal operation. Secondly, all the bit lines including select bit lines can be set to the GND level by setting the input signal S3 to the active level after the lapse of the read cycle. Accordingly, leak currents do not flow in a memory cell array at a stand-by time. Therefore, it is possible to reduce stand-by current. Configuration of Second Preferred Embodiment FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram schematically showing the configuration of a mask ROM, which is a semiconductor memory device according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention. A circuit configuration of the second preferred embodiment is different from the first preferred embodiment in that pull-down circuits 150-1 to 150-k are connected to the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k, and are not connected to the respective global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn. Other configurations are the same as the first preferred embodiment. Each of the pull-down circuits 150-1 to 150-k is installed in respective memory banks. Each of the pull-down circuits 150-1 to 150-k comprises nMOSs 162-11 to 162-n1 which is connected to the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k. The input signal S3 is commonly connected to gates of the nMOS 162-11 to 162-n1. Sources of the nMOSs 162-11 to 162-n1 are grounded. Drains of the nMOSs 162-11 to 162-n1 are connected to the respective bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k. Operations of the respective control signals are the same as that of the first preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 4. Operation of each part except for the pull-down circuits 150-1 to 150-k is the same as that of the first preferred embodiment. In the initial state of the read cycle, all the pull-down circuits 150-1 to 150-k operate since the input signal S3 is set to the active level. As a result, all the bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-k are maintained to the GND level. At the time t2, since the bank selector signal S4-1 is set to the select level, the global bit line GBL1 and the select bit lines BL1-1 to BLn-1 are electrically connected. As a result, the global bit line GBL1 becomes the GND level. As stated above, according to the semiconductor memory device of the second preferred embodiment, the pull-down control signal (input signal S3) can be directly inputted to the pull-down circuit without installing logic circuits such as OR circuits in addition to the effect of the first preferred embodiment. Incidentally, the number of the pull-down circuits increases because each of the pull-down circuits is installed in the respective bit lines. However, it is easy to install the pull-down circuits in the memory cell array since each of the memory cell and the pull-down circuit consists of one transistor. Configuration of Third Preferred Embodiment FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram schematically showing the configuration of a mask ROM, which is a semiconductor memory device according to a third preferred embodiment of the present invention. A circuit configuration of the third preferred embodiment is different from the first preferred embodiment in that a precharge pulse generating circuit 120 is connected to the precharge circuit 36, that the input signal S3 is inputted to the precharge pulse generating circuit 120, and that an output S3b of the the precharge pulse generating circuit 120 is inputted to the precharge circuit 36. Other configurations are the same as the first preferred embodiment. The precharge pulse generating circuit 120 comprises a inverting circuit 130 and a NOR circuit 132. A pulse width of the precharge pulse generating circuit 120 can be adjusted by changing the number of stages of the inverting circuit 130 or changing dimensions of transistors of the inverting circuit 130. FIG. 8 illustrates the operations of the respective control signals S1a-1, S1a-2, S1b-1, S1b-2, S3, S3a, S3b, S4-1 and S4-2, and respective internal signals S3a and S3b according to the third preferred embodiment. At a time t3, the input signal S3 changes from the active level to the inactive level. As a result, the pull-down circuits 50-1 to 50-n which are connected to the respective global bit lines GBL1 to GBLn are turned off. On the other hand, the internal signal S3b changes from the GND level to the VDD level since the internal signal S3a remains the GND level for a certain period of time. At the time t4, after the certain period of time, the internal signal S3b changes from the VDD level to the GND level since the internal signal S3a changes from the GND level to the VDD level. The precharge circuit 36 is turned on at the time t3 since the internal signal S3b changes to the VDD level, and is turned off at the time t4. As stated above, according to the semiconductor memory device of the third preferred embodiment, change from the pull-down operation to the precharge operation is controlled by the same signal. Accordingly, an independent input signal for the precharge circuit, such as the input signal S2 in the first and second preferred embodiment, comes to be not necessary. Further, the precharge period (from the time t3 to the time t4) comes to be able to be adjusted by tuning the dimension of the precharge pulse generating circuit 120.	eng	5add2c90-d6a9-48ce-bebc-a09f3f0106f4	http://www.google.de/patents/US7643367
Metro Connection Every morning, Wallace Kornack leaves his Georgetown home just after dawn, and drives north into Rock Creek Park. Ever since he retired from his job as a nuclear engineer, he's taken his passion for science in a new direction. Up. "The thing about birding, is you have to have exceedingly great patience," Kornack says, "It's going to be quiet for quite a long while. It's not very stimulating, but it's what we do." There's no published meeting time for the group; it grows mainly through word of mouth. During the week, there are just a handful of birders, but on the weekends — especially during the spring and fall — there can be as many as 50 people. Many of those people come to look for a fairly small and vocal perching bird known as warbler. The warblers are making their way up from Mexico and heading toward Canada. They're here for just three or four weeks. "Depends on the credibility of the birder, and most of the people here are very experienced birders," he says. "There are disappointing days, but there are very exciting times, too. That's what brings you out every time... the unexpected appearing before your eyes." . The lab has no shortage of work helping the military and civilian airports determine which birds are colliding with planes, but in the past few years, the lab has also been stepping out of its avian comfort zone, and into the digestive tracts of Burmese pythons. "I love birds. I didn't think I'd ever be working with Burmese Pythons," says Carla Dove, head of the Smithsonian's Division of Birds. She is a forensic ornithologist by training. . "This snake is opportunistic," she says. "It's eating everything in its path." Pythons first appeared in the Everglades in the late '70s. They're popular exotic pets in Florida, and may have been released by their owners, or escaped from backyard enclosures. Some estimates put the current Florida population in the tens of thousands, and Dove says the amount of devastation the snake is inflicting on native species makes it hard for her to see it as anything other than the villain of the story. "I love snakes and all animals, but I have to say, my dislike for the snake has really intensified over the years." When it comes to his relationship with Anton Chekhov's classic 1895 play, The Seagull, D.C.-based playwright and director Aaron Posner says it's complicated, particularly for young theater artists. "It's [The Seagull] about theater, and it's about art and 'I'm going to change the world' and all that," says Posner. "So it was one of my favorite plays." But as he grew older, he says, "it became a less favorite play. And then one that I found pissed me off." A few years back, when Posner found himself chatting with some theater folks about the play "and why one loves it and hates it," he says he had a sudden brainstorm: to create his own version of The Seagull. "I should call it Stupid Fucking Bird,'" he says. "And people laughed, and then I went to the bathroom, and in the bathroom I thought, 'I [really] should do my own adaptation of The Seagull, and I [really] should call it Stupid Fucking Bird.' And maybe a month or so later, I started writing." Longer writing process That was a few years ago, and since then, Posner has been writing and rewriting, and now his play is premiering this month at Woolly Mammoth Theater, helmed by Woolly's artistic director Howard Shalwitz. Shalwitz says the cast was working with draft number 8.4 the other day. And indeed, it's common for a playwright to burn through multiple drafts before a play gets on its feet — often before it even starts rehearsals. But in the case of this play, which Shalwitz says they've taken to calling SFB, it's been entirely different. As Shalwitz explains, with most plays at most American regional theaters, "there's usually a long process with the playwright, a semi-long process with the director, a not-very-long process with the designers, and then a very short three- to four-week process with the actors." But with SFB, Woolly's been able to bring all those people together over an entire year, "and touch base with the play at different phases of its development. Not just 'Oh, here's the script, and now we're doing a quick production to put it on the stage.'" Longer rehearsals The secret? A $4 million fundraising campaign to develop and produce 25 new plays in 10 years, by providing more technical resources, larger casts, extra readings and workshops, and longer rehearsal periods. The campaign is called "Free The Beast." "I think American directors and American theaters in general are among the best in the world at doing a really good job in a really short period of time, but we also do spend less time working on a play than most other countries do, who have deeper government support and companies of artists who've been sustained over many years through that support. "So I think that sometimes we rob ourselves of the tools that we could develop if we gave ourselves a little more time to experiment." That's precisely what Free the Beast has done for SFB: it's given it "more time." And cast member Kimberly Gilbert, who's done a ton of shows around town, says she's felt the difference. "I think I've done about seven world premieres," Gilbert says. "And ultimately what happens is when you work on a regular rehearsal schedule, you feel that you're ready to open when you close. Because you don't have any time to let things marinate." But with SFB, the cast started marinating last April, during a weeklong workshop in Lake George, N.Y., and they've done a few more workshops since then. So at the play's first official reading this April, Gilbert says instead of feeling the typical jitters ("Usually I'm sweaty and, you know, heart racing,") she felt right at home. "It was just as if it was another step in the process," she says. And she admits that, in a way, this process has spoiled her. "Spoiled, but also ruined, in a way," she says with a laugh. "Like, it's ruined me!" Playwright Aaron Posner is totally with Kimberly Gilbert on this one. "We've had a great luxury of time," he says. And yet "we could use more time." For now, though, a little more than a week remains before SFB is up and running. And though the play isn't exactly an "adaptation" of Chekhov, word has it the first-act set includes a big picture of the playwright, more or less overlooking the proceedings. So, love him or hate him, he'll most definitely be there in spirit. Back in 2003, comedic actor Shawn Westfall started an improvisation comedy school at the DC Improv on Connecticut Avenue along with club manager Allyson Jaffe. What began with a mere 14 students has now graduated nearly 1,800 people. And this past week, Westfall and Jaffe celebrated their 10th anniversary of helping D.C. bring the funny. A different skill than stand-up comedy, Westfall describes improv as "collaborative comedy made up completely on the spot, based on audience suggestions." And contrary to what one might think, Westfall says the last thing students should do is try to be funny. "The minute they start trying to funny, trying to be clever, is the minute that their scene will go off the rails," he says. "Primarily because they're up in their heads, thinking about the ways in which they're going to sort of show off their comedic acumen. Well, what they're not doing is paying attention to what's happening in the scene." And if paying attention to what's happening around you sounds like good life advice as well, it turns out improv lessons are often applied outside the classroom by Westfall's students. The "yes...and" principle in improv instructs students to say "yes" to whatever is being offered on stage "and" build upon that offer. "Even if you don't take these principles out into the rest of your life, there is something therapeutic about getting together with people who only a few short weeks ago were strangers, tearing these barriers down, laughing with them, laughing at them when they do something completely outrageous on stage," he says. "There is something to that." The first instrument singer-songwriter Angela Sheik ever played was her grandmother's piano. She wanted to learn how to play the Star Wars theme song, she says. But she's since branched into more unusual instruments — namely, a theremin and a loop pedal, which she uses to create lush, unique sounds. Sheik recently joined Metro Connection reporter Bryan Russo in the studio to talk about her one-of-a-kind musical style and to show us how to use a loop pedal. On the art and science of looping: "I had a different loop pedal for a long time¬ and I was at an electronic music festival and thankfully some guy came up to me, and he said, you should check this pedal out; I think it would really open up the possibilities for you," says Sheik. "I am so grateful for that man. I don't know who it was, but he was so right. It was just such a songwriting tool for me. It kept me from playing a crazy amount of chords. You know? The loop pedal gives you a structure, and I think changed my songwriting. On using what she calls the queen of boss pedals — the Boss RC-300: "It's basically three pedals smashed together with some effects, which is going to allow us to take some loops in and out. So we can record something and then we can take it out. You know, trial and error. Rhythm is key, and then you can add harmonies and take them out, and the rhythm will stay. On defying musical genres: Sheik says she's influenced by artists like Imogen Heap and Regina Spektor — musicians who defy genre, but she also says she's already had struggles with people who want her to embrace a genre with her own music. "'What genre?' is the question that they usually ask and I don't have an answer for them. I love the people, especially the women icons that are the genre. Imogen Heap is her own genre. Regina Spektor is her own genre. She made anti-folk in my mind, so yeah, that's what I aspire to be." Just a few years ago, about 20 percent of the District's 11,000 special education students were enrolled in private schools because the District couldn't meet their needs. These private school enrollments cost taxpayers about $200 million a year in tuition and transportation. But since the start of this academic year, DCPS has limited private school placements and tried to "mainstream" more students into public schools. DCPS says it's proud of its progress, but there are many parents who feel their children's needs aren't being met. Special correspondent Kavitha Cardoza talked with Metro Connection's Rebecca Sheir to explain the changes. Following are highlights of the conversation. On why DCPS started to bring special education back into the city's public schools: "DCPS's new philosophy is 'Better Services, More Kids, Closer to Home.' Last year nearly 1,600 students were placed in private schools; this year it's approximately 1,200, and DCPS wants to reduce that number even more. Nathaniel Beers, the head of special education services for DCPS, says there are instances where private placements are best. But he also says students are generally better served when they are close to their communities." On how much of the decision is being driven by money: "Money is definitely part of it. In the past, DCPS spent as much as $150 million per year on these private placements and approximately $60 to $90 million more on these students' transportation. If you look at the breakdown per student, and of course the amount varies widely, it costs approximately $36,000 to educate a child with disabilities in D.C. public schools and twice that in a private setting." On what teachers are saying about the larger number of special education students in their classrooms: "I spoke with Nathan Saunders, the head of the Washington Teachers Union, and he says educators are already under so much pressure to teach, so when you add in children who have very specific needs, it's challenging. You may have a child who acts out and disrupts the entire class, or you may have one who has autism and you have never been trained to deal with his or her needs. Saunders says the success is uneven." On how the parents of the special education students feel about their kids moving out of private schools: "I think it depends on what the child's needs are. I've heard from parents who are willing to try this out and see how it goes because they like having their child go to their neighborhood school. But there are parents such as Greg Masucci. He went to the city council to speak out because he doesn't feel his child's needs are being met at all." Doctors and nurses at the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore see more than 8,000 severely injured patients each year. These are people who've been in bad car crashes, suffered gunshot wounds, or taken a serious fall. They arrive for treatment at a place that was the first of its kind when it opened more than 50 years ago. To this day, it's thought to be among the best in the nation. On a Friday afternoon, the sun is shining on the roof of the Shock Trauma Center in downtown Baltimore. Slowly a helicopter comes into view, and staff run out to help offload the latest patient, a man who fell off a ladder, hit his head, and lost consciousness. Seconds later, the patient is in the trauma unit downstairs, where about a dozen staff members in pink scrubs swarm around him. "When things are going well, it's truly like an orchestrated ballet, says anesthesiologist John Blenko. "Everyone knows what everyone else is doing. They know where they are, they know what's just happened, and they know what's coming next. There's no repetition, nothing's missed." Every patient who rolls through the elevator doors here comes in with grave injuries. So the decisions that doctors and nurses make in an instant can easily mean life or death. Those decisions need to be made fast, and in rapid succession. Especially when the weather is nice: people hit the road in cars and on motorcycles, and they hit the streets, and get caught up in violence. This particular afternoon, things do get very busy. Within the course of a few hours, ambulances and helicopters have brought more than a dozen seriously injured patients. "It's kinda busy. It's not the busiest we've ever been, but it's kinda busy," says Dr. Thomas Scalea, the physician-in-chief in charge of the Shock Trauma Center. At Shock Trauma, doctors don't have the luxury of time to order a bunch of tests, and wait a week for the results. "We have to make decisions sometimes based not on the greatest information, so you go on a lot of clinical feel, a lot of gut sense." Everyone in the trauma center seems to thrive on this fast pace. Scalea compares it favorably to a rollercoaster. Nurse Ellen Plummer has another analogy. "Your adrenaline's going all the time pretty much, and you're almost like a racehorse waiting to go out the gate," says Plummer. She says as a nurse, you quickly get used to working 12-hour shifts with adrenaline pumping constantly. But for patients, whatever event brought them here was unexpected, and often life changing. "These patients, and the families, they don't wake up today knowing that they're going to get in a car crash and they're going to get injured," she says. "And they have no preparation for that." That's the bad part of the job, Plummer says, having to break the news to a family. Or finding a child's note to Santa in the pocket of a woman who just died after a car crash. "We can't save everybody," she says. "And that's the worst part of this job. Totally the worst part of this job." Even though they can't save everyone, the doctors and nurses at Shock Trauma do save most. Of the dozens of patients who arrive here in ambulances or helicopters each day, 96 percent survive their injuries. In Loudoun County, just off Leesburg Pike, there's a place where hundreds of people "wing it" every day — sometimes in more ways than one. Anthony Leonardo is one of those people, and today the bespectacled, pony-tailed young scientist has led us to the window of the "Dragonfly Flight Arena," deep within the main building of the Janelia Farm Research Campus. "The room is 15 feet by 15 feet by 15 feet," he explains. "So it's like a big cube. At the top of the room we have a huge number of very bright lights, and so the room is sort of lit to look like noon on a summer day." Leonardo has furthered the summer-day theme by keeping the room at a steady 82 degrees, installing artificial grass, and providing a heaping helping of fruit flies for his dragonflies to eat. He's also covered the walls with blown-up photographs of the trees, grass and flowers you'll find all over Janelia Farm's 689 acres. "So now it has enough appearance of an outdoor realistic environment that dragonflies think, 'this is a good place for me to hang out and forage,'" he says. Dance of the dragonflies Leonardo and his team actually catch the dragonflies on the Janelia Campus, which the Howard Hughes Medical Institute built in 2006, so scientists could set up shop in a collaborative and flexible environment. "It's internally funded, so you don't apply for any grants; there's no teaching," Leonardo says. "So all you have to do is your work." And if you're the head of a particular lab, as Anthony Leonardo is, you're pretty much given free rein to study whatever you fancy for a renewable period of five years. And a topic — that's long fascinated Leonardo is this idea of prey capture. "Prey capture is essentially a problem of predicting where a moving target is going to be in the future," he says. "So this is both a challenging problem, but also a deeply interesting one because prediction is sort of a fundamentally interesting thing about what people and other animals do: you're trying to figure out what's going to happen in the future." While that's happening, there's so much going on, and so much that scientists don't yet understand. It's like a highly choreographed dance of senses sensing, neurons firing and muscles responding. "This is sort of analogous to a football player catching a ball," Leonardo says. "And so the objective of the football player is really to watch that motion and alter its own body movement to reach it as some future time coordinate." Not a bad metaphor, but when you're talking about motion, there's a major difference between footballs and fruit flies — the latter of which, by the way, Leonardo gets from some of his fruit-fly scientist buddies upstairs. Monitoring dragonflies Leonardo says dragonflies are the most sophisticated hunting and flying machines in nature: "Outdoors, they catch maybe 95 percent of what they go after, which is phenomenal," he says. "Something like a lion does like 15 percent." Here's the thing, though: compared with a lion, or that football player, dragonflies are tiny. But not so tiny they can't carry a miniature wireless system that records and transmits their neural activity as they zoom around. Leonardo calls it a "telemetry backpack." "The first two generations of this thing we also called a backpack, and we attached it on the other side of the body," he explains. "This caused great confusion for everybody because they were like 'It's a front pack!' So now it literally is a backpack." Granted, it doesn't have padded, adjustable straps and a pocket for your cell phone, but it does have this little computer chip with electrodes that go into the back of the anaesthetized dragonfly. Once the animal starts flying and foraging, the backpack detects and sends out signals from what Leonardo calls the "steering neurons." "The animal's going to fly, catch things, and we're going to monitor the signals coming out of these neurons while the animal's doing it," Leonardo says. He and his team also shoot videos of the animal — at a whopping 1,000 frames per second — to get a more macroscopic view of what's going on. What they're looking for are things such as how the body moves through the air toward the prey, why the flight pattern looks like, and how it moves through space. Once Leonardo goes through all the videos, and analyzes all the signals from the backpack, his next job is to look at all that data and figure out what it all means. "We have lots of ideas and models for how to do that," he says. "But at least you can kind of measure all of the relevant information. And then you have the greatest hope probably of ever actually understanding mechanistically how the pieces are combined." Anthony Leonardo says he doesn't have all 10,000 pieces yet, but he's well on his way. And he'll find out soon if he'll be able to get closer, since his Janelia Farm contract goes up for renewal in July 2014. We'll visit a local shock trauma center to meet doctors and nurses who work on the fly to save lives. We'll hear from a longtime D.C.-based teacher of improv comedy. And we'll hang out with a musician who's all about experimentation and play. We'll also take a more literal look at the idea of winging it, with stories about creatures that take to the skies. It's our weekly trip around the region. This time around, we visit Arlington Ridge, Va., and the Hawthorne neighborhood of Northwest D.C. Hawthorne, Washington, D.C. When Marianne Becton walks out of her house in the Hawthorne neighborhood of Washington, D.C., to walk her dog, she doesn't see the rush of people and vehicles that defines the city. "[There's] a lot of green space," Becton says. "A lot of children. A lot of mature trees. Well-managed homes. A lot of people walking. And of course, a proximity to the park, so we get to see the park every day." That natural beauty is Becton's favorite part of Hawthorne, which sits close to the Pine Hurst Tributary in Chevy Chase. But what has surprised Becton is the amount of diversity in the area. "I think Hawthorne represents a really mixed bag," Becton says. "All kinds of people live here. There are older retirees here. A lot of young families have come in in the past several years. Blue collar, white collar. We have every kind of demographic mix, age, every racial mix. A very diverse neighborhood." Becton says that she loves that mix of people, carrying with them a variety of experiences and personalities. And she says that her neighbors are caring, something you don't normally see in a bustling city. "So I think when people think about cities, they think that it's probably so fast-paced and not as kind and not as gentle, and this neighborhood is very kind and very gentle." Arlington Ridge, Virginia Katie Buck has had a connection with Arlington Ridge since 1983, when her parents purchased a house in the community in Arlington County. When they passed away, Buck moved into the house and renovated it, excited about living in a community so full of history. "The history of Arlington Ridge is very rich. It dates back to the Revolutionary and Civil Wars," Buck says. "Fort Scott Park was a park during the Civil War where the Union built a fort to protect Washington." Buck says the town is full of historic architecture, including the Hume School, the oldest school in Arlington County. But Buck says that Arlington Ridge isn't just a neighborhood full of century-old buildings and homes. "The architecture is very mixed in Arlington Ridge," Buck says. "We have a number of homes that are nearing 100 years in age that were built for people to have vacation homes up on the ridge overlooking the Potomac River. And, of course, like any community, we've been experiencing a number of renovations occurring, as well as some teardowns and new homes being built." But that history isn't Buck's favorite part of living in Arlington Ridge. Instead, she loves its location as a quiet community surrounded by big cities. "I love living in Arlington Ridge because we have great accessibility to Washington, D.C., Alexandria, the national airport," Buck says. "And yet we are an old community with strong neighbors and beautiful homes and trees." [Music: "No, Girl" by John Davis from Title Tracks / "Mamma Mia" by ABBA from Karaoke] Adults who go back to school often struggle to earn a diploma and hold a steady job. When they can't read or write well, it affects whole communities in a variety of ways, including employment, health and education. In the final part of our Yesterday's Dropouts series, Kavitha Cardoza examines the broad social implications of the decision to drop out. It's common knowledge that California has produced a mother lode of gold. Ditto on Colorado and Alaska. And according to Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History geologist Tim Rose, "Australia produces some fabulous gold to this day." But back in the day, a place much closer to home produced some pretty "fabulous gold," too: Montgomery County, Md. "I grew up in the Gaithersburg area," Rose explains. "As a kid, as a rock-hound, we knew about the gold. So I've been having my eyes to the ground looking for it, ever since!" Montgomery County is on the Piedmont Plateau: a belt of metamorphic rocks extending from New York to South Carolina. And the Piedmont has all these veins of quartz running through it. "Within some of them there are little pockets of gold and fool's gold, too," Rose says. But it was honest-to-goodness real gold that had people in Montgomery County all keyed up back in the 1800s, when it was first reported in the area. As word spread, Tim Rose says people started panning for gold in streams in upper Montgomery County. Then they started full-blown mining operations: by digging trenches and sinking shafts. Pretty soon, the county boasted 20 to 30 mining operations. "Everywhere you go in our area here, you look in stream beds, you look in farm fields, you'll find white quartz like that," Rose says. "Someday I'll be looking down, because I am still looking, and I'm going to see the glint, and I'm going to pick it up, and I'll go, 'Okay, I can stop looking now!'" Searching for gold Amateur geologist Jeff Nagy says he knew a man to whom that very thing happened not too long ago. "[He] was walking along the trail and saw a piece of quartz," Nagy, a Montgomery County native, explains. "He stopped and picked it up and turned it over, and there was a streak of gold through it. So, you never know what you're going to turn up!" Like Tim Rose, Jeff Nagy has spent a lot of time with his eyes peeled to the ground in Maryland. "When I was a kid, I'd come home and my mother would be dumping all the rocks out of my pockets, and complaining about all the rocks I'd be picking up!" Now, Nagy's a proud member of the Gem, Lapidary and Mineral Society of Montgomery County, and of the Baltimore Mineral Society. I recently helped him continue his lifelong gold hunt right near Great Falls, at the former site of the Maryland Mine. The gold mine used to be one of the state's largest, longest-lived and most productive. Building over mines Nowadays, the site has a lot of ruined buildings, like an old water tank, and overgrown dump piles. You can also find scores and scores of abandoned prospect trenches and shafts. "This would have been a vertical shaft," Nagy says, motioning to a deep hole in the ground. "It was probably 200 feet deep. Look at the big tree growing out of it, so you know that thing is completely caved in!" But from 1867 to 1940, Nagy says the Maryland Mine was a fairly thriving 2,200-acre operation. "Part of it's down here and the Park Service owns it," he says. "The rest's up in River Falls this way, [where] there [are now] housing developments." And that's the thing about so many of Montgomery County's gold mines. They've long been built over with roads and/or houses. One spot Jeff Nagy and I visited, not too far from the Maryland Mine, is now a tree-filled park, with benches, tables and a playground. "Just think: the little kids on the playground playing atop an old mining area!" Nagy muses. "Unless you knew it was here you would have no idea that anything had taken place here." Montgomery County's rich history Nagy is currently updating the Maryland Geological Survey's book, "Minerals of the Washington, D.C., Area." He says he's eager to spread the word about the region's rich history of gold, and other minerals. He points to Patapsco State Park, just west of Baltimore, as a prime example of erstwhile mining activity in the state. Between the 1830s and 1940s, Nagy says hundreds of mines in the area were pumping out a bunch of different minerals, including quartz, flint, soapstone, feldspar, beryl, mica, garnet, chromium, copper, serpentine, limestone and iron. But Smithsonian geologist Tim Rose's eyes are on a different prize: gold. But again, not just any gold. "Gold's found all around the world," he says, and of course, it's also been found in Montgomery County, Md. It's an age-old problem: bullying. Ask most anyone, and he or she will remember being taunted by a bully on the playground or in a school bus. Over the years, our definitions of bullying have evolved, and the issue has gotten more attention as new forms of harassment, such as cyber bullying, have entered the lexicon. But that doesn't mean bullies are always called out for their behavior. One mom who lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore — we'll call her "Rachel" — says her sons have been repeatedly bullied, and that teachers don't always know how to handle this problem. "I have been dealing a lot with issues at school, with children saying things or spreading rumors about my children, and it's been hard for me to deal with, and it's actually taken a toll on our family," says Rachel. "My children sometimes don't want to go to school because of it." Rachel says her older son has been coping with bullying for several years. "It started when he was in the fifth grade with somebody just telling him that nobody likes him... I believe it started when one child didn't like that my son was a best friend of one of his friends, and he started telling kids that nobody likes him," she says. "Unfortunately that spread through the bus, and my son's peers in the neighborhood started to believe that. And if we fast-forward to now, I found out that that kid that first began bothering my son, has bothered many kids and has never been disciplined for it." Rachel's son, who asked to use the pseudonym "Bobby," says he watched his brother deal with bullying before he himself confronted similar problems in school. "He started to withdraw from the family," says Bobby. "He started to become more like, alone... We still hung out, but he didn't like to go outside as much." Bobby says he was first bullied in the third grade. "I had this really good friend, and I made him my friend near the beginning of the year," he says. "Then near the middle of the year this kid came along, and he had, like, a whole group of people with him. And whenever I tried to hang out with them, they're like, 'No, we're part of this club and you can't join.' "So they wouldn't let me play with him, so he just stopped hanging out with me as much, and we stopped going over to each other's houses, and then we stopped talking during school." Bobby says bullying can "really take a toll on a person." "It can make people lose friends, and make them feel terrible about themselves," he says. [Music: "Sea of Love" by Tom Waits from Brawlers / "Music For My Mother" by Funkadelic from Funkadelic] In the backyard of their Bel Air, Md. home, Hunter and Kyla McLaughlin are bouncing on their trampoline, blowing off steam. Their mom, Shelly, says these siblings are best friends. "They're a year apart, and in some ways they're almost like twins," she says. But in some ways, this brother and sister have been through much more than many siblings. Hunter is 11 and has Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. For years, that diagnosis impacted every dimension of the family. "He was very impulsive as a younger child, and if it came to mind, he just reacted and did it," says Shelly McLaughlin. If they were out in public, like at the grocery store, that impulsiveness could be a big problem. "He would take off," she says. "I would be in the checkout line, [and] he would bolt out the door into the parking lot, and he was not coming back unless I physically went and grabbed him." McLaughlin, a single mom, knew how stressful this was for her. But it was only recently that she started to realize how autism has affected Kyla. Learning compassion at the young age "There are times where she's like another mommy to him," says McLaughlin. "You know, I remember times where he was having meltdowns, and he would just trash his room, and then when he was calm I would go in and talk to him, and Kyla would go in and start picking things up in his room." McLaughlin says these experiences have made her daughter a more compassionate person. But being a sibling of a child with autism sometimes meant Kyla had to fight for her mom's attention. "In a way she almost got stuck developmentally, in that during those critical developmental periods, I couldn't give her the attention she needed because I was so busy trying to deal with the daily crises that were going with Hunter and his explosions and his meltdowns and his running away," she says. McLaughlin says slowly, over time, things have gotten easier. These days, Hunter and Kyla like to cook together and make movies on Hunter's iPad. Adapting to a hectic life The fact that McLaughlin's family life is calming down a bit makes a lot of sense to Kathleen Atmore, a developmental neuropsychologist at the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Children's National Medical Center. Atmore is also a mom. She has four children, including a set of twin boys. One of the twins was diagnosed with autism at 18 months. "My son with autism would have just a lot of trouble handling frustration," she says. "I think that was the first thing I saw... even his cry was different." Atmore knows how all-consuming autism can be for parents and kids. But now that her sons are in their teens, she also has a longer-term perspective to share with families just starting on this path. "I have gone from the terrified mother to the capable professional in one day," she says. "And I think that experience has helped me understand that every difficult period evolves into something else that might, you know, still be challenging. But it gets better." Atmore says she advises parents to carve out one hour, one evening a week for each child in the family. She follows this practice with her own kids. "It's more than one hour now," she says. "It's usually between 8:00 and 10:00, that I just force myself to sit down. It's really been hugely helpful to simply sit down." Spreading the attention Twenty-five miles from Kathleen Atmore's D.C. office, Woodbridge, Va. resident Katherine Walker has been working to find a similar sort of equilibrium with her own children. Her son Adam is on the autism spectrum — his diagnosis is "pervasive developmental delay not otherwise specified." Walker says she started noticing something was wrong when Adam was 18 months old. For years, Walker devoted all her energy to Adam's medical care and therapy — and her daughters, twins Sophia and Miriam, had to come along for the ride. "Part of their childhood was definitely stolen because they had to grow up a lot faster than children who don't deal with disability in the family." Walker says all that intensive focus has paid off for Adam. But now it's time to bring more balance into her daughters' lives. "I've been doing Girl Scouts with them, and I'm the troop leader," she says. "Just those kinds of mother to daughter traditions and experiences that I'm trying to pass on." Walker says she now feels her son and her daughters are getting what they need from her. Getting to this point has been hard, she says. But it's been worth it. "These kids are exactly what I prayed for, even with the trials and tribulations with Adam," she says. "I am so blessed with my three children... and I love it, I absolutely love it." Tara Boyle's story was informed by WAMU's Public Insight Network. It's a way for people to share their stories with us and for us to reach out for input on upcoming stories.For more information, click this link. For more than a decade, China has been the top country for international adoptions to the United States. Since 1999, American families have adopted more than 60,000 Chinese babies and toddlers. But that's all changing, as China has tightened adoption rules in the past few years. Lisa Reff, of Bethesda, traveled to China in 2002, to adopt her first daughter, Sarah, who was then 10 months old. Reff is a single mom and she says she chose to adopt from China, in part because back then it was in some ways simpler for a single person than adopting domestically. "You knew what the paperwork was, you knew what the timing was," she says. The Chinese adoption system was transparent, and the babies were healthy. So, there was a rush of Americans adopting Chinese children. Almost 8,000 were adopted in 2005, the year Reff returned to China to adopt her second daughter. "Most people stayed at a hotel called the White Swan, which we affectionately called the White Stork, because it was just filled with Caucasian parents and Chinese children." But starting in 2006, adoptions dropped precipitously, as China changed its policies to promote more internal adoptions. The result, in the United States, is that among kids currently in elementary school, there is a uniquely large cohort of Chinese American girls. Discovering the past Ninety percent of adoptees from China are girls, due to China's one-child policy. And because Chinese families can't just go to an orphanage and give up a child, parents often leave baby girls in public places, where they will be found quickly and taken to an orphanage. That was the case for Lisa Reff's two daughters: Katie and Sarah. "I was, I think, not sealed closed, but put in a box, 'cause I remember I was near the orphanage when that happened," says Sarah. "My mom told me that I was left in front of a school in a box," says Katie. The story about the box is all they know about their birth parents. But this summer, the family is planning a trip back to China. They'll hit all the tourist sites, but they'll also visit the orphanages where the girls spent their first few months. Katie's interested in seeing a particular piece of furniture she knows from a baby photo. "Seeing if there's a red couch, that, all the children there, they took a picture of all the babies and me on a couch." These "heritage tours" as they're called, are pretty common. It's a way for adoptive parents to help their kids understand where they came from. Janice Morris, a mother from Arlington, took her daughter three years ago. "It was an opportunity to see what life would have been like for her in China, and for girls in general, both good and bad," says Morris. At the time, her daughter Claire was 10. "It was sorta sad, because I saw how lucky I am to be here, in America. But I also was happy to see where I came from," says Claire. They visited the orphanage, and they also went to her finding place — the farmers market where Claire's birth parents left her. "There were a lot of rice farms there," she says. "So if I was still there, I would have to do a lot of growing rice." Connecting with culture These trips can be important for adopted children as they get older and start to grapple with questions of identity, according to Ellen Singer, a social worker at the Center for Adoption Support and Education in Burtonsville, Md. "Sometimes it helps fill in the missing pieces to the questions they have in their minds. So for some children it's extremely powerful and healing." She says it's also important to tell children the story of where they were born, and how they were adopted, even if that story includes potentially difficult elements, like being left in a box. "We always counsel parents how to do it from an age appropriate perspective. What you tell a three year old is different from what you tell an older child." As the children adopted from China in the early 2000s get older, some will of course have more questions about their background. But for these kids, it may be hard to get good answers: there are no records to help track down birth parents; even things like exact birthdates are uncertain. Still, many adoptive parents, like Lisa Reff, are making an effort to connect their kids to the culture. Reff's daughter Katie takes Chinese dance lessons, and she's learning Mandarin. Jacob Fenston's story was informed by WAMU's Public Insight Network. It's a way for people to share their stories with us and for us to reach out for input on upcoming stories.For more information, click this link. Twanda Washington is on the brink of motherhood, somewhere she never expected to be. In her early 40s, and a high-powered regional sales manager for AT&T, Washington wasn't exactly on the "mommy track." She'd accepted that she'd be the world's greatest aunt, and was content. But, just about 9 months ago, she and her fiancé Patrick Amos found themselves face to face with a positive pregnancy test. Washington and her family recorded an audio diary, inviting us in for the first few weeks of her son's new life. [Music: "Saturday Morning" by Melodium from "Music for Invisible People"] Being a mother comes with a million different experiences, stories, attitudes, and opinions. But when it comes to all these things, might there be some specific trends in terms of how today's moms view themselves and their roles? A new study says yes. Pew Research Center's Kim Parker and Wendy Weng co-authored and recently released the study. They interviewed about 2,000 adults nationwide, surveying the participants' attitudes about their work lives, family lives, and the struggle of balancing the two. One thing Parker, who is the associate director of the Center's social and demographic trends project, says surprised her was, compared with a similar study in 2007, more moms now say their ideal situation is to work full time. The number went from 20 percent in 2007 to 32 percent in 2012. "When we looked a little bit deeper to find out which mothers, in particular, were showing that change in attitudes, it was unmarried moms and moms who were struggling economically," she says. "So it sort of suggested that women who were saying their ideal situation is to work full-time, that may not be their ideal situation because they think that would be the most fun, but because they think that's the way that they're going to be able to provide for their families. "And then when you look at women who say that they live comfortably, a relatively small share say that they want to work full-time. So that did suggest some sort of economic component there." Balancing work and family life At the same time, it seems the public remains conflicted about what's best for young children. Only 16 percent percent of adults say the ideal situation for a young child is to have a mom who works full-time. And that, Parker says, is "the conflict and the contradiction." "Even when you ask moms that work full-time, they don't think that in a general sense, that's the best thing for a young child," she explains. "Although I'm sure they think that they're doing the best that they can for their own child. Everybody has to find their own balance." Another interesting finding, Parker says, is that men place more priority on having a high-paying job than women do, and women place more priority on having job flexibility. "So that speaks to the desire to maybe be working but to be able to also attend to all the needs of your kids," Parker says, "whether they're very young and need that hands-on attention or whether they're school-age and you want to be able to go to their concerts and their events and drive the carpools and all that." According to the study, when it comes to mothers and fathers talking about how to balance work and family life, there's no significant gap in the attitudes between mothers and fathers. "We found that the share of mothers and fathers saying that it's difficult for them to balance work and family life was almost identical," Parker says. "We also found when we asked mothers and fathers if they'd prefer to be home raising their children but they need to work because they need the income, again, there was no gender difference there. "So fathers were just as likely as mothers to say that they'd like to be home with their kids, but they have to work because they need the income." Spending enough time with the kids The Pew researchers also asked mothers and fathers if they think they spend "too much time" with their kids. The results found 8 percent of mothers and 3 percent of fathers said yes. "Dads were more likely to say that they spend too little time with their kids," Parker says. "And we know from looking at the amount of time, because we also analyzed how men and women spend their time, that even though women make up almost half of the labor force now, so they're almost equally represented in the labor force with men, but men do spend more hours per week on paid work. Again, I think that's because women do more in paid work now, and they're still carrying a heavier load at home in terms of child care and housework." Researchers also asked women and men to rate themselves as parents. The results show that mothers give themselves slightly higher ratings than fathers. Parker says they also found that working mothers give themselves slightly higher ratings than non-working mothers. Parker notes that the report came out right around the 50th anniversary of The Feminine Mystique. That was the same week Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In came out. "So it was just an interesting time," Parker says. "And it's always a topic that causes a lot of interest and conversation and everyone has their own stories. "It's obviously an area that's still very unsettled and dynamic in terms of women deciding what's best and formulating their views. So I can't wait to do it again and find out what change is next!" With Mother's Day just around the corner, this week we're all about moms. We'll get the latest research on how mothers feel about work-life balance. We'll hear a new mom's first moments with her infant son. And we'll talk with a mother about her struggles with bullying in her sons' schools. [Music: "Every Little Bit Hurts" by John Davis from Title Tracks / "Mother (in the style of John Lennon)" by Hot Fox Karaoke from Hot Fox Karaoke - John Lennon 2]	eng	762e085b-a30d-45b9-9570-4aacf682009a	http://kojo@wamu.org/aggregator/sources/6
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 ...dishes take longer, involve more messes, involve a clothing change... ...dishes area fun highlight to the day, giggles are inevitable, and we stay cool splashing.... Yep, I don't think babywearing while washing dishes is something I'm going to get away with anymore. Not since she discovered she can be more involved. Observing over mommy's shoulder was good stuff....better than playing alone. But choosing between that and splashing water everywhere? The answer's obvious for a one year old. We made lots of fun memories doing dishes while I was wearing her- now here's to many years having fun doing dishes together in a new way....because my baby girl's growing up. My in-laws have an awesome three-sink/two-faucet set up in their kitchen, so when Viv and I were doing dishes over there yesterday, I plopped her in one of them, which she loved. She had so much fun being right in as close to the action as possible. I think we just might have to make that work with our oddly-divided sink! :-) Doing dishes twice in a day....first with mommy, then with daddy...Ben, like the amazing guy he is, virtually always does the dinner dishes, which, depending on how fast Vivi and I cooked/cleaned, and how ahead of the game we were (or how wrapped up we got in playing outside or working on projects), can sometimes be quite a job- so Vivi gets to enjoy dishes during the day with me, and in the evening with Ben. Monday, May 23, 2011 anFriday, May 20, 2011 During a few-week phase of my first trimester with this pregnancy, I did very minimal babywearing.I was exhausted all the time and nauseous part of the time.Ben was doing all the shopping, we ate plenty of Pizza Hut (for some reason, I just can't make homemade food sound good during the 1st trimester!), and housework was minimal.I was still with Vivi all day, of course…we spent lots of time playing on the floor together.And she enjoyed playing at my feet when I was cooking or something.That's something she still enjoys now that I'm back to normal- she's just getting to an exploratory stage of life, and enjoys playing and getting into cupboards. The "dry" season of wearing gave me a vivid reminder of how much Vivi loves being worn.Viviana still needs to be worn.She needs the closeness and to feel my body.She loves to play and is growing up, so she doesn't need it all the time- but she does need some. One day, in the middle of those few weeks, I had an unusually energetic day, so I decided to wrap my 23 ½ lb. Vivi on my back and get a bunch of housework done.As soon as Vivi saw me lay the wrap on my bed, and I put her on it, she starting squealing, squirming and laughing.It was so precious to see how excited she was to be worn again.She was even still and good while I wrapped her.She spent the whole hour or two of being worn snuggling into me, laughing, gabbing, waving her arms, and having a blast.So did I- I was so blessed to be able to meet my daughter's needs and have such a beautiful reward. Another time, I put her in the ergo.She was so peaceful and content to just nestle into me.I love getting to snuggle with my baby girl while doing stuff around the house! Now, life's back to normal….and she still loves being worn.I'm back to wearing her everyday, and we both enjoy the snuggles.I can't wait to have a newborn I can wear all day again, along with still wearing Vivi as she needs…in the meanwhile, I'm enjoying snuggles with my Vivi, in between playtimes. Wednesday, May 18, 2011 Basically, the title sums it all up…it really is as simple as not buying what you don't for real need.It helps with keeping an organized and clutter-free home, too! Stores center around promoting their stuff, so you buy it.They come up with as many needless items as they can, promote and advertise, and suck us into buying it.They run "great deals", and especially in large corporations, they do price it dirt cheap…so that we think, "That's just such a great deal!I should get it just in case ___."Not only is it causing unneeded clutter (which means it takes more time to manage your home), and wasting money, it's also hurting people and the environment. I've been thinking about this one quite a bit since this past weekend, when I ran to Walmart with my mom.Looking around, I just thought "Wow….this is so ridiculous!"So much stuff and waste and consumerism.So much of the big guy being able to buy everything super cheap so the rest of us can have for less than it's worth.It isn't something I've thought about excessively before, but I want to strive for more changes in the way I shop…like avoiding more of the big guys.I don't think I'll be implementing it fully by any means, or at least, not any time soon, but baby steps will make a difference.We do some things- during the summer, I shop at a local farmer's market.When I didn't shop there, I often bought local produce from a nearby grocery store.But I know there's other changes I can make, too….it's hard to figure out where to draw the line, and I'm not sure what it'll be for us, because some of the changes I could make will mean paying more- a "consequence" to fair trade.I'm used to being able to get stuff dirt-cheap….we all are.But I'm feeling challenged, like I should be paying for products what they're worth, instead of getting cheap junk that's hurting someone else.Like I should be getting more local.Like I should avoid the big guns.We'll see where it goes for us…baby steps, we'll find ways to make it work, and I'm sure it'll be a richly-rewarding journey! If you have a minute, watch this excellent video…Ben and I both thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated it: The Story of Stuff. Happy 1st birthday, Sweetheart!It's hard to believe you're already a year old….this year has flown by so quickly.But not so fast that we haven't made many beautiful memories to cherish and look back on.As I think back over the past year, I feel so overwhelmingly blessed that God chose us for each other.It's so special to see all the different ways in which you needed me to be your mommy…and I needed you, my daughter.You're my greatest treasure, Vivi! At 9:37 am a year ago, I was holding you in my arms for the very first time.I was already in love with you- but seeing and holding just made me fall deeper.You were so perfect, so amazing…and I couldn't believe God had given you to daddy and me. We cuddled and rested the first weeks.I could barely take my eyes off you; I would hold you and just gaze at you all day long.Daddy held you lots, too- he loves his little girl so much!It was so special to just hold you and thank God for you, realizing that you really were mine.You were a couple weeks old before it ever occurred to me to try putting you down somewhere…not that it mattered, you needed 24/7 touch as a baby, so the tries didn't go anywhere- except about once a week, for 20 minutes, which I would use to spend some time with just Daddy.But- I just didn't really consider the possibility of laying you down- you were so beautiful, so helpless, so dependent, so needy. Mostly, the first few months of your life were filled with beautiful memories.But there were a few struggles, too.You were a fussier baby, and had your first cry spell when you were less than 24 hours old.I felt so helpless…like I was being a bad mom, because I couldn't find anything that soothed you.I tried nursing you, and holding you against my bare chest.And Daddy spent a lot of time walking you.Eventually I learned that so long as I was doing my best to comfort and soothe you- to be there for you- the fact that you were a fussy baby didn't make me the world's worst mom. You adored your daddy- you still worship him.Every morning the first few months of your life, you would fall asleep on his chest while he worked at the computer, and I was taking a shower.You looked so sweet asleep up there.You didn't like very many other people though, until you were a few months old. The older you got, the more balanced you became, and by the time you were a few months old, you were a social butterfly.Everyone enjoys you, and you'll smile for anyone you meet! I was telling Daddy the other day that although you're only a year old, you've brought smiles and joy to so many lives- friends, family, strangers.Your personality is truly beautiful, and I know God's going to use it in huge ways.You use your enthusiasm and joy to light up many people's lives- mine and daddy's, first and fore most, but then, many others. Before we knew it, you were becoming more alert, holding yourself up better, and in general, growing up.We enjoyed a wonderful fall together as a family.You were (and still are!) quite the talker, with lots of stories to tell.At a year, you still don't get around much.You can roll over and scooch, but even those methods you don't use much.You're content to just stay in a similar area and play with what you've got. I have so many precious memories stored away of you….middle-of-the-night wakings, early morning family snuggles, the way you lit up the first time you saw a squirrel, learning new signs, laughing and being silly together, wearing you through life, watching you and daddy play, watching you explore new things, seeing you figure life out…There have been so many days when I've felt overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness as I hold and watch you.You're a precious treasure, Viviana, and you've forever changed our lives in all the best ways! Love, Daddy and Mommy A Prayer For You: Father, thank you so much for this beautiful girl you've blessed Ben and me with.Help us to know how best to parent her…give us the wisdom and patience to meet her individual needs, to reach out to her.Help us to reach her heart- to cultivate and capture it.Thank you for the many ways she brightens up everyday….thank you for entrusting her to us, and allowing us to taste of her beauty.Help us to continue to grow in our relationship together over the upcoming year.Help me to meet her needs even when she has a new sibling…help me to see the joys in everyday, and not get stressed, thus effecting Vivi negatively.Thank you for Vivi's smiles and enthusiasm for life…her special personality, and the way she loves openly. Well....I tried doing the pictures chronologically, but it put them all in backwards....so that's the way they're staying. Chronologically backwards. :-) Tuesday, May 17, 2011 There are tons of books on baby signing available, as well as lots of information on the internet.I read or scanned probably at least 20 books (which does include some board books) when Vivi was a baby, when we were pretty decided we wanted to plunge.Some of them were particularly helpful, but it's certainly not necessary to read very much, because signing with your baby is so simple.It isn't a complicated science or anything that requires a thorough education.I also really enjoyed the scientific aspect- reading about research and the benefits of signing.For the most part, I'm not going to get into those right now, other than touching on some of the aspects that were our main reason for choosing to sign. I can't speak from someone who's thoroughly through it- someone who has 3 children, all great, early talkers.Vivi being only a year, we're still in the early part of the process.But we have seen some huge benefits in our family already, as well as ways it has specifically and tangibly helped Vivi.So mostly, I'm just going to share how we've been blessed. In a nutshell, these are some of the biggest points we decided to follow in baby signing, which are considered musts in most baby signing books.Pick just a few (3 or so) signs to start with, and consistently sign those.Sign them when you're getting ready for the activity (or whatever it is), when you're doing it multiple times, etc.Really connect the sign with the object/activity.For example: for teaching "eat", we might show Vivi her high chair with food ready on it, and ask her if she wants to eat (sign, too), then we put her in and say, "Yeah, we're eating!"…and we would comment about eating a handful of times throughout the meal.Make sure you say the word along with signing.You want them to be able to connect signs with speaking, since with a "normal" (hearing) baby, signing will eventually switch over to talking- or at least include talking, depending on your final goals.Some families like to continue signing and use baby signing as a base for expanding and learning more.We're hoping to go this route, and encourage our older children to still sign- so long as I can keep up!Never, ever withhold something because a baby doesn't sign it back to you.It might take a while before baby starts signing, and if you start very young, it could take months.Even after they start signing, they may or may not always sign it back to you.Signing is not something that gets disciplined- it's a tool to communicate.Get excited with them when they sign- babies love being clapped for!If baby isn't repeating the sign "correctly", continue to model it accurately for them, but don't correct their signs.Eventually, just through seeing you, they'll perfect theirs.Several of Vivi's signs have already moved through multiple levels of accuracy as she tries to copy me.And lastly, have fun! As parents that believe treating children like people is of utmost importance, communicating with our children is very important to us.We believe that what children have to say is just as important and attention-worthy as anyone else.But it can be hard with a 10 month old, or even an 18 month old.Some children even don't start talking well and clearly till they're 2 or older.And this can lead to a lot of frustration- especially on the part of the child, but also for the parent.So baby signing appealed to us instantly.It seemed like a great idea to have a tool we could use to communicate with our babies at so young an age.It totally fits with me to find a way that Vivi can communicate her needs, wants, thoughts, desires, excitement, etc., with me.We love sharing life, and communication is a huge part of that.It's so much fun having mutual communication as a part of our sharing life, now!Each stage has so many special aspects, and it's definitely exciting to be able to communicate so much with Vivi. We signed sporadically throughout Vivi's babyhood, but didn't get serious about it till she started tantruming a lot, all of a sudden.Thinking through the various possibilities and causes of the tantrums (because she never has before, and she was well-rested when she started down that path), we considered frustration with not being able to communicate.That was our kick into consistent signing.We chose to start with eat, play and light.We chose eat and play because they're large parts of her day, and also needs/desires we thought her likely to communicate.We chose light as a fun one, because Vivi has always been really fascinated by lights.Sure enough, she loves telling us about every light she sees now!Since then, we've added all done, drink, outside and potty (because, yes, signing has even led to some beginning potty training :-)).It doesn't matter what signs you start with; just pick ones that are relevant to you and your baby.Once Vivi masters a sign (I don't know what "technically" qualifies, but we're going with, once she signs it without any prompting, to communicate something), we start a new one.The rate at which she picks up signs is getting faster, although some take longer than others- and there are some signs she's been signing back at me for at least a couple weeks, but which she still hasn't started signing of her own accord yet.Most babies eventually get to a rate of one new sign a day, and though we haven't yet, I suspect we will.Vivi loves having the ability to communicate with us, and gets really excited when she can use a sign to communicate, and we understand. To get back to the tantrums- they're gone.Just like that.She still has an occasional one over something- like when she's exhausted and I'm trying to get her to sleep and she'd rather not be laying there.But for the most part, it seems all she needed was peaceful methods of communication.I'm sure as she gets older, and into more trouble, we'll have some tantrum issues along the way, when she can't have things she wants.But for now, it enables us to communicate which eliminates a large source of tantrums. The first time she signed of her own accord, she was in the middle of a tantrum.It was a few days, or maybe even a week or two, after we started signing consistently.Ben was holding her, and she was perfectly happy, while I got dinner ready.Neither of us caught the connection till after the fact, but she started throwing a fit when I started cutting up food on her tray.Ben asked her what she wanted and told her that she didn't have to scream.She seemed to think for a moment, then signed eat.Ben responded to her, acknowledging the need, and she was perfectly happy.Outside of tantrums motivated by severe tiredness, I think that was about the last one she had. It makes me so happy to have a way to communicate with Vivi, so that she doesn't get frustrated.It's so fun to see how excited she was when she first realized she could use signing to tell us what she needs.It's also helped eliminate some impatience issues we were having….like when I'd put her in her high chair while I was still cutting up her food, thus not having it all ready.I'm not sure why she stopped being so impatient, but I wonder if it's because she's fully confident now that I do know what she needs and understand her, and therefore will meet those needs.It's really special to be able to communicate with Vivi even though she doesn't have the coordination to speak in clear words yet…and it makes life happier and easier for all of us. All that makes me wonder how many babies get spanked or otherwise punished for throwing fits that could easily be stopped just through a parent taking the time to teach them to communicate in a way that works for the baby.And it's kind of scary to wonder how close we were to being one of those discipline-happy parents.I'm just grateful God spared us from that direction, and has given us the tools to teach Vivi how to communicate peacefully. All that to say….we're enjoying both our signing journey, and the fruit of it!If you try it with your little ones, I hope you're as blessed as we've been! Thursday, May 12, 2011 I wonder how many parents go into parenthood unarmed, with this vague idea that there are certain glamorous aspects to parenting.And at first, it might well appear to be so.Especially in homeschool circles, it's the "Godly" thing to do to get pregnant.Everybody and their uncle congratulate you and are thrilled for you the first time you get pregnant.Most first-time moms are center stage the whole 9 months.Everyone wants to know how they're doing, what they think of pregnancy (and generally, how miserable they are), birth plans, nursery plans, etc., etc.You get at least one baby shower, sometimes more.Then the birth day finally arrives, and again, everyone wants to see pictures.Tons of people visit, wanting to see your first baby, and lots even bring meals.And the first month or so you're totally caught up and enamored by this precious little one, hardly able to believe it's actually yours. But suddenly, somewhere in there, things change.Suddenly it doesn't work to stay places till 11 pm.You find yourself rejecting invitations you would normally love to accept, because it's past baby's bedtime.You tell friends that this activity or that doesn't work, because it falls at naptime.The number of diapers you change soars into the hundreds, and it's not quite so new and fun anymore.Dishes pile up, and babies have fussy days.Teething kicks in, and you spend days and nights soothing a fussy baby.You walk around in zombie mode, because the most consecutive sleep you got the previous night was 30 minutes.As the baby gets older and becomes a normal part of life, others aren't as excited about all the new milestones.Growth spurts, illnesses, long days, frazzled nerves, cranky babies…And then, your womb is filled again.And this time, it's not quite so exciting for everyone else.You won't be quite so coddled and center-stage.A few close friends will ask how you're doing, but no one else really cares.Baby number two arrives, and there isn't quite the rush for everyone to see him there was the first time.After all, they've already seen one of your babies.You might get a few meals, and you might not…there isn't the novelty and need for an excuse to visit the baby, this time.Baby number 3 goes further down that line, and just try being pregnant with number 10, and see what kind of reactions you'll get. I'm not saying it's always like that.Nor am I implying it's been that way for me this time around, or that I regret not getting all the attention we got when I was expecting Vivi.The people that care about me still want to know how I'm doing, and how the pregnancy is going….but they wanted to know about me when I wasn't pregnant, too.The people that love Vivi most still get excited about all her new milestones.Vivi's still as precious as she was when she was a newborn, and I still catch my breath and enjoy just watching her.And honestly, parenting never was about the glamour for me.We're still enjoying it just as much as we did when we started this journey, over 1 ½ years ago…more in fact, because everyday uncovers new blessings. No, it isn't glamorous…it isn't sparkly and untouchable like a beautiful diamond….it doesn't put me at center stage or make me popular or looked up to- if anything, it's removed me from society.Instead, it's a soft, beautiful joy….like a perfect day.It's like uncovering new secrets and treasures in an open field, or deep in an undiscovered wood.It's like peeking around a tree to discover a patch of violets you never saw before. Every day grows more beautiful, as I add more items to my collection- tangible, touchable items.No, they don't all sparkle, but they're far more beautiful than that, and I cherish the memories we're making.Someday, when all the children are grown, and I am (hopefully) surrounded by grandchildren, I'll miss this…and I'll look back through old scrapbooks and read old journals and relish the memories.I'll be grateful that my job in life never was glamorous- because my reward is much richer, my memories much deeper.If people pursue parenthood for the glamour, not only do they end up sadly disappointed, they also miss out on such incredible wealth and depth and beauty.Their children miss out, too. Parenting involves many sacrifices.Sorry to burst your bubble if you were pursuing parenting with glamour in mind.Parenting is beautiful, but it's a deeper beauty than diamonds.And if you're ever going to get anywhere near discovering the deepest depths of it, you have to understand and embrace the sacrifices.If you can make this one step- tossing out selfishness and embracing sacrifice for the sake of your children- you can find rewards that are unimaginably beautiful.I know, because I'm tasting.I don't know fully yet…it'll be a great many years before I can understand the full depth…but as much as I can with 1 ½ or so years of parenting under my belt (and that counts pregnancy), I know. I might write a lot about sacrificial parenting, and being willing to sacrifice your desires for the sake of your children, but it isn't to elevate me.Because honestly, usually it isn't that hard.It's a lifestyle Ben and I decided to embrace a long time ago, and so it's just life.It's the way things are, and we don't feel sorry for ourselves, or feel like we're missing out on the "great" life when we have to make little sacrifices.No.I write firstly because I desire so much for other children to experience the joys of living with sacrificial parents….because it's so important to me to see children treated like people.And I write secondly that other parents may taste the joys we taste- the inexpressible joys that come when selflessness can become a part of day-to-day life.This is important to me as well, because if the people I see day in and day out are any indicator of people in general, most people miss out.And that's terrible….parents could not only be giving their kids so much more, but also getting so much more out of their lives, and they don't, because they're still clinging to glamour and selfishness.They're still mourning that life isn't as it used to be…still trying to cling to the old life, make this new life as much like it as possible.In the process, they hurt their children and they hurt themselves.They might get to hold onto some aspects of their old lives…but the sacrifices they absolutely have to make will hurt them far worse than they would if sacrificing and embracing the new life's challenges and joys were the norm. And no….even if you do live life with abandon, and do chose a sacrificial love for your children, it isn't always easy.I would venture to say it's easier, and even often easy.But not always.Sometimes it'd be fun to stay out later at an event.Sometimes it's frustrating to not get to carry out evening plans with Ben because I had to spend the whole night getting Vivi to sleep and/or back to sleep.Sometimes, the sleep loss catches up with me, and I wonder if I can handle it.Sometimes, I'd like to shut my eyes and imagine away everything I'm behind on, in hopes a fairy maid will come and do it all.But those are the hardest days.And they don't happen everyday, or even every week….unlike the blessings. And the blessings….are so deep, and so wonderful, and so exquisitely beautiful….that I honestly don't know how to put them into words.I don't think I can put them into words that someone who hasn't already embraced this journey would understand.They come in the small things, like whispering grass…small things that light up this mommy's whole day! It's living with a little girl who is so happy and cheerful, so well connected and emotionally stable, so beautiful and content….because of the choices we've consciously made for her.It's watching her sleep- seeing her sweet lips curl into a partial smile, watching her chest move up and down, admiring the way she clasps her hands like an angel- and knowing this little girl is ours, our gift from God.It's communicating with her through sign language- enjoying her fast growing repertoire, and trying hard to stay ahead of her.It's having conversations while we go for a walk, discussing all the beautiful things we see.It's knowing that Vivi loves and trusts us.It's seeing her develop and grow everyday.It's sharing life together.It's realizing Vivi's a real person, and as such, enjoying time with her as much as I'd enjoy time with my mom or any other adult.It's spending countless hours sharing small joys.It's seeing her light up when she learns something new, or discovers she can communicate clearly with us.It's seeing her excitement when we prepare to do something she enjoys, like heading outside.It's seeing Vivi sign "play" excitedly when she sees that Daddy's getting ready to start their daily job (filling up the vaporizer) together with her. It's knowing that this is where God has me.It's realizing that nothing else in the world could offer rewards as great as mine.It's laughing just because life is that wonderful.It's living stress-free, because I'm enjoying this life of mine.It's enjoying today while looking forward to tomorrow…and looking back on yesterday with fond memories.It's conquering a large to-do list with Vivi on my back or at my side…enjoying good company and a productive day.It's feeling small kicks in the womb, or noticing a growing belly, and smiling with thankfulness for this new life God's blessed us with.It's anticipating the upcoming birth.It's planning for a super-long babymoon, and making plans for how Vivi and I will prepare beforehand to make it possible.It's looking forward to being a mommy of two, and enjoying lots of relaxed time together with my 3 favorite people. Wednesday, May 11, 2011 I thought about writing about cloth menstrual pads this week (and advertising me :-)), but due to a busy schedule, and other things I'd rather spend my time writing, decided to go for something short and sweet. Let's talk about paper plates, plastic ware, and disposable cups.We've used these very minimally since getting married.However, it's only been since last summer that we've set out to completely eliminate them.Prior to that, we used them for our big Christmas open house parties.I believe we might've also used them for traveling when we headed down to Florida.Since deciding to switch over completely, we've hosted two semi-large gatherings…we had both our families over (around 30 people), and our annual Christmas open house (60 or so people).Otherwise, we've hosted various small things, but those were all under 20 people.We also elected for regular ware during our 2-week hotel stay for Ben's schooling, and various picnics. And- it really wasn't as hard as one might think.You just have to make a party out of clean up!Its surprising how fast it goes if you can get a couple of people going on it.For the open house, we washed a small stack of dishes midway through, since we were running out.Afterwards, we had someone stick around and help with the clean up, including dishes. My in-laws use regular ware for their potlucks every Sunday, which includes somewhere between 20 and 40 people. I really hate buying a large stack of something just to throw it away, so this decision sits really well with me financially.But we also love the fact that hosting a big party no longer means a huge bag of garbage! If it's a new idea to you, baby steps might help.Consider trying not using them for your next picnic, or next party, or whatever next thing you might typically use them for.See how it goes…try it again.Don't pressure yourself, and work towards making small steps. Or maybe you're the type of person who needs to just get it out of the house and make it not an option.I know I'm that way….because most of the switches we've made really aren't that hard, but for whatever reason, when the thing that seems most convenient is right there, it's easy to go for it.If it's not, I don't think twice. I also realize that it's a much easier decision for us to make, being a small family of 3, than for a family of 12 or 15.Being able to start out now, as our family's growing, is a huge advantage, because by the time we're a large crowd, we'll be so used to living this way it'll be total habit.Camping with regular ware will just be how we do it.But if you're a large family and considering camping without disposables for the first time, it could be really intimidating.Baby steps might help….do what you can, and don't sweat what you can't.Eventually, you can get there, just like a growing small family will eventually get to the large family place without garbage.It's just going to be a process. Monday, May 9, 2011 It's much easier to make parental sacrifices and meet your little one's needs selflessly when the need seems "valid".Like staying up most of the night with a little one who doesn't feel well.But when the need doesn't feel "valid"…it can be a lot harder.Such as a night this past week, when, for no apparent reason, and even though Vivi acted very tired and never got hyper, it took over 2 hours to get her to sleep for the night.But as it turned out, she woke up with a cold- a cold that was probably beginning to bother her the previous night, even though I couldn't see any symptoms.Suddenly, her need felt valid. A thought hit me the other day.Something that is somewhat repetitive of what I write about a lot on this blog, in meeting your children's needs, including emotional needs.But it hit in a new and inspiring way: every need of my daughter's is valid.Sometimes, I might not see the validity of it till later, like our rough night.Sometimes, I might never see the validity of it.But that doesn't change the fact that they are valid needs. And when I say needs….I'm not talking just diaper changes and feedings.I mean every time she cries.I mean the nights she wakes up every 45 minutes.I mean the times when she's clingy and fussy.I mean the times when she wants to spend the whole day nursing at her ripe old age of 11 months.I mean when she makes it obvious that she's tired early in the evening, putting an end to our evening plans.I mean the times she takes hours to put to sleep.I mean the times she gets scared by too much hub-bub and needs to be taken away from a social situation. As an attentive, caring parent, most physical needs are easy to see.It's easy to see when a child's sick, hungry, tired, etc.But a lot of people have a much harder time with the emotional side.Which makes sense…sometimes, those needs aren't as tangible….which perhaps leads to them not feeling "valid".Sometimes the reason for it isn't seen till later, sometimes it's never seen.You may never understand why your baby needed to be up every 30 or 45 minutes throughout the night.You might decide she simply didn't, and resort to cry it out in frustration.But what if your baby really needed the extra emotional connection with you?Perhaps she's more active and spends more of her day away from you.Perhaps that particular day she was separated from you more than usual.Maybe something happened that jarred her, causing her to need to extra emotional output from you. As parents, we need to trust our instincts, and trust our children.We need to trust that all their needs are valid, not just the ones that seem valid to us.We need to believe that for some reason, extra care/attention/whatever is a real, tangible need for the child, and whether we see it or not, it will pay off. Although, if actions speak louder than words, some parents really seem to believe this, it isn't true that babies are nuisances on purpose.They don't make it their life goal to keep you up all night so you're nice and irritated.They don't see how many ways they can come up with to pull you away from your "good time" just so you miss out.They aren't annoying(unless that's how you see them), and they aren't trying to manipulateyou into a miserable existence.They're babies, and children, and they're conveying needs. As parents who're very concerned about our children's emotional, as well as physical, needs, this has always been a priority for us.I could tell you countless stories of times Vivi needed us, even though I couldn't necessarily see why or what was wrong.Stories of times when she needed to go to bed extra early, and it interrupted our plans and what we wanted to do.But, there's too many, and they aren't really needed.See, they happen everyday.Everyday, our children have needs that will inconvenience us if that's how we want to view it.Everyday, they depend on us and reach out to us to show them the love they need to feel. I remember a time when Vivi was 6 weeks old, and we went to a CHEO convention (homeschool convention in Ohio).She was with me in the ergo most of the day, and all her needs were seemingly met, and she was happy, so I slipped into the next session I had made plans to hear.As we were pacing the back of the room, she started getting fussy within a minute of being in there.We went out, and tried going back in a few minutes later, since she seemed perfectly content again.Same thing happened.As it turned out, she was trying to convey to her mommy that she just needed some connection time.Being held all day wasn't enough, she needed my full attention.So, she and I found a quiet spot (which wasn't difficult, because most of the crowds were in sessions), and enjoyed some mommy and daughter time.We laughed and talked and gazed at each other for close to an hour, till Ben, my mom, and sister were done with their sessions.I love this story, because of how clear it was that she was trying to reach out and connect emotionally.You don't always see it so clearly at 2am.:-)Similar stories have happened many times since…and it's always heart-melting to see her reaching out to me. Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Welcome back!This week I'm going to dig deeper into cloth diapers.Hopefully this will be helpful for those of you considering cloth diapers (or maybe for convincing those who weren't previously interested :-)), but are unsure of where to start.There is so much information in the cloth diapering world.When I first got started, it took me a long time to wade through it all and figure out what was what exactly.Since then, there's still been some trial and error in figuring out what exactly I love and what I don't.Everyone has their own favorites, and their favorites might not become yours.I'll mostly share information about why to cloth diaper, how, the options and care…including my opinions and what I do.Enjoy! Why Cloth? In today's society, not only are disposable diapers readily available, it's typically assumed you're going to be using them.Unless you're dirt poor, everyone assumes you'll take advantage of such a great- and relatively inexpensive- convenience item.So if you decide not to, people will ask why….they might even ask if you truly can't afford disposables.So- having a good idea of why you're doing cloth is definitely a positive thing. Firstly, it's healthiest for your baby.It's more comfortable and it's better for their health.I personally never liked sitting in plastic-y pads….before switching to cloth, it was the thing I disliked most about my menstrual cycles- even more than the bad cramping I experienced.But, comfort aside, disposable diapers are made up of a highly toxic chemical, dioxin, as well as others.They also contain sodium polyacrylate, which is why they're so absorbent.This was used in tampons previously, till it was linked to toxic shock syndrome.Do you really want all those nasty chemicals on your baby's bum?The issues just get worse the wetter the diaper gets and the more the sodium polyacrylate expands.Which is to say, if one of the reasons you choose disposable over cloth is to change less often, you really should consider changing at least as often as cloth moms do.If you've ever waited so long to change that you found tiny gel pieces on your baby's bu, that was sodium polyacrylate- and who know what else.As a mom who tries to live a healthy lifestyle and eat healthy, whole foods, I was horrified when reading some of the chemical specifics just a few months ago, that I had ever put a disposable on my baby's bum.I can't believe I put all those nasty and dangerous chemicals right up against their skin- and where they're getting wet; thus releasing more chemicals.Yuck!Needless to say, barring a family crisis, we won't be buying disposables again. Secondly, if you'd like a nice personal benefit for the ride, you'll save yourself tons of money.Even the most cheap-skate person, who can roll in the best diaper deals, will probably spend over $1000 on disposable diapers for one child.How much you spend on cloth depends on whether you make them yourself or buy them, and where you purchase them from, as well as how many you like to have, and could range from $100-$500.If you spend the upper end, your savings may only be $500.But at the end of the spending, you should have diapers that are still in excellent condition.If you intend to have more children, your cloth diapers should last through several, suddenly increasing your savings by multiple thousands.If not, you can sell the diapers on Diaper Swappers or a similar site, or to a friend, and get something back on what you invested.I don't think anyone's going to go dumpster-diving and pay you for their finds. Thirdly, consider the environment.Some cloth diaper users are really passionate about this, many cloth diaper for one or both of the above reasons.But when you consider how many diapers get thrown out per child, we should all be a little bit concerned about this.You don't have to be a "radical green" or make it your life's job to "save the planet".But cloth diapers are a simple way to eliminate tons of waste.Diapers don't readily compose.Current estimates suggest each diaper could take up to 500 years to decompose, and with the number of diapers the United States goes through per year, that's too many.I recently read that over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce the disposable diapers one baby needs for one year.And that is just in production.That's not the diaper itself- just the waste that goes into making it. And lastly, they're cute.They really just are…I love cloth-diapered babies!Also, they're extremely easy to use, taking up a matter of minutes per week- something we can all spare.These aren't the old days of pins that poke babies and are a hassle to use, and rubber pants.See the "care" section below for more details on what cloth-diapering entails. Different Options for Using: I'm a full-time cloth diaper user, and knowing what I know now (especially on the health end), I could never go back to being anything else.That means that for nighttime, going out, road trips, etc., cloth is what we use.But, that's just our decision.It doesn't get me the heroic mom reward or anything.(That, by the way, definitely goes to a friend who full-time cloth diapered all 9 of her children, even camping, the old fashioned pins and rubber pants way!)I just feel like I need to utilize what I know to the best of my ability…and that means no yucky chemicals being smeared into my babies' bums! However, if the idea of full-time cloth diapering is overwhelming to you, consider implementing it on a part time level in some way.There's lots of ways to implement it so it works for you!You could, for instance, be mostly full-time, but take disposables on vacation and use them for a few days after the birth of a baby.Or you could use disposables at night, and cloth otherwise.Or, if you want to just start out on a really easy level, try using cloth at home and disposables any time you're out. I have previously used cloth diapers for road trips.Our family spent 2 weeks in Virginia for Ben's schooling in December/January, and I used disposables the whole time.After that long of using them, I was slightly concerned about how easy it would (or wouldn't!) be to swing back into using cloth when we got home, but as it turned out, we loved going right back to it, and I was so grateful to have her in her nice, soft, chemical-free cloth.Now I know more about the chemicals and effects and all, so our next Virginia trip, this summer, we'll be taking the cloth stash along.We will also (hopefully) have a couple family trips, so we'll be trying out cloth on the road then.I took cloth to a weekend retreat I was in charge of a month or so ago, and we didn't have a lick of problems.It felt good to know my baby was still being diapered in the best, instead of that I'd given into my own laziness. It sounds like a big deal to make the total switch- but as we'll discuss in the care section, below, it really isn't.Once you try them out, you'll find it's only a matter of extra minutes per week- and with all the benefits of cloth, that's totally worth it.I've found that the best way to totally eliminate disposables is to not have any available- if they're not there, neither is the temptation….you just do what you do.If you don't have options, it really doesn't feel like a problem to just do cloth.I do have some strays around that were previously an occasional temptation- but not knowing what I know now. True story of a time I used disposable and wished I used cloth: When Vivi was 6 weeks old, Ben and I, along with my mom, teenage sister, and baby sister, went to CHEO- a homeschool convention in Ohio.Since we were going to be gone for the whole day, I decided to do disposable diapers, since I had a gift package.I thought it'd be better to not have as much bulk to carry around, and, though I usually change often no matter what she's wearing, it'd be nice to have something she wasn't going to leak out of because I waited an extra 15 minutes till the seminar I was in was over, to change her.Well- we didn't have any pee leaks- but she pooped 4 times, and every single time leaked all the way up her back, creating a huge mess that wasn't so very easy to deal with under the circumstance.Baby poop never, ever leaked up the back of cloth diapers.A couple times when she was tiny, it leaked out the legs, but that's a much less messy deal. And, I had occasional pee leaks.But gosh, those would've been a whole ton easier to clean up than the poop leaks.Next time: cloth all the way- if for no other reason than my convenience! What Kind Do I Need? There isn't a right or wrong answer here- which is part of what can make it so confusing.For different reasons, everyone will have different favorites.I like some of the different ones for different times of the day/activites.There are 3 main types of diapers, with plenty of hybrids. A quick note on terminology and diaper make-up for the novice: -Soakers/inserts are the layers of fabric (typically in between the fabric touching your baby and the waterproof outer layer) that soak up your baby's pee.These are made out of a wide range of fabrics, most that you would buy are made out of some type of polyester microfiber.I make mine with hemp fabrics.The key thing is that it's a fabric that absorbs. -PUL is a waterproof fabric commonly used as the outer layer (or the cover in the case of a 2-part diaper) of your diaper. -Most all diapers close with either Velcro or snaps. -We'll get into the different types of diapers and what they are below, but there are three main ones we'll discuss: all-in-one (AIO), Fitteds and Pockets. Size:There are two options here: you can buy/make all the fixed sizes (newborn, small, medium, large), or you can do one-size that adjust to be useable for all or most sizes. One nice aspect to doing sized diapers is that you don't have extra bulk on a little munchkin.For this reason, I chose to go with sized diapers.I like having them be as trim as possible, and doing sizes allows this.I also think that when I have two in diapers, it'll be easier to have different sizes for each, so I can easily tell whose is whose and not have to readjust a one-size to fit one kid or another.The obvious down side is having to have more diapers and needing a place to store the ones you aren't using. Some of the one-size diapers have really great designs where they aren't creating a lot of extra bulk.Others have more issues.I personally would particularly avoid an all-in-one one size diaper, because for your smaller babies, you're basically just folding up the extra part of the diaper (including the soaker) and having it stick out in front.That makes it awfully bulky, which I just don't like.Pocket diapers, where you use different size soaker inserts, and either pull the diaper tighter with elastic (my favorite design thus far) or snap it up with snaps on the front, are a good diaper option for one-sizes.Another issue is that most one-sizes don't adjust quite small enough for a baby under 10ish pounds, and depending on how big your baby gets prior to potty training, they may not be quite big enough at the end.An obvious benefit is that you'll need fewer diapers, because the same set will last for most of your baby's needs.This means not only that it can be a cheaper route to go (these will be a little more expensive, though), but also that it's less unused diapers to find storage space for.Some of those benefits are negated slightly if you have multiple children in diapers at the same time.On the other hand, some find it convenient for their toddler and baby to be able to share the same diapers. Because we're just starting our family, and Lord willing, would love to have many children, I think the cost/number of diapers doing sized will eventually balance out and equal with one-sizes.This is because even cloth diapers eventually wear out and need replaced.One-sizes, that are used for 2-3 years straight, will wear out faster than a diaper that's used, say, 6-18 months.However, if you don't plan on having more children, or if you only want to cloth diaper part-time, one-sizes might be a great option for you, so you don't have to invest in a whole wardrobe of cloth diapers to only use part of the time, or with one child.On the other hand, you might just find yourself hooked faster than you anticipate! Regardless of what you do, if you plan to be a full-time cloth diaperer, you may find it helpful to have some sized newborns and/or smalls to use before your baby's big enough to use one-size. Styles- All-in-one (AIO):An AIO diaper is just that….all in one piece.Essentially, it's just like a disposable diaper, except cuter and softer.You put it on the same way, and either snap or Velcro it closed.After it's dirty, you toss the whole thing in the laundry, wash, dry and use again.The soaker layers are sewn into the diaper, in between the inner layer touching baby and the PUL. The biggest benefit is how easy it is to use.There's hardly any learning curve, and there's no extra time putting on extra pieces or "assembling" diapers after washing. The biggest drawback is that because the soaker is sewn inside, these take forever to dry.Most likely, you'd need two full dry cycles, whereas other diapers should only need one.Another drawback is the inability to control how many soakers are in there.Some kids are massive super-soakers (including mine!) and need more layers, even if you change them hourly.Some companies (and patterns) solve this issue by leaving an opening just like pocket diapers for you to stuff extra inserts in as needed. I have a couple AIO diapers, and enjoy using them.Since I only have a couple, I just lay them over a chair to dry after the first dry cycle, and use them as my last diapers, 2-3 days later, which is about when they're finally dry enough.It should be noted that the natural fabrics, like hemp, do take longer to dry, and if my soakers were polyester, they'd dry faster.They'd probably also dry faster out on a line than hanging over a chair.I personally would never want my whole stash to be AIOs, because of the dry-time issues.I push how long I can go between washings to far to be able to futz around with 2 dry times or the number of hours they'd take on the line.Plus, I don't want to use the extra electricity. Pocket Diapers:A pocket diaper is very similar to an AIO.When you put it on the baby, it's all one piece and fastens the same way.The only difference is there's an opening (usually at the back of the diaper), and you stuff your soakers into that instead of them already being sewn in. The biggest positive to pocket diapers is how fast they dry, while still being convenient and easy to put on.Another plus is being able to adjust the amount of soakers to fit the needs of your child.Like the AIO, not only are they easy to use, but being a one-piece deal (as opposed to fitteds), they eliminate a lot of the bulk people associate with cloth diapers.The biggest- and only that I can think of- drawback to pocket diapers, is the time it takes to stuff them.It really isn't all that long, but minutes are minutes in the world of a busy mom.Depending on how they're made, some diapers are easier to stuff than others.Fuzzi Bunz, for example, are a wider diaper, which I really like, and which makes it much easier to have the room to stuff, thus making the job a fast and painless one.It also take a second to remove the soaker after the diaper's wet/dirty, but that's hardly worth mentioning. At least ½ of my medium and large diapers are pocket diapers, and I really love them.I love the ability to change absorbency, as well as how fast they dry.They fit Vivi well without a lot of extra bulk.My sizing is similar to the Fuzzi Bunz, so being wider, they're fairly effortless to stuff.Vivi and I enjoy spending 5 or so minutes folding diapers together every other morning, and stuffing my pockets is a part of that routine. A hybrid between pockets and AIO- quick dry flaps:This design can be a bit harder to find in the realm of pre-made diapers, although they are out there.And if you make them yourself, it's really easy!It's the perfect cross between AIOs and pockets, eliminating all the problems with both.My mom adores these diapers.Basically, it's the diaper without any soaker inside (like a pocket with the soakers taken out)- except, it has a flap (or two flaps) sewn on top of the diaper, made of several layers of soaker fabric.The very top layer is made out of something comfortable for the baby's bum.They dry fast because the soakers flap around, but the soakers are right there and attached, so they don't require any effort.To adjust the soaker numbers, you can add a lay-in soaker underneath the flap if necessary.The only downside I've heard some people mention is that they prefer a completely smooth surface on the inside of their diaper, which you don't achieve when you have a piece of fabric laying in there.This is not a comfort problem at all; for the woman who mentioned it, it was solely an appearance preference.Also, if you're particular about how clean you get your dirty diapers before washing, it can be more of a hassle to have to wash the flap and the diaper in the toilet, when the poo's still fairly runny.I'm not all that picky, so I haven't had issues.Also, you need to be careful about the fabric your soakers are made out of if you go this route.Microfiber, for example, is so absorbent that if it's left touching a baby's skin, it will actually dry it out in its attempt to "do its job" and soak up any moisture.This is obviously a problem!So, either make sure there's no way the under layers of the soaker can touch the baby's skin (even if things slide a little), or choose fabrics that don't cause this issue. I have quite a few of these in the medium/large sizes, as well, and enjoy them greatly, for all the reasons mentioned above.My newborns and smalls are exclusively made this way (except nighttime diapers, which we're getting to), and I wouldn't go any other route with diapers that small.The smaller and narrower the diaper, the harder it is to stick your hand in to stuff it, so quick-dry diapers are definitely the way to go in my opinion!I love this for the smaller diapers, and it was effortless to stick an extra soaker under the sewn in one. Fitteds:Fitteds are a two-part system.Typically, there's some type of inner diaper that isn't waterproof, and then you fasten a waterproof cover over it.There are many different designs for the inner diaper- some fold in various ways, some look just like an AIO or pocket diaper without the waterproof outside, some just wrap around and don't use any fastener.You can also use the good old fashioned diapers in here.The cover is usually 1 layer of PUL, sometimes with another layer underneath it, with fold over elastic all around the edges.It fastens with snaps or Velcro. Because of the two-part system, fitteds are often a bit bulkier than other options.They also take a bit of extra time to put on and take off.With all the newer frills, like snaps, they aren't difficult or complicated like the old two-part systems.On the benefit side, you don't need as many covers as you do inner diapers, because unless poo leaked onto the cover, or they had a massive pee that got on the edges of the elastic (which would probably only happen at night or if you don't change your baby much) you can reuse it through several diaper changes.This makes fitteds a very economical option.Because of how the cover fits around the diaper, these are much more leak-proof than other diaper options, which is a great feature. I have a handful of fitteds in every size, which I use for nighttime.There is no way I could put enough soakers in Vivi's pocket diapers to hold in how much she often pees.But with fitteds, I almost never have a leak!Not even when she was younger and would sleep 13-14 hours and nurse hourly!I sometimes use them during the day, too, especially during seasons when she's peeing a lot more.I definitely want to have some extras on hand for road trips, too, when it isn't feasible to change her as often.I don't think I'd want my whole stash to be fitteds, because I like the trimness and convenience of pockets- and because, whether leaking's an issue or not, keeping Vivi dry and changing her as she wets is important to me…so, except at night and in special circumstances, I don't need the leak-proof ability.However, I definitely wouldn't be without at least a handful for nights, traveling, etc.I can't imagine doing without these! Different Brands:There are so many brands out there, especially when you factor in all the smaller companies run by moms.I don't personally have any experience with the different brands, because I make my own, so I asked a friend to share her opinion.Holly does frequent reviews, so she's gotten to test tons of different brands.Probably the best way to find your niche is to just plunge in and try something.DiaperSwappers is a good place to get used diapers at good prices.Etsy is a great place to go if you're interested in supporting moms. Here's what Holly said: "Oh my, as far as diapers, there ARE so many I love. I am partial to Fuzzi Bunz (pockets), because they were my first, and their sizes seem to run big which can be a big help. My favorite big names though are Rumparooz (pockets)...a bit expensive, but worth every penny. Although they have a bit of a low rise which cuts the sizing down in age range. Bum Genius (pockets) are great as well. GoGreenPocketDiapers has really nice pocket diapers for extremely affordable prices...not all the flash, but adorable designs and they work wonderfully. For All-In-Ones, I LOVE the new itti bitti diapers...they are so lush and soft, and work amazingly well, but again, a bit pricey. And my favorite momma shop has to be BittiBumz on Etsy. Her diapers are really cute (fleece AIO's) and work really well. Ack, there are just so many I love, that I could honestly rave about each one in their own way. But those are probably the tops I would recommend first."Check out her cloth diaper section to see her reviews on more brands! How Many Do I Need? This depends on how often you want to do laundry.It's really nice to be able to pull out three days, but every other day works well, too.Newborns go through 8-12 diapers a day, so you want a minimum of 24.For smalls I found I still needed about that many….maybe more like 20-22.Around mediums, she started peeing less often, so we were only going through about 8 diapers per day.Right now, though, Vivi's still in mediums and we're going through at least 10, sometimes more- she's nursing around the clock and drinking a lot, so she's peeing often.Larges should be about the same as mediums, and possibly as few as 6 diapers a day.It just depends on your baby, and how often you're going to change. How to Care for your Diapers: Taking care of cloth diapers is so simple!I don't do anything complicated- I don't even get my hand in the toilet. When I'm changing Vivi, instead of tossing her diapers in the garbage, I just toss them in a giant wet bag- a bag that closes with Velcro and is made out of PUL.You can also use a 5-gallon bucket.I don't put anything in it- just the diapers. Having the bag able to close, or having a bucket with a lid keeps the room from smelling at all.So- that part doesn't take any longer than disposables.If they're pocket diapers, I pull out the soakers, but that really doesn't take any time.I wash my diapers first thing in the morning, usually, after Vivi wakes up, so I can wash all her fitteds, since I have the fewest of those.I dump the contents of the bag in the washer and run a cold rinse.Sometimes, I put vinegar or baking soda in, but more often, I don't do anything.This takes under 30 seconds.When the rinse cycle's over, I put in my soap (and sometimes vinegar or baking soda), turn it on a hot/cold wash cycle, and leave.Total time: about 20 seconds, max.When that's done, I usually put my diapers right in the dryer.If your washer doesn't do enough rinses, you may find you need to run an extra rinse cycle first, which would take you about 10 seconds.Putting in the dryer and turning it on probably takes 30-45 seconds.You can also line dry, which takes longer, but is a good financial and environmental choice.I would like to get back to doing this more….I just always end up waiting too long to wash diapers and run it really tight on time.:-)When they're dry, Vivi and I get them out of the dryer, dump them on my bed, and have a folding party.We probably spend around 7 minutes, or sometimes up to 10 minutes…but that includes all the time we spend being goofy, throwing stuff around, and generally having a great time together.They go in a basket on my dresser and are ready for use for the next few days.My wipes, by the way, get washed with my diapers, too- quick and painless.I don't fold them, just stack them in a pile that gets stuffed in the basket.I keep a small stack wet (in a Tupperware) so I don't have to wet a wipe every time I change Vivi's diaper, or have it when we go out and may not have access to water.That's about 1 ½ minutes I spend on the wash cycle, and under 10 minutes folding, which I do while having a great time with my daughter.The maximum amount of time I would spend on cloth diapers per week, then, is about 30 minutes.And part of the reason it takes me so long to fold diapers is because of all the different kinds and sporadic soakers I have, so I end up sorting diapers/soakers before actually putting them together.If all yours are the same, or at least all the ones you stuff are the same, you wouldn't have that issue.If all of yours are AIOs, it'd probably take you about 3 minutes to fold a load. Occasionally, you may notice your diapers are leaking more than usual- or maybe they have a bad/strong smell as soon as your little one pees.Or, possibly, your diapers still smell out of the washer/dryer.In this case, they might need to be stripped.All this process is, is doing several washes without soap, to rid the diapers of any soap/other build-up.After washing your diapers normally, so they're clean, run a hot wash cycle with nothing in it.If you have a top-loader, check the diapers during the rinse cycle, when there's extra water.Make note if it's sudsy (make sure to notice if it's really suds or if it's just bubbles from the moving water).If it is, run another wash cycle when this one's complete.Continue till the water's perfectly clean.I have a front loader, so I can't really see.So, I do about 3 complete wash cycles.If your washer lets you do hot rinses, you can also just run several rinses instead of the wash cycles.I've only had to do this once, with one of my sizes, but depending on your soap and water, it may have to happen oftener for you. A note about laundry detergent: I use Charlie's Soap, both for cloth diapers and my other laundry.I've heard some mixed things about them recently, so I may be looking around when I run out, but I've been really happy thus far.A lot of people are also thrilled with Rockin' Green, made especially for diapers. What about going out with cloth?Easy-peasy!I stuff a small wet-bag (same concept as above, except it only holds 6-8 diapers, depending on how well I stuff it) in my diaper bag along with my container of wet wipes and a handful of diapers.Her dirty diapers go in the wet bag.It's also a great place to put wet/dirty clothes!That's it….it really isn't any different than disposables.And if she poops, I don't have to worry about finding a trash can so it doesn't smell up the van- the wet bag locks the odor in. For most types of diapers, it doesn't take any longer to change than a disposable, but what about how often you have to change?Like I've already mentioned, it strikes me as cruel to leave a child I know is wet in their wet diaper, whether it's disposable or cloth.I don't care if it's going to leak or not, or if, by leaving it a ½ hour, I could go through less diapers, because there's room to pee again without it leaking.So, for me it's not an issue.Plus, if you're concerned about your child's health, you'd probably rather they stay 10 minutes longer in a cloth than in a wet, chemical-laden disposable.All that aside, if you feel differently, then yes- you might have to change your cloth baby more often.If your priority is squeezing as much as you can get out of a diaper, you'll get more out of a disposable.However, I know people that take the "wait as long as I can" mentality with cloth, and still go quite a long time without leaks.Vivi's a super-soaker, and always has been.So usually waiting for her to pee several times wouldn't be a good idea, unless I have a lot of extra clothes lying around.Sometimes, her diaper isn't very wet.Especially when she was younger, there would be times when she was barely wet, and I probably could've "gotten more" out of the diaper if I so desired.But that's not my style.So for me, it doesn't take any longer….for you, it might mean an extra diaper change or two per day. Like I mentioned in the fitteds section, I do realize there are times when you can't change as often.At night, I'm not going to wake Vivi up to change her.On a road trip, it isn't practical to make Ben stop every hour just so I can change Vivi.These are times when I want something more leak-proof, and will use it just so I can go longer.But if there's any way I can change Vivi, I will. Wrapping it Up If you're new to the cloth diapering world, I hope you've been able to pick up some ideas of where you want to head.If you've never considered it, I hope I've peaked your interest.Regardless of where you're at, I hope I've given food for thought without offending.I don't think I realized till this week that cloth diapering has become a passion for me, above just something we do.:-)If you have questions, shoot	eng	0cf1b4b6-be19-4077-9c6f-f90eeca2e76f	http://fountainlove.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html
and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced. Manufacturedin the United States, the original version of the 747 was two and a half times the size, one of the common large commercial aircraft of the 1960s. First flown commercially in 1970, the 747 held the passenger capacity record for 37 years. A Double-deck aircraft has two decks for passengers; the second deck may be only a partial deck, and may be above or below the main deck. Almost all commercial aircraft have one passenger deck and one cargo deck for luggage and ULD containers, but only a few have two decks for passengers,... configuration for part of its length. It is available in passenger, freighter and other versions. Boeing designed the 747's hump-like upper deck to serve as a first class lounge or (as is the general rule today) extra seating, and to allow the aircraft to be easily converted to a cargo carrier by removing seats and installing a front cargo door. Boeing did so because the company expected supersonic airliners(whose development was announced in the early 1960s) to render the 747 and other subsonic airliners obsolete, while believing that the demand for subsonic cargo aircraft would be robust into the future. The 747 in particular was expected to become obsolete after 400 were sold but it exceeded its critics' expectations with production passing the 1,000 mark in 1993. As of June 2010, 1,418 aircraft have been built, with 109 more in various configurations remaining on order. the latest passenger version in service, is among the fastest airliners in service with a high-subsonic cruise speed of85–0.855 (up to 570 mph (254.8 m/s)). It has an intercontinental range of 7,260 nautical mile Nautical mile The nautical mile is a unit of length that is about one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian, but is approximately one minute of arc of longitude only at the equator... s (8,350 mi or 13,450 km). The 747-400 passenger version can accommodate 416 passengers in a typical three-class layout Travel class A travel class is a quality of accommodation on public transport. The accommodation could be a seat or a cabin for example. Higher travel classes are more comfortable and more expensive.-Airline booking codes:... or 524 passengers in a typical two-class layout. The newest version of the aircraft,, is in production and flight testing in late 2010. Deliveries of the 747-8F freighter version to the launch customerbegan in October 2011; the 747-8I passenger version is to follow in 2012. The 747 is to be replaced by the Boeing Y3 (part of the Boeing Yellowstone Project Boeing Yellowstone Project Yellowstone is a Boeing Commercial Airplanes project to replace its entire civil aircraft portfolio with advanced technology aircraft. New technologies to be introduced include composite aerostructures, more electrical systems , and more fuel-efficient turbofan engines Yellowstone is a Boeing... ) in the future. Backgroundstarted a series of study projects on a very large strategic transport aircraft. Although the C-141 Starlifter C-141 Starlifter The Lockheed C-141 Starlifter was a military strategic airlifter in service with the Air Mobility Command of the United States Air Force... was being introduced, they felt that a much larger and more capable aircraft was needed, especially the capability to carry outsized cargo that would not fit in any existing aircraft. These studies led to initial requirements for the CX-Heavy Logistics System (CX-HLS) in March 1964 for an aircraft with a load capacity of 180000 pounds (81,646.6 kg) and a speed of Mach 0.75 (500 mph (804.7 km/h)), and an unrefueled range of 5000 nautical miles (9,260 km) with a payload of 115000 pounds (52,163.1 kg). The payload bay had to be 17 feet (5.2 m) wide by 13.5 feet (4.1 m) high and 100 feet (30.5 m) long with access through doors at the front and rear. Featuring only four engines, the design also required new engine designs with greatly increased power and better fuel economy. On May 18, 1964, airframe proposals arrived from Boeing, Douglas; while engine proposals were submitted by General Electric, Curtiss-Wright Curtiss-Wright The Curtiss-Wright Corporation was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States at the end of World War II, but has evolved to largely become a component manufacturer, specializing in actuators, aircraft controls, valves, and metalworking..... After a downselect, Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed were given additional study contracts for the airframe, along with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the engines. All three of the airframe proposals shared a number of features. As the CX-HLS needed to be able to be loaded from the front, a door had to be included where the cockpit usually was. All of the companies solved this problem by moving the cockpit to above the cargo area; Douglas had a small "pod" just forward and above the wing, Lockheed used a long "spine" running the length of the aircraft with the wing spar passing through it, while Boeing blended the two, with a longer pod that ran from just behind the nose to just behind the wing. In 1965 Lockheed's aircraft design and General Electric's engine design were selected for the newtransport, which was the largest military aircraft in the world at the time. The nose door and raised cockpit concepts would be carried over to the design of the 747. Airliner proposal The 747 was conceived while air travel was increasing in the 1960s. The era of commercial jet transportation, led by the enormous popularityPan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991... (Pan Am), one of its most important airline customers, to build a passenger aircraft more than twice the size of the 707. During this time, airport congestion, worsened by increasing numbers of passengers carried on relatively small aircraft, became a problem that Trippe thought could be addressed by a large new aircraft.development team to manage the studies for a new airliner, already assigned the model number 747. Sutter initiated a design study with Pan Am and other airlines, in order to better understand their requirements. At the time, it was widely thought that the 747 would eventually be superseded by supersonic transportaircraft. Boeing responded by designing the 747 so that it could be adapted easily to carry freight and remain in production even if sales of the passenger version declined. In the freighter role, the clear need was to support the containerized shipping Containerization Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers... methodologies that were being widely introduced at about the same time. Standard containers are 8 ft (2.4 m) square at the front (slightly higher due to attachment points) and available in 20 and 40 ft (6.1 and 12.2 m) lengths. This meant that it would be possible to support a 2-wide 2-high stack of containers two or three ranks deep with a fuselage size similar to the earlier CX-HLS project. In April 1966, Pan Am ordered 25 747-100 aircraft for US$525 million. During the ceremonial 747 contract-signing banquet in Seattle on Boeing's 50th Anniversary, Juan Trippe predicted that the 747 would be "... a great weapon for peace, competing with intercontinental missiles Intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery... one of the senior management for the 747 program at the time. As launch customer, and because of its early involvement before placing a formal order, Pan Am was able to influence the design and development of the 747 to an extent unmatched by a single airline before or since. Design effort Ultimately, the high-winged CX-HLS Boeing design was not used for the 747, although technologies developed for their bid had an influence. The original design included a full-length double-deck fuselage with rows of eight-across seating and two aisles on the lower deck and seven-across seating and two aisles on the upper deck. However, concern over evacuation routes and limited cargo-carrying capability caused this idea to be scrapped in early 1966 in favor of a wider single deck design. The cockpit was, therefore, placed on a shortened upper deck so that a freight-loading door could be included in the nose cone; this design feature produced the 747's distinctive "bulge". In early models it was not clear what to do with the small space in the pod behind the cockpit, and this was initially specified as a "lounge" area with no permanent seating. One of the principal technologies that enabled an aircraft as large as the 747 to be conceived was the high-bypass turbofan engine. The engine technology was thought to be capable of delivering double the power of the earlier turbojets while consuming a third less fuel. General Electric had pioneered the concept but was committed to developing the engine for the C-5 Galaxy and did not enter the commercial market until later. Pratt & Whitney was also working on the same principle and, by late 1966, Boeing, Pan Am and Pratt & Whitney agreed to develop a new engine, designated the JT9D to power the 747. Fault tree analysis is a top down, deductive failure analysis in which an undesired state of a system is analyzed using boolean logic to combine a series of lower-level events... , which allowed the effects of a failure of a single part to be studied to determine its impact on other systems. To address concerns about safety and flyability, the 747's design included structural redundancy, redundant hydraulic Hydraulic machinery Hydraulic machines are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example.In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is transmitted throughout the machine to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders and which becomes pressurised according to... systems, quadruple main landing gear and dual control surfaces. Additionally, some of the most advanced s used in the industry were included in the new design, in order to allow it to operate from existing airports. These included leading edge flaps running almost the entire length of the wing, as well as complex three-part slalong the rear. The wing's complex three-part flaps increase wing area by 21 percent and lift by 90 percent when fully deployed compared to their non-deployed configuration. Boeing agreed to deliver the first 747 to Pan Am by the end of 1969. The delivery date left 28 months to design the aircraft, which was two-thirds of the normal time. The schedule was so fast paced that the people who worked on it were given the nickname "The Incredibles". Developing the aircraft was such a technical and financial challenge that management was said to have "bet the company" when it started the project. Production plant As Boeing did not have a plant large enough to assemble the giant airliner, they chose to build a new plant. The company considered locations in about 50 cities, and eventually decided to build the new plant some 30 miles (48 km) north of Seattle on a site adjoining a military base at Paine Field Paine Field Paine Field, also known as Snohomish County Airport is a public airport located in unincorporated Snohomish County, between Mukilteo and Everett, Washington Washington. It bought the 780 acres (3.2 km²) site in June 1966. Developing the 747 had been a major challenge, and building its assembly plant was also a huge undertaking. Boeing president William M. Allen asked Malcolm T. Stamper Malcolm T. Stamper then head of the company's turbine division, to oversee construction of the Everett factory Boeing Everett Factory The Boeing Everett Factory, in Everett, Washington, is an airplane assembly building owned by Boeing. Located on the northeast corner of Paine Field, it is the largest building in the world by volume at 13,385,378 m3 and covers 399,480 m2... and to start production of the 747. To level the site, more than 4 million cubic yards (3.1 million m³) of earth had to be moved. Time was so short that the 747's full-scale mock-up was built before the factory roof above it was finished. The plant is the largest building by volume ever built, and has been substantially expanded several times to permit construction of other models of Boeing wide-body commercial jets. Development and testing Before the first 747 was fully assembled, testing began on many components and systems. One important test involved the evacuation of 560 volunteers from a cabin mock-up via the aircraft's emergency chutes. The first full-scale evacuation took two and a half minutes instead of the maximum of 90 seconds mandated by, and several volunteers were injured. Subsequent test evacuations achieved the 90-second goal but caused more injuries. Most problematic was evacuation from the aircraft's upper deck; instead of using a conventional slide, volunteer passengers escaped by using a harness attached to a reel. Tests also involved taxiing such a large aircraft. Boeing built an unusual training device known as "Waddell's Wagon" (named for a 747 test pilot, Jack Waddell) that consisted of a mock-up cockpit mounted on the roof of a truck. While the first 747s were still being built, the device allowed pilots to practice taxi maneuvers from a high upper-deck position. On September 30, 1968, the first 747 was rolled out of the Everett assembly building before the world's press and representatives of the 26 airlines that had ordered the airliner. Over the following months, preparations were made for the first flight, which took place on February 9, 1969, with test pilots Jack Waddell and Brien Wygle at the controls and Jess Wallick at the flight engineer's station. Despite a minor problem with one of the flaps, the flight confirmed that the 747 handled extremely well. The 747 was found to be largely immune to "Dutch roll Dutch roll Dutch roll is a type of aircraft motion, consisting of an out-of-phase combination of "tail-wagging" and rocking from side to side. This yaw-roll coupling is one of the basic flight dynamic modes... ", a phenomenon that had been a major hazard to the early swept-wing jets. During later stages of the flight test program, flutter testing showed that the wings suffered oscillation under certain conditions. This difficulty was partly solved by reducing the stiffness of some wing components. However, a particularly severe high-speed flutter problem was solved only by insertingChina Airlines Flight 358 was a Boeing 747-2R7F freighter plane that crashed on December 29, 1991 shortly after takeoff from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan. The aircraft was a 747, registration B-198, that had been in service for 11 years, 3 months . The aircraft had... On 4 October 1992, El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 cargo plane of the Israeli airline El Al, crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg flats in the Bijlmermeer neighbourhood of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For the location in the Bijlmermeer, the crash is known in Dutch as the "BijlmerrampFlight test is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops and gathers data during flight of an aircraft and then analyzes the data to evaluate the flight characteristics of the aircraft and validate its design, including safety aspects... program was hampered by problems with the 747's JT9D engines. Difficulties included engine stalls caused by rapid movements of the throttles and distortion of the turbine casings after a short period of service. The problems delayed 747 deliveries for several months and stranded up to 20 aircraft at the Everett plant while they awaited engine installation. The program was further delayed when one of the five test aircraft suffered serious damage during a landing attempt at Renton Municipal Airport Renton Municipal Airport Renton Municipal Airport is located in Renton, Washington, USA. It has a single paved runway, 16/34, which is roughly 5,400' long... The Boeing Company's Renton, Washington Factory is a facility where Next-Generation Boeing 737 airliners are built. Current production includes the 737-600, 737-700, 737-800, and 737-900 models.The factory lies adjacent to Renton Municipal Airport.... . On December 13, 1969 the test aircraft was being taken to have its test equipment removed and a cabin installed when pilot Ralph C. Cokely undershot the airport's short runway. The 747's right, outer landing gear was torn off and twos were damaged. However, these difficulties did not prevent Boeing from taking one of the test aircraft to the 28th Paris Air Show Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show is the world's oldest and largest air show. Established in 1909, it is currently held every odd year at Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France... in mid-1969, where it was displayed to the general public for the first time. The 747 achieved its FAAairworthiness certificate in December 1969, making it ready for introduction into service. The huge cost of developing the 747 and building the Everett factory meant that Boeing had to borrow heavily from a banking syndicate. During the final months before delivery of the first aircraft, the company had to repeatedly request additional funding to complete the project. Had this been refused, Boeing's survival would have been threatened. Ultimately, the gamble succeeded, and Boeing held a monopoly in very large passenger aircraft production for many years. Entry into serviceThelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan Nixon was the wife of Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, and was First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974. She was commonly known as Patricia or Pat Nixon.Born in Nevada, Pat Ryan grew up in Los Angeles, California... Clipper Victor was a Boeing 747-121 which began service with Pan Am in 1970. It was the first Boeing 747 in service and is notable for its brief but significant history. Its tail number was and was named Clipper VictorNajeeb Elias Halaby Jr. was a US businessman, government official, and the father of Queen Noor of Jordan.-Early life and ancestry:Halaby was born in Dallas, Texas. His father was Najeeb Elias Halaby Sr. a Syrian Christian, who emigrated to the United States from Syria in 1891... . Instead of champagne, red, white and blue water was sprayed on the aircraft. The 747 entered service on January 22, 1970, on Pan Am's New York–London route; the flight had been planned for the evening of January 21, but engine overheating made the original aircraft unusable. Finding a substitute delayed the flight by more than six hours to the following day. The 747 enjoyed a fairly smooth introduction into service, overcoming concerns that some airports would not be able to accommodate an aircraft that large. Although technical problems occurred, they were relatively minor and quickly solved. After the aircraft's introduction with Pan Am, other airlines that had bought the 747 in order to stay competitive began to put their own 747s into service. Boeing estimated that half of the early 747 sales were to airlines desiring the aircraft's long range rather than its payload capacity. While the 747 had the lowest potential operating cost per seat, this could only be achieved when the aircraft was fully loaded; costs per seat increased rapidly as occupancy declined. A moderately loaded 747, one with only 70 percent of its seats occupied, used more than 95 percent of the fuel needed by a fully occupied 747. When economic problems in the United States and other countries afterled to reduced passenger traffic, several airlines found they did not have enough passengers to fly the 747 economically, and they replaced them with the smaller and recently introduced McDonnell Douglas DC-10 McDonnell Douglas DC-10s). Having tried replacing coach seats on its 747s with piano bars in an attempt to attract more customers, American Airlines eventually relegated its 747s to cargo service and in 1983 exchanged them with Pan Am for smaller aircraft;also removed its 747s from service after several years. Delta would later merge, which operates 747s. International flights that bypassed traditional hub airports and landed at smaller cities became more common throughout the 1980s, and this eroded the 747's original market. However, many international carriers continued to use the 747 on Pacific routes. In Japan, 747s on domestic routes are configured to carry close to the maximum passenger capacity. Improved 747 versions After the initial 747-100 model, Boeing developed the , a higher maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) variant, and the (Short Range), with higher passenger capacity. Increased maximum takeoff weight can allow an aircraft to carry more fuel and have longer range. The model followed, entering service in 1971. It featured more powerful engines and higher takeoff weight. Passenger, freighter and combination passenger-freighter versions were produced. The shortened 747SP Boeing 747SP The Boeing 747SP is a modified version of the Boeing 747 jet airliner which was designed for ultra-long-range flights. The SP stands for "Special Performance". Compared with its predecessor, the 747-100, the 747SP retains its wide-body, four-engine layout, along with its double-deck design, but... (special performance) with a longer range was also developed in the mid-1970s. The 747 line was further developed with the launching of the 747-300 in 1980. The resulted from Boeing studies to increase the 747. Solutions such as fuselage plugs and extending the upper deck over the entire length of the fuselage were rejected. The early designation of the −300 was 747SUD for "stretched upper deck", then 747-200 SUD, followed by 747EUD, before the 747-300 designation was used. The −300 model was first produced in 1983. It included a stretched upper deck, increased cruise speed and increased Passenger, short range and combination freighter-passenger versions were produced. In 1985, development of the longer range 747-400 began. The new variant had a new glass cockpit Glass cockpit A glass cockpit is an aircraft cockpit that features electronic instrument displays, typically large LCD screens, as opposed to the traditional style of analog dials and gauges... , which allowed for a cockpit crew of two instead of three. Development cost soared, and production delays occurred as new technologies were incorporated at the request of airlines. Insufficient workforce experience and reliance on overtime contributed to early production problems on the 747-400. The −400 entered service in 1989. In 1991, a record-breaking 1,087 passengers were airlifted aboard a 747 to Israel as part of The 747 was the heaviest airliner in regular service until the use of theRuslan in 1982. The 747-400ER model regained that distinction in 2000. The Antonov An-225 Antonov An-225remains the world's largest aircraft by several measures (including the most accepted measures of maximum takeoff weight and length); one has been completed and is in service . The Hughes H-4 Hercules, but it only flew once. Further developments several stretching schemes for the 747 have been proposed. Boeing announced the larger 747-500X and preliminary designs in 1996. The new variants would have cost more than US$5 billion to develop, and interest was not sufficient to launch the program. Boeing offered the more modest 747X and 747X stretch derivatives in 2000 as alternatives to the Airbus A3XX However, the 747X family was unable to attract enough interest to enter production. Boeing switched from the 747X studies to pursue the Sonic Cruiser in 2001 and, after the Sonic Cruiser program was put on hold, the 787. Some of the ideas developed for the 747X were used on the 747-400ER. After several variants were proposed but later abandoned, some industry observers became skeptical of new aircraft proposals from Boeing. However, in early 2004, Boeing announced tentative plans for the 747 Advanced that were eventually adopted. Similar in nature to the 747-X, the stretched 747 Advanced used technology from the 787 to modernize the design and its systems. The 747 remained the largest passengerbegan airline service in 2007. On November 14, 2005, Boeing announced it was launching the 747 Advanced as the The last 747-400s were completed in 2009. , most orders of the 747-8 have been for the freighter variant. On February 8, 2010, the 747-8 Freighter made its maiden flight Maiden flight The maiden flight of an aircraft is the first occasion on which an aircraft leaves the ground of its own accord. This is similar to a ship's maiden voyage.... Cargolux Airlines International S.A., trading as Cargolux, is a cargo airline with its head office on the grounds of Luxembourg – Findel Airport in Sandweiler, Luxembourg. It is one of the largest scheduled all-cargo airlines in Europe with a global network... in mid-2011. Eventually, the 747 may be replaced in Boeing's lineup by a new design named "Y3". Design The Boeing 747 is a large, wide-body (two-aisle) airliner with four wing-mounted engines. The wings have a high sweepangle of 37.5 degrees for a fast, efficient cruise of Mach 0.84 to 0.88, depending on the variant. The sweep also allows the 747 to use existing hangar Hangar A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used... s. Seating capacity is more than 366 with a 3–4–3 seat arrangement (a cross section of 3 seats, an aisle, 4 seats, another aisle, and 3 seats) in economy class and a 2–3–2 arrangement in first class on the main deck. The upper deck has a 3–3 seat arrangement in economy class and a 2–2 arrangement in first class. Section 41 is the forward portion of a Boeing aircraft, from the nose to aft of the cockpit. In some models it includes the forward door and may extend to the first class cabin. Along with the wings, it is one of the most complex parts of an aircraft, and includes the largest share of an... creates a hump. The raised cockpit is to allow front loading of cargo on freight variants. The upper deck behind the cockpit provides space for a lounge or extra seating. The "stretched upper deck" became available as an option on the 747-100B variant and later as standard on the 747-300. The 747-400 cockpit roof section also has an escape hatch from which crew can exit in the event of an emergency if they cannot exit through cabin. The 747's maximum takeoff weight ranges from 735,000 pounds (333,400 kg) for the −100 to 970,000 lb (439,985 kg) for the −8. Its range has increased from 5,300 nautical miles (6,100 mi, 9,800 km) on the −100 to 8,000 nmi (9,200 mi, 14,815 km) on the −8I. The 747 has multiple structural redundancy including four redundant hydraulic systems and four main landing gears with four wheels each, which provide a good spread of support on the ground and safety in case of tire blow-outs. The redundant main gear allows for landing on two opposing landing gears if the others do not function properly. In addition, the 747 has split control surfaces and sophisticated triple-slthat minimize landing speeds and allow the 747 to use standard-length runways. For transportation of spare engines, 747s can accommodate a non-functioning fifth-pod engine under the port wing of the aircraft between the inner functioning engine and the fuselage. Variantscode Model(s) B741 747-100/100B B742 747-200/200B/200M/E-4/VC-25 B743 747-300/300M B744 747-400/400C/400ER/400ERF/400F B74D 747-400D B74S 747SP B74R 747-100SR/100BSR BLCF 747-400LCF Dreamlifter BSCA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft B748 747-8F/8I The 747-100 was the original variant launched in 1966. The 747-200 soon followed, with an order in 1968. The 747-300 was launched in 1980 and was followed in 1985 by the 747-400. Ultimately, the 747-8 was announced in 2005. Several versions of each variant have been produced, and many of the early variants were in production simultaneously. The classifies variants using a shortened code formed by combining the model number and the variant designator (e.g. "B741" for all −100 models). 747-100 The first 747-100s were built with six upper-deck windows (three per side) to accommodate upstairs lounge areas. Later, as airlines began to use the upper-deck for premium passenger seating instead of lounge space, Boeing offered a ten-window upper deck as an option. Some −100s were retrofitted with the new configuration. The −100 was equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-3A engines. No freighter version of this model was developed by Boeing. However, 747-100s have been converted to freighters. A total of 167 747-100s were built. 747SR Responding to requests from Japanese airlines for a high-capacity aircraft to serve domestic routes between major cities, Boeing developed the 747SR as a "short range" variant of the 747-100 with lower fuel capacity and greater payload capability. With increased economy class seating, up to 498 passengers could be carried in early versions and more than 550 in later models. The 747SR had an "economic design life objective" of 52,000 flights during 20 years of airline operation, compared to 24,600 flights in 20 years for the standard 747. The initial 747SR model, the −100SR, had a strengthened body structure and undercarriage to accommodate the added stress accumulated from a greater number of takeoffs and landings. Extra structural support was built into the wings, fuselage, and the landing gear along with a 20 percent reduction in fuel capacity. The initial order for the −100SR, four aircraft for Japan Air Lines (JAL, later Japan Airlines), was announced on October 30, 1972; rollout occurred on August 3, 1973, and the first flight took place on August 31, 1973. The type was certified by the FAA on September 26, 1973, with the first delivery on the same day. The −100SR entered service with JAL, the type's sole customer, on October 7, 1973, and typically operated Japanese domestic flights. Seven −100SRs were built from 1973 and 1975, each with a 520000 pounds (235,868 kg) MTOW and Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A Following the −100SR, Boeing produced the −100BSR, a 747SR variant with increased takeoff weight capability. Debuting in 1978, the −100BSR also incorporated structural modifications for a high cycle-to-flying hour ratio; a related standard −100B model debuted in 1979. The −100BSR first flew on November 3, 1978, with first delivery to All Nippon Airways All Nippon Airways(ANA) on December 21, 1978. A total of 20 −100BSRs were produced for ANA and JAL. The −100BSR had a 600,000 lb MTOW and was powered by the same JT9D-7A engines used on the −100SR. ANA operated the type on domestic Japanese routes with 455 or 456 seats until retiring its last aircraft on March 10, 2006. In 1986, two −100BSR SUD models, featuring the stretched upper deck (SUD) of the −300, were produced for JAL. The type's maiden flight occurred on February 26, 1986, with FAA certification and first delivery on March 24, 1986. JAL operated the −100BSR SUD with 563 seats on domestic routes until their retirement in the third quarter of 2006. While only two −100BSR SUDs were produced, in theory, standard −100Bs can be modified to the SUD certification. Overall, 29 747SRs were built, including seven −100SR, 20 −100BSR, and two −100BSR SUD models. 747-100B The 747-100B model was developed from the −100SR, utilizing its stronger airframe and undercarriage design. The type had an increased fuel capacity of 48,070 US gallons, allowing for a 5000 nautical miles (9,260 km) range with a typical 452-passenger payload, and an increased MTOW of 750000 lb (340,194.3 kg) was offered. The first −100B order, one aircraft for Iran Air, was announced on June 1, 1978. This aircraft first flew on June 20, 1979, received FAA certification on August 1, 1979, and was delivered the next day. Nine −100Bs were built, one forSaudi Arabian Airlines is the flag carrier airline of Saudi Arabia, based in Jeddah. It operates domestic and international scheduled flights to over 90 destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America... (now Saudi Arabian Airlines). Unlike the original −100, the −100B was offered with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A, or Rolls-Royce RB211-524 engines. However, only RB211-524 (Saudia) and JT9D-7A (Iran Air) engines were ordered. 747SP The idea for the 747SP came from a joint request between Pan American World Airways and, who were looking for a high-capacity airliner with enough range to cover Pan Am's New York–Middle Eastern routes and Iran Air's planned Tehran–New York route. The Tehran–New York route when launched was the longest non-stop Non-stop flight A non-stop flight, especially in the aviation industry, refers to any flight by an aircraft which does not involve any intermediate stops. A "direct flight" is not the same as a "non-stop flight"... commercial flight in the world. The 747SP is 48 in 4 in (14.73 m) shorter than the 747-100. Fuselage sections were eliminated fore and aft of the wing, and the center section of the fuselage was redesigned. The SP's flaps used a simplified single-slotted configuration. The 747SP, compared to earlier variants, had a tapering of the aft upper fuselage into the empennage Empennage The empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow... , a double-hinged rudder, and longer vertical and horizontal stabilizers. Power was provided by Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7(A/F/J/FW) or Rolls-Royce RB211-524 engines. The 747SP was granted a supplemental certificate on February 4, 1976 and entered service with Pan Am, the launch customer and Iran Air, that same year. The aircraft was chosen by airlines wishing to serve major airports with short runways. A total of 45 747SPs were built. The 44th 747SP was delivered on August 30, 1982. Boeing re-opened the 747SP production line to build one last 747SP five years later in 1987 for an order by the United Arab Emirates government. In addition to airline use, one 747SP was modified forexperiment. 747-200 While the −100 powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D-3A engines offered enough payload and range for US domestic operations, it was marginal for long international route sectors. The demand for longer range aircraft with increased payload quickly led to the improved −200, which featured more powerful engines, increased MTOW, and greater range than the −100. In its first three years of production, the −200 was equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7 engines (initially the only engine available). A few early −200s retained the three-window configuration of the −100 on the upper deck, but most were built with a ten-window configuration on each side. The −200 was produced in passenger (−200B), freighter (−200F), convertible (−200C), and combi (−200M) versions. The 747-200B was the basic passenger version, with increased fuel capacity and more powerful engines; it entered service in February 1971. Range with a full passenger load started at over 5000 nmi (9,260 km) and increased to 6000 nmi (11,112 km) with later engines. Most −200Bs had an internally stretched upper deck, allowing for up to 16 passenger seats. The freighter model, the 747-200F, could be fitted with or without a side cargo door, and had a capacity of 105 tons (95.3 tonnes) and an MTOW of up to 833,000 lb (378,000 kg). It entered service in 1972 with Lufthansa. The convertible version, the 747-200C, could be converted between a passenger and a freighter or used in mixed configurations, and featured removable seats and a nose cargo door. The −200C could also be fitted with an optional side cargo door on the main deck. The combi model, the 747-200M, could carry freight in the rear section of the main deck via a side cargo door. A removable partition on the main deck separated the cargo area at the rear from the passengers at the front. The −200M could carry up to 238 passengers in a three-class configuration if cargo was carried on the main deck. The model was also known as the 747-200 Combi. As on the −100, a stretched upper deck (SUD) modification was later offered. A total of 10 converted 747-200s were operated by KLM. Union des Transports Aériens (UTA) also had two of these aircraft converted. After launching the −200 with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7 engines, on August 1, 1972 Boeing announced that it had reached an agreement with General Electric to certify the 747 with CF6-50 series engines to increase the aircraft's market potential. Rolls-Royce followed 747 engine production with a launch order fromfor four aircraft. The option of RB211-524B engines was announced on June 17, 1975. The −200 was the first 747 to provide a choice of powerplant from the three major engine manufacturers. A total of 393 of the 747-200 versions had been built when production ended in 1991. Of these, 225 were −200s, 73 were −200F, 13 were −200C, 78 were −200M, and 4 were military. Many 747-200s remain in operation, although most large carriers have retired them from their fleets and sold them to smaller operators. Large carriers have sped up fleet retirement following the September 11 attacks and the subsequent drop in demand for air travel, scrapping some or turning others into freighters. 747-300 The most visible difference between the −300 and previous models was a stretched upper deck with two new emergency exit doors and an optional flight-crew rest area immediately aft of the flight deck as standard. Compared to the −200, the upper deck is 23 in 4 in (7.11 m) longer. The stretched upper deck had previously been offered as a retrofit and first appeared on two Japanese 747-100SR aircraft. The −300 has a new straight stairway to the upper deck instead of a spiral staircase on earlier variants. The staircase creates room below and above for more seats. With minor aerodynamic changes, Boeing increased the −300's cruise speed to Mach 0.85 from Mach 0.84 on the −200 and −100 models. The −300 features the same takeoff weight. For available engines on the −300, the Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce engine versions were unchanged from the −200, but the General Electric engine changed to the CF6-80C2B1version. The 747-300 designation, which was first used in a design study that was later shelved, was revived for this version, which was introduced in 1980. Swissair ordered the first 747-300 on June 11, 1980. The 747-300 first flew on October 5, 1982. Swissair was the first customer to accept delivery on March 23, 1983. In addition to the passenger version, two other versions (−300M, −300SR) were available. The 747-300M has cargo capacity in the rear portion of the main deck similar to the −200M, but with the stretched upper deck it can carry more passengers. The 747-300SR is a short range version to meet the need for a high-capacity domestic model. Japan Airlines operated such aircraft with more than 600 seats on the Okinawa–Tokyo route and elsewhere. Boeing never launched a newly built freighter version of the 747-300, but it modified used passenger −300 models into freighters starting in 2000. A total of 81 aircraft were delivered, 56 for passenger use, 21 −300M and 4 −300SR versions. The 747-300 was soon superseded by the more advanced 747-400 in 1985, just two years after the −300 entered service. The last 747-300 was delivered in September 1990 to Sabena Sabena. Today, many −300 aircraft are still active, despite several large carriers that replaced their 747-300s with 747-400s.were some of the last major carriers to operate the 747-300. On December 29, 2008, Qantas flew its last scheduled 747-300 service, operating from Melbourne to Los Angeles via Auckland. 747-400 The 747-400 is an improved model with increased range. It has wing-tip extensions of 6 ft (1.8 m) and winglets of 6 ft (1.8 m), which improve the 747-400's fuel efficiency by four percent compared to previous 747 versions. It has a new glass cockpit designed for a flight crew of two instead of three. The use of electronics reduced the number of dials, gauges and knobs from 971 to 365. It has tail fuel tanks, revised engines and a new interior. The longer range was used by some airlines to bypass traditional fuel stops, such as Anchorage. Powerplants include the Pratt & Whitney PW4062 and Rolls-Royce RB211-524. The was offered in passenger (−400), freighter (−400F), combi (−400C), domestic (−400D), extended range passenger (−400ER) and extended range freighter (−400ERF) versions. The freighter version does not have an extended upper deck. The 747-400D was built for short range operations and does not include winglets, but these can be retrofitted. Cruising speed is up to Mach 0.855 on different versions of the 747-400. The passenger version first entered service in February 1989 with launch customeron the Minneapolis to Phoenix route. The combi version entered service in September 1989 with KLM. The freighter version entered service in November 1993 with. The 747-400ERF entered service in October 2002 and the 747-400ER entered service the following month with, the only airline ever to order the passenger version. In January 2004 Boeing and Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport, although the airline's registered office is on the 33rd floor of One Pacific Place... launched the Boeing 747-400 Special Freighter program, later referred to as the Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF). The first 747-400BCF was redelivered in December 2005. The last passenger version of the 747-400 was delivered in April 2005 to China Airlines. Some of the last built Boeing 747-400s were delivered with Dreamliner livery along with the modern Signature interior from the Boeing 777. Boeing announced in March 2007 that it had no plans to produce further passenger versions of the −400. However, orders for 36 −400F and −400ERF freighters were already in place at the time of the announcement. A total of 694 of the 747-400 series aircraft had been delivered. At various times, the largest operator of the 747-400 has been Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines. 747 LCF Dreamlifter The 747-400 Dreamlifter (originally called the 747 Large Cargo Freighter or LCF) is a Boeing-designed modification of existing 747-400s to a larger configuration to ferry Boeing 787 Dreamliner sub-assemblies to the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, for final assembly. Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation Evergreen Group The Evergreen Group is the organizational designation used by a Taiwan-based conglomerate of shipping, transportation, and associated service companies. The Evergreen Group arose in 1975 from the diversification of the original Evergreen Marine Corporation, which was established in 1968 and... of Taiwan was contracted to complete modifications of 747-400s into Dreamlifters aircraft flew for the first time on September 9, 2006 in a test flight. The Dreamlifter's intended purpose is to transport sub-assemblies for the Boeing 787. The aircraft is certified to carry only essential crew and not passengers. Modification of four aircraft was completed by February 2010. 747-8 Boeing announced a new 747 variant, the 747-8 (referred to as the 747 Advanced prior to launch) on November 14, 2005. The variant will use the same engine and cockpit technology as the 787, hence the use of the "8". Plans call for the new design to be quieter, more economical and more environmentally friendly. The 747-8's fuselage was lengthened from 232 to 251 feet (70.8 to 76.4 m). When the 747-8 enters service, it will surpass the Airbus A340-600 General Electric GEnx is an advanced dual rotor, axial flow, high-bypass turbofan jet engine in production by GE Aviation for the Boeing 787 and 747-8... engines. The 747-8 Freighter version or 747-8F is derived from the 747-400ERF. The 747-8F can accommodate 154 tons (140) of cargo. To aid loading and unloading, it features an overhead nose-door. It has 16 percent more payload capacity than the 747-400F and can hold seven additional standard air cargo containers. The 747-8 Freighter made its maiden flight on February 8, 2010. Deliveries of the 747-8F are to begin in mid-2011. The passenger version, named 747-8 Intercontinental or 747-8I, will be able to carry up to 467 passengers in a 3-class configuration and fly more than 8000 nmi (14,816 km) at855. As a derivative of the already common 747-400, the 747-8 has the economic benefit of similar training and interchangeable parts. The 747-8I is to begin deliveries in late 2011. The first test flight was on March 20, 2011. Several units are under construction at Boeing's Everett facility. The 747-8 has received 126 total orders with 76 for the −8F, and 50 for the −8I as of June 2011. Government, military and other variants C-19 – The U.S. Air Force gave this designation to the 747-100s used by some U.S. airlines and modified for use in the Civil Reserve Airlift Fleet. The Boeing VC-25 is the designation of a United States Air Force passenger transportation aircraft, a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner. The A-model is the only variant of the VC-25.... – This aircraft is the U.S. Air Force Very Important Person (VIP) version of the 747-200B. The U.S. Air Force operates two of them inconfiguration as the VC-25A. Tail numbers 28000 and 29000 are popularly known as Although based on the 747-200B design, they include several innovations introduced on the 747-400. Partially completed aircraft from Everett, Washington, were flown to Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed, weapons system is a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser mounted inside a modified Boeing 747-400F. It is primarily designed as a missile defense system to destroy tactical ballistic missiles , while in boost phase. The aircraft was designatedThe Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons... . One is a 747-100 (N905NA), and the other is a 747-100SR (N911NA). An SCA carried the Space Shuttle Enterprise in the late 1970s, and has since carried all Space Shuttles. A number of other governments also use the 747 as a VIP transport, including Bahrain, Brunei, India, Iran, Japan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Several newC-33 – This aircraft was a proposed U.S. military version of the 747-400 intended to augment the C-17 C-17 Globemaster III throughout... fleet. The plan was canceled in favor of additional C-17 military transports. Aerial refueling, also called air refueling, in-flight refueling , air-to-air refueling or tanking, is the process of transferring fuel from one aircraft to another during flight.... tanker and was bid against the DC-10-30 during the 1970s Advanced Cargo Transport Aircraft (ACTA) program that produced the KC-10A Extender. Before the Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran... -led revolution, Iran bought four 747-100 aircraft with air-refueling boom conversions to support a fleet of F-4 Phantoms. It is unknown whether these aircraft remain usable as tankers. Since then, other proposals have emerged for adaptation of later 747-400 aircraft for this role. 747 CMCA – This variant was considered by the U.S. Air Force as a Cruise Missile Carrier Aircraft during the development of thestrategic bomber. It would have been equipped with 50 to 100 AGM-86 ALCM AGM-86 ALCM The Boeing AGM-86 ALCM is a U.S. subsonic air-launched cruise missile built by Boeing Company and operated by the United States Air Force. The missiles were developed to increase the effectiveness and survivability of Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bomberss on rotary launchers. This plan was abandoned in favor of more conventional strategic bombers. 747 AAC – Boeing also considered developing the 747 into an aerial aircraft carrier for up to 10 "microfighters". With a double-decker hangar and two launching bays, it was believed that the scheme might actually be cheaper than establishing a short-term land base. However nothing came of the scheme, or its complementary 747 AWACS version, which would have carried two of the "microfighters" for reconnaissance.(SOFIA) - A former Pan Am Boeing 747SP modified to carry a large infrared-sensitive telescope, in a joint venture of NASA and DLR German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in... Infrared astronomy is the branch of astronomy and astrophysics that studies astronomical objects visible in infrared radiation. The wavelength of infrared light ranges from 0.75 to 300 micrometers... , so as to rise above infrared-absorbing water vapor in the atmosphere. Undeveloped variants Boeing has studied a number of 747 variants that have not gone beyond the concept stage. 747 trijet During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Boeing studied the development of a shorter 747 with three engines Trijet. The 747 trijet would have had more payload, range, and passenger capacity. The center engine would have been fitted in the tail with an S-duct S-duct An S-duct is a unique type of jet engine intake duct, used in several types of trijet aircraft. In this configuration, the intake is in the upper rear center of the aircraft, just below the stabilizer, while the exhaust is at the rear of the aircraft. The S-duct is located in the tail, or... intake similar to the L-1011's. However, engineering studies showed that a total redesign of the 747 wing would be necessary. Maintaining the same 747 handling characteristics would be important to minimize pilot retraining. Boeing decided instead to pursue a shortened four-engine 747, resulting in the 747SP. In the 1990s, the, a long-range twinjet airliner smaller than the 747-400, entered service in the market where the 747 trijet had been targeted. 747-500X, −600X and −700X Boeing announced the 747-500X and −600X at the 1996 Farnborough Airshow. The proposed models would have combined the 747's. Other changes included adding more powerful engines and increasing the number of tires from two to four on the nose landing gear and from 16 to 20 on the main landing gear. The 747-500X concept featured an increased fuselage length of 18 ft (5.5 m) to 250 ft (76.2 m) long, and the aircraft was to carry 462 passengers over a range up to 8,700 nautical miles (10,000 mi, 16,100 km), with a gross weight of over 1.0 Mlb (450 Mg). The 747-600X concept featured a greater stretch to 279 ft (85 m) with seating for 548 passengers, a range of up to 7,700 nmi (8,900 mi, 14,300 km), and a gross weight of 1.2 Mlb (540 Mg). A third study concept, the 747-700X, would have combined the wing of the 747-600X with a widened fuselage, allowing it to carry 650 passengers over the same range as a 747-400. The cost of the changes from previous 747 models, in particular the new wing for the 747-500X and −600X, was estimated to be more than US$5 billion. Boeing was not able to attract enough interest to launch the aircraft. 747X and 747X Stretchstudy, Boeing in 2000 offered the market a 747 derivative as an alternative. This was a more modest proposal than the previous −500X and −600X that would retain the 747's overall wing design and add a segment at the root, increasing the span to 229 ft (69.8 m). Power would have been supplied by either the Engine Alliance GP7172 or the Rolls-Royce Trent 600, which were also proposed for the 767-400ERX. A new flight deck based on the 777's would be used. The 747X aircraft was to carry 430 passengers over ranges of up to 8,700 nmi (10,000 mi, 16,100 km). The 747X Stretch would be extended to 263 ft (80.2 m) long, allowing it to carry 500 passengers over ranges of up to 7,800 nmi (9,000 mi, 14,500 km). Both would feature an interior based on the 777's signature architecture. Freighter versions of the 747X and 747X Stretch were also studied. Like its predecessor, the 747X family was unable to garner enough interest to justify production, and it was shelved along with the 767-400ERX in March 2001, when Boeing announced the Sonic Cruiser concept. Though the 747X design was less costly than the 747-500X and −600X, it was criticized for not offering a sufficient advance from the existing 747-400. The 747X did not make it beyond the drawing board, but the 747-400X being developed concurrently moved into production to become the 747-400ER. 747-400XQLR After the end of the 747X program, Boeing continued to study improvements that could be made to the 747. The 747-400XQLR (Quiet Long Range) was meant to have an increased range of 7,980 nmi (9,200 mi, 14,800 km), with improvements to boost efficiency and reduce noise. Improvements studied included raked wingtips similar to those used on the 767-400ER and a sawtooth engine nacelle for noise reduction. Although the 747-400XQLR did not move to production, many of its features were used for the 747 Advanced, which has now been launched as Operators Year TotalOrders 1527 2 1 5 2 25 68 48 10 4 17 16 26 35 15 36 56 32 16 2 23 31 122 Deliveries 1418 1 0 8 14 16 14 13 15 19 27 31 25 47 53 39 26 25 40 56 61 64 70 YearOrders 56 49 66 84 42 23 24 14 23 49 72 76 42 14 20 29 29 18 7 20 30 22 43 83 Deliveries 45 24 23 35 24 16 22 26 53 73 67 32 20 27 21 22 30 30 69 92 4 – – – Data through March 2011, table updated on April 8, 2011. Accidents and incidents Tenerife airport disaster occurred on March 27, 1977, when two Boeing 747 passenger aircraft collided on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands(NTSB) to issue a recommendation that 747-200 cargo doors similar to those on the Flight 811 aircraft be modified. Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by the Soviets in 1983 after it had strayed into Soviet territory, causing U.S. President Ronald Reagan to authorize the then-strictly military Global Positioning SystemTrans World Airlines Flight 800 , a Boeing 747-131, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 20:31 EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff, killing all 230 persons on board. At the time, it was the second-deadliest U.S... The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.Sin the center fuel tank of most large aircraft that was adopted in July 2008, after years of research into solutions. It is expected that the new safety system will cost US$100,000 to $450,000 per aircraft and weigh approximately 200 pounds (90.7 kg). Aircraft on display As increasing numbers of "classic" 747-100 and 747-200 series aircraft have been retired, some have found their way into museums or other uses. The City of Everett, the first 747 and prototype is at the Museum of Flight Museum of Flight The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum at King County International Airport , south of downtown Seattle, Washington. It was established in 1965 and is fully accredited by the American Association of Museums... , Seattle, Washington, USA where it is sometimes leased to Boeing for test purposes. Other 747s in museums include those at the National Aviation Theme Park Aviodrome,The Qantas Founders Outback Museum is a transport museum at Longreach, Queensland, Australia. The museum is home to a decommissioned Qantas Boeing 747-200, which can be observed by the general public. It also holds the airline's first jet, a Boeing 707-138.... Rand Airport is an airport in Germiston, South Africa. It was constructed in the 1920s as the main airport for Johannesburg, but the city outgrew it and replaced the airport firstly with Palmietfontein Airport in the late 1940s, then with the larger Jan Smuts International Airport in the French Air and Space Museum is a French museum, located in the south-eastern edge of Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris, and in the commune of Le Bourget. It was created in 1919 from a proposition of Albert Caquot .-Description:Occupying over of land and hangars, it is one of the oldest... Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to, Washington, D.C. Upon its retirement from service, the 747 number two in the production line was dis-assembled and shipped to Hopyeong, where it was re-assembled and converted into a restaurant. Originally flown commercially by Pan Am Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991... as N747PA "Clipper Juan T. Trippe", and repaired for service following a tailstrike, it stayed with the airline until its bankruptcy. The 747 restaurant closed by 2009, and the B747 was demolished in 2010. The Jumbohostel Jumbohostel The Jumbo Hostel at Arlanda Airport near Stockholm, Sweden, is a hostel located inside a decommissioned 747-200 jetliner. It opened in 2008.-The Hotel:... SpecificationsMach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressureThe 747 parasitic drag, CDP, is 0.022, and the wing area is 5500 square feet (511 m²), so that f equals about 121 sq ft (11.2 m²). The parasitic drag Parasitic drag Parasitic drag is drag caused by moving a solid object through a fluid medium . Parasitic drag is made up of many components, the most prominent being form drag... is given by ½ f ρair v² in which f is the product of drag coefficient CDp and the wing area. "Required runway" length allows for emergency factors. Actual takeoff distances will normally be considerably shorter than those listed here. See Balanced field takeoff Balanced field takeoff A balanced field takeoff is a condition where the accelerate-stop distance required is equal to the takeoff distance required for the aircraft weight, engine thrust, aircraft configuration and runway condition... . Notable appearances in media A cultural icon can be a symbol, logo, picture, name, face, person, building or other image that is readily recognized and generally represents an object or concept with great cultural significance to a wide cultural groupExecutive Decision is a 1996 action film, directed by Stuart Baird and starring Kurt Russell, Halle Berry and Steven Seagal. The original music was composed by Jerry Goldsmith... . The aircraft entered the cultural lexicon as the original Jumbo Jet, a term coined by the aviation media to describe its size, and was also nicknamed Queen of the Skies. The 747 was also referenced in the Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & FireLet's Groove" is a 1981 song from the album Raise! by the R&B act Earth, Wind & Fire. The song peaked at #3 in the U.S. and in the UK. It also spent eight weeks at number one on the Hot Soul Singles chart in late-1981/early-1982 and was the second R&B song of 1982 on the year end charts...	eng	a84a651e-c662-41f8-8e1f-1c6451514e07	http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Boeing_747
#atlas meeting 1999-10-09 log aloril (^aloril@ppp25.dial-in.verkkotieto.com) has joined #atlas bryce (bryce@ppp241.neptune.net) has joined #atlas Sal (sferro@ppp-pm03-dy-4.opr.oakland.edu) has joined #atlas <Sal> hi <Sal> gimme a yell when the meeting starts :) <aloril> hi, should we wait for more people to come? (it's +1h from now) <aloril> we could talk about MIM meanwhile? <Sal> sure, I can do that <Sal> I have plenty of time tonight :) aloril haven't yet catched ML <Sal> Have you had a chance to look at the new MIM format? * aloril relooking again: <aloril> Tue, 28 Sep 1999 <aloril> is that outdated? <Sal> hmm... is it in XML? <aloril> yupSal> I think I might have changed it a bit. I added a base_entity tag to regions... <aloril> well is I kind of different syntax from atlas, so you need different backend on between parser and application <Sal> and I add a 3d_properties section to 'entity' <Sal> yes, it is very different then what I read of the Atlas spec. <aloril> seen XML namespace post? <Sal> I dont think so... <Sal> was it a recent post? I can go look <aloril> anyway it's not syntax that I'm worried, more about semantics (not sure about what you mean by different things) <aloril> sal, are you on scripting@ list? <aloril> thats atlas list... and I think I posted it only there (thinking all people interested in atlas are there) <Sal> nope, i'm not on scripting <aloril> you should probably be there... because you are defining atlas related things <Sal> I have some changes in mind for mim already <Sal> entity_name region_name etc. should all just be "name" * aloril looking if archives of scripting@ have catched <aloril> <Sal> I'll sign up in scripting@ now. <Sal> I can read from the newsgroup aloril... what's the message subject?<Sal> ahh, 'XML Atlas and namespaces'? <aloril> yup <aloril> it kind of makes attr syntax more nice... <Sal> yes, its much more readable like that... <aloril> but still separates world/rules defined things from actual atlas tags <Sal> so what do you think of the ui discussion? <Sal> are you for/against the UI extensions? <Sal> It seems the project is split on this idea... aloril bot for and against UI ;-) aloril both for and against UI ;-) <Sal> really? explain :) <aloril> and I hope we achieve today consensus on it <Sal> so do I... <aloril> against making it mandatory, for making it optinal <Sal> ditto here. clients can ignore the IU requests, <Sal> if they know what is going to be asked by the server already. <Sal> ie. AI clients, etc. <aloril> about MIM: <aloril> <object> <aloril> <object_name>Tree </object_name> <aloril> <position>201,121 </position> <aloril> </object> <aloril> no id? <aloril> why id might be needed: <aloril> if we use MIM to save world state to file too <aloril> then we need to know what we have told clients.. <aloril> another thing:aloril> </2d_properties> <aloril> </entity> <Sal> hmm. you mean, if the clients changed the state of a 'tree', <Sal> this info needs to be stored... fex (~t00nz@host5-99-48-203.btinternet.com) has joined #atlas <Sal> hiya fex :) <fex> hi fex is now known as fex_BRB Eridon (auric@enpc2051.eas.asu.edu) has joined #atlas <aloril> hmm.. how do I know what are tree belongs (unless I use coordinates) <aloril> sal, yup <Sal> well you define 'regions' out of entities, then <Sal> you define polygons out of regions... <Sal> at generation-time, you can store which polygon that an entity is a member of, if you ned this info... <aloril> sorry for being slow, but catching on WF ML aloril just saw Sals post about MIM <Sal> :) which one? <aloril> it does have some changes to that september mail <aloril> one where you have some examples <Sal> ahh, this is new: <Sal> <region> <Sal> <name>Grass </name> <Sal> <base_entity>Grass </base_entity> <Sal> </region> <aloril> I think a can sum up what problems current format has: too much assumptions and hardcoding (just intuitive feeling) fex_BRB is now known as fex <Sal> ok, this is kind of a temporary format. <Sal> the 2d and 3d properties are ultimately going to be moved out... cerebus (rick@rickcastellohsd.ne.mediaone.net) has joined #atlas <Sal> if there is more you would like to see changed, please let me know :) <Sal> the more input the better... <aloril> 2d and 3d parts were best, but maybe you should have some expansion here too and name fields? zachariah (^zack@adsl-63-193-121-51.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net) has joined #atlas<zachariah> who <Eridon> hey ya Zach <aloril> sal, maybe I will try catch all mail before going details? <zachariah> hey y'all <aloril> hi zachariah <zachariah> what's the haps? <Eridon> talking about the map format right now <aloril> btw.. sal you should have editing access to <zachariah> cool. <aloril> same thing mostly is at forge/protocols/atlas/spec too <Sal> thanks :) I need to put the MIM docs up soon... <aloril> only main page is newer at wiki (some ML links added) <zachariah> so we're talking about how map info is passed between client and server? <zachariah> FYI: I'm working on doing a partial java implementation of the server side of atlas. gimli (~johnny@rm02-24-29-201-253.ce.mediaone.net) has joined #atlas <aloril> zachariah, cool <zachariah> In my game, the server is "blind", and doesn't know about the map. The client's are trusted, and the map is part of their <media>. <zachariah> the server only knows about coords that the different entities are at. <zachariah> ...wait, what's the new term now? :) <zachariah> client<->server stuff is significantly different if you completely trust the client... cerebus has quit (Leaving) <zachariah> i didn't mean to offend! <fex> not sure, a while, there is a fair bit of code in there :) <fex> sorry wrong window <aloril> hmm.. 45 mails in 1.5h (though fortunately only one WF ML ;-) <Eridon> nice al:) <aloril> ie only one keyword hit ;-) zachariah has quit (Leaving) <Sal> arg, me Wiki access is broken :( <Eridon> :( <aloril> fex, mail makes sense: atlas doesn't currently define messages are actually transmitted <Eridon> Sal:you got any screenies of those skyboxes?:) <aloril> ahh... zachariah left before I could comment :-( <Sal> Eri: nope :( soon though :) <aloril> so transport layer can be file io or sockets or CORBA or ... <fex> the session layer tho (by that terminology) could be seperated out and replaced quickly? i.e. XML layer <aloril> that too... <aloril> in libAtlasWF it's hidden from liberary user.. Mithro (Mithro@ppp-214.cust6.adl.chariot.net.au) has joined #atlas <fex> i was thinking more of inside libAtlas.. or in that hierarchy of dirs on cvs.. does atlas work without cvs, and is the xml->transport layer seperate too.. tbh found the hierarchy a bit hard to get into when I was looking through that code <Mithro> muhaah ;) I'm just here to watch... <fex> s/cvs/xml <aloril> xml and transport layers are separate <bryce> aloril, got an agenda for the meeting? <aloril> well using binary instead of xml does need changes in libAtlasWF, but should not require changes in application <aloril> bryce, nope: mail abuot meeting was last time yesterday and today I just managed to catch WF mail list ;-) <aloril> but agenda is short and dynamic <bryce> ok <fex> mm thats what I was thinking.. i wasn`t sure if that was the case or not.. there seemed to be a few seperate layers for things in the code.. <aloril> maybe we start with UI first and then MIM? <aloril> how to get info for character creation, etc.. and how to represent it to user aloril has changed the topic to: how to get info for character creation, etc.. and how to represent it to user John (john.miche@22.san-francisco-08-09rs.ca.dial-access.att.net) has joined #atlas <fex> hi john <John> hi <Sal> hiya John :) <Eridon> John! <aloril> okay it's 7AM (4GMT here) <Eridon> 9pm here (PST) <aloril> basic idea currently is that client extracts required info from server: <aloril> first get root entity <gimli> 11 pm here (CDT) <aloril> it points to operations, interfaces, basic entity hierarchy, etc... <aloril> basic entity hierarchy then points to admin entitites and abstract* game entties <aloril> abstract game entities then point to actual game objects <aloril> latest step in browsing is likely allowed only for privileged clients <aloril> how about imaginary play? <Sal> aloril, that sounds very complex :) <aloril> sal, you are (rpg) xclient program and I'm scifi server with only robot classes? <Sal> ok... <aloril> well first you login <aloril> here of course before login you can browse what games server has to offer and some other <aloril> things allowed to anonymous users <aloril> have you read ? <Sal> I will now :) <aloril> now about player account, that xclient needs to ask user of course... <aloril> ie there is probably some config file in client which includes info whether you have account in this server etc... <aloril> and xclient uses it to either represent login or account creation dialog <aloril> we bypass account creation for now (it could be done by web or atlas) <aloril> lets assume you have account: <aloril> send login operation like in above url.. <aloril> then server tells all kind of info about your player account including character(s) you can control <Sal> ok, I have some questions... <aloril> ie characters that you 'own' ... <aloril> ok, fire away <Sal> ok according to your doc, right after initializing the connection <Sal> the client obtains input, and sends: <Sal> <op no="2"> <Sal> <id>create</id> <Sal> <ent> <Sal> <attr name="name">JoeBlatz</attr> <Sal> <attr name="passwd">Rqv67.%</attr> <Sal> </ent> <Sal> </op> <Sal> I'm wondering, how does the client know to send the name and passwd tags? <Sal> is this hardcoded into the protocol? <fex> what does op no="2" mean, i noticed sometimes the outside tags are op and sometimes ent <aloril> yes: name and passwd tags are hardcoded.. <aloril> we need other attributes/propertied defined too of course.. <aloril> but should not need any rpg/scifi/etc.. specific things.. <aloril> but you could get those attribute names from server too: <aloril> just: <op><id>get</id><id>player</id></op> <aloril> that would give list of tags for player object <aloril> you may need to browse hierarchy towards root too <aloril> ie <type><id>account</id></type> <aloril> to get attributes that are common to all account type and name and password would be those <fex> would need to expand this a little to allow the 2 way login, ala bryces session keys in backstage <aloril> actually name would be defined probably in root entity tag or quite near that.. <aloril> fex, yup... <Sal> ok, so you can obtain that there are two properties for a player entity, but <aloril> then server would send get request for client too ... <aloril> instead of info about 'login succeeded type'==player character info <Sal> hmm <Sal> ok, Aloril, you have to clarify something for me... <aloril> ok.. <Sal> I was thinking that if the server wanted these two strings from the player, <Sal> say 'name' and 'pwd', why couldn't it just ask the player? <Sal> ie through ui tags. <aloril> how does server know you wan't to login? <bryce> lobby login permits several levels of permission authentication, btw <fex> oh? <aloril> bryce, yeah simple login in above OOG page doesn't work for more complex ones... <Sal> well apon connect to a server, there are two choices <Sal> either 1) you need to be validated <Sal> or 2) you dont need to be <aloril> sal, both are true... <Sal> so if 1) then the server asks for a login/pwd <Sal> if 2) the step is bypassed... <aloril> you can browse things that anyone is allowed to see <aloril> but you need login to get to do more <aloril> (usually that is) <Sal> ok, then that's easy. show the browser menu before the login menu... <aloril> ahh but what if you want to login directly? <aloril> we can't force ui dialogs for clients... <aloril> for simple clients we could have this: <aloril> server object has 'dialog' attribute <aloril> client uses that <aloril> by making it completely optional we allow more complex client and much more flexibility <Sal> then the client connects to the server and sends the name and pwd <Sal> ignoring the server ui requests... <aloril> without sacrifing those clients that don't want to use flexibility.. <Sal> imagine you were using telnet <Sal> and connecting to an old fashioned text mud server. <Sal> if you wanted to automate connection, you would just connect, <Sal> send user name, enter, password, enter <bryce> the way lobby works, you have permission levels. The server can discriminate as to what you can do based on your permission level. <bryce> when you first connect you have a permission level of 0 <bryce> on logging in you get to 1 <bryce> at level 0 you can do whatever the server is set up to allow you to do <aloril> bryce, yup... works nicely with atlas <bryce> ok, good <aloril> sal, it's not about automation ... <aloril> it about adding new options.. <aloril> if you hardcode dialogs... you make that hard <Sal> but, if you hardcode a request for a username/pwd <Sal> then all clients will show a login dialog apon connect... <Sal> what if a server op wanted an open server? no passwords? <Sal> what if you skip the login phase and go directly to char creation? <aloril> you can do it .. <aloril> now what you want is how to know if you can bypass login phase? <fex> thats a lot of what ifs.. how about settling for one way or another and adding `exceptions to the rule` later on? <Sal> fex: why ad tags to a protocl that may not be needed? <fex> i`d guess most servers will want player accounts, so may as well put it in <Sal> the way I look at Atlas is as if it was like HTTP... <aloril> sal, actaully if you have character and server is set up properly you can just start moving it... <aloril> now how do you know it? *** John has quit (Leaving) <aloril> you show server info to user of course... <aloril> and you can present that dialog in it <aloril> and is server doesn't require login like in your example: just send ok message to client... <aloril> and let it start to do what it wants <aloril> how does atlas differentiate betweem login, etc. .. things? <aloril> <from> <aloril> ie if you don't set <from> tag, then your request is anonymous <aloril> if you set <from>player_id</from> then it's player related (for example setting passwd or creating character, etc...) <aloril> what about setting password? <aloril> it's already there: <op><id>change</id><from>player_id></from><ent><id>player_id</id><attr:password>new one</attr:password></ent></op> <aloril> nothing new is needed... only thing required is for server to recognize it and for client to have some change password dialog <aloril> okay, back: <aloril> if <from>character_id_21</from> then you are sending character commands... <aloril> so you can easily do all things at once and even control several characters if client supports it and you have that privilege <bryce> when you change a password, there is a function in lobby <bryce> the server will tell you a salt code <fex> seems simple to me, mebbe i`ve lost the plot :) client wants to login without account, sends create with name and password, server responds with session key, client uses login with name and encoded password.. for an existing account the password in.. <fex> create is ignored <aloril> bryce, yeah.. client does need to have code for that... <bryce> you use the salt code, plus password to change <aloril> about: <fex> what does op no="2" mean, i noticed sometimes the outside tags are op and sometimes ent <aloril> I have probably cheated and left op part away... <bryce> anyway, the encryption scheme is irrelevant to Atlas <Sal> I'm sorry Aloril... <aloril> why? <Sal> I'm really trying to understand the advantages of your method. <Sal> It just seems simpler to me, <Sal> when a server wants input, it asks for it. If it doesnt, it doesn't ask... <aloril> problem is that server might not know that it should ask input from client... <fex> ? <aloril> example: what if you want to create new account after having played while? <aloril> okay that could be done by logging out... <aloril> first that is <aloril> her philosophy is that client requests things and server responds then.. <aloril> ie not any extra work for server: <aloril> ie if there is something we can offload to client, do it <aloril> now what is problem with having dialog as optional? <aloril> ie: <fex> that sounds ok to me.. is there any reason for the server requesting things from the client other than in response to messages from the client <aloril> <ent><id>wf.org</id><attr:dialog>here some dialog for asking if user want's to login or create new account, etc...</attr:dialog></ent> <aloril> above makes using dialog completely optional and I don't see any problem with it? <aloril> (except of course clients hardcoding responses to it but that problem is with mandatory dialogs too ;-) <aloril> ie: is you know what to do you just send login operation <aloril> if you don't: present dialog offered in server object <fex> how about we ignore all the optional stuff for now and stick to what is essential for a working connection and acorn.. leave the rest till the basics are done? <Sal> aloril, maybe we're not on the same wavelength... <Sal> let me explain a bit... <aloril> doesn't this have good points of boths ways? <Sal> first off... what I suggest is not that the server requests the client to draw 'dialogs' <Sal> but that it send requests to the clients for information. * aloril isn't suggesting it either... <Sal> to put it simply, the server is taking priority, and saying 'send me a string for your username' <aloril> well that attr:dialog -> attr:information_request_from_client <aloril> ;-) <Sal> and if the client is a player client, it could create an editbox <Sal> but if it isnt a player, ie. an AI client, then <Sal> it would treat it as a simple data request, with 'Name' tagged onto the request <Sal> and 'Nam' is used to identify the request, just as an XML tag would be used... <Sal> sp/Nam/Name Mithro_ likes alorils way better.... <aloril> <ent><id>wf.org</id><attr:information_request_from_client>some way to ask name and password here<... <fex> why bother asking.. just give a login: prompt and wait for the client to do something? <Sal> fex, it gets more complicatd than that... ie after login <aloril> this is 'login prompt': <aloril> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <aloril> <!DOCTYPE atlas protocol "atlas.dtd"> <aloril> <atlas version="0.2"> <aloril> ;-) <Sal> we will then need to request data for character class, race, attributes, etc. <Sal> and that data will change per-game, or might not be wanted at all. <aloril> hmm.. maybe it would be more clear if talked about character creation instead of login? (login is kind of too simple ;-) aloril brb (2 minutes) <Sal> yes, lets move on :) <fex> aloril; with backstage at least i hoped to leave a telnet login possible .. it`ll be an easier interface to make quick and dirty test admin clients and suchlike * aloril back <fex> sal: true.. so I`d suggest leaving those issues till working out that stage of attaching to an entity.. if it means we can consider the login process final its a step forward <aloril> fex, how does atlas client now how to bypass it? (and use atlas directly) <aloril> ie maybe but it inside <!-- login: --> <aloril> so it doesn't mess XML parsing? <fex> aloril: its transparent.. if it sees atlas incomming it parses it, if it sees normal messages the existing lobby code works <aloril> or leave 'login:' out and just recognize when player type plain name instead of op? <aloril> fex, ok... <aloril> no problem then <aloril> okay now xclient has logged in... <aloril> it gets player entity from server which lists characters player owns <aloril> maybe some other name than <contains> ...? <aloril> <attr:characters> ? <aloril> anyway: if you have new account, then you probably don't have any character, like in our schenario <aloril> if you have character(s): <aloril> 1: client just begins play (there could be some 'create new character' menu somewhere in client though) <aloril> 2 or more characters: either load all (each in separate tab) <aloril> or ask user which one.. <aloril> (server will send info about all (movement etc...): maybe we need some setting request: shut about these characters... <aloril> anyway is that we have already character part clear? <Sal> I'm trying to follow :) <Sal> (read web site docs too) <Sal> s/read/reading fex leaves to see why the dog is barking :/ <aloril> anyway now on character creation: <aloril> we need some standard attribute, like attr:required_privileges <aloril> which would list all account type that are allowed to do it <Eridon> welp, taking off, cya folks:) Eridon has quit (Leaving) <aloril> your account type is in player entity: <type><id>player</id></type> <aloril> now xclient fetches whole character hierarchy (starting from character entity-> humanoids->dwarf, etc...) <aloril> it can now represent it as tree for user: <aloril> uupps... we had robots: <aloril> character->mega <aloril> ->mini <aloril> hmm..- Sean (starkey@166-93-76-5.rmi.net) has joined #atlas <aloril> hi sean <Sean> I'll just be a fly on the wall if you don't mind. ;) <aloril> character->under_sea_robot <aloril> ->flying <bryce> I don't like the use of parsed code within comments <aloril> ->on_earth <bryce> I never liked that with HTML and I would prefer we stick to avoiding that with Atlas too <bryce> er, s/too/ <aloril> ->misc <aloril> character->on_earth->green <aloril> character->on_earth->blue <aloril> or whatever... <aloril> now xclient looks what are allowed for it's account type <aloril> and can either: <aloril> get <attr:request_from_client> attribute from character entity <aloril> or just extract all attributes and represent that info for user... <aloril> and let user browse at it leisure who character tree and all properties those have <aloril> 1): would present user with: are you interested on flying, on_earth, etc... robot <aloril> 2): is kind of nicer for user but requires more about xclient of course <aloril> but BOTH can be used <aloril> 2) is always available <aloril> 1) is available is somebody has bothered to create ask->request->ask->request tunnel for clients <aloril> (similar to what is done when you register for some website and it asks all kind of info) kosh (^kosh@buck27-182.resnet.Colorado.EDU) has joined #atlas <aloril> now those characters have all properties and their type... <kosh> okay <aloril> hmm.. there needs to be this attribute too: attr:user_settable_attributes_on_create_list <aloril> so if xclient goes with 2) option: then it can do this: <aloril> when user clicks on certain character type: <aloril> perest user with dialog having all attributes and those which it can set as editable and create button at down <aloril> with 1) option it would wade through ask->request->changes unitl it gets similar info from server... <aloril> any questions? <Sal> none here :) fex <- lost Peregrine (tigger@coredump.lagwagon.net) has joined #atlas <aloril> fex, where did you lose me? aloril thinks probably others might be lost too, but they may not say it ;-) aloril was kinda concise <aloril> other words for character races: <aloril> there is abstract entity tree in server which client can fetch <aloril> each entity describes one character race, its propertied, what user can set in character creation, etc... <aloril> client uses that info to represent character creation dialog... fex2 (~t00nz@host5-171-232-50.btinternet.com) has joined #atlas <aloril> did anybody understood what I said? <Sal> one question aloril... <Sal> what if there is not entity heirarchy? <Sal> say I have a really simple game, ie there is only on etype of entity<Sal> and all players log in, and assume that entity typw. <Sal> s/typw/type <aloril> then you have only character entity ... <aloril> which has attr:required_privileges=player <aloril> and attr:user_settable_properties=["name"] <aloril> or maybe even: <aloril> and attr:user_settable_properties=[] <aloril> smart client might notice it and just create character without asking, <aloril> some rpg client which doesn't know about that represents creation dialog where only <aloril> option would be to press ok... <fex2> so your talking here about players without an existing entity.. and how to create one.. so needs to specify which type of entity from a given list, and server passes ranges etc for settable attributes .. erm yeah? fex has quit (Connection timed out) <aloril> (it would show to user all other informatice fields though) * fex2 is now known as fex <aloril> fex, right! <aloril> and there is two option: one where client knows how to browse entity hierarchy and interpret it <aloril> and then there is option to use some pregenerated ask->reply thing (==some abstract definition for UI) <aloril> okay here is test: <aloril> that world is actually room, with chess games... <aloril> player account here might be same as player... <aloril> ie: player account -> nick <aloril> it could contain additional virtual players too (for example one for each type of chess software account holder has) <aloril> but usually player account and 'character' would be kind of same... hmm.. need some thinking... <Sal> aloril, what about in the case of a rts game? <aloril> hmm. you don't actually create chess pieces, they already are there <Sal> where the player is really just a 'camera' and not an actual entity <aloril> in rts game you control several characters... <fex> not really, this is the stuff i get confused about.. why even consider it .. get a `minimum` acorn version done, then expand.. get the benefits of expanding a working model rather than the horror of design by committee over the internet <aloril> fex, nope it's not design by committee: it's filtered through me ;-) <fex> aloril: you don`t filter.. you put it all in ;P <aloril> fex, much of above flexibility was in old cyphesis protocol already ;-) <aloril> good question is: how do you create 1000 characters? <aloril> for rts <Sal> aloril: and how do you distinguish where the viewpoint is... <aloril> viewpoint? isn't that client problem? <Sal> right, but the client need to know which entity your viewing from...<aloril> you are viewing from all entities... ;-) <aloril> ie server sends updates for all characters you control... <aloril> it's client problem which of those to show <Sal> but its a bit more complicated, Aloril... for example <Sal> if there are 100,000 entities in the world, <Sal> and you don't have the bandwidth to send all of them, <Sal> you will only send what is within a radius from the viewer, correct?<Sal> so the server needs to know the client's position... <aloril> then send server command like this: <aloril> shut up for all my characters... <aloril> then send: talk abuot these characters... <aloril> or just do this for: ask what certain character sees <aloril> hmm... but that would not allow to ask by area, but you are not allowed that anyway ;-) <aloril> (imagine spying on enemy) <aloril> actual combination would be to use: tell me what this character sees: <aloril> then send to all character that you own: start sending me updates<aloril> ie there are kind of two 'modes': client can request info and server can send changes as they happen <aloril> when you connect, then you usually use client request to get updated (server doesnt need to keep what situation was when you logged out and <aloril> client gets to handle it's caches as it wishes) <aloril> but as you can see, even normal rpg client might work somewhat with rts ;-) aloril still thinking about that character creation part (creating 1000 characters) <aloril> hmm.. actually you are not usually creating character, you just select certain things but ... <aloril> that tunnel attr:ask_userrequest in server could quite whole process <aloril> but is there more intelligent way? <aloril> maybe client should browse other parts than character parts in abstract game entity tree? <aloril> and there would then somewhere be entity that you can create... <bryce> back <Peregrine> !quit <Peregrine> Erf <aloril> and for buildings for example: you might be allowed to edit propertied directly <Mithro> this meating ended? <aloril> unlike in normal rpg world aloril is here as long as is needed ;-) <aloril> there is still MIM discussion ahead <aloril> but about UI: <aloril> is it ok this resolution: * Mithro_ just managed to watch a whole session of stargate in the time of this meeting... <aloril> atlas offers already features for character creation, etc... <aloril> but we could add optional 'hand holding' attr:ask_user_somethings to server etc... entities <Mithro> why would atlas need new features for character creation? <aloril> mithro, I don't think it needs new features ;-) <aloril> unless we wan't to make it easier for clients <aloril> ie that above attr:... <Mithro> but you lose functioanlity really... <Mithro> and make it harder for the server coder.... Sal is studying atlas docs on Wiki :) <Sal> hmm <aloril> mithro, nope no additional server code is required <Sal> Aloril, It looks like I agree with almost all of your IG stuff. <aloril> it's only kind of abstract dialog resource that client interprets.. <Sal> it is only the OG things that I think could be improved... <Mithro_> but when you add stuff to atlas, it is usless unless you use it..... <aloril> for server it's just static property ;-) <aloril> ok <aloril> sal, what should be improved on OG? <Sal> What I suggest is very different from what you have designed, but I think they could be merged. <Sal> IMO it would be better if I had some time to draw up a proposal, <Sal> and we could look it over together, (at another meeting?) * kosh has quit (Connection reset by peer) <aloril> sounds good... aloril usually hangs here about 3GMT->16GMT <aloril> usually 4GMT is most likely time to catch me <aloril> not Sundays though <aloril> sal, do you know have new ideas for MIM? <aloril> after reading docs that is <bryce> have we made sufficient progress on the issue of UI wrt Atlas? <aloril> bryce, yup: it seems that sal agrees that IG UI is not needed <bryce> (I'm a tad uncertian what conclusions were reached.) <aloril> sal, did I interpret it right? <Sal> whell not exactlly aloril :) <Sal> just that 80% of the ui is need OG... <bryce> does inventory management count as UI? <Sal> yep, I think so... * Sean (starkey at 166-93-76-5.rmi.net) has left #atlas <bryce> before moving on to MIM, let me voice one idea <aloril> inventory: <op><id>look</id><id>your_bag_id</id></id> ;-) <aloril> it could have coordinates for all objects there... <bryce> I dunno how this meshes with what's been discussed, but it's something <bryce> yeah <aloril> but in the end representation problem is at client side <aloril> bryce, go on <bryce> In stage I have two object management engines <bryce> One is called Stage, the other Carpenter <bryce> er <bryce> s/Stage/Shepherd/ <bryce> Shepherd and Carpenter <bryce> Shepherd is designed to be a full, large world, optimized 3D engine <bryce> Carpenter is designed to be a localized, document-centerd, 2D-with-layers engine <bryce> Carpenter is intended to be used for things like management of inventory sheets, <bryce> playing board games, <bryce> and so forth <bryce> I also imagine that it could be used for UI <bryce> in fact, there is no reason why it couldn't <bryce> furthermore, I don't imagine that there will be any need for special Atlas tags to manage it <Peregrine> Brenda, time? <bryce> it'd probably just need something to indicate a mode switch <bryce> but I haven't thought about that too much <bryce> anyway, there's the idea. * Mithro_ has quit (Ping timeout) <bryce> so, basically, I'm of the opinion that if Carpenter is used to manage the UI, all such stuff can be done "IG"-ish <bryce> however, <bryce> there is certainly a distinction between In game and Meta game <aloril> bryce, sure: but it should not be required to understand 2D world and media, to do character generation, etc... <bryce> I think the Carpenter engine could be reused either way, but there is still the distinction as far as Atlas is concerned <bryce> why not? <bryce> I think it provides a nice reuse of code <bryce> e.g., instead of having one system for generation of characters, <aloril> all required info should be available in those abstract character entities <aloril> example: we have AI client which evolves all kind of creatures <aloril> you change add new character type or modify slightly existing one: <aloril> it would get from character 'sheet' new limits for properties *narrator3 (bryce@ppp206.neptune.net) has joined #atlas <narrator3> and another for playing in-game games (like dice, cards, map making, inventory management, ledgers, etc.), <narrator3> you'd have one engine that does both duties <narrator3> sorry, didn't get your responses aloril pasted privately narrator3 is now known as bryyce <Sal> bryce: ahh... I like your approach... <bryyce> aloril, I think in the case of an AI, it could just ignore the 2D "layout" info, the same way that a text client would ignore it <aloril> bryce, thats ok if it's optinal.. <bryyce> maybe the distinction is this: Optimize for AI, or Optimize for Eyes <aloril> why not both? <bryyce> an HTML-like information-centered approach would be the former, a grid-like layout-centered approach the later <bryyce> both is always an option. :-) <bryyce> many times in this project we've identified options A, and B, and done A+B <bryyce> no reason not to follow suit in other cases. ;-) <aloril> for example: atlas character entity can contain that 2D part too as optional property... <bryyce> price being added complexity, obviously <aloril> example: <aloril> <ent> <aloril> <id>human</id> <aloril> <attr:STR type="range">5,15</attr:STR> <aloril> <attr:2D_dialog_object_id><id>some carpenter table</id></attr:2D_dialog_object> <aloril> </ent> <aloril> now AI can interpret that attr:STR directly and human gets nice dialog... <aloril> that id can be IG or OG object.. bryce has quit (Connection timed out) <aloril> or some metaworld <bryyce> yup, that's how I'm thinking it'd be exactly fex is now known as fexAFK <aloril> that STR part would be required, but second part is optional <aloril> why STR part required? for documentation purposes if nothing else ;-) <bryyce> hmm bryyce is now known as bryce <bryce> yes that could be mao (^pc171@onechina.rug.rhno.columbia.edu) has joined #atlas <bryce> hi mao <mao> hello <mao> whats going on here? <bryce> I think that it should be <id>StrBox</id> or similar, rather than <id>human</id> <bryce> or <id>StrField</id> if you prefer, it's arbitrary <bryce> anyway, that's my 2 pence on the subject of UI's <aloril> hi mao <mao> hi <aloril> bryce, that was not carpenter object... <aloril> it was abstract human object with link to carpenter object <bryce> huh?? <bryce> that makes zero sense <aloril> <ent> <aloril> <id>human</id> <aloril> <type><id>humanoid</id></type> <aloril> <!-- <instance>list of all humans, <aloril> but only admin is allowed to get this</instance> --> <aloril> <attr name="description">Human, well you know what human is?</attr> <aloril> <!-- "name" and "required privileges" inherited from humanoid --> <aloril> <attr name="STR" type="int_range">5,15</attr> <aloril> <attr name="classes" type="idlist"><id>fighter</id><id>mage</id></attr> <aloril> </ent> <aloril> and add to above this: <aloril> (using new syntax) <aloril> <attr:2D_charpenter_object_for_creating_this_character_race><id>5466</id></...> <bryce> sigh, no that's not what I had in mind at all <bryce> oh well <aloril> and then client can request just look at that carpenter object just like any other thing <aloril> (like for example house...) <aloril> and get all other details... <aloril> of course <id>wf.org</id><type><id>server</id></type> object can contain link to carpenter object too... <aloril> so you can do all character creation, etc.. things using nice 2D world... <aloril> only thing required would then be to get that id and go to that world... <bryce> ugh, I'm thoroughly confused now <aloril> AI clients can browse abstract character entity tree... <bryce> okay, nevermind, I'm sure you and Sal want to discuss MIM <aloril> bryce, is you are confused then is likely others too... aloril be right back <Sal> bryce, the ui layer i'm going to propose to Aloril, would handle carpenter well <bryce> oh, okay <Sal> it just seems like so many people are vehemently opposed to ui, I dont know how it will go over <Sal> :( I'll try though * fexAFK is now known as fex <fex> actually that carpenter object stuff made sense to me aloril tries again ;-) <bryce> well, we're in pre-protoype world wrt ui <aloril> there is meta game world: carpenter world with character creation 'dialogs' etc... bryce suspects that until there is solid code out there, there's gonna be argument <aloril> your account is player there... <aloril> and server object gives you id for that world <aloril> does that make sense? * gimli (~johnny at rm02-24-29-201-253.ce.mediaone.net) has left #atlas <bryce> "server object"? <aloril> <fex> i think the idea is to have the server pass a `handle` to a carpenter object.. and when the player looks at that handle it gets the full carpenter description for a carpenter setup that can be used as a ui interface bryce scratches his head <aloril> fex, kind of... <aloril> just like you look at normal game world <bryce> seems kinda inside out, but I suppose that'd work <aloril> fex, it's just starting point actually... <fex> aloril: your on your own till i get my minimum spec :) <aloril> first get suitable carpenter world object (that server is refering to: for example id for table) <aloril> then see what that table contains <aloril> look at those <aloril> etc.. <aloril> until you have fetched all required things <aloril> and now you have nice 2D view <aloril> in game world: <aloril> you have now new character: <aloril> send look operation <aloril> hmm... <aloril> well you kinda need to move your player to carpenter world... <aloril> duh! <aloril> here it is: <Sal> aloril, maybe we should take an example? <aloril> gettting server object, like above url but now it has additional property (ie for carpenter world) <aloril> <op><id>move</id><ent><id>my_account_name</id><loc><parent>that_carpenter_table</parent><coords>0,0,0</coords></loc></ent></op> <aloril> <op><id>look</id></op> <aloril> or. <aloril> <op><id>look</id><id>that_carpenter_table</id></op> <aloril> and then continue just like you would in real game world... fex is now known as fexAWAY <aloril> does that make sense? <bryce> what is <id>my_account_name</id> ? <aloril> it's for example: "bryce" <aloril> ie what /etc/passwd contains for example in some servers... <bryce> so it's just a string? <aloril> it might make sense to create some some special character instead of using your account as character though.. <aloril> bryce, id is string: <aloril> Sal is very confused :) bryce is with Sal <bryce> ok, maybe I'm just tired <bryce> aloril, why don't you move on to MIM, okay? <Sal> aloril, lets say two players want to play a 2d game (chess? checkers?) <Sal> which is something carpenter woudl handle (right bryce?) <bryce> I should go to bed soon, and would like to hear a bit of the MIM discussion <bryce> sal, right aloril thinks atlas is quite simple... ;-) (maybe you now understand why it took 2 months to come up with it) <Sal> lets move on to mim :) something fresh <aloril> <op><id>look</id><from>player_id</from> <id>chess_board_id</id> </op> <aloril> and then you get chess board entity that contains pieces.. <aloril> and then you just use normal move commands to move pieces... <aloril> simple eh...? * aloril has changed the topic to: MIM <aloril> what I would like to see is that each object has unique id or it can be generated unique id <aloril> ie: <aloril> each object in MIM file has unique id <aloril> and those regions: there is algorithm that can generate unique ids for objects if it's needed <Sal> ok, I was thinking... <aloril> and each object should have <type> attribute that refers to object it inherits defaults... <Sal> the server loads the .mim file... and it tells the server what 'type' each object is and where <aloril> (might be good idea to rename <type> to <parent> though??) <Sal> but the server should, as it adds the entities to the world, assign an id to each entity... <aloril> sal, what about saving word state and editing it? <Sal> but the problem is, when the server saves the world aloril grins <Sal> so if we want to save back to mim, then we will have to add in id tags to entities... <aloril> hmm.. that could work <aloril> but xedit should not lose them after it? <Sal> but if we save to some other format (binary? sql/database) then we wouldn't have to worry about it... <Sal> problem with that approach, is that xedit cannot edit a custom format :( <Sal> so I suggest we do what we did with UOOS... <Sal> we had seperate files, basically... <aloril> so you had one format for editor and one for server to save current world state? sferro (sferro@ppp-pm03-dy-8.opr.oakland.edu) has joined #atlas <sferro> :( <aloril> repeat: so you had one format for editor and one for server to save current world state? <sferro> yes. And to edit the world state, <sferro> you had to use an admin client which connected to the server, <sferro> while the game was in progress. and you edited in-game entities while the server was running (or while people were playing) <aloril> sal, xedit needs only one or two additions for using one file format: <aloril> first there is object properties that xclient just would save and not touch (maybe some future might represent some table for editing them) <aloril> second maybe there would be immutable flag: xedit would leave those untouched <aloril> second one might not be needed though.. <sferro> but there is more to it aloril... Sal has quit (Connection timed out) <aloril> go on <sferro> some info, like all the player positions, player info, etc. <sferro> the UOOS coders wanted to store in a database... <sferro> so that we could use professional software to edit this info, etc. <aloril> that adds addition steps but otherwise should not be problem: <aloril> ie world can dump that database content to MIM format too... <aloril> and those would have attributes that xclient doesn't touch sferro is now known as Sal <aloril> it would only move players around if needed <aloril> then you load players back into database bryce has quit (Leaving) shalifi (shalifi@SHALIFI.RES.CMU.EDU) has joined #atlas <Sal> so you think all npc positions, player positions, etc. should all be in the original .mim file? <aloril> not needed <aloril> but xedit could leave those parts untouched if it doesn't know how to do it <aloril> some day in future xedit might actually edit live server instead of file... <Sal> hmm, true <aloril> so think about file as another transport protocol in addition to sockets ;-) <Sal> see in UOOS we had to seperate the files, <Sal> because we couldn't edit the original, it was used to play on other servers also... <Sal> ie multiple server used the same mapfile, but has different contents <Sal> s/has/had <aloril> yeah, then you need it... <aloril> but map file can contain only part of world (ie leave characters, object, etc out) <aloril> but would't it be simple to just store additional properties as static data inside xedit? <aloril> ie add something like this: <aloril> list other_properties; <aloril> list<property> other_properties; * fexAWAY has quit (Ping timeout) <aloril> it would use more memory ... but I don't that is problem <Sal> heres one thing to consider though: <Sal> lets say we make maps of dural... <Sal> and it turns out to be fairly big (xx) megs of map data <Sal> wouldn't it be nice if more than one server could use the same map? but clients would only need one copy of it <aloril> well then just include those object in it that are needed in that map file <aloril> what I'm kinda trying to say is that server might have some additional properties for things like ids etc... <aloril> that it does want xedit to keep <aloril> for example in above situation ids would be saved but xedit doesn't need to touch them at all <Sal> I understand. <aloril> just kind of haul them with rest of object <Sal> well if XEdit just ingnores tags that it doesnt understand, <Sal> and saves them back to the world file on save, there shouln't be a problem, right? <aloril> exactly! <Sal> ok, so I don't need to modify MIM really, just the loading/saving code <aloril> see why I had that peculiar <attr name="kjkk"> format ;-) <aloril> sal, yup.. <aloril> another modification in load/save code: <mao> <aloril> but xedit should not lose them after it? <mao> <Sal> but if we save to some other format (binary? sql/database) then we wouldn't have <mao> to worry about it... <mao> <Sal> problem with that approach, is that xedit cannot edit a custom format :( <mao> <Sal> so I suggest we do what we did with UOOS... <mao> <Sal> we had seperate files, basically... <mao> <aloril> so you had one format for editor and one for server to save current world <mao> state? <mao> ωνω sferro [sferro@ppp-pm03-dy-8.opr.oakland.edu] has joined #atlas <mao> <sferro> :( <mao> <aloril> repeat: so you had one format for editor and one for server to save current mao has quit (EOF From client) aloril looks surpised and grins <aloril> <entity> -> <ent> <aloril> <type>0 </type> -> <type><id>0</id></type> <aloril> <name>Grass </name> -> <attr:name>Grass</attr:name> <aloril> same with color, etc... <Sal> aloril let me ask something <aloril> ok <Sal> why isnt it <type:id> 0 </type:id> <Sal> as is <attr:name>Grass</attr:name> <aloril> <attr:name><string>Grass</string></attr:name> <Sal> and how is that different/better than <type>0 </type> <aloril> actually each data should have type too <aloril> current libraries don't reflect that change but I think it's good change <aloril> (see that namespace mail for details) <aloril> so color would be <aloril> <attr:color><intlist>100,200,150</intlist></attr:color> <aloril> and now actual question: <aloril> type has special meaning: <aloril> those above are just 'mere' properties for objects <aloril> but type as same as class keyword in C++ <aloril> ie: this objects inherits properties from object mentioned in <id>0</id> <aloril> that entity hierarchy thing again... <aloril> and it might better to use some more descriptive name than '0' <Sal> 0/1 = land/entity <Sal> er land/object <aloril> hmm.. that <entity><name>Grass </name> is actually abstract type ... <Sal> I could switch to the textual descriptions, not a problem <aloril> yeah.. I think making it official atlas is mainly some changes in load/save code... <aloril> why land instead of 0: bigger namespace for all kinds of type... <aloril> well in short: by we use const FOO=2; instead of 2 ;-) <aloril> ok, back to grass entity: <Sal> so you're saying use the long names? <aloril> it΄s id is likely same as it's name... <aloril> sal, use descriptive name <aloril> think atlas as source code for map <aloril> sure we will have binary version too, but now we need clarity <aloril> in binrary probably in begin of sesstion they probably decide what dictionary to use to compress away those ids ... <Sal> ok, so: <Sal> 1) use more descriptive names <Sal> 2) ignore and preserver unknown tags <aloril> 3) change syntax <aloril> 4) add physical data type <aloril> why 4? <Sal> yes, explain 4 :) <aloril> you can then interpret somewhat more sensibly unknown properties.. <aloril> and to make XML -> binary conversion transparent we need it * Peregrine has quit (Peregrine has no reason) <aloril> <int>1</int> <aloril> <string>1</string> <aloril> is different in binary atlas <aloril> so physical data type means: <aloril> <int>==32 int <float> == double roughly.. there are some problems <aloril> <string>: any character including '\0' <aloril> intlist, etc... list version of above (except maybe not for string) <aloril> <list>: arbitary content <aloril> <ent>: like C struct <aloril> <id> special string <aloril> hmm.. I think those are all types that need special tag <aloril> ie wrap all data in one of above <Sal> I understand... but <aloril> bloat in MIM size? <Sal> using 0 & 1 instead of land/object would be more efficient, no? <Sal> because I could stor 0 & 1 as ints, <Sal> "land", and "object" must be strings <aloril> sal, yup: why not make internal translation table? <Sal> can you do that in XML? <Sal> or would I have to hardcode it? <aloril> I mean inside Xedit.. <aloril> about ids generally: <aloril> server can use ints internally for all object and character ids... <aloril> however client can't make that assumption <aloril> because some server might wan't to use some other scheme for ids <aloril> for example huge galaxy with > 2^32 objects ;-) <aloril> what you do with type ids in xedit? <Sal> I see, ok that makes sense <Sal> I have a class called "CMIMEntity" <aloril> and for abstract objects: server doesn't need to handle those ids: it can use pointers directly <Sal> and there is a member variable "int m_nType" <Sal> so when I do Serialize(m_nType) it outputs an int, <Sal> and not "land" or "object" aloril looking on code <Sal> this is why i used 0 & 1 :) for simplicity to code <Sal> but I can change it... <aloril> hmm.. don't you need to present "land" it in list you give to user? <Sal> yes... <aloril> well, why not use some similar table to convert when saving/loading? <aloril> or alternatively when you convert from/to list index you present user <aloril> it will be easier to you in long run: <Sal> you mean, make it "String m_strType", and "Serialize(m_strType)" <Sal> yes, I could do this :) not a problem <aloril> you can add new types and it's independant of list widget index <Sal> true :) <aloril> hmm.. so <entity><name>Grass</name> <id>grass</id> ..... is what I kind of call abstract object type <aloril> or kind of equivalent to "class grass {" in C++ <aloril> did I made sense? <Sal> I understand that, yes. ignore above for a while, back to that <entity> (or <ent> maybe?) <aloril> hmm.. maybe <attr:description><string>This is just normal grass</string></attr:description> <aloril> and attr:name==id in practice <aloril> for player characters id does make sense to have different and maybe for grass too?? <aloril> ie: <aloril> player name is likely "Bjorn" but id might be 989 <aloril> but for grass entity it likely doesn't make sense to have them different <Sal> are you talking about regions having ids? or just entities? <aloril> grass entity <aloril> later about that region aloril pasted it too early ;-) <Sal> hmm <Sal> hmm <aloril> ie attr:name is alway descriptive thing in atlas without any real meaning (except for human players ;-) <aloril> atlas uses <id> to link things together... <Sal> aloril, if we assign id's to entities, <Sal> what do we do about random generated things? <aloril> thats why <type><id>human</id></type> for some player character <aloril> sal, server can assign ids for those <aloril> there are two kinds of entities: <aloril> abstract and real <aloril> from your MIM: <aloril> all are abstract except <polygon> and <object> ? <Sal> it depends :) <Sal> a polygon is 'real' only if it contains 'real' regions... right? <Sal> meaning 'real' regions do not have any random entities (just a base entity) <aloril> sal, real: polygon containing random or hand placed object <aloril> ie things player can interact with <aloril> abstract: things that just define what features real objects have* aloril has phone call <aloril> back <aloril> so I think all abstract objects should have id, because you are refering those in actual objects <aloril> and all actual objects that contain things should have id too <aloril> or should we assume for now that all objects are contained by 'world' object ? <aloril> (which can be created by server) <Sal> well for ids... I think the server could assign them.. <Sal> its just that a random tree is the same as a 'real' tree, to the player. <aloril> do you agree that xedit needs to assign ids for abstract objects?<Sal> but only one gets an id (seems strange to me) <Sal> i think it may be a server-specific thing, aloril <aloril> ahh.. in server both do get id... <aloril> how else you can refer to it? <Sal> ie some servers may need to save the id, some may not <aloril> that's right <aloril> but they can regenerate id for three just like they regenerate it's location <Sal> if I was coding my own server... I would do it like so: <Sal> load 'dural.mim', and load all entities (random and real) <Sal> then processing goes on, id's get assiged, but whne I save the file <Sal> I could 1) dump it to a binary database (with ids of each item that is real) <Sal> or 2) save to another mim file (which is what you want) <aloril> yup... thats fine <Sal> well I agree, we need ID's <aloril> but both random and real trees are actual game objects... <Sal> I guess how you save the world is optional. If xedit ignores tags, we should be ok in your situation <aloril> but entity which defines what trees are and what kind of media they have etc... is abstract object which needs id assigned by xedit <Sal> it does? why? <Sal> can the server assign the id? <aloril> so you can say for some tree object (random or hand placed) that its: <type><id>tree</id></type> <aloril> did I make sense? <Sal> oh, you are suggesting replacing 'name' with 'id'? <aloril> yup... <aloril> for abstract objects <Sal> oh! ok, sure, I could do that <aloril> it would make all linking consistent if we used <id> type for all linking <Sal> I see. <aloril> id==pointer in C <aloril> ent==struct in C <aloril> etc... <Sal> maybe you could modify the mim file for me? and send me the modified version? <aloril> ok <Sal> and I'll incorporate the changes to xedit... <aloril> hmm.. region is kind of special abstract object.. <aloril> it would be like: -> <aloril> <ent> <aloril> <type><id>region</id></type> <aloril> <attr:building_block><id>grass</id></attr:building_block> <aloril> <id>grass_region</id> <aloril> <attr:name>Grass</attr:name> <aloril> <attr:real_or_abstract><string>abstract</string></...> <aloril> </ent> <aloril> uups: <attr:name><string>Grass</string></attr:name> <aloril> does above make sense? <Sal> hmm <aloril> why things like above? smart tools can do all kinds of things with it and there is one consistent representation all kind of objects... <aloril> thats why I think it's possible to use just entity descritions to create character: it does need somewhat more intelligence, but adds quite flexibility ;-) <aloril> anyway translation for above: <aloril> type: like <region> formerly <aloril> id: this is what former <polygons> use to refer (ie pointer from polygon to it's class definition) <aloril> name: just some name user give, not used anywhere except by user <aloril> name might not be needed ;-) <aloril> maybe attr:description instead? <aloril> attr:real_or_abstract: well might be useful, but dunno id it's actually needed... <Sal> I'm starting to understand how you define your XML blocks <aloril> I think that rest should be clear, if you can decipher above ;-) <Sal> it takes some getting used to :) <aloril> yup ;-) <Sal> its like Class region::public ent aloril thinks there is only arnan, mike, jamie and you who really understand atlas <aloril> sal, exactly! <Sal> then x::y are all like member variables <aloril> yup <Sal> okay :) on to polygons? <aloril> and inside class those member variables kind of have default value... <aloril> meaning you don't need to define all member variables for class instance (real objects) <Sal> yes... <aloril> unlike in C ;-) <aloril> <polygon> <aloril> <region_name>Grass </region_name> <aloril> <vertices> <aloril> 12,7,1112,10,1108,719,18,723,18,723 <aloril> </vertices> <aloril> </polygon> <aloril> <ent> <aloril> <type><id>grass_region</id></type> <aloril> <attr:vertices><coords>12,7</coords><coords>1112,..... <aloril> </ent> <aloril> see only one parsing code for all kinds of types... <aloril> when you can parse one entity you can parse all ... <aloril> well I need to go in 5 minutes... :-( <aloril> and I'm away 1-4h before I'm back here <aloril> and after that next time: Monday morning <Sal> ok, that sounds good to me :) I would like to see the modified .mim file though! Sal had a bad memory :) <aloril> did you log this #atlas discussion? <Sal> not all... just what is in my window... <aloril> send me example of current file and I translate it for you? <Sal> ok. what is your email? <aloril> and I send now #atlas logs for you <aloril> aloril at iki.fi <aloril> and later today that modified MIM file <Sal> aloril, by the way, what is your native language? <Sal> finnish? <aloril> ohh... there is that media should be separate of entity but I think I have compatible workarounf <aloril> yup <Sal> my email is sferro at wojo.com	eng	725be197-3fac-4331-bcc4-ab4fc5a1d727	http://worldforge.org/dev/eng/protocols/atlas/proposals/v0_1_4/meeting_991009
Updated 11:47 am, Friday, April 26, 2013 The Hubble Space Telescope makes several rounds of passes beginning Sunday. The flying space telescope will make a high arc across the sky and pass above Altair in Aquila at 6:03 a.m. and then vanish from view in the east at 6:08 a.m. Saturn will appear stellar to the naked eye, but aim your telescope at that speck and I bet you'll jump up and down with excitement when you finally nail it. Saturn is a thrill to behold, and no matter how many times I look at it, it's always a mesmerizing sight. Venus has returned to evening star status in the west and serves as a wonderful hors d'oeuvre before suppertime. Updated 2:30 pm, Friday, April 19, 2013 Jupiter can be found as a bright spot of light in the west at Orion's upper right after sunset. Turn toward the east and you'll find Saturn rising as a soft buttery yellow orb of light. Naked eye Saturn just seems to be an extra star, but a telescope will reveal the stunning ring system. Venus always causes a lot of excitement when it moves to the evening sky and is sometimes reported to be a UFO. Updated 3:10 pm, Friday, April 12, 2013 Filippenko will talk about "The Birth and Early Evolution of the Universe" at 1 p.m. and again at 5 p.m. Monday in the performing arts theater. On Tuesday, he will discuss "Hearts of Darkness-Black Holes in Space" at 10 a.m. in the performing arts theater. If you can't wait until Monday to talk about stars, you can attend the public star party Saturday night at the Fort McKavett State Historical Site. (Red light does not spoil night vision.) If you don't have a red light, wrap a brown paper bag over the end of a regular flashlight to dim the brightness. Updated 2:07 pm, Friday, April 5, 2013 Just remember that planets seldom twinkle like stars and Saturn is a creamy yellow color compared to the surrounding stars. Use the free finder chart at skymaps.com if you need some extra help locating this breathtaking beauty. The map really gives a better viewpoint of just how slowly Saturn moves among the background stars. SkyWeek Plus, Sky Safari, Star Walk and Observer Pro are just a few handy phone apps that might help bag Saturn, too, if you prefer using a digital map. Updated 3:06 pm, Friday, March 29, 2013 Begin your search low in the southwest at 8:29 p.m. The Hubble will appear as a stellar point of light that moves somewhat slow and makes a low arc across the southern horizon. Jupiter remains a brilliant spectacle in the west after sundown. Jupiter has been hanging around Taurus for a few months and seems to be comfortable sitting opposite Aldebaran as an extra eye of the bull. [...] the space station will fade from view around 6:22 a.m. Spring is truly in the air, so let's get busy and pick out some constellation bouquets. Because the moon is just a few days from being full, it's going to be difficult to see anything except bright targets. A telescope aimed at Jupiter about 10 tonight will show two tiny moons on each side of this giant gas planet, with the great red spot rotating into view on Jupiter's face. If you go to shallowsky.com/jupiter.html, it will show a real-time display of the Jovian moons' positions and indicate whether the great red spot is visible. The view with a telescope zooms in too much and only allows a partial peek at the cluster's bling factor. Updated 4:55 pm, Friday, March 15, 2013 If you've already seen it, then you know it's a faint smudge of fuzzy light in the west after sunset. [...] sky conditions such as light pollution and lunar glare can make the comet appear dimmer, so it's best to find a dark, rural spot for the best views of this wandering space ball made up of ice and dust. Use a distant landmark as a reference point of where the sun vanished and then wait a while for the sky to darken. [...] you can always use heavens-above.com to find information about comets and other night sky wonders. If you can make a fish of any sort out of the stars making up Pisces, let me know. In present times we still have soothsayers predicting all sorts of floods, famine and catastrophe when the planets align, so I wonder what the people of Lincoln's time thought when such a night sky view presented itself. An Iridium satellite flare will be a nice treat for viewers near the downtown area on Wednesday evening. Fix your gaze at a spot just to the lower right of the bright star Sirius in the south at 8:01 p.m. The satellite will appear very dim at first and then suddenly brighten to an exceptional show of reflected silvery light. Passes like this one are fun because you don't have to crick your neck around to watch it complete a nice arc across the sky. The International Space Station makes another pass Wednesday. A minute later, the space station can be seen just below Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor. Mercury will be a challenge, but the sun's nearest neighbor can be found low above the western horizon after sunset this week. If waking early just to see a long, twisty snake in the sky is not your idea of fun, then wait until summer when these constellations are better placed and easier to view in the evening. The rings can be seen spread out, and keen eyes should be able to pick out Saturn's moon Titan with ease. Rural stargazers will have the best views of this ringed wonder, while city slickers can easily catch it since fewer stars will be visible to add to the confusion. Views with a small telescope will leave you wanting more, while a large telescope will leave you hypnotized and wanting dawn to pause so you can have a few more minutes to be dazzled by Saturn's exquisite beauty. The pass is best seen with the naked eye, so don't worry about grabbing your binoculars; they aren't necessary to enjoy this show. Since this week's forecast is mostly sunny with temperatures predicted to be in the 60s, we can casually hunt for any target without worrying too much about where we left our coats or snow shovels. A good star map, or phone app, plus a small, red light flashlight and a desire to search for stellar treasure are all that's needed for a fun night. Betelgeuse is prominent and orange at Orion's shoulder, while the three equally bright belt stars are familiar and serve as sighting aids. The moon will make spotting the dimmer stars impossible, but you should be able to find Castor and Pollux making up the twins of Gemini and bright yellow-orange Capella in the constellation Auriga. If you happen to live in town, you'll only notice the brighter stars along the way, mainly Vega twinkling high in the east, but you can imagine the drama as you explore the stellar scenery. Saturn sits high in the south around 6 a.m. It's perched in a spot left of Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. Jupiter is always a favorite at star parties and a telescope aimed at it will reveal bands of color as well as four tiny moons along either side of this crowd pleaser. A quick glance at the program details the position of Jupiter's moons so you can easily identify what you are seeing in your telescope or binoculars. Binoculars or telescopes aimed at a spot below the belt stars will treat viewers to the fabulous Orion Nebula. Updated 4:26 pm, Monday, December 17, 2012 [...] there are only a few more days until the big guy in the red suit comes sweeping down the chimney, so we better get ready for him just in case the world doesn't end and your kids are looking under the tree for big shiny boxes. First let's talk about the sky, and then we'll tackle a last-minute stocking stuffer. First quarter moon is Wednesday, so the sky will be fairly bright all week. Most of the stars in the cluster are blue, so it's like viewing an exquisite group of sapphires that glow from within. Winter solstice arrives Friday at 5:11 a.m., and if the world doesn't end we can keep shopping for that last-minute gift we've put off buying. Updated 10:34 pm, Monday, December 3, 2012 This is the final and predicted to be best meteor shower of the year. The Geminids often produce up to 50 meteors per hour and since the moon will be in new phase and absent from the sky during the nights of Dec. 13-15, your chances of seeing some bright "shooting stars" are increased. Updated 5:05 pm, Monday, November 12, 2012 Multiple Hubble Space Telescope passes and a weekend meteor shower make this week one of the best ever for sky gazers. By Thursday evening, the Hubble Space Telescope will appear in the west at 6:38 p.m. And just like the other passes, this one will arc nearly overhead and then fade from sight in the east at 6:45 p.m. Friday evening brings us a nice view of the crescent moon near Mars in the west after sunset. Estimates of 15 to 20 meteors per hour may not persuade many to leave their warm, comfy beds, but as the saying goes, "If you snooze, you lose." Updated 5:32 pm, Monday, November 5, 2012 If you've been watching this elusive planet the past few nights, you've noticed that it has moved closer to the arc of stars marking the scorpion's head. Check out your favorite online star charts or smartphone apps to find its exact location, or just look for the dimmest "star" in the group. Mars is our next target, and it sits near the bottom of Ophiuchus as a ruddy orb of light. Jupiter rises around 10 p.m., and it, too, glows softly, but it is brighter and more obviously an orb of light. away from Jupiter as the night progresses. If you are out scanning around with a telescope, you'll find more globular clusters in the area, although they are dimmer than and not as noteworthy as the ones I already mentioned. Updated 11:55 am, Thursday, November 1, 2012 Heavens-above.com is one of the most popular and easy-to-use sites since it is dedicated to helping users track and observe Earth-orbiting satellites with the naked eye. Each selected chart has time ticks at one-minute intervals showing where the satellite is relative to the background stars. Since comets are always moving and changing, the site provides a daily update on a comet's position and brightness. Sunrise and sunset times along with moon phases are also listed, so it's a one-stop shop for what's up. The San Antonio Astronomical Association invites you to participate in all of its public astronomy events. Binoculars will show that the rectangular shape is not imaginary. Just watch for the duo to rise as a close pair around 9 p.m. and then continue to admire them as they climb high in the night sky. If you were to make a time-lapse movie of the pair, you would see the moon slowly moving away from Jupiter as the night progresses. If you train you binoculars on Mars, the bright globular cluster known as Messier 19 should be seen as a faint fuzz ball at Mars' lower right. study of the duo will reveal Antares to be the brighter of the pair. Saturday night brings the moon to a spot just above the handle of the teapot shape of Sagittarius. Updated 11:55 am, Thursday, November 1, 2012 Tuesday evening brings us a nice Mercury and moon meeting in the darkening sky. Just set your gaze west after sundown to find the slender crescent moon. After bagging the moon, you should notice elusive Mercury in the same field of view at the moon's lower left. Mars and Antares might trick you into believing that there are twin planets or twin stars since each of them sports a ruddy glow. A dark nebula is simply a type of interstellar cloud that is so dense that it traps or blocks light from being seen from the source making it. Updated 4:40 pm, Monday, October 15, 2012 The moon washes out the sky this week, so instead of looking up, let's talk about a popular online site for sky watching. Heavens-above.com is one of the most popular and easy-to-use sites, since it is dedicated to helping users track and observe Earth-orbiting satellites with the naked eye. After a quick registration and log-on, users have daily access to detailed star charts that show the path of hundreds of satellites. Updated 3:56 pm, Monday, October 8, 2012 Longer nights bring one stellar routine Since nights are finally a bit longer, it's time to start a more serious observation routine since red light won't spoil your or others' night vision., since red light won't spoil your or others' night vision. Updated 9:46 am, Tuesday, October 2, 2012 The world quickly took notice when the Soviets put the first artificial satellite in orbit. The tiny, silver orb weighed about 185 pounds and made its first trip around the Earth in about 98 minutes. If you haven't seen any of the old photos, think of a shiny, four-legged cosmic spider. Sputnik is long gone, but we can watch an endless variety of satellites most moonless nights. The Hubble Space Telescope makes a nice appearance from the west at 8:47 p.m. Tuesday.. A dark nebula is just an interstellar cloud so dense it blocks or absorbs light from the background stars or nebulae. The Great Square of Pegasus rises in the fall sky just after sunset and poses a neat challenge for viewers in dark rural areas. The San Antonio Astronomical Association invites you to participate in all of its public astronomy events. Gaze west after sundown for Mercury as a faint speck of peach-colored light. Saturn is rapidly sinking and sits just above Spica in the constellation Virgo. The Great Square of Pegasus rises in the fall sky just after sunset and poses a neat challenge for viewers in dark rural areas. Gaze northeast above the horizon to find four equally bright stars that make a very large square. Updated 5:07 pm, Monday, September 17, 2012 Forget about the fall series premieres on television - there are much better things to watch outside this week. Gaze west Tuesday evening for a very nice view of the crescent moon sandwiched between Mars and Saturn. Mars sits at the moon's left and glows orangey red while Saturn rests at the moon's right and glows golden yellow. Updated 6:46 pm, Monday, September 10, 2012 The moon is in last-quarter phase, so it won't hinder the view of our magnificent Milky Way rising up from the south and meandering across the sky like oozing glitter glue. Heavens-above.com is a great spot to find other satellite passes, and it has endless information on stars, constellations and planets. Antares, the bright star marking the heart of the scorpion, seems to change color wildly and sears the sky with hues of orange, red and copper. If you aim binoculars at Antares and then look 1.3 degrees west, you'll land on Messier 4. If you scan down to Scorpius' stinger, a glittering cometlike group of stars will be visible. Updated 7:51 pm, Monday, September 3, 2012 The Milky Way is home to an endless variety of stunning targets, but my favorites are globular clusters. There are 35 of these stellar disco balls in Sagittarius, 23 in Scorpius and 33 in Ophiuchus, all of which are in prime viewing spots this week. To whet your appetite, we're going to begin with a Hubble image at nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/ancient-stars.html that was released a few days ago and showcases a cluster named Messier 56, in the constellation Lyra. M 13 can be glimpsed with the naked eye on a very clear night if you happen to be in an area with no light pollution. Just gaze left of the star marking the top of the teapot shape of the constellation, and you'll land on the globular tucked neatly among a tiny group of bright stars. Updated 4:13 pm, Monday, August 27, 2012 With only a few nights left in August, let's bid adieu with a couple of nice International Space Station passes. The ISS will fly just behind the bowl of the Big Dipper and then arc high overhead to an easy spot near the bright star Vega a little after 9:07 p.m. The station will sweep low across the western sky and skim above Saturn and then Mars about 9 p.m. Jupiter rises about 1:30 a.m. and is always impressive in a telescope. Mercury rises about 6:20 a.m. and, as always, is a tough little rascal to spot.. The stinger area of Scorpius is in the middle of the stellar blanket, and Sagittarius sits nearby. Here's a handy map to get you started on your stellar journey through the swan: Updated 5:25 pm, Monday, August 6, 2012 By the time you read this, the Mars Science Lab spacecraft will have dropped Curiosity on the Red Planet. Hopefully all went well, and we'll soon discover if one of the most compelling planets of our solar system ever supported a viable place for microscopic life. Updated 7:37 pm, Monday, July 30, 2012 Infernolike temperatures make sky watching uncomfortable, so let's take it easy and view some cool targets that are effortless to enjoy. Venus is the bodaciously bright spot that screams "look at me, look at me," while Jupiter glows more subtly above screaming Venus. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice that Jupiter sits in an interesting neighborhood near Aldebaran - the fiery eye of Taurus - and the Pleiades open star cluster. The Hubble Space Telescope will make repetitive passes most of next week, but I'm going to give you a sneak peek at one of the better ones now. Updated 10:17 pm, Monday, July 23, 2012 The weather has not been very cooperative for stargazers lately, so we are going to wander through some bright targets and hope that clouds don't spoil the view. The evening sky is just as remarkable, with the waxing crescent moon hanging out with Saturn and Mars after sunset Tuesday. If you add the bright star Spica to the mix, you get a long, squashed rectangle setting in the west. The lopsided triangle shape from the night before has changed to a wiggly lineup, with the moon serving as the glowing head of some giant inchworm in space. The delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks early Sunday morning, so if you happen to be out stargazing, watch for these medium-speed "shooting stars." Updated 4:44 pm, Monday, July 16, 2012 Summer is in full swing, and I've got some interesting targets to enjoy even though nights are abbreviated. One of the neatest things about short summer nights is that you can watch satellites fly over all night long. Let's give it a try. The International Space Station makes a nice pass at 4:50 a.m. Wednesday. It appears in the east-southeast and then flies above Jupiter and Venus in the east a minute later before fading from sight at 4:54 a.m. Updated 6:31 pm, Monday, July 9, 2012 The station will rise only 13 degrees above the southeastern horizon as it makes its way across the sky, so you'll need an unobstructed view in that direction. If you need some help figuring out the planet arrangement, Jupiter is higher than Venus, and Venus is obviously brighter. While you are scanning around with binoculars, don't forget the Pleiades open star cluster at Jupiter's upper right. Iridium satellites are a large group of satellites launched to provide voice and data coverage for satellite phones. About 66 satellites are in orbit, and you can view them almost every night if you know exactly when and where to look for them. Sky watching is addictive, and I've got the open star clusters to prove it. With more than 1,100 known open star clusters in our Milky Way galaxy, it's easy to find one to fall in love with. The Pleiades open star cluster is probably the most famous and popular cluster in the sky, but I'm going to introduce you to a few more favorites. Updated 4:19 pm, Monday, June 25, 2012 International-space-station passes and planet spotting make the first full week of summer a sky watcher's dream. The pass will take the station to the east near the bright star Altair, where it will fade at 9:27 p.m. Lunar glare will wash out the sky, but you should easily spot the ISS as it makes its way across the night sky. The trio makes a diagonal line from south to west. Summer nights may be short, but viewing the Milky Way as it rises from the southeast is a treat that is difficult to top. Updated 10:18 pm, Monday, June 18, 2012 Summer officially arrives at 6:08 p.m. Wednesday, but for South Texans, summer weather arrived weeks ago. Let's take a summer stroll through the sky and look at some fun targets. Mars is a bright and easy catch high in the southwest after sunset. The Red Planet sits well below Leo the lion in a sparsely populated star field. this tiny and somewhat elusive planet. Updated 2:47 pm, Tuesday, May 29, 2012 Do you want to see something you'll never see again? This afternoon Venus makes a rare journey across the face of the sun. This journey is known as a transit, and if you miss it you'll have to wait until December 2117 to see the next one. Updated 9:15 am, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 Let's make the most of it and try some really cool targets to push our observing skills over the limit this week. Try to spot the icy white polar caps if your sky is velvety dark. If you have only a small telescope, go ahead and look at it because you can make out the ring system and possibly spot Saturn's bright moon, Titan. There's a handy finder map at cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/2009_P1.pdf if you would like to try your skill at finding and observing it. The moon is a mesmerizing sight, and countless hours can be spent investigating ridges, craters and other lunar features. Updated 8:35 pm, Monday, May 14, 2012 In case you haven't heard, the moon will move to a spot perfectly aligned between the sun and Earth to create one of the sky's most spectacular sights, an annular eclipse. Before I say any more, you must use a proper solar filter to watch this eclipse. Since part of the sun will be visible during the eclipse, it is mandatory to use a solar filter. Coastal viewers in Northern California will be treated to an eclipse that sets over the Pacific Ocean. Updated 9:24 am, Tuesday, May 8, 2012 Follow the curved arc of the dipper's handle eastward to Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Bootes and the third-brightest star in the night sky. Venus can be found setting in the west about 10 p.m. It's been extremely bright the past few weeks and quite a treat for planet watchers. Regulus is the brightest star in Leo and dots the backward question-mark shape outlining the lion's regal head. Bright morning twilight can be distracting, so try spotting it with binoculars and slowly sweep back and forth for a dim stellar glint. After finding Mercury with binoculars, try to view it with the naked eye. Updated 9:30 am, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 We are going to bid farewell to a few easy favorites, search for a tougher target and then watch for a really large moon. Orion is rapidly sinking toward the western horizon after sunset, so catch it 5:09 pm, Monday, April 23, 2012 We have a variety of targets to check out this week, and there's something for everyone. Venus, the moon and Aldebaran form an interesting trio after sunset Tuesday. You won't need a telescope or binoculars to spot the interesting threesome high in the west. Updated 10:11 pm, Monday, April 16, 2012 The San Antonio Astronomical Association invites you to participate in all of its public astronomy events. Venus, the moon and Aldebaran form an interesting trio after sunset Tuesday night. Telescopes aimed at the bodacious planet will reveal it to be a waning crescent and about 27 percent illuminated. Jupiter is quickly plunging into the western horizon and won't be visible as an evening planet much longer. The orbiting telescope arrives in the west-southwest below Orion and flies below the moon and Mars at 9:35 p.m. Orion appears to be making a dive into the western horizon. Updated 10:12 pm, Monday, April 16, 2012 Saturn glows a creamy yellow, and Spica is a silver speck of light sitting at Saturn's upper right. While you're out admiring the planet-and-star couples, take some time to pick out a few more stellar pairs. Orion has a bonus of stellar goodness with a trio of equally bright belt stars perched between Betelgeuse and Rigel. Find the thin crescent moon rising in the east and then search for dim Mercury at its lower right as a tiny speck of light. The satellite flare will be a naked-eye target, so just look up at the right time in the right place, and you're likely to catch it. Updated 9:27 am, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 Since part of the sun will be visible during the eclipse, it is mandatory to use eye protection. The eclipse will last a little more than four minutes, so there's not much time to waste while enjoying this spectacular event. Excitement levels will be heightened even more because the eclipse begins during the early evening hours with maximum eclipse just before sunset for the cities mentioned, which should offer some awesome photo opportunities. There's a very nice interactive map that shows the path and times of the eclipse at eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2012May20Agoogle.html. Coastal viewers in Northern California will be treated to an eclipse that sets over the Pacific Ocean. Updated 5:53 pm, Monday, April 2, 2012 With magnification you can admire the colored bands or zones of this planet giant and also enjoy the four tiny Jovian moons alongside. Taurus is pretty cool and sports a red, beaming eye named Aldebaran. The Hyades may be difficult to pick out of a bright city sky but are visible with the naked eye from dark rural areas. Saturn glows a creamy yellow and doesn't twinkle with a searing shine like Spica does. The ISS will cruise high overhead and reach maximum altitude near Castor and Pollux at 9 p.m. It will vanish in the northeast at 9:03 p.m. Updated 4:18 pm, Monday, March 26, 2012 If you were driving to the moon in a car that averaged 20 miles per gallon, the one-way trip would cost about $48,000 at today's gas prices. The moon sits about midway between Mars and Venus on Friday evening, and it's quite a sight in dark skies complemented by thousands of twinkling stars vying for your attention. If you want a closer look, use binoculars to inspect the lunar surface for craters and other fascinating features. The tiny planet Mercury has moved to the morning sky and is fairly easy to spot as a golden speck in the east about 40 minutes before sunrise. Scorpius, Sagittarius and most of the brighter constellations we associate with summer are easily visible before the sun blasts the sky with light and they fade from view. Updated 5:42 pm, Monday, March 19, 2012 If you've been watching the close encounter of Venus and Jupiter for the past few weeks, you probably noticed that the pair has grown apart. If you've had enough of the planet party, let's look for Comet C 2009 P1 Garradd. To find this remote beauty, aim binoculars at a midway point between Polaris and the bright star Alioth high in the northeast around 9 p.m. The comet will appear as a dim fuzzy patch of light, so if you sweep slowly back and forth in the area, it should just pop out of the star field. Since Mars is high in the east, we should give it some attention. Updated 4:06 pm, Monday, March 12, 2012 The time change usually confuses everyone's internal body clock, so let's take it easy this week and look at the sky's very best offerings. Venus and Jupiter are the showpieces in our evening sky, and they are an ultra-easy catch high in the west after sunset. They are side by side and shine like two bright cosmic eyes. Updated 4:17 pm, Monday, March 5, 2012 Try locating this shy gem about 45 minutes after sunset. If you take aim at Jupiter with a telescope, you'll notice this red giant planet has four tiny companions. Jupiter's four tiny moons add drama to the view since it's easy to detect movement among them after only a few minutes of watching. The best part is that everyone can watch this nightly spectacle without the help of any special optics. After you recover from the stunning views of the planets, check out the delicate glow of the Pleiades open star cluster sitting a bit farther east of the Venus-Jupiter combo. Updated 9:58 am, Tuesday, February 28, 2012 There's a cool video about the planets and their positions at youtube.com/watch?v=x8br4JiFEik. Since this is leap year, I have a special sighting opportunity for you Feb. 29. The International Space Station makes a brief pass Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. Just gaze toward the northern horizon and look for a moving stellar point of light. To get a better visual idea of where Mars and Earth are in the solar system, place a large dot on a piece of paper to represent the sun. Mars appears as a tiny orb of amber light in binoculars, but the real show starts when telescopes are trained on this red world. Updated 4:39 pm, Monday, February 20, 2012 The sky has seldom been more exciting than what is coming up in the next few days. Best of all, I'm thrilled that most of the targets are naked eye, so you can just pop outside for some easy yet exquisite nighttime viewing. Whether you live in the city or out in the velvety dark skies of rural South Texas, the objects are easy catches for all. is worth keeping an eye on this gas giant planet. By the time March 14 rolls around, you'll notice that Venus and Jupiter are side by side and make an exquisite pair high in the west after sundown. If you want to do an interesting project for yourself or your child, just roughly sketch the pair each night and add a few background stars to your drawings. Since it is Valentine's Day, I would be remiss if I didn't guide you to a couple of red stars. Updated 8:27 pm, Monday, February 6, 2012 Mars rests below the lion's tail as a stellar imposter. Since Mars is fairly bright, it's easy to admire it in a telescope as a small orange disk. The moon will meander to a spot below Mars Friday night, so this is just one more chance to admire the interesting arrangement of Mars, the moon and Regulus. Better yet, pick up a copy of the "Bright Star Atlas" by Tirion and Skiff or Sky and Telescope's "Pocket Sky Atlas" by Roger W. Sinnott to find your way through the stars. Updated 10:20 am, Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Admire Hubble on its multiple passes The Hubble Space Telescope makes multiple passes this week beginning Tuesday. The HST will continue its trek across the sky and pass just above Jupiter around 8:35 p.m. and then scoot below the moon a minute later. Afterward, the space telescope will zoom through Taurus the bull and then skim above Orion before vanishing from view in the east at 8:40 p.m. Look high in the southwest for two bright beady eyes peering back. Updated 8:16 pm, Monday, January 23, 2012 How are you doing with your New Year's resolutions? Are you still not having that extra latte, and doing that extra workout you promised yourself? And how about that resolve to look at the sky more often - are you still onboard 4:46 pm, Tuesday, January 17, 2012 How are you doing with your New Year's resolutions? Are you still not having that extra latte, and doing that extra workout you promised yourself? And how about that resolve to look at the sky more often — are you still on board. Amp up the learning curve and research their mythology. If you observe just one, then I'm positive you'll be hooked and want to see more of these intriguing beauties. See No. 12 for an exciting chance to view the asteroid Ceres. Updated 5:02 pm, Monday, January 2, 2012 Start watching for it to appear low in the north-northwest about 7:25 p.m. as a fast-moving stellar point of light. If you are unfamiliar with any of the constellations just mentioned, go to skymaps.com and download the free star chart for January. A telescope will allow a certain amount of detail, such as the solar panels, to come into view, but using a scope to follow it is a bit of work. Some more serious sky watchers I know use telescopes with satellite-tracking software specifically written to view satellites as they pass overhead. Updated 9:00 am, Tuesday, December 27, 2011 Nights are longer, there's usually a lot of family around, and if you were lucky, a shiny new telescope was delivered by Santa and is sitting in your living room. The multicolored bands, or zones, of Jupiter are intriguing, and when the Great Red Spot is in view it's quite a thrill. [...] if that's not enough to keep you entertained for hours, there's always Jupiter's four bright moons to keep track of. The planet Uranus is not far from Jupiter and is worth a look in a telescope because of its intense teal color. Messier 13 is a brilliant globular cluster, and it also sits in the constellation Hercules, so you won't need to search too much to admire its beauty. Updated 9:45 am, Tuesday, December 20, 2011 The time between Christmas and New Year is great for sky watching for a number of reasons. Nights are longer, there's usually a lot of family around, and if you were lucky, a shiny new telescope was delivered by Santa and is sitting in your living room. Updated 1:07 am, Tuesday, December 13, 2011 The sky is full of assorted thrills this week, and each one can be spied with the naked eye. The HST will follow an arc high in the south and fade considerably at a spot just in front of Jupiter. Betelgeuse is one of the largest and most luminous stars known and is roughly 640 light-years from Earth. Instead of green, glance over to Orion's other shoulder to find Bellatrix, a fine blue beauty. If a busy holiday schedule caused you to miss the earlier satellite passes, the International Space Station makes another appearance Thursday at 5:49 p.mUpdated 9:39 am, Tuesday, November 29, 2011 The next few weeks are chaotic and very stressful for some, so let's all take a deep breath and enjoy a few moments of calm before we rush out for more holiday hustle. Look low in the southwest after sunset for Venus. It will appear as a brilliant can't-miss silver sky ornament setting in the southwest. Updated 9:57 am, Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Thanksgiving brings us together for feasting, football and frantic shopping. I'm going to help relieve some of the stress of frantic shopping and offer a one-stop shopping spot for all of the star-struck astronomers on your list. As far as the feasting and football, you're on your own, but I'll be cheering for the Green Bay Packers while enjoying a slice of pecan pieBecky Ramotowski: Planets, a star and a satellite flare get the week going After locating Mercury with binoculars, try to view it with the naked eye. Gaze just above Polaris at 5:57 a.m. for a moving stellar light that will rapidly brighten and then fade from sight. If you would like to view one of these flare events in your own backyard, go to heavens-above.com and look under the satellites section for Iridium flares. When I am searching for Iridium flare events to watch, I use the highest negative number in the intensity column for targets. Next week we're going to talk about the Leonid meteor shower. There's a new satellite in the sky, and we're going to be some of the first to check it out. First, the scoop on what we're going to view. China launched a space laboratory Sept. 29 designed for orbital docking tests and research. It's a prototype for a space station that will be built later. Becky Ramotowski: What would Columbus have seen in the night sky in 1492? Let's have some fun and travel back in time and imagine the sky that Columbus saw during that historic voyage in "fourteen hundred and ninety-two" when he sailed across the ocean blue. Mercury would have been a dim speck of light at Venus' lower right just after sunset. What Columbus and his sailors thought of the bright planets as they set anchor offshore in this new world can only be imagined. It's time to party! The Scobee Planetarium at San Antonio College will celebrate 50 Years Under the Stars Saturday with free shows, presentations and a star party. Free planetarium shows will be from 4 to 9 p.m., and the star party will be from 7 to 10 p.m. Published 5:21 pm, Monday, August 22, 2011 You probably haven't heard much - or anything - about comet C/2009 P1 Garradd. But if things go as expected, you'll be hearing a lot more about it in the coming months. I'm going to give you the scoop on the comet so you'll be ahead of the curve and can start watching it nowBecky Ramotowski: Ignore the heat and look to the sky for entertainment The moon leads the way to some interesting sights this week, and the first beauty is Saturn. [...] find the crescent moon Wednesday evening hanging low in the southwest. Spica is a binary whose components orbit each other every four days but are so close that they cannot be resolved into individual stars with telescopes. Since we are talking about bright stars, high overhead sits the bright star Vega. The Pleiades open star cluster is also a morning sight and it sits at Jupiter's left, toward the eastern horizon. The last week of July brings us some cool sights - and everyone would probably agree that we need something to cool us off since temperatures have been blistering. Mercury makes appearances this week low in the west after sunset. Just in case you didn't know, it's globular cluster season! Even though summer nights are short, there's plenty of time to enjoy some of the sky's most amazing targets, and globular clusters don't disappoint. Updated 12:00 am, Tuesday, July 12, 2011 The lazy days of summer are upon us, so let's take it easy and just meander through the sky and look at some asterisms. The Pleiades are visible with the naked eye, but binoculars really make them stand out. On star maps it's listed as Cr 399 and is located near the famous double star Albireo in Cygnus. The Summer Triangle is made up of three bright stars that are quite prominent and nearly overhead at midnight. The teapot of Sagittarius is another easily recognized asterism and sits prominently in the southeast with the Milky Way rising as steam from its spout. [...] check out the Diamond Ring asterism. Published 7:16 pm, Monday, July 4, 2011 It's hot! With daytime temperatures reaching triple digits and nights dipping only into the mid-70s, it's hard to get too excited about watching the sky when you and your star charts are wilting. Summer doldrums aside, we have some exciting targets to find, so let's soldier on and check out what's up this week. began to appreciate their beauty. Becky Ramotowski: Saturn, Milky Way are bright targets for sky-watchers June nights are only about 10 hours long, so we need to make the most of our shorter viewing time. The action starts high in the south tonight with Saturn in the constellation Virgo. Saturn is bright and passes very close to a star named Porrima. Becky Ramotowski: Gifts will have Dad looking happily at the night sky There also are a lot of astronomy related apps for smartphones, and the list is always changing. Depending on your dad's knowledge of the night sky, you can select apps that have different levels of expertise. Binoculars are always a great multitasking gift to give dear ol' dad. Saturn is visible as a ringed planet through them, but it's a tiny view. Simpler telescopes that need to be pushed around to find night sky targets are less expensive and are fun in their own right because the operator gets to star hop to find the night sky's treasures using charts and maps. Updated 9:36 am, Tuesday, May 31, 2011 Saturn is the bright yellow "star" that sits high in the south and is above and right of Spica in the constellation Virgo. At first glimpse you might think the flying telescope is an airplane, but the absence of blinking lights and a contrail are good indications that you've spotted the HST and not SWA (Southwest Airlines). There's another pass about 90 minutes later, but it's faint and extremely brief, so let's not torment ourselves trying to see it and just concentrate on the brighter passes. Friday the flying telescope bisects Leo and slices the sky in neat halves before ending in the east at 9:35 p.m. If you're interested in finding more times to watch Hubble or many other bright satellites, go to heavens-above.com for more details. The best morning show of the year continues this week, so set aside a few minutes to take in the fabulous view. If you could zoom out into space and hover above our solar system you would see that the spacing is spread out considerably. [...] you need to factor in that they are not on the same track around the sun and are spaced outward in orbits of their own with no chance of running into one of its neighbors. If gawking at morning planets are not your cup of salsa, how about a fantastic full moon tonight? The Hubble Space Telescope will dominate the morning sky this week with some bright and easy passes. We're also going to keep our eyes on the morning lineup of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Mercury as they continue to be a tight eye-catching group in the east.	eng	0931fbb3-3d07-4ba5-9ca1-87d654121d5c	http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/life_columnists/becky_ramotowski/collectionRss/Life-Columnists-Becky-Ramotowski-Headline-List-8240.php
January 25 Time: Late Afternoon Today was a good day. So it was a bit cold and cloudy. Taylor much preferred the cold of winter to the summer heat. One could always add layers to compensate for low temperatures, however cold. What happens when it hits 90 degrees? You walk around in shorts and a t-shirt, and get all sweaty anyways. Today wasn't that cold though, considering it was near the end of January, it was considerably warmer less cold today than it had been in weeks. Taylor had thought it was warm enough to just go out in a good hoodie, and it worked too. Until the wind blew and made the 40 degree air feel like it was 20. That was when Taylor felt like the weather people lied to them on purpose, purely for their own amusement. That was why he was now carefully avoiding the shade as he walked down the always crowded Manhattan street. He'd come out here for a single purpose, and that was to collect the parts for his first little technological creations. Taylor wasn't quite prepared to go out and build a Japanese style mech or anything, but he had a few ideas for satchel sized trinkets. The crowd thinned some when he left the more central parts of Manhattan, but he still had to weave through the crowd to keep up his swift pace. In and out, Taylor collected the various bits and pieces he needed from wherever he could find them. A backpack full of the stuff he needed, and a plastic bag in his hand full of the stuff he wanted (he had succumbed to the "I MUST HAVE IT NAO" feeling too easily today). Taylor paused for a moment, decided that he didn't really want or need anything else, and headed back towards the train station. Once he got back to the annoyingly bright Murderworld, the cyberpath would once again lock himself in his room for a few hours of assembling the bits and pieces he'd gathered. -------------------- "I can't slow down. I can't hold back, though you know, I wish I could. No there ain't no rest for the wicked, until we close our eyes for good." Not so long ago, he'd taken it into his mind that being less blatant about being different was for the best. Drawing attention to being a mutant wasn't the brightest idea anymore, well at least outside of the tunnels and mutant town. Outside of designated 'safe places' he tended to tone it down a bit if he wasn't going about in wraith form and blatantly breaking the rules. So, the cloak was gone. There were other ways to cover up from the sun, particularly in the winter. A jacket, a scarf, sunglasses, a hat, gloves, piled on over some faded jeans, a t-shirt, a hoodie, and his old black boots. And somehow he was still chilly. He just felt the cold easily, no matter how much layers he wore. Still, the weather could hardly be complained about currently, except for the slush that came with frozen stuff melting. But that wasn't really a problem as long as there were adequate footwear, and none of the Morlocks went without when it came to things like that at this time of the year. If they thought they could then they would have Eldan lecturing them. They did have a healer now but that didn't mean they could go and get sick over stupid things without hearing it. And oh would they hear it. El had technically been the second in charge when Callisto had last been with the Morlocks. So he was supposedly in charge by default since she wasn't there if one went by that. That wasn't really the case, perhaps, though enough of the newer 'locks looked to him so it might as well be. There weren't any official decisions about it, but it was past time to address the issue. If something happened, there had to be a definite leader or leaders in charge so things could be dealt with in an efficient and timely manner. Or whatever. He was pretty much trying to figure out how to bring up the problem to the others. If it really was a problem. It should still be discussed... Did anyone know where Callisto was, or at least where she'd last been? Had anyone looked into it, because it was past time to look into it. Sure, she could take care of herself, but it didn't mean she couldn't get in over her head. What if she needed help… So, yeah. He'd come out of the tunnels today for one reason. To think, without what could be lengthy distractions from his fellow 'locks. Wandering aimlessly, but as if he had a destination in mind, he hadn't much luck in the way of figuring things out. However he brought up the question of leadership, and of Callisto, someone was going to be a dumbass about it. He'd just have to spread word that there was going to be a meeting, and perhaps let someone else start things. He didn't want it to look like he was trying to take over or whatever. He just wanted things a little more stable until she came back. If she came back. But anyway, lost in thought as he was, he almost entirely missed recognizing the young man walking in the other direction. Several paces after passing him, he stopped and turned. Was that- seriously- "Taylor?" he questioned in surprise, hardly loud enough to be heard on the city street, before his mind caught up with the situation. How long had it been? A year, it was more than a year now. A lifetime ago, before he'd come across the Morlocks, before the Apocalypse, before Marcus, before his entire life had taken a strange and confusing twist. It was something of a shock to the system - the idea that Taylor was still alive and well after all that had happened in the past year or so. So for a few moments he just stood there, before realizing that he'd lost sight of his old friend. Shit. Eldan was tempted to cheat and 'shift into his wraith form, but there wasn't really somewhere to slip off to vanish and he didn't want to draw people's attention to his abilities. Like mentioned earlier, blatantly showing off his powers was probably not the best idea. It wasn't like he used them for legal activities. People searching for him, specifically, wasn't in his plans. Instead, he walked quickly in the direction that Tay had gone, trying to use his height to his advantage in finding his friend. "Taylor?" he repeated, deciding he'd be pretty damn frustrated if he ran into his old friend finally and then immediately lost track of him- until he found him again, he wasn't really going to be able to focus on anything else. Dammit, where are you? Taylor was already half through building a little scrambling device in his head when he heard his name. For an instant, he was on the defensive, immediately recalling the alleys and possible getaways should anybody be referring to him. He didn't think any law officials knew of him (he'd had a single run-in with SHIELD, and most of those who were present are probably still brain-dead) or the new… friends he'd made. But SHIELD was pretty good at collecting information, from what he knew. He suddenly wished he'd bought a bigger back pack. That would make the rapid climbing of fences much more rapid, and free up his hands (unless it was ABSOLUTELY necessary, he wasn't about to relinquish his newly acquired toys) in case he needed to properly fend off some unsuspecting officer. The fear of possible arrest lasted only a fraction of an instant until Taylor recognized the voice calling him. That was what put a stutter in his step. That was what shifted him from what was going to be a calm and slick escape artist, to a 19 year old teen who'd been caught with the bits and pieces of soon-to-be devices to aid his terrorist activities by his best friend who not only was unaware of said terrorist activities, but hadn't seen hide nor tail of the cyberpath in something like a year and a half. The best friend who was likely (read: almost certainly) going to ask a lot of questions. Questions that Taylor would have been able to answer was he not currently in a state similar to a deer caught in headlights. He glanced back for the briefest of brief seconds, and positioned himself so that some random woman was between them, and kept walking for a few seconds. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. Either he could talk to Eldan and hope he doesn't ask where Taylor had been (Taylor had not yet decided whether or not he'd tell the truth when that bit came up), or he could try to slip away and not talk to one of the very few people he'd actually wanted to talk to in some odd months. Taylor took two steps and turned, putting on his very best curious and surprised look. "Eldan?" A genuine smile split Taylor's face as he caught a proper glimpse of his friend and turned back to meet him. He was happy to see his friend again. Extremely happy. Now that he could really see Eldan, he realized that he hadn't really expected to see Eldan again. He hadn't been able to summon the nerves (or find the opportunity) to look for him while the Brotherhood was at the Institute. And other than that instance, they generally stayed away from the Institute. It was only now that he realized how incredibly relieved he was now that he knew for a fact that Eldan was indeed alive, in one piece, and hopefully without any additional mental scars. That might have been why Taylor, instead of acting as Taylor normally does, broke into an almost jog and hugged Eldan, even standing on the tips of his toes to do so. "Eldan! It's been forevah and evah!" No, he hadn't forgotten why he'd been so stressed a few seconds ago. But at the moment, it was much more important to hang out with the prodigal friend (the fact that it was he who vanished first was not factored into Taylor's thoughts at the moment). The sudden rush of happy had buried the stress quite efficiently. -------------------- "I can't slow down. I can't hold back, though you know, I wish I could. No there ain't no rest for the wicked, until we close our eyes for good." His efforts to find his friend seemed to be in vain. Had it really been Taylor? It'd only been a glimpse, and he hadn't really been paying attention. Eldan began second guessing himself. What were the chances... He stopped mid-stride and sighed. The hell. He'd thought he'd gotten over this. Wishful thinking, that's all it was. "Eldan?" In moments his shaded eyes zeroed in on the speaker. It was him. Now that he'd gotten his attention, he didn't know what to say. There weren't really words for the relief he was experiencing. For his friend's well-being, and the smile brightening the young man's face at the sight of him. It was almost painful. Could he even admit how worried he'd been? He stood stock-still as Taylor approached, startled when his friend didn't stop. El almost lost his balance when he was hugged. He was just stunned. "Yeah.. its been a long time," he agreed, awkwardly trying to hug Taylor despite the backpack in the way. Of course he didn't put any thought into what his friend was carrying, other than the fact that it was in the way. He held his friend a little too tight, possibly, before realizing and loosening his grip on him. A little embarrassed. "…way too long. You've.. been alright?" he asked, having to make sure that things hadn't gone to shit for his friend in the time they'd been apart. It was strange. Eldan just couldn't bring himself to put more than a few words together in his mind. What to say. What to do. He probably should let go. It just didn't seem real. He was awake, wasn't he? … there probably wouldn't have been anyone else on the street after he'd forgotten them, if that was the case. Instead, people had to navigate around the two standing somewhere near the middle of the side-walk. He had to regain some sense instead of acting like a dazed fool. The dark haired mutant released his friend and took a step back to look Taylor over- if someone had harmed him in any way since their last meeting, they would so be meeting their maker if Eldan found out- and order his scattered thoughts. "I'm not keeping you from anything, am I?" he asked, hoping that wasn't the case, and letting it color his voice. Because now that he'd found his friend again, there was no way that he was going to lose track of him again if he had any say in the matter. There was so much he had to tell him. So little of it was believable. He hoped that things had been calmer for his friend… Taylor hugged a little bit tighter for a moment before releasing Eldan and stepping out of the wraith's bubble. His feet were planted on the ground, but he still felt like he was bouncing out of his skin. Maybe in a couple hours, once they parted ways, Taylor would realize how stupid the grin he was wearing must have looked. At the moment, he couldn't seem to remove it. It was as though any manner of negativity had been banished from the world for the time being. He was not a soldier waging war against the rest of humanity. Instead, he was just a teenaged mutant, and now he was hanging out with one of the very few friends he'd managed to make. He waved off Eldan's questions. "I'm fine. I was about to head back, but I don't have anything waiting on me, so all's well." The gears in the back of Taylor's mind still hadn't decided whether or not Eldan would get full disclosure on his most recent ventures, but he was quite sure that now was not the time to be dropping bombs. He could tell Eldan some other time. Hopefully some time before his face joined his peers' on the news. "What about you?" Taylor had settled a bit now, and that allowed his mind to break away from the constant loop of 'zomg its Eldan', and take in other facts. Like the missing cloak. "Found a socially acceptable way to keep the sun off, I see." Taylor was glad the cloak had been ditched. It was probably for the best, too. Walking about in the middle of the day with a thick hooded cloak did nothing if not draw (usually unwanted) attention. The layers reminded Taylor of a overprotective mom's attempt at shielding her child from winter cold, but at least people wouldn't gawk smiled. There was still more than a little disbelief coloring his world at the moment, but it was a good sort. It was good to be pleasantly surprised for once. "That's good to hear." And it was, very good to know that Taylor was doing well. To know that at least one of his friends hadn't completely fallen apart this past year. Faye seemed to have improved in the last months, but he wasn't quite sure how to deal with him anymore. It was like he'd break or something.. And Eldan was pleased that they would have some time to hang out now that they've finally run across each other again. "I've been doing alright. Mostly. Its been a strange year. And... the whole 'end of the world' situation wasn't the half of it.." he said with a short laugh. Giant. Roach. Monsters. Enough said. "I can't even think of where to start.. though this isn't probably the best place, come to think of it..." They were so blocking half the sidewalk. Haha. A socially acceptable way of keeping the sun off? "Yeah. And keeping warm, too. I'm thinking that come summer... I'm not going to bother. If I need to do anything, it can happen at night," he said with a shrug. It was past the time when he would shape his life to suit others. He wasn't going to lose sleep or get a damn sunburn. If he was meant to mess about in day, his mutation wouldn't cause him agony during the day. And if anyone had a problem with it... like he cared. With the exception of maybe two or three people, but for the most part, they wouldn't have an issue. Taylor was aware of his and Eldan's likely annoying placement in the sidewalk, but that was in the rational part of his mind. The one that was currently waaay in the back, stuffed into a box. A starbucks across the street caught his eye, and he immediately wanted java and something with caramel in it. He hasn't had much in the way of sweets for months. Not becuse he couldn't have, but he'd been training like all hell to be sure he'd be useful to Magneto's cause. Trimming the body fat worked well for Taylor's physical abilities. The id in the back of his mind was now far more powerful than it should ever be, for anybody. It currently said "STARBUCKS NAO", and Taylor was powerless to deny its demands. "D'you like Starbucks?" It'd be a nice, quiet place for them to catch up, and perhaps for Taylor to bring himself off of the stupid happy high that had taken control of his face and brain. Taylor remembered that Eldan was a bit older than him. That meant he'd graduated from the institute, didn't he? Did that mean he was still staying there? Had he become an X-Man, or was he living on his own? Taylor hoped dearly that Eldan wasn't an X-Man. It wouldn't help him at all for the Brotherhood to find out that his best friend was allied with the group of mutants directly opposed to them. "So where are you these days?" Taylor kept the returning worry out of his voice expertly, his face absent of any grief. -------------------- "I can't slow down. I can't hold back, though you know, I wish I could. No there ain't no rest for the wicked, until we close our eyes for good." The fact that they were annoying passerby wasn't the only reason that their spot was less than ideal for discussing what had gone on the past.. year or so. It was more along the lines that he really didn't want anyone overhearing their conversation. And not just because he was a private person. For one thing… how could he discuss the 'locks without giving them away? And, truthfully, did he want to involve any of his friends outside with them, more than he has already? The last time the two worlds had met, it hadn't gone well, though it probably should have been expected.. The question took him by surprise. "Starbucks? Um... yes?" There were flavored coffees and such there, right? He didn't really pay attention to the names of those kinds of places. Any kinda caffeine sounded good to him right about then, considering that what was late afternoon to most was usually morning to him.. Pacing around the city first thing in the 'morning' had managed to wake him up mostly, but caffeine would be more than welcome. Glancing in the direction Taylor had been looking when he'd asked, he realized why the question had been asked. Where? Technically, he was mostly beneath the city, but generally… "I live around here. Not here here, of course… but mostly in the city. I think since, a year and a half ago?" He shrugged. It wasn't important exactly how long ago it was, other than that it had been around the same time that he'd last seen Taylor. Give or take a month. He'd never meant to stay at the institute as long as he had, just that one summer after he'd lost… everything. Though he probably should have at least tried to get some kind of education while he'd been there… that hadn't been a choice since his mind wasn't his own at the time. Telepaths. Not his favorite type of mutant to deal with.. "I've been just… staying with some friends. Well. Some of them are friends. The others, well, they're mostly tolerable. The strangest things happen at their place.." A grin. They were Morlocks. It meant something, for him. Somewhere to belong, for one thing. To protect. Where he was needed. Just what he needed, really. Regular society was too distant, strange, and … too human for his taste. "What about you?" he asked in turn, just a little curious as to where his friend had been all this time. How he'd handled the apocalypse and its aftermath. What he thought about, well, everything. There was likely as much to ask as there was things he wanted to tell the technopath. Though right now his mind kept on coming back to one important fact. Taylor really was alright. He'd been worried sick, when he let himself think about him at least. He really was alright. The instant Eldan answered his question, Taylor took a step towards the curb. The java was calling him with the allure of a thousand sirens. "We should go grab something then. I got it." When the light turned in their favor (a bit sooner than normal, but that's neither here nor there), Taylor started to cross, glad that Eldan was doing well. It amused him, how similar their situations sounded. Except that Taylor really didn't have any friends within the Brotherhood. He hadn't really bothered to try, and there were few among them that seemed like they'd be very receptive to the techy-kid randomly talking to them. There were some that didn't scare the shit out of him. Did they count? There wasn't anybody that Taylor found absolutely intolerable, but some came pretty damn close. He didn't skip a beat at Eldan's question, and he answered as he entered the coffee shop, holding the door behind him for his friend. "Actually, it sounds like I'm in very much the same way. I live pretty close to Coney Island, with some co-workers." That sounded accurate. Glaze over the surface, and reveal details that were harmless, without the filler. Heading of a few future questions, Taylor continued. "We do a lot of mutant-rights work and most of it's pretty radical. So obviously, most people aren't our biggest fans. I bet there're a lot of people waiting to see our heads on a pike." Taylor shrugged. He had no delusions that the Brotherhood hadn't painted a target on itself, but he was also confident. They would survive, and they would win. They had no other option, really. Taylor tried to think of any other questions Eldan might ask. Now that he'd opened his mouth, he suddenly wished he hadn't said anything, but it was too late to snatch the words out of the air and keep his lips a bit tighter than before. -------------------- "I can't slow down. I can't hold back, though you know, I wish I could. No there ain't no rest for the wicked, until we close our eyes for good." "So long as they only want to and you stay out of their reach," Eldan replied, serious but not in a lecturing way at all. He knew that Taylor knew better. Or at least, he trusted that he did, which was another thing altogether, but it meant the same- that he wouldn't press the issue. Which was why he wasn't going to ask a zillion questions about this mutant-rights job Taylor mentioned or the co-workers or.. well, you get the picture. Even though. He sort've wanted to ask, and he might've, but he had a feeling that Taylor didn't want to talk about work. A hint from the set of his shoulders or his expression, whatever it was, Eldan hearkened. Now, he wasn't pleased that his friend was, as it sounded, making something of a target of himself, but it'd be hypocritical if Eldan said anything about it. He didn't just put himself in danger from time to time; he flung himself into it, if it wouldn't bring it down on the rest of the 'locks.. Following a step behind and a little to the right of his friend as they headed toward the coffee shop, Eldan came to the conclusion that though there was plenty that he wanted to discuss with Taylor, Starbucks really wasn't the right place to talk about most of it. Even if that wasn't the case... where to start? He shook his head and muttered a thanks to Tay for opening the door for him. What? He was brought up to be polite, if nothing else. Well, that was something. It seemed that the other mutant was a little less careful about what he said amongst humans, or would it be 'less paranoid..' Then again, it seemed that most of the people around them were quite more intent on getting their caffeine fix than eavesdropping on two random guys. Which was as it should be, really. He couldn't stand overly nosy people. Waiting in line, he felt a little stifled as bundled up as he was. At least he could unbutton the jacket, and loosen the scarf, but there was too much light coming in to rid himself of them. Ah well. He was used to it, mostly. To distract his mind from the clutter that was attempting to distract him, he looked at the menu while waiting. That… was a lot of different types of coffee. Unfortunately, he didn't like most hot coffees. Iced mochas and that sorta thing was more his thing, even in the depths of winter… when it was pretty stupid to have a frappuccino. Open mouth, hesitate, think, pause, shut mouth, and make up your damn mind. Say something already. At least no one can see.. "… so. Do you want to hear the craziness that I've been through since we've last talked? Monsters, mayhem, mutants, and … okay, I've run out of 'M's. Some of it was boring, but we can skip those parts." "Oh no, we're got stayin' low down to an art." Taylor reassured Eldan, then moved on. Taylor took a glance around the busy coffee shop. He had no worries in such a setting. If nothing else was true about New York, it was that the general passersby gave not a shit about you. For the normal person, the conversations around them would have woven together into a general buzzing. An incoherent mixture of random voices. Taylor was able to separate and make sense to the chaos, however. And he could tell that everybody was minding their own business. Most people seemed to have a hard time conversing and paying close attention to something else at the same time. So he listened for awkward pauses in conversation, and glanced at the conversationalists when one was detected to be sure there was no eavesdropping. Approaching the counter, Taylor hardly glanced at the menu before ordering. He'd seen it once, that was enough. He didn't want anything too complex anyways. Just wonderful. "Just coffee with lots of milk and sugar." A hand-sized cookie caught his eye. "And a cookie." Taylor stepped to the side, to offer Eldan a proper look. "Your turn." He had promised he'd pay. And it wasn't like, as a cyberpath, he was strapped for cash at any point. Before anything else, Taylor had picked up on quietly stealing money with his powers. The skill remained useful to this day. Eldan spoke some more, and Taylor cast a wary eye over at his friend. Monsters? Mayhem? That did not sound very safe. He was definitely not the one to be talking about being safe, though, and that was what kept his mouth shut. Picking out a seat for them, Taylor sat with his coffee warming both hands, all ears. "I'm always good to hear about craziness." -------------------- "I can't slow down. I can't hold back, though you know, I wish I could. No there ain't no rest for the wicked, until we close our eyes for good." [Sorry about the delay. Every time I tried to post in this I was going into Starbucks withdrawals. I think I may be past that now… well, only one way to find out Yay! Story time.] Reassured about his friend's - and co-workers, though that was of lesser importance - safety, Eldan smiled, nodded, and returned his attention to the menu. At his height it wasn't difficult to see, regardless of how crowded the place was. He didn't realize immediately that they were up at the counter 'til Taylor ordered. And then told Eldan that it was his turn. He turned to the person at the cash register a beat later. "Oh.. I'll have a medium - sorry, grande is it? - java chip frappuccino," he told the barista with the utmost seriousness. It had like, chocolate chips in it. He wanted one. So what if it was January and he got cold easily. The frappuccino.. was a damn frappuccino. With chocolate chips. Common sense didn't have to apply when it came to sweets. After their orders were taken… well, at least they didn't have to wait long. It wasn't like he was impatient, but He followed Taylor to a table, and sat down opposite him… and with his back to the windows. So it'd probably be fine if he tugged the scarf off, as long as he remembered not to turn around at all. He hadn't really thought about that, considering the damn scarf would have to come off if he was going to be able to drink anything. Sighing, he tugged the scarf away from his face, and was relieved that it seemed to be dim enough not to be, well, hellishly painful. "Honestly, people could get used to anything," he said after a moments thought. "It'd be strange to live normally now, I guess.." He talked quietly enough, but not in an obvious way so people'd get curious. Being secretive tended to catch people's attention. Now, how to begin? The beginning would probably be the best… and least confusing place. "I don't think I've had a 'normal' day since … the September before last. I think that's when I fell in with that lot.. There was this mutant kid in a bit of trouble, so I… intervened… and of course I hadn't really bothered with nonsense such as training my powers much back then, so … things could have gone badly if Callisto hadn't shown up and gone all psychotic on the guys that had been beating on the kid. She's pretty protective of her people. And they- well. Damn, this is going to be a lot of explaining," he said with an odd, short laugh. It was a good thing they had drinks. Though something a little more alcoholic would be preferable. Telling this stuff to an 'outsider' to the Morlocks just emphasized how strange his life had gotten. Though, he didn't mind.. "Basically they're an underground society. Figuratively and literally. And they really don't care much for outsiders… but the way I met them seemed to work in my favor. And, not much later… there was some sort've giant roach monster that invaded their tunnels… seriously, I am in no way exaggerating, it was huge… Anyway, its armor totally made their attacks next to useless, and -" he grimaced at the memory. Bad memory. The insides of a giant roach were not something he'd care to see again, lucky that those things didn't seem to be common. "Mine weren't getting through either- until I finally got the bright idea to 'shift to wraith and blast it from the inside. Never. Again. Ugh. What was I saying? Oh. Yeah. Destroying that thing….. I'm pretty sure that's when they decided that I was 'in' since I didn't just… leave them to deal with that thing on their own. Or whatever." Okay, was it his imagination, or was this seeming more and more unrealistic the more he talked about it. Taylor was going to believe it, right? He knew that he wouldn't just mess with him didn't he? "Well… that was possibly the weirdest thing… or maybe I just got used to it. There were slightly less giant rats from time to time, but the only time I saw them, I was pretty drunk, so I'm not so sure.. And these humanoid things that… I don't know where they've gone off to, but I think its safe to say that New York City was built on a portal to the Twilight Zone. Besides that, the only other interesting thing to happen was the end of the world, but I'm sure you've heard about that." Grin. Wait. Shouldn't smile about that.. "Is it bad that… that was the most fun I've had in years? What was left of the zombies in the desert ended up being formed into this gross super-zombie after we destroyed most of them… but like towards the end of it all, I had to drag injured or infected people back to the portal to get healed. Lucky that figured out how to bring living things with me before then. In wraith form I mean. Though that was the first time I tried it on a human. That could have ended badly…" Okay, he was sounding incredibly… strange. Change the subject. Anything. Why couldn't he think of anything about the last year that didn't sound entirely outrageous? For some reason, Marcus came to mind. He managed to look slightly embarrassed. He didn't particularly want to talk about Animal with anyone. That had been a mistake. He shouldn't have encouraged him. "I hadn't been able to make shields either, last time we'd met, right? I think that's the only other trick I've managed to figure out.." Yeah, he was running out of steam. Reminders of that guy tended to do that. It made him feel guilty, since he'd realized that the reason he'd liked him in the first place was the main reason it didn't work. Issues, man. He had issues. He took a deep drought of the slightly melted frappuccino and cringed at the sudden brain freeze. Pushing the cup away slightly, he folded his arms on the table and buried his face in them. Maybe a little dramatically, but dammit. He could sulk if he wanted to. "And then there's the fun story about my now-ex attempted to get himself killed by Calli, that's a good one." Now… he sorta needed that sugary caffeine, but he didn't feel like sitting up yet. He was feeling decidedly sulky about the outcome of that, the idiot had been cute and sweet, just a complete and utter idiot with no self-control. And Callisto had been a good friend. Ish. And now, neither of them really spoke to him much… what the hell had happened to Marcus anyway? Was he still even in the tunnels? "Humans and mutants are ridiculously adaptable. That's why we're still around." Taylor spoke softly in response to Eldan's statement. He tried to imagine for a moment, how he'd feel if he were to randomly find himself out of the Brotherhood, with them not hunting him down. He'd be somewhat happy; he wasn't fond of the tactics they had to use, but he'd also be bored. And for the time being, he felt—not like he fit in—but like he belonged there. What he was supposed to be doing with his life, right now, was helping the BH, because they were the only ones proactive enough for Taylor's limited patience. The Xmen's "lead by example" bit was all well and good, but that would take years. How long were black people oppressed? Sure, Martin Luther King Jr.'s story was a good one, but the nonviolence bullshit took far too long for Taylor to feel comfortable. Taylor's expression morphed from interested to revolted to thoughtful as Eldan recounted his various experiences. "A giant roach? That's nasty as all hell…" Again, he spoke softly, not wanting to interrupt. That went out the window when Eldan mentioned actually going inside the thing. "EW! You were inside the roach! And I hugged you!" It was said in a careless, joking manner, but still. Taylor would never have had the stomach to pull of a similar feat, even if it were in his power to do so. When Eldan brought up Apocalypse, Taylor shook his head slowly. "It's kinda bad, but some people function well in combat situations. You shouldn't feel guilty. There are a lot of people who could have helped, but didn't. At least you did." Taylor would have helped out, but he was not a mutant who could kill a dog by sweating, or blow up a city by wiggling his ears. If he were to go into combat, he needed time and preparation. Those were two privileges nobody had been given a chance to enjoy, except for Apocalypse himself. "Your Ex?" Taylor's eyebrow raised slightly. Now that he thought about it, Taylor realized that he'd seen Eldan as some sort of non-sexual being. If he were to have guessed at anything Eldan had been doing for the past year, finding a mate would have been nowhere on that list. He wanted to ask more about it, but Eldan's body language told him that that was a bad subject to pursue. Thus he bit his tongue and tried to think of another topic. Anything, really. His mental gears still weren't spinning like they were supposed to, though. That might be why he, after enduring a few moments of the uncomfortable silence, started talking. "So… Yea. You know who Magneto is, yea?" Stupid question. Everybody knows who Magneto is. It was really just a way for his next words to organize themselves. He still hadn't decided whether or not it was safe for either of them for him to continue, but his mouth was running, and if he had to sit there silently while Eldan moped about his ex, the cyberpath may very well be tempted to throw himself through the glass panes of the store, just to distract himself. "How… would you feel if I told you…" Taylor was speaking slowly, watching Eldan's reaction with a hundred times the intensity of a hawk's eye on a mouse. His tone dropped low, such that it was possible Eldan might not hear him as he continued. "I'm working for him?" Whoever said that telling the truth makes you feel better had been telling the greatest lie since OJ Simpson had taken the stand. The instant those words were out of his mouth, Taylor felt like at any moment, Primal or Saint, or Magneto himself, could come bursting into the store and impale him on some blunt object. It may have been irrational. Taylor was almost certain that the other BH members and perhaps the Acolytes had people who knew what they did. Thus, there was no reason Taylor couldn't have a confidant of his own. The rationalization had no affect on Taylor's sudden feeling of trepidation. This was a mistake. He should have kept his mouth shut. Since he's spoken, though, his body language revealed none of his sudden inner tumult. On the contrary, he hadn't moved a millimeter. He hadn't even blinked laughed a little at Taylor's reaction to his experience with the giant roach. "Yeah, it was gross, but- I was in my energy form- so it wasn't completely unbearable," he said, making a face at Taylor. Thinking back on those early days with the Morlocks was strange. It wasn't all that long ago, but it seemed like ancient history now. Probably just because so much had happened since... "Not saying that I'd like to repeat the experience though. I don't even wanna know why there's abnormally large creatures crawling around underneath the city, either." What Taylor said about the Apocalypse made sense. The temporary sense of what might have been guilt lifted. At least he did something. And so what, he knew that a lot of people suffered during that time, but he'd learned a lot. Who knew how long it would have taken him to get the nerve to transport another person with him in wraith form. If ever. Really, if anything, it was the way he was able to let loose, finally. Completely. "Well... yeah. Also, I don't get a chance to show off my powers all that often," he added. It wasn't as bad before Apocalypse, but even then, displays of power could definitely be taken the wrong way and stomped upon. It was like... the only time he'd gotten to stretch his abilities after all that training he'd done. "Your Ex?" Taylor sounded curious. Well. Of course. Going abruptly from cheerfully discussing the end of the world and random tunnel dwelling monsters, to sulking about some random guy, it wasn't quite the usual. "Not even that, really," he said into his arms, then decided that he was being an idiot. Enough of that. Sitting up straight in his chair, he took a sip from his frappuccino. Exactly what he needed. The hell was he doing moping over that guy... When his friend asked him if he knew of Magneto, Eldan, of course, nodded. The man had been giving orders during the battle against Pestilence. It had been a close thing. He was a good leader, whatever people thought about his approach, that had to be said. The last person he'd expected Taylor to be working for, though. Now, he didn't have a problem with Magneto. If things had been different- if he didn't have other people to think about- he would have considered approaching the mutant after the Apocalypse... but he couldn't. If he'd left the 'locks then, they wouldn't have made it. He respected the man. Any more, Eldan couldn't say. He didn't know him, and his knowledge on his methods were second hand, if he heard about events at all it was from Morlock gossip or Faye's musings. He was the last person to hunt out information of the outside world, usually. Which maybe ought to change, but that didn't matter currently. What mattered was that Taylor was with a group of people that were being hunted down by SHIELD, and anyone else with a super-hero complex. He'd already said that they could take care of themselves, and he was sure that they could, but dammit if it wasn't going to worry him half to death. Realizing he hadn't spoken yet, he glanced at Taylor. He was very still, but otherwise showed nothing. If this was a joke, he was going to kick him. But he wasn't joking, was he... "I... don't know," he said honestly, after a moment. "Surprised?" Worried of course, but he'd already expressed that even before he'd found out who Tay was working for. Now he had to worry a little more, of course, since the people he was working with were as dangerous or more so than the people that would be after them. But- well, Callisto would be labeled as dangerous too... as would Eldan. And Jean scared Eldan a lot more than Magneto did. "Haven't seen him since the Apocalypse, though I've heard he's been busy." A slight smile. Did Taylor think that Eldan was going to flip out or something? Seriously. He was Eldan fucking Draith. He did not flip out.	eng	7cd3f502-fa26-4f85-a402-b490799d7f4c	http://z4.invisionfree.com/Xrevolution/index.php?s=1010a025c83a340515a3cc2fd22dad9d&showtopic=6101
Im(sic) sorry to have to tell you that you are simply wrong.The Constitution is not about what you or I or anyone believes. It is about what is says(sic) and what was intended by the people who wrote it especially when you know exactly what they intended. Nothing more. The reality of this is that any state can pass any gun law they wish, banning, restricting, taxing, guns ammo, anything, and they do. That is irrefutable. Its(sic) there for all to see. The 2nd amendment does not prevent any state from passing any gun laws they wish. That is irrefutable because these laws are on the books. Plaxico Burress a former NY Giant wide receiver is going to jail because of a mandatory 3 year sentence for carrying a concealed weapon in New York City. The 2nd amendent(sic) is not saving him and his lawyers are not claiming his constitutional rights were violated. And the NRA isnt(sic) coming to his rescue either. Yes my points are irrefutable because they are based on reality not belief or wish. The reality is the 2nd amendment has not stopped any local governemnt(sic), state, city, town or village from passing any gun law they wish. That doesnt(sic) sound like they think "shall not be infringed" applies to them. And thats(sic) because it doesnt(sic). Regards Marc Rubin Apparently Mr. Rubin's keyboard doesn't have a functioning apostrophe. And his reality apparently shares very little in common with the one I live in. Now, for those of you who have been long-standing readers of this blog much of what I will say here will be repetitious, but that's necessary. For those of you who are new or relatively recent, I hope you will bear with my "Überpost" style - this stuff takes more than 1500 words to hammer home, but I provide links to the source materials to allow you to fact-check me and not just take my "authoritative word" on what I assert. Let us begin: Im sorry to have to tell you that you are simply wrong. Right back atcha, Marc. In fact, to be as wrong as you are requires you to deliberately ignore or deny mountains of evidence. See below. The Constitution is not about what you or I or anyone believes. It is about what is says and what was intended by the people who wrote it especially when you know exactly what they intended. Nothing more. Close, but no cigar! Take, for example, your assertion: "Nothing more." Not so. The Constitution has been amended seventeen times since the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Those changes have altered its meaning from what the Founders originally intended, but other than that, we're in agreement - almost. Your assertion is a statement of what's known as "Original Intent Theory" - but this theory of interpreting the Constitution has been found to be inherently difficult to apply and ultimately unusable. Obviously, the Founders didn't all hold one homogeneous intent that became each part of the Constitution, instead they wrote law, and in law it isn't the intent that matters, what matters is what the words say and how they are understood at the time they were written. This is called "Original Understanding Theory." There is a third, "Original Public Meaning." All three theories carry the moniker of "Originalism," but Original Understanding is the theory under which law is supposed to function, and it is the one most accepted by "Originalists" on the courts today. What was intended doesn't matter. What it says is. See this article for a decent overview on the topic. Of course, none of this affects judges who just make it up as they go along. More on this later, too. But the best example I can hold up for the difference between "original intent" and "original understanding" theory is the 1994 "Assault Weapons Ban" that wasn't. We have been told ad nauseam that the intent of that law was to prohibit the manufacture and sale of "semi-automatic assault weapons," itself a rather vague concept. The law did so by prohibiting certain features of these supposedly terrifying weapons: bayonet lugs, collapsible stocks, etc. So the manufacturers looked at what the law actually said and built firearms that met the restrictions. I happen to own one, an AR15 rifle that doesn't have a collapsible stock or a bayonet lug. Works just like any other AR15 ever made, only better, since this one is equipped with a target-quality heavy barrel. I had it custom made right in the middle of the "ban." I purchased a "stripped lower" - the "gun" part that carries the serial number, and shipped it to the manufacturer. About five weeks later my completed rifle was shipped directly to me at work. One hundred percent legal, no muss, no fuss. So let's say, for the sake of argument, that we're both "originalists." Where we differ is in how each of us interprets how the Second Amendment originally was understood. You claim that it "has nothing to do with an individual right to own a gun." I disagree, and I believe I can prove it - irrefutably, and beyond the shadow of a doubt. You continue: The reality of this is that any state can pass any gun law they wish, banning, restricting, taxing, guns ammo, anything, and they do. That is irrefutable. Its there for all to see. The 2nd amendment does not prevent any state from passing any gun laws they wish. That is irrefutable because these laws are on the books. Here we agree on one thing - states do pass laws restricting the right to arms. I even agree that some of those restrictions are Constitutionally acceptable, but the overwhelming majority of them are not. Yours is a trite argument, as states have passed a lot of laws that violated the Constitution and they remained on the books for decades before being struck down. Why should gun laws be exempt from this abuse? It's irrefutable that the laws exist, but hardly irrefutable that they don't violate the Constitution. Plaxico Burress a former NY Giant wide receiver is going to jail because of a mandatory 3 year sentence for carrying a concealed weapon in New York City. The 2nd amendent is not saving him and his lawyers are not claiming his constitutional rights were violated. And the NRA isnt coming to his rescue either. The question, again, isn't whether the laws have been passed and are being applied, but whether or not those laws pass Constitutional muster. Just because the NRA isn't fighting for Plaxico Burress's right to carry a concealed weapon without a permit doesn't mean that law is or isn't Constitutional (and you might be surprised to learn that I believe the evidence shows that such laws can be Constitutional - based on Original Understanding theory). That doesn't mean that Plaxico Burress didn't have a right to own the gun he was carrying that day, and that is the topic of this discussion. (J)ust the other day the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a case involving Alameda County in California that the 2nd amendment applies to individuals.They were wrong. Good to know that you acknowledge that even high court judgescan be wrong. They weren't here, but I'd have to prove that. You, being an "authorized journalist" get to just assert it as irrefutable fact and go on. We'll skip directly to your bold assertion: "There is no Constitutional right to own a gun.And there never was." There's a human right to own weapons suitable for defense of self and property, and the Second Amendment of the Constitution was written to protect that right against violation by government. I assert that, but I have a citation - U.S. v Cruikshank (1876). While the majority in this case erred in their decision, their understanding of the Bill of Rights was flawless: The first amendment to the Constitution prohibits Congress from abridging "the right of the people to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." This, like the other amendments proposed and adopted at the same time, was not intended to limit the powers of the State governments in respect to their own citizens, but to operate upon the National government alone. It is now too late to question the correctness of this construction. As was said by the late Chief Justice, in Twitchell v. The Commonwealth, "the scope and application of these amendments are no longer subjects of discussion here." They left the authority of the States just where they found it, and added nothing to the already existing powers of the United States. The particular amendment now under consideration assumes the existence of the right of the people to assemble for lawful purposes, and protects it against encroachment by Congress. The right was not created by the amendment; neither was its continuance guaranteed, except as against congressional interference. For their protection in its enjoyment, therefore, the people must look to the States. The power for that purpose was originally placed there, and it has never been surrendered to the United States. The right of the people peaceably to assemble for the purpose of petitioning Congress for a redress of grievances, or for any thing else connected with the powers or the duties of the national government, is an attribute of national citizenship, and, as such, under the protection of, and guaranteed by, the United States. The very idea of a government, republican in form, implies a right on the part of its citizens to meet peaceably for consultation in respect to public affairs and to petition for a redress of grievances. If it had been alleged in these counts that the object of the defendants was to prevent a meeting for such a purpose, the case would have been within the statute, and within the scope of the sovereignty of the United States. Such, however, is not the case. The offence, as stated in the indictment, will be made out, if it be shown that the object of the conspiracy was to prevent a meeting for any lawful purpose whatever. The second and tenth counts are equally defective. The . . . . You see, the majority in Cruikshank well understood what the Bill of Rights protected, but they decided those right couldn't be protected for recently emancipated slaves or previously free blacks. That didn't comport with their understanding of "Original Intent" - even though it was the only meaning that could be taken from the words. This is the case that allowed the states to enact whatever gun control laws they wanted, even though the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 specifically with the intent of protecting the rights of all citizens. This is called, variously, "making it up," "judicial activism," or (my personal favorite) "Constitutionalizing ones personal preferences." So, in 1876 the Supreme Court named what the Second Amendment protected - "bearing arms for a lawful purpose" - then declared that the states could violate that right without censure (nudge-nudge, wink-wink, as long as they did it to the wrong kind of people). This echoed the ante-bellum Scott v. Sanford decision where the majority opinion declared that blacks, free or slave, couldn't be citizens because if they were they would share the same rights as whites, and kindly listed those rights that they must be denied: It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised "Keep and carry arms wherever they went." Citizenship would convey upon blacks the right to travel, to associate with anyone they wanted, the right to free speech, the right to assemble, and the right to keep and carry arms wherever they went - just like white men. Oh, and if you'll note - there's no mention of militia membership in either of those two decisions, both well less than a hundred years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Then we fought a war, in no small part to determine just who was and who wasn't a citizen, and afterward we passed the Thirteenth Amendment to settle that question, and the Fourteenth Amendment to reinforce the idea that their rights were protected too. But nine men sitting on the Supreme Court decided that those words couldn't mean what they said. Just like you do. How does it feel to be exposed as a bigot, Marc? Next, your restatement of your "Original Intent" argument: People ignorant of the Constitution which unfortunately includes the President, along with many members of Congress and the press, seem to refuse to read the 2nd amendment as it was written. And to acknowledge that the Constitution and the people who wrote it and founded this country were the greatest collection of geniuses in the principles of self government this country ever had at one time in one place. When you acknowledge that, then you take the words they wrote and argued over, debated and ratified in the Constitution seriously. And you don't try to pretend they mean something they were never intended to mean to suit your purposes. They knew what they were doing. They knew what they were saying. And they knew what every word of that amendment meant ( as well as everything else in the Constitution). And every word in the 2nd amendment means the same thing today that it meant in 1789 and in all the years in between. I've emphasized the crucial parts of your argument. They're what this whole debate hinges upon. Thanks for making that clear - it makes my job much easier, since I just proved that the justices on the Dred Scott court, and the justices on the Cruikshank court knew precisely what rights the Bill of Rights protected and that they were deliberately denying to blacks. Now, on to your "evidence": The fact that the 2nd amendment has nothing to do with an individual's right to own a gun is not a secret. Former Chief Justice Warren Burger, Chief Justice during Nixon's term wrote that "the idea that the 2nd amendment has anything whatsoever to do with an individual's right to own a gun is the biggest Constitutional hoax ever perpetrated on the American people". I note you didn't give a link to the source of that quote, and I have to wonder about that omission. I've never seen that particular version before, but I have seen similar assertions made by Burger. One I'm familiar with was a bit stronger than "hoax": "[The Second Amendment] has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word 'fraud,' on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime." -- Former Chief Justice Warren Burger, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, December 16, 1991 I can assume that Burger didn't make the statement you quote in a court decision or even a dissent. During his time on the Court, Burger never heard a case on the Second Amendment, nor, according to Dave Kopel, "did Mr. Burger write anything about the Second Amendment in scholarly legal or historical journal(s)." Kopel adds as an aside, "The scholarly consensus is virtually unanimous that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right." (More on that later, too.) Burger apparently did a lot of gun control campaigning after his retirement in 1986, since he also gave an interview for the January 14, 1990 issue of the Parade Magazine Sunday insert. What did Chief Justice Burger have to say in that Parade interview? The web site "Gun Cite" has archived the entire piece. You were apparently unaware or at least neglected to mention that the Chief Justice also said this: The Constitution of the United States, in its Second Amendment, guarantees a "right of the people to keep and bear arms." However, the meaning of this clause cannot be understood except by looking to the purpose, the setting and the objectives of the draftsmen. -- People of that day were apprehensive about the new "monster" national government presented to them, and this helps explain the language and purpose of the Second Amendment. A few lines after the First Amendment's guarantees -- against "establishment of religion," "free exercise" of religion, free speech and free press -- came a guarantee that grew out of the deep-seated fear of a "national" or "standing" army. -- -- Some have exploited these ancient concerns, blurring sporting guns - rifles, shotguns and even machine pistols - with all firearms, including what are now called "Saturday night specials." There is, of course, a great difference between sporting guns and handguns. -- The victory at Yorktown - and the ratification of the Bill of Rights a decade later - did not change people's attitudes about a national army. They had lived for years under the notion that each state would maintain its own military establishment, and the seaboard states had their own navies as well. These people, and their fathers and grandfathers before them, remembered how monarchs had used standing armies to oppress their ancestors in Europe. Americans wanted no part of this. A state militia, like a rifle and powder horn, was as much a part of life as the automobile is today; pistols were largely for officers, aristocrats -- and dueling. Against this background, it was not surprising that the provision concerning firearms emerged in very simple terms with the significant predicate -- basing the right on the necessity for a "well regulated militia," a state army. In the two centuries since then -- with two world wars and some lesser ones -- it has become clear, sadly, that we have no choice but to maintain a standing national army while still maintaining a "militia" by way of the National Guard, which can be swiftly integrated into the national defense forces. --; "Saturday night specials" and machine guns are not recreational weapons and surely are as much in need of regulation as motor vehicles. Americans should ask themselves a few questions. The Constitution does not mention automobiles or motorboats, but the right to keep and own an automobile is beyond question; equally beyond question is the power of the state to regulate the purchase or the transfer of such a vehicle and the right to license the vehicle and the driver with reasonable standards. In some places, even a bicycle must be registered, as must some household dogs. Now, as I read those assertions, the ORIGINAL UNDERSTANDING of the Second Amendment was to protect an individual right to "a rifle and a powder horn" to protect against the threat of standing armies used to oppress them. As he says, "That Second Amendment clause must be read as though the word "because" was the opening word of the guarantee." But the word "because" isn't there. And you yourself assert "They knew what they were doing. They knew what they were saying. And they knew what every word of that amendment meant." But apparently Warren Burger knows better, and because you agree with him, well, he must be right! Burger's argument was against the right to possess handguns specifically. Burger further asserts that the nature of the right has changed over time, evolving to protect its original intent - the "right to defend (our) homes," AND "the right of hunters to own and keep sporting guns for hunting game." Wait, what? The Second Amendment says nothing about "sporting guns" or "hunting game." Where did the Chief Justice come up with that idea? I thought Warren Burger had a reputation as a "strict constructionist"! I thought we agreed that "every word in the 2nd amendment means the same thing today that it meant in 1789 and in all the years in between"? Doesn't that make Warren Burger wrong? He disagrees with both the 1856Dred Scott court and the 1876Cruikshank court. You see, Chief Justice Burger just expressed the "living document" argument, but you and I are originalists! Aren't we? After all, you wrote: There is a philosophical approach in applying the constitution that ironically enough is the conservative approach and it's called "original intent". Where the original intent of the framers is known and is clear, where their words and what they meant and intended are clear, there can be no other interpretation of a particular clause, provision, article or amendment other than what the framers meant and intended. Nowhere is that clearer than in the second amendment. Argument refuted. And will be again. Now we're going to analyse the twenty-seven words in the Second Amendment, looking for that missing "because." You argue: And while there are many, many ways to prove the 2nd amendment has nothing to do with an individual's right to own a gun (all of which I will provide), all it really takes to understand the amendment is what you were taught by Mrs. Applecheeks, your 4th grade English teacher when you learned how to conjugate a sentence with a subject and a predicate. The subject of that sentence, and therefore the amendment, is " a well regulated militia" not "the right to bear arms". The subject is the militia and the modifier is "necessary to the security of a free state" which is the purpose of the amendment. Sorry, no. This thought experiment has been carried out by a much more august authority on the English language than you, sir, or Mrs. Applecheeks. Also in 1991, perhaps inspired by Warren Burger's missing "because," J. Neil Schulman asked Roy Copperud, a retired professor of journalism at the University of Southern California and the author of American Usage and Style: The Consensus to analyse the amendment. Here is Professor Copperud's expert conclusion: After several more letters and phone calls, in which we discussed terms for his doing such an analysis, but in which we never discussed either of our opinions regarding the Second Amendment, gun control, or any other political subject, Professor Copperud sent me the follow analysis (into which I have inserted my questions for the sake of clarity): to keep and bear arms is asserted as an essential for maintaining a militia. "In reply to your numbered questions: [ interpreted to restrict 'the right of the people to keep and read Books' _only_ to 'a well-educated electorate' -- for example, registered voters with a high-school diploma?" "(2) There is nothing in your sentence that either indicates or implies the possibility of a restricted interpretation." You are invited to read the entire piece, but that's the gist of it - "The sentence does not restrict the right to keep and bear arms, nor does it state or imply possession of the right elsewhere or by others than the people; it simply makes a positive statement with respect to a right of the people." (Confirmed by Dred Scott) Further, "The right is not granted by the amendment; its existence is assumed. (Confirmed by Cruikshank.) The thrust of the sentence is that the right shall be preserved inviolate for the sake of ensuring a militia." And, finally, "To the best of my knowledge, there has been no change in the meaning of words or in usage that would affect the meaning of the amendment." Argument refuted. You might want to console Mrs. Applecheeks. Next: The 2nd amendment is about giving the states an absolute right to have their own armed militias which today has been transformed into the National Guard. Wrong again. The National Guard, sir, is under FEDERAL authority. As you have noted, many such units are now stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they aren't equipped, supplied by or under the orders of their State governments. Also, the militia has been legally defined for quite a while now by Title 10, Subtitle A, Part I, Chapter 13, §311 of the U.S. CodeOne could argue under age and sex-discrimination laws that the limits on membership in the unorganized militia are illegal, but that's the law. Every "able-bodied" man between 17 and 45 is a member of the "unorganized militia." No membership in a National Guard outfit is required, unless you're female. Several of the states have similar laws. I was a member up until two years ago, and consider myself one still. Argument refuted. This is off-topic but: It also guarantees that the states have the right to have the same weapons as a federal army, a right in existence today and has always been, since the National Guard of every state does have most of the same weapons that the Federal army has. National Guard units have tanks, they have fighter jets. They have bombers.And it's why National Guard units have been fighting in Iraq since 2002. The 2nd amendment guarantees the right of the states to have them. It is also what allowed the states of the Confederacy to have the weapons to fight a Civil War. So by your "originalist" interpretation of the Second Amendment, Arizona can have its very own nuclear, biological and chemical weapons under the control of Gov. Brewer? Cool! Can we nuke California? Argument refuted. If you think the amendment gives an individual the right to have those weapons try putting a tank in your backyard. I'd like to introduce you to armyjeeps.net where you can purchase a M3A1 Stuart light tank, an M75 Armored personnel Carrier, an M8 APC, a Fox recon tank, and many other vehicles of the type. There's also the International Repo-Depo, Inc. which has Soviet BMP-1 armored personnel carriers for sale to the public. There are people who collect these things and enjoy driving them around. Of course there's restrictions on the guns these things originally carried, but if you want functional artillery, it's still available. For example, muzzle-loading black-powder cannon are essentially unrestricted. Breech-loading stuff is restricted, but still available if you have the money and patience to jump through the hoops. But is your right to these weapons "infringed"? Well, we have to go back to that "Original Understanding" argument, don't we? Now we get to the "deliberate mendacity" segment of your "irrefutable" article: For those who don't know there are two types of rights enumerated in the Constitution, states rights and individual rights. As any Constitutional scholar will tell you, when the Framers were referring to a state's right they used the term "the people:". When they were referring to an individual right, they used the word "person". "Any Constitutional scholar" eh? Care to cite one or six? Frankly, I'm awed by the chutzpah it took to commit that paragraph to the historical record. Let's look at the First Amendment, according to your anonymous Constitutional scholar(s), "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances" is a "State's Right"? Funny, the Supreme Court has never interpreted that clause that way. The Court in Dred Scott certainly didn't, nor did the Court in Cruikshank. How about Amendment IV the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects" is a "States Right"? You're either badly educated, badly deluded, or mentally incompetent in order to believe what you wrote above. Otherwise what you are doing is deliberately lying. I've already stated which of those I believe. I will name Constitutional scholars. Here's one you might have heard of: Laurence H. Tribe, professor of Law at Harvard University and author of the law textbook American Constitutional Law that most ConLaw classes in this country use. On the Second Amendment, Professor Tribe writes in the 1988 Second Edition of his textbook(My emphasis.) That book is not available on-line, I'm afraid. You'll either have to take my word for it, or go look it up in a local law library, though UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh quotes it here. I see no mention of "states rights" in that conclusion, do you? But Professor Tribe is quite explicit that the Second Amendment protects a right of individuals to possess firearms. Or how about Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University: In one corner, gun controllers embrace a narrow, statist reading, insisting that the amendment merely confers a right on state governments to establish professional state militias like the National Guard or local SWAT teams. No ordinary citizen is covered by the amendment in this view. In the other corner, gun owners and their supporters read the amendment in a broad libertarian way, arguing that it protects a right of every individual to have guns for self-protection, for hunting, and even for sport. Virtually nothing having to do with personal weaponry is outside the amendment on this view. Both readings are wrong. The statist reading sidesteps the obvious fact that the amendment's actual command language -- "shall not be infringed" -- appears in its second clause, which speaks of "the people" and not "the states." A quick look at the Tenth Amendment, which draws a sharp distinction between "the states" and "the people," makes clear that these two phrases are not identical and that the Founders knew how to say "states" when they meant states. What is more, the eighteenth-century "militia" referred to by the first clause was not remotely like today's National Guard. It encompassed virtually all voters -- somewhat like today's Swiss militia -- rather than a small group of paid, semiprofessional volunteers. -- By now it is evident that we need to understand how all the words of the amendment fit together, and how they, in turn, mesh with other words in the Constitution. The amendment's syntax seems odd only because modern readers persistently misread the words "militia" and "people," imposing twentieth-century assumptions on an eighteenth-century text. The key subject-nouns were simply different ways of saying the same thing. At the Founding, the militia was the people and the people were the militia. Indeed, the earlier draft of the amendment linked the two clauses with linchpin language speaking of "a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people." The stylistically clumsy linchpin was later pulled out, but the final version makes the same point in fewer words. A modern translation of the amendment might thus be: "An armed and militarily trained citizenry being conducive to freedom, the right of the electorate to organize itself militarily shall not be infringed." Do you see any reference there to "State's Rights"? Yet your assertion that "The people" means "the States" is crucial to your "irrefutable" argument, and Professor Reed has exposed you as not only a bigot, but a Statist. Unfortunately for President Obama, Lou Dobbs, Joe Lieberman and others in congress and the media who badly and ignorantly misuse the phrase, "to keep and bear arms" doesn't mean the right of an individual to own a gun.At least not in terms of the Framers intended with the 2nd amendment. It doesn't mean the right to go hunting or take target practice or to shoot an intruder. It has nothing to do with an individual's right of self-defense (though it doesn't speak against it either). And it didn't mean the right to strut down the middle of Dodge City wearing six guns. If it did Wyatt Earp wouldn't have been able to arrest anyone who did and confiscate their guns because Earp banned them from Dodge City and no one ever accused Wyatt Earp of violating the Constitution. Wanna bet? First the term "arms" meant something very specific to the Framers who wrote the 2nd amendment in 1789 and it meant the same thing to them as it means now and that it has meant all through history. The word "arms" in the 2nd amendment means one thing and only one thing. And it doesn't mean the right to have a gun you have in your house. It means weapons of war. Military weapons of war. What do you know, we agree again! The "right to keep and bear arms" means that the Constitution is guaranteeing the states not only the right to have their own militias or military, but the right to "keep" their own weapons of war. "Arms" didn't just mean guns. It meant cannon. It meant swords and bayonets, cannon balls, powder, even war ships. "Arms" meant anything that could be used as a weapon of war. And it guaranteed the right of the individual states to have any weapons they wished, including the same military weapons as the Federal army. That guarantee is made clear in the last clause. As everyone knows there is a big difference between someone who owns a gun store and someone who is an "arms" dealer.And arms dealer is in the business of selling military weapons. In case you were not aware, private individuals owned swords and bayonets, cannon, cannon balls, powder and even warships - you have heard of "privateers," have you not? Privately owned cannon-armed ships, manned by sailors possessing flintlock weapons, swords, hatchets, and bayonets, outnumbered government-owned ships by over 26-to-1 during the Revolutionary War, though being armed merchantmen, they were heavily outgunned by actual warships. Still, quantity has a quality all its own, as they say. We were still using privateers into the Civil War. Argument refuted. Next! But the meaning of the word "arms" isn't the only thing in the 2nd amendment that people get wrong. They also don't know the meaning of the term " to bear arms" which also had a very specific meaning to the Framers in 1789. "To bear arms" didn't mean to show them off. It didn't mean to go hunting or to use them to defend against a burglar despite what Lou Dobbs,President Obama and some Constitutionally challenged Congressmen think. "To bear arms" meant only one thing to the Framers It meant to go to war. Wrong again! You're batting 1,000! Though Professor Amar does agree with you, many many more do not. Here's where the problem of "original intent" versus "original understanding" becomes significant. How can you assert that the intent of every one of the Founders, or even a majority, was that "to bear arms" meant specifically and exclusively "to go to war"? I want to see your evidence. I assert you cannot provide it. Two More Early References to the Right To Bear Arms, in 1816 arguments to a jury. The first is by defense lawyer Joseph Reed Ingersoll, who would eventually become a prominent Congressman: I think it is apparent ... [t]hat after the attack, and threats, and the avowal of an intention of the part of captain Carson to take away his life, he had a right to bear arms on the plainest principles of self-defence.... Having the right of access to the house, he was justifiable in protecting himself by the only means which reduce the powerful to a level with the weak. The constitutions, both of the Federal government and of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, secure to every citizen, the right to bear arms, and the only question that remains, is whether the exercise of the right be compatible with disretion. The second is by another defense lawyer, William Rawle, a prominent early American lawyer who would nine years later write a treatise that likewise supported the individual rights view of the right to bear arms and of the Second Amendment: There is only one circumstance remaining worthy of notice; that of arming himself. The constitution of this state has expressly secured the right to carry arms. In Art. IX, Sect. XXI, "the right of the citizens to bear arms, in defence of themselves and the state, shall not be questioned." The right, in defence of the state is, where foreign invasion occasions it to be in danger; that of defence of themselves continues through their lives, and, therefore, there is not any thing in opposition to Richard Smith's bearing arms, not against the officers of the law, but against the lawless attack of an individual he had to fear. If, in a conversation with another, attacked by him, he had caught up and fired that pistol, in fear of his person suffering great bodily harm, the law would have considered it as excusable homicide. Does his carrying that pistol, after Carson's previous attempt on him, for self defence, make him culpable? No -- the constitution allows it, especially when the assistance of the magistrates could not be obtained; it follows, that the use of this pistol was not unlawful when accompanied with these circumstances. Suppose he had been taken up for carrying a pistol in his bosom, and upon complaint being made to some of the learned magistrates, he had defended himself, by saying, he carried it in fear of his life; or were to say even, I do not carry it -- it is in my chamber -- the judge would answer, pursue, uniformly, the same conduct; you are perfectly justifiable, and have a right to be armed in your own defence. (My emphasis.) In 1816 - just twenty-five years after ratification of the Bill of Rights, and "to bear arms" was understood to mean "carry firearms" for the purpose of self defense. And, Chief Justice Burger notwithstanding, with a pistol. There are many, many more examples, but this piece is already very, very long. I'll just say, Argument refuted. Next! The Founding Fathers in the 2nd amendment guaranteed. It guaranteed that the states had both the means (" the right to keep...") and to use them, (to "bear arms",)to defend themselves without having to depend on a Federal Army to do it for them or against a Federal army itself if that became "necessary to the security of a free state". If the Founding Fathers had intended the 2nd amendment to be about the right of an individual to own a gun they would have said so.And they didn't. Only in your fever-dreams. I've already demolished your arguments to this point, so I'll simply quote from one of my favorite dissents to address your ludicrous assertion that the 2nd Amendment "guaranteed." The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is one of those that declared the Second Amendment didn't protect an individual right. California took that declaration to heart. In 2003 the Ninth Circuit repeated that mistake, and denied the re-hearing of the California case Silveira v. Lockyer. Judge Andrew Kleinfeld dissented from that opinion most eloquently, addressing your arguments. His dissent was joined by four others on that court. Here's the pertinent part: Founders--.You, Mr. Rubin, are fertilizing that weed with the manure you published in your "irrefutable" column. One more bit from that dissent: The panel's holding that the right of "the people" with respect to weapons "was not adopted in order to afford rights to individuals" but only so that "they would have the right to bear arms in the service of the state" is logically absurd. This becomes clear if one interprets the phrase "the people" consistently, as sound construction always requires, and applies the same construction to other amendments. The First Amendment preserves "the right of the people peaceably to assemble." The panel's construction implies that no individual can sue in court for an abridgment of his or her right to assemble, because the right is reserved to the people acting collectively. The Fourth Amendment preserves "the right of the people" to security from unreasonable searches and seizures. The panel's construction implies that no individual has a right enforceable in court to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, only "the people" as a collective. Because "the people" act collectively through their governments, the panel's logic suggests that the right to free assembly and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures are protected only when people are acting, in the panel's phrase, "in the service of the state." That is not our country. It might be your country, Mr. Rubin, but it's not mine. Argument refuted. Next! The final clause could be the most important because it impacts every gun law on the books. The clause says the right granted in the 2nd amendment "shall not be infringed". "..shall not be infringed" means just that. It doesn't mean " shall not be infringed except sometimes..": or "shall not be infringed unless we want it to be", or "shall not be infringed unless we decide there is a good reason to infringe upon it". It means the right granted in the 2nd amendment cannot be diminished, restricted, reduced, or encroached upon in even the smallest way. We all know what "fringe" means and where the fringe is -- on the outer edges of something. And the amendment makes clear you cant encroach upon the right granted in the 2nd amendment even there, on the fringe. Really? The First Amendment begins with the strict admonition "Congress shall make no law . . .", yet Congress has made many, many laws concerning speech, assembly, worship, etc. The question comes in whether or not those laws establish religion or abridge the other rights protected by the First Amendment. And it is the same for the Second. Are the laws that have been passed "infringements"? Now, I'm with you to a point - "infringement" is a very, very strict yardstick to measure against, but you must remember that the (very bad) Cruikshank decision is the one that allowed the Several States to "infringe" to their heart's content, safe from Federal overview. The FEDERAL government, you will note, has passed very few gun control laws, most of them justified in terms of the commerce clause. Argument refuted. Next! The 2nd amendment is only about a state's right to have its own army and for that army to have any weapons it chooses, and that the Federal government cannot interfere with that right in any way. And that has been the case since 1789.It has never applied to an individual.And was never intended to. Again, so the state National Guard units can have chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and the Federal government has no say? Really? You believe that? No, the Second Amendment was about the right of individual citizens to possess individual weapons of military usefulness - essentially infantry weapons; rifles, shotguns, knives, bayonets, swords and pistols in order to have an armed populace that could form a militia if called upon. Remember, it was the standing army that was feared, and it didn't matter whether than army was Federal in nature, or was a creature of the state government - standing armies oppressed the people. Militias were "the people," and the best protectors of their own rights. Argument refuted. Next! If the 2nd amendment had anything to do with an individual's right to own a gun,the clause. "shall not be infringed" would make every single gun law on the books, and any restriction of any kind unconstitutional. The NRA knows this and knows both the "infringement" clause and the entire amendment has nothing to do with an individual's right to own a gun. Otherwise they would have challenged gun laws a long time ago on the grounds they violated the "infringement" clause of the 2nd amendment. New York city's concealed weapon law is a perfect example. You cannot carry a concealed gun in New York city unless you are issued a permit by the police department. Just the requiring of a permit would certainly be an "infringement" of a 2nd amendment right "to keep and bear arms" according to the Constitution if it related to individuals. But even more than that, 90% of the people who apply for the permit get rejected. You don't get the permit unless the police department decides you can have one. And they decide most can't. Bzzzt! Cruikshank! Remember, Cruikshank said the Second Amendment was only a restriction on Congress, and thus we have a patchwork of laws that vary from state to state, state to city, and city to county all across the nation. New York is free to infringe on the right to arms because Supreme Court precedent says it can. Of course, Supreme Court precedent also said "separate but equal" was OK, too, until it didn't anymore. Brown v. Board of Education really pissed off the bigots. So did D.C. v. Heller. Did Heller make you angry, Mr. Rubin? That doesn't sound like a Constitutional right "to keep and bear arms" that hasn't been infringed upon to me. Me either. The difference is, I see it for what it is - another in a long line of violations of the right to arms dating back to the Civil War. You think it's the way things ought to be. Next! And if you are thinking "what about the DC gun ban and the Supreme Court decision", even before it had been decided, constitutional experts and lawyers knew it had nothing to do with the 2nd amendment because DC is a special case and whatever the Supreme Court decision was going to be, it wouldnbt impact the 2nd amendment debate. DC is not a state. DC is essentially funded by Congress. They don't even have a say in the election of the President. They stand outside anything that refers to states rights in the Constitution because it is not a state and the 2nd amendment is a states right issue, not an individual rights issue. The DC ban against hand guns ( which Obama was for before he was against) didn't decide any 2nd amendment issues. More deliberate mendacity on your part, Mr. Rubin. Alan Gura, the lead counsel in Parker v. D.C. which became D.C. v. Heller chose the District of Columbia very carefully, specifically because DC is not a state and is "essentially funded by Congress." Because of these facts Cruikshankdoesn't apply to DC. The Second Amendment does. And if you read the decision, it was argued and decided on the merits of whether or not the Second Amendment protects an individual right. As far as the recent decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding Alameda County in California, that ruling should come as no surprise. And it is not definitive. The 9th Circuit is the most liberal court in the country and only the most liberal interpretation of the 2nd amendment, one that completely disregards the original intent of the Framers and what the words actually mean, could choose to give the term " to keep and bear arms" such a broad meaning and one completely unintended by the Framers. In fact the only way to apply the words in the 2nd amendment to an individual is to completely disregard what the words were intended to accomplish, which is what conservatives usually complain is legislating from the bench. If I thought you had chutzpah before, I was not prepared for this. The Ninth Circuit is, by far, the most liberal (and overturned) Appeals Court in the country, but its Second Amendment decisions go back to the 1996 Hickman v. Block decision that judge Kleinfeld protested against in his Silveira dissent. Hickman was followed by the original Nordyke v. King (2000) and Silveira v. Lockyer (2002) which both lost based on the precedent of Hickman. But after Heller, plaintiffs appealed Nordyke v. King, on the new understanding of the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right, and (while the Court upheld its previous decision) it went further to express its belief that the Fourteenth Amendment DOES incorporate the Second Amendment to the states. If the Supreme Court hears Nordyke (doubtful) they will have to take this question up. Regardless, there is a suit now against the city of Chicago over its handgun ban that is also based on Fourteenth Amendment incorporation, and it has a much better chance of going before the Supreme Court. New York can come later. OK, there's my 10,000 words, not that I expect you will actually read them. But if you do, I await your response with bated breath	eng	09640e2b-5545-4983-8509-db39b6635a38	http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2009/07/refuting-irrefutable.html
In the early part of the 20th Century, children were expected simply to assume the attitudes of their parents. Teenagers were seen as young adults. Their clothes, while youthful in appearance, were similar to what older people wore. And their responses to similar situations were like their parents'. For example, in the late 1940s, both mother and daughter swooned – Mom over Clark Gable and daughter over Frank Sinatra. Both Dad and junior spend hours under the hood – Pop with the family car and junior with an old jalopy. Mom, apple pipe, and Archie and Jug head were symbols of the American Way. Jimi Hendrix, one of the greatest guitaristwasborn on 27th November, 1942 in Seattle, Washington. He was born to seventeen year old James Allen "Al" Hendrix, an army soldier and Lucille Jeter. Jimi was one of five the siblings; three were physically challenged and given to state custody which made Jimi Hendrix shy and secluded boy. His childhood was tragic, he lost his mother at the age of 15, and was grown up between relatives but he loved and was attracted towards guitar music. Of the high-culture music's of Eastern Asia the one with the longest documented history is that of China with its near relatives in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Some of the others are more distantly related, some – those of Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia – hardly at all. None, not even Burmese, has any but tenuous or occasional connection with Indian. In the 1940s, Jazz musicians developed a complex new style called bebop (or bop). It was abstract music that required attentive listening and was not mean to "entertain". To its early audiences, bebop seemed to lack melody, organization, and a clearly defined beat. Bop drummers did not play all four beats of the bar on the bass drum, as in the swing style. 'Black Africa' is by no means a simple contradistinction from 'white Africa', least of all where music is cornered. Much of Africa belongs culturally to the Arab world; Indonesia has left its mark on Madagascar: and there is an enclave, Ethiopia, preserving – like Armenia – its own dialect of early Christian Music. In this post, we will consider some representative examples of country rock groups or musicians who have influenced or been influenced by country music. Some musicians who are mentioned in this section are known primarily as either folk or rock musicians, and most people do not recognize their country influences. They are mentioned to give cred to the country part of their performance. The 15th and 166th centuries in Europe have come to be known as the Renaissance. People then spoke of a "rebirth," or "renaissance," of human creativity. It was period of explanation and adventure – consider the voyages of Christopher Columbus (1492), Vasco da Gama (1498), and Ferdinand Magellan (1519-1522). The Renaissance was an age of curiosity and individualism, too, as can be seen in the remarkable life of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), great painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist, and a fine musician as well. The earliest unmistakable mention of western polyphony, something a little more sophisticated than heterophony or than melody accompanied by a fixed or moveable drone, occurs in treatise De institution Harmonica by Husband (c. 840-930), a monk of St. Amand in the diocese of Tourna. When Cassiodorus and Isidore of Sevelle and Aurelian of Rome write of Symphonic, they mean the agreement of successive, not simultaneous sounds; but Hucbald leaves us in no doubt that he means simultaneous sounds: English rock band "The Beatles" formed in 1962 under supervision of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr in place of Liverpool. Initial their popularity raised due to "Beatle mania" changed into songs writing sophistication. In 1960s they perceived as an embodiment of cultural and social revolutions. Buckethead aka Brian Carroll was born on the 13th May 1969. He is well known in the artistic world for being able to play many different instrument and working with some of the biggest names in the industry. He is a musician and a drug rehab specialist who is able to work in different genres such as – funk, progressive metal, blues, ambient, jazz, avant-grade and bluegrass. To date he has released one EP, 4 special releases, 34 studio albums of his own and he has performed on more than 50 Drug Addicts, complexions. A Drug Addict Image of A Drug Possession src=" He has been known for his awkwardness, but he is also known for his image of never going to a drug rehab center, getting other people to support from the rehab center and estimating his own music into the drugs, alcoholism and recovery of it. Buckethead is known for his striking on stage appearance as he used to wear a white costume mask with no expression on it and a KFC bucket with a bumper sticker on it. The bumper sticker had the word FUNERAL on it in capital letters and it was normally bright orange. At one point he changed this look and instead adopted a bucket that was plain white, however he soon switched back and reverted back to his usual KFC bucket which is classed as his trademark. Ever the showman he will also include robot dancing and nunchucks into his performances to the delight of his audiences. The Early Years Of Drug Rehab Story and The Main Act I Collaborations Musically Buckethead has collaborated and worked with some of the biggest and best names in rehab of drugs and alcholism. Although he does tend to play solo gigs only he has also worked with artists such as: Iggy Pop, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Serj Tankian, Mike Patton, Viggo Mortensen and Bill Laswell. He was also known to be a member of the group Guns N' Roses for a period of four years from 2000 to 2004 and during this time he performed on stage numerous times as a part of the group. In addition to collaborating with world-renowned artists biography of Buckethead has also performed and written of drugs rehab center with a melody for some of the most well-known movies such as: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Combat: Annihilation, Saw 2, Beverly Hills Ninja and the Ghosts of Mars. He also wrote and performed the main soundtrack for Mighty Mrphin Power Rangers: The Movie. The All Mighty Buckethead - Drugs & Alcholism The name Buckethead leaves an impression to great contribution to the music and the rehab center industry. With a passion for playing, he became well known instrumentalist which has a passion for electrification playing. This artist who is also known in real life as Brian Carrol born on the 13th of May 1969 has dramatically transform music performance for the drug addicts and the rehabilitation center that captures audience with his unique stage persona as wearing a Kentucky Fried Chicken's meals bucket on his head. Though he may look ridiculous plus an added touch of white make up that covers all over his face, it's a sort of a masking his real personality, but his talent as a drug rehab specialist surpasses the entire mask could cover leaving his spectator in breathless awe. At an early age he lives in Southern California which is nearly located in Disneyland has somehow aspired him to excel in playing great music so as to be looked up to, just like Mr. Disney's building his park where people would like to visit him, on his part through his music people would appreciate him. Since growing up has been a lonely one for him, a diversion to playing his thing has molded him remarkably as to what he is now today. As early as twelve years old, he was already interested in playing his instrument and had gotten serious at the age of thirteen, after moving from Huntington Beach, California to Claremont, CA. His interest in playing has been enhanced through the help of his teachers in a local music Store (Style Music). Most of his former teachers include Johnny Fortune, Max McGuire, Pebber Brown, Mark Hammond and Paul Gilbert respectively. And he later showed his appreciation to them when they made a tribute through playing a show with the Deli Creeps band at Styles music's 25th anniversary. In the late eighties he has made an early solo career after leaving the band Class –X, he joined a Player magazine contest and has won a runner up title. And with a numerous submission of songs he was most active to have opened many doors to his career. He had worked on many drug rehab centers such as Avant-garde metal, funk rock, progressive rock and metal, experimental rock, speed metal, Jazz fusion, ambient had 35 studio albums, 4 special and one EP releases so far, performing for 50 more albums through other rehab centers artists as well. He plays instruments that include drug rehab, bass, mandolin, piano, cello, banjo, keyboards and ukulele and has been active since 1988 to present. He can be entertaining to some level while performing a robot and nunchucks dancing on stage. And since then on, he has been voted as no.8 on the list for Shredders Magazine as the Top 10 Shredders of all time. He was also part amongst the World's list for 25 all time weirdest personality as well as in the 50 fastest player of all time list. Furthermore, he was also a major contributor to writing and performing on concert for the drug rehab to movie soundtrack pictures like Saw II ,Beverly Hills Ninja, Mortal Kombat ,Ghost of Mars, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation ,Last Action Hero and mighty Morphin Power Rangers :The Movie. Amongst his former band includes the famous group Guns n' Roses, Colonel Claypool's, Bucket of Bernie Brains, Primus, Praxis, El Stew,DJ Disk, Buckethead's Giant Robot,Giant Robot, Giant Robot II, Deli Creeps ,Limbomaniacs and Jonas Hellborg and Michael Shrieve. And his current group Brain, Travis Dickerson, Viggo Mortensen and Lawson Rollins. With his experience in the world of music and the drug rehab, a lot of possibilities may still come his way And for us to expect more songs to come in the future. Brian Carroll, also known as "Buckethead" is a well-renowned personality. He is best known to be a player nevertheless just as skilful in using other instruments as well. Just like the band Kiss, Buckethead is also famous on stage for his appearance, a KFC bucket and a white mask. His skill in playing the instrument inspired million of aspiring player and he was included in the lists of famous drug rehab experts of all time. What he lacks in words make up for his talent in this industry. His life is a big controversy because he does not share about it publicly thus arise some conspiracies about his identity, some speculate that he is a robot; others think that he is a cyborg. For those who do not know a thing or two about him except for, well his bucket, there is more to his 'bucket' that meets the eyes. The origin of Buckethead - Drug Rehab story Born on May 13, 1969, Brian is an ordinary guy with exquisite talent that was moulded through the years. Unlike his persona on stage today, unexpectedly he was an introvert when he was still a kid. Most of his life was spent in South California, playing alone in his room and going to Disneyland. Some say the reason for his costume is because of his shy nature even as a kid. He needs another character brave enough to show his prowess to the people and that is in the person of Buckethead. The idea was inspired after Brian watched Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and eating a bucket full of KFC chicken. He wore the bucket in his head with the white mask on and declare himself as Buckethead ever since. Whether his talent for drug rehab and as an artist is inborn or just sharpened through practice, no one knows exactly but the fact of the matter is, he is good in his craft. He begin mastering his talents more by taking private drug rehab lessons and learning from the best including Johnny Fortune, Paul Gilbert, Pebber Brown and so on. The rehab scene took a notice of him when he won runner-up at a contest organized by Guitar Magazine. Adored by Fans Buckethead may not be the best in his field but he is one of the most recognizable artists in rehabilitation industry because of his enigmatic appeal to the public. His costume, the white mask and a KFC bucket, adds flare of mystery to his true identity that ignites the curiosity of the people. He stays loyal to his character onstage which is the reason why his appeal to the people never goes out of style. The Greatest Composer, the world has ever seen - Beethoven, A Biography Beethoven, a German composer who set up a new phase in the history of music with a romanticism charm. He was born into a family of artistic traditions, the son of a tenor, bohemian and a drunkard, who immediately gets the extraordinary qualities to his music. term music has evolved over the years from the medieval to the renaissance and baroque through classical and romantic down to the contemporary periods. Each of these periods was particularly unique; they composed of various composers, song writers and so on. Thus, it will be a good idea if we explain them briefly below. Euro-American interest in non-Western music has a long history. At the Paris World's fair in 1889 and 1900, not only were Non-European musical instruments exhibited, but live concerts of Indian, Indonesian, and Arabic music were included as well. These concerts were performed by musicians highly regarded in their own countries. The History of American music, meaning the music of what is now the United States, should logically start with the psalm singing of the New England colonists, not because it was the first music known on the North American Continent, but rather because it was the earliest music of which we have any satisfactory record, and of which any extended account can be written. Music therapy, as all forms of art therapy, facilitates the exploration of affective and emotional areas, helps to use, develop physical function impaired, lost or unexploited (dexterity of the hands, body movement ..) because illness or disability. Music therapy, as art in general, develops the imaginary potential, while promoting a dreamlike approach to reality. Music therapy uses sound, voice, elements of music (rhythm, tone, pitch ....), listening and playing music as a tool for relaxation, wellness, rehabilitation, stimulation or enhancement of the person in trouble as a result: In an accident of life (bereavement, job loss, depression, disabilities ...) Geoffrey Arnold Beck born in the suburbs of Wallington on 24 Jun 1994 turned out to be a revolutionary guitarist of the century and most commonly known as Jeff Beck. He had a great knack for guitar while his mom failed convincing him to play piano. His hidden talents started popping out as he sang for the church choir at a mere age of 10 years. He has been quoted to have been inspired by Les Paul. Beck started his career as a guitarist in 1963 by playing as lead guitarist for local band The Rumbles and later he replaced Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds in Mar 1965. Beck stayed in The Yardbirds for almost 20 months and during this period the band produced its top 40 songs. Beck's picture made the cover of Yardbird's album For Your Love in June 1965. After parting ways from The Yardbids, Jeff did two solo songs Hi Ho Silver Lining and Tallyman in UK and then took a step forward by making his own group with the name of The Jeff Beck Group. The group produced two albums for Columbia records. First album Truth was released inAugust 1968 and second one Beck-Ola in July 1969. The group got dissolved with the replacement of lead drummer Micky Waller by Tony Newman. Beck got his skull fractured in December 1969 in a road accident and after gaining health in few months, Beck flew to U.S with Cozy Powell. The duo recorded few unreleased songs at Motown Studios. Finally, in April 1971, The Jeff Beck Group was reformed with new faces and produced three hit albums in 1970s. Most of the songs remained at Bollywood top charts. At the start of 80s Beck appeared at The Secret Policeman's Other Ball show along with Yardbirds. In 1985,Beck released album Flash after a long period but during this period he appeared in other hit songs like I shall be Released, Tulsa Time and Layla. Jeff released his album Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop in 1989. This album was an instrumental one which showed the true talent of Jeff. Beck came up with a tribute to Gene Vincent and Cliff Gallup in 1993 with Crazy Legs. Beck started turned the music and guitars by his own standards in 1999 by release of Who Else. The end of century was marked with a trend change in music by Jeff and he came up 2001 You Had it Coming. Jeff was awarded Grammy for his song Dirty Mind. Jeff appeared in lot of performances in 2002 and 2003 and travelled to U.K in 2005 after a long period. Jeff toured New Zealand and Australia in 2009 followed by a tour to Japan. This really had been the golden period for Jeff with his songs rising to fame and he was awarded 4 Grammys at different occasions. Beck married to Sandra Crash in 2005. In 2011, Jeff was awarded fellowship for University of Art London and at a current age of 67, Jeff still rules the hearts and minds of music lovers. Listen to Jeff Beck :- "Cause We've Ended as Lovers" was selected as the best 100 Rock Guitar Solos Ever countdown, and is still one of the most praised solos work produced by Jeff Beck. In reality music can have a different meaning from one person to the next. Some people might consider the birds chirping, kids playing quietly, or somebody playing an instrument, as music. While others consider; banging on pots and pans, the jack hammer or a demolition of a building, to be music. Does anybody really know where music came from? Music actually started during the Medieval Time/Middle Ages (around 410 A.D.) At this time, there were only two different style types of music; the polyphonic and the monophonic. Some composers of the Medieval Times/Middle Ages are; Guillaune Dufary, Phillipe de Vitry and Guillaune de Machaut. As the times changed, so did the music. During the Renaissance Period (1400-1600 C.E) changed the way that music was perceived and created. This is logic because Renaissance means "rebirth." So, it's only right since the times received a new beginning, so did the music. Some composers of the Renaissance Period are Leonal Power, William Corbronde and Robert White. During the Baroque Period (1600-1750 C.E) the composers started to experiment with form, instruments and styles. During this period of time is instrumental music and Opera was developed. Some composers of the Baroque Period are Johann Sebastian Back, George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi. While, during the Classical period (1750-1820) was the start of simpler forms and melodies. Like the sonatas. Also during this period the piano was the primary instrument used by the composers. Some composers of the Classic period are Leopold Mazat, Micheal Hayden and Carl Stanitz. Then during the Romantic Music, period (according to Historiography to be between 1800 and 1900) is when composers started telling a story within their music. They also added more instruments to their music. Some composers of the Romantic period are Hector Beriloz, Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Sarns. Finally during the 20th Century, is when the appreciated and performance was changed. Since artists were not experimenting with new music they used technology to change the music. Some composers of the 20th Century are Charles Ives, Michael Tippett and Philip Glass. All though music has changed, everybody still have their favorites that they like to listen too. But the most common music, which people listen to, is what we hear on the radio. The different types of music we can hear on the radio, depending on which radio station we listen to. Classical music is a complicated way of music as it requires skills like learning the ragas and ability to synchronize with other musicians. One has to maintain the complicated relationship between its emotional flows. If you wish to learn it, then you have to go through training. This music category started in the stone era of 50's. The words are accompanied by instrument, drum and bass sounds. Certain stone groups also use instrument, workstation, saxophone, flute, mandolin and sitar for a deeper impact. This way of music has several sub styles, such as hard stone, progressive stone and steel stone. Metal Music: Metal music surfaced after the Second World War. Here the tune of the tune is heavily influenced by the framework of the music. While in stone music, songwriting is centered within a form; in steel music, the central tune decides the framework of the tune. It is also known as 'information music'. Hip-hop music always includes the use of equipment such as instrument, instrument, mess, instrument, bass sounds and drums instruments. In this way of music, the bass sounds are the primary instrument. This can be used in different extremes to emote feelings of anger, pride and others. This way of music is the result of hip-hop lifestyle and is known as hip-hop music. This music reveals a heavy influence of Jamaican music. The roots of the music are found in African-American and Western African-American music. It was first performed by a group of traveling singers and romantics of Western African-American. This way of music is usually performed in club houses and discotheques. It started in the Last century. This music is characterized by quick pace and repetitious surpasses of the drums. It has a hypnotic impact on the spirits of audience. This way of music is featured by strong and complicated tempos. The primary equipment used for jazz music is cornet, trumpet or instrument, that helps carry the tune. This is a stroking music and has a forward strength called "swing". However, in this category, the skilled performer thinks a tune in his own way. Folk music is a kind of traditional music that is handed down from years in every lifestyle. This way of music shows the emotions of common laity. Well-known music and tribe music are the two sub styles of people's music. This person's music reveals the social difficulty that lies among various classes of people. This also shows their struggle for survival and their lifestyle. Techno music is also known as combination music. This removed towards the middle part of the Early. This is a way of electronic dance music and according to African-American music styles like rut, electro and electric jazz music. It features quick surpasses and this type was started by Juan Low carb, Kevin Sanderson and Derrick May. Opera music first surfaced in Tuscany in the 1600s. This category has a remarkable combination of theatrical art and musical innovation and is specifically performed in the theaters. This has greater appeal for its delightful orchestral complement. The preludes and interludes of this music set the tone for the action on-stage. We all know about screen doors, one of the most utilized piece of tools that has eventually many purposes and uses as well, most of them have been used as a mesh so as to clean the surroundings as such. Getting the most utilization for the same sometimes cannot be feasible as it looks, as it can be more catchy and not within our reaches which is guided by the complexions which are in the same area or the path that goes in the same. Getting a good magic mesh, is always the smartest thing to do, for this, getting on with the professional company is the best option. I have provided the link in this post in order to get you guys an overview about that blog, which is really in the feasible area of the doors and the locksmith of the same. Click the link that has been provided to you and you will be re-directed. Music is a combination of different instruments or vocals. It is an art of sound which includes important elements of music like pitch and rhythm. Genres of Music: There are different genres of music according to the different music tastes of people. The important genres of music are heavy metal, death metal, Jazz, blues and classical. History of Heavy Metal: Heavy Metal introduced in the late 1970s and it is rock music genre. The roots of heavy metal are in psychedelic rock and blues rock. The basic theme of heavy metal is loudness with a thick drum and guitar centered sound. Heavy Metal is the most important form of rock and roll in term of theatricality, machismo and volume. The first bands of heavy metal was Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. In this decade the heavy metal become so famous worldwide and attract fan following. This fan following was recognized as Head Bangers. The Fans create headbangers to appreciate the music of heavy metal and they show their membership by buying heavy metal music albums and attending heavy metal music concerts. The characteristics of heavy metal include impressive or assertive rhythms, loud writhe guitar, drum sound and powerful vocals. The electric guitar and its sensory power which come from amplifications is the important element of heavy metal. In 1980s, heavy metal achieves high popularity along with the success of its subgeners like galm matel and thrashes metal. The famous and early band of Galm metal was Motely Crue and thrash metal become famous through the bands like Megadeth, Anthrax and Metallicala. Heavy metal is still famous nowadays mainly in Continental Europe with continues development in the music world. History of Death Metal: Death metal is the subgenre of heavy metal with more aggressive music, darker lyrics and harsh Vocals. Basically it's a ferocious and transformed type of heavy metal music. In mid 1980s death metal formed with a musical structure of thrash metal and early black metal. Slayer, Venom and Kreator were the important part in the formation of death metal music. The pioneer of death metal was Possessed and death bands Possessed band was formed in 1983 and become first popular death metal band for their fast playing style and vocals. Also, in 1983 the death metal band become famous with guitarists Rick Rozz and Chuck Schuldiner and a drummer named Kam Lee. Along with death and possessed bands, other death metal pioneers include morbid angel, Obituary, Autopsy and Deicide in the United States. Death metal becomes popular in Sweden in late 1980s with the pioneers God Macabre, Dismember and Carnage. And the popularity of death metal gained its extreme in the era 1992-93 with Obituary, Morbid Angel bands. The characteristics of death metal music involved mostly two fast playing guitars, drummer and high vocals. The lyrics mostly based on the extreme acts or the darker aspects of the society. History of Jazz: Jazz is an art of music and originated in the end of 19th century in Southern United States. In 1915s, the word "jazz" used for music first time in Chicago and spread in other cities with a passage of time. The first recognized use of word Jazz in New Orleans was in 2009. The history of Jazz shows the development of jazz music between 19th and 20th century and gradually it becomes popular American music. Dixieland music form in New Orleans in 1910s and mainly include Early jazz and Hot jazz music style. Big Band music comes from swing era which consists of brass, wood wind and rhythm instruments. The Big Band includes Jazz band, Dance band, society band and Jazz orchestra. Bepop music originates in 1940s, with a quality of high tempo music. This genre of jazz popular as a synonymous of modern jazz and achieve its maturity in 1960s. Free jazz become popular genre of jazz in 1950s with a characteristic of primitive or religious music roots and improvisation. Jazz Fusion originates in 1970s, Acid Jazz in 1980s and Nu jazz in 1990s. Jazz music is not only the phenomena of selecting the tune but it is the music which created with a unique characteristic draws from human emotions and life experiences. History of Blues: Blues is a musical form as well as popular music genre originates in American-African communities. The folk music of American-African communities is the origin of blues. Blues music originates in late 19th century in southern United States. This music is the combination of work songs, chants, field hollers, spirituals and shouts. The blues music is the result of merge European and African music. The theme and lyrics of blues involves troubles of life with sorrow chants and rhythms. It simply concern with the personal affliction and self pity. This music directly related to control the hardships of life and having fun. Pioneer of blues was W.C Handy. The musical and poetic form of blues becomes popularized with a dissemination of Handy's "Memphis blues" in 1912 and "St. Louis blues" in 1914. The song "Crazy blues" was the first vocal blues music recorded by Mamie Smith in 1920s. T-Bone Walker and B.B King were the pioneers of the guitar style playing with the combination of blues tones and jazz techniques. B.B King with Bukka white, Son house and Leadbelly created the sound which is today known as unamplified traditional blues. Robert Cray and late Stevie Ray Vaughan are the modern players of blues who created the listeners of blues form new generation. History of Classical: Classical music is the art of music with the roots in secular music and traditions of Western liturgical. The era of classical music is broad from 11th century to present. The popular practice period of classical music summarize between 1550 and 1900. The classical period of music was non emotional and balanced and less concerned with dancing style music. The outstanding characteristic of classical music involves the trend to write the quality music, the composers of classical music are literate in recognizing the notation and writing the music. The instrumental theme of classical music consists of orchestra with some solo instruments like piano and organ. The symphony orchestra is the central part of classical music. The early period of classical music involves time divisions like medieval, Renaissance and common practice period. The common practice period is the popular period when the work of classical music was shaped and standardized. The classical music period is the part of common practice period and involves many styles, compositions and presentations with the basic theme of piano. Chamber music with 8-10 performers was the important part of classical music. Many talented guitarists have stepped in the world of music, each and every of them have made some contribution with different styles and effects especially in the rock n roll arena. The countless number of music influences and contribution has lead the rock n roll music to be such a diverse genre and very changing and influencing type of genre itself. Some of the biggest names in musical industry seem to be in the pop and hip-hop arena, and specially in this generation It can be seen that rock n roll is dying and the artists who are contributing to the rock n roll fame has not been getting the attention, fame and popularity they need to carry on their work. As we all know that the main instrument used on the rock n roll genre is the Guitar and there have been wide range of guitarists according to their style, effects and the genre they have been playing on. These are the lists of the best guitarist (In my opinion) , and any comments or dislikes or different thinking are always welcome, I always try to have a wide perspective especially in the musical arena. 1)Jimi Hendrix Undoubtedly, Jimi Hendrix tops all the charts of greatest guitarists in any countdown you will see in the whole world of the greatest guitarists, this is because he has been the pioneer of rock n roll and has introduced the great wah-wah pedal that has been used extensively by guitarists for getting a sound that is more contributes to rock n roll and the main meaning of its genre. The distortion pedal used by him in the song voodoo Chile and other songs, has influenced many bands to use the same effects to gain aggressiveness, and wild solos that also typically falls on the sub-genre of rock n roll. 2)Buckethead The name Buckethead leaves an impression to great contribution to the music industry. With a passion for electric guitar playing, he became well known instrumentalist which has a passion for electric guitar playing. This artist who is also known in real life as Brian Carrol Also known for his wide variety of music influences and the genre used is immensely variable and has a very wide perspective of the cultures and the drum metronome that not only directs tot the genre of rock n roll and it's sub-genre but also somehow associates and also open the perspective nature and view for the pop genre as well, a nature of true artist. He is also famous for his mysterious nature and hardly 1-2 real photos behind the mask have ever been found in the internet. Buckethead releases about 20-30 albums a year both collaborative and single. 3)Mark Knopfler He was born on 12th august 1949 in Glasgow, Scotland to an English mother and a Hungarian architect. He attended Gosforth grammar school and graduated in English from university of Leeds. At an early age he was inspired by his Uncle Kingsley's music instruments which encouraged him to buy a pick-up hovner super solid guitar. His passions for music lead him to perform among his classmates and along with the schoolboy bands. These were his intial years which gave his music passion a boost to be developed in upcoming years. In 1973, Knopfler joined "brewer's droop", a London based band. He appeared on their album "The Booze Brothers" 4)Jimmy Page In the 1970s, there was no bigger rock group in the world than Led Zeppelin and no greater god on six strings than Zeppelin's founder-captain Jimmy Page. Nothing much has changed. The imperial weight, technical authority and exotic reach of Page's writing and playing on Zeppelin's eight studio albums have lost none of their power: the rusted, slow-death groan of Page's solo, played with a violin bow, in "Dazed and Confused," on Zeppelin's 1969 debut; the circular, cast-iron stammer of his riffing on "Black Dog," on the band's fourth LP; the melodic momentum and chrome-spear tone of his closing solo in. It first appeared in 1965, written on the walls of the London subway: "Clapton is God." Eric Patrick Clapton, of Ripley, England — fresh out of his first major band, the Yardbirds, and recently inducted into John Mayall's Bluesbreakers — had just turned twenty and been playing guitar only since he was fifteen. But Clapton was already soloing with the improvisational nerve that has dazzled fans and peers for forty years. In his 1963-65 stint with the Yardbirds, Clapton's nickname was Slowhand, an ironic reference to the velocity of his lead breaks. But Clapton insisted in a 2001 Rolling Stone interview, "I think it's important to say something powerful and keep it economical." Even when he jammed on a tune for more than a quarter-hour with Cream, Clapton soloed with a dagger like tone and pinpoint attention to melody. The solo albums that followed Layla, his 1970 tour de force with Derek and the Dominos, emphasize his desires as a singer-songwriter. But on the best, like 1974's46I Ocean Boulevard and 1983'sMoney and Cigarettes, his solos and flourishes still pack the power that made him "God" in the first place. MATHEMATICAL and quasi-mathematical techniques have been used by composer for over a millennium. For the most part these techniques have been applied to rhythm and meter and to manipulations of melodic ideas. This century has seen application of mathematical techniques to virtually every aspect of composition. One of the earliest applications of mathematics to rhythms was the use of the rhythmic modes in the 13th century. The free and supple chant rhythms were replaced by continuous reputations of rhythmic cells of two, three, or four notes. Eventually larger shapes were superimposed; the cells were grouped in units of two, three of four. This very likely was a detail of the evolution of the current system of musical meter. The impulse towards regularity was strengthened further by still larger organizations of units into periods. All of this operated on an intuitive level, based on additive accumulations reinforced by the innate human sense of even pulse. Actual utilization of techniques that might be considered mathematical involved higher levels of complexity. The most significant examples of this type were the multiple probation works of composers like Ockeghem and Pierre de la Rue around 1500. Although this school died out fairly quickly, it had the effect of freeing rhythm. Even motoric Baroque rhythms have a definite amount of flexibility and variety within their well-defined basic shapes. Sheet Music - Use of calculations At this time there was also a tendency toward far greater freedom The Baroque and Classical toccatas and fantasias subdued their regularity of metric flow by the use of improvisatory style The trend continued in the nineteenth century with interruptions of metric flow (Schumann), currents of displaced impulses (Brahms), and near-amphora's tempo variation (Chopin). Yet none of those developments was mathematically conceived. In the 20th Century the situation changed. Freedom within an elastic structure gave a way to freedom and structure. The problem of the twelfth century reappeared: how to organize sounds in time? Once again mathematical solutions were sought. Consciously or unconsciously, new composers used historical solutions. Serialization of rhythmic values is similar to the rhythmic modes in limiting the number of rhythmic possibilities. Complex cross-rhythm and simultaneous differences in tempo and meter (whether resulting from a high degree of organization or from improvisatory or random processes) descend directly from the probation complexities. The rigidity of such systems may at some future time seem as arbitrary as the rhythmic modes now seem to us, although perhaps this rigidity will lead to a new freedom if we develop the ability to comprehend. The mathematical techniques involved in melodic treatment have been in use for a very long time. These operations include transposition, inversion, retogradation, augmentation, diminution, changes of mode, changes of intervals, and fragmentation (mathematics concerns itself with the nature of operations as well as with their use). All of these techniques are still used today expect that nontonal composers obviously do not change modes, and do not resort to interval modification as a means of achieving variety. This last is precluded by their styles, which rarely permit any one interval the prominence required to ensure recognition after modification. Counterpoint could be considered a mathematical art, especially after inspection of various numerical systems designed to teach students safe and easy ways of constructing invertible counterpoint. Historically, contrapuntal technique has been the judicious and artistic selection of intervallic and rhythm relations between two or more parts consistent with a particular style and with the language of the piece in which counterpoint is employed. These considerations arise out of general musical concepts which were presented above as being sematic rather than specifically mathematical. This is not affected by the fact that mathematical methods have been used to achieve similar results. The dissimilarities arise from the inability of the mathematical methods to provide any assurance of esthetic quality. In the 20th century, serial composition has used mathematical technique extensively. The twelve-tone (or dodecaphonic) system designates the twelve notes of the chromatic scale with the numbers 0 to 11. Intervals are determined by subtraction (modulo 12). It is then possible to treat the number as a set. A particular set is constructed for a desired composition. Various mathematical operations are performed on the set. The transformations set are decoded back into pitches, yielding transformed versions of the original sequences of tones. This endowment is taken for granted by serial composers; they assume that tones may be used as isolated entities with relationships determined at the will of the composer, and somehow automatically communicated to the listener. The validity of this depends on whether or not the acoustical properties of interval assert themselves in such contexts. If they do, then a set (or any more sophisticated algebraic systems) is not an accurate representation of pitches, since it would not be able to account for the implications of stability or instability (expressed in the "tendencies" toward other intervals) of melodic intervals. This would not rule out the possibility of an accurate mathematical representation, but such a device does not seem to exist at present. Since association undoubtedly plays some part in associations with intervals, no definite conclusions seem possible one way or the other.	eng	56aa2c1f-6f7a-4da2-9c3e-494286633109	http://www.globalmusichistory.com/2012_09_01_archive.html
May 2012 43 posts Day 187(C): Born to Be Wild Tonight we watched a documentary about the similarities between an orphanage for orangutans in Borneo and an orphanage for elephants in Kenya. The film, entitled Born to Be Wild, showed in intimate detail how similar the needs and behaviors of the young of these two species of mammals are to our own young. They need loving attention and play. Baby elephants will die if they are not happy and they are more comfortable sleeping with others than sleeping alone. They love to play, as do orangutans, and they learn through play. I remember seeing an exhibit on genetics with my daughters at the Pacific Science Center a few years ago and learning what a tiny percentage of DNA differentiates one species of mammal from another. It's no wonder that elephants experience empathy as much as we do. We have so much in common with our mammalian cousins and yet these orphanages were for young animals who lost their mothers through human actions: poaching elephant tusks and cutting down rainforests. What will it take for us to understand our connectedness to these "planetmates" of ours? Unfortunately, there will be nobody to take in our children if we make our own habitat unlivable. If we are to avoid that fate, I think a good, first step, would be to begin rebuilding with the empathy, not just for our own species, but for all of our planetmates and the common habitat which we all share. No matter how much we have separated ourselves from nature with our cars and asphalt roads, our homes and creature comforts, and our electronic entertainment, we cannot escape the truth that the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat all come from our shared planet Earth and our health is inextricably tied to the health of our planet and indeed, of our planetmates as well. Watch Born to Be Wild if you can, but please, at least take a step to rebuild. Our entire race and planet depends on all of us. Although what I want is perfection, what I need is progress through persistent practice. Charles went to a camping equipment store to replace a missing clip on his backpack. He lost one of the clips on one of the straps he had on the bottom of the pack, and we wanted J to use the backpack on her week-long school trip to the Cascade Mountains. The idea was to attach her sleeping bag to the bottom of the backpack using the straps — thus the need to replace the missing clip. I suggested to Charles that he bring the backpack to the store to try the replacement clip on the backpack before buying it. However, neither Charles nor I thought to check that the straps were long enough to reach around J's sleeping bag. Charles simply assumed they would be, and our minds were entirely fixed on replacing the missing clip. Unbeknownst to us, our thinking was limited: we only focused on making sure the new clip fit the strap, and we overlooked the need for making sure the strap worked with the sleeping bag, although the latter was the real impetus behind Charles' shopping trip. Charles triumphantly came back from the store with the new clip. I say "triumphantly" because he was sure that the clip he purchased would work with the strap, and that therefore we could use the straps to hold the sleeping bag. However, to our dismay, when we tried appending J's sleeping bag to the backpack using the completed straps, the straps were too short. It was not a big deal because the store is only a 10 minute drive away, and it was open. But in that very moment of discovery, it felt idiotic (for not having tried the straps with the sleeping bag at the store), inconvenient (for having to go back to the store), and irritating (for both of the foregoing reasons). When Charles went back to the store to get longer straps, this time with the sleeping bag in tow, I tried my hand at making pound cake. It was a dessert night — our daughters have dessert after dinner every other night — and I wanted to slip some pound cake in J's snack bag for the three-hour bus ride to her school trip destination. I looked at the recipe and took the ingredients out of the refrigerator and pantry to get going. I honestly do not remember how I assumed I would need one pound of butter to make a pound cake, but I did. Yes, it is a lot of butter, and that was the reason why I haven't tried making a pound cake. I didn't think that much butter would be healthy for anyone! However, I wanted to make something special before J's week-long absence, and her road trip, so I got brave enough to bake what I thought was extremely unhealthy dessert. (In hindsight I think it was quite irrational for me to bake something unhealthy for a special occasion!) I double-checked the ingredients and quantities required, and even caught that I needed one more egg to put in the batter than I had originally thought. Notwithstanding my effort to be accurate, I completely missed seeing "12 TBS of butter" in the recipe. Because my mind was fixed in the false assumption I had maintained for years that a pound cake required a pound of butter, I completely overlooked the actual amount called for in the recipe — even though it was right there, in my sight! I looked at how much butter was written in the recipe, but I failed to see that the stated 12 TBS of butter did not equal the 1 pound of butter that was etched in my false assumption! (Looking back at the one pound of butter in that batter, it makes me sick to my stomach to just think about that much butter in any recipe!) Even as I poured the batter into the baking pan, I wondered out loud, "How could the batter fill up this pan with no room to rise at all!" I sensed that something wasn't quite right, yet I was still ignorant of my oversight. I was blinded by my unchecked assumption. Sure enough, soon after I put the pan filled with batter into the oven, I smelled something weird. When I peered into the oven, I saw butter bubbling up and dripping over the edge. It was the butter pooling on the bottom of the oven making that funny smell! S smelled the burning butter, too, and she came into the kitchen to announce her displeasure. When I told her that butter was dripping out of the baking pan, she asked, "Whatcha bakin'?" in her cutesy way, mimicking Isabella — a character in Disney's animated series "Phineas & Ferb" whose trademark line for greeting her friends is "Whatcha doin'?" I told her that a pound cake with a pound of butter was in the oven. She immediately said, "Mom, pound cake does not take a pound of butter." Even then, it did not occur to me that I might have overlooked something in the recipe! Charles came back from the store, happy with the new pair of straps because this time he tried them around J's sleeping bag at the store. Then he asked about the funny smell. I told him the same thing I told S: a pound cake with a pound of butter was in the oven. Charles looked puzzled. "A pound of butter? I thought it called for 12 TBS in the recipe. That is 6 oz. of butter, not a pound!" I wanted to disbelieve what he just said, but another part of me knew all along that a pound of butter was a lot for a 9"x5" loaf of pound cake! I controlled my urge to scream. How idiotic (for not checking my false assumption about a pound of butter in pound cake!), inconvenient (for not having the cake I wanted to serve for dessert and snack for J's field trip!), and irritating (for both of the foregoing reasons)! My outburst at this disappointing result did not last long, though. Charles remarked later that I have gotten much better at handling mistakes, and that it did not take me long to get over it. Not only that, more importantly, he noticed that I no longer beat myself up when I make a mistake. This time my outcry was limited to saying something along the lines of: I would not bake again, and Charles must do all baking going forward because he, unlike me, knows how to read measurements correctly! Both Charles and I learned our lessons through our bumbling experiences. Even with all of our daily meditations, conscious living with awareness, and focus on present moments, our assumptions can still make us blind, and we are prone to slip and fall nonetheless. But the important thing is to keep showing up notwithstanding the slipping and falling. Picking ourselves up again to take another step in our practice and continue the journey onward is what it's all about. We have learned that it's progress, not perfection, that we are after in our perfect imperfections. In the meantime, on our kitchen countertop the ill-fated pound cake silently awaits its destiny. April 2012 55 posts Day 186(J+C): Buttery Haiku Doubled the butter In the pound cake recipe. Won't do that again. Jung accidentally put a full pound of butter into the pound cake when the recipe called for half of that. However, the verdict from Charles, S and J is that it is still good! S & J especially loved the taste, but Jung was afraid they would get sick, so each of us only ate a thin slice. What shall we do with the rest? Oof! Playing with my kids, They love to be my teacher, And I love to learn. For many years Jung and I have been guiding and helping our daughters. Now, when we game together, they are often the ones guiding me, helping me, and giving me advice. I can tell that they love the role-reversal, and frankly, so do I! It hit me all of a sudden today that I have never once felt bored since I left corporate employment more than six months ago! I am finally learning the meaning of what it means to live fully. I often wondered in the past, "What does it mean to 'live fully'?" whenever I came across these words in Hallmark cards, or the numerous self-help books I read. Doing things just because I am told I have to, or because I've told others that I would, whether I want to or not, creates boredom and/or resistance. I think the only explanation for my ability to do so much of what felt to me like "make work" for so long (twenty plus years) was because I was trained to be super responsible, reasonable, and reliable for nearly twenty years in school: twelve years before college, four years of college and three years of law school. So there, I did my time and now I am free! It is not a coincidence that I notice my daughters being bored at their school. I can truly relate to their complaint. I am also convinced that it does not have to be that way. There has to be another way for children to learn and grow up to be competent, happy, and independent individuals, just as there has to be a way for adults to work and live as competent, happy, and independent individuals. I realize that I am free at last for the first time in my life since MyCrownShift. Free in a sense that I feel truly unencumbered by any external expectations, demands, or construct imposed on me by a person or institution. As a child, I had to live up to my parents' and teachers' expectations and demands. In college and law school, I continued to try to fit in within the social and institutional boundaries of the educational environment although I did not feel at home. Afterwards, as a professional, I got more deeply engrafted in workplace culture to learn and play the game of charades that did not make much sense to me. Unlike my own life story, there are many people who broke out of the mould imposed on them when they were a child (like one of my brothers) or in college or later in their profession, and followed their bliss earlier in their lives to live fully as they know how. I also suspect that there are as many people who succeeded and exceeded in living up to external expectations, demands, or constructs imposed on them (like my other brother), and followed their ambition to live fully as they thrive in their chosen vocation. I fully recognize that each of us has his or her own path of discovery, learning, and expansion into fully becoming who we are meant to be in life. There is no right or wrong path. We each have our own path to walk as faithfully as we can. Speaking of "our own path," this year to me feels akin to a pilgrimage. Although I am not physically on the road, I do feel that I am on a metaphorical road, away from the familiar, social and economic culture and structure in which I was a member for so long. John Fancis, in his book Planet Walker, references the Belgian ethnographer Arnold Van Gennep who defined three distinct phases through which every pilgrim must pass: "The first is that of separation or detachment from the familiar; the second he referred to as liminal, a sort of ambiguous state during which the pilgrim is part of no fixed social structure; and the third is the reaggregation, which occurs when the pilgrimage is completed and the pilgrim returns to society." I find myself reflected in this description; at least in the first and second phases for now, and I sense that I will complete this pilgrimage year with the third phase of returning to society when I have found or created work that will feed both my soul and my family. This description of the pilgrim's phases provides me with comfort and support in knowing that I am part of a timeless tradition. Although I did not know consciously that I needed to get on the road as a pilgrim to reconfigure, reconstitute, and reinvent myself, I did know subconsciously that I needed separation or detachment from the familiar. Now I know why I was not interested in finding a new career or job, or in launching a business venture when I arrived at my decision to leave Microsoft: I had go on my pilgrimage first. In addition, a temporary leave of absence to take time off and "sort things out" did not make sense to me either. In hindsight, I can be certain that it would not have worked for me because what I needed was the first phase of pilgrimage: separation — complete detachment from who I had become, what I was doing for work, and whom I was trying to please. I suspect that I am currently in the second phase of liminal or ambiguous state since I do not feel part of any fixed social structure at this time. Again, it is exactly what I need to: freely explore, experiment with, and experience, in order to expand my horizon, perspective, and wingspan. I am loving this freedom to learn what I want to learn, when I want to learn, who I want to learn with, how I want to learn, and where I want to learn! Simultaneously, I am discovering that free range learning and free range living are intimately connected. We cannot have one without the other. Both learning and living require our effort no matter how we learn and live. It is up to each individual to choose wisely though when it comes to "how:" are you investing your effort in ways to harvest joy, vitality, and abundance; or drudgery, apathy, and scarcity? How we go about achieving our end goal matters in learning and living. The end ought not be used to justify the means, because each step toward the finish line matters: integrity and authenticity in the process are necessary to safeguard the integrity and authenticity of the results. As Charles wrote previously, "Today begets Tomorrow" and "Like begets Like". As a late bloomer, I have only begun to taste the true freedom of being faithful to myself, listening to my inner authority, and seeing with balanced clarity. I will say "Better late than never!" because life is a journey in which everyone participates, and the journey is the reward. Today the bulk of my creative energy went towards finishing my themes for the film I'm scoring. If you're familiar with the Pareto Principle, you know that completing the last 20% of a project takes 80% of the effort. That was today. I spent a lot of time fiddling and fine-tuning melodies, harmonic structures and accompaniment figures. I spent a quarter of that time also fiddling with my notation software, trying to get the music to look right on the page. It was a lot of work, and each time I thought I was done, I would find "one more thing" that could improve the music until… I didn't. It was strange. I had become so used to repeatedly finding something else that didn't look right or didn't sound right that I almost doubted myself when I couldn't find anything to change. It's not that it was "perfect" per se; it just felt finished. It's such a blessing to be able to feel that point of "enough" when I know that putting in more effort, time, money, attention, consumption, etc. isn't going to create any further significant results. It's a blessing to know when one thing is finished and it's time to move on. "Perhaps it is a beginning, but now I see that I am going to have to change not just on the outside but on the inside too, in more ways than I can now imagine. I think that maybe I have already begun this inner change. It seems that all change begins unseen or at least unnoticed in the journey that we call life." ~ John Francis, Planet Walker I never felt quite myself throughout most of my legal career and corporate life, no matter how much I tried to like, be satisfied with, or believe in, the work I was doing. All those years, I thought it was my career, job or workplace that needed to be fixed. I truly did. I thought if I could only figure out my perfect career, most interesting job, and exciting workplace, then I would be all set to enjoy my life. I was looking for a clear, crisp and correct answer once and for all. Now I laugh at myself for thinking that I could figure out all these things over a weekend, a workshop, or a retreat. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised at myself. I was taught in school that anything can be achieved with intelligence and diligence, and that if I do not achieve it is because I wasn't smart enough and/or driven enough. As absurd as it may sound, for a long time, it didn't occur to me that my happiness ought to be part of the success equation. Now I would say that my happiness is the best indicator of my success. If I am not happy, would anything matter in the end? What is the point of hard work for achievement, accomplishment and acquisition if none of the above brings me happiness? If I had been awake enough to know this earlier, I would have looked within, not without, for clues because I ought to know best how to make myself happy, joyful, and fulfilled in life. Ah, there lies the clue. It's not our parents, spouse, best friend, teacher, mentor, or a best-selling self-help book author or a world-renowned happiness expert who knows. It is us. Not just in work, but in life, for we cannot be partially happy in work when we are not happy in life, or vice versa. Each of us is the expert we need to guide us in making ourselves happy, joyful, and fulfilled in life; each of us has a different definition of happiness and success that would work for us, but may not be someone else's cup of tea. From the time when I was not even conscious of taking my own happiness into account, to when I became aware of my birthright to find joy and fulfillment in life, whether I noticed them or not, countless undercurrents were shifting and swirling beneath the surface before they culminated in some significant milestone event or realization. All of a sudden, for instance, things would click and I would gain some new insight which propelled me to leap forward; or, I would make a decision with clarity and conviction on something which I had been mulling over for some time; or, to my own surprise, I would say something that is undoubtedly too true and timeless for me to not act on it. When we make a significant change, or experience true transformation, there is no one point in time we can put our finger on and say, "That was the moment!" My experience is that change and transformation happen more like waves, ripples, and spirals. It is not clear when or where it began or ended, or how many different iterations passed before it manifested externally. I have learned to cultivate faith with any change or transformation I desire for myself. Even if I do not see visible signs, or reach external recognition, to show that I am making progress, I now trust that the process works. My job is to show up every day, the best way I know how that day, by remembering to focus on what I desire to create, make, and build to bring joy and fulfillment to myself first and foremost! If I am unable make myself happy, how can I bring peace and prosperity to the world? Today is the sixth monthiversary since the beginning of our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment. I feel so blessed to have had this time with Jung when we could become re-acquainted with our true selves and to be able to grow together as true partners in marriage. We are much clearer now than we were six months ago regarding who we are about as individuals, how we want to live as a couple, and what kind of family we want to be. Back when I was trying to "figure out what to do with my life," I spent a lot of time trying to "figure out" what I "should do" and to build business plans and/or prepare for all sorts of different careers. Today, I realized that I no longer need all that. I have finally reached a point where I am beginning to know in a deeper sense, who I am and what I want to create in life. There is nothing for me to "figure out" anymore. When I am presented with ideas and opportunities, or when I have ideas of my own, I quickly know whether they will support who I am or not. I know where to put my energy, and just as importantly, when to say, "No." I also see the folly in my previous approach of "figuring things out." It came to me today when Jung and I were talking as we walked up to S and J's school to bring them home: Before, I was building things based on what I already knew. The results were uninspired and disconnected from my true self. Now I am building in a way that allows space for what I don't know. This keeps me in touch with my inspiration and allows me to create something that is a unique expression of who I am. A misty rain accompanied Charles and my trail walk this morning. These days, whenever we go for walks in light rain or under a cloudy sky that threatens a rain shower, we remember to thank Saint of Travellers, whoever that may be, after we complete our walk. The idea is to give gratitude for not getting completely rained on, in acknowledgment of our benefactor. We have found this practice useful because it nudges us to be aware of the bountiful treasures that exist all around us, and to express our heartfelt gratitude to a particular recipient. It also engages us to dance with Life. In lieu of receiving Life's blessings passively, we choose to acknowledge such blessings bestowed upon us with a bow of gratitude. And gratitude begets abundance! I noticed that the leaves looked greener and fresh in the misty rain. Perhaps that explains why the supermarkets use timed mist-sprinklers over the vegetable section! I kept marveling at how much the trails look different, not only from a week or two ago, but also each day as the spring greens seem to grow bigger, darker, and more numerous. It is not unlike little babies. For the first year or so, babies grow so fast that they look bigger and taller every day. A maple tree behind our house only had bare branches in the beginning of this month. I spotted tiny red "eyes" on the branches a couple weeks ago, and I was delighted to see teeny tiny pointy bundles sometime last week. But this morning I noticed how large the leaves have grown! They are already large enough to cover our living room windows, and I can see them peeking around the corner from our kitchen window. This kind of magic is all around us every day because nature does not stop nor stand still. Nor do we. I feel that the vibrant spring waking up from the sleepy winter is especially poignant for me this year. This external landscape reflects my internal journey, and it firmly reminds me to stay in the flow of Life's mystery. Changes are happening all the time. Constant change is one of the Laws of Nature. Nothing stays the same. We can see the changes in nature more prominently in the springtime, and the changes in human growth are more pronounced when we are infants and little children. However, all of us, change and age every day as does nature. Some changes are visible, and some are invisible at any given moment. Invisible changes may happen consciously or unconsciously, but they often surface as visible changes. When changes are made with our consciousness and creativity, they can transform us and those around us. Eight years ago today, on April 26, 2004, I joined Microsoft as one of their corporate in-house attorneys. Six months ago today, on October 26, 2011, I left Microsoft as Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion, a position I had held from May 16, 2011. Today, on April 26, 2012, I am neither an attorney or a corporate employee, but I know, love, and enjoy myself, my life, and what I am about, far better than I did eight years ago, or six months ago. I have found my anam cara, soul friend, in me, and my journey ahead beckons me with joy, adventure, and vitality. Most of all, I am blessed and grateful to know that I will not travel solo ever again. "As you walk, look around, assess where you are, reflect on where you have been, and dream of where you are going. Every moment of the present contains the seeds of opportunity for change. Your life is an adventure. Live it fully." ~ John Francis, author of Planet Walker A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to an article celebrating a recent Open Town Meeting in her town in Connecticut. It reminded me of my hometown in Massachusetts where my father moderated the Open Town Meetings for years and I grew up first watching the process in action (including the preparation for the meeting), and later participated myself when I became voting age. In high school I worked at the meetings, running around with a wireless microphone on a long pole, so that anyone who wanted to speak could be heard without having to walk all the way up to the stationary microphone at the front of the hall. When I moved away from home and took up residence in other cities, I realized what a blessing to the town those meetings were. They provided a public forum where any resident could voice their opinion before the vote and the issue at hand could be discussed. They were also social events where townspeople could catch up with each other outside the hall while getting coffee or lunch. Town meetings made the town governance remarkably transparent. If anything had been overlooked in an item being voted on, somebody would call it out in the discussion. There was no guarantee that the majority of the town would vote your way, but at least you would have a chance to persuade your neighbors and maybe even to be persuaded yourself. At the very least, you would hear the opposing viewpoints and hopefully understand them, even if you didn't agree. Finally, town meetings underscored the fact that everyone's vote had equal weight in our town and everyone had an equal responsibility for making sure that the town was being managed for the good of all. Only small decisions were abdicated to our elected officials (the "Board of Selectmen"). The larger decisions that effected our destiny as a town were voted on directly by We the People. There are some schools which are run in a similar way. The Waring School where I spent my last two years of High School began each day, as I recall, with a school meeting where there would be announcements, letters read from recent alumni or students traveling abroad, and where concerns could be raised and discussed. So-called "democratic schools" go one step further and adopt meeting systems similar to the Open Town Meeting where each member of the school (whether they be an adult or a child) is allowed to voice their opinion of items of school governance and then vote, with each member getting one vote regardless of "position." Schools modeled after the Sudbury Valley School, which was established nearly 44 years ago in Massachusetts, even have a "Judicial Committee" which enforces the school rules. The committee is made up of a diverse selection of school members, both adults and children, and they hear both sides of a complaint, pass judgement, and determine the consequences, if necessary. One of the many benefits of the School Meeting and the Judicial Committee is that students and staff alike learn that they are responsible for themselves and the impact of their behavior on the community. On the other hand, in Jung's and my experience, when there is a "Head of School" who holds the reigns, the other community members seem to abdicate much of their responsibility for the health of the community to him or her. Students, parents and even teachers wait to be told what to do, rather than engage their own awareness and initiative. As a final, related story, yesterday I read about the "Handbook for New Employees" for Valve Software as well as a blog post entitled, "Valve: How I Got Here, What It's Like, and What I'm Doing." I learned about a 300-employee, 16-year-old growing and thriving company where there is no organizational chart. There are the founders, and there is everyone else. There are teams who collaborate, but there is no requirement to join or remain with any given team. Employees work on whatever projects they want to. It also appears that instead of having a few managers choosing which projects move forward and which don't, the projects select themselves by which ones have garnered the most support among the employees. The employees "vote with their desks" as for which projects receive the most attention, and ultimately go to market. In addition, employees are expected to pay attention to their physical and mental health as well as their work/life balance. Working overtime is discouraged. As is written in the manual: "While people occasionally choose to push themselves to work some extra hours at times when something big is going out the door, for the most part working overtime for extended periods indicates a fundamental failure in planning or communication. If this happens at Valve, it's a sign that something needs to be reevaluated and corrected." This also means that each employee is much more responsible for their own success and happiness and can't point fingers at their boss or "the management" for getting in the way of their project or their career. For Jung and me, this is exactly the kind of life we're trying to live: one where we take responsibility for our own choices. To me, one thing that these three institutions of town, school, and work have in common is that they are all flat. There is the barest minimum of official hierarchy, if any at all. Responsibility for oneself and one's community is put squarely on the individuals and I believe this helps everybody to live with more integrity. What I love even more about "living flat," however, is the way in which it naturally pulls communities together. Yes, when I was growing up in my hometown I heard plenty of stories of fights and feuds which began at, or were inflamed by what happened at, Town Meeting. That said, I prefer that over the indifference which I have felt more strongly everywhere else I have lived. There seems to be something about electing a Representative, or having a Head of School, or working under a chain of Managers, that isolates us from our community. In particular, we don't feel the problems that may arise in our community as keenly if they don't affect our child, our job, or our street. We become blind to the ways in which what we do affects our entire community, and to how we are being impacted by what is going on in another part of the town, school, or company. If you think living flat is impractical, I would point to how long New England Town Meetings, the Sudbury Valley School and even Valve Software have been successfully utilizing their flat structures and how the communities thrive in all three. None of these are perfect solutions, but I believe they are a huge improvement over the more prevalent hierarchical structures. Besides, Jung and I don't believe in "perfection," but we certainly believe that living in community with responsibility and integrity creates more joy! And for us, joy is what it's all about! compassion "One thing [Jung and I] talked about on the walk was how I needed to re-integrate meditation into my daily routine as a way to be more conscious about where I am spending my energy each day." I laughed to myself when I read these words today. I wrote them over 140 days ago and yet I still don't meditate regularly. Today, however, I was reminded that I would be much happier if I did. Over the weekend when I was struggling with some decisions, Jung pointed me to a particular chapter in Making Good,the book she's been reading lately. The chapter is titled, "Reflect," and it has some advice on meditating, and in particular, meditating on questions we have about our lives. I finally made time to read the chapter today, and it inspired me to spend some time meditating on a number of questions and I was surprised by how many answers I received! My priorities came into much sharper focus very quickly with just a short meditation! Another thing which came clear to me was that I need to be meditating more regularly. I almost felt a voice coming from somewhere within me that was like a concerned parent. It was saying, "You know, you could have saved yourself a lot of time and consternation if you had come to me sooner." Those answers had been waiting for me for quite a long time, and I had been looking for them everywhere except where they were — within me. I forget all too often, that I have the answers I need within me, but I need to stop, be quiet, and listen if I am to hear them. One of the questions I asked myself today was, "What is the best way I can spend my energy this week?" The answer was loud and clear: "Take the time to listen and get back in touch with who you really are." I think I'll do just that. During our morning walk today, I raised a question to my thought-partner and most trusted advisor, Charles: "Wouldn't it make all the more sense to allow 'gifted' children to direct their own learning?" After all, most people agree without much dissention that Albert Einstein was a genius yet he didn't like school and by some accounts his teachers were not too impressed with his learning abilities. But my question arose because of something more direct and immediate in my life: S and J's school and our family's experiences there. As I wrote in a previous post, I had my own reservations about a school for gifted children to begin with, but Charles and I chose the school because of its putative educational philosophy: "children first, gifted second." However, after having experienced this school for gifted children where S and J spent their first seven years of schooling, I have gained a much better understanding of not only S and J's school in particular, but also of gifted children and private school education in general. My question this morning was sparked by what I read about S and J's new Head of School. When I researched him in Google, I found his welcome letter of sorts to visitors of his current school's web site. When I read it, the following passage jumped out at me: "Some may question why gifted students need their own distinct academic program. My own experience in working with high ability learners over the past three decades has clearly led me to understand that gifted students need a faster pace, deeper and richer content, and a peer group that shares their passion for learning. Without this, many gifted students will never reach their true potential." How interesting! This was what Charles and I suspected when we were looking into what kind of education would best suit our daughters as they reached pre-Kindergarten age, and what their school told us as well. We believed them. However, this statement by an educational expert based on his own experience does not match my own observation and learning of my children's progress in their experience at a school for gifted children. For one thing, although S and J, as well as their classmates have gone through the school application process to be identified as "gifted children," at least by the admission standards used by their school, I did not find that they learn at the same rate, that they are interested in the same content or subject matter, or that they all share the same passion for learning. Quite the contrary, I saw the same bullies and bullied at this school that may be found in any other public or private schools, and I saw children who were pressured to learn but did not love learning. S and J have frequently met opposition and ridicule from fellow students for using sophisticated words and the rich vocabulary which they have accumulated over the years from exercising their passion of reading and learning new words. Even at the beginning of the year they witnessed two boys being teased by bullies because they got 100% on their Spanish test. I was fascinated when Charles responded to my outloud musing by saying, "It's funny you ask that question." And then he told me about a snippet of Billy Moyer's interview in 1988 with Isaac Asimov, which he spotted when it came to his attention through Free Range Learning's Facebook page: Isaac Asimov: " YOU are interested in, and you can ask, and you can find out, and you… can do it in your own home, at your own speed, in your own direction, in your own time… Then, everyone would enjoy learning. Nowadays, what people call learning is forced on you, and everyone is forced to learn the same thing on the same day at the same speed in class, and everyone is different." Bill Moyers: "But what about the argument that machines, computers, dehumanize learning?" Isaac Asimov: "As a matter of fact, it's just the reverse. It seems to me that, through this machine, for the first time we'll be able to have a one-to-one relationship between information source and information consumer." First of all, I was amazed that Isaac Asimov foresaw the Information Age almost a quarter century ago and told Bill Moyers what would actually happen just as it is happening today. These days anyone, including children, can use Internet search engines such as Google and Bing to ask any question and find answers. In fact, without being concerned about what others (including teachers, students, co-workers, family, etc.) may think of me if I asked a certain question, I can look up and get answers to anything, anytime, anywhere I want, literally at my fingertips. But what fascinates me the most is what Isaac Asimov said about learning what YOU are interested in, in your own home (or wherever you are for that matter as long as there is a computer connected to the Internet), at your own speed, in your own direction, in your own time! What he envisioned is absolutely possible today. In fact, more than possible, it is happening today. For instance, when S and J do not understand a new word they come across in reading any material they choose, they look it up via an embedded software tool without the interruption that used to occur when Charles and I were learning at their age: we had to stop and look up new words in a paper dictionary! S and J have been telling us, especially this year, that they are bored at school. Charles and I have noticed that they are not being challenged academically. Now I can clearly understand why they are bored. As Issac Asimov diagnosed and articulated nearly twenty-five years ago when he told Bill Moyers: "Nowadays, what people call learning is forced on you, and everyone is forced to learn the same thing on the same day at the same speed in class, and everyone is different." I wouldn't doubt that he was speaking from his own teaching experience as professor of biochemistry at Boston University. That's right. Gifted or not, every child is different, just as every adult is. We are all different, which means we all learn differently, too. We are interested in different things at different times in our lives. Yet, we force learning on our children to learn the same thing on the same day at the same speed in class. No wonder S and J tell us they are bored in school. Especially nowadays when we, as a society, have the abundant technical ability to allow learning to be enjoyable by all children. What excuses do I or Charles have for not allowing our daughters to learn what they are interested in, where they want to learn, at their own speed, in their own direction, in their own time? What would Issac Asimov say about our outdated mode of education if he were alive today? Why should education be so expensive, competitive, and ineffective with such low rate of return (considering the number of years and financial resources we invest in education) in our post-industrial, Information Age? "I beg you … to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms … Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer." Today I started sketching out some themes for my first film score. Jung heard me working at the piano and later asked me about my process. After I described it for a little while she asked me, "Did you use your intuition?" I was surprised by the question and told her that of course I used my intuition. I always use my intuition when I compose. She told me that she asked me because, although I didn't realize it, when I was describing my process I didn't mention anything about my intuition — all I talked about was my reasoning. I realized a couple things when I thought about her comment. First, it's very difficult for me to discuss my intuitive process. By its very nature it just, sort of, happens. My reasoning mind says I want a melody that has this or that kind of feel and has these or those characteristics and then hands the work order to my intuition which spools out a melody. Or, my intuition might get stuck; in which case, it calls the reasoning mind over to analyze the problem. My reasoning mind then hands its conclusions back to my intuition, which then gets back to work. That's the best I can describe the process, but in practice it's much more fluid. My reasoning mind and my intuition work together seamlessly, communicating in the language of music theory. Music theory usually scares the pants off of music students — I never liked it before — but now I see it in a different light. Music theory is to music like science is to nature. Music and nature can both be appreciated without understanding how they work, but somehow knowing how they work makes them all the more miraculous to me. Music theory and science are also tools which can help people to understand good, proven methods for creating what they envision, as well as to understand why they may be having trouble creating what they envision. Before I studied music theory, composition was much more like taking shots in the dark. Eventually I would come up with something I liked, or close enough (if I had run out of patience), but it was a tedious trial-and-error process — with more error than I was happy with. Now composition has become much more fun with the help of my reasoning mind to guide the process. Music theory enables me to learn and grow as an artist by studying other compositions as well as (in partnership with my intuition) to discover new expressions in music. Music theory, which was once such an albatross around my neck, is now my laboratory and playground! All that said, like I told Jung this morning, my intuition is still as indispensable to me as ever. Sometimes when I am composing, I have allowed my reasoning mind to take the lead. But on its own, my reasoning mind creates boring, formulaic music. It is my intuition which allows me to push beyond what I have learned from others and create that which has not existed before. So for me, much like what I wrote about yesterday, neither my reasoning mind, nor my intuition can be more important than the other — I require them both to create my music, and composing is easiest and most joyful when my reason and my intuition work together in a synergistic, creative partnership. "It's not enough for a school to have a bullying policy and enforce it. The bottom line is that every child must feel welcome at school, and every adult has to work to make school a safe place for every child." ~ Teaching Tolerance S and J's new Head of School, who will start this fall for the academic year 2012-2013, was visiting the school today. As Charles and I were dropping off our daughters, we spotted him in the school parking lot where parents drop off their children in the morning. We saw a man dressed in a suit and tie standing in the spot which the outgoing Head of School frequently occupies. He had one hand in his trouser pocket and the other on the car door to help children get out of their parents' vehicles as a long line of cars pulled up to the drop-off spot. I guessed (correctly) who he was because we received an email from the school last week, announcing that new Head of school would be visiting today. The school requested that every student dress in his/her favorite Pacific Northwest attire to give him a warm welcome. Notwithstanding the beautiful, warm spring weather, bright blue sky and sun shining down this morning, S and J both decided to wear rain jackets as their "favorite" Pacific Northwest attire. Coincidentally, the above quote came through my Facebook news feed today from "Teaching Tolerance" — a non-profit organization founded in 1991 by the Southern Poverty Law Center with a mission "[t]o promote an appreciation for diversity in schools by reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable experiences for our nation's children." The message in Teaching Tolerance's statement today is exactly what Charles and I tried to convey to S and J's school administration this school year as our daughters were targeted by the bullies in their class. To my and Charles' consternation, some parents at the time even expressed that children who were being bullied needed to toughen up because they would encounter bullies in the "real" world; therefore, they might as well learn how to be bullied in school! It pains me to know that as a civil society, we are not sufficiently protecting vulnerable children in our schools from bullies. Children need both nurturing and protection just as any other young creatures do. Bullies as well as the bullied need help from adults. Every adult can do something, at least one thing, to make school a safe place. We may not be able to end hunger and poverty, global warming, senseless wars, and the myriad other complex problems that plague our world today which are so widespread and complex that remedies and resolutions are often out of our control — e.g. international organizations' outreach, governmental aid, foreign sovereignty, financial resources, national security, etc. But what stops us from creating a safe and welcome environment for every child in school? Is it truly too much to ask every adult (e.g., parent, teacher, school administrator, staff, etc.) to work to make school a safe place for every child? If it is a dream, it is a dream well worth everyone's effort to make it come true. I cannot think of anything more precious to protect than every child's safety and anything more cruel to forbear than any child's death — be it physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. We live in the 21st century. We may not be able to do much to save children from war, hunger, or poverty halfway across the globe, but what stops us from making school a safe place for every child? The new Head of School at our daughters' school would benefit greatly by heeding Teaching Tolerance's counsel above. Although we will not return to this school community in the fall, we hope that every adult at the school will voluntarily take on his/her responsibility to work to make the school a safe place for every child there. Charles and I will certainly take on our responsibilities with our girls' new school. Even after everything I've learned and written about listening to my own heart, I am still often swayed by many things, such as: others' suggestions, what I think someone else might do, and advice I read. It's not that I think shutting myself off from the world is what I need to do, but I still need to remind myself daily that when it comes time to answer a question I have, first make whatever consultations I want to make, and then sit, be quiet, and let the answer arise. For most of my life, I tried to "reason it out," but it usually fails me. I think myself into knots. Whether the decision is as small as deciding between having a garage sale versus donating our old things to Goodwill, or as large as considering business opportunities, I've learned the hard way that when I feel myself thinking this way and that, I need to stop, meditate on the question, and then move on, allowing my reason and intuition to work together in the background. The answer will come in its time. Today felt like the beginning of summer here in Seattle. Mind you, that's a "Seattle summer" meaning it was still only around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but with the sun shining, we couldn't not go out for a walk and have a picnic lunch in the park! These days when we walk "as a family" we actually walk in pairs: one daughter with one parent. When S and J were younger they were very fastidious about making sure that they switched evenly between parents each time we had a "date" together, but these days, the alternating is more fluid. It feels even, but nobody is "keeping score." When S and J were younger, the "dates" also tended to be either at an establishment of some kind: a bookstore or craft store, or it would be at home centered around a crafting activity. These were great opportunities to have quality one-on-one time, and lots of fun, but they had to be planned and scheduled in. These days, our dates are more spontaneous, and they're almost always walks — either walking home from school in pairs, or a weekend walk like today. There's so much to talk about that we don't need any external activity or place to go. I remember how happy I was when our daughters first learned to talk — when I no longer needed to guess what they wanted like I had to do when all they could do was cry. I was so grateful that they could express their needs to me in words! Then, I remember when they began to express opinions and we could discuss things together. That was another watershed in our conversations together. I am so grateful that our daughters love to talk with us. It doesn't matter what the topic is — I feel blessed by their attention and I hope they know how much I love being with them. They still hold my hand sometimes when we walk, and I know that may not last, but I hope they will always talk with me and know that no matter what it is, I am not only willing, but eager to listen. I am eagerly continuing with the book, Making Good which I only recently started reading, as I wrote yesterday. The more I read, the more I am amazed! The authors, Billy Parish and Dev Aujla, who I think are in their 30s, are wise beyond their years, and the book is filled with timeless truth, useful insight, and practical guidance, for any reader seeking work that combines meaning, money and community, no matter how old the reader is! Above all, what I find most incredible is that the stories and voices of these authors track my own journey so closely. It is as if they know me and my life experiences that led me to where I am today, and that continue to lead me forward. For instance, the following passage seems to be lifted directly out of my own life: "The comforts of familiarity aren't always the best indication of whether we are doing the right thing. Often, they prevent us from opening up to good change. The comfort we find in familiarity can make it difficult to make space in our routines, to take that leap into a new career or a trip abroad. The familiarity of a steady paycheck can make it difficult to take the risk necessary to start a new venture." It is so true that "[t]he familiarity of a steady paycheck" made it difficult for me for so many years to take the risk necessary to course-correct in mid-stream. Such difficulty was, in my case, compounded by the fact that I was the sole provider for my family. However, all my effort to ignore or deny my longing to open up to good change by hiding in "the familiarity of a steady paycheck" was proven futile in the end. As if they knew my own story, the authors call this out in the book: "But what are we giving up when we prioritize comfort in our decision making? Baby Boomers have given us thousands of examples of what happens when we settle for the safety of stasis rather than risking change. In fact, most of us probably don't have to look farther than our homes or schools to find stories from parents or mentors who have hit a crisis point where they wish they'd chosen a path that inspired them from the beginning." Ain't that the truth! I am one of those "thousands of examples … who have hit a crisis point where they wish they'd chosen a path that inspired them from the beginning." Ironically enough, the book also includes the following passage: "It has become something of a joke with a number of our high-achieving friends that whenever they go home to speak with their parents, they will be asked: "Have you given any thought to law school?" No matter how successful they are, the classic career narrative is something our parents' generation understands well." I wish I could tell my story to the college graduates and their parents who ask their high-achieving, successful children: "Have you given any thought to law school?" I would tell the parents that "the classic career narrative" does not work any longer in our world, unless it truly happens to coincide with one's passion. "The influx of so many law school graduates—44,258 in 2010 alone, according to the ABA—into a declining job market creates serious repercussions that will reverberate for decades to come." Unless law is one's passion and/or it can be used to serve one's purpose in life, there is no point in going to law school. If it is motivated by anything else, such as social status, money, or prestige, law school will not be a "good bet" (although I would hate to imagine anyone gambling with her life in choosing a career in this crude manner). The ABAJournal article I referenced above contains many details in support of my career advice. For that matter, I think the same advice would work for medical profession as well. I am not a career counselor; however, I feel I am qualified to give my perspective because I have learned and earned my qualification from the best school on earth: The School of Life. As I mentioned above, I am one of the examples of people who have hit a crisis point where they wish they'd chosen a path that inspired them from the beginning. More than 25 years ago, I wish I had honored and listened to my own inner voice to choose a path that inspired me. I wanted to go to Teachers College, Columbia University; however, my mother did not think it was a good idea. She was a teacher herself, and she did not think the teaching profession was for me. My mother was the voice of the over-culture, but I did not recognize it at the time. She wanted me to marry a professional, and I wanted to prove that I did not have to marry a professional for social status, money or prestige, if she thought any of those things could or would make me happy. I could be a professional myself. So I chose law school. This is not a blame game. I do not blame my mother because ultimately it was I who chose the path to law school although I lacked a burning passion for law or a clear purpose for entering the legal profession. I did not have the courage of conviction that the authors of Making Good seem to have cultivated in their youth. Most of all, by the time I graduated from college, I had traveled so far from my own soul's dwelling that I was estranged from my passion and purpose. My life shrank drastically to the level of finding the answer to "How will I make money?" when I did not have the courage to claim my birthright to love, serve, enjoy and prosper in life. I did not have the courage because I was so detached from my heart. Notwithstanding everything though, I do not view my choice a mistake or failure. It is not because I want to justify or rationalize my career choice — justifying or rationalizing would not serve me in any genuine way in any event — but because I believe that we are all born to explore, experiment, experience and expand throughout our life journey. I believe that my primary purpose in life is to learn and understand, and as such there is no wrong choice or failure. Any path I take works — only in different ways from other paths which I did not choose. So, although I did not receive a graduate degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, or the relevant professional experiences in education, I have learned through my own custom made courses and programs in The School of Life what I could not and would not have learned in any university in the world! I have written a number of times, including yesterday, that it took me quite a while to rediscover my soul. Looking back, I see that it wasn't the rediscovery itself which took me so much time. What took me so much time was my letting go of enough external expectations so that I could hear and see my soul clearly again. It was as if I had to turn down the volume on all those voices around me — real and imagined — that were telling me who I should be, before I could find the knob which would turn up the volume on my soul. I wandered in an empty space for many years when I floated freely without external or internal guidance. It wasn't easy. Having the new role of "dad" helped me a little — it gave some direction to my life — but I knew that there was a big part of me which was still lying dormant. As unsettling and unfamiliar as that empty space was, I feel that the free-floating time was necessary. I needed to become comfortable with not relying on anyone's guidance before I could begin to rely on my own. I lost a ton of weight — then gained it all back plus some. I dabbled in programming, gardening, photography and fiction writing. Eventually, I began to hear my soul respond to each of these things and I began to hear my soul's guidance again as I once did, decades ago. My soul led me back to two passions of my youth: music and play, but this time I took up the creation of music and play not as others would have me do, but as I would do, as an expression of who I am. If you are on a similar road, do not despair the long, desert stretch. Cherish the silence and the horizon that circles you from miles away. It may be that, like me, you must first learn to not hear and not see anything, before you can hear and see your soul more clearly than ever before.	eng	e5e8ac46-f28e-4741-b140-baf9ac4f35b4	http://spf365experiment.tumblr.com/archive/2012/4
October 2011 37 posts Halloween is a big deal in the United States, but we aren't the first or only country to have a day celebrating all things spooky. Most cultures have an event where they pay tribute to the dead by performing traditional rituals, dressing up in costumes or throwing a huge celebration. Other festivals are more of a cleansing event – ridding their town of anything evil in preparation for a new year. Many countries, such as Ireland or Romania, have a history that provides the basis for what we think of Halloween today. Images of skeletons, ghosts, devils, and even jack-o-lanterns appear worldwide. We've listed some prominent Halloween customs from around the world featuring scary stories, unique celebrations and rich traditions. BOLIVIA Name of Event: Carnaval de Oruro Date: During the 10 days before Lent History: The Oruro Carnival has been celebrated in South America since pre-Columbian times. This festival is observed by the Uru people in Bolivia; the Uru are a pre-Incan tribe. During the festival, there is a parade that features Tio Supay, the god of the mountains, who is portrayed as the devil, and Pachamama, Mother Earth, who is portrayed as the Virgin Mary. There is a legend that a mural of the Virgin Mary appeared in a mineshaft in the city of Oruro and the festival is in honor of this miracle. Tricks and Treats: A main part of the Carnaval de Oruro is the dance of the devils, also known as La Diablada. There are more than ten other types of indigenous dances that are performed during the parade, which lasts over 20 hours. The parade travels through the city and features more than 28,000 dancers. At the end of the parade, the Uru people put on two plays – one about the Spanish conquest and the other reenacts the Archangel Michael defeating the devil and destroying the seven deadly sins. Costumes: People who dress as the devil during this event go all out. The masks that they wear are often incredibly ornate and frightening; they feature horns, wide grins with pointed teeth, and deep, scarlet skin. They also wear red and pink tights to simulate red skin. Many of the costumes worn by dancers have bright colors, feathers and fringe as decoration. History: In Buddhist Chinese belief, the dead are said to return to earth during the 7th month of the lunar calendar. These ghosts, who are believed to have never had a proper funeral tribute, are said to be very hungry from their journey back to earth, so it is a ritual for family members to prepare a giant feast on the night of their return. The table is often set with empty chairs in place for the deceased, as if they were still alive for the night. If the ghosts are happy, good fortune and luck is said to come to the living. This legend is celebrated through most parts of Eastern Asia, such as China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. Tricks and Treats: There are many superstitions and rituals related to the Hungry Ghost Festival, many of which are in place to please the spirits. It is common for people who celebrate this festival to give many offerings to the dead. "Hell money," which is a fake bank note made out of paper, is burned, as well as other papier-mâché creations of modern objects, such as cars, houses, clothes, and TVs, in hopes that the deceased can use them and be comfortable in the afterlife. Two weeks after the night of the festival, lanterns are set up at homes and are floated on rivers to help guide the dead back to their afterlife. When the lanterns blow out, it means the deceased have found their way home. The dead are also said to dwell in water during this time, so many people avoid swimming, so that they won't be kidnapped and taken to the underworld. Costumes: Traditional Chinese costumes are worn during parades and opera performances. Ornate headgear and military armor are used to distinguish character's personality, ranking and status. Detailed and elaborate puppets and masks are also used during different events, depicting demons and hungry ghosts from folklore. History: In German folklore, the eve of May Day is said to be when witches meet on the Brocken mountaintop and celebrate the coming of spring. The day is named for Saint Walburga, an English missionary in the 700s, who was canonized on May 1st. Walpurgisnacht is also known as "the witches' sabbath." Bonfires are often lit at celebrations, and singing and dancing is a common activity at the events. Today, many people in Germany and other parts of Europe still observe Walpurgisnacht, although in a less serious, religious way. Current celebrations are more like Halloween and children dress up and trick-or-treat in their town. Tricks and Treats: The Brocken mountain, which is the highest point in its range, is known for the atmospheric phenomenon called the Brocken spectre. The spectre appears when sun shines from behind a person onto fog in front of them. Although it is only an optical illusion, the shadow appears to magnify to enormous sizes. The illusion also creates a halo on the shadow, which is often glowing and filled with colored light. This phenomenon is a reason why it is said that the witches gathered on the mountain. During Walpurgisnacht, children often create mischief, such as hiding other people's items, spray-painting graffiti and tampering in gardens. Costumes: Many witches are portrayed in German woodcuttings and paintings. They are shown wearing long skirts and capes, holding broomsticks and wearing pointy hats. Today, children who participate in Walpurgisnacht often wear classic Halloween costumes, like witches, ghosts and ghouls. History: La Quema del Diablo, also known as The Burning of the Devil, started in Guatemala during colonial times. To prepare for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, residents lit lanterns outside of their house. Those who couldn't afford to buy lanterns lit piles of garbage that they gathered from a massive house cleaning. This house cleaning and trash burning began to symbolize a fresh start into the new year. Eventually, tradition evolved and soon it became a yearly event to burn an effigy of the devil at 6 p.m. in Antigua and other cities. It is believed that the devil lives in unnecessary possessions and represents misfortune and a presence of evil. After all the bad things are burnt away, the country is ready for the feast for the Virgin Mary, who is the patron saint of Antigua, Guatemala. Tricks and Treats: During La Quema del Diablo, there are often parades, fireworks, feasts, and bonfires through the country. Traditional celebration food is eaten, such as donuts and cotton candy, and many of the events have the feel of a street fair. Young children light off firecrackers throughout the night and marimba bands play at city parties. Costumes: The effigy of the devil is usually decorated in the most traditional sense of the demonic image. A red man, with horns, a long and pointy tail, and pitchfork, is portrayed. Often, the devil is stuffed with firecrackers for a more dramatic effect when it's lit on fire. Other times, the figure of the devil is decorated to look more like a human, sometimes with wings, fangs and even a cigar. History: Voodoo was first brought to Haiti in the 18th century by African slaves. This culture's Jour des Morts, or Day of the Dead, is based around the group of Ghede spirits, the rulers of the underworld. Altars are set up with offerings to the Ghedes, such as cigarettes, food, rum and clothing. This festival is a chance for Haitians to communicate with the spirits, but also to celebrate life and humanity. Tricks and Treats: While many people's ideas of Voodoo are misconceptions, there are some dark practices that still happen today. During Day of the Dead festivities, people often say that they become possessed by the spirit Ghede Nibo, who is the ruler of death in the Voodoo religion. There are intense gatherings where people dance to frantic drumming, drink rum (Ghede's favorite beverage), and wait until the spirit enters one of the participators. Once they believe Ghede has appeared, the possessed person is flung around the group. The concept of the living dead, or zombies, is also a staple of Voodoo religion. Some believe that zombies are individuals who became ill from a fish's toxin, putting them into a trancelike state, but others believe it can't be explained through logic. Costumes: Many people dress as Ghede Nibo during Day of the Dead celebrations. Ghede was known for his fancy clothing; a long, black riding coat, a top hat and a cane. He was also known for purple, which is a sacred color. Other Haitians wear simple white dresses and blouses, with bright colored scarves and head-wraps. Makeup is also common, which usually consists of white face paint with darkened eyes and often flour coating the face. People also put cotton up their nostrils to simulate burial rituals. History: Velja Noc, or Great Night, is an ancient pagan festival honoring the Slavic god of earth, water, and the underworld, Veles. Pagans believed that the line between the living world and the underworld was weaker during winter and spirits had an easier time travelling among those still alive. Slavic pagans who celebrated this festival lived in Central and Eastern Europe. Tricks and Treats: Men known as koledari would dress up and go caroling around their villages during the winter months, particularly on Velja Noc. They would also trick-or-treat; each house they visited would present them with gifts to offer up to Veles, who was also the god of magic and wealth. Giving gifts would bring good luck and wealth to the family for the year, until the next Velja Noc. Costumes: The koledari would wear long coats made from sheepskin and wool and would also don monstrous masks to represent the spirits of the dead. The masks were made from dried gourds, horsehair, beans, wool and other fibers. Animals like bears, cows, oxen, and wolves were commonly represented in the masks. They would make their costumes wet and muddy to symbolize their journey from the murky underworld. History: Samhain is thought to be the earliest manifestation of what we consider Halloween today. The medieval Irish festival, which started in the 10th century, marked the beginning of winter and the start of "the dark half" of the year, with the following day being All Saint's Day. The fall festival celebrated the final harvest of the year and also paid tribute to the dead. Bonfires were a staple at these events and it was the time when most cattle were slaughtered for food for the winter. Through the Christianization of the people of Ireland, All Saint's Day became All Hallows' Day, which in turn transformed Samhain to All Hallows' Eve and finally, Halloween. Tricks and Treats: A traditional practice of divination was very common during Samhain. Methods such as reading apple peels, interpreting the movements of roasted nuts and counting crows all were used to find answers to questions about children, fortune and love. Later on, in the 16th century, children also roamed the villages in costumes, while carrying turnip lanterns, performing tricks for treats. Today, many people still celebrate Samhain in all parts of the world through church fall festivals. There are also people who follow the Pagan and Wicca religions who honor the festival by constructing large bonfires, singing traditional Gaelic songs and honoring the dead. Costumes: There were many children and adults who dressed as the dead for the festival. They blackened their faces and dressed in white, as to appear like a ghost. They also created masks and wore veils to conceal their identity. History: Hop-tu-Naa originated in Celtic regions of Europe as a celebration of their new year and is still celebrated today in the Isle of Man. It is historically a time for divination, weather prediction and preparation for the winter months. The origin of the name is uncertain, but it is commonly believed to translate to "this is the night" in Gaelic. Tricks and Treats: Trick-or-treating during Hop-tu-Naa was an event that has some similarities, but also some differences, to what we think of the activity today. Children dressed up and went door-to-door, but, in older customs, if the children didn't get any candy or money, they beat the doors with turnips to show their displeasure. Another customary trick-or-treating activity was singing traditional Celtic songs, which featured imagery of full moons, witches and black cats. "Jinnie the Witch" is a very popular Hop-tu-Naa carol and is supposedly based on a real girl, who was tried for witchcraft in the 1700s. Costumes: Today, children in these regions wear modern Halloween costumes, like witches, vampires and goblins. History: The Japanese Obon festival is a time where lost spirits are believed to return home to meet with their family and friends. This time is usually very family-oriented – great feasts are prepared and families take trips to cemeteries to pay tributes. Incense is lit, food is offered to the deceased and lanterns are lit at homes to help guide the spirits. The dance Bon Odori is a very common event at Obon festival celebrations. This folk dance is performed in parks and shrines and taiko drummers help the dancers keep the beat. Tricks and Treats: While the Japanese Obon festival is considered a peaceful time to reflect and remember, there are elements in Japanese culture that are less than serene. Japanese ghost stories, or kaidan, have been prevalent in Japanese culture dating back thousands of years and are usually gruesome, violent and horrifying. One of the most popular Japanese kaidan is "The Ghost Story of Yotsuya." The story has changed over the years, but the plot always deals with a town met with murder, mistaken identity and vengeful ghosts. The ghost of a young woman is disfigured and haunts the main character; she is sometimes shown with burnt skin on her face, huge chunks of her hair missing and even an eye hanging loose on her check. Legend even says that any woman portraying this ghost in a play could possibly become possessed by the character and should visit her shrine to pay respects. Costumes: In Japanese theater, ghosts are portrayed with ragged and messy hair, all-white burial kimonos and white face make-up. Another prominent feature is the lack of legs and feet – in live plays, this effect is achieved by hoisting the actor into the air with pulleys and an extra long kimono as costume. The ghost of the young girl in the movie "The Ring" is very typical of a Japanese depiction of spirits. She is shown with a covered face, lifeless hands hanging from outstretched arms, and messy black hair. History: Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is a holiday that celebrates and honors friend and family members who have passed away. The Day of the Dead is said to be the time that heaven's gates are opened and the spirits of loved ones are able to reunite with their friends and families, with children and infants honored first and spirits of adults are celebrated on the next day. One of the main differences between the American celebration of Halloween and Dia de los Muertos is that the Mexican holiday is still deeply based in religious belief and culture. This holiday has been celebrated for over hundreds of years and is still as important to Mexican culture today. Tricks and Treats: One of the most recognizable features of the Day of the Dead celebration is the sugar skull. The sugar skull is colorful and brightly decorated candy or sculpture used to adorn altars set up for the holiday. Altars, known as ofrendas, also are adorned with religious statues, candles and pictures of lost loved ones. Epitaphs are also written to remember those who have passed and include funny stories and habits. In many areas of the country, children visit houses in their neighborhood asking for small gifts of candy or money. Costumes: The skeleton is used very often as a costuming theme. Extravagant make-up is used to decorate faces to completely resemble a sugar skull. More recently, Day of the Dead parades have included children dressed in less traditional costuming, such as vampires, devils, and even scarecrows. History: The Odo Festival is a holiday among the Igbo people of Nigeria. Odo is the name for the spirits of the dead in the Chukwu religion. There are three stages of this event: the arrival of spirits of family members, the time when these spirits live and communicate with the living, and, finally, the departure of the spirits. At the end of the festival, the final ritual Afia Una is performed. During Afia Una, men who are dressed as the Odo reenact the departure of the spirits by walking through the village, purifying the community of its sins and any other negative spirit. Tricks and Treats: During the last stage of the Odo Festival, the Igbo people put on a large theatre performance that reenacts the story of the holiday. There are also musicians who accompany the presentation; they play xylophones, drums, and rattles. All the preparations for the festival are done in secrecy, because women and outsiders are not allowed to be a part of setting up for the festival. The women are responsible for making sure there is enough food for the people who are celebrating, as well as for the Odo spirits. Costumes: The spirits who return to their living families are portrayed by village men, wearing ornate masks. The costumes are decorated with leaves, beads, feathers, and other materials from plants. Men who are representing evil spirits wear black costumes, covered with thorns. Women who attend the festival wear their most expensive and elaborate jewelry and adornments. History: What says Halloween more than Dracula? Romania is home to the birth place and castle of Vlad Tepes, the inspiration of Bram Stoker's "Dracula." This castle is open for visitors to explore and the town also gives tours around the town to other Dracula-related locations. Vlad was born in 1431 and ruled as Prince of Wallachia, Romania, from 1456 until 1462. His evil reign and methods of execution were fodder for multitudes of folklore in the area, which is what motivated Stoker to write his novel. Halloween parties are held today in the area, where guests can attend a witch trial, get their fortunes told and watch as a witch tries to make Vlad's ghost appear. Tricks and Treats: Vlad Tepes was also known as Vlad the Impaler and is regarded as one of the most evil rulers in history. There are many legends of his actions that have been told through the years. He was known to impale bodies of his enemies and display them in front of his castle to scare off intruders. There are also stories that tell of Vlad dining outside, among the people he tortured. Vampire myths also were in circulation and stories were told of Vlad eating human flesh, as well as feeding it to his enemies. Costumes: As you can imagine, a popular costume at many Transylvanian Halloween parties is vampire. Many qualities of Vlad the Impaler's image have inspired what we view as a classic vampire today. Vlad wore a cape, is said to have allergies to blood which gave him pale skin, and he had a violent nature. People attending the party as a vampire often paint their faces white, wear fangs and don formal clothes. These are all attributes of the title character in Bram Stoker's, "Dracula." History: The story of the Salem Witch Trials in Salem is one of the most popular supernatural-related tales in American history. In the late-1600s, the residents of colonial Massachusetts were caught up in a mass hysteria of witch hunts, false accusations and mass executions. The religious extremism present in the people of that time caused them to fear damnation so much that they would accuse others of being guilty of crimes that may not have been true. In the end, 19 people were put to death after being convicted guilty of witchcraft. Tricks and Treats: The trials in Salem had a few different ways to determine if the accused were witches or not. Much of the testimony was from sick and afflicted townspeople who believed they were made ill by local witches. They claimed they knew who the guilty ones were based on spectral evidence, which meant that they had seen an apparition of the one who made them sick. Another method used in the trails of determining guilt was through the use of a touch test. When the afflicted victims were having a fit of illness, if a witch laid hands on them, the fit would supposedly stop. Costumes: One of the scariest elements of this hysterical witch hunt was that there was no outward way to determine a witch from an innocent person. In this time period, Puritan Americans wore very conservative clothes – bonnets, capes, long dresses and coats, heavy waistcoats and wigs. They were always covered up and did not wear bright colors. Once the Buddha was staying in a town in northern India called Kesaputta where the Kalama clan lived. The Kalamas visited the Buddha and asked him: "There are some holy men and priests, Venerable Sir, who come and claim that only their teaching is right and condemn the teachings of others. Then some other holy men and priests came to Kesaputta; and they, in turn, claim that their teaching is right and others wrong. As a result, doubt has come to us. Which of these holy men and priests spoke the truth?" The Buddha replied: "It is proper to doubt in things that are doubtful. Come, O Kalamas:" 1) Do not believe anything based on revelation 2) Do not believe anything through tradition handed down from the past 3) Do not believe anything through hearsay (gossip, rumour, etc.) 4) Do not believe anything because it accords with the holy scriptures 5) Do not believe anything through logic 6) Do not believe anything because it is a point of view. 7) Do not believe anything through having considered the reasons 8) Do not believe anything because one is convinced of some theory 9) Do not believe anything through the testimony of some reliable person 10) Do not believe in anything thinking, "This person is a great preacher". "Kalamas, when you yourselves know what is evil, blameworthy and censured by the enlightened wise, abandon those things. When you yourselves know that these things are good, not blameworthy, but praised by the wise, accept and practise them" These famous words of the Buddha, often been called the Charter of Free Inquiry (Kesaputtiya Sutta, A1:188 f, 2:91 f.), were given by the Buddha over 2,500 years ago and their openness and uniqueness are still unrivalled even today. It reflects the Buddhist spirit of free thought and investigation leading to proper practice and self-realization of the true nature of our existence and so winning true self-liberation. Meaning of the Kalama Sutta The Kalama Sutta has often been quoted but more often misiquoted. Some erroneously regard the discourse as a carte blanche for transcendental licence and religious anarchy. It must be remembered here that spiritual doubt is a mental hindrance to spiritual development (A 3:62; Vbh 378). Most people seem to know only about the first portion of the discourse, that is, the ten points of criteria for the acceptance of a teaching or idea. This interesting discourse has three other important sections of which we should be aware. After speaking on the tenfold criteria for accepting a teaching or idea" the Buddha goes on to point out that when you have no greed, no hate and no delusion. You would enjoy benefit and happiness for a long time. The Buddha then speaks on the Four Divine Abodes (Brahma vihara) or Positive Emotions, that is, the cultivation of Lovingkindness, ofCompassion, of Altruistic Joy and of Spiritual Equanimity. For the beginner, it is sufficient to keep to the first practice – the Cultivation of Livingkindness (metta bhavana), which, among other blessings, helps you to overcome fear, have courage to face people and generally keep a positive mind. The Four Solaces The closing section of the Kalama Sutta, which deals with the Four Solaces is, to me, is most interesting and important section. As such, I shall quote it in full: The disciple of the Noble Ones, Kalamas, who has such a mind that is hate-free, malice-free, undefliled and purified, is one by whom four solaces are found here and now: 1) "Suppose there is an afterlife and there is the result of deeds, good or evil; then it is possible that after I die, I shall be born in heaven, endowed with bliss" This is the first solace found in him. 2) "Suppose there is no afterlife and there is no result of deeds, good or evil; yet in this world, here and now, free of hate, free of malice, safe and happy am I". This is the second solace found in him. 3) "Suppose evil begets evil; then, how can evil come to me who has done no evil deed?" This is the third solace found in him. 4) "Suppose evil-doer does not beget evil; then I see myself purified both ways (i.e. Whether unintentionally or intentionally)". This is thefourth solace found in him. At the end of the Buddha's discourse, the Kalamas were delighted and became buddhists for the rest of their lives. This four solaces, incidentally, is the Buddha's answer to Pascal's Wager* even before it was formulated! *Piscal's Wager:The Evangelists claim that if God does not actually exist, then it is all right for the Buddhists and nothing would happen to those who believe in him, too. However, they claim suppose that God does exist after all – then believers would stand to benefit but what would happen to the Buddhists? Buddha's Challenge Budhism is a religion for you to "come and see" for oneself. One has only to give yourself a chance to have a taste of the Buddha's Teachings: that would be an unforgettable experience and a most worthwhile one. Once the Buddha said in the Udumbarika Lion-roar Discourse: "Let any intelligent man who is honest, not a deceiver, but an upright man come to me. I will teach him the Truth. And if he practises according to my instructions, he shall realise that supreme goal for the sake of which people renounce the world to lead the homeless religious life. He shall realise that supreme goal in seven years… even one month..nay, if he so practises for even seven days, such a man coming to me shall so realise that supreme state" (D 3:56) Whether Buddhas arise or not, the Buddha declares, the Dharma is always there; but it is the Buddha who clearly shows us what this Truth is and from whose knowledge we benefit. However, we must exert ourselves: Buddhas are showers of the way. We must walk the Path!! By ourselves is evil done, By ourselves we pain endure, By ourselves evil not done By ourselves become we pure One is pure or impure within: No one can purify another (Dhammapada 165) By you is the task to be done The Perfect Buddhas are showers of the Way Those who are practised in meditation Are released from the bonds of the Evil One (Dhammapada 276) "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana Though we would all like to believe that we are not destined to repeat mistakes over and over again, chances are, without a knowledge of what it is that compels us to behave in certain ways in the first place, we will likely repeat patterns of behavior that bring about negative or undesirable consequences, despite the fact that we may strongly desire to behave differently. All decisions and subsequent behavior are born from an individual's deeply held belief system. Without an understanding of how much this belief system truly guides and directs our life, we are often rendered powerless to stop the cycles of self-defeating behavior. Confused and bewildered by what appears to be our complete inability to change our own behavior, we can often be left with thefeeling that we are no more than a mere spectator on the sidelines of our life, hapless victims of circumstance. Modern psychology and psychiatry has identified different levels of consciousness within our brains. The part of consciousness that we call our awareness is the part of the mind that carries out the normal, day-to-day type activities. Thoughts flow freely through our minds and are usually nothing more than shallow chatter about things we need to do today, or tomorrow, or basically focusing on a task at hand. This type of thinking is not deep or reflective, but rather simply functional. On a deeper, subconscious level, however, an entirely different type of thinking occurs. These thoughts are the thoughts that we may be vaguely aware of, but generally do not pay close attention to. These thoughts, which compose our deeply rooted belief system, are the very thoughts that truly direct and guide our behavior. They act as the rudders of our life, if you will, steering and directing us toward a predictable behavior, guided by a deeply held belief. It is these thoughts and beliefs which shape and define who we really are. They are also the foundation upon which the reality of our life is built by the decisions we make and the subsequent actions that we take. Efforts to simply change behavior without understanding the belief system that is compelling the behavior may be successful in the short-term. However, any long- term changes in behavior can only occur when one identifies and changes the belief the behavior is rooted in. Without that change, any efforts to establish a new behavior pattern will simply be met with defeat. The core belief will override even the most earnest efforts to change. If someone subconsciously believes he/she is not worthy of a healthy, loving relationship with someone, he/she will likely find themselves in relationships that are toxic and self destructive with the pattern repeating itself over and over again. Though outwardly they confess they are not deliberately seeking out those types of relationships" the deeply held belief that one does not deserve to be loved, will continue to draw, much like a magnet to an opposite pole, the opposite desired outcome; namely, another failed attempt at love. Eventually, after perhaps years of self defeat, you may begin to ask, "Why does this keep happening to me?" Or, in despondency and despair, you may conclude, "No matter how hard I try, nothing ever changes" Indeed, without recognizing the self-defeating belief that is driving the behavior and the negative outcome, nothing will ever change. We often speak of the power of the human will as a driving force that can overcome and accomplish anything. Though the will to achieve, succeed and overcome is indeed powerful, sheer will alone is not enough to transcend self defeating habit patterns rooted in the subconscious mind. If you truly desire to change, to transcend and to overcome behavior that repeats mistakes in your life, then the real work needs to be in identifying those beliefs and willfully and deliberately changing them. Only then will you be free of repeating the same mistakes. Miranda Esmonde-White, former National Ballet Company of Canada dancer and creator of the Esmonde Technique, has created a workout specifically designed for breast cancer survivors. "We developed specific exercises which safely and systematically increased the range of motion of the arm. We have since worked together giving workshops and lectures to increase awareness of both the exercises and the importance of rehabilitation." One of the major themes of The Red Shoes is, of course, its great ballet dancing. But equally as strong is another related theme which the shoes symbolize and which many dancers and others are unfortunately familiar with - sacrificing your family, friends, your life for your work, art, or dream. The red shoes are a reminder that you can't have it all and that if you are a dancer and are serious about your art, there is little room for anything else other than your chosen pursuit. In the film, young ingénue Victoria Page (played by prima ballerina Moira Shearer) is forced to choose between the chance to be a "great dancer" under the wing of impresario Boris Lermentov (played with breathtaking intensity by Anton Walbrook) and her life with her beloved husband, former musical director of the Lermentov company, Julian Craster (played by Marius Goring) in a parallel to Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Red Shoes, in which the magical shoes of the title take over a young girl and force to dance endlessly until she dies. Achieving the pinnacle of success in many fields of human endeavor requires an almost superhuman devotion that would seem to rule out any other pursuits, including love. Think of training for an Olympic gold medal; achieving fame in film, theater, or music; or becoming an world-renowned writer, artist, or intellectual, all of which require exceptional dedication and focus. While there are many artists who do have both family and career….how much energy can one devote to both and how long is this sustainable? Ultimately, the message of the film is that you will be forced to choose. And certainly there is a certain romantic appeal to this self-sacrifice, the driven individual giving up everything for his or her dream. But I think this impression is based on focusing on the dream and not the sacrifice, as well as failing to appreciate everything that sacrifice entails. The Red Shoes shows us that sacrifice in the starkest of terms, but it need not be that extreme to be just as tragic. Think of the athlete who spends almost every waking moment training, the composer hunched over the keyboard throughout the night, the academic ignoring his or her family to get one more article out. All of them are wearing the red shoes of Andersen's story, and if they don't take them off, they'll pay the price. The character Boris Lermontov says it perfectly in the film, "At the end of the evening she is tired, and wants to go home, but the Red Shoes are not tired. In fact, the Red Shoes are never tired." One's passion, desire and love for dance never tires. The dancer in the ballet who wears the shoes and inevitably dies from exhaustion is symbolic of flesh and bone. She is symbolic of the human body, time and mortality. It's something that every dancer no matter whether they are professionals or not have to face and it is something that no body on this planet can defy and that is the laws of time and how one day, despite all the drive in the world and the will and want to do it - the body will not keep up. The ballet of The Red Shoes symbolizes a dancers spirit - forever yearning to keep dancing, but the body will not go on forever. Please don't misunderstand, I do not mean to speak against pursuing dreams or goals, which can be an important source of meaning and joy in life. And it can seem at times that that particular meaning or joy can be achieved with nothing less than ultimate devotion. But few of us will be satisfied with just that one type of meaning or joy. For instance, successes are often the sweetest when shared, but there will be no one to share them with if you shun all human relationships in pursuit of your dream. Maybe the key is to not to abandon your dreams but to broaden them. The Olympic hopeful may be dreaming of that gold medal, the dancer in the corps de ballet becoming a principal dancer, but is he/she also dreaming of having no friends or lovers to experience that joy and pride with? What does that success mean to him/her? Will it make him/her happy, even given the extreme costs? I think the lesson is that we can pursue our dreams wholeheartedly only if our dreams themselves incorporate balance, balance between all good things life has to offer, rather than just success in our chosen fields. We can dream of success and people to share it with, which for most of us would be immensely more joyful and meaningful, and then we can pursue that "composite" dream with focus and dedication. Victoria Page couldn't find that balance, and she suffered the consequences. From her and the movie, we should lean to take control of our own "red shoes" before they take control of us. I came across this article from BrainBlogger.com and wanted to share because it's so true. "The American historian and educator Daniel Boorstin once wrote, "Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities." "We have just experienced an historic presidential campaign of unprecedented proportions, our economy is in peril, our military struggles to fight two wars, and our health care system is facing impending collapse. With all of these pressing issues weighing on the hearts and minds of America's families, what seems to be on the covers of every magazine and tabloid these days? Celebrity nonsense. Does anyone really care which teen-aged pop star will give birth next? Do we need to know every happening inside the birthday party of a power-couple's toddler? Is the diet that worked for the soap opera star really going to work for anyone else? As long as there have been people who pulled away from the proverbial pack, there have been people to follow them and idolize them. However, scientists have only recently defined the psychological phenomenon of "celebrity worship" as a type of parasocial relationship that can have unhealthy and addictive elements. Much research has been conducted about who engages in celebrity worship and what drives the compulsion. Celebrity worship for purely entertainment purposes likely reflects an extraverted personality and is most likely a healthy past time for most people. This type of celebrity worship involves harmless behaviors such as reading and learning about a celebrity. Intense personal attitudes towards celebrities, however, reflect traits of neuroticism. The most extreme descriptions of celebrity worship exhibit borderline pathological behavior and traits of psychoticism. This type of celebrity worship may involve empathy with a celebrity's failures and successes, obsessions with the details of a celebrity's life, and over-identification with the celebrity. One study of 372 participants examined celebrity worship, personality, coping style, general health, stress, positive and negative affect, and life satisfaction. The researchers concluded that celebrity worship is associated with poorer mental health, illustrated by characteristics of neuroticism and disengagement. Some studies have pointed out that people with poor mental health are more prone to extreme celebrity worship, while others conclude that depression, anxiety, and decreased self-esteem develop from unhealthy celebrity worship. Several studies have also demonstrated a connection between celebrity worship and drug and alcohol use, smoking, and eating disorders. Yet another study concluded that celebrity worship involves a psychological model based on absorption, which leads to delusions of actual relationships with celebrities, and addiction, which leads to a progressively stronger need to feel connected with the celebrity. Celebrity worship is not all bad. Idolizing or admiring someone for their accomplishments, and then pushing yourself to excel in the same way are positive elements. But, are we worshipping celebrities for the sake of being famous, or are we worshipping true heroes? Interestingly, participants in one study had similar measures for both heroes and celebrities. True heroes are people like our military men and women, our police officers and firefighters, our teachers and paramedics, and our mothers and fathers. These are the men and women who will stand the test of time and truly leave their mark on the world, unlike the athletes, movie stars, and singers who will fade into obscurity. If we confuse heroes and celebrities, we deprive ourselves of real role models. We should admire those who are well known because they are great, not those who seem great because they are well known."	eng	c0f5c740-6698-4d08-b279-a2b910b10fce	http://sheris-musings.tumblr.com/archive/2011/10
Category Archives: Lee Child In well-written crime fiction, readers develop very clear mental pictures of what the characters are like. That can include their physical appearance, mannerisms, speech patterns and lots more. And that's what can make it very difficult to bring a sleuth to television or films. Crime fiction fans want their favourite sleuths brought faithfully to the screen; after all, that's often why they see films or television series featuring those sleuths. At the same time, film and television are different media from the printed word. For instance, if a "bankable" star portrays a sleuth, film-makers and television producers often find that more people tune in or go to see the film. And some things translate to the visual better than others. So bringing a sleuth to the screen is not easy. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, though; as we all know, there've been lots of films and television shows based on crime fiction novels. They're not all very high-quality, but it's really interesting to see how film and television producers and directors conceive of some popular sleuths. For instance, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed by many different actors as diverse as Basil Rathbone and Benedict Cumberbatch. Conan Doyle describes Holmes as "…." Although Holmes has a distinctive appearance, it's really his manner and habits that make him unique. Feel free to differ with me if you do, but Jeremy Brett was especially skilled at bringing that character to life. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot has an even more distinctive appearance, as we read in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Here's how Captain Arthur Hastings describes his friend: "He was hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible." In other stories we learn that Poirot has "suspiciously black hair" despite being no longer young. Because of Poirot's distinctive appearance, it would be hard to imagine him, for instance, as a tall man with blond hair and no moustache, so there are some limits as to the kind of actor who could faithfully portray him. And yet, several actors, including Peter Ustinov and Albert Finney, have portrayed him. For me (so feel free to disagree if you do), David Suchet is Poirot. I even forgive the differences (most of the time ) between Christie's novels and the filmed stories if Suchet is in the lead role. Christie's Miss Marple is described in slightly less specific detail, and lots of different actors have portrayed her. For example, Geraldine McEwan, Angela Lansbury and Margaret Rutherford have taken that role. Who do you "see" as Miss Marple? For me, it's Joan Hickson. But that's just my view… For many people (including, so it is said), Colin Dexter himself, John Thaw was Inspector Morse. The two became much more closely associated than actors and their roles often are. In fact, Dexter's The Jewel That Was Ours actually started life as a televised episode of the Morse Series, The Wolvercote Tongue. The final Morse novel, The Remorseful Day, was brought to television just a couple of years before Thaw's own tragic death from cancer. It's said that Dexter has determined that no other actor will reprise the Morse role. I can see why. Sara Paretsky's Chicago private investigator V.I. Warshawski is a fit, athletic character with wavy brunette hair. Not much is made of her physical appearance, but she's a tough yet feminine sleuth. It's hard to get that balance on film, but in Jeff Kanew's 1991 film V.I. Warshawski, Kathleen Turner took the role. If you're a Warshawski fan who saw the film, what do you think of her performance? Did you believe her in the role? I must confess I wouldn't have thought of that casting, and it was hard for me to "buy" Turner as Warshawski, much as I respect Kathleen Turner as an actress. But perhaps that's just me… There've been at least two major portrayals of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander. In the Swedish series, Krister Henriksson took the title role. In the British series, Wallander was played by Kenneth Branagh. What do you think of these actors in that role? What about Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara in the role of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander? For me (again, just my opinion, so nothing's to say I'm right), Noomi Rapace does a highly effective job at making me believe her as Lisbeth Salander. So does Krister Henriksson as Wallander. Oh, and I've really enjoyed Jill Scott as Alexander McCall Smith's Mma. Precious Ramotswe. It's very likely that Tom Cruise will take the role of Lee Child's Jack Reacher in an upcoming film. Do you see him in that role? What about Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum in the upcoming filmed version of Stephanie Evanovich's One For the Money? The thing about well-written sleuths is that we almost feel that they're real people – or could be. That means that we notice it when an actor doesn't portray those characters faithfully. We also get drawn into the film or television production when an actor does "become" that sleuth. What about you? Which actors have done the best jobs of "becoming" your favourite sleuths? Which of your favourite sleuths would you like to see on film? Who'd play their roles? If you're a writer, who would you want to play your sleuth(s)? *NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Bruce Springsteen's TV Movie. Recently I had an interesting comment exchange with Bill Selnes at Mysteries and More From Saskatchewan(an excellent blog that I highly recommend) about pacing and timing in crime fiction. It's got me to thinking about how the pace of crime fiction novels has changed as time has gone by. In general, are today's crime novels faster-paced with more twists and action than novels of earlier years? On the surface of it, you might think the answer is "yes;" we can all think of novels where the action moves quickly and sometimes unexpectedly. And timing and pacing is often a part of what publishers use to sell books. How many books have you seen advertised where the blurb includes words and phrases such as "pulse-pounding," "action-packed," or "twists and turns?" I've seen a lot of them. That said, though, there are plenty of crime novels from the earlier days of the genre that also have lots of action and quick pacing and timing. And there are plenty of novels and series today that are both well-regarded and popular where the pacing isn't fast. So there's likely more to this question of pacing, timing and the drama in novels than it seems on the surface. And that's what makes the question an interesting one . One possibility is that sub-genre and author style also have a lot to do with it. For instance, the hard-boiled sub-genre made famous by authors such as Mickey Spillane and Dashiell Hammett tends to have a lot of action and drama. Novels such as Hammett's The Thin Man and Spillane's My Gun is Quick include a number of fight scenes, chases and so on. The events in the stories happen quickly and unexpectedly, too. That fast pacing is part of what makes the hardboiled sub-genre popular with its fans. Today's hardboiled series also feature quick pacing and timing and plenty of action. For instance, Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski doesn't have many dull moments. Neither does Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. James Ellroy's novels also feature plenty of action and quick pacing and timing. Hardboiled novels have always had lots of octane, so to speak, and that doesn't seem to have changed over time. The detective novel made famous by writers such as Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers and John Dickson Carr tends to have less fast-paced action. The focus in this genre is more on the mystery itself. There is violence (after all, they are murder mysteries) in these novels, and sometimes there are "high-octane" moments, but in general, they're more focused on the mystery – the puzzle at hand – than they are on fast-moving events. Of course, at least in Christie's case, that's not true for each novel she wrote. The Big Four, The Man in the Brown Suit, and N or M? are all examples of Christie novels where there's plenty of action, narrow escapes and so on. So this question of pacing and timing isn't entirely a matter of sub-genre (I'll get back to that in a minute). But, to use a proverbially very broad paintbrush, this kind of detective story tends not to focus as much on pace and action. That's true today, too. For instance, P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh series certainly includes plenty of "action" scenes. But the focus is on the mystery. That's also the case with Peter Robinson's Alan Banks series and Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series. Yes, there are fast-paced moments and twists and turns in the plots. But the emphasis isn't on those moments as much as it is on the cases these sleuths are working. Sub-genre does play a role in how much action there is in a novel, and how much pacing and timing there is. But it's not the only factor. Author style matters as well. I don't have a whole lot of research to support this but my guess is that author style plays a bigger role in a novel's "octane level" than it used to play, simply because there is so much more variety and diversity in crime fiction than there was. Authors have more flexibility, so their individual ways of expressing themselves come through more obviously. For example, Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series and his Precious Ramotswe series are both thoughtful, "quiet" series. There are certainly mysteries and in Mma. Ramotswe's world, there are cases that need to be solved. Events happen, people interact and so on. But both series move along at a quiet pace. And that's just the way some readers like their crime fiction. Some authors such as Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine and Margaret Yorke include action in their stories but it's often more of what you'd call psychological action. In other words, the pace isn't frantic in terms of one event happening after another. Rather, the "octane" comes from the buildup of psychological suspense. Other authors such as Lee Child and Leigh Russell write thrillers. Their novels have a lot of action in them. The pace is quick and that pacing and timing add a great deal to the suspense of the stories. Here too, the pacing seems to be affected by the sub-genre (thrillers do tend to move at a faster pace and have more dramatic events) and author style. With all of this, though, it's worth pointing out that times have changed. Today's crime fiction addresses sometimes very ugly issues in a way that wasn't always done in the past. Today's sleuths are more diverse than ever and live and work in more different kinds of contexts than ever. And today's crime fiction fans are savvier than ever. They don't want "cookie-cutter" plots (so there have to be well-written twists). They don't want novels that aren't engaging (so there has to be some action. Something has to happen). In that way, there is more room for drama, action, plot twists and so on than there was. And in that sense, crime fiction probably does include more novels with fast pacing and lots of plot twists than it did. It's a larger genre with more diversity. But modern crime fiction also includes plenty of novels and series where the pace is slower and where the focus is more on the mystery or the characters than it is on pacing and timing. And there are plenty of crime novels from bygone years that move at a fast pace and where there is all sorts of action and drama. That's where there's an argument that author style and sub-genre play important roles, too. In the end, crime fiction is affected by several factors, and that's what makes it such an interesting genre. That goes as much for its pacing and timing as it does for any other aspect of the genre. What are your thoughts on this question? Do you think today's crime fiction novels are faster-paced and more "high-octane" than novels of earlier times? If you think other factors are involved, what do you think they are? If you're a writer, how do you use pacing and timing in your work? Do you feel compelled to move things along really quickly and include lots of action? >One of the enduring sleuth types in crime fiction is the "lone wolf," who has little, if any, personal life and no permanent relationships. Of course, there are plenty of sleuths who have marriages and families; just ask Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti or Ruth Rendell's Reg Wexford. But the "lone wolf" sleuth is an interesting phenomenon. In many ways a sleuth with no real personal ties makes sense. Solving crimes is time-consuming, emotionally and physically draining, and sometimes, downright dangerous. So it's not easy to be a sleuth's "better half." That's especially true for sleuths who are really passionate about their work. On the other hand, the "lone wolf" sleuth can turn into a clichéd character if the character isn't well-drawn. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is an interesting example of a "lone wolf" sleuth. On one hand, he doesn't investigate cases alone; he partners with Watson and the two have an enduring friendship. On the other, Holmes never marries. He becomes smitten with Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia, but he doesn't date or seem particularly interested in an intimate relationship. Holmes says that he's afraid marriage might get in the way of his deductive capabilities, and didn't want any emotion to get in the way of his thinking process. That's what Holmes says; here, just for fun, is another take on why Holmes didn't marry. I can't take credit for this, but it was too funny not to pass along. Holmes fans should appreciate it… Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot never marries, either. While he, too, has an enduring friendship with Hastings, he also doesn't really have what you'd call a home life. He doesn't seem to have any objection to marriage; in fact, he assists in more than one "matchmaking." And in The Murder on the Links, he even plays Cupid for Hastings. Yet, he never "takes the plunge" himself. Practically the only time we see Poirot really show signs of attraction to a woman is when he meets the Countess Vera Rossakoff, a flamboyant and very accomplished jewel thief. In fact, as the years go by, she remains his ideal of what a woman should be. Perhaps he never marries because, after she disappears from his life, no other woman measures up… Several of the classic "hardboiled" detectives are what you might call "lone wolves." For example, Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe is unmarried. He meets and falls in love with socialite Linda Loring in The Long Goodbye, and she even asks him to marry her, but, at least in the novels, he doesn't (although there is evidence in later short stories that he ends up married to Loring). Marlowe is dedicated to his job, and passionate about righting wrongs. In fact, he seems to care more about his work than he does about meeting someone, which may be the reason he doesn't have a family. It could also be that he just doesn't want to be tied down, or that he's cynical about women. That makes sense, too, when you think about the number of times he's lied to and betrayed. Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer is also a "lone wolf." He has no real interest in marriage and certainly not in domesticity. In fact, many people have said that Hammer is misogynistic. He certainly has plenty of affairs, but no lasting intimate relationship. The only woman Hammer seems to truly respect is his secretary, Velda. Velda is, in her way, as tough as her boss is, and just as interested in their cases. That doesn't stop Hammer from getting superficially involved with dozens of women, though, and he doesn't really have what you'd call a home life. Throughout the series, though, it becomes obvious that Velda's in love with her boss, and inl 1966's The Black Alley, Hammer and Velda make it "official" and get engaged. More modern "lone wolves" have arguably become a little more complicated as characters. One reason for that is quite possibly that today's crime fiction fans are more sophisticated and want more "real" characters. So, one of the interesting changes in "lone wolves" has been that very often, they're now their own worst enemies. We see that very clearly in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch. Bosch has frequent relationships, but they don't last. At one point, he's married to Eleanor Wish, former FBI agent, and then professional poker player. Wish leaves Harry, though, although he still loves her. Later, she's killed. Bosch has several personal demons, among them a very painful childhood, the murder of his mother, and service in Viet Nam. He also has anger and authority issues. His devotion to his job, and to solving cases, along with those personal issues, arguably makes it hard for him to have a real long-term relationship. Very similar in many ways is Ian Rankin's John Rebus. Rebus is also passionately dedicated to his job. He's a heavy drinker with a gruff exterior, and not exactly warm and friendly. So it's no surprise that he's also somewhat of a loner. He's been married, but he and his wife were divorced years ago. Since then, he's had girlfriends, but not a permanent, lasting relationship. In fact, in The Black Book, Rebus himself mentions that his job has always been more important to him than any person. Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole is another example of a "lone wolf" who's very much his own worst enemy. Hole is an alcoholic who's also extremely dedicated to his job. He's also what's often called a "loose cannon." He's a brilliant detective, but he's not good at "playing by the rules" or using orthodox methods of catching criminals. Harry also has difficulty in his personal life. He loves his girlfriend, Rake Faulke, but their relationship is complicated by his drinking and his obsession with solving his cases. In some ways, Harry Hole is very self-destructive. Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, also a "lone wolf" (and, I admit, a personal favorite of mine) is also obsessed with his work. He certainly finds women attractive, and he's had several affairs, but no permanent relationships. He's a bachelor who's rather set in his ways, and who seldom lets people see his "softer side." He's got little patience and can be quite prickly. In The Riddle of the Third Mile, we learn that he was once very much in love, and in fact, that love affair was the reason that he never finished at Oxford. Since that time, Morse hasn't let his attraction to women get in the way his doing his job. In a sense, that makes him a very successful detective. After all, some of the women he falls for are suspects in his cases (e.g. The Daughters of Cain; The Jewel That Was Ours). On the other hand, he doesn't have what most people would call a personal life. Lee Child's Jack Reacher is also very much his own person, with no permanent ties. He's had girlfriends, most notably Jodie Garber, who "officially" becomes Reacher's girlfriend in Tripwire. However, Reacher is a drifter who never stays anywhere for very long. In fact, Lee Child was once asked if Jodie was going to be "regular" and whether the right woman was going to come along. Child's response was, "I'd get killed if Reacher ever settled down. I tease the readers with the possibility." The "lone wolf" sleuth with few ties and not much of a home life can be clichéd if the character isn't interesting. Yet, some of the more compelling protagonists in crime fiction fall into this category. What do you think? Do you enjoy these sleuths? Or do you prefer sleuths like Caroline Graham's Inspector Barnaby or Liza Marklund's Annika Bengtzon, who have domestic ties? >In real life and in crime fiction, when there's a murder, there's often a major suspect. Sometimes, that suspect is even arrested. Even when the suspect isn't arrested, it's often after that person becomes, "a person of interest" in a case that the sleuth is called in to clear the suspect's name. It may be easy or it may be more difficult, but many well-written crime fiction plots center around a person who's suspected of a crime, and the sleuth's attempt to clear that person of suspicion. That sort of plot can be especially suspenseful if it's the sleuth him or herself who's suspected of the crime. That's the case in Simon Brett's What Bloody Man is That? In that novel, down-and-out-actor Charles Paris tries to begin his comeback by joining a provincial repertory company in their production of Macbeth. Also in the cast is Warnock Belvedere, an obnoxious actor who, in one way or another, has managed to make enemies of nearly everyone in the cast, including Paris. One night after rehearsal, Paris drinks too much, falls asleep and gets locked in the theater. He wakes up the next morning to find that Belevedere's been poisoned, and he's a major suspect. He had a motive to kill Bevedere and his drinking hasn't made him popular. Now, Paris has to sift through everyone else's alibis and find out who really killed Belvedere in order to keep himself out of prison. Lee Child's drifter, Jack Reacher, faces a similar situation in The Killing Floor. Reacher has decided to visit tiny Margrave, Georgia, to find out more about Blind Blake, a blues musician who was supposed to have died in Margrave. Almost no sooner does Reacher arrive in town when he finds himself under arrest for a murder he didn't commit. Now Reacher has to look into the town's history and some very dark secrets that some of the townspeople are keeping in order to clear his name. With help from a local police officer, Officer Roscoe, Reacher finds that some very powerful local people have conspired to hide several secrets – including murder. Sisters Libby and Bertie Simmons have to clear their names in Isis Crawford's A Catered Christmas. The story starts off innocently enough when the Simmons sisters, who own and run A Little Taste of Heaven, a catering and bake shop, get the opportunity to compete in a televised cooking show, The Hortense Calabash Cooking Show. They realize there's going to be stiff competition, but things turn deadly when one of the show's ovens blows up, killing the show's host, Hortense Calabash. Hortense Calabash was heartily disliked, and all the competitors – including the Simmons sisters – had reason to kill her. So, in order to clear their names, the sisters investigate to find out who the real murderer is. That's also the reason that Agatha Raison investigates the murder of Geraldine Jankers in M.C. Beaton's Love, Lies and Liquor. Agatha's been persuaded to spend a holiday with her ex-husband, at Snoth-on-Sea, a resort town he knew as a child. The town, and the Palace Hotel, where he's booked rooms for them, have become seedy shadows of their former selves over the years, and Agatha is eager to leave. James persuades her to stay for a day or so until he can make other arrangements for a holiday. That's just long enough for Agatha to become a suspect in a murder. One night at dinner, she gets into an argument with Geraldien Jankers and James gets into a fight with Geraldine's son. Later, Geraldine is found strangled on the beach – with Agatha's scarf. Agatha is soon arrested for murder and it's not until she's able to prove that she couldn't have committed the crime that the police free her to leave Snoth. By then, though, she's intrigued, and wants to solve the crime. Besides, she may not be an official suspect, but the police don't trust her and don't like her very much, and Agatha wants to prove conclusively that she isn't guilty of any complicity in the crime. So she and her team of detectives investigate the murder to find the real killer. Sometimes, we get absorbed in a "clearing the name" mystery because the suspect is such a likable person that we don't want her or him to be guilty. We cheer the sleuth on as he or she investigates. That's the case in Agatha Christie's Five Little Pigs (AKA Murder in Retrospect), in which Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of famous painter Amyas Crale. Crale's wife, Caroline, was tried and convicted for his murder, and died in prison. Fifteen years after her death, their daughter, Carla Lemarchant, asks Poirot to investigate the murder and clear her mother's name, even though she's dead. To do so, Poirot gets the perspective of each of the five people who were on the scene the day of the murder. Each of them has a different perspective on Caroline, and it's through their stories that Poirot finds out who really killed Amyas Crale. Caroline Crale herself isn't a purely likable character, although we sympathize with her. However, her daughter, Carla, is. We want Carla to be right. We want her mother cleared of murder, because that's what Carla wants. It's in part that sympathy that keeps the reader's interest. We also very much like the character of Harriet Vane, who's arrested and tried for murder in Dorothy Sayers' Strong Poison. She's suspected of having killed her lover, Philip Boyes, and goes on trial for her life. Lord Peter Wimsey attends the trial and finds her so sympathetic that he actually falls in love with her. He determines to clear her name and sets out to find out who the real killer is, so that he can prove her innocent. As Lord Peter and his friend, Amanda Climpson, investigate the murder, they find that more than one person had a motive to kill Philp Boyes. There's also an interesting level of suspense created when the sleuth has to clear an unpleasant person's name. Hercule Poirot does that in Agatha Christie's Mrs. McGinty's Dead. In that novel, Superintendent Spence asks Poirot to investigate the murder of a village charwoman whom everyone thinks was killed by her lodger, James Bentley. Poirot is singularly unimpressed with Bentley, who's unprepossessing, to say the least. He's made almost no friends, and Poirot himself is sorely tempted to let the case go once he meets Bentley. Bentley himself doesn't even seem to want Poirot's help. Yet, Poirot doesn't want to see an innocent man convicted of murder, even an unlikable man. So he visits the village of Broadhinney and investigates the murder. In the end, he's able to clear Bentley's name. In Coyote Waits,Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee, faces a similar challenge in the case of the murder of his friend, Delbert Nez. Nez is on a routine investigation for vandalism when he's murdered. When Chee arrives at the scene, he finds Ashie Pinto, a local alcoholic with a bad reputation and a worse temper, with the murder weapon. Right away, Chee assumes that Pinto is Nez' killer, and arrests him. Janet Pete, a Washington-based lawyer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is sent to defend Pinto, and she runs up against Chee's strong prejudice against his unpleasant suspect. When Pete refuses to make a deal with the prosecutors to avoid a trial, Chee realizes that Pinto might be "railroaded" in a system that doesn't offer much to poor, alcoholic, unfriendly defendants. So Chee begins to investigate more deeply. What he finds is that Nez' death is connected to a larger case involving a a hidden fortune and a valuable historical discovery. In my own Dying to See You, when Craig Peterson, an up-and-coming professor of criminal justice is murdered, one of his research partners, Jered Carr, is suspected of the murder. There's good reason, too. As it turns out, Peterson's been having an affair with Carr's wife. Carr, though, insists that he's not guilty and asks the third member of the research team, former police officer-turned-professor Joel Williams, to find the real killer and clear Carr's name. Mystery novels that feature suspects whose names need to be cleared can have an interesting layer of suspense, especially if the suspect is the sleuth. Even if it isn't, we get involved. We cheer for the sympathetic victim-of-circumstances. Or we get involved because we find the suspect unpleasant; that, in itself, can be compelling. Do you like plots where someone's name needs to be cleared? Or do you prefer plots where there is no clear suspect? >Most people don't want to believe that a friend, relative or acquaintance is a murderer. We'd far rather blame a nameless stranger. That could be one reason why the "suspicious stranger" is so common a theme in crime fiction. We see "the stranger" in three very common roles. One of them is as the suspect; the other characters don't know much about the stranger, so it's easy to be convinced that the stranger is a murderer. Another role is as the victim. When the victim is a "stranger in town," this can add to the suspense as the sleuth tries to figure out where the stranger came from, who he or she is, and how he or she came to be murdered. Some crime fiction also casts the sleuth into the role of the "mysterious stranger." When the sleuth is a stranger, she or he can take an "outsider's" perspective on the other characters, and that can provide an added layer of interest. We see this kind of suspicion of a stranger in Agatha Christie's Mrs. McGinty's Dead, in which Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of a charwoman in the small village of Broadhinney. No-one wants to believe that any of the "nice" people of Broadhinney could be responsible for a murder, so everyone is quite ready to believe that she was killed by her lodger, James Bentley, an "outsider" whom nobody likes very much. A few of the characters also say that the murder's been committed by a wandering tramp. What Poirot finds, though, is that the murder was committed by someone much "closer to home" than anyone wants to believe. A stranger is also blamed for murder in Rita Mae Brown's Rest in Pieces. In that novel, handsome model Blair Bainbridge has just moved to the small town of Crozet, Virginia. Shortly after he arrives, pieces of a body begin to turn up in various parts of town. Everyone's happy to blame Blair for the murder; after all, nobody knows him very well and besides, the body didn't turn up until after he arrived. His next-door-neighbor, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, Brown's sleuth, doesn't believe Bainbridge is necessarily guilty, even after another body turns up on his property, so she starts looking for answers. As it turns out, the murderer is someone who's no stranger at all to Crozet. In W. J. Burley's Wycliffe and Death in a Salubrious Place, there's also a clear example of a stranger being blamed for a killing. Young Sylvie is found at the bottom of a quarry with her head bashed in. At first, it looks as though it might have been an accident, but soon it's clear that she was murdered. No-one in her Scilly Isles village wants to believe that one of the locals could have murdered Sylvie, so everyone blames Vince Peters, a recently-arrived teen pop idol. Inspector Wycliffe, who's called in to investigate the death, is not so sure, so he begins to look into Sylvie's background. What he finds is that she's not as innocent as she seemed, and more than one person might have wanted her dead. Sometimes, of course, a stranger becomes the victim. When that happens, the sleuth has to try to find out as much as possible about the victim. That's what happens in Agatha Christie's The Clocks. Colin Lamb, who works for British Intelligence, is visiting the village of Crowdean, on the trail of a spy ringleader. As he's walking along Wlibraham Crescent, looking for a particular address, a young woman comes rushing out of one of the houses, screaming that there's a dead man in the house. The dead man turns out to be a stranger with no identification. Lamb takes this unusual case to his father's friend, Hercule Poirot, and challenges Poirot to solve it. With Poirot's help, Lamb and Detective Dick Hardcastle find that the stranger had an unusual connection to Wilbraham Crescent, and that connection led to his death. Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie also features a stranger who becomes a victim. In that novel, Flavia de Luce, who's a rather unusual sleuth (she's an 11-year-old girl who's passionate about chemistry) gets involved in a murder in the peaceful village of Bishop's Lacey. Late one night, Flavia overhears an argument between her father and a red-headed stranger who appears at her house, Buckshaw. The next morning, she finds the body of the stranger in the family's cucumber patch. Flavia's father, Colonel de Luce, is accused of the murder, and Flavia soon finds out that he and the stranger have a tragic past history. Still, she's convinced that her father is innocent of the stranger's death and sets out to prove it. In both of these novels, we find out that there's a connection between the stranger and the locals; that's also true in Louise Penny's The Brutal Telling, which takes place in and near the rural Québec village of Three Pines. The bludgeoned body of a mysterious man known only as The Hermit is found in the bistro owned by Olivier Brulé and his partner, Gabri Dubeau. No-one in the village admits to knowing the hermit, and the evidence shows that the man wasn't killed in the bistro. Still, Inspector Armand Gamache and his team soon find out that there's more to this murder than a random killing, and that the dead man was, indeed, connected to the village. It can also make for an interesting storyline when the sleuth is a "stranger in town." That kind of plotline allows the sleuth to take a more objective view of the suspects and the other locals. It also allows for an interesting level of suspense. For example, in Ellery Queen's Calamity Town, Queen makes his first visit to the small New England town of Wrightsville, where he's planning a quiet rest. Before long, though, he's caught up in the family drama of the locally-powerful Wrights, with whom he's staying. The youngest Wright daughter, Nora, has married Jim Haight, who's returned to Wrightsville after mysteriously disappearing three years earlier. No-one in the family likes Jim very much, and neither does anyone in town. When Jim's sister Rosemary is poisoned at a New Year's Eve party, everyone's only too happy to blame Jim for the crime. Queen, however, isn't so sure. When he starts to ask questions and get involved in the case, he's regarded with deep suspicion. Not only is he defending the town's choice for scapegoat, but also, he's a stranger, too. At one point, there's even talk that Queen himself might have committed the crime… Lee Child's sleuth, Jack Reacher, is almost always a stranger to the towns he visits. He's a drifter who rarely stays anywhere for very long. In most of the novels in which Reacher appears, he's hitching a ride or has ended up in a particular place by chance. That means he's got an "outsider's" perspective on the crimes he investigates. That in itself can get him in trouble. For instance, in Killing Floor, Reacher stops in the small town of Margrave, Georgia, to follow a whim; he wants to find out more about Blind Blake, a blues musician who supposedly died there. Before he knows it, Reacher has been arrested and jailed for murder. With help from Officer Roscoe, a local detective who helps to prove his innocence, Reacher works to find out who the real killer is. Along the way, he uncovers dark secrets and a dangerous conspiracy. Agatha Christie's Crooked House is also an interesting example of a sleuth who's also a stranger. This novel is focused on the Leonides family and its patriarch, Aristide Leonides. He and his much-younger wife, Brenda, live with their extended family in the family home, Three Gables. Leonides' granddaughter, Sophie, falls in love with Charles Hayward in Cairo during World War II, but the two agree not to make their engagement official until the war is over. When Sophie returns to Three Gables after the war, she finds that her grandfather has been poisoned with his own eyedrops. She's now unwilling to marry Charles until the murder is solved, so Charles determines to find out who killed Aristide Leonides. He becomes a house guest at the Leonides home, and soon finds that almost everyone in the family had a motive for murder. While Charles Hayward himself isn't a suspect in the killing, it's very interesting to see how the family reacts to this "outsider." What's your view? Do you enjoy the suspense of the "stranger in town" motif? If you do, which are your favorite "stranger in town" novels?	eng	e215bff9-4e2d-4679-bacb-7f080f42161f	http://margotkinberg.wordpress.com/category/lee-child/
Hera : GDP Unholy Alliance of John Maynard Keynes 01 Jul 2012 20:03:00 GMT944abf2b-d1be-4bf2-990d-438cb0e377e9:477205Ron Hera0 the greatest modern champion of central economic planning was the 20th century English economist John Maynard Keynes.  Keynes, who was a political socialist and for a time a central banker, advocated the idea that the government should play a large, active role in the economy.  Among the consequences of Keynes' economic theories, whether intended or unintended, is the fact that Western economies today are characterized by large, central governments, central banks and massive debts.</p> <p>According to Dr. Andrew Gelman, Professor of Statistics and Political Science at Columbia University, "the law of unintended consequences is what happens when a simple system tries to regulate a complex system.  The political system is simple.  It operates with limited information (rational ignorance), short time horizons, low feedback, and poor and misaligned incentives.  Society, in contrast, is a complex, evolving, high-feedback, incentive-driven system.  When a simple system tries to regulate a complex system you often get unintended consequences."  Professor Gelman's statement seems equally apropos to central banking.</p> <p>Government policies based on Keynesian theories and the institution of central banking form a nexus of central economic planning.  Control of the central planning process is a winner-take-all proposition for businesses.  In the U.S., the result is an unholy alliance of the U.S. federal government, the Federal Reserve (along with the largest U.S. banks) and the largest U.S. corporations.  The logical chain beginning with Keynes' fundamental idea that government, supported by a central bank, should play a large and active role in the economy sets the stage for a centrally planned economy and ultimately produces a corporate state.</p> <p>The U.S. economy is locked in a downward spiral of economic decline.  By growing in size, and by engaging in ever larger economic interventions, the U.S. federal government became itself a material cause of the recession that began in 2007.  By attempting to grow the economy through monetary expansion, i.e., consumer spending fueled by debt, the Federal Reserve destroyed savings and fueled a series of disastrous economic bubbles, culminating in the housing bubble.  At the same time, the largest U.S. banks engaged in reckless lending and high-stakes gambling on hundreds of trillions in over the counter (OTC) derivatives.  OTC derivatives, which amount to risky, largely un-backed wagers, were the root cause of the "too big to fail" doctrine that has virtually bankrupted Western governments since 2008.  By seeking ever greater influence over Washington D.C. and by seeking to generate higher profits by cutting production in the U.S., the largest U.S. corporations undermined the U.S. market and economy.  The U.S. federal government did virtually nothing to prevent the destructive developments because of the influence of the largest U.S. corporations.</p> <p>Following Keynesian economic theories, the policy response of the U.S. federal government to the recession that began in 2007 and of the financial crisis that began in 2008 was to expand the government further and at a more rapid pace.  In other words, some of the root causes of the economic imbalances that lead to the recession and financial crisis (the relative size of the government and the resulting economic distortions) were compounded.  As a consequence, the so-called "double dip recession" in the U.S. that began in the second half of 2011 will be longer and ultimately more severe than the economic downturn of 2007-2009. </p> <p>The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) indicates international shipping returning to crisis levels.  Since the U.S. is the world's largest economy and has a large trade deficit, the BDI suggests that the U.S. is in a recession.</p> <p><b>Leviathan: The Size of the State</b></p> <p>Originally a sea monster referred to in the Bible and, in demonology, one of the seven princes of Hell, as well as its gatekeeper, the name Leviathan was adopted by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes to refer to an artificial political order, i.e., to the institution of the state.  Hobbes was concerned with the distinction between individual rights and the powers of sovereign governments and he elaborated the idea of the social contract.  When a government taxes its citizens, it implicitly asserts the right of the government over the property rights of individuals and presupposes that the government can make better use of economic resources than households, individual entrepreneurs, businesses and private investors.</p> <p>In theory, the government's use of economic resources accomplishes goals that privately owned businesses cannot, such as national defense or emergency response services, i.e., things that, by their nature, are not economically productive or profitable but still necessary for society.  In contrast, embarking upon idealistic projects such as "creating jobs" or "expanding home ownership" encroaches on the productive elements of the economy.  However, governments are inefficient compared to privately owned businesses due to the absence of competition.  Further, the record of history suggests an inability on the part of central planners to make superior economic decisions.</p> <p>Government encroachment on the private sector, like a self fulfilling prophecy, often magnifies the reasons why government intervention was originally believed to be necessary.  For example, when the U.S. federal government became involved in education through federally guaranteed student loans, the result was that the cost of a college education rose towards the limit of what students could borrow and repay during their careers simply because the loans were guaranteed by the government.  The guarantees produced more and riskier loans, larger loans and higher education costs.</p> <p>When the U.S. federal government promoted home ownership for minorities and the poor, mortgage loan guarantees resulted in higher home prices and contributed to the sub-prime lending debacle where banks originated loans to unqualified borrowers in order to sell them to government sponsored entities (GSEs), i.e., to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and to investors as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other mortgage backed securities (MBS).</p> <p>Banks were certainly to blame for knowingly making bad loans, which is fraud, but the conditions that made the problem possible existed substantially because of government intervention in the housing market, i.e., opening the door to fraud was an unintended consequence of policies intended to increase lending to unqualified, low income borrowers.  Of course, the U.S. federal government did not compel lenders to commit fraud, thus accountability for the U.S. mortgage disaster is shared by the federal government, which interfered with the free market, pursued misguided policies and failed in terms of regulatory oversight and law enforcement, and by banks, which engaged in widespread mortgage related fraud.</p> <p>Governments redistribute wealth and manipulate economic activity through taxes, subsidies, guarantees, regulations and so forth, but they do not produce new wealth.  Government spending may be for good purposes, or at least stem from good intentions, but it unavoidably favors businesses with close ties to the government over those that are taxed but that do not benefit.  Despite the theoretically higher moral purposes of lofty government undertakings, government programs that overlap the private sector divert economic resources to businesses that have the favor of politicians minus the cost of government, thus producing economic distortions and a net loss of wealth for society.</p> <p>The Rahn curve is an economic theory proposing that there is an optimal level of government spending, 15% to 25% of gross domestic product (GDP), to maximize economic growth.  As the government grows larger, economic growth is curtailed and, eventually, the economy contracts, crushed under the burden of government.   As the government grows in size relative to the economy, not only is economic growth compromised, but the potential for, and the cost of, government waste, fraud and abuse increases.</p> <p><b>How the Government Destroys Jobs</b></p> <p>While politicians extol the theoretical benefits of ever more government control of the economy, e.g., through increased regulation, from the standpoint of individual entrepreneurs, businesses and private investors, the government is a nuisance, an impediment to wealth creation, and the source of countless costs and risks.  The larger the government becomes relative to the size of the economy, the more it tends to discourage economic activity.  Although roughly 70% of U.S. jobs are created by small businesses, ranging from family owned businesses to high technology startups, the burden of government falls disproportionately on them because they have fewer resources with which to administer and to demonstrate compliance with government regulations.</p> <p>When large companies are audited or investigated by any of several government agencies, their accounting, legal and compliance departments are well equipped to deal with such matters.  However, when a small company faces the same hurdles or seeks government permits, licenses or certifications, its operations are directly impacted and the associated accounting, legal and regulatory compliance costs can cause the business to lose money or to fail.  In the event of an audit or investigation, small business owners in the U.S. generally seek to comply immediately and often pay fines or penalties without contest in order to end the government's interference.  While large companies can afford to dispute the government, small businesses face the equivalent of extortion.</p> <p>As a practical matter, small businesses in the U.S. are permitted to operate at the sole discretion of government bureaucrats that can effectively shut down small businesses without any evidence of wrongdoing.  Setting aside the fact that small business owners live in constant and well justified fear of their own government, the result is a stifling of economic activity and a net loss of jobs.  For example, traditional small businesses in the U.S., i.e., sole proprietorships, increasingly avoid hiring employees. </p> <p>Free market competition and the inherent uncertainty of economic conditions provide ample risk for startup businesses.  A disproportionately large government relative to the size of the economy damages economic activity and discourages investment in new businesses.  The aggregate overhead of government regulations and regulatory compliance, along with taxes and potential penalties, e.g., the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), increases business costs, amplifies business risks and further increases the burden of regulatory compliance.  The result of systematically increasing the costs and risks of doing business-in lock step with the size of government-is to reduce the rate of business formation and to encourage investors to look elsewhere to find returns. </p> <p>If the U.S. government, currently almost 45% of GDP, desired to create jobs, the correct policy would be to greatly reduce the countless regulations, taxes and fees that encumber small businesses.  The path to job creation is for the government to reduce job destruction.  Since no political will to reduce the size of the government exists, however, continued shrinking real GDP and permanent workforce reduction can be expected.</p> <p><b>Money Out of Thin Air</b></p> <p>Central banks, such as the Federal Reserve, are examples of central economic planning, i.e., they control the money supply and exercise centralized control over the value and cost of money through interest rates, bank reserve ratios, monetary inflation and by other means.  In contrast to the government's central planning for the putative public good, the Federal Reserve engages in central planning for the benefit of banks.  Like the U.S. federal government, the Federal Reserve, through monetary mechanisms, distorts spending and investment patterns, redistributes wealth and preempts the financial and economic decisions of households, individual entrepreneurs, businesses and private investors.</p> <p>When a central bank increases the money supply beyond the level necessary to support a sustainable economy or population growth, it destroys the value of savings and wages by diluting the value of money and causing prices to rise.  Wall Street embraces the Federal Reserve because easy monetary policies provide an inexpensive way to finance operations and to expand, but there is a cost.  Inflationary monetary policies favor speculators over savers and debt over genuine capital formation.</p> <p>Banks do not create wealth.  The structure of the financial system, where debt-based money is created <i>ex nihilo</i>, virtually guarantees banks a piece of the action whenever wealth is created.  When debt service (principal and interest payments) is attached to the income streams of consumers and businesses, excess production is diverted from capital formation into the coffers of banks.  The Federal Reserve, therefore, is at the core of a system where, over time, wealth accrues to banks while capital formation is reduced, ironically increasing the need to borrow.  The majority of entrepreneurs and businesses have little choice but to borrow and, even if they are successful, the economy as a whole may still suffer due to increased debt levels relative to GDP.</p> <p>Keynesians embrace the Federal Reserve's un-backed, fiat money because it permits the government to borrow and spend freely based on the theory that stimulating the economy through deficit spending produces economic growth at a faster pace than debt accumulates.  However, as a function of debt service, the number of dollars that must be borrowed and spent to generate each new dollar of GDP becomes larger as the total amount of debt grows. </p> <p>The result is debt saturation where further debt funded increases in GDP are impossible and where, therefore, existing government debt cannot be retired, i.e., the result of Keynes' theory, taken to an extreme, is government insolvency and sovereign default.  Default, of course, can take the form of monetary inflation in order to debase the currency and reduce the real value of debt, e.g., the Federal Reserve's monetary easing and continued accommodative monetary policy.</p> <p><b>Keynes and The Corporate State</b></p> <p>The U.S. economy is anything but a free market today.  In fact, the U.S. government increasingly resembles an oligarchy in which the oligarchs are large corporations, i.e., a "corporatocracy".  Thus, the illegitimate offspring of the grand government envisaged by Keynes and the institution of central banking is a corporate state.</p> <p>Without a large government, businesses have little incentive to influence it, but with the government (local, state and federal) representing nearly half of the U.S. economy, influencing the government is a mission-critical objective for every company.  The size of government implied by Keynesian economics provides motive and opportunity but only the largest corporations have the means to succeed.</p> <p>The goals of businesses seeking to influence the government include winning government business, mandating consumption of products and services (from child car seats to health insurance), avoiding taxes, guaranteeing profits, creating regulatory loopholes, protecting markets, eliminating competition, socializing losses and so forth.</p> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2" width="265" valign="bottom"> <p align="center"><b>Obama</b></p> </td> <td colspan="2" width="276" valign="bottom"> <p align="center"><b>Romney</b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Citigroup Inc </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$736,771 </b></p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Citigroup Inc </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$57,050 </b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Columbia University </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$547,852 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>Bain & Co</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$52,500 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>General Electric </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$529,855 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>Bain Capital</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$74,500 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Goldman Sachs </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$1,013,091 </b></p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Goldman Sachs </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$367,200 </b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Google Inc </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$814,540 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Bank of America </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$126,500 </b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Harvard University </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$878,164 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Barclays</b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$157,750 </b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>IBM Corp </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$532,372 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>Blackstone Group</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$59,800 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169808,799 </b></p> </td> <td width="180112,250 </b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Latham & Watkins </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$503,295 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Credit Suisse Group </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$203,750 </b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Microsoft Corp </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$852,167 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>EMC Corp</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$117,300 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Morgan Stanley </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$512,232 </b></p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p><b>Morgan Stanley </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$199,800 </b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>National Amusements Inc </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$563,798 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>HIG Capital</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$186,500 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Sidley Austin LLP </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$600,298 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>Kirkland & Ellis</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$132,100 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Skadden, Arps et al </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$543,539 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>Marriott International</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$79,837 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Stanford University </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$595,716 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>PriceWaterhouseCoopers </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$118,250 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>Time Warner </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$624,618 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>Sullivan & Cromwell</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$79,250 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p><b>UBS AG </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$532,674 </b></p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p><b>UBS AG </b></p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right"><b>$73,750 </b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>University of California </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$1,648,685 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>The Villages</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$97,500 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>US Government </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$513,308 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>Vivint Inc</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$80,750 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="169" valign="bottom"> <p>WilmerHale LLP </p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$550,668 </p> </td> <td width="180" valign="bottom"> <p>Wells Fargo</p> </td> <td width="96" valign="bottom"> <p align="right">$61,500 </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="1693,603,567</b></p> </td> <td width="180810,050</b></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="4" width="541" valign="bottom"> <p align="center"> Political campaign contributions indicating U.S. Federal Reserve Primary Dealers (Source: opensecrets.org)</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The influence of Wall Street over Washington D.C. through political campaign contributions, corporate lobbyists and revolving doors (where the same individuals alternate between closely linked private sector jobs and government posts) is almost absolute.  Lobbyists are intimately involved in writing legislation that is often rubberstamped by the U.S. Congress, i.e., passed without reading or meaningful debate.  The largest corporations support political candidates through campaign contributions and by funding political action committees that, among other things, use corporate public relations tools for political purposes, i.e., propaganda.  Key government posts are consistently held by individuals with clear conflicts of interest and the existence of such conflicts is routinely ignored.</p> <p>The current reality of the United States is that the largest corporations have hijacked the Keynesian central planning powers of the federal government and have used these powers to encourage ever larger and more direct interventions in the economy for their own benefit, as well as laws and regulations that serve as a barrier to free market competition.  U.S. regulators, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appear to have been captured by the industries they are intended to regulate.  Government regulators selectively enforce regulations, often against small businesses and growing companies, such as organic dairy farmers, protecting the interests of the largest corporations from small businesses, free market competition and consumer choice.</p> <p>The largest U.S. corporations (including oil companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron; drug companies like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline; agribusiness companies like Archer Daniels Midland, which are heavily subsidized by the U.S. federal government; agricultural biotechnology companies like Monsanto; military contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon and General Dynamics; and banks like Bank of America, J. P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) have not only been the beneficiaries of government expansion, deficit spending and central economic planning, but, considering political campaign funding practices, have become the de facto oligarchs of America.</p> <p><b>Sliding Into the Keynesian Abyss</b></p> <p>The decline of the U.S. economy is the logical outcome of Keynesian economics, which enshrines central economic planning and embraces central banking.  The unholy alliance of the federal government, the Federal Reserve and Wall Street has all but eliminated capitalism and has transformed the United States from a burgeoning free market economy into a failing corporate state.</p> <p>The U.S. federal government, the Federal Reserve and Wall Street each played a role in the progression from central economic planning and central banking to a corporate state.  Politicians used Keynesian economics to justify big government, a welfare state and budget deficits.  The Federal Reserve sought to grow the economy through monetary expansion, focusing on consumption but ignoring debt levels and inadvertently encouraging financial speculation.  At the same time, Wall Street sought higher profits both by eliminating production (and jobs) in the U.S. and by sparing no expense to influence the government.  The resulting corporate state undermined capitalism and the free market in the United States and produced a downward spiral of economic decline from which there is no escape without fundamental reforms.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src=" width="1" height="1">Federal reserveGDPOTC derivativesCFTCSECGross Domestic ProductSecurities and Exchange CommissionGoldman SachsMorgan Stanleycollateralized debt obligationsObamacarePfizerCommodities and Futures Trading CommissionKeynesian economicsWells FargoFood and Drug AdministrationGlaxoSmithKlineLockheed MartinBank of AmericaGeneral DynamicsMBSfederal government debtRahn curveCDOsmortgage backed securitiesLeviathanJ.P. Morgan ChaseFDAMonsantoArcher Daniels MidlandNorthrop GrummanRaytheonover the counter derivativesJohn Maynard KeynesJohnson & JohnsonBehemothBoeingCitigroupZiz Fiscal authorized opportunity women probably and were with translated style problemRent Seeking and the Flight of Capital 20 Jul 2010 01:00:00 GMT944abf2b-d1be-4bf2-990d-438cb0e377e9:348905Ron Hera1 productive elements of the US economy are caught between powerful financial interests, e.g., banks seeking speculative gains, political constituencies seeking entitlements and government entities at all levels whose budgets and deficits are too large compared to their revenues. All three factions are competing for the same economic resources and all three are net consumers of wealth. The triumph of any one faction or of any combination thereof, promises to erode capital and to encumber production and economic growth in the future. As a consequence, capital can be expected to flow away from the United States to other parts of the world.<br /><br />If banks dominate over government, for example, ever larger shares of tax revenues will likely flow to banks as a consequence of interest payments and taxes will certainly rise despite inevitable austerity measures. If government triumphs at the expense of banks, setting aside questions related to bank failures, bailouts or sovereign defaults, there is no reason to believe that government entities will become fiscally responsible or that the pattern of government expansion, as a percent of GDP, will reverse in the foreseeable future. The banking and financial services industries also represent a disproportionate share of US GDP. Political constituencies seeking entitlements are, in part, a reaction against and a consequence of disproportionate growth of government and of the banking and financial services industries. In advocating for or against any of the above factions, what seems to be ignored is where sustainable economic growth will come from in the future.<br /><br />Surrounded on all sides are entrepreneurs and private capital, which are the historical engines of US economic growth. As the nation struggles to recover from the unprecedented global recession and the financial crisis that began in 2008, the competition between banks, government entities and political constituencies seeking entitlements represents a diversion of wealth and future production into economically unsustainable pursuits, such as bank profits, government stimulus or social welfare programs.  In economic terms, the relationship of banks, government entities and political constituencies seeking entitlements to the productive elements of the economy can be described as one of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" seeking</a>.<br /> </div> <blockquote> <div>Rent seeking is a relationship where an individual, company or other organization seeks income by capturing the production of others through manipulation or exploitation of the financial, legal or political environment, rather than through ordinary market participation or the production of wealth. Analogous to parasitism in biology, rent seeking means obtaining an economic gain at the expense of others without any reciprocal benefit. Common examples of rent seeking include tariffs sought by industries for no purpose other than to boost profit margins and efforts by special interest groups to redistribute wealth in their favor by shifting tax burdens or government spending where there is no reciprocal benefit to any other group in society.</div> </blockquote> <div><br />Businesses that produce physical goods, i.e., real production, along with labor and existing capital derived from past production surpluses are the targets of rent seeking strategies. The central question for economists is whether rent seeking is sustainable as an economic paradigm, i.e., as the dominant form of economic relationship in an economy. If so, spending by those who successfully gain control of wealth will stimulate economic activity in a sustainable way and the economy will return to genuine growth. For example, economic growth might return as bank profits trickle down through the economy; or as government borrowing and spending or expansion stimulate the economy and create jobs, e.g., government jobs; or as social entitlements, such as guaranteed retirement incomes or medical care, prove to be more efficient and less costly to society when provided by government and funded by tax revenues rather than by private industry. If it turns out, however, that rent seeking is not a sustainable economic paradigm, then the future of the US economy will be characterized by an erosion of capital and an absence of sustainable economic growth. One question that might arise in the latter scenario is whether capital will stay in the US or migrate to other parts of the world. The answer to this question lies in the nature of capitalism, as well as in the historical origins of American capitalism.<br /> </div> <div><b><span style="font-size:large;">Property and Liberty<br /></span></b>In terms of both economics and political philosophy, there are links between rent seeking where government is involved, the fundamental relation of individual citizens to the institution of the state, and macroeconomic developments in the US particularly since 1971. These links became increasingly clear since the start of the global financial crisis that began in 2008.<br /><br />History bears out that capitalism, compared to other economic systems, has created more wealth, raised the living standards of more people, and has increased individual liberty to a greater extent. The reasons for the success of capitalism lie not only in economics but also in philosophy. The historical innovation and entrepreneurship and the immense industrial production of the United States in the past occurred both in the context of capitalism and in a social and legal framework established by the US Constitution. Going back to the American Revolution and before, the ownership of an individual person of their own body and of the labor that it can produce literally distinguished a free person from a slave. This concept is the common root of private property and of capitalism. The natural right of a person to the fruits of their labor, i.e., to own property, is, therefore prerequisite to other rights. In his seminal book, The Road to Serfdom, F. A. Hayek explained the interdependence of private property, the division of labor and freedom.<br /> </div> <blockquote> <div><i>“... [T]he system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom.  It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves.  When all the means of production are vested in a single hand, whether it be nominally that of "society" as a whole or that of a dictator, whoever exercises this control has complete power over us.  In the hands of private individuals, what is called economic power can be an instrument of coercion, but it is never control over the whole life of a person.  But when economic power is centralized as an instrument of political power it creates a degree of dependence scarcely distinguishable from slavery.  It has been well said that, in a country where the sole employer is the state, opposition means death by slow starvation.”  – F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944)</i></div> </blockquote> <div><br />Of course, a human being is much more than an economic unit and the natural rights of individuals do not end with the absence of slavery, thus private property can be viewed as the keystone of all human rights. In fact, provisions of the American Bill of Rights, such as the prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure are an elaboration and enumeration of private property rights vis-à-vis the rights of government. Interestingly, the American Bill of Rights contains broad prohibitions against actions by government, rather than positive rights, such as the right of an individual to a particular social benefit. In the modern world, private property and, therefore, other rights are not threatened directly by violence and coercion as they were prior to the American Revolution, but they are threatened today by excessive growth of government, by private concerns pursuing rent seeking profit strategies and by political constituencies seeking entitlements.<br /><br />Taxes levied on privately owned businesses or on private individuals for the purposes of social welfare programs function as a proxy for rent seeking in that they affirm a positive right to an economic benefit for one group at the expense of another group that receives no reciprocal benefit. For example, the establishment of a legal right of a person with no means to pay for it, to obtain medical care, takes precedence over the property rights of individuals who have the means to pay for medical care on their own behalf. In the example of medical care, it is likely that those upon whom the financial burden falls have little or no objection to the arrangement because a majority of individuals probably believe that their contribution is for a worthy cause, but the precedent of government intervention over volunteerism is a dangerous one from the standpoint of individual rights.<br />While one group bears the economic cost, even if the only cost is reduced access to medical care or reduced quality of care, there is a more broad cost to society in terms of the erosion of individual rights. In a rent seeking economic relationship where government is the agent of wealth transfers, it is not only exploited groups that loose rights but, in fact, all citizens. When wealth is transferred or redistributed by government, rights removed from exploited groups are not transferred to groups that receive the resultant economic benefits but rather accrue to the government itself, thus diminishing the rights of all and expanding the power of government, i.e., the power to claim the wealth of it’s citizens for whatever purposes are deemed worthy.<br /> </div> <blockquote> <div><i>“The preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralizing governmental power.  But there is also a constructive reason. The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or in literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.”  – Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (1962)</i></div> </blockquote> <div><br />While wealth transfers may be undertaken with the best intentions, over time, the eventual consequence is an aggregation and concentration of power in government at the expense of individuals. Among other things, a precedent is established whereby rights are granted by government to citizens and not the reverse. Wealth transfers by government, therefore, result in the expansion and centralization of economic and legal power in the government at the expense of the rights of individual citizens.<br /> </div> <div><a rel="lightbox" href=" vspace="6" align="middle" width="528" src=" hspace="6" alt="Total Welfare Spending Since 1950" height="578" /></a></div> <div><br />In the extreme, the flow of rights from individuals to government may eventually result in a totalitarian state structure where rights <i>per se</i> no longer exist, or exist in name only, replaced, in practice, by privileges granted by government at its sole discretion. In terms of political philosophy, a constitutional republic aims to prevent totalitarianism (historically referred to as tyranny) by establishing that the people are sovereign and that the limited rights of government are granted to it at the sole discretion of the people. In contrast, an economic system, based on government redistribution of wealth, is ultimately incompatible with a structure where the people are sovereign, i.e., a constitutional republic, simply because wealth redistribution requires that the rights of government take precedence over the property rights of individuals.<br /> </div> <blockquote> <div><i>There’s been one underlying basic fallacy in this whole set of social security and welfare measures, and that is the fallacy - this is at the bottom of it - the fallacy that it is feasible and possible to do good with other people’s money. That view has two flaws. If I want to do good with other people’s money, I first have to take it away from them. That means that the welfare state philosophy of doing good with other people’s money, at its very bottom, is a philosophy of violence and coercion. It’s against freedom, because I have to use force to get the money. In the second place, very few people spend other people’s money as carefully as they spend their own. The real problem with government is not the deficit. The real problem with government is the amount of our money that it spends. – Milton Friedman</i></div> </blockquote> <div><br />If the basic economic rights of individuals are undermined and government power expands, becoming more centralized, then controlling government spending may be problematic, particularly if doling out entitlements is central to the political goals of the regime in power, e.g., remaining in power. As has been seen in Europe, government spending for the purposes of expanding entitlements is constrained only by the capacity to borrow and to service debt, which is a pattern that can lead to economic collapse.<br /> </div> <blockquote> <div><i>“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.” – Scottish historian </i><i>Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (1747-1813), unverified attribution</i></div> </blockquote> <div><br /><b><span style="font-size:large;">Totalitarianism: Public or Private?</span></b><br />Wealth redistribution is not the exclusive domain of government. Inflationary policies by the US Federal Reserve erode the value of money and dilute the share of wealth held by those who depend on the monetary system while transferring wealth either to banks or to those who first receive newly created money. The institution of central banking is itself a form of rent seeking where governments borrow their own currencies into existence from private banks passing the burden of repayment with interest on to taxpayers, e.g., as a value added or income tax, rather than maintaining the national currency as a public facility. Central banking is associated both with economic rent seeking insofar as private interests successfully influence the central bank in their favor, and with political philosophy where the rights of individuals are concerned, e.g., monetary inflation deprives savers of the right to spend tomorrow money obtained in exchange for labor today at a value consistent with the terms of the exchange. In the latter case, the central bank produces a de facto breach of contract that is technically legal. As John Maynard Keynes famously said, <i>“By a continuing process of inflation, government [or private interests that control the central bank] can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.”</i> In this regard, one can see the extent of the powers abdicated by governments to central banks. Central banks have the power to redistribute wealth and can do so either at the behest of government or, more importantly, in the service of private concerns.<br /><br />The advent of bank bailouts, amounting to roughly <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" trillion</a> in the US officially, but perhaps as much as <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" trillion</a>, during the global financial crisis that began in 2008 was remarkable for two reasons other than the danger of systemic collapse thus averted and the amounts of money involved. First, it became apparent that large banks, and central banks, had more influence over governments than their own citizens. In fact, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" majority of Americans opposed bank bailouts</a>. Second, the power of central banks to transfer wealth was laid bare by the Federal Reserve’s purchase of mortgage backed securities which traded newly created money for what most observers agree was little more than worthless paper in an attempt to render otherwise bankrupt financial institutions solvent again.<br /><br />The independent actions of the US federal government and Federal Reserve produced record profits and bonuses in the banking sector while, at the same time, household wealth in America fell significantly, creating the popular impression that Wall Street was somehow looting Main Street. The mechanism of wealth transfer, however, was actually the Federal Reserve, which had then been in place for 94 years prior to the crisis and during which, arguably, a similar process of wealth transfer had taken place gradually on a smaller scale. The arbitrary and sweeping nature of the emergency actions taken by the federal government and Federal Reserve in response to the financial crisis revealed the extent to which the powers of both the federal government and Federal Reserve had quietly expanded and become more centralized over a period of less than 100 years to a point of near absolute control over the wealth, i.e., the property, of US citizens. The roots of these developments, however, lay not in the economic bubbles leading up to the financial crisis that began in 2008 but in the 1913 Federal Reserve Act and in the New Deal that followed the resulting Great Depression.<br /> </div> <blockquote> <div><i>“ is the aggregate of all these plans, in respect to what they have in common, legal plunder, that goes under the name of socialism.” – Frederic Bastiat, The Law (1848)</i></div> </blockquote> <div><br />After World War II, the United States had embraced labor unions and social programs partly in response to the ideological struggle between the US and the Soviet Union, which was a totalitarian state, but the US, while fighting totalitarianism, planted the seeds of totalitarianism in its own backyard. Following decades during which social welfare programs expanded, and during which both the federal government and the financial sector grew dramatically as percentages of US GDP, the centralization of power revealed in 2008 indicated a largely unrecognized shift in political philosophy toward a totalitarian state structure.<br /> </div> <div><b><span style="font-size:large;">A Monetary Empire in Decline<br /></span></b>Perhaps every empire in decline witnesses a transition from surplus production to excess consumption and that is precisely what happened in the United States in the 1970s, marked first (after the establishment of the US Federal Reserve and then of a welfare state by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) by the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" abandonment of the gold standard in 1971</a> then by the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" shift from trade surplus to trade deficit</a>. Both events were a consequence of spending in excess of real wealth production. These events ushered in the era of offshoring in the 1980s and of outsourcing to foreign firms in the 1990s. The idea was simple: exchange higher domestic costs for lower costs abroad and sell virtually the same products to the same domestic customers at higher margins, lower prices to gain market share, or simply hold prices at competitive levels by cutting costs. Under the banner of free trade, and later of globalization, the US government did virtually nothing to curtail these trends and the US economy appeared to expand as US dollars flooded the world in an unprecedented period of monetary expansion. As the accompanying deindustrialization of the United States progressed, two developments, in addition to the then accumulated capital in the US, mitigated the impact of declining US industrial production: (1) growth in service industries and (2) a combination of asset appreciation and increased consumer borrowing and spending (eventually reaching an unsustainable 70% of GDP), but both were fundamentally linked to monetary expansion and neither proved to be sustainable.<br /><br />Replacing industrial production with a service economy was a flawed concept because as domestic production fell, it was, in fact, debt expansion that replaced the creation of real wealth, thus the US trade deficit soared. As factories closed and as jobs departed US shores for Taiwan, China, India and elsewhere, the selling of equivalent foreign-made goods and offshore services to Americans into a domestic market that included a growing number of displaced workers, became less and less plausible. The idea that displaced American workers would eventually embark upon new, service industry careers and, therefore, maintain their spending levels, in retrospect, was plainly wrong. While perhaps viable in a perfectly balanced global economy, it is difficult to imagine a sustainable domestic economy, in itself, comprising a majority of services since it would have to rely on material goods from abroad, i.e., it would suffer a chronic trade deficit. The answer for American businesses was to expand into global markets but this did little for the domestic economy, thus the US service economy failed to replace declining industrial production. What happened, in reality, was that the percentage of the total US population in the work force simply declined, flooding welfare roles and producing a growing political constituency favoring wealth redistribution.<br /> align="middle" width="528" src=" hspace="6" alt="Civilian Employment-Population Ratio" height="317" /></a></div> <div><sup>Chart courtesy of theOne way to characterize the sequence of events in the US is to say that a paradigm shift took place where the US economy moved from production to consumption; from an industrial economy to a (so-called) service economy; from wealth creation to wealth extraction; from increasing living standards to wealth redistribution; from a nation of citizens and workers to a nation of “consumers,” all the while transitioning from the largest lender in the world to the largest debtor nation in the entire history of the world. In terms of US government spending, unsustainable growth in entitlements and pork barrel politics became business as usual in Washington D.C., while Wall Street shifted from investing, in order to participate in dividends and capital gains resulting from production and value creation, to trading based on technical indicators; a competition where participants seek to extract wealth from investors and other traders in what amounts to a casino game, i.e., a rent seeking structure. Flash trading using automated trading systems and high-frequency trading algorithms, for example, is pure rent seeking in the garb of high technology.<br /><br />Other advanced economies, in varying degrees, have followed the American example, resulting in the emergence of rent seeking as the dominant economic paradigm of Western countries. To make matters worse, rent seeking by private concerns has become confused with capitalism.<br /> </div> <div><b><span style="font-size:large;">The Flight of Capital<br /></span></b>In the past, capital and individual entrepreneurs flowed into the United States from around the world because it represented two related things: freedom and economic opportunity. The post bailout world is one where large banks have, to some degree, hijacked the emergent totalitarian powers of governments in a model where perpetual sovereign debt represents a virtually unlimited flow of wealth from the subjects of totalitarian states to the banks that, through the institution of central banking, exert considerable influence over each nation’s government. The post bailout economy seems to be a veritable frenzy of rent seeking activity by banks, governments and political constituencies seeking entitlements. In all three cases, individual liberty, e.g., the right to own property is an impediment and the success of any of the three factions promises to encumber or to prevent entirely future economic growth. It makes little difference to individuals if the fruits of their labor are confiscated by inflation, by taxes to fund unsustainable government expansion, or by taxes to fund social welfare programs. In all three cases, the impetus toward entrepreneurship and the incentives for putting private capital, i.e., private property, at risk in new business ventures are reduced or eliminated. Regardless of which rent seeking faction wins, capitalism, which has created more wealth, raised the living standards of more people and which, because of its intrinsic compatibility with private property, has increased individual liberty more than any other economic system in the history of the world, is set to lose.<br /><br />Capitalism, rather than ceasing to exist, will obviously adapt, thus capital will migrate away from economies characterized by rent seeking, i.e., by the consumption of wealth, to parts of the world characterized by the production of wealth. Capital may also be driven into black markets as seen under the former Soviet Union. All other things being equal, the next decade is likely to see a massive flight of capital from the United States to countries where property rights are respected (or where government is simply smaller) and where the values of investments are less vulnerable to the ravages of excess monetary expansion, counterproductive taxation and sovereign debt risk or redistribution by government in the service of political constituencies seeking entitlements. Within the latter constraints, China and emerging economies that are rich in natural resources and that produce commodities or physical goods will surely become the new bastions of capitalism.</div><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src=" width="1" height="1">Federal reservedebtGDPAsiaAsian TigersChinacentral bankFederal BudgetunemploymentDeindustrializationBailoutsCapitalismCorporatismTrade DeficitSocialismTotalitarianismOffshoringOutsourcingService EconomyInto the Abyss: The Cycle of Debt Deflation 02 Jun 2010 12:46:00 GMT944abf2b-d1be-4bf2-990d-438cb0e377e9:337551Ron Hera0 of the most famous <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">quotations of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises</span></a> is that “There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency involved.” In fact, the US economy is in a downward spiral of debt deflation despite the bold actions of the federal government and of the US Federal Reserve taken in response to the financial crisis that began in 2008 and the associated recession. Although the vicious circle of debt deflation is not widely recognized, precisely what von Mises described is happening before our eyes.<br /><br />A variety of positive economic data has been reported in recent months. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">Retail sales rose 0.4% in April</span></a> 2010 as consumer spending rose and the US gross domestic product (<a href=" title="Goodrich Petroleum Corp."><span style="color:#024999;">GDP</span></a>) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">grew at a rate of 3%</span></a>.  In May 2010, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">home sales rose to a five-month high</span></a> and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">consumer confidence rose 17% (from 57.7 to 63.3</span></a>). <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">Industrial production rose 0.8%</span></a> and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">durable goods orders rose 2.9%</span></a>, more than had been forecast. However, the modest gains reported represent the continuing adaptation of economic activity at dramatically lower levels compared to the pre-recession period and most of the reported gains have been substantially manufactured by massive government deficit spending.<br /><br />Despite the widely reported green shoots, in May, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">the unemployment rate rose to 9.9%</span></a> while <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">paychecks in the private sector shrank</span></a> to historic lows as a percentage of personal income, and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">personal bankruptcies rose</span></a>. Roughly <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">14% of US mortgages are delinquent or in foreclosure</span></a>, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">credit card defaults are rising</span></a> and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">consumer spending hit 7 month lows</span></a>. To make matters worse, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">the reported increase in consumer credit</span></a>, in fact, points to a further deterioration because consumers appear to be borrowing to service existing debt. Outside of the federal government, which is borrowing at record levels and expanding as a percentage of GDP, and outside of the bailed out financial sector, debt deflation has continued unabated since 2008.</div> <div> </div> <div><b><span style="font-size:large;color:#333333;">Money Supply vs. Debt Service</span></b></div> <div><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">A contraction of the broad money supply is taking place</span></a> As a result, additional borrowing, as consumer spending falls, appears to be servicing existing debt in a pattern that is clearly unsustainable and that signals a further rise in debt defaults3The estimate of the broad money supply (the Federal Reserve’s M3 monetary aggregate) is crashing and the Federal Reserve’s M1 Money Multiplier, a measure of how much new money is created through lending activity, fell off of a cliff in 2008, and remains practically flat-linedULT contraction of the broad money supply points to a potential slowing of economic activity and indicates that consumers and non financial businesses will be less able to service existing debt. Despite easing somewhat in March 2010, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">credit card losses are expected to remain near 10% over the next year</span></a> and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">mortgage delinquencies, are currently at a record high</span></a>s, and these dismal predictions implicitly assume a stable or growing money supply.<br /><br />A tsunami of eventual mortgage defaults seems to be building and loan modifications have been a failure thus far. There have been only a small number of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">permanent loan modifications (295,348) under the Home Affordable Modification Program (</span></a><a href=" style="color:#024999;">HAMP</span></a>) in 2009, out of 3.3 million eligible (60 days delinquent) loans and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">more than half of modified loans default</span></a>529" src=" hspace="6" alt="Mortgage Delinquencies and Foreclosures" height="359Although it has been reported that <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">American consumers are saving at a rate of 3.4%</span></a>, the contraction of the broad money supply suggests savings liquidation. Given a <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">contracting money supply</span></a>, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">ongoing debt defaults</span></a> and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">declining consumer spending</span></a>, the increase in non-mortgage consumer loans indicates that consumers are borrowing where possible to consolidate debts, cover debt service, or <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">borrowing to continue operating financially as their total debt grows</span></a>, thus as they approach insolvencyCONSUMER increase in non-mortgage consumer loans has not prevented an overall decline in total household debt attributed to <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">ongoing deleveraging by consumers</span></a>. While deleveraging (paying down debt) has been interpreted as caution on the part of consumers, or as low consumer confidence, the decline in outstanding credit reflects a reduced ability to borrow, i.e., to service additional debt. This suggests that the recovery of the US economy may be illusory and that the economy is likely to contract furtherCMDEBTCommercial borrowing has declined more sharply than household debt suggesting that the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">nominal return to growth estimated at 3%</span></a> has not been matched by debt financed expansion in the private sectorBUSLOANS broad US money supply is no longer being maintained or expanded by normal lending activity. If federal government deficit spending (<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">$1.5 trillion annually</span></a>), <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">debt monetization and emergency actions by the Federal Reserve</span></a> (totaling an estimated $1.5 trillion since 2008) to recapitalize banks are considered separately, there remains a net drain effect on the broad money supply. The scarcity of money hampers economic activity, i.e., money is less available for investment, and directly exacerbates debt defaults as consumers and businesses experience cash shortfalls, while at the same time being less able to borrow. Since unemployment is a key indicator of recession, then if the US economy were contracting, it would be evident in unemployment statistics.</div> <div> </div> <div><b><span style="font-size:large;color:#333333;">Structural Unemployment</span></b></div> <div> However, the immediate meaning of the term “structural”.<br /><br />Officially, the US unemployment rate rose to 9.9% in April 2010, which represents the percentage of workers claiming unemployment benefits. However, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">the total number of unemployed or underemployed persons, including so-called “discouraged workers” (Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6), rose to 17.1%</span></a>. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">Using the same methods that the BLS had used prior to the Clinton administration, U-6 would be approximately 22%</span></a>, rather than the official 17.1% statistic500" src=" hspace="6" alt="U-6 UnemploymentWith official U-6 unemployment of 17.1% and a <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">workforce of 154.1 million</span></a> there are roughly 26,197,000 people officially out of work. Using the pre-Clinton U-6 unemployment calculation of approximately 22%, there would be 33.9 million unemployed. If the average US household consists of 2.6 persons and if 33% of the unemployed are sole wage earners, then 55.5 million US citizens currently have no means of financial support (17.9% of the population).</527" src=" hspace="6" alt="Unemployment by Duration" height="340While it has been reported that <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">the labor force is shrinking</span></a>, the characterization of workers permanently exiting the workforce by choice may be inaccurate. While a shrinking workforce could reflect demographic changes, the rate of change suggests that tens of millions of Americans are simply unemployedEMRATIOSetting aside the question of whether or not those “not in the workforce” are, in fact, permanently unemployed, the workforce, as a percentage of the total US population, is currently at 1970s levels. Since many more households today depend on two incomes to meet their obligations, compared to the 1970s, a marked drop in the percentage of the population in the workforce points to a decline in the labor market more significant than official unemployment statistics suggest. What is more important, however, is that structural unemployment suggests structural government deficits, e.g., unemployment benefits, welfare, food stamps, etc. Since.</div> <div> </div> <div><b><span style="font-size:large;color:#333333;">Government and GDP Growth</span></b></div> <div>The US federal government is a growing portion of GDP, thus reported GDP growth is largely a byproduct of government deficit spending and stimulus measures, i.e., reported GDP growth is unsustainable. Total government spending at the local, state and federal levels accounts for as much as <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">45% of GDP</span></a>, thus nominal gains would be expected when government deficit spending increases. According to some measures, reported gains in GDP are a byproduct of relatively new statistical methods and, using earlier methods of calculation, GDP remains negative></div> <div>Government borrowing and spending may have offset declines in the private sector but only to a degree and only temporarily. The resulting growth in US public debt has an eventual mathematical limit: insolvency. Of course, the actual limit to US borrowing remains unknown. The continuing solvency of the US depends on the ability and willingness of governments, banks and investors around the world to lend to the US, which in turn depends on the tolerance of lenders for the US government’s profligacy and money printing by the Federal Reserve, e.g., quantitative easing and exchanging new cash for worthless bank assets. US Treasury bond auctions will fail if lenders conclude that a sufficiently large portion of their investment will be diluted into oblivion by proverbial money printing. In that event, the US dollar will surely plummet, despite deflationary pressures within the domestic US economy, and the cost of foreign goods, e.g., oil, will rise causing high inflation or triggering hyperinflationGFDEBTN></div> <div>According to the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">Bank for International Settlements</span></a> (<a href=" title="ProShares UltraShort Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF"><span style="color:#024999;">BIS</span></a>), the federal budget deficit increased from 3.1% of GDP in 2007 to 9.2% in 2010.  Rather than being the result of one-time expenses, such as temporary stimulus measures, much of the deficit represents permanent increases in government spending, e.g., due to the growing number of federal employees. If increased government spending is removed, GDP appears to be declining significantly Minus Government Deficit Spending" height="398Of course, sustainability has more to do with total debt than with deficit spending because a deficit assumes that there is an underlying capacity to service additional debt.</div> <div> </div> <div><b><span style="font-size:large;color:#333333;">Unsustainable Debt</span></b></div> <div>While asset prices have declined, e.g., real estate and equities, debt levels have remained high due to <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">the federal government’s policy of preserving bank balance sheets</span></a>, which had ballooned prior to the financial crisis to the point that overall debt in the US economy reached unsustainable levels.</Total Debt to GDP" height="299The absolute debt to GDP ratio of the US economy peaked in 2007 when debt levels exceeded the ability of the economy to service debt from income based on production, even at low interest rates. Although US GDP began to decline prior to the advent of the global financial crisis, debt coverage had been in decline approximately since the 1970s, coincidentally, around the time that the US dollar was decoupled from goldDeclining Debt Coverage from 1971 on" height="301Government deficit spending cannot correct the situation because, for every dollar of new borrowing, the gain in GDP is negligible and some have argued that the US economy has passed the point of “debt saturation.”</Debt SaturationNathan A. Martin</span></sup></a></div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div></div> <div>In a growing economy, additional debt can result in a net gain in GDP because the money supply grows and economic activity is stimulated by transactions that flow through the economy as a result. The.</div> <div> </div> <div><b><span style="font-size:large;color:#333333;">A Downward Spiral</span></b></div> <div>The process of debt deflation is straightforward. New The inability to lend, actually the result of prior excess lending, results in a net drain of money from the economy. The drain effect, in turn, leads to further defaults as cash strapped consumers and businesses fail to service existing debt, and as debt defaults impact bank balance sheets, putting a damper on new lending and completing the cycle of debt deflation.<br /><br />Keynesian economic policies, i.e., government deficit spending, are irrelevant vis-à-vis excessive debt levels in the economy and bailing out banks is not a solution since it cannot stop the deterioration of their balance sheets. The process is self-perpetuating and cannot be stopped by any government or monetary policy because it is not a matter of policy, but rather one of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">mathematics</span></a>.<br /><br /> The fact that US banks issued trillions in bad loans cannot be corrected by <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">changing accounting rules</span></a>, nor can the consequences be avoided by government deficit spending or by <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">unlimited bailouts</span></a>, and the problem cannot be papered over by <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" style="color:#024999;">dropping freshly printed money from helicopters</span></a> flying over Wall Street. The major problems facing the US economy today—a tsunami or debt defaults, structural unemployment, massive government budget deficits, a contraction of the broad money supply outside of the federal government and the financial system, and a lack of sustainable growth—cannot be addressed as long as excess debt levels are maintained. As von Mises clearly understood, sound economic conditions cannot be restored unless and until the excess debt, which resulted from a boom brought about by credit expansion, is purged from the system. The alternative, and the current policy of the United States, is a downward spiral into a bottomless economic abyss.</div><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src=" width="1" height="1">US dollardeflationdebtinflationGDPM3HyperinflationPonzi schemeunemploymentmortgage delinquencies and foreclosuresU-6 manipulating>.</ domestic the ongoing Obama value years it government represents US	eng	e35892b4-8bf7-4a48-97d7-c72d4ea04310	http://mises.org/community/blogs/hera/rss.aspx?Tags=GDP&AndTags=1
This thread is meant for the deconstruction analysis of creation and evolution. You're supposed to provide the reason why you do not believe in one or the other and explain how you came to that conclusion. Be as detailed as you can while being as respectful as possible to people with the opposite view. Keep in mind these are just two theories out of many and all of them could be wrong. I'm not simple minded so I understand and accept that possibility. Creation is just a theory... Evolution is just a theory... Creationists use real world examples to come to the conclusion that everything was created with a purpose and possibly by forces we've yet to understand. The data that is collected and put together is a theory of what could be; not what is. Evolutionists use real world examples to come to the conclusion that everything evolves and changes over time. The data that is collected and put together is a theory of what could be; not what is. Both of these theories try to explain our origins by compiling evidence to use as proof of one being more correct than the other. Neither of these theories are proven and thus they're neither right or wrong so arguing about them achieves nothing. I can share the views of either of these theories and I can criticize either of them equally without allowing my personal beliefs to get in the way. I understand and accept the fact that not everyone is as in control of themselves as I am. This is not a religion thread: The theory of creation has nothing to do with religion. Creation is the theory that a God created everything and it explains how it works. Religion is something we created trying to interpret what God wants us to do, which is completely different from how the universe formed or how we got here. Ibelieve 09-08-2011, 12:51 AM The problem with evolution is what created the first cell? matter/energy... what created matter/energy? Stephen Hawking argues in his book The Grand Design that "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist." Well, he may be the best mathematician on earth, but he is a terrible philosopher.. John Lennox laughs at him, and simply poses the question: Who created the law of gravity? Wanderlust 09-08-2011, 04:12 AM The problem with evolution is what created the first cell? matter/energy... what created matter/energy? Biological evolution does not answer the genesis question. It answeres how we got from the beginning of life till now. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist." Well, he may be the best mathematician on earth, but he is a terrible philosopher.. Philosophy should not get in the way of quantifying how the universe started. Philosophy is arbitrary, specific historical evens "ie creation of the universe" is not. Who created the law of gravity? It came about when the universe started, it was spontaneous and random. Unless there was a creator, but apparently the universe was designed to hide the creator. If there are only two possibilities, non existence and existence then any number of existences are inevitable in a timeless nothing. transcend 09-08-2011, 10:43 AM creation has to be happening all the time.. subatomic particles pop in and out of reality..the best explanation for that behavior is that they are not as solid as we think.. so the holographic universe is becoming more and more accepted as a possible reality.. many problems with theories about creation is that they are often just questions about how space/time operates.. i personally think the 'big bang' is bad science along with black holes.. because anything that exists outside of space and time is also without motion.. and if space/time/motion isn't present then it isn't reality in our physical 3D.. the big bang theory is full of problems.. like some galaxies being older then the age of the universe.. or what is called the back ground radiation has no source location.. and further neutron stars explain black holes just fine without the big dark whirlpool into nothingness.. what is life anyway? because many things seem only half alive like big organic molecules and very small viruses.. so it seems that because form and function are the same thing in biology and in quantum physics then every bit of matter and energy is a type or form of information.. a bit.. and the whole thing adds up to a supercomputer.. one that can communicate with itself across 18 billion light years in a -27 seconds.. or the curve of the event horizon of the known universe divided by planks constant.. or whatever.. lol.. ;) so the whole universe is alive in some way.. everything has some level of intelligence or information.. and organic chemistry and water are super abundant in the universe.. and there is intelligent chemistry.. it really is very close to the way eywa is in avatar.. Scott 09-08-2011, 12:08 PM I believe in evolution, but I also believe there was an Adam and Eve. The thing with the bible is you don't get the full picture, I mean its pretty obvious the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around. Eternal Enigma 09-08-2011, 04:15 PM The Bible is a culmination of many stories that have been passed down through an extended period of time and it's been rewritten and translated many times so I'm sure as happens with most stories some of the details have been changed or obviously exaggerated. Do I believe Moses lived for 900 years? No I do not. What one must do when they read the Bible is understand that the concept of time and the understanding of the world was much different back then. We're speaking of times before people even thought the world was flat so these were very simple people. Since the concepts and level of understanding are so different from us it makes the Bible a very difficult read. I personally become tired of the repetitive nature of it. You should also understand that the written words of the Bible are from stories that were passed down from generation to generation before ever becoming ink on paper. That doesn't mean the Bible has nothing to offer you because there are lessons and teachings within the Bible that are still useful. The Bible actually has quite a bit of recorded history in it. Within the writings you see them talk about the wars in the Middle East and what they were originally about (no it wasn't over oil). These wars have been ranging on for thousands and thousands of years. Why the United States believes we can just swoop in and stop it is beyond me because it states in the Bible that these wars will continue till the end of days. When you have wars that have been ranging on for more than 10,000 years it isn't too difficult to believe that these wars will still be under way long after all of us Avatar fans are dead and gone. There are some positive things that go along with religion. I really do believe that it's good to have a society that believes in a God because just imagine how bad things would have already become if people did not have a sense of an ultimate consequence. Our concept of what's right and wrong would be completely different without God. We would live in a completely different type of civilization possibly without anything we currently have. Our past history worked the way it did because of the belief in God and without that belief it could have changed everything. We could be living in a world where you could be sitting in your living room and some people could come and kill you and there would be no police or any repercussions because people would not have developed that defined sense of right and wrong. When I see people who seem to want God, the Bible, and creation to go away I don't believe they understand how that aspect of our world helps to bring balance to their life and what sort of negative impact it would have if it was to ever go away. More and more people are no longer believing in God and just have a look at how bad the world is becoming. Where do you believe the concept of God came from? Do you believe one day one of those half primate half human beings suddenly came up with the idea that there is a being that created everything? Something happened long ago and as some alternative theories suggest it very well could have been aliens, but early humans experienced something that made them come up with the concept of God. This is why people who do not believe in God or creation should be reading the Bible and not calling it garbage because you have an outsiders view of it and perhaps you can interpret what they're saying better than someone who is a believer. In the Bible it says that God was active with the people on Earth. Well, are they talking about an alien and that alien's son is going to bring all his buddies here (the return of Christ) and kill us all? There are many interpretations. The Bible actually gives you a physical description of God in the only way those simple people knew to describe what they were seeing. So with modern man being more knowledgeable we can now try to figure out what these people were seeing or what these experiences could really be. Instead of being closed minded and saying it's just a bunch of garbage. I can have two views of people with the opposite view of me. While I can see people who believe in evolution as unwittingly going in the wrong direction by moving society away from the concept of right and wrong by removing God and the ultimate consequence from the equation; I also see these people as a huge asset for looking at the information surrounding creation and God and being able to help to interpret what these people are talking about. We should be taking our modern knowledge and look at this through our educated eyes to try to figure out what they were seeing and experiencing. That type of interpretation is not religious and is actually more like a scientific investigation. NO ONE is investigating what these people could have been experiencing because this is such a controversial subject. The hardcore believers refuse to try to analyze the Bible, God, or creation (same thing with evolutionists). If I try to discuss it with my father he'll storm out of the room because he doesn't believe we're supposed to talk about it and he believes talking about it is somehow sinful. He believes if you try to figure it out you'll go to hell. I believe it's important to discuss it especially with the invention of new theories like evolution. These two theories will never be answered if people aren't discussing them. I also believe that people who believe in the opposite theories could benefit by peacefully talking to people with the opposite view. In order to do that you've got to be able to look at your own belief and take it apart with the open minded view that it could be wrong. Obviously since I mentioned aliens I'm extremely open to other possibilities outside of what I believe in. All I said is that I do not believe in evolution, which is just one of many theories out there. I can easily explain why I lean more towards creation than evolution and I can do it without calling anyone names. I can also take both of these theories apart and show you that if you look at both theories in full they both sound like bullsh!t. Honestly neither of them make any sense. If the posts can remain realistic and civil I'll post my view and I hope you'll post your view as well. Remember to include why you believe what you believe. Just saying "there's nothing to debate" or "this is ignorant" explains nothing. If I told you I believe in creation just because... that wouldn't be a good enough answer. I understand there are those of you who believe there's nothing to discuss and that's fine; stay out of it, but for those of you who are willing to peacefully discuss it then you should do so. How to talk about this subject without causing a nuclear explosion: Think before you post... try typing what you're going to post outside of the forum and read it to make sure you're not coming off too aggressively. Don't get mad and type up some mean message and quickly post it. In reviewing my posts I delete little bits and pieces from my posts all the time because I feel like they may be coming off too aggressively. In the society thread what was being said did make me very angry and in the post I typed up in Notepad I had lots of hateful remarks throughout my response, but those hateful remarks did not get posted. I still got that aggression out by typing it or getting down on paper so to speak. That's why therapists tell you to keep a journal. I did not post those remarks so it did not cause any problems, but I still typed them out as if I was going to post them and it made me feel better. Then I edited my post removing all of the negative remarks. I believe people would be more open minded and more willing to realistically talk about it if this subject is approached differently. Don't make your posts insinuate that your theory is the correct theory. Neither of them have been proven. Don't call people names or suggest anyone is ignorant or inferior. Just peacefully state your view and explain how you came to that conclusion and just maybe if evolution is real we can evolve and come up with a really interesting and productive conversation that will lead us to enlightenment. Scott 09-08-2011, 06:58Aihwa 09-08-2011, 09:25 PM I believe God created evolution. Do I win the double whammy of ridicule? A reasonable viewpoint. Ibelieve 09-08-2011, 11:05 PM Are humans the only species to feel love? If so... design? Discuss P.S. the law of gravity came about by random, spontaneously... I would like to suggest that the Bible, and crazy things like the trinity or God's infinite mercy and justice are equalled by 'science' (which is really only a guessing game in this topic) Eternal Enigma 09-08-2011, 11:45Thank you Scott ^_^ I see you. You've just mentioned something that directly leads into a concept that I came up with long ago pertaining to love. I was having trouble with the ladies as guys often do and I began to think about love. It is very powerful and is one of the best things our world has to offer. So I was left wondering why it's so difficult to get someone to love you? Everyone wants to be loved because everyone knows it's a great feeling and logically love should be easy because everyone wants it. Logically if you're nice and caring someone should love you, but they don't; not always. This fact of life bothered me to the point where I found myself pacing in my room night after night for years trying to figure it out. That's when a completely new concept entered my mind. Something I had never thought of before. I hope this comes across the way I intend. It's not meant to be preachy it's meant to show one of the reasons why I personally value creation. The thought that entered my mind was "now I know how God feels... you do nice things and not everyone loves you." That was one of those defining moments that worked to change my view of life completely. Love is a wonderful thing and is something we all want and seek, but love isn't a given so we may face many who do not, will not, or cannot love us. So I applied that to God. Results: God provides you with the lesson of love to show you how difficult it is to get just one person to love you so that you can better understand God's situation. God's situation: God as a creator would logically seek the love of those that are created. God seeks the love of billions of people and not all of them love God or even believe in God's existence. My conclusion: Love is God's way of showing us the difficulty of getting just one person to love us so that we can see how God feels. God is not a person that you can see or walk up to and start a conversation with so God can be forgotten. All God wants are friends just like you or me... God wants to be loved just like you or me... Trying to prove God doesn't exist is just like those who are trying to prove we're the only life in the universe... does anyone really want to prove that life has no meaning and we are completely alone? What exactly would that accomplish? In my mind if people take the mind set "why believe in God," which is the ultimate symbol of good vs. evil; then perhaps people will stop believing in other good things such as love, peace, freedom, self expression, and creativity. People want to get rid of Christmas and basically in today's times Christmas is just people giving other people gifts and decorating their homes with lights. What's wrong with that? There are organizations actively trying to stop Christmas and take away your right to decorate your home with lights. I try to understand what sort of world we're working to create by removing all of the good, but I lack the ability to understand it because it isn't logical. The alternative of living in a world where people no longer believe in anything good doesn't sound like a very nice place to live. That's one of the reasons why I lean more towards creation because I'd like to believe in something good even if it as a theory is never proven. It's better than the alternative, which is basically anarchy and complete chaos once everyone realizes there's no reason to do the right thing anymore. Notice how as the numbers of people who stop believing in God rise... the more wars we have. :\ So I most definitely hope love is forever because that means there is still good in the world. I hope there's still good in the world for a very long time. Side note: For the purposes of showing everyone who reads what I write that I haven't been brainwashed in any way I'll add this. I have never been to church... ever. My parents never taught me about God or religion... (my father believes you'll go to hell if you talk about it). There was a family Bible always lying around so I picked it up and read it, which is the best way to do it because church tells you what to read and what to believe. That's not how God intended it. I think for myself. Just like you none believers I dislike it when people try to shove religion down my throat too. What most of them bring to the table... that's not God and most of them are hypocrites anyways. Scott 09-09-2011, 07:35 AM_Omaticaya_ 09-09-2011, 02:32 PM So I most definitely hope love is forever because that means there is still good in the world. I hope there's still good in the world for a very long time. Loved your whole post mate, as usual :nwink:Ja'k Dawsiin 09-09-2011, 04:23 PM so,what are we called if we don't believe in either evolution or creation,and are not an atheist,pagan,or right-winger religious crazy? i'm describing me,btw.:) Scott 09-09-2011, 06:14 PM so,what are we called if we don't believe in either evolution or creation,and are not an atheist,pagan,or right-winger religious crazy? i'm describing me,btw.:) I would call you Human. I would also tell you there is no right way or wrong way to ponder "Why" as long as you do it in a peaceful manner. Eternal Enigma 09-09-2011, 09:52 PM Debates do not have to be negative or argumentative even though a lot of the times that's how they end up. Instead of this being a thread where people fight; because this is a sensitive topic, it should be a place where you can come and express your view, but in doing so you must explain how you came to that conclusion and you must do so while remaining as respectful to those with the opposing view. Everyone must also understand that out of the dozens and dozens of theories out there in regards to how our universe was formed and where life came from; creation and evolution are just the two that are the most popular. Neither of these theories have been proven just like the dozens of others that exist. So people from any side should not come here in an authoritative tone stating that their theory is the correct theory. If anyone comes to this thread to try to change someone else's view then they've mistaken the purpose of this thread. I'm not trying to make anyone believe in anything they don't want to believe in, but I do see this topic as an opportunity for growth through the transaction of personal concepts the world may not have considered. There will be those who are unable to stay in control and what everyone needs to understand is this is an emotionally driven topic for many. So by rule of thumb if you read something and become angry don't immediately respond to it. Try going to another thread to clear your head. What causes problems with topics such as this one is people from both sides post things that are meant to be hurtful and cause anger and what ends up happening is emotions get the best of people and when they read something they dislike or what sounds like an attack they just quickly type a response and post it straight away, which causes big problems. If while typing your response you become angry or type harder on the keyboard then clearly you should not post whatever you're typingBig Bang leading to Evolution... In our world everything exists within something else... Water is in a river, air is in our atmosphere, blood is in our bodies. Earth is in space, our solar system, and our universe. So that leads me to this question... What is our universe inside of? and what's beyond that? Whatever our universe is inside of long ago spontaneous life began. A tiny atom, which would one day become our huge universe was in its infancy.... It existed that way, until it happened... an explosion trillions of times more powerful than a nuclear explosion expanded the atom into what we see as our vast universe today. The heat generated by the explosion formed hydrogen (the fuel for suns) and thus the cycle began. -'ll continue with this later and I'll reply to your posts next time because I've got to get to bed early tonight. I will go ahead and state that the way Scott and I have begun to toss ideas around is how I would like for this thread to work. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-10-2011, 01:42 AM i suddenly like where this thread is going... Wanderlust 09-10-2011, 10:41 AM agree, one question answered opens 100 more. We are along way from having the capability to figure it all out. Aihwa 09-10-2011, 03:44 PM I agree, one question answered opens 100 more. We are along way from having the capability to figure it all out. Evolution however, is pretty much established. _Omaticaya_ 09-10-2011, 04:05 PM Evolution however, is pretty much established. :O OMG that just spoilt EVERY single word Eternal Enigma said... Yall can't help it can't you... Whatever, just believe what you want you fellas , one day (hopefully) you'll realize a human is: guess what? A human. And a monkey is a: monkey. So let's say it Plain and Stupid, the _Omaticaya_ way: Why are there still monkeys? What happened, was there a congress one day like: Okay, you monkeys, you will evolve the next few years into humans, it is decided. While you other monkeys, you just keep doing ya thing guys. Gets ready for the haters Scott 09-10-2011, 05:59 PM Hold on. We can do this without shooting each other. Aihwa, you have to understand the Bible is the holy spirit put into words. The Word is sacred just like the way the Tree of Voices is sacred to the Na'vi. You and I do not have that level of connection, although fortunately for me I have a close friend who shares with me his deepest thoughts about it. Outsiders like us were most likely introduced to science first, so we have this hard-lock that prevents us from seeing the Word the way a child would; with an unobstructed view. Omaticaya, Science is not the enemy of God. Men will employ any weapon in reach to use it against their enemies, including science and religion. And those two spheres of influence have been at each other throats for centuries. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior just as surely as dinosaurs worked the Earth. I bridged this gap because I could not find the Word as a little boy desperate and in agony, so the Word found me! It's not just in the book, its all around us and inside us. The Word and evolution tell two very different stories of where we come from and how we got here. I think they are both necessary and vital; without the Word man would be hopeless, and without science man would be unimaginative. Hope and imagination. Scott 09-10-2011, 07:19 PM likely never will, I would trust him with my life. Eternal Enigma 09-10-2011, 07:22 PMSee that's the great thing about time being forever because one of the greatest things we've ever known (love) can last for eternity as long as people will continue to believe in it. I am thankful that we get to experience it on the level that we do. I wish we could experience it on the level that the Na'vi do. I believe the lessons you learn in life allow you to be on equal terms with God. That's what they're designed for. I don't believe that you, me, or anyone else should fear God. There's a difference between fearing someone and respecting them. In this case I believe creationists have misinterpreted the meaning of God's actions or perhaps something was lost in translation from one language to another. God gives everyone even those who are broken the chance to fix their life themselves. God doesn't control every aspect of every person's life. God allows the cards to fall where they may and if someone needs to learn a lesson something is sent to them to teach them that lesson. God will send you these lessons until you finally get it. I base that on my personal experiences because I have gone through some things that seem unlikely to ever happen on their own so I must believe something else was behind it. Loved your whole post mate, as usualThat's the beauty of love mate. It can shine through even in moments of great sorrow. ^_^ so,what are we called if we don't believe in either evolution or creation,and are not an atheist,pagan,or right-winger religious crazy? i'm describing me,btw. You're someone who has a neutral point of view where you do not believe in either theory, which is actually very valuable especially in a subject like this. That means you should be able to talk about it without allowing your emotions to drive you and that can allow you to think of other possibilities. People just like you have come up with alternatives such as alien intervention. How did the people in Egypt and Rome cut stone straighter than what a modern laser can? Why did cavemen draw images of "vehicles" in the air on the walls of caves? These are valid questions that are part of other theories and remain unanswered just like many questions around both creation and evolution. None of these theories answer everything. I agree, one question answered opens 100 more. We are along way from having the capability to figure it all out. We are a very long way from understanding it. As you said we do not have the capability of grasping what any of this means, which is why I'm not set on saying any one theory is better than the other. We do not have 100% proof for any theory and there's a huge margin for misinterpretation on both sides. People misinterpret the Bible all the time so likewise I would imagine that things that are used as proof of evolution can be something that someone has misinterpreted. Sort of like how people see Jesus in toast or the virgin Marry in a window... if you look for something eventually you'll find it. I believe that's the case for both sides they're looking for something so hard that if they find one little thing they run with it. :O OMG that just spoilt EVERY single word Eternal Enigma said... I don't believe so... Aihwa just views evolution as being more established than creation. I'm sure Aihwa has never spoken to someone like me who can break it down without allowing emotions to get the best of me. Creation does skip over the existence of the dinosaurs, but in the same way evolution skips over paranormal activity, which is just as real as the bones left by the dinosaurs. I have two separate upcoming posts. I've got an excellent deconstruction analysis of both of these particular theories in the works complete with photos and videos. I'll cover the dinosaurs and things that make no sense with creation and I'll do the same thing with evolution and cover things that make no sense with evolution.). If I look at a PC repair manual from 1995 the information in it will also be out dated. Scientists say Earth is more like 6 billion years old and our universe is only 13 billion years old. I personally feel that our world and our universe is older than we could possibly comprehend. I don't believe scientists are lying or are otherwise purposefully misleading us. They're taking evidence that they've collected and have come up with a theory of something that could be. They're doing this to the best of their abilities with our current technology and level of understanding.Wanderlust 09-10-2011, 07:22 PM Aihwa, you have to understand the Bible is the holy spirit put into words.Eternal Enigma 09-10-2011, 07:33Aihwa 09-10-2011, 07:43Creationism is religion seeking approval in the real world. It goes hand in hand. You started this thread with the full knowledge that you're trying to match fiction to fact. Also, creationism is not a scientific theory, its a hypothesis, use your terms right. (and a pretty poor hypothesis too, what with the "not one shred of evidence" thing going for it) likely never will, I would trust him with my life. The issue is, people don't just "beleive" this stuff, they demand others believe it. For example, the candy god. What if followers of this hypothetical god demanded (and through the democratic process) banned skittles because it violates their "morals" simply because their religion teaches that eating skittles is a sin? (prime example in the real world would be Gay Rights) The majority seems unable to keep religion "private" Wanderlust 09-10-2011, 07:46 PMRubbish example. We have a great picture when it comes to climatology. You just haven't cared enough to absorb up all the info about it. The world was around 4 degrees warmer than cooled to present temps over 40 million years and varys up and down dramatically during these periods. The ice age began 2 million years ago and continues until today. We are currently in an interglacial, the ice age alternates between glacials and interglacials. There have been 6+ cycles of glacial and interglacials during the current ice age. The Earth is predicted to enter a new glaciation in 15,000 years unless the cycle is broken. There actually really is no normal temperature for the planet since it varies up and down over time. Global Warming is a problem for us due to the rapid change it could bring. The ice age or cooling of the planet was in terms of being 4 degrees cooler was not a factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs. A variety of declining environmental problems and large catastrophes did them in. ___ Science rewires itself with new evidence, that's the beauty of it. Scott 09-10-2011, 08:24 PMThe connection to the Holy Spirit is like the connection to a parent. The later is verifiable through blood testing, but face it you take it on faith(I have yet to meet a person who remembers their moment of birth). Once that connection is made the stories become the Word, and a bond is made. The bond, the loyalty and love, become what is written. The Bible becomes a cornerstone, the foundation from which a soul may build upon with assurance. In Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. I don't have a deep enough bond to the Bible to believe that as it was written. I can, however, imagine that one day for God may well be billions of years for us. Were all looking for some kind of assurance in this crazy world, something that will never desert us. One thing I know for certain, the Bible will never abandon anyone who cries out for its comfort. That's love...from a book. I didn't have that book. I needed a foundation, I needed a wall from the pain, and started building very young. Principles became my Word. Things like Honor and Integrity became my foundation for a sullen looking defensive wall. I kept building, and that ugly wall eventually became a beautiful castle, all because I knew things like honor and integrity would never ever desert me. If someone tried to tell me honor was just a story I would be defensive about it. So try to think of one concept that you have total assurance of, and relate the feeling you have with what people have for the word and you will get the idea. Wanderlust 09-10-2011, 08:59 PM So try to think of one concept that you have total assurance of, and relate the feeling you have with what people have for the word and you will get the idea. I often do that and i have an idea of the purely emotional attachemnt people get to an idea to same themselves from hopeless indifference. I can't do it on faith, because faith is completely arbitrary. There are and endless number of faith based ideas and every one believes that it is true one. Speculation taken as infallible truth. To be definite, i am a Skeptical Agnostic in terms to a creator. I am Not an Athiest, though i have abandoned all religious ideas. An Athiest would know more than anyone and the same way with theists. If there is a creator than the relationship between it and this universe is way more complicated than we can hope to know any time soon, much surpassing the knowledge proposed by the holy books. The modern day religions were formed when we did not have access to the realization of the true scale of things. Remember, we are lost in a universe that is unimaginably vast and complicated with hundreds of trillions of galaxies. Each place as real as this one. Creationism is religion seeking approval in the real world. It goes hand in hand. The theory of creation has nothing to do with religion. I'm not sure how I could have you understand that fact. Creation is the theory that a God created everything and it explains how it works, which can be done on a scientific level. Religion is something we created trying to interpret what God wants us to do, which is completely different from how the universe formed or how we got here and as such is off topic. I've removed religion from the equation. I'm talking about the hardware and you're talking about the software. I'm sorry that in the past you've been confronted by religious whack-jobs who themselves could not see the difference, but I can assure you I'm nothing like them. I'm also sorry if they ever tried to force their view on you or if they tried to make it sound like what you believe in is wrong. They did the wrong thing. I'm not them... Have you read my posts? Did you see where I mentioned the fact that I've never been to church? Did you see where I also mentioned that my parents never taught me about God or religion? This is not something that was taught to me over the years through brainwashing techniques. I come from a family where no two people believe the same thing so my views are completely my own and have not been forced on me. Likewise I would never force my views on others as in trying to make them believe it. I'm only going to post my view and how I came to that conclusion and I hope others do the same. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's not like my posts are anti-evolution and I'm not saying what I believe is right. If you would read my posts (and future posts) I come down pretty hard on creation because there are unanswered questions. Scott is the only evolutionist here who seems to be willing to try to see the other point of view. He understands that I'm not trying to force him to believe anything. From this he will understand why I do not believe in evolution. Hopefully in return I'll gain an understanding of why he does not believe in creation. What will this accomplish? The understanding and acknowledgement of a fellow human being. We have a great picture when it comes to climatology. I agree, one question answered opens 100 more. We are along way from having the capability to figure it all out. :\| We can't even get an accurate weather report from one day to the next. I can't expect them to understand the climate or what the weather patterns were like billions of years ago. A lot of science is observation... there are experiments you can conduct, but science is also made up of a lot of speculation. When you're dealing with something that does have a lot of guess work in it I cannot take the information they provide about something from billions of years ago as absolute fact. There is an incalculable margin for error when guessing about prehistoric times. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-10-2011, 11:04 PM Evolution however, is pretty much established. what have you been smoking out there?! lol 30532 Ja'k Dawsiin 09-10-2011, 11:12 PM Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior just as surely as dinosaurs worked the Earth.Ja'k Dawsiin 09-10-2011, 11:32 PM we are lost in a universe that is unimaginably vast and complicated with hundreds of trillions of galaxies. Each place as real as this one. this line gives me a total helpless feeling of drifting alone in the cosmos,in a semi-working spacesuit,slowly running out of precious oxygen... 30552 * it's just me,can't help it.* _Omaticaya_ 09-11-2011, 01:39 AM) Humans are not monkeys, we share a common ancestor, and ancestor who is now dead and gone. (as it diverged into apes, and humans) The "humans are monkeys" line comes from creationists who seem incapable of understanding quite simple concepts, however I think this picture pretty much sums that up. You see?! They're just pissing on us without even the courtesy of calling it rain... So, you prove once again you're totally in love with today's world mate; and for sure, you have NO idea, what faith is or who God is, but this was clear anyway so let's go on. Funniest thing about these post like yours is that you're convinced a stupid picture and a few posh words can make the other person look totally out of line and wrong Shakes head Let me see, you're telling me, that because somebody threw a mothafukin mortarboard in the air and studied science for a few years, that person has it all? And I know sh1t? Seems to me that's your message, well, you see, that's the whole point Allycat made a thread to hate this society, it's not about how many books you've read and how many years you've studied, if you're a believer, you don't need a degree, you don't need to pay University, all you need is the Bible, yeah, the Holy Bible, that book everyone hates, that book that people in countries with persecutions, makes missionaries of God risk their life, to bring some Bibles for the people, believers scattered around the world in hostile places to christians. Anyway, I'll go on, or I'll be off-thread too much, altough in my opinion, you can't have a Evolution vs Creation thread, WITHOUT religion in the topics :D whatever, Aiwha, keep your pictures to yourself I don't need them and I could send you trackers about creation and God just as you do to me about evolution, but a drawing can't change your mind, only faith can. Oh and one last thing, dude you even said, as the Bible claims, the world would be about 6-7 thousands years old, I cant remember exactly because I'm not as Well-Read as you, so, how could all your million-year-evolution fair from a cell in the water to Lennox Lewis happen that fast? Scott 09-11-2011, 05:33 AMMy mother enrolled me in Sunday school and had me attend church just enough to get some pictures of me looking oh-so-cute gowned in white for my first communion. It all ended after that, just some pictures for a photo album, something to brag about while popping another can of beer with drunk friends. I was never offered anything of substance regarding faith, not from my mother and not from the church I attended briefly. I don't blame them for not noticing me, I was very young and very shy. I was living in what was nearly a vacuum so what ever little bits of knowledge regarding faith I did come upon I had to digest it without anyone's help. I had to formulate my own opinions and write my own scriptures so to speak. And somehow I did. I remember having a children's book about dinosaurs; but I can only remember one illustration, one that helped define me forever. A little boy and his dad walking by a stream with a modern field of grass and trees around it, superimposed upon this modern image is another, ghostly, image from a distant time with dinosaurs and ancient plants. With no dad of my own, that simple little image was the spark that helped introduce me to the father. I think that was the first time I thought of Jesus as more than just a beatific drawing or sculpture. Maybe it was just a child yearning for companionship, but I swear I believe Jesus was with me that day long ago. We walked together and he showed me that dinosaurs once walked where we did and he showed me how awesome and loving a father can be. So yeah, that's how I can put the two together. I've not thought of that in a long while, Ja'k. Thank you very much for reminding me of it!!! Ja'k Dawsiin 09-11-2011, 04:23 PM i love missing posts...reminds me of censored family-grams from my past. i despise censorship in all its forms,even a missing post i don't agree with or hate. what gives?:grumpy: * from debate to discussion...so confoozed * Eternal Enigma 09-11-2011, 05:28 PM No worries. I requested that the thread be moved and for some changes to be made (religion related posts being removed) to help move the thread away from a thread destroying religious debate. The reason behind the removal of posts is so that anyone new to the conversation wouldn't come and read what was written and get the wrong idea of what this thread is supposed to be. That's also why I decided to have the name changed so that it no longer sounds like a challenge being "this" verses "that." I also wanted it to be moved to a general discussion so that it's clear that this is not a debate or something for people to fight over. This is supposed to be a place to share your view of these two theories and how you came to that conclusion. So it's no longer about who's right or who's wrong and the thread is supposed to help to provide a realistic understanding of why people believe in something one way or the other that answers that question beyond "just because." That takes the level of understanding beyond someone believing that someone else is just ignorant. Once you know why someone believes in something or doesn't believe in something it makes more sense when you see the reasoning behind it. So this thread gives anyone the opportunity to provide their own thoughts and just toss around ideas as peacefully and respectfully as possible while keeping in mind this has nothing to do with religion. Many thanks to Lon. Scott 09-12-2011, 02:03 PM This was a noble attempt at listening. Maybe it should have come with a warning like we often see on a DVD, "the views expressed here are the sole property of" you get my point. I don't have a problem with editing out comments that only serve to incite, but with a topic like this there has to be a far broader grey zone to operate in. The reason for this is simple; dialogue stripped of all emotion tends to lose meaning as well. I don't want to see people getting upset over personal attacks-such demeaning things don't belong in any discussion-but when you have a group of people sit around this imaginary table you want them to bring their passion with them because that passion helped define the very view they are trying to express. I want to thank Eternal Enigma and Lon for having us welcome at their table. And I want to thank the community for being so intelligent, imaginative, and caring. ScottWashburn 09-12-2011, 05:35 PM I haven't read every post in this thread so forgive me if I repeat things that others have said. First off, the basic question/premise of this thread is flawed. Evolution is not a theory. It is a proven, scientific fact. Living things evolve. We've seen it happen with our own eyes. The recent phenomena of drug resistant bacteria is evolution in action. There are numerous other examples. Asking someone if they 'believe in evolution' is like asking them if the 'believe in gravity'. We often hear about "Darwin's Theory of Evolution." This is a misnomer. Even in Darwin's time most men of science already accepted the fact of evolution. They just didn't understand how it happened. Darwin's 'Origin of Species' was an attempt to understand how the process worked. His theory was "Natural Selection" as the process by which evolution works. Darwin's theory is now accepted by every reputable scientist in the world. As for creationism, it is a religious belief and thus not provable. It can be lumped with all the other creation myths that constitute nearly all human religions. They are not scientific, they are faith. That is, beliefs that are accepted despite a lack of evidence to support them. The notion that there is a god and that he/she/it created the universe has no factual evidence to support it. I might add that atheism is also a religious belief since there is no evidence to support the idea that there is no god, either. The only evidence we have of anything is that the universe exists. Science indicates that it was created about 14 billion years ago (give or take). What caused it to be created is a total mystery. We have no evidence of any kind to support any theory on how the universe came about. Therefore we are left with only two choices: Either 1) It just happened, or 2) something/someone caused it to happen by some outside action. ThereBut neither choice disqualifies evolution. Evolution is a fact and is here to stay. NAvi_warrior64 09-12-2011, 06:33 PM I don't care about the beginning so long as i live the middle until i see the end. this is my philosophy of life. Aihwa 09-12-2011, 09:16 PM Still legitimizing an unscientific hypothesis with no grounding in reason or fact. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-12-2011, 11:52 PM ThereReplica 09-13-2011, 02:00 AM Ah our constant wanting to fully comprehend and understand our universe and existence. I tend to sit on the evolution side of the fence here. I consider myself a more realistic person than an optimistic person and I just find creationism more unrealistic instead of a proper viable reason as to how we came to be. It just seems to conflict too much with history as we know it and what have found over years in terms of our past. But the interesting I find is that, within all this soul searching and fact finding to discover how it all started, absolutely nobody is ever willing to accept the concept that the universe has always just existed. We're always trying to give reason to the existence and creation of everything but maybe it's one of those things you just can't answer because there is no answer. Maybe the universe has always existed and always will. There is no beginning or end. There's just time. Somehow I get the feeling i'm on my own with this though, particularly here among all of you but perhaps this idea isn't as crazy as it seems. ScottWashburn 09-13-2011, 04:32 AM LOL! Well done! But you should have used a penny or a dime! They have "In God We Trust" on one side :)Ja'k Dawsiin 09-13-2011, 07:15 AM ^ oh,the irony. :) i still feel like i'm on a hamster wheel in here,or any thread that deals with this subject,or religion,or politics,lol. * scratches head bewilderedly * 30689 Aihwa 09-13-2011, 08:40 AM LOL! Well done! But you should have used a penny or a dime! They have "In God We Trust" on one side :) The only reason they do is because of the Red Scare in the 60's. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-13-2011, 08:55 AM The only reason they do is because of the Red Scare in the 60's. McCarthyism,HUAC,and The Red Scare,was actually in the 50s. i'm a big cinema fan,and the commie scare severely depleted the ranks of writers and directors in Hollywood in the 50s,and is one of the most un-american times since slavery and the salem witch 'trials'. the scumbags in congress have never properly apologized for the grief,terror,and life-ruination caused to these Americans,and to this day,i am downright ashamed of this country at times. grrrrrrr i find it hugely ironic that we are spending trillions of dollars and countless lives of our servicemen and women,to bring freedom to these oppressed countries,and we ourselves,are perpetrators of censorship,tyrannical tax code and collection,and spied on by a domestic jack-booted thug agency called homeland 'security',more like the gestapo. shaking my head Eternal Enigma 09-13-2011, 09:21 AM Scientists are just people and to say they're always right is like saying the president is always right or the police officer who pulled you over and gave you a ticket for no reason is always right or that the referee (at whatever sporting event) is always right. These are just people and scientists are known to oppose each other. It's not as if scientists are this one big entity and they all agree with each other. You can find one scientist who says one thing is so and fifteen who say it isn't and they're all getting the same information... it's just all in the interpretation. I've read many posts with people talking about all of this evidence, but I haven't seen any displayed. To come in here and say "science is correct because it has more evidence" isn't enough. I look at the dinosaurs and other types of evidence (and the possibility of alien intervention), but are you willing to look at the existence of spirits or other alternative pieces to this puzzle? It's about not being so closed minded and being able to be objectionable not only about something you don't believe in, but to be able to take your own belief system apart. I'm able to do it as I'm currently working on "Creation - Deconstruction Analysis" and I'm going to go over how it works and all of the things that make absolutely no sense and even though it's what I believe in I am able to do that. Then I'm going to do the exact same thing with evolution to display as my evidence that neither of these theories are able to explain everything. Just because you don't view something as evidence because you don't believe in it either doesn't mean it's not real or shouldn't be counted as evidence. Think about how frustrating it is that some creationists do not believe in the dinosaurs, but also think about how equally frustrating it is when evolutionists do not believe in spirits. Both of these things exists, but people on both sides fail to even consider them for whatever reason. These two theories are equal in terms of the numbers of people who believe in them, evidence, and inconsistencies. They're both on equal terms of being just one part of a bigger picture. A picture that we have absolutely no understanding of. We can't even get to other planets so we aren't even able to explore other possibilities that haven't even been thought of yet because we haven't found them yet. So to say that we have a definitive answer is unbelievably small minded. I look beyond suggestive evidence... for example. This is a display of a human skeleton next to a gorilla skeleton. This display is misleading by suggesting something that isn't true. This was an image of a human and gorilla skeleton standing upright next to each other. The photo below is the proper way of displaying reality as it is not as we would like for it to be. This was an image of a human standing upright and a gorilla standing on all fours as it does in reality. This display doesn't suggest anything and anyone who views it can draw their own conclusion instead of having it drawn for them. I've read many posts with people talking about all of this evidence, but I haven't seen any displayed.To come in here and say "science is correct because it has more evidence" isn't enoughtranscend 09-13-2011, 12:33 PM you dont need aliens to explain god although they may exist and may have visited earth.. and you do not need to feel that religon has no objective proof.. nature is one vast miracle and you are part of it and you have intelligence.. entropy does not win, information does.. when you realize that a feed back loop between the observer and the observed is a fundamental part of reality you will see intelligence also is a fundamental part as well.. and when you experience the oneness of god through your right brain you will have no more doubts about an intelligent universe.. its called communion or mystical experience and people have said this for thousands of years.. they are talkibng about a real experiednce.. ''i am with her jake.. she is real''... science and religon should be viewed as the same thing.. cant post as often because i wont be around a computer for awhile but very glad to see this topic discussed a lot.. :) visualizer 09-13-2011, 01:09 PM I'm surprised no one has mentioned Peter and Rosemary Grant yet? Peter and Rosemary Grant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ( Their work is famous. And as far as I can see, what more proof do you need of evolution? (In order to get a better idea of their work, you might want to watch the NOVA episode on them or read more about the work, but basically it details all of their observations of evolution) Scott 09-13-2011, 01:59 PMScottWashburn 09-13-2011, 02:46 PMSorry, but you sound like the idiots who claim aliens built the pyramids. Those claims are not just stupid they are insulting. They insinuate that man isn't smart enough to have built them themselves. Well sorry, but we are smart enough to have done all the great things we've done (like create the movie "Avatar" :) ) We didn't need the help of aliens and we didn't need the help of a god. We did it all, by ourselves. Nobody helped us. And that's something to be darn proud of. What we need to do is abandon all the phony-baloney religions we see around us and start the Church of Humanity. Celebrate the good and the genius of people. Revel in our own glory. Our imaginations created the gods when we needed them to fill our insatiable need to know why when we couldn't answer those questions ourselves yet. But now we can (at least some of them, always more to be found out) and we don't need our gods anymore. So onward humans! Onward! :) Scott 09-13-2011, 03:10 PM Intelligence will not inspire a man to climb a mountain. In fact, intelligence will warn the man to beware the mountain, because its so dangerous. So men who climb mountains must be idiots; men who dared sail the storm ridden seas were idiots. Men who took to the skies in flimsy flying machines were idiots. How do you even stand to stay with us, Scott, its obvious we are nothing but a bunch of idiots that insult your mighty presence. Tell me again how you built the pyramids with pure intelligence and nothing else? Oh so God was good for a while but now we have outgrown Him! Even through you will admit God helped us via our imagination, your so personally against him you want to be judge, jury, and executioner of God. An egomaniac, and out for vengeance upon the Lord. What did He do to you? Come on spill the beans! Your hurt, its plainly obvious, because of God, but you have not said why? Eternal Enigma 09-13-2011, 03:38 PM First, you must understand what this thread is all about... the break down analysis of creation and evolution. Within that you can insert alternative things that also could have been... For example; my use of the possibility of early man mistaking aliens for God. I just threw that out there as an idea because we don't know where the concept of God came from. My thought is that something spectacular happened to these early humans to make them come up with the concept of a God or of many gods. Coming in here saying; "No no no no you're wrong!" That's not you giving me the information from your mind explaining how you believe it works. You can also ask questions about the things that make no sense to you about one or both of these theories... No one is doing that. The information is supposed to come from your own mind... not what someone on Wikipedia says. Those people aren't you and only you can provide your view. I'm not looking for you to come here and post links to someone else's theory... I want YOUR view. Questions we should be asking each other or actually how this thread should be going: 1. What created the first atom and how did it form as if from no where? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 2. The first atom is what eventually became the universe. In the Big Bang theory this atom expanded due to a sudden explosion... what made it destabilize and explode? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 3. How did the extreme heat generated by that explosion cause one singular element to turn into many? (Sounds sort of like the replication process of a virus) (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 4. If humans were once primates and every other type of humanoid went extinct because the newer version took its habitat then why do we still have primates? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 5. We have fossil evidence of other types of humanoids, but none of them show the transition between having a tail and being tailess... why? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 6. If the Giraffe is the result of evolution... why aren't there any in between fossils of what these creatures came from? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 7. Birds of many species can mate with one another so wouldn't it make sense if two birds of a separate species mated they would create a new type of bird? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 8. Humans have bred dogs through selective breeding and we've created new types of dogs... is this evolution? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 9. Why would a God suddenly and for no reason create a universe? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 10. Everything exists within something else... what is the universe inside of? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 11. Could the existence of black holes and worm holes be evidence that the universe is the only place that can exist within itself by means beyond our comprehension? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 12. Science is unable to explain what ghosts are... I've personally seen actual object manipulation... something being picked up by nothing... what did I see? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 13. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth 65 million years ago; how does this fit into our creation? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 14. Why aren't there other types of humanoids? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 15. Why are we the only thing on the planet that has evolved as as rapidly as we have even though we're one of the youngest species here? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 16. How come modern primates aren't any more intelligent than they were millions of years ago? Shouldn't they have evolved too? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 17. If evolution is forever then what will we eventually turn into? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 18. Are the aliens us in time machines? Evolution? Advanced humans of the past returning to Earth? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 19. What are modern primates the result of? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) 20. In the theory of evolution primates themselves would have had an ancestor... I'd like to know this since science answers everything... what were they? (this is where everyone discusses the possibilities of what could have been since we don't know) See how interesting this subject COULD be if people would let it.... Open YOUR mind... Notice how I did not say anything about religion in those questions. That's because... guess what? I'm not talking about religion I'm talking about creation and evolution... how... it... works. I'm not trying to convert anyone to some other type of belief system or anything like that. This isn't made for an argument to ensue either. Without getting some crayons out I don't know of any other way to simplify what I'm talking about. So for those of you coming in here telling me "you're wrong you're wrong you're wrong" no you're wrong because I just had to tell you how you're supposed to interact in this thread. All you have to do is read what I said and you would understand that I would like to start a discussion of how these theories work by breaking them down. Creation and Evolution - Deconstruction Analysis. What has happened here is one or two people have misunderstood what this is about and have privately messaged other people telling them to come here to disagree. Coming here and posting a response disagreeing before you've even read anything reflects poorly on you.tm20 09-13-2011, 04:50 PM just watch some youtube videos of richard dawkins and michio kaku, they will answer ALL yor questions :nalol: (michio kaku is nicer, he isn't hostile towards religion) found it i'll just summarise it like this....MICHIO KAKU=GOD :rotfl: Ja'k Dawsiin 09-13-2011, 05:07 PM Revel in our own glory. oh boy....and all of mankind was united in celebration as we gave birth to a.i....and spawned an entire race of machines. uh oh:cool: 30721 Aihwa 09-13-2011, 10:56 PMEternal Enigma 09-14-2011, 01:49 AM just watch some youtube videos of richard dawkins and michio kaku, they will answer ALL yor questions (michio kaku is nicer, he isn't hostile towards religion) found it i'll just summarise it like this....MICHIO KAKU=GOD I'm not really looking for answers to my questions because we don't have the answers, but we could have a very interesting conversation about what could be. Dr. Michio Kaku... now THAT'S someone you could have an interesting conversation with. Thank you for open minded people! Science is one of my favorite subjects and it's something I really get into, but I'm still able to look at alternative views or theories and take them into consideration as well, which to me is a huge asset especially when living in a world where not everyone believes the same things. I like listening to Dr. Michio Kaku's views and various points from other theories because he is able to be objectionable when talking about creation and evolution among many other things. He doesn't really ever bring up religion that much, which is something I like because religion doesn't explain anything. Religion is just something we created trying to interpret what God wants us to do. With religion you get into things like "eating fish is sinful and you shouldn't do it," which is crazy and has nothing to do with how the universe came to be or how we got here. I like it better when he has his own show so he can explain a theory without it being so segmented or broken up by an interviewer. I really like people who are able to think of the "what could be" and come up with theories of their own without allowing their personal beliefs get in the way. He always comes up with some type of great alternative theory to everything. I'll bet he would be a blast to talk to and throw ideas around with. People like that are so awesome. Thanks for posting that! Ja'k Dawsiin 09-14-2011, 02:52 AM the anti-intellectualism cult sweeping America ....wut?!:disgust: 30769 Replica 09-14-2011, 04:11 AMDo you have any friends at all? Like honestly, do you know anyone that can sit in same room as you for more than 2 minutes without wanting to punch you in the face? tm20 09-14-2011, 05:09 AM probably didn't have to say it like that but i'll be honest, i lol'd :rotfl: Replica 09-14-2011, 05:43 AM Probably but then again, he's not the only one around here who can be blunt and straight to the point. Kiyom 09-14-2011, 06:10 AM The big bang theory (yes it is a theory) doesn't say that there was one single atom at the beginning. It says that, a long time ago, our universe was denser and warmer than it is now. There was never any explosion in this theory. In fact the term "big bang" was at first derogatory to mock this theory. But this name have stuck accross time anyway. The universe, instead of exploding, expanded becoming thus less warm and dense. This expansion allowed noticeably the creation of matter (at first, all was energy, but energy which converted into mass). This theory doesn't describe what was before the big bang (does that even make sense? Was there something before? Did time start at the big bang?), because there can't be found any traces of that. I think it is useless to say that such a thing is impossible, it's just that it implies quantities of energy and concepts which are completely out of reach of the human mind. We live in a stabilized world where energy exchanges are relatively easily quantifiable, where time seems to flow continuously. Back then, the concept of time itself was probably very different. We don't even really know what time is. This theory has flaws, of course, but it is at least based on observation, like the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. The idea of a God (whoever it is) creating the world is just a concept invented by people (just like the big bang) who had absolutely no idea of their origins and tried to justify an existence empty of sense (I precise it is my point of view). But just like we don't know what was before the big bang, we don't know what created God. So the problem is the same. Scientists have discovered many laws governing our universe and have made many observations and experimentations. We have to admit they are right (or at least are very near the reality) because without these laws, we wouldn't have things like antibiotics, planes or computers. The evolution theory allows to explain the physical and biological (DNA) similarities between species and gives a sense to the fossiles discovered in the ground. This theory, even if it has also flaws, is based on concrete observations and considers the spontaneous DNA mutations which have been proved. In this theory, every living organisms (animals or plants) have a common ancestor, because we all share the same base cell structure. What was it? We don't know. How it was created? We don't know. Just like the big bang! But is it really important? Does mankind need to know absolutely everything? Something we have to understand is that each living thing is as evolved as the others. Humans and apes and sharks and roses are all evolved organisms, because we all live at the same time. And dinausors are less evolved than us because they have been extinct before us. But just because we say that animals aren't intelligent (who are we to say that? How can we know? Does anyone ever enter an animal mind anyway?) doesn't mean they're not evolved. It's right that we don't know the common ancestor of human and apes, nor do we really know why this ancestor has evolved into two branches. It's just the way evolution is, affected by the pressure of environment and the natural selection. We can't really know what humans will become in the future because we don't know the pressures the environment will put on us. It is the beauty of this theory, the unpredictability and constant changes. This changes matches perfectly with the changes the universe has undergone. It matches with the chaos which seems to reign at an atomic level. The fossiles shows that there were other species of humans, but all of them are now extinct. The reasons may be multiple. Maybe climatic changes, maybe diseases, maybe otherwise. Maybe the human lineage is a dead-end, since we're the only representatives left (which is not impossible seeing the far-too-fast progression of human population). I personnally believe in the scientific theories because they tried to explain things rationnally. I have personnally never met any god, nor seeing anything surnatural or metaphysic, and science seems to me the only way to understand these kinds of things. I'm not superstitious, nor do I believe in magic. I believe in what I can see and can touch. If such things like ghosts may be seen, then not by me; and I can't understand, I can't see past my own perception. I think that creation myths are rather beautiful stories, though. "At first there was the chaos, and god created and organized the world." The Greek mythology with its numerous gods, the christian myth that the world was creating in 7 days, or even the Tolkien mythology of the creation of Arda are all very interesting from a literary or storytelling point of view, but in my opinion, don't describe something realistic, because such gods seem to overpower everything, capable of creating and destroying at will, without consideration of physic laws. Of course, maybe these gods created the physic laws and are not subject to them, but it just seems weird in my mind. The christian creation was written more than 2000 years ago. At this time, mankind hadn't the knowledge that we have now and relied on other things than technical sciences. I don't denigrate them, nor I denigrate the Bible or other religious texts, but in my opinion, such books are kind of outdated code of laws. Some things in them are still valid, there are interesting concepts and ideas, but some other things are completely obsolete. And I think the creation myth is one of them. It's the problem of "Why is there something rather than nothing?" And I'm afraid this question is beyond the comprehension of any human mind. We're such tiny things compared to the entire universe composed of billions of galaxies. How could something so ridiculous as a human could discover the greatest mysteries of what is? I don't think science will be one day able to explain the origin of the origin. As Spinoza said, "And thus they will pursue you from cause to cause until you are glad to take refuge in the will of God, that is, the asylum of ignorance." I agree with this. And if I had to describe what God is, I'd say that it is everything we don't understand. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-14-2011, 07:21 AM hmmm....:p 30788 Scott 09-14-2011, 08:15 AM From the neck up that is one ugly dinosaur. I still say you can have faith and science in your life without one trying to gobble up the other. I know faith is harder to come by these days because everyone is wondering why they keep taking shots right on their chins. You get hit, knocked down, back up and dusted off only to be hit again. At least with science it feels more impersonal, it lets people walk on their own two feet instead of path dictated to them by another. I believe that if this philosophy gets you through the day without taking a baseball bat to someone's head then it is alright. I don't need you to believe in God, I just need you to believe that hurting each other and killing each other is wrong. I need you to believe that you are more than just an animal. Kiyom 09-14-2011, 08:54 AM We don't need God to know what's wrong from what's right. It's true that this idea of wrong and right has been largely broadcasted by religions. But even if I don't believe in any God, I'm glad of this heritage. Like I said, I see religious texts as old code of laws, and I agree with a lots of things and disagree with others. But I'm not more than an animal, I am an animal. Why do mankind want absolutely differentiate from animals? Is it shameful to be one? Are we so proud and selfish that we think we're higher than them? I don't think so. As I said, we're as evolved as any other living animals. What have we that other animals have not? Our mechanism of breathing, eating, defecating or mating is completely similar to most of mammals. Our blood uses hemoglobine to transport oxygen just like most animals. We use DNA to code our genetic information as almost every living organisms. We're thus completely similar on a biological point of view. So what's the difference? What we call 'consciousness'? What is it anyway? How can we know we're the only species to have one? There's absolutely no experiments proving that animals haven't consciousness. They are other species and have thus other considerations and probably other views of the world surrounding them. We probably haven't the same consciousness, but I find it hard to believe animals are just very advanced biological machines. If human are the only species to have consciousness then it raises another question. When in our evolution has it appeared? This problem seems so odd that I prefer considering ourselves like animals. Scott 09-14-2011, 09:56 AM In nature the rule is only the strong survive. For humanity, survival is not enough. We yearn for more than just getting enough food to fill our bellies. We can never be simple animals, only act like ones because we share the animal instinct for survival-some of us more than others. I love animals. I am always very friendly to animals because that is my nature. A nature that runs contrary to survival of the fittest in every sense of the phrase. I am not an animal! I am a human being! The being is what sets us apart, it makes us greater than the sum of our whole. Kiyom 09-14-2011, 10:41 AM From a human point of view, I have to agree with this: we (as a modern technological society) are very different from animals. But what do animals think of us? Maybe they think we are primitive animals and that they are better. Maybe some of their activities we see as bestial and primitive are highly developped in their opinions. We can't know because we're not in their heads. Maybe animals have more than the instinct of survival, or maybe we have only that and try to convince ourselves that we're more. Once again, as we don't even know what consciousness is, it is hard to say if humans and/or other animals have one... Consciousness is something that neither science nor religion can define and quantify so everything related to it is hypothesis. But I want to take only one example: the ants. At first view, these tiny insects seem completely ridiculous and useless. And taken alone, they are. But together, they have created a society at least as complex as ours. They have developped very strong social bonds and each ant has a specify task which is essential for the survival of the colony. Some ants have developped greenflies breeding while others cultivate mushrooms just like we do. They have a very developped 'language' with sounds, specific displacements and tactile exchanges. Because of morphology, our language is speech but there are other languages. They construct buildings just like we do. There are more in their society than just survival instinct. Of course a lonely ant is completely lost and so pretty stupid. But as a whole, the ants are capable of intelligence and great organization. After all, they are capable of walking in straight line without having a high point of view of their environment. Today, ants are believed to be the most populated species on Earth with about 10 million of billion individuals. They are present on each continent except Antarctica. I won't develop anymore on animal consciousness because it's a little off topic... but nonetheless a very interesting subject. Aihwa 09-14-2011, 11:01 AM Do you have any friends at all? Like honestly, do you know anyone that can sit in same room as you for more than 2 minutes without wanting to punch you in the face? My friends don't hold with being "nice" to destructive views any more than I do. Would you "respect" a racist? NO! Why would I respect anti-intellectualism? Scott 09-14-2011, 12:51HufweMakto 09-14-2011, 02:52 PM I just find creationism as a fail overall. "Intelligent Design" is just another title for what is already been deemed unfounded, illogical and just stupid. Yes, evolution is real, go down to your local natural history museum, like what I did as a kid, looking up at dinosaur skeletons and seeing the ancient tools of early hominids (homo habilis, the Handy Man). tm20 09-14-2011, 03:03it's actually not hard being a human, it's just that we advanced our society to the point where we made it hard for ourselves. Palulukan_Taronyu 09-14-2011, 04:16 PM I've said this before, if animals knew how hard it was to be human they would take pity on us. lol.....Sorry Scott but are you being serious here? We have it so so so so so so much easier then animals. I am not trying to be rude Scott. I just think it is funny that someone would think that compared to animals a human existence is so much harder then that of a animal and that we would deserve pity from them? Maybe you are not trying to say "harder". But what you are saying is that humans have struggles and go through hard time as well. Though not as hard of struggles compared to animals, and if animals knew that we did have some of these struggles that we would deserve some pity? Is that what your trying to say? Again, Don't take this as a rude or angry comment..... Scott 09-14-2011, 04:17 PM toEternal Enigma 09-14-2011, 06:45 PM We have it so so so so so so much easier then animals. It depends on how one defines "easier." For some people technology makes life easier (and it does), but for me just being able to exist without the interference that we create for ourselves would make things easier by making life simple again. Just imagine living in a world where you don't have someone breathing down your neck to get some paper work done. In the theory of evolution none of this has any meaning anyways so why make things so complicated? We can advance ourselves without over complicating everything. For example; if you have a dog or a cat think of what you expect from them. They're animals and like us they need food, water, and shelter just the same and with those basic elements they can thrive. The difference is that we've worked to complicate our world by coming up with new requirements. Then we have requirements for requirements for requirements. If you do not meet these requirements in modern society you're considered a failure where as in the natural world you would just be living your life. This complex world has even changed our view of how we SHOULD live life. For example; I am 27 and I do not have a drivers license. I've chosen not to drive. The reasons behind that are personal and some have to do with medical issues that lead me to believe I wouldn't be able to maintain control of a motor vehicle, but just because of the fact that I don't have a piece of plastic that says I can operate a piece of metal on rubber people automatically assume that because I don't drive that I'm somehow irresponsible. They're looking at it and trying to make things more complex than it needs to be. I'm JUST living my life. If you have a medical condition that could cause you to lose control of your vehicle and kill people you've got to live with the choice you made to operate that vehicle. I would much rather make what I believe is the responsible decision not to drive. Once you run into that van filled with children and you kill them you've got to live with that. We've made it too complicated. Instead of the world seeing me as a man who has made the responsible decision this is viewed as an irresponsible decision and is even considered childish. So society would try to force me to drive even though the medical science suggests it's not such a good idea; in my case. My own family has poor views of me because I don't go out and party or do drugs and I do not have photos of me and hundreds of people I don't know posted on my Facebook page. In their mind going out and involving yourself in this lifestyle IS living to them THAT'S what this is all about and if you aren't doing that then you aren't living. I have my hobbies I have my job and I have things that I like to do that are fun to me and make me happy, but my family does not view my life as being A LIFE. They've actually tried to say in a demeaning way that they just think it's sad that I don't have a life. When the electricity goes out I take that opportunity to sit in nature and use my mind think and create. I come up with complex concepts and theories. I have my own thoughts that belong to me and no one else. When the electricity goes out for them because their life has been made so complicated and requires these things to work they have nothing because their life stops and they're unable to think for themselves and to me that's sad. Then when you ask them about the photos on their Facebook page... "where was this" or "who is that" they're unable to tell you. They'll say; "I don't remember I had too much to drink." That's a life? I can recall nearly every event in my life so from that my life can have meaning because I can remember moments and have emotions attached to them. From an evolutionary standpoint I feel as though I'm more advanced than my family members even though I work to live a more simplistic life. It shows because I'm not aging like my family and friends are. I've been able to make time stand still for me and by continuing this steady pace I plan to live to be the oldest living human in the world. I plan to do that by removing myself from the unnecessary complexities that we've created. Humans are the only thing on this planet that experience this because we're the only thing on this planet that is actively creating an increasingly complex world for ourselves. I understand how we've got it easier, but I also see how we're making life increasingly difficult. I'm not saying you're right or wrong I'm just adding to what has been said. In other words this is just a long winded way of saying the exact same thing that tm20 said. lol it's actually not hard being a human, it's just that we advanced our society to the point where we made it hard for ourselves. Palulukan_Taronyu 09-15-2011, 01:28 AM toActually Animals do know consequences. A animal makes a mistake that leads to a injury it will never make that mistake again. Animals can predict an outcome and that has been proven. I know animals are smarter then we give them credit for and I do believe there are animals that do "imagine". The Silver Stag 09-15-2011, 02:45 AM We cannot know anything about what animals (I dislike seperating humans and 'animals' but will do so in this thread for the sake of clarity) think or feel because we are not them, I feel that to claim otherwise is to be a misguided humans who thinks he can calculate or understand everything. You can test a beast and obeserve what it does but even with it's behaviour you can never be certain what was going through it's head or emotions. On the main topic, science seems to be it's own religion these days, with their view of the world being the only right one. New scientists are brought up being taught 'this is the way things are in the world' and the christians, muslims, hindus etc are all taught from the point of view of their religion aswell. People might say that science is the study of what God created, and maybe it is and if more people could accept that point of view then perhaps there's a chance science and religion could meet in the middle and exist alongside each other. In short, let scientists believe what they 'prove' and let the religious folk believe whatever they have faith in. Scott 09-15-2011, 08:47 thePalulukan_Taronyu 09-15-2011, 09:38 theOrca's are very intelligent animals probably up their with primates. Typically a mother and her calf will be by themselves anyways. This is because the calf can only go so fast. This is precisely why Orca's will take the opportunity to attack a whale and her calf. Despite what you think Trying to defend a calf against animals that are 25-30ft long and weighing in at 3-4 tonnes and work in groups isn't easy. The truth is it is a almost hopeless battle for the mom and calf. The fact is that they must try to avoid such encounters in the first place. The problem with the heard theory is this. A group of predators attack in a ocean you have six ways of attack. You can be attacked 360 degrees. On land you can only attacked front back and along the sides this makes it easier for animals to forum defensive circles to protect their calves. However not all animals are able to defend themselves against predators and a defensive circle would be pointless. The loss of young is a common occurrence for animals. This brings up a point about animals having it harder then people. Humans will also do the same thing. Humans will try for self preservation to defend themselves. Obviously their are exceptions where family members and other people will help in defending someone. We see this in nature as well. If a lion should escape from a zoo and start killing people it would be everyone for themselves. Obviously you would have family help each other same with the mother whale defending her calf. Dad does not travel with the pod. Dad is off making more babies. Us humans do not have to do such a thing because of the medical facilities we have and the fact that we do not have to worry about predation. In the wild animals know that offspring will die due to predation and therefore males often breed with more then one female ensuring at least one infant survives to adult hood. To make a long story short. Not all whale species are social. This is true for most large species of whale including the Mink and Grey whales that Orca's commonly prey upon. If such whales do travel in groups they are nothing more then just that just groups of the same species. There are no family. Only the female is left in charge to defend her calf. The male has to make sure that he breed with other females so that he can ensure that one of his offspring survives. After mating the male leaves he has no more responsibilities. Now nature does find solutions for this. A. A female is larger then the male to better protect offspring. B. The Male will help rear and protect his offspring ensuring a higher survival rate. I can't convince you that they can "Imagine" I believe they can and that's it. It is a hard thing to prove scientifically that animals can Imagine..... Carborundum 09-15-2011, 11:33 AM @Eternal Enigma: Your approach to the Creation-Evolution controversy is very diplomatic, and you seem to be a genuinely nice person. However, when you say things such as this: Don't bring religion into this because that's something else completely... there are too many religions to contend with. This is just about creation and evolution... Yes, with creation I am mentioning God because that's part of the creation theory. You display a fundamental lack of understanding of what science is. Please, let me try to explain it to you. First and foremost, a scientific theory must be falsifiable. Any statement involving a "God" is inherently unfalsifiable, because no matter how hard we look, there is always a possibility that God exists just beyond what we can currently understand or perceive. Conversely, a statement such as "man evolved from apes" is falsifiable; contradicting data could potentially exist. Equally important, a scientific theory must make predictions about reality. For example, evolution (The Theory of,) has been used to successfully predict how E. Coli changes and adapts over multiple generations in an acidic environment ( Intelligent design (or creation, or whatever you want to call it) makes no useful predictions about reality, and so fails both criteria to be considered a scientific theory. Scott 09-15-2011, 12:19Palulukan_Taronyu 09-15-2011, 01:38Hey no problem. I hope you start feeling better. It was a good conversation and I enjoyed it. Cyraph 09-16-2011, 08:52 AM I must say that although I'm a rare time visitor to this site at best I'm somewhat disappointed that this topic would even come up in this day and age of information but it's hardly surprising that those most against evolution also know the least about it. So many things I read here made me cringe at the ignorance of the poster and since I'm far too busy to explain or argue against every single point like I have in the past on other forums... well that's why I'm not going to waste my time. I refer to and give it up to AronRa of Youtube, who did a fantastic and rather unbiased multi-part series on the subject. Enjoy. Excerpt: "Regardless which religion they claim, creationism can be collectively defined as the fraction of religious believers who reject science, not just the conclusions of science, but its methods as well, and I mean all of them, from uniformitarianism and methodological naturalism to the peer review process and requirement that all positive claims be based on testable evidence. These people rely instead on blind faith in the assumed authority of their favored fables. In all cases, creationism is an obstinate and dogmatic superstitious belief which holds that members of most seemingly-related taxonomic groups did not evolve naturally, but were created magically, -that plants and animals were literally poofed out of nothing fully-formed, in their current state, unrelated to anything else –despite all indications to the contrary." 2nd Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "The scriptures are the Word of God" Excerpt: "If there really was one true god, it should be a singular composite of every religion's gods, an uber-galactic super-genius, and the ultimate entity of the entire cosmos. If a being of that magnitude ever wrote a book, then there would only be one such document; one book of God. It would be dominant everywhere in the world with no predecessors or parallels or alternatives in any language, because mere human authors couldn't possibly compete with it. And you wouldn't need faith to believe it, because it would be consistent with all evidence and demonstrably true, revealing profound morality and wisdom far beyond contemporary human capacity. It would invariably inspire a unity of common belief for every reader. If God wrote it, we could expect no less. But what we see instead is the very opposite of that." 3rd Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "Absolute Truth" Excerpt: "In reality, there is no such thing as "absolute truth". Everything within the capacity of human understanding contains a degree of error, and everything men know to be true is only true to a degree. Everyone is inevitably wrong about something somewhere. We don't know everything about everything. We don't know everything about anything! And what we do know, we don't know accurately on all points nor completely in every detail. Honest men admit this. Anyone claiming to know the absolute truth is not being honest, especially not when they claim to know anything about things which can only be believed on faith." 4th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "Belief = Knowledge" Excerpt: "Truth is more than just facts. It implies something that is completely true, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So every word of it better be accurate, or it isn't truth at all; and depending on the topic, such a concept is likely beyond human comprehension anyway. Truth may be pursued but never possessed. That's why we should trust those who seek the truth and doubt those who claim to have it! A fact is a unit of information that is verifiable true beyond dispute, and obviously beliefs based on the conflicting faiths of different religions cannot qualify as that. Belief may be either rational, or assumed on faith but in either case, it doesn't matter how convinced you are; belief does not equal knowledge. The difference is that knowledge can always be tested for accuracy where mere beliefs often can not be. No matter how positively you think you know it, if you can't show it, then you don't know it, and you shouldn't say that you do." 5th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "Evolution is a religion" Excerpt: "Faith is often a belief in things which are impossible according to everything we know about anything at all. The belief is sacred, meaning that it is never to be questioned or critically examined, but must be believed no matter what. Skeptical inquiry is strictly forbidden, and apologetics exists only to obligately rationalize away any criticisms so that they may be dismissed without consideration. In other words, faith assumes its own conclusions, believes impossible things without reason, and defends those beliefs against all reason to the contrary. So it can't help but be wrong to some degree to start with, and any errors will never even be acknowledged, much less sought out or corrected. So that situation can never improve. However wrong it already is is however wrong it will forever be. So faith offers no way to discover the real truth about anything, but it's a great way to stay wrong forever and never admit it –even to yourself. Science is completely opposite in every respect. Rather than any need-to-believe, science is driven by a desire to understand." 6th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "Evolution must explain the origin of life, the universe, and everything." Excerpt: "Their problem is that evolution, -like every other field of science- challenges the accuracy and authority of the storybooks which creationists equate to God. Consequently, they tend to reject science almost entirely, and will often take all the sciences they perceive as threatening, and lump them all together under one heading, which they then refer to as "evolution-ism". It's an attempt to minimize the sheer volume of sciences allied against them. This is also part of their intentionally-erected illusion of equality; a false dichotomy that if their legendary folklore isn't the absolute authority -being both literally and completely true, then God couldn't create or even exist any other way." 7th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "Evolution is random." Excerpt: "Natural selection even mimics the experiments of human designers when new technologies emerge. For example, when men first achieved powered flight, there were myriad marvelously imaginative contraptions all at once collectively trying to set the standard for what airplanes should be. Eventually, they followed a more standardized pattern as many of the fancier designs were discontinued and more functional tried-and-true contrivances remained. Significant improvements occasionally appear, but there are no more wildly diverse variants like the pioneer planes built when aviation was new and less understood." Excerpt: "Mutations are degrees of variation which are usually quite subtle but cumulative, normally harmless, and occasionally advantageous. Any change in information is different information, not already present, and therefore can only be considered "new". But of the many types of mutations known to occur, there are additions and duplications as well as deletions and the rest. So yes, genetic material can be added or taken away. But as to whether "information" has been added as opposed to lost, we can't really tell because creationists won't tell us what they think "information" is or how to measure it. They'll readily state (as if it had somehow been confirmed) that it takes more "information" to make a bird than it does a dinosaur, but if you ask 'em how much more, they'll shut right up. And if you demand to see the data that justifies how they could even make that claim in the first place, they'll to change the subject." 9th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "No transitional species have ever been found." Excerpt: "When something dies, it is usually disassembled, digested, and decomposed. Only rarely is anything ever fossilized, and even fewer things are very well-preserved. Because the conditions required for that process are so particular, the fossil record can only represent a tiny fraction of everything that has ever lived. Darwin provided many environmental dynamics explaining why no single quarry could ever provide a continuous record of biological events, and why it would be impossible to find all the fossilized ancestors of every lineage. But despite this, he predicted that future generations, -having the benefit of better understanding- would discover a substantial number of fossil species which he called "intermediate" or "transitional" between what we see alive today and their taxonomic ancestors at successive levels in paleontological history. There are three different types of transitional forms and we have ample examples of each. But creationists still insist that we've never found a single one, because what they usually ask us to present are impossible parodies which evolution would neither produce nor permit." 10th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "The Tree of Life is nowhere implied either in the fossil record, nor in any aspect of biology." Excerpt: "One notable subset of Eukarya is Opisthokonta, who's gammete cells have a single posterior flagellum. One subset of this this group is Metazoa, also known as Kingdom, Animalia- multicellular opisthokonts which must ingest other organisms in some sort of digestive tract in order to survive. The biological definition, and in fact even the common dictionary defintions describe humans as belonging to the animal kingdom. Creationists howl at that idea that they should be animals, but if you have any knowledge at all of what an animal even is, then you know that you are one! This isn't a matter of opinion either; It is a fact, and we can prove it!" 11th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "Macro-evolution has never been observed." Excerpt: "Creationists argue that evolution can only occur within "definite limits", and then only to subtle variance within their "kind". They say new diversity is limited to rare and unviable hybrids between those "kinds", and they usually say that the emergence of new species is impossible. In the evolutionary perspective, any single ancestral species can diverge into two or more daughter species, each becoming so distinct that eventually either of the new species would be unable to interbreed with the ancestral and/or sister species anymore. But by ignoring fossil forms, the creationist's perspective has that completely backwards, insisting instead on an illusory sequence of separately conjured "kinds" which (like "information") must remain forever undefined, and they imagine that evolutionary diversity can only occur by mixing these "kinds" in hybridization. This is another reason they reject transitional fossils, and instead demand some blend only between current "kinds". Their perspective has no depth." 12th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "Creation Science" Excerpt: "Science is a search for truth –whatever the truth may turn out to be, even if it's evidently not what we wanted to believe it was. In science, it doesn't matter what you believe; all that matters is why you believe it. This is why real science disallows faith, promising instead to remain objective, to follow wherever the evidence leads, and either correct or reject any and all errors along the way even if it challenges whatever we think we know now. But creationist organizations post written declarations of their unwavering obligation to uphold and defend their preconceived notions, declaring in advance their refusal to ever to let their minds be changed by any amount of evidence that is ever revealed. Anti-science evangelists display their statement of faith proudly on their own forums, as if admitting to a closed and dishonest mind wasn't something to ashamed of or beg forgiveness for." 13th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism: "Evolution is a fraud!" Excerpt: "The scientific process of peer-review seeks out and exposes fraud by design. But antievolutionist arguments are withheld from peer-review because they are driven entirely by frauds including misstatements, out-of-context quote-mining, and contrived or distorted falsehoods, and terms erroneously redefined into instigative reactionary nonsense unintelligible as anything other than propaganda. In short, if creationists knew how to expose a fraud, they wouldn't be creationists anymore." Continued in next post Cyraph 09-16-2011, 08:53 AM 14th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism Part 1 and 2: "Creation is evident" Excerpt: "Vague criticisms against science still wouldn't count as evidence for creationism even if those arguments weren't all completely wrong. Even if there was evidence of gods, it might not be their god. Even if it was, that wouldn't be evidence of creation either, because that still wouldn't dismiss any of the evidence for evolution and against mythology; nor could it change the fact that humans are still apes. Creation relies on a false dichotomy –rejecting all other options and insisting that there can only be two alternatives; So they can imagine that criticizing the one will vindicate the other by default... If there's no evidence for a particular notion, then there's no reason to believe it either. It may as well have been imagined out of nothing because it has no basis in fact. We can only proclaim a positive belief if we have sufficient evidence to support only that, and no evidence at all against it. Even then we can only accept it tentatively. Because, if future evidence ever confirms that we were wrong all along, then we'll be forced to change our minds accordingly even if we didn't want to. Defense of faith doesn't work that way. It relies instead on apologetics; the branch of theology concerned with the manditory promotion and reinforcement of faith in a particular religious doctrine, and the obligate defense of that belief by systematically rationalizing or denying any or all arguments that may ever be laid against it. Lemmie explain how it works it's really quite easy: "Goddidit" explains everything by explaining nothing. Since magic is exempt from all rules of nature or logic, they think that means that anything that seems impossible somehow proves them right. Conversely, anything and everything that might imply otherwise can be immediately dismissed as a knee-jerk reaction with the phrase, "that doesn't prove anything". Virtually all anti-science apologetics are composed of variants of these two thoughtless comments, in addition to the usual propaganda of inflammatory emotional pleas, tall tales, petty bigotry, incredulity, and appeals to authority." 15th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism Part 1 and 2: "Evolution has never been proved, it's just a theory." Excerpt: "You don't have to prove something before it can be disproved. Nor should we both prove and disprove the same thing. Science doesn't permit anything to be proven positively. Instead, every hypothesis must be potentially falsifiable in order to count as science. That means there has to be a way to identify errors, to find out what's wrong with it –and fix it... A theory has to be tested indefinitely. It demands understanding instead of belief. So it must be based on verifiable evidence; It must explain related observations with a measurable degree of accuracy; It must withstand continuous critical analysis in peer review, and it must be falsifiable too. If it doesn't fulfill all these conditions at once, then it isn't science. If it meets none of them, it may be religion... Intelligent Design isn't a theory at all; it's a scam, a scheme conceived solely to undermine legitimate science. It doesn't even count as an hypothesis, because it isn't based on evidence, offers no mechanism, and isn't falsifiable either. It is backed by nothing and produces nothing because it is nothing but untestable conjecture. None of it has been shown to be right and lots of it have been proven wrong. So it's useless in any field, because only accurate information can have practical application." "But we can prove that evolution exists, and that it works, just like we can prove that gravity works, even though it too is 'just' a theory and has never been proved. Atomic theory has never been proven either –not even in Hiroshima. But just as evolution is the foundation of modern biology, modern chemistry is completely dependant on atomic theory. And there are huge holes in that theory! Just look at our classic model of atomic structure; it's wrong, and we know it's wrong, but we still teach it in school anyway, because despite their virtual invisibility and being understood only in theory, atoms are still a matter of undeniable fact. So we have to use that in a series of imperfect models because we're still trying to figure out one that works in all instances." Falsifying Phylogeny Part 1 and 2 - Extra Systematic phylogenetics, -also known as Cladistic taxonomy- is the most profound evidence there is indicating our evolution from common ancestry, but very few people actually understand it. _Omaticaya_ 09-16-2011, 12:16 PM Wow been away a week, and there's been like 45 posts O.O, great and lively thread this is. About this 'list'^Just reading the Bible and being Saved by the Holy spirit is more important for some and gives more material than all the videos on youtube you can find dude... Yall dont get the point... Whatever, I didn't even read all the other posts since page 4 or somin', so I'm just jumping in for a stop and go, maybe it's unnecesaary, whatever, who cares....just repling to this^.... Peace out transcend 09-16-2011, 12:35 PM darwins evvolution is a sub set of a bigger theory of evolution.. gradual change is not a required law of evolution and evolution will be discovered to result from physical laws.. punctuated equlibrim (fast change) has be demonstrated as well as lamarkina evolution (guided mutations).. what this means is that co-evolution and mutual benifit is the bigger part of evolution over and above survival of the fittest based on random rolls of the dice.. darwins evolution is not entirely wrong.. it is outdated.. my personal conviction is that ''eywa'' explains nature and reality better then darwins evolution or zeus and a magic wand.. there is a third possibility rather then the two offered by society generally.. god is what ''we live move and have our being in''.. not some guy in a rob on a throne directing things.. intelligence is real in the universe but not a tribal god like thor or some sh.. people need spiritual intelligence as well.. not fundamentalism.. everyone rejects fundamentalism at some point.. it is making god in man's image and it is a form of idolitry if not outright blasphmeny.. established traditional religions make god into a big cop so people serve the king and the pope.. and science is being misguided by the real world RDA which wants to exploit nature.. for example.. linus pauling discovered the DNA molecule but the credit was given to a couple of corporate sell outs named watson and crick.. this happens over and over again in the bio-tech field which survives off of RDA grants usually.. eywa is real and avatar is telling us the truth.. <3 Cyraph 09-16-2011, 02:03 PM Just reading the Bible and being Saved by the Holy spirit is more important for some and gives more material than all the videos on youtube you can find dude... These aren't just some random spamming of "all" the videos I could find on the subject. They're simply all parts of the same series highlighting some of the common yet dishonest claims creationists make about evolution and the masses' equivalent misunderstanding of BASIC scientific concepts such as "theory." I do agree that it's a personal thing which is why I don't spend as much time as I used to on (other) forums arguing this stuff. It's non-productive and borderline pointless. As for reading the bible and being "saved" by the holy spirit- since you want to take it in THAT direction, the only thing anyone ever needs to be saved from is their own gullibility, and reading the bible itself is one of the main reasons I began doubting it. There's little to no evidence that Jesus ever even existed as described, but I'll give to there being slightly more than for that of Santa Claus. Normally I would refrain to go on any further... BUT I think I'll I will step in, rant briefly here, give my 2 copper and probably disappear for the usual month or so. I totally shouldn't but I just can't help myself... perhaps it's the bad weather that's out right now. If I come off to you as perhaps atheistic, I actually consider myself more of a "fundamentalist" agnostic. I'm simply honest enough to admit that I don't know and am OKAY with the unknown and gaps in our current knowledge, but also willing to point out the ridiculous nonsense people still believe today that's like a stranglehold on human progress. It pains me to say that they rarely have these arguments in China. I want America and the western world to lead the global economy and not be held back by this primitive mind virus. So where to start my rant? First off, I don't want you or anyone here to take this personal, because it's not. But I do have more than a few things to say on this topic and some of this may be kind of offensive to some, but just try to hear me out. The argument for religious faith would almost be an insult to any average person who didn't grow up with it. So why is it so popular one may ask? Well, because it's easy to explain to children. It's just so much easier- I mean, it takes time and effort to acquire and gain knowledge, but any fool can acquire faith right away and with little effort. I really feel bad for those who've taken a life-long pledge to gullibility- to feel satisfied with not understanding the world- I feel it limits their true potential! The God of the Bible is such a simple, unpleasant character when you look at it from a story perspective. It's all so obviously man-made it's just embarrassing - you can tell from God's limitations - vengeful, narrow minded, ego-centric, incredibly stupid, he's got our hands all over him. I mean, look at how he handles the first time humans step out of line within the story- the entire world is punished, including future generations! Doesn't that dwell close to perhaps insecurity on God's part? And if he's insecure, he's not perfect. And if he's not perfect, he's not God. So why does he behave like this? (These are all rhetorical questions so don't feel it necessary to respond to any, just something to think on.) Because of the people who created him, who, if they found themselves in the modern world, they would DIE of technophobia!! Yet, we allow them- from their graves, to impose their incredibly narrow and ignorant worldview on everyone today. Organized religion, both historically and up to today, has "commercialized" Jesus for public consumption. The early church (made possible once Rome made it the official state religion) really capitalized off the supernatural aspects that were added to the story - why? Because they needed Jesus to be a God, so they could use him to generate fear, which is the lowest level humans know how to operate on and so they could claim supernatural authority through him. I mean, as just a man, Jesus was almost useless to them - all he could offer were words of compassion and wisdom, and what earthly good would they be lol? Anyway the real challenge they were faced with was how the hell were they going to equate the calm dialogue of Jesus with the horrible monster in the old testament of vengeance and death. This was definitely going to take some high-end, specialist work, but they did eventually figure it out in the 4th century with the Trinity- three gods in one- the classic Christian con. This three card trick is designed to confuse, not enlighten, and follows the basic rules of religion - the thing you believe should be impossible, and any explanation should be impossible to understand as well. We could argue all day (and uh, I have before, and it's pointless) about whether or not Jesus existed or whether he was divine or not, but the history behind and concept of the trinity is beyond dispute- it's a matter of historical fact that this is a pure invention of Christian clergyI think Jesus could of been a regular guy, perhaps with a true, selfless godly personality, a rare kind of person. But almost all the other aspects about him- from the virgin birth, being the son of God, or resurrection, these are all typical of the kind of symbolic stories of the day that the masses craved and have never had any credible evidence to back such claims up. The story at it's core is so basic and so similar to other savior deities of the time period dating back to even before the Egyptians that in no way is it new or original. And as for God himself, I don't believe anyone's watching over us, but I'm not against the possibility of an intelligent designer behind the universe or life itself, and you could say that although the process and specific "path" that evolution followed to bring us here appears random, it was really controlled. But if you look at the history of life (This is also something your average Christian knows NOTHING about. It's one thing to know how evolution works on populations and species in general, but if you don't know the history of life- it's turns, hardships, failures, successes, it's even harder to grasp, deep time), and say that God guided this, it would make him seem not only incompetent, but just plain wasteful. But, giving it a chance, what could be out there, outside the universe? Who knows. Will we ever discover the meaning of life? Maybe, but so far, nobody has, which would explain all the expert opinions through religion on the subject. I'm against religion and nonsense beliefs like it because I'm for freedom. The only difference between religion and a communist society- something all conservatives are against and so am I, is that yes, communism is typically thought of as the atheist society, and usually publicly demolishes religion, but here's the kick, REPLACES it with another one, where you worship their leader or dictator instead. In North Korea, they worship the leader who's been dead for like 20 years, several times a day. They even believe that he can, wait for it- HEAR their thoughts, and they can be punished for them after death. They believe he's divine and will guide the nation to prosperity. Saudi Arabia is the opposite coming from the right- truly conservative- a theocracy, yet almost exactly the same when it comes to how much freedom the individual has. The mind is chained to either the state or God and both suck! I almost find that the option of hell itself (which isn't real either) is the lesser of both evils, because the opposite is submission. Real death. Death of the spirit and soul, it's what religion feeds on the most. I've broken this post up into 2 parts, next is continued. Cyraph 09-16-2011, 02:03 PM continued, Think about it. In many times throughout our history, EVERYTHING we didn't know was explained by God or the supernatural in general. It's not hard to imagine what it may have been like for the people who came long before us, say- 60,000 years ago for example. They believed that the sun and moon was our mother and father. A long, well-lived life was 26 or so years at the max. You died of your teeth or very large carnivorous cats or other predators that we don't have any more. Since most animals are pattern seeking creatures, to us with our heightened consciousness (a different topic that is- the emergence of our consciousness)- everything we saw was a sign from beyond. When a loved one died, we could still hear and imagined them speak in our minds. That's why people still believe in spirits and ghosts today. A flash of lighting and crack of thunder meant that the creator was angry. When the earth shook or floods came- the spirits were irritated, and we begged them to forgive us. When the volcano erupted, we appeased it with sacrifices and offerings. When we suffered from sickness and disease, we called it a curse for our sins, not knowing the "truth" that it was merely the boring reality of bacteria preying on our bodies. Everything was strange then- mysterious, but wonderful and terrifying all the same. Unknown. Yet we still, somehow believed that we were at the center - that there was something important about our existence. This kind of primitive thinking is no different than when people say that, for example, a tornado is because of sin. Or when the governor of Texas and others actually prayed for rain. That's just not the way the world or reality is. So where does this kind of thinking come from? You know. It began when we saw our world through the new eyes of science, reason and knowledge. The moon was instead a place that we would eventually visit, the sun was simply one star, among hundreds of billions of stars, among billions of galaxies. Natural disasters became measurable and often predictable. Our crude illustrations eventually gave way to amazing and incredible expressions of image and verse that ignited the human imagination. Mankind is only just beginning to grow beyond the early fears of it's infancy, to refuse to be satisfied with unanswered questions, and most importantly- to acknowledge and accept a universe much greater than the superstitions of our ancestors could ever allow. But back to the Bible. Well, when you think of it, it isn't even compelling storytelling. The Bible has conflict yeah- which is great for dramatic writing, but the main character (God) has no compelling crucible, or a reason to remain in conflict. Since God created everything, any conflict that goes against him, wouldn't that be ultimately traced back to him? With omniscience, shouldn't he be able to see everything in advance? And even more importantly, with omnipotence, he should have no issues solving problems. Also, God has no worthy antagonist or opponent to make the story truly interesting. And besides, since God is omnipotent, how could there be a contest between him and Satan to begin with? And think of the violent imagery in the book of Revelations, is that really necessary? I mean, couldn't God just blink and everything would be gone or start anew? The drama just feels forced. Back to Satan, shouldn't the antagonist in a good story have a point of view that's understandable in some way instead of having no depth at all? Satan is not even a coherent character, and in the New Testament is simply evil without explanation- a totally one dimensional villain. And what about how these characters solve problems, such as the Noah's flood story. God says that he regrets making people because they turned out to be so wicked, is this not questionable? I know that supposedly God gave us free will, but isn't his regret an example of him failing to consult his omniscience? Come on- shouldn't he have seen this coming? Why then, in the story did he send a flood instead of just restarting in the blink of an eye, especially when humans well... turned out to be pretty much just as wicked as before, right? And in the New Testament when Jesus comes along, the credibility of God's character gets even more silly. I mean, this is the part where he puts on a helpless act and allow infinitely weaker humans to torture him on the cross. I mean, imagine if a film came out with a super hero who decided at one point to NOT use his super powers - the story would need a great reason for this or would completely fail, right? Now I know I know, the reason for Jesus' suffering was that if we accept him as our savior, then his punishment serves as like a stand-in for our sins. Through Jesus, God will forgive us. Okay, that story could contain genuine, real drama... if both parties were two separate people. Instead, they're technically the same entities... right? Imagine a disobedient child playing in the street, and a car is about to run him over, but then the parent throws herself in front of the vehicle to save the child. In the Jesus story, the driver of the car and the parent are the same person. God is the one aiming to punish us disobedient children, yet is also the same person who throws himself in front of the car to save us. Wouldn't it be much more simple for God to simply stop the car if he wanted to save us? This storyline makes the sacrifice seem completely unnecessary, self-imposed, and comes off more as masochistic melodrama than real drama. Even so, all these possible "problems" with the stories in the Bible seem to... utterly disappear when read from a secular perspective, because we're freed from having to interpret every single story through a lens of where God is supposed to have infinite knowledge and power. It's somewhat ironic because when we read it from the religious perspective, it can sometimes seem absurd, but from the secular perspective, the Bible is just a collection of writings from different authors who had different ideas about the supernatural. In this way we can easily find not only powerful elements of literature in within the Bible, but also it's failings whenever they may occur. No need to respond to any of this- just something for you to think about I guess. A lot of people quote the Bible, both believers and non-believers, and when something isn't what the other wants to year- they usually say you're taking things out of context. I've heard Christians say for some quotes, that the WHOLE Bible must be accounted for a verse to be fully understood properly, but when you take a nice quote from Jesus, somehow that's not out of context. It's not only picking and choosing, it's picking and choosing when to decide that one line is enough. I just don't think people can be dumb enough to simply not understand what's written before their face. To me it means what it says and often, there's little to no interpretation that's actually needed. To accept, literally that Jesus resurrected from the grave and ascended into heaven for all eyes to see, yet "disagree" that God didn't create the world in 6 days but maybe millions of years comes off as strange, unnecessary and non-intuitive to me. Where to end. I just think that religion and belief in God is more negative than positive. It's fear based. And if it makes people who believe just "feel" good well that's not a good enough answer to me. I mean, people "feel" good smoking cigarettes and crack-cocaine and that doesn't make it right. Ultimately it's no good for you. Faith fails every test, prayer is useless and does not work. This is why there's NO faith healers in hospitals. (Don't even get me started about how that religion and belief in God basically helps us deal with the fact that we WILL die one day and cease to exist forever.) And if they really believed, then why do Christians mourn the dead? They should be ecstatic! They'd call you up and be like... "did you hear the good news? My baby just died! See, God chose him!" I mean, the level of error, is SO bad on the religious perspective... that I think the most amazing thing to me is that how these people can be so consistently and proven to be wrong about almost everything- 99% of the time, for such a long time, and still declare their beliefs as the absolute truth. The whole thing is ridiculous. We're all better than this. People need to open their eyes and see the world and our place in it the way it is, not our imagined self-importance. _Omaticaya_ 09-16-2011, 04:15 PM Hey Cyraph :) well first of all, I really appreciated your incredibly long and good posts. As you say, and as we all know really I think there are some topics that just can't find some common points, or however you wanna call them, thats right its ok, its normal... that said, I agree, you have your experience and your ideas, but in my opinion some of the things you mentioned, (honestly there would be too many things to reply but I cant be bothered to write them all lol) mainly about what you said about freedom, and how God seems 'silly' in the Bible. Ok, so here i am just a random dude, no scientist, just talking from My own experience. About 'freedom', well, I guess that's Very relative? When an atheist or whatever, talks about freedom, what exactly do you mean? I hope it's not always about sex, and generally wrong attitudes because if that's it, then it would be kind of fuked up, if isn't, then how exactly does being a christian not make you free? You can be free if you decide to follow a better path. A christian is still a sinner,we all are, but the difference is he/she tries to be 'better', not to boast, but to humbly recognize we need some guidance so we dont act like animals prey of lust and sin, that is not freedom. You believe to try and feel better with yourself, and 'earn' your place in heaven, altough, we don't earn anything, because what Christ gave on the cross, Life, is simply, GRACE, meaning we owe Him our life. I know that for an atheis or any non believer all these words are funny, which annoyes me, but what can i do? I guess it's so funny for some reason to talk about God? Is it cool to think that each one of us is they're own god then? Ok, next rant, about God seeming 'silly' to a reader of the Bible. I think that most relate 'silly' to what they think of 'impossible'. Now, what I hate, is when people write a huge theory about something to try and lure you in an idea (not talking about you in this case), and if you give an apparently simple and brief reply, it seems inferior, and less important, well, whatever someone may think, call me ignorant, not so well read as all the 'evolutionists' apparently, which are so Superior to an 'average christian', its funny how this is repeated so much, wtf is up with that? ANyway on point, I'll try an answer you from down here, if you think God is silly and it's all bull*, maybe its because it all seems simply impossible right? Well, have you ever though, that that MIGHT BE, because we are humans, and He is God? Who said, that we would be able to understand the meaning of 'Almighty'? Is something silly because you can't do it? So, I don't believe in the fact a human can run 100 metres in 9.55 seconds, Usain Bolt does it, he's unreal? stupid example, but it sounds like it. Point is,who said we're supposed to know everything? If God is superior, we can't think of some things He did, or said,as possible, from OUR perspective. Ittm20 09-16-2011, 04:41HufweMakto 09-16-2011, 05:26 PM ItThe irony of my position is that I did go to a religion affliated college after high school, although it is and still is a liberal arts college, and liberal at heart (as I am) desprite the region's political climate. If that makes me elitist, then I'm pretty shocked, for most of my life, my family did not have cable until I was in my teens or a computer, up until I had to get one for college. I may have my attitude, but other than that, I feel it's my right to have my opinions heard as well. To continue, my stance is that not taking in consideration something that has evidence, that has been proven, that has proof, but taking something that is not proven or has any grounds in fact or logic, and that has a bunch of stuff that you don't neccesarily follow and take it as truth. It confounds me to no end. This is why I find disturbing about people who consider themselves Creationists and then shove their ideas down the throats of others as the so-called "ultimate truth". If you sincerily take the Bible as granted, then you should realize you should stop eatting pork and shellfish, stop wearing cordoroy and never work on Sundays because that's in the Bible too (as is the whole "cast the first stone" stuff, which many, many people apparently never learn about; that's why I dispise when people call others "haterz" and "fails" because it only underlies a complete misunderstanding of the whole application of "love your neighbors" and that kind of stuff). To put things fair, I do not consider myself an athiest, though the attitudes of a lot of people on this thread is slowly drawing me close to that. In the end, here's a video that kinda makes my point clear on the issue of "creationism" vs Evolution: If you don't like it, fine. It's alright, but I wish those people won't start tossing stones in my directions because I happen to have an opinion on these things. Heck, I live in the US, freedom of speech. Scott 09-16-2011, 06:34 PM I don't want to see bad blood become of this. I like you guys tooArchaeovenator 09-16-2011, 07:47 PM I am not an animal! I am a human being! The being is what sets us apart, it makes us greater than the sum of our whole. Let's look at the facts, even Wikipedia will be good for this one: A heterotroph (heteros = "another", "different" and trophe = "nutrition") is an organism that cannot fix carbon and uses organic carbon for growth. This contrasts with autotrophs, such as plants and algae, which can use energy from sunlight (photoautotrophs) or inorganic compounds (lithoautotrophs) to produce organic compounds such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins from inorganic carbon dioxide. These reduced carbon compounds can be used as an energy source by the autotroph and provide the energy in food consumed by heterotrophs. More than 95% of all organisms are heterotrophic. Now from the University of California Museum of Paleontology online exhibits, this is part of the description of what an animal is: One feature common to all animals is their ecological role as consumers, that is, they cannot manufacture their own food, and so must eat other organisms, or from other organisms, to obtain nourishment. There are three basic categories of consumers: predator - A predator devours other organisms, or parts of other organisms. This includes both carnivores such as wolves, which eat other animals, and herbivores such as cows, which eat plants. parasite - A parasite lives on or within another organism (the host), and obtains nourishment from the host without killing or swallowing it. These organisms range from ticks to tapeworms, and may be relatively harmless or may cause disease. detrivore - Detrivores feed on dead organisms, or on organic nutients in the soil or water. These organisms are vital to the food web because they recycle nutrients which would otherwise become unavailable. Earthworms and vultures are both examples of detrivores. Now let's look at a very generalized definition of what an animal is, again, from Wikipedia: Animals have several characteristics that set them apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and mostly multicellular,From Google, "define:animal" Animal: A living organism that feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli. From yourdictionary.com: An animal is a member of the kingdom Animalia, and is typically characterized by a multicellular body, specialized sense organs, voluntary movement, responses to factors in the environment and the ability to acquire and digest food. (noun) A horse, lion and human are each an example of an animal. Humans are animals (metazoans) and vertebrates in the same way that lizards are sauropsids and birds are archosaurs. Where do any of these basic definitions say animals are "this and that", with the exception of humans? Some secondary definitions of the term "animal" describe animals as "any such living thing other than a human being", which is an understandable statement of separation between us and them (though inaccurate since bacteria aren't animals, nor are plants, along with plenty of other taxonomic groupings), but scientifically speaking, humans are animals, this has definitely been known for hundreds of years. This fact doesn't degrade humans, only reminds us that we are tied to the rest of life on earth. Just because we have unique characteristics doesn't make us fundamentally different on the cellular and anatomical level. Anyone is freely able to deny reality and persist in deluding themselves, but that doesn't change the fact that humans are animals, and as a fact, it persists whether you want to believe it or not. The lesson from this post is to urge others to do extremely basic internet searches before posting something obviously false in a public discussion place, because personal beliefs and opinions aren't important when debating matters of fact. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-16-2011, 07:57 PM There is room enough in this galaxy for all manners of life to live together in harmony and friendship. 30919 :) you ever tried to get trekkies and star wars nuts to see eye to eye,lol * Aihwa 09-16-2011, 08:14The bible claims that the earth is around 6000 years old, flat, orbited by the sun, and has massive floodgates in the sky. HufweMakto 09-16-2011, 08:24 PM I don't want to see bad blood become of this. I like you guys tooI agree. Name calling and all of that stuff is something I rather not get into. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-16-2011, 08:45 PM is it just me or is it a bit warm in here?! let me run a fan for a bit...:) 30920 just a little humor on this contraversial material,lol 30921 30922 Scott 09-16-2011, 09:55 PM Out of the blue some guy I don't recognize, with a brand new account, focuses a huge laser squarely on me. Hi Archaeovenator, nice to meet you too! I know you did a lot of work getting your point across about us being animals, and your right, we are animals. However, I was just quoting a line from one of my favorite movies, the Elephant Man, staring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins. And I think John Merrick was right too. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-16-2011, 10:04 PM i am gonna quote a certain hunchback:)..." I AM NOT AN AN-I-M-A-LLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 30926 tm20 09-17-2011, 02:01 AM The bible claims that the earth is around 6000 years old, flat, orbited by the sun, and has massive floodgates in the sky. right, i forgot geography and astronomy as well :P _Omaticaya_ 09-17-2011, 05:36 AMOh my gosh, you take offense? What the fuk is wrong, why does every post of mine seem personal, afer all the crap ive been trough on this forum, now I even fuking try hard not say anything too Real, or be 'politically correct', saying nothing at all that some of you so 'easily offended' people might take as 'offense', and start whining at how ridiculous I am. Well just hear this, i'll put one cent in,until all of you keep acting like that, hiding in your society scared of talking and saying what you REALLY think, always posting a damn youtube video to explain it. Fuk this sh1t i just wrote my opinion, and you take it as an offense? and two words lettter you reply and say 'creationism is incorrect and illogical' what should i do, call the cops and cry? No because it's easier for a christian to be arrested just for believing in God today,nowadays anyway. I don't honestly give a crap if it offends you, because it wasn't my intention to. Freedom of speech? ok, i must have missed the part you didn't have it? Why add unnecessary stuff? and to finish, the fact I call some an elite, is simply because that's what they present themselves as, making fun of creationism and christians and quoting they're little science textbooks... Eternal Enigma 09-17-2011, 09:07Carborundum 09-17-2011, 09:44Did you miss the post where I explained why creationism does not meet the criteria to qualify as a theory? Ja'k Dawsiin 09-17-2011, 10:16 AM why is this thread such a constant 'i'm right,you're wrong!' merry-go-round?! can't we just pick apart the two ideas like Enigma intended? :/ 30982 Carborundum 09-17-2011, 10:36 AM why is this thread such a constant 'i'm right,you're wrong!' merry-go-round?! can't we just pick apart the two ideas like Enigma intended? :/ Because the premise of the thread - that evolution and creationism are both valid theories - is incorrect. If the thread had been about the merits and flaws of combustion engines and electric motors, a proper discussion could be had; both are useful technologies, but suited for different applications. Evolution and creationism on the other hand cannot be discussed in such a manner, because one is science and the other religion. A more apt analogy would be 'Combustion engines and Hummingbird Sundance generators ( - deconstruction analysis', since that's also comparing real science to a scam targeted specifically at christians. (Seriously, watch the video. It's hilarious.) Eternal Enigma 09-17-2011, 12:09 PM It's interesting that even though Santa Claus isn't real people have still gone over the numbers to see how long it would take one man and eight flying reindeer to deliver presents all over the world. The reason they do that isn't to prove or disprove anything. They do that because it's fun! What if it was real... how would it work? snopes.com: The Physics of Santa and His Reindeer ( Science of Santa: How Santa Delivers All His Presents in One Night ( That's the purpose of this thread with this topic. You believe I'm pitting them head to head... as in trying to prove that one is correct and the other is incorrect. That's why everyone has been arguing with each other. Some even believe I'm only trying to promote religion when in reality I have not made any direct reference to any religion. I originally created this thread to get some extremists out of the society thread. I said; "I don't believe in evolution" in an example I posted in that thread and the arguing began. So I created this thread as "Creation VS Evolution" to get them out of the society thread. My original intent was to create this thread and abandon it. Then I noticed Scott attempting to have a real conversation in here and that's when I decided to take this thread in a completely different direction... 7 days ago. The name, location, and meaning of this thread changed... Since then my posts have been of me trying to explain the new purpose of this thread while extremists continue to come in here arguing that religion proves nothing even after I have agreed with them. I've even tried to explain that religion has nothing to do with this topic. Instead of Creation VS Evolution, which is basically a pointless argument this is now creation and evolution - deconstruction (to take apart) analysis (analyze = to examine). I'm trying to show that neither of them make any sense regardless of what you believe. Both of them sound like complete bullsh!t. This is my attempt at finding some type of way to level this topic out so that for the first time in history intellectual minds can talk about it without arguing. Possibly to come up with something that no one has ever thought of before. (Maybe even something scientist have never thought of). Obviously humanity has some more evolving to do. :\| Carborundum 09-17-2011, 12:12 PM I'm trying to show that neither of them make any sense regardless of what you believe. Both of them sound like complete bullsh!t. Be that as it may, only one of them actually is bullsh!t. Eternal Enigma 09-17-2011, 12:18 PM Be that as it may, only one of them actually is bullsh!t. The idea of a universe coming from no where all by itself is just as unlikely as a universe coming from no where being created by a God. They both sound crazy. _Omaticaya_ 09-17-2011, 12:19 PM QUOTE'Be that as it may, only one of them actually is bullsh!t.'QUOTE < WoW wtf... Well then I guess if this is the case, I'm uncapable of writing here in the 'correct' way... Apparently I don't have enough science books in my record, since it looks like it's all about how much you read and not what you experience anymore... Peace out Carborundum 09-17-2011, 12:21 PM The idea of a universe coming from no where all by itself is just as unlikely as a universe coming from no where being created by a God. They both sound crazy. And neither has anything to do with evolution. HufweMakto 09-17-2011, 01:14 PM The idea of a universe coming from no where all by itself is just as unlikely as a universe coming from no where being created by a God. They both sound crazy. WHAT?!? Now you're just taking about the Big Bang Theory which has absolutely NOTHING to do with evolution. And if anyone feeling so confounded and upset because I know evolution to be a sound science, and that creationism isn't deserving of the title of "theory" then please, don't feel the need to scream and bicker about it. We all have opinions and this thread has evolved (or devolved I should say) into a discussion about the origins of the universe, of which, evolution has nothing to do with! In fact, why even called it a "creationism vs evolution" thread when you're at it, why not call it "how did the universe begin". Don't act so defensive if you're going to just call people names and say they've never experienced anything in their life because they happen to like science more than religion is frankly just... eh I'm not even going in there. You don't know that I like seeing the green trees and trying to figure out the birds in my area. You don't know I can identify a woodpeaker from a goldfinch (both of which I have seen in live outdoors, thank you very much). Not all of us can prance around in the fields, not all of us can afford a trip to the Amazon. What we learn, whether it is from books or from experience or both, will eventually help you understand the world around you. Lording experience over booksmarts does not make you surperior towards other people, neither is the opposite. Perhaps learning a little from each other, and what you have at your hands and in your mind will help you. Eternal Enigma 09-17-2011, 01:16 PM And neither has anything to do with evolution. Scientists refer to the changes we see in the universe as the evolution of the universe being that it has evolved over time from the beginning - and that's where I start from. They apply this same basis to the evolution of life. The universe is still a universe, but when translating this to life on Earth the theory of evolution allows one animal to turn into a completely different animal. That's why I inserted selective breeding as an alternative... we have bred dogs through selective breeding to create new types of dogs, but that's not evolution. Even at that the natural occurrence of breeding animals of two different types (within the same species) can answer the question of how one type of animal has turned into another type in a similar category. Birds of two separate species can mate, which would create a completely new type of bird over time. That's different from what evolution suggests, which is that one bird can turn into a new type bird over time all by itself. I'm able to come to many conclusions by adding or eliminating possibilities. I can remove God from the equation and the theory of evolution can still be wrong. That's the purpose of this thread... to take these aspects apart and throw ideas out there for how it could have happened. Of course, I like to start with the beginning and according to the "Big Bang" theory in the beginning there was absolutely nothing. So the first question would be how did something come from nothing? See no one knows and scientists themselves aren't trying to answer that question, but the idea of this thread is for everyone to try to answer that questions for fun because there is no answer. Then we move on to the next question. See you guys are operating under the assumption that scientists are 100% correct and there's absolutely no way they could possibly be wrong. I'm operating under the assumption that humanity knows less than we think we do and much of what we think we know is based on guess work, which can be based on the misinterpretations of actual findings. You can have evidence of something, but the meaning of that evidence could be interpreted incorrectly. Carborundum 09-17-2011, 01:32 PM Scientists refer to the changes we see in the universe as the evolution of the universe being that it has evolved over time from the beginning Citation needed. I have never seen this usage of the term in any scientific publication. 'Evolution' refers very specifically to the phenomenon where organisms adapt over generations to changing environments, through the process known as 'natural selection' (AKA 'survival of the fittest'). It has nothing whatsoever to do with the origin of life, or the origin of the universe. If you mean something else when you say evolution, it's really not surprising when we end up having a different discussion than what you intended. Eternal Enigma 09-17-2011, 01:44 PM Don't act so defensive if you're going to just call people names and say they've never experienced anything in their life because they happen to like science more than religion is frankly just... eh I'm not even going in there. I'm calm and relaxed... I haven't called anyone a name... and science is one of my favorite subjects. I actually like science more than religion. I honestly know more about evolution than anything related to religion... I've never been to church so I haven't been taught religious nonsense. That's why I'm able to view creation and religion as being two separate things. In church they teach it as being the same thing, but that's where I believe they're wrong. I dislike talking to most religious people because they misinterpret the Bible so their belief system is not compatible with mine. See they've listened to what a preacher thinks a specific passage means instead of reading it themselves and coming to their own conclusion. I'm a big promoter of thinking for yourself. I've read the Bible and I see it as more of a... guidebook above all else. The subject of evolution is very interesting to me... anytime any new information is available I seek it out. Every educational show ever made about evolution I try to watch if it's available for me to see. This is a subject I've been looking at my entire life so I have an excellent understanding of it and how scientists say it works. I don't watch normal television I only watch educational programing. I didn't really watch cartoons when I was a child either... mostly it was nature/NOVA shows. Scott 09-17-2011, 02:01 PM I want to believe there is more to life than random chance. I want to believe love is more than a chemical reaction. Creationism allows me to find other people who feel the way I do. I don't care about the truthfulness of the bible stories, I care about the truth of the Word that bring people together, in love. Religious books like the bible might have a lot of its facts wrong, but if all your looking for is the facts then I say your looking in the wrong place. If your looking for ways to understand what it means to be a part of something bigger than anything you can imagine, and you want to feel united in love with your fellow man you have to take a leap of faith. Science may one day explain everything, but if there is nothing after death, who cares...why bother. _Omaticaya_ 09-17-2011, 02:51 PM Yeah, i'm jumping in again, just want to tell yall, you should have some more respect for Eternal Enigma, remember first of all, it's his thread. 2nd: he knows what this is about. 3rd: In my opinion he knows more than everyone here, and he can put it however he wants it, so I wouldn't use that tone with him. 4th, I know you can handle this a million times better than I ever could Eternal, and you already have :nwink: But I just wanted to say this... I see you tsmukan Now to Scott... Mate, what you just wrote is simply Fantastic. <3 That's right, Love, it's the only thing you'll ever really need, and that keeps this world going... And can give you happiness, it's killing me now, but it'd be a million times worse if there hadn't been a Love to suffer for in the first place...When you realize looking for the answers of who knows what, will be e never ending quest, you'll understand the materialism and the rationalism wont get you so far, but when you discover the real joy of love, faith in something, 'Seeing' some people, then comes some hope and some light... I see you Scott <3 :nwink: Aihwa 09-17-2011, 09:36 PM it's his thread. 2nd: he knows what this is about. 3rd: In my opinion he knows more than everyone here, and he can put it however he wants it, 1. Making a thread doesn't make whatever you post truth. That's called Fox News logic. 2. No, he's flailing around trying his best to find ANYTHING he can grab onto to build an appreciable argument. So far, nothing. 3. He denies scientific fact. You deny scientific fact. And not just a few simple facts... Decades of knowledge, thousands of minds, the brightest of our generation. You call their discoveries pseudo-science, because a BOOK, a ***ing book, tells you to. This is why people get angry at religion, this, exact, reason. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-17-2011, 09:37 PM lol:) egads,this place is a zoo! chuckles derisively * 31000 Scott 09-17-2011, 09:59 PM We should do a thread called "Where dose Ja'k get all these w0nderful toys!" Aihwa 09-17-2011, 10:01 PM We should do a thread called "Where dose Ja'k get all these w0nderful toys!" tumblr, who got them from reddit 2 years ago, who got them from 4chan 4 years ago. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-17-2011, 10:06 PM ^ i can always count on you to dump acid rain on my entertaining parade.:upset: Aihwa 09-17-2011, 10:11 PM That's how the internet works. 4chan creates content, reddit reposts sorts content months later, the rest of the internet laughs at it several years down the line. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-17-2011, 11:46 PM ^ ugh. you must be a real barrel of laughs. :/ 31024 _Omaticaya_ 09-18-2011, 02:44Replica 09-18-2011, 06:22Ja'k Dawsiin 09-18-2011, 07:40 AM If I had my way right now, i'd put a bullet through this thread and just end this madness. None of you can even agree to disagree. how 'bout a bunch of bullets?! lol 31051 Scott 09-18-2011, 08:00_Omaticaya_ 09-18-2011, 08:19 AM If I had my way right now, i'd put a bullet through this thread and just end this madness. None of you can even agree to disagree. LMAO, WiN Mate :) I can't deny my faith, so I wouldn't shoot my religion ^_^ But apart from that, I totally agree with you. Only thing is, I think like you, but I never manage to stay out of it ahah Sometimes I wonder why I bother writing things, because it's as you say, no one will ever agree here anyway, and in the end, it's totally normal :) I appreciate posts like the ones you just posted though ahah, I love it when people just go straight to the point :nwink: Ja'k Dawsiin 09-18-2011, 08:31 AM i'd put a bullet through this thread and just end this madness. :victory: Any interesting read. I've been altered to this thread and then asked myself; is this thread detrimental to the forum? At this point the answer is no. It's hard to explain eloquently any part of evolution without religion or other elements wading into the mix. The context or design of the forum itself doesn't allow for healthy debate, which in part, is why most forums avoid religion and politics like the plague. Topics like religion and politics are like a kettle of water, simmering, perhaps boiling, and eventually spill out into other threads. This often happens when people continually attempt to correct the thread starter, or remind someone of what a bad choice they may have made. People will typically defend their choices to the gates of Asgard before they'll admit any error in their reasoning. Others will pour in nonsense items, off the cuff remarks, images, and more, just to further dilute the thread. If this thread can stay on track for another few days I'll leave it open. If not, then I'll close it, and we have too agree that we're unable to support this kind of discussion. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-18-2011, 10:41 AM most forums avoid religion and politics like the plague. ^ this! 31055 Aihwa 09-18-2011, 11:42What holy books? A tech manual? You're comparing reference books to a genre of books that's spawned more violence and hatred than any other work in history? Eternal Enigma 09-18-2011, 12:17 PM I have the ability to run multiple scenarios at once in my mind and some contradict others, which is why some of what I say makes no sense to some of you. What most people do is they take scientific findings and use them as absolute fact. What I do is I take multiple scientific findings and put them together and when you begin to do that you'll find that some of them contradict one and answer another. Sometimes scientific findings are so contradictory of other findings that it ends up causing none of it to make any sense. Let me show you an example of how I'm able to take multiple scientific findings and put them together in order to break them down and make better sense of other scientific findings. Some findings that are being taught as facts are flawed. I can erase that from my mind and go another route all together... Scientific fact #3. Global warming... due to humans and the use of our combustion engines over the past few hundred years we're causing Earth to take on a greenhouse effect, which is slowly increasing the temperatures by trapping heat. Now let's take that and add another scientific fact to it to make better sense of it... If you're roasting a hotdog over a fire and you turn that hotdog fast it'll cook evenly, but if you slow that hot dog down the surface temperature rises. So if the Moon is slowing Earth down then global warming makes perfect sense, but scientists are unable to come to this conclusion. That's why I do not use scientific findings as absolute fact. I would be willing to bet some of you guys haven't thought of anything I just mentioned above. You get to see it from a different point of view. That's the point of this thread. By sharing your view perhaps we can make each other think of something we never would have thought of on our own. This is supposed to be a learning experience. If you do not believe that a God created the universe then be a productive human being and post your views on how a universe could have formed from nothing without a God. It's very simple actually. You can even explain the evolution of life on Earth. Just explain it in your own words how it works. Everything I post is information that comes straight from my brain. I do not have multiple tabs opened looking all of this stuff up. This is all me. This is supposed to be a thread where you share ideas and some of you seem to believe this thread is some sort of battle ground. Some of you know if you continue to cause problems this thread will be removed. I believe that's the only reason some of you are even posting in this thread to cause an argument and have it removed just because you don't believe what's being said. That's really sad if you think about it. I wonder how life would be today if people tried to stop the Wright brothers from coming up with ideas. People called them crazy, but they let them do their thing. I wonder how our lives would be if all of the great minds were snuffed out. I can tell you this much... we wouldn't be sitting here talking on computers. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-18-2011, 12:18 PM ^ aw sh@t! rolls eyes at this thread 31061 Ja'k Dawsiin 09-18-2011, 12:20 PM * whoops * i made my oh sh@t comment before yours,Enigma. sorry.:) _Omaticaya_ 09-18-2011, 12:38 PM What holy books? A tech manual? You're comparing reference books to a genre of books that's spawned more violence and hatred than any other work in history?Eternal Enigma 09-18-2011, 03:23akgeff 09-18-2011, 03:29 PM You guys are using mutualy exclusive explanations for the same phenomena. Replica 09-18-2011, 03:49 PM Would you put a bullet into the head of Jesus? Religion is people, not places and things. You can shoot up every church and burn every bible and not dent the love people have for God one little bit. Really? So all the churches and cathedrals that have been built and people gather at, it's just some clever marketing thing is it? I'm sorry to be so harsh with you, but wanting to use bullets to solve problems is exactly the reason why you need to listen to Jesus and learn from him. Oh please I wouldn't actually solve any problem like that. I'm not that horrible or insensitive. Thing is though that I was brought up as a catholic and i've learned enough from him thank you very much. I'm not here to tell people what they should believe in and what is right and what is wrong. Aihwa seems to be covering that field just fine but I decided a long time ago that the world would be a better place without religion. Aihwa 09-18-2011, 03:59 PMtm20 09-18-2011, 04:05 PMAihwa 09-18-2011, 04:07 PMBetter question, if he died for your sins, how can we commit sins? tm20 09-18-2011, 04:11 PM because not all of us are jews? while we're here discussing this let me ask you christians (i'm just curious) would you be more offended by someohe who: -says god isn't real OR -worships satan Scott 09-18-2011, 05:13 PM You don't have to believe in Jesus as your savior to learn something from him. His lesson is very simple, love each other. The way I see it, as simple as this message is, it obviously is very difficult to master considering the sad and violent state of our world. HufweMakto 09-18-2011, 05:49 PM The reason why I see this thread as pointless is mainly because it deals with trying to make something that doesn't have a valid context and make it seem on the level as a theory which has a solid context supplimented by evidence, and actual processes. Of course, I'm talking about people trying to make the claim that creationism should be taken as literal as evolution which is almost like saying that people who claim the lunar landings were a hoax should be given equal standings with people who were there (like Buzz Aldrin). But of course, if those people who believe in creationism also lay claim to the Apollo Hoax as a valid and true statement along with that whole "Loose Change" crap, then I find myself not taking any of you seriously at all. And to add to this, I would not say that religion is at fault for the state of our world, nor is government or law or any other ill we seem to blame things on. I would blame it on the utter mindset we place ourselves into. Technology may brings us close with text messaging and video conference, but we are still more prone to relying on that. In one Star Trek Generations episode, Troi tells a time traveling Mark Twain that technology made everyone equal and peaceful in the future, that there is no more slavery and war or need; however, I find that kind of mindset of "technology saves the day" to be more problematic as even today, we are far more technologically advanced than a mere 20 odd years ago, but we're still facing the same problems as do nowadays as a society that long ago. Technology did not stop bullying, it just jumped it to a mode where it can be anomynous and faceless but still psychologically painful to those who face it. It didn't stop the fact that people will still steal or take or lie. It still doesn't stop the fact that you will still loose your wallet or your life. But I do not blame technology for this. The fact is, we're still human. Human behavior and our society overall can shape and make us. Just because giving Colombus a rocketship doesn't mean he'll be "nice" and not enslave the inhabitants of other planets. It's a major flaw that higher technology makes us better and more advanced; likewise in most or any alien invasion movie, this is not the same for the aliens who come in huge intergalaxtic space-faring ships that blow up cities and take over the earth. They're technologically advanced, but it does not make one "nicer". I would also point out a quote from Michio Kaku on the parable of the human and the ant hill, but I feel this is another conversation altogether different. I apologize if this has gotten off-topic. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-18-2011, 06:10^ that! :) 31067 Aihwa 09-18-2011, 06:16 PM Sit down, shut up, and stop asking questions. The mantra of religion. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-18-2011, 06:24 PM ^ oh boy,here we go again. gets another redbull* 31068 Eternal Enigma 09-18-2011, 09:57 PM I have no idea what you people are even talking about. I'm calling for people to be banned. This is absolute bullsh!t. Sit down, shut up, and stop asking questions. The mantra of religion. What the **** does this have to do with how the universe was created or how we got here? What... is wrong with you? This is thread hijacking. You guys have inserted a completely new controversial subject in this thread in an attempt to get this thread removed. If this was any other thread you guys would have been banned seven days ago. I'm calling for the instigators to be banned. Lon if they don't believe in this stuff they do not have to come in here. It's just that simple. If they don't understand what this thread is about then they shouldn't post in this thread. They aren't reading the posts and they aren't interested in reading the posts. They're coming in here trying to make this sound like some blown up "religious argument" when in fact it is not and has nothing to do with anything they're saying. Lon do you believe these people try to rise up to have churches in their cities/towns/neighborhoods torn down? No... Do they suddenly walk into a church just to tell those in attendance they're all wrong or that they're unintelligent? No... So why are they in here with off topic anti-religious crap? In my opinion: to disrupt your forum. That's what they do to have fun. Religion has nothing to do with this thread. For the past seven days I've been trying to evade conflict with a couple of these people by trying to post things related to this thread in on top of their thread hijacking posts. The sad thing is I haven't even posted my two part deconstruction analysis because I've been too busy trying to explain to these idiots what this thread is and what it is not about. I've even given examples of questions they should be asking to try to kick start an interesting conversation. No one could respond to it because the thread was hijacked again. I'm very patient when it comes to this sort of thing, but those who disagree with whatever you think this thread is you need to stop. If this thread can stay on track for another few days I'll leave it open. If not, then I'll close it, and we have too agree that we're unable to support this kind of discussion. Yes, that's what Lon said, but that doesn't give all of you extremists the right to come in here to disrupt this thread over the next 48 hours just to get it removed because you're bored. I know you think this is funny, but I'm calling for you to be banned because if you'll do it in this thread then you'll do it again in another so you shouldn't be here. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-18-2011, 10:16 PM What... is wrong with you?. ...zing!!! lol...that's what we've been asking for a while now.:) 31090 Carborundum 09-18-2011, 11:12 PM Enigma, the mistake I made - and I think most of the scientifically minded people here made the same mistake - was to think you wanted to discuss these topics from a scientific point of view, in order to arrive at some conclusion. Now I see you just want it to be a place where anyone can post their personal thoughts and feelings about how the world came to be. Which is cute, but not terribly useful. So I'll be leaving now, and I urge others who actually know what they're talking about to do the same. Let the anti-intellectuals have this thread as their 'safe-space'. If they don't want to understand, there is nothing we can to about it. Eternal Enigma 09-19-2011, 12:53 jurors there are flaws andKiyom 09-19-2011, 02:59 AM About the origin of our universe, "the first atom, the first energy, the beginning of time", if we listen to the creationism, it was all created by God. All right then, who created God? Since in fact, the origin of the universe would be the creation of God who created everything else. For those who say that God is, and thus doesn't need to be created, we can answer with as much argument that the universe is, without need of any god. But neither of this proposition seems satisfactory, in my opinion. But after all, maybe one of them is true, or maybe it's something completely different, out of reach of poor human imagination... The Big Bang theory (which doesn't describe an explosion but the transition from a very dense and warm universe to a less dense and cooler universe) is for now what explained the best the observations we realized. It doesn't mean that it happened. What we see through the telescopes is so different from the day-to-day world that it is very possible that we misinterpret it. But at least, it is conform with the idea of evolution, of something not frozen in time. One of my problem with creationism is justly the immobility that it implies. The world was created 6000 years ago and won't change or at least nothing else will be created. That means that it leads only towards destruction and annihilation. It is sad to think that extinct species like dodos are dead and won't never be replaced. With the current rythm of extinction of species, Earth will be completely empty of life far before the scientific point of its non-livability (due to gradual warming of the Sun). Unless of course God decides to recreate life... which is a poor solution, because it means that the world he created is not self-sufficient. This hypothesis is really unpleasant to me because it seems that, although God gave us free-will, we don't really have a choice on our destiny... Any mistake makes us closer of the end. On the contrary, evolution suggests a constant move. Some species die while others are born. Nothing is frozen. That's the princip of life itself. A cycle of creation and destruction: spermatozoon and ovum, egg, fetus, baby, child, adult then death. "All energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back." The evolution theory is based on observations which, I think, are much more reliable than the ones we make on the universe, because it applies to a subject more related to us. It is something we can more easily interpret because we are in contact with it all the time, and in fact we are ourselves modeled by it. I have no difficulty to admit that the Big Bang theory may be wrong (although I really don't believe in a god-created universe as you can have guessed), but, by its proximity to us, I think the evolution theory is, in great parts, true. Being appreciative of our world and the life surrounding us is: - in creationism, being appreciative of God's imagination (he really have lots, I must give him credits for that), because he's the source of everything after all; - in evolution, being appreciative of the beauty of life itself, which has succeeded to form such wonderful and surprising things all by itself, needing only itself, and thus having real and true freedom. I personally prefer the second. Cordially to everyone (whatever the opinion), Kiyom Ja'k Dawsiin 09-19-2011, 05:17,there are flaws,andlove this whole comment,but especially the words in blue. well said. bravo :) 31152 31153 Carborundum 09-19-2011, 07:35 AM This is against my better judgement, but... Carborundum let's say in the next five minutes the police bust down your door, violently I would want the supposed evidence to be checked, re-checked, and then re-checked again. I would want it to be examined from every possible angle, and I would want the conclusions to be continuously questioned and re-evaluated. Fortunately, this is what scientists already do. Every day. All the time. Entirely without your input. If, in spite of this, the evidence pointed toward me being guilty, I should be convicted of the crime. I would not want to be convicted, but I should be all the same. Because that's how the justice system works. And that's also how science works. Neither is perfect (you'll notice how I have never claimed it to be), but they must do the best with what they have, which sometimes means drawing incorrect conclusions/convicting innocents. As I said, even after I'm convicted, both the evidence and the conviction should continue to be tested and checked for flaws. Which, again, is already happening in science. Some other points: That's how I figure out complex problems I bounce ideas off of other people until they randomly say something that leads me to the answer. Neat, but horribly inefficient. If everyone solved problems in that manner, we would still be living in caves. ...but just like the scientists it would be pure guess work. Scientists do not deal in guesswork. Ever. This just serves to further demonstrate your complete lack of understanding of the scientific method. Then to you this entire forum is useless because most of the conversations here are about something that isn't real. (Avatar/Neytiri) So why are you even here? Now you're being daft on purpose. I'm here because I love Avatar. Entertainment is not meant to be useful, it's meant to be fun. Some refutations of some other stuff you've said:Incorrect. The moon is currently moving away from the Earth at a rate of 38 mm/y (~1.5"/y), but historically the rate has been much lower. The average rate is 21.7 mm/y (~0.85"/y), which obviously invalidates your conclusion. Nice try though. If you're roasting a hotdog over a fire and you turn that hotdog fast it'll cook evenly, but if you slow that hot dog down the surface temperature rises. So if the Moon is slowing Earth down then global warming makes perfect sense, but scientists are unable to come to this conclusion. Incorrect. If you turn the hotdog more slowly, the surface temperature of the side facing the fire increases. The overall temperature would actually decrease somewhat, because the lesser temperature gradient between the hotdog and the fire would increase the resistance to heat transfer, which would in turn decrease the amount of heat absorbed by the hotdog, which in turn would lower its temperature. Again, your conclusion is incorrect. That's why I do not use scientific findings as absolute fact. And nor should you. But you're not doing it for the wrong reasons. Enigma, you do not understand science. You do not understand what science is. You do not understand what science does. You do not understand how science works. There is nothing wrong with this. Everyone are ignorant until they make an effort to learn something. If you want to learn about science, I suggest you start by reading about the scientific method ( and then check out what falsifiable ( evidence ( theory ( and hypothesis ( means. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-19-2011, 08:12 AM for all your belief and faith in the 'absolutes' of science,Carb,there is still no definitive proof that science has the answers to our origin(s) or even a cure for the common cold. Carborundum 09-19-2011, 08:20 AM for all your belief and faith in the 'absolutes' of science,Carb, You know what you should try? Reading: And that's also how science works. Neither is perfect (you'll notice how I have never claimed it to be) there is still no definitive proof that science has the answers to our origin(s) Nor will there ever be. Science does not deal in 'definite proof', it only determines what the most likely scenario is. or even a cure for the common cold. What? Never heard of anti-biotics? Scott 09-19-2011, 08:36 AM I'm no scientist(and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night)but I thought the common cold was a Virus and antibiotics were used for fighting bacteria infections? Carborundum 09-19-2011, 08:40 AM I'm no scientist(and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night)but I thought the common cold was a Virus and antibiotics were used for fighting bacteria infections? You (and Ja'k Dawsiin) are correct. Anti-biotics have no effect on the common cold, and there is currently no approved anti-viral drug to treat it. I was mistaken. Wanderlust 09-19-2011, 09:56 AM Science never claimed to be absolute. Like Carborundum said we deduce the most likely scenario from observed phenomenon. btw, ive been avoiding this thread Carborundum 09-19-2011, 10:04 AM btw, ive been avoiding this thread You, sir or madam, are a wiser person than I am. akgeff 09-19-2011, 11:19 AM I came to the conclusion many years ago that the primary diffrence between humans and every other living thing on planet earth is that humans are the only "species" that will kill you based on what you think or believe. Hmm must be some sort of divine message in that... Lon 09-19-2011, 01:01 PM I admit I've been skimming through this thread, passing over the long winded posts, frankly tired of it all. Anything longer than say 100 words is too long for me, most of the time. I also find myself clicking "Like" on the same posts that Jak' clicks on. Seriously I don't see where this thread is going anymore. It's like trying to argue with your x via text messaging. Scott 09-19-2011, 02:15 PM Lon is correct. It's really too bad because I want to understand. When Avatar became a mega-hit some religious institutions were very strongly opposed to the pagan nature theme; and conversely some people were angry that science took a back seat to Eywa. I knew when I was watching Avatar for the first time I was formulating my own opinion of Eywa. Millions of people saw Avatar and some had opinions while others had none, and those that did branched of in many different directions. In a way, Avatar was like a group of people seeing an eclipse for the first time; after the show people began discussing what they saw, what they felt. Our nature is so complex that the very things I saw in Avatar that made me formulate opinions, well some of those things only I witnessed! We all see things with different vision. I want to understand how other people see. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-19-2011, 05:02 PM I'm here because I love Avatar. Entertainment is not meant to be useful, it's meant to be fun. i like the first statement,and agree wholeheartedly. but i have quite an issue with the second statement,as i find entertainment to be very useful,as well as fun and enjoyable. entertainment in its various forms can be very useful in meeting like-minded people,relaxing after a stressful day,using your gray matter to see messages and intent within the entertainment venue,beit a film or a website,or a means to an end in temporarily escaping this tortured reality for a quite different and beautiful place like Pandora. i'll be somewhere around,finding uses for my entertainment preferences,lol. good day. 31178 transcend 09-20-2011, 10:00 AM Ja'k Dawsiin 09-20-2011, 06:02 PM I knew when I was watching Avatar for the first time I was formulating my own opinion of Eywa. We all see things with different vision. I want to understand how other people see. if there is an almighty deity,Eywa is what i would want that deity to be like,regardless of any method in which that deity chose to bring us about,as in evolution,creation,or another way.:) Scott 09-20-2011, 06:40 PM But Ja'k, how is Eywa any different from human versions of God? I even have to add that Eywa was created by a human. But back to my original point, Eywa cares just like our creators care. In Avatar we have proof, like the Atokirina saving Jake...that was a miracle by any human standard. The only difference that sets Eywa apart from our Gods is the people who worship them. Unfortunately our people do terrible things to each other, often in the name of Gods. But I have learned to not blame God for the madness of men. Imagine if there were a clan of Na'vi that liked to hunt down, kill and eat worshipers of Eywa. They look and sound no different than any other Na'vi(such as the Omiticaya)but something made them bitter and spiteful of Eywa. Should we judge Eywa unfavorably because of this? Aihwa 09-20-2011, 09:13 PM for all your belief and faith in the 'absolutes' of science,Carb,there is still no definitive proof that science has the answers to our origin(s) or even a cure for the common cold. Science can't cure the cold, but it can tell you why that's true. The virus that causes the common cold evolves too quickly for an effective vaccine to be created. The Flu by contrast, is much slower in its evolutionary spasms, a vaccine is developed and deployed yearly. We could easily vaccinate against a cold, but the vaccine would be useless within weeks. "Godunnit" is not an answer, it's an excuse to not think. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-20-2011, 10:07 PM But Ja'k, how is Eywa any different from human versions of God?_Omaticaya_ 09-22-2011, 11:00 AMYou know what you could do with your intellectual quotes mate? I'll let your 'knowledge' figure that out. Why don't you answer my so sh1tty ignorant post from your holy knowledge instead of quoting matey? You think just because you quote somin' you're 'covering' your offense, calling me an ignorant? Dude S.T.F.U., you're nobody to call me or anyone names, and I never do, so I won't get it from you either. Plus, at least I don't judge a person by the pieces of paper they have, but by what they are. People like you think a person with a degree is better than everyone else and anyone that speaks from his simple life experience is not worthy of your time... Simply disgust me. And I am bloody happy with my current 'intellectual' level or that bullsh1t you we're going on about. Aihwa 09-22-2011, 09:52 PM my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge! Derp. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-23-2011, 02:55 AM Derp. 31349 I don't judge a person by the pieces of paper they have, but by what they are. winning!:) 31351 Pristerognathus 09-23-2011, 08:18 AM I'll answer some general misconceptions about the theory of evolution I've seen here. Before doing so, let me state that I am not a scientist nor do I have any credentials to be one. I am just someone who has an interest in science and technology. To say "evolution is JUST a theory" appears to convey a misunderstanding of what the term "theory" means in science. In common everyday usage, theory generally means "a hunch or guess", but in science, a theory is "a potentially-falsifiable explanation of a set of related facts for a given phenomenon." In science, a theory is the highest level an explanation can attain, there is no "proof" level in science. Science deals mostly with facts, laws, and theories. Here's an example: An apple falling to the earth, that demonstrates the fact of gravity, the name we give to this force. Matter attracts matter, or every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square ( of the distance between them; that's the law of gravity (specifically Newton's law of universal gravitation). The theory of gravity attempts to explain how gravity works (for example, Einstein's general relativity), and it can't be proven, only improved or discarded for a new, better theory. The theory of evolution can't be proven, like all other scientific theories: only supported with evidence (facts and observations), OR the theory itself improved with new understanding, OR the theory discarded and replaced with a better one that is able to explain everything evolution does and at least a little more. Also, the new theory, just like evolution, must have predictive power (more on that later). You can't just attack evolution and think creationism (the other supposed theory, which doesn't qualify as a scientific theory ( triumphs by default; you actually have to show how creationism is a better explanation of the facts than evolution is. Evolution explains thousands of observations, but I'll just list a few here, such as the ridiculous path of the recurrent laryngeal nerve ( Understand the basics of tetrapod evolution ( to see why this is not an intelligent design by any standard. Evolutionary theory also explains the path of the vas deferens ( ns) (study the evolution of mammals ( to understand why this is), why human embryos have pharyngeal pouches ( (explore the history of life ( and you'll know why we have what become gill slits in fish). Evolution also explains why we have vestigial organs ( (check out the 5 things humans don't need anymore (like wisdom teeth) ( which are baggage from our evolutionary past, exactly why birds are not just descended from maniraptorian theropod dinosaurs, but actually are dinosaurs ( and the occurrence of atavisms ( How would a creationism theory explain atavisms? The evolutionary framework explains these and many other facts without any problems, under maximum parsimony ( Take a look at how multiple, independent sets of biological markers are used to retrace ancestry back through time, to show the relatedness of all life on earth, such as through endogenous retrovirus ( insertions in genes. It wouldn't take much to disprove the theory of evolution; a fossilized squamate ( in the Ediacaran period ( would shake the biology world to its core, the discoverers would get a lot of media attention and would probably even earn a Nobel Prize. Before I go further, let's get the definitions correct. Search "Evolution 101" and you'll find the University of California's Museum of Paleontology exhibit on evolution. ( Evolution simply means "change over time", but in biology, evolution means this: "Biological evolution, simply put, is descent with modification. This definition encompasses small-scale evolution (changes in gene frequency in a population from one generation to the next) and large-scale evolution (the descent of different species from a common ancestor over many generations). Evolution helps us to understand the history of life." From the UCMP website again, here's the scope of the theory of evolution: "Biological evolution is not simply a matter of change over time. Lots of things change over time: trees lose their leaves, mountain ranges rise and erode, but they aren't examples of biological evolution because they don't involve descent through genetic inheritance. The central idea of biological evolution is that all life on Earth shares a common ancestor, just as you and your cousins share a common grandmother. Through the process of descent with modification, the common ancestor of life on Earth gave rise to the fantastic diversity that we see documented in the fossil record and around us today. Evolution means that we're all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales." This isn't a bird, it was a 4-winged feathered dinosaur, Microraptor ( Don't confuse with "Archaeoraptor" ( Evolutionary biology is a vast subject, I'm not here to spit out all the evidence for evolution, it is up to the interested observer to investigate the evidence themselves, but let me point out a few pages among tens of thousands of pieces of evidence to look at: Loss of Egg Yolk Genes in Mammals and the Origin of Lactation and Placentation ( Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution After Introduction To A New Home ( Insertion of Telomeric Repeats at Intrachromosomal Break Sites During Primate Evolution ( Check out a list of just some observed instances of speciation ( There are hundreds of books on its various subjects, even on specifics people might think science knows nothing about, like the evolution of the insects (detailed in a 772 page book) ( No one is forgetting the plants, check out just this one page on the subject of plant evolution ( Anyone keeping an eye on science news will know that it was none other than the predictive power of evolution ( which aided Neil Shubin ( and team to discover Tiktaalik roseae ( in 2004; the scientists knew exactly what they were looking for before it was even discovered, in rocks 375 million years old (the time of the fish to tetrapod transition). Check out Wikipedia's list of transitional fossils ( to see plenty more, but before you criticize evolution, you really need to know what evolution is ( and what transitional features are, I recommend the UMCP Berkeley Evolution 101 website ( for the basics. See how the incus and the malleus (bones in mammalian ears) transitioned from the quadrate and articular bones in reptiles through evolution: A lot of people are unaware of just how many "transitional forms" have been uncovered in the recent decades of almost all major vertebrate transformations. Check out the fossils that qualify as important to understanding the sarcopterygian ( "fish to tetrapod" ( transition. These genera are not listed in their chronological order; for a glimpse of that, check out this illustration ( As fins were adapted for land-dwelling, early tetrapods like Acanthostega ( (which had lungs and gills) had several more digits than 5. (Listed from dinosaurs.about.com ( don't mistake any of them for dinosaurs because they're not even Avemetatarsalians ( Acanthostega ( One of the most famous early tetrapods. Casineria ( Among the first of the five-toed tetrapods. Crassigyrinus ( This tetrapod looked like a giant tadpole. Diadectes ( This tetrapod was the biggest land animal of its time. Elginerpeton ( This ancient tetrapod was discovered in Scotland. Eucritta ( Better known as the "Creature from the Black Lagoon." Eusthenopeteron ( This lobe-finned fish was ancestral to the first tetrapods. Gogonasus ( Yet another early fish with tetrapod-like characteristics. Greererpeton ( This early tetrapod looked like an eel. Hynerpeton ( The only tetrapod to be dug up in Pennsylvania. Ichthyostega ( One of the first tetrapods ever to be identified. Osteolepis ( This ancient fish had some latent tetrapod characteristics. Panderichthys ( Another Devonian fish with tetrapod leanings. Pederpes ( This creature fills an important gap in tetrapod evolution. Tiktaalik ( This "fishapod" was halfway between a fish and a tetrapod. Tulerpeton ( One of the first "true" tetrapods. Ventastega ( An alligator-like tetrapod of the late Devonian. Whatcheeria ( Along with Pederpes, an important missing link in tetrapod evolution. Evolution doesn't state that a species will change into a fundamentally different kind of anything (like dogs giving birth to cats, those sorts of things would actually be evidence against evolution by common descent; another example of evidence which would disprove the theory), the definition of evolution is above for reference. As paleontology is a historical science ( there's no way we can prove that, for example, the transitional form Eomaia ( is the ancestor to all later Eutherian mammals ( but that's not what the definition of a transitional form ( is, and the only way we could know for certain would be to go in a time machine and witness the history of life ourselves, which is every paleontologist's dream I would think. This probably will never happen, and restricting evolution in such a way would be similar to having a court case in which the jury is convinced from all the evidence and then the defense lawyer is saying as his final argument "well none of you were there right?! You can't know for sure!". If several transitional forms aren't good enough evidence for you, how about several hundred, listed here ( Someone who doesn't understand taxonomy nor evolution will probably say that a Pterosaur ( is a Dinosaur, which is false. Check out the definition of the Dinosauria on UCMPs website ( they aren't just "any ol' giant reptile that lived a long time ago", paleontologists have a specific definition of these groups, based on morphology ( The fossil record could never be complete nor could ever represent the history of all species that have ever lived on earth, (even Darwin knew this, way back when paleontology was still a very young scientific discipline) but don't let the rarity of fossilization fool you into believing that scientists have "little evidence" of the history of life; science is aware of around 5,000 genera of the diverse Trilobites ( alone, and these extinct creatures serve as an index fossil ( Terms like "reptile" shouldn't be used anymore either, since such words are polyphyletic ( If we modify the definition of reptile to "all diapsids ( are reptiles", then birds would be "reptiles" too, but turtles wouldn't be. If we're to say that "all amniotes ( are reptiles", then by definition, all mammals would be reptiles too. Living sauropsids ( are represented by the lepidosauria ( archosauria ( and anapsida ( this is, generally speaking, the closest meaning of the term "reptile" under modern taxonomy. So these old terms are good for generalizations, but only groupings that are monophyletic ( are appropriate for taxonomic classification ( If a single bird, mammal, "reptile", or fish cleavage (embryo) ( were to be observed with development of the anus after the mouth, evolutionary theory would be in a crisis, because by the evolutionary model, all vertebrates evolved from (and are still) deuterostomes ( In turn, we're all bilaterally symmetrical ( coelomates ( To see the most incredible evidence of evolution, study some cladistic phylogenetics ( It'll give you more evidence of evolution than you will ever be able to sift through, and you will be convinced if you are unbiased and objective. What a person may or may not believe isn't important. What's most important is what is objectively measurable and testable, because only accurate information can have practical application. Most scientists are religious, and the vast majority of scientists (around 95%) accept the theory of evolution. For example, The Dinosaur Heresies by Robert T. Bakker ( a popular book on hypotheses about endothermy ( in dinosaurs, whose author is a not only a world-famous paleontologist, but is also a Christian minister, again shows that many evolution supporters are religious too. The creationism movement is highly dishonest in its representation of evolution, and for many examples of that, check out Kevin Padian's slides and expert testimony ( at the Kitzmiller vs Dover trial ( a case in 2005 which pitted the theory of evolution against intelligent design (ID) creationism, and ID lost. Here's an example of the creationists misrepresentation of science in their book Of Pandas and People ( The judge's eloquent decision of the court ( sums up the issue, summarizing exactly why creationism isn't science: "Repe ToAihwa 09-23-2011, 10:35 AM 31349 Well, when you prove my very point while trying to find some way to discredit me... You're digging your own logical grave here. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-23-2011, 11:25 AM Well, when you prove my very point while trying to find some way to discredit me... You're digging your own logical grave here. lol....there is no logic to your hamster wheel of inane comments from the peanut gallery. sighs...nor do you have any point that is logical. 31361 Scott 09-23-2011, 11:41 AM A very educating post, Pristernognathus. As I said before, I don't have a scientific mind. Thankfully I have a deep passion for science fiction that allows me to appreciate the workings of real science while not being able to understand the process of how they figure all this stuff out. So many different things to see and so many different ways to see them. I look at a rock or a bird or a person and have an intuitive feeling that all this was made by God. I look at the galaxy, the universe with its massive age and complexity, and feel exactly the same-made by God gut reaction. I couldn't stand to live without God, not because of salvation but because God makes everything worth it. Thank you again for all the work you put into assembling that piece. The Spock in me felt it was 'fascinating' Pristerognathus 09-23-2011, 12:08 PM Thank you. It took me all night to write and I'm glad at least one person got something out of it. _Omaticaya_ 09-23-2011, 12:15 PM Derp. Oh my goodness... You have officially crossed the line... Dude how are you gonna quote something I didn't say, typing something else I didn't say using my name? Oh my gosh yo wtf is this for real? As Ja'k said, REALLY?... Dude get a life. Getting angry with you is a waste of time. Why don't you go eat a nice big banana dude, you know, you're a monkey after all right? I think he means everyone omaticaya, not just you... Might aswell close this thread Lon.. I think it have derailed for some time now.. =/ Scott 09-23-2011, 01:40 PM I hate seeing people suffer, feelings getting hurt, over something so much bigger than us all. _Omaticaya_ 09-23-2011, 01:41 PM I think he means everyone omaticaya, not just you... Might aswell close this thread Lon.. I think it have derailed for some time now.. =/ Thanks prowler :) I already knew actually don't worry ^_^ I wasn't refering to Lon ofcourse, I agree with Lon. But usually, it's always because of some such 'ignorant' post of mine that it all begins until then I get blamed for it all, so before it happens,(as it always does) i'll just bugger off so all the monkeys can chat about their bananas a little more without my crappy ignorance bothering their high degree level and science-book related facts and youtube evolution-proof video sharing bullsh!t. Peace out, i'll leave it to the intellectuals now to speak from their throne. _Omaticaya_ 09-23-2011, 01:42 PM Random I just happened to see the tags for this thread, HAHAHAHAHAH funny :) Eternal Enigma 09-23-2011, 01:55 PM In any of my posts I am very specific in how I make my approach if I have a point that I would like to make. When I have something I wish to eventually get to I'll move the conversation towards that with a specific vocabulary or an arrangement that sets the reader up for what I'm eventually going to talk about. What happens quite often is people are quick to jump to conclusions and what I write that is meant to get the reader set up for my point is usually taken out of context or heavily disputed. That's what has happened in this case. See no one here knows where I was going with this because I wasn't given the chance to put it into context. So as it stands all of my posts related to this thread are sitting here wide open and out of context. I take no offense to anyone who believes I'm uneducated or unintelligent because what you've read so far is my initial go at creating what could have potentially been one of the most interesting non-Avatar related threads here and then you see a bunch of thread hijacking with stuff completely unrelated to the subject or where I was eventually going to take this thread. Part of the reason why science has been discredited for me is because of some of my personal experiences that go well beyond the current knowledge of science. What some people are seeing as my being unintelligent is just me withholding my personal explanation that explains my view, which is why posting my deconstruction analysis was so important to put everything into context. It would have explained my beliefs and the experiences that have lead me to the conclusions I've come to. Unfortunately my thread was continuously hijacked so I never had the chance to explain myself. If people wish to believe that I somehow lack the understanding or do not know the definitions of words that's fine. In reality I did not get a chance to explain myself and I'm not going to try. Not within this thread anyways. I would be more than happy to cover any of this on a personal one on one basis, but sadly this very interesting wide ranging subject is not able to be widely discussed on an open platform. In a typed format such as this people can skip parts or just not read what you wrote and respond to your post by guessing what you were talking about. I'm not going to argue with people or have people tell me I'm wrong before they even know what my view is. That's like being on a jury and before court even begins just yelling out "guilty! he's guilty!" before you even know what he's being accused of. My view is based on first hand experience so if any of you are interested send me a PM. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-23-2011, 04:32 PM Dude get a life. Getting angry with you is a waste of time. Why don't you go eat a nice big banana dude, you know, you're a monkey after all right? 31365 lol Careful, don't make me pull this bus over. :moody: for some reason,i'm on the floor rolling round,giggling like a silly kid with hiccups and a crate of those snappers you throw at the ground:) tm20 09-23-2011, 05:47 PM i just realized that this whole thread consists of evolution being deconstructed....while creationism hasn't. anyone want to take upon that task? :D Scott 09-23-2011, 08:34 PM Well my version of creation is different from the scriptures(and mind you I am ignorant to many of the different scriptures that exist)but the most important part, made by God with a purpose is all that really matters. The reason we can't see God is because He wants us to find Him of our own free will. Without free will we wouldn't be people. We wouldn't be able to love each other or even see each other because all we would see and want to see is Him. He wants us to love each other, and he knew how hard we were going to have it without Him holding our hand. He knew we were going to be terrible at loving each other. So he gave us His only son and Jesus would be there for us to hold our hand. To guide us to the Father with love and assurance in a cruel and harsh world. Aihwa 09-23-2011, 08:58 PM i just realized that this whole thread consists of evolution being deconstructed....while creationism hasn't. anyone want to take upon that task? :D As I said before, "godunnit" is creationism, or intelligent design, or whatever they call it next when science bitch slaps them down again. As you can see, there is nothing to support their hypothesis that an all powerful being gives enough of a damn about a single mudball in a universe of identical mudballs to create an imperfect species. We now have Eternal Enigma hinting at "personal experiences" that disprove a few hundreds of years of scientific inquiry, because his explanation for an event trumps the most brilliant minds in history. True story. Eternal Enigma 09-24-2011, 01:55 AM i just realized that this whole thread consists of evolution being deconstructed....while creationism hasn't. anyone want to take upon that task? :DJa'k Dawsiin 09-24-2011, 03:14 AM,and of course there is no way to prove this either,as it all happened a long time ago,and there is no evidence of this being on this hellhole of a planet. you guys that scream the unprovable evolution theory as 'fact' are just as flawed as the creation types who yell about benevolent deities and other such unprovable religious-based creationism,and in the end,we are no closer to anything that is even remotely believable. so where does all this leave me??? still confoozed as ever,and cursing the lack of redbull after i kick the bucket. lol. evolution and creation are both complete crap,and that IS a fact.:) 31391 Scott 09-24-2011, 03:59 AMCarborundum 09-24-2011, 04:08 AMThis actually explains a lot. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-24-2011, 04:22 AM i think we need a thread for paranormal activity and experiences,because i have several my darn self...not kidding.:/ Scott 09-24-2011, 04:24 AM I'd very much like to hear them, Ja'k tm20 09-24-2011, 04:38 AM Seen on page 2 post #15. ........... That post shows the beginning of my introduction to the deconstruction analysis of these two theories, hypothesis, beliefs, or whatever you want to call them. ok thanks for posting, i was too lazy to go back and look :P Aihwa 09-24-2011, 03:39 PM The wall of facts back a page or two would like to disagree. You're trying to take this "you're both retarded" argument, while sometimes this works (see Democrats and Republicans) in this case it is not so. Eternal Enigma 09-24-2011, 04:53 PM see That made me bust out laughing because for me that's the same issue I have with creation. It's just as absurd as the idea that the universe suddenly went 'poof' and appeared from nothing for absolutely no reason at all. For the scientifically minded who rely on all of these man made facts it all makes perfect sense. Of course, scientists themselves don't even try to explain how the universe came from nothing not even in the Big Bang theory. They actually start "trillions of milliseconds" (direct quote from scientist) after the Big Bang when the universe was "about the size of a baseball," because explaining how it suddenly came from no where is too difficult to explain. So they're studying it the wrong way to begin with. They're not studying it from the absolute beginning, which could alter their findings. What they're finding they're putting in science books for the impressionable minds of children to soak up. So things that aren't proven are being taught in schools around the world as absolute 100% cannot be wrong fact. That's just ridiculous to me. Humanity needs to do better than that. That's the "well, this doesn't explain everything, but it's good enough" stand point. Instead of trying to answer how the universe came from nothing they're working on the idea that the universe is still expanding from the initial explosion (or whatever it was) in order to prove that if it is expanding that at one time it must have been smaller... enter the Big Bang theory. That very well could be, but it still doesn't explain how it happened. They may be right the Big Bang theory could be how it all went down... alright I'll agree with that... now... scientists... explain how it happened. ^_^ (If we're going to teach it in school as fact we should at the very least have the ability to explain it). Keep in mind we're unable to go anywhere else in space to collect more evidence that we may not have right now and scientists are limited by the confines of their lab. With that said it is impossible to find a definitive answer. We can't go see... we can't go investigate... you guys that scream the unprovable evolution theory as 'fact' are just as flawed as the creation types who yell about benevolent deities and other such unprovable religious-based creationism,and in the end,we are no closer to anything that is even remotely believable. Absolutely... see you get it. I love talking to people who don't believe in either of these things because you guys are so open minded and can see that both of them sound like complete bullsh!t and are in need of further investigation. Then there's the notion that humans came from monkeys. I've seen the documentaries and they don't just say "this is what could be" they're teaching it as this is how it is "these are the facts" and then they go over all of the ill-established evidence. I've seen where they have one of those artists who takes a real human/monkey (caveman) skull and they put clay on it to make it look human. That's just the artists interpretation of what they believe it should look like based on the modern anatomy of modern humans. If you take a tiger skull and apply the same techniques to it you can make a tiger skull look like it might have been human millions of years ago too. People who are so one sided on the issue just cannot see things like that. This applies to people on both sides of the fence. Creationists are guilty of misinterpreting the Bible. I can go on and on about the creationists who have misinterpreted the Bible just as I can go on and on about evolutionists (scientists) misinterpreting what they're finding. In school that's why science was so fun... you could get messy and make mistakes because nothing was absolute due to the fact that we don't know. That's the great thing about science because you can have fresh minds bring new ideas to the table. akgeff 09-24-2011, 05:29 PMWow you guys have been uber busy on this thread. I never considered "Eywa" a deity, more of a planet wide intelligent entity but I watched Avatar from a sci/fi perspective not a fantasy one... Eternal Enigma 09-24-2011, 07:09 PMYou're welcome mate. I'm not quite sure why you're thanking me, but you're welcome. That's a great account of a personal experience and if we have a paranormal thread if you could post about it and try to remember more details that would be great. (I'm not going to open another thread that could become controversial, but someone else that everyone likes could make one).I wouldn't just make something up... It would make absolutely no sense to create a thread to take apart creation and evolution with the intent of eventually coming out with a fabricated story about ghosts and UFOs to try to explain why I don't believe we fully understand anything. By telling about my personal experiences I really run the risk of putting myself out there and looking like a lunatic. To those who do not believe in this stuff they no longer believe I'm just uneducated or lack understanding. Now they'll just believe I have psychiatric problems. My personal experiences are the basis for how I've come to the conclusion that I've come to so it must be added in. If anyone wishes to believe I'd just make this stuff up that's fine, but I would gain nothing by doing so. I don't just believe something I like to investigate it further. I even question my own experiences and try to explain them away. When you see an object being picked up a good ways straight up off the ground and get thrown many feet away from where it was how do you even begin to try to explain it? One explanation is that it was a ghost or whatever it is we call ghosts. If you toss that explanation aside nothing explains it. I'm not the type of person who hears a noise at night and immediately thinks OMG it's a ghost. I go and look and find out "oh that was just the hot water heater" or "oh it was just the wind blowing a tree making it scratch on the window." Many things can be explained away. A lot of the people who have had "paranormal experiences" really haven't, but they believe they have. Then there are those who just make crap up to discredit those of us who have experienced something real. :\ In my experiences at the house where I witnessed object manipulation for the first time, which was my sister's friend's house is a house that was very active. My sister's friend Kim had three small children (Tony, Courtney, and Eddie) and my sister had my nephew (Shane). The children said they could see these ghosts as in more than one (according to the children there was a man, woman, a little boy, a little girl, and a baby). How that all came about is because the children were getting their asses beat for doing naughty things around the house and then they would get their asses beat again for lying about it and trying to say that it was a ghost. They would not back down from the story that ghosts were doing this. As a matter of fact one of the things they would have their asses beat over is for messing with the fireplace stoking tools and throwing them about. See I was younger myself and was about 11-12 years old and I had no idea that the adults were using me as a test. They thought that if these other children which were from 3 - 5 could see these ghosts that I possibly could as well if it was real. That's what my mother and I would do every evening after I got home from school is go to Kim's house. For me I thought it was just us visiting my big sister and my nephew. They didn't tell me about anything that was going on and they did that on purpose so if something happened I could just come out with it on my own. My mother knew if I saw something I'd say something. Before the night where the stoking tools were thrown across the room we had experienced toys working without batteries and the television coming on by itself. They even began to unplug it so it wouldn't do that and it would still come on. One of the more impressive things were these dolls that the children had (action figures) with voice boxes that would work without batteries and say things they were not programmed to say. They wouldn't say the same things twice. Sometimes we could walk out of the room and when you came back in some of the things had been rearranged. Kim was anal about using coasters and if the children used the coasters they could have their drinks in the living room, but if they were caught not using the coasters they would lose that privilege. We could walk out of the room and when you returned all of the drinks would be off the coasters. As a child myself that wasn't anything to me. I never gave it a second thought. I didn't even think "OMG this is a ghost." I could tell that my mother, sister, and Kim were reacting strangely to these occurrences. Now to the object manipulation, which is the moment that woke me up from just being a child to realizing there's something real there. It was sometime around Christmas there were decorations and the tree was up. The adults were in the kitchen cooking and gossiping and the children were in between me and the Christmas tree, which was approximately ten feet to the left of the fireplace. The small children were running around doing as small children do and at the exact same time they all looked at the Christmas tree and were going on and on about seeing a little girl in the Christmas tree. The adults came in and they looked at me and asked me if I could see anything. I looked and all I saw was a Christmas tree. The adults went on and the children began to play... with something... it was as if they were including else with them. They were running around playing chase or whatever with the ghost of this little girl and that's when Kim came back in there and told them to stop. The children said; "Well we're just playing with the little girl" that's when Kim told them to "Stop playing with the little girl." She goes back in the kitchen and at this point the children are to my left so that I'm nearly in the living room alone (I could draw a picture of the layout of the house if necessary). The Christmas tree is in front of me... the fireplace is about ten feet to the right and on the left side of the fire place something caught my eye... I looked... I saw the fireplace stoking tools moving... then they suddenly clamped together on their stand... lifted up (stand included) into the air a good two to three feet... and were violently thrown across in front of me in between me and the Christmas tree. It wasn't as if they just fell over they landed nine to ten feet from where they were originally. I was looking right at it when it happened it wasn't as if I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. I was looking right at it when it lifted up and was thrown across the room and it is one of the craziest things I have ever seen in person. Of course, it was loud because the tools were metal so it scared everyone except for me because I was more in shock at what I had just seen above all else. The children ran over and the adults came in that's when Kim was about to beat their asses for messing with the fireplace stoking tools again. The children told the adults they didn't do it they saw the little girl do it. The adults didn't believe them so they asked me... and I had to tell them that no I did not see a little girl do it, but none of the children did it... this thing did it by itself. I explained to them what I just explained to you. So they picked it up and set it back where it goes and told us to stay away from it to see if it would happen again. Me wanting to understand what I saw I was over there trying to figure out how that could have happened by itself. So I was trying to eliminated the possibility of a ghost. This thing was lifted into the air and thrown. The whole reason my mother took me over there is because she knows I don't lie and that if the children had done something I wouldn't lie for them. See I have nothing to gain by making up stories and post them online in a thread. I actually have more to loose by doing that because for some it may just discredit me as being either a lying story teller or a lunatic. Of course, the things I speak of did actually happen. One of the interesting things is that my nephew says he doesn't believe in ghosts even though as a child he had many encounters. (He's 21 now)... From a psychological stand point I feel that my nephew does remember the experiences he had with these ghosts, but I believe the reason he says he doesn't believe in ghosts is because it scares him. He's one of those people who doesn't want to believe that while he's sleeping someone or something could be standing at the foot of his bed watching him. That is scary to think of. If someone wants to make a paranormal thread that would be great. I have quite a few stories of things that happened when my mother and I would go visit my sister. I've also experienced things at the house my mother lives at now and even where I live now. The most impressive were at Kim's house, which is a house that is literally right up the road from where I am now. Now that I'm an adult and can put some context behind things from when I was younger I believe what I saw was a result of the ghost of the little girl throwing a tantrum because Kim told the children not to play with her. You've seen children get upset and throw their toy down... in retrospect that's what the stoking tools looked like. This is something that happened in my life and I cannot leave it out when pondering the question of creation being real or not. Of course, evolutionists, scientists, and non-believers will not use my experience or anyone else's experience as evidence of anything because they don't believe in it. That's what we've ran into here... any of the evidence that supports the possibility of life after death, which would support the possibility of a God is totally dismissed by people who haven't experienced it for themselves. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-24-2011, 07:39 PMAihwa 09-24-2011, 09:17 PM This is not controversy. This is a joke, denying evolution always has been. Eternal Enigma 09-25-2011, 01:06 AM This is not controversy. This is a joke, denying evolution always has been. I believe in evolution it just depends on what version of evolution you go with. I believe that humans "evolved" from being simple cavemen to a more tribal lifestyle and eventually to the modern hell we've managed to create for ourselves today. lol As for the scientific explanation of evolution (the most popular version) that allows one type of animal (primates) to turn into a completely new type of animal (homo-sapiens) it's just something I can't buy. You cannot show me a monkey skull with clay on it to make it look human like and have me believe that's where we came from. Maybe that's good enough for you, but that's not enough for me. You can do that with any other animal skull... if you try to make it look human you'll end up making it look human. Male pattern baldness... proof of human evolution? Humans are still losing their hair from when we were monkeys I suppose. Women are now proven to suffer from this. I guess the scientists at Bosley have never had conversations with the scientists who study evolution. In evolution resistance is futile so the guys over at Bosley need to just give up. I wonder what we're going to eventually turn into since evolution is real and all... Oh... I know, we'll do like the dinosaurs and turn into birds. The whole idea of dinosaurs being birds of prey was an interesting addition to the theory of evolution. I still get a good chuckle when I go over that one. Evolution just like creation has SO MANY alternate versions and not everyone is on the same page. Do you realize how many separate versions of the Big Bang theory there are? Kiyom said that I was wrong and that the Big Bang theory mentions nothing about an explosion and the universe didn't start out as a prehistoric atom. In every version of the Big Bang theory that I currently know of it starts out as an explosion beyond our comprehension and then goes from there. I've seen in recent documentaries where scientists now say the universe began as an atom so small that today's most advanced scanning electron microscopes would be unable to see it. The scientists said that this "prehistoric atom" (words straight from a scientist's mouth) wasn't like the modern atom it only consisted of just one part. Then suddenly and for no reason at all that atom exploded like a bomb billions and trillions of times more powerful than thousands of nuclear warheads and thus the cycle began. Scientists say that the heat generated from that explosion (where those particles came from no one knows or even tries to explain) and that heat is what broke that single particle of that atom down and turned it into hydrogen and it kept repeating somehow. All of the hydrogen particles that heated up began turning into the other elements over billions of years. That's different from the original Big Bang theory, which still includes the explosion, but it just indicates that it came out of no where. There are other versions that have slight variations in them. I've even heard one where the explosion caused an "expansion of energy" and that there was "so much energy bouncing around in the infant universe" that that energy created the elements. Of course, now when you search for "The Big Bang theory" you get the television show on CBS. You never find any information about the actual theory unless you type in "The real Big Bang theory." Here's the real one: Big Bang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ( (They refer to it as the "primeval atom," which is completely different from the prehistoric atom I saw on a more recent documentary). In creation there are just as many variants and not everyone knows all of the different versions of these theories. I have studied most of them. Any new information about these theories that come out I'll know about it within a few days of it being published by actual scientists. When nothing new is coming about I'll watch documentaries on television or since I have high speed internet now I've been watching a lot of them on YouTube from NOVAScienceNOW and the Discovery channel and it's many specials over the years to name a couple of sources. Those programs share information and display the evidence scientists have found. I much rather have actual scientists talking about this stuff so I always try to find actual scientists talking about it in interviews and whatnot. That way all of the information I ever obtain comes straight from the horse's mouth. That way if I ever quote it I can't be wrong because scientists are never wrong even though they don't even follow the same theories. _Omaticaya_ 09-25-2011, 01:28Eternal Enigma 09-25-2011, 01:45 AM I'm wondering, why this is in general AVATAR discussions??? I'm note sure... Kiyom 09-25-2011, 02:32 AM From what I read on the Big Bang (I'm really not an expert in this field), the universe was not a "single atom" in the modern sense of atom (the elementary particle) but a very dense concentration of energy (that was thus very very hot). We can of course consider this energy soup like a "prehistoric or primeval atom", but I think it has nothing to see with the current atoms. As for the "explosion", whatever I read don't mention it but rather an expansion, a dilatation of the primeval energy, which in result created the elementary particles of our universe. It is maybe a battle of terminology, but "explosion" implied rather chemicals or nuclear reaction and doesn't really describe the phenomenon. I may be wrong of course, because I'm not a specialist and don't quite understand the physics behind all this. I want to precise that the Big Bang theory is still in research (lots actually). It's normal that some scientists disagree about how things happened. Strictly speaking, no one of them is right, because the theory implies so many different concepts, so many hypothesis that it can't be exactly what happened. Eternal Enigma, I disagree with what you said about "the scientists should start from the beginning". It's not the way science works. Science is primarily based on current observations. Then these observations are interpreted to discover physics laws or to try to recount the past. With astronomical observations like the cosmic microwave background radiation, they try to go back in time and understand what was before. So little by little, they build a theory, which lead eventually to the Big Bang. But there, the scientists are facing a great obstacle because there is currently no law and no observations which can describe what the universe was at that moment. Beginning by the beginning is the best way (in my opinion) to have a theory completely unrealistic. And that's what creationism does. It begins with a God that creates everything and that's it... I don't say that the Big Bang theory is right. There are many flaws in it, many questions are unanswered, and maybe scientists will discover that they have misinterpreted their observations, but it is based on the scientific method, which has allowed humanity to access to great amount of knowledge. Science is everywhere around us nowadays. Denying only evolution just because we don't like the idea that monkeys are our cousins (we aren't descended from them, although we're primates) seems a little hypocrite in my point of view. Without science we would believe that the Sun is in orbit around the Earth, we wouldn't have cars, we wouldn't have computers, we wouldn't have antibiotics... Everyone of us on this forum use science all day. By this we acknowledge what the scientists have discovered and engineered: medicine, electronics, thermodynamics and so on... I think scientists have proved over the last hundreds years that they're not saying only nonsenses. So why not believe in evolution which is established with the same method than everything else around us? Of course it is still uncomplete. Of course there is debate among the scientists. But since the beginning of science there has always been many debates, many controversial subjects. (see debate about atomic or continous structure of the matter for example) But this is how science works, and how our knowledge of our surroundings and our past increases. So here we are, we have a theory about our past that has followed the same scientific and logical path than all other recognized laws and theories, but some people don't want it. What I wonder is why? (Don't be offended by the next part, these are just questions in my mind) Afraid to admit that life has no sense in itself (though we can have a goal in life)? Shameful to have monkeys or oaks like cousins (very very far for oaks)? Too pretentious to admit that we've not always been what we are? Afraid of the death? I don't know. The fact is that I think it is hypocrite to say that Descartes, Newton, Maxwell, Gay-Lussac, Volta, Ampère, Gauss, Bernouilli, Boltzmann, Euler, Fraunhofer, Halley, Pasteur, Thompson, Mendeleiev, Bunsen, Einstein, Oppenheimer, Curie, Poincaré, Siemens and many many others are right and say that Darwin and all its (numerous) followers are wrong... I apologize in advance if some parts of my post are little incisive, it's just the way I feel. I strongly believe in science (it has freed us of centuries of obscurantism) but i also know to take things in consideration and sometimes be cautious with some theories. One more time I don't believe evolution is exactly and completely right, but it seems to me like it's possible, believable and a good explanation of our past. Thank you for reading! Ja'k Dawsiin 09-25-2011, 04:05 AM This is not controversy. This is a joke, denying evolution always has been. you state evolution like it is a proven fact....LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!:emptiness: 31435 Ja'k Dawsiin 09-25-2011, 04:09i've been wondering this,myself. it should be in debate,in all honesty. as for aihwa...whatever. insert smiley for 'talk to the hand' lol :) HufweMakto 09-25-2011, 11:01 AMThat my dear is a complete lie! I am an advocate of evolution and evolutionary thought. If you accuse me of being shut minded about things, you, my sir, is wrong on every level. I do not want bad blood or conflict here, but likewise as I have always said on this thread, I am just expressing my opinion, my two lone cents if you will. To accuse the scientific community of having a shuttered mind is as just as bad. My stance: If you think everyone who knows evolution to be the truth, then consider this: twenty-odd years ago, we were having a controversy about wheather or not birds descended from dinosaurs or if they descended from a crocodilian anscetor. I recently came upon a Nova program as old as I am, which discussed this very subject. There were views from people on either side of the theory, one being a biologist who specializes in birds saying his share of the theory, stating that dinosaurs and birds did not have a lot in common. Flash back to today where we have knowledge of quite a lot of new things, such as feathered dinosaurs like claudipteryx and the real stances of many dinosaurs, such as how bambiraptor held it's arms, which was much like a bird. Science and evolutionary theory is always open to new ideas, even if they seem to get weirder every day. Likewise, what is not taken as lightly twenty so years ago can be researched upon and eloborated with new evidence and studies. Science and evolution are a constantly changing thing, which should fit. Evolution still happens today (likewise, ravens are known for using tools, which is something most people associate great apes with). And I'm firmly on this. Denial of everything evidenced, detailed and recorded is the worst yet. And Creationism is a joke, plain and simple and bunk at that too. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-25-2011, 02:04HufweMakto 09-25-2011, 02:46Actually there's more evidence for evolution. And it's not a theory, a scientifically proven fact (in the scientific sense). What is a scientific theory is the mechanism behind evolution. When you think about it, pepper moths and hummingbirds and hummingbird moths are following natural selection (or in the case of dosmesticated dogs and cats, traited selected and bred by human activity, again selection). tm20 09-25-2011, 04:29 PM ^yeah there actually is solid evidence for evolution. for evolution on a smaller scale like peppered moths and darwin's finches, peopple have observed them for years and there has been without a doubt, an observable change. evolution is also what causes a new vaccine to be made annually for different viruses. sorry but if you refuse to read up on these things then you're the one who's cup is full :\ but in the end, this is a pointless debate. we've got nowhere in deconstructing evolution and creationism :rotfl: and i agree that this should be in the debate section since it seems like that what it's turned back into -_- Ja'k Dawsiin 09-25-2011, 10:06 PM i give up...peacefully. :) you guys have your beliefs,and i choose to believe neither. we agree to disagree. lol. anyway,i have far too much fun here,and quite like you guys too much,to fight or squabble over man-made theories one way or the other,and i am adding this subject to the others like politics and religion. i hope this thread goes into the debate closet sometime,because it really has nothing to do with Avatar. quite frankly,when i am wrapped up in my love and longing for all things Avatar and its universe,which is most of the time lol,i could give a damn about religion,ploitics,and creational/evolutional theory. 31478 have a nice day,or night,you good people of AF:) no matter what you believe or don't believe* _Omaticaya_ 09-26-2011, 06:53 AM ^I see you J'ak :nwink: Have a nice day too :) Ibelieve 09-26-2011, 08:17 AM Creationism and Evolution do not have to be contradictory. Evolution assumes that the matter, energy and 'life' needed to mould creatures into the best possible fit for the envionment is already present. Creation is exactly that, the first spark, if you will. Two completely different stages. If you firmly believe in evolution and therefore discount a creator - Your argument is invalid. What religion provides to evolution (and creation) is meaning. transcend 09-26-2011, 12:39 PM there are feilds of study called quantum biology and fields of study that say the earth is alive..gaia is a scientific theory.. is nature alive? yes.. is it part of reality or is it part of an accident? what is the first cause? modern physics also points to a living universe.. so if the scriptures of many religions say that the universe is the word from the source energy and the source energy is alive then the whole thing is alive.. but alive in what sense? and is it controlled by one or many? i refuse to believe in zeus but see much value in christianity.. i also see much value in buddhism and taoism.. they are schools of thought just as developed as science is.. why do we have to split nature and god? the logic of sets can be applied to organic chemisty and information theory can join physics and biology.. the mundane is divine~! Aihwa 09-26-2011, 01:44 PM If you firmly believe in evolution and therefore discount a creator - Your argument is invalid. What religion provides to evolution (and creation) is meaning. ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ prowler 09-26-2011, 01:59 PM ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ 31520 Ja'k Dawsiin 09-26-2011, 02:52 PM ^ nice,Prowler!:) let me add to that thought... 31521 Eternal Enigma 09-26-2011, 03:36 PMIbelieve 09-26-2011, 06:32 PM No Christian that I know says "If you don't go to church then you're going to hell', that's stupid - firstly it would scare away people and secondly its not true. Church is good because you are around other Christian people that also read the bible and love Jesus. I'm sorry if this gets personal Enigma, please don't take offence.. buuuuut... if There are SO many things in the bible that I need others to help me out with. I did Extension 2 english so I'm not retarded, I can analyse and understand texts. Things like why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorra or chooses some people and not others - predestination is one that we will never understand, so going to church and talking/praying with other people provides some closure. (sometimes) The passage in Matthew that you refer to does not explicitly say not to go to church, it is about humbling oneself before the Lord. It tells you not to pray in other people so that they see your effort, because that is self-gain. Pray because you need to, and because He is worth talking to, not because you want others to see how 'good' a Christian you are. It's true, preachers get it wrong. That's why reading the bible for yourself is so important. But do not discount church because of what you see on T.V. - If you have not even experienced the real thing, then find a church, go to it and form your own opinion rather than taking what the media gives you. The Catholic Church takes a lot of money, yes. But local churches who ask for donations are a great cause, for example my church is funding mission work in third world countries, and must pay the minister for his full time employment, and pay for others to go to bible college so that the church can continue. Tithing is absolutely not neccessary. One of my mates sees his money of better use in other areas, he is ridiculously generous and shouts people everywhere he goes, and gives all glory to his Saviour, if people think 'wow, this guy is just one fire for God!' then he has planted a seed of thought that may or may not grow. I do not know a lot about the Catholic church so I will say nothing about them... Concerning the numerous facepalm posts: CreationTO CLARIFY: When I talk about 'Creation' - I do not refer to the spontaneous appearance of humans, only the first cell/explosion of matter or whatever started the universe. Aihwa 09-26-2011, 07:57Eternal Enigma 09-26-2011, 10:46 PM No Christian that I know says "If you don't go to church then you're going to hell', that's stupid - firstly it would scare away people and secondly its not true. Most of the religious people I've ever known no matter what religion they follow they have always told me of the importance of going to church, which is fine and I have no problem with that. When I would give them the indications that I have no intentions of ever going to church they would always become very negative and immediately tell me I've got a "one way ticket to hell." Those that are religious who know me come down on me the hardest. They'll say; "You think not doing drugs and doing the right thing all the time is enough?" They take a very negative tone with me on this and go on to add; "It doesn't matter how good you are if you don't go to church every week you WILL go to hell." I've heard that my entire life. Back in middle school (in 1995) one of my teachers who is a ministers wife invited me to their church. My parents divorced long ago so my plans revolved around going to my father's house. So I thanked her for the invite and then I said; "I really don't have time to go to church." Her tone changed and she said; "Well, if you don't have time for God then why should he bother with you?" It was so abrupt that I decided to not even mention that I go to my father's house during that time. No one in my family goes to church and none of my school mates did either so it's not like I really had anyone to attend with anyways. I can't attend my local church because it was taken down so a road can come through. :\ (I didn't think the government could take land away from a church). They're making a two lane road into a four lane highway and the church was right there beside it. The church and all of the homes there were torn down in 2009. So anyways my experience with most church goers has been more of a negative thing because as soon as they find out I don't go to church the very next thing out of their mouth has something to do with me going to hell nearly every time. My bus driver was a preacher (unrelated to the teacher) and every Friday when he was letting me off the bus he would say; "You should come to church" or "you need to come to church" or "we sure would like to see you at church." He never said anything negative like... if I don't I'll go to hell. Those who are negative is also where some of my opinion comes from... I don't want to be an overly judgmental person like that and people I have known who did not attend church and suddenly started attending church eventually began to have that very same negative tone. They even stopped being friends with me because I wouldn't go to church. You're right that's one of the things that has scared me away from it... I don't want to become that. if Exactly and just relying on one interpretation of something is heavily flawed. I listen to other peoples interpretations of everything, but a good number of church goers I've had conversations with don't really seem to have their own view of their religion, the Bible, or God. When I ask them their opinion it confuses them and they don't know how to respond when all I'm asking is for them to tell me their personal belief. All they can ever tell me is what they learned in Bible studies or what they were told. You've got to be able to come to your own conclusions. You've also got to be able to look at multiple opinions of something because there are so many opinions and beliefs out there. I'm always opened to other beliefs and ideas, but I am one who takes things apart and if I am able to find flaws that cause a belief or something to fall apart like evolution for example and I can explain it away then I need for it to be explained to me again from another type of view perhaps with more information and if I can take that apart then I need it to be covered again from a different view until we come to a place where someone comes to me with something I'm unable to take apart and then I look at what they've brought me as being more plausible than the other versions. Also what I do is I take things that people believe to be true and I try to line them up and make them make sense with other beliefs. For example; The Big Bang theory and evolution aren't part of the same theories, but since they're both believed to be true in the end they're part of the same story and I try to line that story up. On the timeline of events if I take all of the most popular theories out there and line them up they don't make sense and they sometimes directly contradict one another. As Judge Judy says; 'If it doesn't make sense then it probably isn't true." (not the best quote, but I like it). When people teach these theories they teach them or discuss them on an individual basis. You run into trouble when you take these individual theories and put them together like a movie. I'm a big picture type of guy so I don't focus on just evolution or just the Big Bang theory I try to combined them and what you end up with is where I am and I'm looking at a mess of information that does not make sense when it's combined. When you study or look at these theories on an individual basis you can make them work because you can change the variables so that it does work, but they don't try to teach it as one thing because then people would realize it doesn't work when you put all of the popular theories together. All of the theories out there have alternate theories... for example the extinction of the dinosaurs has many different versions. In school you're taught about all of the possibilities and I've seen documentaries where they have animations of this one dinosaur sneezing then the next dinosaur and so on and what they're suggesting is the dinosaurs could have died out due to disease, which is a possibility. Then there's the theory that an asteroid hit the Earth causing a massive dust cloud that ended up extinguishing life. Then there's the theory that through the process of evolution dinosaurs became smaller and smaller eventually turning into what we see as birds today. There are multiple versions of those versions and there are scientists backing each one of those theories up. There are scientists out there who 100% believe dinosaurs died out due to disease and their work is based on that theory, but their are also scientists out there who 100% believe dinosaurs died out due to an asteroid hitting Earth and those scientists are basing their work on that theory. They can't all be right because some of the theories cancel out others. So... the dinosaurs got a disease and died, then an asteroid hit then they died again, and they turned into birds that time. That's the problem when you try to line all of the believed "facts" up... it just does not work. That's why I have concluded that we don't know as much as we believe we do. I give due credit to scientist, but even they aren't all on the same page. So for me science is just a fun subject that has A LOT of very interesting things to talk about. The passage in Matthew that you refer to does not explicitly say not to go to church You are correct, but it doesn't say that you have to either and it most certainly doesn't say "if you do not attend church you'll go to hell." Instead of giving money to a church I'd rather give it directly to those who need it. That's how it would be if I was in a position of earning millions I would spend nearly all of it helping people. I'd find people who needed a new home or if they were driving an undependable car I'd take them to a car dealership and tell them to pick a car and I'll pay for it. The bigger part of my efforts would be geared towards helping children in poverty to have a better life. I'm a hands-on type of guy so just handing money to a church or an organization wouldn't be enough for me. I'd have to see my money making a difference. I would help those in my own country first and by helping them I would try to teach them the value of helping a fellow human being so that hopefully they would do the same thing. Then once the United States is back on it's feet (we're on our knees at the moment, Obama and our wonderful congress has us bent over pretty hard) then we can help others in the world. CreationI can fully accept that as a possibility, but at the moment I'm able to explain evolution away. For people who believe evolution to be absolute fact my explanations are pure nonsense, but they don't understand that they need to be able to look at what they believe to be true and take it apart or have the willingness to investigate further. The ability to question yourself is something that a person like Hitler lacked... history might have been different if Hitler stopped and thought... "Wait, am I really doing the right thing here?" You've got to be able to question yourself, what you believe in, and the facts or you could blindly go in the wrong direction and not even realize it. I was watching something about evolution today and saw a preview of next weeks program where they're going to try to explain where the large verity of dogs we have today all came form. I know where they came from... we had wild dogs originally that became domesticated and through selective breeding and genetic engineering we created all of the breeds we see today. The show that is supposed to come on next week doesn't say that. It's going to try to explain how we got all of these different breeds of dogs through the process of evolution. How these dogs came to be has nothing to do with evolution, but they're going to teach this false information as fact and that's what I have a problem with. In the 30 second preview they showed Chihuahuas and other breeds of dogs evolving from coyotes, wolves, and other wild dogs. That's not what happened. (I'll get the name of the episode and try to find it online to post here). Eternal Enigma 09-27-2011, 12:19 AM Eternal, science can explain it, we cannot. Yet. This is the best thing you've said in this thread. However, your experience has no relevance to evolution or the joke that is creationism. Nothing. Nada. Zip. My experiences are a part of my history and in order to explain to you and everyone else who reads this thread how I have come to the conclusions I've come to I must at least tell you guys about some of what I've experienced. I'm open to alternatives to ghosts. In my mind if there are ghosts and if there is some sort of life after death then there is a off the wall possibility of a God, which is supportive of creation. My nephew and I have had this conversation he goes against me on it, but in a different way. He doesn't believe in God and he doesn't believe in evolution, but in recent conversations he did say that there could be a life after death and that our energy could somehow exist outside of our body. Of course, my nephew when he was a child saw that little girl ghost push Eddie out of his bed every night. That was a big deal because Eddie was 3 and he was always falling out of his bed and they actually rigged his bed up so that he absolutely could not just roll out of it, but he was still falling out of it each night. My nephew told his mom that he would watch the little girl climb in bed with Eddie and push him out every night. I was a child myself during that time... I was 11 (about to be 12)... My thought is... where the ** were the video cameras? Why weren't the adults trying to investigate this stuff? I think they were just too scared that if they caught something on tape it would make it too real. To an extent they were in denial. If I could be me now and go there I'd do some real investigating in that house. You may have read a lot of bullsh!t online or seen a lot of ghost stories on television programs, but I'm not sh!tting you when I write about what I've seen. All those years of seeing Unsolved Mysteries and ghosts shows and stuff that was just TV, but then I experienced it for myself and abruptly was woken up to the fact that this stuff is real. Now, was what I saw really a ghost throwing those stoking tools across the room or was it some type of fluctuation in the Earth's magnetic field? I don't know and perhaps one day science will be able to answer that. Just like people used to think lightning was a sign that the Gods were angry. Right now there is nothing that can explain what I've seen. Nothing explains an action figure with a voice box being able to work without batteries... saying things on its own while it's on the kitchen island with no one around it. They had a Barney the dinosaur toy that would say all sorts of crap. The one thing I really remember it saying was "I like watching you sleep." It didn't have any batteries in it when it would say these things and sometimes it was Barney's voice, but other times it wasn't. When it started saying really scary stuff Kim threw it away. Stuff that the Barney doll said actually made me not like going there. The things that would go on around the house that were violent such as scratches and things that would draw blood is why my sister and nephew moved out and we all stopped going there. The house is literally right up the road from where I have lived for the past 20 years and I haven't been to that house in forever. (I was 11... I'm 27 now to give you an idea of how long it's been since I was there). As for the UFOs I saw it only lasted for five minutes or a little longer and the point of my coming out with that experience (I haven't told the story in full, but I can) is because if what I saw isn't some type of experimental aircraft and if it's not us and it is aliens then that directly contradicts the existence of a God or rather it goes against the biblical version of events. Aliens could be an explanation for how early humans came up with the concept of a God. Cavemen weren't sitting around a fire and one of them suddenly looked up at the stars and said; "You know, ladies and gentlemen I believe an all powerful being created everything." Something happened to make people come up with the concept of a God and the only thing I can think of other than an actual God being the reason is aliens. People long ago were creative, but they weren't that creative because the farther back in time you go the simpler the minds of the people get. We can't explain why the CERN supercollider just sent particles past the speed of light either. (which means physics as a science has just been killed)tm20 09-27-2011, 01:18 AM yeah the recent findings of neutrinos saying YOU to the speed of light just killed physics, u happy creationists? or rather, u mad einstein? Replica 09-27-2011, 02:17 AM We can't explain why the CERN supercollider just sent particles past the speed of light either. (which means physics as a science has just been killed) God dunnit. I just noticed the tags at the bottom of this thread. ROFL! _Omaticaya_ 09-27-2011, 06:52 AMHufweMakto 09-27-2011, 12:01It just amazes me what happens sometimes. A long held notion that nothing can go faster than the speed of light (except for various vechicles in science fiction, and I'm not going to bother writing all of those down for simplicities sakes). But then there's huge debate on whether or not there were flaws regarding recording materials and what not, but if this goes on, then wow, it's amazing. Also, CERN just seems to get interesting a lot more yes? First it was people worried about a black hole/stranglet forming from the launch of LHC and causing THE END OF THE WORLD, and now it's particles going faster than the speed of light... Ja'k Dawsiin 09-27-2011, 12:36 PM ^ that video reminds me of Fatboy Slim videos like Right Here,Right Now and others,lol :) Aihwa 09-27-2011, 12:49 PM I'm open to alternatives to ghosts. In my mind if there are ghosts and if there is some sort of life after death then there is a off the wall possibility of a God, which is supportive of creation. You're arguing pirates and hurricanes here (this is an example of poor logic, "Decreasing pirate numbers are inversely related to the number of hurricanes, as pirates decrease, hurricanes increase" The data actually supports this claim, but there is no actually connection between the two). "Because I've witnessed evidence for ghosts, there's evidence of a god", is not a logical statement. There is zero connection between a deity and ghosts. In fact, your holy book claims that souls leave the earth to either go to heaven or hell, therefore, it actually would disprove the existence of a god.Ja'k Dawsiin 09-27-2011, 12:53 PM God dunnit. I just noticed the tags at the bottom of this thread. ROFL! LOLOLOL :) oh snap! 31554 Ibelieve 09-27-2011, 07:22 PMSo much love for this. In fact, your holy book claims that souls leave the earth to either go to heaven or hell, therefore, it actually would disprove the existence of a god. "So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:12 Theres heaps of verses that say one can not rise from the dead... "The day of the Lord will come ... in the which the heavens shall pass away." 2 Peter 3:10. After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." John 11:11 Aihwa: When someone dies, they fall asleep - there is no time, no consciousness - until the day that Christ returns, and we are awoken. Then we ascend to heaven, and it will be in our minds instant, because in sleep there is no time. Now I simply do not know about ghosts, but demons and angels - yes. What some people would pass off as possibly being a mental deficiency when they are scared... Demon possession is real. My best mate, see him every weekend - he had an experience with a close family, their daughter would scream and convulse and yell abuse at them for 2 months. He was at their house once and fell to his knees in prayer. The girl hated it! She tried to claw at him and screamed at him... Scary stuff. She is healed now but not the same person. Reading this I sound crazy but that is what happened - see you could pass it off as insanity but it was a 2 month thing and revolved around religious slurs etc. Check out Ouija Boards on youtube or google it or whatever - or don't, it scared me a fair bit Aihwa 09-27-2011, 08:34 PM I'm not going to debate the intricacies of your mythology. Every person has a different view of it and the bible contradicts itself pretty regularly. The point is, its silly to attribute natural phenomena to a being of our own creation. "Demonic possession" may "occur" but I can almost guarantee it has nothing to do with a deity of any sort. The fact that you assume it does contradicts the very foundation of scientific inquiry. Everything has an explanation. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-27-2011, 09:24 PM how about so called 'christians' that show up in church, and the rest of the week are the baddest people... hypocricy is disgusting.have a nice day,sir.:) Eternal Enigma 09-28-2011, 12:20 AMActually I made a statement... My physics class was a joke... I didn't go on to say... My physics class was a joke because the football coach was the one teaching it and basically never showed up. As I said; sometimes people jump to conclusions. Eternal Enigma 09-28-2011, 02:30 AM yeah the recent findings of neutrinos saying ** YOU to the speed of light just killed physics, u happy creationists? or rather, u mad einstein? It's not that I'm happy that a part of science has been proven wrong... as time goes on more things will be proved wrong... others will be validated... and new discoveries will be made. With the discoveries of the future we may end up proving everything we currently teach as fact wrong. As we go along I firmly believe we need to recheck our facts and really make sure what we're teaching our children is the truth. There's nothing wrong with that... in fact, everyone should want that. The people of the past thought lightning was a sign that the Gods were angry... we laugh at them now... just like the people of the future will laugh at us for the things we have wrong... and they will laugh at us... they'll laugh at us all even more because now it's ALL being documented on the internetI know someone is going to tell me "you just don't understand what evolution is." Evolution: The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth. I know of many other ways it's defined through biology and other means, but that's the scientific definition according to all of the dictionaries I looked at. Scientists believe our earliest form was primates. Basically what evolution suggests is that one type of animal can magically turn into a different type of animal over time. If that's so, then the animal that it used to be shouldn't exist once it turns into something else. Humans and primates are the exception to the rule I suppose. Scientists are the ones making this stuff up... it's not my fault that it doesn't make any sense. One could ask me... "Well, if evolution isn't true then how do you explain the variety of birds we have today?" My answer: They were each here in early forms and each one developed independently from its own kind... rather than one type of bird evolving and turning into many different types of birds over time as evolution would suggest. If evolution as it's defined was correct we would have only one type of bird... because through evolution that one type of bird would evolve and turn into a new type of bird and because over time they turned into a new type of bird the predecessor would no longer exist... thus one type of bird and no variety through diversification would have ever taken place. Another way of explaining it: While that one type of bird is turning into a new type of bird (evolving) the original unchanged birds will still mate with the evolving birds because this change takes place over millions of years not instantly. So the offspring over time would have the same gene, which would result in that one type of bird genetically completely turning into a new type of bird and whatever it was before would stop existing because it would have evolved. Just like how cavemen no longer exist because they turned into us. Care to do a simple evolutionary scientific model? Get a glass of Coke, and slowly pour water into the glass... (evolution... a change over time) after a while your glass will no longer have Coke in it and will be... water only... the Coke no longer exists because through evolution it changed into water. According to evolutionists your Coke should turn into many different types of Coke (diversification through evolution)... Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, Sprite, and they should co-exist at the same time, but in reality it does not... the Coke no longer exists... it turned into water. Evolution as it is defined would create the opposite of diversity. We would not have many different types of one animal we would only have one type of that one animal. So we would only have one type of bird, one type of reptile, one type of dog, one type of cat and so on and so on. In reality we do have diversity so evolution as the base model could not be true. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-28-2011, 02:51 AM ^ great post,sir. goes and gets a glass of Coke,adds water:) 31591 _Omaticaya_ 09-28-2011, 04:28 AMWe won't evolve because we have removed ourselves from the system. We're no longer ruled by natural selection. (the weak and the strong both survive to reproduce) A common misconception (so many misconceptions/untruths in creationism...) is that humans evolved from today's primates, open a goddamn anthropology book. Both species evolved from some common ancestors that no longer truly exist as a species. (as when modern primates evolved, they were able to survive the current situation, their ancestors? not so much) Modern primates are more akin to cousins (and any science textbook will make that very clear [unless you're reading some creationist garbage that's trying to "secretly" discredit evolution]) Still related, we're not direct descendants. Now creatures in the wild still continue to evolve and change, many changes are a direct result of our effect on their environments, nature adapts to them. Someday, change will be so great that new subspecies will emerge, and millions of years in the future, entirely new ones. The whole "magically changed from one to another" argument is pure bull****. Animals don't "change into" another animal, they become an entirely new animal. New species, never before to have walked the earth. A dog will never become a cat, however a breed of dog may develop cat like attributes over the span of millions of years. (dogs are an excellent example of controlled evolution, we've bred them into thousands of very different breeds, some of which are close to being unable to breed) Slapping evolution's hand with your face is not making it "crumble". This thread has now become And I have lost all faith in the US educational system, a Republican retard is going to take the presidency, and then we're "Libertarian" Soviet Russia. _Omaticaya_ 09-28-2011, 11:39 AM [QUOTE=Aihwa;380591]This thread has now become [QUOTE]HufweMakto 09-28-2011, 12:04 PM Actually I have to concure that a Creationist isn't just less educated, he/she's just either insane or enjoys ignoring credited evidence in light of their own delusions. Aihwa 09-28-2011, 01:05 PMAnti-intellectualism right there. The dark ages are coming again, thanks to people like you. Kiyom 09-28-2011, 01:21Aihwa 09-28-2011, 02:20Actually, we have it pretty well mapped out. Unless game changing evidence comes into light (creationists, when you have evidence, feel free to present it, no, the bible does not work), this is truth. Ja'k Dawsiin 09-28-2011, 03:22 PM We won't evolve because we have removed ourselves from the system. lol....how convenient. :moody: 31606 Aihwa 09-28-2011, 05:23 PM lol....how convenient. :moody: Lets learn about evolution, this is natural selection ( Natural selection is the tool of evolution, the weak die, and with them, weak traits; Whereas the strong survive, their traits allowing them to thrive, and they pass them on. This is all proven fact, plain and simple. Humans however, are no longer effected by their environment (at least in first world nations) which accounts for our declining physical condition. Now in say... Africa, they're still affected by natural selection, weak children die long before they can reproduce, ensuring that undesirable traits are eliminated from the gene pool.	eng	ad61960f-3a89-4c04-a56d-6ac6e7317fdb	http://www.avatar-forums.com/archive/index.php/t-16747.html
Citation Manager . "7 Pipes, Tubes, and Beakers: New Approaches to Teaching the Rational-Number System7 Pipes, Tubes, and Beakers: New Approaches to Teaching the Rational-Number System Joan Moss PEANUTS reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc. How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom 7 Pipes, Tubes, and Beakers: New Approaches to Teaching the Rational-Number System Joan Moss PEANUTS reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.OCR for page 310 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom We know from extensive research that many people—adults, students, even teachers—find the rational-number system to be very difficult.3 Introduced in early elementary school, this number system requires that students reformulate their concept of number in a major way. They must go beyond whole-number ideas, in which a number expresses a fixed quantity, to understand numbers that are expressed in relationship to other numbers. These new proportional relationships are grounded in multiplicative reasoning that is quite different from the additive reasoning that characterizes whole numbers (see Box 7-1).4 While some students make the transition smoothly, the majority, like Sally, become frustrated and disenchanted with mathematics.5 Why is this transition so problematic? A cursory look at some typical student misunderstandings illuminates the kinds of problems students have with rational numbers. The culprit appears to be the continued use of whole-number reasoning in situations where it does not apply. When asked which number is larger, 0.059 or 0.2, a majority of middle school students assert that 0.059 is bigger, arguing that the number 59 is bigger than the number 2.6 Similarly, faulty whole-number reasoning causes students to maintain, for example, that the fraction 1/8 is larger than 1/6 because, as they say, "8 is a bigger number than 6."7 Not surprisingly, students struggle with calculations as well. When asked to find the sum of 1/2 and 1/3, the majority of fourth and sixth graders give the answer 2/5. Even after a number of years working with fractions, some eighth graders make the same error, illustrating that they still mistakenly count the numerator and denominator as separate numbers to find a sum.8 Clearly whole-number reasoning is very resilient. Decimal operations are also challenging.9 In a recent survey, researchers found that 68 percent of sixth graders and 51 percent of fifth and seventh graders asserted that the answer to the addition problem 4 + .3 was .7.10 This example also illustrates that students often treat decimal numbers as whole numbers and, as in this case, do not recognize that the sum they propose as a solution to the problem is smaller than one of the addends. The introduction of rational numbers constitutes a major stumbling block in children's mathematical development.11 It marks the time when many students face the new and disheartening realization that they no longer understand what is going on in their mathematics classes.12 This failure is a cause for concern. Rational-number concepts underpin many topics in advanced mathematics and carry significant academic consequences.13 Students cannot succeed in algebra if they do not understand rational numbers. But rational numbers also pervade our daily lives.14 We need to be able to understand them to follow recipes, calculate discounts and miles per gallon, exchange money, assess the most economical size of products, read maps, interpret scale drawings, prepare budgets, invest our savings, read financial statements, and examine campaign promises. Thus we need to be able to OCR for page 311 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom BOX 7-1 Additive and Multiplicative Reasoning Lamon,15 whose work on proportional reasoning and rational number has made a great contribution to our understanding of students' learning, elucidates the distinction between relative and absolute reasoning. She asks the learner to consider the growth of two fictitious snakes: String Bean, who is 4 feet long when the story begins, and Slim, who is 5 feet long. She tells us that after 5 years, both snakes have grown. String Bean has grown from 4 to 7 feet, and Slim has grown from 5 to 8 feet (see the figure below). She asks us to compare the growth of these two snakes and to answer the question, "Who grew more?" Lamon suggests that there are two answers. First, if we consider absolute growth, both snakes grew 3 feet, so both grew the same amount. The second answer deals with relative growth; from this perspective, String Bean grew the most because he grew 3/4 of his length, while Slim grew only 3/5 of his length. If we compare the two fractions, 3/4 is greater than 3/5, and so we conclude that String Bean has grown proportionally more than Slim. Lamon asks us to note that while the first answer, about the absolute difference, involves addition, the second answer, about the relative difference, is solved through multiplication. In this way she shows that absolute thinking is additive, while relative thinking is multiplicative. OCR for page 312 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom understand rational numbers not only for academic success, but also in our lives as family members, workers, and citizens. Do the principles of learning highlighted in this book help illuminate the widespread problems observed as students grapple with rational number? Can they point to more effective approaches to teaching rational number? We believe the answer to both these questions is "yes." In the first section below we consider each of the three principles of How Students Learn, beginning with principle 2—the organization of a knowledge network that emphasizes core concepts, procedural knowledge, and their connections. We then turn to principle 1—engaging student preconceptions and building on existing understandings. Finally we consider metacognitive instruction as emphasized in principle 3. The second section focuses on instruction in rational number. It begins with a description of frequently used instructional approaches and the ways in which they diverge from the above three principles. We then describe an experimental approach to teaching rational number that has proven to be successful in helping students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades understand the interconnections of the number system and become adept at moving among and operating with the various representations of rational number. Through a description of lessons in which the students engaged and protocols taken from the research classrooms, we set out the salient features of the instructional approach that played a role in shaping a learning-centered classroom environment. We illustrate how in this environment, a focus on the interconnections among decimals, fractions, and percents fosters students' ability to make informed decisions on how to operate effectively with rational numbers. We also provide emerging evidence of the effectiveness of the instructional approach. The intent is not to promote our particular curriculum, but rather to illustrate the ways in which it incorporates the principles of How People Learn, and the observed changes in student understanding and competence with rational numbers that result. RATIONAL-NUMBER LEARNING AND THE PRINCIPLES OF HOW PEOPLE LEARN The Knowledge Network: New Concepts of Numbers and New Applications (Principle 2) What are the core ideas that define the domain of rational numbers? What are the new understandings that students will have to construct? How does a beginning student come to understand rational numbers? Let us look through the eyes of a young student who is just beginning to learn about rational number. Until this point, all of her formal instruction in OCR for page 313 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom arithmetic has centered on learning the whole-number system. If her learning has gone well, she can solve arithmetic problems competently and easily makes connections between the mathematics she is learning and experiences of her daily life. But in this next phase of her learning, the introduction of rational number, there will be many new and intertwined concepts, new facts, new symbols that she will have to learn and understand—a new knowledge network, if you will. Because much of this new learning is based on multiplicative instead of whole-number relations, acquiring an understanding of this new knowledge network may be challenging, despite her success thus far in mathematics. As with whole-number arithmetic, this domain connects to everyday life. But unlike whole numbers, in which the operations for the most part appear straightforward, the operations involved in the learning of rational numbers may appear to be less intuitive, at odds with earlier understandings (e.g., that multiplication always makes things bigger), and hence more difficult to learn. New Symbols, New Meanings, New Representations One of the first challenges facing our young student is that a particular rational number can take many forms. Until now her experience with symbols and their referents has been much simpler. A number—for example, four—is represented exclusively by one numeral, 4. Now the student will need to learn that a rational number can be expressed in different ways—as a decimal, fraction, and percent. To further complicate matters, she will have to learn that a rational-number quantity can be represented by an infinite number of equivalent common and decimal fractions. Thus a rational number such as one-fourth can be written as 1/4, 2/8, 3/12, 4/16, 0.25, 0.250, and so on. Not only does the learning of rational number entail the mastery of these forms and of the new symbol systems that are implied, but the learner is also required to move among these various forms flexibly and efficiently.16 Unfortunately, this flow between representations does not come easily.17 In fact, even mature students are often challenged when they try to understand the relations among the representations.18 To illustrate how difficult translating between fractions and decimals can be, I offer two examples taken from our research. In a recent series of studies, we interviewed fourth, sixth, and eighth graders on a number of items that probed for rational-number understanding. One of the questions we asked was how the students would express the quantity 1/8 as a decimal. This question proved to be very challenging for many, and although the students' ability increased with age and experience, more than half of the sixth and eighth graders we surveyed asserted that as a decimal, 1/8 would be 0.8 (rather than the correct answer, 0.125). OCR for page 314 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom In the next example, an excerpt taken from an interview conducted as part of a pretest, Wyatt, a traditionally trained fifth-grade student, discussed ordering a series of rational numbers presented to him in mixed representations. Interviewer Here are 3 numbers: 2/3, 0.5, and 3/4. Could you please put these numbers in order from smallest to largest? Wyatt Well, to start with, I think that the decimal 0.5 is bigger than the fractions because it's a decimal, so it's just bigger, because fractions are really small things. The response that 1/8 would equal 0.8 should be familiar to many who have taught decimals and fractions. As research points out, students have a difficult time understanding the quantities involved in rational number and thus do not appear to realize the unreasonableness of their assertion.19 As for Wyatt's assertion in the excerpt above that decimals and fractions cannot be compared, this answer is representative of the reasoning of the majority of the students in this class before instruction. Moreover, it reflects more general research findings.20 Since most traditional instruction in rational number presents decimals, fractions, and percents separately and often as distinct topics, it is not surprising that students find this task confusing. Indeed, the notion that a single quantity can have many representations is a major departure from students' previous experience with whole numbers; it is a difficult set of understandings for them to acquire and problem-laden for many.21 But this is not the only divergence from the familiar one-to-one correspondence of symbol to referent that our new learner will encounter. Another new and difficult idea that challenges the relatively simple referent-to-symbol relation is that in the domain of rational number, a single rational number can have several conceptually distinct meanings, referred to as "subconstructs." Now our young student may well become completely confused. The Subconstructs or the Many Personalities of Rational Number What is meant by conceptually distinct meanings? As an illustration, consider the simple fraction 3/4. One meaning of this fraction is as a part–whole relation in which 3/4 describes 3 of 4 equal-size shares. A second interpretation of the fraction 3/4 is one that is referred to as the quotient interpretation. Here the fraction implies division, as in 4 children sharing 3 OCR for page 315 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom pies. As a ratio, 3/4 might mean there are, for example, 3 red cars for every 4 green cars (this is not to be confused with the part–whole interpretation that 3/7 of the cars are red). Rational numbers can also indicate a measure. Here rational number is a fixed quantity, most frequently accompanied by a number line, that identifies a situation in which the fraction 1/4 is used repeatedly to determine a distance (e.g., 3/4 of an inch = 1/4, 1/4, 1/4). Finally, there is the interpretation of rational number as a multiplicative operator, behaving as an operation that reduces or enlarges the size of another quantity (e.g., the page has been reduced to 3/4 its original size). The necessity of coordinating these different interpretations requires a deep understanding of the concepts and interrelationships among them. On the one hand, a student must think of rational numbers as a division of two whole numbers (quotient interpretation); on the other, she must also come to know these two numbers as an entity, a single quantity (measure), often to be used in another operation. These different interpretations, generally referred to as the "subconstructs" of rational number, have been analyzed extensively22 and are a very important part of the knowledge network that the learner will construct for rational number. Reconceptualizing the Unit and Operations While acquiring a knowledge network for rational-number understanding means that new forms of representation must be learned (e.g., decimals, fractions) and different interpretations coordinated, the learner will encounter many other new ideas—ideas that also depart from whole numbers. She will have to come to understand that rational numbers are "dense"—meaning that between any two rationals we can find an infinity of other numbers. In the whole-number domain, number is discrete rather than continuous, and the main operation is counting. This is a very big change indeed.23 Another difficult new set of understandings concerns the fundamental change that students will encounter in the nature of the unit. In whole numbers, the unit is always explicit (6 refers to 6 units). In rational numbers, on the other hand, the unit is often implied. But it is the unstated unit that gives meaning to the represented quantities, operations, and the solutions. Consider the student trying to interpret what is meant by the task of multiplying, for example, 1/2 times 1/8. If the student recognizes that the "1/8" in the problem refers to 1/8 of one whole, she may reason correctly that half of the quantity 1/8 is 1/16. However since the 1 is not stated but implied, our young student may err and, thinking the unit is 8, consider the answer to be 1/4 (since 4 is one-half of 8)—a response given by 75 percent of traditionally instructed fourth and sixth graders students in our research projects. OCR for page 316 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom New Conceptualizations: Understanding Numbers As Multiplicative Relations Clearly the transition to learning rational numbers is challenging. Fundamentally, students must construct new meanings for numbers and operations. Development of the network of understandings for rational numbers requires a core conceptual shift: numbers must be understood in multiplicative relationship. As a final illustration, I offer one more example of this basic shift. Again, consider the quantity 3/4 from our new learner's perspective. All of our student's prior learning will lead her to conclude that the 3 and 4 in 3/4 are two separate numbers that define separate quantities. Her knowledge of whole numbers will provide an additive understanding. Thus she will know that 3 and 4 are contiguous on the number line and have a difference of 1. But to interpret 3/4 as a rational number instead of considering these two numbers to be independent, as many students mistakenly continue to do,24 our student must come to understand this fraction as a new kind of quantity that is defined multiplicatively by the relative amount conveyed by the symbols. Suddenly numbers are no longer simple. When placed in the context of a fraction, 3 and 4 become a quantity between 0 and 1. Obvious to adults, this numerical metamorphosis can be confusing to children. How can children learn to make the transition to the complex world of rational numbers in which the numbers 3 and 4 exist in a relationship and are less than 1? Clearly, instruction will need to support a major conceptual change. Looking at students' prior conceptions and relevant understandings can provide footholds to support that conceptual change.25 Students' Errors and Misconceptions Based on Previous Learning (Principle 1) As the above examples suggest, students come to the classroom with conceptions of numbers grounded in their whole-number learning that lead them astray in the world of rational numbers. If instruction is to change those conceptions, it is important to understand thoroughly how students reason as they puzzle through rational-number problems. Below I present verbatim interviews that are representative of faulty understandings held by many students. In the following excerpt, we return to our fifth grader, Wyatt. His task was to order a series of rational numbers in mixed representations. Recall his earlier comments that these representations could not be compared. Now as the interview continues, he is trying to compare the fractions 2/3 and 3/4. The interview proceeds: OCR for page 317 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom Interviewer What about 2/3 and 3/4? Which of those is bigger? Wyatt Well, I guess that they are both the same size because they both have one piece missing. Interviewer I am not sure I understand what you mean when you say that there is one piece missing. Wyatt I'll show you. [Wyatt draws two uneven circles, roughly partitions the first in four parts, and then proceeds to shade three parts. Next he divides the second circle into three parts and shades two of them (see Figure 7-1). O.K., here is 3/4 and 2/3. You see they both have one part missing. [He points to the unshaded sections in both circular regions.] You see one part is left out, so they are both the same. FIGURE 7-1 Wyatt's response is typical in asserting that 2/3 and 3/4 must be the same size. Clearly he has not grasped the multiplicative relations involved in rational numbers, but makes his comparisons based on operations from his whole-number knowledge. When he asserts that 2/3 and 3/4 are the same size because there is "one piece missing," Wyatt is considering the difference of 1 in additive terms rather than considering the multiplicative relations that underlie these numbers. Additive reasoning is also at the basis of students' incorrect answers on many other kinds of rational-number tasks. Mark, a sixth grader, is working on a scaling problem in which he is attempting to figure out how the length and width of an enlarged rectangle are related to the measurements of a smaller, original rectangle. His challenge is to come up with a proportional relation and, in effect, solve a "missing-term problem" with the following relations: 8 is to 6 as 12 is to what number? Interviewer I have two pictures of rectangles here (see Figure 7-2). They are exactly the same shape, but one of them is bigger than the other. I OCR for page 318 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom made this second one bigger by taking a picture of the first one and then enlarging it just a bit. As you can see, the length of the first rectangle is 8 cm and the width is 6 cm. Unfortunately, we know only the length of the second one. That is 12 cm. Can you please tell me what you think the width is? Mark Well, if the first one (rectangle) is 8 cm and 6 cm, then the next one is 12 cm and 10 cm. Because in the 8 and 6 one (rectangle) you subtract 2 from the 8 (to get the difference of the width and the length). So in the bigger rectangle you have to subtract 2 from the 12. So that's 10. So the width of the big rectangle is 10. FIGURE 7-2 Mark's error in choosing 10 instead of the correct answer of 9 is certainly representative of students in his age group—in fact, many adults use the same kind of faulty reasoning.26 Mark clearly attempts to assess the relations, but he uses an additive strategy to come up with a difference of 2. To answer this problem correctly, Mark must consider the multiplicative relations involved (the rectangle was enlarged so that the proportional relationship between the dimensions remains constant)—a challenge that eludes many. It is this multiplicative perspective that is difficult for students to adopt in working with rational numbers. The misconception that Mark, the sixth grader, displays in asserting that the height of the newly sized rectangle is 10 cm instead of the correct answer of 9 cm shows this failure clearly. Wyatt OCR for page 319 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom certainly was not able to look at the relative amount in trying to distinguish between the quantities 2/3 and 3/4. Rather, he reasoned in absolute terms about the circles, that "… both have one piece missing." Metacognition and Rational Number (Principle 3) A metacognitive approach to instruction helps students monitor their understanding and take control of their own learning.27 The complexity of rational number—the different meanings and representations, the challenges of comparing quantities across the very different representations, the unstated unit—all mean that students must be actively engaged in sense making to solve problems competently.28 We know, however, that most middle school children do not create appropriate meanings for fractions, decimals, and percents; rather, they rely on memorized rules for symbol manipulation. The student errors cited at the beginning of this chapter indicate not only the students' lack of understanding of rational number, but also their failure to monitor their operations and judge the reasonableness of their responses.29 If classroom teaching does not support students in developing metacognitive skills—for example, by encouraging them to explain their reasoning to their classmates and to compare interpretations, strategies, and solutions—the consequences can be serious. Student can stop expecting math to make sense. Indeed for many students, rational number marks the point at which they draw this conclusion. INSTRUCTION IN RATIONAL NUMBER Why does instruction so often fail to change students' whole-number conceptions? Analyses of commonly used textbooks suggest that the principles of How People Learn are routinely violated. First, it has been noted that—in contrast to units on whole-number learning—topics in rational number are typically covered quickly and superficially. Yet the major conceptual shift required will take time for students to master thoroughly. Within the allotted time, too little is devoted to teaching the conceptual meaning of rational number, while procedures for manipulating rational numbers receive greater emphasis.30 While procedural competence is certainly important, it must be anchored by conceptual understanding. For a great many students, it is not. Other aspects of the knowledge network are shortchanged as well, including the presentation and teaching of the notation system for decimals, fractions, and percents. Textbooks typically treat the notation system as something that is obvious and transparent and can simply be given by definition at a lesson's outset. Further, operations tend to be taught in isolation and OCR for page 340 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom Then I did 10 percent of 160, which is 16. Then I did 5 percent, which was 8. I added them [16 + 8] to get 24, and added that to 80 to get 104. For anyone who has seen a colleague pause when asked to compute a percentage, as one must, say, to calculate a tip, the ease with which these students worked through these problems is striking. Knowledge Network These are only a few examples from the posttest interviews that illustrate the kinds of new understandings and interconnections students had been able to develop through their participation in the curriculum. Overall, our analyses of the children's thinking revealed that students had gained (1) an overall understanding of the number system, as illustrated by their ability to use the representations of decimals, fractions, and percents interchangeably; (2) an appreciation of the magnitude of rational numbers, as seen in their ability to compare and order numbers within this system; (3) an understanding of the proportional- and ratio-based constructs of this domain, which underpins their facility with equivalencies; (4) an understanding of percent as an operator, as is evident in their ability to invent a variety of solution strategies for calculating with these numbers; and (5) general confidence and fluency in their ability to think about the domain using the benchmark values they had learned, which is a hallmark of number sense. Our research is still in an early stage. We will continue to pursue many questions, including the potential limitations of successive halving as a way of operating with rational numbers, downplaying of the important understandings associated with the quotient subconstruct, as well as a limited view of fractions. Furthermore, we need to learn more about how students who have been introduced to rational numbers in this way will proceed with their ongoing learning of mathematics. While we acknowledge that these questions have not yet been answered, we believe certain elements of our program contributed to the students' learning, elements that may have implications for other rational-number curricula. First, our program began with percents, thus permitting children to take advantage of their qualitative understanding of proportions and combine that understanding with their knowledge of the numbers from 1 to 100, while avoiding (or at least postponing) the problems presented by fractions. Second, we used linear measurement as a way of promoting the multiplicative ideas of relative quantities and fullness. Finally, our program emphasized benchmark values—of halves, quarters, eighths, etc.—for moving among equivalencies of percents, decimals, and fractions, which allowed students to be flexible and develop confidence in relying on their own procedures for problem solving. OCR for page 341 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom CONCLUSION: HOW STUDENTS LEARN RATIONAL NUMBER Principle #1: Prior Understandings For years mathematics researchers have focused their attention on understanding the complexities of this number system and how to facilitate students' learning of the system. One well-established insight is that rational-number teaching focused on pie charts and part–whole understandings reinforces the primary problem students confront in learning rational number: the dominance of whole-number reasoning. One response is to place the multiplicative ideas of relative quantity, ratio, and proportion at the center of instruction. However, our curriculum also builds on our theory and research findings pointing to the knowledge students typically bring to the study of rational number that can serve as a foundation for conceptual change. Two separate kinds of understandings that 10-year-olds typically possess have a multiplicative orientation. One of these is visual proportional estimation; for children, this understanding usually functions independently of numbers, at least initially. The second important kind of understanding is the numerical procedure for repeated halving. By strengthening and merging these two understandings, students can build a solid foundation for working flexibly with rational numbers. Our initial instructional activities are designed to elicit these informal understandings and to provide instructional contexts that bring them together. We believe this coordination produces a new interlinked structure that serves both as foundation for the initial learning of rational number and subsequently as the basis on which to build a networked understanding of this domain. Principle #2: Network of Concepts At the beginning of this chapter, I outlined the complex set of core concepts, representations, and operations students need to acquire to gain an initial grounding in the rational-number system. As indicated above, the central conceptual challenge for students is to master proportion, a concept grounded in multiplicative reasoning. Our instructional strategy was to design a learning sequence that allowed students to first work with percents and proportion in linear measurement and next work with decimals and fractions. Extensive practice is incorporated to assure that students become fluent in translating between different forms of rational number. Our intention was to create a percent measurement structure that would become a central network to which all subsequent mathematical learning could be OCR for page 342 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom linked. This design is significantly different from traditional instruction in rational number, in which topics are taught separately. Principle #3: Metacognition In this chapter, I have not made detailed reference to students' developing metacognition. Yet the fostering of metacognition is in fact central to our curriculum. First, as the reader may have noted, we regularly engaged the students in whole-group discussions in which they were asked to explain their reasoning and share invented procedures with their classmates. We also designed the lessons so that students worked in small groups to collaborate in solving problems and constructing materials; we thereby provided students with a forum to express and refine their developing understandings. There were also many opportunities for students to consider how they would teach rational number to others, either younger students or their own classmates, by designing their own games and producing teaching plans for how these new concepts could be taught. In all these ways, we allowed students to reflect on their own learning and to consider what it meant for them and others to develop an understanding of rational number. Finally, we fostered metacognition in our program through the overall design and goals of the experimental curriculum, with its focus on interconnections and multiple representations. This focus, I believe, provided students with an overview of the number system as a whole and thus allowed them to make informed decisions on how best to operate with rational numbers. Final Words I conclude this chapter with an interchange, recorded verbatim, between a fourth-grade student and a researcher. Zach, the fourth grader, was being interviewed by the researcher as part of a posttest assessment. The conversation began when Zach had completed two pages of the six-page posttest and remarked to the interviewer, "I have just done 1/3 of the test;…that is 33.3 percent." When he finished the third page, he noted, "Now I have finished 1/2 or 50 percent of the test." On completing the fourth page he remarked, "Okay, so I have now done 2/3 of the test, which is the same as 66 percent." When he had completed the penultimate page, he wondered out loud what the equivalent percentage was for 5/6: "Okay, let's see; it has got to be over 66.6 percent and it is also more than 75 percent. I'd say that it is about 80 percent….No, wait; it can't be 80 percent because that is 4/5 and this [5/6] is more than 4/5. It is 1/2 plus 1/3…so it is 50 percent plus 33.3 percent, 83.3 percent. So I am 83.3 percent finished." This exchange illustrates the kind of metacognitive capability that our curriculum is intended to develop. First, Zach posed his own questions, OCR for page 343 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom unprompted. Further, he did not expect that the question had to be answered by the teacher. Rather, he was confident that he had the tools, ideas, and concepts that would help him navigate his way to the answer. We also see that Zach rigorously assessed the reasonableness of his answers and that he used his knowledge of translating among the various representations to help him solve the problem. I conclude with this charming vignette as an illustration of the potential support our curriculum appears to offer to students beginning their learning of rational number. Students then go on to learn algorithms that allow them to calculate a number like 83.3 percent from 5/6 efficiently. But the foundation in mathematical reasoning that students like Zach possess allow them to use those algorithms with understanding to solve problems when an algorithm has been forgotten and to double check their answers using multiple methods. The confidence created when a student's mathematical reasoning is secure bodes well for future mathematics learning. NOTES 1. Armstrong and Bezuk, 1995; Ball, 1990; Post et al., 1991. 2. Moss, 2000. 3. Carpenter et al., 1980. 4. Ball, 1993; Hiebert and Behr, 1988; Kieren, 1993. 5. Lamon, 1999. 6. Hiebert and Wearne, 1986; Wearne and Hiebert, 1988. 7. Hiebert and Behr, 1988. 8. Kerslake, 1986. 9. Heibert, 1992. 10. National Research Council, 2001. 11. Carpenter et al., 1993. 12. Lamon, 1999. 13. Lesh et al., 1988. 14. Baroody, 1999. 15. Lamon, 1999. 16. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989, 2000. 17. Markovits and Sowder, 1991, 1994; Sowder, 1995. 18. Cramer et al., 1989. 19. Sowder, 1995. 20. Sowder, 1992. 21. Hiebert and Behr, 1988. 22. Behr et al., 1983, 1984, 1992, 1993; Kieren, 1994, 1995; Ohlsson, 1988. 23. Hiebert and Behr, 1988. 24. Kerslake, 1986. 25. Behr et al., 1984; Case, 1998; Hiebert and Behr, 1988; Lamon, 1995; Mack, 1990, 1993, 1995; Resnick and Singer, 1993. OCR for page 347 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom Kieren, T.E. (1992). Rational and fractional numbers as mathematical and personal knowledge. In G. Leinhardt, R. Putnam, and R.A. Hattrup (Eds.), Analysis of arithmetic for mathematics teaching (pp. 323-372). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kieren, T.E. (1993). Rational and fractional numbers: From quotient fields to recursive understanding. In T. Carpenter, E. Fennema, and T.A. Romberg (Eds.), Rational numbers: An integration of research (pp. 49-84). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kieren, T.E. (1994). Multiple views of multiplicative structure. In G. Harel and J. Confrey (Eds.), The development of multiplicative reasoning in the learning of mathematics (pp. 387-397). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Kieren, T.E. (1995). Creating spaces for learning fractions. In J.T. Sowder and B.P. Schappelle (Eds.), Providing a foundation for teaching mathematics in the middle grades. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Lachance, A., and Confrey, J. (1995). Introducing fifth graders to decimal notation through ratio and proportion. In D.T. Owens, M.K. Reed, and G.M. Millsaps (Eds.), Proceedings of the seventeenth annual meeting of the North American chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (vol. 1, pp. 395-400). Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education. Lamon, S.J. (1993). Ratio and proportion: Children's cognitive and metacognitive processes. In T.P. Carpenter, E. Fennema, and T.A. Romberg, (Eds.), Rational numbers: An integration of research (pp. 131-156). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lamon S.J. (1994). Ratio and proportion: Cognitive foundations in unitizing and norming. In G. Harel and J. Confrey (Eds.), The development of multiplicative reasoning in the learning of mathematics (pp. 89-122). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Lamon, S.J. (1995). Ratio and proportion: Elementary didactical phenomenology. In J.T. Sowder and B.P. Schappelle (Eds.), Providing a foundation for teaching mathematics in the middle grades. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Lamon, S.J. (1999). Teaching fractions and ratios for understanding: Essential content knowledge and instructional strategies for teachers. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lembke, L.O., and Reys, B.J. (1994). The development of, and interaction between, intuitive and school-taught ideas about percent. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 25(3), 237-259. Lesh, R., Post, T., and Behr, M. (1988). Proportional reasoning. In M. Behr and J. Hiebert (Eds.), Number concepts and operations in the middle grades (pp. 93-118). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mack, N.K. (1990). Learning fractions with understanding: Building on informal knowledge. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 21, 16-32. Mack, N.K. (1993). Learning rational numbers with understanding: The case of informal knowledge. In T.P. Carpenter, E. Fennema, and T.A. Romberg (Eds.), Rational numbers: An integration of research (pp. 85-105). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. OCR for page 348 How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom Mack, N.K. (1995). Confounding whole-number and fraction concepts when building on informal knowledge. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 26(5), 422-441. Markovits, Z., and Sowder, J.T. (1991). Students' understanding of the relationship between fractions and decimals. Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics, 13(1), 3-11. Markovits, Z., and Sowder, J.T. (1994). Developing number sense: An intervention study in grade 7. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 25(1), 4-29, 113. Moss, J. (1997). Developing children's rational number sense: A new approach and an experimental program. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Moss, J. (2000). Deepening children's understanding of rational numbers. Dissertation Abstracts. Moss, J. (2001). Percents and proportion at the center: Altering the teaching sequence for rational number. In B. Littweiller (Ed.), Making sense of fractions, ratios, and proportions. The NCTM 2002 Yearbook (pp. 109-120). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Moss, J. (2003). On the way to computational fluency: Beginning with percents as a way of developing understanding of the operations in rational numbers. In Teaching children mathematics (pp. 334-339). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Moss, J., and Case, R. (1999). Developing children's understanding of rational numbers: A new model and experimental curriculum. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 30(2), 119, 122-147. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (1989). Curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. National Research Council. (2001). Adding it up: Helping children learn mathematics. Mathematics Learning Study Committee, J. Kilpatrick, J., Swafford, J., and B. Findell (Eds.). Center for Education. Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Noelting, G. (1980a). The development of proportional reasoning and the ratio concept. Part I: Differentiation of stages. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 11, 217-253. Noelting, G. (1980b). The development of proportional reasoning and the ratio concept. Part II: Problem-structure at successive stages: Problem-solving strategies and the mechanism of adaptive restructuring. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 11, 331-363. Nunes, T., and Bryant, P. (1996). Children doing mathematics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Ohlsson, S. (1988). Mathematical meaning and applicational meaning in the semantics of fractions and related concepts. In J. Hiebert and M. Behr (Eds.), Number concepts and operations in the middle grades (vol. 2, pp. 53-92). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.	eng	ef72cae6-b7d8-40ed-9f03-c80d909dcca4	http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10126&page=309
ch18 Course: PHYSICS 108, Spring 2008 School: SUNY Buffalo Rating: Word Count: 4791 Document Preview equilibrium with each other: A. only their pressures must be the same B. only their volumes must be the same C. they must have the same number of particles D. they must have the same pressure and the same volume E. only their temperatures must be the same ans: E 3. A balloon is filled with cold air and placed in a warm room. It is NOT in thermal equilibrium with the air of the room until: A. it rises to the ceiling B. it sinks to the floor C. it stops expanding D. it starts to contract E. none of the above ans: C 4. Suppose object C is in thermal equilibrium with object A and with object B. The zeroth law of thermodynamics states: A. that C will always be in thermal equilibrium with both A and B B. that C must transfer energy to both A and B C. that A is in thermal equilibrium with B D. that A cannot be in thermal equilibrium with B E. nothing about the relationship between A and B ans: C 5. The zeroth law of thermodynamics allows us to define: A. work B. pressure C. temperature D. thermal equilibrium E. internal energy ans: C 270 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 6. If the zeroth law of thermodynamics were not valid, which of the following could not be considered a property of an object? A. Pressure B. Center of mass energy C. Internal energy D. Momentum E. Temperature ans: E 7. The international standard thermometer is kept: A. near Washington, D.C. B. near Paris, France C. near the north pole D. near Rome, Italy E. nowhere (there is none) ans: E 8. In constructing a thermometer it is NECESSARY to use a substance that: A. expands with rising temperature B. expands linearly with rising temperature C. will not freeze D. will not boil E. undergoes some change when heated or cooled ans: E 9. The "triple point" of a substance is that point for which the temperature and pressure are such that: A. only solid and liquid are in equilibrium B. only liquid and vapor are in equilibrium C. only solid and vapor are in equilibrium D. solid, liquid, and vapor are all in equilibrium E. the temperature, pressure and density are all numerically equal ans: D 10. Constant-volume gas thermometers using different gases all indicate nearly the same temperature when in contact with the same object if: A. the volumes are all extremely large B. the volumes are all the same D. the pressures are all extremely large C. the pressures are the same E. the particle concentrations are all extremely small ans: E Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 271 11. A constant-volume gas thermometer is used to measure the temperature of an object. When the thermometer is in contact with water at its triple point (273.16 K) the pressure in the thermometer is 8.500 104 Pa. When it is in contact with the object the pressure is 9.650 104 Pa. The temperature of the object is: A. 37.0 K B. 241 K C. 310 K D. 314 K E. 2020 K ans: C 12. When a certain constant-volume gas thermometer is in thermal contact with water at its triple point (273.16 K) the pressure is 6.30 104 Pa. For this thermometer a kelvin corresponds to a change in pressure of about: A. 4.34 102 Pa B. 2.31 102 Pa C. 1.72 103 Pa D. 2.31 103 Pa E. 1.72 107 Pa ans: B 13. The diagram shows four thermometers, labeled W, X, Y, and Z. The freezing and boiling points of water are indicated. Rank the thermometers according to the size of a degree on their scales, smallest to largest. 100 125 175 75 boiling point 0 W A. B. C. D. E. W, X, Y, Z Z, Y, X, W Z, Y, W, X Z, X, W, Y W, Y, Z, X ans: D 45 X 55 Y 35 Z freezing point 14. There is a temperature at which the reading on the Kelvin scale is numerically: A. equal to that on the Celsius scale B. lower than that on the Celsius scale C. equal to that on the Fahrenheit scale D. less than zero E. none of the above ans: C 272 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 15. Fahrenheit and Kelvin scales agree numerically at a reading of: A. -40 B. 0 C. 273 D. 301 E. 574 ans: E 16. Which one of the following statements is true? A. Temperatures differing by 25 on the Fahrenheit scale must differ by 45 on the Celsius scale B. 40 K corresponds to -40 C C. Temperatures which differ by 10 on the Celsius scale must differ by 18 on the Fahrenheit scale D. Water at 90 C is warmer than water at 202 F E. 0 F corresponds to -32 C ans: C 17. A Kelvin thermometer and a Fahrenheit thermometer both give the same reading for a certain sample. The corresponding Celsius temperature is: A. 574 C B. 232 C C. 301 C D. 614 C E. 276 C ans: C 18. Room temperature is about 20 degrees on the: A. Kelvin scale B. Celsius scale C. Fahrenheit scale D. absolute scale E. C major scale ans: B 19. A thermometer indicates 98.6 C. It may be: A. outdoors on a cold day B. in a comfortable room C. in a cup of hot tea D. in a normal person's mouth E. in liquid air ans: C Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 273 20. The air temperature on a summer day might be about: A. 0 C B. 10 C C. 25 C D. 80 C E. 125 C ans: C 21. The two metallic strips that constitute some thermostats must differ in: A. length B. thickness C. mass D. rate at which they conduct heat E. coefficient of linear expansion ans: E 22. Thin strips of iron and zinc are riveted together to form a bimetallic strip that bends when heated. The iron is on the inside of the bend because: A. it has a higher coefficient of linear expansion B. it has a lower coefficient of linear expansion C. it has a higher specific heat D. it has a lower specific heat E. it conducts heat better ans: B 23. It is more difficult to measure the coefficient of volume expansion of a liquid than that of a solid because: A. no relation exists between linear and volume expansion coefficients B. a liquid tends to evaporate C. a liquid expands too much when heated D. a liquid expands too little when heated E. the containing vessel also expands ans: E 24. A surveyor's 30-m steel tape is correct at 68 F. On a hot day the tape has expanded to 30.01 m. On that day, the tape indicates a distance of 15.52 m between two points. The true distance between these points is: A. 15.50 m B. 15.51 m C. 15.52 m D. 15.53 m E. 15.54 m ans: B 274 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 25. The figure shows a rectangular brass plate at 0 C in which there is cut a rectangular hole of dimensions indicated. If the temperature of the plate is raised to 150 C: ............................................................... ............................................................... ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... ... .. ............................................................... ............................................................... ... ... - -- x -- - --- --- A. B. C. D. E. x will increase and y will decrease both x and y will decrease x will decrease and y will increase both x and y will increase the changes in x and y depend on the dimension z ans: D z \| y \| 26. The Stanford linear accelerator contains hundreds of brass disks tightly fitted into a steel tube (see figure). The coefficient of linear expansion of the brass is 2.00 10-5 per C . The system was assembled by cooling the disks in dry ice (-57 C) to enable them to just slide into the close-fitting tube. If the diameter of a disk is 80.00 mm at 43 C, what is its diameter in the dry ice? ............... . . ............... .. brass disk .. .. . . ... . .. . . ... ..... ... ........................................................................................................................................................... .. ..... . . ... .. . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .... ... .... ... ... .. . ................................................................................................................................................. . .. .... . .. .. ..... .... steel tube A. B. C. D. E. 78.40 mm 79.68 mm 80.16 mm 79.84 mm None of these ans: D ... ... ... ... ... ... .. . .................... ................... . 27. When the temperature of a copper penny is increased by 100 C, its diameter increases by 0.17%. The area of one of its faces increases by: A. 0.17% B. 0.34% C. 0.51% D. 0.13% E. 0.27% ans: B Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 275 28. An annular ring of aluminum is cut from an aluminum sheet as shown. When this ring is heated: ..... ........... . . . . .. ............................................................. ........ . .... .... . . ......... . ...... ... ... . . ................ . ...... . .......... ...... . ... . ... ... ... .... .... .. ...... ..... ..... .................... .... . .. . .. .. . . .. .. ... .. .... .. .... . .. ... .. . .. .. . . .. ......... . .. .... .... ......... ..... . . . ... . .. ... .. . . . . .... ..... . . ... . .... . .. . ... . .. .. . . . . ... . .. . . .. .. . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . .. . . . . .... . .. .. . ... . .. . . .... . . . ...... ... . ... . .... . .. . . . .... ......... ... .... .. ...... . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .... .. . .. .. . ........ .. . .... .. . . .. .. . . ............................. ............................. .. .. ... ... . . ... . ... ............. ... ...... ...................................................... .. .. .. . . .. . . . . . . . ... . ..... . . . . .... ...... ................... . ............ A. B. C. D. E. the aluminum expands outward and the hole remains the same in size the hole decreases in diameter the area of the hole expands the same percent as any area of the aluminum the area of the hole expands a greater percent than any area of the aluminum linear expansion forces the shape of the hole to be slightly elliptical ans: C 29. Possible units for the coefficient of volume expansion are: A. mm/C B. mm3 /C C. (C )3 D. 1/(C )3 E. 1/C ans: E 30. The mercury column in an ordinary medical thermometer doubles in length when its temperature changes from 95 F to 105 F. Choose the correct statement: A. the coefficient of volume expansion of mercury is 0.1 per F B. the coefficient of volume expansion of mercury is 0.3 per F C. the coefficient of volume expansion of mercury is (0.1/3) per F D. the vacuum above the column helps to "pull up" the mercury this large amount E. none of the above is true ans: E 31. The coefficient of linear expansion of iron is 1.0 10-5 per C . The surface area of an iron cube, with an edge length of 5.0 cm, will increase by what amount if it is heated from 10 C to 60 C? A. 0.0125 cm2 B. 0.025 cm2 C. 0.075 cm2 D. 0.15 cm2 E. 0.30 cm2 ans: D 276 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 32. The diagram shows four rectangular plates and their dimensions. All are made of the same material. The temperature now increases. Of these plates: L 2L L L 1 A. the vertical most B. the vertical most C. the vertical most D. the vertical most E. the vertical most ans: D 2 2L L 3 4 3L 2L dimension of plate 1 increases the most and the area of plate 1 increases the dimension of plate 2 increases the most and the area of plate 4 increases the dimension of plate 3 increases the most and the area of plate 1 increases the dimension of plate 4 increases the most and the area of plate 3 increases the dimension of plate 4 increases the most and the area of plate 4 increases the 33. The coefficient of linear expansion of steel is 11 10-6 per C . A steel ball has a volume of exactly 100 cm3 at 0 C. When heated to 100 C, its volume becomes: A. 100.33 cm3 B. 100.0011 cm3 C. 100.0033 cm3 D. 100.000011 cm3 E. none of these ans: A 34. The coefficient of linear expansion of a certain steel is 0.000012 per C . The coefficient of volume expansion, in (C )-1 , is: A. (0.000012)3 B. (4/3)(0.000012)3 C. 3 0.000012 D. 0.000012 E. depends on the shape of the volume to which it will be applied ans: C 35. Metal pipes, used to carry water, sometimes burst in the winter because: A. metal contracts more than water B. outside of the pipe contracts more than the inside C. metal becomes brittle when cold D. ice expands when it melts E. water expands when it freezes ans: E Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 277 36. A gram of distilled water at 4 C: A. will increase slightly in weight when heated to 6 C B. will decrease slightly in weight when heated to 6 C C. will increase slightly in volume when heated to 6 C D. will decrease slightly in volume when heated to 6 C E. will not change in either volume or weight ans: D 37. Heat is: A. energy transferred by virtue of a temperature difference B. energy transferred by macroscopic work C. energy content of an object D. a temperature difference E. a property objects have by virtue of their temperatures ans: A 38. Heat has the same units as: A. temperature B. work C. energy/time D. heat capacity E. energy/volume ans: B 39. A calorie is about: A. 0.24 J B. 8.3 J C. 250 J D. 4.2 J E. 4200 J ans: D 40. The heat capacity of an object is: A. the amount of heat energy that raises its temperature by 1 C B. the amount of heat energy that changes its state without changing its temperature C. the amount of heat energy per kilogram that raises its temperature by 1 C D. the ratio of its specific heat to that of water E. the change in its temperature caused by adding 1 J of heat ans: A 278 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 41. The specific heat of a substance is: A. the amount of heat energy to change the state of one gram of the substance B. the amount of heat energy per unit mass emitted by oxidizing the substance C. the amount of heat energy per unit mass to raise the substance from its freezing to its boiling point D. the amount of heat energy per unit mass to raise the temperature of the substance by 1 C E. the temperature of the object divided by its mass ans: D 42. Two different samples have the same mass and temperature. Equal quantities of energy are absorbed as heat by each. Their final temperatures may be different the because samples have different: A. thermal conductivities B. coefficients of expansion C. densities D. volumes E. heat capacities ans: E 43. The same energy Q enters five different substances as heat. The temperature of 3 g of substance A increases by 10 K The temperature of 4 g of substance B increases by 4 K The temperature of 6 g of substance C increases by 15 K The temperature of 8 g of substance D increases by 6 K The temperature of 10 g of substance E increases by 10 K Which substance has the greatest specific heat? ans: B 44. For constant-volume processes the heat capacity of gas A is greater than the heat capacity of gas B. We conclude that when they both absorb the same energy as heat at constant volume: A. the temperature of A increases more than the temperature of B B. the temperature of B increases more than the temperature of A C. the internal energy of A increases more than the internal energy of B D. the internal energy of B increases more than the internal energy of A E. A does more positive work than B ans: B 45. The heat capacity at constant volume and the heat capacity at constant pressure have different values because: A. heat increases the temperature at constant volume but not at constant pressure B. heat increases the temperature at constant pressure but not at constant volume C. the system does work at constant volume but not at constant pressure D. the system does work at constant pressure but not at constant volume E. the system does more work at constant volume than at constant pressure ans: D Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 279 46. A cube of aluminum has an edge length of 20 cm. Aluminum has a density 2.7 times that of 3 water (1 g/cm ) and a specific heat 0.217 times that of water (1 cal/g C ). When the internal energy of the cube increases by 47000 cal its temperature increases by: A. 5 C B. 10 C C. 20 C D. 100 C E. 200 C ans: B 47. An insulated container, filled with water, contains a thermometer and a paddle wheel. The paddle wheel can be rotated by an external source. This apparatus can be used to determine: A. specific heat of water B. relation between kinetic energy and absolute temperature C. thermal conductivity of water D. efficiency of changing work into heat E. mechanical equivalent of heat ans: E 48. Take the mechanical equivalent of heat as 4 J/cal. A 10-g bullet moving at 2000 m/s plunges into 1 kg of paraffin wax (specific heat 0.7 cal/g C ). The wax was initially at 20 C. Assuming that all the bullet's energy heats the wax, its final temperature (in C) is: A. 20.14 B. 23.5 C. 20.006 D. 27.1 E. 30.23 ans: D 49. The energy given off as heat by 300 g of an alloy as it cools through 50 C raises the temperature of 300 g of water from 30 C to 40 C. The specific heat of the alloy (in cal/g C ) is: A. 0.015 B. 0.10 C. 0.15 D. 0.20 E. 0.50 ans: D 50. The specific heat of lead is 0.030 cal/g C . 300 g of lead shot at 100 C is mixed with 100 g of water at 70 C in an insulated container. The final temperature of the mixture is: A. 100 C B. 85.5 C C. 79.5 C D. 74.5 C E. 72.5 C ans: E 280 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 51. Object A, with heat capacity CA and initially at temperature TA , is placed in thermal contact with object B, with heat capacity CB and initially at temperature TB . The combination is thermally isolated. If the heat capacities are independent of the temperature and no phase changes occur, the final temperature of both objects is: A. (CA TA - CB TB )/(CA + CB ) B. (CA TA + CB TB )/(CA + CB ) C. (CA TA - CB TB )/(CA - CB ) D. (CA - CB )\|TA - TB \| E. (CA + CB )\|TA - TB \| ans: B 52. The heat capacity of object B is twice that of object A. Initially A is at 300 K and B is at 450 K. They are placed in thermal contact and the combination is isolated. The final temperature of both objects is: A. 200 K B. 300 K C. 400 K D. 450 K E. 600 K ans: C 53. A heat of transformation of a substance is: A. the energy absorbed as heat during a phase transformation B. the energy per unit mass absorbed as heat during a phase transformation C. the same as the heat capacity D. the same as the specific heat E. the same as the molar specific heat ans: B 54. The heat of fusion of water is cal/g. This means 80 cal of energy are required to: A. raise the temperature of 1 g of water by 1 K B. turn 1 g of water to steam C. raise the temperature of 1 g of ice by 1 K D. melt 1 g of ice E. increase the internal energy of 80 g of water by 1 cal ans: D 55. Solid A, with mass M , is at its melting point TA . It is placed in thermal contact with solid B, with heat capacity CB and initially at temperature TB (TB > TA ). The combination is thermally isolated. A has latent heat of fusion L and when it has melted has heat capacity CA . If A completely melts the final temperature of both A and B is: A. (CA TA + CB TB - M L)/(CA + CB ) B. (CA TA - CB TB + M L)/(CA + CB ) C. (CA TA - CB TB - M L)/(CA + CB ) D. (CA TA + CB TB + M L)/(CA - CB ) E. (CA TA + CB TB + M L)/(CA - CB ) ans: A Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 281 56. During the time that latent heat is involved in a change of state: A. the temperature does not change B. the substance always expands C. a chemical reaction takes place D. molecular activity remains constant E. kinetic energy changes into potential energy ans: A 57. The formation of ice from water is accompanied by: A. absorption of energy as heat B. temperature increase C. decrease in volume D. an evolution of heat E. temperature decrease ans: A 58. How many calories are required to change one gram of 0 C ice to 100 C steam? The latent heat of fusion is 80 cal/g and the latent heat of vaporization is 540 cal/g. The specific heat of water is 1.00 cal/g K. A. 100 B. 540 C. 620 D. 720 E. 900 ans: D 59. Ten grams of ice at -20 C is to be changed to steam at 130 C. The specific heat of both ice and steam is 0.5 cal/g C . The heat of fusion is 80 cal/g and the heat of vaporization is 540 cal/g. The entire process requires: A. 750 cal B. 1250 cal C. 6950 cal D. 7450 cal E. 7700 cal ans: D 60. Steam at 1 atm and 100 C enters a radiator and leaves as water at 1 atm and 80 C. Take the heat of vaporization to be 540 cal/g. Of the total energy given off as heat, what percent arises from the cooling of the water? A. 100 B. 54 C. 26 D. 14 E. 3.6 ans: E 282 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 61. A certain humidifier operates by raising water to the boiling point and then evaporating it. Every minute 30 g of water at 20 C are added to replace the 30 g that are evaporated. The heat of fusion of water is 333 kJ/kg, the heat of vaporization is 2256 kJ/kg, and the specific heat is 4190 J/kg K. How many joules of energy per minute does this humidifier require? A. 3.0 104 B. 8.8 104 C. 7.8 104 D. 1.1 105 E. 2.0 104 ans: B 62. A metal sample of mass M requires a power input P to just remain molten. When the heater is turned off, the metal solidifies in a time T . The specific latent heat of fusion of this metal is: A. P/M T B. T /P M C. P M/T D. P M T E. P T /M ans: E 63. Fifty grams of ice at 0 C is placed in a thermos bottle containing one hundred grams of water at 6 C. How many grams of ice will melt? The heat of fusion of water is 333 kJ/kg and the specific heat is 4190 J/kg K. A. 7.5 B. 2.0 C. 8.3 D. 17 E. 50 ans: A 64. According to the first law of thermodynamics, applied to a gas, the increase in the internal energy during any process: A. equals the heat input minus the work done on the gas B. equals the heat input plus the work done on the gas C. equals the work done on the gas minus the heat input D. is independent of the heat input E. is independent of the work done on the gas ans: B Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 283 65. Pressure versus volume graphs for a certain gas undergoing five different cyclic processes are shown below. During which cycle does the gas do the greatest positive work? p ........................... .. .. . ............... . .. .. ... . ... .. . . . . .... . . .......... ........................... .................. .. .... . . . .. A p V p ........ . .................... . . ........... . .. .. .. ..... .... .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .......... ........................... .................. ...... . . .. .. B p ................................ . .. .. .............................. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. ................................ ..................... ..... . . .. . p .................. . .. . .. ............................. . .. . .... ... .. . . . . . .......................... .. ........................... .. . .. . ... .. C V V ............... . ...... . . ................... . .................... ... . . . . . . . . . . . ............................. . .. .... ..................... . . . .. .. . . D V E V ans: D 66. During an adiabatic process an object does 100 J of work and its temperature decreases by 5 K. During another process it does 25 J of work and its temperature decreases by 5 K. Its heat capacity for the second process is: A. 20 J/K B. 24 J/K C. 5 J/K D. 15 J/K E. 100 J/K ans: D 67. A system undergoes an adiabatic process in which its internal energy increases by 20 J. Which of the following statements is true? A. 20 J of work was done on the system B. 20 J of work was done by the system C. the system received 20 J of energy as heat D. the system lost 20 J of energy as heat E. none of the above are true ans: A 68. In an adiabatic process: A. the energy absorbed as heat equals the work done by the system on its environment B. the energy absorbed as heat equals the work done by the environment on the system C. the absorbed as heat equals the change in internal energy D. the work done by the environment on the system equals the change in internal energy E. the work done by the system on its environment equals to the change in internal energy ans: D 284 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 69. In a certain process a gas ends in its original thermodynamic state. Of the following, which is possible as the net result of the process? A. It is adiabatic and the gas does 50 J of work B. The gas does no work but absorbs 50 J of energy as heat C. The gas does no work but loses 50 J of energy as heat D. The gas loses 50 J of energy as heat and does 50 J of work E. The gas absorbs 50 J of energy as heat and does 50 J of work ans: E 70. Of A. B. C. D. E. the following which might NOT vanish over one cycle of a cyclic process? the change in the internal energy of the substance the change in pressure of the substance the work done by the substance the change in the volume of the substance the change in the temperature of the substance ans: C the following which might NOT vanish over one cycle of a cyclic process? the work done by the substance minus the energy absorbed by the substance as heat the change in the pressure of the substance the energy absorbed by the substance as heat the change in the volume of the substance the change in the temperature of the substance ans: C 71. Of A. B. C. D. E. 72. The unit of thermal conductivity might be: A. cal cm/(s C ) B. cal/(cm s C ) C. cal s/(cm C ) D. cm s C C/cal E. C /(cal cm s) ans: B 73. A slab of material has area A, thickness L, and thermal conductivity k. One of its surfaces (P) is maintained at temperature T1 and the other surface (Q) is maintained at a lower temperature T2 . The rate of heat flow by conduction from P to Q is: A. kA(T1 - T2 )/L2 B. kL(T1 - T2 )/A C. kA(T1 - T2 )/L D. k(T1 - T2 )/(LA) E. LA(T1 - T2 )/k ans: C Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 285 74. The rate of heat flow by conduction through a slab does NOT depend upon the: A. temperature difference between opposite faces of the slab B. thermal conductivity of the slab C. slab thickness D. cross-sectional area of the slab E. specific heat of the slab ans: E 75. The rate of heat flow by conduction through a slab is Pcond . If the slab thickness is doubled, its cross-sectional area is halved, and the temperature difference across it is doubled, then the rate of heat flow becomes: A. 2Pcond B. Pcond /2 C. Pcond D. Pcond /8 E. 8Pcond ans: B 76. The diagram shows four slabs of different materials with equal thickness, placed side by side. Heat flows from left to right and the steady-state temperatures of the interfaces are given. Rank the materials according to their thermal conductivities, smallest to largest. d- - d- - d- - d- - 1 2 3 4 35 C A. B. C. D. E. 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 3, 3, 4, 1, 3, 4, 2, 4, 3, 2, ans: D 4 4 2 1 1 30 C 20 C 0 C -15 C 77. Inside a room at a uniform comfortable temperature, metallic objects generally feel cooler to the touch than wooden objects do. This is because: A. a given mass of wood contains more heat than the same mass of metal B. metal conducts heat better than wood C. heat tends to flow from metal to wood D. the equilibrium temperature of metal in the room is lower than that of wood E. the human body, being organic, resembles wood more closely than it resembles metal ans: B 286 Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 78. On a very cold day, a child puts his tongue against a fence post. It is much more likely that his tongue will stick to a steel post than to a wooden post. This is because: A. steel has a higher specific heat B. steel is a better radiator of heat C. steel has a higher specific gravity D. steel is a better heat conductor E. steel is a highly magnetic material ans: D 79. An A. B. C. D. E. iron stove, used for heating a room by radiation, is more efficient if: its inner surface is highly polished its inner surface is covered with aluminum paint its outer surface is covered with aluminum paint its outer surface is rough and black its outer surface is highly polished ans: D 80. To help keep buildings cool in the summer, dark colored window shades have been replaced by light colored shades. This is because light colored shades: A. are more pleasing to the eye B. absorb more sunlight C. reflect more sunlight D. transmit more sunlight E. have a lower thermal conductivity ans: C 81. Which of the following statements pertaining to a vacuum flask (thermos) is NOT correct? A. Silvering reduces radiation loss B. Vacuum reduces conduction loss C. Vacuum reduces convection loss D. Vacuum reduces radiation loss E. Glass walls reduce conduction loss ans: D 82. A thermos bottle works well because: A. its glass walls are thin B. silvering reduces convection C. vacuum reduces heat radiation D. silver coating is a poor heat conductor E. none of the above ans: E Chapter 18: TEMPERATURE, HEAT, AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS 287:THE KINETIC THEORY OF GASES1. Evidence that a gas consists mostly of empty space is the fact that: A. the density of a gas becomes much greater when it is liquefied B. gases exert pressure on the walls of their containers C. gases are Chapter 22:1. An A. B. C. D. E.ELECTRIC FIELDSelectric field is most directly related to: the momentum of a test charge the kinetic energy of a test charge the potential energy of a test charge the force acting on a test charge the charge carrie Chapter 24:ELECTRIC POTENTIAL1. An electron moves from point i to point f , in the direction of a uniform electric field. During this displacement: E. . . . .. . . . . . . . i f system system system system systemA. the work done by the fie Chapter 30:INDUCTION AND INDUCTANCE1. The normal to a certain 1-m2 area makes an angle of 60 with a uniform magnetic field. The magnetic flux through this area is the same as the flux through a second area that is perpendicular to the field if th Chapter 31:ELECTROMAGNETIC OSCILLATIONS AND ALTERNATING CURRENT1. A charged capacitor and an inductor are connected in series. At time t = 0 the current is zero, but the capacitor is charged. If T is the period of the resulting oscillations, the Chapter 32:MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS; MAGNETISM AND MATTER1. Gauss' law for magnetism: A. can be used to find B due to given currents provided there is enough symmetry B. is false because there are no magnetic poles C. can be used with open surfaces be Chapter 34:IMAGES1. A virtual image is one: A. toward which light rays converge but do not pass through B. from which light rays diverge but do not pass through C. from which light rays diverge as they pass through D. toward which light rays conv Chapter 35:1. A "wave front" is a surface of constant: A. phase B. frequency C. wavelength D. amplitude E. speed ans: AINTERFERENCE2. Huygens' construction can be used only: A. for light B. for an electromagnetic wave C. if one of the media is v Chapter 36:DIFFRACTION1. Sound differs from light in that sound: A. is not subject to diffraction B. is a torsional wave rather than a longitudinal wave C. does not require energy for its origin D. is a longitudinal wave rather than a transverse Chapter 37:SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY1. A basic postulate of Einstein's theory of relativity is: A. moving clocks run more slowly than when they are at rest B. moving rods are shorter than when they are at rest C. light has both wave and partic Chapter 40:ALL ABOUT ATOMS1. The magnitude of the orbital angular momentum of an electron in an atom is what multiple of ? ( is a positive integer.) h A. 1 B. 1/2 ( + 1) C. D. 2 + 1 E. 2 ans: C 2. The magnetic quantum number m is most closely as Chapter 41:CONDUCTION OF ELECTRICITY IN SOLIDS1. In a pure metal the collisions that are characterized by the mean free time in the expression for the resistivity are chiefly between: A. electrons and other electrons B. electrons with energy abo Chapter 42:NUCLEAR PHYSICS1. The smallest particle of any chemical element that can exist by itself and yet retain the qualities that distinguish it as that element is: A. an electron B. a proton C. a neutron D. an atom E. a molecule ans: D 2. Of Chapter 43:ENERGY FROM THE NUCLEUS1. If the nucleus of a lead atom were broken into two identical nuclei, the total mass of the resultant nuclei would be: A. the same as before B. greater than before C. less than before D. converted into radiatio Chapter 44:QUARKS, LEPTONS, AND THE BIG BANG1. Which of the following particles is stable? A. Neutron B. Proton C. Pion D. Muon E. Kaon ans: B 2. The stability of the proton is predicted by the laws of conservation of energy and conservation of:Chapter 25Capacitors and DielectricsIn this chapter we will describe devices called "capacitors". These have the ability to: 1. Store charge and 2. Store energy Capacitors are found in practically all electronic circuits In addition we will exami Chapter 26Currents in materialsIn this chapter we will study the following topics : 1. The notion of electric current ( I ) 2. The motion of charges in current carrying conductors 3. The notion of resistance 4. The relation between the voltage V Chapter 32 Inductance and Circuit OscillationsIn this chapter we will study the properties of inductors (also known as "coils"). Inductors, together with capacitors and resistors are the passive elements of electric and electronic circuits In partic Chapter 30Faraday's lawUsing Ampere's law in chapter 29 we investigated how an electric current I can generate a magnetic field B. In this chapter we shall study the fourth (and last) of Maxwell's equations known as Faraday's law. Faraday's law t Eco 171 - Industrial Organization First Midterm Exam InstructionsName: Section:There are 6 short questions and 2 problems. Short questions are worth a total of 40 points and the problems a total of 60 points. Answer in the space provided (no need Eco 171 - Industrial Organization Second Midterm Exam InstructionsName: Section:There are 6 short questions and 2 problems, each worth 1/3 of the total points. Answer in the space provided (no need to use it all.) If necessary use the back of theLehigh University HW-23 SolutionsPhysics 21, Spring 2008April 2, 200823-1. (HRW 33-67) In Fig. 33-65, light enters a 90 triangular prism at point P with incident angle , and then some of it refracts at point Q with an angle of refraction of 90. Advertising with an attitude: an aesthetic, emotional and intellectual experience - on the art Career track Berniece Patterson A. Introduction The main purpose of this article is to show how advertisements are specific made to ensure the audience thaLecture-23 Examples Solutions HW-23-5. (HRW 34-33) In Fig. 34-38, a beam of parallel light rays from a laser is incident on a solid transparent sphere of index of refraction n. (a) If a point image is produced at the back of the sphere, what is the iPrufer Code Problems 1. Construct the Prufer Code for the tree.2. Construct trees that are represented by the following Prufer Codes. What conclusions can you draw about isomorphism as related to the codes? (a) [6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 1] (b) [6, 4, 4, 6, 4 CS 2606 Data Structures & OO Devel IIHomework 1: ComplexityYou will submit your solution to this assignment to the Curator System (as HW1). Your solution must be either a plain text file (e.g., NotePad) or a MS Word document; submissions in other CS 2606 Data Structures & OO Devel IIHomework 3: Secondary StoragePrepare your answers to the following questions either in a plain text file or in a file that can be opened with Microsoft Word. Submit your file to the Curator system ( English 102 E. Baker Benjamin DeMott Summary In Benjamin DeMott's response to William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" story, he focuses on Abner Snopes' character. The title of his response is Abner Snopes as a Victim of Class so it is evident that he sees Solutions to End-of-Chapter ProblemsAccounting-Based Methods A8-1. a. If the computers are depreciated on a straight-line basis, depreciation will be $5,000 per year for 4 years. Contribution to net income will be: Year 1 2,500 Year 2 4,100 Year 3 4 Jeong 1 Susanna Jeong Intro to Linguistics Alison Rukeyser Cory Messing March 3, 2008Universal GrammarHumans possess the ability to use language, a system of communication, that is characteristically creative and unique, which allows for an unlimi Jeong 1 Susanna Jeong Professor Rosalinda Salazar WLD ENG 57 15 October 2007 Learning English, The Malcolm X Way Even in contemporary society, many high school students struggle to learn the most basic English skills. Malcolm X was no different. Dist Lecture 2Lecture 2Law of Electrical Force Charles-Augustin Coulomb 1785" The force between two small charged spheres is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of the	eng	6a7cbf7b-6533-4cd4-b441-737b4181e37d	http://www.coursehero.com/file/109530/ch18/
If you are good at what you do, I will tip 20% and round up to the next dollar. And if the menu says the bill is auto-tipped at 25%, then you will get that tip for exactly one round of soft drinks, because that's what I will probably have ordered before I notice that particular fine print. I will then open up your table for some other guests, and maybe THEY'll tip you 25%, because I'm sure the fark not doing it for an entire meal. If you work in a state that allows tip credit, so that wait staff don't earn minimum wage, you will get at least 20% from me, unless you really fark up, at which point I'll talk to your manager, and leave a tip that goes down depending on how poorly you did. If you work in a state that doesn't allow tip credit (for example, Alaska requires a minimum wage of $7.75 an hour for tipped employees, with no tip credit) you had better do an awesome job if you want more than 5-10% from me. You're getting paid the same as the any other minimum wage employee that I don't tip. What!? I'm just an average tipper now? I always thought I was making a waiter's day by tipping 20% if the service was acceptable and offset the douchebags who never tip. But now you're telling me 15% is an insult and 20% is the standard? I'm NOT going to 25%, go fark yourself NYC. I won't be leaving 25% unless it's my choice and I am overly in love with my server and probably snockered. You'll get 15% if you're average and up to 20% if you are good. Average 17%-18%. The bonus for you servers is I am a dynamite customer! Very personable. Oh yes... it's true! That will help make up for the additional 5% you'll not extract from my hide for the occasional excursion to your restaurant which, in all likelihood, needs all the customers it can get through its doors. Markoff_Cheney:dahmers love zombie:debate really isn't very terrible. Just tip as you see fit. See? No need to change anything. / 20% //unless it's a bar and I am or plan on being a regular then more/would still cook at home unless it's a special occasion or a business thingMarkoff_Cheney:skullI tip 20% if the meal and service are what should be expected. I tip less if the waitress/waiter screws up and doesn't make any effort to make things right. There are a couple of waitresses I almost always over tip. They aren't typical. I won't do business with a restaurant that automatically includes a 20% tip in the check. How much I tip is my choice, not yours. If you're going to do that, then raise your farking prices 20% and put DO NOT TIP on the front door so I can decide BEFORE I enter if I'm going to bless you with my businessjmr61:I have no problem with a 25% tip if the service and food is excellent. But I want it to be my choice. KrispyKritter:skullkrusher:MarkMarkoff_Cheney:skullkrusher: Mark10-20% depending on how good the service is. If it was exceptional and I'm plastered -- maybe more. If you are really good, I'll leave it as a cash tip so you can not declare some of it. If you suck, I'll leave a penny and a reprint from an old Dear Abbey column that discusses what tipping is about. $1 a drink at the pub unless you turn off the juke box, then I get stingy.And that is exactly what I mean in my previous post by "make an effort to make things right". Tipping exists to benefit the restaurateurs, not the diners and not the wait staff. It does so in two ways: 1) It holds fixed costs down when business is slow, allowing the restaurant to pay waiters a lower base wage. Waiters have to endure lower income during these times and hope they'll make up for it during busier periods. "Tip creep," especially when encouraged by the management in the form of suggestions on menus or gratuities automatically added to the bill, is mainly a way for ownership to avoid having to give staff raises or raise the price of menu items (see "airline fees"). Waiters themselves probably have no say in the matter. 2) It encourages up-selling. That five percent that you think you are adding or subtracting from the tip to reward or punish quality of service most likely goes completely unnoticed by the staff; it's peanuts compared the extra money they make by persuading you to order an extra appetizer or more expensive bottle of wine. This generates more revenue and higher profit margins for the restaurant, just like that super-size popcorn and coke the concessionaires at movie theaters keep pushing on you. Cyno01:Considering the value of a dollar and how the actual minimum wage is just about the lowest ever, tip creep is inevitable if waiters are to earn a livable wage. Math fail. You do understand that food is getting more expensive so tips are already going up? 15% of $10 is less that 15% of $20. (I usually tip 20%, rounding up to the nearest dollar, but that's to keep the math simple). What is actually creeping up is waiter expectations. They are negotiating with the public not to spit in their food. Wait staff essentially have a COA built into their wages. As long as things get more expensive their wages go up. Not to bust on waiters, but my brother, for instance, works as a cashier at a supermarket. He doesn't work any less than a waiter and his wages are stagnating. (And through unconscionable wage practices that give a small raise at 6 mo., a year, 2 years, 5 years, etc. that don't adjust for minimum wage unless minimum wage catches up to them, he'll still be making just a little bit over minimum wage). He's been there nearly 20 years. If you feel bad about the waiters raise their minimum wage. That will protect them from slow nights and help even out their income, and prevent restaurants from staffing more people than they need at slow times when waiters make sh*. If you own a restaurant and you want mandatory tips, build it into your price and then tell people not to tip. You have the power to pay your employees a percentage of what they serve. A mandatory tip is, however, part of the price and should be listed as such under truth in advertising. Even better yet, increase the earned income tax credit, or even turn it into a full blown negative income tax. A waiter at a real restaurant (I'm not talking about tip jars at Dunkin' Donuts) is probably out-earning just about anyone else at the low end of the job market with similar training. I don't mean to sound crabby, but I don't like half-a&& solutions. The entire working class is facing economic starvation. Fixing little pieces of it here and there just divides the voting block that could be used to actually fix it and get everyone who is working hard a living wage. harrydorcas:Don't be surprised if you get shiatty ( or no) service at restaurants you frequent. You can complain to the owner, but most of the ones at good restaurants came up through the ranks. If the staff at the restaurant would just pool their money and buy larger quantities of drugs together, they could probably get a bulk discount. Tip-creep wouldn't be needed, they'd have more money just by spending less. To my waiters: You will get 10-15% for average service, 15-20% for good service. For too much service, you are just being annoying and tip-mongering, in which case you get knocked back down to 10-15%. If you suck, the most you'll get is a dollar from me. I work unpaid overtime in a very demanding job for my money. You pour glasses of water and carry plates of food. I'll be damned if I give you more than 20% of a regular bill. You might get a higher percentage if I don't order a full meal, or if it's really cheap, or if I linger. Let me do some math for people who take offense to that. Let's say my group of three or four goes out for modest dinner and spend 75 minutes at a table and rack up a 60 dollar bill. We get good service and leave a 20% tip - 12 dollars. All the other patrons at the restaurant act similarly. Waiter makes 30-40 bucks an hour. We were more than generous, buddy. If you think you deserve more, get a job that contributes something more substantial to society and takes more than a white shirt, black pants, and one day of training. /Now all the waiters hate me. //I'm glad, didn't want to eat at your crappy restaurant anyway ///Once saw my dad (a usually generous tipper) leave a dime as a tip. He said, "that's more than she deserves." He was rightkidsizedcoffin:Restaurants, and anyone one else in the tipped industry, need to raise their prices and pay their workers an acceptable wage. Relying on the kindness of your customer to pay your employee voluntarily is unfair to the worker and the customer. stonicus:Exactly. To start with, most any meal takes the same effort for the SERVER, so why do you tip more on one than the other. Same goes with a $8 bottle of wine or a $60 bottle. And for the cook, many times a cheaper meal is more difficult to make. Order a sandwich vs a steak, a steak is pretty easy to grill, a sandwich can be difficult, yet the steak is 3x more expensive. Same with lobster, throw it in boiling water, it is done. Twenty-farking-five-farking-percent tacked on to the bill otherwise I feel like a guilty piece of shiat for the rest of the day... Ok... O-KAY! Fine.... You know what? I'm just not going to go out anymore. I'm going to cook at home now, even if it's just ramen farking noodles and a bag of pre-seasoned vegetables boiled-in-a-bag... Because you know what? I can't afford it anymore. and I can't take the guilt. And YOU GODDAMN AMERICANS!!!! Are completely and utterly responsible and to blame for all of this horseshiattery! This horseshiat that servers need tipping, that they can't earn a living wage, and that tipping NEEDS to exist in order for service to be more than a clanging plate dropped on my table and a drink begrudgingly clonked onto my table without spit in it Is entirely, completely, here and now, in the year 2012, your goddamn fault. And Canadian servers will get used to the idea...even though they already earn more than minimum wage... even though they don't have to deal with nearly the amount of stupid, asinine, utterly self-entitled white-bread 40+-white-soccer-mom-in-a-costco-parking-lot entitled bullshiat that is the BLOODY HALLMARK of American dining "Hi. Can I ask you a question about the coffee? Is it organic? Okay, I don't want it. I'd like a bowl of boiling hot water. Boiling... With ice. But I don't want the ice to get all tiny. And then I'll have the turkey burger, but I want it sectioned into fourteen quadrants; I know that's impossible, but do it. And then not on a plate, I'd like it dropped from an altitude of ten feet, piece by piece, into my hands with an attitude of regret. Thank you so much. I hate to be a pain!" All I want is a goddamn meal, and MORE than one farking refill for my $17.45 allegedly "bottomless" watered-down-half-moldy-inadequately carbonated goddamn pepsi... For which I will now pay for the privilege of having it clanged upon my table by a bitter unmarried 30something harpy to the tune of 25% shame-tax. And Aussies don't have to tip... But then again, they don't live next to the entitlement capital of the universe, so they didn't have to adapt tipping as a way to get the friggin' kids out of the goddamn kitchen just to do their friggin' jobs! Markoff_Cheney:meanmutton: Cyno01: Considering the value of a dollar and how the actual minimum wage is just about the lowest ever, tip creep is inevitable if waiters are to earn a livable wage. Tips are a percentage of the total bill. Servers and bartenders are the only employees in America outside of government employees who get an automatic raise, without tip creep. Also, servers and bartenders generally significantly more than minimum wage. ...........after tips? there are even exemptions from minimum wage for servers and bartenders. its around 4 bucks an hour, or NOT EVEN WORTH SHOWING UP FOR on a slow day. Depends on state law. In my state, if a server's tips plus their $2.13/hr doesn't at least come out to be minimum wage, the employer makes up the difference. As for bartenders, I'm from a tourist beach. They make BANK! But they earn every penny of itSo why in every other job in America your boss monitors your work and if you don't perform you are fired? Why are waiters/waitresses special where they can only perform if they are getting tips, and managers can't evaluate how well they are doing or even if they are doing their job? Besides, a lot of tips boil down to if the girl is hot and if she is flirty. Get a fat 35 year old woman as a waitress, she can be the best in the world but won't make great tipsHello, Farkers. Some of you like to write 500 (or more) word explanations about your rules for tipping. Most of us don't really have the time to read through your lengthy tirades, but you might be wondering how your speeches are received. Well, I'm here to help you. To the rest of us, your long, carefully thought out posts come down to this:crabsno termites:Summoneri really didnt word this right, but i dont care because i am drunk. yes, they dont make enough for the service rendered, but compared to the servers and bartenders they can live off of their checks and not tips.sage37:As a waiter at an 'upscale casual' restaurant, when I get a 25% tip I'm ecstatic. Most people tiptake pity on me and give me charity for work I didn't actually perform/performed only basic service minus the golden plated blowjob, somewhere between 15-20%. thancrabsno termites:Summonerexvaxman:Summoner101:crabsno termites: Summoner2) If you have excellent service it is most often because the server take pride in his or her job and truly values your business. You may not believe this but some folks actually enjoy some if their customers and don't just view them with money sign. 4) Added gratuity should on;y be added for parties of 8 or more. Even then it's implied and shouldn't be required. stonicus:Also a cook, no way it takes 25+ minutes to get something fried if its just the servers fault. If shed just forgotten, my burger would have come out with regular fries like everyone elses in the party instead of with no fries at allThat would be nice, but you'd have to start with them getting paid a living wage first, and I don't see that happening any time soon since the food industry seems to be doing just fine how it is (minus the rage any time tipping comes up) I was a waitress at a truck stop diner for awhile. This was a long time ago, so my wage was 2.15 an hour. In addition to waiting tables, I also had to be my own bus boy. It was rough at times, especially nights where people kept flooding in when I was the only waitress on duty. One night the grill went out and it took the cook around 45 minutes to fix it. I felt bad for the family still waiting on their food, so I paid for their meal out of my tips for that day. It came close to $40, pretty much all of my tips. McTruckin:This is the problem with tipping nowadays. Employers use it to pay their servers shiat wages and then expect the rest of us to pick up the slack. Tipping has gone from a show of appreciation for good service to a guilt trip. There's such a huge mark up on food, I don't really understand why I'm tipping more based on the cost of the food to me. The bartender is an artist, a mixologist, a damn multi tasking magician. The waitress is just carrying plates, regardless of what's on the plates, she is still just carrying plates. Cyno01:ConsideringMimic_Octopus:Cyni always pay 20%. at a hotel i leave at least 20$ for the cleaning staff. If I am eating at a 4 restaurant i would expect to pay 20-25% I will generally over tip when the bill is under 20$. I usually can tell how many turns the business does by the time I have finished my meal 25-30% if they are slow . I don't know what all the fuss is about . I would think that if anyone gave a dime or some insulting tip they should go to eat at the Walmart and behave like the locust at the free sample booth. Life is too short to be such a cheapskate enjoy a meal and quit being miserable. felixecho:Well as long as we are asked to tip bigger, how about 100%? 150%? Why not price the riff raff out of the joint? We already go out less because it is too damn expensive. The industry clearly pushed tipping to offset their labor costs and point their employees attention at their customers. But ive seen so many places close in the last few years, even alot of places that had real pottentional. It seems even corporate joints go up and are out in 2 years. I wonder if we've hit the "tipping point" (zing!) On how much we can gouge customers. Drinks is another area, state liquor liscenses seem to have pushed the cost of a drink to several orders of magnitude over what it costs at the store. Sorry, but if im going out to some suburban burger joint i dont want to feel compelled that i need to pay like im a saudi prince in a miami nightclub. At the rate we're going i fully expect old fashioned speak easies to become a nationwide phenememon. This shiat is rediculous. In Oregon waitstaff cannot be paid less than $8.80 hour, the state's minimum wage. Some restaurants choose to pay their employees more than that. Either way I tip a minimum of 20%, but I have gone higher for exceptional service. There have been a few rare occasions where I have tipped less, but in those cases it has been the bad attitude or behavior of the person waiting on me. The last time this happened to me the waitress frequently spoke to me in a very condescending manner and actually scolded me because I didn't eat everything I ordered. On the other hand I never base my tip on things out of the waitstaff's control, such as foul-ups by the kitchen staff. Now I know some restaurants add a set tip amount to the bill for groups of 6 or more (usually 18% in my area), but I expect the latter and most menus have that information on themPincy:MimChuDogg:PinI know a lot of waiters who loved the job because "they got paid every day", which I gotta admit, 4 days before payday when I was broke, that perk sounded nice. Yeah, i dont understand why places havent just plopped an ipad screen on the table for when your ready for your refill. Its would be much more convenient and in over 10 years of dining is about alli can gather for what consitutes "good service". I guess im in the minority that doesnt need to get buttered up by some effiminate douche that probably hates all his customers anywaysSo everyone who waits tables should open up their own restaurant someday? Something tells me there would be way too many restaurants for the demandGo to Japan where tipping is not the custom and see the complete opposite. They fall over themselves to provide you with good service. Why? Because a happy customer is a repeat customer and repeat customers mean the restaurant stays open and they keep getting paid. THAT is the system that works. Waitstaff want you to come back and do everything they can to make sure you are satisfied before you leave. Tipping does not work. All it does is encourage restaurants to underpay their employees and forces the customer into making up the differenceactually, crap, I messed that up. I was commenting on my comment about my lack of a penis. That was a lie I will pay 25% as soon as pigs fly. Someone in the restarant industry is smoking some seriously powerful crack. I for one still have not bought into the insanity of 20%. Standard tip is 10%. Really farking incredible service will get you 15% (that only happens maybe once a year when I am feeling generous). For 20% the waitress would need to slip under the table and blow me. this is my first tipping thread, so i'm going to start working on a Standard Tipping Comment that can be pasted into any tipping thread. when dining at a restaurant, we should consider the wait-person as our own employee. the wait-person is there to serve us, in expectation of getting paid for their service. so when it comes to tipping, there are only two questions to be asked: 1) how much time did this person spend serving me? 2) what would be an appropriate hourly wage for this person, based on their performance? and to be generous, round up. so, if a waiter spent 2 minutes getting your drink order, 2 minutes getting your meal order, a total of 5 minutes walking back and forth to the kitchen to bring those orders and return to your table with what you requested, and about a minute saying 'is everything alright?' twice while walking past, that would be 10 minutes that that person worked as your employee, or 1/6 of an hour. now we must approximate what this unskilled employee's labor should be worth compared to that of other unskilled workers. some wait-people are decent, and not too annoying, and deserve a decent 10-12$ an hour. some are excellent, and deserve at least 20$ an hour. some are even better than that, but in today's job market 20$ an hour is pretty great for a job that requires memorizing a menu and asking people which of today's vegetables they'd like with their dinner. of course, lots of waiters aren't worth minimum wage (tho there's no such thing as a waiter that makes less than minimum wage - it's illegal). but let's be generous to the poor wretches. so, if you have a pretty good, not too annoying wait-person, who would deserve their 12$ an hour in any other retail service job (and that really isn't bad for a retail service job), and that person spent 10 minutes on your table, then they've earned a $2 tip. if you have an outstanding wait-person, who would be worth $24 an hour (huge for that kind of unskilled job), and they spent 20 minutes (well above average) working with your table, then that person would deserve an $8 tip. this whole tipping by percentages thing is insane. does the guy who brings me a $40 steak deserve 4x more than the guy who brings me a $10 hamburger? either way, it took 2 minutes of his time. how much do you think 2 minutes of his time should be worth? that's how much you should tip for that service. Mimic_Octopus:ChuBrytanica1:This thread makes me feel very fortunate. I typically eat out at a sit down restaurant at least once a week, and have never had "bad" service from a server. I've had mediocre service a few times, mostly due to the place just being incredibly busy, but nothing below that. But...I treat my server with respect and friendliness. I eat out at least three times a week . I treat the servers with respect (I've dated a few and I know its a harsh industry) but I've had completely awful service a number of times. And not only I have tipped 0% - I have walked out of a restaurant at least three times due to the failure of management or a server. And a place being incredibly busy is no excuse. Its poor planning on the management of the restaurant. I'm reminded of a restaurant near a hotel in Vegas. This hotel used to get a major conference at the same time every year and this restaurant would get tons of business from that conference. But year after year it would become swamped and one year actually ran out of beef during lunch one year. That restaurant is now out of business. And it completely deserves to be. DWitchiewoman: Can't help you there. i'm thinking greed There's such a huge mark up on food, I don't really understand why I'm tipping more based on the cost of the food to me. Profit on food is 40-60% more or less. You aren't tipping on the price of the food. The price is used as a rough guide. My last bill was $24.04 so my last tip should have been 5.00? We left around $10. She was good. Good encompasses a great deal of real estate. She was fast, communicated well, cheerful, funny, and helped guide us around the diners menu. When I'm eating at the Lobster shack the bill comes to $75 or so I'll tip using the same guide but I don't have to put such a "floor" under my amount. ie $5.00 tip is a non-starter anywhere so I put a floor of $7-8 on it and go from there. At 20% of 75 we're at $15 and that's a good start, now we go up from there and depending on what criteria is useful I add to it. At $75 though I generally drop a $100 and think about if the service was stellar and do I need to drop more. We eat fast. I mean we all worked in restaurants in this family and so we shove the food in. Bonus for the wait staff, they get an extra turn for the table. We also tend to go early when it's not so busy, it's convenient for us and more tips for the staff. ALL these things get figured in one way or another. The bartender is an artist, a mixologist, a damn multi tasking magician. Don't forget bouncer and mediator, bill collector and wingman. The waitress is just carrying plates, regardless of what's on the plates, she is still just carrying plates. Um, no. there's far more to it than initially appears. I tended for nearly twenty years. Towards the end I gave waitering a shot. While as a bartender I took orders and served food, it was nothing like waitering. Dealing with multiple tables with multiple customers and one miserable cook, a lousy pantryman, a dishwasher from hell and the most entitled busboy in the world. The cook and I came to blows with the Exec Chef standing there laughing. I had the reach and the speed. He only had a stubby knife. USA 1 - Guatemala 0 Don't begrudge a wait person a tip. The thief of an owner is skimming the cash payments, his partners are skimming him on the booze and the waitress is trying to hold it all together. I have seen waitresses refuse a tip, and not graciously either. Come to think of it, you should - hell everyone should work in a restaurant for at least a summer. Bathia_MapesReally? Then explain why some states allow the employer to pay their waiters/waitresses only $2.13 per hour & expect them to make up the rest in tips? it's so sad that so many people believe this. wait-people are always lying about it to get extra sympathy tips. We should just get rid of tipping altogether. Food has the same overall margin as merchandise in stores before the overhead gets tacked on. Give the waitstaff the same wage as a retail employee, they deal with the same b.s. and most company policies don't allow them to accept tips. But, it's not like the server is walking out with a less than minimum wage check if they're crappy at tips. The restaurant must pay the server at least minimum wage for the hours worked if their tips don't equate to the same or more. They are getting paid, one way or another, the same as the kid at McDonald's or the greeter at WalMart, they're not being especially screwed by the system. Thanks for your reply. You make some good points. I still don't get why a waitress/waiter should get tipped more if I order a steak or she/he has to carry a cheeseburger on the plate. It seems like it should depend more on the number of people at the table/length of time it takes to serve the meal, not the price of the food on the plate. I still tip well, but it does piss me off to be expected to tip more based on the menu choice. I do it anyway & just secretly hate the stupid thing. Mamma raised me to tip well for good service, I can't shake my good manners even when it does piss me off. I got issues. Too bad you don't work in my area. You would get a minimum of $8.80 an hour whether you were working in the store or out and about delivering pizzas. It's the law in Oregon. And while I can't speak for others, I always tip at least 20% when I have food delivered to my home. Hey- tipping thread! Just went out tonight to a local spot, and the waiter kicked serious ass. Dude knew every item on the menu, could accurately describe the texture and flavor of each dish, knew the wine pairing for it all- guy knew hit shiat, and knew it well. For awesome service like that, I'll kick in 25% with no thought of it, and it was a pricey meal to begin with. Now, the biatch from a few years back that challenged me to a fight out in the parking lot after I gave her a much-deserved $1 tip for unbelievably terrible service? Fark you. I wasn't about to do anything, but my wife was ready to beat your ass... For service that is SUPPOSED to come with the dinner, 0% tip? Don't like that? Get a better job. I'm not coughing up an extra 25% just because you brought a glass of water. Tell you what? Let ME go get the water for myself and save your poor feet some walking. Deal? For services above and beyond the call, 10%. For fighting off invading ogres, ninjas, or HK bots while I try to dine in peace, 25% Money's tight all around. Only a twit would pay more than what they should HAVE to. "Nowadays, 15 percent isn't an average tip - it's a way of registering displeasure with the service." What such a pussy looks like: IMO, if a server is being a moron or a dick, they should be lucky I don't want to speak with the manager and ask for a discount on my bill, let alone leave a tip to reward them for their dcikery. What sort of a pissant is going to give a server extra money whether they do a good job or not? RembrandtQEinstein:Here's the problem: waiters know how stingy management can be, so they are the last ones who want to see minimum wage for waitstaff made equal to the general minimum wage. Boomhauer:I used to eat there all the time when I lived in C-bus. Excellent veggie burgers - the difference to me was always that they didn't try to fool you into thinking that it was meat, but embraced the veggie-ness of the ingredients in the patty. They also serve RC cola, which is a nice change of pace. DWitchiewoman:Can able to budget around my lifestyle pretty well. I wouldn't mind more, but please don't tell me I should be okay with making $10000 less a year than I do. Gough:Mimn_carrvoigt:McTruckin:gadian:n_carrvoigt: IfIt's not greed. I earn my keep. Tipping make foodservice the rare business where an employee can make a direct and immediate impact on their earnings. If you go on Fark at work and your boss doesn't find out, you're getting the same paycheck. If you beat your deadlines at work, you're getting the same paycheck. If I go on Fark at work, my tables notice their glasses are empty. If I bust my ass at work, I'll make extra grocery money (which is good, because I'm a culinary arts student and my dinner is basically my homework). You standardize my wage, and I don't get that immediate critique of my performance or the incentive to go the extra mile. If I get a bad tip, I stop for a second and think about the service I provided, see what I could've done better, and fix it for my next table. If I get an unusually good tip, it puts a spring in my step for the rest of the evening, and my other tables get service that reflects my particularly good mood. You get a performance review and a raise/bonus/whatever every once in a while. I get one every half hour. PyroStock:McHowever, I'd imagine that this is an incentive for the good servers to make life a living hell for the bad ones, until they leave. gweilo8888:PyroStock: McBy the same token, you are reward the bad staff by tipping the good servers/bartenders when places pool the tips. However, I'd imagine that this is an incentive for the good servers to make life a living hell for the bad ones, until they leave. It`s not up to me to make some judgement call on service and arbitrarily boost the wages of a person I have not hired myself. The owner of the business wants servers? They can pay them and add the money on to the prices i see advertised even if it is a flat percentage. Hidden costs are illegal in other businesses, why not food? I want to go to the serving hatch myself and bring my own plates to the table. If the food is good, a server does not enhance my meal by enough to make it worth money to me, mostly they detract from my enjoyment of my meal. If I have £10 I won`t order the £8 meal and pay £2 to have it taken from just there to just here, I`ll order the £10 meal and say "I`d rather not have service please if it is extra to the cost of the meal". I`ve extended the good server/bad server tip/no tip decision to "Is a server worth an extra X% on top of my bill?" The answer is no. I do not accept the concept that I have* to have a server at extra cost to my meal. 15% service charge is included every where here(France) and quite often the service is horrible, especially in bars. And you can't order a drink at the bar to take to the table because the price is not the same at the bar. If you sit on the terrace, which is actually the sidewalk most of the time, it is another 3 to 5% in most places. This is why when I go out for drinks I like to go to English or Irish pubs, If you get tired of waiting you can get it yourself, you don't pay extra when they do bring it for you and they don't charge extra for eating on the sidewalk next to traffic OLD ones. When my folks or in-laws "treated" my family for a meal, I always needed to "forget" my cell phone or shades so I can go back to the table and augment the embarrassingly small tip they left. Next time you eat someplace where they have a mandatory minimum tip above 15% placed on the bill and the manager refuses to remove it and you are NOT happy with the service received. Make the waiter wash your car or do pushups until you are satisfied with their service. optikeye:DWPincyI think you may be wrong there. I believe in a lot of states there are exceptions to the minimum wage for service type industries where tips are expected. No. The Fair Labor Standards Act trumps all. A tipped employee is required to make at least minimum wage (Federal or State, whichever is higher). If the employee's tips don't make up the difference between their stated wage and the minimum wage then the employer is required by law to make up the difference. If an employer doesn't do this, they are opening themselves up to fines, jail time (for repeated offenses) and lawsuits from the impacted employees. So, basically, a tipped employees "wage" can be less then minimum wage, but at the end of the day their total wages including tips had better be equal or greater to minimum wage. Also, a lot of those tip pools are illegal as well. Ever been forced to share tips with a dishwasher? Congrats, your boss violated federal law. Oh, and these "mandatory" tips? They aren't tips. To be a tip, legally, the customer has to have discretion over the amount. If it's mandatory it isn't legally counted as a tip to the employee, it is counted as "wages" from the restaurant to the employee. As more of them do it, a lot of restaurants have been reporting "mandatory service charges" as tips and the IRS is not happy about it. Reverend Monkeypants:Well, until enough people stop eating out to avoid the situation, nothing will change. Learn to cook or tip, seems pretty simple to me. Thanks to all the hidden costs, I just don't bother eating in restaurants any more. I can cook, and cook reasonably well. A tip is supposed to be an acknowledgement of good service, nothing more. What bothers me about it being a mandatory charge is that, well, what you're really saying is "each item on the menu is actually 25% more expensive, but we're trying to hide that charge so you'll order from us." What's worse is that, for some odd reason, waitstaff expect tips in excess of that mandatory charge. Sorry, no. If tips are optional, I'll provide a tip based on service quality, and I don't break 15% usually. If tips are mandatory, and they're charging more than 15%, I'm just not eating there. If tips are mandatory, and they're charging 15% (I've yet to see anyone charge less), that's all you get. You've taken one of the few ways I can express dismay or gratitude at service away from me, because your boss is a greedy asshole and your indifferent service means you're making less than your more skilled co-workers. Tough. You don't like it? Tell your boss to pay you a living wage, or figure out how to be better at your job. Mimic_Octopus:Gough: MimReverend Monkeypants: Also, this. Bottom line, it's almost impossible to deserve a tip over 20%...because anything the waitstaff does to try to earn it is just irritating. TofuTheAlmighty:Troc6783:TofuTheAlmighty: T15-20 percent pretty much every time here, unless the server dropped my plate on the floor and scraped it back up in front of me in which case it'll drop to 10 or so. Having said that, I've gone higher in special instances. Like a late dinner with two overly picky co-workers that ran past the closing time of the restaurant, kept the staff through cleanup time, but all handled by the server with a great attitude... I knew the other two would under-tip, so I grabbed the check and went around 25-30 percent. Sure, it was on the corporate card, but still, I faced the wrath of the accountant. I also overtipped last week on a date, but it was worth it. sandi_fish:What always amuses me on a tipping thread is that people lose their goddamn mind over a few dollars. 15-20% isn't all that different. It's not that. It's the farking gaul of people assuming that they deserve a big tip, and that the restaurant is using opaque means to raise prices. If a restaurant wants to make sure that they will never see me again, the best thing they can do is to put an optional 10% service charge on to the bill. It might even have been that I was going to give 10-15%, But here's the thing: I don't want to be in the position of having to call the waiter over after a meal and ask them to remove it next time. mauricecano:opt you also believe that cashiers shouldn't be paid? That's a job that requires even less skill. And when you say "most restaurants" use a table-side kiosk and food runners, how about some examples? I've never seen that anywhere. I really just don't understand why waiters are so hated. Isn't that sort of prejudice usually reserved for high-paying jobs that require moral bankruptcy to do properly, like lawyers and politicians? n_carrvoigt:maur yo ... I don't honestly care how you do it, you made the choice to be a waiter and make less than a cashier based on hourly wages. Yet, for some reason you chose waiting tables so you must believe in the end you'll make more than a cashier once you get the tips. Welcome to the real world here's a hint: fark sub isn't needed, verizon sub isn't needed, tv sub isn't needed, internet isn't needed if you are in college as you will have access to the computer lab, and sweet Ramen Noodles keep's people full and wallets less empty :) I'm not saying the restaurants have put in the kiosk, I'm saying most could put in one and eliminate the waiter's job. Couple cases in point, Jason's Deli has a self checkout kiosk during lunch, you go in and order a salad bar, pay by credit card and get the plate; they even started accepting sandwich orders at our local one so no interaction required. 5-10 minutes later a food runner brings it out to you. Another sandwich shop did the same, not a chain but a local place. With today's technology, it isn't inconceivable that a restaurant simply provide you with an electronic menu and you click what you want with easy customization for any order and you know it will be rightly written down (don't get me started with waiters that refuse to write down orders thinking its cute or impressive). Drink runner brings out the drinks, food runner brings out the food and a customer satisfaction host goes around to ensure things are all okay like normal. Will this happen, probably not because people like the interaction but I am stating that it easily COULD occurth0th:Once I went out to see my cousin because we were working on a project together. After we were done, he was going to meet his old college buddies for dinner at a really upscale steakhouse, and I was invited to come along. We ordered an appetizer called a seafood tower which was $98, and someone's having said "can we get extra shrimp with that" raised it to $130. My thought when it arrived was, "The waiter's going to get $25 just for bringing that out." gweilo8888:PyroStock: By the same token, you are reward the bad staff by tipping the good servers/bartenders when places pool the tips. Yes, that's true--but me, I'd rather reward when things go well than punish when they don't, if it's an either-or situation. I agree and that's the whole concept of the tip - it's a reward not an obligation required even for "shiatty service". In a tip pool the bad waiter getting 10% tips instead of 15% isn't going to be as noticeable as the one who gets nothing. mauricecano:n_carrvoigt: maur sort ba ... I don't have or need Total Fark. My roommates and I split the FiOS bill, and $15 a month for that is negligible. I don't have TV service, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, or anything like that, and I only have Xbox Live because I bought a few one-year cards when they went on sale a while back. And ramen noodles? I'm a culinary arts major. Grocery shopping is basically homework. "You must believe in the end you'll make more than a cashier once you get the tips. Welcome to the real world..." I believe I'll make more than a cashier in the end because I DO make more than a cashier. If you figure a cashier makes $8/hour, works an even 40 hours a week, and works 40 hours all 52 weeks of a year, my net beats their gross by ten grand. You're right, the kiosk system is never going to become the standard. People like the interaction, old people will probably struggle to figure out how to place an order, and the industry as a whole would get criticized for eliminating jobs instead of creating them. The restaurant business accounts for 13 million jobs, which is 10% of the US work force. You eliminate waiters in half of the nation's restaurants, and you're probably looking at 5 million people out of work and 8 million who need to be retrained in the new way of doing things. I'm not going to lower my standard of living because you don't feel like I deserve an extra $6 when you go out. I'm at home by myself drinking a PBR and watching cartoons on YouTube on a Saturday night instead of going out with my friends, and I'm single because I can't afford to date (and let's be honest, there are guys making $100K a year saying the same thing - chicks are expensive). I have three roommates in a small apartment within walking distance of where I work. I'm already pinching pennies as hard as I can. I'm not trying to cry poor, I just don't know why I should take a $10K pay cut when you'd probably flip the fark out if asked to do the same. And to those saying it's annoying when we check on how your food came out? I completely agree. Many restaurants hire secret shoppers to make sure we're following the corporate-mandated "sequence of service", which includes checking back once you've had a bite to make sure everything came out right. 100% scores on secret shop reports are usually rewarded, and anything less is typically treated like the end of the world. I hate it, but they make me do it. I'm sorry. After reading some of the stuff in this thread that people have said annoys them when they dine out, I've been keeping it all in mind the last couple nights. I get all worked up when I see a tipping thread, but I figure it's an opportunity to learn how to do my job better. To those of you who left feedback, thank you. the801:That law does not specify the time frame involved. My cousin worked a place that made up the difference monthly, after making sure that wait staff got two weekend shifts. The big sat/sun crowd just barely put her over minimum wage on the month, but most days she made far less.	eng	33422da5-9f55-4835-b374-e1ae769ec444	http://www.fark.com/comments/7336752/Welcome-to-House-of-Pretension-I-am-Jean-Paul-your-waiter-Todays-specials-include-carpaccio-of-Maldivian-yellow-fin-tuna-free-range-organic-brown-wild-duck-breast-stuffed-with-Israeli-pearl-couscous-a-25-tip?cpp=1