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Obamacare's 3rd anniversary: By the numbers
The Affordable Care Act has been law of the land for three years now -- President Obama signed the legislation on March 23, 2010 -- but it remains a source of controversy and mystery for many Americans. Meanwhile, some of the most significant parts of the law have yet to take effect.
Three years after the enactment of Obamacare, here's a look at some key figures that shed light on the status of the law's implementation, its impact on the nation and public opinion.
37: Percent of Americans who approve of Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act was divisive from the start. Three years later, not much has changed.
A poll from the nonpartisan, nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, conducted March 5-10, found that just 37 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the law while 40 percent have an unfavorable view.
There's a partisan split in opinion, with 68 percent of Republicans saying they view the law unfavorably and 58 percent of Democrats saying they have a positive opinion of the law. Among independents, 31 percent have a favorable view, while 45 percent have an unfavorable view.}
Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of Americans -- 23 percent -- declined to offer any opinion on the law. That may not be unreasonable, given that many people don't fully understand the law.
67: Percent of uninsured who still don't know what the law means for them
The Kaiser poll mentioned above found that, three years after it enactment, 67 percent of uninsured Americans under 65 years old (and thus not eligible for Medicare) still don't know how the Affordable Care Act will impact them. Among Americans overall, 57 percent said they didn't understand how they'd be impacted.
The poll also found that Americans still have many misconceptions about the complex, multi-faceted law. For instance, 40 percent of Americans -- including 35 percent of seniors -- still believe that the law created "death panels" to make decisions regarding end-of-life care for Medicare patients.
The idea of "death panels" gained steam as partisans stepped up their extreme rhetoric during the health care debate -- former Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, was among those using the term, while Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said President Obama wanted to "pull the plug on grandma."
The "death panel" reference referred to a proposal to pay doctors to counsel their Medicare patients about end-of-life issues like living wills and hospice care. After all the controversy, the idea was essentially dropped.
That, however, hasn't kept the law's opponents from using extreme rhetoric. "Let's repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens," Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said of the law on the House floor Thursday. "Let's not do that. Let's love people. Let's care about people. Let's repeal it now while we can."
13: States that say they're not expanding Medicaid
One of the main parts of the health care law that has yet to take effect is the expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal-state program currently open to disabled and certain low-income people. The Affordable Care Act calls for states to open up Medicaid to anyone below 138 percent of the poverty line -- the Supreme Court, however, ruled over the summer that the Medicaid expansion shouldn't be mandatory.
There's no deadline for states to say whether or not they will expand the program, but so far, 13 have said they won't. The Obama administration has argued it expects states to eventually get on board with the idea, once they start seeing the benefits it has in other states. There may be some merit in that idea, as even conservative governors like Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona have decided to adopt the expansion (even though other conservatives in her state have compared her to Judas for the decision).
Meanwhile, some state lawmakers skeptical of the plan to expand Medicaid are attempting to find a compromise with the federal government. Officials in Arkansas, Ohio, Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Texas have expressed interest in taking the federal funding available for the expansion and using it to pay for private insurance for low-income people.
Even though the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that private insurance plans cost about 50 percen tmore than Medicaid programs, the Health and Human Services Department has given lawmakers in Arkansas "conceptual approval" for the plan, the New York Times reports.
32: Number of states for which the federal government will have to create an exchange, either entirely or partially
In addition to the expansion of Medicaid, next year will also bring the implementation of the health care exchanges -- online marketplaces on which Americans can purchase private insurance. States were given the option of building their own exchange, partnering with the federal government, or letting the federal government build one for them.
The state-based exchanges were intended to give the states more freedom and flexibility to create their own regulations. Many states, however, realized that setting up those rules and infrastructure -- both online and offline -- would take a lot of work. Twenty-six states are leaving it up entirely to the federal government, while six are partnering with the feds. Just 16 states are creating their own, and it's unclear what the two remaining states are doing.
This leaves the federal government with a major task to complete before October 1 -- when enrollment on the exchanges is supposed to open. Consumers should be able to get coverage on the exchanges by 2014. Starting this summer, the government is expected to start serious public outreach programs -- to reach people who could benefit from the exchanges but don't know enough about it (such as the aforementioned 67 percent of uninsured).
21: Number of pages on the application for Obamacare
Figuring out who is eligible for subsidized insurance on the exchanges, or other Obamacare benefits such as the expanded Medicaid coverage, will be complicated -- the current draft application that Americans would have to fill out is 21 pages, the Associated Press first reported. (The Washington Post has the application here.)
The document asks for information on everything from income to whether any family members are Alaska Natives, and at least three federal agencies -- including the IRS -- would have to review the application, according to the AP.
$6.1 Billion: Savings to seniors from fixing the Medicare "donut hole"
While significant portions of the law have yet to take effect, other parts are already having a significant, positive impact. For instance, the law has started closing the Medicare "donut hole" -- the gap in prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D.
The Affordable Care Act started closing the gap in 2010 by giving $250 checks to seniors who fell in the coverage gap, and by providing additional coverage gradually, the law should close the gap by 2020. This year, the health care law provides discounts and savings for 52.5 percent of the cost of most brand name drugs and 21 percent of the cost of covered generic drugs.
The Health and Human Services Department announced this week that more than 6.3 million people with Medicare have saved over $6.1 billion on prescription drugs because of the law.


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Part of the reason why is because the concept does not adequately capture how Muslims are racialized and reduced to singular racial 'otherlings' in defiance of their complex ethnic and racial diversity.
There is also the issue that Islamophobia, like any other phobia, is an irrational act that is described in terms that focus on individual agency.
The Western state as agent of anti-Islamic bias, and policy focus, is usually religiously avoided in these discussions.
This is particularly true of media and some scholarly discussions in the US, Britain, and France, among other Western states.
I think it is important to note that anti-Islamic sentiment in the private and the public spheres is not merely an irrational feeling.
Accordingly, I reject the notion that to deal with Islamophobia there is a need to propogate a moderate version of Islam, a kind of positive steering strategy that would allow biased non-Muslims to feel a little less irrational.
Steve Biko was right when he said that racism was not a problem of Blacks. What he meant was that racism during the era of apartheid was a white problem.
In the same vein, I think that Muslims should not feel obliged to fashion Islam into bigot friendly frames. For this reason, I also reject the notion that there is such a thing as moderate or radical Islam.
There simply is no such religious division in Islam. The religion is based on five universal principles and there is no moderate or radical interpretation of how these principles guide Islam.
Marking a community as radical or moderate won't help bigots feel any more secure about their prejudices.
The division of moderate or radical Islam is more useful in describing the political interests of the Bush administration, for example, than it is theologically insightful.
That aside, I think there is some value in using Islamophobia as a means of describing some of what Muslims face in the post 9/11 era.
The Runnymede Trust cites 8 building blocks that define Islamophobia in a report entitled Islamaphobia a Challenge for Us All:
1. Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.
2. It is seen as separate and "other." It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them.
3. It is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist.
4. It is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, and engaged in a clash of civilizations.
5. It is seen as a political ideology, used for political or military advantage.
6. Criticisms made of "the West" by Muslims are rejected out of hand.
7. Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society.
8. Anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural and normal.
The last building block is of particular relevance to me as I write tonight. I have been thinking about a coversation I had with a young Muslim brother last night.
The brother told me that he was serving a white woman in a store where he works and she stopped and asked him what his religion was. He said he thought it odd that she would all of a suddent ask the question.
He decided to answer the woman. "I am a Muslim" he said with a smile. He expected she would say something like "oh that is interesting" or maybe something like "oh I know a Muslim woman I work with."
Instead, the woman drew back with a grim look and said, "Are you a terrorist?"
I knew immediately what he was feeling. I have been there too in Portland, Oregon, when a white car salesman asked me if I was a Muslim.
I said "yes" and he then asked, "Is your father a terrorist?"
I got up and walked out of the dealership but his comment has kept burning in my psyche ever since.

subset: commoncrawl


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|Assistant Coach (Offensive Line/Co-Special Teams Coordinator)
|13th at MIT
|Previous College:
|Massachusetts '91
One of the most experienced coaches on the MIT football coaching staff, Al Pogarian will be in his 13th season with the Engineers in 2019 as he works with the offensive line and is the co-special teams coordinator. He brings 23 years of football experience to the MIT program and was honored in 2012 with the Division II-III Assistant Coach of the Year award by the Greater Boston Gridiron Club.
Pogarian came to MIT starting in 2007 as the running backs coach. Under his guidance MIT set a single-game rushing record of 477 yards that season. For the 2008 and 2009 seasons he took over as the Engineers offensive coordinator and saw his unit set school records for points, touchdowns, first downs, rushing yards, total offense, and rushing TDs in 2008. He moved to his current position with the defensive line in 2010.
Prior to MIT, Pogarian was the offensive line coach and nearby Waltham High School from 2001-06 where he coached Mackenzy Bernadeau who currently plays for the NFL's Carolina Panthers.
At the collegiate level, Pogarian has held positions of offensive line coach at Marist College and Westfield State University as well as the offensive coordinator at Dean College.
A 1991 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Pogarian was a four-year letterwinner for the Minutemen. A two-year starter at center, he was a member of three Yankee Conference championship teams as well as a pair of squads that played in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. Pogarian earned a bachelor's degree in business administration while in Amherst and is a native of Natick, Massachusetts.


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Science student wins Rhodes scholarship
13 November 2009
The winner of the 2010 NSW Rhodes Scholarship is David Llewellyn, a University of Sydney Science Honours student with a determination to develop a vaccine for malaria.
David was educated at Great Lakes College Forster/Tuncurry where he was dux of his year, won the Eureka Schools Prize for Biological Sciences and received a UAI of 99.3. He went on to complete a Bachelor of Science (Advanced) at the University of Sydney, and was part of the Faculty of Science Talented Student Program.
"It's an absolute honour to be selected and I am very excited to be going but the magnitude of winning hasn't really set in," David said.
At the University of Sydney David's Honours research has related to the slow spread of cane toads across Northern Australia and focused on toads' immune responses and the development of disease-related control strategies.
David says a logical extension of this research is the application of disease control strategies to a humanitarian field.
He was also inspired to be part of local environmental solutions by a recent trip to Brazil in which he worked with the National Institute for Amazonian Research, and with local farmers to raise awareness of conservation issues.
At Oxford he will study a Doctorate in Philosophy in a laboratory run by Professor Adrian Hill at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. Professor Hill is a world leader in the field of immunology and vaccine development in particular malaria vaccine development.
David is a resident of the University's St Paul's College and has been an active member of the College, having taken leading roles in a number of the College plays, as a regular member of the soccer squad and as the co-author of a report on the ecological sustainability of the College.
David's win follows the 2009 awarding of the scholarship to Natasha Simonsen, a University of Sydney economics/law graduate.
From the shortlist of this year's NSW Rhodes Scholarship two other participants will now go into selection for the 'Australia at Large Rhodes Scholarship' which will be announced in Canberra later this year.
Previous prominent Rhodes Scholars include Malcolm Turnbull, Geoffrey Robertson, Kim Beazley and Bob Hawke.
Contact: Faculty of Science
Phone: 02 9351 3021


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2012 Holiday Tag-a-Long Week 4
Well here we are, the last week of our Holiday Tag-a-Long. Wow. Is it just me or did the last 4 Wednesday's go by really super fast?
So. I have a small confession to make. Remember how I said I wasn't going to buy any new supplies for my tags ... just use what I already had? Well, I kinda sorta cheated a little. I didn't mean to, but I met a friend for lunch last week. And the cafe was "conveniently" located next to one of our favorite shops that happens to carry some crazy beautiful embellishments, like these sequins.
Aaaagh! They're like jewels!!! And I didn't even buy them with my tags in mind. I just bought them ... just ... 'cause. I was feeling a little guilty 'bout that, but then my lack of discipline led to a lovely moment of inspiration for this week's color theme ...
Hot Pink & Kelly Green
Yeah, baby!
For some reason I had "Baltimore Album" on my mind and I've always loved this classic laurel wreath. I started with the embroidered branches, then added my pretty new colorful sequins, a few pink knots and some green leaves and voila!
It's a bit bigger than the template because I wasn't going to frame it. But it didn't look finished so I added the pink border and the ribbon trim ... which you can't really see except up close. But it makes for a more elegant finish.
I also thought a lot about embroidering the year or a monogram or a little festive word in the middle, but I couldn't make up my mind. So I left it blank.
Next was this stitched wreath with the teensiest little irridescent flower sequins ever.
I embroidered a simple feather stitch wreath and randomly added the flowers with greens knot.
It looked a little naked so I added the white knots in the middle. Not sure if I like them, but they're staying. And solid pink for the entire tag was too much for me, so I added the green fabric and then covered the seam with a pretty white ribbon/bow.
Last but not least ... I used the fabric as the feature.
I was just going to add the 2 ribbon stripes and be done with it.
But it reminded me too much of the ugly tube socks I used to wear for gym class. NOT the look I was going for. So I girlied them up with little embroidered bows and some sequin hearts.
I love them.
In fact, I'm pleased with all my tags.
And I LOVE Amy's tags too, of course.
We hope we've inspired you to make some pretty tags too. Or that you've at least enjoyed seeing our creations. If so, then we have succeeded in our mission to spread some pretty, crafty holiday cheer. Thank you to everyone who participated! Please keep adding your lovely tags to the 2012 Holiday Tag-a-Long Flickr Group.
But you know what? I've decided to sell my tags. I know, you might think I'm crazy. But I've already had my fun designing and making them and for me, it's always more about the making than the having. I've listed them in my shop as their original sets, if you're interested. UPDATE: SOLD OUT!


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Acne, Cold Hands and Feet, No Sweating
Posted by Michael Woodworth on Tuesday, April 30, 2013,
Chinese Herbs For Tight Dry Tendons
Posted by Michael Woodworth on Monday, April 29, 2013,
Itchy skin rash treated with Acupuncture and Herbs
Posted by Michael Woodworth on Monday, April 29, 2013,
The Evolution Of Integrated Medicine
|Michael Woodworth
|Oceanside & Rancho Bernardo
|Michael Woodworth is the clinic director of Natural Solutions. Providing highly skilled acupuncture and herbal treatments for a wide array of internal and physical problems. Michael Woodworth is also Full-Body Certiifed in Active Release Techniques. His qualifications make him one of the few people in the country to offer combined Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Acupuncture in combination with Active Release Techniques resulting in some of the best Sports Medicine and Pain treatments possible. www.ActiveReleaseAcupuncture.Com (888)871-8889


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Superintending Archaeologist -
22,Mall road, Agra
Email: email@example.com | email@example.com | email@example.com | email@example.com
Phone: +91-562-2227261 & 2227262/ 63 & 2330498
One knows that 'The Taj' is one amongst the World's Wonders! One knows that it is one amongst the UNESCO World Heritage Sites!! One knows The Taj as a legend of eternal love of an Emperor for his favourite Queen!!!
Well, 'The Taj' has distinctions much beyond just these!
Therefore, 'The Taj', surely, deserves your visit once and more!!!
Come, Walk along the pathway beside the reflecting pool with fountains upto the mausoleum crafted in
soft & pure marble and jewelled with semi precious stones, where in the serenity of paradise rests the
Queen in peace with her King. Come to unfold the pages from the past to churn the charm out of its
mystique and enrich your imagination about this marvel of an epic in stone, The Taj!
The grace of perfection of proportions and grandeur of geometrical patterns of well appointed gardens
enhancing the poise of the whole complex together add magnificence to the delicacy of this mance of
love, dedication and purity, 'The Taj'!
Come take a dip into the saga of 'The Taj', culled out from no fiction but facts and unfurl a saga, which
is set out of nothing but pure love!
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder! Probably for Taj Mahal, the axiom is just the other way round.The Taj is the beauty personified! The Taj displays its different moods through its varied shades. The Taj
has as many shades as any kind of beauty can ever have! The Taj is pinkish in the morning, milky white
in the evening, golden when the moon shines and the intermediary variants during different hours of the
day and during different seasons in a year.
Picturesque descriptions by the historians contemporary to the period of its making, the facts revealed by
the scholars & archaeologists of today and the panoramic montage of the reasons behind its making are sketched with every step you would walk towards the mausoleum the next time you visit The Taj!
A look this time at the Taj will keep you indulged with thoughts superimposing your sight and would
make you feel the presence of Shah Jahan, the Maker and Mumtaz Mahal, the Reason, as though walking along with you.
Whence its breathtaking splendour makes you wonder breathlessly and you tend to pause for a while but
to continue staring at 'The Taj', you would sense them standing beside you!
If one has a heart that beats and that beat throbs to seek, the purity of love in galore!
Surely one deserves a visit to 'The Taj', as much as 'The Taj' deserves your visit once, and more!


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The umbilicus ("belly button") is in the center of the lower abdomen. It is the site through which vessels which provide nutrients to the fetus from the mother during development penetrate the fetal abdominal wall.
Umbilical hernias are fairly common. They are obvious at birth and are caused by a small defect in the abdominal muscles which allows a portion of the peritoneum (lining of the abdominal cavity) to protrude, and push the umbilicus outward. This is more obvious when the infant cries and the increased pressure results in more visible bulging. The defect is not usually treated surgically. In most cases, by age 3 the umbilical hernia shrinks and closes without treatment.
The indications for umbilical hernia repair include:
General anesthesia is used. A curved incision is made under the umbilicus.
The hernia sac is identified and dissected from the underlying tissues, and cut out. The underlying tissues are then closed with strong nonabsorbable sutures. Skin edges are held with paper tape (steri-strips). The surgical scar should be hidden in the umbilical depression.
Children can usually go home within one to two days of an umbilical hernia repair. Recurrence is rare.
This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM


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General Tools Manufacturing
General Tools is known as the leader in innovative specialty hand tools. General Tools has manufactured quality hand tools that deliver outstanding value to millions of satisfied customers in the United States and throughout the world. General Tools has come to be respected for a broadly diversified line of hand tools in plumbing, woodworking, metalworking, and machinist trades.
505 Cordless Precision Engraver
The 505 enables precision cordless engraving anywhere by anyone from professional technicians and mechanics to homeowners and DIYers.
80560 Inspection Mirror
A lighted telescoping inspection mirror that allows you to peer into the dark crevices of your work space in search of leaks, breaks or lost tools.


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The grim reality for Microsoft is that it'll be at least another year before anyone cares about what it's doing in mobile. The trouble is that by then, it could be too late to mount a comeback.
The latest: This week, Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5, the newest edition of its mobile operating system.
No one expected anything special. But even reduced expectations have gone unmet.
"Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't just a letdown -- it barely seems done," Gizmodo's John Herrman wrote in a review, adding "it's nowhere near the upgrade that Windows Mobile needs to be even remotely interesting."
The basic problem: While parts of the OS have been updated to look recent, the guts of the operating system are ugly and outdated.
An ugly smartphone operating system may have been acceptable several years ago when smartphones were expensive gadgets directed at business people, who just needed them to check email, make calls, or to browse a crappy version of the Web. Compared to old versions of Palm OS or the BlackBerry operating system, Windows Mobile may have come across as vibrant and sophisticated.
But today's smartphone is a different product aimed at a different audience: Consumers, who have no interest in sifting through Microsoft's arcane folders, menus, and ugly user interface, and just want something usable.
And while Windows Mobile ages, consumers have new, better, simpler options, namely Apple's iPhone OS and its many apps, RIM's BlackBerry, Google's Android, and Palm's WebOS. Add Nokia's Symbian and Windows Mobile, and that's six smartphone platforms -- only a few of which will end up long-term winners.
How will Microsoft fare? Over the past year, buyers have voted with their wallets, increasingly shunning Windows Mobile. Microsoft's share of the smartphone market dropped to 9% during Q2, from 14% the year before, according to Canalys. Apple's increased to 14%, and RIM's to 21%. Thus the sense of urgency.
Now Microsoft's challenge is to beat -- or at very least, match -- top consumer offerings, in style, sophistication, and services. That's not impossible, and if anyone has the money (and drive) to try and try again, it's Microsoft. But clearly Windows Mobile 6.5 is a rush patch job -- not the company's real effort.
So what's the real plan?
Microsoft is working on a major overhaul of Windows Mobile's guts, due in version 7 in about a year. We've heard good things about early progress, and even former Apple executives have told us to watch out for what's to come from Redmond.
But while we're hopeful that Microsoft can make something beautiful this time -- even the new Zune interface is looking pretty good -- the company does not have history on its side.
Microsoft has tried to dominate the mobile gadget industry for more than a decade, with little success. Time and time again, Redmond continues to release mobile software that's hideous, bloated, and late. Why will Windows Mobile 7 be any different?
The bigger problem: Even Microsoft's best effort could be too late.
As the smartphone industry becomes a platform story, it's not just the operating system that matters, but all the apps that other companies have made for it.
Over the past year, Apple iPhone developers have made 85,000 apps, Google Android developers have made 10,000 apps, etc. Those numbers could easily double by this time next year as the platforms continue to evolve and improve.
Meanwhile, Microsoft still has a year left before it can even hit the reset button. Who's going to want to buy into that?
Don't Miss: 10 iPhone Apps Microsoft Must Make
Get the latest Microsoft stock price here.


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Solar Power, Lakota Empowerment
Wi—the Lakota word for sun—may help restore a culture, according to Gary Wockner in "Solar Power, Lakota Empowerment." Wockner describes the project of the Fort Collins, Colorado-based Trees, Water and People (TWP) to provide solar power to the Lakota community at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where many households typically spend up to 50 percent of their income on heat.
Solar Power, Lakota Empowerment
Cleo Weasel Bear smiles widely as she shows visitors the cluttered living room of her trailer home on a bright March day. "This is where I make my star blankets," she says, and picks up one of her prized creations, an antique-white quilt with a shimmering blue star stitched onto its surface. Star blankets are valued highly in Lakota culture-they symbolize a deep reverence for celestial bodies that watch over the Earth-and Cleo's face glows with pride. "But I've hardly been able to work in here this winter. No heat," she says. "I sleep next door at my daughter's." Like many women on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, making and selling arts and crafts is her sole source of income.
Cleo faces additional challenges beyond heat. She was recently diagnosed with cancer, and doctor visits as well as ongoing treatments cloud her future in unknown ways. The smile on her face belies these material hardships. She briskly escorts her guests-two contractors and an anthropologist from Colorado, and me-through her trailer and around her yard. Her words brim with optimism.
We've come to Cleo's at her invitation, to decide where to place a solar heating system. Tomorrow and the next day we will come back with a crew, tools, and materials. But as we tour her surroundings, we can't help but notice more. Clothes are piled high in all the rooms; a few flat spots are swiped clean for sitting or sleeping. Windows are broken and covered with plastic, as are holes in the walls. The water isn't working. Outside, the trailer is surrounded by detritus-household trash, junked cars and trucks, and broken toys. Several friendly dogs follow us and lick my fingertips as we walk around.
Across the reservation this scene replays itself. Later that afternoon, we drive to the village of Porcupine to inspect the small home of Shirley Bisonette, who has also requested a solar heating unit. Shirley is not feeling well and stays in the bedroom; her wheelchair sits outside the bedroom door. Angel, her boyfriend, escorts us around.
Shirley's house is in even worse shape than Cleo's. The roof leaks and the ceiling is literally falling in, patched with stapled-up plastic to hold back the sagging insulation. A few broken windows are also sealed with plastic. The interior walls are punctuated with holes and show years of grime. The kitchen stove and sink are broken. A small hot plate serves as the main cooking appliance, and a partially broken woodstove is the only heat source.
Outside, dogs again trail us as Angel gives a brief tour of the house's south-facing wall. Several junk cars, mounds of trash, and a large pile of household garbage clutter the yard. A heap of painted scrap lumber lies out front. When things get desperate and the family can't afford firewood, they burn this scrap for heat.
Yet through both of these reservation households, one very bright element offers additional hope. The sun, called wi in Lakota, floods the reservation and showers the south-facing walls of Cleo's and Shirley's houses. Tomorrow, wi will change these women's futures.
Many Hands, Light Work
The next day starts early. We are staying at Richard Sherman's home in the village of Manderson on the reservation. Richard is a wildlife biologist who now works as a Lakota guide and also manages the tribe's buffalo herd. Last night, Richard and I talked at length about the Lakota's buffalo, a recent project he undertakes in conjunction with native activist Winona LaDuke's organization, Honor the Earth. Buffalo represent a new (but also very old) culture of sustainability to many Lakota people, a concept of increasing interest at Pine Ridge. Sustainability, too, has drawn our group to the reservation.
As Richard leaves the house for his morning buffalo chores, our visiting group loads up tools and equipment and drives over to Oglala Lakota College (OLC) in Porcupine for a morning meeting and solar training session. Accompanying me is Cindy Isenhour, an anthropologist who recently completed her master's thesis about the reservation. Cindy works as director of development for the Fort Collins, Colorado-based non-profit Trees, Water & People (TWP), which operates a Tribal Lands Program at Pine Ridge. She serves as cultural liaison for the group's Pine Ridge programs.
Joining Cindy and me are Alison Mason, a solar engineer/installer and TWP contractor, and Don Alvarez, also a TWP contractor/installer. Alison operates a small solar company in Fort Collins and works for TWP's Tribal Lands Program as the brain-trust who designs and implements the solar program. Although her impact today in Porcupine may be small, it is creating ripples beyond this reservation. For this project and others, Alison recently received the "Solar Woman of the Year" award from the American Solar Energy Society.
The OLC campus in Porcupine is a small building with administrative offices and six classrooms. In one, 30 students listen intently as Alison gives a brief discussion of global warming, then describes the specific solar installation that will take place later at Shirley Bisonette's. Most of the students are college-aged men and women in either a carpentry or electrical program at OLC. Another, younger, group of students is from Youth Build, a tribal program to help students earn a high school equivalency degree and skills beyond.
TWP's mission on the reservation is unique and provocative. In 2002, the group arranged a meeting with several tribal agencies and leaders to investigate a potential reservation-based program. "Our goal," says Cindy, "was to approach the reservation with no presumptions or agenda. We wanted to start a program and we wanted the tribe to help define it." Many groups and agencies, she explained, come to the reservation with their own agenda and programs, but like many "outsider" development schemes in the United States and abroad, success is often limited or short-lived.
"What also came out of the meeting," Cindy continued, "was that many Pine Ridge residents have trouble meeting their home energy costs. Many poorer residents' homes are heated exclusively with wood or electricity, both of which are expensive. In some situations, up to 50 percent of household income is spent on heat."
Armed with this information, TWP put together two programs consistent with its broader environmental mission: a solar heating program and a tree-planting program. The solar heating program is designed to offer immediate, tangible assistance. In addition, TWP hopes to find and incubate local Pine Ridge entrepreneurs to build and install the heaters. To accomplish these goals, Cindy and Alison have secured grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Bob and Kati Rader Foundation, the Bush Foundation (no relation to the presidential family), and many of TWP's individual donors. Several solar installations were completed prior to our visit, and several more are planned.
After the training session at the college, Alison and Cindy leave to give another session to a different group of students in Pine Ridge Village, the seat of the reservation's government. Don and I stay in Porcupine to help with and supervise the installation at Shirley Bisonette's.
As we drive to Shirley's, I quickly review Alison's plans and sketches. I'm not a member of TWP, and this is my first visit to the reservation. Cindy has allowed me to come along and write about this trip on condition that I help install the systems. I've brought along a box of carpentry tools and am trying to look the part. Don has installed two units before, so I pepper him with questions as we drive.
Alison's simple, low-tech solar heating system uses a large collecting panel mounted on a south-facing exposure. The back of the panel is painted black, a glass surface is on the front, and heat is collected in the three-inch airspace between these two surfaces. Using flexible ductwork, air is sucked into the unit from the house, blown through the panel, and pushed back inside. An indoor thermostat and controller-switch regulate the temperature. This is a daytime-only heat source, suitable here on the reservation where most residents, especially women, work inside. At night, households rely on traditional heating, usually wood.
As we unload the truck and talk through the project with the students, my job begins to look easier. The OLC and Youth Build students are a friendly, can-do bunch of carpenters and electricians who know much more about climate control than I do.
Don supervises the crew, dividing us into three groups: outside installers who will mount the panel on the house, ductwork installers who will cut holes and mount ducting, and electricians who will wire and mount the blower. Beyond listening and watching, I run a tape measure and a pencil for the ductwork crew. These young Lakota men and women are eager to do the job, and our many hands make light work.
We banter and joke throughout the afternoon as a mix of rock-and-roll and traditional Lakota music flows from Shirley's kitchen over KILI, the reservation's radio station. To my suburban ears, the drum beats and high-pitched Lakota songs provide a surreal, almost eerie, feeling to the open prairie around Shirley's house. It takes me a while to realize how ironic my reaction is; rock music has been around for fifty years, Lakota for a thousand or more.
After three hours, the job is nearly complete. All that's left is for Alison to come back in the morning to inspect the installation and hook up the final wiring. We stand back and admire the panel. It's been a good day of work-energy well spent with tangible, visible results.
After the students leave and Don and I load the truck, Angel invites us in for a cup of coffee. Shirley is still in bed when we enter the kitchen, and when I inquire about her, Angel simply says, "She's not feeling well." Angel is about 60 years old and has a huge, scabby burn on his arm as well as several visible tattoos. "I slipped and fell into that woodstove last week," he says, pointing to the burn.
Above the table hang numerous snapshots of children. "These are my children and grandchildren," Angel says, his face glowing. The curling and torn snapshots are the centerpiece of the kitchen. In fact, there is little to do here but look at them-only one chair sits against the table, and the rest of the walls and surfaces are covered with clothes, holes, and grime.
Angel has nine children, most of whom are grown and living elsewhere. Only one son lives in the house. A few of the people in the pictures have died, including a two-year-old granddaughter, Estrelita.
"My father had 20 children," Angel says. Don and I voice a collective "Wow!" and almost choke on our coffee. Angel has lived in Porcupine for much of his life. His son attends Porcupine School down the road. Another daughter recently graduated from Porcupine, and her graduation tassel hangs beside her picture, its small metal attachment reading "Quills," the school's mascot. Porcupines are important animals in Lakota arts and crafts. Their quills are gathered and dyed and used in many types of jewelry-making.
As our banter becomes more friendly, Don says, "My high school was the Ketchum Indians." We all snicker at the obvious connotation. And then I remember my high school and add, "Mine was the Watseka Warriors." Angel immediately takes off his cap and points to his bald head and says, "You guys want to scalp me?" We all burst out laughing.
At Pine Ridge, laughter hasn't always come so easily.
Hope Amidst Poverty
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has been, and continues to be, ground zero for America's complex relationship with its indigenous peoples. The Oglala Lakota were the last to succumb to white advancement in the late 1800s, an era that ended with the "Massacre of Wounded Knee" in 1890. The current reservation boundary, sitting in the southwest corner of South Dakota and including Wounded Knee, exists due to a long, convoluted history of broken treaties and shrunken homelands.
Over the last century, this relationship has been marked by all-too-familiar problems at American Indian reservations, including forced relocations, forced English-language boarding schools, and stark U.S. government inconsistencies. Many older Pine Ridge residents grew up in the boarding schools and remember the will, if not the mantra, of the original sentiment used to create the schools. "Kill the Indian, save the man" was the motto of General Richard Pratt, the former commander of an Indian POW camp who founded the first off-reservation federal boarding school in 1879.
In the 1970s, this history helped galvanize tribal politics and lead to the growth of the American Indian Movement at Pine Ridge. The reservation again became ground zero, culminating in the 71-day armed standoff at Wounded Knee in 1973, often referred to as "Wounded Knee II." The ensuing months of mayhem were marked by a large FBI presence and the subsequent murders of FBI agents for which Lakota member Leonard Peltier was convicted in 1975. This chaos was immortalized in several books and films, and through all these stories the reservation is depicted as a center of power struggles and conspiracies both within tribal ranks and between tribal members and the U.S. government. Even our soft-spoken host, Richard Sherman, had strong words about these events. "It was a very difficult time on the reservation," Richard said. "A lot of people were killed. Everyone carried guns, including my parents, who were school teachers."
Our travels on the reservation took us by Wounded Knee several times. The small village is a dense cluster of government-issued houses and apartments. Just down the road is the Wounded Knee historical museum, a brightly painted many-sided building in the traditional hogan form. Across the street from the museum stands the metal sign commemorating the 1890 chaos. Where the sign once said "Battle of Wounded Knee," a piece of metal with the word "Massacre" is now riveted over the word "Battle." Beside the museum on a small hill, a large stone commemorates the mass grave of the massacred.
In the past five years, smaller conflicts have flared up on the reservation. Armed Lakota militants have at times taken over tribal headquarters in Pine Ridge Village as a show of resistance against the tribal government, which many Lakota believe is too closely aligned with federal overseers. During my visit, I heard three open discussions on KILI about why the tribal government should be overthrown. Also recently, a militant, armed group of Lakota has taken over the southern unit of Badlands National Park, which lies within the reservation boundary, and has intermittently fired at visitors and Park Service employees. These militants claim the Park Service is pilfering sacred archaeological sites.
Although Pine Ridge's violent turmoil has largely subsided, the conditions that spawned it have not. Unemployment rates hover around 80 percent; homelessness, alcoholism, and suicide rates are very high; and the reservation has been home to America's poorest county for the last 40 years. Additional tangible ills, such as chronic disease, are epidemic across the reservation. During our visit, more than half the older adult residents I met had diabetes.
The village of Porcupine reflects Pine Ridge's housing and social ills. It has about 150 houses-some newer government housing, many trailers, and several, like Shirley's, in very bad shape. Across the reservation, census statistics and other federal, state, and tribal reports paint a similar picture. Of the roughly 3,500 houses on the reservation, maybe 1 in 50 is in extremely poor condition like Cleo's and Shirley's. At least half are in better shape but still need significant improvements in structure or utilities.
Amidst this poverty, the reservation has had no shortage of help and attention. The list of international, federal, state, and tribal agencies that have created funds, programs, charities, and scholarships is pages long. Likewise, non-profit and religious groups have come, gone, and stayed by the dozens. Many individuals-some former reservation residents, some not-have made the fight against Pine Ridge's poverty and housing problems a major life commitment.
Attention has also come from Hollywood, which has a fascination with Pine Ridge's Oglala Lakota. Several fictional movies and many documentaries have been filmed here. During my visit, I met several people who had either brushes or ongoing relationships with Hollywood filmmakers. Every craft-maker we met could point to a nearby piece of jewelry or clothing and say, "This piece was used in the movie Thunderheart" (or some other film). At one point, Leonard Peltier's prison paintings were selling among Hollywood glitterati for thousands of dollars.
Political leaders have also "found" the reservation. In 1999, President Clinton became the first U.S. president to visit an Indian reservation in 50 years, and the first to visit Pine Ridge since Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s. He was flanked by senators, representatives, and corporate executives. During his speech, Clinton made strong remarks about several prominent corporate CEOs who were proposing economic programs at Pine Ridge, and about the federal government's ongoing commitment to the reservation.
Yet little has changed: the poverty persists.
Given this history and more, Trees, Water & People faces both the material circumstances on the reservation and the skepticism of the Lakota people. When the group approached the reservation, they learned quickly that the landscape and its people are hesitant to embrace yet another development scheme, program, or make-work project.
TWP also faces the traditional challenges of simply deciding who gets what. As in any environmental service endeavor, the line between providing help and "social engineering" is grayer here than anywhere. Should TWP provide "that extra little help" that will put a household in the black, or should it put resources where most needed? Should the householders be required to help install or pay for the project? Should resources go into a household that suffers from alcoholism, where the money might just buy more beer? Who is at fault here-the individuals, Lakota culture, the tribal government, the state, the U.S. government? If fault could be determined, how should that change TWP's efforts? Should TWP work with other organizations as part of a cohesive household reconstruction strategy, and if so, how to organize and fund that coalition? Questions, not answers, prevail.
Like any non-profit environmental group, TWP relies on individual donors as well as foundation and government grants, all of which are highly competitive and require specific, fundable proposals intended to create tangible, accountable, and reasonably short-term results. Complex coalition-building and long-term social engineering projects rarely fit these criteria.
Despite these challenges, TWP has succeeded with this program. Beyond the solar installations completed so far, two Lakota men approached TWP during our visit with an interest in building and installing the solar collectors. Two other Pine Ridge residents have also expressed strong interest in helping TWP spread the word and lead the workshops. These residents, like Cindy and Alison of TWP, believe solar power can help the Lakota people further extend their traditional connection to nature and the land.
Since the American Indian Movement activities of the 1970s, a small but strong Lakota movement at Pine Ridge is working to re-establish links with its traditional culture. Richard Sherman's buffalo herd and Winona LaDuke's Honor The Earth organization are integral parts of this movement. Some Lakota have moved back to the reservation from other U.S. cities, and some have moved back onto their rural land to re-establish small family clans, or tiyospaye. In fact, a few of the previous recipients of TWP's solar heaters sought out the program precisely to stay in their rural homes, close to families, connected to the land, in hopes of maintaining their traditional culture. In a nutshell, if implemented properly, solar power offers the Lakota autonomous, sustainable energy that is virtually free. Solar power can lead to Lakota empowerment. Wi may help restore a culture.
A New Day
The next morning, Alison and Cindy join Don and me as we leave Richard's house, drive through Wounded Knee, and return to Shirley Bisonette's to finish her new system. Several students from Youth Build have shown up to assist us and see the finished product. While a few of us work on Shirley's unit, other students put together the blower and electronics for the system that will go in at Cleo Weasel Bear's later in the afternoon.
This low-tech solar heating system is relatively inexpensive, as the panels were used previously. Altogether, the system costs about $1,000 with used panels, $1,700 with new. The data Alison has collected suggests the systems can save between 20 and 40 percent on home heating costs. Using the panels will also decrease reliance on firewood, a dwindling and expensive resource on the reservation. Shirley's household will probably save $75 a month, hopefully enough to wean them off burning painted scrap-lumber, which fills their chimney with creosote and is surely poisonous.
As we finish Shirley's installation, the Youth Build students pose in front of the new collector, as do Angel and Shirley's son, Joel. Cindy, TWP's liaison and development director, is adamant that "we need Lakota faces in these pictures. No whites. The donors want to see Lakota faces." An interesting statement, it symbolizes the complex nature of non-profit environmental work and the complex relationship America has with its indigenous peoples. "Lakota faces" sell the programs and generate money.
Today, meeting Cindy's needs is not hard. Lakota faces outnumber white six to one, and the Lakota students are eager to help, dig in, and get the job done. Afterwards, the Lakota stand back, as do Don and I, and revel in the accomplishment. Donors and funders can rest assured: this project works. In the world of environmental service projects, rarely is such progress made in such a short time with this amount of money. If only all of Pine Ridge's ills could be cured so easily.
When we walk back in the house, Shirley is out of bed and apparently feeling better. She sits in her wheelchair in the kitchen, next to the hazardous woodstove. Her crutches lean against the wall beside her.
"Shirley, come take a look at this," says Angel, and he wheels her into the small living room next to the duct where the hot air streams out at 95 degrees Fahrenheit (it's about 50 degrees outside). Shirley reaches down and puts her hand in front of the duct. "Lila waste"-"very good"-she says in Lakota. Then she looks up at us, smiles broadly, and says, "Pilamaya ye," which roughly translates as "Thank you," or literally, "Feel good-me-you-made."
Later in the day, at Cleo's, a similar scene plays out. The Youth Build students have driven over, and again, the work goes quickly. Cleo is the most exuberant and appreciative of all the residents who have gotten the systems so far. After the installation is complete, she invites us for dinner, and together we share Indian fry bread, beef stew, and wojape, a Lakota peach pudding. Children play, dogs bark, and the conversation buzzes through her daughter's trailer and beyond.
Before we leave for the night, Cleo returns to her own newly heated trailer while we stay at her daughter's. On our way out, we stop in to see her busily rearranging the trailer's living room-her work room. She has organized her sewing table, and a large, partially finished star quilt is laid out on one corner. Cleo buzzes with energy, her smile wide and eyes bright. We say our goodbyes, and she again thanks us. Though she doesn't speak it, her expression says more: Hihani ki anpetu tokeca, which roughly translates as, "Tomorrow is a new day."
Gary Wockner, Ph.D., is an environmental writer and research ecologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He is editor of the recent book Comeback Wolves: Western Writers Welcome the Wolf Home.


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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Lines of Code...
Why RRD?
There are some awesome perl graphics libraries out there, both general and specific. The reason I've chosen to introduce you to the wonderfully reversed world of RRDtool (RRD standing for Round Robin Database) is that it works well for producing line graphs. I like line graphs because they help a network and/or system administrator get a good look at trends in their network and/or systems. By identifying trends, it becomes much easier to identify anomalies and quickly identify the existence of a problem.
RRDtool spun off of the MRTG (Multi-Router Traffic Grapher) project. As MRTG matured, the programmers modularized the backend of the data storage and display system into its own library. Thinking that the rest of the world might be able to put that library to good use, they (I mean mostly Toebias) spun off RRDtool and spent time documenting and supporting it and its often fledgling developers. MRTG has continued to be a driving force behind the development of RRDtool, but since its release and adoption by many open source developers, there have been many more people fanning the flames.
RRD Setup
Designing the database
As with all programming projects, most of the real "hard" work should be done during the design process. To get clear, concise, and representative pictures of what you're monitoring, it's critical to analyze the data and the process you'll use to access and interpret the data.
- What data points are critical?
- How much detail is critical?
- How often do I collect data?
- Can my devices handle the data polling procedure?
- How often am I going to view the graphs?
- How much historical data do I need?
Answering all of these questions will help you begin to lay out the database. Usually, network graphs look at five-minute intervals, and graph those intervals over the course or 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 1 month, and 1 year. Using those time frames is a good starting point, but maybe under- or overkill in your particular application.
Creating RRDs using RRDs.pm
I cover how to create, update, and graph data using the RRDs.pm module distributed with the RRDtool distribution. There are perl modules that might be simpler, but because RRDs.pm uses similar syntax to the RRDtool command line tools, and forces the programmer to understand the concepts behind the tool, I feel it'll be worth the price of admission three times over.
Sample RRD Options for the RRDs.pm create() function:
my @opts = ( '--step', 300, 'DS:in:GAUGE:600:0:U', 'DS:out:GAUGE:600:0:U', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:2:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:7:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:30:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:356:288' );
RRDs are compromised of three basic elements, Step, Data Sources, and Archives. The step determines the interval at which data can be entered in the database. The Data Source describes the data. The Archive stores the data.
my @opts = ( '--step', 300, 'DS:in:GAUGE:600:0:U', 'DS:out:GAUGE:600:0:U', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:2:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:7:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:30:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:356:288' );
The first option specified to the RRD is the step. This number is represented in seconds and tells the RRD how often it will accept updates. The default step is 300 seconds (five minutes). If you attempt to update an RRD multiple times within your step, RRDtool will issue a warning stating that data for that time period has already been received, and it will disregard the new value. If you want to run the poller process every minute, use a step of 60 seconds. This value will be consistent for all data sources you identify in the same RRD.
Data Sources
my @opts = ( '--step', 300, 'DS:in:GAUGE:600:0:U', 'DS:out:GAUGE:600:0:U', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:2:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:7:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:30:288', 'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:356:288' );
Data sources are also known as Primary Data Points (PDPs). PDPs are the actual data that your poller program will send the RRD to store. The options that follow tell the RRD how to interpret your data. The designation of "DS" tells the RRDs::create() function that this option is a data source. There are six key options that follow, colon delimited to provide the translation: Name, Type, Heartbeat, Minimum Value, and Maximum Value.
The first argument to a data source element is the name of the data source. This name will be used in all other RRD operations and calculations to distinguish the data source. Typical network interfaces usually have two to three data sources, traffic in, out, and errors. This particular example just sets up the data source for in and out.
RRDtool has a robust set of data types, for the sake of this article, I'll cover the two simplest and most used; GAUGE and COUNTER. A GAUGE is used for something like temperature, humidity, or throughput. It's like a reading from your speedometer or tachometer. It can fluctuate up and down and should be evaluated as to its value. A COUNTER is for things like "packets received" or "bytes received" on SNMP or Kernel tables for individual interfaces, or the number of visits to a website. These numbers are constantly incrementing. For the sake of simplicity, you'll use a GAUGE in this example. A neat example of a GAUGE graph might be "forecasted" vs. "actual" temperatures for your area.
The heartbeat is simply the number of seconds between updates before a value is determined to be "unknown." Unknown values in the graph are represented by gaps in the data. Unknown data will be represented internally as "Not a Number"—NaN. In this example, you'll assume that if you don't get information for 600 seconds (10 minutes), there's something wrong and the RRD should flag this value as NaN.
Minimum and Maximum ValueUsing Minimum and Maximum values helps the RRD allocate memory for data storage. Using common sense to say "for network traffic, you should never represent less than 0 bytes transmitted in 300 seconds" lets you set the minimum at "0". If you know the linespeed, and the unit you can calculate the maximum value, or if you're using this for multiple interfaces that all have different linespeeds or linespeeds that might change you can use a "U" to represent "Unknown". Used as a maximum, it represents positive infinity; as a minimum, the "U" represents negative infinity. Use the constraints that best suit your data. Values outside the min and max are regarded as "unknown" and effectively disregarded.
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|Scientific Classification
|Selected Divisions
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta (Vascular plants)
Non-vascular plants (bryophytes)
Plants comprise a major group of multicellular eukaryotic organisms, known as the Kingdom Plantae. All plants were created on the 3rd day of creation, including familiar types such as trees, herbs, flowers, and ferns. Botany is the field of biology dedicated to studying plant structure, function, and growth requirements.
The importance of plants, and therefore of our understanding of them, cannot be overstated. They are an integral part of the Earth's ecosystem, and without them life as we know it would not be possible. Plants are known as autotrophs, or producers, because they make their own food through photosynthesis, and consequently serve as the ultimate source of chemical energy for the rest of the food chain.
Origin of plants
There are two views regarding the origin of plants, the evolution model and the creation model.
Evolutionary model
The evolutionary model holds that plants evolved from primitive green algae some 400 million years ago. No "first plant" or "last algae" have been proposed. No explanation has been made for how algae gained the ability to take root on land, nor how they developed the ability to develop from embryos. These abilities are remarkably complex, and would have required a great number of mutations in order to function at all. Evolutionists have not explained the origin of these unique characteristics, other than to assert that it occurred.
The evolutionary model for the origin of plants is rife with problems. Perhaps the most difficult problem is the problem of abiogenesis and ozone, or the fact that plants are necessary to produce oxygen, but could not survive if the atmosphere did not already have oxygen and ozone to protect them from ultraviolet radiation.
Creation of plants
The Bible states that all types of plants were created on the 3rd day of creation; even before the sun was created. This sequence of events seems to directly contradict an interpretation of the "days" of creation as long periods of time. It is emphatically stated by God that the purpose of plants is to be food for humankind and "all" animals.
The creation of plants and their purpose is described in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 .
Genesis 1:11-13 reports the creation of plants on the 3rd day.
Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. Genesis 1:11-13 (NIV)
Genesis 1:29-30 reports that plants were to be food for humankind and "all" animals.
Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." Genesis 1:29-30 (NIV)
Genesis 2:9 reports that plants also serve an ornamental function.
And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. Genesis 2:9 (NIV)
- Main Article: Photosynthesis
Within an ecosystem, plants are known as producers. They perform the immensely important biochemical reaction known as photosynthesis, which produces the chemical potential energy (carbohydrates) that almost all other organisms on Earth are reliant upon. In addition to producing carbohydrates, oxygen is another important by-product of photosynthesis. Oxygen is equally important and required by organisms for the process of aerobic cellular respiration.
Humans and many kinds of animal derive much of their basic daily energy from the cereal crops (wheat, rice, corn). Fruits (plant ovaries) and vegetables (vegetative growth) from the flowering plants also fulfill a significant portion of the energy requirements of many consumers. In addition to supplying basic nutritional needs, the woody portions of plants have also served humanity as a building material, and fuel source for many activities such as cooking, heating, and lighting.
Photosynthesis is the chemical synthesis of complex organic materials, especially carbohydrates, from carbon dioxide and water using sunlight as the source of energy and with the aid of associated pigments. Photosynthesis seems only able to occur when there is energy from light from a star such as our Sun; the proper atmosphere, the proper amount of water vapor and organisms equipped with biological function to harvest it on Earth.[1]
For most organisms on Earth, photosynthesis is the beginning of the food chain. Photosynthesis enables plants to produce food for themselves, which is then ultimately passed on to animals and microbial organisms when they are eaten. Because plants make their own food, they are called producers (autotrophs), as opposed to animals which are consumers (heterotrophs).
In simple terms, photosynthesis is the process where atoms of carbon are hydrated (carbo-hydrate). With some minor variation, the ratio of Carbon to Water in carbohydrates is (1Carbon : 1H20). For example, glucose has the chemical formula C6H1206, which is 6(C+H20).
- Main Article: Plant reproduction
All plants have an alternative life cycle called the alternation of generations. One portion of the lifecycle is known as the sporophyte stage. This stage produces spores and is always genetically diploid (having 2 of each homologous chromosome). The other portion is known as the gametophyte stage, which produces gametes (sex cells) and is always haploid (having 1 of each). The sporophyte stage is larger and most conspicuous in ferns, whereas the gametophyte is dominant in mosses.
Plants can propagate through both sexual and asexual methods known as vegetative reproduction. Many plants can generate a genetic clone through a process called vegetative reproduction, which does not involve meiosis, gamete formation, or fertilization. This type of propagation involves the development of shoots and roots from a number of tissues such as stems, roots, and leaves. Many crops, grasses, and trees are developed using this type of cloning instead of by seed. Examples include Potatoes, Bananas, Aspen, Poplar, Willow, Strawberry, Avocado, Fig, Pineapple, citrus fruits (Lemon, Orange, Grapefruit), nut crops (Walnut, Pecan), and some fruits (Apple, Pear).
In angiosperms, sexual reproduction begins through pollination. Pollination happens when the pollen (male gamete) comes in contact with the stigma (female organ) of the same or a different flower. Pollen transport is accomplished either by drifting in the wind or being carried to another flower by insects, such as bees. After pollination, the pollen grain germinates and begins to grow a pollen tube down the style, through the wall of the ovary and into an ovule (incipient seed). As the pollen tube grows, two sperm are produced - one unites with female gamete, the other unites with the central cell of the ovule and produces the endosperm of the seed.
Unlike most animals and humans, plants continue to grow as long as they live. They can also be defined as functionally immortal. Although many have adapted to annual lifecycles where necessary, all types of plants grow as perennials where conditions allow, and only die as a result of trauma, pathogenicity, or when their basic requirements for life are not met.
Plants have the unique ability to grow in specific directions as a response to a number of external stimuli (tropism). This phenomenon is known as a tropism, which can be a positive or negative growth. For example, the response of plants to gravity (geotropism), is positive/toward the stimulus in roots, and negative in the stems where growth is in the opposite direction. Plant shoots are stimulated to grow toward sunlight (phototropism). Hydrotropism is a response to water, chemotropism to a chemical stimulus, and thigmotropism is a response to physical contact, which causes tendrils of climbing plants to grow when they touch a support and then grow around it.
Plant Cell
- Main Article: Cell biology
Although similar in many ways, the plant cell differs significantly from animal cells. Most notable perhaps is the organelle known as the chloroplast that performs the extremely important process of photosynthesis. The chloroplast has pigments, such as chlorophyll, which capture sunlight and give plants their characteristic green color.
Plant cells also differ in a number of ways due to design features related to structural support. The shape of the plant cell tends to be square, which serves the same function as building blocks to an architect. The cell is also reinforced with a very durable cell wall made of plant fiber known as cellulose. The plant cell also contains an enlarged storage vacuole, which also provides support through turgor pressure.
- Main Article: Paleobotany
Paleobotany is the field of paleontology involved with the study of ancient plants. It is an important area of creation biology, as creationism and evolutionism have radically different descriptions of ancient plant life. Creationism holds that a wide variety of plant life was created by God fully intact with the capacity to reproduce and adapt to changing environments, approximately 6,000 years ago. Evolutionism holds that all plant life (and indeed all life on the planet) is related by common descent over millions of years, and that more complex plants developed more recently than simpler plants.
Plant Taxonomy
The Kingdom Plantae or plant kingdom includes the Mosses, Ferns, Flowering plants, and Conifers. Instead of phyla, the plant kingdom is broken down into "divisions". The division of the Embryophytes or land plants is listed below.
Vascular plants (Tracheophytes)
- Seedless Vascular Plants
- Lycopodiophyta - Small plants with green, branched stems, scale-like leaves, and no flowers. Usually grow very low to the ground. Includes: Club Mosses, Quillworts, and Spikemosses.
- Equisetophyta - horsetails
- Pteridophyta - "True ferns" Plants that have roots and stems, but do not have flowers or seeds. Instead, they spread with spores. Includes Ferns.
- Psilotophyta - whisk ferns
- Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues
- Seed plants (Spermatophytes)
- Angiosperms
- Magnoliophyta - (Anthophyta) - The "flowering" plants.
- Gymnosperms
- Coniferophyta - (Pinophyta) - Plants that bear cones.
- Cycadophyta - cycads
- Ginkgophyta - ginkgo
- Gnetophyta - gnetae
- Pteridospermatophyta - extinct seed fern
Non-vascular plants (Bryophytes)
- Hepatophyta - (AKA Marchantiophyta) - liverworts
- Anthocerotophyta - hornworts
- Bryophyta: Plants with very small leaves and stems, with no roots and no flowers. Usually grow very low to the ground. Includes: Mosses.
- Chlorophyta -- green algae
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- ↑ "Photosynthesis Requires the Right Kind of Star." Creation-Evolution Headlines, July 27, 2007. Accessed August 30, 2008.
External links
- Plants by Wikipedia
- Native plant information network by Wild Flower


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Be on Mission
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Moderators: Game Masters, Group Leaders
Yanso wrote:EDIT- I thought that would print each die separately, here is the re-do:
Weiss wrote:Can Weiss and Zac be allocated one of the empty rooms in the catch all thread please?
Zoe Barenger wrote:Zoe's Note: Please be sure to read the Haven's description and choose a bedroom, if you haven't done so already. Also, let me know if I need to move any gear around. Thanks! Now, let's have a little in-town adventure!
@Ashlynn On it....i mean, DONE!!
Dark Lord wrote:I think you just roll it normally.
Jack McDermott wrote:Fortune and Glory
Original post: 1d10 = 10
Original post: 1d4 = 1
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By the end of the 2013, 1.4 billion smart phones will be in use around the globe, according to a new study from research firm ABI.
Of that 1.4 billion, 21 percent (or 294 million phones) will be running iOS, the Apple operating system that powers the iPad and iPhone. And a whopping 57 percent (or just shy of 800 million) will be running Google's Android OS.
A note: ADI hasn't further broken down those numbers into individual ownership statistics, so 800 million Android smart phones doesn't necessarily mean 800 million different Android users. After all, plenty of users probably own a couple of Android phones – one for work and one for business, for instance.
Still, the report is clear proof of Android's growing global supremacy.
In a separate study released late last month, Strategy Analytics reported that 152.1 million Android smart phones were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2012, nearly double the amount that were shipped in Q4 of 2011.
"Almost half-a-billion Android smartphones were shipped in total worldwide during 2012," noted Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics. "Android is clearly the undisputed volume leader of the smartphone industry at the present time."
A major contributor to the global success of Android, of course, is smart phones such as the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy S III. Released in May of last year, the Galaxy S III is currently available in upwards of 140 countries, and has consistently bested the Apple iPhone in plenty of markets.
In related news, Google is widely believed to be working on an "X-Phone," which would be manufactured by its recently-acquired Motorola Mobility arm.
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter: @CSMHorizonsBlog


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Fundraiser for Marian Kennedy's 50th musical production at North Lenoir High School
Goldsboro entertainer Michelle Braxton will headline the Cabaret during the North Lenoir High School Booster Club�s gala March 15 at Walnut Creek Country Club.
Event organizers hope to raise $15,000 to fund the flying equipment and the orchestra for the high school�s April 18-21 �Wizard of Oz� production � the 50th Broadway musical under the direction of Marian Kennedy, which also was her first at North Lenoir. Money also will fund college scholarships for the school�s Drama Club seniors.
Kennedy�s brother, nationally known entertainer and La Grange native Ray Kennedy, will emcee the gala and accompany the musicians on keyboard during the Cabaret show.
Braxton will sing a variety of numbers from Broadway musicals. Appearing with her will be Heather Shaw and Samantha Holland.
For more than 25 years, Braxton has shared the stage with such performers as Ricky Skaggs and Ben Vereen. She recently made her Thalian Hall debut in Wilmington in �The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,� directed by Ray Kennedy.
She attended Mount Olive College and graduated from Meredith College. She was Miss Goldsboro in 1991, and Miss North Carolina�s first runner-up and preliminary talent winner the same year.
As a Mount Olive College Singer, she went to New York City with Marian Kennedy for the Macy�s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
�Marian was so tiny that the parade organizers put her on the float with Santa Claus,� Braxton said. �Having her to look up to was great. I feel blessed to call her a friend.�
Braxton lives in Fuquay Varina with her husband John and two sons.
Shawis no stranger to the theater and performing arts world. In 2002, she was named America�s National Teenager and in 2005 was third runner-up to Miss North Carolina, recognized with talent and interview awards.
An N.C. State University graduate, she was a majorette for the �Power Sound of the South� Marching Band, a member of the University Singers and a chancellor�s aide. She has performed in numerous regional productions statewide, including Opera House Theater Company, Cape Fear Regional Theater and the North Carolina Theater.
Her favorite role was in �The Sound of Music� where she played the role of Liesl with the original great-grandchildren of Captain Von Trapp. She recreated the role at the Aladdin Theater in Las Vegas.
Originally from Elizabethtown, Shaw calls Raleigh home and is employed with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina in the Corporate Affairs and Community Relations department. She also is the �face� of Capital Ford in Raleigh.
Holland was a student of Marian Kennedy�s at North Lenoir and participated in many of the school�s musicals under her direction.
�I was very shy, but she got me to sing on stage,� said Holland, whose biggest break in high school was the supporting role of Irene Malloy in �Hello Dolly.�
She later entertained on the Palm Beach Princess for six years, working with Ray Kennedy.
�It was really fun working on a cruise ship,� Holland said. �If you don�t have butterflies before you go on stage, you�re doing something wrong, but when the lights come on, the adrenalin starts pumping.
�It�s very fun working with Ray,� she said. �There are always new adventures right around the corner. He and Marian have really helped me, and I really appreciate them.�
Holland does variations of several artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Patsy Cline and Bette Midler.
She is the daughter of Robert Holland Jr. and Betty Jo Hughes, both of Kinston.
Living in New York City, Ray Kennedy is vice president of the USO of the Metropolitan area. He works in entertainment and with programs that support the military, military families and Wounded Warriors.
He has spent many years as director/choreographer for Opera House Theater Company in Wilmington, the Cape Fear Regional Theater in Fayetteville, The Temple Theater in Sanford, the Blowing Rock Stage Company in Blowing Rock, The Flat Rock Playhouse in Hendersonville and The Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pa.
Kennedy was the director/choreographer/costume designer for �Beehive� at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and has produced fashion videos for Sherri Hill, noted pageant, prom wear and fashion designer. He recently joined her on �Keeping up with the Kardashians.�
He had a long career as president of Kennedy Entertainment Inc., producing entertainment on a variety of cruise ships. For 24 years, he was entertainment director for the Palm Beach Princess and produced shows at the Marco Polo Resort in Miami and at theaters in Boca Raton, Fla.
He also has touring and off-Broadway acting credits.
In 2012, Kennedy made his symphonic debut, accompanying on piano the USO Show Troupe with the El Paso Symphony. He was co-chairman for the New York Gala for the African Children�s Choir in December, a charity which educates thousands of orphans in seven African countries. He will co-chair this year�s gala.
The North Lenoir graduate also is a graduate of UNC Greensboro and the Burt Reynolds Institute of Theater Training.
The gala will include a social hour, dinner buffet, disc jockey and a live and silent auction. Ralph Tyndall of Sandy Bottom, will conduct the live auction. There�s still time for area merchants and residents to make donations for the auction.
North Lenoir High School Gala
March 15
Walnut Creek Country Club, Goldsboro
6 p.m. � Reception
7 p.m. � Buffet dinner
8 p.m. � Cabaret show
9 p.m. to 11 p.m. � DJ and dancing
Live and silent auctions during evening
Tickets: $28
Info: Donna Goodson, 252-566-5119; Loretta Butts, 919-778-7732


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Port Elizabeth, South Africa – Andi Böcherer captured second place at Ironman South Africa, posting a blazing time of 8:08:36 hours. The time represents a personal best Ironman finish for the 28-year-old German.
Böcherer's FELT-racextract Team Manager Jörg Scheiderbauer was ecstatic after the race. It is "the biggest success of our young history," commented Scheiderbauer. Böcherer owes his top result to a clever race tactic, as he revealed at the finish line. "I did not want to overdo it on the bike. I knew the race would be decided during the marathon and I was well prepared after intense winter training," said Böcherer.
Böcherer was consistently fast in each sector, recording the fastest swim split, third fastest bike split, and fourth fastest marathon split. Böcherer completed the 112 mile bike leg aboard his 2011 Felt DA.