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- Consumer Organizations
- Local Agencies Serving Deaf-Blind People
- State Services for Deaf-Blind People
- Informational Videos in ASL (Legal, Medical, Technology, etc…)
- Guide Dogs
- Interpreting Agencies
- Other Resources
Local Agencies Serving DeafBlind People
- Community Services for the Blind and Partially Sighted (CSBPS)
- Sight Connection: Products for Vision Loss and Blindness
- The CSB Donation Center: Donated clothing, household goods, and vehicles raise funds to support Sight Connection programs and services for people who are blind or visually impaired. They also offer donation pick-up services.
- Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center (HSDC)
- HSDC Store: Products for Hearing Loss and Deafness
- Lighthouse for the Blind
State Services for DeafBlind People
- Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR)
- Department of Services for the Blind (DSB): The DSB web site has excellent resource pages of technology developers and distributors.
- Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH), Washington State
- Washington Talking Book and Braille Library: WTBBL also carries large print books.
- Helen Keller National Center: Northwest Regional Representative:
Information Videos in ASL (Legal, Medical, Technology, etc…)
- Legal Informational Videos in ASL: The Northwest Justice Project, in collaboration with ADWAS and DBSC, has created some new video resources around a variety of legal topics that will benefit the Deaf and DeafBlind communities. The videos include information on the CLEAR*ASL program, the ADA complaint process, IDEA rights, Social Security Overpayments, and a video geared toward providers sharing 10 Tips for working with Deaf and Deaf-blind clients. The videos are in ASL – with captions, if you click the caption button. We have posted these videos to our NJP YouTube Channel and invite you to take a look at them and to share them within your community if you feel that is appropriate.
- DeafHealth, a completely free resource for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community to provide clear and concise health education in American Sign Language to promote the overall wellness of the Deaf & Hard of Hearing community.
- Diseases and Understanding Tests: Definitions in ASL
- Doctors: Find or recommend a Deaf-friendly doctor
- Ebola: With the latest up-to-date information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), DeafHealth.org has partnered with Ohio State University Medical Center to create their latest health education videos (Ebola) in ASL.
- DeafHealth Facebook
- Signs of Technology: Are you interested in learning signs used for technology? HKNC has provided a new reference guide of ASL signs used to describe technology. A series of videos, organized by category and alphabetically, are presented in ASL, voice, text, and with text transcripts of how to produce the signs.
- Fair Housing Video Series for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 12 videos in American Sign Language (ASL) with closed captioning about fair housing rights under the federal Fair Housing Act.
- Social Security, SSI, and Medicare Information: Here is exciting news about SSA’s first American Sign Language video and webinar “Social Security, SSI, and Medicare: What You Absolutely Need to Know About These Vital Programs.” Check one of them out today to learn more about Social Security!
- Guiding Eyes for the Blind
- The Seeing Eye, Inc.
- Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc.
- Leader Dogs for the Blind
- Pro-Tactile: The DeafBlind Way
- National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness
- Washington Sensory Disabilities Services: This is a statewide educational department providing various services to schools and students who are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or partially sighted, and deaf-blind.
- Washington Technical Access Foundation: This program provides low interest loans for any disabled consumers to purchase technical equipment. For DB people, this can be CCTVs, computers, software, vibrating signaling devices, pagers, all sorts of things to promote independent living. WATF is DB-friendly and happy to consult with DBSC if you request it.
- DeafBlindInfo.org: Current resource guides on DeafBlindInfo.org include guides for parents of deaf-blind children, as well as deaf-blind adults, senior citizens, and youth. Deaf-blind consumers may also benefit from “Tools to Independence,” a list of essential contacts for deaf-blind independence. Minnesota’s online resource of deaf-blind services and community has a new look! The site now has easier access and lookup for the 100+ resources listed.
- The Deaf Northwest News: A website, newsletter, & mailing list including information from event announcements, news, sports, state school for the deaf news & sports, press releases, state and local newspapers, advertisements, classified ads, business news, education news, technology news, sports news, religious news, ADA, local/state government news, and job opportunities of interest to the deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing, late-deafened, speech-challenged, and professionals in audiology/speech-language pathology/communication disorders in the Northwest (local/state).
- DBInews: DBInews is a monthly e-newsletter featuring deaf-blind columnists and commentaries.
- Turbo Tax: Offers some really helpful tax tips for the deaf, hard of hearing, and their families.
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What is WebAssembly?
This article explains the concepts behind how WebAssembly works including its goals, the problems it solves, and how it runs inside the web browser's rendering engine.
What is WebAssembly?
WebAssembly is a new type of code that can be run in moden web browsers and provides new features and major gains in performance. It is not primarily intended to be written by hand, rather it is designed to be an effective compilation target for source languages like C, C++, Rust, C#, etc.
This has huge implications for the web platform — it provides a way to run code written in multiple languages on the web at near-native speed, with client apps running on the web that previously couldn't have done so.
WebAssembly is being created as an open standard inside the W3C WebAssembly Community Group with the following goals:
- Be fast, efficient, and portable — WebAssembly code can be executed at near-native speed across different platforms by taking advantage of common hardware capabilities.
- Be readable and debuggable — WebAssembly is a low-level assembly language, but it does have a human-readable text format (the specification for which is still being finalized) that allows code to be written, viewed, and debugged by hand.
- Keep secure — WebAssembly is specified to be run in a safe, sandboxed execution environment. Like other web code, it will enforce the browser's same-origin and permissions policies.
- Don't break the web — WebAssembly is designed so that it plays nicely with other web technologies and maintains backwards compatibility.
How does WebAssembly fit into the web platform?
The web platform can be thought of as having two parts:
- A set of Web APIs that the Web app can call to control web browser/device functionality and make things happen (DOM, CSSOM, WebGL, IndexedDB, Web Audio API, etc.).
- WebAssembly is a low-level assembly-like language with a compact binary format that runs with near-native performance and provides languages with low-level memory models such as C++ and Rust with a compilation target so that they can run on the web. (Note that WebAssembly has the high-level goal of supporting languages with garbage-collected memory models in the future.)
Great, so what does this mean for everyone? Well, while running DOOM 3 in a web browser is certainly a cool demo, it’s not exactly game changing.
WebAssembly is only a few years old. It still has plenty of room to grow, and is still picking up speed. It’s not unreasonable that five years from now, frameworks like Blazor and Yew will be just as common as React, Angular, and Vue.
This could be argued to be fragmenting the web ecosystem, but WASM is cross platform. WAPM, a WASM package manager, may become the go-to way to share libraries between frameworks of different languages.
WebAssembly has a bright future. It has had a successful start in the browser ecosystem and is now headed for the cloud. It is a technology that augments other cloud native technologies and concepts such as Kubenetes, FaaS and Serverless.
This article has given you an short explanation of what WebAssembly is, why it is so useful, how it fits into the web, and how you can make use of it.
If you’re interested in how WebAssembly can work with your projects or startups, get in contact with us
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Wild Mushrooms – How to Forage for MushroomsWild Mushrooms – How to Forage for Mushrooms
It’s a cool, rain-soaked Saturday in October. Instead of sitting by the fire, I’m bundled up in rain gear tramping through the overgrown forest of the Cowichan Valley (about an hour north of Victoria) with 19 other similarly clad adventurers. Led by French-trained chef and mycologist Bill Jones, we’re foraging for the first wild mushrooms of fall: chanterelles, cauliflower, and lobster mushrooms.
While some, such as morels, are more plentiful in spring, it’s the wet, cool fall weather that produces the most abundant crops. Mushrooms are found throughout Canada—from Newfoundland and Labrador’s parks to the coastal forests of British Columbia—in grasslands, on trees and stumps, in bogs and marshes, on the burnt ground, even on other fungi.
The history of picking your wild mushrooms
Mushroom foraging has a long history in Europe, where it’s regulated and government agents are frequently on hand to help identify different varieties. In Canada, there are few regulations. You can’t forage in a national park, on private property, or in some provincial parks. (The rules vary; check to be sure.) However, picking is allowed on Crown land—although there are no government officials to identify mushrooms; responsibility rests with the individual. That, coupled with some old myths, may leave people wary.
“We’ve been raised on stories of toadstools and poisonous mushrooms, and that’s what comes to mind when people think of [foraging],” explains Jones, author of The Savoury Mushroom.
True, a small percentage of varieties are poisonous and some can be difficult to distinguish from their benign counterparts. But, by following certain rules (see “Code of Conduct,”) and by being extra cautious, foraging is a great way to partake of nature’s bounty.
Avoid small, emerging mushrooms, as well as large, rotting specimens; pluck (or cut off at ground level) only healthy, mature ones. Gently wipe away dirt and examine the plucked end for small, brown wormholes or lines. Keep only insect-free mushrooms.
Because mushrooms don’t contain chlorophyll, cultivating them is a little different from what’s required for green plants. The fastest and easiest method is to buy an indoor grow block or kit—usually about $30.
Kits are available for a limited variety of mushrooms, sold individually because each type needs a specially formulated growing medium, called a substrate. But no matter which species you order, indoor growing requirements are the same.
The blocks—which weigh about 3.5 kilograms and are a compact 15 by 22 centimeters—need to be placed in a humid area (somewhere between 80 and 95 percent relative humidity) with a temperature range between 12 and 20˚C; so avoid the main part of your home or greenhouse.
“The average house is usually too dry in winter,” says Bill Wylie, president of Wylie Mycologicals in Wiarton, Ontario, “while greenhouses get too much light and tend to be too warm in spring and summer.” Instead, he recommends a damp basement or garage. Since mushrooms grow naturally in wooded areas, he suggests people mimic those conditions by giving the fungi dappled light for part of the day. Strong, direct light can produce deformed specimens.
Also, avoid watering. “If you water, you risk introducing bacteria and contaminating the block,” explains Wylie. Instead, maintain constant levels of humidity in the room. If that’s a problem, boost the moisture level with occasional misting, or tent a plastic dry cleaner’s bag punched with holes over the kit—just make sure the plastic doesn’t touch the growing block.
A few days after starting, dot-sized growths will form on the surface of the block; a week later, you’ll be harvesting mushrooms. An average block, which yields more than one harvest, will produce about one kilogram in total.
Growing Mushrooms Outside
Mushrooms can also be grown outside in the garden. “They’re incredibly beautiful and highly underrated garden plants,” says Roseanne Van Ee, an interpretive naturalist who runs fall mushroom “safaris” through Outdoor Discoveries in Vernon, B.C. “There’s a whole range that people can introduce to the garden and enjoy as accent plants or prized edibles.” But be patient; it may take a year or more for mushrooms to fruit.
It’s also possible to order mushroom spawn (ready-to-grow fungal spores—sometimes included with a soil medium and manure—used as a starter) or logs plugged with spawn to place in the garden. As a rule, the spawn is the best to spread in spring, but when to spread it or lay logs and how to care for outdoor mushrooms depends on region and microclimate.
The logs must remain undisturbed while the spawn grows, which can take up to two years. When ordering them, ask if the logs are ready to fruit or whether they need a period of rest.
If they are ready for fruiting, you can “shock” the logs by soaking them in cold water for 48 hours before putting them in the garden (in 60 to 80 percent shade). Or put the logs out dry and let nature do the work. Wet, warm spring weather is usually enough to encourage fruiting; light watering may be necessary, however, during prolonged dry spells.
Outdoor growing, though, isn’t for everyone. “You’re faced with lots of contaminant problems and animals—insects, slugs, deer—and you’re always fighting the elements,” says Wylie.
In that sense at least, growing mushrooms is like gambling on anything else in the garden—only with a bit of luck, this gamble may pay off in delicious dividends.
Mushrooms begin deteriorating as soon as they’re picked. Washing them speeds up the process (and causes them to retain water and lose flavor). To clean, gently wipe the cap and stem with a paper or cloth towel, or use a mushroom brush.
Refrigerate small quantities in a paper bag. Larger hauls should also be refrigerated but placed in a well-ventilated basket lined with a dry paper towel and covered with a damp cloth or more paper towel.
Depending on the type of mushroom, drying, freezing and even canning are options for longer preservation. Freezing suits meaty, fibrous mushrooms such as buttons, boletes, and chanterelles. Drying also suits these varieties, as well as morel, oyster, hedgehog, and pine.
Code of conduct Mushrooms
Follow these tips on foraging to get the most from your outdoor adventure:
Forage only with an experienced guide. Find one through local mycological societies, which may host trips.
Use a reputable field resource (one specific to your region), but don’t rely absolutely on pictures; differences between fungi can be subtle. When in doubt, always leave it behind.
Avoid foraging on industrialized farms, roadsides, or lawns where commercial fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides might be used. “Mushrooms absorb toxins and pollutants,” explains mycologist Bill Jones. “They’re an excellent indicator of environmental health.”
Do not trespass on private property.
Bring a sharp knife for cutting, and baskets or bags (paper or cloth) for collecting. Plastic causes mushrooms to sweat and rot.
Keep different mushroom types apart (one poisonous mushroom can ruin the batch, so bring plenty of containers).
Bring a cloth or soft brush for cleaning as you go.
Left: Chanterelle e.g., yellow chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius); winter chanterelle (C. tubaeformis). Where to look: Mossy locations with mature stands of trees; often in groups. Its distinctive-looking cap makes it easy to identify. A large family with many types. Photo by Strobilomyces.
Right: Bolete e.g., king bolete a.k.a. porcini or cepe (Boletus edulis). Where to look: Near oak or pine trees. The non-toxic king bolete has a distinctive swollen appearance. Some species are poisonous: e.g., devil’s bolete a.k.a. Satan’s mushroom (B. Satanas). Never eat boletes that have red or orange pores.
Left: Morel (a.k.a. pinecone, sponge or brain) e.g., common morel (Morchella esculenta); black morel (M. elata). Where to look: Forests, orchards, gardens; or near stream banks, often after fires. It generally grows in spring. Distinctive sponge-like head and pale, hollow body. Raw mushrooms can cause mild allergic reactions when consumed with alcohol.
Right: Puffball (Lycoperdon spp. and Calvatia spp.). Where to look: Open woodlands, pastures, barren areas, lawns. Edible when young; toxic when mature. Cut in half to ensure inside is completely white and uniform. Can be confused with poisonous death angel, or destroying angel (Amanita virosa).
Left: Oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus). Where to look: On dead trees—standing or fallen. Large clusters of white to light grey, fan-shaped, overlapping caps. Relatively safe to collect; not easily confused with poisonous mushrooms.
Right: Pine a.k.a. champignon du pin, matsutake (Tricholoma). Where to look: At higher altitudes in stands of Douglas fir, as well as pine forests. Fresh mushrooms have a cinnamon-like scent. It can be mistaken for the poisonous Amanita smithiana, which does not have a spicy odor. Photo by Tomomarusan.
Left: Wood blewit (Clitocybe nuda syn. Lepista nuda). Where to find: Among or under fallen tree needles or wood chips; sometimes hidden in fallen leaves. Bluish purple when young; matures to a dull brown. Some species, including ivory funnel (C. dealbata), are poisonous. Wood blewit can be confused with the toxic Cortinarius species (silver-violet with brown spores that eventually darken the gills). Photo by Archenzo.
Right: Honey fungus a.k.a. bootlace fungus (Armillaria mellea). Where to find: Base of living or dead trees or stumps. Found in massive bunches. Cyclical: some years they are plentiful, other years, scarce. Raw mushroom is toxic; cook well. Some people have allergic reactions.
Left: Shaggy mane a.k.a. lawyer’s wig (Coprinus comatus). Where to find: On grass, soil, or wood chips. Tall, with a columnar-shaped cap that’s white with a brown central disc and scale-like skin; delicate. Black spores released as they mature can discolor other mushrooms. May be confused with the alcohol inky cap, a.k.a. common inkcap (Coprinus atramentarius), which is toxic when consumed with alcohol. Photo by Anneli Salo.
Right: Hedgehog (Hydnum repandum). Where to find: Most grow under conifers or hardwood trees; others grow as shelves on standing trees. Resembles a large chanterelle; has firm, dense flesh. Late bloomers, often appearing after other mushrooms have fruited.
Table of Contents
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Bitcoin is not only legal in various countries but also a recognized medium of exchange. Several countries across the world continue to embrace the value of Bitcoin for several reasons.
Unlike countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Nepal, Bolivia, and Ecuador that have banned Bitcoin, several countries worldwide, including the US and the UK, have legalized Bitcoins’ use. Generally, the legality of Bitcoin mining is determined squarely by your geographic location.
With the growing competing interest with traditional currencies, Bitcoin mining has been banned to discourage the ripple effect on fiat currencies. This is why the use of Bitcoin has completely been banned in various countries.
So, why is Bitcoin mining allowed in some countries and banned in others? We put all that into perspective.
The risk in Bitcoin mining
The key risks associated with Bitcoin mining are regulatory and financial implications. Bitcoin mining has a serious financial risk to miners. To some extreme extend, miners can break the bank to purchase expensive mining equipment to fail to achieve a return on investment.
To mitigate risk factors associated with purchasing expensive mining equipment, joining a mining pool is an ideal option.
However, it is essential to conduct in-depth research about Bitcoin mining’s perception in various countries before investing in Bitcoin equipment.
While Bitcoin is welcome in many countries around the World, other countries are concerned about the volatility aspect of Bitcoin. Some of the notable factors that have led to the ban of Bitcoin in some countries include perceived links to illicit trade like money laundering and drug trafficking.
While some countries have banned virtual currency, others discourage crypto transactions in financial institutions. These are some of the drawbacks that are gradually crippling the spike in demand for Bitcoin.
Uncertainty about the future of Bitcoins
The uncertainty about the future of Bitcoin is another aspect that makes it challenging for various nations to incorporate it into their financial systems fully.
Coupled with high volatility and competition from other cryptocurrencies, the future of Bitcoin remains unpredictable. This is why most nations are skeptical about fully endorsing the currency for use in their system.
On the flip side, Bitcoin mining is accepted in several countries across the World. Crypto enthusiasts can not only mine but also trade the currency against fiat currencies on exchange platforms. Often recognized as an asset, Bitcoin users can carry out transactions across various platforms and pay using Bitcoin.
The following are a few countries that you should never dare trade Bitcoins
China cracks down crypto miners and has completely banned the use of Crypto in all banks and financial institutions. Payment processors are banned from accepting crypto or Bitcoin transactions.
Though Russia has not rolled out regulations guiding the use of Crypto in the market, buying goods and services through Bitcoin is illegal.
Though not regulated, the Vietnam government emphasizes that Bitcoin is not a legitimate method of payment.
Bolivia, Ecuador Columbia
Bolivia has banned the use of Bitcoin and other Crypto. On the other hand, Columbia has banned the use of Bitcoin for transactions or investments. However, Ecuador passed a vote in the assembly to ban cryptocurrency in their economy completely.
Most of the countries that have criminalized the use of Crypto in the economy banned trading Bitcoin and discouraged Bitcoin mining activities. This means before investing in any crypto mining venture, you have to review government policies regarding the use of virtual currency.
Failure to adhere to government policies related to the use of Bitcoin may land you in trouble and even unprecedented legal implications.
Despite being banned in some countries, the use of Bitcoin continues to gain momentum big time just read more here. Forex trading platforms, e-commerce industries, and several giant outlets are already accepting Bitcoin transactions.
With increasing concerns about online transactions’ safety, cryptocurrency has been embraced as a great alternative in supporting safe online transactions.
If you are wondering whether to mine Bitcoin or not, then you have to ascertain whether your country allows Bitcoin mining and transactions. Though the future of Bitcoin appears bleak, growing demand for Bitcoin makes it a perfect alternative currency for transactions.
Despite perceived volatility, the value of Bitcoin has been increasing big time. This is attributed to a limited supply of the currency that has led to a spike in demand. The bottom line, Crypto is legal in several countries across the World.
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Preparation classes and testing at the GERMAN online SCHOOL in Southern California 2015/2016
Ursula Schoeneich, Principal
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Throughout the school year, we try to assess all of our students in levels AATG 1 – 4 and A1 to B1 and up and tutor our AP students.
We have a broad spectrum of tests available to select the ones that best fit the level of each student. For students after the 1st year of German, we offer a multiple-choice test online. For the more advanced students, the test is a multiple-choice test on their level. Our most advanced students have the opportunity to take a number of tests that assess their abilities and assist with advanced placement in high school or even in college. To receive full credit, students need to access and enrolled in classes.
This document will give you a summary of the different tests.
- The American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) is the official organization for German teachers in the USA. Every year, they offer four tests called National German Examination (NGE). The first one, AATG level 1, has multiple-choice questions concerning grammar and reading comprehension. The other three tests, AATG levels 2-4, also include a listening comprehension part and all tests have to be mailed in for scoring. Our students are then given a raw score and their performance is rated on a national basis. Successful completion of the level 4 test may help students to be placed in a higher-level language class in high school. The level 1, 2, 3, 4 tests are administered at the very beginning of January at GERMAN online SCHOOL. A few of our students have taken and passed these exams successfully in the past. For more information, please check https://www.aatg.org/
- The Advanced Placement (AP) test for college credit. This test, about three hours long, includes listening and reading comprehension, grammar, essay writing, cultural competency, and speaking to a test person. It is administered in early spring at a designated high school we choose for you. Homeschooled students and students whose schools do not offer AP must contact AP Coordinators identified by AP Services by a specific date which is beginning of March. For more information, please check: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com
The tests described so far are made in the USA and geared towards high school students studying German in American schools. Below you’ll find the description of tests developed in Germany.
- Level A2 , and DSD I B1 and DSD II B2 / C1 (DSD I and DSD II -Deutsches Sprachdiplom) The German Government/ Office of German Schools Abroad in Cologne (Bundesverwaltungsamt, Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen in Köln; BVA/ZfA) offers appropriate tests for younger learners who are studying German at German schools or German language schools abroad. The standardized German exams are based on language levels determined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CEFR (Gemeinsamer Europäischer Referenzrahmen, GER). The framework also has the goal to establish standards and benchmarks for the different steps in language acquisition. All language materials and examinations developed within the context of the European Union are following this framework in order to facilitate comparison between the different countries. There are six levels in total: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. C2 equals native speaker proficiency.
For more on the European Framework, please go to: http://www.auslandschulwesen.de/fachberatung
There are three levels of examination offered:
- A2 –provides proof of German language profiency at the A2 level ( students age 13+)
Provides career advantages when applying for jobs or vocational school in Germany.
- DSD I – B1 provides proof of German language profiency required for admission to preparatory courses at so-called Studienkolleg at a German university.
Our older (14+) and more advanced students might take the DSD I. The test is similar to an AP examination, except that the topics are geared towards younger audiences. Another difference is that the students have to give a short intelligent oral presentation about a topic of their choice in front of a BVA/ZfA approved representative. They will also have to answer pertinent questions quite fluently. Cultural competency has to be demonstrated throughout the examination. The written examination section is sent to Germany and graded there. The maximum point value is 96. Students need to receive 12/24 points on each of the four parts of the exam (listening comprehension/reading comprehension/oral communication and written communication) to receive the B1 diploma. If a student receives less than 12 points for one part, he/she may still get the A2 diploma.
- DSD II (B2 / C1) provides proof of German language profiency required for admission to many institutions of higher education such as universities in Germany. DSD II assumes an excellent command of German with about 800 – 1200 hours of instruction. (Students age will be older than 16+.)
DSD II is almost the equivalent of an Abitur Prüfung in German. It is more difficult than the AP. Students must do 2 oral presentations in front of the representatives from Germany (one prepared beforehand, one not). The students need to show mastery of the German language and culture. In addition, they need to show that they can understand and present difficult and controversial topics. An example could be “The development of the German social system.” Students must demonstrate critical thinking skills in their essay and in their oral presentations.
DSD exam results do not expire.
How to Get Into a German University
Because many ask this question, I would like to end our overview with a very short summary of what it takes to get into a German university. This is by no means complete.
- You need to get an equivalency of a German Abitur, the very difficult high school exit exam (usually, a certain number of AP tests and SAT scores are required, plus 1 year of study at a 4-year institution – NOT a community college!)
- Your grades need to be good enough to get a place in a German university (Numerus Clausus: certain subjects require a certain overall GPA, SAT score, etc.)
- You need to show your mastery of the German language (AP German test, Goethe-Institut diplomas, DSD II)
A representative of the ZfA (Central Agency for Schools Abroad) referred us to the links below.
- Studium in Deutschland, Studienangebote, Stipendien: www.study-in.de
- Zulassungsdatenbank: https://www.daad.de/deutschland/en/
- Welche Hochschule, welcher Studiengang? : www.hochschulkompass.de
- Stipendiendatenbank: www.funding-guide.de
- International Programmes (in English): www.daad.de/international-programmes
- Hochschulranking: www.das-ranking.de
- Studentenwerk: http://www.studentenwerke.de/
- Sommerkurse an Unis: www.daad.de/sommerkurse
- Forum rund um’s Studium: www.studivz.net
- DAAD grants: www.daad.org
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Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Welcome to our FINAL blog installment focused on sorting out some of the most commonly confused words in the English language. (If you missed parts 1 and 2, please feel welcome to check them out here and here.) This installment covers a few more of your requests, as well as a few more from my originally planned list.
cue/queue: A "cue" is a signal for action. The green light should've served as her cue to move forward. Since she was staring at her phone, however, the car horn of the vehicle behind her served as her cue instead. A "queue" is a charming word for a line of people or things, or for the act of lining up in such a queue. In England, there are queues (not lines!) everywhere. We Americans like to co-opt nifty words like queue, however, so you should probably get used to it. Go stand in the queue already. I want those pancakes.
lose/loose: "Lose" is always a verb. Since she lost her marbles, she could no longer play marble games with her neighbor. She also began to lose her grasp on day-to-day reality. "Loose" is most commonly used as an adjective; it's used to describe things that aren't tightly fitted. Those jeans look really loose on you. Are you sure you shouldn't get a size smaller? While "loose" can also be used as a verb, that usage is fairly rare. When it's used as a verb, it means to set something free. Since it was the end of the workday, he loosed his tie. Finally, "loose" can also be used as a noun, as in the charmingly outdoorsy expression "on the loose."
maybe / may be: "Maybe" is an adverb (something that modifies something else) that means "perhaps." Maybe it's a good idea to close the window. "May be" is a verb expression. I may be about to jump out the window. When in doubt, try substituting the word "perhaps." If it works, you can use "maybe." If it doesn't, stick with "may be."
mislead/misled and lead/led: "Mislead" is present tense (happening now). I didn't mean to mislead him about my cruel intentions. "Misled" is past tense (already done). In fact, she willfully misled him about her cruel intentions. Same goes for "lead" and "led." While they actually lead lives of gleeful abandon, they led everyone to believe they were serious, somber people.
precede/proceed: "Precede" means to come before. To remember this one, focus on the "pre" "Pre-" always means "before" (e.g., prefix, preface, premonition). A light rain preceded the thunder and lightning. "Proceed" means to move forward with something. Once the rain started to come down harder, we proceeded to open our umbrellas and look for a suitable shelter. To remember proceed, think of "pro-" and its use in words like progress, process, promote, and proboscis. (A nose DOES proceed forward, after all.)
premise/premises: A "premise" is a supposition or previous statement from which something else is inferred or concluded. The premise that global warming is a sham has no basis in reality. While "premises" could indeed refer to a collection of premises, it much more commonly refers to a house, building, or other property. After arguing with the climate-change denier for more than six hours, the scientist finally asked him to leave the premises of the lab's building complex.
principle/principal: This one is everywhere. It appears that many, many well-intentioned English teachers missed making an impression with this distinction. So I'll try again. "Principle" is ONLY a noun. It means a basic truth, rule, or assumption. One of the basic principles of democracy is that all people have equal rights under the law. "Principal" can be a noun or an adjective. As a noun, it refers to someone who is a very senior or important person in an organization (e.g., your school principal or a principal within a business). Fortunately, when "principal" is used as an adjective, its meaning is similarly focused on seniority and importance: it means "main or most important." The principal of the elementary school principally liked to remind us that each of us was smart and special in our own way. His principal focus was instilling confidence in all of his students. To help you remember, remember the classic mnemonic device: The principal is your PAL.
setup / set up: "Setup" is the noun, and "set up" is the verb phrase. While the kids planned to set up a lemonade stand, they couldn't find the sign-holding setup in the garage.
waver/waiver: "Waver" can be a noun or a verb. The waver stood atop the freeway bridge, waving frantically. He never wavered in his commitment to waving to as many people as possible during the daily rush hour. To "waive" means to give up a legal right. Finally, the waver signed a waiver saying that if he fell off the freeway bridge, he wouldn't sue the state.
week/weak: I was legitimately horrified when someone brought this one to my attention. "Really, people mix those up? For real?" Because while I manage to keep from figuratively wrinkling my nose at 100% of the unintentional mix-ups featured earlier in these lists, this one just seems... lazy. Nevertheless I proceed. A "week" is a unit of time. "Weak" is a word that describes a person, place, or thing that lacks power or strength. Last week, the coffee in the office tasted really weak. Next week, can we try a stronger brew?
Finally, some directional guidance to keep you from wasting too much time thinking, "Should that be toward or towards??"
backward/backwards: When used to modify a verb, you can go with either. When you use it as an adjective, however, you've got to stick with "backward." While he didn't give her a single backward glance, he simultaneously marveled at her backward point of view. "Maybe the world is evolving backwards," he thought.
forward/forwards: When using it as an adverb, stick with "forward." Despite her tendency to dwell on the past, she resolved to keep moving forward. The only possible use of "forwards" I can see is as a noun in a sentence written about email or snail mail. Exhaustedly, I looked over all the superstitious email forwards she'd sent me, wondering if she genuinely thought I believed that human luck is created solely by a willingness to forward chain emails.
toward/towards: These are genuinely interchangeable. Nobody cares. Go toward the light, or go towards the light. It's your choice.
Next week, I'm excited to proceed (not precede) to our next topic: word and phrase perversions that we need to set straight, including terrifying non-words such as "irregardless," "asterick," and "supposably." Have a good week, everyone!
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Moderate reasoning
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Literature
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In biology, mitosis is the process of chromosome segregation and nuclear division that follows replication of the genetic material in eukaryotic cells. This process assures that each daughter nucleus receives a complete copy of the organism's genome. In most eukaryotes mitosis is accompanied with cell division or cytokinesis, but there are many exceptions, for instance among the fungi. There is another process called meiosis, which is similar to mitosis in many ways, in which the daughter nuclei receive half the chromosomes of the parent, which is involved in gamete formation and other similar processes.
Mitosis is divided into several stages, with the remainder of the cell's growth cycle considered interphase. Properly speaking, a typical cell cycle involves a series of stages: G1, the first growth phase; S, where the genetic material is duplicated; G2, the second growth phase; and M, where the nucleus divides through mitosis. Mitosis is divided into prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.
The whole procedure is very similar among most eukaryotes, with only minor variations. As prokaryotes lack a nucleus and only have a single chromosome with no centromere, they cannot be properly said to undergo mitosis. Instead they undergo what is known as binary fission.
Main article: Prophase
The genetic material (DNA), which normally exists in the form of chromatin condenses into a highly ordered structure called a chromosome. Since the genetic material has been duplicated, there are two identical copies of each chromosome in the cell. Identical chromosomes (called sister chromosomes) are attached to each other at a DNA element present on every chromosome called the centromere. A protein called cohesin acts as a glue joining two sister chromosomes (a.k.a. sister chromatids) along their lengths. When chromosomes are paired up and attached, each individual chromosome in the pair is called a chromatid, while the whole unit (confusingly) is called a chromosome. Just to be even more confusing, when the chromatids separate, they are no longer called chromatids, but are called chromosomes again. The goal of mitosis is to assure that one copy of each sister chromatid — and only one copy — goes to each daughter cell after cell division.
The other important piece of hardware in mitosis is the centriole. Each centrosome contains two centrioles. The two centrosomes of the cell serve as organizing centers for microtubules. During prophase, the two centrosomes — which replicate independently of mitosis — begin recruiting microtubules (which may be thought of as cellular ropes or poles) and forming mitotic spindles. By increasing the length of the spindle (growing the microtubules), the centrioles push apart to opposite ends of the cell nucleus. It should be noted that many eukaryotes, for instance plants, lack centrioles, although the basic process is still similar.
Main article: Prometaphase
Some biology texts do not include this phase, considering it a part of prophase. In this phase, the nuclear membrane dissolves in some eukaryotes, reforming later once mitosis is complete. This is called open mitosis, found in most multicellular forms. Many protists undergo closed mitosis, in which the nuclear membrane persists throughout.
Now kinetochores begin to form at the centromeres. This is a complex protein structure that may be thought of as an 'eyelet' for the microtubule 'rope' - it is the attaching point by which chromosomes may be secured. The kinetochore is an enormously complex structure that is not yet fully understood. The key feature of a kinetochore is that it contains a molecular motor that uses energy from ATP molecules to move a chromatid along a microtubule, like a train on a train track. Two kinetochores form on each chromosome - one for each chromatid.
When the spindle grows to sufficient length, the microtubules begin searching for kinetochores to attach to.
Main article: Metaphase
As microtubules find and attach to kinetochores, they begin to line up in the middle of the cell. Proper segregation requires that every kinetochore be attached to a microtubule before separation begins. It is thought that unattached kinetochores control this process by generating a signal - the mitotic spindle checkpoint - that tells the cell to wait before proceeding to anaphase. There are many theories as to how this is accomplished, some of them involving the generation of tension when both microtubules are attached to the kinetochore.
When chromosomes are bivalently attached - when both kinetochores are attached to microtubules emanating from each centriole - they line up in the middle of the spindle, forming what is called the metaphase plate . This does not occur in every organism - in some cases chromosomes move back and forth between the centrioles randomly, only roughly lining up along the midline.
Main article: Anaphase
When every kinetochore is attached to a microtubule and the chromosomes have lined up along the middle of the spindle, the cell proceeds to anaphase. This is divided into two phases. First, the proteins that bind the sister chromatids together are cloven, allowing them to separate. They are pulled apart by the microtubules, towards the respective centrioles to which they are attached. Next, the spindle axis elongates, driving the centrioles (and the set of chromosomes to which they are attached) apart to opposite ends of the cell. These two stages are sometimes called 'early' and 'late' anaphase.
At the end of anaphase, the cell has succeeded in separating identical copies of the genetic material into two distinct populations.
Main article: Telophase
Daughter chromosomes arrive at poles by this stage. The nuclear membrane reforms around the genetic material and the chromosomes are unfolded back into chromatin. This is often followed by cytokinesis or cleavage, where the cellular membrane pinches off between the two newly separated nuclei, to form two new daughter cells. At this point, each new nucleus contains one copy of each chromosome. Mitosis is complete.
Endomitosis is a process that occurs when chromosomal replication takes place without nuclear or cellular division, resulting in cells with many copies of the same chromosome. This process may also be referred to as endoreplication and the cells as endoploid.
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Moderate reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Popular Science Monthly/Volume 42/April 1893/Conservation of the Mackerel Supply
|CONSERVATION OF THE MACKEREL SUPPLY.|
During the past few years there has been a serious scarcity of mackerel off the northern Atlantic coast, or rather the fishermen have been unable to capture such large numbers of this fish as had been their custom in former years. This falling off in the mackerel "catch" has a marked effect upon the fish-food supply of our markets. Scarcity of any commodity tends to increase the prices of articles which are used for similar purposes; hence, not only has mackerel become a fish of luxury—because of its scarcity—but the prices of most other fishes have been advanced correctively with the decrease in the general fish supply caused by the partial failure of the mackerel fishing during the past few years.
Recognizing this, the United States Fishery Commissioners inquired into the subject, but arrived at no definite conclusions, either with regard to the causes of this scarcity of mackerel, or as to how the supply could be increased to the former standard. However, some enterprising owners of fishing schooners having a knowledge of the enormous "banks" of mackerel that frequent the southern Irish coast at certain seasons, equipped their vessels for the ocean voyage and sent them across the Atlantic to fish for mackerel in Irish waters. In the matter of capturing large quantities of fish—superior to that which is caught in the western Atlantic—they were successful; but the question is undecided as to whether or not a continuance of the experiment would be financially judicious.
To my mind it seems clear that the sending of vessels to the Irish coast to capture fish for this market could not be profitably continued; but I believe that I can point out, not only the causes which led to the failure of the mackerel fishing upon this coast, but also show—from practical observation of the habits of mackerel and the methods of fishing for them—how the supply off the northern Atlantic coast could be readmitted.
The solution of such a problem as this can not be arrived at by any theoretical examination of the question. Study of the habits of the fishes, through centuries, and practical observation of their movements and instincts, can alone guide one in arriving at satisfactory conclusions. And, in order that my statements may receive due consideration, I think it not unwise to premise that at the Fisheries Exhibition in London, in 1883, I read a paper upon this subject before a special International Conference, and was awarded for it one of the few "grand diplomas of honor" which were conferred by the "commissioners appointed by her Majesty's Government."
I shall elucidate the subject of the causes of the apparent diminution in the mackerel supply off this coast by an example which will de facto point out how this fish can be readmitted as an economic sea product for our food supply; and in so doing I shall draw almost entirely from my research in the matter as contained in the paper to which I have referred.
About thirty years ago the mackerel fishery off the southern Irish coast was first (in this century) prosecuted as a great industry. Fishing vessels came there from Scotland, England, the Isle of Man, and from France, to reap the silvery harvest of the ocean; and the few rude native craft which then existed were rapidly multiplied into hundreds of beautiful yacht-like fishing vessels. For twenty years the mackerel fishing—which begins in March and continues until the end of June—prospered almost phenomenally, and many of the boat-owners and fishermen, both native and foreign, amassed comparative wealth, as did also the ship-builders and net and rope makers. The town of Kinsale, county of Cork, which is the headquarters of the industry, enjoyed a prosperity during those years strangely at variance with the decaying condition of other Irish towns; but in 1880 this great fishery was temporarily destroyed, through sheer ignorance of the habits and instincts of the mackerel, by the avarice of the boat-owners and fishermen of the Isle of Man.
It occurred in this way: All the fishermen of this great fleet—over one thousand fishing vessels, each carrying eight to ten men and more than two miles of netting—were aware that the mackerel came from the Atlantic, in the southwest and west, toward their spawning ground off the southern Irish coast at this season. But the Manx fishermen and owners were not satisfied with reaping a good harvest from March to June. The fish fetches a much larger price early in the season, and they decided that they would "try" for them farther west than the usual fishing ground, before the season opened off Kinsale and Baltimore. The result was disastrous. For two years the "early boats" succeeded well; but in the third year the entire mackerel fishing along the coast was a failure, and it was not until May and early in June that good catches were made off the "grounds" outside Kinsale. Then the price was low, as the fish was too full of roe, or "spent" after spawning, to be shipped to foreign markets in good condition, and one after another the boat-owners and fishermen and merchants fell before the unprosperous wave. The fact of the mackerel not turning up until late in the season caused sore distress among the eight or ten thousand persons engaged in the industry; but it had one good effect—it stopped the too early fishing; and now, after eight years of failure, prosperity is again beginning to dawn upon the southern Irish fisheries.
It must be obvious to the most ordinary reader that the cause which led to this temporary failure was the too early interception of the mackerel while on the way to their spawning ground. Why this should be, I shall explain more interestingly; for in elucidating the subject I shall have to call attention to the peculiar habits and instincts of the mackerel, which, upon the authority of early official documents, we learn were suspected, if not known, by the fishermen of the south of Ireland more than two centuries ago.
When alluding to the instinct of the mackerel I did so in a manner that might possibly lead a reader to suppose that they possess the same unreasoning prompting to action that do all animals, whether it be that that instinct warns them of danger, safety, or the presence or propinquity of food or pleasurable object. But there is one all-important factor of common instinct which is partially absent in the mackerel—viz., danger; for, although when they are interrupted on the way to their spawning ground they avoid the place where their shoals were broken—oftentimes for many years—and execute the arc of a circle around the danger spot on their succeeding journeys to the spawning ground, it is a most curious fact that when close to their haunts they swim blindly and without any apparent unreasoning prompting or instinct of danger onward, nor do they struggle to free themselves from the meshes of the net as do all other fishes.
There can be no doubt whatever about this absence, or rather partial absence, of the instinct of danger in the mackerel.
Another peculiar trait of this member of the Salmonidæ family is that mackerel do not feed upon their own young as do most other fishes; and often, in the autumn, when the "harvest mackerel" (a smaller species than the "season" mackerel, and usually, but erroneously, supposed to be all males) frequents the waters close to the shore, I have seen them rush wildly through a shoal of sprats or brit, with which young mackerel often swim, devouring them upon all sides, but studiously avoiding those of their own family. Indeed, the petite mackerelettes do not seem to be at all so alarmed as their companions, who spring out of the water in their terror and swim scatteringly in every direction. This, too, is undoubtedly instinct upon the part of both the juvenile mackerel and his larger brother. But that fact does not importantly concern the purpose of this article.
I have shown that they possess instinct of both a perfect and imperfect order, and I have proved that, because of the interception of the shoals while on their way to the spawning ground in the spring, they abandon their usual course and travel perhaps hundreds of miles in a semicircle to reach the haunts where the roe is deposited. Of course, I have given only one example, and that one which came under my own observation during the years from 1880 to 1892; but I shall now go back more than two hundred years and add to my personal knowledge the experience of the fishermen of that time, as recorded in the Annals of Kinsale, which old manuscripts I had the very great pleasure and privilege of being allowed to make a thorough examination of in 1882 and 1883.
Even in recent years, here, as well as in Ireland, the fish savants sought to place the cause of the scarcity of mackerel at every door but the correct one. One man would say, "They are being overfished"; another, "They are most uncertain in their comings and goings, and have no fixed or permanent haunts or spawning grounds"; and yet a third would advance the theory (for, mind you, all these men are simply theorists in the science of ichthyology) that "mackerel only frequent certain localities on the coast at irregular periods."
All three theories are wrong; and I shall prove that not only have they fixed spawning grounds and haunts, but that they have been known to frequent one "ground" for over two hundred years without the intermission of a season, and that it is only such accident as continued interception of their progress toward that ground too early in the season that prevents their being captured in large quantities in the same places and at the same time every year.
Early in the seventeenth century "enormous catches of pilchards, mackerel, and herring" were obtained off the southern Irish coast. At that time the mackerel season occurred precisely at the same time in each year as it does now, and the great spawning grounds were located then in exactly the same place as they are to-day. This of itself goes far to prove that the habits of mackerel, in this wise at all events, are practically unchangeable; but we must advance more particularly into the matter to arrive at a positive rock foundation for my statements. In the seventeenth century the native fishermen fished in open boats, "with rude and inadequate appliances." But then, too, a fleet of French fishing smacks came annually from Dieppe, Havre, Boulogne, and the many small villages and towns lying between these cities, to reap the mackerel harvest in the ocean outside Kinsale. These Frenchmen had fishing appliances much superior to those of the Irish. In fact, I demonstrated clearly in 1883 that the most improved modern inventions for the capture of mackerel are not importantly superior to the gear used by the French fishermen in Irish waters nearly three hundred years ago. And it is in this connection that the connecting link between the mackerel fisheries or mackerel habits and instincts of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries can be plainly demonstrated.
In September, 1675, the fishermen of Kinsale, smarting under the continued absence of mackerel "from their shore . . . until the harvest time" for two seasons, held a meeting at which it was concluded and resolved that "the enormous nets of the Frenchmen" broke the shoals "and the mackerel became frightened and sought other grounds." Thereupon they petitioned the king, through Secretary Burchard, . . . that "a fleet of three hundred sail of French have for many months, in this season, beleaguered our coast. They have nets, each of them half a league in length. And they fish four our mackerel and pilchards to such a degree that our nets can not catch any more." The petition then goes on to state that "in consequence of the great length of the nets" (of the Frenchmen) "the shoals are broken and the mackerel refuse to come again in that way." This petition was drawn up and signed in Kinsale in September, 1675, and it goes to prove that so far back as the seventeenth century the mackerel frequented the same "grounds" that they do to-day; and that for the same reason as they did in 1883, they resented the interference of the Frenchmen at a too early period in their migration toward the spawning ground and disappeared from the coast at this point. That they were captured late in the season is told in the following quotation, dated September 7, 1675: "Notwithstanding that the mackerel disappeared from this coast in the spring, because of the depredations of the French, they have turned up again in enormous numbers and fat at their old haunts outside the Old Head to the westward."
This proves my original statement that mackerel have a distinct and permanent spawning ground; and it is a strong weapon in my assertion that want of knowledge of the habits of the fish is solely responsible for its scarcity either in this or in the Irish market.
But it is needless to prolong this argument. It is established without question that the habits and instincts of mackerel are the same that they were three hundred years ago, and that during all these years they sought the same spawning grounds and resented interference with their progress toward them by making a detour. In this detour lies the secret of the erroneous idea that "the mackerel are leaving the coast." They are not. They will reach their spawning grounds, no matter how far they swim; and, when they are near to them, nets, of whatever construction, can not deter their progress.
The moral of this is simple. To me it is as plain as the sun at noon. It is this: If we wish to capture mackerel, we must do it in season. Nature sends them to us then, and we should profit by their approach; but we must not use unnatural methods or times to reap the harvest.
And now let us examine more particularly the bearing which this elucidation of the habits of the mackerel in the eastern Atlantic has upon the waning mackerel fisheries of the eastern American seaboard. Unfortunately, we have not the same specific data which are furnished in the Annals of Kinsale to compare the earlier conditions. In fact, we have no authentic records of mackerel fishing with nets earlier than the first decade of this century; and, as says Mr. R. Edward Earll, in his exhaustive report, it was not until 1826 that the New England mackerel fisheries were prosecuted with any appreciable success. Prof. Brown Goode and Captain Collins, of Gloucester, have also added most important contributions to the history of the mackerel off this coast; and, as all these efforts are contained in the official reports of the United States Commissioners of Fish and Fisheries, I shall confine my own observations within the limits of the official records of their research. The mackerel fishery off the New England coast extends from the northern end of the Gulf of Maine to Cape Cod, and it has been ascertained that their spawning ground lies between the Shoals of Nantucket and the Bay of Fundy. A general fishing, however, is carried on from the shoals southward as far as the Chesapeake Bay. Mackerel were first fished for in these waters off the New England coast; and when, in 1870, the older appliances were discarded by the majority of the fishermen and the purse-seine adopted, enormous numbers were captured by the men who fished outside Gloucester. Discovering, however, that the fish could be captured earlier in the season farther south, the more enterprising among the fishermen tried the waters as far south as the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and succeeded admirably for several seasons. Then, in 1878, the men who remained on the New England ground, and who continued to use the old appliances—drag and gill nets—discovered that the supply of mackerel was becoming irregular and smaller, and, believing that this scarcity and irregularity of the fish were caused by the use of the purse-seine, they protested against the use of that style of net in precisely the same manner as did the Irish fishermen petition against the "long nets of the French" in 1675.
The protest of the Gloucester men had no effect; the Southern fishery was continued uninterruptedly for several seasons more, and finally the mackerel seemed to have disappeared from the coast in the same manner as they did from the Irish coast from 1883 to 1892 during the spring season; and in the same manner also they reappear off their New England spawning grounds in the late summer. I omitted to state that the season mackerel is caught in American waters in the same months that they are in From this simple statement of the history of the New England and northern Atlantic mackerel fisheries, I believe that the most obtuse reader will deduct the fact that the apparent disappearance of that fish from our coast is solely due to the same causes which were observed and which I have explained concerning the Irish mackerel fisheries; and I believe, and I think it is apparent from what I have written, that, in order to conserve a bountiful supply of mackerel in these waters, they should not be intercepted on their way toward their spawning grounds, certainly not until they begin to appear off the Shoals of Nantucket.off the Irish coast, viz., March to June.
The analogy between the errors of the fishermen and the habits and instincts of the mackerel, upon both sides of the Atlantic, will be seen to be curiously coincidental; and to my mind it seems clear that similar precautions would surely bring about similar results.
It is a clear case of judgment and patience. I should probably have said want of judgment; for want of judgment, seasoned by avarice, is the sole cause of the apparent disappearance of mackerel from this coast. The habits and instincts of the mackerel are practically unchangeable; and if our fishermen only study a little more the habits of the fishes, and accustom their expeditions to the necessities compelled by these natural sequences, our food supply—in the matter of mackerel or other fish—will not measurably diminish.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Tucked under towering oaks and nestled against a shady creek, Simkins Hall was the first air-conditioned dormitory at the University of Texas. These days, it has become notable for another reason.
It was named after William Simkins, a popular former law school professor but one with a dubious past. He served as a Confederate fighter and early organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in Florida, promoting the Klan and bragging about efforts to terrorize and harass “darkey” in campus speeches and publications.
On Thursday, Texas President William Powers Jr. will ask university regents to remove Simkins’ name from the two-story brick dorm built in the 1950s. The regents are expected to bring the issue to a vote.
The move comes after weeks of deliberations by an advisory panel and two public hearings.
“An institution like ours is shaped by its history, but it need not be encumbered by it,” Powers said.
Keeping Simkins’ name on the building “compromises public trust and the university’s reputation,” said Gregory Vincent, Texas vice president for diversity and engagement.
“By his own admission, Simkins engaged in violent behavior against African Americans. These were actions taken outside of the law,” Vincent said.
The issue sparked in May after former Texas law professor Tom Russell published an online article detailing resistance by the university to integration in the 1950s and 1960s. Texas named the dorm after Simkins in 1954, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision ended legal segregation.
“I support 100 percent taking the name off,” said Russell, who now teaches law at the University of Denver. “My goal in writing this paper was to help start a conversation about race and history and law. I will say in regard to that, I’ve succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.”
Simkins was a Confederate colonel in the Civil War and organized the Klan in the Florida soon after the war ended. After moving to Texas, he began teaching law at the university in 1899 and stayed there until his death in 1929. With wavy white locks and a fondness for chewing tobacco, he was a popular figure on campus and his portrait still hangs in the law school.
In a campus speech in 1914 and an article two years later in the alumni magazine, Simkins said he never drew blood as a Klansman. He did, however, admit to assaulting a black man, participating in a train robbery and sowing fear in Florida’s “black belt” as a masked night rider.
When a white woman in Florida complained of being insulted by a black man, Simkins wrote, “I seized a barrel stave lying near the hotel door and whipped that darkey down the street.”
Russell said he took his concern to Texas officials when he was still teaching in Austin in the 1990s but was told not to worry about it because the dorm, now considered one of the less-desirable residences on campus, would soon be torn down.
Powers will recommend the building be renamed “Creekside Dormitory.” Russell once supported renaming it after former legislator and Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, a pioneer among African-American politicians, but now says a more generic name is appropriate.
“Naming an old, worn out and undesirable dormitory after somebody seems like it would be kind of shallow,” Russell said.
Closed for the summer for repairs, the dorm has room for 190 students.
Brittany McCoy, a 20-year-old African-American student from Dallas, said it’s time to remove Simkins’ name from a place where black students may live.
“I was shocked,” to learn of Simkins’ connection to the KKK, McCoy said. “Texas is a school that stresses diversity. I know I wouldn’t want to stay in that dorm, and wouldn’t want my people staying there.”
Not everyone thinks Simkins’ name should come off.
Dave Player, associate editor for the Daily Texan student newspaper, wrote last month that the dorm was named after Simkins because of his 30 years teaching law, not because he was a racist.
The school could acknowledge Simkins’ past while keeping his name on the building, Player wrote.
“Honoring an individual by putting his or her name on a facility does not mean the University is condoning every aspect of that individual’s character,” Player wrote. “(If) a perfect character record is a requisite for honoring an individual then our campus would likely be composed of nameless buildings.”
On the Net:
University of Texas Board of Regents: http://www.utsystem.edu/bor/
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| 0.974472 | 1,019 | 2.65625 | 3 | 2.993812 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Politics
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Bom Jesus do Monte
Many hilltops in Portugal and other parts of Europe have been sites of religious devotion since antiquity, and it is possible that the Bom Jesus hill was one of these. However, the first indication of a chapel over the hill dates from 1373. This chapel - dedicated to the Holy Cross - was rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1629 a pilgrimage church was built dedicated to the Bom Jesus (Good Jesus), with six chapels dedicated to the Passion of Christ.
The present Sanctuary started being built in 1722, under the patronage of the Archbishop of Braga, Rodrigo de Moura Telles. His coat of arms is seen over the gateway, in the beginning of the stairway. Under his direction the first stairway row, with chapels dedicated to the Via Crucis, were completed. Each chapel is decorated with terra cotta sculptures depicting the Passion of Christ. He also sponsored the next segment of stairways, which has a zigzag shape and is dedicated to the Five Senses. Each sense (Sight, Smell, Hearing, Touch, Taste) is represented by a different fountain. At the end of this stairway, a Baroque church was built around 1725 by architect Manuel Pinto Vilalobos.
The works on the first chapels, stairways and church proceeded through the 18th century. In an area behind the church (the Terreiro dos Evangelistas), three octagonal chapels were built in the 1760s with statues depicting episodes that occur after the Crucifixion, like the meeting of Jesus with Mary Magdalene. The exterior design of the beautiful chapels is attributed to renowned Braga architect André Soares. Around these chapels there are four Baroque fountains with statues of the Evangelists, also dating from the 1760s.
Around 1781, archbishop Gaspar de Bragança decided to complete the ensemble by adding a third segment of stairways and a new church. The third stairway also follows a zigzag pattern and is dedicated to the Three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity, each with its fountain. The old church was demolished and a new one was built following a Neoclassic design by architect Carlos Amarante. This new church, began in 1784, had its interior decorated in the beginning of the 19th century and was consecrated in 1834. The main altarpiece is dedicated to the Crucifixion.
In the 19th century, the area around the church and stairway was expropriated and turned into a park. In 1882, to facilitate the access to the Sanctuary, the water balance Bom Jesus funicular was built linking the city of Braga to the hill. This was the first funicular to be built in the Iberian Peninsula and is still in use.
The design of the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus, with its Baroque nature emphasised by the zigzag form of its stairways, influenced many other sites in Portugal (like Lamego) and colonial Brazil, like the Sanctuary of Congonhas. As the pilgrims climbed the stairs, (by tradition encouraged to do so on their knees) they encountered a theological programme that contrasted the senses of the material world with the virtues of the spirit, at the same time as they experienced the scenes of the Passion of Christ. The culmination of the effort was the temple of God, the church on the top of the hill. The presence of several fountains along the stairways give the idea of purification of the faithful.
- Lobão, Pedro. "Bom Jesus elevado a Basilica". A Bola.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santuário do Bom Jesus do Monte.|
- Portuguese Institute for Architectural Heritage
- General Bureau for National Buildings and Monuments (Portugal)
- Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old Goa The Shrine of Saint Francis Xavier
- “Bom Jesus de Braga” seeking World Heritage status – Portugal The sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, in Braga city, mainland Portugal, is seeking UNESCO’s World Heritage status as part of its 200th anniversary celebrations, reported Lusa news agency.
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Strong reasoning
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History
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The territory of Siniscola has been inhabited since before the Prenuragic period, as attested to by the numerous artifacts found in the areas adjacent to the town. Notable among them are the geometric (crescent-shaped and trapezoidal) flint and obsidian microliths, which can be dated to the Middle to Late Neolithic Period (6000 BC). These artifacts were collected in the Capo Comino dunes. Also, you can find clear evidence of human presence dating back to Neolithic times, in places like outside the Elène Portiche grotto, on the western slope of Mount Lattu. We also find a consistent presence of settlements from the Nuragic period. In fact, there are no less than 46 historical-cultural sites associated with the Bronze Age, including five caves with archaeological importance, 32 nuraghes, 4 giant’s tombs, and 4 Nuragic villages. The area was also resettled in subsequent periods. Specifically, Roman rule over the area produced a settlement, during the late imperial period, that left various traces from the Bèrchida valley to Santa Lucia, as well as a strategically important port named "Portus Lugudonis".
The establishment of the village of Siniscola dates back to medieval times, when the territory was part of the Juridicate of Gallura, before coming under Aragonese rule. This period was also when the Saracens made their first incursions into the region. In 1514, they reached the coasts of Baronia. Without encountering any resistance, they landed on the coast and looted Siniscola, Torpè and Lodè, which prompted the construction of coastal watch towers and defense towers. Of these, Saint Lucia still stands today, majestic peering down the coast. However, successive Baronian rulers of the territory of Baronia never took good care of the fiefdom – so much so that in 1623, the council of Real Patrimony d'Aragona reassigned the fiefdom to its rightful owner Michele Portugues , who never created any organized system of defense against Saracen pirates. Ransoms forced him to make concessions that led to bankruptcy and the loss of his property and title.
From the year 1600 onward, the village of Siniscola underwent development, and by the year 1800, it had become a town characterized by strong demographic and economic growth. Siniscola had, in fact, assumed a role of dominance, thanks to its administrative, commercial, and tourist activities.
Siniscola (Thiniscole in Sardinian) is a village of 11,479 inhabitants, located on the eastern coast of Sardinia, in the province of Nuoro. It's in the historical region of Baronie, and it serves as Baronie's most important town. Owing to its location at the foot of the Mont'Albo limestone massif, surrounded by plains, vineyards, hills and pristine beaches, the Siniscola region, where the sea and the mountains intertwine to invigorate a pastoral landscape of unsurpassed beauty, has become a major cultural and touristic focal point.
The region is extremely varied. It begins with Mont'Albo, which offers visitors breathtaking views of a landscape that weaves together forests, glades, rocks, caves, springs and steep dolomite ridges, populated with rich local fauna. Boars, foxes and martens make the mountain their home, and it is also a nesting spot for golden eagles, peregrine falcons, hawks and buzzards. The vegetation is varied as well, with a mix of junipers, mastic trees and olive trees, as well as oaks and maples at higher elevations. There are many caves inhabited by humans in prehistoric times – important sites from an archaeological and speleological standpoint. They can be visited today.
Further down the valley, we find the coastal villages and tourist destinations of La Caletta, Santa Lucia and Capo Comino. The area is marked by a 30-kilometer coastline (which has repeatedly received Legambiente's 4 Sails award), with vast beaches and interspersed high sand dunes dotted with ancient juniper trees, low cliffs, and coves blanketed in by pine forests. All of this is encompassed by a crystal-clear sea, into which it gently slopes. A masterpiece of unspoiled natural beauty, making Siniscola's beaches among the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, and the entire world.
The caves of Gana and Gortoe are particularly interesting. Located within the city, on via Olbia, the cave was used during World War II as an actual bomb shelter by the citizens of Siniscola. A stream within the cave flows to "Funtana", a spring that people would visit in the 1930s to bathe and draw water.The origin of this watercourse is unknown, since part of the cave hasn't been explored. Within the cave, we can find the remains of jugs used by the Etruscans. Archaeological sites that are worth a visit include: the "Cururu 'e Janas" domus de jana, located along the road that leads to La Caletta, the "Sa Prejone and s'Orcu" cave on Mount Montalbo, the "sa Conca Ruja" cave on Montalbo, and the archaeological area of Bèrchida: a pre-Nuragic village, the "Su Picante" giant's tomb, located between Capo Comino and Irgoli, the "On 'Itichinzu" giant's tomb, located between Capo Comino and Irgoli, and the village of Rempellos, near Berchida beach.
The vibrant culture of Siniscola has produced many culture and volunteer associations, a wide range of training programs, higher education facilities and a university for senior citizens. It's the seat of the “National Children's Literature Award”, which takes place every two years. The the city has an excellent library network, with branches in coastal villages as well. It has become the island's musical capital after having produced illustrious artists and bands, and it often hosts national-scale concerts.
Among the notable places to visit is the “Luthuthai” Nuragic village, the Coccuru e jana burial cave, the Elene Portiche, Sa prejone e S'orcu, the medieval village of Rempellos and the towers of Santa Lucia and San Giovanni. The town's urban center developed around the eighteenth-century parish, which contains preserved frescos and wooden statues made by local artists. We strongly recommend visiting the town's historic center, where you can admire a wealth of nineteenth century palaces of great artistic importance.
Folk festivals and religious traditions are very popular. Most notable are the festival dedicated to Modonna delle Grazie, held on the second Sunday of October, the feast of Sant'Antonio, held between the 16th and 17th of January, the feast of Sant'Elena, which takes place in August in the homonymous country church, and the Holy Week ceremonies. The carnivals are quite popular. Many are held in the historical center of the town, while others are held in the countryside, where people can appreciate the essence of local culture and the uniqueness of local products such as Cannonàtu red wine, pecorino cheese and a variety of desserts. Besides classic roast meats, the area's cuisine features first courses made of handmade pasta.
One culinary treasure to note is "Sa Suppa Siniscolesa" and "Sa pompia", a traditional sweet made from the fruit of the plant bearing the same name, which grows only in this area. Among the traditional handicrafts, take note of the beautiful ceramics, which had already achieved fame during the 1800s, as well as the baskets, decorated chests and knives. Siniscola operates has a library network consortium with S. Satta Nuoro, whose headquarters were established in the city center and in the maritime villages of La Caletta and Santa Lucia. The library owns many texts and is open for consultations and cultural initiatives meant to promote books.
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| 0.962618 | 1,699 | 3.375 | 3 | 2.461582 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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History
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Fish have a unique anatomy that is necessary for their lifestyle of living in the waters of the world. Water is denser than air, holds little oxygen, and absorbs more light.
When discussing fish anatomy, it is best to begin with what can be seen and to start with broad definitions.
Anterior End – The anterior end of the fish is the end with the body.
Posterior End – The posterior end of the fish is the end with the tail.
Dorsal Side – The dorsal side of the fish is the top of the fish, including the spine.
Ventral Side – The ventral side of the fish is the bottom of the fish that includes the belly.
Anteroposterior Axis – The horizontal axis of the fish that runs from the anterior end to the posterior end and divides the dorsal side from the ventral side.
Dorsoventral Axis – The vertical axis of the fish that runs from the dorsal side to the ventral side and divides the anterior end from the posterior end.
Lateral Line – A sense organ that is used to detect movement and vibration in the water. It is distinguished in some fish by a line that runs laterally along the sides of the fish.
Caudal Peduncle – The narrow portion of the fish’s body at which the tail is attached.
Head – The head of the fish contains the snout, eye, jaw, gill cover, and cheeks.
Mouth – The mouth of a fish can be in one of three positions: terminal or forward facing, superior or turned upwards, and subterminal or inferior in which it is turned downwards.
Dorsal Fins – Located on the back, a fish can have up to three dorsal fins. They are used to assist in sudden stops and turns and to help prevent the fish from rolling.
Caudal Fin – Also known as the tail fin, it is used for propulsion. The tail can be heterocercal, epicercal, hypocercal, protocercal, dyphycercal, or homocercal.
Anal Fin – Found on the ventral surface of the fish behind the anus. It is used to stabilize the fish while it swims.
Pectoral Fins – Located on each side of the fish, they are found just behind the gill cover or operculum.
Pelvic/ Ventral – These paired fins are located below the pectoral fins on the ventral side. They are used to assist in going up or down, for sharp turns, and for quick stops.
The Largest Organ
Skin – Most fish have scales for skin, some have scutes, and others have neither and are called naked fish.
Placoid Scales – Also known as dermal denticles, are often found on sharks and rays and made of dentin covered by enamel. Very similar to teeth.
Ganoid Scales – Flat scales that cover the fish with little overlap.
Cycloid Scales – Small and oval-shaped, these scales display growth rings like the scales on the shell of a turtle.
Ctenoid Scales – Also displaying growth rings, these scales also have spines that cover one edge of edge scale.
Scute – An external bony plating, modified scale that is keeled or spiny, or a modified scale.
Gas Bladder – Also known as the swim bladder, it is the organ that gives fish their ability to control their buoyancy without wasting energy swimming. It is only found in bony fish.
Gills – The breathing or respiratory organ of the fish, it allows fish to extract oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide.
Labyrinth Organ – Found in some fish, it is an organ near the brain that allows certain species to draw oxygen directly from the air.
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| 0.920575 | 800 | 4.09375 | 4 | 0.820911 | 1 |
Basic reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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The 232 million migrant workers throughout the world, to use the International Labor Organization’s estimate, would amount to the world’s fifth most populous nation. They face universally poor conditions—low wages, harsh working environments, discrimination, and poverty.
Kent Wong is director of the University of California–Los Angeles Labor Center and founding president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO. His latest publication is Dreams Deported-Immigrant Youth and Families Resist Deportation.
The United States is home to 11 million undocumented immigrants. A national campaign for legalization and a path to citizenship has repeatedly been blocked in Congress. But immigrant workers are actively forming and joining unions. Their emergence as a powerful force bodes well for the future of the U.S. labor movement and is an inspiration to other workers struggling for justice and dignity in the U.S. and throughout the world.
The world’s first May Day, which took place in Chicago in 1886 during the fight for the eight-hour day, was led in large part by immigrant workers from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Russia, England, and Germany. One hundred twenty years later, May Day in the U.S. was also led by immigrant workers, but they were from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, China, the Philippines, Korea, and the Caribbean.
The largest International Workers Day in U.S. history took place on May 1, 2006, and reflected the incredible energy and power of the immigrant worker movement. In New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, and Atlanta, millions took to the streets. The largest demonstration took place in Los Angeles, with two marches, each attended by half a million people.
The massive May Day mobilizations came in response to draconian legislation in Congress to criminalize immigrants and those who support them. Although HR 4437 was ultimately defeated, the debate on immigration policy continues without resolution.
Ironically, the largest International Workers Day demonstration in U.S. history was not led by the U.S. labor movement but by immigrant workers themselves. Indeed, many unions were missing in action on that May Day, a sign that their leaders had still not embraced the call to organize immigrant workers.
Los Angeles has emerged as a focal point for the new American labor movement, and a crucial part of this change has been the dynamic campaigns involving and often led by immigrant workers. From janitors and hotel workers to home care workers, hundreds of thousands of new immigrants have joined the labor movement in California. In the last few years, one campaign led by the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers of America has successfully organized workers in more than 30 car washes in Southern California.
The immigrant worker movement extends beyond traditional union structures to include new worker centers. These centers engage many who are explicitly denied coverage under the National Labor Relations Act, including domestic, agricultural, and informal-sector workers and those wrongfully classified as independent contractors. When Congress enacted the NLRA, certain groups of workers were deliberately excluded, especially workers of color and women such as African-American agricultural workers from the South, Latino farmworkers from the Southwest, and domestic workers throughout the country.
The worker center movement grew out of the need for workers to join together to fight for fair wages and working conditions, for immigrant rights, and for mutual aid and support. These centers in many ways mirror the origins of the American labor movement, where workers came together for mutual benefit within certain trades and crafts and in specific communities.
National debate on immigration policy first erupted at the AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles in 1999. When a group of day laborers organized a contingent to join the convention, they were thrown out by union members who opposed immigrant workers. It was not uncommon at that time for union leaders to call immigration authorities to demand deportation of day laborers seeking work on street corners.
In the following months, however, and for the first time in history, the AFL-CIO reversed its position to embrace a stand in favor of immigrant rights. Fourteen years later, in 2013, the AFL-CIO convention returned to Los Angeles, and the remarkable change in immigration policy was evident. The AFL-CIO gave a human rights award to the International Domestic Workers Alliance. Domestic workers from the U.S. were joined by women representatives from the developing world and together they marched onto the convention floor singing. Day laborers, including some who had been ejected 14 years earlier, were featured on the stage. Tefere Gebre was elected first vice president of the AFL-CIO, the first immigrant and first African-American man to hold a top officer position. Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the National Taxi Workers Alliance, was elected to the AFL-CIO executive council, the first South Asian and first worker center representative.
The change in the AFL-CIO convention from 1999 to 2013 was extraordinary. The leaders of the American labor movement now embrace labor-community alliances, partnerships between unions and worker centers, the fight for immigrant rights and a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, and an end to deportations.
The American labor movement will be well served if it continues to advance an aggressive campaign to organize immigrant workers and to build a new labor movement for the new working class.
For the Future of Work, a special project from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, business and labor leaders, social scientists, technology visionaries, activists, and journalists weigh in on the most consequential changes in the workplace, and what anxieties and possibilities they might produce.
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| 0.970879 | 1,139 | 3.09375 | 3 | 2.97755 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Politics
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Catheterisation is a simple procedure usually performed by either a doctor or a nurse. It involves passing a catheter usually a foley catheter into the bladder through either the urethra (urethral catheterisation) or through a small incision in the abdomen (supra-pubic catheterisation).
There are two main reasons for a catheter to be introduced. The first is if the patient is unable to urinate normally because they are bed-bound or unconscious, the second is if they are suffering from acute urinary retention.
If the patient is conscious at the time of urethral catheterisation, a lubricating jelly containing a local anaesthetic such as lignocaine would be used to ease the discomfort.
It is unusual, except in an emergency, for a supra-pubic catheterisation to be performed on an awake patient, however, in the case of acute urinary retention the discomfort caused by the placement of the catheter is often outweighed by the relief from the pain of urine retention.
Sometimes it is not possible for a person to urinate normally, and they must pass a catheter, usually a Nelaton catheter into the bladder themselves. Again there are two possible routes for this catheter to take. The first is the urethra and the second is via a appendicovesicostomy.
However the catheterisation occurs, the most important thing is that the procedure should remain as aseptic as possible. Catheterisation greatly increases the risk of urinary infection, which in turn increases the risk of calculi formation, and damage to the kidneys. It is generally accepted that the risk of infection is greater with indwelling catheters than with intermittant catheterisation although this may seem counter-intuitive. The risk can be minimised by regularly replacing the catheter, every 2 weeks is optimal althugh a catheter can be left in for upto 4 weeks and using a drainage bag (if fitted) with a non-return valve.
Catheters are one of the leading causes of nosocomial infection and care should always be taken when catheterising or maintaining a catheter.
Catheters are sized, that is the size of the bore, using the Charriere (Ch) or French (Fr) system where one unit is equal to one third of a millimetre. Catheters range in size from 6Ch/6Fr (2mm) to 26Ch/26Fr (8.7mm). The most commonly used catheters are 10Ch/10Fr (3.3mm), 12Ch/12Fr (4mm) and 14Ch/14Fr (4.7mm).
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CC-MAIN-2016-18
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http://everything2.com/title/catheterization
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en
| 0.929362 | 556 | 2.984375 | 3 | 1.771956 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Health
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The Thorny Issue of Programming
Moral Standards in Machines
We are all familiar with the textbook moral dilemma: A car is driving on a road when a child darts in front of it. If the car swerves in one direction, it will hit a car in the oncoming lane. If it swerves in the other direction, it will hit a tree. If it continues forward, it will hit the child. The car is traveling too fast to brake. Each decision may result in death. While the scenario is an extreme case, drivers make life-and-death decisions on a daily basis. To an extent we have laws, rules, and etiquette to guide our driving. In other situations, a driver must rely on their internal moral compass. But what if a human driver is not making the decision, and an autonomous machine is? The scenarios present difficult choices and weighty decisions for humans, let alone for car manufacturers, developers, and engineers who must design machines with such decision-making capabilities.
The concept of morality is thought to be a distinctly human construct, developed through social values and codes as well as an individual’s experience.
If you believe the car manufacturers, tech titans, and the U.K. government, we can expect an exponential increase in driverless vehicles on our roads over the next five years. Driverless cars are already being tested on U.K. roads. This means that, inevitably, algorithms must be programmed to make consequential decisions in a manner that aligns with current laws and, where laws do not exist, our moral sensibilities. The authors of the AI Now report state, “AI does not exist in a vacuum.” It is deployed in the real world and has the potential to cause tangible and lasting impact. The driving scenario illustrates the conundrum developers face when launching software that must be equipped to make a moral judgment. Can they be expected to accurately pre-program moral-based decisions into autonomous machines? If so, whose sense of morality should prevail? There may be ethical dilemmas, lack of harmonized views, as well as bias that come into play. Programming moral standards into algorithms remains one of the thorniest challengesfor AI developers.
Moral standards are transient and far from absolute. Moral inclinations may be conditioned on cultural norms. Cultural norms are neither universal nor immutable. Societal values and standards vary over time and geography. Acceptance of premarital sex, women in combat, homosexuality, and bans on slavery illustrate the seismic shift in values some societies have experienced in recent decades. If a software developer in the U.S. programs an autonomous vehicle to prioritize the safety of the passenger over animals on the road, could the outcome of the decision made by the same autonomous machine deployed in India be considered amoral where cows are considered holy and have right of way on roads? Should companies developing autonomous vehicles prioritize commercial gain over a utilitarian concept of safety? Research indicates that buyers are less likely to purchase a car that prioritizes the safety of others over
In the near future, more and more of us will be faced with the consequences of autonomous decision-making machines.
Moral decision-making is highly subjective and individualized. It is contextual, specific to the facts, and personalized depending on the experience, bias, and understanding of the facts of the person making the moral judgments. Individuals will react differently to reports that a Texan was not indicted for bludgeoning another man to death. If we learn that evidence suggests that the victim was raping a female, we may alter our position. When we learn that the man who committed the murder was the father, as was the case here, and the female was his five-year old daughter, the outcome may sit comfortably with our own moral compass. On the specific facts, the act of murder was defensible by State law and the father called 911 in an attempt to save his daughter’s rapist’s life. The death was legally and, some may argue morally, justified.
Morality is a nebulous concept. It is best evidenced by the reaction of an individual when faced with a choice requiring quick action. Such decisions are based on our own internal programming and made in split seconds. They are not always rational or logical — for example, a decision to jump in to save a drowning child at the risk of one’s own safety or return to a burning building to save a family pet. Humans are opaque, flawed, and sometimes make bad judgments. With hindsight, we can analyze actions and interrogate after the fact. The truth, however, is that morality remains the ultimate black box. The same individual in the same situation except for one variant may make a different decision. Given the mutable and individualized nature of morality, is it feasible that a programmer can develop software with acceptably harmonized moral standards?
Morality is a uniquely human concept. Unlike other life forms, humans are considered to possess the singular capacity to judge their own actions and those of others. Helen Guldberg writes that humans are not born with this ability but are conditioned to consciously make moral choices. While scientists have found that some animal species exhibit signs of a moral system, the concept of morality is thought to be a distinctly human construct, developed through social values and codes as well as an individual’s experience. The conundrum for software developers is that while AI technologies can equal and surpass human notions of computational intelligence (for example, Google’s Alpha Go champion), morality remains a solely human domain. While machines, in particular, humanoids , may appear to possess reflective thoughts, the output is, at least with present technologies, a result of the data inputted, the rules used to train the algorithms, supervision, and iteration to achieve a desirable outcome.
This is more than an academic debate. Today, AI systems are deployed in a plethora of everyday decision-making scenarios, including autonomous machines, insurance premium settings, and recruitment practices. Companies deploying algorithms that make consequential decisions are hiring philosophers and social science majors to grapple with these quandaries. It is certain that, in the near future, more and more of us will be faced with the consequences of autonomous decision-making machines (trains, trucks, cars, buses) in our daily commute or school run. An autonomous machine must be equipped to make life-and-death decisions in a manner consistent with the law or, in the absence of laws, acceptable social norms. Adopting an engineer’s problem-solving mindset, the solution would be to test the decision-making process among a sample group, determine the most frequently selected response, and train the algorithm accordingly. There are, however, ethical implications with imposing someone else’s version of morality on another as well as the statistical probability that some of the time, the algorithm will produce an output that does not align with our expectations. The algorithms will be trained on the individual or collective bias of the sample group. The issue is that morality is deeply personal. In start-up companies deploying drones, for example, the founder’s morals steer influences whether to deploy a machine for global good (weather, agriculture, or rescue missions) or to aid particular nation-states’ defense, surveillance, or border control strategies. As consumers and as a society, are we prepared for a software developer, or a company, to be the guardian of our moral sensibility?
AI has the potential to greatly improve the human condition. While there may be arguments against the deployment of certain machines and uses of AI technologies, such as facial recognition in autonomous weapons, the underlying technology itself is neutral. Moral considerations must extend before deployment to the design and development of autonomous machines and AI techniques. Ethics should be a core subject in science, business, and engineering course curricula. Standards, both internal for companies developing technologies and external for industries where such technologies are deployed, will assist in setting governance frameworks and best practice. Data used to train the algorithm must be clean, correctly labeled, and reflective of a diverse and inclusive user base. Robust testing must be carried out prior to deployment and companies should have the processes to demonstrate, albeit internally, that the ethical implications of algorithmic decisions have been sufficiently contemplated and mitigation steps put in place.
The transitory and subjective nature of moral inclinations requires ongoing evaluation and iteration of the algorithmic training to ensure that the output continues to resonate broadly with societal norms. Humans, however, are fallible, and morality is a human construct that is subject to change. Despite an engineer’s best efforts to train and test an algorithm prior to release, there may be edge cases in which the outcome affronts our (individual and collective) moral principles. As a society, we are generally accepting of human error. We are less forgiving of technology. When presented with hard, ethical dilemmas, is it (morally) justified for humans to demand a higher standard of a mere machine?
Krishna Sood is a senior lawyer and an expert advisor to the U.K.’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence. The views expressed in the article are the author’s own.
To access this complete article, including references, click HERE.
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<urn:uuid:c18a20a1-ec34-427b-857a-be81cecfabc2>
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CC-MAIN-2021-43
|
https://technologyandsociety.org/the-ultimate-black-box/
|
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en
| 0.940433 | 1,886 | 2.96875 | 3 | 3.025703 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Introduction / History
The Kurichiya live in the forested areas of Kerala state, southern India, where they were the earliest known inhabitants. They are primarily located in the Cannanore and Tamil Nadu districts. Their language is called Kurichiya, although many also speak Malayalam. It is said that their name comes from the word kuri, which is the sandalwood that they put on their foreheads and chests.
What Are Their Lives Like?
The Kurichiya were the first migrants into the Wayanad hills and settled as the first farmers of the western region. When the Muslims and the British came into their area, the Kurichiya rose against them in revolt. Unfortunately, they were defeated by the strong arm of the British.
In India, there is a very complex hierarchy of castes, or social classes. This system is extremely important to the Indians and observed by all. However, the Kurichiya consider themselves to be above even the highest caste of Hindi Brahmin (priests and scholars).
On their small patches of land, the Kurichiya raise peppers and several other cash crops. Although they are primarily farmers, they are also expert archers and eat meat in addition to the crops they grow. Some must work on land provided by the government, while others are forced to make their living by cutting and selling wood from the forest.
What Are Their Beliefs?
The Kurichiya claim to be superior to all of the other Hindu castes. This is partially due to the fact that there are no beggars among them; their society does not tolerate the destitution of any of its members. Because they live in large family groups, it has always been possible for a poor Kurichiya to find food and shelter.
A typical Kurichiya would surprise even a casual observer with the strength of his convictions. The Kurichiya are so concerned with keeping themselves pure that they will burn their huts, if touched by outsiders. On returning from a journey, they will not enter their homes until they have purified themselves by bathing. They will neither eat food nor drink water that has been touched by non-Kurichiya. When visiting neighboring villages, they refrain from eating. Those who break dietary laws become outcasts.
One of the most powerful members of the Kurichiya tribe is the sorcerer, who is also the village headman. He is elected during a ritual performed before their idols. When someone in the group goes into a trance and does a frenzied dance, the Kurichiya believe that this is a sign that the gods have chosen this individual to be their leader. This person then assumes responsibility over the tribe by wearing the silver-handled knife (that was worn by his predecessor), on his waist.
One striking trait of the Kurichiya is the fact that they were traditionally a matriarchal (female-dominated) society. They are the only Indian community outside the province of Assam that has continued to follow this type of system, even as recently as 1970. Their society survived because of their deep-rooted conservatism, as well as, their isolation in the Wayanad plateau.
The Kurichiya share many traits with other tribes of their area. These include the traditional fore-lock of hair, their house patterns, ornaments, style of presenting offerings, observance of shamanism (a type of spiritism), and kinship terminology.
No group in India can equal the Kurichiya in devotion to their faith. The Kurichiya are Hindus and their supreme deity is, Shiva, "god of the hunt." They worship a variety of gods and demons in addition to their own tribal gods. While their faith may be as deep as that of the Brahmins, their rituals are much simpler.
What Are Their Needs?
Additional missionaries are also needed to live and work among the Kurichiya. This people group must be told that righteousness comes only through Jesus Christ.
* Ask God to call forth prayer teams who will begin breaking up the soil through worship and intercession.
* Ask the Holy Spirit to grant wisdom and favor to missions agencies focusing on the Kurichiya.
* Pray that the Lord will raise up long term workers to join the few who have already responded.
* Ask the Holy Spirit to complete the work begun in the hearts of the few known Kurichiya believers through adequate discipleship.
* Ask the Lord to bring forth a triumphant Kurichiya church for the glory of His name!
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<urn:uuid:bd08cc98-1af1-4826-8d6b-ee970c206c16>
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CC-MAIN-2017-22
|
https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/17333/IN
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607811.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170524093528-20170524113528-00547.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.980211 | 924 | 3.34375 | 3 | 2.705856 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Religion
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We need to be clear on fundamentals of Logical Reasoning to crack DILR Section in CAT 2022.
Time is opportune to be ready with LR to be successful in CAT 2022 which is being conducting in November 2022.
Logical Reasoning (LR) will be a test for your logical conclusions and you must not assume for answering questions in LR. Read following concepts:
Dice – Theoretical Concepts
Dice is a cube. In cube there are 6 faces. Some important points are given below:
- There are 6 faces in the cube – ABCG,GCDE, DEFH, BCDH, AGEF and ABHF.
- Always four faces are adjacent to one face.
- Opposite of ABCG is DEFH and so on.
- CDEG is the upper faces of the cube.
- ABHF is the bottom of the cube.
Rule No. 1:
Two opposite faces cannot be adjacent to one another.
Two different positions of the dice are shown below. Which number will appear on the face opposite to the face with number 4?
Faces with four number 6, 2, 5 and 3 are adjacent of to the face with No. 4.
Hence the faces with no. 6, 2, 5 and 3 cannot be opposite to the face with no. 4.
Therefore the remaining face with no.1 will be the opposite of the face with no. 4.
Rule No. 2:
If two different positions of a dice are shown and one of the two common faces is in the same position then of the remaining faces will be opposite to each other.
Two different position of a dice are shown below.
Here in both shown positions two faces 5 and 3 are common.
The remaining faces are 2 and 4.
Hence the number on the face opposite to the face with number 2 is 4.
Rule No. 3
If in two different positions of dice, the position of a common face be the same, then each of the opposite faces of the remaining faces will be in the same position.
Here in both positions of common (3) is same.
Therefore, opposite of 5 is 6 and opposite of 4 is 2.
Rule No. 4
If in two different positions of a dice, the position of the common face be not the same, then opposite face of the common face will be that which is not shown on any face in these two positions. Besides, the opposite faces of the remaining faces will not be the same.
Here in two positions of a dice the face with number 1 is not in the same position.
The face with number 6 is not shown.
Hence the face opposite to the face with number 1 is 6.
Besides the opposite face of 3 will be the face with number 2 and opposite face to face 5 will be the face with number 1.
Practice with LR MOCKS
Stay informed, Stay ahead and stay inspired with MBA Rendezvous
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CC-MAIN-2023-14
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https://www.mbarendezvous.com/cat/logical-reasoning/lr-dice-theoretical-concepts/
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en
| 0.908351 | 641 | 3.6875 | 4 | 1.929211 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Interaction is key during events. But often there's a paradox: it delivers distraction from notetaking, and it seems that people tend to forget a lot of the information that was shared. Mind mapping is an interesting technique to capture event information.
I sat down with Alexis van Dam, a Dutch Mind mapping Pro and we talked about live mind mapping at events. Let's dive into the mind mapping technique and apply it to events.
What exactly is mind mapping?
A mind map is a diagram used to visually outline information. Usually you start with a word, sentence or question and then you start adding main- and subbranches. Add images, video, links to create a rich content experience.
One advantage of a mind map is that it provides a very clear understanding of the contextual coherence. It is also believed that this kind of visual representation is close to how our brain works.
What problem(s) does it solve?
With mind mapping you have a systematic and structured way of storing and visualising information. It's a great fit for events because people tend to forget a lot of the details that are discussed during sessions. And while personal notetaking is a great way of capturing event content, it momentarily drives away the attention of the attendee.
So what does it add to your event?
Mind mapping can add several things to your event:
- you can visualize what information has been shared (by a speaker, through discussions or during Q&A sessions);
- engage (remote) audience. By involving the audience you can add content coming from the audience in the room or coming from social media sources;
- summarise key points of presentations/discussions;
- facilitate discussion and sharing (of information);
- event stretching. By providing the Mind maps post-event there's an opportunity to engage the audience even after the actual event is over.
What are the key features of mind mapping?
You can build your mind map in real-time during the event. Next to that you're able to add rich content (URL's, images, video, etc). It's great to provide a livestream on large screens with the mind map being created to engage the audience. Make the livestream available online for your remote attendees. Mind maps are extremely suitable to export in different formats, from PDF, images, linear notes to a fully interactive website (included the discussion).
How can you apply mind mapping?
At larger events it's great for focussing attention, capturing presentations, brainstorming, Q&A sessions, preserving knowledge, solving problems, opinion sharing. Mind maps also are a valuable instrument with hybrid and online events. Via a live mind map it's possible to engage remote audience/experts, crowdsource questions or problems and share information to a wider audience.
In a smaller event setting like an incompany training mind mapping can be beneficial to strategic aligning sessions, facilitating the change process, capturing knowledge, brainstorming and product improvement sessions.
What do you need to implement it?
It's fairly easy to setup mind mapping for your event. The most crucial part is a thorough pre event briefing with experienced and skilled mind mappers. Important for them to know what information can be published online and what not, in case of confidentiality. Furthermore you'll need (online) mind mapping software, input devices like laptop or tablet and output devices (screens, beamer, etc.). If you want to broadcast to online you'll need an internet connection. Ideally you have 2 mind mappers, so they can split up tasks. One is focussed on capturing the information in a mind map the other is enriching the mind map with sources such as links to research, images, video’s or documents.
Some showcases and best practices?
See several example events, congresses and sessions that were facilitated using live mindmapping.
Tips and tricks
- try to involve your mindmappers early in the process of event design, so they can advice on what's best fitted for facilitating interaction or content capture for your event
- have your moderator and your mindmappers work together closely, their interaction during the event is important
- have a good briefing for both moderator and mindmappers, with detailled scheme about tasks and responsibilities
- depending on your goals the synergy between mindmapper and moderator can facilitate idea collection and brainstorming or structured problem solving,
- list of mindmapping software
- basics on mindmapping
- 100 reasons to mindmap
- mindmap resource website
- mindmap inspiration
- example of an online, clickable mindmap
- conference on mindmapping
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<urn:uuid:96cac1a4-7afe-466e-b870-e916711ed774>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-29
|
https://techsytalk.com/live-mind-mapping-interaction-and-information-capturing-by-djstomp/
|
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en
| 0.910258 | 951 | 2.703125 | 3 | 2.529523 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Software
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We focused on analysing the role played by protoplanetary disks in the evolution of angular momentum during star formation. If all the angular momentum contained within collapsing pre-stellar cores was conserved during their formation, proto-stars would reach rotation rates exceeding their break-up velocities before they reached the main sequence (Bodenheimer 1995). In order to avoid this occuring, methods by which proto-stars can lose angular momentum must exist. Angular momentum can be transferred from star to disk via stellar magnetic field lines through a process called magnetic braking (Camenzind 1990; Königl 1991). Alternatively, the stellar angular momentum can be lost from the star-disk system entirely via stellar- or disk-winds (e.g. Pelletier & Pudritz 1992; Matt & Pudritz 2005).
The proportion of lost stellar angular momentum retained within the protoplanetary disk is important to studies of planetary system formation. If the bulk motion within the disk remains Keplerian, any increase of angular momentum in the disk causes an outward migration of disk material and an expansion of the disk. Therefore, an increase in disk angular momentum may cause a reduction in the disk surface density, often used to indicate the disk's ability to form planets.
We made use of multi-wavelength data available in the literature to directly calculate the stellar and disk angular momenta for two nearby regions of star formation. Namely, these were the densely populated and highly irradiated Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) and the comparitively sparse Taurus-Auriga region. Due to the limited size of the ONC dataset, we produced an average surface density profile for the region. We modelled the stars as solid body rotators due to their fully convective nature (Krishnamurthi et al. 1997) and assumed the disks are flat and undergo Keplerian rotation about the same rotation axis as the star.
We observed the older disks within each of the two star forming regions to be preferentially larger and less massive, consistent with viscous accretion theories and disk dispersal. However, when drawing comparisons between the two regions, the ONC sample appeared to have less massive disks than the Taurus-Auriga sample, even though the population of Taurus-Auriga is older. This may suggest an influence of the birth cloud environment on protoplanetary disk evolution.
Finally, the older stars within the ONC were observed to harbour disks that contained more angular momentum than their younger counterparts whereas, in the Taurus-Auriga sample, the amount of angular momentum contained in the older and younger samples was consistent. We suggest that the missing disk angular momentum in the older Taurus-Auriga disks may be contained within yet-undetected planets.
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<urn:uuid:561827bf-0f59-4b87-b2c5-68afd2f8ccc1>
|
CC-MAIN-2018-05
|
https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%5BauthorTerms%5D=Jane%20S.%20Greaves&eventCode=SE-AU
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084891277.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20180122093724-20180122113724-00062.warc.gz
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en
| 0.913104 | 567 | 3.390625 | 3 | 3.090494 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
|
Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS)
Bardet-Biedl (pronounced BAR-day BEED-el) syndrome, also known as BBS, is part of a larger group of disorders known as rare genetic disorders of obesity.
What causes BBS?
BBS is caused by variants variant A change in the standard “spelling” of a gene. Genetic variants may result in serious health problems or be “silent” with no negative health effects. , or changes, in several genes genes Our body’s instruction manual that informs how our bodies grow, develop, and function. It is through our genes that traits are passed down from parent to offspring. that play a role in the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) pathway MC4R pathway The MC4R pathway is one of the pathways that regulates weight and appetite in the brain. Click here to learn more about the MC4R pathway. and affect hunger signals signals Chemicals and proteins that the body and brain use to communicate and direct processes in the body. in the brain. The MC4R pathway is an important pathway in the brain that helps tell your body when you are hungry and when you are full. These genes also play an important role in the maintenance and function of microscopic cilia, which are tiny finger-like protrusions that allow our cells to move from one place to another and help with senses like sight, sound, and smell. Because the variants affect the function of cilia, you might hear people refer to BBS as a ciliopathy, or disease of the cilia.
What are the key clinical features of BBS?
Signs and symptoms of Bardet-Biedl syndrome include:
- Severe, early-onset obesity
- Insatiable hunger
- Progressive vision impairment/loss
- Extra toes or fingers (polydactyly polydactyly The presence of extra toes and/or fingers. )
- Kidney problems
- Delayed puberty in adolescence
How is BBS inherited?
BBS deficiency is inherited in an autosomal recessive autosomal recessive Autosomal recessive (AR) conditions occur when a person inherits two non-working copies of a disease-causing (pathogenic) gene variant from their parents. manner. This means that someone with BBS will have two copies of the genetic variant genetic variant Changes (also known as variants) in the standard “spelling” of a gene. Gene variants can result in serious health problems or be “silent” with no negative health effects. that causes the disorder. You can only inherit an autosomal recessive disorder if both of your parents are “carriers carrier In an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern, if an individual inherits one normal copy of a gene and one copy of a disease-causing variant, they are called a carrier and will generally not have any symptoms of the disease that variant causes. ” for that disorder, meaning that they both carry one copy with the genetic variant and one copy without it.
In very rare cases, someone who is a carrier for BBS (meaning they have just one disease-causing variant) may develop some of the symptoms of the disorder. This is known as BBS heterozygous deficiency.
How is BBS diagnosed?
BBS is diagnosed using the Beales Diagnostic Criteria, a set of guidelines developed by Dr. Philip Beales. According to Dr. Beales, a person should be diagnosed with BBS if they have four of the primary characteristics listed below, or three primary characteristics and at least two secondary characteristics.
- Visual impairment caused by retinal abnormalities
- Obesity, typically apparent by age 1
- Polydactyly (extra fingers or toes)
- Hypogonadism (lack of hormones hormone Chemical messengers made in the endocrine glands that control body functions. that normally stimulate the ovaries or testes)
- Kidney malformations and/or malfunctions
- Learning disabilities
- Developmental delays
- Behavioral problems
- Neurological problems
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Speech disorders
- Dental differences (small teeth, small lower jaw, short teeth)
- Lack of a sense of smell (anosmia)
- Thyroid problems
- Lazy eye (when one eye focuses and the other wanders)
- Short stature relative to parents’ height
- Flat, wide feet without arches
- Toe and finger variations (such as short or curved outer fingers or toes or mild webbing, especially between the 2nd and 3rd toes)
|
<urn:uuid:2227e473-1c18-414c-8a3e-95677970e93a>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-10
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https://www.leadforrareobesity.com/bardet-biedl-syndrome
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146186.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226023658-20200226053658-00302.warc.gz
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en
| 0.91745 | 974 | 3.421875 | 3 | 1.998069 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Health
|
Breaking News Emails
International Women’s Day has celebrated the economic, cultural, political and social achievements of women for more than 100 years. From Greta Thunberg becoming an international sensation with her campaign for climate change last year to Chloe Kim snowboarding loops around Olympic records at the PyeongChang Games in 2018, women across the globe have been challenging stereotypes and the status quo.
The day isn’t simply a celebration — it’s a call to action for everyone to continue to push for complete gender equality.
1. What is its history?
The early 20th century was a time when women were becoming more active in their protests against oppression and gender inequality, leading marches and campaigns to demand equal rights. According to the official International Women's Day website, during the International Conference of Working Women in 1910, Clara Zetkin of Germany's Social Democratic Party proposed that a day be set aside every year across the world to celebrate women and reinforce their demands. The proposal was ultimately accepted and put into practice, starting in Germany and Europe and spreading across the globe over the years.
... the length of time between when a constitutional amendment granting a woman’s right to vote was introduced in the U.S. Congress (Jan. 10, 1878) and when it was finally ratified (Aug. 26, 1920).
2. When is it observed?
The first International Women’s Day was observed March 8, 1914. Even though International Women’s Day was decided upon in 1910, the tradition of celebrating it on March 8 took a few more years to decide upon.
In 1975, the United Nations announced that International Women’s Day would be an official day of observance for all of its member countries. Years later, the world body also instituted annual themes to promote the celebration of the day, such as “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future” and “World Free of Violence Against Women.”
... of the U.S. workforce is made up of women.
3. What is the 2019 theme?
This year's theme is #BalanceforBetter, meant to promote a future in which both men and women are equal in professional status, media perception, the positions they hold in government and more. Whether it’s men supporting their female coworkers or women pushing into the STEM field, everyone has a part in promoting #BalanceforBetter. STEM programs stress education in science, technology, engineering and math.
... the ratio of active duty female U.S. military service members to their male counterparts.
4. What about a color?
Purple is the internationally recognized color to symbolize women while the combination of the colors green, purple and white is meant to represent women’s equality, according to the IWD website. Purple, or the combination of those colors, may be displayed to celebrate International Women’s Day.
... of U.S. couples in which the wife earned at least $30,000 more than her husband.
5. How is it celebrated?
Every country has its own special tradition for celebrating International Women’s Day. In Italy, for example, the day is celebrated by giving women a mimosa blossom. You can celebrate the day on social media by posting pictures of yourself with your hand out like a set of scales and using the hashtags #BalanceforBetter and #IWD2019. People also share posts of themselves celebrating the women in their lives and showing how they are actively working to support women.
... women with children younger than 18 who participate in the U.S. labor force
6. Why is it still observed?
Women have come a long way since that conference in 1910, and many people believe that most of the battles have already been won for women. But according to the IWD website, women are still not getting equal pay, there are lower proportions of women to men in government positions, and women’s education is still being withheld across the world. Battles have been won, but the battles aren't over yet.
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<urn:uuid:3f2d9a7b-8755-4ba3-b8d5-2de233056da8>
|
CC-MAIN-2019-26
|
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/international-women-s-day-2019-history-theme-importance-n980626
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999040.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20190619184037-20190619210037-00161.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.967765 | 840 | 3.78125 | 4 | 2.343735 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Politics
|
|[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note|
|THE GHOST MOOSE|
By Dr Vince Crichton, Wildlife Biologist
1046 McIvor Ave. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, R2G2J9
Research into moose ticks over the last 15 years has shed new light on those “creepy-crawlies” and we now know they are the cause of the so-called “ghost moose” phenomenon.
Ghost moose appear in most jurisdictions during late winter when, due to irritation, moose rub their bodies to relieve skin irritation and in doing so break the hair shaft, exposing the white base portion of the shaft. That scratching action gives an animal a whitish-gray appearance. In worst-case scenarios, when thousands upon thousands of ticks may be found on a single animal, infestations may lead to mortality.
The tick in question are actually moose ticks Dermacentor albipictus (also called winter ticks) not the common wood tick Dermacentor variabilis. The wood tick is a two-host tick and requires two hosts to complete its lifecycle. The moose tick requires just one host. That host is usually ol’ Bullwinkle, however moose ticks also occur on caribou, elk and deer, usually in lesser numbers. It’s interesting to note that moose ticks have not been documented on Alaska moose and only on small numbers of moose in the southern Yukon.
Hair loss due to ticks commences in late January and gets progressively worse as winter proceeds. Some animals may lose up to 90 percent of their hair coat. Normally, little mortality is associated with this loss. However, in years when environmental conditions are conducive, tick levels may build to excessive numbers and the result is a moose die-off that may exceed 25 percent of the herd. For example, in Manitoba during the winter of 1987-88 about 25 percent of the Turtle and Riding Mountain herds died and ticks played a major role in that mortality.
Tick abundance and the problems associated with them vary from year to year, an event that’s directly related to environmental conditions. Male and female ticks infest moose, but males fall off and die shortly after completing the mating act. Female ticks enjoy a winter blood meal, then fall to the ground in late March and April. If they come to rest on snow, there is a high tick mortality. However, when spring weather is warm and the snow disappears early, female ticks fall onto warm ground and lay a few thousand eggs. The eggs hatch into seed ticks in early August and as the cool days of fall approach they become more active and ascend grasses and other vegetation. When moose brush against vegetation, larval ticks attach to the big animals and an over-winter, development period commences. Ticks like to nestle in a moose’s thick hair (away from the cold) and do so until spring, feeding and maturing the entire time. The peak of transmission during fall takes place in October, after which cold weather puts an end to those little rust-colored devils, which measure about the size of a pinhead. When fall weather conditions are summer-like (i.e. warm and no snow) the transmission period can extend into November. Therefore with warm springs and open falls, conditions are excellent for ticks and we can be sure that the following spring there will be many reports of “ghost moose.” Think of it this way: springs with snow in April are good for moose and spring skiing!
When conditions are prime for ticks, they can attach to moose in staggering numbers, as indicated by current study of Manitoba’s herd. Prior to the 1988-89 winter actual tick counts were never conducted in Manitoba. However, since that time, due to the interest of Dr. Bill Samuel from the University of Alberta, we have counted ticks on 20 moose hides. The average number found on adult males is 29,464. Adult females carried 39,675 and calves were afflicted by 52,993 ticks. The greatest number found on any of the hides was 97,704 from a bull taken west of The Pas in northwestern Manitoba. It is the writer’s opinion, that moose can have tick loads approaching 200,000. It is interesting to note that Dr. Samuel has counted 420,00 ticks on a caribou from Alberta.
Calves are especially hard hit by ticks and most moose found dead due to tick infestations are young calves born the previous spring. Dr. Samuel suggests that tick loads of 40,000 or 50,000 may cause harm to animals, obviously as a discomfort, but in other ways, too. For instance, “ticky moose” spend a significant portion of their time scratching, shaking and rubbing to rid themselves of those little demons. That effort results in loss of hair in large patches, which changes the lower critical temperature where a moose can survive from minus-35 degrees Celsius to five-degrees Celsius. Moose that harbor hides in poor condition may suffer from rain and wind, which results in hypothermia and, eventually, a dead moose.
In some animals a borderline anemia may result from ticks, which suggests that the animal's basic physiology is affected. Experimental animals infected with ticks are unable to maintain weight, even when fed respectable diets. They perform poorly when compared to control animals with no ticks. Moose infected with ticks may survive the spring period only to die later on in the summer from infections, such as pneumonia, contracted when an animal was in a weakened condition.
Moose may be their own worst enemies when it comes to accommodating ticks; research shows that some moose have traditional spring and fall bedding sites and they are one and the same. Those dry, grassy “bedding” areas are the very places that seed ticks thrive, especially during years of average moisture conditions throughout the summer. If a moose sheds 25-to-30 engorged female ticks every time it beds down in the spring be sure there will be plenty of ticks waiting in the fall. At about 7,000 eggs per female tick, there is the potential of nearly 200,000 ticks for every 25-to-30 that drop off and survive. When a moose returns to the area during fall and beds, it will likely endure a heavy tick infection.
While tick infestations will continue to haunt moose in future years and cause some mortality, look at the bright side – moose watchers will continue to hiss, “ghost moose,” when one of those albino-like animals steps out of the deep woods and biologists assure that ticks pose no threat to the edibility of moose meat. Hunters may breathe a collective sigh of relief.
vanderschelden, eqshannon, CeltickRanger, jaycee, Evelynn, Jamesp, pvs, joey, marhowie, NinaM has marked this note useful
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You can't say there is no note:-).
Good sharp 'funny face' photographed in its habitat.
A fine job if imaging..When I look at this shot and how you did it I think about my physical disabilities..Pain and numbness..unsteadiness..and that is on cement..but get me into the woods and I need an MD to hold me up..so after that then I have to find this moose and try to manipulate myself to capture it without thinking about pain and somehow remember to have my settings all done in advance in order that I only have 3-4 things to change at the last minute...wheeew..What a shot..you make it look like slicing warm butter with a bread knife..
Very informative note, next time I turn white I'll have to see if I have a thousand ticks stuck to my body, or is that for only Moose? Anyway great shot showing what it actually looks like.
Now I'm afraid to go into the woods, I dont think I could bare comming face to face with the 'Ghost Moose!' Eeeeeeeeek! :)
the ghost moose photographed in his natural habitat,
in french thay say « photo prise sur le vif »
i don't kno what is the transaltion,
what is the equivalent phrase in english
this is a great photo « prise sur le vif »
This is a really well executed shot Rick... perfect focus, exposure and color. It is an agonizing tale though. What misery these poor creatures have to try to endure.
I've been really busy on a project and am behind on critiques and posts. I'll try to check out what I've missed soon... I hope.
Evelynn : )
- [2008-01-22 22:05]
Really interesting note. A great capture - I love the long head. Good habitat shot too.
- [2008-01-23 0:20]
An excellent capture with again a great note,I have never seen a moose with this kind of infestations,but I am shore this could be here as well,tfs
- [2008-01-23 2:18]
Excellent note that completely explains this Moose's "ghostly" appearance. Imagine having 420,000 tics on you! We get horrified if we find one on us!
This is a great shot of this Ghost Moose.
We can clearly see the bare patches in its fur.
Sharp with good detail and clarity.
Well composed with a good POV.
Well done Rick :)
- [2008-01-23 7:00]
Nice composition. Good POV and sharpness. Lovely natural colours. Very interesting note also.
Thanks for sharing,
- [2008-01-23 7:23]
Not only a wonderful picture but excellent informative notes. I've heard of deer ticks but not those that attack the moose. Very nice natural colors and good details. Looks great in his natural habitat.
- [2008-01-23 8:40]
Learning from nature through photography, that is just what you did for me with this one. Great notes and what a nice picture! The fur of the moose looks almost like the twigs surrounding him. They are majestic animals, I wish I could see one too! For that, I would have to push myself and get in the wood! Thank you so much Rick,
Encore une belle chasse ave ta cam heureusement que c'est une camet non une carabine.
- [2008-01-24 8:48]
Another good close up shot of a moose.Great informative notes.I have never seen this condition in moose,but I have seen something similar in deer.
Lovely eye contact,with excellent detail.You have captured an alert pose.
- [2008-01-25 11:02]
The beautiful photo becomes even stronger when realizing this animal suffering so enormously by the ticks! Taht's how photography should be,I think, a testimony. Thanks, CarOze
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| 0.937162 | 2,334 | 3.609375 | 4 | 2.75485 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Small groups of people gathered in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to mark the anniversary of the brief border war with China, which is not officially commemorated by Vietnam’s communist government.
Large numbers of police were deployed as mourners laid flowers and lit incense to remember the thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed in the Chinese invasion.
The police in Hanoi used loud hailers to urge the participants to disperse. Reports said that a number of people were briefly detained in Ho Chi Minh City.
Activists interviewed by foreign media accused the the government was dishonouring the memory of fallen patriots for fear of offending China.
The border war of 1979 remains a sensitive issue for a communist government in Hanoi that seeks friendly relations with Beijing but is anxious not to be seen as unpatriotic at home.
State controlled media in Vietnam devoted considerably more coverage to this year’s anniversary, the 38th, than in the past, when it has barely been mentioned.
The online newspaper VN Express, which reflects coverage in other official journals and broadcast media, carried an emotive story about the extent of civilian casualties in the war.
“Many children, pregnant women and senior citizens died in the sudden Chinese onslaught of February, 1979,” began its story in the Friday edition.
It noted that the war normally receives little attention, especially in comparison to the wars against France and the United States. It said that interest in the border conflict had risen in recent years because of the current confrontation with China in the South China Sea.
Trust has been damaged
The leadership in Hanoi has recently been attempting to mend fences with China following a period of high tension over their territorial disputes.
The Vietnamese authorities have moved quickly to break up anti-China demonstrations, signalling to Beijing that they seek a new understanding.
However, trust between the two communist parties has been damaged, and the Vietnamese authorities do allow some venting of patriotic sentiment.
State media published a series of photographs of the devastation left in northern provinces by the brief Chinese invasion. The black and white photos reflected the human cost of the conflict and the impact on civilian refugees.
At least 200,000 Chinese troops are believed to have entered northern Vietnam in February 1979. They occupied a number of towns and cities, and tried to lure Vietnamese forces, from Hanoi and from the campaign against the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, into a battle of attrition.
The Chinese withdrew after a month after heavy losses were been sustained by both sides.
Historians have tended to see the conflict as a moral victory for Vietnam, as it showed it could resist massive Chinese firepower and would not be deflected from its invasion of Cambodia.
The Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, had said he wanted to teach Vietnam a lesson for its assault on a close ally of Beijing.
Vietnam had also antagonised China by cementing its close ties with Moscow, at the height of the Sino-Soviet split, and by its treatment of ethnic Chinese communities in Vietnam.
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Strong reasoning
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History
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There are plenty of examples in nature where symmetry and proportions rule. They have been used since time immemorial in various fields including art and architecture. Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man is perhaps the best example of how nature celebrates symmetry. Today, graphic designers all over the world use symmetry and proportions through the grid based design theory. The main idea behind a grid based design is to create a solid visual and structural balance in websites. When the layout appears structured, websites seem to be visually appealing can easy to follow. The New York Times website and Yahoo! are some of the best examples of grid based designs
Although the grid based system was a product of the Constructivist Art, it slowly yet steadily moved into the domain of commercial design. When it comes to using the grid based approach, it is all about using mathematics where ratios and equations dominate the design. As a student interested in this approach, you will have to be familiar with ratios and proportions; from rational, whole number ratios, and irrational proportions. These ratios will have to be used to come up with designs that are functional, coherent, yet aesthetically appealing. Thus as you can see grids are not always about squares, it is about proportions. Graphic designers today have access to several tools to design their own grid based design. Some of these include:
phiRatio e67: This is an iOS tool that helps designers to calculate the different proportions including the ‘Golden Proportion’. For the uninitiated, the ‘Golden Proportion’ refers to a rule that if you were to divide a line into two parts, the longer part divided by the smaller part is equal to the sum of the two parts divided by the longer part. This tool is very useful when designing layouts, defining canvas sizes, and deciding typographical proportions.
Fluid Baseline Grid System: This is an HTML & CSS3 development kit that provides a foundation to design websites with ease. They can be used create a visual rhythm and structural balance to help the experience of predictable patterns.
Guide: This is a column, rows and midpoint tool for Photoshop CS4 and CS5. And best of all, this is free.
There are several other tools that can help graphic designers come up with designs that help in designing a layout. While this is an effective tool to help designers come up with effective layouts for their website designs, it is also important for them to embrace asymmetry and chaos with equal enthusiasm. Chaos when used effectively adds more character to a design than order and balance. It should be the effort of the designer to excel in designs of both these characters.
Learn more of GetMediaWise. http://www.getmediawise.com/
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Moderate reasoning
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Art & Design
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Import Key Probate and Trust Phrases
Here is a Glossary Probate and Trust with terms you’ll want to know:
Agent: A person who acts on another person’s.
Attorney In Fact: A person who is given written authorization to act on another behalf by a Power of Attorney Document.
Beneficiary: (1) The person for whose benefit a trust is created. (2) The person to assets of a financial account, insurance policy, or annuity is payable. The trustee and the beneficiary can be the same person.
Custodian of the Will: The person who has the Will when the person who wrote the Will dies.
Decedent (or deceased): The person who died.
Decedent’s estate: All the property (real or personal) that a person owned at the time of death.
Executor: An individual or a trust institution nominated in a will and appointed by court to settle the estate.
Fiduciary: An individual or a trust institution charged with the duty of acting in the interest of another party. Examples: trustees, executors and administrators.
Grantor: A person who creates a trust, such as a living trust, to become operative his lifetime; also called donor, settlor, and trustor.
Heir: A person who inherits when there is no Will.
Intestate: When someone dies without leaving a Will.
Intestate succession: The order of who inherits the property when someone dies without a Will.
Irrevocable Trust: A trust that cannot be revoked by the settlor.
Legatees or devisees: People who are named in a Will.
Personal property: Things like cash, stocks, jewelry, clothing, furniture, or cars.
Personal representative (or administrator or executor): The person responsible for overseeing the distribution of the estate.
Probate (Verb): To present a will to the court for appointment of the executor administrator.
Probate (Noun): Process of transferring title from a deceased person to their heirs law.
Power of Attorney: A document authorizing the person named to act as agent, behalf of another.
Real property: Buildings and land.
Revocable Trust: A trust that may be terminated by the settler.
Successor Trustee: A trustee following the original or a prior.
Testate: When someone dies leaving a Will.
Trust: When one person (trustee) holds property at another person’s (settler’s) for the benefit of someone else (the beneficiary).
Will: A legally enforceable declaration of a person’s wishes in writing regarding to be attended to after his or her death.
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Basic reasoning
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Crime & Law
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Construction of Mountain Home Army Air Field in Idaho began in November 1942 and
the new field officially opened August 7, 1943. Shortly thereafter, airman at
the field began training United States Army Air Force crews for World War II.
The 396th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was the first unit assigned and its planned
mission was to train crews for the B-17. However, before the first B-17s
arrived, plans for the field changed and the 396th was transferred to Moses
Lake, Washington. Instead of training B-17 crews, Mountain Home airmen began training crews
for the B-24 Liberator. The first group to do so was the 470th Bombardment Group
(Heavy), which trained at Mountain Home from May 1, 1943, until January 1944,
when the unit moved to Nevada. The 490th Bombardment Group (Heavy) replaced the
470th and trained B-24 crews until it deployed to England in April 1944. The
494th Bombardment Group then replaced the 490th, once more training Liberator
The base also received fighter aircraft to add realism to its training. A
few P-38 and P-63 pursuit planes arrived in January 1945 to simulate attacks on
B-24s. In June 1945, Mountain Home also briefly served as a training base for
the new B-29 Superfortress, but the end of the war in August brought a swift end
to the new mission and, for a time, to the base at Mountain Home. The base was
placed in inactive status in October 1945. The base remained inactive until December 1948 when the newly independent
United States Air Force assigned first the 5th Reconnaissance Group and then the
5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and their RB-17s to Idaho and the newly
renamed Mountain Home Air Force Base. This new lease on life was short-lived,
however, lasting only until April 1950, when the base once again closed.
But less than a year later, the base was reactivated, hosting the 580th,
581st, and 582nd Air Resupply and Communications Wings over the next three
years. They flew C-119, B-29 and SA-16 aircraft and trained to support what we
know today as covert and special operations.
When the last of these wings departed for overseas duty in 1953, the base
was transferred to Strategic Air Command which assigned its 9th Bombardment Wing
to Mountain Home. The 9th relocated to Mountain Home AFB in May 1953, and began
flying B-29 bombers and KB-29H refueling aircraft. The 9th began converting to
the new B-47 Stratojet bomber and the KC-97 tanker in September 1954, keeping
alert bombers ready for war at a moments notice and continuing its mission as a
deterrent force throughout the Cold War years of the 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1959, construction of three Titan missile sites began in the local
area. The 569th Strategic Missile Squadron controlled these sites and was
assigned to the 9th Bombardment Wing in August 1962. To prepare for the addition
of missiles to its bomber forces, Air Force redesignated the wing as the 9th
Strategic Aerospace Wing in April 1962.
A few years later, the Strategic Air Command mission at Mountain Home
began to wind down, and in November 1964, the Air Force announced that the
missile sites would be closed. In late 1965, the Air Force also began phasing
out the aging B-47 bomber and announced plans to bring the 67th Tactical
Reconnaissance Wing to Mountain Home.
In January 1966, with the closure of the missile sites and the move of
the 67th to Mountain Home, control of the base passed from Strategic Air Command
to Tactical Air Command. The 67th flew RF-4C aircraft and conducted
photographic, visual, radar, and thermal reconnaissance operations. Two years
later the 67th also conducted tactical fighter operations with the addition of a
squadron of F-4D Phantoms. This fighter mission lasted until late 1970 when the
F-4Ds were reassigned.
In June 1992, as part of Air Force restructuring, Air Combat Command
replaced Tactical Air Command. A month later, the 366th also gained the 34th
Bomb Squadron. The 34th, which was located at Castle AFB, California, flew the
B-52G Stratofortress, giving the composite wing deep interdiction bombing
capabilities as the only B-52 unit armed with the deadly, long-range HAVE NAP
Not long afterwards, in October 1992, the composite wing gained its final
flying squadron when the 22nd Air Refueling Squadron was activated and equipped
with the KC-135R Stratotankers. These tankers give the wing its ability to
deploy globally at a moment's notice.
In another change, on April 1, 1994, the 34th Bomb
Squadron transferred its flag to Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota. At the same time
the squadron’s B-52Gs were retired, making way for the the squadron to be
equipped with the technologically advanced B-1B Lancer. Next, a gradual transfer
of the B-1s from Ellsworth to Mountain Home began in August 1996.
completed a move to Mountain Home on April 1, 1997, when its flag was officially
transferred to the Gunfighter home base. Also in 1996,
the wing gained yet another operational squadron. On June 21st, the 726th Air
Control Squadron was reassigned from Shaw AFB, South Carolina, to Mountain Home.
The new squadron brought mobile radar surveillance, and command and control
capabilities to the composite wing. In late October 1996, the wing’s senior leadership also announced a new
name for the 366th Wing. Henceforth, it would be known as the “Air Expeditionary
Wing” in keeping with an Air Force decision to stand up “battle lab” at Mountain
Home to refine the new concept. The wing would soon begin working out the most
efficient procedures for moving an airpower expeditionary force to pre-selected
locations around the world.
The 366th is the Air Force's premier air expeditionary wing. With the support
of KC-135R Stratotankers, the wing blends the firepower of F-15C Eagles, F-15E
Strike Eagles, F-16C Fighting Falcons and B-1B Lancers to form a single,
cohesive aerial strike force. What makes the 366th Wing unique is its air
expeditionary mission. The wing is designed to deploy with its own command,
control, computer, communications and intelligence capabilities. Rather than
building a composite wing at a deployed site, the 366th Wing is a composite
force already built and trained, ready to fight and intervene anytime, anywhere.
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| 0.95882 | 1,452 | 2.765625 | 3 | 2.256359 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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History
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Dental FillingAn Overview
A tooth filling is a routine dental procedure most commonly used to repair damage caused by tooth decay. Dental fillings are a conservative treatment option used when decay is caught in the earliest stages of development. Dental fillings are designed to prevent future decay and to restore the integrity of the tooth structure.
Tooth decay is a common oral disease that affects patients of all ages. Children and adults should practice diligent oral hygiene and visit the dentist regularly to help prevent tooth decay. Manassas Smiles offers comprehensive dentistry for children and adult patients in our welcoming, modern Manassas, VA dentist office.
Routine dental health exams can help Dr. Hassan catch tooth decay early. Tooth decay left untreated can cause damage to the surrounding teeth and gums and compromise the patient’s overall oral health. Tooth decay can eventually lead to an infected root canal, tooth loss or gum disease. Progressive tooth decay may require more extensive treatment such as a root canal or tooth extraction. Dr. Hassan will always attempt to preserve as much of the tooth as possible.
Fillings are made from either metal amalgam or high-quality dental resin that can be color matched to blend naturally with the tooth. Dr. Hassan may use an inlay or onlay for patients with larger areas of decay.
- Amalgam Fillings- These traditional fillings are made from metal and look like silver. Patients looking for an economical way to treat tooth decay may choose amalgam dental fillings. Some patients choose to replace their old amalgam fillings with white resin fillings for a more aesthetic smile.
- Resin Dental Fillings- Resin fillings are mercury free, highly durable, and decay and stain resistant. White dental fillings can be matched and shaped to blend seamlessly with your smile and are nearly indistinguishable from the natural tooth. For patients with amalgam fillings in their “smile-zone,” Dr. Hassan may suggest replacing them with resin fillings for a more natural looking smile.
- Inlay & Onlay- An dental inlay or onlay is often referred to as a partial dental crown. This type of dental filling is used to restore a tooth with more advanced tooth decay. If large areas of the tooth have been damaged by decay, or if the decay is in a deep crevice of a tooth, and inlay or onlay is a more conservative treatment than a tooth extraction and more secure than a traditional dental filling.
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Basic reasoning
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Health
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While many Boston area locals feel familiar with their physical surroundings, fewer know about the intricate details and history of how the spaces they occupy relate to each other and initially came to be. In an age of sophisticated digital GPS navigation, cartography and paper mapping may seem like an antiquated practice, but maps can actually reveal much more than just directions and geographical characteristics, and even tell otherwise obscured stories of cultural histories. This is precisely the mission of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, a nonprofit organization that operates within the Boston Public Library.
The Map Center, established in 2004 in the library’s McKim building in Copley Square, contains a collection of over 200,000 maps and 5,000 atlases coming from a plethora of different places and times—one of the 10 largest in the country. The Center’s website describes their goals as using their collection to provide for “the enjoyment and education of all through exhibitions, educational programs,” as well as “developing innovative uses of maps and geographic materials to engage young people’s curiosity about the world, thereby enhancing their understanding of geography, history, world cultures, and citizenship.”
Diving deeper into their mission, the Center focuses primarily on two main goals: conservation and accessibility. In terms of the former, the Center has approximately 12,000 maps dating prior to 1900, making the preservation and digitization of these items a critical aspect of its mission. The Center’s oldest map is a copy of Ptolemy’s Geographia from 1482, which was instrumental in influencing ways of thinking in the Medieval Muslim Caliphate and Renaissance Europe.
The Center also seeks to make its collection accessible to all, and offers a broad range of educational services. While the Center is a trove for academic researchers, it also offers local schools the opportunity to bring class field trips and conducts workshops for educators. These activities demonstrate how maps can be important for the narration of history through a spatial lens, which is indicative of how Boston has been portrayed cartographically since its founding.
This is not a new idea for the Map Center. An exhibit from 1999 (which was also published as a book entitled Mapping Boston) aimed to convey exactly this purpose. The book’s introduction starts off by saying that, “using a map to broaden one’s understanding of a place is especially useful for a city like Boston, whose complex social history is matched by its radical geographic transformation over the years, a transformation best recorded in a sequence of maps.”
Ronald Grim, the curator of the Leventhal Map Center, echoes these sentiments, both in reference to his own role and that of the Center in portraying the history of Greater Boston. Grim describes his job as “to provide direction in the Center’s programming and curatorial matters.” He started out as one of only two employees in the Center, but now has a staff of eight employees who cater to more specialized roles, such as education, cataloging, outreach, and development.
Grim emphasizes that maps often have the power to capture societal changes that may go unnoticed by other sources. For example, as Boston has grown in importance as an economic center from the 19th into the 20th century, the relationships between the smaller towns surrounding it have transformed as well. Particularly, previously distinct towns have lost some of their individuality at the price of being a part of the Greater Boston Area.
“Initially, these little towns like Medford and Malden are separate villages focused on their churches and maybe a particular industry,” Grim said. “As Boston itself grows in economic influence and continues to grow outward, these smaller communities become subsidiary to Boston, and eventually in the 20th century are sort of subsumed by the urban growth of the metropolitan area, so it’s hard to really tell one town from another.”
This revelation is precisely why the studies of cartography and geography can be helpful in fully understanding societal evolution. In Boston’s case, what is interesting is that while this homogenizing effect has been observed physiologically, many of these towns still maintain very distinct political systems. Boston itself, for example, is divided into several districts which each have their own city councilors. The geographic makeup of Boston today is defined by processes of expansion in past, as it engaged in landfilling, annexing neighboring towns (Roxbury, Charlestown, Allston), and urbanizing. Cambridge, on the other hand, is governed by a board of city councilors at large, and no governance exists between Boston and Cambridge, despite their geographic proximity. This reveals a disconnect between the way the localities of the Boston area are viewed externally versus how they actually operate.
Looking at maps depicting Greater Boston in the 18th century, this relationship becomes obvious. A plan of Boston in New England with its environs from 1777 (Figure 1) showcases the area with abundant wilderness, identifiable only by geographical landmarks such as the historical Winter Hill Fort area of modern-day Somerville and Harvard College in Cambridge. Medford, the original site of Tufts College, is noticeably absent from this depiction, suggesting that it did not yet quite exhibit the same importance in relation to Boston as it does today.
The post-Revolutionary era, however, saw this change as industrialization brought increased interconnectivity to the Boston area. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, maps became markers of these shifting relationships and increased urbanization. Increasingly sophisticated mapmaking technology, like the development of lithographs, also allowed maps to be printed cheaper, faster, and in larger quantities.
According to Grim, all of these changes together tie into the evolution of mapping. He explains that, “the mapmakers in the 19th century really played to the market of individual localities, they were really playing on the pride of those particular communities,” he said. “They hang it on their well and it becomes a part of their identity.”
The commercialization of maps coincided with this change in identity, and indicative of this change was the popularization of two new forms of maps in the 19th century: bird’s eye view and town center. He referenced one of the Center’s maps, West Medford, Massachusetts from 1855 (Figure 2), which documents the various plots of land surrounding Tufts College, held by its founder Charles Tufts, and follows the institution three years after its founding. A later version mapping the same area, called Map of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Mass. from 1897 (Figure 3) reflected Medford’s changing importance as a location. It showcases Tufts College on historic Medford Hillside, now using a “birds eye” perspective from above to depict a much more detailed landscape of Medford and all the changes it incurred over the 19th century. These maps can thus serve as an indication in the rising significance of different townships over the century.
Another change of the 20th century captured by mapping is the development of transportation technology in the Boston area, specifically, the T system. While any Boston area resident is familiar with the color-coded T map and benefits from the convenience and mobility it provides them, this particular map also more broadly demonstrates the interconnectivity that has increased between distinct townships over the years.
Grim echoes this point. “In the 20th century what we begin to see are more maps of Boston and its metropolitan area,” he said. “With those maps, you would start to see the major connections from the local communities into Boston.”
While increased urbanization has led to a heightened sense of a Boston metropolitan, this has simultaneously created a community both inclusive and exclusive of Boston and Tufts’ pasts. What some of these maps portray may feel like a sense of unity throughout the area but certain existing barriers in politics and community structures may suggest this to be false. In this way, studying maps in conjunction with other historical evidence and social sciences can help to tell a complete story of urban development.
As Grim puts it, in some senses, this is precisely what is evident when looking at the Boston area on a map today. “You lose the detail, but you pick up the connections,” he said.
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History
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Nigeria is a federal republic composed of 36 states and a capital territory, with a population of 140 to 150 million. In April 2003, President Olusegun Obasanjo of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) was reelected to a four-year deemed after being declared the winner in elections that were marred by what international and domestic observers termed to be serious irregularities and fraud, including political violence. The elections also resulted in the ruling PDP claiming 70 percent of the seats in the national legislature and 75 percent of the state governorships.An extended legal challenge to the 2003 election verdict ended in July when the Supreme Court upheld the election result. While civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces, there were some instances in which elements of the security forces acted outside the law.
The government's human rights record remained poor, and government officials at all levels continued to commit serious abuses. Inadequate infrastructure, endemic corruption, and general economic mismanagement hindered economic growth. Much of the country's wealth remained concentrated in the hands of a small elite. More than 70 percent of citizens live on less than one dollar per day. The following human rights problems were reported:
• abridgement of citizens' right to change their government
• politically motivated and extrajudicial killings by security forces and use of excessive force
• vigilante violence
• beatings of prisoners, detainees, and suspected criminals
• harsh punishments by Shari'a courts
• harsh and life-threatening prison conditions
• arbitrary arrest and prolonged pretrial detention
• executive interference in the judiciary and judicial corruption
• infringement of privacy rights
• restrictions on freedom of speech, press, and assembly
• limited freedom of religion and movement
• domestic violence and discrimination against women
• female genital mutilation (FGM)
• child abuse and child prostitution
• communal violence and ethnic, regional, and religious discrimination
• trafficking in persons for purposes of prostitution and forced labor
• restrictions on workers' rights
• child labor
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
There was politically motivated killings by the government or its agents. National police, army, and other security forces committed extrajudicial killings or used excessive force to apprehend criminals and to disperse protesters during the year, when crowds were perceived by police as possibly likely to become violent.
Police and the armed forces were instructed to use lethal force against suspected criminals and suspected vandals near oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region. Multinational oil companies and domestic oil producing companies often hired private security forces and subsidized living expenses for police and soldiers from area units assigned to protect oil facilities in the volatile Niger Delta region. Freelance and former security forces accounted for a portion of the violent crime committed during the year.
In January following the firing of Inspector-General of Police Tafa Balogun for corruption, Acting Inspector-General Sunday Ehindero disbanded the Federal anticrime taskforce known as "Operation Fire for Fire," which was responsible for numerous human rights abuses in previous years. Unlike in the previous year, the organization did not announce its killing statistics; however, observers noted no difference in the number of extrajudicial killings committed by police and anticrime taskforce personnel during the year. In most cases police officers were not held accountable for excessive or deadly force or for the deaths of persons in custody. Police generally operated with impunity in the apprehension, illegal detention, and sometimes execution of criminal suspects (see section 1.d.).
Abuses by poorly-trained, poorly-equipped, and poorly-managed police against civilians were common human rights violation, and the police were rarely held accountable. During the year police, military, and anticrime personnel continued to use lethal force against suspected criminals. For example on June 5, police officers killed 2 youths in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and detained the driver of the youths' vehicle incommunicado for 17 days. Authorities initially claimed the two youths were known armed robbers; however, when investigation revealed that it was a case of mistaken identity, police attempted to cover the mistake by framing the youths for an actual armed robbery. The youths' father lodged an appeal with the inspector general's office.
On occasion police were reprimanded for the use of excessive force. For example on February 20, police in Makurdi, Benue State, shot and killed 19-year-old Suleiyol Hiikyaa, a passenger in an automobile driven by her boyfriend. The couple was allegedly having sex in the vehicle when police became suspicious that the two were armed robbers and opened fire. All four policemen involved were dismissed from the force, and the policeman who fired the shot that killed Hiikyaa was charged with manslaughter.
On March 2, a policeman in Makurdi, Benue State, shot and killed a commercial bus driver when the driver could not pay a $0.15 (20 naira) bribe. Angered by this killing and the February 20 killing of Suleiyol Hiikyaa, members of the community burned a police station, blocked roads, burned cars, severely beat an assistant inspector-general of police, and reportedly killed at least three policemen. The policeman who shot the bus driver confessed to the killing, claiming he was drunk at the time. He was dismissed from the force and charged with murder. His trial had not begun by year's end.
There were no developments in the 2004 cases of killings of suspected criminals by police in Bauchi or Zamfara states.
Criminal suspects died from unnatural causes while in official custody, usually as the result of neglect and harsh treatment (see section 1.c.). For example on May 1, in Kubwa, police beat bus driver Gabriel Agbane while arresting him. When Agbane's family went to the police station the next day, they found him unconscious. Police released him to the family, who took him to a hospital, where he died four days later. Police announced to journalists that Agbane had been drunk during the arrest, had not been healthy, and had fainted on his own.
In its July report "Rest in Pieces - Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria," Human Rights Watch described how in May six young men being held in police custody in connection with a bank robbery in Enugu were led before journalists at the state criminal investigation department, even though they had not been convicted of the crime. Their families were denied access to them despite repeated efforts. On May 9, the families were told the suspects had been transferred to state police headquarters in Enugu, but officers in Enugu denied they were there. Days later the bodies of the six young men were found at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital mortuary in Enugu. Officials did not respond to the families' inquiries for additional information.
In March an investigative panel released its report on the October 2004 incident in which police had secretly buried 12 bodies in a mass grave in Kaduna. The panel found that the victims had attempted a jailbreak, but that the police had acted improperly in killing them and attempting to hide the bodies. The panel forwarded its recommendations to the federal government, which had taken no action by year's end.
Violence and lethal force at police and military roadblocks and checkpoints continued during the year, despite the January announcement by the acting inspector-general of police that police roadblocks would be eliminated. Police generally ignored the order, and roadblocks continued nationwide. Security forces frequently killed persons while trying to extort money from them. For example on January 12, police in Uromi, Edo State, stopped a taxi to demand a $0.30 (40 naira) bribe. When the driver gave $0.15 (20 naira) and started to leave the scene, a police officer fired at the vehicle, striking and killing a student riding in the taxi. Youths in the town rioted in response, burning a police station, two police cars, and the divisional police officer's residence. There was no information on disciplinary action taken against the police officer.
On October 17, in Obiaruku, Delta State, a policeman on the Special Anti-Robber Squad shot and killed a commercial bus driver when the driver was unable to pay a bribe. The policeman was dismissed from the force two days later and charged with murder. The trial had not begun by year's end.
On June 7, police in Apo stopped six traders at a vehicle checkpoint. An argument ensued, and the police shot and killed two of the six, then detained the other four, who were subsequently killed in custody.The police attempted to bury the six bodies secretly, but Apo residents found and unearthed the bodies, then marched with the corpses to the police station. Police fled the resulting riot. The police claimed the six had been "armed robbers." Six police officers, including a deputy commissioner of police, were charged with murder. The trial continued at year's end.
On May 18, on a Zamfara state highway, taxi driver Malam Danjariri was shot and killed during a scuffle with three police officers who had demanded a $0.15 (20 naira) bribe from him. Following the incident, riots erupted in which three persons were killed. One policeman was charged with culpable homicide and dismissed from the police force, while the other two officers were demoted.
There were no developments in the 2004 case of the police shootings of Ramadan gift-seekers in Zamfara State.
There were no developments in the 2004 cases of bribe-related killings in Ekiti and Kwara states.
Security forces committed other unlawful killings during the year.
On July 25, in Lagos, a naval officer shot and killed a motorcycle taxi driver after what observers termed a "minor accident." Other motorcycle taxi drivers in the area reacted violently to the shooting, burning the naval officer's car and threatening his life. The disturbance was finally quelled by police intervention. The officer was still in naval custody and the investigation continued at year's end.
Police and military personnel used excessive force and sometimes deadly force in the suppression of civil unrest, property vandalism, and interethnic violence (see section 5). There were reports of summary executions, assaults, and other abuses carried out by military personnel and paramilitary mobile police across the Niger Delta.
The federal government sometimes deployed the army in troubled areas during the year. On February 19, soldiers raided the town of Odioma in Brass Local Council of Bayelsa State following the killing of 12 persons, including four local council chairmen, on February 13. Soldiers killed at least 15 civilians, and burnt many houses. An independent investigation into the incident found that the military acted appropriately in responding to a perceived threat.
In 2003 the government began "Operation Restore Hope," a joint task force consisted of approximately five thousand army, navy, air force, and mobile police personnel under the command of Army General Zamani, in response to violence in the Niger Delta region (see section 5). During the year task force personnel and militant youths had numerous skirmishes and encounters. Human rights organizations accused the military and police of harassment, extortion, and excessive use of force in the region.
There were several killings by unknown persons that may have been politically motivated. On July 16, unknown gunmen killed PDP politician Alhaji Lateef Olani-yan in Ibadan, Oyo State. Olani-yan was killed after a meeting with prominent Ibadan politician and PDP powerbroker Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu. On September 23, Chief Bola Alphonso, special adviser to Oyo State Governor on Security and Protocol, and four others were charged with Olani-yan's killing. The trial had not begun by year's end.
In February at a church crusade in Kogi State, a man confessed to the March 2004 killing of Bassa Local Government Area (LGA) chairman Luke Shigaba. The man was arrested and charged with murder.
There were no known developments in the other reported 2003-2004 cases of politically motivated killings by unknown assailants.
There were no developments in the 2004 cases of electoral violence in Niger, Taraba, or Delta states.
Killings carried out by organized gangs of armed robbers remained common during the year. On May 2, soldiers and street toughs, popularly known as "area boys," clashed in Lagos. The incident followed the killing of a soldier, allegedly by the area boys, near a military command in the Ikeja suburb of Lagos. Soldiers arrested 62 suspected area boys and remanded them to police for prosecution.
In most southeastern states, state governments supported vigilante groups, the most well-known of which was the "Bakassi Boys," officially known as the Anambra State Vigilante Service. Like most vigilante groups, the Bakassi Boys sometimes killed suspected criminals rather than turn them over to police.For example on August 6, 32 persons died while being held by the Bakassi Boys. The captors subsequently fled, abandoning 62 other detainees. The detainees had been incarcerated as "armed robbers" and kept in a windowless, poorly ventilated shop for days. Riots erupted when police discovered the dead bodies.
Other organized vigilante groups continued to detain and kill suspected criminals.
Police generally did not have a significant impact upon vigilante groups, and they infrequently detained members of these groups during the year.
There were numerous reports of street mobs apprehending and killing suspected criminals during the year. There were no arrests reported from these mob actions, and there were no developments in cases from previous years. The practice of "necklacing" suspected criminals (placing a gasoline-soaked tire around a victim's neck or torso and then igniting it to burn the victim to death) by street mobs continued.
Lethal communal (including interethnic, intraethnic, and interreligious) violence occurred at decreased levels from the previous year (see section 2.c.). Sporadic communal violence continued between Tivs, Jukuns, and other tribes in Sokoto, Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Jigawa, Adamawa, Bauchi, Edo, Delta, Plateau, and other states during the year, killing hundreds of persons.
Tensions between members of ethnic groups in the oil-producing areas and employees and contractors of oil companies remained high; however, unlike in the previous year, there were no reported killings.
During the year, fighting between and among rival student affinity groups, commonly known as cults, in institutions of higher learning resulted in killings, rape, personal injury, and destruction of property. In April, rival student cults clashed at the Federal University of Technology in Minna, Niger State, reportedly resulted in the deaths of two students. School authorities closed the university to quell the violence. Authorities reopened the university later in the year.
There was no resolution in the 2004 cases involving deaths in cult clashes.
There were reports of politically motivated disappearances during the year. For example the government still had not responded to a court order to release a Kaduna central mosque imam detained since May 2003. It was not known whether the imam was still alive, and there were no updates oh his case during the year.
Hostage situations occurred during the year. On February 17, an Ijaw group captured and held a South Korean employee of Daewoo in Bayelsa State. South Korean embassy and Bayelsa State officials assisted Daewoo in securing the employee's release the next day.
On September 28, a gang of armed youths kidnapped two Pan Ocean Oil Corporation workers from a bar in the Delta State. Shortly afterwards, the bus transporting the hostages was spotted, and police quickly freed the hostages after a brief gun battle in which the bus driver was killed.
As in previous years, some kidnappings, particularly in the Delta, appear to have been part of longstanding ethnic disputes over resources. Due to limited manpower and resources, police and armed forces rarely were able to confront the perpetrators of these acts, especially in the volatile Delta region.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Although the law prohibits such practices and provides for punishment of such abuses, police, military, and security force officers regularly beat protesters, criminal suspects, detainees, and convicted prisoners. Police physically mistreated civilians regularly in attempts to extort money from them. The law prohibits the introduction into trials of evidence and confessions obtained through torture. In some cases, persons died from torture in custody (see section 1.a.).
Different formulations of Shari'a (Islamic law) were in place in 12 northern states (see section 2.c.). Shari'a courts delivered "hudud" sentences such as amputation for theft, caning for fornication and public drunkenness, and death by stoning for adultery, but no death sentence were carried out. Because no applicable case had been appealed to the federal level, federal appellate courts had yet to decide whether such punishments violate the constitution (see section 1.e.). Stoning and amputation sentences had been overturned on procedural or evidentiary grounds but had not been challenged on constitutional grounds. Caning is also a punishment under common law in the Northern Region Penal Code and had not been challenged in the courts as a violation of the law. In some cases, convicted persons are allowed to choose to pay a fine or go to jail in place of receiving strokes of the cane. These sentences were usually carried out immediately, while all sentences involving mutilation or death allow 30 days for appeal.
On May 26, a Shari'a appeals court in Kaduna overturned amputation sentences that had been passed in 2003 against six Zaria men who had been accused of stealing a cow and a motorcycle. The appeals court ruled that the lower court had erred in convicting the men solely on the basis of police testimony, without allowing the men to defend themselves. The men also had not had access to legal representation, as required by the Kaduna State Shari'a code.
On May 27, 25-year-old Awwalu Ibrahim received 80 lashes with a horsewhip after confessing to consumption of alcoholic beverages and smoking marijuana.
Several other stoning or amputation sentences were pending appeal or sentence implementation, but no such sentences were carried out during the year.
Security forces tortured persons and used excessive force during the year. For example on March 28 in Ilorin, Kwara State, a policeman attempting to extort a bribe from a truck driver opened fire, wounding an 18-year-old girl who was selling bread nearby.
On November 12, following a minor traffic accident in the parking lot of Abuja International Airport, members of the Kebbi State governor's entourage, which included bodyguards for the governor, beat and robbed a diplomatic driver when he attempted to mediate an argument between the entourage and a diplomat. Although complaints were filed with the Kebbi State government and the federal government, no action was taken against the perpetrators by year's end.
On November 29, police in Abuja attacked, beat, and arrested a diplomatic driver in front of a diplomatic residence, allegedly for driving his vehicle too soon after the vice president's motorcade had passed through the area. Police ordered the driver to appear at a police station the next day, where he was told no charges would be filed against him. No action was taken against the police who attacked him by year's end.
Security forces beat journalists during the year (see sections 2.a. and 2.b.).
There were no developments in the 2004 reported cases of abuses by police.
There were numerous ethnic or communal clashes during the year (see section 5). Police generally lacked the resources to control communal violence.
Vigilante groups such as the Bakassi Boys held detainees in informal detention centers, and detainees died during the year (see section 1.a.).
Prison and Detention Center Conditions
Prison and detention conditions remained harsh and life threatening. Most prisons were built 70 to 80 years ago and lacked basic facilities. Lack of potable water, inadequate sewage facilities, and severe overcrowding resulted in unhealthy and dangerous sanitary conditions. Some prisons held 200 to 300 percent more persons than their designed capacity. The government acknowledged overcrowding as the main cause of the harsh conditions common in the prison system. Excessively long pretrial detention contributed to the overcrowding (see section 1.d.).
A working group assigned by the attorney general to investigate prison conditions in the country released its report in March. The group found that 64 percent of inmates were detainees awaiting trial, and only 25 percent of those detainees had legal representation. Nearly two-thirds of the country's prisons were over 50 years old. All of the prisons were built of mud brick, and their sewers, food, health care, education, and recreational facilities were well below standard.
Disease was pervasive in the cramped, poorly ventilated facilities, and chronic shortages of medical supplies were reported. Prison inmates were allowed outside their cells for recreation or exercise only irregularly, and many inmates had to provide their own food. Only those with money or whose relatives brought food regularly had sufficient food; petty corruption among prison officials made it difficult for money provided for food to reach prisoners. Poor inmates often relied on handouts from others to survive. Beds or mattresses were not provided to many inmates, forcing them to sleep on concrete floors, often without a blanket. Prison officials, police, and security forces often denied inmates food and medical treatment as a form of punishment or to extort money from them.
Harsh conditions and denial of proper medical treatment contributed to the deaths of numerous prisoners. According to the National Governmental Organizations (NGO) Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), dead inmates were promptly buried on the prison compounds, usually without notifications to their families. A nationwide estimate of the number of inmates who died in the country's prisons was difficult to obtain because of poor record keeping by prison officials.
In practice women and juveniles were held with male prisoners, especially in rural areas. The extent of abuse in these conditions was unknown. In most cases, women accused of minor offenses were released on bail; however, women accused of serious offenses were detained. Although the law stipulates children shall not be imprisoned, juvenile offenders were routinely incarcerated along with adult criminals. The Prison Service officially required separation of detainees and convicted prisoners, but in practice the method of confinement depended solely on the capacity of the facility. As a result, detainees often were housed with convicted prisoners.
The government allowed international and domestic NGOs, including PRAWA and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), regular access to prisons. PRAWA and the ICRC published newsletters on their work. The government admitted that there were problems with its incarceration and rehabilitation programs and worked with groups such as these to address those problems.
d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention
The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention; however, police and security forces continued to employ these practices.
Role of the Police and Security Apparatus
The National Police Force (NPF) is responsible for law enforcement. Internal security is the duty of the State Security Service (SSS), which reports to the president through the national security advisor. Police were unable to controlsocietal violenceon numerous occasions during the year, and the government continued its reliance on the army in some cases. Each NPF state unit was commanded by an assistant inspector general. The law prohibits local and state police forces. The NPF was responsible for human rights abuses and did not noticeably decrease the incidence of violent crime nationwide (see section 1.a.). Corruption was rampant, most often taking the form of bribes at highway checkpoints. Police generally operated with impunity in the apprehension, illegal detention, and sometimes execution of criminal suspects.
Arrest and Detention
Police and security forces were empowered to arrest without warrant based on reasonable suspicion that a person had committed an offense; they often abused this power. Under the law, police may detain persons for 24 hours before charging them with an offense. The law requires an arresting officer to inform the accused of charges at the time of arrest and to take the accused to a police station for processing within a reasonable amount of time. By law police must provide suspects with the opportunity to engage counsel and post bail. However, suspects routinely were detained without being informed of the charges, denied access to counsel and family members, and denied the opportunity to post bail for bailable offenses. Detainees often were kept incommunicado for long periods. Provision of bail often was arbitrary or subject to extrajudicial influence. In many areas, there was no functioning bail system, so suspects were held in investigative detention for sustained periods. Numerous suspects alleged that police demanded payment before they were taken to court to have their cases heard. If family members attended court proceedings, police often demanded additional payment.
Persons who happened to be in the vicinity of a crime when it was committed were sometimes held for interrogation for periods ranging from a few hours to several months. After their release, those detained frequently were asked to repeatedly return for further questioning.
There were several politically motivated arrests during the year. For example on October 6, Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, was arraigned on charges of treason.
In the southeast over 600 people were arrested and detained during the year on suspicion of being members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), a separatist group espousing Igbo unity and the secession of Igbo states as its prime tenets. Those arrested tended to be youths whose links to MASSOB were unproven, and by mid-year over 70 had been released without charge. Demonstrations in September, following Biafra Day on August 26, claimed a reported 6 lives, although other local reports indicated as many as 200 may have been killed by the police. Ralph Uwazurike, the leader of the group, was arrested in October along with six of his deputies on treason charges. This arrest incited a series of protests, during which the home of Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first post-independence president, was razed and three people died. Protests continued until year-end and caused business and road closures along with up to 20 deaths and an unknown number of other casualties. Human rights activists believed that the crackdown on MASSOB merely gave impoverished non-MASSOB-affiliated, Igbo youths reason to take to the streets and loot shops and homes.
Members of the Oodua People's Congress (OPC), a militant Yoruba group operating in the southwest that claims its objective is to protect the collective rights of the Yoruba within the federation, continued to be arrested. Following several fatal October altercations between OPC factions, rival OPC leaders Dr. Fredrick Fasheun and Chief Gani Adams were detained and charged with managing an illegal organization and abetting mayhem.On December 1, Fasheun, Adams, and four others were charged with treason, illegal weapons possession, and membership in an illegal organization. An Abuja high court denied them bail on December 21, and all six remained in custody at year's end.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) embarked on a strong anticorruption campaign during the year, arresting a number of federal, state, and local officials and seizing millions of dollars in assets. Some observers lauded the commission's actions as a centerpiece of the Obasanjo administration's war on corruption, but critics claimed that some EFCC investigations were politically motivated, singling out political opponents of the administration, and that the EFCC did not always follow proper criminal procedure.
The persons charged in the 1996 attempted murder of Alex Ibru had not been tried by year's end (see section 2.d.). Hamza Al Mustapha, one of the defendants and security chief for former military dictator Sani Abacha, was charged in October 2004 with treason, along with two other people, but this case was not brought to trial during the year. Al Mustapha was not permitted to attend hearings on his attempted murder trial, and he and his co-defendants remained in a military prison in Lagos at year's end.
Security forces detained journalists during the year (see section 2.a.).
During the year police arrested demonstrators (see section 2.b.).
There were no updates in the reported 2004 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention.
Lengthy pretrial detention remained a serious problem. Serious backlogs, endemic corruption, and undue political influence continued to hamper the judicial system (see section 1.e.). In March a working group assigned by the attorney general to investigate prison conditions in the country found that 64 percent of inmates were detainees awaiting trial. Multiple adjournments in some cases led to serious delays. Police cited their inability to transport detainees to trial securely on their trial dates as one reason why so many were denied a trial. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reported that some detainees were held because their case files had been lost. Some state governments released inmates detained for significant periods of time without trial.
On March 22, the Ikeja high court ordered the unconditional release of 100 inmates from the Ikoyi Prison in Lagos. The inmates had been awaiting trial for 6 to 15 years. The Constitutional Rights Project (CRP) filed the motion for release of the prisoners and argued that the periods spent awaiting trial violated constitutional rights to be charged within 48 hours of arrest. CRP representatives confirmed the prisoners were released.
Early in the year the remainder of the 280 Kirikiri Prison inmates, who were ordered released by an Ikorodu high court decision in September 2004, were released.
In early November the Kwara State Chief Justice freed 12 Ilorin prison inmates due to lapses in their trials. In his statement he noted that although the Ilorin prison had a capacity of 121 inmates, the prison held 340 prisoners, 261 of whom were detainees awaiting trial.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
Although the law provides for an independent judiciary, the judicial branch remained susceptible to executive and legislative branch pressure. Political leaders influenced the judiciary, particularly at the state and local levels. Understaffing, underfunding, inefficiency, and corruption continued to prevent the judiciary from functioning adequately. Citizens encountered long delays and frequent requests from judicial officials for small bribes to expedite cases.
The Ministry of Justice implemented strict requirements for levels of education and length of service for judges at the federal and state level; however, there were no requirements or monitoring body for judges at the local level, leading to corruption and miscarriages of justice.
The regular court system is composed of federal and state trial courts, state appeals courts, the federal court of appeal, and the Federal Supreme Court. There are Shari'a and customary (traditional) courts of appeal in states that use those bases for civil or criminal law, including in the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja). Courts of first instance include magistrate or district courts, customary or traditional courts, Shari'a courts, and for some specified cases, the state high courts. The law also provides that the government establish a Federal Shari'a Court of Appeal and Final Court of Appeal, but these courts had not been established by year's end.
The nature of the case usually determined which court had jurisdiction. In principle, customary or Shari'a courts had jurisdiction only if both plaintiff and defendant agreed on this; however, fear of legal costs, delays, distance to alternative venues, community pressure, and individual preference caused many litigants to choose the customary and Shari'a courts over other venues. In some states, cases involving only Muslims must be heard by a Shari'a court.
Other states with Shari'a law permitted Muslims to choose common law courts for criminal cases, but societal pressure forced most Muslims to use the Shari'a court system.
According to the constitution, persons charged with offenses have the right to an expeditious trial. Criminal justice procedures call for trial within three months of arraignment for most categories of crimes; however, there were considerable delays, often stretching to several years, in bringing suspects to trial (see section 1.d.). Juries were not used in trials. Most detainees were poor and could not afford to pay the costs associated with moving their trials forward, and as a result they remained in prison. Wealthier defendants employed numerous delay tactics and in many cases used bribes to persuade judges to grant numerous continuances. Such practices clogged the court calendar and prevented trials from starting or progressing.
Trials in the regular court system were public and generally respected constitutionally protected individual rights in criminal cases, including a presumption of innocence, and the right to be present, to confront witnesses, to present evidence, and to be represented by legal counsel. While an accused person is entitled to counsel of his choice, there is no law that prevents a trial from going forward without counsel, except for certain offenses such as homicide or other offenses for which the penalty is death. The legal aid act provides for the appointment of counsel in such cases, and trial will not go forward without counsel. However, there was a widespread perception that judges were easily bribed or "settled," and that litigants could not rely on the courts to render impartial judgments. Many courts were understaffed, and personnel were paid poorly. Judges frequently failed to appear for trials, often because they were pursuing other source of income, and sometimes because of threats against them. In addition, court officials often lacked the proper equipment, training, and motivation to perform their duties, primarily due to inadequate compensation.
In both common law and Shari'a courts, indigent persons without legal representation were more likely to have their sentences carried out immediately upon being sentenced, although all accused persons have the right to appeal. The government instituted a panel of legal scholars in 2003 to draft a uniform Shari'a criminal statute to replace divergent Shari'a statutes adopted by various northern states; however, the panel did not produce its report during the year, and states continued to apply their individual codes.
There were no legal provisions barring women or other groups from testifying in civil court or giving their testimony less weight, but the testimony of women and non-Muslims usually was accorded less weight in Shari'a courts. In violation of mainstream Shari'a jurisprudence, some Kadis (Muslim judges) subjected women to harsh sentences for fornication or adultery based solely upon the fact of pregnancy, while men were not convicted without eyewitnesses unless they confessed (see section 1.c.).
There were no reports of political prisoners.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
The law prohibits such actions, but authorities at times continued to infringe on these rights. Police raided homes without warrants during the year.
Throughout the year the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) continued to demolish homes and businesses in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Thousands of homes in the suburbs of Karmo, Kado, and Lugbe were deemed illegal squatter settlements and bulldozed. In April the FCDA bulldozed some 400 houses, small hotels, and other businesses in the middle-class suburb of Kubwa. On April 27, the House of Representatives passed a resolution ordering an end to the demolitions, claiming that many houses had been approved by the FCDA or previous FCT ministers. The Abuja high court also issued an injunction on the FCT minister to stop further demolition, which he rejected on grounds that the high court only had jurisdiction if there had been a lower court decision. In September businesses in two high rent districts of Abuja were demolished, as was a police station in Lugbe. On November 28, the government announced that about 1,500 houses in Chika had been bulldozed, leaving an estimated 10 thousand people homeless; however, observers estimated that 2 square miles of dense one-story housing had been bulldozed, leaving some 95 percent of the estimated 500 thousand residents homeless. Although the FCT minister announced in November that the demolitions would finish by December, the demolitions continued at year's end.
On February 3, the FCDA demolished "illegal structures" at the large Wuse Market in Abuja. Hundreds of police officers used tear gas to clear crowds from the market before some 7,500 shops and stands were bulldozed. Vendors were not allowed to remove their inventories before the shops were demolished. No compensation was paid to vendors whose shops and inventories were destroyed.
In March and April the Rivers State government demolished a shanty town in Port Harcourt, leveling hundreds of dwellings and displacing thousands of persons.
Police and security forces continued the practice of placing relatives and friends of wanted suspects in detention without criminal charge to induce suspects to surrender to arrest.
Purdah, the practice of keeping girls and women in seclusion from men outside the family, continued in parts of the country, which restricted the freedom of movement of women.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press; however, the government at times restricted these rights in practice. While there were numerous private presses that published freely, there were also numerous attacks carried out by security forces during the year. Some journalists practiced self-censorship.
At times persons critical of the government faced reprisals;, for example in early May seven university students were arrested and charged with sedition for distributing leaflets critical of Jigawa State Governor Saminu Turaki. The students, members of a group called the New Salvation Movement, accused the governor of "frivolous" foreign travel and failure to develop the state's educational sector. The students pled not guilty and were detained awaiting trial at year's end.
There was a large and vibrant private domestic press that was frequently critical of the government. Only one national, government-owned daily newspaper was published, the New Nigerian. Several states owned daily or weekly newspapers that also were published in English. These publications tended to be poorly produced, had limited circulation, and required large state subsidies to continue operating. By year's end there were more than 14 major daily newspapers, 6 weekly newsmagazines, and several sensational evening newspapers and tabloid publications.
Because newspapers and television were relatively expensive and literacy levels were low, radio remained the most important medium of mass communication and information. The government owned and controlled most of the electronic media. There was a government-owned national radio broadcaster, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, which broadcast in English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and other languages; and 51 state radio stations, which broadcast in English and local languages. The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) was the body responsible for the deregulation and monitoring of the broadcast media. There were nearly a dozen private radio stations operating during the year. The government also operated the Voice of Nigeria that broadcasted internally, to neighboring West African countries, and to South Africa.
The National Television Station, NTA, was federally owned. Thirty states also operated television stations. There were nine privately owned television stations that broadcast domestic news and political commentary. There were seven private satellite television services. The law requires that local television stations limit programming from other countries to 40 percent and restricted the foreign content of satellite broadcasting to 20 percent; however, the government did not restrict access to, or reception of, international cable or satellite television.
International broadcasters, principally Voice of America and BBC, as well as Deutsche Welle and others, broadcast in English and Hausa and were an important source of news in the country.
In April 2004 the NBC banned live broadcast of foreign news and programs. The ban continued throughout the year, and the minister of information announced that the government had no intention of lifting the ban.
Security forces beat journalists on several occasions during the year. For example on January 4, at an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council of the ruling PDP, police beat 11 journalists and broke cameras while an assistant inspector general of police watched; a Nigerian Tribune journalist was hospitalized. Police claimed they were acting on orders of PDP officials not to allow journalists to cover the closed meeting.
On March 4, members of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) paramilitary group detained and beat a reporter/photographer for The Punch newspaper in Lagos. The reporter was photographing KAI members stopping jaywalkers on a Lagos highway. A KAI spokesman acknowledged the incident but claimed the reporter was beaten by an individual who was not a KAI member. The Lagos State government had launched the KAI program in 2003 with the goal of cleaning up Lagos by punishing wrongdoers.
On December 1 in Lagos, police accompanying the Lagos State governor beat a reporter for the New Age newspaper and smashed her digital camera as she was taking photographs of police forcefully breaking up a demonstration at the Lagos State Secretariat. A deputy superintendent of police apologized for the beating, but suggested that the demonstrators, not the police, should buy the reporter a new camera.
Security forces also detained journalists during the year. In June following the publication of an article that reported a Kogi State police commissioner's humiliation by armed bandits, Kogi State police occupied the headquarters of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the state capital, Lokoja, and harassed, intimidated, and arrested journalists. The police left the NUJ headquarters after three days, following negotiations with the NUJ National Secretariat, and released all arrested journalists without charges.
On January 19, Rivers State police arrested the publisher of the Port Harcourt weekly magazine National Network for publishing negative reports regarding the Rivers State police commissioner. Police released the publisher a few days later without charges.
On January 20, SSS agents arrested the Enugu State chairman of the Newspapers Vendors' Association of Nigeria, along with two newspaper vendors, for selling copies of the tabloid newspaper Eastern Pilot, which carried reports of "the emergence of a new Biafra nation." The three were interrogated at SSS headquarters, then released the same day. An SSS spokesman defended the arrests, claiming that Eastern Pilot was a "subversive" publication.
In March police arrested two Australian journalists when they asked permission to film the demolition of a shanty town. After several hours of being held without charge, police released them.
On April 8, military authorities detained the chief correspondent of the Associated Press in the country for questioning. Authorities told the correspondent he was detained for entering a military zone without a permit. The authorities released the correspondent after several hours.
There were no further known developments in the reported 2004 cases.
The government suspended radio stations or confiscated newspapers during the year. For example on February 10, SSS agents in Onitsha, Anambra State, confiscated numerous copies of magazines and newspapers with articles regarding MASSOB. Members of the Newspapers Distributors and Agents Association held a rally in Onitsha to protest against SSS intimidation of the newspaper vendors.
The NBC suspended for one day the broadcast license of DAAR Communications, which operates African Independent Television and Ray Power Radio, for alleged "unauthorized and unprofessional" reporting following the crash of Bellview flight 210 on October 22. Most observers felt DAAR was being penalized for finding the crash site when authorities could not. After criticism from President Obasanjo and from the minister of information, the action was quickly rescinded.
Editors reported that government security officers sometimes visited or called to demand information regarding a story or source. Local NGOs suggested that newspaper editors and owners underreported actual human rights abuses and killings due in part to self-censorship. State broadcasters and journalists remained important tools for governors; these officials used the state-owned media to showcase the state's accomplishments and to promote their own political goals.
Libel is criminalized in the country and requires defendants to prove the truth of opinion or value judgment contained in news reports or commentaries. This limits the circumstances in which media defendants rely on the defense of "fair comment on matters of public interest", and restricts the right to freedom of expression. Criminal Code penalties ranged from one to seven years' imprisonment (seven years, if the libelous material was published to blackmail). The Criminal Code and other federal Laws critical provides the provisions of libel laws.
In October SSS agents in Port Harcourt detained Chief Owei Sikpi, publisher of the Weekly Star newspaper, for alleged libel against the federal government and the Rivers State government. The Rivers State prosecutor pleaded with a Port Harcourt high court to deny bail to Sikpi because of "the weight of the offense." Sikpi remained in custody at year's end.
On December 19, SSS agents arrested an editor and a presenter at privately-owned radio station Rhythm FM for falsely reporting that a bridge outside Port Harcourt had collapsed. They were charged with intent to cause public panic and fear, and remained in custody at year's end.
There were no government restrictions on the Internet.State governments continued to restrict academic freedom by controlling curriculum at all levels includingmandating religious instruction. Student groups alleged that numerous strikes, inadequate facilities, and the rise of cultism (or gangs) on campuses, particularly in the south, continued to hamper educational progress.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Freedom of Assembly
The law provides for freedom of assembly, and the government generally respected this right for progovernment rallies, while opposition gatherings continued to be restricted. In areas that experienced communal violence, police and security forces permitted public meetings and demonstrations on a case-by-case basis.
In June an Abuja high court struck down the 1990 Public Order Act that required a police permit to be issued for all public rallies and processions. Security forces had regularly suppressed opposition rallies, citing the failure to obtain police permits, although rallies in support of the ruling party were normally allowed. Although the acting inspector general of police immediately announced that the police would appeal the ruling, he also stated the police would respect the court'sinjunction prohibiting police from interfering with peaceful rallies. After the ruling, police generally did not interfere with rallies, but in December in Lagos police fired tear gas at a rally of women protesting December 11 plane crash that killed many children.
The government occasionally banned gatherings whose political, ethnic, or religious nature might lead to unrest. Open-air religious services held away from places of worship remained prohibited in many states due to fears that they might heighten inter-religious tensions. The Kaduna State government ban on processions, rallies, demonstrations, and meetings in public places still was enforced on a case-by-case basis. A security forces committee ban on all political, cultural, and religious meetings in Plateau State continued to be implemented on an ad hoc basis.
On May 14, a rally in Jos, Plateau State, to announce the presidential campaign of Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani was cancelled by police for "security reasons."
Security forces forcibly dispersed demonstrations during the year. In February soldiers from the joint task force used excessive force against protesters at the Escravos oil terminal in Delta State. According to witnesses, security personnel fired tear gas, then live ammunition to disperse a crowd of approximately 300 protesters. At least 30 persons were injured, and at least one demonstrator was killed. There was no government investigation or prosecution of those responsible by year's end.
On May 2, in Yauri town, Kebbi State, police fired into a crowd of protesters, killing four persons. Demonstrators had gathered at the local emir's palace to protest police involvement in armed robberies; residents had apprehended several armed robbers and turned them over to the police, only to find out that the robbers were themselves police officers. No action was taken against the police who fired into the crowd.
No action was taken against security forces who killed or injured persons while forcibly dispersing protesters in 2004 or 2003.
Freedom of Association
The law provides for the right to associate freely with other persons in political parties, trade unions, or special interest associations and the government generally respected this right in practice. The law allows the free formation of political parties. There were 30 parties registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission during the year.
c. Freedom of Religion
The law provides for freedom of religion, and while the federal government generally respected religious freedom; there were instances in which limits were placed on religious activity to address security and public safety concerns.
The law prohibits state and local governments from adopting an official religion. Some Christians alleged that Islam has been adopted as a de facto state religion in several northern states, citing criminal law aspects of Shari'a and the continued use of state resources to fund the construction of mosques, the teaching of Kadis, and pilgrimages to Mecca (hajj). However, several states, including northern states, used government revenues to fund Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem. In general states, whether dominated by Christians or Muslims, favored the faith practiced by the majority of residents.
The law provides that states may elect to use Islamic (Shari'a) laws and courts. There were 12 northern states that have adopted at least parts of Shari'a--Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Borno, Zamfara, and Gombe. Adherence to Shari'a provisions is compulsory for Muslims in some states and optional in others. Non-Muslims are not required in any state to submit to Shari'a jurisdiction, although in some states they have the option, which may work to a defendant's advantage when the penalty under Shari'a is less severe than under civil law.
Although several northern state governments continued to ban public proselytizing to avoid ethno-religious violence, some proselytizing groups remained active despite these formal bans, which generally were enforced on a case-by-case basis.
The law does not require students to receive instruction in a religion other than their own; however, the Ministry of Education requires public school students throughout the country to undergo either Islamic or Christian religious instruction. State authorities claimed that students were permitted not to attend classes taught in a religion other than their own, and that students may request a teacher of their own religion to provide alternative instruction. However, there were often no teachers of "Christian Religious Knowledge" in many northern schools or of Muslim Religious Knowledge" in some southern schools.
No further action was taken in the 2003 incident in which members of the Moslem Students of Nigeria organization were charged with public disturbance after they invaded primary and secondary schools in Oyo State.
Although distribution of religious publications was generally unrestricted, the government sporadically enforced a ban against broadcasting religious advertisements on state-owned radio and television stations.
Although the expanded Shari'a technically does not apply to non-Muslims, the non-Muslim minority has been affected by certain social provisions of Shari'a, such as the separation of the sexes in public schools, and health and transportation services. Many social provisions associated with Shari'a have roots in the country's pre-Islamic societies and were in practice before the states adopted Shari'a. Although most states have not criminalized alcohol consumption by non-Muslims, in May 2004 Kano State announced that non-Muslims would be fined approximately $380 (50,000 naira) or sentenced up to a year in prison for drinking or selling alcohol in certain public places. There were no reports of non-Muslims in Kano State being penalized under this restriction during the year. Some states continued to offer only gender-segregated transportation (see section 5).
A number of states with expanded Shari'a have long sanctioned private vigilante Shari'a enforcement groups (hisbah); in some cases these groups had authority to make arrests. The hisbah groups were not very active during the year, although they often served as traffic wardens, especially in Kano.
The Nigeria Legal Aid Council agreed to appeal 30 Shari'a convictions and death sentences in Bauchi State. In one case, an 18-year-old man, Saleh Dabo, alleged that police told him he could plead guilty to rape, and he would be released; instead, a court sentenced him to death by stoning for adultery, even though he is not married. The appeal had not yet been heard.
There are numerous Shari'a cases pending appeal or implementation of sentence, including pending amputation and stoning sentences in Jigawa, Bauchi, Niger, Kano, and Zamfara states. Many of these cases have been delayed continuously for various reasons.
The government continued to hold an imam from the Kaduna central Mosque detained in 2003, despite an order from the Kaduna State court ordering his release.
In December 2004 at a major university in Bauchi State, a group of Muslim students abducted and killed the head of a Christian campus organization in retaliation for what they considered to be insults to Islam by Christian students. As tensions grew and some property was vandalized, authorities responded by closing the university and a nearby polytechnic school and by establishing an interfaith dialogue. Both the university and the polytechnic school reopened during the year, and while tension remained between the campus Christian and Muslim communities, there was no further violence during the year. There were no arrests for the killing.
Societal Abuses and Discrimination
The law prohibits religious discrimination in employment and other practices; however, private businesses frequently discriminated on the basis of religion or ethnicity in their hiring practices and purchasing patterns. In nearly all states, ethnic rivalries between "indigenous" and "settlers" led to some societal discrimination against minority ethnic and religious groups.
Religious differences often mirrored regional and ethnic differences. For example persons in the North and in parts of the Middle Belt were overwhelmingly Muslim and from the large Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups that tended to dominate these areas. Many southern ethnic groups were predominantly Christian. In many areas of the Middle Belt, Muslim Fulani tended to be pastoralists, while the Muslim Hausa and most Christian ethnic groups tended to be farmers or to work in urban areas. Consequently ethnic, regional, economic, and land use competition and confrontations often coincided with religious differences between the competing groups (see section 5). It was not unusual for two ethnic groups with a long history of conflict to have adopted different religions, with the effect of exacerbating existing tensions.
In early February in Numan, Adamawa State, the site of numerous previous violent clashes, police killed at least 2 persons and arrested at least 30 others who were protesting the appointment of the new Bachama ethic group traditional leader. The previous traditional leader had been removed by the state governor for his role in inciting violence in June 2004. When the governor appointed a new Bachama traditional leader, many Bachamasprotested that the new ruler had no mandate to lead them.
There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.
For a more detailed discussion, see the 2005 International Religious Freedom Report.
d. Freedom of Movement within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
The law provides for these rights, and while the government generally respected them police occasionally restricted freedom of movement by enforcing curfews in areas experiencing ethno-religious violence.
Law enforcement agencies used roadblocks and checkpoints to search for criminals and to prevent persons traveling from areas of conflict to other parts of the country where their presence might instigate retaliatory violence. There were no reports that government officials restricted mass movements of individuals fleeing ethnic unrest. Security and law enforcement officials continued to use excessive force at checkpoints and roadblocks and engage in extortion and violence (see section 1.a.).
The law prohibits the expulsion of citizens, and the government did not use forced exile. Ismaila Gwarzo, national security advisor to former president Abacha, remained restricted to his hometown in Kano State at year's end.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
During periods of societal violence, numerous persons were displaced from their places of residence (see section 5). According to Amnesty International (AI), tens of thousands of persons remained displaced in the Niger Delta region during the year due to continued ethnic and communal conflict.
Protection of Refugees
The law provides for the granting of asylum and refugee status to persons in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol, and the government has established a system for providing protection to refugees. Although the government provided protection against refoulement, the return of persons to a country where they feared persecution, and granted refugee status or asylum, the government expelled three citizens of Equatorial Guinea, where they were then imprisoned. The government cooperated with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees and asylum seekers through the National Commission for Refugees (NCR), its federal commissioner, and the National Emergency Management Agency. The Eligibility Committee (on which the UNHCR had observer status), governed the granting of refugee status, asylum, and resettlement, and reviewed refugee and resettlement applications. Of the 1,476 asylum cases during the year, 803 cases were approved and granted refugee status, 512 cases were pending, and 161 were denied.
There were an estimated 8,737 recognized refugees living in the country. During the year, 239 refugees were voluntarily repatriated. Remaining refugees included persons from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Chad, Rwanda, Sudan, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Refugee camps were generally overcrowded, and refugees' requests for police and judicial assistance generally little less attention. The NCR managed the camps and had 10 staff members based in the camps.
Although the government agreed in 2003 to provide resettlement opportunities, no formal programs had been initiated.
The government also provided temporary protection to individuals who may not qualify as refugees under the 1951 convention and the 1967 protocol and provided it to 24 persons during the year.
The UNHCR estimated that 6 thousand refugees, mostly ethnic Fulani herders, remained in Cameroon at year's end. Following the April 14 signing of the Tripartite Agreement between the governments of Nigeria, Cameroon, and the UNHCR, 6,979 refugees returned to the country through June 2, bringing the total number of returnees to 7,290.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
The law provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage; however, citizens' right to change their government was abridged during the most recent national elections in 2003.The political system remained in transition. The three branches of the government acted somewhat independently, although the executive branch dominated the other two branches.
Elections and Political Participation
The 2003 legislative elections were marred by widespread fraud. The turnout was significantly low for the 2003 presidential and gubernatorial elections, which were also marred by widespread fraud. A total of 31 parties participated in the April 2003 national assembly elections, and 19 parties had candidates in the presidential election. The European Union observer mission categorized the quality of the presidential election as extremely poor, stating that in the worst six states, elections effectively were not held, and in the rest of the country the elections were seriously marred. All major independent observer groups, international and domestic, issued negative statements about the fairness of elections and cited problems throughout the country. Problems included ballot stuffing, intentional miscounting, underage voting, multiple voting, intimidation, and violence, including political killings. Although all parties participated in the misconduct, observers cited violations by the ruling PDP significantly more often than those other parties.
In December 2004 an election tribunal voided part of the 2003 presidential election results, including the entire result of Ogun State, President Obasanjo's home state, and found that there was significant rigging, but by a 3 to 1 vote declined to overturn the election. The opposition appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, and in July that court not only upheld the election results, finding that the 2003 election had been "substantially" in compliance with the election law, but the court also reinstated the results that had been voided by the tribunal. The justice delivering the dissenting opinion in the appeals court was dismissed from the judiciary and was living without retirement benefits in the east. On August 12, following a two-year court battle, the Anambra State Elections Tribunal overturned the 2003 gubernatorial election results and declared the All People's Grand Alliance candidate Peter Obi the winner. The previously-recognized winner, Chris Ngige, who had run as a member of the ruling PDP but was later expelled from the party, appealed the ruling and refused to leave office pending his appeal.
Members of the ruling PDP had limits imposed on their ability to choose their party's leadership. In January PDP Chairman Audu Ogbeh was forced to resign, reportedly at gunpoint, and President Obasanjo appointed a member of his inner circle as Ogbeh's successor. In October the PDP contravened its own constitution and an Abuja high court order by conducting a nonelective nomination process for party office holders starting at the local level. Some PDP members were selectively denied new party membership cards and were excluded from the nominating conventions. The conventions themselves were limited to affirming predetermined slates of individuals to leadership positions, rather than holding an open and elective nomination process.
Although there were more than 500 ministerial and national assembly positions, there were only 3 female ministers, 3 female senators, and 12 female representatives.
The law mandates that the composition of the federal, state, and local governments and their agencies, as well as the conduct of their affairs, reflect the diverse character of the country to promote national unity and loyalty. The government was an example of this diversity: President Obasanjo is a Yoruba from the southwest, the vice president is a Fulani from the northeast, and the senate president is an Igbo from the southeast. The government also attempted to balance other key positions among the different regions and ethnic groups. The Senate used its oversight role to reject many of President Obasanjo's ambassadorial appointments and insisted on at least three appointments from each state. The political parties also engaged in "zoning," a practice of rotating positions within the party among the different regions and ethnic groups to ensure that each region was given adequate representation. Despite this effort, with more than 250 ethnic groups, it was difficult to ensure representation of every group in the government (see section 5).
Government Corruption and Transparency
Corruption was massive, widespread, and pervasive, at all levels of the government and society (see section 1.e.).
On February 17, Representative Haruna Yerima of Borno State claimed publicly that many of his national assembly colleagues engaged in corrupt practices. Yerima claimed that some members extorted money from government ministers and heads of parastatals to get their budgets passed, and accused all members of accepting free phone cards each month worth $56 (7,500 naira) from a prominent mobile phone provider. The House of Representatives suspended Yerima for one month for speaking out against his colleagues. The other representatives continued to receive free phone cards.
In February the Kwara State Assembly suspended two LGA council treasurers and disciplined two council chairmen for failing to account for state funds and for impeding an audit of council expenses. It also asked another LGA chairman to repay half of the $22,500 (3.08 million naira) spent on a ceremony to mark his first 100 days in office.
On May 31, the Senate approved a code of ethics but expunged a rule from the draft code stating that senators and their staff shall not accept money or any gift meant for inducement in the course of performance of their official duties. Several senators commented that the practice of gift-giving is "enshrined in Nigerian culture."
On May 31, assistant superintendent of police at Force Headquarters in Abuja, Marius Ameh, was arrested and charged with receiving a $75 (10 thousand naira) bribe to release a detainee on bail. Ameh was also charged with pocketing the $38 (5 thousand naira) bail money.
During the year the EFCC arrested or detained numerous public servants at the state government level for embezzlement. For example on the weekend of June 4-5, the EFCC arrested 27 Bauchi State government employees for their role in embezzling $2.1 million (281 million naira) of state government funds. On June 7, seven more persons were arrested.
Also on the weekend of June 4-5, the EFCC arrested five Kebbi State government employees, including the state commissioner for agriculture, for embezzling up to $22 million (3 billion naira) of state government funds through schemes involving fake vouchers and the private sale of state bonds.
In September Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was arrested in the United Kingdom (UK) and charged with money laundering. Alamieyeseigha jumped bail and returned to the country on November 21. On November 8, the governor's wife, Margaret Alamieyeseigha, was also arrested in London on money laundering charges and was released on bail pending her court date in the United Kingdom. The Bayelsa State House of Assembly impeached Alamieyeseigha and removed him from office. Alamieyeseigha appeared in a Nigerian court on December 20-22 for pretrial motions. Neither his trial in Nigeria nor his wife's in the UK had begun by year's end.
The 2003 prosecution of the former labor minister and other senior government officials on corruption charges had not been completed by year's end.
There were no laws providing for access to information, and the government provided limited access in practice.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
A number of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials generally were cooperative and responsive to their views. Criticism of the government's human rights record was abundant in various media. Human rights activists reported that their interactions with the federal government had improved, but should be more frequent. The government selectively included some human rights groups in the National Political Reform Conference. However, the environment for interaction was still tense, and human rights groups were reluctant to form a close relationship with the government.
Numerous domestic and international NGOs were active in the country. Significant NGOs included AI Nigeria, the Campaign for Democracy, the Center for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN), the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), Women Trafficking and Child Labor Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF), and the Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON). The NGOs were generally independent of the government, although some, such as WOTCLEF, which the vice president's wife chaired, had close government ties.
The government met with NGOs, and civil society organizations facilitated government/NGO communications.
CLEEN won its September 2004 lawsuit against the government over the 2002 seizure of its human rights reports and was awarded $69,230 (9 million naira). However, the Nigerian Customs Service neither paid the award nor returned the seized books. CLEEN announced that it would file an additional suit in 2006 seeking the court's permission to auction customs assets to pay the damages.
International NGOs actively addressed human rights issues in the country during the year. The ICRC in Abuja and Lagos under the direction of a regional delegate, focused on training prison officials on human rights, sanitation, and prisoner health (see section 1.c.). AI released reports on continuing human rights abuses in the Niger Delta and violence against women. Human Rights Watch also reported on Niger Delta violence and abuses, along with religious and communal violence in the north and abuses committed by police.
The NHRC, which the governmenttasked with monitoring and protecting human rights, strove to improve its credibility with the general public and NGO community as an independent monitoring body. The NHRC had zonal affiliates in each of the country's six political regions. Since its inception, the NHRC's operations have been limited by insufficient funding. The commission also lacked judicial authority and could only make nonbinding recommendations to the government.
Section 5 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
The law prohibits discrimination based on community, place of origin, ethnic group, sex, religion, or political opinion; however, customary and religious discrimination against women persisted, societal discrimination on the basis of both religion and ethnicity remained widespread, and ethnic and regional tensions continued to contribute to serious violence both between citizens and the security forces and between groups of citizens.
Domestic violence was widespread and often considered socially acceptable. Reports of spousal abuse were common, especially those of wife beating. Police normally did not intervene in domestic disputes, which seldom were discussed publicly. The Penal Code permits husbands to use physical means to chastise their wives as long as it does not result in "grievous harm," which is defined as loss of sight, hearing, power of speech, facial disfigurement, or life-threatening injuries. In more traditional areas of the country, courts and police were reluctant to intervene to protect women who formally accused their husbands of abuse if the level of alleged abuse did not exceed customary norms in the areas. According to the 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), 64.5 percent of women and 61.3 percent of men agreed that a husband was justified in hitting or beating his wife for at least one of six specified reasons, including burning food and not cooking on time.
AI reported that an estimated two-thirds of the women in certain communities in Lagos State experienced physical, sexual, or psychological violence in the family, with husbands, partners, and fathers responsible for most of the violence. Discriminatory laws exacerbated the problem. For example the penalty for indecent assault on a man is more severe than the penalty for the same offense against a woman.
Rape was against the law and convictions carried substantial penalties, but societal pressures reduced both the percentage of rapes reported and the penalties imposed for conviction. Rape and sexual harassment continued to be problems. There were no statutes against sexual harassment, but violent forms were adjudicated under assault statutes. The practice of demanding sexual favors in exchange for employment or university grades continued to be common, and rape continued to be epidemic in universities.
The NDHS estimated the FGM rate at approximately 19 percent among the country's female population, and the incidence has declined steadily in the past 15 years. While practiced in all parts of the country, FGM was much more prevalent in the south. Women from northern states were less likely to undergo the severe type of FGM known as infibulation. The age at which women and girls were subjected to the practice varied from the first week of life until after a woman delivers her first child; however, three-quarters of the NDHS 2003 survey respondents who had undergone FGM had the procedure before their first birthday. According to the survey, the principal perceived "benefits" of FGM include maintaining chastity/virginity before marriage, giving the victim better marriage prospects, providing more sexual pleasure for men (primarily according to male respondents), and aiding safe childbirth.
The federal government publicly opposed FGM but took no legal action to curb the practice. Because of the considerable problems that anti-FGM groups faced at the federal level, most refocused their energies on combating the practice at the state and LGA levels. Bayelsa, Edo, Ogun, Cross River, Osun, and Rivers States banned FGM. However, once a state legislature criminalized FGM, NGOs found that they had to convince the LGA authorities that state laws were applicable in their districts. The Ministry of Health, women's groups, and many NGOs sponsored public awareness projects to educate communities about the health hazards of FGM. They worked to eradicate the practice, but they had limited contact with health care workers on the medical effects of FGM.
On March 21, Osun State enacted a law aimed at punishing those who encourage FGM. The law makes it a punishable offense to remove any part of a sexual organ from a woman or a girl, except for medical reasons approved by a doctor. According to the provisions of the law, an offender shall be any female who offers herself for FGM; any person who coerces, entices, or induces any female to undergo FGM; and any person who other than for medical reasons performs an operation removing part of a woman or girl's sexual organs. The law provides a $385 (50 thousand) fine or one year's imprisonment or both for a first offense, with doubled penalties for a second conviction.
Prostitution was a serious social problem, particularly in urban areas. There are statutes at both the federal and state levels criminalizing prostitution. All states that have adopted Shari'a have criminalized prostitution, and this ban was enforced with varying degrees of success. The police frequently use the anti-prostitution statutes as tools for harassment, arresting offenders and holding them until they pay a bribe, but rarely prosecuting the cases in court.
Trafficking in women was a problem (see section 5, Trafficking).
In some parts of the country, women continued to be harassed for social and religious reasons. Purdah continued in parts of the far north (see section 1.f.).
Women also experienced considerable discrimination. While there are no laws barring women from particular fields of employment, women often experienced discrimination under customary and religious practices. The Nigerian NGOs Coalition expressed concern regarding continued discrimination against women in the private sector, particularly in access to employment, promotion to higher professional positions, and salary equality. There were credible reports that several businesses operated with a "get pregnant, get fired" policy. Women remained underrepresented in the formal sector but played an active and vital role in the country's informal economy. While the number of women employed in the business sector increased every year, women did not receive equal pay for equal work and often found it extremely difficult to acquire commercial credit or to obtain tax deductions or rebates as heads of households. Unmarried women in particular endured many forms of discrimination.
The NDHS survey showed that women had significant control over the income they generate (73.4 percent made sole decisions on how such income is to be used), but that men largely controlled decisions regarding such problems as children's and women's own health care.
While some women made considerable individual progress both in the academic and business world, women overall remained underprivileged. Although women were not legally barred from owning land, under some customary land tenure systems only men could own land, and women could gain access to land only through marriage or family. In addition, many customary practices did not recognize a woman's right to inherit her husband's property, and many widows were rendered destitute when their in-laws took virtually all of the deceased husband's property. Widows were subjected to unfavorable conditions as a result of discriminatory traditional customs and economic deprivation. "Confinement" was the most common rite of deprivation to which widows were subjected, and it occurred predominately in the east. Confined widows were under restrictions for as long as one year and usually were required to shave their heads and dress in black. In other areas, a widow was considered a part of her husband's property, to be "inherited" by his family. Shari'a personal law protects widows' property rights, and an NGO reported that many women succeeded in protecting their rights in Shari'a courts.
Polygyny continued to be practiced widely among many ethnic and religious groups.
Women were affected to varying degrees by Shari'a in the 12 northern states. In Zamfara State, local governments enforced laws requiring the separation of Muslim men and women in transportation and health care. Kano State announced in May that commercial motorcycle taxis could no longer take women as passengers because, it claimed, the transport of women on motorcycles was contrary to Shari'a. The state government did not cite any specific Koranic references in announcing the ban. Both Muslim and non-Muslim women were affected by the ban.
The testimony of women was not given the same weight as that of men in many criminal courts (see section 1.e.).
The government seldom enforced even the inadequate laws designed to protect the rights of children. Public schools continued to be inadequate, and limited facilities precluded access to education for many children. The law calls for the government, "when practical," to provide free, compulsory, and universal primary education; however, compulsory primary education rarely was provided. A 2004 UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) survey showed primary school enrollment at 74 percent for males and 60 percent for females, with 97 percent of enrollees completing fifth grade. Secondary school enrollment was considerably lower, at 32 percent for males and 26 percent for females.In many parts of the country, girls were discriminated against in access to education for social and economic reasons. When economic hardship restricted families' ability to send girls to school, many girls were directed into activities such as domestic work, trading, and street vending. Many families favored boys over girls in deciding which children to enroll in secondary and elementary schools. The literacy rate for men was 58 percent but only 41 percent for women.
While most schools in the north traditionally separated children by gender, the law required it in Zamfara, Sokoto, and Kebbi state schools (see section 2.c.).
UNICEF collaborated with the government on a Strategy for Acceleration of Girls Education in the country to produce a smaller gap between boys' and girls' access to education.
Cases of child abuse, abandoned infants, child prostitution, and physically harmful child labor practices remained common throughout the country (see sections 5, Trafficking, and 6.d.). The government criticized child abuse and neglect but did not undertake any significant measures to stop customary practices harmful to children, such as the sale of young girls into marriage. There were credible reports that poor families sold their daughters into marriage as a means to supplement their incomes. Young girls sometimes were forced into marriage as soon as they reached puberty, regardless of age, to prevent the "indecency" associated with premarital sex or for other cultural and religious reasons. Human rights groups reported an increase in sexual assaults and rapes of young girls, especially in the north, and attributed the increase to a fear of AIDS and a resulting desire for young virgins free of AIDS or other sexually transmitted disease.
Numerous children were homeless and lived on the streets. According to the Consortium for Street Children there were no known statistics on numbers of street children in the country. Major factors that caused children to turn to the streets included instability in the home, poverty, hunger, abuse and violence by parents, and displacement caused by clashes in the community. AIDS also had a tremendous impact on the numbers of orphaned street children.
FGM was commonly performed on girls in all parts of the country (see section 5, Women).
Trafficking in Persons
Although the law prohibits trafficking in persons, persons were trafficked to, from, and within the country.
The law prohibits human trafficking and provides for penalties including monetary fines, imprisonment, deportation, forfeiture of assets and passport, and liability for compensation to victims in civil proceedings. Imprisonment terms range from 12 months to life, while fines range from $375 (50 thousand naira) to $1,500 (200 thousand naira).
The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) bears primary responsibility for combating trafficking. The NPF and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) also have antitrafficking units. In addition, the president had a special assistant for human trafficking and child labor.
Enforcement efforts continued to improve during the year. The government took several steps during the year to correct the issue of inadequate resources and tripled its NAPTIP funding. The number of trafficking cases investigated and prosecuted during the year increased, and record keeping had improved as NAPTIP, NPF, and NIS roles were more clearly defined through a series of NAPTIP-sponsored meetings, conferences, training sessions, and networking events.
Preliminary data indicated that NAPTIP investigated 75 new cases during the year; many of the cases were pending at year's end. NAPTIP made arrests in 25 cases, 15 of which went to court, and 2 additional cases were pending at year's end. Four additional convictions under the antitrafficking law were delivered during the year from cases in Kano and Ogun States, and the verdict was pending in a case in Benin State. In the Ogun case, a Ghanaian and a Togolese were convicted on charges of pandering. The men were sentenced to a minimum of seven years' imprisonment.
In the most prominent case of the year, 40 trafficking victims, involving young girls between the ages of 7 and 19, were recovered. All of the victims were returned to their homes and to school, or were given training in various skills. The trafficker was charged and a trial was pending at year's end.
The NPF Antitrafficking Task Force was established and staffed 22 units in states with the worst trafficking problems.
The government increased collaboration on investigations with concerned law enforcement agencies in France, Spain, Italy, and Benin. In June the government signed a memorandum of understanding with Benin to improve coordination of law enforcement and victim treatment activities.
The country was a source, transit, and destination country for trafficked persons during the year. No government or NGO estimates on the extent of trafficking were available, but the magnitude of the problem was believed to be significant. This was based on several factors, including the number of deportees returned to the country and reports of Nigerians stranded along trafficking routes, particularly in North African countries. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that 40 percent of child street peddlers were trafficking victims.
Nigerians were trafficked to Europe, the Middle East, and other countries in Africa for the purposes of forced labor, domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation. Girls and women were trafficked for forced prostitution to Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Cote d'Ivoire, and Benin. Children were trafficked for involuntary domestic and agricultural labor and street peddling within the country and to countries in West and Central Africa. Both women and children were trafficked to Saudi Arabia. The country was a destination country for children trafficked for forced labor from other West African countries, primarily Benin.
Women and children were most at risk of being trafficked. Boys were trafficked primarily to work as forced bondage laborers, street peddlers, and beggars, while girls were trafficked for domestic service, street peddling, and commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking in children, and to a lesser extent in women, occurred within the country's borders. Children in rural areas were trafficked to urban centers to work as domestics, street peddlers, merchant traders, and beggars.
The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that individual criminals and organized criminal groups conducted trafficking, often involving relatives or other persons already known to the victims. Traffickers employed various methods during the year. Many were organized into specialties, such as document and passport forgery, recruitment, and transportation. To recruit young women, traffickers often made false promises of legitimate work outside the country. Traffickers also deceived child victims and their parents with promises of education, training, and salary payments. Once away from their families, children were subjected to harsh treatment and intimidation. Traffickers subjected victims to debt bondage, particularly victims forced into prostitution. In some cases, traffickers employed practitioners of traditional magic, or juju, to threaten victims with curses to procure their silence. NAPTIP estimated that 90 percent of the girls trafficked through Benin routes were threatened by juju practitioners. Victims were transported by air, land, and sea. Established land routes to Europe transited Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Morocco.
At the institutional level, government authorities did not facilitate or condone trafficking; however, reports continued to surface from informants and foreign officials that law enforcement officers and individuals in the immigration and airport authorities collaborated in trafficking across the country's borders. The majority of instances were attributed to ignorance of the trafficking law and difficulties overcoming traditional practices. The law provides punitive measures for officials who aid or abet trafficking; however, during the year NAPTIP and NPF found no evidence of official complicity, and no officials were prosecuted, tried, or convicted of trafficking-related charges. One police inspector was arrested in Abuja for releasing two trafficking suspects after being giving specific orders to hold them. The inspector was not suspected of collaborating with the traffickers and their activities.
The government provided limited funding for assistance to victims. NAPTIP served as the point of contact for immigration and police officials when victims were found. Seventy-three victims passed through the agency during the year. NAPTIP directly provided overnight shelter to victims, and agency officials connected victims to nongovernmental or international organizations for shelter, counseling, and reintegration assistance. NAPTIP established a hot line for victims and anyone seeking or wanting to provide information regarding trafficking. In some cases the government helped victims repatriate to the country and reunited trafficked children with their families.
The Ministry of Labor and Productivity, in collaboration with the ILO, NAPTIP, the police, and other federal agencies, provided food, transportation, and other logistical assistance to reunite internally and externally trafficked children with their families.
The government continued to operate the 120-bed shelter in Lagos, with involvement by the International Organization for Migration. NAPTIP also operated a second facility at a secure location in Benin City, Edo State, as a victim shelter. At the state level, the government of Akwa Ibom donated a shelter for trafficked children. The government of Kano State, in association with UNICEF, also donated a shelter for trafficked children.
The government provided some funding for protection activities. For victims serving as witnesses, divisional police officers were appointed to serve as witness protection officers. NAPTIP officials and the officer worked together to provide assistance. NAPTIP outreach efforts were based on a series of "town hall" meetings with community leaders, traditional leaders, teachers, school children, and other groups to raise awareness of the dangers of trafficking, legal protections, and available resources. Several state governments in the south continued strong efforts to protect victims. Victims were no longer charged with crimes or detained with criminals in cells as they were in previous years.
The government increased efforts and substantially increased funding to prevent trafficking in persons during the year. The stakeholder forum established by NAPTIP in 2003 continued. NAPTIP officials met with several major traditional leaders to raise their awareness regarding trafficking and the antitrafficking law. NAPTIP also worked with the media to raise awareness among the public, and officials appeared on national talk shows and state programs. The government continued implementing the ILO International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) West Africa Cocoa Agriculture Project to prevent the trafficking or employment of children in commercial agriculture, especially cocoa production.
NAPTIP led the establishment of state-level antitrafficking committees, consisting of immigration officials, civil society organizations, law enforcement agents, and federal ministries in 22 states.These groups were charged with coordinating action in trafficking cases among their respective organizations.
The government established economic and education programs that may help to prevent trafficking, such as the National Poverty Eradication Program and the Nigerian Agricultural and Rural Development Bank. Despite these and other programs, poverty, lack of access to education, and lack of economic opportunities remained pervasive problems in the country and fueled the trafficking problem.
Several state governments made significant prevention efforts during the year, including awareness campaigns among at-risk populations.
Nongovernmental and international organizations organized conferences and stakeholder meetings on trafficking and established prevention and awareness programs in schools. Groups also worked through the media. A faith-based foundation in Akwa Ibom State sponsored awareness programs on television and radio. The ILO continued a program in partnership with the News Agency of Nigeria to raise awareness and build media capacity to help eliminate child trafficking and child labor.
International organizations worked closely with the government and the community during the year to prevent child trafficking. UNICEF implemented a children's parliament program that discussed civil rights and the dangers of human trafficking.
The ILO continued to support information coordination and monitoring by providing internet connectivity to the national monitoring center. UNICEF also provided additional funding for NAPTIP zonal offices.
Persons with Disabilities
There were no laws that prohibited discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or the provision of other state services. There were no laws requiring physical accessibility for person with disabilities. Children and women with disabilities faced social stigma, exploitation, and discrimination, and were often regarded as a source of shame by their own families. Children with disabilities who could not contribute to family income were seen as a liability, and in some cases were severely neglected. Significant numbers of indigent persons with disabilities beg on the streets. Literacy rates among various categories of persons with disabilities were significantly lower than among the general population, for both men and women. The federal government ran vocational training centers in Abuja to provide training to indigent persons with disabilities. The individual states also provided facilities to assist blind and physically incapacitated individuals to become self-supporting, and persons with disabilities established a growing number of self-help NGOs.
The country's population was ethnically diverse, and consisted of more than 250 groups, many of which spoke distinct primary languages and were concentrated geographically. There was no majority ethnic group. The four largest ethnic groups, which comprised two-thirds of the country's population, were the Hausa and Fulani of the north, the Yoruba of the southwest, and the Ibos of the southeast. The Ijaw of the South Delta were the fifth largest group, followed by Kanuri in the far northeast, and the Tiv in the Middle Belt. Societal discrimination on the basis of ethnicity was practiced widely by members of all ethnic groups and was evident in private sector hiring patterns, de facto ethnic segregation of urban neighborhoods, and a continuing paucity of marriages across major ethnic and regional lines. There was a long history of tension among some ethnic groups (see section 2.c.).
Many groups complained of insufficient representation.
The law prohibits ethnic discrimination by the government, but claims of marginalization, particularly by members of southern groups and Igbos, continued. In particular, the ethnic groups of the Niger Delta continued their calls for high-level representation on petroleum problems and within the security forces. Middle Belt and Christian officers dominated the military hierarchy, and some persons in the North believed that the northern Hausa were underrepresented in the military.
Northern Muslims accused the government of favoring Yorubas or Christians from the Middle Belt for those positions. Traditional linkages continued to impose considerable pressure on individual government officials to favor their own ethnic groups for important positions and patronage.
Ethnic groups claimed environmental degradation and government indifference to their status in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. Groups such as the Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Isoko, and Ogoni continued to express unhappiness regarding their perceived economic exploitation and the environmental destruction of their homelands, and incidents of ethnic conflict and confrontation with government officials and forces continued in the Delta area (see sections 1.a. and 1.b.).
Interethnic fighting has long been a problem in Warri, Delta State, resulting in casualties and the displacement of tens of thousands of local inhabitants. The ceasefire in Warri, negotiated in 2004, remained largely in effect during the year, and there were fewer incidents of violence.
Interethnic fighting elsewhere in the Delta also displaced tens of thousands of local inhabitants. In 2004 militia groups operating in Port Harcourt and other areas around the Delta region carried out violent operations that ended when officials from the presidency negotiated directly with militant leaders and reached a cease-fire agreement. The agreement was implemented by the government of Rivers State and largely held until September, when violence was reignited by the arrests of Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and militia leader Asari Dokubo (see section 1.d) Following the October arrest of Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (see section 1.d.), tensions remained high for several weeks with increased threats and instances of crime, particularly against foreign interests, that could have been politically motivated. However, these threats also may have been the result of groups taking advantage of the heightened tensions for monetary gain.
Competing economic aspirations among ethnic groups each seeking control of state and local governments, led to violent conflicts during the year.
On March 5-6, ongoing communal conflict along the border of Jigawa and Bauchi States flared up, injuring dozens and killing up to eight persons. The conflict occurred over the location of a 300-year-old public market that had been controversially relocated in 2004 from a village in Jigawa State to a neighboring village in Bauchi State. Fighting between the two groups was reportedly sparked by a Bauchi legislator's comment that the market would never be returned to Jigawa. In response to the violence the Jigawa State government set up an ad hoc committee, headed by the state commissioner of information, to identify the root causes of the conflict and recommend solutions. Although the committee submitted its report to the governor in March, the report was not made public.
On November 12, hundreds of youths rioted in eastern Plateau State over the formation of a new development area. The rioters claimed to be indigenous Pan, as opposed to Hausa/Fulani settlers (Namu). The new area, located around Namu town, was named Namu, while the rioting youths insisted it should be named Pan.
Conflict over land rights and ownership continued among members of the Tiv, Kwalla, Jukun, and Azara ethnic groups; each of these groups resided at or near the convergence of Nassarawa, Benue, and Taraba States. The Tiv, who were claimed by their opponents to have migrated to the country later than other inhabitants of the disputed area, were regarded as interlopers by the other groups, which consider themselves "indigenous". Tivs are the largest ethnic group in much of Benue and parts of other states.
In April in eastern Benue State, the site of numerous communal clashes in the past, an estimated 10 to 20 persons were killed in fighting between ethnic Tivs and Fulanis, reportedly sparked by the rape of a Tiv girl by a Fulani cattle herder. Many Fulanis fled into neighboring Taraba State. The state police command deployed additional mobile policemen to the area, preventing further violence.
Communal violence between members of the Ogori and Ekpedo ethnic groups in Kogi and Edo states continued over boundary and land disputes. Kogi and Edo state governors declared the disputed land a "buffer zone," and the matter was referred to the National Boundary Commission in 2003. No further action was taken during the year.
Clashes between herdsmen and indigenous farmers were common as they competed for diminishing land resources during the year. Farmers expanded their croplands onto traditional cattle migration routes, while nomadic herdsmen moved herds from overgrazed land onto farm areas. In February at least 10 persons were killed in clashes between farmers and herdsmen in Demsa, Adamawa State. Also, in Ringim LGA of Jigawa State, 4 to 10 persons were killed in clashes between farmers and herdsmen. About 20 persons were arrested but no charges were filed.
There were no developments in previous years' incidents of ethno-religious violence.
Other Societal Abuses and Discrimination
Homosexuality is illegal under federal law; homosexual practices are punishable by prison sentences of up to 14 years. In the 12 northern states that have adopted Shari'a, adults convicted of having engaged in homosexual intercourse are subject to execution by stoning, although no such sentences were imposed.
There was widespread discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS, which the public considered a result of immoral behavior. Persons living with HIV/AIDS often lost their jobs or were denied health care services.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
The law provides all citizens with the right to form or belong to any trade union or other association for the protection of their interests, and while workers exercised this right in practice, several statutory restrictions on the right of association and on trade unions restricted this right.
Workers, except members of the armed forces and employees designated as essential by the government, may join trade unions. Essential workers included government employees in the police, customs, immigration, prisons, the federal mint, and the Central Bank. Employees working in a designated Export Processing Zone (EPZ) may not join a union until 10 years after the start-up of the enterprise (see section 6.b.). The government's application of the "essential worker" designation was broad compared with the ILO definition.
According to figures provided by the three largest union federations, total union membership was approximately 5.1 million. Less than 10 percent of the total workforce was organized. With the exception of a small number of workers engaged in commercial food processing, the agricultural sector, which employed the majority of the work force, was not organized. The informal sector, and small and medium enterprises, remained largely unorganized.
The new Trade Union (Amendment) Act, passed on March 30, eliminated the previously mandated single-labor-federation structure for workers, organized under the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC). Trade union federations, now called "central labor organizations," must be registered formally by the government. Each federation must consist of 12 or more trade unions, and trade union membership in a federation must be exclusive. A minimum of 50 workers per enterprise is required to form a trade union. All unions and federations officially recognized prior to the law's passage were allowed to retain their status. The government formally recognized 29 such unions under the NLC, 18 under the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and 8 under the Congress of Free Trade Unions (CFTU).
The TUC was recognized as a central labor organization under the new law, while the CFTU was not because it lacked the requisite number of affiliate unions. While lifting some restrictions on freedom of association by allowing more labor centers, the new law weakened the NLC, the country's largest labor organization. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions released its annual report in October and named the country as one of several that suffered from increased abuses of workers' rights by of government during the year.
The law prohibits antiunion discrimination.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The law allows unions to conduct their activities without interference; however, the law also closely defines what union activity is legal. The law provides for both the right to organize and bargain collectively between management and trade unions, and collective bargaining occurred throughout the public sector and the organized private sector. The law prohibits national strikes and strikes on many issues.
Workers outside the legally defined category of "essential" had the right to strike, although they were required to provide advance notice of a strike. During the year workers exercised this right sparingly and with very limited scope, encompassing only individual factories or other work places. According to the March labor law, the right to strike is limited to matters pertaining to breach of contract or wages and conditions of work, prohibiting strikes over matters of national economic policy. A worker under a collective bargaining agreement could not participate in a strike unless his union complied with the requirements of the law, which included provisions for mandatory mediation and for referral of the dispute to the government. Workers are specifically prohibited from forcing persons to join a strike or from closing airports or obstructing public by-ways. Stiff fines and/or prison sentences are imposed on law-breakers. While strikes continued to occur in localized areas after the law passed in March, no national strike was called. Instead a new strategy of organizing peaceful protest rallies was implemented.
Employers reported unions used threats against members and their families to force them to stay at home during planned strikes.
In March oil union members initiated a strike against Tidex, a maritime firm, and detained 45 to 50 expatriate workers the vessels, except for brief periods onshore. The dispute continued for five weeks, when government and the NLC negotiated a resolution and the workers were allowed to depart their vessels.
In April crewing agency workers embarked on an indefinite strike to protest a government decision to move them from their union, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas, to another union.
During the year, there were no strike-related casualties reported, only deaths in vehicle accidents on the way to or from strikes. Also no arrests were reported for participating in a strike.
No action was taken against security forces who killed or injured strikers in 2004.
There were no laws prohibiting retribution against strikers and strike leaders, but strikers who believed they were victims of unfair retribution could submit their cases to IAP, with the approval of the labor ministry. The Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP's) decisions were binding on parties but could be appealed to the National Industrial Court (NIC); in practice the decisions of these bodies infrequently carried the force of law. Union representatives described the arbitration process as cumbersome and time-consuming, and an ineffective deterrent to retribution against strikers.
EPZs in Calabar, Cross River State, and Onne Port, Rivers State operated during the year. Workers and employers in these zones were subject to national labor laws, which provided for a 10-year prohibition on trade unions, strikes, or lockouts following the commencement of operations within a zone. In addition the law allows the EPZ Authority to handle the resolution of disputes between employers and employees, instead of workers' organizations or unions.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
Although the law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children, there were reports that it occurred (see sections 5 and 6.d.). Enforcement of the law was not effective.
d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment
In most sectors, the minimum work age is 15 years, which is consistent with the age for completing educational requirements; however, child labor remained a problem. The law prohibits employment of children less than 15 years of age in commerce and industry and restricts other child labor to home-based agricultural or domestic work. The law states that children may not be employed in agricultural or domestic work for more than eight hours per day. Apprenticeship of youths at the age of 13 is allowed under specific conditions.
Awareness was increasing throughout civil society, and the government showed its commitment to the issue of child labor. Despite these advances, forced child labor and trafficking in children continued during the year (see section 5).
Economic hardship resulted in high numbers of children working to enhance meager family income. Children frequently were employed as beggars, street peddlers, bus conductors, and domestic servants in urban areas. Little data was available to analyze the incidence of child labor. The National Modular Child Labour Survey Nigeria conducted the only survey available between 2000 and 2001. The survey reported approximately 15 million children working in the country. Of these, more than six million were not attending school and more than two million were working 15 or more hours per day.
The Ministry of Employment, Labor, and Productivity dealt specifically with child labor problems, and had an inspections department whose major responsibilities included enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and protection of workers. There were fewer than 50 factory inspectors for the entire country, although the inspectorate employed nearly 400 total inspectors for all business sectors. The ministry conducted inspections mostly in the formal business sector, in which the incidence of child labor was not a significant problem. NAPTIP bears some responsibility for enforcing child labor laws. The agency reportedly received no complaints of child labor, although it did pursue cases of trafficking in children (see section 5).
Private and government initiatives to stem the incidence of child employment continued but were ineffective. The government implemented the ILO/IPEC West Africa Cocoa Agriculture Project in the cocoa and other agricultural sub-sectors to combat hazardous child labor and to prevent child trafficking for labor exploitation. Several programs by NGOs and international organizations worked to address child labor in the country.
UNICEF conducted a program to remove young girls from the street peddling trade and relocate them to informal educational settings. ILO programs worked to involve communities and schools in withdrawing children from exploitative situations such as street peddling and prostitution. The programs aimed to reintegrate the children into school or otherwise provide vocational training.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The law sets a minimum wage, which was reviewed infrequently. Real private sector wages greatly exceeded the minimum wage. The minimum wage was $56.70 (7,500 naira) per month for private sector workers and $41.70 (5,500 naira) per month for public sector workers (with a 13-month year as the law mandates an extra month's pay for the Christmas holiday). The national minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. The government directed each state administration to establish its own salary structure based on its ability to pay, with a floor of at least the national minimum wage.
In 2003 the NLC and government agreed to a 25 percent employee wage increase. In 2004 the government increased federal employees' wages 12.5 percent; however, state employees did not receive any increase by year's end.
The law mandates a 40-hour workweek, 2 to 4 weeks' annual leave, and overtime and holiday pay, except for agricultural and domestic workers. There is no law prohibiting excessive compulsory overtime. Labor leaders reported that the law can be interpreted as prohibiting some forms of excessive, compulsory overtime; however, workplace health and safety conditions were not properly patrolled, and enforcement was sporadic at best due to insufficient police and the small number of factory inspectors. The law also establishes general health and safety provisions, some of which were aimed specifically at young or female workers. It requires that the inspectorate division of the Ministry of Labor and Employment inspect factories for compliance with health and safety standards. However, this agency was greatly underfunded, lacked basic resources and training, and consequently neglected safety oversight at many enterprises, particularly construction sites and other nonfactory work locations. The law requires employers to compensate injured workers and dependent survivors of those killed in industrial accidents. The labor ministry, which was charged with enforcement of these laws, has been ineffective in identifying violators. The Labor Law did not provide workers with the right to remove themselves from dangerous work situations without loss of employment.
The labor laws apply to legal foreign workers, but not all companies respected these laws in practice.
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Strong reasoning
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Crime & Law
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Dec. 17, 2002 -- When it comes to medications to treat high blood pressure, newer isn't necessarily better. In fact, researchers say that in light of new findings from a landmark study, diuretics should be the top choice for combating high blood pressure.
That is the conclusion reached following a massive clinical trial comparing the effects of newer blood pressure drugs to diuretics, which have been around for a much longer time -- and are much cheaper. Specifically, the diuretic studied -- chlorthalidone -- was substantially better at preventing heart failure and stroke that can occur as a result of high blood pressure.
The main diuretic used today is hydrochlorothiazide, or HCTZ, which has fewer side effects than chlorthalidone, the diuretic used in this study. HCTZ is often combined with other diuretics into one pill.
The results of the study, called ALLHAT (Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial), appear in the Dec. 18 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
There are several different classes of new blood pressure drugs. But they had not been compared directly with the older diuretics -- until now. Diuretics lower blood pressure by increasing urinary output and reducing the body's sodium and water volume.
The trial "answers a question that doctors have been asking for years, and that is, which of the available medications are best at preventing complications of blood pressure?" Jackson Wright Jr., MD, PhD, professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University and one of the trial's research coordinators, tells WebMD.
Wright says the study is convincing because it's the largest trial that's ever looked at problems that can stem from high blood pressure and because the trial has large numbers of women, older people, blacks, and Hispanics. "It clearly confirms the findings of previous studies and extends them."
Drugs are usually only prescribed for high blood pressure if lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, fail to solve the problem.
The findings could have major implications for the newer drugs and their manufacturers. The new drugs have taken a significant chunk of the high blood pressure drug market.
According to the researchers, diuretics fell from 56% of prescriptions for high blood pressure in 1982 to 27% in 1992, giving way to the newer drugs. They estimate that sticking with diuretics would have saved more than $3 billion. About 24 million Americans take drugs to lower high blood pressure, costing about $15.5 billion annually. To put it more succinctly: Switching from newer drugs to a diuretic would save between $250 and $650 per patient per year, the researchers say.
The blood pressure study included more than 42,000 participants aged 55 and older. They received either the diuretic chlorthalidone or one of the new blood pressure drugs -- Norvasc (a calcium channel blocker) or Prinivil or Zestril (generic name lisinopril -- an ACE inhibitor). The part of the study that looked at Cardura -- an alpha adrenergic blocker -- was stopped in 2000 because of an increase in heart disease and stroke among study participants.
In the study, the researchers were mainly looking for how well each blood pressure drug prevented a heart attack or death from heart disease. In addition, they looked for other complications of high blood pressure -- including stroke and heart failure.
After five years, researchers found that the diuretic was just as good at preventing heart attack or death as the newer drugs. But the medicines had different effects on blood pressure. The diuretic was better at lowering systolic blood pressure -- the top number -- than the newer drugs, but Norvasc was better at lowering diastolic blood pressure -- the bottom number.
For heart failure, people taking Norvasc had a 38% higher risk of developing heart failure and a 35% higher chance of being hospitalized for the condition. Those on the ACE inhibitor had a 15% higher risk of stroke, a 19% higher risk of developing heart failure, and other increased risks compared with people taking a diuretic.
Even though the overall death rate was about the same in all groups, strokes and heart attacks seriously reduce quality of life. "These have major impacts on people's lives," said Barry R. Davis, MD, PhD, professor of biometry at the University of Texas School of Public Health and the lead investigator on ALLHAT.
"The take-home message is that doctors should begin drug treatment for high blood pressure with a diuretic," said Paul Whelton, MD, MSc, senior vice-president for health sciences at Tulane University, and an ALLHAT regional coordinator. "A great majority of patients can tolerate a diuretic, but, for those who can't, then a calcium channel blocker, an ACE inhibitor, or a beta-blocker [also a new medication that was not tested in this study] may be used to start treatment."
The trial also indicates that most patients require more than one drug to control blood pressure, with a diuretic being a key component of any such combination.
If you are currently taking a calcium channel blocker, an ACE inhibitor, or another high blood pressure drug besides a diuretic, you should certainly continue to take your medication, but you should also talk to your doctor about adding a diuretic or switching to one, says Whelton.
ALLHAT Follow-up: Water Pills Help All With Hypertension WebMD Feature, Jan. 2, 2003.
ALLHAT Follow-up:What To Do: Treat, Don't Tolerate High Blood Pressure WebMD Feature, Jan. 14, 2003.
ALLHAT Follow-up:Monitoring Blood Pressure at Home WebMD Feature, Jan. 17, 2003.
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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Tech items, could they be key to virus containment?
So the other day I was enjoying my usual jog in a nearby park when a little girl approached me with an instant camera, asking me to take her picture with her dog.
Naturally, I grabbed the camera, took multiple pictures, passed it back to the girl and went about my day ‘normally’ — then BAM, only hours later I realize my ‘bare’ mistake!
You see, our lives are wired around so many spontaneous ‘Tech moments’. That’s why the objects we most frequently touch and pass around are tech-related items.
In fact, most of us even start our day by checking our phones first thing in the morning (which according to Bustle, we shouldn’t be doing by the way 🤷♀️).
We at GAT Labs believe that safety and security are inclusive concepts not restricted to the cyber world only.
Mobile Phones 📱:
According to William Keevil, a professor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton, “You could be washing your hands, but if you start touching your smartphone screen and then touch your face that is a potential route of infection”.
While the average person picks up their phone around 76 times per day, it’s recommended that you clean yours twice a day with alcohol wipes to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
It also goes without saying that you shouldn’t be passing your mobile phone to others these days and stick to sharing your screen from a distance when needed.
You’re sitting next to someone you know, they’re listening to music, then comes a song they want you to check out so they quickly pass on their earphones to you. Sounds familiar? — We’re all guilty of it!
Let me first tell you that it’s never a good idea to share earphones in general as they easily transfer bacteria from ear to ear. This, of course, applies to viruses too.
If you spend a good portion of your day using earphones make sure to follow these tips to stay better protected:
- Keep your earphones in a case at all times when not in use (we too often forget that one).
- Always wash your hands before handling your earphones.
- Wipe your earphones with alcohol wipes regularly to disinfect.
- Treat your earphones the same as your toothbrush, no sharing!
Public Touch Screens 🖥️:
We’ve already established that touch screens provide an ideal environment for viruses to grow. Sadly, that’s not limited to our mobile phones only, but all touch screens in general.
The reason why this is particularly important is that, even when wearing protective gloves, most of the time those screens need to be touched with bare fingers to be responsive.
This means many of us will be taking off those gloves instinctively to handle touch screens at ATMs, ticket machines, self-service outlets, etc.
“Now with this (pandemic), you’d think consumers would be rather wary of interacting with something that thousands of people had touched before them.” Chris Schreiner, director of UX innovation at Strategy Analytics, told Investor’s Business Daily.
Remote Controls 🎚️:
Summer is almost here — which means air conditioners will be constantly on in so many countries and remote controls will be passed on infinitely from one person to another.
This, of course, makes them one of the TOP virus transmission objects for the hot season.
With that, now might be a good time to give those remote controls a good clean and add them to your ‘housekeeping’ cleaning list going forward.
Here’s how to regularly disinfect your remote controls without damaging them:
- Start by taking the batteries out.
- Shake the item upside down to get rid of any dirt that may be lodged between the buttons.
- DON’T spray the disinfectant directly onto your item. Rather wipe it thoroughly with disinfectant wipes or a disposable cloth moistened with the solution.
- Let it air dry.
From security keypads at building gates and elevators to public lockers and gas stations etc., they’re everywhere and sometimes using keypad combinations is just unavoidable.
To that, consider carrying some disposable tissues (if you’re short on latex gloves) to use every time you handle public keypads. Alternatively, you’ll need to make sure to instantly sanitize your hands right after and before touching anything else.
Feeling a bit of a germaphobe lately? — We all are nowadays.
Join the conversation on twitter, we’d love to hear about your favourite Tech hygiene routine or tip?
Think this can be useful someone else? Use the below buttons to share this blog post with your circle on social media 👇
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
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Ellis Washington, a self-proclaimed former editor of the Michigan Law Review (he was really just an undergrad fact checker), is back with yet another ridiculous column about constitutional law. This time his target is the incorporation of the 14th amendment, which he unsurprisingly gets entirely wrong.
Incorporation is the legal doctrine that applies the federal Bill of Rights to the states. What makes Washington’s column all the more absurd is that he doesn’t ever actually argue against it. He declares it to be wrong, but makes no arguments at all as to why.
The so-called “Incorporation Doctrine” is a shameless example of the Supreme Court overstepping its enumerated powers by ruling that the 14th Amendment makes the Bill of Rights applicable to state law as well as federal law.
In the case of Barron v. Baltimore (1833), before the 14th Amendment was ratified and before the Incorporation Doctrine was developed, the U.S. Supreme Court first clearly affirmed that the Bill of Rights is applicable only to the federal government and not to the state governments. Then, in the case Gitlow v. New York (1925), which occurred in the heyday of the Progressive Era, the Supreme Court broke the settled precedent in the Barron case and unconstitutionally ruled that the 14th Amendment forbids states from prohibiting free speech.
This is a coherent argument? Barron v Baltimore was in 1833, 35 years before the 14th Amendment was written and ratified. If the 14th Amendment did incorporate the Bill of Rights against state actions, that ruling is completely irrelevant. Barron was based on the Constitution was it existed in 1833; it was a different Constitution in 1925 because of the 14th Amendment.
There is no question that the 14th Amendment applied the Bill of Rights to the states. During the entire debate in the House and Senate on the amendment, that was the key issue. Those who wrote and advocated the amendment said that it was necessary in order to keep the states from violating the rights of citizens; those who were opposed to it were against giving the federal government the power to enforce those rights against the states. The advocates won, obviously, since the amendment passed.
Rep. Bingham, the primary House sponsor of the amendment, repeatedly said during those debates that the purpose was to apply the first 8 amendments in the Bill of Rights to the states. On Feb. 27, 1866, he said that the amendment was intended to “arm the Congress … with the power to enforce this bill of rights as it stands in the Constitution today.” In a similar statement he said that the amendment would “arm Congress with the power to … punish all violations by State Officers of the bill of rights.” And the language of the amendment is clear. It says that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” Those privileges and immunities were those found in the Bill of Rights.
But Washington doesn’t even attempt to argue against this. Here’s what he actually argues:
Barry Krusch, in a very good book, “Will the Real First Amendment Please Stand Up,” wrote that Judge Sanford, writing for the majority in Gitlow, at first seemingly agrees that the First Amendment does not apply to state governments:
“It is a fundamental principle, long established, that the freedom of speech and of the press which is secured by the Constitution, does not confer an absolute right to speak or publish, without responsibility, whatever one may choose, or an unrestricted and unbridled license that gives immunity for every possible use of language and prevents the punishment of those who abuse this freedom.”
Say what? That passage has nothing at all to do with whether the First Amendment applied to the states; it deals only with whether there are any limits on First Amendment protects in general. It doesn’t even mention the states. The funny thing to me is that Washington continues to claim to have been “a former editor of the Michigan Law Review.” If he had actually been a law student there and had submitted this nonsense to that review, the real editors would reject it with a hearty laugh.
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Strong reasoning
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Crime & Law
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By giving us your feedback, you can help improve your www.NOAA.gov experience. This short, anonymous survey only takes just a few minutes to complete 11 questions. Thank you for your input!Give my feedback
March 16, 2010
Under the ESA, a “threatened” species is in danger of becoming endangered in the foreseeable future. An “endangered” species is one in danger of extinction in all or part of its range.
Pacific smelt, known officially as eulachon, are small ocean-going fish that historically ranged from northern California to the Bering Sea in Alaska. They return to rivers to spawn in late winter and early spring. This little fish is so high in body fat during spawning that it can be dried, strung on a wick and burned, lending another name to its list of aliases—candlefish. There is a small and widely dispersed commercial and recreational fishery for pacific smelt.
A team of biologists from NOAA’s Fisheries Service and two other federal agencies concluded last year that there are at least two Pacific smelt distinct population segments on the West Coast. The one listed today extends from the Mad River in northern California north into British Columbia. These population segments are different from the endangered delta smelt, a freshwater species found in California's Sacramento River delta.
Smelt have historically played an important role in the culture of Northwest native tribes, representing a seasonally important food source and a valuable trade item. Columbia River smelt were first described by Meriwether Lewis in 1806 during the Corps of Discovery; he lauded the fatty fish for their excellent taste.
The Cowlitz Indian tribe in Washington State petitioned NOAA’s Fisheries Service in 2007 to list the fish populations in Washington, Oregon, and California. The tribe’s petition described severe declines in smelt runs along the entire Pacific Coast, with possible local extinctions in California and Oregon.
NOAA’s own scientific review found that this smelt stock is indeed declining throughout its range, and further declines are expected as climate change affects the availability of its prey. Climate change is also expected to change the timing and volume of spring flows in Northwest rivers. Those flows are critical to successful Pacific smelt spawning and these changes could have a negative effect on spawning success. The agency’s review also concluded that Pacific smelt are vulnerable to being caught in shrimp fisheries in the United States and Canada, because the areas occupied by shrimp and smelt often overlap.
The agency said other threats to the fish include water flows in the Klamath and Columbia River basins and bird, seal and sea lion predation, especially in Canadian streams and rivers.
Recreational fishers catch smelt in dip nets, and typically fry and eat them whole. These fish are also the bait of choice for sturgeon fishers, and are often caught specifically for that purpose.
Now that Pacific smelt have been listed as threatened, the agency said it would turn its attention to determining what, if any, protective measures—known as 4(d) rules—are needed for smelt. It would also determine the extent of the fish’s critical habitat. In addition to these protections, the ESA requires federal agencies to ensure that activities they authorize, fund or conduct are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of a listed species.
Prohibitions against harming them would apply only to Pacific smelt in U.S. waters or to U.S. citizens on the high seas, even though the population extends into Canada.
All of the West Coast states individually manage their own small commercial and recreational smelt fisheries and are responsible for writing and enforcing fishing regulations.
For more information on the eulachon ESA listing, see the Web at: http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Other-Marine-Species/Eulachon.cfm.
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources. Visit us on Facebook.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Book T of C
Chap T of C
In the late 1970s, reports of flashbulb memory (Brown & Kulik, 1977) seemed to support the idea of adrenaline effects on memory. Flashbulb memories were supposed to be memories formed instantaneously and remembered forever, after shocking events. A classic example in the 1970s was, "Where were you when you heard about Kennedy being shot." For 1980s American students the question became, "Where were you when you heard about the space shuttle Challenger blowing up?" Most people could tell you exactly where they were when they heard about it. To the current generation of students, "Where were you when you heard about the twin towers being hit" would elicit similar, specific responses.
What is "flashbulb memory"?
This phenomenon has been known for many years. A psychologist (Colegrove) writing in 1899 described how middle-aged people remembered exactly what they were doing when they heard Abraham Lincoln was shot, 35 years earlier.
Neisser (1982) argued that these memories are often inaccurate or fabricated. He gave a personal example. For years he had a flashbulb memory of watching a baseball game the day before his 13th birthday. The game was interrupted by the announcement of the Pearl Harbor bombing, and he rushed upstairs to tell his mother. Neisser continues:
What point did Neisser make with his memory of the Pearl Harbor announcement?
This memory has been so clear for so long that I never confronted its inherent absurdity until last year: no one broadcasts baseball games in December! (It can't have been a football game either; professional football barely existed in 1941, and the college season ended by Thanksgiving.) Apparently flashbulbs can be just as wrong as other kinds of memories; they are not produced by a special quasi-photographic mechanism. (Neisser, 1982, p.45)
How does Neisser explain flashbulb memories?
Neisser proposed that flashbulb memories were really something like historical markers. When a significant historical event occurs, it becomes part of our life history. We think about it and its relationship to our lives. We know the world is changed from that moment onward. In the following years we often think of this landmark in our personal history. So the memories of such events linger, but that does not mean the memory is accurate.
Schmolck, Buffalo, and Squire (2000) studied flashbulb memories which American students had for the announcement of the verdict of the O. J. Simpson trial. They found that "the quality of the recollections after 32 months was strikingly different from the quality of recollections after 15 months" with many errors creeping into the memory accounts. Because they collected memory reports from students at two intervals, they were able to document changes in the memory reports of individuals. For example, one student produced this report 15 months after the verdict:
"I was at the Commuter Lounge at Reville [College] and saw it on T.V. As 10:00 approached, more and more people came into the room. We kept having to turn up the volume, but it was kind of cool. Everyone was talking."
At 32 months post-verdict, the same student produced this recollection:
"I first heard about it while I was watching TV. At home in my living room. My sister and father were with me. Doing nothing in particular, eating and watching how the news station was covering different groups of viewers..."
This provides more evidence (if any is needed) that retrospective self-reports are unrealiable. It also shows that memory continues to change and transform between 1 and 3 years after an experience.
What did Linton discover about memory for life events?
Marigold Linton (1982) argued that the distinctiveness of newsworthy events is what makes them memorable. Linton was the researcher described earlier in this chapter who wrote down two personal events every day for six years. She systematically tested her memory for these events. She found that the first time you do almost anything is memorable, compared to later occasions. For example, she retained a clear memory of submitting the "final draft" of a statistics textbook to her publishing company. But they asked for revisions. She was less successful in remembering the second time she submitted a "final draft." She had only a vague memory of the third and final submission of the book, which was then published.
If Linton is correct, flashbulb memories-to the extent they occur-are caused by unique, distinctive, first time events. This may not contradict the adrenaline theory, because such novel events probably provoke adrenaline release. But Linton's analysis suggests that encoding effects are important. A first-time event is distinctive and therefore easier to retrieve.
Prev page | T of C | Next page
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Copyright © 2007 Russ Dewey
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Concorde Landing Gear Operation
Landing Gear Retraction and Extension
Retraction and normal extension is electrically signaled and hydraulically actuated. The landing gear up selection initiates a sequence of actions. If the up-locks are open and ready, the doors for the three principal gears are opened, then if nose wheel steering is centered and main bogies level, hydraulic pressure opens the down-locks, unlocks the shortening mechanism and retracts the gear. When up-locks are engaged, the doors will close. Extension is far simpler: its checks that the down-locks are open then sequences doors open, gear down and door close. Tail gear basically followers the others, but is not involved in sequencing. Maximum speed for gear operation is 270kts; it takes about 12 second to retract.
When the landing gear lever on the flight deck is in the NAUTRAL position, both the electrical control and hydraulic supply are shut off leaving the doors held by the mechanical locks, thus preventing inadvertent land gear extension through control or actuator failure. During the landing gear retraction the main and nose wheels are automatically braked and released.
In the event of hydraulic malfunction there is a standby lowering system. It is accomplished hydro-mechanically and by manual sequencing and timing, by means of a separate control lever on the Centre Pedestal Instrument Panel on the flight deck, the lever is independently powered by the Yellow hydraulic system.
FREE FALL OPERATION
Certain combinations of problems would plan to preserve the hydraulic effort exclusively for the flight controls. In these cases the landing gear would be lowered by free-fall mechanisms. This involves a visit to the passenger cabin and opening a floor panel. Free-fall controls are located immediately above the nose gear and the main-gear up-locks. For the nose-gear a rotary control first isolates hydraulics and vents the retraction jack to atmosphere, then via a screw jack mechanism opens the doors up-locks and the gear up-locks. The gear falls into the doors pushing them open, the airstream catches the gear and pushes it into the down-lock.
Under the rear cabin floor a rotary control does the similar job on the main landing gear hydraulics, but this time a cranked lever is placed into a socket and, from a kneeling position with body braced and trying not to grimace it is heaved forcefully to starboard to open the up-locks.
In both cases a change in slipstream noise will indicate the measure of success. A practiced hand will achieve ‘3 green’ within 2 minutes and 45 seconds. At this point the tail gear would remain in the up position.
To assist in locating the free fall controls, a starboard hat rack in both forward and rear cabins is identified with 1 red and 1 green disc at a position adjacent to each control panel.
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Moderate reasoning
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Transportation
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Intro to Pesticide Toxicology and Policy
Oral and Written Project Topics
The Golden rice project is one of rice production which consists of rice that has been genetically modified. The modifications allow for the accumulated storage of (beta-carotene) β-carotene in the rice’s endosperm, that is, the edible part of the grain. The modifications make the rice acquire a golden color which is different from the normal white rice that lacks carotenoids. Consumption of golden rice results in either its conversion into vitamin A by the body or it is stored in the fatty tissues of the body.
Like all carotenoids, β-carotene is also a naturally occurring plant pigment; it is mainly found in colored fruits such as green vegetables and carrots. All animals, man included synthesis vitamin A which is acquired from carotene they consume in their diet. Plants do not contain vitamin A. However, vitamin A is a precursor of plants; β-carotene is also referred to as provitamin A. As a result meat products from animals contains vitamin A. People who practice poor diets are at a high risk having deficient of vitamin A, this may result in life-threatening illnesses.
Rice grains are an ideal carrier of β-carotene, the carotenoid is readily broken down by the digestive system and the natural membranes that are fatty in nature. Natural lipids are contained in the grain are sufficient to facilitate the absorption process of β-carotene even in diets that contain a small amount of oil or no oils. Oil is the main facilitator for the absorption of carotenoids. For a vast majority of people in the world, rice is not only a source of energy but also the main sources of lipids, despite the low quantity of fat which is present in the grains.
Like all other genetically modified foods, Golden rice has its fair share of advantages and disadvantages. However, the major issues relating to the Golden rice are due to the medical conditions it may cause to people who consume it. Some people can be allergic to the rice. The additional nutrients, be it proteins, minerals or vitamins, modify the nature of the food and where the minerals, proteins and vitamins are obtained from has an impact of determining how safe the rice is (Wesseler & Zilberman, 2014). Some people are allergic to some animals or plants, this could be the source of the vitamins, minerals and proteins. As a result, Golden rice may result in these risk causing allergic reactions.
Golden rice may in some cases result in complications with medications which reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics (Tran & Sanan-Mishra, 2015). As it is the case with almost all genetically engineered foods, the foods have an antibiotic feature that makes them insect resistance, virus resistance and also resistance to other pathogens. The antibiotic feature can also interfere with the human resistance system to antibiotics.
Golden rice can contaminate other non-genetically engineered rice through the unplanned mixing of seeds during the harvest, distribution and transport processes. Despite the fact that rice is self-pollinated, chances of cross-pollination still have a possibility of taking place which provides a pathway for contamination of other rice (Gartland, Bruschi, Dundar, Gahan, Magni & Akbarova, 2013). There is also the risk of the Golden rice genes spreading out to interfere with other vegetation including the weeds; this may cause the evolution of normal weeds to super weeds which would be almost impossible to get rid of normal herbicides are used.
In areas such as the Philippines where the crop is being tested, there are concerns about the use of Golden rice as a solution in combating vitamin A deficiency. If continued studies on the rice indicate unexpected effects to the community where the rice is a staple food, the communities may have their nutrition and food security at risk as a result of contamination and the harsh truth is that is almost impossible to clean up and recall the crops (De Moura, Moursi, Angel, Angeles-Agdeppa, Atmarita, Gironella,… & Carriquiry, 2016). Some people strongly believe that Golden rice is not something that was intended to occur in nature. Therefore, it may cause adverse effects to both nature and those who consume it.
Other possible and plausible explanations for or sides to the issue than what’s on the surface
A lot of funds and times have been invested in the Golden rice project. The project has been in place for over twenty years (Moghissi, Pei & Liu, 2016). The team of competent scientist behind the project believe that the benefits of rice outweigh the negatives as a result of the rice safe for the environment and consumption. For the scientists, Golden rice is the ultimate solution to malnutrition to countries all over the world.
Genetically engineered foods have in most instances been praised for their positive health benefits on people. Some studies indicate that the altered foods including Golden rice can help improve the health of the senior citizens hence increase their life span (Tang, Hu, Yin, Wang, Dallal, Grusak & Russell, 2012). Also, the modified foods can help prevent untimely deaths which are as a result of common medical conditions and poor health. There are claims that Golden rice can help prevent blindness. In general, the rice is expected to have a positive impact on the lives of the people and also help the economy of the involved countries to reduce considerable amount funds on the annual budget.
The rice yields higher when compared to other non-modified rice. Also, along with vitamin A, further developments on the rice will allow the rice to offer additional proteins and minerals. In future, Golden rice might offer vitamin C, iron, zinc and good quality quantities of proteins (Brar, Jain & Jain, 2015). The addition nutrients are predicted to be made available in the near future in any rice. Other than dealing with malnutrition, Golden rice helps children grow strong; this will help in improving the children’s cognitive development and also their physical bodies.
The evidence supporting and refuting each side of the controversy
The scientific proof provided to indicate that Golden rice may lead to resistant in antibiotics is the facts that there are over 70 patent claims on the genes, this includes gene constructs and DNA sequences that are used in the making of the rice (Jacchia, Nardini, Bassani, Savini, Shim, Trijatmiko… & Mazzara, 2015). For this reason, a lot of people have raised concerns on whether the absurdity of offering Golden rice as a cure of for vitamin A deficiency, their claims discourage the rice by insisting that there are many other and cheaper alternatives sources of vitamin A such as the unpolished rice and green vegetables. The alternatives are also rich in other minerals and vitamins besides the expected vitamin A.
The proof to illustrate the health benefits of the Golden rice is because enough intake of vitamin A improves the health of the consumer since vitamin A help in strengthen the body’s defence system. The genetic engineering carried out on Golden rice allows it to stores high quantities of vitamin A. In addition, there are improved yields from the rice as it is modified to adapt to harsh climatic conditions (Bongoni, Bongoni, Basu & Basu, 2016). Also, it has better resistance to pests and other rice diseases. The modifications make the rice more yield more per plant which further increases its yields.
Are scientific studies on both sides accurate, well-designed, and interpreted reasonably?
In general, the opposition to genetically modified crops lacks scientific support. The largest field trial of transgenic crop projects consists of a hundred and eighty million productive farming lands: this corresponds to 13% of all the agriculturally productive land in the world (Schenkelaars & Wesseler, 2016). There are no recorded adverse effects on both humans and animals and even the environment where these crops are grown and consumed. However, studies from various parts of the world indicate that pesticide use has been on the decline. Genetically modified crops have helped reduced pesticide use by almost 90% since the introduction of the Bt cotton which is also genetically modified.
Experiments conducted by scientists at Tuft University in Boston and Peter Beyer from the University of Freiburg in Germany indicate that the rice protects the consumer from vitamin A deficiency. All over the world, lack of beta-carotene results in hundreds of deaths in the developing world each year. Deficiency of provitamin A especially in children makes them suffer from weaknesses of the immune system or may result in blindness. Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that approximately 250 million children of pre-school going age lack enough vitamin A supply in their diets (Wesseler & Zilberman, 2014). Among these children, between 250,000 to 500,000 lose their sight per year. From this information, it is clear that the Golden rice can offer a solution to these problems.
Do both sides have equal weight of evidence?
The two sides of the Golden rice topic to do not have equal evidence weights, the benefits of the rice are underrated while the resulting disadvantage of the rice risk appears to have been exaggerated (Lou, 2015). Though there is no clear proof that Golden rice cause problems such as resistance to antibiotics, the majority of the people are very cautious with the rice. However, this is expected since if the projected negativities of Golden rice and other GMO crops were true, then the results would be fatal.
On the other hand, they is need to come up with plants that are rich in vitamin A to help deal with illnesses and other complications which are related to the lack of vitamin A; this is especially in the third world countries (Whitty, Jones, Tollervey & Wheeler, 2013). However, much weight regarding the Golden rice is placed on its disadvantages which blind the society from seeing the benefits that can be achieved as a result of growing the rice. Excessive concentration on the negatives rather than the positive part of the project may lead to the total abandonment of the project even though it can still be improved to make it widely acceptable by the majority of the people.
What sources do each side draw from to support their claims?
The main claims on Golden rice by those who oppose are in support of allergen part of the rice; this is a type of antigen that triggers vigorous and abnormal response of the immune system to fight off substances that are perceived as harmful by the body. However, some of these substances may actually pose no risk to the body. Some of the researchers have carried intensive research on the topic of GM crops especially the Golden rice (Alberts, Beachy, Baulcombe, Blobel, Datta, Fedoroff,… & Sharp, 2015). The researchers outline multiples ways through which people develop allergies as a result of consuming genetically engineered foods. The main method is through transgene materials which contain inherent allergic properties. Some of the transgene materials that may be present in Golden rice are transferred to the human body through a change in the gene expression. Changes in gene expression, in turn, alter the storage tissue in parts of a plant. The amount of the transgenic material contained in a plant is the determinant of the allergic reaction in a population.
The main sources of information in support of Golden rice are as a result of the health benefits attained through having a vitamin A rich diet. Golden rice is a rich source of vitamin A.
A viable or ‘safer’ alternative(s) to the current situation
It is true that blindness is caused by micronutrient deficiency; this type of blindness can be prevented through the distribution of vitamin A capsules or through improving one’s diet. An alternative to cater for the vitamin A deficiency (VAD) has been through the proposed supply of oral doses that are high in vitamin A in a solution to pre-school going children (Gayen, Sarkar, Datta, & Datta, 2015). However, such solutions can only reach a fraction of the children in need, and in most cases, the program will not always be ongoing. There are also other additional costs incurred for training the medical staff to administer the doses, poor infrastructure in the affected areas may cause this cost to go higher. For example, the annual costs incurred range at approximately two million dollars for countries whose size is almost as that of Nepal or Ghana.
Another suitable alternative is the consumption of unmilled brown rice. There exists considerable amounts of natural oils on the outer layer of the rice grain; this is the aleurone and the bran, these are rich in important vitamins required by the body such as vitamin B (Puri, Dhillon & Sodhi, 2015). However, rice is generally consumed with the outer layers removed, that is in its milled form. Oils present in the outer layers goes through a process of oxidation making the grain rancid, the process takes place at a much faster rate in areas that experience sub-tropical and tropical climatic conditions. The main reason behind milling is because milling improves the long-term storage duration of the rice without affecting the taste of the rice.
The most efficient long-term solution to these problems is through solving problems such as poor, infrastructure, poverty, malnutrition and lack of technology in the affected countries. All these play a key role in eliminating VAD. However, the solutions to these problems seem to be out of reach. Golden rice together with other efficient approaches may provide a much simpler, cheaper and highly effective solution to some of these major health problems.
The public’s opinion and its major source
Public opinion refers to the representation of the will and consciousness of the public. Public opinions obtained from the Political Ecology of GMOs indicate that peoples’ opinion regarding Golden rice is based on to two extreme ends; those that support it and those that are against it (Carroll, 2016). People that are in support of the rice strongly believe that it is a new method that will help increase food production.
People who are against the rice believe that there exists too many unknown consequences which will result due to wide use of the new method; the people base their reasoning on the “look before you leap” philosophy. The two stereotypes can be linked to two influential groups that are in control of determining the kind of information that will be made available to the public.
Scientific community’s opinion
Being a Science project, the Golden rice has received enormous support from the scientific community. To the scientists, the rice is viewed as one of the greatest breakthroughs in the science world to help address the issue of food security and also as a major source of vitamin A (Wang, 2015). The project was motivated by humanistic values and to the human welfare. Scientists strongly insist that continued and ongoing developments in the plant genetics enable it to present itself to the world as a strong candidate for the solution to some of the preventable ailments affecting the world.
The dispersion of Golden rice seed to some the Indian farmers are perceived as one of the potential solutions to help deal with vitamin A deficiency. Through the project, scientist hope that the rice produced in India will no longer have the same challenges as vitamin A supplements which scientists believe do not provide a complete solution regarding vitamin A related complications. In addition, through Golden rice, the scientific community hopes to get rid of certain types of cancers that can be linked to vitamin A supplementations.
What evidence is most portrayed by the media?
Like public opinion, the information that is transmitted through media is highly dictated by influential stereotypical groups that are either highly in support or highly against the Golden rice project. A good example of media in support of the Golden rice is the program of “Showing the dark side of anti GM campaigners” which is a show led by Dr Patrick Moore, the co-founder and leader of the Greenpeace movement (Lee & Krimsky, 2016). The aim of the movement is to end active blocking of the Golden rice by environmental organizations.
An example of media against Golden rice can be indicated through platforms such as “Golden Rice is Not So Golden”. This mainly focuses on the negative sides of the rice with claims that the rice is nowhere close to solving public health and societal problems as a result of micronutrient deficiencies (Reynolds & Martirosyan, 2016). Golden rice is portrayed as a broken promise from prickly scientists who play out in mainstream media with some regularity.
Is/was media coverage biased?
The information provided by mass media is in most cases biased. Biased reports shown by the media are clear indicators of the insufficient and inadequate studies regarding Golden rice, this results in a disservice to the people whose right to know the truth is taken away from them.
On 17 January 2016, CBS this Morning did a story on GMOs, “Food fight over GMOs” which was published on the same day (Sperber, Art & Chelsea, 2015). From the report it was clear that the report lacked sufficient research; the reporting was in favor of GMOs. However, not enough work was done to prove this. The report started with the reporter asking a Hawaii farmer about genetically modified papayas. The farmer was asked by the reporter if the papaya was safe and the farmer assured him that they were indeed safe because the farmer and his family had been consuming them for 20 years. The reporter the used that as proof and immediately came to the conclusion were safe. The reporter did not offer anything from the researcher to counter the assertion made by the farmer.
Has media coverage of the issue changed over time?
It is clear that genetically modified organisms, Golden rice included, have a bad reputation all over the world. For this reason, the media has been on the frontline to push away the introduction of genetically engineered crops into the agriculture sector without adequate consideration being placed in the environmental and health risks. The media have in the past been very active in charging its opponents blowing potential hazards associated with the crops as a way of manipulating the public opinion against the new technology (Ronald, 2014). During this time, the media and the developing scientists have been accusing the public of their lack of understanding. It is not rare to hear statements such as “Acceptance by the public will improve as a soon as start benefitting directly” or “The media takes the entire fault for poor coverage on the issue.”
Over the years, comprehensive works conducted on the topic of Golden rice has helped provide both the media group and the public with information that has helped change peoples’ perception of this technology (Yang, Xu & Rodriguez, 2014). The media does not only focus its attention on the only the disadvantages of the technology. Both the pros and cons the technology is evaluated critically which not only helps the public understand it but also helps encourage the acceptance of the technology.
Role of bias (personal or media); misperceptions of risk, toxicology, pesticides, science; and/or flawed studies play in the issue
When dealing with Golden rice, bias comes from two sides, that is, the overestimation risks of the rice by the media. From the scientists who developed the rice, the bias is placed on the benefits of the rice to make it accepted by the community (Wailes, Dixon, Nayga & Zheng, 2014). However, bias placed by the media houses have for a long time overpowered the bias coming from the scientists. As a result, Golden rise and other topics relating to GMOs have been welcomed with strong opposition.
As information on Golden rise continues made more available to the public, the bias tends to shift to the point of level grounds where the public gets to equip themselves with the information that is important to them (Jin, Wailes, Dixon, Nayga Jr & Zheng, 2014). Both the bias from the media and the scientists neutralize each other to give valid information that the public can assess, accept or reject without being unfairly compelled by one of the sides.
What role have activist groups and/or activist scientists played?
Activist groups effort to agree and disagree with the introduction of Golden rice seem to have been equal and therefore activists played no significant role in delaying the introduction of the Golden rise. Regular activist and activist groups were against the introduction of the rice due to its uncertain consequences (Delwaide, Nalley, Dixon, Danforth, Nayga Jr, Van Loo, & Verbeke, 2015). However, the activists from scientific groups had a strong base for the acceptance of the rice since vitamin A deficiencies blinds and kill hundreds of thousands of children every year all over the world. Genetically modified rice offered one of the most promising solutions to this problem. In addition, rice is consumed by half the people leaving in the world every day, to come up with such as solution is not a simple task. Despite the hard work put in place to come with this solution, many critics of the Golden rice is eagerly waiting to point out and campaign against any weaknesses that might present themselves as a result of the rice.
Policy changes implemented or are being pushed for
Currently there are no policies that have been put in places regarding Golden rice. However, to help move forward, it is clear that the rice must comply with the standards of application of soil and plant sciences to crop production and land management. For Golden rice to accomplish its nutritional goals and gain acceptance by the consumers, there is need for the Golden rice farming countries to come with strategic decisions to help navigate situations that deal with the promotion, implementation and adoption of the rice.
The decision is to address matters regarding desirable β-carotene quantities, desirable agronomic characteristics, target populations and methods to be used in the promotion and distribution of the rice (Kimura, 2013). All of these choices would be best informed if the agriculture and health policy makers can all agree on the potential benefits and need for technology. This will only take place if Non-governmental organizations who work with developing countries embrace the idea. From this approach, bio-fortification (the process through which the nutritional contents of the edible portions of plant foods are increased to levels that exceed the average content) is relatively challenging. Therefore, future investments need to be highly driven by policy dialogue.
The Golden rice provides a good platform for the guidance on other bio-fortification efforts. The first platform allows for any bio-fortification of staple crops to be genetically engineered; this method is expected to encounter great political resistance as well as other challenges regarding delivery and safety assessments other than the expected genetic modification approach. The second is that any bio-fortification efforts will need guidance and support from Non-Governmental Organizations and National Agricultural Research Systems within the countries whose population is affected deficiency, this helps to design and target appropriately.
The introduction of the Golden rice has various pros and cons. The media and other stereotypical influential groups play a major role in determining the information that gets to the normal citizens. Some of the major information concerning Golden rice that makes people question it and as a result rejecting it is the fact that most people strongly claim that, not only Golden rice, but also other genetically engineered crops were never meant to occur in nature in the first place. As a result, the introduction of the Golden rice may result in hazardous consequences that will affect both other plants and animals including humans. Though there exist no solid proof, genetically engineered organism can be linked to various ailments, there are still claims that associate the two; this because, to creating genetically modified organism requires making alterations in their genetic makeup.
Most of the information on genetically modified organism is subject to bias which makes people accept or reject the technology without clearly evaluating the topic. Some of the genetically engineered crops, for example, Golden rice, holds solutions to some of the biggest problems affecting the world such as illnesses caused by lack of enough vitamin A; this include weaknesses of the body’s defence system and development of blindness.
Before accepting a concept, it is necessary to clearly looks at its pros and cons. All crops have their pros and cons. However, if the pros are greater than the cons, then the subject matter should go through further research to determine if it should be accepted by the community. The benefits as a result of Golden rice by far outweigh the disadvantages, for this reason, Golden rice should be considered as one of the top solutions to help combat blindness in young children and other disease caused by lack of vitamin A.
Alberts, B., Beachy, R., Baulcombe, D., Blobel, G., Datta, S., Fedoroff, N., … & Sharp, P. (2013). Standing up for GMOs. Science, 341(6152), 1320-1320.
Bongoni, R., Bongoni, R., Basu, S., & Basu, S. (2016). A multidisciplinary research agenda for the acceptance of Golden Rice. Nutrition & Food Science, 46(5), 717-728.
Brar, B., Jain, S., & Jain, R. K. (2015). Augmentation of Mineral and Protein Content in Rice (Oryza sativa L.). Rice Genomics and Genetics, 6.
Carroll, M. (2016). The sticky materiality of neo-liberal neonatures: GMOs and the agrarian question. New Political Economy, 1-16.
De Moura, F. F., Moursi, M., Angel, M. D., Angeles-Agdeppa, I., Atmarita, A., Gironella, G. M., … & Carriquiry, A. (2016). Biofortified β-carotene rice improves vitamin A intake and reduces the prevalence of inadequacy among women and young children in a simulated analysis in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 104(3), 769-775.
Delwaide, A. C., Nalley, L. L., Dixon, B. L., Danforth, D. M., Nayga Jr, R. M., Van Loo, E. J., & Verbeke, W. (2015). Revisiting GMOs: Are There Differences in European Consumers’ Acceptance and Valuation for Cisgenically vs Transgenically Bred Rice?. PloS one, 10(5), e0126060.
Gartland, K. M. A., Bruschi, F., Dundar, M., Gahan, P. B., Magni, M. V., & Akbarova, Y. (2013). Progress towards the ‘Golden Age’of biotechnology. Current opinion in biotechnology, 24, S6-S13.
Gayen, D., Ali, N., Sarkar, S. N., Datta, S. K., & Datta, K. (2015). Down-regulation of lipoxygenase gene reduces degradation of carotenoids of golden rice during storage. Planta, 242(1), 353-363.
Jacchia, S., Nardini, E., Bassani, N., Savini, C., Shim, J. H., Trijatmiko, K., … & Mazzara, M. (2015). International Ring Trial for the Validation of an Event-Specific Golden Rice 2 Quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Method. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 63(20), 4954-4965
Jin, J., Wailes, E., Dixon, B., Nayga Jr, R. M., & Zheng, Z. (2014). Consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for genetically modified rice in China. In 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota (No. 170503). Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
Kimura, A. H. (2013). Hidden hunger: Gender and the politics of smarter foods. Cornell University Press.
Lee, H., & Krimsky, S. (2016). The Arrested Development of Golden Rice: the Scientific and Social Challenges of a Transgenic Biofortified Crop. International Journal of Social Science Studies, 4(11), 51-64.
Lou, H. (2015). Golden Rice War in the Philippines: A Ban on Golden Rice Research Is Not a Wise Move following the Judicial Ban on Bt Eggplant Field-Testing. Minn. J. Int’l L., 24, 101.
Moghissi, A. A., Pei, S., & Liu, Y. (2016). Golden rice: Scientific, regulatory and public information processes of a genetically modified organism. Critical reviews in biotechnology, 36(3), 535-541.
Puri, S., Dhillon, B., & Sodhi, N. S. (2015). A Study on the Effect of Degree of Milling (DOM) On Color and Physicochemical Properties of Different Rice Cultivars Grown in Punjab. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED BIOTECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH, 16(3), 310-319.
Reynolds, T. J., & Martirosyan, D. M. (2016). Nutrition by design: a review of biotechnology in functional food. Functional Foods in Health and Disease, 6(2), 110-120.
Ronald, P. C. (2014). Lab to farm: applying research on plant genetics and genomics to crop improvement. PLoS Biol, 12(6), e1001878.
Schenkelaars, P., & Wesseler, J. (2016). Special Issue on GMO Coexistence. EuroChoices, 15(1), 5-11.
Sperber, D., Art, M. F., & Chelsea, N. Y. (2015). SOLO EXHIBITIONS/COMMISSIONS. Eye.
Tang, G., Hu, Y., Yin, S. A., Wang, Y., Dallal, G. E., Grusak, M. A., & Russell, R. M. (2012). β-Carotene in Golden Rice is as good as β-carotene in oil at providing vitamin A to children. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 96(3), 658-664.
Tran, T. N., & Sanan-Mishra, N. (2015). Effect of antibiotics on callus regeneration during transformation of IR 64 rice. Biotechnology Reports, 7, 143-149.
Wailes, E. J., Dixon, B. L., Nayga, R. M., & Zheng, Z. (2014). Consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for genetically modified rice in China.
Whitty, C. J., Jones, M., Tollervey, A., & Wheeler, T. (2013). Biotechnology: Africa and Asia need a rational debate on GM crops. Nature, 497(7447), 31-33.
Wesseler, J., & Zilberman, D. (2014). The economic power of the Golden Rice opposition. Environment and Development Economics, 19(06), 724-742.
Wang, Q. (2015). Analysis of the” Publicity” of Network Community of Science Communication-Case Studies of Guokr. com and Songshuhui-Association of Science Communicators. Asian Social Science, 11(27), 1.
Yang, J., Xu, K., & Rodriguez, L. (2014). The rejection of science frames in the news coverage of the golden rice experiment in Hunan, China. Health, risk & society, 16(4), 339-354.
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Science & Tech.
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High priestess of Delphi was high on oracle gases
From Herodotus and Homer to the warriors of Ancient Greece the mystic utterances from the Oracle of Delphi were regarded as sacrosanct. But now the hugely influential pronouncements of the oracle are said by Greek and Italian archaeologists to have been the result of oxygen deficiencies in the priestesses’ brains.
Delphi, which draws tourists by the thousand each year, lies on the almost sheer side of Mount Parnassus in central Greece. Great fissures in the cliff overlooking the site mask deep geological faults through which toxic gases seep to the surface, reducing oxygen in the cave — the Navel of the Earth — where the priestess de- livered her often obscure political oracles.
The priestess, known to the ancients as Pythia, would thus be in a state of mild anoxia — a partial lack of oxygen in the brain — inducing the ecstatic trance that classical writers said brought forth the oracles. They, however, claimed that Pythia entered her trance by chewing laurel leaves while sniffing the vapours of hallucinogenic herbs.
Two years ago a team headed by George Papatheodorou, Emeritus Professor of Geology at Patras University, and Giorgio Etiope, of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, detected traces of methane, ethanol and carbon dioxide in the narrow cave where the Pythia is believed to have sat on a tripod while uttering her messages, often in high-pitched shrieks.
“There is a close relationship between the site of the Delphic Oracle and its geology,” Dr Papatheodorou told Kathimerini newspaper. “The site lies on a fault where gases leak out. These gases cause an oxygen reduction that induces a mild hypnotic state that could well produce hallucinations.”
The gases were detected in the summers of 2004 and 2005 by a sensor placed on the floor of the cave where the Pythia reputedly sat. “We have formulated a scientific hypothesis that we believe is a credible scenario,” Dr Papatheodorou said.
The historian Plutarch, who himself served as a priest at Delphi, wrote that a sweetish odour inundated the premises while the Pythia was in her trance. This, according to Dr Papatheodorou, could have been ethylene gas, though no trace of it was found during the recent search. “Nothing can be ruled out, as geological changes could have taken place since ancient times,” he said.
To the ancient Greeks the Delphic Oracle was the supreme divine word. But its often ambiguous pronouncements were shamelessly reinterpreted to suit particular policies and interests. Some modern writers speculate that the Pythian trance was an elaborate fraud, and that the priestesses were highly alert and well informed about Greek affairs thanks to a network of agents.
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- Heffron, of WWII's Band of Brothers, Dies at 90
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- Florida Tribe Re-Creates Daring Escape From The Trail Of Tears
- Evolution, Civil War history entwine in plant fossil with a tragic past
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History
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Reaction to the Gettysburg Address
There is some debate about the immediate public reaction to the Gettysburg Address. Some newspapers panned it, others loved it. According to some accounts, the crowd gathered for the dedication didn't think it was a very good speech for the occasion — and neither did Lincoln himself. Historian Shelby Foote says that Lincoln lamented that the speech was "a flat failure and the people are disappointed" [source: Foote]. Wills disputes this account, saying that the claim Lincoln was disappointed with the speech "has no basis" [source: Wills].
Shortly after Lincoln's assassination, he was often martyred in the press, so these references to the Gettysburg Address cannot necessarily be taken as absolute fact. The New York Times does refer to the speech as "the late President Lincoln's celebrated Gettysburg Address" in a May 3, 1868, article [source: New York Times].
Today, it is generally accepted that the Gettysburg Address is an important document that provides an interpretation of the Declaration of Independence that we still refer to today. Not only has it changed our views on government, but it has influenced Americans' goal for equality and a government that "shall not perish from the earth."
More Great Links
- Abbott, Philip. "Political Thought in America." Waveland Press, Inc. 1991.
- "Everett, Edward." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 23 Jan. 2008.
- Ferguson, Andrew. "Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America." Grove/Atlantic, Inc. 2007.
- Foote, Shelby. "The Civil War: A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian." Random House. 1963.
- The Gettysburg Address (Library of Congress Exhibition). www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/
- "The Gettysburg Oration." The New York Times. 2 July 1869.
- "Great Army of the Republic." The New York Times. 30 May 1868.
- Katula, Richard A. "The Gettysburg Address as the Centerpiece of American Racial Discourse." The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. No. 28. Summer 2000.
- McPherson, James M. "Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era." Ballantine Books, 1988.
- National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/gett/historyculture/index.htm
- Wills, Garry. "Lincoln at Gettysburg." Simon & Schuster Inc. 1992.
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History
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The BBC is putting its vast archives online for free. Call it the next media model.
There's no copyright at NASA. It's a federal agency, and the government cannot legally hold any copyright. You can download and reproduce some of the most expensive photographs in history from one of the richest public storehouses on the planet. As long as you don't imply that NASA is a big fan of the nightclub or credit card you're advertising, you're good to go. File-share all the pictures of Neil Armstrong you want.
Sadly, this digital openness doesn't extend very far into the public infosphere. The great private and even nonprofit archives of knowledge - TV news databases, magazine and newspaper articles, millions of books, public radio and television shows - are nowhere to be found online (except, occasionally, for a high price). In other words, the great promise of the digital age - that the intellectual and cultural riches of the world would be indexed and downloadable - is not even close to a reality. Vast swaths of the information landscape remain uncharted.
But that may be about to change, and - stay with me here - the British Broadcasting Corporation is leading the way. This summer, BBC director-general Greg Dyke quietly announced that the Beeb has decided to digitize and release its enormous archive of material to the public, who would then be able to download, mix, and burn the stuff at will. With the encouragement and advice of Stanford law professor and Creative Commons guru Lawrence Lessig (who's also a Wired columnist) and Internet Archive cofounder Brewster Kahle, the BBC is planning to make it as easy as possible to license and upload everything from David Attenborough's nature documentaries to Winston Churchill's speeches. Some of the classic comedy and musical performances of the past may go up, though don't expect Monty Python for a while.
For the 81-year-old publicly funded network known as Auntie, this is hot stuff. But the implications go far beyond the United Kingdom. If the BBC delivers on its vision - the plan remains a bit on the fuzzy side - it will establish a model that could be followed by governments, nonprofits and even other media giants. What started as a project aimed at fulfilling a mandate to serve the British public could end up showing the world how to put the information in the information age. And even if the Beeb does nothing more than create a legal and practical framework for digitizing and distributing content, the landscape will change.
Not that it will be easy or cheap. There's the sheer engineering task of digitizing and sharing an enormous backlog of audio, video, and text. Kahle estimates that the digitizing would cost about $15 per hour of taped material, which translates to about $100,000 for a year's worth of one channel.
But innovation should cut some of the cost, and distribution could be nearly free. One small group of BBC execs has already floated an ingenious notion: P2P networks. Why spend money on racks of hardware and fat pipes when your most popular files will be shared by your viewers, who will burn them onto DVDs themselves and create their own copies to match demand? How much does the RIAA pay to have its files load-balanced, cached, and redistributed by Kazaa? That's how much the BBC will pay. Even a partial archive would place an impossible burden on the BBC's infrastructure, so open licenses will make the Creative Archive possible.
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Test your knowledge of Nervous Conditions with our quizzes and study questions, or go further with essays on the context and background and Nervous Conditions Essay Topics& Writing Assignments Tsitsi Dangarembga This set of Lesson Plans consists of approximately 130 pages of tests, essay questions, lessons, and other teaching materials. Mar 25, 2007 View and download nervous conditions essays examples.
Also discover topics, titles, outlines, thesis statements, and conclusions for In the novel Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, the theme of female rebellion is displayed throughout the book and can be seen In the novel Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, the theme of female rebellion is displayed throughout the book and can be seen by the characters Nyasha and Maiguru.
The nervous system is divided into three components: the central nervous system, which encompasses the brain, brain stem, and the spinal cord, the peripheral nervous system, which includes the sensory receptors and effector muscles and organs in the body, and the autonomic nervous system which is part of both the peripheral and Nervous Conditions essaysI found Dangarembga's" Nervous Conditions" a very enjoyable novel.
The narrator and main character Tambu expresses her experiences with colonialism as a child growing up from a poor African community with tremendous correctness and detail. Nervous Conditions Summary and Analysis Essay. B. Pages: 5 Words: 1244.
This is just a sample. To get a unique essay. We will write a custom essay sample on Nervous Conditions Summary and Analysis specifically for you for only 16. 38 13. 9page. Topic: Nervous Conditions Summary and Analysis. send. Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel, Nervous Conditions, was perhaps the most captivating, poignant novel that I have ever read.
Her brilliant style of writing was perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the novel; not to detract from the content of the novel.
Nervous Conditions Gender Discrimination English Literature Essay. Print or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UK Essays. Published: Mon, This is exactly what happened to the African women and girls in Nervous Conditions written by Tsi Tsi Nervous Conditions Summary SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
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Moderate reasoning
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Literature
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How Long Does a Urinary Tract Infection Last?
Infections affecting the bladder, urethra, ureters, or kidneys, urinary tract infections (UTIs) are quite common. UTIs can be viral or fungal but are predominately bacterial in nature. Because of their anatomy, women are at a higher risk for developing UTIs than men. Anyone that suspects they may have a UTI, is likely wondering how long the infection will last. To provide insight into the length of infection, we will discuss some of the general UTI symptoms and the treatments available in this discussion.
As previously mentioned, UTIs affect the bladder, kidneys, urethra, and ureters. The symptoms associated with the UTI vary based on the area infected. Early signs and symptoms, when the infection is impacting the bladder, generally involve discomfort, pain, or a burning sensation when urinating. Often this discomfort is accompanied by the frequent or urgent need to urinate. Urine may appear cloudy, have blood present, or have a strong odor.
Should a UTI become more advanced and spread to the kidneys, symptoms may be more severe. A high grade fever (above 101°F), chills, fatigue, and pain in the back, side, or groin may develop. Severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting may also present.
Treatment and Duration of UTI
A healthcare provider will first perform tests to identify the type of UTI the patient is believed to have. This typically will involve taking urine samples to look for bacteria, red blood cells, white blood cells, and to test chemicals in the urine (such as nitrites). In other cases, blood tests, CT scans, kidney scans, or ultrasounds may be ordered to diagnose the infection.
For mild lower urinary tract infections (bladder infection), most patients will be prescribed an antibiotic to prevent the UTI from spreading to their kidneys. Women generally take antibiotics for 3 days whereas men take them for 7-14 days or more. In some cases, a single dose of antibiotic is sufficient. Should the patient be pregnant, have diabetes, or a mild kidney infection, antibiotics are taken for 7 to 14 days. Lower urinary tract infection symptoms typically begin to clear up within 24 hours of starting antibiotics. Regardless of the type of infection, it is important that the patient finish the antibiotic for the full course of treatment even if symptoms begin to clear up. Failure to finish the antibiotics could lead to the infection recurring and it becoming resistant to antibiotics.
Should a urinary tract infection become severe and spread to the upper urinary tract (kidneys), treatment also typically involves antibiotics. Young patients that are otherwise healthy, can be treated as outpatients by receiving IV antibiotics and fluids followed by a 10 to 14 day course of oral antibiotics. If the patient is very ill, dehydrated, or cannot hold food down, they may be admitted to the hospital for fluids and antibiotics until well enough to switch to oral medications. Acute, complicated UTIs could necessitate treatment for several weeks. In general, upper urinary tract infection symptoms take longer to resolve. Patients will frequently see improvement in the symptoms within 24 hours of beginning treatment but often will take longer until symptoms are fully resolved.
More on Urinary Tract Infections : How to know if you have a urinary tract infection?
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
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A particularly bright fireball was observed earlier today over a wide area in Russia. Of even greater significance was the very strong sonic boom associated with the passage of the meteor through Earth’s atmosphere.
News out of Russia is reporting that ‘hundreds’ of casualties resulted from people being hit by falling glass, caused by the breaking of windows by the pressure wave associated with the sonic boom. Meteors are quite common around the Earth, but one of this magnitude is fortunately a rare event. The light of the meteor trail that we see in the sky is caused by friction between the incoming fragments and Earth’s atmosphere, which rapidly heats the surface of the fragments to the point that they give off visible light. The intensity of the light is a complex interplay between the speed of the object and the increasing density of the atmosphere as it moves lower into the atmosphere. The sonic boom is a clear indication that the fragments are moving much faster than the speed of sound, and just like jets that exceed the speed of sound, it is the inability of the air molecules to move fast enough to get out of the way of the fast object that generates the shock wave that we hear as a sonic boom. If the shock wave is intense enough, it can break panes of glass, which appears to have been the case today over a large area in Russia. On June 30, 1908, a rock estimated to about 100 meters (328 feet) in diameter exploded (because of the rapid build-up of pressure as the object got lower into the atmosphere) above the Tunguska region of Siberia, which flattened trees over 2000 square kilometers (800 square miles) and produced a shock wave that knocked people to the ground at a distance of tens of kilometers (tens of miles) from the detonation point.
Today’s incoming rock likely was quite a bit smaller than the Tunguska rock, although it will take time for Russian scientists to assess what damage has taken place. NASA scientists are confident that the close passage of an asteroid to Earth later today and the trajectory (the flight path) of the Russia meteor were very different, so the two events are not connected, even though they will occur within hours of each other. Both the Russia meteor and the close flyby of an asteroid are reminders that space is not completely empty; whenever Earth happens to cross the path of some solid material in space, whether the size of a sand grain or a large building, the fast-moving objects are going to interact strongly with our atmosphere.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Gestures: Get Moving!
Let go of your stiff death grip on the lectern and learn how to make your speeches interesting through body language.
The human body contains more than 700 muscles, but few of those are used by speakers – except when using their arms and fingers in a life-preserving clutch of lecterns and laser pointers or frenetically clicking on PowerPoint slides. Speakers tend to focus most of their efforts in search of the perfect word to illustrate their precious points, despite overwhelming evidence proving that, in fact, our bodies speak louder than words.
Your effectiveness as a speaker is directly related to your ability to invoke emotion and interest through the use of non-verbal communication. Your listeners judge you and your message based on what they see as well as what they hear. In public speaking, your body can be an effective tool for adding emphasis and clarity to your words. It’s also your most powerful instrument for convincing an audience of your sincerity, earnestness and enthusiasm. Whether your purpose is to inform, persuade, entertain, motivate or inspire, your body language and the personality you project must be appropriate to what you say. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” So be sure your appearance, posture and attire is appropriate as well.
Here’s how you can incorporate appropriate body language into your speeches:
- Start with eye contact. Being prepared – having control of your message – is a prerequisite for being able to project and establish a bond with the audience. Don’t just pass your gaze throughout the room; try to focus on individual listeners and create a bond with them by looking them directly in the eyes for five to 10 seconds.
- Express emotion with your facial muscles. For inspiration, take a look at the The Human Face, a BBC documentary narrated by John Cleese of Monty Python fame, now available on DVD.
- Avoid distracting mannerisms – have a friend watch as you practice and look for nervous expressions such as fidgeting, twitching, lip biting, key jingling, hands in pockets or behind the back.
- Telling a story? Highlight the action verbs and look for ways to act out one or more parts. Speaking about marathon running? Run a few steps.
- Stay true to your personality. Don’t copy gestures from a book or other speaker, but respond naturally to what you feel and say.
- Make gestures convincing. Every hand gesture should be total body movement that starts from the shoulder – never from the elbow. Half-hearted gestures look artificial.
- Vary your speaking position by moving from one spot on the stage to another. For example, walk to the other side of the stage as you move to a new topic or move toward the audience as you ask a question.
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Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Black death essay questions
The black death was one of the most severe plagues in its time i am going to talk about the black death, which is also known as the black plague and the. Get an answer for 'i was wondering if anyone can help me write a thesis statement for my research paper about the black plague' and find homework help for other essay lab questions at enotes. Research essay sample on black death custom essay writing. Free essay: the black death, also known as the black plague, or the bubonic plague killed one third of the population of europe during its reign in the 13th. Black panther (film) study guide contains a biography of randa abdel-fattah, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
Black cat essay black cat essay why dog make better pets than cats comparison/contrats essay my cat the impact of the black death on europe. In doing so, the black death led more than one observer of the time to ponder whether the apocalypse had begun detailed outline, poster, essay). The black death essay source(s): the black death (research paper) existing questions more tell us some more.
These questions became the base of you can order a custom essay on black death labels: black death, black death essay example, black plague essay, essay on. I've been trying for the last two hours to come up with an acceptable introduction to my essay on the black death, but i've been drawing blanks. The black death according to many historians does not narrow down to one cause there have been several interpretations of what has caused the plague but there have not been different opinions on the effects of the black death. The black death has always been i had a lot of unanswered questions coming into the topic on the tab above labeled black death essay, you can learn more. Kids take a quiz or webquest on middle ages - the black death plague practice problems online test and history questions for students.
Aeon email newsletters are issued by the not-for syndicate this essay the black death found its way through small villages and mongol nomad settlements. The black plague the deadly plague history essay print reference the immediate impact of the black death was the loss of one third to one half of the. michelle cao 10fzk essay question: what was the impact of the black death the black death had a big impact in both short and long term effects such as the.
The black death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck europe and asia in the mid-1300s estimates vary, but the black death may have killed one-half of europe’s population, and about 100 million people worldwide. The black plague the black plague another idea for the cause of the black death was invisible fumes or sign up to view the whole essay and download the. Black death questions and answers - discover the enotescom community of teachers, mentors and students just like you that can answer any. Take the quiz: the black death this quiz is about the most devastating epidemic to strike europe, the bubonic plague it changed the face of europe and has been named the black death.
- The black death: an argumentative essay on the positive effects of the plague written by meaghan uyede for the course chw 3m1.
- Black death (plagues) questions including how do you repair a 1992 s10 blazer if the electronic instrument cluster blacks out and comes back after 10-20 minutes and what is it called if you have elevated leukocytes.
- Any topics for a 2000-2100 word essay on th black death.
The black death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history the disease spread fast and covered the territory from china to england and the. The black death also known as bubonic plague was a pandemic that caused destruction between 1348 and 1350 more so in europe killing close to twenty eight million people. Below is an essay on the black death from anti essays, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples one of these questions includes:. Free black death papers, essays, and research papers.
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Strong reasoning
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History
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If you or a person you know is being bullied – or if you suspect someone is being bullied – remember that you don’t have to handle it alone. Here are some ways to get help.
Go to an Adult
- your parents or other family members
- your teacher
- your principal
- a school counselor
- another trusted adult
Explain what’s happening and how it is making you feel. Sometimes children who are bullying stop after being talked to by a teacher or principal because they’re worried about the consequences.
Get a Buddy
Two is better than one if you want to avoid being bullied.
Make a plan to be with a friend or two on the walk to school, on the bus, at recess or at lunch. Offer to do the same if a friend is being bullied. If you can’t be with a friend, change your route or your routine and only use restrooms when someone else is in them.
Don’t Respond to the Bully
If you can, ignore the threats. Pretend you don’t hear and walk away quickly to a safe place. Children who are bullying want a reaction. Don’t give them one and this might stop the behavior.
Stand Up for Yourself
Act as if you are brave and confident (even if you don’t feel that way inside). Say “no!” or “stop that!” in a loud voice, then walk away, or run if you have to.
If you do what a student who is bullying wants you to do, it will only encourage them to keep bullying you.
Don’t Bully Back
Don’t hit, kick or push back to deal with someone bullying you or your friends. Fighting back just satisfies the person who is bullying and it’s dangerous because someone could get hurt. You are also likely to get in trouble too.
Don’t Show That You’re Upset or Angry
Students who are bullying like to get a reaction. Keep calm and control your emotions; the bully might leave you alone.
Fight Back with Humor
Make a joke of the negative comment. The person bullying you might decide you’re too clever to pick on.
‘What did you say?’
Ask the person bullying you to repeat what they just said. Often those who are bullying aren’t brave enough to repeat what they said. You also can throw someone off guard and take control of the situation.
Keep a Record
Write down what is happening to you, including dates, times and locations. It can make it easier to prove what has been happening.
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Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Actinopteri (ray-finned fishes) > Perciformes/Serranoidei
(Groupers) > Serranidae
(Sea basses: groupers and fairy basslets) > Epinephelinae
Etymology: Epinephelus: Greek, epinephelos = cloudy (Ref. 45335). More on author: Peters.
Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range
Marine; reef-associated; depth range 1 - 110 m (Ref. 89707), usually - m (Ref. ). Tropical; 0°C - ; 30°N - 27°S, 33°E - 136°E
Indian Ocean: Persian Gulf to southern Mozambique and eastward to Western Australia. Not known from the Red Sea.
Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ? range ? - 50 cm
Max length : 100.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 5222); common length : 75.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 5450); max. published weight: 9.0 kg (Ref. 3132)
soft rays: 8. Distinguished by the following characteristics: color is dark purplish gray with scattered irregular whitish spots and blotches which are faint or absent in preserved fish; ctenoid body scales except cycloid dorsoanteriorly below anterior half of spinous dorsal fin, thorax, abdomen and above anterior anal fin; body with numerous auxiliary scales; greatest depth of body 2.5-3.0 in SL; slightly emarginate to truncate caudal fin; short pelvic fins, 1.7-2.3 in head length (Ref. 90102); head length 2.4-2.7 times in SL; distinctly convex interorbital, slightly convex dorsal head profile; subangular preopercle, shallow notch just above the angle, serrae at angle not or slightly enlarged; upper edge of operculum straight; posterior nostrils of adults is twice the size of anterior nostrils; maxilla reaches vertical at rear edge of eye or thereabouts; ventral edge of maxilla of adults with distinct step distally; 2 rows of teeth on midlateral part of lower jaw (Ref. 89707).
Inhabit clear to turbid water in shallow as well as deep water (Ref. 4787). Juveniles are found in inshore coral reefs (Ref. 5222). They feed in water to more than 100 m depth (Ref. 27275). It has been suggested that juveniles mimic the herbivorous damselfish Neopomacentrus sindensis, presumably to get closer to their unsuspecting prey (Ref. 5222, 9710). Feed on small fishes and crabs. Probably spawn during restricted periods and form aggregations when doing so (Ref. 27352). Eggs and early larvae are probably pelagic (Ref. 6390). Solitary (Ref 90102).
Life cycle and mating behavior
Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae
Rock cod are protogynous hermaphrodites.
Heemstra, P.C. and J.E. Randall, 1993. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 16. Groupers of the world (family Serranidae, subfamily Epinephelinae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the grouper, rockcod, hind, coral grouper and lyretail species known to date. Rome: FAO. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(16):382 p. (Ref. 5222)
IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 124695)
Threat to humans
ReferencesAquacultureAquaculture profileStrainsGeneticsAllele frequenciesHeritabilityDiseasesProcessingNutrientsMass conversion
Estimates based on models
Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969
): 24.7 - 29.2, mean 27.3 °C (based on 386 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82805
= 0.5000 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00955 (0.00571 - 0.01597), b=3.01 (2.87 - 3.15), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & Genus-body shape (Ref. 93245
Trophic level (Ref. 69278
): 3.9 ±0.67 se; based on food items.
Generation time: 4.1 ( na - na) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 2 growth studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179
): Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (K=0.27).
Prior r = 0.57, 95% CL = 0.37 - 0.85, Based on 1 stock assessment.
Vulnerability (Ref. 59153
): Moderate vulnerability (39 of 100) .
Nutrients (Ref. 124155
): Calcium = 20.8 [10.8, 45.7] mg/100g ; Iron = 0.464 [0.251, 0.956] mg/100g ; Protein = 18.8 [17.3, 20.1] % ; Omega3 = 0.112 [0.070, 0.185] g/100g ; Selenium = 48.2 [28.0, 84.6] μg/100g ; VitaminA = 99.9 [28.8, 354.0] μg/100g ; Zinc = 1.1 [0.7, 1.7] mg/100g (wet weight);
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Events that helped the us to gain power during the 1940s
During the late 1940s and early events at home and abroad seemed to many americans to prove he kept his job but lost his power, and died in 1957 at. Timeline of modern american conservatism jump to during that time fdr carries 46 of the 48 states and liberals gain in both the house and the. The civil rights movement the maintenance of white power had been pervasive and even world war ii helped to lift the nation out the great. World war ii: the rise of the superpowers, free study guides and book notes including comprehensive chapter analysis, complete summary analysis, author biography.
Us military spending in the cold war era: events came to the rescue when the communists took over the czechoslovakian helped to create a war scare by. Though labor made tremendous gains during the 1930s and early 1940s, the protests foreshadowed events to come who had helped create the cio,. Japanese economic takeoff after 1945 helped save the japanese much money if they were militarily on their own in the 1940s and 50s,. From the shock victory of labour at the 1945 general election, to the founding of the promised welfare state, derek brown trawls the archives and presents.
South africa’s foreign relations during when bj vorster came to power in 1966 people were not this opened the door to international sporting events,. The chinese revolution and chinese communism marxism began to gain adherents in china with by russian action in the great power intervention during. The united states of america, part eight history of the united states: the cia helped bring down a guatemalan government that the united states believed was.The rise of the nazi party is discussed in this section of the timeline waiting for an opportune time to gain political power in germany. The african-american civil rights movement (1896–1954) was a long, primarily nonviolent series of events to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to. Japan's quest for power and world war during the meiji , the government was never able to gain real control of the economy and. The american involvement in vietnam over vietnam and transferred power to bao dai the us department during the early phases of the vietnam war.
The government expenditures helped bring about the the war also made us more of a middle-class america's economic breakthrough during world war. The prevailing misinterpretations of economic performance during the 1940s have arisen because no wartime prosperity which brings us to what may. The treaty of versailles was the he also committed himself to using elections to gain power, the nazis had made many vague promises to farmers during their.
Through the 1930s and much of the 1940s, returning soldiers fought back against white mobs during the red debating the civil rights movement,. The american economy during world war ii and helped curtail conflict among the “wartime prosperity a reassessment of the us economy in the 1940s.
This helped certain fighters gain more with the sport of boxing was in full force during the 1940s, contact us: [email protected] The united states in the world economy, 1800-1900 • us as an industrial power – effects of the railroad boom – us – us goes off gold during the. History: 1950s published on newspapers and magazines remained vital ad conduits during the early years of the demonstrations also helped differentiate.
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Strong reasoning
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History
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Benefits seen for both mother and baby
For pregnant women, including those who are overweight and obese, following a healthy calorie controlled diet during pregnancy is safe and can reduce the risk of serious complications such as pre-eclampsia, diabetes and premature birth, finds a study published on bmj.com today.
In the UK, more than half the women of reproductive age are overweight or obese, and across Europe and the US, up to 40% of women gain more than the recommended weight in pregnancy. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is associated with a number of serious health problems.
Pregnancy is thought to be an ideal time for health professionals to discuss weight management as mothers are motivated to make changes that will benefit themselves and their baby.
So a team of researchers, led by Dr Shakila Thangaratinam from Queen Mary, University of London, investigated the effects of diet, exercise, or a combination of the two on weight gain during pregnancy and any adverse effects on mother or baby.
They analysed the results of 44 randomised controlled trials involving over 7,000 women. Study design and quality were taken into account to minimise bias.
Weight management interventions in pregnancy were effective in reducing weight gain in the mother. Dietary intervention resulted in the largest average reduction in weight gain (almost 4 kg) compared with just 0.7 kg for exercise and 1 kg for a combination of the two. Diet also offered the most benefit in preventing pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, diabetes, high blood pressure and premature birth.
However, the authors stress that the overall evidence rating was low to very low for these important outcomes.
Importantly, the results showed that interventions are safe and do not adversely affect the baby’s weight. The authors conclude that dietary and lifestyle interventions in pregnancy improve outcomes for both mother and baby, but acknowledge the lack of data on risk factors such as age, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
However, in an accompanying editorial, experts at St Thomas’ Hospital in London say there is not yet sufficient evidence to support any particular intervention.
Lucilla Poston and Lucy Chappell suggest that although this study is “timely and welcome”, it does not provide the evidence needed for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to reassess the guidelines for weight management in pregnancy. They point to several ongoing trials that will enable a greater understanding of effective interventions in overweight and obese women
Research: Shakila Thangaratinam, Clinical Senior Lecturer / Consultant in Obstetrics and Maternal Medicine, Women’s Health Research Unit, Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London, UK
For media enquiries, please contact Kerry Noble at Queen Mary, University of London
Lucilla Poston, Head of Division of Women’s Health, Women’s Health Academic Centre, King’s Health Partners, St Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico introduced the Keeping Schools Safe Act on Oct. 1. The bill proposes $1 billion in Department of Education grants, designed to fight COVID-19 transmission by funding IAQ upgrades in elementary and secondary schools.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for schools and districts across the country. Educators are putting their health and safety on the line, working parents are struggling to balance childcare and at-home learning, and some students are facing technological disadvantages — creating setbacks in their education,” said Heinrich. “That is why I am introducing this legislation to provide elementary and secondary schools with funding to improve air quality and ventilation — putting them one step closer to safely reopening. If we follow the science and the evidence brought forth by leading public health officials, we can start taking real action and use proven, innovative technologies to create safe, learning environments.”
The bill’s scope extends beyond new equipment. Current wording instructs the Secretary of Education to provide schools and districts with technical guidance regarding:
- Indoor, outdoor, or combined air or air pressure ventilation, filtration systems, or air cleaners.
- Equipment, supplies, and technical services necessary to provide indoor environmental air quality in a manner that optimizes safety and health for children and staff while reducing viral transmission risks.
- Making facility changes, repairs, and monitoring to address air filtration and ventilation.
In researching air decontamination and other issues for this effort, Heinrich consulted his local ASHRAE chapter in New Mexico; ASHRAE’s Epidemic Task Force; the National Education Association; and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Heinrich’s office stated that subsequent technical guidance would be developed by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with teachers’ unions and organizations specializing in ventilation, standards development, and public health and infectious disease in children.
ASHRAE president Charles E. Gulledge III, P.E., welcomed the opportunity for the association to participate and cited its 125 years of experience in standards for the built environment.
The Keeping Schools Safe Act grants, which could range from $5,000 to $20,000,000 per grant, would represent federal layer of school building COVID response along with whatever a given state or school district has elected to do (or not do) so far on its own. Strategies and levels of support have varied, as do the existing conditions that administrators are facing.
In Vermont this summer, the state’s coronavirus relief package included $6.5 million specifically for school HVAC improvements. That School Indoor Air Quality Grant program is administered by Efficiency Vermont.
Valley News local coverage mentioned one engineering consultant’s recommendation to isolate the nurses’ office ventilation along with that of any rooms designated for COVID-positive students.
In Oregon, state guidance (PDF) included new cleaning requirements and many now-common recommendations involving increased outdoor air in mechanical ventilation, more natural ventilation where necessary or practical, and filtration improvements.
In Massachusetts, city of Worcester school officials had been hoping for federal funds along the lines of the Heinrich bill over the summer as they conducted a facilities assessment.
According to local media, nearly half of the district’s buildings went up before World War II, and only one-fifth are less than 30 years old. Administrators already had a services contract with Honeywell and have been working on equipment and filtration upgrades.
36,000 Systems Ready for Help
ACCA cited a June study (PDF) from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that establishes a sober view of the situation on a national scale.
That study found that 41% of school districts need HVAC updates for at least half of their schools. ACCA works that out to roughly 36,000 public schools with faulty or outdated HVAC systems.
“This issue is pervasive, and Senator Heinrich’s bill takes a step in the right direction to correct it,” ACCA officials commented. “A comprehensive solution, however, will likely take billions more in total investment, given the fact that school districts collectively spend tens of billions of dollars each year on facility repairs and improvements.”
Much as pre-pandemic “hidden” benefits involving student health and productivity can reward schools that invest in good IAQ, adhering to quality installation standards can in turn avoid disappointing performance results. ACCA commented that including quality installation language would strengthen the bill and increase the value of its grants.
“HVAC systems that are not properly installed can lose up to 40% of their expected energy efficiency, face greater strain, and need to be fixed and replaced at a greater rate than HVAC systems that are properly installed according to ACCA standards,” ACCA added.
While that makes a substantial difference regardless of COVID-19, ACCA and others understand that better IAQ and ventilation compose just one component of a pandemic strategy alongside cleaning, monitoring occupants, and protocols in place to guide responses and adjustments as needed.
Year End Is Looming
Senator Heinrich is not the first in recent history to introduce such legislation. Fellow Democrat Bobby Scott introduced a Rebuild American Schools Act in the House last year, proposing a more ambitious scope of work and a much larger price tag ($100 billion). It did not become law and was not included in the House’s recent HEROES Act.
That may or may not be an omen for the Keeping Schools Safe Act. Some sort of lame duck session is the next likely event for the Senate. Its agenda is unclear, although with an election behind it and Justice Bennett seated on the Supreme Court, there may be more room to consider bills like Heinrich’s individually or as part of a larger relief package.
If the bill does not advance beyond the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions before the end of the year, COVID concerns seem likely to continue well into 2021, and Heinrich (who is not up for reelection until 2024) would be free to reintroduce his proposal when the new Congress gathers in January.
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Strong reasoning
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Politics
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For EMS providers and clinicians, the Broselow Tape is a familiar way to quickly and effectively decide on proper dosing for pediatric patients when weight cannot be accurately determined in a prehospital or hospital environment.
Now the already simple device is being made even easier thanks to its inventor, James Broselow, MD, with his next generation invention, the PediaTape.
PediaTape allows EMS providers, nurses and doctors to provide faster, more accurate care in pediatric emergencies. It’s an inexpensive color and length-only measuring tape based on Broselow’s own color coding system.
Rather than looking up a couple dozen doses directly on the tape, medical professionals can now use PediaTape to look up hundreds of medications found on PediaTape’s free printable PDF reference guides. Alternatively, they can be found on the free SafeDose mobile app. Both the reference guides and SafeDose apps can be found at www2.pediatape.com.
Unlike the Broselow Tape, this approach has the added advantage of showing not only the dose in milligrams, but also in milliliters for the selected concentration. Using SafeDose, medical professionals receive administration information, adverse reactions and can document their actions on the fly. (See SafeDose in action at www.youtube.com/user/broselow.)
“The Broselow Tape is pretty much the standard of care,” says Broselow. “When it came out originally it just had resuscitation drugs, so we had milligrams and milliliters. Then people wanted more drugs, so we added RSI and seizure drugs, and sedation, fluids and infusions. The amount of minutiae on the tape started to grow, because it was a single product with multiple audiences. An EMT that just did basic care didn’t need all those drugs but the same tape was being used in the ICU and ERs.
“More drugs came out, and there were more uses and concentrations,” Broselow continues. “The physical geography of the tape is such that you can only write so much in a little box. The printing gets smaller and eventually the milliliters disappeared just to keep up with the dose of multiple medicines.”
In an effort to streamline the process, Broselow latched onto the idea of using the tape solely as an index. Simply put, a provider could arrive at a color by measuring length and then use other avenues to find proper dosing information for just about any drug imaginable. One obvious way to do it would be through a book. Broselow says it’s been done, but even that method is limited because it’s difficult and costly to keep up with changes in printed media.
“Like everybody else we got interested in technology,” Broselow explains. First, a Web-based system called Artemis was created to house every aspect of medication administration. Introduced about three years ago, Artemis is now licensed to almost 200 hospitals.
“We developed the standard for Artemis but we wanted to make the standard updatable and available to everybody, not just through an enterprise or Web-based system, but also in mobile apps,” says Broselow. That’s where SafeDose fits in. A free app for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry devices, SafeDose allows providers to get a color for a patient and then simply scroll to the dosing information they need in an instant. At just $5, the PediaTape, in conjunction with the free SafeDose app, makes for an inexpensive—yet powerful—tool for providers.
Peter Lazar, who owns the PediaTape company, says the PediaTape is also part of a larger effort to introduce Broselow’s color-coding concept outside the U.S. “The Broselow tape is heavily used in basically every hospital and ambulance in the United States and Canada,” says Lazar, “but it’s not used elsewhere in the world.”
“I think the nice thing about the PediaTape,” explains Broselow, “is, once you get a color, you look at things like translations and how difficult it is to print and send and package all that stuff. With this it’s easy—it’s the same color in any language. Then we can just translate the information on the electronic system. It really accommodates a much wider world and much more divergent use of the product and concept.”
That universal concept is already apparent on the PediaTape website, www2.pediatape.com, where visitors can view information in English, German, Spanish, Dutch or Portuguese, the latter of which stems from the high level of interest in Broselow’s color-coding system the company has received from Brazil, says Lazar. Also available are color-coded wall charts for use in hospitals to amuse and inform children.
Though the PediaTape marks a progression forward for the Broselow Tape, there are no plans to phase out the older invention.
“I think we’ll always like to have a hard copy,” says Broselow. “You don’t want to be too dependent on technology. People will always want to have something they can do the basics with.”
But, he explains, the convenience of the tiny and inexpensive PediaTape gives it a nice advantage.
“In North Carolina, EMS providers are required by law to call in the Broselow color if they’re transporting a child. It would be nice if a first responder, or even a state patrol person, who comes upon an injury that involves a child could at least pull out a little tape that’s inexpensive and start the system working. Being able to get the color as part of the language is very important. Another use for the tape is in disaster response where somebody might be triaging. Say there are chemical weapons injuries and people have atropine but they don’t know the dosing. You could call in the color and somebody could have our Artemis system, either on the SafeDose app or as a hospital receiving the call, and they could immediately tell the provider the proper intervention. We see the use of the color expanding to kind a language.”
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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Eat These to Reduce Blood Pressure and Slash Risk of Heart Disease (Video)
A new study discovered that eating walnuts can reduce blood pressure in people at risk of heart disease when combined with a low saturated fats diet.
The study was conducted by Penn State and analyzed what happened when they replaced saturated fats with walnuts in participants’ diets. The researchers found that eating whole walnuts on a daily basis, combined with consuming less saturated fat in their diet, was associated with lower central blood pressure. The fact that this could reduce central blood pressure suggests it could also help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Why are they beneficial?
Penny Kris-Etherton, Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at Penn State, explained: “When participants ate whole walnuts, they saw greater benefits than when they consumed a diet with a similar fatty acid profile as walnuts without eating the nut itself. So it seems like there’s a little something extra in walnuts that are beneficial — maybe their bioactive compounds, maybe the fiber, maybe something else — that you don’t get in the fatty acids alone.”
Alyssa Tindall, a recent student in Dr. Kris-Etherton’s lab and Ph.D. graduate in nutrition, added: “Walnuts contain alpha-linolenic acid — ALA — a plant-based omega-3 that may positively affect blood pressure,” Tindall said. “We wanted to see if ALA was the major contributor to these heart-healthy benefits, or if it was another bioactive component of walnuts, like polyphenols. We designed the study to test if these components had additive benefits.”
Advice for incorporating them into your diet
Kris-Etherton concluded: “Instead of reaching for fatty red meat or full-fat dairy products for a snack, consider having some skim milk and walnuts. I think it boils down to how we can get the most out of the food we’re eating, specifically, ‘how to get a little more bang out of your food buck.’ In that respect, walnuts are a good substitute for saturated fat.”
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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(A contribution adapted from: Amy Fothergill – “The Family Chef”)
Good nutrition is very basic. Education is the key and learning more is easy. It’s all about balance.
1. Tips for Feeding Kids
(see Well Kiddos’ resource recommendations below)
- Offer children different foods early on in life as often as you can
- Expose them to a variety of flavors and textures
- Keep trying new foods (literally 10-15 times)
- Teach them about which nutrients our bodies need and why
2. Think about what our bodies need
At the end of the day (and beginning) our bodies just need 6 nutrients. That’s all.
- Vitamins and Minerals
3. Take the time to think about what you are eating.
What’s in that cookie from the store? Can I pronounce the ingredients in my crackers? Why is there high fructose corn syrup in my children’s juice? Where did that hamburger come from?
- Educate your children about food
- Explain why you want them to eat certain things
- Talk about food and it’s importance for growing and our health
You may not like to say ‘NO’ all of the time. When my son asks me for a cookie, I say “Yes, after you have a healthy dinner.” When we are at a party, they can have one juice box (OK, sometimes two). I try to let them have one “treat” in a day. It’s an easy standard.
4. How to get what we need
- Keep food simple and whole
- Eat a variety of protein, starches, fruits and vegetables
- For vegetables, think about the colors of the rainbow; the darker the better
Keeping your foods ‘whole’ means a minimum of processing. Think of some examples: baked potato vs potato chip. Apple vs applesauce. Sautéed chicken tender vs chicken nugget. Steamed spinach vs spinach pasta.
Every food we eat has something to offer but the more it’s “touched/processed”, the less value it has. To get the biggest bang for the buck, doing your own cooking is probably best. And be careful not to overcook it yourself. The more you cut and cook a raw vegetable, the less nutrients it will have. This is why steaming is best; when you boil a vegetable, some of the nutrients remain in the water.
5. How to make changes
Please don’t think you are a bad parent if you have ever given your child something you know that maybe isn’t that healthy for them. It’s very hard in today’s world where children are marketed to at a very young age.
6. Steps you can take:
- Change what you keep in the house (we can help you with a pantry consultation and make over)
- Read labels in the grocery store
- Certain ingredients have been linked to diseases like diabetes and high cholesterol: high fructose corn syrup (spikes your blood sugar and offers no nutritional value) and partially hydrogenated fats and oils (clogs arteries and it’s hard for our bodies to process)
- Buy products when on sale, join a buying club
- Consider organic: no pesticides and not modified or processed
7. Change what you eat when you go out
- Look for alternative choices (check to see if the restaurant participates in the Well Kiddos Program)
- Consider an appetizer or sharing a grilled chicken sandwich
- Avoid poor choices from some kid’s menus and go directly to the adult menu (ask for a smaller portion or split a dish)
- Offer what you are eating to your kids
- Look for sides and create a meal that your child likes.
- Check a restaurant’s menu on the Internet before you go there
- Role model for your child, ask for a salad and veggies
- Ask for fruit instead of ice cream
- Substitute and request what you want (i.e. grilled fish instead of fried)
8. Plan ahead so healthy snacks are handy
- Fresh fruits, seeds, nuts, cheese cubes, celery sticks with ‘butter’ (i.e. freshly ground almond butter) of your choice, boiled egg
- Make sure the kids always eat something (proteins give energy early in the morning, smoothies are easy to make)
- Keep grains whole and sugar to a minimum ( 6g or less per serving); they will have a better day at school
- Keep processed food to a minimum (Look at the labels of what you are buying)
- Make lunch the night before
- Rotate sandwiches and snacks so they eat different things
- Always include a fresh fruit and/or veggie
- Look at what is in their lunch box when you pick them up
- Try different things and keep a list of ideas – ask others what works well for them
- Leave notes in the lunch box
- Always have a stand-by lunch in case you are running late (pb &j, unsweetened applesauce, baby carrots, cheese cubes, pear slices)
- Pack water in reusable bottles (i.e. Sigg, Kleen Kanteen)
Recipes can also be found at:
So, kid’s nutrition (and ours) isn’t really hard. Keep it basic and tasty and you’ll sure to hit a home run!
Well Kiddos recommends these resources for parents:
- Dr. Alan Greene: “Feeding baby Green”
- “Sugar-Free Toddlers: Over 100 Recipes” [Paperback]
Susan Watson (Author), Sara Sloan (Author), Susan Williamson (Editor)
- “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual” [Hardcover]
Michael Pollan (Author), Maira Kalman (Author)
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
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Naturally occurring organic matter in water and sediment appears to play a key role in helping microbes convert tiny particles of mercury in the environment into a form that is dangerous to most living creatures.
This finding is important, say Duke University environmental engineers, because it could change the way mercury in the environment is measured and therefore regulated. This particularly harmful form of the element, known as methylmercury, is a potent toxin for nerve cells. When ingested by organisms, it is not excreted and builds up in tissues or organs.
In a series of laboratory experiments, Amrika Deonarine, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, found that organic matter and chemical compounds containing sulfur – known as sulfides -- can readily bind to form mercury sulfide nanoparticles. Since they are more soluble than larger particles, these nanoparticles may be the precursors to a process known as methylation.
"When the organic material combines with the mercury, it prevents the particle from accumulating with other mercury particles and growing larger," said Deonarine, who presented the results of her analysis at the summer annual scientific sessions of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington, D.C.
"Since the mercury remains in a nanoparticle size, it can easily collect on the surface of microbes where any mercury that dissolves can be taken in by the microbes," Deonarine said. "Without the organic matter, the mercury sulfide nanoparticles would grow too large and become insoluble, thus reducing the availability of mercury for microbial methylation."
It is while inside the microbe that the mercury is converted into the harmful methylmercury form, the researchers said.
These reactions can only take place in cold water environments with little to no oxygen, such as the zone of sediment just below the bottom of a body of water. Other such anaerobic environments can also be found in waste water and sewage treatment systems, the researchers said.
"The exposure rate of mercury in the U.S. is quite high," said Heileen Hsu-Kim, Duke assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and senior member of the research team. "A recent epidemiological survey found that up 8 percent of women had mercury levels higher than national guidelines. Since humans are on top of the food chain, any mercury in our food accumulates in our body."
Because fish and shellfish have a natural tendency to store methylmercury in their organs, they are the leading source of mercury ingestion for humans. Mercury is extremely toxic and can lead to kidney dysfunctions, neurological disorders and even death. In particular, fetuses exposed to methylmercury can suffer from these same disorders as well as impaired learning abilities.
There are many ways mercury gets into the environment, with the primary sources being the combustion of coal, the refining of such metals as gold and other non-ferrous metals, and in the gases released during volcanic eruptions. The air-borne mercury from these sources eventually lands on lakes or ponds and can remain in the water or sediments.
"These initial laboratory findings could have far-reaching implications," Hsu-Kim said. "That these reactions can take places in anaerobic environments suggests that the old paradigm of testing for toxic metals in sediments may provide an incomplete picture of how much methylmercury is there."
The researchers plan to continue their studies with other types of organic matter and for longer periods of time.
For her presentation and paper, Deonarime was one of six recipients of the C. Ellen Gonter Environmental Chemistry Award, given annually to graduate students.
The research was supported by the federally funded Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT), which is based at Duke, and the ACS's Petroleum Research fund.
Cite This Page:
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Music is found in Islam. The way that the Azaan is read may be categorized as musical. However, this question is important for those of the Muslim faith. The music we know today as Sufi music originated from the Islamic empire and many people think of it as a form of worship (Islam). There is debate whether music is allowed in Islam. Is music in Islam really haram? If music is haram, does that mean listening to music is haram? Which instruments are haram, are instruments life Duff or wind instruments haram as well?
This blog post will explore the history of music in Islam and what it says about music being haram or not.
Musical Instruments are Haram, per Hadith
Music is haram because it is a way for the Shaitan to get a hold of your thoughts. It is an intoxicating tool. Those who believe music has no place in Islam are those that believe Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) declared it so or acted in such accordance.
The Prophet is to have said, “There will be among my Ummah people who will regard as permissible adultery, silk, alcohol, and musical instruments.” There are those, like Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Sa’id ibn Hazm (from present-day Spain, 10th Century), who believe that this quote is inauthentic.
To start off with, there are many types of music. One can not blanket this question. Some music is considered permissible while other music is considered haram. Music, according to this school of thought, can be categorized into 4 categories.
- Music with forbidden lyrics, and forbidden instruments
- Music with forbidden lyrics, but permissible instruments
- Music with permissible lyrics, with use of musical instruments (of Sufis) that are forbidden
- Music with permissible lyrics, and permissible instruments
According to this classification, qawwali and Sufi music do have permissible lyrics. That is the lyrics praise Allah, Prophet Muhammad, and Ahl al-Bait. That singing is good. The use of instruments is what makes it haram. String instruments are haram as mentioned in the Holy Qur’an. But, that is confusing. Because qawwali, it doesn’t use stringed instruments (i.e. violin, sitar).
Music is Halal, with historical examples
Nothing in the Holy Qur’an explicitly speaks to music. The question of music’s permissibility in Islam has been debated for centuries, with the first recorded instance being Abu Sulayman al-Darani. The sage of 2nd–3rd/8th–9th century is held in high regard by Sufis. He was the one to develop the concept of ‘ma’rifa,’ as well as preach ‘hope over fear.’
Music has been an integral part of Islamic culture since its inception and as such has had many different meanings to Muslims over the years. Muslims that believe this is permissible refer to the Hadith when Abu Bakr was when in front of the home of Prophet Muhammad’s wife. Two girls were playing music and Abu Bakr criticizes them. To which, the Prophet said, “Let them be.”
Scholars have stated that there is no clarity in the Qur’an or Hadith that definitively rules out the use of music. Within the Muslim world, Shia Muslims believe music can encourage a person to spirituality. This is exemplified in signers like Sanam Marvi and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
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Strong reasoning
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Religion
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A major new milestone has just been achieved in the quest for superconductivity. For the first time, physicists have achieved the resistance-free flow of an electrical current at room temperature - a positively balmy 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit).
This has smashed the previous record of -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit), and has brought the prospect of functional superconductivity a huge step forward.
"Because of the limits of low temperature, materials with such extraordinary properties have not quite transformed the world in the way that many might have imagined," physicist Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester said in a press statement.
"However, our discovery will break down these barriers and open the door to many potential applications."
Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911, and has since become a fervently pursued goal in condensed matter physics.
It consists of two key properties. The first is zero resistance. Usually, the flow of an electrical current encounters some degree of resistance - a bit like how air resistance pushes back on a moving object, for example. The higher the conductivity of a material, the less electrical resistance it has, and the current can flow more freely.
The second is something called the Meissner effect, in which the magnetic fields of the superconducting material are expelled. This forces the magnetic field lines to reroute around the material. If a small permanent magnet is placed above a superconducting material, the repulsive force of these magnetic field lines will cause it to levitate.
The potential applications of superconductivity could revolutionise our world - from maglev transportation to data transfer to lossless power grids. But there's a big problem.
Superconducting materials are usually only created and maintained at extremely low temperatures, way below those found in nature. Keeping materials at these temperatures is difficult and expensive, which has proven a practical barrier to broader implementation.
Recently, physicists have found success in raising the temperature in lightweight elements, such as hydrogen sulfide and lanthanum hydride. The common element there is hydrogen, the lightest element in nature. But hydrogen as a gas is an insulator; in order to make it superconducting, it needs to be metalised under immense pressures.
"To have a high temperature superconductor, you want stronger bonds and light elements. Those are the two very basic criteria. Hydrogen is the lightest material, and the hydrogen bond is one of the strongest," Dias said.
"Solid metallic hydrogen is theorised to have high Debye temperature and strong electron-phonon coupling that is necessary for room temperature superconductivity."
Since pure metallic hydrogen can only be created under extreme pressure, the right conditions are extremely difficult to achieve. Two teams have reported success in creating it in recent years.
In 2017, physicists reported metallic hydrogen at pressures between 465 and 495 gigapascals and temperatures of 5.5 Kelvin (-267.65 °Cs; -449.77 °F). In 2019, physicists reported metallic hydrogen at pressures of 425 gigapascals and temperatures of 80 Kelvin (-193 °C; -316 °F). Neither of those are close to room temperature. And, for reference, the pressure at Earth's core is between 330 and 360 gigapascals.
The next best thing is a metal that's rich in hydrogen, like the hydrogen sulfide and lanthanum hydride used in previous experiments. These mimic the superconducting properties of pure metallic hydrogen at much lower pressures.
So, a team of physicists led by Elliot Snider of the University of Rochester started experimenting. First, they tried combining the hydrogen with yttrium to create yttrium superhydride. This material exhibited superconductivity at -11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) under 180 gigapascals of pressure.
Next, Snider and his team tried combining carbon, sulphur, and hydrogen to create carbonaceous sulphur hydride. They squeezed a tiny sample in a diamond anvil and measured it for superconductivity. And they found it, at 270 gigapascals, and 15 degrees Celsius.
Obviously, it's still a way off being useable in everyday circumstances. The sample sizes were microscopic, between 25 and 35 microns, and the pressure at which superconductivity emerged still rather impractical.
The next step in the research will be to try to reduce the high pressure needed by tuning the chemical composition of the sample. If they can get the mix right, the researchers believe a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor will finally be within our grasp.
The research has been published in Nature.
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Americans are likely to feel that the Pacific Coast line is the very “jumping-off place” of creation. But it is not, we still go on. Turning backward at this point, the traveler sees behind him the glory of modern civilization and all those associations that familiarity has made dear to him. The Golden Gate is the exit of the New World, and the gateway of the regions of the primitive ages, where life and history had their beginning. At that point the head and tail of human progress come nearest together, with only the Pacific waters between them.
Of late years a tide has seemed to set in, flowing from the Old World eastward, and signs of reviving life are seen in the Orient. If the west-bound traveler looks across the ocean, he will perceive the beautiful evening star of Australasia rising, contrary to nature, in the southwestern shy, clear and bright above the horizon. For while the star of empire takes its westward way, and nearly all the world has joined the procession, this new realm receives its chief impulse and strength from the west.
When entering upon a voyage, the first thing a passenger does is to see his stateroom and determine how it is going to fit him. It is always a tight fit, and it seems at first to be altogether too small in each dimension. It is, perhaps, about seven feet high, four feet wide, and just long enough so that an ordinary man in lying down will not bump his head and heels at the same time.
If it be an outside room, there is a little circular, brassrimmed window with glass three fourths of an inch thick hung on strong hinges which allow it to swing inward. It closes in a water-tight joint, and is held in its place by two strong screw clamps. If it is not too near the water line, this window, or “port,” may be opened, but if it be shut by the steward, it is considered quite a breach of rules to open it without permission. Orders to close the ports frequently come from the officer on the bridge, and the order must be obeyed no matter how much the passenger may grumble.
There are two narrow bunks, one above the other, made up neatly, and in modern vessels furnished with comfortable springs. The new passenger is sure to think he can never sleep in such a straight jacket arrangement. But when he is out on the rolling sea, the ship going up one side and down at the other, shifting the angle of the boat nearly ninety degrees, and he is rolling back and forth like a spool in a cradle, he is thankful that his bed is no wider than it is. Or if the boat be hitching, he is equally glad that with a pillow at the top of his head he can touch solid footing at both ends.
On some slats overhead or perhaps under his mattress are life preservers. It may be that a settee under the window fills up about all the space that is left. There are in many cases some strange looking tin receptacles of which land people have not learned the use, but with the use of which they generally become acquainted after a few hours tossing.
Having said our adieus, we sailed out of the Golden Gate on a pleasant day in May, and for the first time found ourselves upon a body of water that has no bounds. Stories of sea-sickness had driven us into a desperate resolution to ” take it as it came.” However I was determined not to surrender without a struggle, but, if possible, to keep my stomach under, and compel it to do its duty. For some days there was a strife between labor and capital. My digestive works went on a strike, and declared a lockout against the bill of fare. I could not blame them, but it was no time to yield, and I gave them no excuse for lack of business. The grumbling stomach and treacherous nerves were held in so close surveillance that they soon resumed duty with the understanding that they certainly deserved more consideration than they generally receive either on sea or on land:
The high seas is a good place to make dietetic reforms. One is almost ready to promise not to eat anything any more, but, once on land, most people shield themselves behind the plea of not being morally accountable when making the promise, and then proceed to make up for lost time. Besides, in the application of good principles of eating and drinking, there are many who make an exception in favor of sea life, and proceed to gratify any fancy of appetite no matter how unreasonable. But there is not the slightest reason why any one who knows what is right and best to eat when ashore should throw away that knowledge on shipboard. Good principles are good the world over. And the violation of them carries its consequences on the ocean as well as on land.
The usual monotony of an ocean trip becomes an unusual one on the Pacific. Very rarely are vessels met, except in the vicinity of ports. And nothing breaks the monotony of the sea as meeting or passing other vessels does. But days and weeks pass on the Pacific without the sight of a passing sail.
In the tropical waters, multitudes of flying fish skim over the water, and occasionally one of extra strength or ambition drops on the deck only quickly to become the prey of some curiosity seeker. They have slim, shining bodies, from six to ten inches in length, though on one occasion on the Indian Ocean, we captured one that measured fifteen inches. Their wings are extended fins, the meshes of which are a gelatinous substance. Their flights are from five to twenty yards, and are frequently the means by which they escape from their deadly enemy, the porpoise.
The porpoise is the swine among fishes, and usually runs in schools. They have long, peaked noses, or snouts, are from three to six feet in length, and often gambol about the vessel, throwing themselves partially or entirely out of the water by the force of the velocity with which they swim. They have been known to attack men. Such an instance occurred lately in the harbor of Auckland, New Zealand, where a boatman was thrown into the water, and only saved himself from death by these marauders by a vigorous fight with an oar.
Another familiar object in those waters is the albatross, which patiently follows a vessel for many leagues. It is a gaunt, stately bird with wings that stretch eight to ten feet from tip to tip. The wings are slender for their length, and in flying are moved so slightly that the movement is imperceptible except when the bird is rising from a momentary perch on the rigging of a vessel, which it seldom takes, or from lighting on some floating object. They are so common around
Cape of Good Hope that the sailors there call them “cape sheep.” Their plumage is white beneath, and generally a soft gray on their backs. They possess powerful beaks with which on one occasion they nearly saved the life of a suicide. On a voyage between Auckland and Sydney we had on board a man whose conscience and fears of justice made life a burden. While conversing with a fellow-passenger, he suddenly sprang overboard. The alarm was given at once, the engines were reversed, and boats were sent back to pick the man up. The only sign of his whereabouts was the huddle of albatrosses about him. Like the sea gulls, whose big cousins they are, they consider everything that goes over the ship’s side their legal plunder, and live men are evidently no exceptions. At least, they plied their bills so vigorously that the man was kept from sinking, and sometimes was lifted almost bodily out of the water. His coat was stripped off, and his other garments were torn to shreds. His face and body were fearfully lacerated. He was half an hour in the water, but was not drowned when the boats reached him. The sailors brought him to the deck, but through exhaustion and loss of blood the work was completed, and according to his wish, he found rest in that broad grave that ever yawns for its willing or unwilling victims – that grave whose tombstone’s of eternal rocks bear no inscriptions, and reveal no secrets of who lies here or there.
Another attraction seen in all waters at night, but which is much more noticeable in warmer climes, is the sparkling, glowing phosphorescence in the ship’s wake or along its sides. It affords hours of amusement to watch this beautiful phenomenon. The agitation of the water at the ship’s prow, along its sides, and especially at the propeller, causes waves and balls of phosphorescent light to flash in the darkness. Many pleasant evening hours are spent leaning over the ship’s rail, musing on distant scenes, and watching the display of watery fireworks.
About thirty miles from the Golden Gate lie some rocky dots in the ocean called the Farallone Islands, though the dictionaries give them a name about twice as long as that. They are the home of myriads of sea fowls, and the eggs are often supplied to the San Francisco markets. On the southern island is located a light-house, telegraph station, and a group of houses. In their vicinity our ship was surrounded with great numbers of whales. Their spouting could be seen in all directions, and as they rose to the surface, their huge bodies would often be quite fully exposed. Some member of the school would take a playful mood, and then the display of enormous heads, fins, and tails was fine to behold.
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Evanston news delivered free to your inbox!
On Feb. 11, the Illinois State Board of Education announced that it decided to administer the SAT to all Illinois eleventh-graders. ISBE said it selected the SAT, rather than the ACT, because the SAT was better aligned with the Illinois Learning Standards and is a better tool to measure what students are learning and to determine whether they are prepared for college and careers.
On July 11, ISBE announced that the SAT exam, including a writing component, will replace the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment as the high school accountability exam in Illinois.
Because the SAT will be given to eleventh-graders at Evanston Township High School, the RoundTable has urged in several editorials that ETHS use SAT scores, aligned with doing B-level work the in the first year of college, as one metric in determining whether students are college ready.
Significantly, the RoundTable is not urging that SAT scores be used in deciding whether or not to admit an individual student into college, but that they be used on an aggregated basis to determine whether ETHS is preparing its students to do at least B level work in college. Approximately 77% of the grades given in college are As and Bs, so doing B level work is performing above the 23rd percentile.
Predictive Validity of the SAT
One issue, and an important one, is whether SAT scores are biased, either by race or gender, in predicting how students will do in freshman year of college.
Three recent studies have analyzed whether SAT scores are biased in predicting how various subgroups will do in the first year of college: “The Validity of SAT Scores in Predicting First-Year Mathematics and English Courses” (2012), by Krista D. Mattern, et al, of the College Board; “Test of Slope and Intercept Bias in College Admissions: A Response to Aguinis, Culpepper, and Pierce 2010” (2013), by Mattern, et al, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology; and “Differentiated Prediction Generalization in College Admission Testing” (2016), by Herman Aguinis et al, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology.
Each study found that, on average and across colleges, SAT scores slightly overpredict how black and Hispanic students will do in the first year of college, compared to white students, and that the scores thus contain a slight bias that favors black and Hispanic students. Each study also found that, on average and across colleges, SAT scores slightly underpredict how women will do in first year of college, compared to men, and that the scores thus contain a slight bias that disfavors women.
For example, the 2013 Mattern study found that the SAT, on average, overpredicted black students scores by 0.12 of a grade point in math, and underpredicted female scores by 0.11 of a grade point. In English courses, the SAT, on average, overpredicted black students scores by 0.14 of a grade point, and underpredicted female scores by 0.12 of a grade point.
In the 2016 study by Aguinis et al, the researchers took a step further and analyzed whether there is variability in the way the SAT and high school grade-point averages (GPAs) predict first-year college GPAs at different colleges. The study found that there was variation. The Aguinis study acknowledges, however, that the variability between predicted and actual scores at different colleges may be due to a variety of factors, including that different colleges may provide different levels of supports for minority students, such as tutoring, mentoring, and counseling; there may be institutional biases; the type and rigor of courses offered and taken may differ between colleges; and instructors’ grading idiosyncrasies and biases may impact grades and first-year college GPA.
While the Aguinis study is important for colleges who use the SAT and high school GPA in making admission decisions, its finding that variability exists between different colleges should not deter a high school from using the SAT to determine whether a high school, on average, is preparing its students to do B-level work in the first year of college.
A high school is not preparing students to enter a particular college, but to be prepared in general for college. The SAT provides one way to do that.
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Modulo position is a function that simplifies rotational applications such as unidirectional rotating assembly tables. When enabled, the modulo axis feature converts several position-based parameters to fit in a defined modulo range. Once this range is defined, a given position value will roll over at the end of the modulo range and return to the beginning of the modulo range. This behavior affects some drive functions, which work with modulo-scaled position variables when the modulo-feature is enabled.
The following figure describes the progress of the actual position value (PL.FB) for linear scaling and modulo scaling when the motor moves continuously in a positive direction:
Setting up the modulo axis in WorkBench
You can set up the modulo axis from the Modulo view in WorkBench.
Button or Box
Enables or disables modulo (PL.MODPEN
Modulo Range Begin/End
Direction for Absolute Motion Task
Sets the direction of an Absolute Motion task when Modulo is enabled. The direction can be set to always positive, or always move negative. The "Shortest Distance" mode will determine the shortest distance to the target and move in that direction. The "inside range" mode will move in the direction that allows the motor to stay in between the defined scale and therefore not to wrap around. Shortest Distance is more commonly used than Inside Range mode. (PL.MODPDIR)
Reads and displays the position feedback (PL.FB )
Setting up the modulo axis from the Terminal
You can use the following parameters to configure the modulo-axis feature:
- PL.MODPEN: Enables or disables the modulo-axis feature.
- PL.MODP1 : Defines either the beginning or the end of the modulo range, depending on the PL.MODP2 setting.
- PL.MODP2 : Defines either the beginning or the end of the modulo range, depending on the PL.MODP1 setting.
Parameters affected by the modulo axis
The following parameters are converted into modulo format when the values of these parameters are queried by a user,
- PL.FB : The actual position of the drive is converted into modulo scaling.
- PL.CMD : The command position of the drive is converted into modulo scaling.
- CAP0.PLFB (CAP0.PLFB, CAP1.PLFB ): The actual position of the drive, which has been captured by the capture engine 0, is converted into modulo scaling.
- CAP1.PLFB (CAP0.PLFB, CAP1.PLFB ): The actual position of the drive, which has been captured by the capture-engine 1, is converted into modulo scaling.
Drive functions affected by modulo axis
Software limit switch
The software limit switches in the drive compare the actual position (PL.FB ) with threshold values. Motion is stopped when the actual position exceeds the software limits. Since PL.FB is affected by the modulo-axis feature, the software limit switches monitor the modulo-converted PL.FB value. Software limit switches with thresholds outside of the modulo range never limit motion.
Programmable limit switch
The programmable limit switches compare the actual position (PL.FB ) with selectable thresholds and then status flags are set to "true" when the actual position is currently within these position limits. The programmable limit switches monitor the modulo-converted PL.FB value. Programmable limit switches that are set outside the modulo-range never become active.
Digital output Modes 5 and 6
The digital output modes 5 and 6 (position greater than x, position less than x) compare the actual position of the drive with thresholds and activate the associated outputs when PL.FB is lower or higher than the threshold. The digital output mode functionality monitors the modulo-converted PL.FB value. Position thresholds that are set outside the modulo range continuously activate or deactivate the digital output.
Motion tasking to absolute target positions
When modulo is enabled, absolute motion tasks assume that the command is modulo converted. Absolute motion tasks to target positions outside of the modulo range generate a warning, nFault and Warning Messages (Motion task target position is out of modulo range).
Analog input in position mode
When modulo is enabled, the analog position input value is converted to a position value within the current modulo range. When the position is changed by the analog input signal, the drive always moves the shortest distance to the new position.
Using the modulo position feature with multiturn encoders
A special case exists for the following combinations of events:
- The drive is connected to a multiturn feedback device.
- The modulo axis feature is enabled.
- The selected modulo range does not fit as an integer in the range of the multiturn feedback.
- The application moves further than the total amount of multiturn feedback revolutions. In this case, problems occur because the multiturn feedback position overrun and a modulo range position rollover point does not occur at exactly the same position.
- If FB1.EXTENDEDMULTITURN = 1, absolute position can be restored even if modulo position is enabled.
After powerup of the drive, the actual position (PL.FB ) will be read from the multiturn feedback device. This position can be considered as a position within the feedback range as described in the figures below.
The following figure illustrates drive behavior when the selected modulo range fits as an integer within the multiturn feedback range. For simplicity, assume that one multiturn feedback range describes four feedback revolutions and the selected modulo range is set to two feedback revolutions.
As described in the figure above, the selected modulo range of the drive is repeated exactly at the point where the connected multiturn feedback rolls over (Modulo range 1, 3, 5…). The application can move for several multiturn feedback ranges and the drive can recalculate the modulo position correctly after a power cycle. The positions within the modulo ranges represent the same value in modulo format for each feedback range.
The modulo-converted position, which represents 5 or 9 feedback revolutions, corresponds to the modulo position, which represents 1 feedback revolution.
The next figure illustrates the drive behavior when the selected modulo range does not fit as an integer within the multiturn feedback range. For simplicity, assume that one multiturn feedback range describes four feedback revolutions and the selected modulo range is set to 2.5 feedback revolutions.
As described in the figure above, the selected modulo range is not repeated exactly at the place where the connected multiturn feedback rolls over. The application can move for several multiturn feedback ranges, but the drive cannot calculate the modulo position correctly after a power cycle.
The modulo-converted position, which represents five feedback revolutions, does not correspond to the modulo-position, which represents one feedback revolution.
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Strong reasoning
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Learning about Visual Notetaking from Giulia Forsythe <div class="greet_block wpgb_cornered"><div class="greet_text"><div class="greet_image"><a href=" rel="nofollow"><img src=" alt="WP Greet Box icon"/></a></div>Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to <a href=" rel="nofollow"><strong>subscribe to the RSS feed</strong></a> for updates on this topic.<div style="clear:both"></div></div></div>
Digital literacies 5: Remix in the classroom “Remix? What’s that got to do with English language teachers? Our job to teach language, not mess around with digital stuff…” Digital literacies 4: Teens & social networks Photo by Nico Cavallotto A few years back my daughter (then aged 14) told me she was going out. To meet a friend at lunchtime. iPad Research in Schools Last updated on 2/5/2014 Print this page1 The Technology Enhanced Learning Research group, led by Kevin Burden (Principal Investigator) based in the Faculty of Education, has completed the first national evaluation to investigate the use and impact of tablet technologies (in this case the iPad), across schools and homes in Scotland. The study was based in eight schools and six local authorities across Scotland where iPad devices were being piloted to investigate a range of issues associated with the deployment of personal mobile devices as tools for teaching and learning. This follows the announcement and launch in May 2012 by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in Scotland (Mr.
10 Great Google Search Tips for Teachers and Students 1- Search for an exact word or phrase Use quotes to search for an exact word or set of words. This option is handy when searching for song lyrics or a line from literature."imagine all the people" Home - Evaluating resources - Library Guides at UC Berkeley To find out more about an author: Google the author's name or dig deeper in the library's biographical source databases. To find scholarly sources: When searching library article databases, look for a checkbox to narrow your results to Scholarly, Peer Reviewed or Peer Refereed publications. To evaluate a source's critical reception: Check in the library's book and film review databases to get a sense of how a source was received in the popular and scholarly press. To evaluate internet sources: The internet is a great place to find both scholarly and popular sources, but it's especially important to ask questions about authorship and publication when you're evaluating online resources.
A Comprehensive Guide to Content Curation Depending on your point of view, content on the internet can be a vast collection of treasures, a cesspool swimming in filth, or a big pile of gold specks mixed in with an even bigger pile of dirt. My guess is that most people lean towards the last one, giving rise to content curation, the process of finding the gold among the dirt, as a very popular online activity. At its most basic, content curation is the process of finding, organizing, and presenting content from the flood of information and media that inundate the web by the second.
Google Launches New Search Education Site with Lesson Plans Google has launched a new site called Search Education aimed at educators who want to teach online search strategies. The site includes lesson plans geared at different levels of expertise — beginner, intermediate and advanced— as well as training videos that walk through different strategies for subjects like using Creative Commons and Google maps. The lessons cover the following topics: Picking the right search termsUnderstanding search resultsSearching for evidence for research tasksNarrowing a search to get the best resultsEvaluating the credibility of sources For each topic, lessons for every level of searcher goes into deep detail, offering background explanations of how search works the way it does, specific examples of search words and their results, and numerous tips. There’s also a short quiz at the end of each lesson.
ESL apps - games and activities for smartphones and tablets - ESL games These ESL apps consist of games and activities to play online with smartphones and tablets. 500 Conversation Questions This web app features randomised conversation questions from the book 50 Conversation lessons. It’s also available as a free Android app.
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Education & Jobs
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Traveling Tuesday: Alabama's Wartime Service
Like with many states in the U.S., by the time World War II rolled around, Alabama had begun its recovery from the Great Depression. However, the war brought an explosion of industrial expansion, and as a result, creating boomtowns from the influx of new employees. On the Gulf of Mexico, Mobile welcomed more than 90,000 job seekers.
Because land in Alabama was plentiful and inexpensive, and the climate temperate, the government realized the state was ideal for military bases. Fort McClellan, already in place, became a major induction center, and Camp Rucker, constructed in 1942, was the state’s second largest training center. Chemical warfare training was done at Camp Sibert. Known as “The road to Tokyo,” Maxfield Army Air Base trained thousands of pilots and air crew. Perhaps the most well-known base was the Tuskeegee Army Airfield where more than 1,000 African-American men earned their wings.
On the home front, the Red Cross was active making bandages, knitting sweaters, and collecting clothing for people injured or displaced by the war overseas. Montgomery’s Soldier’s Center, later known as the Army-Navy USO Club, was the first civilian-run servicemen’s club in the U.S.
Manufacturing and shipbuilding were major industries in Alabama, and the state contained two of the nation’s five plants that produced aluminum, a crucial component in aircraft. By 1943, the Mobile facility was producing 34% of the country’s output. So important was this location that it became a target for German saboteurs, who were fortunately arrested in 1942. Other plants produced gunpowder, weapons, and textiles for uniforms, tents, bedding, and sandbags. Two arsenals were built in Huntsville.
Agriculture was also impacted by the war. Cotton saw an increase because of the textile mills, and forest products were used for lumber and paper products. As with the rest of the country labor shortages were an issue, but usage of POWs from one of the four camps in the state solved the problem. One report states that nearly 4,000 German and Italian POWs saved the 1944 peanut crop.
Although residents of the state didn’t know it at the time, the waters off their shores were some of the most dangerous places for shipping. German U-boats sank about fifty freighters and tankers in the Gulf of Mexico. Explosions could be heard, and ships could sometimes be seen on the horizon.
More than 6,000 Alabamians gave the ultimate sacrifice, and lost their lives during the war. Twelve of the 469 Medal of Honor recipients were either born in the state or entered service there.
Love's Allegiance now available for pre-order!
With most U.S. boys fighting for Uncle Sam in far off countries, Rochelle Addams has given up hope for a wedding in her future. Then she receives an intriguing offer from a distant relative to consider a marriage of convenience.
Conscientious objector Irwin Terrell is looking forward to his assignment at Shady Hills Mental hospital to minister to the less fortunate in lieu of bearing arms. At the arrival of the potential bride his father has selected for him, Irwin’s well-ordered life is turned upside down. And after being left at the altar two years ago, he has no interest in risking romance again.
Despite his best efforts to remain aloof to Rochelle, Irwin is drawn to the enigmatic and beautiful young woman, but will time run out before his wounded heart can find room for her?
Inspired by the biblical love story of Rebekkah and Isaac, Love’s Allegiance explores the struggles and sacrifices of those whose beliefs were at odds with a world at war.
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/2jStfc7
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Strong reasoning
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History
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Growing up is indeed difficult for everyone; they have to let go of a child’s privilege and carry the responsibilities of adults, all the while looking for their identity. And it is even more so for Annemarie, the heroine of Number the Stars book who grew up in Denmark during the World War II in 1943.
“It was only in the fairy tales that people were called upon to be so brave, to die for one another. Not in real-life Denmark.” This is the thing that Annemarie the ten-year-old struggles with throughout the story in Number the Stars book, which was set in the Denmark occupied by the Nazis. It is at this time that the German decided to relocate all the Jews people in Denmark, which includes Rosen, Annemarie’s best friend. While the adults in the story acted perfectly like what the good ones in a fairy tales would: protect the weak and innocent, even when it costs their lives; Annemarie was not sure if she could do the same.
This is why Number The Stars book remains a classic since its publication in 1989: it addresses such a realistic problem that many young adults have to face and struggle with. Now that they have past their time to be protected by others, will they sacrifice themselves to protect someone else? What is bravery? Where does it come from? What if Annemarie was not born with bravery? What is war? As all the adults around her are so busy with counteractions for the war, Annemarie has to resolve all of this for herself.
As Annemarie’s parents decided to use their bravery and protect their Jewish friends, it also means pushing Annemarie into a dangerous situation that could have been avoided. In fact, Annemarie herself has to go through the enemy’s troop with guns, sticks, and hatred in Number the Stars book. What should she do? What would she do?
Through the eyes of Annemarie, a Danish girl, we watch the Holocaust from another perspective with a simple method of delivery with hints of fairy tales and even humorous instances. Yet still, the book shows the terrors of wars clearly. Number the stars book has earned numerous awards for young adults, as well as the National Jewish Book Award for its importance for the people who honor the Jewish history and culture. This can be easily explained, as the Holocaust is not only about their immediate victims, but also about the ones behind the scene that had to watch their loved ones suffer?
Wars, the Holocaust, friendship, family, morals, all are big problems to address, but Lowry did an excellent job in the Number The Stars book. We suggest this book to those who are seeking the reasons for adulthood, another viewpoint of the holocaust, as well as any literature lover.
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Strong reasoning
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Literature
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It was the time of the Boxer Rebellion, which held foreigners responsible for every misfortune that took place. The first to suffer were the Christians, and in 1899 the first English missionary was killed. On the 10th of June, proclamations were posted on walls all over Beijing, calling on the Chinese to slaughter all Christians and threatening all those Christians who tried to hide with martyrdom.
On the 11th of June, China shone in glory as it would offer her share of martyrs for the Church. According to Dr. Piperakis of the University of Athens, the events are described:
"The executioners' procession set off triumphantly with burning torches, as the idols of the traditional god of the Chinese were carried aloft. Censers were held so that the Christians could cense the idols, and thus deny their 'alien' faith. The pressure was unbearable, the martyrdoms most terrible. The fear was great. The Orthodox Christians' homes were surrounded. Threats and violence were used to force the Orthodox to sacrifice to false gods and deny Christ.Included in those who received the crown of martyrdom was the first Chinese heiromartyr, St. Mitrophan Chi-Sung:
Unfortunately, as with all oppression, many capitulated and burnt incense to the idols to save their lives, while others who were stronger in faith boldly confessed Christ. The latter, the confessors, were led out of the city to the Boxers' idol worshipping temples. Here, after indescribable torture, cutting them open and pulling out their entrails and the like, they were finally beheaded or burnt to death. The martyrs' houses suffered the same fate as their owners. Churches and Orthodox institutions were also given over to the flames. All the church buildings (with the exception of the one in Hankow), the Sino-Russian Library and the print shop with its 30,000 wood-carved Chinese characters were set alight and burnt to ashes. The Russian missionaries managed to flee to Chien-Chin and then to Shanghai. Of the 700 Orthodox Chinese believers, 300 were martyred for their faith . Taking into account its low numbers, the Orthodox Church of China gave up more martyrs than the more populous heterodox Churches."
"St. Mitrophan was the first Orthodox Chinese priest. He was ordained by St. Nicholas of Japan and served the Orthodox mission for fifteen years. He sat among the ruins of the burnt-out Orthodox Mission, enveloped by the men, women and children of his flock, then they started to hit his chest with fists. His Presbytera (Matushka) Tatiana and his 23-year-old son, Isaiah, were slaughtered before his very eyes, while they cut off the nose, ears and toes of his younger son, John. Not only did the child martyr refuse to complain of protest, but miraculously he felt no pain.Of the 1,000 people that were in the Beijing parish, 222 received the crown of martyrdom and constituted the glorious sacrificial beginning of the 20th century, which would soon turn purple by the river of blood that flowed out of the vast expanses of Russia.
The executioners taunted him, calling him a "child of demons". He answered saying, "I am an Orthodox Christian and I believe in Christ, not in demons". After Father Mitrophan's execution, his future daughter-in-law, 19 year old fiancée of now-martyred Isaiah, arrived at the priest's house. She wanted to die together with the family of her betrothed. When the Boxers surrounded the house, Maria helped many of the faithful jump over garden walls. She faced her executioners with courage and reproached them for the unjust murder of so many innocent souls, who were not tried by any court. The executioners pierced her feet and wounded her hands, encouraging her to leave and be saved. Brave Maria answered boldly, "I was born here at the Church of the All-Holy Mother of God, I will die here, too." Then the Boxers executed her."
However, the small Church of the Chinese people proclaim through their martyrdom that Orthodoxy has no borders and is above race, nations, and languages. The Orthodox Church is the Church of all nations, people, languages, and stands before God to offer praise and worship.
"Of the 1,000 flock of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission about 300 have been lost. A few of them renounced the Faith, but most, numbered 222, became holy confessors and martyrs for Christ." (Pervye Christianskie Mucheniki iz Pravoslavnykh Kitaitsev. Za Tserkov, 19, 1936, p. 1-3)
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Strong reasoning
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Religion
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The White Lily of Stalingrad
Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak (1921-1943) was born in Moscow in the early days of the Soviet Union. She was fascinated by flight from a young age, and enrolled in a flying club at 14. She flew her first plane at 15 before heading to a military flight school. After graduating, Litvyak became a flight instructor. In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Litvyak immediately volunteered to join a fighter pilot unit. However, she was rejected based on “lack of experience”, even though she had already trained 45 other pilots! Meanwhile, Marina Raskova established an all-female fighter force, and Litvyak was accepted. In 1942, Litvyak flew her first combat missions. She was soon moved to a standard (male) air force unit. In the battle for Stalingrad, Litvyak scored her first two kills, setting her name in history as the first female fighter pilot to take down an enemy plane. She went on to run 66 combat missions, and logged 16 victories. In 1943, now promoted to junior lieutenant and awarded the Red Star, Litvyak was assigned to the okhotniki, “hunters”, experienced fighter pilots who were given permission to roam the skies on their own, and strike at will. Despite suffering multiple wounds, and recommended to go on medical leave, Litvyak refused. Shortly after, she went on her final mission, and did not return to base. Her whereabouts were unknown. She was either killed or taken captive – the latter possibility preventing her from being awarded the prestigious ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ award. Litvyak was only 22 years old. In 1979, after decades of searching, the remains of her plane and body were found. She had been buried by local villagers, having died from a head wound. In 1990, she was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, with a rank of senior lieutenant. Nonetheless, some claim that she survived, and either perished in a German prisoner camp, or lived out the rest of her life in secret, marrying and having children. Litvyak’s story has been featured in several fiction novels, and even a stage production. In the Soviet Union, she was affectionately called the “White Lily of Stalingrad”.
Words of the Week
Everything is by Divine Providence. If a leaf is turned over by a breeze, it is only because this has been specifically ordained by God to serve a particular function within the purpose of creation.
– Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov
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Moderate reasoning
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History
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Reviewed by Sophie Cooper
Tara McCarthy’s Respectability & Reformpresents an important and understudied perspective on the evolution of women’s activism in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, emphasising the particular role of Irish American women in the politics of reform through the interlinked lenses of Irish nationalism, labour, and suffrage. These are explored using local, national, and transnational contexts and therefore provide a useful addition to the study of American politics in addition to the Irish diaspora’s experiences abroad.
The histories of reform movements in the United States and the histories of Irish nationalism often undervalue the role played by Irish American women. Ely Janis’ book on the Ladies Land League (2015) and the work of on Gilded Age female reformers by scholars such as Janet E. Nolan, Maureen A. Flanagan, and Meredith Tax have sought to rectify this imbalance. McCarthy’s book continues this mission, linking the Irish American experience with the wider politics of reform, and highlighting the connections between labour activism, nationalism, and suffrage that led to a specific tradition of priorities and tactics engaged in by Irish American women. As recent work has shown, the Ladies Land League (LLL) of the 1880s was far from simply an auxiliary of the men’s branch, instead it was often more radical and brought the women involved into conflict with both their male counterparts and the Catholic Church’s hierarchy in Ireland and the United States. McCarthy argues that involvement in the LLL coloured the tactics and radicalism of future Irish American women’s activism, bringing Irishwomen into the public and political sphere for the first time and visibly impacting the evolution of Irish-American women’s activism over the next forty years.
McCarthy brings together moderate and radical activism across the themes of labour, suffrage, and nationalism, highlighting the varied experiences of Irish American women of different classes, ages, and geographies. While focusing on the northern states of the USA, and often drawing on the activities in cities like Chicago, Boston, and New York, McCarthy provides an array of examples to show the interconnectedness of these women. They relied on speaking tour networks, familial links (in the USA and in Britain and Ireland), and national organisations, in addition to newspapers. McCarthy also uses these networks to show the changing priorities of organisers with regard to ideas of respectability. While labour movement tactics and rousing speeches were useful to raise the profile of female suffrage at a state level, as chapter six explores, women who were used to appeal to working class voters were often dismissed when the fight moved from the local to the national. Cross-class cooperation was utilised, but long-term relationships between middle class reformers and working women were filled with tensions, a theme also explored in chapter two.
This book highlights high-profile women like nationalist and suffragist Delia Parnell and labour organiser Mother Jones but it also brings to life women like Margaret Foley who gave a speech on the importance of women’s suffrage to a group of nuns in 1919 and was received with rapturous thanks and excitement. Theresa Kelly whose sudden death after she had attended an Anti-Poverty Society meeting, banned by Archbishop Corrigan of New York, led to questions of ex-communication and the eventual dismissal of the parish priest who allowed her burial in consecrated land. The changing social mission of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy and how it interacted and often initially conflicted with women-led reform movements is a strong theme throughout the book. These stories, and these women from across class boundaries, are used to emphasise the multiple layers of Irish American women’s activism across the forty-year period covered by McCarthy’s book.
Organised across three sections on labour activism, Irish nationalism, and women’s suffrage, Respectability & Reformdoes suffer from a certain amount of repetition. While this is expected within any book which emphasises links and connections, it can occasionally lead to feelings of déjà vu. McCarthy’s main focus is on Irish Catholic lay activism and though the chapter on women’s suffrage does emphasise cross-religious cooperation, there seems to be a disconnect between Irish Catholic women’s activism across society and middle-class activism which assumes Protestantism and non-Irish heritage.
McCarthy has provided scholars of the Irish diaspora, women’s lives, and reform movements with an important piece of research. It appeals on a range of levels. It is clearly written and provides a useful overview to Irish American women’s history. As it is also out in paperback, I would recommend its use on undergraduate modules. For those of us who research Irish diasporic history, it presents new ideas and presents connections across a range of movements while also bringing in the specifically Irish influences of nationalist and labour organisations.
The overarching theme of this book was the agency of women, and the willingness to utilise a range of experiences to bring about reform across American and Irish society. It also pulled out the limited and caveated support that women activists received from their brothers in the labour and nationalist movements, and within the Catholic Church. Ideas of respectability were used to both support and hinder women’s reform activists, and they were frequently abandoned when activities were deemed to bring the Church or labour organisation into disrepute.
Just as today, the public voices of these organisations were supportive when women’s reform measures seemed to hold no threat to men’s status, when it didn’t undermine the authority of religious and market institutions, or when women paid lip service to their traditional roles in the home. However, women activists also played on these ideas of respect and respectability utilising the economic power of the purse to boycott, by emphasising their position as mother and wife to sway public opinion, to gently persuade their beaus to support certain efforts, and also through their rising numbers in the teaching profession to financially support themselves and gain access to positions of power.
Tara McCarthy brings together the traditions of labour activism and Irish nationalism to persuasively argue that these movements influenced each other, and those activists went on to join and influence the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. She raises new questions and contributes an important piece of work to the history of Irish and diasporic Irish women’s social influence.
Dr Sophie Cooper is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh. She completed her PhD on Irish diasporic identity in Melbourne and Chicago during the nineteenth century in 2017.
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Strong reasoning
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Politics
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If you were to search in Google with the query “what is tapioca” you’ll get the exact definition of what tapioca is.
The definition from your Google search states— a starchy substance in the form of hard white grains, obtained from cassava and used in cooking for puddings and other dishes.
Let’s take it a step further and answer this question, what is tapioca, in terms of bubble tea. And why it’s so important in any kind of boba beverage.
Like Google mentioned, tapioca pearls in boba or bubble tea is a starchy and chewy substance (absolutely delicious) extracted from cassava root. It is also known as Manihot Esculenta. The cassava root comes from the Plantae kingdom. And it is the third-largest source of carbohydrates that are grown around the equator or tropics.
If you’re interested, the first two largest sources of carbohydrates grown around this type of region is rice and maze.
What are the characteristics of cassava root?
The cassava root is generally brown and has a long narrow shape to it, almost like an oddly shaped banana. The texture of the cassava root on the outside is rough to the touch. Generally, it is white and sometimes yellowish inside. As for the actual flesh of the cassava root, it is quite smooth to the touch but firm.
Though lacking in sources of nutrients like protein, fats, and other nutrients, the cassava root is rich in starch. The richness in starch allows us, boba lovers, to enjoy those little black pearls in the bottom (or top) or our favorite bubble teas.
Fun fact, our favorite bubble tea is generally the classic black milk tea or Hong Kong milk tea. And sometimes we crave a good matcha milk tea. (We tend to like it more on the bitter side, although sweeter matcha milk teas are just as refreshing).
What does cassava root taste like?
Cassava root before it’s extracted to make boba pearls or tapioca balls, is either sweet or bitter. (Talk about a gamble for satisfying your taste buds).
Also, if you are someone looking to buy cassava root and create some boba pearls from scratch, you might want to be sure that you are NOT obtaining a species of cassava root that can be harmful.
Some cassava roots tend to have more cyanide elements to it than others. Without proper preparation, cyanide intoxication may be unknowingly experienced. The density of the cyanide in a cassava root may determine short term or long term effects on one’s self.
Just be careful and properly prepare your cassava root to make bubbles or boba pearls.
What are boba pearls made with?
Like we mentioned before, boba pearls are made with the extracted starch from cassava root.
Typically you can buy boba pearls in your local supermarket. All you’d have to really do is boil them until you have the right consistency and texture. Some people or boba shops boil their boba too much or too little. This leaves the boba to crumble in undesirable pieces in your mouth after each sip.
How to make boba pearls at home
It’s simple. Go out to your local supermarket and find some boba pearls. If you can’t find small packages of boba pearls from your local supermarket, you may have to take a visit to that Asian supermarket across the street. (You can probably buy some boba or bubble tea along the way too).
What’s next when you have your package of boba pearls ready to go? Begin boiling!
Be sure to boil your store-bought boba pearls with enough time so that the pearls are both soft and have a great chewy texture to it. (If you need to chew your boba more than 15 times, it might be too chewy).
Boiling a store-bought boba for about 10-15 minutes is good enough. A good tip is to let your cooked boba pearls sit for the same time it is boiled before serving. You can ensure a great texture for boba pearls by following the instructions on the back of boba packages too.
Adding the brown sugar or caramel taste
When creating the delicious taste for boba, you can typically prepare any simple syrup you’d like. But there are better ways.
Instead of simple syrup, make your boba pearls more delicious with brown sugar or caramel. Brown sugar or caramel in your bubble tea will add depth in flavor than regularly cooked boba pearls. All you’ll need is a saucepan big enough for your cooked boba.
To start, add milk and brown sugar together bringing it to a boil. Once you reach a boiling point, slowly simmer until you have a consistency you like. You can even add some sweetened condensed milk to this too!
Once you have the consistency you’d like, begin to mix your cooled boba in and stir often. Completely cover all boba pearls in the brown sugar bath and once you believe you’re done, it’s ready to serve once cooled.
Grab your base for milk tea and pour those lovely boba pearls you cooked for a refreshing bubble tea.
Talk about creating the best boba at home for yourself, friends, or family. (Usually, it’s for ourselves though, we can’t help it). If you enjoyed reading this article, be sure to comment on what you learned from this below. We’d love to hear what you boba connoisseurs have to say.
And remember, talk about boba, duh!
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| 0.927003 | 1,218 | 2.5625 | 3 | 1.506989 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Food & Dining
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Ever have one of those extremely long sentences that became an absolute monster? Let's face it, monster sentences eat paper, they look and sound unprofessional, and sometimes when reading one, it's hard to catch some oxygen.
While some of us love writing long sentences, sometimes wordiness can carry us into dangerous waters. In these dangerous waters, the monster sentence is lurking, just waiting to take a bite out of our writing. Don't let the monster sentence kill your writing style!
Here's an example: The dog ran quickly down the hill to chase the cat the cat then became distracted by a bird the bird was too distracted by a worm to notice the cat stalking it even though the cat was being chased by the dog.
Whew! That was a beast, right? Let's pick that sentence apart and see what can be tamed.
Revision: The dog ran quickly down the hill to chase the cat. The cat then became distracted by a bird. The bird was too distracted by a worm to notice the cat stalking it, even though the cat was being chased by the dog.
That really cuts to the chase. We want to know what the dog, cat, and bird were doing, but what we really want to do is make the sentence bearable for the readers. With the insertion of commas and periods, reading this story can be a lot easier and precise. Without the proper punctuation, this monster wreaks havoc, like Godzilla in Tokyo.
Don't be afraid to use semi-colons; they can help tame the beast. Semi-colons bind two related thoughts together, while keeping the whole sentence structure from being a writing killer.
Another example taken from my personal movie review: The explanation I have for this analysis is that the Vicomte de Chagny character lacks depth and is very one-dimensional compared to the Phantom he lacks that key element of mystery that makes the Phantom irresistible.
In this sentence, the writer is talking about two different subjects that are closely related. Between, "Phantom he," there should be some sort of pause. The sentence is two sentences thrown into one sentence altogether. Therefore, a comma won't be enough. Let's try that with a semi-colon.
Revision: The explanation I have for this analysis is that the Vicomte de Chagny character lacks depth and is very one-dimensional compared to the Phantom; he lacks that key element of mystery that makes the Phantom irresistible.
There is a pause. The semi-colon makes it known that this is, in fact, two separate, closely-related sentences. They are so similar in topic that they can be inserted in the same sentence together.
Long sentences can make your writing flow smoothly. The shorter the sentence, the more choppy and broken up the writing sounds.
When you feel like the monster sentence is dragging you to its lair for supper, stop and take a look at it; you may be missing some punctuation. In conclusion, don't be afraid of the monster sentence. With some punctuation and finesse, the monster sentence will become a gentle beast that will be your best friend forever.
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| 0.965467 | 648 | 2.921875 | 3 | 2.257147 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Literature
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While Christian community as a whole is undergoing difficult situations in the Indian context, it is the responsibility of the Church to raise its voice and bring the issues before the civil authorities of our country. As active participants of the religion of love and peace, the Christians of India must raise their voice against the injustices and marginalizing tendencies of the fundamentalist communities toward the minorities. At this critical juncture, an apology that highlights the truth of the Bible has to be taken up with seriousness. Christ is the “fulfillment” of the entire religious and philosophical systems, and He recapitulates “everything and all” for a radical transformation. This principle must remain at the heart of our teachings, preaching, missions, exegeses, and living. Justin Martyr had taken up this “pinnacle-formula” in order to develop his philosophical, apologetical and theological exercises.
The Apostolic Fathers are the earliest Christian writers outside of the New Testament, belonging to what is called the ‘sub-apostolic age'. Their writings form a bridge between the New Testament and the Apologists who wrote later in the second century, the most noteworthy being Justin Martyr. They help us to understand the transition from the apostolic church of the first century to the Catholic Church of the end of the second century, as described by Irenaeus.
Justin Martyr is generally regarded as the first outstanding apologist of the second century. With him Christianity moved from competition with the popular Hellenistic mystery cults, which attracted chiefly persons of limited education and culture, to competition to philosophies that appealed to persons of higher education and culture. In his apologies he presented Christianity as “the true philosophy” uniting the wisdom of both Jews and Gentiles.
Among the Fathers of the second century Justin's life is the best known, and from the most authentic documents. In both "Apologies" and in his "Dialogue" he gives many personal details, e.g. about his studies in philosophy and his conversion; they are not, however, an autobiography, but are partly idealized, and it is necessary to distinguish in them between poetry and truth; they furnish us however with several precious and reliable clues. For his martyrdom we have documents of undisputed authority. In the first line of his "Apology" he calls himself "Justin, the son of Priscos, son of Baccheios, of Flavia Neapolis, in Palestinian Syria". If his own statement is authentic, then he was born around 100 (both his birth and death dates are approximate) at Flavia Neapolis (ancient Shechem, modern Nablus) in Samaria (i.e., the middle portion of Israel, between Galilee and Judea) of pagan Greek parents. Flavia Neapolis, his native town, was founded by Vespasian (A.D. 72). Its inhabitants were all, or for the most part, pagans.
Justin was brought up with a good education in rhetoric, poetry, and history. He studied various schools of philosophy in Alexandria and Ephesus, joining himself first to Stoicism, then Pythagoreanism, then Platonism, looking for answers to his questions. While at Ephesus, he was impressed by the steadfastness of the Christian martyrs, and by the personality of an aged Christian man whom he met by chance while walking on the seashore. This man spoke to him about Jesus as the fulfillment of the promises made through the Jewish prophets. Justin was overwhelmed. "Straightway a flame was kindled in my soul," he writes, "and a love of the prophets and those who are friends of Christ possessed me."
Justin became a Christian, but he continued to wear the cloak that was the characteristic uniform of a professional teacher of philosophy. It seems that St. Justin had property, studied philosophy, converted to Christianity, and devoted the rest of his life to teaching what he considered the true philosophy, still wearing his philosopher's gown to indicate that he had attained the truth. He engaged in debates and disputations with non-Christians of all varieties, pagans, Jews, and heretics. After his conversion, he opened a school of Christian philosophy and accepted students, first at Ephesus and then later at Rome, where he openly and fearlessly engaged in apologetic controversy until his martyrdom about 165. He probably traveled widely and ultimately settled in Rome as a Christian teacher.
The names of the father and grandfather of Justin suggest a pagan origin, and he speaks of himself as uncircumcised. He received a good education in philosophy, an account of which he gives us at the beginning of his "Dialogue with Trypho, A Jew"; he placed himself first under a Stoic, but after some time found that he had learned nothing about God and that in fact his master had nothing to teach him on the subject. A Peripatetic whom he then found welcomed him at first but afterwards demanded a fee from him; this proved that he was not a philosopher. A Pythagorean refused to teach him anything until he should have learned music, astronomy, and geometry. Finally a Platonist arrived on the scene and for some time delighted Justin. His conversion to Christianity had changed his thought-world as a whole, and he found in Christianity the fulfillment of his previous philosophical comprehension.
Although Justin was the first prolific Christian author, only three of his writings are extant in complete form. Works that have perished include the following treatises: (1) “Discourse to the Greeks” (a discussion with Greek philosophers on the character of their gods); (2) “Hortatory Address to the Greeks”; (3) a treatise “On the Sovereignty of God”, in which he makes use of pagan authorities as well as Christian; (4) “Psaltes”; and (5) a treatise “On the Soul”. The works that survive in their entirety are: “1 Apology”, “2 Apology”, and “Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew”. The second Apology is often characterized as an appendix to the first, but it seems to have been occasioned by different circumstances and probably was written several years later.
The “Dialogue” is a later work than the “First Apology”; the date of composition of the latter, from the fact that it was addressed to Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus, must fall between 147 and 161. What is designated as the Second Apology was written as a supplement to the first, on account of certain proceedings which had in the meantime taken place in Rome before Lollius Urbicus as prefect of the city, which must have been between 150 and 157.
In 1 Apology, addressed around AD 150 to the emperor Antoninus Pius, to the emperor's sons, to the Senate and to the Roman people as a whole, Justin weaves together a refutation of stock pagan charges against Christians and a positive case for Christianity as the true religion. He calls for a halt to punishment of Christians for the name alone and demands an impartial investigation of the common charges of atheism, immorality, treason, social aloofness, and theological absurdity. Justin holds that pagan sources reveal ample analogies to Christian teachings on the Resurrection, the virgin birth, the life and death of Jesus, and Christ's Sonship.
The 1 Apology can be divided into three main divisions. The first twenty Chapters deal with the proper relationship between the authorities of the State and Christians; Chapters 21 to 60 seek to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity over paganism; and Chapters 61-68 offer explanations of Christian practices. At a time when the Christian religion was grossly misunderstood, such explanations were significant features of the Christian apology. Justin Martyr first asks the rulers of the state for justice, for fair treatment to Christians, based upon facts, not prejudice. As citizens, Christians can rightly be called upon to give an account of their life and doctrine; they in turn can expect to be judged in accordance with philosophy and piety, not by force and tyranny. To punish Christians simply because they call themselves Christians, without showing they have done evil is, says Justin, to act unjustly.
He further says: Christians do not wish to live by lying; they desire to make their abode with God, the Father and Creator of all, and they make haste to confess their faith in the belief that the righteous will be rewarded, and that the wicked will be assigned to eternal torment. Christians do not worship idols made with human hands, Justin asserts; such practice is both stupid and disrespectful to God, who is of ineffable glory and form. Christians more than all other men, are good citizens and allies in fostering peace, since they believe that it is impossible for the wicked to hide from God, and that each man receives eternal punishment or salvation according to the merits of his actions.
As citizens Christians have been instructed by their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to pay their taxes to the officials of the state. Christianity is indeed superior to pagan religion; for what Christians believe, they learned from Christ and the Prophets who spoke the truth. Jesus alone is properly the Son of God, since He alone is the first begotten of the Father, and having become man by His will, He taught Christians their doctrines for the conversion and restoration of mankind.
In 2 Apology, a very brief work addressed to the Roman Senate. It consists of fifteen short chapters written in protest against the unjust execution of three Christians by Urbicus, the prefect of Rome, solely because they dared to confess that they were Christians. Justin reports that Christians are sarcastically asked why they do not kill themselves and go immediately to God, thereby saving the state the trouble. Why do they confess to being Christians? The answer is simply that man is not the master of his own life. God created the world for the sake of mankind; God is pleased with those who follow His perfections and are displeased with evil. If Christians were to commit suicide, no one would be instructed in the divine doctrines, and they would be acting in opposition to the will of God. Christians confess their faith on being interrogated because they have done no wrong and they believe that it is wicked to die.
The further question as to why God permits Christians to be persecuted when He has the power to help them is answerable in terms of man's freewill and in terms of the hatred of demons that are permitted to persuade men to do evil. Justin concludes by suggesting that a wise ruler will for his own sake judge the case of the Christian with justice, lest he condemn himself in the eyes of God by convicting the innocent.
In Dialogue with Trypho, Justin ostensibly reports a debate in Ephesus between himself and a Jew named Trypho, a recent refugee from Palestine during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135). Some scholars have argued that the Dialogue, in which Justin makes skillful use of Jewish arguments based on scripture, was not an apology to Judaism per se but rather was addressed to gentiles who cited Jewish objections to Christian claims. It has also been argued that the Dialogue was designed as a treatise to prop up the faith of wavering Christians.
The Dialog With Trypho the Jew is an account of a dialog between Justin and a Jewish rabbi named Trypho(n) (probably a real conversation with a real rabbi, although it may be suspected that Justin in editing it later gave himself a few good lines that he wished he had thought of at the time), whom he met while promenading at Ephesus shortly after the sack of Jerusalem in 135. Trypho had fled from Israel, and the two men talked about the Jewish people and their place in history, and then about Jesus and whether he was the promised Messiah. A principal question is whether the Christian belief in the deity of Christ can be reconciled with the uncompromising monotheism of the Scriptures. The dialogue is a valuable source of information about early Christian thought concerning Judaism and the relation between Israel and the Church as communities having a covenant relation with God.
Toward the end of the dialog, Trypho asks, "Suppose that I were to become a Christian. Would I be required to give up keeping kosher and other parts of the Jewish law?" Justin replies: "Christians are not agreed on this. Some would say that you must give them up. Others, such as myself, would say that it would be quite all right for you, as a Jewish convert to Christianity, to keep kosher and otherwise observe the Law of Moses, provided that you did not try to compel other converts to do likewise, and provided that you clearly understand that keeping kosher will not save you. It is only Christ who saves you." They finally part friends, with Trypho saying, "You have given me food for thought. I must consider this further."
Justin was resolutely opposed to paganism and had no time for syncretism. He was very critical of Greek philosophy in places. But, at the same time, he portrayed Christ not as a complete outsider but as the fulfillment of the best in Greek thought. He did this by exploiting the Greek concept of the Logos or Word in which all men participate. He also held that Plato and other philosophers had borrowed some of their ideas from the Old Testament.
Justin anchored his Christian faith in his Greek heritage. When he became a Christian he did not renounce philosophy, he became a better philosopher, a true philosopher. He said that the relationship between the philosophers and Christ is that between the incomplete and the complete, between the imperfect and the perfect. So while Justin was positive toward his Greek past, he was not bound by it. The Word gave understanding to the philosophers, it is true, but now the Word himself has appeared in Christ.
The imperfect must be tested and corrected and completed by the perfect. Justin repeatedly aligned himself with Socrates, who like the early Christians was called an atheist because he rejected the pagan gods and suffered for his belief. But he said that Christ is vastly superior to Socrates. ‘For no one trusted in Socrates, so as to die for this doctrine. But in Christ… not only have philosophers and scholars believed, but also artisans and entirely uneducated people have despised glory, fear and death'. In due course Justin himself demonstrated the Christian's willingness to die for this faith. In short, Justin's apologetical approach in the face of religious persecution, majority-minority clashes, and heretical and pagan philosophical proliferation is a paradigm for the Christian community in the global context, particularly in the present day Indian scenario.
1. Hinson, E. Glenn. “Justin Martyr”. The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 8. Ed. Mircea Eliade. New York: McMillan, 1987: 220-223.
2. Lane, Tony. The Lion Concise Book of Christian Thought. Sydney: A Lion Book, 1984.
3. Magill, Frank N. Ed. Masterpieces of Christian Literature: In Summary Form. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1963.
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Strong reasoning
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Religion
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The talk compares and contrasts three kinds of writing — loosely classified according to the nature of the readers and the content communicated.
A broad difference is easily identified by us between fiction and non-fiction. Several further classifications are possible for non-fiction, which are primarily driven by the nature of the readers.
While a few further classification is possible in fiction they are done more by form of the content than by the nature of the readers. Here lies an important difference, which has made us often assume wrongly that literary fiction is just stories that anyone can understand, appreciate and pass judgments on while science is tough and is to be left with scientists. Both generalisations are mired in presumptions of expertise and its un-necessity. To an extent these presumptions stem primarily from the associated writing.
Science writing conveys an objective idea to the reader. The writing depends on the appropriateness of the reader. Think of the same idea being conveyed by the same writer as a research paper, a monograph, a text-book chapter, lecture notes, a popular magazine or newspaper article.
On the other hand, Art — literature or fiction in our context — conveys feelings to the reader. As Tolstoy put it, Art (fiction) is an instrument that conveys the feelings of the writer to the reader — hopefully intact. However, unlike in science-writing, in fiction there is no such diversity of writing tuned for the specificity of the reader. Fiction writing doesn’t differentiate the reader on her expertise but perhaps only on her taste for types. Here lies the rub that allows for a third class of people apart from the writer and the reader — the art critic.
A critic is one who attempted to learn an art and had failed. Only a dull society requires a critic, observed Tolstoy in his What is Art. Giving allowance, I could agree with the perspective that the role of the critic is an objective mirror for the artist and an educative lens for the patron or listener.
That brings us to a classification of writing that is non-fiction but done with subject expertise. The writings of say, a political columnist, a cookery expert, an art critic, fall under this classification. Here again the writing need not be tuned according to the needs of the reader. The only assumption required on the part of the writer is that the reader is interested in following the text and diligent enough to overcome her contextual lacuna if necessary with some reasonable effort.
Specific rules and training can be provided to deliver the above form of writings and are done so in innumerable books and articles and associated talks. While Science-writing specifies and builds, art-writing expands and ripples — with the exception of poetry, which compresses but reflects. Emphasis on skills to be developed — language free of clutter and verbiage, narration that includes the particulars and the universals, story telling that conveys ideas from a personal vantage, providing visualisation and analogies to grasp ideas and so on — could be taught in a session or semester. But what is to be remembered at the end or even at the beginning of such writing workshops is that they could only teach the craft but not the associated art or science.
I am providing below links to few sample texts from my writings in all three categories Science, Non-fiction and Fiction, for analysis in the lecture. Some of these shall be discussed in the lecture. Fiction, from my novel writing experience, will only be briefly discussed as I write in my mother tongue while the language for the talk is primarily English.
- Science Writing
- Biscuit Dunking https://arunn.me/biscuit-dunking
- Objectives of Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer https://arunn.me/objectives-of-thermodynamics-and-heat-transfer
- Why do Elephants have Big Ear Flaps (without equations version) https://arunn.me/why-do-elephants-have-big-ear-flaps
- Why do Elephants have Big Ear Flaps (with equations version) https://srirangamarunn.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/why-do-elephants-have-big-ear.pdf
- Cell Phones and Sparrows https://arunn.me/cell-phones-and-sparrows
- More such content https://arunn.me/notes
- Non-fiction — Music Articles, Reviews and re-reviews
- Academy Musings https://arunn.me/academy-musings
- Academy, the house of bards — The Hindu version (Dec 14, 2012) https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/music/Academy-the-house-of-bards/article12374009.ece
- Of Concert Lists and Rasikas' Quirks — The Hindu version (Dec, 2011) https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/music/of-concert-lists-and-rasikas-quirks/article2745095.ece
- 2012 Madras Music Season — Trichur Brothers Music Concert Review https://arunn.me/2012-madras-music-season-trichur-brothers | Brothers in harmony – the Hindu version https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/chen-arts/chen-music/brothers-in-harmony/article4226784.ece
- Review of a music review: SVK Reviews a Thermodynamics Lecture https://arunn.me/svk-reviews-a-thermodynamics-lecture
- Review of a music review: SVK and the Coquettish Swing https://arunn.me/svk-and-the-coquettish-swing
- Fiction — Novels and Stories (in Tamil language)
- America Desi Novel Sample from Chapter 1 – https://arunn.me/2016/04/14/amerikka-desi-ch-1-part-1/ | another sample – Thiruvengadachari https://arunn.me/2018/07/05/thiruvengadachari/
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Strong reasoning
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Literature
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Christensen’s theory: from integrated approaches to modular approaches
The Trends of Customized, Standardized, Modularity and Platform in Robots
Wilmer Zhou | IHS Markit
Christensen wrote in his book “The Innovator's Dilemma”: During the early stages of an industry, when the functionality and reliability of a product isn’t good enough, companies must compete by making better products. A proprietary and interdependent solution is the right solution to knit all the pieces together in an optimized way to achieve the best performance.
Once the technology becomes matured and good enough, industry standards emerge. That leads to the standardization of components and interfaces, which make companies specialize on the overall system, and the architecture of products and components become modular. The successful companies must compete to be flexible, simplicity, convenience, low cost, responsive and fast time to market. These companies are active to use modular components and open systems.
This theory has been proved in personal computer, MP3 players, cellphone, aircrafts, medical devices and software. This helps explain why IBM, General Motors, Apple Computer, RCA, Xerox and AT&T, as the most integrated firms during the not-good-enough era of their industries’ histories, became dominant competitors.
Will Robots follow Christensen’s theory?
The industrial robots and service robots are in the different development stages. Traditional industrial robots are mature and good enough to the mass production of iPhone and Volkswagen automobile. The traditional industrial robots are perfect for the mass production because they are highly efficient, accurate, power saving and reliable. These industrial robots can also be easily integrated to the whole manufacturing product lines as a standardized “Component”. To the industrial robots companies, the best way is to use modular approaches to make robots better, faster, cheaper, more efficient, and more accurate.
On the other hand, most of the service robots are in the early stages. The functionality and reliability of these robots aren’t good enough. Most of the service robots are working in the unstructured environments much more complex and dynamic than the factories, such as agricultural, transportation, construction, energy, retail, hotel & restaurant. These service robots should offer the flexibility and agility to remain productive and improve quality while adapting to meet increasingly diverse end user needs. The proprietary and interdependent solution is popular in the service robots industry.
From Customized to Standardized
For the industrial robots, the architecture of the robot is mature. These key components in industrial robots are already standardized. You can easily find standardized key components off the shelf, such as robot controller, servo drives, servo motors, gearbox, gripping systems and teach pendant.
For the service robots, a large portion of the professional service robots are customized “end-to-end solutions” according to users’ specific requirements. The professional service robot companies have to cooperate with their customers very closely, to develop customized solutions, for dedicated applications. These customized solutions are targeted to achieve high performance but very expensive. Some service robots companies try to build their own key components to make better performance robots. For instance, Boston Dynamic believes the customized unique hydraulic systems are much better than the standardized electric motors solutions. Almost every version of Boston Dynamic’s robots is based on a customized hydraulic system.
From the components supplier point view, once the dedicated robot market grows big enough, the component suppliers have the incentive to turn the customized components into standardized components.
From Standardized to Modularity
With the components being standardized, some automation suppliers are trying to produce modules, such as the modules integrating motors and drives, the modules integrating motors and gearbox, and the module integrating controllers and drives. These modules are not specific for industrial robots but also for other machines. The reason is that the industrial robots market is too small (only 252k industrial robots shipped worldwide in 2015) for an independent component supplier to build modules only for robot companies. In order to achieve high performance, some robot companies try to build their own module. For instance, Staubli has integrated motor and gearbox into a module, which is compact, accurate and efficiency.
Otherwise, the consumer drones market, with 2.5 million unit shipment in 2015, was big enough for the independent component companies to provide standardized products, such as BLDC motors and controller ICs for drone applications. Moreover, the 2.5 million unit shipment in 2015 is also big and profitable enough for the components companies to produce modules, such as Auto Pilot modules and gimbal modules for drones.
From Modularity to Platform
Normally, if the modules have some standardized interfaces and can be easily transplanted to other system, we call these modules as platforms. The concept of platform is very popular in robot industry. The core values of platforms are: easy to integrated to other systems, easy to reuse, be compatible to other companies’ products. For instance, some system integrators showcase a solution with Universal Robot collaborative robot mounted on Adept mobile platform.
There are several levels of platforms in the robot architecture hierarchy: low level platforms including sensors platform, motion controls platform, Human Machine interface platform; middle level platforms including ROS, mobile platforms, computing platforms and middleware platforms. The robots themselves also can be called robot platforms if they can be reused. For instance, LittleDog and ATLAS from Boston Dynamic are used as a testbed for other institutions. Aldebaran NAO is also used as a humanoid robotics platform for education purposes and football match worldwide. In the high level, the cloud platform, big data platform and artificial intelligence platform are more general and are easy to be integrated to other systems, such as IBM Watson integrated in manufacturing system, financial system, and medical systems.
There are two ways for robots companies build their business: penetrating vertically to specific application and expanding horizontally to broad applications. The robots platforms are helpful for robots to expand its territory. With the developments of various kinds of hardware and software platforms, the robots will be deployed in comprehensive industry and applications. For example, drone is a typical general platform for various applications. If you put a pesticide sprayer on a drone, the drone can used in agriculture. If you install a camera on a drone, the drones can be used in media and photograph. With the advantages of Auto Pilot platforms, DJI grabbed the opportunities and successfully switched positioning from the model-plane market to the aerial photography drone market, and then from consumer drones to other professional sectors, such as agricultural and security.
Overall speaking, when robots become manure, the architecture of robots will be structured, the component and module interface will be well defined, and various kinds of platforms will create more scaling up and spreading innovations.
Author Brief Introduction:
Wilmer Zhou is the Senior Analyst for Manufacturing Technology at IHS Technology https://technology.ihs.com/ . He has over eight years of experience covering subjects that include smart manufacturing, industrial robotics, service robots, machinery production, motion controls, motors and motor drives,
Before joining IHS, Wilmer was a product marketing manager in the electronics industry. Wilmer holds a BS in Mechatronic Engineering from the University of Electronic Science & Technology of China, and MBA master degree from Shanghai JiaoTong University.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Tools of the Trade
Traditionally, poems had a specific rhythm and rhyme, but modern poetry such as free verse doesn't have regular beat, rhyme, or line length. Before you start your poems, let's review the different tools you have to work with: poetic elements and figures of speech. Pick and choose from these elements to create the poem that expresses your soul.
Iambic pentameter is a rhythm scheme with five accents in each line.
Use rhyme to create a musical sound, meaning, and structure in your poems.
As with any other skill worth knowing, poetry has its own lingo. Here are some of the most commonly used terms:
- Blank verse. Unrhymed poetry. Many English poets wrote in blank verse because it captures the natural rhythm of speech. Now, you can, too.
- Couplet. Two related lines of poetry, which often rhyme.
- Foot. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
- Free verse. Poetry without a regular pattern of rhyme and meter.
- Meter. The beat or rhythm in a poem, created by a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. The most common meter in English poetry is iambic pentameter.
- Refrain. A line or a group of lines that are repeated at the end of a poem. Refrains serve to reinforce the main point and create musical effects.
- Rhyme. The repeated use of identical or nearly identical sounds. End rhyme occurs when words at the end of lines of poetry have the same sound. Internal rhyme occurs when words within a sentence share the same sound, as in “Each narrow cell in which we dwell.”
- Rhythm. The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that create a beat, as in music. The meter of a poem is its rhythm.
- Stanza. A group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph in an essay.
Yes, I know I packed a lot in here, but let's just take it slow. First, read the list over a few more times. Then look back at some of the poems I've included in this section, some of your own favorites, and some you've written yourself. See how many of the elements listed here you can find in the poems. Finally, try using some of these elements when you write your own poems.
Figures of Speech
Figurative language, words and expressions not meant to be taken literally, uses words in fresh, new ways to appeal to the imagination. Figures of speech include alliteration, hyperbole, image, metaphor, onomatopoeia, and simile. Let's look at them now:
- Alliteration. The repetition of initial consonant sounds in several words in a sentence or line of poetry. Use alliteration to create musical effects, link related ideas, stress certain words, or mimic specific sounds.
- Hyperbole. An exaggeration used for a literary effect such as emphasis, drama, or humor. Here is an example: “I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse.”
- Image. A word that appeals to one or more of our five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, or smell.
- Metaphor. A comparison between two unlike things, without the words “like” or “as.” “My heart is a singing bird” is a metaphor.
- Onomatopoeia. The use of words to imitate the sounds they describe, as in crack, hiss, and buzz.
- Simile. A comparison between two unlike things, using the words “like” or “as” to make the comparison, as in “A dream put off dries up like a raisin in the sun.”
Remember that figures of speech are usually appropriate in any of the four kinds of writing. The right figure of speech can enhance everything you write—not just poetry.
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Well © 2000 by Laurie Rozakis, Ph.D.. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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Moderate reasoning
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Literature
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By Sukanya Sharma
‘People with autism are anti-social
People with autism are stupid’
These are some common myths about autism, Radha Iyer, a parent of a 9 year old with Autism Spectrum Disorder tells The Health Collective. While some people feel that children on the spectrum are incapable of living an independent life, she knows of children who travel independently, and others who grow up to pursue advanced studies, even work at “mainstream” firms. The fact is — even in urban India today — there are several myths about the condition.
“One myth I would like to bust about autism is that children with autism are also intellectually challenged. This isn’t true. These children may have some exceptionally good skills in certain domains. Some may be very good with calculations for instance,” says Kaneenica Ninawe, a clinical psychologist working in King Edward’s Memorial Hospital who has worked with children on the autism spectrum.
Some people feel that children with autism are violent. As Iyer explains, Younger children especially “face a lot of sensory issues. (They are) disturbed by loud noises, crowds, light…Some react by jumping around and clapping around, which may seem violent.”
AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER IN INDIA
In India, at least one in 89 children aged between two and nine years have been diagnosed with autism, according to a Hindustan Times report last year. To quote from the HT story, “An extrapolation of the data on 2011 census would mean that as many as 2.2 million children and 13 million people in the country live with the condition.”
WHAT IS AUTISM?
Autism Spectrum Disorder is used to describe a development disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact. There are challenges with social skills, speech and non-verbal communication, and also certain unique strengths and differences.
As Ninawe tells The Health Collective, “Parents need to be made aware of the signs and symptoms of the disease.
For instance, children with autism may:
Have speech difficulties
(*Defined as a restriction in range or intensity of display of feelings on the Encyclopedia of Mind Disorders; can include difficulty processing communication or instructions)
Limited or no eye contact
Prefer playing alone
Get upset by minor changes in environment
Perform repetitive behaviour like flapping, rocking or spinning, repeating certain words or phrases again and again
Refer to themselves in the third person
“If such signs are noticed parents, need to get the child assessed from trained medical professionals as soon as possible for early detection. One needs to understand that this condition is not like other physical illnesses that will be cured. However such individuals can definitely learn to become functional,” Ninawe adds.
Children on the spectrum are sometimes described as in living in a world of their own, and it becomes the job of the caregiver/parent to try to bridge that gap.
Iyer, the mother of 9 year old Kartik, tells The Health Collective,
“We need to be aware of the needs and challenges of the child. And we also have to slowly push him out of the comfort zone. Parents need to understand that these kids need ample amount of time and space to get comfortable with their environment, and therefore patience is the key. Also, the care should start with zero expectation, as the child may feel pressurised otherwise.”
Also important to highlight is the fact that Autism Spectrum Disorder doesn’t mean the will to communicate or interact is zero; there are those on the spectrum who are willing to be social, but don’t know the approach to communicate.
IMPORTANCE OF EARLY INTERVENTION
Early intervention is vital to understanding ASD and how to make the environment more comfortable for the child. It forms a base to help children follow and process instructions or communication better.
ALSO READ: MENTAL HEALTH AND INDIAN POP CULTURE
Parents also have to be watchful of the interests of the child. Assuming that their child is limited to taking up only a certain type of job is equal to limiting choices for them. Let kids explore their environment, and choose their own area of interest.
Iyer, who volunteers with the Forum for Autism, tells The Health Collective that that people with autism have varied abilities — some do very well in the fields of art and music. She adds, that some companies also employ people with autism as part of their “diversity hiring” process.**
ADVISORY FOR PARENTS:
It’s challenging but aim to educate yourselves and update yourselves every day; read, meet other parents/caregivers, speak to professionals, attend support group meetings
Start with zero expectations. Taking care of a child on the spectrum can get enormously challenging but one needs to keep working on goals and not get disappointed by failures
It is important to have a right team of therapists who help you in this journey of growth. It is important to build a bridge of trust and understanding between the parent and the therapist
It is also important to take care of your own mental health. Speak to other parents, share stories of growth and failure. Support groups are a great way to communicate and also give some perspective. Know that you are not alone
Encourage others to accept your child the way s/he is. Help remove pressure on yourself and your children
How can we change the way people perceive Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Conversation, conversation, conversation.
“The more open you are about your child and the challenges he faces, the easier it is to get help. We need to let go of the ‘what will they say/think’ attitude. I’ve come to realise that there will always be someone who is ready to help if you are ready to ask,” Iyer says.
Also, we have to start by making the local ecosystem as supportive as possible; which will only start by conversation. In Iyer’s neighbourhood, people who are aware about the challenges of her child come up to help him.
“They include my child in social activities, some make small talk with him, and they are sensitive to the condition – taking baby steps at home, around your local environment helps a lot.”
Views expressed are personal. If you want to share your journey with us, do get in touch via comments or email; tweet us your feedback @healthcollectif.
(**This comment was updated on April 3, for clarity and to better convey what the interviewee said, and include “diversity hiring”. The original statement was: Iyer, who volunteers with the Forum for Autism, tells The Health Collective about the various jobs that children with Autism have taken up: From being artists, to musicians, to mainstream employees at JP Morgan and Sachs, to pursuing advanced studies in vocational training, these kids have explored it all, thanks to parents who provided them with a safe environment to grow.)
Disclaimer: Material on The Health Collective cannot substitute for expert advice from a trained professional
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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1. Darkwater Record (2003); 2. Off Minor (2004); 3. Nutjuitok (Polar Star) (2012)
Was Beethoven black? Anecdotes about the German composer’s “dark” skin, and an apocryphal genealogy from the 1940s that traced him to the Moors, have kept this myth buzzing into this century. And it has prompted the multimedia artist Terry Adkins, 59, a professor of fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania, to create a group of sound sculptures called Black Beethoven, now on exhibition through March 24 at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art.
Inspired by Adkins’s “forward-looking visions” of American civil rights leaders, martyrs, and musicians, the show succeeds because it makes the viewer wonder, can you see—or hear—a person’s race through his or her art? For those willing to consider the intriguing possibility, the exhibition is worth the short trip to Northwestern’s art museum.
The cornerstone of the entire collection is Off Minor, a music box–like instrument that Adkins invented and normally uses in live concerts. But Off Minor will sit mute during the exhibition; visitors will have to imagine what kind of strangely beautiful sounds it may make—the way Beethoven had to use his imagination as he continued to write music while going deaf. This gap of sensual experience provokes the questions: How do we know the truth about Beethoven’s race unless someone tells us? Can we hear blackness in his works?
Adkins’s strategy mirrors Toni Morrison’s effort to label Bill Clinton as the first black president: It’s thoughtful fiction intended to challenge perception. “I believe in the power of creative imagination above all things,” says Adkins, who, for more than 30 years, has channeled past revolutionaries across politics, art, and music to create his abstract pieces (Jimi Hendrix, blues singer Bessie Smith, and the abolitionist John Brown are among his inspirations). He chooses historical characters “based on their unheralded relevance to today,” he says, “applying their vision to today’s ills and injustices.”
One example: Darkwater Record, named for W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1920 autobiography, is a collection of tape recorders—sans speakers—silently playing Du Bois’s 1960 speech based on his essay “Socialism and the American Negro.” A bust of Mao sits atop them, recalling the Chinese dictator’s co-opting of Du Bois’s socialism. (Mao declared Du Bois’s birthday a national holiday in China.)
As for Beethoven, Adkins says he is intrigued by both the composer’s deafness and the debate around his race, but he doesn’t intend to settle the question of Beethoven’s race. “I hope to generate a sense of seeking in the audience,” he says. “You can then fill in the gaps and participate in history in your own way.”
GO Terry Adkins: Recital runs through March 24 at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art in Evanston. For info, blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
Photography: (1) Terry Adkins, Darkwater Record (from Darkwater), 2003-08, porcelain, cassette tape recorders with “Socialism And The American Negro” speech by W. E. B. Du Bois. courtesy of artist; (2) courtesy of artist; (3) Installation View, Terry Adkins: Recital, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, 2012
4 days ago
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Strong reasoning
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Art & Design
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By Michael Schirber
for Astrobiology Magazine
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Dec 16, 2008
What lies beneath Europa's icy crust? Richard Greenberg has been pondering this question for 30-odd years. His new book, Unmasking Europa, describes his view that Europa's hidden ocean and the life forms it may support are not that far below the surface.
A professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, Greenberg was one of the first to formulate how tidal forces could shape the geology on Jovian moons. He got the opportunity to test his ideas as a member of the imaging team on NASA's Galileo spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003.
During several flybys, Galileo took hundreds of snapshots of the moon Europa, showing a surface covered with dark spots and crisscrossing lines. In his new book, Greenberg walks readers through the Europa photo gallery like a curator in an art museum.
He interprets the meaning of these wonderful images and recounts how he and his colleagues came to see Europa's strange features as evidence that the outer crust is a thin layer of ice riding over a deep ocean.
This is not the mainstream opinion, however. Most scientists who study Europa believe the ice is much thicker: tens of kilometers as opposed to only a few kilometers.
In the course of defending his minority position, Greenberg blames the hierarchical structure of big science projects for creating a politically-motivated "thick ice" cabal that refused to go back on its initial interpretations even when later data seemed to contradict them.
A surface worth visiting
Brisk tidal water sweeps over creatures clawed into the ice, bearing a fleet of jellyfish and other floaters to the source of their nourishment.
As the water reaches the limit of its flow, it picks up oxygen from the pores of the ice, oxygen formed by the breakdown of frozen H2O and by tiny plants that breathe it out as they extract energy from the sun. The floating creatures absorb the oxygen and graze on the plants for a few hours.
The water cools quickly, but before more than a thin layer can freeze, the ebbing tide drags the animals deep down through cracks in the ice to the warmer ocean below.
Most of the creatures survive the trip, but some become frozen to the walls of the water channels, and others are grabbed and eaten by anchored creatures waiting for them to drift past. The daily cycle goes on, with plants, herbivores, and carnivores playing out their roles.
Life on Europa is still highly speculative, but the notion has gained scientific merit in the last couple of decades.
Before Voyager 2 flew by Europa in 1979, most scientists assumed that Europa would be frozen solid. However, the first close-up images showed a relatively small number of impact craters, implying that the moon's surface has been radically altered within the last 50 million years. Something dynamic must be occurring inside Europa.
As an expert in celestial mechanics, Greenberg was originally interested in the elliptical orbits of the Jovian moons. In the mid-1970s, he highlighted the fact that-due to a three-way resonance between Io, Europa and Ganymede-Europa's distance to Jupiter fluctuates by about 1 percent during its 85-hour orbit around the giant planet.
The resulting change in the gravitational pull from Jupiter causes the moon's equator to squeeze in and out by as much as 30 meters (in comparison to the Earth's tides which rise and fall by about a meter).
The "breathing" motion generates tidal heating inside Europa, and this presumably keeps the sub-surface ocean from freezing. Greenberg and others proposed early on that this internal heat could explain the geological processes that have recently resurfaced the moon.
Thick or thin blanket?
Convection is faster than conduction, but it requires that the ice crust be more than 20 kilometers thick. By contrast, Greenberg thinks the ice extends for no more than a few kilometers. What is his evidence?
Essentially it is the preponderance of ridges and uneven patches, called "chaos," on the surface of Europa. The ridges, which appear as lines in large scale images of the moon, are cracks in the crust that help relieve some of the stress from tidal stretching, according to Greenberg and his colleagues.
Like fault lines on Earth, the ridges are where ice plates meet, and there is some evidence of these plates spreading apart, slamming together and slipping past each other. Greenberg believes such tectonic interactions require a thin crust floating on a liquid ocean.
This thin ice picture could also explain chaotic terrain as those places where the ice melted though and briefly exposed the ocean below.
If such were to happen, icebergs would break off and float out into the open sea. These ice blocks would eventually get stuck in random locations when the ocean refroze. Greenberg claims this mechanism explains the appearance of chaos.
The implications of thin ice are perhaps most dramatic when it comes to the potential for life on Europa. Whereas thick ice would relegate any Europan life-forms to deep hydrothermal vents, thin ice would offer open channels for organisms to reach the surface.
The key physical processes act on a range of time scales that make the support of life a plausible idea. On a daily basis (remember a day on Europa is about 80 hours, not wildly longer than a day on Earth), warm tidal water is pumped up and down through the active cracks, thanks to diurnal tides. Over tens of thousands of years, rotation carries each crack to a different location, where the daily cycle of tidal stress is also different. And, according to our studies of chaotic terrain, every few million years, exposure of open water by melt-through occurs at any given location.
These processes would not only provide direct access to nutrients, such as oxygen and sunlight, but they would also offer environmental changes that could drive evolution among Europa's biota.
How big science gets done
It might seem hard to believe anyone would bother to stifle a theory about a frozen moon hundreds of millions of miles away, but Greenberg says that Galileo's team leaders decided prematurely that Europa had thick ice, and afterwards it became politically advantageous to toe that line.
A cautious resistance to paradigm shifts is reasonable when a model has been serving well. But the isolated-ocean model for Europa had become the canonical paradigm for all the wrong reasons.
Greenberg dispels these reasons throughout the book. For example, some scientists claimed to have identified "pits, spots and domes" that conform to a convection model of warm ice pushing its way to the surface. Greenberg says that these surface features have not been rigorously defined, and his team's own inspections have found them to be less uniform in size and spacing than the convection model would predict.
Later studies claimed that medium-sized impact craters support thick ice because they show no evidence of having penetrated to the ocean below. But Greenberg disagrees: some of these craters appear to have chaotic terrain at their lowest points, which would imply that the impacts did in fact reach the water level.
He goes on to address other faults he sees in the thick ice paradigm, but a layperson will not have the expertise to judge whether this is a fair assessment or if Greenberg is simply presenting thick ice as a straw man that he can easily tear down. In the end, one might wonder who he is trying to convince.
The non-specialist reader may side with Greenberg's position, but planetary scientists will probably prefer that the thick and thin debate be held in scientific journals rather than the popular press. In any case, we may all agree that this peek under the mask of Europa calls for a closer look.
University of Arizona
Jupiter and its Moons
Explore The Ring World of Saturn and her moons
The million outer planets of a star called Sol
News Flash at Mercury
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Gen Ed Torah is a blog series by Rabbi Lee Buckman, in which he reviews current literature in education and applies it to the world of Jewish education.
Teaching History: Why the Facts Matter
I have had the privilege for the past several years of heading up the Israeli division of the education, research, and documentation unit of the Holocaust Claims Conference. We fund Holocaust museum exhibits, teacher training, intensive educational seminars for students and IDF soldiers, archives, research, and films in Israel. Our mission is to seek a small measure of justice for Holocaust victims and ensure that their story is told accurately for generations to come.
In my adult years, I’ve developed a passion for learning history. When I was a child, I didn’t care much for history; I didn’t see the value of memorizing names and dates. As I’ve gotten older, I now understand why, even in the age of the internet, knowledge of key facts, dates, individuals, and events matters and is necessary (in addition to higher-order skills like understanding chronology, causation, and context).
I was reminded recently of the importance of historical content knowledge from a study published seven years ago by the University College London Centre for Holocaust Studies. Researchers surveyed 8,000 students ages 11-18 about what they know and understand about the Holocaust. For about 25 years, the Holocaust has been part of the national curriculum in England. The researchers discovered that even after studying the Holocaust, students still lacked some basic historical content knowledge. These gaps, in turn, fostered harmful misconceptions about anti-Semitism, the causes of the Holocaust, and Jews in general.
For example, when students were asked who was responsible for the Holocaust, a good proportion expressed a Hitler-centric view of complicity. Fewer than half referred to other potential perpetrators like the SS, Adolf Eichmann, or Einsatzgruppen death squads. Younger students, in particular, didn’t understand that the Nazis were a broad-based political party with widespread popular support and not some small yet powerful group that mindlessly carried out orders issued by Hitler.
Fewer than 5% of the students held that the German citizenry played a role in the genocide. To quote the UCL study, “it was as if the Holocaust happened around the German people, with events unfolding without their involvement or engagement.” Students believed that Germans were either brainwashed, intimidated or simply unaware of the mass killings of Jews and therefore not culpable.
The vast majority of students localized the Holocaust geographically to German soil thinking that mass murder took place in Germany, not Poland (approximately 3 million Jews perished in Poland whereas an estimated 165,000 Jews died in Germany). Students had little awareness that the Holocaust was a continent-wide attempt to exterminate Jews from Vichy-France to the Soviet Union.
Students believed, for the most part, that all victims were treated the same (Jews, gays, Roma). They overestimated the pre-war Jewish population and the Jews’ influence on society and accepted stereotypical myths about Jewish power; they underestimated the number of Jews murdered. Furthermore, students had no sense of the role that collaborators played—whether these were the governmental allies of the Nazis, police, military authorities, local government authorities, or civilians who assisted in the roundup, deportation, expropriation, forced labor, or murder of Jews.
Why does solid content knowledge matter? If students believe that Hitler simply issued orders that were executed, if they fail to understand the popular support of Nazis among all sectors of society, they miss out on a more sophisticated understanding of how extremist ideas take hold across societies.
If students overlook the geographic scope of the Holocaust, they will likely fail to grasp the Jewish specificity of the Holocaust whereby, throughout Europe, the Nazis and their collaborators tried to murder every Jewish man, woman, and child in towns, villages, and cities. A gap in knowledge of the map of Nazi-occupied Europe will lead students to believe that only Germans were complicit and exonerate the rest of Europe. Without this basic knowledge, students will not even know to ask how in country after European country, ordinary people collaborated in the murder of their neighbors. And without asking that question, they will not have a good understanding of how something similar could take place today.
The results of the UCL study demonstrate that it is not enough to know that Jews were victims and that Hitler was a powerful dictator; solid historical knowledge is imperative. Without it, students will be unable to address basic questions about who was responsible for the development and implementation of the Holocaust, how the perpetrators succeeded, why Jews were targeted, and how Jews responded. They may end up reducing the Holocaust to a tale of good and evil without exploring the more troubling aspects that bear on contemporary society today (how in a modern, democratic, educated country could this happen?). And worse, they may reinforce certain stereotypes and misconceptions about Jews.
The bottom line is that even in an era where information is readily accessible on the internet, it’s important to possess historical knowledge. It’s important to know the facts. If we become knowledge nihilists, we do so at our own peril.
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Strong reasoning
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History
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Urban Air Mobility at Rising Point: eVTOL
The possibility of efficient and sustainable air transport between strategic locations in urban and suburban environments is taking leaps and bounds. A new class of vehicle is finally emerging which has the potential to transform the way people and cargo are moved in cities. eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) are electric vehicles that can be fully autonomous, environmentally friendly, and quiet.
Thanks to the latest advances in materials, electric motors and battery technology, electric aircraft are more possible than ever. This is how traditional aerospace companies and new companies are developing eVTOL models, as these vehicles rely on simple propulsion units of electric motors and in some cases fixed-pitch propellers, manufacturers expect lower operating costs.
Applications for eVTOL technology are diverse and possible in different markets. Air taxi service is one of the initial business models considering moving passengers and cargo between cities, with the advantage of zero emissions and very low sound levels. At the same time, it is expected that it will become an essential tool to public services agencies in applications such as firefighting, public safety, search, and rescue, and others.
The technology used by these vehicles will allow, in cases like Joby's piloted vehicle, to load 4 passengers (plus pilot) and travel at 322km/ph. with a range of more than 241km.
Like Joby Aviation, other major companies in the industry are developing electric models. For instance, Boeing has focused its efforts on CityAirbus, its 4-passenger model with its first flight scheduled for 2023. German Lilium Jet model is able to provide different options of cabin configurations for passengers.
At the production end, test flights continue their final stage, and each model shall comply with current safety standard delimited by Aerospace authorities. In the meantime, several eVTOL flight training companies are presenting initiatives to provide the necessary training for the more than 60,000 pilots that the industry forecasts in the next 10 years. It is a period where it is very likely that national regulators will require a pilot on board. Thus, pilots are expected to be certified directly related to eVTOL type; some vehicles designs are rotorcraft while other companies are basing design on fixed wing. some manufactures have also pointed out and agreed with different various CAA on the emphasis on a new practical skill set and using the latest digital flight training aides.
OEM [Original Equipment manufacturers] are progressively accomplishing execution phases to pursue certifications as soon as eVTOL regulations are finalized by FAA and EASA. Joby and Archer Aviation are planning to launch their air taxi services to the market in 2024. While important cities such as Houston, Orlando and Los Angeles have already announced infrastructure plans and to support the new traffic era.
Countries are also backing up initiatives such as Urban-Air Port to build mini airports in strategic locations. In England, the world first eVTOL hub, located In Coventry, was just unveiled. With predictions for 430,000 vehicles operating by 2040 around the world, ground infrastructure design is giving first results and planning towards sustainable air mobility.
eVTOL Embraer/Eve’s backlog orders are ascending quickly and approximately 1,785 are expected to enter the market in the years to come. While VA-X4 model from Vertical Aerospace has sold 1,350 flying taxis. Among the list of interested customers, airline carriers such as American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, GOL, etc. are far exceeding initial market expectations.
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Strong reasoning
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Transportation
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ACTIVE IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORKS FOR PROGRAM SUCCESS
Adopted from: National Implementation Research Network at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The research to practice gap is a critical issue because children and families cannot benefit from services they don’t receive. In 2005, the National Implementation Research Network released a monograph (Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman, & Wallace) that synthesized implementation research findings across a range of fields and developed four overarching frameworks, referred to as the Active Implementation Frameworks, based on these findings.
Active Implementation FrameworksI. Implementation Stages - Conducting stage-appropriate implementation activities is necessary for successful service and systems change.
II. Implementation Drivers - Developing core implementation components, referred to as Implementation Drivers, results in an implementation infrastructure that supports competent and sustainable service delivery.
III. Organized, Expert Implementation Support - Implementation support can be provided externally through active purveyors and intermediary organizations or internally through Implementation Teams. There is evidence that creating Implementation Teams that actively work to implement interventions results in quicker, higher-quality implementation.
IV. Policy-Practice Feedback Loops - Connecting policy to practice is a key aspect of reducing systems barriers to high-fidelity practice.
I. Stages of Implementation
The overall goal of the exploration stage is to examine the degree to which a particular model, program, or approach meets the community’s needs and whether implementation is feasible. In this first stage of implementation, communities must assess the goodness of fit between potential program models and the needs of the children and families they serve. Requirements for implementation must be carefully assessed and potential barriers to implementation examined. Involvement of key stakeholders and the development of program champions are key activities during this stage. A prerequisite for implementation is to ensure that core intervention components are identified and fully operationalized. Even with existing evidence-based and evidence-informed practices, more program development work might need to be done during the exploration stage before final implementation decisions can be made.
The installation stage is often overlooked in implementation. Once a decision is made to adopt a program model, many structural and instrumental changes in a number of settings and systems must be made in order to initiate the new practices. Practical efforts to initiate the new program are central to the installation stage and include activities such as developing referral pathways, ensuring that financial and human resources are in place, and finding physical space or purchasing equipment and technology. Developing the competence of practitioners is a key component of this stage to ensure that programs are implemented with fidelity.
During the initial implementation stage, the new program model or initiative is put into practice. Attempts to implement a new program or innovation often end or seriously falter during the installation stage or early in the initial implementation stage. The key activities of the initial implementation stage involve strategies to promote continuous improvement and rapid cycle problem solving. Using data to assess implementation, identify solutions, and drive decision making is a hallmark of this stage. It is critical to address barriers and develop system solutions quickly rather than allowing problems to re-emerge and reoccur.
Full implementation occurs as the new learning at all levels becomes integrated into practice, organization, and system settings and practitioners skillfully provide new services. The processes and procedures to support the new way of work are in place, and the system, although never completely stable, has largely been recalibrated to accommodate and, it can be hoped, fully support the new ways of work. The time it takes to move from initial implementation to full implementation will vary depending upon the complexity of the new program model, the baseline infrastructure, the availability of implementation supports and resources, and other contextual factors.
Sustainability planning and activities need to be an active component from the initial stages of implementation. To sustain an initiative, both financial and programmatic sustainability are required. Financial sustainability involves ensuring that the funding streams for the new practice are established, reliable, and adequate. Programmatic sustainability is related to ensuring that sustainable supports are in place to continue effective training, coaching, and performance assessment protocols; to measure fidelity and make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement; and to ensure that facilitative policy-making and procedural decisions continue to support full implementation.
II. Implementation Drivers
The implementation drivers are the core components or building blocks of the infrastructure needed to support practice, organizational, and systems change. There are three types of implementation drivers and when used collectively, these drivers ensure high-fidelity and sustainable program implementation: competency drivers, organization drivers, and leadership drivers.
I. Competency Drivers
Competency drivers are mechanisms to develop, improve, and sustain practitioners’ and supervisors’ ability to implement a program or innovation to benefit children and families.
- Selection – Effective staffing requires the specification of required skills, abilities, and other model-specific prerequisite characteristics.
- Training—Trainers need to learn when, how, and with whom to use new skills and practices. Training should provide knowledge related to the theory and underlying values of the program, use adult learning theory, introduce the components and rationales of key practices, provide opportunities to practice new skills to meet fidelity criteria, and receive feedback in a safe and supportive training environment.
- Coaching—Most new skills can be introduced in training but must be practiced and mastered on the job with the help of a coach. Districts should develop and implement service delivery plans for coaching that stipulate where, when, with whom, and why coaching will occur; use multiple sources of data to provide feedback to practitioners including direct observation; and use coaching data to improve practice and organizational fidelity.
- Performance Assessment—Evaluation of staff performance is designed to assess the application and outcomes of skills that are reflected in selection criteria, taught in training, and reinforced in coaching. Districts should develop and implement transparent staff performance assessments, use multiple sources of data to assess performance, institute positive recognition so assessments are seen as an opportunity to improve performance, and use performance assessment data to improve practice and organizational fidelity.
II. Organization Drivers
Organization drivers intentionally develop the organizational supports and systems interventions needed to create a hospitable environment for new programs and innovations by ensuring that the competency drivers are accessible and effective and that data are used for continuous improvement.
- Decision-Support Data Systems— Data are used to assess key aspects of overall performance of an organization and support decision making to ensure continuing implementation of the intervention over time. Decision-support data systems include quality assurance data, fidelity data, and outcome data. Data need to be reliable, reported frequently, built into practice routines, accessible at actionable levels, and used to make decisions.
- Facilitative Administration— Administrators provide leadership and make use of a wide range of data to inform decision making, support the overall processes, and keep staff organized and focused on the desired innovation outcomes. Districts should ensure leadership is committed and is available to address challenges and create solutions, develop clear communication protocols and feedback loops, adjust and develop policies and procedures to support the new way of work, and reduce administrative barriers.
- Systems Interventions—These are strategies to work with external systems to ensure the availability of financial, organizational, and human resources required to support the work of practitioners. The alignment of external systems to support the work is a critical aspect of implementation.
III. Leadership Team Drivers
The use of the Leadership Driver in the context of active implementation focuses on leadership approaches related to transforming systems and creating change.
- Technical challenges are those characterized by pretty clear agreement on a definition of the dimensions of the problem at hand. We can be reasonably certain that given the agreed upon problem and the dimension of the problem, if we engage in a relevant set of activities we will arrive at a solution – not necessarily quickly or easily but the challenge and path to a solution are largely known. Technical challenges can be managed. The leader can form a team, make a plan, make decisions, hold people accountable and execute the solution
- Adaptive challenges are characterized by the definition of the problem being much less clear, and the perspectives on the “issue” at hand differ among stakeholders. Viable solutions and implementation pathways are unclear and defining a pathway for the solution requires learning by all. This “all” means that the primary locus of responsibility is not a single entity or person. These types of challenges require a different type of leadership and often require leadership at many levels
- Getting on the balcony - Stepping out of the fray to see the key patterns and the bigger picture. Leaders also need to recognize the patterns of work avoidance and the potential for conflict.
- Identifying the adaptive challenge - Putting the unspoken issues out on the table. It also involves recognizing the challenges to and uncomfortable changes that may be required in values, practices and relationships.
- Regulating distress - Creating a safe environment for challenges to be discussed, and creating a space for diversity of opinion, experiences, and values as well as the opportunity to challenge assumptions. Stress is accepted, tolerated, and regulated by the leader.
- Maintaining disciplined attention - Being aware of patterns of behavior that indicate that there is a purposeful or unconscious attempt to avoid disturbing or difficult issues. These patterns and behaviors can show up as scapegoating or blaming others; denying that the problem exists or is truly problematic; or diverting attention by focusing on technical issues.
- Giving the work world back - Creating conditions that help people take greater responsibility for the work of change, including defining and solving the problems. The leader supports staff rather than directing or controlling them. Giving the work back to the people also requires instilling and expressing confidence in others so that they will take risks, and backing them up when they make mistakes.
- Protecting all voices - Relying on others to raise questions about adaptive challenges and provide support and protection for employees who identify internal conflicts in the organization. This includes providing a legitimate space for those who constructively disagree.
III. Implementation Teams
Traditional approaches to disseminating and implementing evidence-based and evidence-informed practices for children and families have not been successful in closing the research-to-practice gap. In extensive reviews of the dissemination and diffusion literature (Greenhalgh, Robert, MacFarlane, Bate, & Kyriakidou, 2004; Hall & Hord, 2011), past efforts to support implementation have been characterized as “letting it happen” or “helping it happen”(Greenhalgh et al.,p. 593). Approaches that let implementation happen leave it to agency administrators, practitioners, and policymakers to make use of research findings on their own. Approaches that help it happen provide manuals or Web sites to help implementation happen in real world settings. Both of these approaches have been found to be insufficient for promoting the full and effective use of innovations (Balas & Boren, 2000; Clancy,2006). Greenhalgh et al.(2004) identified a new category they called “making it happen,” (p. 593) in which expert implementation teams can play a role in using evidence-based strategies to actively support implementation of a new innovation or initiative.
Implementation teams provide an internal support structure to move selected programs and practices through the stages of implementation in systemic change. The teams focus on:
- Increasing “buy-in” and readiness
- Installing and sustaining the implementation infrastructure
- Assessing fidelity and outcomes
- Building linkages with external systems
- Problem-solving and sustainability
An advantage of relying on implementation teams is that the team collectively has the knowledge, skills, abilities, and time to succeed. Collectively, the core competencies of the implementation team include: knowledge and understanding of the selected intervention and its linkages to outcomes; knowledge of implementation science and best practices for implementation; and applied experience in using data for program improvement.
Implementation teams might actively work with external experts of evidence-based practices and programs in PBIS. PBIS experts represent a group of individuals very knowledgeable about the innovation who actively work to help others implement the new innovation with fidelity and good effect. PBIS experts are often affiliated with researchers and training and technical assistance centers.
IV. Improvement Cycles: Policy-Practice Feedback Loops
Connecting policy to practice is a key aspect of reducing early childhood systems barriers to high-fidelity implementation. There must be good policy to enable good practice, but practice must also inform policy. Many times early childhood practitioners experience barriers to service delivery that can be solved only at the policy level. There needs to be a system in place that ensures practice experiences are being fed back to the policy level to inform decision making and continuous improvement.
Policy–practice feedback loops are one type of improvement cycle and, therefore, follow the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle (Deming, 1986; Shewhart, 1931) that signifies all improvement cycles.
- Plan - Specify the plan that helps move service and interventions forward
- Do - Focus on facilitating the implementation of the plan
- Study - Develop assessment to understand how the plan is working
- Act - Make changes to the next iteration of the plan to improve implementation
Policy-practice feedback loops demonstrate the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle on a larger scale where moving through the cycle takes longer than when the Plan, Do, Study Act is happening at one level of the system.
Effective policy-practice feedback loops must be institutionalized into the agency’s way of work to ensure that change happens on purpose. New practices do not fare well in existing organizational structures and systems. Too often, effective interventions are changed to fit the system, as opposed to the existing system changing to support the effective interventions. Embedded policy-practice feedback loops promote system change to support service change.
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Strong reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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By Erika Check Hayden of Nature magazine
In the film Contagion, it takes just a few months for scientists to make a vaccine against a deadly virus. Yet a real US military programme that aimed to do just that is being dismantled after five years of trying.
The Transformational Medical Technologies (TMT) initiative, born in the US Department of Defense in 2006, was originally conceived as a five-year, $1.5-billion project that would substantially accelerate the development of countermeasures to protect soldiers against biological attacks. Made into a permanent programme in 2009, it set out to sequence the genomes of potential bioterror agents, explore new drug technologies and develop 'broad-spectrum' therapies that would work against multiple bacterial and viral pathogens--especially haemorrhagic fever viruses such as Ebola and Marburg. Supporters of the programme point out that three candidate drugs developed under the programme, for pathogens including Ebola virus, are now in clinical trials.
The TMT programme, however, has ceased to exist as a stand-alone effort. Alan Rudolph, director of Chemical and Biological Technologies for the TMT's parent office, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, is folding some TMT projects into other Pentagon efforts and reordering their priorities. Critics say that it has failed in its underlying objective to provide a faster, game-changing approach to biodefence. No antibiotics developed by the TMT have entered clinical trials. The drug candidates it has developed are designed for single pathogens, not multiple threats. And although the programme is set to award a major clinical-trial contract later this year, the drug being tested would treat not exotic, untreatable pathogens but ordinary influenza, a disease already heavily researched outside the Pentagon.
Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy thinks that the programme was overambitious and ill-conceived. "They're wasting tonnes of money," he says.
The programme's architects have vigorously defended its record. "There is a success there that we need to build on," says Jean Reed, who, as deputy assistant to the secretary of defence for chemical and biological defence and chemical demilitarization, laid the plans for the TMT. Now a consultant to the National Defense University in Washington DC, Reed adds that the programme has become the archetype within the defence department for the "development of treatments for biologically engineered and naturally occurring disease threats".
"The TMT from its inception was a high-risk, high-payoff or high-failure effort," says David Hough, who became TMT programme manager in January 2007. He says that the effort has paid off: "If we get an engineered threat or something that we haven't seen before that is causing a lot of deaths, we think we can respond to that." He says that the programme's track record is better than that of the Pentagon's traditional chemical and biological defence research effort over the past decade.
Although the TMT aimed to transform biodefence, it encountered many of the roadblocks that have hindered the nation's biodefence effort as a whole, which has spent $60 billion since 2001 with only modest returns (see Nature 477, 150-152; 2011). Developing broad-spectrum drugs for the battlefield has proved difficult because regulators are more accustomed to evaluating drugs that target one specific disease, and drug companies prefer to focus on diseases that affect many people rather than on obscure pathogens that could serve as bioweapons.
These considerations helped to lead the TMT into focusing on influenza in 2009. That year, US government officials were faced with the double threat of H1N1 swine flu, which threatened to explode into a devastating pandemic, and the more deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, which was continuing to infect small numbers of people.
Government officials were "practically paralysed by the fear that they were dealing with two strains at a time; they didn't know what they were going to do", says Darrell Galloway, Rudolph's predecessor at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, who was a driving force for the TMT from its inception until he retired in January 2010. Galloway saw influenza as an opening to prove the programme's worth. In May 2009, he awarded a contract to AVI BioPharma of Bothell, Washington, to make a flu drug against the H1N1 virus, using its genetic sequence as a basis. Within months, the company had made a drug and tested it in ferrets.
Yet the move angered some within the Pentagon and perplexed observers, because influenza is the focus of considerable research funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services. "I'm having a really hard time making a connection between the investments we're making and the benefit to soldiers," said one staff member at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
The TMT also stumbled because companies attracted to biodefence tend to be small and inexperienced. Larger, established companies prefer to pursue more profitable markets, fearing that the federal government will commit to stockpiling only limited amounts of drugs developed for defence purposes.
The company behind all three TMT drugs now in clinical trials, AVI BioPharma, has never had a drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The company's technology uses antisense, in which short pieces of genetic material bind to a pathogen's genes and block their production. The technology has led to few approved drugs owing to safety problems and a lack of efficacy. Still, the TMT and the Army awarded the company a $291-million, six-year contract last year to fund two clinical trials, for its drugs against Ebola and Marburg viruses. Now AVI BioPharma has set its sights on a contract for clinical trials of its antisense drug for H1N1.
AVI BioPharma's chief executive, Chris Garabedian, says that the company's technology is safer than that tested by other drug firms, and thus can be used in higher doses that are more likely to be effective than other antisense drugs that have failed in the past.
But critics say that it was a mistake for the TMT to invest so much in a technology that does not have a proven track record in infectious disease. "Everybody in that field thinks antisense is a failure, except the [defence department] programme manager," says one biodefence analyst, who did not want to be named.
Rudolph, who succeeded Galloway last September, controls the chemical and biological defence research budget, which includes standard drug- and vaccine-research programmes as well as the TMT. Rudolph is combining the TMT research money (see 'The cost of countermeasures') with that for traditional projects, and refocusing on four priorities: surveillance and diagnostics, sensors, countermeasures and decontamination technologies.
Rudolph has retained some TMT projects, such as the pathogen-sequencing studies led by Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York, who was a technical adviser on Contagion. But he has cut others, such as a five-year, $24.7-million contract awarded in 2008 to Peregrine Pharmaceuticals of Tustin, California, to find antibodies against haemorrhagic fevers. The TMT funding for AVI BioPharma's two clinical trials will continue, however, as the trials are managed separately by Hough.
Whether the dismantling of the TMT will improve the Pentagon's biodefence success rate remains to be seen, says Tom Inglesby at the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. "In the end, the question will be, 'Did Rudolph make progress in the time he was there with the money that he had?' Ultimately, he will be held accountable."
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on September 21, 2011.
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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What Money Canít Buy
Explore the Bible Series
December 5, 2010
Background Passage: I Kings 1:1-4:34 (II Chronicles 1:1-13)
Lesson Passage: I Kings 3:3-15
Introduction to I and II Kings:
Authorship and Date: I and II Kings were written anonymously.† The author used at least three sources to compile these historical accounts:
These books cover more than four hundred years of Hebrew history, from the reign of Solomon (c. 970 B.C.) to the exile and lengthy incarceration of Jehoiachin (c. 560 B.C.); therefore, whoever wrote this history did so some time after the Babylonian captivity began.† Some Old Testament scholars believe several writers produced I and II Kings, but Paul House argues humbly and, I think persuasively, that a single author produced this work (See 1,2 Kings: The New American Commentary).
Historical Setting : The first eleven chapters deal
The cruel and ambitious Assyrians terrorized both
Genre of the Text: To this point, I have treated this introduction from the perspective of a historian; however, I and II Kings are not objective historyóthis work (please recall, the Hebrew Bible initially made no distinction between I and II Kings) deciphered the complexities of Jewish history from a ďpropheticĒ vantage point.† The author clearly wrote from a theological perspective, a point of view that profoundly influenced his interpretation of the material.† Of course, conservative Christians believe this viewpoint came from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.†
I. The Ascension of King Solomon (1:1-2:46)
A. Davidís ill health (1:1-4): Due to advanced years, David could not regulate his body temperature; so, his servants brought a beautiful young woman, Abishag, to lay by the ailing king.† The text says they never consummated the relationship, but the royal family clearly regarded Abishag as Davidís wife.
B. Adonijahís ambition for his fathersí throne (1:5-10): Adonijah was the eldest son of Davidís wife Haggith and may have been Davidís eldest surviving son.† As the oldest son, he assumed that he would assume his fatherís throne when David died, and he conspired with powerful allies to usurp the crown even before Davidís death.† He amassed an army, and persuaded Joab (Davidís nephew and former trusted military commander) and Abiathar (high priest and former ally of David) to support his claim to the throne. The Prophet Nathan, Zadok (an important priest), and Benaiah (captain of Davidís army) remained faithful to David and Solomon. Adonijah assembled his friends and allies to En-rogel to mark his ascension to the Hebrew throne.
C. Nathan and Bathsheba warn David of Adonijahís treachery (1:11-27): David was unaware of Adonijahís plot to usurp the crown; so, Bathsheba (Solomonís mother) and Nathan alerted the king to his sonís scheme. David has already given his oath that Solomon would succeed him, and Bathsheba asked the aging monarch to honor his word.
D. Solomon anointed king of Israel (1:28-40): David commanded that Zadok anoint Solomon, at the springs of Gihon.† The prince rode a mule to the site of his coronation, and great celebration attended the joyous occasion, so loud that Adonijah, still in En-rogel, heard the tumult.
E. The fear of Adonijah (1:41-53): Jonathan, son of Abiathar, brought news to Adonijah of Solomonís coronation, and the would-be kingís guests, struck with fear, abandoned the festivities an En-rogel.† The news of Solomonís ascension frightened Adonijah so badly that he sought refuge at the altar in the tabernacle. As a result of Adonijahís apparent humility, Solomon determined to spare his half-brotherís life.
F. Davidís final instructions to King Solomon (2:1-9): The dying king encouraged his son to live in obedience to Godís commandments, and he warned Solomon to bring revenge on Joab and Shimei. He also instructed the new king to honor Davidís trusted allies.
G. The death of King David (2:10-12): Soon after Solomonís coronation, King David died, thus completing an eventful forty year reign.
II. The Early Years of Solomonís Reign (2:11-4:34)
A. The vengeance of Solomon (2:13-46)
1. Vengeance on Adonijah (2:13-25): Foolishly, Adonijah still entertained aspirations to the throne, and he asked for the hand of his fatherís wife, Abishag.† Fearful of directing asking Solomon, Adonijah involved Bathsheba in his scheme, but Solomon saw through his brotherís subterfuge and ordered the execution of Adonijah.
2. Vengeance on Abiathar (2:26-27): Solomon remembered the former loyalty of Abiathar; so, the king spared his life, though he banished him from the priesthood.
3. Vengeance on Joab (2:28-35): Though Joab had remained, to some degree, loyal to David, the generalís cruelty and treachery warranted a decree of execution.† At Solomonís behest, Benaiah killed Joab at the tabernacle.
4. Vengeance on Shimei (2:36-46): Solomon decided to spare the life of Shimei, but he stipulated that Shimei could not leave Jerusalem for any reason.† After three years, Shimei retrieved two run-away servants, and, in doing so, he violated his agreement to remain in the city.† Solomon, therefore, commanded Benaiah to kill Shimei.
B. Solomonís Prayer for Wisdom (3:1-28)
1. Solomonís marriage to an Egyptian wife and the continued idolatry of Israel (3: 1- 2)
2. Godís appearance to Solomon at Gibeon (3:3-15):† While the king worshipped at Gibeon, God appeared to him, in a dream, with a remarkable offer to grant Solomon any request.† The king asked God for wisdom, and the request moved the heart of God, and the Lord gave him wisdom, wealth, and power, like no other king in Hebrew history.
3. A test of Solomonís wisdom (3:16-28): A dispute arose between two prostitutes, a dispute over the death of an infant. One of the women accidentally killed her child, and, in her grief, she stole the living child of the other harlot.† The women came to Solomon to resolve the conflict.† Solomon, exercising his new-found wisdom, ordered the child cut in half.† Of course, the childís mother, horrified by the prospect of losing her baby, deferred to the other prostitute, thus proving her maternity.
III. The Measure of Solomonís Kingdom (4:1-34)
A. A list of administrators in Israel (4:1-19)
B. The reputation of Solomon (4:20-34): Israel never, before or since, reached the heights of blessing and prosperity like in the early days of Solomonís reign.† His reputation for wisdom spread throughout the Middle East.
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Strong reasoning
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Religion
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Definitions for FIATˈfi ɑt, -æt; ˈfaɪ ət, -æt
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word FIAT
decree, edict, fiat, order, rescript(noun)
a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge)
"a friend in New Mexico said that the order caused no trouble out there"
An authoritative command or order to do something; an effectual decree.
A warrant of a judge for certain processes.
An authority for certain proceedings given by the Lord Chancellor's signature.
An automobile manufactured by the Italian firm Fiat S.p.A..
an authoritative command or order to do something; an effectual decree
a warrant of a judge for certain processes
an authority for certain proceedings given by the Lord Chancellor's signature
Fiat S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer based in Turin. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors, including Giovanni Agnelli. During its more than century-long history, Fiat has also manufactured railway engines and carriages, military vehicles, farm tractors, and aircraft. In 2011, Fiat was the fourth largest European automaker by production behind Volkswagen Group, PSA, and Renault and the eleventh largest automaker by production in the world. Fiat has acquired numerous other companies; e.g., it acquired Lancia in 1968, became a shareholder of Ferrari in 1969, took control of Alfa Romeo from the Italian government in 1986, purchased Maserati in 1993, and became the majority shareholder of Chrysler in 2011. Fiat-based cars are built around the world. Outside Italy, the largest country of production is Brazil, where the Fiat brand is the market leader. The group also has factories in Argentina and Poland and a long history of licensing production of its products in other countries. It also has numerous alliances and joint ventures around the world, the main ones being located in Italy, Serbia, France, Turkey, India and China. Agnelli's grandson Gianni Agnelli was Fiat's chairman from 1966 until 1996; he then served as honorary chairman from 1996 until his death on 24 January 2003, during which time Cesare Romiti served as chairman. Until their removal, Paolo Fresco served as chairman and Paolo Cantarella as CEO. Umberto Agnelli then took over as chairman from 2003 to 2004. After Umberto Agnelli's death on 28 May 2004, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was named chairman, with Agnelli heir John Elkann becoming vice chairman, and other family members also serving on the board. At this point, CEO Giuseppe Morchio resigned, and Sergio Marchionne was named to replace him on 1 June 2004.
Translations for FIAT
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
Get even more translations for FIAT »
Find a translation for the FIAT definition in other languages:
Select another language:
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Moderate reasoning
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Transportation
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Squirrels are ubiquitous components of many terrestrial ecosystems; however, some species become seasonally dormant, and essentially disappear for months at a time. Because the nearly 280 living species exhibit great variation in body type, behavior and preferred habitat, few generalizations apply to the entire group. However, while some exceptions exist, most tree and flying squirrels remain active year-round, while many ground squirrels become dormant during extremely hot or cold weather.
Variation and Similarities Among Squirrels
Physically, squirrels fall into three different groups. Tree squirrels have long, lean bodies and big, bushy tails that improve their balance. Most flying squirrels -- who actually glide rather than fly -- are relatively small and have a thin membrane of skin stretching between their front and rear legs. Ground squirrels are the stoutest squirrels, and their short, compact bodies and strong forelimbs are well suited for digging tunnels. Some species -- particularly some ground squirrels -- are highly social and live in colonies, while others live primarily solitary lives. Squirrels are omnivores that occasionally consume small animals or eggs, but they primarily feed on vegetation. Favorite foods usually include items such as fruits, flowers, fungi, nuts and seeds.
Year-round activity is common among tree squirrels. Despite cold winter temperatures, gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) remain active -- and highly visible -- all year. However, these squirrels do take steps to help them survive the harsh conditions -- in addition to building up a thick layer of fat before the winter; squirrels can raise their body temperatures by shivering. During particularly bad weather, squirrels often limit their trips outside the nest and will huddle together with conspecifics to keep warm. Like gray squirrels, many other tree squirrels remain active all year, especially those species living in the tropics.
Some squirrels exhibit different adaptations to inclement weather, depending on their geographic range. Eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) inhabit a large portion of the eastern United States, and while they do not technically hibernate, most eastern chipmunks become dormant during the winter. However, they're only dormant for as long as is necessary -- dormancy may last many months for northern populations, but only a few weeks for southern populations. Regardless of their location, chipmunks may venture to the surface to forage on warm days, so they are occasionally observed on warm winter days. Other species adjust their activity patterns in unusual ways. Red giant flying squirrels (Petaurista petaurista) are native to a vast swath of south Asia, from Afghanistan to Indonesia. While these squirrels do not hibernate, they will migrate to climates that are more hospitable if food becomes scarce.
Some squirrels inhabit areas with such extreme winter climates that hibernation is the only way they can survive. Arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) living in Alaska are one such example, and they sometimes hibernate for up to eight months. To survive under such difficult conditions, arctic ground squirrels have developed their own method for hibernating. During their winter sleep, these squirrels allow their body temperatures to drop lower than any other living mammal -- sometimes below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Occasionally, without waking, the squirrels begin shivering until their body temperatures approach 98 degrees Fahrenheit, at which time they stop shivering and their body temperatures fall again.
Some squirrels live in habitats with exceptionally hot and dry summers, such as the Mojave ground squirrel (Xerospermophilus mohavensis) of the southwest United States. To cope with these conditions, many squirrels exhibit a type of summer dormancy, known as estivation. During such times, the squirrels essentially go to sleep and wait for the temperatures to drop. Often, ground squirrels plug the entrance to their burrows with soil during estivation to provide some protection from predators.
- University of California: Agriculture and Natural Resources: Ground Squirrel
- National Park Service: Arctic Ground Squirrel
- Lincoln Park Zoo: What Do Squirrels Do in Winter?
- Animal Diversity Web: Sciuridae
- Animal Diversity Web: Petaurisa Petaurisa
- Animal Diversity Web: Tamias Striatus
- Animal Diversity Web: Spermophilus Armatus
- Arkive: Mohave Ground Squirrel (Xerospermophilus Mohavensis)
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Moderate reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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The last sentence in your first paragraph is wrong. A device drawing load on the wires does not reduce their load, it does not prevent them from heating up. Actually, putting a 2 amp load on a pair of wires increases its load (by 2 amps) and causes it to heat up (by W=I2R or W=2*2*R watts, with R being its resistance in ohms). So a 0.1 ohm wire is now making 0.4 watts of heat when it wasn't before.
If it helps, recognize that some loads have electrical characteristics which naturally limit how much current they flow at a design voltage. We supply them that designed constant-voltage, and they sip only the current they need. For instance a resistive "1500W" heater will limit its draw to about 12 amps.
Not all loads have this ability. Some loads cannot limit their current and will flow uncontrollable amounts of current if supplied a constant voltage. A great example is a fluorescent tube, which is why fluorescents have ballasts.
However if some outside force limits how much current they can draw, then they behave in reasonable ways: the voltage that they "drop" (consume) at that current is reasonable, and produces useful work -- like light from the fluorescent tube or LED emitter. It's possible to build a constant-current power supply which will forcibly limit current to spec. This power supply need not be constant-current; it can be varying-current, the point is, it must limit current because the device it's attached to can't.
How do you hook up multiples of these?
For constant-voltage devices of the same working voltage, for instance a bunch of iPhone chargers that want 120VAC -- you supply them all spec voltage, and you hook them up in parallel. Each device "sips" the current that it needs, and no more. The power supply must push enough current to work all the devices.
For constant-current devices of the same working current, for instance several bare LED emitters that want 350 milliamps -- you supply them all spec current, and you hook them up in series. Each device gets its design current (because everything in a series loop gets the same current), and each one "drops the voltage" it needs to function. The power supply must push out enough voltage to work all the devices.
What happens if you take a constant-voltage device like a small heater, designed to run at 117V and which will tend to draw 350ma... and you put it in series with constant-current load (like an LED emitter with rectifier) that is designed to draw 350ma and drops typically 3 volts? That will work, actually. The constant-voltage heater will act as a current-limiter for the LED, keeping the LED in spec at 350ma.
In mains power, you are dealing with devices designed to be constant-voltage, so you connect them in parallel.
Wire-nuts will flow unlimited amounts of current uncontrollably, so they simply do not work as constant-voltage devices. They are better thought of as constant-current devices with very small voltage drop - like the LED in the LED-heater combo discussed above. They must be in series with a current limiting device of some kind, like a constant-voltage appliance which is able to limit its current to within the spec of the wires.
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Strong reasoning
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Hardware
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|Florence Travel Guide|
Florence´s striking buildings, treasure-crammed churches and formidable galleries attest to the Florentine love of display. Even long after it had been eclipsed on the political and economic fronts. The cultural and historical impact of Firenze is overwhelming. Close up, however, the city is one of Italy's most atmospheric and pleasant, retaining a strong resemblance to the small late-medieval centre that contributed so much to the cultural and political development of Europe. The glory of Florence is rooted in its past.
The Medicis commanded the city's fortunes for centuries and, as patrons, they encouraged the Renaissance's influence on the city. They are attributed in today's Florence: their family crest of six balls still adorns many public buildings and their support of many artforms is evident in the city's streets.
Facts in a glance
200 BC: was founded as a colony of the Etruscan city of Fiesole, later becoming the Roman Florentia, controlling the Via Flaminia.
12th century: Florence became a free comune and by 1138 it was ruled by 12 consuls, assisted by the Council of One Hundred, a bunch of rich merchants.
1207: The council was replaced by a foreign (and thus allegedly unbiased) governer, the podestà.
13th century: the pro-papal Guelphs and pro-imperial Ghibellines started a century-long bout of bickering, which wound up with the Guelphs forming their own government in the 1250s.
1292: The nobles were excluded from government. The city became increasingly democratised, eventually becoming a commercial republic controlled by the Guelph-heavy merchant class.
1348: The great plague had halved the city's population. In the latter part of the 14th century the Medicis began consolidating power, eventually becoming bankers to the papacy. Cosimo Medici, patron of artists such as Donatello, Brunelleschi, Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, became ruler of Florence.
1469: Lorenzo Medici, grandson of Cosimo,took power. His court fostered a great development of art, music and poetry, and Lorenzo sponsored philosophers and artists such as da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Botticelli.
1494: The Medicis went broke and lost their hold on power. The city fell under the control of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican monk who led a puritanical republic until he fell from public favour and was hanged and burned as a heretic in 1498.
16th century: The Medicis returned to Florence, having united themselves by marriage with Emperor Charles V, and ruled for the next 200 years.
1737: the Grand Duchy of Tuscany passed to the House of Lorraine, which was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy in 1860.
1875: Florence became capital of the Kingdom and remained so until Rome took over.
20th century: WWI left it spent, shocked, and vulnerable to Fascist rhetoric. The city was one of Mussolini's most faithful strongholds. Florence was badly damaged during WWII by the retreating Germans, who blew up all its bridges except the Ponte Vecchio.
1966: Devastating floods ravaged the city, causing inestimable damage to its building and artworks, some of which are still being restored. The salvage operation led to the refining of methods which have since saved artworks throughout the world. One good thing to come of the disaster, which left the city covered in a mantle of slimy mud and left countless families homeless, was the evolution of modern restoration techniques.
1995: A car bomb killed five people and damaged works in the Uffizi gallery and this attack was attributed to the Sicilian Mafia.
Florence has rarely hit the headlines in recent times. It leads the quiet dignified life of a regional capital, under a constant influx of tourists.
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Strong reasoning
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History
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- Pain and Stress Relief
- Creating Bodies
- Enhance Fitness
- Long Term Benefits
- Optimize Performance
- Cultivate Awareness
- Holistic Balance
With the assistance of Structural Integration, also known as Rolfing, to reduce or eliminate physical ailments, imbalances, weaknesses, etc., an individual can put more attention and energy towards optimizing one's performance in order to achieve his or her life goals. This clarity of intention and action, without the distractions of the structural somatic body, can be applied to any dimension of performance whether professional, personal, family, business, creative, service, etc.
Rolfing [Structural Integration] brings the human form into a higher structure, one which all humans have the potential to obtain, in which all aspects of life (physiological, mechanical, emotional, and spiritual) function at their optimum.
Human bodies are open-ended systems which are able to grow and assimilate new information in order to evolve and meet the demands of the challenges we face in life. By helping to eliminate the static of a discordant body, Structural Integration (Rolfing) can help an individual identify, obtain, and maintain one's focus in life.
Examples of the various domains where Structural Integration (Rolfing) can support a person in optimizing one's performance in order to achieve his or her goals are as follows:
Often, people committed to a career have difficulty maintaining a healthy balanced lifestyle with proper exercise, diet, and rest. Structural Integration (Rolfing) can be a very efficient medium for balancing, opening, and toning the body to help reduce fatigue, ease stress and promote well being.
Surgeons, Dentists, Technicians, Designers, etc.
Because of the restricted and demanding postural and movement patterns required by their professions, these practitioners can find their careers compromised or ending as a result of the physical pain and discomfort they experience in their bodies. Structural Integration (Rolfing) can help to open and balance the patterns of imbalance, tightness, and the energetic blockages brought on by the demands of their work.
Mechanics, Equipment Operators, Tradesmen, Farmers, Ranchers, Laborers, etc.
Those involved with physically demanding occupations can use Structural Integration (Rolfing) to help promote and maintain the strength, flexibility, and vitality they need for their work.
Dancers, Musicians, Artists, Teachers, Therapists, Body Workers, etc.
By enhancing openness, flexibility, and balance within the body, Structural Integration can support these artists and teachers to more effectively use their body as a tool in the expression of their art.
Facilitators, Advisors, Coaches, Counselors, Therapists, etc.
Structural Integration can support the therapeutic, coaching, or facilitation process by providing a body centered therapy and educational experience as a compliment to the primary process. For example, a sunken chest is often the physical expression of depression, or lower back pain can be the somatic reflection of one who is overwhelmed by life. As the body opens, the emotions tends to flow, surface, and be expressed more readily. This can help to deepen the therapeutic process. Likewise, as emotions are processed, Structural Integration (Rolfing) can help clients ground and integrate their new experiences and revelations into their physical selves.
The Elderly and Aging Population
As people enjoy the opportunity to live longer, new demands are placed on the body's structure to remain healthy, functional, and active into the golden decades. Under the constant force of gravity, older bodies tend to shorten, collapse, and lose strength along with flexibility. This leads to a loss of a sense of balance, both in posture and movement, which results in the many catastrophic falls suffered by the elderly. By promoting postural and movement awareness, along with opening, lengthening, and balancing the body, Structural Integration (Rolfing) can help support one to have a qualitative aging process based on self-empowerment.
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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The Top 7 Reasons Why Pallet Creations are So Out
You may like the look of furniture and home decor made from pallets, but once you know more about that upcycled wood, you may not want it in your home.
Chemicals: Methyl Bromide
Upcycling a pallet into a DIY decor item may make you feel like the sustainable superstar of the year, but wooden pallets require fumigation or heat treatment to move across borders into the U.S. The heat treatment or fumigation are don in an effort to prevent the spread of any invasive species that might be found in the wood. Those that get fumigated use methyl bromide, which is a highly toxic. Methyl bromide is getting incrementally phased out by the EPA but it is used to control pests.
In order to prevent the growth of mold, many pallets are treated with the fungicide tribromophenol (TBP). While TBP has been banned in the United States, Europe and Canada as a fungicide, it is still being used in South America. When domestic wood supply shortages occur, TBP-treated pallets can enter areas where the chemical is banned.
According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, TBP used to treat wooden pallets can be converted into 2,4,6‑tribromoanisole (TBA) by strains of the xerophilic fungus Paecilomyces variotii. Products treated with TBP have revealed adverse side effects including nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea connected to the conversion of the chemical into TBA.
They Are Prone to Mold Growth When Left Untreated
According to John Shawyer, Director of UK-based Associated Pallets, if wood pallets are untreated, when left in the elements, they can soften and decay, resulting in a decrease in the life expectancy of the pallet. So while you hope to avoid the issues of adverse side effects from chemically-treated pallets, the alternative doesn’t seem great either!
They’re Linked to Foodborne Pathogens
The pallet you choose for a DIY project might come with an unexpected guest: E. coli. The National Consumers League (NCL) tested pallets that are used to transport food throughout the United States against foodborne pathogens, including E. coli and Listeria, and found that, of the 140 pallets (70 wood and 70 plastic) tested, 10 percent of the wood pallets tested had E. coli present. Meanwhile, 2.9 percent of the wood pallets tested positive for Listeria, with half containing Listeria monocytogenes, one of the most virulent foodborne pathogens. If you really want to make furniture out of a pallet, then here’s how to choose the safest one.
Dismantling Pallets Isn’t Easy
No one said DIYing was easy, but if you want as little frustration as possible, you may want to avoid working with wooden pallets. The nails embedded in the wood are often twisted, making them difficult to remove. If you do go through with the dismantling, you’ll find lots of nails which need to be removed to avoid injury.
They May Be Defective
Not all pallets are created equal! Much of the lumber used for pallets isn’t as straight or free of defects as higher grade lumber. This means unpredictability, which can make pallet wood hard to work with for high-precision applications. The salvaged wood may not be sturdy and safe enough, specially for a project like a playset for your kids. Get inspiration from one of these 12 awesome DIY playsets instead.
They’re Susceptible to Vermin and Insect Infestations
Because wood packaging materials (WPM), including pallets, are made from recently cut trees, they may have live insects and disease organisms that can be transported from one country to another. In fact, the majority of non-native bark and wood-infesting insects that now reside in the U.S. are thought to have been transported via WPM.
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Strong reasoning
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Home & Hobbies
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With most modern cryptography, the ability to keep encrypted information secret is based not on the cryptographic algorithm, which is widely known, but on a key. A key is a number that must be used with the algorithm to produce an encrypted result or to decrypt previously encrypted information. For information about encryption and decryption with keys, see the following sections:
With symmetric-key encryption, the encryption key can be calculated from the decryption key, and vice versa. With most symmetric algorithms, the same key is used for both encryption and decryption. The following figure shows a symmetric-key encryption.
Implementations of symmetric-key encryption can be highly efficient, so that users do not experience any significant time delay as a result of the encryption and decryption. Symmetric-key encryption also provides a degree of authentication, since information encrypted with one symmetric key cannot be decrypted with any other symmetric key. Thus, as long as the symmetric key is kept secret by the two parties using it to encrypt communications, each party can be sure that it is communicating with the other as long as the decrypted messages continue to make sense.
Symmetric-key encryption is effective only if the symmetric key is kept secret by the two parties involved. If anyone else discovers the key, it affects both confidentiality and authentication. A person with an unauthorized symmetric key not only can decrypt messages sent with that key, but can encrypt new messages and send them as if they came from one of the two parties who were originally using the key.
Symmetric-key encryption plays an important role in the SSL protocol, which is widely used for authentication, tamper detection, and encryption over TCP/IP networks. SSL also uses techniques of public-key encryption, which is described in the next section.
The most commonly used implementations of public-key encryption are based on algorithms patented by RSA Data Security. Therefore, this section describes the RSA approach to public-key encryption.
Public-key encryption (also called asymmetric encryption) involves a pair of keys—a public key and a private key—associated with an entity that needs to authenticate its identity electronically or to sign or encrypt data. Each public key is published, and the corresponding private key is kept secret. The following figure shows a simplified view of the way public-key encryption works.
Public—key encryption lets you distribute a public key, and only you can read data encrypted by this key. In general, to send encrypted data to someone, you encrypt the data with that person’s public key, and the person receiving the encrypted data decrypts it with the corresponding private key.
Compared with symmetric-key encryption, public-key encryption requires more computation and is therefore not always appropriate for large amounts of data. However, it’s possible to use public-key encryption to send a symmetric key, which can then be used to encrypt additional data. This is the approach used by the SSL protocol.
As it happens, the reverse of the scheme shown in Figure 2–13 also works: data encrypted with your private key can be decrypted with your public key only. This would not be a desirable way to encrypt sensitive data, however, because it means that anyone with your public key, which is by definition published, could decrypt the data. Nevertheless, private-key encryption is useful, because it means you can use your private key to sign data with your digital signature—an important requirement for electronic commerce and other commercial applications of cryptography. Client software can then use your public key to confirm that the message was signed with your private key and that it hasn’t been tampered with since being signed. Digital Signatures on Digital Signatures and subsequent sections describe how this confirmation process works.
The strength of encryption is related to the difficulty of discovering the key, which in turn depends on both the cipher used and the length of the key. For example, the difficulty of discovering the key for the RSA cipher most commonly used for public-key encryption depends on the difficulty of factoring large numbers, a well-known mathematical problem.
Encryption strength is often described in terms of the size of the keys used to perform the encryption: in general, longer keys provide stronger encryption. Key length is measured in bits. For example, 128-bit keys for use with the RC4 symmetric-key cipher supported by SSL provide significantly better cryptographic protection than 40-bit keys for use with the same cipher. Roughly speaking, 128-bit RC4 encryption is 3 x 1026 times stronger than 40-bit RC4 encryption.
Different ciphers may require different key lengths to achieve the same level of encryption strength. The RSA cipher used for public-key encryption, for example, can use only a subset of all possible values for a key of a given length, due to the nature of the mathematical problem on which it is based. Other ciphers, such as those used for symmetric key encryption, can use all possible values for a key of a given length, rather than a subset of those values. Thus a 128-bit key for use with a symmetric-key encryption cipher would provide stronger encryption than a 128-bit key for use with the RSA public-key encryption cipher. This difference explains why the RSA public-key encryption cipher must use a 512-bit key (or longer) to be considered cryptographically strong, whereas symmetric key ciphers can achieve approximately the same level of strength with a 64-bit key. Even this level of strength may be vulnerable to attacks in the near future.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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An article by Sabrina Tavernise appeared in the New York Times a few days ago describing increasing perceptions of class conflict in America, and there is a lot of recent commentary in the press about this report from the Pew Charitable Trust that claims there is less class mobility here than in several other northern countries. It is not very clear to me what the complaints really are or what alternatives exist. If there is any substantial heritability of merit, where merit is whatever leads to class mobility, then mobility ought to turn classes into hereditary castes surprisingly rapidly.
A start at looking into genetic consequences of meritocracy is to create the simplest possible model and follow its implications. Consider free meritocracy in a two class system, meaning that each generation anyone in the lower class who has greater merit than someone in the upper class immediately swaps class with them. Mating then occurs at random within class. There are no fitness differences, no selection at all, everything is neutral. It is convenient to discuss what happens in terms of IQ because IQ is familiar and, in northern industrial nations, closely related to merit. On the other hand we have to keep in mind that our focus on IQ is like that of the drunk searching for his keys under the lamppost: we can measure IQ but have no good way to measure honesty nor time preference nor conscientiousness and so on.
This figure shows an initial population with normally distributed merit. A new merit based class system is imposed such that the two new classes are of equal size. In this free meritocracy everyone with merit exceeding the population mean moves into the upper class and everyone with merit less than the average moves into the lower class. The second panel of the figure shows the resulting merit distributions by class before reproduction and the bottom panel shows the distributions after endogamous reproduction. This model assumes that the reshuffling of genes during reproduction leads to normal distributions in the next generation within classes.
The process continues for several generations. By analogy with IQ the additive heritability of merit is set to 0.6 so there are substantial random environmental effects. The second figure shows the evolution of class differences over four generations or about 100 years in human terms.
Class mobility after the first generation is 30% while after four generations it has declined to 10% and continues to decline after that. The average merit in the two classes is about -1SD in the lower and +1SD in the upper on the original scale, corresponding to IQs of 85 and 115.
Recall that there are no fitness differences in this model. Still, after four generations, about 70% of the variance is between classes, which can be compared to about 35% of the variance among continental human groups for random genetic markers, i.e. colloquially class differences are twice neutral race differences. (The familiar among-population figure of 15% made famous by Lewontin refers to gene differences while here we are comparing genotype differences of diploids, hence the difference between 15 and 35.)
A surprise to me from this model was the rapidity with which classes turn into castes: most of the action is in the first generation or so. In retrospect this seems so obvious that it is hardly worth saying but it wasn’t so obvious to me when I started toying with it.
Even though everything here is selectively neutral, I wonder about the extent to which this free meritocracy mimics selection. Any mutant that boosts merit in carriers will be concentrated in the upper class and vice versa. Greg and I discuss in our book how environmental change initially selects for dinged genes that are “quick fixes” in carriers but detrimental in homozygotes, citing sickle cell in humans, broken myostatin in beef cattle, and numerous others. Does this social system mimic selection?
A correlate of IQ in humans is myopia, one idea being that IQ boosters relax early developmental constraints on CNS growth resulting in eyeballs too big for the socket, leading to myopia. I have read somewhere that myopia is positively related to income in the US. Time to try to find that literature.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Emotionally healthy children do better in school, find more success as adults, and lead happier lives. They can be happy and fulfilled as they grow up.
Follow these strategies to increase your child’s emotional well-being:
- Be open about your feelings. The world isn’t always positive, and you may have struggles. It helps your children understand your feelings if they see the reality of the world.
- Kids copy their parents, so they’ll mimic your emotions.
- As an emotionally healthy adult, you’ll show your kids that it’s normal to have both positive and negative feelings. If you’re open about them, they’ll be able to learn from you.
- You may be tempted to protect your children from your real emotions. However, you won’t help them this way, and you’ll miss a teaching opportunity.
- Avoid judging feelings. Adults sometimes criticize others and their feelings. Your kids are always watching, so they learn to judge others too.
- When you judge and criticize the emotions of others, you show your kids that it’s normal to make fun of or mock other people. They can suffer emotional damage because they learn to criticize others or become scared to show their own feelings.
- It’s also important to avoid labeling feelings as good or bad. Sometimes you may be happy, and sometimes you may be sad, but both are normal. Kids shouldn’t feel ashamed of their feelings.
- Avoid telling your kids how to feel. When you try to control a child’s emotions, it leads both of you down a dangerous path.
- You can’t control every aspect of your child’s life. If you try to tell children how to feel, they become scared to show their true emotions. They learn that they can’t be honest about their feelings, so they stifle or hide them.
- When you tell your kids they have to be happy, you prevent them from figuring out why they don’t feel this way.
- Parents often feel that their kids are an extension of their personalities and expect them to act and feel the same way. However, each child is a unique individual. You can’t expect them to feel the same way as you.
- Resolve your emotional wounds. You’ll find it difficult to teach your kids how to deal with their feelings when you’re struggling with your own. Kids naturally copy their parents, so they may pick up on your traumas.
- Take care to prevent the emotional wounds from your past or present from carrying over to your children.
- Ask questions. Kids benefit from opportunities to discuss their emotions. Ask questions and find out how they feel, rather than assuming what they’re feeling.
- When you ask about their feelings, your kids will learn to articulate them. They’ll learn to express their thoughts and emotions.
Emotionally healthy children grow up to be successful and happy adults. They’ll also be able to use these skills when they get older and face challenges. The ability to be emotionally available and knowledgeable is a powerful tool. Your kids will enjoy great advantages from learning about their feelings.
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
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3 Ways in which psychology is trying to make progress
What was the problem again? Briefly put, the problem is that much doubt has arisen about the reliability of much research that has been done in the field of psychology. The most important reason for this doubt is that many replication studies have been done in which the effects of the original studies have either not been found of were much weaker. Several lines of research, for instance on priming, ego depletion, and powerposes have, at least to some extent, fallen into disrepute. Some of the problems which underlie the limited robustness of these findings are publication bias, p-hacking, and mixing science with commerce.
As I said, some scientists responded defensively to the replication studies but the majority of the scientific community seems to agree that the problems are real and is working to solve them. I want to mention three ways in which psychology tries to make progress.
1. Replication research continuesResearchers continue to do new replication studies. One example is in replication studies into the so-called facial feedback hypothesis. This hypothesis which is based on the work by one of psychology's founders, Williams James, says that facial expressions are not only effects of felt emotions. Instead, according to James, emotions felt and facial expressions are like a two way street. Facial expression also affect the emotions we feel. A famous experiment by Strack et al. (1988) confirmed this hypothesis. They had participants take a pen in their mouth which cause their facial muscles into what looked like a smile. They then found that these participants started to feel happier. This influential study has now been replicated in 17 laboratories from all over the world and its findings were not confirmed. In 9 experiments the findings were in the same direction as in the original study but the effect which was found was much weaker. The other experiments, however, found an opposite effect. Together, these findings give rise to serious doubt as to whether the facial feedback hypothesis is correct (read more). Which other findings will fall into disrepute?
2. Individual scientists draw their lessonsIn response to the current situation several researchers are trying to draw their lessons and change their practices. Michael Inzlicht (photo), a researcher which has worked on ego depletion for years, at first was shocked but soon decided to draw lessons from the current crisis and carried out a critical self-examination. To find out to which extent he had contributed to the crisis he analyzed all of his papers on three metrics: the p-curve, the R-Index, and the TIVA (read here how and why he did that). To find out whether the scientific quality of this work had improved over the years, he compared his first 10 papers with his latest 10 papers. Inzlicht writes that he was more than a little afraid of what he would discover and his overall judgment is cricital. But he also concludes that the quality of his research is improving (read the details here).
As you know, good examples tend to be followed. Michael Kraus, in response to Inzlicht, did an even more detailed self-analysis.
Will other scientists follow these examples?Auditing my research practices was horrifying, but also necessary for moving forward. New blog. https://t.co/gj4ghf67Lx— Michael W. Kraus (@mwkraus) August 23, 2016
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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The stinking truth behind smelly dog breath
If your pet's breath smells bad, take immediate action because it is one of the surest signals that your companion is headed for life-threatening health problems, a leading veterinary oral care group cautions, and a new report about heart ailments and dogs gives much credence to the warning.
Bad breath is caused by gum disease, which three of four dogs will develop by middle age. If left untreated, it will lead to bacteria invading the bloodstream and possibly damaging a pet's heart, liver and kidneys, according to the Veterinary Oral Health Council.
that will touch your heart
- MySetterSam page at Createspace.com, the book's publisher. Createspace.com is a division of Amazon.com.
Story continues here
And a Purdue University professor's findings of a definitive link between gum disease and heart problems in dogs underscores the magnitude of the problem.
“We knew from previously published research that there was growing evidence of a link between gum disease and heart disease, diabetes, birth defects and low birth weight among humans," Larry Glickman, a professor of epidemiology who conducted the study, states in a media release. "So we thought it was time to assess whether such a link existed in dogs. The research is important because gum disease occurs in up to 75 percent of all dogs by middle age."
For the study, which was published in the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Glickman examined records of 59,296 dogs with gum disease and matched them to those of a similar number of dogs without gum problems. He followed the dogs to see which ones developed heart diseases and the type. He did statistical tests which showed the incidence of heart disease increases with the severity of the gum disease.
Dr. Glickman says isolating the specific bacteria in the mouth that causes the inflammation of gums can lead to better treatment and prevention.
"Knowing the mechanism is important, because it'll allow us to develop preventive drugs and then examine their effectiveness," Dr. Glickman said. "We can also get pet food companies to develop foods that will prevent gum disease in dogs and cats."
Preventive care is the best way to stop pets from developing periodontal disease and that starts with the brushing of teeth, Johnathon Dodd, a clinical associate professor at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, states in a media release. "Ideally, you should brush your pet’s teeth daily,” he said.
But toothpaste used by people cannot be used for pets, Dr. Dodd said. “Make sure you are using special toothpaste that is made for pets and is safe for them to swallow. They cannot spit or rinse like we do, therefore, our pets need specific kinds of toothpaste that is not harmful if ingested.”
Pet toothbrushes and toothpaste, which usually coming in different flavors, can be purchased at veterinary offices and pet retail stores. Pets also should have their teeth annually cleaned and examined by a professional, Dr. Dodd said.
“Most veterinary clinics should offer dental cleaning services, but if they do not they can refer you to someone who does,” he said.
Certain dog treats also promote good dental help, Dr. Dodd said. “The right kind of treat should crumble, be easily crushed, and contain chlorhexadine or a hydrogen peroxide-type additive that can help with the bacteria count in the animal’s mouth."
According to the Veterinary Oral Health Council, periodontal disease - an infection resulting from the buildup of dental plaque and tartar on the surfaces of the teeth around the gums - is the most common ailment that occurs in pets. The bacteria in plaque irritates the gum tissue, which can lead to infection in the bone surrounding the teeth.
Simple home remedy can add years to your pet's life
Reports about dogs and health:
Try this fountain of youth for your pet
A wonder drug guaranteed to help your pet
This formula is certain to sicken your pet
Only saps let their dogs play fetch with sticks
For pets, there's a rash of trouble in the air
Alarming rise in heartworm a threat to pets
The flu bug can bite your dog, too
Purebred dogs needlessly suffering, report says
Dog heart medicine research results promising
Cushing's drug receives FDA approval
Paralyzing diseases of dogs, people linked
Warning issued about alternative medicine
More reports about dogs and health
Reports about dogs and flea, tick control:
Pet deaths prompt tougher rules for flea, tick items
Use of flea, tick products a must despite EPA warning
Stop ticks from dogging - or killing - your pet
Your dog may have you sleeping with thousands of fleas
Get pets ready for invasion of blood-sucking insects
Reports about dogs and cancer:
Major breakthrough in canine cancer treatment
First-ever canine cancer drug developed
Making strides in fight against canine cancer
Worldwide effort to cure canine cancer
The condition usually causes bad breath, painful irritated gums that can lead to bleeding and loss of appetite, and the loss of teeth. The bacteria will eventually get into the bloodstream and can damage internal organs.
THE RUFF REPORT
So easy to read. You choose the topic!
Adoption | Food | Health | Rescue
Safety and Behavior | Surveys and Studies
Like MySetterSam on Facebook
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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It’s hot this week … over 90 degrees and high humidity. Don’t you just love summer in Ohio?
We have an abundance of lakes in Delaware County to cool off and get refreshed. There’s Alum Creek Reservoir, Delaware Lake, Hoover Reservoir, O’Shaughnessy Reservoir and a large number of privately owned lakes and ponds that can be good cooling spots. Have you ever been on the shore or in a boat this time of the year and noticed a green tinge to the water? Ever wonder what that is from or if it is safe to swim?
I’m sure you have heard of blue-green algae by now. This toxin has closed down the city of Toledo’s water treatment plant, lakes at state parks, and swimming beaches along the shores of Lake Erie. Recent events in Florida have indicated dangerous levels of blue green algae also.
But some levels of algae in the water are necessary for a healthy aquatic environment. Blue-green alga is actually not an alga at all – it is a cyanobacteria toxin. It is a naturally occurring food source for aquatic organisms. Low levels of this toxin are an important link in the food chain and at low levels are not toxic or unsafe for humans or pets. However, if the levels become too high, as seen last year in Lake Erie and other lakes, they become known as Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs) and pose a threat to human health and pet safety.
We have been fortunate that our weather patterns this summer have been moderate and the algae levels have not reached the levels of the past two years. Extremely high temperatures combined with heavy storm events can quickly cause HABs to return. Shallow lakes, such as Grand Lake St. Mary’s and the western basin of Lake Erie are particularly vulnerable to HABs due to the ability of sunlight to reach the floor of the water body and accelerate the growth of algae. And phosphorous levels in our soils — whether it be from farm fields, golf courses, failing home sewage systems, or lawns and landscaping — will always be potential contributors to this problem.
Rainfall runoff from our land picks up any available phosphorous and empties it into our lakes and streams. Phosphorous is a fertilizer which contributes to the growth of algae.
If you are interested in learning more about water quality and algae blooms in particular, plan to attend a workshop addressing these topics on Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 7 pm at the Orange Township Hall, 1680 E. Orange Road, Lewis Center. OSU Extension biologist Eugene Braig will be the featured speaker and will address HABs and answer your questions.
Most importantly, we can all learn about how we can work together to reduce the phosphorous runoff causing algae blooms. The workshop is free; however please register with the Delaware Soil and Water Conservative District by calling the office at 740-368-1921 or email [email protected] Reservations are due by July 29.
Brad Ross is communications specialist at the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District. He can be reached at [email protected]
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Moderate reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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All just powers, Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, derive from the consent of the governed. Governments are republican, he later said, "in proportion as they embody the will of the people and execute it."
But in America today, the power that stands astride this country like a colossus is not the power of the majority; it is not the power of the governed; it is the power of the judiciary. The Supreme Court, not the majority, decides what is right or wrong in America. The Supreme Court has final say on criminal justice, education, voting, employment and promotion, taxation, immigration and deportation.
In these areas, as in all others, the majority can pass a law or make a proposal, but it is always up to the Court to make the final decision. It may find a "constitutional right" and decide the majority's plan violates it: End of majority plan.
To revise Lincoln's words, we today have a government of the judiciary, by the judiciary, and for the judiciary.
Now, someone must determine what a child will learn, how a criminal shall be treated, and what kind of society we will live in. Who shall it be? The judiciary -- or the majority?
Traditionally, in America, middle-class families controlled most of the things central to their welfare. They decided them at the state and local level -- education, crime, spending, taxation, public health and welfare, including abortion. The values of the governed prevailed because, if government officials weren't responsive, they were kicked out of office.
As the judiciary takeover took hold, however, the power to throw the bums out became almost pointless because elected officials had less and less power. The middle class had lost the ability to control the things that mattered to it. Its power had been taken away from it by the Supreme Court. The Court centralized power in Washington and exercised that power without democratic consensus. Led by the Court, the country set off on a 30-year experiment with non-democratic government.
We get one kind of society when decisions are made by the majority. We get another kind when decisions are made by judges, what Jefferson called the "despotism of an oligarchy."
The majority has never asked government to do anything brilliant or unusual -- just educate a child, defend the nation, and keep the streets safe. Civilized society had been doing those things for a long, long time, and we were even doing them at reasonable cost, in the much-maligned 1950s. But the Court took them over and made itself morally answerable for the safety and welfare of the nation. And the things the Court took over in working order do not work any more.
Today the values of the Supreme Court determine all the issues that make up the quality of life. Unfortunately, the values of the Court differ markedly from those of the governed.
The Court, by the mid-1960s, began a long period of active opposition to the wishes of the majority. Since then, the Court has been in the vanguard of an intellectual elite that believes that the prevailing social order of middle-class America is deeply flawed, unjust, and irrational.
Traditionally, the Court's function was to decide cases, to interpret the law, to supervise the lower courts, and on rare occasions to declare a federal or state law unconstitutional. But look at how far the federal judiciary has gone.
- In 1958, the Court ruled that prayer, commonplace in American public schools, was now unconstitutional. All prayer, Bible instruction, and even the posting of the Ten Commandments was henceforth forbidden.
- In 1973, the Supreme Court declared that women had a constitutional right to an abortion, a right undiscovered by the men who had written the Constitution or any of the greatest of the jurists who interpreted it over two centuries.
- In 1974, Judge Arthur Garrity ordered the integration of Boston's public schools through court-ordered busing. Result: violence, boycotts, racial animosity. Instead of integration, Judge Garrity produced a school system where 80 percent of the students are minority Americans.
- In 1987, a Kansas City federal judge ordered a doubling of property taxes and a 25 percent increase in income taxes to pay for improvements in the public schools.
- In 1988, in Yonkers, Judge Leonard Sand imposed stiff and escalating fines, nearly bankrupting the city, because its elected officials refused to vote as the judge had demanded on a plan to put low-cost housing in white neighborhoods.
- In 1995, the Supreme Court threw out term limits on congressional delegations in 23 states.
What we have here is gross usurpation of power by federal courts, which are using that power to rewrite laws to conform with the Court's idea of what is just, fair, and right. What the Founding Fathers intended to be the weakest branch of the federal government has become the most powerful: The Supreme Court has become a superlegislature.
The Court's new role is as adversary to the people.
By defining "individual rights" as it wished, the Court has centralized control over every moral, political, social, and economic issue in the country. The Court says it is acting on behalf of a higher authority, the Constitution, but in fact the Supreme Court has twisted and reshaped the Constitution -- as Jefferson said -- as an artist shapes a ball of wax.
The Court today derives its powers from its own will and is not subject to correction or reversal. It has become the one branch of government on which there is no check, and for which there is no balance.
Judges, Justice William Brennan wrote in the 1979 decision, "are not mere umpires, but, in their own sphere, lawmakers." In 1985, Justice Brennan told a Georgetown Law School audience that the "Majoritarian process has appeal under some circumstances, but I think ultimately it will not do." Justice Brennan added: "Faith in democracy is one thing, blind faith quite another." The Court's role, he said, is "to declare certain values transcendent, beyond the reach of temporary political majorities."
The Court freely uses all the coercive power of the state to enforce its orders. One rule binds al l-- either there will be school prayer or flag burning or term limits or pornography, or there won't be -- and if it is not the majority's rule that prevails, as it is in a democracy, it is the minority's.
The minority, because of the Court's intervention, is no longer just protected; it is put in control. However, the Court, despite the use and threat of force, has not settled anything. Race relations are worse than they were. Abortion is a sorer issue today than when the Court took control of it in the 1973 decision, . Force cannot bring about a democratically sustainable solution to the culture wars.
Criminal conduct, to the Court, became a form of self-expression, a statement of social protest and criticism. The Court orders that taxpayers must provide lawyers for criminal defendants who cannot afford to pay for one. The Court routinely overrules the actions of local police, of boards of education, and the state laws under which they act.
Who are the beneficiaries of the Court's protection? Members of various minorities including criminals, atheists, homosexuals, flag burners, illegal immigrants (including terrorists), convicts, and pornographers. In December 1994, the month after 59 percent of California voters approved Proposition 187 limiting social welfare benefits available to illegal aliens, a single federal judge prohibited state and local officials from following the new law. California taxpayers continue to support the illegals as the case drags on in the federal courts.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg of judicial dictatorship in America.
The Court's power flows to economic as well as social and cultural issues. Since it interprets the antitrust laws, the Court determines the amount of competition in the country. The laws, which Teddy Roosevelt intended to protect small business, have been interpreted to favor big business. The Court has also ruled to encourage the forces of globalism against American workers.
In a 1986 decision, the Court ruled against U.S. TV manufacturers -- when we still had some -- and in favor of their Japanese competitors. The Japanese conceded they had conspired to raise profits in Japan but denied they did so to bankroll a predatory pricing conspiracy in the United States to drive our manufacturers out of business.
The Court agreed with the Japanese that no trial to find the facts was necessary. According to the Court, the Japanese had no "plausible motive to engage in the conduct charged." The Japanese, the Court said, "had no rational motive to conspire" since it would call for them "to destroy [U.S.] companies larger and better established than themselves, a goal that remains far distant."
But not so far distant after the Court's decision: The Court, when it could have made a difference, allowed the Japanese to drive the American companies out of business. The middle class, which had lost its political clout, was now losing its well-paying jobs.
Federal courts today supervise and, in effect, administer the operation of the state schools, prisons, and mental hospitals. A consent decree in South Carolina requires the state to provide a recreational program for convicts, including tournaments in croquet, badminton, paddleball, and backgammon.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in July 1993, prior to her confirmation hearings, wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee that federal judges find these "chores" to be "uncongenial and unwelcome." Had "state and federal legislatures" done a better job, the courts would not have been forced to take over the schools, prisons, and mental hospitals. The majority, according to Justice Ginsburg's theory of democracy, gets first shot at solving problems to the satisfaction of federal judges. But not the last word.
The Court argues that it is the only institution that will protect the rights of minorities and prevent the tyranny of the majority. But who thinks the majority wants to tyrannize over the minority? The majority changes as the issue changes.
Does the country need nine guardians to save us from totalitarianism? Can it be saved from totalitarianism by nine guardians? Jefferson thought the majority was the only "true guardian" of individual rights. The majority may sometimes err, Jefferson said, but "its errors are honest, solitary and short-lived."
Democracies correct mistakes sooner and more easily than do other systems. Judges with lifetime tenure, like dictators, do not correct -- or admit -- their mistakes. Majority action corrects, as do safety valves on a steam engine.
Jefferson did not see anything in the Constitution that gave the Supreme Court power "to decide for the Executive, more than to the Executive to decide for them."
The Alien and Sedition Laws were enacted by the Federalist Congress in 1798 to suppress criticism of the government. The federal courts found the laws to be constitutional and convicted and imprisoned newspaper publishers. Upon Jefferson's election in 1800, he released every person in jail, or being prosecuted under the laws, asserting the law "was a nullity, as absolute and as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image: and that it was as much my duty to arrest its execution in every stage, as it would have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship the image."
How do we reign in an out-of-control Court? It is not hard to do; here are several ideas:
- One, we could appoint judges for a term of years rather than for life. The term could be renewed if the President and Senate think they have done a good job. We should not delude ourselves that life terms keep judges above the political fray. They have joined the fray and, like other politicians, must be held to some accountability.
- Second, federal judges at the appellate and district court levels could be made subject to voter recall and removal.
- Third, Congress could use its power, granted in the Constitution, to restrict the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
- Fourth, we could do what Teddy Roosevelt recommended in his 1912 presidential campaign -- have the nation decide at the next election whether to uphold or reject any Court decision creating a new "right" or overturning a state or federal law. "It is the people and not the judges who are entitled to say what the Constitution means," said T.R., "for the Constitution is theirs, it belongs to them and not to their servants in office."
- Fifth, we could simplify the way in which we amend the Constitution--to remove Congress from the process.
Right now the Constitution requires Congress to approve proposed amendments before they can be sent to the states for their consideration. Congress, however, obviously won't approve limits on its powers such as are called for in the Balanced Budget and Term Limits Amendments. Congress also naturally protects the Court because the Court is the source of most of its powers. We should allow the states, without the approval of Congress, to amend the Constitution.
Any state should be able to propose an amendment, and if three-fourths of the states agree to the language, the amendment should become part of the Constitution. At the Constitutional Convention, Mr. Madison came close to having such authority put into the Constitution.
The purpose here is not radical change. It is to put an end to radical change being imposed upon a free people by an unelected elite which serves for life and is answerable now to no one. It is to restore the original system of checks and balances envisioned by the conservative men who wrote the Constitution.
Over the past 30 years, the Court has lost any sense of its proper relation to the country and has consequently lost the respect of the people. The people's respect will return as soon as the Court returns to its traditional role--an independent judiciary acting within a democratic Republic.
Majority rule is not perfect, and a democratic Republic will not always be just, or incorrupt, or provide a completely rational social order wherein all wants are satisfied. A majoritarian society is imperfect because man is imperfect. But it is the faith of the democrat that self-government provides the best way of assuring freedom for the individual to live as he wishes, and to develop his talents to their fullest.
In a judicial dictatorship, you get a government and society designed by the Supreme Court to conform to its intellectual vision of America. The public, however, does not share the Court's vision. With democracy, you get, as Jefferson said, not a perfect government, but one as good as the people.
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Strong reasoning
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Politics
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Dedicated in 1877, the Peace Monument stands in remembrance of members of the United States Navy who perished in battle in defense of the Union during the Civil War. The Monument is also known as the Naval Monument and the Civil War Sailors Monument. The monument is over 40 feet tall and is one of several large monuments in the nation. It also stands as apart of a trifecta of sculptures next to the James A. Garfield Monument and the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.
The Peace Monument stands with the Capital Building as a backdrop. Picture by an unknown employee of the the federal government and all images are located in public domain.
The Peace Monument was one of several monuments envisioned by veterans and military leaders as the Civil War came to a close. It was dedicated in 1878.
Backstory and Context
The United States Navy were adamant in protecting the Union Army during the American Civil War which led to this monument being dedicated to their work. The original idea for the monument was conceived by Admiral David Dixon Porter, who was the commander of a fleet of boats during the Civil War. Porter made the first design for the statue and spent time raising money to erect the monument from private donors. He had a simpler idea for the statue in 1865 that only involved two figures. This idea would eventually evolve into what viewers see today in a complex monument with several figures and objects of meaning. On a stylus attached to the monument, it reads:
“They died that their country might live.”
The monument is a neoclassical Civil War monument designed and created by sculptor Frank Simmons. Simmons was born in Maine and was known for his portrait busts. Simmons sculpted the Peace Monument as well as several other pieces for display at the United States Capitol. The first thing a visitor of the monument will notice is the unique location of the monument as it sits inside Peace Circle surrounded by water. A visitor will also observe how the monument towers from above are standing at 44 feet tall. The monument is made out of marble from Carrera, Italy where it was sculpted by Simmons. Once finished and shipped to the United States, the monument was placed on a base of Maine blue granite.
The top of the monument has two robed women. One of the woman (Grief) holds her head on the other’s (History) shoulder while weeping in mourning. History holds a tablet that has the previous quote mentioned above attached onto it. Below Grief and History is another figure of a woman who holds a laurel wreath high and an oak branch as symbols of strength. This figure is named Victory. Further down on the monument, visitors will see the figures of infant Neptune and infant Mars. Infant Mars is the God of War while infant Neptune is the God of Sea. On the opposite side, another figure of a woman stands only covered from the waist down holding a olive sprig. This woman is named Peace. The monument has several other symbols of peace and industry to include a sickle resting across a sword and a dove that is since missing nesting on a sheaf of wheat. Symbols of literature, science, and art also appear on the statue in the shapes of a book, gear, angle, and pair of dividers.
The Peace Monument. Architect of the Capital. Accessed September 21, 2017. https://www.aoc.gov/capitol-grounds/peace-monument.
Picture By Jamieadams99 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62309129
Inventory of American Sculpture. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Control number 77006655
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Moderate reasoning
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History
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While known as a precision process, many fabricators using the Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW, or TIG welding) process fight several common problems that hinder quality, slow production, frustrate the operator and otherwise prevent the process from achieving its full potential. These include a limited ability to tailor the weld bead profile, poor control of the arc direction and arc wandering, poor arc starting, unstable or inconsistent arcs in the AC mode, high frequency interference with electronics and tungsten contamination,
Fortunately, new TIG welding technology – made possible by advances with inverter-based power sources and microprocessor controls – can eliminate common productivity gremlins. Further, Miller Electric's new AC/DC inverter-based TIG welder, the Dynasty™ 300 DX, provides advanced arc shaping capabilities. As a result, many fabricators adopting this new technology have experienced phenomenal production increases, taken on new types of projects and reduced costs. Most importantly, the operators enjoy welding more.
Advanced Squarewave Performance
In the mid-1970s, Miller Electric set the standard for AC/DC TIG technology when it introduced the Syncrowave® welding machine with its Squarewave AC output technology. Squarewave technology minimized the problems inherent with AC welding: arc rectification, arc stumbling, wandering and outages.
Non-Squarewave machines usually exhibited these symptoms during the Electrode Negative (EN) to Electrode Positive (EP) transition of the AC sine wave. Sometimes, these older units 1) did not have enough "push" to drive the arc through the zero crossing and then re-establish the arc in the opposite polarity.
If five or six EN to EP cycles failed in a row, it created another problem: the welding output began to resemble DC. If this occurs, a TIG machine reaches for open circuit voltage in an attempt to get enough voltage to re-establish AC welding output. Unfortunately, the excess voltage can cause current overshoots. This may produce tungsten spitting, which degrades weld quality.
Squarewave technology shortened the switching time between EN and EP, so it created a more desirable arc. So desirable, in fact, that all higher end AC TIG machines now feature Squarewave technology (Miller's patent expired in 1994). However, not all Squarewave technology is created equal.
The advanced Squarewave technology employed in an inverter-based TIG machine takes EN to EP switching time a quantum leap forward.
Inverters use advanced power switching semiconductors (you might hear them called IGBTs) and microprocessor controls that operate thousands of times faster than "conventional" power switching devices and controls. As a result, inverters push the arc through the zero crossing very quickly. This very quick transition improves weld quality and consistency.
Not all inverters are created equal, either. Miller's Dynasty 300 DX has a unique design advantage because it uses a full bridge rectifier. This costs more than a half-bridge rectifier other AC/DC TIG inverters use, but it permits using a smaller stabilizer. A stabilizer is the "electricity sponge" that maintains the arc when it transitions through zero. The smaller the sponge, the faster the transition. This gives the Dynasty 300 DX a truer Squarewave output than any inverter in its class, so it has the smoothest, most consistent AC TIG arc in the industry.
Extended Balance Control
Using AC to TIG weld aluminum evolved from the need to remove the oxide layer that forms on its surface. The EP portion of the AC cycle, in which electricity flows from the work to the tungsten, "blasts" off surface oxides. The EN portion of the cycle does the actual welding, directing heat from the tungsten into the metal.
When Miller engineers invented the Squarewave AC output, they also discovered that an unbalanced AC wave form works best for many applications. Lighter-duty machines feature a fixed balance control set for more penetration than cleaning.
Advanced Squarewave machines feature adjustable balance control, another Miller invention. This feature permits tailoring the EN/EP ratio to match an application.
Conventional TIG welders, such as Miller's Syncrowave 250 and Syncrowave 350 LX, lets you adjust EN values from 45 to 68 percent (55 to 32 percent EP). Inverters, because of their power switching capabilities, provide extended balance control. For example, the Dynasty 300 DX allows the operator to fine tune the duration of the EN portion of the cycle from 50 to 90 percent (50 to 10 percent EP; adjusting the EP portion of the cycle beyond 50 percent provides no further benefits).
Increasing time in the EP portion of the cycle removes more oxide and create a shallower, wider bead. On aluminum, increasing the cleaning action improves quality by minimizing the chance of foreign particles becoming included in the weld.
Greater amounts of EN create a deeper, narrower weld bead, better joint penetration and a smaller etched zone. This helps when welding on thick material or when appearance (i.e., a minimal etched zone) is important. Setting an inverter's EN duration to the maximum level creates the potential to deliver 22 percent more heat to the work compared to a conventional TIG machine. Adding more heat in the same amount of time permits faster travel speeds. This means that fabricators using extended balance control technology can often produce more parts per hour.
No hard rules exist for setting balance control. The typical error involves over-balancing the cycle. Too much EP creates a large ball on the end of the tungsten. Consequently, the arc loses stability and then you can't control arc direction or the weld puddle; arc starts also degrade. Too little EP results in a scummy weld puddle. Add more cleaning action if the puddle looks like it has black pepper flakes floating on its surface.
Welding Frequency Control
Advanced inverter-based welding machines give operators another option that dramatically enhances shaping of the bead profile: frequency control. Conventional AC TIG welders have a fixed output of 50 or 60 Hz, but some inverters let the operator adjust the welding output frequency. For example, the output frequency on Dynasty 300 DX adjusts from 20 to 250 Hz (other inverters can adjust frequency, but not quite as broadly).
Decreasing frequency produces a broader arc cone, which widens the weld bead profile and better removes impurities from the surface of the metal. It also transfers the maximum amount of energy to the work piece, which speeds up applications requiring heavy metal deposition (such as building up a worn part or making a fill pass).
Increasing frequency produces a tight, focused arc cone. This creates deeper penetration and it narrows the weld bead, which helps when welding in corners, on root passes and fillet welds.
It lets operators direct the arc precisely at the joint and not have the arc dance from plate to plate.
Best of all, increasing the frequency, combined with increasing EN duration and using a pointed tungsten (see side bar story on pointed tungstens), can dramatically increase travel speed and reduce production time. When applied to the right application, improvements from 10 up to 40 percent are frequently reported.
A good starting point for general welding would be 80 to 120 Hz. These frequencies will be comfortable to work with, increase control of the arc direction and boost travel speed. For a fillet weld application with full penetration in the weld without putting too much amperage in the metal, increase the frequency to 225 to 250 Hz. For build up work, start at 60 Hz and adjust lower from there.
Banishing the Arc Starting Gremlins
Conventional TIG welders may experience arc starting problems for a variety of reasons, but they are all linked to getting the weld current flowing between the tungsten and the work piece. An explanation of what the welding current is trying to do will help.
Whether welding in the DC EN mode (the normal mode for work on ferrous metal) or the AC mode, the current must flow from the tungsten to the work piece. Starts cause problems because the current first must overcome the resistance of the tungsten.
That is, the current must heat the tungsten so it becomes a better emitter of electrons; at that point, the arc can jump from the tungsten to the work piece.
One traditional option for "solving" DC arc starting problems, and the standard method for improving AC arc starts, involves superimposing a high frequency (HF) current over the welding current. Basically, the HF current forms a path for the welding current to follow and so the arc can be established. Unfortunately, HF interferes with CNC machines, computers and other electronic equipment because its frequency is similar to a radio's and can be "broadcasted" (one user of continuous HF reported that it affected the accounting computer...and was changing invoice figures!).
The circuitry of the Dynasty 300 DX provides a unique solution that eliminates this concern while delivering much more consistent arc starts. This Miller technology works by starting the weld current in the DC EP mode for a brief time no matter which welding process is chosen. With heat flowing from the work into the tungsten, the electrode quickly becomes a better emitter. That's why the Dynasty 300 DX has consistent starts time after time.
Through the machine's front panel, operators can tailor the duration of DC EP starting current from 1 to 200 ms and the "force" of the current from 1 to 200 amps. Adjusting these parameters is usually not necessary, as the factory default provides very good starts for most applications. Operators should not have any concerns about this starting mode. All they will notice is consistently positive starts.
Advanced TIG welders offer operators several starting methods, but two are superior. The first superior starting method involves minimizing high frequency for applications that benefit from HF arc starts. In these instances, inverters offer an "HF start only" feature that provides a brief burst of HF at the start of the weld. Once the machine senses the arc has been established, it shuts off the HF to minimize any potential interference with electronic equipment.
The Dynasty 300 DX takes "HF start only" one step further. Because this TIG machine starts in the DC EP mode, it only needs HF for 10ms to establish the arc. Operators using this method report very positive arc starts even at low amperages, and they appreciate the absence of HF wandering and buzzing on the weldment. They also report longer times between tungsten sharpenings; this is because less HF is available to cause erosion.
Note that conventional machines not only use HF to improve arc starts, but that they usually require continuous HF for AC welding. HF helps ensure the arc doesn't stumble as it transitions through the zero crossing.
Inverter-based machines do not experience as much difficulty with arc starts or arc stumbling because the machine's microprocessor control and IGBTs operate so quickly. In fact, all good inverters eliminate the need for continuous HF when AC welding on aluminum and other non-ferrous metals.
The second superior starting method is lift Lift-Arc™, an alternative to scratch starts. Scratch starts may contaminate the weld with tungsten, but welds made with the Lift-Arc starting method can consistently pass x-ray or ultrasonic tests. Lift-Arc enables the operator to touch the tungsten to the work piece, lift it off the work piece, and then have full welding current begin flowing. With the scratch start method, the electrode is hot the instant it touches metal. The Lift-Arc technology in the Dynasty 300 DX offers a further improvement because it works in the DC and AC welding modes.
Even though today's inverter-based TIG machines have more features available, smart manufacturers try to make the control panel as simple and logical as possible. Rather than knobs and switches, some of the newer TIG machines use digital displays and switch pads similar to those on a microwave oven.
At first glance, the control panel may appear intimidating. But at second look, switch pad control panels are very logical, especially if operators approach them the same way they would approach any weld sequence.
For example, an operator must select a trigger function (remote or panel); the switch pads on the top left of the Dynasty 300 DX's front panel control the trigger functions. Next, the operator must select a starting method (HF start only, Lift-Arc, etc.); the switch pads for the start mode are right below the trigger function controls. If the AC TIG process is selected, operators must also specify AC frequency and balance control parameters; the three touch pads controlling these functions are located in the center of the panel. Just to the right of these touch pads are the ones for selecting the DC TIG, AC Stick and DC Stick processes.
The rest of the buttons simply follow the actions that occur on every weld sequence, whether the operator controls them through the machine's front panel or the foot pedal. If an operator wishes to control the weld sequence through the "sequencer panel" (usually a group of switch pads centered on the control panel), values for following functions need to be set (values given are for the Dynasty 300 DX):
- Gas pre-flow time (0 to 25 seconds)
- Initial current (5 to 300 amps)
- Initial slope ( 0 to 25 seconds)
- Main/peak welding amperage (5 to 300 amps)
- Final slope (0 to 25 seconds)
- Final current (5 to 300 amps)
- Gas post-flow time (0 to 50 seconds)
Through the digital display, operators can easily see (and return to) the exact values they set. With rheostats, settings can be approximations. The digital displays may also provide "help messages" to the operator about the status of the machine.
The digital display, coupled with the microprocessor control, provides some inverters with a memory function (the Dynasty 300 DX lets operators store up to four weld sequences for AC/DC TIG and Stick processes). If a shop routinely fabricates certain products or consistently welds three or four types of joints or metals, the memory function speeds changing between projects. A lock-out feature prevents tampering with these pre-programmed settings.
All advanced TIG inverters incorporate pulsed welding capabilities. Pulsed TIG welding is extremely beneficial when welding thin gauge steel and stainless steel. It allows the operator to tailor the amount of heat to the application, decreasing distortion and heat input. Pulsing can also help teach beginning TIG welders because it provides a rhythm for adding the filler rod (i.e., add the filler rod during peak amperage pulse).
For critical applications, discerning operators want precise heat (amperage) control to best prevent burn-through, warping or discoloration.
Welders with true pulsing controls, such as the Dynasty 300 DX, let the operator carefully tailor the pulsed wave form by setting: background amp range, pulse frequency (pulses per second) and peak time adjustment (duration of peak amperage). This gives the operator much more leeway when fine tuning the arc. A series of switch pads lets the operator precisely set parameter values.
OTHER INVERTER IMPROVEMENTS
Though not directly related to controlling the welding arc, inverters provide several benefits over conventional TIG machines, such as accepting a variety of primary input power levels, automatically linking to accept the primary power and light-weight portability.
Flexible Input Power
Conventional AC/DC TIG machines operate only on single-phase power. To weld at 250 amps (230 V primary) requires 92 amps of primary power (and 66 amps with power factor correction). Some companies wanting to add more TIG machines or other equipment cannot do so without expensive modifications to their electrical system. However, inverters can use either single- or three-phase input power.
An inverter using three-phase power, welding at 300 amps (230 V primary), requires just 37 amps of primary current. If 460 V primary current is available, welding at 300 amps requires only 18 amps of primary current. An inverter is also very power efficient.
In addition to using single- or three-phase power, inverters also accept 50 or 60 Hz, 230 or 460 V input power. This provides flexibility when moving the machine between jobs sites or around a large facility. To adapt to different types of input power types, some inverters require removing the housing and manually linking the power leads. Other inverters, including the Dynasty 300 DX, have an Auto-Link® feature that eliminates this hassle. This feature automatically senses the type of input power (both voltage and phase type) and electronically reconfigures the machine. With Auto-Link, you can plug in the machine and begin working immediately.
Location, Location, Location
Is work light enough to bring it to the welding machine, or do you need to move the machine to the job site? An inverter's light weight (the Dynasty 300 DX weighs 90 lb.) makes it easily portable, eliminating this old dilemma.
Conventional TIG machines transform power with a large iron core wrapped with copper and/or aluminum wire. This makes them heavy. To handle the current used to weld thicker sections of metal, a TIG welder's transformer must weigh 200 to 400 lb. or more.
Inverters operate on the principle that increasing the current frequency permits reducing the core size and number of wire turns. Before the current reaches the transformer, an inverter boosts the line frequency to 20 to 100 thousand cycles per second. Thus, the transformer on an inverter such as the Dynasty 300 DX weighs just 5 lb.
Although inverters have been available since the late 1980s, many people hesitated to purchase them because of reliability issues. Fortunately, improvements made in the last few years give all Miller inverters (and some others) a reliability level that approaches that of Conventional welding machines. Miller innovations to improve reliability include:
- Wind Tunnel Technology™, a unique, patented technology which shields an inverter's electronic components from potentially damaging air-borne particles.
- Fan-On-Demand™ cooling; this feature monitors the temperature of your welder and operates the fan only when needed. In dirty environments, it reduces the amount of airborne contaminants pulled through the machine, keeping internal components cleaner.
- More robust designs for circuit boards and power switching devices.
Historically, preparing to AC weld required selecting a pure tungsten electrode and forming a ball at the end of the electrode. Balling, until now a necessary evil (pure tungsten tends to form a ball), promotes arc wandering, less arc focus and poorer arc starts because electricity likes to come off a point. With a ball, the current can dance around the entire surface. That's why Miller now recommends that, for AC welding, operators should sharpen the tungsten as if they are welding in the DC mode. This is true for all advanced TIG machines, and especially for inverters because it optimizes performance.
Guidelines for preparing a tungsten for AC TIG welding are:
- Select a tungsten with 2% cerium (2% thorium as your second choice).
- Grind the electrode to a point (grind in the long direction, make the point roughly two times as long as the diameter).
- Put a .010 to .030 in. flat (land) on the end to prevent balling and to prevent tungsten from being transferred across the arc.
- For welding thin metals, use a 3/32 in. diameter tungsten.
Compared to a balled tungsten, a pointed electrode provides greater arc control and lets you direct the amperage precisely at the joint, minimizing distortion. With a pointed electrode, a skilled operator can place a 1/8 in. bead on a fillet weld made from 1/8 in. aluminum plates. Without using this method, the ball on the end of the electrode would have forced the operator to make a larger weld bead, then grind the bead down to final size. Thus, when fitting welded parts together, a pointed electrode can save time.
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Industrial
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Negligent drivers continue to put people on foot at risk of injury and death
According to a troubling new report by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the U.S. recorded its highest number of pedestrian deaths in four decades, as 7,485 people tragically lost their lives on the nation's roadways in 2021.
That's about 20 deaths per day, which represents an 11% increase over 2020 when there were 6,711 pedestrian fatalities.
“This is heartbreaking and unacceptable,” said GHSA Executive Director Jonathan Adkins. “We must address the root causes of the pedestrian safety crisis – speeding and other dangerous driving behaviors, inadequate infrastructure, and roads designed for vehicle speed instead of safety – to reverse this trend and ensure people can walk safely.”
The injuries sustained in pedestrian accidents are typically severe and often life-threatening. Without the protection of an enclosed vehicle that's equipped with safety features like seat belts and airbags, people who are hit by cars bear the full brunt of the impact from the vehicle.
To make matters worse, drivers who cause pedestrian accidents often flee the scene of the crash, abandoning the victim in a potentially dangerous situation where they are at risk of further harm.
Pedestrian accident statistics
In its report, the GHSA reviewed 2020 crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Among the key findings were:
- Pedestrians represented 17% of all traffic fatalities in 2020.
- The majority of pedestrian fatalities occurred at night (76% of deaths with a known lighting condition were at night).
- Over two-thirds of pedestrian deaths happened in areas where there was no sidewalk.
- The percentage of pedestrian fatalities among children under 15 doubled from 5.8% to 11.9% from 2018 to 2020.
- Passenger cars were involved in 40% of all fatal pedestrian accidents, while SUVs were involved in about 20%.
- Fatal pedestrian accidents involving SUVs continue to rise, as the higher vehicle hood on an SUV impacts more of a person's body in the event of a collision. Often, instead of falling on top of a vehicle's hood and rolling off, pedestrians who are hit by SUVs are thrown onto the pavement and are put at risk of being run over.
Pedestrians continue to make up far too high a percentage of all roadway deaths. You can protect yourself to an extent by always using crosswalks, which are there for your protection. You should also do your best to make yourself visible to other drivers and never dart out into the street from behind a parked vehicle. Always pay attention when you're walking and avoid distractions (e.g., texting or looking down at your phone while you're walking), and don't forget, if you can't see the driver of a vehicle, there's a good chance they can't see you either.
Nevertheless, the safety of pedestrians largely lies in the hands of motorists. As a driver, you need to always be mindful of your surroundings and remain attentive. Always stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk or where pedestrian crossing signs are posted, and never go around a driver who is stopped at a crosswalk (they may be stopped so a pedestrian can cross the street). Lastly, watch your speed and be prepared to stop when making a turn or entering a crosswalk.
In Georgia, pedestrians are being killed on interstates at an alarming rate
Walkability is a serious issue throughout Metro Atlanta and parts of Georgia, but fatal pedestrian accidents that occur on interstates have also become a big problem.
According to a news report by WXIA-TV, there have been more than 1,500 pedestrian fatalities on Georgia interstates in the last five years, including 200 deaths in 2019, 301 in 2020, and 350 in 2021.
In response to the dramatic rise, representatives from the Georgia Department of Transportation urged drivers to remain in their vehicles if they break down while driving on an interstate.
“The second you leave the protection of your vehicle you dramatically increase your chance of extreme injury or death,” GDOT’s Natalie Dale said. “You are going to lose if you do not have the protection of a vehicle, if it is just your body being hit by a vehicle at the high speeds that cars go on our interstates.”
Recently, a 44-year-old man was hit and killed by a truck on I-75. Marietta police say the victim was attempting to cross the interstate at the time of the collision.
Traffic safety officials say whether you're dealing with a flat tire or a car accident, try to use the emergency lane and remain inside your vehicle if possible. Then, call 911 and wait for law enforcement to assist you.
Review your legal rights with a pedestrian accident attorney
Maybe you were trying to cross the street when you were hit by a negligent driver who was speeding, impaired, distracted, or otherwise engaging in reckless behavior. Or it could be that you were hit by a car and the driver fled the scene of the crash. In either case, you have the right to seek compensation for your damages—and a pedestrian accident lawyer can help you navigate the process from start to finish.
If you were hit by a car or a loved one died in a pedestrian accident, it's in your interest to seek legal help. You may be entitled to compensation for all your losses, but if it's up to the insurance company, your claim will get settled as quickly and as cheaply as possible—or denied entirely. That means you could end up losing out on the compensation you need and deserve.
At the Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, we're here to answer your questions and go over your legal options. Since 1993, we've helped Georgia families recover over $1 billion, and we look forward to seeing how we can help you.
For a free, confidential case evaluation with an experienced Atlanta pedestrian accident attorney, contact us today. Our offices are located in Atlanta, Duluth, Lithonia, College Park, Marietta, Gainesville, and Conyers.
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Strong reasoning
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Crime & Law
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To help mark the release of the 1969: First Moon Landing stamps this week, here are seven facts about Earth’s closest neighbor.
1. The moon is not a dairy product. Despite countless children’s stories to the contrary, the moon is not made of cheese. Rocks that have been brought back from NASA’s Apollo missions show that the elements present in the moon’s surface are oxygen, silicon, iron, magnesium, calcium, aluminum, manganese and titanium, among others, but not cheese.
2. The moon has two sides. Spherical objects don’t have sides. However, the moon is in synchronous rotation with the Earth, which means the same portion of the moon always faces us. This is called the near side. And the other side — the one we don’t see — is the far side.
3. We don’t know how the moon was formed. The leading theory is that a Mars-size object collided with the Earth approximately 4.5 billion years ago. The resulting impact blasted material from the Earth into orbit, eventually forming the moon.
4. The moon is thought to be approximately 4.51 billion years old. While that’s plenty old, the Earth is a little older and the solar system is about 4.6 billion years old.
5. More than 600 million people worldwide watched the 1969 moon landing. This is the estimated size of the television audience that tuned in to see Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. The audience in the United States was estimated to be between 125 million and 150 million, despite the fact that the landing occurred at 10:56 p.m. on a Sunday.
6. Only 12 humans have walked on the moon. In chronological order, they are Armstrong, Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. Only four are still living: Aldrin, Scott, Duke and Schmitt.
7. At least one human has called the moon. After Apollo 11 landed on the moon, Armstrong and Aldrin took a phone call from President Richard M. Nixon. “This certainly has to be the most historic phone call ever made from the White House,” he said.
Got ideas for future editions of “The List”? Email them to [email protected].
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Moderate reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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When rain begins to hit the soil it will still retain autumn’s warmth. This is generally a great time for planting. Flowering annuals have the ability to establish their roots to be prepared for winter and spring flowering.
The autumn planting season extends into June for warmer climates. Here, some flowers can be planted through the year in a frost-free climate. In colder climates it is best to sow seeds earlier, think February or March. When climates are very cold you want to delay planting frost tender varieties until at least spring, once the frost has passed.
Many gardeners tend to bypass the seed sowing period and purchase ready-to-plant seedlings. ‘Potted colour’ is a name given to advanced seedlings that are flowering with their roots developed in their own pot. These plants are more expensive but are less likely to succumb to transplanting shock.
Pansies: Pansies love flowering, especially in autumn. They will continue to flower through winter, spring and into summer. They come in a huge variety of colours, even black, and they are a favourite for pot plants, hanging baskets, garden boxes and window boxes. They perform best in potting mix with fertiliser or well-drained soil. They need protection from snails. If autumn planted pansies struggle in winter, trim them back and feed them with liquid fertiliser. You will soon see a fresh crop of flowers. Traditionally, pansies aren’t great in hot weather, but many modern varieties are heat resistant.
Polyanthus: Polyanthus is a beautiful, colourful flower that offers a great variety of colours and forms. They are great for winter pots. Snip the spent flowers and feed every few weeks and they’ll produce a lovely, continuous bloom.
Lobelia: Lobelias create teaming masses of small pink, blue, purple, white or red flowers on plants which vary from mounding to upright and cascading. Cascading plants are perfect for hanging baskets whilst those mounding plants create colourful edging. One of the best blue flowers.
Alyssum: Dainty alyssum can flower year-round in a mild climate and it self sows to replenish its fragrant clumps. It is perfect for growing around paving. Alyssum requires full sun or at least part shade. They survive periods of poor soil and drought but don’t love wet conditions. Flowers are apricot, cream, pink white, purple and red. Alyssum is the perfect companion flower for bulbs, veggies and herbs. They are a great border and also an ideal mixer for hanging baskets.
Fairy Primrose: These are ideal for planting with bulbs and for mass planting in patches of colour around shrubs or trees. They bloom in winter and spring. Tiered in shades of white, pin and purple sit atop rosettes of soft green leaves. Pretty in pots, too.
Forget-me-not: Whilst many consider this a weed, forget-me-nots actually make a successful self-seeder. Once you have them in your garden you might not need to replant to enjoy their lovely blue haze throughout spring. Once they have flowered, the spent plants are easy to remove. They are perfect as shade fillers as companion for spring flowering bulbs and also under trees. There are pink and white varieties as well as the classic blue. Sow directly into plant seedlings or the ground.
Viola: These baby pansies make up for their lack in size through great volume, smothering the plants in early spring. Being low growing and having a tidy compact habit they are perfect in the garden or as a border. They are great for planting alongside bulbs. Violas are easy to grow in semi-shade or sun, from autumn to summer. They optimise in well-drained, compost-dense soil with occasional liquid feeding.
Iceland Poppy: Beautiful for picking, Iceland poppies contain delicate, cup-shaped flowers and come in a wide variety of lovely colours. Their flower buds and slender stems are covered in silky hairs which along the flowers will glisten in the fresh winter sun. They can grow in any climate but perform best in cool climates. In extra cold climates you want to plant in spring for summer flowering. To elongate flowering, take out spent blooms or pick for indoors. Pick flowers in the early morning and place in boiling water for 30 seconds.
Sweet Peas: Sweet peas are adored for their fragrance and are ideal for picking. They are sown in autumn and ready to flower in spring, or the same with spring into summer. They require a climbing place, such as a bamboo tepee. They are best sown directly into well-prepared ground. They require a well-drained compost rich soil. They should be fed generously when they begin to grow liquid fertiliser. Mulch helps keep the roots cool. They begin flowering 12 – 15 weeks after sowing.
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Basic reasoning
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Home & Hobbies
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Federal chairman game. Federal Reserve Chair Game (300 Words) 2022-11-01
Federal chairman game Rating:
The Federal Chairman Game is a strategic decision-making exercise that is used to teach students about the role of the Federal Reserve and its influence on the economy. It is often used in economics and business courses as a way to simulate the real-life decision-making process of the Federal Reserve and to help students understand the impact of monetary policy on the economy.
The game begins with each student being assigned the role of a member of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, who are responsible for setting monetary policy. The students are given a set of economic data, such as inflation and unemployment rates, and are tasked with setting the federal funds rate, which is the interest rate at which banks lend to each other overnight. The students must also decide on a target inflation rate and a target unemployment rate, which are the rates they hope to achieve through their monetary policy decisions.
The goal of the game is for the students to use their knowledge of economics and monetary policy to make informed decisions that will help stabilize the economy and achieve their target rates. The students must also consider the potential consequences of their decisions on the overall economy, including the impact on interest rates, employment, and prices.
The Federal Chairman Game is a valuable learning tool for students because it allows them to experience the challenges and decision-making process of the Federal Reserve firsthand. It also helps students understand the complex interplay between monetary policy and the economy, and how different decisions can impact different sectors of the economy.
Overall, the Federal Chairman Game is a useful and educational tool for students interested in economics and business, and it helps to provide a deeper understanding of the role of the Federal Reserve in managing the economy.
Chair the Fed Game Videos
They also said that inflation has increased which causes energy costs to go up, but the expectations are looking good. All papers are written from scratch. If you set the federal funds above the inflation rate, the inflation rate will decrease and the unemployment rate will increase. The The Federal Open Markets Committee FOMC The FOMC meets eight times a year and is composed of the seven members of the Board of Governors along with five reserve presidents of the Fed. Their goal by doing this is to keep the Federal funds rate between 0 and.
The President nominates the chair and is permitted to be vocal about the direction of the Fed, but the President cannot direct the Fed to raise or lower interest rates. Retrieved May 23, 2022. Engineering Engineering is quite a demanding subject. The second part of the activity will have students in groups 4-5 students each play the game within their groups. Retrieved June 1, 2018. Take advantage of our top-notch law specialists and get superb grades and 100% satisfaction. One of the chair's most important duties is to serve as the chair of the Federal Open Markets Committee FOMC , which is critical in setting short-term U.
Serious Game To Understand The Role Of Monetary Policy In Growing A Healthy Economy
Inflation is the continual rise in the price level. How our Assignment Help Service Works You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. With a few words in congressional testimony, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has changed the game for investors and traders. It's the tapering and lack of liquidity that is the issue here, and the market is not feeling good about it. Adjusting the federal rate requires an analysis of the existing status of the economy.
Can you get reelected as a Fed Chairperson: A group activity
Moreover, your grades will be consistent. I was taught in my previous finance class that most countries' central banks would try to sustain an inflation rate of 2-3%. Once the first quarter is completed fifteen quarters remaining , record all three rates. The game shows the impact of federal funds on the unemployment rate and inflation. In the game, we are aimed to control the interest rate in order to keep the In the real life, it is hard to anticipate the unforeseen circumstances that effect the economy, such as the wars and natural disasters, which makes it tough to adjust the interest rate to reduce the effect. Since the Federal Reserve was established in 1914, the following people have served as chair. Chair the Fed: A Monetary Policy Game showcases to perfection the benefits of seamless integration in a Serious Game: game elements and instructional elements are so well integrated in Chair the Fed that the connection is transparent to the player.
Federal Reserve Chairman Game and Reflection Paper
They are able to handle business papers of any subject, length, deadline, and difficulty! I do agree with what the Fed is planning to do in an attempt to stimulate the economy. Retrieved February 6, 2018. Our business writers have a lot of experience in the field. Overall I agree with… Federal Reserve It is to be expected that an economy will rise and fall. Nursing In the nursing course, you may have difficulties with literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and other assignments.
The information in the headline reflects changes in the levels of inflation and unemployment. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. Unemployment can be classified as cyclical, structural, seasonal, or frictional. Therefore, the inflation will be higher as well as the unemployment rate.
A higher federal funds rate makes it more expensive to borrow money. There will be an oil price shock in the game. That whole schtick about "transitory" was exhausting. Therefore the United States' economic… federal reserve chair game Based on the monetary policy, the authority controls the supply of money through targeting the interest rate to promote economic growth and stability. The President has some power over the chair, but it isn't direct. So, we can say that this game controls the monetary policy.
No, I was dismissed from the high inflation rate because I cannot control the monetary polity even form two times opportunity. The president nominates a chair and vice-chair, both of whom the Senate must also confirm. Work through the remaining fifteen quarters, pausing to review each headline and record the new values of inflation and unemployment. You have unlimited revisions. Are your Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as When will I get my paper? This paper will describe the primary concern in which the Federal Reserve currently has in regard to the economy.
What Are the Federal Reserve Chairman's Responsibilities?
Why or why not? The immediate goal of the game is to be reappointed as Chair of the Fed. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. Federal Reserve Chairman Game and Reflection Essay The Federal Reserve Chairman Game demonstrated how the monetary policy is implemented to stimulate economic growth and keep it stable. The tools that are at your disposal include the ability to adjust the Federal Funds Rate FFR , the Discount Rate DR and the Required Reserve Ratio RRR. The goal is to maintain both low inflation and low unemployment the dual mandate of the Fed. But we're not looking for rate hikes just yet. Acting as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, you are charged with directing the nation's economy for ten years.
The Fed undertook the largest economic stimulus in history during the 2008 financial crisis by buying massive amounts of U. They are reliable, and you can be assured of a high-grade paper. If the rate will increase by 7. As you move through the ten-year period, the economy is affected by an Asian import threat, an increase in the minimum wage, an increase in Defense spending, a European economic crisis, a tax cut, and a trade embargo. Their plan is to continue purchasing these mortgage backed securities until the labor markets improve. If you have questions, please contact us Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed.
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Strong reasoning
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Finance & Business
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Related categories 6
University of St. Andrews: Biography Index
Names are listed alphabetically or by date, from 1680 BC to the present.
Abel - Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829)
Norwegian mathematician. Worked on elliptic functions and integrals, algebraic solution of equations and solubility by radicals.
Al-Sabi Thabit ibn Qurra al-Harrani
Gives information on background and contributions to non-euclidean geometry, spherical trigonometry, number theory and the field of statics. Was an important translator of Greek materials, including Euclid's Elements, during the Middle Ages.
Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903-1987)
The most prominent twentieth-century mathematician.
Bernoulli, Daniel (1700-1782)
Most important work considered the basic properties of fluid flow, pressure, density and velocity, and gave their fundamental relationship now known as Bernoulli's principle.
Bessel - Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846)
Catalogued stars, predicted a planet beyond Uranus as well as the existence of dark stars, investigated Johann Kepler's problem of heliocentricity, and systematized the mathematical functions involved, which now bear his name.
Biographies of Women Mathematicians
On-going project by students in mathematics classes at Agnes Scott College, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Cauchy - Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857)
(Catholic Encyclopedia) Theory of polyhedra, symmetrical functions, proof of a theorem of Fermat which had baffled mathematicians like Gauss and Euler.
Cauchy, Augustin Louis (1789-1857)
Cauchy contributed to almost every branch of mathematics. He is probably best known for his important contributions to real and complex analysis.
Chebyshev - Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev (1821-1894)
Work on prime numbers included the determination of the number of primes not exceeding a given number, wrote an important book on the theory of congruences, proved that there was always at least one prime between n and 2n for n > 3.
A Chonicle of Mathematical People
Robert A. Nowlan provides short biographical sketches of mathematicians from many diverse fields.
Cramer - Gabriel Cramer (1704-1752)
Best known for his work on determinants, made contributions to the study of algebraic curves.
d'Alembert - Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783)
Helped to resolve the controversy in mathematical physics over the conservation of kinetic energy by improving Newton's definition of force.
Diophantus of Alexandria (c. 200-284 )
Best known for his Arithmetica, a work on the theory of numbers, a collection of 130 problems giving numerical solutions of determinate equations.
Dirichlet - Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (1805-1859)
Proved that in any arithmetic progression with first term coprime to the difference there are infinitely many primes, units in algebraic number theory, ideals, proposed the modern definition of a function.
Eratosthenes of Cyrene
Biography of the mathematician, geographer and astronomer born 276 BC in Cyrene, North Africa. From The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-194 BC)
Discusses this early Grecian's discoveries in finding a good approximation of the circumference of the earth, the tilt angle of our planet and a tool for finding prime numbers. Page includes biographical information.
Eratosthenes: The Measurement of the Earth's Circumference
Gives information about the techniques and computations used by this ancient mathematician to find the circumference of the earth. Includes sample sketch and reconstructed map of the world.
Fermat - Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665)
From `A Short Account of the History of Mathematics' (4th edition, 1908) by W. W. Rouse Ball.
Fibonacci - Who was Fibonacci? - Leonardo of Pisa (1175?-1250)
His names, mathematical contributions, Introducing the decimal number system into Europe, Fibonacci Series.
Fibonacci Mathematics by Dr. Peter Reimers
Describes the rabbit problem and the Fibonacci sequence and some generalized rules.
Gauss, Johann Carl Friedrich (1777-1855)
One of the all-time greats, Gauss began to show his mathematical brilliance at the early age of seven. He is usually credited with the first proof of The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra.
The Grothendieck Biography Project
Links relating to Alexandre Groethendieck.
The Grothendieck Circle
Aims to make publicly available materials written by and about Alexandre Grothendieck. Made contributions to algebraic geometry, homological algebra and functional analysis. Page includes list of mathematical,biographical publications and some portrait photos.
Hermann Gunter Grassmann
Provides biographical details of this German mathematician who lived from 1809 to 1877, the inventor of what is now called exterior algebra.
The History of Mathematics
Collection of original papers of Berkeley, Hamilton, Riemann, Boole, Cantor, and Newton. Includes background and notes. Maintained by David R. Wilkins from Trinity College, Dublin
History of Mathematics
Online texts of historic mathematical people, including Hamilton, Riemann, Newton, Boole, and Cantor. Also, has biographical backgrounds for key figures during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
Article by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson giving biographical details of the great mathematician, with a number of photographs.
Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind
Provides biographical details of this German mathematician who lived from 1831 to 1916.
Kolmogorov, Andrei Nikolaevich (1903-1987)
Worked on trigonometric series, set theory, integration analysis, constructive logic, topology, approximation methods, probability, statistics, random processes, information theory, dynamical systems, algorithms, celestial mechanics, Hilbert's 13th problem, and ballistics. Also, studied and applications of mathematics to problems of biology, geology, linguistics and the crystallization of metals. Born and lived in Russia.
Lambert - Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728 - 1777)
In a memoir in 1768 on transcendental magnitudes he proved that pi is incommensurable.
Oughtred, William (1574-1660)
Best known for the invention of an early form of the slide rule.
Peirce, Benjamin (1809-1880)
Life and work of 19th century mathematician and philosopher of mathematics; by Ivor Grattan-Guinness and Alison Walsh.
Pell, John (1611-1685)
Worked on algebra and number theory, gave a table of factors of all integers up to 100000 in 1668. Pell's equation is y^2 = ax^2 + 1, where a is a non-square integer.
Plato (427-347 B.C.)
"... the reality which scientific thought is seeking must be expressible in mathematical terms, mathematics being the most precise and definite kind of thinking of which we are capable."
Schmidt, Erhard (1876-1959)
Main research was functional analysis, doctorate was obtained under Hilbert's supervision, main interest was in integral equations and Hilbert space, best remembered for the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalisation process.
Freelance researcher specializes in the history of probability, statistics and error theory. Page includes list of publications and outside reviews.
Shortest path to Gauss
This site is the quickest access to information about C.F.Gauss, although reduced to a single page.
Published and unpublished works. HTML, PDF and DjVu formats.
Zermelo - Ernst Friedrich Ferdinand Zermelo (1871-1953)
Zermelo in 1908 was the first to attempt an axiomatisation of set theory
Other languages 2
Last update:November 15, 2015 at 1:45:03 UTC
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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INTERVIEW PART 3
Lüning: Next Weltwoche refers Stocker to the natural cycles, which fit well with the 20th century’s overall pattern. The Little Ice Age also was characterized by low solar activity.
Weltwoche: There’s a very simple explanation: A little ice age prevailed until well into the 19th century. Glaciers peaked at around 1860. This is indeed only normal that it has gotten warmer again.
STOCKER: That’s true for the glaciers. But it doesn’t explain the speed at which the melt occurred over the last 30 or 40 years and for how strong the warming has been since the beginning of the 20th century.
Lüning: Over the last 50 years, the sun was stronger than at almost any time, yet supposedly had nothing to do with the temperature and glacier development? And earlier in the past the sun and its cycles indeed did play a role. Now we are being told that this role was suddenly lost over the last decades? That doesn’t make any sense.
Weltwoche: During the Roman Times when Hannibal crossed the Alps with elephants there were even fewer glaciers.
STOCKER: Yes, but we also have to ask ourselves: What else was different 22oo years ago? The sun did play a role because of the inclination of the Earth’s axis. Back then the summers received more sunlight – about 10W per square meter more. It’s obvious that it was warmer back then.
Lüning: 2200 years ago the Earth was in the midst of the Roman Warm Period, one of the warm phases occurring every millennium whenever the sun was active. But instead of discussing this real factor, Stocker prefers to drift off to the very long-term Milankovitch cycles, which do not play any role in today’s climate development. This is an obvious attempt to distract the reader. With Stocker once again bringing up Milankovitch, he could have brought up the mid-Holocene climate optimum of 7000-5000 years before present when it was 1°C warmer than today. The reason back then was indeed a special Milankovitch Earth orbital geometry, But because this long warm period of the past doesn’t fit with the climate-alarmist concept, Stocker avoids it.
Weltwoche: Don’t you feel a little queasy when astrophysicists say the sun is currently weakening as much as it did during the Little Ice Age of the 17th century?
STOCKER: No, today it is impossible to forecast solar activity because unfortunately we are missing precise data and models. But we cannot exclude that such a phase may have already begun. However, it’ll eventually end – and in the meantime the CO2 concentration continues to rise and this will lead to even greater warming.
Lüning: Oh dear, this is not good, Professor Stocker. Today we can almost say there’s a consensus among astrophysicists that the sun will be very inactive over the coming decades. A Swiss paper on this topic by Steinhilber and Beer (see the last paragraph of our blog article”Wer ist Schuld am Kältewinter? MPI-Studie weist eher auf die schwache Sonne anstatt des arktischen Meereises hin. Die Sonne im März 2013“) appeared recently. Currently there is hardly a single paper out there that contradicts this. It’s no use playing dumb on this point and, as is the case with the pauses in warming, to act like nothing is really known and that everything is just chaos. The reconstructions of solar activity of the past thousands of years are very regular in nature and the pattern cannot be ignored. What’s even worse is that Stocker mixes-up the solar internal cycles with the Milankovitch cycles. The two have nothing to do with each other. The solar internal cycles involve changes in the intensity of the sun’s hydrogen reactors. Stocker’s reference to CO2 changes in sync with the Milankovitch cycles that are 20,000 years and more completely misses the barn. Could it be that Stocker is not familiar with the subject and is thus incapable of keeping the mechanisms apart? Or is it just another attempt to mislead the reader?
The closing part of the interview speaks for itself and requires no commentary.
Weltwoche: Let’s get down to the fundamentals. Sociologist Gerhard Schulze says: “Science is organized skepticism.”
STOCKER: I’ve not heard that.
Weltwoche: In climate science, ‘skepticism’ is a dirty word.
STOCKER: The term “climate skeptic” often gets used. That is so. But skepticism is the driving force of science. We also ask: Is it really so? Did we really understand that correctly? Climate science does not differ from the other sciences.
Weltwoche: Your colleague Hans von Storch, however, writes in his current book “Die Klimafalle” that scientists did not think enough about falsification, that is refuting a hypothesis, which alone moves science forward.
STOCKER: That’s his view. When we started researching the last 50 years of climate development, we indeed applied falsification by testing all possible explanations. We could have arrived at the result that the sun was 90% responsible and CO2 10%. But all calculation showed just the opposite.
Weltwoche: Was your result already decided when the IPCC started in 1989?
STOCKER: No, the task was to openly and comprehensively report on the level of knowledge on anthropogenic warming.
Weltwoche: Indeed: that climate change was man-made was certain from the very beginning.
STOCKER: Not at all. Millions of measurements and the physical understanding form the foundation of this claim.
Weltwoche: Hans von Storch also says: “The debate on the subject that we could be wrong is taboo.” Don’t you ever ask yourself that?
STOCKER: The debate over the period of little warming started about three years ago. At the IPCC it is not a taboo. Rather, a group is looking at and assessing the published scientific studies on the question – and not some blog posts or treaties. How often did such similar phases of stagnation occur in the past? How probable will they be in the future? What are the explanations for them? On this important subject we are creating a box of three or four pages -that’s a complete overview.
Weltwoche: What are the main statements of your report?
STOCKER: Today I can’t tell you any more than the New York Times can.
Weltwoche: To put it in another way: What reactions do you expect in policy-making?
STOCKER: That’s difficult to predict.The climate problem, that’s my personal estimation, at the moment is certainly not at the top of their agenda, but it is closely tied to energy and resource policy. We can only hope that climate policy again explicitly returns to the agenda. Many of the decisions we make, like those on energy infrastructure, will have consequences for decades into the future. Therefore the report should make a contribution that these decisions are made with the knowledge of all the facts.
Weltwoche: Numerous times already in the last decades climate scientists have said that if something isn’t done by a certain date, then it’ll be too late. These deadlines have come and gone, without anything happening.
STOCKER: With such statements you have to be extremely careful. To the contrary in climate change there are indeed developments where at a certain time-point they will be irreversible. For this reason last year I wrote an article, “The Closing Door of Climate Targets”. Missing is the knowledge that certain climate targets, for example keeping the warming under 2°C, will soon be no longer achievable. We are racing ahead in a car towards a concrete wall and pressing the accelerator down even though we know that the braking distance hardly suffices.
Weltwoche: That means: Mankind is committing collective suicide.
STOCKER: No, but adapting to climate change and its effects is going to cost a lot of money, take up lots of resources that we could otherwise apply more sensibly. And it is going to lead to conflicts over these resources.
Weltwoche: You’re not making a depressing impression.
STOCKER: No, if I were depressive, it would adversely effect my abilities to disseminate the findings of science. Should I just clam up and not speak about the problem? I’m not going to do that. The problem is there, it is one of the biggest that humanity faces, and we have the choice on how big it’s going to be. I want to inform about that.
Lüning: We had to wait until the very end for Stocker to out himself as an activist. “The problem is there, it is one of the biggest that humanity faces,” he says. We should all be concerned when a leading IPCC referee, someone who is supposed to view and summarize the scientific literature objectively, has already personally made up his mind for the climate-alarmism side. With this backdrop, what are the chances the IPCC will revise its overblown temperature projections and modify its models when there is so much powerful evidence showing that natural climate factors are playing a role in the warming? How will Stocker suddenly appear when the anthropogenic global warming effect is far less dramatic than what he vehemently projected in the past and projects currently?
One of the most important tasks for the IPCC in the coming years will be to prevent personal interest conflicts and to assure an appropriate amount of skepticism when handling scientific literature. Until then the IPCC reports unfortunately will not be able make any sensible contribution to understanding the complex climate interrelationships.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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What is essential oil?
Essential oil is an aromatic-concentrated liquid extracted from different parts of plants.
They are obtained from flowers, herbs, shrubs or trees.
Types of essential oils
The effect of essential oils on the human body or a certain organ, implies a kind of result of a chemical reaction that occurs through inhalation. Thus, the essential oil, consisting of hundreds of different components, getting into the human blood, begins to interact with hormones, enzymes. As a result, a person can acquire different sensations in the form of relaxation or excitement, calmness or a surge of energy.
Types of essential oils by their effect on the human body
Cleansing: orange, geranium, lavender, lemongrass, rosemary, tuberose, sage, etc.
Stimulating: bergamot, bigardia, geranium, Jasmine, ylang-ylang, cardamom, Mandarin, rose, sandalwood, etc.
Tonic: Basil, Bay, clove, ginger, cinnamon, lemon, mint, lemon balm, nutmeg, palmarosa, fir, rosemary, citronella, etc.
Relaxing: Valerian, oregano, Jasmine, lavender, frankincense, myrrh, juniper, chamomile, etc.
Harmonizing: orange, geranium, oregano, Jasmine, Mandarin, Mimosa, marjoram, rose, sandalwood, etc.
Fortifying: Basil, verbena, vetiver, Angelica, cedar, cajaput, lemon, lavender, mint, lemon balm, rosemary, etc.
Refreshing: orange, immortelle, lemon, lavender, mint, fir, etc.
Stimulating: immortelle, verbena, clove, coriander, lemon, lavender, nutmeg, juniper, mint, rosemary, black pepper, eucalyptus, etc.
Soothing: bigardia, vanilla, geranium, Jasmine, Melissa, chamomile, dill, etc.
Properties of essential oils
Most essential oils have similar properties, but each has its own exceptional qualities:
The antibacterial property is inherent in most types of essential oils. With this property, essential oils can affect different types of bacteria and fungi. These include oils of thyme, clove, oregano, anise, Basil, bergamot, lemon, grapefruit, juniper, lemongrass, etc.
Anti-inflammatory properties are also characteristic of many types of essential oils. Due to this property, essential oils are able to provide rapid regeneration of the skin in case of damage, reduce the permeability of blood vessels. Bright representatives are oils of chamomile, yarrow, bergamot, ylang-ylang, lavender, juniper, tea tree, etc.
Antiseptic properties are characteristic of many types of essential oils. It helps to effectively fight bacterial and viral infections. They are oils of marjoram, tea tree, nayoli, anise, orange, bergamot, clove, lavender, juniper, mint, petitgrain, patchouli, eucalyptus, etc.
Analgesic property, helps to eliminate various problems associated with headache, insomnia or nervous exhaustion. Such properties have oils of peppermint, lavender, blue spruce, immortelle, Jasmine, balsamic fir, etc.
Antioxidant property, helps to slow down the signs of aging, improve blood circulation and lymph flow, stimulate cellular respiration. These include oils of Dahlia, millennia, Siberian juniper, fir, etc.
Oils that contain unique phytohormones, which are similar in structure to human ones, slow down the aging process. Among them, there are oils of sandalwood, Jasmine, rose, myrrh, patchouli, neroli, etc.
Promote weight loss oils that have regulating and burning properties. The effect of them will be noticeable if you apply the courses locally, arranging a massage session, taking a bath or wrapping the problem areas. These include lemon, grapefruit, cinnamon, bergamot, tea tree, nutmeg, etc.
Regulate insomnia oils that have warming, soothing properties. These include oils of Melissa, frankincense, rose, mint, cypress, bergamot, sage, sandalwood, juniper.
Get rid of insects oils or mixtures of them that have a specific aroma that is not liked by midges or mosquitoes. The best types to eliminate annoying pests are: lavender, rosemary, eucalyptus, mint, vanilla, cloves, geraniums.
How to use essential oils
Essential oils are not just banal aromas, but real biologically active substances.
When using essential oils, learn the precautions and basic rules. First of all, choose a suitable essential oil for yourself, the smell of which you really like. Essential oil is a concentrated product, then you can not apply it to the skin in its pure form, you can get a chemical burn.
Base oils – coconut, jojoba, avocado, argan, etc. – will help to ensure a comfortable application. Before use, add a few drops of essential oil to the base oil taken as a base, and only after mixing, apply to the skin or hair.
In the care routine, essential oils can be introduced by adding a few drops to the base, for example, a face cream or base oil.
Aromatic oil bath. Before adding essential oils to the bath, you must first mix them with any base oil, milk or sea salt. This way you will avoid skin irritation and allergic reactions. The following proportions are suitable: for 1 teaspoon of base oil, add no more than 4 drops of essential oil, for example, tea tree. Or per 100 g of sea salt (milk) – up to 15 drops of a mixture of lavender and marjoram. It is allowed to stay in such a bath for no more than 15 minutes.
Hot inhalations. To implement this method, it is not necessary to purchase a special device-an inhaler. Boil the kettle and pour about 1 liter of boiling water into the prepared bowl. Then add up to 4 drops of essential oil, such as fir or a mixture of several types – fir, mint and rosemary. Use a large towel to create a protective dome over your head and breathe in the fragrant steam for 7 minutes. It is necessary to carry out such inhalations two or three times a day, one of which must be performed before bedtime.
Cold inhalations. A simple method that requires a handkerchief and essential oils. Only 2-3 drops of essential oil are applied to a handkerchief, then inhale its aromapars several times a day.
An oil burner. The simplest and most popular aromatherapy method for the treatment of colds. The aroma lamp is placed in the room in which the patient is constantly located. To implement this method, hot water is added to a glass container, and then 5 drops of essential oil, for example, eucalyptus or mint. The course of medical procedures should be carried out daily for half an hour until full recovery.
Massage. Essential oils are also used in therapeutic massage, but, as in other procedures, they are applied to the skin only pre-mixed with other oils. To do this, you will need 25 ml of any base oil, for example, olive oil, 9-10 drops of rosemary essential oil or a mixture of several essential oils – rosemary, fir and mint. Apply the mixture of oils to the skin of the back, chest and legs with long, pulling movements, while deeply inhaling the fragrant vapors. The procedure can be performed every other day.
To wash the floors, add about 35 drops of lemon, lavender or grapefruit essential oil to a bucket filled with water, and you can also add a couple of drops of tea tree oil. This solution cleans the floor well from various contaminants, while disinfecting its surface.
For washing, essential oils can be added to the washing machine. To do this, you can add 20-25 drops of rose, ylang-ylang, lemongrass, lavender or Melissa oil to the washing powder, which pleasantly aromatize bed linen and towels. For example, lemon essential oil is good at removing oily and greasy odors.
For washing dishes, essential oils with refreshing, antimicrobial properties are suitable, quickly eliminating fat and germs from its surface. For example, a few drops of essential oil of lemon, mint, tea tree, pine, eucalyptus can be mixed with the usual detergent or soda.
For disinfection. For example, tea tree essential oil is suitable, a few drops of which need to be diluted in a tablespoon of vinegar and water. The prepared solution is suitable for disinfection of kitchen shelves and drawers, sponges for washing dishes.
Essential oils that have both disinfecting and bleaching properties are suitable for cleaning sanitary ware and tiles. These include tea tree or lemon oils, which must be mixed with water, detergent, and citric acid. When applying the resulting mixture to a contaminated surface, leave the composition for a short time so that it works better, and only then rinse with water.
For aromatization, essential oils of citrus, flowers or spices are suitable, which will eliminate the unpleasant smell inside the cabinet or drawers of the chest of drawers. Apply a few drops of oil to paper napkins or pieces of wood, and then arrange them on the shelves.
To remove unpleasant odors from the surfaces of cutting boards, use essential oils of lemon, lavender, mint or tea tree, pre-mixed with soda. From the proportions: 10 drops per 100 g of soda.
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
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