text
stringlengths 263
344k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 23
values | url
stringlengths 16
862
| file_path
stringlengths 125
155
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.65
1
| token_count
int64 57
81.9k
| score
float64 2.52
4.78
| int_score
int64 3
5
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Coal is a black sedimentary rock found in rock strata in layers called coal beds. It is a combustible resource and is composed of carbon, sulphur, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Used primarily as a fuel, coal is also used for the production of electricity and other industrial purposes.
The World Map with top ten countries by coal production shows the top ten countries by hard coal production in million tonnes.
The map shows China as the largest producer of coal; in 2010 the country produced 3162 million tonnes of coal. The second-largest producer of coal is the United States followed by India, Australia, South Africa, Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Poland, and Colombia.
World Top Ten Countries by Coal Production
|Country||Coal Production (2010e) in MT|
|
<urn:uuid:bed499dc-b896-4a9e-9fd3-b7a7b0ae004b>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-15
|
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-map-countries-by-coal-production.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609539705.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005219-00118-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.847037 | 163 | 3.5 | 4 |
The fundamental teaching of Gautama (Sakyamuni) Buddha is that all human beings can attain Buddhahood, that until they do they will be subject to continual birth and death with all their attendant suffering. So now he is going to describe the status of those who have attained Nirvana and become Buddhas just as he did.
He whose victory is not relost, and whose victory no one in the world can take away, that Buddha, whose home is in the infinite, pathless as he is, by what path will you lead him? (Dhammapada 179).
This is not easy to put in English, considering the vastly differing wording of translations. It might be best to look at Narada Thera’s very literal rendering: “Whose conquest is not turned into defeat, no conquered of his in this world follows him–that Buddha of infinite range, by which way will you lead him?” The English is awkward, but a phrase by phrase analysis will give us the meaning.
Whose conquest is not turned into defeat. The attainment of a Buddha is irreversible. The victory he has won will never be undone, for his victory is over birth and death, and the kingdom he has won is Infinite Consciousness.
No conquered of his in this world follows him. That which the Buddha has vanquished is gone forever; it shall never arise again for him.
That Buddha of infinite range. The cosmos is but a mote in the sunlight of a Buddha’s consciousness. Past, present, and future are one to him, as is relative and transcendent existence. And he dwells beyond even them.
By which way will you lead him? Having transcended all “ways” by gaining infinity, what path could he follow, even voluntarily? So the idea of anyone leading or influencing a Buddha is absurd. He has passed far beyond all the possibilities of relative existence.
Freedom from desire
He who has no entrapping, clinging desire to lead him in any direction, that Buddha, whose home is in the infinite, pathless as he is, by what path will you lead him? (Dhammapada 180).
Desirelessness is freedom from all compulsion and release into boundless Being.
Envy of the gods
Those wise men, who are much given to meditation and find pleasure in the peace of a spiritual way of life, even the devas envy them, perfect Buddhas and recollected as they are (Dhammapada 181).
Harischandra Kaviratna: “Those wise ones who are absorbed in meditation, who take delight in the inner calm of renunciation, such mindful and perfectly awakened ones even the devas (gods) hold dear.” Thanissaro Bhikkhu: “They, the enlightened, intent on jhana, delighting in stilling and renunciation, self-awakened and mindful: even the devas view them with envy.”
Here we have a list of the traits of Buddhas.
- They are wise, not in the sense of learned scholars or clever philosophers, but through enlightenment. They no longer think: they know.
- Meditation is the keynote of their life. They do not think that they have passed beyond the need for meditation, but like Gautama Buddha they meditate intensely until their last breath on earth. Their entire lives are the fruition of meditation.
- They find enjoyment and fulfillment in the peace that comes from renunciation. None but they can realize the joy of the path of the absolute renunciate who has nothing to turn back to, but moves ever onward in the depths of the Infinite.
- They are awakened, but not by external factors. They are sambuddhanam, self-awakened. That is, their long-buried, eternal Buddha Nature has emerged as the chick does from the egg, complete and independent. Their enlightenment has arisen from and depends on no factor but their own Buddha Nature.
No wonder the gods envy them, for the Buddhas have passed beyond all capacity for compulsion and suffering, whereas the gods will in time, when their positive karma is exhausted, fall right back into the world of human beings and once more be crucified on the cross of material consciousness.
A human birth is hard to achieve. Difficult is the life of mortals. To hear the true teaching is difficult, and the achievement of Buddhahood is difficult (Dhammapada 182).
There is nothing worthwhile that is not difficult. Those who seek an easy way are looking for dry water and cold fire–it is simply not in the nature of things.
It is difficult to get a human birth because our karma strands us in the astral world, sometimes for centuries. Also, many spirits are waiting for the right combination of earthly elements to be born, and those with similar needs literally scramble and struggle with one another to win the prize of conception. And then the trouble really begins, for “difficult is the life of mortals.” It is difficult to hear the true dharma for there is so little of it in the world and so few true teachers of it. It is also difficult because our darkened minds render us deaf to dharma when we hear it. It is rare to hear the dharma, but much, much rarer to recognize and embrace it. I do not think anyone doubts the difficulty of becoming a Buddha, but since everything is difficult, why not spend the time struggling for Buddhahood? That will end all difficulties permanently.
The teaching of the Buddhas
To abstain from all evil, the practice of good, and the thorough purification of one’s mind–this is the teaching of the Buddhas (Dhammapada 183).
This verse gets tossed off a lot in both East and West by Buddhists and non-Buddhists, perhaps because it sounds so simplistic and so non-invasive, simple, minimal–and noble. It reminds me of a British documentary about a man who traveled the world to acquaint himself with the various religions as they are really lived. In Japan he spoke with a real saint, the head of a sect of Amida Buddhists. The saint outlined the path of Amidism, and the man remarked that it sounded too simple and easy to him. The saint laughed and said: “Just try it.” So we must not take this verse as lightly as many do.
Who can abstain from all evil, physical, mental, and spiritual? All evil! Who can only do good? Only good! And this is not according to our ideas, but according to the ideas of the Buddhas, whose perfect purity is inconceivable. What a task: to thoroughly purify our mind. We have taken millions of years to get our mind into this defiled state, how long will it take to undefile it? Yet this is the teaching of the Buddhas, and there are no shortcuts or bargain days.
A few facts
Long-suffering patience is the supreme ascetic practice. Nirvana is supreme, say the Buddhas. He is certainly not an ascetic who hurts others, nor is he a man of religion who causes suffering to others (Dhammapada 184).
Long-suffering patience is the supreme ascetic practice. Endurance–cheerful endurance–is a necessity in spiritual practice, for the attempts at higher consciousness reveal our weakness, laziness, doubts and just plain cussedness. Like any other endeavor we are sure to have some falls and failures, and then the ego arises and condemns us for not being able or ready to lead a serious spiritual life. But that is a lie and we must close our ears to it.
Someone wrote to me, telling of serious spiritual failures and expressing profound discouragement and depression. This is what I wrote in response, and I hope it will be meaningful to you, mostly because it comes from conversations I have had with saints.
“Many mistakes–and even falls–can occur in spiritual life, but a person can always get up and keep journeying onward. As long as this is done there is always hope for eventual success. There is only one thing that can prevent this: discouragement. If the sadhaka becomes discouraged at his failures and begins to feel hopeless and gives up his efforts, then no improvement is possible. Because of this, discouragement is the worst thing that can happen to a sadhaka, for it will end all spiritual progress. Be sure that you never give into this most harmful thing, and you need never fear failure. If it occurs, arise and keep on moving. Then nothing will be able to stop you in reaching the Goal.”
Nirvana is supreme, say the Buddhas. This has two meanings. First, that Nirvana is the Absolute State, that there is nothing whatsoever beyond it. In writings of the Thai Forest Tradition we find the teaching that Nirvana is not just a state, but Ultimate Reality Itself. Nirvana is equated with the Buddha Nature as expressed by Mahayana Buddhists. Second, the attainment of Nirvana is the supreme necessity and should be the highest priority in the lives of those who would follow Buddha Dharma, the Buddha Tao. (“Buddhism” is a word coined by Western scholars for the teaching of Buddha, but Buddha Tao was the name given to it for over two thousand years by its followers.) Nirvana should be the highest aim of our life, and our life should be lived in the context of Nirvana, for it is the ultimate realization and union of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
He is certainly not an ascetic who hurts others. “Hurt” covers all forms of injury, and it is incredible that anyone claiming to be a Buddhist would eat meat.
Nor is he a man of religion who causes suffering to others. What I just said applies here, as well. However, it should be pointed out that there is a vast difference between harming someone and offending them. Certainly it is wrong to attack another in speech or to deliberately try to hurt them. But there are professional offendees who use this to make the supposed offender look bad and to even suppress the speech or action they do not like. This has become epidemic in the last few decades, and sometimes reaches the positively psychotic and vicious degree. Buddha was not saying that the virtuous have to please everybody. He certainly did not himself, and he spoke very plainly, though never with any intent other than the welfare of his hearers. Their response was totally their choice.
The way to live
Not to speak harshly and not to harm others, self restraint in accordance with the rules of the Order [Patimokkha], moderation in food, a secluded dwelling, and the cultivation of the higher levels of consciousness–this is the teaching of the Buddhas (Dhammapada 185).
Although mention is made of the Patimokkha, the rules for monastics, this verse really applies to all.
Not to speak harshly and not to harm others. This has already been covered.
Self restraint in accordance with the rules of the Order. The Patimokkha is for monastics, but the Five Precepts are to be followed by all, and non-monastics should be intent on them.
Moderation in food. Buddha said that moderation in food was beneficial on many levels, that it was extremely healthy and could even prevent health problems.
A secluded dwelling. This is helpful for all if it can be managed. We just do not realize how much chatter and stress is created by urban living, especially noise, including traffic sounds.
The cultivation of the higher levels of consciousness. As said previously, this is the number one priority of those who seek Nirvana, whatever their state in life. Such cultivation is done through meditation and constant mindfulness.
There is no satisfying the senses, not even with a shower of money. “The senses are of slight pleasure and really suffering.” When a wise man has realized this, he takes no pleasure, as a disciple of the Buddhas, even in the pleasures of heaven. Instead he takes pleasure in the elimination of craving (Dhammapada 186, 187).
There is no satisfying the senses, not even with a shower of money. Even if all of the wealth of the world was accessible to us, no matter how much we spent there would be no satisfaction, for the sense are like fires and pleasures are like gasoline. Throw it on the fires and you only get more fire, more desires and more enslavement. “He whose happiness is within, whose delight is within, whose illumination is within: that yogi, identical in being with Brahman, attains Brahmanirvana” (Bhagavad Gita 5:24).
The senses are of slight pleasure and really suffering. But as Ajahn Fuang Jotiko points out, only those who meditate can see this and act upon it. The others keep hoping that somehow they will escape suffering through the senses, like gamblers who waste their lives in anticipation of a change of luck. So addiction blinds and binds us.
When a wise man has realized this, he takes no pleasure, as a disciple of the Buddhas, even in the pleasures of heaven. Whether the senses are physical or astral, the bondage and inevitable pain are the same. The wise know this.
Instead he takes pleasure in the elimination of craving. He finds the greatest joy in the freedom that comes from the elimination of desire-cravings. As Socrates said when in advanced age he was no longer interested in sex: “At last I am free of a harsh and cruel master.” But the wise do not wait for the body to burn out to eliminate craving, for rebirth will be there to return us to sense-bondage.
The only refuge
Driven by fear, men take to many a refuge, in mountains, forests, parks, sacred groves and shrines, but these are not a secure kind of refuge. By taking to this sort of refuge one is not released from suffering. He who has gone to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha for refuge, though, and who with true wisdom understands the Four Noble Truths of Suffering, the Origin of Suffering, the End of Suffering and the Noble Eightfold Path, leading to the Elimination of Suffering, this is a secure refuge, this is the ultimate refuge; by taking to this refuge one is indeed released from all suffering (Dhammapada 188-192).
Driven by fear, men take to many a refuge, in mountains, forests, parks, sacred groves and shrines, but these are not a secure kind of refuge. By taking to this sort of refuge one is not released from suffering. All these things listed are subject to decay and total annihilation–even mountains are eventually worn down–so they offer no secure refuge.
He who has gone to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha for refuge… is indeed released from all suffering. The inner Buddha, the inner Dharma, and the inner Sangha are eternal for they are The Truth of Things. Nevertheless, mere verbal “taking refuge” means nothing. Only by following the Four Aryan Truths and the Aryan Eightfold Path can we come into touch with the inner Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and progress on to Buddhahood. For as the wise teachers explain, it is our inner Buddha, the inner Dharma, and the inner Sangha that we must seek. The exterior counterparts exist only to point to the inner ones.
I will be analyzing the Eightfold Path and the Four Truths later on in Section Twenty, The Way.
Hard to find
A truly thoroughbred man is hard to find. He is not born anywhere, but where that seer is born, the people prosper (Dhammapada 193).
Narada Thera: “Hard to find is a man of great wisdom: such a man is not born everywhere. Where such a wise man is born, that family thrives happily.”
What is there to say? We must strive to ourselves become “of great wisdom” and not wait for the advent of a teacher before we take up the Buddha Way.
Happy is the attainment of Buddhahood, happy the teaching of the true Teaching, happy is the concord of the Sangha, happy the training of those in concord (Dhammapada 194).
So now we know the way to happiness.
When a man venerates those worthy of veneration, be they Buddhas or their disciples, who have transcended all obstacles and passed beyond sorrow and tears–venerating such as these, whose passions are extinguished and for whom there is no further source for fear, no one can calculate how great his merit is (Dhammapada 195, 196).
This does not mean a pointless kind of groupyism, which is most of the “discipleship” in East and West, but a following of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas so that in time we, too, shall become what they became before us and thereby showed us the Way.
Next article in the Dhammapada for Awakening: Happiness
|
<urn:uuid:91b5a10c-8b33-48d8-810b-9b831a0fa7c5>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-14
|
https://ocoy.org/dharma-for-christians/dhammapada-for-awakening/the-buddhas/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945182.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20230323163125-20230323193125-00769.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.963261 | 3,587 | 2.71875 | 3 |
In the beginning of the 16th century one of its leading citizens, Francesco Burlamacchi, made a noble attempt to give political cohesion to Italy, but perished on the scaffold (1548); his statue by Ulisse Cambi was erected on the Piazza San Michele in 1863.1', As a principality formed in 1805 by Napoleon in favour of his sister Elisa and her husband Bacchiocchi, Lucca was for a few years wonderfully prosperous.
The younger Michele was a mere courtier and spendthrift, but Elena seems to have been a woman of superior stamp. She was tenderly loved by her famous son, and his letters prove that she retained his fullest confidence through all the vicissitudes of his career.
Three new gilds were created, and nine priors appointed, three from the anti maggiori, three from the minori, and three from the new ones, while each of these classes in turn was to choose the gonfaloniere of justice; the first to hold the office was Michele di Lando.
His real name was Michele Pezza, and he was born of low parentage at Itri; he had committed many murders and robberies in the Terra di Lavoro, but by good luck combined with audacity he always escaped capture, whence his name of Fra Diavolo, popular superstition having invested him with the characters of a monk and a demon, and it seems that at one time he actually was a monk.
His grandfather, Michele Savonarola, a Paduan physician of much repute and learning, had settled in Ferrara, and gained a large fortune there.
Besides the cathedral, the baptistery and the famous leaning tower, the city possesses several notable churches, as the Renaissance church of the Tuscan order of St Stephen, built in 1562 from plans by Vt,sari; San Niccolo, with a four-storeyed tower (1230), built by Niccola Pisano, and the tomb of John of Swabia, the parricide; Santa Caterina (1262); Santa Maria della Spina, in the Italo-Gothic style, built in 1230 and restored in 1872; San Sepolchro, erected in 1150 by Diotisalvi; San Francesco, with frescoes byTaddeo Gaddi; and the basilica of San Michele (Io18).
Of his articles in this and other periodicals have been put together in book form, Les Maitres de l'histoire: Renan, Taine,, Michele (1894); Portraits et souvenirs (1897: on Hugo, Fustel de Coulanges, V.
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA (1452-1498), Italian monk and martyr, was born at Ferrara on the 21st of September 1452, the third child of Michele Savonarola and his wife Elena Bonaccossi of Mantua.
Not far from Turin are also the castles of Moncalieri, Stupinigi, Rivoli, Racconigi, Agle, Venaria, and the ancient monastery of the Sagra di San Michele (753 metres above sea-level), famous for its view of the Alps as far as the beginning of the Lombard plain.
The demagogues were executed or forced to fly, and Michele di Lando with great ingratitude was exiled.
|
<urn:uuid:0d2355a1-75b6-4108-a41f-0a946447adec>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-30
|
https://www.all-dictionary.com/sentences-with-the-word-Michele
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423812.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20170721222447-20170722002447-00301.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.975904 | 722 | 2.65625 | 3 |
For the better part of a century, we’ve grown up learning about a solar system with nine planets. Revolving around a small, yellowish star, our dusty neighborhood was bounded for a long time by planet Pluto. Discovered in 1930, Pluto has remained a distant enigma for 85 years. Now, we’re getting our first look at the last planet.
At 7:49 a.m. EDT, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew within 8,000 miles of dwarf planet Pluto after a 9.5-year journey through the solar system. Though the spacecraft was quiet during the flyby—it won’t phone home again until later tonight—the scene inside mission control at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physical Laboratory was anything but silent, with hundreds of people erupting in cheers and waving flags at the moment of closest approach.
“Isn’t this a great day?” asked Annette Tombaugh, daughter of the man who discovered Pluto at the Lowell Observatory.
For billions of years, that faraway frosted world has kept watch over the icy wilds beyond, along with its cadre of five known moons. It’s a world that’s very much unlike Earth, but to really understand Earth’s place in our cosmic family, we need to visit Pluto. It’s the king of a thousand worlds that populate the region beyond Neptune, and a key to understanding how planetary systems form. (Learn more about the historic mission to Pluto on the National Geographic Channel.)
“Pluto is kind of a capstone of our solar system exploration, and also opening up this new realm,” says astronaut John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the science mission directorate.
At the time of the spacecraft’s closest approach, New Horizons was almost 3 billion miles from Earth.
No data were beamed home during the encounter period. Because of the way it’s designed, New Horizons has to choose between collecting data and talking to Earth—and observations trump phone calls during the close encounter. Now, scientists are still anxiously awaiting a signal from the spacecraft relaying news of a safe journey through the Pluto system.
That signal is expected to arrive around 8:53 p.m. Tuesday.
“Tomorrow morning, we should see the beginning of a 16-month data waterfall,” said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern.
Yet images from the spacecraft’s approach to the Pluto system are already revealing a world unlike anything we’ve seen before. The latest image shows a copper-colored world, mottled with extremely dark splotches and a smooth, bright, heart-shaped patch. Small impact craters sprinkle the surface, and there are hints of cliffs. (Learn more about Pluto's first close-up.)
“Pluto could have been boring, but it’s not,” says team member Mark Showalter, of the SETI Institute.
In addition to Pluto, its largest moon Charon—which forms a binary planet with the dwarf—is similarly intriguing, with a darkened pole punctuating a gray surface riven with canyons and impact crater.
Getting to Pluto
This first reconnaissance of our farthest family member is exploration on its grandest scale. It’s an endeavor more than a quarter-century in the making, kicked off by a small group of scientists who met at a Baltimore restaurant in 1989. On the table? A mission to Pluto.
Those were the waning days of the Voyager spacecrafts’ encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and scientists were hungry for the next world in the lineup. That world, of course, was Pluto.
Over the past 26 years, multiple mission cancellations nearly brought the journey to Pluto to its knees. But when the summit is a world at the fringe of the observable solar system, obstacles are simply speed bumps, not dead-ends.
After years of wrangling, the $700-million mission launched in January 2006. It crossed the orbit of Jupiter a year later. New Horizons was the fastest spacecraft ever to leave Earth orbit, and at times has sailed more than a million miles a day. As it flies through the Pluto system, New Horizons will be going more than 30,000 miles an hour—so fast that the spacecraft will whiz by Pluto’s face in just three minutes.
At the time of closest approach Tuesday morning, New Horizons had traveled approximately 3 billion miles. It’s so far away that radio signals traveling at the speed of light take 4.5 hours to reach Earth. That means any two-way conversation with mission control on Earth takes at least 9 hours.
But the whole flyby, when New Horizons gets a close look at Pluto and its moons, lasts for hours. In fact, the spacecraft went silent at a few minutes before midnight on July 13. Its task, for the next 22.6 hours, was to gather as much information as possible. To do this, it executes a highly choreographed sequence of maneuvers to aim its instruments at exactly the right targets.
The observations include a fantastically complex experiment in which the spacecraft will study how Pluto’s (definite) and Charon’s (possible) atmospheres modify radio signals sent from dishes on Earth. It’s an experiment that required team members to be awake and monitoring dishes into the wee hours of the morning. Around 3:50 a.m., seven antennas began blasting Pluto with radio signals that New Horizons will collect when it reaches the other side of the planet.
“We’re going strong,” Stanford University’s Ivan Linscott said around, just after 5 a.m.
In all, the sequence will result in more than 400 observations before the spacecraft phones home, at roughly 8:53 p.m. tonight. That signal will tell mission control on Earth that New Horizons made it safely through a system that may have been studded dust and other debris that might be fatal during a collision.
The data so far has been tantalizing—intriguing photos, as well as early compositional and atmospheric data. But once the encounter data starts coming back to Earth, scientists will be drowning in all things Pluto.
"We are facing the Christmas that keeps on giving,” says deputy project scientist Kim Ennico. “This flyby is going to last 16 months!"
Follow Nadia Drake on Twitter.
|
<urn:uuid:7eb6fc12-47d2-48ba-bff4-f55a4b428cf6>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-34
|
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/150714-pluto-flyby-new-horizons-space/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738878.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20200812053726-20200812083726-00363.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.938463 | 1,341 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Rainbowfish are a type of freshwater fish native to the waters of tropical Indonesia, Australia and New Guinea. They thrive in slow-moving rivers, creeks, swampy areas and even brackish estuaries there. These vibrant fish feature beautiful scales with eye-catching iridescent hues that contain a rainbow-like array of colors like yellow, orange and blue.
Though people mostly keep rainbowfish in aquariums all over the world, it is important to remember their natural habitats in order to ensure we can continue to appreciate these fascinating creatures in the wild for years to come.
Rainbowfish are mesmerizing creatures that come in various colors and patterns, making them incredibly unique. In the wild, they are found in Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, living in still or slow-moving freshwaters as deep as 16 feet or more. Despite their natural bright coloring, rainbowfish camouflage themselves well among plant life by simply blending into the environment with the gentle swishing of their tails. The vibrant hue of rainbowfish cannot be fully appreciated until you witness them swimming among the plants, rocks, and other fish species within their underwater habitat.
Rainbowfish are omnivorous, enjoying a balanced diet of plant and animal matter. This diet typically consists of algae, worms, brine shrimp, tubifex, insect larvae, and smaller fish. Rainbowfish also often thrive on commercial flakes or pellets formulated explicitly for tropical aquarium inhabitants. For optimum health and well-being, rainbowfish benefit from consuming a diversity of foods that should be fed in separate meals throughout the day rather than being given only one type of food at once. Additionally, to keep these vibrant fish fit and healthy, it is advisable to give them frozen treats like blood worms at least once a week.
Rainbowfish are a remarkably diverse species. While they all share their characteristic of vibrant coloration, diversification within the group has produced many subspecies that each bring something unique to the table. Many of these varieties exist in relative isolation from other varieties, which offers an exciting insight into the power genetic drift has on adapting species to different environments. From larger deep bodied fish necessitated for survival in dangerous waters to small schooling species found in large Social groups, these remarkable creatures have much to teach us about evolution and nature’s ability to adjust its creations to changing conditions. It’s a fascinating study for any aquarist exploring the limits of nature.
Rainbowfish coloration & size
Rainbowfish are a group of colorful and popular aquarium fish known for their distinct color patterns. These fish come in various sizes, ranging from the small Threadfin Rainbowfish to the large Boeseman’s Rainbowfish, reaching up to 8 inches long. In addition to their size range, these breeds display a wide selection of colors, including bright blues, oranges, reds, and yellows. Rainbowfish can also show intricate combinations of lighter and darker shades within one species and different patterns on their fins. Not surprisingly, these vibrant nature jewels have been prized by aquarium hobbyists since the late 19th century.
Caring for rainbowfish can be a delightful experience, and with the right knowledge, you can help your fish thrive. A healthy diet is essential, consisting mainly of insects and other small crustaceans, while special flake and pellet food may also be given as an occasional treat. Keeping the water at the optimal temperature is essential to keeping your rainbowfish vibrant and happy; overcooling should be avoided so that their natural coloration remains strong. Regular water changes are also crucial for maintaining healthy levels of oxygen and pH in the aquarium.
Check out this in-depth care video for more on neon dwarf rainbowfish care:
Rainbowfish tank setup
Setting up a tank to house rainbowfish is an enjoyable activity that rewards the hobbyist with a low-maintenance, vibrant, and exciting addition to their home. Consider beginning with at least a 30-gallon tank, line the bottom with sand or gravel, and fill it with warm water. As far as other supplies go, all tanks should have adequate filtration systems, a heater if needed, and plenty of hiding places. Live plants effectively provide cover for shy fish and can help create an environment in which they thrive. Because rainbowfish love open water areas to swim in and do best when kept in schools of six or more, particular attention should be given when designing your set-up so that you provide enough room for your fish to swim freely.
Rainbowfish feeding in captivity
Rainbowfish are omnivorous and require plant-based foods, such as algae tablets, and live or frozen foods, such as bloodworms, brine shrimp, and daphnia. To prevent damaging any of the fish’s coloration, it is best to feed them flakes or pellets two to three times per day in amounts that can be consumed in five minutes. Live foods like bloodworms can also be given from time to time but should never make up more than 50 percent of the total diet they receive.
Breeding rainbowfish can be both a rewarding and challenging experience for fish enthusiasts. To start, tank parameters must be suitable for the species being bred, such as the presence of microorganisms or live plants to provide additional sustenance in biofilms. The water must also have pristine conditions regarding hardness, alkalinity, pH level, and temperature. Rainbowfish are generally shy, but if only a few are present, they may show less flightiness and more natural behaviors. Once you’ve established adequate conditions, it’s time to select a group of healthy specimens to begin the process. Depending on the species, this could mean distinguishing males from females or selecting compatible color morphs and patterns.
|
<urn:uuid:f451c657-2516-4b9c-a7ba-3680662581e7>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://www.culturalistpress.com/the-beautiful-australian-rainbowfish-a-primer/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656788.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609164851-20230609194851-00132.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.939089 | 1,205 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Railroads | Railroad Stations | Chicago Railways Company Routes | CB&Q | C&NW | Alton
The Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad name existed from 1856 to 1970, and the Burlington Route is one of the most recognized railroad heralds in the world. Her history is a story of growth and innovation and today is one of the biggest transportation companies of the country.
The Aurora Branch was chartered by the Illinois General Assembly on 12 February 1849. The charter was obtained by citizens of Aurora and Batavia, Illinois, who were concerned that the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad would bypass their towns in favor of West Chicago on its route. At the time, that was the only line running west from Chicago. The Aurora Branch was built from Aurora, through Batavia, to Turner Junction in what is now West Chicago. The line was built with old strap rail and minimal. After extensive trackwork was planned, the Aurora Branch changed its name to the Chicago and Aurora Railroad in June 1852, and to Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad in 1856, and shortly reached its two other namesake cities, Burlington, Iowa and Quincy, Illinois. In 1868 the CB&Q completed bridges over the Mississippi River both at Burlington, Iowa, and Quincy, Illinois giving the railroad through connections with the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad in Iowa and the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad in Missouri. The first Railway Post Office was inaugurated on the H&StJ to sort mail on the trains way across Missouri, passing the mail to the Pony Express upon reaching the Missouri River at St. Joseph, Missouri..
The line from Aurora to Chicago was built through the fledgling towns of Naperville, Lisle, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, Berwyn, and the west side of Chicago. It was opened in 1862, and passenger and freight service began. Regular commuter train service started in 1863 and remains operational to this day, making it the oldest surviving regular passenger service in Chicago. Both the original Chicago line, and to a much lesser extent, the old Aurora Branch right of way, are still in regular use today by the Q’s descendant BNSF Railway.
Though the Burlington reached as far west as Denver, Colorado, and Billings, Montana, it had failed to reach the Pacific Coast during the cheaper building years of the 1880s and 1890s. Though approached by E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, Charles Elliott Perkins felt the Burlington was a more natural fit with James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railway. With its river line to the Twin Cities, the Burlington formed a natural connection between Hill’s home town (and headquarters) of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the all-important American railroad hub of Chicago. Moreover, Hill was willing to meet Perkins’ $200-a-share asking price for the Burlington’s stock. By 1900, Hill’s Great Northern, in conjunction with the Northern Pacific Railway, held nearly 100 percent of the Burlington’s stock.
With the First World War having the same effect on the Burlington Route as on all other railroads, during the 1920s the Burlington Route had an increasingly heavy amount of equipment flooding the yards. With the advent of the Great Depression, the CB&Q held a good portion of this for scrap. Despite the decrease of passengers, it was during this time that the Q introduced the famed Zephyrs.
As early as 1897, the Q had been interested in alternatives to steam power, namely, internal-combustion engines. The Aurora Shops had built a clumsy and totally unreliable three-horsepower distillate motor in that year, but it was hugely impractical (requiring a massive 6,000-pound flywheel) and had issues with overheating (even with the best metals of the day, its cylinder heads and liners would warp and melt in a matter of minutes) and was therefore impractical. Diesel engines of that era were obese, stationary monsters best suited for low-speed, continuous operation. None of that would do in a railroad locomotive; however, there was no diesel engine suitable for that purpose then.
Always innovating, the Q both purchased “doodlebug” gas-electric combine cars from Electro-Motive Corporation and built their own, sending them out to do the jobs of a steam locomotive and a single car. With good success in that field, and after having purchased and tried a pair of General Electric steeple-cab switchers powered by distillate engines, Q president Ralph Budd requested of the Winton Engine Company a light, powerful diesel engine that could stand the rigors of continuous, unattended daily service.
Chicago Evening Journal
The experiences of developing these engines can be summed up shortly by General Motors Research vice-president Charles Kettering: “I do not recall any trouble with the dip stick.” Ralph Budd, accused of gambling on diesel power, chirped that “I knew that the GM people were going to see the program through to the very end. Actually, I wasn’t taking a gamble at all.” The manifestation of this gamble was the eight-cylinder Winton 8-201A diesel, a creature no larger than a small Dumpster, that powered the Burlington Zephyr (built 1934) on its record run and opened the door for developing the long line of diesel engines that has powered Electro-Motive locomotives for the past seventy years.
The railroad operated a number of streamlined passenger trains known as the Zephyrs which were one of the most famous and largest fleets of streamliners in the United States. The Burlington Zephyr, the first American diesel-electric powered streamlined passenger train, made its noted “dawn-to-dusk” run from Denver, Colorado, to Chicago, Illinois, on 26 May 1934. On 1 November 1934, the train was put into regularly scheduled service between Lincoln, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri. Although the distinctive, articulated stainless steel trains were well known, and the railroad adopted the “Way of the Zephyrs” advertising slogan, they did not attract passengers back to the rails en masse, and the last one was retired from revenue service with the advent of Amtrak on 1 May 1971.
The Zephyr fleet included:
Pioneer Zephyr (Lincoln–Omaha–Kansas City),
Twin Cities Zephyr (Chicago–Minneapolis-St. Paul),
Mark Twain Zephyr (St. Louis–Burlington),
Denver Zephyr (Chicago–Denver),
Nebraska Zephyr (Chicago–Lincoln),
Sam Houston Zephyr (Houston–Dallas-Ft. Worth),
Ozark State Zephyr (Kansas City–St. Louis),
General Pershing Zephyr (Kansas City–St. Louis),
Silver Streak Zephyr (Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln),
Ak-Sar-Ben Zephyr (Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln),
Zephyr Rocket (St. Louis–Burlington–Minneapolis-St. Paul), jointly with Rock Island
Texas Zephyr (Denver–Dallas-Ft. Worth),
American Royal Zephyr (Chicago–Kansas City),
Kansas City Zephyr (Chicago–Kansas City),
California Zephyr (Chicago–Oakland): Chicago–Denver handled by CB&Q; Denver–Salt Lake City by Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad; Salt Lake City–Oakland by Western Pacific Railroad.
On 1 March 1970 the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Great Northern, Spokane, Portland & Seattle and Northern Pacific merged to form the Burlington Northern Railroad. The BN operated until 22 September 1995, when it merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (chartered in 1859) to form the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. Name was shortened to BNSF Railway Company in 2005.
|
<urn:uuid:a93b700a-c972-4143-81cb-ec3e6bafbf93>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-26
|
https://chicagology.com/transportation/burlington/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320863.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626184725-20170626204725-00155.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.960211 | 1,648 | 2.875 | 3 |
- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
The term Crossing the Rubicon goes back to Roman times. In 49 BC Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river and entered Italy from Gaul with a standing army. To do so was treason, an act of audacity against the Roman state and it effectively started a bloody civil war.
Crossing the Rubicon was the point of no return for Caesar. It was an act of war, an irreversible step with no turning back. He knew the implications of his actions. When he had crossed the river he said: "The die is now cast, there is no going back, ever again". He was irrevocably committed to that course of action.
Crossing the Rubicon is, therefore, a term for taking bold, decisive and irreversible action. It is the point of no return. When you write your personal strategy you cross the point of no return in that you take control of your own life and set a transformational course of action into play.
You effectively burn your bridges and face down your best excuses. Move from knowing about the steps to transform your situation to doing something very practical about it. 'To know and not to do is not yet to know' is how Confucius put it over 2500 years ago. Moving from knowing to doing is crossing the rubicon.
|
<urn:uuid:7f3bd0fc-8103-47b2-af00-bdc77f142de3>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-10
|
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/crossing-the-rubicon-john-butler/1115395343?ean=9781412095358&isbn=9781412095358
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394678705768/warc/CC-MAIN-20140313024505-00049-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.960229 | 268 | 3.03125 | 3 |
This brief story will emphasize one aspect of this problem.
Joanna, a new hire in food service at the local hospital, is using an online course in hand washing. The course contains key facts about germs and how hand washing destroys them, but also statistics about hand washing, facts about different types of hand sanitizers, and the history of hospital-acquired infections and how they spread.
The primary message is that feces contains life-threatening germs and that tiny amounts often get onto hands after using the bathroom or handling objects that others have touched. People in the hospital often have compromised immune systems and if they come into contact with these germs, they can get very sick or die. Hand washing can prevent spread of these germs.
The problem: There is so much other information in the course that Joanna doesn’t get the seriousness of the message. She mostly comes away understanding that it’s a “very old issue.” Joanna passes the quiz but misses the critical message.
Consider people handling the following work tasks:
- Situation A: an accounting clerk in an accounts payable department has a vendor on the phone with a question she doesn’t know the answer to
- Situation B: an armed guard at secure military facility gate is talking to a driver who is acting aggressively and trying to hand him a wrapped package to deliver
- Situation C: an air traffic controller sees two planes on the screen who will shortly be in each other’s air space.
We often build training as if everyone needs to know everything about everything. And it’s easy to overload working memory and make it so people learn less than we want them to.
We say it’s the SMEs fault. They gave us too much content. But that’s like saying a poor building design is the architect’s fault. Oops it is! And in this case we are the architect. We need to make sure people learn what we need them to learn.
One reason why we need to provide only what people need is explained by “Cognitive Load Theory.” Cognitive load theory states that we have mental “bandwidth” restrictions. In other words, our brain can only process a certain amount of information at a time. And one of the things that can cause overload is too much information. Figure 1 is a diagram that shows the three types of cognitive load.
Figure 1. Three Types of Cognitive Load
(Source: Patti Shank and Cecelia Munzenmaier, Writing Better Learning Content)
When Learners Don’t Need to Know Everything
Do we need to train the accounting clerk in situation A on every answer to every possible vendor question? Probably not. For that matter, why shouldn’t we train everyone on everything?
People don’t have unlimited time.
The important information will be drowned out by the “just-in-case” information. See the example of Joanne’s hand-washing training. And no, it’s not because they remember 10 percent of what they read, 20 percent of what they hear…
If there’s too much information, it’s easy to get overwhelmed (see Cognitive Overload section).
- I hear you asking, “Where will they get other information if they need it?” This may be non-obvious, but they’re probably not going to go open their previous training materials to find the answers they need. So build performance support materials (or have them do it). Let people get help from their social network.
But Some Workers Do Need to Know Everything
On the other hand, the workers facing the issues in B and C don’t have time to look up or ask someone the proper response. They need to know what to do in these situations, and how to do it effortlessly--even if these situations don’t happen very often. We call this “automaticity.”
Automaticity is the ability to do a task effortlessly without any conscious effort or attention. Making something automatic includes accuracy and speed. Automaticity frees the mind to do other things, such as assess the situation, determine what is important, and find alternatives. Benefits of automaticity seem to be consistent across cognitive, perceptual, and motor tasks. But methods for training to automaticity for these different types of tasks are different (see resources). And training to automaticity requires a lot of work for the training designer and the learner.
We make fun of rote learning, but in some cases, it’s required—especially when dealing with the need for automaticity. The alphabet is an example of where rote learning is required in order to move on to more rote learning for reading proficiency and fluency.
Not many tasks require the kind of automaticity described in examples B and C, but many do require the capability to recall information quickly, such as answering guest questions at a hotel desk while others are waiting or medical staff helping patients and families during pivotal moments.
Imogen Casebourne wrote a good Science of Learning blog post about supporting the learning and remembering of this type of information.
Key Point: If the task doesn’t require quick recall or the worker has time to look it up, it may be a waste of training time to add the additional recall practice.
Thalheimer, W. (March 12, 2015) Debunk This: People Remember 10 Percent of What They Read, ATD Science of Learning Blog.
Holt, B., & Rainey, S., (April 2002). An Overview of Automaticity and Implications for Training the Thinking Process, Western Kentucky University.
Casebourne, I. (January 27, 2015). Spaced Learning: An Approach to Minimize the Forgetting Curve, ATD Science of Learning Blog
|
<urn:uuid:1d1fd858-aa14-4a0a-9025-f91fb49a5879>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://www.td.org/insights/science-of-learning-101-the-case-for-lessgenerally
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224657144.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20230610062920-20230610092920-00646.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.927615 | 1,222 | 3.109375 | 3 |
A new, validated software-based method for identifying patients with newly diagnosed HIV using electronic medical records (EMRs) is described in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses.
Providing medical care early on to people with newly diagnosed HIV infection is important for improving clinical outcomes. Study authors Matthew Bidwell Goetz and Tuyen Hoang, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA; Virginia Kan, Washington DC VA Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine; David Rimland, Atlanta VA Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine; and Maria Rodriguez-Barradas, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor University School of Medicine, Houston, TX, developed an algorithm designed to search EMRs to identify patients with new diagnoses of HIV infection based on the sequence of HIV diagnostic testing, diagnostic code entries into the EMR, and measurements of HIV genetic material in blood samples. They tested and validated their software tool using EMRs from patients undergoing HIV testing from 2006-2012 at four large Veterans Health Administration facilities.
The authors report the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of the algorithm in the article “Development and Validation of an Algorithm to Identify Patients Newly Diagnosed with HIV Infection from Electronic Health Records.”
“This paper describes new and valuable methodologies that will enhance the ability of public health officials to monitor increases in newly infected HIV populations,” says Thomas Hope, PhD, editor-in-chief of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, and professor of cell and molecular biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. “This will help to determine where healthcare resources for HIV-positive patients and testing for highest risk patients could be utilized more effectively. This will surely aid in facilitating the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
Source: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
|
<urn:uuid:b800b8dd-ec6a-4f78-a2f9-fd65db2f1882>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-35
|
http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2014/07/identifying-newly-diagnosed-hivinfected-people-using-electronic-medical-records.aspx
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500826343.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021346-00371-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.906117 | 390 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Communication/Collaboration Project I: Social Media Strategy Plan (Due Feb. 8)
This project consists of three parts: 1) exploring two existing practices of social media in a classroom, 2) setting your own goals for four social media tools, and 3) creating your glog about your social media strategy plans.
- What is your task? You will explore 4 social media tools and build a social media strategy for each tool. You will create an e-poster about your social media strategy plans using Glogster.
- Purpose of the project? To allow you to start thinking about how you will use social media in classrooms to support and enhance communication and collaboration and how you engage in social media for such professional uses
- What is a social media strategy plan? Goal setting about how you develop a professional social media identity (-it’s time to create your social media profile so you don’t find yourself removing tags from Facebook photos, creating a barebones LinkedIn account, and learning what Twitter is the night before a big job interview.)
**Here’s an example of goal-setting for Blogger for a middle-school science teacher:
Immediate Goal: Make an account and start reading articles on the Internet about scientific discoveries, current events, and research. I will try to post a new article or video every few days.
Future Goal: The blog will serve as a place where students can select an article that they find interesting and discuss it in class or write a brief summary about the article.
Step 1. Create a new page on your website called “Social Media Strategy” for this project.
Step 2. Do Google search for any articles/videos/resources about social media to get some idea about what/how social media tools are used in your target grade level and/or subject area to support communication and collaboration. Find at least 2 articles, videos, or resources.
Step 3. On the “Social Media Strategy” page, link to each article you found and write a brief review about it (one paragraph).
Step 4. Pick 4 social media tools.
There are many different social media tools – and to have a social media identity, you don’t need to actively use all of them. I’ve created a list of 12 social media tools. If you have another social media tool you’d like to use and it isn’t listed here – feel free to include it.
Step 4. Create your accounts for these 4 tools and spend some time exploring them. Get yourself familiar with them!!
**You’ll be using these tools to build a professional identity – so if you already have a personal Twitter account – think about having a separate one for the professional topics.
Step 5. Build your CURRENT and FUTURE goals for each of the four social media tools that you chose to your Glog. They should be realistic goals and should be specific. Make sure to include a LINK to YOUR Twitter feed, Pinterest board, LinkedIn profile, etc. When you creating your glog, be as creative as you want!
Step 6. On the Social Media Strategy webpage on your Google Site, provide the link to your glog and write a short description of why you chose those four social media in particular and what you learned from this project. This should take 1-2 paragraphs to describe.
**What is Glog? The following guidelines will help you learn about Glogster:
- Watch a 5-minute tutorial about Glogster.
- Create an account on Glogster: http://edu.glogster.com It’s up to you if you want to create a student account or a teacher account – but make sure you choose the free account. You should be able to log in with your Google ID or your Facebook account.
- Explore the templates for Glogster – get an idea of how you might layout your information.
- After you finish displaying your information on your glog, publish your glog – make sure you’ve made it public.
- If you don’t love Glogster – you can always try Storify or Scoop.it– it has similar features and you should still be able to include all of the required elements.
|
<urn:uuid:893c3ccb-82b6-43c7-9238-a08487c3706b>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-30
|
https://edit2000park.wordpress.com/projects/social-media-strategy-plan/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423992.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20170722102800-20170722122800-00703.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.881063 | 884 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Editor's Note: Words matter and perhaps none have more impact on the people of conflict-ridden areas than terms like civil war and genocide. Does the term "civil war" create a paradox that penalizes rebels that successfully challenge the government? Beyond the moral issues, readers may tie this argument to other literature about how civil wars end and the impact on the formation and stability of states.
Last year, President Obama dispatched U.S. forces to Uganda in an effort to remove the Lord Resistance Army’s Joseph Kony. In making the call to deploy troops, the president cited the LRA’s use of murder, rape, and kidnappings in the region. But he avoided characterizing the conflict as a civil war. Similarly, when the president authorized a no-fly zone over Libya last March, he promised to end Qaddafi’s “40 years of tyranny” and suggested that Benghazi was on the verge of a “massacre” that “would have driven thousands of additional refugees across Libya’s borders, putting enormous strains on the peaceful –- yet fragile -– transitions in Egypt and Tunisia” if the West did not intervene. But he did not describe Libya as a civil war in the making.
Despite the fact that civil wars now account for nearly half of all armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War, the term has become a watchword for nonintervention. Just as describing a massacre as a genocide raises the onus on the international community to act, calling a conflict a civil war accomplishes exactly the opposite, absolving the outside world of the responsibility of intervening. A case in point is present-day Syria or Sudan. Moreover, the phrase plays to our archaic notions of sovereignty, whereby borders are sacrosanct and regime can do as they please. Worse, the label conjures up an image of a bloody protracted conflict pitting bands of rebels against security forces. Its usage may lead to sanctions or boycotts, but rarely military intervention.
A War By Any Other Name
Civil wars have always been a subject of semantic confusion among scholars and policymakers alike. It is not always clear where the demarcations lines between an insurgency, an armed insurrection, revolution, or a civil war should be drawn, as the distinction between them is often fuzzy: The database most scholars use to classify civil wars, for example, includes the 1989 revolution in Romania and 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran as civil wars. Generally a civil war refers to any internal conflict between two ore more armed sides, of which one is the central authority. This distinguishes it from a communal riot, a terrorist campaign, or a genocide. There are disagreements over the fatality threshold that must be met, but most scholars classify a civil war as surpassing 1,000 deaths in any given year. Increasingly these types of wars are fought in the lawless border regions of states, away from the public eye. One can sip tea in Istanbul or coffee in Bogota and have no clue the country’s periphery was embroiled in civil war, aside from the occasional checkpoint.
Civil wars are mistakenly believed to be wars of attrition that drag on forever, when in fact the average civil war flames out after forty months, compared to over ten years for most insurgencies. Conventional civil wars are also less deadly than insurgencies – an average battle toll of 62,000 deaths per conflict compared to 84,000. Not all civil wars, of course, start out as civil wars – conflicts go through phases. Libya, for example, began as a rebellion – even though its participants, unlike in Tunisia or Egypt, were referred to by the media as rebels, not as protesters – then as an insurgency, then as a civil war, with two clearly defined sides squaring off. Only when Qaddafi’s forces were routed was it declared a revolution, suggesting that outcome (victory versus defeat for rebels), as much as means (armed versus unarmed), matters to the nomenclature of conflict.
This is not a new phenomenon. Germany’s “Peasant War” of the 18th century was depicted as a burgerkrieg and only later entered the history books as a “revolution.” Going even further back, the semantic notion of a group of people overturning of the status quo was an alien concept. As Hannah Arendt noted in On Revolution, “[One] possessed no word which could have characterized a transformation in which the subjects themselves became the rulers.” Reinhart Koselleck writes in Future Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time, “[F]or the period to around 1700 we can conclude that the expressions ‘civil war’ and ‘revolution’ were not interchangeable, but were not at the same time mutually exclusive.” Nor was the delineation between interstate and intrastate wars always clear during those pre-Westphalian days. The Thirty Years War is not considered a civil war in the history books, even if that is how it began. It was only ex post facto declared a war between states (Similarly, in modern times, the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea blurred the boundaries between intrastate and interstate war).
“Insurgency,” too, has become a term freighted with rhetorical baggage, as it is associated with its antidote – counterinsurgency, which implies a long, arduous process of nation-building, clearing areas of insurgents, and winning hearts and minds. Such phrases have become anathema to an American public weary after ten years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Consider the dialing back the White House did after Secretary Clinton described the drug cartel violence in Mexico as an insurgency (Although Mexico’s president has hinted the violence there in nearing civil war levels, with over 50,000 fatalities, as a rhetorical device to prod the United States to take more steps to curb demand for drugs and prevent arms from flowing across the border).
In Washington, too often these terminologies become politicized, with policymakers tossing around phrases without fully understanding their contexts or consequences. During the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War, the Bush administration refused to describe sectarian violence there as a civil war. American hawks against the withdrawal from Afghanistan warn that the situation there will turn into a civil war if U.S. forces leave. Here the phrase is used as an ultimatum of sorts, to continue a failed U.S. policy, but the term can also be invoked to back a non-interventionist strategy: When former Republican candidate Jon Huntsman told ABC News he favored pulling out of Afghanistan, he admitted this might lead to a security vacuum and potential civil war, but then added: “I’m not sure there’s a whole lot we can do about that.” Yemen, too, is typically described as either a “humanitarian catastrophe” or a “civil war,” depending on if one’s intention is to intervene (“a humanitarian catastrophe” or terrorist safe-haven) or not (“a civil war”).
Aside from Mexico, the leaders of most states engaged in internal armed conflict are loathe to describe it as a civil war. They fear the phrase implies state failure or weakness, which may invite a coup, not to mention that such terminologies confer a kind of legitimacy to the non-state actors they are fighting. That goes in spades for dictatorships like Syria or Libya, whose regimes do not like to admit the level of opposition they face and blame upheaval on the work of foreign terrorists or American intelligence. Yet increasingly outside powers like the United States are either hapless or unwilling to get involved once a conflict escalates into a civil war.
Part of this unwillingness was obviously shaped by events in Somalia in the early 1990s, when U.S. forces intervened to facilitate the delivery of food aid during its civil war. The imbroglio that followed was captured by the infamous “Black Hawk Down” episode, whereby 18 Marines were killed by marauding Somalis, their bodies dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. That crisis cemented in the public’s imagination the dangers of intervening in a messy, lawless place with no vital U.S. national security interest and with no clear objective or exit strategy. That set the stage for civil wars in Rwanda and elsewhere to proceed without U.S. intervention, leading to countless deaths. The next U.S. intervention would not occur until the mid-1990s in the Balkans, when the slaughter of Muslims there constituted crimes against humanity or worse.
The Syria Puzzle
The nomenclature of armed conflicts matters, as evidenced by Syria, a country that has presented a puzzle to policymakers and scholars alike. When the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights recently called the nine-month-old uprising there a “civil war,” her purpose was to sound the alarm and prompt the international community into doing more to protect innocent civilians from being slaughtered. She appeared to favor stricter sanctions, more outside monitors, and greater involvement by the International Criminal Court. Yet her clarion call achieved exactly the opposite effect: By presumptively declaring the conflict a civil war, the international community could now afford to sit on the sidelines, even as the bloodbath continued. Describing a conflict as a civil war today is no longer a call to arms, it is a call to inaction.
In fact, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in November that the violence in Syria was beginning to resemble a civil war, some saw it as a gambit to protect Russia's Arab ally from a Libya-style intervention. Secretary of State Clinton later echoed his comments, a statement the State Department has since backtracked from. But does it even matter if Syria is a conventional civil war, an Iranian-style rebellion, or an Afghan-like insurgency? Yes, because if we do not know how to properly classify a conflict, chances are we will not know how or whether to intervene, military or otherwise. By examining the differences between civil wars and insurgencies, we can evaluate the claim that Syria is a quagmire in the making. How we describe conflicts also has important normative and legal implications – the laws of war are different from the laws of armed protests (recall that France called its decades-long conflict in Algeria a “police operation”).
Syria does seem to be heading toward civil war. The success of Libya’s rebels and lack of serious reforms by the Assad regime has pushed segments of the Syrian opposition to take up arms against the state. A handful of soldiers and politicians have defected to the opposition, formed militias and carried out attacks against security forces, including a recent strike against a large military complex outside of Damascus. The so-called Free Syrian Army has been given refuge in Turkey. There is also evidence that outside parties may be abetting the rebels with financing and arms, including even Libya.
But as of yet, the opposition hardly amounts to a formidable force capable of overturning the regime. They control no territory but operate using what NPR described as an “underground railroad” of sorts. And the violence has been almost completely one-sided. As a State Department official noted correctly to the Christian Science Monitor, “The overwhelming use of force has been taken by Assad and his regime. So there's no kind of equanimity here.” Indeed, the conventional classification of a civil war requires that each side must have sustained at least 10 percent of the casualties – that is not yet the case in Syria. That is not to say that Syria is not heading down that path. The German publication Zeit Online remarked that the city of Homs “now resembles Beirut in the 1980s, divided along ethnic and religious lines where it’s too dangerous for people to travel in a particular direction because they will be shot if they do so.” Or as Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group recently told the New York Times, “I’ve never seen something quite so ominous take shape in the region in 15 years.”
The Assad regime appears to be bracing for a civil war as well. Iran is set to construct a large military base in Latakia, an Alawite stronghold. Russia has reportedly shipped in ammunition and armaments. And Hezbollah has stepped up its denunciation of the opposition as agents of Israel. But Syria’s armed forces remain weak and divided. That was intentional, a legacy of Assad’s paranoid father to prevent a military coup, but as a result, Syria’s army may lack enough repressive capacity to put down a revolution.
Syria is not yet a civil war, but it is a politicide and humanitarian catastrophe in the making. The International Criminal Court has accused the Assad regime of committing crimes against humanity. Over 4,000 civilians have been killed and tens of thousands arrested. Religious minorities such as Christians, to say nothing of Syria’s merchant classes, worry about radical Islamists or retribution by opposition forces if Assad falls. And bursts of sectarian violence perpetrated by so-called shabiha, or Alawite gangs of pro-regime thugs, have been reported in the cities of Homs and Hama. Still, you could wander through the souks of Damascus or Aleppo and have no clue the rest of the country was under siege. Like a revolution, a civil war is often unpredictable. Just days before the violence began last January, President Assad was bragging to a Wall Street Journal reporter that his state was immune to the kind of protests sweeping North Africa.
Support within Syria for international intervention, beyond Arab League inspections or economic sanctions, has only grown. A Free Syrian Army general has called for an international no-fly zone. The Syrian National Council (SNC), an exiled opposition group, has rejected outside intervention but called for “international protection.” And Syria’s diaspora communities have grown more vocal and involved. “I'm actually disappointed that the UN came out and [called it a civil war],” Muna Jondy of the Syrian American Council in Michigan recently told reporters. “This is not a civil war. This is a government killing its own people. It's going to make the rest of the world slower and less inclined to act.” At the same time, international distance from the language of intervention has only grown. Given Moscow’s close ties to Damascus, as well as the regional implications of intervening, Assad knows he is not at risk of being deposed by NATO bombs or U.S. troops anytime soon. Sure, he faces international opprobrium and damage to his reputation as a reformer. But his father weathered similar storms and challenges to his rule by using overwhelming force to put down dissent and was rewarded with several decades of staying power.
A civil war is often held up by outside observers as a worst-case scenario for political violence to take, a precipice from which belligerents cannot return that can have implications beyond a state’s borders. Often, this is the case. Civil wars in West Africa, for example, have typically not remained contained but engulfed the entire region, with refugees fleeing across borders and peacekeepers reluctant to intervene. But most civil wars do eventually end, though usually with one side victorious, which invariably requires mass casualties, human rights violations, and expulsion of journalists: Sri Lanka provides a cautionary tale. Absent the presence of third-party mediators, scholars find that most civil war belligerents face credible commitment problems and thus cannot reach negotiated settlements. The problem is particularly dire in weak states like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is greater parity between the military capacity of the state and rebel armies. The best predictor of conflict remains past conflict.
So we have something of a civil war paradox on our hands: A third-party intervention is in the humanitarian interest, but once violence reaches the threshold of a civil war, the default option of the international community is to let things play out and stay on the sidelines – or to “give war a chance,” to borrow a bad expression from the 1990s. Even though the responsibility to protect, or R2P, has emerged as an important international norm, enshrined by Bill Clinton in Bosnia and President Obama in Libya, civil wars generally do not fall under the phrase’s purview, only humanitarian crises that appear to be approaching genocide. Cote d’Ivoire is instructional in this regard. With over a thousand civilians reportedly killed and hundreds of thousands fleeing into neighboring Liberia, the International Crisis Group labeled the post-election violence there a civil war. But there was no Libya-style intervention. The Obama administration took a hands-off approach, and UN peacekeepers appeared loathe to take sides in an internal war and be seen as abetting armed rebels, who might go on to carry out attacks against civilians. Only after French helicopters intervened at the eleventh hour was a bloodbath averted. Similarly, international agencies continue to describe a looming civil war in Southern Sudan, but the reaction from the international community, distracted by the upheavals of North Africa, has been muted at best. NATO forces ostensibly intervened in Libya to prevent a bloodbath in Benghazi, not to take sides in a civil war (even though this is exactly what they began to do after the bombing started – arming and training the rebels). As The Economist correctly noted at the time: “[T]he fact Libya is in the midst of a civil war is considered to be something one would mention only if one opposed intervening in it.”
So should we stop labeling conflicts as civil wars, given all their historical baggage and mental stereotypes they conjure up in policymakers’ minds? Maybe find a new term more palatable to humanitarian intervention? Or perhaps raise the classification criteria – the number of fatalities, conditions on the ground, etc. – to label a conflict a civil war? Perhaps these may work, but these types of internal conflicts will not go away just by renaming or reclassifying them. A more effective approach will require greater prevention efforts to mitigate against costly intervention. As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote in a 2009 article for Foreign Affairs: “[The] U.S. strategy is to employ indirect approaches -- primarily through building the capacity of partner governments and their security forces -- to prevent festering problems from turning into crises that require costly and controversial direct military intervention.” But the United States does not have the luxury, much less diplomatic or military capacity, to go around the world putting out all of the embers before they turn into forest fires. It must rely on regional allies to police neighborhoods (Turkey in the Middle East, India in South Asia, etc.).
The standard for international intervention still remains ad hoc and employed on a case-by-case basis. The United States has only intervened four times to stop humanitarian catastrophes over the past few decades: twice in the Balkans (Bosnia and Kosovo) and twice in the Arab world (Northern Iraq and Libya). It has stood on the sidelines throughout countless civil wars and other humanitarian crises, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa. As Sudan and Syria appear headed for civil war, a question U.S. policymakers must answer is whether to intervene to prevent mass atrocities. The default option appears to echo James Baker’s famous take on the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s: “We don’t have a dog in that fight.” It would seem the Kantian notion that intervention constitutes a moral duty to save human life flies out the door when those being saved are armed combatants or civilians caught in the crossfire of civil wars. The decision not to intervene in civil wars reflects the resurgence of realism among international affairs scholars, one rooted during the Cold War. As Kenneth Waltz, America’s godfather of realism, noted about U.S. intervention in Vietnam in the 1960s, “[T]he revolutionary guerilla wins civil wars, not international ones, and no civil war can change the balance of world power unless it takes place in America or Russia.”
Unfortunately, civil wars are and will be a fact of international life and so their presence cannot be met with indifference, given their ability to spread beyond borders and engulf entire region. The international community cannot afford to stay on the sidelines during civil wars. Otherwise, this will create a moral hazard for regimes like Syria’s that manage to heighten the violence beyond a certain threshold will be unjustly rewarded with the stamp of civil war and given a get-out-of-intervention-free card by the international community. Conversely, rebel armies that decide to take up arms will be unfairly punished for challenging the state more successfully. Hence, this creates perverse incentives for all parties.
That is not to say that an outside intervention is a wise policy in Syria, given its obvious limitations and potentials of backfiring. But in today’s policy parlance, the civil war tag has become an international seal of inaction, effectively raising the bar for any kind of intervention, military or otherwise. Without any kind of intellectual foundation, it’s a sleight of hand. And that is problematic for future peace efforts.
|
<urn:uuid:6684c8ed-0e2b-4682-9cf8-b3c8e060a1c1>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-34
|
https://smallwarsjournal.com/comment/33086
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738777.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20200811115957-20200811145957-00087.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.955458 | 4,360 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Flipping through his new multi-use dictionary, 8-year-old Bradley Lawrence saw what he thought might be a discrepancy and raised his hand.
“It says here that there are eight planets in our solar system, is that right,” Lawrence asked. “How recently was this published?”
Lawrence’s question was a reasonable one, given Pluto’s recent relegation to dwarf planet status, but his concern about his new book was allayed. Published in May 2006 by The Dictionary Project, Inc., the eleventh edition of A Student’s Dictionary & Gazetteer did correctly list the number of planets in the solar system at eight, down from the nine-planet system that had previously included Pluto.
Bradley was one of about 70 third grade students at Bells Mill Elementary School to receive the new dictionaries as a gift from the Potomac-Bethesda chapter of the Rotary Club on Wednesday, Nov. 29. It is a county-wide project during November, which is National Dictionary Month, according to Jerry Gross, the president of the Bethesda-Potomac chapter.
“It’s a great program,” said Alan Grant of the Rotary Club. “We come in and tell them about the Rotary Club and what we do — our philanthropies all over the world — and we give them these dictionaries that will be useful for them.”
“It’s a special dictionary,” said Gross. “It’s got more than just words in it — it also has all of the presidents, the states, and a copy of the Constitution in it,” as well as a host of other information useful for young students, according to Gross.
“We’ll use this for (the student’s) vocabulary and grammar development skills,” said Kathleen Jenkins, a third-grade teacher at Bells Mill.
The dictionaries coincidentally come at the same time that the students are in the middle of a learning unit entitled Reading to be Informed that focuses on non-fiction reading, according to Joyce Yoder, also a teacher at Bells Mill.
“It fits in with the non-fiction reading the students are doing now,” said Yoder. “[The dictionaries] are small so they’ll fit very well in their desks.”
Members of the Rotary Club explained to the students about some of their charitable works in Africa helping underprivileged people with health needs, and guided the students through their new dictionaries by having them look up words and going over their definitions.
“We have dictionaries in the classrooms,” said Yoder, “but when it’s your own it has a different meaning for you.”
|
<urn:uuid:35e8e627-9b81-4e6a-b7d6-343f902f87c3>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-30
|
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/dec/05/information-dissemination/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423903.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170722062617-20170722082617-00367.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.973531 | 586 | 2.84375 | 3 |
When an electric cooktop element (“burner”) doesn’t work, either it isn’t receiving electric power or it’s likely that the element or receptacle it plugs into is faulty.
Check the other elements. If none work, the circuit breaker has probably tripped. Reset it at the electrical panel. If the problem recurs, call an appliance repair person.
If just one element isn’t working, try to pinpoint the source of the problem, which will likely be a bad element/burner or a problem with its connection receptacle. In some cases it’s the switch or the wiring. To replace a bad switch, repair the wiring, or replace the receptacle, call an appliance repair person.
An element that plugs into a receptacle is easy to test. After turning off the range’s power at the main electrical panel, just unplug the non-heating burner, plug it into another working receptacle, restore the power to the range, and test it. If the element works, you know its original receptacle is probably faulty. If it doesn’t work in the good receptacle, the burner is bad and must be replaced. Buy a replacement, and simply plug it into the receptacle.
When you remove the element, look for burned wires or a charred receptacle. Check the receptacle or terminal block to see if it’s cracked, loose, or looks burned. If you notice any of these signs, replace the faulty component, too. If the male burner prongs are corroded, also change the female receptacle it was plugged into.
A flip-up element requires a little more work. After turning off the power, tilt up the burner, unscrew the small screw that holds it, and then slide it out. Disassemble the insulator block by prying off the clips. Then unscrew the wires from the element, replace with a new burner, and reassemble.
To test an element with a multi-meter, first remove the burner from its receptacle, as discussed above. Set the multi-meter to the Rx100 setting (or, for a digital meter, to or k). With the red lead connected to the positive jack and the black lead to the negative jack, touch the black probe on one of the heating element’s terminals and touch the red probe to the other terminal.
The needle should jump from the infinity reading to the right, indicating a properly “closed” circuit. If it doesn’t, try the probes on a different part of the metal contacts. If there is still no reading, touch the two leads together to make sure the meter is working (the needle should jump). If it works, there is an internal break in the element and the element will need to be replaced. When you’re finished, turn the power back on, and test the burner again. If it still doesn’t work, call a repair person.
Featured Resource: Find a Local Appliance Repair Pro
Call for free estimates from local appliance pros now:
|
<urn:uuid:5804a9de-fb69-4ff0-9ab0-9dceda94511c>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-10
|
https://www.hometips.com/repair-fix/stove-burner-electric.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875144167.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20200219184416-20200219214416-00167.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.876644 | 645 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Popular Science Monthly/Volume 18/November 1880/The Glacial Man in America
|THE GLACIAL MAN IN AMERICA.|
IN that distant age when Nature was still toiling at the foundations of the Eastern Continent, portions of America had become dry land, and mountain-peaks in North Carolina were illuminated by rising and setting suns. It is, therefore, an anachronism to speak of America as the New World, especially when we remember the high antiquity of the fauna of North America. Still it is believed that the Eastern Continent was the original abode of man.
But when, or under what circumstances, did America receive her first human inhabitant? Heretofore those who have discussed the question have assigned the event to a comparatively modern period, and have considered the probability of immigrations from Asia by Behring Strait; while others have suggested early transatlantic movements, or the peopling of America from a lost continent of the Pacific Ocean. The discovery of stone implements, however, in the glacial deposits of the Delaware Valley gives a fresh turn to the discussion, and carries the question back to remote periods. It is true that the great antiquity of man on this continent had been maintained previously, but the evidence was quite unlike what is now offered. Yet, whatever may be concluded ultimately respecting the antiquity of the Delaware flints, it is quite apparent that the red-man found in America at the period of its rediscovery by Cabot, Vespucci, and Columbus, was not the descendant of any glacial man. No line of connection can be made out. This continent does not appear to have any Kent's Hole like that at Torbay, affording a continuous history, beginning with the cave-bear and ending with "W. Hodges, of Ireland, 1688." The race that rose to wealth and power in Central America did not succeed any rude spear-maker. More and more is it becoming evident that the people of Central America sprang from a superior race inhabiting the borders of the Mediterranean. This is indicated by a certain similarity in manners, customs, architecture, and religion. Investigations, now in progress, promise to yield the approximate date of the period when the first conquerors of Mexico and Yucatan crossed the sea. The Spaniards learned that the people whom they conquered had themselves figured in the rôle of invaders, entering from a country called Tulan or Tulapan, and overrunning the then dominant race. It may yet be demonstrated that this took place about the third year of the Christian era. But who were these earlier inhabitants? These we believe were not the descendants of an indigenous race, any more than were the later tribes. There is nothing to show that they were ever connected in America with any glacial or pliocene man. They might, however, be referred to still more remote migrations from Europe, which may have taken place in connection with events that gave rise to the story of the lost continent of Atlantis, as related by Plato. The so-called aboriginal red-man is comparatively a modern, although the author of "Leaves of Grass" asks concerning "the friendly and flowing savage," is he "waiting for civilization or past it and mastering it?" However this may be, he is wandering over the graves of peoples who left no record of their exploits, either in the continent where they sprung into life or where they died. It is, indeed, a significant fact that the East furnishes no very plain tradition of any exodus which peopled America. The prehistoric emigrant must have been possessed of the idiosyncrasies of those who
And silently steal away."
The absence of such traditions is nevertheless not at all surprising, since the people of antiquity, and notably the Phœnicians, guarded their distant maritime discoveries with care. Indeed, we wholly misapprehend the spirit of that remote age, in supposing that the navigators would hasten to show the way to new-found lands, and proclaim their discoveries to all the world. This was not even the spirit of the sixteenth century, for at that period, in the spirit of the Tyrian and Sidonian sailor, the Spaniards and the French had their plans for stopping the advance of other nations—the one by fortifying the straits of Magellan, and the other by holding the supposed route to the Indies by way of the St. Lawrence.
It is now gradually becoming apparent that the peopling of America was accomplished by more than one race of emigrants, and that at least two distinct expeditions went from Europe to Mexico and Yucatan before the Spaniards. This question, therefore, has its historic and archaeological side, and consists of a number of very distinct lines, which are to be studied separately by specialists, in the conviction that no one theory or set of facts covers the whole ground. Several distinct contributions were made by the inhabitants of the Eastern Continent toward the peopling of America, and, by means of a careful division of labor, we may yet reach some satisfactory solution of a subject that has so long baffled inquiry. Such studies may be conducted on strictly scientific principles, as well as those prosecuted with relation to the story of life in general on this continent; for, if we may accept as historic the representation of Professor Marsh, who pictures the American primates making their way over the miocene bridge at Behring Strait to Europe, and failing, later, when differentiated, to return, because the bridge had broken down, man alone returning to the country of his "earlier ancestry," it is certainly reasonable to hope that the origin of those races not connected with the in-comer by Behring Strait may be satisfactorily explained.
At what period the Atlantic was first crossed by man it is impossible now to conjecture. It was nevertheless navigated in very early times, and was a sea of light, though at the dawn of history it appears as the "Sea of Darkness," inspiring no little apprehension and dread; while Albinovinus sends out Germanicus upon the sea with a ruit ipsa dies. Under the circumstances, therefore, the old discussions will be continued, though the subject of the glacial man in America may be pursued as something wholly independent.
But was there any glacial man in America? To this question the answer is distinct, though given with the reserve which the subject justifies. For the best that is known, we are chiefly indebted to Dr. C. C. Abbott, who was the first to call attention to the stone implements found in the glacial deposits of the Delaware Valley. These implements are chiefly of argellite, though examples of flint occur at higher levels. They have been found at the bluffs near Trenton, both in position where deposited and among the débris at the base. Dr. Abbott says, "Perhaps it is a wise caution that is exercised in but provisionally admitting the great antiquity of American man, but, were these rude implements not attributed to an inter-glacial people, their coequal age with the containing beds would never have been questioned." On this point the Curator of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge observes, in the tenth annual report: "Dr. Abbott has probably obtained data which show that man existed on our Atlantic coast during the time of, if not prior to, the formation of the great gravel deposit which extends toward the coast from the Delaware River, near Trenton, and believed to have been formed by glacial action. From a visit to the locality with Dr. Abbott, I see no reason to doubt the general conclusion he has reached in regard to the existence of man in glacial times on the Atlantic coast of North America."
The support given to Dr. Abbott's conclusions by investigators stamps them as of high interest, while his own arguments are entitled to the same respectful consideration. Several of his observations are not easily set aside. For instance, he says, "if the same age is ascribed to these paleolithic implements and the ordinary Indian relics," then, as already asked, "how could the one series become imbedded, often to great depths, and not representatives of any class of weapons, domestic utensils and ornaments?" It would, indeed, be a singular operation of Nature, that selected one class of relics only for preservation. The conclusion is, "that in the essentially unmodified débris of the terminal moraine in central New Jersey, and in others upon the surface (which, however, are in part only of more recent origin), it is shown that the occupancy of this portion of our continent by man extends back into the history of our globe, in all probability to even an earlier date than the great ice age; and that the maximum severity of the climate did not destroy him; and that subsequently he tenanted our seacoast and river-valleys, until a stronger and more warlike race drove him from our shores."
It is not the purpose of the writer, however, to attempt to add anything to the argument, especially as he is assured that the question now seems to concern the probability of man having existed in America prior to the glacial period. We, therefore, take the evidence as it stands, leaving its strengthening or overturning, as the event may prove, to the future, aiming in this article to give a fuller illustration than has heretofore been attempted of the agreement of the theory with accepted history; for, possibly, it may eventually appear that the glacial man is more closely connected with historic man than could have been expected.
Professor Marsh observes, that "the evidence, as it stands to-day, although not conclusive, seems to place the first appearance of man in this country in the Pliocene," adding that "the best proofs of this are found upon the Pacific coast." The proofs, however, are a little shadowy, consisting of a stray bone or two, instead of stone axes and arrow-heads; though it is clearer that some of the first inhabitants, whenever they came, entered from Asia by Behring Strait, the destruction of the miocene bridge, which once existed there, not impeding their advance. It is unnecessary, however, to suppose that the glacial man was unable to find his way westward from Central Europe. The notion that man in that remote age could not navigate great seas is simply a notion, and likewise it is a notion that more than anything else prevents the advance of scientific inquiry respecting the early colonization of America. Two men in a skiff to-day navigate the entire breadth of the Atlantic, but such a feat forms no new thing under the sun. In the glacial age communication between Europe and America may have been more easy than is now suspected, while a large portion of the journey may have been made over fields of ice. The passage of the glacial man from Europe possibly presented no greater difficulties than the migration of the Esquimaux from Labrador to Greenland. But, however man may have reached America, the theory that the Indian peoples sprang from any glacial stock seems untenable. This, then, necessitates the inquiry respecting the subsequent history of the primitive inhabitant; otherwise, what became of him?
That a people corresponding in the main to the supposed glacial man once dwelt as far south as New Jersey has been agreed by various writers, without any reference to the contents of the glacial deposits, of whose existence they did not dream. When, for instance, we turn to the Icelandic Sagas relating to America, it becomes apparent that the Esquimaux once flourished low down upon the Atlantic coast.
At the present time historians agree, with great unanimity, that the continent of America was visited during the tenth and eleventh centuries by Icelanders resident in Greenland. That country was colonized by the Icelanders in the year 985, and when Eric the Red entered Greenland he found no inhabitants. The third Greenland "Narrative," however, says: "They found there, both east and west, ruins of houses and pieces of boats and stone-work begun. From which it is to be seen what kind of people lived in Vinland, and which the Greenlanders call Skrællings, and who have been there." Thus at that early period the remains in Greenland were identified as works peculiar to the people of Vinland, a region, according to the Sagas, lying southward toward the forty-first parallel.
The account of what the Icelanders saw in Vinland is found in the narratives of Leif and others. In 986 one Biarne, when sailing for Greenland, was blown upon the American coast, and upon his return carried the report of the country to Greenland. In the year 1000, Leif Erickson resolved to visit the region seen by Biarne, and, sailing southward from Greenland, reached the place. The narrative says: "The country appeared to them of so good a kind that it would not be necessary for them to gather fodder for the cattle in winter. There was no frost in winter, and the grass was not much withered." The observation that there was no frost was simply an exaggeration natural to an Icelander coming into a country with a climate so unlike that to which he had been accustomed. Morton wrote home to England that coughs and colds were unknown in New England. Leif's narrative says nothing about any inhabitants; but, in 1002, Thorvald, his brother, sailed to Vinland and found some people at a place a little to the northward of Leif's resort. The Saga says that one day, when opposite a cape, they "saw three specks upon the sand," and that, upon examination, they found that these were "three skin-boats with three men under each boat." Cruelly attacking them for the plunder, the Icelanders killed eight, while one man escaped with his boat. They also saw "several eminences which they took to be habitations." Afterward, they rested and fell asleep on board their vessels, only to be awakened by the natives, who had been notified by the man that escaped, and who had now come to avenge the death of their comrades. When the alarm was sounded, "an innumerable multitude, from the interior of the bay, came in skin-boats and laid themselves alongside." The Northmen at once put up their "war-screens" on the gunwales, and, the Saga says, "the Skrællings shot at them for a while, and then fled away as fast as they could." They did not retreat, however, before dealing Thorvald, the leader of the expedition, his death-wound, it being given by an arrow which struck under his arm. Thorvald was buried on the shore, supposed to be the coast of Massachusetts Bay. This is the first recorded collision between Europeans and those whom we propose to call the descendants of the glacial man. It shows them as strong and not wanting in the courage that would fit men for the struggle with nature during the great ice period that prevailed in America.
In 1006 Thorfinn Karlsefne sailed to Vinland with an expedition, and reached the place formerly visited by Leif and Thorvald, where they wintered in a very mild climate. But one spring morning, while on an exploring expedition, apparently near Long Island Sound, when "they looked around, they saw a great many skin-boats and poles swung upon them, and it sounded like reeds shaken by the wind, and they pointed toward the sun. Then said Karlsefne, 'What may this mean?' Snorre Thorbrandson replied, 'It may be that this is a sign of peace, so let us take a white shield and hold it toward them.' They did so. Thereupon they rowed toward them and came to land. These people were swarthy and fierce, and had bushy hair on their heads; they had very large eyes and broad cheeks." The Northmen, how. ever, were not attacked, and remained there until spring, the statement being that "there was no snow, and all their cattle fed themselves on the grass." But in the opening of 1009 the Skrællings returned, offering "skins and real furs" for red cloth, the Northmen refusing to sell them swords and spears. Finally, a bull which belonged to the Icelanders began to bellow, when the Skrællings became frightened, and ran to their boats, rowing away south. At the end of three weeks, nevertheless, "a great number of Skrælling boats were seen coming from the south like a rushing torrent, all the poles turned from the sun, and they all yelled very loud." Karlsefne saluted them with his red shield, the sign of war, "and after this they went against each other and fought. There was a hot shower of missiles, because the Skrællings had slings." At the outset, Karlsefne was forced to retreat, but a rally was made, and the Skrællings retreated. It is also said that "two men fell on Karlsefne's side, but a number of Skrællings." The Saga states that Karlsefne was overmatched, so many natives appearing that it was difficult to believe that they were real men, but rather optical illusions. In connection with the fight an incident occurred which seems to show that the Skrællings belonged to a people of the stone age; for one of them found an axe and cut a piece of wood with it, and thought it was a "fine thing." But when he tried to cut a stone it broke. Then "they thought it was of no use, because it would not cut stone, and they threw it away." It would appear from this that stone was their standard.
Afterward, during a short expedition northward, the Northmen found "five Skrællings clad in skins, asleep near the shore. They had with them vessels containing animal marrow mixed with blood." These were killed. Soon after they fancied that they saw men with one leg called "Unipeds," and for this piece of imagination the narrative has been objected to as unreal, the objector forgetting that the Uniped is a very ancient institution frequently mentioned by sailors. Charlevoix reports a St. Malo captain, who, when in America, saw men with "one leg and thigh." A young Labrador girl captured in 1717 told of those her countrymen who had only one leg.
Finally, Karlsefne decided not to expose his little colony, and prepared to sail for Greenland. On the voyage home they landed in Markland, supposed to be Nova Scotia, and "found there five Skrællings, and one was bearded, two were females and two boys; they took the boys, but the others escaped, and the Skrællings sank down into the ground"; that is, disappeared among the hillocks or slipped into their subterranean dens. The Saga says that the boys were taught Icelandic and were baptized. They called their mother Vathelldi, and their father Uvæge. They also said that two kings ruled over the Skrællings, one being named Avalldania and the other Valldida. These boys also reported that they had no houses in Markland, but that the people lived in "caves or holes."
The second narrative of Karlsefne treats the subject of the Skrællings in the same way, except that these people were of "small stature." The third narrative states that, when the bull (one of the small Icelandic species) began to bellow, the Skrællings "made off with their bundles, and these were of furs, and sables, and all sorts of skins; and they turned and wanted to go into the houses, but Karlsefne defended the doors." Also, before the fight commenced there was more trading, and the women brought out "milk and dairy products," which pleased the Skrællings so much, that, as the Saga says, "they carried away their winnings in their bellies." Such is the account that we have of the Skrællings in the Sagas relating to America. These people do not appear to be referred to again in connection with the voyages, though a geographical fragment mentions "Helluland," which is called "Skrællings Land," not far from Vinland the Good.
The delineation of the people found by the Icelanders in the mild regions of the Atlantic coast is brief, but it is sufficient to fix their character. Rafn, when editing the original Icelandic records, pointed out the fact that these people agree with the Esquimau and Greenlander of to-day. The critic who supposed that the Saga writer should have described a people with the characteristics of the red-man fancied that he found an error indicating their unhistorical character. The Indian, however, was a late comer upon the extreme eastern border of North America. Indeed, the oldest distribution of the American races does not antedate the tenth century, and therefore the appearance of the Skrælling in the Sagas, instead of the Indian, is precisely what the truth required.
It is hardly necessary to restate the points in the description; for, instead of the tall red-man found by later voyagers on the coast, so gentle, kindly disposed, generous, and hospitable—traits wellnigh obliterated by subsequent contact with the whites we have men of short stature, bushy hair, rude, fierce, and devoid of every grace. Also, here in a country covered with fine forest-trees, the principal article of value to the Icelander, the people made their boats of skin like the Greenland kyjack, instead of the bark or the trunks of trees, as often practiced by the Indians, and described by Champlain. The men described in the Saga evidently did not know the use of metals, and they despised the axe when it was found that it would not cut stone. In the fight with Karlsefne's men they slew Thorbrand with a flat stone (hellusteinn), perhaps a celt, which they "drove into his head," thus illustrating, possibly, the rude warfare of the glacial man. Nor should it be forgotten that, while even in the dead of winter the New England Indians wore almost no clothing, these men, encountered by the Icelanders were clad in furs after the spring had set in.
Another resemblance is found in the fact that both the Skrællings and the Greenlanders used slings, the latter being mentioned by Davis, the first European who visited Greenland in modern times. But a still more valuable fact is mentioned by this writer in connection with the voyage of 1585. It has already been stated that, when in Vinland, Karlsefne found that the Skrællings used to indicate peaceful intentions by pointing certain implements toward the sun, while, when turned from the sun, they indicated war. Thus in Greenland the natives, to indicate peaceful intentions, pointed to the sun with their hands, after striking their breasts, refusing to trust themselves with the English until the latter had done the same, through one of their number appointed for the purpose, "who strooke his breast and poynted to the sunne after their order." Davis thus appears as dealing with descendants of the glacial man.
If we are correct in supposing that there was a glacial man, and that the Skrællings were descendants of such a glacial man, it follows that we have in the Sagas four of his words, which may be the oldest known words of human speech: "Vathelldi," "Uvæge," "Avalldania," and "Valldida," the names of the parents of the Skrælling boys and of the two kings. At least, in a recent note addressed to the writer, Professor Max Müller says that there is nothing in the language of the Esquimaux to prevent us from assigning it to an antiquity as high as that of the supposed glacial man.
During the eleventh century the red-man lived upon the North American Continent, while the eastern border of his territory could not have been situated far away from the Atlantic coast. In New England he must have succeeded the people known as Skrællings. Prior to that time, his hunting-grounds lay toward the interior of the continent. In course of time, however, he came into collision with the ruder people on the Atlantic coast, the descendants of an almost amphibious glacial man. Then the coast-dweller, unable to maintain his position, retreated toward the far north. The northward movement, however, may have been voluntary in part. During long ages passed in the companionship of the glacier, the race must have acquired that taste and fitness for boreal life which clings to the native of the north to-day, and which makes the Greenlander feel that his country is the most beautiful in the world.
The advance guard of the Skrællings had reached Greenland before Eric the Red arrived in 985. He found there, as we have seen, both houses and boats, but no inhabitants. It was inferred, at the time the Saga was committed to writing, that the remains belonged to a people of the same race as those seen in Vinland at the south. These early Skrælling visitors had either perished or retired from Greenland. The Icelanders do not appear to have met any Skrællings in Greenland until a late period—at least none are mentioned. But in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Skrællings crowded into Labrador and the regions bordering Baffin's Bay, preparatory to the movement across to Greenland, though many of them may have crossed to North Devon and entered at the northwest. It is probable that extreme necessity was all the while urging them on, the red-man crowding upon their rear with great energy. This is evident from the fact that, when the French entered Canada, the region north of the St. Lawrence was occupied by the Indians. The struggle between the Indians and the Skrællings was long continued, and one evidence of the contact may be found in the common use of a certain engine of war, which the Saga says was employed by the Skrællings in their fight with Karlsefne.
It is said, "Karlsefne's men saw that they raised up on a pole a very large ball, something like a sheep's paunch, and of a blue color; this they swung from the pole over Karlsefne's men upon the ground, and it made a great noise as it fell down. This caused great fear with Karlsefne and his men." The statement at first appears curious and almost childish; yet in Schoolcraft's work on the Indians (vol. i, p. 83) may be found a description of a similar engine employed in the ancient times, when the red-man used to sew up a round bowlder in the skin of an animal, and hang it upon a pole borne by several warriors, which, being swung against a group of men, did great execution. The Skrællings may, therefore, have acquired the idea in their fights with the more skillful red-man then pushing his way into their territory. Pursued by a superior force, we may conclude that the Skrællings retreated into the north. Dr. Abbott himself is of this opinion, saying, "When, also, we consider that the several conditions of glacial times were largely those of Greenland and Arctic America, and that there is unbroken land communication between the desolate regions of the latter and our own more favored land, and, more important than all, that there now dwells in this ice-clad country a race which, not only in the distant past, but until recently if they do not now, used stone implements of the rudest pattern—it is natural to infer that the traces of a people found here, under circumstances that demonstrate a like condition of the country during their occupancy, are really traces of the same people."
That the country as far south as New Jersey was formerly adapted to boreal tribes is evident from the fact that the walrus has been found at Long Branch, while the great auk formerly flourished around the borders of Mount Desert in Maine. Dr. Henry Rink, who for so many years superintended the Danish interests in Greenland, and who studied the question without any reference to the glacial man, reached the conclusion that the "Esquimaux appear to have been the last wave of an aboriginal American race, which has spread over the continent from more genial regions, following principally the rivers and watercourses, and continually yielding to the tribes behind them, until they have at last peopled the seacoast." Originally their distribution was very wide, and their language prevails to-day from Greenland to Labrador and the northeastern corner of Siberia. Professor Dawkins holds that the paleolithic cave-dwellers of Europe were of the same race as the Esquimaux or Innuit, though no such connection can be shown between them as exists between the ancient Skrællings and the Esquimaux.
The Icelandic records prove that the conflicts begun with the Skrællings in the eleventh century in New England were renewed in the fourteenth in Greenland. Possibly it is to the Skrællings that the final extinction of the Icelandic colony in Greenland may in part be attributed. Nevertheless, from the year 985 down to the vicinity of 1335, the Skrællings, so far as the records go, do not appear to have given any trouble. But about that period they suddenly appeared in force. At that time the western coast of Greenland was divided into two districts, called the East and West Bygds, there never having been any Europeans permanently inhabiting the eastern coast, though the Saga of "Thorgill's Nursling" shows that a family or two of Skrællings may have dwelt there.
That the Skrællings appeared in considerable force is indicated by the fact that an expedition was organized to meet them. The "Chronicle" of Ivar Bardsen shows that Bardsen himself was selected by the colonists as their commander. This "Chronicle" was composed during the second half of the fourteenth century, but it is impossible to say in what year. It is certain, however, that upon the 6th of August, 1340, Haquin, Bishop of Bergen, in Norway, commissioned Bardsen to act in Greenland, as the latter was born in that country, and was perfectly acquainted with all its affairs. His commission is still preserved at Copenhagen, and a copy may be seen in Rafn's "Amerikas Arctiske landes gamle Geographie," p. 47. Whether the Greenland colonists appointed him their leader before or after 1340, it is impossible now to say. Crantz, in his work on Greenland, intimates that the killing of some eighteen persons by the Skrællings led to the appointment of Bardsen. The natives gave Crantz a tradition respecting a fight between their Skrælling ancestors and the colonists, whom they called "Kablunæts." A quarrel sprang up about shooting arrows, and blood was shed, the natives declaring that the Kablunæts were exterminated. This may possibly explain what became of the remnant of Europeans left in Greenland in the fifteenth century, but it can not refer to the fourteenth, as the communication was kept up with Greenland during that period. It was in the year 1379 that the eighteen colonists were slain. "Islenzkir Annalar," page 331, says, under that year, that hostile Skrællings invaded Greenland, killing eighteen men, and carrying away two boys captive. It is probable that from this time the Skrællings proved formidable, though, when Bardsen went into the western district to meet them, they were nowhere to be found, having either hid themselves or fled into the inaccessible fastnesses of the north. He nevertheless secured some of the cattle belonging to the colonists, and returned southward to what was called the East Bygd. In Bardsen's time the West Bygd was evidently abandoned, owing to the weakness of the colonists; and he says, in his "Chronicle," that "now the Skrællings inhabit all the west land and Dorps." It must have been from the deserted West Bygd that they came to attack the colonists in 1379. The Icelandic annals of the fourteenth century mention no more fighting in Greenland, and in the fifteenth century Greenland is not mentioned. In this manner Old Greenland passed from sight, and it was not until the seventeenth century that the country was reoccupied by Europeans. Some have supposed that the ancient colony was cut off by the plague, but the little remnant may have been exterminated by the Skrællings, as the modern natives averred.
The foregoing brief statement of historical facts puts the modern Esquimaux, or Innuit, in connection with a people who dwelt along the temperate regions of the Atlantic coast in the eleventh century. It also indicates that these rude people were driven by a superior race into the far north, where they succeeded the Europeans. These people were also of very great antiquity. What, then, was their origin? Who else could they have been than the descendants of a glacial man?
It is true that none of the bones exhumed on the Atlantic coast have been identified as those of the Esquimaux, though if they existed as late as the eleventh century such remains should be found. Hitherto, however, they have not been looked for, nearly everything exhumed being attributed to the red-man as a matter of course. Nevertheless, there have been those who have not felt satisfied with such a disposition of the whole subject. In many localities of Maine, for instance, the opinion has prevailed of late that many of the shell-heaps were not of Indian origin, and that they should be referred to a more ancient people. Certain indications attracted the attention of the writer long before any glacial man was spoken of. On this point Dr. Abbott makes a suggestion, and argues that the stone implements found indicate two races, one much more advanced than the other. He writes: "When we come to examine a full series of ordinary surface-found arrow-points, as we gather them by the score from our fields, and occasionally find associated with them a rude implement of the type of those found in the gravel-beds, we are naturally led to draw some comparisons between the two widely different forms. The arrowheads and others, which from their size may be considered as spear-or lance-heads, are of two quite different types, being those made of jasper, chert, quartz, and rarely of argillite, of a dozen different patterns, and those of argillite of a nearly uniform pattern, and of larger sizes as a rule; all greatly weather-worn, and varying notably from the arrow-points of other minerals in being of much coarser workmanship, and in this respect seeming to be a natural outgrowth of the skill once exercised only in producing the primitive forms of the glacial drift."
But what have the modern Greenlanders to say respecting their origin? They told Crantz that all the people of the earth originated from one man, who came from the earth, his wife springing from his thumb. This may be their version of what their ancestors learned from the Icelandic colonists who were Christians. Such stories throw no light upon their history, though the Esquimaux gave their family genealogies for ten generations. There is nevertheless something in other accounts related by them which may possibly suggest traditions relating to changes that had taken place upon the globe in the past, and traditions that might have come down from the glacial period, when Nature conducted her operations upon such a stupendous scale. It would appear as though their rude intelligence had argued what would take place in the future from what had transpired in the past. For instance, it was their belief at the time the missionary came among them, that all of the present race would become extinct, and the earth be broken up by some widely operating force, and then purified by a vast flood of water, after which the dust of the earth would be blown together and become more beautiful than before, as the rocks would disappear, being covered with verdure. Now, in this was their fancy stimulated by traditions that had come down to them from glacial ancestors, concerning what we call geological epochs, or was this also taught them by the Northmen? It is, perhaps, to be regretted that we have so few of these relations by the early Greenlander, as they might have proved useful in connection with the attempt to solve the question of his origin. Nevertheless, the case is by no means hopeless, and testimony may yet be discovered that will connect him beyond question with the glacial man.
- "Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen," p. 20.
- "Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen," p. 41.
- "Pre-Columbian Discovery," etc., p. 49.
- "Œuvres," tome iii, pp. 59, 60.
- Published by Munsell, Albany, as "Sailing Directions of Henry Hudson."
|
<urn:uuid:309499b9-30b3-4e18-8d5e-3aeb3d644736>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-47
|
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_18/November_1880/The_Glacial_Man_in_America
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806438.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20171121223707-20171122003707-00168.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.980481 | 7,783 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Personal faith and religious affiliation are lenses through which many have analyzed responses to the pandemic. The experience of the Baha’i Faith provides further insight into ways that religion—as a system of knowledge, meaning, value, and action—can assist women and men to respond to social crises, particularly in light of pre-existing conditions of gender inequality.
The experience of the Baha’i Faith provides further insight into ways that religion can assist women and men to respond to social crises.
Beginning in March 2020, the Universal House of Justice, the world governing body of the Baha’i Faith, released a series of messages in light of the rapidly evolving health crisis. These communications were grounded in a set of initiatives, pursued over the past quarter-century by the Baha’i community and like-minded collaborators, that seek to build capacity in individuals, communities, and institutions to contribute to the constructive transformation of society.
These efforts center on a worldwide, decentralized process of spiritual and moral education, open to all. Structured in stages, this system tends to the moral education of children, facilitates the spiritual empowerment of young adolescents, and allows increasing numbers of youth and adults to explore the application of spiritual teachings to daily life and challenges facing society.
The equality of women and men is explicit in the system’s approach and curriculum. It also informs its central objective of building capacity for social change. Many women who enter its educational programs as participants gain the vision, confidence, and skills necessary to begin leading activities themselves. As their experience expands, a percentage begin coordinating the efforts of others, at levels ranging from the neighborhood to the national. As they become increasingly valued resources recognized in the local community, women’s conceptions of themselves and their contributions to society can shift significantly. Just as importantly, seeing women taking on positions of increasing responsibility, visibility, and decision-making has also assisted men—and not infrequently challenged them—to rethink inherited assumptions about gender roles.
As they become increasingly valued resources recognized in the local community, women’s conceptions of themselves and their contributions to society can shift significantly.
This pattern of action provided a key framework through which the worldwide Baha’i community responded to the pandemic. Having women already playing strong institutional roles and participating actively in decision-making spaces, for example, allowed communities to benefit from traditionally “feminine” qualities, as well as more “masculine” ones, often resulting in significant attention being directed toward areas such as care for families, the elderly, the vulnerable, and children. This was especially notable in areas where women’s voices have historically been marginalized.
Growing commitment to—and practice of—women and men consulting together as equals also affected relationships between spouses. It assisted many wives, husbands, and families to navigate the challenges raised by the pandemic more collaboratively, generously, and ultimately more effectively. This is not to say that long-standing patterns of gender bias have been eradicated from Baha’i homes and hearts. Rather, embracing gender equality as an explicit objective and fundamental truth of human reality, grounded in one’s advancing understanding of the Divine Will, impacted how difficulties were navigated, both individually and collectively.
Embracing gender equality as an explicit objective and fundamental truth of human reality impacted how difficulties were navigated, both individually and collectively.
At the broadest level, the Baha’i community’s response to the pandemic has been grounded in a consciously outward-looking orientation. In recent years, the Universal House of Justice has focused the Baha’i world on a vision of empowering every individual and community to become a protagonist in the process of building a new and better world, each one “resourceful and resilient.” In that first message in March 2020, as COVID-19 was racing around the world and places like northern Italy and New York City seemed to be tottering on the brink, it urged Baha’is:
“May your minds be ever bent upon the needs of the communities to which you belong, the condition of the societies in which you live, and the welfare of the entire family of humanity, to whom you are all brothers and sisters.”
This focus on constructive action and service to a higher good endowed the Baha’i community with significant resilience and adaptation to the disruptions of COVID-19. This can be understood as an expression of constructive resilience, the notion that whatever happens to us and whatever challenges we might face, we are never reduced to the category of victim alone. Human beings always have the capacity to contribute meaningfully to an ever-advancing civilization, should we choose it, and the hope and purpose found in that contribution are always available to us. This is an idea that had arisen primarily in the context of the Baha’i community of Iran, where generations of believers have faced widespread and state-sponsored persecution. But ironically—or perhaps providentially—in the context of a global pandemic, the concept became relevant to virtually all of humanity, not least to women and girls facing a host of uniquely gendered challenges.
This focus on constructive action and service to a higher good endowed the Baha’i community with significant resilience and adaptation to the disruptions of COVID-19.
The long-term disruptions wrought by COVID-19 are still becoming apparent. The work of responding to them and other global challenges will stretch into the foreseeable future. Using the experiences of the worldwide Baha’i community, I have tried to highlight some aspects of the role that religion can play not only in advancing the position of women and girls under crisis conditions, but also in empowering women and men alike to work shoulder to shoulder towards a more gender-equal and flourishing society. At its highest, religion helps humanity locate itself in a larger movement toward a better and truer world. In that regard, I close with one more excerpt from that first message from the Universal House of Justice in the wake of COVID-19:
“However difficult matters are at present, and however close to the limits of their endurance some sections of societies are brought, humanity will ultimately pass through this ordeal, and it will emerge on the other side with greater insight and with a deeper appreciation of its inherent oneness and interdependence.”
|
<urn:uuid:eb53b62f-c8be-4af1-be59-4b816fe47a37>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/the-role-of-religion-in-responding-to-covid-19-a-baha-i-perspective
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224644817.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20230529074001-20230529104001-00645.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.956535 | 1,304 | 3.0625 | 3 |
切肤之痛 meaning in English
How to pronounce "切肤之痛"Chinese meaning for "切肤之痛"Use "切肤之痛" in a sentence
- pain of cutting one's body; a deep sorrow; an acute pain; be stung on the quick; keenly-felt pain; sorrow like cutting one's flesh; sorrow which hits close at home
- Instead , we wanted our audience to have a visceral feeling for the drama and emotion of the story we were telling
- Britons became painfully aware of the threat of home grown terrorism in july 2005 when 4 young local islamic radicals blew themselves up in london ' s subway system and on a bus , killing 52 commuters and injuring hundreds more
- The dissertation commenced from the analyses of general theory , and discussed the definition of the credit and corporation credit from the broad sense , and analyzed the composing factor , economic effect of the corporation credit and the economic meaning of breaking corporation credit
What is the meaning of 切肤之痛 in English and how to say 切肤之痛 in English? 切肤之痛 English meaning, 切膚之痛的英文
, translation, pronunciation, synonyms and example sentences are provided by ichacha.net.
|
<urn:uuid:0ae7a567-9c65-40be-8ce5-6a8368c400d9>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-34
|
https://eng.ichacha.net/%E5%88%87%E8%82%A4%E4%B9%8B%E7%97%9B.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439737883.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20200808135620-20200808165620-00530.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.711082 | 301 | 2.59375 | 3 |
ALTERNATE NAMES: Tartars
LOCATION: Russian Federation
POPULATION: 6.6 million
RELIGIONS: Islam (Sunni Muslims, majority); Orthodox Christianity; Sufism; Old Believers; Protestantism; Judaism
1 • INTRODUCTION
There are many Turkic-speaking ethnic groups living throughout the Russian Federation. These diverse groups lie scattered from the Caucasus and Ural mountains to eastern Siberia, and include the Tatars, Chuvash, Bashkirs, Sakha, Tuvans, Karachai, Khakass, Altays, and others. This article focuses on the largest Turkic group in the Russian Federation, the Tatars.
Historically, the Tatars lived farther west than any other Turkic nationality. As Mongolian control over the Volga River region weakened during the 1430s and 1440s, several successor states emerged. During the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the Kazan khanate became the most prominent of these states, and its people became known as the Tatars. The Kazan Tatars were conquered by imperial Russian forces during the reign of Tsar Ivan IV in 1552, becoming the first Muslim subjects of the Russian Empire.
When the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917, the Tatars took advantage of the chaos and immediately formed their own home-land, the Idil-Ural State. The Soviet government, however, did not tolerate the independence movement and instead formed the Bashkir Autonomous Republic (Bashkortostan) and the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tatarstan) on the same soil. When the Soviet government took over these regions, it redrew the boundaries and gave neighboring Russian provinces the best lands. By changing the boundaries, about 75 percent of the Tatar population found itself living outside the borders of Tatarstan.
In the 1920s, most Tatar leaders and intellectuals who wanted independence were eliminated through execution or exile. This policy against the Tatars continued to some extent until the early 1950s. Tatar culture was also affected until the 1970s through the policy of Russification, where the Russian language and culture were legally forced on the Tatars and other ethnic groups. During the Soviet era, economic hardship and job preference given to Russians in industrial areas caused many Tatars to leave their homeland.
In August 1990, the Tatar parliament declared Tatarstan's independent authority and in April 1991 declared that Tatar law had dominance over Russian law whenever the two were in conflict.
2 • LOCATION
The Tatars are a very diverse group, both ethnically and geographically. The Tatars formed the second largest non-Slavic group (after the Uzbeks) in the former Soviet Union. There are more than 6.6 million Tatars, of whom about 26 percent live in Tatarstan, an ethnic homeland that is located within the Russian Federation. Tatarstan, with about 4 million inhabitants, is about the size of Ireland or Portugal. It is considered the most northern frontier between Muslim and Orthodox Christian cultures. The capital of Tatarstan is Kazan, a city of more than 1 million people and the largest port on the Volga River.
After Russians and Ukrainians, the Tatars are the most populous ethnic group in the Russian Federation. About 15 percent of all Tatars live in Bashkortostan, another ethnic homeland in the Russian Federation that lies just east of Tatarstan. There are also smaller Tatar populations in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and in the regions to the north and west of Tatarstan. Small Tatar communities are also scattered across Russia. A unique group of Tatars are the Krym (also called the Crimean Tatars), with a population of around 550,000. The Krym are from the Crimean peninsula of present-day Ukraine. The Tatars were one of the most urbanized or city-dwelling ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union, especially those who lived outside of Tatarstan.
3 • LANGUAGE
In 922, the Tatars' predecessors, the Bulgars, converted to Islam, and the old Turkic script was replaced by the Arabic alphabet. A famous old Tatar saying is Kilächägem nurlï bulsïn öchen , utkännärdän härchak ut alam , which means "To make my future bright, I reach for the fire of the past." Another well-known Tatar proverb is Tuzga yazmagannï soiläme , which means, roughly, "If it's not written on salt, it's wrong to even mention it." The proverb refers to the ancient method of keeping records on plaques made of wood and salt, and commends the practicality of keeping written records.
4 • FOLKLORE
A Tatar legend about the city of Kazan tells of a rich man who was a beekeeper and would often take along his daughter to visit his hives in the woods near Jilan-Tau ("snake hill"). When his daughter got married, she lived in an older part of Kazan, where it was a long walk to get water. She complained about the poor planning of the town to the khan (ruler), and suggested that Jilan-Tau would be a better place for the city, because it was close to a river. The khan ordered two nobles to take one hundered warriors to the site and to then open his sealed orders. According to the orders, they were to cast lots (draw straws) and bury the loser alive in the ground on the spot where the new city was to be built. However, when the khan's son lost, they buried a dog in his place. When the khan heard the news, he was happy for his son but said that it was a sign that the new city would one day be overtaken by the "unholy dogs"—a term referring to those of a different religion.
5 • RELIGION
Most Tatars are Sunni Muslims, with the exception of the Kryashan Tatars, who are Christian. In Tatarstan, along with Islam and Russian Orthodox Christianity, there are some other religious communities such as Old Believers, Protestants, Seventh-Day Adventists, Lutherans, and Jews. Islam has played an important role in strengthening the Tatar culture, because the imperial Russian government repeatedly tried to limit the spread of Islam from the Tatars to other peoples. This approach, however, usually pushed Tatar Muslims closer to their faith, and there is generally a devout observance of rituals and ceremonies among Muslim Tatars.
6 • MAJOR HOLIDAYS
Tatars typically observe some of the Sovietera holidays and also Muslim holidays which, to a large degree, are the same as those elsewhere in the Muslim world. The Soviet celebrations include New Year's Day (January 1), International Women's Day (March 8), Labor Day (May 1), and Victory Day (May 9—commemorates the end of World War II). Since the Tatars are widely scattered across Russia and Central Asia, different communities have regional holidays as well.
The Islamic holidays include Milad al-Nabi (the birth of the Prophet Muhammad), Eid al-Adha (celebrating the story of Abraham offering his son for sacrifice), and Eid al-Fitr (celebrating of the end of the Ramadan month-long fast). The dates of these holidays vary due to the rotating nature of the lunar calendar. The Kryashan Tatars celebrate Christian holidays such as Easter and Christmas.
7 • RITES OF PASSAGE
Circumcision and other rituals associated with birth, as well as those associated with death and marriage, and even certain Muslim dietary restrictions, are practiced by many Tatars today.
8 • RELATIONSHIPS
For centuries, there was tension between ethnic Russians and Tatars. As a result, the Tatars suffered from discrimination, which affected how they came to interact with Russian society. The Tatars of today typically live in small communities and often rely on a network of friends and business contacts from within the Tatar community.
9 • LIVING CONDITIONS
Living conditions are similar to those of neighboring populations (Russians, Bashkirs, and Ukrainians). Tatar houses are often surrounded by low fences to keep in their animals.
10 • FAMILY LIFE
Tatars often encourage endogamy (marriage to other Tatars) out of the belief that it will help keep the Tatar identity from being lost. Family size is usually larger than that of neighboring populations and is often an extended family of three or more generations.
11 • CLOTHING
Tatars, as one of the most urbanized minorities, wear Western-style clothing, and occasionally, mostly in rural areas, include fragments of traditional clothing such as the headscarf for women and skullcaps for men.
Peremech (Meat Pie)
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup sour cream
- 6 Tablespoons of light cream or half-and-half
- a pinch of salt
- 2½ cups flour
- Filling ingredients
- 1 pound groundbeef chuck
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt vegetable oil for frying
- Beat eggs. Add sour cream, light cream, sugar, salt, and flour. Knead until smooth and pliable.
- Wrap the dough in wax paper and chill overnight before making into pies.
- Combine salt, garlic, chopped onion, and ground meat.
- Remove about a quarter of the dough from the refrigerator at a time, keeping the rest of the dough chilled.
- Roll each quarter of dough into a 12-inch cord.
- Slice each cord into six pieces, rolling these smaller pieces between the palms of the hands to form balls. Flatten the balls slightly.
- On a surface dusted with flour, roll each into a circle about 3½ to 4 inches in diameter.
- Spread 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture on each circle of dough, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge. Gather the dough upward all the way around, forming a round, flat pastry. Leave a hole about 1-inch across on top.
- Cover finished pies with a cloth to prevent dough from drying.
- Heat about ½ inch of vegetable oil in a large skillet. Cook the pies, with the hole side down, in the oil. Cook a few at a time without crowding them in the skillet, for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 24 pies.
12 • FOOD
Lamb and rice play a prominent role in the traditional Tatar diet, as in those of many other central Asian peoples. The Tatars are known in particular for their wide array of pastries, especially their meat pies, which, besides beef or lamb and onions, may include ingredients such as hard-boiled eggs, rice, and raisins. Another traditional dish is chebureki , or deep-fried lamb dumplings. A recipe for the basic Tatar meat pie called peremech is included in this article.
13 • EDUCATION
During the Soviet era, the required Russian language exam served to keep many Tatar youths out of institutions of higher learning.
14 • CULTURAL HERITAGE
It is believed that Tatar prose dates back to the twelfth century, but scholars disagree about its origin. During the early part of the Soviet era and immediately after World War II (1939–45), Tatar literature was largely confined to praising communist ideology. Since the 1960s, however, Tatar literature has often emphasized the role of the artist in voicing the ideals of the Tatar people.
15 • EMPLOYMENT
Traditional occupations of the Tatars include agriculture, hunting, fishing, crafts, and trade. Under Soviet rule, many jobs were in state-run agricultural and industrial collectives. The Tatars have held an increasing number of white-collar and professional jobs since World War II.
16 • SPORTS
The Tatars enjoy many traditional and Western-style sports. Soccer became popular during the Soviet years and is perhaps the most widely played sport among young men. Horse racing is also very popular, as the horse has long been an important part of traditional Tatar culture.
17 • RECREATION
Tatars enjoy many of the same leisure-time activities as neighboring populations in the former Soviet Union, such as watching television and visiting with friends and neighbors. Prominent among the traditional entertainments in rural areas is the week-long Festival of the Plow, or Sabantui, held in spring, which ends with a day of singing, dancing, and sporting events.
18 • CRAFTS AND HOBBIES
The ancestors of the modern Tatars were skilled in crafting jewelry of gold, silver, bronze, and copper. They also were known for making pottery with engraved ornaments, as well as for crafting metal decorations and bronze locks in the shape of animals.
19 • SOCIAL PROBLEMS
The Tatars in general suffered discrimination under the imperial Russian government, as well as during the Soviet era. Large deportations of Tatars fragmented the culture, and the loss of lives and property from those days still has an impact on modern Tatar society.
Problems with Crimean Tatars are much more complicated because of forced deportation from their homeland in the Crimean peninsula. Now that almost half of the Crimean Tatars have returned from Central Asia, they are facing problems with employment, housing, and schooling.
20 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fisher, Alan W. The Crimean Tatars. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1978.
Rorlich, Azade-Ayse. The Volga Tatars: A Profile in National Resilience . Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1986.
Shnirelman, V.A. Who Gets the Past?: Competition for Ancestors among Non-Russian Intellectuals in Russia . Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
Smith, G., ed. The Nationalities Question in the Post-Soviet States . New York: Longman, 1996.
Agi, Iskender. Tatar/Tatarstan FAQ with Answers. [Online] Available http://www.csl.sri.com/~iskender/TMG/Tatar_FAQ.htm/#shs007 , 1995–1996.
Embassy of Russia, Washington, D.C. Russia. [Online] Available http://www.russianembassy.org/ , 1998.
Interknowledge Corp. and Russian National Tourist Office. Russia. [Online] Available http://www.interknowledge.com/russia/ , 1998.
World Travel Guide. Russia. [Online] Available http://www.wtgonline.com/country/ru/gen.html , 1998.
|
<urn:uuid:b0300141-a7a3-4173-9d36-9f4537acfa34>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-23
|
http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Norway-to-Russia/Tatars.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510264575.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011744-00285-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.951872 | 3,122 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Gonorrhea is widespread among Upstate New York 15- to 19-year-olds, but the incidence of the sexually transmitted disease in Central New York is below the state average, according to a report issued today.
There were 377 cases of gonorrhea per 100,000 teens in Upstate New York between 2005 and 2007, higher than the statewide rate of 314 cases per 100,000, the report by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield shows. The rate in Central New York was 237 cases per 100,000.
The report said sexually transmitted diseases affect New Yorkers of every race, age and socioeconomic status. “Yet because of the stigma surrounding the diseases, it’s the one epidemic no one talks about,” Dr. Marybeth McCall, the company’s chief medical officer, said in a news release.
Chlamydia was the most commonly reported STD. The rate in Central New York was 328 cases per 100,000 people. The state average is 369 cases per 100,000.
The report said there are serious long-term health consequences resulting from undiagnosed and untreated STDs.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says individuals can protect themselves from STDs by practicing abstinence or limiting sexual partners, using condoms consistently and getting screened regularly.
|
<urn:uuid:bba60856-b881-4224-9a4f-ba262832fbc5>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-35
|
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/reportgonorrhea_prevalent_amon.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500830903.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021350-00089-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.946688 | 277 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Developing Critical Literacy and Critical Thinking through Facebook
Contributor: David T. Coad
School Affiliation: University of California, Davis
Email: davidtcoad at gmail.com
When I saw Facebook had hit over 900 million users, I began seriously considering the need for college freshmen to learn to think critically about Facebook: about the rhetoric of the site itself and the rhetoric of those with whom students interact. Stuart A. Selber (2004) in Multiliteracies for a Digital Age makes an important argument that critical literacy is a necessary literacy for students to gain in the digital age. Selber described students who have critical literacy as “informed questioners of technology” who can “question computers’ designs, or challenge the grand narratives in which computers are implicated,” and who become “empowered knowledge workers” (p. 74-75). When it comes to students’ use of social media, their lack of critical literacy is a significant, often unnoticed problem.
To address this, I decided to develop my first-year composition course in a way that engages students in critical thinking about these issues, especially the designs and the grand narratives of social networking technologies. Additionally, I wanted to help students think critically about the kinds of communications they have with other users on social networking sites. I developed discussion topics and writing assignments based on theory I had read, and I had my students read an article by Richard L. Freishtat and Jennifer A. Sandlin (2010) on social networking that pushed students to question their thinking about Facebook. These two major areas for classroom discussion (critical literacy of the technology itself and students’ critical thinking about online communications) proved helpful as ways to frame discussions and writing assignments.
While the approaches I detail in this piece are by no means the answer for everyone’s classroom, they offer a pattern for helping students think critically about the human forces they interact with on Facebook. I argue that this kind of critical thinking about human forces is an important key to having a lasting impact on our students' future communicative practices.
Critical Literacy about Facebook Itself: Interacting with Shadows of the Designers
One way to build students’ critical literacy and encourage them to question the design of technologies is to ask them to consider the humans behind the technology, how this human presence changes the user experience on Facebook, and how students choose to interact with these human desires behind the scenes. I believe that the human intent behind computer technologies profoundly affects the humans in front of the technology. Clay Shirky (2010), for example, has written about many people's struggle to see the human presence behind technologies, focusing instead on the technologies themselves.
To further explain what I mean, I compare the user interface of computer technologies to a person’s shadow: the shadow represents some, but not all, of the characteristics of the person standing in the light’s way.
Although the user cannot see the person behind the technology, nor talk with the person or people who designed the hardware and software, the user can see the effects of the designer’s work. I argue that we should consider how computer users become aware of these effects, which the user interacts with in computer technologies. One example I use with my students is that Facebook features a “like” button but no “dislike” button, most likely a deliberate decision on the part of the designers to keep user interactions amicable. Designers can spend hours, or even days, discussing the details of which buttons will and will not appear on the screen (because I have family in the field, I have seen such discussion in action). Some decisions are deliberate, while others are unintentional or a product of the designers’ personalities or corporate culture. Likewise, one can make his or her shadow change shapes by standing in different poses, but can also not escape his or her body’s limitations on the shadow’s appearance. I argue that it is important to teach students to engage with technologies critically in light of these considerations. Question #3 in the writing assignment (below) shows how I ask my students to respond to these ideas in writing.
Developing Critical Literacy with Freishtat and Sandlin
To help students consider how the rhetoric of Facebook interacts with their desires in using it, I introduce them to Freishtat and Sandlin's (2010) “Shaping Youth Discourse About Technology: Technological Colonization, Manifest Destiny, and the Frontier Myth in Facebook’s Public Pedagogy." In this article, Freishtat and Sandlin explored the nature of Facebook and how the rhetoric of the website interacts with students’ desires, arguing that “Facebook seeks to shape how young people view technology” (p. 505). To this, they add that Facebook uses “rhetorical strategies…to both normalize and celebrate its vision of current cultural changes” (p. 505). Most of my students have never considered that Facebook may have an opinion about how cultural changes related to technology should look. According to Freishtat and Sandlin, Facebook takes a definitive stance towards these cultural changes, both in terms of the kinds of programs that populate the Web, and in terms of how they imagine people relating to these programs. Students often view this statement as audacious, but they timidly allow this statement to challenge their thinking about what kinds of human intentions may lie behind Facebook and what effects social networks' designs may actually have on users. I further challenge my students by asking them to consider Freishtat and Sandlin’s claim that “Facebook seeks to craft users with particular dispositions who behave in particular ways online, and… disciplines dissent on its site” (p. 505). I ask students to consider whether they shape how they use Facebook, or whether Facebook is shaping them as users. Again, the idea that someone is being shaped, or even manipulated, is something they rarely consider when using social media.
Freishtat and Sandlin’s (2010) argument does not deal with classroom pedagogy, but rather with what they call “public pedagogy,” or students’ self-directed learning that takes place on Facebook outside the classroom (p. 505). This focus made the article a perfect fit for helping students think about how they use Facebook in their lives. For many first-year college students, this article is appropriately challenging. For lower-level college students (e.g., those who are on San Jose State University's B-track and thus go through San Jose State University’s Basic Writing program, in which I taught this assignment), this article is even more challenging but still proves helpful in framing the issues. While students are able to connect the article’s broad claims with their specific experiences, they often resist dealing with the full force of the article’s assertions. I encourage them to consider social networking through the lens the article suggests, a lens many have never before considered. Once students get a handle on the article’s assertions, they quickly come up with reasons why these claims might be true.
Students’ Critical Thinking about Peer-to-Peer Interaction on Facebook
Learning how to think critically about what individuals are trying to communicate on social websites is closely associated with the critical literacy students need to develop in relation to the technology itself. In order to talk about issues of identity and communication, I introduced students to a passage from Ralph Ellison’s (1952) Invisible Man that exemplifies some of the issues Facebook users encounter. The excerpt takes place near the end of the novel when the narrator puts on a disguise. Immediately after donning a hat and sunglasses, many different kinds of people begin to mistake him for someone named Rinehart. For instance, some shady fellows on the street corner recognize Rinehart as their associate, and later on members of a church congregation recognize Rinehart as their Reverend. By donning his disguise, others are able to see the narrator differently, which can be positive or negative depending on what (mistaken) identities others assign him. This rhetorical move is not unlike the multiple identities we use in social networking and in face-to-face conversations. This is not to say that the motives of Ellison's Invisible Man correspond to students' social networking motives, but that the novel excerpt helps students think critically about how they position themselves rhetorically for others to see.
Many instructors believe that writing on social networking sites undermines the rhetorical skills students learn in class because of the slang and abbreviations often used on these sites; such instructors may believe that social networks are the end of students’ critical awareness when they communicate. Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber (2009) contended that electronic writing forms actually require "sophisticated skills of understanding concrete rhetorical situations, analyzing audiences (and their goals and inclinations), and constructing concise, information-laden texts, as a part of a dynamic, unfolding, social process” (p. 18). It is this dynamic process that makes social networking a perfect match for the composition classroom and for teaching rhetorical skills: It helps students see how communication works in real, live rhetorical situations. Many students do not believe that communication in these media requires any kind of valuable literacy skills because they buy into the myth of how the news media portray social networks as valueless forms of communication that are decaying young people’s minds. This is why I introduced students to the passage from Invisible Man: to get them thinking about what kinds of skills they learn on Facebook. I found the text useful for helping them acknowledge the skills they are building in these writing spaces.
Writing Assignment: Pulling It All Together
As a part of the social networking unit I developed for a first-year composition course at my institution, I developed a writing assignment that asks students to synthesize their thoughts on the issues we discuss in class and with which they deal first-hand in their own use of Facebook. The assignment is centered on three key questions based on topics discussed in class. Below is an excerpt from the assignment sheet, including a summary of topics discussed in class and questions for students to respond to in the writing assignment.
Topics Discussed in Class:
- How social networking helps or hinders the development of communication and rhetorical skills, how social networking helps or hinders our sense of identity and place in a social world, and how social networking sites have a rhetoric (or an argument) that we may not be aware of.
Questions to Respond to:
1 How do you use social networking websites, and why do you find it effective or ineffective for achieving your communication needs?
2 What rhetorical skills do you think using social networking websites has helped you to build? How have your experiences on the website changed the way you think about communication in writing?
3 How do social networking websites’ format and user interface affect how you use them? What rhetoric or arguments are made by the site’s user interface? How do these components affect you as a user and as a person? Which rhetorical choices seem deliberate? What clues (in the design of the website) can you find about how the designers want you to use the site?
I asked students to include support from their own observations from using Facebook and to keep any reference to other users anonymous. While Jennifer Swartz (2011) asked students to write about the differences between online and in-person communication, and how these differences impact our society, I took a different approach, asking students to reflect on the ways that Facebook affects them and their choices, both through its user interface and through the others that inhabit the website. I also wanted to encourage students to think about the rhetorical awareness they have built on Facebook. Finally, I wanted students to reflect on how these websites interact with their specific personal and educational communicative needs.
One of the most formidable challenges in working with students on this assignment is helping them think beyond the generalized questions that they are normally asked about Facebook, such as, “Is social networking good for society?” These types of blanket yes-no questions are often used in lower-level analyses of social networks. In order for students to approach these issues through the lens I want them to use, I must substantially articulate the questions I want them to consider. I have developed and continue to develop specific, rhetoric-driven questions about Facebook for students to explore in a critical manner.
Why Use Facebook as a Writing Space for Composition Classes?
While I seek to help my students develop critical literacy and critical thinking about Facebook, I have them use the site as a place to communicate with each other and with me, as I think the best way to examine something more closely is to use it. Additionally, using Facebook as a writing space in the classroom gives students the feeling that writing is relevant to their lives and to the communication that matters to them. Finally, alternative spaces such as course management systems (like Blackboard or Desire2Learn) manage classes, rather than give students the floor in an environment within which they feel comfortable communicating.
One student told me that one course management system’s user interface feels “oppressive” because it seems to stop her from being able to freely express herself, that it somehow tries to “manage” her thoughts. Course management systems give way to an unnatural, inauthentic writing experience, while sites like Facebook lend themselves to a structure of communication more akin to their natural communication patterns. Just as Dennis Baron (2009) noticed how students in the 21st century feel that their ideas flow most easily from brain to screen through a keyboard (rather than from brain to page through a pencil), I argue that 21st century students often feel that their thoughts can more easily and authentically flow from brain to screen on websites like Facebook than they can inside the confines of course management systems. The writing space in most course management systems is structured so differently from the spaces students normally write in that it becomes a kind of roadblock for students who need to convey their ideas. I am not arguing that Facebook is the only place our students need to know how to write, but I am arguing that it is closer to the future of communicative environments than course management systems.
The Necessity of Critical Literacy and Critical Thinking
Stuart A. Selber (2004) in Multiliteracies for a Digital Age criticized so-called computer literacy classes for having “focused primarily on data representations, numbering systems, operating systems, file formats, and hardware and software components” rather than on the task of teaching students to be “informed questioners of technology” (p. 74). In a time when, as Sheelah M. Sweeny (2010) noted, “the ability to stay connected with others is constant,” it is increasingly important to engage composition students in critical thinking about the spaces they write in (p. 121). It is becoming clearer, as technology giants such as Google® and Apple® introduce new technologies, that critical literacy and critical thinking about technology are necessary for our students’ futures. The Google® Glass Project, a post-cell-phone technology, has the potential to change the way we communicate. However, if students have not learned patterns for critical thinking about these technologies, they will be unable to reflect on them. Even worse, without critical literacy and critical thinking skills, students could find themselves in rhetorically weak situations without intending to end up there. I argue that composition instructors should help students develop a critical literacy of technologies.
While neither we nor our students can know what the future of communication technologies will be, we can help students deal with design choices that are being made right before their eyes in one of today’s most influential communication technologies. We cannot prepare our students for every writing space they will encounter in their lifetimes. However, the pattern of critical thinking through awareness of the human players involved in their communicative endeavors will remain relevant as long as humans design and communicate through communication technologies.
Baron, Dennis. (2009). A better pencil: Reading, writing, and the digital revolution. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ellison, Ralph. (1952). Invisible man. New York: Random House.
Freishtat, Richard L., & Sandlin, Jennifer A. (2010). Shaping youth discourse about technology: Technological colonization, manifest destiny, and the frontier myth in Facebook’s public pedagogy. Educational Studies, 46, 503-523.
Johnson-Eilola, Johndan, & Selber, Stuart A. (2009). The changing shapes of writing: Rhetoric, new media, and composition. In Amy C. Kimme Hea (Ed.), Going wireless: A critical exploration of wireless and mobile technologies for composition teachers (pp. 15-34). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.
Selber, Stuart A. (2004). Multiliteracies for a digital age. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Shirky, Clay. (2010). Cognitive surplus: Creativity and generosity in a connected age. New York: Penguin Press.
Swartz, Jennifer. (2011). MySpace, Facebook, and multimodal literacy in the writing classroom. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy,15(2). Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/praxis/tiki-index.php?page=MySpace_Facebook_and_Multimodal_Literacy_in_the_Writing_Classroom
Sweeny, Sheelah M. (2010). Writing for the instant messaging and text messaging generation: Using new literacies to support writing instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(2), 121-130.
lululemon athletica. (2010, November 12). Click check in using Facebook places or foursquare [[Flickr image]]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/lululemonathletica/5169955269/
Max Braun. (2012, June 19). Lisa for I/O Keynote [[Flickr image]]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxbraun/7471157378/
Wootang01. (2009, April 13). Shadow on a Board [[Flickr image]]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckln/3449318205/
|
<urn:uuid:da713976-b024-4f97-9a9c-20b43a373a3d>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-47
|
http://praxis.technorhetoric.net/tiki-index.php?page=Developing_Critical_Literacy_and_Critical_Thinking_through_Facebook
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806660.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122194844-20171122214844-00415.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.936283 | 3,813 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Cyber resilience is the ability of a computing system to recover quickly should it experience adverse conditions.
Through good management you can make great use of cloud products without losing control of your security architecture, virtualization and cloud computing require cooperation between security, storage, server, application, and cloud security admins – all with access to your most sensitive data. As an example, choosing to upload your data to the cloud is. For the most part, a moot point, the advantages of mobility, scalability and convenience have proven that cloud platforms are a necessary and vital tool for the advancement of modern-day industry.
Creating overly restrictive (or permissive) policies can reduce cybersecurity plans to a culture of avoidance rather than standard practice, security policy applies to all senior management, employees, stockholders, consultants, and service providers who use organization assets. For the most part, organizations need cloud security professionals with the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities to be able to audit, assess and secure cloud infrastructures.
In cybersecurity, that means too many false positives for overburdened security analysts, higher risk of successful breaches, and greater losses from each breach, if your business is starting to develop a security program, information security is where you should first begin, as it is the foundation for data security. As a rule, behavior-based security is a proactive approach to managing security incidents that involves monitoring end user devices, networks and servers in order to flag or block suspicious activity.
Management of cloud computing providers using automated tools and service level agreements will have to be considered. Along with security and privacy considerations. And also, as with any infrastructure service, the suitability of cloud computing for your specific use case should be assessed in a risk-based evaluation. By the way, one of the key trends that enable the overall growth of cyber security market is the rising adoption of cloud computing.
True security has more to do with your overall cloud strategy and how you are using the technology, cybersecurity is the ability to protect or defend the use of cyberspace from attacks, then, support widespread adoption of cloud technologies by advancing standards-based cloud security policies that enable innovative, adaptable security solutions.
He has over twenty years of cyber security experience, having started out in systems design and moved through product management in areas from endpoint security to managed networks, another risk businesses have to deal with is the confusion between compliance and a cyber security policy, otherwise, data applications and infrastructure associated with cloud computing use.
You should allow you to set up what is essentially a virtual office to give you the flexibility of connecting to your business anywhere, any time, governance, which covers the creation of an information security policy, and ensuring that all legal and regulatory requirements are met. Besides this, your data is too important to risk, and the impact of a breach or compliance event can have a devastating impact on your business.
Want to check how your Cloud Computing Security Processes are performing? You don’t know what you don’t know. Find out with our Cloud Computing Security Self Assessment Toolkit:
|
<urn:uuid:2bda5654-ca80-4bdb-ab6e-603d18d857e1>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-29
|
http://investmentssurvival.com/cloud-computing-security-is-cyber-security-a-component-of-the-overall-risk-management-framework/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655902496.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20200710015901-20200710045901-00128.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.930836 | 622 | 2.609375 | 3 |
What are the children in Year 4 learning between now and October half term
In Literacy we will be developing children's writing skills using the text There's a Pharaoh in our bath! By Jeremy Strong.
In Maths we are focusing on number skills, including place value, ordering, rounding and comparing.
In IPC we discovering all about Ancient Egyptians in Temples, Tombs and Treasures.
In Science we are learning about electricity.
In Technology we will be developing our word processing skills.
In Music we are learning how to play a keyboard.
In Art we are painting in the style of Leonid Afremov.
In PE we will hopefully be able to swim!!
In PSHE we are discussing "Being me in my world."
In RE we are writing our own poems about religion and finding out about inspirational people
In French we are looking at the words associated with numbers, colours, animals, classroom objects as well as the calendar and weather.
In Games we will be taking part in multi skills activities.
|
<urn:uuid:dec25650-527b-4836-8d2a-18dc4b361139>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://www.mgjs.org/curriculum-1/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100800.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20231209040008-20231209070008-00261.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.948518 | 213 | 3.03125 | 3 |
American Correctional System
Whether it’s police brutality or a drug offense, it’s hard to turn on the television today without seeing a news report related to some type of crime. How those crimes are dealt with is ever changing in the field of corrections.
In recent years, the criminal justice system has shifted its focus away from retribution and more toward rehabilitation. Legislation at both the federal and state level has also paved the way for courts to consider reducing sentences for some drug-related crimes.
Do these changes lower crime rates and make our cities safer? How do policymakers, administrators and line-level practitioners tackle the challenges and meet the goals they’re presented with in such a complex and complicated field?
American Correctional System is cool because it delves into the field of corrections from its early American roots to the present. The class presents students with an overview of corrections, where it came from and how it’s managed today.
Discussions will cover the role and function of jails, traditional and modern correctional facilities, private and contract corrections institutions, and probation and parole. Students will review significant court cases and their influence on the criminal justice system, and discuss the current climate of the United States prison system.
Through study of Mark Fleisher’s book “Beggars & Thieves: Lives of Urban Street Criminals,” students will get a clear picture of why people become and remain offenders and what solutions might actually work to change their paths and create safer cities.
Students will be able to use this knowledge to effectively communicate various trends in the criminal justice system, the pertinent issues addressed in “Beggars & Thieves” and the role and importance of the death penalty.
Talk to your advisor to see if this class might be right for you, or see what else is offered by the College of Liberal Studies.
|
<urn:uuid:23643d53-2d25-4d5c-84c5-9210a691f017>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-26
|
http://clsblog.ou.edu/class-highlight-american-correctional-system/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128323808.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170629000723-20170629020723-00637.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.936889 | 377 | 2.65625 | 3 |
An t-Eilean Sgitheanach
Skye or the Isle Of Skye is the largest & most northernmost of the major islands that make up the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island, which can still be reached by a ferry crossing from either Mallaig or Glenelg, was connected at Kyleakin to Kyle Of Lochalsh on the mainland by a toll bridge in 1995. In 2004 after much local protest, the Scottish Government purchased the privately funded bridge & scrapped the toll.
The Gaelic name for the Isle Of Skye is An t-Eilean Sgitheanach. It has been suggested that the word Sgitheanach means 'winged shape' describing the island's appearance on a map, but there is no definitive agreement as to the name's origins. Eilean a' Cheò, which means 'Island Of The Mist' (a translation of the Norse name), is a poetic Gaelic name for Skye.
Skye is almost 50miles long, & its coastline is so deeply indented that no part is more than 5miles from the sea. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. North of Portree is the curious basaltic group of pinnacles at the Storr, the most remarkable of which is the Old Man Of Storr, a landmark for sailors.
The island's largest settlement Portree lies at the head of a fine harbour on the eastern coast, & is known for it's picturesque quayside. Administratively, Skye lies within the Highland council area, & it is part of the historic county of Inverness-shire.
The island has been occupied since the Mesolithic period, & was settled by Gaelic-speaking Scots from Ireland during the first centuries BC. It's history includes a time of Norse rule between the 9th-12th centuries & a long period of domination by the Clan MacLeod & Clan MacDonald. Dunvegan Castle, home of the MacLeods, the chief clan of Skye, was built in the 9th century & has been occupied longer than any other house in Scotland. The 18th-century Jacobite risings led to the breaking up of the clan system & the subsequent Highland clearances replaced entire communities with sheep farms. The crofting system (small-scale tenant farming, mainly for subsistence) is still widespread. During the late 18th & early 19th centuries, the poverty of the crofters was extreme, & large numbers were forced to emigrate. Improvements came after the passage of the Small Landholders (Scotland) Acts, 1886–1911, & the subsequent introduction of government subsidies for growing potatoes & raising cattle & sheep. Resident numbers declined from over 20,000 in the early 19th century to just under 9,000 by the closing decade of the 20th century. About a third of the residents were Gaelic speakers in 2001, & although their numbers are in decline, this aspect of island culture remains important.
The main industries are tourism, agriculture, fishing & forestry. The sea fishing industry, once a mainstay of the economy, has declined, but commercial fish farming, particularly of salmon, is now an important part of the local economy. The diatomite industry also has died, but a smoky, peaty single-malt Scotch whisky is distilled at Carbost, & this product, as well as the spectacular rugged scenery, keep tourism a major industry.
The abundant wildlife includes the golden eagle, red deer & Atlantic salmon. The local flora is dominated by moorland heather & there are nationally important invertebrate populations on the surrounding sea bed. Skye has provided the locations for various novels & feature films...& is celebrated in poetry & song.
Isle Of Skye
To make a reservation now, you can use the online form
Drawing courtesy of Sean Webb ©
24hr local radio station serving Skye & Lochalsh
Get the latest news from Skye
Find out what our guests say about us in the guestbook
|
<urn:uuid:2459974b-e80c-4dd2-a16e-bfeb51853b49>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-05
|
https://www.8herbusta.com/isle-of-skye/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250594662.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20200119151736-20200119175736-00540.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.953517 | 860 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Definition - What does Varaaha mean?
Varaaha is a Sanskrit word that means “boar” or “wild boar” and is also the name of one of the 10 main incarnations, or avatars, of the Hindu god, Vishnu, that are collectively called the Dashavatara. As Varaaha, Vishnu took the form of a boar to rescue the goddess, Prithvi (personification of Earth), from the demon, Hiranyaksha, who had carried Prithvi to the bottom of the cosmic ocean.
Vishnu is one of Hinduism's most important gods and forms the trimurti, along with Brahma and Shiva. Vishnu is also the supreme deity of Vaishnavism, one of Hinduism's major traditions.
Yogapedia explains Varaaha
In Hindu iconography, Varaaha is depicted as human with a boar's head or simply as a boar. His battle with Hiranyaksha is said to have lasted 1,000 years, ending when Varaaha carried Prithvi out of the cosmic ocean with his tusks, returning her to her proper place in the universe.
The 10 main avatars of Vishnu vary by tradition and region, but in addition to Varaaha, the list typically includes:
- Matsya (fish)
- Koorma (tortoise)
- Narasimha (the man-lion)
- Vamana (the dwarf)
- Parasurama (the angry man)
- Rama (the perfect human)
- Balarama (Krishna's brother)
- Krishna (the divine diplomat and statesman)
- Kalki (the mighty warrior), who has yet to appear on Earth
|
<urn:uuid:a9b8fffd-e464-4851-a284-85cf3fea3dc3>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-24
|
https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/11058/varaaha
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347445880.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20200604161214-20200604191214-00252.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.955742 | 376 | 3.21875 | 3 |
BUSD’s Dual Language Immersion Program is designed with a 90/10 language acquisition model, uses the California content standards, and is taught by highly qualified bilingual teachers with the goal of students developing bilingual and biliterate skills in English and Spanish. Through continuous reflection, refinement, and collaboration with the dual language community, the program strives to meet the goals of bilingualism, biliteracy, and cross-cultural competencies.
Our application and enrollment window is February 6 – February 21, 2023.
Spanish Dual Immersion - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Spanish Dual Immersion (DI)? What does the language instructional model look like?
Spanish Dual Immersion (DI) is a program in which students are taught literacy and content in English and in Spanish.
The Spanish DI program is an option for parents who want their children to become bilingual and biliterate in Spanish and English; providing the opportunity for students to fluently speak two languages as well as read and write proficiently in two languages.
The language instructional model at both elementary schools begins with a 90:10 model meaning that students begin the program with 90% of their instruction in Spanish and 10% in English. The amount of Spanish instruction decreases after first grade as English increases until there is a 50:50 balance of instruction in Spanish and English as seen in the following:
- Preschool: 90:10
- Transitional Kindergarten 90:10
- Kindergarten/First grade: 90:10
- Second grade: 80:20
- Third grade: 70:30
- Fourth grade: 60:40
- Fifth/Sixth grades: 50:50
The ideal student composition for a dual immersion classroom is 33% English-only students, 33% native Spanish speakers, and 33% bilingual students.
Where is the program offered?
The Bellflower Unified School District (District) offers a Spanish DI program at both the Intensive Learning Center (ILC), Washington Elementary School, and Mayfair Middle School. ILC operates a DI program in preschool through sixth grade, while Washington Elementary currently provides a DI program in grades preschool through first and fourth through sixth. Mayfair Middle School offers a DI program in seventh and eighth grades. Students have the opportunity to continue their Spanish education in high school with Spanish language courses.
How do I enroll my child into the Dual Immersion program at either ILC or Washington?
Do I have to start my child in the DI program in Kindergarten?
The District accepts students into the DI program in kindergarten. There are a small number of students who have moved into the District and transferred into the program after kindergarten. We can accept students into the program after kindergarten if space is available and if the student has been previously enrolled in a Spanish DI program or if the student is bilingual but has not previously enrolled in a DI program. The District requires students be assessed for Spanish language proficiency before acceptance to the program.
Is there a Spanish Dual Immersion program for students in preschool or transitional kindergarten?
Yes, the District operates a Dual Immersion State preschool program and Dual Immersion transitional kindergarten open to qualifying students at both ILC and Washington. Class offerings are subject to change based on enrollment. The State preschool program and transitional kindergarten is run through our Early Childhood Education Office (9301 Flower St., Bellflower, CA 90706)
Once my child is enrolled in the program, how will I support my child if I don’t speak Spanish?
The District has many DI families that do not speak Spanish at home. Please speak with your child’s teacher to better understand parent resources and allow them the opportunity to assist you and your child.
What are the benefits of the DI program?
Research studies highlight many benefits for gaining proficiency in two languages, including:
- Students are able to appreciate other cultures and to view differences in culture and language as a positive learning experience
- Immediate benefits include increased academic performance in reading, math, and other subjects, including higher scores on college readiness exams, such as the SAT and ACT, in high school
- Bilingual and biliterate adults have more job opportunities than monolingual adults
Do DI students learn the same state standards as students in non-DI classes?
Yes, the state standards and grade-level expectations are the same for all students in the Bellflower Unified School District. The only difference is the language of instruction. DI teachers hold bilingual authorizations to instruct in Spanish and English and are trained to support the students’ transfer of skills between the two languages.
Does the DI program continue after elementary school into middle school?
Students who attend the DI program have the opportunity to enroll in two Spanish language classes in grades seven and eight: a History-Social Studies class taught in Spanish as well as a Spanish language class. Therefore, 33% of their classes and total classroom instruction will be provided in Spanish.
The District provides the opportunity for DI students to complete additional Spanish language courses, including Advanced Placement courses, while in high school with the ultimate goal being for students to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy upon high school graduation.
What if my child struggles academically in the DI program?
The goal is for your child to find academic success while having the benefit of learning a second language. As children are developing, there are instances where a child may struggle academically. The teachers and school staff are trained to evaluate and provide academic interventions to support your child in being successful. However, there are times when a child may not respond to appropriate interventions and reassignment to a non-DI class is recommended by the school team.
|
<urn:uuid:557c826d-c76d-4348-b909-971c68671041>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-40
|
https://www.busd.k12.ca.us/domain/52
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511284.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20231003224357-20231004014357-00578.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.957008 | 1,166 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Two environmental groups blame corruption for the continued destruction of Indonesia's forests. The groups say that logging is threatening the habitat of rare primate species, including the orangutan.
The Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak say that illegal logging is devastating large areas of Indonesia's tropical rainforest, including national parks.
In a joint report, the groups say that although Indonesia has laws that ban logging, corruption in the legal system and among politicians means that loggers are able to buy immunity.
Telapak is an Indonesian environmental group, while the Environmental Investigation Agency operates in several countries.
The groups say Indonesia's illegal loggers are clearing more than 16,000 square kilometers of forest each year.
The groups have concentrated their investigations on the Tanjung Puting national park on the island of Borneo, which is home to world famous centers to protect orangutans, Southeast Asia's largest primates.
There they found thousands of cubic meters of timber, including wood from increasingly rare species of trees, being processed at illegal sawmills within the park. The logging destroys the habitat for the rare orangutans, which live in thick jungle.
The report says Jakarta had done valuable work to establish treaties to limit the international trade in illegal timber. But without tackling problems within its own borders, says the report, the government risks having one of its most valuable resources stripped bare to feed the outside world's appetite for rare woods.
The report was released a week before donor nations meet to consider more assistance for Indonesia. Two years ago, the group signed a deal that made some aid dependent on the government tackling illegal logging.
|
<urn:uuid:6da67950-8941-4504-9c7b-e501a5021445>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-39
|
https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2003-01-14-6-corruption-67583587/288760.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689779.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20170923213057-20170923233057-00502.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.951874 | 332 | 2.96875 | 3 |
If you are like me, you may have ethnically-Polish ancestors who were born in what is now Poland, but what was then a different country, like Austria-Hungary or Prussia. Despite that, I decided to leave the wording on the worksheets as 'My ancestor was born in Poland,' so as not to confuse the young children that these worksheets are geared towards.
As always there are male and female versions of each worksheet - the female one featuring Polish-American opera singer Marcella Sembrich, and the male one featuring U.S. Civil War general (and Polish immigrant) Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski. The sheet for recording sources can be found at this link.
©2015 Emily Kowalski Schroeder. Worksheets for personal use only. May not be reproduced without written consent of owner.
|
<urn:uuid:34f51565-ece1-4685-aa50-6781d64b1aa5>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-05
|
http://www.growinglittleleaves.com/blog/recording-ancestor-data-my-polish-ancestor
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251789055.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20200129071944-20200129101944-00397.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.974474 | 183 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Aquaponics using fishes and plants mutual benefit environment to creatively solve environmental pollution problem, reduce planting needed space, save water, naturally cut down plants growth period, increased plants produce and vegetables tasted sweeter than planted in soil.
It is solved food chain Plants’ fertilizer, pesticide (cut down insects to be half) and potential heavy metal problems. Meanwhile, it cut down fish ponds pollution problem, improve fish living quality.
On another hand, this fish/plant farm system gives excellent school education chances, supplied organic foods for many families even in the cities, improve neighborhood relationships by exchanging fresh harvest foods, add sight seen for public areas, reduced some elderly shopping for fresh food problems.
The system needs hardware, water (recycle used without be absorbed by soils), fish foods, and electricity. It’s very economic and easy to use.
It is worth to be expanded. Please click and learn.
|
<urn:uuid:4cf3e4f8-4a53-49cf-a192-8bb2428ef8bb>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-26
|
https://universaltcm.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/chinese-solved-the-chemical-and-poillution-problems-in-argriculture/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320570.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20170625184914-20170625204914-00321.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.922271 | 187 | 2.625 | 3 |
26 March 2020
adapted from the story by CIRES Communications
Chemicals that deplete Earth's protective ozone layer have also been triggering changes in Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation. Now, new research published in Nature finds that those changes have paused and might even be reversing because of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that successfully phased out use of ozone-depleting chemicals.
"This study adds to growing evidence showing the profound effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol. Not only has the treaty spurred healing of the ozone layer, it's also driving recent changes in Southern Hemisphere air circulation patterns," said lead author Antara Banerjee, a CIRES Visiting Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder who works in the NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Division. She started this work as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University.
The ozone hole, discovered in 1985, has been forming every spring in the atmosphere high over Antarctica. Ozone depletion cools the air, strengthening the winds of the polar vortex and affecting winds all the way down to the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. Ultimately, ozone depletion has shifted the midlatitude jet stream and the dry regions at the edge of the tropics toward the South Pole.
Previous studies have linked these circulation trends to weather changes in the Southern Hemisphere, especially rainfall over South America, East Africa, and Australia, and to changes in ocean currents and salinity.
The Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased out production of ozone-destroying substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Beginning around 2000, concentrations of those chemicals in the stratosphere started to decline and the ozone hole began to recover. In this study, Banerjee and her co-authors have shown that around the year 2000, the circulation of the Southern Hemisphere also stopped expanding polewards—a pause or slight reversal of the earlier trends.
"The challenge in this study was proving our hypothesis that ozone recovery is in fact driving these atmospheric circulation changes and it isn't just a coincidence," Banerjee said.
To do that, the researchers used a two-step statistical technique called detection and attribution: detecting whether certain patterns of observed wind changes are unlikely to be due to natural variability alone and, if so, whether the changes can be attributed to human-caused factors, such as emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals and CO2.
Using computer simulations, the researchers first determined that the observed pause in circulation trends couldn't be explained by natural shifts in winds alone. Next, they isolated the effects of ozone and greenhouse gases separately. They showed that while rising CO2 emissions have continued expanding the near-surface circulation (including the jet stream) polewards, only the ozone changes could explain the pause in circulation trends. Prior to 2000, both ozone depletion and rising CO2 levels pushed the near-surface circulation poleward. Since 2000, CO2 has continued to push this circulation poleward, balancing the opposing effect of the ozone recovery.
"Identifying the ozone-driven pause in circulation trends in real-world observations confirms, for the first time, what the scientific ozone community has long predicted from theory," said John Fyfe, a scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and one of the paper's co-authors.
With ozone beginning to recover and CO2 levels continuing to climb, the future is less certain, including for those Southern Hemisphere regions whose weather is affected by the jet stream and those at the edge of the dry regions.
"We term this a 'pause' because the poleward circulation trends might resume, stay flat, or reverse," Banerjee said. "It's the tug of war between the opposing effects of ozone recovery and rising greenhouse gases that will determine future trends."
Banerjee, Antara, John C. Fyfe, Lorenzo M. Polvani, Darryn Waugh, and Kai-Lan Chang, A pause in Southern Hemisphere circulation trends due to the Montreal Protocol, Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2120-4, 2020.
Observations show robust near-surface trends in the Southern Hemisphere tropospheric circulation towards the end of the 20th century, including a poleward shift in the midlatitude jet, a positive trend in the Southern Annular Mode, and an expansion of the Hadley cell. It is established that these trends have been driven by ozone depletion in the Antarctic stratosphere due to emissions of ozone-depleting substances. Here we show that these widely reported circulation trends have, in fact, paused, or slightly reversed, around the year 2000. Using a pattern-based detection and attribution analysis of atmospheric zonal wind, we show that the pause in circulation trends is forced by human activities, and has not occurred simply due to internal or natural variability of the climate system. Further, we demonstrate the essential role of stratospheric ozone recovery as a result of the Montreal Protocol in driving the pause. Since the pre-2000 circulation trends have impacted precipitation, and potentially, the ocean circulation and salinity, we anticipate that a pause in these trends will have wider impacts on the Earth system. Signatures of the Montreal Protocol and the associated stratospheric ozone recovery might therefore manifest, or might have already manifested, in other aspects of the Earth system.
|
<urn:uuid:675113aa-7cba-4edc-8551-be79a0ad6343>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://csl.noaa.gov/news/2020/271_0326.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653183.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20230606214755-20230607004755-00764.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.916409 | 1,081 | 3.75 | 4 |
Definitions for juxtaglomerular apparatus
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word juxtaglomerular apparatus
The juxtaglomerular apparatus is a microscopic structure in the kidney, which regulates the function of each nephron. The juxtaglomerular apparatus is named for its proximity to the glomerulus: it is found between the vascular pole of the renal corpuscle and the returning distal convoluted tubule of the same nephron. This location is critical to its function in regulating renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate. The three cellular components of the apparatus are the macula densa of the distal convoluted tubule, smooth muscle cells of the afferent arteriole and juxtaglomerular cells.
U.S. National Library of Medicine
A complex of cells consisting of juxtaglomerular cells, extraglomerular mesangium lacis cells, the macula densa of the distal convoluted tubule, and granular epithelial peripolar cells. Juxtaglomerular cells are modified SMOOTH MUSCLE CELLS found in the walls of afferent glomerular arterioles and sometimes the efferent arterioles. Extraglomerular mesangium lacis cells are located in the angle between the afferent and efferent glomerular arterioles. Granular epithelial peripolar cells are located at the angle of reflection of the parietal to visceral angle of the renal corpuscle.
Find a translation for the juxtaglomerular apparatus definition in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss these juxtaglomerular apparatus definitions with the community:
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
"juxtaglomerular apparatus." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/juxtaglomerular apparatus>.
|
<urn:uuid:e04716e1-5cce-4c1f-8bcc-9247ef650e8b>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-15
|
http://www.definitions.net/definition/juxtaglomerular%20apparatus
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1398223206120.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20140423032006-00038-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.763231 | 418 | 3 | 3 |
Welcome back to this series of articles on designing faster web pages. Part 1 and part 2 of this series covered how to lose browser fat through optimizing and replacing images. This part looks at how to lose additional fat in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and fonts.
First things first: let’s look at where the problem originates. CSS was once a huge step forward. You can use it to style several pages from a central style sheet. Nowadays, many web developers use frameworks like Bootstrap.
While these frameworks are certainly helpful, many people simply copy and paste the whole framework. Bootstrap is huge; the “minimal” version of 4.0 is currently 144.9 KB. Perhaps in the era of terabytes of data, this isn’t much. But as they say, even small cattle makes a mess.
Look back at the getfedora.org example. Recall in part 1, the first analysis showed the CSS files used nearly ten times more space than the HTML itself. Here’s a display of the stylesheets used:
That’s nine different stylesheets. Many styles in them that are also unused on the page.
Remove, merge, and compress/minify
The font-awesome CSS inhabits the extreme end of included, unused styles. There are only three glyphs of the font used on the page. To make that up in KB, the font-awesome CSS used at getfedora.org is originally 25.2 KB. After cleaning out all unused styles, it’s only 1.3 KB. This is only about 4% of its original size! For Bootstrap CSS, the difference is 118.3 KB original, and 13.2 KB after removing unused styles.
The next question is, must there be a bootstrap.css and a font-awesome.css? Or can they be combined? Yes, they can. That doesn’t save much file space, but the browser now requests fewer files to succesfully render the page.
Finally, after merging the CSS files, try to remove unused styles and minify them. In this way, you save 10.1 KB for a final size of 4.3 KB.
Unfortunately, there’s no packaged “minifier” tool in Fedoras repositories yet. However, there are hundreds of online services to do that for you. Or you can use CSS-HTML-JS Minify, which is Python, and therefore easy to isntall. There’s not an available tool to purify CSS, but there are web services like UnCSS.
CSS3 came with something a lot of web developer like. They could define fonts the browser downloads in the background to render the page. Since then, a lot of web designers are very happy, especially after they discovered the usage of icon fonts for web design. Font sets like Font Awesome are quiet popular today and widely used. Here’s the size of that content:
current free version 912 glyphs/icons, smallest set ttf 30.9KB, woff 14.7KB, woff2 12.2KB, svg 107.2KB, eot 31.2
So the question is, do you need all the glyphs? In all probability, no. You can get rid of them with FontForge, but that’s a lot of work. You could also use Fontello. Use the public instance, or set up your own, as it’s free software and available on Github.
The downside of such customized font sets is you must host the font by yourself. You can’t use other online font services to provide updates. But this may not really be a downside, compared to faster performance.
Now you’ve done everything you can to the content itself, to minimize what the browser loads and interprets. From now on, only tricks with the administration of the server can help.
One easy to do, but which many people do wrong, is decide on some intelligent caching. For instance, a CSS or picture file can be cached for a week. Whatever you do, if you use a proxy service like Cloudflare or build your own proxy, minimze the pages first. Users like fast loading pages. They’ll (silently) thank you for it, and the server will have a smaller load, too.
Critical Path CSS And render blocking should be mentioned.
could not should
this was an interesting topic. i will put it to good use (still a noob when it comes to web development) i don’t even have my own website running
Afan Haqul Fadillah
Really Helpful,, keep it up????
Most of the time I am not interested in stories in front-end development, but this whole series by Sirko blow my mind. I happened to open the link the today, and spent half a hour to read all three posts. Everything about this post, the story telling, open source tools used … is just so awesome. Good work! I hope to see more of your stories here on Fedora magazine.
thx for the feedback. More posts lets see
I’ve really enjoyed this series. Tackling the amazing bloat in online content is massively overdue – even it involve the current generation of web developers in writing actual code 😉 !
|
<urn:uuid:b32cd1a0-9a86-4ddf-9a8e-229dc264aeee>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://fedoramagazine.org/design-faster-web-pages-part-3-font-css-tweaks/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224647525.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20230601010402-20230601040402-00705.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.902954 | 1,153 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Track topics on Twitter Track topics that are important to you
Positive interactions are quite common in nature but are less studied. While positive association among species has been studied in ecological literature, how such interactions will impact the ecological dynamics when they occur within antagonist communities is not understood. Motivated by this, we studied a community module consisting of two prey species and a predator population where the prey species are in mutualistic relationship while the predators exhibit hunting cooperation. Our result reconfirms that both mutualism and hunting cooperation destabilizes the system. Predator cooperation may result in extinction of the relatively more attacked prey and a minimal mutualism strength is required in order to retain the coexistence equilibrium. A higher degree of cooperation among predators can lead to bistable dynamics which increases the survival chance of the otherwise extinct prey. Mutualistic association further enhances this effect thereby increasing the chance of coexistence. Generally, cooperative hunting is known to produce bistability but this system also demonstrated tristable dynamics. Moreover, the wide range of multi-stability exhibited by our model indicate the high sensitivity of the system to small perturbations. Overall, our study suggests that the interplay between the prey mutualism and predator cooperation may result in unintuitive dynamics which might be important in the context of community ecology.
This article was published in the following journal.
Name: Journal of theoretical biology
Litter is omnipresent in the ocean where it can be ingested by marine biota. Although ingestion of microplastics (MPs) is abundantly reported, insights into how MP can influence predator-prey interact...
Attempts to assess behavioral responses of prey to predation risk are often confounded by depredation of prey. Moreover, the scale at which the response of prey is assessed has important implications ...
Pollen can decrease (via reduced consumption) or increase (via numerical response) an omnivores consumption of animal prey. Although pollen can increase predation pressure through numerical responses ...
Predation, which is a fundamental force in ecosystems, has been found to decrease in intensity with elevation and latitude. The mechanisms behind this pattern, however, remain unaddressed. Using visua...
Central to understanding animal ecology is how prey cope with the interacting risks of starvation and predation. This trade-off is modulated by the energy requirements of prey, yet relatively few stud...
This study will test the impact of implementing the Communities That Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) intervention on opioid overdose deaths within 67 highly affected communities ...
The Community Youth Development Study is an experimental test of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention planning system. It is designed to find out if communities that use the CTC sys...
Students' cooperative and prosocial behavior is vital to their social and academic success and to the quality of a school's social environment. This project will evaluate an instructional ...
This cross-sectional survey will be conducted prospectively in 2 communes in the Battambang Province, Roka and Prey Khpos commune. The principal objective of the study is to compare HIV an...
The third space robotic and endoscopic cooperative surgery (TS-RECS) combines the endoscopic techniques and the merits of Da Vinci surgical robot, such as flexible and precise instruments,...
BIRDS that hunt and kill other animals, especially higher vertebrates, for food. They include the FALCONIFORMES order, or diurnal birds of prey, comprised of EAGLES, falcons, HAWKS, and others, as well as the STRIGIFORMES order, or nocturnal birds of prey, which includes OWLS.
A phylum of fungi that are mutualistic symbionts and form ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAE with PLANT ROOTS.
An ethnic group with shared religious beliefs in PROTESTANISM. Originating in Switzerland in the late 1600s, and first migrating to the mid-Atlantic, they now live throughout Eastern and Mid-Western United States and elsewhere. Communities are usually close-knit and marriage is within the community.
International organizations which provide health-related or other cooperative services.
Cooperative actions and ventures among health and health-related groups and organizations intended to improve health outcomes.
|
<urn:uuid:3dced169-0b92-4688-8974-75921e23ec2c>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-05
|
https://www.bioportfolio.com/resources/pmarticle/2588477/Cooperative-predation-on-mutualistic-prey-communities.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250606872.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20200122071919-20200122100919-00556.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.92454 | 868 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Boban Petrovic has taken a train from Belgrade every three months to visit his family in Montenegro for years and each trip makes him shudder with fear for his life.
"I usually lull myself to sleep with a glass or two of wine to survive the trip," Petrovic, a 37-year old hairdresser, told AFP.
The 475 kilometre (285 mile) ride between the Serbian capital and Montenegro's southern port of Bar sometimes takes up to 16 hours.
Riding through idyllic countryside, both passenger and freight trains pass through dozens of tunnels piercing steep limestone mountains and cross long bridges over the deep gorges of Serbia and Montenegro.
The journey was once seen as a pride of communist Yugoslavia, the Belgrade-Bar railroad was designed for speeds of up to 120 kilometres (70 miles) per hour when it was finished in 1976.
Nowadays, trains can travel over some sections at only a tenth of that speed.
The ailing infrastructure and decades-old trains do not inspire confidence among passengers.
In 2006, a passenger train derailed and plunged into a canyon outside the Montenegrin capital Podgorica as it emerged from a tunnel, killing 47 people and injuring nearly 200.
Since the bloody break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, most railroads have been poorly maintained by the countries that emerged from the communist federation.
"Except Croatia, where it is slightly better, railway networks are neglected and in a bad shape," said Dejan Lasica, Serbia's deputy transportation minister.
In Serbia, at most 30 kilometres of track have been overhauled annually in the past two decades, instead of the 190 deemed necessary.
The average speed is now 42 kilometres per hour.
"The 2013 Tour De France winner rides with higher average speed then our trains," Petrovic joked bitterly.
But along some 400 kilometres of track, or almost 10 percent of the total network in Serbia, the maximum allowed speed is only 10 kilometres per hour.
Even in Croatia, which has invested the most, the average speed of passenger trains is 46 kilometres per hour and 21 kilometres per hour for freight loads.
The slow speed on top of delays that can last hours has led to a sharp fall in goods traffic by rail in the region to just 8 percent.
In 2011, a total of 12 million tonnes were transported by trains, just a third of the amount in 1990.
In Bosnia, 13 million passengers travelled by train per year before the war, while nowadays only 800,000 people take such a journey.
Beside the poor state of tracks, trains throughout the region are on average older than 30 years.
Complicated border procedures between the former partner republics have also added hours to rail trips, like the train linking Belgrade and Bosnian capital Sarajevo.
During the 1980s, it was a five-hour ride in a comfortable train with a stewardess, popular among skiers and youngsters seeking fun in the vibrant Bosnian capital.
After being shut for 19 years, it finally reopened in 2009, but the now dilapidated trains that used to make the run before the war needed almost ten hours to reach their destination, crossing three international borders.
It shut three years later as few people were willing to pay to the slow service at the price of 31 euros ($41) while they could take a bus for only 10 more euros and have a much more comfortable and almost a half shorter trip.
Two World Bank studies conducted in the past decade have urged the Balkan states to liberalise and privatise railway transport, step up invest into infrastructure and ease border crossing procedures.
And the impact is wider than inconveniencing travellers.
"The poor quality of rail infrastructure impacts negatively on the global competitive position of economies" in the region, a 2011 World Bank's study said.
Serbia has taken 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) in loans, mostly from the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Russia, to invest into track reconstruction and buy desperately needed new trains.
"It will take some time, but we expect a significant improvement in speed and confort within five years," Lasica said.
The main goal is to renovate the so-called Corridor 10, linking western Europe with Greece and Turkey, the longest part of which passes through Serbia, he added.
The railroad that once linked Paris with Istanbul by the famous Orient Express, is considered a key trade route, so Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia have agreed to form a joint company that would offer a unique service along the route, so far only for freight trains.
Petrovic hopes the promises of investment are kept.
"It is always a lottery with the Serbian train carriages: some have no heating, others are without electricity or you can not close or open the windows," Petrovic said.
"Even worse, it is a death trap, but we, who decide to take this train, have already come to terms with it," he said.
But at least there is a tiny improvement, he said: "no drunken conductors on trains anymore."
|
<urn:uuid:9b144213-a601-417e-a092-5813339d5720>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-26
|
http://www.medindia.net/news/balkans-railways-need-major-overhaul-125132-1.htm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320443.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20170625064745-20170625084745-00084.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.961317 | 1,052 | 2.53125 | 3 |
This study investigated whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing children matched on receptive language share resources fairly and reciprocally. Children completed age-appropriate versions of the Ultimatum and Dictator Games with real stickers and an interactive partner. Both groups offered similar numbers of stickers (preferring equality over self-interest), offered more stickers in the Ultimatum Game, and verbally referenced ‘fairness’ at similar rates. However, children with ASD were significantly more likely to accept unfair offers and were significantly less likely to reciprocate the puppet’s offers. Failure to reciprocate fair sharing may significantly impact on social cohesion and children’s ability to build relationships. These important differences may be linked to broader deficits in social-cognitive development and potentially self-other understanding.
Sharing is a crucial foundation of human evolution (Dunbar 1993; Winterhalder 2001) and involves relinquishing ownership or control of access to a commodity for someone else’s benefit. For decades, behavioural economists have examined the conflict between retaining valued possessions and sharing with others via resource-exchange tasks. In the Ultimatum Game, an individual is endowed with a desirable resource and is required to offer a proportion to a partner who has nothing. On acceptance, the resource is split as proposed and both parties keep a share. On rejection, neither party keeps any of the resource. Thus, the proposer must strategically balance self-interest (i.e. the desire to retain as much of the resource as possible) against their partner’s interests. The Dictator Game follows the same format except for one crucial difference: the partner must always accept whatever share is offered. It is widely argued that players’ responses in these tasks are directed by socially-learned norms concerning fairness (Hoffman et al. 2008) and the ability to infer the mental states of social partners via Theory of Mind (ToM; Castelli et al. 2010; Takagishi et al. 2014). Here, we explore whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)—a population characterised by impairments in social interaction and Theory of Mind (APA 2013; Baron-Cohen 1995)—show differences in resource sharing while playing age-appropriate versions of the Ultimatum and Dictator Games.
According to the economic model of rational self-interest, proposers should always make the smallest possible offers, and responders in the Ultimatum Game should accept any offer greater than zero (Camerer 2003). However, across dozens of studies, typically developing (TD) adults consistently offer 40–45% of the stake in the Ultimatum Game and 20–25% in the Dictator Game (despite having the option to offer less without fear of rejection; Camerer 2003; Henrich et al. 2005; Rigdon 2003). The generosity of these average offers reflects a general preference for fairness and equality. Indeed, adults will usually reject offers they perceive to be unfair, and failure to behave reciprocally elicits punishment and negative affect in exchange partners (Fehr and Gachter 2002; de Quervain et al. 2004). Lucas et al. (2008) investigated whether TD children aged 4–5 years similarly value fairness when sharing endowed commodities. This was achieved by designing age-appropriate versions of the Ultimatum and Dictator Games that employed stickers as a resource (rather than money, tokens, or points), and stakes were distributed immediately after each round (rather than at the end of the task). The results showed that TD children offered 47% and 40% of stakes in the Ultimatum Game and Dictator Game respectively. Therefore, despite the natural desire to retain one’s own resources, even young TD children value fairness over self-interest in sharing contexts (see also Brownell et al. 2013; Castelli et al. 2014).
Many theorists have argued that children’s early-emerging inclination to share equally (and reciprocate others’ sharing behaviours) has adapted to promote cooperation and diminish the impact of self-interests on social cohesion (Hoffman et al. 2008). Upholding shared expectations concerning fairness provides a foundation for positive and reciprocal interactions, and establishes one’s reputation as a good social partner (which may be a stronger motivating factor in typical development than greater material or instrumental outcomes; Adamson et al. 2010; Dawson et al. 2004; Greene et al. 2011; Hoffman et al. 2008). From 3-years, TD children display strong adverse reactions when they are disadvantaged by unequal distributions (despite showing little willingness to share themselves; LoBue et al. 2011). By 4-years, TD children can infer the emotions, needs, and interests of social partners, and are able to differentiate these from their own (Wellman et al. 2001). At 5-years, they make explicit verbal references to fairness, demonstrate a motivation to engage in behaviour that benefits others, and show generosity when sharing resources with partners (Fehr et al. 2008; Güroğlu et al. 2009; Lucas et al. 2008). Thus, TD children may offer nearly half of a valued resource in the Ultimatum Game because they can represent the perspective of the responder and are aware that a lower offer may be construed as “unfair”. In support of this reasoning, TD children with superior ToM skills make higher mean offers and are more likely to reject unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game (Castelli et al. 2010; Takagishi et al. 2010, 2014). Taken together, this evidence suggests that TD children’s preference for sharing fairly in resource-exchange tasks is driven by sensitivity to social norms and awareness of others’ perspectives.
If the development of equal sharing is underpinned by social norms and awareness of others’ mental states, we may expect to observe qualitative differences in ASD. Children with ASD show diminished social motivation and experience difficulties interacting with others (APA 2013; Chevallier et al. 2012). Compared with TD children, those with ASD spend less time engaged in social interactions with peers (Bauminger et al. 2008), are less likely to collaborate (Aldridge et al. 2000; Carpenter et al. 2001; van Ommeren et al. 2012), and are less likely to reciprocate in naturalistic interactions (Channon et al. 2001; Hadwin et al. 1997; Wimpory et al. 2007; Joseph and Tager-Flusberg 2004; Klin et al. 2006; Ozonoff and Miller 1995). It is also widely acknowledged that children with ASD have fundamental impairments in intention reading and ToM (Baron-Cohen 1995; Baron-Cohen et al. 1997; Charman et al. 1997; D’Entremont and Yazbek 2007; Griffin 2002; Hartley and Allen 2014, 2015; Hobson 2002; Mundy and Willoughby 1996; Preissler and Carey 2005). These deficits result in reduced understanding and consideration of others’ psychological states both separately and in relation to one’s own interests. Theoretically, it is possible that these social-cognitive difficulties impact children’s preferences for fairness and reciprocity when sharing resources. Indeed, it may be that sharing in children with ASD is primarily motivated by instrumental outcomes, and is influenced less by the behaviours and mental states of social partners (Schmitz et al. 2015).
To date, few studies have investigated the sharing behaviour of children with ASD using resource-exchange tasks. In Sally and Hill (2006), high-functioning children with ASD aged 6–15 years played computerised versions of the Ultimatum and Dictator Games, in which ‘points’ served as proxies for real resources. While children with ASD made similar offers to TD controls in the Dictator Game, the groups diverged in the more strategic Ultimatum Game. Whereas most TD children shared the resource equally, many children with ASD—particularly those who failed a false belief test—tended to offer one or zero points (out of ten). Furthermore, when offered 30% or less of the total stake, children with ASD accepted on approximately 30% of trials, whereas TD controls accepted on just 11%. In another study, Schmitz et al. (2015) tested “cognitively able” children with ASD and TD controls aged 9–14 years on a computerised version of the Dictator Game in which they decided how to distribute coins between themselves and an anonymous partner. Crucially, children could choose either an equal distribution (1 point each) or an unequal distribution that benefited either the participant (2 vs 1) or the partner (1 vs 2). Although both populations tended to select the equal split, children with ASD were more likely to select unequal distributions of either type. Recently, in Paulus and Rosal-Grifoll (2016), 3–6 year old children with ASD and TD controls matched on non-verbal ability were tasked with sharing resources with partners that were rich or poor. Unlike TD children who consistently split the resources equally between parties, children with ASD allocated most of the resources to the other recipients and kept relatively little for themselves. The findings from these three studies suggest that children with ASD have a diminished aversion to inequity and are less concerned about their own gains. Furthermore, their sharing tends to maximize resources across parties, accommodating both advantageous and disadvantageous inequality.
Atypical sharing behaviour and weaker preferences for equality could have important implications for children’s social relationships. Specifically, these characteristics may place children with ASD at increased risk of bullying. Recent estimates suggest that up to 87% of children with ASD are bullied every week or month, placing them at significantly higher risk than TD children (Cappadocia et al. 2012; Wainscot et al. 2008). Due to their socially incongruent behaviour and difficulties conforming to social norms, children with ASD are often perceived as ‘different’ by their peers (Humphrey and Lewis 2008; van Roekel et al. 2010). This can impact their ability to develop friendships (Bauminger and Kasari 2000; Chamberlain et al. 2007), leading to feelings of isolation and increasing the likelihood of victimisation (Bauminger et al. 2003; Hodges et al. 1999; Humphrey and Symes 2011). If children with ASD are more receptive to unfair social behaviour and less concerned about their personal gain, this could significantly increase their risk of exploitation or manipulation.
The objective of this study was to explore the sharing behaviour of children with ASD and language-matched TD controls via age-appropriate versions of the Ultimatum Game and Dictator Game. In doing so, we advance the literature in three important ways. Firstly, prior studies have relied upon computer-based tasks that involve sharing “virtual resources” with hypothetical or inanimate partners. Lucas et al. (2008) point out that children may not understand that points represent commodities, and may behave differently when required to share tangible rewards with real partners. Thus, we increased the stakes of sharing by endowing children with attractive stickers (a valued resource often used to reward and reinforce positive behaviour in both populations), and instructing them to share with a pseudo-animate partner (a puppet) in a face-to-face context. Secondly, we explored how children’s offers are influenced by the offers of their partner. Previous studies document children’s offers and responses, but do not test the extent to which children with ASD reciprocate fair or unfair offers. Exploring this behaviour will provide an indication of children’s sensitivity to the fairness norm and their ability to adapt to others’ behaviour. Thirdly, the rationale underpinning the sharing behaviours of children with ASD is currently unknown. We shed light on this motivation by recording and analysing children’s verbal justifications of their offers and responses when resources are distributed. In addition, we conducted an ‘unexpected contents’ false belief task to establish whether ToM relates to sharing behaviour. Based on previous resource exchange studies (Sally and Hill 2006; Schmitz et al. 2015) and evidence of reduced social reciprocity (e.g. Klin et al. 2006), we expected to observe a diminished preference for equality, reduced reciprocation of fair offers, and fewer verbal references to “fairness” in children with ASD. In comparison to previous studies, we anticipated that the increasingly social context and real-life rewards may heighten self-interest in the ASD group.
Participants were 15 verbal children with ASD (13 male; M age = 9.2 years, range 7.1–11.1 years) and 18 TD children (12 male; M age = 4.3 years, range 3–6.1 years) recruited from two specialist schools and one mainstream school in Cheshire, UK. As cognitive development in ASD is often delayed relative to chronological age (Anderson et al. 2009), we adopted Sally and Hill’s (2006) approach of matching samples on language comprehension rather than chronological age (allowing us to assume with reasonable confidence that participants in both groups could understand the task). Samples were closely matched on receptive vocabulary as measured by the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS; ASD: M age equivalent: 5.1 years, SD: 1.67; TD: M age equivalent: 4.83 years, SD: 1.59; Dunn et al. 1997). As every child with ASD had delayed linguistic development in comparison to their chronological age, our sample is representative of a significant proportion of the clinical population (Anderson et al. 2007). All children with ASD were diagnosed by a qualified educational or clinical psychologist, using standardised instruments (i.e. Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale and Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised; Lord et al. 2002, 1994) and expert judgement. Diagnoses were confirmed via the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS; Schopler et al. 1980), which was completed by each participant’s class teacher (ASD: M score = 31.78; TD: M score = 15.42). Children with ASD were significantly older (t(31) = 13.24, p < .001, d = 4.52), and had significantly higher CARS scores (t(31) = 8.48, p < .001, d = 3.7) than the TD children. The study was approved by the Lancaster University Ethics Committee, and informed consent was obtained from children’s caregivers prior to their involvement in the research.
Following Lucas et al. (2008), brightly-coloured stickers were used as trading items in the Ultimatum and Dictator Games as they are desirable and often used as positive reinforcers. Every child was presented with eight sets of eight stickers (one set per trial of each game). The sticker sets were different from one another in order to maintain interest and motivation throughout each game (e.g. smiley faces, animals, stars etc). However, within a set, stickers were thematically similar (e.g. differently coloured stars) to reduce the likelihood that children would develop strong preferences for individual stickers that would impact their willingness to trade. In line with previous studies of this nature, children interacted with a human-looking hand puppet that matched their gender (“Jack” or “Jill”) during the experimental tasks (e.g. Kanngiesser and Hood 2014). Children were unlikely to view the puppet as an authority figure, meaning their trading decisions would not be influenced by unequal status.
For the Unexpected Contents Task, a Smarties tube was emptied and filled with small colouring pencils. Three pictures were created to facilitate the responding of children with ASD if necessary (depicting a tube of Smarties, colouring pencils, and a rainbow).
Participants were tested individually in their own schools and were accompanied by a familiar adult. Children were verbally praised for attention and good behaviour. Participants completed three test sessions on different days. Session 1 consisted of the BPVS. Session 2 involved the Ultimatum or Dictator Game (counterbalanced across participants). Session 3 involved either the Ultimatum or Dictator Game (whichever was not played in Session 2) followed by the Unexpected Contents Task.
The Ultimatum Game consists of two roles: proposer and responder. The roles alternated between the child and puppet over four trials (e.g. the child was the proposer for trials 1 and 3). Half of the participants started in the proposer role, while the other half started in the responder role. When in the proposer role, the child was given eight stickers (per trial) and instructed to give some to the puppet, with a one sticker minimum offer. If the puppet accepted the offer, the stickers were divided as proposed. If the puppet rejected, neither player received any stickers. When in the responder role, the child accepted or rejected an offer from the puppet. Acceptance lead to both parties receiving stickers while rejection meant neither party received any stickers. The puppet offered one sticker (unfair offer) on one trial and four stickers (fair offer) on another trial (order randomly predetermined). The puppet accepted one of the child’s offers and rejected the other (order randomly predetermined). After making their offers, children were asked why they had made this decision (“Why did you give Jack that number of stickers?”). They were also asked how they felt about each of the puppet’s offers (“Do you want that many stickers? Why?”).
This game followed the same procedure as the Ultimatum Game, except the responder was unable to reject the proposer’s offer. The proposer role alternated between the child and puppet over four trials (e.g. the child was the proposer for trials 1 and 3). Half of the participants started in the proposer role, while the other half received the puppet’s offer first. As the proposer, children were given eight stickers (on each trial) and instructed to give some to the puppet, with a one sticker minimum offer. They were informed that the puppet had to accept their offer (e.g. “Jack has to take the number of stickers you give him”). The puppet offered 1 sticker (unfair offer) on one trial and four stickers (fair offer) on another trial (order randomly predetermined). Children were asked to explain their offers, and describe how they felt about the puppet’s offers.
Unexpected Contents Task
The puppet was hidden from view at the start of this task (they were “sleepy and needed a nap”). Children were shown a Smarties tube and asked what they thought was inside. The tube was opened to reveal small coloured pencils instead of Smarties. The pencils were placed back inside the Smarties tube and the puppet “woke up”. Children were then asked three questions in a random order: (a) “what does Jack/Jill think is inside?”, (b) “what did you think was inside when you first saw it?”, and (c) “what is really inside?” (a memory check to identify children who were guessing or did not understand). Children with ASD who had limited expressive language responded to each question by pointing to one of three colour pictures depicting a tube of Smarties, colour pencils, and a rainbow (to control for guessing).
When children were in the proposer role, we recorded the number of stickers they offered the puppet on each trial. In the Ultimatum Game we recorded whether children accepted or rejected each of the puppet’s offers and we also recorded children’s verbal comments in both games.
On average, children with ASD offered 2.93 (SD: 1.22; 36.63% of the total stake) stickers on their first turn in the proposer role, and 3.53 (SD: 1.77; 44.13%) stickers on their second turn. By comparison, TD children offered 3.72 (SD: 2.22; 46.5%) stickers on their first turn as proposer, and 3.06 (SD: 1.39; 38.25%) on the second. These data were entered into a two (population: TD, ASD) × 2 (offer: first, second) mixed ANOVA, which revealed no significant effects. Thus, an ASD diagnosis did not significantly impact first or second offers made by children in the Ultimatum Game.
We then tested whether children’s offers were influenced by their starting role: proposer or responder. Data from each population were entered into a 2 (order: child first, puppet first) × 2 (offer: first offer, second offer) mixed ANOVA. These analyses revealed no effects, suggesting that neither group’s offers were influenced by whether the participant started in the proposer or responder role. To assess whether the populations differed when making initial offers without a prior cue (e.g. a preceding offer from the puppet) we conducted an independent samples t test. The results confirmed that the first offers of TD children and children with ASD who started in the proposer role did not significantly differ in the Ultimatum Game.
While the analyses of children’s numerical offers have not revealed any significant differences between populations, it is important to note that they do not consider the influence of the puppet’s behaviour. Reciprocity is a vital aspect of sharing and we were interested to discover whether the fairness of children’s offers was influenced by the fairness of the puppet’s offers. When the puppet made a fair offer, TD children responded with a fair offer 93% of the time, or an offer that favoured themselves 7% of the time. When the puppet made an unfair offer, TD children responded with a fair offer 36% of the time, an offer that favoured themselves 64% of the time, and never made offers that favoured the puppet. Thus, the offers of TD children appear to be strongly mediated by the puppet’s behaviour; when they received a fair or unfair offer, they responded in kind on nearly 80% of trials. When children with ASD received a fair offer from the puppet, they responded with a fair offer 56% of the time, or an offer that favoured themselves 44% of the time. When the puppet made an unfair offer, children with ASD responded with a fair offer 25% of the time, an offer that favoured themselves 42% of the time, and an offer that favoured the puppet 33% of the time. These frequencies suggest that the children with ASD were less likely to reciprocate the puppet’s actions compared to TD children; they reciprocated fair and unfair offers just 49% of the time.
We tested whether children with ASD were statistically less likely to reciprocate the puppet’s offers in the Ultimatum Game via a generalized linear mixed-effects model (GLMM). The analysis modelled the probability (log odds) of children reciprocating the puppet’s offer (yes/no), considering variation across participants (random intercepts), fixed effects of population (ASD/TD) and puppet’s offer (fair/unfair), plus the interaction between these variables. We conducted a sequence of GLMMs, entering fixed effects simultaneously. Model 1 was a “null model” containing only the random effect of participant ID. Model 2 added main effects of population and puppet’s offer. Model 3 then added the population × puppet’s offer interaction. We evaluated the relative utility of each increasingly-complex model using likelihood ratio tests. These indicated that inclusion of the main effects in Model 2 yielded a significant improvement in fit over the null model, χ2 (2) = 8.16, p = .017. Adding the interaction afforded no further improvement. Therefore, Model 2 provides the best fitting explanation of the observed data (see Table 1). In support of our hypotheses, the results show that children with ASD were significantly less likely than TD controls to reciprocate the puppet’s offers in the Ultimatum Game (49% vs 78.5%). However, across populations, there was no difference in reciprocation rates for fair or unfair offers made by the puppet.
Next, we explored how children responded to the puppet’s fair and unfair offers. For each population, the relationship between the puppet’s offers (fair offer, unfair offer) and children’s responding (accept, reject) was measured via a McNemar test. The responses of TD children were significantly mediated by the fairness of the puppet’s offer, p < .001. They accepted 94% of fair offers and 11% of unfair offers made by the puppet. The responses of children with ASD were also mediated by the fairness of the puppet’s offer, p = .016. They accepted 100% of fair offers and 40% of unfair offers. These data suggest that both groups were overwhelmingly biased towards accepting the puppet’s offer of four stickers (likely recognising it as fair), but the children with ASD were nearly 30% more likely than the TD children to accept the puppet’s unfair offer of one sticker. The significance of this difference was tested by examining the relationship between population (TD, ASD) and children’s responding (accept, reject) to fair and unfair offers separately. For unfair offers, a chi square test of independence revealed a borderline relationship, χ2 (1, N = 33) = 3.72, p = .054, φ = .34, suggesting that children’s responding was mediated by their diagnostic group. By contrast, there was no relationship between population and children’s responding to fair offers. These results suggest that the two populations have similar sensitivity and response patterns when a partner shares fairly, but their reactions differ when a partner shares unfairly.
On average, children with ASD offered 2.87 (SD: 1.55; 35.88% of the total stake) stickers on their first turn in the proposer role, and 2.67 (SD: 1.4; 33.38%) stickers on their second turn. By contrast, TD children offered 2.44 (SD: 1.25; 30.5%) stickers on their first turn as proposer, and 3.06 (SD: 1.31; 38.25%) on the second. As for the Ultimatum Game, a 2 (population: TD, ASD) × 2 (offer: first, second) mixed ANOVA revealed no main effects or interaction, indicating no significant differences between the first and second offers of either group. Similarly, a pair of 2 (order: child first, puppet first) × 2 (offer: first offer, second offer) mixed ANOVAs demonstrated that neither group was influenced by starting role when making offers in the Dictator Game. We then examined whether the populations differed when making initial offers without a prior cue (e.g. a preceding offer from the puppet). The results of the independent samples t test indicated that the first offers of TD children and children with ASD who started in the proposer role did not significantly differ in the Dictator Game.
As above, we examined the reciprocity of children’s offers. When the puppet made a fair offer, TD children responded with a fair offer 75% of the time, an offer that favoured themselves 19% of the time, or an offer that favoured the puppet 6% of the time. When the puppet made an unfair offer, TD children responded with an offer that favoured themselves 100% of the time. As in the Ultimatum Game, the offers of TD children were apparently influenced by the puppet’s behaviour; they reciprocated fair and unfair offers on 84% of trials. Opposite to the Ultimatum Game, TD children were 25% more likely to reciprocate unfair offers than fair offers. For children with ASD, when the puppet made a fair offer, they responded with a fair offer 50% of the time, an offer that favoured themselves 40% of the time, or an offer that favoured the puppet 10% of the time. When the puppet made an unfair offer, children with ASD responded with a fair offer 10% of the time, an offer that favoured themselves 80% of the time, and an offer that favoured the puppet 10% of the time. Thus, children with ASD reciprocated the puppet’s offers on 65% of trials overall.
A GLMM was constructed to test whether children with ASD were statistically less likely to reciprocate the puppet’s offers in the Dictator Game. The analysis modelled the probability (log odds) of children reciprocating the puppet’s offer (yes/no), considering variation across participants (random intercepts), fixed effects of population (ASD/TD) and puppet’s offer (fair/unfair), plus the interaction between these variables. We conducted a sequence of GLMMs, entering fixed effects simultaneously. Model 1 was a “null model” containing only the random effect of participant ID. Model 2 added main effects of population and puppet’s offer. Model 3 then added the population × puppet’s offer interaction. Likelihood ratio tests were conducted to assess the relative utility of each model. These showed that inclusion of the main effects in Model 2 yielded a significant improvement in fit over the null model, χ2 (2) = 8.47, p = .015. Adding the interaction afforded no further improvement. Therefore, Model 2 provides the best fitting explanation of the observed data (see Table 2).
The results revealed a borderline effect of population, suggesting that children with ASD tended to reciprocate the puppet’s fair and unfair offers less frequently. There was also a highly-significant effect of puppet’s offer; across populations, children were significantly more likely to reciprocate unfair offers (90%) than fair offers (62.5%). Viewed alongside the opposing trend in the Ultimatum Game (74% fair vs 53% unfair), these results suggest that children moderated their reciprocity strategically overall. That is, they were more likely to reciprocate fair or unfair sharing depending on whether selfish behaviour could, or could not, be penalised by the responder. However, in contrast to this general trend, there was very little difference between reciprocation rates for fair offers by children with ASD in the Dictator Game and Ultimatum Game (50% vs 56%).
Ultimatum Game Versus Dictator Game
We assessed children’s strategic resource allocation by making direct comparisons between offers on the Ultimatum and Dictator Games. We began by testing the interaction between diagnosis and game type by entering children’s offers into a 2 (population: TD, ASD) × 2 (game: ultimatum, dictator) × 2 (offer: first, second) mixed ANOVA. There was a significant main effect of game, F(1, 31) = 8.58, MSE = 1.17, p = .006, ηp2 = .22, indicating that both TD children and children with ASD made larger average offers in the Ultimatum Game (ASD M: 3.31; TD M: 3.39) than in the Dictator Game (ASD M: 2.77; TD M: 2.75). These results show that both populations adjusted the size of their offers in accord with the different game rules. There was also a significant population × game × offer interaction, F(1, 31) = 6.37, MSE = 1.39, p = .017, ηp2 = .17. To establish the cause of the three-way interaction, separate 2 (game) × 2 (offer) repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted on the data for each population. For children with ASD, there was a significant main effect of game, F(1, 14) = 5.91, MSE = 0.55, p = .029, ηp2 = .3, confirming that offers in the Ultimatum Game were greater than offers in the Dictator Game. There was no effect of offer and no interaction. For TD children, a significant main effect of game was qualified by a significant game × offer interaction, F(1, 17) = 4.4, MSE = 1.67, p = .05, ηp2 = .21, which was explored via a series of Bonferroni-adjusted pairwise tests. First offers in the Ultimatum Game (M: 3.72) were significantly larger than first offers in the Dictator Game (M: 2.44), t(17) = 2.36, p = .03, d = .59. The difference between second offers was not significant, nor were the differences between first and second offers within either the Ultimatum Game or Dictator Game.
The verbal responses provided by participants during the Ultimatum and Dictator Games were transcribed and a coding scheme was developed. Children’s comments were first categorised based on context [(1) following their offer, (2) in response to a fair offer from the puppet, (3) in response to an unfair offer from the puppet] and then allocated to a sub-category based on their content (see Table 3). The purpose of this coding system was to identify whether children with ASD and TD children differ in how they justify their behaviour in different situations (e.g. by explicitly referring to fairness at different frequencies). Every comment was coded by the second experimenter and an independent rater with relevant expertise. The second rater was blind to the objectives of the study and the details of each child (e.g. their age, population, background scores). Reliability of the coding categories for each context was assessed via Cohen’s Kappa, which was calculated based on the two raters’ categorical classifications. High inter-rater reliability was achieved for all contexts (following child’s offer: κ = .88, p < .01; response to fair offer: κ = 1.00, p < .01; response to unfair offer: κ = .86, p < .01). Disagreements in classifications were resolved by consensus between the two raters.
Frequencies of response types made by TD children and children with ASD are shown in Table 4. Chi square tests of independence showed that response types in each context were not mediated by population [following child’s offer: χ2 (3, N = 64) = 2.30, p = .51; response to fair offer: χ2 (2, N = 66) = .90, p = .64; response to unfair offer: χ2 (2, N = 66) = 3.58, p = .17].
All children correctly answered the memory check correctly (“what is really inside [the Smarties tub]?”). Children scored 0–2 based on how many Theory of Mind questions they answered correctly. Mean scores for the children with ASD and TD children were 0.59 and 1.33 respectively, a significant difference, t(31) = 2.34, p = .026, d = .82. It is noteworthy that 65% of the ASD group answered both Theory of Mind questions incorrectly (compared with 28% of the TD group), indicating their difficulty understanding their own and others’ mental states.
The influence of children’s Theory of Mind task performance on their offers in the Ultimatum/Dictator Games was examined. Children were assigned to a ‘fail’ category if they answered both unexpected contents test questions incorrectly or a ‘pass’ category if they answered at least one test question correctly (further sub-dividing participants based on one or two correct answers would have resulted in insufficient sample sizes). Children’s offers in the Ultimatum Game and Dictator Game were entered into a pair of 2 (population: TD, ASD) × 2 (Theory of Mind: pass, fail) × 2 (offer: first, second) mixed ANOVAs. The analysis for the Ultimatum Game revealed a significant Theory of Mind × offer interaction, F(1, 29) = 4.78, MSE = 2.42, p = .037, ηp2 = .14, which was explored using Bonferroni-adjusted pairwise tests. Children who failed both Theory of Mind test questions made significantly smaller first offers (M = 2.57) than those who passed at least one (M = 3.95), t(31) = 2.24, p = .032, d = .82. However, the second offers made by the pass and fail groups did not differ. The ‘fail’ group showed an almost-significant tendency to make larger second offers (M = 3.64) than first offers (M = 2.57), t(13) = 2.03, p = .06, d = .55, while the ‘pass’ group showed a non-significant trend in the opposite direction (first offer M = 3.95; second offer M = 3.00; t(18) = 1.8, p = .09, d = .42). No other main effects or interactions were significant.
The analysis for the Dictator Game revealed no main effects or interactions. Taken together, these findings indicate that Theory of Mind (rather than ASD) influences children’s opening offers in the Ultimatum Game, but not the relatively less strategic Dictator Game.
This study compared how children with ASD and language-matched TD controls shared resources in age-appropriate versions of the Ultimatum Game and Dictator Game. In contrast to previous ASD research, children were required to share real stickers—a tangible and desirable commodity—with an interactive partner in a face-to-face context. In addition to measuring their offers and responses, we also examined children’s tendency to reciprocate the puppet’s behaviour, and recorded their qualitative comments in a variety of situations. The results revealed many similarities in the way that TD children and children with ASD played the resource exchange games; both groups indicated a preference for equality over self-interest when making offers, they offered more stickers in the Ultimatum Game than the Dictator Game, and they explicitly referred to ‘fairness’ at similar rates. However, we observed important between-group differences in reciprocity that suggest ASD impacts children’s ability to modify their sharing based on others’ behaviour.
When required to share stickers with a partner, Lucas et al. (2008) found that TD children aged 4–5 years demonstrated a preference for equality by offering 47% of their stake in the Ultimatum Game and 40% in the Dictator Game. In the present study, TD children aged 3–6 years offered 42% of their stake in the Ultimatum Game and 34% in the Dictator Game. Surprisingly, children with ASD made very similar average offers of 40% and 35% in the Ultimatum and Dictator Games respectively. The two groups also explicitly commented about fairness at similar rates when making and responding to offers. These results support those of Sally and Hill (2006) and oppose the theory that sharing in ASD is increasingly governed by self-interest. Thus, despite the natural desire to retain one’s own material possessions, the offers of TD children and children with ASD do not align with the economic model of rational self-interest (Camerer 2003).
Many studies have posited that fair and reciprocal sharing is underpinned by the ability to represent and understand others’ intentions, emotions, and perspectives (Brownell et al. 2013; Castelli et al. 2014; Lucas et al. 2008; Schelling 1960). Although many children in the ASD group showed impaired ToM (65% failed both questions in the false belief task), this deficit did not influence the average value of their offers. Our results showed that children across both populations who failed both false belief questions tended to make significantly smaller first offers in the Ultimatum Game than peers who answered at least one question correctly. This may suggest that children who are yet to develop ToM are less concerned about making a positive impression at the start of the interaction that would establish their reputation as a good social partner. By contrast, children with more sophisticated understanding of mental states may be increasingly mindful that acting in their partner’s interests is likely to promote a cooperative and cohesive interaction.
Although the average offer values did not differ between populations, we observed several important indicators that ASD affects children’s ability to evaluate the fairness of others’ sharing behaviours and to reciprocate accordingly. While both groups were heavily biased towards accepting the puppet’s fair offers in the Ultimatum Game, children with ASD were almost 30% more likely than TD children to accept unfair offers. This finding replicates Sally and Hill (2006), and aligns with previous observations that children with ASD prefer resource allocations that maximise benefits across parties (Schmitz et al. 2015). One explanation for this behaviour is that deficits in social-cognition (e.g. Chevallier et al. 2012) cause children with ASD to be less concerned about defending norms associated with reciprocal and cooperative interaction. Consequently, these children might be increasingly motivated by instrumental outcomes, irrespective of whether they are personally advantaged or disadvantaged (Paulus and Rosal-Grifoll 2016; Schmitz et al. 2015). To a child with ASD, accepting an unfair offer may be favourable because it yields a greater physical reward than rejection. Thus, the responses of children with ASD indicate an approach to sharing that is characterized by reduced interest in social-relational outcomes and diminished aversion to inequity. By contrast, TD individuals almost always reject unfair offers because of their strong preference for equality and their desire to establish a mutually-beneficial and cooperative relationship (Fehr and Gachter 2002; Hoffman et al. 2008; Lucas et al. 2008).
Intriguingly, in the Ultimatum Game, children with ASD were 37% less likely to reciprocate fair offers and 22% less likely to reciprocate unfair offers. This significant between-population difference clearly indicates that children with ASD did not adapt their behaviour in accordance with the puppet’s. Children with ASD also showed reduced reciprocation in the Dictator Game, and both groups were significantly more likely to reciprocate unfair offers than fair offers in this context. It would appear that both groups realised that the power imbalance enabled them to reciprocate self-interest oriented behaviour without fear of consequence. By contrast, both groups were more hesitant to reciprocate unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game, presumably recognising that the partner still needed to be appeased (despite their selfish behaviour) in order to gain stickers. In this more socially-strategic context, TD children reciprocated 93% of the puppet’s fair offers, clearly indicating their adherence to the cultural norm of fairness and their concern for keeping the puppet “onside”. By contrast, children with ASD demonstrated much lower, and highly similar, reciprocation rates for fair offers in both the Ultimatum Game (56%) and Dictator Game (50%). This striking finding highlights an interesting conundrum: children with ASD may possess and exercise an explicit notion of fairness (as indicated by their offer values and comments), yet it does not appear to be informed by others’ prosocial behaviour.
While children with ASD may learn a ‘fairness heuristic’ that generally privileges equality (Sally and Hill 2006), we propose that fundamental deficits in social-cognition and interaction may diminish the perceived importance of reciprocal fairness. This is epitomised by their failure to recognise the strategic importance of reciprocal fair sharing in the Ultimatum Game. It is theorised that TD children’s inclination to reciprocate fair behaviour serves to promote cooperation, social cohesion, and foster mutually beneficial relationships (Hoffman et al. 2008). These positive interpersonal outcomes may be less important to children with ASD due to their reduced social motivation and impaired ability to represent others’ mental states (Baron-Cohen 1995; Chevallier et al. 2012). Alternatively, differences in reciprocity when sharing may be related to impaired self-understanding in ASD (Frith 2003; Lind 2010). Typically, as a child’s understanding of the self develops, so too does their understanding of others (Moore 2007). Children with greater self-understanding may be better able to reflect and act on the needs of others by drawing comparisons with their own situation and experiences (Brownell et al. 2013). However, deficits in self-concept development are well-documented in ASD, including atypical use of first person pronouns (Jordan 1996; Lee et al. 1994; Lind and Bowler 2009), reduced understanding of emotions (Ben Shalom et al. 2006; Hill et al. 2004; Silani et al. 2008; Williams and Happé 2010), and impoverished memory for personal facts and events (Bruck et al. 2007; Goddard et al. 2007). Consequently, these impairments in self-understanding may inhibit children’s ability to behave reciprocally in a dynamic sharing interaction. Future research is required to tease apart these theoretical explanations.
Importantly, reduced reciprocity and decreased inequality aversion when sharing could severely impact children’s ability to navigate the social world. The formation and maintenance of positive social relationships requires interpersonal reciprocity (Adamson et al. 2010; Hoffman et al. 2008), and failure to return prosocial behaviour could elicit negative affect in peers and lead to marginalization (Fehr and Gachter 2002; de Quervain et al. 2004). Furthermore, difficulties communicating and understanding others’ mental states may reduce the ability of children with ASD to identify or appraise social feedback indicating how their behaviour is being perceived (Schroeder et al. 2014). These deficits may inhibit the ability of children with ASD to make friends (Bauminger et al. 2008), which in turn exacerbates their vulnerability to bullying (van Roekel et al. 2010). Worryingly, our results suggest that children with ASD might be particularly susceptible to bullies exploiting their lower concern for personal gain and their increased tolerance of unfair behaviour. Moreover, their social naivety and impaired understanding of others’ intentions may inhibit children with ASD from even recognizing when they are being bullied or unfairly manipulated (Sofronoff et al. 2011; van Roekel et al. 2010). These issues may be particularly prominent for children with delayed language development, such as those tested in our study (Zablotsky et al. 2014). We advocate that anti-bullying interventions address these risks by explicitly teaching children the importance of reciprocating prosocial actions, highlighting cues that indicate they are being treated unfairly, teaching prevention strategies, and role-playing good sharing behaviours (Humprhey and Hebron 2015; Sofronoff et al. 2011).
Of course, we must address the limitations of this study. Firstly, it is possible that the observed between-population differences were related to general limitations in cognitive functioning in the ASD sample, or differences in sharing experience associated with chronological age (the ASD group were significantly older than the TD controls). We acknowledge that including a sample of children with delayed intellectual development matched to children with ASD on non-verbal intelligence and chronological age would have eliminated this issue. However, this limitation may be mitigated by (a) the fact that our TD participants responded similarly to TD adults in previous studies (e.g. they offered approximately 40% of the stake in the Ultimatum Game, and made significantly lower offers in the Dictator Game; Camerer 2003), indicating maturity in how they approached the two tasks, (b) TD children’s offers in the Ultimatum and Dictator Games are not influenced by variability in non-verbal intelligence (Han et al. 2012), and (c) offers made by young adults with Down Syndrome, another population with general intellectual difficulties, do not statistically differ from those of TD controls in the Ultimatum Game (Rêgo et al. 2017). Secondly, the Ultimatum and Dictator Games directly encouraged children to share their endowed property with the puppet. It is possible that children with ASD may behave differently in naturalistic social situations that lack the structure and scaffolding of our experimental tasks, or when required to share different kinds of resources (e.g. attachment objects, food, etc). Thus, it would be very interesting to systematically investigate spontaneous sharing in children with ASD and the conditions that are necessary to promote this behaviour in naturalistic contexts (see Brownell et al. 2013). It would also be valuable to explore how differences in sharing behaviour in ASD directly relate to friendship building and bullying. Thirdly, we acknowledge that children’s behaviour within and across games may have been influenced by their relatively unique history with the puppet. The counterbalanced nature of turn orders within games coupled with the puppet’s randomised responses (irrespective of offer fairness) meant that the nature of the interaction varied across participants. Indeed, children’s behaviour in the second game may have been influenced from the outset by the puppet’s actions in game one. Although we have examined the relationship between the child’s and puppet’s behaviour in our reciprocation analyses, much larger sample sizes would be required to identify how each variation of the interaction reliably impacts children’s behaviour.
In summary, our study has shown that children with ASD and TD children offered similar numbers of stickers to a puppet in age-appropriate versions of the classic Dictator and Ultimatum Games. Both groups showed willingness to share equally and neither prioritised self-interest. However, children with ASD were significantly less likely to reciprocate the puppet’s offers (especially in the Ultimatum Game). In naturalistic contexts, failure to reciprocate fair sharing may significantly impact on social cohesion and children’s ability to build relationships (particularly in contexts that depend on the goodwill of a partner). Children with ASD were also much more likely to accept unfair offers, indicating reduced aversion to inequality. We propose that these important differences in sharing behaviour may be linked to broader deficits in social-cognitive development and potentially self-other understanding. These findings inform wider understanding of social interaction deficits that characterise ASD and further specify the nature of their difficulties related to sharing in dynamic social interactions.
Adamson, L. B., Deckner, D. F., & Bakeman, R. (2010). Early interests and joint engagement in typical development, autism, and down syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40(6), 665–676. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0914-1.
Aldridge, M. A., Stone, K. R., Sweeney, M. H., & Bower, T. G. R. (2000). Preverbal children with autism understand the intentions of others. Developmental Science, 3, 294–301. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7687.00123.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental health disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Anderson, D. K., Lord, C., Risi, S., DiLavore, P. S., Shulman, C., Thurm, A., et al. (2007). Patterns of growth in verbal abilities among children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75, 594–604. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.75.4.594.
Anderson, D. K., Oti, R. S., Lord, C., & Welch, K. (2009). Patterns of growth in adaptive social abilities among children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37, 1019–1034. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-009-9326-0.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Baron-Cohen, S., Baldwin, D. A., & Crowson, M. (1997). Do children with autism use the speaker’s direction of gaze strategy to crack the code of language? Child Development, 68, 48–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131924.
Bauminger, N., & Kasari, C. (2000). Loneliness and friendship in high-functioning children with autism. Child Development, 71(2), 447–456. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00156.
Bauminger, N., Schulman, C., & Agam, G. (2003). Peer interaction and loneliness in high-functioning children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33(5), 489–507.
Bauminger, N., Solomon, M., Aviezer, A., Heung, K., Gazit, L., Brown, J., & Rogers, S. J. (2008). Children with autism and their friends: A multidimensional study of friendship in high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36(2), 135–150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9156-x.
Ben Shalom, D., Mostofsky, S. H., Hazlett, R. L., Goldberg, M. C., Landa, R. J., Faran, Y., et al. (2006). Normal physiological emotions but differences in expression of conscious feelings in children with high-functioning autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 395–400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0077-2.
Brownell, C. A., Iesue, S. S., Nichols, S. R., & Svetlova, M. (2013). Mine of yours? Development of sharing in toddlers in relation to ownership understanding. Child Development, 84, 906–920.
Bruck, M., London, K., Landa, R., & Goodman, J. (2007). Autobiographical memory and suggestibility in children with autism spectrum disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 73–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579407070058.
Camerer, C. F. (2003). Behavioral game theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Cappadocia, M. C., Weiss, J. A., & Pepler, D. (2012). Bullying experiences among children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 266–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1241-x.
Carpenter, M., Pennington, B. F., & Rogers, S. J. (2001). Understanding of others’ intentions in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31, 589–599.
Castelli, I., Massaro, D., Sanfey, A. G., & Marchetti, A. (2010). Fairness and intentionality in children’s decision-making. International Review of Economics, 57, 269–288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-010-0101-x.
Castelli, I., Massaro, D., Sanfey, A. G., & Marchetti, A. (2014). What is fair for you?” Judgements and decisions about fairness and theory of mind. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 11, 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2013.806264.
Chamberlain, B., Kasari, C., & Rotheram-Fuller, E. (2007). Involvement or isolation? The social networks of children with autism in regular classrooms. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 230–242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0164-4.
Channon, S., Charman, T., Heap, J., Crawford, S., & Rios, P. (2001). Real-life-type problem-solving in Asperger’s syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31, 461–469. https://doi.org/10.1097/00146965-200303000-00002.
Charman, T., Swettenham, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Cox, A., Baird, G., & Drew, A. (1997). Infants with autism: An investigation of empathy, pretend play, joint attention, and imitation. Developmental Psychology, 33, 781–789. https://doi.org/10.1037//0012-1622.214.171.1241.
Chevallier, C., Kohls, G., Troiani, V., Brodkin, E. S., & Schultz, R. T. (2012). The social motivation theory of autism. Trends in Cognitive Science, 16, 231–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.02.007.
D’Entremont, B., & Yazbek, A. (2007). Imitation of intentional and accidental actions by children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 1665–7816. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0291-y.
Dawson, G., Toth, K., Abbott, R., Osterling, J., Munson, J., Estes, A., & Liaw, J. (2004). Early social attention impairments in autism: Social orienting, joint attention, and attention to distress. Developmental Psychology, 40(2), 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-16126.96.36.1991.
de Quervain, D., Fischbacher, U., Treyer, V., Schellhammer, M., Schnyder, U., Buck, A., & Fehr, E. (2004). The neural basis of altruistic punishment. Science, 305, 1254–1258. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1100735.
Dunbar, R. I. (1993). Coevolution of neocortical size, group size, and language in humans. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16, 681–693. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00032325.
Dunn, L. M., Dunn, L. M., Whetton, C., & Burley, J. (1997). The British Picture Vocabulary Scale (2nd ed.) Windsor: NFER-Nelson.
Fehr, E., Bernhard, H., & Rockenbach, B. (2008). Egalitarianism in young children. Nature, 454, 1079–1083. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07155.
Fehr, E., & Gachter, S. (2002). Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature, 415, 137–140. https://doi.org/10.1038/415137a.
Frith, U. (2003). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
Goddard, L., Howlin, P., Dritschel, B., & Patel, T. (2007). Autobiographical memory and social problem-solving in Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 291–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0168-0.
Greene, D. J., Colich, N., Iacoboni, M., Zaidel, E., Bookheimer, S. Y., & Dapretto, M. (2011). Atypical neural networks for social orienting in autism spectrum disorders. NeuroImage, 56(1), 354–362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.02.031.
Griffin, R. (2002). Social learning in the non-social: Imitation, intentions, and autism. Developmental Science, 5(1), 30–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7687.00202.
Güroğlu, B., Van den Bos, W., & Crone, E. A. (2009). Fairness considerations: Increasing understanding of intentionality during adolescence. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104(4), 398–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2009.07.002.
Hadwin, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Howlin, P., & Hill, K. (1997). Does teaching a theory of mind have an effect on social communication in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 27, 519–537.
Han, R., Shi, J., Yong, W., & Wang, W. (2012). Intelligence and prosocial behavior: Do smart children really act nice? Current Psychology, 31, 88–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-012-9133-6.
Hartley, C., & Allen, M. (2014). Intentions vs. resemblance: Understanding pictures in typical development and autism. Cognition, 131, 44–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.12.009.
Hartley, C., & Allen, M. (2015). Is children’s naming and drawing of pictures mediated by representational status? Evidence from typical development and autism. Cognitive Development, 36, 52–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.08.002.
Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., et al. (2005). “Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 795–815. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X05000142.
Hill, E., Berthoz, S., & Frith, U. (2004). Brief report: Cognitive processing of own emotions in individuals with autistic spectrum disorder and in their relatives. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 229–235. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JADD.0000022613.41399.14.
Hobson, R. P. (2002). The cradle of thought. London: Macmillan.
Hodges, E. V. E., Boivin, M., Vitaro, F., & Bukowski, W. M. (1999). The power of friendship: Protection against an escalating cycle of peer victimization. Developmental Psychology, 35, 94–101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-16188.8.131.52.
Hoffman, E., McCabe, K., & Smith, V. (2008). Reciprocity in ultimatum and dictator games: An introduction. In C. Plott & V. Smith (Eds.), Handbook of experimental economics results, (Vol 1, pp. 411–416). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Humphrey, N., & Lewis, S. (2008). ‘Make me normal’: The views and experiences of pupils on the autistic spectrum in mainstream secondary schools. Autism, 12, 23–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361307085267.
Humphrey, N., & Symes, W. (2011). Peer interaction patterns among adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) in mainstream school settings. Autism, 15, 397–419. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361310387804.
Humprhey, N., & Hebron, J. (2015). Bullying of children and adolescents with autism spectrum conditions: A ‘state of the field’ review. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 19, 845–862. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2014.981602.
Jordan, R. R. (1996). Pronouns and autism. International Journal of Psychology, 31, 169–172.
Joseph, R. M., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2004). The relationship of theory of mind and executive functions to symptom type and severity in children with autism. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1017/s095457940404444x.
Kanngiesser, P., & Hood, B. (2014). Young children’s understanding of ownership rights for newly made objects. Cognitive Development, 29, 30–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2013.09.003.
Klin, A., Saulnier, C., Sparrow, S., Cicchetti, D. V., Volkmar, F., & Lord, C. (2006). Social and communication abilities and disabilities in higher functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders: The vineland and the ADOS. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 788–793. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0229-4.
Lee, A., Hobson, R. P., & Chiat, S. (1994). I, you, me, and autism: An experimental study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 155–176. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02172094.
Lind, S. E. (2010). Memory and the self in autism: A review and theoretical framework. Autism, 14, 430–456. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361309358700.
Lind, S. E., & Bowler, D. M. (2009). Recognition memory, self-other source memory, and theory-of-mind in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 1231–1239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0735-2.
LoBue, V., Nishida, T., Chiong, C., DeLoache, J. S., & Haidt, J. (2011). When getting something good is bad: Even 3-year-olds react to inequality. Social Development, 20(1), 154–170. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00560.x.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., DiLavore, P. C., & Risi, S. (2002). Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (WPS edition). Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Le Couteur, A. (1994). Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24(5), 659–685. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02172145.
Lucas, M., Wagner, L., & Chow, C. (2008). Fair game: The intuitive economics of resource exchange in 4-year olds. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 2, 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0099353.
Moore, C. (2007). Understanding self and others in the second year. In C. A. Brownell & C. B. Kopp (Eds.), Socio-emotional development in the toddler years: Transitions and transformations (pp. 43–65). New York: Guilford.
Mundy, P., & Willoughby, J. (1996). Nonverbal communication, joint attention, and social-emotional development. In M. Lewis & M. Sullivan (Eds.), Emotional development in atypical children (pp. 65–87). New York: Wiley.
Ozonoff, S., & Miller, J. N. (1995). Teaching theory of mind: A new approach to social skills training for individuals with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 25, 415–433. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02179376.
Paulus, M., & Rosal-Grifoll, B. (2016). Helping and sharing in preschool children with autism. Experimental Brain Research, 235(7), 2081–2088. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-4947-y.
Preissler, M. A., & Carey, S. (2005). What is the role of intentional inference in word learning? Evidence from autism. Cognition, 97, B13–B23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.01.008.
Rêgo, G. G., Campanhã, C., do Egito, J. H. T., & Boggio, P. S. (2017). Taking it easy when playing ultimatum game with a Down syndrome proposer: Effects on behavior and medial frontal negativity. Social Neuroscience, 12, 530–540. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2016.1195772.
Rigdon, M. L. (2003). Dictator games. In L. Nadel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of cognitive science (pp. 379–382). London: MacMillan.
Sally, D., & Hill, E. (2006). The development of interpersonal strategy: Autism, theory-of-mind, cooperation and fairness. Journal of Economic Psychology, 27, 73–97.
Schelling, T. C. (1960). The strategy of conflict. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Schmitz, E. A., Banerjee, R., Pouw, L. B. C., Stockmann, L., & Rieffe, C. (2015). Better to be equal? Challenges to equality for cognitively able children with autism spectrum disorders in a social decision game. Autism, 19(2), 178–186.
Schopler, E., Reichler, R., DeVellis, R., & Daly, K. (1980). Toward objective classification of childhood autism: Childhood autism rating scale (CARS). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 10, 91–103. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02408436.
Schroeder, J. H., Cappadocia, M. C., Bebko, J. M., Pepler, D. J., & Weiss, J. A. (2014). Shedding light on a pervasive problem: A review of research on bullying experiences among children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44, 1520–1534. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-2011-8.
Silani, G., Bird, G., Brindley, R., Singer, T., Frith, C., & Frith, U. (2008). Levels of emotional awareness and autism: An fMRI study. Social Neuroscience, 3, 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470910701577020.
Sofronoff, K., Dark, E., & Stone, V. (2011). Social vulnerability and bullying in children with Asperger syndrome. Autism, 15, 355–372. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361310365070.
Takagishi, H., Kameshima, S., Schug, J., Koizumi, M., & Yamagishi, T. (2010). Theory of mind enhances preference for fairness. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105, 130–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2009.09.005.
Takagishi, H., Koizumi, M., Fujii, T., Schug, J., Kameshima, S., & Yamagishi, T. (2014). The role of cognitive and emotional perspective taking in economic decision making in the ultimatum game. PLoS ONE, 9(9), e108462. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0108462.
van Ommeren, T. B., Begeer, S., Scheeren, A. M., & Koot, H. M. (2012). Measuring reciprocity in high functioning children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(6), 1001–1010. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1331-9.
van Roekel, E., Scholte, R. H. J., & Didden, R. (2010). Bullying among adolescents with autism spectrum disorders: Prevalence and perception. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40, 63–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0832-2.
Wainscot, J. J., Naylor, P., Sutcliffe, P., Tantam, D., & Williams, J. (2008). Relationships with peers and use of the school environment of mainstream secondary school pupils with Asperger Syndrome (high-functioning autism): A case control study. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Theory, 8, 25–38.
Wellman, H. M., Cross, D., & Watson, J. (2001). Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: The truth about false belief. Child Development, 72, 655–684. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00304.
Williams, D. M., & Happé, F. (2010). Representing intentions in self and other: Studies of autism and typical development. Developmental Science, 13, 307–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00885.x.
Wimpory, D., Hobson, R., & Nash, S. (2007). What facilitates social engagement in preschool children with autism? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 564–573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0187-x.
Winterhalder, B. (2001). Intragroup resource transfers: Comparative evidence, models, and implications for human evolution. In C. B. Stanford & H. T. Bunn (Eds.), Meat-eating and human evolution (pp. 279–301). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zablotsky, B., Bradshaw, C. P., Anderson, C. M., & Law, P. (2014). Risk factors for bullying among children with autism spectrum disorders. Autism, 18, 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361313477920.
We wish to thank the children, parents and staff at Lisburne School, the Together Trust, and Mellor Primary School, Cheshire (UK).
Conflict of interest
Hartley declares that he has no conflict of interest. Fisher declares that she has no conflict of interest.
All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent was obtained from parents/caregivers prior to children’s participation in this study.
About this article
Cite this article
Hartley, C., Fisher, S. Do Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Share Fairly and Reciprocally?. J Autism Dev Disord 48, 2714–2726 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3528-7
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Ultimatum Game
- Dictator Game
|
<urn:uuid:7b447145-8b10-40db-9766-8f276d122ccf>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-34
|
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-018-3528-7?error=cookies_not_supported&code=6422e0d3-9da5-469e-8fe8-ab99bc22030a
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439735867.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20200804131928-20200804161928-00247.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.925311 | 16,105 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Definition - What does Compressive Strength mean?
Compressive strength is the maximum compressive stress that, under a gradually applied load, a given solid material can sustain without fracture. The formula for calculating compressive strength is:
CS = F / A
Where in compressive strength (CS) is equal to the force (F) at the point of failure divided by the cross sectional area. Compressive strength tests must be performed with equal opposing forces on the test material. Test materials are normally in cylinders, cubes or spheres.
Some materials fracture at their compressive strength limit; others deform irreversibly. Compressive strength is a key value for designing structures. The compressive strength of concrete is the most common performance measurement used by engineers when designing buildings and other structures.
Corrosionpedia explains Compressive Strength
Compressive strength is a limit state of compressive stress that leads to failure in a material in the manner of ductile failure (infinite theoretical yield) or brittle failure (rupture as the result of crack propagation, or sliding along a weak plane). Compressive strength is measured on materials, components and structures. By definition, the ultimate compressive strength of a material is that value of uniaxial compressive stress reached when the material fails completely.
Measurements of compressive strength are affected by the specific test methods and conditions of measurement. Compressive strengths are usually reported in relationship to a specific technical standard.
Concrete and ceramics typically have much higher compressive strengths than those with high tensile strengths. Composite materials, such as glass fiber epoxy matrix composite, tend to have higher tensile strengths than compressive strengths. Concrete is usually reinforced with materials that are strong in tension. Compressive strength is a widely used for specification requirements and quality control of concrete. Engineers know their target tensile (flexural) requirements, and express these in terms of compressive strength.
Concrete compressive strength requirements can vary from 2,500 psi for residential concrete to 4,000 psi and higher in commercial structures. Higher strengths up to and exceeding 10,000 psi are specified for certain applications.
For both ductile and brittle materials, the compressive strength is usually significantly higher than the tensile strength. Exceptions to this include fiber-reinforced composites such as fiberglass, which are strong in tension but are easily crushed. Concrete, however, which is a particle-reinforced composite, is far stronger in compression than tension to the extent that if it is going to be exposed to tensile forces, it needs to be reinforced with steel rods.
|
<urn:uuid:017ec261-2f3d-4ba0-8a70-66a66855e253>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-10
|
https://www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/1620/compressive-strength-material-science
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145621.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20200221233354-20200222023354-00045.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.924207 | 531 | 3.890625 | 4 |
September 20, 2011
Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists Publishes Japanese Translation Of Special Fukushima Issue
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today published Japanese translations of articles from its new special issue on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station disaster. The online Japanese edition features influential writers examining the current and future impact of Fukushima, what might have been done to lessen the scale of the accident, and the steps we need to take both in Japan and worldwide to prevent another nuclear tragedy. Editorial and translation services for the Fukushima issue were made possible by a grant from Rockefeller Financial Services.
In the article Deconstructing the zero-risk mindset: The lessons and future responsibilities for a post-Fukushima nuclear Japan, Tatsujiro Suzuki revisits the tragedy at the nuclear power station, and highlights a few of the most pressing — and most challenging — of the government's plans. "Fukushima should not just contain lessons for Japan, but for all 31 countries with nuclear power," says Suzuki, who is vice-chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission.Nuclear or not? The complex and uncertain politics of Japan's post-Fukushima energy policy by Masa Takubo, an independent analyst on nuclear issues and a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, highlights the complex power struggle underway over the future of nuclear energy in Japan. "Despite the seriousness of the Fukushima crisis, Japan's historical commitment to nuclear power — and a fuel cycle that includes reprocessing and breeder reactors — still has powerful supporters," Takubo says. Even with a scale-down of nuclear power, the political inertia in addressing spent nuclear fuel reprocessing will most likely continue.
Frank N. von Hippel, co-founder of the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University and co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, looks at the projected health impacts following Fukushima in his article, The radiological and psychological consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Using the known after effects from Chernobyl and contrasting the extent of the incidents, von Hippel finds that the area in Japan contaminated with cesium-137 — at the same levels that caused evacuation around Chernobyl — is about one-tenth as large. The number of thyroid cancer cases is likely to be much smaller due partly to action taken by the Japanese Government in terms of evacuation and stopping people from consuming contaminated milk. However he cautions that the psychological effect on those living in the contaminated area could be substantial and must be addressed.
Physicist Edwin S. Lyman challenges nuclear industry claims that a Fukushima-type event is unlikely to happen in the United States, because few US nuclear power plants are vulnerable to tsunamis. In his article Surviving the one-two nuclear punch: Assessing risk and policy in a post-Fukushima world, he writes that every nuclear plant is vulnerable to natural disaster or deliberate attack, and a nuclear plant can only handle events it is engineered to withstand. "Many US nuclear plants appear to be subject to greater risks than they were designed to handle," he says, "particularly in regard to earthquakes." The author suggests that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission should require reactors to be upgraded to withstand a greater range of eventualities.
Sharon M. Friedman looks at media coverage in her article, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima: An analysis of traditional and new media coverage of nuclear accidents and radiation. A significant difference in Fukushima coverage compared with the earlier incidents was the enormous amount of information available on the Internet. In addition to journalist contributions, citizens contributed significantly via social media. The Internet provided many opportunities for better coverage, with more space for articles and the ability to present interactive graphics and videos. "Radiation coverage of the Fukushima accident was better than that for the Three Mile Island or Chernobyl accidents," says Friedman, although "television reporting still presented some problems."
In their article Fukushima: The myth of safety, the reality of geoscience, Johannis Nöggerath, Robert J. Geller, and Viacheslav K. Gusiakov look at the anzen shinwa (safety myth) image portrayed by the Japanese Government and electric power companies, and how it stifled honest and open discussion of the risks to nuclear installations from seismic events. Opportunities were missed: Between the 1970s and the 2011 disaster, new scientific knowledge emerged about the likelihood of a large earthquake and resulting tsunami. "Japan's seismological agencies are locked into outdated and unsuccessful paradigms that lead them to focus on the hazard of a supposedly imminent earthquake in the Tokai district, located between Tokyo and Nagoya, while downplaying earthquake hazards elsewhere in Japan," the authors say.
On the Net:
|
<urn:uuid:beecb8ba-8ce9-4a51-98f4-5232283d88b0>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-43
|
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112385690/bulletin-of-the-atomic-scientists-publishes-japanese-translation-of-special-fukushima-issue/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187824068.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20171020101632-20171020121632-00671.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.942013 | 962 | 2.796875 | 3 |
A Look at What Alcohol Abuse Does to Your Body
In spite of alcohol’s widespread acceptance in everyday society, alcohol can nonetheless cause problems for those unable to manage their intake amounts. Alcohol abuse becomes an issue once a person continues to drink in spite of the negative consequences brought on by alcohol use. This turning point best exemplifies what alcohol abuse does to your body and your mind.
Alcohol metabolism processes mark the starting point for its effects as it moves through the various systems responsible for breaking it down. From there, what alcohol abuse does to your body takes the form of both short-term and long-term effects.
Long-time drinkers will eventually start to experience what alcohol does to the body in real-time as various symptoms take on a life of their own. Ultimately, alcohol’s effects become difficult to ignore once drinkers start to develop serious medical and/or psychological problems.
Alcohol Metabolism Process
Alcohol metabolism rates have a considerable influence on its effects on the body, according to Brown University Health Education. When ingested, most of it gets absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach and small intestines.
From there, alcohol travels to the liver where the actual metabolism process occurs. On average, the liver can metabolize one standard drink per hour.
Excess amounts continue to flow through the bloodstream and settle inside the body’s tissues until it can be metabolized. Much of what alcohol does to the body results from these excess amounts.
Once alcohol enters the bloodstream, it gains easy access to tissues and cells throughout the body. In general, what alcohol does to the body results from its ability to slow down central nervous system processes.
Alcohol’s effects in the brain produce the much sought after sense of relaxation, happiness and calm a drinker experiences. What alcohol does to the body goes far beyond a person’s immediate awareness. Other short-term alcohol effects include:
- Loss of coordination
- Slow reflexes
- Muddled thinking processes
- Memory difficulties
- Poor judgment and decision making
The withdrawal effects so often experienced by long-time drinkers result from the brain chemical imbalances that alcohol causes. Not surprisingly, much of what alcohol does to the body starts in the brain.
By altering brain neurotransmitter chemical levels, alcohol all but short-circuits normal brain functions. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, these withdrawal effects experienced grow worse over time as brain chemical levels skew further out of balance.
Withdrawal effects can start anywhere from eight to 12 hours after the last drink, some of which include –
Long-term effects from alcohol abuse can develop within any number of major bodily processes. What alcohol does to the body over time takes places inside the body’s cells and tissues.
In effect, alcohol acts as a toxin capable of disrupting cell and tissue structures. As a result, drinkers place themselves at risk of developing various medical problems, some of which include –
- Liver cancer
- Internal bleeding
- Esophageal cancer
- Cancer of the pancreas
Last, but not least, long-term alcohol abuse inevitably places drinkers at risk of long-term physical dependency and addiction problems.
|
<urn:uuid:d4b30d5b-a470-489f-b6db-6f2babfaacad>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://www.alcoholabuse.com/info/effects-of-alcohol-abuse/look-alcohol-abuse-body/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653930.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20230607143116-20230607173116-00200.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.928811 | 692 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Top 5 agri-food industry challenges
Every year, there are more floods, droughts and storms in Canada. These phenomena harm agricultural land, which, in turn, disrupts food production. The impacts, however, go far beyond that.
The 2021 drought devastated half the mustard seed crops in Canada, which is one of the top three producers along with Ukraine and Russia. The political climate in Ukraine has also revealed how dependent we are on Ukrainian food sources while there have been risks of flour, pasta and sunflower oil shortages. With ongoing natural disaster and geopolitical instability, the agri-food system itself has been destabilized.
As a result, the agri-food sector is facing an onslaught of disruptions that jeopardize companies’ ability to stay competitive. In order to anticipate market shifts, it’s crucial to understand the industry’s top five challenges:
- Labour and raw material shortages
- The agri-food sustainability paradigm
- Technology and competitiveness
- Free-trade and regulatory pressures
- The growing global market
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) include promoting more efficient use of global resources so that increased consumption and production do not destroy the environment. These efforts are further justified by the food price inflation caused by land degradation and the conflict in Ukraine. Inflationary pressures affect the entire supply chain and the costs of fertilizers and transport.
The watchword for the agri-food industry is adaptation. Facing inflationary pressures, growing global demand, and labour and agricultural land shortages, the industry needs to be able to remain competitive while reestablishing a balance between supply and demand. This set of factors explains why the new paradigm is sustainability.
Addressing human and material resource shortages
The agri-food industry was particularly affected by the pandemic as travel restrictions complicated the arrival of temporary foreign workers, the advent of telework was favoured over necessary manual labour in the manufacturing sector, and emergency assistance benefits decreased the appeal of employment.
With the sector struggling to hire locally and the uncertain availability of foreign workers, there has been a lack of immediate solutions. Increased salaries risks causing an increase in food prices, while finding food on the shelves isn’t a guarantee, with 28,000 positions vacant in the food processing sector according to Food and Beverage Canada.
The shortage and increased costs of raw materials can also drive up food prices. The climate crisis and urban pressures are causing a deterioration in agricultural land, especially in cases of drought, such as those in California that forced one of the biggest fruit producers, Driscoll’s, to relocate production. The price of agricultural land has soared 900% in the last 25 years while farm incomes have remained the same. According to the Union des producteurs agricoles, 400 hectares of agricultural land are lost annually due to urban projects like the third link tramway between Québec City and Lévis.
This means that agricultural land capital is decreasing and their status is becoming less stable. While there may be plans to optimize how this land is used, there remains a shortage in food engineering expertise. According to Université Laval, agri-food engineers are at full employment in Québec. We nonetheless need their expertise to develop the technology solutions that will make the sector sustainable. Sustainable development and information technology and software needs are nonetheless affecting all sectors and the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) is struggling to attract enough people to the profession to keep up with its growth.
According to the Agri-Food Table, Canada is struggling to automate and digitize amidst growing competition. Shortages in engineers and agricultural land are driving up costs and making the Canadian agri-food industry less competitive. To remain competitive in the agri-food sector through automation and digitization, the industry needs a workforce with the right skills.
The agri-food sustainability paradigm
Some major trends can be observed among consumers and in the industry: the importance of high-quality products and appreciation of agricultural products. Sustainable supply leads (44%) among the sustainable objectives expressed by organizations, companies and governments, following by GHGs (16%) and land use (16%). Among the population, 82% of people in Québec are buying more local products.
Concretely, the movement includes initiatives to reduce GHGs and environmental footprints. For example, Canada invested $3.9 million in developing technology to reduce pesticide use and loss of crops. This comes in addition to the Pesticides Act that aims to support companies in their pesticide use.
Sustainability and transparency are key to design and optimize the food supply chain. For this reason, all levels of the supply chain are moving toward a circular economy. Transparency means more awareness around consumer health, which translates to more innovative approaches to product traceability.
Technology and competitiveness
When considering the shortage and increased costs of raw materials, the labour shortage, and the push for sustainability in the supply chain, the leading solution is integrating innovative technology. The government, companies and other economic players are investing in developing technological innovations. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced an investment of up to $3.9 million to upgrade technology that helps reduce pesticide use and crop losses.
Companies are starting the technology adoption process. This process includes a 4.0 audit of the company’s core operations to identify opportunities to automate and optimize performance with digitization.
Digital innovation offers an ever-growing range of added-value opportunities to stay competitive in the agri-food industry. These opportunities directly address the industry’s largest issues at every step of the supply chain according to the World Economic Forum. Implementing food detection technology that uses hyperspectral imaging makes it possible to trace products more efficiently, which improves consumer health, corporate transparency and the costs related to transporting goods and product recalls.
Other technologies like e-commerce and the Internet of things (IoT) target the imbalance between food supply and demand caused by the pandemic, the political climate and economic growth. Innovations of this type not only reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, but contribute to creating added-value jobs in the industry. When part of the burden of production is delegated to technology, the workforce is able to develop additional skills that collectively build the resilience of Canada’s agri-food supply.
Free-trade and regulatory pressures
Canada aims to become an agri-food industry leader. To achieve this goal, the government is implementing measures to ensure exemplary working conditions in the sector and see that the supply chain reflects consumer values, especially in regard to sustainability and transparency. Companies must also adapt to various commercial agreements and government regulations.
To limit pollution from billions of plastic objects in the ocean and the ingestion of microplastics, 6 single-use plastic products will be banned in Canada in 2023, with other products to follow. As a result, some 1.3 million tons of plastic will be eliminated from landfills and 42,000 jobs will be created in Canada by 2030. Companies themselves are playing a role with compostable, recyclable, edible and plantable packaging and a carbon label to fight greenwashing. Eliminating single-use plastic is also part of the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, which is allocating a $1 billion investment to sustainable agriculture.
In addition, the 2022 budget allocates a number of investments totalling $156 million to the TFWP. The measures aim to improve the health, safety and quality of life of temporary foreign workers by increasing the capacity for shorter employer request processing times.
Canada’s various commercial agreements with foreign countries facilitate access to growing markets. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) gives Canadian companies access to 450 million consumers across Europe. Canada has also improved its access to the Asia-Pacific market and its nearly 500 million consumers with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Nonetheless, free trade increases competition: The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) foresees a $607 million increase in American dairy and poultry exports to Canada, which would represent 2.69% of total Canadian manufacturers’ dairy and poultry sales in 2019 according to Farm Credit Canada (FCC).
Commercial agreements provide excellent opportunities to access growing markets, even if this access is not guaranteed. Companies are still tasked with validating the equivalences of certifications, quotas and import permits. Restrictions on GMOs and the composition of products are also variables that make access to markets in free-trade zones more complex.
The growing global agri-food market
By 2050, agricultural demand will be 50% higher than it was in 2013 according to the Agri-Food Economic Strategy Table. Recovery from the impacts of the pandemic has caused lingering inflationary pressures. Droughts and other extreme weather events also play a role in the supply-demand imbalance. Due to these combined factors, Canada’s agricultural and agri-food sector must grow to stay competitive.
- employed 2.1 million people
- provided 1 in 9 jobs in Canada
- generated $134.9 billion (6.8%) of Canada’s GDP
According to AAC, in 2021, food and beverage processors generated $33.2 billion in GDP (1.7%) and created 303,100 jobs. Agri-food is also the country’s biggest manufacturing sector, accounting for 17.8% of the GDP from manufacturing activities.
Canada certainly benefits from many advantages that support the growth objectives of agri-food businesses. Nonetheless, the industry faces a number of obstacles for staying competitive amidst increasingly open markets. Despite its wealth of land and water resources, the industry is lagging behind in its digitization and automation efforts compared to other countries. Companies are seeking expertise to sustainably develop the sector and qualified labour to carry out this transformation. Market changes call for greater efforts to respond to these issues and become a leader in sustainability.
The biggest challenge faced by Canada’s agri-food value chain is adaptation. There are many factors exerting pressure to invest financial and human resources in automation and digitization. There are also a large number of factors that hinder sustainable development. The industry’s change process therefore requires major planning, accompanied by a broad range of expertise.
The transformational process leverages cross-functional and multidisciplinary expertise. Although demanding, leveraging many different kinds of expertise throughout the transformation instead of siloing them is part of providing high value-added consulting services.
Download the agri-food industry outlook to identify the different industry shortages.
|
<urn:uuid:2ccf737c-fcb9-4868-9ae8-c211402cb4c7>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-40
|
https://www.talsom.com/en/insights/top-5-agri-food-industry-challenges/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510941.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001205332-20231001235332-00640.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.933278 | 2,180 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The Internet of Things (IoT) has changed the way we live our lives in many years. While divers amounts of these changes are significant, you must also be aware that not all of them are so great. For instance, the IoT has increased the number of cyber attacks we’re faced with today.
Believe it or not, there are many ways in which IoT has exposed business organizations to cyber attacks — ways you must be aware of to keep you and your home and business safe.
Jax Enter (platform dedicated to software developers and architects), says that because everyday items are now connected to the Internet, it’s easy for them to be hacked. This hacking occurs in the same way that your computer can also be hacked. Some erroneously believe that this “side hacking” seems very unimportant. You wouldn’t think that there’s much information that can be gleaned from your home — that someone could get from things like your microwave — but the threat runs much deeper and is more profound.
How many cameras or microphones do your home appliances contain?
When you think about the IoT items throughout your home that contain cameras or microphones begin considering how these devices may be compromised. It’s also important to think about how an external threat could have a mass impact. An example of this would be everyone in society having their alarm clock hacked at the same time.
Connected devices are things we have never had to worry about in the past.
However, it’s vital for us to consider their potential problems now. Beyond that, you should also know that you can take measures to protect the IoT devices throughout your home. Options you can use to avoid getting malware here include:
- A web application firewall.
- Adjusting the settings on your IoT.
- Knowing when you should take a device offline.
IDG Connect says there are two types of ransomware you should know about today:
- Traditional ransomware attacks are typically found on PCs and servers, where they infect the device by encrypting key data than asking you to pay a ransom for it to be unlocked. IoT ransomware attacks are also starting to emerge. Fortunately, you can use data backups to restore your device and save yourself from paying the ransom. Unfortunately, this isn’t something most people do on a frequent enough basis, so this remains a profitable criminal enterprise.
The ransom attack is meant to completely lock you out of your devices.
- IoT ransomware attacks don’t contain much meaningful, sensitive data. Traditional ransomware attacks are redundant to mention here. Because usual attacks happen often and are now being guarded against in a better way, attackers are focusing on these attacks to lock you out of your device completely. While this seems more inconvenient than anything, it could have significant consequences, e.g. What if you were locked out of your home’s smart thermostat during the dead cold winter weather?What if businesses had no control over the thermostat that’s responsible for their refrigeration units? What if a data center lost control over their air conditioning system? Once you stop to think about these and similar types of consequences you can clearly see and understand the motivation behind this type of a ransomware attack.
External threats aren’t the only thing you have to worry about today. When you’re operating a business that has IoT devices in the workplace, you must also concern yourself with internal threats. It’s possible that some of the employees you’ve hired because you think you can trust them want to rig your system. There are many reasons why people may want to do this. For instance, you may have a locked room with restricted access in which you store private information. While you may have given some of your employees’ key card access to the room, any savvy, witty employees who want access to that room can manipulate this ID process.
Internal threats are always malicious in nature though.
Once your employees have the desired access, they may unwittingly or knowingly provide information to other employees. Even those employees whom you’ve to give privileges may still make a simple technological error. The consequences are so broad that the warnings need to be heeded. It’s essential for everyone who works in your office and interacts with IoT devices to receive the proper training, so they understand the impact of their actions (e.g., downloading dangerous files).
You can’t overlook the damage that ex-employees can also do. Whether you’ve fired someone or they’ve willingly left your workplace, they can still choose to cause severe damage to your business.
This is why you can’t only focus on managing your IoT from a technological standpoint. You must also pay attention to the people who work for you, especially those who come into contact with your company’s sensitive data. If any of them want to harm your business, it’s up to you to intervene before they’re able to do so. One way of doing this is by quickly managing the permissions and access points disgruntled employees have prior to you terminating them.
IoT can also be enlisted to help you manage your workforce. When putting this IoT into place, it can alert you faster than any of your human managers when something is going awry. This IoT manager can be set up to be able to use analytics to flag certain behaviors. For instance, you can set it up to alert you when an employee downloads your company’s sensitive information to their personal computer, especially if this is happening during non-working hours.
Choosing the Right Software to Protect You
Cyber Threat Intelligence can protect your device from nefarious attacks. The protection offered by threat intelligence is why you should always adhere to the manufacturer’s security instructions, including remotely updating or patching devices when necessary. Following these “install” details with exactness will help you maintain the safety of your information both now and in the future.
Choosing the Right Hardware to Protect You
You can’t overlook your physical security, neither should you overlook the physical security of your equipment.
When you are buying new hardware, it is especially important to make sure they contain tamper-proofing measures. Keep all of the information and the equipment safe via permissions and other safety measures. Have an expert (or yourself) prevent your hardware from being accessed and decoded. This type of protection is something you can do yourself — by including things like physical switches to turn off features (e.g., a mute button for microphones).
Choosing the Right Network to Protect You
Always make sure you have security protocols in place (e.g. HTTPS:) before exchanging any data between your IoT device and backend management or storage solutions.
These protocols of safety should be alongside that of secure authentication methods. Additionally, make sure you immediately change any default credentials that came with your device — so you’re using strong alphanumeric alternatives instead.
|
<urn:uuid:b4439313-b5a0-4a9f-8054-2f95ae984ae3>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://readwrite.com/how-iot-has-exposed-business-organizations-to-cyber-attacks/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224650201.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20230604161111-20230604191111-00143.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.955086 | 1,442 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Read these 3 Kids & Cell Phones Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Cellphone tips and hundreds of other topics.
When you give your child a cell phone gift card, you have a tool for staying in touch with your child, but a mobile phone for kids can also be an excellent learning tool. When you buy your child a Firefly cell phone for kids, or an LG Migo, use it to introduce them to number recognition.
Let your child help you when you dial the phone. Taking a little extra time to let your child help you enter the numbers will also help them remember the cell phone's key designations. Text messaging is also an excellent opportunity to learn. Studies done at Tokyo Denki University and Kent State have found cell phones to be useful tools in language development and communication skills. There are many creative ways to put a cell phone to work as part of your child's learning experience.
When you give your children cell phone gift cards, discuss cell phone safety for kids. Proper cell phone battery care is important; over the last two years, 83 people were burned by exploding cell phones. In all cases, the battery was to blame, with a large percentage of the injuries caused by counterfeit batteries.
Avoid the counterfeit issue completely by getting batteries from your cell phone carrier, or directly from the manufacturer of the cell phone. Cell phone safety for kids means getting them the right equipment to charge their phones. Incompatible cell phone chargers can damage your battery.
Warn young cell phone users not to touch the battery with metal objects including keys, coins, or jewelry. Cell phone batteries can appear undamaged after getting wet or being dropped, tell your child to let you know if any of these things occur, and replace the battery immediately.
What makes a cell phone "kid friendly?" A model such as the firefly mobile phone for kids has parental controls, only five buttons, and password-protected call screening. These all add up to ease of use for the kids, and peace of mind for parents.
Many kid friendly cell phones have limited dialing options and call screening features to permit only calls from numbers you choose. One feature to pay special attention to is the "emergency" button on your child's first cell phone. The emergency 911 button on some models makes it all too easy to accidentally dial 911 when handling the phone. If you suspect that a prominent emergency button will be a problem, shop for a kids cell phone with a more streamlined handset.
If you need Chaperone service or a GPS locator feature for the phone, be sure to double-check the specs on that kid-friendly cell phone. If GPS is included, it will be listed in the technical specifications of that phone.
|
<urn:uuid:71797c89-07e6-412c-a189-3ef24104db44>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-47
|
http://cellphone.lifetips.com/cat/65591/kids-cell-phones/index.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934807344.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20171124085059-20171124105059-00663.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.935228 | 595 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The Athens Medical Association of Athens, Greece, held a conference April 1st regarding “Non-Ionizing Radiation and Its Effects on Human Health” where scientific lectures were presented along with 16 recommendations to reduce exposures and human health adverse effects. Question: Why hasn’t the American Medical Association done the same? Good question?
Here are those 16 Recommendations for Wireless Use Safety:
- Use your cell phone with caution and make brief calls as necessary
- Children under the age of 14 should make limited use of cell phones
- Do not put your cell phone in contact with your head
- Do not use your cell phone inside a car, train, aeroplane, or elevator
- Restrict cell phone use when children or pregnant women are near.
- Keep mobile phones away from your body
- When using your cell phone keep a safe distance from others
- Do not carry or keep your cell phone inside your pockets
- At night, disengage Wi Fi on your router and switch off your mobile phone.
- Do not play games on-line and if you do, switch to airplane mode
- Hands Free option is always preferable though may not be completely safe
- Wireless connections may increase your exposure to microwave radiation
- Limit Wi Fi connectivity and use hard wired connection whenever possible
- When signal strength is weak do not attempt to make a call
- If a landline is available make use of this as a preferred option
- Disengage Wi Fi, Bluetooth & Data options from your phone when are not needed [sic] [1,2]
George Patoulis MD, President of the Athens Medical Association, said that AMA, “in emphasizing its role and duties as guardian for public health, has taken steps to encourage and promote this open discussion dealing with the delicate issues of electromagnetic radiation. Mr. Patoulis stressed that all local authorities and all medical associations are obliged to adopt and apply the best possible practices available in today’s world, aiming primarily at the protection of our fellow citizens.”
How interesting to read Dr. Patoulis’s remarks! Do you think we’ll ever read something similar from an American Medical Association’s president? Hint: Don’t hold your breath! Remember how doctors used to promote cigarettes ? One has to wonder how trade associations can be so doggone stupid, especially medical ones, who ought to know better, that is, if they weren’t ‘subsidized’ by vested interest lobbyists or sales reps.
The Athens meeting attendees were told about Cyprus’s “action on mobile phone masts.
IMMEDIATE measures must be taken in order to protect the public, and especially children, from the electromagnetic radiation of mobile telephone masts.” The residents of Apostolos Andreas in Limassol planned a demonstration over the immediate removal of a mobile telephone mast from their area, which was next to a school of over 1,500 pupils. Can you imagine that type of demonstration ever happening in the USA where consumers either don’t know or don’t care about the effects of EMFs/RFs from microwaves affecting their children’s health?
Here’s a less than five minute video in Greek with English subtitles featuring precious Greek children emphasizing the Cyprus National Committee on Environment and Children’s Health advice about wireless exposures.
One of the physicians at the Greek AMA meeting, Dr Stella Canna Michaelidou, called for “awareness and education among health professionals, teachers and parents, and for new legislation or biological criteria to evaluate at least children’s exposure” . When will that happen in the USA?
Here is Truthstream Media’s video about cell towers being erected on school buildings, or near or on school grounds in the USA. One in ten cell towers/sites emits electromagnetic frequencies well above ‘safety’ limits!
Counter Markets Newsletter - Trends & Strategies for Maximum Freedom
“Wi-Fi is a known weaponized frequency,” says Deborah Tavares citing Dr Barrie Trower, an eminent British Wi-Fi researcher and former Royal Navy Microwave Weapons Expert and former debriefer for UK Intelligence Services.
EMF Safety Network / EMF and RF World Concerns
One in ten cell towers violates FCC Regulations
IOSR Journal of Applied Physics (IOSR-JAP) e-ISSN: 2278-4861. Volume 6, Issue 1 Ver. I (Jan. 2014), PP 01-06 www.iosrjournals.org 1 |
Study of Cell Tower Radiation and its Health Hazards on human body
Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.
Catherine’s latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.
Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.
Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)
Catherine’s NEW book: Eat To Beat Disease, Foods Medicinal Qualities ©2016 Catherine J Frompovich is now available.
Image Credit: EMF Warriors
|
<urn:uuid:226dc4c0-49a0-43bb-84a8-8e2b650d2fca>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-16
|
https://www.activistpost.com/2017/04/greek-ama-recommends-reducing-emfsrfs-protect-public-health.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371807538.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20200408010207-20200408040707-00429.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.885148 | 1,246 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Thanks to the painstaking efforts to restore ecology, Qilihai Wetland in Ninghe district in north China’s Tianjin municipality has not only improved its environment, but also brought income growth to residents.
The wetland, which covers 87.12 square kilometers of core areas and buffer zones, as well as 4,000 hectares of reeds and 2,333 hectares of water areas, is surrounded by 38 villages of 6 townships that are home to 120,000 people. Aquaculture was a major industry there.
Around 2012, Qilihai Wetland started developing tourism, and could receive over 10,000 visitors per day at most.
“We wanted to exploit the wetland and enrich the residents,” said Chen Li, head of the management committee of the Qilihai Wetland nature reserve. However, the lack of planning, the use of fertilizers, as well as the discharge of domestic sewage and garbage had all brought severe environmental issues to the nature reserve, he introduced.
To address the problem, leaders of Tianjin municipality had visited Qilihai Wetland for multiple times to make restoration plans.
In 2015, the wetland park in the region was shut down, then demolished two years later to restore vegetation. Besides, the municipality implemented 10 major projects to restore the ecology there.
“In 2017, 4,560 hectares of land in Qilihai Wetland’s core areas were transferred and cleared for closed management; last year, another 3,700 hectares were transferred,” introduced Chen Yong, head of Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources. In addition, a massive ecological relocation project is scheduled to be implemented at the end of this year, which involves 25,000 residents from 5 villages in the buffer zones, he added.
So far, 1,086 parks, plank roads, docks, hotels and restaurants in the Qilihai Wetland nature reserve have been demolished, totaling over a million square meters.
Du Naihe is a villager from Qilihai Wetland who started running crab breeding business in 1980s. Several years ago, he contracted 333 hectares of fishponds and opened an agritainment facility.
“My agritainment facility and fishponds were requested to be closed and moved out of Qilihai Wetland on Dec. 26, 2017,” Du told the People’s Daily.
However, the man was not discouraged and started over again. Last year, he took the lead to establish a mixed farming cooperative which plants rice and raises crabs in the rice paddies outside the “ecological red line”.
“The juvenile crabs eat pests in the paddies, so there’s no need for us to use pesticides or extra fodder. In addition, the excrement of the crabs also enhances the fertility of the soil,” Du explained.
“I can make at least 500,000 yuan ($73,156) this year from my 13,000 kilograms of crabs,” he said, adding that it’s worthy to move out of Qilihai Wetland.
The mixed farming mode soon became popular in nearby villages, and a special technical service group was established to guide the villagers.
“Based on conservative estimation, the mixed farming mode can increase 500 to 1,000 yuan of income every 667 square meters,” said Wang Jin, director of Ninghe district’s commission for agriculture and rural affairs. According to him, the district is expected to see an income growth of nearly 100 million yuan for its over 10,000 hectares of rice-crab commensal fields.
So far, the district has finished 6 out of its 10 major projects of ecological restoration, which effectively recovered the ecological functions of the wetland, Chen said.
Over 1,400 oriental storks visited the wetland this spring, and some endangered bird species that had disappeared for over 10 years also foraged there, including reed parrotbill, Chinese penduline tit and bearded reedling, he introduced.
“Qilihai wetland is clean now, and the concentration of negative oxygen ions here is tens of times higher than that in the downtown,” Du said, adding that what they gave up years ago was merely short-term interests, but what they created for future generations was infinite vitality.
more recommended stories
Akpabio’s Senate presidency ‘ll stabilize National Assembly – Group
A Non- Governmental Organization (NGO), Concerns.
PlugBay Launches in Nigeria : Empowering Access to Skills, Advertising, and Funding
Nigerian Small and Large business owners.
The Legend, Daniel Alifa Akoh goes to the Lord
The Legendary Mr. Daniel Alifa Akoh,(Omachi.
Enugu Guber: Enugu Indigenes In Abuja Want INEC To Declare Mbah Winner
Enugu indigenes in Abuja have called.
2023 polls: IPCR commends Nigerians on peaceful conduct
The Institute for Peace and Conflict.
China, Nigeria ties greatly enhanced by women contributions – Liang Huili
The wife of the Ambassador of.
China, Nigeria relations: Nigerian envoy in Shanghai emphasizes prospects, others
Recently, the Consulate General of Nigeria.
Atiku Youth Wing wants Keyamo sacked over Conflict of Interest
The Atiku Youth Wing has called.
NACHPN calls for recruitment of more community health workers
The National Association of Community Health.
Finally, Two Chambers Of National Assembly Endorse NHFSS Bill
The passage of the Nigerian Hunter.
Leave a Comment
|
<urn:uuid:643327b2-7a2c-4896-9593-80de8bededa5>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://peoplesmail.com.ng/ecological-restoration-helps-tianjins-qilihai-wetland-regain-vitality/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652149.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20230605153700-20230605183700-00590.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.933089 | 1,188 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Many people grind their teeth, whether they know it or not. Though you may not notice it during your sleep, the symptoms and after-effects can be very destructive. In addition to being bad for your dental health, teeth grinding can also cause discomfort and sleep disruptions. So what exactly causes this phenomenon and how can it be stopped?
What is Bruxism?
Bruxism, colloquially called ‘teeth grinding’ occurs as a result of clenching the jaw. Although it most typically occurs during sleep, it can also present when people are awake and conscious. While commonly viewed as merely a nervous habit, Bruxism can have serious consequences if left untreated. It often turns habitual, causing extensive damage to the teeth and oral health. People who suffer from this affliction are prone to developing Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ).
There are a variety of factors that can contribute to grinding one’s teeth. Stress and anxiety are certainly the main causes, but sleep disorders can also play a largely causal role. Additionally, the anatomy and physiology of the mouth and jaw can make quite a large impact. Having missing or crooked teeth or having an abnormal bite are equally likely to cause a person to develop bruxism. Smokers and people who excessively consume alcohol have also been found to be nearly twice as likely to develop this habit.
The most common symptoms include:
-soreness of the jaw
-loose, fractured, or painful teeth
Genetics: Do They Play a Role?
Evidence strongly indicates that this practice is genetic. Teeth grinding tends to run in families. Increased hormone levels in family members has been shown to be a trend in those affected by it. Variations to certain genes as well as morphisms in neurotransmitters (particularly where serotonin is concerned) in the brain have also been shown to be both hereditarily passed down, as well as common occurrences in people who report grinding their teeth.
Treatment and How to Stop It
The easiest yet most effective solutions to the problem of habitual teeth grinding is to pay a visit to your dentist. He or she will be able to discuss options with you, but typically the first step in treating the habit and its negative effects is to design a custom-made mouthguard. Wearing one of these, typically while sleeping, has been shown to significantly reduce teeth grinding.
In more severe cases or for increased comfort while becoming accustomed to the oral apparatus, the dentist or physician may advise you to take a muscle relaxant tablet before bedtime. The muscle relaxant will aid you in becoming comfortable wearing the mouthguard. This is especially useful for those whose symptoms are the result of stress. Counseling, meditation, and other relaxation techniques are other holistic remedies that you can take up on your own.
If you are suffering from Bruxism, schedule an appointment to come see us today. Here at Dana Walters DDS we specialize in bruxism treatment and prevention and will help stop this bad habit in no time.
|
<urn:uuid:eed30c77-8540-4e8a-8861-901af1f47a2d>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-16
|
https://danawaltersdds.com/is-teeth-grinding-genetic-dana-walters-dds/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371876625.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20200409185507-20200409220007-00458.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.96441 | 619 | 2.9375 | 3 |
on the Move
Does it Help Them Survive?
What Scientists Think —
There's no question
about it; lots of flowers open and close. There must be a why
behind what we observe. These kinds of responses
are important to plant survival!
exist for one purpose only
What is it? To ensure that the plant reproduces and passes on
its genes. For many flowers, insects unknowingly move pollen
from bloom to bloom as they search for sweet nectar. This enables plants
to make seeds for the next generation. When flowers open and close, they
improve their chances of being successfully pollinated.
Do Flowers Open and Close?
Scientists have a word for this opening and closing of blossoms and the
folding and unfolding of leaves: nastic movements.
Different flowers respond to different types of stimuli.
flowers respond to daylength.
They open and close at different times of day depending on the hours
of available sunlight.
open and close in response to weather.
This includes humidity, temperature, sunniness/cloudiness.
open and close at the same time each day. (Where do you think
the four-'o-clock got it's name? How about morning glories?)
About Tulip Flowers?
Tulip flowers open and close in response to heat and light. When
tulip petals fold in at night, or on a rainy day, the pollen stays dry
and reproductive parts are protected. When they open the next morning,
the pollen is ready to attach to the bodies of hungry insects. (From there
it is moved to another flower.) Younger flowers are more likely than older
ones to open and close like this. How would you explain that? (Hint:
Think about the flower's purpose.)
Go to the Plants in Motion Web site to watch cool mini-movies of flowers
opening and closing. (Click on "morning glory" and "daisy.")
How Does it Work?
this. It's mid-morning. The sun has begun to warm the petals on a flower.
As it does this, the pressure of the liquid inside cells at the base of
the petals increases. (This is called turgor pressure.) As the
cells expand and become rigid, they cause the flower to unfold.
2: When light hits outer flower petals it triggers a chemical called
auxin that causes cells to grow and expand. This causes to flower
opens. But because its inner petals are less exposed to light, those cells
remain the same and cause the flower to close once light is gone.
This! Investigate Daisies or Dandelions
and dandelions are examples of wildflowers that open and close in response
to light. Find some examples of either flower in your schoolyard. In the
afternoon, cover some of the plants with a box. Leave some other plants
uncovered. What do you predict you will find in the morning? What do you
find? How would you explain your results.
2006 Journey North. All Rights Reserved.
Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our
|
<urn:uuid:c00c9732-2844-4632-a4a0-ae446b50ac50>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-15
|
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/tulips/OpenCloseAns.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609539665.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005219-00589-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.905729 | 661 | 3.796875 | 4 |
What Are Antioxidants?
Antioxidants are molecules that inhibit the process of oxidation. Oxidation is a natural process that happens in our bodies, and we see it happen in foods when apple slices and bananas are left out for long; they turn brown.
When oxygen is metabolized in our bodies it creates free radicals which are unstable molecules that cause harm or death of our cells by damaging the cellular proteins, lipids or DNA. Once these free radical attack they turn the attacked molecule into a free radical which lead to a chain reaction of free radicals.
This chain reaction causes damage that leads to premature aging, and when extensive enough can potentially lead to chronic diseases, cancer or carcinogenic processes. Antioxidants interact by binding to the free radicals and neutralizing them so they can no longer cause any harm.
Functions of Antioxidants
Mother nature has provided our cells with naturally occurring antioxidants that are equipped to manage the damage of oxidation. However, due to the increasing harmful chemicals in our environment such as pollutants, radiation, smoking, fertilizers and unhealthy diets filled with processed and fatty foods, our bodies may be over-taxed when there is a high accumulation of free radicals.
If your diet is not balanced then it would be beneficial to look into incorporating the intake of antioxidant-rich foods, and if it is balanced then you are probably getting a sufficient amount of antioxidants. Either way, eating fruits and veggies is never a bad idea because they are one of the main sources rich in antioxidants!
Benefits and Sources of Antioxidants
Here are some of the well-known antioxidants as well which foods they are most abundant in :
Especially Alpha-tocopherol; prevents body tissue damage by protecting cell membranes from oxidation.
Sources: Nuts, seeds, avocados, and vegetable oils
This is a water-soluble vitamin and it tends to scavenge free radicals in water environments in our bodies.
Sources: Guava, red bell peppers, kiwi, oranges, and pineapple
This gives fruits and vegetables their rich yellow/orange pigments. It is converted into vitamin A in our bodies but it is also a powerful antioxidant.
Sources: sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, apricots, tangerines, cantaloupe, and dark leafy greens
This is a trace element and only a small amount is required in our diet but that amount is essential. It is required for the formation of a group of proteins that work as antioxidant enzymes. It also works together with Vitamin E and C as an antioxidant in preventing free radical damage.
Sources: brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, seafood and fish, asparagus and mustard seeds
Manganese & Zinc
These are trace elements that form essential parts of various antioxidants.
Sources: Manganese is found in seafood (mussels), pumpkin seeds and hazelnuts; Zinc is found in seafood (oysters), beef and lamb, toasted wheat germ and spinach
It is an antioxidant that is synthesized in our bodies but it can also be found in foods.
Sources: beef, chicken, fish, nuts, seeds, plant oils, broccoli, and cauliflower
You may have heard this term a lot as well as polyphenols and flavonoids. This term is sort of the umbrella term for the various compounds produced by plants that have antioxidant functions.
Sources: Tomatoes, watermelon, kale spinach, collard greens, berries, raspberries, pomegranates, nuts, beans, and whole grains... essentially all plant foods.
An Antioxidant-Rich Diet
A diet rich in antioxidants can aid in the prevention of many chronic diseases including heart disease, eye diseases, premature aging, and cancer.
Although our bodies may be equipped with natural antioxidants, it is still important to incorporate foods rich in antioxidants such as fruits and vegetables so that we can provide all the energy and essential nutrients for our bodies to function optimally.
|
<urn:uuid:3ef0d84c-e261-4208-aedf-d4beb3da0759>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-05
|
https://chomps.com/blogs/news/15704244-antioxidants-function-benefits-and-sources
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250590107.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20200117180950-20200117204950-00485.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.933178 | 812 | 3.59375 | 4 |
My son was adopted from a foreign country @ age 7. He is now 9 years old, in the 3rd grade. He did not speak English upon his arrival in this country.
We have formally requested (& it has been documented) 3 times, that he be placed in the SLD Resource Program.
He is currently given the title of ESOL student, although he has never attended an ESOL school.
Can you tell me what the Federal Law says about the requirements for qualifying a child designated ESOL for an SLD classification?
We all know that children must be proficient in English before they can become proficient in other subjects. If your child does not speak or understand English well, the IEP team needs to ensure that your child’s language needs are identified and met.
The team must get an assessment of your child’s English proficiency. This assessment must include objective data about your child’s reading, writing, speaking, and understanding skills.
NE DOE has checklist for determining need and services -
If your child’s English is limited, the school must provide alternative language services to help him become proficient in English. He is entitled to all educational services provided by the school, including special education and related services.
If he is not proficient in English, the IEP team must ensure that special education and related services are provided in his native language. The IEP must specify his needs for instruction in English and/or his native language, and his needs for English language tutoring.
If your child has a disability and is eligible for special education and related services, the IEP team must review his language needs as they develop his IEP. The team must determine how his limited English affects his needs for special education and related services.
The IEP team needs to make decisions about:
- Whether he will receive instruction in English and/or in his native language so he can participate in the general curriculum
- Whether he needs tutoring in English as a service in his IEP to meet his individual needs
- Whether the special education and related services he needs will be provided in his native language.
If your child needs test accommodations that are allowed for general ed students with limited English proficiency (e.g. increased time, translating directions into the student’s native language, etc.), these accommodations should be written in his IEP.
Use Google to search for information. Be creative in your search terms. Search for information using terms like this: “limited English proficiency” “special factors” “IEP” “language needs” etc.
|
<urn:uuid:7fba4326-c425-425e-86d4-89e913be383a>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.wrightslaw.com/blog/?p=146
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.97084 | 535 | 3.03125 | 3 |
When there is rainy weather, driving some means of transport is more dangerous than when the weather is sunny or similar. This risk increases when riding motorcycle in rain because this tool does not have a structure that protects the human body, for example, the chassis in a car.
For this reason, a list of 7 tips of riding motorcycle in rain that can be followed to avoid accidents that can be catastrophic for human life will be developed and, besides, material damage can reach the point where the motorcycle is in an irreparable state.
Here are the 7 tips on how to ride motorcycle in rain
1. Always drive in control
In these rainy conditions, if you ride faster you can lose control of the motorcycle and end up in an accident. The actions taken when you are on the motorcycle should be maneuvered smoothly. For example, if you are going to enter a roundabout, you must go at a low speed to avoid falling to the ground therefore you must go patiently and calmly.
2. Wearing safety gear
Wearing the appropriate equipment is always a good habit to avoid any inconvenience. Protective and waterproof layers, three-layer jackets. Also, always wear the basic equipment such as the motorcycle helmet, protective gloves, knee pads, boots and other instruments that help protect the driver. Gloves are essential in these circumstances because they allow a good grip and if the hand is wet it can slip and end in an accident.
3. Slowly brake
When it is to be braked, it must be done slowly and calculate a wider braking range because if the motorcycle is braked abruptly it can skid and the driver will end up falling off the motorcycle.
4. Use the rear brake instead of the front.
In rainy weather, braking with the front tire is a danger and also if you do not have an ABS braking system that in the same way despite providing better braking quality guarantees nothing. If it is braked on the rear tire it allows greater maneuverability and driving ability.
5. Hold the motorcycle tightly.
The crank of motorcycles when wet is usually very slippery and therefore must be held as firm as possible to prevent slipping and losing control. Such is the risk that such a situation could be compared as driving a car without taking the wheel but adding the factor of loss of balance so it would be fatal.
6. Avoid the lines
The lines being asphalt surface covered with paint, usually reduce the level of friction between the tires and the surface. This more the water generates a layer that almost does that the motorcycle does not make good contact with the ground and generates that the capacity of braking and maneuver is very little reason why it is necessary to try to avoid this signaling and go only on the asphalt.
7. Make precise signs.
When driving in the rain, lane change, braking and other signals become even more important to notify other drivers that what is planned to be done and prevent accidents.
|
<urn:uuid:10b3f7f4-0810-4cdb-af2e-d78560603c46>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-10
|
https://allaboutmotorcycle.com/how-to-ride-motorcycle-in-rain/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146809.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20200227191150-20200227221150-00048.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.940556 | 591 | 2.546875 | 3 |
In order to understand a concept, one needs to have a clear definition of it. In very easy words, stress is simply a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. In psychology, stress is a feeling of strain and pressure.
Myths about Stress:
Stress is usually considered as a bad word, which isn’t true at all. There are few myths about stress which most of us firmly believe in – which aren’t true at all. Myths like: Stress is always bad for us or its effects are same for everyone or that stress is something we can do least about.
If stress is making you feel motivated and it increases performance, such stress is called EUSTRESS (literally meaning – a good stress). But if stress is making you feel uncomfortable and feelings of anxiety arise as a result – decreasing your overall performance, then such stress is called DISTRESS (which is a negative stress).
Strategies to Cope with Stress
1. Track your Mood
Sometimes, we end up shouting at kids without even there being any MAJOR reason. We end up crying without knowing the trigger of our tears. We may constantly feel overwhelmed or annoyed even though everything is running smoothly around us. We are randomly grumpy and in a bad mood. People constantly ask us if we’re ok? and we constantly keep saying “I’m ok”… even though deep down inside, we feel like a volcano at the edge of bursting…The constant state of inner frustration starts to become a huge barrier amidst us and productivity – even in the most mundane life chores.
Does that sound familiar? Most of the times, there may be just ONE underlying reason! The reason that’s been buried beneath the debris of so many other reasons that you are unable to put a finger on that ONE thing! And everytime someone asks ‘what’s wrong’?, your answer is either ‘nothing’ or ‘I don’t know’…
So knowing the ebbs and flows of your Mood is essential! Knowing what triggers joy, anger, frustration, procrastination, lack of self worth, grief, Stress, worries and all the emotions that engulf our lives! Your level of personal awareness is crucial for your mental health! Knowing the cause is half of the solution.
View this post on Instagram
2. Declutter your Mind
We have discussed this in detail HERE because a cluttered mind can lead to stress in no time. If you are subscribed to AYEINA, you can download this freebie bundle by applying the free access code given in the email for some stress-free art therapy.
You can sign up below to get the free printable bundle access code – containing the above 3 pages of printables along with other freebies.
3. Good Company and Professional Support
Stress can turn into something productive or something completely destructive. It can even turn into depression with the passage of time if constantly ignored or within certain situations. So don’t hesitate to ask for support. Isolation not only predicted higher levels of anger, but also significantly higher levels of depression. So if you constantly feel distress being a part of your life, communicate and consult. Although I haven’t done my masters in Islamic Psychology yet so I’m not qualified to be a counselor (in shaa Allah one fine day after I’m completely done with my Bachelors Degree in it), but I can definitely help as an adviser – so if you ever feel the need to reach out, don’t hesitate to contact at email@example.com 🙂
An Islamic Perspective
There are plenty of theories to cope up with stress. Being Muslims, besides taking care of physical and emotional health, we never deny the nurturing needs of our soul. But before all that, know that grief or stress is an extremely natural phenomena and there shouldn’t be any shame attached to the feeling itself.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) visited Sa’d bin ‘Ubadah during his illness. He was accompanied by ‘Abdur-Rahman bin ‘Auf, Sa’d bin Abu Waqqas and ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud (May Allah be pleased with them). The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) began to weep. When his Companions saw this, their tears also started flowing. He (ﷺ) said, “Do you not hear, Allah does not punish for the shedding of tears or the grief of the heart, but punishes or bestows mercy for the utterances of this (and he pointed to his tongue).” [Bukhari & Muslim]
Having said that, our faith can be an invaluable resource to help us manage the stressors of life.
1) Believe in Allah & His Qadr
“…Distress has been written down, and what has been destined will occur ; what Allah wills will surely happen, and what He does not will will not happen. We have no power to harm or benefit ourselves…” [Abi Dawud]
“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient” [Qur’an – 2:155]
“And if Allah should touch you with adversity, there is no remover of it except Him; and if He intends for you good, then there is no repeller of His bounty. He causes it to reach whom He wills of His servants. And He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.” [Qur’an – 10:107]
2) Feel & Express Gratitude
“‘If you are grateful, I will surely increase you …” [Qur’an – 14:7]
If people asked me to tell them ONE thing that can help them in their lives, I’d tell them it’s gratitude! Over and over and over! Which is why we introduced a basic gratitude journal for Muslims before all of this. Because it all starts with a grateful heart and a positive mind!
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it.” [Muslim]
Nothing else kills positive vibes quicker than comparison – comparing your life, looks, wealth, children, spouse, followers, success, education and what not!
Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Look at those who are beneath you and do not look at those who are above you, for it is more suitable that you should not consider as less the blessing of Allah.” [Ibn Majah]
3) Grab onto Hope & Husn az Zann
Jabir bin ‘Abdullah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying three days before his death: “Let none of you die unless he has good expectations from Allah”. [Muslim]
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “Allah said, ‘I am to my slave as he thinks of Me, (i.e. I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him). [Bukhari]
Allah does not charge a soul except its capacity…” [Qur’an – 2:286]
When everything starts to fall apart within and around, remember that hope of khair is what keeps us all going forward. Allah is however we think of Him! So have the best of hopes and He WILL fulfill them all! The conviction of belief can be a powerful tool of will power.
Say, “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves , do not despair of the mercy of Allah . Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful. [Qur’an – 39:53]
Husn az zann not only gives us a positive mindset about our Rabb but also the people around.
“The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘No believing man should hate a believing woman. If he dislikes one aspect of her character, he will be pleased with another.’” [Muslim]
The Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever wishes that Allah would respond to him during hardship and grief, then let him supplicate plentifully when at ease.” [Tirmidhi]
6 Powerful Duas that remove Grief, Worries, Negativity & Stress
(according to Qur’an & Sunnah)
Following list of duas are very beneficial in the times of stress, worry, grief, negativity and anxiety etc. (the first one especially – I have personally found it really beneficial reciting it to my crying babies) – (the references have been linked inside the text (when you click them, you will be taken to the original source)).
يَا حَىُّ يَا قَيُّومُ بِرَحْمَتِكَ أَسْتَغِيثُ
رَّبِّ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ هَمَزَاتِ الشَّيَاطِينِ
لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ الْعَلِيُّ الْحَلِيمُ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ رَبُّ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَرَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْكَرِيمِ
اللَّهُمَّ رَحْمَتَكَ أَرْجُو فَلاَ تَكِلْنِي إِلَى نَفْسِي طَرْفَةَ عَيْنٍ وَأَصْلِحْ لِي شَأْنِي كُلَّهُ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْهَمِّ وَالْحَزَنِ، وَالْعَجْزِ وَالْكَسَلِ، وَالْجُبْنِ وَالْبُخْلِ، وَضَلَعِ الدَّيْنِ، وَغَلَبَةِ الرِّجَالِ
5) Turn to Salaah – the coolness of eyes
“And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive .” [Qur’an – 2:45]
If certain decisions are causing you stress in life, try praying Istikhara Salah. We did a detailed post on it.
Also, being in the places that remind you of Allah really helps! So you can visit mosques etc. – observe people worshiping Him, making dua (crying to Him), listen to the recitation of the imaam etc. For that re-connection with the Lord in shaa Allah.
6) Send Salawaat upon Prophet (ﷺ)
Ubayy bin Ka’b (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:…I said: “O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), I frequently invoke Allah to elevate your rank. How much of my supplications should I devote to you?” He said, “You may devote as much as you wish.” When I suggested a quarter, he said, “Do whatever you wish, but it will be better for you if you increase it.” I suggested half, and he said, “Do whatever you wish, but it will be better for you if you increase.” I suggested two- thirds, and he said, “Do whatever you wish but it will be better for you if you increase it.” I said, “Shall I devote all my supplications invoking Allah to elevate your rank?” He said, “Then you will be freed from your worries and your sins will be forgiven.” [Tirmidhi]
7) Increase in Istighfaar (Repentance)
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “Sometimes I perceive a veil over my heart, and I supplicate Allah for forgiveness a hundred times in a day.” [Muslim]
As Omar Albach said: “when our stomach growls, we know that we are hungry. When our throat is dry, we know that we are thirsty. This ‘veil’ over our heart is what it feels for the soul to be hungry and thirsty. When you feel this, know that Allah wants to hear your voice…”
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “If anyone constantly seeks pardon (from Allah), Allah will appoint for him a way out of every distress and a relief from every anxiety, and will provide sustenance for him from where he expects not.” [Abu Dawud]
8) Use Talbeen/ Talbina
Aisha used to recommend at-Talbina for the sick and for such a person as grieved over a dead person. She used to say, “I heard Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) saying, ‘at-Talbina gives rest to the heart of the patient and makes it active and relieves some of his sorrow and grief.'” [Bukhari]
9) Take a Step Back from Dunya
“Whoever is focused only on this world, Allah will confound his affairs and make him fear poverty constantly, and he will not get anything of this world except that which has been decreed for him. Whoever is focused on the Hereafter, Allah will settle his affairs for him and make him feel content with his lost, and his provision and worldly gains will undoubtedly come to him.” [Ibn Majah]
Alhamdulillah for a Muslim tries his level best, never to lose the sight of his ultimate goal. And even if he does, he knows that his doors that lead him back to the guidance and light are always whole heartedly open. And that major goal is nothing but to attain the pleasure of Allah.
10) Remember – Everything is Temporary!
Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “Safeguard the Commandments of Allah, you will find Him before you. Remember Him in prosperity and He will remember you in adversity. Be sure that which you miss, was not to hit you; and what hits you, was never to miss you. Remember that the Help of Allah is obtained with patience, and relief emerges after distress, prosperity follows adversity, and hardship is followed by ease” [Tirmidhi]
Death – though it sounds like a concept of grief – can be an amazing tool for change of perspective. Knowing that you and everything else is temporary in this world, the worries that haunt you forever start to dissipate with their evanescent nature. Like they say…This too shall pass! in shaa Allah 🙂
I have been enjoying these monthly series and have been following them Masha Allah. This one in perticular is my favorite because Allah knows how stress can effect us. I can’t function if I am stressed so I play the avoidance game
It’s difficult to function productively in stress indeed and avoiding it usually adds to it. So it’s better to nip evil in the bud instead of brushing it under the rug! Girl, you can do this 💪 in shaa Allah.
Jazakallah khair for sharing your wealth of knowledge..This post was very helpful to me. May Allah SWT reward you.
and you too habibti <3
I found this really beneficial and am trying to implement the suggestions insha’Allah, especially making dua. JazakAllah khayr for sharing your wisdom.
How to recover from insomnia
JazakAllah khair for such an in-depth post. Our generation has those kind of problems which our elders hardly agree with. Your words have enlightened my heart.
JazakAllahu khairan for this beneficial write up. It is is very helpful.
[…] 2017. Stress Management Tips from Qur’an and Sunnah. Diakses dari https://ayeina.com/stress-management-tips/ pada tanggal 16 Agustus 2021 pukul 02.33 […]
very good words
|
<urn:uuid:5234234f-aa45-488e-97cc-0391cd2bcead>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://ayeina.com/stress-management-tips/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224648245.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20230602003804-20230602033804-00585.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.938052 | 3,880 | 3.03125 | 3 |
This year at Purdue, our goal is to make a bacterial UV sensor for commercial application. By exploiting existing E. coli DNA repair pathways (photoreactivation and SOS); we want to eventually create a "patch" that will change colors as UV exposure increases. Thus, one would be able to test when new sunscreen needs to be applied based on actual DNA damage. Other applications could include Bacterial "tattoos" that only show up in the sun, color-changing T-shirts, etc.
Biologically, we are planning to attach the phr (photoreactivation) promoter to a gene creating some kind of red color, such as RFP, prodigiosin or LacYZ on MacConkey agar. As a result, as pyrimidine dimers are formed, the natural photoreactivation pathway will be activated by the bacteria and red color will develop alongside natural DNA repair. Once more severe DNA damage occurs, the E. coli will naturally switch over to the well-documented SOS (recA) pathway. By combining the promoter for this pathway (a part used by Bangalore in 2006) with the lacZ gene and plating on X-gal, severe UV damage will make beta-galactosidase which will cleave X-gal which will create a blue pigment. Thus, our device will slowly turn red and eventually blue as the DNA damage resulting from UV radiation increases.
Unfortunately, there is insufficient documentation regarding the phr pathway. Because this pathway is not present in humans, very little research has been done on the subject. As a result, there is no definitive source for the specific genetic code that makes up the promoter region of the system. Because of this and other funding problems, the Purdue team has decided to focus on just the SOS side of the project.
Part 1: Lit Research/Background
See the Resources page for a brief list of references.
As for any research project, we started by reading...and reading...and reading some more. We determined that our project was feasible. Modeling has been done of the SOS and phr pathways, using UV radiation to activate them. Normally, however, the promoters of these pathways were linked to GFP or other fluorescent proteins. As a real-time biosensor, fluorescence was not really an option. We wanted people to be able to see the colors change as it happens--while they're still in the sun. After figuring out which genes we wanted to use, we looked in the Registry--and found them!
For some background, lacZ has been used for blue/white screening of E. coli for decades. Standard E. coli naturally make the lacZ protein (beta-galactosidase, or beta-gal), which reacts with X-gal, a structurally relative chemical to lactose (which is cleaved by beta-gal into monosaccharides). However, when beta-gal cleaves X-gal, one of the chemical components formed is a bright blue pigment, 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-hydroxyindole. Therefore, normal E. coli, when plated on X-gal with IPTG (an inducer of lacZ) turn blue. If a lac- E. coli is transformed with a part containing either the alpha constituent of lacZ or the entire gene, those that transform successfully will turn blue, while the rest (which are still lac-) will be white. This process can also be done in reverse, where the new gene will splice the coding region responsible for lacZ, making it ineffective. Thus, the successful bacteria will be white (and everything else will be blue). For this project, we are attaching a different promoter to the front of lacZ, as opposed to the normal operon. Thus, lacZ will be transcribed at the same time as the system corresponding to the promoter is transcribed. Therefore, as our promoter is activated, the E. coli will turn blue.
When DNA damage occurs, kinks and gaps are formed in the DNA strand. Thus, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is formed when the cell attempts to transcribe the kinked DNA. In particular, UV-B radiation forms thymine-thymine (cyclopyrimidine) dimers between adjacent thymines. The cell will first activate two initial DNA repair systems. First, the phr pathway will specifically fix thymine dimers with the help of visible light. This process occurs constantly at very low levels in cells. If there is too much ssDNA for phr to keep up, the cell activates nucleotide excision repair (NER), which effectively eliminates most of the damage with very high accuracy. NER is considered the first phase of the SOS pathway, as its genes (uvrABD) are normally inhibited by the lexA repressor (a characteristic of all ~40 SOS genes). However, if DNA damage is extreme, other SOS genes, including recA, are activated as a last resort. This next set of genes causes the cell to form random mutations via DNA Polymerase V (a mutagenic polymerase) which will add any base into a gap, as opposed to the correct one. For this project, we are using the recA promoter, which is a standard promoter of the SOS pathway and is activated only after extreme DNA damage.
Part 2: Modeling
As the Purdue team consists of mostly engineers, it is our goal to be able to mathematically model our system. A working model will help us understand the mechanisms involved in our genetic modifications, and will allow us to predict the consequences of any modifications.
For more details, see the Modeling page.
Part 3: In the Lab
After combing the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, we found 2 parts that we could use to implement our idea. First, part J22106 (contributed by Bangalore in 2006) is the promoter for recA, a central gene in the bacterial SOS pathway. Next, we found a complete lacZ (I732017) which could be attached to the promoter. Both parts are relatively OK according to the quality control tests. By cloning the sequence of promoter-reporter, we can make the traditional if-then construct often used to test promoter strength. In this case, however, we will clone it into lac- cells (so we don't get false positives). By plating on X-gal plates, those cells that have successfully transformed will turn blue.
Standard Assembly methods were used. Stabs of transformed cells containing each part were obtained from iGEM. Next, a miniprep was done for each part (using QIAGEN miniprep kits for microcentrifuge), and each part was digested using restriction enzymes and buffers from New England Biolabs. To make sure the recA promoter was in front of lacZ, we first cut the SOS (recA) plasmid with EcoRI and SpeI, which left us the promoter all by itself, a 192 bp part. We cut lacZ with EcoRI and XbaI, which cut out the piece of plasmid in front of lacZ, leaving a part about 5000 bp long. After digestion, we ran our parts through an agarose gel, and purified the bands of the correct sizes (using a QIAGEN QIAquick Gel Extraction Kit). Next in the process was ligation, again using materials from New England Biolabs. Finally, the new plasmids were transformed into chemically competent DH5a cells.
Testing of the new bacteria to follow, as well as submission of the new part to the Registry.
For more detailed protocols, see the Notebook page.
Part 4: Results
We made the part, and sent it in! See the Notebook/Project page, or the powerpoint/poster below for more details. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding and time, we were unable to test our part. For the expected results, see the Modeling page.
Part 5: Safety Considerations
Our project is intended to raise the public's awareness of the lack of danger posed by bacterial mutations. Our eventual hope would be that an application involving our living biosensor would be possible. Our cloned bacteria are already engineered so that they cannot survive outside of a lab environment. In other words, our protocol was entirely under Biosafety Level I (i.e., little or no health hazard).
At Purdue, the group in charge of recombinant DNA research is the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC). In cooperation with them, we filled out a form detailing our entire protocol. We then had to indicate any health hazards that could be posed by our project (which there were none).
In order to make a multicolored sensor, we would first need to obtain DNA coding for the promoters of uvrA (the first gene activated in NER) or phr. Unfortunately, a complete analysis of the promoters of phr are not available, and uvrA is not part of the Registry, so we do not have access to it currently. Ideally, the phr pathway would be preferable for this application, as NER will fix any DNA damage, whereas phr focuses specifically on the dimers formed by UV-B radiation.
Other than the lacZ/X-gal reporter combination, other options were explored. Initially, we were attracted to the red color of Lycopene (the red pigment in tomatoes), a gene put in the Registry by Edinburgh. Unfortunately, this part cannot effectively produce any visible pigment in a timely manner. The next option we looked at was MacConkey agar, which works similarly to X-gal: a lactose-fermenting E. coli will turn red on MacConkey agar. Therefore, if supplied with lactose and a lacZ gene, lac- E. coli would change colors if attached to the correct promoter. Unfortunately, this system would require us to create 2 different strains of bacteria (which would have to be kept separate) because they would both be using the lacZ gene. The next possibility for a color promoter was an RFP gene. RFP is distinctive from other fluorescent proteins because it turns bacteria a visible red color. Upon further study, both standard RFP and the its successor mCherry require several hours to be produced to an extent to make them visible without fluorescence. Again, this timescale is too long for our application. Our last idea for a visible reporter was the prodigiosin pigment, a pigment naturally made in several strains of bacteria. When constitutively produced, prodigiosin appears blood-like: bright red and shiny. Unfortunately, the prodigiosin pathway also requires more than 20 separate genes, all of which would have to be transformed into E. coli. This is not very feasible for this project.
Upon successfully creating an SOS biosensor, we would like to continue the project in several ways. First, we would modify the system to improve the speed of color changing. This could be accomplished by creating an NER- mutant, which would necessarily skip over NER and activate the SOS system almost immediately following any significant UV damage. As stated before, we would like to add a secondary color system which would probably utilize the uvrA gene of the NER pathway. Another goal of this team would be to adapt the biosensor to a marketable device, such as a wearable patch. This way, the true effects of sunscreen could be tested: the patch would change colors as the sunscreen wore off and the DNA was damaged.
|Home||The Team||The Project||Parts Submitted to the Registry||Modeling||Notebook||Tools and References|
|
<urn:uuid:157f6736-894d-46bf-b67b-ca8881098b4a>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-35
|
http://2008.igem.org/Team:Purdue/Project
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535919886.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20140909055341-00054-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.948043 | 2,394 | 3.109375 | 3 |
NASA today announced it has found first solar system just like ours with EIGHT planets… boosting the chances of finding ALIEN life elsewhere in the Universe.
With the help of artificial intelligence, scientists scouring data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope have discovered an eighth planet around the star known as Kepler-90.
The find sets a new record for the most exoplanets around a single star and, for the first time, ties with our own.
The planet Kepler-90i, described at a briefing Thursday and detailed in a paper accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal, demonstrates that other stars can indeed host planetary systems as populous as our own solar system.
“Kepler has already shown us that most stars have planets,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division in Washington. “Today Kepler confirms that stars can have large families of planets just like our solar system.”
The discovery also establishes an important role for neural networks and other machine-learning techniques in the hunt for planets outside our own solar neighborhood.
Kepler-90i orbits a sun-like star located 2,545 light-years away in the constellation Draco. Like Earth, Kepler-90i is the third rock from its sun — though it sits much closer, circling its star every 14.4 days.
Two small planets within its orbit, known as 90b and 90c, revolve around Kepler-90 every seven and nine days, respectively.
The next three planets beyond Kepler-90i — 90d, 90e and 90f — fall into a sub-Neptune size class and complete an orbit every 60, 92 and 125 days, respectively. The two most distant planets, 90g and 90h, are Jupiter-class gas giants, and take 211 and 332 days to make a round trip.
All of the planets except for 90i were previously known. That tied the Kepler-90 system with the seven-planet Trappist-1 system for the honor of most populous known exoplanet solar system.
In some ways, the Kepler-90 system echoes our own solar system, with small rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) closer in to the sun and larger, more gas-rich ones (Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune and Uranus) lying farther out.
Scientists think there’s a reason the larger planets orbit farther from their sun: It’s the cool place to be.
“In our own solar system, this pattern is often seen as evidence that the outer planets formed in a cooler part of the solar system, where ice can stay solid and clumped together to make bigger and bigger planets,” said Andrew Vanderburg, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin and an author of the forthcoming study.
The same phenomenon could be at work here around Kepler-90, scientists said.
But the exoplanet system differs from ours in at least one major way: The orbits of all eight planets would lie well within that of Earth, which takes 365 days to circle the sun.
Scientists said they weren’t sure why the Kepler-90 system has such a crowded field. Perhaps some of the planets formed farther out and were eventually drawn inward, they said.
Regardless, it means that Kepler 90i, third rock though it may be, is too hot to be habitable.
“Kepler-90i is not a place I’d like to go visit,” Vanderburg said, adding that the planet probably has an average temperature of about 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Kepler Space Telescope was launched in 2009 to search for Earth-like planets around distant, sun-like stars. For four years it stared at a single patch of sky holding more than 150,000 stars, looking for the tiny, recurring dips in light caused by a planet as it repeatedly passed in front of its stellar host.
After problems with its reaction wheels left the spacecraft hobbled in 2013, scientists and engineers focused it on new targets, renaming it the K2 mission. To date, the spacecraft has discovered 2,525 confirmed planets.
“We’ve come a long way in our understanding of planetary systems,” said Jessie Dotson, Kepler’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Northern California, which manages the Kepler and K2 missions.
Though Kepler is still searching the skies, the data it has already sent back could contain evidence of even more exoplanets.
But finding them will be a challenge, said study coauthor Christopher Shallue, a senior software engineer with the Google AI research team. To do it, scientists have to select the strongest signals and then examine them with both human eyes and automated tests to determine which ones are real.
So far, out of 30,000 signals, only about 2,500 have turned out to be actual planets.
“The process is like looking for needles in a haystack,” Shallue said.
If you want to search for planets among Kepler’s weaker signals — which are far more numerous — then that haystack gets “much, much larger,” he added.
“There are simply too many weak signals to examine using the existing methods,” Shallue said. “But machine learning really shines in situations where there is too much data for humans to examine for themselves.”
That’s why Shallue and Vanderburg developed a neural network, a type of machine-learning technique that can learn to identify patterns in large data sets.
“The key idea is to let the computer learn by example instead of humans programming specific rules,” Shallue said.
To work properly, a neural network needs lots of practice. The scientists “trained” theirs using a set of 15,000 Kepler signals that had already been studied and properly labeled by humans. Using that data, the program learned to identify the signatures of actual planets and distinguish them from false positives.
When the scientists finally tested their neural network on signals that it had not seen before, it correctly sorted the planets from the false positives a whopping 96% of the time, Shallue said.
Using the neural network, the scientists were able to discover new planets in old data — Kepler-90i, as well as a sixth planet in a different star system, Kepler-80g. Kepler-80g is an Earth-sized planet that is gravitationally locked in a resonant chain with four of its fellow planets, forcing them to orbit their star almost as if they were all moving to the music of a highly choreographed dance.
“This new method found something that was extremely hard to find otherwise,” said Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at MIT who was not involved in the work.
These discoveries are just the beginning, the scientists said. Shallue said they already had ideas for how to improve the neural network. Once those improvements are in place, they also plan to search all 150,000 or so stars in the Kepler data set to hunt for planets that are similar to Earth.
“I’m so excited to see where this goes next,” Dotson said.
Many scientists had hoped that Kepler’s original mission would last far longer than four years, allowing it to find a significant number of Earth-sized planets in Earth-sized orbits around sun-like stars.
And while that search was cut short, this AI-based method could allow researchers to go back into the data and fulfill that goal, said Seager, the deputy science director for NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, set to launch next year.
Finding some of those key planets hiding in Kepler’s data “would be incredible,” Seager said.
As for Kepler-90, its planetary system could have more than eight planets, the scientists pointed out — they could just lie farther away from the star and not have orbited enough times for Kepler to have spotted them during its primary mission.
“There’s a lot of unexplored real estate in the Kepler-90 system,” Vanderburg said, “and it would almost be surprising to me if there weren’t any more planets around this star.”
As more high-population planetary systems are found, he added, our own home among the stars may start to look surprisingly ordinary.
|
<urn:uuid:2981f1e1-aac6-4850-bc32-d004e2174bd2>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-14
|
https://webtopnews.com/nasa-first-alien-solar-system-eight-planets-found-5464-2017/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20230329023546-20230329053546-00465.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.948402 | 1,746 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Trying to boost your metabolism? How about fighting off infection? The answer could be as close as the kitchen sink. A glass of water in the morning (don’t worry, you can still have coffee!) brings amazing health benefits – from purifying your colon to increasing blood cell production! Here are 5 surprising health advantages of drinking water in the morning:
#4 – New cell production: Our blood is composed of about 83% water, while lean muscle tissue is approximately 75% water. Early morning water consumption increases the daily production of new blood and muscle cells.
#3 – Increased weight loss: Believe it or not, your body works a little bit harder to raise your core temperature when you consume something cold. Drinking at least 16 ounces of chilled water in the morning can boost your daily metabolism by up to 24%!
#2. Clear, moisturized skin: It’s no coincidence that it’s called the “fountain” of youth. Water helps to purge toxins from the blood, which helps keep your skin glowing, moisturized and clear. This gives you a more youthful appearance, and over time visibly reduces signs of aging.
#1. Balanced lymph system: Your lymph nodes act as filters for foreign particles and are important in the proper functioning of the immune system. Lymph fluids circulate throughout the body, helping you perform multiple daily functions – including balancing your bodily fluids and fighting off infection.
What’s better for you, cold water or room-temperature water? Both cold water and lukewarm water have health benefits. Drinking cold water increases the number of calories you burn, in turn raising your metabolism, because your body has to work harder to return to normal temperature. However, room-temperature water can be absorbed more quickly into your system.
Should you add lemon to your water? Adding freshly-squeezed lemon or lime juice – or a slice of orange – can add a hint of flavor without the calories. Some people also believe that adding lemon juice to their water increases their vitamin and mineral consumption. To an extent, that’s correct: home-grown, organic lemons have a higher vitamin and mineral content than store-bought lemons, and often contain calcium, magnesium and potassium along with high levels of vitamin C. However, if you’re sensitive to an acidic diet, consistently adding citric acid to your water could be detrimental to your overall health. Citric acid is a known bladder irritant, and can erode teeth enamel more quickly.
Can you drink too much water? If you’re worried about drinking too much water, then you’ve heard about hyponatremia – meaning “low sodium in the blood.” This occurs when someone drinks enormous amounts of water and/or loses too much salt from the body within a short period of time – like a marathon runner pounding one or two gallons of water without adding electrolytes, for example. Hyponatremia is rare, and doesn’t happen when a healthy person spreads his or her water intake over the course of the full day.
Cold or warm, pure or with a slice of citrus – there are plenty of ways to stay hydrated! Far more important than temperature or citrus is making sure you’re getting enough fluids. Wondering how much water is enough? For the average healthy adult in a moderate climate, sufficient daily fluid intake for men is about 13 cups, and for women is about 9 cups. This may souns like a lot, but keep in mind that up to 20% of our fluid intake can be drawn from the food we eat – especially moisture-rich foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. A great rule of thumb is the 8-8 rule: Drink at least 8 8oz glasses of fluids (preferably water) a day, starting first thing in the morning, and you’ll be in a healthy range.
Don’t forget that many other factors can affect your sufficient fluid intake, such as climate, elevation, exercise, breast feeding, and medications or certain medical conditions. For more information on these factors, check out this article from the Mayo Clinic: http://mayocl.in/UkbZD. If you have medical questions about your daily fluid intake, check first with your primary care physician.
|
<urn:uuid:d1c6767d-9199-49ab-b662-35f89b2c8b54>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-15
|
http://blog.totalhomecaresupplies.com/content/resources/2013/03/5-health-benefits-of-drinking-water/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1398223204388.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20140423032004-00344-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.937491 | 892 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Maps and Photographs:
Another map of the Moon (86.7 KB)
Great photographs of the Moon
Clementine images of the Moon
with some Moon facts:
Star Child: Level two
Frequently Asked Questions about the Lunar Prospector and the Moon
The physical Moon and its history
Space Academy - Contains a few facts and a quick phases of the moon applet that shows the moon for any day from January 1st, 1990 to December 31st, 2019.
Star Child: Moonlight Madness - an on-line phases of the moon quiz: may be a little advanced for K-3.
Lunar Outreach Services - contains information about the dates and times of New Moons, First Quarters, Full Moons and Last Quarters from 1923-2084.
Phases of the Moon for the current month.
Virtual Reality Moon Phase Pictures for any date between the years 1800 and 2199.
Windows to the Universe - Almost one dozen myths from different cultures around the world.
Native American Moon Myths:
Moon Lore - several short myths and legends concerning the Moon.
Moon Mythology - Lists several names of stories about the Moon from different cultures.
Myths and Legends - Contains several myths about several topics concerning several cultures.
NASA Moon page - information about all NASA and Russian lunar missions, including the Apollo moon landings.
Cheryl Robertson's whole Moon page
Native American Starlore
|
<urn:uuid:4f0f2538-eae0-4b0e-b220-e6c83da49d27>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-23
|
http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/MoonQuest/Quemoonresource.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997891176.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025811-00145-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.848339 | 295 | 3.109375 | 3 |
August 2, 1790: the first Census Day, when brave enumerators went out on horseback to find, question and catalogue the population of the United States.
Census-taking in the United States dates all the way back to March 1, 1790, when a census was one of the first things that Congress instructed the new government to do. “In authorizing the census… lawmakers were complying with Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which required the federal government to conduct a census of the U.S. population every 10 years,” writes Andrew Glass for Politico. The census has been conducted every 10 years since.
The first census asked just six questions: the name of the (white, male) householder, and then the names of all the other people in the household, divided into these categories: Free white males who were at least 16 years old; free white males who were under 16 years old; free white females; all other free persons; and slaves. The census reflected the values of the United States in 1790: “Slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person. Indians weren’t counted until 1870,” Glass writes.
“The results were used to allocate Congressional seats… electoral votes and funding for government programs,” writes Jeremy Norman for HistoryofInformation.com. The United States Census Bureau also acknowledges that the precise enumeration of free white males was intended “to assess the country’s industrial and military potential.”
“Under the general direction of Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, marshals took the census in the original 13 States, plus the districts of Kentucky, Maine and Vermont and the Southwest Territory (now Tennessee),” writes the census bureau. “Both George Washington and… Jefferson expressed skepticism over the final count, expecting a number that exceeded the 3.9 million inhabitants counted in the census.”
Surprises aside, approximately 200 copies of the census results were printed and distributed, writes Norman. A look at the bureau’s historical census questionnaires reveals that the questions have significantly expanded. The bureau writes:
The 1810 Census also collected economic data (on the quantity and value of manufactured goods). In 1850, the census began collecting "social statistics" (information about taxes, education, crime, and value of estate, etc.) and mortality data. In 1940, additional questions were asked of a sample of the population, including questions on internal migration, veteran status, and the number of children ever born to women. These questions helped society understand the impact of the Great Depression.
The census is “the nation’s largest civilian exercise,” writes Jeffrey Mervis for Science. The census costs more than $10 billion to conduct and it provides a good portion of the demographic information that the federal government uses to allocate funds. The upcoming 2020 census represents the first time that the census will be able to be filled out online, rather than on paper.
|
<urn:uuid:20214620-c438-47b1-ab89-27121f9d5e7c>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-40
|
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/first-us-census-only-asked-six-questions-180964234/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510219.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20230926175325-20230926205325-00386.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.95158 | 616 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Twenty years ago if I had asked a kid who the 16th president was, I would have likely gotten a blank stare and a shrug of the shoulders. Ditto with stuff like the capital of Idaho, when the 14th Amendment was passed, and where the Treaty of Versailles was signed.
The shrugging of shoulders was mostly my fault. I taught in a very traditional style, with my focus on basic content. This method encouraged the memorization of a few facts just long enough to pass the unit test.
I didn’t know any better – it was the way I was taught and it was the way I was taught to teach. In that sort of classroom, long term retention and actual application of knowledge just weren’t going to happen.
We know better now.
Realistic problems. Collaboration. Analyzing evidence. Creation of authentic products. Integration of fiction and non-fiction. Use of technology. Formative assessment.
This is 21st century social studies.
|
<urn:uuid:ee848105-9df8-4ea8-9e7c-d18bbc879b84>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-30
|
https://historytech.wordpress.com/tag/siri/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549427429.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170727042127-20170727062127-00710.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.978034 | 205 | 2.765625 | 3 |
January 23, 2009 It’s kind of ironic that the very organ that gives us our intelligence and understanding of the world around us is also the one we understand the least. Now a novel 4D colorimetric technique developed by researchers at Florida Atlantic University, (FAU), that simultaneously maps four dimensions of brain data, (magnitude, 2D of cortical surface and time), in EEG signals could dramatically change the way neuroscientists are able to understand how the brain operates. The technique makes it possible to observe and interpret oscillatory activity of the entire brain as it evolves in time, millisecond by millisecond, so that for the first time, true episodes of brain coordination can be spotted directly in EEG records and carefully analyzed.
For the brain to achieve its intricate functions such as perception, action, attention and decision making, neural regions have to work together yet still retain their specialized roles. Excess or lack of timely coordination between brain areas lies at the core of a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, autism, Parkinson’s disease, sleep disorders and depression. Research carried out at FAU by Drs. J. A. Scott Kelso and Emmanuelle Tognoli demonstrates that coordination involves a subtle kind of ballet in the brain, and like dancers, cortical areas are capable of coming together as an ensemble (integration) while still exhibiting a tendency to do their own thing (segregation).
According to Kelso, “A lot of emphasis in neuroscience these days is on what the parts do, but understanding the coordination of multiple parts in a complex system such as the brain is a fundamental challenge. Using our approach, key predictions of cortical coordination dynamics can now be tested, thereby revealing the essential modus operandi of the intact living brain.” The researchers found that most of the time, activity from multiple brain areas look coordinated; however, in actuality, there is far less synchrony than what appears to be. For a long time, scientists have strictly emphasized one kind of synchronization called ‘inphase’ or ‘zero-lag synchrony’ looking only at who is coordinated with whom and not observing the details of how they are coordinated. Tognoli and Kelso have shown that the brain uses a much wider repertoire of synchronization patterns than just inphase - for example, brain areas may lock their oscillations together but keep a different phase.
“In the future, it may be possible to fluently read the processes of the brain from the EEG like one reads notes from a musical score,” said Tognoli. “Our technique is already providing a unique view on brain dynamics. It shows how activity grows and dies in individual brain areas and how multiple areas engage in and disengage from working together as a coordinated team.” In addition to shedding insight on the way the brain normally operates, Tognoli and Kelso’s research provides a much-needed framework to understand the coordination dynamics of brain areas in a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders thereby opening up new ways to study therapeutic interventions, in particular the effects of drugs.
In article detailing Kelso and Tognoli’s research titled, “Brain coordination dynamics: true and false faces of phase synchrony and metastability,” was published in the January 2009 issue and featured on the cover of Progress in Neurobiology.
|
<urn:uuid:7beeb68b-f6dc-400f-b2a0-61ac8aac5bc3>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-39
|
http://newatlas.com/new-insight-into-brain-function/10808/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818695066.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20170926051558-20170926071558-00691.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.935292 | 690 | 2.875 | 3 |
Human Rabies from Exposure to a Vampire Bat in Mexico --- Louisiana, 2010
In August 2010, CDC confirmed a case of rabies in a migrant farm worker, aged 19 years, hospitalized in Louisiana with encephalitis. The man developed acute neurologic symptoms at the end of July, shortly after arriving in the United States from Michoacán, Mexico. Despite supportive care, his condition deteriorated, and he died on August 21. Antemortem diagnostic testing confirmed the diagnosis of rabies, and samples collected at autopsy were positive for a vampire bat rabies virus variant. The patient's mother reported that he had been bitten by a bat in July in Mexico but had not sought medical care. Postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) was offered to 27 of the patient's contacts in Louisiana and to 68 health-care workers involved in his care. Although bats have become the primary source of human rabies in the United States, this is the first reported death from a vampire bat rabies virus variant in the United States. Clinicians caring for patients with acute progressive encephalitis should consider rabies in the differential diagnosis and implement early infection control measures.
On July 29, 2010, a previously healthy male, aged 19 years, from Michoacán, Mexico, arrived at a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana. After 1 day of work in the fields, the patient sought medical attention on July 30 for generalized fatigue, left shoulder pain, and left hand numbness attributed to overexertion. The patient's symptoms continued, and he was evaluated at a local clinic and transferred to a referral hospital in New Orleans for further evaluation and management on August 3.
Physical examination at the referral hospital revealed hyperesthesia of the left shoulder, weakness of the left hand, generalized areflexia, and drooping of the left upper eyelid. A lumbar puncture produced cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with a mildly elevated white blood cell count of 8 cells/mm3 (normal: 0--5 cells/mm3) with 67% lymphocytes and 12% neutrophils, a normal glucose, and no organisms on staining. The patient was admitted to the intensive-care unit for suspected Miller-Fisher variant of acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (also referred to as Guillain-Barré syndrome), with viral encephalitis and early meningitis among the alternative diagnoses considered.
The next day, the patient developed a fever of 101.1°F (38.4°C) and signs of respiratory distress that prompted elective intubation. Computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of the head revealed only a developing sinusitis. During the next several days, the patient became gradually less responsive to external stimuli, developed fixed and dilated pupils, and began having episodes of bradycardia and hypothermia. Further evaluation included a repeat lumbar puncture revealing an elevation of the white blood cell count to 87 cells/mm3 with 97% lymphocytes and an elevated protein of 233 mg/dL (normal: 15--45 mg/dL). An electroencephalogram was consistent with encephalitis. Bacterial, viral, and fungal cultures of blood and CSF were negative. Additionally, laboratory tests for human immunodeficiency virus, syphilis, herpes simplex virus, arboviruses, Lyme disease, and autoimmune neuropathies all were negative.
Although no history of animal exposures was known at that time, a diagnosis of rabies was suspected based on the clinical history and available data. The Louisiana Office of Public Health was informed of the potential case of rabies, and infection control precautions were instituted on August 13, the 11th hospital day. On August 20, rabies virus--specific immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin M detected in the patient's CSF and serum confirmed the diagnosis of rabies. After discussion with the family about the patient's prognosis and a subsequent electroencephalogram showing severe cortical impairment, the patient was extubated on August 21 in accordance with the family's wishes and died shortly thereafter. Rabies virus antigen was detected in postmortem brain tissues collected on August 22, and antigenic typing determined the variant to be a vampire bat rabies virus variant, which was subsequently confirmed by nucleic acid amplification and sequencing.
Public Health Investigation
Public health authorities in Louisiana and Mexico interviewed the patient's family members, friends, and coworkers to identify potential rabies virus exposures. The patient's mother stated that the patient was bitten by a vampire bat on the heel of his left foot while he was sleeping. The bite occurred on July 15 in his home state of Michoacán, Mexico, 10 days before his departure for the United States. He did not seek medical attention for this bite and had no history of vaccination against rabies. No other exposures to bats, dogs, or other mammals were identified.
Mexican health authorities identified five close contacts of the patient in his home state of Michoacán but determined that none of these contacts had exposures requiring PEP. However, animals in this area were frequently observed with bites from vampire bats, and officials conducted a vaccination campaign of cats and dogs in the local community. In addition, officials attempted to reduce the local vampire bat population by capturing 120 vampire bats and applying a warfarin-containing jelly to their backs. After being released, the bats and their roostmates ingest the anticoagulant through communal grooming. Diagnostic rabies testing performed on one of the captured bats was negative.
The Louisiana Office of Public Health with the assistance of hospital infection control staff interviewed clinic, hospital, and prehospital health-care providers to determine risks for exposure and provide PEP recommendations. Additionally, migrant workers who either accompanied the patient from Mexico or lived and worked with him in Louisiana were interviewed, and exposed contacts were offered PEP. In total, 95 of 204 (46.5%) patient contacts received PEP. Of these, 27 were coworkers who reported sharing a drinking vessel with the patient, and 68 were health-care workers with various exposures. To date, no known human contacts of this patient have developed rabies.
Gary Balsamo, DVM, Raoult C. Ratard, MD, Louisiana Dept of Health and Hospitals; Deepu R. Thoppil, MD, Monika Thoppil, MD, Louisiana State Univ Hospital. Fernando V. Pino, DVM, National Zoonosis Program, Mexico Secretariat of Health. Charles E. Rupprecht, VMD, PhD, Div of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Armand G. Sprecher, MD, Brett W. Petersen, MD, EIS officers, CDC. Corresponding contributor: Brett Petersen, email@example.com, 404-639-5464.
This case represents the first report of human rabies in the United States associated with a vampire bat rabies virus variant and highlights the growing importance of bats in public health. Bat rabies virus variants have been associated with the majority of indigenously acquired human rabies cases in the United States for approximately 2 decades. Similarly, vampire bats have become the leading cause of human rabies in Latin America during the last decade (1). This further highlights the importance of a global perspective for human rabies prevention and the changing epizootiology of rabies. Since 2000, eight (25%) of the 32 human rabies cases reported in the United States (including the case described in this report) were acquired from exposures abroad. Of these, two cases originated in Mexico and were the only imported cases not associated with a canine rabies virus variant; this finding might reflect improved control of canine rabies in Mexico. International coordination among public health officials remains a crucial component in investigating cases of infectious diseases and improving prevention and control efforts.
The incubation period of 15 days observed in this report is shorter than the median of 85 days seen in other cases of human rabies reported in the United States (2). The incubation period for rabies associated with vampire bats might be shorter than that of other rabies virus variants, as suggested by one case series reporting an average incubation period of 22 days (3). Alternatively, the patient might have experienced an earlier exposure that went unrecognized or unreported. A second unidentified exposure resulting in infection also would explain the upper extremity symptoms observed given that symptoms often occur at the site of viral entry.
Health-care providers should recognize a history of travel to or immigration from a country with enzootic rabies as a risk factor and consider rabies in the differential of any case of acute progressive encephalitis. International travelers to areas with enzootic canine rabies should be counseled about the risk for exposure to rabies virus, educated in animal bite prevention techniques, including not touching or feeding any animals, and instructed to seek medical evaluation if an exposure to a suspected rabid animal occurs (4). Preexposure vaccination may be recommended if traveling to areas with limited access to appropriate medical care (4,5). Appropriate infection control practices can decrease the risk for virus transmission in suspected or confirmed cases of human rabies. In such cases, caregivers should wear gowns, goggles, masks, and gloves, particularly during intubation and suctioning (5). If rabies is confirmed, a standardized risk assessment of patient contacts with strict application of the exposure definitions detailed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in combination with educational outreach might minimize unnecessary PEP in those who do not meet criteria (5). Active participation of public health officials and close supervision of hospital infection control staff during this process are recommended.
Although vampire bats currently are found only in Latin America, research suggests that the range of these bats might be expanding as a result of changes in climate (6). Expansion of vampire bats into the United States likely would lead to increased bat exposures to both humans and animals (including domestic livestock and wildlife species) and substantially alter rabies virus dynamics and ecology in the southern United States. In addition to rabies and other lyssaviruses, accumulating evidence implicates bats as reservoirs and potential vectors of a number of emerging infectious diseases (7). These discoveries raise further questions about the health risks to human populations with direct or indirect contact with bats, particularly given the high disease severity and fatality rates associated with these zoonoses. Further research should be directed toward better defining the nature and magnitude of the risks to human health posed by bats.
To mitigate the known risk for rabies, public education should increase awareness of the risk for rabies transmitted from bats and encourage avoidance of contact with bats and wildlife in general. Although commonly practiced, the elimination of vampire bats to prevent human or animal rabies remains controversial. Any potential human exposure to a bat should be investigated thoroughly to determine whether PEP is indicated, and bats involved in exposures should be safely collected and submitted for rabies testing when possible (5).
Staff members of the Louisiana Office of Public Health. Staff members of Health Svcs of Mexico City and Michoacán, Mexico. Jesse D. Blanton, MPH, Richard Franka, DVM, PhD, Michael Niezgoda, MS, Lillian A. Orciari, MS, Sergio Recuenco, MD, Andres Velasco-Villa, PhD, and Pamela A. Yager, Div of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC.
- Schneider MC, Romijn PC, Uieda W, et al. Rabies transmitted by vampire bats to humans: an emerging zoonotic disease in Latin America? Rev Panam Salud Publica 2009;25:260--9.
- Noah DL, Drenzek CL, Smith JS, et al. Epidemiology of human rabies in the United States, 1980 to 1996. Ann Intern Med 1998;128:922--30.
- Lopez A, Miranda P, Tejada E, Fishbein DB. Outbreak of human rabies in the Peruvian jungle. Lancet 1992;339:408--11.
- Blanton JD, Rupprecht CE. Travel vaccination for rabies. Expert Rev Vaccines 2008;7:613--20.
- CDC. Human rabies prevention---United States, 2008: recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. MMWR 2008;57(No. RR-3).
- Mistry S, Moreno A. Modeling changes in vampire bat distributions in response to climate change: implications for rabies in North America. Presented at the 19th International Conference on Rabies in the Americas, Atlanta, GA, September 28--October 3, 2008.
- Calisher CH, Childs JE, Field HE, Holmes KV, Schountz T. Bats: important reservoir hosts of emerging viruses. Clin Microbiol Rev 2006;19:531--45.
What is already known on this topic?
Rabies virus causes an acute progressive viral encephalitis that is almost always fatal if postexposure prophylaxis is not administered before the onset of signs or symptoms.
What is added by this report?
In August 2010, a man aged 19 years died of rabies in Louisiana after being bitten by a vampire bat in his home in Michoacán, Mexico; this case represents the first reported human death from a vampire bat rabies virus variant in the United States.
What are the implications for public health practice?
Public health officials should increase awareness of the risk for rabies after bat and other wildlife exposures. Furthermore, clinicians caring for patients with acute progressive encephalitis should consider rabies in the differential diagnosis and implement early infection control measures.
All MMWR HTML versions of articles are electronic conversions from typeset documents.
This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version.
Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr)
and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.
An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371;
telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to firstname.lastname@example.org.
|
<urn:uuid:24fcc571-71ff-4d7e-be0c-a520e9bfe0f1>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-23
|
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6031a2.htm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997883858.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025803-00019-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.929586 | 3,008 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Geographic Information Theory
There are two main types of geographic information found in files. Geotagging is the information placed in a file with the GPS coordinates of the location. EXIF (Exchangable Image File Format) contains the geotagging information as well as device type and speed. EXIF contains more information and is normally limited by the capabilities of the device creating the file.
What are the common weaknesses? Data leakage from the geographic information can pin point the exact location of where a file created. This information can be used to find detailed maps using software such as Google Earth or create detailed patterns of movement.
What are you trying to do? We are going to connect to Twitter and do geolocation on the @FIFAWorldCup account. Why the FIFAworldcup account? We know where the world cup is happening so it is easy to see if the information is correct.
Get creepy from here: http://ilektrojohn.github.io/creepy/
Ready to Go
For this tutorial it is installed in a Windows 7 virtual machine. The Kali apt-get repositories was not the latest version when this was written. Besides, the OS is just a tool we don’t need to get caught up in an ideological battle about how somebody has to use a certain tool to be a ‘real’ hacker. Being effective is more important than being a zealot.
Edit the configuration: Edit -> Plugins Configuration then select Twitter Plugin -> Run Configuration Wizard -> Next. Enter your Twitter ID and password to authorize creepy by clicking Authorize APP.
Wouldn’t this also be a great time to follow us @SecureNM? I’m not trying to make you feel guilty but you are here reading our stuff. Copy the PIN that Twitter generates into the text box at the bottom of the window and click the finish button.
Creepy should now be authorized but just to be sure select Twitter Plugin and then click the Test Plugin Configuration button. Yay, we are ready to get started. Click OK a few times to get back to the main screen.
From the file menu select Creepy -> New Project -> Person Based Project. This will start the project wizard. Fill in the information as you see fit.
Add the information and select the proper plugin then select Search. In this case we used @FIFAWorldCup.
Click the ID or IDs that you want to creep on, see what I did there? Then select Add to Targets. I added all of the IDs that were found to ensure data for this tutorial.
Select Next -> Next -> Finish.
Analyze the project by selecting the project and clicking the Analyze button
Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and the Maldives are all among the locations of texts sent by the twitter IDs that creepy analyzed. Select one of these locations on the map and through the power of google and GPS you can see the location and possibly a street view. In the immortal words of Keanu Reeves, Whoa!
I know what you’re thinking, wow that was cool but so what. So what you say? This is how you would use it on a real life security engagement. You get a black box test with nothing but a URL. You find the companies twitter account on the website. Feeding this information into creepy gives you locations that are potential targets for social engineering, physical infiltration, and WiFi attacks. See how just a little information can turn the tide in an assessment?
|
<urn:uuid:707ae304-e2da-4c4c-8a88-e9428b2ae00d>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-43
|
http://securenetworkmanagement.com/creepy-geolocation/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187825154.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20171022075310-20171022095310-00779.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.903781 | 721 | 2.921875 | 3 |
The eighth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 is a good opportunity to learn disaster preparedness measures. Understanding how to obtain emergency information from reliable sources, such as local governments, is a good first step.
With foreign visitor numbers expected to grow ahead of the 2020 Olympics, municipalities are introducing multilingual emergency information services through websites, SNS and other tools, as well as providing leaflets on how visitors and Japan’s increasing number of foreign residents can respond to disasters.
When a magnitude 6.7 quake hit Hokkaido in September, many foreign tourists were frustrated as language barriers prevented them from obtaining crucial information. Tourists were stuck in Sapporo, other cities and airports because the quake caused blackouts and transportation disruptions.
As the powerful quake exposed how unprepared Hokkaido was in providing foreign visitors with information during a crisis, the Hokkaido Prefectural Government has been improving its information dissemination methods.
Yasunori Nishimura, an official from the government’s tourism bureau, acknowledged complaints that authorities were too slow in providing information in foreign languages after the quake.
“Following that feedback, we launched our official Twitter account in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean on Feb. 1. It offers emergency information during disasters and tourism information at other times,” he said. The information covers the suspension and resumption of transportation services, as well as power outages and recovery.
The Hokkaido Prefectural Government will also open an emergency support center for foreigners when disasters strike in Sapporo. Officials and volunteers who speak English, Chinese and Korean will respond to visitors’ inquiries and post information on bulletin boards, Nishimura said.
As Japan is prone to earthquakes, local authorities are working to prepare for earthquakes and tsunami. But tourists and residents should also be aware of other disasters such as heavy rains.
In July, torrential rain wreaked havoc in western Japan, triggering floods and landslides that damaged homes and caused more than 230 deaths. Hiroshima, Okayama and Ehime were the hardest-hit prefectures and municipalities were hard-pressed to cope with emergencies. At that time, a public organization called the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, in cooperation with the city of Hiroshima, provided information in English on its website. The foundation’s link was available on the city’s website.
The city also offers disaster information on its website called Portal Site of Hiroshima City for Disaster Prevention. Information, including evacuation warnings, is offered in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Tagalog.
Hirohisa Nogi, an official from the city’s crisis management office, said residents and visitors should first check the tab “A list of the state of issuing evacuation warnings etc.” at the top left of the page. Three kinds of warnings: preparation for evacuation, evacuation advisories and evacuation directives, are issued by local governments based on relevant laws.
“When an evacuation preparation warning is issued, the elderly and disabled should immediately evacuate to safer areas, while others should prepare for evacuation. If an evacuation advisory is issued, everyone should seek refuge due to a high possibility of an impending disaster,” Nogi said. People must evacuate immediately to any listed shelter when an evacuation directive is issued.
Nogi said people should check information about landslides and sediment disasters on the portal, noting it is difficult to judge landslide risks according to rainfall amounts.
“Even light rain can cause landslides if it continues for extended periods, as sediment disasters are triggered by increased water in the soil,” Nogi said.
Alerts about landslides and other disasters are also displayed in subtitles on TV and announced over community loudspeakers during emergencies, the official said.
While local governments are taking their own measures to convey multilingual disaster information, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is offering an app called Disaster Preparedness Tokyo, which offers disaster information and alerts in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. Other smartphone apps for disasters are available, including one called Safety Tips launched by the Japan Tourism Agency.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Bureau of Citizens and Cultural Affairs has made a business card-sized leaflet, Help Card, that includes emergency phone numbers, such as a call center that introduces hospitals offering services in foreign languages, toll-free numbers for ambulances and a disaster emergency message service that operates when phone communications are disrupted. The Help Card can be used when earthquake-caused blackouts occur and people cannot charge smartphones.
The leaflet carries words and phrases used in emergencies in multiple languages so that users can point to a phrase and show the equivalent Japanese when seeking help. Nobuharu Hikiba, a director of the bureau, said five versions of the Help Card are available. Each shows information in Japanese and two or three foreign languages. The Help Card is printed in 12 languages overall.
“The information is minimal, but if you carry it with your commuting pass, it can help during emergencies,” Hikiba said.
The card is available at ward offices and there are plans to distribute it at metropolitan tourist information centers. People who want the card can also apply at the bureau’s website.
While the card provides brief information on how to protect yourself, residents are best advised to prepare for disasters in advance, for example, by stabilizing furniture and stockpiling water. Basic information is provided in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Disaster Preparedness Tokyo app and also on the government’s website.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will open a counter for foreigners at its office in Shinjuku and also send volunteer interpreters to shelters when disasters occur, Hikiba said. The government has some 830 registered volunteer interpreters and translators ready to work during disasters.
With help from these volunteers and the information obtained from the above-mentioned tools, foreign residents and tourists can reliably “hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
NHK provides key disaster info
NHK World-Japan, the international service of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, offers a diverse range of information on Japan and other parts of Asia on TV, radio and the internet. To accommodate the increasing number of foreign residents and visitors, NHK World has expanded its programs and services — particularly during natural disasters.
On its English TV news channel, NHK World offers news on disasters, as well as images of breaking news broadcasts from domestic channels by adding simultaneous English interpretation when necessary.
When massive damage is expected during disasters, NHK World cancels its scheduled programming and broadcasts news about the disaster. For example, when a 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit Hokkaido in September, NHK covered damage to homes, other infrastructure and transportation, as well as live coverage of news conferences held by the Japan Meteorological Agency and the chief cabinet secretary.
NHK World’s website regularly provides online streaming of its television and radio programs, along with news articles in 17 languages and shorter articles in five languages on its Facebook page.
Last year, the multilingual broadcaster added a new feature to its app NHK World TV to deliver emergency warnings and breaking news alerts. Warnings and alerts are offered in English and Chinese for those who download the free app and enable push notifications.
In the event of a power outage, news on TV broadcasts and smartphone apps may be unavailable. During the Hokkaido earthquake, NHK World aired its news programs in English, Vietnamese, Thai and Russian through its domestic radio channel Radio 2, which usually broadcasts education programs in Japanese.
The multilingual programs and services are part of NHK World’s efforts to help visitors from overseas and foreign nationals living in Japan ahead of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo by expanding access to such crucial information.
|
<urn:uuid:69334f68-7ecb-4faf-91e3-a8ceef85d5a5>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-24
|
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/2019/03/11/special-supplements/municipalities-launch-multilingual-services-crises/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347411862.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20200531053947-20200531083947-00223.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.945643 | 1,592 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Through PD (KS3 and KS4) and CIAG (KS5) lessons, Careers Interviews, National Careers Week events, Careers and World of Work themed assemblies, students in Years 7-13 are given the opportunities to develop skills which will enable them to engage with CIAG, take responsibility for their future choices and to start research and plan for their future.
Through Career Planning, students develop the skills of:
- Self-Awareness by asking where am I now?
- Career Exploration by asking where do I want to be?
- Career Management by asking how do I get there?
Students are made aware of and directed to use a range of websites to develop their knowledge and understanding, links to these suggested websites are below:
Labour Market Information: LMI
When planning future career paths, good practice is to check out LMI. These websites will help:
Job skills and profiles:
An excellent range of job and employment sector profiles
STEAM: Science, technology, art, engineering and maths careers
Explore career videos, quizzes, focus on subjects
National online careers film and video library
Information about local employment trends
Compare information about different career areas, salary and employment trends
Information about career sectors, advice about work and university options and information for parents.
A great starting point for comprehensive, objective information on a vast range of CIAG material; UCAS stands for University Colleges and Admissions Service and its website has a really excellent set of information to help with making important decision and applying to University
The Russell Group represents 24 leading UK universities which are committed to maintaining the very best research, an outstanding teaching and learning experience and unrivalled links with business and the public sector. Their website is very informative, especially their booklet, Informed Choices, which explores factors to consider when making GCSE and especially A level choices
Overview or alternatives to Higher Education
One of many websites available to research taking a Gap Year
UK’s official graduate careers website, useful to look forward at what is happening in the graduate careers world, includes careers advice, information on jobs and work experience, postgraduate study, job sectors, student life
Includes official data for undergraduate courses on each university and colleges’ satisfaction scores in the National Student Survey, jobs and salaries after study and other key information for prospective students
Offers information and advice on applying to higher education
Database of university events for schools and colleges
Calendar of dates
Guidance on applying for finance to support university life
|
<urn:uuid:0b6be452-3746-4a86-ac9c-541a4b788b27>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-29
|
https://www.bluecoatschoolliverpool.org.uk/careers-websites-information-students/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655881763.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20200706160424-20200706190424-00392.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.931746 | 517 | 3.0625 | 3 |
waited too long. Thanks to unchecked burning of fossil fuels, global
warming is now causing climate disruption across the planet. The
world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis”
unless there are major transformations to global society, according
to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists.
Unless we act immediately and decisively, locally, the future may
bring ever increasing sea levels, drought, wildfire, insect outbreaks
and widespread tree die-off, and more.
What we are currently doing is not enough. Individual efforts to reduce our personal carbon footprints are simply insufficient to make a difference. Keeping climate change under control will require radical systemic change at local, state, national and international level. As is said, “think global, act local.”
What did we learn from the recent PG&E shutdown? One: climate change is a contributing factor in increased wildfire risk. And two: Humboldt County needs energy independence.
The Humboldt Wind Project can help solve both problems. By drastically reducing carbon emissions, and by generating megawatts of clean, renewable electricity for local use.
The Humboldt Wind Project consisting of 47 turbines on Bear River and Monument Ridges would be built on two private land owner’s property: 1) the Russ Ranch, which is managed for cattle ranching; and 2) Humboldt Redwood Company, which is managed for timber production.
The Humboldt Wind Project is a project between three consenting entities who are willingly choosing to build a private project on private property. The project is NOT on public land, nor is it publicly funded. No taxpayer dollars would be used to build the project, nor would it increase any taxes. It is being designed and will be built in conformance with all California and federal laws.
The county (nor public agencies) cannot mandate that private landowners provide access to their property, nor that private landowners replant vegetation that would not be conducive to the existing industrial uses. For example, the Russ ranch needs and maintains vegetation for cattle.
Fact: The Humboldt Wind Project would be located along historic tribal cultural areas of the Wiyot and neighboring Bear River Tribe’s ancestral territories. Bear River Ridge is known as Tsakiyuwit to the Wiyot people and it noted as a “high prayer spot” used by natives prior to the genocidal invasion of settlers to the Humboldt Bay area.
All archeological sites documented during surveys would be avoided in the construction of the project. In addition, ethnobotanical plants significant to the Wiyot Tribe impacted by the project would be salvaged and returned to the Wiyot Tribe for replanting. To protect future condor releases, a cultural resource of the Yurok and National Park Service’s, the project will outfit condors with transponders, install a geofence, and will curtail to avoid any strikes to condors. However, even with implementation of these measures, building the Humboldt Wind Project would have a significant, unavoidable and unmitigable impact on cultural the viewshed Bear River Ridge, a place of significance for the Wiyot people. The impact is “unmitigable” because the Wiyot have stated that there is no way to mitigate for the change of the landscape from an open space used for grazing and timber, to an open space used for grazing, timber and wind generation.
Fact: About 50% of Humboldt’s energy needs has to be transmitted across two lines that cross hundreds of miles of forests, public and private lands from the east. These are the transmission lines that are most vulnerable to fire. Generating electricity locally helps to displace the need to bring in energy from the east. Building Terra-Gen’s Humboldt Wind Project is a huge step in the direction of locally-based, fossil-fuel free energy resiliency. Is it going to solve the conundrum of PSPSs tomorrow? No. But generating local energy gives us tools in our toolbox to use for the next systematic steps that Humboldt County, the State of California and PG&E need to take.
Myth: More of the same, a centralized grid-tied energy project, that will be dependent on PG&E’s fire-prone transmission lines.
Fact: Absent the centralized grid-tied utility-scale electrical system 95% of people would not be able to turn on their lights, and our entire community and economy would be in the dark. Should society look toward more decentralized energy sources? Yes. Is that what we can do tomorrow? No because that is not how our society is currently organized.
While we cannot control how PG&E manages its grid, what we can do is support a project that would increase our supply of local energy generation. The Humboldt Wind Project would pay $14 million for network upgrades to the grid, which would enhance the safety, and reliability to our system. Additionally, Terra-Gen would underground miles of PG&E overhead distribution lines (the ones that contribute to fire risk).
Myth: This project does not in any way plan to isolate energy for Humboldt County. Electricity in the grid flows to the demand, which almost always lies in urban and industrial centers, away from “the hamlet of Humboldt County.”
Fact: Electricity, like water flows to the path of least resistance. The Humboldt Wind Project would generate electricity as close as possible to energy users—Humboldt County, population ~137,000 people. Locally sourced, generation of electricity through harnessing the power of wind is a renewable, carbon-free source of energy.
Currently, about a 1/3rd of Humboldt’s energy comes from the Humboldt Bay Power Plant that runs on fracked natural gas (piped in from the Great Plains). Displacing our local consumption of natural gas helps reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, which helps combat climate change. Even if every single electron was sold out of the area it would still be displacing a fossil-fuel based electron somewhere else. Again, as the saying goes, “Think global, act local.” We need to stop burning fossil-fuels for energy, and replace our energy needs with renewables.
Myth: It takes more carbon to build the project then it is worth.
Fact: Life Cycle Analysis, the “Energy Return on Invested (EROI), has generally been found that energy payback time is less than half a year. The energy balance is determined by dividing the energy consumption of a turbine over its expected lifetime by the yearly energy production of that turbine. Energy consumption includes all the energy required for manufacturing, transporting, erecting, dismantling and disposing of the turbine” https://www.appropedia.org/
Myth: Implementing this project would threaten the carbon storage of 1000’s of acres of forestlands.
Fact: Terra-Gen’s strategy for environmental impact analysis was to take a “corridor approach” that assumed the maximum impact of the Humboldt Wind Project could be on the environment by looking at 1000’ wide corridor, that is about six miles long, with 60 turbines, operating 100% of the time with a 25-mile transmission line. The purpose of CEQA is as a disclosure document to allow the public, agencies and decision-makers to understand what could occur if a project were to be built. Since the DEIR was released in June, Terra-Gen has “micro-sited” the turbines, which means picking the exact locations of the 47 turbines to maximize the wind resources and minimize impacts on the environment. In the DEIR, the HWP would impact 900 acres of land (760 acres of temporary impact and 135 acres of permanent), today it would impact 680 acres (615 acres of temporary and 65 acres of permanent). Permanent impacts to forests and woodlands have been decreased from 90 acres in the DEIR to 35 acres through project redesign in the FEIR—which is a 61% reduction in impacts.
Through the micro-siting project, reducing the footprint from 60 turbines to 47, reducing the length of the Gen-Tie, and redesigning the access roads, the impacts of the project are dramatically reduced, and additional mitigation strategies are being implemented.
No old-growth forest would be harmed or removed as a result of this project. The project is located on industrial forest and ranch lands that are managed for ongoing timber harvest and cattle foraging.
Myth: The off-shore wind project and micro-grids can save us.
Fact: $142,857 is what it would cost every single home in Humboldt county if you used the Blue Lake Rancheria Micro-grid system as the example to power them. To think that an expanded or multiple Rancheria style Micro-Grid systems will somehow power all of Humboldt homes and businesses is a wild fiction to the people of Humboldt County. If we expand those numbers to all of Humboldt county it works out to well over $3 Billion dollars!
The best scientists in the world produced the International Panel Climate Change (IPCC) report and have given us until 2030 to reduce our carbon by 60%+. This is not an either-or decision, it is both, on-shore and off-shore wind! In order to reach Humboldt County’s goal of 100% renewable by 2030 we need 40% from off-shore wind, 25% from on-shore wind, 22% from biomass, 4% from small hydro, 6% from solar, and 2% from utility-scale solar.
We do not have time to wait for a speculative project such as the off-shore wind project. While I certainly hope that everything falls into place with the off-shore wind project, there are a lot of pieces to that project that are not yet realized or “for sure.” At this point in time, there is only one floating off-shore wind farm in the U.S., and it has six turbines. Because floating off-shore technology is new, there is very little research that show what the impacts are (unlike on-shore where we have decades of data). And where off-shore has been proposed, many potential sites have been nixed due to community opposition. We cannot put off something certain, for an uncertain future.
We have the money, we have the technology, we have the willing landowners who want to build these wind turbines on their private property, what we don’t have any more is time. It’s time for people to realize the enemy is global warming, not the Humboldt Wind Project.
Myth: The project will create a new, and near 30-mile-long, transmission corridor through remote forestlands.
Fact: Terra-Gen (not PG&E) would be responsible for keeping its 23 miles of transmission line clear, and free of local wildfire threats. The proposed project uses modern computer technology, modern materials, and modern tower designs. In contrast, the segments of PG&E’s aging grid system implicated in the recent wildfires are approximately 100 years old and in immediate need of replacement
In the case of the proposed transmission line, the alignment crosses actively managed timberland that is regularly harvested for timber by Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) and others. As a result, the project will benefit from its location on actively managed timberland that is less prone to wildfire due to the removal of understory growth and reducing fuel loads.
Myth: Terra-Gen tax dollars and jobs are worthless.
$2,000,000 is not a drop in the bucket for Humboldt County. Income vs. expenses is a fairly simple accounting task. More money into Humboldt County equals more services provided.
Closing: It is impossible to meet our local goals of 100% renewable energy generation without the Humboldt Wind Project. No number of micro-grids, rooftop solar, of conservation can feasibly displace the production of the HWP. And, it is paid for by someone else—not you. If Humboldt County were to buy all of our renewable energy from somewhere else, that would mean someone else’s backyard would be despoiled. Someone else’s sacred site. It is time we wake up and take responsibility for our own energy generation and consumption. We cannot put this off any longer for some magical solution in the future. Or tell someone else, you impact your backyard (for my needs) because mine is too precious to use.
Natalynne DeLapp is paid as the Community Liaison for Terra-Gen. She is a Eureka resident, environmental activist and community organizer, holds a B.S. in Environmental Science & Public Policy from HSU, and is a Cascadia Leadership graduate. Natalynne’s goal is to contribute to Humboldt County’s environmental health, public well-being and economic development.
|
<urn:uuid:ed36db7f-abe2-40b8-a26e-7d44698979fb>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-16
|
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2019/nov/7/op-ed-terra-gen-wind-power-project-will-give-humbo/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370491998.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20200328134227-20200328164227-00077.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.944027 | 2,735 | 2.9375 | 3 |
- label (n.)
- c.1300, "narrow band or strip of cloth" (oldest use is as a technical term in heraldry), from Old French label, lambel "ribbon, fringe worn on clothes" (13c., Modern French lambeau "strip, rag, shred, tatter"), possibly from Frankish *labba or some other Germanic source (cf. Old High German lappa "flap"), from Proto-Germanic *lapp- (see lap (n.)).
Later "dangling strip of cloth or ribbon used as an ornament in dress," "strip attached to a document to hold a seal" (both early 15c.), and with a general meaning "tag, sticker, slip of paper" (1670s). Meaning "circular piece of paper in the center of a gramophone record" (1907), containing information about the recorded music, led to meaning "a recording company" (1947).
- label (v.)
- "to affix a label to," c.1600, see label (n.); figurative sense of "to categorize" is from 1853. Related: Labeled; labeling; labelled; labelling.
|
<urn:uuid:a191b45a-b0e2-41ad-8b0c-37fd06a7a2c1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=label&allowed_in_frame=0
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699036375/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101036-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.885024 | 254 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Midges fly in great swarms for the purpose of mating. After mating, the female Non-Biting Midges deposit their eggs over water, on plants in the water or in wet soil nearby.
With the short lifespan of the midge, approximately one month in length, there may be as many as 5 generations produced over the summer. Of course, the number of generations is dependent upon temperature and moisture in a particular breeding area. Dengue Fever is a very serious mosquito-borne disease comprised of four different strains.
Lifespan of Gnats
The lifespan of gnats occurs in the following four stages: eggs, larva, pupa and adult. First, gelatinous egg masses of up to 3,000 eggs are laid on the surface of water. In several days to 7 days, eggs will sink to the bottom of the water where they are laid and then hatch. Larvae leave the egg mass and burrow into the mud. Organic matter in water and mud is used as food for developing larvae. As they grow, they gradually turn dark red. This larval stage of the lifespan of gnats takes 2-7 weeks depending on the water temperature. Larvae transform into pupae. The pupae stage lasts only 3 days. Pupae actively swim for the surface and adults emerge several hours later. Not soon after emerging, adult gnats will mate. Consequently, adults only live for 3 to 5 days, because these insects never feed once they reach maturity. In the summer months, the gnats’ breeding cycle can be completed in 2 to 3 weeks. Fall and winter will suspend the gnats’ breeding cycle by not allowing larvae to pupate. Although by the following spring, in late March or early April, pupation and the emergence of adults will begin again.
Gnats Breeding Sites
In natural and man-made aquatic habitats, gnats are one of the most common and most abundant insects in nature. Gnats’ breeding sites include just about any body of water. Some examples of gnats’ breeding sites include natural lakes, sewage oxidation and settling ponds, residential lakes and ponds and slow moving shallow rivers. Nutrient rich bodies of water can contain densities of over 4,000 larvae per foot. During the summer months, it is not unusual for several thousand adults per square yard of surface to emerge on a nightly basis. These emerging gnats can cause severe nuisance and other economic problems.
Protect your family, pets and guests from bothersome midges
with a Mosquito Magnet® trap - the leading long-term,
scientifically proven midge control solution
|
<urn:uuid:6ca12831-5bcc-44c8-b5a5-06d46c043914>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-23
|
http://www.mosquitomagnet.com/advice/mosquito-info/biting-insect-library/midges/breeding
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510270313.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011750-00419-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.934092 | 537 | 3.921875 | 4 |
New research shows that cane toads have become less toxic since invading Australia. Besides being good news for the many native species that die after eating the poisonous toads, this diminishing toxicity could be part of a wider phenomenon that applies to other invasive species.
“Changes that affect invaders’ impact could be happening regularly—they haven’t been looked for,” says Ben Phillips of the University of Sydney in Australia, who with Richard Shine reports this work in Animal Conservation.
Native to South America, the cane toad (Bufo marinus) was infamously introduced to Australia in a misguided attempt to control sugar cane beetles in 1935 and has now invaded more than 1 million square kilometers there. The toads are so poisonous that they can kill snakes and other native predators instantly. Most of the toxin is contained in the parotid glands above the shoulders, and larger toads are generally more toxic.
The researchers measured the body lengths and parotid glands of 140 cane toad specimens in the Queensland Museum that had been collected at known sites between 1935 and 2001. Using a map of the toad’s invasion since its initial introduction, the researchers determined how long the species had been at each collection site at the time the various specimens were taken.
The results showed that both the bodies and the poison-rich parotid glands of the cane toad are shrinking. The longer the interval since the species had invaded a collection site, the smaller the toads and their parotids. “This translates directly to a reduced impact on predators,” say the researchers. “This result strongly suggests that toads will exert their maximal impact on native predators when they first arrive in an area; the level of impact will then decline over time.”
The toads and their parotids are shrinking at rates typical of rapid evolution. Because many other invasive species are known to adapt quickly to new environments, their impacts could also change rapidly. Assessing such rapid changes is key to predicting invasives’ long-term impacts on ecosystems, say the researchers.
By Robin Meadows
Phillips, B.L. and Shine, R. 2005. The morphology, and hence impact, of an invasive species (the cane toad, Bufo marinus): changes with time since colonisation. Animal Conservation 8:407-413.
Cane toad (Bufo marinus). Photo by Dee Boersma
|
<urn:uuid:96bf45e5-def1-4736-bf71-7bc7493de11b>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-40
|
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/conservation/2008/07/invasive-toad-grows-less-toxic/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506028.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20230921141907-20230921171907-00211.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.951012 | 502 | 4.0625 | 4 |
Other Ear-Related Problems
A clinical study has demonstrated that negative pressure in the middle ear can be relieved by use of the EarPopper. Patients can use the EarPopper as needed. Often relief will occur after only one treatment.
Eustachian Tube Dysfunction can cause development of negative pressure in the middle ear due to a lack of ventilation and can lead to Otitis Media with Effusion, Aerotitis/Barotitis.
Aerotitis/Barotitis is a result of negative middle ear pressure caused by rapid elevation changes (airplane, diving, mountain climbing, etc.).
Recommended Treatment Settings
For children and adults use the low setting (I). If the negative pressure does not resolve, use the high setting (II). If the patient experiences discomfort using setting (II), then switch to setting (I).
“Efficacy of a Modified Politzer Apparatus in Management of Eustachian Tube Dysfunction in Adults” American Academy of Audiology Journal 10: 496-501 (1999)
|
<urn:uuid:3df70ffe-8e98-4198-9dcf-5c0c93163611>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-05
|
https://shop.rymed.com/pages/other-ear-related-problems
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250591431.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20200117234621-20200118022621-00516.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.825289 | 215 | 3.03125 | 3 |
They're often called "vampire" treatments, in which people undergo infusions of a young donor's blood plasma to treat everything from aging to Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis.
But these expensive "fountain of youth" therapies are unproven and potentially unsafe, the US Food and Drug Administration warned recently.
Plasma carries risks
"Simply put, we're concerned that some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies," FDA Commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb said in an agency news release. "Such treatments have no proven clinical benefits for the uses for which these clinics are advertising them and are potentially harmful."
According to the FDA, the use of plasma infusion therapies is on the rise across the United States, often costing thousands of dollars per treatment. The service is being offered by businesses in many states to allegedly treat conditions ranging from normal ageing and memory loss to serious disorders such as dementia, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Plasma – the liquid portion of blood – contains proteins that help clot blood and can be used to treat bleeding and clotting problems. Plasma can benefit patients with severe injuries and those whose blood can't clot due to medications or certain illnesses.
But even under such approved uses, plasma carries risks that include allergic reactions, transfusion-associated circulatory overload, transfusion-related acute lung injury and infectious disease transmission, the FDA said.
"We have significant public health concerns about the promotion and use of plasma for these purposes," Gottlieb said. "There is no proven clinical benefit of infusion of plasma from young donors to cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent these conditions, and there are risks associated with the use of any plasma product.
"Treatments using plasma from young donors have not gone through the rigorous testing that the FDA normally requires in order to confirm the therapeutic benefit of a product and to ensure its safety," he explained. "As a result, the reported uses of these products should not be assumed to be safe or effective."
In one example, HuffPost conducted its own investigation into Ambrosia, a startup company offering young plasma services it claims can ease a wide range of ailments.
Jesse Karmazin, Ambrosia's 34-year-old founder, said he was charging customers in multiple states $12,000 (±R171 000) for treatments during which they received 2 litres of young plasma.
According to HuffPost, Karmazin said he didn't feel FDA approval of his own study of the merits of young plasma therapy was necessary – and the results of the study have never been released.
Nevertheless, Karmazin told the UK newspaper The Times, "I'm not really in the camp of saying this will provide immortality, but I think it comes pretty close."
But the FDA believes that as with many experimental procedures, it's "buyer beware" when it comes to plasma infusions.
The agency's advice: Anyone considering using plasma for these unapproved uses should talk with their doctor first.
Image credit: iStock
|
<urn:uuid:1fc2069e-a326-45b7-8ed1-693ced265ff1>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-16
|
https://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Ageing-well/News/vampire-treatments-are-unproven-and-potentially-harmful-us-watchdog-warns-20190309-2
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370518622.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20200403190006-20200403220006-00382.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.960331 | 645 | 2.625 | 3 |
Will secularists be given recognition and rights in Lebanon?
"Confessionalism" – a power-sharing measure that distributes government appointments among different religious groups and allows communities to be governed by their own religious laws – runs deep in Lebanon's history. When the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 delineated the borders of what is now called the Lebanese Republic (mostly without the will of its citizens), it distributed power equally among the different confessional groups, planting the seeds of modern-day Lebanon: a constitutional republic with 18 legally recognised groups, an elected and (supposedly) representative parliament and government, and an independent judiciary.
Decades later, when Lebanon gained independence in 1943, confessionalism endured, remaining the basic principle of Lebanese life. In practice, it means the president has always been and always will be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim. This also means that seats in parliament are apportioned between Christians and Muslims, and civil service posts follow similar sectarian formulas.
But it also means chronic instability, flagrant inequalities, and a weak, corrupt and dysfunctional central government continuously failing to provide basic services and security to citizens – and incessantly failing to assert sovereignty over its own territories. Yet, furtive attempts to abolish political sectarianism by leftist and secular political parties and activists in the 1950s and 1960s have fallen on deaf ears.
See Full Article Here :
|
<urn:uuid:75424ed0-5eeb-40a8-8093-e856c0ccab40>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://worldpulse.com/node/52589
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705955434/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120555-00096-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.947701 | 296 | 2.921875 | 3 |
What Is the 'One Bite Rule'?
Caring for an animal can involve a lot of work and expense, but most animal owners would agree that the benefits far outweigh the costs. Unfortunately, even the most loved, gentle animal can inflict injuries on someone or someone’s pet. For this reason, most states have laws that specify how liability is determined when an animal harms someone. One such theory of liability is the ‘one bite rule.’ Read on to learn more about the ‘one bite rule’ and how fault is assigned after an animal attack.
Theories of Liability in Animal Attacks
Although state laws differ in their wording, most have statutes that dictate how liability is determined when a dog or other type of animal harms someone. The most common theories of liability include the following:
- Strict Liability: The owner is responsible for the injury if the attack occurred while the victim was in a place they were legally allowed to be, regardless of what the owner knew or did to prevent the harm. Many states use a version of this rule for dog bite liability.
- One Bite Rule: The owner is liable if he or she knew or should have known that the animal might act in a dangerous or harmful way. The name of this theory comes from the idea that an animal gets one free bite, and after that, the owner is aware of and responsible for the animal’s vicious propensities.
- Negligence: Even if you can’t prove liability under a strict liability or one-bite statute, you may still be able to pursue your case under a theory that the owner or caretaker’s negligence caused your injuries.
Although there are multiple theories you can use to prove liability in personal injury cases like these, a dog bite attorney will know which one is the most advisable based on the laws of your state and the facts of your case.
Proving Liability Under the ‘One Bite Rule’
Again, state laws vary in how they word and apply the one bite rule. But in general, someone will be held legally liable for the injuries caused by their animal if the injured party can show that:
- The animal had a propensity to act in a harmful or dangerous way;
- The owner or caretaker knew or should have known about the animal’s dangerous propensity;
- The animal’s dangerous propensity caused damages to a person or property.
Although it’s called the “one bite rule,” this theory of liability can apply to other types of harm, like when a dog knocks over a child, and may apply to the first time an animal bites someone if its dangerous propensities were otherwise apparent. However, the injured person may be barred from recovering damages if the owner or caretaker can show that the injured person provoked the animal or was trespassing at the time of the attack.
Ways to Show Prior Knowledge of an Animal’s Viciousness
You may be wondering what it takes to show an owner or caretaker had or should have had knowledge of an animal’s harmful tendencies. Fortunately for the injured party, there are more ways to prove this than evidence of a prior bite attack. For example, if a dog is kept as a guard dog and has been trained to attack, or is of a breed known for viciousness, its danger should be apparent to the owner. Similarly, if your cat frequently snaps at or attempts to bite people, you probably know about that harmful tendency. If people have complained to you about your animal’s aggressive behavior, or you’ve been known to warn others that your pet may harm them, these and other evidence can be used to show you knew the animal might attack someone.
Get a Free Review of Your Injury Claim
Whether you were hurt by a neighbor’s animal or your pet attacked someone, knowing which laws and rules of liability apply to your case can be confusing. You also may not have much experience gathering evidence or assessing the strength of your claims. Get a better handle on your case by receiving a free claim review from an attorney familiar with the one bite rule and the legal ramifications of animal attacks in general.
|
<urn:uuid:0008b1d3-84cb-4c0b-bf0d-9a7e9e5a075e>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-39
|
http://injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/what-is-the-one-bite-rule.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689373.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170922220838-20170923000838-00040.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.962568 | 861 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Bees sense electrical fields in flowers
Flowers “communicate” with bees via colour, shape and electrical fields. The latter was discovered only a few years ago and it remained unclear how bees could sense these signals. Now researchers discovered that bees’ hairs move rapidly approaching the flower. This signal is perceived in a distance of 10 cm and activates the nervous system of the insects. Bees’ hairs are light-weight and stiff, which probably makes them “dance” in electrical fields. The researchers are now interested if these signals can be also perceived by other insects.
|
<urn:uuid:300ac5b5-7687-46e5-9825-be713c1b32b2>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-43
|
https://www.bee-safe.eu/bees-sense-electric-fields-flowers/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187826840.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20171023221059-20171024001059-00434.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.96471 | 120 | 3.53125 | 4 |
datetime(1970-01-01 00:00:00) year to second +
(dbinfo('utc_current')/86400)::int::char(9)::interval day(9) to day +
(mod(dbinfo('utc_current'), 86400))::char(5)::interval second(5) to second
The Informix time types do not embed the time zone information within the values themselves; so, once you have a value, you have to know the time zone or you don't really know when the event happened in the real world. One solution to this is to save the time zone information separately, another is to store the value as a string with the time zone appended, and the third is to always store time values in one, known time zone. One solution to the last option is to use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). However, it is not necessarily simple to generate UTC values from within SQL; TODAY and CURRENT return values within the server time zone.
The DBINFO function can be used to obtain the current time in UTC as an integer value that is the number of seconds since the epoch. (See the Informix Guide to Syntax: DBINFO Function > Using the 'utc_current' Option.) Getting from this count of seconds to a DATETIME value may not be straightforward, but here is an example:
This expression works by creating a DATETIME at the epoch, and adding the number of seconds that have passed since then to it. This is complicated by two factors: There is no cast(conversion) from INTEGER to INTERVAL, and the number of seconds that have passed since the epoch is a number that contains more digits than can be contained in an INTERVAL SECOND(n) TO SECOND. There is a conversion from CHAR to INTERVAL, and that can be used to solve the first problem. The maximum precision problem can be solved by breaking the original value into two parts, number of days and number of seconds. There are 86400 seconds in a day, (24 * 60 * 60 = 86400). The second part of the expression is the number of days since the epoch. The last part adds the remaining seconds.
DBINFO('utc_current') is set at the start of the statement execution; so, there should be no problem with the two calls to DBINFO getting different values.
The best-fit Java class for an Informix DATETIME value is java.sql.Timestamp. Java.sql.Timestamp technically inherits from java.util.Date; although, there are some semantic differences which are not typical of inheritance relationships. All the constructors, getters, and setters which are not deprecated for Date and Timestamp use values based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). They are offsets in milliseconds from the epoch, January 1, 1970 00:00:00 GMT. So, it would be logically consistent for Timestamps to convert to DATETIMEs using the GMT reference frame by default. However, the JDBC Tutorial and Reference specifies that, when no Calendar is provided, Timestamp values are converted to the time zone of the JVM in which the application is running. The difficulties surrounding Timestamps and time zones are not limited to the scope of the Informix JDBC driver; they are generic to all of JDBC because that is the specification.
This model creates problems in a variety of ways. For distributed applications, the Date or Timestamp values might be streaming into the database from JDBC drivers located in different time zones. With multi-tier applications, you might find yourself contending with a user interface in time zone A, the JDBC driver in time zone B, and the database server in time zone C. The driver is the library where external types are converted to internal types; so, where it is running is where the local time zone comes into play. It can be difficult for either the front end or the database to know in what time zone the driver is operating. Dealing with the conversion from Timestamp in GMT to DATETIME in the JDBC driver locale has to be done in the application layer directly interfacing with the JDBC driver.
The conversion done by the driver applies in both directions, and this can lead to complications if anything other than the JDBC Timestamp class is used in conjunction with DATETIME values. If strings representing DATETIMEs or DATETIME literals are used anywhere in your application SQL (including CURRENT), the values will not be converted on the way in, but will be converted on the way out. Similarly, different APIs will not convert in either direction. If you insert new Timestamp(86400001) (January 2, 1970 00:00:00.001 GMT) through JDBC, and select it back from within the same JVM, you will get that same value back. So, you might expect that selecting the same row-column from, say, DBAcccess, would also give you the same value, but it will not because the value was converted to JVM time zone on the way in through JDBC, but not converted on the way out through ESQL/C. If you are in the U.S., you will get some time on January 1st, not even the same day. The reverse also applies, you may find yourself with values inserted through other APIs, which perform no conversion, that are converted to some other time zone when selected through JDBC.
DATETIMEs, of course, do not contain time zone information. There are basically two ways to deal with this, record the time zone information in another column along with the DATETIME or establish a convention that all the DATETIMES in the database are in the same time zone. Establishing a convention is the simpler approach both from an application implementation perspective, and in terms of being able to easily compare values in different rows, columns, or tables. If you know that every Java application which will ever access the data will operate in its own JVM, you can code your applications to set the default time zone of the JVM, but this is a problematic solution when more than one, independent application is running in the same JVM, such as servlets in a web server. It is unclear what would happen with different threads of execution changing the time zone for all other threads, but if they were actually able to do that, it would not be pretty.
At JDK 1.1 two things happened, all the getters and setters for java.util.Date where the meaning was ambiguous with respect to time zone were deprecated and the java.util.Calendar class was introduced. Along with the Calendar class itself, methods accepting a Calendar object were added to the JDBC interface, for example PreparedStatement.setTimestamp(int parameterIndex, Timestamp x, Calendar cal) and ResultSet.getTimestamp(int columnIndex, Calendar cal). In these methods, the Calendar object establishes the frame of reference used to convert from the GMT offset in the Timestamp object to or from a DATETIME value. If you create a constant Calendar object in your applications, and use it every time you read or write a Timestamp object to a DATETIME, the values DATETIME will remain consistent with each other, and the meaning of the value will not change dependent on the time zone of the JVM.
Using a GMT calendar would be efficient because it requires less operations to convert between the Java classes and the value in the database. Also, the value will not change if other APIs, like ODBC or ESQL/C, are used. Conceptually, what is stored in the database is January 1, 1970 00:00:00.000 GMT + tstamp.getTime() milliseconds.
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is a close relative to GMT and is just as viable.
In this model, all date and time values in the database are on the same time line, and conversion to other time lines or calendar systems are handled at the user interface level. Using UTC or GMT for all DATETIME values provides a simple model to implement in applications. It also removes all the problems related to knowing the time zone of the JDBC driver runtime or if applications written in anything other than Java will ever be used to access the data.
|
<urn:uuid:44c148a0-27d2-451c-994c-3393c7d32702>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-47
|
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/idsteam/tags/timezone?order=asc&maxresults=15&sortby=0&lang=en
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934808133.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20171124123222-20171124143222-00576.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.90673 | 1,768 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Free Prek Worksheets Pdf
This is a suitable resource page for preschoolers, teachers and parents.
Free prek worksheets pdf. Odd, one more, one less, number partners, etc. Spell , colour & count - number FIVE 5. These math sheets can be printed as extra teaching material for teachers, extra math practice for kids or as homework material parents can use. Download free printable numbers recognition worksheets for toddlers, preschoolers, pre k and kindergarten kids.
125 Preschool Reading Worksheets. Take the work and expense out of doing school at home with our vast collection of free worksheets for kids!We not only have free worksheets, but we also have hands-on activities, printable games, and more to make learning FUN!You will find resources for all ages from toddler, pre k, kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade. They focus on learning the letters of the alphabet, numbers and counting, pre-writing and tracing skills, scissor skills, shapes, colors, and more. Preschool-aged children will benefit the most from the free printable worksheets on the site right now but we also plan on adding additional resources for younger kids.
A Dazzling Math Line Design. A to Z Letter Find.. Visitors are always asking me if I have printables for certain themes or topics and my answer is usually “somewhere.” You need the FREE Acrobat Reader to view and print PDF files.
Recognizing number 1 to number 10. All worksheets are pdf documents for easy printing. Spell , colour & count - number TWO 2. Healthy Treats to Eat.
Free preschool and kindergarten worksheets. This fall-themed printable worksheet bundle includes four pages of counting fun. In this early reading worksheet, your child draws circles around the word under each picture and then guesses what the word might mean based on the picture. This pack includes handwriting practice, ten frame examples, even vs.
This is a growing collection of free printables for preschoolers, designed for ages approximately 3 & 4 years old.You can also browse through our toddler printables and kindergarten printables. For each number 0-100 (in both print and manuscript tracing fonts). This book contains a collection of pre-primer sight word worksheets intended to be used with children in Preschool, Kindergarten (Prep) and Grade 1 as assessment or revision tool. The idea behind this website is to make a place where parents, teachers, and childcare professionals can download and print free educational resources for preschoolers.
Here you will find worksheets on every subject from the alphabet and reading to math, writing and spelling. Here are our top pre-k worksheets posts based on pageviews to get you started. Download free printable preschool worksheets in pdf. Pre - K math worksheets – Printable PDF activities for math practice.
In these free printable preschool worksheets for your student, you’ll find fun classroom activities about letters, numbers, colors, and themes. Draw a circle around each word you see! These free printable worksheets are perfect for all kids from pre-school to kindergarten (3, 4, and 5 year olds). Single digit addition with picture, simple and easy adding numbers up to 10 practice sheets.
Most worksheets have an answer key attached on the second. Today I’m sharing more than 125 of my favorite free pre k worksheets from Pre-K Pages!. Spell , colour & count - number FOUR 4. :) Hope it's useful!
Preschool worksheets PDF to print. Counting activities for Preschool or Kindergarten incorporate cut/paste skills and matching.Includes:Candy Corn Counting 1-10 - Fall Themed PreK WorksheetCounting Skill 1-10 Cut and Paste - Fall (Free Printable Worksheets) Use this worksheet to help students learn to multiply double digits by single digits. Learning how to write, color & trace numbers 1 to 60.
Feel free to pin, share and follow! Draw a circle around each word you see! The hardest part is figuring out which free preschool worksheets age 3-4 you will use first?:. Free printable math addition worksheets for kindergarten kids and preschool:
Most Pre-K or Kindergarten teachers will agree that not all free printables are created equal. The worksheets are in PDF format. Boost your child’s confidence before they enter school with these free and printable preschool worksheets pdf that are useful for learning the alphabet, numbers, plus free printable coloring pages and more! Each letter worksheet has a different theme.
These alphabet worksheets help kids practice ltter recognition of upper and lowercase letters. Worksheets to learn the colors. Preschool Worksheets FREE Preschool Worksheets Color by Number NUMBERS 1 – 10 Pre Writing Worksheets Line Tracing Worksheets Shape Tracing Worksheets Picture Tracing Worksheets Letter Tracing Worksheets Number Tracing Worksheets Shapes. Spell , colour & count - number ONE 1.
- ANIMALS (farm animals, pet animals, sea animals, jungle animals, arctic animals) Coloring pages, coloring pages with an example colored picture and worksheets for each. Use these free worksheets to learn letters, sounds, words, reading, writing, numbers, colors, shapes and other preschool and kindergarten skills. Here is a list of my free printable preschool worksheets and activities by skills they promote. Preschool math worksheets for children who little or no notion of math.
This page contains links to math topics which also link to pages with loads of colorful pdf printable math worksheets for pre-kindergarten.Each worksheet is carefully crafted with the best graphics and colors which appeal to young learners. Preschool Worksheets Most Popular Preschool & Kindergarten Worksheets Color by Number Most Popular Preschool and Kindergarten Worksheets Kindergarten Worksheets Math Worksheets on Graph Paper Pumpkin Worksheets Halloween Worksheets Brain Teasers Printab... Free Preschool & Kindergarten Worksheets and Printables Expand your practice beyond the screen with this collection of free printable worksheets for pre-k, preschool and kindergarten kids. Over 200 Scholastic Teachables' Free Printable Worksheets span over 20 math topics from Pre-K through Grade 8.
Good Night, Sleep Tight -- Top Bedtime Tips. Spell , colour, count - number THREE 3. This collection of kindergarten worksheets covers important topics such as handwriting and spelling. Here`s a sample of FREE worksheets for you to try in your class.
In this early reading worksheet, your child draws circles around the word under each picture and then guesses what the word might mean based on the picture. Price (Descending) showing 1-24 of 90,317 results. Free illustrated Math & Arithmetic worksheets for Pre K to 1 st Grade Kids. First, they are asked to trace the sight word in focus on two writing lines.
- True Colors Activity Worksheet
- Worksheets For 1st Graders English
- Worksheets For First Graders Free
- Worksheets For Kindergarten
- Writing Worksheets For 4th Grade
- Worksheet Pigments And Color Answers
- Winter Coloring Worksheets
- Worksheets For Kindergarten Pdf
- Writing Worksheets For 1st Grade
- Worksheets For Kindergarten Colors
- Worksheets For 1st Graders Reading
- Two Step Equations Coloring Worksheet
- Worksheets For Kids
- Variables On Both Sides Coloring Worksheet
- Worksheets For 1st Graders With Dyslexia
- Worksheets For Kids Free
- Worksheet Tab Color
- Worksheets For Kindergarten Reading
- Two Step Equations Coloring Worksheet Pdf
- Valentine Color By Number Worksheets For Kindergarten
|
<urn:uuid:afe21ec8-bc73-4a44-9c5a-3ca9cc0db463>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-29
|
https://inigodesign.com/free-prek-worksheets-pdf.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657140337.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20200712211314-20200713001314-00009.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.860406 | 1,705 | 3.5 | 4 |
3D Art and Design employs engineering and design thinking mindsets in the development of 3D modeling projects that expose students architecture, product development, and socially-conscious design. Students solve engineering challenges by developing 3D models and physical prototypes using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software and 3D printers.
This project used 3D scanning and 3D modeling to explore Neoclassical sculpture, Rodin, and the birth of modern sculpture.
This project introduced Cubism through the open source 3D modeling programming language OpenSCAD. Students explored space, shapes, and perspective as they created cubist-inspired 3D modeled self-portraits.
An open-ended exploration of contemporary sculpture
Students designed kinetic gates inspired by the New Orleans sculptor John Scott.
Students used human-centered design in the creation of 3D models of Newman’s new science building. Their designs incorporated feedback from students, faculty, staff, and other members of Newman’s community.
Students designed and modeled sustainable, off-the-grid tiny houses based on user needs and sustainability requirements.
3D modeled boats inspired by Moat Boat Paddle Battle (http://www.moatboatpaddlebattle.com/)
Students designed, modeled, and 3D printed “transformation masks” (originating from the Canadian Kwakiutl) that fit onto small, 3D scanned figurines.
Students envisioned and designed new monuments to replaced the Confederate monuments that have been taken down in New Orleans.
|
<urn:uuid:5cc437ba-182c-475e-91af-afbe28f09b33>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-05
|
https://isidore-newman-school.github.io/courses/2017/3D-Art.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250594101.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20200119010920-20200119034920-00099.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.910365 | 309 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Palestinian Territories - Media Landscape
|Population||2.5 m note: in addition, there are about 187.000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and fewer than 177.000 in East Jerusalem (2004)|
|Area||5.860 sq km|
|Total imports (incl. Gaza)||€2.1 bn (2005)|
|Total exports (incl. Gaza)||€270 m (2005)|
|GDP (incl. Gaza)||€3 bn (2006)|
|GDP per capita (incl. Gaza)||€692 (2006)|
|Unemployment (incl. Gaza)||23,6% (2006)|
|Literacy rate (incl. Gaza)||93,5%|
|Internet users (per 1000 people) (incl. Gaza)||65.6|
|Languages||Arabic (official), Berber Dialects, French|
|Population||1.4 m (2007)|
|Area||360 sq km|
The Oslo Accords established the Palestinian National Authority in 1993. Prior to these Accords, Israel denied any Palestinian living outside Jerusalem the right to publish a newspaper or start a radio or television station. Still, one Arabic newspaper has been published in East Jerusalem since 1951, the Al-Quds newspaper.
Since the Oslo Accords, new newspapers have been established. Palestinian national and independent radio and television stations have also launched.
Nevertheless, the Israel-Palestine conflict has had great impact on the media. Harassment of journalists and restrictions of free movement make the working conditions extremely difficult. Furthermore, the second intifada, which started in 2000, created financial trouble for many media organizations. The conflict between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in Gaza lead to a further deterioration of the working environment for journalists.
The Palestinian Territories have three main newspapers: the Al-Quds, which is privately owned but close to the authority and has the largest circulation; the Al-Ayyam, the editor of which was in the Fatah party, and the Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, a national authority daily. The political party Hamas has its own daily newspaper, Palestine. Next to these, there are several weekly newspapers and tabloids.
The Palestine News Agency (WAFA) is the official government news agency. It delivers news in Arabic, Hebrew, English and French. However, there are several more independent news agencies, such as the Ramattan News Agency, which primarily serves television stations and the Ma’an News Agency. The latter is sponsored by the Dutch and Danish Ministries of Foreign Affairs. Shehab is another Hamas-supported news agency that, according to media sources in Gaza, is competing with Ramattan and tries to replace it. Also, there is the Jerusalem Media & Communication Center, which provides translated local news summaries to a list of subscribers.
Television is the most important source of information and news in the Palestinian Territories. The main broadcaster is the state-run Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC). It produces both terrestrial and satellite channels and is administratively connected to the president’s office.
There are also two other major local media outlets: The Network of United Radio Stations (NUR) and SADA TV. The Palestine News Network (PNN) together with NUR and SADA TV Company have recently signed a partnership agreement. The coalition, which includes also a number of television and radio stations and news websites will be called ‘ United ‘.
There are 31 private television stations registered at the Palestinian ministry of information – West Bank only. Most of these channels are limited to broadcasting to small areas and cities. However, the Palestinians are not bound only to national television channels. Channels from abroad, such as as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya are quite popular. Multi-faceted stations such as Al-Amal TV, Amwaj TV and Jordanian TV offer a lot of choices and are often viewed. The Islamist party Hamas has its own television station, Al-Aqsa in Gaza. Moustafa Barghouti, the former Minister of Information, also has his own channel, Al-Watan TV.
The official radio station in the Palestinian Territories is the Voice of Palestine, which is part of the PBC. Twenty-six stations are registered in the West Bank only. Two of the independent radio stations include Radio Amwaj and Ajyaal, based in Ramallah.
Many private radio stations are registered in smaller towns.
Despite the fact that the Palestinian Internet access is regulated by Israel, online media in Palestine is expanding. In 2006, it was estimated that nearly 243,000 Palestinians, about 13 percent of the population, had access to the Internet. Although Internet cafés are the main means to online access, Internet is becoming increasingly available for home and personal use.
There are several electronic media outlets, including the PNN, offering news in Arabic, English, Hebrew and French; the Gaza based Donia Alwatan, which is widely browsed as it offers a variety of reports in addition to news in Arabic; Paltoday; Samanews and the Hamas affiliated Al-Bian.
The Palestinian bloggosphere is developing. A new website for blogs was established in 2007 by the Arabic Media Internet Network (AMIN), an NGO from Ramallah. It hosts blogs on a variety of subjects.
There are also many external blogs to be found about the Palestinian Territories. Most of them deal with the Isreal-Palestine conflict:
Despite very adverse economic and security conditions, the Palestinian fixed and mobile markets have been growing at a steady pace in the past years. The fixed sector grew by an average rate of 10.2 percent between 2000 and 2004, reaching 357.310 fixed subscribers by the end of 2004 and a penetration rate of 9.8 percent. In 2006, there were around 830.000 mobile-phone accounts according to the Palestinian communication company Paltel.
In August 2008, Wataniya Palestine Telecom (WPT) and its shareholders Wataniya Telecom and the Palestine Investment Fund, began signing agreements with a number of telecommunications and information technologies providers to start the construction of WPT GSM network in Palestine. The signing of the agreements came after WPT received the frequency license from the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information technology. The allocation of the radio frequencies allows WPT to begin construction of its network, the second GSM network in Palestine, in preparation for its commercial launch in 2009.
Learning and support
Several Palestinian universities offer journalism programmes:
At the Birzeit University one can choose among these subjects:
- Major Media-Journalism/Minor Political Science
- Major Media-Journalism/Minor Sociology
- Major Media-Radio Broadcasting/Minor Television
The An-Najah National University also offers an undergraduate programme of journalism.
The Al-Quds University hosts the Institute of Modern Media which was established in 1996 in Al-Bireh near Ramallah. The institute’s most vital department is Al-Quds Educational Television, which is considered the university’s communication link to the Palestinian society.
The Palestine Polytechnic University offers a Bachelor degree program of art and creativity skills with the applications and techniques of the multimedia. It aims to upgrade the use of multimedia and graphics design techniques in the various sectors, such as art production in printing, television and internet.
In 2003, the Bethlehem Bible College launched a Media Training Project. It offers two-year programmes in journalism focusing on web design, radio and television production. The college boasts a media centre, which produces a weekly one-hour television programme that airs in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate is the only official and professional media organization in the Palestinian Territories.
- Al-Hayat - Al-Jididah
- Al-Amal TV (N/A)
- Amwaj TV (N/A)
- Radio Nablus (N/A)
- Palestine News Agency (WAFA)
- Jerusalem Media and Communication Center
- Rammatan News Agency
- Ma’an News Agency
- International Federation of Journalists
- Birzeit Univeristy
Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation
PO Box 984, Ramallah Albereih
Tel.: +972 (0)2 295 9894
Fax: +972 (0)2 295 9893
Palestine News Agency
P.O. Box: 5300
Tel.: + 970 2 824036
Fax: + 970 2 824046
Ma’an News Agency
Al-Karkafa Street, Al-Majd Building, 4th Floor
Tel.: +970 276 008 5/6
Fax: + 970 276 00 88
Sub-Office, Gaza City
Ma’an News Agency
Wahda Street, Flat Three, Shawa & Hussari Building, tenth floor
Tel.: +970 08 282 50 11
Fax: +970 08 283 51 78
Ramattan News Agency - Head Office
Wahda Street, Shawa & Hussari Building, 9th Floor
Tel.: +970 828 301 66
Fax No: +970 828 482 88
|
<urn:uuid:1128a31a-3d8e-47ce-a1ce-7e0f1256a07d>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-48
|
http://www.journalismnetwork.eu/index.php/_en/country_profiles/palestinian_territories/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163046758/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131726-00067-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.921376 | 1,913 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Mesopotamian Wheel - DISCOVERY OF WHEELS IN MESOPOTAMIA Year 4000 - 3500 BC, Mesopotamian society tamed horses, vehicles, and attract a large stone cube. One day, the stone cube grind wooden beams that did not get rid of, to roll faster, and mild withdrawal. Begin to roll the stone cube tradition, over wooden beams. Of the tradition between the years 3500 - 3350 BC, the people of Mesopotamia invented the wheel, and then create a horse-drawn carriage.
Wheels, an object is round and has as associated with another object so that it can rotate. For thousands of years, the wheel has become a very important tool for the life of the human family. Can we imagine if to this day there has been no object called wheel? Most of the technology is now adopted the wheel as part of the system works, ranging from vehicle wheels, steering wheel, roller wheel on factory machines, until the micro as the engine watches and electronics components. But do you know who the inventor of the wheel that looks simple but very vital?
From historical records, discoveries archaeologists, and mythologies that there was no one who could deduce who the real inventor of the wheel. Could be, every nation in the pre-history to know the wheels gradually and naturally, according to the activity and the growing civilization.
After various searches through history, most scientists believe that the wheel is used for the first time by the makers of clay pottery around 3500 BC. The opinion was quite reasonable, considering at that time the streets still follow the natural contour roughing, staircase steps or rocky, yet the streets are flat, smooth and wide enough to pass the wheel. In addition, the manufacturer of civilization in the form of activities that develop early is making pottery from clay. Only then develops the metal enrichment technology.
While the wheels are commonly used for transportation seen in a mosaic Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) which is considered around the year 3200 BC. This can be seen from the status heritage of this nation which is the oldest depiction of a wheel-shaped object. Some experts believe that the possibility of the wheels was discovered 5,000 years earlier in Asia.
The use of the wheel as a means of conveyance possibility originated from pieces of wood shaped rollers that can roll. Roller wooden roller board placed on it so that it can to carry the load. On development, was made a shaft which is then connected to the wheels of one another, and then to draft with a main frame (chassis) that are not easily separated. With technology these modest beginnings, then humans develop air-wheeled vehicles up to now.
|
<urn:uuid:5829ff0d-a83b-4be7-a6d5-5177718776de>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-47
|
https://zoomlabakalim.blogspot.com/2017/03/history-of-invention-of-mesopotamian.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934804610.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20171118040756-20171118060756-00456.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.961202 | 554 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Australian scientists have created a beer which they claim can prevent dehydration and it may even spell the end of the dreaded hangover.
While beer has long been known to contain positive nutrients resulting from its plant origins and fermentation process, the alcohol content means it goes out faster than water which increases dehydration.
Dehydration is one of the main causes of alcohol hangover.
Scientists at the Griffith Health Institute (GHI) created the brew by adding electrolytes - minerals that keep the body's fluid levels in balance and are commonly added in sports drinks.
They also had to reduce alcohol content in the beer to improve hydration.
"We basically manipulated the electrolyte levels of two commercial beers, one regular strength and one light beer and gave it to research subjects who'd just lost a significant amount of sweat by exercising. We then used several measures to monitor the participant's fluid recovery to the different beers," said Associate Professor Ben Desbrow from GHI's Centre for Health Practice Innovation.
"Of the four different beers the subjects consumed, our augmented light beer was by far the most well retained by the body, meaning it was the most effective at rehydrating the subjects.
"The 'improved' light beer was actually a third more effective at hydrating a person than normal beer," Desbrow said.
However, researchers warned against drinking beer after strenuous exercise, 'newsmedical.net' reported.
"This is definitely not a good idea, but what we've found is that many people who sweat a lot, especially tradesmen, knock off work and have a beer; it's pretty normal. But alcohol in a dehydrated body can have all sorts of repercussions, including decreased awareness of risk," Desbrow said.
The results were published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.
|
<urn:uuid:860fd82e-230d-4ff3-ad63-f510b9fe16b0>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-15
|
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/now-beer-that-wont-give-you-a-hangover/1156770
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609537864.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005217-00420-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.969651 | 371 | 3.25 | 3 |
Are you experiencing undesirable behaviors in your children? Such as tantrums, disrespectful language, selective listening, and physical fighting with siblings or classmates? Or are you worried about bullying now that kids are going back to school? Parents often reach out to us and ask how martial arts can help teach their children respect, self-control, discipline, and self-defense. They often ask what the best age is to start their child in a martial arts program. We also receive calls from parents whose children are the victims of bullying – or acting out as the bully. They reach out to us to find ways to strengthen the children’s confidence and teach them tools that will empower them.
When children increase their self-confidence and improve coordination, they are better prepared to handle difficult situations and often stand up for others. Martial Arts has become increasingly popular as the secret ingredient to anti-bullying efforts. Enrolling your child in a martial arts program can have countless physical, emotional, and mental health benefits. We find such joy in introducing kids to training with our kid’s martial arts program as young as 6 years old! It’s never too late to start learning important life skills.
Are you curious about some of the benefits your child could gain from starting a martial arts program? Check out these top 10 benefits of martial arts for children…
- Self-Defense: Our training program focuses on body alignment as well as the proper form for kicking, punching, sparring, and technique. Martial Arts is a reality-based art form. In life, we all have to learn how to “take” hits and get back up. Accepting how to get hit, teaches kids how to relax, better respond, and actually protect themselves better. Whether in the dojo or on the playground, learning how to maneuver and anticipate a hit, makes them wiser on how to actually avoid getting hit.
- Individual Growth: Martial Arts targets the student’s own self-improvement. This eliminates any stress that children feel if they have anxiety about team competition or letting down anyone on their team. The routines are broken down into patterns and they work on their own specific goals.
- Self-Discipline and Good Decision-Making Skills: What is self-discipline? It’s learning how to pay attention and focus on one’s self to act accordingly so they are able to complete a task in a timely matter at school or when home with mom or dad. Self-discipline is an important life skill to master so your child understands how to successfully achieve their goals in martial arts training as well as in life. An important by-product of self-control is good decision-making skills. As parents, we know that while we do our best to protect them, we cannot keep them in bubbles. Making good decisions for themselves when they are in difficult situations is huge for their self-confidence as well.
- Mind-Body-Spirit Connection: The basis of our program believes in impacting every student’s mind, body, and spirit as a whole. As we know kids are getting “lazier, crazier, and moodier” due to too much screen time. Psychology Today explains how “interactive screen time is more likely to cause sleep, mood, and cognitive issues because it’s more likely to cause hyperarousal and compulsive use.” Martial Arts is a total body workout that is high energy and full of fun. Our instructors value teaching children how to keep active, make healthier food choices, and how to really listen to their body.
- Team Work and Social Interactions: Our curriculum creates a healthy environment for kids to socialize together and understand that there are situations when working together in groups is necessary. As the child’s character and respect develop through martial arts, they learn that we are better together when we work as a team in school or are part of a community. As an added bonus, kids love to be in our classes with their friends and are often smiling, laughing, and having fun! The students develop friendships and experience being part of a team.
- Anti-Bullying Education: Unfortunately, bullying is still a real issue for young people of all ages. Bullying behavior is intentional and shows up in many forms. In our kid’s martial arts program, we talk about methods on how to deal with bullies before the repeated aggressive behavior is traumatic and causes issues for children such as anxiety, anger, depression, changes in eating and sleep patterns, and decreased interest in activities that used to bring him or her joy.
- Conflict Resolution: Martial Arts promotes a peaceful approach to conflict resolution. Students are taught proper form, ways to fine-tune motor skills and physical coordination. We teach them that physical combat is always a last resort. But if a child is in a dangerous situation, they will have the ability to defend themselves with strength and body awareness.
- Coordination and Motor Skills: Our program builds strong bodies, and physical coordination and helps kids fine-tune their motor skills. Increasing muscular strength and improving general well-being will support children with other activities such as dancing, art projects, soccer, baseball, or football.
- Balance and Posture: As we know, 6-year-olds usually don’t think about their balance or if their spine is in alignment. This skill set is critical for their little, growing bodies. If a child has poor posture, this will lead to improper breathing, cramped organs, jaw pain, and intestinal problems. Through balanced movement and age-appropriate skills and drills, children naturally correct their posture and improve their balance.
- Making Friends: KSD Martial Arts Unleashed understands how making friends is an important part of everyone’s childhood. We want to help young people make new friends while teaching them the important concepts of sharing, compassion, respect, listening, and conflict resolution. Our team provides activities such as game days and movie nights throughout the year to provide other ways for the students to interact.
Our children have the incredible opportunity to positively impact the world by staying active, and healthy, and rising up to help others. Martial Arts provide the total system to help them achieve all of their goals. The long-term effect of the benefits of martial arts will be seen throughout their lives. When choosing a dojo, it’s important to understand the style of teaching and the student-teacher ratio. KSD offers a trial class to see what we are about and how we can help your child reach their full potential. We want parents and children to feel comfortable with who we are and how we teach!
|
<urn:uuid:3e2b0b88-6b23-42fc-b5c8-d633891350fb>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-40
|
https://keishidojo.com/2023/08/08/10-benefits-of-martial-arts-training-for-children/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506339.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20230922070214-20230922100214-00517.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.962532 | 1,358 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Issue No. 2 – The First 3D Printed Object Ever Placed Into a Time Capsule May Have Just Been Placed into One from 1914 NYC
By Joe Borrello, Project Lead at DynamiCal: in situ Imaging Solutions
This special report takes a look at a pretty special event that recently took place in New York. For background: in 1914, the Lower Wall Street Business Men’s Association created and filled a beautifully crafted bronze time capsule with items to memorialize that time in New York history, as well as to recognize the role the city played about 150 years earlier during the infancy of the American Revolution. The original plan was to open the capsule in 1974, but some clerical errors resulted in its misplacement until the mid-1990s. When it was recovered, it was decided that the capsule should be opened on the 100th anniversary of its creation, in 2014. On the day of its opening, October 8th, the time capsule was the oldest known time capsule yet to be opened.
The contents of the capsule were fascinating windows onto a world both very different and very similar to our own. Contained artifacts included newspapers, pictures and telegrams from important New York political figures. Untapped Cities, one of my favorite NYC blogs, covered the whole affair with tons of great pictures. You can check that out here.
What interested me even more though, was the idea had by the New York Historical Society, otherwise known as the keepers of the capsule. The NYHS reached out to high school students in New York City to curate a list of new items to put in the capsule to represent 2014 and to be reopened in 2064. The students put together what I thought was a pretty good and indicative selection of items representing the city as it is today. I couldn’t help but wonder though, if there would be anything 3D printed to add in. There was no mention of anything 3D printed in the Untapped Cities posting, but as I scrolled through the pictures, something caught my eye in some of the last images.
To the untrained eye, that might just look like a World Trade Center trinket, but that flat portion at the bottom gives it away: that’s a raft for a 3D print. In the 3D printing world, a raft is a few layers of preliminary material put down to allow the printed object to stick on the build plate better. The print itself isn’t clear enough to tell what printer made it, but it’s very clearly a consumer machine.
Some of the magazines and newspapers indicated that the 2014 capsule may reference or even show 3D printing, but it is a whole different thing to have an actual 3D printed part in there. It’ll be interesting to see how New Yorkers in the mid-21st century respond to a standard issue print from our times. It may very well be how we respond to photographs from the early 20th century. I’m also curious to see how the print fares, since some materials (like PLA) are biodegradable and may not make it till 2064. If nothing else, it’ll be the greatest print lifetime test conducted so far.
Doing some cursory research, I found no mention of other printed objects being put into a time capsule. Being such a young technology (at least in the semi-mainstream space), it’s very likely that no one has thought to put a 3D printed object in a time capsule yet. This makes New York’s all the more unique. I think there’s a very good chance this is the first time a 3D print has ever been put into a time capsule, and it’s indicative of how this field is beginning to influence and represent our times. All the more reason to have some foundational printlosophies!
|
<urn:uuid:1441a87e-da66-45b2-a67a-4e69cf4740cb>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-24
|
https://www.3dsystems.com/blog/2014/10/printlosophy-joe-special-report
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347402457.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20200529054758-20200529084758-00478.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.961404 | 795 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The World According to Student Bloopers
One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.
The inhabitants of Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.
The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Issac, stole his brother's birthmark. Jacob was a partiarch who brought up his twelve sons to be partiarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.
Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.
Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.
In the Olympic Games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athens was democratic because the people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they fought the Parisians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.
Eventually, the Romans conquered the Geeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlic in their hair. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March killed him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.
The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted "hurrah." Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.
Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. He reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.
|
<urn:uuid:a6c5a7a4-ccd4-4090-bca0-e19a3791653e>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-40
|
https://klmgc.tripod.com/student.htm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510734.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001005750-20231001035750-00054.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.991699 | 786 | 3.078125 | 3 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2009)
Teleradiology is the transmission of radiological patient images, such as x-rays, CTs, and MRIs, from one location to another for the purposes of sharing studies with other radiologists and physicians. Teleradiology is a growth technology given that imaging procedures are growing approximately 15% annually against an increase of only 2% in the radiologist population.
Teleradiology allows radiologists to provide services without actually having to be at the location of the patient. This is particularly important when a sub-specialist such as an MRI radiologist, neuroradiologist, pediatric radiologist, or musculoskeletal radiologist is needed, since these professionals are generally only located in large metropolitan areas working during daytime hours. Teleradiology allows for trained specialists to be available 24/7.
Teleradiology utilizes standard network technologies such as the internet, telephone lines, wide area network, local area network (LAN) and the latest high tech being computer clouds. Specialized software is used to transmit the images and enable the radiologist to effectively analyze what can be hundreds of images for a given study. Technologies such as advanced graphics processing, voice recognition, artificial intelligence and image compression are often used in teleradiology. Through tele radiology and mobile DICOM viewers, images can be sent to another part of the hospital, or to other locations around the world.
Teleradiologists can provide a Preliminary Read for emergency room cases and other emergency cases or a Final Read for the official patient record and for use in billing.
Preliminary Reports include all pertinent findings and a phone call for any critical findings. For some Teleradiology services, the turnaround time is extremely rapid with a 30-minute standard turnaround and expedited for critical and stroke studies.
Teleradiology Final Reports can be provided for emergency and non-emergency studies. Final reports include all findings and require access to prior studies and all relevant patient information for a complete diagnosis. Phone calls with any critical findings are signs of quality services.
Teleradiology Preliminary or Final Reports can be provided for all doctors and hospitals overflow studies. Teleradiology can be available for intermittent coverage as an extension of practices and will provide patients with the highest quality care.
Some teleradiologists are fellowship trained and have a wide variety of subspecialty expertise including such difficult-to-find areas as Neuroradiology, Pediatric Neuroradiology, Thoracic Imaging, Musculoskeletal Radiology, Mammography, and Nuclear Cardiology. There are also various medical practitioners who are not radiologists that take on studies in radiology to become sub specialists in their respected fields, an example of this is dentistry where oral and maxillofacial radiology (Oral & Maxillofacial Radiology) allows those in dentistry to specialize in the acquisition and interpretation of radiographic imaging studies performed for diagnosis of treatment guidance for conditions affecting the maxillofacial region.
In the United States, Medicare and Medicaid laws require the teleradiologist to be on U.S. soil in order to qualify for reimbursement of the Final Read.
In addition, advanced teleradiology systems must also be HIPAA compliant, which helps to ensure patients' privacy. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is a uniform, federal floor of privacy protections for consumers. It limits the ways that entities can use patients' personal information and protects the privacy of all medical information no matter what form it is in. Quality teleradiology must abide by important HIPAA rules to ensure patients' privacy is protected.
Also State laws governing the licensing requirements and medical malpractice insurance coverage required for physicians vary from state to state. Ensuring compliance with these laws is a significant overhead expense for larger multi-state teleradiology groups.
Medicare (Australia) has identical requirements to that of the United States, where the guidelines are provided by the Department of Health and Ageing, and government based payments fall under the Health Insurance Act.
The regulations in Australia are also conducted at both federal and state levels, ensuring that strict guidelines are adhered to at all times, with regular yearly updates and amendments are introduced (usually around March and November of every year), ensuring that the legislation is kept up to date with changes in the industry.
One of the most recent changes to Medicare and Radiology / Teleradiology in Australia was the introduction of the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Scheme (DIAS) on the 1st of July 2008. DIAS was introduced to further improve the quality of Diagnostic Imaging and to amend the Health Insurance Act.
Until the late 1990s teleradiology was primarily used by individual radiologists to interpret occasional emergency studies from offsite locations, often in the radiologists home. The connections were made through standard analog phone lines.
Teleradiology expanded rapidly as the growth of the internet and broad band combined with new CT scanner technology to become an essential tool in trauma cases in emergency rooms throughout the country. The occasional 2-3 x ray studies a week soon became 3-10 CT scans, or more, a night. Because ER physicians are not trained to read CT scans or MRIs, radiologists went from working 8–10 hours a day, five and half days a week to a schedule of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week coverage. This became a particularly acute challenge in smaller rural facilities that only had one solo radiologist with no other to share call.
These circumstances spawned a post-dot.com boom of firms and groups that provided medical outsourcing, off-site teleradiology on-call services to hospitals and Radiology Groups around the country. As an example, a teleradiology firm might cover trauma at a hospital in Indiana with doctors based in Texas. Some firms even used overseas doctors in locations like Australia and India. Nighthawk, founded by Paul Berger, was the first to station U.S. licensed radiologists overseas (initially Australia and later Switzerland) to maximize the time zone difference to provide nightcall in U.S. hospitals.
Currently, teleradiology firms are facing pricing pressures. Industry consolidation is likely as there are more than 500 of these firms, large and small, throughout the United States.
Although teleradiology is flourishing in the developed world, few teleradiological links have been made to the developing world. Generally, barriers to the implementation of radiology services have also complicated setting up reliable links.
Several examples of simple, low-cost nonprofit teleradiology solutions have been employed by Satellife and the Swinfen Charitable Trust. Established in 1987 by Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Bernard Lown, Satellife (Boston) was the first non-profit organization to own and use a low earth-orbit satellite as well as mobile computing devices such as handheld computers and mobile phones for medical data communication. Starting in 1998, Swinfen Charitable Trust, a U.K. based nonprofit organization founded by Lord and Lady Swinfen, gave healthcare personnel in remote places internet access and a digital camera, and also facilitated a low-cost telemedicine service linking doctors at hospitals in the developing world with medical and surgical consultants who gave advice at no cost.
More complex solutions emerged in 2007. Operated by volunteer radiologists, Téléradiologie sans Frontières (Teleradiology without Borders), a Luxembourg-based nonprofit organization founded by Dr Jean-Baptiste Niedercorn and Dr Gérald Wajnapel, started to provide teleradiology imaging services to developing countries using a professional cloud picture archiving and communications system (PACS).
Today, many established private teleradiology practices such as Virtual Radiologic (vRad) are also involved in pilot programs with NGOs, reporting radiographs from rural health centres, free of charge.
- ^ "Teleradiology Center". www.teleradiology-center.eu. Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 1 January 2015.[better source needed]
- ^ Brice, James (November 2003). "Globalization comes to radiology". Diagnostic Imaging. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ^ "278 Teleradiologists looking to Provide Coverage".
- ^ Chandler, Bonnie. "Home".
- ^ Health Insurance Act 1973
- ^ Health, Australian Government Department of. "About the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Scheme (DIAS) Standards fact sheet".
- ^ Wootton, R. (2001). "Telemedicine and developing countries--successful implementation will require a shared approach". Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare. 7 Suppl 1 (5): 1–6. doi:10.1258/1357633011936589. PMID 11576471.
- ^ Gordon, Roberta (February 11, 1999). "Heart Doctor With an Extra Big Heart". Harvard University Gazette.
- ^ Swinfen, R; Swinfen, P (2002). "Low-cost telemedicine in the developing world". Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare. 8 Suppl 3: S3:63–5. PMID 12661626.
- ^ Andronikou, Savvas; McHugh, Kieran; Abdurahman, Nuraan; Khoury, Bryan; Mngomezulu, Victor (2011). "Paediatric radiology seen from Africa. Part I: providing diagnostic imaging to a young population". Pediatric Radiology. 41 (7): 811–825. doi:10.1007/s00247-011-2081-8. hdl:10144/255414. ISSN 1432-1998. PMID 21656276. S2CID 11871615.
- ^ "Virtual Radiologic Partners with Doctors Without Borders/MSF to Deliver Expert Patient Care to Underserved Countries" (Press release). MINNEAPOLIS. PR Newswire. 2011-09-20. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
|
<urn:uuid:7641d5c6-0f4c-4df5-889e-fc32144c48a7>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-14
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleradiology
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949506.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20230330225648-20230331015648-00446.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.90742 | 2,177 | 3.359375 | 3 |
You have an artery on each side of your neck called the carotid artery. This artery brings needed blood to your brain and face.
The blood flow in this artery can become partly or totally blocked by fatty material called plaque. A partial blockage is called carotid artery stenosis (narrowing). A blockage in your carotid artery can reduce the blood supply to your brain. A stroke can occur if your brain does not get enough blood.
There are two invasive ways to treat a carotid artery that...Read more
In the next 24 hours, nearly 10,000 heart procedures will be performed in hospitals across the U.S. That's 365 days a year, year after... Read more »
What is angioplasty? Coronary balloon angioplasty is an invasive method of opening blocked arteries that might impede flow to the heart, and... Read more »
|
<urn:uuid:2285bdd4-35a0-41b2-9f70-7ba5e7e95926>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-35
|
http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/h/side-effects-of-angioplasty.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535925433.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20140901014525-00046-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.936898 | 186 | 2.671875 | 3 |
02/28/06 - New Motor power saver uses wasted electricity
The Utilisaver is one of a number of power factor correction devices on the market that promise to overcome an inefficiency in most electric motors. The power factor of a motor is the ratio of electricity used to the output of work, and a perfect score would be 1 to 1. But motors normally waste from 20 percent to 40 percent of the electricity they draw, bouncing it back up the power line and eventually down a ground wire. The Utilisaver captures that wasted electricity and channels it back to the motor, typically raising the efficiency level to about 95 percent. "I'm not a techie, so I don't understand all of the workings, but bottom line, it makes our pool pumps run more efficiently," Julius said. Even better, "if they run more efficiently, they don't run hot, and consequently, the consumer's pump and motor will last longer." Titon officials contend that the Utilisaver is better than other devices because it places the correction circuitry next to the motor, where it is most effective, while competitors place their circuitry in a main electric panel far from the motors. For industrial motors, the correction devices are custom-made and fine-tuned. These units can cost from $1,000 to $3,000. For residential use in pools and spas, Titon uses ready-made units that cost from $200 to $250, Baugher said. The basic technology for power factor correction has existed for years and can't be patented, Rayburn said. But the company has applied for patents on its system for computer-analyzing motors and custom-engineering Utilisavers. It also hopes to patent improvements in design and manufacturing. The more electricity costs, the greater the savings with Utilisaver -- and the faster the payback for the equipment, he said. Titon also is working on new versions of the Utilisaver designed for home appliances -- heavy power users such as air conditioners, heat pumps, sump pumps and washing machines.
02/28/06 - Predators keep the world green
Predators are, ironically, the key to keeping the world green, because they keep the numbers of plant-eating herbivores under control, reports a research team lead by John Terborgh, a professor of environmental science at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. Their findings confirm the answer to one of ecology's oldest and thorniest questions: why is the world green? It also seems to put to rest a competing theory that plants protect themselves from herbivores through physical and chemical defenses. Within Venezuela's Caroni Valley, an area of 4,300 square kilometres was flooded in 1986 to create a lake (Lago Guri) containing hundreds of islands that were formerly fragments of a continuous landscape. Terborgh and his team monitored the vegetation at 14 sites of differing size. Nine of the sites were on predator-free islands, while the others were on the mainland or on islands with a complete or nearly complete suite of predators. They found that, by 1997, small sapling densities on small islands were only 37 percent of those of large land masses and by 2002 this had fallen to just 25 percent. Most of the vertebrates present in regional dry forest ecosystem had disappeared from small islands, including fruit eaters and predators of vertebrates, leaving a hyperabundance of generalist herbivores such as iguanas, howler monkeys and leaf-cutter ants. Besides proving that the green world hypothesis is correct, Terborgh's team's results have important implications for the debate raging in many countries over reintroduction of top predators such as wolves. "The take-home message is clear: the presence of a viable carnivore guild is fundamental to maintaining biodiversity," the authors wrote.
02/28/06 - Phase Conjugated Laser Images in thin air
A new system which sends glowing three-dimensional images into thin air is being developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tokyo, in collaboration with Burton Inc. and Keio University. A spokesman for the company says, “We believe this technology may eventually be used in applications ranging from pyrotechnics to outdoor advertising.” According to Burton Inc., the technology might also be used for emergency distress signals or even temporary road signs. The display utilizes an ionization effect which occurs when a beam of laser light is focused to a point in the air. The laser beam itself is invisible to the human eye, but if the intensity of the laser pulse exceeds a threshold, the air breaks down into glowing plasma that emits visible light. The required intensity can only be achieved by very short, powerful laser pulses - each plasma dot, or "flash-point", lasts for only about a nanosecond. But the resulting image appears to last longer due to persistence of vision. As with film and television, the impression of a continuous image is maintained by refreshing the flash-points.
02/28/06 - Blocking Cosmic Rays for Astronauts
Galactic cosmic radiation poses a major challenge for spacecraft designers looking to protect astronauts on long missions into deep space. Without adequate shielding, these high-speed particles would cut through an astronaut's body, damaging DNA and increasing the likelihood of developing cancer. So far, no method of shielding has proved both effectie and practical. There are 3 basic shielding approaches; Materials, magnetic and biomedical. One idea being studied by NASA involves using a craft's liquid hydrogen fuel tanks to surround the crew quarters. This would provide shielding, but probably not enough to prevent an increased cancer risk.
02/28/06 - Chinese scientists use plants to battle pollution
Chinese scientists are now growing poison-accumulating plants to 'suck up' poisonous elements, mostly heavy metals like arsenic, copper and zinc, from polluted soil to repair contaminated lands. "In some parts of China, scientists have grown poison-accumulating plants, widely regarded as a 'hyperaccumulators' in academic circles, on poisonous soil to accumulate heavy metals," said Chen Tongbin, a researcher with the Geographic Science and Resources institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Chen's
research team has begun to renovate about 333.3 hectares of arsenic polluted fields in south China's Huanjiang County. According to Chen, water containing minerals at the upper reaches of rivers always pollute lower watercourses during floods in south China's Yunnan and Gianxi provinces, causing crop losses or even infertility in large areas of lower-reach fields. "The
soil pollution in Guangxi is serious. Soil contamination is the most dangerous because it is hidden, slow and fundamental," Chen told Xinhua.
02/28/06 - The Challenges of Longer Lifespans
Many of us can expect to live to more than a hundred. But until we treat old people with more respect, that's nothing to celebrate. Soon, reaching 100 will be normal. Some scientists predict lifespans of 1,000 years or more. Many older men live with young partners without being parodied as Viagra-popping Methuselahs scavenging for lost youth. Older women, conversely, get pity from a media that think anyone over 45 must be as seductive as the Turin shroud. The worst intolerance is reserved for couples in which both partners are elderly. Not long ago, a Portsmouth couple was put in homes five miles apart, refused the taxi they had been promised for daily visits and denied even the luxury of saying goodbye. They had not seen one another for four days when the wife died alone. Welcome to the departure lounge of prosperous Britain. This is how we treat the old. One in five pensioners lives in poverty, over-60s already well outnumber children and pensions policy is a shambles. God and the afterlife are being traded in for an engineered hereafter, in which you can spend a near-eternity in incontinence pants, forgetting your own name and going on grim bus tours of the Cotswolds. Even modestly stretched lives are changing the social topography. In an age of brevity - fast food, short careers, disposable partners - only life itself grows ever more durable. Relationships were never designed for such a marathon. The early Victorian marriage lasted an average of 15 years before one partner died, and divorce among the over-50s has increased by 50 per cent in two decades. Up to half of all baby-boomers are expected to be living alone by the time they are 75. If the social and financial problems of expanded lifespans have not been addressed, then neither have the ethical ones. Wanting to die is not just the reflex of the sick or desperate; it is also the natural reaction of affluent, happy people who feel that they have lived as long and as well as they found possible. Making people more death-proof is easy. The hard thing is going to be working out what all that extra life is really for.
02/28/06 - Hydrogen Fuel Cell bike
A British company, Intelligent Energy, opened up a California sales office to sell its hydrogen fuel-cell bike, the ENV. The ENV stands for "emissions-neutral vehicle." The bike runs on hydrogen stripped from bio fuels-anything from sunflower oil to soybeans. A five-ounce can of hydrogen will power the bike up to 100 miles. Top speed is 50 mph. The first ENV bikes are slated to appear in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2007. Retail prices will range from $6,000 to $8,000. The current cost of fueling is $4 per tank, but that price is expected to come down to 25 cents.
02/28/06 - Planet Earth As Weapon and Target
Beginning with the use of nuclear energy for military purposes, mankind has entered a seemingly endless race to harness the natural forces within the planet, in the atmosphere and in space for waging war. The earth is already gravely affected by many of those secret research and testing programmes leading to unpredictable environmental and epidemiological consequences. "The term 'exotic weapons systems’ includes weapons designed to damage space or natural ecosystems (such as the ionosphere and upper atmosphere) or climate, weather, and tectonic systems with the purpose of inducing damage or destruction upon a target population or region on earth or in space." - (US Congress H.R. 2977: Space Preservation Act of 2001) Two areas of instabilities can be used to modify the climate-energy coming from the Sun, or energy escaping from the atmosphere of the earth. Huge manmade energetic explosions high up in the atmosphere used to trigger instabilities, might be possible at some time in the future; in fact the Navy exploded 3 nuclear bombs in the Van Allen belt in 1958 under Project Argus and violently disrupted it. Modification of long-wave outgoing radiation, changes in the transparency of the earth’s atmosphere to radiated energy, or of terrestrial regions (desert, vegetation, water, ice) provide the most likely possibilities for human "technogenic" intervention. The military has long wanted to eliminate civilian participation in space programmes in order to gain full control.
02/28/06 - Cyberthieves Silently Copy Your Passwords as You Type
Most people who use e-mail now know enough to be on guard against "phishing" messages that pretend to be from a bank or business but are actually attempts to steal passwords and other personal information. It has been eclipsed by an even more virulent form of electronic con - the use of keylogging programs that silently copy the keystrokes of computer users and send that information to the crooks. These programs are often hidden inside other software and then infect the machine, putting them in the category of malicious programs known as Trojan horses, or just Trojans. These criminals aim to infect the inner workings of computers in much the same way that mischief-making virus writers do. The twist here is that the keylogging programs exploit security flaws and monitor the path that carries data from the keyboard to other parts of the computer. The monitoring programs are often hidden inside ordinary software downloads, e-mail attachments or files shared over peer-to-peer networks. They can even be embedded in Web pages, taking advantage of browser features that allow programs to run automatically. And the SANS Institute, a group that trains and certifies computer security professionals, estimated that at a single moment last fall, as many as 9.9 million machines in the United States were infected with keyloggers of one kind or another, putting as much as $24 billion in bank account assets - and probably much more - literally at the fingertips of fraudsters. Being wary of unfamiliar Web links sent via e-mail is a first-line of defense, according to experts, as is avoiding questionable downloads and keeping up to date with Windows patches and antivirus updates. It is worth noting, however, that in a test of major antivirus programs conducted by Ms. Hoepers's group in Brazil last fall, the very best detected only 88 percent of the known keyloggers flourishing there.
02/27/06 - Fuel cell runs on charcoal
University of Hawaii researcher Michael Antal has developed a working fuel cell that uses charcoal as its fuel and operates at bread-baking temperatures. The Antal system, which he calls an aqueous alkali biocarbon fuel cell, is unlike other fuel cell technology both in that it uses a renewable fuel and that it does not require particularly high temperatures. "This is effectively a battery that uses charcoal to make electricity," Antal said. Antal's cell operates at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. By contrast, a carbon cell developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory operates at 1,500 degrees. The key to his cell's operation is the very chemically reactive property of charcoal, which has a large surface area and burns at relatively low temperatures, he said. The carbon cell functions something like a car battery. It has an anode and cathode positive- and negative-charged terminals in a liquid solution, and if you put an electrical load - like a light bulb - between them, electrical current flows from one to the other. But that's where the similarity ends. In Antal's cell, the electrolyte is alkaline potassium hydroxide, not sulphuric acid. It is kept under pressure to prevent it from boiling away at 400 degrees. The negative terminal, or cathode, which acts as a catalyst, is made of nickel and silver or platinum. The positive terminal, or anode, is a porous ceramic column filled with charcoal powder. A piston keeps it pressurized, and serves at the attachment point for the electrical connection. In operation, hydroxide ions in the electrolyte attack the carbon, creating carbon dioxide and water. The process releases energy. The cell is fed air to provide the process with new oxygen, and it vents carbon dioxide. The charcoal does not burn in the sense of a campfire burning. The reaction occurs entirely within the liquid of the fuel cell.
02/27/06 - NASA engineer invents seawater to electricity converter
In theory, the idea is simple. Almost any eighth-grader can tell you that spinning copper wires through a stable magnetic field makes electricity _ lots of electrons jumping off the magnetic field and zooming through a conductive metal. And since the ocean waves are already moving, why not cobble together a machine to harness that energy? The elder Woodbridge founded Aqua-Magnetics Inc., a small company that Tom now runs. Think Pogo Stick inside a floating drum. The rocking motion of the waves pushes a long cylinder of magnets up and down a copper coil. His prototypes stand about head-high, upside down in the family garage and are painted bright yellow, as the Coast Guard required. His small model generates 10 watts of power in a 6-inch wave chop. A full-scale version could generate 160 kilowatts. That one buoy is enough to power 160 houses, following the rule of thumb that the average U.S. home uses about 1,000 kilowatts of electricity each month. Smaller versions could make navigational buoys self-powered, providing warning lights and navigational signals to ships.
02/27/06 - Sub launched Robot bomber/spy Plane
Lockheed Martin is working on a robot airplane for the U.S. Navy called the Cormorant that is LAUNCHED FROM A SUBMARINE, swims to the surface, unfolds its wings, then fires rocket boosters to get airborne. After bombing or spying -- the plane would have a 500-mile capability -- it returns to the ocean, where it's picked up underwater by the sub with the use of a robot arm. I want one.
02/27/06 - Novel micro-reactor makes biodiesel
Chemical engineering researchers at Oregon State University have developed a tiny chemical reactor for manufacturing biodiesel that is so efficient, fast and portable it could enable farmers to produce a cleaner-burning diesel substitute on their farms using seed crops they grow on their own land. “This could be as important an invention as the mouse for your PC,” said Goran Jovanovic, the OSU professor who developed the biodiesel microreactor. “If we’re successful with this, nobody will ever make biodiesel any other way.” Current biodiesel production methods involve dissolving a catalyst, such as sodium hydroxide, in alcohol, then agitating the alcohol mixture with vegetable oil in large vats for two hours. The liquid then sits for 12 to 24 hours while a slow chemical reaction occurs, creating biodiesel and glycerin, a byproduct that is separated. This glycerin can be used to make soaps, but first the catalyst in it must be neutralized and removed using hydrochloric acid, a tedious and costly process. The microreactor developed at OSU eliminates the mixing, the standing time for separation and potentially the need for a dissolved catalyst. But more importantly, Jovanovic says, the microreactor, which is about half the size of a thick credit card, could help farmers reduce their dependence on mass-produced petroleum as well as reduce the need to distribute fuel via truck, tanker or pipeline. The microreactor, being developed in association with the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), consists of a series of parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair, through which vegetable oil and alcohol are pumped simultaneously. At such a small scale the chemical reaction that converts the oil into biodiesel is almost instant. Although the amount of biodiesel produced from a single microreactor is a trickle, the reactors can be connected and stacked in banks to dramatically increase production. “By stacking many of these microreactors in parallel, a device the size of a small suitcase could produce enough biodiesel to power several farms, or produce hundreds of thousands of gallons per year,” Jovanovic said. Using microreactors, biodiesel could be produced between 10 and 100 times faster than traditional methods, said Jovanovic, who is also developing a method for coating the microchannels with a non-toxic metallic catalyst. This would eliminate the need for the chemical catalyst, making the production process even more simple, a key to widespread use.
02/27/06 - Growing Energy
A short drive through the flowing fields of rural Southwest Missouri, begs the question: If energy is the key to economic independence and the path to disentangling from a historically troubled region that regularly puts the blood and treasure of the American people at risk, why don’t we grow it rather than import it? The short answer is we can and should. Perhaps the better question is why haven’t we? The advantages for growing energy rather than buying it overseas seem obvious. Among them, according to the National Corn Growers Association: Ethanol is a net energy gain, which means it produces 67 percent more energy than it takes to grow and process the corn into ethanol. A single acre of corn can make enough ethanol to run a car for some 72,000 miles on E-10 Unleaded. E-10 is 10 percent ethanol, 90 percent unleaded gasoline. For every barrel of ethanol produced, 1.2 barrels of petroleum are displaced. A bushel of corn yields about 2.8 gallons of ethanol. A typical 40-million-gallon ethanol plant creates 32 full-time jobs and generates an additional $1.2 million in tax revenue for a community. If there are drawbacks for the Midwest, I can’t find them. The petroleum industry creates wealth and jobs for whole swaths of the country. Moving from a mineral to an organic base for energy would ultimately displace thousands of workers, everybody from the guy working the drilling rig to refinery technicians to the oil tanker captain. The pain of transition is one reason, some critics argue, for moving slowly.
02/27/06 - Sharper Images of Biological Samples
Typically, microscope images of samples made of low-weight elements like hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, are characterized by poor contrast. In the new approach, contrast will be improved for a transmission electron microscope (TEM) by imposing a large relative phase shift to the electron waves scattered from samples. In a TEM device most of the electrons pass through the thin electron-transparent sample without scattering. Scattering of electron waves, when it does happen, occurs not because of absorption -- the amplitude of the electron beam is largely undiminished -- but through the shifting of the electron phase. Scattered and unscattered waves are focused and recombine downstream of the sample in a recording medium, typically a charged coupled device (CCD). Unfortunately, in weak-phase objects the phase shifting is slight, resulting in poor contrast. What scientists at the University of Karlsruhe and the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt have done to remedy this situation is to interpose a special free-suspended, micro-scaled electrostatic lens beyond the sample; this electrostatic lens has the effect of shifting the phase of the unscattered waves by a further 90 degrees but leaving the scattered waves unshifted. This dramatically improves the contrast in the resultant images. This electrostatic lens is called a Boersch phase plate in honor of Hans Boersch, who proposed the technique in 1947. It has not been achieved until now because of its demanding size specifications.
02/27/06 - Stress can cause long running health issues
Stress can be insidious. The pressures of daily life - jobs, relationships, money, raising children and now, war and terrorism - have become such constant companions that many of us operate with ever-present feelings of pressure, anxiety or burnout. The stress can become so unflagging that many people have accepted it as a standard part of life. Although we may try to ignore its presence, stress doesn’t go away. It just goes to work inside the body. Prolonged stress contributes to many physical and psychological ills. It overrides natural defences against viruses that cause AIDS, chickenpox and the common cold; encourages the production of inflammatory hormones that drive heart disease, obesity and diabetes; sparks flare-ups of rheumatoid arthritis and digestive disorders; creates depression and ages the brain. Australia's National Heart Foundation recently released a study that strongly recognised the connection between mind and body, ranking stresses such as depression and social isolation at the same risk level for coronary heart disease as high cholesterol, smoking and high blood pressure. The study found that loneliness and isolation could increase the risk of coronary heart disease fivefold while situations of acute stress, such as bereavement or disaster, could trigger heart disease. But chronic stress opens the floodgates, regardless of whether there’s a threat, allowing bacteria, viruses or tumours to flourish and making blood more prone to clotting. As their understanding of the biochemistry of stress increases, scientists around the country are developing and testing ways to protect the body from its ravages, using yoga and meditation, tai chi, psychotherapy and medications, and even experimental devices.
02/27/06 - the Ultra Efficient Car - 157mpg
The car start-up developed a light-weight passenger car with outstanding aerodynamics. The Loremo LS is powered by a 2 cylinder Turbo Diesel engine with 20 hp and 160km/h top speed. The amazing thing is that the Loremo only needs 1.5l per 100km. This is approx. 157MPG! The Toyota Prius hybrid has only 55MPG (combined city and highway). With one tank (20l) you could drive 1,300km. Loremo AG plans to sell the Loremo LS for less than 11,000 Euros (~$13,000). he company designed the Loremo focusing on safety and efficiency and got rid of unnecessary functions. The car is small but still provides space for 4. The design of the car is very futuristic and has for instance no conventional doors. Loremo AG also plans to offer the Loremo GS with a bit stronger engine (50 hp, 2.7l/100km) that reaches top speeds of 220km/h (for the German Autobahn).
02/27/06 - Mashups = Hybrids
The term mashup comes from the music world where it means the combination of two or more songs to create a new musical work. HousingMaps.com is an example of a new type of Web site called a "mashup," which is a unique site that uses data from two or more other sites to add value to both of them. It's a relatively new phenomenon that some people are calling "the next big thing." Dan Gillmor, director of the Center for Citizen Journalism (housed at both Harvard and Berkeley) calls mashups "the Legos of the Internet except they don't all come from Lego. Anyone can plug anything into another piece." Rademacher's site takes data from Craigslist apartment listings and plots them on a Google map, creating a very useful site that neither craigslist nor Google had offered. Yet, Rademacher's site would have been impossible had it not been for the information supplied by these two popular sites.
02/26/06 - New energy saving technique
A new technique developed by Dr Hussein Zoubi from the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) promises to increase the efficiency of using solar energy by 35-40 per cent. The new invention, presented to University of Michigan by Zoubi, works to decrease electric consumption in addition to utilising solar energy. By placing sensors in the glass of a building's windows, the lighting and cooling of a room can be automatically altered according to the amount of sunlight entering the room, Zoubi said. The system maintains constant heat and lighting levels with the sunlight and the sun's heat taken into consideration. In addition, photocells are placed on the window blinds, which move along with the sun throughout the day, thus maximising their exposure to sunlight. "The sensors are connected to a computer which analyses the information input. Also, the computer directs alterations in lighting and air-conditioning," Zoubi explained. He added that the system could be used to support the entire electrical needs of a house. When the computer is removed from the system, it can become affordable and easy to build, Zoubi said, estimating the cost of each unit at $50 to $60. Zoubi obtained the patent for his invention in the United States. He returned to the Kingdom last month to continue his work as assistant professor in the architectural engineering department at JUST and hopes to use the invention to benefit his country. "This concept can particularly benefit Jordan, since the number of sunny days in the year are estimated around 250. On the other hand, in Michigan, where the study was conducted, there are only 50 sunny days a year," Zoubi explained. Zoubi told The Jordan Times he hopes to apply his discovery on a commercial level, provided he can obtain support from local institutions.
02/26/06 - Licensing versus Patents
Through years of dedicated work on their inventors’ behalf, Invent-Tech has developed and perfected a revolutionary method of securing licensing agreements, according to a press release. “2005 was our most successful year ever, in terms of maximizing the number of licensing agreements we’ve been able to secure for our inventors”, stated Juan Blanco, Invent-Tech’s Director of Product Licensing. “We are extremely confident that 2006 will prove to surpass all previous results using this approach. It has worked very, very well”. Invent-Tech’s proprietary invention licensing approach is so unique, innovative and effective, that they have recently applied for utility patent protection. Using this proven new methodology, Invent-Tech, in association with their patent attorneys and licensing subsidiary, has secured more than 100 licensing agreements for individual inventors from manufacturers and marketing companies. Only available from Invent-Tech, this method represents a tremendous shift in the status quo throughout the entire invention development industry. By providing such a significant advantage for their clients, Invent-Tech uniquely positions itself as the dominant market leader both now and for the future.
02/26/06 - The Disruptive Technology Office
“ARDA now is undergoing some changes of its own,” Harris continues. “The outfit is being taken out of the NSA, placed under the control of Negroponte’s office, and given a new name. It will be called the ‘Disruptive Technology Office,’ a reference to a term of art describing any new invention that suddenly, and often dramatically, replaces established procedures. Officials with the intelligence director’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.” Disruptive technology, indeed-disruptive of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Obviously, the NSA is too hot for this “early-warning system,” a system we are told is designed to snoop “al-Qaeda” phone calls and instant messages (sent from caves), and it will now be moved into its own digs and continue to operate. Echelon, Carnivore, Magic Lantern, etc., these are all “systems” designed to render our former constitutional republic into a sprawling Panopticon, or surveillance prison. “A government engaging in escalating criminal actions and becoming more and more secretive should not be watching and tracking us as if we’re all criminals,” write Paul Joseph Watson and Alex Jones. “This is systematic. They built the electrically wired cage around us and then they turned it on. The state is doing all this for the moment when they take your pension funds, private property, and guns because you won’t be able to resist. Big Brother will be two steps ahead at all times and there will be nowhere to hide,” as Winston Smith, the protagonist in George Orwell’s nightmarish dystopian novel, 1984, ultimately had nowhere to hide.
02/26/06 - Singapore building Sub-Orbital Spaceport
"Singapore is one of the best-connected countries in the world. It is home to one of the world's busiest air and sea ports. Singapore, with its superior geographical and economic infrastructure, is primed to be the hub of a new, revolutionary form of travel - in space," said Eric Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Space Adventures. Space Adventures said it plans to offer parabolic flights to allow passengers to experience weightlessness, G-force training in a centrifuge, and simulated space walks in a neutral buoyancy tank, in addition to the sub-orbital flights. Visitors to Spaceport Singapore also would be able to fly aboard a variety of jet aircraft. Spaceport Singapore will cost an estimated minimum of $115 million, to be funded by a consortium of Singapore investors, and by Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, the Crown Prince of Ras Al-Khaimah, who last week announced he had partnered with Space Adventures on a spaceport in his country, part of the United Arab Emirates. KPMG Corporate Finance in Singapore also has begun to raise funds for the project. The consortium includes Octtane Pte, Batey Pte Ltd., Lyon Capital Inc., DP Architects, ST Medical and KPMG Corporate Finance, along with Space Adventures.
02/25/06 - Candle Heater for small rooms
The Kandle Heeter(tm) Candle Holder is an attractive ceramic radiator suspended above a candle flame on a solid steel frame. And it really works! The steel and ceramic radiator collects and concentrates the heat from the candle flame, becomes hot (but not burning), and gently radiates the heat from the candle into your room. Invented and manufactured in Fortuna, California from solid steel and ceramic components the candle heater is just over 9 inches tall and just under 7 inches wide and deep. It weighs over four pounds and ships in a 200 lb test cardboard box. The steel and ceramic radiator is comprised of three nested ceramic modulators held together and separated by a solid steel inner core. The steel inner core is positioned directly above the candle and is driven to very high temperatures by the flame. It gets very, very hot! The nested ceramic modulators transfer and moderate the high temperature of the inner core, one to another, until the outer ceramic modulator becomes a gently radiating thermal body that releases the concentrated heat from the candle into your home or office. If you burn candles, it only makes environmental and economical practical sense to capture the heat that is normally lost to the ceiling and use this heat in your own environment. (A typical 4.5 oz. jar candle contains over 1,000 Btu’s!) “The Kandle Heeter(tm) Candle Holder makes a real difference in a small room or bedroom,” says inventor Doyle Doss. “And if there is a temporary power outage you will be able to create a warm room for your family and friends.”
02/25/06 - Danger of Explosive Gas
(Wonder if hydrogen would do the same thing, were one silly enough to carry it in a balloon in a car? - JWD) All the windows were blown out, the vehicle doors were bent towards the outside and the roof was pushed about a foot higher than normal. [The occupants said] that they were taking a balloon to a Super Bowl party -- a balloon filled with acetylene, a very explosive gas used in welding -- so they could blow up the balloon while celebrating. However, on the drive, the balloon rolled across the back seat, possibly causing static electricity, and igniting the gas, causing it to explode.The couple said a passer-by gave them a ride home. Deputies called in an ambulance, who took the couple to Swedish Medical Center for possible shrapnel wounds and broken eardrums. Norman Frey, 46, faces a charge of possession, use, or removal of explosives or incendiary devices. He faces two to six years in prison.
Can fungi trim the gasoline habit?
Souped-up microscopic fungi could help cut the U.S. gasoline habit by converting a billion tons of agricultural waste into domestic fuel, while also slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Filamentous fungi and other microbes can be bred to break down an array of feedstocks, including wood chips, corn stalks and switch grass, that require no fertilizer and less input than traditional sources of the fuel. To make cellulosic ethanol, enzymes spewed from fungi convert cellulose from the fibrous parts of plants, such as stalks, into sugar that then is fermented. In traditional ethanol, yeast breaks down sugar from the starchy parts of plants, such as corn kernels. Scientists bioengineer fungi -- such as "jungle rot" that chewed through tents of the U.S. Army during World War Two in Guam -- to make the best enzymes for different fibrous plants. "Fungi are the scavengers in nature that break down cellulose anyway, so we're not trying to turn an elephant into a mouse," said Mark Emalfarb, president and chief executive of Florida-based Dyadic International Inc. Emalfarb said fungi Dyadic uses to soften and lighten blue jeans can break down corn stalks, sugar cane waste and rice straw into fuel. It's a step beyond making conventional ethanol in which yeast breaks down easier-to-process plant starch.
02/25/06 - ScubaDoo - The Underwater Scooter Invention
(Definitely hackable for a much cheaper price. - JWD) You are seated on your ScubaDoo, with your head and shoulders within a clear dome, your air constantly replenished from the external compressor, enabling you to breathe normally! At a rate of 2.5 knots you’re able to ride amongst the spectacular underwater world, or remain stationary while you feed the fish. You can wear your glasses or contact lenses in the ScubaDoo without a problem. There’s no need to be a strong swimmer. The ScubaDoo can even be used by people with minor disabilities. "The Scuba-Doo 's new-look air intake is now fed by its own towed compressor, eliminating the use of an air tank for breathing purposes. This is ideal for the hire industry, as it means operators don't need to fill air tanks as often. The towed compressor option adds US$2500 to the US$14,500 price."
02/25/06 - Split Second 3D Imaging
EW technology which can recognise a face in a split second has been developed by computer scientists at Sheffield Hallam University. The software, which could revolutionise security systems worldwide, can produce an exact 3D image of a face within 40 milliseconds. Other systems have previously tried and failed to perform the feat - they took too long to construct a picture and produced an inaccurate result. Hallam's groundbreaking invention could be in use soon to tighten security in airports, banks, government buildings - and to produce ID cards. With legislation just passed to bring in ID cards from 2008 when passport applications are made, the software could come into its own. The new technology works by projecting a pattern of light onto a face, creating a two dimensional image from which 3D data is generated. The Hallam team behind the research believe no other system in the world can match their technology for speed and accuracy of information, taken from a single video frame. Professor Rodrigues said there were also implications for industrial inspections, medical engineering, archaeology and even entertainment. "The system means we can make a 3D scan of a moving object, such as a person speaking," he said. "The combination of facial data and recorded speech would enable a speaking 3D model to be displayed together."
02/25/06 - Free Hard Drive Health Monitor
Freeware HDD Health monitors your PC’s hard drives for errors that predict an impending hard drive crash. HDD Health uses Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.), which is built into all new hard disks to keep tabs on how your drive is doing. HDD Health also watches your hard drive’s temperature and sends you an alert email if it gets too hot or if the status changes to anything except “All’s well on the Western Digital front.” Free download, Windows only.
02/25/06 - Researchers Get Set to Test Biojet Fuel
University of North Dakota researchers say a new jet fuel they have developed from crop oils is almost ready for testing by the Air Force. Ted Aulich, a senior researcher at the Energy and Environmental Research Center, said the new fuel is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than the leading conventional jet fuel. He said the military is interested in the fuel because it could help reduce dependence on foreign oil. Wayne Seams, a UND chemical engineering professor working on the project, said scientists have improved the fuel so it performs at temperatures as cold as 60 degrees below Celsius. The Air Force specification is 50 below.
02/23/06 - New Walkman-type device to lower blood pressure
Scientists have developed a gadget that can lower blood pressure without the need for drugs. The device, which looks like a CDWalkman, helps open up blood vessels that have become narrowed, causing a build-up of pressure. Within days of starting on the machine, patients with high BP have reported dramatic drops. Resperate, which has been approved by the US FDA, is an interactive device that uses musical cues to encourage patients to alter their breathing. The device works by picking up the breathing rate of a patient through a sensor worn on a belt round the chest. Once the device has worked out the patient's resting breathing rate, it creates an individual programme to guide it from, on average, 18 breaths a minute to 10, using calming music to encourage slower breathing. Research has shown that just by making breathing slower and deeper, more oxygen is taken into the lungs and muscles surrounding blood vessels. If enough oxygen is not reaching these muscles they constrict, causing high blood pressure. Once the muscles relax, blood pressure is reduced.
02/23/06 - Heal warts with duct tape
When I was younger (early teens), I had a wart on one of my toes that wouldn’t go away for years. I saw a podiatrist and a dermatologist, each of which took several turns dousing it with acid, freezing it, scraping it, injecting who-knows-what into it, and sprinkling it with Holy water to no effect - I’d even tried every single over-the-counter wart remedy they made; this sucker would not die. One day my dad came home from the pharmacist with some peculiar advice: duct tape. My first thought was that he meant to affix duct tape to it, then rip it off like a leg waxing; “ouch”. No, he meant to put duct tape on the thing and leave it there. So, I started wrapping duct tape around the toe and leaving it there. Every week I’d snip it off, soak the foot in soapy water, then add another strip of duct tape. In a month, the monster was half its usual size. In two months, it was completely gone. Imagine that. Fourteen flavors of acid accomplished nothing, and duct tape solves it.
02/23/06 - Borg AI designed space antenna
For the first time, objects 'evolved by computers' will be launched into space in March 2006, if all goes to plan. The objects are antennas mounted on three small NASA satellites. Earlier, 80 personal computers, running artificial intelligence software, quickly 'evolved' the design of the small space antennas at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. Here's a snip from a NASA article about the project: Like a friendly, non-biological form of the Borg Collective of science fiction fame, 80 personal computers, using artificial intelligence (AI), have combined their silicon brains to quickly design a tiny, advanced space antenna. If all goes well, three of these computer-designed space antennas will begin their trip into space in March 2006, when an L-1011 aircraft will take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The airplane will drop a Pegasus XL rocket into the sky high above the Pacific Ocean. The rocket will ignite and carry three small Space Technology (ST5) satellites into orbit. Each satellite will be equipped with a strange-looking, computer-designed space antenna. Although they resemble bent paperclips, the antennas are highly efficient, according to scientists. (via boingboing.com)
02/23/06 - Transparent Hybrid Canoe/Kayak
(This really has no place here, but I am a fan of canoeing/kayaking and would love to try this out! - JWD)
This kayak/canoe hybrid has a transparent polymer hull that offers paddlers an underwater vista of aquatic wildlife and waterscapes unavailable in conventional boats. Seating two people, the sturdy canoe hull is made of the same durable material found in the cockpit canopies of supersonic fighter jets. Easy to maneuver, the wide canoe displaces a greater amount of water for more surface stability, and the paddlers sit lower to the deck, resulting in better balance. Adjustable seats allow paddlers of different heights to personalize their leg room. With a lightweight anodized aluminum frame, it can be easily stored or transported to and from the water. Includes two double-headed paddles, a water bailer, and two flotation devices. For ages 16 and up with parental supervision on calm water and while wearing a U.S. Coastguard-approved life vest. Weight capacity 425 pounds.
02/23/06 - Store bought meats dosed to look red
The newer the redder, brown is an elderly hue, which of these steaks looks fresher to you? It’s a trick question as both were bought on the same date but one was dosed with carbon monoxide (CO), a technique that’s angering consumer advocacy groups. Supermarkets are trimming out their in-store butchers and buying pre-packaged cuts direct from the processing plants. The increasingly widespread use of “modified atmosphere packaging” replaces the oxygen inside with other gases, especially CO. Doing so makes the meat rosier. Customers buy meat mainly on how it looks. Better looking meat has a longer purchasability. “Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, says one study found that when meat in modified packages that included carbon monoxide was stored at 10 degrees above the proper temperature, salmonella grew more easily.”
02/23/06 - Umbilical blood can cure 100 diseases
The stem cell is an immortal cell that is able to produce all the cells within an organ. The term is most usually applied to the hemopoetic stem cells of the bone marrow. Patents were reported to have recovered from the harmful effects of radiation after doctors transplanted a donor bone marrow to them. Later researchers learned how to secrete stem cells from the bone marrow. Then researchers found a way of secreting stem cells from the blood of an umbilical cord. The number of stem cells decreases as man grows older. For example, a 50-year-old human being has approximately 100 thousand stem cells. Now it is believed that stem cells from umbilical blood can be used for treating more than a hundred diseases. Today we inject the stem cells into a patient’s body in the hope to get them working on a damaged organ by transforming into cardiomyocytes in case of a myocardial infarction, or into hepatocytes in patients with cirrhosis. The diseases treatable with stem cells include certain kinds of leucosis, certain malignant tumors, which are usually incompatible with life. The stem cells can be used very effectively for treating strokes, myocardial infarctions, diabetes, chronic cirrhosis.
02/23/06 - WTO Forcing Unsafe GE Food on Consumers
The World Trade Organisation- already under pressure for failing to deliver it's trade objectives- could fall apart if it insists on forcing GE foods on countries around the world. An initial WTO decision backing the US and a handful of countries in their efforts to force European nations to import GE foods is likely to prompt a backlash from consumers, growers and manufacturers as they fight to protect basic rights. "On the surface the decision is a terrible one for food safety, the consumers' right to choose and national sovereignty," says Jon Carapiet from GE Free NZ. "But the decision is such a fundamental attack on the integrity of the global food system that the international backlash could result in the collapse of the WTO". Consumers have previously been promised by the Biotech industry and governments that people will have a choice to avoid GE foods. But the WTO decision sounds alarmingly like a means of enforcing a "New World Order" that literally forces people to eat food they do not want in order to serve the interests of multinational corporations intent on dominating the food suppply. It is important to remember that the US government's own scientists advised against approval of GE foods under the current regulatory regime but were deliberately ignored. Evidence continues to mount of harm caused by some GE products already in use. The absence of a global agreement on testing methodologies for such foods has prompted the British Medical Association and other medical professionals to warn that the young, the elderly, people with reduced immunity, pregnant women, and unborn children are all particularly at risk.
02/22/06 - Energy Intensifier
(This is an interesting series of pages though the writer seems to be a fan of the notorious Dennis Lee. In going through various pages, this 'intensifier' grabbed my attention as I have heard of such a design for many years and never found any details. The design looks like a standard hydraulic chamber which was in my college textbook. Here is a description of the 'energy intensifier that might explain his version of it a little better. Thanks to Paul Carlson for the headsup. - JWD) The rocket scientist was awed by Mr. Mentor's invention. He said that there were numerous “wrong turns” that his engine design could have taken, and that he estimated that Mr. Mentor’s engine should have taken a team of engineers twenty years to design. It came to him in a flash at a stoplight. The engine was an external combustion engine, not an internal combustion engine, meaning that the combustion took place outside the engine and not inside it, as with a car engine. The working fluid began its journey in a boiler. The boiler was subjected to a flame created by burning the fuel. As the working fluid boiled, the gas expanded and left the boiler through a pipe. The working fluid’s steam then met what Mr. Mentor called a pressure intensifier, which was one of his engine’s major innovations. The principle of the pressure intensifier was that high-pressure steam would come from the boiler and meet the piston head (area A in the drawing). As it pushed the piston down, it gave its energy to the piston, becoming a cooler gas at a lower pressure as it left the cylinder. The boiling point of any substance is determined by the attraction of the molecules to each other, and the temperature and the pressure it is subjected to. A pot of water, for instance, boils at 212° F at sea level on earth, but at less than 150° F on top of Mount Everest. If we put water in a jar and hook up a vacuum pump to create a vacuum, the water will boil at room temperature. The fluid that left the boiler was turned into steam by the heat applied by the flame. It gave energy picked up in the boiler to the piston, as it pushed it down. It left the cylinder cooler and at less pressure, which was closer to its condensing point than when it entered the cylinder. The journey of the working fluid makes its way to the piston’s other side in the pressure intensifier (area B in my drawing). The amount of force exerted by the piston is easily calculated, and is the pressure of the gas multiplied by the piston head’s surface. If the gas pressure was 100 PSI and the piston head’s surface area was 10 square inches, 1000 pounds of force would be applied to the piston (100 X 10) on side A. On the piston’s other side is another head. The pressure the piston exerted on the steam in area B would be the force exerted divided by the surface area of the piston’s head. So, if the piston’s other head was only two square inches in area, and 1000 pounds of pressure were exerted, the pressure the gas would be subjected to would be 500 PSI (1000 / 2). By knowing the pressure of the working fluid leaving the boiler (mainly determined by the boiler’s temperature), and adjusting the surface areas of both heads of the piston, any desired pressure could be applied to the working fluid in the back end of the cylinder. At a certain pressure and temperature, the working fluid would re-condense.
02/22/06 - Focusing incoming Waves for Power Plant
Pioneered by scientists at Energetech, a small alternative-energy company in Randwick, Australia, a prototype of the $1.5-million device is now in testing off the Australian coast, and Energetech hopes to build another one near Rhode Island by 2007. Moored several miles offshore, Energetech's 40-foot-tall rig relies on the up-and-down motion of waves to force air in and out of a chamber, turning a turbine that produces electricity. The company's president, Tom Engelsman, says that a full-scale unit could power up to 5,000 homes; the output depends on the size and regularity of the swells. But recent theoretical work of two Chinese scientists on amplifying wave energy could soon make devices like Energetech's even more effective. The height of a wave increases as it moves into shallower water-that's why waves get steeper as they approach the sand. According to scientists Xinhua Hu of Iowa State University and Che Ting Chan of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, a football-field-size array of solid columns, situated some 300 feet from the rig, could effectively act as a false ocean bottom. The part of the wave that flows through the columns would behave as if it had reached the shallows, doubling in height. When the trough of the wave passes beneath the chamber, air is sucked downward [see diagram,facing page]. Then, as its peak rolls through, air is forced back up, spinning the turbine faster. Bigger waves mean more airflow and, according to Engelsman, "The more air you pump through, the more energy you get." A generator converts the mechanical energy of the spinning turbine into electricity, which flows by way of an underground cable to a power station that hooks up to the main grid onshore. If the Rhode Island project is approved, it will produce two megawatts of power a year, enough to power 1,200 homes.
02/22/06 - India - New technology to generate hydrogen
The Polymer Electrolyte Membrane-based hydrogen generator breaks down water into hydrogen and oxygen, and hydrogen is separated by a polymer membrane. ‘‘This membrane is selective and permits only hydrogen to pass through,’’ said TIFAC principal scientific officer P R Basak who is here to see the smooth conduct of the field trial. ‘The generator can even be redesigned to run on solar energy,’’ said Kerala Science Council for Science Technology and Environment director K R S Krishnan. ‘‘This will make hydrogen a clean green competitor to oil,’’ he said. These generators, can be an alternative to the traditional cannon-like hydrogen generators.
02/22/06 - Chatter Bug - Unlimited Long Distance, $9.95/Month, No PC
A small company will ship next month a tiny device that clips onto any phone line, offering unlimited long-distance calls to any number in the U.S. and Canada for only $9.95 per month. Best of all, the device uses VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), but doesn't require broadband access -- or any kind of computer at all. You might say, "So what? I can download Skype software and make calls for nothing per month." The advantages of the new device, however, will make it an attractive choice for many consumers and businesses. Allow me to explain. The gizmo is called the Chatter Bug. It's a product of Lagunawave.com, a company in Tucson, Ariz., that previously sold high-speed Internet access through Sam's Club and other retail outlets. If you have a local phone line, the device represents a new way to think about long-distance, which I call "VoIP over dialup." No computer, DSL, Cable, broadband or Internet connection needed. Unlimited long distance phone calls to the US and to Canada for $9.95 per month. $9.95 Low monthly rate includes: no contracts, cancel service at any time, no unexpected charges, no calling cards to buy, no "800" or pin numbers to remember. Just plug into your existing home touch tone phone and existing local service. $24.95 for the Chatter Bug and $9.95 a month for the service. Details and Ordering
02/22/06 - New Hydrogen Extractor
A team at CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology has developed a small hydrogen device, the size of a domestic microwave oven, to fuel a family car. The device can extract enough hydrogen per day from water to power a family car for up to 150km. Currently, the hydrogen unit runs on main's power, but researchers are investigating how to power the unit with renewable energy, such as solar and wind power. While the idea of fuelling your car with hydrogen generated from a solar panel might sound like science fiction, project leader Dr Sukhvinder Badwal says concepts such as the hydrogen economy are real possibilities.
02/22/06 - Low-cost services launch remains, mementos, etc.
Even if you can't afford the $20 million for a launch into Earth orbit, you can still put a little piece of yourself into space for as little as $35. Cremated remains from 187 people - including "Star Trek" actor James Doohan and Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper - are due to be sent into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket sometime in March. The families of the dearly departed paid between $995 to $5,300 for the sendoff, arranged by Houston-based Space Services Inc. Colorado-based Beyond-Earth Enterprises plans to launch a rocket on a brief flight in October with hair samples or fingernail clippings sent by people who paid $34.95 for the “DNA kit” package. The company will also transport science experiments - no animals allowed - for $2,500. Space Services’ planned launch of ashes on an unspecified date next month from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California will be the fifth “memorial spaceflight” for the privately held company and its previous incarnation, Celestis Inc. It conducted its first “space funeral flight” in 1997 with the ashes of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and 23 other people from all walks of life. The ashes launched next month will be a secondary payload on the Falcon 1 rocket, with the Air Force's TacSat 1 satellite as the primary payload. A module containing capsules of ashes will orbit for years before falling into the atmosphere, Moore said.
02/21/06 - Claim of Self-Sustained Power source
At Flynn Research, Parallel Path electromagnetism is explained as a method of controlling and directing magnetic flux within the core of a motor to provide an exponentially greater motive force than conventional motors. A Parallel Path motor uses a pair of permanent magnets in addition to the familiar stator-coil-rotor arrangement of current motors. The magnets, along with an air gap, allow all of the magnetic flux within the core to be manipulated and directed--this ability to manipulate the magnetic flux in the core of a motor is what provides the exponential increase in efficiency with Parallel Path technology. Best of all, the Parallel Path technology can be used with linear as well as rotary electric motors. Independent replications of the Parallel Path technology appear to support Flynn Research’s claims. Testing and Finite Element Analysis show that the Parallel Path system indeed manages to not only increase the magnetic flux in the core by a factor of four over conventional electric motors, but manipulate the flux to act in the direction of motion, generating considerably more motive power than conventional motors. What lends even more credibility to Parallel Path is that Boeing Phantom Works is apparently backing the technology and has recently presented with Flynn Research on the technology at the latest STAIF conference held Albuquerque, NM this Feb 2006 Flynn Research Also has a patent that is certainly worth checking out its number is US Patent No. 6,246,561.
02/21/06 - 6,500-Year-Old Voices Recorded In Pottery
(Reminds me of a couple of 'Science Fiction Theater' episodes, using a slow curing crystalline material to capture sound and cooling lava that captured sound and video. - JWD) Belgian researchers have been able to use computer scans of the grooves in 6,500-year-old pottery to extract sounds -- including talking and laughter -- made by the vibrations of the tools used to make the pottery. Here comes the VIDEO (the interviews are in French, but you'll hear the pottery recordings as well). (via therawfeed.com)
02/21/06 - Things you don't want Google to find
McAfee Senior Vice President for Risk Management George Kurtz demonstrated at the RSA conference in Silicon Valley yesterday how easy it is to find CONFIDENTIAL PASSWORD FILES and other secret stuff using Google. Kurtz demonstrated today at RSA conference, that protection software didn't prevent users and organisations to post those goodies online for anyone to find. "You almost get bored finding all these password files. It used to be fun in the old days when you found a password file. Now you just go to Google and find thousands of them," Kurtz said. So you removed that file with the password, but did you think about Google cache? Yes, that's the management interface for a Netgear router that was found using Google. It still had the default login and password settings. What more do you want? Search for sites with "Remote desktop web connection" in the title, and you'll find... remote desktops that you can take over. If the user sees you taking over, simply say that you're the system administrator working to bolster the user's security. Kurtz did that once during a security audit and it worked well.
02/21/06 - Using the Voice to detect and treat Disease
Using anomalous vocal patterns, the acoustic architecture of the voice is being uniquely investigated for its potential to model biological function, disease process and environmental exposures. As remarkable as this idea may seem, groundbreaking studies have shown that the acoustic parameters of the voice have the capacity to provide biometric information regarding states of health. Omeris, a non-profit organization founded to build and accelerate bioscience research in Ohio, has recognized that vocal acoustic studies conducted by Sharry Edwards, MEd., through her company Sound Health, Inc., have “brought a revolutionary idea to the forefront of the Bioscience Community.” Preliminary studies completed by Edwards included vocal studies for exposures and susceptibility to invading pathogens. The therapeutic potential of vocal profiling is the identification of pre-diagnostic biometrics which can be used to enhance or render inert, disease based biomarkers depending on the desired outcome. The research protocols have also provided information that can be used to develop a therapy phase using a set of designer frequencies which precisely targets a specific normalizing response. One of the most important projects being slated is the development of an on-line vocal sampling program that could gather research data by testing for toxin or pathogen exposure. Using this method, strategically located centers throughout the world could systematically sample vocal patterns that would be reported to a central location. Exposure to the bird flu viruses could be monitored through established mathematical templates derived from the acoustic measurements of individuals or groups suspected of contamination. Vocal analysis has been used during two pilot studies to create protocols that were used to relieve the unrelenting fibromyalgia and back pain for long term sufferers.
02/21/06 - Automatic Book Scanner with page turner
ATIZ has developed an automatic book scanner that is of a somewhat-reasonable size. There are a couple other automatic book scanners out there but they are huge machines according to Art Sarasin, president of ATIZ. This machine uses a page-turning mechanism. It connects via USB 2.0 and all you do is designate how many pages you want to scan and it does the rest of the work. If you want the ease of this, you will have to pay for it. They are currently taking a preorders and it will be available next month for a hefty $35,000. BookDrive will digitize bound content in a variety of formats allowing the user to share and archive bound materials. It is just like any traditional flatbed scanners that you are familiar with, but BookDrive is unique in that it has an automatic page-turning mechanism inside. Simply entering the number of pages you want to scan, BookDrive then automatically outputs the entire content of the scanned book in a digital format without requiring constant supervision and interference.
02/21/06 - More on Kamens Generator and Water Still
The electric generator is powered by an easily-obtained local fuel: cow dung. Each machine continuously outputs a kilowatt of electricity. That may not sound like much, but it is enough to light 70 energy-efficient bulbs. As Kamen puts it, "If you judiciously use a kilowatt, each villager can have a nighttime." The Slingshot [water purifier] works by taking in contaminated water - even raw sewage -- and separating out the clean water by vaporizing it. It then shoots the remaining sludge back out a plastic tube. Kamen thinks it could be paired with the power machine and run off the other machine's waste heat. Compared to building big power and water plants, Kamen's approach has the virtue of simplicity. He even created an instruction sheet to go with each Slingshot. It contains one step: Just add water, any water. (via worldchanging.com)
02/21/06 - Recover Scratched CDs with Toothpaste
If you’ve ever owned a CD or DVD, you’ve certainly had to deal with scratched up, unreadable media. Hardware Secrets has a simple solution: a scratched CD can be recovered by polishing its plastic surface. If, after carrying out the above cleansing, the CD persists in giving reading errors, just polish the CD with toothpaste. That’s right, toothpaste. It works wonders, and you won’t spend a fortune buying professional cleaning kits. Having learned this trick in college, I can vouch for it. Don’t expect to recover your most damaged CDs, but you certainly can work a little magic. (via lifehacker.com)
02/20/06 - Claim of invention for Chaining Maxwell's Demon
This is an experiment report on a special energy conversion. Two similar and parallel Ag-O-Cs cathodes in a vacuum tube eject electrons at room temperature continuously. A static magnetic field applied to the tube plays the role of the famous "Maxwell's demon". The thermal electrons are so controlled by the magnetic field that they can fly only from one cathode to the other, resulting in a charge collection and an electric potential. A load, a resistance for example, is connected to the cathodes, getting an electric power from the tube continuously. Here, the air within the laboratory is a single heat reservoir and all of the heat extracted by the electronic tube from the reservior is converted into electric energy, without producting any other effects. The Authors believe that the experiment is in contradiction to Kelvin's statement of the second law of thermodynamics. To better understand how the Demon works, play either of these two JAVA applets, Maxwell's Demon Game #1 (with yellow background and better explanation) or Maxwell's Demon Game #2 (with black background).
02/20/06 - Celebrate Engineers Week February 19th-25th
Engineers turn ideas into reality. Feb. 19-25 is Engineer's Week, with the theme this year of "Engineers Make a World of Difference." Many engineering companies will send volunteers into classrooms to tell students and teachers what life is like as an engineer. Locally, we are focusing on middle schools and hope to encourage students to pursue classes in science and mathematics, skills crucial to engineering. Another focus is encouraging women and minorities to consider engineering careers. The numbers associated with engineering in the United States indicate clearly that our dominance in the field is threatened. Total numbers of engineers graduating from U.S. schools continue to decline, as do the numbers of women and minorities entering engineering programs. Despite very competitive salaries, it is a struggle to interest young people in pursuing degrees in engineering. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2003 reported that average engineering salaries ranged from $64,000 for industrial engineers to over $88,000 for nuclear engineers. Perhaps Thomas Edison summed it up best. He said, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." When it comes to attracting students to my field, we might say: "Engineering is missed by most people because it carries a pocket protector, wears tape on its glasses and looks like work." By applying the ideas of great thinkers, engineers have rewarded the world with freedom from drudgery, advancement of the human condition and an incredible growth in worldwide wealth. Please celebrate Engineer's Week with us and help us mold the next generation of engineers.
02/20/06 - Clean water from Solar Power
EnergyQuest, Inc. will be testing its new portable solar powered water purification technology near El Paso, Texas at an agricultural testing facility operated by the Texas Water Resources Institute of Texas A & M as early as February 2006. The system purifies water using only solar power. It is easy to store and portable making it invaluable for use in providing drinking water during disaster relief efforts. The system also has promising applications for agriculture in areas where water is brackish or unsuitable for crop development. The system purifies water while also reserving for future use or sale, any minerals or other useable by-products collected during the purification process, such as sea salt from an ocean water source.
02/20/06 - Cleve Backsters Primary Perception
(I heard an Art Bell interview of Cleve Backster which evoked some memories of our meeting years ago. - JWD) Cleve Backster is a pioneer in research demonstrating how plants, or for that matter, any live cells have some surprising abilities to respond to thoughts and feelings and communicate in ways they wouldn't traditionally be expected to. It is very easy to do, and any skeptic ought to check it out for themselves. It is just that you need some kind of galvanic skin response meter. Like this. Which is essentially just an electronic instrument that measures resistance and that is very sensitive. A regular ohm meter isn't good enough as it isn't nearly sensitive enough. It takes something like a wheatstone's bridge, which gives large and fast readings on minute resistance changes. Or some more modern equivalent. And it needs to be attached to some suitable electrodes. For humans that would be something similar to a pair of tin cans. For a plant, the clips that otherwise would attach to the cans would do it. So, now, for the simple and interesting experiments. You attach the clips to some plant you have standing around the house. Any plant will do, but a big leafy thing would be good. The meter will just show the needle standing rather still. If you cut off a leaf of the plant, the needle will give a sizable reaction. Not very surprising. But the surprising part is that if you take your scissor and approach the plant, intending to cut a leaf off of it, it will also react in a similar fashion, without you having touched it. It seems to react to your intention somehow. Likewise if you have several plants, maybe of the same kind. Put them in different rooms, to rule out that they can, eh, see each other. Attach the meter to one of them and have somebody watch it. Then go to the other plant and either treaten to cut one of its leaves off, or actually do so. Either way, the plant in the first room will react as if it was happening to itself. Very simple to do. And it should certainly raise some questions in the mind of anybody who believes this would of course be impossible. And you can of course do this more scientifically and systematically, trying to exclude all sorts of other factors. And you can take it much further. And that is the kind of work that Cleve Backster has been doing.
02/20/06 - Claim of Sleep Inducing Machine
EarthPulse Sleep On Command® emits sequences of electromagnetic waves at tempos that gently tune down the mind and body enabling just about anyone to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. Sleep On Command® magnetic waves are sequenced to intentionally guide consciousness toward deep sleep. 9 out of 10 clients sleep far better the very first night of use without any of the drawbacks of sleep medication. Instead of waking groggy, the built in timer tunes the user back to an alert mind state prior to their alarm clock ringing.
Once a small digitally controlled disk is placed under any mattress, it turns that bed into the world’s first electromagnetic sleep machine. The device is small and portable, and solves the problem of jet lag when traveling. To investigate whether EarthPulse® could improve the sleep of chronic lower back pain patients, the founder of an Ivy League University Hospital Pain Center conducted two informal pilot evaluations that indicated EarthPulse significantly improved sleep quality in over 80% of participants. EarthPulse Sleep On Command® is affordably priced at around US$500 and sold with a 90 day satisfaction guarantee. Deep sleep in the EarthPulse® field triggers a host of recognizable effects like enhanced strength and stamina, better mental focus and improved flexibility.
02/20/06 - Recyclers Raft from empty soda bottles
Anyone who can unzip the ends and insert empty soda bottles into the polyester duc shell can use it. The need for a dependable float that is lightweight, easily transportable, doesn't require blowing up, and won't go flat has been ever present. Utilizing (recycling) empty 2 liter soda bottles as extremely durable bouyancy cells, that are easily replaced, and virtually free, is the type of "new millenium" thinking that RSEE Innovations is trying to promote. By getting consumers to recycle in order to use the product he hopes to inspire all ages to become more active in community recycling programs and unleash their creative side to the endless possibillities of reducing, reusing, and recycling.
02/20/06 - Troubleshooting can be just resetting power
"One of the most effective methods for troubleshooting electronics is unplugging power." The most effective troubleshooting/repair tool available for computers or microprocessor-controlled systems is turning power off, waiting a period of time, and turning power back on. Here’s why it works: Computers and microprocessors are control systems which are generally not fully controllable. This means that either the hardware or software can put them into a state where normal control inputs have no effect on the system. This topic is called “Controllability” in formal Control Theory jargon. I will use the term “computer” to mean computer or any microprocessor-controlled system. Your microwave, VCR, and fancy coffee pot are non-computer examples. One state that all functioning computers can recover from is the power-off state. Hardware and software engineers work diligently to make sure a computer can turn on into a known controllable state. In hardware, there are many causes for what is called a Single Event Upset (SEU). A power glitch, a cosmic ray passing through an integrated circuit (IC), or an alpha ray from the plastic IC package, can all cause an SEU, possibly changing a logic state (1 to 0 or vice versa), or triggering latchup in the pnpn layer most ICs have. In software, the computer can get caught in an infinite loop. How do you turn your computer off, and how long do you keep it off? Using the off/on switch or normal software shutdown will cure more than 90 percent of the problems, but not all of them. After turning off the computer, you need to pull the plug from the wall and make sure anything the computer interfaces with (modem, printer, etc.) is also turned off and unplugged. (Power strips are great for this.) If your computer has a battery, such as a laptop does, or a built-in UPS battery, you also need to remove this power source. The reason is that even if you turn off your computer, it still draws vampire power to keep certain monitoring and startup circuits alive -- which may be causing the problem. Now that you’ve turned it off, how long do you keep it off? Usually, but not always, 30 seconds is enough. This is because bleeder resistors across capacitors used to be designed to discharge logic, memory, and interface voltages to less than five percent of normal voltage in about this amount of time.
02/20/06 - Pointy leaves and plant respiration/growth
(Fascinating study that correlates with ion flow from points. - JWD) Leaves with 'toothed' edges help trees, shrubs and other plants cope with the cold, US researchers say. the jagged, pointy edges on leaves are packed with xylem, a tissue that transports water and nutrients in sap. Most of the liquid evaporates by leaving the teeth through minuscule pores. "In the springtime when leaves are just starting to leaf out, leaves with teeth are, on average, losing more water than leaves without teeth," says Royer, now an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Wesleyan University. "This loss of water helps pull more sap up from the roots. Thus trees with toothed leaves probably have a higher rate of sap flow early in the spring than toothless leaves. "This is important because it delivers nutrients to the developing leaves, helping to 'jumpstart' their photosynthetic season. As you move to colder and colder climates with shorter and shorter growing seasons, it becomes increasingly beneficial to have teeth," he adds. Both energy-gathering activity and transpiration increased at jagged leaf edges by up to 45% during the first 30 days of the spring growing season. Leaves without teeth did not exhibit such a marked increase. Possessing teeth may not always be advantageous for leaves since the teeth also promote more water loss. Plants in drier regions seem to be better off if they have fewer teeth or are toothless.
02/20/06 - UPS Expands “Green Fleet” with 50 Hybrid Electric Vehicles
UPS today announced it had placed an order for 50 new-generation hybrid electric delivery trucks and also would acquire 4,100 low-emission conventional vehicles during 2006. The hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) are being purchased in two sizes from International Truck and Engine and Freightliner LLC. The trucks will feature lithium ion batteries that are capable of faster re-charging and have a longer life than batteries used in previous generations of HEV’s. The truck bodies will be identical externally to the signature-brown trucks that now comprise the UPS fleet. The first of the 50 HEV’s will be deployed in Dallas this June and will join more than 10,000 low emission and alternative-fuel vehicles already in use. The UPS alternative fuel fleet - at 1,500 vehicles one of the largest in the United States - currently includes trucks powered by compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane, electricity and hydrogen. Research also is underway with the Environmental Protection Agency on a hydraulic hybrid drivetrain. In 2001, the company deployed the industry’s first hybrid electric package car into regular service in Huntsville, Ala., where the truck worked a 31-mile route with about 160 pickups and deliveries each day. UPS then introduced its second generation HEV to its Kalamazoo, Mich., fleet in 2004, while at the same time deploying the first hydrogen fuel cell delivery trucks into regular service.
02/20/06 - Engineering Nerve Jumper Cables For Repair Spinal Cord In Animal Model
"We have created a three-dimensional neural network, a mini nervous system in culture, which can be transplanted en masse," explains senior author Douglas H. Smith, MD, Professor, Department of Neurosurgery and Director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at Penn. Previously, Smith's group showed that they could grow axons by placing neurons from rat dorsal root ganglia (clusters of nerves just outside the spinal cord) on nutrient-filled plastic plates. Axons sprouted from the neurons on each plate and connected with neurons on the other plate. The plates were then slowly pulled apart over a series of days, aided by a precise computer-controlled motor system. In this study, the neurons were elongated to 10mm over seven days -- after which they were embedded in a collagen matrix (with growth factors), rolled into a form resembling a jelly roll, and then implanted into a rat model of spinal cord injury. "That creates what we call a nervous-tissue construct," says Smith. "We have designed a geometrical arrangement that looks similar to the longitudinal arrangement that the spinal cord had before it was damaged. The long bundles of axons span two populations of neurons, and these neuron constructs can grow axons in two directions -- toward each other and into the host spinal cord at each side. That way they can integrate and connect the 'cables' to the host tissue in order to bridge a spinal cord lesion."
02/20/06 - Japan, China, India and others must know something
While Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and other experts are betting on ethanol, hybrids and other futuristic technologies to keep America's 230 million cars and trucks moving, the globe's major consumers have put their money on Canadian oil sands. In a record early February surge of bids for tar sand oil leases for undeveloped acreage in Canada's Alberta oil sands area, a group of foreign bidders paid $651 million Canadian ($566 million U.S.). This was by far the largest amount ever paid for tar sand leases at one time. It is rather ironic that this bidding surge occurred one week after President Bush's State of the Union message, which never even touched on coal-to-oil conversion as an alternative to the choke-hold that the OPEC nations exert over the world's fast-growing consumption. There was nary a word about this proven coal-to-oil conversion system, which has been assiduously discussed for several months in the electronic as well as the print media. It is equally puzzling that there has been no alternative energy acknowledgment of the 300 million tons of coal which is buried under America's acreage. Pilot projects, such as that implemented by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer have already proven successful as a synthetic fuel substitute.
The record prices paid in early February signify a wholesale acreage acquisition in the Athabasca oil sands region by the world's leading consumer nations that want to assure availability during the next few decades. These nations' monetary outlays, which are reaching multibillion-dollar proportions, seem to validate the Alberta oil sands as the only proven alternative to large scale crude oil production, now monopolized by OPEC. It's obvious that these major world powers, facing increasing fossil fuel needs, are not waiting around for some of the exotic alternatives alluded to in President Bush's State of the Union speech.
02/20/06 - PTO Requests Model of Warp Drive Invention
(They need to make it a REQUIREMENT for WORKING MODELS for ALL HARDWARE patents, not just IDEAS! - JWD) The Worsley-Twist warp drive does not depend upon traditional emissions of matter to create thrust. Rather, the drive creates a change in the curvature of the space-time continuum - thus allowing travel by warping space-time. Worsley & Twist patent application recently suffered another setback. The Examiner has now requested a working model: Applicant is required to furnish a model of the instant invention. 35 U.S.C. 114. See Also 37 C.F.R. 1.91. Among other rejections, the Examiner has asserted a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 for lack of utility - finding that the invention is inoperable. (via zpenergy.com)
02/20/06 - Soldiers Get Crash Courses on Gestures
An aid to soldiers and students, unspoken gestures can speak volumes and are gaining acceptance from researchers for accurately revealing how people think. "It tells you what people have in their heads. As such, it is a clear window into what they're thinking," said Justine Cassell, a professor of media technology and society at Northwestern University. "Many of the conflicts in the world today could be avoided if people could communicate better," said Hannes Vilhjalmsson, a research scientist at the University of Southern California. Vilhjalmsson helped create the Tactical Iraqi and similar simulation programs with money from the Defense Department. The soldiers can interact with residents after learning basic language and gesturing skills. The residents react according to how well or poorly a soldier handles a situation. A single woman will turn away _ and a nearby group of men bristle _ if a soldier charges up to her. Young children will warm to a soldier who stoops to their level and removes his sunglasses before asking simple questions, Vilhjalmsson said in displaying the program. "They are building an impression of you as you interact with them," he said. Simple motions are important, such as placing a hand over the heart in greeting. "Gesturing is not merely hand-waving. It conveys substantive information _ thoughts that often are not conveyed in words," said Susan Goldin-Meadow, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. When researchers asked children and adults to do two things at once _ solve a math problem and remember a short list of words _ those who gestured outperformed others who did not. "I am trying to argue here gesturing is facilitating learning," Goldin-Meadow said.
02/19/06 - High Efficiency Solar Cell breakthrough
In a scientific breakthrough that has stunned the world, a team of South African scientists has developed a revolutionary new, highly efficient solar power technology that will enable homes to obtain all their electricity from the sun. The unique South African-developed solar panels will make it possible for houses to become completely self-sufficient for energy supplies. The panels are able to generate enough energy to run stoves, geysers, lights, TVs, fridges, computers - in short all the mod-cons of the modern house. The new technology should be available in South Africa within a year and through a special converter, energy can be fed directly into the wiring of existing houses. New powerful storage units will allow energy storage to meet demands even in winter. The panels are so efficient they can operate through a Cape Town winter. while direct sunlight is ideal for high-energy generation, other daytime light also generates energy via the panels. A team of scientists led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) scientist Professor Vivian Alberts achieved the breakthrough after 10 years of research. The South African technology has now been patented across the world. International experts have admitted that nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of the South African invention. The South African solar panels consist of a thin layer of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy. The photo-responsive alloy can operate on virtually all flexible surfaces, which means it could in future find a host of other applications. Alberts said the new panels are approximately five microns thick (a human hair is 20 microns thick) while the older silicon panels are 350 microns thick. the cost of the South African technology is a fraction of the less effective silicone solar panels.
02/19/06 - Air Force Teleport paper (pdf)
(Thanks to Bert Pool for the headsup on this, some incredible comments. It describes several approaches to teleportation along with experiments, both technical and using psychics with apparent teleportation abilities according to the testing done with them. - JWD) The paper goes into detail about four methods of teleportation; 1) Wormhole, 2) Quantum, 3) Extra Dimensional, and 4) Psychokinetic. One of the more interesting examples of controlled experiments with Uri Geller was one in which he was able to cause a part of a vanadium carbide crystal to vanish (Hasted et al., 1975). The crystal was encapsulated so it could not be touched, and it was placed in such a way that it could not be switched with another crystal by sleight of hand. A more spectacular series of rigorously controlled (and repeatable!) laboratory experiments occurred in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). In September 1981, an extraordinary paper was published in the PRC in the journal Ziran Zazhi (transl.: Nature Journal), and this paper was entitled, “Some Experiments on the Transfer of Objects Performed by Unusual Abilities of the Human Body” (Shuhuang et al., 1981). The paper reported that gifted children were able to cause the apparent teleportation of small objects (radio micro-transmitters, photosensitive paper, mechanical watches, horseflies, other insects, etc.) from one location to another (that was meters away) without them ever touching the objects beforehand. The experiments were operated under exceptionally well-controlled conditions (both blind and double-blind). The researchers involved included not only observers from various PRC colleges and medical research institutes, but also representatives from the PRC National Defense Science Commission. Reported in several articles are experiments involving the videotaping and high-speed photography of the transfer of test specimens (nuts, bundles of matches, pills, nails, thread, photosensitive paper, chemically treated paper, sponges dipped in FeCl3, etc.) through the walls of sealed paper envelopes, double layered KCNS type paper bags, sealed glass bottles and tubes with sealed caps, and sealed plastic film canisters without the walls of any of these containers being breached. All of the Chinese experiments reported using gifted children and young adults, who possessed well-known extraordinary PK ability, to cause the teleportation of the various test specimens. In all the experimental cases that were reported, the test specimens that were teleported were completely unaltered or unchanged from their initial state, even the insects were unaffected by being teleported. The experiments were well controlled, scientifically recorded, and the experimental results were always repeatable.
02/19/06 - Fiat Panda fuel cell auto ready for fleet testing
The Panda Hydrogen is a true hydrogen prototype with a sturdy, reliable drive system. Panda Hydrogen incorporates a full power system, i.e. no battery is required for the accumulation of electrical energy. The new Fuel Cell System (electrical power generator) is able to deliver all the power required by the electric engine to ensure great vehicle handling. The system consists mainly of three fuel cells: an innovative turbo-blower to supply the cells with air, a humidification and cooling system for correct management of reagent gases and a set of auxiliary components, all developed within the Fiat Group. On the Panda Hydrogen, the Fuel Cell System is housed beneath the floor. The fuel cells are made up of several cells connected in series. Inside, the hydrogen and oxygen molecules are forced to react with the aid of a catalyst to produce water and heat. Electrical energy is generated with very high efficiency and zero emissions from the vehicle itself. The electrical power generation system is supplied with hydrogen at a pressure of 1.5 bars and oxygen contained in the air. It produces electrical energy so efficiently that 60% is available at just 20% of maximum power. The Fuel Cell System installed on the Panda Hydrogen also features excellent performance at low temperatures and a relatively simple construction that makes it particularly suitable for the production of light, sturdy and reliable generators for use on vehicles. The alternating current three-phase asynchronous electric engine and the transmission are located in the engine compartment together with the various accessories required to operate the system as a whole. The hydrogen that feeds the Fuel Cell is contained at a pressure of 350 bars in a tank made out of composite material installed beneath the car’s rear floor pan. All the distinguishing features of the New Panda passenger compartment are therefore maintained, including outstanding roominess for four people. At full power, the Fuel Cell engine on the Panda Hydrogen delivers 60 kW that allows the car to reach a top speed of more than 130 km/h, with acceleration from 0 to 50 km/h in 5 seconds. The car can also easily climb a gradient of 23% at take-off. The hydrogen tank capacity guarantees the Panda Hydrogen a range of more than 200 km over an urban cycle. Refuelling time is very quick at less than 5 minutes, i.e. comparable to the time taken to refuel a methane car.
02/19/06 - Race for space heats up with Competitors
Thirty-four years after the last Apollo astronaut walked on the lunar surface, a new space race is underway. Each country is going for its own reasons-some commercial, some strategic, some for national pride. But if the plans come to fruition, the moon could become a busy extraterrestrial outpost for scientists, engineers and possibly ordinary citizens in the coming decades. It would also serve as a vital way station for man’s long-dreamed-of trip to Mars. Why bother with the moon? The US has been there. Six times. On each occasion, explorers have found the same barren world-a place of ‘‘magnificent desolation,’’ in the words of Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Visionaries such as Gregg Maryniak, director of the James S. McDonnell Planetarium in St. Louis, have little patience with those who say, ‘‘been there, done that’’ about the moon. ‘‘That’s like saying you’ve seen New York when you changed planes at JFK.’’ Today, the European Space Agency’s SMART-1 is the only craft in lunar orbit. It will soon have plenty of company. The Japanese are readying Lunar-A and SELENE for launch on missions to survey the moon’s geology and topography. Then comes India’s $100-million Chandrayaan-1 mission in September 2007. The 1,150-pound craft shaped like a 5-ft cube will orbit the moon’s polar regions for two years and make a chemical map of the surface. China is preparing to launch its Chang’e 1 probe at about the same time to study the lunar environment from orbit. By 2012, China would start work on a spacecraft capable of bringing material back from the moon. A landing by “taikonauts” would occur after 2017.
02/19/06 - Interesting Ideas Website
A few more new invention ideas. Read about them, laugh at them if you must, modify them, use them and call them your own if you want. Air conditioning shirt. Backpacking in hot weather, I often stop to wet my shirt in a stream. The evaporative cooling as it dries is wonderful. Now if a shirt had little water "tanks" on the shoulders, a shirt could be kept wet and keep cooling for hours, perhaps. They would have to be lightweight, and they would have to release the water slowly. Even better would be tanks with an adjustable rate of flow, so you could have the shirt wetted at the same rate is was drying. Chip dip tubes. No more messy bowls of stale, drying chip dip with broken chips in it. Instead, you just apply the dip from a toothpaste-like tube, directly onto the chip. You get exactly the right amount, with less mess. They could be sold in six packs, so everyone can have their own tube. Hmm... What else can be put in tubes? What size should the tubes be? Here's a concept ripe for some new invention ideas. Steve Gillman has been exploring new ideas for decades. Visit his site for invention ideas, business ideas, story ideas, political and economic theories, deep thoughts, and more. Get a free gift too: http://www.999ideas.com.
02/19/06 - Indian Inventions
Discovery Networks India channel has tied up with National Innovation Foundation and will be airing short films on a few grassroots innovators in the country like Saidullah during its programme "Beyond Tomorrow" starting this coming Monday. The programme talks about new inventions around the world that will be an integral part of the future. Seventy-year-old Mohammad Saidullah does not wait for boats. He can literally "walk" across water without any magic. No Leonardo da Vinci, he invented an amphibious bicycle that "wades" across water to get to his wife, Noor, during a flood in Bihar. Inventor Saini has done what most mobile manufacturers have not managed to do -- use his mobile phone to switch on and off tube-wells. "You can also switch your AC on and off with the mobile phone. I have also made a robot. It's important that people realise that a boy from a small village in the country can invent so many things, " he said. Remya Jose of Kerala who has a paddle-operated washing machine to Mansukh Prajapati of Gujarat who has his own refrigerator company "Mitticool", these innovators have been working hard to make the lives of others more comfortable. To keep vegetables fresh for up to five days, Prajapati has made a refrigerator that does not consume electricity and costs only Rs. 2,000. "It takes about eight days to make. The best part of my fridge is that the taste of the vegetables remains the same, unlike regular fridges. Now am working on an "R-O", in which the salty water gets separated, " said Prajapati, a potter by profession.
02/18/06 - Quantum Physics - The 'spin triplet' supercurrent
Superconductivity occurs when electrical current moves without resistance, a phenomenon that gave rise to particle accelerators, magnetic resonance imagining machines and trains that float, friction-free, on their tracks. Under quantum physics theory, conventional superconductivity is not supposed to occur in ferromagnets. When electrons pass through these crystalline materials, they realign in ways that won't allow resistance-free conductivity. While supercurrent through a ferromagnet has been observed, it moved only an extremely short distance before resistance kicked in. But a team of scientists from Delft University of Technology, Brown University and the University of Alabama has now accomplished this physics feat, creating a "spin triplet" supercurrent through a unique ferromagnet. As explained in the current issue of Nature, the team's experimental system converts the spin, or rotation, of pairs of electrons in such a way that suggests they exist in three quantum states inside the new magnet. There's the standard "spin up" and "spin down" - a reference to an electron's angular momentum - but also a middle state. Picture a planet that was thought to rotate two ways: With its North Pole pointing up or pointing down. But now it's found that this planet can be made to rotate on its side, with its North Pole pointing out in a 90-degree angle. Xiao said the spin triplet current created with the ferromagnet would allow for new control in spintronics development. "Once you understand this new behavior of electrons, you can apply the knowledge in new ways to commercial products," he said. "The consequences can be significant." (I see in this a direct connection to Keely's claims of a triple/trinary energy current that is a key to all energy flows. "the ear cannot detect the triple chord of any vibration, or sounding note, but every sound that is induced of any range, high or low, is governed by the same laws, as regards triple action of such, that govern every sympathetic flow in Nature. Were it not for these triple vibratory conditions, change of polarity could NEVER be effected, and consequently there could be NO rotation." He showed that all sympathetic streams of energy are composed of triple currents of vibratory flows. This applies to magnetic, electric, gravital, and cerebellic (brain and mind) flows. These laws govern all molecular masses from the innermost subdivision of the atom to the galaxies and universe itself. These flows radiate from suns and stars to planets on down the scale to the very core of the atoms. Since these flows are vibrational in nature and tuned to their respective spheres Keely believed this was the basis for the term "music of the spheres". / About the photo of the triple streams as seen from a TV screen, see Triune Current. - JWD)
02/18/06 - SeaGen Wave power study in Wales
The potential for using the power of the tides to generate electricity for homes and businesses in Wales is being taken a step further. With funding from the Welsh Assembly Government, tidal energy firm Marine Current Turbines will examine and identify locations around the Welsh coastline where its tidal stream technology could be suitable. The project is supported by the Welsh Development Agency’s Energy Office, which has worked closely with Marine Current Turbines to facilitate the development of this project in Wales. Marine Current Turbines and PMSS plan to identify sites for potential development and ultimately progress at least one of these sites to install a 10MW tidal stream farm (an array). A 10MW tidal stream array would generate sufficient energy to meet the equivalent demand of approximately 7,000 homes.
02/18/06 - Heart Predicts Future
"HeartMath recently unveiled evidence of a biological process through which human subjects were able to predict the onset of future events. Scientific instruments monitored respiration, skin conductance, EEG, ECG and heart rates of test subjects as they responded to visual stimuli. Imagery of peaceful and calm scenes produced no significant changes to their biological patterns whereas images of harmful events caused severe emotional responses. What surprised researchers the most was the sensors indicated distress up an average of three to seven seconds before the images appeared. Fluctuations to the subject's heart rate were the predominant indicator of impending trauma, a measured phenomena more significant in women than men." (via omninerd.com)
02/18/06 - Mazda begins leasing Rotary Hydrogen Vehicles
Mazda announced today that it has received permission from Japan’s Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) to begin leasing the RX-8 Hydrogen RE to corporate customers. The RX-8 Hydrogen RE vehicles are equipped with a rotary engine, and feature a dual-fuel system that allows the driver to select either hydrogen or gasoline. Mazda undertook 29 months of development from the time of announcing the concept model to achieving the breakthrough, real-world rotary hydrogen vehicle. Employing a dual-fuel system, the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE can run on either high-pressure hydrogen gas or gasoline. This combination offers excellent convenience because it can be driven in remote areas where hydrogen fueling stations are not readily available, easing driver concerns about running out of fuel. In addition, this system boasts great environmental friendliness-zero emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas and near zero nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission when fueled by hydrogen-together with the natural driving feel of an internal combustion engine. It uses engine parts and production facilities that already exist in Mazda’s inventory, so this innovative engine can be built with a high degree of reliability at a relatively low cost. The standard monthly lease price is 420,000 yen ($3,554.80 USD ????) with tax included which is almost half the monthly lease price of a fuel cell vehicles already available in Japan.
02/18/06 - New high efficiency solar collector
A unique solar collector was developed by specialists of the Moscow “ALTEN” company under the guidance of Boris Kazandzhan, Professor, Doctor of Science (Engineering), Moscow Power Engineering Institute. Originality of the novelty lies in its extremely high efficiency. The collector not only manages to entrap the heat of solar beams falling on its surface, but also to utilize it to a great extent for direct purpose - for water heating. To increase efficiency of absorption of solar energy and to reduce loss of heat, a special selective multi-layer coating based on titanium carbide is used. On the outside, it is dark as it should be to absorb light well. But its peculiarity is that having become warm, the coating almost does not radiate thermal energy. Thus, the coating allows to entrap solar energy in the visible and near infra-red spectral region where more than 90 percent of solar energy is concentrated, and almost not to irradiate energy into the spectral regions corresponding to radiation of heat. The heat entrapped in such a way is collected by water that flows along copper tubes embedded into aluminium shapes covered by a selective coating and forming a so-called absorber. Instead of water, however, some other heat carrier may be used, but water is the cheapest of all. During a sunny day, one collector of 2 square meters in area can heat approximately 150 liters of water up to the temperature of 60 to 70 degrees C (140-158F). If necessary, water can be heated up to the boiling point. Several collectors can provide for hot water-supply and heating of a small cottage. Evidently, in the moderate climate, for instance, in the Moscow Region, it makes sense only during the “long” summer season since early spring till late autumn. In wintertime, one cannot survive only on solar heat, be the efficiency of such system even one hundred percent. However, in the mild European climate the system would serve all year round, to say nothing about warm areas. In near future, the first house with such heating will appear in the town of Sochi. Its front will be decorated with the ALTEN solar collector boards. The house will be provided with hot water the whole year round.
02/18/06 - Kamen wants entrepreneurs to bring water and electricity to the poor
(Thanks to Bob Nelson at Rex Research for finding the two Kamen device patents now linked here. - JWD) Kamen invented two devices, each about the size of a washing machine that can provide much-needed power and clean water in rural villages. "Eighty percent of all the diseases you could name would be wiped out if you just gave people clean water," says Kamen. "The water purifier makes 1,000 liters (264 gallons) of clean water a day, and we don't care what goes into it. And the power generator makes a kilowatt off of anything that burns." Last year, Quadir took prototypes of Kamen's power machines to two villages in his home country for a six-month field trial. That trial, which ended last September, sold Quadir on the technology. The electric generator is powered by an easily-obtained local fuel: cow dung. Each machine continuously outputs a kilowatt of electricity. That may not sound like much, but it is enough to light 70 energy-efficient bulbs. As Kamen puts it, "If you judiciously use a kilowatt, each villager can have a nighttime." During the test in Bangladesh, Kamen's Stirling machines created three entrepreneurs in each village: one to run the machine and sell the electricity, one to collect dung from local farmers and sell it to the first entrepreneur, and a third to lease out light bulbs (and presumably, in the future, other appliances) to the villagers. The Slingshot water cleaning machine works by taking in contaminated water - even raw sewage -- and separating out the clean water by vaporizing it. It then shoots the remaining sludge back out a plastic tube. Kamen thinks it could be paired with the power machine and run off the other machine's waste heat.
02/18/06 - Space Adventures announces Spaceport development project in UAE
Space Adventures today announced plans to develop a commercial spaceport in Ras Al-Khaimah (the UAE), with plans to expand globally. Other potential spaceport locations include Asia, specifically Singapore, and North America. The total estimated cost of the global spaceport development project is claimed to be at least US$265 million and will be funded by various parties, along with shared investments by Space Adventures and the government of Ras Al-Khaimah. The company, which organized orbital flights for all of the world's private space explorers, also announces that His Highness Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi of Ras Al-Khaimah, along with the UAE Department of Civilian Aviation, have granted clearance to operate suborbital spaceflights in their air space. The UAE spaceport, planned to be located less than an hour drive from Dubai, already has commitments for US$30 million. "As a global leader of tourism, the United Arab Emirates is an ideal location for a spaceport. Suborbital flights will offer millions of people the opportunity to experience the greatest adventure available, space travel..." The suborbital space transportation system has been designed by Myasishchev Design Bureau, a leading Russian aerospace organization which has developed a wide-array of high performance aircraft and space systems. Explorer, as it has been named, will have the capacity to transport up to five people to space and is designed to optimize the customer experience of space travel, while maintaining the highest degree of safety. The Explorer Aerospace System consists of a flight-operational carrier aircraft, the M-55X, and a rocket spacecraft. The vehicle is designed to optimize the customer experience of space travel. "We've designed the Explorer with several exciting features that will be announced in the near future that will make the customer's experience fantastic."
02/18/06 - Vanga psychic prediction
Her most shocking prediction was made in 1980. The blind old woman said: “At the turn of the century, in August of 1999 or 2000, Kursk will be covered with water, and the whole world will be weeping over it.” (Kursk Submarine disaster) “Horror, horror! The American brethren will fall after being attacked by the steel birds. The wolves will be howling in a bush, and innocent blood will be gushing.” (1989) (9/11 twin tower airplane attacks) “Numerous catastrophes and disasters will shake the world. The mentality of the people will change. They will be divided by their faith…” (date unknown) “Everything will melt away like ice yet the glory of Vladimir , the glory of Russia are the only things that will remain. Russia will not only survive, it will dominate the world. (1979) “The trains will start flying in 2018. They will be powered by the Sun. Earth will take a rest since they will stop extracting oil.” (1960) A piece of advice from Vanga - “Never take on the fools. They are not so dangerous as they seem, do not try to change them. Morons can do you more harm. The can do something that will cause quite a stir among all the people.”
02/18/06 - NASA warns 'loss of leadership' in space exploration
"A longer gap in US human spaceflight capabilities will increase risk and overall costs and lead to even more delays," he told the committee. "In addition," he added, "the US may risk a perceived, if not real, loss of leadership in space exploration if we are unable to launch our astronauts into space for an extended period when other nations are establishing or building on their own abilities to do so." The budget crunch comes amid intensifying international competition in space, once dominated almost exclusively by the United States and Russia. India, lawmakers pointed out, is preparing for a lunar orbital mission in 2007, while Japan plans to send a robotic rover to the Moon by 2013. They also noted that China, which is quickly gaining experience in manned spaceflight, is planning an astronaut landing on the Moon in 2017.
02/18/06 - Flying car ready for takeoff?
Terrafugia, a start-up created by Lemelson-MIT Student Prize winner Carl Dietrich and colleagues at MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is aiming to show off what it calls the Transition "personal air vehicle," an SUV with retractable wings, to the EAA AirVenture Conference in Oshkosh, Wis., at the end of July. The Transition is designed for 100- to 500-mile jumps. It will carry two people and luggage on a single tank of premium unleaded gas. It will also come with an electric calculator (to help fine-tune weight distribution), airbags, aerodynamic bumpers and of course a GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation unit.
Building retractable wings won't be the major challenge: F-18s and even some World War II era planes have folding wings. Instead, one of the biggest challenges will be creating enough cargo room to satisfy customers. The planes, which will cruise up to 12,000 feet, will probably use an off-the-shelf engine, he added.
02/17/06 - Found! Hans Coler German Patent DE680,761 (1939)
(In a continuing stream of incredibile discovery, Bob Nelson at Rex Research has found another 'lost' patent that might lead to an overunity device. Thanks Bob for the headsup! Now for the problem, its in German! Strom = river, Stromquellen = power sources. So if anyone can translate this for Bob to post, we'd all appreciate it! One other thing, referring to the Stromzeuger, compare the circuit in this photo to the claims of separated, earth pole aligned magnets with the Roy Meyer 'Absorber' patent (also rediscovered by Bob Nelson), posted earlier on KeelyNet and on Rex Research under new information. - JWD) Coler Paper - The Invention of Hans Coler, Relating to an Alleged New Source of Power. Coler is the inventor of two devices by which it is alleged electrical energy may be derived without a chemical or mechanical source of power. Coler was visited and interrogated. He proved to be cooperative and willing to disclose all details of his devices, and consented to build up and put into operation a small model of the so-called "Magnetstromapparat" [Magnet Power Apparatus] using material supplied to him by us, and working only in our presence. With this device, consisting only of permanent magnets, copper coils, and condensers in a static arrangement he showed that he could obtain a tension of 450 millivolts for a period of some hours; and in a repetition of the experiment the next day 60 millivolts was recorded for a short period. The apparatus has been brought back and is now being further investigated. Coler also discussed another device called the "Stromzeuger", from which he claimed that with an input of a few watts from a dry battery an output of 6 kilowatts could be obtained indefinitely. Coler stated that his researches (apparently conducted with crude apparatus) into the nature of magnetism had lead him to conclude that ferro-magnetism was an oscillating phenomenon, of frequency about 180 kilohertz. This oscillation took place in the magnetic circuit of the apparatus, and induced in the electrical circuit oscillations the frequency which of course depended on the values of the components used. These two phenomena interacted, and gradually built up the tension. Coler stated that the strength of the magnets did not decrease during the use of the apparatus; and suggested that he was tapping a new sort of energy hitherto unknown "Raumenergie" (Space-energy).
02/17/06 - Scientist quieted for Glacial Melting alarm
Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag. A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far faster than scientists had feared - twice as much ice is going into the sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels - and climate change - could be dramatic. Greenland seems to be losing at least 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year. It is different from even two years ago, when people still said the ice sheet was in balance. Hundreds of cubic kilometres sounds like a lot of ice. But this is just the beginning. Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a tipping point beyond which break-up is explosively rapid. Once the ice starts to melt at the surface, it forms lakes that empty down crevasses to the bottom of the ice. You get rivers of water underneath the ice. And the ice slides towards the ocean. How fast can this go? Right now, I think our best measure is what happened in the past. We know that, for instance, 14,000 years ago sea levels rose by 20m (60 feet) in 400 years - that is five metres (15 feet) in a century.
We have to act with what we have. This decade, that means focusing on energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy that do not burn carbon. We don't have much time left.
02/17/06 - Robot controlled by slime mould
A novel experiment involves the use of slime growing in a six-pointed star shape on top of a circuit and connected remotely, via a computer, to the hexapod bot. Any light shone on sensors mounted on top of the robot were used to control light shone onto one of the six points of the circuit-mounted mould - each corresponding to a leg of the bot. As the slime tried to get away from the light its movement was sensed by the circuit and used to control one of the robot's six legs. The robot then scrambled away from bright lights as a mechanical embodiment of the mould. Eventually, this type of control could be incorporated into the bot itself to run autonomously, rather than controlled with a remote system. (via boingboing.com)
02/17/06 - Hacking the brain and nervous system
The brain is on the verge of becoming the next battlefield with weapons currently being designed to hack directly into your nervous system. "Controlled Personnel Effects" involves devices that "make selected adversaries think or act according to our needs... By studying and modeling the human brain and nervous system, the ability to mentally influence or confuse personnel is also possible." The Pulsed Energy Projectile fires a short intense pulse of laser energy. This vaporizes the outer layer of the target, creating a rapidly-expanding expanding ball of plasma. At different power levels, those expanding plasmas could deliver a harmless warning, stun the target, or disable them - all with pinpoint laser precision from a mile away. Early reports on the effects of PEPs mentioned temporary paralysis, then thought to be related to ultrasonic shockwaves. It later became apparent that the electromagnetic pulse caused by the expanding plasma was triggering nerve cells. Called “Sensory consequence of electromagnetic pulsed emitted by laser induced plasmas,” it described research on activating the nerve cells responsible for sensing unpleasant stimuli: heat, damage, pressure, cold. By selectively stimulating a particular nociceptor, a finely tuned PEP might sensations of say, being burned, frozen or dipped in acid -- all without doing the slightest actual harm. Russian researcher Makhunin also mentions the effects of "change of electrocardiogram" and what he calls "function break of heart muscle." The vulnerability of the heart to electrical stimulation (including that produced by EM waves) is well documented. A lethal device would interfere with the electrical potentials that keep the chambers of the heart synchronized, producing fibrillation and rapid death. A death ray doesn’t need to be a truck-sized laser that reduces the target to smoking heap; a small device that stops the heart will do the job.
02/17/06 - MIT powers up new battery for hybrid cars
Researchers at MIT have developed a new type of lithium battery that could become a cheaper alternative to the batteries that now power hybrid electric cars. The MIT team's new lithium battery contains manganese and nickel, which are cheaper than cobalt. Scientists already knew that lithium nickel manganese oxide could store a lot of energy, but the material took too long to charge to be commercially useful. The MIT researchers set out to modify the material's structure to make it capable of charging and discharging more quickly. A battery made from the new material can charge or discharge in about 10 minutes -- about 10 times faster than the unmodified lithium nickel manganese oxide. That brings it much closer to the timeframe needed for hybrid car batteries, Ceder said.
02/16/06 - Ripple Tank Simulator
(If you are a student of phase conjugation and cymatics, DEFINITELY check out this applet. It is 2D but has a 3D version and includes SOURCE CODE for them!!! Incredible...I made this one with 3 sources and one frequency. Think about INERTIAL DRIVES!!! - JWD) This java applet is a simulation of a ripple tank. It demonstrates waves in two dimensions, including such wave phenomena as interference, diffraction (single slit, double slit, etc.), refraction, resonance, phased arrays, and the Doppler effect. To get started with the applet, just go through the items in the Setup menu in the upper right. You can also draw on the screen with the mouse. The predefined setups are just starting points; you can modify the sources and walls as you desire.
02/16/06 - Switchgrass has amazing potential profit as fuel
Switch grass can produce 1000 gallons of fuel per acre. At even $1.50/gallon, that's a gross of $1500/acre. No other crop we grow has that potential. David Bransby, professor of energy crops at Auburn University, is an expert on switch grass, which President Bush mentioned in his State of the Union address. Bransby says switch grass is cheap to grow and provides a high yield crop that can make a lot of ethanol for a low cost. (NPR audio file)
02/16/06 - Tiny pipes move water 10,000 times faster than normal
Scientists at the University of Kentucky have built tiny pipes that move water 10,000 times as fast as the conventional laws of fluid flow allow, mimicking for the first time the seamless way fluids progress through our cells. They’ve also found a way to control which molecules can pass through the pipes, a discovery that could yield safer, more efficient skin patches to deliver medicine into the body. The pipes are made of carbon nanotubes, thin sheets of graphite rolled into cylinders just seven billionths of a meter in diameter. The scientists poured a polymer between them to create a fine membrane that can embed 65 billion pipes per square inch. Lead researcher Bruce Hinds attributes the tremendous speed of the water flow (3.3 feet a second) to the nearly friction-free carbon nanotube walls. To keep out unwanted molecules, Hinds placed chemical receptors at the entrances to each tube, so that only those proteins that match the receptors are allowed passage.
02/16/06 - 100 Billion dollar bottled water fraud
Media manipulation to drive paranoia solely to promote buying bottled water. Consumers spend a collective $100 billion every year on bottled water in the belief--often mistaken, as it happens--that this is better for us than what flows from our taps, according to environmental think tank the Earth Policy Institute (EPI). For a fraction of that sum, everyone on the planet could have safe drinking water and proper sanitation, the Washington, D.C.-based organization said this week. 'There is no question that clean, affordable drinking water is essential to the health of our global community,'' Arnold said. ''But bottled water is not the answer in the developed world, nor does it solve problems for the 1.1 billion people who lack a secure water supply. Improving and expanding existing water treatment and sanitation systems is more likely to provide safe and sustainable sources of water over the long term.'' Worldwide, bottled water consumption surged to 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons) in 2004, up 57 percent from 98 billion liters in 1999, EPI said in a written analysis citing industry data. ''Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing--producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy,'' said Arnold. ''Although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more.'' At up to $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline in the United States. 'Bottled water is not guaranteed to be any healthier than tap water. In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water; often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit,'' EPI said. France's Senate, it added, ''even advises people who drink bottled mineral water to change brands frequently because the added minerals are helpful in small amounts but may be dangerous in higher doses.''
02/16/06 - Man-made blood won't carry bacteria, viruses
(This claim is unproven and reporting as just a claim at this point. - JWD) JAPANESE FIRM Terumo claimed that artificial blood it developed won't pass on viral or bacterial infections. So said Nihon Keizai Shimbun , reporting on the claims. Not only is the artificial blood sterilised during its manufacture, but Terumo claims it uses so-called artificial red blood cells to be carriers for oxygen. Clinical tests on humanoids are set to start this time next year and alleviate the worldwide blood shortage.
02/16/06 - Convert your Diesel to run on vegetable oil - details
Vegetable oil is also cheaper than regular diesel: even if you buy supermarket oil and pay the full duty, it works out cheaper. Use waste oil, and the price drops dramatically. Who doesn't want to save money? Even better, veg oil has cleaner emissions and is good for your engine. Compared to regular diesel, veg oil has massively less sulphur, so there's less sulphur dioxide emitted when you drive. Sulphur dioxide is one of the pollutants that makes kids wheezy, so you're cutting your contribution to childhood asthma. And because veg oil has better lubricity, it's kind to your engine, too: a veg-fuelled engine runs just a little bit smoother. Fuel efficiency is unaffected. An ordinary diesel engine cannot run on 100% pure vegetable oil without conversion. Veg oil is too thick and gloopy to get through the fuel pump and injectors. Instead, we'll try to thin down the veg oil so that it works correctly in the engine. There are two ways to do this: mix it with something, or convert it into biodiesel.
02/16/06 - Nevada's 64MW Solar Concentrator Array
Nevada Solar One, the 64 MW commercial-scale solar energy plant will encompass 350 square acres, a nearly endless sea of mirrored troughs that will concentrate the strong desert sunlight and convert it into 750-degree F thermal energy, which can then be used to create steam for electrical power generation. Gilbert Cohen, Vice President of Engineering & Operations for Solargenix, said the project costs somewhere in the range of $220-250 million. He said the power is slightly more expensive than wind power, but less than photovoltaic (PV) power, more commonly used in small rooftop projects on homes or businesses. Other sources close to the project put this price at somewhere between 9-13 cents per kWh. As more are built, however, and they're scaled up even bigger, Cohen says a target of seven cents per kWh will not be difficult to reach in the near future. Germany's glass specialists, Schott -- a company familiar in the solar industry for their solar photovoltaic modules -- is one of the primary equipment suppliers. In its first large-scale solar thermal contract, Schott is providing more than 19,000 of their latest vacuum tube steel and glass receivers, which in many ways can be considered the heart of the project. It is these receiver tubes that the parabolic mirrors focus the sun's energy on and they, in turn, absorb the solar radiation. Flabeg, also a German company, will provide the mirror panels or troughs while industrial giant Siemens of Sweden will provide the 75 MW turbine. Nevada Solar One is designed to be more efficient in holding its temperature and requires only a 2 percent natural gas backup. More efficient and reliable motors will be used to move the troughs that track the sun. The frames for these troughs are now built out of lightweight aluminum instead of galvanized steel.
02/16/06 - Grant to Fund Heat-based Photovoltaic Cells
Spire Corporation announced it was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop a new type of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) power cell that produces electricity from heat. The cells are similar to solar cells that convert visible photons to electricity, but the semiconductor material is adjusted to convert long-wavelength or thermal photons to electricity. The grant is from NASA's John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The project has potential applications for NASA, to generate electricity from heat generated by long-life radioisotope sources for long duration space missions where the power generated by conventional solar cells is limited due to the large distance from the sun. Commercial applications of TPV cells include electricity co-generation using heat from wood or propane combustion.
02/15/06 - Claim of Heat from Gravity as a Power Source
(Thanks to Levi Philos for the headsup on this one. There is a website at http://www.gravitomatic.com which says under construction. A WHOIS finds their domain name registered out of Chatsworth, CA from 03/29/05 to 03/29/06. We shall see if they come up with anything, so far, nothing I can track. - JWD) Gravitomatic, Inc. is happy to announce that our 5 years long research of gravity resulted in a breakthrough discovery of a new energy source for humanity. Our revolutionary technology generates heat from the energy of the gravitational field of our planet. The latest round of experiments not just confirmed our theory, but also dramatically extended it. Based on our latest results, we see our road map as follows: -- In three years we'll have the first commercially available gravitational electrical power plant. -- In four to five years the first commercial car engine powered by gravity will hit the road. Cars, trucks, ships which do not need refueling, cleaner air in our cities and many, many more things, are becoming reality thanks to our discovery. Effective immediately this revolutionary technology is available for licensing.
02/15/06 - Xprize - $10 Million to solve specific science problems
the X-Prize Foundation, an organisation set up by Peter Diamandis of Space Adventures, the company that arranged for Dennis Tito to fly to the International Space Station in 2001 and so become the world's first space tourist. The foundation (motto: "Creating radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity"), plans to launch three prizes of at least $10m (£5.75m) this year to crack some of the toughest problems facing genetics, nanotechnology and the car industry. "Our goal is to build ourselves into a world-class prize institute and focus on using those prizes to attack some of the grand challenges of our time," Dr Diamandis said. "By setting up prizes with a big enough purse, you can reach across space and time and problems will get solved." The money for the prizes comes from donations from wealthy individuals and sponsorship, and entry is usually open to all. "In general we want these open to the most brilliant minds on the planet," Dr Diamandis said. "A lot of the value is not just the cash, it's the heroism that goes along with winning the competition. It's what drives people to work around the clock and take risk to levels required for breakthroughs."
02/15/06 - Sandia Labs Researcher Invents New Way to Make Hydrogen for Fuel
Borrowing from two different research areas that he’s pursued over his career, Sandia researcher Rich Diver (6218) has invented a whole new way to make hydrogen to power automobiles and homes. His invention, the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5, for short), splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, using a simple, two-step thermochemical process. The CR5 is a stack of rings made of a reactive ferrite material, consisting of iron oxide mixed with a metal oxide such as cobalt, magnesium, or nickel oxide. Every other ring rotates in opposite directions. Concentrated solar heat is reflected through a small hole onto one side of the stack of rings. The side of the rings in the sunlit area is hot, while the other side is relatively cold. As the rotating rings pass each other in between these regions, the hot rings heat up the cooler rings, and the colder rings cool down the hot rings. This arrangement results in a conservation of heat entering the system, limiting the energy input required from the sunlight. Steam runs by the rings on the cooler side causing a chemical reaction to take place, allowing the ferrite material to grab oxygen out of the water, leaving the hydrogen. The hydrogen is then pumped out and compressed for use. A separate chemical reaction that drives off the oxygen occurs where the sunlight directly illuminates the ferrite material at the solar receiving end. This is needed to regenerate the rings so they can react with more water during the next cycle. Rich envisions fields of large mirror dish collector systems making hydrogen, which would be stored and sent to stations where hydrogen-electric hybrid vehicles could “fill up.” Rich and Jim have shown that by suspending the ferrite material in zirconia, a refractory oxide that withstands high temperatures, there was a high yield of hydrogen “quickly and repeatedly,” even after forming the mixture into complex solid shapes. Without using the zirconia, the ferrite material doesn’t hold together well; it essentially forms a slag and stops reacting.
02/15/06 - 81% accurate Mortality prediction system
Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center have created an index that is 81 percent accurate in predicting the likelihood of death within four years for people 50 and older. The index, which weighs different mortality risk factors according to a simple point system, is potentially useful to health care providers, policymakers, and researchers, say the study authors. The information can be obtained using a 12-question form that "could be completed in a few minutes by a patient or medical office receptionist," according to lead author Sei J. Lee, MD, a geriatric specialist at SFVAMC.
02/15/06 - 33 foot Underwater Windmill powers 35 homes
The tidal turbine is bolted to the floor of the Kvalsund Channel and was connected to the nearby town of Hammerfest's power grid on September 20. It is the first time in the world that electricity directly from a tidal current has been fed into a power grid. The gravitational tug of the moon produces a swift tidal current there that courses through the channel at about 8 feet (2.5 meters) per second and spins the 33-foot-(10-meter) long blades of the turbine. The blades automatically turn to face the ebb and flow of the tide and rotate at a pace of seven revolutions per minute, which is sufficient to produce 700,000 kilowatt hours of non-polluting energy per year-enough to power about 35 Norwegian homes (70 U.S. homes). "Basically it's like putting a windmill in the water," said Bjørn Bekken, a project manager for Hammerfest Strøm, the company that built the device. Proponents of the tidal turbine technology say it is a welcome, environmentally friendly alternative-energy option. One key advantage over wind and solar power is that the energy output is 100 percent predictable, said Bekken.
02/15/06 - Cellphone could crack RFID tags, says cryptographer
Shamir used a directional antenna and digital oscilloscope to monitor power use by RFID tags while they were being read. Patterns in power use could be analyzed to determine when the tag received correct and incorrect password bits, he said. "The reflected signals contain a lot of information," Shamir said. "We can see the point where the chip is unhappy if a wrong bit is sent and consumes more power from the environment…to write a note to RAM that it has received a bad bit and to ignore the rest of the string," he added. "I haven’t tested all RFID tags, but we did test the biggest brand and it is totally unprotected," Shamir said. Using this approach, "a cellphone has all the ingredients you need to conduct an attack and compromise all the RFID tags in the vicinity," he added. Shamir said the pressure to get tags down to five cents each has forced designers to eliminate any security features, a shortcoming that needs to be addressed in next-generation products.
02/15/06 - Can you 'catch' cancer?
Can you really catch cancer? And if cervical cancer is caused by an infection, is it remotely possible that we might also catch breast cancer, or prostate cancer, or bowel cancer? The answer is yes and no. Certainly, catching cancers is not the same as catching a cold. Human papilloma virus may trigger cervical cancer, but many women infected with it will never develop the disease. There must also be other factors. Whenever clusters of childhood cancers have been spotted, parents have understandably ascribed them to the man-made environment, assuming that fallout from a power station or radiation from a phone mast must be to blame. But McNally and colleagues have identified a pattern which is exactly like what you would see in infectious diseases. Cancer clusters occur where whole groups from towns and cities have arrived to live and work in a remotish rural setting, he observed. Look at the oil fields, military installations, the building of new towns - and nuclear plants too. The incomers bring with them new viral infections, which could spark cancers among the native local population. In fact, infections associated with cancer have been known for some time. There is a cat virus which causes leukaemia and a vaccine against it, causing people to wonder if there could be a parallel in human leukaemia. But the neatest example of infection as a significant cause is in stomach cancer. This is not triggered by a virus, but by a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori. Viruses are now thought to be implicated in up to one in five cancers. As time goes on, we may find it is more.
02/15/06 - Spray-on Solar Cells
Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day. The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains the first solar cells able to harness the sun's invisible, infrared rays. The breakthrough has led theorists to predict that plastic solar cells could one day become five times more efficient than current solar cell technology. Like paint, the composite can be sprayed onto other materials and used as portable electricity. A sweater coated in the material could power a cell phone or other wireless devices. A hydrogen-powered car painted with the film could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car's battery. The new material is the first plastic composite that is able to harness the infrared portion of light. "Everything that's warm gives off some heat. Even people and animals give off heat," Sargent said. "So there actually is some power remaining in the infrared [spectrum], even when it appears to us to be dark outside." The researchers combined specially designed nano particles called quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy in the infrared. With further advances, the new plastic "could allow up to 30 percent of the sun's radiant energy to be harnessed, compared to 6 percent in today's best plastic solar cells," said Peter Peumans, a Stanford University electrical engineering professor, who studied the work.
02/15/06 - Online Climate Prediction project
Climateprediction.net has already been running for two years and has generated forecasts on the likely extent of climate change.
Participants download software onto their personal computers which run the program when the machine is idle. "The main change in this model is that it uses a fully dynamic ocean," said the project's chief scientist David Stainforth from Oxford University. "Previous versions used a very simplified ocean, whereas this one allows us to see how the atmosphere and the ocean interact," he told the BBC News website. Last year climateprediction.net released results from its existing model suggesting that a doubling of the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide would increase the global average temperature by between 2C and 11C.
02/15/06 - Vaccine gives 100% bird flu protection in animal study
Researchers say they have genetically engineered an avian flu vaccine that completely protected mice and chickens from infection in a study. The scientists, from the University of Pittsburgh, Penn., said they built the vaccine from bits of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Because this vaccine contains a live virus, it may stimulate the immune system better than vaccines prepared by traditional methods, say the researchers. And because it is grown in cells, it can be produced much more quickly than traditional vaccines, they add. Thus the vaccine could be used to prevent the spread of the virus in domestic livestock and, potentially, in humans, according to the study, published in the Feb 15 issue of the Journal of Virology. “The results of this animal trial are very promising, not only because our vaccine completely protected animals that otherwise would have died, but also because we found that one form of the vaccine stimulates several lines of immunity against H5N1,” said the university’s Andrea Gambotto, lead author of the study. All the chickens immunized through under-the-skin injections survived exposure to H5N1, developed strong immune responses and showed no clinical signs of disease, the researchers found. But chickens that received the vaccine through another method-through the nose-died in about half of cases. The reason for that discrepancy was unclear, the researchers said.
02/14/06 - Ford Hydraulic Hybrid - 300% more efficient than Toyota Prius
Ford is developing a new form of automotive propulsion, and the implications for the American Auto Industry are huge. The Hydraulic Hybrid could be the greatest innovation since the internal combustion engine itself, and Ford is on the inside track with its F-150 Hybrid. New Tech Spy Has learned details about the system that are simply amazing and could put Ford in a commanding position in the fiercely competitive full size pickup market. The Idea behind the current crop of Hybrid cars is well known; the cars main energy comes from gasoline which recharges batteries that move the car at low speeds. Hydraulic Hybrids work in the same manner, only instead of batteries, excess energy is stored in hydraulic cylinders. That in itself is not revolutionary, except for the fact that Nickel Metal Hydride batteries used today are not an efficient way to store energy, and hydraulic storage blows them away with 3X the efficiency. Even next generation Lithium Ion batteries do not come close to Hydraulic Energy Storage. The standard F-150 has a curb weight of about 4800 lbs., which is 65% greater than theToyota Prius, yet incredibly the Hydraulic F-150 with a continuously variable transmission matches the Prius with 60mpg city rating, that’s an amazing 400% increase over its gasoline version. The F-150 makes for a perfect host for Hydraulic Hybrid technology because of its height and body on frame construction, adding this system to smaller vehicles will be challenging, but with those kind of numbers small vehicles as we know them may become obsolete...The Hydraulic F-150 is currently scheduled for launch in August of 2008, can Ford work out all the bugs by then? The people are waiting for Ford to come through in the clutch.
02/14/06 - 130 degree Nuclear Fusion
U.S. researchers said they have developed what is essentially a tabletop particle accelerator that can produce low levels of nuclear fusion at close to room temperature. The device uses a pair of the crystals encased in a chamber of deuterium gas. The crystals create a very strong electric field when they are heated or cooled, and the field produces deuterium ions by ripping electrons from the gas and accelerating them toward a deuterium target on one of the crystals. When a deuterium ion smashes into the target, a neutron is emitted, the telltale sign that nuclear fusion has occurred. "You just heat the crystal from room temperature to about 130 degrees," team leader Yaron Danon told SpaceDaily.com. "Then you can use it while it's heating or while it's cooling. We're doing it while it's cooling. We're letting it cool back to room temperature, and while it's doing that it's accelerating ions, so it's like a particle accelerator that's very simple." Danon said the device is so small and efficient it requires only a 6-volt battery, but because it also emits neutrons - which in sufficient numbers can be harmful or deadly - operating it requires caution.
02/14/06 - Cow dung to Methane to Electricity
Conly Hansen developed an improved method for turning cow manure into electricity. Andigen's systems can be installed on dairy or hog farms to reduce the smell of the manure as well as to turn the waste into electricity. A farm can install pipes to funnel the manure into what is known as a bioreactor, or digester. The bioreactor, a three-story, 32,000-gallon tank, stores the manure along with a mix of bacteria for up to six days, said Watts, Andigen's chief executive officer. "The bacteria breaks down the organic compounds, digests them, and produces a by-product of methane," Watts said. The methane gas can run a generator that produces the electricity or it can be compressed to run farm vehicles. Installing the system can run about $500,000 for a dairy of 1,000 cows. The company has several orders across the country, Watts said.
02/14/06 - New Universal Transmission improves mileage 20-30mpg
It took 35 years of experimenting, but the Infinity Transmission runs smooth and is more cost effective and environmentally friendly than current models. It would, Gogins asserts, improve the mileage of cars between 20 and 30 mpg. The technology is universal. It could go beyond cars to motorcycles, helicopters and even blenders. There are 23 patents currently pending on the invention. Unlike current transmissions, Gogins’ invention doesn’t need a torque converter with coolant, a radiator and hoses. That is where transmissions lose power and efficiency. Instaed, the Infinity has two cams 180 degrees across from each other on the input shaft. The first pair of cams provides engine drive and drives the output shaft while the second pair of cams provide load drive and drives the engine for engine braking. Theoretically, the transmission will have an infinite number of gear ratios.
02/14/06 - 600 foot long - 174mph Airborne Luxury Cruise Ship
Worldwide Aeros Corporation, the leading aeroscraft manufacturer in FAA-certified lighter-than-air vehicles has announced its plans for the interior design of a new generation of airborne cruise ships in partnership with the world’s leading design consultant for the hospitality and leisure industries, Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG). Howard Wolff, the senior vice president of WATG informs that “the new Aeroscraft airships will boast of ultra-luxury facilities and amenities that will rival the luxury cabins of the world’s greatest ocean liners and will feature all the latest technological amenities.” The interiors of the airships will be done by WATG.
02/14/06 - Pro-Pulse Mobile Diesel power station
The ProPulse hybrid truck's generator can provide power for a small airport, a field hospital or a military command post. Oshkosh Truck currently is conducting field tests of a handful of other diesel-electric hybrids. Unlike other hybrids, it doesn't use battery packs to store electricity. The Oshkosh vehicles use capacitors that absorb large amounts of power and turn it into electricity quickly and efficiently. One of the trucks has been used to power Wittman Regional Airport, in Winnebago County. It was a brief, carefully controlled test to measure the truck's capabilities. Besides acting as mobile power stations, diesel-electric hybrids could be used for other purposes. Waste Management Inc., one of the nation's largest refuse haulers, is testing the Oshkosh hybrid for use on garbage routes with a lot of stop-and-go driving. As the truck slows for a stop, energy that's otherwise wasted is captured and converted into usable power. The conversion could result in fuel savings of 20% or more. That's important because standard garbage trucks get only about 3 miles per gallon, said Lynn Brown, a Waste Management spokeswoman in Houston. The vehicles make sense for applications such as stop-and-go driving that wastes energy, said Ivan Oelrich, a scientist who studies military technology for the Federation of American Scientists. "Hybrids are perfect for a delivery van or a bus," but not for a highway truck running at fuel-efficient speeds, he said. Diesel engines generate electricity on the battlefield, but the military might be frustrated with using trucks as portable power stations. "The military hates to be in a situation where it has to choose between using a truck for moving things, or keeping it somewhere to generate power for something like a radar station," Oelrich said.
02/14/06 - 60GB Digital CamCorder
What can you possibly do with 60GB on a camcorder? Simple. Shoot approximately 55 1/2 hours of high-quality (LP) video. This figure comes down to 13 1/2 hours in the even better SHQ mode. With a Canon 10x optical-zoom lens to boot, you're assured of many happy hours. And the 60GB is well protected from shocks and bumps - courtesy, the "Diprotechs" mechanism. If you still think that 60GB is a waste of digital space, maybe you would settle for the Toshiba GigaShot R30. No prizes for guessing that that the 30 in R30 stands for 30GB. For the R30, the statistics say 27 hours and 40 minutes in LP mode, and 6 hours and 40 minutes in SHQ mode. Other features remain the same. There's also the low-end Toshiba GigaShot V10 which comes with a paltry 4GB hard-disk. I am not sure who would want to buy this one. All three models can take on external memory through a SD slot. The units go on sale from the 25h of February, 2006. Should step foot into the United States soon. Pricing is yet to be announced.
02/14/06 - Desert soil teeming with microbes
Everyone knows that jungles are teeming with bacteria, while deserts are relatively sterile. But a study published Monday turns that conventional wisdom on its head with the discovery that when it comes to microbial diversity, the desert is more like the Amazon, while the Amazon is more like a desert. Their continent-scale study of the genetic diversity of bacteria suggests that rain forests and jungles support fewer different kinds of microbes than deserts because the soils of tropical forests are more acidic, while desert dirt is more neutral. "Few people realize that 'dirt' supports a complex community of microorganisms that plays a critical role on Earth," Fierer added. "The number of bacteria species in a spoonful of soil is likely to exceed the total number of plant species in all the United States." Jackson, a researcher at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke, noted that bacteria are critical in making nutrients available to plants and animals.
02/13/06 - Microwave-Drill Technology
A microwave drill can bore through materials such as concrete and glass, silently and without creating dust. By heating a target to nearly 2,000 ºC, the microwaves soften it up enough for a small rod to be pushed through. "It should provide a low-cost solution for a variety of needs," say the drill's inventors Eli Jerby and his colleagues at Tel Aviv University in Israel1. It can make holes between a millimetre and a centimetre wide, and could find use, for example, in the production of ceramic components for cars and planes, in building construction and in geological engineering. Using heat to cut and drill materials is nothing new. Lasers are already widely used to make incisions or holes as narrow as a thousandth of a millimetre. But laser drilling is too expensive for many routine engineering jobs, whereas the microwave drill costs little more than a mechanical one. A microwave-drilled hole in alumina. The drill bit is a needle-like antenna that emits intense microwave radiation. The microwaves create a hot spot around the bit, melting or softening the material so that the bit can be pushed in. But the drill can't bore through everything effectively. Sapphire's melting point, for instance, is too high. And steel conducts heat too well for a hot spot to develop. But the device works fine on rocks and concrete. In fact, the heat may even strengthen holes' walls in ceramics by welding together the fine grains in the material. To use the drill, workers would have to be shielded from the intense microwave radiation it produces. The inventors claim that a simple shielding plate put in front of the drill bit is enough to meet common safety standards.
02/13/06 - LA needs Monorails
If we examine the history of subways, we will find how tremendously expensive and destructive they are. They are, first of all, meant for cold climates such as Toronto, New York, London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. But L.A. is a Mediterranean area; our weather is sublime, and people are accustomed to traveling in the open air and enjoying the sunshine, not in closed cars under the ground. Subways take forever to build and, because the tunnels have to be excavated, are incredibly expensive. The cost of one subway line would build 10 monorail systems. Along the way, subway construction destroys businesses by the scores. The history of the subway from East L.A. to the Valley is a history of ruined businesses and upended lives. The monorail is extraordinary in that it can be built elsewhere and then carried in and installed in mid-street with little confusion and no destruction of businesses. In a matter of a few months, a line could be built from Long Beach all the way along Western Avenue to the mountains with little disturbance to citizens and no threat to local businesses. Compared to the heavy elevateds of the past, the monorail is virtually soundless. Anyone who has ridden the Disneyland or Seattle monorails knows how quietly they move. (via boingboing.com)
02/13/06 - The Ultra Battery
A new type of ultracapacitor could eventually have you throwing out your conventional batteries. The technology has the potential to provide an energy storage device ten times more powerful than even the latest batteries in hybrid cars -- while outliving the vehicle itself. The new technology, developed at MIT's Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems, should improve ultracapacitors, by swapping in carbon nanotubes, thereby greatly increasing the surface area of electrodes and the ability to store energy. researchers at MIT have found what they believe is a way to improve the endurance of ultracapacitors several-fold -- allowing the devices to retain the power and longevity advantages, while storing about as much energy as the batteries used in hybrids. The amount of energy ultracapacitors can hold is related to the surface area and conductivity of their electrodes. The researchers have increased surface area by "more than an order of magnitude" by using carbon nanotubes, says Joel Schindall, professor of electrical engineering at MIT and one of the researchers on the project. One square centimeter of conductive plate, when coated with the nanotubes, has a surface area of about 50,000 square centimeters, compared with 2,000 square centimeters using the carbon in a commercial ultracapacitor today. The highly pure carbon nanotubes are also extremely conductive, which should increase power output over existing ultracapacitors, the researchers say. The technology may find applications beyond hybrids, too. Ultracapacitors could allow laptops and cell phones to be charged in a minute. And, unlike laptop batteries, which start losing their ability to hold a charge after a year or two, they could still be going strong long after the device is obsolete. "Theoretically, there's no process that would cause the [ultracapacitor] to need to be replaced," says professor John Kassakian, another of the researchers.
02/13/06 - Animal eyes inspire new technology
Luke Lee and other “bioengineers” are borrowing ideas from all corners of the animal kingdom to design artificial vision systems that could be used for high-tech cameras, motion detectors, navigation devices in unmanned vehicles, or perhaps even synthetic retinal implants. We know that natural selection has produced at least ten animal vision systems, each tailored to fit the specific needs of its owner. Eyes for different species are adapted for seeing in the day or night, short or long distances, with wide or narrow fields of view, etc. Research is progressing much faster with compound eyes, which are made up of many individual lenses (as many as ten thousand in some dragonflies) and found in insects and other arthropods. The lenses are part of separate imaging units called “ommatidia,” which each provide fragments of an image. In many cases, the ommatidia send their signals simultaneously, allowing for the fast motion detection and image recognition that allows flies, for example, to evade fly-swatters time and again. Lee and his colleagues have made artificial ommatidia, each with a tiny lens connected to a tube-like “waveguide” that directs the light down to an optoelectronic imaging device. The ommatidia can be arranged around a dome, projecting outwards in all directions. Putting two of these structures back-to-back could hypothetically allow for a device with 360-degree vision.
02/13/06 - 'Walk again' drugs to be tested on people
TWO antibodies that enabled the severed spinal nerves of rats to be regenerated are to be tested in humans. The antibodies have helped rats with damaged spinal cords to walk again, by blocking the action of Nogo, a protein that stops nerve cells sprouting new connections. But there were concerns about whether blocking Nogo would lead to uncontrolled neuronal rewiring in the brain or spinal cord and it was also unclear how such a therapy could be given to humans. Now Martin Schwab and his colleagues at the University of Zurich in Switzerland have infused two antibodies, 11C7 and 7B12, into the damaged spinal cords of rats. An osmotic mini-pump connected to a fine catheter was used to deliver the antibodies directly into the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the injured part of the spinal cord - a method of delivery that could easily be applied to humans, they say. The antibodies triggered regeneration of axons, the fine thread-like extensions that connect neurons, and enabled injured rats to swim, cross the rungs of a ladder without slipping and traverse a narrow beam (Annals of Neurology, vol 58, p 706). Moreover, the antibodies did not cause hyperalgesia, a condition in which even a simple touch is sensed as pain - a sign that would have indicated wrong neuronal connections had been made.
02/13/06 - RFID and privacy
The increasing use of RFID's - small devices that can be put into vehicles, products, credit cards, and animals to track their movements - has a lot of people worried about their effects on privacy. And those worries have even more basis when RFIDs are implanted in people. And they are being injected into people - make no mistake about it. Of the RFID devices in the photo; 1) is for humans, 2) is marketed for animals, 3) is a grain of rice and 4) is a US dime. A Cincinnati video surveillance company CityWatcher.com now requires employees to use Verichip human implantable microchips to enter a secure data centre. Until now, the employees entered the data centre with a VeriChip housed in a heart-shaped plastic casing that hangs from their keychain. The VeriChip is a glass encapsulated RFID tag that is injected into the triceps area of the arm to uniquely identify individuals. The tag can be read by radio waves from a few inches away. Although CityWatcher does not require its employees to take an implant to keep their jobs, they won't get in the data centre without it. CASPIAN's Katherine Albrecht says chipping sets an unsettling precedent. "It's wrong to link a person's paycheck with getting an implant," she says.As creepy as the work-mandated microchips are, I think that Citywatcher.com's public statement on the implants may be even creepier.
02/13/06 - Got an idea? License it!
Licensing products for a profit is not new. Nolo Press, a Berkeley-based publisher of legal books, even has a how-to manual called ``License Your Invention,'' which tells prospective entrepreneurs how to move an idea ``from thought to bought'' -- and roughly what inventors can expect to get in a licensing deal (anywhere from 3 percent to 12 percent of the net sales price). Parent inventors are often solving their own problems -- designing streamlined diaper bags, more comfortable baby carriers, pacifier organizers, nursing pillows and other products for people just like them. Their market research involves talking to friends and acquaintances, most of whom are dealing with the same issues. People who believe they have a marketable idea -- whether baby-related or not -- can go the licensing route, where they sell the idea to another company that will make and market it. Or they can manufacture and market it on their own. Going it alone can potentially be more profitable, but it's also more risky. Baxter, who says her family doesn't have thousands of dollars to risk, went the licensing route. That allowed her to participate in the potential sales, without risking her own cash. The downside: If the product is a huge hit, she'll get only 3 percent to 5 percent of the net sales. Of course, more ideas end up in the dustbin than on store shelves. Caspi gets hundreds of pitches each year and chooses only a few. Inventors' chances of success are much greater if they do some research and talk to candid friends and relatives about their ideas before approaching a licensing firm, Caspi said. Inventors often get just one chance to pitch their wares to a licensing company, Young said. Doing plenty of research, and coming prepared with a succinct pitch, boosts your chances. ``I have a friend who is in marketing and she told me that I had to get my pitch down to a two-minute elevator conversation,'' Young said. ``That's about all the time you have to get them to listen.''
02/12/06 - Mind Control by Parasites
Half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma, parasites in the body-and the brain. Remember that.
Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite found in the guts of cats; it sheds eggs that are picked up by rats and other animals that are eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts in the bodies of the intermediate rat hosts, including in the brain. Oxford scientists discovered that the minds of the infected rats have been subtly altered. If the parasite can alter rat behavior, does it have any effect on humans? Dr. E. Fuller Torrey (Associate Director for Laboratory Research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute) noticed links between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia in human beings, approximately three billion of whom are infected with T. gondii. Are parasites like Toxoplasma subtly altering human behavior? As it turns out, science fiction writers have been thinking about whether or not parasites could alter a human being's behavior, or even take control of a person.
02/12/06 - Chinese cash buys Borneo's forests
Environmental activists and economists are outraged at Indonesian plans to cut a swath through one of the world's largest remaining areas of pristine rainforest to create a massive Chinese-funded palm-oil plantation.
The remote stretch of land on the island of Borneo, home to many species of rare birds, plants and mammals -- including the largest remaining wild orangutan population -- could be destroyed in what critics fear is a ruse to access timber. The 2000km-long, 5km-wide plantation would cross almost the entire border between Indonesia and Malaysia, slicing through three national parks. "I think the final objective of the project is to exploit logs -- yes, giving free timber in exchange for developing infrastructure," Mr Basri said. The spoils would include valuable ramin timber, exports of which are banned by Indonesia. Separate studies by Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry and WWF have found the region is too mountainous for effective palm-oil farming, which is most productive on flat terrain. A preliminary ministry study found only 10 per cent was suitable for palm oil, said Ahmad Dimyati, director-general for plantations in the Agriculture Ministry.
02/12/06 - Clem Engine - New Correlations
(Thanks to Henry Postma for these insightful correlations. - JWD) Fottinger's Fluid Drive Torque Converter - At Stettin, Germany the principle of fluid transmission of power was conceived and developed in 1905. The inventor was Dr. Herman Fottinger, who was an engineer employed by the Vulcan Engineering Company. He was working mainly on a problem of finding a suitable drive from a steam turbine to a relatively low speed propeller for ship propulsion. At that time, gears were not developed to the extent that they are today and were considered impractical. Hydrokinetic Transmission - The hydrokinetic transmission was evolved around 1905 by Dr. Fottinger . The constant filling type coupling is generally used between co-axial shafts, enables a quick start-up to motor without effect of high inertia machines. Fluid coupling acts as "non-wearing clutch"; as power is transmitted from impeller (pump) to runner (turbine) through continuous stream of oil, smoothly and shocklessly. This article provides details about the fluid couplings which is widely used in paper and pulp industry. Fluid Coupling works on the principle of ‘Cube Law’ where in torque transmitted increases with the square of the input speed and power transmitted with the cube of input speed. The Fluid coupling allows the motor to start under virtually no load, as the load characteristic during start is parabolic. The motor is loaded only with full coupling torque after reaching its maximum speed.
02/12/06 - Astronauts devise asteroid collision plan
to push rock off its path to Earth
Two NASA astronauts have figured out a way to create a real-life version of a Star Wars "tractor beam" to keep an asteroid from crashing into the Earth. Simply by hovering nearby for perhaps a year, the astronauts say, the spacecraft's own gravity could minutely slow the asteroid's progress or speed it up, a process that 10 or 20 years later would cause the rogue rock to miss Earth by a comfortable margin. Because momentum doesn't dissipate in space, with enough time only a small early nudge is needed to cause a major orbital change. Schweickart originally advocated a tugboat strategy to dock with an asteroid and push it gently off its collision course, but he endorsed Lu and Love's idea as "a delightful way to pull an asteroid instead of pushing it -- we're all (in the foundation) sort of uncles to the tractor beam." Lu and Love's design would use a relatively small 20-ton spacecraft powered by charged atomic particles called ions, generated by an onboard nuclear reactor. Such a propulsion system would -- at relatively low weight -- provide enough power to accelerate the probe to the speeds needed to run down the target asteroid. With ordinary chemical fuel, "you'd be talking about a spacecraft that's 20 to 40 times larger," Lu said at Houston's Johnson Space Center. "That kind of technology doesn't exist." Once on station, the spacecraft would hover above the asteroid, using its engines to stay in place. Gravity is a two-way street, noted Love, also speaking from Houston. Even as the spacecraft counters the asteroid's gravity, he said, its own gravity will pull the asteroid out of orbit. "The velocity increment is small -- fractions of a centimeter (hundredths of an inch) per second," Lu added. "Suppose the asteroid is traveling 60,000 mph. You want to make it 60,001." This, Lu suggested, might take a year or two years, but that would be enough, for the change would then accumulate over a decade or more, sending the asteroid harmlessly away. Bigger asteroids would simply take more time. Unlike Schweickart's tug, the tractor would work even if the asteroid rotates or tumbles, and unlike nuking the asteroid -- Bruce Willis' solution in "Armageddon" -- the tractor is not messy. "Impacts and explosions are difficult to predict and control," said Love. "When you're trying to save the Earth, you want them to be both controllable and predictable."
02/12/06 - Smart new meters to cut power
Smart meters, otherwise known as interval meters, allow consumers to calculate the cost of their electricity consumption hour by hour, giving them the option of using low-cost off-peak power for dishwashers, pool filters or washing machines rather than high-cost electricity at times of peak demand. About 12 new power plants are being built or considered around Australia, with most designed to operate only when electricity demand is at its peak - usually at about this time of year - when generating companies can charge up to $10,000 a kilowatt hour. Normal generation charges are about $30 a kilowatt hour. The price consumers pay for electricity depends on the time of day the electricity is used. Customers taking advantage of off-peak electricity charges by using power in the cheaper times can save as much as 30 per cent on electricity bills. Some states and major energy companies have opposed the introduction of the meters, saying the benefits are exceeded by the costs. Depending on their level of sophistication, the electronic meters can cost from about $200 to more than $700 each.
02/11/06 - Heat from Air
(Another great 'lost' patent from Bob Nelson at Rex Research. - JWD) Around 1920 John Huston of Prineville, Ore., claimed to have invented a way to take heat out of the air with condensers. The first poorly insulated rig of his that I saw boiled water in 20 minutes. The device was claimed to replace fuels, to be good for household heating or refrigeration and to be able to run railroad engines or steamboats. "The machine can be made so hot that it will destroy itself. Reverse the machine, and the temperature will go as low as 250 below zero." He said manufacturers in San Francisco refused to build the machine because it would throw too many men out of work. It would also kill the sale of fuels, the major cargo of steamships at that time.
Huston also told me he had patented his device in Canada and England. The USA had refused to patent it. Huston evidently got nowhere with his device and I do not know what became of it. He died a young man of 22 in 1920 or 1921. US Patent # 1,781,062 (pdf) - Thermal Plant - In my invention I use any suitable prime mover for the compressing of an elastic fluid, as air, and utilize the heat thus obtained by the compression for heating purposes, I may then extract the remaining heat within the medium for heat purposes; and then expand the medium still under compression for creating the low temperature required. Highly efficient prime movers have been developed for performing work and it is my purpose to use a prime mover already in use, to drive a fluid compressor. My estimates have led me to believe that the greatest efficiency may be obtained at relatively low pressures, about fifteen pounds per square inch or lower, though it may be found expedient to increase the compression materially to cut down the sizes of the units employed in the various stages of my operation.
02/11/06 - Chevron, U.S. Postal Service Launch Unique Alternative Power System
Chevron Corporation today announced the completion of a unique hybrid alternative power plant -- combining two solar technologies and hydrogen fuel cell generation - and major energy efficiency improvements at two of the largest U.S. Postal Service (USPS) centers in California. The work involved installing energy-efficient equipment, including new energy management and compressed air systems, lighting retrofits and comprehensive heating, ventilation and air conditioning system upgrades. At the P&DC, a 680,000-square-foot facility, Chevron Energy Solutions also installed high-efficiency natural gas cooking equipment for the cafeteria as well as a unique hybrid solar/fuel cell power plant composed of a 250-kilowatt Direct FuelCell(R) that generates electricity from hydrogen produced internally from natural gas; 185 kilowatts of crystalline-silicon solar panels mounted on a PowerLight(R) parking canopy that tracks the sun; and 100 kilowatts of flexible, amorphous-silicon, roof-mounted UNI-SOLAR(R) solar panels. The improvements at both facilities will lower total annual electricity purchases by $1.2 million or 10 million kilowatt hours -- a 46 percent reduction. In addition, the energy-efficient equipment will reduce the P&DC's and EPC's heating needs by 69 percent and 28 percent, respectively. In total, these improvements translate to a reduction in local electric utility emissions of about 6,600 tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of planting about 1,860 acres of trees.
02/11/06 - Post Bush Speech - on Betraying the true situation in Iraq
Anderson Cooper: "The president says the US is winning the war in Iraq, joining us, Michael Ware, Baghdad bureau chief for Time Magazine. Michael, you probably spend more time, have more contact with insurgents, than anyone I've ever met. How do you think they read the statement that the US is winning and the talk in Washington about reducing troop levels?" - Ware: "Well, Anderson, this is all clearly from the president, political gymnastics. It's very clear that US policy, on the ground in Iraq, is not winning, it's not creating a victory. The question is, can America get out of there with anything close to a semblance of success?...Listening to Commanders on the ground who have described to me the 'big lie,' that we can't really tell the truth of what's going on, we can't ask for resources we need for fear of betraying the true situation in Iraq." "The 'great lie' of Bushs' address is the success of Iraq. The great truth is that the only long-term way out is developing alternative energy strategies."
02/11/06 - New Hydrogen source from Corn Sugar
A first-ever effort to make electricity from hydrogen is generating power in Madison, using a sophisticated chemical process with a little help from a four-cylinder Ford engine. The renewable energy system, developed by Virent Energy Systems, a Madison-based energy start-up, began sending electricity to the power grid in late December, said Virent Chief Executive Eric Apfelbach. Virent is a start-up firm founded by Randy Cortright after he and other scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison invented a chemical process for converting the sugar contained in corn plants into hydrogen. The process, known as aqueous phase reforming, is linked to the grid thanks to a financial contribution and participation of Madison Gas & Electric Co., the electric and natural gas utility that serves Madison and parts of Dane County. The system that's up and running is producing 10 kilowatts of electricity -- enough to power about five Madison homes for a year, said Dave Toso, senior engineer at MG&E. Cortright, Virent's chief technical officer, said the launch of the electrical generator is a key step for the company, which hopes to develop an even better system for use in a variety of applications, whether filling hydrogen-powered vehicles or powering homes through a portable generator. The company opted to use glycerol, a byproduct from the production of biodiesel, as the source rather than a corn-based sugar, Apfelbach said. The system uses natural gas briefly to start the four-cylinder engine, the same kind found in a Ford Focus. The engine then provides the heat to enable the chemical process that creates a hydrogen gas that in turn runs the engine and delivers power to the grid. "It's really a hydrogen or fuel gas generator that is much more efficient and emissions-friendly than anything that's available," he said. The company hopes to sell an updated version of its system for use in a hydrogen-fuel filling station for hydrogen-powered cars, and another for use in making hydrogen for industrial settings, he said.
02/11/06 - Rejuvenating Capitalism
By now in your economic life, you should have figured out that the relative health of the US economy (and by extension, the US's position as a global superpower) depends on American consumers consuming more and more something. Capitalism is a "grow or die" economic system. The economy has previously experienced spurts of growth from innovation starting with trains, automobiles, and then airplanes and space projects. Growth has come from radio, television, and more recently, the internet. And let's not leave out the Housing Bubble. But at some point, the economic stimulative effects of each of these "innovations" wears off. Take the events of 9/11 (whether you think they were manufactured or not) and the result explosion not of subsequent terrorist events, but rather the explosion in supposedly beneficial economic impacts of fighting terror. Everywhere I look, I see terror as a great economic engine released by 9/11. TSA employs more people. Research is poured into security devises, and the list grows daily. Extra cops for airport shifts. Dog trainers. Face recognition software, biometrics... When you read Rogers' work thoughtfully, you begin to appreciate that government, being in a hard spot, consciously or otherwise, needed an instant industry in 2001 to keep the paper-based economic game going - and false flag or genuine, it makes no difference the source of terror - because it's the economic effects that are critical to our lives. Try looking at the "new anti-terror industries" as growth engines to keep the general economy from imploding. In order words, what the "poor folk" needed was jobs - which "terror" generically produces as the State expands its powers. The result of the innovation (e.g. terror) is that it provides the thousands of jobs in "security" (baggage screeners, more cops at the airport), first adopted by people who were relatively better off (the class of business travelers), and the socioeconomic gap widens - precisely as we're seeing today.
02/11/06 - Sharing US oil royalties
The U.S. government should share more of the royalties it collects from energy companies for offshore oil and natural gas drilling with the states, particularly to help rebuild hurricane-ravaged Louisiana, a top Shell Oil executive said on Friday. Gulf Coast states that have offshore drilling collect royalties for oil and gas production in the their waters which usually extend only a few miles from shore. Any exploration beyond that is in federal waters, where the government collects royalties that go to the general treasury to pay for various programs benefiting the whole country. Marvin Odum, who is responsible for Shell's energy exploration and production businesses in the United States and the rest of the North and South America, said he supports efforts by the Gulf Coast states and local communities to get some of the federal oil and gas revenue.
02/11/06 - Redirecting public attention
(Other governments now copy Bush when he drums up concern for one thing to deflect attention away from another that he can't justify, such as the illegal wiretapping of the populace. - JWD) For those who found it suspicious that five-month old Mohammed cartoons would suddenly cause such commotion just as the United States is building a case for invading Iran, the news makes more than a little sense. The "spontaneous riots" seemed to have everything going in their favor, including busloads of Syrian protesters and a huge supply of Danish flags for burning. "Now while the Arab Islamic population was going crazy over the outrage created by their government's media over these cartoons, their governments was benefiting from its people's distraction," the blogger wrote. "The Saudi royal Family used it to distract its people from the outrage over the Hajj stampede. The Jordanian government used it to distract its people from their new minimum wage law demanded by their labor unions. The Syrian Government used it to create secterian division in Lebanon and change the focus on the Hariri murder. And, finally, the Egyptian government is using it to distract us while it passes through the new Judiciary reforms and Social Security Bill- which will cut over $300 million dollars in benefits to some of Egypt's poorest families." According to another blogger who scanned the allegedly inflammatory images, "The Egyptian paper criticized the bad taste of the cartoons but it did not incite hatred protests, so what is happening now?"
02/11/06 - Meyers 'Power from the Air' Patent Found!
(Another discovery of 'lost' information by Bob Nelson of Rex Research. - JWD) The "absorber" consists of a series of magnetized steel plates set in a circle (the manner of preparing them is kept secret) and this mechanism attracts the electricity for the atmosphere. This is carried by wires to a transformer in the engine house below and thence is applied to produce either power or light after the usual manner. In an authorized statement Meyers says: "The flow of electricity is constant. When it emerges into the transformer it is in the form of a direct current. It will absorb the electricity day and night and will work whenever the wireless will work. I can put up a plant to such a building as the Adams Hotel for about $1500, and one of the principal items of the expense is the cost of the towers, the wires, the magnetizing f one set of plates, which is part of the secret of the secret of the treatment which makes it respond to the accumulations of the atmosphere. British (GB) Patent # 191301098 - the present invention is distinguished from all such apparatus as has heretofore been employed for attracting static charges by the fact that this improved apparatus is not designed or employed to produce or generate irregular, fluctuating or other electrical charges which lack constancy, but on the other hand I have by actual test been able to produce from a very small apparatus at comparatively low elevation, say about 50 or 60 feet above the earth’s surface, a substantially constant current at a commercially usable voltage and amperage. This current I ascertained by repeated tests is capable of being readily increased by additions of the unit elements in the apparatus hereinafter set forth, and I am convinced from the constancy of the current obtained and its comparatively low potential that the current is dynamic and not static, although, of course, it is not impossible that certain static discharges occur... The invention more specifically comprises the employment of a magnet or magnets and a co-operating element, such as zinc disposed adjacent to the magnet or magnets and connected in such manner and arranged relative to the earth so as to produce current, my observation being that current is produced only when such magnets have their poles facing substantially to the north and south and the zincs are disposed substantially along the magnets.
02/10/06 - 'Sonofication' - Using Sound To Monitor Network Anomalies
"This brings to mind the quote by Igor Stravinsky who said that 'architecture is frozen music,'" said Stacey Quandt, research director of security solutions and services at U.S. consultancy Aberdeen Group. SIC, which stands for "Information in Music," provides a way for network managers to monitor their servers Relevant Products/Services from HP and data pipes for intrusion attacks, spam, or glitches, according to Professor Bill Farkas, project leader and Telecommunications Technology Program coordinator at Sheridan. ISIC uses mathematics to turn network or server behavior into music. "The generic term for this is 'sonofication,' the process of taking information of any kind and turning it into sound," Farkas said. A particular kind of event, such as spam, will have a particular type of music associated with it. "Music is a good medium for monitoring networks because it is pervasive, and people are used to listening to music in the background. Monitoring is about looking for patterns, and music basically consists of patterns." How do you compress multiple data items into a sound that the human ear can hear, and how does the human ear figure out what is the anomalous reading?" Quandt asked. "A system administrator could use ISIC as a single background channel for a 'compile' job and, if it goes bad, there would be a warning noise, but again this would be application-specific."
02/10/06 - Wave Hub central power for wave generators
Wave Hub will be an offshore facility for the testing and operation of wave energy generation devices, giving manufacturers a "plug-and-play" system to demonstrate how well their hydrokinetic energy generators work. This combines a couple of trends we've been watching for awhile: the growth of wave/tidal/ocean power as a viable renewable energy technology; and the emergence of green technologies as a path for regional differentiation and growth. The Wave Hub aims to create the world's first wave energy farm off the coast of Cornwall by building an electrical 'socket' on the seabed around 10 miles out to sea and connected to the National Grid via an underwater cable.
02/10/06 - The car that makes its own fuel
A unique system that can produce Hydrogen inside a car using common metals such as Magnesium and Aluminum was developed by an Israeli company. The system solves all of the obstacles associated with the manufacturing, transporting and storing of hydrogen to be used in cars. When it becomes commercial in a few years time, the system will be incorporated into cars that will cost about the same as existing conventional cars to run, and will be completely emission free. IsraCast recently covered the idea developed at the Weizmann Institute to use pure Zinc to produce Hydrogen using solar power. Now, a different solution has been developed by an Israeli company called Engineuity. Amnon Yogev, one of the two founders of Engineuity, and a retired Professor of the Weizmann Institute, suggested a method for producing a continuous flow of Hydrogen and steam under full pressure inside a car. This method could also be used for producing hydrogen for fuel cells and other applications requiring hydrogen and/or steam. The Hydrogen car Engineuity is working on will use metals such as Magnesium or Aluminum which will come in the form of a long coil. The gas tank in conventional vehicles will be replaced by a device called a Metal-Steam combustor that will separate Hydrogen out of heated water. The basic idea behind the technology is relatively simple: the tip of the metal coil is inserted into the Metal-Steam combustor together with water where it will be heated to very high temperatures. The metal atoms will bond to the Oxygen from the water, creating metal oxide. As a result, the Hydrogen molecules are free, and will be sent into the engine alongside the steam. The solid waste product of the process, in the form of metal oxide, will later be collected in the fuel station and recycled for further use by the metal industry. Refuelling the car based on this technology will also be remarkably simple. The vehicle will contain a mechanism for rolling the metal wire into a coil during the process of fuelling and the spent metal oxide, which was produced in the previous phase, will be collected from the car by vacuum suction. The move to Hydrogen based cars using Engineuity's technology will require only relatively minor changes from the car manufacturer's point of view. Since the modified engine can be produced using existing production lines, removing the need for investment in new infrastructures (the cost of which is estimated at billions of dollars), the new Hydrogen cars would not be more expensive. Although Engineuity's Hydrogen car will not be very different from existing conventional cars, the company is not currently planning an upgrade kit for existing cars but is concentrating on building a system that will be incorporated into new car models.
02/10/06 - Smart Lenses tuned to your eye for Super Vision
"Theoretically, this should be able to double the distance that a person can see clearly," (Blum) says... Technicians scan the eyeball with an aberrometer -- a device that measures aberrations that can impede vision -- and then the pixels are programmed to correct the irregularities. Traditional glasses correct lower-order aberrations like nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatisms. PixelOptics' lenses handle higher-order aberrations that are much more difficult to detect and correct. Thanks to technologies created for astronomical telescopes and spy satellites, aberrometers can map a person's eye with extreme accuracy. Lasers bounce off the back of the eyeball, and structures in the eye scatter the resulting beam of light. Software reads the scattered beam and creates a map of the patient's eye, including tiny abnormalities such as bumps, growths and valleys. The pixelated eyeglass lens is then tuned to refract light in a way that corrects for those high-level aberrations.
02/10/06 - Howard Johnson's 'The Secret World of Magnets'
Did you know that a magnet can fire a burst of energy a couple of hundred times stronger than its base strength? Again and again. Did you know that similar magnetic poles often attract, not repel? Did you know that the popular belief that the patterns formed by iron filings round a magnet bear little resemblance to the force fields, which are actually spinning vortices? In fact the only thing the iron filings show is what little pieces of magnets do in magnetic fields. In 1970, Howard Johnson, one of the true pioneers in the field of magnetism research, and unofficial "father of spintronics" published a 54 page book entitled "Discovering Magnetism." Modestly priced at $25 (U.S. shipping), this book is suitable for anyone of any age who is interested in magnets, and can be ordered at http://cheniere.org/books/HoJo/index.html (via zpenergy.com)
02/10/06 - Scientists develop new inexpensive technology to produce hydrogen
By mimicking a protein found in nature and putting it to work, a group of scientists in Montana and New York is looking at producing alternative fuel using inexpensive sources and a unique chemical reaction. The invention is aimed at producing hydrogen as a fuel using inexpensive ingredients, although the inventors say more development is needed. This invention--a hydrogen production reactor--would use organic acids or ethanol and water along with either the naturally occurring protein or a synthetic equivalent to create hydrogen. "In principle, this is an incredibly efficient, renewable, environmentally friendly source of hydrogen," Douglas said. The scientists face hurdles, however, before the invention can supply fuel. One involves getting enough of the protein, which the scientists have learned how to make in the laboratory, to drive large-scale energy production. But the invention is far enough along, Douglas said, to interest potential fuel manufacturers. Commercial challenges exist as well, including the lack of a hydrogen-fuel infrastructure to support large-scale distribution and usage similar to that for petroleum fuels. But Douglas said once hydrogen reactors are commonplace, a hydrogen distribution and usage system is likely to follow.
02/10/06 - US plans massive data sweep
Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. Will it go too far? The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity. By delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy. Without oversight and accountability, critics say, even well-intentioned counterterrorism programs could experience mission creep, having their purview expanded to include non- terrorists - or even political opponents or groups. "The development of this type of data-mining technology has serious implications for the future of personal privacy," says Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. While privacy laws do place some restriction on government use of private data - such as medical records - they don't prevent intelligence agencies from buying information from commercial data collectors. Congress has done little so far to regulate the practice or even require basic notification from agencies, privacy experts say. Indeed, even data that look anonymous aren't necessarily so. For example: With name and Social Security number stripped from their files, 87 percent of Americans can be identified simply by knowing their date of birth, gender, and five-digit Zip code, according to research by Latanya Sweeney, a data-privacy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.
02/10/06 - Inventor discovers better way to desalinate water
"Our process will work especially well with brines holding salt concentrations above 5.5 percent," Sirkar said. Currently, 5.5 percent is the highest percentage of salt in brine that can be treated using reverse osmosis. "We especially like our new process because we can fuel it with low grade, inexpensive waste heat," Sirkar said. "Cheap heat costs less, but can heat brine efficiently." The science behind Sirkar's membrane distillation process is simple. The inexpensive fuel heats the water forcing it to evaporate from the salt solution. The cleansed vapor then travels through nano-sized pore in the membrane to wind up condensed in the cold water on the membrane's other side. "The basic principles of membrane separation have been known for a long time," said Sirkar. "Intestines in animals and humans are semi-permeable membranes. Early experiments to study the process of separation were performed by chemists using samples of animal membranes." Today, membrane separation processes depend on the design of the membrane and the membrane module. The size of the pores is often key to determining which molecular components in either a liquid or gas form will pass through the membrane. Typically molecules flow from a region of high to low concentration. Pressure or concentration differences on both sides of the membrane cause the actual separation to occur. As pore size decreases, the membrane's efficiency and selectivity increases. Membrane separation processes are used in biomedical, biotechnology, chemical, food, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and water treatment industries to separate/purify/concentrate liquid solutions or cellular suspensions or gaseous mixtures. Typically Sirkar works with miniscule membranes, smaller in size than nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Although Sirkar has no crystal ball, he envisions many future applications for his process. "Desalinating seawater to stimulate economic development and create potable water always has an attentive audience," he said.
02/09/06 - Printed solar cells almost ready
By next year, Stanbery predicts, HelioVolt will have its solar-generating technology embedded into building products such as metal roofs, skylights, exterior glass and curtain walls. The company has built a prototype product, which helped secure funding, but it isn't disclosing its identity or which products it will launch first. But the goal is to literally create "power buildings." The company's backers say HelioVolt could revolutionize the industry by turning parts of a building into a power generator and do it more efficiently and at a lower cost than traditional solar technology: the bulky panels found on some rooftops. HelioVolt bypasses silicon, the standard base material used in solar cells, in favor of a copper indium gallium selenide-based manufacturing process known as CIGS. HelioVolt places the chemicals on plates - the process resembles a high-tech printing press - squeezes them together and rapidly heats the materials. The resulting product can be made part of metals, plastic or glass, among other materials. The result is a "platform" technology that can be adapted to countless types of materials, Stanbery says. And because it's high-volume manufacturing, the cost per unit will be well below that of traditional solar manufacturing, he adds. Solar and the entire renewables industry will be helped by continued uncertainty about the price of oil and natural gas. "The cost of sunlight is not going up, and the cost of converting sunlight into power is going down - or at least it will," Stanbery says.
02/09/06 - Hotel Mezzanine uses ecologically sound practices in Tulum, Mexico
Grey waters from showers, sinks and the kitchen are filtered through pipes then pumped out to water the gardens throughout Mezzanine’s property. Black water from toilets are also processed on site and kept separate from grey waters in a three-stage septic tank. Once waste has passed through all three chambers of the natural septic tank it passes into the wetlands area, a cement box-type tank filled with gravel that is planted with lush broad leafed plants such as banana palms which feed on the water, break down the nitrates and then evaporate the water harmlessly into the environment through transpiration. When it comes to power, all electricity used at Mezzanine is generated on site. Thanks to the searing Caribbean sun and sea breezes, solar and wind energy charge a large battery bank that powers the restaurant, lights, stereo system, water pumps and even the pool pump (which runs at least six hours a day). To supplement natural sources of electricity, a small propane generator runs three to four hours each night when all the lights are on. What they’ve created is a mini ecosystem that cleanses and reuses Tulum’s natural resources instead of draining them. “We like the idea of contributing to the positive upkeep of Tulum’s surrounding area," says Leach. "We feel responsible for maintaining the beauty around us and have the peace of mind in knowing our practices are leaving a minimum impact while maximizing people’s vacation experiences.”
02/09/06 - Hybrids in Competition
The automotive universe is expanding in all directions, particularly on the technology front. By far the most prevalent technological direction, however, is the move toward more hybrid-electric vehicles - small and large. Once thought dead, pure electrics are enjoying renewed interest in many parts of the world, thanks in large part to advancements in lithium-ion battery technology. Subaru is showing a subcompact electric car concept said to be fully rechargeable in five minutes and with enough range for a typical daily commute. DaimlerChrysler's GEM division is the market leader in neighbourhood electric vehicles (NEVs), which are becoming increasingly popular in gated communities in the U.S. GEM displayed a new five-passenger NEV. Plenty of work is being done to keep IC powerplants competitive in fuel economy and emissions and to broaden the range of fuels they can burn. A trend toward more transmission gear ratios continues, with both Toyota's new Camry and Ford's Edge offering six-speed automatics.
02/09/06 - Follow the money - the secret corporate funding behind health research
Set yourself up with a high profile name, quoted often in the media, then use that notoriety to get funding under veiled threats. Academics and the media have failed dismally to ask the crucial question of scientists' claims: who is paying you? Arise, founded in 1988, seems to have been active until 2004. It described itself as "a worldwide association of eminent scientists who act as independent commentators". Its purpose, these eminent scientists said, was to show how "everyday pleasures, such as eating chocolate, smoking, drinking tea, coffee and alcohol, contribute to the quality of life". The "health police", as Arise sometimes called them, could be causing more harm than good. Arise received an astonishing amount of coverage. Between September 1993 and March 1994, for example, it generated 195 newspaper articles and radio and television interviews, in places such as the Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune, the Independent, the Evening Standard, El País, La Repubblica, Rai and the BBC. Much of this coverage resulted from a Mori poll, called Naughty but Nice, that Arise claimed to have commissioned, into the guilty pleasures people enjoyed most. A recently released memo showed that in the previous financial year Arise had received $373,400: $2,000 from Coca-Cola, $900 from other firms and the rest - over 99% - from Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, RJ Reynolds and Rothmans. In 1994-95 its budget would be $773,750. Rothmans and RJ Reynolds had each committed to provide $200,000, and BAT "has also shown interest". She suggested that Philip Morris put up $300,000. Then the memo becomes even more interesting. "The previous 'Naughty but Nice' Mori poll proved to be very effective in getting wide media coverage. How much more science is being published in academic journals with undeclared interests like these? How many more media campaigns against "overregulation", the "compensation culture" or "unfounded public fears" have been secretly funded and steered by corporations? How many more undeclared recipients of corporate money have been appearing on the Today programme, providing free public relations for their sponsors?
02/09/06 - MIRAGE - Air Force Aims for Weather Control
Someday the U.S. military could drive a trailer to a spot just beyond insurgent fighting and, within minutes, reconfigure part of the atmosphere, blocking an enemy's ability to receive satellite signals, even as U.S. troops are able to see into the area with radar. An engineer with Research Support Instruments in Princeton, N.J. recently completed the first phase of work for a U.S. Air Force sponsored project called Microwave Ionosphere Reconfiguration Ground based Emitter, or Mirage. The work involves using plasma - an ionized gas - to reconfigure the ionosphere. Mirage would employ a microwave transmitter on the ground and a small rocket that shoots chaff into the air to produce about a liter of plasma at 60-100 km. (36- 60 mi.) in altitude, changing the number of electrons in a select area of the ionosphere to create a virtual barrier. Ionosphere reconfiguration offers two major applications of interest to the military: bouncing radars off the ionosphere, also known as over-the-horizon radar, and the ability to jam signals from the Global Positioning Satellite system, according to John Kline, the lead investigator for Mirage.In the past, NASA's fringe science arm has looked into tweaking Mother Nature, to throw hurricanes off their course. But those were just computer simulations. No one actually tried to go out a build some weather control machine.
02/09/06 - Battery Brain for commercial trucks
Smart Energy Solutions has introduced Battery Brain, a device that the company says is designed to make sure a battery always has enough power to start a vehicle’s motor. The device attaches to the vehicle’s battery and uses advanced electronics and software to continuously monitor the charge strength of the battery. “If the charge drops below a pre-programmed level, Battery Brain automatically cuts off power to anything draining the battery, ensuring that there is enough charge remaining to start the engine,” Levinas said. The device will work on commercial trucks, he said. Levinas said Battery Brain can be used for any engine with a conventional lead-acid battery and in most cases can be installed by any do-it-yourselfer or professional mechanic in a matter of minutes using the vehicle’s existing battery cables. “Should Battery Brain need to disconnect power due to excess drain, all it takes is a simple push down on the device’s reset control knob to start the engine at which point the electric generator or alternator will recharge the battery,” he said, adding that the Battery Brain III model comes with a remote control device to restart the battery, without having to lift the hood of the car. The basic model retails for $39.95, and the Battery Brain III with remote control and anti-theft feature for $69.95.
02/09/06 - Aesthetics and sound pollution worries stop Energy Independence efforts
Talib's plan is generating static from neighbors and city officials leery of a five-story structure in the neighborhood. He's got to convince them the slender, mast-like 55 foot tall wind generator won't be an eyesore. That's the height of the windmill he wants to erect at a home he's building in Victoria Park. The windmill, along with solar cells, solar water heater and other modifications, should allow the Fort Lauderdale architect to declare energy independence. The windmill is just one energy-saving device Talib envisions for his $1 million-plus home on Victoria Terrace. There's special insulation, and a custom design that ensures open areas are shaded. He's putting a large solar water heater on his roof, as well as photovoltaic, or PV, solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity. The PV panels will directly power low amperage items such as lights, televisions and computers, and store the electricity in batteries when those items are not in use. The windmill's six-foot blades will do the heavy duty, propelling a turbine that sends electricity earthward to run the demanding air conditioning system and power-hungry appliances like refrigerators. Extra wattage will be stored in batteries, and can even be sold back to Florida Power & Light. Talib is prepared to spend almost $60,000 on energy-producing features, including about $25,000 on the windmill. He feels he's financially fit enough to pay for energy freedom -- and figures on pocketing the roughly $6,000 a year he would have paid in electric bills for his new home. Should the city board deny Talib's windmill, his only option to contest the decision is to sue in Circuit Court. Either way, Talib is content to see the issue aired publicly.
02/09/06 - Safe Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactor being built in South Africa
Next year the Republic of South Africa will begin on-site construction of the first Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR)-a revolutionary nuclear power source which South Africa's Minister of Public Enterprises calls "the perfect nuclear technology for Africa and the developing countries." With the PBMR, South Africa has taken the leading edge in fourth-generation nuclear technology, combining extraordinary simplicity, robustness, and "inherent safety" with the capability to produce high-temperature heat for the production of hydrogen-based fuels and other industrial processes, as well as cheap electricity. The electricity-producing version of the PBMR already has a large customer in the South African power company, Eskom, which is committed to purchasing a total of at least 4,000 megawatts-electric of PBMR capacity, as the spearhead of its modernizing and expansion program for power production. However, in the future, the process-heat application may be even more interesting, not least of all for hydrogen production. PBMR is already planning to construct a second demonstration plant that will demonstrate the process-heat capability.
02/09/06 - Developing superconductor motors for all electric vehicles
Two funding award, the former of which was awarded through the U.S. Army for an integrated starter/generator for hybrid powertrain military vehicles, apply to the company’s Applied Technology division, which has been working on new superconducting technologies with the goals of improving efficiency, reducing size and reducing cost when compared with competing superconducting machinery technologies. The most recent award, which uses modified, off-the-shelf cryo-cooler technology and conventional drive technology, is initially targeted as a propulsion motor for unmanned, all-electric aircraft, but the technology is also suitable for hybrid electric aircraft as a main superconducting generator. The system also has future applications in the marine sector, as generators or propulsion motors, according to the company. SatCon plans to collaborate with cryogenics systems’ experts at MIT to help develop the superconducting propulsion motor, according to the company.
02/09/06 - Aqua Dyne Tests Solar-powered Mine Water Desalination
Aqua Dyne received approval to deploy component modules of the JetWater Thermal Desalination system to a site adjacent to Lake Liddell in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. The JetWater Thermal module will be tested and monitored over a three-month trial program. The module will be connected to a solar energy system developed and supplied by Solar Heat & Power Pty Ltd of Singleton, NSW Australia. The flexibility of the Aqua Dyne JetWater system design allows it to be used for a wide range of desalination requirements ranging from seawater, brackish groundwater and remediation of industrial wastewater, as well as the ability to co-generate with a variety of industrial plant and equipment. Research indicates that solar collecting panels of 1000 square meters in area are required to produce 1/2 megaliter of desalinated water per day. Surplus steam can be produced to run a generator capable of producing sufficient electricity for mine use or sold onto the grid. In the western U.S., according to the release, the Forest Service estimates that between 20,000 and 50,000 mines are currently generating acid on Forest Service lands, and that drainage from these mines is impacting between 8,000 and 16,000 kilometers of streams (U.S. Forest Service 1993). In addition to the acid contamination to surface waters, acid mine drainage (AMD) may cause metals such as arsenic, cadmium, copper, silver, and zinc to leach from mine wastes. The Solar / Thermal JetWater system will demonstrate an environmental and economically sustainable solution to remediate wastewater streams.
02/08/06 - New Compound kills ALL AIDS viruses
Researchers believe they have found a new compound that could finally kill the HIV/AIDS virus, not just slow it down as current treatments do. While most of the community is still hesitant to comment on this until it passes peer review, initial results show that their method attacks and kills ALL variations of the virus. A fast track through the FDA could have one of the world's leading problems licked in less than a decade.
02/08/06 - Nanoscientists fired up about battery alternative
Capacitors store energy as an electrical field, making them more efficient than standard batteries, which get their energy from chemical reactions. Ultracapacitors are capacitor-based storage cells that provide quick, massive bursts of instant energy. They are sometimes used in fuel-cell vehicles to provide an extra burst for accelerating into traffic and climbing hills. However, ultracapacitors need to be much larger than batteries to hold the same charge. The LEES invention would increase the storage capacity of existing commercial ultracapacitors by storing electrical fields at the atomic level. Although ultracapacitors have been around since the 1960s, they are relatively expensive and only recently began being manufactured in sufficient quantities to become cost-competitive. Today you can find ultracapacitors in a range of electronic devices, from computers to cars. The LEES ultracapacitor has the capacity to overcome this energy limitation by using vertically aligned, single-wall carbon nanotubes - one thirty-thousandth the diameter of a human hair and 100,000 times as long as they are wide. How does it work? Storage capacity in an ultracapacitor is proportional to the surface area of the electrodes. Today's ultracapacitors use electrodes made of activated carbon, which is extremely porous and therefore has a very large surface area. However, the pores in the carbon are irregular in size and shape, which reduces efficiency. The vertically aligned nanotubes in the LEES ultracapacitor have a regular shape, and a size that is only several atomic diameters in width. The result is a significantly more effective surface area, which equates to significantly increased storage capacity.
02/08/06 - Hydrogen-Powered Honda FCX Going Into Production
Honda previously introduced the FCX-V4 of which a portion of 30 examples found their way into government fleets and at least one famiy, but the packaging solutions Honda has developed for hydrogen storage as well as their clever Home Energy Station, alleviating the need for widespread hydrogen refilling stations on the road, point the way around many of the obstacles, or detours, on the road to the hydrogen highway and zero-emission culture of the future. Many of the advancements with the new FCX center around Honda’s V Flow fuel cell platform. The cells are stacked vertically in the center tunnel and arranged in a vertebral layout (think of it as though the stacks are your backbones if you are lying on your back) for higher efficiency packaging as well as more efficient management of gas flow (from top to bottom). Another breakthrough was in the realm of storage, and with a newly developed higher absorption material in the tanks which allowed Honda to double storage capacity. The FCX can achieve a real-world driving range of over 500 km (350 miles). The fuel cells work by collecting energy from the conversion of hydrogen and oxygen into water, which gives off electricity. In the case of the FCX, the energy is then fed to three efficient motors, two compact 25kW motors in each of the rear wheels and a larger energy-efficient 80kW motor in the front. The three motors combine to make a total of 100kW, and the primary emission is water, which flows through those vertical stacks more easily than the usual horizontal arrangements.
02/08/06 - Grapes Prolong Life
An organic compound found in grapes, berries and some nuts extended the life span of fish in a recent study. Nothobranchius furzeri lives an average of nine weeks in captivity but lacing its food with resveratrol boosted longevity by more than 50 percent. Previous research had shown that resveratrol prolongs the life span of yeast and insects, but this study marks the first proof of its antiaging effects in a vertebrate. Neuroscientist Alessandro Cellerino and his colleagues at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, tested different doses of the compound on more than 150 fish. Thirty fish received a small dose in their regular food, 60 received a medium dose and 20 received a large helping; meanwhile, 47 control fish enjoyed their insect larvae meals sans resveratrol. The control and low-dose fish saw no benefits, but even the fish who received only a middling amount of the compound lived up to 27 percent longer.
02/08/06 - Energy Storage - Supporting Greater Wind Energy Usage
Coupling energy storage technologies with wind turbines can solve many of wind power’s operational issues and support the continued expansion of wind energy production. It should be noted that many types of renewable energy production already benefits from energy storage technologies. By decoupling the production and delivery of energy from renewable resources, storage technologies can make the generated energy more useful and more valuable. A number of energy storage technologies are currently in use or being evaluated for use in conjunction with renewable energy resources. Some of these technologies include: * Flywheels: Flywheels store energy in a rotating mass of either steel of composite material. Through the use of a motor/generator, energy can be cycled (absorbed and then discharged) a great many times without reducing the life-span of the device. By increasing the surface speed of the flywheel, the energy storage capacity (kWh) of the unit can be increased; by increasing the size of the motor/generator, the power (kW) of the unit can be increased. * Flow Batteries: Flow batteries store energy in charged electrolytes and utilize proton exchange membranes similar to fuel cells. By flowing the (charged or uncharged) electrolytes through the cell, energy can be cycled through the unit. By adding additional electrolyte, the energy storage capacity (kWh) of the unit can be increased; by increasing the number of cells, the power (kW) of the unit can be increased. * Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES): CAES facilities store energy in compressed air held in underground chambers. These facilities charge (compress the air) the cavern at night with low cost system power; this air is then used as input for a gas turbine during peak price periods during the day, allowing all of the energy output to generate energy instead of compressing air in pre-combustion. By increasing the volume of air in the underground chamber, the energy storage capacity (kWh) of the unit can be increased; by increasing size of the compressor and turbine, the power (kW) of the unit can be increased.
02/08/06 - Whirlpool bathtubs breeding ground for Bacteria
A study by a Texas A&M University microbiologist shows that whirlpool bathtubs can literally be a breeding ground for dozens of types of bacteria, many of them potential pathogens, and such water can be a ground zero for infectious diseases. Microbiologist Rita B. Moyes tested 43 water samples from whirlpool bathtubs - both private and public ones - and found that all 43 had bacterial growth ranging from mild to red-level dangerous. A whopping 95 percent showed the presence of fecal derived bacteria, while 81 percent had fungi and 34 percent contained staphylococcus, which can cause deadly staph infections. "The main reason is the lining of the pipes. They are full of inaccessible air, and water in these pipes tends to get trapped, often for long periods of time. When the jets are then switched on, this water with harmful bacteria gets blown into the tub where a person is soaking and then trouble can start." To get some idea of how much bacteria are in whirlpool tub pipes, Moyes says that a normal teaspoon of tap water contains an average of about 138 bacteria, with many samples not having any bacteria at all. But the same teaspoon of whirlpool tub water contains an average of more than 2.17 million bacteria. "The stagnant water in a whirlpool bathtub pipe is a great place for bacteria to grow and grow," Moyes says. She adds that such harmful bacteria can lead to numerous diseases, among them urinary tract infections, septicemia, pneumonia and several types of skin infections. Because of the aerosol mist created by the whirlpool action, microbes are forced into the lungs or open cuts, she explains. One type of bacteria, L. pneumophila, can cause Legionnaires Disease, of which 90 percent of all cases can be traced back to bacteria developed from a warm environment. "The best way to prevent such bacteria from forming is to clean out the pipes," she adds. "The pipes in a whirlpool bathtub need to be scraped and cleaned just like you need to brush your teeth with toothpaste." The lesson learned: Enter a whirlpool bathtub at your own risk, and it may be a considerable one.
02/08/06 - Human waste detrimental to plants
Faeces from healthy humans contains live viruses, most of which are plant viruses that could sicken and deform plants, an international study shows. Collected water, otherwise known as reclaimed or grey water, may also contain deadly plant viruses. The researchers say the viruses we pass probably do not harm us and airborne transmission is unlikely. Instead, the viruses probably hitch a ride through the human body via food, even when the food is cooked or dried. "The fact that we could detect plant viruses in mixtures of foods consumed by the [study] donors suggests that the plant viruses found in human faeces originate from our food," says Mya Breitbart, one of the study's authors, a San Diego State University biologist. The virus might even multiply in the human gut, the researchers say, as the amount in the faeces was more than the virus load measured in food. The scientists analysed in detail the faeces from two of the test subjects, who came from San Diego, and were able to identify 36,769 RNA virus sequences representing 35 known plant viruses, two animal viruses, one yeast virus and four bacteria. One of the animal viruses is linked to diarrhoea, while the other, Moloney murine leukaemia virus, has been linked to cancer in humans and animals. Some 24 of the identified plant viruses are known to harm consumable crops, including fruits, vegetables, tobaccos and cereals. "I am not aware of any cases where a plant virus has mutated into a virus that caused harm to humans. However, it is important to understand and characterise the viruses that are present in the guts of healthy humans in order to understand what is happening in the case of disease," Breitbart says.
02/08/06 - Halliburtons government funded USA Concentration Camps
The New York Time reports the Bush administration's Homeland Security Department has given an open-ended contract worth $385 million dollars to Halliburton's KBR division ... to build U.S. prisons for immigrants and disaster victims. "The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs," Halliburton announced in a Jan. 24 press release. Just what sort of "new programs" would require jailing immigrants and disaster victims has not been made public. But in 2002, attorney general John Ashcroft announced his intention to build "enemy combatant" camps for U.S. citizens. "Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants," the Los Angeles Times reported. "The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. In the event of a natural disaster, the contractor could be tasked with providing housing for ICE personnel performing law enforcement functions in support of relief efforts." The location of the new prisons is a secret. "If, for example, there were some sort of upheaval in another country that would cause mass migration, that's the type of situation that this contract would address," Jamie Zuieback of U.S. Immigration and Customs told the San Bernardino Sun. Halliburton, which was run by Dick Cheney until he became vice president in 2001, has earned billions through contracts awarded by the White House. The company's no-bid contracts in Iraq and in hurricane-torn Louisiana have been attacked by the Government Accountability Office. The company has been repeatedly caught overcharging the government, doing shoddy work and even feeding rotten food to U.S. troops in Iraq.
02/08/06 - Cannabis cure for coughs
In most countries, using cannabis is likely to land you in trouble with the law. But the stuff has also inspired a cure for coughing fits. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive chemical found in cannabis, has a well known effect on the brain. But it also latches onto the nerve cells in the upper airways of mammals and short-circuits the signals that cause coughing spasms. The US government's National Institute of Health (NIH) has been paying the University of California in Oakland, US, to develop a cough cure based on this effect. Oakland has found that a recently discovered relative of THC - arachidonylethanolamide (anandamide) - can have a similar cough-quelling effect, but without also making users high. Anandamide can be puffed into a person's airways from an aerosol inhaler and latch onto the same nerve cells as THC. But it binds so tightly to the cells that it will not get into the bloodstream. The drug has so far been tested on rats and guinea pigs, which were given the treatment and then sprayed with pepper. Microphones inside the animal's cages counted the coughs - and they were significantly reduced after the aerosol cure was administered.
02/08/06 - Safe Tick Remover minimizes Lyme disease risks
Plastic tool safely twists ticks from skin of humans and other animals. Cool Tools reviews a cheap plastic tool that safely removes one of the foulest creatures God put on earth to make our lives miserable: ticks. The O'TOM® hooks (also marketed in USA under the trademark "TICK-TWISTER®" ) allow tick removal from the skin of animals and people. They are always sold in a two pack (the large hook for the medium and large ticks, the small hook for small and very small ticks) , and are currently the most efficient tools to remove all ticks, any size and location, * without leaving the mouth-parts of the tick planted in the skin * without compressing the abdomen of the ticks, minimizing the transfer agents (Lyme's disease, babesiosis...) * without ether or other products * in a few seconds, without pain. (via boingboing.com)
02/08/06 - New Information - Wesley W. Gary's Magnetic Motor - 2nd Patent!!
(Thanks to Greg Smith for this headsup. - JWD) Mr. Wesley Gary's 1st patent gained the attention of Harper's magazine and an experiment has been developed demonstrating it but it is Gary's 2nd patent (# 190,206), which shows a simple design, easily duplicated. It is as simple as putting 2 permanent magnets facing each other so that they attract then, put a small electromagnet between them, with 2 sets of contacts mounted so that as it approaches either magnet, its poles are reversed and it is repulsed back toward the other. Any oscillating to rotating actuator that can handle the force of the strong permanent magnets will complete the device - and produce a lot of torque! Quote from Patent #190,206 - "The object of my invention is to apply and fully utilize, in an electric motor, the power of permanent magnets, and to develop from them the greater part of the power, so that motors of great power may be actuated by means of small electromagnets, and a correspondingly small expenditure of battery power. This end I attain by arranging two permanent magnets at a short distance apart, with the negative pole of each opposite the positive pole of the other, and then arranging between them an electromagnet attached to the driving mechanism, and connected with an automatic pole changing device, so that the electromagnet is attracted and repelled by the two permanent magnets alternately, one attracting it at the same time that it is repelled by the other. In this way I am enabled to employ constantly and directly the full power of the electromagnet and both permanent magnets. As it makes no difference in the power of the motor whether the force to move the vibrating magnet emanates from permanent or the electromagnet, it is obvious that the same results may be obtained by the use of strong permanent magnets in connection with a weak electromagnet as are obtained by the use of weak permanent magnets and a strong electromagnet, so that on my plan I am enabled to construct motors of large size and power, and operate them with small batteries at a trifling cost."
02/07/06 - Personal Roman Chariot / land surface Pod Racer
(Another hackable fun thing. - JWD) Rollerblading always seems like so much fun when we see people zipping through the Park, but the whole self-propulsion thing kind of turns us off, which is why we've been waiting for a device like the Easy-Glider. Basically an electric motor attached to a wheel attached to a handlebar, the Swiss-made Easy-Glider Deluxe propels whatever its towing with 380 watts of eco-friendly power, and even recharges itself while cruising downhill (probably not fully). The less-athletic among us can decide to forgo the 'blades or skateboard altogether and step up to what we'll call the "touring package," which attaches a small wheeled footbridge to your ride. Prices range from a steep $1,025 for the Standard without footbridge to an even steeper $1,315 for the Deluxe with, not to mention the hefty shipping charge you'll have to pay to import one from Switzerland. (via impactlab.com)
02/07/06 - Orwell 21 years late!
(Thanks to Ross for the update. - JWD) IT took 21 years longer than expected, but the future has finally arrived. And we don't like it. Not one bit. We are fighting a war with no end to create a peace with no defined victory. We occupy a foreign land that doesn't want us, while at home our civil liberties are discounted. We are told that it's better not to know what our government is doing in our name, for security purposes. Meanwhile, our government is becoming omnipresent, spying on us whenever it deems it necessary. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. George Orwell was right after all. In 1949, Orwell penned "1984," a dark, futuristic satire in which the totalitarian government used indoctrination, propaganda and fear to enforce order and conformity. His "Big Brother" - the face of this all-knowing regime - was never wrong, and to make sure of it, history was constantly being rewritten. Orwell wrote his book as a cautionary tale to underscore the insidious danger of slowly eroded individual liberties. His Thought Police may not yet be on the march, but it's not hyperbole to point out the eerie parallels with today's America. In America today, Big Brother is watching.
02/07/06 - Peculiar sounds from Saltwater on Aluminum
(Thanks to JC for the headsup. - JWD) When the aluminum and contact wire above are connected to an audio amplifier, very strange and interesting sounds can be heard. This cell also produces a small voltage and there is generally more activity when R (100k to 1meg) is in the circuit drawing some current. One of the materials tried with the drop of salt water, for photocell action was aluminum (see my article on the homemade photocell). No photocell action was observed with the salt water and aluminum cell but I did hear some very interesting sounds when it was connected to the audio amplifier. What makes these sounds interesting is that they are not just random noise as one might expect. The sounds contain many periodic pulse like tones that vary in pitch.
02/07/06 - Putting out CO2 polluting Coal Fires
Coal fires are underground fires that burn in coal mines and seams. In China alone, they may spew as much CO2 into the atmosphere as all the cars in the US. These fires are exceedingly difficult to put out. Indeed, some well-known ones have been burning for decades. Finding a way to put out coal fires and prevent new ones would seem to me to be an area where new innovation could yield profound benefits for everyone. (via worldchanging.com)
02/07/06 - Arrested for Vegan protest
An undercover DeKalb County Homeland Security detective was assigned to conduct surveillance of the protest and the protestors, and take the photographs. The detective arrested Childs and another protester after he saw Childs approach him and write down, on a piece of paper, the license plate number of his unmarked government car. "They told me if I didn't give over the piece of paper I would go to jail and I refused and I went to jail, and the piece of paper was taken away from me at the jail and the officer who transferred me said that was why I was arrested," Childs said on Wednesday... "We believe that spying on American citizens for no good reason is fundamentally un-American, that it's not the place of the goverment or the best use of resources to spy on its own citizens and we want it to stop. We want the spies in our government to pack their bags, close up their notebooks, take their cameras home and not engage in the spying anymore," Gerald Weber of the ACLU of Georgia said during a news conference. (via boingboing.com)
02/07/06 - Send SnailMail from your eMail or Browser
(US letter from Denver - 0.59 GBP = 1.03149 USD via credit card) Using overseas printing locations, L-Mail is often faster than traditional mail...by days! Keep in touch with friends or family without e-mail. Its easy to use. * You can write a letter from any web browser or your email account worldwide. * Simple secure payment by credit/debit cards. * They print and post your letters for you. * Say goodbye to standing in line at the post office.
02/07/06 - Robot Surgery coming into reality
(Thanks to Jim Day for this headsup. - JWD) Using robots to perform surgery once seemed a futuristic fantasy. Not anymore. An estimated 36,600 robotic procedures will be performed this year-from heart-bypass surgeries to kidney transplants to hysterectomies. That's up nearly 50 percent from last year, and analysts predict the figure will nearly double in 2006 to more than 70,000 procedures. Since the da Vinci was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in July 2000 (the only robotic system to get the FDA nod), about 350 of the units have been purchased, including 30 in the last quarter alone, at about $1.3 million apiece. Surgeons who use the system have found that patients have less blood loss and pain, lower risk of complications, shorter hospital stays and quicker recovery times than those who have open surgery-and even, in many cases, laparoscopic procedures. In a prostatectomy study of 300 patients it was found that those who had open surgery lost five times as much blood, had four times the risk of complications and remained in the hospital more than three times as long as those who had robotic surgery. Robotic-surgery patients had a 14 percent higher rate of cancer removal and, on average, regained urinary function in about a month and a half-four times as fast as open-surgery patients. Also, robotic patients were able to have sexual intercourse again in about 11 months, while half of the open-surgery patients had not regained full sexual function even two years later.
02/07/06 - Calmers
(Taking advantage of the calming effects of a cat purring, this one uses a 2 speed beating heart. Worth hacking, SURE! - JWD) My Beating Heart is a plush heart-shaped pillow that gently beats out a slow, steady heart-like rhythm. When flustered or tensed up at a days labor, a bit of ambient relaxation could be calming. It works -- it really works. The heart has two settings, slow and fast, and both of them calm me down in a way that's comparable to having a purring cat buzzing under your hand (but it's easier to put this $120 My Beating Heart on a shelf for the weekend than it is leaving a cat behind.) (via boingboing.com)
02/07/06 - Balloon/Airship Data Transmitters faster & cheaper than from Satellites
(What if they used Solar powered DeSeversky Ionic platforms that never fail? - JWD) Scientists have for the first time tested a super-fast data downlink provided by a stratospheric balloon floating 24,000 metres above the earth. Such a craft could eventually help provide communications in disaster zones. The cost of the balloon as compared to a satellite was also likely to be attractive. It could be one-tenth that of satellite and one airship can support a user density one thousand times that of a satellite. The 12,000-cubic metre helium balloon sent data to the ground at 1.25 gigabits per second - thousands of times the capacity of a home broadband Internet connection. The airship test by a team of researchers led by Britain’s University of York was conducted in Sweden.
02/07/06 - Way Cool Grocery list Generator using Firefox extension
The Grocery List Generator extension for Firefox stores all your favorite recipes and the ingredients needed to make them, and generates a shopping list for your next trip to the supermarket. Yes, this is a bizarre thing to use your web browser for, but the Grocery List Generator in action works well, especially for those of us who hit up the web for recipe ideas. Enter how many of which dishes you’re planning to cook, and print out a well-formatted list broken down by what store stocks what ingredient before you head out the door. (via lifehacker.com)
02/06/06 - Ultraviolet Lure May Catch Fish's Eye
(Fascinating use of UV light. - JWD) In the ancient struggle between man and fish, man has a new weapon. Forget fancy lures, depth charges or precision casting guns. The new weapon requires vision _ ultraviolet vision. Called Fool-a-Fish, it comes in a bottle that sprays titanium dioxide on fishing lures and bait. The chemical lights up the watery depths like a disco ball, luring fish from half a mile away. "You catch three or four times more fish, and the biggest fish," Jeckle contended. Researchers have discovered that while humans see in three colors _ red, yellow-green and blue _ fish and birds see a fourth color in the ultraviolet range, which shows up as a white glow, Jeckle said. This color is invisible to humans. Working with David Cleary, a chemistry professor at Spokane's Gonzaga University, Jeckle came up with the formula combining titanium dioxide, which is used in sunscreens, and several other chemicals. The whitish liquid dries quickly, and will stay on a lure for some two hours, he said. It is nontoxic, odorless and washes off with soap and water. But underwater it shines like a beacon to fish. Jeckle said many of the spray products currently used to lure fish are scent-based, because fish are known to search for food by smell. "This is based entirely on vision," Jeckle said. "This is a new way to fish." "It's not just blood that attracts sharks," he added. "They can see a swimmer half a mile away." Jeckle makes up batches of Fool-A-Fish in his kitchen. The spray is sold in some outdoor stores in the region, and it can be ordered on Jeckle's Web site. It is also getting written up in fishing magazines. Northwest Angler said the formula "makes it super easy for fish to see lures or baits from great distances." Jeckle has also adapted his formula to produce Fool-A-Bird, which works on a reverse principle. Birds use ultraviolet vision to avoid humans, so Jeckle created a formula that when sprayed on a hunter's clothes, body and gun will absorb ultraviolet rays. "You spray it on yourself and they treat you like a tree trunk or a dead stump," Jeckle said. "They ignore you." Here for more details.
02/06/06 - For oil addicts, switch-grass gas and more
Perhaps he winced at Iran's threat to cut oil exports. Or at a similar Venezuela threat. Or at turmoil in oil exporters Nigeria and Iraq. Or simply at China grabbing every oil patch it can get. But now President Bush has firmly linked US security to its oil addiction. The president may have realized two points: Oil prices are likely to remain permanently high, and America's defense requires it to break its oil addiction, no matter where the world's remaining oil comes from. As the world's largest oil user, the US must reduce oil consumption so that an Iran cannot easily wield an oil card to get a nuclear weapon. Or so a Saudi Arabia cannot allow oil profits to filter to terrorists. Or so a Venezuela can't throw oil money at anti-US regimes. Or so a Russia cannot cut off petroleum exports in a strategic dispute. Or, for that matter, so a hurricane like Katrina can't create an oil price spike. But to replace oil in the US energy mix, government needs to make sure the price of oil products remains high enough, or taxed enough, to help pay for oil alternatives. The switch to other sources will be expensive, and today's oil users must pay for it.
02/06/06 - Google Phishing alarm extension for FireFox
Google Safe Browsing is an extension to Firefox that alerts you if a web page that you visit appears to be asking for your personal or financial information under false pretences. This type of attack, known as phishing or spoofing, is becoming more sophisticated, widespread and dangerous. Safe Browsing is often able to automatically warn you when you encounter a page that's trying to trick you into disclosing personal information. (via tipmonkies.com)
02/06/06 - Marshall, Texas - Patent Pirate Haven
In one federal court in East Texas, plaintiffs have such an easy time winning patent-infringement lawsuits against big-tech companies that defendants often choose to settle rather than fight. East Texas lawyer Michael C. Smith calls it the "rattlesnake speech." It generally occurs in the early stages of a patent trial in the Marshall, TX, courtroom of Judge T. John Ward, when some attorney has failed to read up on the rules specific to litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Like a scene out of the comedy movie "My Cousin Vinny," the speech starts with a polite invitation to approach the bench -- and ends with a stern warning to pick up the pace or else. Judge Ward's toughness is a big reason that Marshall, a city of fewer than 20,000 residents, located 150 miles east of Dallas, has become a destination for patent attorneys around the world. In the rough calculus of intellectual property litigation, tough judges equate with speedy cases -- and that's exactly what you want if you're a plaintiff with limited cash, but potentially big-time settlement payments or damages from a company you claim is infringing on your patent. Throw in an all-digital filing system, to cut down on paperwork, and Proposition 12, a 2003 Texas law that put a cap on pain-and-suffering damages in medical malpractice suits -- thereby encouraging the state's personal injury lawyers to migrate to the greener pastures of intellectual property -- and you have a cottage industry. Patent infringement suits that once loaded down tech-heavy dockets in the Eastern District of Virginia or the Northern District of California now gravitate to a city with more pottery manufacturers than software companies. "It kind of has a legend to it," says Craig Tyler, a partner in the Austin, TX, office of the widely known intellectual property law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and a member of the defense team in the Laser Dynamics case. "When you say 'Marshall, Texas' to your Pacific Rim clients...they know what you're talking about." And their response is rarely a happy one, he adds.
02/06/06 - Ivory Towers versus the real world
(Having experienced the wonderful camaraderie and corps de esprit of interesting discussions with a wide range of fascinating people, lay, civic, professional and academe, I found this article worth posting. - JWD) A great deal of one’s sense of cultural “belonging” was bound up with community institutions - whether that meant a formally established local society for the advancement of learning, or an ad hoc discussion circle warming its collective backside near a stove. Life began to change as, in Bender’s words, “people of ideas were inducted, increasingly through the emerging university system, into the restricted worlds of specialized discourse.” If you said “we,” it probably referred to the community of other geologists, poets, or small-claims litigators. “Knowledge and competence increasingly developed out of the internal dynamics of esoteric disciplines rather than within the context of shared perceptions of public needs,” writes Bender. “This is not to say that professionalized disciplines or the modern service professions that imitated them became socially irresponsible. But their contributions to society began to flow from their own self-definitions rather than from a reciprocal engagement with general public discourse.” In the epilogue to Intellect and Public Life, Bender suggests that the process eventually went too far. “The risk now is precisely the opposite,” he writes. “Academe is threatened by the twin dangers of fossilization and scholasticism (of three types: tedium, high tech, and radical chic). The agenda for the next decade, at least as I see it, ought to be the opening up of the disciplines, the ventilating of professional communities that have come to share too much and that have become too self-referential.” as Bender puts it, cultural life is shaped by “patterns of interaction” that develop over long periods of time. For younger scholars, anyway, the routine give-and-take of online communication (along with the relative ease of linking to documents that support a point or amplify a nuance) may become part of the deep grammar of how they think and argue. And if enough of them become accustomed to discussing their research with people working in other disciplines, who knows what could happen? “What our contemporary culture wants,” as Bender put it in 1993, “is the combination of theoretical abstraction and historical concreteness, technical precision and civic give-and-take, data and rhetoric.” We aren’t there, of course, or anywhere near it. But sometimes it does seem as if there might yet be grounds for optimism.
02/06/06 - Future Transport over the next 50 years
You leave the house, swipe your journey-card across the door of the nearest one-person pod and hop in. While it drives you to work via the least congested route you sit back and dial up the Paris office. The virtual reality goggles make it feel just like you are in the same room. This is one of the scenarios considered by a government thinktank charged with considering the future of UK transport in the next 50 years. It is an attempt to anticipate future transport problems and how to deal with them. If the Chinese population began using cars as much as the average American the country would require 99m barrels of oil a day to run them. World production is currently around 80m barrels. "We can either stumble into the future and just hope it turns out all right or we can try and shape it," said transport minister Stephen Ladyman. Despite its Orwellian overtones, the idea is that knowing where other vehicles are will help you avoid congestion. Each car would be fitted with a tagging device such as a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag. These are chips the size of a grain of rice that send out information when they pass a reader. They are routinely used by retailers, for example, to track stock as it is shipped from one depot to the next. By tracking every vehicle a virtual travel agent could spot traffic trouble spots ahead and route you round them. John Urry, director of the Centre for Mobilities Research at Lancaster University, conjures a vision of a one-person pod car which you rent for each journey. He said between 70% and 80% of car journeys transport just one person, so scaling down cars to the right size for the journey and using lightweight materials would cut emissions and congestion.The Foresight report identifies four future scenarios. They range from a post-energy-shock rural world in which people trade locally and live off the land to a fast-moving, teleconferencing world in which automatic cars have become an extension of the office.
02/06/06 - America's Emergency food supplies
The U.S. has been giving away a lot of food in recent years. So much food, in fact, has America given away that its own emergency food reserves are shockingly low. There was a time, not too long ago, that by law the U.S. government was forced to maintain emergency food provisions for every man, woman and child in the country for three years. That was considered good stewardship through much of the 1960s. It was a program put together by men who read the Bible and recalled the idea Joseph gave the Egyptian Pharoah to avoid famine in the seven lean years. But then the political winds of change began to blow through America. There were calls in Congress to bail out starving nations throughout the world. There were even actions to bail out America's enemies - like the Soviet Union. Within 20 years, the grain elevators were virtually empty - yet the amount of food given away as direct aid to foreign nations continued to increase.
02/06/06 - AOL, Yahoo to Start Charging E-Mail Postage?
You read correctly, though the system will only be used for companies. They will be charged from 1/4 to 1 cent for each email; the email thus paid for will receive preferential treatment. For example, with AOL the email will go straight to inboxes, and not have to pass through any of the spam filters AOL uses. Messages will also be marked as “AOL Certified E-Mail.” Don’t worry, unpaid-for email will still be delivered, but it won’t get this special treatment. AOL and Yahoo will be using Goodmail Systems’ processing system to collect the electronic postage and verify the identity of the sender. AOL will be implementing the system in the next two months, while Yahoo will be trying the system out, and has not yet decided how paid vs. unpaid mail will be treated.
02/06/06 - Green fuel 'not enough' to cut transport pollution
Environmentally friendly vehicles using hydrogen-based fuels and hybrid power sources will have little impact in preventing "dangerous and irreversible pollution" within 15 years, according to a long-delayed government-funded study. Even if green vehicles become commonplace, Britain's seemingly insatiable appetite for travel will cancel out benefits and critically pollute the air, concluded a group of scientists and academics. The work advocates radical measures to change behaviour including lower speed limits, road charging, investment in cycling and even a policy of higher oil prices and "rations" for carbon emissions. It was completed in November but its publication has been delayed by the Department for Transport amid discussions about its content. Prof Banister was asked to consider how Britain could achieve a 60% reduction in carbon emissions from transport by 2030 as part of initiatives to go beyond targets agreed under the Kyoto treaty. The distance travelled by the public is predicted to increase by 35% over the three-decade timeframe of the study. "The problem really is not so much the travel we're doing today but the expected increase by 2030," said Prof Banister. The report recommends car clubs and travel "blending", whereby people are encouraged to combine several trips for different purposes into one journey. It also suggests examination of carbon emissions rations which cannot be exceeded without buying somebody else's share.
02/06/06 - UK Energy bills 'to rocket by 25%'
Gas bills are understood to be set to leap by 25%, thought to be the biggest single increase ever. British Gas will announce the price hike this month in letters to its 11 million consumers, according to the Mail on Sunday newspaper. Other power companies are certain to follow suit, and the rises will affect gas and electricity prices equally, it said. It quoted an insider as saying: "Directors have agonised about taking the decision because they know it is going to hurt everybody. But the harsh reality is we have no choice." A spokesman for Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, said: "Wholesale gas prices for 2006 are up about 75% on 2005.
02/05/06 - Teacher claims to have invented an alternative to fuel!
A primary school teacher in Nagpur is hard bent on changing the method the world has been following for a long time to provide fuel to vehicles. Bhasme has successfully used the gas, emitting from the cow dung of his small herd of five cows, to fuel his motorbike. With this Biogas, long believed to be an environment-friendly, inexpensive and one of the most easily available alternatives for petrol and other non-renewable sources of energy, may become a viable substitute for petrol in the near future. The procedure costs him barely a few cents to traverse a distance of nearly six kilometres. But it has not been an easy journey for Bhasme who had to overcome several obstacles to begin operating the bike. "I thought that if we can make electricity from gas and generators can work then why can't a vehicle work on the same principle. I tried practicing this on a vehicle many times on how to release gas into vehicles. Then, I used an air cleaner to release it. The vehicle initially started moving in a stationery position. I thought it would work even on the road so I filled gas in a rubber tube and it started working even on road," Bhasme said. Though the idea of using gas from cow-dung is not new in India, this is the first time the gas is being used to power a vehicle. Cow dung is currently used across several villages in the country for cooking. Cow dung gas is 55-65 per cent methane, 30-35 percent carbon dioxide with traces of some other gases. Though its heat value is slightly less than natural gas, it is a source of renewable energy, unlike its more popular cousin. Bhasme faced initial hiccups when the high water content in the gas prevented the vehicle engine from operating. After utilizing sponges and other instruments from a local mechanic, he was able to operate the vehicle at a stationary position. The water, which collects in the tank, has to be extracted after every 8 to 10 days. It was after repeated trials and fine-tuning that he finally took his vehicle on the road for his first test-drive which lasted barely a few meters.
Bhasme says he is facing teething troubles with the procedure, and still has not been able to find a viable solution to bottling the gas while being transferred to the main engine. Currently, Bhasme uses a bulky, bloated tyre tube to store the gas while it is transferred to the bike engine. On many occasions, a lot of engineers and administrators have verified Bhasme's idea has verified by several engineers and administrators whom he invited over the past few months to examine his invention.
02/05/06 - New device to contain EM radiation
A former scientist of the Department of Atomic Energy, Mannem Murthy, has developed an anti-radiation gadget called ‘Safe Life’. The device, according to Murthy, will contain the radiation affects of computers, televisions and cell phones. The Visakhapatnam chapter of the Computer Society of India recently recognised Murthy’s invention. Murthy told Business Standard on Thursday that his patented device would be commercially launched in a week’s time. It would be priced at about Rs 1,000. Explaining about the device, Murthy said, “the herbal and inorganic material kept in silver enclosure will absorb radioactive rays. The gadget has been designed with Vedic concept tuned with modern technology.” He, however, declined to disclose the specific material used for making the gadget.
02/05/06 - Tweaking Energy Efficiency as the 'other' Alternative Fuel
For most companies and organizations, the answers to maintaining a competitive edge in this era of rising energy costs are readily available. By applying a suite of cost-effective power and automation solutions from technology leaders like ABB, these facilities can achieve substantial energy savings today without waiting for the “alternative fuels” of the future. Through these continuous improvement methods, existing plants and factories can systematically reduce both energy requirements and their impact on the environment. Such improvements will become increasingly valuable as fuel costs continue to rise due to today’s global supply and demand dynamics, and pressures grow for environmental compliance. Products that deliver equal or greater performance while reducing energy consumption will bring greater flexibility in overcoming these pressures. Unlike homes that can achieve some degree of energy conservation by sacrificing comfort, most industrial plants rely on very specific equipment and production processes. Consequently, plant energy conservation must be found in the form of energy-saving products that don’t restrict or otherwise hinder production output or quality. For example, the machinery in one facility was used just a few minutes during a particular production stage. But the machinery continued to run disengaged for several additional hours simply because control strategies to synchronize it with the production schedule were not in place. After a detailed performance audit, relatively simple adjustments to the plant’s distributed control system allowed demand-based operation of the machinery. In another plant, air flow to the steam boilers was not optimized to account for changes between several alternative fuels. Combustion performance was compromised, and more fuel than necessary was sometimes burned. A new control scheme based on real-time performance simulations with varied fuels provided the capability to quickly optimize combustion mixtures under varied conditions. In each instance, annual fuel and efficiency savings were realized in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
02/05/06 - Energy wasting lightbulbs
Listening to most politicians, you would think the world's energy problems can be solved only by building ever bigger power stations and burning ever more fuel. Not so; and it certainly cannot solve the coming climate crisis. After turning off unnecessary pieces of equipment, improved energy efficiency is the cheapest way for developing countries to maximise their use of limited energy supplies, and for developed countries to achieve cuts in their carbon dioxide emissions. One quick and simple option for improving energy efficiency would be to make greater use of compact fluorescent light bulbs. Each one of these bulbs produces the same amount of light as an incandescent light bulb whilst being responsible for the emission of 70% less carbon dioxide. It also saves money; about £7 ($12) per year in the UK, more or less in other countries depending on electricity prices. So why not just ban incandescent bulbs - why not make them illegal? With lighting contributing 5-10% towards the typical electricity bill in the developed world, and even more in the developing world, the savings could really mount up. It has been estimated that if every household in the US replaced just three of its incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving designs and used them for five hours per day, it would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 23 million tonnes, reduce electricity demand by the equivalent of 11 coal-fired power stations and save $1.8bn. Given that investing $450m could save $1.8bn, it is hard to understand why anyone would still choose incandescent bulbs. In reality, few people seem to be prepared to pay the higher upfront cost of an energy-saving bulb, even though they have much lower running costs; while many seem to feel they are entitled to pollute the Earth's atmosphere without worrying about the consequences.
02/05/06 - N.C. startup building a better light bulb
A light fixture that provides at least as much light as a 60-watt incandescent bulb but uses less than one-third the power. The energy savings comes from the components that create the light. Instead of one regular light bulb, the fixture is illuminated with tiny devices called light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. The devices produce light without wasting energy as heat. And unlike light bulbs, LEDs can go years - decades even - without burning out. While fluorescent bulbs are more efficient, there's growing concern about the toxicity of the mercury inside them, he said. And with a product that's both efficient and nontoxic, the company called LED Lighting Fixtures is going after the $40 billion worldwide lighting market in a big way. "There are a lot of one or two-person shops that are playing around with LED lighting," Hunter said. "We're not playing around. This is serious business, and we want to take it on to the global level." Hunter expects to be manufacturing and selling LLF's first product by the end of this year. The first place consumers are likely to see them is in new homes. LLF initially plans to market its products to national commercial and residential builders or independently owned light and electrical distributors. Later, the company will go after the consumer market at retailers such as Lowe's and Home Depot. "It's going to be very competitive," Hunter said. "That's why you have to rely on your innovation and your speed." And while LED lighting research is growing quickly in some quarters, there aren't many companies focusing on illuminating homes, Steele said. "The market is so new at this point that a lot of different approaches may be tried," he said. "It's kind of a new world in lighting." LLF may eventually invent chandeliers and other large lighting fixtures under its Forever Fixture brand, but right now it's going for something that's popular and reasonably easy to mass-produce. The company's first product combines LEDs with a simple translucent cover. Builders or homeowners would install the fixtures into the ceiling of kitchens and other rooms.
02/05/06 - DNA End Caps May Lead to Cancer Treatments
The ends of DNA are capped by segments called telomeres. Each time the cell divides, the telomeres shorten. When they become too short, the aging cell can no longer divide. But in most cancer cells, an enzyme called telomerase keeps the telomeres from shortening, making the cells immortal and potentially malignant. “Drugs that influence these mechanisms might be used to slow replicative aging in normal cells and increase the efficacy of telomerase-inhibition therapies for cancer,” said Dr. Woodring Wright, professor of cell biology. In human cells, every chromosome has a telomere at each end, and each telomere ends in a single-stranded overhang. (DNA is normally double-stranded.) The overhang at one end of the chromosome is longer than at the other. The researchers believe that the rate of shortening is influenced by the length of the overhang - more DNA is lost from ends that have longer overhangs. Telomerase also changed the relative size of the two tails. Dr. Wright and his collaborator, Dr. Jerry Shay, professor of cell biology, are world-renowned for their work on telomeres and telomerase. They helped develop an anti-telomerase drug that helps slow the spread of lung cancer cells in mice. The drug is being tested in humans to see if it’s safe. The researchers say that any anti-telomerase drug would not be used alone to treat cancer. Rather, it would be used in conjunction with more traditional treatments, such as surgery or chemotherapy, to ensure that any cells not killed by those treatments don’t spread to other tissues.
02/05/06 - Firing up youthful creativity
(It would be great if we could direct all this energy and enthusiasm into solving alternative science problems by experimentation. JWD) Teenagers are making their own entertainment in ways never before possible. What’s novel about today’s youth culture is the complicated blurring of the line between different media formats, and, indeed, fantasy and reality. The American academics Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin attempt to describe this process of media content being refashioned in a theory they call “remediation” - in other words, the ways in which technology, and in particular the net, stimulate the next generation. Today’s kids - born digital natives, as opposed to adults, who must become digital immigrants - are not only at home with new technology, but know how to make it work for them. The price of all this digital liberty is a loss of parental control. Both on the streets and in the virtual world, teenagers are exposed to ideas, or material, of which parents may not approve. Their addiction to mobile phones is unnerving, and frequently expensive, too. Hoicking valuable gadgets around in public places brings with it attendant risks. The fact is, however, that children no longer rely on a media elite for their cultural soul. They set up online fanzines, or remix their favourite tracks into “mash-ups”, then file-share these new creations. Teenagers are able to share ideas in ways impossible to conceive a decade ago. There may be something disconcerting about their constant need to video each other, rather than going out to play for the sake of it. They are also, undeniably, being exploited by corporate brands. Yet there is no denying that technology has changed their world. They no longer want to be the best on their street. For good or ill, they belong to a virtual gang, whether they chat, show off or play computer games online in teams, or clans, based all over the world.
02/05/06 - Break Free of Microsloth with Open Source Freeware
There is an important distinction to be drawn between freeware and open-source software, though. Freeware doesn’t cost a penny, but the public cannot view the computer code that comprises the program, should they wish to develop add-ons or modifications. The Open Source Initiative (www.opensource.org) believes that the collaborative approach leads to better, more reliable software because it invites peer review. Unlike Microsoft Windows, say, programmers around the world can go under the bonnet of open-source software, find out how it works and collaborate to fix bugs or suggest improvements. Once the preserve of geeks, open source has gone public in the past year, to the extent that programs such as Firefox have become household names. 40m people have downloaded OpenOffice, an open-source alternative to Microsoft Office. “I use OpenOffice at home, and I’ve found that it reads almost all Microsoft Word documents,” says Wayne Lee. “I’ve had no problems at all, and neither have my kids.” If you are inclined to drill deeper online, you will find communities of enthusiasts eager to improve and add to existing software, often at your request. Take the Firefox evangelists at forums such as mozillazine.org. A member has asked for an add-on so that he can watch the latest stock-market prices in a side-bar while browsing the web. This tool will be created to order. Hundreds of simple yet potent free extensions, both to Firefox and to the Thunderbird e-mail package, already exist at www.mozilla.com/extensions. One instantly converts foreign currencies on a web page into pounds. Another delivers thumbnail previews inside Google search results. A third tucks local weather reports permanently inside your browser. The chances of Microsoft ordering its team of programmers to make such niche add-ons for the now down-at-heel Internet Explorer are, frankly, remote. The open-source movement is guided by the principle that software should be free, as in speech, rather than beer. Free distribution and the net’s universal reach have empowered a computer-literate generation that is no longer prepared to pay for software or wait ages for updates. SIX OF THE BEST OPEN-SOURCE FREEBIES
02/05/06 - the Flaw in Bushs 'logic' of addiction to oil
A TEXAS oilman saying the US has to end its addiction to oil? Pardon? It makes sense to end the US's "addiction", as Bush put it, to oil. It's the headline-grabber out of his State of the Union address. Trying to take the sting out of the oil price is probably futile, but it is one of the two main issues Bush used to try to claw back some popularity. Expect more of it this year and more of his vision of oil independence from the "unstable" Middle East. But there's a flaw in the logic. If, as Bush maintains, democracy is on the march in the Middle East and victory and freedom are assured for Iraq, why worry about the dependence on the region for their oil? Mr President?
02/04/06 - Batteries that don't die
Inexpensive and rugged lead-acid batteries, as everyone knows, can start a car in the dead of winter. But their excessive weight and their tradeoff between power and life -- the powerful version in your car doesn't last more than a few years -- have kept them out of hybrid vehicles and prevented their widespread use in all-electric vehicles. Now the humble lead-acid battery has been gutted and redesigned, cutting its weight, extending its lifetime, and putting it in the same performance category as the nickel-metal hydride batteries used in today's hybrid cars, according to Firefly Energy, a Peoria IL company that's developing the new batteries for specific applications. These new batteries are about one-third to one-quarter as heavy as traditional lead-acid batteries, and can be made about as powerful as nickel-metal hydride batteries without sacrificing longevity, says Mil Ovan, senior vice president and Firefly cofounder. But the main advantage of the new batteries, he says, is price. Because lead is relatively cheap, and a huge infrastructure already exists to make lead-acid batteries, the company is confident they can produce the batteries at one-fifth the cost of nickel-metal hydrides. Firefly dealt with the weight and performance issues by replacing the traditional heavy lead grids that collect electrons generated by a battery's chemical activity with a light graphite foam. The foam increases the surface area for the battery's chemical reactions, according to Cheng, whose separate work at Idaho uses additives to improve the weight and performance of lead-acid batteries. The increased surface area allows for faster charging and more powerful discharging. When engineers had experimented with increasing the surface area of the old lead grid, it accelerated the deterioration of the battery, forcing them to choose between a powerful battery that failed quickly or a less powerful, but more stable one. The graphite foam grid is more resistant to the corrosion that eventually causes traditional lead-acid batteries to fail. Thus, it can last longer, allowing it to survive a long winter in a garage, for instance, which is useful in lawnmowers, Ovan says.
02/04/06 - Disinfect and Deodorize Your Clothes Without Water
The AQUA AWD-AQ1 from Sanyo disinfects and deodorizes your clothes without using water. It shoots ozone-filled air to whisk away odors and bacteria. It also recycles the water it uses for rinsing and disinfects it using the selfsame ozone. It even has special modes to fight against mode, add steam, and even wash without detergent. It will be out in March for $2200.
02/04/06 - Landmark Vermont Farm Tries Grass Pellet Heat
It cost Shelburne Farms about $1,000 a year to mow grass that doesn't end up as hay for the animals and simply goes to waste. Now staff at the historic farm have come up with a use for it: turn it to pellets and burn them to heat the massive main barn. The hope at Shelburne Farms is to gather grass from the farm, as well as neighboring farms, use a special machine to turn the grass into pellets and burn it much the way wood pellets are burned in boilers now. The advantages, said Marshall Webb, special projects coordinator at Shelburne Farms, include projections that grass pellets will cost about half what wood pellets do. The grass is dried by the sun, rather than with energy-intensive processes used for wood pellets, he added. Perhaps most important, the grass pellets can come right from the farm, Webb said. Robert Bender, president of South Burlington-based Chiptec Wood Energy Systems, said pellets can be used well as fuel for combined heat and power systems that provide space heating as well as that needed to run a small electrical turbine. A ton of grass pellets produces 14 million British thermal units of heat, versus 16 million for a ton of wood pellets, the paper said. But it added that wood pellets cost about $200 a ton, where grass pellets will be able to be sold for $100 a ton. Put another way, the cost per million Btu for fuel oil is $23.47; for electricity, $39.73; for wood pellets $17.86 and for grass pellets provided by a producers' co-op to farmers who grow the grass, at $10.20.
02/04/06 - Scott King sought alternative cancer treatment
For a half-century, patients have flocked to clinics south of the border for treatments that are shunned, prohibited or regarded as outright quackery in the United States. Among the treatments offered: blood transfusions from guinea pigs, colon cleansings, and the zapping of cancer cells with electrical current. Supporters say the clinics offer an alternative - and sometimes a cure - to people written off by U.S. doctors. Critics say the worst of the clinics do nothing but offer false hope while taking money from people when they are most vulnerable. On Thursday, the clinic where the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. died this week shut down and the 20 American patients there were told by Mexican authorities to leave the country, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. Mexican officials were not immediately available to explain why. But the clinic's director has a criminal past and a reputation for offering dubious treatments. The area around the border city of Tijuana is a hotbed for the clinics, with about 35 of them, according to Dr. Alfredo Gruel, health services director from 2000 to 2002 for the Mexican state of Baja California. Dr. Sergio Maltos, who regulates clinics at Mexico's Federal Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risks, said Mexican authorities periodically visit the clinics. But he acknowledged there may be some instances of "pseudo-professionals ... who use treatments that are not backed by scientific evidence." In 2001, Mexico closed down a Tijuana clinic for operating without a license. The clinic was owned by a San Diego woman, Hulda Clark, who has claimed that a "zapper" cures cancer patients by eliminating parasites and toxins with a mild electric current. The clinics typically charge about $7,000 a week for treatment, meals and lodging, Pousson said. Some patients stay at the International Motor Inn, a budget hotel on the border in San Diego. Three buses and two vans shuttle between the hotel and the clinics six days a week.
02/04/06 - High-tech sieve sifts for hydrogen
Engineers have announced the development of a simpler, safer material that can potentially assist, and in some places replace, existing processing methods. The rubbery, plastic film, similar to membranes already in use in biomedical devices, has applications for isolating not only hydrogen, but also natural gas itself. "Our team originally set out to design membranes to purify hydrogen produced from coal," said co-author and National Science Foundation awardee Benny Freeman of The University of Texas. "We felt that a good improvement would be to design membranes more permeable to impurities than to hydrogen," he added. Until now, existing membranes had the opposite property--they were more permeable to hydrogen than to impurities. Hydrogen is commonly generated from natural gas in a process called steam reforming, wherein treatments with hot steam convert methane into a gaseous mixture consisting of mainly carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen. The membrane works because the molecules in its structure have relatively "positive" parts that attract electrons and relatively "negative" parts that repel electrons. CO2 has some of these "polar" characteristics, so it is attracted to the membrane, dissolving into it as salt dissolves into a glass of water. The molecules diffuse through the membrane at a rate that increases as more polar molecules become entrenched in the rubbery polymer, the researchers found. Even when the membrane is saturated with impurities, the polar properties continue to funnel the undesirable molecules along at a faster rate than for hydrogen, retaining most hydrogen molecules on the upstream side. Unlike other methods, the new "reverse-selective" process can capture hydrogen at a pressure close to that of the incoming gas. This is a primary advantage for the membrane because high pressure is important for transport of the gas, and many applications, yet adds significant costs. "The best you can do in terms of pressurization for any of these processes is make hydrogen at or near feed pressure," said Freeman. Conventional membranes, which would allow hydrogen to pass through while holding other gasses back, would decrease hydrogen pressure, he added. While other hydrogen extraction methods still have advantages, the researchers believe there is great potential for future approaches to be hybrid processes that incorporate the new membrane within established systems.
02/03/06 - Blimp-Plane Hybrid: World's Next Megamover?
In a plastic-covered hangar near an Ohio cornfield stands a 120-foot- long (37-meter-long), two-seat airship that its creators hope will usher in a new transportation era. The craft, named Dynalifter, may be outfitted with two small engines and filled with 16,500 cubic feet (470 cubic meters) of helium. "Dynalifter is a hybrid aircraft," said Robert Rist, a co-founder of Ohio Airships Inc., the Mantua-based company that built the aircraft. "The only comparison [with a blimp] is that they both use helium." Unlike a blimp, the Dynalifter has wings and is a heavier-than-air aircraft. Its weight is carried by aerodynamic lift on the wings and hull and is augmented by helium lift. Such a craft could move materials at a lower cost than airplanes and at higher speeds than ships, they believe. It could also deliver supplies to hard-to-reach places, making it especially useful in military and emergency situations.
02/03/06 - New Auction approach to selling patent rights
Last year, Dean Becker, an avid collector of classic cars, was thumbing through a catalog for an automobile auction. Why not sell patents the same way, he thought. This April, Ocean Tomo, a firm where Becker is a managing director, will do just that. It has lined up a British auctioneer to take the podium at The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco and sell off rights to everything from earth-imaging technology to shrink-wrap. Chicago-based Ocean Tomo is part of a cottage industry of firms that want to cash in on patents. Traditionally, patent deals have been shrouded in secrecy and burdened by steep transaction costs. The primary method of extracting value, beyond selling a product based on an invention, has been licensing patent rights. But licensing negotiations are often arduous and need to be backed up by a willingness to litigate, which is expensive. NEW EXPOSURE. Auctions could help foster "the emergence of a liquid market" for buying and selling patents, says Kappos. So far more than 1,200 patents have been submitted to Ocean Tomo for sale from such companies as AT&T (T ), BellSouth (BLS ), American Express (AXP ), and Kimberly-Clark (KMB ). If auctions become a regular feature of the patent world, they would help establish prices and a marketplace. "I see this as a great opportunity [as] an independent inventor to really get exposure to a large base of companies that could commercialize my patents," says William L. Reber.
02/03/06 - Isle of Man planning space commerce services
The Isle of Man has made its pitch to become a space industry giant equivalent to a "Switzerland of Space", according to treasury minister Allan Bell. Indeed, the island is looking to invest £955,000 over the next couple of years in a marketing drive aimed at attracting space business - in particular, satellite comms-related cash. According to Isle of Man Today, Bell told the Tynwald Parliament: "We now find ourselves in a space race of our own. [This is] an increasingly volatile and aggressive race with other jurisdictions to compete for this very lucrative economic sector. "If we do nothing, we will lose the business we already have to a growing number of competitors, including Bermuda, Gibraltar, Luxembourg and Singapore. These jurisdictions are committing increased financial and personnel resources to develop their satellite industries." The Isle of Man's director of space commerce, Tim Craine, says the money will be well spent: "Tynwald will see a major return on investment many times that which has been approved. Within two years, I would like to see the island having reached a critical mass of clustering in the space and satellite industry and have an international reputation as a prime jurisdiction."
02/03/06 - Sensory perceptions diminished by lying down
Sensitivity to odour is greater in subjects that are sitting than in those lying down. The research, conducted by Dr Marilyn Jones-Gotman at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, adds to previous studies indicating that lying down negatively affects other senses, such as hearing and spatial perception. Dr Jones-Gotman, said that the study was an important one for it showed that if perceptual ratings differ depending on whether the subject is outside a scanner (and sitting up) or inside a scanner (and lying down), then reliable threshold measures or points of comparison will be difficult to obtain. "This was an important finding for us, as many of our studies involve test subjects lying in an imaging machine such as MRI or PET (positron emission tomography) scanners. If perceptual ratings differ depending on whether the subject is outside a scanner (and sitting up) or inside a scanner (and lying down), then reliable 'threshold measures' or points of comparison will be difficult to obtain," she said. As a part of the test, subjects were exposed to sixteen different concentrations of rose odour while they were sitting upright or lying down. It was found that 63.9 percent of participants were found to have a decreased sensitivity to the rose odour when lying down. Dr. Johan Lundstrom said that the study had shown that there was a clear difference in olfactory sensitivity depending on the body position of the subjects, and that the s differences would have to be taken into account when planning future studies. "There is a clear difference in olfactory sensitivity depending on the body position of the subjects. Right now, we can only speculate as to the biological necessity of this difference. For example, is a lowered sensitivity to smell when lying down part of an overall sleep preparedness mechanism? Or perhaps the reason is only secondary to an increase of body fluid circulating throughout the brain? It could also be that we are simply not able to 'sniff' as deeply when in a supine position. Whatever the reason, we must now take this difference into account when planning future studies," Dr Lundstrom said.
02/03/06 - Professor Attacks Enthusiasm for Bio-Fuels
(Thanks Chris Damm for the headsup on this audio interview on NPR. - JWD) A growing number of Americans are embracing ethanol and bio-diesel as possible alternatives to gasoline. But one Berkeley engineering professor is waging a campaign against what he considers a delusion about bio-fuels.
02/03/06 - New Fracture Detection technique for safety
Could engineers have known ahead of time exactly how much pressure the levees protecting New Orleans could withstand before giving way? Is it possible to predict when and under what conditions material wear and tear will become critical, causing planes to crash or bridges to collapse? A study by Weizmann Institute scientists takes a new and original approach to the study of how materials fracture and split apart. When force is applied to a material (say, a rock hitting a pane of glass), a crack starts to form in the interior layers of that material. In the glass, for example, the force of the striking rock will cause the fracture to progress through the material with gradually increasing speed until the structure of the glass splits apart. The path the forming crack follows and the direction it takes are influenced by the nature of the force and by its shape. As cracking continues, microscopic ridges form along the advancing front of the crack and the fracture path repeatedly branches, creating a lightning bolt or herringbone pattern. Physicists attempting to find a formula for the dynamics of cracking, to allow them to predict how a crack will advance in a given material, have faced a serious obstacle. The difficulty lies in pinning down, objectively, the fundamental directionality of the cracking process: From any given angle of observation or starting point of measurement, the crack will look different and yield different results from any other. Scientists all over the world have experimented with cracking but, until now, no one has successfully managed to come up with a method for analyzing the progression of a forming crack. After some complex data analysis of the combined information from all the sectors, the team found their method allowed them to gain a deeper understanding of the process of cracking, no matter which direction the measurements started from. The team then successfully applied the method to a variety of materials - plastic, glass and metal. From the concrete in dams and buildings, to the metal alloys and composites in airplane wings, to the glass in windshields, many of the materials we depend on daily are subject to cracking. The team's method will give engineers and materials scientists new tools to understand how all of these basic materials act under different stresses, to predict how and when microscopic or internal, unseen fractures might turn life-threatening, or to improve these materials to make them more resistant to cracks' formation or spread.
02/03/06 - Conscientious objection in medicine should not be tolerated
(Being a fan and proponent of 'right to die', I found this interesting and 'obvious' for rational people. - JWD) A doctors' conscience has little place in the delivery of modern medical care, writes Julian Savulescu at the University of Oxford. If people are not prepared to offer legally permitted, efficient, and beneficial care to a patient because it conflicts with their values, they should not be doctors. Imagine an intensive care doctor refusing to treat people over the age of 70 because he believes such patients have had a fair innings. Or imagine an epidemic of bird flu or other infectious disease that a specialist decided she valued her own life more than her duty to treat her patients. Such a set of values would be incompatible with being a doctor. The argument in favour of allowing conscientious objection is that to fail to do so harms the doctor and constrains liberty. This is true, says the author, but when conscientious objection compromises the quality, efficiency, or equitable delivery of a service, it should not be tolerated. He believes that doctors who compromise the delivery of medical services to patients on conscience grounds must be punished through removal of licence to practise and other legal mechanisms. Values are important parts of our lives. But values and conscience have different roles in public and private life, he writes. They should influence discussion on what kind of health system to deliver. But they should not influence the care an individual doctor offers to his or her patients. The door to "value-driven medicine" is a door to a Pandora's box of idiosyncratic, bigoted, discriminatory medicine. Public servants must act in the public interest, not their own, he concludes.
02/03/06 - Predicting current/future events using Artificial Intelligence
(Thanks Robert Nelson for the headsup on this fascinating story. - JWD) Programming genius develops software that scans a huge portion of the internet's public discussion boards and resolves the conversations going on (in multiple languages, by the way) in a huge pile of data going many gigabytes in length. This is then "distilled" using an artificial intelligence language (prolog) which throws out all comments which are past or present in tense. What's left is a smaller pile of forward-looking sentences. These are then refined and compared with previous scans of the web to get a pretty good indication of how things "might" go. ALTA 406 run is "centered" of events around April '06, but will pick up things either side of center - sort of like passband tuning of a high performance radio receiver. Except, of course, the "passband" is three-dimensional, but you get the idea. If you don't, just have more coffee and keep reading. So the immediate stuff on the horizon, safe to talk about now because those of us who use the reports have had plenty of time to get our trades in place and our lives adjusted to what seems likely to come next, have a series of very short term expectations referring to the the ALTA 106 and ALTA 406 reports which cover the present day. Short term, we have the possibility of a highly impacting emotional event with the passband "centered" around February 3rd. And we keep getting better at the technology - although we're all sort of making up this new science as we go along - it's not the stuff of "normal" study even for mystical C (not C# or C++ folks, but the get down and dirty in the predicate calculus C) guys like Cliff. For example, in the ALTA 406 report (as well as the 106) there are lots of descriptors going to the idea of the West Virginia mine disaster (January) and the echo of the event in February. More details/background
02/03/06 - Train, Boat Diesel Engines Source of Deadly Pollution
(Audio File for full details.) State air quality officials say the diesel engines in locomotives and boats account for a large chunk of U.S. air pollution. They say that share is growing because the Environmental Protection Agency has dragged its feet on tighter regulation. The pollution exacts a price: 4,000 extra deaths each year.
02/03/06 - Russian inventor patents invisibility technique
A professor from the department of quantum and optical electronics of the Ulyanovsk State University in western Russia has patented a method of making things invisible, Interfax news agency reported. The so-called invisibility cloak, created by Oleg Gadomsky, is called “The method of conversion of optical radiation” in the patent. Gadomsky had been long experimenting on nanoparticles of gold. He now claims to have invented a sub-micron stratum of microscopical colloid golden particles that makes an object placed behind it invisible to an observer. “Only static objects can be made invisible for the time being, as during motion the radiation frequency changes. But soon it will be possible to create a cap of darkness and a magic cloak like Harry Potter’s,” the scientist believes.
02/02/06 - Biofuels can replace about 30% of fuel needs
"We can readily address, with research, 30 percent of current transportation fuel needs. But reaching that goal will require 5-10 years and significant policy and technical effort," said Dr. Arthur Ragauskas, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a lead on the project. While many think of ethanol when they think of biofuels, the group recommends a much broader spectrum of possible materials including agriculture wastes such as corn stovers and wheat stalks, fast-growing trees such as poplar and willow and several perennial energy crops such as switchgrass. In addition to including more diversity in materials, the group also recommends some changes to the plants themselves using techniques such as accelerated domestication to make them more efficient energy crops. But doubling the productivity of energy crops will mean identifying constraints and correcting them with genomic tools. To make biofuels a truly practical alternative to petroleum, the group says there will need to be significant improvements in how biofuel is processed. The biorefinery would work much like a petroleum refinery, which produces multiple fuels and products from petroleum.
02/02/06 - Mine Busting Moves to Breast Cancer
A University of Arkansas scientist has developed a technology that makes undersea mud as clear as water, revealing deadly land mines. Now, she's adapting the technique to detect a type of biological land mine -- breast-cancer tumors. Magda El-Shenawee, an associate professor of electrical engineering, is adapting her rough-surface computational analysis -- which, put very simply, is an algorithm that models dirt -- to detect breast tissue cells that have gone awry. It turns out seeing through dirt is not so different from seeing through breast tissue.
02/02/06 - Sound waves zap cancer cells
A recent Study in the British Journal of Cancer shows that the use of Quercitin and 20KHz ultrasound for 60 seconds killed skin and prostate cancer cells. 90% of the abnormal cells were dead within 48hrs. Since low frequency ultrasound was previously shown to enhance the skin penetration of topical substances up to 1000 times, it would seem that a topical Quercetin cream with a low frequency ultrasound wand might be just the ticket for those annoying little skin cancers that tend to occur in older geeks who have spent a bit of time in the sun.
02/02/06 - US-VISIT immigration system spent $15 million per crook caught
The US-VISIT program subjects visitors to the USA to a humiliating round of being mug-shotted and fingerprinted, and has cost at least $15 billion. Since January 2004, it has caught a paltry 1,000 immigration cheats and crooks (no terrorists, though), at a cost of $15 million per apprehension. As Bruce Schneier points out, this is a pretty cost-ineffective way of catching crooks. I wrote about US-VISIT in 2004, and back then I said that it was too expensive and a bad trade-off. The price tag for "the next phase" was $15B; I'm sure the total cost is much higher. But take that $15B number. One thousand bad guys, most of them not very bad, caught through US-VISIT. That's $15M per bad guy caught. Surely there's a more cost-effective way to catch bad guys? (via boingboing.com)
02/01/06 - Organic Rankine Cycle Engine
Refrigerant-charged organic Rankine cycle power plants (ORC). The energy source can be a typical rooftop solar hot water collector. They operate on a unique, US patented cycle. When fully developed, power plants based on this technology will produce electricity, hydrogen, and air conditioning from inexpensive, low temperature solar collectors. The potential of waste heat as an energy source has remained largely out of reach for lack of a cost-effective technology that can recover this heat and use it to generate electrical power. While waste heat is normally insufficient to boil large quantities of water, often it is sufficient to boil a family of organic chemicals that can be used in place of water. The Rankine cycle is the heat-engine operating cycle used by all steam engines since the start of the industrial age. As with most engine cycles, the Rankine cycle is a four-stage process. Simply put, the working fluid (usually water) is pumped into a boiler. While the fluid is in the boiler, an external heat source superheats the fluid. The hot water vapor then expands to drive a turbine. Once past the turbine, the steam is condensed back into liquid and recycled back to the pump to start the cycle all over again. Pump, boiler, turbine, and condenser are the four parts of a standard steam engine and represent each phase of the Rankine cycle. So what makes an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) engine so special? Like a standard steam engine, the ORC utilizes heated gas to drive a turbine. However, this gas is a heated organic chemical instead of superheated water steam. The organic chemicals used by an ORC include freon and most of the other traditional refrigerants-iso-pentane, CFCs, HFCs, butane, propane, and ammonia. Refrigerants seem like an odd choice for a heat engine’s working fluid. However, these gases boil at extremely low temperatures. For example, a typical refrigerant will boil at a mere 150°F, generating significant pressures. The cycle of pressurization with a pump-expansion resulting from applied heat, using the heat to turn a turbine to create energy, and condensation of the fluid back to its liquid state-is identical to the steam engine. It just occurs at much lower temperatures. or the relatively small amount of waste heat used to drive the engine a comparatively high amount of work can be performed. This results in high turbine efficiency-as high as 85%. That is, the amount of electricity generated by the turbine can be equal to 85% of the equivalent energy generated by the engine. This is the result of the relatively low peripheral speed of the turbine. Solar applications are a potential source of energy for the ORC engine. Unlike photovoltaic solar cells that produce direct current, which then has to be converted (with significant energy losses) into alternating current used by households, the turbine driven by the heated organic fluids produces directly useable alternating current. Solar collectors reflect and focus sunlight onto a central tube containing the organic working fluid. This flash-boils the fluid and allows it to drive a small turbine. Organic working fluids operate at temperatures below 400°C (752 °F) and do not need to be superheated. ORC engines can recover waste heat effectively at temperatures as low as 70°C (158°F).
02/01/06 - Sterling Rankine-like advanced ORC generator
(Not to be confused with Stirling 1813 engines. - JWD) New Technology Converts 'Warm' Thermal Sources into Energy. The photo shows a 1HP (760Watt) unit and a modified reciprocating refrigerant compressor that has been modified to produce power from solar heated refrigerant. Eliminating the feedpump. In an effort to reduce the 'actual' inefficiency of very low temperature Rankine cycles, our patented power plant eliminates the working fluid feed pump, and replace it with a simple, yet effective method for cycling the spent working fluid. This effectively frees the cycle of a principle component of its mechanical inefficiency. Technically speaking, with the exclusion of the feedpump, this is no longer a Rankine cycle. The upshot of our patented cycle is that it is predicted to make economical power at Rankine cycle efficiencies within any temperature range, whereas 'organic Rankine cycles' become large and uneconomical at the lower end of the thermal energy spectrum. Sunshine is free, but consider the cost of a large, curved, shiny mirrored assembly that must swivel to track the sun, and concentrate sunshine into a 400o-700oF fluid. Compare that to the cost of a simple immobile flat plate collector, producing equal Btu's per square meter, but at a temperature of 150F. The flat plate actually converts sunshine to thermal energy at a much higher efficiency than the parabolic monstrosity, measured both in Btu/dollar and Btu/ft2. Most 'alternative' thermal energy is found at a temperature below that of steam or boiling water (below 212F). Consider these facts: solar energy is most economically collected at 105-150 Fahrenheit; a geothermal temperature of 160F exists only 200 feet underground throughout most of the State of Nevada; industrial waste heat is most prevalent at temperatures between 160 - 250F. Patent 5,974,804 - Apparatus and method for converting thermal energy to mechanical energy.
02/01/06 - University unveils invention to tackle waste
Prof Tom Ogada, the managing director of Moi University Holdings, which oversees the project, says the technology has proven effective for removing stubborn colour in waste water from tea and coffee processing factories. Apart from the invention being beneficial to tea and coffee factories, Ogada says, it may also be useful to paper processing factories. But colour removal is expensive. The proposal says the electrochemical method takes time and consumes a lot of electricity. Some companies opt for the simple wetland treatment, which only removes a little colour from the water. The proposal says high colouration in waste water changes its aesthetic quality and reduces light penetration, potentially affecting plant growth and habitat. But the university’s invention drastically reduces toxicity using a method known as "electro-coagulation" which has a low power consumption rate. It involves mixing the coloured water with ash (from wood, coffee husks, leaves etc) and then electrolysing the resulting solution. From the tests done, the effluent coagulates and the colour disappears in a matter of seconds, with little electricity consumed. After a while, the coagulated matter settles at the bottom and is drained off. The project will lead to a reduction in colour removal expenses, rejuvenation of some of the lost flora and fauna downstream industrial rivers and better livelihoods for those living and depending on industrial rivers.
02/01/06 - Man turns coconut waste into enviro-saver
Imagine turning worthless waste material into an innovative, biodegradable product that protects the environment, promotes plant growth and gives jobs to poor farmers. This innovation makes use of the husk fibres to produce a tough but biodegradable netting that anchors the soil on sloping land as well as river banks, protecting against erosion while encouraging the growth of vegetation. The product, called "coconet", has been adopted in infrastructure projects all over this Southeast Asian archipelago, as well as in China and Sri Lanka. The dried coconut meat, or "copra", was the only part of the tall plant that had recognised economic value - the raw material for vegetable oil, soap, animal feed and industrial processes. The discarded husks were the largest waste product of the coconut-growing regions. Arboleda estimates the Philippines produces 12 billion coconut husks a year with 75 percent of them thrown away. "We wanted to give jobs to the farmers, especially the women," who often are left idle when the coconut crop has been harvested, he said. "We found a way to mill (coconut) husks, convert them to fibres and bring (the fibres) to the houses" of the farmers, where their wives would spin them into a tough thread which in turn is woven into the netting. The net could then be laid onto sloping land, especially the kind left behind in road construction. Arboleda says his product not only holds the soil down against erosion. It absorbs water, preventing soil runoff from rains while serving as a fertile bed for plant growth. It can also be installed manually unlike alternatives which often require heavy equipment. "Before, everyone would use plastic nets or steel wire," or even concrete to shore up slopes, he said. "Coconut fibre is cheap, it does not deteriorate quickly," he said, allowing plants to grow in coconet-covered slopes or river banks, to eventually anchor the soil down. In tests, coco-fibre has lasted for four years submerged in water, he said. The product is now used to shore up the exposed earth in dam and highway projects in the Philippines, preventing landslides in hillside housing projects and covering garbage used as landfill. In addition, Arboleda has found a way to use the dust produced when coconut husks are made into fibres. He turns it into "coco-peat": a fertile, porous soil-like material used as a growing medium for plants and can be shaped like bricks, pots or posts, for ornamental vegetation.
02/01/06 - Virtual Gills for underwater breathing
An invention may pave the way for man to explore the ocean without the need for air tanks. An inventor in Israel, Alon Bodner, has developed an "underwater breathing system that literally squeezes oxygen directly from seawater." The system is called, "LikeAFish", and is a battery-powered artificial gill system aims to extract the small amounts of dissolved air that already exists in water to supply breathable oxygen to scuba divers, submarines and underwater habitats, according to reports. According to the BBC, the system exists as a laboratory model with European patents approved and U.S. applications pending. Bodner says that he is now working on reducing the size of the device, and hopes to field a prototype within two years. Patent Application 20040003811 - Open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.
02/01/06 - Another flying windmill design
According to their figures, one flying windmill rated at 240kW with rotor diameters of 35 feet could generate power for less than two cents per kilowatt hour--that would make them the cheapest power source in the world. For greater power needs, several units would be operated in the same location--Sky Windpower says that an installation "rated at 2.81 megawatts flying at a typical U.S. site with an eighty percent capacity factor projects a life cycle cost per kilowatt hour at 1.4 cents." And they would have far better uptime than most windmills--since the jetstream never quits, they should operate at peak capacity 70-90% of the time. Output would also be less dependent on location than it is on the ground, simply because terrain doesn't matter much when you're at 35,000ft; however, since the jetstream and other "geostrophic" winds don't blow much at latitudes near the equator, it would be useful primarily for middle and higher latitudes.
02/01/06 - Turbulence yields secrets to 73-year-old experiment
(This might have correlations with Aether/ZPE coupling to extract useful energy or force. - JWD) "Turbulence is the jittery, swirling behavior of a gas or liquid when flowing next to a wall or around an obstacle," said Gustavo Gioia, a professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at Illinois. "Although most of the flows that surround us in everyday life are turbulent flows over rough walls, these flows have remained one of the least understood phenomena of classical physics." In 1933, Johann Nikuradse carefully measured the friction a fluid experiences as it is forced through a pipe at varying speeds. Nikuradse found that the friction gets smaller as the speed gets larger, but then surprisingly increases at high speeds before attaining a constant value. This mysterious behavior, which must be taken into account by engineers in applications ranging from airplanes to oil pipelines, has now been explained. Illinois physics professor Nigel Goldenfeld shows how the behavior implies that the turbulent state is not random, but contains subtle statistical correlations that are similar to those known to exist at phase transitions, such as the onset of magnetism in crystals.
02/01/06 - Kilowatt TV/video game Exerciser
I tried the Pro version at the CES and I can tell you it's quite strenuous to use and I could probably use it in losing some Christmas Cheer. Unlike several other devices that give you a workout and hook to a video game console, the Kilowatt is not a bicycle - it works using isometric exercise - you just push against the shoulder-height joystick device and nothing moves - but you're definitely burning calories and getting a workout. The company catch-cry goes along the lines of "Your body is in a workout...but your mind is in a game" and I can see the advantages. The US Olympic ski team has apparently been using the Kilowatt in training so it's reasonable to assume it does the job claimed. The Kilowatt also answers one of the major criticisms of the games entertainment industry - that video game use is sedentary and therefore is playing a role in the growing obesity epidemic. Powergrid Fitness's Co-Founder Greg Merril says, "Kilowatt is the first product to turn being a 'couch potato' into a physically demanding sport! Most Americans want to lose weight --189 million say 20 lbs or more. They want to exercise..... but few do. 60% play video games. The Kilowatt SPORT, with it's relatively small size (smaller than most home gyms) is an ideal product for home use." The core function of the Kilowatt is in it's ability to measure, in real-time, the force the user exerts against the controller. Two microprocessors are used to translate the pressure readings into a joystick data stream that is compatible with all major video game consoles. A new manufacturing technique was developed to integrate strain gauge sensors inside a alloy steel rod.
02/01/06 - Adapter for TV/video game workouts
The EnterTrainer Cardio-TV-Trainer is a wireless device that converts any exercise machine and TV, video game or stereo into an interactive workout system. The EnterTrainer combines a wireless heart monitor and a universal remote control and maintains the correct volume for the device you wish to watch/play/listen to when your heart is working in the target zone you have set. Too low or too high and the volume is lowered until you get your heart pumping in the right zone again. At US99 it’s not all that expensive compared to most wrist-worn heart rate monitors but then again, they can be used to monitor your heart rate anywhere whereas this is location-specific. If you have an overweight child who watches too much telly, it might be ideal.
02/01/06 - Dawn detergent as redneck IcePack
My wife pulled her sciatic nerve last week. An ice pack was recommended but one of our friends gave us a great tip. Instead of an ice pack, partially fill a strong zip lock bag with Dawn dishwashing detergent and freeze it. (I don’t know if other brands would work just as well.) Just to be safe, we double-bagged it! The detergent stays cold much longer and it can be re-frozen over and over. It also molds to your back better than ice.
02/01/06 - Elastic cylinder engine to produce power
A miniature combustion engine that uses an elastic cylinder to generate power has been developed by SRI International of California, US. Conventional internal combustion engines rely on a piston moving inside a cylinder to provide power. Big ones are efficient because gas leakage round the piston wastes only a small percentage of the total power. But in smaller engines the leakage loss is proportionately high, so efficiency is poor.
The engine developed by SRI prevents leakage altogether, the company claims. It burns an ordinary fuel-air mix inside a sealed cylinder made from a tough elastic material, such as rubberised Kevlar. As the hot gases expand, the cylinder itself swells like a balloon then returns elastically to its original shape. A crank arm resting on the outside of the cylinder is moved to generate mechanical power. Efficiency is high and heat is also dissipated effectively because the cylinder walls become temporarily thinner as the cylinder swells.
Patent Application 20060000214 - Compliant walled combustion devices.
02/01/06 - WinAmp security flaw fixed
The company posted version 5.13 of the media player online on Monday after Secunia and other security companies issued alerts about the problem. Malicious software exploiting the "extremely critical" flaw was already circulating on the Internet, according to Secunia's advisory. The security hole, found in the latest version of Winamp 5.12, could lead to malicious attackers taking remote control of a Winamp user's system. Earlier versions of the media player may also be affected, Secunia said. The vulnerability could be exploited when a Winamp user visits a malicious Web site and a tainted media file is launched onto the person's system. A buffer overflow is triggered, which allows the attacker to take control of the computer without being constrained by security measures, Kristensen noted. Nullsoft, a division of America Online, is urging people to download the updated media player from the Winamp Web site. "Users attempting to launch the v. 5.12 player will be prompted with a pop-up message alerting them to upgrade to the secure Winamp v 5.13," AOL said.
$5 Alt Science MP3s to listen while working/driving/jogging
No time to sit back and watch videos? Here are 15 interesting presentations you can download for just $5 each and listen to while driving, working, jogging, etc. An easy way to learn some fascinating new things that you will find of use. Easy, cheap and simple, better than eBooks or Videos. Roughly 50MB per MP3.
15 New Alternative Science DVDs & 15 MP3s
An assortment of alternative science videos that provide many insights and inside information from various experimenters. Also MP3s extracted from these DVDs that you can listen to while working or driving. Reference links for these lectures and workshops by Bill Beaty of Amateur Science on the Dark Side of Amateur Science, Peter Lindemann on the World of Free Energy, Norman Wootan on the History of the EV Gray motor, Dan Davidson on Shape Power and Gravity Wave Phenomena, Lee Crock on a Method for Stimulating Energy, Doug Konzen on the Konzen Pulse Motor, George Wiseman on the Water Torch and Jerry Decker on Aether, ZPE and Dielectric Nano Arrays. Your purchase of these products helps support KeelyNet, thanks!
- Source to Buy
Six Ways to Support Keelynet
|
<urn:uuid:773d961a-9a9a-4115-b56d-4bfa68a46338>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-23
|
http://www.keelynet.com/indexfeb206.htm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510274866.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011754-00041-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.950264 | 65,421 | 2.828125 | 3 |
COVID19 pandemic has crossed over 1.92 million (19,26,149) cases worldwide and has caused approximately 119,724 deaths till now. 452,361 people have been recovered and more than approximately 1.4 million people are still quarantined.
This pandemic disease has adversely affected top economies in the world like America (USA), Spain, Itlay, Britain, Germany, France, China, Iran, and Turkey.
The above-mentioned countries have 587,173, 170,009, 159,516, 88,621, 130,072, 136,779, 82,249, 73,303, and 61,949 COVID19 positive cases respectively. The USA has recorded the highest no. of death till now i.e. 23,644 then Itlay 20,465 then Spain 17,756 then France 14,967 then UK 11,329 then Iran 4,585 then Belgium 3,903 then China 3,341 then Germany 3,194 then Netherlands 2,823, then Brazil 1,355 then Turkey 1,296 and then Switzerland 1,138. These the countries with 4 digit death counts other countries have death count under 1,000.
Among the other nation, India is fighting COVID19 in a praiseworthy way till now there has been only 10,541 COVID19 positive cases with a death count of 358 and 1205 recovered patients. Indian COVID19 positive stats is very low as compared to the USA, Sapin, Itlay, Britain, and Germany. India’s total COVID19 positive case is less than the total number of death in the above-mentioned countries. The Indian government, government employees, and Doctors are doing a remarkable job otherwise for the developing nation like India with a population of more than 1.3 billion it was impossible to control the spread of pandemic coronavirus.
|
<urn:uuid:c94e8fef-ffca-4332-9903-f243c2ce58eb>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-24
|
http://www.newsleakcentre.com/investigations/covid19-update-total-coronavirus-case-crosses-2-million-mark-worldwide-read-the-detailed-report/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347413406.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20200531120339-20200531150339-00083.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.916247 | 390 | 2.5625 | 3 |
These self portraits were created by 5th graders. To introduce the lesson, students talked about playing cards as art and why or why not they might be considered art. Great class discussion! After giving them a few tips on how to draw a self portrait, they traced their drawing on to a half sheet of Styrofoam. To create the reflection, students just turned their Styrofoam and printed it upside down. Check out the 5th grade results below!
|
<urn:uuid:a9b028cc-c63f-4305-9493-38bc49dc224f>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-43
|
http://anartteachersfairyteal.blogspot.com/2012/03/self-portrait-playing-cards.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187824733.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20171021095939-20171021115939-00891.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.97983 | 95 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Special Issue - (2016)
Special Issue - (2015)
Special Issue - (2012)
Puppets and Experiments as a Conservation Tool for First Grade Students
Oscar E. Quiros
pp. 219-228 | Article Number: ijese.2019.019
This paper discusses the experience of promoting environmental conservation using both puppets and simple hands-on experiments for first-grade students in rural Southwestern Costa Rica. Twenty eight college students wrote puppet plays, designed and built the puppets and performed the plays as well as monitored the science experiments. The experiments attempted to illustrate certain natural phenomena related to the issues performed in the plays. A total of 334 seven-year-old students from 19 elementary schools participated in 2016 and 2017. College students recorded in a log their observations and responses from direct questions to children, based on a questionnaire. A linear regression analysis was used to establish correlations. The analysed data showed that children had a much better understanding about nature and the importance of protecting it after both the plays and the experiments were conducted in sequence.
Keywords: environmental education, conservation, puppetry, first grade, science, Costa Rica
Ahlcrona, M. F. (2012). The Puppet’s Communicative Potential as a Mediating Tool in Preschool Education. International Journal of Early Childhood, 44(2), 171–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-012-0060-3
Bakhit, M., Clem, J., & Garcia-webb, M. (2011). Puppets in Education.
Ball, S., & Bogatz, G. A. (1970). The first year of Sesame Street: An Evaluation. New York.
Balmford, A. (2002). Economic Reasons for Conserving Wild Nature. Science, 297, 950–953. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1073947
Bandura, A. (2012). Going Global with Social Cognitive Theory: From Prospect to Paydirt. In Applied Psychology (pp. 65–92). Taylor & Francis.
Barnett, W. S. (1998). Long-term cognitive and academic effects of early childhood education on children in poverty. Preventive Medicine, 27(2), 204–207. https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.1998.0275
Blum, N. (2009). Teaching science or cultivation values? Conservation NGOs and environmental education in Costa Rica. Environmental Education Research, 15(6), 715–729. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620903420064
Borg, F., Winberg, T. M., & Vinterek, M. (2017). Preschool children’s knowledge about the environmental impact of various modes of transport. Early Child Development and Care, 4430, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2017.1324433
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (2004). How people learn: Mind, brain, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
Brinums, M., Imuta, K., & Suddendorf, T. (2017). Practicing for the Future: Deliberate Practice in Early Childhood. Child Development, 00(0), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12938
Calvo Brenes, G., & Mora Molina, J. (2012). Contaminación fecal en varios ríos de la Gran Área Metropolitana y la Península de Osa. Revista Tecnología En Marcha, 25(4), 33. https://doi.org/10.18845/tm.v25i4.617
Campos Arce, J. J., Camacho Calvo, M., Villalobos Soto, R., Rodríguez, C. M., & Gómez Flores, M. (2007). La tala ilegal en Costa Rica. Un análisis para la discusión. Turrialba: CATIE.
Canet-Desanti, L., Herrera, B., & Finegan, B. (2012). Efectividad de Manejo en Corredores Biológicos: El Caso de Costa Rica. Revista Parques, 2, 1–14.
Carrier, S. (2009). Environmental education in the schoolyard: Learning styles and gender. Journal of Environmental Education, 40(3), 2–12. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOEE.40.3.2-12
Corbett, J. B. (2006). Communicating nature: How we create and understand environmental messages. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Cui, G., Lockee, B., & Meng, C. (2013). Building modern online social presence: A review of social presence theory and its instructional design implications for future trends. Education and Information Technologies, 18(4), 661–685. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-012-9192-1
Daniel, T., & Tivener, K. (2016). Effects of sharing clickers in an active learning environment. Educational Technology and Society, 19(3), 260–268.
Dantas, O. M. dos S., Santana, A. R. de, & Nakayama, L. (2012). Teatro de fantoches na formação continuada docente em educação ambiental. Educação e Pesquisa, 38(3), 711–726. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022012000300012
Dunne, I. B. (2006). Bringing the Story Alive. Primary Science Review, 92, 22–24.
Egan, K. (1993). Narrative and learning: A voyage of implications. Linguistics and Education, 5(2), 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/0898-5898(93)90028-9
Ernst, J. (2014). Early childhood educators’ use of natural outdoor settings as learning environments: an exploratory study of beliefs, practices, and barriers. Environmental Education Research, 20(6), 735–752. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.833596
Franquesa-Soler, M., & Serio-Silva, J. C. (2017). Through the eyes of children: Drawings as an evaluation tool for children’s understanding about endangered Mexican primates. American Journal of Primatology, 79(12), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22723
Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 111(23), 8410–8415. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111
Gallagher, K. M. (2011). In search of a theoretical basis for storytelling in education research: Story as method. International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 34(1), 49–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2011.552308
Gold, A. U., Oonk, D. J., Smith, L., Boykoff, M. T., Osnes, B., & Sullivan, S. B. (2015). Lens on Climate Change: Making Climate Meaningful Through Student-Produced Videos. Journal of Geography, 114(6), 235–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221341.2015.1013974
González‐Gaudiano, E. (2007). Schooling and environment in Latin America in the third millennium. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 155–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701295684
Hacieminoglu, E. (2016). Elementary school students’ attitude toward science and related variables. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(2), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.12973/ijese.2016.288a
Haines, S., & Kilpatrick, C. (2007). Environmental education Saves the day. Science and Children, 44(8), 42–47.
Hicks, L. E., & King, R. J. H. (2007). Confronting Environmental Collapse : Visual Culture, Art Education, and Environmental Responsibility. Studies in Art Education, 48(4), 332–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2007.11650111
Kneidel, S. S. (1993). Creepy Crawlies and the Scientific Method: Over 100 Hands-On Science Experiments for Children. Golden: Fulcrum Publishing.
Kos, M., Jerman, J., Anžlovar, U., & Torkar, G. (2016). Preschool children’s understanding of pro-environmental behaviours: Is it too hard for them? International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(12), 5554–5571.
Kruger, M. (2007). Puppets in Education and Development in Africa: the puppet’s dual nature and sign systems in action. South African Theatre Journal, 21(1), 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2007.9687854
Legare, C. H., Opfer, J., Busch, J. T. A., & Shtulman, A. (2018). A Field Guide for Teaching Evolution in the Social Sciences. Evolution and Human Behavior, 39(3), 257–268. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.01.002
Lemke, J. L. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning, and values. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corp. https://doi.org/citeulike-article-id:748226
Merino, L., & Chacón, K. (2017). Armonía con la naturaleza. In Informe del Estado de la Nación (pp. 177–232). San José: CONARE.
Merlos, M. M. (2015). The Role of Globalization; Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education; Project-Based Learning and National Science Fair Policy in Creating 21st. Century Ready Students in Costa Rica. University of Southern California.
Morrow, L. M. (1985). Retelling Stories: A Strategy for Improving Young Children’s Comprehension, Concept of Story Structure, and Oral Language Complexity. The Elementary School Journal, 85(5), 646–661. https://doi.org/10.1086/461427
Oades-Sese, G., Cohen, D., Allen, J. W. P., & Lewis, M. (2014). Resilience Interventions for Youth in Diverse Populations. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0542-3
Peleg, R., & Baram-Tsabari, A. (2011). Atom Surprise: Using Theatre in Primary Science Education. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 20(5), 508–524. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-011-9299-y
Phillips, L. (2013). Storytelling as pedagogy. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 21(2), ii.
Piaget, J. (1968). Quantification, Conservation, and Nativism. Science, 162(3857), 976–979. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.162.3857.976
Pluck, G., & Johnson, H. (2011). Stimulating Curiosity to Enhance Learning. Education Science and Psychology, 2(19), 1689–1699. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004
Precious, W., & McGregor, D. (2014). Just imagine: Using drama to support science learning with older primary children. Primary Science, 132, 35–37.
Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x
Robertson, J. (1978). Forming Pre-schoolers Environmental Attitude: Lasting Effects of Early Childhood Environmental Education. Royal Roads University.
Ross, S. R., Vreeman, V. M., & Lonsdorf, E. V. (2011). Specific image characteristics influence attitudes about chimpanzee conservation and use as pets. PLoS ONE, 6(7), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022050
Sáenz, F., Le Coq, J., Villalobos, C., & Cathelin, C. (2011). Ordenamiento territorial y conservación en Costa Rica. In Congreso SEPIA XIV (pp. 1–16).
Scott, R. H., & Fisher, D. L. (1999). The Impact of an in-Service Course for Primary Science Teachers. Journal of Science and Mathematics Education in S.E. Asia, 25(2), 123–139.
Shulman, L. S., & Tamir, P. (1973). Research on teaching in the natural sciences. Second handbook of research on teaching.
Sutton, C. (1992). Words, science, and learning. Journal of geoscience education (Vol. 53).
Van den Bergh, L., Ros, A., & Beijaard, D. (2013). Teacher feedback during active learning: Current practices in primary schools. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(2), 341–362. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.2012.02073.x
Viteri, F., Clarebout, G., & Crauwels, M. (2014). Children’s recall and motivation for an environmental education video with supporting pedagogical materials. Environmental Education Research, 20(2), 228–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.771734
Wijnia, L., Loyens, S. M. M., & Derous, E. (2011). Investigating effects of problem-based versus lecture-based learning environments on student motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36(2), 101–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2010.11.003
Zafiropoulos, C. A. (2001). Ethics in Aesop’s fables: the Augustana collection (Vol. 216). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004351042
|View Abstract References Full text PDF|
The Implementation of Project-based Learning and Guided Inquiry to Improve Science Process Skills and Student Cognitive Learning Outcomes
Muhammad Nasir, Rini Fakhrunnisa, & Luvia Ranggi Nastiti
pp. 229-238 | Article Number: ijese.2019.020
The aim of this research is to analyze the student’s science process skills and cognitive learning outcomes in implementing project-based learning and guided inquiry. The design used is quasi-experimental design. Sampling technique is matching pretest-posttest comparison group design. Data are analyzed using t-test and N-Gain. The result shows that it is statically differences between project-based learning and guided inquiry toward students’ science process skills (sig. 0.022 < 0.05) and cognitive learning outcomes (sig. 0.013 < 0.05). Project-based learning is more effective than a guided inquiry to increase the student’s science process skills and cognitive learning outcomes. Based on this research result, the teacher should be implemented the project-based learning to improve student’s science process skills and cognitive learning outcomes.
Keywords: project-based learning, guided inquiry, science process skills, cognitive learning outcomes
Ajizah, N., Indrawati, & Harijanto, A. (2014). Penerapan Model Inkuiri Terbimbing Untuk Meningkatkan Keterampilan Proses Sains Dan Hasilbelajar Fisika Siswa Kelas Xc Di Man 2 Jember Tahun Ajaran 2013/2014. Jurnal Pendidikan Fisika, 3(3). Retrieved from http://fisika.fkip.unej.ac.id
Ergül, R., Şimşekli, Y., Çaliş, S., Özdilek, Z., Göçmençelebi, Ş., & Şanli, M. (2011). The effects of inquiry-based science teaching on elementary school students’ science process skills and science attitudes. Bulgarian Journal of Science & Education Policy, 5(1). Retrieved from http://bjsep.org
Fatimah, S. (2016). Pengaruh Pembelajaran IPA Menggunakan Project Based Learning (PJBL) Dan Seven Jumps Terhadap Keterampilan Proses Dan Karakter Sains Peserta Didik Pada Materi Peristiwa Alam. Jurnal Pendidikan Universitas Sebelas Maret, Retrieved from http://www.jurnal.fkip.uns.ac.id
Gormally, C., Brickman, P., Hallar, B., & Armstrong, N. (2009). Effects of inquiry-based learning on students’ science literacy skills and confidence. International journal for the scholarship of teaching and learning, 3(2), 16. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2009.030216
Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2004). Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational psychology review, 16(3), 235-266. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EDPR.0000034022.16470.f3
Hofstein, A., & Lunetta, V. N. (2004). The laboratory in science education: Foundations for the twenty‐first century. Science education, 88(1), 28-54. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.10106
Jagantara, I. M. W. (2014). Pengaruh Model Pembelajaran Berbasis Proyek (Project Based Learning) Terhadap Hasil Belajar Biologi Ditinjau dari Gaya Belajar Siswa SMA. Jurnal penelitian Pascasarjana Undiksha, 4(1). Retrieved from http://pasca.undiksha.ac.id
Kitot, A. K. A., Ahmad, A. R., & Seman, A. A. (2010). The effectiveness of inquiry teaching in enhancing students’ critical thinking. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 7, 264-273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.10.037
Maikristina, N. (2013). Pengaruh Penggunaan Model Pembelajaran Inkuiri Terbimbing Terhadap Hasil Belajar Dan Keterampilan Proses Sains Siswa Kelas XI IPA SMAN 3 Malang Pada Materi Hidrolisis Garam. (Online), 2(2). https://doi.org/10.22611/jpf.v3i1.3277
Marina, B. (2017). Cognitive science: from multidisciplinarity to interdisciplinarity. International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.5937/ijcrsee1702145B
Mulyasa. (2014). Pengembangan Dan Implementasi Kurikulum 2013. Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya.
Nikam, M. P. (2014). Using Questioning Strategy to Enhance Scientific Process Skills. Retrieved from http://researchgate.net
Oktadifani, U. (2016). Pengaruh Model Project Based Learning Terhadap Keterampilan Proses Sains Dan Hasil Belajar Siswa Dalam Pembelajaran Fisika Di SMA. Jurnal Pembelajaran Fisika, (online), 5(2). Retrieved from https://jurnal.unej.ac.id
Rauf, R. A. A., Rasul, M. S., Mansor, A. N., Othman, Z., & Lyndon, N. (2013). Inculcation of science process skills in a science classroom. Asian Social Science, 9(8), 47-57. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n8p47
Roth, W. M., & Roychoudhury, A. (1993). The development of science process skills in authentic contexts. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 30(2), 127-152. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.3660300203
Santiasih, N. L. (2013). Pengaruh Model Pembelajaran Inkuiri Terbimbing Terhadap Sikap Ilmiah Dan Hasil Belajar Ipa Siswa Kelas V SD No. 1 Kerobokan Kecamatan Kuta Utara Kabupaten Badung Tahun Pelajaran 2013/2014. Jurnal penelitian Pascasarjana Undiksha, 3(1). Retrieved from http://pasca.undiksha.ac.id
Snyder, L. G., & Snyder, M. J. (2008). Teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills. The Journal of Research in Business Education, 50(2), 90. Retrieved from https://tccl.arcc.albany.edu
Strom, R. (2012). Using guided inquiry to improve process skills and content knowledge in primary science. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.montana.edu
Sugiyono. (2009). Metode Penelitian Pendidikan. Bandung: Alfabeta.
Trianto. (2010). Mendesain Model Pembelajaran Inovatif-Progresif: Konsep, Landasan, Dan Implementasinya Pada Kurikulum Satuan Pendidikan KTSP. Jakarta: Kencana.
Wahyudi, L. E., & Supardi, I. (2013). Penerapan Model Pembelajaran Inkuiri Terbimbing Pada Pokok Bahasan Kalor Untuk Melatihkan Keterampilan Proses Sains Terhadap Hasil Belajar di SMAN 1 Sumenep. Jurnal Inovasi Pendidikan Fisika, (Online), 2(2), 62-65. Retrieved from http://www.e-jurnal.com
Wena, M. (2010). Strategi Pembelajaran Inovatif Kontemporer Suatu Tinjauan Konseptual Operasional. Jakarta: Bumi Aksara.
Yance & Rinta, D. (2013). Pengaruh Penerapan Model Project Based Learning (Pbl) Terhadap Hasil Belajar Fisika Siswa Kelas XI IPA SMA Negeri 1 Batipuh Kabupaten Tanah Datar. Pillar of Physics Education. (Online), 1(4), 48-54. Retrieved from http://ejournal.unp.ac.id
|View Abstract References Full text PDF|
Multi-dialect Language Use and Management with Reference to Gurage Language(s)
Tiglu Geza Nisrane
pp. 239-249 | Article Number: ijese.2019.021
This study examined possibilities to use and manage multi-dialect language with reference to Gurage language. This study evaluated the perspectives of Gurage people towards dialect variations effects on its development, challenges in its use, ways to improve standardization, and the optimum conditions to use the language. To achieve these objectives mixed research methods were used. Quantitative data was obtained from questionnaires using stratified sampling. Qualitative data was obtained based on purposive sampling through interviews and focus group discussion. The data analysis was both descriptive and interpretative. The findings show that the dialect variation influenced the use of the language. They also revealed that there are three possible ways to utilize the language for various purposes.
Keywords: multi-dialect language, language use, language management, Gurage
Ager, D. (2001). Motivation in Language Planning and Language Policy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Ball, M. (2010). The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics around the World. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203869659
Bamgbose, A. (1989). Mother Tongue Education: The West African Experience. Paris: UNESCO Press.
Bamgbose, A. (1991). Language and the Nation: The Language Question in Sub-Saharan Africa. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Bamgbose, A. (2001). Language and Exclusion: The Consequence of Language Policies in Africa. London: Transaction Publishers.
Bartels, N. (2005). Applied Linguistics and Language Teacher Education. Educational Linguistics: 4/1 Boston: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2954-3
Batibo, H. (2005), Language and Death in Africa. Causes, Consequences and Challenges. Multilingual Matters. Toronto: Clarendon. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853598104
Baye Yimam (2012). Modernity, Language and Identity. In Elizabeth W/Giorgis (Eds). What is “Zemenawinet”? Perspectives on Ethiopian Modernity. Lecture Series. Addia Ababa office: Friedrich-ebert-stiftung. Retrieved from http://ethiopia.fes-international.de
Bekale Seyoum. (2012). Language Diversity and the Challenges of Government Language Planning in Ethiopia (Unpublished PhD Dissertation). Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University.
Bender, L. (1970). Language Survey of Ethiopia: Towards a Lexicostatistics Classification of Ethiopian Languages (Unpublished Manuscript). Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.
Bender, L., Cooper, R., & Ferguson, G. (1976). Language in Ethiopia. London: Oxford University Press.
Blommaert, J. (1996a). Language Planning as a Discourse on Language and Society: The Linguistic Ideology of a Scholarly Tradition. Language Problems and Language Planning, 20(3), 181-205. https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.20.3.01blo
Blommaert, J. (1996b). Discourse: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2001). Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chumbow, S. (2009). Linguistic Diversity, Pluralism and National Development in Africa. University of Yaounde: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. Africa Development, 34(2), 21-45. https://doi.org/10.4314/ad.v34i2.57364
Crass, J., & Meyer, R. (2001). The Qabena and the Wolane: Two peoples of the Gurage Region and Respective Histories according to their own Oral Traditions. Annales d'Ethiopie, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.3406/ethio.2001.997
Fekede Menuta. (2013). Intergroup Communication in Gurage: A Study in Intelligibility, Inter-lingual Comprehension and Accommodation (Unpublished PhD Dissertation). Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University.
Fishman, J. (ed.) (2000). Can Threatened Languages be Saved? "Reversing Language Shift" Revisited. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853597060
Gutt, E.-A. (1980). Intelligibility and Inter-lingual Comprehension among Selected Gurage Speech Varieties. Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 14, 57-85.
Heugh, K., Benson, C., Berhanu, B., & Mekonnen, A. (2007). Study on MOI in Primary Schools in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Ministry of Education.
Kamwangamalu, N. M. (1997). Multilingualism and Education Policy in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Language Problems & Language Planning, 21(3). https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.21.3.03kam
Meyer, R., & Renate, R. (2003). Language Use in Ethiopia: From a Network Perspective: Results of a Sociolinguistic Survey. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Nisrane, T. G. (2016). Language Planning and Policy in the Silt’e Zone (Unpublished PhD Dissertation). Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University.
Nisrane, T. G., Wejira, C. Z. (2018). Maintaining Guragina Language: Status and Attitude. Int. J. Adv. Res., 6(12), 879-893. https://doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/8212
UNESCO. (1953). The Use of the Vernacular Languages in Education. Monographs on Foundations of Education, 8(23).
Zelealem Leyew. (2012). The Ethiopian Language Policy: A Historical and Typological Overview. Ethiopian Journal of Languages and Literature, 12(2), 1-59.
|View Abstract References Full text PDF|
Cities under Participatory Construction: Scale, Dynamics, and Constraints of Participatory Budgeting
Agnieszka Kurdyś-Kujawska, Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, & Ove Oklevik
pp. 251-267 | Article Number: ijese.2019.022
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a means for city residents to have direct input into how and where public funds should be spent to address community needs. This paper examines the practice of PB within the context of post-socialist cities. Specifically, it focuses on scale, dynamics, and constraints of PB in all Polish cities with province capital status. First, literature on PB was synthesized. Second, documentary research was mobilized to provide source material infused with empirically grounded insights to aid the understanding of the practice of PB within the chosen context. The findings show great diversity in the financial scale, organization, and outcomes of PB in Poland. Furthermore, the study reveals three constraints that may hamper further development of PB: (1) lack of a legal basis of PB in the Polish legal system; (2) inadequate transparency of the project pre-selection procedure, including a lack of defined objective evaluation criteria; and (3) too much influence of local authorities on the selection of projects to be implemented. Against this background, clear-cut actions are outlined to improve the functioning of PB in Poland.
Keywords: participatory budgeting, local government, project, local community, civil society
Alexander, J. C. (2006). The civil sphere, New York, NY, Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162509.001.0001
Andreev, S. (2003). The role of institutions in the consolidation of democracy in post-Communist Eastern Europe, Working Paper No. 13, Centre for the Study of Political Change (CIRCaP).
Belka, M. (2013). How Poland’s EU membership helped transform its economy, Occasional Paper 88, Group of Thirty, Washington.
Boulding, C., & Wampler, B. (2010). Voice, votes, and resources: Evaluating the effect of participatory democracy on well-being. World Development, 38(1), 125-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2009.05.002
Brun-Martos, M. I., & Lapsley, I. (2017). Democracy, governmentality and transparency: Participatory budgeting in action. Public Management Review, 19(7), 1006-1021. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2016.1243814
Cabannes, Y. (2004). Participatory budgeting: A significant contribution to participatory democracy. Environment and Urbanization, 16(1), 27-46. https://doi.org/10.1177/095624780401600104
Christensen, T., Lægreid, P., Roness, P., & Røvik, K. (2007). Organization theory and the public sector: Instrument, culture and myth. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203929216
Classen, L., Humphries, S., FitzSimons, J., Kaaria, S., Jiménez, J., Sierra, F., & Gallardo, O. (2008). Opening participatory spaces for the most marginal: Learning from collective action in the Honduran hillsides. World Development, 36(11), 2402-2420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.04.007
Conning, J., & Kevane, M. (2002). Community-based targeting mechanisms for social safety nets: A critical review. World Development, 30(3), 375-394. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(01)00119-X
Cooke, B., & Kothari, U. (Eds.) (2001). Participation: The new tyranny? , London: Zed Books.
Czarnecki, K. (2014). Udział mieszkańców w ustalaniu wydatków budżetu gminy w ramach tzw. budżetu partycypacyjnego (na przykładzie Torunia w latach 2013–2014). Prawo budżetowe państwa i samorządu, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.12775/PBPS.2014.008
De Sousa Santos, B. (1998). Participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre: Toward a redistributive democracy. Politics and Society, 26, 461–510. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329298026004003
Dias, N. (Eds.) (2014). Hope for democracy: 25 years of participatory budgeting worldwide, Nelson Dias (org).
Dolewka, Z. (2015). Budżet partycypacyjny w teorii i w praktyce. Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wrocławiu, 408, Przestrzeń w nowych realiach gospodarczych, Wrocław, Poland. https://doi.org/10.15611/pn.2015.408.04
Drozdowski, E. (2014). Budżet partycypacyjny jako forma uczestnictwa społeczności lokalnej w tworzeniu budżetu gminy. In Z. Ofiarski (Eds.), XXV lat przeobrażeń w prawie finansowym i prawie podatkowym – ocena dokonań i wnioski na przyszłość, Szczecin, Poland.
Ekiert, G. (2001). Demokracje w Europie Środkowej 1989-99. In J. Miklaszewski (Eds.), Prawidłowości transformacji w Europie Wschodniej, Kraków, Poland.
European Commission (2009). European Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 in Poland: Priorities and Impact of Cohesion Policy in the Member States. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/informat/country2009/pl_en.pdf
Ferenčuhová, S., & Gentile, M. (2016). Introduction: Post-socialist cities and urban theory. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 57(4), 483-496. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2016.1270615
Fontana, L. B., & Grugel, J. (2016). The politics of indigenous participation through “free prior informed consent”: Reflections from the Bolivian Case. World Development, 77, 249-261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.08.023
Fung, A., & Wright, E.O. (2003). Deepening democracy: Institutional innovations in empowered participatory governance, London, Verso.
Ganuza, E., & Baiocchi, G. (2012). The power of ambiguity: How participatory budgeting travels the globe. Journal of Public Deliberation, 8(2), 8.
Gibson, C., & Woolcock, M. (2008). Empowerment, deliberative development, and local-level politics in Indonesia: Participatory projects as a source of countervailing power. Studies in Comparative International Development, 43(2), 151-180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-008-9021-0
Goldfrank, B. (2007). Lessons from Latin American experience in participatory budgeting. In A. Shah (Eds.), Participatory budgeting. Washington, DC: World Bank Institute.
Gomez, J., Rios Insua, D., & Alfaro, C. (2016). A participatory budget model under uncertainty. European Journal of Operational Research, 249(1), 351-358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.09.024
Gomez, J., Rios Insua, D., Lavin, J. M., & Alfaro, C. (2013). On deciding how to decide: Designing participatory budget processes. European Journal of Operational Research, 229(3), 743-750. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2013.03.035
Gomułka, S. (2016). Poland’s economic and social transformation 1989-2014 and contemporary challenges. Central Bank Review, 16, 19-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbrev.2016.03.005
Goncalves, S. (2014). The effects of participatory budgeting on municipal expenditures and infant mortality in Brazil. World Development, 53, 94-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.11.010
Grillos, T. (2017). Economic vs non-material incentives for participation in an in-kind payments for ecosystem services program in Bolivia. Ecological Economics, 131, 178-190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.08.010
Habermas, J. (1996). Between facts and norms: Contribution to a discourse theory of law and democracy. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/1564.001.0001
Hagelskamp, C., Rinehart, C., Silliman R., & Schleifer, D. (2016). Public spending, by the people: Participatory budgeting in the United States and Canada in 2014–15. Technical report, Public Agenda.
Iversen, V., Chhetry, B., Francis, P., Gurung, M., Kafle, G., Pain, A., & Seeley, J. (2006). High value forests, hidden economies and elite capture: Evidence from forest user groups in Nepal’s Terai. Ecological Economics, 58(1), 93-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.05.021
Kaufmann, B. (2017). Global passport to modern direct democracy, Stockholm, Embassy Switzerland in Sweden, Swiss Democracy Foundation.
Kębłowski, W. (2014). Budżet partycypacyjny. Ewaluacja, Instytut Obywatelski, Warsaw, Poland.
Kennedy, R. E. (1997). A tale of two economies: Economic restructuring in post-socialist Poland. World Development, 25(6), 841-865. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(97)00004-1
Kolarska-Bobińska, L. (1991). Rola państwa w procesie transformacji. Studia Socjologiczne, 3(4), 51.
Kołodko, G. (2009). A two-thirds of success. Poland’s post-communist transformation 1989-2009. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 42(3), 325-351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postcomstud.2009.07.005
Kołodziejczyk, K. (2016). Poland in the European Union. Ten years of membership. Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal, (40), 9-26. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_RUNI.2016.n40.51803
Kraszewski, D., & Mojkowski, K. (2014). Budżet obywatelski w Polsce, Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego, Warsaw, Poland.
Krenjova, J., & Raudla, R. (2013). Participatory budgeting at the local level: Challenges and opportunities for new democracies. Administrative Culture, 14(1), 18-46.
Lavrinec, J. (2011). Revitalization of public space: From “non-places” to creative playgrounds. Santalka: Filosofija, Komunikacija, 19(2), 70-75. https://doi.org/10.3846/coactivity.2011.16
Lund, J. F., & Saito-Jensen, M. (2013). Revisiting the issue of elite capture of participatory initiatives. World Development, 46, 104-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.01.028
Matejczyk, M. (2010). Raport końcowy z badania efektywności mechanizmów konsultacji społecznych. ZWP MPiPS Poland, Warsaw, Poland.
Michels, A., & De Graaf, L. (2010). Examining citizen participation: Local participatory policy making and democracy. Local Government Studies, 36(4), 477-491. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2010.494101
Miller, S., Hildreth, R., & Stewart, L. (2017). The modes of participation: A revised frame for identifying and analyzing participatory budgeting practices. Administration & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399717718325
Petrova, V. P. (2007). Civil society in post-communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia: A cross-national analysis of micro- and macro-factors. World Development, 35, 1277-1305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2006.09.019
Platteau, J. P., & Abraham, A. (2002). Participatory development in the presence of endogenous community imperfections. Journal of Development Studies, 39(2), 104-136. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220380412331322771
Roy, I. (2008). Civil society and good governance: (Re-) conceptualizing the interface. World Development, 36(4), 677-705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.04.020
Ruus, J. (2011). Local direct democracy in Europe. In T. Schiller (Eds.), Democratic participation at the local level in post-communist states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, City: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 268-289. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-92898-2_17
Rytel-Warzocha, A. (2010). Partycypacja społeczna w sprawach budżetowych. Model Porto Alegre jako pierwowzór rozwiązań europejskich. Przegląd Prawa Konstytucyjnego, 1, 94-95.
Schugurensky, D. (2016). Democratic innovations and local governance: An international perspective. Local Government Reconsidered, 4. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/localgovernmentreconsidered/strengtheningdemocracy/papers/4
Scott, J. (1990). A matter of record: Documentary sources in social research. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Shah, A. (2007). Participatory budgeting. Washington, DC: World Bank Institute. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6923-4
Sintomer, Y., Herzberg, C., & Rőcke, A. (2008). Participatory budgeting in Europe: Potentials and challenges. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(1), 164-178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00777.x
Speer, J. (2012). Participatory governance reform: A good strategy for increasing government responsiveness and improving public services. World Development, 40(12), 2379-2398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.05.034
Tsenkova, S. (2014). Planning trajectories in post-socialist cities: Patterns of divergence and change. Urban Research & Practice, 7(3), 278-301. https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2014.966513
Tsurkan M.V., Sotskova S.I., Aksinina O.S., Lyubarskaya M.A., & Tkacheva O.N. (2016). Influence of the Participatory Budgeting on the Infrastructural Development of the Territories in the Russian Federation. International Journal of Environmental & Science Education, 11(15), 7684-7702.
Uddin, S. N., Mori, Y., & Adhikari, P. (2017). Participatory budgeting and local government in a vertical society: A Japanese story. International Review of Administrative Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852317721335
Walczak D., & Rutkowska A. (2017). Project rankings for participatory budget based on the fuzzy TOPSIS method. European Journal of Operational Research, 260(2), 706-714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2016.12.044
Wampler, B. (2007). Participatory budgeting. In A. Shah (Eds.), A guide to participatory budgeting. Washington, DC: World Bank Institute.
Wampler, B. (2012). Participatory budgeting: Core principles and key Impacts. Journal of Public Deliberation, 8(2).
Wigell, M. (2017). Political effects of welfare pluralism: comparative evidence from Argentina and Chile. World Development, 95, 27-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.02.020
World Bank (2015). Participatory budgeting in Brazil: Empowerment case studies. Retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEMPOWERMENT/Resources/14657_Partic-Budg-Brazil-web.pdf
|View Abstract References Full text PDF|
Entry Level Capability of Newly Qualified Science and Technology Teachers into the Teaching Profession
Paul Nnanyereugo Iwuanyanwu
pp. 269-279 | Article Number: ijese.2019.023
This study involved both instructional tool and learning tasks used for examining the entry level capability of newly qualified science and technology teachers (henceforth, NQSTTs). Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, the study included 106 NQSTTs, experimental group (N = 54) and control group (N = 52) exposed to a three-month professional qualifying examination (PQE) program. Instruments such as Science Achievement Test (SAT), Technology Achievement Test (TAT), Integrated Science, Technology and Society Test (ISTST) and Micro-teaching Practice were used to measure the NQSTTs’ entry level capability. All tests had versions of pretest and posttest and were administered to both groups at the start, and at the end of the study. Significant changes in teachers’ entry level capability were identified through repeated measures ANOVA tests run for each test at the significant level of .05. Results indicated that teachers’ entry level capability relatively improved than expected, most probably as a result of the type of preparation they received. It is hoped that these findings may help to show interesting differences in programs aimed at preparing teachers for certification/induction. Didactic implications for science and technology education are discussed.
Keywords: science, technology, society, teachers, process skills, traits, ability
Afuwape, M. O., & Oriola, B. O. (2017). Skills in Basic Science and Technology for Local Technology and Entrepreneurship in Nigeria. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology Studies, 5(1), 80-89.
Ahmed, A. T., Oyelekan, S. O., & Olorundare, A. S. (2015). Introduction of the Science, Technology and Society in Nigerian Curriculum. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences, 2(2), 117-123.
Akindutire, I., & Ekundayo, H. (2012) Teacher Education in a Democratic Nigeria: Challenges and the Way Forward. Educational Research, 3, 429-435.
Akinsolu, A. O. (2010).Teachers and Students’ Academic Performance in Nigerian Secondary Schools: Implications for Planning. Florida Journal of Educational Administration & Policy, 3(2), 86-103.
Bales, B. L. (2015).Restructuring Teacher Education in the United States: Finding the Tipping Point. Athens Journal of Education, 2(4), 297-312. https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.2-4-1
Boakye, C., & Ampiah, J.G. (2017), “Challenges and solutions: the experiences of newly qualified science teachers”, SAGE Open, 7(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017706710
Curtis, E. (2015). The Values Dimension of Quality Teachers: Can we prepare Pre-service Teachers for this? Athens Journal of Education, 2(4), 313-330. https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.2-4-2
Dias-Lacy, S. L., & Guirguis, R. V. (2017). Challenges for new teachers and ways of coping with them. Journal of Education and Learning, 6(3), 265-289. https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v6n3p265
Facer, K. (2012). Taking the 21st century seriously: young people, education and socio-technical futures. Oxford Review of Education, 38(1), 97-113. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2011.577951
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education, Nigeria, Yaba Lagos NERDC Press.
Franklin, T. J. (2015). Embracing the future: Empowering the 21st century educator. Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 176, 1089-1096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.584
Holmqvist, M. (2019). Lack of Qualified Teachers: A Global Challenge for Future Knowledge Development. In R. B. Monyai (Ed.), Teacher Education in the 21st Century, 1-13. Rijeka: IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83417
Hsu, L., & Chen, Y. (2018). Teachers’ Knowledge and Competence in the Digital Age: Descriptive Research within the TPACK Framework. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 8(6), 455-458. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2018.8.6.1081
Iwuanyanwu, P. N. (2019). What we Teach in Science, and What Learners Learn: A Gap that Needs Bridging. Pedagogical Research, 4(2), em0032. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/5780
Iwuanyanwu, P. N., & Ogunniyi, M. B. (2018). Scientific and Indigenous Worldviews of Pre-service Teachers in an Interactive Learning Environment. In L. M. Semali & A. Singambi-(Ed.), Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference of the African Association for the Study of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, (pp. 287 - 304). Moshi, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania: AASIKS.
Jegede, O. J. (1988). The development of the science, technology and society curricula in Nigeria. International Journal of Science Education, 10(4), 399-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950069880100407
Kang, E. J. S., Bianchini, J. A., & Kelly, G. J. (2013). Crossing the border from science student to science teacher: Pre-service teachers’ views and experiences learning to teach inquiry. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 24(3), 427–447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-012-9317-9
Kola, A. J. (2016). Employment of untrained graduate teachers in schools: The Nigeria case. Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities, 2, 34-44.
Kola, A. J., Gana, N. N., & Olasumbo, I.O. (2017). The lack of good governance in Nigeria and its impact on functional science education. International Journal of Development and Sustainability, 6(9),1036-1047.
Kwaah, C. Y., & Palojoki, P. (2018). Entry characteristics, academic achievement and teaching practices: A comparative study of two categories of newly qualified teachers in basic schools in Ghana. Cogent Education, 5, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2018.1561144
Marshall, J. C., Smart, J. B., & Alston, D. M. (2017). Inquiry-based instruction: A possible solution to improving student learning of both science concepts and scientific practices. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 15(5), 777–796. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-016-9718-x
Minner, D., Levy, A., & Century, J. (2010). Inquiry-based science instruction—What is it and does it matter? Results from a research synthesis years 1984 to 2002. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47, 474–496. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20347
Mumba, F., Miles, E., & Chabalengula, V. (2019). Elementary Education In-service Teachers’ Familiarity, Interest, Conceptual Knowledge and Performance on Science Process Skills. Journal of STEM Teacher Education, 53(2), 21-42. https://doi.org/10.30707/JSTE53.2Mumba
Nugent, G., Toland, M. D., Levy, R., Kunz, G., Harwood, D., Green, D., & Kitts, K. (2012). The impact of an inquiry-based geoscience field course on pre-service teachers. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 23(5), 503–529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-012-9283-2
Ogunniyi, M. B. (1996). Science, technology and mathematics: The problem of developing critical human capital in Africa. International Journal of Science Education, 18(3), 267-284. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950069960180301
Okemakinde, T., Adewuyi, J. O., & Alabi, C. O. (2013). The place of teacher in national development in Nigeria. European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 19(1), 964-980.
Oluremi, O. F. (2013). Enhancing educational effectiveness in Nigeria through teacher’s professional development. European Scientific Journal, 9(28), 422-431.
Opateye, J. A. (2012). Developing and Assessing Science and Technology process skills in Nigerian universal basic education environment. Journal of Education and Society Research, 2, 34-42.
Özdemir, S. (2017). Teacher Views on Barriers to the Integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Turkish Teaching. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 12(3) 505-521.
Pedretti, E. (2003). Teaching science, technology, society and environment (STSE) education: Pre-service teachers’ philosophical and pedagogical landscapes. In D. Zeidler (Ed.), The role of moral reasoning on socio-scientific issues and discourse in science education, 219 – 240. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4996-X_12
Petersen, N. (2017). The liminality of new foundation phase teachers: Transitioning from university into the teaching profession. South African Journal of Education, 37(2), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v37n2a1361
Slough, S., & Chamblee, G. (2017). 21st Century Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Science Teaching and Learning. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 36(2), 173-187. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00806a
Sunde, E., & Ulvik, M. (2014). School leaders’ views on mentoring and newly qualified teachers’ needs. Education Inquiry, 5(2), 285-299. https://doi.org/10.3402/edui.v5.23923
Umoren, G. (2007). A science–technology–society paradigm and Cross River State secondary school students’ scientific literacy: problem solving and decision making. Educational Research and Review, 2(4), 82-91.
UNESCO & UNICEF. (2013a). Envisioning Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Executive Summary. Paris, UNICEF and UNESCO.
UNESCO. (2012). Education and Skills for Inclusive and Sustainable Development beyond 2015: Think Piece for the United Nations Task Team on Post-2015 Development.
UNESCO-IBE. (2013). Statement on Learning in the post-2015 Education and Development Agenda. Geneva, UNESCO International Bureau of Education. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/Newfileadmin
Villalba, A., González-Rivera, M., & Díaz-Pulido, B. (2017). Obstacles perceived by physical education teachers to integrating ICT. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 16(1), 83-92.
Zeichner, K., & Liston, D.P. (2013). Reflective teaching: An introduction to Reflective Teaching and the Social Conditions of Schooling Series (2nd ed.), Routledge, 1-121. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203822289
|View Abstract References Full text PDF|
Distinguishing Topic-Specific Professional Knowledge from Topic-Specific PCK: A Conceptual Framework
pp. 281-296 | Article Number: ijese.2019.024
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to present a review of the literature on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that explores and critically analyzes the conceptualization of topic-specific science PCK in the light of previous discussions and research on science PCK as well as the new developments. I investigated the literature on PCK that has contributed to the conceptualization of PCK since its introduction by Shulman (1986) to understand topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) and distinguish it from topic-specific professional knowledge (TSPK). This paper provides a conceptual framework to further elaborate on the concept of TSPK by identifying TSPK components and presenting possible ways for these components to emerge or develop. This framework viewed TSPCK as a combination of knowledge and skills, where (1) knowledge is represented by the development of TSPCK components as a result of (a) interpretation, (b) integration, or (c) specification and skills are represented by (2) integration of TSPK components by individual teachers to help students understand a science topic.
Keywords: pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), science teachers’ professional knowledge, Topic-Specific PCK (TSPCK), Topic-Specific Professional Knowledge (TSPCK)
Abell, S. K. (2007). Research on science teachers’ knowledge. In S. K. Abell & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Handbook of research on science education (pp. 1105-1149). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Abell, S. K. (2008). Twenty years later: Does pedagogical content knowledge remain a useful idea? International Journal of Science Education, 30, 1405-1416. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690802187041
Azam, S. (2015). Stories of teaching force and motion: A narrative inquiry into pedagogical content knowledge of science teachers. (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Ball, D. L. (1990). The mathematical understandings that preservice teachers bring to teacher education. Elementary School Journal, 90(4), 449–466. https://doi.org/10.1086/461626
Berry, A., Loughran, J., & van Driel, J. H. (2008). Revisiting the roots of pedagogical content knowledge. [Editorial Material]. International Journal of Science Education, 30(10), 1271-1279. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690801998885
Carlsen, W. S. (1999). Domains of teacher knowledge. In N. G. Lederman & J. Gess-Newsome (Eds.), Examining pedagogical content knowledge: The construct and its implications for science education (pp. 133-144). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47217-1_5
Carpenter, T. P., Fennema, E., Peterson, P. L., & Carey, D. A. (1988). Teachers pedagogical content knowledge of students’ problem-solving in elementary arithmetic. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 19(5), 385-401. https://doi.org/10.2307/749173
Carter, K. (1990). Teachers’ knowledge and learning to teach. In W. R. Houston & M. H. J. Sikula (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 291–310). New York: Macmillan.
Clermont, C. P., Borko, H., & Krajcik, J. S. (1994). Comparative study of the pedagogical content knowledge of experienced and novice chemical demonstrators. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31(4), 419-441. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.3660310409
Cochran, K. F., DeRuiter, J. A., & King, R. A. (1993). Pedagogical content knowledge: An integrative model for teacher preparation. Journal of Teacher Education, 44(4), 263-272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487193044004004
Davidowitz, B., & Potgieter, M. (2016). Use of the rasch measurement model to explore the relationship between content knowledge and topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge for organic chemistry. International Journal of Science Education, 38, 1483-1503. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2016.1196843
De Jong, O., Van Driel, J., & Verloop, N. (2005). Pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of using particle models in teaching chemistry. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42, 947-964. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20078
Drechsler, M., & Van Driel, J. (2008) Experienced teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of teaching acid-base chemistry. Research Science Education, 38, 611-631. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-007-9066-5
Geddis, A. N. (1993). Transforming Content Knowledge: Learning to teach about Isotopes. Science Education, 77, 575-591. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.3730770603
Geddis, A. N., & Wood, E. (1997). Transforming subject matter and managing dilemmas: A case study in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13, 611–626. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(97)80004-2
Geddis, A. N., Onslow, B., Beynon, C., & Oesch, J. (1993). Transforming content knowledge: Learning to teach about isotopes. Science Education, 77(6), 575–591. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.3730770603
Gess-Newsome, J. (1999). PCK: An introduction and orientation. In J. Gess-Newsome & N. Lederman (Eds.), Examining PCK: The construct and its implications for science education (pp. 3-20). Boston, MA: Kluwer.
Gess-Newsome, J. (2015). A model of teacher professional knowledge and skill including PCK: Results of the thinking from the PCK Summit. In A. Berry, P. Friedrichsen & J. Loughran (Eds.), Re-examining pedagogical content knowledge in science education (pp. 28–42). London: Routledge.
Grossman, P. (1989). A study of contrast: Sources of pedagogical content knowledge for secondary English. Journal of Teacher Education, 40(5), 24-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/002248718904000504
Gudmondsdottir, S. (1990). Story-maker, story-teller: Narrative structures in curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 23, 207-218. https://doi.org/10.1080/0022027910230301
Gudmundsdottir, S. (1991). Values in pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Teacher Education, 41(3), 44-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/002248719004100306
Gudmundsdottir, S. (1995). The narrative nature of pedagogical content knowledge. In H. McEwan & K. Egan (Eds.), Narrative in teaching, learning and research (pp. 24-38).
Hashweh, M. Z. (1987). Effects of subject matter knowledge in the teaching of biology and physics. Teaching & Teacher Education, 3, 109-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/0742-051X(87)90012-6
Hashweh, M. Z. (2005). Teacher pedagogical construction: a reconfirmation of pedagogical content knowledge. Teachers and Teaching, 11, 273-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/13450600500105502
Henze, I., Van Driel, J. H., & Verloop, N. (2008) Development of experienced science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of models of the solar system and the universe. International Journal of Science Education, 3(10), 1321- 1342. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690802187017
Hollon, R. E., & Anderson, C. W. (1985). The curricular significance of students’ conceptions of heat and temperature. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
Johnston, J., & Ahtee, M. (2006). Comparing primary student teachers’ attitudes, subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge needs in a physics activity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 503-512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.11.015
Kapyla, M., Heikkinen. J.P., & Asunta, T. (2009). Influence of content knowledge on pedagogical knowledge: the case of teaching photosynthesis and plant growth. International Journal of Science Education. 31(10), 1395-1415. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690802082168
Kind, V. (2015). On the beauty of knowing then not knowing: Pinning down the elusive qualities of PCK. In A. Berry, P. Friedrichsen & J. Loughran (Eds.), Re-examining pedagogical content knowledge in science education (pp. 170-196). London: Routledge.
Lee, E., & Luft, J. A. (2008). Experienced secondary science teachers’ representation of pedagogical content knowledge. International Journal of Science Education, 30, 1343-1363. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690802187058
Loughran, J. J., Mulhall, P., & Berry, A. (2004). In search of pedagogical content knowledge in science: Developing ways of articulating and documenting professional practice. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41, 370-391. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20007
Loughran, J., Berry, A., & Mulhall, P. (2006). Understanding and developing science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.
Loughran, J., Milroy, P. Berry, A. Gunstone, R. Mulhall, P. (2001). Documenting science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge through Pap-eRs, Research in Science Education, 31(2), 289-307https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013124409567
Magnusson, S., Krajacik, J., & Borko, H. (1999). Nature, sources, and development of PCK for science teaching. In J. Gess-Newsome & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Examining PCK: The construct and its implications for science education (pp. 95-120), Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Press.
Marks, R. (1990). Pedagogical content knowledge: From a mathematical case to a modified conception. Journal of Teacher Education, 41(3), 3-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/002248719004100302
Mavhunga, M. E., & Rollnick, M. (2011). The development and validation of a tool for measuring topic specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in chemical equilibrium. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), Lyon, France.
Melo-Niño, L.V., Cañada, F., & Mellado, V. (2017). Initial characterization of Colombian high school physics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge on electric fields. Research in Science Education, 47(1), 25-48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-015-9488-4
Morine-Dershimer, G., & Kent, T. (1999). The complex nature and sources of teachers´ pedagogical knowledge. In: Gess-Newsome, J.; Lederman, N.G. (Eds.) Examining Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 21-50. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47217-1_2
Mthethwa-Kunene, E., Onwu, G. O., & de Villiers, R. (2015) Exploring Biology teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in the teaching of genetics in Swaziland science classrooms. International Journal of Science Education, 37(7), 1140-1165. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2015.1022624
Nur-Akin, F., & Uzuntiriyaki-Kondakci, E. (2018). The nature of the interplay among components of pedagogical content knowledge in reaction rate and chemical equilibrium topics of novice and experienced chemistry teachers. Chemistry Education and Research Practice, 19(1), 80-105. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7RP00165G
Ozden, M. (2008). The effect of content knowledge on pedagogical content knowledge: The case of teaching phases of matters. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Bilimleri, 8(2), 611-645.
Park, S., & Chen, Y-C (2012). Mapping out the integration of the components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK): Examples from high school biology classrooms. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 49, 922-941. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21022
Park, S., & Oliver, J. S. (2008). Revisiting the conceptualization of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK): PCK as a conceptual tool to understand teachers as professionals. Research in Science Education, 38, 261-284. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-007-9049-6
Schemelzing, S., Van Driel J. H., Juttner, M.,Brandenbusch, S., Sandmann, A., & Neuhaus, J. B. (2013). Development, evaluation, and validation of a paper-and-pencil test for measuring two components of biology teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge concerning the “cardiovascular system.” International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 11(6), 1369-1390. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-012-9384-6
Seung, E. (2013). The Process of Physics Teaching Assistants’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge Development. International Journal of Science & Mathematics Education, 11(6), 1303-1326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-012-9378-4
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X015002004
Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.57.1.j463w79r56455411
Tamir, P. (1988). Subject matter and related pedagogical knowledge in teacher education. https://doi.org/10.1016/0742-051X(88)90011-X
Uşak, M. (2005). Preservice science and technology teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge on Cell topics Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 9(4), 2033-2046.
Uzak, M., Ozden, M., & Eilks, I. (2011). A case study of beginning science teachers’ subject matter (SMK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of teaching chemical reaction in Turkey. European Journal of Teacher Education. 34(4), 407-429. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2011.592977
Van der Valk, T., & Broekman, H. (1999). The lesson preparation method: A way of investigating pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. European Journal of Teacher Education, 22(1), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/0261976990220102
Van Driel, J. H., Verloop, N., & de Vos, W. (1998). Developing science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35, 673-695. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-2736(199808)35:6<673::AID-TEA5>3.0.CO;2-J
Van Driel, J., De Jong, O., & Verloop, N. (2002). The development of pre-service chemistry teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. Science Education, 86, 572-590. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.10010
Van Driel, J., De Vos, W., Verloop, N., & Dekkers, H. (1998) Developing secondary students’ conceptions of chemical reactions: the introduction of chemical equilibrium. International Journal of Science Education, 20(4), 379-392. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950069980200401
Veal, W. R., & MaKinster, J. G. (1999). Pedagogical content knowledge taxonomies. Electronic Journal of Science Education, 3(4). Retrieved from http://wolfweb.unr.edu/homepage/crowther/ejse/ejsev3n4.html
Verloop, N., Van Driel, J. H., & Meijer, P. (2001). Teacher knowledge and the knowledge base of teaching. International Journal of Educational Research, 35(5), 441-461. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0883-0355(02)00003-4
Wilson, S., Shulman, L., & Richert, A. (1987). “150 different ways of knowing”: Representations of knowledge in teaching. In J. Calderhead (Ed.), Exploring teachers’ thinking (pp. 104-123). Eastbourne, England: Cassell.
|View Abstract References Full text PDF|
De-black-boxing Learners: What is Occurring in their Minds When they Answer Multiple-choice Questions that Assess their Understanding of Biological Concepts?
Dimitrios Schizas, Dimitris Psillos, & Penelope Papadopoulou
pp. 297-310 | Article Number: ijese.2019.025
Many biology textbooks and test banks accompanying these textbooks have begun to classify multiple-choice questions (MCQs) according to Bloom’s taxonomy. Teachers, however, encounter significant difficulties in adjusting their assessment practices to the low performance of students and in helping them enhance their respective cognitive skills because the mental processes that Bloom’s categories indicate are captured from the perspective of learners’ mental behaviour or observable learning outcomes; learners are treated more as black boxes and less as input-state-output subjects, as constructivist learning theories suggest. Thus, interior mental facts and processes occurring in their minds remain unexplored. The purpose of the present paper is to open learners’ black boxes and reveal the specific mental facts and processes occurring in their cognitive structures when answering Bloom’s classified MCQs, whose subject matter content concerns biological concepts. To accomplish this purpose, we associate knowledge drawn from the philosophy of biology with the conceptual nature of Bloom’s lower-level categories such as ‘knowledge’ and ‘comprehension’. This knowledge involves types of statements and arguments that can be found in scientific language, along with different and interrelated aspects of biological concepts that learners should know if they are to understand declarative knowledge. The implications of our epistemological analysis for the nature of MCQ distractors and the notion of misconceptions will also be discussed.
Keywords: Bloom’s Taxonomy, misconceptions, multiple-choice questions, nature of science, philosophy of science
Allen, D., & Tanner, K. (2002). Approaches to cell biology teaching: questions about questions. Cell Biology Education, 1(3), 63-67. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.02-07-0021
Athanassiou, N., McNett, J. M., & Harvey, C. (2003). Critical thinking in the management classroom: Bloom’s taxonomy as a learning tool. Journal of Management Education, 27(5), 533-555. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562903252515
Baltas, A. (1991). On some structural aspects of physical problems. Synthese, 89(2), 299-320. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413911
Baltas, A. (2007). Background “assumptions” and the grammar of conceptual change: Rescuing Kuhn by means of Wittgenstein, In S. Vosniadou, A. Baltas, & X. Vamvakousi (Eds.), Conceptual change approach in learning and instruction (pp. 63 – 79). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
Baltas, A. 1986. Ideological ‘Assumptions’ in Physics: Social Determinations of Internal Structures. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 130-151. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/192796
Barstow W., Paquin, L., Dini, M., J. Zarnetske, J., Lepri, J., Patterson, C., & Desaix. J. (2008). Test Bank for Campbell- Reece Biology (Eight edition). San Francisco, USA: Pearson Education.
Bird, F. L. (2014). Assessment in biology: trends, problems and solutions. International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education (formerly CAL-laborate International), 22(2).
Bissell, A. N., & Lemons, P. P. (2006). A new method for assessing critical thinking in the classroom. AIBS Bulletin, 56(1), 66-72. https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2006)056[0066:ANMFAC]2.0.CO;2
Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook I, Cognitive Domain. New York: Longman.
Crowe, A., Dirks, C., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2008). Biology in bloom: implementing Bloom’s taxonomy to enhance student learning in biology. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 7(4), 368-381. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.08-05-0024
Driver, R. (1989). Students’ conceptions and the learning of science. International Journal of Science Education, 11(5), 554-565. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950069890110501
Duron, R., Limbach, B., & Waugh, W. (2006). Critical thinking framework for any discipline. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 17(2), 160-166.
Hoefnagels, M. (2015). Test Bank for Biology Concepts and Investigations. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, (3rd Edition).
Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. (1999). Modern Biology. Study Guide. USA: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Hurley, P. (2015). A concise introduction to logic (twelfth edition). USA: Cengage Learning.
Kocakaya, S., & Kotluk, N. (2016). Classifying the Standards via Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy: A Comparison of Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(18), 11297-11318.
Lederman, N. G., Abd‐El‐Khalick, F., Bell, R. L., & Schwartz, R. S. (2002). Views of nature of science questionnaire: Toward valid and meaningful assessment of learners’ conceptions of nature of science. Journal of research in science teaching, 39(6), 497-521. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.10034
Mader, S., & Windelspecht, M. (2017). Test Bank for Inquiry into Life (15th Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Maskiewicz, A. C., & Lineback, J. E. (2013). Misconceptions are “so yesterday!” CBE—Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 352-356. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.13-01-0014
Millar, R., Lubben, F., Gott, R., & S. Duggan, S. (1994). Investigating in the school science laboratory: conceptual and procedural knowledge and their influence on performance. Research Papers in Education, 9(2), 207-248. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267152940090205
Raven, P., Johnson, G., Mason, K., Losos, J., & Singer, S. (2017). Test Bank for Biology (11th Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Reece, J. B., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., & Minorsky, P. V. (2014). Campbell biology (Tenth Edition). USA: Pearson Education.
Sattler, R. (1986). Biophilosophy. Analytic and Holistic Perspectives. Berlin: Springer-Verlab. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71141-1
Schizas, D. (2012). Systems Ecology reloaded: a critical assessment focusing on the relations between science and ideology. In Populations, Biocommunities, Ecosystems: A Review of Controversies in Ecological Thinking, edited by G. Stamou, 67-92. Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. https://doi.org/10.2174/978160805280611201010067
Schizas, D., & G. Stamou. G. (2011). Complexity and declarative knowledge in biology education: a methodological approach. In History, Philosophy and Didactics of Sciences, edited by Κ. Skordoulis, Ε. Νikolaidis, Ε. Koleza, & D. Chasapis, pp. 321-324. Αthens: Nisos publications.
Schizas, D., & Psillos, D. (2019). Exploring physics teachers’ NOTSs (Nature of the Sciences) conceptions and discussing their relation to the current domain-general NOS (Nature of Science) agenda. Electronic Journal of Science Education (accepted for publication).
Schizas, D., Katrana, E., & G. Stamou, G. (2013). Introducing Network analysis into Science Education: Μethodological research examining secondary students’ understanding of ‘decomposition’. International Journal of Science and Environmental Education, 8, 175-198.
Schizas, D., Papatheodorou, E., & Stamou, G. (2018). Transforming “ecosystem” from a scientific concept into a teachable topic: philosophy and history of ecology informs science textbook analysis. Research in Science Education, 48(2), 267-300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9568-0
Schizas, D., Psillos, D., & Stamou, G. (2016). Nature of Science or Nature of the Sciences? Science Education, 100(4), 706-733. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21216
Smocovitis, V. (1992). Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology. Journal of the History of biology, 25(1), 1-65. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01947504
Stamou, G. (1998). Modern Darwinian Synthesis: An hypothesis of compromises, In N. Modinos & H. Euthymiopoulos (Eds.), Ecology and environmental sciences (pp. 233 – 258). Athens, Greece: Stohastis (In Greek).
Stamou, G. P. (2012). Critical realism and ecological studies. In G. P. Stamou (Ed.), Populations, biocommunities, ecosystems: A review of controversies in ecological thinking (pp. 3 – 27). Oak Park, I L: Bentham Science. https://doi.org/10.2174/978160805280611201010003
Van der Steen, W. (1993). A practical philosophy for the life sciences. Albany: State University of the New York Press.
Van der Steen, W. (2001). Methods and morals in the life sciences. A guide for analyzing and writing texts. USA: Greenwood publishing group.
|View Abstract References Full text PDF|
The Design and Use of Dual Modules System for Domestic Animals Monitoring (DMS)
Fina Otosi Faithpraise, Effiong Okokon Obisung, & Joseph Offiong
pp. 311-323 | Article Number: ijese.2019.026
This article highlight the result of needs assessment studies that evaluates a sustainability based technological approach on combating the crises between cow herders and agricultural farmers, by the use of a monitoring system which involves dual modules technology. Dual modules implies a design that comprises of an off shelf GPS (global positioning system) and GSM (global system for mobile communication) receiver modules. The low cost GPS and GSM modules were chosen for this design due to the inbuilt integrated antenna found in the modules and the output GPS positional data with an enabled standard serial National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) protocol as well as a standard AT command use in GSM technology. At any moment a quarry in form of a code (@C1) is texted to the SIM number embedded in the SIM card slot of the GSM module, a corresponding response indicating the exact location of the cow in longitude and latitude is transmitted via SMS to the owner’s mobile phone number which was initially programmed (configured) into the microcontroller firmware. The GSM module provided with SIM card uses the same communication protocol and processes of a regular day to day mobile phone technology. The system is configured to be attached on the neck of the animal for easy monitoring and tracking as far as 200m from its exact position at any given time. The article revealed that major herders and farmers issues will be minimize once the movement of domestic animals are monitored to avoid the destruction of lives, farmland and properties. This research provide insight into major community concerns and the Nigerian nation at large.
Keywords: domestic animals, destruction of life, dual modules, exact position, wondering about
Ahmed, K. Z., Parvez, M. Z., Mahfuz, Q. R., & Rahman, M. S. (2010). A theoretical model of GSM network based vehicle tracking System. 6th International Conference on Electrical & Computer Engineering, 27(1), 594–597.
Akpolat, C. (2003). Micro-controller based vehicle tracking system via use of GPS & GSM. Recent Advances in Space Technologies, 605–609.
Athavan, K. (2014). Automatic ambulance rescue system, Advanced Compulsory & Communication Technologies. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Electrical Information & Control Engineering, 5(2), 190–195. https://doi.org/10.1109/MIS.2014.4338485S
Bagree, R. (2008). GPS based animal tracking system intelligent sensors. Sensor Networks & Information. WildCENCE Processing, International Journal of American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineerings, 27(1), 617–622.
Bishop–Hurley, G. J., Guo, Y. G., Paulton, P., & Swain, D. L. (2009). Monitoring animal behavior & environmental interactions using wireless sensor networks, GPS collars & satellite. Remote Sensing Sensors Information Today, 34(2), 36–37.
Brida, P. (2014). Location technologies for GSM (Diss.) University of Zilma Print.
Catarinucci, L. (2010). An Innovative animals tracking system based on passive UHF, RFID technology. International Symposium on RFID Technologies & Internet of Things (SoftCom), pp. 1–7.
Chen, M. Y. (2005). Are GSM phone the solution for localization? Mobile Computing Systems and Applications. American Journal of Scientific & Research, 1(2), 34–42.
Clark, P. E., Johnson, D. E., Kniep, M. A., Jermann, P., Huttash, B., Wood, A., Johnson, M., McGillivan, C., & Titus, K. (2006). An advanced, low – cost, GPS–based animal tracking system. International Journal of Rangeland Ecology & Management, 59(3), 334–340. https://doi.org/10.2111/05-162R.1
Drane, C., & Rizos, C. (1998). Positioning systems in intelligent transportation systems. Norwood, Massachusetts: Artech house.
El-Medany, W., Al- Omary, A., Al-Hakim, R., Al-Irhayim, S., & Nusaif, M. (2010). A cost effective real time tracking system prototype using integrated GPS/GPRS modules. Wireless & Mobile Communications 6th International Conference on, 3, 522-525. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICWMC.2010.104
Faithpraise, F. O., Obeisung, E. O., Asiya, A. E., Ilori, O. A., & Chatwin, C. R. (2018). An Automated Fraud Elimination Via Electrical Signal Monitoring And Recording Device (AFEESMR). Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS), 9(3), 99- 104. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-1197a40dea
Fleisher, P. B., Nelson, A. Y., Sowah, R. A., & Bremang, A. (2012). Design and development of GPS/GSM based vehicle tracking & alert system for commercial inter-city buses. Adaptive Science & Technology4th International Conference on, 2, 16-25. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASTech.2012.6381056
Gibb, D. J., McAllister, T. A., Huisma, C., & Wiedmeier, R. (1998). Bunk attendance of feed lot cattle monitored with radio frequency technology. Can. J. Anim. Sci., 78(4), 701–710. https://doi.org/10.4141/A98-032
Hadian Jazi, S., Farahani, S., & Karimpour, H. (2019). Map-merging in multi-robot simultaneous localization and mapping process using two heterogeneous ground robots. International Journal of Engineering TRANSACTIONS A: Basics, 32(4), 608-616.
Hoffman-Wellenhof, B., Lichtenegger, H., & Wasle, E. (2008). GNSS & Global navigational satellite systems. Wien: Springer-Verlag.
Joshi, A. (2008). GPS-Less animal tracking system, wireless communication & sensor networks. WCSN. Fourth International Conference, 9(3), 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1109/WCSN.2008.4772694
Karlsson, J., Li, H., & Ren, K. (2010). Tracking and Identification of animals for a digital zoo. IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical & Social Computing, 8(5), 510–515. https://doi.org/10.1086/629749
Khalvati, F., & Omidvar, A. (2019). Prediction of Noise Transmission Loss and Acoustic Comfort Assessment of a Ventilated Window using Statistical Energy Analysis. International Journal of Engineering TRANSACTIONS C: Aspects, 32(3), 451-459. https://doi.org/10.5829/ije.2019.32.03c.14
Kim, D. H., Kim, S. H., & Park, H. D. (2010). Animal situation tracking service using RFID, GPS & Sensors. Second International Conference on Computer & Network Technology, 4(03), 153–156. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCNT.2010.40
Le-Bodic, G. (2005). Mobile messaging, technologies and services: SMS, EMS and MMS (2nd ed.). England: John Wiley & son Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/0470014520
Le-Tien, T., & Phung-The, V. (2010). Routing and tracking system for mobile vehicles in large area”, Electronics design, test and application. 10th International symposium. IEEE, Intelligent-System, 22(5), 2-3. https://doi.org/10.1109/DELTA.2010.38
Li G.-H. (2012). Automobile anti-theft system based on GSM and GPS module. Intelligent Networks & Intelligent System (ICINIS), 5th international conference on, 2, 199-20. https://doi.org/10.1190/nis.2012.654337
Mach, L. D. (1965). A collar for attaching radio transmitters on rabbits, hares and raccoons. Journal of wildlife management, 7(3), 214- 224. https://doi.org/10.2307/3798575
Mattson, O. (2001). Positioning of a Cellular Phone using the SIM: Diss, Royal Institute of Technology. In Print, Royal Society Journal.
Moen, R. A., Pastor, J., Cohen, Y., & Schwartz, C. C. (1996). Effects of moose movement and habitat use on GPS collar performance. Journal of Wildlife Management, 60, 659–668. https://doi.org/10.2307/3802085
Nagaraja, B. G., Rayappa, R., Mahesh, M., Patil, C. M., & Manjunath, T. C. (2009). Design & development of a GSM based vehicle theft control system. Advanced Computer Control, International Conference on, 8(5), 148–152. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICACC.2009.154
Noorossana, R., & Alemzad, H. (2003). Quality improvement through Multiple response optimization. International Journal of Engineering TRANSACTIONS B: Applications, 16(1), 148-153.
Obeisung, E. O. and Faithpraise, F. O. (2019). Investigation and Analysis of Major Causes of Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Some part of Nigeria. International Journal of Advanced Biotechnology and Research (IJABR), 10(3), 96-104.
Rodgers, A. R., Rempel, R. S., & Abraham, K. F. (1996). A GPS based telemetry system. Journal of Wildl. Soc. Bul., 24, 559–566. https://doi.org/10.3439/jws.201045
Sinnott, R. W. (1984). Virtues of the Haverside, Sky & Telescope. Edward Elgar Publishing, 156-159.
Weiss, E. (2012). Frequency of lost dogs and cats in the United States and methods used to locate them. Journal of Animals, 2(2), 301–315. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani2020301
Wilson, R. P., & Mc-Mahon, C. R. (2006). Measuring devices on wild animals; what constitutes acceptable practice. International Journal of Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment, 27(1), 143-150. https://doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2006)004[0147:MDOWAW]2.0.CO;2
Yoo, S., & Melde, K. L. (2011). VHF Collar integrated antenna for ground link of GPS location system, antenna and propagation. IEEE Transactions, 61(1), 26–32. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.2012.2214019
|View Abstract References Full text PDF|
|
<urn:uuid:c1420776-58ef-4e35-8080-0488260a55e3>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-10
|
http://www.ijese.net/arsiv/187.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146004.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20200225014941-20200225044941-00171.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.658237 | 22,585 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Hot electrons send CO2 back to the future
Catalyst nanoparticles trap an unprecedented range of wavelengths of light to convert carbon dioxide into methane.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major driver of global warming, but this gas could also serve as a valuable resource. Researchers at KAUST have developed an efficient catalyst that uses light energy to convert CO2 and hydrogen into methane (CH4). This counteracts the release of CO2 when methane is burned as a fuel.
Many researchers worldwide are exploring ways to convert CO2 into useful carbon-based chemicals, but their efforts have been limited by low efficiencies that restrict the potential for large-scale application.
“Our approach is based on the synergistic combination of light and heat, known as the photothermal effect,” says postdoc Diego Mateo. He explains that the heat is generated by the interaction of light with the catalyst, so the two forms of energy come from absorbed light.
Some other industrial approaches require heating from external sources to attain temperatures as high as 500 degrees Celsius. The KAUST research demonstrates that the reaction can be achieved using just the photothermal effect of daylight.
The catalyst is built from nickel nanoparticles on a layer of barium titanate. It captures the light in a way that kicks electrons into high energy states, known as “hot electrons”. These electrons then initiate the chemical reaction that sends CO2 back into methane. Under optimum conditions, the catalyst generates methane with nearly 100 percent selectivity and with impressive efficiency.
A major advantage is the wide range of the spectrum of light harnessed, including all visible wavelengths, in addition to the ultraviolet rays that many catalysts are restricted to. This is hugely significant since ultraviolet light comprises only 4 to 5 percent of the energy available in sunlight.
“We strongly believe that our strategy, in combination with other existing CO2 capture techniques, could be a sustainable way to convert this harmful greenhouse gas into valuable fuel,” says Mateo.
Any fuels made from CO2 would still release that gas when they are burned, but the CO2 could be repeatedly recycled from the atmosphere to fuel and back again, rather than being continually released by burning fossil fuels.
The researchers are also looking to widen the applications of their approach. “One strategy for our future research is to move towards producing other valuable chemicals, such as methanol,” says Jorge Gascon, who led the research team. The researchers also see potential for using light energy to power the production of chemicals that don’t contain carbon, such as ammonia (NH3).
- Mateo, D., Morlanes, N., Maity, P., Shterk, G., Mohammed, O.F. & Gascon, J. Efficient visible-light driven photothermal conversion of CO2 to methane by nickel nanoparticles supported on barium titanate. Advanced Functional Materials 2008244 (2020).| article
You might also like
Renewable route to rubber material
AI screens to make transport fuels green
Burning membranes for molecular sieving
Smog clears on car exhaust catalyst design
A date for greener membranes
Shrimply the best composite membranes
Scientists cut their teeth on new separation technology
|
<urn:uuid:7019b46d-8b45-48e5-9107-a8ae8c465d08>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://discovery.kaust.edu.sa/en/article/6445/hot-electrons-send-co2-back-to-the-future/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655092.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608172023-20230608202023-00018.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.92321 | 706 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Google search algorithm is a system that searches google pages and ranks them and returns them, it is a very complex system that has all the power.
Search engines search for pages that are relevant to the user’s query and provide the best result. The search algorithm regularly indexes and analyzes websites on the internet and also analyzes their contents. But only Google knows the whole system of the algorithm, but we can only guess at how it works.
When it comes to the search engine market, Google is at the top, that’s why the search algorithm makes sense to improve your website. This system consists of a series that analyzes what the users are looking for and what result you need to display opposite to a particular query. It has been made better so that it can help us in a better and simple way. So you have to simply put it and it gives people results in their search.
How Google Crawls the Web
Before you search, web crawlers (like Google) assemble data from several billions of site pages and put it together in the Search record. Google’s calculation accomplishes the work for you via looking out Web pages that contain the watchwords you used to look, at that point allocating a position to each page based on a few components, including how frequently the catchphrases show up on the page. As a rule, the Google search calculation can be separated into five sections
Quality of Content
Is it accurate to say that you are genuine? To rank well on Google, your validity goes far. Do the examination and ensure you are connecting back to quality sources, and there is no counterfeiting included. At the point when Google sees that you are connecting back to pages that few different records have connected to, they will “underwrite” your substance’s believability.
- Analyzing Your Words
- Matching Your Search
- Ranking Pages
- Context Matters
- Returning the Best Results
1. Analyzing Your Words
Google tries to understand what you’re looking for and then returns the result.
2. Matching Your Search
Google searches for the pages that match your query and searches for websites that provide you with the information you need.
3. Ranking Pages
While looking, you don’t mind the number of pages remember data for your topic. All you care about is finding the correct data. Also, that is the thing that Google endeavors to convey. This methodology leads numerous individuals to make malicious destinations trying to game the web crawler. In any case, by and by, Google battles against this with calculations for distinguishing spam and conceivably eliminating locales that disregard its website admin rules.
4. Context Matters
Not everyone gets the same result even if they search for the same words. There are factors such as history, search sequence, etc. that work in generating these results.
5. Returning the Best Results
An algorithm is always changing and does not always give the same result.
Searching a Query
To return relevant results, Google must understand what exactly is the user sorting out and what’s his search intent. They must understand and assess various things:
- Understanding the meaning of words: Meaning of the words what exactly do the used words mean within the natural language?
- User Search Intent: Search intent behind the query: what does the user want by using the actual query definition, review, purchase, finding a selected website?
- The freshness of content: The need for the freshness of content is that the query time-sensitive and requires fresh information?
Sometimes it’s pretty straightforward. If someone uses the search query “buy new iPhone“, it’s pretty clear altogether the aspects meaning, intent, and therefore the need for freshness. But sometimes, especially with general queries, it’s hard to know precisely what the user meant. In these cases, Google shows what it considers to be the most effective results but offers additional choices that help to specify the search results.
For example, check out this disambiguation for the keyword “rock”:
Secondly, the search engine has got to find what pages are relevant to the search query. In other words to seek out the pages that answer the user’s search query in the best way possible. It does so by regular crawling and indexing of all the websites on the web and analyzing their content. The key role is played by keywords. If the search query and therefore the phrases that are associated with the search query appear on the page, there’s a high chance the page has relevance for the user.
We trust this article helped answer the inquiry: How does the Google Search algorithm work? With your newly discovered information on Google’s algorithm, you can make your website page stand apart from your rivals. Cheerful positioning!
For latest updates and news follow The Eastern Herald on Google News, Instagram, Facebook, and also on Twitter.
Click here to show your support.
|
<urn:uuid:89fb0e09-6e1e-4d15-868b-1eabf3a15721>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-14
|
https://www.easternherald.com/2020/12/28/how-does-the-google-algorithm-work/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948632.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20230327123514-20230327153514-00684.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.915104 | 1,041 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Imparting the importance of saving money to children, teens and even young adults is no small challenge.
Here are a few websites with helpful tips:
401Kidz • Covers a variety of saving and investing programs for kids, at http://bit.ly/OG9o8H
American Credit Foundation • Spotlights steps parents can take to teach children about saving and personal finance at http://bit.ly/cAHuR7
The Mint • Features five “tricks” to teach children about saving money at http://bit.ly/1nbuu
MoneyInstructor.com • Discusses saving techniques for several age groups at http://bit.ly/d0RSPZ
Securities and Exchange Commission • Offers points to teach children about saving and investing at http://www.sec.gov/investor/students/tips.htm
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
|
<urn:uuid:a5771eb8-11f7-44c0-b9c8-94df1bb6514b>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-10
|
http://www.sltrib.com/csp/cms/sites/sltrib/pages/printerfriendly.csp?id=54665691
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394010824518/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305091344-00028-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.889541 | 192 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Mujal et al. 2017
reported on an Early Triassic tracksite dominated by what they considered to be ‘archosauromorph’ trackmakers (Fig. 1), akin to coeval Euparkeria (Fig. 2).
Unfortunately, the track in question
identified as Prorotodactylus mesaxonichnus IPS-93867 had three long slender digits (2–4), about the same length, #2 a stitch shorter. #1 and #5 much shorter. The width is about 2 cm. The pes is much larger than the manus. All in all, it is close to the shape and size of Didelphis, the extant, but very ancient Virginia opossum (Fig. 1). Originally the track was assigned to a taxon near Euparkeria, and it’s a pretty good match, but there is no indication of a hooked metatarsal 5 and digit 3 is often the longest (BUT see below).
in proterosuchids and Garjainia pedal digit 4 is the longest. Some chorisoderes retain this pattern. In some 3 and 4 are the longest. In Champsosaurus 3 is the longest. Similar patterns are found in phytosaurs. In basal proterochampsids digit 3 is the longest. In derived proterochampsids like Tropidosuchus and Lagerpeton digit 4 is not slender and it is the longest in the series. None are matches for the
In Euparkeria, as in most euarchosauriformes, digit 3 is longer than 2 and 4 and much longer than 1 and 5. In erythrosuchids pedal digits 2 and 3 are slightly longer than 4, but all are short and large. Ornithosuchus has long toes and short fingers, but it is a much larger taxon. Pedal digit 3 is still the longest. Same with Qianosuchus and Ticinosuchus.
Among basal diapsids and enaliosaurs
the pes is typically asymmetric with digit 4 or digits 3 and 4 the longest. The same with lepidosaurs. Basal lepidosauromorphs have short digits.
Basal synapsids are no match, either.
because they, too, have asymmetric feet. That changes with therapsids, but most have short toes, similar sized manus and pes and are Permian in age. That changes with the pre-mammals, the tritylodontids, like Spinolestes, which extend into the Cretaceous. The only problem with many of the trackmakers with symmetrical pedes, they all had narrow-gauge trackways – distinct from the Early Triassic trackways, which are quite wide-gauge. We can’t discuss mammals, because they only developed in the Late Triassic, at the earliest.
There’s one more factor
To me it looks like the tracksite toes are webbed. If the trackmaker was mostly aquatic, it was more likely to have sprawling hind limbs.
So, in summary
the best match in terms of size, relative size, age, morphology and such… appear to be aquatic Early Triassic tritylodontids… or tiny unknown archosauromorphs somewhere between Proterosuchus and Euparkeria. That hypothetical taxon would have had a pes transitional between the long digit 4 of Proterosuchus and the long digit 3 of Euparkeria. I really could not find a better match for this tracksite maker. I could not nail it down with available candidates.
Mujal E, Fortuny J, Bolet A, Oms O, López JA 2017. An archosauromorph dominated ichnoassemblage in fluvial settings from the late Early Triassic of the Catalan Pyrenees (NE Iberian Peninsula). PLoS ONE 12(4): e0174693. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174693
-cono-, not -tylo-.
Yes, I’ve followed the link, where you say the LRT has both Spinolestes and Jeholodens within Tritylodontidae. For a long list of reasons, one of which is a short look at the teeth, this is downright ridiculous.
As you know, lots of taxa don’t nest in the LRT where they nest traditionally in other studies. It’s okay to report such nestings after a phylogenetic analysis where the taxa have 1000+ other opportunities to nest, including within the Mammalia. It’s less scientific (tell me if I’m wrong on the etiquette here) to report anything in science is ‘downright ridiculous’. And you know that. Since Spinolestes does not nest within Mammalia, it cannot nest within Triconodonta. Maybe we’re looking at convergent teeth here. That may be a more common phenomenon than realized.
|
<urn:uuid:869571aa-0376-4629-a11c-5a2cbdb583a9>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-14
|
https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2017/04/24/what-made-those-early-triassic-tracks/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948858.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20230328104523-20230328134523-00492.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.904467 | 1,085 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Copyright © University of Cambridge. All rights reserved.
A graph is a mathematical object made up of points (sometimes called nodes, see below) with lines joining some or all of the points. You can think of the world wide web as a graph. The points and lines are called vertices and edges just like the vertices and edges of polyhedra. Here is a graph representing a cube.
Graph Theory is a whole mathematical subject in its own right, many books and papers are written on it and it is still an active research area with new discoveries still being made. Graphs are very useful in designing, representing and planning the use of networks (for example airline routes, electricity and water supply networks, delivery routes for goods, postal services etc.) Graphs are also
used to solve problems in coding, telecommunications and parallel programming.
In some of these applications the actual distances and the geometrical shape of the graph is not important, simply which vertices in the system are linked, and these applications come into the branch of maths known as topology. In other applications distances between the vertices, the direction of flow and the capacity of the 'pipes' are significant. Rather confusingly there are two different
languages used by mathematicians. In this article we use the graph theory language.
You can trace a path in the graph by taking a pencil, starting at one of the vertices and drawing some of the edges of the graph without lifting your pencil off the paper. A path is simply a sequence of vertices where each vertex is connected by a line to the next one in the sequence. A circuit is any path in the graph which begins and ends at the same vertex.
Two special types of circuits are Eulerian circuits, named after Leonard Euler (1707 to 1783), and Hamiltonian circuits named after William Rowan Hamilton (1805 to 1865). The whole subject of graph theory started with Euler and the famous Konisberg Bridge Problem.
An Eulerian circuit passes along each edge once and only once, and a Hamiltonian circuit visits each vertex once and only once. Both are useful in applications; the Hamiltonian circuits when it is required to visit each vertex (say every customer, every supply depot or every town) and the Eulerian circuits when it is required to travel along all the connecting edges (say all the streets in a
town to collect the garbage). Note that for a Hamiltonian circuit it is not necessary to travel along each edge.
Here are two graphs, the first contains an Eulerian circuit but no Hamiltonian circuits and the second contains a Hamiltonian circuit but no Eulerian circuits. If you find it difficult to remember which is which just think E for edge and E for Euler. Can you draw for yourself other simple graphs which have one sort of circuit in them and not the other?
Conditions for there to be Eulerian circuits are well know but in general it is a difficult problem to decide when a given graph has a Hamiltonian circuit. Finding conditions for the existence of Hamiltonian circuits is an unsolved problem.
The degree of a vertex is the number of edges joining onto that vertex, and vertices are said to be odd or even according to whether the degree is odd or even. Euler circuits exist only in networks where there are no odd vertices, that is where all the vertices have an even number of edges ending there.
Two edges are used each time the path visits and leaves a vertex because the circuit must use each edge only once. It follows that if the graph has an odd vertex then that vertex must be the start or end of the path and, as a circuit starts and ends at the same vertex, for a circuit to exist all the vertices must be even. When there are two odd vertices a walk can take place that traverses
each edge exactly once but this will not be a circuit.
Can you think why it is impossible to draw any graph with an odd number of odd vertices (e.g. one odd vertex)? Well the reason is that each edge has two ends so the total number of endings is even, so the sum of the degrees of all the vertices in a graph must be even, so there cannot be an odd number of odd vertices.
Here is a simple puzzle, which we call the Prime Puzzle, for you to solve that uses and illustrates Hamiltonian circuits. Each of the following numbers is the product of exactly three prime factors and you have to arrange them in a sequence so that any two successive numbers in the sequence have exactly one common factor. The numbers are $222$, $255$, $385$, $874$, $2821$, $4199$, $11803$
and $20677$ and we have used only the first twelve prime numbers. First factorize the numbers, next start to draw the graph which will have $8$ vertices, one for each number. Take one number on a vertex and draw three edges from it and label them, one for each factor. Now attach the appropriate numbers at the ends of these edges. Repeat the procedure until the graph is complete. Any two vertices
are joined by an edge if and only if they have a common factor. You should have eight vertices and twelve edges and this should suggest a neat way to draw the graph. You may wish to re-draw the graph so that the edges do not cross except at the eight vertices. The graph will be one where it is easy to find a Hamiltonian circuit and this circuit gives you the solution to the problem.
Here is a similar but well known puzzle invented by Peterson where you have to arrange the ten cards in a loop so that each card has exactly one letter in common with each adjacent card. The words are HUT, WIT, SAW, CAR, CUB, MOB, DIM, RED, SON, HEN. The arrangement shown in the diagram looks very nearly correct but the words SON and RED do not match. If you try to solve the puzzle by
re-arranging the cards you will not succeed because it is impossible. Now replace SON by SUN and HUT by HOT and the puzzle can be solved. The explanation is contained in the following two graphs.
In the Peterson graph there are no Hamiltonian circuits so, unlike the Primes Puzzle above there is no way to put the cards into the required circuit. Changing two of the cards to SON and HUT makes it possible to find a Hamiltonian circuit and solve the problem.
On the NRICH website you will find a lot of problems on graphs and networks which you might like to try. Also why not do some research on the web and find out about Euler and Hamilton, both giants in the mathematical world.
|
<urn:uuid:5c8eaace-4cdc-4135-936e-09e1df8aee2f>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-26
|
http://nrich.maths.org/2414/index?nomenu=1
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128322320.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628032529-20170628052529-00616.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.942292 | 1,394 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Your biology allows you to escape certain health problems. However, most health conditions affect both men and women in varying degrees and ways.
In some cases, doctors don't have a ready explanation for why certain diseases are more common in one sex than in another. In others, doctors will tell you complicated genetic, physiological and hormonal factors are at work. Read on to learn about some of the elements that link sex and health.
Many male health risks can be traced back to behavior: In general, men engage in behaviors that lead to higher rates of injury and disease. They also tend to eat less healthful diets.
However, anatomy, hormones and genes also play roles in men's increased risk for these diseases:
Heart disease. Among men age 65 and over, more than 39% have heart disease, compared to about 27% of women in the same age group.
Why: While women's bodies tend to be pear-shaped, men’s bodies are generally apple-shaped. When women gain weight, it often lands on their hips and thighs.
"Men almost always put weight on around the middle," says Pamela Strauss, MD, an internal medicine physician at RUSH. "And we know this type of body fat, known as visceral, is a heart disease risk factor that many women simply don't share."
Also, men don't have the protection of estrogen. Estrogen may keep women's cholesterol levels in check, reducing a key heart disease risk factor. However, once women hit menopause, their heart disease risk goes up.
Parkinson's disease. This disabling neurological disease affects about 50% more men than women.
Why: Researchers suggest that this may also have to do with estrogen, which protects neurological function by activating certain proteins or interacting with molecules called free radicals. Men's relative lack of estrogen leaves them with less protection.
Several studies have also pointed to the possibility that Parkinson's disease has a genetic link to the male X chromosome.
Males are also more at risk for the following:
When you talk with doctors about women's health risks, anatomy and hormones often come up. Here are a few examples:
Stroke. Each year in the U.S., about 55,000 more women have strokes than men.
Why: Many factors play into this statistic, but estrogen is chief among them.
Women may not be aware of the effect estrogen has on stroke risk. They might know that birth control pills, hormone replacement therapy and pregnancy raise risk, but they may not understand the underlying mechanism, which is shifting estrogen levels.
Those changes in levels of estrogen, not the estrogen itself, affect the substances in blood that cause clots. More activity results in more clotting, and that can lead to a higher risk of stroke.
Osteoporosis. Nearly 80% of the estimated 10 million Americans who have osteoporosis are female.
Why: Women start out with thinner, smaller bones and less bone tissue than men. Through most of their lives, women's bones are protected by estrogen, which may block a substance that kills bone cells.
However, when women begin to lose estrogen during menopause, it causes loss of bone mass (osteoporosis). This loss takes a toll: Nearly 50% of women over 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis.
Females are also more at risk for the following:
- Alzheimer's disease
- Urinary tract issues
- Multiple sclerosis
I have many female patients who say their husbands just don't go to the doctor. We need to get those men in to be sure they are taking care of their health.
Equality, with a difference
Although it strikes men and women in nearly equal numbers and generally affects them in the same ways, it raises heart disease risk in women more than in men.
However, the diabetes risk for women was lower to start with. Diabetes adds an extra risk factor for women and essentially puts them at the same risk for heart disease as men.
Women have higher rates of depression, but men have higher suicide rates.
This paradox may have more to do with the way we define and diagnose depression than anything else, says Strauss. "We may find that if we add questions about rage, substance abuse and risk-taking behaviors to our depression questionnaire, we'd identify more males at risk."
Protecting your health is gender neutral
Men and women basically need to do the same things to take care of themselves — at the core that means living a healthy lifestyle.
"Eat a healthy diet, exercise and don't smoke," says Strauss. "That could be as simple as adding 15 minutes of walking to your day or putting a few extra fruits and vegetables on your plate."
Of course, it's also important to address any health concerns you have. Your doctor should know your family's health history, and you should know your key numbers (such as blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and BMI).
This is also where gender plays a role. Women go to the doctor more often than men, Strauss says. "I have many female patients who say their husbands just don't go to the doctor," she says. "We need to get those men in to be sure they are taking care of their health."
|
<urn:uuid:787f2a11-6f6c-4f45-a912-97371d3a9792>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://www.rush.edu/news/how-gender-affects-health
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100745.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20231208112926-20231208142926-00746.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.967697 | 1,081 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Many wilderness advocates, scientists, and public land experts and professionals have recognized, for decades now, the growing problem of too much recreation use in Wilderness. Howard Zahniser, the Wilderness Act’s author, recognized the purpose of the Wilderness Act is to protect Wilderness, not establish any particular use. As far back as 1956 he warned the threat “from development for recreation,” which applies to overbuilt trails, unnecessary bridges, and other “improvements” made in Wilderness in response to demands from recreationalists. Thus, he emphasized the need for restraint in our dealing with Wilderness.
The 1978 edition of Wilderness Management, the definitive professional work on managing recreation and other human uses in Wilderness, summed it up, “There is a real danger of loving wilderness to death.” Too many visitors trample vegetation, compact soils, displace wildlife, destroy solitude, and degrade recreational experiences of those same visitors.
This is truer today than it ever was, in part due to pressures from a much larger population, but also due to our inability and unwillingness to practice restraint when, in this case, it interferes with our desired recreational activity.
Case in point, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering allowing a 400 percent increase in daily visitors to visit the Wave, a small, fragile, and unique rock formation in the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, a remote place straddling the Arizona/Utah border. Due to the internet and other marketing, including marketing by BLM, that agency now claims the, “increase in public demand dramatically underscores the need to consider increasing visitor access” to this part of the Wilderness. Really?
The law requires BLM to preserve Wilderness, yet the agency is promoting excessive use that degrades it. Nearly a quarter of a million people wanted to visit that area in 2018! Does BLM seriously expect Wilderness can be preserved by allowing 96 people per day at one small feature, let alone nearly 1,000 to meet the desires of all who supposedly want to go there? What ever happened to loving wilderness to death as a management concern?
Since the Wilderness Act passed, expressing worry “that an increasing population” could overwhelm all wildlands, hence the need for the Wilderness Act, the US population has grown by 137,000,000. The authors of the Act were rightly concerned about future population growth—size and numbers matter when considering impacts to wild places and wildlife.
Wildlife too, is harmed by the lack of restraint in recreational use and numbers, and it is not just from motorized users. Recent research suggests all trail recreation displaces wildlife. One study found the sound of human voices alone, including recordings, cause wildlife to flee, stop eating, or become nervous. That study found, “Humans have supplanted large carnivores as apex predators in many systems, and similarly pervasive impacts may now result from fear of the human ‘super predator.’” Mountain lions fear our voices, even our soft voices. In another example, an elk herd in and around Vail, Colorado decreased from 1,000 to only around 50 mostly due to biking in the summer and backcountry skiing in the winter. That herd could easily disappear because of excessive recreation use.
In spite of recreational use levels that have exponentially increased on public lands, including Wilderness, since the early 1970s, there has been extensive hand-wringing by agency bureaucrats, politicians of both parties, and especially representatives of the recreation industry proclaiming a dire future for public lands due to supposed declines in outdoor recreation. Of course their answer is antithetical to the preservation of Wilderness and other wild places—more marketing, commodifying, commercial outfitting, fees, and access, all with little or no regard to impacts. Wilderness isn’t being spared.
Recent bi-partisan legislation to boost outfitting (and user fees) on public land—going by the innocuous names of the “Recreation Not Red Tape Act” or “Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation Act”—suggests a recreation industry-controlled future of ever increasing numbers and commodification of recreation on public land, for which we all shall be charged and for which wildness, wildlife and Wilderness will all suffer greatly. Say goodbye to the outstanding opportunities for solitude.
A 400 percent increase in use, as BLM proposes in the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, is not good for the Wilderness, bighorn sheep in the area, or even the visitors who will have a degraded wilderness experience. For Wilderness and life forms dependent on wild country to survive, we need humility and restraint in our wildland recreation. Indeed, those same qualities will be needed if we are to survive at all.
|
<urn:uuid:66b1c32e-371b-4c9a-bc93-964543da1cf7>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-29
|
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/18/the-future-of-wilderness-under-trump-recreation-or-wreckreation/embed/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655908294.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20200710113143-20200710143143-00369.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.940693 | 974 | 2.90625 | 3 |
What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss is a recurring investigation considering that it is of concern when evaluating Causes Of Hearing Loss In Dogs, Causes Of Hearing Loss In Infants, and Causes Of Hearing Loss In Newborns.
Completely, we are seeking to contribute an instructive and an inspirational blog, and sincerely endeavoring to empower discomforted patients to assemble reassuring knowledge, corresponding to proven cures for some issues, to go over privately in person with their personal medical practitioners.
Now, we are here to furnish you with significant, amazing scientific research. Such research relates to serious health problems distressing most people within America, in Great Britain, and in most of Europe. These people suffer from longstanding syndromes. However, the majority of these people are never diagnosed accurately. Very few people realize this fact.
Hearing Loss Treatment Yoga
Some health practitioners have dealt with some of these diseases for years. Actually several standard health providers are beginning to acknowledge the menace of some of these syndromes. Said health practitioners are not caring for these symptoms endlessly with dangerous drugs. What I mean is with corticosteroids, cancer medications, and anti-inflammatory medicines. All drugs frequently conceal the syndrome but destroy the immunity because of unhealthy adverse effects.
Importantly, this scientific website is aiming to provide an informative and a helpful site, and diligently trying to empower afflicted patients to gain empowering scientific advice, relevant to wonderful cures for chronic issues, to talk about privately in person with their local medical care practitioners.
List Of Drugs That Cause Hearing Loss
Why is this a problem: What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss?
Be aware you can certainly live a normal life without depression, pain, and fatigue. Do not give up! You can cure some of your medical syndromes!
- Can Meningitis Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Migraines Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Ms Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Mumps Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Noise Cancelling Headphones Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Pneumonia Cause Hearing Loss.
What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss
One does not need to follow the word of hundreds of health providers who have healed thousands of patients. The thing that is most important is that you may prove it yourself!
This makes these conditions advance. Meanwhile, the drugs destroy the person's body and set off injurious effects. This progresses to a crumbling series of injury, suffering, poor health, and untimely death, discounting the immense financial fiasco.
Hidden Hearing Loss Treatment
Critically, we choose to hand over critical, amazing information. Such info concerns critical health conditions distressing many individuals within America, in the UK, and in all of Europe. These people are bothered by life-threatening syndromes. However, the majority of them are not treated properly. Very few people know that.
Realize that you can certainly enjoy a healthy life without depression, pain, and weakness. Be encouraged! You can reverse some of your medical problems!
Latest News On Hearing Loss Cure
What is What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss?
Totally, our goal is undertaking to contribute an instructive and an inspirational site, and ardently trying to help suffering persons to pick up helpful scientific wisdom, corresponding to fruitful cures for certain diseases, to talk about directly in person with their local medical care practitioners.
- Acute Hearing Loss Treatment is a prevailing inquiry in view of the reason that it applies to Acute Sensorineural Hearing Loss Treatment, Amish Treatment For Hearing Loss, and Bilateral Hearing Loss Causes.
- Bilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss Causes is a frequently identified idea in view of the reason that it has implications for Bilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss Treatment, Can A Screaming Child Cause Hearing Loss, and Can A Tooth Infection Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can A Tumor Cause Hearing Loss is a usually noted care considering that it involves Can Alcohol Cause Hearing Loss, Can Allergies Cause Hearing Loss, and Can Amoxicillin Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Antibiotics Cause Hearing Loss is a normally noted suggestion in view of the reason that it is crucial when evaluating Can Anxiety Cause Hearing Loss, Can Chemotherapy Cause Hearing Loss, and Can Diabetes Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Dog Barking Cause Hearing Loss is a relevant investigation by reason of the point that it is of interest when evaluating Can Ear Infections Cause Hearing Loss In Adults, Can Ear Tubes Cause Hearing Loss, and Can Earplugs Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Eustachian Tube Dysfunction Cause Hearing Loss is a reasonable idea due to the concern that it is of interest when thinking about Can Hearing Loss Cause Dizziness, Can Hearing Loss Cause Vertigo, and Can Hypothyroidism Cause Hearing Loss.
Hearing Loss And Mental Health is a commonplace suggestion in view of the fact that it is of interest when considering Hearing Loss As We Age Is Caused By, Hearing Loss Causes, and Hearing Loss Cure.
Home Remedies For Hearing Loss - Home Remedies For Sudden Hearing Loss
Naturopathic doctors have dealt with certain diseases for a decade. Even several traditional health providers now comprehend the causes of certain syndromes. Such health care providers are not treating these problems uninterrupted with medications. I mean with steroids, cancer medicines, and anti-inflammatory medications. Such medications typically obscure the syndrome but damage the immune system due to unhealthy adverse results.
Can Lyme Disease Cause Hearing Loss
Notably, we are helping to present an instructive and a reassuring site, and ardently endeavoring to serve tormented persons to become familiar with scientific scientific material, linked to fortunate cures for crucial syndromes, to go over privately in person with their current health care providers.
Purely, this scientific website is attempting to offer a didactic and an uplifting source, and painstakingly striving to aid tormented men and women to find reassuring scientific data, associated with new cures for grave symptoms, to review privately with their familiar medical practitioners.
How Can Hearing Loss Be Treated - How Is Hearing Loss Caused
And sure you will probably succumb to an additional runny nose virus, because there are over 300 various cold viruses. But you will never get the exact same cold infection that you had before because you have created immunity to it.
Holistic providers have cared for certain diseases for years. Even some standard health care providers are beginning to acknowledge the menace of some of these syndromes. Said health care providers are no longer treating these syndromes forever with medications. By this I mean with corticosteroids, cancer medicines, and anti-inflammatory medicines. Such treatments mostly cover up the syndrome but damage the rest of the body due to serious side effects.
Main Causes Of Hearing Loss
When must you worry about What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss?
Plainly, we are helping to furnish an instructive and an enjoyable website, and earnestly attempting to facilitate suffering folks to pick up exhilarating medical details, corresponding to natural cures for specific symptoms, to review directly in person with their current medical doctors.
- Can Screaming Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Sensorineural Hearing Loss Be Cured.
- Can Sinus Cause Hearing Loss.
Most likely your local health care practitioner can expeditiously become experienced with the treatment for your appropriate illness and help you back to excellent well-being.
How To Cure Hearing Loss Naturally - How To Fix Hearing Loss Naturally
However, the amazing information is that you may heal even these advanced syndromes without the use of risky drugs. The majority of doctors are not familiar with this fact.
Can Listening To Loud Music Cause Hearing Loss - Can Lupus Cause Hearing Loss
Could this be an issue: What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss?
This makes these syndromes grow worse. In the meantime, the medications destroy the person's immunity and trigger ruinous consequences. This proceeds to a crumbling sequence of discomfort, suffering, poor health, and untimely death, not to mention the mammoth monetary disaster.
- Causes Of Hearing Loss In One Ear is a noted probe clearly because it is of interest when relating to Causes Of Hearing Loss In One Ear In Adults, Causes Of Hearing Loss In Toddlers, and Causes Of Hearing Loss In Young Adults.
- Causes Of Mild Hearing Loss is a continually mentioned request in light of the fact that it has relevance to Causes Of Noise Induced Hearing Loss, Causes Of Sudden Hearing Loss And Tinnitus, and Causes Of Sudden Hearing Loss In One Ear.
- Causes Of Temporary Hearing Loss is a typically identified idea due to the fact that it is crucial when thinking about Causes Of Tinnitus And Hearing Loss, Causes Of Tinnitus Without Hearing Loss, and Causes Of Unilateral Hearing Loss In Adults.
Now, we desire to hand over momentous, alarming data. This message presents debilitating health conditions affecting many people living in America, in the United Kingdom, and in most of Europe. These people are troubled by longstanding problems. Nevertheless, most of these individuals are not treated properly. Very few people know this fact.
Citizens tormented from demonstrable annoying diseases can feel enlivened and correct their fitness promptly by following simple steps defined. These steps are straightforward, economical, and they indeed work magnificently well!
How To Improve Your Hearing Loss Naturally - Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Treatment
As a result, this makes these conditions progress. Meanwhile, the medicines devastate the body and start injurious consequences. This continues on a downhill series of injury, crippling, damaging health, and premature demise, overlooking the tremendous monetary calamity.
Major Causes Of Hearing Loss
Why is this bothersome: What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss?
People tortured from many debilitating ailments can feel dramatically better and boost their condition quickly by being guided by easy steps illustrated. These steps are easy, inexpensive, and they unmistakably create results elegantly!
Can Ibuprofen Cause Hearing Loss
- Can Stress Cause Sudden Hearing Loss.
- Can Tmj Cause Hearing Loss.
- Can Tmj Cause Permanent Hearing Loss.
- Can Wisdom Teeth Cause Hearing Loss.
- Causes Of Conductive Hearing Loss Might Include.
- Causes Of Deafness And Hearing Loss.
Maybe have you ever before suffered through acute rhinitis? Perhaps did you eliminate the problem? Of course you survived it! You cannot treat an acute rhinitis itself, however your system normally develops resistance to any cold virus within a couple of weeks. That is called being cured by your very own immune response!
What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss is a continually mentioned entreaty by reason of the point that it is crucial when thinking about Mixed Hearing Loss Treatment, Most Common Cause Of Conductive Hearing Loss, and Most Common Cause Of Hearing Loss.
Illnesses That Cause Hearing Loss - Inner Ear Hearing Loss Causes
No doubt you will most likely get another cold, since there are 300 different cold infections. However you will certainly never get the same runny nose virus that you had previously due to the fact that you have actually created resistance to that virus.
Alternative providers have dealt with some of these diseases for a decade. Even some conventional health practitioners now realize the risk of certain diseases. These providers are no longer treating these problems forever with medications. I mean with steroids, anti-cancer drugs, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Such treatments frequently conceal the signs but damage the immunity due to bad adverse results.
People distressed from specific debilitating syndromes can feel normal and improve their condition promptly by taking easy steps illustrated. These steps are uncomplicated, low-cost, and they literally produce results radiantly!
Is There A Cure For Hearing Loss - Laser Treatment For Hearing Loss
Realize that you can certainly have a good life without depression, discomfort, and weakness. Be encouraged! You can relieve many of your medical illnesses!
Medications That Can Cause Hearing Loss
Could this be bothersome: What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss?
You do not have to take the experience of dozens of practitioners that have cared for thousands of people. What matters most is that you may prove it yourself!
- Does Smoking Cause Hearing Loss is a normally mentioned supplication in light of the fact that it is crucial when pondering Does Tinnitus Cause Hearing Loss, Does Wearing Headphones Cause Hearing Loss, and Dog Hearing Loss Treatment.
- Drugs That Can Cause Hearing Loss is a normally identified questioning since it is crucial when relating to Drugs That Cause Hearing Loss, Drugs That Cause Tinnitus And Hearing Loss, and Ear Infection Cause Hearing Loss.
- Ear Infection Hearing Loss Home Remedy is a continually mentioned supplication in view of the fact that it is of interest when considering Earphones Cause Hearing Loss, Effects Of Untreated Hearing Loss, and Healing Hearing Loss.
- Hearing Loss And Mental Health is a continually mentioned item in light of the fact that it is connected with Hearing Loss As We Age Is Caused By, Hearing Loss Causes, and Hearing Loss Cure.
- Hearing Loss Cure On The Horizon is a typically noted concern considering that it has connections with Hearing Loss Due To Nerve Damage Treatment, Hearing Loss Remedy, and Hearing Loss Treatment 2019.
- Hearing Loss Treatment Center is a continually mentioned entreaty for the reason that it is of interest when considering Hearing Loss Treatment In Ayurveda, Hearing Loss Treatment In Homeopathy, and Hearing Loss Treatment News.
What Decibel Causes Hearing Loss, Acquired Hearing Loss Causes, Acupuncture Treatment For Hearing Loss, Acute Hearing Loss Causes, Acute Hearing Loss Treatment, Acute Sensorineural Hearing Loss Treatment, Advances In Hearing Loss Treatment, Amish Treatment For Hearing Loss, Antibiotics That Cause Hearing Loss, Asymmetrical Hearing Loss Causes, Autoimmune Diseases That Cause Hearing Loss, Autoimmune Hearing Loss Treatment
|
<urn:uuid:a7d537c6-06e4-403c-b1e5-a8a81e85bb88>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-29
|
https://hearing-loss-cures.com/p/HL/What-Decibel-Causes-Hearing-Loss.php
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655887319.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20200705090648-20200705120648-00130.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.919661 | 2,835 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Mark Lennihan / AP
Harry Patel, an employee of Blondie's Deli and Grocery, talks on the phone while waiting for customers in New York on Monday. A new anti-smoking proposal would make New York the first city in the nation to keep tobacco products out of sight in retail stores. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the goal is to reduce the youth smoking rate.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg raised eyebrows Monday, proposing a new law – the first of its kind in the nation – that would require cigarettes and other tobacco products be hidden from view of shoppers.
“We know that out of sight doesn’t always mean out of mind,” Bloomberg said during a news conference at Queens Hospital Center. “But in many cases it can and we think this measure will help reduce impulse purchases and if it does, it will literally save lives.”
Experts say there is evidence that the mere sight of a pack of cigarettes really can make smokers want to buy them.
“Nicotine is the most addictive drug there is and cigarettes are both biologically and psychologically addictive,” says Dr. Gail Saltz, a NYC psychiatrist, author and regular TODAY contributor. “Seeing cigarettes is a trigger. ‘There it is.’ It very well may make you want it more.”
Numerous studies back this up. A 2008 study published in the journal Addiction surveyed nearly 3,000 adults (including smokers, ex-smokers and those currently trying to quit) and found more than 25 percent of smokers bought cigarettes after seeing a cash register display -- even though they weren’t shopping for smokes. And one in five smokers trying to quit said they avoided the stores where they usually bought cigarettes because they knew if they went in, they’d buy them.
The allure is so strong even 31 percent of smokers readily admitted that removing cigarettes from store displays would make it much easier to quit.
“Point of purchase cigarette displays act as cues to smoke, even among those not explicitly intending to buy cigarettes and those trying to avoid smoking,” wrote psychologist and lead author Melanie Wakefield, director of the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer in Victoria, Australia. “Effective POP marketing restrictions should encompass cigarette displays.”
Other studies have shown store cigarette promotions are strongly correlated with rates of youths taking up smoking as well as increased tobacco sales in the stores. A 2009 study in the journal Tobacco Control found that one of five shoppers who bought smokes at retail outlets with cigarettes on display at the check-out counter made an impulse buy.
“Visual triggers are a huge part of addiction,” says Joe Guppy, Seattle psychotherapist and addiction specialist. “That’s why when people are in recovery, they try to avoid visual triggers. I once had a client mention a magazine ad he saw once when he was trying to quit smoking. It showed a man taking that first drag off a cigarette, looking right into the camera. It probably took thousands of shots to capture that exact moment. But when it hit his brain, it made him go, ‘Oh, I want that so bad.’”
Adds Danny McGoldrick, vice president of research for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, “Impulse buying can occur when you’re exposed to a number of different product displays but particularly if you have nicotine addiction.”
Guppy hails Bloomberg’s proposal, adding that “out of sight, out of mind” can be helpful with all kinds of addictions – from internet porn to sweets.
“I have a thing with chocolate,” he says. “If I want to moderate my intake of brownies, I’ll put them on top of the refrigerator instead of on the counter. That way, I’m not constantly triggered.”
Saltz warns that when it comes to something as addictive as nicotine, though, out of sight, out of mind may not always work.
“It’s not that simple because nicotine is addictive you’re going to seek it anyway if you’re already addicted,” she says. “But for people who may be trying to stay away and may not particularly be shopping for them, it would be better if it’s not in their face.”
- After big soda ban, NYC's Mayor Bloomberg wants to hide cigarettes
- Smoking costs you a decade of life
- A staggering teen smoking epidemic
|
<urn:uuid:83735750-c8b3-4211-a1c1-6118b3b7abee>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-10
|
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/18/17364272-for-some-out-of-sight-cigarettes-really-might-be-out-of-mind?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=11
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394010295336/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305090455-00086-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.953915 | 937 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Indian Rhino @ Aditya Singh
Water Buffalo @ Aditya Singh
Critically endangered Pallas's Fish Eagle @ Dhritiman Mukherjee
Spot-billed Pelicans @ Dhritiman Mukherjee
Asian Elephant @ Aditya Singh
Grasslands of the Central range
Red Junglefowl @ Aditya Singh
Kaziranga National ParkKaziranga National Park, India
The Kaziranga National Park, which lies in the flood plains of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, has often been compared to African parks because of the quality of wildlife viewing. On account of its large “big five mammals”, Indian Rhinocerous, Asian Elephant, Wild Water Buffalo, Bengal Tiger and Swamp Deer populations, Kaziranga is often referred to as the ‘Serengity of India’. The park contains about fifteen species of India’s threatened mammals, including the largest population of the Indian Rhinoceros, Water Buffalo and Eastern Swamp Deer.
The riverine habitat is dominated by tall dense grasslands interspersed with tropical wet evergreen forests, tropical semi-evergreen forests, interconnecting streams and numerous small lakes or bheels with the Eastern Himalayas in the background. The Tiger is prominent in the park’s list of predators, which includes Leopards and lesser predators like the Fishing Cat and Hog Badger. Primates found here are the Capped Langur and Hoolock Gibbon, while other mammals are the Sloth Bear, Common Indian Otter, Wild Boar, Sambar, Swamp Deer, Hog Deer and Indian Muntjac. The reptilian fauna includes the Water and Bengal Monitor, Indian Python and the King Cobra.
Kaziranga’s rich avifauna makes it one of the most sought after birding destinations in the country. The marshes support many species of waterfowl and an elephant ride reveals grassland species such as globally threatned Bengal Florican & Swamp Francolin. Six species of storks are found here which include the Greater and Lesser Adjutant along with the huge Black necked Stork. The woodland forests are home to Blue-naped Pitta, Slender-billed and Chestnut-capped Babbler, Fairy Bluebird, Puff-throated Babblers, Silver-breasted Broadbill and flocks of Spot-winged Starling in winters. Tea plantations and adjoining scrub and cultivation can be explored for the Siberian Rubythroat, Rufous-necked Laughing Thrush and Thick-billed Warbler. Raptors here include Pallas’s and Grey headed Fish Eagles, Changeable Hawk, Steppe, Booted, Eastern Imperial Eagles, Pied Harrier and up to seven species of vultures which include the critically engangered Slender Billed, Indian and White rumped.
- State: Assam
- Area: 430 sq. km (Combining Core and buffer forest)
- Altitude: 80 to 1220 m above mean sea level
- Vegetation: Tropical evergreen and Semi evergreen with Alluvial inundated grassland
- Water resources: Bramhaputra river, numerous ponds and lakes
- Winter: November to mid-February
- Summer: April to May
- Monsoon: June to September
- Rainfall: 2220 mm
- Temperature: Min 5 °C – Max 37 °C
|
<urn:uuid:9c2cf71b-a5ab-442a-8b86-246594883419>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-05
|
https://www.wildworldindia.com/kaziranga-national-park/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250597458.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20200120052454-20200120080454-00361.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.893699 | 715 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Mental Disorder Documentaries
Every veteran faces the risk of having to live with trauma for the rest of his or her life. Suicidal thoughts, anger, and fantasizing about killing are just a few of the dangers that often accompany post-traumatic stress.
This film presents the painful reality of those who have to struggle with mental disease every day. Most of the times medications have little to no effect and the patients are left hanging on to sanity by the fingernails.
A Documentary Film About a Misunderstood Syndrome
This film was produced in order to help people to get a better understanding of what it is like for a person to have to live with Tourette syndrome.
This feature documentary explores the daily struggles faced by individuals living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The general population still grossly misunderstands this anxiety disorder.
This documentary looks at children who have lost their parents to suicide at a young age. When your father or mother – the people who teach you about the world – take their own life, what is that teaching you?
Mind of a Murderer is a BBC documentary which examines why people kill. Looking at new research by neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and biochemists, and with powerful testimony from murder witnesses and murderers themselves, the series reveals the latest thinking on the causes of violent behavior and considers how murderers can best be treated and managed.
This documentary tells the story of a six year old girl, Beth Thomas, labeled as “The Child Of Rage,” tells her story of healing from Reactive Attachment Disorder as a result of being sexually abused.
Documentary revisiting John Davidson, who featured in a BBC film about Tourettes syndrome in 1989 (John’s Not Mad), and 15-year-old Greg Storey, who the cameras met when they revisited John in 2002.
|
<urn:uuid:ee7cc6c4-1631-40ba-ba53-dc230569ebf7>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-30
|
https://documentarystorm.com/category/psychology/mental-disorders/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500550967030.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20170728123647-20170728143647-00251.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.952831 | 380 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Pulmonary embolism is blockage in one or more arteries in your lungs. In most cases, pulmonary embolism is caused by blood clots that travel to your lungs from another part of your body — most commonly, your legs. Pulmonary embolism is a complication of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which is clotting in the veins farthest from the surface of the body.
Pulmonary embolism can occur in otherwise healthy people. Common signs and symptoms include sudden and unexplained shortness of breath, chest pain and a cough that may bring up blood-tinged sputum.
Pulmonary embolism can be life-threatening, but immediate treatment with anti-clotting medications can greatly reduce the risk of death. Taking measures to prevent blood clots in your legs also can help protect you against pulmonary embolism.
Pulmonary embolism occurs when blood clots (emboli) become lodged in a lung artery, blocking blood flow to lung tissue. Blood clots often originate in the legs. ...
Pulmonary embolism symptoms can vary greatly, depending on how much of your lung is involved, the size of the clot and your overall health — especially the presence or absence of underlying lung disease or heart disease.
Common signs and symptoms include:
Other signs and symptoms that can occur with pulmonary embolism include:
When to see a doctor
Pulmonary embolism occurs when a clump of material, most often a blood clot, gets wedged into an artery in your lungs. These blood clots most commonly originate in the deep veins of your legs, but they can also come from other parts of your body. This condition is known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Not all DVT blood clots result in pulmonary embolism.
Occasionally, other substances can form blockages within the blood vessels inside your lungs. Examples include:
It's rare to experience a solitary pulmonary embolism. In most cases, multiple clots are involved. The lung tissue served by each blocked artery is robbed of fuel and may die. This makes it more difficult for your lungs to provide oxygen to the rest of your body.
Because pulmonary embolism almost always occurs in conjunction with deep vein thrombosis, most doctors refer to the two conditions together as venous thromboembolism (VTE).
Although anyone can develop blood clots leading to pulmonary embolism, certain factors can increase your risk.
It is rare for children to develop DVT or VTE.
Blood clot in leg
The blood clots that cause pulmonary embolism usually originate in the deep veins of the leg. ...
Preparing for your appointment
Most cases of pulmonary embolism are initially evaluated in emergency departments or urgent care centers. If you think you might have a pulmonary embolism, you should seek immediate medical attention by calling 911 or emergency medical help.
What you can do
For pulmonary embolism, some basic questions to ask include:
What to expect from your doctor
Your doctor may ask you a number of questions to help diagnose your condition, such as:
Tests and diagnosis
Pulmonary embolism can be difficult to diagnose, especially in people who have underlying heart or lung disease. For that reason, your doctor will likely order a series of tests to help find the cause of your symptoms, including:
Treatments and drugs
Prompt treatment of pulmonary embolism is essential to prevent serious complications or death.
Surgical and other procedures
Hospital care often involves prevention of DVT. There are also precautions you can take yourself.
Preventive steps in the hospital
Preventive steps while traveling
Compression stockings (also called support stockings) compress your legs, promoting circulation. A stocking butler may help you put on the stockings. ...
Last Updated: 2011-09-27
© 1998-2014 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). All rights reserved. A single copy of these materials may be reprinted for noncommercial personal use only. "Mayo," "Mayo Clinic," "MayoClinic.com," "Mayo Clinic Health Information," "Reliable information for a healthier life" and the triple-shield Mayo logo are trademarks of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.
Terms and conditions of use
|
<urn:uuid:7b9cf39c-ebc6-4cb4-8fb4-3fee31f5744a>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-41
|
http://www.riversideonline.com/health_reference/Disease-Conditions/DS00429.cfm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657137145.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011217-00065-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.930483 | 913 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Volume 17, Issue 1 (January 1972)
Statistical Treatment of Pellet Dispersion Data for Estimating Range of Firing
When a shotgun is fired, the pellet charge emerges from the muzzle as a single mass and remains so for a couple of feet, after which the pellets begin to disperse. This dispersion increases with the range of firing. The relationship between the size of pellet pattern and the range of firing is routinely employed in forensic science laboratories to estimate the range of firing. The method consists of firing test shots from different distances using the weapon of the crime and ammunition similar to that used in the crime and ascertaining the limits of the distance within which a pattern of the size of the evidence pattern can be obtained. This approximately defines the limits of the range of firing.
|
<urn:uuid:945e58a9-5da6-418a-b07e-a4f3b6072428>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/JFS10123J.htm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00080-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.93358 | 159 | 3.109375 | 3 |
The alcoholic brain works differently than the non-alcoholic brain. Chronic heavy drinking can lead to changes in the brain’s structure and function, which can contribute to the development of alcoholism. The brain’s reward system, which is responsible for feelings of pleasure and motivation, is affected by alcohol. Over time, the brain becomes less responsive to alcohol, and a person needs to drink more to achieve the same effect. This leads to the development of tolerance, which is a hallmark of addiction.
Chronic heavy drinking can also lead to damage in the brain’s frontal lobes, which are responsible for decision-making, judgment, and impulse control. This can contribute to the development of alcohol-related problems such as impaired driving, risky sexual behavior, and interpersonal conflicts. Additionally, chronic heavy drinking can lead to changes in the brain’s stress response system, which can increase the risk of anxiety and depression.
It’s important to note that not all heavy drinkers develop alcoholism, and factors such as genetics, environment, and mental health can also play a role in the development of alcoholism.
|
<urn:uuid:678306f0-dee2-4de4-ba4d-f13e64dd4cce>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://addictiontreatments101.com/how-does-the-alcoholic-brain-work/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224649986.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20230604125132-20230604155132-00179.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.957392 | 226 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Weather Stations and Weather Forecasts: Can You Do It Yourself?
OverviewHow do scientists know what the weather will be like in the future? In this fun weather lesson, students set up a weather station and collect data such as sky coverage, temperature, and rainfall. As they identify connections in their data, students will realize that these connections can help forecast what the weather will be like in the short-term future. The lesson culminates in students making and presenting a weather forecast for their fellow students.
- Can define and use the weather-related terms, variables, and instruments used in the lesson
- Can collect weather-related data and represent the data graphically
- Can explain how the weather is forecast using the method explained in this lesson
- Can explain at least one relationship between two weather-related variables
NGSS AlignmentThis lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:
- 3-ESS2-1. Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
|Science & Engineering Practices||Disciplinary Core Ideas||Crosscutting Concepts|
|Science & Engineering Practices||Planning and Carrying Out Investigations.
Make observations and/or measurements to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of a phenomenon or test a design solution.
Analyzing and Interpreting Data. Represent data in tables and various graphical displays (bar graphs and pictographs) to reveal patterns that indicate relationship.
Using Mathematical and computational thinking. Organize simple data sets to reveal patterns that suggest relationships.
Engaging in Argument from Evidence. Construct and/or support an argument with evidence, data, and/or a model. Use data to evaluate claims about cause and effect.
|Disciplinary Core Ideas||ESS2.D: Weather and Climate.
Scientists record patterns of the weather across different times and areas so that they can make predictions about what kind of weather might happen next.
Patterns of change can be used to make predictions.
Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Prediction.
Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change. Events that occur together with regularity might or might not be a cause and effect relationship.
- Measuring instruments; one set per group or one set for the whole class. These instruments can be either made by the student or can be store-bought. Make your weather station(s) as complete as you can; a few easy-to-make or easy-to-obtain instruments are a good start. Consult the Teacher Prep section for hints on how to choose instruments.
- Thermometer; instructions on how to make a thermometer yourself can be found in this lesson.
- Rain gauge; instructions on how to make a rain gauge yourself can be found in this lesson.
- Anemometer; instructions on how to make an anemometer yourself can be found in this lesson or video.
- Optional: Hygrometer; instructions on how to make a hygrometer yourself can be found in this lesson.
- Optional: Barometer; instructions for homemade barometers can be found online. Unfortunately, homemade barometers tend to only work in temperature-controlled situations. For reliable measurements, you are better off with a store-bought instrument.
For the class:
- Graphing paper or tools to collect and graph data electronically, such as Excel or Google Sheets
- Optional: A few empty, flimsy water bottles with lids
- Optional: Poster board
- Optional: Huge cardboard box that can be transformed into a make-believe TV-frame.
- Optional: Equipment to enable students to make and display their own videos.
Background Information for TeachersThis section contains a quick review for teachers of the science and concepts covered in this lesson.
Meteorologists are scientists who study the layer of gasses surrounding Earth, called the atmosphere. The atmosphere is about 300 miles thick, and most of it is within 10 miles of Earth's surface. The weather is the reflection of what happens in this layer of air. Meteorologists help predict the weather by studying what happens in the atmosphere, more precisely, they follow changes in the air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind velocity, wind direction, etc., and apply physical and mathematical relationships to this information. They use weather connections (weather phenomena that frequently occur together) observed in the past to help predict the future. They also use weather patterns. A weather pattern is the repetition of the same type of weather on consecutive days. This works because the weather tends to repeat itself until something interrupts the pattern. For example, it can be clear and sunny for five consecutive days until a cold front brings a few days of cold, gloomy, and wet weather. A typical weather forecast is shown in Figure 1. Although these forecasts are often accurate, they remain educated guesses; these predictions are not guaranteed to occur.
A five-day weather forecast for San Francisco, CA during a week in August. The list has columns that describe the weather conditions, high and low temperatures, chance of precipitation as a percentage, wind direction/speed and humidity as a percentage for each day.
Figure 1. Five-day weather forecast for San Francisco.
Meteorologists collect a huge amount of data and use supercomputers to make their predictions. However, people have been predicting the weather for centuries without computers, and your class can too! With a knowledge of weather connections, one just needs to observe the current weather to be able to predict the future weather. Although these predictions are only valid for the near future, it is still exciting to be able to forecast the weather and it is a valuable skill to learn.
In this lesson, students collect weather-related data over a certain period of time. They set up a weather station to measure quantitative variables like temperature, precipitation, wind speed, etc., and collect qualitative data like cloud coverage. Students then graph their data and are challenged to confirm weather connections using their data. Finally, they use these connections to predict the weather.
Below is a list of weather-related variables with an indication of some global weather connections that are related to that variable. Notice that this is not an exhaustive list, and you might also find connections that are specific to your area.
Air pressure*, or how hard the air is pressing down on the Earth:
- Low air pressure indicates a change in the weather pattern.
- High air pressure indicates nice stable weather for the next 12 hours.
- Clear skies allow for bigger temperature changes between day and night. This happens because clouds reduce the passage of light and heat.
- White flat clouds (e.g. cirrocumulus clouds) high in the sky, as shown in Figure 2, mean stable air. The weather will stay as it is.
- Fluffy clouds (e.g. cumulus clouds) indicate that the air inside the cloud is rising. When these clouds are surrounded by blue sky, the weather will be fine in the coming hours. They can also grow into thunderstorm clouds. In that case, a storm is brewing.
- Thunderstorm clouds (cumulonimbus cloud) are huge towering clouds. They can be white at first but grow darker as time passes. These clouds bring thunderstorms. The darker the cloud, the sooner the storm will hit.
- Dark, low hanging clouds that cover the sky (nimbostratus) indicate a storm is close. Notice that normal wind patterns can drop just before a storm hits.
- Gathering, darkening clouds, as shown in Figure 3, indicate bad weather is coming. Dispersing and/or lifting clouds mean the weather is clearing out.
Figure 2. High clouds predict stable weather.
Figure 3. Gathering and darkening clouds predict rain.
Relative humidity* (often referred to as humidity):
- The relative humidity usually drops when the air heats up and rises when the air cools. This is why evenings and mornings can be damp (high humidity) and why fog (a very humid condition) often burns off over the course of the morning.
- If the humidity is higher than usual for your area, a storm or rain is probably on its way.
- A change in wind direction often brings a change in the weather pattern, except if that wind is light.
- The wind direction can also inform you about the type of air that is brought in. If you have the ocean to the north and a desert to the south, wind from the north will bring moist air and wind from the south will bring dry air.
- Other variables can help predict if the temperature will rise or fall. One needs the current temperature to make a more exact prediction.
- Storms are accompanied by higher speed winds.
- Precipitation is a variable that indicates what happened before. It is linked with the passage of or absence of a storm, rain, snow, hail, etc., in the past.
* Links in the additional background section provide more information on these variables.
Air pressure is a powerful predictor of the weather. Air is made up of gas molecules such as nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. All of these molecules press down on the Earth, and this pressure is called air, or atmospheric pressure. At sea level, the air pressure ranges from 800 to 1050°millibars (23.6 to 31.0 InHg). Because warm air is less dense, it rises which results in lower air pressure near Earth. While it rises, air cools and, in the process, water vapor in the air condenses into liquid. This leads to cloud formation and rain. "Low pressure," therefore, is generally associated with cloudy and rainy weather. On the other hand, high-density cold air results in increased air pressure. As cold air sinks, it dries, causing dry weather conditions in "high pressure" zones.
|
<urn:uuid:96bb550e-af8c-42fb-86b4-3188b886e920>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-23
|
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/weather-forecast
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653183.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20230606214755-20230607004755-00743.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.915627 | 2,082 | 4.3125 | 4 |
Well-being can be described as judging life positively and feeling good. It includes positive emotions (i.e. happiness and gratification), satisfaction with life, fulfillment and positive functioning in the absence of negative emotions (i.e. depression and anxiety). It is fundamental to your overall health. It enables you to successfully overcome difficulties and achieve what you want out of life. Past experiences, attitudes, and outlook can impact your sense of well being.
Health is more than not having a disease. Health is a resource that allows you to realize your aspirations, satisfy your needs and to cope with the environment in order to live a long, productive, and fruitful life. In this sense, health enables the social, economic and personal development central to well-being.
Also, it goes beyond wellness. It is a complex blend of your physical, psychological, social and relational aspects. It is associated with:
It is also associated with many health, professional, domestic, and economic benefits. For example, higher levels of well-being are associated with decreased risk of disease, illness, and injury; better immune system functioning; prompter recovery; and prolonged longevity. If you have high levels of well-being you are more productive at work and are more likely to contribute to your community.
Although your heritable factors play an important part in your well being, environmental factors play an equally if not more important role. Environmental and social resources for health can include: peace, economic security, a stable environment, and safe housing. Individual resources for health can include: physical activity, healthful diet, social ties, resiliency, positive emotions, and autonomy. As such, activities designed to strengthen such individual, environmental and social resources eventually improve well-being.
This section is designed to provide you with valuable information for your well-being. The articles below contain tips and recommendations on topics related and relevant to your well-being.
Sense of purpose is the motivation that drives you toward a satisfying future. Hence, your sense of purpose helps you get the most of life and it helps you achieve what matters most to you. Most importantly, it feeds intrinsic motivation and it creates meaning from life. Purpose is our driver. Certainly, purpose is a fundamental component of a fulfilling life. Our purpose is to help you find yours.
Here are some additional resources that you might find helpful:
|
<urn:uuid:73015613-ad74-4394-a0a0-cd29e53e16a8>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-24
|
https://senseofpurpose.org/topic/well-being/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347409171.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20200530102741-20200530132741-00527.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.952671 | 479 | 3.359375 | 3 |
In this April 8, 2013 photo, children look out from their playhouse in a squatter settlement near Tacarigua, Venezuela.
Ramon Espinosa, AP
Letter of the Day (July 28): Ending poverty
- July 27, 2013 - 5:00 PM
Thank you for highlighting the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (“U.N. urging nations to accelerate anti-poverty work,” July 1). The goals are an unprecedented effort to move the needle on extreme poverty. One positive action toward this effort: 55 governments created “Call to Action on Child Survival,” a blueprint for ending 19,000 daily preventable child deaths by 2035. In addition, Dr. Jim Yong Kim set World Bank targets for ending extreme poverty by 2030.
The United States is the leading donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. It’s not just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do. Supporting basic health care and access to treatment contributes to the development of more peaceful and stable nations. In turn, the United States gains additional allies and international trading partners.
DIANE TRAN, St. Paul
© 2014 Star Tribune
|
<urn:uuid:3f7c38fa-056f-4f42-9ede-a25a1afa8320>
|
CC-MAIN-2014-23
|
http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?id=217173571
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997891176.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025811-00198-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.899823 | 257 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.